USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Bristol > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. II > Part 18
USA > Maine > York County > York > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. II > Part 18
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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
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pretentious houses later, Dutch ovens were provided for baking bread. It is not probable that glass was at first obtainable for windows by the early settlers. In order to admit light, oiled paper was affixed to the frames by which they secured translucency but not transparency. Bleached linen cloth was sometimes employed as a substitute. Glass was later brought from England and the old method of affixing various forms of glass in leaden grooves was adopted. This was in use before the Massacre. The first known blacksmith in the town, Joseph Jenks, was here as early as 1640, and it is probable that he fashioned the simple hardware trimmings for the houses such as hinges, bolts or latches, which were crude affairs laboriously hammered from iron brought from England.
As time went on better "fixings" were imported from England or found in Boston. Fireplaces constituted the only means of heating these dwellings. Stoves, air-tight and otherwise, are modern contraptions. Fuel from the forests was easily obtainable and cordwood was usually one of the specifications in ministerial contracts - an important part of his income in kind. Testators frequently provided specified amounts of this fuel for their widows during life.
HOUSEHOLD FURNISHINGS
The bed held the first place in any inventory of interior furnishings and in their final disposition they were num- bered as first, second or third best. It was generally a tall, four-posted structure reaching to the ceiling wherein a huge feather mattress was placed on supports raised high from the floor. This feather "bed" held a place of honor in the family economy from the first years of the settlement to a time within the recollection of some of our older inhabitants. Some of these leviathans of sleep are still in existence in remote districts. They represented the pluckings of many geese and were of considerable monetary value. They served as reservoirs of bodily heat when our tired forefathers sank into their billowy bosoms. They were the first things to be thrown out of the window in case of fire. The bed was dressed with pillows encased in "beres" and bolsters were similarly covered, both of which were filled with goose feathers. The sheets were of linen spun from flax and the four posts were draped
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with valences if the family was able and inclined to indulge in these decorations. An idea of the relative value of the bed and its furnishings may be gained from an appraise- ment of the estates of the first comers. In 1647 a valuation of £2-10 was placed by appraisers on a bed and its furnishings. The warming pan, a device for heating their beds, was brought from England, where it had long been in use and is still used in small villages. In the old "Babees Book" we read the advice to "put your clothes in Winter by the fireside and cause your bed to bee heated with a warming panne."
DOMESTIC UTENSILS
Most of the appliances for household use were of brass, copper or iron. Brass kettles, copper pots and iron skillets comprised the list of articles available for the housewife in her kitchen. Table dishes, comprising platters, porringers, saucers and mugs, were of pewter while occasional pieces of Old English or Delft ware were displayed on the tables of the upper classes as evidences of wealth or taste. Napkins appeared in the inventory of Henry Sayward in 1679, as well as wooden dishes for his table furnishings. The inventory of his great grandson, Jonathan Sayward, supplies a startling contrast with its items of silverware, cut glass and mahogany sideboards. Wooden trenchers, grooved as drains for meat juices, were reversible platters used on both sides, and he who "licked his platter clean" was a good trencherman. Rough tables and benches of pine preceded the more durable and ornate chairs and tables constructed of hard- wood as a greater variety and quality of tools were employed. Pine and, later, oaken chests were used for household linen and best clothing, receptacles which were supplanted later by swell-front bureaus and highboys. The quality indulged in "Venus mirrors" or reflectors made of polished composition metal which were affected only by the wealthier people of Provincial times. In 1647 a "smotheing iron" for clothes was listed in the inventory of an estate.
