USA > Massachusetts > Dukes County > Marthas Vineyard > The history of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 31
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[Mass. Archives, XCVII, 279.] Pay Roll of CAPT. JEREMIAH MAYHEW'S Company.1 Annapolis Royal, N. S. 25 Apr. 1760
Jonathan Pease
Private
Edgartown
James Horn 4
Private
Edgartown
John Holley
Private
Edgartown
Peter Whelden
Private
Edgartown
Sylvanus Pease
Private
Tisbury
Samuel Chase
Private
Tisbury
Shubael Harden
Private
Tisbury
Timothy Luce
Private
Tisbury
Thomas Norris
Private
Edgartown
William Armstrong
Private
Chilmark
William Weeks
Private
Tisbury
William Bridge
Private
Edgartown 5
The death, on Jan. 3, 1760, of Colonel Zaccheus Mayhew of Chilmark, removed the commanding officer of the Vineyard militia forces. He had been for many years an active agent in promoting this branch of the citizen's duties to his country,
1 " Elisha West ferryman from Marthas Vineyard to the Main Land Humbly sheweth that he in the month of April A. D. 1760 he Transported 33 solgers in the province service under the command of Left John Magee over to the main Land with out any pay also in May following five more under Capt Bariciah Baset and in June 1761 I tranceported 14 more under said John Magee: the Lawful farage is Seven Pounds ten shillings lawful money and I am not paid any more than £2, 8, 6." (Mass. Archives, LXXX, 10.)
2Mass. Archives, XCVII, 286; XCVIII, 63, 142, 286, 474.
8Tisbury Church Records.
4This soldier died.
5Elisha West put in a bill for ferriage of 38 men in 1760, month of April.
317
1
History of Martha's Vineyard
having been a captain as early as 1718, and probably before that date. Accordingly, Governor Bernard reorganized the local troops in August, 1761, with the following roster of officers: - 1
John Newman, Colonel and Captain of the Ist Company of Edgar- town.
Cornelius Bassett, Lieutenant Colonel and Captain of the Ist Company of Foot in Chilmark.
Benjamin Manter, Major of the Regiment, and Captain of Foot in Tisbury (Peter Norton subsequently qualified for this place.)
Samuel Smith, Junior, Adjutant of the Regiment.
The company officers were as follows: -
EDGARTOWN.
Solomon Norton, Captain Lieutenant; Daniel Coffin, 2nd Lieutenant; Daniel Vinson, Ensign, of the first company.
Peter Norton, Captain; Elijah Butler, Lieutenant; Malatiah Davis, Ensign, of the second company.
CHILMARK.
Samuel Mayhew, First Lieutenant; Uriah Tilton, Second Lieutenant; Mayhew Adams, Ensign, of the first Company.
Robert Hatch, Captain; Lemuel Weeks, Lieutenant; Zephaniah Robinson, Ensign of the second company.
TISBURY.
Benjamin Allen, First Lieutenant; Stephen Luce, Second Lieutenant; Josiah Hancock, Ensign.
INDIAN COMPANIES.
Edgartown: Enoch Coffin, Jr., Captain; Elijah Smith, Lieutenant; Richard Coffin, Ensign.
Tisbury : Eliakin Norton, Captain ; Thomas Allen, Lieutenant; Ber- nard Case, Ensign.
Chilmark : Adonijah Mayhew, Captain; Lemuel Butler, Lieutenant; Thomas Daggett, Ensign. .
It will be noted that the colonel of the regiment was the Rev. John Newman, pastor of the church at Edgartown, who thus combined the militant with the spiritual calling. There was evidence during his pastorate that he was of a " worldly" disposition, given to travel and amusement.
The year 1762 gave us the disastrous Habana expedition, resulting in its capture from the Spanish, but at an enormous cost of lives from tropical diseases. It is not known that any
1Mass. Archives, XCIX, 24-5.
