USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Hollis > History of the town of Hollis, New Hampshire, from its first settlement to the year 1879 > Part 10
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102
COLONIAL SCHOOL LAW.
CHAPTER VIII.
COLONIAL SCHOOL LAW .- SCHOOLS IN HOLLIS BEFORE THE REV- OLUTION .- SCHOOL DISTRICTS .- SCHOOL HOUSES. - THE GRAM- MAR SCHOOL .-- TEACHERS OF THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL .- COL- LEGE GRADUATES, ETC., BEFORE ISOO .- LETTER OF GOV. JOHN WENTWORTH TO REV. MR. EMERSON .- 1746 TO 1775.
By a Colonial law of New Hampshire passed in 1719, and re- maining in force without any important change till after the Revo- lution, it was enacted " that each Town in the Province having the number of fifty house holders shall be constantly provided of a schoolmaster to teach children to read and write, and when any town has one hundred families or house holders, there shall also be a Grammar School set up and kept. * * And some dis- creet person of good conversation, well instructed in the tongues. shall be procured to be master thereof. * * . Every such school master to be suitably encouraged and paid by the inhabitants. And the Selectmen of Towns are hereby Empowered to agree with such school masters for Salary, and to raise money by way of Rate upon the Inhabitants to pay the same." The law also provided that " If any such Town should neglect the due observance of the Law for the space of six months, it should incur a Penalty of £20." In 1721 this law was so amended in respect to towns having one hun- dred families, as to subject the selectmen, instead of the town. to a fine of £20, if their town for one month should be without a gram- mar school.
The above law was unlike the New Hampshire School Laws in force during the present century in many important particulars.
Ist. It provided for a single school only for teaching children to read and write, in towns having fifty families and less than one hun- dred : and for a grammar school in which the " tongues" or dead languages were to be taught in towns having one hundred families or more.
103
SCHOOL TAXES.
1746 to 1775.]
end. It was wholly silent as to school-houses, school districts and school committees.
3d. It contemplated the employment of male teachers only, .. School Masters."
4th. The hiring of " School Masters"-the whole management of the schools and the " raising of money by way of Rates" was en- trusted wholly to the selectmen.
5th. . It required, in its terms, both the school for teaching reading and writing, and also that for teaching the "Tongues" to be kept " constantly."
The foregoing suggestions in respect to the province school law tend to explain many matters relating to schools to be found in the early Hollis records, otherwise not so readily understood.
The first reference to public schools to be found in these records is in the doings of the annual town meeting of March, 1749. A few days previous to that meeting, the old first meeting-house had been offered for sale at public auction and bid off at £49. O. T., and it was then "Voted that the money the old meeting-house sold for be applied to the building of a school-house." But it afterwards appears from the records that this £49, O. T .. was not paid, and that the old meeting-house still continued to belong to the town. In the year 1750 there were eighty-nine names on the tax list, and the number of families then in the town was doubtless fifty or more, a number making it the duty of the town "to provide a School Master to teach children to read and write." In that year the first tax was assessed for a public school amounting to £5o. O. T. From that time till the war of the Revolution and after, with the excep- tion of the years 1752, '53, '54, and 1756, the town at its annual meeting continued to vote a yearly tax for ".a School" or " the School." varying in amount from £30, in silver or lawful money, to £Soo, O. T. In 1780, when the continental paper money had becomeso depreciated as to be nearly worthless, the nominal amount of the school tax in that currency was £4,000.
From 1750 to 1766, the school tax. like other taxes, was assessed in the Old Tenor paper currency, and varied from £50, O. T., the lowest amount in a year. to ESoo, the highest. During the war this tax as other taxes of the time, were assessed and payable in the Continental paper money, varying in amount from £50, in 1775, to ť4,000, in 1780.
In 1753 the town ". Voted to give Lient. Samuel Cumings £52,
104
SCHOOL HOUSES AND SCHOOL SQUADRONS. [1753.
O. T., for his house which was Dea. Worcester's, for a school house, and he is to have the use of said house on Sabbath days." But in 1755 it was " Voted to give Samuel Cumings one half of the old meeting-house for the use of the house the Town bought of him for a School-house the three years they had it, and said Cumings is to have his house again." In 1760 an article was in- serted in the warrant for the annual meeting, .. To see if the Town would build a School-house." The question upon this article com- ing up in the meeting, it was "decided in the negative." From the doings of this meeting it is evident that the town owned no school-house in 1760.
