History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 18

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1714

USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 18
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 18

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The old mansion has seen its contemporaries fall away, and generation after generation pass on. Busi- ness and fashion were lured to our more flourishing town, and for many years few have gone through the fishing village to enjoy and rest in the beauties of the shore beyond, to be lulled by the rote of the sea, full of rest and unrest, or to feel the friendship of the light-houses as they send out from every point their guiding rays over the deep. We begin to go back in many things to the choice of our fathers. The dust-laden travelers of summer from our heated in- land may be glad of the sea anywhere, and throw themselves down where others have chosen for them, without variety and without beauty, and in their want of knowledge think it is all grand; but one may go a good while along our coast before he finds any views more charming and enrapturing than those from the very sites of the old mansions at Great Island.

HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

CHAPTER XI.

PORTSMOUTH .- (Continued.)

Manners and Social Life-Temperance-Use of Tobacco-Social Cus- ; toms-Church Pews and Customs-Observance of Sunday-Cost of Living-Early Laws-The Isles of Shoals.

Manners and Social Life .- While colonies vary very much in the purpose of their settlement and the character and plans and religious views of their leaders, the average settler is pretty much the same always. It is true of both the Bay and the Piscata- qua that they had a very large number, during the Temperance .- In matters of temperance early set- early years, of settlers of the very highest moral and ! tlers are not apt to be the best examples. Yet there social standing, merchants and citizens of the best quality of England's culture ; it is true the religious views of the colonies differed ; it is true that they were equally attached to their faith ; it is true that ! be endured for a moment anywhere. Any one who some members of each partook of that coarse, wild, and profane character which belongs to all new set- tlements, and it is true that the settlement here came so early under the sway of the Bay Colony, was sub- ject to their worship, and controlled by men of pre- 1 cisely the same character with themselves, that it was not possible for anything but prejudice to suggest or keep alive the tradition of a substantial difference. This is perhaps the most suitable place to notice some of the customs, social and religious, which found an observance during the first part of our history, and being much the same in the various settlements, may give some idea of the social life in all.

One cannot fail to mark the expressions of friend- ship or of religion which are found at the opening or close of business communications. The letters from one merchant to another seem incomplete without in- . We find it ordered by the court of Exeter that " no quiries about health, family, or asking the blessing of God upon their enterprises. Of course it is as possi- 'English but by Thomas Wardle," from which it would

ble for good manners to conceal the intentions or dis- position of dishonesty, just as the forms of religion may advance the schemes of hypocrisy, but it is not generally so, and these expressions, even though the common epistolary form of that day hardly belong to a'class of men utterly without the sentiment of relig- ion, abandoned to trade beyond all other settlers. Thus Thomas Eyre, of the Laconia Company, writing to Gibbins, closes his letter with this sentence, "I commend you and your wife, who by this I hope is with you, to the protection of the Almightie."

Mason, sending to Vaughan an invoice of goods shipped to the company, finishes the letter with " Thus we commende you to God." Gibbins, writing back, says, " At large I wil write, if God wil, by the next. Thus taking my leave, I commend your wor- ship to Almighty God." Not less frequent are the expressions of friendship from the families of the proprietors to those of the factors, "With my kind love to you and wife and daughter." And Mrs. Ma- son writes to "her loving friend," Ambrose Gibbins, And while these expressions abound, there is no rea-

son to suppose they are suggested by any other than business relationship. Nevertheless even at that day there was a spirit of overreaching and dishonor in trade, which seems as old as trade itself, coming con- stantly to the surface. Ambrose Gibbins says, in a letter to Mason, " The merchants I shall be very cau- tyous [cautious] how I deale with any of them while I live. In Mass. a woman is excommunicated from the Boston Church for charging mechanics who worked on her husband's home with extortion, and a man is fined £5 for taking upon him to cure the scurvy by a water of no value, which he sold at a very dear rate."

