USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Truro > Truro-Cape Cod; or, Land marks and sea marks > Part 19
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Kidd was an Englishman, who sailed from New York under a commission to cruise as a privateer against the pirates that then infested the whole Atlantic coast. He became himself a bold bucanneer, and the terror of the ocean. After years of robbery and murder on the high seas, and when great rewards were offered for his head, he burned his vessel and came to Boston. When arrested, he delivered to Governor Bellamont a schedule of sixty-two pounds of gold, about the same of silver, besides precious stones, all of which passed to government. Marvellous stories have been told of Kidd's buried treasures, which have excited the designing and credu- lous for generations, but it is doubtful if he ever buried a guinea. Currency was given the report because English pirates had buried money on Long Island. Within the nemory of some now living, the song of which we quote the first verse, was sung on every ship that crossed the ocean : -
My name was Robert Kidd, As I sailed, as I sailed; My name was Robert Kidd, As I sailed. My name was Robert Kidd, And most wickedly I did, God's laws I did forbid, As I sailed, as I sailed ; God's laws I did forbid, As I sailed.
March 4, 1721.
The proprietors made choice of Lieutenant Thomas Lumbard, Thomas and Samuel Rich, to survey highways near Pamet great meadow, etc. Attest, MOSES PAINE. Clerk to said proprietors.
At the same meeting, said proprietors gave liberty to Lieutenant Thomas Lumbert to fence the highway that goes over Squopenik, with two sufficient gates, one nigh his house, the other by the river. Lieutenant Thomas Lumbert's meadow fence, on the southerly side of Pamet River, is the fence that runs across Deer Neck, alias Lumbert's neck, as also the highway that goes down to the landing place at the westward of the said Squopenik, as also the highway that goes down to the great beach by the easterly side of Samuel Hinckley's land. Attest, MOSES PAINE, Clerk.
"Squopenik" was, or is, the peninsula between Pamet Great and Little rivers, and was quite generally mentioned by
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that name until within fifty years. Being convenient to the water on three sides, it was a favorite abode of the Indians. Shell and arrow-heads still abound. The soil is naturally fer- tile of a clayey loam. There is a tradition that hereabouts a squaw broke her neck, from which providential visitation, the location was known as Squaw-broke-her-neck, but settled into Squopenik.
March 21, 1721. At a meeting of the town of Truro, on the day and year above written, for giving enlargement to swine by a town vote, according to an act passed by the Great and General Court, in the seventh year of the reign of His present Majesty, King George; at which meeting, Francis Smalley was chosen moderator - at the same meeting said town agreed that the swine be- longing to the said town might go at large under such regulations as the law has provided. Voted. MOSES PAINE. Clerk.
Whereas the proprietors of the south part of Truro, at their meeting April 29, 1724, did give orders to the committee they chose to lay out the undivided par- cels of land between Pamet River, and the line between the north and south (torn off) in said Truro, to lay a parcel or parcels of land where they should judge it most beneficial for the inhabitants of Truro, to erect schoolhouses, accordingly, said committee have laid out and bounded two parcels of land for that end, and the first parcel lyeth on the southerly end of Richard Stevens' land, near his dwelling-house. The second piece of land for the schoolhouse lyeth on the northerly side of the Long Nook, so called, that runneth up to Jona- than Paine's.
Attest. MOSES PAINE. Clerk.
On the spot last named a schoolhouse stood till 1855. We copy the following entry as an evidence of the real value of land at this early stage of the settlement in Truro : --
Truro, April 29, 1724.
In consideration of eight pounds, one shilling, six pence, in current money of New England, sold John Lewis one acre, sixty-three pole more or less. JONATHAN PAINE. JONATHAN VICKERY. S Committee of Proprietors.
May 6, 1724.
The same Committee sold Isaac Cole for ten pounds, ten shillings, two acres, twenty-six pole.
