USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Scituate > The early planters of Scituate; a history of the town of Scituate, Massachusetts, from its establishment to the end of the revolutionary war > Part 28
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This did not mean that young Barker-he was then but
+Israel Hobart a shipbuilder at Hobart's Landing on the North River in 1676. At the date above named he lived in Hingham.
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twenty-three years of age-appeared before the Court as an attorney-at-law. Hiland had merely attorned to him. He was the former's proxy. Having in mind that at the time the action was brought Hiland had already received more than one-half the amount of his bill it is not surprising that he preferred to attorn to another than to appear per- sonally.
In July 1676 Barker joined his uncle's company as a ser- geant and accompanied him to Mount Hope where he was wounded in the last battle with King Phillip and returned home. He was a man of wealth and some learning but never held public office except one term in the General Court in 1706.
The inventory of his estate filed in 1729 shows:
"Plate £15. Divinity, Law, History, School Books, Latin, Greek and Hebrew £53. Silver tankard £26 Silver Cullender and three silver spoons £8. The best bed and furniture in ye Easterly Chamber £10. The bed and furniture in ye Great Lower room £13. Napkins, table cloths, sheets and pillow coats £12. Another bed and furniture in the West Chamber £10. An oval table of black walnut and another small ditto. Sev- eral chests with drawers and a carpet."
Altogether these contents of his dwelling were appraised at three hundred and seventy-five pounds. He left one son Williams Barker, the devisee of the Cedar Point farm. Samuel, a son of Williams above named, married the daugh- ter of his grandfather's second wife by her first husband and after the death of his father took up his abode in the home- stead which had been built about the old garrison house.
During his occupancy in 1765 he had a negro man ser- vant named London who had married an Indian woman called Martha Ned. They lived together in a small house on the farm. There was a feud between London and two other negroes named "Port Royal" and "Polydore," slaves of Capt. Barker's neighbor Benjamin House. The antag- onism became so bitter that Port Royal and Polydore made
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a violent and very effective attack upon their racial brother and his red wife and their dwelling. The story is inter- estingly told in a recital of the proceedings of the Superior Court of Judicature at the May term 1768:
"Port Royal, a negro man of Scituate in the County of Plymouth, Laborer and servant for life to Benjamin House of said Scituate, yeoman, and Polydore a negro man of said Scituate yeoman and servant for life of said Benjamin House, being indicted (at May Term 1765) for besetting the dwelling house of Martha Ned of said Scituate, an Indian woman and wife of London a negro man of said Scituate and servant for life to Samuel Barker of said Scituate two several times and for breaking the door and window of said house and for pulling down one end of the said house and for tearing off great parts of the roof of said house and for taking, stealing and carrying away from thence sundry goods of the value of £5:16s :, the goods and chattels of said Martha Ned as in said indictment is at large set forth the said Port Royall and Polydore are now brought and set to the bar and arraigned and severally plead not guilty. A jury is thereupon sworn to try the issue Mr. Josiah Cushing foreman and fel- lows namely, David Damon, William Warren, Jona Carey, Ichabod Wood, Uriah Wadsworth, Elisha Stet- son, Elisha Bisby, Recompense Magoun, Ebenezer Briggs, Amasa Thompson and Peleg Stetson, who hav- ing fully heard the evidence, upon their oath say that the said Port Royall is guilty of the two trespasses charged in the Indictment but is not guilty of the theft; and the said Polydore is guilty of two trespasses afore- said but is not guilty of the theft."
As will be seen three years elapsed between the time of indictment and trial. It was not however until 1773 that Pelham Winslow of Plymouth, King's Attorney, having in the meantime tardily discovered that one of the petit jurymen
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had also been a member of the grand inquest which found the indictment, nol pros'd it.
His sons were the last of the descendants of William Barker to dwell there. It was still kept in the Barker family however being purchased by a descendant of Robert, brother of the first John.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
JOHN WILLIAMS
The ship "Charles" from Barnstable, England, when it arrived at Boston in 1632 had on board John Williams, his wife Ann and four children, Ann, John, Edward and Mary. His destination was evidently Scituate, whence he immedi- ately came and built a home on the north side of the harbor over-looking Cedar Point. His farm was in the Conihasset tract and upon the purchase from Hatherly he became one of the partners. He was early propounded and admitted as a freeman and at once began to take an active part in municipal affairs. In 1640 he was chosen, with Edward Foster, Humphrey Turner and Richard Sealis, as a deputy from the Colony Court and re-elected in the years 1643, 1644, 1647 and 1648. In 1641 he was the surveyor of highways.
