USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1734 to the year 1800 > Part 20
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The first County Court to be held in the Province, after the
1 They were officially received by Gov. Gage on the 6th, but, for prudential reasons, not immediately proclaimed.
2 Letter to the Earl of Dartmouth, Am. Ar., Ser. 4, vol. i. p. 742,
3 County memorial drafted by Rev. Mr. Allen.
13
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reception of the acts of Parliament for perverting the charter, was that appointed for the third Tuesday in Angust, at Great Barring- ton ; and a county convention, held at Pittsfield on the fourth of that month, probably took measures for its obstruction.
Whatever the recommendations of the convention were, the town of Pittsfield, being called together for that purpose on the . 15th, promptly accepted them ; and then proceeded to choose Capt. Charles Goodrich, William Francis, and the moderator, Deacon Josiah Wright, - three of the most stout-hearted, as well as the most substantial citizens, - " to prefer a petition to the Honorable Court not to transact any business the present term."
Dr. Tim. Childs and Mr. John Strong were appointed to draw up the petition; and soon reported the following, which was .adopted.
To the Honorable His Majesty's Justices of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for the County of Berkshire: The Petition of the Inhabitants of the Town of Pittsfield, assembled in Town-meeting on Monday the fif- teenth day of August, 1774 : -
HUMBLY SHEWETH,
That whereas two late acts of the British Parliament for superseding the charter of this Province, and vacating some of the principles and invalu- able privileges and franchises therein contained, have passed the royal assent, and have been published in the Boston paper, that our obedience be yielded to them.
We view it of the greatest importance to the well-being of this Province, that the people of it utterly refuse the least submission to the said acts, and on no consideration to yield obedience to them; or directly or indirectly to countenance the taking place of those acts amongst us, but resist them to the last extremity.
In order in the safest manner to avoid this threatening calamity, it is, in our opinion, highly necessary that no business be transacted in the law, but that the courts of justice immediately cease, and the people of this Province fall into a state of nature until our grievances are fully redressed by a final repeal of these injurious, oppressive, and unconstitutional acts. We have the pleasure to find that this is the sentiment of the greater part of the peo- ple of this Province ; and we are persuaded that no man that only under- stands the state of our public affairs, who has business at the approaching term, but will advise and consent to the same, and willingly undergo personal inconvenience for the public good. We do therefore remonstrate against the holding any courts in this county until those acts shall be repealed ; and we hope that your honors will not be of a different opinion from the good
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people in this county. Our reasons for holding no courts in the present situation of affairs, are as follows : -
Some reasons why our Inferior Court cannot be held in its ancient form, and agreeable to charter, now the new aets are published : -
1st. If they are now held in the ancient form, this will be in direct violation of those laws, and in defiance of them.
2d. Whatever business shall be transacted in the ancient form, now those laws are in force, will be illegal, and liable afterwards to be wholly set aside.
3d. The honorable judges will expose themselves, by not submitting to the new acts, by transacting business in the old form, or agreeable to our charter, to an immediate loss of their commissions.
4th. It will be much greater contempt of those laws to transact business in the ancient form, or agreeable to our charter, than to do none at all.
5th. This course of procedure will tend to bring matters to a more un- happy erisis, which we would choose by all means to avoid, than to neglect to do any business.
6th. The new acts will insensibly steal in upon us under pretence of doing business after the ancient Constitution : therefore, as soon as the new acts are in whole or in part in force, as they now are, no court ought to be held in the ancient form.
Our reasons why our Inferior Courts ought not to be held at the approach- ing term are as follows : ---
1st. We have undoubted intelligence from York and Boston that the said acts have passed the royal assent.
2d. We also are informed of their arrival in Boston.
3d. It is highly probable they are published in form by the governor by this present time in order that our obedience be rendered to them.
4th. We ought to bear the most early testimony against those acts, and set a good example for the other part of the Province to copy after.
5th. Some parts of those acts have taken place already, - that part of which dissolves the council by whose advice the former commissions were granted out; and that part of which empowers the governor to grant new commissions without advice of the council; and also that which respects town-meetings. For these and other reasons, it plainly appears to be of dangerous consequences to do any business in the law till the repeal of those acts, as would most certainly imply some degree of submission to them, the least appearance of which ought not to be admitted.
