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diff --git a/old/69679-0.txt b/old/69679-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 53212b0..0000000 --- a/old/69679-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6313 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Wessagusset and Weymouth, by Charles -Francis Adams - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Wessagusset and Weymouth - -Authors: Charles Francis Adams - Gilbert Nash - Charles Francis Adams III - -Release Date: January 1, 2023 [eBook #69679] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Steve Mattern and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team - at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images - generously made available by The Internet Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WESSAGUSSET AND -WEYMOUTH *** - - - - - - [No. 3.] - - WEYMOUTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY. - - WESSAGUSSET AND WEYMOUTH, - - AN HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY - - CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, JR., - - DELIVERED AT WEYMOUTH, JULY 4, 1874, ON THE OCCASION OF THE - CELEBRATION OF THE TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH - ANNIVERSARY OF THE PERMANENT - SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWN. - - - WEYMOUTH IN ITS FIRST TWENTY YEARS, - - A PAPER READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY BY - - GILBERT NASH, - - NOVEMBER 1, 1882. - - - WEYMOUTH THIRTY YEARS LATER, - - A PAPER READ BY - - CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, - - BEFORE THE - - WEYMOUTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY, - - SEPTEMBER 23, 1904. - - - PUBLISHED BY - THE WEYMOUTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY. - 1905. - - - SINE - LABORE - NIHIL - - T.R. MARVIN & SON - PRINTERS - - BOSTON - MASS. - - ESTABL. - 1823. - - - - - CONTENTS. - - - WESSAGUSSET AND WEYMOUTH 5 - - WEYMOUTH’S FIRST TWENTY YEARS 87 - - WEYMOUTH THIRTY YEARS LATER 114 - - INDEX 157 - - APPENDIX 164 - - - - - HISTORICAL ADDRESS - - BY - - CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, JR., - - JULY 4, 1874. - - -Full in sight of the spot where we are now gathered,--almost at the -foot of King-Oak Hill,--stands that portion of the ancient town of -Weymouth, known from time immemorial as the village of Old Spain. -When or why it was first so called is wholly unknown,--scarcely a -tradition even remains to suggest to us an origin of the name. None -the less Old Spain well deserved a portion at least of that familiar -title, for, next to the town of Plymouth, it is the oldest settlement -in Massachusetts. And when we speak of the oldest settlements in -Massachusetts, we speak of communities which may fairly lay claim to -a very respectable degree of antiquity; not of the greatest, it is -true, for all antiquity is relative, and that of America scarcely -deserves the name by the side of what England has to show; but what -is the antiquity of England compared with that of Rome?--and Rome, -again, seems young and crude when we speak of Greece; while even those -who fought upon the ringing plains of windy Troy are but as prattling -children in presence of the hoary age of the Pharaohs. The settlement -of Old Spain and of Weymouth is, therefore, ancient only as things -American are ancient; but still two hundred and fifty years of time -carry us back to events and men which seem sufficiently remote. When -the first European made his home in Old Spain,--when the earliest rude -hut was framed on yonder north shore of Phillips Creek,--the modern -world in which we live was just assuming shape. Few now realize how -little of that which makes up the vast accumulated store of human -possessions which we have inherited from our fathers--which to us -is as the air we breathe,--had then existence. The Reformation was -then young,--Luther and Calvin and Erasmus were men of yesterday; -the life-and-death struggle with Catholicism still tortured eastern -Europe. The thirty years’ war in Germany was just commenced, and the -youthful Gustavus Adolphus had yet to win his spurs. The blood of St. -Bartholomew was but half a century old, and the murder of Henry IV. -was as near to the men of 1622 as is that of Abraham Lincoln to us. -The great Cardinal-Duke was then organizing modern France; Charles I. -had not yet ascended the English throne; Hampden was a young country -gentleman, and Oliver Cromwell an unpretending English squire. While -men still believed that the sun moved round the earth, Galileo and -Kepler were gradually ascertaining those laws which guide the planets -in their paths; Bacon was meditating his philosophy; Don Quixote was a -newly published work, with a local reputation; and Milton, not yet a -Cambridge pensioner, was making his first essays at verse. Shakespeare -had died but six years before, and, indeed, the first edition of his -plays did not appear until the very year in which Weymouth was settled. -Thus, in 1622, our world of literature, of science, almost of history, -was yet to be created. Hardly a single volume of our current English -literature was then in existence, and people might well con their -Bibles, for, in the English tongue, there was little else to read. - -Meanwhile the North American continent was an unbroken wilderness, -with here and there, few and far between, from the St. Lawrence to -the Gulf, scattered specks of struggling civilization, hundreds of -leagues apart, dotting the skirts of the green, primeval forest. -It was at not the least famous of these scattered specks,--at the -neighboring town of Plymouth,--that the history of Weymouth opened on -a day towards the latter part of the month of May, in the year 1622. -The little colony had then been established in its new home some -seventeen months. They had just struggled through their second winter, -and now, sadly reduced in number, with supplies wholly exhausted, and -sorely distressed in spirit, the Pilgrims were anxiously looking for -the arrival of some ship from England. The Mayflower had left them, -starting on her homeward voyage a year before, and once only during -their weary sojourn, in the month of the previous November, had these -homesick wanderers on the sandy Plymouth shores been cheered by any -tidings from the living world. On this particular day, however, the -whole settlement was alive with excitement. There had been great -trouble with the neighboring Indians, and the magistrates were on the -point of delivering one of them up to the emissaries of his sachem -to be put to death, when suddenly a boat was seen to cross the mouth -of the bay and disappear behind the next headland.[1] There had been -rumors of trouble between the English and the French, and the first -idea of the settlers was that some connection existed between the -sachem’s emissaries and those on board the boat. The delivery of the -prisoner was consequently deferred. At the same time, a shot was fired -as a signal, in response to which the boat changed her course, and -came into the bay. When at last it touched the shore it was found to -contain ten persons, who announced themselves as being in the service -of one Mr. Thomas Weston, a London merchant, well known to the elders -of Plymouth. They were cordially welcomed with a salute of three -volleys of musketry, and thus finished a somewhat dangerous voyage.[2] -It appeared they had been dispatched from England some months before, -on board a vessel named the Sparrow, which belonged to Mr. Weston, and -was bound to the fishing grounds off the coast of Maine: they were, in -fact, the forerunners of a larger party which Weston was organizing in -London, with the design of establishing a trading settlement somewhere -on the shores of Massachusetts Bay. They brought with them letters to -the Plymouth magistrates, but they were wholly unprovided with either -food or outfit. The Sparrow was one of the fishing fleet which yearly -visited those waters, and apparently Weston’s plan had been for these -people to leave her near the Damariscove Islands, and thence to find -their way by sea to Plymouth, examining the coast as they went along -with a view to settlement. There was something curiously reckless in -the methods of those old explorers. Weston himself afterwards sought to -reach Plymouth in the same way, and encountered many strange adventures -by sea and land before he got there. In the present case his messengers -do not appear either to have been seafaring men, or especially selected -for the work they had to do. It was not until they were actually -leaving the Sparrow for their voyage of one hundred and fifty miles -in the North Atlantic that they seemed to realize their own utter -helplessness, and the extreme vagueness of their errand. Fortunately -for them, however, the mate of that vessel was a daring fellow, and -volunteered to venture his life as their pilot. They accordingly set -sail in their shallop, skirting along the coast. They touched at the -Isle of Shoals and at Cape Ann, and thence they ran for Boston harbor, -where they passed some four or five days exploring. They selected -the southerly side of the bay as the best place for the proposed -settlement, as in these parts there seemed to be the fewest natives, -and made a bargain with the sachem Aberdecest for what land they -needed;[3] but, getting uneasy at the smallness of their number, they -determined to go to Plymouth, in hopes of getting news of the larger -enterprise. Disappointed in this, they landed to await events. The -shallop, accompanied by a Plymouth boat in search of supplies, returned -to the fishing fleet, and its seven passengers were, for the time -being, incorporated with the colony, and fared no worse than others. - -Meanwhile Mr. Weston had organized his larger expedition, and it was -already on the sea, having sailed from London about the 1st of April. -Thus Thomas Weston played a very prominent part in the early settlement -of Weymouth, as he had already done in that of Plymouth. He was -always called a merchant, but in fact he was a pure sixteenth century -adventurer of the Smith and Raleigh stamp,--a man whose brain teemed -with schemes for the deriving of sudden gain from the settlement of -the new continent. We first get sight of him in Leyden in connection -with the Pilgrim fathers,--the treasurer, the representative, the -active, moving spirit of the company of Merchant Adventurers of -London, who then were looking for the material with which to effect a -settlement within the Virginia patent. Mr. Treasurer Weston had some -acquaintance with the Leyden exiles, and, knowing how dissatisfied -they were with their experience in Holland, he had pitched on them as -the best material for the work in hand. They were then negotiating with -the Dutch government for a grant of lands in what is now New York. -Weston persuaded them to abandon this scheme, promising them, on the -part of his associates, aid, both in money and in shipping. When the -Speedwell arrived at Southampton from Delfthaven, bearing the fortunes -of the little colony between its decks, it was Weston who came down -from London to arrange the last details of the adventure. But the -meeting was not a propitious one. The parties fell out as to certain -alterations proposed to the original agreement between them, and Weston -returned to London, telling the emigrants as a parting word that they -must expect no further aid from him. Out of this disagreement grew -the scheme of another and independent settlement. Weston apparently -concluded that he had made a mistake in his choice of agents. A -mere adventurer, he looked only to pecuniary results. The return -of the Mayflower in the spring of 1621 without a cargo was a great -disappointment to him, and he did not delay writing to the struggling -settlers that a good return cargo by the next ship was absolutely -essential to the life of the enterprise. They did make an effort, -therefore, to load the Fortune with such articles as the country -afforded, but before the venture reached England Weston had abandoned -the Plymouth colony in disgust, sold out his interest in the Merchant -Adventurers’ company and was already meditating his new and rival -enterprise. He cared more for beaver-skins in hand than for empires -hereafter, and the Plymouth people appeared to him to discourse and -argue and consult when they should have been trading.[4] His confidence -in the success of a trading post on Massachusetts Bay was not shaken, -but he shared in the general belief of the day that families were an -incumbrance in a well organized plantation, and that a settlement made -up of able-bodied men only could do more in New England in seven years -than in Old England in twenty.[5] On this principle he organized his -expedition, which, towards the close of April, 1622, set sail in two -vessels, the Charity of one hundred tons and the Swan of thirty. It -went under the charge of Weston’s brother-in-law, one Richard Greene, -and was made up of the roughest material, miscellaneously picked up -in the streets and on the docks of London; among them, however, there -was one surgeon, a Mr. Salisbury, and a lawyer from Furnival’s Inn, -afterwards very notorious in early colonial annals, one Thomas Morton, -better known as Morton of Merry Mount.[6] Such as they were, however, -they safely landed at Plymouth towards the end of June,--some sixty -stout fellows, without apparently the remotest idea why they had come -or what they had come to do. Naturally the old settlers did not look -upon them as a very desirable accession to the colony, especially -as they early evinced a disinclination to all honest labor and an -extremely well developed appetite for green corn.[7] Having landed -them, the larger ship sailed for Virginia, and during her absence -preparations were completed for removing the party to the site selected -for its operations at Wessagusset, as Weymouth was then called. In the -course of a few weeks the ship returned, the healthy members of the -expedition were taken on board and sailed for Boston Bay. The Plymouth -people saw them disappear with much satisfaction, and expressed no -desire to have them return. - -It was August before the party reached its permanent quarters. There -is no record of the exact spot on which they placed their settlement, -but a very general tradition assigns it to the north side of Phillips -Creek[8]. Not improbably there was a better draught of water in that -inlet than now; but it is well established that the locality was to -the south of the Fore River, and the very sheltered character of the -creek would naturally have suggested it to the explorers for the -object they had in view. But wherever the exact locality may have -been, the adventurers found themselves towards the end of September -sufficiently established in it to let the larger ship, the Charity, -return to England. The smaller one, the Swan, had been designed for -the use of the plantation,--it was indeed the chief item of their -stock in trade,--and it now remained moored in Weymouth River. The -Charity had left the party fairly supplied for the winter,[9] but they -were a wasteful, improvident set, and they were hardly left to their -own devices before they were made to realize that they had already -squandered most of their resources, though the winter was not yet -begun. They accordingly bethought themselves of the people of Plymouth, -and wrote to Governor Bradford proposing a trading voyage on joint -account in search of corn,--they offering to supply the vessel while -the Plymouth people were to furnish the quick capital needed, in the -shape of articles of barter. The offer was accepted, and in October the -expedition set out, with Standish in command and the Indian Squanto -acting as guide. The intention was to weather the cape and trade along -the south coast, but they were driven back by adverse winds, and then -Standish fell sick of a fever and had to give up the command. Governor -Bradford took his place and again the Swan started out; but it was -November now, and the back side of Cape Cod shewed a rougher sea than -they cared to face, so they prudently put about and ran into Sandwich -Bay. Here Squanto, the Indian guide, fell sick and died, bequeathing -his few effects to his English friends and praying that he might find -rest with the Englishman’s God.[10] Here and elsewhere, however, the -partners secured some twenty-six or twenty-eight hogsheads of corn and -beans, and with that were fain to return. An equal division was made, -and the Swan again came to her moorings in Weymouth Fore River. - -The relief she brought with her was, however, only temporary; disorder -and waste in that settlement were chronic. Greene had died in Plymouth -while they were preparing for the trading voyage, and a man named -Sanders had succeeded him in control. Either he was incompetent or his -people were very hard to manage; but, in either case, the squandering -of the supplies continued, and the prudent Plymouth settlers complained -that, through improvident dealings with the Indians, their neighbors -ruined the market, giving for a quart of corn what before would have -bought a beaver-skin.[11] At length, however, about the beginning of -the New Year, the Wessagusset plantation found itself face to face -with dire want. The hungry settlers bartered with the Indians, giving -everything they had for food; they even stripped the clothes from -their backs and the blankets from their beds. They made canoes for the -savages, and, for a mere pittance of corn, became their hewers of wood -and drawers of water.[12] During that long and dreary winter they must -heartily have wished themselves back in the slums of London. Weymouth -Fore River, in that season, must then have been very much what we so -well know it to be now. Doubtless the cold tide ebbed and flowed before -the rude block-house, now lifting on its bosom huge heaps of frozen -snow and ice, and then again bearing them in great unsightly blocks -swiftly out to sea. The frost was in the ground; the snow was on it. -So, through the long, hard, savage winter, those seventy poor hungry -wretches shivered around their desolate habitations, or straggled about -among the neighboring wigwams in search of food. Their ammunition was -nearly exhausted so that they could not kill the game. They ransacked -the woods in search of nuts; and they followed out the tide, digging -in the flats for clams and muscles. But, insufficiently supplied with -clothes, they could not endure the winter’s cold in this slow search -for food, and one poor fellow while grubbing for shell-fish sank into -the mud, and, being too reduced to drag himself out, was there found -dead,--an end to his adventures. In all ten perished.[13] - -In their necessities they had made the fatal mistake of degrading -themselves before the savages. In their utmost needs the Plymouth -people had always borne themselves defiantly to the Indian; making him -feel himself in presence of a superior. It was not so at Wessagusset. -The settlers there alternately cringed before the Indian and abused -him; and he, seeing them so poor and weak and helpless, first grew to -despise and then to oppress them. Naturally, starving men of their -description had recourse to theft, and there was no one to steal from -but the Indians; so the Indians found their hidden stores of corn -disturbed and knew just where to look for the thieves. This led to -a bitter feeling among the savages, and some who were detected were -punished in their sight. But with men like these, punishment was a less -terror than starvation, and the depredations and complaints continued. -The Indians would no longer either lend or sell them food; and, indeed, -it did not appear that they had any to spare.[14] Finally, in their -utter desperation, the settlers thought of having recourse to violence, -and made ready their stockade to resist the attack, sure to ensue, by -closing every entrance into it save one. They were hardly prepared, -however, to go to such extremes as this, relying solely on their own -strength. Accordingly, towards the end of February, Sanders sent a -letter by an Indian messenger to Governor Bradford, informing him of -their necessities, and advising him that Sanders himself was preparing -to go to the fishing stations at the eastward to buy provisions from -the ships; but meanwhile he did not see how the settlement was to live -until his return, and he therefore wrote to see if the Plymouth people -would sustain him in taking what was necessary from the Indians by -force. The answer was not encouraging. The Plymouth magistrates had no -intention of embroiling that settlement with its savage neighbors, and -therefore very plainly informed Sanders that he and his need expect -no countenance from them in any such proceeding as that proposed; and -they further intimated an opinion that they would all be killed if they -attempted it. Finally, they advised them to worry through the winter, -living on nuts and shell-fish as they themselves were doing, especially -as they enjoyed the additional advantage of an oyster-bed, which they -of Plymouth had not.[15] On receiving this letter, it only remained to -give up all idea of a recourse to violence, and Sanders then took the -Swan and himself went to Plymouth on a begging excursion. The people -there, however, felt unable to supply his vessel even for a voyage to -the fishing stations; so he returned to Wessagusett, there left the -Swan, and started on a shallop for the coast of Maine. - -Meanwhile the depredations still went on, and the Indians grew more -and more aggressive. They took by force from the settlers what they -pleased, and if they remonstrated, threatened them with their knives. -Apparently they treated the poor wretches like dogs; regarding them -much as they had four unfortunate Frenchmen whom they had taken -prisoners some years before, after destroying their vessel, killing -them at last through ill usage.[16] Finally, one unfortunate but -peculiarly skillful thief was detected and bitter complaint made -against him. The terror-stricken settlers offered to give him up to -the savages, to be dealt with as they saw fit. The savages, however, -declined to receive him, upon which his companions hung him themselves -in their sight. This execution has since been very famous. That the -settlers of Wessagusset hung the real culprit does not admit of -question, for it is so stated both by those who were present and by -the Plymouth authorities of the time, who were perfectly familiar with -all the facts.[17] But the humorous Mr. Thomas Morton of Merry Mount, -in the New English Canaan, published in London in 1632, reclad the -Wessagusset hanging of ten years previous in this new and fantastic -garb: - - * * * * * - -“One amongst the rest an able bodied man, that ranged the woodes, to -see what it would afford, lighted by accident on an Indian barne, and -from thence did take a capp full of corne; the Salvage owner of it, -finding by the foote some English had bin there came to the Plantation, -and mad complaint after this manner. - -“The cheife Commander of the Company one this occation called a -Parliament of all his people but those that were sicke, and ill at -ease. And wisely now they must consult, upon this huge complaint, that -a privy knife, or stringe of beades would well enough have qualified, -and Edward Johnson was a spetiall judge of this businesse; the fact was -there in repetition, construction made, that it was fellony, and by the -Lawes of England punished with death, and this in execution must be -put, for an example, and likewise to appease the Salvage, when straight -wayes one arose, mooved as it were with some compassion, and said hee -could not well gaine say the former sentence, yet hee had conceaved -within the compasse of his braine a Embrion, that was of spetiall -consequence to be delivered, and cherished hee said, that it would -most aptly serve to pacifie the Salvages complaint, and save the life -of one that might (if neede should be) stand them in some good steede, -being younge and stronge, fit for resistance against an enemy, which -might come unexpected for any thinge they knew. The Oration made was -liked of every one, and hee intreated to proceede to shew the meanes -how this may be performed: sayes hee, you all agree that one must die, -and one shall die, this younge mans cloathes we will take of, and put -upon one, that is old and impotent, a sickly person that cannot escape -death, such is the disease one him confirmed, that die hee must, put -the younge mans cloathes on this man, and let the sick person be hanged -in the others steede. Amen sayes one, and so sayes many more. - -“And this had like to have prooved their finall sentence, and being -there confirmed by Act of Parliament, to after ages for a President: -But that one with a ravenus voyce, begunne to croake and bellow -for revenge, and put by that conclusive motion, alledging such -deceipts might be a meanes here after to exasperate the mindes of -the complaininge Salvages and that by his death, the Salvages should -see their zeale to Iustice, and therefore hee should die: this was -concluded; yet neverthelesse a scruple was made; now to countermaunde -this act, did represent itselfe unto their mindes, which was how they -should doe to get the mans good wil: this was indeede a spetiall -obstacle: for without (that they all agreed) it would be dangerous, for -any man to attempt the execution of it, lest mischiefe should befall -them every man; he was a person, that in his wrath, did seeme to be -a second Sampson, able to beate out their branes with the jawbone of -an Asse: therefore they called the man and by perswation got him fast -bound in jest, and then hanged him up hard by in good earnest, who -with a weapon, and at liberty, would have put all those wise judges -of this Parliament to a pitifull _non plus_ (as it hath been credibly -reported), and made the cheife Iudge of them all buckell to him.”[18] - -The work from which this extract is taken was published in 1632; in -1663, thirty-one years later, appeared the second part of the famous -English satire, Hudibras. Butler, its author, had come across the New -English Canaan, and the very original idea of vicarious atonement -suggested in it entertained him hugely. He appropriated and improved -it, adapting the facts to his own fancy, until at last the story -appeared in its new guise, in what was the most popular English book of -the day: - - Our Brethren of New-England use - Choice malefactors to excuse, - And hang the Guiltless in their stead, - Of whom the Churches have less need; - As lately ’t happen’d: In a town - There liv’d a Cobler, and but one, - That out of Doctrine could cut Use, - And mend men’s lives as well as shoes. - This precious Brother having slain, - In times of peace, an Indian, - Not out of malice, but mere zeal, - (Because he was an Infidel), - The mighty Tottipottymoy - Sent to our Elders an envoy, - Complaining sorely of the breach - Of league held forth by Brother Patch, - Against the articles in force - Between both churches, his and ours, - For which he craved the Saints to render - Into his hands, or hang, th’ offender; - But they maturely having weigh’d - They had no more but him o’ th’ trade, - (A man that served them in a double - Capacity, to teach and cobble), - Resolv’d to spare him; yet to do - The Indian Hogan Moghan too - Impartial justice, in his stead did - Hang an old Weaver that was bed-rid.[19] - -The really amusing part of this episode, however, yet remains to be -told. When it was rescued from oblivion, through the wit of Butler, in -1663, the reaction against Puritanism was at its height, and everything -which tended to render the sect, so recently all-powerful, either -odious or ridiculous, was eagerly sought for and implicitly believed. -New England, and especially the province of Massachusetts Bay, was -out of favor. So striking an exemplification of Puritan justice was -not to be disregarded. The whole absurd fiction of Morton and Butler -was, therefore, not only accepted as historical truth, but the bastard -tradition was solemnly deposited at the door of the good people of -Boston and Plymouth:--and so the Weymouth hanging passed into history -hand in hand with the famous Blue-Laws of Connecticut. There is, -however, something irresistibly ludicrous in picturing to oneself the -horror and dismay with which the severe elders of the Plymouth church -would have contemplated the saddling of their fame before posterity, on -the ribald authority of the New English Canaan and of Hudibras, with -the apocryphal misdeeds of Weston’s vagabonds. But so it happened, -and nearly a century and a half later the absurd fiction was gravely -recorded in his history by Governor Hutchinson, as a part of the early -annals of New England.[20] - -But it is necessary to return to Weston’s colony. We left it face to -face with famine, deserted by its leader, and in terror of the savages; -in the wish to propitiate whom the starving, shivering outcasts had -just hung one of their own number in front of their palisade. Even -this, however, did not appease the Indians, who were now thoroughly -restless and had begun to conspire together all along the coast for the -simultaneous destruction of both the infant settlements. It was just -one year since the Virginia massacre, and that tragedy seemed about -to be re-enacted in New England. Intimations of the impending danger -reached the Plymouth and the Weymouth people at about the same time; -coming to the former through a friendly hint from Massasoit, and to the -latter from the talk of an Indian woman. - -The Indians were now watching the Wessagusset settlement very closely. -In spite of their terror, the settlers, however, lived on in a reckless -way, mixing freely with the savages and taking no precautions against -surprise.[21] But one at least of their number was thoroughly alarmed, -and had resolved to make his escape to Plymouth. This was Phinehas -Pratt, one of the seven who had come on in the shallop during the -previous May in advance of the body of the enterprise. The journey -he now proposed to himself was both difficult and dangerous. It was -March, and he was insufficiently clad and weak for want of food; he -did not know the way, nor did he even have a compass. The Indians, -probably in furtherance of their half-matured conspiracy, had gradually -moved their wigwams closer and closer to the settlement. Pratt’s first -object was to steal away unobserved by them. Very early one morning, -therefore, preparing a small pack, he took a hoe in his hand and left -the settlement as if he were in search of nuts, or about to dig for -shell-fish. He went directly towards that end of the swamp nearest the -wigwams. Getting close to them he pretended to be busy digging, until -he had satisfied himself that he was unobserved; then he suddenly -plunged into the thicket and began to make his way as rapidly as he -could in a southerly direction. The sky was overcast; the ground also -was in many places covered with snow, which greatly alarmed him, as it -seemed likely to afford an almost certain trail in case of pursuit. -Fortunately for him he at once lost his way, or he must soon have been -overtaken. He hurried along, however, as fast as he could, until late -in the afternoon, when the sun appeared sufficiently to give him some -indication of his course. He at length came to the North River, which -he found both deep and cold; he succeeded in fording it, however, and, -as night began to fall, found himself too weary to go further, weak -from cold and hunger and yet afraid to light a fire. Finally he came -to a deep hollow in which were many fallen trees; here he stopped, -lit a fire and rested, listening to the howling of the wolves in the -woods around him. At night the sky cleared and he distinguished the -north star, thus getting his bearings. He resumed his journey in the -morning but found himself unable to proceed with it, and so returned to -his camping place of the previous night. The succeeding day, however, -was clear, and he started again; this time more successfully, for -by three o’clock in the afternoon he got to Duxbury and recognized -the landmarks; soon afterwards reaching the settlement, thoroughly -exhausted, but in safety. He thus finished a perilous journey, for the -pursuers were not far behind him. The next day they appeared on the -outskirts of the settlement and assured themselves of his arrival. -They had lost his trail, and, following the more direct path, had -missed him; but nevertheless he had, as he himself expressed it, “been -pursued for his life in time of frost and snow as a deer chased by the -wolves.”[22] - -He now delivered his tidings and was cared for, but found the Plymouth -settlement fully awake to the danger. The council had already the -subject under advisement, and, the day before Pratt’s arrival, had -decided upon war. Their proceedings were vigorous. Captain Miles -Standish was authorized to take with him such a force as was in -his judgment sufficient to enable him to hold his own against all -the Indians in the neighborhood of Boston Bay, and go at once to -Wessagusset. He did not apparently place a very high estimate either on -the numbers or the valor of his opponents, for he selected only eight -men,[23] and with them was on the point of starting when Pratt arrived. -The next day, March 25, 1623, the wind proved fair, and so the little -army got into its boat and set sail. - -Reaching Weymouth Fore River on the 26th, after a prosperous voyage, -Standish steered directly for the Swan, which was lying at her moorings -near the settlement. Greatly to his surprise he found her wholly -deserted,--there was not a soul on board. A musket was fired as a -signal, which attracted the attention of a few miserable creatures busy -searching for nuts. From them Standish learned that the principal men -of the settlement were in the stockade; so he landed, and, after some -conversation with them, promptly began his preparations. The stragglers -were all called in, and every one was forbidden to go beyond gun-shot -from the stockade. Rations of corn were issued to all out of the -slender stock which the prudent Plymouth people had reserved for seed, -and something like discipline was established. The weather was wet -and stormy, delaying final operations, but the Indians, nevertheless, -seeing Standish on the ground, began to suspect that their designs -were discovered. Pecksuot, their chief, accordingly came in and had -an interview, Hobbamock, a friendly Indian who had accompanied the -expedition, acting as interpreter. - -This was one of the very famous Indian talks of early New England -annals; not only was it chronicled in all the records of the time, but -it has since found a place in poetry, so that to-day the speech of the -savage Pecksuot to the doughty Miles Standish is most familiar to us -through the verses of Longfellow[24]:-- - - Then he unsheathed his knife, and, whetting the blade on his left - hand, - Held it aloft, and displayed a woman’s face on the handle, - Saying, with bitter expression and look of sinister meaning: - “I have another at home, with the face of a man on the handle; - By and by they shall marry; and there will be plenty of children!” - -This figurative language both Standish and his Indian interpreter -accepted as meaning war. At the moment, however, no act of overt -hostility took place on either side. Standish was not ready. His plan -was to strike, but when he struck he meant to strike hard. He proposed, -in fact, to get all the Indians he could into his power and then to -kill them.[25] The day after the knife interview he found himself with -several of his men in a room with four of the savages, among whom were -Pecksuot and Wituwamat. Suddenly Standish gave the signal and flung -himself on Pecksuot, snatching his knife from its sheath on his neck -and stabbing him with it. The door was closed and a life-and-death -struggle ensued. The savages were taken by surprise, but they fought -hard, making little noise but catching at their weapons and struggling -until they were cut almost to pieces. Finally Pecksuot, Wituwamat and -a third Indian were killed; while a fourth, a youth of eighteen, was -overpowered and secured; him, Standish subsequently hung. The massacre, -for such in historic justice it must be called, seeing that they killed -every man they could lay their hands on, then began. There were eight -warriors in the stockade at the time,--Standish and his party had -killed three and secured one; they subsequently killed another, while -the Weston people despatched two more. One only escaped to give the -alarm, which was rapidly spread through the Indian villages. - -Standish immediately followed up his advantage. Leaving some Indian -women, who happened to be in the stockade, in charge of a portion of -his own men and of the settlers, he took one or two of the latter and -the remainder of his own force, and started in pursuit. He had gone -no great distance when a file of Indians was seen advancing. Both -parties hurried forward to secure the advantage of a rising ground -near at hand. Standish got to it first, and the savages at once -scattered, sheltering themselves behind trees and discharging a flight -of arrows at their opponents. The engagement was, however, very brief, -for Hobbamock, throwing off his coat, rushed at his countrymen, who -incontinently fled to the swamp; one only of the party being injured, -a shot breaking his arm. Further pursuit was unavailing, so Standish -returned to the stockade, from which he caused the Indian women to be -dismissed unharmed. - -The Weston people now discovered that they had had enough of life in -the wilderness, and wholly declined to tarry any longer at Wessagusset. -Standish asserted his readiness to hold the place against all the -Indians of the vicinage with half the force of the Weston party, but -they were not Standishes, nor did they feel any call to heroism. So, -the choice being given to them, they divided,--one portion, on board -the Swan, following Sanders to the coast of Maine, while the rest -accompanied Standish home and cast in their lot among the Plymouth -people. Standish supplied those on board the Swan with a sufficiency of -corn whereon to sustain life, and saw them safely leave the harbor and -bear away to the north and east; then he himself, carrying with him the -head of Wituwamat, to ornament the Plymouth block-house as a terror to -all evil-disposed savages, sailed prosperously home. - -Thus in failure, disgrace and bloodshed ended the first attempt of -a settlement at Weymouth. Ill-conceived, ill-executed, ill-fated, -it was probably saved from utter extirpation only by the energetic -interference of the Plymouth people. And these last not unjustifiably -indulged in some grim chuckling over the speedy downfall of those who -had thought to teach them how to subdue a wilderness.