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Military History, 1645-1775
men from the Vineyard took part in this expedition, but many from New England manned the attacking fleet and formed the land forces. The following named soldiers from the island saw service during this year: -
[Mass. Archives, XCIX, 130.]
Pay Roll of CAPT. BARACHIAH BASSETT'S Company
April, 1761, to Jan. 8, 1762.
John McGee
Chilmark James Skiff
Chilmark
Fortunatus Bassett
Chilmark Nathaniel Clarke Chilmark
Brod'k Dillingham
Chilmark Robert Hamit Chilmark
Anthony Allen
Chilmark
Cornelius Hilman
Chilmark
[Mass. Archives, XCIX, 128.]
Pay Roll of CAPT. BARACHIAH BASSETT'S Company.1
July I to Dec. 8, 1762.
Timothy Norton
Edgartown Prince Skiff
Chilmark
Peter Whelden
Chilmark
Peter Weeks, Chilmark
Peter West Tisbury
It is supposed that these men were doing garrison duty at Annapolis or Louisburg, as there was no active campaign in progress at this time, except the Habana expedition above referred to. On Dec. 1, 1762, three Indian companies, at- tached to the Dukes County militia, had the following named officers: -
Adonijah Mayhew, Captain; Lemuel Butler, Lieutenant; and Thomas Daggett, Ensign, of the company in Chilmark. David Butler, Captain; Noah Look, Lieutenant; and William Foster, Ensign, of the company in Tisbury. Noah Look had succeeded Thomas Waldron as Lieutenant.2
Among those of Vineyard birth who engaged in these wars, while attached to regiments raised elsewhere, was Nathan Smith of Tisbury. He served as ensign in the company com- manded by Captain Josiah Thacher, of Colonel Doty's regi- ment, from March 13 to Nov. 29, 1758. This service was probably in the Maritime Provinces, but there is a family tradition that he was at the siege of Quebec3 the following
1On the back of this roll is the account of Captain Bassett for the ferriage of II men from the Vineyard to the mainland, {1-13s and 9 men from the mainland to the Vineyard, £1-7s.
2Mass. Archives, XCIX, 25.
3Ibid, XCVI, 433. The muster rolls do not furnish any evidence of service in 1759, the year of the siege.
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History of Martha's Vineyard
year. It was the beginning of a distinguished military career which will be followed during the succeeding war of the Rev- olution.
In addition to those listed in the companies above speci- fied, raised here, a considerable number of men from the Vineyard served in regiments raised for service in these wars under the command of officers from the Cape and other parts of the mainland. Altogether there are seventy soldiers credited to our island in the campaigns from 1756 to 1762, and some of them served throughout the series of expeditions during those years. The following is a tabulated record of such soldiers of Vineyard birth who performed army service, with such particulars as have come to the notice of the author.
NAME
Res.
Company
Regiment
Year
REMARKS
Harden, Shubael 66
Tis. Chil.
Thacher 66
Doty
1758 1758
Billeting Roll Muster Roll
66
1759
Billeting Roll
Luce, Jabez
66
Paul
“ Zacheus
66
Fuller Knowles Thacher
Thacher Doty
1755 1758 1758
Crown Pt. Expedition Muster Roll
Norton, Ansel 66
Edg.
Snow
1760
Service in Nova Scotia Muster Roll
Brewer, Peter
M. V. Tis.
Thacher
1758 1758
Covell, Matthew
Edg.
66
1758
66
66
Norton, Elislea
Lumbert, Gideon
66
1758
66
Norton, Sylvester Neal, Thomas
Tis. Chmk. Edg.
66
1758
60
1759
Tack May hew
SIGNATURE OF COL. ZACHEUS MAYHEW.
IN COMMAND OF THE MILITARY FORCES OF THE VINEYARD DURING THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS, 1755-1760.
320
1758
Muster & B'l't'g Rolls
Tis.
1758
Chase, Benjamin
1758
66
The Vineyard in the Revolution, 1774-1778
CHAPTER XXII.
THE VINEYARD IN THE REVOLUTION, 1774-1778.
