USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Walpole > The story of Walpole, 1724-1924; a narrative history prepared under authority of the town and direction of the Historical Committee of Bi-Centennial > Part 7
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The account also gives expenditures for various articles for housekeeping and labor with which the French had been provided-"a little Sithe with a Snirfe [snath] and tacke all New Fitt to Mowe with," a "Burial [barrel] for Beer," "a littel Spinning Wheal" and "one pair of Luambs." The bill for the year totalled 36 pounds 8 shillings, and was signed by Seth "Kingsbery" and James Clap, overseers of the poor.
The condition of the exiles did not improve in the following summer. In November another account was sent to the Provincial authorities.
"The Province of the Masehusetts Bay debtor us the Suscribers for what we have let the
1 Mass. Arch., XXIII, 626. 2 Ibid.
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Nuterrael French haue since we haue tookcare of them which is Since the Seventh Day of last March," the statement reads in part. "We haue two familyes of them in this Town Viz Mr. James Duntremon of eighty-seven years of age his Wife of sixty two years of age his son Joseph of twenty nine years of age and his Daughter Margaret of twenty two years of age ... as also Peter Robbeshor of thirty three years of age his wife of Thirty years of age his son Peter of fiue years and son Joseph of one year and half.
"as to Duntremons family we have found them almost all their provision that they have eate forwe Judge that they have not been able to get it them selues for the old man is very crasey and his wife has Been sick two or three months this sumer Past with the feaver and eager and his son Joseph has been not well almost all sumer But he is got Something Better now and is att work to get him self cothes and to get some wool to make clothes for his father. and Margaret looks after her father and mother and gets herself Cloaths and spins for the family :
"we haue found some prouision for Robbe- shors family in the month of march and some in Apriel as you may see underneath how much for Each family. but since about the midel of Last Apriel Robbeshor hath Suported him self and family but we think he cant maintain his family
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this winter for his wife is very poore he has two Small children now and his wife is almost Redy to have the third and they are very Poorly of it for Cloathes."
Then follows an account of various articles purchased for the exiles, among them "two Bushel of Lettle white Beans", one bushel of "Potators", "four Duzen of Pidgeons", "382 gurts of milk att two copers a quart" and "Tarr and some Rum that the Doctor ordered Joseph Duntremon to take when he was not weel".
There is on record the receipt for 14 shillings paid by "Mrrs Selectmen of Warbol to Sigmund Bondeli Doctor of Hapgintoun" for services and medicine for Joseph Dantremon in June, 1758. The unhappy Acadian had probably begged for the services of one of his own race.2
The overseers, Josiah Morse and Benjamin Kingsbery, apparently worried over getting the money, note that "These may serue to Let your Honnours Know that the most of these articules we Bought and Paid our money for them" and that they "hope we shall not haue our account cut short any." By this time the Province had come to understand that chances of reimburse- ment from England were exceeding slim, and had begun to pare expenses wherever possible.
These Acadians were placed by the town in an old house of Jeremiah Dexter which stood near 1 Mass. Arch., XXIV, 81. ' Ibid., 82a.
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the little burying ground at present Main and Kendall Streets.1 There they spent a terrible winter of 1758-59. "We found provision for Duntremons family all the time," says a report made in June, 1759, "and we ware oblidged to find a grat Part of Robbeshors Prouision for he has Been under very Low Circumstances almost all winter his wife was Brought to Bed about the tenth or twelth of December and she was Sick till march and She was so Bad a grat Part of the Time that many People thought she would not Live: and we got two Doctors too her.
"but after she got so well as go out of Doors she had no Shoes to Put on her feet and Robbe- shor said he had nothing to get her a Pare with all and we gave her a Pare and in Cold Weather in the winter Robbeshor went about with one Poor thin Jacqet and he said he had no other Cloaths to keep him warm and we thought he suffered for want of Cloaths. and we Let him haue some Cloath and Buttons and morehair to make him a Jacqet withall . . . ". 2
.
In May, 1759, the Robbeshors went to dwell at Wrentham,3 having been removed at the re- quest of the Walpole Selectmen. The latter, Jedediah Morse, Aquilla Robbins and Henry Smith, had in the previous January empowered Capt. Josiah Clap "to Petition the General 1 Lewis, 97. 2 Mass. Arch., XXIV, 206.
' Ibid., 206, 272.
