USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Municipal history of the town and city of Boston during two centuries : from September 17, 1630, to September 17, 1830 > Part 2
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1055. " For galloping through the streets, except upon days of amilitary exercise, or any extraordinary case require," a fine of two stallings was imposed. Football was prohibited from being played in the streets. Butchers were ordered to cast all their offal into the mill creek, and not elsewhere; and all rubbish to be removed before every house.
1657. None but admitted inhabitants could keep shop or set up a manufacture within the town, except those who were twenty-one years of age, and had served seven years' apprentice- ship, under penalty of ten shillings a month. An inhabitant was allowed " to set up a pump in the streets, and might deny any neighbor its use who did not contribute to the expense."
Licences were required for drawing beer, wine, brandy, strong water, cider ; for keeping a public house, and for selling coffee and chocolate.
1658. The order passed in 1652 was revoked, and owners of 1 "
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houses pulled down by the authorities in case of fire, were en- titled to damages. No person was allowed to carry fire from one house to another, except in some safe vessel secure from wind. If a chimney took fire and flamed out, the owner was fined ten shillings. Persons were appointed to inspect the chimneys of the town, and cause defects in them to be remedied so as to be safe against fire.
1659. Inhabitants were fined " for entertaining foreigners," and ordered to discharge them from their houses. If they received "inmates, servants, or journeymen, coming for help in physic or surgery, without leave of the selectmen, and without giving bonds to save the town harmless, their fine was twenty shillings a week."
1662. Persons were appointed to prevent disorders by youth on the Lord's day ; particularly in the meeting-house, in time of God's solemn worship; with authority to correct those who were disorderly with a small wand, and in case of contempt, to take their names and bring them before the magistrates.
1670. " There having been found a great want of water in case of fire, every inhabitant was ordered to have a hogshead well filled with water near his door, with the head open, under a penalty of five shillings."
1672. Under the authority of colonial laws, the selectmen ordered parents to put their children ont to service, or to indent them out; and if they did not, the authority had power to take them from their parents for that purpose.
1678. Every family was ordered to be provided with " fire- buckets, swabs, and scoops, according to their state." In the same year an engine was imported from England, and persons appointed to take charge of it in case of fire.
1683. Those who had the care of the water engine, (now called fire engines,) were exempted from " train bands."
1702. Two water engines were ordered to be imported from England.
'The inhabitants in general town meeting were accustomed, annually or semi-annually, to vote instructions to their select- men, presenting the objects of attention, and their duties con- cerning them. Those issued in 1657 were full, and the follow- ing abstract will give an idea of their general tenor, and throw light on the character of the times : -
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" Relying on your wisdom and care in seeking the good of the town, we recommend, that you canse to be executed all the orders of the town which you have on the records, according to the power given you by law, as found in the printed laws, under the titles of Townships, Ecclesiasties, Freemen, Highways, Small Causes, Indians, Corn Fields, Children, Masters, Servants, Pipe Staves, Stones, Weights and Measures, and any other orders in force; and where you find any defect, to issue thereon good orders, to be approved by the town and the General Court. Subjects most necessary to be understood are, 1. About entertaining new inhabitants. 2. That none transplant themselves from the country to inhabit here without giving notice; concerning whom you may in- quire their calling and employment, and whether they are about to live under other men's roofs as inmates, and deal with them according to law. If they are poor and impotent, deal with them as directed, under the title of Poor. If they bny houses and land, have a vigilant eye that they live not idly, but be diligently employed in some lawful calling. If, by reason of sickness, they cannot subsist their children, yon are to take their children from them, and put them to apprenticeship. If any be debanched and live idly, you must provide a house of correction for them, at the charge of the town and the comty. We commit unto you the disposal of the waste lands belonging to the town, for the benefit of the town, giving account from time to time.
