USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. II > Part 65
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The Common, as we have already seen, was the resort of strollers, and there began to be more jealous care of it. Sewall speaks of getting a stone out of the Common for a foundation stone of a new meeting-house ; 2 and besides ordering fences to be built the town ordered that no person should carry away sod, turf, or earth, except at Fox Hill, or the Ridge Hill between that and Windmill Hill.3
The amusements which were more perilous to good morals were still sternly prohibited. A bowling-green might be suffered after a full dis- cussion, but as the century wore on and luxury brought in more insidious foes the General Court took the alarm. In 1750 it passed an act for " pre- venting and avoiding the many and great mischiefs which arise from pub- lic stage-plays, interludes, and other theatrical entertainments, which not only occasion great and unnecessary expenses, and discourage industry and frugality, but likewise tend generally to increase immorality, impiety, and a contempt for religion." So a penalty was laid on any one letting a house for the purpose, and on actors and spectators, who were to pay five pounds each time they were present. A letter from Judge Sewall to the secretary, Isaac Addington, for the governor and his council, expresses the grave ap- prehensions felt by such a man earlier in the century, and his protest is a curious mingling of common-sense and heroics. It is dated at "Boston of the Massachusetts, March 3, 1713-14:"-
"There is a Rumor, as if some designed to have a Play acted in the Council- chamber next Monday ; which much surprises me. And as much as in me lies, I do forbid it. The Romans were very fond of their Plays ; but I never heard they were so far set upon them as to turn their Senat House into a Play-House. Our Town House was built at great Cost and charge for the sake of very serious and important Business ; the Three Chambers above, and the Exchange below, - Business of the Province, County, and Town. Let it not be abused with Dances or other Scenical divertisements. It cannot be a Honor to the Queen to have the Laws of Honesty
1 Ibid., pp. 173, 175. [Sewall records with more complacency (ii. 27) a scene on the Com- mon of his own ordering, designed to mark the incoming of the new century : "Jan. 1, 1710. Just about Break-a-day, Jacob Amsden and 3 other Trumpeters gave a blast on the Comon near Mr. Alford's. Then went to the Green Chamber, and sounded there till sunrise. Bell- man said these verses a little before Break-a- day, which I printed and gave them. . . . The Trumpeters cost me five pieces "." On occa-
sion of another observance he records an amus- ing homily : "1719, April I. In the morning I dehorted Sam Hirst and Grindall Rawson from playing idle tricks because 'twas first of April : they were the greatest fools that did so. New England men came hither to avoid anniversary days, the keeping of them, such as the twenty-fifth of December." Ibid., iii. 217. -ED.]
2 Sewall's Diary, ii. 344.
3 Boston Town Records, May 12, 1701.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
and Sobriety broken in upon. Ovid himself offers invincible Arguments against pub- lick Plays : -
"' Ut tamen hoc fatear : Ludi quoque semina præbent nequitiæ.'
Let not Christian Boston goe beyond Heathen Rome in the practice of shamefull Vanities.
" This is the Voice of your most humble and obedient Servant,
" SAMUEL SEWALL." 1
Dancing had now established itself, but earlier it was frowned upon by the fathers, as it had been in colonial days. Sewall relates, Nov. 12, 1685 : -
" The ministers of this Town Come to the Court and complain against a Dancing Master who seeks to set up here, and hath mixt Dances ; and his time of Meeting is Lecture-Day. And 'tis reported he should say that by one Play he could teach more Divinity than Mr. Willard or the Old Testament. Mr. Moodey said 'twas not a time for N. E. to dance. Mr. Mather struck at the Root, speaking against mixt Dances."
A dancing school was set up in 1735 under cover of other accomplish- ments, for it was " a school for reading, writing, cyphering, dancing, and the use of the needle."2 But the line was drawn short of rope-dancing, as an application at the same time for an exhibition of this sort was refused, for fear " lest the said divertisement may tend to promote idleness in the Town and great mispense of time." 3
But the great source of entertainment and relaxation was doubtless the training. There could be no "mispense" of time here ; and one had the solid satisfaction of knowing that he was not only enjoying himself, but perform- ing a duty of the first necessity to the State. And was not training under the very sanction of religion? Was there not a prayer before the manual was
1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., 1871-1873, P. 378. [Sewall did not live to have his peace of mind disturbed by the publication in the Royal Amer- ican Magazine, November, 1774, of a memoir of the great French actress, Mademoiselle Clai- ron, with a portrait engraved by Paul Revere, which represents her as leaning upon a pile of books inscribed Voltaire, Racine, Corneille, and Crebillon. The drama in Boston will be considered in Vol. IV .- En.]
