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 30
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63 Town Recorda, Vol. VIII., p. 16.
N Town Recorda, Vol. VIII., pp. 104, 106.
54 Town Records, Vol. VIII., p. 131. 88 Town Records, Vol. VIII., p. 205.
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Furthermore, it was once and again proposed to discharge the present committee upon their delivering up the town's property in their care, and then to elect a new committee, or appoint the Town Treasurer for the same trust. But in each instance, the article of the warrant suggesting such change, was either dis- missed, or adjourned from one meeting to another, till the design was dropped, and the old committee were still allowed to retain their oflice.56
And finally, a committee of three, viz., Josiah Johnson, Esq., James Fowle, Esq., and Mr. Isaac Snow, was appointed, March 1764, to settle all accounts with the committee for the town's loan money; and in the warrant for May meeting, the same year, one article was, to see whether the town would accept that committee's report ? But in the Record of this meeting, a pro- found silence is observed on this subject; and it does not appear whether the committee ever presented the expected report, or whether it was ever acted upon or not.57
In the mean while, changes, from various causes, were taking place in the committee. Three of the nine originally appointed, viz., Messrs. Edward Walker, Josiah Pierce, and Lieut. James Simonds, do not appear to have ever accepted the trust; or if they ever acted with the rest, they did so but for a little while. Capt. Benjamin Johnson was displaced by the town in 1756, and Mr. Nathaniel Brooks put in his room. Death also was beginning to do his work, and to compel some of them to pay the debt of nature, if they could not, or would not, their dues to the town. Jonathan Poole, Esq., chairman of the committee, died about 1755; and Mr. David Wyman about 1762; and Mr. Oliver Richardson and Capt. Benjamin Wyman were chosen respectively to supply their places. And these changes, and the prospect of others like them, seem to have combined with other circumstances to rouse the town at last to efficient action.
At a general meeting, May 18, 1767, it was voted, " that the Town's Loan Money that is in the hands of individuals, and the hands of the Committee, should be transferred into the hands of
86 Town Rec., Vol. VIII., pp. 331, 333, 337, 338. 57 Town Rec., Vol. VIII., pp. 394, 400, 401.
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the town treasurer for the use and benefit of said town." A committee also was chosen at the same time, consisting of Capt. Benjamin Johnson, Josiah Johnson, Esq., and Lieut. Samuel Thompson, to assist the treasurer in receiving the town's money of the loan committee, " and taking good security for the same." " Voted also that the Treasurer, and the Committee chosen to assist said Treasurer, be and are hereby authorized and empow- ered to reckon and settle with the said Committee that has said town's Loan Money in their hands, and said Treasurer to give them a Discharge for their trust in that affair." 58 And at May meeting, the following year, the same gentlemen were chosen and empowered by the town as a committee "to reckon and settle with Deacon Nathan Richardson, Licut. William Tay, Capt. Timothy Brooks, Mr Oliver Richardson, Mr Nathaniel Brooks, and Capt. Benjamin Wyman for their service and trouble as Committee men for the Town's Loan Money, and make each of them such allowance for their service as they can agree with them for, not to exceed one penny upon the Pound per year, and take a receipt of each and every of them; that so the town may have a full discharge from each and every of them from any further demand that either of them can have upon the town for said service, and Report at the next town meeting." 53
Here seems to be the winding up of the office of committee for the Town's loan money. Henceforth, its trust and duties devolved upon the Town Treasurer, Eleazar Flag Poole, Esq. At March meeting, 1770, the town directed this gentleman " to sue all those bonds for (its) Loan Money that is (are) not changed into Lawfull money, at the next Inferior Court in the County of Middlesex; he first advising with the Selectmen before he puts said Bonds in Suit." 60 In pursuance of these orders, Mr. Poole commenced, that year and the next, five law- suits in the Inferior Court; in all which, he recovered his demand on the town's behalf, with costs.61 In two of these suits, however, Joshua Richardson, the defendant, ventured to