This is at the rate of about thirty dollars an acre in the first case, and twenty-five in the last, which, considering the
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value of money at that time, puts a high estimate upon lands, though these may have been choice lots.
At a meeting of the inhabitants of the town of Truro on the twentieth of May, 1728, Captain Constant Freeman was chosen moderator. At the same meeting, the town agreed to take their proportion of the $60,000 in the Province Treasury, and also made choice of Mr. Thomas Mulford, Mr. Jonathan Paine, and Mr. Benjamin Collins for the trustees in order to receive it.
Recorded by THOMAS PAINE. Town Clerk.
February 24, 1723, occurred "The Great Storm." The tide was raised more than four feet higher than ever before known. So extraordinary was this storm considered, that Cotton Mather furnished the Royal Society of London an account thereof.
Governor Bradford records a " Great Storm " August 5, 1635, as: "Such a mighty storm of wind and rain as no man living in these parts, either English or Indian, ever saw before. Began wind southeast. The wrecks of it will remain a thousand years."
In this storm Mr. Richard Mather was on his passage to Boston. He says, "That when they approached land the captain and crew never before saw the like, and had no hope of saving themselves." But there was work for Mather in a land he had never seen. The good ship that weathered that storm landed on the shores of New England a name promi- nent for a century among divines, scholars, authors and diplo- matists, and that has become a part of our history. This was the storm in which Mr. Thatcher with his family was wrecked upon the island since known as Thatcher's Island, himself only escaping the wreck. It was more a hurricane, and great damage was done to the land. Whole forests were prostrated.
HECTOR THE LAST SLAVE.
Jonathan Paine owned several slaves, among whom was Hector. As black as Hector, has for a long time been a well- sustained comparison in Truro. More than one hundred and
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fifty years ago, Lieutenant Jonathan Paine, son of Thomas Paine Esq., the first settler, built the house now occupied by John Atkins. The grant for this spot is found in the old books as follows : -
Granted by the proprietors of Truro unto Jonathan Paine, his heirs and assigns forever, a bit of land to sit his house upon, lying on the northerly side of the by-way near the head of the northerly arm of the meadow, of the father Thomas Paine, which arm of meadow is commonly called and known by the name of Long Nook; which bit of land is five pole in length and four pole in breadth, and it is bounded at the four corners by four stones.
May 8, 1710.
Attest. THO: PAINE. Clerk to said Proprietors.
The leaded windows, with small diamond-shaped glass brought from England, the broad, deep fireplaces, with two wide-mouthed ovens, and the huge chimney stacks, have given place to modern substitutes ; and other changes have left but little of the original building of 1710. The road then running in front of the house, and so through the middle of the hollow, now skirts the north side, bounded by a long line of well-whitewashed outbuildings, all kept neat and trim from year to year.
Lieutenant Paine was the grandfather of the late Deputy Sheriff Ebenezer Paine, and great-grandfather of the present Richard Paine, a well-preserved octogenarian living a few rods from the old house. He was the owner of a negro ser- vant named Joe, who had arrived at middle age without a helpmeet to cheer his bond life. Joe intimated to his master that he needed a wife. His kind-hearted master promised his influence, and, faithful as kind, when he next visited Boston, returned with a mate for his servant. If tradition is true, she was ugly as the Furies, and black as Erebus. It being Sun- day, Joe was at meeting. Upon his return, the face of his master and the flurried glances of the family towards the adjoining room, indicated the grand crisis.
" Come, come, Joe," said the Lieutenant, "come see how you like her !"
Ogling and sidling like a bashful boy, Joe approached, and was introduced to his future wife, with whom he lived to the
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end of his days. The chronicler sayeth not whether Joe accepted all the conditions in good faith or with mental reser- vations. Soon after these events - too soon legally - a boy child was born, blacker, if possible, than his mother, to whom was given the name of " Hector." He it was who three years after was the subject of the following bill of sale, the last pro- bably ever made in Truro for a human chattel.