Till the year 1771 it would be naturally inferred, from the lan- guage used in voting the yearly school tax, that but a single school was kept in the town at the same time -- this tax being uniformly voted for " a" school, or "the" school, as if but one,-the school law in force at the time, apparently, contemplating but a single school in towns not having a sufficient number of families for a gram- mar school. Still it appears from other votes and doings of the town, that there may have been several schools kept at the same time in different parts of the town.
In 1752, it was " Voted that the school should be moved for the benefit of the town ;" and in 1755, £1oo, O. T., were assessed as a school tax, and it was " Voted that the School should be kept in the four quarters of the town; Each quarter to draw £25, and to keep the school when and where they please." This was what was called the movable or "perambulatory" school.
The earliest approximation to any permanent local division of the town for school purposes is to be found in the records for 1757. The town that year voted foo, O. T. for .. a school." " and that it be granted to every suitable number of persons that shall agree together in any part of the town (to have) their proportion for keeping a school among themselves, and those that dont joyn. their money is to be paid into the treasury for a school in the middle of the town.". The like vote continued to be passed for many years after. These associations were wholly voluntary on the part of those who united in them, and are called in the records. " School Classes." ". School Societies." and sometimes .. School Squadrons." but in no instance, in the early records, " school districts." In 1760 a conimittee was chosen " to divide the town for schools, and to ap- portion the money between the summer and winter schools."
.
105
THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
1746 to 1775.]
In 1761, Dea. Worcester, Benjamin Abbot, James Jewett, Ste- phen Ames and Samuel Cumings were chosen a committee to fix places for school-houses, and the next year, 1762, the town " voted that school houses should be built when there is a sufficient number that shall sign to any certain place to build the houses and each party is to build their own house." This is the last reference I find in the town records to school-houses, and I think there is no reason- able doubt that such houses were built in accordance with that vote, but if so, how many, when, in what parts of the town, and at what cost, these records do not tell us.
In 1771 the town "voted £36, in Lawful Money, (or silver) for schools to be laid out in the usual manner " and " that Mr. Emerson keep the Grammar School for the town as usual, viz, : to teach all those in the town that shall present themselves in the languages." The foregoing vote is the earliest notice of the Hollis Grammar School to be found in the records, but the words " as usual" imply that such a school had been kept for some years before.
According to the census of the town taken in 1767. Hollis then contained 809 inhabitants, and then had 150 names on its tax lists, and without doubt there were then in the town more than 100 fam- ilies. If so it was the duty of the inhabitants, under the existing school laws, as early as that year, and probably earlier, to establish a grammar-school. In 1774 the town " Voted that the grammar- school should be kept the whole year in the four southern squad- rons, the other squadrons to school out their money as usual." As that part of the town north of the meeting-house was somewhat larger in extent than the part south of it. we may fairly presume. that in 1774, there were as many as eight " School Squadrons" in the town, and not unlikely as many school-houses. In 1775 the town .. Voted that Mr. William Cumings keep the grammar-school." The foregoing are all the minutes to be found upon the town re- cords relative to the Hollis grammar-school, before the war of the Revolution, and we infer from them that such of the Hollis youth as wished for instruction in the " tougnes," were tanght by the Rev. Mr. Emerson, till the year 1775, when he was succeeded by Mr. Cumings. The name of this Mr. Cumings is found upon one of the Hollis military rolls in 1775 with the title of .. School-Master." He was for many years a teacher in the Hollis schools, and long after his decease was gratefully and affectionately remembered, as "Master Cumings." In the two last years of the war. and several
106
REV. MR. EMERSON.
[1746 to 1775.
years after it, he held the office of Town Clerk. and the Hollis records of the time still exhibit abundant evidence of his neat and elegant penmanship, and of his ability not only to write his mother tongue correctly and in good taste, but also to garnish the produc- tions of his pen with a somewhat pedantic display of his knowl- edge of Latin.
It is very evident from documents that yet exist, that the youth of Hollis, before the Revolution, were tanght to " read and write," as required in the existing school law. I have seen and examined more than one hundred of the original signatures of the Hollis revo- lutionary soldiers, all, with but rare exceptions, written in a fair. legible hand, and but two " marksmen " among them all, and these supposed not to have been born in the town. Judging from the published histories of many towns, which I have read, it is very certain that the schools in Hollis were better cared for than in many towns both older and more populous. It was not uncommon, both in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, for towns or their selectmen to be indicted and fined for their neglect to comply with the school laws. Other towns sometimes voted to indemnify their selectmen for such neglects .-- it costing less money to pay the fines than to support the schools. But no such vote is to be found in the doings of any Hollis town meeting, nor have I learned that any criminal complaint was ever made against the town of its selectmen for vio- lation of the school laws.
