USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Truro > Truro-Cape Cod; or, Land marks and sea marks > Part 9
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Whereas, the proprietors of Pamet lands did formerly set out for a perpetual Commonage a tract of land on the back side of said Pamet, extending from the back side a mile and a half westerly into the woods, the true intent and meaning of which act was that said Commonage should include about half the breadth of the neck, but the land being now measured, is found to be but two mile and half wide from sea to sea, at PametHarbor; and but about two miles wide at the Pond, commonly called Eastern Harbor Pond, which is at least half a mile less than was expected, by which means the said Commonage proves prejudicial to the proprietors; for the prevention whereof the said proprietors did at a meet- ing at Pamet, July 21, 1703, unanimously agree, and vote, that from the time to come, and forever hereafter, the above said Commonage should extend but one mile and a quarter into the woods westward from the back side, anything in the former act to the company notwithstanding, that being by the proprietors con- strued to be the true intent and meaning of the above said act.
Attest, THO : PAINE. Clerk.
At a meeting of the proprietors of Pamet, May 15, 1705, Abigail Steel, the wife of John Steel, late of said Pamet, petitioned the said proprietors that they would be pleased to consider the circumstances of her sorrowful condition (her husband being absented from her and left her in a very low condition), and that they would hire her the land where she now lives (that was fenced in by her husband) for a reasonable sum of money yearly. Pursuant whereunto said pro- prietors have confidence thereof, and grant that said Abigail Steel shall have the use and improvement of the above said lands during their pleasure for three shillings money per annum, to be paid yearly to Thomas Paine their Clerk for the use of said proprietors. Voted by said proprietors.
Attest, THO : PAINE. Clerk.
At a meeting of the proprietors of Pamet, May 15, 1705, it was agreed upon and voted by said proprietors that the seventeen acres of upland that they are to have in Lumbert's great lot, and the thirteen acres of upland at the head
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of the Pond swamp, together with six acres of meadow to be laid out on the northeasterly side of Eastern Harbor, shall be for the use and improvement of the first orthodox minister, that shall be orderly settled in the work of the mr.inistry at said Pamet during the time of his continuing in the work of the min- istry there ; and in case he shall then continue in the work of the ministry, until by reason of age he shall be disenabled from performing the work of a minister ; that then the above said land shall be his own and his heirs and assigns forever, anything to the contrary before-mentioned notwithstanding.
Attest, THO: PAINE. Clerk.
At a meeting of the proprietors of Pamet, May 15, 1705, said proprietors made choice of Constant Freeman, John Snow and Thomas Paine, for a committee to lay out and bound six acres of meadow, at the head of the southeast arm of Eastern Harbor meadow, for the use of the ministry at Pamet; and to bound and record the same. As also to lay out six acres of meadow for the minister on the northeast side of said Eastern Harbor, in the sedge meadow, and to bound and record the same with the other lands granted for that use. Voted by said proprietors. Attest, THO: PAINE. Clerk.
At a meeting of the proprietors of Pamet, May 15, 1705, granted by said pro- prietors unto Mr. Theophilus Cotton, to him, his assigns and heirs forever, a parcel of upland and swamp, containing about five acres, be it more or less, lying at the head of the Pond swamp in Pamet. Attest, TIIO: PAINE. Clerk.
At a meeting of the proprietors of Pamet, May 15, 1705, granted by said pro- prietors to Mr. Theophilus Cotton, one ninth part of the privilege of the shore, referring to drift-fish within the proprietie of Pamet during the time of his living in Pamet. Voted by said proprietors. Attest, THO: PAINE. Clerk.
At the same meeting, granted to Mr. Theophilus Cotton, to him, his heirs and assigns forever, about two acres of upland and swamp at the head of the Pond swamp from the ditch at the end next to Joseph Young's, and from thence southerly as far as (the intervening word torn or worn off) with conveniency. Thomas Paine, Constant Freeman and John Snow were appointed to lay out and bound the same. Voted by said proprietors.
Attest, THO: PAINE. Clerk.
At the same meeting Mr. Theophilus Cotton was admitted an allowed inhabi. tant of Pamet provided he settleth in the work of the ministry at said Pamet ; and also that whensoever the commons of Pamet shall be stinted, said Mr. Cotton shall have as good a privilege there as any other one man provided he be settled as aforesaid. Voted. Attest, THO: PAINE. Clerk.
As the above are the first and last references to Mr. Cotton, other papers both before and after must be among the lost. It would now be regarded a great treasure could all the missing papers covering correspondence, etc., be found.
