USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Bedford > An address delivered at Bedford, New Hampshire, on the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town > Part 1
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Gc 974.202 B39ba 1770137
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01095 8855
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ADDRESS,
DELIVERED AT BEDFORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE,
FOR THE
os Ti.
ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE
INCORPORATION OF THE TOWN,
MAY 19th, 1850.
5
THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY CHICAGO
BY ISAAC O. BARNES.
.
BOSTON: PRINTED BY ALFRED MUDGE, No. 21 SCHOOL STREET.
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1850.
--
Deafaceri. Med Lock.
1770137
ADDRESS,
DELIVERED AT BEDFORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE,
1
ON THE
ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE
INCORPORATION OF THE TOWN,
MAY 19th, 1850. THE
NEWBERRY LIBRARY CHICAGO
BY ISAAC O. BARNES.
BOSTON : PRINTED BY ALFRED MUDGE, No. 21 SCHOOL STREET.
1850.
Barnes, Isaac O.
F 84206 .07 An address, delivered at Bedford, New Hampshire, on the one hundredth aniversary of the incorporation of the town. May 19, 1850. By Isaac O. Barnes. Boston, Printed by A. Mudge, 1850.
45 p. 22!"".
1. Bedford, N. H .--- Hist. 2. Scotch-Irish in the U. S. 3. Presbyterian church in the U. S. A. .
1-16216
Library of Congress Copy 2.
MAIA
1:44.B3B2
¡Miscellaneous pamphlets, v. 2 .; no. 131
AC901.M5 vol. 73
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ADDRESS.
THIS is an occasion of unusual interest to all of us. It is an important epoch, not only in the history of our town cor- poration, but of the nation, and even of the world, which can scarcely be passed in silence, or regarded indifferently. It is a point of time, when all seem inclined to pause and review, as carefully and as much as it may be done, the events of the past.
The end of the present year completes a period of one hundred years, comprising the last half of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries ; and it may be well said to have been infinitely more eventful than any other equal portion of time since the apostolic age. One hundred years ago, Europe, -enlightened, refined, intellectual Europe, -had scarcely emerged from barbarism. George the Second sat upon the throne of England. The bloody massacre of Culloden had just been enacted ; and had released the then new House of Hanover from further fear of the return of the Stuarts. Louis the Fifteenth reigned in France. Pope Benedict, in the eternal city. Elizabeth was Empress of Russia. Philip the Fifth was King of Spain ; and Frederick the Great, and Theresa ruled, with despotic sway, in Austria and Germany.
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The population of Great Britain was not half as large as that of the United States is now. The whole number of British colonial subjects, on this continent, including those upon the adjacent islands, was less than three millions. There was no such nation as the United States; there were, instead, a few feeble and unimportant English colonies, made up of exiles from the mother country ; having fled hither to escape persecutions, the most cruel, vindictive and unnatural. These colonists were still struggling with poverty, and still alarmed by constant incursions of the yet unconquered savage. The Canadas and Louisiana belonged to the French. That adroit and ambitious nation, had, long before, established a line of missionary stations from the gulf of the St. Lawrence to the falls of St. Mary's, and thence to the mouth of the Mississippi : the Jesuits were employed as their agents, -an order of the Roman Catholic Church most efficient and most faithful to their engagements. It is true, at that time, the mission-house had declined, and given place to the military garrison ; but the subsequent conduct of the savage, along the French frontier, proved, but too clearly, that he had been taught to hate the English, and stimulated to the most ferocious deeds of cruelty on our borders. The treaty of Aix-la-chapelle, concluded only two years before, in 1748, while it was said to have secured only a "hollow peace " to Europe, really afforded no safety whatever to the British colonists here.
A hundred years ago, the New Hampshire troops had just returned gloriously triumphant from the capture of Louisburg. A Portsmouth merchant, William Vaughn, had planned this expedition ; Geo. Whitfield, the celebrated English preacher, then in this State, had furnished this motto for the flag of the New Hampshire regiment, viz: " Nil desperandum Christo duce." It was, in fact, a religious, and anti-Catholic crusade. So were all the inter-colonial wars, in which our fathers were engaged, on this continent. Hitherto, England had been a second-rate power; now, since the death of Louis
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the Fourteenth, the splendor of the Court of St. Cloud began to pale : the relative strength of the two kingdoms had just been subjected to a severe test, - the French had failed to restore Charles Edward, the grandson of the renegade James, to the throne of his ancestors, -Catholic supremacy on the island of Great Britain was at an end. Soon the great struggle, on this continent, between these mighty antagonists was to come: the tempting prize was all the rich alluvial lands in the great valley of the Mississippi. It was soon to be decided, once and always, whether the French and Cathol- icism, or the English and Protestanism, were to be in the ascendant, and control the destinies of this nation.
