USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Salem > The history of Salem, Massachusetts, vol 2, 1924 > Part 30
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
1John Kitchen lived on the northerly side of Essex Street, about two hundred feet westerly of Beckford Street.
264
HISTORY OF SALEM
horse, but she would not. They pulled both her and the man off the horse, which Roots took from them, mounted and rode away with it. Ward and Meekins testified to this, but the constables deposed that Batter did not touch Mrs. Kitchen, nor called her base, and that he was not in a passion. He confessed in court, however, that he asked her if she had been "a pawawing," called her a quaking slut, as he supposed she was coming "from a quak- ing meeting, seeing also some other persons (that way affected) coming that way which she came," etc. Result, only admonition.
The general court, Oct. 16, 1660, granted the request of the Quakers then in prison that they might go to England, provided they go in the ship then bound thither; and this order included Mr. and Mrs. Nicholson. But Margaret Smith and Mary Trask, whose husbands, as far as the court knew, were not Quakers, were "committed to the house of correction, and there kept to constant labor and mean diet," until the court released them, or their husbands should choose to carry them out of this jurisdiction, not to return without leave, as they were under sentence of banish- ment.
John Small, sr., Philip Verrin, Samuel Gaskin, Mrs. Tamosin Buffum, Daniel Southwick, Samuel Salmon and Mrs. Thomas Gardner, sr.1, were summoned to the Salem court Nov. 10, 1660, for attending a Quaker meeting; and on the twenty-ninth of that month Mrs. Richard Gardner was also presented for attending such a meeting. In 1667, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Gardner had re- moved to Nantucket.
The monarchy in England had now become restored, and Charles II succeeded as the sovereign. The Massachusetts Bay Colony held a special general court to address the king and par- liament. In the address to the king, occurs the following para -. graph about the Quakers :
Concerning the Quakers, open & capitall blasphemers, open se- ducers from the glorious Trinity, the Lords Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ, &c, the blessed gospell, and from the Holy Scriptures as the rule of life, open ennemjes to gouernment itself as established in the hands of any but men of theire oune principles, malignant & assiduous promoters of doctrines directly tending to subvert both our churches & state, after all other meanes for a long time vsed in vaine, wee were at last constrejned, for our oune safety, to passe a sentence of bannishment against them, vpon pajne of death. Such was theire daingerous, impetuous, & desperat turbulency, both to religion & the state ciuil & eclesiasticall, as that, how vnwillingly soeuer, could it haue binn avoyded, the magistrate at last, in conscience both to God
1Thomas Gardner lived on the northerly side of Tremont Street, in Peabody, about nine hundred feet easterly of the brook.
265
QUAKER PERSECUTION
& man, judged himself called, for the defence of all, to keepe the passage wth the point of the sword held towards them. This could doe no harme to him that would be warned thereby: theire wittingly rush- ing themselves therevpon was theire oune act, & wee, wth all humillity, conceive a crime bringing theire blood on theire oune head. The Quakers died, not because of theire other crimes, how capitoll soeuer, but vpon theire superadded presumptuous & incorrigible contempt of authority, breaking in vpon vs, notwthstanding theire sentence of bannishment made knoune to them. Had they not binn restreined, so farr as appeared, there was too much cause to feare that wee ourselves must quickly haue djed, or worse; and such was theire insolency, that they would not be restreined but by death; nay, had they at last but promised to depart the jurisdiction, & not to returne wthout leaue from authority, wee should haue binn glad of such an oppertunity to haue sayd they should not dye1.
William Ledra was kept chained in the open prison in Boston through the succeeding seasons, even through the cold and in- clement winter. March II, 1660-1, he was brought into the court, at the same time as Wharton, and sentenced to be hung on the fourteenth. Upon hearing the sentence, he said to the court, "Thou hast no evil justly to lay to our charge." William King was also banished. Another, who had been banished, just then entered the court room. This was Wenlock Christison of Salem, who was well known, and had come to bid Hin lock Christison good bye to Ledra, though his life might be the price. Consterna- tion and surprise were so general at his appearance that no one moved or spoke for several minutes. Nothing seemed to make this calm and quiet people fear. Death itself had no terrors for them. He was placed at the bar and condemned to die.
