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 22
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The Legislature of Massachusetts gave prompt and sub- stantial evidence of sympathy for these unfortunate soldiers and their heirs. Soon after the battle, the widow of Capt. Lovewell petitioned, that the Province would allow her for what he paid for the supplies of the men who accompanied him. To this, the
a Compare Town Records, Vol. VI., pp. 67, 78.
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Court agreed ; and gave her assurance, that when they came to reward those who fought in the battle, they would consider her case more particularly. Accordingly, June 17, 1725, they voted to allow Capt. Lovewell and company or heirs, £300, for the scalps of the three Indians killed (doubtless those whose graves were found by Col. Tyng), though the scalps were not produced, as the law required; also, £30 to be paid to or for each of the thirty-three men who had fought in the battle, amounting in all to £990; also, £210 to the heirs of the six men killed, Capt. Lovewell's portion to be £60, the rest £30 apiece. By the six men killed, referred to in the last donation, were unquestion- ably meant the six officers who were killed in the battle, or died quickly after of their wounds, viz : Capt. Lovewell, Lieuts. Robbins and Farwell, Ensign Harwood, Sergt. Fullam, and the Chaplain, Rev. Mr. Fry. They also engaged with regard to the wounded, that the subject of paying their physician's bills, and of granting them pensions out of the public treasury, should be considered the next session.
The result of their deliberations on this question appears to have been in favor of the unfortunate men concerned.22 And
22 " 1726, June 14. A Petition of Josiah Johnson of Woburne, shewing that the wound he received in the late Battle of Pigwackett is now open, and that he has expended since last November £4:14s. in order to get a cure, Praying the compassionate consideration of the Court for such fur- ther allowance in the Premises, as to them in their Wisdom shall be thought meet :
" Read and committed to the Committee for Muster Rolls.
" June 16. Mr Lewis from the Committee for Muster Rolls Reported on the Petition of Josiah Johnson, ns Entred on the 14th, which was Read and Accepted; and Resolved that the sum of Eighteen Pounds Fourteen Shillings be allowed and paid out of the Publick Treasury to the Petitioner Josiah Johnson, in Answer to the said Petition : viz. £4:14s to discharge the Doctor's Bill, the remaining £14 in Consideration of his Pain, and Loss of Time, and Inability for Labour. Sent up for Concurrence." - Votes of Representatives.
In December of the same year, in answer to the Petition of Timothy Richardson, another of the wounded men from Woburn, praying the Court for relief " in consideration of the Wounds he received in the Battle of Pigwnckett against the Indian Enemy ; " n Resolve passed the House (which was sent up, and was doubtless concurred in by the Council) granting ilve pounds to be paid him out of the public treasury. Similar grants
.
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finally, the General Court, in 1728, made a grant of Suncook, now Pembroke, N. H., then conceived to be within the bounds of Massachusetts, to sixty persons, forty-six of whom were the sur- vivors or heirs of those who were engaged in this fight with the Indians. Among the first settlers of this township was Sergt. Noah Johnson, who had been wounded in that engagement. He was a grandson of Maj. William Johnson, being the third son of his eldest son William and of his wife Esther Gardiner; and is remembered in his grandfather's will, dated April 2, 1700. He was born, 1699, at Woburn, or possibly at Charlestown, where his father, William Johnson, Jr., was living and wrought as a shipwright in 1698. At the time of Lovewell's Fight, he was a resident of Dunstable, whence he removed to Pembroke, after becoming entitled to a share in that grant, and there . became a deacon of the church. When advanced in life, he moved his abode once more, to Plymouth, N. H., and there died, August 13, 1798, at the great age of 99 years, 6 months and 11 days, being the last survivor of that little band, who hazarded their lives in the service of their country in the fight at Pigwacket.