It is an academic question whether the Revolution of the British American colonies was inevitable. It is held by some that from the first the emigration of the scores of thousands from England, after the embarkation of the "Pilgrim Fathers" was not only a separatist movement, ecclesiastically considered, but that it contained in it the germs of political dissolution. For an hundred years the struggling colonies were under the most attenuated control from the home government, and were practically self-governing peoples, owning a fealty to the crown of England, which was of advantage to them in their days of weakness. The colonies were generally loyal and proud to be a part of the British Empire. Never was this more con- spicuously shown than in the campaign of 1745 at Louisburg, when the provincial troops under Sir William Pepperrell fought side by side with the British tars from Admiral Warren's fleet, and captured that great French stronghold. This was under the ministerial guidance of that great statesman, Sir Robert Walpole, whose policy had been to encourage the participation of the colonists in imperial affairs, and to stimulate their loyalty, and it designated the high water mark in the cordial relations of the home government and the kin "beyond sea." His death made a vacancy which was successively filled with little men, and for twenty years the colonial policy of the various ministries was a series of blunders that almost amounted to crimes. "If the second-rate men who governed England at this time," says one of the recent historians of the Revolution, a distinguished son of this Commonwealth, "had held to the maxim of their great predecessor, Sir Robert Walpole, quieta non movere, and like him had let the colonists carefully alone; or if they had been ruled by the genius of Pitt and had called upon the colonies as part of the empire to share in its glories and add to its greatness, there would have been no American Revolution. But they insisted on meddling, and so the trouble began with the abandonment of Walpole's policy. They added to this blunder by abusing and sneering at the colonists, instead of appealing, like Pitt, to their loyalty and patriotism. Even then, after all their mistakes, they might still have saved the
32I
History of Martha's Vineyard
situation which they had themselves created. A few con- cessions, a return to the old policies, and all would have been well. They made every concession finally, but each one came just too late."" The "Resolves" of our County Congress, called together for the purpose of formulating the grievances of the people in 1775, expressly emphasizes this. In reviewing the relations which existed between the crown and the colonies from the earliest settlement of the island, they speak of "that happy union Love and Harmony which formerly Subsisted between them by a Relation of those Liberties Priviledges & Imunities to these Colonies and to this Province in Particular which they enjoyed till about the year 1763," which, it will be remembered, was just prior to the hated Stamp Act.2
It is probably true that the colonies were the least-governed and the freest part of the British dominions, and for that very reason were the quickest to feel and to resent any change which seemed to forebode a deprivation of their traditional "rights." But we may wonder if some of their grievances were not fanciful or ill conceived. The cry of "No taxation without Representation" was good for a campaign motto, but one might well ask why should not the colonies be taxed for the support of the general government from which they derived military and naval protection? True no representa- tion in Parliament was accorded to them, but in England itself there were dozens of large towns and countless smaller communities equally without the privilege of electing members to that body. It was a day of inequality in that respect, when the "pocket borough" system permitted hamlets to return several members and large cities like London and Edin- burgh to choose a few, not in numerical or other proportion to their size and importance. This is not the place to discuss the causes or dissect the motives of the actors in the great preliminary events leading up to the struggle for independence. During this period the people of the Vineyard sustained a reputation for equal loyalty to the crown and shared similar resentments against its agents in the varying treatments to which the colonists of Massachusetts were subjected. The narrative of their participation from the beginning will show this trait of loyalty outraged, and driven to acts of revolution. Like all insular people they were essentially lovers of freedom
1Lodge, "Story of the Revolution," 13-14.
2Tisbury Records, 210.
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The Vineyard in the Revolution, 1774-1778
under constitutional prerogative, and for no trivial reason were they brought to sever the ancient ties which bound them as subjects to the throne of England.
