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diff --git a/14132.txt b/14132.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b596390 --- /dev/null +++ b/14132.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4130 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bay State Monthly, Vol. II. No. 5, +February, 1885, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Bay State Monthly, Vol. II. No. 5, February, 1885 + A Massachusetts Magazine + +Author: Various + +Release Date: November 23, 2004 [EBook #14132] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BAY STATE MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci, Cornell University +and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +[Illustration: W'm Gaston.] + + + + +THE + +BAY STATE MONTHLY. + +_A Massachusetts Magazine_. + +VOL. II. + +FEBRUARY, 1885. + +No. 5. + + + * * * * * + +WILLIAM GASTON. + +By ARTHUR P. DODGE. + + +Victor Hugo has written: "The historian of morals and ideas has a +mission no less austere than that of the historian of events. The latter +has the surface of civilization, the struggles of the crowns, the births +of princes, the marriages of Kings, the battles, the assemblies, the +great public men, the revolutions in the sunlight, all exterior; the +other historian has the interior, the foundation, the people who work, +who suffer and who wait ... Have these historians of hearts and souls +lesser duties than the historian of exterior facts?" + +There is much unwritten history of the Bay State: of the exterior, much +is recorded; of the interior, far less. Both are valuable to posterity. +It is believed that succeeding ages will hold of far greater value, and +the youth of our day be benefitted more by the study of the underlying +principles and causes of those events which are given a conspicuous +place in history, rather than by the mere record of the surface facts. + +It is profitable to study the habits and methods of individuals who +stand out in bold relief in history. To derive the greatest interest and +value from such lives it is well to follow them from early childhood. +Indeed it is profitable to trace back the ancestry and lineage from +which the man has descended, to study the characteristics peculiar to +each generation, and to note the result of racial mixtures tending to +the typical and representative American of to-day. + +Many prominent men received their first incentive to ambition and +industry and perseverence by reading--when their minds were immature, +but fresh and retentive--of the life and achievements of Benjamin +Franklin and such other grand models for the young. + +No history of a country or state is complete without studies of the +lives of those men who have made and are making history. + +William Gaston comes from an honored and distinguished ancestry on both +his paternal and maternal side as will be seen by the succeeding +genealogical notes. + +He was born at Killingly, Connecticut, October 3, 1820. + + GENEALOGY. + + Jean Gaston was born in France, probably about the year 1600. There + are traditions about the particular family to which he belonged, + but only little is definitely known. He was a Huguenot, and is said + to have been banished from France on account of his religion. His + property was confiscated. His brothers and family, although + Catholics, sent money to him in Scotland for his support. He is + said to have been forty years of age and unmarried when he went to + Scotland. Between 1662 and 1668, during a season of persecution in + Scotland, his sons, John, William, and Alexander, went over into + the north of Ireland, whither many of their friends were fleeing + for safety and religious freedom. There is some uncertainty as to + which of these three brothers was the founder of this branch of the + family, but numerous facts point almost conclusively to John as + such founder. One generation was born in Ireland. + + John Gaston had three sons born in Ireland: William, born about + 1680; lived at Caranleigh Clough Water; John, born 1703-4, died in + America 1783; Alexander, born 1714, died in America. + + The former lived all his days in Caranleigh Clough Water, Ireland, + where he died about 1770. John and Alexander came to New England + during or shortly prior to 1730. Tradition has it that they landed + at Marblehead. From this place they went soon, if not immediately, + to Connecticut. As their ancestors had done, so did they, seek + religious liberty in a foreign land. They were Separatists and + probably were drawn to Voluntown because a Church holding that + faith was there established. Alexander returned to Massachusetts a + few years later, residing in Richmond, where some of his + descendants now reside; but most of that branch of the family are + living in the western states. + + John Gaston was made a freeman of Voluntown at the organization of + its town government in 1736-7. He was a prominent member of the + Separatists Church in that town, the meeting for the settlement of + Reverend Alexander Miller, their pastor, being held at his house. + He was the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch. His + three children were born in America: Margaret, born 1737, died + 1810; Alexander, born 1739, was a commissioned officer in the + French and Indian War; John, born 1750, died 1805. + + John Gaston married Ruth Miller, daughter of Reverend Alexander + Miller. Their children were Alexander, born in Voluntown, August 2, + 1772; Margaret, born December 13, 1781. The latter died in early + childhood. + + Alexander Gaston married Olive Dunlap, a daughter of Joshua Dunlap, + of Plainfield, Connecticut, who was born 1769, died in Killingly, + September 7, 1814. He married for his second wife in Killingly, in + April, 1816, Kezia Arnold, daughter of Aaron Arnold, born in + Burrillville, Rhode Island, November, 1779, died in Roxbury, + Massachusetts, January 30, 1856. His death occurred in Roxbury, + February 11, 1856. The children of first marriage: Esther, born + 1804, died 1860; John, born 1806, died 1824. William Gaston, of + whom this sketch is written, was the sole issue of the second + marriage. He was born at Killingly October 3, 1820. With his + parents he moved to Roxbury in the summer of 1838. On December 27, + 1830, was born at Boston, Louisa A. Beecher to whom Mr. Gaston was + married May 27, 1852. Mrs. Gaston is a daughter of Laban S. and + Frances A. (Lines) Beecher, both of whom were natives of New Haven, + Connecticut, and were direct descendants of the very first settlers + of Connecticut in 1638. The children of Governor and Mrs. Gaston + were: Sarah Howard, William Alexander, and Theodore Beecher. The + latter was born February 8, 1861; died July 16, 1869. + + The death of Theodore was a severe blow to his family. He was a + beautiful and promising boy. This sad calamity seemed like the + withdrawal of sunlight from the household, causing his loving + parents the keenest anguish. + + Of this branch of the family there are but very few relatives of + Governor Gaston. His son William is the only male representative of + his generation. It is, singularly enough, true that in his family + line of descent there have been three generations where each had + but one male representative, and two generations having but one + representative of either sex. Thus the Carolina Gastons are of the + nearest kindred to Governor Gaston's particular branch. + + Kezia (Arnold) Gaston, the mother of Governor Gaston, was a + daughter of Aaron Arnold and Rhoda (Hunt) Arnold, and a lineal + descendant of Thomas Arnold, who, with his brother William, came to + New England in 1636. William Arnold went to Rhode Island with Roger + Williams, being one of the fifty-four proprietors of that + Plantation. His brother Thomas followed him there in 1654. The + latter was born in England in 1599, probably in Leamington, that + being the birth-place of his brother William. His second wife was + Phoebe Parkhurst, daughter of George Parkhurst of Watertown, + Massachusetts. The family record is carried back to 1100, being + undoubtedly accurate to about the year 1570, when the name Arnold + was first used as a surname; possibly accurate throughout. + + The arms of the Family; Gules, a chevron ermine between three + Pheons, or; appear on the tombstone of Oliver Arnold, and of + William Arnold, the original settler. The same arms are on a tablet + in the Parish Church of Churcham in Gloucestershire, England, + placed there in memory of his ancestor John Arnold of Lanthony, + Monmouthshire, afterwards of Hingham, who acquired the manor of + Churcham in 1541. + + + TRADITIONS. + + The most ancient written record of the family which the writer has + consulted was written by John Roseborough, late Clerk of the + Circuit Court, Chester District, South Carolina. He was the son of + Alexander Roseborough and Martha Gaston, whose father, William + Gaston of Caranleigh Clough Water, Ireland, was grandson of Jean + Gaston, the Huguenot ancestor of the family. + + The statement is as follows, the words enclosed in parenthesis + being supplied by way of information. + + "Jean Gaston emigrated from France to Scotland on account of his + religion, as a persecution then raged against the Protestants. He + had two sons who emigrated from Scotland to Ireland between 1662 + and 1668 during a time of persecution in Scotland. There was a John + and a William, but which of them was the ancestor of our + grandfather is not known. William Gaston, my grandfather, lived at + Caranleigh Clough Water. He married Miss Lemmon and had four sons + and as many daughters: John Gaston (King's Justice) died on Fishing + Creek, near Cedar Shoal, Chester District, South Carolina; Rev. + Hugh Gaston, author of 'Concordance and Collections'; Dr. Alexander + Gaston, killed by the British at Newbern, South Carolina (father of + Judge William Gaston); Robert Gaston, and William Gaston." + + One fact is established, that many of Jean Gaston's descendants had + settled in America before the Revolution and were actively engaged + in that contest for liberty. + +Springing from such ancestry in which are joined the characteristics of +the French Huguenot, the Scotch Presbyterian, the Scotch-Irish patriot, +the follower of Roger Williams, the May Flower Pilgrim, one is not +surprised to find in William Gaston a strong man; a man who inherited as +a birthright the qualities of leadership. + +His father was a well known merchant of Connecticut, of sterling +integrity, and of remarkably strong force of character. He was +commissioned a Captain at the early age of twenty-two, and was for many +years in the Legislature. The father of the latter was also in the +Connecticut Legislature for many years. + +In early youth William gave promise of a superb manhood by displaying +those qualities which have since distinguished him. He was a studious +boy, eager for knowledge. He attended the Academy in Brooklyn, +Connecticut, and subsequently fitted for College at the Plainfield +Academy. At the age of fifteen he left his quiet village home for Brown +University, where his intellect was trained in a routine sanctioned by +the experience of centuries, and where contact with his fellows soon +roused his ambition and gave him confidence in his own ability to enter +the struggle with the world for place and honor. William, having a +married sister, who was many years his senior, residing in Providence, +his father decided to send him, then scarcely more than a lad, to Brown +University where he would be surrounded by family influences and enjoy +the social advantages offered by his sister's home. He maintained a high +rank, graduating with honors in 1840. + +For his life work he decided upon the legal profession--a wise choice as +subsequent time has shown his peculiar fitness therefor. He first +entered the office of Judge Francis Hilliard of Roxbury, remaining for a +time and then continued his legal studies with the distinguished +lawyers and jurists Charles P. and Benjamin R. Curtis of Boston, with +whom he remained until his admission to the Bar in 1844. + +At Roxbury in 1846 he opened his first law office, taking comparatively +soon a leading position at the Bar. He there continued his practice +until 1865 when he formed with the late Hon. Harvey Jewell and the since +associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, the Hon. Walbridge A. +Field, the famous and successful law firm, having offices at number 5 +Tremont street, of Jewell, Gaston and Field. This firm continued until +the election of Mr. Gaston to the gubernatorial chair of Massachusetts +in 1874. He was the Democratic candidate the year previous for this +office, his competitor being Mr. Washburn, who was elected but did not +long retain the chair of State, being elected to the United States +Senate. At the convention nominating William B. Washburn for Governor +there were four other candidates for the honor: Alexander H. Rice, +George B. Loring, Harvey Jewell and Benjamin F. Butler. The latter +created no little unquiet by the zeal and strength of his support. The +upshot was that there was a harmonious combination of the forces of the +four contestants of Butler upon Mr. Washburn. It is remembered that some +of the party organs were upon nettles, fearing that General Butler would +bolt the nomination, but he came out squarely and declared that as he +had staked his issues with the convention he would abide the result. + +In the canvass of 1874 Mr. Gaston was opposed by Hon. Thomas Talbot, +who, by reason of Governor Washburn's election to the Senate as stated, +was acting as Governor, having been elected Lieutenant Governor on the +ticket with Mr. Washburn. Governor Gaston's majority over Mr. Talbot was +7,033. In the following canvass of 1875, Mr. Gaston having been +re-nominated by the Democracy, his competitor was Hon. Alexander H. +Rice. By this time, that part of the country represented by the +strongly-intrenched Republican party, was fully aroused to the exigency +of the hour. The edict came from the political centre at Washington to +the effect that the Republican party could not stand another defeat in +Massachusetts, especially on the eve of a presidential campaign. The +national organization concentrated a wonderfully _efficient_ auxiliary +force in aid of the intense activity already exerted by the local +managers, who so well understood the popularity of Mr. Gaston and of the +strong hold he had upon the people. It seems now that the Democratic +managers accepted or anticipated failure as a foregone conclusion, and +no great fight was made; otherwise they would probably have won the +election, as Mr. Rice was elected by only the small plurality of 5,306 +votes. This is very significant, taken in connection with the fact that +General Grant carried Massachusetts in 1872 by 74,212 majority. + +In 1876, that memorable year--memorable as the year of the electoral +commission--Governor Gaston magnanimously declined the re-nomination, +which a large majority of the convention was undoubtedly eager to +confer. The nomination of Charles Francis Adams was to the rank and file +and to the party managers a disappointment, and the enthusiasm that he +was expected to arouse was not materialized. + +The press of the State justly commended Mr. Gaston's conduct in not +forcing his own nomination, a course so completely in accord with his +character, and his entire devotion to the party welfare. He did not +display the least semblance of self-seeking. + +He has seen not a little of public life, but with the exception of five +years, has succeeded in conducting his large and important professional +practice the entire period from his early beginning to this day. The +five years referred to were: two years, 1861 and 1862, while he was +Mayor of the city of Roxbury; the two years, 1871 and 1872, as Mayor of +Boston (this being after the annexation of Roxbury), and the year 1875 +when Governor. + +His mayoralty term of Roxbury antedated the years he was Mayor of Boston +by just ten years. While such Mayor of Roxbury in 1861-2 he was very +active in speechmaking and raising troops in preservation of the +American Union. He went to the front several times, and was +enthusiastically patriotic during the entire critical period. + +He was five years City Solicitor of Roxbuxy. In 1853 and 1854 he was +elected to the Legislature as a Whig, and in 1856 was re-elected by a +fusion of Whigs and Democrats in opposition to the Know-Nothing +candidate. In 1868, although the district was strongly Republican, he +was elected as a Democrat to the State Senate. + +In the fall of 1872 Mr. Gaston positively declined the further use of +his name in the Mayoralty election in Boston that year. He concluded to +be a candidate, however, upon the earnest solicitation of so many of the +best citizens, and of the press, and in consideration of the perfectly +unanimous action of the ward and city committee, in reporting in favor +of his re-nomination and speaking of him as a man pre-eminently +qualified for the duties which required "wisdom, discretion, firmness +and courage when needed, combined with the most exalted integrity and +unselfish devotion to the honor, welfare, and prosperity of the city." + +In commenting on this subject the _Post_ in an editorial, November 26, +1872, said in commendation of the above words of the committee: "The +language employed is none too strong or emphatic. The history of Mayor +Gaston's two administrations is an eminently successful one, so far as +he is personally responsible for them, and there is not the least room +to question that if he were to be re-elected and supported by a board of +aldermen of similar character and purpose the city would at once find +the uttermost requirements of its government satisfied." In that +election in December, 1872, for the year 1873 his opponent, Hon. Henry +L. Pierce, was declared elected Mayor by only seventy-nine plurality. +This fact indicates Mr. Gaston's popularity, as General Grant had +carried Boston the year previous by about 5,500 majority. As her +Representative, her presiding officer, her head of affairs, Mayor Gaston +was a success; an honor to the great city which honored him. + +In 1870 he was a candidate for Congress, but failed of an election, Hon. +Ginery Twitchell receiving a majority of the votes. + +In 1875 Harvard College and also his Alma Mater, Brown University, +conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. + +While he was Governor the somewhat notorious Jesse Pomeroy case was the +occasion of more or less criticism; the Governor himself receiving _pro_ +and _con_ his full share thereof. He was in some instances charged with +a lack of firmness, but time has completely vindicated his course. Many +of those alleging at the time the Governor's want of "back-bone" have +lived long enough to fully realize that his firmness consisted in +adhering with an honest persistency to his convictions, indicating the +identical course he pursued in that as in all other matters of public +import. + +Among those who know him best there exists the consciousness that Mr. +Gaston is not only an exceedingly cautious man, but consistently +conscientious. Bringing such lofty principles, together with a +discerning mind and sound judgement, into activity in the discharge of +his duty, his administration was, it was generally conceded, a wise one. +It should be borne in mind that he occupied a somewhat novel position, +there having been no Democratic Governor of the State for many years. +The scrutiny directed to him and his acts was intense. His success in +bringing his official relations as excessive to such a happy termination +is abundant proof of his being the man this paper endeavors to picture +him. + +It was during his term of office that the lamented Henry Wilson died. At +the State House, in Doric Hall, in November, 1875, Governor Gaston, on +receiving the sacred remains in behalf of the Commonwealth, said in his +address to the committee: "Massachusetts receives from you her +illustrious dead. She will see to it that he whose dead body you bear to +us, but whose spirit has entered upon its higher service, shall receive +honors befitting the great office which in life he held, and I need not +assure you that her people, with hearts full of respect, of love, and of +veneration, will not only guard and protect the body, the coffin, and +the grave, but will also ever cherish his name and fame. Gentlemen, for +the pious service which you have so kindly and tenderly rendered, accept +the thanks of a grateful Commonwealth." + +Among the appointments made by Governor Gaston were the following: that +of the late Hon. Otis P. Lord to be Associate Justice of the Supreme +Judicial Court; Honorable Waldo Colburn and Honorable William S. Gardner +to Associate Justiceships of the Superior Court. + +The writer has preserved in his scrap books various selections from Mr. +Gaston's public utterances, so excellent and so numerous that it would +be difficult to single out any of them for insertion here, even would +space permit so doing. + +It is incomparable, the duties he has performed, the labors he has +accomplished. His life is, and ever has been, a busy life. One marvels +to know how he accomplishes so much. + +In the political world, in literature, in the legal profession, +monuments have arisen in testimony of his toil. + +As a lawyer his successes have been such as have been vouchsafed to but +few. The word success is applied both where it ought to be applied and +where not deserved. Gaining great wealth, distinguished professional +standing, extensive political renown, pre-eminence in other avenues may +be, or may not be, in the highest sense, success. Most men of strong +points are sadly deficient in other and essential traits needed to +constitute a well-biased, grandly-rounded life. It is rare, indeed, that +a person is encountered possessing such well-proportioned, +evenly-balanced, distinguishing characteristics as it has been Mr. +Gaston's lot to enjoy. + +His steady, onward march over the rough places and up the hill in his +learned profession abundantly attest his greatness. No being can occupy, +nor even approach, the very foremost rank in the legal arena save he be +great. Of all representatives of human experiences the lawyer, and more +particularly the advocate, has the least opportunity to occupy falsely a +position of real prominence. Advocacy is the most jealous of +mistresses. Undoubtedly it is true that nowhere else must there be ever +present and ever ready to respond at a moment's notice such a happy +combination of those qualities already noted. + +It is not long ago that one of the most worthy of Boston's Judges +remarked to the writer: "You can count the really excellent advocates at +the Suffolk Bar upon the fingers of both hands." He began by naming the +subject of this sketch, following with the names of Honorable A.A. +Ranney, Honorable William G. Russell, Honorable Robert M. Morse, Jr., +and others. The learned Judge must, it seems, have had in mind a very +high standard of advocacy, for there are not a few among the something +like two thousand Boston lawyers who have well earned, and justly, the +right to be called able and eloquent. + +In his historical article entitled "The Bench and Bar," by Erastus +Worthington, and contained in the "History of Norfolk County, +Massachusetts," after writing of those eminent advocates, Ezra Wilkinson +and John J. Clarke, he refers to Governor Gaston and Judge Colburn in +the following words: "The successors to the leadership of the bar, after +the retirement of Mr. Wilkinson and Mr. Clarke, were William Gaston of +Roxbury, and Waldo Colburn of Dedham. Mr. Gaston was not admitted to +practice in this county, but he studied law with Mr. Clarke, and +practiced in this county for many years, and considered himself a +Norfolk lawyer. He was an eloquent and successful advocate and had an +excellent practice. He had removed to Boston prior to the annexation of +Roxbury. + +"Mr. Colburn practiced in Dedham until he was appointed an Associate +Justice of the Superior Court in 1875. He attained a high position in +his profession as a wise counsellor, an able trier of causes, and a +lawyer in whose hands the interests of his clients were always safe." + +On his election to the Governorship Mr. Gaston absolutely relinquished +his practice and gave his undivided attention to the duties of his +office. He had been quite unable to devote his customary labor to the +benefit of his law partnership and the good of their clientage during +the two years that he was Mayor of Boston. + +When he retired from the executive chair it is said that he had neither +a "case" nor a client. + +He took offices in Sears Building and it was not long before he was +again enjoying a large and lucrative practice. In 1879 he took into +partnership C.L.B. Whitney, Esq.; and last year William A. Gaston, Esq., +was admitted to the firm. + +An imperishable chain binds Ex-Governor Gaston to the bright side of the +history of the Commonwealth. His life and its renown are one and +inseparable. Such is the inevitable result of a life that has ever been +linked to honorable endeavors and principles. So thoroughly identified +with, and endeared to, her best interests, it is difficult to believe +that Massachusetts can claim him by adoption only. In private life Mr. +Gaston is all that can be desired. He is quiet, and remarkably modest +and unassuming. + +He enjoys the delightful home quietness away from his labors. But what +little time he has for such enjoyment! He seems to love work. How he has +performed so much of it is a wonder, although it is well known that he +inherits and enjoys remarkable powers of endurance. Among his favorite +authors are Scott and Burke. He is temperate, refined in his habits, has +the manners of a perfect gentleman, and deserves the blessed fruits of a +well directed life. + + * * * * * + +REMINISCENCES OF DANIEL WEBSTER. + +BY HON. GEORGE W. NESMITH, LL.D. + + +The following is a copy of a letter originally addressed to Rev. Mr. +Savage of Franklin, N.H. The original is