Before closing this article, some further notice seems justly due to Ensign Seth Wyman, who had the conduct of Capt. Lovewell's men the greater part of that eventful day. He was a grandson of Licut. John Wyman, a man of wealth and distinction among the first settlers of Woburn, and the eldest son of Mr. Seth Wyman and Esther, daughter of Maj. William Johnson, his wife. He was born, September 13, 1686, probably on a farm in the westerly part of Burlington, given his father by his grandfather Wyman in his Will: and, January 26, 1715, [1715-6 ?] he married Sarah Ross, of Billerica. At Lovewell's Fight, he greatly distinguished himself by his self-possession, fortitude and valor. All his superior officers having been killed or mortally wounded carly in the engagement, he had the com-
were subsequently voted by the House to Josiah Johnson, whose wound appears to have been worse and more difficult to be healed than those of Richardson : the last as late as June 15, 1731. - See Records of General Court.
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mand of our men almost the whole time of its continuance; and, by his prudent management and courageous example, he was doubtless, mainly instrumental, under God, for preserving so many of them as there were from being utterly cut off. Secing them in danger of becoming dispirited in the contest, in view of the greatly superior numbers and other advantages of the enemy, he animated them to action (it was afterwards reported by Eleazar Davis, who was one of them), by assuring them " that the day would yet be their own, if their spirits did not flag"; and so encouraged were they by his exhortations, and so briskly did they fire in consequence, that several discharged their muskets " between twenty and thirty times apiece." Imme- diately upon his return, he was honored by Lieut .- Governor Dummer, then Commander-in-Chief of Massachusetts, with a
Captain's commission. He had also presented him, in testi- mony of the public approbation of his valor, a silver-hilted sword. But he did not live long to enjoy his honors. To encourage volunteers to enlist against the Indian enemy, the General Court offered four shillings wages per day, in addition to the bounty of £100 for every scalp. Upon this, many enlisted, and marched under the command of Capt. Wyman and others. But the extreme heat of the weather, and the prevalence of the dysentery, prevented them from going far, and several of them died upon their return, Capt. Wyman among the rest, who deceased September, 5, 1725, before he had completed his thirty-ninth year. His widow survived him but little more than two years, dying November 5, 1727. Worthy descendants of the third and fourth generations from this worthy man are still living in Woburn and West Cambridge.
CHAPTER VII.
Schools from 1690 till 1775, - Wages : Teachers : Master Fowle : School Houses : Moving System : Schools beside Grammar School: School Books : Contention about Masters, 1725.
IN the second chapter of this Work, notice was taken of the Schools in Woburn during the first half century from its incor- poration. In this chapter, the consideration of this interesting subject will be resumed. It is proposed to give in it a some- what minute and extended account of the condition and progress of the public schools in the town, from 1690 till the beginning of the Revolutionary War, in 1775.
At the commencement of the period above mentioned, in regard to women's schools, the same ten shillings, or rather six and eight penny per annum system, which had previously pre- vailed in the town, still continued. For instance, the Selectmen, say the Records, at a meeting of theirs, March 7, 1691-2, " sent to speak with Mrs. Walker in order to keepe a scoole for lesser children to learn them to read; and agreed with her to performe said servis, the Towne allowing her in pay, the sum of ten shil- lings per the year."1 By pay, is here meant, country produce, as pork, Indian corn, rye, etc., upon which a discount was made in those days of 30 or 333 per cent for money. Mrs. Walker was the widow of Mr. Samuel Walker, the earliest progenitor in Woburn of that well known and highly respected family of the name, which has furnished the town with many valuable citizens, and the country at large with some of its most distinguished individuals. Leading a solitary life, this lady was willing to keep school, both for company and for employment's sake. She had served as a school teacher before, and living apparently in the centre of the town, she doubtless appropriated a room in her own house for a school-room. The good woman fulfilled the
1 Town Records, Vol. III., p. 157.
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above engagement with the Selectmen ; and, two years afterwards, she was credited by Constable Ebenezer Johnson with seven shillings in money on her tax bill for her year's work,2 the rent of her room being reckoned gratis. This must have been cold comfort to a widow's heart. Still, she ventured to try the busi- ness one year more. At a meeting of the Selectmen, May 7, 1694, they agreed, the Records state, "with Mrs. (Mistress) Walker to keep a scoole for the smaller sort of children, to learn them to read, for the year insueing; and the year to begin upon the first of Aprill last past; and she to have ten shillings in pay allowed her by the town for the same."3 Accordingly, Mrs. Walker went on and completed this engagement, and at a final settlement between her and the town, the account stands recorded thus :
" The Widow Walker is Creditor :
" for scooling small children in the year 1694 until the first of Aprill 1695, according to agreement with her per the Selectinen, pay, 10s : money " To Widow Walker Dr.
