USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Falmouth > Suckanesset; wherein may be read a history of Falmouth, Massachusetts > Part 5
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In 1755 Captain Timothy Crocker (son of Deacon John Crocker of Barnstable) was building him a house to
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SQUIRE JOSEPH PALMER'S HOUSE --- FIRST POST OFFICE
THE VILLAGE GREEN
which he took his bride Susannah Robinson in 1757 and here were born his seven sons and four daughters: Rob- inson, Mary, Joseph, Rachel, Timothy, Susannah, Row- land, John Lucy, Sylvanus and David.
This house stood on the ground now occupied by St. Barnabas Protestant Episcopal Church, to give place to which structure, it was moved about 1889 to the eastward, where it may still be seen behind Judah Nickerson's shop.
Captain Timothy Crocker was one of the most sub- stantial citizens of the town in his time. He belonged to the Federalist party after the independence of the United States. In 1775 when the dearth of shipping in the Sound consequent upon the depredations of the British Navy had put the town on short rations, Capt. Crocker was ap- pointed chairman of a committee instructed to procure a quantity of cereals and other stores and deposit them in some safe place to sell to those who shall need and to give to the poor at discretion. He was also authorized to pro- cure an ample supply of fire arms, on the town's account, and to use the credit of the town to raise the money nec- essary for the purchases.
From 1768 to 1782 Captain Timothy Crocker was a Selectman of the town of Falmouth and in 1799 was chos- en as Representative to the General Court.
Doubtless, in 1785, Capt. Crocker was one of the free- holders of Falmouth who read and obeyed the following notice posted by Isaac Robinson:
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
In observance of writ to me by Joseph Otis Clark of the inferior cort of Common Please I notify the free- holders and other inhabitants of the town of falmouth as severally have Estate of freeholds in Lands of the com- monwealth to the value of forty shillings pr annum or Personal Estate worth fifty pounds to assembel to gather at our meeting house on Saterday the third day of Sep- tember Next at fore of the Clock in the afternoon to Elect one good and lafull man to Serve on this petit jury for trials at the Next Cort of ginarel Sessions of the pease to be held at Barnstable within and for said County on the last tuesday of September Next which parson so chosen are to tend falmouth august 27, 1785.
signed Isaac Robinson, Constabel.
It will be observed that this election was held in the meeting house, which as we have deduced stood about opposite the present Episcopal church, and thus was ex-
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tremely convenient for Captain Timothy Crocker to step over to from his own house.
An old deed given by the Rev. Samuel to his son, Joseph Palmer, "Joiner" in 1767, shows us that a road diverged from the Woods Hole Road, leading to West Fal- mouth, the same road mentioned in old records as "the road John Jenkins goes to meeting." Joseph Palmer, later to be known as Squire Palmer had built a house on his father's land above the Green on the street now known as Palmer Avenue, standing approximately oppo- site the present home of George W. Jones, and his father deeded to him the land about this house including "also a small strip of land bounded westerly by the land of Nathaniel Nickerson and easterly by the road, which I have in exchange for such a piece of land which I have turned out of my close to accomodate the road." In this house, Joseph Palmer, in 1795 was to keep the first post office.
This road apparently took a more northerly course than the present road on the northerly side of the Green, as Mr. Samuel Shiverick's house, located on the present (1930) vacant land above the post office, on the shore of Shiverick's Pond, is shown on old plans as standing at a decided oblique angle, westerly, to the Main Street.
We must disabuse our minds of the present pic- turesque aspect of the Green, for in Revolutionary times there were no stately trees marking it out, and no fence. We may picture the grass as well-trodden by the feet of passers by and the occasional maneuvres of military com- panies. The meeting house itself was not an imposing structure; it had no steeple, but a front porch with three doors. Deyo says it had "sixteen windows with seven by nine glass on each side", a statement, which if correct puzzles us as .to the arrangements of these windows Manifestly, with three doors on the front, there could not be sixteen windows on that face; and since the meeting house was 42 feet square, we are at a loss to know how sixteen windows, each 7 inches wide, were fitted into a wall only 42 feet long. If Deyo's statement is correct, the meeting house must have presented the aspect of a wea- ther beaten old blockhouse.