Although not of the colonial council of war, he saw the importance to the little community of the site upon which he had built his home and he fashioned it with port holes after the manner of the "garrison" or "block" houses, which the Pilgrims found so essential to their defense against the Indians. A portion of it is standing to-day; although the outer walls have been covered with shingles and the inner re-inforced with brick. A brick floor takes the place of the original and the ancient pitch roof has been remodeled. It forms the ell of the present building. Like his neigh- bors he was hardworking, and frugal. He found his new acres thickly covered with cedar, with little meadow, but his own efforts and those of his two sons rapidly broke them up and reduced them to cultivation. From time to time he had his allotments in the division of Conihasset lands and when he deceased, it was a well cultivated farm of generous proportions that he left to his son John. The eldest child Ann married John Barker, then of Duxbury, later of Marshfield, in the same year her father came to
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Scituate. Nineteen years later her sister Mary married Anthony Dodson, the surveyor of the Conihasset Partners. Both of the daughters reared families and have left numer- ous descendants, but John and Edward though each married, died without issue.
It was this second John Williams who kept the family name very much in evidence before his colonial neighbors between the time of his being made a freeman, and his death in 1694. His nature was a peculiar one. Industrious, wealthy, as material prosperity in those days went, yet he was a hard task master. He readily loaned money to those who applied for an accommodation, but their "bill of hand" or "specialty" always bore a generous interest. Brave to recklessness, as ensign and later captain of the military company, he was a natural leader in warfare and an un-' compromisingly stern disciplinarian. He was early a con- stable of the town. In his home he was overbearing and quarrelsome to and with those who dwelt beneath his roof either as wife, ward or servant. His-sister's son, John Barker, who was after the death of his father by drowning, early apprentised to him, later engaged in business ventures with him and frequently had occasion to sue him, bears witness however that he was kindhearted. In 1677 the two were engaged in logging on joint account. The timber was sawed into boards at the Stockbridge Mill on the First Herring Brook. Williams anticipated trouble and took the precaution to have the testimony of Charles Stockbridge, sworn to before James Cudworth an Assistant, perpetuated upon the records of the Court at Plymouth, as follows :-
"I, the deponnent, doe hereby testify that on the accoumpt of sawing of pyne timber, or loggs, into boards, which Capt. John Williams, and his reputed cosen 1, John Barker brought to the mill, as they told mee, as co-partners, in the year one thousand six hun-
" Why "reputed cosen", is not clear. Barker was the only son and oldest child of John Barker of Marshfield who married Williams' sister, Ann. Winsor's History of Duxbury page 224.
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dred and seventy and five, the sawing of which, as appears by my booke, according to my agreement, came to a just sume of four pounds and fourteen shillings and five pence halfepeny, and after the said logges were sawne, I saw the said Williams and Barker dividing the boards which were made of them, and one layed one part one way, and another the other part another way, the whole pay for which sawing above-said I have had of the said John Williams, concerning which the said John Barker asked me since if that I were payed, and I told him that his unkle had payed mee the whole pay, and he said that he was a good unkle. f
The trouble feared by Williams developed. Barker sued him for an accounting of his guardianship and let it be known among those who eagerly listened that "the said Williams is the wickedest man that ever was upon the face of the earth." Later, his uncle sued him for this defama- tion but did not put the slanderer to the proof. He permit- ted himself to become non suit.