LIGHTING
The early settlers had little need for artificial lights. Life then did not have its intellectual side, nor was there
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a general diffusion of reading matter to invite study or entertainment when the day's work was done. The open fireplace at evening with an occasional pitch pine knot thrown in added luminosity to the genial glow and warmth of the blazing logs. The tallow dip furnished the only incandescence for him who desired to improve his mind by reading homilies of funeral elegies, the only intellectual pabulum available at that period. The long drawn-out method of making the tallow dip needs no explanation and it was superseded by the moulded candle in the second century. Well-to-do people indulged their fancy for par- ticular nicety with wax candles made of the bayberry sometimes called the candle bush. The scarcity of this made it a luxury and its lighting was probably reserved for weddings, birthday celebrations, or in honor of dis- tinguished guests such as judges of the courts who came from Boston in their quarter circuits. Then they were brought out to diffuse their aroma-like incense and shed their gentle beams on the sanded floors. Pitch pine torches were employed for outdoor use and the home fires were . lighted by flints and tinder box ignition. Whaling being an early New England industry, before 1700 oil lamps were undoubtedly in use and perhaps fish oil supple- mented this sperm oil. Early to bed and early to rise was a rule of life which made the use of artificial lighting practically unnecessary.
FOOD
The staple articles of diet were provided by the two well-known components of a distinctive American dish - corn and beans. The cultivation of these farinaceous foods they learned from the Indians, and when cooked together made a dish called by the Indians "msickqua- tash," which was their word for succotash, meaning liter- ally corn beaten into fine pieces. The Indians also culti- vated a squash and doubtless the first settlers saw this vine trailing through their cornfields. With the hand-mills brought from England the dried kernels of corn were ground into meal, and when boiled made Indian or hasty pudding. Molasses brought from the West Indies sweet- ened the insipid flavor of the pudding and tickled the palates of the children. The Indians also left a food legacy for the whites in the dried bulbs of the lily family -
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"good meat & also medicinal," said an early writer. These bulbs were known as "ground-nuts" and the hill of that name was derived from that source. These natural foods grown in the earth were supplemented by the inexhaust- ible supply of sea food in great variety to be obtained at their very doors as well as game shot by themselves or occasionally brought in by the Indians. Domesticated livestock was too rare and valuable to be killed for food except in emergencies. Wild grapes and berries furnished necessary variety to this restricted dietary. Beer was brewed in nearly every home and, served to old and young, helped to wash down the solid components of the meal. Spices and condiments came from trading vessels bringing supplies from the West Indian ports. Likewise rum from Jamaica was easily obtained to help out their drab lives with convivial glasses of hot toddy.
EARLY LITERARY EVIDENCES
It is not possible to claim bibliographical distinction for York in its early Colonial days. The emigrants did not come over here to lead sedentary lives in the enjoy- ment of literature. Books were not only expensive lux- uries, but added practical weight in the transportation of their effects. Godfrey, the first settler, in several of the documents which he has left us tells of his "collections of 55 years Pilgrimage" which he explains by saying that "from New Found-land to Cape Florida he hath the Mapps, and cards of his own, French, Dutch and English." In another paper he states "they have plundered my house in New England of most of my collections." Undoubtedly, these accumulations included numbers of books and pamphlets relating to the early settlement of New England as that was the great adventure of his life. In 1679 "an ould Bible & other Books" were valued at ten shillings in Henry Sayward's estate. In 1692 Nathan- iel Preble had a Bible and Peter Weare a "Key of the Bible" valued at £1 and "other bookes" valued at eight- een shillings. At the same date Henry Simpson's property included "books" valued at four shillings and it is a surprise to find that inventories of the estate of Edward Rishworth, Recorder of the Province, and Rev. Shubael Dummer, Harvard graduate, do not credit either of them
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with the possession of any books at the time of their deaths.
It may be that the peculiar literature of the Colonial period, consisting mostly of heavy theological disquisi- tions, soporific sermons, last dying words of some con- victed felon and such like volumes, did not make for cheerfulness of life or improvement of the mind. It is not known that any resident of York before 1700 can be credited with the authorship of a published book. In the next century the Rev. Samuel Moody was a prolific writer of lurid sermons of the hell-fire variety, examples of which have been given in the chapter on ecclesiastical affairs.
