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 8
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3. Preachers are to receive maintenance but as
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other men; viz : when they are poor and want it. And here we are not backward, according to our abilities, to minister to the necessities of any men. Only this ought not to be forced or compelled from any, but ought to be left to the giver's freedom.
4. The true ministers of Christ never received any thing (if they stood in need) but from such who had been benefited by them; and, in that case, they thought it but reasonable (as indeed we do, if there be occasion) that those who from them had received spirituals should (if they stood in need) communicate to them their temporals (1 Cor. Ix. 11; Rom. xv. 27). Now therefore, have we been benefited by your preachers ? Do we receive of their spirituals? Say they not of us, we are heretics? Let them therefore, first convict us, and put us into a capacity of receiving some advan- tage from them (if they can), before they receive maintenance from us. It is related (in the book called "Clark's Lives") of one Rothwell, a man famous in England in his day, that a collection having been made for him in his absence, and understanding, at his return, some had given that he was persuaded had not been profited by his preaching he returned their money again. It were well if there were more so honestly minded.
5. We do really believe your preachers are none of the true ministers of Christ. Now, how can it reason- ably be expected from us we should maintain or contribute towards the maintenance of such a ministry as we judge not true, without guilty consciences and manifest contradiction of ourselves and principles ?
We request, for conclusion, you will please to con- sider whether you may not prejudice yourselves in your public interest with the king (you yourselves having liberty upon sufferance) if you should compel any to conform in any respect, either by giving maintenance or otherwise to such a church government or ministry
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as is repugnant to the Church of England.
We leave the whole to your serious consideration, desiring (if it may be) we may be eased in the foremen- tioned case, -- viz., that you will please to distinguish between the country rate and your preacher's mainte- nance, and that we may not be imposed upon against our consciences; that so, under you, we may live a peaceable and quiet life in all godliness and honesty; that so, the end for which you are placed in government being truly answered, in the promotion and propogation of the common benefit, we therein may have our share.
Who are your friends, EDWARD WANTON, JOSEPH COLMAN NATHANIEL FITSRANDAL. WILLIAM ALLEN."
Driven from England as the Pilgrim had likewise been, the disciple of George Fox did not seek untried shores to build a church whose practices should be to his own liking. Instead he sought out a new and struggling community and immediately commenced to spread dissension among its members. He refused to take the oath of fidelity to the government whose refuge he sought, or become a freeman and share in its responsibilities. Viewed in the light of strict impartiality this seems not only unreasonable-it was despicable.
The forefathers, then, to whose government the Quaker came may be excused if they viewed that coming with alarm. In their own words, this is the way they looked upon it. :-
"Whereas there hath severall persons come into this Government comonly called Quakers, whose doctrine and practises manifestly tends to the Subversion of the foundamentalls of Christian Religion, Church order, and the Civell peace of this Government, as appiers by the Testimonies given in sundry depositions and other- wise; It is therefore enacted by the Court and the
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Authoritie thereof that noe Quaker or person comonly soe called bee entertained by any person or persons within this Government under the penaltie of five pounds for every such default or bee whipt; and in case any one shall entertaine any such person Ignorantly if hee shall Testify on his oath that he knew not them to bee such hee shall bee freed of the aforesaid penaltie provided hee upon his first decerning them to bee such doe discover them to the constable or his deputie:
It is also enacted by this Court and the Authoritie thereof that if any Rantor or Quaker or person com- only soe called shall come into any towne within this Government, [any by any person or persons bee knowne to bee such, the person soe knowing or Sus- pecting him shall forthwith acquaint the Cunstable or his deputie of them on paine of Presentment and soe lyable to cencure in court whoe forthwith on such no- tice of them or any other Intelegence hee shall have of them; shall diligently endeavor to apprehend him or them and bring them before some one of the magis- trates who shall cause him or them to be committed to Goale there to be kept close prisoners with such victu- alls onely as the Court alloweth until hee or they shall defray the charge both of theire Imprisonment and theire Transportation away; Together with the En- gagement to returne into this Government no more or else to be continewed in close durance till further order from the Court]. And forasmuch as the meetings of such persons whether Strangers or others proveth desturbing to the peace of this Government. It is therefore enacted by the Court and the Authoritie thereof that henceforth noe such meetings bee assem- bled or kept by any person in any place within this Government under the penaltie of forty shillings a time for every speaker and ten shillings a time for every hearer that are heads of families and forty shillings a time for the owner of the place that permits them soe to meet together."