2 [Captain Francis Goelet's Journal (N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., 1870, p. 53) gives us a glimpse of a merry-making in 1750: "At Mr. Sheppard's, a company of about forty gentle- men; after having dined in a very elegant man- ner upon turtle, etc., drank about the toasts and sang a number of songs, and were exceedingly merry until three o'clock in the morning, from whence went upon the Rake; going past the commons in our way home, surprised a company of country young men and women with a violin at a tavern, dancing and making merry. Upon our
entring the house the young women fled; we took possession of the room, having the fidler and the young man with us with the keg of sugared dram." Goelet makes sundry other entries during his stay in Boston, of his being with " the best fashion in Boston," and of danc- ing "minuits and country dances " with them. -ED.]
3 [John Bradlee, who in 1734 petitioned for leave to show feats of activity, thought it advis- able to represent that he was "a Protestant dis- senter of the Kirk of Scotland," who had sailed out of Boston, and was endeavoring to earn a living, even "on the tort rope," as he had done in Barbadoes. In 1735 one Edward Burlesson had been warned out of town with his puppets by Bromfield the selectman ; and his petition sets forth that the "Lyon, the black and whight bare, and the Lanechtskipt were shown by me that had their limbs as long as they pleased." These papers are on file in the City Clerk's office. - ED.]
48I
LIFE IN BOSTON IN THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
practised ; and was not target-shooting made to have almost the sanctity of a Thursday lecture? The annual sermon on election day remains as the one transmittendum of that commingling of the Church Militant and the State Militia; but one is permitted to attend training with Judge Sewall, who was captain, and to see a little how Boston unbent itself, and threw the dignity of rank and social grace over an exercise which included small boys then as now within its pleasurable excitement. Here is Sewall's account of a training day, Oct. 6, 1701 : -
" Very pleasant fair wether ; artillery trains in the afternoon (Sewall in command) ; march with the company to the Elms. Go to prayer, march down and shoot at a mark. Mr. Cushing, I think, was the first that hit it; Mr. Gerrish twice, Mr. Fitch, Chauncey, and the Ensign of the officers. By far the most missed, as I did for the first. Were much contented with the exercise. Led them to the trees agen ; perform'd some facings and doublings. Drew them together, propounded the question about the colours ; 'twas voted very freely and fully. I inform'd the Company I was told the Company's halberds, etc. were borrowed; I understood the leading staff was so, and therefore ask'd their acceptance of a Half-Pike, which they very kindly did. I delivered it to Mr. Gibbs for their use. They would needs give me a volley, in token of their Respect on this occasion. The Pike will, I supose, stand me in fourty shillings, being headed and shod with silver. Has this motto fairly engraven : 'AGMEN MASSACHUSETTENSE EST IN TUTELAM SPONSÆ AGNI UXORIS 1701.' The Lord help us to answer the Profession. Were treated by the Ensign in a fair chamber." 1
At a training the following spring Sewall reminded them of his poor shots in October, and so would impose a small fine upon himself to be given to the best shot : -
" I judged for Ensign Noyes, and gave him a silver cup I had provided, engraven 'MAY 4, 1702. EUPHRATEN SICCARE POTES.' Telling him it was in token of the value I had for that virtue in others which I myself could not attain to. March'd into Comon and concluded with Pray'r. Pray'd in the morn on the Town House, Praying for the churches by name." 2
This last inscription had a world of meaning for Sewall, who invested the phrase, to be found in Revelation xvi. 12, with a symbolic force pecu- liarly adapted to the time in which he was living.3
The training was no mere playing at soldiers, but a serious study for the defence of the commonwealth.4 The regulations relating to it, which cover many pages of the Acts and Resolves of the Province, testify to the impor- tance attached to the volunteer militia. The equipment of foot and horse was elaborate : -
" Every foot-soldier to be provided with a well-fixed fire-lock musket of musket or bastard-musket bore, the barrel not less than three and a half feet long, or other fire-
1
2 Ibid., ii. 55.
8 See editor's foot-note, Sewall's Diary, i. 69.
4 [Sir Charles Henry Frankland states in his VOL. II .- 61.