is nothing which shows so well as history the progress the temperance cause has made. The convivial hab- its of one hundred, two hundred years ago would not will take the trouble to look up the social life of the English or Scotch, or of our own land, beyond the present or last century, is amazed at the custom of in- toxication or excessive drinking. While among the greatest of the evils we have still to deal with, the change has been very marked, and the excited and unfounded statements that we are intemperate be- yond all other people, or that, proportionately, the vice is greater in our day than in the past are made in utter ignorance and the extremest party or fanati- cal zeal. All these settlements were well supplied with aqua city, as it is spelled (aqua ritir, water of life), being the common name of brandy, or the spirit of wine. It comes in all the inventories as a part of the goods, and sack, the name of a Spanish wine now called sherry, is not infrequently in the accounts.

wines or strong water shall be sold by retail to the appear there were no restrictions upon the sale of liquor to the Indians, as the Arahs at the present day deem it all honorable to overreach the Christian infi- 'dels in any way; but in 1654, "Roger Stearne, of Hampton, is impowered and ordered to sell wine of any sort and strong licquors to the Indians as to their (his) judgment shall seeme meete and necessary for their relief in just and urgent occasions, and not oth- erwise," and there is a record of the House of Depu- ties of Massachusetts in 1654 as follows : " Whereas, it is judged most comely, convenient, and conducive to the dispatch of public service that the deputies of the General Court should diet together, especially at dinner, it is therefore ordered that the deputies of the General Court the next ensuing year, viz., 1655, shall | all accordingly dine together, and that Lieut. Phil- lips, the keeper of the said Tavern, shall be paid for the same by the Treasurer for the time being by dis- counting the same in the custom of wine." In 1658 it is declared that "this Court doth expect that all the inhabitants of Piscataqua doe attend the observ- ance of our laws, in particular those concerning the

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11 TIMETH

PHILA

RESIDENCE OF ALEXANDER H. LADD, PORTSMOUTH, N. H.

PORTSMOUTH.

selling of strong liquors, and good order to be kept in ordinances." As early as 1637 the Legislature of the Bay Colony, perceiving the deadly effects of intem- perance, passed the severest laws, with probably no greater enforcement and no more beneficial effects than in the last few years; but the best step in the temperance eause was when the Governor, in 1630, believing, from what he had seen of the custom of drinking healths in England, that it was contrary to religious obligation, "restrained it at his own table, and wished others to do the like, so as it grew by little and little to disuse." The extent of the evil is shown by the efforts to suppress it, e.g., we find in 1634, at Roxbury, for drunkenness, a man was ordered to be disfranchised, wear about his neck and so to hang upon his outward garment a D made of red eloth and set upon white, to continue this for a year, and not to take it off at any time when he comes amongst com- pany." With us, instead of being disfranchised, the drunkards are those in whom the politicians have the deepest interest. "Persons who keep homes of en- tertainment are forbidden to allow tippling after nine o'clock at night."

In Londonderry, at the close of the last century, the evil was so great that at the installation of a clergyman a hogshead of rum was drank, and in one part of the house in which the minister lived was a tavern where spirits was sold and drank on Sunday by members of the church, and so wide-spread was the custom that on a fast-day, when the minister was supposed to be free to indulge in some special topic, he was widely denouneed for preaching upon temperance.

Use of Tobacco .- The use of tobacco, then com- paratively novel, but a habit which has a fatal ten- dency to make its subjects ungentlemanly and rude, and to forget how disagreeable it may be to others, early became subject to legal restrictions. In 1646 we find, " Whereas there is great abuse in taking to- bacco in a very uncivil manner in the streets, if any person or persons shall be found or seen doing so hereafter he shall be subject to punishment;" and, again, "any person or persons who shall be found smoking tobacco on the Lord's day going to or coming from the meeting within two miles of the meeting- house, he shall be fined." Within two miles was construed to have no bearing on such as had a mind to smoke in the meeting-house, and so the loud snap- ping of tobacco-boxes after loading the pipes; the elinking of flint and steel, followed by curling wreaths of smoke, were not infrequent in the house of worship.