1
This comparatively good condition of the public schools in Hollis is undoubtedly due, in great measure, to the efforts of their worthy minister, Mr. Emerson, and some of the prominent early settlers of the town, and the active interest they took in the cause of popular education. " The good which men do." as well as .. the evil," lives after them, and there can be no doubt that the salutary influence of Mr. Emerson and his compeers, felt alike by parents and the youth of Hollis, continued long after their decease.
Some of the good fruits of this influence were to be seen in the unusually large number of the Hollis youth, born during the life of Mr. Emerson, who sought the advantages of a collegiate and profes- sional education. In the short biographical notices that I have read of Mr. Emerson it was said of him that he was .. a popular and suc- cessful minister." and that " his praise was in all the churches." The youth of Hollis who were born and grew up under his ministry. no doubt could say with equal truth, that his praise was in all the
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1746 to 1775.] COLLEGE GRADUATES BEFORE 1800. 107
schools. Mr. Emerson, as we have seen, was settled in the ministry over his society in 1713, and his connection with it as sole and asso- ciate pastor, continued till his death in ISo1, a period of fifty-six years. It will be seen from the lists of Hollis graduates of colleges. and of ministers, physicians and lawyers. not graduates. that eleven of the youth of Hollis. born before the war of the Revolution, were gradu- ates of colleges, and an equal number, not graduates, also born be- fore 1775, became ministers or physicians. It may also be seen that Hollis furnished twenty-eight graduates of colleges, born between the years 1775, and 1800, during the pastorate of Mr. Emerson, a number equal to more than one for each year during the last quarter of the last century.
The names of the Hollis Graduates of Colleges, and of Minis- ters and Physicians, not Graduates. born before 1775, are pre- sented in the following Lists :
GRADUATES OF COLLEGES.
Rev. PETER POWERS
born 172S Rev. SAMUEL WORCESTER, D. D. born 1770
JOSIAH GOODNICE
1735
DANIEL EMERSON, Jun. 1771
HENRY CUMINGS, D. D.
1739
JACOB A. CUMINGS 1772
JOSEPHI EMERSON ..
1759 .. DAVID JEWETT
1773
Dr. SAMUEL EMERSON
1764
ABEL FARLEY .. 1773
Rev. JOSIAH BURGE .
.. 1766
MINISTERS AND PHYSICIANS NOT GRADUATES.
Dr. ABIJAN WRIGHT
born 1746
Rev. LEONARD WORCESTER
born 1767
" PETER EMERSON
=
1749
THOMAS WORCESTER 1768
Rev. SAMUEL AMBROSE
1757 DAVID SMITH 1,6)
" NOAH WORCESTER, D. D. ..
175S
Dr. JOSEPH F. EASTMAN
1772
" JOSEPH WHEAT
..
1759
Rev. DAVID BROWN
1773
Dr. WILLIAM HALE
1762
The names of the Hollis Graduates of Colleges born between the years 1775 and 1800 are presented below :
JOSEPH EMERSON, 2d
born 1777 DANIEL KENDRICK
born 1785
MIGHILL BLOOD
1777
WILLIAM TENNEY
MANASSER SMITH
1779
ELI SMITH, Jr
1757
STEPHEN FARLEY Jun.
41
1779 RALPH EMERSON
1787
CALEB J. TENNEY
1~So LEONARD JEWETT
17S
JONATHAN B. EASTMAN
=
1750 JOHN PROCTOR ..
1787
NEHEMIAH HARDY
SAMUEL E. SMITH ..
I-SS
BENJAMIN BURGE
17S2
LUKE EASTMAN
1700
JOSEPH E. SMITH
GEORGE F. FARLEY
61
1793
BENJAMIN M. FARLEY
1783
WM. P. KENDRICK
1704
JOSEPH E. WORCESTER
1781 DAVID P. SMITH
1705
GRANT POWERS
=
1754 SOLOMON HARDY
1746
FIFIELD HOLT
1784
ELI N. SAWTELLE ..
1500
NOAH HARDY
1785 TAYLOR G. WORCESTER
-1799
..
=
=
.
kde s
108
LETTER OF GOV. JOHN WENTWORTH. [1770.
