USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Westborough > The history of Westborough, Massachusetts. Part I. The early history. By Heman Packard De Forest. Part II. The later history. By Edward Craig Bates > Part 13
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Of course there were then, as always, those who tried to take advantage of the demand created by the war to obtain an increase of wages and profits out of the strug-
167
IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
gles of the patriots. The country could not stand that strain then as well as it could afterward in the war of 1861; and the effort was made to regulate prices, which, whether successful or not, is interesting to the student of the history of economics, and also throws a good deal of light on the occupations and customs of our fathers.
In February, 1777, Westborough adopted the following list : -
Price of day labor in January and February · Is. 6d. a day.
66 in April 25.
May to June 15 . 2s. 4d.
66 June 15 to Aug. 15 . 3s.
Aug. 15 through Sept. . 2s. 4d. 66
in Oct. Is. Iod. 66 66 in Nov. and Dec. Is. 6d.
For a carpenter who is a workman at the trade -
For the best half of the year 3s. 66 For the rest of the year . 2s. 6d. 66 Bedstead of maple
A good stubble plough well made
6s. 8d. 6s.
For a good Wrake
Is. 2d.
For a plain setting chair, made of maple and bottomed, For botaming a chair with flags
3s. 4d. 9d.
For making a pair of cart wheels of good timber .. £1 IOS. For a shoemaker making a pair of men's or wo- men's shoes, finding thread and heels as usual 35 .
For a pair of good shoes for a man, made of good neat's leather
7s. 6d.
And other shoes in proportion, according to their Bigness and Goodness.
For a Blacksmith shoeing a horse all round, with shoes well steeled, toe and heel . 6s.
And for shoeing all round without steel 4s. 4d. And for setting a shoe 4d.
Good walnut wood per cord .
Good oak wood
7s. 6s.
Good swamp wood
5s. 4d.
All delivered at the door.
For a doctor's journey, 7s. per mile, and other articles in proportion, according to the cost of medicines.
168
EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
Good wheat, per bushel
6s. 8d.
Good rye .
4s. 4d.
Good Indian corn
35. 2d.
Good oats
25.
Good potatoes, per bush. in ye fall of ye year . IS. At other seasons of ye year Is. 4d. 24d. 1b.
Good grass-fed beef
Good stall-fed beef
34d. “
Good lump butter .
9d. “
New milk by grass
Izd. qt.
hay
Id. “ 6d. 1b.
Good tobacco
For good Cyder in fall of the year in spring and summer
3s. 4d. bbl.
6s.
For a Tavern keeper pr. mug for Cyder
2}d.
For a meal of Vitials of the best quality
IS. pr. meal.
For their common Vitials
8d. “
For a mug of flip, made of W. I. Rum
Iod.
For New England flip
8d.
For boarding a man pr. week 4s. 4d. For boarding a woman 2s. 8d.
For spinning 4 skein yarn, 14 knots in a skein 4d. pr. sk.
For spinning good woolen warp, 7 knots in a skein 2}d. pr. sk.
For weaving 4 skein yarn, yd. wide 34d. pr. yd.
Good yard wide tow cloth
25. 3d. pr. yd.
It is evidence that this attempt to regulate prices did not altogether succeed that in the following June a com- mittee was appointed "to prevent monopolizing and op- pression, according to an act of this State; Amasa May- nard to be the person for this town to obtain evidence against any person who is inimical to this State, or any of the United States of America, and lay the same before the Court of the State in order to try the same."
But the inevitable tendency of things could not thus be stayed; and three years later, such was the depreciation of the currency that corn was worth about fifty dollars a bushel, and beef four dollars a pound. What this meant to the people, burdened already beyond endurance, we
169
IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
at this day cannot realize. That amid it all they did not surrender their liberties, stamps them as men who were worthy to win great things for posterity.
Meantime the enlistments were taking the able-bodied men away from the town, until it must have seemed a lonely place. In August, 1776, six men went to Dorches- ter, and six more to Canada with Lieut. Thomas Bond. In September nineteen more went to Horseneck with Capt. Seth Morse, the town having drafted every fifth man, with a bounty of £2, in order to secure the quota. In November seventeen went to New Jersey with Lieut. James Bowman for three months, where General Wash- ington was in retreat before Howe. In 1777 Lieut. Nathan Townsend, with seven men, went to Providence; and in August of the same year Capt. Edmund Brigham took eighteen to the Northern Army. Already, on the 17th of July, seventeen had gone with Lieut. Levi Warren to Bennington, where, in August, Burgoyne was defeated by General Stark; and sixteen others went on a sudden sum- mons with Lieutenant Grout, in September, to share in the victory of General Gates, when Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga.