Williams had as a member of his family, beside his nephew John, the latter's sister, Deborah. She was a posthumous child, born after her father had been drowned. At the
Williams was also his guardian. "Att the court of his Majestie holden att Plymouth, for the Jurisdiction of New Plymouth, the fifth day of March 1677-8 John Barker of Barnstable, com- plaineth against Captain John Williams of Scituate as guardian and receiver of the rents and proffits of the lands of the said John Barker during his minoritie, in an action of accoumpt, to the damage of two hundred pounds, for that the said John Williams as guardian in socage tooke into custody the said Barker, in the month of March, in the year 1657, and from the said time received the rents and proffitts of the said Barker's lands, in the townshipp of Marshfield, from the several yearly tenants of the same, until the said Barker did arrive at the age of twenty-one years, which was in the year 1672, being fourteen years compleat, and thereof hath not rendered an accoumpt to the plaintiffe to this day, notwithstanding the said guardian hath not improved the estate in educating and well bringing up the said heire, but contrariwise did improve the said heire as his servant, about the said Williams his own servill imployments." Plymouth Colony Records Vol VII Page 209.
+ Plymouth Colony Records Vol VII page 212.
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age of six or thereabouts she went to her uncle's to live. She was as Goodman Bird of Scituate told the Court "weake and infeirme" through the "hard usage" which she had received at her uncle's hands. Williams denied both these accusations and produced "many evidences to cleare his innocency in the premises." This he accomplished to a degree. Not so successfully, however, but that Governor Prence, John Alden, William Bradford and Josias Winslow, who sat in judgment upon the matter, determined to appoint Bird her guardian. They admonished him to take her home to live with him and "to endeavor to procure meanes for her cure."
In early life he married Elizabeth, the daughter of Rev. John Lathrop the first pastor of the First Church. Their married life was unhappy. His treatment of her was inex- plicable. He may have been jealous, but this would not excuse the charges of incontinence which he made against her or "his abusive and harsh carriages towards her both in words and actions, in speciall his sequestration of himselfe from the marriage bed x x x x and that especially in reference unto a child lately (1665) borne of his said wife by him denied to bee ligittimate." Her brother Barnabas took this charge up and complained to the Court. This body "requested Isaac Buck i to be officious therein, and so dismissed them from the Court for that time."
It was only for "that time." Buck's officiousness did not work "for the recovering of peace and love between them" as the Court had hoped. Instead, Williams persisted in his accusations and brought an action in Court against one Thomas Summers for "intollerable trespass in wronging and abusing the said Williams, by inticing his wife, from him, and for unlawfull dalliance with her." He did not bring it to trial but entered into an agreement, in which he renounced his accusation and "all which, together with all
¡ Isaac Buck was an intimate of Williams, a member of the 'train band' with him, and the person who first put him at the head of military company when Cudworth was deposed.
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other surmises or charges to that purpose, or of that nature, I doe cleare, acquite, release and discharge the said Sum- mers." This, of course did not satisfy Mrs. Williams or her relatives. She, and they, insisted that her good name should be cleared. The Court responded at once to this demand. Its proclamation was a complete refutation of the ugly slander. It is worthy of repetition here in full :-
"Whereas Elizabeth, the wife of John Williams, hath bine openly traduced and scandalized in her name, and by false reports and reproaches rendered as if shee were a dishonest woman, and that the child she brought forth into the world was not legitimate, these are to declare openly before the country, that the Court, hav- ing had sundry occations to hear and examine partic- ulars sundry times relating to the premises, can find noe cause of blame in her in such respects, but that shee hath behaved herselfe as one that hath faithfully ob- served the bond of wedlocke."
Contemporaneously the much disturbed Bench took this action against him :-
"John Williams, Jr., for his disturbance and causing great expense to the countrey, in reference to the case about his wife, as is extant in the records of the Court, hee is fined to the use of the countrey the sum of $20."
In addition brother Barnabas brought other charges against Williams relating to the treatment of his wife, "to which the said Williams, though seeming to desire tryall of such his guiltiness or not guiltiness might bee put on a jury of his peers, yett afterwards refused it when granted him by the Court."
The Court treated him with manifest consideration, it "being earnestly desirous of a renewed closure of his hart and affections to his wife, and that his future conversation with her might bee better than his former, were willing to extend what lenitie might bee, and in reference thereunto, with exhortation of him to amend his wayes."
Neither leniency nor exhortation were of avail. He did
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not mend his ways. The suffering and patient wife was finally forced to bring an action herself, asking for separate maintenance and support. She charged him with "defam- ing her; carrying bitterly against her in many respecte; witholding necessary comforts and conveniencyes suitable to her estate from her" and "whereas he should have been a shelter and a protection unto her, hath endeavored to re- proach, insnare and betray her."