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Court to Remoue Some of ye Neuteral French from us for we haue ben ouer Burdened with them for we have had ten aboue two years Therefore it is our Desire that your Honours would Remoue them to Wrentham or some other Place where they haue not had Their Prepor- tion."1
Old James D'Autremont died July 28, 1759,2 after long suffering. The account for the year 1759-60 includes an item "To Dantoromins Funeril Diging the Grave and his
Coffin and Grave Cloaths 0. 19. 0"
The poor old man was laid away in the nearby burying place, 3 far from his beloved home.
Just how many of the French Neutrals were now left in Walpole is not clear and the press of time does not allow of a study of the problem. From somewhere two additional Dantromonts appeared on the scene; so that when a reap- portionment of the Acadians was made in the summer of 1760 we find Margaret, Paul and Benoni "Dautromont" left in Walpole, and Joseph and Margaret "Dautrimont" sent from Walpole to Chelsea.4 This is a sample of how families were broken up. The Margaret who remained in Walpole probably was James Dan- tromont's widow, and those who went to Chelsea
1 Mass. Arch, XXIV, 109.
" Ibid., 272.
1 Lewis, 98.
4 Mass. Arch, XXIV, 388.
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her adult children. Paul and Benoni may have been grandchildren, or even her own children who had been previously separated from her.
Perhaps it was the continued presence of the Acadians that moved the town in 1762 to appeal to the General Court "to Git us Eased of ye burden Laid upon us. . . "1 Walpole was not alone in its desire to rid herself of these un- fortunates. Various plans were suggested, among them one in 1763 to send such of the Acadians as desired to Old France. When this was proposed, among those who expressed a readiness to go were Joseph Dautermont and his wife, Natalie (evidently a bride) and "La Veuve [widow] Margrite Dantermon" with two sons [Paul and Benoni?] and a daughter [Margaret?].2 This plan, however, fell through, and the exiles stayed on, dreaming of their old homes.
Finally, after 10 years, permission was granted for them to return to Canada as best they could. But how? They appealed to the General Court to lend them vessels and provide food. "The House can't think it prudent that this Govern- ment should be at further expense concerning them," was the vote of the Representatives.
Thus rejected, there was but one way open to them. Gathering their scant possessions they banded themselves together, more than 1 Town Rec., 179. ? Mass. Arch. XXIV, 490.
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800 of them, old and young, and started in the summer of 1766 to walk back overland from Boston through Maine, to their old homes.1 Among these were the Dantremons (eight of them now; two children probably had been born to Joseph and Natalie); and the Robishors or Robichaux also, who had been dwelling in Medfield.2
Thus they pass from our history. Whether some of them were among those who died on the long march, we do not know. Many of this brave band settled along the St. John river, where their descendants still dwell. Others got back to Nova Scotia, to find their lands held by the English. They were given bits of arid territory on the coast.
But whate'er the story, Walpole saw no more of them. On May 22, 1766, the thrifty towns- people sent in a bill of 13 shillings 4 pence to the Province "for ye Carring of our Neutral Frenches Goods to Boston."
While Walpole was thus having its troubles at home with the French Neutrals, the French and Indian War had been raging on the fron- tiers. About the time the Acadians were torn from their homes by one Massachusetts force (September, 1755), another army of several thousand colonial militiamen had reached the lower end of Lake Champlain, intent upon 1 Bailey, 98. 2 Mass. Arch., XXIV, 567-69.
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capturing the French fort at Crown Point, and then of marching upon Canada.1 This force in- cluded a company under Capt. William Bacon of Dedham, which had a few Walpole residents, Ethanan Boyden among them, in its ranks. The company was 13 weeks in service and re- turned home in December, 1755,2 after having given the French a taste of Yankee marksman- ship, though the objectives had not been at- tained.3
The tales of adventure told by those who had participated in the expedition doubtless stimu- lated enlistments; and when Bacon's company, which was a part of Col. Richard Gridley's regiment, mustered at Dedham on May 3, 1756, no less than 16 Walpole men, about a fourth of the whole, were in its ranks.' Boyden, 25 years old, now had become Ensign of the company. Other Walpole residents who had enrolled for this special service were George Cleavland, 45, a native of North Kingston, black- smith by trade; William Marshall, 42, native of Ipswich, a weaver; Thomas Ball, native of Truro, cordwainer; Nicholas Buckley, 29, native of England, a laborer; William Grifis, 22, native of London, set down on a later roll as "marraner"; John Smith, 20, a laborer; Jona- than Boyden, 19, laborer; John Hooper, 19,
1 Palfrey, V, 138 et seq. 2 Muster Rolls, Mass. Arch., XCIV, 64.
* Palfrey, V, 139 et seq. 4 Mass. Arch, XCIV, 161.