[26] Three men -only remained behind at Wessagusset. One of these had domesticated -himself among the savages; the other two, in defiance of orders, -had straggled off to an Indian settlement where they had been left -by a companion on the day of the engagement. All three were put to -death by the savages, probably with that refinement of cruelty which -distinguished Indian executions; for, afterwards, in speaking of their -fate, one of the savages said, “When we killed your men they cried and -made ill-favored faces.”[27] - -When good old John Robinson, at Leyden, heard of the Wessagusset -killing he was sorely moved. He wrote out to his flock a letter -of gentle caution in respect to the rough ways of Captain Miles -Standish, who, though the aged pastor loved him, he yet intimated was -one perchance “wanting that tenderness of the life of man which is -meet.” He also referred to the Wessagusset settlers as “heathenish -Christians,” and exclaimed in reference to Pecksuot and Wituwamat, “Oh! -how happy a thing had it been if you had converted some before you had -killed any.”[28] Nevertheless, rough as he was, the Plymouth people -then stood in greater need of stern Miles Standish than of gentle John -Robinson. The times were not meet for works of conversion, nor were -Pecksuot and his friends favorable subjects therefor. In the light of -the Virginia experience of 1622, and of the New England terror during -the war of King Philip, posterity must concede that the severe course -of Miles Standish here in Weymouth, in March, 1623, was the most truly -merciful course. The settlers had demoralized the Indians. They had -at once inspired them with anger, with dislike and with contempt. Any -sign of faltering on the part of the Plymouth people would have been -fatal. Had they abandoned Wessagusset to its fate, the settlers there -would have been exterminated, and the savages, maddened by a taste -of blood, would have turned upon Plymouth. The woods would have rung -with war-whoops and the feeble colony could scarcely have survived the -ordeal of blood treading hard on that of famine. Standish crushed out -the danger in the incipient stage. By ruthlessly murdering seven men -he re-established the moral ascendency of the whites, and so saved the -lives of hundreds. He stopped the war before it began, and deferred it -to another generation. In so doing, the Puritan captain revealed the -instinctive sagacity of a true soldier,--he struck so that he did not -have to strike twice:--he cowed the savages at Weymouth, and for years -peace was secured for Plymouth.[29] - -All this took place in March, and, shortly after, the unfortunate Mr. -Weston arrived on the coast of Maine, seeking news of his colony. -He there heard of its ruin and, with one or two men, started in a -small boat for Wessagusset. His ill-fortune pursued him. Overtaken -by a storm he was cast away near where Newburyport now stands, and -barely saved his life only to fall into the hands of the savages, who -stripped him to his shirt. He succeeded, however, in finding his way -back to the fishing stations in Maine and thence to Plymouth. The -people there received him kindly, and loaned him some beaver-skins on -which to trade: and again he returned to the eastward. There he found -his smaller vessel, the Swan, and some of his people. Afterwards he -seems to have been both very adventurous and very unfortunate. He made -frequent voyages to Virginia, and now and again flits vaguely across -the page of Plymouth history,--in debt, in trouble, in arrest. Finally -he returned to England, where, long afterwards, during the wars of -Cromwell, he died of the plague at Bristol. - -But Wessagusset was not destined long to remain a solitude. Deserted in -March, it was again occupied just six months later; for, in the middle -of September, 1623, Captain Robert Gorges, a son of that Sir Ferdinand -whose name is so prominent in the early annals of New England, sailed -up the Fore River, and landed at Weston’s deserted plantation. His -enterprise was of a quite different character from that which had -preceded it. He held a grant from the Council of New England, covering -a tract of land vaguely described as lying on the north-east side -of Massachusetts Bay, as what is now known as Boston Bay was then -called, and covering ten miles of sea-front, while stretching thirty -miles into the interior. He was also commissioned as Governor-General, -and authorized to correct any abuses which had crept into the affairs -of the company in America; for the more effectual doing of which he -was further provided with a grand admiral and a council, of which the -Governor of Plymouth for the time being was _ex officio_ a member. -His jurisdiction was of the largest description, civil, criminal -and ecclesiastical, for he also brought with him in his company one -Mr. William Morell, a clergyman of the Church of England, holding -a commission from the ecclesiastical courts of the mother country, -which authorized him to exercise a species of superintendency over the -churches of the colony. This whole expedition seems, in fact, to have -been organized on a most ludicrously grandiose scale, probably to meet -the views of its commander, who had recently seen some service in the -Venetian wars and was now nourishing ambitious visions of an empire in -the wilderness. The establishment of Episcopacy in New England had long -been a favorite idea with Sir Ferdinand Gorges,[30] and now, when he -sent his son thither, he provided him not only with a council and an -admiral, but also with a primate. This company was, however, composed -of a different material from that of Weston’s. It was made up of -families, as well as of individuals, and contained in it some elements -of strength.[31] The party disembarked just as the autumn tints began -to glow through the forest, and busied themselves with the erection -of their storehouses. Captain Gorges meanwhile notified the Plymouth -people of his arrival, and Governor Bradford prepared to answer the -summons in person. Before he could do so, however, Gorges started on a -voyage to the fishing stations in Maine; but, encountering some rough -weather on his way, he put about and ran into Plymouth in search of -a pilot. He remained there some fourteen days, and then, instead of -resuming his voyage, he returned to Wessagusset by land. Upon reaching -his seat of government he, for the first, and, so far as appears, for -the last time, made any use of his great civil and military powers by -causing Weston, who had turned up in Plymouth Bay, on board the Swan, -to be arrested and sent with this vessel around to Weymouth. His own -ship, meanwhile, remained at Plymouth, where, on the 5th of November, -her company occasioned a great disaster to the unfortunate colonists. -The weather was cold, and a number of seamen were celebrating Guy -Fawkes’ day before a large fire in one of the houses, when the thatch -ignited, and, for a brief time, it was a question whether the general -storehouse, and with it the Plymouth colony, were not to be destroyed. -Fortunately only three or four houses were burned, but it is curious -to reflect how much more heavily the loss of those few log huts bore -on the Plymouth of those days than did the great conflagration of two -centuries and a half later on the Boston of ours. At any rate it seemed -to sicken Captain Robert Gorges and his party, for, shortly after it, -he retired to England, thoroughly disgusted with the work of founding -empires in the New World.[32] With him returned the larger part of his -company, but not the whole of it; nor, indeed, does Weymouth seem ever -again to have been abandoned as a settlement. While some of the party -went to Virginia, others remained at Wessagusset, and Mr. Morell took -up his temporary abode at Plymouth. This gentleman appears, indeed, -to have been not only a man of education and refinement, but also to -have been possessed of discretion and good sense. For a wonder he, -an ecclesiastic, remained at Plymouth nearly a year with a letter -in his pocket conferring on him great powers, and yet he neither -sought to exercise any authority, nor did he intrigue or stir up any -trouble. On the contrary, he quietly minded his own business, and -beguiled his leisure hours in the composition of a very good Latin poem -descriptive of the country.[33] He made of it, too, a very bad metrical -translation. The piece is curious, but now scarcely repays perusal.[34] -With the country he was charmed, but not so with the natives who -inhabited it. Indeed, he seems to have been impressed with America -much as Bishop Reginald Heber was, long afterwards, with India, for he -described his diocese in language similar to that used by the latter -dignitary: - - “Though every prospect pleases, - And only man is vile.” - -A few very brief extracts will give a sufficient idea both of the -spirit of his poem and of the otherwise than smoothness of his -versification. It is Weymouth itself, perhaps, that he thus describes:-- - - “The fruitfull and well watered earth doth glad - All hearts, when Flora’s with her spangles clad, - And yeelds an hundred fold for one, - To feede the bee and to invite the drone. - - * * * * * - - “There nature’s bounties, though not planted are, - Great store and sorts of berries great and faire: - The filberd, cherry and the fruitful vine, - Which cheares the heart and makes it more divine. - Earth’s spangled beauties pleasing smell and sight; - Objects for gallant choice and chiefe delight. - * * * * * - - - “All ore that maine the vernant trees abound, - Where cedar, cypres, spruce and beech are found. - Ash, oake and wal-nut, pines and junipere; - The hasel, palme and hundred more are there. - Ther’s grasse and hearbs contenting man and beast, - On which both deare, and beares, and wolves do feast.” - -When he comes to deal with the noble savage, however, his enthusiasm -rapidly wanes:-- - - “They’re wondrous cruell, strangely base and vile, - Quickly displeas’d, and hardly reconcil’d; - * * * * * - - “Whose hayre is cut with greeces, yet a locke - Is left; the left side bound up in a knott: - * * * * * - - “Of body straight, tall, strong, mantled in skin - Of deare or bever, with the hayre-side in; - * * * * * - - “A kind of _pinsen_ keeps their feet from cold, - Which after travels they put off, up-fold, - Themselves they warme, their ungirt limbes they rest - In straw, and houses, like to sties.” - -The Rev. William Morell, however, the next year (1624), abandoned -both the wilderness and the savages, returning to England; and with -him Episcopacy, that exotic in New England, withdrew for many years -from these shores. The settlement at Weymouth was not for all that -wholly broken up. This statement now admits of conclusive proof; -for while previous to Robert Gorges’ arrival at Weymouth the region -about Boston Bay had been wholly unoccupied, from that time forward -there is evidence of scattered plantations upon its islands and along -its shores. The Plymouth annals distinctly state that some few of -his people remained behind when he withdrew, and were assisted from -thence.[35] Two years later, the next settlers in that vicinity find -them still at Wessagusset.[36] Two years later yet they re-appear in -history, as we shall presently see. In 1631, or three years later, the -persons through whom the place thus re-appears take the oath as freemen -on the settlement of Boston.[37] In 1632, Governor Winthrop visited -Wessagusset and was liberally entertained by those residing there.[38] -The next year, the place is described as a “small village”;[39] and -finally, in 1636, it sends as a deputy to the General Court one of -those who had been prominent in connection with events there in -1628.[40] There is, therefore, but one year, 1624, unaccounted for, -between the Gorges’ settlement and the incorporation of the town in -1635. But the evidence does not stop here. When Captain Gorges returned -to England, the records of the Council of New England state that he -left his plantation in charge of certain persons, who are referred -to as “his servants, and certain other Undertakers and Tenants.”[41] -Shortly after, Robert Gorges died and his brother John succeeded to the -grant. He undertook to convey a portion of it to one John Oldham, and -accordingly wrote to William Blackstone and William Jeffries, two of -the settlers on Boston Bay, to put his grantee in possession. - -And now we come to a most interesting point in connection with the -earliest records of Boston. When Winthrop and his company landed -in Charlestown in 1630, they found this William Blackstone already -settled on the opposite peninsula in what is now Boston.[42] He had -then been there some five or six years, but how he got there or from -whence has always been a mystery. There he was, however. Now when -John Gorges proposed to make over to Oldham his brother’s grant of -land, he naturally would have sent his directions to those “servants,” -“undertakers” or “tenants,” who had been left in possession of it -by his brother. As a matter of fact he did send his instructions -to Blackstone and Jeffries, and the last named then was living at -Wessagusset, while both were within the limits of the patent. The -inference is difficult to resist that both had belonged to the Gorges -settlement,--that one had remained on its site, while the other had -moved away about a year after Gorges left to a locality which pleased -him better. That Jeffries was settled at Weymouth admits of no -question, for when that place next appears in the authentic records of -the time it is under a double name, both as Wessagusset and as Jeffries -and Burslem’s plantation. - -The whole chain of connected evidence, therefore, not only tends to -shew the continuing settlement of Weymouth after September, 1623, but -it also establishes the strong presumption that Boston itself was first -occupied by a straggling recluse from what is now called the village of -Old Spain. - - * * * * * - -The two hundred and fifty-first year of the consecutive settlement -of Weymouth will, therefore, as I conceive, be completed during the -month of September next; nor can I find any sufficient authority for -the generally accepted statement that an additional body of settlers -arrived during the year 1624, from the town of the same name in -England, having with them the Rev. Mr. Barnard, who died here after -a ministration of eleven years.[43] With the departure of Captain -Robert Gorges the Wessagusset settlement practically vanishes from -the page of cotemporary history, only to re-appear again four years -later in connection with a very famous incident. By one authority only -during the intervening time do I find its name mentioned. Mr. Thomas -Morton of Merry Mount, he of cobbler atonement memory, refers to it -as a place to which he had recourse in winter “to have the benefit of -company”;[44] and he seems to have been upon tolerably familiar terms -with those living there, as several years after he wrote to William -Jeffries, addressing him as “My very good gossip.”[45] These visits -of Morton were made between the years 1625 and 1628. Once only does -he refer to the place in connection with any clergyman, and then it -is with one notorious enough in the early annals, but of a different -stripe from what the Rev. Mr. Barnard is supposed to have been.[46] -With this single exception, Wessagusset, between 1623 and 1628, is -referred to by the chroniclers of the day only as included in several -weak and scattered plantations. In 1628, however, it again asserted -an existence. It happened in this wise. The year after Captain Robert -Gorges had retired in disgust, a certain Captain Wollaston had made -his appearance in Boston Bay, in company with several associates, -bringing with him a party of hired people with a view to establishing a -permanent trading post. He selected, as best adapted for his purpose, -the rising ground over against Wessagusset to the north, which in -his honor was called Mount Wollaston, the name by which it has ever -since been known. This spot had some time previously been the home -of Chicatabot, the greatest sagamore of the neighborhood, by whom -it had been cleared of trees.[47] He, however, had abandoned it some -eight years before, at the time of the great plague. Then, as now, -that portion of the bay was very shallow, so that ships could not -ride near the shore, nor boats approach it when the tide was out. -There was, however, an abundance of beaver in the vicinity, and here -Wollaston’s party established itself. After a brief trial, however, -Wollaston himself seems to have liked the prospect no better than -Captain Gorges, for he departed for Virginia with a portion of his -company, leaving the remainder behind in charge of a Mr. Rassdall, one -of his partners. Presently he summoned Rassdall to follow him with yet -others of the party, and one Mr. Fitcher was left in command of the -remainder. Among these was Mr. Thomas Morton. This individual had a -very well developed talent for mischief, which speedily found room for -exercise at the expense of Lieutenant Fitcher, who was deposed from his -command, expelled from the settlement and left to shift for himself -with the aid of the neighboring settlers. Then Mount Wollaston became -Merry Mount, with Thomas Morton for its presiding genius. According to -all showing they seem to have been a drunken, dissolute set, trading -with the savages for beaver-skins, holding very questionable relations -with the Indian women, and generally leading a wild, reckless existence -on the bleak and well-nigh uninhabited New England shore. Their house -stood very near the present dwelling of Mr. John Q. Adams, and they -scandalized the whole coast by erecting near it a May-pole, which -Morton describes as having been some eighty feet in height, with a pair -of buckhorns nailed to the top. Upon this pole the retired barrister -seems to have been in the custom of fastening copies of verses of his -own production, while he and his companions conducted noisy revels -about it. All this was bad enough and sufficiently well calculated to -stir the gall of the severe elders of Plymouth. But the mischief did -not stop here. The business of this precious company, in the intervals -of merriment, was to trade; and in conducting their business they -were by no means scrupulous. Liquor, fire-arms and ammunition were -freely exchanged for furs, and the unsophisticated savage evinced a -decided appreciation of the first and a dangerous aptitude in the -use of the last. Thus the solitary settlers about Boston harbor soon -found themselves in danger of their lives, as they espied armed -Indians prowling about their habitations. The trade, however, was so -profitable that Morton, regardless of consequences, was preparing to -develop it on a larger scale when his neighbors met together and took -counsel one with another. The Mount Wollaston settlement was, indeed, -the first recorded instance of what in later Massachusetts history is -technically known as “a liquor nuisance,” and the neighbors determined -that considerations of public safety required that it should be abated. -Those were primitive times. They enjoyed few of the advantages of our -more developed civilization, and while there were no ladies of the -vicinage to wait upon the then lord of Merry Mount in a spirit of -prayerful remonstrance, there was also no State constabulary before -whom the “rumseller” trembled and fled. As the best substitute for -these moral and legal agencies, and after fruitless efforts at reform -through written admonishments which the carnal Morton received in -a most unsatisfactory spirit of contumely, the men of the vicinage -called upon the fathers of Plymouth.[48] These at once despatched the -redoubtable Miles Standish to the scene of trouble, with directions to -set matters to rights there once more, even as he had done five years -before in the days of Pecksuot. Weymouth was the scene of a portion -of the succeeding operations, which were of a nature too delightfully -humorous to be told in any language except that of the actors and of -the time; besides the accounts furnish a very beautiful illustration -of the discrepancies in authority which it becomes the painful duty of -the historian to reconcile. And first, Thomas Morton shall tell his own -story: - - “They set upon my honest host [Morton] at a place, called Wessaguscus, - where (by accident) they found him. The inhabitants there were in - good hope, of the subvertion of the plantation at Mare Mount (which - they principally aymed at); and the rather, because mine host was a - man that indeavoured to advance the dignity of the Church of England; - which they (on the contrary part) would laboure to vilifie; with - uncivile terms: enveying against the sacred booke of common prayer, - and mine host [Morton] that used it in a laudable manner amongst his - family, as a practise of piety.... - - “In briefe, mine host [Morton] must indure to be their prisoner, - untill they could contrive it so, that they might send him for England - (as they said), there to suffer according to the merrit of the fact, - which they intended to father upon him.... - - “Much rejoycing was made that they had gotten their cappitall enemy, - .... The Conspirators sported themselves at my honest host [Morton], - that meant them no hurt; and were so joccund that they feasted their - bodies, and fell to tippeling, as if they had obtained a great prize; - .... Mine host [Morton] fained greefe: and could not be perswaded - either to eate, or drinke, because hee knew emptines would be a - meanes to make him as watchfull as the Geese kept in the Roman - Cappitall: whereon the contrary part, the conspirators would be so - drowsy that hee might have an opportunity to give them a slip, instead - of a tester. Six persons of the conspiracy were set to watch him at - Wessaguscus: But hee kept waking; and in the dead of night (one lying - on the bed, for further suerty,) up gets mine Host [Morton] and got - to the second dore that hee was to passe which (notwithstanding the - lock) hee got open: and shut it after him with such violence, that it - affrighted some of the conspirators. - - “The word which was given with an alarme, was, ô he’s gon, he’s gon, - what shall we doe, he’s gon? the rest (halfe a sleepe) start up in a - maze, and like rames, ran theire heads one at another full butt in the - darke. - - “Their grand leader Captaine Shrimp [Standish] tooke on most - furiously, and tore his clothes for anger, to see the empty nest, and - their bird gone. The rest were eager to have torne theire haire from - theire heads, but it was so short, that it would give them no hold: - .... In the meane time mine Host [Morton] was got home to Ma-re Mount - through the woods, eight miles, round about the head of the river - Monatoquit, that parted the two Plantations: finding his way by the - help of the lightening (for it thundered as he went terribly).... - - “Now Captaine Shrimp [Standish] ... takes eight persons more to him, - and they imbarque with preparation against Ma-re-Mount.... Now the - nine Worthies are approached; and mine Host [Morton] prepared: having - intelligence by a Salvage, that hastened in love from Wessaguscus to - give him notice of their intent.... The nine Worthies comming before - the Denne of this supposed Monster, (this seaven headed hydra, as - they termed him) and began like Don Quixote against the Windmill to - beate a parly, and to offer quarter (if mine Host [Morton] would - yeald).... Yet to save the effusion of so much worthy bloud, as would - have issued out of the vaynes of these 9. worthies of New Canaan, if - mine Host should have played upon them out at his port holes (for - they came within danger like a flocke of wild geese, as if they had - bin tayled one to another, as coults to be sold at a faire) mine Host - [Morton] was content to yeelde upon quarter; and did capitulate with - them: .... But mine Host [Morton] no sooner had set open the dore and - issued out: but instantly Captaine Shrimpe [Standish], and the rest - of the worthies stepped to him, layd hold of his armes; and had him - downe, and so eagerly was every man bent against him (not regarding - any agreement made with such a carnall man) that they fell upon him, - as if they would have eaten him: .... - - “Captaine Shrimpe [Standish] and the rest of the nine worthies, made - themselves (by this outragious riot) Masters of mine Hoste [Morton] of - Ma-re Mount, and disposed of what hee had at his plantation.”[49] - -So much for Mr. Thomas Morton’s account of this “outragious riot;” now -let us see what Captain Standish had to say of the affair: - - “So they resolved to take Morton by force. The which accordingly was - done; but they found him to stand stifly in his defence, having made - fast his dors, armed his consorts, set diverse dishes of powder & - bullets ready on yᵉ table; and if they had not been over armed with - drinke, more hurt might have been done. They som̄aned him to yeeld, - but he kept his house, and they could gett nothing but scofes & scorns - from him; but at length, fearing they would doe some violence to yᵉ - house, he and some of his crue came out, but not to yeeld, but to - shoote; but they were so steeld with drinke as their peeces were too - heavie for them; him selfe with a carbine (over charged & allmost - halfe fild with powder & shote, as was after found) had thought to - have shot Captaine Standish; but he stept to him, & put by his peece, - & tooke him. Neither was ther any hurte done to any of either side, - save yᵗ one was so drunke yᵗ he rane his own nose upon yᵉ pointe of a - sword yᵗ one held before him as he entred yᵉ house; but he lost but a - litle of his hott blood.”[50] - -Whichever of these widely divergent accounts is the more correct, -upon one point they both concur, and that is, after all, the vital -point, that Morton was arrested, carried to Plymouth and presently -sent to England; while the Wollaston settlement was practically -broken up, the liquor nuisance abated, and the trade in firearms and -ammunition stopped. Peace and security were thus once more restored -to Wessagusset, through the agency of Miles Standish. Nor were these -blessings won at any unreasonable price, as the whole cost of the -expedition was computed at £12 7_s._, of which sum £2 was assessed on -the settlers at Wessagusset, and £2 10_s._ on the Plymouth colony.[51] - -The destruction of the May-pole at Merry Mount took place in the early -days of June, 1628, and just two years later Governor Winthrop arrived -in Boston harbor and the consecutive annals of the Massachusetts Bay -began. It is yet another two years, however, before we again meet -with a mention of Weymouth, still under its Indian name. In August, -1632, Governor Winthrop, in company with the Rev. Mr. Wilson and other -notables, took ship at Boston and landed at Wessagusset; and thence the -succeeding day the distinguished party started on foot for Plymouth, -completing their journey by night. Six days later, on the 31st of the -same month, they returned; leaving Plymouth at five in the morning and -reaching Wessagusset in the evening, where they passed the night, and -finished their journey next morning by water.[52] We have Governor -Winthrop’s authority for the assertion that, both going and returning, -they were here most hospitably feasted on the turkeys, geese and ducks -of the neighborhood.[53] Two years later again Wessagusset was summoned -by the General Court to assume charge of one of its pauper inhabitants, -who had seen fit to fall ill at Dorchester;[54] and in 1635 the Court -established a commission to fix the boundary line between what are -now Braintree and Weymouth,--then Mt. Wollaston and Wessagusset. Thus -through eleven years, from 1624 to 1635, the early settlers of Weymouth -only occasionally emerge from the oblivion of the past and are dimly -shadowed on the mirror of New England history. But now, at last, in -the year 1635, Wessagusset was by the order of the General Court made -a plantation under the name of Weymouth, and the Rev. Mr. Hull, with -twenty-one families from England, were allowed to establish themselves -here.[55] Why the name of Weymouth was adopted I do not find recorded: -it may well have been that the Rev. Mr. Hull and his party came from -that place in the old country, but there does not appear to be any -ground for asserting such to have been the fact.[56] With Mr. Hull, -however, began the long succession of clergymen who ministered to the -old first parish, of whom the present incumbent is the thirteenth. In -the earlier days of New England the pastorates marked epochs in the -history of the towns, much as do the reigns of kings and queens in -European annals. Nor indeed were certain of the Weymouth pastorates -brief in point of time, for two of them covered the long period of one -entire century. - -To return, however, to the political history of the town; in the same -year (1635) in which it was created a plantation, Weymouth was also -authorized to send a deputy to the General Court. The next year three -deputies made their appearance instead of one; but, considering the -size of the place they represented, the delegation with becoming -modesty requested that two of their number might be dismissed, and -accordingly Messrs. Bursley and Upham received leave to withdraw.[57] -From that time forward, through a space of one hundred and thirty -years, the political history of Weymouth moved uneventfully along,--a -portion of that of the Province,--rendered noticeable only by some -question of boundaries, by fines imposed because of the badness of -highways or the insufficiency of the watch-house or carelessness in -checking the roving propensities of swine, or by the division of a -whale found stranded on its shore, or some other equally trifling -incident of municipal government. The tax-collector made his annual -visits, and his records seem to show that, as compared with others, the -town during its earlier years was neither populous nor wealthy. Its -proportion was in the neighborhood of one-fiftieth part of the whole -amount levied on the colony, ranging from £4 to £10 each year; but in -1637 came the Pequod War, and during that year Weymouth was assessed -for £27 in a total levy of £1,500. The town could not even then be said -to rank high on the assessors’ books, being thirteenth in a list of -fourteen. - -As respects population during the first half century of the existence -of Weymouth, there is small material on which to form an estimate. -In 1637 a levy of one hundred and sixty men was made to carry on the -Pequod War; of these Weymouth furnished five as her contingent. Under -the system of computation adopted by the highest authority,[58] this -would indicate a total of about five hundred souls, which I am inclined -to think was not far from the true number. During the next century and -a quarter the increase was very slow, so that in 1776 the population -but little exceeded 1,400;[59] indeed, it may be said that during the -century and a half which succeeded the Pequod War the increase of the -town in numbers scarcely exceeded one-half of one per cent. a year. To -the Weymouth of to-day,--with its population of 10,000 souls,--1,400, -and much less 500, seems a somewhat sparse settlement. It did not so -impress the first inhabitants. On the contrary, in 1642 the townspeople -of those days thought themselves so numerous as to render expedient -the removal of a portion of their number to a new settlement. This was -accordingly determined on, and the Rev. Mr. Newman, the clergyman of -the time, to prevent all dispute, offered either to go or to remain -as his parishioners should decide. A vote was taken, which resulted -in favor of the removing party; with them, therefore, he cast in his -lot at the place selected for their settlement, to which the pastor -gave the name of Rehoboth, which it still bears. In later years other -and larger migrations took place, first to Easton and subsequently to -Abington, thus accounting for the slow movement of population in the -mother town, which, indeed, between 1740 and 1780 rather tended to -diminish than to increase. This condition of affairs, however, in no -way disturbed the inhabitants. On the contrary, four years after the -Rehoboth secession, the town records under the date of April 6, 1646, -contain this singular entry, with the significant words “Stand Good,” -written against it in the margin: - -“Whereas we find by sad experience the great inconvenience that many -times it comes to pass by the permitting of strangers to come into the -plantation pretending only to sojourn for a season, but afterwards they -have continued a while account themselves inhabitants with us, and so -challeng to themselves all such priviledges and immunitys as others -do enjoy, who notwithstanding are of little use to advance the public -good, but rather many times are troublesome and prove a burden to the -plantation, the premises considered, together with the straightness of -the place, the number of the people, and the smallness of the trade we -yet have amongst us, we the townsmen whose names are subscribed for -the prevention of this and the like inconveniencys, have thought good -to present to consideration the insuing order to be voted by the whole -Towne to stande in force as long as they in wisdome shall see just -cause. - - * * * * * - -“First that no inhabitant within this plantation shall presume to take -into his house as an inmate, or servant, any person or persons, unless -he shall give sufficient bonds, to defray the plantation of what damage -may ensue thereuppon, or be as covenant servant, and that for one year -at the least without leave first had and obtayned from the whole Towne -at some of their public meetings, under the penalty of 5 shillings a -week as long as hee shall continue in the breach of this order, to be -levied by the constable or other officer, and delivered to the townsmen -for the time being, to be improved for the use and benefit of the -towne. Also it is further agreed upon by and with the consent of the -whole towne that no person or persons within this plantation shall lett -or sell any house, or land, to any person or persons that is not an -inhabitant amongst us, untill he hath first made a tender of it to the -Towne, at a trayning or some lecture day or other public meeting.” - - * * * * * - -And to show that this was not a mere empty threat, it is but necessary -to turn to this other record of thirty-eight years later, April 30ᵗʰ, -1684: - - * * * * * - -“At a Meeting of the Selectmen they passed a warrant to the Constable -John Pratt as followeth:-- - - “To the Constable of Weymouth - - “You are hereby required in his Majestys name forthwith to distrain - upon the Estate of Joseph Poole to the value of five shillings which - is for the breach of town order for entertaining of Sarah Downing one - week contrary to town order, and so from week to week as long as the - said Joseph Poole shall entertaine the said Sarah Downing. - - “Dated Aprill 30ᵗʰ 1684. Signed in the name and by the order of the - Selectmen. - - “SAMUEL WHITE.”[60] - -Not unnaturally, therefore, with continual migrations of its -people taking place, and with the advent of new population sternly -discouraged, the growth of Weymouth was slow. Nevertheless, grow it -did, and it prospered. I have spoken of the long interval of one -hundred and twenty-five years between 1640 and 1765, an interval which -includes one-half of the entire history of the town, as a single -period. As such it can best be treated, for with Weymouth, as with -most other New England towns, it was the time of slow growth, the long -period of infancy. It was marked by few events of importance. In 1676 -the terror of King Philip’s war swept over Weymouth, as it did over -all the other outlying settlements of the colony. That was by far the -most cruel ordeal through which Massachusetts has ever passed,--one, -of the deep agony of which it is not easy for us, removed from it by -two hundred years of time, to form even a dim conception. I shall not -pause to dilate upon it here, though, in a far less degree it is true -than many of her sister settlements, Weymouth then tasted the horrors -of savage warfare. Women were slaughtered and houses were burned within -her limits, and the losses she sustained were sufficiently severe to -induce the General Court to allow the abatement of a portion of her -tax. Again she was called upon to furnish her contingent of soldiers, -who doubtless played their part manfully enough at the storming of -Narragansett Fort.