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Rev. Theophilus Cotton settled at Hampton Falls, Mass. ; he was a brother to Rev. Roland of Sandwich and Rev. John, of Yarmouth, sons of Rev. John of Plymouth, and grandsons of the original John Cotton of Boston.
Whereas there is likely to be great damage done to the proprietors of Pamet, by reason of some persons digging shells out of the land belonging to these proprietie, and selling or transporting them off from said land, which otherwise might be of good use to the inhabitants to make lime for their building, for pre- venting whereof it is ordered and agreed upon by the proprietors of Pamet at a meeting of said proprietors held at Pamet, May 15, 1705. That from and after the first day of June next ensuing, no person or persons whatsoever shall digg any shells out of any of the common or undivided land belonging to said pro- prietie, or take any shells off from any of the common or undivided land belonging to any part of said proprietors, but only such as shall be voted by the inhabitants of Pamet within the Courts of said proprietie, in penalty of five and sixpence a bushel for every bushel of shells so digged or carried off from said proprietie for the use of him or them that shall inform and sue for the same before any Court of Record proper to try the same.
Voted by said proprietors, May 15, 1705.
Attest, THO: PAINE. Clerk.
As is known, the New England Indians lived principally on fish, particularly shell fish. Their villages were dry, sunny, sheltered situations, convenient to the shores. For hundreds of years they deposited their shells and bones in the same place, producing the vast shell banks or beds, which at that time could be readily transported. Doubtless the fishermen had also left large deposits, as the English and colonial fleet had supplied themselves with bait from the Cape shores before the days of Dermer.
I have examined a shell bed bordering a swamp, on land of Joshua Knowles, not far from Great Hollow. It is, perhaps, a half-acre in extent, several feet deep, covered by a solid, rich, emerald sward nearly the whole year. The shells are great and soft clams, quahaug, scallop, oyster, razor, cockle, and fragments of deer bones. Arrow-heads are often found. Oysters must have been abundant, as they predominate. The slow waste of the lime, mixing with the decomposition of bones, has produced a soil rich and hot as guano, that might be, it would seem, used to advantage as a fertilizer.
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At a meeting of the proprietors of Pamet, May 15, 1705, Hezekiah Doane and Samuel Treat, Jr. were admitted allowed inhabitants of said Pamet.
Voted by the proprietors. Attest, THO: PAINE. Clerk
Samuel Treat Jr. was the son of Rev. Samuel Treat, the regular and ordained minister at Eastham, to whom we have referred for his Christian and humane labors among the Indians at Pamet. He was the son of Governor Robert Treat of Connecticut, and the eldest of twenty-one children. Graduated at Harvard College, 1669. Settled in Eastham, 1672. Married first, Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. John Mayo, of Boston, who had formerly preached in Eastham, by whom were born eleven children. Married second, Mrs. Easta- brook, daughter of Rev. Samuel Willard, of Boston, by whom three children. Daughter Eunice, by this marriage, was the mother of Robert Treat Paine, the patriot of the Revolution, and signer of the Declaration of Independence,- a name that has been continued to the present day by an honorable line of worthy descendants. Mr. Treat was a Calvinist, primi- tive and pure, of the strictest order. His was the consistent, irrevocably decreed Calvinism, with all its jagged lines and bottomless chasms, which he forcibly, ably and constantly preached and defended. The following extract from one of his sermons is said to be a fair average of his style, and an honor to his sincere faith: "Consider God himself shall be the principal agent in thy misery. His is that consuming fire; his breath is the bellows which blows up the flame of hell forever ; he is the damning fire-the everlasting burn- ing; and if he punish thee, if he meet thee in his fury, he will not meet thee as a man, he will give thee an omnipotent blow."
He preached long, and so loud that he could be heard a great distance from the meeting-house ; even above the howl- ing winds of the Eastham plains. He was a good and faithful minister, and had many "awakenings " under his powerful preaching. He died March 18, 1716, during a great snow storm, known in the annals of New England as the "Great Snow." He could not be buried till the snow banks were
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tunnelled a quarter of a mile. His body was borne to the grave by the Indians, who sincerely mourned the loss of their beloved pastor and never-failing friend. Mr. Treat had taken a spiritual and temporal oversight of the Indians, studied their language, could write and preach to them in their native tongue. It was through his influence that Mr. Richard Bourne of Sandwich entered upon this work with such marked success. From the town records :
Whereas at the time of laying out the lots of upland at the place called Tash- muit, it was agreed upon by the proprietors thereof, that there should be a high- way laid out through all the said lots by the best watering place, as by ye record of said lands may more largely appear, which highway hath not been laid vut. Therefore at a meeting of proprietors of Pamet, May 15, 1705, said pro- prietors did make choice of Thomas Paine, Constant Freeman and John Snow for a committee to lay out and bound said highway according to the direction given in the aforesaid record.