Thus early, too, we find the habit widely prevalent among the students at Harvard. Capt. John Under- hill, who was a conspicuous figure in the early settle- ment, went so far as to say " that having long lain under a spirit of bondage he could get no assurance, till at length as he was taking a pipe of tobacco the spirit set home upon him an absolute promise of full grace, with such assurance & joy that he had never since doubted of his good estate, neither should he

whatever sins he might fall into," and "that as the Lord was pleased to convert Saul while he was per- scenting, so he might manifest Himself to him while making a moderate use of the good creature tobacco," -the only instance, I doubt not, since its discovery wherein it has been a means of grace.

Social Customs .- Some of the customs and morals or immoralities of these carly times may be gath- ered from the regulations passed in the interests of good order and religion. It was ordered "that no young man that was neither married nor hath any servant, and be no public officer, should keep house by himself without consent of the town where he first lived ; and that no master of a family should give habitation or entertainment to any young man to so- journ in his family but by the allowance of the in- habitants of the said town where he dwells,"-this was that a strict watch might be kept over the ways of each person.

It was ordered that Maverick, an Episcopal clergy- man on Noddles Island, and his family move into Boston, and entertain no strangers longer than one night, out of fear that he might countenance and har- bor the enemies of the Puritans, but the order as to his moving was countermanded at a later date.

At an important Synod held at Newton, May, 1637, it was resolved, "Though a few women might meet together for prayer and religious conversation, yet large companies of them, as sixty or more, who con- vened weekly in Boston, taught by a particular one of their number in doctrine and exposition of the Scriptures, were disorders."

A man accused of swearing was to have his tongue put in a cleft stick. A member of Harvard College, being convicted of speaking blasphemous words con- cerning the Holy Ghost, is sentenced to be publicly whipped before all the scholars, suspended as to taking his degree of Bachelor, sit alone by himself in the hall, uncovered, at meals during the pleasure of the president and fellows, and be in all things obedient, doing what exercise is appointed him by the president, or else be finally expelled from the College.

In 16-18 the wearing of long hair was condemned as sinful. The Governor, Deputy Governor, and mag- istrates entered into an association to prevent the growing evil. Forasmuch as the wearing of long hair, after the manner of ruffians and barbarous In- dians, has begun to invade New England, contrary to the rule of God's word, which says "it is a shame for a man to wear long hair, as also the commendable cus- tom generally of all the godly of our nation until within these few years, we, the magistrates, do de- clare and manifest our dislike and detestation against the wearing of such long hair, as against a thing un- eivil and unmanly, whereby men do deform them- selves and offend sober and modest men, and do cor- rupt good manners."

In 1638, in Massachusetts, the court taking into

HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

consideration the extravagance which prevailed through the country as to costliness of attire and following new fashions, ministers, as the particular duty of their profession, were called upon to urge a reform in this respect on their congregations; "but," it is added, "little was done about it, for divers of the elders' wives were in some measure partners of this general disorder." What would a settler of 1638 think of the disorder now! In 1642 the General Court require that the children whose parents neglect to educate them shall have the particular attention of the selectmen where they live, so they shall learn to read and understand the principles of religion as well as the capital laws. In 1643, ordered that all parents and masters do duly endeavor, either by their own ability and labor, or by employing such schoolmas- ters or other helps and means as the plantation doth afford, or the family may conveniently furnish, that all their children and apprentices as they grow capa- ble may, through God's blessing, attain at least so much as to be able duly to read the Scriptures and other good and profitable printed books in the English tongue." In 1647 there is a long resolution in regard to the Bible in schools, so that the pupils may exercise greater vigilance against papacy, "it being one chief project of yt ould deluder Satan to keepe men from the knowledge of ye Scriptures, as in former times by keeping ym in an unknowne tongue, so in these latter times by persuading from ye use of tongue." The use of the Bibles in schools was to make each one read it for himself, the cardinal Protestant idea, and the greatest object of education to enable each to be able to read it, whence utterly ignoring the original idea, and entirely wresting it from its pur- pose, by a long custom it has come to pass that some not able to distinguish between a custom and a prin- ciple insist upon the idlest form of reading. a few verses of the Scriptures as an essential part of our common-school system.