" We require you to make some effectual order to prevent harm from swine. As to the law relative to partienlar highways, to each man's lot, if the General Court's order do not reach it, you must remind our deputies to procure some addition. Yon are to take constant precantion as to buildings, that they encroach not on the streets of town's lands. You are to appoint meet persons to keep the streets and flats near wharves and places of land clear of stones and other encibiaures. You must see that some life be put into the laws about casks, and that they be of due gange to prevent fraud, and that deceitful packing of beef and pork be duly punished ; that sworn men be appointed for measuring grain, conling wood and boards. We think it meet a jury should be chosen on weights and measures, to observe defects in chimneys, and in houses in danger of falling, and to present the same to the county courts; that orders be passed against tegraton and forestallers, and our deputies get them confirmed by the General Court.
" That a meeting be held by you, at least monthly, seriously to consider these things, for the good of the town, the glory of God, and establishing truth and love among us.
" That every half year a town meeting be called, the orders passed submitted for its approbation ; the accounts may be credited, and particularly of what has been spent for backets, books and ladders, and for powder, and whether ladders have been provided for each house, according to law ; also as to what has been spent as to the great guns and anmmition of the town, that provision may be made for them.
" These orders, with occasional variation, were apparently renewed every year in town meeting, until the year 1694."
The orders to the town watch also characterize the state of the times.
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" The town watch to be set at nine and dismissed at five. It shall not be trusted to youth, but one half consist of householdlers; none to be employed of notorious evil life; nor those who would watch two nights together, not having sufficient sleep between; the number to be eight. The following charge to be given unto the watch every night :-
"1. To walk two by two together; a youth to be joined with an older and more sober person.
"2. If after ten o'clock they see lights, to inquire if there be warrantable cause ; and if they hear any noise or disorder, wisely to demand the reason ; if they are dancing and singing vainly, to admonish them to cease; if they do not discontinue after moderate admonition, then the constable to take their names and acquaint the authorities therewith.
" 3. To watch the water side and about the shore, and prudently take account of such as go out or come in, not hindering lawful business, but preventing unlawful practice and disorders.
"4. To look at the guns and fortifications.
" 5. If they find young men and maidens, not of known fidelity, walking after ten o'clock, modestly to demand the cause; and if they appear ill-minded, to watch them narrowly, command them to go to their lodgings, and if they refuse, then to seenre them till morning.
" 6. That the watch be exemplary themselves, using no corrupt language, and so conduct themselves, that any persons of quality who are abroad late may acknowledge that the watch does not neglect due examination nor misconduct."
In 1660, the first steps towards erecting an almshouse were taken, by authorizing the selectmen to use a piece of ground for that purpose. In 1662, the design was carried into effect, in consequence of the encouragement given by sundry legacies and subscriptions. The building thus erected having been burnt down, a vote was passed by the town, in 1652, for rebuilding it. In this vote the object of the institution is specified to be " for the relief of the poor, the aged, and those incapacitated for labor; of many persons who would work, but have not wherewithal to employ themselves; of many more persons and families, who spend their times in jolliness and tipling, and who suffer their children shamefully to spend their time in the streets, to assist, employ, and correct whom the proposed institution was pro- vided."
It appears, however, by the records, that the original design of the house, for the accommodation of the respectable poor, was in a great measure defeated from the predominating character of its inmates ; and in 1712, an attempt was made by the town "to restore the almshouse to its primitive and pions design, even . for the relief of the necessitous, that they might lead a quiet,
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peaceable, and godly life there, where it is now made a bridewell and house of correction, which obstructs many honest poor people going there for the designed relief and support." As a remedy, the town proposed the building a house of correction, and a committee was raised for that purpose. That committee reported that " the poor honest people, who were sent as objects of charity, should be kept separate: and that the justices of the peace of the county should be petitioned to ereet a house of correction, as the law directs." Nothing farther was done upon the subject until the year 1720, when a vote was passed in town meeting for the erection of a workhouse, independent of an almshouse. This design was not, however, carried into effect until 1735, when measures were adopted for the enlargement and erecting new buildings, in connection with the preexisting almshouse, in virtue of the province law, passed in that year, on the special representation and petition of the town to that effect. The land now included, between Park and Beacon Streets, and the west line of the burying ground to the north line of the land now occupied by Park Street Church, was at that time the site appropriated for this establishment. The expenses incident to the erection of the buildings were originally defrayed from the funds of the town, aided by subscriptions of private individuals. It early received the name of the Boston Ahnshouse, probably to render a resort to it less obnoxious to the more respectable class of poor. But this appellation had no sanction in the pro- vince law authorizing its erection. " Workhouses for the idle and the indigent," " houses of correction for rognes and vaga- bonds," are the only designations given by that law, to institu- tions for either of those objeets. The defeets and inconveniences of the Boston Ahushouse, which the comparative poverty of the times, and the embarrassments consequent on the revolutionary war, prevented from being remedied until after its close, will be noticed hereafter in this work.
