USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Braintree > Town annual report of Braintree, Massachusetts for the year 1869-1879 > Part 21
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
3 March, 1678. " At a public Town Meeting, it was voted, on the affirma- tive, that Mr. Benjamin Tompson, schoolmaster, shall have this year, for his salary, the rent of the town's land made up thirty pounds; and that the town give him a piece of land to put a house on upon the common, to be set out by Joseph Crosby and Christopher Webb, not exceeding an acre and a half or thereabout; and, in case he leave the town, the land to return to the town, they paying for his building and fencing as it is then worth ; but if he die in the town's service, as schoolmaster, the land to be his heirs' for- ever. It was also agreed that every child should carry in to the school- master half a cord of wood beside the quarter money every year."
The next record we find of Mr. Tompson is many years later. The schoolmaster's occupation seems to have been more of a permanency in that day than it has commonly been of late, even though his dues were not so punctually paid.
" At a public town meeting of the inhabitants of Brantry, as by record the 3d March, 1690, it was voted, on the affirmative, that Mr. Benjamin
71
Tompson should have ten pounds of country pay allowed out of a town rate for this next year ensuing, besides the town land rent which is now in his hands, in case he keep the school lawfully for this present year (1690) at the country price, corn and all other pay accordingly, and do accept what is now promised upon his good attendance of the youth."
2 March, 1696. "It was voted, by the inhabitants of Brantry convened, that Mr. Benjamin Tompson, having many years kept a grammar school in the said town, should, besides the incomes of the town land and rents thereof, have ten pounds added by way of salary for keeping the grammar school for the year 1696, he acquitting and fully discharging the town from all former debts and arrearages to this day on that account, excepting what he may or can obtain in any of the rates or constables' hands which is yet due."
It seems, from the following vote, that the first school-house had already become old. But where it was placed, I have found no means of determin- ing. Mr. Whitney, who gathered much from the tradition of his time, says that it was near the meeting-house of that day. This would be a little to . the north of the Second Congregational Meeting House, în Quincy, at this day.
22 October, 1697. " Voted, then, that a new school-house should be built. . in the road between Clement Cox his house and Gregory Belcher's, hard by the white oak tree : the dimensions of the house to be twenty foot long, the width sixteen foot, and seven foot between joints."
Gregory Belcher's was on the land to the castward of the county road, at the foot of Payne's Hill, in Quincy.
A few months later the good people changed their minds, and voted the old school-house good enough to remove to this place. It may naturally be inferred that it was not more spacious than the one ordered to succeed it.
7 March, 1698. " It was then and there voted, that the old school-house should be removed to the place allotted at a former town meeting, October 22, 1697, or on the land of the Frenches, if attainable, or near to the best conveniency."
A year passes over and then comes a new order. The old school-house shall not be removed, but the new one shall be built in the place indicated. -
7 March, 1699. " Voted, at the same time, that the town shall have a grammar schoolmaster, as also that the present school-house should not be removed, and that a new one should be built."
The old school-house was not, however, used after the new one was built.
The next record shows that the first change brought on a second. A new teacher, the first in half a century, makes his appearance.
18 August, 1699. " Mr. Nathaniel Eells came to Braintree as their town schoolmaster."
13 May, 1700. "Then voted, that the selectmen in being be appointed and empowered a committee to treat and agree with Mr. Eells (or, if he re- fuse, some other) for a schoolmaster for the year ensuing."
72
17 May, 1700. " At a public town meeting, the inhabitants of Braintree, lawfully convened, voted, that for the year ensuing, that is to say, from the 18th of August next ensuing, every scholar shall pay for his entry into the school one shilling, and so successively for every quarter for the whole year, if he shall go more than one quarter, and this shall be a part of the school salary to be paid unto the schoolmaster, and he to give an account of all that come to the selectmen."
Mr. Eells does not seem to have made a lodgment here. For we soon find a new teacher.
6 January, 1701. " Mr. Jeremiah Wise came and began to keep school in Braintree, according to an agreement with the selectmen of said town of Braintree, for thirty pounds one year."
The next provision that we find is both judicious and liberal. Neal, in his History, distinguishes Roxbury and Braintree as noted for their free schools. No doubt the consequence followed that admission was sought from abroad.