West of Captain Timothy Crocker's, we think the only house standing at the Revolutionary period was that now the property of Mr. Thomas Keck, of which Consider Hatch was at one time the occupant, for whom Sider's
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THE VILLAGE GREEN
Pond, lying behind it, is named. Dr. Tripp's house was not yet built, but the present home of Sumner Crosby was identified in 1843 by the former Town Clerk Charles W. Jenkins, as the home in Revolutionary times of Cap- tain John Grannis. As Mr. Jenkins was born in 1805, he had an opportunity to know men who were contempo- raries of Capt. Grannis, and may be considered a trust- worthy witness on this point.
Captain Grannis was an ardent patriot. He was present at the county congress held at Barnstable, Nov. 16, 1774, of which James Otis was Moderator, and we may presume that he brought back to Falmouth vigorous re- ports of the situation, since on Nov. 21st, in town meeting, he with others; Joseph Palmer, John Nye, Abner Davis, Samuel Fish, John Bourne and Daniel Butler, Jr. (who had accompanied Grannis to Barnstable for the congress) were appointed "to see that the Continental Congress be adhered to."
The next year, the Third Provincial Congress, sitting at Watertown, having received a deposition from Elisha Nye, inn-keeper at Tarpaulin Cove relative to the annoy- ance suffered from a depredatory visit of the British sloop of war, Falkland, commanded by Captain Lindzey, voted that "Captain John Grannis be, and he is hereby em- powered immediately to engage thirty good, able-bodied, effective men, to be paid by this colony, well provided with arms and ammunition, and to cause them to repair with- out delay to the Elizabeth Islands to protect the stock, etc." The defense of the coast was entrusted to four com- panies, of which John Grannis captained the third. He raised his company "to repair to the Elizabeth Islands" in Falmouth, but we have not at this date been able to find a roster of it. The company was later increased to fifty, and undoubtedly had many skirmishes and alarms in their task of defending the Elizabeth Islands from the British fleet which was constantly cruising in the neigh- borhood seeking provisions. A diary kept by a Tory of those times has the following entry:
"May 9, 1778, Newport. The ships that went after stock returned and reported that they had brought from the Elizabeth Islands 1500 sheep and cattle." "It is like- wise said they burnt the barracks" (which perhaps refers to buildings in which Captain John Grannis had quarter- ed his troops?)
An agreement dated November 16, 1768, between
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James Bowdoin (afterward Governor of Massachusetts) and others, and Isaac Robinson whom we presume to have been the Falmouth "Constabel" in 1787, gives an interest- ing picture of the Elizabeth Islands at this period and shows why the British could obtain such ample supplies of livestock there, and why the Provincial Congress deem- ed it important to send Captain John Grannis to defend them. We reproduce it by courtesy of Miss Minerva F. Maxfield of New Bedford.