Sewall's Diary, ii. 42. Diary, not long after the middle of the century, that Massachusetts Bay had on the alarm list 45,000 able to bear arms, and in the training list 32,000. - ED.]
482
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
arms to the satisfaction of the commissioned officers of the Company ; a Knapsack, a coller with twelve bandoleers or cartouch box, one pound of good powder, twenty bullets fit for his gun, and twelve flints, a good sword or cutlace, a worm and priming wire fit for his gun. Every trooper shall be always provided with a good serviceable horse of five pounds value, and not less than fourteen hands high, covered with a good saddle, bit, bridle, holsters, pectoral, and crooper ; and furnished with a carbine, the barrel not less than two foot and half long, with a belt and swivel, a case of good pistols, with a sword or cutlace, a flask or cartouch box, one pound of good powder, three pounds of sizable bullets, twenty flints, and a good pair of boots and spurs." 1
Besides the militia for public defence, Boston was provided with its watch and divided besides into five wards. Toward the middle of the century public-spirited persons set up lamps outside of their houses and kept them in order, while the authorities protected them from injury.2 The watchmen were on duty from ten o'clock at night until broad daylight, except in the winter, when their hours extended from nine in the evening till eight in the morning. They were to go about the town "silently with watch bills, for- bearing to use any bell, and no watch-man to smoke tobacco while walking Matthias Loworry John Chambers & Gonzo Winform their rounds; and where they see occasion, they are to call to per- sons to take care of their lights." 3 Later, in 1735, they were required "in a moderate tone to cry the time of night, and give account of the weather, as they walk their Suber Muettle Abia Holbrook rounds after twelve o'clock." The expense of the watch at this time was about £12,000 per annum.4 The frequent fires, which were due in part to the almost universal use of wood in building, in part MASTERS OF THE WATCH-HOUSES, 1734. to the necessity of having many open fires and of carrying embers about, rendered the town very vigilant, and gave rise to many regulations. The division of the town into districts under fire wards appears to have taken place in 1711, when, under date of October 31, the General Court provided, -
" Whereas, by reason of the contiguity and adjoining of the houses and dwellings within the town of Boston, persons are under great affrightment and hurry upon the breaking out of fire, and not only the person in whose house the fire first breaks out, but the neighborhood are concerned to employ their utmost diligence and application
1 Nov. 22, 1693.
2 [Later, the town supplied them. The Mas- sachusetts Gazette, March 3, 1773, says: "Last evening two or three hundred lamps, fixed in the several streets and lanes of this town, were lighted. They will be of great utility to this metropolis." This importation was the
occasion of one of Mather Byles's good jokes. "What's the news?" it was asked of him. " Why, three hundred 'new lights' have ar- rived, and the selectmen have ordered them into irons."- ED.]
8 May 10, 1701. See Drake's History, p. 523. 4 Ibid., 599.
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LIFE IN BOSTON IN THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
to extinguish the fire and prevent the progress thereof, ... it is provided that the justices of peace and selectmen of Boston may from time to time appoint such number of prudent persons, of known fidelity, not exceeding ten, in the several parts of the town, as they may think fit, who shall be denominated and called fire wards."
Their badge of of- fice was to be a staff of five or six feet in length, colored red, and headed with a bright brass spire six inches long ; and they had all necessary authority in the putting out of fires. In 1733 there were seven engines for extinguishing fires. How effec- tive these water en- gines - as they were called - were, may be inferred from the description given in the News-Letter at this time : "There is newly erected in the Town of Boston, by Messieurs John and Thos. Hill, a Water Engine at their Still- house, by the advice and direction of Mr. Rowland Houghton, drawn by a horse, which delivers a large quantity of water twelve feet above the ground."1
John Ballantme
award Winslow Stephen allinol
Edu & Marty Sam Gros Greenwood
C John: Greenough Jonathan Pollard
Wiliam Lowder
FIRE WARDS IN 1713.
