USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Truro > Truro-Cape Cod; or, Land marks and sea marks > Part 15
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
In 1641 twelve persons were enjoined "to bring their muskets, with shot and powder, every Lord's day, to the meeting, with their swords and furniture to every piece, ready for service if need should require." Hence McFingal wrote : -
So once for fear of Indian beating, Our grandsires bore their guns to meeting, Each man equipped on Sunday morn, With Psalm-book, shot, and powder horn, And looked in form as all must grant, Like th' ancient, true church militant, Or fierce, like modern deep divines, Who fight with quills, like porcupines.
In 1643 men ordered to be raised were to be provided with "musket, firelock or matchlock, a pair of candoliers, or pouches for powder and bullets, a sword and belt, a worm
172
TRURO-CAPE COD.
and scourer, a rest and knapsack." The old-fashioned match- lock guns had to be fired with a match, usually a slow-match ; consequently a "rest " must be carried to steady the gun while the match was applied.
Rev. Mr. Matthews, of Yarmouth, was fined for preaching without the allowance of the magistrate, ten pounds. It was "ordered, that card-playing be punished by a fine of fifty shil- lings, and that servants or children at dice, cards, or other unlawful games, be corrected by their masters, for the first offence, for the second to be publicly whipped. Joseph Allen, for being at a Quaker meeting, was fined ten shillings ; William Newland, for entertaining a Quaker, was fined five pounds. We must not cling to the delusion that all the Quakers of that day were the sleek, unruffled type. "Thomas, thou liest," said the Quaker Norton, in the Gen- eral Court, to Governor Thomas Prince. It is a matter of history that as soon as the oppressive laws that roused the lion in this sect were abolished, they became lambs again. There were other turbulent men besides the Quakers, that the magistrates had to meet. The Old Colony was no Saint's Rest. One Joe Burge, of Sandwich, was often before the court and fined for selling rum to the Indians. On one occasion he was fined five pounds, when he had the bad taste to swear in court, and was again fined.
About 1700 the long-bent bow began to lose its force, and a reaction in public sentiment became apparent, which resulted in a popular expression for less law, especially in the churches which were becoming schismatic, "the people preferring to improve their own gifts."
" A man was fined five pounds for taking upon himself to cure the scurvy, by a preparation of no value, which he sold at a very dear rate, and to be imprisoned till he shall pay his fine, or give security for it, or else be whipped, and shall be liable for any man's action of whom he has received money for the said preparation."
In 1667, two young women in Sandwich petitioned the town to be relieved from a fine imposed for laughing in meeting, on an occasion when the tithing-man was driving
173
HOW THEY WORSHIPED.
some yelping curs out of the meeting-honse. In 1651 it was ordered that if any lazy, slothful, or profane person, in any of the towns, neglect to attend public worship, they shall for each offence pay ten shillings, or be publicly whipped. In 1661, a man in Eastham was fined one pound for lying about a whale. This is supposed to be the original "Fish Story."
Tobacco was another source of legislation. Its origin was imputed to the devil. Much opposition was made against it in England. King James' frown greatly increased its popu- larity. Old Joshua Sylvester poetized :
If there be any herb in any place Most opposite to God's good herb of grace, 'Tis doubtless this, and this doth plainly prove it, That for the most, most graceless men do love it.
The tobacco plant seems indigenous to the Western world, and at the time of its discovery was unknown to civilization. The East had its hashish, described by Whittier : -
The Mollah and the Christian dog Change place in mad Metempsychosis, The Muezzin climbs the synagogue, The Rabbi shakes his head at Moses.
It remained for the West to introduce the most popular nar- cotic known to man, and that has followed commerce around the world. The Indians almost existed on tobacco. Their dreamy, idle temperament seemed constitutionally adapted to this intoxicant.
Roger Williams says he has known an Indian to go alone into the forest, with a small pouch of corn and a large pouch of tobacco, and be absent weeks. To the Christian accom- plishment of rum-drinking was quickly added the savage one of eating and drinking tobacco.
An old record says : "The early farmers devoted perhaps quite as much time to the tobacco yard as to the cornfield. It was his physic in sickness, food and comfort at all times."
A Proclamation, or Approbation
From the King of Execration, to every Nation For Tobacco's Propagation .- The Water Poet.
-
174
TRURO - CAPE COD.