26 September, 1701. " First, voted, that the rent of the town lands for- merly paying to the school shall continue as part of the salary ; that the parent or master that shall send any scholar or scholars to said school, shall pay for each scholar to the town treasurer for the support of the school, five shillings a year, and proportionable for any part of it ;
" That any person or persons living out of the town, who shall send any scholar or scholars to the aforesaid school, shall [pay ?] twenty shillings a year to the town treasurer, and proportionable for any part of it ; - provided that any poor persons in this town who shall send any children to said school, and find themselves unable to pay, upon their application to the selectmen, it shall be in their power to abate or remit a part or the whole of the above sum ; -
" That what the rent of the town lands and the head money of the schol- ars shall fall short of the schoolmaster's salary, shall be raised by a town rate, equally proportioned upon the inhabitants of said town."
We now find another teacher.
10 November, 1701. " The selectmen of Braintree did agree with Mr. John Veasey, to keep school in said Braintree for one year, for thirty pounds. The time to begin upon the 10th of November aforesaid."
After all none of the new set suit so well as the old one. Benjamin 'Tompson is invited to supply the place.
16 May, 1704. " Then voted, by the inhabitants of Braintree, lawfully assembled, that the present selectmen treat and agree with Mr. Benjamin Tompson for an abiding schoolmaster, not exceeding thirty pounds per an- num in or as money, during the time he performs the work until the present law referring to schools be repealed."
The law referred to is probably that passed three years before, which, in consequence of the neglect of divers towns to comply with the old statute
·
73
requiring the establishment of a grammar school, and the employment of a teacher " well instructed in the tongues," had enacted more stringent meas- ures, by penalties and otherwise, to enforce the same.
· The following vote applies to the lands conveyed to the town by Codding- ton. It is not unadvisable that later generations should keep it in mind.
24 March, 1707. "Then voted, that the town's school lands that have hitherto been devoted to the use of the school in this town shall lie for the use of the school in this town forever."
Mr. Tompson had disappeared in 1710. He died on the 13th of April, 1714, aged 72 .*
28 November, 1710. " Then voted, that Mr. Adams, the present school- master, be empowered to demand a load of wood of each boy that comes to school this winter."
This provision seems to have proved difficult to enforce. For it is re- peated.
28 December, 1713. " Then voted, that the parents or masters of all chil- dren or servants that go to school, shall forthwith, that is to say, upon their first or next appearance at the school, and so from this day until the first of April next coming, deliver in to the present schoolmaster, for the use of the school at the school-house, three foot of cord wood, to be the proportion for each child or servant for this year."
The following entry appears in the records : -
1 November, 1714. " Then voted, that the money formerly given to this town by Mr. Samuel Veasey, deceased, now in some person's hands, be de- manded and forthwith sued for by the town treasurer, for the use of the town school."
This is followed up by another vote at a later day. It is here placed out of its order, as connected with the preceding.
10 May, 1717. " Then voted, that Deacon Moses Paine, the present town treasurer, should demand (and if need be sue for) the money remaining in Mr. Samuel Marshall's hands (of Boston), which was given by Mr. Samuel Veasey to the free school of this town in and by his last will and testa- ment, - and that according to the tenor of his will."
The records do not inform us what became of this benefaction.
Before this last date, a new and a great step had been taken in the prog- ress of education.
14 May, 1716. " Voted, by the inhabitants of Braintree regularly assem- bled, that there should be a school kept in the south end of this town for
* The following obituary is found in the Record of Deaths :-
Mr. Benjamin Tompson, practitioner of physic for above thirty years, during which time he kept a grammar school in Boston, Charlestown, and Braintree, - hav- ing left behind him a weary world, eight children, and twenty-eight grandchildren, - deceased 13 April, 1714, and lieth buried in Roxbury, aged 72 years.
74
one half of the year, each year, yearly, beginning the first day of October, yearly, for reading and writing, besides the present grammar school, and that to be at the charge of the town."
" Then voted, that an house be erected for the accommodating of a gram- mar school in this town, which shall be in some convenient place, as soon as may be, between the North Meeting-house and Mr. Benjamin Webb's land, by the committee hereafter named and appointed, as they should see meet. Against this vote Captain John Mills entered his dissent."
" Then also voted, that a convenient school-house for writing and reading, be built and set up in some convenient place in the south end of this town, near the meeting-house, as soon as may be, and as the cominittee hereafter named and appointed shall see meet, at the charge of the town."
17 September, 1716. " The Moderator moved to the town, whether the old school-house by Deacon Belcher's should be disposed of as the commit- tee hereafter appointed shall see meet. It passed on the affirmative.