The obedience of the town to the province law, which required that every town having fifty householders should be provided with a schoolmaster to teach children and youth to read and write, and having one hundred families, with a grammar school, with some discreet person well instructed in the tongues to keep snch school, seems, from the earliest times, to have been constant and regular. Their proceedings are not very distinctly traced in
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the town records. In 1662, the rent of Deer Island was appro- priated for the use of free schools. And, in 1679, two free schools were established "to teach children to write and to cipher," accompanied with a recommendation to "those who sent their children to school and were able, to pay something for the encouragement of the master." It was not until 1709, that the town, on the report of a committee, voted " annually to appoint a certain number of gentlemen of liberal education, togetlier with some of the reverend ministers of the town, to be inspectors of the schools, and, under that name and title, to visit the schools when, and as often as they think fit, to inform themselves of the methods used in teaching of the schools, and to inquire of their proficiency, and to be present at the performance of some of their exercises, the master being before notified of their coming, and with him to consult and advise of further methods for the advancement of learning and the good goverment of the school; and, at their visitation, one of the minister, by turns to pray with the scholars, and entertain them with some instructions of piety specially adapted to their age and education." By the same vote, " the inspectors were authorized, with the master, to intro- duce an usher upon such salary as the town shall agree to grant for his services." Five inspectors of the schools were accord- ingly appointed, and the system was persevered in for several years ; afterwards it was discontinued; and the practice pre- vailed for the selectmen annually to visit the schools, accompa- nied by as many gentlemen as they chose to invite, which were often not less than fifteen or twenty. This practice confined until after the American Revolution and the treaty of peace sub- sequent. The proceedings of the town in relation to these insti- tutions will be related hereafter in connection with those of the city.1
For more than a century after the settlement of the town, it was destitute of an established public market. Provisions were brought in carts to the doors of the inhabitants, and an opinion generally prevailed that the tendency of a local market was to
1 In 1739, the whole number in all the town schools was 593
1741,
474
1743,
585
1754,
66
66
"
64 818
1763,
66
66
66
66
16
832
1773,
66
06
719
-
-
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TOWN GOVERNMENT.
encourage forestalling and raise the price of provisions. In 1733, the question of establishing a public market was first decided in the affirmative; ayes 366, nays 339. But at an adjourned meet- ing, a few days after, the former vote was rescinded, and the question decided in the negative ; 390 ayes, 415 ways.
In 1781, by way of compromise, three markets were esta- bished by vote of the inhabitants, -a sonth, centre, and north.
In April, 1737, the town voted that the south and north mar- ket should be appropriated to some other use ; and to what use they should be put was referred to the selectmen. Before their decision was known, the centre market, near the town dock, was pulled down by a mob, and the selection reported that the south market should be leased for shops, and that the north market should be removed.
'This report occasioned warm debates, and one of the inhabit- ants was reprimanded by the town, and ordered to be silent, for language implying that the selectmen had made their report in agreement with the mob. Their report was accepted, and the subject was not again revived until 1740, when Peter Faneuil offered, " on his own proper cost, to build a noble and complete structure to be improved for a market, for the sole use and bene- fit of the town, provided the town would accept the same, and in the proper regulations," a meeting being called " to know the minds of the inhabitants, whether they would accept the same, condition that the market people should be at liberty to carry their marketing where soever they pleased about town." Notwith- standing this condition, and although a vote was passed thanking Mr. Faneuil for his generous offer, the question of accepting it was carried only by a majority of seven; 367 ayes and 360 nays.