COMPUTATION OF TIME
The reckoning of time among our ancestors was accomplished by rather crude means. Watches and clocks do not appear in the inventories of estates for one hun- dred years following the first settlement. Sundials, hour- glasses and noon notches cut on window and door sills on the south side of the house were the only means they had of knowing daylight hours or measuring time. Occasion- ally several notches would be cut on the window sill so the housewife could tell when to expect the return of the menfolk from the fields. Hourglasses were used for the pulpit to mark the length of the sermon and to give the parson a hint that his sands were fast running away. There was an early cartoon of Hugh Peters (who acted as a Puritan proselytizer) which shows him preaching from an outdoor pulpit (on which an hourglass was resting nearly run out) to a mob of Londoners. From the mouth of one of them is shown a label with the words "Give us another glass, Parson." Calendar time, as they reckoned it, requires particular explanation. From 1607, the prac- tical beginning of the Colonial era, up to March 25, 1752, "Annunciation" or "Lady Day" (just after the Vernal Equinox) was New Year's Day. March 24 was the last day of the old year and the months ran from March, called the first month, to February, the twelfth. For the period from 1607 to 1752, double dating was the common practice for the days of the month between January I and March 25. This was an attempt to give dates for a year beginning March 25 and at the same time for a year starting January I. This leads to much confusion
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in reading old records for those first three months of the year, and statements from them have been erroneous and misleading. This situation was finally corrected in most of the countries of Europe long before 1752 when, following the universal practise of other countries, Great Britain adopted it for her own use and that of the colonies.
Almanacs did not come into general use, in Maine, until long after 1700. They were frequently used by the industriously inclined as diaries by the insertion of blank leaves between the months. In this way the Sayward diaries, for forty years fortunately preserved, are one of the valuable sources of our local annals. The Puritans, not content with overturning old religious institutions, undertook to reform the almanac. Many of the months are named after pagan deities which the Puritans would not use and so called the twelve calendar months by numerals - March being No. I as already stated. Our records abound in allusions to this odd system. "Because they would avoid," said Lechford "all memory of hea- thenish and idols' names."
AGRICULTURE
York has been from the first an agricultural town. Modern farm machinery has robbed "haying" of its most picturesque feature. Yet now as in the first years the scythe is a necessary part of the armamentarium of tillers of the soil. Joseph Jenks, our first worker in iron, devel- oped an improvement on the old English scythe which was short, thick and heavy like a bush scythe. This characterizes all their mechanical conceptions even in modern times. He had his improvement patented in Massachusetts after his removal from York. The improve- ment consisted in making the blade longer and thinner, strengthening it at the same time by welding a square bar of iron to the back, and this has come down to us as the standard scythe. A York inventory of 1647 mentions "2 scythes and forks." The ploughing of all heavy fields was done by oxen and the implements used have not been materially altered in general form except in the combina- tion of lightness with strength following the introduction of steel. The regular crops on the farm consisted of hay and clover principally, with sowings of "Turkey wheat"
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(corn), rye and oats. Salt grass found in the marshes at the head of York River was a great desideratum for cattle feed and was highly prized by the settlers.
THE MARKET-PLACE AND FAIRS
These words have all the atmosphere of Medieval England, and York provided local scenery for their realiza- tion on this side of the Atlantic. In his City Charter Gorges had provided that his favorite town, now pro- moted to civic honors, should have the privilege of semi-annual fairs. In England this was a token of royal favor and jealously guarded by the recipients. Even today, centuries after this gift, these favored communities still hold these festivals and resent any rival town from holding unauthorized competitions against their ancient grant.