" It was then likewise motioned by the moderator, whether the old school- house near Mr. Benjamin Webb's should be also disposed of as the commit- tee hereafter appointed shall see meet. It passed on the affirmative."
12 May, 1718. " Voted, that the rents of the town's lands be paid in to the town's treasurer, for the support of the grammar school."
The next is the first movement of the schools still farther southward. The peculiar New England device of a movable school, the natural result of a population settling in clusters on a wide surface, here first appears.
28 December, 1718. " Then voted, that the writing and reading school, granted formerly to be kept at the south end of the town, may be removed into more than one place."
A second school for the whole year is presently established.
7 March, 1720. " The Moderator then proposed whether the reading and writing school should be kept the whole year annually at the south end of the town, for the town. It passed on the affirmative."
As not infrequently happened, there was difficulty about designating the places for the movable school.
17 May, 1720. "It was then also voted, that there shall be a writing or reading school annually for the whole year to be kept in the south precinct, in such place or places as a committee now to be chosen, to join with the major part of the selectmen, Mr. Joseph Crosby, Lt. Samuel Allen and Mr. Ephraim Thayer, shall agree, and to agree with the schoolinaster."
15 May, 1728. "The Moderator then put the question to the town whether the middle precinct in the town should have liberty to move the school now kept in that precinct to two other places, to be kept at each place a third of the year, or half a year at each, if the said precinct see cause; provided the said precinct will be at the whole charge of such re- moval, the places nominated being one at the south-east corner of the little pond where the ways part, and the other near the house of Nathaniel Wales. And it was voted in the affirmative."
1
75
The following vote begins to show the movement still further southward towards Randolph.
2 November, 1730. " A memorial of the new south precinct was then laid before the town which was presented at the last town-meeting, concern- ing a school there; and the question being put whether the new south pre- cinct shall have eight pounds paid out of the town's treasury toward sup- porting a school in that precinct yearly until the town take further order, the first year to be understood to commence from March last past ; it passed in the affirmative."
Things went on so for thirty years. It then had become time to fix the sites of the school-houses. The next vote in order is of the 11th of March, 1763 : -
" Voted, That there be a school-house built in each precinct of said town at the town's expense.
" Voted, That the school-house in the middle precinct be erected on the south-east corner of Mr. Benjamin Hayden's land at the lane leading to Mr. Lemuel Thayer's. 1
" Voted, That the school-house in the north precinct be erected opposite to the ten mile stake.
" Voted, The south precinct have liberty to provide a place for to erect a school-house."
Such is the history of the rise and progress of public education in the town, until the period of the separation. Considering the paucity of the population and the extent of the surface over which it was spread, the pro- vision seems to have been timely made and quite sufficient for the occasion. Of the progress of the three towns since it would be difficult to give an adequate sketch without swelling the Appendix too much. It will be enough perhaps to give in brief compass a view of the general condition of the sys- tem at this time.
There were attending school in 1874-75, within the original limits of Braintree : -
In Braintree .
678
Holbrook .
352
Quincy
1;715
Randolph .
753
3,498
No. of Scholars.
Average Attendance.
No. over 15 Years.
No. under 5 Years.
Length of Terms.
Wages per Month.
SCHOOLS.
Summer."
Winter.
Summer.
Winter.
Summer.
Winter.
Summer.
Winter.
Summer.
Winter.
Summer.
Winter.
HIGH.
46
66
413
62₺
22
31
0
0
5
5
50
50
POND GRAMMAR
45
39
33
33
5
0
0
0
5
5
50
50
POND INTERMEDIATE
51
49
42
42}
0
0
0
0
5
5
36
36
POND PRIMARY .
58
50
41
35
0 O
0
0
0
5
5
36
36
UNION GRAMMAR.
34
30
252
26
0
0
0
0
5
5
44
50
UNION INTERMEDIATE
42
41
34
34
0
0
0
0
5
5
36
36
UNION PRIMARY .
63
54
44
41
0
0
0
0
5
5
28
32
IRON WORKS GRAMMAR.
44
37
39
30
0
0
0
0
5
5
50
50
IRON WORKS INTERMEDIATE
44
42
37
35
0
0
0
0
5
5
36
36
IRON WORKS PRIMARY.
70
68
475
0
0
2
4
5
5
36
36
EAST
52
57
40
41
1
2
0
0
5
5
50
50
MIDDLE.
38
39
262
32
1
1
0
1
5
5
36
36
SOUTH EAST.
17
22
13
174
0
0
0
1
5
5
. .
. .
SOUTHI .. .