dated October 10, 1852, +fourteen days before the decease of Mr. Webster. It was dictated to his +Clerk, C.J. Abbott, Esq. It was the same letter that gave rise to the +humorous anecdote, so well related by Mr. Curtice in his Biography of +Mr. Webster, vol. 2, page 683. + +We now present this letter to the public to show how worthily one of the +last days of Mr. Webster was employed. In this case he presented a +_Peace Offering_ to old friends, which proved effectual in preventing a +severe litigation and consequent loss of money and friendship: + + "MARSHFIELD, Oct. 10, 1852. + + MY DEAR SIR: I learn that there is likely to be a lawsuit between + Mr. Horace Noyes and his Mother respecting his father's will. + + This gives me great pain. Mr. Parker Noyes and myself have been + fast friends for near a half century. I have known his wife also + from a time before her marriage, and have always felt a warm regard + for her, and much respect for her connexions in Newburyport. Mr. + Horace Noyes and his wife I have long known. Her grandfather, Major + Nathan Taylor, late of Sanbornton, was an especial friend of my + father, and I learned to love everybody upon whom he set his + _Stamp_. + + These families during many years have been my most intimate friends + and neighbors whenever I have been in Franklin. It would wound me + exceedingly if any thing as a Lawsuit should now occur between + Mother and Son. It would very much destroy my interest in the + families, and whatever might be the result, it could not but cast + some degree of reflection upon the memory of Parker Noyes. I know + nothing of the circumstances except what I learn from Mr. John + Taylor, and I do not wish to express any judgement of my own as to + what ought to be done, at least without more full information, but + I do think it a case for Christian Intercession. And the particular + object of this Letter is to invite your attention, and that of the + members of the Church, to it in this aspect. Mr. Noyes is + understood to have left a very pretty property, but a controversy + about his Will would very likely absorb one half of it. My end is + accomplished, my dear Sir, when I have made these Suggestions to + you. You will give them such consideration, as you think they + deserve. It has given me pleasure to hope that I might write half a + dozen pages respecting Mr. Parker Noyes, and our long friendship, + but I could have no heart for this if a family feud after his death + was to come in, and overwhelm all pleasant recollections. + + I dictate this letter to my clerk, as the state of my eyes preclude + me from writing much with my own hand. + + Yours with sincere regard, + + DAN'L. WEBSTER. + REV. Mr. SAVAGE + FRANKLIN, N.H." + +This interesting letter produced the happy effect of reconciling the +contending parties, and bringing about an honorable and satisfactory +settlement of all difficulties between them. The letter was timely, +bringing healing in its wings. Here were "words fitly spoken, like +apples of gold in pictures of silver;" to the parties it soon was the +_voice_ from the _dead_, "proclaiming peace on earth, and good will +towards men." As adviser and counsel of the mother, my own exertions for +peace had proved impotent, but the letter of the eminent dying +statesman, containing the salutary advice of an old friend, proved +irresistible in its influence, and brought to the troubled waters +immediate quiet, without resort to the Church or other legal tribunal. + +Mr. Webster made allusion to the honored name of Taylor, then of +Sanbornton. Both father, and son were brave officers of Revolutionary +stock. The father, Captain Chase Taylor, commanded a company composed +chiefly of Sanbornton and Meredith men, at the battle of Bennington, on +the sixteenth of August, 1777, and was there severely wounded--his left +leg being broken, which disabled him for life. He died in 1805. In 1786 +he received a small pension from the State. His surgeon, Josiah Chase of +Canterbury, and his Colonel, Stickney of Concord, each furnishing their +certificates in his behalf. Early in the history of the Revolutionary +war the son, Nathan Taylor, was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the +Corps of Rangers, commanded by Colonel Whitcomb. Lieutenant Taylor had +the command of a small detachment of fourteen men. On the sixteenth day +of June, 1777, being stationed on the western bank of Lake Champlain, at +a place which has ever since been called _Taylor's Creek_, he was +surprised by a superior force of Indians. Taylor bravely resisted this +attack, and was successful in driving the enemy off, though at the +expense of a severe wound in his right shoulder. Three others of his +band were also wounded. Both father and son were confined at home in the +same house several months before recovery from their wounds. Lieutenant +Taylor returned to active service in the army. He afterwards received +the military title of Major, and occupied many civil offices after the +war in his own town, as well as in behalf of the State. He was member of +the House of Representatives, also of the Senate and Council, for a +number of years. He died in March, A.D. 1840, aged 85, much lamented. + +Then there was John Taylor of Revolutionary fame. He and many of his +descendants have occupied high and enviable stations in Sanbornton, and +their biography and good deeds have been ably commemorated by the +historian, Rev. M.T. Runnels. In adhering to the Taylor families Mr. +Webster obeyed the injunction of Solomon who said, "Thine own friend, +and thy _father's friend_ forsake not." Mr. Webster's letter furnishes +strong evidence, that he did not forsake "his own friend," _Parker +Noyes_. The friendship between these men commenced when Mr. Noyes +entered the _Law_ office of Thomas W. Thompson as early as 1798, and +continued intimate, cordial, unabated, "_fast_" during their lives. The +earthly existence of both terminated in the same year, Mr. Noyes having +deceased August, 19, 1852, and Mr. Webster on the twenty-fourth of the +succeeding October. + +The dwelling houses of both in Franklin were within the distance of +twenty rods; their intercourse was frequent during the last fifty-four +years of their lives. + +During the time Mr. Webster practiced law in New Hampshire they often +met at the same bar, and measured intellectual lances in various legal +contests. These meetings were most frequent when Mr. Webster first +settled in Boscawen in 1805, and for the next two years, before his +removal to Portsmouth. + +We were present in A.D. 1848, when these two friends met and recited +many of the interesting and humorous events that occurred in their early +practice. In those days, they often had for a veteran client a man who +then resided in West Boscawen, now Webster, by the name of Corser. He +was represented as one who loved the law, not for its pecuniary profits, +but for its exciting, stimulating effects. It was said of him, that at +the end of a term of the Court, once held at Hopkinton, he was found +near the Court House by a friend, shedding tears. The friend inquired +the cause of his great sorrow. His answer was, "I have _no longer_ a +_case in court._" The same Corser had been a Revolutionary soldier, and +belonged to the army when discharged by Washington at Newburg, at the +termination of the war. He had but little money to bear his expenses +home. When he reached Springfield, Massachusetts, his money was +exhausted, and he was obliged to resort to his talent at begging. +Accordingly he called at a farm house, and requested the good loyal lady +of the establishment to give him a pie, adding at the same time, that he +wanted _another_ for his _Brother Jonathan_. The lady well supposing +that his Brother Jonathan was then his companion in arms, and in the +street suffering with hunger, readily granted his request, when in truth +and in fact Jonathan was then at home cultivating his farm in Boscawen. + +Brother Jonathan, upon learning the conduct of his brother, rebuked him +for useing his name, instead of his own, thereby deceiving the good +woman. In justification of his conduct, the brother answered, "My hunger +was great. I contrived to satisfy it. The kind woman had my thanks; you +was not injured. At most, by strict morals, I committed only a _pious +fraud_ in getting two pies, instead of one." Mr. Webster remarked, that +he was once present when this case was stated, and argued by the two +brothers, and was much interested in the discussion of the celebrated +pie case. + + * * * * * + +THE DARK DAY. + +BY ELBIDGE H. GOSS. + + +The Spragues of Melrose, formerly North Malden, were one of the old +families. They descended from Ralph Sprague, who settled in Charlestown +in 1629. The first one, who came to Melrose about the year 1700, was +named Phineas. His grandson, also named Phineas, served during the +Revolutionary War, and a number of interesting anecdotes are told about +him. He was a slaveholder, and Artemas Barrett, Esq., a native of +Melrose, owns an original bill of sale of "a negro woman named Pidge, +with one negro boy;" also other documents, among which is Mr. Sprague's +diary, wherein he gives the following account of the wonderfully dark +day in 1780, a good reminder of which we experienced September 6, 1881, +a century later: + + FRIDA May the 19th 1780. + + This day was the most Remarkable day that ever my eyes beheld the + air had bin full of smoak to an uncommon degree so that wee could + scairce see a mountain at two miles distance for 3 or 4 days Past + till this day after Noon the smoak all went off to the South at + sunset a very black bank of a cloud appeared in the south and west + the Nex morning cloudey and thundered in the west about ten oclock + it began to Rain and grew vere dark and at 12 it was almost as dark + as Nite so that wee was obliged to lite our candels and Eate our + dinner by candel lite at noon day but between 1 and 2 oclock it + grew lite again but in the evening the cloud came, over us again, + the moon was about the full it was the darkest Nite that ever was + seen, by us in the world.[A] + +[Footnote A: This was printed in the sketch of Melrose in "History of +Middlesex County," vol. II.] + + * * * * * + +NAMES AND NICKNAMES. + +BY GILBERT NASH. + + +To the antiquarian, the historian, or the general scholar, there are few +more interesting studies than that of names. It is a pursuit of rare +delight to trace out the derivation of those with which we have been +long familiar, and to follow up the associations that have rendered them +dear, curious or ridiculous, as the case may be. The names themselves +may be of no value, but the spot or circumstance that gave them birth +cannot fail to throw around them an atmosphere of peculiar interest. The +subject is a broad one and may be, with time and inclination, +extensively cultivated; and, even in the limits of a short article, many +phases of it of general importance and interest may be satisfactorily +treated, and it is proposed in the following paragraphs to present only +a few of them. + +In the present rage for nicknames, pet names, diminutives and +contractions there is fair prospect of an abundant harvest of trouble +and perplexity to the genealogist and historian of the future. In fact, +the students of the present day are already beginning to realize, in no +small degree, the annoyance that arises from the custom. The changes are +so many and intricate that to understand them fully requires much +valuable time and the patience that could better be employed in more +important work. + +The difficulty arises, of course, from indifference, inadvertence or +carelessness, rather than from set purpose; yet the result is the same +in its evil effects. It is true there are some of these nicknames that +have been so long in use, and have become so common that no one is +disturbed by them and their employment, and they are readily understood. +Many of these, however, have served their turn and are gradually going +out of use, and will, in a short time, be only "dead words" to the +community. + +Of this class are the familiar favorites of our grandparents, such as +Sally, for Sarah; Polly or Molly, for Mary; Patty, for Martha, and +Peggy, for Margaret, representative names of the class. Some of these, +with perhaps slight changes, have become legitimatized, and their origin +has been nearly, or quite, forgotten. Of such we recognize Betsy, or its +modern equivalent, Bettie or Bessie, as a very proper name. Few, +perhaps, of our present generation would recognize in "Nancy," the +features of its parent, "Ann" or "Nan." + +Some of these old nicknames have already gone nearly or quite out of +use, so much so that many of our young people will be surprised to learn +that Patty was, not long ago, the vernacular for Martha, and would never +imagine that "Margaret" could ever have responded to the call of +"Peggy;" "Hitty" and "Kitty," for the staid and sober "Mehitable," and +the volatile Katherine, are more easily recognized, while it might +require several guesses to establish the relationship between "Milly" +and "Amelia," or "Emily." + +Stranger than either, perhaps because both the proper name and its +diminutive have become so uncommon, is that transformation which reduced +"Tabitha," to "Bertha," with the accent upon the first syllable, and its +vowel long. A curious instance of the change in this name, and the +further variation made in it in consequence of its forgotten +derivation, has recently occurred in the record of the death of an old +lady who was baptized "Tabitha," called in her youth "Bitha," and now in +her obituary styled Mrs. "Bertha," probably from the similarity of sound +to her youthful nickname. Her relatives of the present generation had +forgotten her real name and knew her only under that of an imitation of +her diminutive. The transition from "Bitha" to "Bertha" is easy, but how +is the perplexed genealogist to ascertain the original when he has only +the records for his guide? + +Such illustrations might be multiplied almost indefinitely, but those +already given are enough to show what an infinite amount of trouble has +come and must still come from their continued usage. They also serve +well to show with how much care and watchfulness the historian must +pursue his work; how constantly he must be upon his guard, and how +closely and critically he must scrutinize the names that pass under his +eye. + +Nor was this custom of nicknames confined to the daughters of the +family, but the boys, also, were among its subjects, perhaps in not so +great a variety, yet very general. Among the more common we only need +mention such as Bill, Ned, Jack, and Frank, to illustrate this. Nor were +there wanting among the masculine nicknames those whose derivations seem +very remote and far-fetched, as "El" for "Alphus;" "Hal" for "Henry;" +"Jot" for "Jonathan;" "Seph" for "Josephus;" "Nol" for "Oliver;" "Dick" +for "Richard," and a multitude of others equally well known. + +The instances named are old and have been in general use so long that +those who are called upon to deal with them are upon their guard and not +likely to be led astray by them, but the class of pet names, now, for a +few years in use, will necessarily be more misleading because they are +new, and in many cases very blind; in many instances the same nickname +being used to represent perhaps a dozen different proper names, so that +it is impossible to tell, from the nickname, what the real name is. +Among the most annoying of this class are those that not only represent +several names each, but are masculine or feminine, as occasion calls. + +Of the latter class are "Allie" for Alice, Albert or Alexander, and +"Bertie," used in place of so many that it is needless to specify, the +latter being the worst of its species, since it is wholly indefinite, +applying equally to boy or girl, and for a multitude of either sex, some +of which are so far-fetched that all possible connection is lost in the +journey of transmission. Most of the old fashioned nicknames indicate +the sex quite distinctly, and in this they have much the advantage of +some of their modern competitors. They were also much more expressive if +not so euphonious. A person need but glance at any of our town records +for the past few years to see how the use of these pet names has +increased, and it requires no prophet to foresee what confusion must +naturally arise from the continuance of the custom, and how difficult it +will be in the near future to follow the record accurately. + +Another and very different class of nicknames are those derived from +accident or local circumstance, and have no other connection with the +real name of the person to whom they are attached, and to whom they +cling as a foul excrescence long after the circumstances that called +them forth is forgotten. These sometimes originate at home in childhood, +at school among playmates, or after the arrival of the person at mature +age, and are oftentimes ridiculous in the extreme. They are nearly +always a source of great mortification to those who so unwillingly bear +them, who would give almost anything to rid themselves of the nuisance; +yet these, once fixed, seldom lose their hold, but must be borne with +the best grace possible. + +It will not be necessary to cite instances of this class, as every one +will recall many such that it might be highly improper to mention +publicly as being personal or taken to be so. Some are simply indicative +of temperament; some of a peculiarity of manner, or a locality in which +they happened to have first seen the light; and others, perhaps the most +unfortunate of all and the most mischievous, are derived from an +ill-timed word or act, said or done in a moment of passion or +thoughtlessness, which the individual would like to recall at almost any +price, but cannot. The saddest of all are those unfortunates, for there +are such, to whom their parents, they knew not why, gave such names. + +Another class are those given at first as a term of reproach or +disgrace, accepted without protest, and afterwards borne as a title of +honor. The name "Old Hickory" will at once suggest itself as such an +instance. Truly fortunate is the person who has the tact and is in +circumstances to do this, and thus turn the weapons of his enemies +against themselves. There are others, again, whose character and +position are such that they permit no familiarity, and every name of +reproach or ridicule rolls off like shot from the iron shell of the +monitor. The name of our Washington suggests such an individual. Whoever +for an instant thought of approaching him with familiarity, or of +applying to him a nickname as a term of reproach or ridicule, or even as +an expression of good nature. + +As will be readily seen, the evil resulting from this custom is wide +spread and alarming. It would also seem to be almost without remedy, +since it is the result of irresponsible action, committed by persons who +are not fully aware of what they are doing, by those who are +indifferent, as to what may follow, or by those who are actuated by +malice; against these there is no law except the steady, persistent +movement of the thinking public setting its face squarely against the +practice, with the passage of time, which usually brings about, we know +not always how, the remedy for such evils; but we are seldom willing to +wait for such a cure. + +As before intimated parents are sometimes guilty of this offence, and +thus place upon a child a stigma that will follow it through life. A +little care on their part will remedy the evil, to that extent, and they +surely should be willing to do their share in the work. Teachers and +those who have the charge of the young are sometimes thoughtless enough +to commit the same fault. Should it not be crime? For they have no right +to be thus inconsiderate, when a little restraint upon their part will +prevent the wrong as far as they are concerned. With these two +influences setting in the right direction, added to that of the thinking +community, a current may very likely be formed that shall obliterate +wholly the custom and deliver us from its attendant difficulties. + +Another practice now quite common, and one which bids fair to create +much confusion, is that which permits the wife to take the Christian +name of her husband: for instance, Mrs. Mary, wife of John Smith, signs +her name Mrs. John Smith, a name which has no legal existence, which she +is entitled to use only by courtesy, and which should be allowed in +none but necessary cases to distinguish her from some other bearing the +same name, or to address her when her own Christian name is not known. +Mrs. is but a general title to designate the class of persons to which +she belongs, and not a name, any more than Mr. or Esq. Who ever knew a +man to sign his name Mr. so and so, or so and so, Esq.? + +To show the absurdity and impropriety of this misuse of the name it will +be needful to mention but a single illustration. Suppose a note or check +is made payable to Mrs. John Smith. Mrs. being only a title, and no part +of the name, the endorsement would be plain John Smith, and nobody, not +even his wife, has any right to forge his signature. An instrument thus +drawn is a mistake, since no one can be authorized to execute it. + +The trouble to the genealogist and historian is of a somewhat different +nature, since he merely desires to identify the individual and cares +nothing about the money value of the document. Much the safer and better +way is for the wife always to sign and use her proper name and to add, +if she thinks it necessary to be more explicit, "wife of," using her +husband's name. By doing this a vast deal of perplexity would be +avoided, and sometimes a serious legal difficulty. + +Another custom, as common, and quite a favorite one with many married +ladies, is that which changes her middle name by substituting her maiden +surname; for example, Mary Jane Smith marries James Gray, and +immediately her name is assumed to be Mary Smith Gray, instead of Mary +Jane Gray, her legal name. The wife, if she so chooses, has the right by +general consent, if not by law, to retain her full name, adding her +husband's surname; but she has no right to use her own maiden surname in +place of her discarded middle name. Much confusion might arise from this +practice, as the following illustration will show. Mary Jane Gray +receives a check payable to her order, and she, being in the habit of +signing her name Mary Smith Gray, thus endorses it, and forwards it by +mail or otherwise for collection, and is surprised when it comes back to +her to be properly executed. + +Again, Mary Jane Gray has a little money which she deposits in the +savings bank, and, for the reason already given, takes out her book in +the name of Mary S. Gray. She dies and her administrator finding the +book tries to collect the money, but he being the administrator of Mary +Jane Gray and not of Mary S. Gray may find the Treasurer of the bank +unwilling to pay over the money until he is satisfied as to the identity +of the apparently two Mary Grays, which, under some circumstances, might +be a difficult process. + +These changes are usually made thoughtlessly, but the result is none the +less serious than though it were done with the intent to deceive or +mislead, and the mischief that often arises in consequence is very +great. These changes that have been noted from the nature of the case +can only occur with women, since men have no occasion to make them, and +in point of fact cannot; but there are those, quite analagous in +character, that are common to both sexes and should be avoided unless +the necessity is very apparent. Double names are sometimes very +convenient for purposes of identification, but they may also prove +fruitful sources of difficulty and trouble. As an illustration, Mary +Jane Smith is known at home by her family and to her acquaintances as +Mary. For some fanciful reason or local circumstance she wearies of +that name and becomes Jane. Both are equally hers, but her acquaintances +who knew her as Mary might well plead ignorance when asked about Jane +Smith; and the acquaintances of the latter might never surmise that Mary +Smith had ever existed. + +Again, James Henry Gray is known at home in his youth as James H. Gray, +and the name is very satisfactory to him; but as he arrives at manhood +he enters a new business and finds a new residence. For some reason he +thinks that a change of name also may be of benefit to him, and +therefore he signs himself J. Henry Gray, and henceforth is a stranger +to his former acquaintances. He has some money in bank at his old home +which he draws for under his new name, and wonders when his check comes +back to him dishonored, forgetting that he has never notified the +officers of his change of name. + +He finds it necessary, upon some occasion, to write to one of his former +friends for information of importance, and is surprised that his old +associate declines to give it to a stranger, for he does not remember, +that, while he may easily retain his own identity, under any change of +name, it may not be so easy to assure it to another at a distance. It +can thus be seen how easily, and at times, how unavoidably, a great deal +of vexation may be produced by this practice, and yet it is extensively +followed. + +Looking at the subject in another aspect, we find a grievance that has +borne and is now bearing with intolerable weight upon many an +individual, who would, at almost any sacrifice, relieve himself of it, +but it is saddled upon him in such a manner, and is surrounded by such +circumstances as to render it quite impossible for him to do so. It is a +practice, all too common, but none the less reprehensible, to give to +children legitimate names of such a character as to render them +veritable "old men of the sea," so graphically described by Sindbad. + +They are given for various reasons, sometimes simply for their oddity, +sometimes because the name has been borne by a relative or friend, or it +may have been borrowed from the pages of