USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Woburn > The history of Woburn, Middlesex County, Mass. from the grant of its territory to Charlestown, in 1640, to the year 1680 > Part 20
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In 1699, the year in which peace with the Indians was con-
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cluded, and in the four preceding years, and again in 1701, and the four following years, Major Convers was sent a member for Woburn to the General Court; and in three of those years, viz, 1699, 1702, 1703, he was chosen Speaker of the House. In 1 706, he was again returned to the lower branch of the Legis- lature ; but did not live to finish the term for which he had been elected. Being seized, apparently, with some sudden, violent sickness, death put an end at once to his usefulness and his life, July 8, 1706, in the 61st year of his age.
Major Convers married, January 1, 1668-9, Hannah, a daughter of Capt. John Carter. By her, he had nine children, six sons and three daughters. Four of these died in infancy or childhood, or in youth unmarried. Two of his sons, Robert and Josiah, the second son of the name, were men of influence and distinction in their day, and descendants of Josiah, of the third and fourth generations from his son Josiah, Jr., still live in Woburn, and maintain a highly respectable position and char- acter in society.
While this distinguished citizen of Woburn was Town Clerk, he performed one piece of service, for which the town doth now, and ever will, owe him a grateful remembrance. After his acces- sion to that office, observing that his predecessors had recorded the Births, Marriages and Deaths in Woburn upon sundry loose papers, which were then in a shattered and perishing condition, he procured a blank folio volume, well bound, at his own expense, and transcribed those Records into it, adding, in his own records of births, the names of both the parents, instead of the father only, as had previously been the custom. By this, his laudable care, and by the subsequent purchase of the new volume by the town, at the recommendation of his successor in the Clerk's office, Lieutenant Fowle, the valuable records of almost fifty years on the above mentioned topics, were preserved for posterity in a fair hand, and in a durable form, which otherwise had long since perished, or been scattered and lost.24
24 The original letters of Major Convers to Governor Joseph Dudley having been put into my hands by J. Wingate Thornton, Esq., of Boston, I have thought it might be gratifying to many of the citizens of Woburn to have copies of them presented in the Appendix; which see, No. VII.
CHAPTER VI.
Seating the Meeting-House. - Location of the Two Thousand Acres. - Province Loan Money. - Woburn's Share of Lovewell's Fight, 1725.
IT was observed in a former Chapter of this history, that scat- ing the meeting-house, from time to time, became not unfre- quently an occasion of disorder and contention. A memorable instance of this occurred in 1710. The work of repairing and enlarging the house of publie worship the year before having been completed, it became necessary to seat it anew. Accord- ingly, at a general meeting, December 9, 1709, John Brooks, Sergeant Eleazar Flegg, Sergeant John Tidd, Sergeant George Reed, and James Fowle were chosen a committee for this pur- pose. But so irksome was this office accounted, and at the same time so thankless and invidious, that two of the persons nominated for it on this occasion, Messrs. Tidd and Fowle, immediately declined. To supply their places, Messrs. Peirson Richardson and Ensign Samuel Blogget, were then elected. But Mr. Blogget, signifying at once his unwillingness to serve, a vacancy was again made in the committee. This vacancy, the town did not attempt to fill; and the remaining four members went on to perform the work of their appointment. But in the discharge of their office, they were far from giving general satis- faction. At the time of their election, the town had instructed them to have respect, in their official labors, to three things; viz, to age, to what men had done towards building the meet- ing-house at the first, and towards its recent repairs and enlarge- ment ; and finally, to their proportion in the public charges.