And so it went on for six years. The bounty-list is a very suggestive document, and summarizes the work of the whole period. It is here subjoined.
A Memorandum of what the town gave each man in the present War, since the Nineteenth of April, 1775.
1775. 32 men that went to Cambridge and Dor- chester, with Capt. Moses Wheelock, s. d. eight months, £4 each man . I28 0 0 Dec. 17 men that went to Dorchester with Capt. Seth Morse, for two months, f1 each. . 17 0 0
170
EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
1776. Jan. 20. 18 men that went to Dorchester with Lieut. James Godfrey, for two months, {1 each 7 men hired by the town for one year, to go into the Continental service in Col. Ward's regiment, £4 each 28
& s. d. 18 0 0
June 24. 22 men that went to New York with Lieut. James Godfrey, at £9 each
Aug. 19. 6 men to Dorchester as guards, £3 each 6 men that went to Canada with Lt. Thomas Bond, at £10 each
60 0 o
Sept. 10. 19 men that went to Horse-neck with Capt. Seth Morse, at £4 each
76
Nov. 19. 19 men that went to the Jerseys with Lieut. James Bowman, for three months, at £5 8 each man .
102
[July 26, 1776. Voted to pay those men that went to Dorchester £3 each man ; 4 men] .
12 0 0
1777.
April 12. 7 men that went with Lt. Nathan Townsend to Providence, £4 16 each man .
33 12 0
July 27. 17 men that went with Lt. Levi Warren to Bennington, £6 9 each . 109 13 0 27 men on alarm to Hadley, £1 16 each . 48 14 0
August. 18 men that went with Capt. Edmund Brig- ham to the northward, £9 each .
162 0 0
.
Sept. 16.
66 6 men that ware raised for eight months to fill up the Continental army, {22 each man 4 men that went to Rode Island, £12 each 16 men that went on Alarm, when Burgine was taken, with Lt. Grout, £3 per man .
I32 0 0
48 0
48 0 0
24 O o Dec. 22. 4 men that went to Rhode Island
1778. Feb. 7. April 20.
Io men that went to Roxbury, £7 each 6 men for nine months, to fill up the Conti- nental Army, £140 each 840 O
70 0 0
66 7 men for eight months, to reinforce the Continental Army, £90 630 0 0
June 12.
8 men for six months, to reinforce the Con- tinental Army, £155 each . I240 0 0
0
198 0 0 18 o
I71
IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
June 18. 15 men that went to Rhode Island by order of Council, £18 each man .
€ 270 O 0
" 23. 4 men that went to Rutland, to guard the Convention troops, {80 each man .
320
July 24. 4 men that went to Rhode Island, £60 each man 0 0 240
" 27. 13 men that went to Rhode Island, to rein- force Gen. Sullivan, £70 each man . . 910 o 0
Sept. 6. 17.
8 men to serve in and about Boston, £90 each man
720 0 o
I779. Jan. 9 men to serve in and about Boston, £60 each man .
Feb. 26.
4 men to go to Rhode Island, {90 each man,
360 0
0
2 men to Rutland, £80 each .
160 0 0
" 8. 5 men to Reinforce the Continental men for nine months, {600 each 3000 o O
Sept. 17. 3 men to man the works in and about Boston, £ 50 each man
150
Oct. 9. Io men to Reinforce the Continental Army, for three months, {150 each 1500 o 0 1780.
Jan. 22. 14 men to Reinforce the Continental Army, £1270 each man 17780 O
The bounties, which began with £4 per man, and reached at last the astounding figure of £1,270, illustrate in the most striking way the depreciation of the currency as the struggle drew toward its close. The difference is not so much in the amount granted as in the value of the money in which it was paid.
The following table shows the amount granted each year, and the number of enlistments. Of course many of these were re-enlistments, and it is not certain that the men all belonged in Westborough; but that a little town of less than one thousand inhabitants should enlist three hundred and eighty-one men in six years shows how the
d.
6 men to Rhode Island, at £75 each . 450 o 0
540 o o
June 8. " 16. 4 men to guard at Rutland, {120 each man, 480 o
172
EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
necessities of the war drained the population, and how desperately the men of that day fought their struggle.