Voted by the proprietors of Pamet, at their meeting in Pamet, June 15, 1705. Attest, THO : PAINE, Clerk.
At a meeting of the proprietors of Pamet, June 16, 1707, Hezekiah Purington was an admitted inhabitant by the major vote of said proprietors. Attest, THO: PAINE. Clerk.
At a meeting of the proprietors of Pamet, June 16, 1707. Granted by said proprietors to Isaac Snow, Jonathan Collins, and Nathaniel Harding, or to any or either of them, liberty to fence across from the Head of Pamet great meadow to the back sea, and again from said Isaac Snow's land, by his new dwelling- house to the Pond, and again from the northeast corner of said Pond to the back sea, and to have the improvement of all the land within said fence for seven years next. Attest, THO: PAINE. Clerk.
The reader has not failed to observe that the first proprie- tors were good business men with creditable pretentions to an English education as then understood. Thomas Paine, the first clerk of the Pamet proprietors, was a model secretary. His penmanship is to-day clear, full, and almost plain as print ; his rhetoric good standard English, grammar unexcep- tionable, and his whole record is finished and scholarly.
We have quoted quite freely from the first entries, particularly from 1703, which are quite full. Hereafter we shall be content to give the more important transactions, leaving purchases, boundaries, and all matters of general
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sameness and repetition, as of little historic value or interest. No small proportion of the original records are evidently missing. Not till within fifty years has the town provided safes. During the wear and tear of nearly one hundred and fifty years, many books were undoubtedly lost or worn out, and others so badly worn they could not be copied. This will explain many gaps, particularly as referring to the change of the name of the town.
Referring to valuable papers, a transaction has come before me since engaged in this history, that perhaps had better be told in this connectiou. Information was sent me at the West that a man living in Massachusetts had in his possession the original Charter of Truro, which he would sell. Through correspondence, I learned that the date of his document was 1757. Satisfied from this fact it was not what he had stated, I still had a curiosity to know more about it, but could not bring my party to terms. I finally wrote that after a certain date I would no longer entertain any proposition. Shortly after, two middle-aged men presented themselves, saying they had brought the paper, and handed me rolled up in an old torn newspaper, a yellow-stained, wrinkled parchment, nearly as large and stiff as a cowhide. Catching first a glance at the signature, I saw the name of Governor Bernard, and the Royal Seal of the Massachusetts Bay. After reading a mo- ment, I said to the men, "Don't you know that this is the Charter of Truro, Nova Scotia?" "No, it is Massachusetts Bay," they replied. I then explained to them what they did not know, and they retired wiser than they came.
This was indeed the genuine charter of the town of Truro, Nova Scotia - the real sheepskin of the old colonial pattern, with the fifty incorporators twice named, and all the verbiage and clerical illumination that distinguished the Massachusetts Bay State documents under Georgeus Secundus.
CHAPTER VI.
PEACE, PROGRESS AND WHALING.
Last Officers of Pamet. Purchases of Indians. Waste of Forests. Cattle Owners. The first Windmill. Crows and Blackbirds. Antient Bounds. Fat Office. Fencing the Wolves. Cape Cod Canal. George Washington. The first Suez Canal. The Path to India. The Dream of Europe. Province Lands. Precinct of Cape Cod. Boundaries. Sojourners. 1717- Missionary Enterprise - 1877. Incorporation of Provincetown. Precarious Existence. Rehabilitation. Lands a Begging. Whale and Whaling. The Lydia and Sophia. Oily Flavor. Dr. Freeman in 1794. Burke's Argumentum Piscatorium. Cape Cod Schoolmasters. Richard Paine. Rev. Levi Whitman. Fighting Whale. The Bible Captain. Globiceph Alus Melas. Daniel Rich's Morning Spurt. Captain Henry Atkins. The Ship Whale.