But, in seating the people, the committee seem to have paid more regard to the last two of these qualifications than to the first ; and to have preferred to the front seats in the temple the wealthy and liberal, though young, before the aged members of the church and community that were poor, and so of necessity
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but slender contributors towards the cost of the late work upon the house of God. This manner of proceeding laid the founda- tion of much murmuring and discontent. At a meeting of the Selectmen, February 6, 1709-10, a petition was handed in to them, signed by about fifty-seven inhabitants, alleging that what the Seating Committee had done, in the fulfilment of their trust, was illegal, and greatly prejudicial to the peace of the town ; and praying that the town might be called together for the choice of another Committee, who should perform the work anew. Two of the Selectmen were opposed to granting this petition, apprehensive of the difficulties which might ensue. But the other three were so far convinced of the necessity of the meeting petitioned for, that they gave orders for warning one to be held March 6th, the day for the annual choice of town officers, at 8 o'clock in the morning. By fixing upon this early hour for the meeting requested, the Selectmen who called it, doubtless intended to have the petition acted upon under their own supervision and authority, before a new choice of Selectmen was made. Accordingly, the day being come, and the town assembled at the hour specified, as soon as the meeting was opened, and a Moderator chosen, those three Selectmen, at the motion of many of the people, ordered the Moderator, Ensign John Peirce, to call for votes for the choice of a new Seating Committee. But this, he utterly refused to do; and the Select- men, in consequence, commanded the Town Clerk to record his refusal. A motion was then made and carried, that the Town Clerk should record the reason which the Moderator had rendered for his refusal to make the choice of the Committee petitioned for, the first thing to be done on that occasion; viz : that he thought it most proper, that the choice of town officers, which was the regular business of the day, should be first attended ; and then, if there were time left, the petition might be acted upon by the town, if they saw fit.
The consequence of this altercation was, that no seating com- mittee was chosen at this time, and the people were obliged to acquiesce for the present in the arrangements of the committee appointed at the former meeting. Still, the dissatisfaction with
16*
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those arrangements did not cease. At a meeting of the Select- men May 7, 1711, a petition was presented them from several of the inhabitants, declaring themselves " much aggrieved at the disorderly seating of many persons, in the House of God, the aintient behind the backs of the youth, which they apprehended not to be according to the Law of God, which requireth the youth to rise up before the hoary head, and to honour the person of the old man : " and, therefore, the petitioners moved the Selectmen to call the town together, " to regulate such disorders, that so peace and order may be in the house of God."1 In compliance with this request, the Seleetmen directed the Constables, in warning a town meeting, May 18th, for the choice of a Representative, to give notice also, that at the same meeting some proper method would be considered for the redress of the irregularites com- plained of. At the meeting thus notified, the petition referred to was read, and some debate arising respecting it and the dis- orders alleged therein, it was moved by some, as a good expe- dient for remedying them, that the town declare the last seating of the meeting-house void. This question was put, and the majority voting in the affirmative, the last seating was annulled, and no provision being made at the same time for a new seating, it is presumed that the people, upon some acknowledged princi- ples of propriety, seated themselves, and probably to better mutual satisfaction, than any committee, in the existing state of feeling, could have done it for them.
In view of this and similar contentions among our ancestors on this subject, we have cause of congratulation that houses of pub- lic worship at the present day are constructed, and seats assigned in them, on a plan which supersedes the need of a seating com- mittee. It is readily granted, that respect is always and every- where due to age, especially in the house of God, and were the floors of our meeting-houses now occupied with long seats, as of old, it might be justly regarded as a gross impropriety, and one that ought to be rectified, if aged and respectable, yet poor mem- bers of the church were seated behind the young, who had
1 Town Records, Vol. V., p. 185,
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nothing but wealth and a large share in the public taxes to recommend them. But then, while the old custom prevailed, there would unavoidably arise cases, almost innumerable, of per- sons, whose respective claims to precedence it would be next to impossible to adjust with exactness. And the grievance spring- ing from a supposed erroneous decision in such instances would, doubtless, be greatly increased by the prevailing sensitiveness in former days upon the subject of rank in society. The first settlers of New England were men to be ever deeply venerated for their piety, and their many sterling virtues. But they brought over with them high notions of family rank, and station. Such distinctions, the institutions and customs of the mother country had created and cherished; and under the influence of education and habit, our earliest ancestors here attached an inordinate importance to them themselves, and were jealous of any neglect of them by others. And while their descendants of the first and second generations had much degenerated, it is to be feared, from their praiseworthy qualities, they retained with little or no diminution their sentiments with regard to rank and condition in society. Many illustrations of this state of feeling, at the commencement of the last century, might be given were it necessary. But there is an anecdote showing its existence in Woburn and its vicinity at that period, which may not be amiss to relate. A tradition of unquestionable correctness states, that a certain lady, a daughter of a prominent family in this town, who was married and lived in Billerica, observing one of her sons connecting himself in marriage with a young woman whom she deemed to be of a family far inferior to her own, felt sufficiently chagrined at the circumstance, but thought best, for that time, to keep her feelings to herself. But, hearing after- wards, that another of her boys was following, in this respect, his brother's steps, she could forbear no longer, but vented her mortification with exclaiming, " One slice of the brown loaf to a family is surely enough."