In 1712, the market house was created by Mr. Faneuil on the town's land, near the dock. The edifice was of brick, two sto- ries in height, and one Inindred feet in length by forty in breadth. "A noble structure," say the records, " far exceeding his first pro- posal, inasmuch as it contains not only a large and sufficient accommodation for a market-place, but has also superadded a spacious and most beautiful town-hall over it, and several other convenient rooms." Votes were immediately passed by the town, appointing the selectmen and the representatives, and twelve others of the most distinguished inhabitants, a committee to
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MUNICIPAL HISTORY.
wait upon Mr. Faneuil, and " in the name of the town to render him their most hearty thanks for so bountiful a gift, with their prayers that this and other expressions of his bounty and charity may be abundantly recompensed by the Divine blessing. It was also voted that, "in testimony of the town's gratitude, and to perpetuate his memory, the hall over the market-place should be called Faneuil Hall, and that a picture of him, at full length, be drawn, and placed in said hall, at the expense of the town."
Mr. Faneuil died on the third of March, 1743, and, on the fourteenth, " being the first meeting in Faneuil Hall after his death," at the request of the selectmen, "John Lovell, master of the South Grammar School, delivered, in presence of the town, an oration on his death; the moderator's seat being hung in mourning cloth on the occasion." This oration was transcribed at length on the town's records, and celebrates with great pathos and power " the largeness of his heart, the unbounded nature of his private charities," and his " public spirit and munificence." 1 Afterwards the arms of his family were placed in Fanenil Hall by vote of the town. These proceedings did not extinguish the spirit of opposition to a market-house.
In 1746, a mumber of the inhabitants petitioned " that Faneuil ITall should be shut up, and the building appropriated to some other purpose." Although the attempt was not at this time successful, it was renewed the next year, (1717,) and the market shut up until September following, and then till March, 17-18, when it was again opened, at first for three days, and afterwards for every day in the week. In 1752, the contest was again renewed, and the market was shut up until the farther order of the town. In August of that year, the question of opening the market was again raised, and, after violent debates, passed in the negative; only one Imundred and two votes being in the affirmative, and one hundred and twenty-nine in the negative. In March, 1753, however, a vote for opening it was obtained, and the stalls were authorized to be leased; in which result the inhabitants finally acquiesced.
In February, 1761, Faneuil Hall was destroyed by fire, the
1 Mr. Fanenil's mansion house was situated in Tremont Street, in the midst of extensive gardens, opposite the Chapel Burial Ground. His family fled from France with the Huguenots, in 1686. The grass hopper, on the vane of Faneuil Hall, was the crest of their arms.
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walls ouly being left standing. The town resolved, in March following, that the edifice should be rebuilt, and that the lower part should " not be improved as a market until the farther order of the town." To defray the expense, the General Court granted a lottery. The first meeting in the hall, after it was repaired, w an on the fourteenth of March, 1763. The original dimensions of the building, as erected by Mr. Faneuil, were not enlarged until the year 1505, when it was extended in breadth to eighty feet, and a third story was added to its height.
The spirit of liberty and jealousy of town and colonial rights breathe through the records of Boston from the earliest period of the settlement. By the early laws of the colony, every town having low freemen might send one deputy to the General Court. Every town having trendy freemen might send to ; but no town more than two. The town of Boston, as its population increased, became sensible of the incquality of their influence in the colo- nial legislature, compared with their unmbers. " We have four churches," say the records; "our members are twenty times twenty ; the number of our representatives should be proportion- ate." No relief was, however, granted in this respect, until after the charter of William and Mary, in 1692, by which the legisla- ture of the province was allowed to fix the number of deputies rach town might send; and Boston was immediately allowed four representatives.