some favorite author, or +suggested by accidental circumstance. A boy whose Christian name was +Baring Folly, and we should not have far to go to find its counterpart +in real life, could hardly be expected to get through the world without +feeling severely the burden and ridicule of such a name, each part +proper and well enough in its place as a surname, but particularly +unfortunate when united and required to do duty as a Christian name. + +We ridicule, and it may be wisely, the old-fashioned custom of giving a +child a name merely because it happened to be found in the Scriptures, +where with its special meaning it was singularly appropriate, yet, when +used as a name without that special signification, it would be equally +inappropriate. But are we wholly free from the same fault in another +direction? How many children have been so burdened with a name that had +been made illustrious by the life and services of its original bearer +that they were always ashamed to hear it spoken; that very name of honor +becoming in its present position a reproach and a hindrance, rather than +a stimulus, because the bearers feel that they cannot sustain its +ancient renown, and therefore they become mere nothings, simply from the +fact of having been borne down to the dust under the burden of a great +name. + +Who can tell how many have become notorious, or have committed vagaries +which have rendered them ridiculous, and destroyed their usefulness, +from a sincere desire to bear worthily an honored name? Who shall say +that the eccentricities of a certain celebrity of acknowledged talent, +whose name would be quickly recognized, were not the result of the same +cause, the length, and weight of the name given him at his birth proving +too great an incumbrance for him to overcome. + +How many ignoble George Washingtons, Henry Clays, Patrick Henrys, and +other equally illustrious names, are wandering aimlessly about our +streets, shiftless, worthless, utterly unworthy the names they bear, +simply because they bear them, when, had they been given plain, honest, +common names, they might have been held in respect and esteem. The +burden is too great for them. A ship with a drag attached to her cannot +make progress, be she ever so swift without it. Even the eagle will +refuse his flight when burdened with excessive weight. + +A little lack of consideration or want of thought in this matter on the +part of parents often entail an immense amount of suffering upon those +who are wholly innocent as to its cause. Let the boy or girl be given +such a name, as shall be his or hers, worthy or unworthy, as the bearer +shall make. Give them all a fair show. We may not be able to tell in all +cases, perhaps not in many, how this affair of names has affected the +lives of their owners. Give a child a silly or ridiculous name and the +chances are that the child's character will correspond with that name. +Give a child a name already illustrious and the chances are also fair +that the burden will prove its ruin. + +It is unnecessary to extend the subject, the present purpose being +merely to call attention to those practices, and so to present them that +more natural and healthy customs will be sought after and followed, that +a true aesthetic taste may be cultivated, and thus alleviate or remove a +part, at least, of the burden under which society groans. + +It is also intended to illustrate some of the trials and perplexities +that beset the genealogist and historian in their researches, arising +from these unfortunate habits that pervade society. It would seem that +the evils produced by the practices, only need exposure to result in +reformation, and that no parent, with the full knowledge of the +possible, yes probable, and almost inevitable effect, would so thrust +upon his offspring an annoyance, to use the mildest possible term, which +should subject them to such disagreeable consequences all through life. + +It would seem, also, that no guardian, teacher, or other individual +having the care and oversight of children, could be so thoughtless and +inconsiderate, or allow a personal or private reason so to influence +him, as to assume for the child any name that would be liable to cause +it future shame or sorrow. Too much care cannot be taken in this regard, +and it is a duty owing to the child that its rights in this respect +shall be strictly guarded. + +It is the object of this paper simply to call attention to a few of the +more prominent points suggested by this subject in order that it may be +examined and discussed, and, if it may be, more judicious and wiser +practices introduced, that nature, art, and taste may combine to produce +a system of names that shall be at the same time, convenient, useful and +beautiful, and that shall carry no burden with them. + + * * * * * + +JOHN PRESCOTT, THE FOUNDER OF LANCASTER. + +1603 TO 1682. + +By HON. HENRY S. NOURSE. + + +The facts that have come down to us whereupon to build a biography of +John Prescott are scanty indeed, but enough to prove that he was that +rare type of man, the ideal pioneer. Not one of those famous +frontiersmen, whose figures stand out so prominently in early American +history, was better equipped with the manly qualities that win hero +worship in a new country, than was the father of the Nashaway +Plantation. Had Prescott like Daniel Boone been fortunate in the favor +of contemporary historians, to perpetuate anecdotes of his daily prowess +and fertility of resource, or had he had grateful successors withal to +keep his memory green, his name and romantic adventures would in like +manner adorn Colonial annals. Persecuted for his honest opinions, he +went out into the wilderness with his family to found a home, and for +forty years thought, fought and wrought to make that home the centre of +a prosperous community. Loaded from his first step with discouragements, +that soon appalled every other of the original co-partners in the +purchase of Nashaway from Showanon, Prescott alone, _tenax propositi_, +held to his purpose, and death found him at his post. His grave is in +the old "burial field" at Lancaster, yet not ten citizens can point it +out. Over it stands a rude fragment from some ledge of slate rock, +faintly incised with characters which few eyes can trace: + +JOHN PRESCOTT DESASED + +No date! no comment! That is his only memorial stone; his only epitaph +in the town of which, for its first forty years, he was the very heart +and soul, and for which he furnished a large share of the brains. This +fair township--now divided among nine towns--and all it has been and is +and is to be may be justly called his monument. The house of Deputies in +1652 voted it to be rightly his, and marked it by incorporative +enactment with his honored and honorable name, _Prescott_. +Unfortunately, however, some years before he had said something that +seemed to favor Doctor Robert Child's criticisms of the Provincial +system of taxation without representation; criticisms that grew and bore +good fruitage when the times were riper for individual freedom; when +Samuel Adams and James Otis took up the peoples' cause where Sir Henry +Vane and Robert Child had left it. Therefore when, in 1652, what had +been known as the Nashaway Plantation was fairly named for its founder +in accordance with the petition of its inhabitants, some one of +influence, whether magistrate or higher official, perhaps bethought +himself that no Governor of the Colony even had been so honored, and +that it might be well, before dignifying this busy blacksmith so much as +to name a town for him, to see if he could pass examination in the +catechism deemed orthodox at that date in Massachusetts Bay. Alas! John +Prescott was not a freeman. Having a conscience of his own, he had never +given public adhesion to the established church covenant and was +therefore debarred from holding any civil office, and even from the +privilege of voting for the magistrates. There was a year's delay, and, +in 1653, "Prescott" was expunged and _Lancaster_ began its history. + +As in the broad area of the township various centres of population grew +into villages and were one by one excised and made towns, it would be +supposed that each of them would have been eager to honor itself by +adopting so euphonious and appropriate a name as _Prescott_. But no! The +first candidate for a new designation, in 1732, chose the name of the +generous Charlestown clergyman, _Harvard_, for no appropriate local +reason now discoverable. Six years later another body corporate imported +the name--_Bolton_. Two years passed and a third district sought across +the ocean for its title _Leominster_. Then Woonksechocksett forgetful of +its benefactors and of the grand Indian names of its hills and waters +borrowed the title of a putative Scotch lord, who bravely fought for our +Independence, and, in adopting, paid him the poor compliment of +misspelling it--_Sterling_. The next seceder ambitiously chose the name +of a Prussian city--_Berlin_. The sixth perpetuated its early admiration +of the great small-pox inoculator, _Boylston_; and the last was +named--for a hotel. None so poor as to do Prescott reverence. But +surely, it would be thought, banks and manufactories, halls or at least +a fire engine, might with tardy respect have paid cheap tribute to his +name by bearing it. Is there any example! Yes, at last a short street +having little connection sentimental or real with the pioneer, bears his +name--this only in the aspiring town, almost a city, of which John +Prescott's old millstone is the visible foundation! _Clinton_. + +I have stated that Prescott was an ideal pioneer. Not that there was in +him anything of kinship to that race of frontiersmen now deployed along +the outer verge of American civilization, like the thread of froth +stranded along a beach outlining the extreme advance made by the last +wave of the tide. The frontiersmen of to-day, bibulous gamblers, +reckless duelists, blasphemous savages of mixed blood, had no prototype +in Colonial days, for even the human harvest then gathered to the +stocks, the whipping-post and the gallows, was of a far less obtrusive +class of offenders against morals and social decency. Prescott was a +Puritan soldier, a seeker of liberty not license; fiercely rebellious +against tyranny, but no contemner of moral law. It was no accident that +put him in the advance guard of Anglo-Saxon civilization, then just +starting on its westward march from the shores of Massachusetts Bay. The +position had awaited the man. When he set up his anvil and with skilful +blows hammered out the first plough-shares to compel the virgin soil of +the Nashaway valley to its proper fruitfulness, he was all unwittingly +helping to forge the destinies of this great republic;--was in his +humble sphere a true builder of the nation. His neighbors and friends, +John Tinker, Ralph Houghton, and Major Simon Willard, doubtless excelled +him in culture, but no neighbor surpassed him in natural personal force, +whether physical, mental or moral. Not only was he of commanding +stature, stern of mien and strong of limb, but he had a heart devoid of +fear, great physical endurance and an unbending will. These qualities +his savage neighbors early recognized and bowed before in deep respect, +and because of these no Lancaster enterprise but claimed him as its +leader. His manual skill and dexterity must have been great, his mental +capacity and business energy remarkable, for we find him not only a +farmer, trader, blacksmith and hunter, but a surveyor and builder of +roads, bridges and mills. The records of the town show that he was +seldom free from the conduct of some public labor. The greatest of his +benefactions to his neighbors were: His corn-mill erected in 1654, and +his saw-mill in 1659. The arrival of the first millstone in Lancaster +must have been an event of matchless interest to every man, woman and +child in the plantation. Till that began its tireless turning, the grain +for every loaf of bread had to be carried to Watertown mill, or ground +laboriously in a hand quern, or parched and brayed in a mortar, Indian +fashion. Before the starting of his saw-mill, the rude houses must have +been of logs, stone, and clay, for it was an impossibility to bring from +the lower towns on the existing "Bay road" and with the primitive +tumbril any large amount of sawn lumber. + +Of Prescott's wife we know only her name: Mary Platts. But her daughters +were sought for in marriage by men of whom we learn nothing that is not +praiseworthy, and her sons all honored their mother's memory, by useful +and unblemished lives. John Prescott was the youngest son of Ralph and +Ellen of Shevington, Lancashire, England. He was baptized in the Parish +of Standish in 1604-5 and married Mary Platts at Wigan, Lancashire, +January 21, 1629. He was a land owner in Shevington, but sold his +possessions there and took up his residence in Halifax Parish, Sowerby, +in Yorkshire. Leaving England to avoid religions persecutions, his first +haven was Barbadoes, where he is found a land owner in 1638. In 1640 he +landed in Boston, and immediately selected his home in Watertown, where +he became the possessor of six lots of land, aggregating one hundred and +twenty-six acres. In 1643, his name is found in association with Thomas +King of Watertown, Henry Symonds of Boston, and others, the first +proprietors of the Nashaway purchase. His children were eight in number +and all were married in due season. They were as follows: + +1. Mary, baptized at Halifax Parish February 24, 1630, married Thomas +Sawyer in 1648. The young couple selected their home lot adjoining +Prescott's in Lancaster and there eleven sons and daughters were born to +them. + +2. Martha, baptized at Halifax Parish March 11, 1632, married John Rugg +in 1655; and these twain began life together in sight of her paternal +home in Lancaster. She died with her twin babes in January 1656. + +3. John, baptized at Halifax Parish April 1, 1635, married Sarah Hayward +at Lancaster, November 11, 1668, and had five children. He was a farmer +and blacksmith, lived with his father, and succeeded him at the mills. + +4. Sarah, baptized in 1637, at Halifax Parish, married Richard Wheeler +at Lancaster, August 2, 1658, and lived in the immediate vicinity of +those before named. Wheeler was killed in the massacre of February 10, +1676, and the widowed Sarah married Joseph Rice of Marlborough. By her +first husband she had five children. + +5. Hannah, was probably born at Barbadoes in 1639. She became the second +wife of John Rugg May 4, 1660, and had eight children. She became a +widow in 1696, and was slain by the Indians in the massacre of September +11, 1697. + +6. Lydia, born at Watertown August 15, 1641, married Jonas Fairbank at +Lancaster, May 28, 1658. He owned the lands next south of Prescott's +home. Fairbank had seven children. In the massacre of February 10, 1676, +he and his son Joshua were victims. The widowed Lydia married Elias +Barron. + +7. Jonathan--if twenty three years old in 1670, as an unknown authority +has noted, or "about 38," November 6, 1683, as stated in a deposition of +that date--was probably born in Lancaster between 1645 and 1647. He was +a blacksmith and farmer, and married first Dorothy, August 3, 1670, in +Lancaster. She died in 1674, leaving a son Samuel, noted in the town +history as the unfortunate sentinel who, on November 6, 1704, killed by +mistake his neighbor, the beloved minister of Lancaster, Reverend Andrew +Gardner. Jonathan Prescott married second, Elizabeth, daughter of John +Hoar of Concord, who died in 1687 leaving six children. Jonathan's third +wife was Rebecca Bulkeley and his fourth Ruth, widow of Thomas Brown. He +did not reside in Lancaster after the massacre of 1676, but became an +influential citizen of Concord, which he served as representative for +nine years. He died December 5, 1721. + +8. Jonas, born June, 1648, in Lancaster, married Mary Loker of Sudbury, +December 14, 1672. The marriage took place in Lancaster and here their +first child was born, (they had twelve children in all), but later they +removed to Groton, where Jonas became Captain, Selectman and Justice. He +died in Groton, December 31, 1723. Of his more illustrious descendants +were Colonel William, and the historian William H. Prescott. + +In May 1644, John Winthrop records that "Many of Watertown and other +towns joined in a plantation at Nashaway "--and Reverend Timothy +Harrington in his Century Sermon states that the organization of this +company of planters was due to Thomas King. The immediate and final +disappearance of this original proprietor has seemed to previous writers +good warrant for charging that King and his partner Henry Symonds were +but land speculators, who bought the Indian's inheritance to retail by +the acre to adventurers. I believe this an unjust assumption. At the +date when Winthrop noted down the inception of the Nashaway Company, +Henry Symonds had already been dead seven months. He was that energetic +contractor of Boston noted as the leader in the project for establishing +tide mills at the Cove, and was no doubt the capitalist of the trading +firm of Symonds & King, who set up their "trucking house" as early as +1643 on the sunny slope of George Hill. Symond's widow a few months +after his death married Isaac Walker, who in 1645 was prominent among +the Nashaway proprietors. If King really sold his share of the Indian +purchase, may it not have been therefore because, his senior partner +being dead, he had no means to continue the enterprise? He too died +before the end of the year 1644, not yet thirty years of age. The +inventory of his estate sums but one hundred and fifty-eight pounds, +including his house and land in Watertown, his stock in trade, and +seventy-three pounds of debts due him from the Indians, John Prescott, +and sundry others. King's widow made haste to be consoled, and her +second husband, James Cutler, soon appears in the role of a Nashaway +proprietor. + +The direction of the company was at the outset in the hands of men whose +names were, or soon became, of some note throughout the Colony. Doctor +Robert Child, a scholar who had won the degrees of A.M. and M.D. at +Cambridge and Padua, a man of scientific acquirements, but inclined to +somewhat sanguine expectations of mineral treasure to be discovered in +the New England hills, seems to have been a leading spirit in the +adventure; and unfortunately so, since his political views about certain +inalienable rights of man, which now live, and are honored in the +Constitution of the Commonwealth, seemed vicious republicanism to the +ecclesiastical aristocracy then governing the Colony of the +Massachusetts Bay; and the odium that drove Child across the ocean, +attached also to his companion planters, and perhaps through the +prejudice of those in authority unfavorably affected for several years +the progress of the settlement on the Nashaway. Certainly such +prejudices found expression in all action or record of the government +respecting the proprietors and their petitions. The ecclesiastical +figure head--without which no body corporate could have grace within the +colony--was Nathaniel Norcross. Of him, if we can surmise aught from his +early return to England, it may be said, he was not imbued with the +martyr's spirit, and his defection was, some time later, more than made +good by the accession of the beloved Rowlandson. But far more important +to the enterprise than these two graduates from the English +University--Child the radical, and Norcross the preacher,--were two +mechanics, the restless planners and busy promoters of the company, both +workers in iron--Steven Day the locksmith and John Prescott the +blacksmith. Steven Day was the first in America, north of Mexico, to set +up a printing-press. The Colony had wisely recognized in him a public +benefactor, and sealed this recognition by substantial grant of lands. +He entered upon the Nashaway scheme with characteristic zeal and energy, +if we may believe his own manuscript testimony: but Day's zeal outran +his discretion, and his energy devoured his limited means, for in 1644 +we find him in jail for debt remonstrating piteously against the +injustice of a hard hearted creditor. He parted with all rights at +Nashaway before many years and finally delved as a journey man at the +press he had founded. + +John Prescott deserted of all his original co-partners was sufficient +for the emergency, a host in himself. He sells his one hundred and +twenty six acres and house at Watertown, puts his all into the venture, +prepares a rude dwelling in the wilderness, moves thither his cattle, +and chattels, and finally, mounting wife and children and his few +remaining goods upon horses' backs, bids his old neighbors good bye, and +threads the narrow Indian trail through the forest westward. The scorn +of men high in authority is to follow him, but now the most formidable +enemy in his path is the swollen Sudbury River and its bordering marsh. +We find the aristocratic scorn mingling with the story of Prescott's +dearly bought victory over this natural obstacle, told in Winthrop's +History of New England among what the author classes as remarkable +"special providences." + +"Prescot another favorer of the Petitioners lost a horse and his loading +in Sudbury river, and a week after his wife and children being upon +another horse were hardly saved from drowning." That the kindly hearted +Winthrop could coolly attribute the pitiable disaster of the brave +pioneer to the wrath of God towards the political philosophy of Robert +Child, pictures vividly the bigotry natural to the age and race, a +bigotry which culminated in the horrors of the persecution for +witchcraft. This Sudbury swamp was the lion in the path from the bay +westward during many a decade. In 1645, an earnest petition went up to +the council from Prescott and his associates, complaining that much time +and means had been spent in discovering Nashaway and preparing for the +settlement there, and that on account of the lack of bridge and causeway +at the Sudbury River, the proprietors could not pass to and from the +bay towns--"without exposing our persons to perill and our cattell and +goods to losse and spoyle; as yo'r petitioners are able to make prooffe +of by sad experience of what wee suffered there within these few dayes." +The General Court ordered the bridge and way to be made, "passable for +loaden horse," and allowed twenty pounds to Sudbury, "so it be donne +w'thin a twelve monthe." The twelve month passed and no bridge spanned +the stream. That the dangers and difficulties of the crossing were not +over-stated by the petitioners is proven by the fact that more than one +hundred years afterwards, the bridge and causeway at this place "half a +mile long"--were represented to the General Court as dangerous and in +time of floods impassable. Between 1759 and 1761, the proceeds of +special lotteries amounting to twelve hundred and twenty seven pounds +were expended in the improvement of the crossing. + +John Winthrop, writing of the Nashaway planters, tells us that "he whom +they had called to be their minister, [Norcross] left them for their +delays," but omits mention of the fact recorded by the planters +themselves in their petition, that the chief and sufficient cause of +their slow progress was in the inability or unwillingness of the +Governor and magistrates to afford effective aid in providing a passable +crossing over a small river. + +Prescott, at least, was chargeable with no delay. By June 1645, he and +his family had become permanent residents on the Nashaway. Richard +Linton, Lawrence Waters the carpenter, and John Ball the tailor, were +his only neighbors; these three men having been sent up to build, plant, +and prepare for the coming of other proprietors. But two houses had been +built. Linton probably lived with his son-in-law Waters, in his home +near the fording place in the North Branch of the Nashaway, contiguous +to the lot of intervale land which Harmon Garrett and others of the +first proprietors had fenced in to serve as a "night pasture" for their +cattle. Ball had left his children and their mother in Watertown; she +being at times insane. Prescott's first lot embraced part of the grounds +upon which the public buildings in Lancaster now stand, but this he soon +parted with, and took up his abode a mile to the south west, on the +sunny slope of George Hill, where, beside a little brooklet of pure cool +water, which then doubtless came rollicking down over its gravelly bed +with twice the flow it has to-day, there had been built, two years at +least before, the trucking house of Symonds & King. This trading post +was the extreme outpost of civilization; beyond was interminable forest, +traversed only by the Indian trails, which were but narrow paths, hard +to find and easy to lose, unless the traveller had been bred to the arts +of wood-craft. Here passed the united trails from Washacum, Wachusett, +Quaboag, and other Indian villages of the west, leading to the wading +place of the Nashaway River near the present Atherton Bridge, and so +down the "Bay Path" over Wataquadock to Concord. The little plateau half +way down the sheltering hill, with fertile fields sloping to the +southeast and its never failing springs, was and is an attractive spot; +but its material advantages to the pioneer of 1645 were far greater than +those apparent to the Lancastrian of this nineteenth century in the +changed conditions of life. With the privilege of first choice +therefore, it is not strange that Prescott and his sturdy sons-in-law +grasped the rich intervales, and warm easily tilled slopes, stretching +along the Nashaway south branch from the "meeting of the waters" to +"John's jump" on the east, and extending west to the crown of George +Hill; lands now covered by the village of South Lancaster. + +In 1650 John Prescott found himself the only member of the company +resident at Nashaway. Of the co-partners Symonds, King, and John Hill +were dead; Norcross and Child had gone to