In 1664, it will be recollected, the General Court made a grant to this town of two thousand acres of land, to be taken up wherever they could find it in this then wilderness, clear of any
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prior claim.2 Votes had been passed by the town at different times in relation to this grant; but fifty years were suffered to pass, before anything effectual was done towards its location. But, in 1714, the town took up this business in earnest. At a general meeting, May 11th, of that year, a committee was appointed to look out a place for the location of the 2000 acres formerly granted to the town. But that committee neglecting to fulfil their appointment, (possibly from an appre- hension that in consequence of the long delay there had been on the part of Woburn, to lay down the land, some new author- ity from the Court had become necessary or expedient,) a com- mittee of two, viz : Ensign John Peirce and Sergeant John Tidd, was chosen November 14, 1716, "to prefer a petition to the General Court, for the renewal of their grant."3 Accordingly, a petition was addressed by these gentlemen to the Court, which was favorably accepted. The grant was renewed, and at the annual town meeting, March 4, 1716-17, Messrs. Ebenezer Johnson and Eleazar Flegg were chosen a committee to look out a place where they might take it up.4 These gentlemen pro- ceeded forthwith to the discharge of their commission. For the location of the tract of land in question, they pitched upon a place, called Turkey Hill, near Lancaster, west of Groton, and within the bounds of what was afterwards incorporated as the town of Lunenburg. Here, with the assistance of others whom they took with them from Woburn, and of a committee from Lancaster, they ran its lines, and established boundaries, which from time to time were subsequently renewed.5
Before the location and bounds of this grant were determined, it had been contemplated to sell it, and to let the money upon interest for the benefit of the town; and a committee had been appointed to carry this scheme into effect. But at a meeting, May 15, 1724, the proprietors voted that the land should remain for the present in the hands it was then in. They also forbade any one interested therein, and all others, to cut or carry
' Town Records, Vol. I., pp. 20, 30.
' Town Recorde, Vol. V., p. 357.
' Town Records, Vol. V., p. 333.
¿ Town Records, Vol. VI., p. 20.
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off from it either wood or timber; and chose Ensign Josiah Convers and John Russell as a committee to take it into their care, and to prosecute any who might trespass upon it.6 In this condition, it continued about ten years. How it was ultimately disposed of, will appear in a subsequent chapter.
In 1721, March 31st, to remedy the scarcity of money then much complained of, and to facilitate the payment of taxes, the Legislature of Massachusetts, issued what was called, the £50,000 Loan. By this, was intended that amount in Bills of Credit, which were distributed among the several towns, accord- ing to the taxes they paid, and to be returned into the Province Treasury, within a limited time. 7 At a general meeting in Woburn, October 12, 1721, it was voted, that they would take their proportion of " the fifty-thousand pound " out of the public treasury, and would commit it to three trustees, to manage it as the town should direct, and to receive one-sixth part of the interest for their trouble. The persons chosen for this trust were, Major Eleazar Flegg, Mr. John Brooks and Capt. John Fowle; who were instructed by the town to let the money, in sums not less than ten pounds, nor greater than twenty pounds, to any one man; to let it at an interest of five per cent per annum, to be for the town's use; to keep it in their hands till the last of the following May; and that, if by that time, inhab- itants of Woburn did not appear to take up the whole upon good security, to let it to any person in the County, who should offer landed or other security satisfactory to the trustees. 8 Woburn's share in this public loan was £624: and much to the praise of the trustees, it was managed by them on the town's behalf with entire fidelity. In volume VII., p. 2, of the Town Books are recorded five distinct receipts, acknowledg- ing their payment of the principal into the Province Treasury, in five equal instalments of £124:16s. each; the first being dated July 29, 1726, and the last, July 29, 1730. And there is also upon record, in the same volume, page 1st, a long particular account of their disposal of the interest of this sum,
8 Town Records, Vol. VI., p. 196.
7 Felt's Massachusetts Currency, p. 77. 8 Town Records, Vol. VI., pp. 130, 131.
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agrecably to vote of the town, for the payment of pauper bills, county tax, representatives, school-masters and hire of preach- ing, during the frequent indisposition of Rev. Mr. Fox. Never, apparently, was a public trust more faithfully discharged than this; never was there a happier illustration of following the Apostle's example iu a like case, of "providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men."