58 Town Records, Vol. IX., p. 38.
60 Town Records, Vol. LX., p. 64.
00 Town Records, Vol. LY., p. 100.
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appeal to the Superior Court, and gave bonds to prosecute his appeal.61 But at a session of that Court in Charlestown, April 14, 1772, he failed to appear: upon which the Court, at the prayer of Mr. Poole, confirmed the judgment of the Lower Court, with additional damages and costs.62 At March meeting, 1772, that gentleman stated, in his account for the preceding year, then rendered, (attested by the Auditing Committee, and after- wards accepted by the Town,) that he had received as principal of the loan money, £76 0s. 3d., and as interest for the same, £5 15s. 72d., total received, £81 15s. 102d .; and that there was still due to the town, as principal, £30 13s. 04d., and as interest to March 12, 1772, £8 16s. 5d. ; and also, that by a receipt he had, it appeared that there was still in the hands of Nathaniel Brooks, of the town's loan money, £2 2s. 4d., as principal, and £1 18s. as interest, in all, £43 10s. 1d., due to the town on this account.63 At May meeting, 1772, an attempt was made to prevail with the Town to remit to certain individuals a portion of what they owed, on account of the loan money, or grant them a longer time to pay their dues in; but, to both these proposals, the Town voted a positive refusal.64 And at a general meeting, June 15, of the same year, the Treasurer was ordered, by vote of the town, " to put in prosecution the conditional note he (had) in his hands, relative to a part of the (town's) Loan money, given to him by Mr James Wyman "; and also, "to prosecute the Receipt he (had) in his hands, that was given by Mr. Nathaniel Brooks and Mr. David Wyman to Mrs. Esther Poole deceased, relative to said town's Loan money." 65 But on account of some acknowledged illegality in this meeting, the abeve orders were rendered void, and never afterward renewed. Weary of con- tending for years about their loan money, and discouraged by the failure of their numerous past efforts to get the management of it again into their own hands, till they saw there was compara- tively but little to contend for, they ceased from this time to make it a subject of discussion and action in town meeting; and the
61 Records of Court; communicated by Lorenzo Marrett, Esq., of East Cambridge.
62 Records of Superior Court, 1772, leaf 50, 2d page.
H Town Records, Vol. IX., p. 164.
" Treasurer's Book, p. 266.
65 Town Records, Vol. IX., p. 168.
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events which immediately led to the Revolutionary War soon diverted their attention another way; and their remaining claims for the loan money were speedily forgotten or over- looked.
It is melancholy to witness so large and productive a fund as the Woburn Loan money once constituted, and one that promised originally to be of so great and lasting utility, frit- tered away in the course of a few years into nothing ; and curi- osity may incline many to inquire the cause. When that fund was created, at the sale, in 1734, of Woburn's 2,000 acres in Lunenburg, it was worth £3,300, in Massachusetts Bills of Credit. As these Bills then passed at the rate of twenty-four shillings for an ounce of silver at eight shillings, or sixty shillings for two and one-half ounces of silver, equal to twenty shillings, or one pound; the whole value of the fund at its commencement was £1,100, lawful money.66 In 1741, when the new committee recovered in the law the Loan stock from the old committee, and took the entire charge of it into their hands, the Bills of Credit being then valued at twenty-eight shillings for an ounce of silver, 66 the worth of the fund was diminished to £942 6s. But so rapidly did they decline in worth be- tween 1745, 1749 and 1750, that in the two years last named, they had sunk into what was called Old Tenor currency, in which an ounce of silver was reckoned an equivalent tor sixty shillings in Province Bills. 66 The committee, aware of the tendency of the money in their care to depreciate, became alarmed, it seems, in 1744. But the town relieved them of their apprehensions, by voting, at a meeting in August 1744, not to exact of their committee " the sink of their money " in the payment of interest accruing upon it, and directed them at the same time not to exact it of those to whom they had loaned it.67 And now the disastrous effect of the depreciation of the currency upon the Woburn Loan Fund began strikingly to show itself. From 1745, down to 1750, inclusively, when Old Tenor money became no longer a legal tender, and lawful money
06 Felt's Massachusetts Currency, p. 135.
07 Town Records, Vol. VII., p. 451.
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was substituted in its stead, all payments into the treasury, whether of principal from the Loan Fund, or of interest into it, were in Old Tenor; and thus it continued to be for several years after. For instance, when the town voted, in 1761, to take from its Loan Fund £200, Old Tenor, or its equivalent in lawful money, to pay to Medford, in fulfilment of its agreement, in order to be released in future from all obligation to help maintain Medford Bridge, the whole sum taken from the fund for this purpose was only £26 13s. 4d., lawful money.68 And the full amount of interest paid into the Treasury, by Lieut. William Tay, one of the new Committee, for the portion of the Loan Fund in his care, which had for a series of years been £33 Os. Od., Old Tenor, was reduced to £4 8s. lawful in 1749.