A T the last March meeting in 1709, previous to the incorporation of the new town, the following officers were elected :
Thomas Paine, town clerk; Benj. Small, Humphrey Scammon and Isaac Snow, selectmen; Thomas Lumbert, constable; Edward Cowell, tythingman ; Josias Cook, grand juryman; -- , town treasurer; Beriah Smith and Nathaniel Harding, fence viewers; Thos. Mulford, Jedediah Lumbard and John Snow, surveyors of highways. Voted, that the town treasurer be allowed fourpence upon the pound for receiving and paying out the money.
In 1710, Richard Stevens was admitted by the proprietors, and they made arrangements for exchange of land with Daniel Sam, Indian. Also appointed Jedediah Lumbert and Thomas Paine agents to buy lands of the Indians in the township of Truro, when, and so often as any of said Indians shall see fit to sell, and that none others buy. In 1712 at a proprietors' meeting Feby. 28th, it was decided to give Jo Tomamatuk his demand of thirty shillings to quit his claim to land which Jeremy Anthony, Jediah John, and David Peter, Indians, sold to Nath'l Atkins. It was also further ordered that this regulation, and that against cutting wood and timber, be presented to the Court of the General Ses- sions of the Peace, for their approbation.
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Whereas, there has been great destruction and waste made of fire-wood within the town of Truro, by cutting wood to burn lime with, to be transported out of said Truro, which will in a short time cause a scarcity of fire-wood in said town, if not timely prevented ; it was ordered that no person or persons whatever, shall at any time hereafter, cut any wood off from any part of any of the common or undivided land within the township of the said Truro, to burn anv lime with all, other than to be used in said Town.
February 24, 1711.
THO: PAINE. Clerk
At this time all the owners of cattle in Truro were Ebene- zer Doane, William Dyer Sr., Jonathan Collins, Jeremy Bick- ford, Josias Cook, Jedediah Lumbert, Jonathan Vickery, Con- stant Freeman, Samuel Treat, John Snow, Thomas Lumbert, Hezekiah Purington, Thomas Rogers, Benjamin Smalley, Richard Webber, Thomas Smith, Daniel Smalley, Christo- pher Stewart, George Stewart and William Clark.
At a meeting of the town of Truro convened and held Aug. 13, 1711, ordered by said town that Tho. Paine should have for money by him disburst about getting a township for the town of Truro, and for getting a minister for said town (all done in year 1709). Three pounds to be drawn by him out of town treasury.
THO: PAINE. Town Clerk.
At a meeting of the town of Truro convened and held at Truro, December 11, 1711, it was agreed upon by said town that if Thomas Paine should set up and maintain a grist-mill within said town, he should take three quarts toll out of every bushel of Indian corn that should be ground in said mill, and two quarts out of every bushel of English corn so ground, and the town to give said Paine sixty pounds towards the building of said mill. Lieut. Constant Freeman, John Snow and Nathaniel Atkins were then chosen a committee by said town, in their name and behalf to make a full agreement with said Paine on ye town's part, and to take bonds of said Paine for the performance of his part according to the contract of the above written.
Voted by said town.
Attest, THO : PAINE. Town Clerk.
Thomas Paine was a noted millwright, having built mills in Yarmouth and Eastham before removing to Truro.
By English corn referred to in the agreement, will be understood the small grain cereals, as wheat, rye, oats and barley, still known in the English markets under the general name of corn. At a meeting of the town of Truro, convened and held at Truro March 16, 1712, said town "voted that they would have ye present town treasurer sue William Dyer Sr , see what said Dyer hath in his hands of ye said town's
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money, being ye remainder of a rate committed to him to collect when he was constable, in case said Dyer will not pay it without suit. " At the same meeting the said town ordered the selectmen to look over the former town treasurer's accounts and make a report of the same at the next town meeting.
It was voted in 1711, "That whereas crows and blackbirds do much damage by pulling up and destroying the young corn, every housekeeper shall bring or cause to be brought between the middle of March and the last day of June to the selectmen, eight blackbirds' heads, two crows' heads, or pro- portionably thereto, or forfeit 3s. 8d. to the use of the poor, and that for additional heads a bounty be paid Id. for black- birds and 4d. for crows. "
An old Eastham order is harder still on the birds. "Every single man in the township shall kill six blackbirds or three crows, and shall not be married till they comply with this requisition." There were poachers in those days, as "a committee was appointed by the town to cause the law to be enforced to prevent killing of deer at improper seasons. " Truro was a noted place for deer; the deep-wooded valleys were good coverts in the severest snows of winter ; fragments, and sometimes quite perfect antlers, are still found.