During the early wars, it was drawn with other rations by the soldiers and sailors. Smoking tobacco then called drink- ing, was carried to a great extravagance. Divine service was often disturbed by the clink of flint and steel to light their pipes. The burnt sacrifice ascended joyfully with their prayers.
Here was new work for the court. In 1669 they passed the following : "It is enacted that any person or persons that shall be found smoking of tobacco on the Lord's day, going to, or coming from the meeting, within two miles of the meeting-house, shall pay twelve pence for every such default, for the Colonies use to be increased," etc. The enactment against smoking within two miles of the meeting- house was soon construed to have no bearing on those who have a mind to smoke in the meeting-house. It is said all enjoyed the fragrance, though all did not join in making it. Joshua and Jedediah Lombard were fined for smoking on the Lord's Day outside of the Yarmouth meeting-house. It was also enacted, "That if any persons take tobacco while they are empaneled upon a jury, to forfeit five shillings for every default, except they have given their verdict, or not to give it till the next day." Admitting that when the jury required a clear head, tobacco must be set aside.
In was the duty of the constables "to attend att ye great doores of ye meeting-house every Lord's day, to keepe ye doores fast, and suffer none to goe out before ye whole exer- cises are ended." There was a committee chosen to seat the people. First, the aged who served the town. Second, those who have borne commissions. Then as respect to age, : or rates, or town taxes, etc. Behind all, ready for service, the men of military titles were seated. In some places, the young men and maidens in the gallery - separated by a high railing and separate steps. The boys were on benches by the wall, under ward of the tything-men. The men sat on the right, the women on the left. These rules were probably mostly during the early history of the Colony and before the privilege of building pews at their own expense became the fashion.
4
1
175
HOW THEY WORSHIPED.
Funerals were expensive, and if carried out to the extreme fashion few could afford to die. I apprehend, however, that the style of " shoes and clogs," "hose and gloves," " neck- lace for the negro," "a large beaver hat, and a light gray bob-wig for a brother minister," and "eighteen pair of men's white cotton gloves," was not practised much in Truro. An old record states : " The same quantity of rum and sugar were necessary for burying a minister as for raising the meeting- house." It is quite refreshing, even in our age of abuses and errors, to know that the world has perhaps never had less positive follies, if we fairly consider all the conditions.
There were no bells in those days, but every town had a drum, as by colonial law; a fine of forty shillings was demanded of every town two months without one. So the drum performed double duty ; to drum the people out to meeting, and to give warning of the lurking savage. It required, it is said, an educated ear not to confound the drum ecclesiastical with the drum military. Some of these extreme forms, though a part of Old Colony history, had either passed away, or were considerably modified by prac- tice in Truro at the time of which we write.
As long ago as 1745 there were bad boys : as at that time "tiding men" were appointed to take care of the boys, that they don't play in meeting on the Sabbath, and keep the dogs out of the meeting-house. Fifty years ago the tiding- man was a recognized officer in our churches, but, vastly shorn of power, he was a shadow only of his former glory.
Hudson in his History of Lexington says : "To be a tithing- man was as honorable as to be a selectman or a magistrate. "
I find the following description of the tiding or tithing- man in his palmy days, in an old New England history : " Some staid and vigilant person was chosen to have inspec- tion of the audience during the public exercises. His frequent rounds kept the urchins in order; the badge of his office was a pole with a knob at one end, and a tuft of feathers at the other. With the knob he rapped the men's heads, and with the feathers he brushed the ladies' faces when he caught them napping. It is said this officer was once rebuked for
176
TRURO - CAPE COD.
rapping the head of a nodding man whom he thought was drowsing, when in fact he was only nodding assent to the sermon. " In 1748 Mr. Thomas Cobb must have been that "staid and vigilant person, " as he was appointed to correct the boys. But the boys still continued to play, as four years later, " a man was appointed to take care of and chastise the boys who play in meeting." The boys did not improve, and afew years later " Charles Annis, Benjamin Lewis, and Solomon Dyer were appointed to correct and whip the boys that are disorderly on Sabbath days at or about the meeting-house. " Perhaps the great trouble from the boys arose from the mis- take of having them sit in the galleries free from parental oversight. The boys or girls that could sit together through two of those long services and not play, probably died young and went straight to heaven. The pews were square, and the prayers long. It was the good custom, and the only worship- ful one after kneeling, for all to stand through the prayer. To make more comfortable room, the seats were all hung on hinges, and lifted during the service. The boys were self- constituted custodians of the uprising and downsitting ; a little rivalry made lively clattering at the close of this solemn ceremony. The pews were finished with a balustrade perhaps ten inches high ; less ornate and higher, but nearly the same style as used on the pews of the new Trinity Church in Boston. Through these loop-holes the children could watch each other and report discoveries.