In 1775 bounties were paid to
49 men. Whole amount 145 0
1776
IOI
512 2
1777
1778
66
66
81
5,690
0
1779
66
37
66
6,190
0
1780
66
14
66
66
17,780
0
Whole number . . · 381 Amount . £30,923 o
To this really noble record we must add, in our mental estimate, the thousand things that are only hinted at in any public documents : the prompt and brave responses of the " Home Guard," - fathers and mothers and sisters, who bore poverty and bereavement, and wrought patrioti- cally with fingers and spinning-wheels and looms to keep the army clothed and fed. Calls for supplies were inces- sant. Blankets, coats, stockings, shoes, were continually sent in answer to calls. Before the close of the war the suffering from lack of supplies became greater than from the enemy's bullets. There are two scraps of paper in the town archives that one does not read without a quick- ening of the pulse : they are only receipts for blankets, signed by Samuel Danforth and Henry Marble; but they were signed in the camp at Valley Forge, in that terrible winter whose record of suffering is among the most trying episodes of the long war.
This last-named soldier was one of those who " enlisted for the war or for life," and saw with his own eyes the principal events in the eight years' struggle. Thirty-five years later he put on record the simple outline of his share in the scenes which at that time only the old men remembered, as follows: -
-
S.
99
66
605 19
173
IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
Statement of the Services of Henry Marble, late a lieutenant in the Continental Army, commanded by the illustrious George Washington, Esq.
On the 19th day of April, 1775, I marched from the town of Westborough, state of Massachusetts, 34 miles from Boston, on the first alarm of war, and arrived near Boston the same day, by the way of Lexington, where the first blood was shed. I enlisted soon for eight months into a regiment commanded by Jona. Ward, Esq. On the 17th of June I was in the battle of Bunker Hill.
1776. I was two months with the army on the heights at Dorchester, south of Boston, and saw the British evacuate the town, blow up the castle, etc. I then enlisted soon after, as corporal, into a regiment commanded by a Colonel Smith, and marched to New York. I was on the city guards the day that the enemy took the place, and underwent all the fatigues of that campaign ; was in the battle of White Plains.
1777. I enlisted for three years in the 15th Mass. Regiment, Ist company, as sargeant ; joined the northern army ; was pre- sent at the taking of Burgoyne, and the battles that preceded it ; then marched to the south, and joined the army in Pennsyl- vania, cantoned at Valley Forge.
1778. In June marched in pursuit of the enemy, who had left Philadelphia ; on the 28th overtook them at Monmouth ; had a severe action. In the month of July the Brigade to which I belonged, commanded by Gen. Glover, was ordered to Rhode Island, to join the army under command of Gen. Sullivan. Was in all the hazard and fatigue of a seige against the town of Newport ; but failing in the expedition, made a safe retreat, and took winter quarters in the town of Providence. . In the month of November I was promoted to the rank of ensign.
1779. On the 28th of June I was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. On the 11th of July was marched to New York, and joined the army on the banks of the Hudson, cantoned near Fishkill.
1780. The number of regiments was reduced to that of ten in the Massachusetts line ; and I was incorporated into the 5th Regiment, commanded by Rufus Putnam ; soon after which I
174
EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
was appointed adjutant of said regiment, and so continued to the close of the war in 1783.
The foregoing is a true statement of facts according to the best of my knowledge.
(Signed)
HENRY MARBLE,
Late a Lieutenant and Adjutant in the Revolutionary Army of the United States of America.
Dated at Montgomery this first day of March, 1818, and forty-third of the Independence of the United States.
Meantime the town kept its interest awake and active in regard to the political progress of the States. The Decla- ration of Independence was received, and recorded in the town records Sept. 16, 1776. The action of the Conti- nental Congress was fully accepted by the people of the town, and held as binding upon them in all subsequent action. The effort to devise a Constitution for Massa- chusetts was scanned with jealous earnestness, lest it should not fully secure the rights of the towns. In De- cember, 1776, the town refused to consent to the fram- ing of a Constitution of Government by the Council and House of Representatives then sitting, according to the Resolve of the General Assembly of September 17th; and in order to enforce their unwillingness, they refused to send another representative to the General Assembly. Again, in the May following they voted " not to give our consent that our Representative should have any hand in forming a Constitution of Government till there can be an alteration in the present form of representation." In March, 1778, a committee was appointed to peruse the Constitution devised by the General Court, which had proceeded to the task in spite of the town's vigorous protest. There is no report of the committee recorded ; but in May it came before the town, and received one affirmative vote against sixty-five in the negative.