To all people to whom these presents shall come, know ye that I, Jonathan Paine of Truro, in the county of Barnstable, in the Province of the Massachusetts in New England, yeoman, for and in consideration of thirty pounds of good or passable bills of credit, at the province above said, to me in hand paid by Ben- jamin Collins of Truro, in the county above said, yeoman, do sell one negro boy named Hector, about three years of age, unto said Collins, and I, the said Jona- than Paine, do promise to warrant the sale of said negro boy unto said Collins his heirs and assigns, against all claims that shall be made at any time from, by or under, me or mine, or any person or persons whatsoever, in witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this seventh day of October, in the seven- teenth year of his Majestie's reign 1726.
Signed, sealed and delivered in the
JONATHAN PAINE. presence of
NATHANIEL HARDING.
LYDIA COLLINS.
In the Truro Church records, under date of January 27, 1747, we find :
Baptized by Rev. John Avery, Hector, negro servant to Mr. Benjamin Collins.
So the master seems to have had spiritual care over his servant, as did Philemon over his servant Onesimus, on which the Divine institution was founded.
Mr. Collins was a flourishing and quite extensive farmer in those days, owning hundreds of acres of wood, meadow, and high marsh lands at the Head of Pamet near the ocean. He cultivated corn quite extensively ; wheat, oats and flax to some extent. He was the grandfather of the late Captains Ben- jamin and Stephen Collins; the last succeeded to the old estate.
In my boyhood, the broad flat barns, sheds, sheep-houses, ricks of hay, and the old house with ells and porches, was a place to remember ; but one by one they have disappeared,
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till but a shadow of its former self, it has passed into the hands of strangers from the Azores. Here Hector passed his youth and manhood, and, it would seem to us, a long, lonely, unloved toilsome life. But he was a faithful servant, a de- voted Christian, and seemed content with his lot. As he walked or drove to the fields, and amid his labors, we are told he prayed audibly and no doubt realized in his daily life that experience for which Job so disparingly cried, and that Pliny the Elder said was essential to man, " Oh, that I had a day's- man. "
No stone marks Hector's grave, but the oft-quoted expres- sions, "Old Hector," " Hector's Bridge, " " Hector's Nook," and " Hector's Stubble, " are his enduring monument.
A few years since, an interesting notice of Hector was read before the Truro Lyceum, by Mr. Joshua Dyer. To him I am indebted for these facts, also for those of David Snow and son, and many other assistances in this work. I quote substantially from Mr. Dyer's paper :
" There are those now living who remember Hector, an old man, with bleached locks and dim eyes, struggling amid the last waves of a toilsome life. He sighed not for Africa. Truro was his home, and he knew no other. During a long life he had scarce wandered beyond the sound of his lowing herds, or the meanderings of the Pamet, which he had paddled so often in his little canoe. But Hector looked with faith and hope beyond his narrow bounds ; so, laying aside his paddles, he steps from his canoe, and stands, white and pure, free and glorified, on the banks of the great river of his heav- enly home."
The General Court still continued to be the great umpire to settle grievances and distribute justice. Its jurisdiction seemed limited only by the scope of possible contingencies. It was council, judge, and jury ; eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.
In 1726, the people of Billingsgate Precinct were before the Court, representing that their minister, Rev. Josiah Oaks, had been very unpopular ; that they had invited another minister ; but Mr. Oaks, assisted by Mr. John Doane and
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eight or ten others, had possession of the meeting-house, and that the disaffected majority had to worship in private houses; that the existing state of things involved great confusion and distraction. The Court ordered " that Mr. Oakes proceed no farther in the work of the ministry of said parish, but shall be paid for the past at the rate of £80 per annum."
At a meeting June 26th, 1728, the town agreed to allow Mr. Solomom Lom- bard sixty pounds for keeping school in said town one year next coming. Voted. Recorded. THO: PAINE. Town Clerk.