Days of humiliation were set for prayer and fasting. These were figuratively days of sackcloth and ashes, in which they supplicated the Divine interposition. Rev. Mr. Lothrop, of Barnstable, refers to these Humiliations in his journal, March 24, 1640 :
" In regard of England and for others and our owne par- ticular. " " January 10, 1641, in regard to ye wett and very cold spring, as also for the quelling of strange and heretical tenets raised principally by the Flamilists, as alsoe for ye healing of a bloodye Coffe amonge children, especially in Plimouth. " " September 23, 1642, Ffor old England and Ireland and for the prevention of ye Indians here and our
THE FIRST THANKSGIVING.
179
HOW THEY WORSHIPED.
own Sinns. " May ye Ioth, 1643, Ffor old England - and for our Selves. " " March 24, 1652, Thanksgiving for the Lord's admirable powerful working for Old England by Oliver Crom- well and his army against the Scotts. "
The first Thanksgiving is thus introduced : - "Our harvest being gotten in our Governor sent four men on fowling that so we might, after a special manner, rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labor. " The good old Governor when he sent the four men fowling for the first Thanksgiving dinner in 1621, touched a common chord of sympathy that in 188I finds nearly fifty millions of thankful disciples.
There's Hezekiah and Zephaniah, And all the children living, There's Anna Maria, Jane and Sophia, Will be to our Thanksgiving.
Some years after, when a severe drought prevailed in Plym- outh, the Governor set apart a day of solemn humiliation and prayer. Soon after, in gratitude and pious acknowledg- ment for the blessings of copious showers and promising supplies, a day of Thanksgiving was called.
To better convey the religious eccentricities and zeal of early New England, we quote a few passages from the quaint work, Wonder-working Providence of Zion's Saviour in New England, by Edward Johnson of Woburn, in N. E., published in London in 1654, quite popular in its day. The phrase- ology and ready adjudication of things spiritual and temporal, of the Church militant and military, of the soldier of the Cross and of the soldier of fortune, of pride and humility, of super- erogation and superstition, could only have been produced in an age that produced an Oliver Cromwell :---
As large gates to small edifices, so are long prefaces to little books, there- fore I will briefly inform thee, that here thou shalt find the time when, the manner how, the cause why, and the great sacrifice which, it hath pleased the Lord to give to this handful of His praying saints in New England.
When England began to decline in Religion, in vain idolatrous ceremonies, and the desecration of the Sabbath, Christ creates a New England to muster up the first of His forces. Could Cæsar so suddenly fetch over fresh forces from Europe to Asia, Pompey to foile, how much more shall Christ call over the
180
TRURO- CAPE COD.
nine hundred league ocean at his pleasure, such instruments as He thinks meet. Your Christ has commanded the seas that they shall not swallow you, nor pirates imprison your persons or possess your goods. Let the matter and form of your Church be neither national nor provincial, but such as is plainly pointed out by Christ and His apostles. You shall be fed in the wilderness, whither you are to go with the flower of wheat, and wine shall be plentiful among you. But above all, beware of any love, self-conceited opinions, stopping your ears from hearing the council of an Orthodox Synod, but impart Christ's mind to : each other.
Beware of a proud censorous spirit, and should Christ be pleased to place in his building more polished stones than thyself, make it a matter of rejoicing and not of envy.
Wait on the Lord Jesus and he shall stir up friends to provide for you: and in the meantime, spare not to lay up your coin, for powder, bullets, match-arms of all kinds, and all sorts of instruments for war ; you shall see in that wilder- ness wither you are going, troops of stout horsemen marshaled, and therefore fail not to take ship lusty mares with you, and see that with all diligence you encourage every soldier-like spirit among you, for the Lord Christ intends to achieve greater matters by the little handful, than the world is aware of: where- fore you shall seek and set up men of valor to lead and direct every soldier among you, and with all diligence to instruct them from time to time.