England; Cowdall had sold his +rights to Prescott; Chandler, Davis, Walker, and others had formally +abandoned their claims; Garrett, Shawe, Day, Adams, and perhaps two or +three others, retained their claims to allotments, making no +improvements, and contributing nothing by their presence or tithes to +the growth of the settlement, thus becoming effectual stumbling blocks +in the way of progress. Prescott, very reasonably, held this a +grievance, and having no other means of redress asked equitable judgment +in the matter from the magistrates, in a petition which cannot be found. +His answer was the following official snub: + +"Whereas John Prescot & others, the inhabitants of Nashaway p'ferd a +petition to this Courte desiringe power to recover all common charges of +all such as had land there, not residinge w'th them, for answer +whereunto this Court, understandinge that the place before mentioned is +not fit to make a plantation, (so a ministry to be erected and +mayntayned there,) which if the petitioners, before the end of the next +session of this Courte, shall not sufficiently make the sey'd place +appeare to be capable to answer the ends above mentioned doth order that +the p'ties inhabitinge there shalbe called there hence, & suffered to +live without the meanes, as they have done no longer." This dire threat +of the closing sentence may have been simply "sound and fury, signifying +nothing," or Prescott may have been able to prove to the authorities +that Nashaway was fit and waiting for its St. John, but found none +willing for the service. In fact, its St. John was then a junior at +Harvard College, writing a pasquinade to post upon the Ipswich +meeting-house, and Nashaway was "suffered to live without the meanes," +waiting for him until 1654. + +John Prescott retained possession of his early home,--the site of the +"trucking house," which he had purchased of John Cowdall,--as long as he +lived, but did not reside there many years. No sooner had the plantation +attained the dignity of a township under the classic name of Lancaster, +than its founder bent all his energies towards those enterprises best +calculated to promote the comfort and prosperity of its then +inhabitants, and to attract by material advantages, a desirable and +permanent immigration. His practical eye had doubtless long before +marked the best site for a mill in all the region round about, and on +the slope, scarce a gun shot away, he set up a new home, afterwards well +known to friend and savage foe as Prescott's Garrison. Those who remain +of the generation familiar with this region before the invention of the +power loom made such towns as Clinton possible, remember the depression +that told where Prescott dug his cellar. The oldest water mill in New +England was scarce twenty years old when Prescott contracted to grind +the com of the Nashaway planters. His "Covenant to build a Corne mill" +has been preserved through a copy made by Ralph Houghton, Lancaster's +first Clerk of the Writs, and is as follows: + + "Know all men by these presents that I John Prescott blackssmith, + hath Covenanted and bargained with Jno. ffounell of Charlestowne + for the building of a Corne mill, within the said Towne of + Lanchaster. This witnesseth that wee the Inhabitants of Lanchaster + for his encouragement in so good a worke for the behoofe of our + Towne, vpon condition that the said intended worke by him or his + assignes be finished, do freely and fully giue, grant, enfeoffe, & + confirme vnto the said John Prescott, thirty acres of intervale + Land lying on the north riuer, lying north west of Henry Kerly, and + ten acres of Land adjoyneing to the mill; and forty acres of Land + on the south east of the mill brooke, lying between the mill brooke + and Nashaway Riuer in such place as the said John Prescott shall + choose with all the priuiledges and appurtenances thereto + apperteyneing. To haue and to hold the said land and eurie parcell + thereof to the said John Prescott his heyeres & assignes for euer, + to his and their only propper vse and behoofe. Also wee do covenant + & promise to lend the said John Prescott fiue pounds in current + money one yeare for the buying of Irons for the mill. And also wee + do covenant and grant to and with the said John Prescott his heyres + and assignes that the said mill, with all the aboue named Land + thereto apperteyneing shall be freed from all com'on charges for + seauen yeares next ensueing, after the first finishing and setting + the said mill to worke. + + In witnes whereof wee haue herevnto put our hands this 20th day of + the 9mo. In the yeare of our Lord God one thousand six hundred + fifty and three. + + THOMAS JAMES + WILL'M KERLY SEN'R LAWRENCE WATERS + JNO PRESCOTT EDMUND PARKER + JNO WHITE RICHARD LINTON + RALPH HOUGHTON RICHARD SMITH + JNO LEWIS JAMES ATHERTON + JACOB FARRER WILL'M KERLY JUN'R + + In six months from that date the mill was done, and Prescott "began + to grind corne the 23d day of the 3 mo, 1654." + +The commissioners, appointed by the General Court to oversee the +prudential management of the town, met at John Prescott's in 1657 and +confirmed "the imunityes provided for" in the above covenant specifying +that they "should continue and remayne to him the said Jno. Prescott his +heyres and assignes vntil the 23d of May, in the yeare of our Lord +sixteen hundred sixty and two." + +The corn mill was located a little lower upon the brook than the +extensive factory buildings now utilizing its water power. The half used +force of the rapid stream, and the giant pines of the virgin forest then +shadowed all the region about, were full of reproach to the restless +miller. His busy brain was soon planning a new benefaction to his fellow +citizens, and when his means grew sufficiently to warrant the +enterprise, his busy hands wrought its consummation. As before, a formal +agreement preceded the work: + + "Know all men by these presents that for as much as the Inhabitants + of Lanchaster, or the most part of them being gathered together on + a trayneing day, the 15th of the 9th mo, 1658, a motion was made by + Jno. Prescott blackesmith of the same towne, about the setting vp + of a saw mill for the good of the Towne, and y't he the said Jno + Prescott, would by the help of God set vp the saw mill, and to + supply the said Inhabitants with boords and other sawne worke, as + is afforded at other saw mills in the countrey. In case the Towne + would giue, grant, and confirms vnto the said John Prescott, a + certeine tract of Land, lying Eastward of his water mill, be it + more or less, bounded by the riuer east, the mill west the stake of + the mill land and the east end of a ledge of Iron Stone Rocks + southards, and forty acres of his owne land north, the said land to + be to him his heyres and assignes for euer, and all the said land + and eurie part thereof to be rate free vntill it be improued, or + any p't of it, and that his saws, & saw mill should be free from + any rates by the Towne, therefore know ye that the ptyes abouesaid + did mutually agree and consent each with other concerning the + aforementioned propositions as followeth: + + The towne on their part did giue, grant & confirme, vnto the said + John Prescott his heyres and assignes for euer, all the + aforementioned tract of land butted & bounded as aforesaid, to be + to him his heyres and asssignes for euer with all the priuiledges + and appurtenances thereon, and therevnto belonging to be to his and + their owne propper vse and behoofe as aforesaid, and the land and + eurie part of it to be free from all rates vntil it or any pt of it + be improued, and also his saw, sawes, and saw-mill to be free from + all town rates, or ministers rates, prouided the aforementioned + worke be finished & compleated as abouesaid for the good of the + towne, in some convenient time after this present contract covenant + and agrem't. + + And the said John Prescott did and doth by these prsents bynd + himself, his heyres and assignes to set vp a saw-mill as aforesaid + within the bounds of the aforesaid Towne, and to supply the Towne + with boords and other sawne worke as aforesaid and truly and + faithfully to performe, fullfill, & accomplish, all the + aforementioned p'misses for the good of the Towne as aforesaid. + + Therefore the Selectmen conceiving this saw-mill to be of great vse + to the Towne, and the after good of the place, Haue and do hereby + act to rattifie and confirme all the aforemencconed acts, + covenants, gifts, grants, & im'unityes, in respect of rates, and + what euer is aforementioned, on their owne pt, and in behalfe of + the Towne, and to the true performance hereof, both partyes haue + and do bynd themselves by subscribing their hands, this + twenty-fifth day of February, one thousand six hundred and fifty + nine. + + JOHN PRESCOTT. + + The worke above mencconed was finished according to this covenant + as witnesseth. + + RALPH HOUGHTON. + + Signed & Delivr'd In presence of, + + THOMAS WILDER + THOMAS SAWYER + RALPH HOUGHTON + +Monday, the seventeenth of February, 1659, "the Company granted him to +fall pines on the Com'ons to supply his saw-mill." + +In April 1659, Ensign Noyes came to make accurate survey of the eighty +square miles granted to the town, and John Prescott was deputed by the +townsmen at their March meeting to aid in the survey and "mark the +bounds." Among his varied accomplishments, natural and acquired, +Prescott seems to have had some practical skill in surveying, the laying +out of highways and the construction of bridges. In 1648 John Winthrop +records: "This year a new way was found out to Connecticut by Nashua +which avoided much of the hilly way." As appears by a later petition +Prescott was the pioneer of this new path. In 1657 he was appointed by +the government a member of a committee upon the building of bridges "at +Billirriky and Misticke." In 1658 he with his son-in-law Jonas Fairbank +was appointed to survey a farm of six hundred and fifty acres for +Captain Richard Davenport, upon which farm the chief part of West +Boylston now stands. + +To the General Court which met October 18, 1659, the following petition +was presented: + + "The humble petition of John Prescot of Lancaster humblye Sheweth, + That whereas yr petitioner about nine or ten yeares since, was + desired by the late hon'red Governour Mr. Winthrop, w'th other + Magistrates, as also by Mr. Wilson of Boston, Mr. Shephard of + Cambridge with many others, did lay & marke out a way at ye north + side of the great pond & soe by Lancaster, which then was taken by + Mr. Hopkins & many others to bee of great vse; This I did meerly + vpon the request of these honored gentlemen, to my great detrimt, + by being vpon it part of two summers not only myselfe but hiring + others alsoe to helpe mee, whereby my family suffered much: I doe + not question but many of ye Court remember the same, as alsoe that + this hath not laine dead all this while, but I haue formerly + mentioned it, but yet haue noe recompence for the same; the charge + whereof came at 2's p day to about 10'l; it is therefore the desire + of y'r petitioner yt you would bee pleased to grant him a farme in + some place vndisposed of which will engage him to you and encourage + him and others in publique occasions & y'r petitioner shall pray + etc." + +One hundred acres of land were granted him, and speedily laid out near +the Washacum ponds, where now stand the railroad buildings at Sterling +Junction. + +We get very few glimpses of Prescott from the meagre records of +succeeding years, but those serve to indicate that he was busy, +prosperous and annually honored by his neighbors with the public duties +for which his sturdy integrity, shrewd business tact, and wisely +directed energy peculiarly fitted him. He had taken the oath of fidelity +in 1652. Such owning of allegiance was by law prerequisite to the +holding of real estate. Refusing such oath he might better have been a +Nipmuck so far as civil rights or privileges were concerned. He was not +yet a member of the recognized church however, and therefore lacked the +political dignities of a freeman; although his intimate relations with +Master Joseph Rowlandson, and his personal connection with the earlier +cases of church discipline in Lancaster, sufficiently attest the +austerity of his puritanism. Doubtless Governor John Winthrop in his +hasty and harsh dictum respecting the Nashaway planters, classed John +Prescott among those "corrupt in judgment." But it must be remembered +that in Winthrop's visionary commonwealth there was no room for liberty +of conscience. All were esteemed corrupt in judgment or even profane +whose religious beliefs, when tested all about by the ecclesiastic +callipers, proved not to have been cast in the doctrinal mould +prescribed by the self-sanctified founders of the Massachusetts Bay +Colony. No known fact in any way warrants even the conjecture that +Prescott was not a sincere Christian earnestly pursuing his own +convictions of duty, without fear and without reproach. + +Prescott's mechanical skill and business ability had more than a local +reputation. In 1667, we find him contracting with the authorities of +Groton, to erect "a good and sufficient corne mill or mills, and the +same to finish so as may be fitting to grind the corne of the said +Towne." ... For the fulfillment of this agreement he received five +hundred and twenty acres of land, and mill and lands were exempted from +taxation for twenty years. Assistance towards the building of the mill +were also promised to the amount of "two days worke of a man for every +house lott or family within the limitts of the said Towne, and at such +time or times to be done or performed, as the said John Prescott shall +see meete to call for the same, vpon reasonable notice given." The +covenant was fulfilled by the completion of a mill at Nonacoiacus, then +in the southern part of Groton. The mill site is now in Harvard. +Prescott's youngest son, Jonas, was the first miller. The history of the +old mill is obscured by the shadows of two hundred years, but a bright +gleam of romantic tradition concerning the first miller is warm with +human interest now. Perhaps at points the romantic may infringe upon the +historic, but: + + _Se non e vero, + E ben trovato._ + +Down by the green meadows of Sudbury there dwelt a bewitchingly fair +maiden, the musical dissyllables of whose name were often upon the lips +of the young men in all the country round about, and whose smile could +awaken voiceless poetry in the heart of the most prosaic Puritan swain. +There is little of aristocratic sound in Mary Loker's name, but her +parents sat on Sunday at the meeting house in a "dignified" pew, and +were rich in fields and cattle. Whether pushed by pride of land or pride +of birth, in their plans and aspirations, this daughter was +predestinated to enhance the family dignity by an aristocratic alliance. +In Colonial days a maiden who added a handsome prospective dowry to her +personal witchery was rare indeed, and Mary Loker had, coming from far +and near, inflammable suitors perpetually burning at her shrine. From +among these the father and mother soon made their choice upon strictly +business principles, and shortly announced to Mary that a certain +ambitious gentleman of the legal profession had furnished the most +satisfactory credentials, and that nothing remained but for her to name +the day. Now the fourth commandment was very far from being the dead +letter in 1670 that it is in 1885, and it was matter for grave surprise +to the elders that their usually obedient daughter, when the lawyer +proceeded to plead, refused to hear, and peremptorily adjourned his +cause without day. Maternal expostulation and paternal threats availed +nothing. The because of Mary's contumacy was not far to seek. A stalwart +Vulcan in the guise of an Antinous, known as Jonas Prescott, had +wandered from his father's forge in Lancaster down the Bay Path to +Sudbury. Mary and he had met, and the lingering of their parting boded +ill for any predestination not stamped with their joint seal of consent. +With that lack of astuteness proverbially exhibited by parents +disappointed in match-making designs upon their children, the vexed +father and mother began a course of vigorous repression, and thereby +riveted more firmly than ever the chains which the errant young +blacksmith and his apprentice Cupid had forged. In due time, they +perforce learned that love's flame burns the brighter fed upon a bread +and water diet; and that confinement to an attic may be quite endurable +when Cupid's messages fly in and out of its lattice at pleasure. + +Finally Mary was secretly sent to an out-of-the-way neighborhood in the +vain hope that the chill of absence might hinder what home rule had only +served to help. But one day Jonas on a hunting excursion made the +acquaintance of some youth, who, among other chitchat, happened to break +into ecstatic praise of the graces of a certain fair damsel who had +recently come to live in a farm-house near their home. Of course the +anvil missed Jonas for the next day, and the next, and the next, while +he experienced the hospitalities of his new-found friends--and their +neighbors. It was time for a recognition of the inevitable by all +concerned, but when, and with what grace Mary's stubborn parents +yielded, if at all, is not recorded. But what mattered that? Old John +Prescott installed Jonas at the Nonacoicus Mill, and endowed him with +all his Groton lands, and in Lancaster, December 14, 1672, Jonas and +Mary were married. For over fifty years fortunes railed upon their +union. Four sons and eight daughters graced their fireside, and the +father was trusted and clothed with local dignities. In after time the +memory of Jonas and Mary has been honored by many worthy descendants, +and especially by the gallant services of Colonel William Prescott at +Bunker Hill, and the literary renown of William Hickling Prescott, the +historian. + +In 1669, John Prescott was proclaimed a Freeman. He may have been long a +Church member, or may not even at this date have yielded the +conscientious scruples that had a quarter of a century earlier subjected +him to the reproach of an ecclesiastical oligarchy. The laws concerning +Freemen, in reluctant obedience to the letter of Charles II., were so +changed in 1665 that those not Church members could become Freemen, if +freeholders of a sufficient estate, and guaranteed by the local minister +"to be Orthodox and not vicious in their lives." Prescott had the true +Englishman's love of landed possessions, and about this time added a +large tract to his acreage by purchase from his Indian neighbors. This +transaction gave cause for the following petition: + + _To the honorable the Gov'r the Deputy Gov'r mag'tr & Deputy es + assembled in the gen'rall Court_: + + The Petition of Jno Prescott of Lanchaster, In most humble wise + sheweth. Whereas ye Petition'r hath purchased an Indian right to a + small parcell of Land, occasioned and circumstanced for quantity & + quality according to the deed of sale herevnto annexed and a pt. + thereof not being legally setled vpon piee vnlesse I may obteyne + the favor of this Court for the Confirmation thereof, These are + humbly to request the Court's favor for that end, the Lord hauing + dealt graciously with mee in giueing mee many children I account it + my duty to endeauor their provission & setling and do hope that + this may be of some vse in yt kind. I know not any claime made to + the said land by any towne, or any legall right y't any other + persons haue therein, and therefore are free for mee to occupy & + subdue as any other, may I obteyne the Court's approbation. I shall + not vse further motiues, my condition in other respecks & w't my + trouble & expenses haue been according to my poor ability in my + place being not altogether vnknowne to some of ye Court. That ye + Lord's prsence may be with & his blessing accompany all yo'r psons, + Counsells, & endeauors for his honor & ye weale of his poor people + is ye pray'r of + + Yo'r supplliant + + JOHN PRESCOTT SEN'R. + +This request was referred to a special committee, composed of Edward +Tyng, George Corwin and Humphrey Davie, who reported as follows: + + "In Reference to this Petition the Comittee being well informed + that the Pet'r is an ancient Planter and hath bin a vseful helpfull + and publique spirited man doinge many good offices ffor the + Country, Relatinge to the Road to Conecticott, marking trees, + directinge of Passengers &c, and that the Land Petitioned for + beinge but about 107 Acres & Lyinge not very Convenient for any + other Plantation, and only accomoclable for the Pet'r, we judge it + reasonable to Confirme the Indian Grant to him & his heyers if ye + honored Court see meete." + +This report was approved. James Wiser _alias_ Quanapaug, the Christian +Nashaway Chief, who appears as grantor of the land, was a warrior whose +bravery had been tested in the contest between the Nipmucks and the +Mohawks; and was so firm a friend of his white neighbors at Lancaster, +that when Philip persuaded the tribe with its Sagamore Sam, to go upon +the war path, James refused to join them. He even served as a spy and +betrayed Philip's plans to the English at imminent risk of his life, +doing his utmost to save Lancaster from destruction. General Daniel +Gookin acknowledged that Quanapaug's information would have averted the +horrible massacre of February 10, 1676, had it been duly heeded. The +fact of the friendly relations existing between Prescott and the tribe +whose fortified residence stood between the two Washacum ponds is +interesting and confirms tradition. It is related that at his first +coming he speedily won the respect of the savages, not only by his +fearlessness and great physical strength, but by the power of his eye +and his dignity of mien. They soon learned to stand in awe of his long +musket and unerring skill as a marksman. He had brought with him from +England a suit of mail, helmet and cuirass such as were worn by the +soldiers of Cromwell. Clothed with these, his stately figure seemed to +the sons of the forest something almost supernatural. One day some +Indians, having taken away a horse of his, he put on his armor, pursued +them alone, and soon overtook them. The chief of the party seeing him +approach unsupported, advanced menacingly with uplifted tomahawk. +Prescott dared him to strike, and was immediately taken at his word, but +the rude weapon glanced harmless from the helmet, to the amazement of +the red men. Naturally the Indian desired to try upon his own head so +wonderful a hat, and the owner obligingly gratified him claiming the +privilege, however, of using the tomahawk in return. The helmet proving +a scant fit, or its wearer neglecting to bring it down to its proper +bearings, Prescott's vengeful blow not only astounded him but left very +little cuticle on either side of his head, and nearly deprived him of +ears. Prescott was permitted to jog home in peace upon his horse. + +After hostilities began, it is said that at one time the savages set +fire to his barn, but fled when he sallied out clad in armor with his +dreaded gun; and thus he was enabled to save his stock, though the +building was consumed. More than once attempts were made to destroy the +mill, but a sight of the man in mail with the far reaching gun was +enough to send them to a safe distance and rescue the property. Many +stories have been told of Prescott's prowess, but some bear so close a +resemblance to those credibly historic in other localities and of other +heroes, that there attaches to them some suspicions of adaptation at +least. Such perhaps is the story that in an assault upon the town "he +had several muskets but no one in the house save his wife to assist him. +She loaded the guns and he discharged them with fatal effect. The +contest continued for nearly half an hour, Mr. Prescott all the while +giving orders as if to soldiers, so loud that the Indians could hear +him, to load their muskets though he had no soldiers but his wife. At +length they withdrew carrying off several of their dead and wounded." + +In 1673 Prescott had nearly attained the age of three score and ten. The +weight of years that had been full of exposure, anxiety and toil rested +heavily upon even his rugged frame, and some sharp touch of bodily +ailment warning him of his mortality, he made his will. It is signed +with "his mark," although he evidently tried to force his unwilling hand +to its accustomed work, his peculiar J being plainly written and +followed by characters meant for the remaining letters of his first +name. To earlier documents he was wont to affix a simple neat signature, +and although not a clerkly penman like his friends John Tinker, Master +Joseph Rowlandson and Ralph Houghton, his writing is superior to that of +Major Simon Willard. + + JOHN PRESCOTT'S WILL. + + Theis presents witneseth that John Prescott of Lancaster in the + Countie of Midlesex in New England Blaksmith being vnder the + sencible decayes of nature and infirmities of old age and at + present vnder a great deale of anguish and paine but of a good and + sound memorie at the writing hereof being moved vpon considerations + aforesaid togather with advis of Christian friends to set his house + in order in Reference to the dispose of those outward good things + the lord in mercie hath betrusted him with, theirfore the said John + Prescott doth hereby declare his last will and testament to be as + followeth, first and cheifly Comiting and Contending his soule to + almightie god that gaue it him and his bodie to the comon burying + place here in Lancaster, and after his bodie being orderly and + decently buryed and the Charge theirof defrayed togather with all + due debts discharged, the Rest of his Lands and estate to be + disposed of as followeth: first in Reference to the Comfortable + being of his louing wife during the time of her naturall Life, it + is his will that his said wife haue that end of the house where he + and shee now dwelleth togather with halfe