£00:06:8
" her rate to Jams ffoull in money
£00:02:03
and to Ben. Simonds ,
00:03:02
paid by James Simonds, Constable in 96
00:01:03
0:06 :08."3.
From this authentic document, it appears that this worthy woman, having waited for her wages a whole year from the time her work was done, received, after two years' taxes were deducted, the sum of one shilling and threepence in silver for her toil and pain in teaching a twelve-month all the little boys and girls in Woburn that were sent to her, their alphabet, or reading and spelling; reckoning her room for their accommo- dation as rent free. A fact like this can hardly fail to strike a modern reader with surprise. One would have supposed, that the least the town could have done in this case would have been, to set off her taxes for the use of her room in their ser- vice. No thanks to the Selectmen, that she did not starve long before the term of her engagement with them was half expired.
" Town Records, Vol. IV., p. 8.
' Town Records, Vol. IV., pp. 24, 28.
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Notwithstanding the wide difference between the price of the necessaries of life at that day and this, it is plain she must have had other resources for a livelihood than school-teaching. Had she depended solely on this, she must obviously have soon been forced to relinquish it; or else, like the widow of Sarepta, the meal in her barrel, and the oil in her cruse, (to say nothing of her wood) must have been daily replenished by miracle.
Such was the condition of primary schools in Woburn at the close of the 17th century. Nor did grammar schools fare any better. The studies of such schools were then held in low estimation in the town; and but few, if any of its youth, were willing to attend to them. And hence, schools of this descrip- tion were but inconstantly kept; and sometimes only after intervals of several years. From the appointment of Mr. Samuel Carter in 1686, as grammar school-master, and his failure to get scholars to teach, no attempt seems to have been made in Woburn to get up a grammar school again, till four years after. At a meeting of the Selectmen, March 3, 1689-90, they agreed with Mr. Carter anew, "to record the Selectmen's acts about towne affaires": and also "to keep a grammar school, paying him thirty shillings for his service."4 But whether he kept the . grammar school as agreed upon, and whether his success was any better than before, there is nothing upon record to show. The person next engaged for this office, was Rev. Jabez Fox, with whom the inhabitants agreed, at a town meeting, March 26, 1694, that " he should teach and instruct any children that belong to this town of Woobourne, to wright, and in the gramer, all and so many as shall be sent unto him now for one year insueing."5 A similar engagement was made with him by the Selectmen, May 24, 1699, to keep school a year for instruction in grammar alone.5 But in neither of these engagements is there any mention of compensation ; and as none appears from the Records to have been ever paid, there is ground for pre- suming, that none was ever stipulated ; and that Mr. Fox, antici- pating he should have but few or no scholars to teach, demanded
"Town Records, Vol. III., p. 138.
5 Town Records, Vol. IV., pp. 22, 146.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
nothing for his labor. The next year, at a general meeting, March 1, 1699-1700, a committee of three was chosen to inquire for, and treat with some suitable person to keep a grammar school in the town, and occasionally to assist the Rev. Mr. Fox in the ministry; and to make report to the town of their doings herein, before they agreed with the man.5 But nothing was done to effect by this committee in fulfilment of their commission ; and, within three months from their appointment, the town was pre- sented at the Court of Quarter Sessions, for want of a school according to law. Startled in view of a presentment for such a cause, the town, at a general meeting, May 31, appointed Maj. William Johnson and Lieut. Josiah Convers a new committee " to agree with Sir ffox or any other gentleman upon as easy terms as they can," to keep school in Woburn for four months, from June 10, upon trial.6 Accordingly, this committee applied to "Sir Fox," as Mr. John Fox, son of their minister, was called, in common with all graduates of Harvard College during the interval between taking their first, and their second or Mas- ter's degree. With him they agreed to keep a grammar school in Woburn for four months, from the day named, for £9.6 And so acceptable were his services during the term of his probation, that the inhabitants, at a general meeting, December 4, following, hired him, " by a very clear voat," for this service again, for a year, to begin December 9, at a salary of £28 per annum.6 These terms were of Mr. Fox's own proposing; and the salary, a handsome one for that day. But it was larger than Woburn had ever as yet paid a master, or than it was willing the next year to grant him again, especially as he had but few pupils to instruct. At a meeting, January 28, 1701-2, the town being notified that they were then destitute of a school-master, voted to choose a committee to procure one forthwith, as the law requires, " provided that a suitable person can be found to officiate in that place, and will undertake the worke for the space of one yeare in, and for said town, for such a sum as may be agreed for, not exceeding twenty pounds, for one year." 7