[61] Indeed, in every warlike ordeal through which -Massachusetts has been called to pass,--from the first struggle of -Miles Standish, in 1624, to the great rebellion, two hundred and -forty years later,--the ancient town may fairly claim that she has -contributed of her blood with no stinting hand. - -But the war of King Philip was ended, and again Weymouth lapsed into -the old, quiet, steady, uneventful life. During the next ninety years -I doubt if anything more momentous occurred within her limits than the -burning of the town meeting-house, in 1751. That, however, was a very -remarkable year,--one still borne in painful recollection,--the saddest -in the whole history of Weymouth. It has indeed left its mark on the -records, where, under date of May 21st, 1752, in the town meeting that -day held, it was-- - -“Voted to send no representative this present year on account of the -great charge of building a Meeting-house, and the extraordinary -Sickness that has prevailed in the town in the year past.” - - * * * * * - -The meeting-house was burned on the 23d of April, and its destruction -was impressed on the recollection of those living in the vicinity by a -special circumstance. The fathers of the town had seen fit to utilize -the loft over the church as a magazine, and in it was stored the -supply of town powder to the very respectable amount of three barrels. -Naturally, at the proper moment, this brought the conflagration to -a crisis, making, as Parson Smith, the clergyman of the period, has -recorded, “a surprising noise when it blew up.” The event has also been -celebrated in contemporaneous verse by Paul Torrey, the village Milton: - - Our powder stock, kept under lock, - With flints and bullets were, - By dismal blast soon swiftly cast - Into the open air. - -The poet also intimates grave suspicions as to the origin of the -fire, and indeed hints at a personal knowledge of the incendiaries, -suggesting very radical measures for their destruction and extirpation: - - O range and search in every arch, - And cellar round about; - Search low and high, with hue and cry, - To find those rebels out. - - I’m satisfy’d they do reside, - Some where within the Town; - Therefore no doubt, you’ll find them out, - By searching up and down. - - On trial them we will condemn, - The sentence we will give; - Them execute without dispute, - Not being fit to live.[62] - -History does not record any satisfactory result as attending the poet’s -search, but in the succeeding year he was tuning his lyre to sing the -dedication of a new and more commodious edifice, erected in place -of that which had been destroyed. But the other disaster which made -memorable the year 1751 was far more terrible than the destruction -of any building the work of human hands. That year was marked by -a veritable slaughter of the innocents. Death stalked through the -town. Between May, 1751, and May, 1752, a terrible throat distemper -so raged among the children as to amount almost to a pestilence. In -October, 1751, alone, thirty died, and in all there perished some one -hundred and twenty. Out of a population of only twelve hundred, no -less than one hundred and fifty persons died in the town during that -twelvemonth.[63] During the succeeding year the disease gradually -disappeared, and has since been almost unknown in Weymouth. Rarely, -indeed, however, even in times of plague, has the death-rate exceeded -that of Weymouth in 1751-2. - -Broken here and there by such episodes as these, the life of the little -settlement flowed on in the general even tenor of its way through the -lives of four generations of its children. It was an existence which -we now find it difficult to picture. Living as we do in the hurry -and bustle of the modern world,--having the record of human life in -both hemispheres daily spread before us,--moving with ease over two -continents,--in the neighborhood of cities and libraries and galleries -and theatres,--belonging to a civilization enriched with all the -accumulated wealth of centuries,--accustomed ourselves to large affairs -and dealing in millions where in the olden time they talked but of -thousands,--we, in the year 1874, can hardly stand here, and, looking -around from King-Oak Hill, picture to ourselves the life led in its -neighborhood a century and a half ago. To the intense lover of nature, -it is true, Weymouth probably then bore a more attractive aspect than -now it does, for nature had lavished its gifts upon it with no sparing -hand. Eastward the green islands studded the bay, round which the sea -sparkled with waters rarely vexed by the keel and never beaten by the -paddle,--to the north the town of Boston was hidden from sight as it -nestled at the feet of its hills,--to the west the Blue Hills loomed -up in their soft, misty beauty even as they do to-day, they alone -unchanged,--to the south stretched away the more level forest land in -which the beautiful Weymouth ponds lay quietly imbedded in their native -framework of virgin green, while around their shores the wolf still -lurked and the swift deer bounded. No long rows of piles then broke the -swift tide as it ebbed and flowed in the Fore River,--no tall chimneys -belched out black smoke on the eastern limit of the town,--no phosphate -factory at the foot of the Great Hill poisoned the sweet native -atmosphere, but the waves rippled on the beach, and rose and fell amid -the haunts of the seal and the sea-fowl, even as they did when Thomas -Morton of Merry Mount thus described the land: “And when I had more -seriously considered of the bewty of the place, with all her faire -indowments, I did not thinke that in all the knowne world it could be -paralel’d. For so many goodly groues of trees; dainty fine round rising -hillucks: delicate faire large plaines, sweete cristall fountaines, -and cleare running streames, that twine in fine meanders through the -meads, making so sweete a murmering noise to heare, as would even lull -the sences with delight a sleepe, so pleasantly doe they glide upon the -pebble stones, jetting most jocundly where they doe meete; and hand in -hand runne downe to Neptunes Court, to pay the yearely tribute, which -they owe to him as soveraigne Lord of all the springs.”[64] - -During the early days of the settlement the township was covered with -a natural growth of timber, in which the oak, the elm, the chestnut, -the ash, the pine and the cedar were mingled; and through many years -the town records bear frequent trace of the jealous care with which -the townsmen preserved this great source of beauty and of wealth.[65] -As timber, however, became more valuable, the forests were encroached -upon, until in the third quarter of the last century they had been well -nigh destroyed. But, during the earlier years, as one stood on King-Oak -Hill, the whole broad panorama must have appeared an almost unbroken -wilderness of wooded hill and dale, and azure sea and verdant shore; -while here and there, few and far between, could have been discerned -the rude belfry of a colonial church; or the long, brown, sloping roof -and hard angular front of some farmer’s house, surrounded by barns and -buildings more unsightly than itself, protruded its ugliness amidst -the open fields upon which the cattle grazed or the ripening harvest -waved. Weymouth was not settled, as were many other towns, with a view -to village life, while out-lying farms stretched away to the outskirts -of the township,--here every free-holder seems to have dwelt upon his -land. The church and the burying-ground were the natural centres of the -olden town, but no village then or now has ever gathered about them. -Even as late as 1780 there were but about some two hundred houses in -all scattered over the whole surface of Weymouth, and these were of the -plainest, simplest sort.[66] - -The men and women who dwelt in them were in great degree cut off from -the whole outer world;--at least we would think so now. The roads were -few and bad; the chief one, still known as Queen Ann’s turnpike, is -said to have received its name, not from the sovereign of the loyal -colonies, but from the hostess of a little “four corner” inn upon it, -who was always known by that royal title.[67] Queen Ann’s turnpike was -the direct road between Boston and Plymouth, but the time of which I -speak was long before the stage-coach era, and the Weymouth man, whom -business called to Boston, went by water, or drove or walked there -over Milton Hill and Roxbury Neck. Nor was that journey to Boston -then devoid of danger. Early in the last century, for instance, it -is traditionally stated that a party, including two of the principal -citizens of Weymouth, while returning home by water from Boston, -were overtaken by a snow-storm and wrecked on one of the islands in -the bay; all perished, it is said, save Captain Alexander Nash and a -negro servant, through whose devotion his life was saved.[68] If the -tradition be true it should be added that Captain Nash’s descendants in -the present century have repaid the debt due to their ancestor’s slave -by long and eminent services in the emancipation of his race. But the -story at least illustrates the distance then existing between Boston -and Weymouth,[69]--a distance greater for every practical purpose than -that now existing between Weymouth and New York. - -Between Old Spain and Quincy Point, or Wessagusset and Mount Wollaston -as they then were called, a ferry was authorized as early as 1635, -and the rate of ferriage was fixed at a penny for each person and at -threepence for each horse; two years later this rate was raised and -the ferryman of the day was licensed to keep a house of call. But so -far as the whole great outer world was concerned, the earlier dwellers -in Weymouth were, through four generations, what we should consider as -entombed alive. There was no newspaper,--there was no system of public -transportation,--there was no regular post,--between the colonies -themselves there was little occasion for intercourse, and Europe was -months removed. Those freemen who were elected deputies attended the -sessions of the General Court; and now and then the clergyman or the -magistrate took part in some solemn conclave of his brethren at the -capital or in a neighboring town. Of the young men, a few went with the -fishing fleet to Cape Sable, or sailed on trading voyages to the West -Indies or to Spain, thus catching glimpses of the outer world; but it -may well be questioned whether any Weymouth-born woman ever laid eyes -on the shores of the mother country during the first hundred and sixty -years of the settlement of the town. - -The men and women of those five generations were a poor, hard-working, -sombre race,--rising early and working late,--laboriously earning their -bread by the sweat of their brows. There were no labor reformers then. -The men worked in the fields, the women in the house: the first tended -the flocks, or planted and gathered the harvest;--the last busied -themselves in the dairy and the kitchen, or at the spinning-wheel and -the wash-tub. It is a tradition of the daughter of Parson Smith that -with her own hands she scrubbed the floor of her bed-room the afternoon -before her eldest son, John Quincy Adams, was born. There was no -nonsense at least about that people; every one had work to do, and no -one, gentle or simple, was above his work. - -For years there was a single school in the town, and the teacher was -annually engaged by a vote in the town-meeting.[70] Subsequently his -teaching was divided, the north precinct receiving eight months of his -time and the south four; but this arrangement not proving satisfactory, -the money raised for support of schools was finally divided between -the precincts in proportion to their tax, and they were left to -apply it each in its own way. But for us it is most curious to see -through all these years how small were the expenses of the town and -how large a proportion of the annual tax was applied to education. -In the last century, before the War of Independence destroyed all -measure of value, £120 ($420) of the old tenor, so called, was the -average annual levy, and of this five-sixths went to the support of -the schools. Expenditures on other accounts were necessarily very -small. Until the year 1760 the highways were repaired by the labor -of the people of the town, who, for this purpose appear to have been -equally assessed. As, however, the disparity in wealth became greater -and this burden heavier, the system was changed, and in 1760 every -person paying a poll-tax was called on for a day’s labor, which was -assessed at 2_s._ 1_d._ (35 cents), and those who also paid property -taxes were further called on for as many additional days’ labor as -2_s._ 1_d._ were contained in the amount of their property tax.[71] -The sparsely settled character of the town obviated all necessity of a -fire department, though an entry in the records as early as 1651 gives -a curious glimpse into the habits and dangers of a community before -the blessed invention of lucifer matches. An order was then made by -the selectmen, in consideration of “the great loss and damage that -many & many a time doth fall out in this Towne by fire,” and because -“no effort has been made to restrayne the carringe abroad of fiery -sticks ... in mens hands, which is exceeding dangerous especially when -the wind is high,”--in view of these facts the town fathers, under a -penalty of twenty shillings for each offence, proceeded to forbid any -one between March and November from transporting “any fire from one -place to another than in a pot or other vessell fit for such a purpose -and close covered.”[72] Until the present century, however, this -ordinance seems to have been regarded as sufficient protection against -the dangers of conflagration, thus cutting off that heavy item of -modern town expenses; while, so far as salaries were concerned, volumes -are contained in the following clause with which the vote of 1651, -defining the duties and powers of the selectmen, closed;--“Sixthly--Wee -willingly grant they shall have their Dynners uppon the Towne’s charge -when they meet about the Towns affayres.”[73] - -The town government of those days was, indeed, the simplest government -conceivable. There were the clergyman (for parish and town were one), -the school-master, the selectmen, the deputy, the constable and the -pound-keeper. In the earliest days it was even simpler yet than this, -for frequent meetings of the whole town were called. But even then it -was speedily found that this led to abuses,[74] and, in 1651, a system -of two regular town meetings in each year was adopted, and the powers -of the selectmen were specifically defined.[75] The continuous record -of these meetings through more than a century, at once reveals the -slow, unconscious growth of a great political system, and supplies the -amplest evidence of the sameness of a colonial village life. To the -student in the science of government these volumes of the Weymouth -town records are replete with interest. In them the growth of a system -from the root up may be studied. As an observing man turns over the -ill-spelt, almost illegible pages, they grow luminous in their bearing -on many of the most distressing problems of the age. As Gibbon, from -an experience among the yeoman militia of England, derived a certain -comprehension of the legionaries of Rome,--so the early records of -the New England towns make it most manifest to us why the horrors of -1793, and the later excesses of the Commune, are possible in France, -and why nothing other than a republic is now possible in New England. -In these records we see parliamentary institutions stripped of their -non-essentials and reduced to first principles;--we see that the New -England town-meeting democracy was the purest and simplest government -of the people, for the people, which the world has yet produced. Here -is a perfect equality, controlled by an almost iron law of usage. -Year after year every question of common concernment is settled in -general town-meeting by a vote of the majority, after a free and full -discussion, conducted in perfect deference to a rude parliamentary -law. The greater number rules, but the minority ever asserts its -rights, which are always freely conceded. The protests of the _contra -dicentes_ make a part of the records; the final appeal is made to the -courts of law; the idea of an ultimate resort to force is never even -suggested, much less discussed. Thus, through our town records, we are -made to realize that republican government is in New England a product -of the soil and not an exotic,--in France it is a graft; with us it -is the stem. The growth of this germ from the town-meeting to the -General Court, from the General Court to the Continental Congress, and -from that to the Government of the United States, and thence back to -the great cardinal fact of force,--all this is for others to trace. -Meanwhile, here to-day, we stand on a record of two hundred and fifty -years of pure democracy,--the deep, underlying tap-root of whatever is -good in America. And indeed that record relates not to great things. It -tells us of the daily life of our fathers. It deals not with theories, -but with practical issues. The earlier generations did not realize -that they were evolving a system, when they made regulations for the -preservation of the town timber and the use of its common grounds; to -check the roving propensities of its hogs, and to prescribe the liberty -of the rams or the number of the parish bulls. Yet such was the fact, -and the whole developed system of our National Government of to-day may -be read in little in the Weymouth town records of over a century past. -To-day’s jealousy of the foreign producer is there evinced towards -those inhabiting the neighboring towns,--they must not partake of the -privileges of Weymouth. The protective system began with the beginning. -In the earlier days bounties are offered for the ears of wolves, but -later, as the wilderness is subdued, these are dropped from the record -and the crow and the blackbird are proscribed in their place. Now and -again we find the town entering on some system of encouragement to a -new branch of industry, making a grant of land therefor;[76] but the -herring fishery and the passage of the alewives into Great Pond have -left, perhaps, the deepest mark on the town records. The annual passage -of the fish up the Back River was an event in the life of Weymouth, -exciting the liveliest interest in old and young. For this really -great boon the town was indebted to Adam Cushing, one of its prominent -citizens in the provincial times. Mr. Cushing died in the year of the -great sickness, 1751, and seems to have been a truly remarkable man. -About 1730 he bethought himself of bringing some herring, during the -spawning season, over from Taunton River to the Great Pond. He did -so, himself superintending the work of transportation, and seeing to -it that fresh water was properly supplied to the fish. It would seem, -therefore, that through him Weymouth may claim a place of one hundred -and forty years’ standing in the interesting history of pisciculture in -Massachusetts.[77] - -These records also reveal to us very clearly what a singularly -conservative race our ancestors were,--in this respect how different -from their children. They clung very close to authority, to tradition -and to precedent. The conditions by which they were surrounded -changed but slowly, and they themselves changed more slowly yet. What -volumes, for instance, in this respect, are contained in this single -fact:--in 1651 the town, in six brief articles, defined the powers of -its selectmen, and more than sixty years later, in 1712, I find the -following entry in the records: “Voted the Selectmen the same power -they had granted in the year 1651.”[78] Again, to cite another example: -Weymouth then, as now, had among its citizens a James Humphrey, and, -under date of March 12th, 1781, I find this entry: “Voted--That the -thanks of the Town be given to the Honᵇˡᵉ James Humphrey Esqʳ. for -his faithful services as a selectman in the Town for more than forty -years past.” Unlike so many of her sister towns, the Weymouth of to-day -has never, even yet, learned enough of the science of true republican -government to “rotate” its town officials. When they have had a man who -was willing to serve them well and faithfully, they have actually kept -him in office. The James Humphrey of the last century served the town -“over forty years”; the James Humphrey of this has already served it -nearly twenty-five. - -I do not know if it indeed was so, but to me the very nature of the -New England world seems to have been less cheerful in those earlier -days than now. Not only was life less joyous, but nature wore a -harsher front. I have spoken of the great sickness of 1751, and how -it desolated Weymouth; but epidemics seem to have been far more -prevalent during the last century than in this. The fearful scourge -of the small-pox has left its pit-marks on every page of early New -England history, and when, in 1775, a chronic dysentery prevailed -to such an extent that three, four and even five children were lost -in single families, a Weymouth woman writing from the midst of the -general distress could only say “the dread upon the minds of the -people of catching the distemper is almost as great as if it were the -small-pox.”[79] Yet in 1735 the diphtheria raged, as well as in 1751. -Their winters also seem to have been longer, their snows deeper, their -frosts more severe than ours. In 1717 there was a great snow-storm, -famous in New England annals. The country was buried under huge drifts, -which swept over fences and houses, reducing the whole colony to one -white, glittering desert. Weymouth disappeared with the rest, and the -event was of sufficient importance to cause a memorandum of it to be -inserted in the records.[80] In other years we hear of the harbor -freezing over in November; and on the 26th of March, 1785, the winter’s -snow, though much reduced, lay still on a level with the fences, nor -was it till April 7th that the ice broke up in the Fore River.[81] I -doubt whether any man now living has witnessed a like occurrence. - -A severer climate and harsher visitations seem strictly in keeping -with the character of the people. The religious element which led -to the settlement of New England still strongly asserted itself in -the life and customs of the colony. Wealth had hardly yet begun to -exercise its subtle influence upon it. Indeed, though almost all were -prosperous there was little of what can properly be called wealth in -the community, but there was equally little poverty. The people lived -in rude abundance, and I do not believe that during the first hundred -years of the history of Weymouth as many persons received public aid -of the town. Certainly the method of dealing with pauperism, where it -occasionally appears in the records, was primitive in the extreme, and -scarcely commends itself to modern theories.[82] But as a rule there -appears to have been a strikingly equal division of such property -as the people had, which lay almost wholly in their cattle and their -lands; accumulation had scarcely begun. - -We are always accustomed to regard the past as a better and purer -time than the present,--there is a vague, traditional simplicity and -innocence hanging about it almost Arcadian in character. I can find no -ground on which to base this pleasant fancy. Taken altogether I do not -believe that the morals of Weymouth or of her sister towns were on the -average as good in the eighteenth century as in the nineteenth. The -people were sterner and graver,--the law and the magistrate were more -severe, but human nature was the same and would have vent. There was, -I am inclined to think, more hypocrisy in those days than now, but I -have seen nothing which has led me to believe that the women were more -chaste, or that the men were more temperate, or that, in proportion to -population, fewer or less degrading crimes were perpetrated. Certainly -the earlier generations were as a race not so charitable as their -descendants, and less of a spirit of kindly Christianity prevailed -among them. But in those days enjoyment itself was almost a crime, -and every pleasure was thought to be a lure of the devil and close -upon the boundary line to guilt. Holidays, accordingly, were few and -far between. The May-pole disappeared with the wild Morton of Merry -Mount. During the colonial period, election or training day was what -the Fourth of July is to us,--the great anniversary of the year, on -which the whole community came as near to unbending as it knew how. -Thanksgiving and the annual fast were both church days; Guy Fawkes’ -day was notorious for its noisy revels; Sunday was devoted to nominal -rest and veritable exhortation. On that day, every one not an infant -attended church, and the infants were left alone at home.[83] From -Saturday evening to Monday morning all labor ceased,--the voices of the -children were hushed,--the blinds were drawn, and a quiet, which was -not rest, pervaded the town. The lecture and the sermon were the events -of the week,--they supplied the place of the theatre, the novel and -the newspaper,--they were listened to and discussed and commented upon -by old and young,--and, so far as my investigations have enabled me to -judge, the stiffest of orthodoxy was ever preached from the Weymouth -pulpit. - -In the early days, however, the clergy of New England were an -aristocracy,--almost a caste. Not, of course, an aristocracy of wealth, -but of education, tradition and faith,--a veritable priesthood in fact. -The tie between the pastor and his people partook almost of the nature -of the wedding bond; there was a sanctity about it; it was well-nigh -indissoluble. But in its earliest period Weymouth was not fortunate -in these relations. Prior to 1635 the plantation was too poor and too -small in numbers to maintain a church, but that year one was gathered, -being the eleventh of the colony.[84] Of Mr. Hull, the first authentic -pastor, it can only be said that he preached in Weymouth for several -years, and then his connection with the church was dissolved. There -seems indeed at this time to have been a serious schism in the infant -settlement, for, while Mr. Hull arrived in 1635 and preached his -farewell sermon in May, 1639, yet as early as January, 1638, the elders -of Boston had come to Weymouth, and had there demonstrated the efficacy -of prayer by effecting a reconciliation between one Mr. Jenner and -his people. The reconciliation seems to have been but temporary, for, -after representing the town as deputy in the General Court in 1640, -in 1641 Mr. Jenner removed to Saco. Meanwhile, in 1637, the Rev. Mr. -Lenthall also appears upon the Weymouth stage, bringing with him the -pestilential doctrines of Mrs. Hutchinson in regard to justification -before faith and other equally incomprehensible theses, which came -so near working the destruction of the infant colony. A movement was -started inviting Mr. Lenthall to settle and organize a new church. It -was apparently making rapid headway when the magistrates of the colony -energetically interfered to put a stop to it. In March, 1638, Mr. -Lenthall accordingly, with some of his leading supporters, was summoned -to appear before the General Court, and made to see good reason why, -with expressions of deep contrition, he should make a retraction of -his heresies in writing and in open court. Upon this, he was, with -some opposition, dismissed without a fine, but only on condition that -he was to make a similar public recantation in Weymouth, and should -also be on hand when the next General Court assembled. His followers -did not escape so easily; one of them was heavily fined, another was -disfranchised, a third, having no means wherewith to pay a fine, was -publicly whipped, and a fourth, “because of his novel disposition,” -received a significant intimation to the effect that the General Court -“were weary of him, unless he reform.” Shortly after this miscarriage, -features in which are unpleasantly suggestive of inquisitorial -proceedings in other lands, the Rev. Mr. Lenthall seems to have left -Weymouth, for he is next heard of in Rhode Island, that blessed asylum -for the persecuted of Massachusetts.[85] - -Mr. Lenthall, however, represented only a schism in the Weymouth -church; Mr. Jenner was the minister in the line of true succession. -He retired to Maine in 1640 and was succeeded in his pastorate by Mr. -Newman, who at last brought with him peace to the distracted church. -He must have been a very superior man,--able, learned and faithful. -Educated at Oxford, he had preached many years in England before coming -to this country in 1638. He then spent some time in Dorchester, and -was subsequently invited to Weymouth, where he settled and remained -until he migrated with the larger portion of his people to Rehoboth. -He is the real author of the Concordance to the Bible which goes under -Cruden’s name; for it was he who prepared the basis of the work, which -was subsequently finished and published at Cambridge.[86] - -The Weymouth church had now had three preachers in nine years, but the -day of short pastorates was over. The Rev. Thomas Thacher was ordained -as the successor of Mr. Newman in 1644, and there remained, beloved and -respected of his people, for twenty years. Then marrying a second time, -and his parish being unable to afford him a sufficient maintenance,[87] -he moved to Boston, the home of his wife, and in him Weymouth lost -at once its spiritual and its medical adviser, for Mr. Thacher was a -skillful physician as well as a learned divine. Subsequently, in 1669, -he became the first pastor of the Old South Church, in Boston, in which -position he died, in 1678, leaving behind him a race of descendants -whose names are familiar through a century of colonial annals. - -To Mr. Thacher’s pastorate of twenty years succeeded the fifty-one -years of the learned and exemplary Samuel Torrey, the trusted adviser -of the magistrates of his day, the intimate friend of all its leading -divines, thrice invited to preach the election sermon, twice called to -the presidency of Harvard College. Mr. Torrey enjoyed a very remarkable -gift of prayer, so that it is told of him that upon the occasion of a -public fast, in 1696, after all the other exercises, he prayed for two -hours, and that so acceptably that his auditors, when towards the close -he hinted at some new and agreeable fields of thought, could not help -wishing him to enlarge upon them.[88] He died deeply lamented, at the -age of seventy-six, in the year 1707. - -Peter Thacher succeeded Mr. Torrey in the year of the latter’s death, -and continued in his ministry eleven years; being followed, in 1719, -by Thomas Paine, whose connection with the church continued until -dissolved, at his own request, in 1734. He then retired to Boston, -where he ended his life, and his body was brought back to Weymouth -for burial beside his children. He was the father and the grandfather -of those Robert Treat Paines, the line of which is continued to the -present day. - -In 1734 the Rev. William Smith was settled as the eighth successive -pastor of the first church, and so continued for forty-nine years, and -until after the close of the colonial period. Mr. Smith was beloved and -respected through his long ministry by his people, but to posterity he -is chiefly known as the father of her who proved to be the most famous -child of Weymouth. The familiar anecdote of Parson Smith’s sermons -on the marriages of his two daughters does not need to be repeated -here.[89] Whether the good old pastor did or did not prepare the -wedding discourse for Abigail’s benefit from so very unsavory a text -as that “John came neither eating nor drinking, and men say he hath -a devil,” we cannot now tell; the anecdote rests on tradition alone. -Let us hope, however, that he did, for he lived to see his daughter’s -choice justified in the eyes of the most doubting of his parishioners; -though he had himself already been thirteen years in his grave when, on -the 8th of February, 1797, that daughter wrote to her husband in these -solemn words, breathing the full spirit of the dead divine: “You have -this day to declare yourself head of a nation. ‘And now, O Lord, my -God, thou hast made thy servant ruler over the people. Give unto him an -understanding heart, that he may know how to go out and come in before -this great people; that he may discern between good and bad. For who -is able to judge this thy so great a people?’... My thoughts and my -meditation are with you, though personally absent; and my petitions -to Heaven are, that ‘the things which make for peace may not be hidden -from your eyes.’”[90] - -But it is necessary to go back to the year 1765, when the long, -monotonous quiet of over a century was to be broken for Weymouth and -all her sister towns by the deep though distant mutterings of an -impending war. The first notes of the struggle then break sharply in on -the peaceful sameness of the town records like the blast of a trumpet. -The Stamp Act had been passed, and the August riots had taken place in -Boston. Mr. Oliver had been forced to resign his office, and the house -of the Lieutenant-Governor had been sacked. The odious act was to take -effect on the 1st of November, and a special session of the General -Court had been called to take into consideration the course it was -incumbent on the colony to pursue. The representative of Weymouth in -those days was James Humphrey, Esq. Under these circumstances a meeting -of the freemen was held on the 16th of October, at which Dr. Cotton -Tufts was chosen Moderator, and a ringing address of instructions to -Master Humphrey, as he was called, was voted and entered at length -upon the records. The spirit of the ancient town was up, and its voice -emitted no uncertain sound. Cotton Tufts was at that time thirty-four -years of age. He was fully imbued with the patriotic spirit of the day, -and was, in his own vicinage, a leading man. It is to his pen that the -papers now entered on the town records are in all probability to be -credited.[91] - -Presently the government of the mother country somewhat receded from -its position, and, during the loyal reaction which ensued, a draft of a -measure indemnifying the sufferers in the August riots was submitted -to the General Court. A special town meeting was held on September 1, -1766, and the town refused to give its assent to the payment of damages -out of the public treasury. But another meeting was held on the 1st -of December, when written instructions were entered at length on the -records, again embodying the full rebel spirit of the day, but this -time, and under strict conditions, authorizing Master Humphrey to vote -for the proposed compensation. - -In 1768 came the news that the British regiments were ordered to -Boston. A committee of the Boston town meeting, called in consequence -of this announcement, waited on Governor Bernard with a request, among -other things, that the General Court should be convened. Meeting with -a refusal, the Boston people took the matter into their own hands, and -instructed their selectmen to invite, by circular letter, all the towns -in the colony to send representatives to assemble in convention, at -Boston, on the 22d of September. Over one hundred towns complied with -this bold invitation, thus overriding the royal governor, and convening -an assembly which, though it sat but four days, and carefully avoided -any claim to a legal existence, was, in everything but in name, a -house of representatives. In this convention sat James Humphrey, under -instructions to be there from the town of Weymouth. - -More than five years now passed away during which the controversy -between the mother country and the colonies was continually approaching -a crisis, but they left no mark on the records of Weymouth. Then arose -the question as to the tax on tea. Early in December, 1773, the famous -town meeting had been held in Faneuil Hall, at which the resolve was -passed, “that if any person or persons shall hereafter import tea from -Great Britain, or if any master or masters of any vessel or vessels -in Great Britain shall take the same on board to be transported -to this place, until the unrighteous act shall be repealed, he, or -they, shall be deemed by this body an enemy to his country, and we -will prevent the landing and sale of the same, and the payment of any -duty thereon, and will effect the return thereof to the place from -whence it shall come.”[92] Copies of this resolve were sent to all -the sea-port towns in the Province. A few days later, on the night -of December 16th, the celebrated tea-party took place in the Old -South Church and on the wharves of Boston. In response to the resolve -a special town meeting was held in Weymouth on Monday, January 3d, -1774, at which it was resolved by a very large majority, after some -debate, that the inhabitants of the town would neither purchase nor -make use of any teas, excepting such as they might happen then to have -on hand, until Parliament repealed the odious duty upon it. On the -28th of September the town again met and chose a representative to the -General Court, which convened at Salem on the 5th of October; no other -instructions were given to him than those adopted by Boston for its own -representatives, copies of which had been freely circulated. - -A committee had been appointed at a town meeting held in July to -procure signatures to the Joseph Warren “Solemn League and Covenant,” -which had been sent forth by the Boston committee of correspondence -on the 5th of June. This measure was subsequently adopted by the -Congress then sitting at Philadelphia, and recommended under the name -of a Continental Association. So, on the 23d of December, 1774, at the -close of the evening lecture, the roll of the inhabitants of Weymouth -was called, and each man voted yea or nay on the question of the -approval of the association. The two precincts voted separately; in -each one hundred and twenty-three names were called, beginning with -the two clergymen; in the first precinct, one hundred and thirteen -answered to their names, of whom one hundred and nine voted “yea”; -in the second precinct, out of one hundred and three voting, not one -responded “nay.” On the 30th of January the town again met and voted -“To bare the constables of 1773 harmless in not carrying their money -to Haryson Gray,” he being the royalist treasurer of the Province; and -further directed that the funds on hand should be turned over to the -town treasurer. On the 9th of March this vote was reconsidered, and -the money was directed to be paid to Henry Gardner of Stow, who now -represented the patriot exchequer. At this meeting, too, the question -was agitated of raising a company of minute-men, but the motion to that -effect was not then carried. On the 27th of the same month, however, -another town meeting was held and the action of the previous meeting -was reconsidered, the town voting to raise a company of fifty-three -men, who were to receive one shilling a week each for four weeks, and -were to be drilled two half days a week. Upon the 2d of May another -town meeting was held, and upon the 9th yet another. The affairs at -Lexington and Concord had now taken place, and the greatest anxiety -prevailed through all the towns in the vicinity of Boston. They were -ever looking for similar enterprises. So at the first of these two -meetings provision was made for a military guard of fifteen men, and -at the second a committee of correspondence was organized, at the -head of which were placed Dr. Tufts and Colonel Lovell. Twelve days -later, early on Sunday, the 21st of May, the news was brought to the -town that three sloops and a cutter had, during the previous night, -come down from Boston and had anchored at the mouth of the Fore River. -A landing was momentarily expected, and it was even reported to -have taken place, and that three hundred soldiers were advancing on -the town. Three alarm guns were fired, the bells were rung and the -drums beat to arms. The panic and confusion were very great and worth -recording, for it is the only time in the long history of the town that -Weymouth has ever had cause to fear that a civilized and disciplined -foe was at her threshold. Every house below the present North Weymouth -station was deserted by the women and children. Mr. Smith’s family -fled from the old parsonage, and Dr. Tufts’ wife being ill at the -time, had a bed thrown into a cart, and, putting herself upon it, was -driven to Bridgewater as a place of security; and, indeed, tradition -says that other ladies of Weymouth gave evidence that morning of an -abundant vitality, and displayed truly remarkable powers of locomotion. -Meanwhile Dr. Tufts himself was busy serving out rations and supplying -ammunition to the minute-men, who poured rapidly in from Hingham and -Randolph and Braintree and all the neighboring towns, until nearly -2,000 of them were on the ground. Then it was discovered that the enemy -were only foraging, and were engaged in removing hay from Grape Island. -By the time they had secured about three tons, the minute-men had -brought a sloop and lighter round from Hingham on which they put out -for the island, whereupon the enemy decamped.