Upon this charge he got a trial by jury-"a jury of his equalls" which convicted him. The Court no longer dealt easily with him. It found that,-
"it is not safe or convenient for her to live with her husband, but do give her liberty at present to depart from him unto her friends until the Court shall other- wise order or he shall apply himselfe unto her in such a way as shee may be better satisfied to return to him againe, and doe order him to apparell her suitably att the present, and furnish her with a bed and beding and such like necessaryes, and to alow her ten pounds yearly to maintaine her while shee shalbee thuse absent from him, and for performance hereof doe require that hee put in cecuritie or that one third part of their entire estate bee cecured for her livelihood and comfort." In addition, the Court pronounced this judgment.
"2ndly. For that hee hath greatly defamed and other- wise abused his said wife as in the premises, wee ad- judge him to stand in the street or markett place by the post with an inscription over him that may declare to the world his unworthy carriages toward his wife."
To the great heartedness of this worthy and much wrong- ed woman is due the fact that this sentence was not carried out. A marginal note made by the clerk says that :
"Att the earnest request of his wife, this part of the centance was remited and not executed."
He however was amerced in the sum of twenty pounds.
It is not recorded that she ever lived with him again. For over twenty-five years, she found it necessary to re-
-
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JOHN WILLIAMS
sort to the Court at intervals in order to obtain the annual stipend which it had awarded her. As late as 1691 when he was at an advanced age (he died in 1694) she was still living with her brother Barnabas. On the sixteenth day of June in that year he, "in behalf of his sister Elizabeth Williams, relating to her yearly maintenance formerly ordered by the General Court to be paid unto her by Capt. John Williams her husband," applied to the Court for assistance in its collection. Wearied, no doubt, by the stubbornness of the still recalcitrant Williams, to whom for almost a quarter century it had given good advice, exhortation, persuasion and punishment all to no avail, this body declined further jurisdiction and resolved "that ye tryall of that case doth now properly belong to a county Court." f
Deane # has fallen into two errors concerning this trouble between Williams and his wife. He has mistaken Ensign John Williams of Scituate for John Williams of Barnstable and has construed the above proceeding to be a decree of divorce. The latter error may have arisen from the fact that Dr. Shurtleff, the editor of the Colony Records pub- lished under the order of the Legislature in 1855, so treats it in the index §. But the only cause for divorce in the Plymouth Colony in 1666 was adultery, and this charge made by Williams against his wife in defence of his abusive conduct towards her, he was unable to sustain. The fact that Isaac Buck was appointed by the Court to act as mediator between the two, indisputably identifies the John Williams named in the record as Ensign Williams of Scituate. In- deed, he is so-called in the record of the proceedings of Oc- tober third, again as John Williams, Jr., in the same record, and as Captain John Williams in 1691. John Williams of Barnstable was not the son of John Williams, senior, of Scituate, nor was he an ensign. He divorced his wife,
Plymouth Colony Records Vol IV pages 93, 107, 121, 125, 126 and 191 Vol VI page 267. Vol VII pages 110, 113, 125,
138 and 141.
foot con History of Scituate page 385.
Plymouth Colony Records Vol IV Page 106.
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Sarah, in 1673. At about the same time, John Williams of Scituate as Executor of the will of his brother Edward, was litigating with some of his neighbors over claims due the latter's. estate, and in the last order made by the Court with reference to his wife's maintenance, the ensign is de- scribed as John Williams, Jr., of Scituate.
These errors, very naturally, led him to a third-that of supposing that Ensign Williams' wife was a daughter of Barnabas Lothrop; not his sister. The will of John Lothrop a brother of Barnabas t is conclusive to the contrary. It is dated April 7, 1715, probated eleven days later, and provides that if his only son Joseph, die, being survived by the widow then the rest and residue (after making small legacies to the First Church in Boston and Rev. Benj. Walsworth, its pastor) "to be equally divided.
One-half to go to my welbeloved wife Esther; the other half to my brother Barnabas and sisters, namely :- Mary, Martha, Elizabeth, Hannah, Abigail and Expe- rience."