But the town was not so fortunate in its investment, a few years afterwards, of its share in the £60,000 loan so called. The act of the Legislature granting this loan was passed early in the year 1728, and was styled " An act for raising and settling a public revenue for and towards defraying the necessary charges of the government, by an emission of £60,000 in bills of credit." " This was done to bring it within the words of the [king's] instruction, which restrained the governor from consent- ing to the issuing bills of credit, except for charges of govern- ment. The interest of 4 per cent, or £2400, was to be applied annually to the public charges, and gave colour for issuing the principal sum of £60,000."9 This loan, like the preceding one, was distributed among the several towns in the Province, accord- ing to their proportion in the public taxes. The sum to which Woburn was entitled is not upon the Records of the town, but could not have been far from £750. At a general meeting in Woburn, April 4, 1728, it was voted "that the town would take their proportion of the Sixty thousand pound, provided the trustees would be bound to indemnific the Town."
At the same time, three trustees, viz, Samuel Richardson, Caleb Blogget, and John Fowle, were chosen to receive the town's part of this loan, and to let it out; and the Selectmen were appointed a committee to take security of them against loss by their means. It was also voted, that the trustees should not let more than £20, nor less than .£10, to any one person ; and should be allowed a sixth part of the interest for their compen- sation.10 No mention is made in the Record of the rate of
9 Felt's Historical Account of Massachusetts Currency, p. SI.
10 Town Records, Vol. VI., p. 347.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
interest to be demanded. But as four per cent of it was to be paid annually into the Province Treasury, and a sixth part of it was to go to the trustees, it appears evident that the money was to be let at the rate of six per cent interest, and that the remain- ing sixth part was to go towards defraying town charges.9 No account is to be found in the Records of the manner in which either the principal or interest of Woburn's share of this loan was at any time disposed of; and six years passed away, from the time the town voted to accept it, before any inquiry was instituted as to the manner in which it was managed. At a gen- eral meeting, May 16, 1734, a committee of three was chosen to reckon with the trustees " about the lone money of the first and second Banck," 11 and to give an account of their doings at the next annual meeting in March.11 But no Report of this committee is upon record ; and four years more rolled on before the town awaked to a proper sense of its responsibility on this subject, and to a suitable care for its own security. At a meet- ing of the frecholders and other inhabitants, November 20, 1738, they chose a committee of three, viz., Messrs. William Tay, Benjamin Johnson, and Samuel Eames, whom they fully author- ized " to reckon, receive, and recover in the Law, for the town's use, all such sum or sums of Province Bills as are due from Capt. John Fowle, Mr Samuel Richardson and Capt. Caleb Blogget, as trustees for the town for the £60,000 loan . . . . and also to see that the trustees pay the full parte of said money, that is due to the Province Treasurer, into the Treasury ; and also to see that the town have the parte that is due to said town": and to make return of their proceedings at the next general town meeting after the May meeting ensuing.12
But before the meeting here designated (which was not held till December 28, 1739,) arrived, Woburn's proportion of the above named loan, or a part of it, was called for into the public treasury ; and the sum demanded not being forthcoming from the trustees, the town was obliged to provide for the deficiency. A " Loan Tax," so called, of £250 7s. 6d. (which was probably