With evident ignorance of climatic conditions in northern New England, these fairs were scheduled to be held in the hottest and coldest months of the year, on the twenty-fifth days of January and July, which mark the Feasts of St. Paul and St. James, respectively. The privilege of holding an outdoor fair in Maine in January in snowdrifts shoulder high might have been appreciated by Eskimos on snowshoes, but offered no attractions for icebound Englishmen trying to keep warm by log fires. It is a good illustration of the operation of the insular English mind which considers the rest of the world is like England, or ought to be. Fairs were always held in market- places in the land of their origin and York provided its market for these festivals. It was situated in the tri- angular space on the waterfront between Sayward Hall and Keating's Wharf (Deeds vii, 267; xii, 201), and it existed as such for a century and perhaps longer as it is still part of a public way. The situation was admirable for the purpose, for fairs meant the gathering of the towns- folk from all sections bringing to the market-place their produce and wares for public sale, and this location fa- vored the residents across the river who could reach the place with their merchandise by boat. People from other towns were also accommodated as transportation by water was the easiest means of travel. There is no need to doubt that this old English festival was duly celebrated on July 25 if not in January, and it is certain that it must
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have been the great social event of the year. While these chartered fairs have not been celebrated for generations yet they were the precursors of our town and county cattle shows and agricultural fairs. The instinct to con- gregate socially and engage in bartering is inherent in the English race.
The market-place was not set apart for this semi- annual function but was undoubtedly used for what its name implies - market days for the townsfolk to pur- chase their weekly supplies. This site should be marked with a tablet to point out an unusual place dedicated to festivals unique in New England town history.
DOMESTIC ANIMALS
As there were no native bovine or fleece-bearing stock it was necessary to transport English cattle, sheep and goats over the "vast and furious ocean" to supply this important requirement of agricultural life. In 1637 Humphrey Hooke sent over the first cattle from Bristol consisting of ten head to his son William. This was the nucleus for the herds which followed. Thenceforth milk was added to the food supplies of the town. Goats also added their lacteal secretion for the housewives. Hogs were mentioned as early as 1647, when Henry Simpson had "one sow, one hog and two pigs." It is not known when horses were first brought to the town. Some of the Indians had a native wild mustang which may have been domesticated early by the settlers. Horses of English breeding had been sent to Plymouth as early as 1625, but the transportation of them across the ocean was always attended with high mortality. It is probable that York obtained its first supplies from stock developed in Massachusetts. In 1667 John Gooch left his "horse kind" to his wife - the earliest mention of them found in pos- session of residents of this town. In the inventories of the estates of fourteen residents of York prior to the Massacre, twenty horses were reported by the appraisers. Stephen Preble had a horse, mare and two colts valued at £8 in 1691 and the average value of a horse at that time was £2-14 as appraised. Owing to the absence of roads and bridges over navigable streams horses as means of transportation through the Maine wilderness were not a pressing necessity. Dogs were brought over in the first
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ships and, undoubtedly, domesticated cats. In 1685 turkeys were mentioned.
DRESS
This generation is familiar with contemporary illus- trations of fashions in vogue in early New England. The people of York were not peculiar in respect to male and female attire. The men wore beaver hats, sugarloaf shape, wide of brim and tall of crown. Depending on the social or financial condition of the owner would be the addition of a band or a buckle as a decoration. At the other extremity, home-made shoes enjoyed the same distinction, with or without buckles of brass or silver. The material of which suits of clothing were made for the men included imported broadcloths and kerseys or homespun woolens from the shearings of their own flocks. Nearly every man was able to make shoes and nearly every woman was deft at the spinning wheel. Tailors for men were among the first settlers of York. The upper garment was a loose- fitting doublet gathered about the waist with a leathern belt. The nether garment ended just below the knee, tightly buttoned to support the long stockings, either of wool or silk according to the ability of the wearer to indulge in fancy dressing. Undoubtedly a few of the quality indulged in ruffles for the best suit but it is not probable that the rough life of pioneering in York encour- aged displays of this kind. The hair was usually worn long ending in a roll at the bottom if the wearer was untainted with Puritanism, while sympathizers of Crom- well could be told by the square short-cut which earned them the name of "croppies." In the following century the long hair was tied with a ribbon, the forerunner of the powdered wig. There were no barbers in the town in Colonial days as far as known, and whether full beards were permitted to flourish or the smooth-shaven face indulged is uncertain. We may infer that Capt. Benjamin Donnell who died in 1678 enjoyed the luxury of a clean- shaven face, as two razors were listed among his effects. It may also be suspected that he was a bravely dressed man, as shoe buckles and three silver buttons for his shirt were accounted for by his appraisers.