Three days were then allowed Ledra to prepare for death. On the day before he was executed, he addressed a letter to "The little flock of Christ," in which he said: "Stand in the watch within in the fear of the Lord, which is the very entrance of wis- dom and the state wherein you are ready to receive the secrets of the Lord. Hunger and thirst patiently, be not weary, neither doubt ; stand still and cease from thy own workings, and in due time thou shalt enter into rest and thy eyes shall behold His salva- tion. Confess Him before men; bring all things to the light that they may be proved whether they are wrought in God. Without grace possessed there is no assurance of salvation. By grace you are saved."
1Massachusetts Bay Colony Records, volume IV, part I, page 451.
266
HISTORY OF SALEM
The following day (March 14, 1660-1), the chains which had so long bound him to a heavy log were knocked off, and he went "forth to the slaughter in the meekness of Jesus." His last words from the scaffold were: "I commend my righteous cause unto Thee, O God! Lord Jesus receive my spirit." Governor Endecott and a guard of soldiers were present. The beating of drums drowned the words of the victim.
In the same winter, of 1660-1, Joseph Nicholson and his wife, who had been arrested at Salem, were imprisoned in the Boston jail.
John Smith and his wife, after nearly two years spent in prison, were released, and they started for Salem. She was sick and weak, and though leaning on a staff she fainted by the way, as she was driven by officers through Boston. Governor Belling- ham met them, and ordered them back to prison.
On the day (March II, 1660-1) that the general court sen- tenced William Ledra to death, Edward Wharton was banished, and was allowed eleven days to get without the territory of the colony. He asked for the reason of his sentence, and was told of his showing Quaker preachers from town to town. Wharton queried of the court, "Have ye not plowed blood-furrows on my back for that already, although you had no law for it?" But rarely a Quaker stayed banished. Wharton had been at Oyster River and Georgiana, now York, Me .; and, in 1662, was at Piscataqua, having good meetings. A Congregational minister there circulated a story that Wharton had left his wife and family, though he had never been married.
When banished, Wharton went into the northern part of New England, to Saco, and then to Black Point, in Casco Bay. "The outcasts" there received him kindly and gladly. He then returned towards Boston, was refused entertainment in several places, and finally stayed with an old couple (Mr. and Mrs. Stephens) in the woods. The next evening a "professor" told the woman that the man was a Quaker, and she was liable to a fine of five pounds. He went into the court at Dover, July 4, 1663. Maj. William Ha- thorne was the judge and Elias Stileman, clerk. The latter had been Wharton's next door neighbor in Salem. Wharton addressed the court: "Wo to all oppressors and persecutors, for the in- dignation of the Lord is against them. Therefore Friends, whilst you have time, prize the day of his patience, cease to do evil, and learn to do well; ye who spoil the poor and devour the needy ยท ye who lay traps and snares for the innocent." The court ordered that his legs be put into the stocks. He then said to the marshall : "Thomas Wiggins, Thomas Wiggins, Thou shouldst not rage so, thou art old and very gray ; and thou art an old persecutor, its
267
QUAKER PERSECUTION
time for thee to give over, for thou mayest be drawing near to thy Grave." This caused Wharton to be whipped. Tied to a pair of cart wheels, with a great rope about his middle, drawn by a number of persons, he was whipped and then put into prison where another man's wife was. After several days, he was placed on the back of a horse without a bridle, and holding on by the pummel of the saddle, his horse was led, as if he was a no- torious offender, from town to town, through three towns, given ten stripes in each town, as a vagabond Quaker, although he was a house-holder in Salem and about his business. On returning to Salem, he was tied to the whipping post, and given fourteen lashes by John Massey, the constable.