1
At a meeting of the inhabitants of the town of Truro on the 22d day of May, 1732, Solomon Lombard was chosen Clerk for said day. At the same meeting said town agreed not to send a representative to the General Court. Voted. Recorded by SOLOMON LOMBARD. Clerk for the day.
In 1730, February 16, a committee, consisting of Rev. John Avery and Messrs. Caleb Hopkins. Elkanah Paine and Humphrey Purington, were chosen by the proprietors to prevent cattle and horses going upon the meadows and the beaches adjoining. The object was the preservation of the meadows from destruction by sands. The committee were to assign to each proprietor his particular propor- tion of fence to be made for this purpose. The proprietors at this time were : -
Henry Atkins,
Henry Dyer,
Moses Paine,
Isaiah Atkins,
Judah Dyer,
George Picke (Pike),
Joshua Atkins,
Sam'l Dyer,
Humphrey Purington,
Silas Atkins,
Sam'l Eldredge,
Richard Rich,
Malchiel Atwood,
Constant Freeman,
Thomas Ridley,
John Avery,
Caleb Hopkins,
Frances Smalley,
Edward Bangs,
Thomas Hopkins, John Lewis,
Thomas Smith,
Jeremiah Bickford,
Jedediah Lombard,
Joshua Stevens.
Edward Cowell,
Elkanah Paine,
Joseph Young,
Ambrose Dyer,
Jonathan Paine,
Samuel Young,
John Conant,
Andrew Newcomb,
Richard Stevens.
Isabel Smalley,
Jonathan Bangs,
Owing to the inconvenience and expense of travel, there was a growing disposition in favor of making the lower part of the Cape into a new county, or of having the court held at Eastham. Committees were appointed from the various towns, and many conferences held and petitions drawn up. In 1738 a large committee was appointed from Truro "to petition the General Court for courts in Eastham and for a court house and jail to be built there."
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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE TOWN. -
At a meeting of the proprietors of land in Truro, on Wednesday, the 30th day of July, 1740, said proprietors agree and order that there should be a com- mittee sent down to view Eastern Harbor beach, and flat ground below Cedar Island, to see if it be needful to fence them to preserve Eastern Harbor meadow from being destroyed by the sands, and to make report to said proprietors of what they think proper to be done. Said proprietors made choice of Elkanah Paine, Isaac Atkins and Ebenezer Dyer, a committee for that purpose. Voted.
At the same meeting voted by proprietors of Eastern Harbor and beach and meadows and the land adjoining to Provincetown, to strengthen a memorial lately exhibited to the General Assembly of this Province, by some of the inhab- itants of Provincetown.
At a meeting a few weeks later -
Said proprietors agreed to re-consider, or repeal, and make utterly void a vote of the proprietors of said Truro passed at their meeting the 30th of July last past, respecting the strengthening of Provincetown memorial.
At a meeting of the proprietors of lands in Truro, June 6, 1748, proprietors chose for moderator Mr. Michael Gross. Proprietors made choice of Messrs. Benjamin Collins, Ebenezer Dyer and Barnabas Paine, a committee to view the highway that goeth up the head of ye Long Nook to the back sea, and to exchange it, or part of it, with Mr. Jonathan Paine and Mr. Samuel Dyer, if they will consent, so as to turn it (the road) a little higher up on the northerly side of the valley. Voted.
Provincetown, July 14, 1751 .- On the tenth, a man of this town discovered ice on the north side of a swamp, and carried a piece to the tavern keeper, who treated him with a bowl of punch for his pains. - Boston Post, July 27, 1741.
About this time the Land Bank Scheme, with a capital, or Bills of Credit on land security not to exceed £150,000 was launched, but proved a failure. It was this scheme that ruined financially the father of Sam Adams, and many other promising merchants. The result was the pecuniary ruin of many individuals on the Cape. The depreciation of currency had already embarrassed trade and crippled the credit of tradesmen.