I am indebted to my kind friend the late Rev. Dr. Bouton, for the following very sensible and graceful letter written to Mr. Emerson. in 1770, by Gov. Jolm Wentworth, upon committing to the tutor- ship of Mr. Emerson, a young orphan nephew. The letter is alike creditable to the head and heart of Gov. Wentworth, and is pleasant and pertinent evidence that the good reputation of Mr. Emerson as an instructor of youth and friend of education was well understood beyond the limits of Hollis.
"WENTWORTH HOUSE, WOLFEBOROUGHI, ! 28, July 1770. ) " The Rev. Mr. Emerson at Hollis,
"Rev. Sir :- In consequence of a letter I have just received from Major Hobart, who writes me that you are ready to receive my nephew, Mark Wentworth, and to take charge of his Education, J herewith send him and Earnestly beg your greatest care of his health and instruction. Ile is a fine boy, of great Spirit, which naturally leads him to playful negligence. He has also acquired idle habits which will be easily reformed under a strict discipline, equally removed from cruelty and levity. He must know that you in all things are to be obeyed and never suffer any sort of dis- obedience to your orders. This is more peculiarly necessary for him, as he has to be brought up in the Navy, where implicit obe- dience is necessary for the service and for him. As to his diet, I prefer simple, plain, and plentiful ; his tender age admits no other instruction than reading and writing. But no age is too tender to receive inculcations of practical neatness, honor and virtue. With these, enriched by a just habitual piety, he cannot fail of being a good man, the first great object of Education. I hope hereafter to have opportunity to confer with you upon a future course of learn- ing adapted to his genius and profession. In the mean time I beg leave to assure you, that I can never think any expense too great which he benefits by, and therefore gladly commit him to your care. not doubting but I shall rejoice in making you the most grateful ac- knowledgements for his improvement, which is the greatest and most earnest desire of Revd Sir,
Your most humble Servant.
JOHN WENTWORTH."
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109
EARLY COLONIAL LAWS.
.
CHAPTER IX.
EARLY COLONIAL LAWS .- TOWN OFFICERS AND THEIR DUTIES. - MODERATORS .- SELECTMEN .- CONSTABLES .- FIELD DRIVERS. - TITHING MEN .- HOGREEVES .- DEER REEVES AND DEER .- WOLVES AND RATTLESNAKES .- QUALIFICATIONS OF VOTERS .- HOUSES OF CORRECTION .- THE POOR AND THEIR SUPPORT .- WARNING TO LEAVE TOWN .- SLAVERY IN NEW HAMPSHIRE .- 1746 to 1775.
The town officers authorized to be elected at the annual town meeting in March, before the Revolution, were a Moderator for the town meetings, Town clerk, Treasurer, Selectmen or " Towns- men," Constables, Fence viewers, Field Drivers or ".Haywards," Sur- veyors of highways, Surveyors of lumber. Sealers of weights and measures, Sealers of leather, Tithing-men, Deer-Reeves, Hog- reeves, Pound-keepers, Overseers of the poor, and Overseers of houses of correction.
The Moderator then. as now, was the presiding officer of the town meeting. No person was allowed to speak in meeting with- out leave of that dignitary, nor "when any other person was speaking orderly," and all persons were to be silent at the request of the Moderator under the penalty of five shillings .*
The number of Selectmen might be three, five, seven or nine. Before the Revolution the number chosen in Hollis was either three or five, the last number having been chosen in fourteen out of twenty-nine years from 1746 to 1775. The selectmen were paid or not paid for their services, as decided by vote of the town at their election-the town sometimes voting to pay them for their time and expenses, sometimes their expenses only-and occasionally that they should have no pay for either. In respect to several matters of public concern the Selectmen. under the colony laws, had much
*Col. Laws, p. ; 2. ,
TOWN OFFICERS.
[1746 to 1775
more power and a wider field of duty than at the present day The law not providing for other assessors of taxes it was made the duty of the Selectmen to assess all the polls and estates of the inhab- itants according to the known ability of each person for the support of the ministry, schools, the poor, and for all other town expenses." They also had the whole charge of the public schools, including the providing of suitable buildings or rooms for teaching, and the em- ployment and paying of teachers.t
Constables. One of the principal duties of Constables was to collect the taxes. Till the year 1765. but one Constable was elected in Hollis who was charged with the collection of the taxes for the whole town. After that year two were chosen, one of whom was for the west side or west half of the town, the other for the east half. Two corresponding tax lists were made, one for cach con- stable, the one list containing the names of the taxpayers in the western division, the other those in the eastern.