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laborer; 1 Isaiah Lyon, 18, laborer; Adam Blackman, 20, native of Dorchester, a Black- smith; Ebenezer Boyden, 21, laborer; Philip White, 21, native of Norton, laborer; William Smith, 20, native of Ipswich, blacksmith; Samuel Kindal [Kendall], 21, native of Framingham, cordwainer; and Joseph Antony, 24, native of Spain, a laborer. All save those otherwise placed were native Walpolians, and nearly all of them were members of Capt. Joshua Clap's Walpole militia company.2 An entry in Bacon's manuscript diary shows that they enlisted March 29.3
On May 8 the company set out on its march from Dedham to Albany, and thence to Fort William Henry, at the lower end of Lake George. Details of the march and garrison duty are told in the diary of Capt. Bacon, which also gives an interesting picture of life in a frontier fort. It is refreshing to note that on Oct. 5 "a number of wagons came in this night with rum which was very exceptable for we had non befor for three days." There was evidently no serious shortage thereafter, for on the 9th Capt. Bacon noted: "at the Camp near fort wm Henary this Day was Coart marshal held at my tent and I was
1 Given on another roll as a "bloomer" or helper in a blooming mill. Mass. Arch., XCIV, 334.
' Muster Roll, Mass. Arch., XCIV, 334.
¿ Mss. Diary owned by G. A. Plimpton.
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prasadant . . . to try tumen and one wee cleared and the other we gave fifty Lashes for gitting drunk and leaving his post when he was up one sentry."
Though there were no important military operations, and the few losses in action were confined to local scouting expeditions, the sani- tary conditions were such that sickness soon broke out among the troops. A muster of Bacon's company on Oct. 11 showed that George Cleveland and John Smith were dead, Lyon was either killed or taken prisoner, and Jonathan and Ebenezer Boyden, John Hooper, William Marshall, and Samuel Kendall, of the Walpole men, were on the sick list. As both Capt. Bacon and Lieut. Ephraim Jackson also were sick, Ensign Boyden must have commanded the company at that time. 1
Bacon records in his diary on Oct. 23, 1756: "I peaid forti six shillings to a man for selling the things that belonged to Georg Cleauland a Beingiman Ledite [Ledoit? of Dedham] and Isiah Lyon and Ebenezer Clap [Bridgewater]. "
In the summer of 1757 the French, under Montcalm, took the offensive, and after a short siege captured Ft. William Henry,2 destroyed it, and then established their own advance post at Ticonderoga, just south of Crown Point.
A year passed before the English moved out 1 Mass. Arch., XCIV, 454. ' Palfrey, V, 151.
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against them. This expedition, which included more than 15,000 troops, of which between six and seven thousand were regulars and rangers, and the balance provincials, was the largest military force that had ever been assembled in America.1 The management was bungled from the start. An attack on the outworks of Ticonderoga, defended by about 6000 French, mostly Canadians and Indians, was repulsed with heavy loss; and the expedition wound up in a precipitate retreat, with heavy loss of men and supplies.
Walpole men were among the participants in this expedition, as members of Capt. Eliphalet Fales' company, of Dedham. They included Ethanan Boyden, now a lieutenant, Stephen Felch and Josiah Perry, sergeants, Nathaniel Preble, a corporal, and Philip Barder, Edward Cleaveland, John Dexter and Seth Farrington, privates.2 It is probable that Walpole men also participated in the final campaigns of the war that led to the loss of Canada by the French.
For the colonial militia these early struggles were training schools for the Revolution. The men saw that they could hold their own with the best of the British regulars. It gave them a confidence that was to make itself felt later at Lexington and Bunker Hill.
1 Hutchinson, III, 70. 2 Mass. Arch., XCVI, 436.
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CHAPTER EIGHT
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O N Wednesday, Sept. 21, 1768, this record was set down in the Town Book of Wal- pole :
"Voted that they will Send one Person to Join the Committees at Faniuel Hall, Joshua Clap was Chosen and appointed for the said purpose." 1
It is one of the most significant. entries in all the town records, for it gives notice that Walpole is prepared to join forces with the patriots of America to prevent a usurpation of the people's rights.