Female dress, then as now, was permitted more elab- oration, but men, as at the present day, undertook to
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regulate women's natural desire for ornamentation. Hats were practically the same in form and material as those worn by the men. Young girls wore close-fitting head coverings of silk with short streamers on each side. Women's shoes differed little from the men's for outdoor wear, but for house wear cloth was employed for lightness and comfort. Dresses were usually made of cotton or linen dyed in various colors, blue being the prevailing shade. The author is not sufficiently learned in the intri- cacies of woman's dress to discuss the more intimate details. The bodice was given form by the use of whale- bone for stiffening and the skirt, artificially stiffened, was given a full effect and fell a few inches from the ground. It has taken three centuries for woman to emancipate herself from this cumbersome swaddling while man still clings conservatively to the general form of his ancient dress. A cotton neckerchief was the only touch of embel- lishment to this sombre attire. Widow Elizabeth Johnson in 1726 bequeathed a "Camblet Riding Hood" to her daughter. The clothing of little Elizabeth Jackson, whose parents were killed in the First Indian War, has been recorded as part of the settlement of her father's estate. She was charged with four yards of linen cloth at two shillings per yard; three yards of "red cloth" at four shillings a yard; one pair of gloves at four shillings and a pair of stockings at one shilling and ten pence. Her bodice cost seven shillings and the labor of making her suit of clothes and a "shift" was three shillings and six pence.
Clothing was carefully preserved and handed down by will to heirs. One's hat or best suit fell to the growing boys and first and second best petticoats to the daughters or nieces. Absence of reference to jewelry makes it prob- able that these personal adornments were not commonly worn in the town in the first century of its life. In 1718 Samuel Donnell bequeathed a seal ring to his eldest son.
OCCUPATIONS
The main sources of information on the various trades necessary in the life of every community are the register of deeds and wills which specify the occupations of grant- ors, grantees and testators. The title of planter is almost universally given in the first years of the settlement, although it is known that most of the persons so desig-
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nated had other recognized occupations. The word planter as then used meant a person who was engaged in establish- ing a plantation or, in its broader sense, planting English civilization in an unsettled country. Bartholomew Bar- nard was the first carpenter (1640), Joseph Jenks was the first blacksmith (1640), and Robert Knight the first mason (1642), representing the first workers in wood, stone and iron. Ralph Blaisdell was the first tailor (1636), and it appears that this trade held a close competition as a necessity with workers in metal, wood and stone. Samuel Biss, Benjamin Whitney, Benjamin Gooch and John Bracey all wielded the tailor's goose before 1700 in the town. Thomas Donnell, who died in 1699, was called a turner, evidently having a foot-power lathe for fashioning wood into forms useful in furniture and staircases, and his eldest son followed the same trade. There was a cord- wainer or a weaver in almost every family. Boots, shoes and broadcloth were home products as they had been in England. Jacob Everett followed the trade of glazier prior to 1679, and five years later William Young is men- tioned as engaged in the same trade. William Dixon was the first cooper (1636) and plied his trade in Lower Town convenient to those who followed the occupation of fishing, of whom there were many from the first settlement. The majority of men, however, were tillers of the soil and were designated as husbandmen and later as farmers. The title of "farmer" was applied in another sense as early as 1652, and did not signify one who tilled the soil but was used in its ancient significance of farmer of the taxes. There were a few merchants or shopkeepers like John Davis (1652), and Roger Garde (1636) was a draper.
MORTALITY
Of the diseases which proved fatal to our Colonial ancestors, terminating their earthly careers, we have little definite knowledge. Owing to their use of a nomenclature that has little of modern significance for interpretation, we cannot learn much of their manner of taking off. Ill- nesses which they called distempers, agues, fluxes, dropsi- cal swellings and inward fevers are impossible of identifi- cation. That they were afflicted with smallpox from time to time in epidemic form requires no exhibition of proof, and it is probable that few adults, survivors of these epidemics,
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