Field Drivers. This office in this state has long since grown into disuse. In colonial times it was the duty of these officers to take up and impound neat cattle and other domestic animals found unlawfully running at large in the highways or upon the common land. For many years after the first settlement of Hollis, a very large part of the unimproved land was unfenced, the rights of the owners of such lands being in common. . These common lands fur- nished much valuable pasturage, and by the Province law neat cattle and other domestic animals were not permitted to feed upon them without the consent of the land owners. If such animals were found at large upon such lands without the consent of the owners, it was the duty of the Field Driver to impound them. for which service he was allowed one shilling each for horses and neat cattle, and three pence each for sheep and swine, to be paid by the owner of the animals.
As early as 1747 the town meeting in Hollis "voted that the cattle belonging to the town be booked within a week and go at large upon the commons this year, and to proceed with cattle that dont belong to the town according to the law of the Province." The next year it was " voted that residents and non-residents turn out cattle according to their rights. and that all others be driven away." The like votes for the protection of the commons contin- ued to be passed for many years after.
*Col. Laws, p, 138. +Col, Laws. pp. 14.3. 105.
1746 to 1776.]
TOWN OFFICERS.
Tithing Men. The ancient office of Tithing-Man has also be- come obsolete, and the name, once a terror to rude and wayward youth, very nearly so. It was among the duties of these officers to inspect licensed houses, and to inform of all disorders in them. Also to inform of all idle and disorderly persons, profane swearers, and Sabbath breakers, and to aid in their arrest and punishment. They carried as a badge of their office a black staff two feet long, tipped at one end for about three inches with brass or pewter .* It was customary in Hollis to choose four of these officers, two of whom were known as Tithingmen " below," the other two as Tith- ingmen " above." All of them were expected to attend meeting on the Sabbath-the first two to have their seats on the lower floor. and to take note of all disorder and irreverence " below," the other two to be installed in the gallery, and to observe and report all dis- turbances and breaches of decorum " above."
Hogrecres. By a law of the Province passed in 1719, swine were not permitted to run at large, between the first day of April and the first day of October, without being yoked and rung in the way described in the law, and two persons were required to be chosen at the yearly town meeting to enforce the Act. The "regulation " hog yoke was to be of wood, to be in length equal to the depth of the swine's neck, above the neck, and half as long be- low. The ring was to be of strong flexible iron wire inserted 'in the top of the nose to prevent rooting, the ends of the wire being so twisted together as to project one inch above the nose.j By the custom of the town all the young men of Hollis, married within the year next preceding the annual elections, were entitled to the com- pliment of being chosen to this responsible office.
Deer Reeves. The forests in most parts of New Hampshire for many years after its first settlement abounded with deer. Both the flesh and skins of these animals being of great value to the settlers, laws were passed to punish the killing of them at such seasons as would diminish their increase. By a Province law of 1741 it was made a crime to kill deer between the last day of December and the first day of August. An offender against this law was liable to a fine of fro. If not able to pay he might be sen- tenced to work forty days for the Government, and fifty days if he should offend a second time. It was made the duty of the town at the annual election to choose two officers, known as Deer Reeves
*Col. Laws, p. 5S. .
tCo !. Laws, p. 173.
112
VOTERS AND THEIR QUALIFICATIONS. [1764 to 1775.
or Deer Keepers, to see that this law was observed, with power to enter and search all places where they had cause to suspect that the skins or flesh of deer, unlawfully killed, was concealed. The first Deer Reeves in Hollis were Samuel Farley, Josiah Brown and William Adams, chosen in 1747-the last, John Cumings and Elnathan Blood, in 1766.
Wolves and Rattlesnakes. Wolves, the natural and incorrigible enemies both of deer and man, also abounded at the early settle- ment of the town, as also did Rattlesnakes. and were the objects of wholly different laws and policy from those adopted in regard to deer. By a province law passed in 1719, towns were empowered to pay a bounty of 20s. per. head, (subsequently increased) for kill- ing grown wolves, and one-half of the like bounty for " wolf whelps." In pursuance of this law and its amendments, in the years 1760 and 1761, the town voted to pay any Hollis man, who should kill a wolf within the town a bounty of 40s. and in 1766 this bounty was increased to $10.00.
'The policy of extermination in respect to Rattlesnakes, with which parts of the town were then infested, was adopted earlier than that in regard to wolves. At the third parish meeting, held in West Dunstable, in March, 1740, it was " Voted that if any person should make it appear to the Parish Committee that during the year he had killed one or more rattlesnakes within the parish, he shall be paid from the parish treasury one Shilling for each snake so killed."
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