A hundred years ago, Washington was a youth, just old enough to be enrolled in a military train-band ; the elder Adams was not enough of a boy to labor in his father's shop ; Jefferson was a mere child, and Madison and Munroe were unborn. A hundred years ago, and Wolfe and Montcalm were yet to fall in deadly strife before Quebec ; the French were to be routed, to lose the mastery of the Canadas and Louisiana, and, finally, a footing upon the western continent.
A hundred years ago, and Louis the Sixteenth, and the hapless Maria Antoinette, were yet to fall under the axe of the guillotine. Robespierre, Marat, and Danton, were yet guiltless of the blood of their countrymen. Napoleon and Wellington were not yet ; the fields of Marengo, of Auster- litz, and Waterloo had no bloody celebrity.
A hundred years since, and our colonies had not felt the oppression, and encountered the hatred of the mother country. The battles of Lexington, Bunker-Hill, Saratoga, Trenton, and Yorktown, were yet to be fought. . Our own Stark had not yet won immortality at Bennington ; nor had our Langdon, Pierce, Poor, Cilley, Sullivan, and last, though not least, our own townsman, John Orr, and hosts of others, yet earned the meed of praise, which is, and ever will continue to be, awarded to their patriotism and their valor. And less than half a hundred years since, this county of Hillsborough could
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not boast of the heroic achievements of the gallant, but now lamented McNeil, nor the fearless Miller. Nor could we speak of the fresher laurels, which have just been gathered, by the younger Pierce ; and by another son, as brave and as chival- rous as the best of them, Bowers, of Nashua.
But to come to the subject which to-day more particularly claims our attention.
A hundred years ago, there were residing within the limits of this town, then known as Narragansett, No. 5, some fifty families, comprising from two hundred to two hundred and fifty souls.
These families were scattered along the hill-side, hid away in the sunny nook, by the meadow-patch, or buried among the dark pines on the border of the great river, which forms our eastern boundary. They were an honest, industrious, frugal, faithful and pious people. Principally foreigners, or of immediate foreign extraction ; they came here for the en- joyment of civil and religious liberty. In their own country, they could not lift up their voices, in praise and thanksgiv- ing, to that Omnipotant Being, from whose boundless benifi- cence comes every good and perfect gift ; they could not bow down in humble adoration of their Creator ; unless these acts were performed after the strict formulas of the Church of England. They must have suffered here, for many years, all the privations incident to a frontier life ; and yet finding out, as they did, gradually, the resources and capabilities of the country, they must have cherished strong hopes for the future. Alas ! such is the inevitable fate of man, that no one of them can be here to-day, to see their anticipations con- firmed, or their hopes justified. No living soul, of all who re- joiced together, when the civil authorities granted the prayer of their petition, for an act of incorporation, giving them a new name, and enlarged powers and importance as a people ; not one living soul of all of them, is left, to join with us, this day, in mutual congratulations for the successful issue of that embryo effort at self-government. The primeval rocks indeed
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remain ; here and there, a sturdy oak of the olden time still stretches forth the same branches, which sheltered our fathers from the summer's sun, and which have, so far, defied the wintry blast. The placid Merrimack still glides gently by us ; but no man, no woman, no animated being, that had ever floated on its surface, or laved in its waters, is alive, to-day, to render thanks for this, among the thousands of Heavens blessings, which have been bestowed upon us.
" Where are the birds that sweetly sang, A hundred years ago ? The flowers, that all in beauty sprang, A hundred years ago ? The lip that smiled, The eyes that wild In flashes shone Soft eyes upon, - Where, O where, are lips and eyes,
The maiden's smile, the lover's sighs, That where so long ago ?
Who peopled all the city's streets A hundred years ago ? Who filled the church with faces meek, A hundred years ago ? The sneering tale Of sister frail, The plot that worked Another's hurt, - Where, O where, are the plots and sneers,
The poor man's hopes, the rich man's fears, That were so long ago ?
Where are the graves, where dead men slept A hundred years ago ? Who, whilst living, oft-times wept, A hundred years ago ? By other men, They knew not then, Their lands are tilled, Their homes are filled. - Yet nature, then, was just as gay, And bright the sun shone as to-day, A hundred years ago."