This treatment by Williams of his wife did not seem to destroy his usefulness in public affairs. He soon got to be the head of the military company, was a selectman, a mem- ber of the Council of War, a grand and petit juror and twice a deputy to the Colony Court. The service which he ren- dered in Phillip's War was of the same high and courageous character as that performed by his neighbors, Gen. Cud- worth, Capt. Michael Peirce and Lieut. Isaac Buck. At its close, he received "£4:04s: from the Colony in gratify- cation for his services in the late warr.".
Combativeness was a dominant trait in his character. When he could not find Indians with whom to battle, he fought with his neighbors. He was engaged, either as a suitor or sued in sixty-three law suits between the years 1648 and the time of his death. Many of these seem to have been brought for the mere love of being in litigation.
He would become non suit in an action only to petition for
+ Suffolk Probate Records No. 3739.
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JOHN WILLIAMS
a review by the Court at its next sitting. Appeals from the Selectmen's Court were many; his recoveries few. Likewise he was a frequent defendant upon the criminal side. He was fined forty shillings for harboring a Quaker. A like penalty was imposed for working on the Lord's Day; and shortly before his death he was fined five pounds for "selling severall potts of cyder to the Indians."
It is not to be understood from the foregoing that Capt. Williams was at all times quarrelsome and agressive. He had a distinctly different side to his nature. He was impul- sive, ready at once to become surety for a neighbor who was in trouble; the next day to combat with him. This is well shown in two instances. On one occasion as ensign he had laid a fine on Humphrey Johnson for not training in the military company. The latter sued him, alleging that this was unlawfully and maliciously done; and yet not many years after when Johnson was in one of his numerous troubles, Capt. Williams became surety for him. On anoth- er occasion Capt. Cudworth had hired an Indian to cut his winter's supply of wood on the Gulph Island. The redman erected a wigwam there for his shelter. Something in this which angered Williams, impelled him to go upon the island and tear down the habitation. This brought about a suit between Cudworth and Williams in which the former was awarded five pounds. This was just before the be- ginning of Phillip's War. The two had already clashed in Court several times, yet Gen. Cudworth had no more loyal supporter, no more obedient officer, than this same Capt. John Williams during the years when, under his command, they both were warring with a common enemy in Phillip's War. In that struggle Capt. Benjamin Church, knowing that it was Phillip's custom to be foremost in the fight, when he was about to re-engage him at Rehoboth "went down to the swamp and gave Capt. John Williams of Scituate the command of the right wing of the army and placed an En- sign and an Indian together, behind such shelters of trees as he could find, taking care to place them at such distance that
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none might pass undiscovered between them. f When the struggle ended Williams took two of the captive Indian boys into his home and service. In his will he appropriately restored to them the share of the Indian lands at Showamet given to him as the "part due unto (him)" for his services in that bloody conflict.
He left a large property which he divided generously, yet with discrimination.
The will # is carefully and skilfully drawn. It is in the handwriting of Samuel Sprague, his long time friend, whom he remembers in it, and who was Register of Wills for the County of Plymouth at the time. It is dated October fif- teenth 1691, and was evidently executed at Sprague's home in Marshfield the witnesses being all Marshfield-not Scit- uate-men. Excerpts from it follow :
"I, John Williams of Scituate in the County of Pli- mouth in New England being at this present, weak of Body and under ye chastising hand of God yet of sound memory and competent understanding x X do therefore hereby make and declare this my last will and testament in maner and form following :
Imprimis. I commit and commend my eternall con- cernments to the mercy of God in Jesus Christ and my body to decent burial, as to my executor and christian friends shall seem meet.
Item. To Williams Barker the son of my nephew John Barker of Marshfield all that my ffarme in Scit- uate on which I live and dwell, that is to say my two hundred acres of land formerly purchased of Mr. Tim- othy Hatherly and all the meadow at Cedar Point and that called the wash house meadow and that at Mus- quashcut pond to be enjoyed by him when he shall reach the full age of 21 years." Until then the farm to be oc- cupied by his father "he employing the rents and pro-
:
+ Hubbard's Indian Wars Vol I Page 271 note.
¿ Plymouth Colony Records (Wills) Vol I pages 200-205. The original much worn and partially lost is in the present files No. 23033.
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