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This was not a severe enactment. The appellation of Rantor which it attaches to the objectionable persons, gives a very lucid idea of the tactics adopted by them to gain an audience. It is to the credit of the people of the Plymouth Colony that they did not adopt the severe punishments creat- ed by the General Court of Massachusetts Bay. The greatest penalty imposed by Plymouth was whipping not to exceed fifteen stripes while in Massachusetts imprisonment at hard labor was added to this for a first offence. For the second offence the unhappy culprit was to lose both ears, and for the third he was to have his tongue bored with a red hot iron. Nor was this all. At a meeting of the Com- missioners for the United Colonies held in Boston on the twenty-third day of September 1658 that body "propounded and seriously comended" that the several General Courts pass laws making it a capital crime for the Quaker to return after banishment. This recommendation was readily sign- ed by Endicott, the President of the Commissioners, who, indeed, probably drew it, and by Governor Prence and Josias Winslow, Commissioners from Plymouth. Massa- chusetts immediately adopted it with little difficulty. The Plymouth Colony, however, remained satisfied with the milder form.
The "Rantor" or "Quaker" came into Scituate. Here he found some of the best men, Cudworth and Hatherly among their number, as tolerant of their presence and prac- tices, as was Roger Williams in Rhode Island; but who, like Williams, detested their doctrines. Among the first disturbances in Scituate to come to the attention of the Court was that made by Joseph Allen who was one of a conspicuous group of "Rantors" at Sandwich. He had been haled before the court several times for refusal to take the oath of fidelity and each time paid a heavy fine. This did not deter him. On a Sunday morning in the spring of 1660 he appeared in Scituate at a Quaker meeting at the house, probably, of Rodolphus Ellms, who was a sympath- izer of the sect. Not content with worshipping among his
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friends in a way which satisified his conscience and his spir- itual longings, he went to the meeting-house of the Congre- gationalists where they were engaged in their own devotions. There he proceeded to revile both them and their religion. Subsequently, being arraigned in court he was,-"for being att a Quakers meeting, fined ten shillings; and for making a disturbance in the meeting on the Lord's Day att Scituate, fined forty shillings."
The religious activities of the Quakers in Scituate cen- tered about the homes of James Cudworth and Rodolphus Ellms. At the October court 1660 the latter was fined ten shillings for being present at one of their gatherings. His brother-in-law Robert Whitcomb was at this time paying court to Mary, the comely daughter of Captain Cudworth. These two concluded that their marriage should be consum- mated after the manner of the Quakers, and Henry Hobson of Rhode Island was invited to guide the youthful couple in the observance of the true form. At the ceremony no clergyman or civil magistrate was present. The contracting parties stood up in the presence of witnesses, mutually prom- ised to live faithfully together as man and wife, and the knot was tied. This was rank heresy. Such an irregular union in the covenant of matrimony must be punished, not- withstanding that the bride was the daughter of one of the most popular men in Scituate. Mr. John Browne and Captain Thomas Willitt, two of the important men of the colony, were appointed by the court to apprehend the of- fending Hobson and take "cecuritie for his appearance before the Court att Plymouth to answare for his derision of authorities in counterfeiting the solemnising of the marriage x x x." } The audacious pair themselves were taken before the same tribunal. Of it, her father had form- erly been an Assistant, and on it there now sat the Governor Thomas Prence, John Alden, William Bradford, son of the former Governor, Thomas Southworth, William Collier, Thomas Hinckley and Josias Winslow. It was an impor-
¡ Plymouth Colony Records Vol. III, page 209.