'The practice of instructing the representatives of the town in the Grusend Court was early adopted, and occasionally, and often annually, continued through every period of colonial history. In these instructions, not only objects of temporary and local inte- rest were pressed upon the attention of their representatives, by the town, but the views and feelings of the inhabitants of a gene- ral nature were indicated, and their sentiments concerning muni- cipal and colonial rights unequivocally expressed. Thus, in 1751, they were instructed to obtain the passage of laws re- gulating " the accepting and entertaining new inhabitants ; " against persons " transplanting themselves from one- place to another, without notice to the selectmen ;" and for " inquiring concerning the calling and employment of those who present themselves as inhabitants ; " and, subsequently, in almost every successive year, the subjects most interesting at the period, snch as measures for " preventing the poor from being chargeable to
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MUNICIPAL HISTORY.
the town," and "providing workhouses for the idle and de- bauched," were urged upon the notice of their representatives. The vigilance of the inhabitants in regard to their charter rights and privileges, never failed to be shown, on these occasions, by their votes ; thus, in 1677, when the claims of Mason and Gorges struck at the powers of the colonial government, " it is a time," say the inhabitants to their representatives, "to unite, and for peace and amity to be attended to," and they were warned, "in matters of judicature, not to assume any arbitrary power," and " to do nothing which should, in the least measure infringe our liberties, civil or ecclesiastical, granted us by our charter."
After the commencement of the eighteenth century, and in the incipient stages of those discontents, which ultimately resulted in the American Revolution, the votes of the inhabitants of the metropolis exhibited a spirit, which, in fact, constituted a lead- ing influence in the policy of the colony. Thus, in 1721, their representatives were instructed " to maintain our just rights and privileges; to pass laws encouraging trade, husbandry, and man- ufactures ; to vindicate the town against the aspersions which had been made against it of being inclined to mobs and immults; in all elections to have regard to the preservation of the just and laudable usages and customs of reserving the allow- ances, gratuities, &c., until the acts and elections be fully com- pleted." In 1723, the town addressed the king, repelling the charge " of being under no magistracy and of being of a muti- nous disposition," which had been brought against it by Governor Shute.
In 1728, the town voted extra pay to their representatives for unusual hardships they had sustained, " for their steadfast adhe- renee to the rights and privileges of the people." In the same year, the question was taken in town meeting, whether "the governor, (Burnett,) shall have a salary settled upon him for the time being, and the vote was unanimously in the negative; and the same was the result on the question whether " a salary might be settled upon him for a limited time." In the same spirit the town instructed their representatives, in 1729, "to pay due respect to the governor, but to use your utmost endeavors that the house of representatives may not, by any means, be prevailed upon, or brought into the fixing, a certain salary for any certain time to the governor. But that they improve their usual freedom,
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:
in granting their money from time to time, as they shall judge the province to be able, and in such a manner as they shall think unet for the benefit and advantage thereof; and if your pay should be diverted, you may depend upon all the justice imagin- alle from this town whom you represent."
"The same direct and jealous spirit, manifested in the votes of the town in successive causes of popular discontent, from this period to the declaration of independence, shows the leading intln- ence of the town of Boston on all the measures which were the precursors of that event. But as these proceedings belong to the general history of Massachusetts, only some of the chief occasions arized upon to write an interest and union in the principles of ` civil liberty will be enumerated. Thus, in 1732, resistance " to granting a certain salary to the governor," and " to compliance with his majesty's instructions, relative to supplying the trea- sury," was enjoined by the town on its representatives. In almost every subsequent year, until 1754, a similar spirit is evi- dermed in the votes of the town, accompanied sometimes, as in 1:30 and the years cushing, with complaints of the disproportion of taxation, misapplication of public moneys, against the excise upon spirits ; and, in 1715, their representatives were instructed "to take care that excisemen and their assistants should be euluded from the house of representatives ;" and, in 1754, to. obtain " a law, whereby the seats of such gentlemen as shall - to of profit from the crown of the governor, shall be ably to an act of the British Parliament, until their constituents may have an opportunity of reflecting them, if they please." When the policy of the British government, to collect a revenue from the colonies, was manifested by the stamp act and its accompanying measures, the spirit of the town was evi- denced by votes of the most decided character, expressed in instructions to their representatives, and in petitions and remon- strances to the king and the people of Great Britain.
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