"To All People to whom these Presents shall Come Know ye that William Bowdoin & James Bowdoin Own- ers of the Island Naushana and John Read of Boston who hath hyred part of said Island on the one Part & Isaac Robinson of Chilmark Yeoman on the other Part Witnes- seth that the said William Bowdoin James Bowdoin and John Read for and in Consideration of the Covenants and Agreements hereinafter reserved and contained by and on the Part of the said Isaac Robinson to live in Part of the Dary House, so called, at the East End of said Island from the Date of these Presents to the sixteenth Day of Nov- ember one thousand seven hundred and the said William Bowdoin James Bowdoin & John Read do further Coven- ant and Agree with the said Isaac Robinson for the Con- sideration aforesaid that the said William Bowdoin James Bowdoin & John Read will provide & place on the East End of said Island not less than thirteen Cows and will pay the Taxes levied on said Cows: the said Isaac hath Liberty to Cutt Wood for Fire for the Use of his own Family in said Dary House, Liberty to raise Poultry Some Indian Corn and English Grain sufficient for the Use of his own Family and for his Hoggs used in his Family and to make said William Bowdoin, James Bowdoin & John Read one Barrell and one Quarter of a Barrell of good Pork and for any Persons they may have to do Business for them on the Island and for their Use while on the Island free of any Charge to said William Bowdoin James Bowdoin & John Read while on the Island but not to dis- pose of any to any Persons whomsoever, the Grain to be raised on such part of the Island as the said William Bow- doin & John Read shall direct; to have the keeping of one Cow and her produce which produce is to be killed at three years and Advantage Old, the milk of said Cow to go into the Dary; the Milk for his family to be taken out of the Dary; to have one Quarter part of all the Cheese & Butter made from the Cows.
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And the said Isaac Robinson on his Part doth hereby Covenant and Agree with the said William Bowdoin James Bowdoin & John Read for the Considerations of the Cov- enants & Agreements hereinbefore made and to be kept & performed by the said William Bowdoin James Bowdoin & John Read, That he the said Isaac Robinson at his own Cost & Charge will take care of the Stock of Cattle Horses Sheep Goats etc. on said Island from the Date of these Presents during this Agreement, take care of all the Cows at the Dary House and make the Cheese & Butter at his own Cost & Charge & deliver to the said John Read or to the said William Bowdoin & James Bowdoin their Heirs or Assigns in November Annually Three Quarters of all the Cheese & Butter made of the Milk of the Cows they provide also one Barrell and one Quarter of a Barrell of good Merchantable Pork; That at his own Cost & Charge the said Isaac Robinson will find proper attendance for the said William Bowdoin James Bowdoin & John Read while on said Island & for the Persons that may Work for them at Shearing and other Times in Collecting and Shifting the Stock or purchasing the same and will find proper Utensills for said Use at his own Cost & Charge will also find what Poultry the said William Bowdoin James Bowdoin & John Read may want for their Use on said Island at the cost of said Isaac Robinson; and the said Isaac Robinson will also keep one Boy not under the age of Eleven Years to help take care of the Stock afore- mentioned and for the Attendance aforesaid at his own Cost & Charge, said Isaac Robinson is to assist in Getting Hay Driving Creatures, Washing & Shearing Sheep & in any other necessary Work said Bowdoins & Read shall want him to do for which he is to be paid three shillings lawfull Money a Day, exclusive of his Time spent in taking care of the Creatures, the Dary and Attendance afore- mentioned also excepting the Time spent in making a good substantial Stone Wall of four feet high which Stone Wall the said Isaac Robinson hereby obligeth himself to make digg and draw the stones for making said Wall on such part of the Island Naushana as they the said William Bowdoin James Bowdoin and John Read shall Order at least Fifty Rods Annually for which he is to be paid Two Shillings lawful Money a Rod. In Case the said Isaac Robinson by sickness or otherwise should not be able to assist in getting Hay, Driving Creatures, Washing & Shearing Sheep & making the Stone Wall, he shall pro-