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tant occasion both for the culprits and the people of the colony itself. Among the jurymen were Lieut. James Torrey, who was soon to succeed the bride's father as head of the town's military company, Cornet Robert Stetson, who served with him in it, and another townsman, Samuel Hicks. No defense was offered. Of course none was possible; but one verdict could be rendered. The newly made man and wife were found guilty. The court sentenced them to pay a fine of ten pounds; to be imprisoned during its pleasure, and they went to jail. Their confinement was not for long, however. Four days in the rude building on Summer Street in Plymouth, which served as a prison, with a thieving Indian as their co-tenant f convinced them that it was better to bow to the will of the magistrates. On March ninth they announced that they desired "to bee orderly married," and this being accomplished they were released. # A year from that date the court spread this entry upon its records :
Whereas Robert Whitcombe and Mary Cudworth was formerly fined for disorderly coming together with- out consent of theire parents and lawful marriage the sume of ten pounds, and imprisoned during the pleas- ure of the Court, having since been orderly married, and liveing orderly together, and following their call- ings industriously, and attending the worship of God diligently, as is testifyed by some of their naighbors of good report, the Court have seen good to remitt five pounds of the said fine; in respect also of their pover- tie the Treasurer is ordered likewise to bee slow in demanding the remainder." §
1 March 5, 1660. Att this Court, a certain Indian called Cancan- tawashinck appeared before the Court, having bine committed to prison for stealing divers things from divers persons att Taunton, which was proved to his face, and by him owned and confessed. Hee was heard and examined and againe comited to prison." Plymouth Colony Records, Vol. III P. 209.
# Ibidem, page 206.
§ Ibidem, Vol. IV, Page 9.
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The Court was obviously in error concerning the whole of the offense charged. It could not have been "coming together without the consent of their parents" for this approval was as necessary to the legality of a Quaker cere- mony as a Puritan one, and where in Scituate, if not in the home of her father who was a sympathizer, could such a marriage have been consummated. It is probable that the clerk in drawing the presentment strictly followed the words of the statute in which this clause appears, without refer- ence to the real fact.
The magistrates were at least impartial in their prosecu- tions for violation of this anti-Quaker law. Learning that Isaac Robinson, the son of the Leyden pastor, was suspect- ed of abetting the disturbers they summoned him before them at Plymouth and disfranchised him. But "their being some mistake in this," says the record, "att his request, hee, the said Isaacke Robinson, is reestablished, and by general voat of the Court accepted againe into the associa- tion of the body of the freemen of this corporation." They dealt leniently also with. Ensign John Williams, who lived in and maintained the garrison house at Cedar Point, and who trained the local military company.
"Ensigne John Williams, for entertaining a foraigne Quaker, fined forty shillings, according to order; and in reference to the offence given by him, by his counte- nancing or adhering to the Quakers, in hopes of (his) reformation, the Court have suspended what might have bine imposed, in disgrading him of his place for the present."
"William Parker for permitting a Quakers meeting to bee in hise house, fined forty shillings" and "for entertaining a strange Quaker called Wenlocke, into his house, fined five pounds."
Other prosecutions were had, but none which reached either in interest or importance the case against Capt. James Cudworth. When the Quakers began coming to the colony in 1656-7 Cudworth was an Assistant in the Plymouth
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Colony. The laws proposed for the punishment of the Quakers and their banishment did not meet with his entire approval. He was not at once convinced that their relig- ious principles were without merit, or their personal pres- ence in the colony undesirable. He was tolerant of them and would not condemn and punish, upon what he consider- ed the frivolous pretexts advanced by the anti-Quakers. His opinions were largely those of his friend Hatherly. Of the men who sat on the magistrate's bench with him Gov- ernor Bradford and John Alden were more radical. Thomas Prence, always an enemy of Cudworth, was insult- ingly aggressive. Josias Winslow was inclined toward him in a friendly way and William Collier held himself in haughty reserve. In the disputations held by these men over the Quaker question Cudworth was well aware of the unpopularity of his position. He wrote:
"This spirit (of intolerance) did work those two years that I was of the Magistracy, during which time, I was, on sundry occasion, forced to declare my dis- sent in sundry actings of that nature; which altho' done with all moderation of expression, together with due respect unto the rest, yet it wrought great dissatisfac- tion and prejudice in them against me."