Memorandum, May 6, 1712 :- Selectmen of Eastham and Truro met by ap- pointment to run the lines and review the bounds and to erect bounds where there are none betwixt the towns. Persuant thereto, we went to look at the antient bounds at the mouth of Bound Brook, but the white oak-tree with stones by it, we could not find, and judge it may be washed away by the sea. We marked a white oak-tree on four sides, with E on the southern side and T on the northern side, from thence we run east on the meadow to an island inside, from thence we run east on the meadow to an island on Mr. Mulford's meadow, which is the biggest island in said meadow.
At a meeting of the town May 11, 1714 for choice of a representative for the following year, the town made choice of Capt. Thomas Paine for their represen- tative.
At ye same meeting it was agreed upon and voted by the town of Truro, to allow the representative five shillings per day from the time they should be upon the same until such times as the General Court shall by law raise their wages.
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About this time wolves came considerably into notice. An old writer says, "The wolves of that period were repre- sented as making no more bones to carry off a pig than a dog a marrow bone." In 1713 the town voted "That three pounds bounty be paid in addition to what is allowed by the Province law for every head of grown wolves." A further clause of the law would interest our modern sportsmen, and offer an inviting field. Voted, "That if any person not be- longing to the town shall kill any grown wolf within the bounds of the town in form and manner as aforesaid, shall have the like sum of three pounds paid to them in manner aforesaid. " Some years later, a reward not only on wolves generally, but particularly on one individual wolf : "To any individual who shall kill the wolf that has of late been prowl- ing through this township, " etc.
A novel idea of shutting up the wolves on the Cape so they could not get off, or shutting them off so they could not get on, was suggested by building a high board-fence, a Chi- nese wall, across the Cape from Picked (perhaps Peaked ) Cliff to Waygeneset Bay. It was quite generally discussed, but through the indifference of some of the towns, the project was not carried out.
At a town meeting March 31, 1718, said town agreed upon two town acts, or by-laws, viz. : one for regulating of rams, and one to encourage the killing of foxes, and ordered Captain Paine and John Snow to perfect said acts, in order to their being established at ye court of quarter sessions. At same meeting said town ordered the selectmen to cause a sufficient pound to be built in said town in such place as they, ye said selectmen, should think most convenient. At same meeting Joseph Young was chosen pound-keeper.
It is worthy of notice that the proposed line for the fence referred to, was nearly the same as that for the proposed canal between Buzzard's Bay and Cape Cod Bay. It is also a matter of history that the Cape Cod canal is not a new enterprise, but was favorably considered more than a hundred years ago. Samuel Sewell, afterwards Judge Sewell, wrote in his diary about 1770, " Mr. Smith (of Sandwich ) rode with
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me and showed me the place which some here thought to cut for to make a passage from the South Sea to the North. He said it was about a mile and a half between the utmost flowing of the two seas in Herring River and Scusset, the land very low and level. Herring River exceeding pleasant, by reason that it was pretty broad, shallow of an equal depth, and upon white sand. "
In 1776 George Washington wrote a letter in his own hand to Hon. James Bowdoin of Boston, in which he expresses much interest in the enterprise, and recommends a govern- ment engineer to survey, etc. Thomas Mackeil was ap- pointed engineer. He made a thorough survey, and reported an estimate of the cost, - $32,148 1 s. 8 d., - carrying out every item, which was submitted with the report, the same year, 1776, by the committee appointed. The estimate of cost by Thomas Mackeil, was in round numbers $ 150,000.
It is not improbable that the war of the Revolution pre- vented accomplishing the work.
We hope the Cape Cod canal will not have to wait as long after the survey as did the Suez Canal, first surveyed and undertaken by Necho, King of Egypt, of whom Herodotus says, "When he had desisted from his attempt to join by a canal the Nile with the Arabian Gulf, he despatched some vessels under the conduct of Phœnicians, with directions to pass by the columns of Hercules, and after penetrating the Southern Ocean, to return to Egypt." This is the Phario- Necho of Scripture, the ancient De Lesseps, who, after he had consumed 120,000 men in attempting to join the Nile and Red Sea, abandoned the work, being admonished by an oracle that all his labors would turn to the advantage of a barbarian. The Phoenician sailors reported "that they had the sun on the right hand on their return, " a phenomena that to Heroditus, with the views of his time on astronomy, made it seem increditable ; but is now a proof that these early navigators leaving the Red Sea, actually circumnavi- gated Libia ( Africa) without the compass, and returned to the Mediterranean through the columns of Hercules, after an absence of nearly three years. For subsistence, they planted
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