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vide an able-bodied man in his Stead for the Purpose aforesaid, said Bowdoins & Read paying said Isaac two shillings a Rod for digging drawing and making the Stone Wall and for the Time spent at Shearing etc. as aforesaid three shillings a Day; said Isaac is to find at his own Cost, Charge a Cart and Utensills of Husbandry to Cart the Hay & Stones to plow & fit the Land for the Grain aforesaid; said Isaac is not to take any person or Persons to Board in said House, nor to suffer any Persons to put any Creatures on said Island to Graize without a Writing under the hands of the said William Bowdoin James Bow- doin or John Read nor suffer any Strip or Waist to be made on said Island and will give information if any Wood is Cutt without the Liberty of the said William Bowdoin & James Bowdoin and of all other Trespasses whatsoever petticularly the killing of any Deer-That the said Isaac Robinson at the End and Expiration of every Year viz: on the 16th day of November 1768 will render a true & just Account and on every 16th day of November during this Agreement unto the said William Bowdoin James Bowdoin & John Read of the produce of the Dary for the Year or part of the Year that shall then at the Time of rendering such Account be past and ended upon Oath before a Majestrate in the County of Barnstable if required by the said William Bowdoin James Bowdoin & John Read or either of them; The said Isaac Robinson at the End & Expiration of the said Term or Sooner de- termination of this Agreement will peaceably and quietly leave said House in good Order also the Cows to the said William Bowdoin James Bowdoin & John Read and it shall or may be lawfull for either of them during the Agreement to Inspect said Dary; The said Isaac Robinson will not suffer any of his Hoggs to go at large on said Island but said Hoggs shall be confined to the Cow Past- ure or near the House; said Isaac Robinson is not to keep any Dog or Dogs on said Island without the Approbation of said William Bowdoin James Bowdoin & John Read and in case the said Isaac Robinson shall die during the Term of this Agreement said Agreement shall cease on the sixteenth day of November following the Death of said Isaac Robinson and the said William Bowdoin James Bowdoin & John Read or either of them shall take pos- sesion of the Premises. For the True Performance of the Articles aforesaid each Party is Bound to the others in the Penal Sum of One Thousand Pounds for witness
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whereof and for the due performance of the several Ar- ticles, Covenants & Agreements hereinbefore made the Parties to these Presents have interchangeably sett their Hands to two Instruments of like Tenor & Date herewith Dated the twenty-eighth day of October one thousand and seven hundred sixty seven.
sd) Willm Bowdoin for James Bowdoin & himself
Witnesses sd) Josiah Barker Zephaniah Robinson John Read
In connection with the agreement of Isaac Robinson with the Bowdoin Brothers of Dorchester and their agent, John Read, for the keeping of the "Dary" and stock on Naushon, certain accounts kept by Isaac, which have been preserved by his descendants, throw valuable light on the cost of living about the time of the Revolution.
Naushana, Oct. 22, 1771.
Rec'd of Mr. Isaac Robinson four pounds four Shil- lings & Nine pence lawful money in full of all accounts. signed) John Read.
Dr, Isaac Robinson, February, 1773
To a Coffin for thy mother
4 10 0
To a Book Case
15
To a Rowler 6
To a Sithe Snead
6
To one Butter Tubb
1 2 6
To Setting 25 barel hoops
1 50
8 04 6
Credit By son 6 15
By a pigg 1 10
8 05
Doubtless Isaac's son received as cash in hand the odd pence balance.
February, 10 Day ye 1771.
David Hatch to Isac Robson, Dr.
for one late made chease waid 25 pounds at 121/2 pr pound L5-2-2
Plest to pay the above aCompt to Capt. mags and this and this Acompt Shall be your discharge from me.
Isaac Robinson
Dr. Mr. Isaac Robinson's Acc with John Read
Cr.
1774
May 18 To 1-3 of 3bbls Salt etc
LO 4.4 1/2
To 1-3 of 33 Gall. Rum a 1-8 18.4
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To 1-3 of bbl, for D. V. Touch To 1-8 of 20 Runnet skins bot. of Stowers a 1-6
1.5
3.9
(the above lost in Weeks)
28 To 1-8 or 16 1-2 bushl salt 4.1 1/2
To 1-8 of 28 Rimmet Skine bot of Wats a 1-8
5.10
To 101/2 Gals. Rum a 1-10
19.2
To 1-3 of bbl & Touch 2
1.5
To 1-8 of 16 skins bot of Whiting a 2| To 1-8 of 8 do of Hall
4.0
1.8
:
June
14 To 20 1-4 lb. sheep's wool a 9|
1. 4.3 1/2
To Cash
14.0
To 1-8 of 19 skins from Nantucket a 1| 2.4 1/2
To 1-3d of Freight of Rum & salt. 0.8
To 2 hydes 110 a 1-8
1. 4.6
To 1 sheep
8.2
Carried to Cr. side
6. 18.1
1174 By 1151/2 Days work a 3|
Ending 12th Nov. 17. 6.6
By Cash paid Carpenter work on corn house and barn
1. 8.8
By board of Carpenters
9.0
By making wall
1. 0.0
By 1 butter tub
3.0
.