the pasture and halfe the + fruit of the aple trees and all the goods in the house, togather + with two cowes which shee shall Chuse and medow sufisiant for + wintering of them, out of the medowes where she shall Chuse, the + said winter pvision for the two cowes to be equaly and seasonably + pvided by his two sons John and Jonathan. And what this may fall + short in Reference to convenient food and cloathing and other + nesesaries for her comfort in sicknes and in health, to be equaly + pvided by the aforesaid John and Jonathan out of the estate. And at + the death of his aforesaid louing wife it is his will that the said + cowes and household goods be equally deuided betwene his two sons + aforesaid, and the other part of the dwelling house, out housing, + pasture and orchard togather with the term acres of house lott + lying on Georges hill which was purchased of daniell gains to be + equaly deuided betwene the said John and Jonathan and alsoe that + part of the house and outhousing what is Convenient for the two + Cowes and their winter pvision pasture and orchard willed to his + louing wife during her life, at her death to be equaly deuided + alsoe betwene the said John and Jonathan. And furthermore it is his + will that John Prescott his eldest son haue the Intervaile land at + John's Jumpe, the lower Mille and the land belonging to it and + halfe the saw mille and halfe the land belonging to it and all the + house and barne theire erected, and alsoe the house and farme at + Washacomb pond, and all the land their purchased from the indians + and halfe the medowes in all deuisions in the towne acept sum litle + part at bar hill wh. is after willed to James Sawyer and one halfe + of the Comon Right in the towne, and in Reference to second + deuision land, that part of it which lyeth at danforths farme both + vpland and interuaile is willed to Jonathan and sixtie acres of + that part at Washacom litle pond to James Sawyer and halfe of sum + brushie land Capable of being made medow at the side of the great + pine plain to be within the said James Sawyers sixtie acres and all + the Rest of the second deuision land both vpland and Interuaile to + be equaly deuided betwene John Prescott and Jonathan aformentioned. + And Jonathan Prescott his second son to haue the Ryefeild and all + the interuaile lott at Nashaway Riuer that part which he hath in + posesion and the other part joyneing to the highway and alsoe his + part of second deuision land aforementioned and alsoe one halfe of + all the medowes in all deuisions in the towne not willed to John + Prescott and James Sawyer aformentioned, and alsoe the other halfe + of the saw mille and land belonging to it, and it is to be + vnderstood that all timber on the land belonging to both Corne + Mille and Saw Mille be Comon to the vse of the Saw Mille. And in + Reference to his third son Jonas Prescott it is herby declared that + he hath Received a full childs portion at nonecoicus in a Corne + mille and Lands and other goods. And James Sawyer his granchild and + Servant it is his will that he haue the sixtie acres of vpland + aformentioned and the two peices of medow at bare hill one being + part of his second deuision the upermost peic on the brook and the + other being part of his third deuision lying vpon Nashaway River + purchased of goodman Allin. Prouided the Said James Sawyer carie it + beter then he did to his said granfather in his time and carie so + as becoms an aprentic & vntil he be one and twentie years of age + vnto the executors of this will namly John Prescott and Jonathan + Prescott who are alsoe herby engaged to pforme vnto the said James + what was pmised by his said granfather, which was to endeuor to + learne him the art and trade of a blaksmith. And in Case the said + James doe not pforme on his part as is afor expresed to the + satisfaction of the overseers of this will, or otherwise, If he doe + not acept of the land aformentioned, then the said land and medow + to be equaly deuided betwene the aforsaid John and Jonathan. And in + Reference to his three daughters, namly Marie, Sara and Lydia they + to haue and Receive eurie of them fiue pounds to be paid to them by + the executors to eurie of them fiftie shillings by the yeare two + years after the death of theire father to be paid out of the + mouables and Martha Ruge his granchild to haue a cow at the choic + of her granmother. And it is the express will and charge of the + testator to his wife and all his Children that they labor and + endeuor to prescrue loue and unitie among themselves and the + vpholding of Church and Comonwealth. And to the end that this his + last will and testament may be truly pformed in all the parts of + it, the said testator hath and herby doth constitut and apoynt his + two sons namly John Prescott and Jonathan Prescott Joynt executors + of this his last will. And for the preuention of after trouble + among those that suruiue about the dispose of the estate acording + to this his will he hath hereby Chosen desired and apoynted the + Reuerend Mr. Joseph Rowlandson, deacon Sumner and Ralph Houghton + overseers of this his will; vnto whom all the parties concerned in + this his will in all dificult Cases are to Repaire, and that + nothing be done without their Consent and aprobation. And + furthermore in Reference to the mouables it is his will that his + son John have his anvill and after the debts and legacies + aformentioned be truly paid and fully discharged by the executors + and the speciall trust pformed vnto my wife during her life and at + her death, in Respect of, sicknes funerall expences, the Remainder + of the movables to be equaly deuided betwene my two sons John and + Jonathan aforementioned. And for a further and fuller declaration + and confirmation of this will to be the last will and testament of + the afornamed John Prescott he hath herevnto put his hand and + seale this 8 of 2 month one thousand six hundred seaventie three. + + JOHN PRESCOTT, + + his _John_ mark. + + Sealed signed owned to be the Last will and testament of the + testator afornamed In the presence of + + JOSEPH ROWLANDSON, + ROGER SUMNER, + RALPH HOUGHTON. + + April 4: 82. + + ROGER SUMNER, } + RALPH HOUGHTON, } Appearing in Court + made oath to the above s'd will, + + JONATHAN REMINGTON, _Cleric_." + +But John Prescott's pilgrimage was far from ended, and severer +chastenings than any yet experienced awaited him. He had survived to see +the settlement that called him father, struggle upward from discouraging +beginnings, to become a thriving and happy community of over fifty +families. Where at his coming all had been pathless woods, now fenced +fields and orchards yielded annually their golden and ruddy harvests; +gardens bloomed; mechanic's plied their various crafts; herds wandered +in lush meadows; bridges spanned the rivers, and roads wound through the +landscape from cottage to cottage and away to neighboring towns. All +this fair scene of industry and rural content, of which he might in +modest truth say "_Magna pars fui_," he lived to see in a single day +made more desolate than the howling wilderness from which it had been +laboriously conquered. He was spared to see dear neighbors and kindred +massacred in every method of revolting atrocity, and their wives and +children carried into loathsome captivity by foes more relentlessly +cruel than wolves. When now weighed down with age and bodily +infirmities, the rest he had thought won was to be denied him, and he +and his were driven from the ashes of pleasant homes--about which +clustered the memories of thirty years' joys and sorrows--to beg shelter +from the charity of strangers. For more than three years his enforced +banishment endured. In October 1679, John Prescott with his sons John +and Jonathan, his sons-in-law Thomas Sawyer and John Rugg, his grand-son +Thomas Sawyer, Jr. and his neighbor's John Moore, Thomas Wilder, and +Josiah White, petitioned the Middlesex Court for permission to resettle +the town, and their prayer was granted. Soon most of the inhabitants who +had survived the massacre and exile, were busily building new homes, +some upon the cinders of the old, others upon their second division +lands east of the rivers where they were less exposed to the stealthy +incursions of their savage enemies. The two John Prescotts rebuilt the +mills and dwelt there. Whether the pioneer's life long helpmate died +before their settlement, in exile, or shortly after the return, has not +been ascertained, but it would seem that he survived her. Jonathan +having married a second wife remained in Concord. For two years the old +man lived with his eldest son, seeing the Nashaway Valley blooming with +the fruits of civilized labor; seeing new families filling the woeful +gaps made in the old by Philip's warriors; seeing children and +grandchildren grasping the implements that had fallen from the nerveless +hold of the earliest bread-winners, with hopeful and pertinacious +purpose to extend the paternal domain; seeing too, may we not trust, +from the Pisgah height of prophetic vision the glorious promise awaiting +this his Canaan; these softly rounded hills and broad valleys dotted +with the winsome homes of thousands of freemen; churches and schools, +shops of artisans, and busy marts of trade clustered about his mill +site; and, above all, seeing the assertion of political freedom and +liberty of conscience which Governor John Winthrop had reproached him +for favoring in the petition of Robert Child, become the corner stone of +a giant republic. + +No record of John Prescott's death is found; but when upon his death +bed, feeling that the changed condition of his own and his son +Jonathan's affairs required some modification of the will made in 1673, +he summoned two of his townsmen to hear his nuncupative codicil to that +document. From the affidavit, here appended, it is certain that his +death occurred about the middle of December, 1681. + + "The Deposition of Thos: Wilder aged 37 years sworn say'th that + being with Jno: Prescott Sen'r About six hours before he died he ye + s'd Jno. Prescott gaue to his eldest sonn Jno: Presscott his house + lott with all belonging to ye same & ye two mills, corn mill & saw + mill with ye land belonging thereto & three scor Acors of land nere + South medow and fourty Acors of land nere Wonchesix & a pece of + enteruile caled Johns Jump & Bridge medow on both sids ye Brook. + Cyprian Steevens Testifieth to all ye truth Aboue writen. + + DECEM. 20. 81. + + Sworn in Court. J.R.C." + +Though two or more years short of fourscore at the time of his death he +was Lancaster's oldest inhabitant. His fellow pioneer, Lawrence Waters, +who was the elder by perhaps a years, till survived, though blind and +helpless; but he dwelt with a son in Charlestown, after the destruction +of his home, and never returned to Lancaster. John and Ralph Houghton, +much younger men, were now the veterans of the town. + + * * * * * + +A GLIMPSE. + +BY MARY H. WHEELER. + + We met but once; 'twas many years ago. + I walked, with others, idly through the grounds + Where thou did'st minister in daily rounds. + I knew thee by thy garb, all I might know, + Sister of Charity, in hood like snow. + My heart was weary with the sight and sounds + Of sick and suffering soldiers in the wards below. + Disgusted with my thoughts of war and wounds. + 'Twas then, by sudden chance, I met thine eyes, + What saw I there? A light from heaven above, + A gleam of calm, self-sacrificing love, + A smile that fill'd my heart with glad surprise, + Reflected in my breast an answering glow, + And haunts me still, wherever I may go. + + * * * * * + +EARLY HISTORY OF THE BERMUDA ISLANDS. + +By JAMES H. STARK. + + +The singular collection of islands known as the Bermudas are situated +about seven hundred miles from Boston, in a southeast direction, and +about the same distance from Halifax, or Florida. The nearest land to +Bermuda is Cape Hatteras, distant 625 miles. + +Within sixty-five hours' sail from New York it is hardly possible to +find so complete a change in government, climate, scenery and +vegetation, as Bermuda offers; and yet these islands are strangely +unfamiliar to most well-informed Americans. + +Speaking our own language, having the same origin, with manners, which +in many ways illustrate those prevalent in New England a century ago, +the people are bound to us by many natural ties; and it is only now that +these islands, having come to the front as a winter resort, have led us +to inquire into their history and resources. Settled in 1612, Virginia +only of the English colonies outdating it, life in Bermuda has been as +placid as its lovely waters on a summer day; no agitation of sufficient +occurrence having occurred to attract the attention of the outside +world, from which it is so absolutely isolated. + +The only communication with the mainland is by the Quebec Steamship +Company, who dispatch a steamer every alternate Thursday between New +York and Hamilton, Bermuda, the fare for the round trip, including meals +and stateroom, is fifty dollars. During the crop season, in the months +of April, May and June, steamers are run weekly. + +The Cunard Company also have a monthly service between Halifax, Bermuda, +Turks Island and Jamaica, under contract with the Admiralty. + +The Bermudas were first discovered in 1515 by a Spanish vessel, called +La Garza, on a voyage from Spain to Cuba, with a cargo of hogs, and +commanded by Juan Bermudez, and having on board Gonzalez Oviedo, the +historian of the Indies, to whom we are indebted for the first account +of these islands. They approached near to the islands, and from the +appearance of the place concluded that it was uninhabited. They resolved +to send a boat ashore to make observations, and leave a few hogs, which +might breed and be afterwards useful. When, however, they were preparing +to debark a strong contrary gale arose, which obliged them to sheer off +and be content with the view already obtained. The islands were named by +the Spaniards indifferently, La Garza from the ship and Bermuda from the +captain, but the former term is long since disused. + +[Illustration: INSCRIPTION ON SPANISH ROCK] + +It does not appear that the Spaniards made any attempt to settle there, +although Philip II. granted the islands to one Ferdinand Camelo, a +Portuguese, who never improved his gift, beyond taking possession by the +form of landing in 1543, and carving on a prominent cliff on the +southern shore of the island[A] the initials of his name and the year, +to which, in conformity with the practical zeal of the times, he +super-added a cross, to protect his acquisition from the encroachments +of roving heretics and the devil, for the stormy seas and dangerous +reefs gave rise to so many disasters as to render the group exceedingly +formidable in the eyes of the most experienced navigators. It was even +invested in their imagination with superstitious terrors, being +considered as unapproachable by man, and given up in full dominion to +the spirits of darkness. The Spaniards therefore called them "Los +Diabolos," the Devil's Islands. + +[Footnote A: This inscription is still in existence, the engraving shown +herewith is a good representation of it, as it appears at the present +time.] + +[Illustration: Fac-simile reproduction of a Map of Bermuda made in 1614 +by Captain John Smith.] + +[Illustration: View of the State House and reference as to location of +the fort, bridges, etc., shown herewith on Smith's map of 1614. +(Fac-simile reproduction.)] + +These islands were first introduced to the notice of the English by a +dreadful shipwreck. In 1591 Henry May sailed to the East Indies, along +with Captain Lancaster, on a buccaneering expedition. Having reached the +coast of Sumatra and Malacca, they scoured the adjacent seas, and made +some valuable captures. In 1593 they again doubled the Cape of Good Hope +and returned to the West Indies for supplies, which they much needed. +They first came in sight of Trinidad, but did not dare to approach a +coast which was in possession of the Spaniards, and their distress +became so great that it was with the utmost difficulty that the men +could be prevented from leaving the ship. They shortly afterwards fell +in with a French buccaneer, commanded by La Barbotiere, who kindly +relieved their wants by a gift of bread and provisions. Their stores +were soon again exhausted, and, coming across the French ship the second +time, application was made to the French Captain for more supplies, but +he declared that his own stock was so much reduced that he could spare +but little, but the sailors persuaded themselves that the Frenchman's +scarcity was feigned, and also that May, who conducted the negotiations, +was regailing himself with good cheer on board without any trouble about +their distress. Among these men, inured to bold and desperate deeds, a +company was formed to seize the French pinnace, and then to capture the +large vessel with its aid. They succeeded in their first object, but the +French Captain, who observed their actions, sailed away at full speed, +and May, who was dining with him on board at the time, requested that he +might stay and return home on the vessel so that he could inform his +employers of the events of the voyage and the unruly behavior of the +crew. As they approached Bermuda strict watch was kept while they +supposed themselves to be near that dreaded spot, but when the pilot +declared that they were twelve leagues south of it they threw aside all +care and gave themselves up to carousing. Amid their jollity, about +midnight, the ship struck with such violence that she immediately filled +and sank. They had only a small boat, to which they attached a +hastily-constructed raft to be towed along with it; room, however, was +made for only twenty-six, while the crew exceeded fifty. In the wild and +desperate struggle for existence that ensued May fortunately got into +the boat. They had to beat about nearly all the next day, dragging the +raft after them, and it was almost dark before they reached the shore; +they were tormented with thirst, and had nearly despaired of finding a +drop of water when some was discovered in a rock where the rain waters +had collected. + +[Illustration: St. George's and Warwick Fort in 1614. (Fac-simile of +Smith's engraving.)] + +The land was covered with one unbroken forest of cedar. Here they would +have to remain for life unless a vessel could be constructed. They made +a voyage to the wreck and secured the shrouds, tackles and carpenters' +tools, and then began to cut down the cedars, with which they +constructed a vessel of eighteen tons. For pitch they took lime, +rendered adhesive by a mixture of turtle oil, and forced it into the +seams, where it became hard as stone. + +During a residence of five months here May had observed that Bermuda, +hitherto supposed to be a single island, was broken up into a number of +islands of different sizes, enclosing many fine bays, and forming good +harbors. The vessel being finished they set sail for Newfoundland, +expecting to meet fishing vessels there, on which they could obtain +passage to Europe. On the eleventh of May they found themselves with joy +clear of the islands. They had a very favorable voyage, and on the +twentieth arrived at Cape Breton. May arrived in England in August, +1594, where he gave a description of the islands; he stated that they +found hogs running wild all over the islands, which proves that this was +not the first landing made there. + +It was owing to a shipwreck that Bermuda again came under the view of +the English, and that led England to appropriate these islands. + +In 1609, during the most active period of the colonization of Virginia, +an expedition of nine ships, commanded by Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George +Somers and Captain Newport, bound for Virginia, was dispersed by a great +storm. One of the vessels, the Sea Adventure, in which were Gates, +Somers and Newport, seems to have been involved in the thickest of the +tempest. The vessel sprung aleak, which it was found impossible to stop. +All hands labored at the pumps for life, even the Governor and Admiral +took their turns, and gentlemen who had never had an hour's hard work in +their life toiled with the rest. The water continued to gain on them, +and when about to give up in despair, Sir George Somers, who had been +watching at the poop deck day and night, cried out land, and there in +the early dawn of morning could be seen the welcome sight of land. +Fortunately they lighted on the only secure entrance through the reefs. +The vessel was run ashore and wedged between two rocks, and thereby was +preserved from sinking, till by means of a boat and skiff the whole crew +of one hundred and fifty, with provisions, tackle and stores, reached +the land. At that time the hogs still abounded, and these, with the +turtle, birds and fish which they caught, afforded excellent food for +the castaways. The Isle of Devils Sir George Somers and party found "the +richest, healthfulest and pleasantest" they ever saw. + +Robert Walsingham and Henry Shelly discovered two bays abounding in +excellent fish; these bays are still called by their names. Gates and +Somers caused the long boat to be decked over, and sent Raven, the mate, +with eight men, to Virginia to bring assistance to them, but nothing was +ever heard of them afterwards, and after waiting six months all hopes +were then given up. The chiefs of the expedition then determined to +build two vessels of cedar, one of eighty tons and one of thirty. Their +utmost exertions, however, did not prevent disturbances, which nearly +baffled the enterprise. These were fomented by persons noted for their +religious zeal, of Puritan principles and the accompanying spirit of +independence. They represented that the recent disaster had dissolved +the authority of the Governor, and their business was now to provide, as +they best could, for themselves and their families. They had come out in +search of an easy and plentiful subsistence, which could nowhere be +found in greater perfection and security than here, while in Virginia +its attainment was not only doubtful, but attended with many hardships. +These arguments were so convincing with the larger number of the men +that, had it rested with them, they would have lived and died on the +islands. + +[Illustration: Entrance to St. George Harbor, between Smith's and +Paget's Islands. (Fac-simile re-production of Smith's engraving. 