175
IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
The next year the representative was instructed to vote for a State convention, to form a new Constitution. When in the next autumn such a convention was to meet at Concord, Capt. Nathan Fisher was appointed delegate, with the following instructions : -
" I. The people must have power to instruct their representative.
" 2. There must be a prefatory bill of rights.
"3. No one branch of the legislature must have the power of negative over the other.
"4. A printed copy of the constitution agreed upon must be immediately sent to the towns, that they may vote on it.
"5. The convention is then to adjourn, in order to hear from the towns.
"6. The constitution to be adopted by a two-thirds majority of the voters of the towns."
So, vigilant for their rights, and ready to defend them, whether in council or on the battle-field, our fathers carried the town through the great crisis in a manner of which there is no occasion to be ashamed. Westborough's his- tory in the Revolution is a good one; if not specially conspicuous, yet indicative of the sturdy independence and heroic sacrifice which helped to make the newly born nation a success. -
CHAPTER XIII.
1775-1782.
CONTEMPORARY MATTERS OF LOCAL INTEREST. - DIS- CUSSION OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT. - DEATH OF MR. PARKMAN.
DI URING the eventful years of the Revolution, while public affairs absorbed the attention and called the sturdiest actors to other scenes, there were also some oe- currences of no small local interest in town and church.
The temper of mind which made men unwilling to brook despotic authority in the State, produced natu- rally a like independence in matters ecclesiastical. In- deed, since the movement began with a struggle for religious liberty, it would not be strange if the people were especially sensitive in regard to their rights in the church. Puritanism had broken away from bishop and prelate; it had set up the Scriptures as the only rule of faith and practice ; but it had not yet established the doctrine -though it was even then in its birth-throes - of the supreme authority, within its own domain, of the local body of believers. There were remains of priestly power still lingering in practice; the minister was a po- tentate of no small significance; his will was usually law, and all opposition had to stand the fire of his unsparing condemnation. Above all the rest of his prerogatives stood that of the veto, -the right absolutely to reject a decision of the church if it did not suit his views. In
177
DISCUSSION OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT.
1774 the Ministerial Association of this vicinity had made a deliverance on this point, -which had come to be a rather sensitive one, - asserting the right of the veto, and designating a certain book as the standard of eccle- siastical law. There were those in the Westborough church who did not relish the assumptions of this paper, and eleven of the brethren had signed a protest against it. This protest was brought before the church at a meeting held the first day of January, 1775, and the ven- erable pastor, now seventy-one years old, and more than fifty years in this pastorate, made an address on the sub- ject. He urged "ye Unseasonableness of Disputes of this Nature at so distressing a time of public calamity; the Impropriety and Danger of arraigning such a Body of eminent and learned men as the Venerable Convention, and condemning them who were verily ye Defenders of ye Congregational Plan, and therefore not desiring to have Solemn Testimony borne against them." After some debate, this meeting adjourned for two weeks.
At the adjourned meeting the matter was again taken up. The pastor and some others desired to have the matter dropped, but the original movers were persistent. It was then proposed to reach the heart of the matter under discussion by passing resolutions on the subject without reference to the Association ; but that was not satisfactory, and the meeting adjourned. On the fourth of April the matter came up again, and two papers were presented ; but being roughly drawn up, they failed to secure action, and another adjournment was made for three weeks. This meeting was broken up by an alarm to march against the " regulars; " but another was notified a month later, - May 23.
At that time a paper was presented, signed by fifteen
178
EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
members, of whom nine were of the original eleven memorialists, which contained the following articles:
"I. To see if it is the mind of this church that the Book called 'Observations upon the Congregational Plan of Church Government' be such in their opinion as they are willing to receive as a Rule to be governed by, when we do not know that this church or any other church had any hand in composing the same."
In regard to this article, Mr. Parkman records, - " Among the brethren it passed in the negative, the pas- tor observing that he did not conceive it was expected so high a regard should be paid to it as to make it a Rule or Standard, - what was of Divine inspiration being our only rule in that sense; nor is it imposed, but ye contrary."
"2. To see if it is agreeable to the minds of the brethren of this church to break communion with any other church before admonition be given."
To this a negative vote was given ; the pastor, how- ever, again differing from his church to this extent : that "when there is, with persons or with a church, matter of scandal, division, etc., and the cause is depend- ing, it is unfit that either party should offer themselves to the communion of other churches."
"3. To see if it is ye opinion of this church that a pastor of a Congregational church has a legal right and authority to negative and make void the votes which such a church shall see cause to pass."