The body politic, like the body corporate, passes through many stages of ills before it hardens into the bone of a nation. The survival of the fittest seems the unwritten law.
A grant of fifty pounds was made this year (1740) to Provincetown for the ministry. The Rev. Samuel Spear, for- merly the Truro schoolmaster, who had for some time been
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their minister, ceased now from active service. Mr. Solomon Lombard, before mentioned as clerk and schoolmaster in Truro, preached occasionally in Provincetown for several years. He was born in Truro, 1706, graduated at Harvard College in 1723. He was installed in the new town of Gorham, Maine, December 26, 1750, at a sal- ary of 535-6s-8d and certain town lots. On account of liberal principles, he was dismissed in 1764 ; became Judge of Cumberland County, and was an active patriot during the Revolutionary War; was twice a member of the Provincial Congress, and seven years Representative to the Legislature. Judge Lombard was a forcible writer, and the author of many patriotic and practical papers urging resistance to tyranny. He died in 1781. The historian of Gorham says, " Judge Lombard was a native of Truro, Mass. An active, indus- trious, useful man, a gentleman of learning, talents and sound sense." Richard and Ebenezer Lombard, grandsons of the Judge, were Methodist preachers. Ebenezer was the first class leader in Gorham. The late E. H. Lombard of Hallowell was also a grandson. A numerous family in Maine and elsewhere claim him as their ancestor. He has never been without a namesake in Truro.
At a church session July 1, 1752, Mr. Humphrey Purington, Mr. Barnabas Paine, and Mr. Mulford Eldredge were chosen by the written votes of the whole church to serve in the office of deacons.
In 1744 complaint was made to the General Court, "That many persons were in the habit of driving down great num- bers of neat-cattle and horses to feed on the lands, whereby the beaches are very much broken and damnified, occasioning the moving of the sands into the harbor to the great damage thereof. "
In 1745 further legislation was made for Cape Cod Harbor, also for the protection of East Harbor in Truro. One of the provisions were, " That the inhabitants of Provincetown be allowed to keep and suffer to feed on the lands, one bull and three yoke of oxen for the inhabitants in general, and one horse and one cow for each family in particular ; also such
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persons as shall have license to keep a house of entertain- ment, was to have liberty to keep two cows. Also the for- bidding cutting down of trees growing within one hundred and sixty poles of highwater mark. "
November 23, 1746, Mr. Humphrey Purington desired a dismission from the office of deacon, and his desire was granted by a vote of the church. At a church meeting, August 22, 1750, Mr. Joshua Freeman was chosen by the written votes of the church to serve in the office of deacon. Deacon Freeman who long served his day and generation both in Church and State with great satisfaction, was the youngest of the family of the first Constant. His name will be found in the family list. It is related that on one occasion when occupying the deacon's seat, the singers waiting him to line the hymn, his spectacles were missing, when he promptly said : -
My eyes are very dim, I cannot see at all,
I left my spectacles at home hanging 'gainst the wall.
His house or some part of it, is now the homestead of Cap- tain Atkins Hughes. April 17, 1749, gave leave to Barnabas Paine and Job Avery to open the hedge by the old Try Yard on the southerly part of the Indian Neck. September 25, 1749, Messrs. Paul Knowles, Joshua Atkins, and Barnabas Paine, were a committee to take care of the ministerial wood- land in said Truro. Also to bequest of Mr. Avery a power of attorney to sue any person or persons, that shall presume to cut wood from said ministerial.
The " Ministerial" is still a wood lot with its boundaries well defined. In 1746 the town memorialized the Court, show- ing their needy condition and asking for means of defence. A supply of small arms and four pound cannon and ammuni- tion was granted.
ACCOUNT OF THE SEVERE DROUGHT OF 1749.
(From a Manuscript of Mr. James Blake of Dorchester.)
