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 9
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" The Selectmen mett the 1: 11 mo: 1676: and summonsed Hopestill Foster for inordinate wages, and [ he ] is refer'd to hering the next Towne meeting."
" The Selectmen meet the 5: of 12 mo: 1676: and fined Hopestill Foster, for opresion [ oppression ] in a case depending betweene Josiah Conuars and himselfe about making brads ; two shillings, eight pence of it to the said Josiah Connars."
"Also in a case depending betweene Mathew Johnson and the said Foster, for opresion in making streak nayls and putting
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
in riuits [rivets] in cart boxes, eleven shillings ; six of it to the complainer." - Records, Vol. II., p. 58.
3. Similar tokens do the Records set before us of the merci- fulness and compassion of the people of Woburn at that day, towards those who were suffering adversity. In various instances, they present the people, or their agents, the Selectmen, remitting taxes to the aged and unfortunate, commiserating the poor and destitute, and restoring lands to children, which, through the hand of God upon their parents, had fallen into the possession of the town. Of this amiable trait in their character, the following instances, among a number that might be produced, may serve both as illustrations and as proofs. At a general meeting, March 1, 1696-7, voted that "considering that Benj" Wilson, having mett with considerable losses, and is very poore, altho' he be found very diligent in his place, he shall goe rate free for this yeare, to all rates and taxes whatsoever." 30
Sept. 9, 1700. " The Selectmen being informed that the widow Hensher [Henshaw] was in want, they ordered the Constable Holding to pay her fiue shillings for a present supplyc, out of the Town Rate comitted to him to collect.31
" October the 27th. there was a contribution made for the widow Hensher : there was then gathered 31b : 15: 3 : and the Selectmen provided a cow for her supplye with milk, and the cow cost 59 shillings, and the cow remains the town's, only the said widow hath the use of the cow free; and the Selectmen layd out 78 : 6ª. for cloth to make her dumb child a coat, and 38 : 6ª. for a pair of shoos; and the remainder of the said contribution, being 68 : 3ª, it was delivered to the said widow by the Select- men." 31
4. Of the character of the people in general for sobriety, we may form some judgment in their favor from the exertions then made and sustained, without complaint or opposition, against the contrary vice. The records furnish repeated testimonials to the zeal and faithfulness of the carly civil fathers of the town to carry the laws against intemperance, and practices which lead to
30 Town Records, Vol. IV., p. 87.
31 Town Records, Vol. IV., p. 166.
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it- into execution. They present them again and again, as sum- moning before them persons charged with intoxication, and sentencing them, upon conviction, to pay a fine, or to sit in the stocks. The following are instances upon record of their pro- ceedings on this head. "The Selectmen meet the 17. of 7 mo. 1677: William Deane was sumoned for excess in drincke, and [they] ordered him to pay for his ecsess three shillings and four- pence." 32 "The Selectmen mette the 1 : of 2 mo. 1678, and by warrant sent for William Deane, who was proved to be in drink the third time; [and] is sentanced to paye ten shillings uppon the Constable's demand." 33 At a meeting of the Selectmen 3 : 8 mo. 1682, William Deane was fined the thurd time for being druncke, tenne shillings, or to sitt in the stocks." 34 Jan. 22, 1679, Andrew Pittamy, Indian, and his squaw, and another squaw, being taken drunck, were all brought before the Selectmen of Woburne, and the case heard and proued, were sentenced to paye tenne shillings apeece, or to be whipt tenne lashes, and to defray the charge of Constable and witnesses." 35 " John Johnson, jun. being taken in drinck, was sentenced to paye tenne groats." 35
Such was the rigor with which the laws were anciently en- forced in this town against persons chargeable with intemper- ance. Nor did the civil authorities frown upon the hard drinker only, but also, in some cases at least, upon those, who were accessary to his bad practices. The first person appa- rently, that was approved by the Selectmen to keep tavern in Woburn, and recommended for a license to sell spiritous liquors, was Mr. Samuel Walker, Senr., in 1675.36 Mr. Walker was a highly respectable citizen, and one who was, generally speaking, of an irreproachable character. Nevertheless, for once abusing his license, by allowing a certain noted tippler to come to his house, and there to indulge his vicious appetite after warning, he incurred the censure of the civil fathers of the town alike with the tippler himself. The Selectmen, showing no respect of persons, imposed upon the latter offender a fine of
33 Town Records, Vol. II., p. 74. 4 Town Records, Vol. I., p. 89. 34 Town Records, Vol. I., p. 120. 36 Town Records, Vol. II., p. 147. 36 Town Records, Vol. II., p. 27.