Bro't from Dr. side 6 18.1
To cash in full 13 9.1
Naushan Nov. 12, 1774
Errors Excepted sd) John Read
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1.7.101/2
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20 7.2
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ANDREW SHIVERICK HOUSE FACING GREEN
CHAPTER VII
PRIVATEERS AND PRIZES
C APTAIN JOHN GRANNIS and his adventurers in the Elizabeth Islands have diverted us from the cata- logue of houses known to be gathered in the vicini- ty of the Green at the period of the Revolution, to which we now return.
The house on the north-west corner, at present (1930) occupied by William H. Hewins, very likely was a neighbor of Captain Grannis', although the ell was not built until many years later, after the house became the property of John Jenkins. Mr. Weston Jenkins, son of John Jenkins who was born and brought up in this house, writing in 1894 says "Soon after his marriage (1825) Father bought the place from, I think, an old Mrs. Snow". Snow's first name is said to have been "Barney", and if Mrs. Snow was old in 1825, it would appear that the house might have been standing for some time prior to that year.
The house on the opposite corner, now occupied by Mrs. Elijah Swift, was not built until 1812 or so.
The spot where now stands the Congregational Church, before the church was moved from the Green in 1857, was occupied by a house bought and torn down to make place for the church. This is described as having been most dilapidated in 1857.
South-east of the Congregational Church, where now is built the house occupied by Mr. Frank Crocker, Dr. Elisha P. Fearing lived. The doctor was married to a grand daughter of Captain Timothy Crocker, Mary Ann Lincoln b. 1796. As Dr. Fearing moved to Nantucket in 1822, his house was sold to a Chadwick, who in turn sold to Erasmus Gould. Gould, who was married in 1844 to Cornelia Swift, built a house to which he took his bride. It is stated that he tore down the Chadwick house to build his own, and it scarcely seems probable that he would have demolished a house only some twenty years
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old, whence we infer that the house occupied by Dr. Fear- ing was built some time before he moved into it, and per- haps may have been standing in Revolutionary times.
The premises next east of this property were those now occupied by the Falmouth National Bank. Mr. George E. Dean, cashier of the bank, remembers a tradi- tion passed down by bank officials that about 1821, when the bank was incorporated, Elijah Swift was instrumental in purchasing the house of one Bassett to which was built an addition represented by the present bank offices. This was Colonel Barachiah Bassett whose certificate of mem- bership in the Order of Cinncinati signed by George Washington is in the keeping of the Falmouth Historical Society. He bought the property in 1761 of Samuel Shive- rick for 13 pounds, 6 shillings and 8 pence. It was 6 rods square.
Mr. Dean recalls that the late Captain Lewis H. Law- rence once told him that "old Bassett who lived in the bank had three or four pretty daughters and when the young men were courting them, they used to sit on the back steps in the late afternoon eating apples that grew in the orchard behind the house."
Now Captain Lewis H. Lawrence was born in 1823, and his sister Celia married Samuel P. Bourne who was for many years cashier of the Falmouth National Bank. It therefore seems eminently reasonable that in his family there should have been talk of the property so recently become the bank. Colonel Barachiah Bassett did actually have three daughters. Their ages preclude Captain Lewis Lawrence from having sat on the back step eating apples with them, but there is no reason why he might not have had the story from his father, Thomas Lawrence.