This summer was the severest drought in this country that has ever been known in the memory of the oldest persons amongst us. It was a dry spring ; and by the latter end of May the grass was burnt up, so that the ground looked
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white ; and it was the sixth day of July before any rain (to speak of) came. The earth was dried like powder to a great depth ; and many wells, springs, brooks, and small rivers were dried up, that were never known to fail before; and the fish in some of the rivers died. The pastures were so scorched that there was nothing green to be seen ; and the cattle waxed poor, and by their lowing seemed to call upon their owners for relief, who could not help them. *
English hay was then sold for £3 and £3-10, old tenor, per hundred. Many cut down their grain before it was ripe for fodder. * * * *
In the time of our fears and distress the government ordered a day of public fasting and prayer : And God was graciously pleased to hear and answer our petitions in a very remarkable manner.
About the sixth of July the course of weather altered, and there came such seasonable and plentiful rains, as quite changed the face of the earth, and the grass, which we concluded was wholly dead and could not come again under several years, was recovered, and there was a good second crop of mowing. It looked more like the spring than the latter part of the year ; and the Indian corn recovered and there was a very good harvest.
Upon the coming of the rains, and the renewing of the earth, the government appointed a day of thanksgiving. God in his providence ordered a moderate winter. May 1750, butter was 7s and 6d, old tenor, per lb. June 18, 1750, was said to be the hottest day ever known in the northerly part of America.
CHAPTER XIII.
1755-REV. CALEB UPHAM - 1786 -THE SECOND) SETTLED MINISTER OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN TRURO.
Call of Mr. Charles Turner. Acceptance. Release. Quit-claim. A Whale breaks up the Meeting. Call of Mr. Upham. His Model Answer. His Ordination. Notice by Rev. James Freeman. Mr. Upham a Poet. His Work. Scotch Practice re- pealed. The Psalms vs. Tate and Brady. Close Vote. Church Singing. Stern- hold and Hopkins. Majesty of God. Rous' Version. Marquis of Lorne. Para- phrasing. Bay Psalm Book. Lampooning. Church enlarged. Sale of Pews. Dea- con Anthony Snow. Christian Forbearance. A Briton. Deacon Ephraim Harding. Mr. Upham's Death. A Patriot. The Graveyard. The Names. Schoolmaster Hincks. His Marriage. Gen. E. W. Hincks. Rev. Samuel Osborn. Church Con- sistory.
D URING Mr. Avery's illness and for a few weeks follow- ing his death, the pulpit was supplied by the Rev. Isaiah Lewis of Wellfleet, Rev. Stephen Emery of Chatham, Rev. Joseph Crocker of Eastham, all of whom are entered by that conscientious scribe, Deacon Moses Paine, as also all the texts from which they preached. For instance, Mr. Lewis' texts were, Hebrews xiii. 7; John xiv. 2-3. May 26, 1754, Mr. Charles Turner preached his first sermon in Truro, after his call. His texts were, Jeremiah viii. 20; and Revelations xv. 5-7.
At a meeting of the Church in Truro, July 3, 1754, Mr. Charles Turner, by a vote of the Church was chosen moderator till he should be ordained in this Church, or by Divine Providence be removed from the Church.
Ent. by MOSES PAINE.
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At a meeting August 19, 1754, Mr. Charles Turner, Moderator, proposed to the Church if they were willing to pay the funeral expenses of their late reverend pastor, and it was conceded to, that a paper be prepared that as many of the Church as were of a willing mind might sign for that purpose. At the same meeting the Moderator proposed to the Church, the difficulties that attended his taking the oversight of the Church of Christ in this town as a gospel minister, by reason of his parents dissenting, and his own infirmities, and desired the Church would release him from his obligations to them as their pastor elect. At the same meeting the Church agreed and voted that upon the neighboring ministers advising thereto, they would give Mr. Charles Turner a dismission and recom- mendation, and also voted that Benjamin Collins, Shubael Hinckley, Moses Paine, Joseph Smalley, Deacon Joshua Freeman, be a committee to do the same upon the aforesaid advice. Consented to.
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