[93] It was a mere alarm -in which no one was hurt, but it showed the spirit of the town even -though it only resulted in the destruction of the hay, which doubtless -Gen. Ward’s army needed, and which, had they been older soldiers, the -minute-men would have brought away instead of burning. - -Towards the middle of July again, a small party, among whom was Captain -Goold of the Weymouth company, with twenty-five of his men, went out -from the Moon Head and burned a house and a barn full of hay on Long -Island. On this occasion they had a sharp skirmish, for the British -men-of-war lying in the harbor sent out their cutters to intercept -the party. They all, however, got back safely except one man of the -covering force on Moon Head, who was killed by a cannon-ball. That -night a sloop of war dropped down to the Fore River, but attempted -nothing beyond creating another alarm. And this experience from time -to time was repeated, until at last, in the spring of 1775, Boston -was evacuated; and upon the 14th of June following, in consequence of -military movements on the islands in the harbor, the last remnant of -the British fleet put to sea, and the towns bordering on the bay were -thereafter allowed to rest in peace. - -During the year 1775 ten town meetings had been held in Weymouth, -and seven were held in 1776. And now we enter on a new phase of the -struggle for independence. For us, with our recollections of the war -of the rebellion still fresh in our memories, it is most curious to -read these ancient records,--to observe how closely history repeats -itself. We well remember the fierce, self-sacrificing patriotism of -1861,--how the country was all alive with eagerness, how money was -poured forth like water, and how regiments enlisted faster than they -could be put into the field. We remember how this lasted through a -short six months, and how we then began to realize what war meant. Then -bounties began to be paid,--then enlistments grew more difficult just -in proportion as the call for men became more pressing,--then values -were unsettled, prices rose, the feverish glow of excitement faded -away, and stern-visaged war gradually assumed her whole hateful front. -We generally, too, are apt to imagine that the earlier days were less -selfish, more self-sacrificing, more harmonious than our own. The -records tell a different story. The declaration of Independence had -only just been ventured upon,--it was not yet entered upon the records -of Weymouth, “there to remain as a perpetual memorial,”--when on the -15th of July, 1776, a town meeting was held to secure the enlistment of -ten men for the continental army, that being the quota of the town. It -was voted to raise £130, in order to give each recruit a town bounty of -£13 in addition to the state bounty of £7,--making a bounty of £20 to -each man. It was also voted to allow the citizens of Weymouth two days -in which to enlist, after which a committee of two was to go forth in -search of recruits elsewhere. But before the 22d of the month eight men -more were called for, and so at its adjourned meeting the town had to -increase its appropriation to £234, a portion of which sum was borrowed -of Captain James White for one year,--being the earliest record of a -Weymouth town debt.[94] - -To the Weymouth of that day these eighteen men were the equivalent of -about one hundred and thirty now; and they were raised to take part in -the unfortunate Canada campaign under Arnold and Montgomery. How many -of them ever returned we cannot tell, but the weary sons of Weymouth -in 1776 doubtless found final resting-places in the wilds of Maine or -beneath the snows of Canada, as more recently they found them in the -swamps of the Chickahominy or beneath the torrid sun of Louisiana. By -December of that year twenty-two more men went into the continental -service, under Lieutenant Kingman; and now the bounty was three pounds -per month for three months.[95] It was shortly before this time that -a Weymouth-born woman, writing from the next town of Braintree, thus -described the aspect of affairs: “I am sorry to see a spirit so venal -prevailing everywhere. When our men were drawn out for Canada a very -large bounty was given them; and now another call is made upon us, no -one will go without a large bounty, though only for two months, and -each town seems to think its honor engaged out-bidding the others. The -province pay is forty shillings. In addition to that this town voted to -make it up six pounds. They then draw out the persons most unlikely to -go, and they are obliged to give three pounds to hire a man. Some pay -the whole fine, ten pounds. Forty men are now drafted from this town. -More than one-half, from sixteen to fifty, are now in the service. -This method of conducting will create a general uneasiness in the -Continental army. I hardly think you can be sensible how much we are -thinned in this province.”[96] - -And now a new difficulty, with which our generation has been sadly -familiar, was added to the heavy load under which the unfledged -nationality was compelled to stagger. The value of its paper -currency had hitherto been sustained; but at last, in the face of -ever-increasing new issues, it began to depreciate, and by the close -of the year 1776 it had fallen one-sixth in value. In vain does -Congress enact that whoever pays or receives the currency at a rate -less than its nominal value shall not only be accounted a public -enemy, but shall forfeit the amount involved in such unpatriotic -transaction. In defiance of law prices steadily rise. In January, -1777, the Legislature of Massachusetts went even further, and passed -a measure entitled “An Act to prevent Monopoly and Oppression.” Under -this the selectmen of Weymouth, aided by a committee of their townsmen, -proceeded to fix a tariff of prices at which articles were to be sold. -It is a sad record. The effort was, of course, a futile one, but it was -made; and there it stands “as a perpetual memorial,” beginning with -Indian corn and ending with cedar-posts, a monument of the wretched -expedients to which sensible men will resort in troublous and unsettled -times. - -The call was now for three-year men, and the town bounty was eight -pounds per annum. But some of the enlisted men had deserted, under the -discouragement of the Long Island reverses, and none the less they -claimed their bounties. The action of the town meeting seems to have -been hardly consistent with the usually received ideas of military -discipline, for it was voted to pay “those who deserted and came home -before their times were up” four pounds apiece, on the report of a -committee, to which the town added a further sum of forty shillings. -But the whole story is told in the following extract from the record of -May 21st, 1777: “Voted that Col. Solomon Lovell, Lieut. E. Cushing & -Deaⁿ Samuel Blancher be a Committee to go out of Town to Hire men for -the Contenential army for the Term of three years,--and that they be -directed to git them as Cheep as they can,--and that noe one of them be -allowed to give more than Thirty pounds for a man without the advise -of another of the committee.” - -Throughout the long war the people would not consent to a draft. They -resorted to every expedient and makeshift, but they could not bring -themselves to the one single expedient by which only can war be made -decisive. In September, 1777, a draft was suggested,[97] but the idea -met with no favor: again recourse was had to bounties, which were now -£100 in lawful money, or forty shillings a month in produce at prices -which ruled before the war. - -The year 1779 must, however, have been much the gloomiest year of all -to Weymouth, for it was in this year that the State of Massachusetts -undertook the unfortunate Penobscot expedition. The land forces were -commanded by the brave and popular Solomon Lovell, and naturally must -have numbered in their ranks many Weymouth men. It encountered only -disaster and loss, and added heavily to the already grievous burdens of -the war. The commander of the naval contingent was court-martialled, -but no question was made as to General Lovell’s conduct. Meanwhile -prices were rising, and now $4,500 was voted, wherewith to raise -nine men. It had also become very evident that the tariff of prices -fixed by the selectmen and the committee of the town, two years and -a half before, was somewhat out of date, as, its provisions to the -contrary notwithstanding, butcher’s meat was now a dollar a pound, -corn twenty-five dollars per bushel and labor eight dollars per day. -Still the good people were not discouraged, but a new committee was -set to work, and again, by a large majority, a tariff of prices was -established; but at the same town meeting which adopted it $9,000 was -voted to procure recruits. Indeed, the figures now become colossal, -and in September, 1780, the town votes £5,000 for the support of -schools and £15,000 “to pay the three months men, if wanted for that -purpose, if not, for other town charges.” Nor was this all. The new -State government was now organized, and John Hancock had been elected -Governor, receiving, in Weymouth, twenty-nine votes to eleven for -James Bowdoin; but one of the first acts of the Legislature was to -allot among the various towns a quota of beef to be supplied as well -as men, so the year 1780 closes with these two melancholy entries in -the records of this poor little town, casting forty votes at the annual -election:-- - - * * * * * - -“_Voted_ to raise one hundred and thirty thousand dollars of the old -currency to procure the beef set on the town by the General Court.” - -“_Voted_ to give fifty hard dollars a year for any one or more men that -shall engage for this town for three year in the Continental Servis.” - -“Gen. Lovell, Capᵗ Nash, Capt. Whitman & Lt Vinson chosen a Comᵉᵉ to -hire the Nineteen men set on this town.” - - * * * * * - -Of course the Continental currency was now almost wholly discredited, -having fallen to seventy-five for one, and Weymouth instructed its -representative to use his influence “that the act called the Tender -Act should be repealed.” But its repeal was of little consequence; -the country had gotten back to hard money by the radical course of -rendering all other money worthless. In 1781 Weymouth had also -returned to the old tax figures, raising £60 for the support of schools -and £160 for all other expenses; but the burden of recruiting grew -heavier and heavier, and in October, 1781, it was “Voted to give the -committee for hiring soldiers discretionary power to hire them upon the -best terms they can,” and $2,500, “hard dollars,” were appropriated for -the purpose. - -Fortunately the long trial now drew near its close. The towns of -Massachusetts were thoroughly exhausted and neither men nor money -could be procured. In spite of the large sums offered, recruits were -no longer forthcoming, and finally Weymouth as one of many delinquent -towns, became liable to a heavy fine. The wonder, however, was not -that the towns were delinquent, but rather where they found so many -able-bodied men as they then supplied. Weymouth, at that time, could -not well have mustered over two hundred men of the age of military -service. The record would seem to establish the fact that more than -one-tenth of these were annually called for. Such a strain could -not long have been sustained; but the dogged tenacity of the people -was equal to the burden they were called upon to bear, and it is -pleasant to find, almost before the struggle was over, the process of -recuperation begun, and the town on the 20th of November, 1782, voting -£300 for the purpose of partly paying its debts. - - * * * * * - -With the close of the long struggle for independence ends the second -period in the history of Weymouth. More than ninety years have since -passed away, carrying with them three generations of the children of -the soil. They have been years of great development and of healthy -growth,--not such development nor such growth as is often seen in this -country,--nothing, indeed, which in our age may be called remarkable, -for almost any active and bustling railroad centre in the Western -States can boast of greater census figures; but the growth of Weymouth -has been that of a thrifty, industrious New England town, and when, -after the long lapse of ages, the final account is rendered, who shall -say that the former growth will be found better than the latter? - -In 1782 Weymouth was still an agricultural community,--its people were -scattered over its wide territory and it scarcely contained within its -limits any cluster of houses worthy of the name of village. In the -state election of that year fifty-one votes were cast, and the sum -raised by taxation to defray the annual expenses of the town was the -equivalent of $1,230. It contains now four separate villages within its -limits, each one far more populous and more wealthy than the entire -town then was; its annual levy exceeds $85,000, and at its elections it -casts 1,200 votes. - -It is now fifty years since the learned editor of Governor Winthrop’s -History of New England remarked that “a careful history of Weymouth -is much needed.”[98] The want is still felt. To me the preparation -of this hasty sketch of the earlier days has been a work of great -enjoyment. I have had to deal with Mount Wollaston and with Weymouth, -those twin settlements in the first infancy of New England life, and -in the history of each I could not do otherwise than take a deep -hereditary interest. It was at Mount Wollaston, close to the spot where -once stood the May-pole of the wild Morton, that John Quincy lived and -died,--it was in the old parsonage of Weymouth, almost within a stone’s -throw of the site of Weston’s plantation, that John Adams was married -to the grand-daughter of that John Quincy. Nevertheless, no degree -of personal interest can convert a hurried sketch into a careful -history, and Weymouth deserves no less. Nor should the story of later -development remain untold. It necessarily lacks, indeed, those elements -of strangeness, of remoteness and of mystery, which lend their charm to -the earlier periods which we have considered to-day, but the record is -none the less of sufficing interest. - -The children of Weymouth, during the present century, have gone forth -in peace and in war, and are now scattered all over the common country, -and, indeed, over the civilized world. Her children, too, remaining -at home, have altered and diversified the old town until the fathers -would know it no longer. It must be for others to recount these -changes of the later years. I prefer to leave the narrative on the -threshold of the new era and before the old order of things had yet -begun to pass away,--while a fresher and a purer air still hung around -the Great Hill, and while a certain fragrance of the primeval forest -gathered about Whitman’s pond. I prefer to leave it while Joshua Bates, -newly come back from the continental army, a colonel of artillery at -twenty-eight, was meditating those busy enterprises which were destined -to infuse a new life into his native town; and I shall not seek to -follow that other Joshua Bates, then unborn, whose destiny it was to -migrate back to the mother country, and there in fullness of time to -die at the head of the first commercial firm of London or the world. We -leave Weymouth just emerging, weak but alive yet, from the long ordeal -of an eight years’ war, and entering on a more prosperous career; we -leave it while brave old Brigadier Lovell yet viewed his broad acres -from the summit of King-Oak Hill,--while Dr. Cotton Tufts still served -the town whether at the bedsides of the sick or in the councils of the -State, and ere yet the grass had grown over the new-made grave of the -good old Parson Smith. Two centuries and a half of municipal life are -now completed, and in celebrating the event of to-day may we not fitly -close with the earnest hope that the succeeding years may be as blessed -as those which are past,--that unity, virtue and good-will may long -find their abode within the limits of the ancient town, and that, even -more in the future than in the past, “may peace be within thy walls and -prosperity within thy palaces.” - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Winslow’s Good Newes; Young’s Chron. of Pilg., p. 291. - -[2] Phinehas Pratt’s Narrative; IV. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., v. 4, p. -478. - -[3] Pratt’s Narrative; IV. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., v. 4, pp. 478, 487. - -[4] Bradford; IV. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., v. 3, p. 107. - -[5] Levett’s Voyage; III. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., v. 8, p. 190. - -[6] “So base in condition (for yᵉ most parte) as in all apearance not -fitt for an honest mans company.” _Letter of John Peirce in Bradford_ -(p. 123). Thomas Morton describes them as “men made choice of at all -adventures.” _The New English Canaan_ (p. 72), _Force’s Hist. Tracts_ -(v. 2). In the preface to his Good Newes, Winslow speaks of them as “a -disorderly colony, ... who were a stain to Old England that bred them -in respect of their lives and manners amongst the Indians.” _Young, -C. of P._ (p. 276). Weston himself speaks of them as “rude fellows,” -and proposes to reclaim them “from that profanenes that may scandalise -yᵉ vioago,” etc. _Bradford_ (p. 120). Robert Cushman in a letter to -Governor Bradford, gives the following hint: “if they borrow anything -of you let them leave a good pawne.” _Ib._ (p. 122). - -I have stated that Thomas Morton came over as one of Weston’s company. -This has been denied, _Young’s C. of P._ (p. 334, n.), but Morton -himself twice states in the New English Canaan, that he came to New -England in 1622, and in one of the two cases fixes the time as in June -of that year. _The New English Canaan_ (pp. 15, 41), _Force’s Hist. -Tracts_ (v. 2). Winslow states that the Charity and Swan arrived “in -the end of June or beginning of July,” 1622. _Young’s C. of P._ (p. -296). Now no other ships from England came to Plymouth that year, and -no company such as Morton describes his to have been, except Weston’s, -arrived in Massachusetts between 1622 and Wollaston’s arrival in 1625. -Morton, however, not only positively says that he arrived at the very -time the Weston company arrived, but he shows throughout his book a -remarkable familiarity not only with the events which occurred in the -Weston settlement, but with the people composing it. A connection with -that settlement was not a thing which Morton would have been likely -to boast of in subsequent years; but, judging by internal evidence, I -should feel inclined not only to venture a surmise that Morton was one -of Weston’s colony, but also that it was Morton himself who proposed -to the Wessagusset “Parliament” the vicarious execution presently to -be described. The whole tone of his account of that affair is highly -suggestive of a close connection with it, and of great sympathy with -the real culprit and his ingenious counsel. - -My explanation of Morton’s statement as to his arrival is, that in -it, with his usual recklessness as to facts, he confounded two events -which occurred at different dates. He says, _The New English Canaan_ -(p. 41), “In the Moneth of Iune, Anno Salutis: 1622. It was my chaunce -to arrive in the parts of New England with 30. Servants, and provision -of all sorts fit for a plantation.” Here are two facts distinctly -stated;--one as to the date of his arrival, exactly coinciding with -that of the Weston company;--the other as to the number of “servants,” -etc., answering to the description of Wollaston’s company. Morton, I -think, therefore, came out with Weston’s company, and left Wessagusset -in March, 1623, with them; he then, more than two years later, returned -there with Wollaston, probably acting as his guide. When, seven years -later, he printed his book, desiring to make his American experience -date as far back as possible, he simply confused his two arrivals, and -quietly ignored his connection with the Weston company, which had left -a very unsavory reputation behind it as being made up of the refuse of -mankind. - -[7] Winslow; Young’s C. of P., p. 297. - -[8] “A correspondent in Quincy thus describes the place: ‘It is about -three miles south-east of the granite church in Quincy, at a place -locally called Old Spain.’ Weston’s colony sailed up Fore River, which -separates Quincy from Weymouth, and then entered Phillips Creek, and -commenced operations on its north bank.” _Russell’s Guide to Plymouth_ -(p. 106, n.). - -[9] Winslow; Young’s C. of P., p. 299. Bradford, p. 130. - -[10] Bradford, p. 128. - -[11] Winslow; Young’s C. of P., p. 302. - -[12] Bradford, p. 130. - -[13] Pratt’s Petition; IV. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., v. 4, pp. 486, 7. -Bradford, p. 130. Winslow; Young’s C. of P., p. 332. - -[14] Winslow; Young’s C. of P., p. 328. - -[15] Winslow; Young’s C. of P., p. 329. - -[16] Pratt’s Narrative; IV. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., v. 4, pp. 479, 489. -New English Canaan, p. 18; Force’s Tracts, v. 2. - -[17] Winslow, in his Relation, states that Pratt told them of this -execution on his arrival at Plymouth. _Young’s C. of P._ (p. 332); -_see, also, Bradford_ (p. 130). But Pratt, in his own Narrative, -distinctly says that “we kep him (the malefactor) bound som few days,” -but does not mention the execution. _IV. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll._ (v. 4, -p. 482). In his Relation by Mather, however, he states that the real -delinquent was put to death. _Ib._ (p. 491). - -[18] The New English Canaan, p. 74. - -[19] Hudibras, Part II, Canto II, ll. 409-36. - -[20] Hist. of Mass., v. 1, p. 6, n.;--for a curious traditionary -account of this execution see, also, _Uring’s Voyages_ (pp. 116-18), -and _Proceedings of Mass. Hist. Soc. for 1871_ (p. 59). - -[21] Winslow; Young’s C. of P., p. 336. - -[22] _Pratt’s Narrative; IV. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll._ (v. 4, pp. 483-7), -can be accepted as authority only with very decided limitations. -Prepared for a specific purpose, long subsequent to the occurrence -of the events to which it relates, it is neither consistent with -itself nor with the Plymouth authorities. He dwells at length on the -apprehension of an attack by the Indians felt by the Weston colony, -and the precautions they took against it (pp. 482-3). Standish, on the -contrary, reported that he found them living in reckless disregard of -every precaution. _Winslow, in Young’s C. of P._ (p. 336.) Pecksuot’s -famous speech to Standish, which Pratt must often have heard discussed -at Plymouth, finds a place in his narrative as having been made to -him long previously (p. 481). Finally, if the terror at Wessagusset -was such as he asserts it to have been, the settlers there could have -gone on board the Swan and sailed to Plymouth in search of aid, quite -as well as Standish could come to them or they go subsequently to the -eastward. Pratt himself was unquestionably both alarmed and hungry, but -he probably fled to Plymouth as a refugee. When he got there, having -doubtless encountered enough of danger and hardship on the way, he -found Standish already starting for Wessagusset. His own sense of the -dangers he had run and the heroism he had displayed, both before and -during his flight, probably grew with each succeeding year. I have -adopted only such of his statements as are corroborated by others, or -seem to wear an aspect of inherent probability. - -[23] The whole number of Indians in that vicinity was not computed at -over fifty. _Young’s Chron. of Mass._ (p. 305). _Winslow; Young’s C. of -P._ (p. 310). - -[24] The Courtship of Miles Standish, Part VII. See also Pratt’s -Narrative; IV. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., v. 4, p. 481, and Young’s C. of -P., p. 338. - -[25] Winslow; Young’s C. of P., p. 331. Bradford, p. 164. - -[26] Bradford, p. 132. - -[27] Pratt’s Narrative; IV. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., v. 4, p. 486. New -English Canaan, p. 76; Force’s Tracts, v. 2. Young’s C. of P., p. 344. - -[28] Bradford, p. 164. - -[29] Winslow; Young’s C. of P., p. 344. The New English Canaan, p. 73. - -[30] Young’s C. of P., p. 477, n. - -[31] Bradford, p. 148. - -[32] Bradford, p. 154. - -[33] Ecclesiastical History of Massachusetts; I. Mass. Hist. Soc. -Coll., v. 9, p. 6. - -[34] Both poem and translation are to be found in I. Mass. Hist. Soc. -Coll., v. 1, p. 125. - -[35] Bradford, p. 154. - -[36] The New English Canaan, p. 84. - -[37] Records of Mass., v. 1, p. 366. - -[38] Savage’s Winthrop, v. 1, p. 91. - -[39] Wood’s New England’s Prospect; Young’s Chron. of Mass., p. 395. - -[40] Records of Mass., v. 1, pp. 174-9. - -[41] Hazard’s Hist. Coll., v. 1, p. 391. - -[42] As respects Blackstone, see _Young’s Chron. of Mass._ (p. 169), -but the best account of this singular and interesting man is found in -Bliss’ History of Rehoboth. It is another point of some importance as -identifying Blackstone with the Gorges settlement, that he had received -Episcopal ordination in England. _II. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll._ (v. 9, -p. 174.) Now the Gorges settlement was a distinct and the only attempt -to plant Episcopacy in early Massachusetts. Morell and Blackstone were -both educated and studious men of somewhat similar cast of minds and -thought. The obvious and natural explanation of their presence in the -wilderness would be that they came there together, influenced by the -same inducements. - -[43] A statement to this effect has crept into the generally accepted -accounts of the settlement of Weymouth, on the high authority of -Prince’s Annals. _Emery Memorial_ (p. 88). The entry in Prince is -at the close of 1624, and reads as follows:--“This Year comes some -Addition to the few inhabitants of Wessagusset, from Weymouth in -England; who are another sort of people than the Former (_mst_) [and -on whose account I conclude the Town is since called Weymouth.]” To -this entry the compiler appended the following foot-note: “They have -the Rev. Mr. Barnard their first Non-conformist Minister, who dies -among them: But whether He comes before or after 1630, or when He Dies -is yet unknown (_mst_) nor do I anywhere find the least Hint of Him, -but in the Manuscript Letters, taken from some of the oldest People at -Weymouth.” _Annals_ (p. 150). - -Prince compiled his work more than a century after the events here -alleged to have taken place. He carefully gives his authority, as was -his custom, for his statement, and himself discredits it. It seems, so -far as the date was concerned, to have been a mere “oldest inhabitant” -tradition, which wholly lacked corroboration by the contemporaneous -authorities. The party from Weymouth, in England, settled at Dorchester -in July, 1633. _Prince_; _II. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll._ (v. 7, p. 96). -In 1635, Massachiel Barnard, an elder not a minister, came out with -the party mentioned by Winthrop and in the Records of Massachusetts as -being placed at Weymouth. This party included not only the Rev. Mr. -Hull, but the original bearers of several of the names now most common -in Weymouth, such as Bicknell, Lovell, Pool, Upham, Porter, &c. See -_N. E. Gen. Reg._ (v. 25, p. 13). It is safe to say that the date of -1624 given in Prince is wholly erroneous. If the permanent settlement -of Weymouth does not belong to 1623, no precise date for it can be -assigned; but I cannot see any room for doubt as to September, 1623. - -The discovery, in 1870, of the names of those who came out with Mr. -Hull, in 1635, is very important in the genealogy of Weymouth. It is -singular to study in the several lists of names which have at various -times been made out, the fate of the families which bore them. Some, -the Kings and Kingmans for instance, have never increased, but are -still perpetuated by single families in Weymouth; others like Jeffries -and Bursley have disappeared; while yet others, like the Bicknells, -Frenches and Lovells have increased amazingly. Lists of names found -in the town at various epochs are printed in the Appendix to the -Address, with indications and figures shewing the apparent increase or -disappearance of the families. - -[44] New English Canaan, pp. 84, 86. - -[45] Hubbard, p. 428. - -[46] This was the Rev. John Lyford. A detailed account of the somewhat -high handed proceedings of the Plymouth authorities in regard to -this individual and John Oldham is found in Bradford’s History. The -ceremonial of Oldham’s expulsion from Plymouth was formal but peculiar. -Morton gives the following account of it: “A lane of Musketiers was -made, and hee compelled in scorne to passe along betweene, & to receave -a bob upon the bumme be every musketier, and then a board a shallop, -and so convayed to Wessaguscus shoare & staid at Massachussets, to -whome Iohn Layford and some few more did resort, where Master Layford -freely executed his office and preached every Lords day, and yet -maintained his wife & children foure or five, upon his industry there, -with the blessing of God, and the plenty of the Land, without the -helpe of his auditory, in an honest and laudable manner, till hee was -wearied, and made to leave the Country.” _New English Canaan_ (p. -81); _see also Bradford_ (p. 190). This took place early in 1625, but -the Oldham and Lyford settlement was at Hull, not at Wessagusset, and -lasted but little over a year; _note to Bradford_ (p. 195). - -[47] Wood’s New-England’s Prospect; Young’s Chron. of Mass., p. 395. - -[48] Bradford’s Letter Book; I. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., v. 3, p. 61. - -[49] New English Canaan, p. 93. - -[50] Bradford, p. 241. - -[51] This apportionment is derived from Governor Bradford’s -Letter-Book. See _I. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll._ (v. 3, p. 63). In his -History (p. 241) he speaks of “Weesagascusett” as being one of the -plantations concerned, but the apportionment is made as “From Mr. -Jeffrey and Mr. Burslem.” These names have given the antiquarians a -great deal of trouble, and they have generally assigned them to Cape -Ann; _Savage’s Winthrop_ (v. 1, p. 44, n.); _Young’s Chron. of Mass._ -(p. 171, n.), or even to the Isle of Shoals; _Drake’s Boston_ (p. 50). -They all confound William Jeffries of Weymouth with Thomas Jeffrey of -Ipswich. Dr. Young does this in a most extraordinary manner, confusing -them even while giving the correct name of one in his text, and of the -other in the running title of the same page. _Chron. of Mass._ (p. -171). When Savage prepared his notes to Winthrop the MS. of Bradford -had not been recovered, and he had not examined the New English Canaan -carefully in reference to Weymouth. He seems to have been satisfied -that the second settlement at Weymouth had been wholly broken up in -1624, _Notes to Winthrop_ (pp. 43, 93), and sought to place Jeffries -and Burslem elsewhere. There cannot be the slightest doubt that they -lived at Wessagusset from before 1628. Both names are now extinct -at Weymouth, though I find in the Records of the town a Jeffery in -1651 (see p. 70), and also a mention of one John Jeffers (Aug. 18, -1777), as a soldier who enlisted in Arnold’s Canada campaign during -the Revolution. Both were made freemen at early dates:--Burslem was a -deputy from the town in 1636, and it was to Jeffries that Morton wrote -as to his “good gossip,” in 1634. It was to him and to Blackstone that -John Gorges wrote in 1629, in regard to putting Oldham in possession of -the Gorges grant. _Young’s Chron. of Mass._ (pp. 51, 147, 169). - -[52] Savage’s Winthrop, v. 1, p. 192. - -[53] In 1633 Wessagusset was thus described: “This as yet is but a -small village; yet it is very pleasant, and healthful, very good -ground, and is well timbered, and hath good store of hay-ground. It -hath a very spacious harbour for shipping before the town, the salt -water being navigable for boats and pinnaces two leagues. Here the -inhabitants have good store of fish of all sorts, and swine, having -acorns and clams at the time of year. Here is likewise an ale-wife -river.” _Wood’s New-England’s Prospect; Young’s Chron. of Mass._ (p. -394). - -[54] This man is mentioned as “late servant of John Burslyn.” _Records -of Mass._ (p. 121). - -[55] Savage’s Winthrop, v. 1, p. 163; Records of Mass., pp. 156-7. - -[56] Proceedings of Mass. Hist. Soc., 1873, p. 396. - -[57] Records of Mass., v. 1, p. 179. - -[58] Palfrey, v. 2, p. 5. - -[59] See the sketch of the town of Weymouth, written by Dr. Cotton -Tufts, and printed in 1785 in _Topographical Descriptions of the -Towns in the County of Suffolk, and of Charlestown in the County of -Middlesex_. A manuscript copy of this sketch was very kindly placed at -my disposal in the preparation of this address by J. J. Loud, Esq., -of Weymouth, with other material for a history of Weymouth, which it -is to be regretted Mr. Loud does not himself propose to prepare. A -copy of the compilation of which Cotton Tufts’ sketch was a part is in -the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, bound with other -documents under the title of “_Gookin and Geography_.” - -[60] See, also, a similar order of January 1, 1685. - -[61] There were thirteen Weymouth men in Captain Johnson’s company -employed against the Indians in October, 1675. _Vinton Memorial_ (p. -50, n.). - -[62] Paul Torrey’s curious efforts at versification were printed in -1811, in the appendix to a discourse of the Rev. Jacob Norton. The -author tells us that they were designed “to preserve the memory of -these remarkable things to future posterity.” - -[63] Sketch of Weymouth, by Dr. Cotton Tufts. The usual death-rate was -sixteen a year. - -[64] New English Canaan, p. 41. - -[65] “Whoever shall presume to fell or kill or top any tree or trees -(after publication hereof or notice given) which growes before his owne -or his neighbours Dore, or that stands in any place upon the commons -or high-wayes which may be for the shaddow either of man or beast or -shelter to any house or otherwise for any public use every person so -offending shall be lyable to pay for every such tree so feld, topt, or -kild 20s. to the Town’s use.” _Records, February 1st, 1867 (?)