In each of these two instances was a depreciation of Province Bills, reckoned in Old Tenor, of £7 10s., for £1 lawful money. Computed by this standard, the whole Loan Fund of Woburn, viz, £3,300, as it was originally, and as it was when taken in charge by the new committee in 1741, was worth, in 1750, only £440 lawful money. Here then, we see the main cause of the constantly diminishing value, and final ruin of Woburn Loan Fund. This sad issue is not to be imputed to the incapacity of the second committee, who had the charge of the fund while its depreciation was principally going on ; for there were among them, men highly esteemed for their business talents, as well as integ- rity and moral worth. It was not the result of their defrauding the town of any portion of its Loan Money, either interest or principal. For the Treasurer's Records exhibit numerous and constant payments by them of the interest of the fund committed to their management, so that a sum less than £10 of the interest accruing upon the fund, remained unpaid at the final settlement of the Treasurer, in 1772. And although their customary failure to pay the interest, till a year had elapsed after it became due, was a source of loss to the town, and of much disappointment and vexation, yet even this failure doubtless arose, in most cases, from the failure of those to whom they had loaned the
.68 Town Records, Vol. VIII., p. 466.
26
302
HISTORY OF WOBURN.
money to pay the interest as it had become due. And as to the principal of the fund, the Treasurer's Records credit the com- mittee with numerous payments of it, between 1761 and 1767, amounting in all to £337 18s. 9d., which being added to £76 Os. 3d., that the Treasurer himself received, according to his final account, March 1772, after the fund was intrusted to his care, and the £32 15s. 8d., of the principal, which he then claimed to be due, amounted to £446 14s. 8d., a sum little exceeding that, when the whole fund, in passing from Province Bills to Old Tenor currency, and from that to lawful money, was then accounted to be worth.
The final loss then of Woburn Loan Fund must be regarded as one of the unhappy consequences of issuing, by the Govern- ment of Massachusetts, Bills or Notes as money, without a suit- able care promptly to redeem them, and thus keep up their credit. This was a very common way of producing money at the commencement of the last century, which the Legislature was in a manner constrained by circumstances to resort to, and which the people themselves were very reluctant should be given up. But the more of these Bills were issued, the greater became the general distrust of them; they continually diminished in value ; and the consequence of their depreciation (to say nothing of a great increase of crime and moral evil) was a multitude of losses and calamites both to individuals and to communities at large.
CHAPTER X.
Establishment of Third Parish .- Installation in it of Rev. Josiah Cotton .- Erection of Third Meeting-house of First Parish, and disposal of the Second .- Action at Law of Rev. Edward Jackson against Rev. Mr. Cot- ton for a Libel .- Death and Character of Rev. Mr. Jackson.
IN the chapter preceding, some account was given of the unhappy difference between the two ministers of the First Society in Woburn, Rev. Messrs. Fox and Jackson, and of the consequent alienation of their respective friends from one another. This alienation gradually increased, so as to become the occasion, in 1746, of a secession from the First Parish, and of the legal establishment of a Third Society in the town, com- monly distinguished at that day by the title of the "Separatists' Society." The measures for effecting this separation commenced with the friends of Rev. Mr. Fox, who handed in a petition to the Parish Committee, August 31, 1745, requesting them, for reasons therein declared, to call a parish meeting, and to insert in their Warrant for it the prayer of the petitioners, that they and those who might join them within a reasonable time might be allowed by the parish to be set off "a separate & distinct society"; and that they, their families and estates, might be henceforth excused from paying anything toward the mainte- nance of Rev. Mr. Jackson.1 This petition, after some considera- tion, the Parish Committee refused to grant. Whereupon, a petition was presented, September 16, to Hon. Samuel Danforth, Esq., one of the justices for the County of Middlesex, subscribed by Roland Cotton, Jonathan Poole, John Fowle, Ebenezer Flegg, and Joshua Sawyer, setting forth the denial which the petition, subscribed by them and others, had met with from the Parish Committee, and praying him to grant his warrant for calling a parish meeting for the purposes mentioned in that peti- tion.2 In pursuance of this application, Justice Danforth issued
1 Parish Records, Vol. I., p. 235.
? Parish Records, Vol. I., p. 236.