In 1765 Mr. David Wheeler, a blacksmith in Newbury Street, advertised " to make and fix iron rods with points upon houses or any other eminences, for prevention from the effects of lightning," - and he is doubtless the origi- nal lightning-rod man. Precaution against fire extended to the construction of buildings. Chimneys especially were looked after by sweeps who were under appointment of the town, and householders whose chimneys caught fire were fined. In 1692 a law was passed forbidding the erection of
1 News-Letter, Jan. 25, 1733-
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
any wooden building over eight feet in length or breadth and seven in height, and in 1700 an act recites that this provision has been constantly set aside; and while it would be too severe a punishment to destroy all that had been erected, yet that such bold and open contempt might not pass wholly unpunished, and to deter others from doing the like in future, a fine was imposed not exceeding £50 for one offence on all who had so offended. But larger discretion was given to the governor and council to grant licenses.1 The gunpowder-treason-plot day furnished the anxiety then which Fourth of July has in recent days, and a proclamation was or- dered, Nov. 4, 1700, " to prevent endangering the Town by Fire-works." 2
From the beginning of the colony Boston had been exposed to perils of one sort or another. To protect itself against foreign enemies it had built its forts and established its beacon; it had exercised a surveillance over all incomers, and especially over Roman Catholic Frenchmen whom it might find in its streets. To defend the town against fire, it had organized a fire department and passed strict laws regarding buildings. To guard against Indians it had kept a well trained military force, and exercised very restric- tive control over any who were within its limits. But as the community grew more varied and less dominated by the principles which waited upon its foundation, there arose new dangers within the town itself, - dangers from unruly elements. Beyond this, the period coincident with Sam Adams's maturity was that which ripened into positive insurrection, and the ferment was beginning to show itself very soon after he came upon the stage.
We have thus far considered chiefly those elements of Boston life which were more or less orderly, and represented by the well-to-do class. It is worth while to have a look at uneasy Boston, whether rendered so by viciousness, poverty, religion, or politics. The very rigor of the statute book was in some cases, doubtless, a provocation to violence and lawless- ness ; and the practice had already been begun of getting rid of troublesome people in England by shipping them to the colonies. The wars with France left soldiers without employment, to wander through the streets; the sudden vacillations in commercial prosperity threw many families on the town, and left others to lose their respectability and drop into immorality; a low ebb in religious life made constraints or appeals to higher law to be angrily resented, and the constant discussion of relations with England, especially under provocation of oppressive shipping laws, kept a mob only just out of sight.
The gentlemen who came especially into view at the middle of the century were anticipated by one mark of gentility as early as 1728, when a duel took place near the powder-house on the Common, between Henry Phillips and Benjamin Woodbridge, on the evening of July 3. Why it took place is shrouded in mystery; but the circumstance itself, and the deep commotion which it produced in Boston society when it was found
1 Acts and Laws of the Province of Mass. Bay, March 23, 1696-1700.
2 Sewall, ii. 24.
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LIFE IN BOSTON IN THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.
that Phillips's rapier had put an end to Woodbridge, and Phillips had escaped to the high seas, may be gathered from the journals of the day, and from the declarations and proclamations of all the prominent men of Boston, from the Governor down. The details are gathered and preserved in Sargent's Dealings with the Dead.1
Both provincial and town ordinances were frequent in their cognizance of the Indian and Negro element. In 1703 it was voted by the General Court that Indians under ten years of age, taken in war, and Indian women, were to be sold as slaves and transported. No Indian was to bind him or herself or child as apprentice except by the allowance of two justices. No Indian, mulatto, or negro servant or slave might presume to be absent from the families to which they respectively belonged, or be found abroad in the night-time after nine o'clock, unless upon some errand for such masters. They were, in default, to be apprehended and brought before a justice, or kept all night in the watch-house.2 It was voted in Boston, July 1, 1728, "That no Indian, negro, or mulatto within the town, except such as are lame or decrepit, presume to carry any stick or cane, either by day or night, or a walking-stick or cane that may be fit for quarrelling or fighting with, or any other thing of that nature." The Boston News-Letter, from its beginning in 1704, was for years scarcely ever without an advertisement in its weekly issue of slaves and Indians for sale, or of runaways from service.3 The advertisements are couched in much the same phrases also, but the name of the seller gives a special significance to one in the News-Letter for Dec. 29, 1726: " A likely Negro Woman to be sold. The Rev. Mr. Prince has a Negro woman about 20 years of age, well-educated, accomplished for all manner of household business, to be disposed of." 4
But for Indians at a distance the traditional missionary zeal still continued.
1 Vol. II. pp. 549-558. There is a briefer account in Shurtleff's Boston, p. 222, who gives the inscription on Woodbridge's headstone, still to be seen from Tremont Street in the Granary Burying-ground.