._ - -[66] Sketch of Weymouth, by Dr. Cotton Tufts. - -[67] This and some other facts I state on the authority of Mrs. Maria -W. Chapman, of Weymouth, who very kindly furnished me with much local -information which has not heretofore found its way into print. - -[68] Mrs. Chapman’s MS.; and see Savage’s Winthrop, v. 1, p. 286. - -[69] “The distance by land from Boston to the confines of the town is -14 miles.” _Sketch by Dr. Cotton Tufts._ - -[70] “At a Generall Town Meeting of the inhabitants of Weymouth the -24th of June, 1689.” - -“The Town past a vote that William Chard is to serve as Town Clerk.” - -“At a meeting of the Selectmen upon the first day of July 1689 Agreed -with Mr. Chard to Ring the Bell & Sweep the Meeting-house to begin the -6th daye of July, and for the time that he performs that work he is to -have after the rate of forty shillings a year in money or three pounds -in town pay.” - -“At a Meeting of the freeholders of the town of Weymouth the 13th day -of July 1694.” - -“The Towne past a vote they will have a publique School-master.” - -“At a meeting legally warned for the Inhabitants of the town of -Weymouth upon the first of October 1694 to treat concerning a -School-master, and it was voted that Mr. Chard should serve as -School-master from the date abovesaid till the last of March next -ensuing the date hereof, & provided Mr. Chard doe faithfully perform -the office of School-master, that is to teach & instruct all children & -youth belonging to the town in reading & writing & casting of accounts -according to the capacitie of those that are sent to him, and according -to his own abillitie: under this consideration the town have past a -vote upon the aforesaid first of October that Mr. Chard shall have for -his sallary for the half year above expressed six pounds in or as money -to be levied upon the severall Inhabitants according to proportion by a -town rate.” - -The next year (1695), William Chard was again engaged at five shillings -a week, but in 1696 an arrangement was made with Mr. John Copp at £30 -a year. The salary of the pastor at this time was “£108 16s. in goods -alias money £68” (about $225). - -[71] Records, 10th March, 1760; John Adams’ Works, vol. 2, p. 118. - -[72] Records, p. 56. - -[73] Records, 26th November, 1651. - -[74] The “mutifariousness” of such meetings “occacions the neglect of -appearance of many whereby things [are] many times carried on by a -few in which many or all are concerned which often makes the legality -of such proceedings to be questioned.” It was therefore voted to -thereafter have two regular town meetings in each year in March and -November. _Records_, 1650, p. 56. - -[75] “At a meeting of the Town the 26th of the 9th moᵗʰ (November) 1651. - -“The power that the Towne of Weymouth committeth into the hands of the -Selectmen for this present year ensueing 1651. - -“First. Wee give them power to make such orders as may be for the -preservation of our intrests in lands & corne & grass & Wood & Timber, -that none be transported out of the Towns Commons. - -“Secondly. They shall have power to see that all orders made by the -Generall Court shall be observed and also all such orders that are or -shal be made which the Towne shall not repeale at their meetinge in the -first month. - -“Thirdly. It shal be lawful for them to take course that dry Cattle -be hearded in the woods except calves & Yearlings & that they provide -Bulls both for the Cowes & dry Cattle. - -“Fourthly. They may issue out all such rates as the Towns occasions -shall require & see that they be gathred, that a due account may be -given of them. - -“Fifthly. They may satisfy all graunts provided they satisfy them in -due order, and not within two miles of the Meeting-house. - -“Sixthly. Wee willingly grant they shall have their Dynners uppon the -Towns charge when they meete about the Towns affayres.” _Records._ - -[76] March 7, 1698. “Voted that John Torrey, Tanner, for the -encouragement of his trade shall have twelve pole of land joining to -his fathers land out of the towns commons for a tanyard so long as -there shall be use for it for that trade in this Town.” - -March 7, 1715. “At the said Meeting John Torrey, James Humphrey, Joseph -Torrey, Ezra Whitmarsh, Enoch Lovell, Ebenezer Pratt & divers others -their partners who had agreed to begin a fishing trade to Cape-sables, -requested of the town that they might have that piece or parcel of -land at the mouth of the fore river in the northerly part of Weymouth -called and known by the name of Hunts Hill and the low land and Beach -adjoining thereunto, that is so much as they shall need for the -management of said fishing trade. The Town after consideration thereof -Voted that they should have the said land and Beach to manage their -fishing trade.” - -March 13, 1727. “Voted at the aforesaid meeting whether the Town -will give to Doctor White five acres of Land below ---- Hill that -was formerly granted to John Vinson provided the said Doctor White -continues in the town of Weymouth and in practice of physick, & in case -he shall remove out of town said White to purchase said land or to -return it to the Town again. It passed in the affirmative.” - -[77] Mrs. Chapman’s MS. And see Records, 1st March, 1731. - -[78] See Records, 3d March, 1712. - -[79] Letters of Mrs. Adams (ed. 1848), p. xxxvi. - -[80] “An exceeding great snow on February 21st, 1717.” _Records_ (v. 1, -p. 270). It is the single record of the kind. - -[81] MS. memorandum of Dr. Cotton Tufts. - -[82] The following record, for instance, is a little suggestive of what -is now called “baby farming,” though we know in that society it led to -fewer abuses. At a town meeting in Weymouth, August 28, 1733, “Voted -by the Town to give Twenty pounds to any person that will take two of -the Children of the Widow Ruth Harvey (that is) the Eldest Daughter and -one of the youngest Daughters (a twin) and take the care of them untill -they be eighteen years old. - -“Voted that the Selectmen shall take care of the other (twin) a -youngest daughter of the widow Ruth Harvey, and put it out as -reasonably as they can.” - -The following also has a strange sound to modern ears, from the Record -of March 11th, 1771: “Voted to sell the Poor that are maintained by the -town for this present year at a Vendue to the lowest bidder.” _Records_ -(v. 1, pp. 318, 438). - -[83] “There fell out (1642) a very sad accident at Weymouth. One -Richard Sylvester, having three small children, he and his wife going -to the assembly, upon the Lord’s day, left their children at home. The -eldest was without doors looking to some cattle; the middle-most, being -a son about five years old, seeing his father’s fowling piece, (being -a very great one), stand in the chimney, took it and laid it upon a -stool, as he had seen his father do, and pulled up the cock, (the -spring being weak), and put down the hammer, then went to the other end -and blowed in the mouth of the piece, as he had seen his father also -do, and with that stirring the piece, being charged, it went off, and -shot the child into its mouth and through his head. When the father -came home he found his child lie dead, and could not have imagined how -he should have been so killed, but the youngest child, (being but three -years old, and could scarce speak), showed him the whole manner of it.” -_Savage’s Winthrop_, (v. 2, p. 77). - -Weymouth, June 1, 1775. “Voted that the Soldiers from the age of -Sixteen to Sixty appear with their arms upon Lords Days on penalty -of forfeiting a Dollar each Lords Day for their neglect. That those -Soldiers who tarry at home upon the Lords day, Except they can make a -Reasonable Excuse therefor Shall forfeit two Dollars.” _Records._ - -[84] Savage’s Winthrop, v. 1, p. 94, n. See Johnson’s Wonder Working -Providence, chap. 10. - -[85] Savage’s Winthrop, v. 1, p. 287. - -[86] The best account of Mr. Newman and his Concordance is found in -_Bliss’ History of Rehoboth_. It is a singular fact that William -Blackstone should have gone from Boston to Rehoboth, and been followed -there by an emigration from Wessagusset, which place he had probably -abandoned when he went to Boston. - -[87] II. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., v. 7, p. 11. - -[88] Eliot’s Biographical Dictionary. - -[89] It can be found in the preface (pp. xxviii, xxix), of the letters -of Mrs. Adams (ed. 1848). - -[90] Letters of Mrs. Adams (ed. 1848), p. 374. - -[91] That part of the town records which relates to the revolutionary -period will probably be printed in full in the History of Weymouth, now -in course of preparation. - -[92] Hutchinson, v. 3, p. 432. - -[93] Letters of Mrs. Adams, pp. 26, 33. - -[94] The history of this loan is curious and suggestive. It may be -traced through the following entries in the town records. - -July 22, 1776. “Voted that the Town Treasurer Borrow the afforesaid sum -of £234 & give the Towns security with Interest for the Same.” - -“July 23d 1776 the Town Treasurer Borrowed of Capt James White £130 and -gave the Towns Security to pay the same in twelve months with interest.” - -April 7, 1783. “Voted to allow unto Captain James White the Depreation -on some money that he lent to the Town. - -“Whereas in the year 1776 Capt. James White lent the Town £130 and took -it in again in 1778, and Took only the nominal Sum,--the Town Voted -that Capt. White should have the Depreation that was on money when -Capt. White’s money was in the hands of the Town. Said Term of Time -will be made to appear by a Receipt from Capt. Whitman. - -“Voted that any others that are under like Circumstances with Capt. -White, that have Lent Money to the Town and have Taken it in again, -that they be allowed the Depreation that was on money while theres was -in the Hands of the Town. - -“Nathˡ Bayley Esq. Honˡᵉ James Humphrey Esq. & Col. Asa White were -Chosen a Committee for the above purpose of Settleing the Depreation -with Capt. James White and others.” - -May 13, 1783. “A motion was made and Seconded to Reconsider a Vote that -was past at a town meeting on April the 7th with regard to making up -the Depreceation to Capt. James White and others that lent money to the -town and recd it again in the Nominal Sum and it passed in favour of -Reconsidering of Said Vote.” - -September 16, 1783. “A Town Meeting in Consequence of Capt. James -White’s Commencing an action on the Town. - -“A motion was made and Seconded to no if it was the minds of the People -to stand Capt. White in the Law and it passed in favor of it. - -“Voted to Chuse Two agents to act in Behalf of the Town against Capt. -James White, even to final Judgment and Execution. - -“The Honᵉ Cotton Tufts Esq & Solomon Lovell Esq ware Chosen (Ajents -Committee) for the above purpose. - -“Voted that the ajents be impowered to Draw Money out of the Town -Treasury to Defend the Town against Capt. White even to final Judgment -and Execution they to Render an accompt how they disposed of the money. - -“Voted to adjourn the meeting to the 22nd of this instant Sepᵇʳ at -- -of the Clock in the afternoon.” - -“Sepᵇʳ 22d 1783. Meet at the adjournment, and as neither of the ajents -had Taken the advice of a Lawyer Voted to adjourn to monday 29th of -this instant September at 10 of the Clock foornoon.” - -“Sepᵇʳ 29th 1783 meet on the adjournment and further adjourned to -October 6th 1783.” - -“October 6th 1783, meet on the adjournment. Voted that the ajents (if -occation for it) appeal to the Superior Court at february Next. the -Meeting Dissolved.” - - “Weymouth March the 8th 1784. - -“the Agents appointed to defend the Town in an action brought by Capt. -James White, on a Note paid him in Paper money; found that the Town was -not in a Capacity to tender the money for the Note of Hand due--and -therefore that the Costs and Charges of Court would fall upon the Town, -whether the Demand for Depreciation on Said note paid was finally -Decided in his Favour or not,--they also found that a much heaver -Expence to the Town would arise from Carrying on the Suit to final -Judgment than they Concieved that the Town was aware off--this induced -your Agents to Listen to Some Proposals made by Capt White: (Viz) To -Pay the Cost that had then arisen, to allow him Compound Interest on -his Note that was due and to Estimate the Depreciation thereon from -the month of June his note being Dated the first of July. He alledging -that notwithstanding as their was but one Day that made the Difference; -it was hard that the whole month of July should be taken in for the -Estimate--they accordingly made the Calculation and Certified the same -to the Town Treasurer, who Settled with Capt. James White Conformably -thereunto, and the Action was dropt never having had a Tryall. As youre -Agents conducted in this matter, as they Apprehended for the best -Interest of the Town they flatter themselves that their Conduct will -meet with the Approbation of the Town, and that the Town will Confirm -the Doeings of their Treasurer thereon. - - The Honᵇˡᵉ Cotton Tufts Esqʳ } _Agents_. - Gen. Solomon Lovell Esqʳ } - -“The Above Report Accepted by the Town. - - John Tirrel _Town Clerk_” - -The depreciation in paper money between July, 1776, and the same month -in 1778, had been from par to 6.30 to 1. - -[95] _Records_, Monday, December 23, 1776. - -[96] Letters of Mrs. Adams (ed. 1848), p. 82. - -[97] The nearest approach made to a draft is found in the following -vote:-- - -“June 19th. 1780 - -“Voted that the assessors be desired to set off the Inhabitants as near -as they can into twenty Parsols or Districts as they Stand in the Tax -Bill for Polls and Estates and each District to be obliged to get a Man -to go into the Servis and if any one in said district shall refuse to -go or to pay his Proportion according to what he pays Taxes the Capt. -of the Company to which he belongs be Desired to draft said Person and -return him as a Drafted Man.” _Record._ - -[98] Savage’s Winthrop, v. 1, p. 163. - - - - - WEYMOUTH IN ITS FIRST TWENTY YEARS. - - A PAPER READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY, NOVEMBER, 1882, - - BY - - GILBERT NASH, Esq., - - SECRETARY. - - -Not long since, the statement was made by one of our leading journals, -that the first church in Weymouth was formed in 1635;[99] and an -inquiry for the authority for such a statement elicited the following -reply: “The Massachusetts Colonial Records [1: 149] state, under date -of 8 July, 1635, that ‘there is leave granted to twenty-one ffamilyes -to sitt down at Wessaguscus.’ Gov. Winthrop in his Journal [1: 194] -says, ‘at the court [5 mo. 8] Wessaguscus was made a plantation, a -Mr. Hull, a minister in England, and twenty one families with him, -allowed to sit down there--after called Weymouth.’ No explicit mention -is here made of the first formation of the church in this connection -but in lack of evidence of previous embodiment, it has always been -assumed to have been coetaneous with the settlement of the town--or -nearly so--following the general rule. Mr. Savage in his list of the -early churches of Massachusetts puts it down thus: ‘xi. Weymouth, -1635, July.’ The very careful and accurate Dr. Clark [Con’l ch’hs of -Mass., 16] says: ‘The same year (1635) about twenty families located in -Weymouth, from which the First church in that town was constituted, and -Rev. Joseph Hull settled over them.’ It is of course true that there -were religious services, and possibly a church at Weymouth before this, -but we are aware of no evidence carrying the life of the church now -existent back of 1635.” - -This may or may not be the true date at which the church was formed. -The evidence given in the foregoing article to establish the fact -certainly does not prove this, nor does it afford reasonable ground -for its probability, and is anything but satisfactory to the least -critical inquirer. If it proves anything it proves too much, for, while -it admits the lack of positive evidence upon the question, it makes an -admission which will go far to overthrow its own position. It says: “In -lack of evidence of previous embodiment, it has always been assumed -to have been coetaneous with the settlement of the town--or nearly -so--following the general rule.” - -Here are two points admitted, and the Journal mentioned should be -good authority upon which to rest them. First, the lack of positive -evidence, from which the necessary inference is that we must fall back -upon probability or conjecture, as the basis of our judgment in the -case. Second, that, as a general rule, churches were formed at the time -settlements were begun, or soon after. Without question the latter -statement is correct. The well known character and habits of the early -emigrants, and the facts that have come to us in connection with them, -prove this beyond a doubt. If, then, it can be proved that Weymouth -was a prosperous settlement at a much earlier date than that assumed -for it, 1635, we shall go far to prove the probability, at least, of -an earlier church organization. And this brings us to the subject of -the present paper, namely, What are our facts relative to the early -settlement of the town, and how do they concern the church and its -ministers? - -The very general assumption that there was no permanent settlement in -Weymouth, (using the name by which the town has since been known), -previous to the arrival of the Hull company, in 1635, can hardly -be sustained in face of the very strong evidence to the contrary. -C. F. Adams, Jr., Esq., in his address delivered 4 July, 1874, at -the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the -settlement of the town, and in his paper on the “Old Planters about -Boston Harbor,” read before the Massachusetts Historical Society, and -published in its collections, “the ablest paper,” says Rev. George E. -Ellis, D. D., no mean judge of such matters, “ever read before that -Society,” proves conclusively that the Gorges company, which settled -upon the deserted plantations of Thomas Weston’s people, in September, -1623, and which, it has been usually thought, was wholly broken up -in the following spring, left a number of its emigrants there, who -remained and became permanent settlers. These were joined from time to -time by single families or small companies, until, upon the arrival of -Mr. Hull’s company, the settlement had attained to quite respectable -proportions. - -This ground has been so carefully covered by Mr. Adams in the papers -before mentioned, that it will be necessary only to mention very -briefly the main facts, and to sustain them by such other evidence as -may be had from the court and town records, as well as from private -sources. - -A careful analysis of these records will show that, instead of the -company from Weymouth, England, in 1635, being the first settlers, -there were, at the date of its arrival, certainly not less than fifty -families, and perhaps seventy or eighty, already residing there; and -it is more than possible that this was an important reason why this -place was selected by this company for its settlement. A flourishing -colony already established, was sufficient evidence of good soil, a -good location, a favorable position for trade with the Indians, and for -communication with the other plantations about the bay; besides, and -this was no insignificant matter in those days, the protection thus -afforded against the savages. - -More than this, it is probable that many of the previous settlers -were relatives or friends of the later arrivals. Lenthal, in his -remarks before the Dorchester Council in 1639, says that many of his -former people had preceded him, giving this as a reason why he came -to Weymouth. The similarity of name, and the localities of some whose -former residences are known, give color to this probability; and the -name Weymouth, given at this time, 1635, to the plantation, may not be -wholly owing to the influx of new people, sailing from Weymouth, in -Dorset, but to the calling up of old memories in the minds of previous -settlers, who, years before, sailed from the same port and perhaps -lived there. - -An examination of the public records will afford evidence, surprising -in value and volume, of this early and continued settlement. Although -the earliest record in the archives of the town bears date 10 December, -1636, and very few entries are prior to 1644-5, yet there are those -undated that are probably earlier, and these, with the evidence -reflected from later dates, together with corroboration received from -other and contemporaneous sources, give additional and strong proof in -support of the same. - -Thus we have the Gorges colony in 1623, the arrival of a new company -from Weymouth, England, the following year, the capture of Morton -in 1628, the visit of Gov. Winthrop in 1632, the tax lists of -the Massachusetts Bay Colony for 1630 and onwards, which include -Wessaguscus, and the incidental mention from contemporaneous sources -covering nearly all of the intervening time. These afford a firm basis -upon which to rest an earlier settlement than that of the Hull company. -Later on, and still previous to that arrival, we learn from the -colonial records that in March, 1635, the bounds between Wessaguscus -and Mount Wollaston were referred to a committee for adjustment, and in -the July following, a similar arrangement was made to fix the bounds -between it and its next neighbor on the east, Bare-Cove, afterwards -Hingham. In October, Richard Long was fined for making clapboards from -good trees and selling them out of town, when he had been directed to -make them into shingles for Castle Island; the proceeds of the fine to -go towards a bridge in Wessaguscus. The Hull company could hardly have -been so far advanced in business by this time, as this state of things -would indicate; besides, Long was not a member of that company but must -have been a prior settler. In March of the next year, Thomas Applegate, -also a prior settler, was removed from his position as ferry keeper, -and Henry Kingman, one of the new-comers, appointed to succeed him. - -The assessment and payment of taxes is usually deemed conclusive -evidence in matters with which they come in connection. If there were -boundaries to be adjusted, there must have been residents on both sides -of the line who were in contention about them. A ferry and a bridge, as -means of communication, would hardly be necessary where there was no -population. - -The earliest of the town records contains a list of land owners with a -description of their property. The record is not dated, but the time -can be fixed with certainty, within about a year and a half. The names -of Elizabeth and Mary Fry, daughters of William Fry, deceased, are -upon this list, and as his burial is recorded as having taken place -October 26, 1642, the list must have been prepared subsequent to that -time. At the close of these property descriptions is the record of the -transfer of some of this same property, and it is described in the -lists as belonging to the grantors. Two of these transfers bear date -21 and 26 May, 1644, thus showing the latest limit at which it could -have been compiled. The true date is probably 1643, and there is reason -for believing, from internal evidence, that Rev. Samuel Newman was the -compiler, he being at that time a resident of the town, his removal to -Rehoboth taking place in 1644. - -In this list, which is very incomplete as will be easily seen, there -are the names of 71 persons with a general description of the property -then owned by them. In these descriptions the names of 17 others are -mentioned, from whom some of this property was purchased, or to whom -the original grants were made. There are also mentioned as owners of -property bounding the different lots described, the names of 52, who do -not appear in the other two classes, yet who must have been property -owners or they could not have been abuttors, making in all 123, at -least, real estate owners at the time the list was made up. Why this -large number escaped record we have no means of knowing, but since -such is the fact we may reasonably infer that many others may have -been omitted altogether, and that the full number was originally much -greater; in fact we have evidence that this was so, from incidental -mention in the later records. Taking, however, the lists as they come -to us, we have the names of 123, without doubt most of them heads -of families. These, at an average of five to the family, a moderate -estimate for those days, would furnish a population of more than 600. - -Of these 123, only 17 are found in the list of the Hull company, 20 -March, 1635; the remaining 106 must have come in at some other date. -Besides these above mentioned, there are found upon the birth record of -Weymouth, previous to 1644, the names of seven, belonging to families -not before enumerated, and this record is notoriously incomplete. A -careful examination of these 130 families will throw further light upon -the matter. Some of them came into the settlement subsequent to 1635, -but only a few. Many are known to have been earlier residents. Some -came with the Gorges company in 1623, and had resided here since that -time, and many others were among the arrivals continually coming in -during the eleven intervening years before the arrival of Mr. Hull and -his company. - -Bursley, Jeffries, and probably Ludden, with several others, were -members of the Gorges company. Henry Adams, John Allen, Robert Abell, -Stephen French, John Glover, Walter Harris, Edmond Hart, James Parker, -Thomas Richards, Thomas Rawlins, Clement Briggs, Richard Sylvester and -Clement Weaver, came in 1630, or soon after; William Torrey, as late as -1640, while the large majority were here at the date of the making up -of the record, but further than this nothing is known with certainty. -From the evidence we have, however, we may fairly presume that many -of them were settlers previous to the arrival of Gov. Winthrop, and -that some of them were of that company from Weymouth, England, in -1624, of whom Prince makes mention, and of whom something more will -be said hereafter. Of the settlers who were here in 1628 and 1630, we -know but little beyond the fact that they were here at that date, and -that Thomas Morton, of Mount Wollaston, of unpleasant memory, was on -intimate terms with some of them, and was arrested by the Plymouth -authorities, while on a visit here in 1628. - -So, then, our facts relative to the early settlement are briefly these. -A permanent settlement in the fall of 1623, by Capt. Robert Gorges and -his followers, continual additions during the next four years, the -record of the arrest of Morton in 1628, for which the settlement was -taxed £2, to £2: 10_s._ for Plymouth, showing the comparative size of -the two plantations, casual mention for the following three years, the -visit of Gov. Winthrop on his way to and from Plymouth, in 1632, record -of births in 1633, and the colonial tax lists from 1630 onwards until -the erection of the settlement into a plantation, with the right of a -deputy to the General Court. - -It will be remembered that the original settlers of Wessaguscus, or -Weymouth, were what would now be termed “squatters,” and their titles -simply those of possession, the real owners being the Indians, whose -rights were general and not individual. The English titles were vested -in governmental grants to the large companies like the Plymouth, the -Gorges and the Massachusetts Bay. These early settlers came into the -territory of Wessaguscus before it fairly was in the possession of -either company; consequently they could only acquire such title as the -native holders could give them, to be confirmed by later authority, -whatever that might be. Weymouth extinguished the Indian title to -its territory by purchase; the deed bearing date 26 April, 1642, was -executed by the resident chiefs, who sign themselves Wampetuc, alias -Jonas Webacowett, Nateaunt and Nahawton, and is recorded among the -Suffolk Deeds. Nateaunt’s beach and probable camping ground was at -the foot of Great Hill, in North Weymouth. The town was therefore now -in a position to confirm the planters in their possessions, and the -existence of the list of possessions made soon after, seems to indicate -that this was done. - -There are reasons why the early contemporaneous records and writers so -seldom mention this town and its affairs, in the fact of its different -origin, the marked jealousy, not to say unkind feelings with which -the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies regarded it. It had a -more commercial element in its constitution. It was, also, in its -incipience, episcopal in its ecclesiastical relations, which, although -gradually relaxing, carried enough of the flavor of the “establishment” -with it to make it anything but palatable to the taste of their puritan -and independent neighbors. The relations then existing between them and -their neighbors about the Bay we cannot determine with certainty now, -but we may judge something of what they were by the casual mention, and -the incidental exhibitions of feeling, cropping out but too frequently. - -If it were the usual custom in the settlement of this country to form -churches immediately after taking permanent possession, and of this -there can be little doubt, then Wessaguscus should have had a church -several years at least before the arrival of Rev. Joseph Hull; and -perhaps by a careful study of the facts we have, and the results -growing out of them, we may make our probabilities approach more nearly -to positive evidence than we have been able heretofore to do, although -we may not quite reach the point we wish to attain. - -With the Gorges company in the autumn of 1623, came Rev. William -Morrell, their minister, a clergyman of the Established Church. He -appears to have been a quiet, scholarly gentlemen, of cultivated -tastes and refined habits, much better fitted for the duties and -enjoyments of an English rectory, than to found and build up a church -in the rough settlements of a new country. He could better enjoy -the congenial society of his equals, at home, than guide the rude, -independent minds of those who constituted his companions in this, -to him, wholly unknown enterprise. The whole plan of the undertaking -was conceived and started in a spirit particularly unconscious of -the real position of affairs where it was to be executed. It was a -paper campaign, projected by an impracticable general, and entrusted -to incompetent officers. As such the result was inevitable failure. -It was started with organization and machinery enough to carry on a -colony of the greatest magnitude after years of successful growth; and -in order to give it dignity and importance, and to secure the favor of -the home government, its ecclesiastical character and position were -well cared for in the plan. Mr. Morrell was its minister, sufficient -for the needs of its first company. He was the pioneer to whom was -intrusted all of the preliminary work that was to speedily result in a -flourishing bishopric, and as such he was clothed with ample powers, -with full control of all the churches present and in immediate prospect -upon these shores. The reality soon satisfied him that the plan was a -failure, or that he was not the man to execute it. A rigorous climate, -an inhospitable coast, and the companionship of uncongenial spirits -were more than he had bargained for and more than he could bear. With -the discouragements of many of his associates he sympathized. Thus we -find that he remained with his charge about a year and a half and then -returned to England, sailing from Plymouth; having had the rare good -sense and discretion to keep his ecclesiastical powers and authority -to himself, for he did not attempt in the least degree to exercise -these, although they were so large, showing them only when about to -leave. With this marvellous prospect before him when he undertook the -position, and the facilities given him to carry out almost any ideas -he may have entertained respecting his ecclesiastical work, however -extravagant they may have been, is it presumptuous to suppose that he -did not neglect the very first step necessary to carry out the plan -of the enterprise, which would be the formation of a local church? We -have no positive evidence that he did this, but the probabilities would -certainly seem to favor such a proceeding. Without such an organization -he could hope to accomplish but little; with it he would have made -a beginning and laid the foundations, at least, upon which to erect -the imposing structure, that had filled the minds of the original -projectors in England. - -For the chronicles of the church and minister during the next ten years -we have to rely mainly upon a single statement, we might almost say -tradition, and that somewhat vague and unsatisfactory. The passage -in “Prince’s Chronicles” relating to this settlement seems not to be -credited by Mr. Adams, yet it is of such a nature that we can hardly -pass it by as entirely without foundation. It reads as follows: “This -year comes some addition to the few inhabitants of Wessagusset, from -Weymouth, England, who are another sort of people than the former.” -Then follows in brackets [“and on whose account I conclude the town is -since called Weymouth”]. To this is appended the following note:--“They -have the Rev. Mr. Barnard, their first non-conformist minister, who -dies among them. But whether he comes before or after 1630, or when -he dies is yet unknown, nor do I anywhere find the least hint of him, -but in the manuscript letter taken from some of the oldest people -of Weymouth.” The authority upon which this whole passage depends is -the manuscript letter. The statement is a very important one, and -would seem to be entitled to more weight than Mr. Adams is inclined to -allow it. Rev. Thomas Prince was born 15 May, 1687, and was old enough -before their decease, to know many of those who were the children -of the very earliest settlers of the town. From them he undoubtedly -obtained the information contained in the manuscript letter. And who -were these people and how much value should attach to their testimony? -As an answer let us look at the record of a single year, that of 1718, -when Mr. Prince was 31 years of age. Among the deaths of that year we -find the following:--Samuel, son of Elder Edward Bates, Capt. Stephen -French, son of Stephen French, (Edward Bates and Stephen French were -members of the Dorchester council, Feb., 1639, in the Lenthal matter, -from the Weymouth church); Ichabod, son of Capt. John Holbrook; James, -son of Dea. Jonas Humphrey; James, son of Robert Lovell; Lieut. Jacob, -son of Capt. James Nash; John, son of Robert Randall; Dea. John, son -of Joseph Shaw; William and Jonathan, sons of Capt. William Torrey, -and John, son of John Vinson. These were all old men, and their -fathers were among the first settlers of the town, and all, fathers -and sons, were among its most intelligent and important citizens. This -is the record for a single year. While Mr. Prince was in the prime of -life there were scores of such, from whom his information would come -only second hand. The death of Rev. Samuel Torrey, one of the ablest -ministers of his day, the pastor of the church in Weymouth for many -years, occurred in 1707, when Mr. Prince was 20 years old, whom he well -knew, and whose authority would be unquestioned. Here were sources of -information from which he probably drew his account. He has always had -the reputation of being a very careful historian, and any statement of -his should not be hastily set aside. Mr. Prince himself does not appear -to doubt its correctness, but is surprised to find no mention made of -the company and the minister, Mr. Barnard, in contemporary writers. As -before intimated, satisfactory reason could no doubt be found for such -omissions were the relations between the few scattered settlements of -the time known to us. If we may not give some credit to this tradition -upon such an authority, it will be hardly worth our while to pursue our -inquiries further in this direction, for it is by just such incidental -testimony, and that alone, that we are to establish much of our proof. -And this is often the most satisfactory evidence, for the very reason -that it is incidental and indirect, and therefore less liable to be -swayed by prejudice or predisposition. Again, the probabilities are -strongly in favor of the existence of this Mr. Barnard as the minister; -for with such antecedents and surroundings as these early planters -had, it would be natural and proper for them to have a minister, and -in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, may we not credit the -statement of Mr. Prince, that these settlers at Wessagusset had for -their minister, Mr. Barnard, who lived and died among them; and that -the statement did not come merely from a confusion of names, consequent -upon the appearance of Massachiel Barnard, a member of the Hull -company, who made his home in the town for several years? For similar -reasons may we not well believe that this people and minister were not -without a church for a series of years? - -We have no further record of church or minister until 1635, when -permission was given, 8 July, by the General Court, for Rev. Joseph -Hull and 21 families to sit down at Wessaguscus. On the 2d of -September, following, the name of the settlement was changed to -Weymouth, and it was made a plantation, with a privilege of a deputy to -the General Court. Mr. Hull was also made a freeman at the same time. -His first grant of land is recorded as in Weymouth, 12 June, 1636. The -same year he also received a grant of land in Hingham. In 1637, he was -reported as being still in Weymouth, while the same year, probably -later and transiently, he is named among the list of first settlers in -Salem. He was also heard from about the same time, preaching at Bass -River, Beverly. In September, 1638, he was chosen deputy to the General -Court from Hingham, and was also appointed a local magistrate for the -same town. His son, Benjamin, was baptized there, 24 March, 1639; and -again he was elected its deputy to the General Court. 