The honor of the Court has good grounds to neglect to do business in the law, and the people just occasion to petition for it, and insist upon it without admitting a refusal."
A somewhat larger deputation than the action of the town con- templated waited upon the Court. At the time appointed for it
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to sit, about fifteen hundred men assembled, unarmed, at Great Barrington, and " filled the Court House, and the avenues to the seats of justice, so full that no passage could be found for the judges." " The sheriff commanded the people to make way for the Court; but they gave him to understand, that they knew no Court, or any other establishment than the ancient laws and cus- toms of the country; and to none other would they give way on any terms." I
They were assured that the new acts had not arrived, and that> consequently, business would proceed in the usual manner : but everybody knew that the judges' commissions were already revo- cable at the governor's pleasure ; and that the aggressive laws - likely to reach Great Barrington at any moment - might be pro- claimed as soon as the Court was well benched. The assemblage therefore insisting that the judges should forthwith quit the town, they complied, lest worse might befall them ; 2 and no Court ever again attempted to sit, under royal commission, in Berkshire. The last which actually transacted business in the king's name was the May term at Great Barrington in 1774.
About three hundred of the assembled people were from Litch- field County, Conn. ; and these, upon their return, took with them David Ingersol, Esq., a particularly obnoxious Great-Barrington Tory, and a magistrate of the General Sessions. For this they were arraigned by a Connecticut sheriff before "the Honorable Eliphalet Dyer, Esq., who, with great solemnity and severity, rep- rimanded the delinquents," and bound them over to the court above; by which their case was continued until the offenders and their prosecutors changed places. David Ingersol, Esq., went, the next fall, to England as a refugee. Col. Williams of Pittsfield was the chief-justice of the obstructed Court of Common Pleas; and, although he was fond enough of his place, was not likely to very strenuously resist the will of the people, energetically ex- pressed. Major Stoddard, a man of a different stamp, was a magistrate of the General Sessions: but any opposition to so determined a multitude as surrounded the Court House, further than a manly remonstrance, would have been folly ; and even that involved greater risk than it was worth, unless the whole
I Massachusetts Gazette and Newsletter, Sept. 1, 1774.
2 Great-Barrington Letter, Sept. 18, 1774.
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magistracy had joined it, as there was no likelihood of their doing.
The proceedings against the perverted courts worked grandly for the patriotic cause. Everywhere throughout Berkshire the Revolutionary feeling was roused and united in action as it could have been in no other way so effectually. The great object of committing the western frontier of the Province, devotedly and enthusiastically, to the cause of liberty was at once and perfectly accomplished, in spite of obstacles which would have interposed a dangerous delay to any less vehement advance. The beneficial effects of the achievement were manifest from the very opening of the war to its close.
Elsewhere the patriotic spirit was braced with new vigor, as the news spread that the usurpations of Parliament had, on the first suspicion of an attempt to enforce them, met a bold, and, for the time at least, successful resistance. The example proved conta- gious, and was held up for imitation even in Boston.1 At Spring- field, at the assembling of the courts on the 30th of August, the Justices, with Israel Williams, the chief of the Tories, at their head, in the presence of three thousand persons, " very willingly " signed a solemn agreement not to accept or exercise any office or commission " under or by virtue of, or in any degree derived from, any authority pretended or attempted to be given by the late acts of Parliament." Everywhere, where the courts were not sur- rounded by British troops, the story was the same. The counties which had stood ready to set the example, if the privilege had fallen to them, were no less prompt to follow it when set by the youngest of their sisterhood. In Suffolk, where the courts sat under the protection of the soldiery, the jurors found means hardly less effectual, and even more annoying, to thwart the "taking place " of the dangerous innovations. The movement initiated in Berkshire spread, in some form, throughout the Province; and although it can by no means be claimed that this initiation and that adoption of the movement were strictly cause and effect, the relation of the one to the other was sufficiently close to justify the traditional county pride in "the first obstruction of King George's Courts."