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I abstain at this time, purposely, from attempting anything like an outline, even, of a history of this town, because that task has been appropriately assigned to a committee of your citizens, and we all anticipate great pleasure in soon being able to avail ourselves of the result of their labor and research.
I may be permitted, however, to say as much as this, that the territory was granted by the " Great and General Court " of Massachusetts, not far from one hundred and twenty years ago. Included in the same grant, was land enough for six other town-ships. This grant was made to the soldiers, who had served in King Philip's, or the Narragansett War, and to their surviving heirs at law. In June, 1733, it seems, these grantees, in number, about eight hundred and forty, met, on the town-common, in Boston, for the purpose of dividing equitably, the property, thus given to them. They formed themselves into seven seperate societies, and each society organized and chose an executive committee, to look after its interests. One of these societies was composed of such of the grantees as resided principally in Boston, Roxbury, Dor- chester and in that neighborhood. These executive commit- tees afterwards, namely, on the 17th of October, 1733, met by appointment, in Boston. The numbers of the several town-ships, from number one to number seven, were placed in a hat, and Col. Thomas Tileston, of Dorchester, one of our committee, drew No. 5, known as Souhegan-East, before that time. It embraced all the land now within the limits of Bedford, and also that part of Merrimack north of the Sou- hegan River.
If this grant was the price of patriotism, it was an act of tardy justice to the parties to be rewarded ; for the Narragan- sett War had long since ended. 'The treacherous and vindic- tive Philip, of Mount-Hope, had been hunted down and destroyed, sixty years before. The dreadful massacre of the young men at Bloody Brook, and the terrible penalty after-
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wards inflicted upon the savages, at Turner's Falls, were, even then, tales of other times. But whatever was the motive or the cause of this grant from Massachusetts, this was the origin of Bedford. With very few exceptions, the original proprietors of this town sold out their interest in it, at an early period. They never came here to reside permanently. And I believe it would be difficult to find, to-day, more than two or three families, in the whole town, who are directly descended from any of the grantees of Narragansett, No. 5. I know of but two; one is the Chandler family, who are the lineal descendants of Zachariah Chandler, Esq., of Rox- bury, Mass ; and the other, the family of Gardner Nevins, Esq., who are the descendants, by the mothers' side, from John Barnes, of Hingham, Mass. The town was named by Governor Wentworth, no doubt, in honor of His Grace, the fourth Duke of Bedford, then Secretary of State, in the government of His Majesty, George the Second .*
Who were its first inhabitants? What was their origin ? And what, if any, were the peculiarities of their character and condition ?
*For the gratification of persons curious in such matters, it may be stated that the name Bedford, is said by certain very early authorities, to be derived from a Saxon word, signifying " beds, or inns upon a ford. " The situation of the very ancient and important town of the same name, in England, on both sides of the river Ouse, probably contributed to this interpretation of the word. Later writers, say, it was derived from " Buda" or " Beda," which means a petty king. The people of Bedford, in England, adopt the latter, as the true origin of the name of their town. It may be added, that, al- though Gov. Wentworth may have given the name to this town, yet, it is altogether probable, that the inhabitants themselves first suggested it, in hon- or of the noble Duke, who had for a long time most faithfully and honorably administered the government of the Island, from which their immediate ances- tors had emigrated. The Duke of Bedford, held the officeof Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for many years. The Bedford family, or perhaps we should say, the Russell family, is one of the oldest and ever has been, and is now, one of the first families among the English nobility. The Present Duke Francis, has never been very actively engaged in political affairs, yet he is a man of great energy of character and enterprise, and will leave to his descendants, vast and valuable estates, redeemed and improved by his industry and his genius. as well as a name worthy his noble ancestry. His son and only child, William, Marquis of Tavistock, is now heir to the Dukedom. Lord John Russell, the present Prime Minister of England, is a younger brother of the Duke of Bedford.
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I have preferred that a general answer to these inquiries should occupy much of the space assigned to me, upon this occasion, rather than to enter upon the discussion of topics, , which, however they may befit the time and place, belong, much more appropriately, to others.