1614.)] + +Two successive conspiracies were formed by large parties to separate +from the rest and form a colony. Both were defeated by the vigilance of +Gates, who allowed the ringleaders to escape with a slight punishment. +This lenity only emboldened the malcontents, and a third plot was formed +to seize the stores and take entire possession of the islands. It was +determined to make an example of one of the leaders named Payne; He was +condemned to be hanged, but, on the plea of being a gentleman, his +sentence was commuted into that of being shot, which was immediately +done. This had a salutary effect, and prevented any further trouble. + +[Illustration: View of ancient forts. (Re-produced from Smith's +engraving, 1614)] + +Two children, a boy and girl, were born during this period; the former +was christened Bermudas and the latter Bermuda; they were probably the +first human beings born on these islands. + +Before leaving the islands Gates caused a cross to be made of the wood +saved from the wreck of his ship, which he secured to a large cedar; a +silver coin with the king's head was placed in the middle of it, +together with an inscription on a copper plate describing what had +happened--That the cross was the remains of a ship of three hundred +tons, called the Sea Venture, bound with eight more to Virginia; that +she contained two knights, Sir Thomas Gates, governor of the colony, and +Sir George Summers, admiral of the seas, who, together with her captain, +Christopher Newport, and one hundred and fifty mariners and passengers +besides, had got safe ashore, when she was lost, July 28, 1609. + +On the tenth of May, 1610, they sailed with a fair wind, and, before +reaching the open sea, they struck on a rock and were nearly wrecked the +second time. On the twenty-third they arrived safely at Jamestown. This +settlement they found in a most destitute condition on their arrival, +and it was determined to abandon the place, but Sir George Summers, +"whose noble mind ever regarded the general good more than his own +ends," offered to undertake a voyage to the Bermudas for the purpose of +forming a settlement, from which supplies might be obtained for the +Jamestown colony. He accordingly sailed June 19, in his cedar vessel, +and his name was then given to the islands, though Bermuda has since +prevailed. + +[Illustration: Entrance to Castle Harbor, between Castle and +Southhampton Islands. (Fac-simile re-production of Smith's engraving, +1614.)] + +Contrary winds and storms carried him to the northward, to the vicinity +of Cape Cod. Somers persevered and reached the islands, but age, anxiety +and exertion contributed to produce his end. Perceiving the approach of +death he exhorted his companions to continue their exertions for the +benefit of the plantations, and to return to Virginia. Alarmed at the +untimely fate of their leader, the colonists embalmed his body, and +disregarding his dying injunction, sailed for England. Three only of the +men volunteered to remain, and for some time after their companions left +they continued to cultivate the soil, but unfortunately they found some +ambergris, and they fell into innumerable quarrels respecting its +possession. They at length resolved to build a boat and sail for +Newfoundland with their prize, but, happily for them, they were +prevented by the arrival of a ship from Europe. An extraordinary +interest was excited in England by the relation of Captain Mathew +Somers, the nephew and heir of Sir George. The usual exaggerations were +published, and public impressions were heightened by contrast with the +dark ideas formerly prevalent concerning these islands. A charter was +obtained of King James I., and one hundred and twenty gentlemen detached +themselves from the Virginia company and formed a company under the name +and style of the Governor and Company of the City of London, for the +plantation of the Somer Islands. + +On the twenty-eighth of April, 1612, the first ship was sent out with +sixty emigrants, under the charge of Richard Moore, who was appointed +the Governor of the colony. They met the boat containing the three men +left on the island, who were overjoyed at seeing the ship, and conducted +her into the harbor. It was not long before intelligence of the +discovery of the ambergris reached the Governor; he promptly deprived +the three men of it. One of them named Chard, who denied all knowledge +of it, and caused considerable disturbance, which at one time seemed +likely to result in a sanguinary encounter, was condemned to be hanged, +and was only reprieved when on the ladder. + +The Governor now applied himself actively to his duties. He had +originally landed on Smith's Island, but he soon removed to the spot +where St. George's now stands, and built the town which was named after +Sir George Somers, and which became, and remained for two centuries, the +capital of Bermuda. He laid the foundation of eight or nine forts for +the defence of the harbor, and also trained the men to arms in order +that they might defend the infant colony from attack. This proved +necessary, for, in 1614, two Spanish ships attempted to enter the +harbor; the forts were promptly manned and two shots fired at the enemy, +who, finding them better prepared than they imagined, bore away. + +Before the close of 1615 six vessels had arrived with three hundred and +forty passengers, among whom were a Marshall and one Bartlett, who were +sent out expressly to divide the colony into tribes or shares; but the +Governor finding no mention of any shares for himself, and the persons +with him, as had been agreed on, forbade his proceeding with his survey. +The survey was afterward made by Richard Norwood, which divided the land +into tribes, now parishes; these shares form, the foundation of the land +tenure of the islands, even to this day, the divisional lines in many +cases yet remaining intact. Moore, whose time had expired, went back to +England in 1615, leaving the administration of the government to six +persons, who were to rule, each in turn, one month. They proceeded to +elect by lot their first ruler, the choice falling upon Charles +Caldicot, who then went, with a crew of thirty-two men, in a vessel to +the West Indies for the purpose of procuring plants, goats and young +cattle for the islands. The vessel was wrecked there, and the crew were +indebted to an English pirate for being rescued from a desert island on +which they had been cast. + +For a time the colony was torn by contention and discord, as well as by +scarcity of food. The news of these dissensions having reached England +the company sent out Daniel Tucker as Governor. Tucker was a stern, hard +master, and he enforced vigorous measures to compel the people to work +for the company. The provisions and stores he issued in certain +quantities, and paid each laborer a stated sum in brass coin, struck by +the proprietor for the purpose, having a hog on one side, in +commemoration of the abundance of those animals found by the first +settlers, and on the reverse a ship. Pieces of this curious hog money, +as it is called, is frequently found, and it brings a high price. + +[Illustration: HOG MONEY.] + +Shortly after Governor Tucker arrived he sent to the West Indies for +plants and fruit trees. The vessel returned with figs, pine-apples, +sugar-cane, plantain and paw-paw, which were all planted and rapidly +multiplied. This vessel also brought the first slaves into the colony, +an Indaian and a negro. + +The company dispatched a small bark, called the Hopewell, with supplies +for the colony, under the command of Captain Powell. On his way he met a +Portuguese vessel homeward bound from Brazil, with a cargo of sugar, +and, as Smith adds, "liked the sugar and passengers so well" he made a +prize of her. Fearing to face Governor Tucker after this piratical act +he directed his course to the West Indies. On his arrival there he met a +French pirate, who pretended to have a warm regard for him, and invited +him, with his officers, to an entertainment. Suspecting nothing he +accepted the invitation, but no sooner had they been well seated at the +table than they were all seized and threated with instant death, unless +they surrendered their prize. This Powell was, of course, compelled to +do, and finding his provisions failing him he put the Portuguese crew on +shore and sailed for Bermuda, where he managed to excuse himself to the +Governor. Powell again went to the West Indies pirating, and in May he +arrived with three prizes, laden with meal, hides, and ammunition. +Tucker received him kindly and treated him with consideration, until he +had the goods in his own possession, when he reproached the Captain with +his piratical conduct and called him to account for his proceedings. The +unlucky buccaneer was, in the end, glad to escape to England, leaving +his prizes in the hands of the Governor. + +The discipline and hard labor required of the people reduced them to a +condition but little better than that of slaves, and caused many to make +desperate efforts to escape from the islands. Five persons, neither of +whom were sailors, built a fishing boat for the Governor, and when +completed they borrowed a compass from their preacher, for whom they +left a farewell epistle. In this they reminded him how often he had +exhorted them to patience under ill-treatment, and had told them how +Providence would pay them, if man did not. They trusted, therefore, that +he would now practice what he had so often preached. + +[Illustration: Reproduction of Smith's engraving, 1614, showing his coat +of arms with the three Turk heads.] + +These brave men endured great hardships in their boat of three tons +during their rash voyage; but at the end of about forty-two days they +arrived at Ireland, where their exploit was considered so wonderful that +the Earl of Thomond caused them to be received and entertained, and hung +up their boat as a monument of this extraordinary voyage. The Governor +was greatly exasperated at their escape, and threatened to hang the +whole of them if they returned. + +Another party of three, one of whom was a lady, attempted in a like +manner to reach Virginia, but were never afterwards heard of. Six others +were discovered before they effected their departure, and one was +executed. John Wood, who was found guilty of speaking "many distasteful +and mutinous speeches against the Governor," was also condemned and +executed. + +As there were at that time only about five hundred inhabitants on these +islands, it would appear from Captain Smith's History that Tucker hanged +a good percentage of them. Many were the complaints that were forwarded +to England concerning the tyrannical government of Tucker, and he, +fearing to be recalled, at last returned to England of his own accord, +having appointed a person named Kendall as his deputy. + +Kendall was disposed to be attentive to his office, but wanted energy, +and the company took an early opportunity to relieve him; this was not +very agreeable to the people, but they did not offer any resistance. + +Governor Butler arrived with four ships and five hundred men on the +twentieth of October, 1619, which raised the number of the colonists to +1000, and at his departure three years later, it had increased to 1500. + +On the first of August, 1620, in conformity with instructions sent out +by the company, the Governor summoned the first general assembly at St. +George's for the dispatch of public business. It consisted of the +Governor, Council, Bailiffs, Burgesses, Secretary, and Clerk. It appears +that they all sat in one house, which was probably the "State House" +shown on Smith's engraving. Most of the Acts passed on this occasion +were creditable to the new legislators. + +Governor Butler, as Moore had done before him, turned his chief +attention to the building of forts and magazines; he also finished the +cedar Church at St. George's, and caused the assembly to pass an Act for +the building of three bridges, and then initiated the useful project of +connecting together the principal islands. When Governor Butler returned +to England he left the islands in a greatly improved condition. But in +his time, also, there were such frequent mutinies and discontent, that +at last "he longed for deliverance from his thankless and troublesome +employment." It was probably during Governor Butler's administration +that Captain[A] John Smith had a map and illustrations of the "Summer +Ils" made, for in it we find the three bridges, numerous +well-constructed forts, and the State House at St. George's. The map and +illustrations were published in "Smith's General Historic of Virginia, +New England and the Summer Ils" 1624; they are of the greatest value and +importance, as they show accurately the class of buildings and forts +erected on these islands at that early period; such details even are +entered into as the showing of the stocks in the market place of St. +George's, and the architecture and the substantial manner in which the +buildings were constructed is remarkable, especially so when it is +considered that previous to 1620 the Puritans had not settled at +Plymouth, and it was ten years from that date before the settlement of +Boston: in fact, with the exception of Jamestown in Virginia, the +English had not secured a foot-hold in North America at the time these +buildings and forts were constructed. There are very few copies of this +rare print in existence, even in Smith's history it is usually found +wanting, and it was only after considerable trouble and expense that the +writer succeeded in obtaining a reproduction of it. + +[Footnote A: Captain John Smith was never in Bermuda. He derived all his +information from his opportunities as a member of the Virginia Company, +and from correspondence or personal narratives of returned planters. +This was his habitual way, as is shown by the number of authorities that +he quotes. He probably obtained the sketches, from which these +illustrations were made, from Richard Norwood, the schoolmaster.] + +The early history of Bermuda is in many important points similar to that +of New England. Like motives had in most instances induced emigration, +and the distinguished characteristics of those people were repeated +here. + +Like the Salem and Boston colonists they had their witchcraft delusions, +anticipating that, however, some twenty years, Christian North was +tried for it in 1668, but was acquited. Somewhat later a negro woman, +Sarah Basset, was burned at Paget for the same offence. The Quakers were +persecuted by fines, imprisonment, and banishment, by the stem and +dark-souled Puritans, who had emigrated to this place to escape +oppression, and to enjoy religious toleration, but were not willing to +grant to others who differed from them in their religious belief the +same privileges as they themselves enjoyed. + +The company discovered by degrees that the Bermudas were not the +Eldorado which they had fondly imagined them to be. The colonists were +now numerous, and every day showed a strong disposition to break away +from the control of the company. The company had issued an order +forbidding the inhabitants to receive any ships but such as were +commissioned by them. The company complained against the quality of +tobacco shipped to London, as well as the quantity. + +The people were forbidden to cut cedar without a special license, and as +they were in the habit of exporting oranges in chests made of this wood, +the regulation operated very materially to the injury of the place. +Previous to this order many homeward-bound West Indiamen arrived at +Castle Harbor to load with this fruit for the English market. Whaling +was claimed as an exclusive privilege, and was conducted for the sole +benefit of the proprietors. Numerous attempts were made to boil sugar, +but the company directed the Governor to prevent it, as it would require +too much wood for fuel. + +In consequence of instructions from England Governor Turner called upon +all the inhabitants of the islands to take the oath of supremacy and +allegiance to his majesty, but as the Puritans had left their native +country on account of their republican sentiments, they refused to +comply, and the prisons were soon filled to overflowing. + +The rapid change of affairs in England during the civil war, in which +the Puritans were victorious, and Cromwell was elevated to the +Protectorship, opened the doors of the prisons, and stopped all further +persecutions, both political and religious. + +It must be said in favor of the company that they had, at an early +period, established schools throughout the colony, and appropriated +lands in most of the tribes or parishes, for the maintainance of the +teachers. + +From 1630 to 1680 many negro and Indian slaves were brought to the +colony; the negroes from Africa and the West Indies, and a large number +of Indians from Massachusetts, prisoners taken in the Pequot and King +Philip's wars. The traces of their Indian ancestry can readily be seen +in many of the colored people of these islands at the present time. + +In October, 1661, the Protestant inhabitants were alarmed by rumors of a +proposed combination between the negroes and the Irish. The plan was to +arm themselves and massacre the whites who were not Catholics. +Fortunately the plot was discovered in time, and measures adopted to +disarm the slaves and the disaffected. + +The proprietary form of government continued until 1685, with a long +succession of good, bad, and indifferent Governors. + +Many acts of piracy were perpetrated at different times by the +inhabitants of these islands. In 1665 Captain John Wentworth made a +descent upon the island of Tortola and brought off about ninety slaves, +the property of the Governor of the place. Governor Seymour received a +letter from him in which he stated that "upon the ninth day of July +there came hither against me a pirate or sea robber, named John +Wentworth, the which over-run my lands, and that against the will of +mine owne inhabits, and shewed himself a tyrant, in robbing and firing, +and took my negroes from my Isle, belonging to no man but myself. And +likewise I doe understand that this said John Wentworth, a sea robber, +is an indweller with you, soe I desire that you would punish this rogue, +according to your good law. I desire you, soe soon as you have this +truth of mine, if you don't of yourself, restore all my negroes againe, +whereof I shall stay here three months, and in default of this, soe be +assured, that wee shall speake together very shortly, and then I shall +be my owne judge." + +This threatening letter caused great consternation, and immediately +steps were taken to place the colony in the best posture for defence, +reliance being had on the impregnability of the islands, instead of +delivering up the plunder, especially as Captain Wentworth held a +commission from the Governor and Council, and acted under their +instructions. + +Isaac Richier, who became Governor of the colony in 1691, was another +celebrated freebooter. The account of his reign reads like a romance. +The love of gold, and the determination to possess it, was the one idea +of his statesmanship. He was a pirate at sea and a brigand on land. +Nevertheless, it does not appear that any of his misdeeds, such as +hanging innocent people, and robbing British ships, as well as others, +led to his recall, or caused any degree of indignation which such +conduct usually arouses. The fact appears to be that, although Governor +Richier was a bold, bad man, yet few of his subjects were entitled to +throw the first stone at his excellency. + +Benjamin Bennett became Governor of the colony in 1701. At this time the +Bahama Islands had become a rendezvous for pirates, and a few years +later, King George the First issued a proclamation for their +dislodgment. Governor Bennett accordingly dispatched a sloop, ordering +the marauders to surrender. Those who were on shore on his arrival +gladly accepted the opportunity to escape, and declared that they did +not doubt but that their companions who were at sea would follow their +example. Captain Henry Jennings and fifteen others sailed for Bermuda, +and were soon followed by four other Captains--Leslie, Nichols, +Hornigold, and Burges, with one hundred men, who all surrendered. + +In 1710 the Spaniards made a descent on Turk's Island, which had been +settled by the Bermudians for the purpose of gathering salt, and took +possession of the island, making prisoners of the people. The +Bermudians, at their own expense and own accord, dispatched a force +under Captain Lewis Middleton to regain possession of the Bahama Cays. +The expedition was successful, and a victory gained over the Spaniards, +and they were driven from the islands; they still, however, continued to +make predatory attacks on the salt-rakers at the ponds, and on the +vessels going for and carrying away salt. To repel these aggressions and +afford security to their trade, the Bermudians went to the expense of +arming their vessels. + +In 1775 the discontent in the American provinces had broken out into +open opposition to the crown, and the people were forbidden to trade +with their late fellow subjects. Bermuda suffered great want in +consequence, for at this period, instead of exporting provisions the +island had become dependent on the continent for the means of +subsistence. This, together with the fact that many of the people +possessed near relatives engaged in the struggle with the crown, tended +to destroy good feelings towards the British government. These +circumstances must be considered in order to judge fairly of the +following transaction, which has always been regarded to have cast a +stain upon the patriotism and loyalty of the Bermudians. + +At the outbreak of the American Revolution, two battles were fought in +the vicinity of Boston--Lexington and Bunker Hill, after which all +intercourse with the surrounding country ceased, and Boston was reduced +to a state of siege. Civil war commenced in all its horrors; the +sundering of social ties; the burning of peaceful homes; the butchery of +kindred and friends. + +Washington was appointed by the Continental Congress, Commander-in-Chief +of the American forces, and on July 3, 1775, two weeks after the battle +of Bunker Hill, he took formal command of the army at Cambridge. In a +letter to the President of Congress notifying him of his safe arrival +there, he made the following statement. "Upon the article of ammunition, +I must re-echo the former complaints on this subject. We are so +exceedingly destitute that our artillery will be of little use without a +supply both large and seasonable. What we have must be reserved for the +small arms, and that well managed with the utmost frugality." A few +weeks later General Washington wrote the following letter on the same +subject.[A] + +[Footnote A: Writings of George Washington, by J. Sparks, vol. iii, page +47.] + + TO GOVERNOR COOKE, OF RHODE ISLAND. + + Camp at Cambridge, 4 August, 1775. + + Sir, + + I am now, Sir, in strict confidence, to acquaint you, that our + necessities in the articles of powder and lead are so great, as to + require an immediate supply. I must earnestly entreat that you will + fall upon some measure to forward every pound of each in your + colony that can possibly be spared. It is not within the propriety + or safety of such a correspondence to say what I might on this + subject. It is sufficient that the case calls loudly for the most + strenuous exertions of every friend of his country, and does not + admit of the least delay. No quantity, however small, is beneath + notice, and, should any arrive, I beg it may be forwarded as soon + as possible. + + But a supply of this kind is so precarious, not only from the + danger of the enemy, but the opportunity of purchasing, that I have + revolved in my mind every other possible chance, and listened to + every proposition on the subject which could give the smallest + hope. Among others I have had one mentioned which has some weight + with me, as well as the other officers to whom I have proposed it. + A Mr. Harris has lately come from Bermuda, where there is a very + considerable magazine of powder in a remote part of the island; and + the inhabitants are well disposed, not only to our cause in + general, but to assist in this enterprise in particular. We + understand there are two armed vessels in your province, commanded + by men of known activity and spirit; one of which, it is proposed + to despatch on this errand with such assistance as may be + requisite. Harris is to go along, as the conductor of the + enterprise, that we may avail ourselves of his knowledge of the + island; but without any command. I am very sensible, that at first + view the project may appear hazardous; and its success must depend + on the concurrence of many circumstances; but we are in a + situation, which requires us to run all risks. No danger is to be + considered, when put in competition with the magnitude of the + cause, and the absolute necessity we are under of increasing our + stock. Enterprises, which appear chimerical, often prove successful + from that very circumstance. Common sense and prudence will suggest + vigilance and care, where the danger is plain and obvious; but + where little danger is apprehended, the more the enemy will be + unprepared; and consequently there is the fairest prospect of + success. + + Mr. Brown has been mentioned to me as a very proper person to be + consulted upon this occasion. You will judge of the propriety of + communicating it to him in part or the whole, and as soon as + possible favor me with your sentiments, and the steps you may have + taken to forward it. If no immediate and safe opportunity offers, + you will please to do it by express. Should it be inconvenient to + part with one of the armed vessels, perhaps some other might be + fitted out, or you could devise some other mode of executing this + plan; so that, in case of a disappointment, the vessel might + proceed to some other island to purchase. + + I am, Sir, + Your most obedient, humble servant, + G. Washington. + +This plan was approved by the Governor and Committee of Rhode Island, +and Captain Abraham Whipple agreed to engage in the affair, provided +General Washington would give him a certificate under his own hand, that +in case the Bermudians would assist the undertaking, he would recommend +to the Continental Congress to permit the exportation of provisions to +those islands from the colonies. + +General Washington accordingly sent the following address to the +Bermudians.[A] + +[Footnote A: Writings of George Washington, by J. Sparks, vol. iii., +page 77.] + + TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE ISLAND OF BERMUDA. + + Camp at Cambridge, 6 September, 1775. + Gentlemen: + + In the great conflict, which agitates this continent, I cannot + doubt but the assertors of freedom and the rights of the + constitution are possessed of your most favorable regards and + wishes for success. As descendants of freemen, and heirs with us of + the same glorious inheritance, we flatter ourselves, that, though + divided by our situation, we are firmly united in sentiment. The + cause of virtue and liberty is confined to no continent or climate. + It comprehends, within its capacious limits, the wise and good, + however dispersed and separated in space or distance. + + You need not be informed that the violence and rapacity of a + tyrannic ministry have forced the citizens of America, your brother + colonist, into arms. We equally detest and lament the prevalence of + those counsels, which have led to the effusion of so much human + blood, and left us no alternative but a civil war, or a base + submission. The wise Disposer of all events has hitherto smiled + upon our virtuous efforts. Those mercenary troops, a few of whom + lately boasted of subjugating this vast continent, have been + checked in their earliest ravages, and now actually encircled + within a small space; their arms disgraced, and themselves + suffering all the calamities of a siege. The virtue, spirit, and + union of the provinces leave them nothing to fear, but the want of + ammunition. The application of our enemies to foreign states, and + their vigilance upon our coasts, are the only efforts they have + made against us with success. + + Under these circumstances, and with these sentiments, we have + turned our eyes to you, Gentlemen, for relief. We are informed, + that there is a very large magazine in your island under a very + feeble guard. We would not wish to involve you in an opposition, in + which, from your situation, we should be unable to support you; we + knew not, therefore, to what extent to solicit your assistance, in + availing ourselves of this supply; but, if your favor and + friendship to North America and its liberties have not been + misrepresented, I persuade myself you may, consistently with your + own safety, promote and further this scheme, so as to give it the + fairest prospect of success. Be assured, that, in this case, the + whole power and exertion of my influence will be made with the + honorable Continental Congress, that your island may not only be + supplied with provisions, but experience every other mark of + affection and friendship, which the grateful citizens of a free + country can bestow on its brethren and benefactors. I am, + Gentlemen, + + With much esteem, + Your humble servant, + + [Illustration: Signature G Washington] + +Captain Whipple had scarcely sailed from Providence before an account +appeared in the newspapers of one hundred barrels of powder having been +taken from Bermuda by a vessel supposed to be from Philadelphia, and +another from South Carolina. This was the same powder that Captain +Whipple had gone to procure. General Washington and Governor Cooke were +both of the opinion it was best to countermand his instructions. The +other armed vessel of Rhode Island was immediately dispatched in search +of the Captain with orders to return. + +But it was too late; he reached Bermuda and put in at the west end of +the island. The inhabitants were at first alarmed, supposing him to +command a king's armed vessel, and the women and children fled from that +vicinity; but when he showed them his commission and instructions they +treated him with much cordiality and friendship, and informed him that +they had assisted in removing the powder, which was made known to +General Gage, and he had sent a sloop of war to the island. They +professed themselves hearty friends to the American cause. Captain +Whipple being defeated in the object of his voyage returned to +Providence. + +Soon after the inhabitants of Bermuda petitioned Congress for relief, +representing their great distress in consequence of being deprived of +the supplies that usually came from the colonies. In consideration of +their being friendly to the cause of America, it was resolved by +Congress that provisions in certain quantities might be exported to +them.