The events leading up to the final acts of resistance had no immediate effect upon the Vineyard beyond other com- munities, and it will not be necessary to say more than that, in common with their countrymen elsewhere, they shared the sentiments of the people in their opposition to arbitrary gov- ernment, and were ready to support them in any measures that would be adopted by the representatives of the people. Beginning with the Writs of Assistance Act in 1761; the Stamp 'Act in 1765; the Tax Bill of 1767, followed by the Boston Massacre in 1770; the Boston Tea Party in 1773 and the Boston Port Bill of 1774, causes and effects moved forward in ever increasing rapidity, while a stupid ministry failed to diagnose the disease correctly, and applied drastic treatment when correctives and alteratives should have been admin- istered. These conditions precipitated the union of the colo- nies and paved the way for a general congress of delegates from each province to discuss means for the redress of their grievances. Thus the first step was taken, and on Sept. 5, 1774, earnest and brave men from every colony assembled at the City Tavern, Philadelphia, by previous agreement, and marched thence to Carpenter's Hall, to exchange views upon the situation. For seven weeks they deliberated, these strong men, and unanimously decided what they expected from the king, and what they intended to do if he should be deaf to their appeals. They adopted a declaration of rights, an ad- dress to the people of Great Britain, drawn by John Jay, and an address to the king, written by John Dickinson. These were the academic results of the Congress, but the practical measures adopted were of immense importance. They signed agreements to neither import nor export any article, rice ex- cepted, in trade with England, and appointed a second Congress to hear and decide upon the answer which should be received. After passing a vote sustaining Massachusetts in her attitude, the Continental Congress, on Oct. 26, adjourned. Every com- munity, as soon as the reports of the Congress reached it, was aflame with patriotic zeal to support the measures recom- mended. It is probable that during the sessions of the Con- gress that reports of its doings were disseminated by messen- gers, and the temper of the convention indicated from time to time.
323
History of Martha's Vineyard
THE VINEYARD JOINS THE MOVEMENT.
Certain it is that the Vineyard people were astir before it adjourned, to arrange for a local ratification of the principles enunciated, and to adopt the measures recommended. The men of Tisbury met in town meeting at the Court House on October 19,
in Order to Chuse a Committee for the Town of Tisbuary to Correspond with the Committee of Each Town in Dukes County and the Committees of our Province And at Said Meeting Mr. Joseph Allen was chosen Mod- erator And then it was put to Vote to See wheather James Athearn Esqr Shobal Cottle Esqr Mr Benjamin Allen Mr Abijah Athearn & Mr Benja- min Burges Should be the Said Committee & the Vote passed in the Affirmative And Then the Above Said Committee was Impowred by a Vote to meet the Committees of the Other Towns in Dukes County to Sit in A County Congress to form Such resolves and doe Such things as they in their wisdom Shall think propper to be done Reletive to our Pub- lick affairs.1
At an adjourned meeting Elisha West was added to this committee. Chilmark held a meeting on the 20th, with Zacha- riah Mayhew as moderator. "Then was chosen," the records say, "Joseph Mayhew Esq., Jonathan Allen Esq., Cornelius Bassett Esq., Uriah Tilton & James Allen Jr. Committee men to join with any committes that are or may be chosen by the other Towns in said County to Consult what measures may be expedient to be dane into by this County in the Present unhappy State of the Publick affairs of this Province." 2 Ed- gartown was already in line. She had sent Thomas Cooke as her representative to the General Court called to meet at Salem, on October 5, and also to attend the Provincial Con- gress at Concord in the following week.
THE COUNTY CONGRESS ADOPTS RESOLUTIONS.
The County Congress was called to meet in the Court House at Tisbury on November 9 following, by which time the news of the proceedings of the Continental Congress had reached the Vineyard. It was a solemn occasion for these plain, high-minded lovers of liberty -- farmers, sea-faring men - to come together for the purpose of considering their relations with their sovereign, whom they had grown to dis- trust, and whose acts demanded strong protests and perhaps
1Tisbury Records, 205.
2Chilmark Records, 154.