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five shillings for going to the tavern, and another fine of five shillings more for tippling there after warning; and a fine of twenty shillings upon Mr. Walker for finding him room and drink to tipple with. 37
But while the fathers of the town were thus laudably exerting themselves for the prevention and suppression of intemperance and its kindred vices, they were unconsciously giving counten- ance to one practice which had a tendency to promote it : that of giving drink at funerals. This seems at that day to have been the universal custom, especially in this place. Whoever died here, intoxicating liquor must be distributed among all who attended his burial. They buried their paupers with rum, and they buried their wealthy men and ministers with wine. One of the charges allowed by the Selectmen in 1683, at the death of George Wilkinson, the pauper already referred to, was one for three quarts of rum, to be drank at his funeral.38 And in an account of the funeral expenses assumed by the town at the death of their beloved pastor, Rev. Mr. Carter, in 1684, there is a charge of £2. 9s. Od. for fourteen gallons of wine.39 This practice originated doubtless in a commendable desire to show
37 Town Records, Vol. II., p. 58. 38 Town Records, Vol. III., pp. 47, 58.
39 " Charges on Mr Thomas Carter's funarall in 1684.
" By fourteene gallons of wine, at 3s. 6d. per gallon
02:09:00.
"For tarr, two shillings
00:02 :00. 01:16:00.
" For gloues
00:06:00.
" For his Coffin, muny
" For his graue, in pay 00:05:00.
" For manchester, 6 yards : and Jarr for tarr 00:01:06.
04 :19 :06."
Nor did the custom cease with the 17th century, as appears by the fol- lowing bill, still extant. - Town Records, Vol. III., p. 68.
" Charlestown Anno 1726.
" Mr Jacob Fowl & Mr Thos Reed : Bot of Seth Sweetser.
" Sept. 22. To 7 gallons Sweet wine, at 6:6d
£2:5 :6
" To 73 Fyal at 5s 1:17 :6
£4:3:0
" For ye funeral of Mr Symons Deceasd." [Mr. Benjamin Simonds, of Woburn, who died 21 Sept., 1726. - Woburn Records of Deaths.]
6
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
hospitality to those, who manifested their respect for a person deceased, and their sympathy with his surviving friends, by at- tending his funeral; and especially, when they came for this end from a distance over their rough roads, or in an inclement season of the year. But such an expression of hospitality on funeral occasions is now justly regarded as injurious in its tendency, as well as often burdensome by its expensiveness ; and has been wisely suffered to fall into general disuse.
Finally, piety was a distinguishing trait in the character of the carly inhabitants of Woburn, as it was generally in that of all the first planters of New England and their immediate succes- sors. The town was settled principally by emigrants from Charlestown; and there is reason to believe that its founders, and a large proportion of its primitive population were asso- ciates in travel and suffering with those who accompanied Winthrop and Dudley, Wilson and Phillips, in their perilous voyage across the Atlantic, from a land of privilege and plenty, to this, then, American wilderness, for conscience' sake toward God. And their whole conduct, so far as any particulars of it have been transmitted to us, proves them worthy of being reckoned with that illustrious company of Puritans. Nor did their immediate descendants come far behind them, in respect to their religious character. In many of these, indeed, love had begun to wax cold; and there gradually came on a decay of vital religion, both here and throughout the land, which was observed and lamented by such as had seen New England in her first glory. Still, in a goodly proportion of the inhabitants of Woburn, of the second generation, there yet abode a like spirit of piety and devotion which had been the chief ornament of their fathers. And this excellent spirit was continually manifesting a powerful influence in the civil customs and measures, in the domestic arrangements, and in the general character and manners of the carly inhabitants of this town. And the same spirit, I may safely add, had a larger share in moulding the ancient distinctive character of the people of New England, and in originating all those privileges and institutions, which are now their boast, than any other cause or influence whatever, merely secular, that can be assigned.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