Afterward, being at Rhode Island awhile, with Wenlock Christison, he went to Boston, and had "a glorious meeting.' Governor Endecott ordered him to be whipped to Salem May 4, 1664, but he returned to Boston next day. With Christison, he was at Salem the next month, and they went to Boston. From there they were whipped thirty stripes to Salem, on the thirtieth, being vagabond, though ordered to be whipped to his dwelling place, which he owned. When Wharton was in Boston in May, 1665, to get a ship for Barbadoes, he was again whipped.
In the Salem court, June 30, 1668, Edward Wharton appeared "in an irreverent manner and contempt of authority," with his hat on, refusing to take it off, and having no business with the court, he boldly charged the government in open court with un- righteousness. Afterwards, he came into the court and charged the court with cruelty and shedding of innocent blood, which upon trial he admitted, and being asked whether he did not do wrong in so speaking, he replied, "God forbid I should own that to be wicked which God requires of me." He was fined fifty pounds, and ordered to lie in prison till it was paid.
May 22, 1661, a new law had been enacted against Quakers who had no home or right to be within the jurisdiction of the colony, as they "haue not bin restreined by the lawes already pro- vided." Under the new law such Quakers could be arrested by any person; and for the first offence they should "be stripped naked from the middle upwards, tied to a cart's tail and whipped to the next town; for the second offence, the letter R should be branded upon their right shoulder and be whipped out of town as for the first offence ; and, for the third offence, be banished on pain of death.
William King, who had been banished, returned without leave, and was brought before the court of assistants at Boston, in March, 1661 ; and upon his declaration, "how much he, by the rich grace and mercy of God, was now brought to loath and abhor
268
HISTORY OF SALEM
himself for his sinful and shameful practices against authority here established," was referred to the general court May 22, 1661, and released on security ; and the general court fully discharged him.
During the session of the general court, on June Ist, Wenlock Christison, who had appealed from his sentence of death pro- nounced by the court of assistants in March, was now sentenced to death by Governor Endecott, to be executed on the thirteenth, immediately after the lecture, provided that if he should in writ- ing agree to forthwith depart this jurisdiction and return no more, he should be discharged. The favor was accepted.
Samuel Shattock1 and Nicholas Phelps, upon their banish- ment, in the summer of 1659, went directly to England to lay the whole matter of the persecution before the government. They found that authority there was in a chaotic state, and until the throne was restored and Charles II became king nothing could be accomplished. Through the influence of friends of the English Quakers, later, access was obtained to the presence of the king, who heeded their request and issued an order to the Bay Colony to cease the persecution. The following is a copy of the letter :- 2
CHARLES R.
T RUSTY and wellbeloved, We greet you well Having been informed that feveral of Our Subjects amongft you, called Quakers, have been and are Imprifoned by you, whereof fome haue been Executed, and others in danger to undergo the like, We have though fit to fignifie Our Pleafure in that behalf, for the future, and do hereby Require, That if there by any of thofe People called Quakers amongft you, now already condemned to suffer Death, or are Imprisoned, and obnoctious to the like Condemnation, You are to
1SAMUEL SHATTOCK1 was a feltmaker and hatter; lived at 18r Essex Street; married, first, Grace -; second, Hannah -; died June 6, 1689, aged sixty-nine; she died Sept. 14, 1701, aged seventy-seven; children : I. Samuel", born Oct. 7, 1649; 2. Hannah2, born Aug. 28, 1651; married - Soames of Boston; 3. Damaris2, born Nov. 11, 1653; married Benjamin Pope; 4. Mercy2, born March 14, 1655; married, first, Andrew Elliott Dec. 9, 1680; second, Benjamin Trask of Beverly; 5. Priscilla2, born May 1, 1658; married - Nichols of Salem; 6. Return2, born Aug. 16, 1662; married John Sanders Sept. 24, 1688; 7. Retire2, born March 28, 1664; died Sept. 9, 1691; 8. Patience2, born Nov. 18, 1666; married John Smith July 29, 1689.