The Pittsfield records of town-meetings, as transcribed after
1 Frothingham's Siege of Boston, p. 10.
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the crasures of the inspecting committees, afford no intimation of any opposition to the Revolutionary measures which prevailed ; but a few minutes, chance-preserved in the archives, show that the struggle was, nevertheless, violent, and the debates which arose personal and acrimonious. The most suggestive of these papers is one containing the following resolutions, which were " passed in full," probably at the meeting of the 15th of August : -
" Whereas [the name of Col. Wm. Williams was here inserted but erased] Major Israel Stoddard, and Woodbridge Little, Esq., have exhibited several charges against the Rev. Thomas Allen, thereby endeavoring to injure his reputation, in respect to what he said and did in a late town- meeting, in defence of the rights and liberties of the people; wherein they charge the said Thomas with rebellion, treason, and sedition, and east many other infamous aspersions, tending to endanger not only the reputation, but the life of the said Thomas, -
Voted, That all the foregoing charges are gronndless, false, and scandalous ; and that the said Thomas is justifiable in all things wherein he hath been charged with the crimes aforesaid; and that he hath merited the thanks of this town in every thing wherein he hath undertaken to defend the rights and privileges of the people in this Province, and particularly in his obser- vations and animadversions on the Worcester Covenant."
This paper is indorsed "To Col. Williams and others, - to lie on file:" from which it may be inferred that the erasure of Col. Williams's name from the resolutions was made subsequently to their passage.
Some months later, in November, the town, through its clerk, Israel Dickinson, addressed a letter to Rev. Mr. Collins, the loyalist minister of Lanesborough, stating that, it having been suggested in public town-meeting that he had at divers times, when in Pittsfield, " censured and disapproved their reverend pastor, Mr. Allen, in regard to his conduct in some public matters of late," which, whatever Mr. Collins's intention may have been, seemed to them to have a tendency to promote, rather than settle, the differences arising therefrom, they requested him to desist from that sort of comment in the future.
Mr. Collins replied with spirit, denying that he had done more than give it as his opinion, and his reasons for it, " that it would be well for gospel ministers, in their public discourses, to avoid enter- ing very far into a consideration of state policy ; " and he hoped the town of Pittsfield would not be offended if he held himself at
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liberty to defend that proposition whenever occasion arose. The belief in the intimate relations between civil and religious liberty, which, in Mr. Allen's opinion, identified the safety of the one with the jealous defence of the other, has already been stated; and the papers above quoted are introduced merely to show the influence attributed to the first pastor of the town in moulding its patriotic sentiment and action, as well as the esteem in which he was held by his associates of the popular party.
What was the exact nature and amount of the counsel and in- spiration which the Pittsfield Whigs received from the East is un- certain ; but, after the occurrences of August, influences from abroad were more needed to restrain than to incite.
In addition to Mr. Allen's large official correspondence with the committees of other towns in Massachusetts as well as the neigh- boring colonies, his interchange of letters was frequent with his personal friends, and particularly with Major Hawley and Col. Seth Pomeroy of Northampton.1 John Brown also, after the meet- ing of the Provincial Congress, was in confidential communication with Warren, Sam. Adams, and others of like position.
Oliver Wendell, son of Col. Jacob, the early proprietor of Poontoosuck, although a very young man, attaining his majority about this time, was one of the most glowing and impetuous of the Sons of Liberty, and a prominent member of the Committee of Safety in Boston. His family, who still retained considerable estate in Pittsfield, were liked by the people for their genial, free- hearted, ungrasping disposition ; and it would have been singular if the young and active committeeman had not turned his popu- larity to account in winning support to the cause which he had at heart. The evidence that he did so, although strong, is, however, only traditional.2
1 Col. Seth Pomeroy, grandfather of the late Lemuel Pomeroy of Pittsfield, was a gallant officer in the last Freneli and Indian War, and, early in the troubles with Great Britain, took rank with the foremost of the patriots. He was one of the four brigadiers appointed by the first Provincial Congress, of which he was an influential member; but deelined that rank, and fought at Bunker Hill -like Warren, who had been voted a similar commission - as a volunteer. He after- wards served as colonel until 1777, when he died in command of the post at Peeks- kill. " A good friend of his country," is the epitaph that Mr. Allen inscribed in his pocket diary upon receiving the news of his friend's death.