Church Pews and Customs .- We have referred to the old South Church being for a long time without any pews. The church at IIampton had at first but one pew, and that for the use of the minister's family, the rest of the house being furnished with seats for the accommodation of the people. Each man was obliged to build his own pew, keep it in repair, to maintain all the glass against it, and he must build on the spot assigned him. In the town of Stratham there was an exception, where by a vote of the town "Mr. Andrew Wiggin shall have liberty to set in what seat he pleaseth in the meeting-house," while the general law was "that when the committee have seated the meeting-house, every person that is seated shall sit in these seats, or pay five shillings per day for every day they set out of these seats in a disor- derly manner to advance themselves higher in the meeting-house. Persons were seated in church ac- cording to their rank or station in life or society, and Mr. was at that time a title of great distinction, to

which a very small proportion attained. Even in the beginning of the present century it was usual in the Scotch Kirk for the minister to bow from the pulpit to the lords according to their rank as they sat in the front seats, and there was often a rivalry entirely unbecoming the equality of souls before God as to who should have the first bow; and in one parish the custom was given up, and inasmuch as they could not judge of themselves as to point of honor and descent, the minister was appointed to forbear bowing to any the lairds from the pulpit for tlie time to come. The distance persons walked for worship is almost incredible in our degenerate day. They came on foot from Rye, New Castle, and Green- land to the Old South Church over the bridge, and it was no uncommon thing for women to walk six or eight miles, and sometimes carry an infant child. Before the town of Bedford was set off its inhabitants for some time attended worship at Londonderry. They performed the journey on foot, and generally carried one or two children a distance of twelve miles.

At a regular parish meeting held June 4, 1705, it was voted " that in consideration of their number, the distance they had to travel, and the dangers to be encountered in their attendance upon public worship, the inhabitants of Greenland be permitted to enjoy their own regular instituted means of grace, and that one hundred pounds be paid yearly, out of the town stock, as their proportion for the support of the min- istry during their maintenance of an able minister among them, and no longer." In want of a bell, a drum gave notice of the time of gathering for public worship. By an ancient law a penalty of forty shil- lings, by way of a fine, was attached to every town not provided with a drum to call the people to meeting. There is an order of public worship in Boston as fol- lows: "It begins by ringing of a bell about nine of the clock or before." The pastor prays a quarter of an hour. The teacher reads and explains a chapter. A psalm is dictated by one of the ruling elders and sung. The pastor preaches a sermon, and sometimes gives an exhortation without notes. The teacher closes with prayer and benediction. Services begin at two in the afternoon, and proceed in the same order.

When a minister exchanged, the ruling elder said to him publicly, after the psalm was sung, " If this present brother hath any word of exhortation for the people at this time, in the name of God say on." Before departing in the afternoon one of the deacons said, "Brethren of the congregation; as God hath prospered you, so freely offer ;" then the magistrates and chief gentlemen first, and then the elders and all the congregation of men, and most of them that were not of the church, all single persons, widows, and women in absence of their husbands, went up one after another one way, and brought their offering of money or chattel to the deacon's seat, and passed by

PORTSMOUTH.

another way to their seats, Persons were appointed to have inspection of the audience during the public exercises, whose frequent rounds kept the children in order. The badge of their office was a pole with a knob on one end and a tuft of feathers on the other ; with the one they rapped on the men's heads, and with the other they brushed the ladies' faces when they caught them napping. Music in these early days, as in the latter, was deemed a necessary part of worship, and had its attendant criticisms and disaffec- tions. The custom was from the earliest days to deacon the hymn, the precentor or leader of psalm- ody reading two lines and all singing them, and so on to the end; but the singers wanted to break up the old habit of "lining" or "deaconing" and have it all their own way. At Stratham the matter was settled by a compromise, the deacon by vote of the town to read half the time; but still he complained of the bass viol, saying "they had got a fiddle into the church as big as a hog's trough ;" while at Lon- donderry the precentor and choir both kept on at the same time, one reading and the other singing, until the latter gained the victory and sang the reader down.