6 Town Records, Vol. IV., pp. 165, 167.
" Town Records, Vol. IV., pp. 194, 200.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
The committee chosen for this purpose reported to the town, March 2, 1701-2 following, that they had agreed with Mr. John Fox, to keep a grammar school for one year from February 2d, preceding ; and that, for this service, they had engaged to give him " eighteen pounds certain ; and in case he should have more worke in that place than he had the last year, he should have forty shillings more."7 This report was accepted by the people; and yet, reluctant to pay their worthy school-master even this greatly reduced salary, less by more than a third than that which they had given him the year before, they voted at the same meeting, " that every person that shall send any children or servants to the above said schoole in Woobourne, shall pay in to the select- men of said town three pence per week for every child or ser- vant that is sent or comes to the said schoole ; and the selectmen to improve all such sums so payd in to them towards the dis- charging the schoolmaster's sallery : but if any shall send their children to said schoole, that in the judgment of the selectmen are not well able to pay as above said, they have their liberty to send their children to said schoole at the publick charge of the town."7 But this requirement of heads of families, who had children or servants to send to school, to pay tuition money, beside their proportion of the school tax, if indeed it were legal, seems never to have been executed. No mention is made, in the settlement of town accounts for that year, of the payment of any money to the Selectmen from the source here indicated ; and the town appears never to have had recourse afterwards to this expedient for lightening the school rates of some, legally and equitably imposed, by laying a double portion of the expense of schooling upon others.
Mr. John Fox continued to keep the grammar school in Woburn quite up to the time of his ordination as their minister, in October 1703, when he became disqualified, by a law then recently enacted, for the office of a school teacher any longer.8 At March meeting, 1703-4, the inhabitants chose Lieut. Josiah Convers, one of the Selectmen of that year, and Lieut. John
8 Colony and I'rovince Laws, p. 372.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
Carter, to inquire for and to hire a suitable person to keep a grammar school. This committee promptly attended to their duty in this matter : and not long after reported to the Select- men, that, having made an unsuccessful application at the Col- lege, they had gone to Andover, and proposed to Mr. Dudley Bradstreet, of that town, to come and do the work of a school- master at Woburn for the present, till they could provide them- selves with another; that Mr. Bradstreet had signified his agreement to their proposal under his hand; that he had been " personally at Woobourne at the time of Charlestown Court "; but no scholars presenting themselves as his pupils, he had returned to Andover again; and, having "had his expences borne, while he was in Woobourne, he had eighteen shillings in silver for a gratuity."9 Here is another striking token of the indifference of the people of Woburn for grammar school instruction at the commencement of the last century. But why is it specified in the Committee's Report, that Mr. Brad- street was at " Woobourne at the time of Charlestown Court" ? He was doubtless here at that particular time by an under- standing with the committee, and to answer the same purpose that another teacher, some thirty years afterwards was expected to, who had a consideration made him by the town " for standing in (as the Records express it) School master Two Courts." 10 In both these cases, and in others that might be named, the school committee (though men of good character and very respectable standing), wishing to save the town expense, and yet avoid a legal presentment, resorted to artifice. In making an agreement with a school-master, they would stipulate with him, that he must by all means be at Woburn, and keeping school, in Court time, even if he were to be off the very next week ; fearing that otherwise, the Grand Jury, who were the eye of the county, might spy out the deficiency, and present the town; and that the Justices of the Sessions might impose on it
Town Records, Vol. IV., p. 255.