2 Acts and Laws of the Province of Massa- chusetts Bay, Sept. 8, Dec. 1, 1703.
3 [There is a recapitulation in Dealings with the Dead, i. 149, of some of the advertisements of slaves in the Boston papers. The Rev. John Moorhead, dying in 1775, left, besides furniture and a valuable collection of books, to be sold at auction, "a likely negro lad; the sale to be at the house in Auchmuty's Lane, not far from Liberty Tree."-ED.]
4 [A quarter of a century before this the father of Prince's colleague had produced his famous Antislavery tract, The Selling of Joseph. This creditable production of Judge Sewall is re- printed in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., October, 1863; and in Sewall Papers, ii. 16. It was written at a time, in 1700, when there was "a motion by a Boston Committee to get a law that all importers of negroes shall pay 40s. p head, to discourage
the bringing of them." The Selectmen's Rec- ords, May 26, 1701, show a vote wherein " the representatives are desired to promote the bring- ing of white servants, and to put a period to negroes being slaves." (2 Mass. Hist. Coll., viii. 183.) In 1703 a £4-duty was imposed on import- ed slaves ; and Dr. Belknap said in 1795, on the authority of the oldest merchants then living, that not more than three ships a year, belonging to Boston, were ever employed in the African trade. The Doctor remembered one cargo being brought in almost wholly of children. In 1754-55, of the 2,717 slaves in Massachusetts 989 belonged to Boston. (2 Mass. Hist. Coll., iii. 95.) The trade began to decline about 1765, and was made illegal in 1788. It is claimed that the royal gov- ernors had been instructed by the home govern- ment to withhold consent to any bill looking to its abolishment. Dr. Belknap further says (Mass. Hist. Coll., iv. 197) : " A few only of our mer- chants were engaged in this traffic. It was never supported by popular opinion. A degree of infamy was attached to the characters of those who were employed in it. Several of them in
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
In 1718 " the churches in Boston contributed £483 toward the pious charity for promoting the conversion of the Indians. These churches made annual collections; and besides the collection for this year they had at that time a fund of £800 or £1,000, the income of which was appropriated to that object." 1
In the treatment of criminals the old punishments were reinforced by new ingenuities. The letters of the alphabet were used to ticket classes of crime. Adulterers were to be branded with the letter " A; " 2 burglars, with the letter "B; " forgers, with the letter "F; " incestuous persons, with "I." For a second offence, burglars were to sit on the gallows for an hour, with a rope about the neck and one end over the gallows, - a significant hint cer- tainly. Forgers were to have their ears cut off. The same punishment was inflicted on counterfeiters, who also were liable to be nailed to the pillory by the ear. A cage was provided for the confinement of Sabbath-breakers who might be unable to pay fines, and sometimes served also for those who could pay. The names of common drunkards were posted in public-houses, and keepers of these houses were fined if they sold drink to them.
We have already noted the publicity attending public executions of pirates. This publicity attached to punishment of every kind, as the above instances indicate; but perhaps the most conspicuous illustration of the spirit implied appears in a case recorded by Dr. Ephraim Eliot, in a manu- script note appended to a sermon delivered by his father, Dr. Andrew Eliot, upon the execution of Levi Ames, hung for burglary : -
" Levi Ames was a noted offender ; though a young man, he had gone through all the routine of punishment ; and there was now another indictment against him, where there was positive proof in addition to his own confession. He was tried and condemned for breaking into the house of Martin Bicker, in Dock Square. His con-
their last hours bitterly lamented their concern in it. ... Negro children were reckoned an en- cumbrance in a family, and when weaned were given away like puppies." Dr. Belknap claimed that public opinion put an end to the matter be- fore the law did, and that a flagrant act in 1788 induced its statutory abolishment. One Avery had decoyed three black men aboard his vessel, and had then sailed for the West Indies, where, being offered for sale, they told their story, and the sale was forbidden; when letters arrived from Governor Hancock detailing the facts, they were sent back, and reached Boston in July. - ED.]
1 Holmes, Annals, i. 520. [Sewall makes record (Papers, ii. 261) how reasons of policy dictated a somewhat deferential treatment of Indian visitors to the town. When the five Maquas, or Mohawk chiefs, came to Boston on their way to England, " 1709, Aug. 9, Col. Hob- bey's regiment musters, and the Govr orders the Maquas to be there to see them. Aug. II. The Govr has the 5 Maquas to the Castle and Nan-
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