Observance of Sunday .-- The observance of Sun- day was strict and general, but hedged round by so minute and constant command of the law that it is questionable if its true helpful keeping was ever so great as now. Those were good times for dull min- isters, when every seat in the church was filled, with- out regard to weather or the difficulty of traveling, by the tenor of the magistrate more than the fear or love of the Lord, and they were pretty serious times for such as some of you who would forsake the sanctuary for a walk, a drive to the beach, or a sail to the shoals, or the enjoyment of a cigar. In Oeto- ber, 1668, the court ordered

" That whatsoever person in this jurisdiction shall travell upon the Lord's day, either on horsebacke or on foote, or by boats, from or out of their owne towne to nny unlawful assembly or meeting not allowed by law, are hereby declared to be prophaners of the Sabath, and shall be proceeded against as the persons that prophane the Lord's day by doing servile worke. "

In 1682 it was enacted,-

"For prevention of the prophanation of the Lord's day that whoso- ever shall, on the Lord's day, be found to do unnecessary servile labor, travel, sports, or frequent ordinaires in time of public worship, or idly straggle abroad, the person so offending shall pay a line of ten shillings, or be set in the stocks an hour; and for discovery of such person> it is ordered that the constable, with some other meet person whom he shall choose, shull in the time of public worship go forth to any suspected place within their precincts, to find out any offender as above."

The restrictions of the Bay Colony, which of course all came in force here, were exceedingly severe and minute. It was ordered

" to the end the Sabbath may bee celebrated inn religious manner, that all that inhabito the plantation, both for the general and particular em- ploy ment«, may surcease their labor every Saturday throughout the yeare at three of the clock in the afternoone, and that they spend the rest of the day In catechizing and preparacon for the Sabbath as the minister shall direct."

Whoever neglected to attend worship on Sabbath, fast, or thanksgiving without sufficient cause was fined five shillings. For fast especially this law would at the present time be a sourec of goodly in- come to the city treasury. If profanation of the Lord's day were done proudly and with a high hand against the authority of God, it was to be punished with death. There is a record of an agreement with some Indians who came under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts in 1644, wherein the following conver- sation takes place : " Will you worship the only true God who made Heaven and earth and not blaspheme ? We do desire to reverence the God of the English and to speak well of Him, because we do see He doth better to the English than other Gods do to others. Will you refrain from working on the Sabbath ? It is easy to us; we have not much to do any day, and we can well rest on that day."

In 1630 it was ordered that a man be whipped for shooting at fowl on the Sabbath day. Those were fortunate days for the clergy, when any disrespect to them or their office was a matter of legal punishment, although a clergyman deserving of real respect never had so much-if not enforced, at least zeal-as at the present time. In 1682 it was enacted that "whoso- ever shall behave himself contemptuously toward the word of God preached or any minister thereof called and faithfully dispensing the same in any con- gregation, either by manifest interrupting of him in his ministerial dispensation or falsely charging him with teaching error, such offender shall pay a fine of 208,, or sit two hours in the stocks." There is a story on record of a minister in Bedford, this State, who had a neighbor with whom he was not on the best terms. One Saturday they came to sharp talk about their fences and cattle, which was heard by others, who predicted the neighbor would not be seen any more at church, but the next Sunday he was punctually there. After service they said, "We thought you would not be at meeting to-day after such a quarrel yesterday with the minister." " I'd have ye to know," was the reply, "if 1 dlid quarrel with my neighbor yesterday I did not quarrel with the gospel."

Games, sports of all kinds, at all times met with little favor, but on Sunday particularly with the severest censure. It was one of the matters by which the Puritans were especially distressed that King James permitted and encouraged dancing, archery, May-games, and May-poles, and any harmless recrea- tion on Sundays after divine service. When a May- pole was set up at a plantation afterwards called Braintree in 1626. it was a serious annoyance to the settlers at New Plymouth, who called it "an idoll, yea, they called it the calfe of lorch," and stood at defiance with the place, naming it Mount Dagon, threatening to make it a woful mount and not a merry mount ; and in 1628, Endicott canses the May-pole to be cut down, and rebukes them for their profaneness. In 1631 the court ordered all who have cards and dice

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History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 18

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis Number of Pages: 1714

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1714