10 " To Mr Ebenr Flegg in full for keeping Grammar School in the year past [1731] and standing in School Master two Courts, £13:10:0." - Town Records, Vol. VII., p. 140.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
a fine of £20 for its default, as the law required. But, in having recourse to measures of this description, the committee cheated themselves, their children, and the town, more than they did the County and Province; and, for the sake of saving a few paltry shillings or pounds to the town, they defrauded the town and its children of one of the most indispensable means to the pros- perity and happiness of both.
In stating, however, the above facts, showing the backwardness of the people of Woburn, at the beginning of the last century, to encourage public schools, it is by no means intended to insinuate that they were singularly faulty in this thing. The like delinquency, in other places, was at that time a matter of complaint. And, hence, the General Court felt it incumbent on them, in 1701, to pass an additional Act relating to Schools and School-masters. In the Preamble to that Act, they declare, that the observance of the " wholesome and necessary Law," then in force, requiring all towns containing fifty families to be constantly provided with a school-master to teach children and youth to read and write, and every town containing a hundred families to establish a grammar school in it, and to procure by suitable encouragement, a discreet person of good conversation, and well instructed in the tongues, to keep it, was " shamefully neglected by divers towns, and the penalty thereof not required, tending greatly to the nourishment of ignorance and irreligion, whercof grievous complaint is made."
And then, for the prevention of this evil, they proceed to enact, among other particulars, that the penalty for the non- observance of the law referred to, should be twenty pounds per annum, instead of ten, as it had been hitherto.11 And this increased penalty proving insufficient for the end intended, the Court, in 1718, passed another additional act, in which, after setting forth, that " many towns," which were both obliged by law, and abundantly able to support a grammar school, chose to incur and pay the fine for the neglect of the law, rather than maintain one, went on to enact, that fine should be increased to
11 Province Laws, 1702, Chap. Ixxxii., pp. 371-2.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
thirty pounds, in the case of towns that had one hundred and fifty families, and to forty pounds in the case of those which had two hundred families.12 No peculiar reproach then attaches itself to Woburn, on account of its occasional failure at that period to observe the law respecting schools and school-masters, or of its reluctant compliance with it. The delinquency com- plained of was a common one; and in view of the fact, it became an interesting inquiry, How we are to account for it ? Whence proceeded the too general neglect at the commencement of the last century, suitably to encourage and cherish Common Schools, that far famed institution of our Puritan ancestors ?
One reason of this neglect, it may be plausibly conjectured, was, that the generation then on the stage appreciated learning, and the means of acquiring it, at a much lower rate than their predecessors in general did. A considerable proportion of the first settlers of Massachusetts came to this country an enlightened people, and they were kept so by sitting under the ministry of men, who, generally speaking, were lights in the world, and whom for love, they had followed to these ends of the earth, that they might continue to enjoy the benefit of their instructions. From their pious and learned teachers, they had imbibed exalted conceptions of the importance of learning, as an excellent hand- maid of religion, and that high estimate of it which they had brought with them across the Atlantic they still retained amidst their numerous trials and hardships in this their adopted country. Hence, they could not endure the thought (to use an expression of their own), " that learning [should] be buried in the graves of [their ] forefathers in church and commonwealth; " 13 but were earnestly desirous, by creeting the college, and founding common schools, to transmit the treasure to their posterity, as the best earthly legacy they could leave them. But the mass of their descendants of the two next generations seem to have been far more absorbed in earthly cares, and in pursuits merely secu- lar, than their fathers were. As they had confessedly declined from the striet piety of their predecessors, so they appear to
13 Province Laws, 1718, Chap. cxxviil., p. 420.
13 Colony Laws, Chnp. Ixxxvill., p. 180.
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have had but a diminished sense of the importance of knowledge and learning, and hence were less solicitous about providing the means for educating their children in it.
Another reason seems to be, that competent instructors for grammar schools were then scarce; too few, to supply the wants of the whole community. This was a difficulty particularly felt at Woburn. At the commencement of the last century, recent graduates of Harvard College, though not a numerous body of men, were almost the only persons willing and qualified to teach schools of this description. And, as these few would naturally go where they found most encouragement, and as Woburn then too often made a point of engaging teachers who could be got for the lowest wages, the School Committees sometimes expe- rienced great difficulty in procuring masters, even when they earnestly exerted themselves to do it. Take the following instance, particularly noticed in the Records.
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