5 May of that -year, he preached his farewell sermon in Weymouth, and later, in the -same month, is heard from at Barnstable, in Plymouth colony, making a -settlement. - -His sojourn at Barnstable was a short and stormy one, for he had hardly -become settled there with his little company when the territory was -entered upon by Rev. Mr. Lothrop and his flock from Scituate. There -his daughter Joanna was married in November, 1639, to Capt. John -Bursley, who was unquestionably the Bursley of the Gorges company, at -Weymouth, in 1623, whom we find back again in that town as a land owner -in 1643. Mr. Hull was made a freeman of Plymouth colony, in December, -1639. There seems to have been trouble in the Barnstable church, and -Mr. Hull preached at Yarmouth so acceptably, that, early in 1641 he -received a call from the church there, which he promptly accepted, and -for which both he and his wife were excommunicated by the Barnstable -church. On this account perhaps, and possibly from the influence of -the Plymouth authorities, who appear to have become hostile to him, his -stay at Yarmouth was of short duration, for we find him as preacher at -the Isle of Shoals, in March, 1642. He seems not yet to have wholly -abandoned the Plymouth colony, for, 11 March, 1642, his wife Agnes -renews her covenant with the Barnstable church, and 7 March, 1643, a -warrant for his arrest is issued by the court, “should he continue his -ministrations as minister or magistrate in that colony.” His troubles -there appear to have been adjusted, for he was received back into -the Barnstable church, 10 August, 1643. He now bids a final farewell -to that colony, and we next hear of him as preaching at York, Maine, -where, or in that vicinity, he remained for 8 or 10 years, subject -however to the not very friendly attentions of his Massachusetts Bay -colony acquaintances. He afterwards returned to England, and was, in -1659, rector of St. Buryan’s, Cornwall, where he remained about three -years, when his name appears among the ejected ministers under the “St. -Bartholomew Act.” He again took refuge in America, where he was found, -1665, the year of his death, once more at the Isle of Shoals, having -been driven from Oyster River by the Quakers. - -Mr. Hull was born in Somersetshire, England, about the year 1590; was -educated at Oxford University, St. Mary’s Hall, where he graduated -in 1614; became rector of Northleigh, Devon, in 1621, which position -he resigned in 1632, when he commenced gathering from his native -county and those surrounding it, the company with which he sailed from -Weymouth, Dorset, 20 March, 1635. - -“Mr. Hull,” says Savage, “came over in the Episcopal interest,” and his -sympathies appear to have leaned in that direction, although while in -America he was professedly a non-conformist, or Independent; hence, -probably, the jealousy and petty persecution which followed him with -more or less virulence, during the greater part of his residence on -these shores. He was a man of worth and learning by the admission of -Hubbard. He must have been a popular man from his success in securing -followers to make up his company of emigrants, and his selection by the -voice of his constituents at three different elections as deputy to the -General Court, twice at Hingham, and once at Barnstable. He must have -been an acceptable preacher from the eagerness with which his services -were sought. Dr. Mather places him among our “first good men;” and -Pike, his successor at Dover, remembers him as a reverend minister, -while Gov. Winthrop says he was “a very contentious man.” Possibly the -worthy Governor may not have been quite free from prejudice against -the free-spoken, Independent minister, with Episcopal antecedents and -tendencies, yet the frequent removals, numerous troubles, vexations -and lawsuits, certainly give room for the Governor’s opinion. No -fault seems to have been found with his moral or religious character, -but he was certainly unfortunate while in this country by having -circumstances so often against him, or in having so many bad neighbors. -It is somewhat doubtful whether he was ever settled over the church in -Weymouth. - -Rev. Thomas Jenner was in Weymouth in the early part of 1636, and took -the freeman’s oath in December of that year. According to Mr. Savage -he was in Roxbury a year or two previous to that. Soon, in 1637, he -received a call from the Weymouth people. The same year, according -to Winthrop and Hubbard, “divers of the ministers and elders went to -Weymouth, to reconcile the differences between the people and Mr. -Jenner, whom they had called for their pastor, and had good success.” -We find, also, from the General Court records, that this course was -ordered by the court. He remained there for several years, and in 1640 -represented the town in the General Court. He retired from the ministry -there for some reason unexplained by the records, although we may get -a hint at what it was, and went to Saco, Maine. Not much is known of -him, further than this: that he came to Weymouth as early at least as -the year following the arrival of Mr. Hull, and that he came in the -interest of the ministers and authorities of the Massachusetts Bay -colony, and was sustained by them through the troubles that ensued. - -And now a third minister appears upon the scene, Rev. Robert Lenthal, -who was in Weymouth as early as 1637, where “he disseminated his new -doctrines, made proselytes and collected a strong party to oppose the -new organization of the church, which took place 30 Jan’y, 1638,” -according to notes appended to a sermon preached by Rev. Josiah Bent -at the dedication of the new meeting-house in North Weymouth, 28 -November, 1832. These notes were prepared by Hon. Christopher Webb, who -was deeply interested in Weymouth history and had been long engaged -in collecting materials for historical purposes. Mr. Savage also -states that Mr. Lenthal was in Weymouth in 1637, “but not pleasing the -Governor was forbid to be ordained.” Matters in the church, instead of -growing better after the council of 1637, which met with such “good -success in reconciling the differences between Mr. Jenner and his -people in Weymouth,” became so much worse that it was deemed necessary -to call a second council or conference, which was held at the house of -Capt. Israel Stoughton, in Dorchester, a magistrate of the colony, 10 -February, 1639. Notes of the proceedings were taken by Capt. Robert -Keayne (brother-in-law of Rev. John Wilson), which have been preserved -among the Stiles manuscripts in Yale College Library. From these notes -much valuable information has come to light. The council must have been -considered a very important one, since we find among its members, Rev. -John Wilson, pastor, and Rev. John Cotton, teacher, of the church in -Boston; Rev. Zechariah Symmes, teacher, of the church in Charlestown; -Rev. John Weld, pastor, and Rev. John Eliot, teacher, of the church in -Roxbury; Rev. Samuel Newman, (who went to Weymouth the same year); Rev. -Thomas Jenner, of Weymouth; Mr. Edward Bates and Mr. Stephen French, -of Weymouth, the former of whom, and not the latter as Mr. Trumbull -has it, was then, or soon became, a ruling elder of the church in that -town; also a private man, perhaps Capt. Keayne himself. - -In those days one of the surest and most expeditious ways of disposing -of a troublesome competitor, and one which has not yet been entirely -abandoned, was to accuse him of heresy, and it was a very poor use of -favorable circumstances that failed to convict, and thus dispose of -the difficulty. The points which Mr. Lenthal was called to answer, and -upon which he was supposed to differ, were, the constituents of the -real church, and justification by faith. The churches of New England -at that time very tenaciously held to the necessity of a covenant for -giving “essential being” to the church, while Mr. Lenthal believed that -baptism and not the covenant constituted this “essential being,” as -it was termed. He also objected to reordination after a new election. -The real point of difference seems to have been the relative merits -of the church and parish systems, perhaps, as at present illustrated -in the settlement of ministers by ordination or installation, or -in their employment as “stated supply;” settling or only hiring; a -matter of purely church polity. The churches believed strongly in the -antecedence of election to ordination of church officers. The second -point was justification by faith, as held by these churches against -the construction put upon it by Mrs. Hutchinson and her adherents; a -difference rather metaphysical than doctrinal, as it would appear to -us. Both of these questions were satisfactorily settled, as far as the -session of the council was concerned; Mr. Lenthal being sincere enough, -or politic enough, not to differ too strongly from his judges. - -The facts brought out were, that Mr. Lenthal had previously been a -minister in good repute in England; that in the preceding years several -of his people had come to America and were settled at Weymouth, and -he expected more to follow. Mr. Jenner was now at Weymouth; Mr. Hull -had not yet preached his farewell sermon, and there was not absolute -harmony among the people. Upon Mr. Lenthal’s appearance in New England, -his former people who had settled in Weymouth, with probably some -others, enough to form quite a strong party, urged him to come to that -place and be their minister, to which he willingly consented. - -In attempting, however, to carry out this arrangement, Mr. Jenner -being in possession, and having a strong official support, trouble -ensued, so great that the salary of Mr. Jenner failed to be paid; -hence the conference, although the plea was unsoundness in doctrine, -on the part of Mr. Lenthal. Mr. Jenner and Mr. Newman, as previously -stated, were both members of this council, the former to be a judge -in his own case, and the latter a party in interest, as we find him, -almost immediately, upon the ground, and within a short time in full -possession of the field; Mr. Hull preaching his farewell sermon the -same year; Mr. Jenner a resident of Saco, within two years; while Mr. -Lenthal goes to that refuge for the persecuted, Rhode Island, where -he was admitted as freeman, 6 August, 1640, and employed by the town -of Newport in teaching a public school. It is said that he returned to -England in 1641 or 1642. The trouble seems to have been that Weymouth -was considered a public manor upon which any minister had a right -to poach, and the difficulties that ensued in consequence, although -satisfactorily settled, would not stay settled, but were continually -breaking out afresh. - -In this connection, J. Hammond Trumbull, in his notes upon the Stiles -paper, published in the Congregational Quarterly for April, 1877, -from which the report of the council of 1639 was taken, quotes from -Winthrop as follows: “It is observable this church and that of Lynn -could not hold together, nor could have any elders join or hold with -them. The reason appeared to be because they did not begin according -to the rule of the gospel.” Was this a church formed by Mr. Hull, or -was it an attempt to form a second? The vigorous repressive measures -of the General Court seem to have prepared the way for a permanent -settlement of the difficulties, the prominent actors in the Lenthal -faction being quite summarily dealt with. John Smith was fined £20 -and committed during the pleasure of the court; Richard Silvester was -fined £2 and disfranchised, for “disturbing the peace by combining with -others to hinder the orderly gathering of a church in Weymouth, and to -set up another there,--and for undue procuring the hands of many to a -blank for that purpose.” Mr. Ambrose Martin, “for calling the church -covenant a stinking carrion and a human invention, etc., was fined £10 -and ordered to go to Mr. Mather to be instructed by him.” Mr. Thomas -Makepeace, “because of his novile disposition was informed that we -are weary of him, unless he reform;” and James Britton, “for his not -appearing was committed, and for his gross lying, dissimulation and -contempt of ministers, churches and covenant was openly whipt.” Thus -promptly was heresy and insubordination crushed by our fathers, and -freedom of speech, action and conscience protected,--in their way. - -The way having been thus prepared, Rev. Samuel Newman came to Weymouth -in 1639, where he remained for four or five years, but the seeds of -former troubles had not yet ceased to sprout; the difficulty was -not wholly overcome; the spirit of unrest that had for some years -so possessed the people would not so soon be quieted. He found his -position anything but a bed of roses, and he was glad to emigrate to -escape the labor of so hard a field; therefore, in 1644, he, with some -40 families, sought refuge in Seekonk, which, in memory of the occasion -and its cause, he called Rehoboth, “The Lord hath made room for us.” -Not because Weymouth had become too narrow in territory for them, for -probably not a quarter of its acres had been taken up, but for the -same reason that separated Abraham and Lot. The pressure was on the -spirit and not upon the body; and so, rather than continue the quarrel, -they sought a new home further in the wilderness. Common tradition, -which most of the historians have followed, says that he took with him -a majority of his congregation, but with the facts relative to the -population that we have already before us, it will be easy to prove -that this could not have been correct, for we have seen that at the -date of the first meeting held by the original planters of Seekonk, -which by the way was held in Weymouth, 24 October, 1643, the latter -town had at least 130 families, probably a good many more, while of -these only 23 names are found in the list of the original proprietors -of Seekonk, four of whom certainly remained in Weymouth, leaving but -19 out of which to manufacture a majority of 130. This emigration was -indeed a serious loss, but its general effect was hardly perceptible, -and the business of the town apparently went on as though nothing -important had happened. - -Rev. Mr. Newman was born in Banbury, England, in 1600; graduated at -Oxford, in 1620; came to Dorchester, Mass., in 1636, and to Weymouth, -in 1639; whence he removed to Rehoboth, where he died 5 July, 1663. -“He was a hard student, an animated preacher, and an excellent man, -ardently beloved and long lamented by his people. He compiled by the -light of pine knots, a concordance of the Bible, the third at that time -in the English language, and the best. While living he was defrauded of -the pecuniary profits of his work, and when dead, he was robbed also of -the name, the work being afterwards known as ‘Cruden’s Concordance.’” - -With the withdrawal of Mr. Newman, and the settlement of Mr. Thomas -Thacher, who was ordained 2 January, 1644, the perplexing trouble of -the Weymouth church came to an end, and an era of extended prosperity -dawned upon it. From this time forward the history of the church can be -traced quite fully and accurately, although it has no records of its -own previous to the time of Rev. William Smith, those for the first -hundred years of its existence being missing. - -So much for our brief record of facts. Some of them, however, and those -among the more important, need to be accounted for or explained, in -order to make the narrative consistent and satisfactory. The intense -difficulties of the eight years from the arrival of Mr. Hull in 1635, -to the departure of Mr. Newman in 1644, must have had an origin that -is not revealed to us in the records at our command. What were the -causes that produced them and contributed to keep them alive during -this period? Why is it that contemporaneous writers have so little to -say about this settlement and its events during its first twenty years? -Perhaps a closer look at the facts we have may throw some light upon -the subject. - -Rev. Mr. Morrell, it is admitted, came to this town in the Episcopal -interest. He was a clergyman of the Established Church, clothed with -extraordinary powers to form, govern and perpetuate churches of that -communion. Whatever influence he exerted was in favor of the extension -and strengthening of that organization. His people were in sympathy -with him in this matter, and if he founded a church here it was of -that denomination; if he did not, he left influences behind him that -would naturally work towards the accomplishment of that purpose, and -these influences would as naturally continue to operate while these -settlers formed an important element in that community; they would -of necessity oppose the ecclesiastical systems of the Plymouth and -Bay colonies, then or soon to become their near neighbors. While the -settlement was one, before the arrival of Gov. Winthrop and the rapid -increase of settlements around the Bay, there was nothing to call up -this feeling of opposition, for the few emigrants who came from time -to time, even if their sympathies were at variance with the previous -settlers, had enough to do to look after their own affairs; besides, -the colony was not strong enough to quarrel. The arrival of Gov. -Winthrop, the establishment of the colonial government, and the large -tide of emigration that set in immediately after, had its effect upon -the little plantation of Wessaguscus. The favorable situation, and the -already established community, drew in many new settlers from other -points, and the influence of the government, and the religious system -it supported, soon made itself felt, and with the assistance derived -from these sources, became at length predominant. Still the old -feeling of loyalty to the Church of England and to the Gorges company, -was powerful enough to form a strong party. - -Such was the position of affairs, when, in the summer of 1635, the -arrival of Mr. Hull and his score of families introduced a new element -of discord into the already divided community. The new comers, not in -full sympathy with either faction, deemed themselves strong enough -and of sufficient importance to have at least an equal voice in the -councils of the town, and as there was no minister at their coming, and -as they brought one ready-made at their hands, what better could they -do than accept him for all? This at once aroused the opposition of the -older settlers, and measures were immediately taken to prevent such a -result. The friends of the government seem to have been the strongest -and most energetic. They select Mr. Thomas Jenner, a recent emigrant -to Dorchester, and invite him to take the field in opposition, which -he was very ready to do, for we find him here in the year following. -Success appears to have followed the movement, for Mr. Hull virtually -retires from the contest, as the records show him in 1636 and 1637 as a -candidate for the ministerial position in other places, and soon, with -a sufficiently permanent location in the neighboring town of Hingham, -to become its deputy to the General Court. Still he does not appear to -have wholly relinquished his claim upon the Weymouth pulpit, for it was -not until 1639 that his farewell sermon was preached. - -The jealousy of the original settlers of any authority below the crown, -outside of their own patent, may have prevented as close an intimacy -with the neighboring plantations as would otherwise have existed; -and this would furnish a reason why it is so seldom mentioned by -them in connection with their own affairs. However this may be, the -authority of the colonial government was gradually extended over the -settlement, and the people submitted with the best grace they could, -but not without an occasional exhibition of the old spirit by way of -protest. The town was reorganized, its name changed, and the privilege -of a deputy to the General Court granted to it in the summer and fall -of 1635. At once the three opposing elements show themselves, and the -little town chooses three deputies, instead of the one to which it was -entitled. Capt. John Bursley represents the original settlers, Mr. Wm. -Reade those who favor the colonial government, while Mr. John Upham is -the selection of the Hull emigrants, and, as has been sometimes the -case in later days, the patronage of the ruling power proves the most -powerful, and Mr. Reade retains his seat, while his two competitors -quietly retire. - -This of course did not tend to soothe the troubles, for, as we have -already seen, they grew so rapidly, developing mainly in the church, -the civil powers being too powerful for open resistance, that in 1637, -the General Court deemed it necessary to interfere and ordered a -council of prominent officers and ministers to settle the differences. -This was followed by a second, neither party being willing to submit to -an adverse decision. And, as if this difficulty were not enough, about -the same time, 1637, appeared another discordant element in the person -of Rev. Robert Lenthal, who had already some partizans in the divided -parish. He needed but little solicitation to join in the fray, and we -have seen the result of his interference, as far as the public records -show. And now, in 1638, Mr. Samuel Newman becomes a fourth aspirant -for the Weymouth pulpit. Truly there must have been a wonderfully -attractiveness in this place for people to draw so many illustrious -teachers thither at the imminent risk of woeful discomfiture. Yet -nothing can be more certain than that about the year 1638-9, there -were no less than four ministers urging their claims to the pastorate -of the Weymouth church, and that each of them had a strong following; -nor can it be doubted that the causes that produced this state of -affairs were deep-seated and some of them of long standing. - -The question of the existence of the church through all of these -eventful years cannot be definitely settled with the evidence we -now have. We have proved a permanent and comparatively prosperous -settlement during the whole of this period, and this fact argues a -strong probability of a church organization, for in those days it was -hardly reputable for a community to be without one. We are certain of -Mr. Morrell, and we have important testimony in favor of Mr. Barnard, -previous to 1635,--another argument in favor of the existence of a -church, for ministers without churches were not so common in those -days as at the present time. The coming of Rev. Joseph Hull in 1635, a -regularly ordained minister, and of three others in the three following -years, without any record of tradition of the formation of a church -during that period, while there are many references to a church already -existing, furnish perhaps the strongest argument in favor of a prior -organization. - -Negative evidence, or lack of positive statement, should not be forced, -but since it has been employed to prove the formation of a church here -at a given date, perhaps we may be permitted to urge it a little more -strongly in favor of an earlier date for the same event. If there -were, as is admitted, ten other churches in existence on the shores of -the Bay at the arrival of the Hull company in 1635, and that company -proceeded immediately to form the eleventh, in accordance with the -universal custom, several of the preceding ten must have been called -to assist in its organization, in which case we can hardly conceive -it possible that some one at least of the number should not have made -the transaction a matter of record, or that their records should not -in some way allude to it, for the formation of a new church was then a -matter of some importance, but nowhere, in church or state or private -records, do we find the slightest intimation of such an event; whereas, -had there been a church formed at an earlier date, when there was no -other existing on the shores of New England, besides that at Plymouth, -and that not in sympathy, we have a very good reason why we hear -nothing of it. - -The material needs of the new settlement and other causes before -alluded to might prevent its own record, while the distractions -afterwards existing, and the consequent jealousies between the -contending parties might easily forbid any subsequent one. The theory -of a regular succession of pastors beginning with Mr. Hull in 1635, -and following down through Mr. Jenner, Mr. Lenthal and Mr. Newman, -until Mr. Thacher is reached, has been a favorite one, but is hardly -admissible in face of the evidence already produced, which would rather -go to show the attempted formation of a second church by some of the -conflicting interests in opposition to one already in existence. We may -hope at some time to discover further testimony with which to settle -this vexed question, but for the present we must be content to allow it -to rest upon no firmer basis than probability, yet with that strongly -in favor of a much earlier organization of the church, reaching back -perhaps to 1623. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[99] The Old North Church of Weymouth was organized Jan. 30, 1638/9. -The diary of the Rev. Peter Hobart, the minister at Hingham, Mass., -from 1635 to 1679, reads: “Jan. 30, 1639, [N. S.] A church gathered -at Weymouth.” (From a paper on “The Organization of the Old North -Church of Weymouth,” read before the Weymouth Historical Society, Feb. -24, 1904, by George W. Chamberlain, and published in the _Weymouth -Gazette_, March 18, following.) - - - - - WEYMOUTH THIRTY YEARS LATER - - A PAPER READ BY - - CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS - -BEFORE THE WEYMOUTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY, AT THE FOGG OPERA HOUSE, SOUTH - WEYMOUTH, ON THE EVENING OF TUESDAY, THE 23D SEPTEMBER, 1904. - - -It is already five months since your Society celebrated the completion -of its twenty-fifth year. It may be said to have then attained its -majority. Yet, perhaps, this middle period of September is more -appropriate for your anniversary than a day in April; for towards the -middle of September, 1623, that is, two hundred and eighty-one years -ago at this time,--possibly on what was then the thirteenth of the -month, now the twenty-third,--Captain Robert Gorges, at the head of -a little company of adventurers, sat down at Wessagusset. Thus, as -nearly as can now be ascertained, the permanent settlement of a part -of what has for hard upon two whole centuries and three-quarters of -another been known as Weymouth,--the second permanent settlement in -Massachusetts,--dates from this season, and, possibly, from this day -of September. The Weymouth Historical Society commemorates the event -to-night. It might well commemorate it annually. - -But, in the first place, I crave indulgence while I say a single -word personal to myself. I want to explain why I meant to be here -last April, and why I am here now. Towards Weymouth, I confess to a -peculiarly kindly feeling. Not only was Weymouth the birthplace and -maiden home of one whom, among my ancestors, I specially reverence, but -to Weymouth I feel under personal obligation. It is a short story, soon -told; it relates also wholly to myself, but here I feel at liberty to -tell it. - -Just thirty years ago last spring, on a day in April, if my memory -serves me right, your old-time selectman, James Humphrey,--remembered -by you as “Judge” Humphrey,--called at my office, then in Pemberton -Square, Boston. Taking a chair by my desk, he next occasioned wide-eyed -surprise on my part by inviting me, on behalf of a committee of the -town of Weymouth, to deliver an historical address at the coming -250th anniversary of the permanent settlement of the place. Recently -returned to civil life from four years of active military service, and -nominally a lawyer, I was at that time chairman of the State Board -of Railroad Commissioners, and, as such, devoting my attention to -questions connected with the growth and development of transportation. -To independent historical investigation I had never given a thought. As -to Weymouth, I very honestly confess I hardly knew where the town so -called was, much less anything of its story; having a somewhat vague -impression only that my great-grandmother, Parson William Smith’s -daughter, Abigail, had been born there, and there lived her girlhood. -Such was my surprise, I remember, that I suggested to Mr. Humphrey -he must be acting under a misapprehension, intending to invite some -other member of my family, possibly my father. He, however, at once -assured me such was not the case, satisfying me finally that, a man -sober and in his right mind, he knew what he was about, and who he -was talking to. Subsequently, I learned that he did indeed act as the -representative of a committee appointed at the last annual Weymouth -town meeting; for an explanation of the choice appeared,--as “a -great-grandson of Abigail (Smith) Adams, a native of Weymouth,” I had -been selected for the task. Overcoming my surprise, I told Mr. Humphrey -I would take the matter under consideration. Doing so, I finally -concluded to accept. Though I had not the faintest idea of it at the -time, that acceptance marked for me an epoch; I had, in fact, come to -a turning-point in life. That, instinctively, if somewhat unadvisedly -and blindly, I followed the path thus unexpectedly opened has been to -me ever since cause of gratitude to Weymouth. For thirty years it has -led me through pastures green and pleasant places. But at the moment, -so little did I know of the earlier history of Massachusetts, I was -not aware that any settlement had been effected hereabouts immediately -after that at Plymouth, or that the first name of the place was -Wessagusset; nor, finally, that Thomas Morton had at about the same -time, erected the famous May-pole at Merrymount, on the hill opposite -where I dwelt. Thus the field into which I was invited was one wholly -new to me, and unwittingly I entered on it; but, for once, fortune -builded for me better than I knew. I began on a study which has since -lasted continuously. - -Weymouth is, therefore, in my mind closely and inseparably associated, -not only with the commencement of what I dare not call a career, -but with a fortuitous incident which led for me to more pleasurable -pursuits than elsewhere it has been given me to follow. - -That address of mine, the immediate outcome of the invitation extended -through Mr. Humphrey in 1874, has since been more than once kindly -referred to by investigators here in Weymouth; and, I infer from -my being here to-night, it is even yet not wholly forgotten. I may -add also that it is distinctly the cause of my being here; for, as -six months ago I thought over your invitation to address a Weymouth -audience once more, it seemed to offer what must be a rare opportunity -in any life,--an opportunity to go back, after years of study directed -largely to historical topics, more especially to topics connected with -New England, Massachusetts and the region hereabout, and to review -what I in the beginning said, close to the spot where I said it. -Accordingly, I this evening propose to find my text in what I uttered -on King-oak hill thirty years ago last July; and, in so doing, to pass -judgment upon it. - -For a first performance, I will honestly confess it does not seem to -me, as I now look over it, wholly devoid of merit. Curiously enough -also, the best portions of it are distinctly the closing portions, in -which I wrote with a warmth and feeling absent from the earlier part. -Nevertheless, that Weymouth address of 1874, as I now see it, was, as -a whole, wrong in conception and faulty in execution. It was wrong in -conception, because in it I tried to cover too much ground. That it -was defective in execution, is most apparent. Accepting an invitation -to deliver a commemorative address on the 250th anniversary of the -permanent settlement of Weymouth, I attempted an historical sketch -covering the town’s whole existence. I ought to have confined myself -to a close analysis of its first twenty years. That period would have -opened to me, had I known how to use it, a field of investigation at -once ample in extent and curiously rich. Nor is this all; it would have -done a great deal more. Unwittingly, I missed the opportunity of a -life-time. Simply, I was not equal to the occasion. My consolation is -that few would have been equal to it. But of this, more presently. - -To make either a comprehensive or careful analysis of the early history -of your town now, is out of my power; nor would one evening’s time -admit of it. I will, however, say that to-day, not less than in the -days of the late James Savage, “a careful history of Weymouth is much -wanted.”[100] Nine years after my prentice effort, your associate and -recording secretary, Gilbert Nash, approached the subject both with a -better comprehension, and a knowledge much closer and far wider than -I could boast. But my effort, supplemented though it was by him, left -much to be desired,--a desideratum it should be the mission of this -Society to make good. - -Turning then to Wessagusset, and the early history of Weymouth, and -confining myself to them, I find its record composed of two parts:--the -Wessagusset settlements, pre-historic almost in character, and the -subsequent struggling into life of Weymouth, in the early years of the -colony. The story of Wessagusset is in itself curiously interesting, -as well as of momentous importance; and it was in connection with that -I missed the opportunity of a life-time, to which I just referred. It -vexes me now to think of it. It even brings to mind Whittier’s familiar -lines: - - “For of all sad words of tongue or pen, - The saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’” - -It came about in this wise:--Weymouth is very classic ground; to what -an extent it is classic I certainly did not at the time now in question -appreciate; nor, I am confident, did your people appreciate it. Not -only did some of the most dramatic, as well as momentous, episodes in -the early life of Massachusetts here occur, but it so chanced that -one at least of those episodes has been woven into a poem familiar as -a household word. I refer, of course, to Longfellow’s “Courtship of -Miles Standish.” It was with that I should forever have connected my -effort of 1874; I should have vindicated history, while showing how, as -material for poetical treatment, Longfellow had failed to use it as it -might have been used. He also had proved unequal to the occasion. You -remember the episode in Longfellow’s poem to which I refer; it is the -seventh part, entitled “The March of Miles Standish.” I would like to -read the whole of this part to you; and then, in sharp contrast, set -before you the historic facts. I must, however, confine myself to some -two score lines of the poem, enough to recall its spirit, and follow -them with a mere outline of the actual facts. But that will suffice: - - “Meanwhile the stalwart Miles Standish was marching steadily - northward, - Winding through forest and swamp, and along the trend of the seashore. - * * * * * - - “After a three days’ march he came to an Indian encampment - Pitched on the edge of a meadow, between the sea and the forest; - Women at work by the tents, and the warriors, horrid with war paint, - Seated about a fire, and smoking and talking together; - Who, when they saw from afar the sudden approach of the white men, - Saw the flash of the sun on breastplate and sabre and musket, - Straightway leaped to their feet, and two, from among them advancing, - Came to parley with Standish, and offer him furs as a present; - Friendship was in their looks, but in their hearts there was hatred. - Braves of the tribe were these, and brothers gigantic in stature, - Huge as Goliath of Gath, or the terrible Og, king of Bashan; - One was Pecksuot named, and the other was called Wattawamat. - * * * * * - - “But when he heard their defiance, the boast, the taunt, and the - insult, - All the hot blood of his race, of Sir Hugh and of Thurston de - Standish, - Boiled and beat in his heart, and swelled in the veins of his temples. - Headlong he leaped on the boaster, and, snatching his knife from its - scabbard, - Plunged it into his heart, and, reeling backward, the savage - Fell with his face to the sky, and a fiendlike fierceness upon it. - Straight there arose from the forest the awful sound of the war-whoop, - And, like a flurry of snow on the whistling wind of December, - Swift and sudden and keen came a flight of feathery arrows. - Then came a cloud of smoke, and out of the cloud came the lightning, - Out of the lightning thunder; and death unseen ran before it. - Frightened the savages fled for shelter in swamp and in thicket, - Hotly pursued and beset; but their sachem, the brave Wattawamat, - Fled not; he was dead. Unswerving and swift had a bullet - Passed through his brain, and he fell with both hands clutching the - greensward, - Seeming in death to hold back from his foe the land of his fathers. - - “There on the flowers of the meadow the warriors lay, and above them, - Silent, with folded arms, stood Hobomok, friend of the white man. - * * * * * - - “Thus the first battle was fought and won by the stalwart Miles - Standish. - When the tidings thereof were brought to the village of Plymouth, - And as a trophy of war the head of the brave Wattawamat - Scowled from the roof of the fort, which at once was a church and - a fortress, - All who beheld it rejoiced, and praised the Lord, and took courage.” - -Such is the poet’s rendering; now what were the facts? We all -recognize in these cases what is known as “poetic license.” It is the -unquestioned privilege of the poet to so mould hard facts and actual -conditions as to make realities conform to his idea of the everlasting -fitness of things. On the other hand, it is but fair that, in so doing, -the artist should improve on the facts. In other words, he should -at least not make them more prosaic, and distinctly less dramatic, -than they were. In the present case, I submit, Longfellow, instead of -rendering things more poetic and dramatic, made them distinctly less -so. This I shall now proceed to show. - -And here let me premise that it was the habit of Longfellow, as I think -the unfortunate habit, to improvise,--so to speak, to evolve from his -inner consciousness,--the local atmosphere and conditions of those -poems of his in which he dealt with history and historical happenings. -It was so with the “Ride of Paul Revere;” it was so with the episodes -made use of in the “Tales of a Wayside Inn;” it is notorious it was so -in the case of “Evangeline” and Acadia; it was strikingly, and far more -inexcusably, so in the case of “Miles Standish” and Plymouth. While -preparing a poem which has deservedly become an American classic, as -such throwing a glamour of romance over that entire region to which it -has given the name of the “Evangeline Country,” Longfellow never sought -to draw inspiration from actual contact with that “forest primeval” of -which he sang; nor again, when dealing with the events of our own early -history, did he once visit, much less study, the scene of that which he -pictured. He imagined everything. I gravely question whether he even -knew that the conflict he describes in the lines I have just quoted -took place on the shores of Boston bay, and at a point not twenty miles -from the historic mansion in which he lived, and the library where he -imagined. He certainly, and more’s the pity, never stood on King-oak -hill, or sailed up the Fore-river. - -What actually occurred here in April, 1623, I have endeavored elsewhere -to describe in detail, just as it appears in our early records. Those -curious on the subject will find my narrative in a chapter (vi) -entitled “The Smoking Flax Blood-Quenched,” in a work of mine, the -matured outcome of my address here in 1874, called “Three Episodes of -Massachusetts History.” To that I refer them. Meanwhile, suffice it -for me now to say, the actual occurrences of those early April days -were stronger, more virile, and infinitely more dramatic and better -adapted to poetic treatment,--in one word, more Homeric,--than the -wholly apocryphal, and somewhat mawkish, cast given them in the lines -I have quoted. Indeed, so far as the incidents drawn from the history -of Weymouth are concerned, the whole is, in the original records, -replete with vigorous life. It smacks of the savage; it is racy of the -soil; it smells of the sea. It begins with the flight of Phineas Pratt -from Wessagusset to Plymouth, his loss of the way, his fear lest his -foot-prints in the late-lingering snow banks should betray him, his -nights in the woods, his pursuit by the Indians, his guidance by the -stars and sky, his fording the icy river, and his arrival in Plymouth -just as Miles Standish was embarking for Wessagusset. Nothing then can -be more picturesque, more epic in outline, than Standish’s voyage, -with his little company of grim, silent men in that open boat. Sternly -bent on action, they skirted, under a gloomy eastern sky, along the -surf-beaten shore, the mist driving in their faces as the swelling -seas broke roughly in white surge over the rocks and ledges which -still obstruct the course they took. From the distance came the dull, -monotonous roar of the breakers, indicating the line of the coast. -At last they cast anchor before the desolate and apparently deserted -block-house here in your Fore-river, and presently some woe-begone -stragglers answered their call. Next came the meeting with the savages, -the fencing talk, and the episode of what Holmes, in still another -poem, refers to as, - - “Wituwamet’s pictured knife - And Pecksuot’s whooping shout;” - -all closing with the fierce hand-to-hand death grapple on the -blood-soaked, slippery floor of the rude stockade. Last of all the -return to Plymouth, with the gory head of Wattawamat, “that bloody and -bold villain,” a ghastly freight, stowed in the rummage of their boat. - -The whole story is, in the originals, full of life, simplicity and -vigor, needing only to be turned into verse. But, in place of the -voyage, we have in Longfellow’s poem a march through the woods, -which, having never taken place, has in it nothing characteristic; -an interview before an Indian encampment “pitched on the edge of a -meadow, between the sea and the forest,” at which the knife scene is -enacted, instead of in the rude block-house; and, finally, the killing -takes place amid a discharge of firearms, and “there on the flowers of -the meadow the warriors” are made to lie; whereas in fact they died -far more vigorously, as well as poetically, on the bloody floor of -the log-house in which they were surprised, “not making any fearful -noise, but catching at their weapons and striving to the last.” And as -for “flowers,” it was early in April, and, in spots, the snow still -lingered! - -That Longfellow wrote very sweet verse, none will deny; but, assuredly, -he was not Homeric. At his hands your Weymouth history failed to have -justice done it. The case is, I fear, irremediable. - -Another cause of great subsequent regret to me has been the fact that, -in 1874, the exact locality of the site of the original Wessagusset -settlement, and of Weston’s block-house, in which took place the death -grapple just referred to, was not known. Tradition asserted that it was -somewhere on Phillips creek, above the Fore-river bridge. Seventeen -years later, in a volume entitled “The Defences of Norumbega,” -published in 1891, by the late Prof. E. N. Horsford, I chanced across -a reproduction of Gov. Winthrop’s map of Massachusetts bay of 1634. -This map was in 1884 discovered by Henry Waters, among the manuscripts -of the Sloan collection, preserved in the British Museum.