These daughters were: Annie b. 1762; Mercy b. 1764, m. 1789 Prince Dimmick d. 1827; Love, b. 1775.
Barachiah, son. of Nathaniel Bassett, was born in 1732, and married, June 4, 1741 Mercy Bourne, daughter of John and Mercy (Hinckley) Bourne. He died in 1813, which would make it very natural that to settle the estate the house should be in the market prior to 1821 when the Bank was incorporated and seeking a location.
Between the house which early in the 1890's had been occupied by Miss Sophronia Wood, and the present Con- ant house stood the little building that was Richard S. Wood's 'Justice of the Peace office.' This being burned, Rawson C. Jenkins has built on the site. The Woods were
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descended from the Rev. Samuel Palmer, through his grand-daughter, Mrs. Richard Wood.
Joseph Palmer, father of Mrs. Davis Hatch, received a deed from his father, the Rev. Samuel in 1767 to the land on which he built the house later to be known as the first post office in Falmouth. As Joseph was the second son, it seems extremely probably that the Rev. Samuel had, at the same time or earlier, given a similiar house lot to his eldest son, Thomas, father of Mrs. Richard Wood which would very likely be the one occupied by Miss Sophronia Wood a century later. Thus, prior to the Revo- lution, on the east side of what is now Palmer Avenue, one might have seen standing three houses occupied by Palm- ers; that of the Rev. Samuel Palmer, then next west that of his eldest son, Thomas, and, nearest to the present West Falmouth road, that of Joseph Palmer, the second son. The Rev. Samuel's third son, Job, removed to Charleston, S. C.
Returning, to our imaginative reconstruction of the Green in early times we must not fail to make mention of an institution much patronised by the early settlers of New England in their efforts to preserve the morals of their community, namely the whipping post.
The whipping post in Falmouth stood near the Green, on the southeast corner of what is (1930) the house of Mrs. James Wood.
Erected in the early days before roads were wide, or traffic vehicular, it was arranged to accomodate a popula- tion which travelled on horseback. A short flight of steps, resembling says tradition, a modern 'step-ladder' gave ac- cess to a platform on which stood the transgressor who was to be flogged, and the post itself was topped with the figure of an eagle. Can it be that an eagle was atop most whipping posts and that this is the etymology of the old euphemism for flogging, "spread-eagled"?
The old whipping post was discovered many years ago in the garret of the house now occupied by Mrs. James Wood, or rather its top, and is now in the keeping of the Falmouth Historical Society.
This house of Mrs. James Wood (1930) was built by Dr. Francis Wicks, who was a prominent physician of Falmouth. In 1806 he was a member of the State Legis- lature. He is said to have aided in medical studies Dr. Hugh George Donaldson who came to Falmouth from England about 1776-7. Both Dr. Donaldson and Dr. Wicks
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were much concerned with the prevalence of small pox. in those days. To Dr. Donaldson is given the credit of corresponding with Jenner in England and introducing vaccine virus to Falmouth. Dr. Donaldson had a small pox hospital on Great Hill (Falmouth Heights) and tradi- tion says that he overcame the prejudice against vaccina- tion by inoculating his own children and sending them to stay in the hospital with small pox patients to demon- strate the efficacy of vaccination. Dr. Donaldson built and lived in the house now (1930) Sabens' Laundry.
Dr. Francis Wicks also had a small pox isolation hos- pital in 1797 at Nobska. This building was bought by Thomas L. Swift, grandfather of Mrs. James Wood, at the time he was building the property on Shore Street, now the Beebe Farmhouse, and moved there to be used as a tool house for the carpenters during construction. It was subsequently sold to John Weeks, (great-grandfather of L. C. Weeks) who moved it to the corner of Shore Street and Clinton Avenue. John Weeks was a shoe maker, and it is said that the price paid for the old building was an agreement to keep the Swift family in shoes.
Dr. Francis Wicks' daughter married Captain John Crocker who built the Worthington house on Shore Street.
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