11 Town Records, Vol. VII., p. 113.
12 Town Records, Vol. VII., p. 286.
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about one third part of the whole sum received by the trustees) was assessed upon the inhabitants, February 13, 1739, to be collected and paid by the Constables " unto the Province Treasurer, according to the direction of his Warrant." 13 This sum now became due from the trustees to Woburn, instead of the Treasurer of the Province; and the town seemed deter- mined to recover it, if possible, together with the proportion of the interest of the loan to which it was entitled, but which appears to have been still unpaid. At a meeting, December 28, 1739, it granted anew to the Committee appointed Novem- ber 20, 1738, full power and authority to demand, and " to recover in the Law all such sum or sums of this Province's Bills of Creditt as are due to the Inhabitants of Woobourn from Mr Samuel Richardson, Capt. John Fowle and Capt. Caleb Bloggett, as they are Trustees for said Town for their part of the Sixty Thousand Pound Loan; and the same to pursue to final judgment and execution." 14 At a subsequent meeting, May 4, 1741, two members of this committee, viz : Lieut. Samuel Eames and Mr William Tay, were re-appointed "to demand and receive the interest of the Loan Bills of Creditt, due to the town from Capt. Caleb Bloggett and Mr Samuel Richardson; and to prosecute that affair in the Law to final judgment, if need be." 15
And finally, at a meeting, May 7, 1742, in acting upon an article in the Warrant, to "consider whether the Town will remitt all or any part of the interest due from the Committee [Trustees] about the .£60.000 Loan on a bond of forty two pounds ?" it was decided in the negative.15 This was taking a firm stand, on the part of the town. But what was the effect of these votes and resolutions, what was actually done by the Committee so amply empowered by them, and what was the result of the measures which the Committee adopted, the Records nowhere show. These, on all the points just named, maintain every where a studied silence. Considering, however, the respectable standing which the Trustees had hitherto occupied in society, the integrity which one of them had manifested as a trustee for
13 Town Records, Vol. VII., pp. 323-330.
14 Town Records, Vol. VII., p. 316. 15 Town Records, Vol. VII., pp. 363, 399.
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the management of the town's part of the preceding loan, the security which they were severally required to give the Selectmen to indemnify the town at their appointment to office, and the apparent omission of the Committee to use their power to commence a suit against them to recover what they owed to the town, it seems more probable than otherwise, that they grad- ually recovered from the embarrassments, under which they may have labored for a time, and eventually satisfied all the demands of the town against them, as trustees in the affair of the £60,000 loan.
It is lamentable to witness, or to have occasion to relate instances, even of temporary delinquency, in persons intrusted with public money. Such, of all men, are concerned to be faith- ful to their trust. Generally speaking, a man may do what he will with his own; but he has no right to be careless or lavish of that which is another's, or the property of the community. By unfaithfulness in the latter case, many are injured ; many are aggrieved by his abuse of their confidence, and his own reputation and usefulness inevitably suffer. But in the instance before us, powerful reasons demand a charitable construction upon the conduct of the trustees, and forbearance in the sentence we pass on it. For many years, the General Court of the Province had been making issues in paper money from time to time, without any adequate provision to keep up its nominal value. The consequence was, a growing scarcity of specie, and a constant depreciation of their bills of credit. And yet, as these bills were almost the only currency in the market, the people were generally urgent in their calls for an increase of them, and a majority in the popular branch of the Legislature was always ready to gratify the wishes of their constituents in this respect. But the more bills of credit were multiplied, the more and faster did their value diminish: So that whereas, in 1710, eight shillings in bills were accounted equal in value to an ounce of silver, sixty shillings in bills were reckoned, in 1750, but an equivalent to the same standard value. 16 Hence arose
16 Felt's Historical Account of Massachusetts Currency, pp. 83, 135.
17
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universal embarrassment in the community; and to several descriptions of people, severe and increasing suffering and distress. Avaricious administrators of estates lay under a strong temptation at least to detain the property of widows and orphans in their hands, and to pay it at last in depreciated paper ; ministers and other salaried men were reduced to great straits, by being obliged to receive their salaries in a currency not worth half its original nominal value; and creditors were kept out of their honest dues altogether, or compelled to take up with what was far below their just claims. It is no ground- less presumption therefore to suppose, that the delinquency of the trustees of Woburn in the present instance was owing to the failure of those to whom, with the town's authority, they had lent the town's loan money to fulfil on demand their obligations, rather than to any intention in the trustees to defraud. Nor is it likely that their case was a singular one. Were inquiry made, it would very probably be found, that the trustees for this loan, in a considerable number of our towns, even men of fair and unimpeachable characters, were rendered unable, by the difficulties of the times to meet, at once, their public responsibil- ities, and so, through dire necessity, and to their own grief, became, for a season, the unwilling instruments of trouble and loss to their fellow-citizens, and of disappointing the confidence reposed in them.
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