[101] A -portion of it, covering the Weymouth Fore-river and the Wessagusset -site, was reproduced in the printed “Proceedings of the Massachusetts -Historical Society” (Second Series, vol. vii, pp. 22-30), and thereon -is indicated the site of the original Wessagusset. That site no longer -exists; and it will ever be matter of profound regret to me that the -spot was not known, and the exact location fixed, a few years earlier, -at the time of the celebration of 1874. The spot was then unimproved, -as the expression goes; it has since been “improved” out of existence. -Sold for a trifling sum as a gravel, or a material, pit, had what has -since come to light then been known, it might have been secured, and -dedicated forever as a public water park fronting on the Fore-river. A -permanent memorial should there have been erected. - -Instead, bodily carried away, it has literally been cast into the -sea; and the tide now daily ebbs and flows over the spot where, two -hundred and eighty-two years ago last April, Thomas Weston’s “stout -knaves” established themselves; and where, on April 6, 1623, that -hand-to-hand death grapple took place between Miles Standish and the -fierce Pecksuot, the result of which struck terror to the hearts of -the Massachusetts savages, and gave immediate safety, and years of -subsequent peace, to the infant Plymouth plantation. - -Thus, what occurred at Wessagusset in that pre-historic period has -been in poetry and common acceptance so disguised, perverted and -transmogrified as to have lost all semblance of itself. It can no -longer be recognized; while the place where it all occurred has ceased -to be. So it only for us remains to recur to actualities. - -In one other aspect the temporary lodgment of Thomas Weston’s “rude -fellows” here in Weymouth from June, 1622, to April, 1623, has an -interest in the Massachusetts annals. It is characteristic of a -distinct phase in the first attempts at the European occupation of New -England. I used the word “occupation” designedly, for those sporadic -trading stations cannot be referred to correctly as settlements; they -contained in themselves no power of self-perpetuation, being composed -wholly of men engaged for wages in an effort at the trade exploitation -of a region. This is wholly different from colonization in good faith. -Thomas Weston acted on a well-defined plan, when, early in 1622, -he dispatched his company to establish themselves somewhere on the -shores of Massachusetts bay. He himself expressed it:--“Families,” he -said, “were an encumbrance in any well-organized plantation; but a -trading-post occupied by able-bodied men only could accomplish more in -New England in seven years than in old England in twenty.” - -Nor was his, here at Wessagusset, by any means the earliest attempt -of the sort. On the contrary, it had been preceded by a score of -years; and, twelve months ago, on the 1st day of September, 1903, -the 300th anniversary was observed of the similar, but even more -abortive, experiment made by Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold on the island of -Cuttyhunk, at the extreme western end of the Elizabethan group, off New -Bedford. Again, three years later, in August, 1607, a similar attempt -was made further to the eastward, when the Popham and Gorges plantation -was established on the Kennebec. In that case, the adventurers did -actually winter on the coast; but, as the survivors described their -experience, they found the country “over cold, and in respect of that -not habitable by Englishmen.” - -At this time, as probably long before and continuously thereafter, -Monhegan island, southwest of Penobscot bay, seems to have been a -rendezvous for fishermen; and when, in the early spring of 1622, -those composing the advance of Thomas Weston’s company arrived at the -Damariscove station, on the group of islands just south of Penobscot -bay, they found that the men belonging to the ships there fishing “had -newly set up a May-pole and were very merry.” But, a band of sea-farers -only, there were no families in that company. These, one and all, were -mere fishing or trading posts; and, so far as I have been able to -learn, not until the Mayflower put into Provincetown harbor on what -is now the 21st of November, 1620, had any women of European blood -ever set foot on New England soil. That day is properly celebrated. It -marked the close of the trade-exploiting period, and the beginning of -true colonization. - -With almost no interval between, or, at most, with an interval of -less than six months,--from early April to mid-September,--the Gorges -settlement followed, here at Weymouth, on that of Weston. Except in -one respect, I now find my thirty-years-ago treatment of this Gorges -settlement not unsatisfactory. I failed to grasp its significance in -connection with the European occupation of Massachusetts; and in that -connection it has a very considerable significance. To a certain extent -Mr. Nash afterwards made good my deficiencies. Nevertheless, the story -has, I apprehend, even yet, never been fully told. To tell it should -be one of the chief functions of your Society. I will endeavor briefly -to outline it, as I now surmise it to have been. For, with inquirers -into the events of a remote past, it is much as it is with persons -looking for things in dark places. The intellectual perceptions, like -the eyes, by degrees become accustomed to a murky environment; and -when so accustomed, things quite invisible to others are by long-time -investigators distinctly seen. - -When that work of mine to which I have already referred,--the “Three -Episodes of Massachusetts History,”--appeared, now ten years ago, the -introductory part was entitled “The First Settlement of Boston Bay.” -Recently, a fifth impression has been called for, and this afforded -me an opportunity for a second preface to it, of some significance. -When the book first appeared, it naturally passed into the hands -of reviewers. As a rule, those reviews were not unfriendly; but -the writer of one of them displayed, in perfect good faith, his -absolute and complete inability to grasp the elementary significance -of the work before him. Supposing that the “First Settlement” there -referred to was that of Winthrop, in 1630, he intimated doubt as to -the necessity for any further account of that incident, it having -been already sufficiently dealt with. The man failed to get even a -glimmering perception of the fact that I was therein endeavoring -to exhume, and, so to speak, to vivify, a pre-historic settlement, -one anterior to that of Winthrop, and obliterated by it; as much -obliterated by it as are the ruins of earlier Egyptian temples, a -succession of which have occupied the same site. I was, in fact, a sort -of historical resurrectionist. Thus, as I sought to show, the real -first settlement of the region about Boston bay was considerably prior -to that of Winthrop; and, beginning with Weston’s venture in June, -1622, was, some ten years later, merged in that of Boston. But, for -years before Winthrop came, the region about Boston bay was occupied; -and, moreover, nearly all those stragglers,--the “old planters” they -were called,--came from Weymouth. Weymouth thus antedated Boston as a -permanent European settlement by at least six years. - -This fact I endeavored to establish, and fix in our Massachusetts -history; and, moreover, the fact has singular historical interest. It -was a struggle for possession between two forms of civilization and of -religious faith. The Gorges settlement was ecclesiastical and feudal; -that led by Winthrop was theological and democratic: that is, both as -respects church and state, the Gorges attempt at Wessagusset was the -antithesis, the direct opposite, to the Winthrop accomplishment at -Shawmut. Moreover, the fate of the two settlements during the earlier -and crucial period depended not on events in Massachusetts, but upon -a struggle for supremacy going on in England. Gorges represented -Charles I; Winthrop, the Parliament. If the fortune of war had turned -otherwise than it did turn, and Charles I had emerged from the conflict -victorious, there can be little question Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and -not John Winthrop, would have shaped the destiny of Massachusetts. Its -history would then have been wholly other than it was. - -In discussing the developments of the past,--the sequence of -history,--it is never worth while to philosophize over what might have -been, had something, which did not happen, chanced to happen at the -crucial moment. What did occur, actually occurred; and not something -else. None the less, so far as Weymouth is concerned, the forgotten -story of that abortive Gorges attempt at a feudal pre-emption, is -history; and, moreover, it is an extremely suggestive bit of history. -At one time, the chances seemed to preponderate in favor of Gorges, -and against Winthrop. First on the ground, the Gorges settlement -represented prerogative at a period when king and primate had it all -their own way. The permanence of the Puritan colony was thus for a -time at stake; and, indeed, it was years before the Gorges claims -ceased to occasion anxiety in the Boston council chamber. More than -once a royal intervention, from which there was no apparent avenue of -escape, seemed imminent. The single possible recourse was to a policy -of delay, of procrastination; and, while pursuing it, those entrusted -with the fate of the infant commonwealth watched in fear and trembling -the slow course of English events, as they unfolded themselves towards -a doubtful end. Time, and the chances of war on the other side of the -Atlantic, at last dispelled danger; but the Wessagusset settlement, -prior in time, long made itself sensibly felt as a disturbing factor -in Massachusetts development. And now, looking back on the celebration -held here in 1874, and my own contribution to it, I think I may fairly -claim that form and substance were at that time and there given to a -chapter of history then altogether forgotten; but, when revived, not -devoid of interest, because explanatory of much, before mysterious. - -The Gorges settlement, moreover, was, I take it, a true settlement, not -a mere attempt at trade exploitation. And by a true settlement I mean -that it contained in itself the possibility of continued life; it was -self-perpetuating, for those composing it were in part women. Of it, -every line of contemporaneous record long since perished. That such a -record once existed, we know. In the inventory made after his death -of the property of William Blackstone, the recluse of Shawmut, among -the titles of a not inconsiderable library is found the significant -item, “ten paper books.” They were valued at six pence each; but, in -all human probability, those “paper books” contained Blackstone’s -day-by-day account of what occurred during the eleven years which -elapsed between his landing at Wessagusset in 1623, and his removal -from Boston in 1634. Those “paper books” we, moreover, know, preserved -for over forty years and until the death of him who wrote in them, -perished a month later in the flame and smoke which marked the outbreak -of King Philip’s war. In the next century also when, about 1750, Thomas -Prince compiled his Annals, he made reference to “manuscript letters, -taken from some of the oldest people at Weymouth.” These also are -hopelessly gone. Thus we have not, nor can we now reasonably hope ever -to have, any direct and authentic memorials of earliest Weymouth. We do -know, however, that Samuel Maverick came to Massachusetts bay in 1624, -and that he was associated with Gorges. That he came to Wessagusset, -cannot be asserted.[102] The place was outside the limits of the Robert -Gorges patent, and Maverick permanently established himself across the -bay at Chelsea, then known as Winnisimmet. He there married the widow -of David Thompson, another Gorges associate and the first occupant -of Thompson’s island, which, at the mouth of the Neponset, still -perpetuates his name. To Samuel Maverick a son was born before 1630. - -Thomas Walford, also one of the Gorges following, that doughty -blacksmith of Charlestown who, by killing a wolf, discharged the fine -imposed on him because of nonconformity in church-going, was a married -man. - -Of William Jeffreys and John Burslam, we know only that they remained -at Wessagusset, and were living here, apparently in prosperous -circumstances, at the time the place was incorporated as Weymouth. We -do not know positively that they were married, or had families; but the -inference is strong that such was the case. They were not adventurers, -mere wanderers, of the Thomas Weston and Thomas Morton stripe. They -had given hostages to fortune, and had a stake in the country. - -When my address of 1874 was published, in one of the foot-notes[103] -to it I dismissed as improbable an entry in Prince’s Annals to the -effect that, in 1624, there came “some addition to the few inhabitants -of Wessagusset, from Weymouth, England,” having with them the Rev. Mr. -Barnard, their first non-conformist minister. Mr. Nash, in his paper -entitled “Weymouth in its First Twenty Years,” has taken a different -view, setting forth in much detail his reasons for believing the fact -stated. Very possibly I was wrong, and he is right; and certainly it -is corroborative evidence of his rightness that Samuel Maverick fixes -that year, 1624, as the time of his coming to New England, and Boston -bay. Possibly he was one of Mr. Barnard’s company; and he certainly -afterwards sympathized in Mr. Barnard’s religious views. - -Into these questions it is unnecessary to enter. Nor would it be -profitable so to do; for the salient facts are indisputably established -that (1), the first Gorges contingent came out and set themselves down -at Old Spain in September, 1623; that (2), the settlement there has -been continuous from that day to this; (3), some of those thus sent -out under the auspices of Gorges had families and left descendants; -and finally, (4) that, starting from Wessagusset, these first planters -established themselves at points favorable for commercial dealings in -pelts and supplies on the north, as well as the south, side of Boston -bay. That William Blackstone, the earliest occupant of the historic -peninsula on which Boston rose, was one of the Gorges company admits of -no question at all; that he came over as one of the companions of Capt. -Robert Gorges and the Rev. William Morell scarcely admits of question. -Beyond this, while all is matter of surmise, that “all” is merely a -question of more or less. - -But, whether the infant community was a puny bantling or a vigorous -brat, I now find myself compelled to admit that its significance, and -the secret of its later history down to the time when, in 1644,--a full -score of years after the first settlement,--it was swallowed up, and -its individuality forever lost, in an all absorbing environment,--the -significance, I say, of this later history wholly escaped my -observation when I prepared the address of 1874. As I have said, Mr. -Nash has, to a certain extent, since made good my deficiencies; I -suspect, however, that even yet the riddle is but partially read. To be -adequately treated, its treatment should be patient and microscopic. It -should be studied in close connection with the course both of foreign -events and of events in that subsequent agitation which, rending in -twain the nascent commonwealth, permanently influenced the character -of Massachusetts. By so doing it also went far towards shaping its -destiny. I can now do no more than throw out a few suggestions,--mere -hints, perhaps, or possibly surmises,--which it must be for others, -members of your Society, to consider, giving them such weight as may -properly be their due. - -To appreciate fully what now here occurred during that formative -period between 1630 and 1644, we must revert to the initial fact that -Weymouth, or Wessagusset, as it was still called, was the New World -centre from which the Gorges movement had gone forth; or, as the -founder of Massachusetts would more probably have expressed it, it -was the plague spot from which disease might spread. In the parlance -now much in vogue among the less scientific, that disease had to be -stamped out; and the magistrates of the colony of Massachusetts Bay -proceeded to stamp it out. They did, also, a very thorough piece of -stamping-out work; but, however thoroughly it may be done, stamping-out -is at best a rough and even brutal method of reaching results; and, as -a rule, it is the recourse of men of intense and narrow minds,--those -who never for an instant doubt that they are right. Whether priest -and inquisitor, or minister and magistrate,--fulfilling their mission -on Jews in Spain, or Huguenots in France, or Lutherans in Holland, -or non-conformists in England, or churchmen in Massachusetts,--they -know perfectly that they are engaged in the Lord’s work; and, being -engaged in it, they will not hold their hands. Why should they? Are -they not God’s chosen implement? Now it is an indisputable fact that -every person on the Massachusetts shore connected with that earlier -settlement, the old Gorges “planters,” so-called, was soon or late -either harried out of the country, or made so uncomfortable in it that -he voluntarily withdrew,--in other words, went into exile. Morton of -Mount Wollaston, he of May-pole fame, was the first victim. Of Morton -it must be admitted little that is good can be said. He was an ungodly -roysterer. His trading-post was a public menace as well as a nuisance; -and, as such, was very properly abated. But there is no sort of reason -to suppose that there was in the beginning any connection between -Morton and Gorges. - -Morton came out originally in June, 1622, and apparently as a companion -of Thomas Weston’s brother Andrew, on the ship Charity. He then -remained at Wessagusset some three or four months, while the vessel -which brought him out continued on to Virginia, thence returning to -Wessagusset. In early October he again embarked, going back to England. -He thus made acquaintance with the vicinity of Weymouth Fore-river, and -the region about Boston bay, during the summer months, their period of -alluring aspect. So enamored was he of the country that he the next -year piloted others back to it; one more band of pure adventurers, -they came intent on exploiting the land, getting from it whatever of -immediate value it might contain. But this second company, no more than -the first, came out under the auspices of Gorges; nor did he look on -it with favor. It must at least be said in favor of those sent out by -him that they were uniformly men of education and substance; and they -came to New England in good faith, here to establish themselves. Of -this class were William Blackstone, Samuel Maverick, David Thompson and -Thomas Walford. - -Thomas Morton, and that strange, mysterious enigma who called himself -“Sir Christopher Gardiner,” were of an altogether different stamp; -but, though in the beginning Morton at least had no connection with -Gorges, subsequently he entered into close relations with him, and the -inference is at least reasonable that he was arrested, forced to leave -the country, and saw his house burned and his plantation across the -Fore-river, on Mount Wollaston, desolated, quite as much because of the -jealousy the new comers entertained towards the old Gorges “planters” -as from any disapproval of himself, or because of the misdeeds of -his crew. On the other hand, Sir Christopher Gardiner already, when -Winthrop came, was dwelling mysteriously with his female companion on -the cedar-clad hummock overlooking the mouth of the Neponset. Gardiner -was unquestionably an emissary of Gorges, probably his agent, here to -watch over his interests. He was arrested and his establishment, such -as it was, broken up. Personally held under surveillance for months, -he at length went voluntarily away. But, while in Boston, during the -summer of 1631, he seems to have been treated with courtesy, and even -with a degree of consideration. Finally, in 1632, he went back to -England of his own choice. - -Next was William Blackstone, the hermit of Shawmut, the original -planter from Wessagusset, who when Winthrop and his company landed at -Charlestown in June, 1630, already had a house, with a young orchard -about it, on the west side of Beacon hill, looking up the Charles -towards Cambridge and Brighton. A recluse and a scholar, a missionary -among the Indians, with whom he lived in peaceful and even friendly -relations, this man, in every respect estimable, was, as Cotton Mather -tells us, “of a particular humor, and he would never join himself to -any of our churches, giving his reason for it, ‘I came from England -because I did not like the lord-bishops; but I can’t join with you, -because I would not be under the lord-brethren.’” These words, I fancy, -furnish a key-note to the Gorges settlement. To those composing it, the -new environment was unsympathetic; and, as early as 1633, Blackstone -turned his face to the wilderness. - -David Thompson, also one of the Gorges contingent, never was at -Wessagusset. According to Thomas Morton, a Scottish gentleman, both a -traveller and a scholar, quite observant of the habits of the Indians, -he seems to have moved down from Portsmouth to Massachusetts bay about -the year 1626, accompanied by his wife, and bringing with him several -servants. A friend of Samuel Maverick’s, he established himself at -the mouth of the Neponset, on the island which still bears his name, -and he may, possibly, have been a fellow-occupant, with Maverick, of -Winnisimmet. He died in 1628, two years before the coming of Winthrop. -Like the other Gorges “planters,” he was a man of character, substance -and education. As such, he also throws his ray of light on the -Wessagusset company. - -But Samuel Maverick, the first resident of East Boston, was perhaps, -most typical of all the Gorges following. A man of gentle birth and -fair education, later noted for his good fellowship and hospitality, -he was active in social and business life, altogether a useful and -public-spirited citizen. Distinctly of the Gorges connection and a -churchman, he was “strong for the Lordly prelaticall power,” as the -Puritanic speech went. So, always conscious of the hostile feeling -entertained towards him, at last, but not until 1648,--when for a -quarter of a century he had been resident at Noddle’s Island, as -East Boston was called,--he was arrested, fined and imprisoned, and, -subsequently, forced into exile. His crime was non-conformity. - -Unlike the others, Thomas Walford, who I take it began his American -experiences here at Wessagusset in 1623, was not an educated man or -of the better class, so-called, in England; a smith by trade, he was -one of John Winthrop’s “common people,” those who became two centuries -later, Abraham Lincoln’s “plain people.” But, though a man of the -anvil, he was also a churchman, an Episcopalian, and he sturdily stood -by his creed. He had before 1630 made a home for himself and his -family in Charlestown, where he dwelt in rude but secure independence. -Accustomed to his wilderness liberty, and liking not the ways of the -new comers, he would not submit to their severe rule, especially -exercised in the matter of Sabbath observances. The old pioneer’s -Sunday had, probably up to that time, partaken more of the continental -and Catholic than of Puritan characteristics. So he soon was in -trouble. He was arrested, fined and banished. At Portsmouth he found a -refuge and a welcome. In due time becoming a selectman of the town and -a warden of the church there, he died in 1660, much esteemed in the -place of his exile. - -So much for those followers and adherents of Sir Ferdinando Gorges who -had gone forth from the mother community here at Wessagusset, or had, -coming from elsewhere, set themselves down at her side. Unless, like -David Thompson, they died betimes, one and all, soon or late, they were -either exiled point-blank, or harried out of the land. Not character, -nor occupancy of the soil, nor obedience to the law, were of avail; -they were not of the Lord’s people! So much for the out-dwellers. - -We now come back to the original settlement,--the plague centre! After -1625, and the return to England of the Rev. William Morell,--that first -clergyman of Weymouth and the potential bishop _in partibus_ of New -England,--those who came in his company, and as the companions of Capt. -Robert Gorges, separated in search of more favored sites for trade and -plantation. Of the savages, they seem to have felt no apprehension; -with them they lived in perfect amity. This alone is significant of -their character. As for trade, even then, before the advent of Winthrop -and his company, Boston bay was well known to the fishermen who -annually frequented the coast--“lone sails off headlands drear”--and -they periodically looked into Boston bay for barter and refreshment. -The Indians of the interior could communicate with the coast only by -trail or by the water routes; and of these last there were but four, -the Monatiquot, emptying into Boston bay by the Weymouth Fore-river, -the Neponset, the Charles and the Mystic. Of these, so far as the back -country was concerned, the Monatiquot was least considerable. So, -naturally, those of the first comers who had means and servants, and -who did not fear solitude, sought more favorable sites, establishing -themselves at the mouth of the Neponset, or on the shores of the -Charles or the Mystic. After this dispersion, the Wessagusset -community seems to have settled down into the slow monotony of a -pioneer existence. William Jeffreys and John Burslam appear to have -been the leading men, and their names only, from among those there -remaining, have come down to us. Ten years later it was described by -one who visited it as “a small village; very pleasant and healthful, -very good ground, well-timbered, and with good store of hay ground.” - -But not until 1635, five years after the occupation of Boston, and -when Wessagusset had been twelve years in existence, did the place -receive any considerable, or, at least, certain accretion. Then, the -Rev. Joseph Hull, with twenty-one families from England, was allowed -by the Massachusetts-bay magistrates here to establish themselves; -and Weymouth was at last incorporated by that name it has ever since -borne. But it was still referred to as “a very small town;” though it -has been computed that it then numbered from 350 to 600 souls. Now it -was that trouble began. As the new Weymouth wine fermented in that old -Wessagusset bottle, the scriptural adage received new illustration. -But the story of what occurred is known only in part,--from hints and -fragments scattered hither and yon, and which have painfully to be -pieced together. What is known is, however, full of suggestion. With -the new life came turmoil; and, in those times, the turmoil was sure to -be theological in character. - -It is safe to surmise that the departure of the Rev. William Morell -to England, in 1624, and the withdrawal of Blackstone somewhat later, -wearing doubtless the “old canonical gown” in which Winthrop six -years later found him clad, did not, as things then went, deprive -the little Wessagusset settlement of all spiritual nutriment. Those -there remaining doubtless had, not a meeting-house, for they were -Episcopalians, but a church, such as it was, in which religious -services were duly conducted on each Lord’s day, the Prayer-book and -ritual being in use. This had continued through a dozen years, when at -last a veritable irruption set in. Of what ensued, nothing is clear; we -have to grope our way in the gray glimmer of that early dawn. The Rev. -Mr. Hull, we are told, made his advent in the interests of Episcopacy; -but, if he did, he either brought with him, or encountered, a body of -dissentients. That the old settlers eyed the new-comers askance is more -than likely; but the enigma still awaits solution. All we know is that -the little settlement, presumably at the foot of Great hill, and in -and about Old Spain, was rent, not in twain, but in quarters; and soon -their occupants were vociferously holding forth from no less than four -rival pulpits. At last, so loud became the tumult of tongues, and so -grievous was the state of spiritual affairs, that a delegation from the -church of Boston made its appearance,--Heaven save the mark!--in the -role of peacemakers. - -Now, in 1638, the church of Boston, after an interlude of direst stress -and storm, was at peace within itself; but the peace was that of a -sternly enforced conformity,--a peace somewhat akin, in fact, to that -order commonly associated with the name of Warsaw. The great Antinomian -controversy had shortly before been brought to a close. Silenced and -overborne were the wise, tolerant and forbearing councils of Winthrop -and Cotton; a policy of “thorough” had been decided on, and proclaimed. -The conventional priesthood having at last secured full sway, neither -liberty of thought nor freedom of speech was to be tolerated in -Massachusetts. This revised order of things, a new gospel dispensation, -the 1638 delegation of the Boston church doubtless came to propagate in -Weymouth. It was the spiritual, perhaps the inquisitorial, precursor of -the civil arm. A few weeks only before, the Boston congregation had -silently witnessed some very high-handed proceedings in the case of -Mistress Anne Hutchinson; and at “the Mount,” as what is now Quincy was -then designated, the Rev. John Wheelwright had been made to realize the -power of the magistrate. The Rev. William Hubbard gives the following -account of what next occurred at Weymouth; and, though the Rev. William -Hubbard’s General History of New England is not now looked upon as a -peculiarly veracious or reliable record, yet in this case it may be -accepted as the most intelligible and consecutive narrative that has -come down to us, in any degree contemporary with what took place:-- - - “The people of this town of Weymouth had invited one Mr. Lenthal, to - come to them, with intention to call him to be their minister. This - man, though of good report in England, coming hither was found to - have drunk in some of Mrs. Hutchinson’s opinions, as of justification - before faith, etc., and opposed the custom of gathering of churches in - such a way of mutual restipulation, as was then practised. From the - former, he was soon taken off by conference with Mr. Cotton, but he - stuck close to the other, that only baptism was the door of entrance - into the visible church, etc., so as the common sort of people did - eagerly embrace his opinion; and some laboured to get such a church on - foot, as all baptized ones might communicate in, without any further - trial of them, etc. For this end they procured many hands in Weymouth, - to a blank, intending to have Mr. Lenthal’s advice to the form of - their call; and he likewise was very forward, to become a minister to - them in such a way, and did openly maintain the cause. - - “But the magistrates hearing of this disturbance and combination, - thought it needful to stop it betimes, and therefore they called - Mr. Lenthal and the chief of the faction to the next general court, - in March; where Mr. Lenthal, having before conferred with some of - the magistrates and ministers, and being convinced of his errour in - judgment, and his sin in practice, to the disturbance of their peace, - etc., did openly and freely retract, with expression of much grief of - heart for his offence, and did deliver his retractation in writing - under his hand in open court; whereupon he was enjoined to appear at - the next court, and in the meantime to make and deliver the like - recantation in some publick assembly at Weymouth. So the court forbore - any further censure by fine or otherwise, though it was much urged by - some. At the same court, some of the principal abettors were censured; - as one Smith, and one Silvester, and one Britten, who had spoken - reproachfully of the answer which was sent to Mr. Bernard’s book - against their church covenant, and of some of the ministers there, for - which he was severely punished; but not taking warning he fell into - grosser evil, whereby he brought capital punishment upon himself, not - long after.” - -To make this intelligible, so far as Weymouth is concerned, we must -keep in mind a few dates connected with the great course of world -occurrences. The events referred to in this extract from Hubbard’s -history, took place during the summer of 1638. A church tumult in -Edinburgh on Sunday, July 23, 1637, a year previous, had brought -matters in England to a crisis; and from that day Sir Ferdinando -Gorges was wholly impotent, shorn of all influence. Thenceforth, he -ceased to be in any degree an active factor in Massachusetts affairs; -and his people in New England, no longer looking to him, must, as -they best could, take care of themselves. Already, six months before -the Edinburgh tumult, on the 29th of January, 1637, the Rev. John -Wheelwright, the favorite divine of Mistress Hutchinson, had, on a day -of special fast, preached in Boston that occasional discourse which was -later made the pretext for a sweeping political proscription. On the -27th of May, 1637, the Massachusetts charter election, the equivalent -of our annual State election, had been held at Cambridge, as the -result of which young Sir Harry Vane had been superseded as governor -by Winthrop, with the harsh and uncompromising Dudley as deputy. It -was a political as well as a church upheaval; for Vane was, socially, -the friend of Maverick, and, while in doctrine he sympathized with -Wheelwright, he was the cynosure of the Hutchinsonian cult. - -The conservative, or clerical, party thus found itself in complete -political control; a control cemented and confirmed by the triumphant -conclusion of the Pequot war, and the return of young Vane to England, -both which events occurred in August. Every condition now pointed to -the adoption of a policy of “thorough”--the stamping-out process was -to begin. It did begin; and it was carried out. John Wheelwright, the -first minister of those inhabiting part of the region two years later -incorporated as Braintree, but which a century and a half later became -Quincy, was the initial victim. He was banished, and his supporters -made to see light,--real orthodox light! Next came Mistress Hutchinson. -Her story has been told, by myself among others, in all possible -detail.