1. Particularly, this spirit manifested itself in Woburn, in zeal for the public worship of God. A leading object of the primitive settlers in leaving Charlestown to establish themselves in this place was to erect here a church, for the diffusion of the light of God's Word, and for upholding in it the ordinances of his gospel. Hence, notwithstanding a long train of difficulties and discouragements, which they had to encounter successively in their way to this object, they here quickly gathered a church, and procured and settled a minister over it, to lead in the servi- ces of the sanctuary. Here too, they had scarcely provided a shelter for themselves and families, before they built a house for the honor of God's name, and the conducting of his public wor- ship. And as soon as this house had fallen into decay, or had become too strait for them, their sons built a second, larger and more convenient than the first. And ere this second house had been erected ten years, they took occasion repeatedly to enlarge it, for the better accommodation of the multitude which thronged it from Sabbath to Sabbath. Nor was it on the Sabbath day only, that they showed their zeal and diligence to assemble together in the Sanctuary to serve the Lord. During the ministry of the first two pastors of the church, there was a stated public lecture in Woburn for prayer and exposition of the Scriptures, similar to those then held in most of the carly settled towns in Massachusetts.40 How often it occurred, is not certain; but it appears, from the records, to have been held on Wednesday,41 and to have been well sustained upwards of sixty years: and though in the ministry of the second Mr. Fox, there are signs of its falling into disuse, in consequence, probably, of his frequent ill health, and perhaps, too, of a growing indifference on the part
4º In the record of general meeting, 27: 12 mo: [27 Feb.] 1665-6 reference is made to measures to be propounded to the inhabitants at a meeting, 28 : 1 mo : 1666 next "after Lecture." - Town Records, Vol. I., p. 32.
41 Under Record of Selectmen's meeting, [Monday ] 7 : 5 mo : [7 July, ] 1679, mention is made of the next Lecture day on 16: 5 mo : 79. [Wednesday.] At a meeting of the Selectmen, Nov. 23, 1702, they appointed Wednesday ye 30th of December following after Lecture, to be a general meeting, etc. - Town Records, Vol. IV., p. 214.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
of some of the people, yet even then, attempts were repeatedly made, by a majority of the town, to revive and encourage it, and so to continue it to posterity.42
2. Nor was the religious spirit of the early inhabitants of Woburn less conspicuous in their exertions to maintain solemnity and decorum in public worship, than it was in those which they used to establish and continue it among them. Generally speak- ing, they were, universally, men who reverenced the Sanctuary of the Lord, set an excellent example of becoming seriousness in all its sacred exercises themselves, and could not endure to have them interrupted by anything like trifling or levity in others. Hence, when above thirty years after the settlement of the town, a portion of its youth began to behave themselves disorderly in public worship, the people generally were much aggrieved, and the fathers of the town immediately set themselves to devise a remedy. To put an end to the evil complained of, they passed successively a number of orders and regulations, the motives of all which cannot be too highly appreciated, though at the recital of some of them we can hardly refrain from smiling at their minuteness, and seeming singularity at the present day. At a meeting of theirs, Sept. 7, 1674, they resolved as follows on this subject : " Considering how greatly God is dishonoured by senerall youths playing at meetting, and the trust that is by the athouryty of this Commonwealth committed to the Selectmen ; they doe therefore order that from this time forward, all youths or male persons that shall playe or carry it uncinilly on the Saboth day, or in time of Exercise, they shall bee injoyned to sit in the last sete of the Rainge of mens seats, and all other persons whatsocuer are prohibited sitting in that seat upon the penalty of halfe a Crowne, they doing it presumptuously."43 But this injunction not being generally obeyed, or the appeal implied in it, to the shame of these young offenders, not proving so effectual as might have been anticipated, the Selectmen two years after-
42 At a general meeting, March 4, 1716-17. It was voted to add £20 to Rev. Mr. Fox's salary of £80 for that year, provided that he keep a " Lec- ture once In six weeks, if he be able." - Town Records, Vol. V., p. 357.
4Town Records, Vol. II., p. 18.