The situation in Massachusetts was critical. The efforts of England to lay taxes upon the Colonists had aroused resistance through the land. The laws, which were held by the Ameri- cans to be unjust, illegal and unwarranted, were openly ignored and evaded; and so high did public feeling run, that the King's Commission- ers of Customs, who made their headquarters at Boston, had removed themselves and families 1 Town Rec., 225.
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to Castle William on Castle Island, for fear of violence.
"It is impossible for us to set foot in Boston untill there are two or three regiments in the town to restore and support Government," they had written to England on July 11. To this appeal, and the appeals of the Royal Governor of the Province, Sir Francis Bernard, the home government gave answer by ordering troops to Boston. Bernard learned of it early in Septem- ber; and on the 8th he allowed the news to be- come public in order to prevent any violent ex- plosion by the unannounced arrival of troops.
On September 12 a special town meeting at Boston demanded of Bernard that he call an immediate session of the General Court so that it might consider the grave situation brought about by the prospect of troops being quartered among the people. Bernard refused. He had dissolved the Legislature on July 1 because it had called upon all the colonies to unite in op- position to Parliamentary taxation, and had re- fused, when ordered from England, to rescind its resolution.
Bernard's refusal was met by the towns- people with a general call to all the towns of Massachusetts to send representatives to Faneuil Hall on September 22 to consider measures for the peace and safety of the people. It was in response to this request that Joshua Clap was
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appointed to represent Walpole. He joined the representatives of 96 towns and 8 districts in an address to Bernard deploring the fact "that a Standing Army is immediately to be intro- duced among the people" contrary to the Bill of Rights, and asking that the General Assembly, the representative body of the people, be called together.
Bernard was no stranger to Walpole residents. Back in 1760 when he had first come to assume authority in the Massachusetts Province, he had travelled through their town. On August 1 of that year he had come from Providence to Wrentham and had spent the night there. Next morning, accompanied by a part of the Gov- ernor's troop of Horse Guards, he had passed in state through Walpole to Dedham and thence to Boston.1 At that time Walpole people doubtless doffed their hats and cheered him. But they had come to know him better; well enough even to write letters about him to the Boston Gazette,2 organ of the extreme patriot group. And now they sent Joshua Clap to defy him.
Bernard's reply to the address was a denuncia- tion of the assembly as "a notorious violation" of the constituted authority of the Province. He called upon it to immediately dissolve.
1 Boston Gazette, Aug. 4, 1760.
2 Boston Gazette, March 7, 1768, editor's note.
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"The King" he wrote, "is determined to main- tain his entire Sovreignty over this Province; and whoever shall persist in usurping any of the rights of it, will repent of his rashness." But the threat had no effect upon the delegates; and they remained in session, an outlawed body, until a few days before the British troops came sailing into the harbor, on September 28, 1768.
The coming of the Redcoats was a challenge, not only to Boston, but to every town of America. Walpole's answer was a new interest in affairs outside her own boundary. From the year of her incorporation she had not cared enough about provincial affairs to send a representative to the General Court. But now, with critical times ahead, she rose to the emergency. On May 29, 1769, the people elected Capt. Seth Kingsbury to be their first representative. 1 He was succeeded a year later by Joshua Clap.2
From now on we see Walpole taking an active part in every history-making movement. When popular feeling was aroused by the report that not only had the Royal Governor, Thomas Hutchinson (successor to Bernard), accepted emoluments from the Crown, but that the Massachusetts judges also were to be paid from the Royal treasury, thus making themselves independent of the people here, the Selectmen of Walpole, in response to petition by "a num- 1 Town Rec., 229. 2 Ibid., 236.
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ber of the Inhabitants" called a special town meeting for January 12, 1773 for the "Con- sideration of the many Grievances that the Province and Colonies Labour under. . . . " 1 And when the people came together in the meeting house they voted "That it is the opinion of this Town that our Rights and liberties are Infringed upon which is a great Grievance," and they appointed a committee to draft instructions to guide their representative in his actions. The committee was made up of Ensign Seth Bullard, Enoch Ellis, Dr. Samuel Cheney, George Payson, and Aquila Robbins.
A few days later the following instructions were adopted, and a "coppy" of them trans- mitted to "the Committee of Corrispondance for the Town of Boston," which, under Sam Adams' direction, had stirred the towns to action.
"First, we are Sensible that the Rights and Liberties of the People of the American Colonies are invaded and Infringed in many Instances needles to be enumarated being Sufficiantly pointed out already by many in this province
"Secondly we determine that we will unite with our loyal Brethren in this and other Provinces in any Constitutional manner as shall best appear to procure a Redress of our Griev- ances
"Thirdly we Instruct our Representative to 1 Town Rec., 251.