He frankly told his fellow magistrates that he had enter- tained Quakers at his house, giving as his reason, "thereby that I might be the better acquainted with their principles. I thought it better to do so, than with the blind world to censure, condemn, rail at and revile them, when they neither saw their persons nor knew any of the principles. But the Quakers and myself cannot agree on divers things, and so I signified to the Court; but told them withal, that as I was no Quaker, so I would be no prosecutor."
It was due perhaps to this firm stand by Cudworth, the wisdom of Henry Dunster and the sagacious counsel of Hatherly that the Old Colony was not committed to the drastic and cruel treatment with which the members of the sect were treated by the government of Massachusetts Bay, led by John Endicott.
CHAPTER VIII
TOWN GOVERNMENT AND FREEMEN
"Bee Subject to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake I Peter 2 cond 13th." Text inscribed upon the fly leaf of "The Booke of Gen- erall Lawes and Liberties."-1658.
IT was not alone religious zeal and enthusiasm which drove the forefathers across seas to "those vast and un- peopled countries of America." They had the desire, equally potent, to establish a democracy which while ac- knowledging allegiance to the crown should nevertheless, be a stable and permanent autonomy. The Exiles from Ley- den did not know upon their embarkation, that they should find a habitat upon territory which was not within the lim- its of their patent. Although a royal charter which should prescribe their rights, privileges and immunities, had been refused them, the compact f signed in the cabin of the
¡ "In Ye name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwrit- ten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereigne Lord, King James, by ye grace of God, of Great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland, King, defender of ye faith &c haveing undertaken, for ye glorie of God, and advancemente of ye Christian faith, and honor of our King & countrie, a voyage to plant ye first colonie in ye Northern parts of Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly & mutually in ye presence of God, and one of another, covenant & combine ourselves together in a civill body politick, for our better ordering & preservation & furtherance of ye ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal lawes, ordinances, acts, constitutions & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete and convenient for ye generall good of ye colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. IN WITNESS WHEREOF we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod ye 11 of November, in ye year of ye raigne of our soveraigne lord, King James of England, France & Ireland, ye eigheenth and of Scotland ye fifty-fourth. Ano. Dom. 1620.
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Mayflower on the morning of the eleventh day of November 1620, served as a corner stone upon which to build, as per- manent as any parchment bearing the seal of royalty.
Carver, who had been chosen Governor en voyage, did not long survive. In April 1621 William Bradford was chosen Governor in his place and Isaac Allerton elected an "Assis- tant." ¡ On the previous twenty-seventh day of February Miles Standish had been chosen captain. This was neither in the sense of a military officer to have supreme command in all affairs, nor yet as a civil constable to serve such processes as might be committed to him. The latter office was to be created later. Standish by reason of his pro- fession of arms was selected as a "military officer" to command in affairs because of the extreme probability of trouble with and attack by the Indians.
Bradford and his one Assistant continued to order the affairs of the colony for three years. Meantime both the Fortune and Anne had arrived at Plymouth bringing new colonists who of course sought participation in government- al affairs.
Of the elections in 1642 Bradford says: #
"The time of new election of the officers for this year being come, and ye number of their people in- creased, and their troubles and occasions therewith, and also to adde more Assistants to ye Govr. for help and counsell, and ye better carrying on of affairs. Showing that it was necessarie it should be so. If it was any honour or benefitte, it was fitte others should be partakers of it; if it was a burthen (as doubtless it was) it was but equal others should help to bear it;
¡ Shortly after William Bradford was chosen Governor in his (Carver's) stead, and being not yet recovered his illness, in which he had been near ye point of death, Isaac Allerton was chosen to be an Assistnte unto him, who, by renewed election every year, continued sundry years together." Bradford History Page 122.
¿ Bradford History, Page 187.
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and yet this was ye end of Annual Elections. The issue was, that as before ther was but one 'Assistante, they now chose 5, giving the Govr. a double voyce; and afterwards they increased them to 7, which course hath continued to this day."
The electorate did not take this broad hint as to the gov- ernorship, but re-elected Bradford. They continued to do so up to the year of his death, (1657), save for three years from 1633-1636 and in 1638 and 1644. No record is ex- tant which shows who these first Assistants were.