In the first place, then, almost the entire population of Bed- . ford, was, at the time of its incorporation, of Scottish descent. There were a few, and but very few families from the col- ony of Massachusetts, and, of course, of English extraction. There may have been also one or two Irish families, -of pure Milesian blood. And there were some African Slaves. Of this last description of persons, there were, in this town, as shown by the Official Records, at the commencement of the revolution, ten. But a large majority of the people, of those who made the first openings, run the lines, marked the trees, - petitioned Governor Wentworth and His Council for an act of incorporation, on the 10th of May, 1750 ;- built the first meeting-house, and the first school-houses, and first dragged a seine in the Merrimack for shad and salmon, - of those, in short, who first came here with a fixed and set- tled purpose to abide permanently and to make this place their home, - trace their origin to Scotland. They are some- times called Scotch-Irish. The reason for this peculiar designation, will soon appear. It is true that nearly all this class of settlers, or their fathers and mothers, came to this country, directly from the great Northern Province of Ulster, in Ireland. Yet they were, nevertheless, not Irishmen. No Irish blood ran in their veins. The two races were and are entirely distinct ; as unlike as it is possible they can be, with the same general features, and the same color. They were no more Irishmen, than is a Connaught or Munster-man, who works upon our Rail-ways, a yankee ; no more than is the European or American missionary or merchant, who takes up his residence at Macao, Hong Kong, or at the factories around Canton, a Chinaman. The Scotch and the Irish are as
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dissimilar as possible, in their manner of life, their habits of thought and action, and especially in their forms of religious worship, and in their religious creed. The Scotch are zealous Protestants, and Presbyterians. The Irish as zealous Roman Catholics. The Scotch were the beseiged, and the Irish the beseigers at Londonderry. One party fought desperately at the Boyne, Limerick and Aithlone for William, and the other as desperately for James the Second. To this general rule there are, to be sure, some rare exceptions. There were Irish- men who joined the party supporting William and Mary, and they have been denounced as traitors and heretics for it ever since, by their countrymen. I suppose there were also Roman Catholic Scotchmen, though I think it would have been difficult to have found many of the latter, who professed the faith of St. Peters', at, or near the time of the last English Revolution. The protestant Irish are known to this day, by the term of " Orangemen." But this name was not applied to them, until many years after William, the Prince of Orange, had ceased to govern England, and to exist. The bitter prejudices, and hatred which have been engendered, in the old country, between the Orangemen and the Catholic Irish, have never abated to this day. And we have frequent occasion to lament the intemperate and foolish broils, which so often occurs between them, even in this country, where both parties are at full liberty to consult their own tastes and their own consciences, as to the manner of their religious worship, or their religious belief.
But, the inhabitants of Bedford were neither Orangemen nor Catholic Irishmen. They were Presbyterians and Scotch- men. Names which are almost synonymous. Born, and educated among these people, if I cannot say exactly with Byron, " I am half a Scot by birth, and bred a whole one," I can appreciate the sentiment of the generous-hearted Jenny Deans, when she said to her countryman, the Duke of Argyle, referring to her dress, which was the national costume,
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as she was suing through his influence, for the pardon of her unfortunate and condemned sister, "I thought your Grace's heart would warm to the tartan."
I can never forget, that my earliest and most intimate friends and associates claim a common father-land with Bruce and with Burns ; that they could speak of the wild highland chiefs as of their own " kith and kin"-that they could talk of John Knox, as the founder of their church, - that the "Cotter's Saturday Night," was their poetry, - that Sir Walter Scott, and the authors of "Douglas" and the "Gentle Shepherd," were as much their countrymen, as if they had lived on the same side of the Atlantic.
I can never forget how readily, in the dreamy days of our youth, we could transport ourselves, in imagination, to that cold, but romantic region of Britain, -" where not a moun- tain lifts its head unsung," - that we could climb over the Pentland and Grampian hills ; fly o'er the "peak of Ben Lomond," - take a sail upon Loch-Katrine - inspect the ramparts and battlements of castles Stirling and Dunbar - search the rooms in Holyrood House -find the blood-stains of Rizzio -deplore the fate of the unfortunate, perhaps, the guilty, Mary ; and repeat with the poet, -
"She was a woman, and let all Her faults be buried with her."