25
20
18}
163
1
1
0
0
5
5
36
36
SOUTH WEST
23
26
15
20
0
0
0
0
5
5
36
36
WEST .
18
21
12
14
2
6
0
0
5
5
36
36
$150
$150
76
€
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
AT
BRAINTREE, MASS.,
JULY 4, 1876.
,
PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TOWN.
BOSTON : ALFRED MUDGE & SON, PRINTERS, 34 SCHOOL STREET. 1877.
ORATION BY HON. F. A. HOBART.
AN American in a foreign land, speaking of his own coun- try, would naturally dwell upon its national aspects, its history as a whole, its marvellous resources, extended do- main, considering those masculine traits that suggest and reveal force, renown, and results. Upon American soil the same individual will turn with warmer and tenderer emotions to the "spot of his origin," and will be drawn by ties of affection to his home, to the town of his nativity, regarding all that concerns it with minute and special interest.
With such filial regard and affection let us recite, on this glorious anniversary, the story of the birth and growth of our venerable mother town. Tracing back this interesting narrative for two hundred and thirty-six years, we shall find,
" A thousand fantasies Begin to throng into our memory, Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, And airy tongues, that syllable men's names On sands, and stones, and desert wilderness."
That vast scheme of colonization, comprehended and ad- vocated by Bacon,1 and instituted by Raleigh2 with all the brilliance of romance in behalf of the Crown of England, had seized upon the main estuaries of the Atlantic shore between the French occupation of the Saint Lawrence3 in the north, and the lordly Mississippi in the south, - the discovery of which had proved both the glory and the grave
1 Bancroft's Cen. Edition, Vol. I, p. 238.
2 Bancroft's Cen. Edition, Vol. I, p. 86.
8 Bancroft's Cen. Edition, Vol. I, p. 14.
4
of the Spaniard, De Soto ; 1 the Roanoke, Susquehanna, and Delaware had been explored; the James, Piscataqua, and Saco had undergone experiments at settlement ; native chiefs had parleyed with Hudson on the North River, and that majestic stream had been opened to Dutch traffic. That wonderful traveller, whose adventures read like a tale of the Arabian Nights, had sailed this coast from Wessagusset to the Merrimack, and as Whittier, referring to Smith's visit to Cape Ann, informs us, -
" On yonder rocky cape, which braves The stormy challenge of the waves, Mid tangled vines and dwarfed wood, The hardy Anglo-Saxon stood ";
giving in 1614 to this rugged land the name it bears to-day, and to knowledge the first rude map of New England.2
These events had transpired, and the Pilgrims had for ten years lived under that governmental contract conceived on the deck of the " Mayflower," to afterwards become the charter and covenant of an empire, before the occurrence of that immediate emigration which preceded the advent of this
town. And here it is but just to say that the ground of earlier incident and preparation, for the maturing of this ancient town, has been already traversed by diligent students, accomplished scholars, and eloquent orators, and our task to-day is simply to glean from a well-garnered harvest.s
Before the English emigration of 1630, plantations were scattered over the lands in Massachusetts Bay, then counted " the paradise of New England."
Maverick was at East Boston, Thompson occupied an island off Squantum Neck, Blackstone was on the peninsula, 4 and Capt. Wollaston, in search of commercial advantages,
1 Bancroft's Cen. Edition, Vol. I, p. 50.
2 See 3d, 4th, 7th, and Sth chaps. Bancroft's Cen. Edition, History of the United States, with reference to early settlements by the English.
3 Whitney's notes upon Quincy, Lunt's Second Century Sermons, C. F Adams's Town Hall Oration, at Braintree, in text, notes, and appendix, are very thorough upon certain points of our preliminary history.
4 Bancroft's Cen. Edition, Vol. I, p. 266.
5
rested in this distinct locality a short time previous to his departure for Virginia.
Stepping into his vacant place, and making the first permanent settlement in Massachusetts, after Plymouth, we have Thomas Morton,' of somewhat unpleasant reputation, who caused the primary memories of our vicinity to be somewhat conspicuous for ribaldry and disorder.
This frolicsome gentleman, on the very outpost of our civilization, was addicted to contraband trade and much intercourse with the "brew of Soma," and by his bacchana- lian orgies, interspersed with aboriginal variations, he earned an unenviable notoriety.