304
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his Warrant for a parish meeting, to be held September 30, " for the purpose of choosing any parish officers that might be judged necessary; and of considering the petition of sundry of the Freeholders of said Parish, as above expressed." At the meeting thus obtained, it was voted, first, not to choose any new officers; and, then, after adjourning one hour for further consid- eration, " It was put to vote, whether the Inhabitants would dismiss those Petitioners, according as is set forth in their Peti- tion ? and it passed in the negative, that they would not." 3
In the mean while, the Parish Committee had stolen a march upon the petitioners, with a view either to check them in their attempts at separation, or to extort from them as much aid as possible for the benefit of the parish, before they could be legally set off. During the four years immediately preceding this, three unsuccessful attempts had been made to obtain a vote of the parish to build a new meeting-house, or to repair the old one. The proposal to build had been uniformly negatived; and forty shillings was all the parish would grant to repair.4 But, suddenly, an entire change of mind on this subject took place. On the 18th of September, this year, (only two days after the date of Justice Danforth's warrant for calling a Parish meeting, to see if the parish would dismiss certain members thereof, that they might become a distinct society,) the parish committee issued a warrant for a parish meeting, to be held on the 26th of Sep- tember, four days before the meeting called by Justice Danforth. And, at that meeting, after granting the salaries of the two min- isters for the current year, the Parish voted to build a new meeting-house as soon as they conveniently could; granted £1,000, Old Tenor, for the purchase of materials, and chose a committee of five for carrying on the work.5
And now the petitioners, baffled and irritated by these impoli- tic, overbearing proceedings of the majority of the parish, and confirmed more strongly than ever in their purpose to get off from it, if possible, apply to the Legislature for redress in the following petition : -
' l'arish Recorda, Vol. I., p. 237.
· Parish Records, Vol. I., pp. 167, 203, 218. l'arish Records, Vol. I , p. 234.
305
HISTORY OF WOBURN.
'. Province of the Massachusetts Bay.
" To His Excellency William Shirley, Esq'. Captain General and Commander in chief in and over the Province of the Massa- chusetts Bay, the Honourable the Council and House of Repre- sentatives, in General Court assembled December ye 11th. 1745 :
" Humbly shew the Subscribers, Inhabitants of the First Parish in Woburn ;
" 'That they preferred a Petition to the Committee of the said Parish on the 31st. of August last, setting forth, that the Rever- end Mr Edward Jackson had been settled in the Ministry in said Town about sixteen years, ever since which there has been an unhappy and unaccountable difference between their senior Pastor the Revd Mr John Fox and the said Mr Jackson ; and notwithstand- ing the earnest endeavours of many well disposed Ministers and other Christian Brethren to reconcile these two ministers, and induce them to live together as Ministers and Brethren ought to do, yet that this alienation of affection evidently continues to this day, greatly to the prejudice of Religion in this Parish, and the best welfare of ourselves and Families whilst we remain in these very distressing circumstances : we therefore earnestly desired and . requested them to call a Parish meeting according to law, and insert in their warrant that it was the Prayer of us the Subscribers and our Associates that should join to us in a reasonable time, to be allowed by the Parish to be set off a separate and distinct Society, that we our Families and Estates might be for the future excused from paying anything toward the maintenance of the said Mr Edward Jackson ; and we did in the said Petition engage to the said Parish, that for the promotion of peace and that we and our families might have the precious and invaluable liberty of wor- shiping God without confusion and disorder, or any uncharitable reflections upon each other, that we would take upon ourselves our proportionable part of the charge of supporting and maintaining the Reverend Mr John Fox, who is the Senior Pastor of that (this) Church and Parish, and who is in justice entitled to as much or more salary than the younger Pastor, although by the Providence of God he is taken off from the publick ministerial performances ; and consequently we must be at the charge of settling another ; yet we were heartily willing, though but very unable to be at the extra- ordinary charge ; as we were very sensible this method would tend to restore Peace to the Parish, and (by the Blessing of God) to
2G*
306
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promote the future Happiness of ourselves and Families here and hereafter.
"That the said Parish Committee, as we are informed, met twice after the Petition was presented, but did not see cause to call a Parish Meeting agreeable to our reasonable Request, which obliged us to apply to one of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace according to Law, who issued a warrant on the 16th of September last requiring the Freeholders & others qualified according to Law to meet together to consider our Petition the 30th - following : which when the Parish Committee perceived, they suddenly met together, as we were informed, and issued their warrant for a meeting to see whether the Parish would build a new Meeting House, and directed the Inhabitants to meet the week before the Parish meeting ordered by the Justice, and would not insert our Petition in their Warrant ; and when they met together, they (as we apprehend, to baffle, distress and discourage us from our honest & just design of being a distinct Society and living peaceably together, and to render us unable to build a decent meeting house for the publick worship of God) voted to raise a large sum of money towards building themselves a meeting-house, though your petitioners who were present, and sundry others, entered their Protest against such a vote being put, forasmuch as the warning for said meeting was exceeding short, and a great number of the voters being absent ; and further at the meeting appointed by the order of the Justice the week after, the Parish unreasonably refused to grant the Prayer of your Petitioners, as by the Records will appear.