Although it may seem a mean thing to be a New England soldier, yet some of you shall have the battering and beating down, scaling, winning and wasting the overtopping towers of the Hierarchy. Let military skill be kept in high esteem among you, gentlemen ; corporals and fellow soldiers, keep your weapons in con- tinual readiness, seeing you are called to fight the battles of the Lord Christ.
The church of Christ being thus begun, the Lord with the water spouts of his tender mercy caused to increase and fructify. And now let every ear listen, and every heart admire and enlarge itself to the astonishment of the whole man, at this wondrous work of the great Jehovah. That in thrice seven years wrought such fearful desolation and wonderful alterations among our English nation, and also in this dismal desert, wasting the natural inhabitants with death's stroke, and that as is found, touched the Massachusetts, who were a populous nation consisting of thirty thousand able men, now brought to less than three hundred, and in their room and abode, this poor Church of Christ, consist- ing at their beginning but of seven persons, increased to forty-three Churches in joyful communion one with the other, possessing one God, one Church, and one Gospel, and in those Churches about seven thousand seven hundred and fifty souls in one profession of the rules of Christ, and that which makes the work more admirable in the eyes of all beholders, men's habitations are cut out of the woods and bushes, neither can this place be entered by the English nation, but by passing through a dreadful and terrible ocean of nine hundred leagues length.
Behold his swiftness all ye that have said, where is the promise of his com- ing ? Listen awhile, hear what his herald proclaims. Babylon is fallen, is fallen, both her doctrines and Lordly rabble of Popes, Cardinals, Lordly Bishops, Friars, Monks, Nuns, Seminary-Priests, Jesuits, Ermites, Pilgrims, Deans, Prebands, Arch-deacons, Commissioners, Officials, Proctors, Singing-men, Choristers, organists, bellows-blowers, vergers, Porters, sextons, beads-men, and bell-ringers and all others who never had a name in the word of God.
181
HOW THEY WORSHIPED.
THE FIRST GRAVE.
MRS HANNAH wife to Capt THOMAS PAINE died July ye 24th 1713 in ye 52 year of her age
The above inscription is upon a blue slate headstone in the old graveyard, which, according to English custom of the time, was the churchyard as well, and for nearly a hundred years was the only one in town. It is almost remarkable that while a thousand graves are unnoticeable and unknown, the stones sunk nearly out of sight, this, erected to the first- known grave, and to the mother of a noble race, stands stead- fast and natural after one hundred and sixty-eight years. The lichens have not gathered, nor has the attrition of storm and sunshine wasted the record thereof.
The yard has been enlarged and improved, and re-fenced from time to time, but never was in better condition than at the present. For many years the central and eastern part be- came considerably overgrown with beach-plum and other spreading bushes and vines. A few years since it was cleared at considerable expense, but the rapidity of this growth requires constant attention. Here undisturbedly reposes the dust of many generations, and every year adds to the number from many parts of our own, and sometimes from foreign lands. It is not a city of the dead. No lavish store of marble pomp marks this poor dust. No rival shafts of sculptured art claim homage in this God's Acre: -
-
Their name, their years spelt by the unlettered muse, The place of fame and elegy supply.
Instances are not wanting where visitors have become strongly attached to these quiet haunts as a last resting-place. Mr. William H. Lapham after twenty-three years of rail- roading in Ohio, retired, and purchased a home in Albany, N. Y. He first came to Truro as a seashore resort, became
.
182
TRURO - CAPE COD.
attached to the place, and thereafter became, as have many others, an annual visitor. It was his dying request to be buried in the old graveyard, which request was complied with. A recumbent granite slab markes his grave, bearing his name and age.
DECORATION WEEK.
Annually unseen messengers with noiseless footfall and spirit hand, decorate these graves with living flowers, ex- ceeding white as snow. They come with the falling dew, in the light of the stars and the first blush of the morning. They fall alike on all : -
Fair forms and hoary seers of ages past.
And if possible, on the sunken graves, where crops the blue, mossy stone, with Death's head and cross-bones roughly chiseled, there a double bank is thrown. Not for a day only, but for many days and nights they linger, till, like a vesture, God folds them up and lays them away.