One of the rhymes of the " Wayside Inn" speaks of Sir Christopher, "Knight of the Holy Sepulchre," who wore, in the streets of Boston, -
" Doublet and hose and boots complete, Prince Rupert's hat and ostrich plume,"
passing his leisure hours with "roystering Morton, of Merry Mount," but who was afterwards " extradited " for his immoralities, proving, if the poet Longfellow is correct,
" The first who furnished this barren land With apples of Sodom and ropes of sand "
It must be admitted that our carliest landed proprietor, selling gunpowder and rum, and carousing with " ye savages," was of that order of citizen thought proper in these days " to send to the rear,"2 and so Morton, very consistently, was ordered to be " put in the bilbows " and sent to England.
It seems somewhat singular that this quiet, respectable, and sedate town, for more than two centuries pursuing a calm life of sobriety and integrity, should have been ante- dated by a loose, lawless, and reckless barrister, and a cavalier who was a Jesuit in disguise, - men who, in their conduct and opinions, were guilty of everything obnoxious
1 See Whitney's Quincy ; New England Memorial, pp. 136-138 ; Hutchin- son's History, Vol. I, p. 32 ; also, C. F. Adams, Jr.'s, address at 250th anniversary of settlement of Weymouth, p. 30.
2 Hon. C. F. Adams refers to Morton as a " carpet-bagger."
6
to the devout settler, who came here out of hatred to prelacy and the manners of the court.
Wollaston, not finding this point, as a " trading post," quite as profitable and successful as such affairs have proved on the frontiers in our times, left for richer pastures, his name, however, adhering to this range of land.
The attempt to change the name to "Merry Mount," though signalized with unbecoming revel, was futile, as was also the short-lived effort of Endicott to call the place " Mount Dagon," when, in Christian wrath, he cut down the offensive May-pole which stood on the particular elevation known from 1625 to this hour as " Mount Wollaston."
The first decade of the Massachusetts Colony developed great activity and progress, while it exhibited serious differ- ences in material, and grave dissensions in spiritual affairs.
The year 1628 found Salem struggling for existence, with Endicott as its central figure. Two years later Winthrop and Dudley sailed into waters, since made famous as a harbor of great maritime importance, having with them seven hundred associates.
Dispersion soon colonized Lynn, Malden, Charlestown, and Boston. Pynchon and Eliot located at Roxbury ; Hooker, the "Light of the Western Churches," as history delights to call him, halted at Cambridge before he felt called upon " to go west " as far as Connecticut ; Salstonstall and Phillips advanced to Watertown; Ludlow planted at Dorchester, and according to Hubbard, twenty considerable towns were built and peopled shortly after 1630.1 The General Court had commenced its sessions, and the elders and church began that authority which for a century ruled the New World, as absolutely as crown and Parliament did the Old .?
An attempt on the part of the magistrates to check exces- sive attendance on lectures and sermons, as injurious to the public " by a consumption of time," was suppressed by the
1 Bancroft's Cen. Edition, 9th chapter.
2 It is one of the traditions that Blackstone left Boston, as he said, "to get away from the tyranny of the Lord's brethren," as he left England to get rid of the "Lord's Bishops."
7
church, though the movement seems to have accomplished its object, as I have heard of no account since then of any particular danger from inordinate church-going.
Cotton, "an acute and subtle spirit," assistant pastor of the First Church, opposing rotation in office, advocated the notion, somewhat in vogue now, that the right of an official to his place was like that of a "proprietor in a freehold." 1 Winthrop led the magistrates and the church party, and was vanquished by Henry Vane, the brilliant young statesman, who, acting with the freemen of Boston, precipitated the grand contest, based on the idea of the "absolute control of the majority in civil affairs." True to this promise of his youth, Vane afterwards died gloriously on the scaffold in England, a martyr to liberty.2 Another prominent dis- turbance in the young colony, upon religious matters, had an important bearing upon the destinies of this town. What may very properly be called the first or the original " Woman's Club," so far as this hemisphere is concerned, was held in Boston in 1636 or thereabouts, at the house of Mrs. Hutchinson,3 and there was nestled and nurtured that heated controversy called by its advocates "the conflict of faith against works," but stigmatized by its adversaries as the " antinomian heresy," and honored by the historian Bancroft 4 as being the legitimate fruit of the Protestant idea, and a bold vindication of " the right of private judgment." This division of sentiment led to the assignment of Rev. John Wheelwright to preach at " the church to be gathered at Mount Wollaston" in 1636, the territory having been annexed to Boston in 1634.5 Having, a year after his set-
1 Bancroft's Cen. Edition, Vol. I, p. 286.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.