" Among the traditions in this connection is one, that Oliver Wendell, then owning the farm on Wendell Street where his grandson, Oliver Wendell Holmes,
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afterwards built his villa, leased it to a tenant for a moderate rent, on condition that if Gen. Gage should, as he threatened, make Boston too hot for men of the Wendell stamp, the premises should at once be surrendered, with the furniture, standing erops, etc. The tradition is probably not accurate in all its particulars ; and a more consistent version of it would be, that Mr. Wendell placed a tenant in his farmhouse, who would receive him in the anticipated emergency : for it is averred with great positiveness, that, from the arrangement then made, arose the custom in the Wendell family of an annual summer pilgrimage to Pittsfield.
Some of the older inhabitants of the place still remember the visits of Judge Wendell, who, whatever he may have done before, for many years after the Revo- Intion exercised a potent social and political influence in Berkshire, as will appear in the consideration of that era. His epicurean tastes excited the admiration of his rural neighbors ; but his keen relish for the country luxuries, and the simple although skilful cuisine of good Mrs. Backus, who marshalled the affairs of the Judge's farmhouse, showed an unperverted palate. His nice sense, however, re- volted at the barbarism of country taverns, where fowls were served up before the life had been an hour out of their bodies. And so, when he set out upon his leisurely journeys of four or five days between Boston and Pittsfield, a freshly- killed chicken was placed under the seat of his carriage; which, at the end of twenty-four hours, was delivered to the cook of the wayside inn, and another substituted to undergo a like seasoning. A wholesome good liver was Judge Oliver Wendell.
CHAPTER XI. A SEASON OF PREPARATION.
[SEPTEMBER, 1774-MAY, 1775.]
John Brown elected to the Provincial Congress. - Pittsfield adopts Congressional Advice. - Adopts the Articles of Association. - Revolutionary Committees. - Pittsfield Militia. - Generous Patriotism of Capt. Noble. - The Minute-Men. - Spinning-Matches and Clothing-Bees. - News of Lexington Fight. - March of the Minute-Men. - Changes in Capt. Noble's Company. - Proceedings against the Tories. - Patriotic Labors of Rev. Mr. Allen.
M ASSACHUSETTS, in the fall and winter of 1774-5, was busy with preparation for the impending conflict. Gov. Gage issued his precept for a General Court, to be held at Salem on the 5th of October. The committee of Worcester sug- gested an assembly of the towns, by their delegates, in Provincial Congress; and the Suffolk Convention fixed upon Concord as the place, and the 11th of October as the time, for the meeting.
Pittsfield, like many other places, refused to send a representative to Salem; but chose John Brown delegate to the congress, and appointed, as committee of instruction, Capt. Charles Goodrich, Deacon Josiah Wright, Dr. Timothy Childs, Deacon James Easton, and Lieut. Eli Root.
Gage, angered and alarmed at the spirited attitude of the towns, revoked his precept of assembly, and announced that he would not meet the representatives. Ninety of them were, however, present in Salem at the appointed time; and having, with studious regard to etiquette, waited all that day for his Excellency to appear, resolved themselves into a Provincial Congress, "to be joined by such other persons as had been, or should be, appointed for that purpose, to take into consideration the dangerous and
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alarming situation of public affairs in the Province, and to con- sult upon measures to promote the true interest of his Majesty, and the peace, welfare, and prosperity of the Province."
After a consultation of two days, the congress issued an address, advising its constituents of the " unconstitutional, unjust, disrespect- ful, and hostile conduct," by which the governor had deprived the Province of its accustomed legislature ; and adjourned to merge itself in the assembly, which was, by the will of the people, con- vened at Concord on the following Tuesday.
In the latter body, John Brown took his seat as representative from Pittsfield, It did not assume to enact laws : but its advice, given to towns, committees, and the people at large, was respected as statutes rarely are; and no town responded to these counsels with more zeal and promptitude than Pittsfield.