Lean reverently on this southern fence facing the north ! Before you are the graves of our fathers. The dead alone reign here. On this spot they worshiped. Right and left glides off a beautiful tableland, of which this is the centre. . The sky bends to the ocean, the ocean bounds the horizon as the eye sweeps the compass. Scenes more magnificent may have met your eyes, but utterances more infinite and peaceful never touched your heart.
God! God! God! Thou fill'est our eyes As were the skies One burning, boundless sun, While creature mind In paths confined Passeth a spot thereon. God! God! God!
These silent habitations have always been regarded as favorite haunts of disembodied spirits that walk the earth
183
HOW THEY WORSHIPED.
unseen both when we wake and when we sleep. A supersti- tious awe used to hang around graveyards. This was no exception to the rule, and no doubt there was full occasion to credit reports of sounds and sights. "The wind bloweth where it listeth." Around this high building with project- ing porch and its hundred little caves of Æolus, the wind- god listened to angry-voiced clamoring, or weird and mourn- ful dirges which hastened the belated traveller on his lonely way. Much, however, of this superstitious coloring was a sentiment that effected very little the sterling courage of men or women.
Incidents are related that denote the highest order of cour- age. A man on his way home from Provincetown was overtaken by night and a terrific northeast storm. It was almost impossible to pursue his journey, but he finally reached the meeting-house, under the shelter of which he stopped to recruit.
As the gusts of wind swept around the corner, he recog- nized a human voice. A few moments more and it seemed plainly the voice of a child. He listened till he was satisfied there was a living child in the graveyard, and not far from where he stood. In the darkness, and wind, and rain, it seemed impossible to search among the graves that fearful night. He climbed over the fence, and on his knees crawled over the graves, and stones, and wild brush, guided by the voice. He first thought it was a child bewildered and lost, but as he approached the sound, it seemed to arise from a grave, when the terrible thought came to him that it must be a living person entombed. He was soon over the grave, and felt with his hands an aperture from whence came the voice. As he bowed his head to the ground, he felt a warm breath. One desperate effort, he thought, will settle this case. He thrust his hand into the opening in the grave, and seized the object and lifted it out. It was a lamb !
The Rabbis say that ten measures of witchcraft were sent into the world, of which the Egyptians got nine. The other tenth must have come to Massachusetts, and Cape Cod had her share.
184
TRURO-CAPE COD.
I have heard of no witch hangings on the Cape, but there were many who believed in these demoniacal agencies. I might say nearly all yielded a general assent to the delusion. If such men as Cotton Mather, John Wesley, and Chief Jus- tice Hale, openly supported the theory by Scripture, what could be expected of the people who read the Bible constantly, and believed to a literal interpretation, every word of the sacred page ?
Captain Sylvanus Rich of Truro, the father of the late Captain Sylvanus of Bangor, was an enterprising young sailor of his time. On one occasion, having loaded his vessel with corn in North Carolina, bound for Boston, and being detained by bad weather he went on shore for a bucket of milk, and soon after his return, went to sea. Captain Rich was not an exception to the spirit of the day. Soon after sailing. they encountered a fearful gale of wind. The captain declared from the first that the old woman who sold the milk was at the bottom of the mischief. The gale continued till all the sails were blown away, and the vessel had drifted nearly to the Grand Banks. During all this time the captain was a victim of a terrible hallucination. Under this powerful spell, his flesh fell away like a sick man's, and he was fast wearing out. He declared to his crew in all sincerity, that every night the old woman came into the cabin through the lazaret, saddled and bridled him, and drove him over the hills and through the woods of Truro, and around Bound Brook Island. He said he couldn't stand it much longer, which was apparent to the terrified crew.
He did not, like Southey on his favorite horse Nobs, pir- ouette, and glide through the diaphanous air ; but like poor Tregeagle, with the Devil for his rider, he had to carry the witch wherever she drove. In vain his crew tried to persuade him that he was deluded. At last, when matters had become desperate and nearly hopeless, and they were drifting a wreck on the ocean, they were fallen in with a ship, fortunately commanded by his own son, Sylvanus Jr., who supplied all his wants. This broke the charm: the captain once more himself put his vessel in order and proceeded in safety on
185
HOW THEY WORSHIPED.
his voyage disturbed no more by spectral old women flying through the air on broom-sticks, or riding the ocean billows in tiny eggshells.
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.