SAMUEL SHATTOCK2; feltmaker and hatter; married Sarah Buckman July 24, 1676; died in the winter of 1722-3; children : I. Samuel3, born Sept. 7, 1678; died Dec. 14, 1695; 2. John3, born March 13, 1679-80; captain ; mariner, of Salem, 1727; married Mary Crawley Nov. II, 1708; died Aug. 4, 1734; she was living in 1733; 3. Margaret3; married Mial Bacon.
Damaris Shattock, widow, who married Thomas Gardner, was un- doubtedly mother of Samuel Shattock, as also of Sarah Shattock, who married Mr. Gardner's son Richard Gardner.
2New-England Persecutors Mauled With their own Weapons, by Thomas Maule, page 23.
269
QUAKER PERSECUTION
forbear to proceed any further therein, but that you forth-with fend the faid Perfons, whether condemned or imprifoned, over into this our Kingdom of England, together with their refpective Crimes or Offences laid to their Charge, to the end fuch courfe may be taken with them here, as fhall be agreeable to our Lawes, and their Demerits. And for fo doing, thefe Our Letter fhall be your fufficient Warrant and Difcharge.
Given at our Court at White-hall, the 9th day of Septemb. 1661. in the 13th Year of Our Reign. Subscribed to Our trufty & well-beloved John Endicot, Efg; and to all and every other Governours of Our Plantation of New-England, and to all the Colonies thereunto belonging, that now are, or hereafter fhall be ; and to all and every the Minifters and Officers of Our faid Plantation and Collonies whatfoever within the Continent of New-England.
By His Majesty's Command,
W. MORRIS.
Samuel Shattock bore the precious missive1 to Boston, the captain of the vessel being himself a Quaker. Captain Oliver, the executioner, went on board the vessel when it landed, recognized Shattock, and hearing him and the captain conversing, supposing that all the people on board were Quakers, returned and reported that "Shattock and the Devil and all" had arrived.2
Nov. 27, 1661, another session of the general court was held and the letter of the king was considered and accepted with reser- vations, as follows :-
The just & necessary rules of our gouernment & condicon for preservation of religion, order, & peace hath induced the authority here established from time to time to make & sharpen lawes ag Quakers in refference to their restless intrusion & impetuous disturbance, & not any propensity or any inclination in vs to punish them in person or estate, as is evident by our graduall proceeding wth them, releasing some condemned & others liable to condemnation, & all imprisoned were released, & sent out of our borders ; all weh, not w'"standing theire restless spiritts haue mooved some of them to returne, & others to fill the royall eares of our soueraigne lord the king wth yth complaints against vs, and haue, by theire wearied solicitations in our absence, so farr prevayled as to obteine a letter from his majty, to forbeare theire corporall punishment or death. Although wee hope, & doubt not, but that if his majty were rightly informed, he would be farre from giving them such favour, or weakening his authority here so long & orderly setled, yet, that wee may not in the least offend his maj" this Court doth heereby order & declare, that the execution of the lawes in force against Quakers, as such, so farr as they respect corporall punishmt or death, be suspended vntill this Court further order.
1See the poem of John G. Whittier, entitled "The King's Missive." 2New England Judged.
270
HISTORY OF SALEM
This order caused directly the Quaker persecution to cease, although indirectly it continued some time longer. The prisoners were set at liberty. The charter gave the New England govern- ment no authority to pass laws taking limb or life, and probably no such laws would have been enacted had there been a stable government in England at that time.
It cannot seem strange that some of the sufferers under the Quaker laws should have become so insane as to appear naked in public, under an idea that it was their duty to thus declare the lack of spiritual apparel of New England's established church.