In 1633 "The Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, in New England" begin. For the first three years they were kept by the Governor. At the General Court held on the third day of January 1636 Nathaniel Souther was elect- ed and sworn as "Clarke of the Court."
The first record happily gives us not only the names of the Governor and "Assistants or Councill" as the body was called, but of all the freemen as well. At this time no property qualification was imposed upon the right of suf- frage. It did not attach until 1669 when the General Court enacted "that none shall voate in Town Meetings but ffre- men or ffreeholders of twenty pound ratable estate and of good conversation having taken the oath of fidelitie." When the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay were united the amount required was "a freehold of 40s per ann. or other property of the value of 40 £ sterling.
The elective franchise was exercised by the freemen, males who had taken the freeman's oath. The "oath of fidelitie" was similar. It was administered to those, not freemen who made "choice at present to reside within the Government of New Plymouth." The freeman's oath was as follows :
"You shall be truly loyall to our sovereign Lord King Charles, his heires and successors, the state and government of England (as it now stands). You shall not speake or doe, devise or advise any thing or things, act or acts, directly or indirectly by land or water, that
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doth, shall or may tend to the destruction or over throw of this present plantacons, colonies or corpora- con of New Plymouth. Neither shall you suffer the same to be spoken or done but shall hinder oppose and discover the same to the Governor and Assistants of the said Colony for the time being or some one of them. You shall faithfully submit unto such good and whole- some laws and ordinances as either are or shall be made for the ordering and government of the same and shall endeavor to advance the growth and good of the several plantations within the limits of this Corpora- con by all due means and courses. All which you promise and sweare by the name of the Great God of heaven and earth, simply, truly and faithfully to per- form as you hope for help from God who is the God of truth and punisher of falsehood."
To this oath, William Gilson, Simon Hoyt, Anthony Annable, Humphrey Turner and Henry Cobb, all of whom lived in the ward of Scituate, had subscribed before 1633. James Cudworth and Timothy Hatherly were admitted as freemen in 1634 and William Hatch and George Kenrick the next year. In 1636, the year of the establishment of the town, George Lewis, Bernard Lombard and Edward Foster were sworn. John Lewis, John Hewes and Samuel Hinckley followed the next year, Isaac Stedman in 1648 and Isaac Chittendon not until 1653. These were all the male residents of the town when it was incorporated.
Only those, of course, who had been admitted as freemen in 1636 or prior thereto had a voice in the affairs of the colony. There were no town affairs then which were ordered by the townspeople themselves. The affairs of both town and colony were governed by the freemen of all of the towns t who assembled for the first few years in "General Court" at Plymouth to that end. At such a gath-
Duxbury was established in 1637; Marshfield in 1640, Sand- wich, Taunton, Yarmouth, Barnstable, Rehoboth and Eastham all before 1652 and Bridgewater, which had theretofore been known as Duxburrow New Plantation, in 1656.
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ering on the fourth and fifth days of October 1636 "The ordinances of the colony and corporation being read, divers were found wanting the reforming others the rejecting, & others fitt to be instituted and made. It was therefor or- dered and agreed, that four from the town of Plymouth, two for Scituate and two for Duxburrow should, as committees for the whole, be added by the Govr. & Assistants, to rectifie & Prepare such as should be thought most conven- ient, that, if approved, thay may be put in force the next Generall Court." Anthony Annable and James Cudworth on the part of Scituate were chosen for this work. On the fifteenth of the following November this committee report- ed to the whole body of freemen. The view which they took of their own rights and privileges cannot be better stated than in their own language. In a preamble is recit- ed the facts above stated. It continues :
"Now being assembled according to the said order and having read the combination made at Cape Cod on the 11th of Novbr 1620 in the yeare of the raigne of our late Sov. L. King James of England, Ffrance and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth as also our letters Patents confirmed by the honorable Councill his said Majestie established and granted the 13th of January 1629, in the fifth yeare of the raigne of our Sov. Lord King Charles, and finding that as freeborne subjects of the State of England we hither came indewed with all and singular the privileges be- longing to such, in the first place we thinke good that it be established, for an act.
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