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promote an Adress to his majesty requesting him to repeal Such Acts as to us appea Grievous and that he the Sd Representative use all possible Precaution that Said Address may Reach the Royal Ear
"Fourthly that our Representative enquire into a Report lately Spread concerning the Dependancy of the Honourable Justices of the Superior Court upon the Crown for Support and to act thereon as to him shall Seen Best in order to prevent the evil thretned and likely therefrom to ensue
"Fifthly that if the Judges have not a Sup- port from the Province adequate to their Im- portant Stations and Services the said Repre- sentative is hereby instructed to use his In- fluance to procure the same for them
"Sixthly we caution our Representative against being perswaded of the friendly In- tention of any Person whatsoever who shall designedly keep or endeavor to keep in Ignorance the People of the province respecting the Salary of the Judges aforesaid." 1
Thus we find the towns, Walpole among them, acting in concert in matters of public welfare- the beginnings of an American union.
There was a breathing spell at this point- a spell that was to be broken after more than a year by the Boston Tea Party and The Boston 1 Town Rec., 252, 253.
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Port Bill. But in this interval Walpole pre- pared for what many could see for the future.
On May 20, 1773 the town appropriated five pounds "to Build a Powder House." It was to be "Six foot square & Six foot Between joints" and was to be set "on the Widow Robbin's High hill if she Will consent to it." 1 The Widow consented, and the hill is known as Powder House Hill to this day. The house, it seems, actually cost only 4 pounds 10 shillings, that amount being paid over to the committee- Joseph Day, Phillip Robbins and Ebenezer Clap -a year later .? In June, 1774, with armed conflict fast approaching, the town voted to add "one hundred and fifty Pound weight of Good Gunpowder and Bullets and flints in Pro- portion" to the stock of ammunition. 3
The Port Bill, closing the port of Boston to commerce, was by this time in effect; and im- mediately following it came the Regulating Acts providing that members of the Council or upper house of the General Court should thereafter be appointed by the King, instead of being nomi- nated by the Representatives; that Judges and other officials likewise should be Crown ap- pointees; that Town Meetings should be pro- hibited save for the sole purpose of electing officers; that magistrates, revenue officers and soldiers charged with capital offences could be
1 Town Rec., 257. : Ibid., 265. ' Ibid., 267.
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tried in England or Nova Scotia, and that troops could summarily be quartered upon towns.
These acts became effective August 1, 1774, but were disregarded. Though town meetings were illegal, Walpole held one August 29 and chose "Deligats" to meet committees of the other towns in Suffolk county "in order to Con- sult what measures is Proper to be taken for the Safety of the County." The committees were to meet "at mr Woodwards at Dedham the Sixt Day of September." Nathaniel Guild, Enoch Ellis and Dr. Samuel Cheney were named for this occasion and for such other conventions as might meet "from time to time During the Towns pleasure." 1
This historic gathering of Suffolk representa- tives met at the appointed time and place and after deliberations, adjourned and met again September 9 at the home of Daniel Vose, at the Milton Lower Mills. On that occasion the famous Suffolk Resolves, drawn by Joseph Warren, were adopted and shortly afterwards published as a broadside. The document, the most revolutionary produced in America up to this time, among other things denounced The Port Bill, declared that "no Obedience is due from this Province," recommended that tax collectors or constables retain their tax money "untill the Civil Government of the Province is
1 Town Rec., 268.
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placed upon a constitutional Foundation, or until it shall otherwise be ordered by the pro- posed Provincial Congress," condemned the proceedings of the military at Boston, threatened to seize Crown officers as hostages if the Royal Governor dared make arrests for political reasons and arranged a courier system to keep the towns in close touch with each other.
It is of interest to Walpole to know that the only one of the 19 resolutions in which members of the committee or towns were named, was as follows:
"15. That under our present Circumstances it is incumbent on us to encourage Arts and Manu- factures amongst us by all Means in our Power, and that Joseph Palmer, Esq; of Braintree, Mr. Ebenezer Dorr of Roxbury, Mr. James Boies and Mr. Edward Preston of Milton, and Mr. Nathaniel Guild of Walpole, be and hereby are appointed a Committee to consider the best Ways and Means to promote and establish the same, and report to this Convention as soon as may be." 1
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