324
The Vineyard in the Revolution, 1774-1778
active resistance. It meant the parting of the ways, and it was with no zeal that they rushed into this position; rather did they feel that they were driven into it, and met as freemen to demand a restoration of their ancient privileges, gradually infringed by successive encroachments, by stubborn ministers of state. It is not known who presided over this County Con- gress during its deliberations, nor how long it was in session. We only know the recorded results, as left to us in a set of clear, calm, and firm resolves, and if George the Third could have sat down in his palace at Westminster and read them quietly and fairly, he would have seen that he was dealing with men terribly in earnest, but willing to respond to acts of grace at the hand of their sovereign. The Vineyard resolves breathed loyalty, with a protest that this sentiment was being crushed out of their spirits. They voiced "an Earnest desire of the relation of that happy union, Love and harmony which formerly Subsisted between them: and from a Sence of Our Duty to God, Our Country and our Selves and to future Generations of Brittish Americans as well as the present Wee have so freely Expressed Our Sentiments." No one could read the concluding paragraphs of the resolves without admiration for the sentiments uttered. But King George, a small-minded, honest man, of German birth, was try- ing to be an absolute monarch over a people whom he could not understand, and he considered such sentiments of resistance as coming from "rebels," and he blundered on, irrespective of the merits of the complaints constantly presented.
The resolves are herewith printed in full: -
At A Convention of the Committees of the Several Towns in the County of Dukes County in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay: Held by Adjornment at Tisbuary in Said County on the 9th of November 1774 The Said Committee after Serious Consideration of the unhappy State of the Province in general & of Said County in Particular; by means of Certain Acts of the British Parliment more especialy A Late Act En- tituled an Act for the better Regulating the goverment of the province of the Massachusetts Bay: Resolved as follows That by the Emigration of Our Ancestors from great Brittain into the parts of America of which the Province of the Massachusetts Bay consists: When thare ware Un- cultivated Regions Inhabited only by wild Beasts and Savages in human form: by their Establishing them selves here at their own great expence Submitting to and Enduring with most Remarkable fortitude and Patience the most grevious Toils and hardships. Amidst the greatest dangers: by the great cost and labour of the People of this province Clearing In- cosing & Cultivating their Lands here (After a fair purchas hereof of the
325
History of Martha's Vineyard
Indian Propriators) And in Erecting Nessecary & Conveniant Buildings thereon: And by this Peoples Defending at A Vast Expence of their Blood and Treasure their Possesions and Properties thus Aquired.
The Territories Included within this Province which would Other- wise have belonged to no Prince or Princes but Indian Sachems; (or which would have been much worse for Great Brittain would have been Pos- sessed by the Subjects of Some Rival European Prince or State) Are now with but verry Little if any Expence to the Crown or People of Brittain become a verey Valluable Part of the Dominions of the Brittish Monorch which from the first Peopeling thereof by his Subjects hath been Con- tinually Increasing in vallue to the Vaste and growing Emolument of the Crown and People of the Mother country by A Great Increas of the Trade & commerce and Naval Powers.