.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
ward had recourse to another expedient. They first set apart two seats in the meeting-house, particularly described in the records, for all those boys who should be expressly directed to sit in them, and whose names were to be fixed on them in writing, and forbade all other persons over sixteen years old, not expressly allowed, to sit in them, upon a penalty of 2s. 6d. each time.44 And then to secure success to this measure, and perhaps likewise to afford some relief to the constables, under whose sole care the boys had hitherto been, in time of public worship, they appointed twenty-six men of respectable character to overlook those boys in the meeting-house, two days cach in succession, under penalty of five shillings per day upon each of them who should refuse to serve. The business of this numer- ous committee, as stated in the records, was, to oversee the boys in the meeting-house, "to haue power to rape [rap] them with a stick," who did not " behave themselves as they ought "; and in case they persisted in their unseemly behavior, to com- plain of them to the Selectmen. 45 But strict as this measure may seem to have been, it did not at once eradicate the evil. For at a subsequent meeting of the Selectmen, March 1679-80, after making a new assignment of seats for the boys in the meeting-house, they committed them again to the oversight of the men " appointed as formerly," and of the constables 46 with their black staves. 47
3. Again, the religious disposition of the early ancestors of this people was still further displayed in their equitable and generous treatment of their ministers of religion. For the first pastor of this church, Rev. Thomas Carter, the town built a dwelling-house at their own cost, and presented it to him at his settlement, as a gift. They also made him considerable grants of land soon after his settlement, and in all subsequent general distributions of the public lands, they allowed him his full pro- portion with the other inhabitants who were proprietors. The salary they originally agreed to give him, viz: £80, was a very liberal one for that day; and in his old age they enlarged it by
" Town Records, Vol. II., p. 36. 45 Town Records, Vol. II., p. 41. 46 Town Records, Vol. II .. p. 152. 47 Town Records. Vol. II., p. 23. See also Vol. III., p. 119, 121.
6*
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
an annual donation of twenty cords of wood.48 And when at length his increased infirmities made the aid of a colleague neces- sary, they did not turn him adrift upon the world, as some towns have done by their ministers, worn out in their service, in modern times, neither did they put him off with a meagre, insufficient compensation, as has been the practice in many instances since, but they adjusted with him the question of his salary for the time to come, entirely to his own satisfaction; and when he deceased, they discovered their affectionate regard for the dead by their continued kindness to the living, his surviving widow. . For Rev. Jabez Fox also, their second minister, the town of their own accord offered to erect a dwelling-house at their own expense, and present it to him as a gift. At his request, they enlarged it in building beyond the dimensions they had proposed, for an allowance he engaged to make them in money towards the cost. They granted him freely, as his own property, a por- tion of those lots of land, which they had reserved from time to time in disposing of their public lands, for a succeeding officer of the church ; and the use of the residue, till they should need it for a successor. And when he died, they did not withdraw their kindness from his widow, but granted her a sum equal in amount to her husband's salary for half a year. These several testimonials of good-will to their ministers, and concern for their temporal comfort and well-being, speak loudly in favor of the religious character of the ancient inhabitants of Woburn. The people showed herein not only an effectual regard for their wor- thy pastors themselves, but likewise a becoming esteem for their work ; love for that holy cause in defence of which they were set, and for the advancement of which among them they labored. Whereas, a mean, hard or unjust treatment of worthy ministers of religion on the part of the people whom they serve is generally speaking, a decisive indication of indifference or hostility toward religion itself.