[A] + +[Footnote A: Journal of Congress, November 22, 1775.] + +The powder procured from the Bermudians led to the first great victory +gained by Washington in the Revolutionary war, the evacuation of Boston +by the British army. After the arrival of the powder Washington caused +numerous batteries to be erected in the immediate vicinity of the town. +On the night of March 4, 1776, Dorchester Heights were taken possession +of and works erected there, which commanded Boston, and the British +Fleet lying at anchor in the harbor. This caused the town to be +evacuated, and General Howe with his army and about one thousand +loyalists went aboard of the fleet and sailed for Halifax, March 17, +1776. + +Nothing could exceed the indignation of Governor Bruere when he received +intelligence of the plundering of the magazine; he promptly called upon +the legislature to take active measures for bringing the delinquents to +justice. No evidence could ever be obtained, and the whole transaction +is still enveloped in mystery. The Governor let no opportunity escape +him to accuse the Bermudians of disloyality, and no doubt severe +punishment would have been inflicted on the delinquents could they have +been discovered. + +Two American brigs under Republican colors arrived shortly after this +and remained some weeks at the west end of the islands unmolested, and +Governor Bruere complained bitterly of this to the assembly.[A] + +[Footnote A: These were probably the vessels sent out from Rhode Island +under the command of Captain Whipple.] + +Governor George James Bruere died in 1780, and the administration +devolved on the Honorable Thomas Jones, who was relieved by George +Bruere as Lieutenant Governor, in October, 1780. + +Governor Bruere was soon openly at variance with the assembly, and did +not hesitate to accuse the people of treason in supplying the revolted +provinces with salt, exchanging it for provisions. Mr. Bruere extremely +exasperated at their trading, which he considered to be treasonable +conduct, commented on it in his message to the assembly in no measured +terms. Some intercepted correspondence with the rebels added fuel to the +flame, and on the fifteenth of August, 1781, he addressed them in a +speech which could not fail to be offensive, although it contained much +sound argument. This was followed by a message more bitter and +acrimonious, all of which they treated with silent contempt, until the +twenty-eight of September, when they discharged their wrath in an +address, in which the Governor was handled most roughly for his attacks +on the inhabitants of these islands. In return he addressed a message, +equally uncourteous in its tone, and dissolved the house. + +The arrival of William Browne, whose administration commenced the fourth +of January, 1782, put an end to Mr. Bruere's rule. + +The high character of the new Governor had preceded him in the colony, +and he was joyfully received on his arrival. He was a native of Salem, +Massachusetts, and was high in office previous to the Revolution, was +Colonel of the Essex regiment, judge of the Supreme Court, and Mandamus +Counselor. After the passage of the Boston Port bill, he was waited on +by a committee of the Essex delegates, to inform him, that "it was with +grief that the country had viewed his exertions for carrying into +execution certain acts of parliament calculated to enslave and ruin his +native land; that while the country would continue the respect for +several years paid him, it resolved to detach, from every future +connection, all such as shall persist in supporting or in any way +countenancing the late arbitrary acts of Parliament; that the delegates +in the name of the country requested him to excuse them from the painful +necessity of considering and treating him as an enemy to his country, +unless he resigned his office as Counsellor and Judge." Colonel Browne +replied as follows: + +"As a judge and in every other capacity, I intend to act with honor and +integrity and to exert my best abilities; and be assured that neither +persuasion can allure me, nor menaces compel me, to do anything +derogatory to the character of a Counselor of his Majesty's province of +Massachusetts."--William Browne. + +Colonel Browne was esteemed among the most opulent and benevolent +individuals of that province prior to the Revolution; and so great was +his popularity that the gubernatorial chair of Massachusetts was offered +him by the "committee of safety," as an inducement for him to remain and +join the "sons of liberty." But he felt it a duty to adhere to +government; even at the expense of his great landed estate, both in +Massachusetts and Connecticut, the latter comprising fourteen valuable +farms, all of which were afterwards confiscated. + +By preferring to remain on the side representing law and authority, and +unwilling to adopt the course of the revolutionists, this courtly +representative of an ancient and honorable family, this sincere lover of +his country, this skilled man of affairs, this upright and merciful +judge, once so beloved by his fellow townsmen, drew upon himself their +wrath, and he fled from his native country never to return again. First +he sought refuge in Boston in 1774, then in Halifax, and from there he +went to England in 1776, where he remained till 1781, when he was +appointed Governor of Bermuda, as a slight return for his great +sacrifices and important services in behalf of the Crown. Colonel Browne +married his cousin, the daughter of Governor Wanton, of Rhode Island, +and was doubly connected with the Winthrop family; the wives of the +elder Browne and Governor Wanton being daughters of John Winthrop, great +grandson of the first Governor of Massachusetts. Colonel Browne's son +William was an officer in the British service at the siege of Gibralter +in 1784. + +Under the judicious management of Governor Browne the colony continued +to steadily flourish; he conducted the business of the colony in the +greatest harmony with the different branches of the legislature. He +found the financial affairs of the islands in a confused and ruinous +state, and left them flourishing. In 1778 he left for England, deeply +and sincerely regretted by the people, and was succeeded by Henry +Hamilton as Lieutenant Governor, during whose administration the town of +Hamilton was built and named in compliment of him. + +Near the close of the American Revolution a plan was on foot to take +Bermuda, in order to make it "a nest of hornets" for the annoyance of +British trade, but the war closed, and it was abandoned. It, however, +proved a nest of hornets to the United States during the late civil war. +At that time St. George's was a busy town, and was one of the hot-beds +of secession. Being a great resort for blockade runners, which were +hospitably welcomed here, immense quantities of goods were purchased in +England, and brought here on large ocean steamers, and then transferred +to swift-sailing blockade runners, waiting to receive it. These ran the +blockade into Charleston, Wilmington and Savannah. + +It was a risky business, but one that was well followed, and many made +large fortunes there during the first year of the war, but many were +bankrupt, or nearly so at its close. + +Here, too, was concocted the fiendish plot of Dr. Blackburn, a +Kentuckian, for introducing yellow fever into northern cities, by +sending thither boxes of infected clothing. + +[The foregoing article on the history of Bermuda was compiled by the +author of "Stark's Illustrated Bermuda Guide," published by the +Photo-Electrotype Company, of 63 Oliver Street, Boston. The work +contains about two hundred pages and is embellished with sixteen +photo-prints, numerous engravings, and a new map of Bermuda made from +the latest surveys.--ED.] + + * * * * * + +HEART AND I. + +BY MARY HELEN BOODEY. + + Singing, singing through the valleys; + Singing, singing up the hills; + Peace that comes, and Love that tarries, + Hope that cheers, and Faith that thrills, + Heart and I, are we not blest + At the thought of coming rest? + + Singing, singing 'neath the shadow; + Singing, singing in the light; + Plucking flowerets from the meadow, + Seeing beauty up the height, + Heart and I, are we not gay + Thinking of unclouded day? + + Singing, singing through the summer; + Singing, singing in the snow; + Glad to hear the brooklets murmur, + Patient when the wild winds blow, + Heart and I, can we do this? + Yes, because of future bliss. + + Singing, singing up to Heaven; + Singing, singing down to earth; + Unto all some good is given. + Unto all there cometh worth; + Heart and I, we sing to know + That the good God loves us so. + + * * * * * + + +ELIZABETH. + +A ROMANCE OF COLONIAL DAYS. + +BY FRANCES C. SPARHAWK, Author of "A Lazy Man's Work." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +DEPARTURE. + + +With suppressed ejaculations and outspoken condolences the party broke +up. It was not until the last one had gone that Mrs. Eveleigh, leaving +her post of observation in the corner, swept out to find Elizabeth who +disappeared after Stephen Archdale had gone with Katie. She found her in +her bed-room trying to put her things into her box. Her face was +flushed, and her hands cold and trembling. + +"Why have you waited so long?" she began. "We must go at once. Have you +sent for a carriage? We shall meet ours on the way." + +"My dear," answered the other seating herself, "that is impossible. They +will not turn you out, if you have made a mistake. You can not go until +to-morrow, of course; nobody will expect it. I am very sorry for poor +Archdale and the young lady, but I dare say it will turn out all right." + +Elizabeth raised herself from the box over which she had been stooping +throwing in her things in an agony of haste. She opened her lips, but +words failed her. The amazement and indignation of her look turned +slowly to an appealing glance that few could have resisted. She had been +used to Mrs. Eveleigh's not comprehending nice distinctions, but now it +seemed as if to be a woman would make one understand. If her father were +with her now! She turned away sharply. + +"Will you see that some conveyance is here within half an hour?" she +said. "If it is a cart I will not refuse to go in it. But leave here at +once I will, if it must be on foot. For yourself, do as you choose, only +give my order." + +There was something in Elizabeth's gesture, and a desperation in her +face that made Mrs. Eveleigh go away and leave her without a word. In a +moment she came back. + +"I met James in the hall and sent him off in hot haste," she said. Her +tones showed that she had recovered the equanimity which the girl's +unexpected conduct had disturbed. She seated herself again with no less +complacency and with more deliberation than before. + +"I brought you up to be polite, Elizabeth," she said. "Things do +sometimes happen that are very trying, to be sure, but we should not +give way to irritation. Why, where should I have been if I had? Think +how it would have distressed your dear mother to have you show such +temper." + +The girl looked up sharply, looked down again, her hands moving faster +than ever, though everything grew indistinct to her for a minute. + +"Are you going with me?" she asked after a pause. + +"I? O, my dear child, you will not go at all this way. Perhaps it is as +well to pack up and show your dignity, but they will not let you go, you +know, your father's daughter, and all,--I told James to tell them,--it +would be shameful, I should never forgive them." + +"The question is whether they will ever forgive me, whether I have not +killed Katie. Sometimes I think of it only that way, and sometimes--." + +She was silent again and busy. Then all at once she stopped and walked +to the window. Her hands grasped the sash and she stood looking out at +the sky that had not gathered a cloud from all this darkness of her +life. At length she began to walk up and down as if every footstep took +her away from the house. + +"I always thought it must be a dreadful thing to marry a man you did not +want," she said speaking out her thoughts as if alone; "but to marry a +man who does not want you,--that is the most terrible thing in the +world. I have done both." And she covered her face with her hands. + +"Poor girl," answered Mrs. Eveleigh, "it _is_ hard. But you gave him as +good as he sent, that's a fact. Governor Wentworth spoke about it after +you left." Elizabeth had raised her head and was looking steadily at her +companion. "When young Archdale looked at you as he passed out, I mean," +she went on. "'Great Heavens!' cried the Governor, 'did you see that +exchange of looks, scorn and hatred on both sides, and they may be +husband and wife? The Lord pity them. And poor Katie!'" + +"He said that?" + +"Exactly that. Why, everybody noticed it, of course. What did you say?" +she added at a faint sound from her listener. + +"Nothing." + +And Elizabeth said nothing until ten minutes later when the sound of +wheels sent her to the window to see that a conveyance at least fairly +comfortable had been found for them. Her bonnet and wraps were already +on. + +"Are you coming?" she said to the other abruptly. "I shall start in five +minutes." + +"For Heaven's sake, more time, my dear. I have not changed my dress yet. +I suppose I cannot let you go alone, I should not feel happy about it, +and your father would never forgive me in the world." + +A half smile of contempt touched the girl's lips. Mrs. Eveleigh knew +what was for her own comfort too well to get herself out of Mr. Royal's +good graces, and not to be devoted to his daughter would have been to +him the unpardonable sin. But nobody would have been more astonished +than this same lady to be told that she had not a thoroughly +conscientious care of Elizabeth. She combined duty and interest as +skilfully as the most Cromwellian old Presbyter among her ancestors. + +In the hall Elizabeth met her hostess. + +"May I speak to Katie?" she asked timidly. + +Mrs. Archdale hesitated a moment, nodded in silence and went on to the +library, the girl following. Mr. Archdale was there, and the Colonel and +his wife. Stephen sat by the great chair in which Katie was propped, +holding her hand and sometimes speaking softly to her, or looking into +her face with eyes that gave no comfort. Elizabeth seemed to see no one +but her friend, she went up to the chair, and said to her softly, +pleadingly, + +"Good by, Katie." + +But Katie turned away her head. + +The door closed, Elizabeth had gone. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +FORECASTINGS. + + +Gerald Edmonson, Esquire, and Lord Bulchester drove leisurely through +the streets of the London of 1743. They found in it that same element +that makes the fascination of the London of to-day; for the streets, +dim, narrower, and less splendid than now, were full of this same charm +of human life, and yet, human isolation. Then, as now, might a man +wander homeless and lost, or these grim houses might open their doors to +him and reveal the splendors beyond them; and whether he were desolate, +or shone brilliant as a star depended upon so many chances and changes +that this Fortune's-Wheel drew him toward itself like a magnet. + +"I tell you," said Edmonson to his companion as they went along, "there +is not a shadow of a chance for me. When a woman says, 'no,' you can +tell by her eyes if she means it, and if there had been the least sign +of relenting or a possibility of it in Lady Grace's eyes, do you think I +would have given up? She has led me a sorry chase, that pretty sister of +yours." + +"Her beauty would not have taken you ten steps out of your way, if she +had not been such an heiress," retorted Bulchester. + +"Don't be so blunt, my friend. Is it my fault that I am obliged to look +out for money? If a man has only a tenth of the income he needs to live +upon, what is he going to do? It is well enough for you to be above +sordidness, so could I be with your purse and your prospects. Besides, +you know that I told you frankly I found Lady Grace charming. I wonder," +he asked turning sharply round, "if you have been playing me false?" + +But Bulchester laughed. A laugh at such a time, and a laugh so full of +simplicity and amusement brought the other to his bearings again. + +"You know I favored the match," added the nobleman. "Hang it! I don't +see why my sister could not have had my taste. She does not know all +your deviltries as I do, but yet I think you the most fascinating fellow +in England." + +"Perhaps that is the reason, because she does not know," laughed +Edmonson. "But, then, you have not been very far beyond England, except +to the land of the frog, and nobody expects to delight in the messieurs +anywhere but on the point of the bayonet, as we had them lately at +Dettengen." In a moment, however, he added gravely, "I am afraid my suit +to your sister has damaged my prospects in another quarter, at least the +matrimonial part of them, and I can hardly expect to be so successful +otherwise as to enable me to marry a lady whose face is her fortune." + +"Hardly, with your tastes," said Bulchester. "But, for my part, I am +glad that I can afford to be sentimental if I like. For that very reason +I shall probably be extremely sensible." + +Edmonson smiled, half in amusement, half in contempt. + +"Suppose the lady should be so too?" he asked slyly; then added, "I hope +she will, Bulchester, and take you. I don't know her name yet." + +"Nor I. But I don't want to consider only the rent-roll of the future +Lady Bulchester." + +"My lord, I shall be devotion itself to Mistress Edmonson, and I assure +you that the young lady I have chosen, I having failed to win your +adorable sister, is not a nonentity, though I cannot say that she is +charming. But you will see her. Her father was very gracious to me when +I was in Boston last winter, and regretted that I was obliged to leave +in the spring on affairs of importance. How was he to know, he or the +fair Elizabeth, that the business was a love suit? That would not have +done. The old gentleman would not think the king himself too good for +his daughter; if he dreamed that she was second fiddle, he would want me +to find the door faster than he could shew me there. So, if you fall in +love with her and want to supersede me, there's your chance." + +"I'm Jonathan to your David," returned the smaller man, "the kingdom is +for you, Edmonson." And the speaker looked at his companion with an +admiration that was deep in proportion as he felt himself unable to +imitate that mixture of good nature, strong will, and audacity that in +Edmonson fascinated him. "Is she handsome?" he added. + +"No," said the other decidedly. "She has a smile that lights up her face +well, and occasionally she says good things, but half the time in +company she seems not to be attending to what is going on about her, she +is away off in a dream about something that nobody cares a pin for, and +of course, it gives her a peculiar manner. I could see I interested her +more than anybody else did, but I had hard work sometimes to know how to +answer her queer sayings, for I could scarcely tell what she was talking +about." + +"You don't like that," suggested Bulchester. "You like ladies who lead +in society." + +"Well," assented Edmonson, "I know. But she will have to set up for an +oddity, and, you see, she has money enough to be able to afford it. A +fortune in her own right, and large expectations from the old gentleman +who began with money and has never made a bad investment in his life. +Think of it! Gerald Edmonson will keep open house and live rather +differently from at present in his bachelor quarters; and all his old +friends will be welcome." + +"What do you say to those we are going to meet to-night, who are to give +us our farewell supper; you would not ask a set like that to a lady's +table?" + +Edmonson laughed. + +"Why, and if I did," he answered, "Elizabeth Royal would never fathom +them. She might think they drank somewhat too much, and discover that +they were noisy; but as to the wild pranks we have played, yes, you and +I, Bulchester, I out of pure enjoyment of them, you, I do believe, more +than half not to be behind other men of fashion, why, you might tell +them to her safely, for she would never comprehend. One can't get along +so well with her on the little nothings one says to other women, to be +sure, but she has the greatest simplicity in the world, and that touch +of evil that spices life is entirely beyond her. But however that might +be, I tell you this, my lord: Gerald Edmonson is always master, and +always will be." + +"Yes," assented his hearer. + +"I only hope the extent of my impecuniosity will not cross the water +with me. I have never pretended to be rich, but I have said that my +expectations were excellent. So they are; for you know, Bulchester, the +heiress is not all my errand to these outlandish colonies. I have +expectations there. Rather strange ones, to be sure, so strange, and to +be come at so strangely, that if I can make anything out of them I shall +enjoy it a thousand times more than by any stupid old way of +inheritance." + +"It strikes me, though, you would not object to the stupid if a good +plum should fall down on your head from an ancestral tree." + +Edmonson laughed. + +"You have me there, Bul," he said. "But, on your honor, you are not to +betray my plans, or I have no chance at all," he added, suddenly facing +his companion. + +"What do you take me for, a traitor?" + +"No," exclaimed Edmonson with an oath. + +"For a tattler, then?" + +"No," came the answer again. "Only, inadvertence is sometimes as +mischievous in its results." + +"I, inadvertent?" cried Bulchester. + +His listener smiled slyly. The other felt that caution was his strong +point, and Edmonson's diplomacy would not assault this vigorously; his +aim had been merely to warn Bulchester and strengthen the defences. Soon +after this they reached the inn, where they were boisterously greeted by +their companions, who had been waiting for them in what was then one of +the fashionable public houses of London, though long since fallen out of +date and forgotten. + +"Don't be flattered," said Edmonson aside, "all this welcome is not for +us; the feast is to begin now that we have arrived." And a cynical smile +flashed over his handsome face. + +It was hours after this. The high revel had gone on with jest, and +laugh, and song, with play, too, and some purses were empty that before +had been none too well filled. Through it all Edmonson, the life of the +party, kept the control over himself that many had lost. There was no +credit due to him for the fact that he could drink more wine without +being overcome than any other man there. His face was flushed with it, +his eyes somewhat blood-shot and his fair hair disordered as, at last, +looking at his opposite neighbor, he nodded to him, leaned across the +table and touched glasses with him. Then, "Let us drink this toast +standing," he said, rising as he spoke; and at the movement ten other +young men, full of the effrontery of a long carousal, pushed back their +chairs noisily and rose, exclaiming in tones varying in degrees of +intoxication: + +"We pledge." + +"Yes," returned the man opposite Edmonson, repeating the pledge that +they all without exception would meet one hundred years from that night +to pledge each other again. + +A shout, more of drunken acquiescence than of comprehension went up in +chorus from all but one of the revelers; he held his glass silently a +moment, disposed to put it untasted on the table. + +"Bulchester's backing out," cried Edmonson giving him a scornful glance. + +"Oh, ho! Backing out!" echoed nine derisive voices. + +"We have made it too hot for him," called out Edmonson again. + +At which remark another shout arose, and the glasses were tossed off +with bravado, Bulchester's also being set down empty. + +After this the party broke up boisterously, Edmonson and Bulchester +receiving the good wishes of the company for their prosperous voyage. + +Leaving the inn, they went out into the night again, in which the +October moon veiled in clouds was doing its best to light the streets +now almost deserted. Bulchester looked with disapprobation at his +smiling companion. It was for the first time in their acquaintance, but +the compact into which the earl had so unwillingly entered had sobered +him, and was still ringing in his ears, giving him a sort of horror. He +said this to Edmonson, who burst out laughing. + +"A mere drunken freak, Bul, that counts for nothing. You will be an +angel sitting on a cold cloud singing psalms long before that time. I'll +warrant it. You are a good fellow. Don't bother your brains about such +nonsense." + +The third of November, Edmonson and Lord Bulchester sailed from +Liverpool in the "Ariel" for Boston. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +TWO WHO WOULD EXCHANGE PLACES. + + +The winds were baffling, and Edmonson and Lord Bulchester had a longer +voyage than they had counted upon. They found it tedious, and it was +with satisfaction that they at last set foot on land and drove through +the streets of Boston to the Royal Exchange. Edmonson's projects +inspired him rather than made him anxious. It was, of course, possible +that Elizabeth Royal might refuse him, but in his heart he had the +attitude of a Londoner toward provincials and was not burdened with +doubts as to the result of his wooing, and so the one necessary grain of +uncertainty only gave flavor to the whole affair. + +A few hours after his arrival he left the house to try his fortune. + +"I may not be home until late," he said to Bulchester. "I shall tackle +pater-familias first, then the young lady herself. It is possible they +will invite me to tea, you know. Don't wait for me if you find anything +to do or anywhere to go in this puritanical hole." And the young man, in +all the tasteful splendor of attire that the times allowed, closed the +door behind him and left Lord Bulchester looking at the oaken panels +which had suddenly taken the place in which his friend had been +standing, and seeing, not these, but Edmonson's fine figure and his bold +smile. + +"No woman can resist his wooing," the nobleman said to himself with a +sigh at the thought of his own indifferent appearance. Therefore it was +with amazement that two hours later coming home from a stroll he learned +that the other had returned, and going to his room found him prone on +the sofa. + +"Why! What is the--," he began, then checked himself, considering that +since only failure could be the matter, this was hardly a generous +question. + +"Headache," growled Edmonson. "No," he cried with an oath, "that is a +lie," and springing up, turned blood-shot eyes upon his companion. "I am +mad, Bulchester," he cried, "raving mad. It is all over with me in that +quarter." + +"She has refused you? Or the father has?" + +"Hang it! they couldn't do anything else, either of them. I did not see +Mistress Royal, Mistress Archdale, rather. Yes, married!" as Bulchester +echoed the name. "There's been an interesting drama with one knave and +two fools. If I could only catch the knave! Perhaps it is as well to let +the fools go, since I can't help it." He was silent a moment. Then after +a moment he added. "Well! what is the use of cursing one's luck?" "There +are several others I know of doing the same thing at this moment, and I +like to be original. I declare, if he didn't stand in my way, I should +be tempted to pity young Archdale. He wishes himself in my shoes as +much, and I suspect a good deal more, than I do myself in his. I don't +wonder that the young lady keeps herself retired for a time. I did not +see her, as I told you. Mr. Royal made as light of the matter as +possible, merely saying that something which might prove to have been a +real marriage ceremony, though he thought not, had taken place in a joke +between his daughter and Stephen Archdale, that the matter was to be +thoroughly investigated at once, and if it turned out that Elizabeth was +not Mistress Archdale, I had his permission to receive her answer from +her own lips. He was guarded enough; but on the way home I met Clinton +who had been one of the guests at Mistress Katie's attempted wedding +last week. He gave me details. Here they are." And these details lost +nothing through Edmonson's racy recital of them. "No, Bulchester," he +finished, "out of six people that I could name mixed up in this affair, +on the whole, I am the best off." + +"Six?" + +"Yes; counting in the love-lorn Waldo; that knave Harwin, who ought to +swing for it; the poor little bride that lost her bridegroom; and the +bridegroom; the young lady that got him when she didn't want him, and +missed me, whom, perhaps (without too much vanity) she did want a +little; and last on the list of wounded spirits, your humble servant. +How wise that man was who said that one sinner destroyed much good. By +the way, Bulchester, who was he? It is an excellent thing to quote in +regard to this affair, and I should like to know where it comes from." + +An anxious expression crossed the other's face as he cried: + +"Good heavens! Edmonson, if you go to quoting the Bible and asking where +the quotation comes from, you will get into awful disgrace with this +strictest-sect-of-our-religion people, and then what will become of the +other scheme that is bound to pull through?" + +"True, most sapient counsellor, and I will be on my guard. To show how I +profit by your sageness, let us drop all thought of this royal maiden +who is probably out of my reach, and attend to the other business. It is +good to have a sympathetic friend, Bul." + +They talked for nearly an hour after this, but not about Edmonson's +wooing. When Bulchester left, the other sat looking after him a moment. + +"Yes," he said to himself, "it is well to have a sympathetic creature +like that sometimes, but not if one tell him all his heart. I hid my +rage well, I passed it off for mere spleen. But we are not a race to get +over things in that way. It is hate, _hate_, I say," And he ground his +teeth, and again threw himself upon the sofa his face downward and +buried in his hands as if he were meditating deeply. + +Edmonson told his friend of having met one of the guests at Katie +Archdale's wedding, but he did not say to him that coming out of Mr. +Royal's house and walking quickly down the street, he had met the +bridegroom himself, and had returned Archdale's bow with a politeness +equally cold, while anger had leaped up within him. Was Archdale going +to call upon his wife? + +Stephen Archdale had come to Boston to collect whatever facts he could +about Harwin, and about the places and the people that the confession +referred to. Nothing was farther from his thoughts than any such visit. +It was his wish that Elizabeth and himself need never meet again, and he +knew that it was hers. Indeed, so far from thinking of the woman who was +perhaps his wife, he was living over again the glimpse he had had of the +one from whom he had been separated. Three days ago he had taken his gun +early in the morning and had gone out hunting, made more miserable than +before by something he had perceived in his father's mind. The Colonel +was not in sympathy with him; he was consoling himself that, after all, +Elizabeth Royal was a richer woman than Katie Archdale. At his light +insinuation of this to his son, the young man had flamed out into a heat +of passion and declared that one golden hair of Katie's head was worth +both Elizabeth and her fortune. He had rushed out of the house with the +wish for destroying something in his mind. As he stopped in the hall to +snatch his gun, the flintlock caught, and tore a hole in the tapestry +hanging. He saw it, pushed the great stag's antlers that the gun had +been swung on a little aside, and covered the torn place. Then he forgot +the accident almost as soon as this was done, left the house and went +striding over the fields, not so much to chase the foxes, as to be +alone. And when that point was gained he would have gone a step further +if he could and escaped from himself also. But he was only all the more +with his own thoughts as he wandered aimlessly through great stretches +of pine trees with the light snow of the night before still white on +their lower boughs, except when in some opening it had melted into +dewdrops in the December sun, and still clung to the trees, ready when +the sun had passed by them towards its setting to turn into filmy +icicles. The sky was brilliant; the long winter already upon the earth +smiled gently, as if to say that its reign would be mild. Stephen went +along so much preoccupied that only the baying of his hound made him +notice the light fox-prints by the roadside. Then the instinct of the +hunter stirred within him, and he followed on, listening now and then to +the distant bark while pursued and the pursuer were going farther away. +He waited, knowing fox nature well and that there were a hundred chances +to one that the creature would come back near the spot from which it was +started. As he waited close by the road which here led through the +woods, two men passed along it without seeing him. They were talking as +they went. Stephen knew them; one was an old man who used to be a +servant in the family when Colonel Archdale was a boy. He had married +long ago and was now living in a little house not far from his old home. +The young man with him was his son. Stephen was in no mood even for a +passing word, and he stood still, perceiving that a clump of bushes hid +him. A few sentences of the conversation reached him through the +stillness, but it meant nothing to him; he was not conscious even of +listening until Katie's name caught his ear. They were talking of this +marriage then, as every body was; he was the gossip of the very +servants. But his attention once caught was held until the speakers +passed out of hearing. Surely they knew nothing about the matter that he +did not. + +"She is such a pretty young lady," said the elder man, "and any girl +would feel it to miss the handsome young master for a husband." + +"Um!" assented the son. "Well, I suppose she will miss the sight of him +if her heart is set upon him, but there is many a young man nicer to my +thinking, and not so proud in his ways." + +"Has he ever been unjust or overbearing to you, Nathan?" inquired the +old man severely. + +"Oh, no, he has been uncommonly civil, he would think it beneath him to +be anything else. I know the cut of him; if he had any spite he would +take it out on a gentleman. He thinks we are made of different clay from +him." And the embryo republican threw back his shoulders impatiently. + +"So we are," returned the other, with the Englishman's ingrained belief +in caste; "but, to be sure, you feel it with some more than with others, +with the young man more than with his father. But I like it better than +the softly way the Colonel has. Stephen is more like his grandfather." + +"His grandfather!" echoed the son. "Why, he was a--." + +"Hush!" cried the other so suddenly and sharply that if the word had +been, uttered at all Stephen lost it, though, now he was listening +eagerly enough. "Do you remember you swore that you would never speak +that word?" + +"Well," returned the young man in a sullen tone, "if I did, what harm in +saying it here with not a soul but you around? And my feeling is," he +went on, "that this broken-off wedding is a judgment for his +grandfather's--." He hesitated. + +"When you learned it by accident, Nathan," returned his father, "you +swore to satisfy me, that you would never speak the word in connection +with him. Who knows what person may be round?" And he glanced cautiously +about him. Stephen half resolved to confront him and force him to tell +this secret. But the very quality in himself which the men had been +discussing held him back until the opportunity had passed. "No, I don't +want you to name it at all, Nathan. That is what you swore," continued +the old man. + +"You have said enough about it," retorted the younger. "I will keep my +word, of course; you know that." His tone was loud with anger. + +"Yes, yes, I know," said his companion, "But, you see, I was fond of the +young master if he was a bit wild; he was a fine, free gentleman, though +he changed very much after this--this accident and his coming over to +the Colonies, which wasn't no ways suited to him like London, only he +found it a good place to get rich in. You see, Nathan, it all happened +this way; he told me about it his own self with tears in his eyes, as I +might say, for his family,--he--." + +But it was in vain that Stephen strained his ears, the voices that had +not been drowned in the noise of footsteps had been growing fainter with +distance, and now were lost altogether. + +So there had been something in the family, thought Stephen, that he knew +nothing about, something that his grandfather had done which this man, +the son of his grandfather's butler, considered had brought down +vengeance on Katie and himself as the grandchildren. The very suggestion +oppressed him in this land of the Puritans, although he told himself +that he believed neither in the vengeance nor even in the crime itself. +But he had not dreamed of anything, anything at all, which had even +shadowed the fair fame of the Archdales. Did his father know of it? +Nothing that Stephen had ever seen in him looked like such knowledge, +but that did not make the son quite sure, for the old butler's remark +about the Colonel's suavity was just; his elaborate manners made Stephen +almost brusque at times, and aroused a secret antagonism in both, so +that they sometimes met one another with armor on, and Stephen's keen +thrust would occasionally penetrate the shield which his father +skilfully interposed between that and some fact. + +That morning Stephen sank down upon a rock near by while his mind ranged +over his recollections to find some clue to this mystery. But he found +none. He was sure that his grandfather had never been referred to as +being connected with anything secret, still less, disgraceful, or +perhaps criminal. It was impossible to imagine where the old butler's +idea came from, but it could not be founded upon truth. Yet, this snatch +of talk which Stephen had heard made him curious and uncomfortable. And +he knew that he must resign himself to feeling so; he could ask his +father, to be sure, but he would get no satisfaction out of that; either +the Colonel did not know, or, evidently he had resolved that there +should seem to be nothing to tell. After all, it did not matter very +much. His thoughts came back to his own position with almost wonder that +anything could have drawn them away from it. While he sat there the +baying of the hound drew nearer, and suddenly a rabbit started up from +a bush on his right. He raised his gun, but instantly lowered it again. +He had not moved, so it had not been he that had startled the rabbit, +but the larger game that was following it. The little creature scampered +away, and in another moment the fox which his dog had started ran past +him. Again he raised his gun and took aim with a hand accustomed to +bring down what he sighted. But to-day the gun dropped once more at his +side, for here was a creature that wanted its life, that was straining +for it. "Let him have the worthless gift if he values it," thought +Archdale, feeling that the gun had better have been turned the other way +in his hands. The fox disappeared after the rabbit, and in another +moment Stephen rose with a sneer at himself, and turned toward home. +Evidently, he could accomplish nothing that day, matters must have gone +hard with him to make him lose even the nerve of a hunter. He whistled +to his dog, but the hound had no intention of giving up the chase as his +master had done, and rushed past in full cry. The young man left him to +follow home at his pleasure, and walked along the road with a sombre +face. Soon the sound of distant bells reached him. A minute after a +sleigh appeared coming toward him from the vanishing point of the road +that here ran straight through the woods for some distance. It made no +difference to Stephen who was in the sleigh. As it came nearer and +nearer he never even glanced at it, until as it was passing, some +instinct, or perhaps eyes fixed upon him, made him look up. He started, +stopped, bowed low, took off his fur cap with deference, holding it in +his hand until the sleigh had gone slowly by. Then he turned and stood +looking after it, the flush that had come suddenly to his face fading +away as his eyes followed Katie Archdale's figure until it was lost to +sight. He could see her clinging to her father's arm; he seemed to see +her face before him for days, her face pale and sad, and so lovely. +Neither had spoken. Mr. Archdale had not waited; what had they to say? +Stephen had not really wished it; every thought was deeper than speech, +and probably Katie, too, had preferred to go on. And yet to pass in this +way--it was like their lives. + +That afternoon he started for Boston. It was doing something. Edmonson +who met him just arrived, need not have feared that he was going to +Elizabeth. He was in the city only to prove that the frolic of that +summer evening had been frolic merely, and that he was still free to +follow that charming face that had passed him by, so reluctantly, he +knew, in the woods. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + * * * * * + +WENDELL PHILLIPS. + + +While delivering an address in Faneuil Hall, in 1875, the late +distinguished Wendell Phillips declared that he had never cast a ballot +in his life. + +Such a confession, coming from the liberty-loving champion of the rights +and freedom of all people, was not a little startling. + +Months later he was requested to explain what seemed to be a serious +inconsistency, as bearing on the question--how can an American citizen +wilfully refrain from the high prerogative of exercising his right and +duty to vote? + +The following is a copy of his letter stating the reason why he had not +voted. + +The letter hitherto has never been made public. It is of historical +value. + + 7 Aug't '76. + + DEAR SIR: + + I am in receipt of your kind note. This is the explanation: + Premising that I entirely agree with you as to the transcendant + importance of the vote and the duty of every citizen to use it--to + let no slight obstacle prevent his voting. + + The few years after I came of age I was moving about and it + happened, curiously enough, that I never lived in one town long + enough to get the vote there and never could be, at the proper + time, in the town where I had the right. + + Then soon I became an abolitionist and conscientiously refused to + vote or accept citizenship under a constitution which ordered the + return of fugitive slaves. + + The XVth. amendment was the first release from this bar, as I + judged. Since that, I have never voted but once. Absence from the + city &c prevented my doing so. _I should have taken special care_ + to be at home if living in a ward where my vote would have availed + anything, or if candidates were such as I could trust. + + Truly, + + WENDELL PHILLIPS. + + * * * * * + +EASY CHAIR. + +BY ELBRIDGE H. GOSS. + + +This is an age of magazines. Every guild, every issue, has its monthly +or quarterly. If a new athletic exercise should be evolved to-morrow, a +new magazine, in its interest, would follow; and there seems to be a +field for every new venture. + +Among our older magazines, Harper's "New Monthly" still pursues its +popular course. In June, 1850, I bought the first number, and from that +day to this it has been one of my household treasures. A complete set, +sixty nine (69) volumes, forms a most excellent library in itself; a +fair compendium of the world's history for the last thirty odd years. +Story, essay, and event, has filled these sixty thousand pages. In +October, 1851, the department called the "Editor's Easy Chair," was +established by Donald G. Mitchell, the genial "Ik: Marvel." Here are his +first words: + +"After our more severe Editorial work is done--the scissors laid in our +drawer, and the monthly record, made as full as our pages will bear, of +history--we have a way of throwing ourselves back into an old red-back +_Easy Chair_, that has long been an ornament of our dingy office, and +indulging in an easy, and careless overlook of the gossiping papers of +the day, and in such chit chat with chance visitors, as keeps us +informed of the drift of the towntalk, while it relieves greatly the +monotony of our office hours." Here is the well remembered flavor of the +"Reveries of a Bachelor" and "Dream-Life"! + +A year or so afterward, George William Curtis became a co-writer of a +part of the articles for this department, and soon after he became the +sole occupant of the now famous "Easy Chair;" and each month, as +regularly as the appearance of the magazine itself, these very +interesting, most readable, and instructive notelets upon the current +topics of the time have appeared. Their pure style, graceful and +delicate humor, and the vast range of culture and observation, give them +a distinctively personal characteristic. He would have made one of our +first novelists; but he has chosen to give the strength of his powers to +journalism, and the study of political affairs. + +It is safe to say that each number of the magazine has had an average of +at least five pages of "Easy Chair," making very nearly or quite two +thousand (2,000) pages in all; or a quantity more than sufficient to +fill two and a half volumes of the sixty nine (69) thus far issued, each +volume containing eight hundred and sixty four (864) pages. Before +beginning to write these delectable tid-bits, he had published "Nile +notes of a Howadji," "The Howadji in Syria," and "Lotus Eating;" soon +after appeared "Potiphar Papers," "Prue and I," and "Tramps." For twenty +years he was constantly on the lecture platform; and for twenty one +years he has been the political editor of "Harper's Weekly." Although +offered missions to the courts of England and Germany, and other +positions of trust and honor, he never accepted; his nearest approach to +the holding of any political office was the accepting of an appointment, +for a while, of the chairmanship of the "Civil Service Advisory Board." +As has been well said by George Parsons Lathrop, "The idea often occurs +to one that he, more than any one else, continues the example which +Washington Irving set: an example of kindliness and good nature blended +with indestructible dignity, and a delicately imaginative mind +consecrating much of its energy to public service." + +As for the "Easy Chair," with me, its leaves are first cut in each fresh +number; and while enjoying the last one, I wondered why some deft hand +had not culled some of the choicest specimens, and that the Harpers had +not given them to the world in a volume by themselves. They are most +certainly worthy of it. A few passages taken here and there, from these +rich fields, will prove this assertion. The subjects treated in the +whole "Easy Chair" number nearly or quite twenty-five hundred +(2,500),--reminiscences of Emerson and Longfellow--first presentation of +a new Oratorios--a celebrated painting--the visit of a Lord Chief +Justice of England,--a vast range of topics. Consult the nine closely +printed octavo pages of their titles in the "Index to the first Sixty +Volumes"--from "Abbott, Commodore, xiii. 271," to "Zurich, University +of, xlviii. 443," and one will be amazed at the great number and variety +of themes upon which the "Easy Chair" has had its say. And it would seem +that its occupant has had some similar thoughts to these, for, in a +recent number there is a retrospective glance--a wondering as to what +future generations may have to say, and wish to know regarding matters +and things of this generation about which it has discoursed: + +"The Easy Chair, mindful of posterity, and of that future loiterer in +the retired alcoves of coming libraries who will turn to the pages of an +old magazine to catch some glimpse of the daily aspect and the homely +fact of our day, which will be then a kind of quaint remembrance, like +the 'Augustan age' of Anne to Victorian epoch, puts here upon record for +his unborn reader--whom he salutes with hope and Godspeed--that the +winter of 1883-4 in the city of New York was a gray and gloomy season +almost beyond precedent, during which the persistent fogs and mists +appeared half to have obliterated the sun." + +Here are a few excerpts which may be called "Gems for the Easy Chair;" +but those given are no better than thousands of others that are +scattered through these many volumes. + +A Madonna. Once in Dresden the Easy Chair climbed into a little room +where an engraver was finishing a picture which is now famous. He had +worked long and faithfully upon it. It was truly a work of love, and it +had cost him his most precious and essential possession for his art--his +eyesight. The engraver was Steinla, and the picture was the Madonna di +Sisto.... It can be seen only by those who go to Dresden. Among pictures +there is none more justly famous, and the devoted engraver toiled long +and patiently, and at such enormous sacrifice to re-produce it, so far +as lines could do it, from the same love and instinct that produced the +picture. + + * * * * * + +PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. + +NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. + + +MIDDLESEX COUNTY MANUAL. By CHARLES COWLEY. LL.D. Penhallow Printing +Company, Lowell, Mass. + +In this handy volume, the "Historical Sketch of the County of +Middlesex," Judge Cowley has made a valuable contribution to the +recorded history of our Commonwealth. He has traced in a clear and +concise manner the important events of Middlesex County from 1643, the +year of its incorporation, down to Shay's Rebellion. + + +REMINISCENCES OF JAMES COOK AVER AND THE TOWN OF AVER. By CHARLES +COWLEY, LL.D. + +This work is one of many for which the public are indebted to Judge +Cowley. It presents many facts of great historical value, and in the +usual pungent and agreeable style of their author. + + +SHOPPELL'S BUILDING PLANS FOR MODERN LOW COST HOUSES. The Co-operative +Building Plan Association, New York. Price, 50 cents. + +This book contains a mass of information to builders and would-be _home +owners_. Its many and varied plans are for the construction of neat, +comfortable and very attractive buildings at very reasonable cost. + + * * * * * + +CORRECTION. + +In the sketch of Saugus in the December number of the BAY STATE MONTHLY, +line 14, on page 149, should read "as early as 1828" instead of +1848.--E.P.R. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bay State Monthly, Vol. II. 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