Deborah, daughter of Mrs. Tamison Buffum, and wife of Robert Wilson, was young, very modest and retiring. In June, 1662, she felt constrained to go through the town naked as a sign of the bareness of the religion of the church. She had gone through only a portion of the town before she was arrested, and the court record says that she, for "her barbarous and unhuman going naked through the Town, is sentenced to be tied at a Carts tail with her body naked downward to her waist, and whipped from Mr. Gidney's Gate till she come to her own house, not exceeding thirty stripes, and her mother Buffum and her sister Smith, that were abetted to her, etc., to be tied on either side of her, at the carts tail naked to their shifts to the waist, and ac- company her." Daniel Rumball, a constable, was called to whip her, but he demurred, being loth to do it, and said so to the court, but was ordered to do his duty. Her husband (it may be presumed in collusion with Rumball, though neither was a Quaker) followed after, and clapped his hat sometimes between the whip and her back. She was fined year after year for absence from church, until 1668, when the court was "informed" that she "was dis- tempered in her head."
When, in the season for plowing, John Small's best yoke of oxen was taken from him for the payment of fines, Mrs. Small asked the court why their oxen were taken, and she was informed that they gave the property to the poor. Just then John Gedney, at whose tavern the court had always sat, came in, and she asked if he was the poor they gave it to. Major Hathorne said, "Would you have us starve while we sit about your business?" The court records show bills paid for food and drink, and the man-servants and maid-servants who were paid out of the treasury; and the greater the receipts from the fines the more they could spend out of them for themselves, as expenses of the court, and apparently the people had noticed it.
Philip Veren spoke to some of his neighbors of the cruelties of the court towards the Quakers, being a man of a lively con- science. He said that the government had murdered the dear
271
QUAKER PERSECUTION
saints and servants of God and that he himself saw one of them murdered at Boston. Sept. 29, 1663, the Ipswich court, for these "seditious and treasonable words against the government" and this "great offence against the country in slandering the govern- ment," ordered him to be severely whipped.
Samuel Shattock went into the Salem court, Nov. 24, 1663, and charged the court and country with being guilty of innocent blood and words to that effect. He was sentenced to pay a fine. Dec. 21, 1675, John Holmes accused the Salem magistrates of murdering the Quakers, William Robinson and Marmaduke Ste- phenson.
At this time, the general court enacted some new laws against the Friends ; but it was too late for them to have any substantial force. In 1677, constables were authorized to search for meetings and apprehend the persons who were present for punishment.
In the spring of 1669, a young man, named Thomas Maule1, appeared in Salem, and became the foremost of the Friends, in wealth and energy. He
was son of Thomas and Susan- na Maule, and was born May homas Marlo II, 1645, in Barkville Parish, near the city of Coventry, in Warwickshire, England. He wrote, in middle life, that
Human Learning I have not,
yet several books emanated from his pen. When about twelve years of age, he left England and went to the Island of Barbadoes, and from there, for the sake of his health, to New England about 1666, being then of age. He heard much preaching and loud pray- ing, he said, and after living among the people in a certain place about three years, he experienced their words to be good, but their works evidenced quite the contrary. He then went to Salem where he found the church similar to that in the town he had just left. Here, he soon found, however, a number of quiet people of few words and good works, and to these he was attracted. As he was a stranger, the officials supposed that he was a Quaker, and April 19, 1669, fined Samuel Shattock and Samuel Robinson, who en-
1Thomas Maule, tailor and shopkeeper, married, first, Naomy Lynsey of Lynn July 22, 1670; and, second, Sarah, daughter of James Kendall of Staffordshire, England, Oct. 6, 1713; died in 1724; children : I. Susanna, born Sept. 15, 1671; 2. Elizabeth, born Sept. II, 1673; 3. Deliverance (son), born Oct. 21, 1675; died Sept. 28, 1676; 4. Sarah, born Sept. 17, 1677; 5. Mar- garet, born March 20, 1679-80; 6. Peleth, born May 10, 1682; 7. John, born Oct. 9, 1684; cordwainer; lived in Philadelphia, Pa .; 8. Joseph, born Feb. 16, 1686-7; died March 14, 1686-7.