Thus the congress having advised that the Province tax should be paid over, not to Harrison Gray, the governor's treasurer, but to Henry Gardener, whom it elected receiver-general, Pittsfield, at its next meeting, so instructed its collectors; and in the spring, some of the loyalists disputing Mr. Gardener's warrant, the town directed its officers, if any man refused to pay his rates, to apply for aid to the Committee of Inspection, who had a happy knack of enforcing congressional advice.
The Continental Congress was treated with no less deference than the Provincial ; and, Dec. 5, the town voted "to adopt the Continental resolutions in full, and particularly the 11th article." These were the famous Resolutions of Association, signed by the delegates in Congress, Oct. 20, 1774 : by which, in a series of four- teen articles, they bound themselves and their constituents not to import any of the productions of Great Britain or her dependencies after the 1st of the following December, not to export to those quarters after the 10th of September; to entirely discontinue and discountenance the slave-trade ; " to encourage frugality, economy, and industry, and promote American agriculture, arts, and mann- factures, especially that of wool; " to discourage every species of extravagance and dissipation, especially horse-racing, gaming, cock-fighting, and play-going; to wear no mourning on the death of a friend, "more than a black ribbon on the arm or hat for a gentleman, and a black ribbon and necklace for a lady," and to give no more gloves and scarfs at funerals. Finally the " Associators" bound themselves not to take advantage of the scarcity produced
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by non-importation to raise prices. Some of the articles of agree- ment were devoted to the means of enforcing the others; and the 11th, which Pittsfield specially adopted, provided that a committee should be appointed in every town, county, and colony, whose duty it should be " to observe the conduct of all persons within its precinct concerning the Association ; " and if any delinquency was proved to the satisfaction of a majority of its members, " to publish the name of the offender in 'The Gazette,'-to the end that all such foes to the rights of British America might be publicly known, and universally contemned as the enemies of American liberty, and that all patriots might thenceforth break off all inter- course with him or her."
The persons chosen to compose this formidable committee in Pittsfield were, Eli Root, Timothy Childs, Charles Goodrich, Dan Cadwell, Josiah Wright, James D. Colt, and Stephen Crofoot. This was the Committee of Inspection, and as yet distinct from that of Correspondence; to which latter Messrs. Goodrich, Childs, Root, and William Francis were added at the next meeting. In addition to these two bodies, there was a committee appointed upon the suppression of the courts, " to sit as arbitrators, to regulate disturbances and quarrels, and to take the Province law for their guide." This consisted of Deacon Wright, William Francis, Lieut. Root. Capt. Bush, Capt. Israel Dickinson, Ensign John Brown, and Capt. Goodrich.
The Pittsfield militia - probably under the advice of the Central Committee of Safety - had early exchanged its organization under commanders appointed by the governor, for one under officers of its own choice. How this was effected, or at what time, does not appear. But on the 1st of September, Gov. Gage having sent out a detachment to remove to Boston the Provincial military stores deposited at Charlestown, a report arose during the excite- ment which ensued, that the British were firing upon the former town. The alarm - which is supposed to have been a feint of the patriot leaders to try the spirit of the people - spread with mar- vellous rapidity ; and it was estimated that forty thousand armed men were the next morning on their march to defend or avenge their brethren. The alarm, having served its purpose, was checked, and the militia returned to their homes.
In this affair a company of minute-men, commanded by Capt. David Noble and Lieut. James Easton, went from Pittsfield to
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Westfield; and the town voted to each private and non-commis- sioned officer two pounds " for himself and horse." The captain and lieutenant received six pounds apiece for their services, but were refused extra compensation for continuing their trip to Boston.
What the organization of the militia was at this time is not known; but the town-records are significant of the readiness which the leaders of Whig sentiment manifested to defend with the sword the principles which they had advocated on the old meeting- house rostrum. Thus, in addition to the two gallant officers named, we find, before the close of September, Deacon Wright, Israel Dickinson, and James D. Colt, captains; Eli Root, a lieutenant ; and John Brown, - commencing at the lower round of the ladder of promotion, with Dr. Timothy Childs, - an ensign.
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