2ly That therefore (to Say nothing) Concerning the Just Tittle of the ancient collony of the Massachusetts Bay: To the Libertys and Prive- ledges they at first enjoyed: by Virtue of A Royal Charter which was unjustly Vacated: and which they ware Unreasonally denied a Restora- tion off. The People of this Province were Antecedently to the Charter Granted then by King William & Queen Mary and Still are by A Right dearly aquired by their Predecessors and themselves Justly Intituled to at least all the Liberties Priveledges Franchises & Imunities as well as to any of the Lands Granted by Said Charter 3ly That the Late Act of Par- liment Attempting an Alteration of our constitution and a violation of Our Charter (Without our being heard or even Cited to appear in defence thereof) is therefore Unconstitutional Unrighteous & Cruel Act or Power. Justly Alarming to us as being manifestly designed to wrest from us our most valluable & dearly bought rights which we have no ways forfited And threatning us with all the Wretchedness of Subjection to Arbitary & Despotick Goverment and A State of Abject Slavery: To Say nothing aboute the Impolicy of Said Act as being Detremental to the Mother countery
4ly. That therefore we will not Submit to. but to the utmost of our power in all Just and propper ways. Oppose the Execution of that Un- just and unconstitutional Act and do recomend the Same Resolute Opposi- tion thereto to the People of this county
5ly That no Power or Authority in any ways derived from Said Act of Parliment ought to be Submitted to by any belonging to this County or to be in any way Owned to be Constitutionall: And that when any Man Shall Accept of an Appointment to any Civil Office here: in Con- formity to Said Unconstitutionall act and Shall pretend to Exercise any Power or Authority by Virtue thereof he Ought to be in no ways Sup- ported or countenanced therein but Ought to be considred and treated as one Acting by A pretended Outhority only And as an Enemy to his country
6ly That the before mentioned Charter of this Province and the Laws of the Province founded thereon are all of them Constitutionall good and Valid; anything contained in Said act of Parliment to the contrary notwithstanding
7ly That all civil officers in this county holding commissions by an Appointment agreable to Said charter are when Sworn as the Law Di- rects Legally & constitutionaly Authorized to act in their Respective
326
The Vineyard in the Revolution, 1774-1778
offices According to their Respective commissions and the Laws of this Province and Ought to be Supported in thus Acting, by the People of the County
Bly the Jurors Ought to be chosen and returned in this County in no other manner then According to the directions of the Laws of this Prov- ince with regard to grand & Pettit Jurors respectively
gly That Town-meetings ought to be held in this county as hath been Usual according to the Directions of the Laws of this Province; And that All grants of Monney made: and all Votes passed in such Meetings agree- able to Said Laws Ought to be considered as good and binding the Said Meeting be Otherwise Called then the Aforesa'd act of Parliment di- rects, and all Persons who Shall avail themselves of that act in refusing to pay their Proportion of Monney thus granted will by the regard they Shew to that Oppressive act aid and abbet the Enemies of their Countery in Violating its Just rights Laws and Liberties,
Ioly Wee advise the Constables Collectors & Other officers in this county who have or Shall have Monney in their Hands belonging to the Province that thay pay in the Same according to the direction Lately given them by the Provincial Congress or by A Constitutional house of Representatives
IIly With regard to non Importation non Consumption and non Exportation of goods wares and Merchandizes we Earnestly recommend to the People of this county a Strict Conformity of their Conduct & Practice to the Resolutions & Advice of the Late Grand American Congress
12thly And Finally With respect to the State of Embarrasment this Province is in by reason of the Late act of Parlement for altering our Constitution, we Earnestly Recomend it to the People of this County that they take no advantage of any Difficulties attending the Adminis- tration of Justice in the Present Unhappy State of our Publick Affairs: And that they Refrain themselves from all Violations and Mobbish Pro- ceedings and from all Acts of unlawfull Outrages and Voiolences; and from every kind of Injustice and that they be carefull to render to all their dues: and behave themselves in a Quiet Peacable & Orderly man- ner Shewing A due regard to Every divine Precept And to the good and wholesom Laws of the Land
And with Respect to the Taxation of the American Colonists by Great Brittan Resolved First. That the People of this Province are not only by a Just national right; but also by the Express words of their Charter Intitaled to have and Injoy all the Liberties and Immunities of free and natural Subjects within any of his Majesty's Dominions to all Intents Constructions and Purposes whatsoever of which Imunities of free and natural Subjects this is most certainly one that no Tax be Im- posed on them but with their own consent Given Personally or by their Representetives, 2ly That the brittish Parliment by Imposing Duties on commodities Imported here from Brittan for the Single purpose of Raising a revenue by Leveying upon us: Have Taxed us without our Consent given Either Personally or by our Representatives and have thereby assumed to themselves A Power to dispose of our Property at their Pleasure And have grosly violated one of our most Esential Nat- ural as well as charter rights, 3ly That the Exercise of the Power of Tax-
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