272
HISTORY OF SALEM
tertained him, twenty shillings each. He was then but twenty- three, and spoke his mind freely. He said that Mr. Higginson preached lies and that his doctrines were of the devil. Being com- plained of, May 3, 1669, the local court ordered that he be whipped ten stripes well laid on."
THOMAS MAULE HOUSE
In Salem court, Maule was fined for working openly in his shop, June 29, 1675, which was a public fast day.
Maule was a tailor when he came to Salem, but soon entered into trade and did a large and successful business, dealing in all the general kinds of merchandise, hardware, drygoods, medicines, country produce, furs, staves,-tobacco, grain, hay, rum and other . liquors. About 1685, he also made bricks on the easterly side of Cambridge Street, about two hundred feet from Essex Street. His house stood on the southerly side of Essex Street, about one hundred feet westerly of Cambridge Street, and was built on land of Jonathan Neale in 1679. The agreement for its construction was made Dec. 20, 1678, and it was finished Oct. 30, 1679. It was thirty-five feet long, twenty feet wide with fourteen feet posts. The deed of the land was not made out until Oct. 6, 1681.1 He deeded it to his son John, April 9, 17072, and it passed to the Holman family in 1746, when Samuel Hayward was conducting the shop. In this house many meetings of the Friends were un- doubtedly held. In 1815, it was described as very old and quaint looking. The title remained in the Holmans until 1848, when it was conveyed to John Clark and from his heirs, in 1851, it passed to the Curwen family. It was removed in 1852. The illustration
1Essex Registry of Deeds, book 6, leaf 27.
2Essex Registry of Deeds, book 19, leaf 164.
FIRST QUAKER MEETING HOUSE.
273
QUAKER PERSECUTION
of the old house is copied from a pencil drawing of it made by Miss Kate Johnson in 1850.
It has been said that the first burial place of the Friends was on the side of the hill, at the western corner of Boston and Good- hue streets. When Edward Wharton died, March 3, 1677-8, in his nuncupative will be gave five pounds towards procuring a burying place. With this money was purchased, for this purpose, a small lot of land owned by Joseph Boyce, who was also a Friend, on the southerly side of Main Street, opposite Grove Street, in Peabody. The yard has been used ever since, the last interment having been made in or about 1882. The State legislature, in 1924, authorized its abandonment and the removal of the remains of persons buried there to the Friends burial place on Essex Street, in Salem, and the next year the remains were, so removed.
Maule erected some buildings for others, and probably had in his possession considerable used lumber. In the autumn of 16881, he erected a meeting house for the Quakers out of such lumber on the northwesterly corner of his six-acre pasture, the site being on the southeasterly side of Essex Street, just easterly of Grace church. Oct. 13, 1690, he conveyed that corner of the pasture with the building thereon to Josiah and Daniel Southwick, Samuel Gaskin, Caleb Buffum, Christopher Foster and Sarah Stone, all of Salem, and Samuel Collins, of Lynn, and others of the people called Quakers, "for the use of the above named and several others of the people commonly called Quakers to worship and serve God in."2 This building was the meeting house of the Quakers for twenty-five years. The high seat on which the leaders of the services sat was called the gallery in this meeting house. As the Quakers were building a new house for their services, Nov. 18, 1718, Daniel Southwick, Samuel Gaskill, Caleb Buffam and Samuel Collins, being the survivors of the grantees named in the deed from Maule, for themselves and others interested in the property, reconveyed to him the land and old building thereon. The meeting house was added to, and was a dwelling house until 1753, when the old meeting house part was separated from the main portion of the dwelling house and removed to Gallows' Hill pasture, where it was then used for smallpox patients. It was there until 1864, when, under a mistaken idea that it was the first meeting house in Salem or was a part of that meeting house, it was removed to the grounds of the Essex Institute, where it re- mains. Because of the misinterpretation of the agreement for the
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.