This also was decided in the negative; and this was really the point about which feeling centred. It was the point on which there had come to be a serious dif- ference of opinion between the old-fashioned pastor and
179
DISCUSSION OF CHURCH GOVERNMENT.
his flock. Mr. Parkman replied to this last vote at con- siderable length, quoting synods and Fathers and author- ities numberless in defence of his privilege of veto, and concluding with a notable use of the privilege itself, in face of the vote of the church, as follows (I quote from his own record) : - .
" The Pastor, therefore, professing himself Congregational, & this Church having been settled upon that plan, & hitherto con- tinued [now fifty years] a Congregational Church, agreeable to ye Sacred Scriptures, the Church Covenant, the Platform afore- said for ye substance of it, the other writings of ye worthy Fathers who compiled it, with those also who have writ since in Defense of it, and ye general Practice in these Churches, did not Consent to the vote, but insisted that, in Conformity to our B. Lord & Savrs Mind & Direction, there must be in Church acts an agreement, that is, of both the Elders and the Fraternity. For this he says Expressly in Mat. 18: 'Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth,' etc., and then immediately follow the words in ye 19th Ch., 'if you shall agree on earth,' etc. Hence renowned Expositors say, 'Quod litigat, non ligat.'"
Nothing could be simpler than this solution of the difficulty, - there must be an agreement. The church did not wish to side with the pastor, but the pastor would not agree with the church; therefore the church must yield, - and it did, seeing there was no help for it. There was a hasty adjournment at the close of the pastor's address, and there is no further record on the subject; but the pastor never yielded his right of veto. The church, out of veneration for their old pastor, kept silence during the remainder of his life, but took care to have an understanding on the subject with future candi- dates before installation.
It is a singular circumstance that in the midst of the sore burdens and distresses of the war, when taxes were
180
. EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
enormous, and calls for supplies incessant, the first mis- sionary collection ever recorded from the church was raised. On the 22d of September, 1776, two men of mark appeared in the pulpit of the Westborough church, - the Rev. Ezra Stiles, D.D., two years later to be elected president of Yale College, and then pastor at Newport ; and the Rev. Samuel Hopkins, soon to be famous as the author of a new doctrinal system, and destined to be more popularly known as the hero of Mrs. Stowe's " Min- ister's Wooing." These men were making something of a stir in their opposition to slavery and their sympathy for the negro. Hopkins was afterward the means of se- curing emancipation in Rhode Island. At this time they were making a tour of the churches in the interest of an African mission. Newport, where their pastorates lay, was in the hands of the British, and for the time they were forced to retire. Hopkins was greatly interested in a scheme, which he had originated, to send some of the negroes, who had been brought here as slaves, back to Africa, to begin a work of civilization and evangelization there. So it happened that on this Sunday the two preachers came together to Westborough. The cause was a new one, -it savored of romance as well as of piety; and so, in spite of the pressure of the time, there was a goodly response to their appeal. Mr. Parkman thus chronicles their visit: -
" A contribution was made in compliance with an address of Rev. Dr. Stiles and Mr. Hopkins, of Newport, for ye Support and Encouragement of Missionarys to Annamabo in Africa. It amounted to £4. 7. 10, & by Additions afterward to £4. 12, lawful money : which may God graciously accept through Jesus Christ !"
It is less agreeable to note that the town did not sup- ply the needs of its own venerable pastor at this time
181
MR. PARKMAN'S APPEAL.
with equal alacrity. He was now seventy-three years old, and his salary, always meagre, was rendered quite inad- equate by the depreciation of the currency. In Decem- ber, 1776, he was obliged to make an appeal to the town to furnish his firewood. This had been a matter of dis- pute, more or less, during his ministry. It might not seem a large item to us, but we have to remember that the family of this pioneer minister was numerous. Six- teen children had been born into it in all, of whom thir- teen were living, - not all in the old home, of course, for some of them had homes of their own, and at least two of his sons were in the army. Yet the old house was far from empty. Moreover, the fireplace of those days was no dainty modern grate, and its demands were not to be despised. The annual allowance of wood for Mr. Parkman, when the town furnished it, was ordina- rily thirty-five cords, and one year forty cords; and the estimated cost of it as the value of money decreased, was, in 1777, £42; in 1778, £69; and in 1780, £450. This latter year his salary besides was £4000, - which did not equal in purchasing power the £80 of his origi- nal settlement; for corn was $50 a bushel, and rye $70; beef $400 a cwt., and sole-leather $22 a pound. So the petition for his firewood has some reason in it, and it is a touching revelation of the man and the time. It reads as follows : -
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