" Now may it please your Excellency and Honours, as these Proceedings manifestly tend to distress your Petitioners, and prevent their enjoying Gospel privileges in Peace and Order, They humbly pray that they with their Associates who shall join with them in a reasonable time, as your Honours shall in your wisdom judge meet, may be excused from paying any taxes for the future either to the building a meeting-house for Mr Jackson, or to his maintenance ; and that they may be set off' a separate and diş- tinet Society, which is of the greatest consequence to your poor distressed Petitioners, who will as in duty bound ever Pray etc., etc. "JACON WRIGHT JUNE JONATHAN POOLE JOHN FOWLE JONATHAN FOX
DAVID ALEXANDER JOSHUA SAWYER
JACOB WRIGHT
EBENEZER FLEGG
GERSHOM FLAGG JUN'."
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
"In the House of Representatives Dec'. 18th. 1745 Read and ordered that the Petitioners serve the Clerk of the first Parish in Woburn with a Copy of this Petition, that so they shew Cause if any they have, on the first Wednesday of the next Session of this Court, why the Prayer thereof should not be granted : and all Pro- ceedings with respect to making Parish Taxes are suspended in the meantime.
" Sent up for Concurrence.
" T. CUSHING, Speaker. " In Council Decrr. 18th. 1745.
" Read & Concurd.
" J. WILLARD, Secry.
" Consented to :
W. SHIRLEY." 6
A Copy of this Order of Court having been duly served, a parish meeting was called January 2, 1745-6; at which a com- mittee of five was chosen, "to go to the Great and General Court to make answer to a Petition there preferred by sundry of the Inhabitants of said Parish, and shew reason why they should not be set off a separate Society as they have requested." This committee consisting of Lieut. Samuel Kendall, Dea. Josiah Peirce, and Messrs. Josiah Johnson, William Tay and Nathan Richardson, doubtless appeared before the Court, on behalf of the parish at the time appointed.7 But what pleas they urged against the prayer of the petitioners cannot now be ascertained, the volume of the Court's Records for that year being unac- countably missing. Certain it is, however, that the efforts of the Parish Committee in this business were unsuccessful. At an adjourned Session of the Legislature, apparently in August or September 1746, they passed upon the prayer of the petition- ers the following order, which is copied . from papers, in the hands of descendants in this town, of Lieut. Kendall, Chairman of the committee. "Ordered that the Prayer of the Petition be so far granted, as that the Petitioners with their Families and Estates, together with such Persons and their Estates belonging to said Parish, that shall hereafter, within twelve months next
6 Parish Records, Vol. I., pp. 238-240.
7 Parish Records, Vol. I., p. 242.
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coming, signify their desire of joining with them by writing under their hands delivered into the Secretary's Office, be and hereby are made and set off a distinct and separate Precinct, and impowered to hold and exercise the same Privileges as all other Precinets within this Province have, and by Law do enjoy ; and also set free from any taxes toward the maintenance of Mr Edward Jackson, and building and repairing said [First] Pre- cinet Meeting-house, since the 11th. of Dec'. last, when they exhibited this Petition : Provided they pay annually one half of what has been usually allowed by said Precinct towards the support of the Rev4. Mr Fox their aged Pastor." 8
The Third Society in Woburn, being thus legally established, proceeded to exercise the privileges with which they had been vested. From a comparison of parish taxes, for Rev. Mr. Jack- son's salary, for the years immediately before and after its incorporation, the Third Society appears to have consisted of about eighty heads of families and taxable persons, or very nearly two-fifths of the old Society before the separation.9 Among them, besides Col. Roland Cotton, their leader, and the reputed father of the Society, were several other men of note; as Jona- than Poole, Esq., Major John and Cornet Jacob Fowle; Cap- tains Stephen and Joseph Richardson ; Messrs. John and Elijah Leathe ; Messrs. Ebenezer, Gershom and Zechariah Flagg, Mr. Jacob Wright and Son, Mr. John Russell; Capt. Samuel and Mr. Jabez Carter, and Col. Jonathan, son of Rev. Mr. Fox. The aged minister himself (Rev. Mr. Fox) appears, from some circumstances, to have usually assembled with them. when able to come abroad. They never arrived to have a proper, regu- larly built meeting-house of their own, but met on the Sabbath in an unfinished building that formerly stood opposite the house of Dr. Silvanus Plympton, Senr., deceased, 1º and in which there was a large room or hall, fitted up as a place of public worship. A church was gathered in this Third Society, of which Mr. John Leathe was chosen deacon. And their first and
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