4. Finally, the pious spirit of the ancient inhabitants of Woburn displayed itself in their care for the religious educa- tion of their children and youth. By a law of this colony,
" Town Records, Vol. I., pp. 54, 98, 101, 102.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
passed in 1642, the same year with that in which Woburn was incorporated, the Selectmen of every town were required to see " that all masters of families do once a week (at the least) catechise their children and servants in the grounds and principles of religion ; and if any be unable to do so much, that then at the least, they procure such children and apprentices to learn some short orthodox catechism without book, that they may be able to answer unto the questions that shall be propounded to them out of such catechism by their parents or masters, or any of the Selectmen, when they shall call them to a trial of what they have learned in that kind." 49 And although the Court had occasion, about thirty years after, viz, 1671, to complain of the neglect of this and other legal provisions on behalf of children and youth, which had resulted, they say, in the increase of sin · and profaneness, and proceeded to enjoin upon the Selectmen anew, throughout this jurisdiction, to attend to their duty in this respect, yet there seems to be no ground for supposing that the neglect of catechising was then extensively prevalent. On the contrary, there is abundant reason to believe that, by the great body of the people, it was practised, even then, with exemplary strictness throughout the Colony ; especially have we ground for this conclusion in regard to the inhabitants of this town. The transmission of this pious and laudable custom in the great majority of families in this place, till within a very recent period, affords, of itself, satisfactory proof of the high esteem and general observance of it by the early inhabitants of Woburn. Regarding religion themselves as "the principal thing," they were earnestly solicitous to inculcate the same great truth on the minds and hearts of their offspring. From a principle of piety, as well as from an obedient regard to the law of the land, they were careful to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They did not abound in books; but whatever other books they lacked, they must have a Bible (or, at the least, a Testament and a Psalter) and a
49 Colony Laws, published 1672, p. 26; Colony and Province Laws, 1814, p. 74.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
catechism in all their houses. They were at much pains to teach their children themselves, or to procure them to be taught by others, to read the Bible while young, and early to reverence and take heed to it, as the Word of God. Nor did they show scarcely less solicitude carly to initiate their children into an acquaintance with the great truths of the Bible, both doctrinal and practical, as laid down in the Assembly's Catechism. And lest there might possibly be some families who were negligent of the catechetical instruction of those under their care, the Selectmen of the town appear to have been accustomed, after the injunction of the Court in 1671, to go round among the several families, from time to time, with a view to ascertaining and rectifying what was amiss in any on this head. One instance of their care in this matter we have upon record in their Day Book, as follows: " The Selectmen mette the 5. day of Octob. 1674, and agreed on the 15 day of this instant mo. to goe throo the Towne, and ecsamin the familys about Cati- chisinge." 50 The object of this visitation was doubtless the . same as that which the law of that day suggested, viz, to question children whom they thought proper, out of their catechism ; to reprove any heads of families whom they found negligent of it; and to use their influence and authority to induce them either to teach it their children themselves, or to employ others to do it for them.
By the time Woburn had been incorporated thirty years, a large proportion of its first settlers had left the world. Within that period especially, those seven commissioners, who had been intrusted with the care of laying its foundations, and had led the way in its settlement, had all rested from their labors. And here some brief notices of these worthies, to whom Woburn is so much indebted, may not be unacceptable.
1. The first of their number I shall mention, Mr. Thomas Graves, distinguished in the "History of Charlestown " as
80 Town Records, Vol. II., p. 166.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
Rear Admiral Graves 51 was born at Ratcliff, England, June 6th, and baptized at Stepney, June 16th, 1605.51 He became a sea- faring man, and was master of several ships sailing between England and this country 1632, and the three years following. He married in Charlestown Miss Catharine Coytmore, a daugh- ter of the noted Capt. Thomas Coytmore, to whom a grant of five hundred acres within the bounds of Woburn was made by the Court in 1640.51 He and his wife Catharine were admitted into the church of Charlestown, October 7, 1639.52 In 1640, he was made a freeman of the Colony, as his namesake, the Engineer, had been in 1631; 53 and being appointed the same year as a suitable person, with the aid of others, to build up a distinct church and town in the then recent grant of Charlestown Village, he appears, for a while, to have been actively engaged in promoting that design. It was at his house in Charlestown, the commissioners held their first meeting, December 1640, and
51 The family mannseripts, preserved by the descendants of this gentleman in Charlestown, represent him as identical with Mr. Thomas Graves, the celebrated Engineer and Surveyor, who laid out Charlestown in 1629.51 And this, till recently, was the prevalent opinion on this subject. But it is now, for various reasons, generally given up, particularly on account of the apparent difference in their respective ages, and of the wide and strik- ing dissimilarity of their handwriting. The Engineer, in 1629, the year of his arrival in this country, had left behind him in England a wife and five children, an indication that he was a considerably older man than the Admi- ral, born in 1605. Moreover, in the subscription of his name to the contract which he made March 1629, with the Massachusetts Company in London, previously to his embarking for New England in their service, the Engi- neer left a specimen of his handwriting, as did the Admiral of his, in sign- ing his will. Copies of these autographs are presented to view in the History of Charlestown, by Richard Frothingham, Esq., page 140: and so great is the obvious difference between the two, that it can hardly be supposed that they were both written by the same hand.
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