We did more than this. We stole away, again and again, into that fairy-land, which, the belief in the supernatural, has, for ages, firmly established in Scotland; there we danced with witches and warlocks, and consorted with Brownies, Kelpies, and Water-wraiths : or, under the guidance of the great poet of nature, we hied away to the castle of Macbeth, became familiar with the "wierd sisters ;" "the white spirits and black, red spirits and gray," who first seduced the Scottish Thane, by fair promises and deceitful predic- tions, into murdering his kinsman and his sovereign ; and
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then, like the arch-fiend they served, left him in his extremity, miserably to perish, the victim of his own and his wife's wicked ambition. We could see, as palpably as could the guilty assassin himself, the air-drawn dagger that informed him of the " bloody business " upon which he was intent. We beheld also the ghost of Banquo, whose ugly visage and ill-timed visit so marred the feast, and frightened the host from his propriety. We saw " Birnam- wood come to Dunsinane," and heard the last agonizing cry of the dying tyrant.
We could scarcely fail to be reminded of the national character of our friends and neighbors, by listening to their songs. It is true there was no Wilson, nor Sinclair, nor Dempster to sing them ; yet, I assure you, "John Ander- son, my Jo," has been given here with great effect, we being the judges. How often has our boyish patriotism been aroused by " Bruce's Farewell ; " - the sentiment of the " Banks and Braes of Bonny Doon," has been felt and appre- ciated here, as well as the "Farewell to Ayershire," and "Flow gently, sweet Afton :" -no flower was ever so sweet as the "Flower of Dumblain," as we have had it, with its sweeter accompaniments. And was there ever sung or said a nobler sentiment than - " A man's a man for a' that, and a' that."
Need any one be told who composed the church and congregation here, when he, who ministered so many years at the altar, who solemnized the marriage-contracts, who officia- ted at the holy rites of baptism, who lifted up his hands in prayer, at the bed-side of the sick and the dying, was none other than a lineal descendant of that Highland clan, whose name he bore, and who "ever scorned to turn their backs on friend or foe." And of whom the song says : -
" While there's leaves in the forest and Foam on the river, Mac Gregor, despite them, shall Flourish forever."
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Again the Caledonian characteristics appeared as we saw,
"On a winter's night, our granum spinnin, To make a web of good fine linnen."
, But, alas! many of us are compelled to acknowledge that these youthful remembrances are fading out; that we have
" Wandered mony a weary foot, Sin' auld lang syne,"
and that we are only too happy to avail ourselves of an occasion like the present, to come home, and say, " we can- not but remember that such things were, and that they were most precious to us."
As for myself, I adopt with all my heart, and assume as my own, the answer of the noble Duke, to the affectionate Jenny Deans before referred to. " MacCullum More's heart must be as cold as death, when it does not warm to the tartan."
Our earliest inhabitants were then, Scotch, in their origin ; but they were called Scotch-Irish. Let us turn back to the written history of this peculiar people, and see what we can learn of them. We must commence as early as the reign of James the First, in 1603. Elizabeth, his immediate predeces- sor, had carried out, during her time, the rigorous and unre- lenting policy of her father, Henry the Eighth, in harassing and persecuting her Catholic subjects ; and especially, the Irish portion of them. By this means, the spirit of rebellion was fostered, not subdued, in that unfortunate Island. James, had not seen the end of the second year of his reign, before he was called upon to crush the conspiracies of Tyrone and Tyrconnel of Ulster, and soon to put down the rebellion of O'Dogherty and others. These conspirators and rebels, hav- ing either fled from their country, or having been slain in the several contests in which they were engaged, a very large section of the Province of Ulster, covering six counties, equal to a half a million of acres, reverted to the crown.
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It became very important to James, to repeople this deserted territory, not only with loyal subjects, but with those of the Protestant faith.
, For the early history of the Scotch-Irish, both while they were at home, and since their emigration to America, I am greatly indebted to Dr. William Henry Foote, of Virginia, who has, very recently, given to the world, two large volumes, one, entitled Sketches of North-Carolina, and the other, Sketches of Virginia ; both of which, are filled, with highly interesting matter ; chiefly touching the history of the Pres- byterians, who came to this country at a very early period. He says, " that in the fulfilment of this design," that is, in furnishing Ulster Province with Protestants, "he (James) planted those colonies, from which, more than a century afterwards, those emigrations sprang, by which western Vir- ginia and the Carolinas were in a great measure peopled." He might have included also, Londonderry, Bedford, New Boston, Antrim, Peterborough and portions of the inhabitants of many other towns, in this State, as well as of many towns in Massachusetts and Vermont. "The project of James," he goes on to say, " was grand and attractive, and in its progress, to complete success, formed a race of men, law- loving, law-abiding, loyal, enterprising freemen; whose thoughts and principles, have had no less influence in mould- ing the American mind, than their children to make the wilderness blossom as the rose."
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