[104] I need only allude to it here. She, and all those who -stood by her, were “sent away,”--in other words, driven into exile. -This had occurred in March, 1638. And now, the stamping-out process -being completed in Boston, the party in political control turned its -attention to the out-lying districts. Weymouth was the traditional -plague centre of prelatical poison,--we designate it Episcopacy,--the -seat of the Gorges settlement, the abiding place of Morell, the spot -whence Blackstone and Walford had emerged. No mercy was to be shown it. -The last vestige of the ritual was to disappear from within the limits -of the colony of Massachusetts-bay. Thus, with Weymouth, in 1638, it -was much as with some French city in the days of The Terror, when a -committee of the Convention of ’93 there put in an appearance. So far -as dissent and the suspects were concerned, it meant the end. - -It is needless to revert to colonial records, and again to tell the -story of what was then done. Mr. Lenthal appears to have been a worthy -man and a devout minister of God’s word, as he read it; but he did -differ from the powers that then were on certain abstract doctrines -of baptism, re-ordination and justification by faith, whatever those -terms may have signified. They have small meaning to us; but then, -they implied heresy: and for heretics there was in 1638, and the years -ensuing, no place in Massachusetts. He and his followers were summarily -dealt with. Wise in his day and generation, Mr. Lenthal made haste to -see the light, and to express a realizing sense of the error of his -ways. He then took refuge in Rhode Island. His followers were sternly -disciplined, reprimanded, threatened, fined, disfranchised, and “openly -whipt.” The insubordination was crushed out; so also were freedom of -speech and religious liberty. But order reigned in Weymouth; conformity -was thenceforth there complete. - -The late Matthew Arnold was accustomed vigorously to declare that the -great middle class of England, the kernel of the nation, was in Tudor -times so disgusted with the cowled and tonsured Middle Ages that, -during the first half of the seventeenth century, it “entered the -prison house of Puritanism, and had the key turned upon its spirit -there for two hundred years.” The result was, he further declared, “a -defective type of religion, a narrow range of intellect and knowledge, -a stunted sense of beauty, a low standard of manners.” Into the -discussion which this utterance invites, I do not propose here to -enter. I merely call attention to what all the study, investigation and -thought of thirty years lead me to consider one of the most interesting -and suggestive of the minor episodes of our early Massachusetts -history, the final advance of the puritanical glacier over the -last lingering vestige of an earlier attempt at a distinctly more -cultured New England civilization. I institute no comparison; I make -no criticism. To discuss the might-have-been is, to my mind, hardly -worth while. I call attention only to one still unwritten page of our -Massachusetts history; a page the existence as well as the possible -meaning of which had altogether escaped me, if indeed it had even as -yet glimmeringly dawned upon me, when I addressed you here in Weymouth -in response to your invitation of thirty years ago. - -Thus, as I have since come to see it, the history of Weymouth, that -local history which is the peculiar province and charge of the Society -I to-night address, naturally divides itself into three parts--first, -the Adventurous, in which Thomas Weston and Miles Standish, Squanto -and Pecksuot, play their parts, and dramatic enough those parts were: -second, the Feudal and Episcopal, in which Sir Ferdinando Gorges -and Governor John Winthrop hold the stage, in London and at Boston, -in Wessagusset and at Shawmut: and, finally, part the third, that -Puritanic period of slow growth and gradual change which lasted for -two whole centuries, from 1640 to 1840, and which Matthew Arnold has -likened unto detention in a prison-house. My earlier utterances on -the earliest and second periods I have passed in review; and now, in -closing, I have something to say in criticism of the conclusions I then -reached as respects the third, or final, period. - -My former treatment of this later period,--that extending from 1640 to -1840,--I find was of the purely conventional character; a method of -treatment, whether by myself or others, for which I have since come -to feel a very pronounced contempt. Why is it, I would like to ask, -that such undue prominence is in anniversary addresses always given -to times and episodes connected with wars and military operations? -Take for instance, your own case. Weymouth now boasts a corporate -and continuous history of some 270 years,--as such things go, a very -respectable antiquity; and, during that time, its women have never -seen, except perhaps a hundred and thirty years ago, or, just possibly, -on one occasion nine years less than a century back, the flash of a -hostile gun or the gleam of an enemy’s flag. It is within the bounds of -possibility that a grandmother, or, more probably, a great-grandmother, -of some one among you did, on those days of April in the year 1775, -watch from some summit of the town the smoke of burning Charlestown; -or, again, like Abigail Adams from Penn’s hill in Braintree, your -progenitors on the distaff side may in March of the following year -have looked curiously on that “largest fleet ever seen in America,” -numbering upwards of one hundred and seventy sail, and looking “like a -forest,” as, with Howe’s evacuating army on board, the British ships -lay in the outer harbor. Finally, on June 1, 1813, Weymouth men and -women may from the Great hill have followed with anxious eyes the -ill-fated frigate Chesapeake move out to her disastrous duel with -the Shannon. But, not since Miles Standish grappled with the savage -Pecksuot in the wooden block-house at Old Spain on the 6th of April, -1623, has an armed conflict between hostile men occurred on Weymouth -soil. Yet in every narrative of the town, accounts and details of its -part in war, and of its contributions thereto, occupy the place of -prominence. In point of fact, no war or its operations, its successes -or reverses, since the death of the Wampanoag, King Philip, in 1676, -has exercised any direct influence on Weymouth history, or affected -to any appreciable extent the town’s development. In the war of the -Rebellion, as in Queen Anne’s war, in the French wars, and in the war -of Independence,--though in far less degree in the first than in -any one of the latter,--Weymouth was called on for contributions in -material, in money and in men; but after those struggles, as during -them and before, life here moved on absolutely undisturbed in the even -tenor of its way,--quite unchanged! The same people lived in a like -manner, pursuing their wonted occupations; generations were born, went -to school, were married and had offspring, grew old and died, as their -fathers and mothers had done before them, as their sons and daughters -were to do after them. Of great, far away events only echoes reached -the town; and yet, what the town then did in connection with those -distant great events becomes the staple of its story. This I submit is -not as it should be; in fact it is not history at all. - -Moreover, I am further disposed to contend that the record of Weymouth, -as of its sister towns of Massachusetts without exception, whether in -the War of Independence, or, more recently, in our Civil War, was not -in all respects ideal, or in conformity with reason, experience and -the everlasting fitness of things. Never, whether in Independence-day -orations or in occasional addresses, does the declaimer weary of -expatiating on the public spirit and self-sacrifice then displayed and -evoked; but, on the other hand, read the record as set forth by Mr. -Nash in the pages of his history, or registered in your town-books. -Referring to the Revolutionary war, and its direct results on Weymouth, -Mr. Nash puts first among them the excessive use of intoxicating -liquors “which then became well-nigh universal.” He speaks of this -as a public “calamity,” most far-reaching in its destructive effects -on both the minds and estates of that generation, and of those that -succeeded. My own investigations have led me to believe that what we -term the “drink habit” with our Massachusetts race dated from a period -long anterior to any Revolutionary troubles. In this respect I think -Mr. Nash greatly exaggerates the influence of army life. Assuredly, -however, stimulating the alcoholic appetite cannot be accounted one -of those features of the soul-stirring time in which posterity can -take a justifiable pride. But, in saying what I have said, I wish -to be explicit. I do not want to be misunderstood. For, on this -head, communities are, I have found, sensitive; nor, I freely admit, -does such sensitiveness on their part furnish any just occasion for -surprise. On the contrary, it is very human,--altogether natural. - -Not long ago, in Lincoln, where I now live, I expressed myself on -this subject to the same effect; and I afterwards found I, in so -doing, had occasioned pain, as well as surprise. I had seemed to speak -depreciatingly of the dead, and of a period the memory of which was -sacred. Nothing could have been further from my thought. The criticism -I then made, and now make again, applies to all of our Massachusetts, I -may say our New England, towns. Their records tell me the same story. -Turn, for instance, to your own town books covering those heroic -periods, whether Revolutionary or of the Civil war. Should you do so, -you will find in them a wearisome repetition. In the first flush of -excitement, volunteers, in each case, enrolled themselves in crowds, -they were eager to get to the front; then came the cold reaction, and -the consequent haggling. Call follows call for men--and yet more men; -for war is insatiable,--and these calls are grudgingly responded to by -votes providing for the payment of bounties, and by complicated plans -for the procurement of substitutes. Never once in all those annals do -you read of a stern exaction. On the contrary, the question always is -as to how cheapest to avoid it. The heroic chord is rarely struck. That -there were individual cases, many and touching, of self-sacrifice -and lofty patriotic impulse, I am the last to deny. Was I not witness -to them? Such you do well to commemorate and recall; nor can they be -held in too green a memory. It is not to those I refer, but to the -system under which war was carried on; it was weak, unscientific, to -the last degree wasteful of blood and of treasure,--moreover, it was -cruel to those in the field. Through it much unnecessary agony was -caused; and the necessary agony, at best quite enough, was unduly -prolonged. Properly studied, your town record, like the records of all -your sister towns, teaches on this head a lesson of utmost value. No -nation has any right to enter upon a war, domestic or foreign, unless -it is ready promptly to meet the cost thereof in flesh and blood, as -well as in money. It should not be a question of voluntary enlistment, -or of mercenary service; but, if a community elects to fight, it should -put its fighting force at the absolute disposal of its government. -Conscription and the draft should be the order of the day,--the -unmarried first, the married next; and, for the able-bodied, no -exemption. Never, in the whole history of Massachusetts, was the ordeal -of a war thus systematically met. On the contrary, as studied in your -Weymouth annals, or those of your sister towns, after the first fierce -outburst of ardor cooled, it is one long wearisome record of services -sold and bought. - -What was the result? The ranks of your regiments were never full; the -morale of the men at the front suffered. The saddest sights I ever saw -were those skeleton battalions in the last campaign against Richmond, -that of 1864,--those few survivors grouped about the tattered colors, -thrust into action yesterday, decimated again to-day, doomed to-morrow: -and no recruits! Those were the men who went forward voluntarily, and -at the first call to arms. No better material was ever mustered; no -braver troops ever returned an enemy’s fire: but, under the system -which always prevailed, the community from which they came either left -them to take that fire to the end, or sent forward to associate with -them the bounty-bought sweepings of your municipal gutters, the dregs -of your civic cesspools. I speak of that whereof I know. It was not -right, nor was it war: but it made war costly, long, murderous. Life -was simply flung away. - -Do you ask what course should have been pursued? What ought to have -been done? I will tell you. With 30,000 men in the field, the State -should have had 20,000 always at home in the training-camps; and -when, after such terrible struggles as those at Gettysburg or in -the Wilderness, word came that a regiment had lost 150 men, dead or -disabled, on the notifying click of the wire the message should have -flashed back that 175 men were on the way to make full the depleted -ranks. The next day 175 fresh men, bearing as yet uncalled numbers in -the draft, should have been ordered forthwith to report at the depots. -That is business; that would be war. In place of it, you let your old -regiments dwindle to skeletons, while you ever organized new; and, as -the indecisive warfare dragged itself along, your towns competed with -each other for bounty-bought flesh and blood. It was quoted at so much -a pound. - -This is the side of the record to be studied in your town-books; but it -is a side of the record men do not like to study. Even reference to it -is misconstrued. It is not popular! Yet here is the lesson to be borne -in mind, that valuable to learn. That our young men rushed eagerly -to arms in the early days of each conflict, no one denies; that they -fought bravely and fell frequently, the names on your monuments and -the flags in your cemeteries give proof. But, under your methods of -carrying on warfare, two of them died where one only need to have died; -two indecisive battles had to be fought, where one vigorously followed -up would have sufficed. It was so in the Revolution; it was so in the -Civil War. That in either case it would have been so had the struggle -been over your own hearth-stones, I neither suggest nor believe. Then, -however, the outcome would have directly influenced home existence, and -Weymouth development; not so a remote war, the echoes only of which -disturbed the monotony of your daily village life. - -Thus, with Weymouth as with other Massachusetts towns, the battles -and campaigns, whether of 1776 or of 1864, and the sufferings and -sacrifices incident thereto, were not momentous factors of fate. -Indeed, as I now see it, since 1644 there has been but one considerable -event in your history, one only which marked an epoch of far-reaching -change. That event occurred on the 1st of January, 1849, when the South -Shore railroad was opened to traffic, bringing Weymouth into direct and -easy intercourse with the outer and active world. That inaugurated for -you as a community a revolution in life, in occupation, in education, -in religion and in thought;--that date, two hundred and fourteen years -from the incorporation, marks the dividing line between the Weymouth -of the provincial period, and your Weymouth of to-day. Already, in -1804, nearly half a century earlier, your first post-office had been -established; quite an incident in your history. What facts has your -Society preserved concerning it? Late in the eighteenth century stage -coaches put in their appearance. They were a factor of change; what do -you now know of the influence they exerted? The daily newspaper is one -of the great educational forces of modern times; when did it first find -its way generally to Weymouth? Not, I fancy, before 1850. What great -economical crisis, affecting every phase of life, has occurred in the -history of the town? Once, and almost within the memory of men now -living, Weymouth was commercial, as well as agricultural. It had been -so almost from the beginning. It had iron-works in colonial times, and -later a few small mills; but when was it, and from what causes, that -it passed from an agricultural and a commercial to the manufacturing -stage? Presumably, the coming of the railroad worked the change; and, -in working it, modified the whole character of the town. - -And here I submit, in these industrial, economical, social, religious -and educational phases is the true field of study and accumulation, to -which the local historical society should devote itself. The present is -always familiar and commonplace; it is the past which interests. But -our present will be the next century’s past; and it is the mission of -societies like this of yours to make the record of to-day fuller, more -exact and more intelligible than is that of yesterday. - -Of that “yesterday” of yours, extending practically from the 2d -of January, 1644, the date of the ordination of the Rev. Thomas -Thatcher, which closed the primitive period, to the 1st of January, -1849, which witnessed the opening of the South Shore railroad,--of -that “yesterday,” covering five years more than two centuries, I thus -delivered myself on King-oak hill in my 1874 address: - - “We are always accustomed to regard the past as a better and purer - time than the present; there is a vague, traditional simplicity and - innocence hanging about it, almost Arcadian in character. I can find - no ground on which to base this pleasant fancy. Taken altogether I do - not believe that the morals of Weymouth or of her sister towns were on - the average as good in the eighteenth century as in the nineteenth. - The people were sterner and graver, the law and the magistrate were - more severe; but human nature was the same, and would have vent. - There was, I am inclined to think, more hypocrisy in those days - than now; but I have seen nothing which has led me to believe that - the women were more chaste, or that the men were more temperate, or - that, in proportion to population, fewer or less degrading crimes were - perpetrated. Certainly the earlier generations were as a race not - so charitable as their descendants, and less of a spirit of kindly - Christianity prevailed among them.” - -Speaking now in the light of subsequent investigation and long study, -I can bear testimony that this passage was written neither in a -depreciatory spirit, nor in one of pessimistic exaggeration. I have -learned more since writing it. I acknowledge I do not, on better -acquaintance, fancy that “prison-house of Puritanism” wherein our race -had “the key turned upon its spirit for two hundred years.” Frankly, -I see truth in Matthew Arnold’s indictment,--“a defective type of -religion, a narrow range of intellect and knowledge, a stunted sense of -beauty, a low standard of manners.” - -Let us for a moment, in a realistic mood, face the facts of that -unlovely period. And first, of morals. The early church records of -Weymouth no longer exist; and, perhaps, it is well for the good names -of not a few of your families that the fire of April 23, 1751, swept -away the old Meeting-house, and with it the documents there stored. The -records of the Braintree church remain in part; and, of such as remain, -I have made historical use. Those who care so to do may familiarize -themselves with my conclusion.[105] So far as morality is concerned, -the picture presented is not of a character which would lead us to -covet for our sons and daughters a recurrence of that past. - -Next, temperance:--As respects the _in_-temperance of that colonial -period, I myself caught a youthful glimpse of its vanishing skirts. -Distinctly do I recall the village tavern, the village bar-room,--for -in Quincy, in my youth, bar-room and post-office were one,--and, -moreover, the village drunkards. They were as familiar to eye and -tongue as the minister, the squire, or the doctor. I see them now, -seated in those wooden arm-chairs on the tavern porch, waiting to -see the Plymouth stage drive up. The drunkard reeling home in broad -daylight is an unknown spectacle now; then, he hardly excited passing -notice. - -Take religion next:--I submit in all confidence that the world has -outgrown eighteenth century theology. It is a cast-off garment; and -one never to be resumed. Bitter, narrow, uncharitable, intolerant, an -insult to reason, the last thing it preached was peace on earth and -good will among men. I have had occasion to examine into its utterances -and to set forth its tenets. Those curious on the subject may there -inform themselves.[106] You would not sit in church to-day, and listen -to what was then taught,--an angry, a revengeful and an unforgiving God. - -Schools:--Prior to 1850 the schools of Massachusetts were archaic, the -primitive methods alone were in vogue; and not until after that time -was any attention at all paid either to scientific instruction, or to -the laws of sanitation. Charity! the care of the insane! the treating -of the sick! In your Weymouth records for the town meeting of March 17, -1771, you will find the following: “Voted, to sell the poor that are -maintained by the town for this present year at a Vendue to the lowest -bidder.” Do you realize what that meant, and who were included in the -“poor that are maintained by the town?” It was the old-time substitute -for the asylum, the almshouse and the hospital. In those days the care -of the demented was farmed out to him or her who would assume it at the -lowest charge to the public. Even as late as 1843, and in the immediate -neighborhood of Boston, naked maniacs could be seen confined in cages, -or unlighted sheds, connected with the almshouse or abutting on the -public way.[107] Or take this other Weymouth record of August 28, 1733, -exactly one year before my ancestor, Rev. William Smith, was ordained -your minister. - - “Voted by the Town to give Twenty pounds to any person who will take - two of the children of the Widow Ruth Harvey (that is) the Eldest - Daughter and one of the youngest Daughters (a twin), and take the care - of them until they be eighteen years old.” - -Twenty pounds in those days was $66.60 of the money of our days; and -that in old tenor bills! A public inducement to baby-farming is not now -held out. And so I might go on to the close of the chapter, did time -permit. But Macaulay has said it all before, and why now repeat in more -prosaic terms the tale of ancient wrong? Rather let me close with this -passage from his History: - - “It is now the fashion to place the golden age in times when noblemen - were destitute of comforts the want of which would be intolerable to a - modern footman; when farmers and shopkeepers breakfasted on loaves the - very sight of which would raise a riot in a modern work-house; when to - have a clean shirt once a week was a privilege reserved for the higher - class of gentry; when men died faster in the purest country air than - they now die in the most pestilential lanes of our towns, and when men - died faster in the lanes of our towns than they now die on the coast - of Guiana.... There is scarcely a page of the history or lighter - literature of the seventeenth century which does not contain some - proof that our ancestors were less human than their posterity. The - discipline of work-shops, of schools, of private families, though not - more efficient than at present, was infinitely harsher. Masters, well - born and bred, were in the habit of beating their servants. Pedagogues - knew of no way of imparting knowledge but by beating their pupils. - Husbands, of decent station, were not afraid to beat their wives.... - The more carefully we examine the history of the past, the more reason - shall we find to dissent from those who imagine that our age has been - fruitful of new social evils. The truth is that the evils are, with - scarcely an exception, old. That which is new is the intelligence - which discerns, and the humanity which remedies them.” - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[100] Savage’s _Winthrop_, v. 1, p. 194, n. - -[101] Concerning this curious and very interesting map, see -_Proceedings Mass. Hist. Soc._ (Second Series), v. 1, pp. 211-214. -There is a reproduction of the map in the large-paper edition of -Winsor’s _Narrative and Critical History of America_, v. 3, p. 380, -with a descriptive note relating thereto. - -[102] As both Maverick and Blackstone were men of education, and -apparently not without some means, belonging distinctly to the upper -class of English life, and as they were also contemporaries of young -Robert Gorges, it would seem more than probable that they were -associates of his, and came over to New England in his party. Morell -certainly was another of the same class. As respects Maverick, though -he distinctly says he came to New England in 1624, yet he makes the -statement forty years after the event, and as a matter of recollection. -He was not speaking exactly, nor apparently from record. He may very -well, therefore, have got the time generally as 1624, when in fact he -arrived here late in 1623; or he may have removed from Wessagusset -to Winnisimmet, and there established himself permanently during the -spring of the following year. Hence his statement. On the other hand, -it has been suggested that he came over with Capt. Christopher Levett, -and plausible grounds can be given in support of such a theory. The -exact date and circumstances of his coming will probably never be -known. The only facts which can be stated with certainty are that he -came about the same time as Robert Gorges, and that he was more or less -associated with Robert Gorges’s father, Sir Ferdinando. That he married -the widow of David Thompson also does not admit of doubt. - -[103] _Supra_, p. 36. - -[104] See _The Antinomian Controversy_; _Three Episodes of -Massachusetts History_, Part II, pp. 363-581; _Antinomianism in the -Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1636-1638_; Prince Society Publications, -1894. - -[105] See paper entitled, _Some Phases of Sexual Morality and Church -Discipline in Colonial New England_, in Proceedings of Massachusetts -Historical Society, June, 1891. (Proceedings, Second Series, vol. vi, -pp. 477-516.) - -[106] Massachusetts: Its Historians and its History. Boston, 1893. - -[107] See the article entitled, _Insanity in Massachusetts_, by Dr. -S. G. Howe, in _North American Review_ for January, 1843, vol. 56, pp. -171-191. - - - - -INDEX. - - - =Abell=, Robert, 93. - - =Aberdeceest=, 9. - - =Abington=, 47. - - =Acadia=, 120. - - =Act= to prevent monopoly, 80. - - =Adams=, Abigail, Mrs, 70, 84, 115, 116, 145. - Charles F., Jr., 5, 89, 97, 114. - Henry, 93. - John, 84. - John Q., 38, 57. - - =Allen=, John, 93. - - =Ann=, Cape, 9. - - =Antinomian= controversy, 139. - - =Applegate=, Thomas, 91. - - =Arnold=, 79. - Matthew, 143, 144, 152. - - - =Back= river, 62. - - =Bacon=, 6. - - =Banbury=, England, 108. - - =Bare= Cove, 91. - - =Barnard=, Elder Massachiel, (First non-conformist minister), 35-37, - 97, 99, 112, 131. - - =Barnstable=, 100, 102. - Church, 100, 101. - - =Bass= River, Beverly, 100. - - =Bates=, Elder Edward, 98, 104. - Joshua, 85. - Samuel, 98. - - =Bayley=, Nathaniel, 77. - - =Beacon= Hill, 135. - - =Bent=, Rev. Josiah, 103. - - =Bernard=, Gov., 72. - Rev. Mr., 141. - - =Beverly=, 100. - - =Bicknell=, 36. - - =Blackstone=, William, 34, 35, 44, 68, 129, 131, 134, 135, 138, 142. - Lands at Wessagusset, 129. - One of the Gorges company, 131, 134. - - =Blancher=, Samuel, 80. - - =Boston=, 21, 31, 55, 104, 134, 142, 144. - Bay, 9, 12, 24, 30, 33, 37, 121, 131, 133, 137. - Church sends delegation to Weymouth, 139. - Church troubles, 139. - Evacuation of, 145. - First occupied by a Weymouth settler, 35, 127, 131. - Tea-party, 73. - - =Bowdoin=, James, 82. - - =Bradford=, Gov., 11, 13, 14, 16, 30. - - =Braintree=, 45, 75, 79, 142, 145, 152. - - =Bridge= in Wessaguscus, 91. - - =Bridgewater=, 75. - - =Briggs=, Clement, 93. - - =Brighton=, 135. - - =Bristol=, England, 29. - - =Britten=, 141. - - =Britton=, James, 106. - - =Burslam=, John, 130, 138. - - =Burslem=, 43, 44. - Plantation, 35. - - =Bursley=, 36, 46, 93. - Joanna (Hull), 100. - John, 100, 111. - - =Burslyn=, John, 45. - - =Butler’s= “Hudibras,” 19-21. - - - =Calvin=, 6. - - =Cambridge=, 135, 141. - - =Castle Island=, 91. - - =Chamberlain=, George W., 87. - - =Chapman=, Maria W., 55. - - =Chard=, William, 57. - - =Charity=, vessel, 11, 13, 133. - - =Charles I=, 128. - - =Charles= river, 135, 137. - - =Charlestown=, 104, 130, 135, 136, 145. - - =Chelsea=, 130. - - =Chesapeake=, frigate, 145. - - =Chicatabot=, 38. - - =Churches= in Massachusetts Bay in 1635, 112. - - =Clark=, Dr., 88. - - =Concord=, 74. - - =Continental= army, enlistments in, 77. - currency, 80, 82. - - =Copp=, John, 57. - - =Cotton=, Rev. John, 104, 139, 140. - - =Cromwell=, Oliver, 6. - - =Cruden’s= Concordance, 68, 108. - - =Cushing=, Adam, 62. - E., 80. - - =Cushman=, Robert, 11. - - =Cuttyhunk=, 125. - - - =Damariscove= Islands, 8, 125. - - =Delfthaven=, Holland, 10. - - =Distemper=, throat, in Weymouth, 52. - - =Dorchester=, 36, 45, 108, 110. - Council, 90, 98. - - =Dover=, 102. - - =Downing=, Sarah, 49. - - =Dudley=, Gov., 141. - - =Duxbury=, 23. - - - =East= Boston, 136. - - =Easton=, 47. - - =Edinburgh= (Scotland) tumult, 141. - - =Eliot=, Rev. John, 104. - - =Ellis=, Rev. George E., 89. - - =Episcopacy= in New England, 30, 33, 34, 102, 110, 139, 142. - - =Erasmus=, 6. - - - =Ferry= to Quincy Point, 56, 91. - - =Fictitious= execution described, 18, 19. - - =Fire= at Plymouth, 31. - - =First= settlement of Boston bay, 126, 127. - - =Fitcher=, Lieut., 38. - - =Fore= river, 13-15, 24, 29, 53, 64, 74, 76, 121-124, 133, 134, 137. - - =Fortune=, vessel, 10. - - =French=, 36. - Stephen, 93, 98, 104. - - =Fry=, Elizabeth, 92. - Mary, 92. - William, 92. - - =Furnival’s= Inn, 11. - - - =Galileo=, 6. - - =Gardner=, Henry, 74. - Sir Christopher, an emissary of Gorges, 134. - returns to England, 135. - - =Gettysburg=, 149. - - =Gibbon=, 60. - - =Glover=, John, 93. - - =Goold=, Capt., 75. - - =Gorges=, Ferdinando, 29, 30, 128, 130, 137, 141, 144. - His plantation on the Kennebec, 125. - John, 34, 35, 44. - Robert, 29-31, 33, 34, 36-38, 94, 114, 130, 131, 137. - Character of his colonists, 30, 134. - Date of settlement at Wessagusset, 114, 126. - His company, 30, 89, 91, 93, 94, 110, 134. - His grant in New England, 29, 30. - Returns to England, 31. - Visits Wessagusset, 29, 94. - Settlement, commercial, 131. - Continuous, 131. - Ecclesiastical and feudal, 127, 128. - Its keynote, 135. - Its original planters harried or exiled, 133. - Regarded as a plague spot, 132-140. - Self-perpetuating, 129. - - =Gosnold=, Bartholomew, 125. - - =Gray=, Haryson, 74. - - =Great= hill, 53, 85, 95, 139, 145. - Pond, 62. - - =Greene=, Richard, 11, 14. - - =Gustavus= Adolphus, 6. - - =Guy= Fawkes’ Day, 31, 66. - - - =Hampden=, John, 6. - - =Hancock=, John, 82. - - =Harris=, Walter, 93. - - =Hart=, Edmond, 93. - - =Harvey=, Ruth, 65, 154. - - =Heber=, Bp. Reginald, 32. - - =Hingham=, 75, 86, 91, 100, 102, 110. - - =Hobart=, Peter, 87. - - =Hobbamock= [Hobomok], 26, 120. - - =Holbrook=, Ichabod, 98. - John, 98. - - =Holmes=, Oliver Wendell, 122. - - =Horsford=, E. N., 123. - - =Hubbard=, 102. - Rev. William, 140. - - =Hull= (town), 37. - Agnes, 101. - Benjamin, 100. - Company, 91, 93, 99, 112. - No record that it formed a church, 112, 113. - Joanna, 100. - Rev. Joseph, 36, 45, 67, 86, 88, 93, 95, 99-101, 103, 105, 106, 108, - 110, 112, 113, 138, 139. - Effect of his arrival at Weymouth, 110, 138. - Claims a Weymouth pulpit, 110. - Deputy to Gen’l Court from Hingham, 110. - Farewell sermon, at Weymouth, 110. - Perhaps an Episcopal clergyman, 139. - - =Humphrey=, James, 61, 63, 71, 72, 77, 98, 115, 116. - Jonas, 98. - - =Hunt’s= hill, 62. - - =Hutchinson=, Mrs. Anne, 67, 105, 140-142. - - - =Indian= depredations, 17. - - =Influence= of Weymouth settlement on Massachusetts, 132. - - =Isle= of Shoals, 43, 101. - - - =Jeffers=, John, 44. - - =Jeffery=, 44. - - =Jeffrey=, Thomas, 43. - - =Jeffries= [Jeffreys], William, 34-37, 43, 44, 93, 138. - Residence in Wessagusset, 35, 130, 138. - - =Jenner=, Rev. Thomas, 67, 68, 102-105, 110, 113. - Invited to Weymouth, 110. - - =Johnson=, Edward, 18. - - - =Keayne=, Robert, 103, 104. - - =Kennebec=, 125. - - =Kepler=, 6. - - =King=, 36. - Philip’s War, 28, 49, 129, 145. - - =Kingman=, 36, 79. - Henry, 91. - - =King-Oak= hill, 5, 53, 54, 85, 117, 121, 151. - - - =Lenthall=, Rev. Robert, 67, 68, 90, 98, 103-105, 111, 113, 140, 143. - Character of, 143. - - =Levett=, Christopher, 130. - - =Lexington=, 74. - - =Leyden=, Holland, 9, 27. - - =Lincoln=, Abraham, 6, 136. - Mass., 147. - - =Liquor= nuisance at Mt. Wollaston, 39. - - =London=, England, 144. - - =Long=, Richard, 91. - Island, 76. - - =Longfellow=, Henry W., quoted, 25, 119, 120. - His dealing with history, 120-123. - - =Lothrop=, Rev. Mr., 100. - - =Loud=, John J., 47. - - =Lovell=, 36. - Enoch, 61. - James, 98. - Robert, 98. - Solomon, 74, 78, 80-82, 85. - - =Loyalty= of Weymouth settlers to Church of England, 110. - - =Ludden=, 93. - - =Luther=, Martin, 6. - - =Lyford=, Rev. John, 37. - - =Lynn=, 106. - - - =Macaulay=, 154. - - =Makepeace=, Thomas, 106. - - =Martin=, Ambrose, 106. - - =Massasoit=, 21. - - =Mather=, 106. - Cotton, 102, 135. - - =Maverick=, Samuel, 129-131, 134-136, 141. - Character of, 136. - - =Mayflower=, 7, 10, 126. - - =Maypole= at Merrymount, 38, 44, 84, 116, 133. - At Penobscot bay, 125. - - =Merchant= Adventurers, London, 9, 10. - - =Merrymount= settlement broken up Standish, 41-43. - May-pole, 44, 116. - - =Milton= hill, 55. - John, 6. - - =Monatoquit=, 41, 137. - - =Monhegan= island, 125. - - =Montgomery=, 79. - - =Moon= head, 76. - - =Morell= [Morrell], Rev. William, 30-34, 95, 96, 109, 112, 130, 131, - 137, 142. - A Clergyman of the Established Church, 96, 109, 137. - Poem by, 32, 33. - Returns to England, 96, 138. - - =Morton=, Thomas, of Merrymount, 12, 17, 21, 36, 38, 40-44, 53, 84, - 94, 116, 130, 133-135. - Character of his party, 38, 39, 133. - His “New English Canaan,” 17-19, 21. - Landing of, 11, 12. - Not at first connected with Gorges, 133. - Possibly one of Weston’s Colony, 12, 133. - Visits Weymouth, 36, 37. - - =Mount= Wollaston, 45, 56, 84, 91, 94, 134. - Becomes Merrymount, 38. - Location of, 37, 38. - - =Mystic= river, 137. - - - =Nahawton=, 95. - - =Narragansett= Fort, 50. - - =Nash=, Alexander, 55. - Captain, 82. - Gilbert, 87, 118, 126, 131, 132, 146, 147. - Jacob, 98. - James, 98. - - =Nateaunt=, 95. - - =Neponset= river, 130, 134, 135, 137. - - =New= Bedford, 125. - - =New= English Canaan, extracts from, 37, 40, 41, 53, 54. - [See Morton.] - - =Newman=, Rev. Samuel, 47, 68, 69, 92, 104, 105, 107, 108, 111, 113. - - =Newport=, R. I., 106. - - =Noddle’s= Island, 136. - - =North= river, 22. - Weymouth, 75, 95, 103. - - =Northleigh=, England, 101. - - =Norton=, Jacob, 51. - - =Norumbega=, 123. - - - =Old= North (First) Church, 87, 88. - South Church, Boston, 69, 73. - Spain, 5, 6, 35, 56, 131, 139, 145. - - =Oldham=, John, 34, 35, 37, 44. - expelled from Plymouth, 37. - - =Opposition= to the ecclesiastical system of Plymouth, 109. - - =Oxford= University, England, 101, 108. - - =Oyster= river, 101. - - - =Paine=, Rev. Thomas, 69. - Robert Treat, 70. - - =Parker=, James, 93. - - =Pecksuot=, 23, 25, 26, 28, 40, 119, 122, 124, 144, 145. - - =Penobscot= bay, 125. - Expedition, 81. - - =Peirce=, John, 11. - - =Pequod= war, 46, 47. - - =Penn’s= hill, Braintree, 145. - - =Phillips= creek, 6, 13, 123. - - =Pike=, Rev. Mr., 102. - - =Plymouth=, 5, 16, 17, 21, 23, 29, 31, 39, 43, 44, 94, 95, 113, 116, - 120-122, 153. - - =Pool=, 36. - - =Poole=, Joseph, 49. - - =Popham= plantation, 125. - - =Porter=, 36. - - =Portsmouth=, N. H., 135, 136. - - =Pratt=, Ebenezer, 61. - John, 49. - Phineas, 17, 22, 24, 121. - Escapes to Plymouth, 22-24, 121, 122. - - =Prayer-book= used at Weymouth, 139. - - =Prince=, Rev. Thomas, 98, 99, 129, 131. - Chronicles, 97, 131. - - =Provincetown= harbor, 126. - - - =Quakers=, 101. - - =Queen= Ann’s turnpike, 55. - war, 145. - - =Quincy= (town), 142. - John, 84. - Point, 56. - - - =Randall=, John, 98. - - =Robert=, 98. - - =Randolph=, 75. - - =Rassdall, Mr.=, 38. - - =Rawlins=, Thomas, 93. - - =Reade=, William, 111. - - =Rehoboth=, 47, 68, 92, 107, 108. - - =Revere=, Paul, 120. - - =Richards=, Thomas, 93. - - =Richmond=, Va., 148. - - =Robinson=, John, 27, 28. - - =Roxbury=, 102, 104. - Neck, 55. - - - =Sable=, Cape, 56. - - =Saco=, Me., 103, 105. - - =Salem=, 100. - - =Salisbury=, Surgeon, 11. - - =Sanders=, 14, 16, 17. - - =Sandwich= Bay, 14. - - =Savage=, James, 88, 101-103, 118. - - =Scituate=, 100. - - =Seekonk=, 107. - - =Shakespeare=, 6. - - =Shannon=, frigate, 145. - - =Shaw=, John, 98. - Joseph, 98. - - =Shawmut=, 127, 129, 135, 144. - - =Shoals=, Isle of, 9. - - =Shrimp=, Capt. [Standish], 41, 42. - - =Silvester=, Richard, 106, 141. - [See Sylvester.] - - =Site= of Weston’s Block-house, 123, 124. - - =Sloan= collection, 123. - - =Smith=, 141. - Abigail, 70, 84, 115, 116. - John, 106. - Rev. William, 51-57, 70, 75, 86, 108, 115, 154. - - =Smoking= Flax Blood-Quenched, 121. - - =South= Shore Railroad, 150, 151. - - =Southampton=, 10. - - =Sparrow= (vessel), 8. - - =Speedwell= (vessel), 10. - - =Squanto=, 13, 14, 144. - - =St. Bartholomew= Act, 101. - - =St. Buryan’s=, Cornwall, 101. - - =St. Mary’s= Hall, Oxford (England), 101. - - =Standish=, Miles, 13, 23-28, 39, 41-43, 50, 118-124, 144, 145. - His account of visit to Merrymount, 42, 43. - Longfellow’s version of, 119, 120. - Relieves Wessagusset, 24-26, 119-123. - Sir Hugh, 119. - Thurston de, 119. - - =Stoughton=, Israel, 103. - - =Stow=, 74. - - =Swan= (vessel), 11, 13, 14, 17, 23, 24, 27, 29, 31. - - =Sylvester=, Richard, 66, 93. - [See Silvester.] - - =Symmes=, Rev. Zechariah, 104. - - - =Taunton= River, 62. - - =Thacher=, Rev. Peter, 69, 113. - Rev. Thomas, 69, 108, 151. - - =Thompson=, David, 130, 134, 135, 137. - Character of, 135. - Never at Wessagusset, 135. - - =Thompson’s= Island, 130. - - =Three= Episodes of Massachusetts History, 121, 126. - - =Tirrel=, John, 78. - - =Torrey=, John, 61. - Jonathan, 98. - Joseph, 61. - Paul, verses by, 51. - Rev. Samuel, 69, 98. - William, 93, 98. - - =Troubles= from paper currency, 78-80. - - =Trumbull=, J. Hammond, 104, 106. - - =Tufts=, Cotton, 47, 52, 55, 64, 71, 74, 75, 78, 85. - - - =Upham=, 36. - John, 46, 111. - - - =Vane=, Sir Harry, 141, 142. - - =Vinson=, John, 62, 98. - Lieut., 82. - - =Virginia= massacre, 21. - - - =Walford=, Thomas, 130, 134, 142. - Character of, 136. - - =Wampetuc=, 95. - - =Warren=, Joseph, “Solemn League and Covenant,” 73. - - =Waters=, Henry, 123. - - =Wattawamat.= [See Wituwamat.] - - =Weaver=, Clement, 93. - - =Webacowett=, Jonas, 95. - - =Webb=, Christopher, 103. - - =Weld=, Rev. John, 104. - - =Wessagusset= [Wessaguscus] (early name of Weymouth), 12, 44, 86, 91, - 94, 109. - Described in Wood’s N. E. Prospect, 44. - Distress in winter, 14-16. - Double name of, 35. - History indistinct from 1623 to 1628, 37. - Importance of its early history, 118. - Morton’s colony destroyed, 27. - Name changed to Weymouth, 100, 111, 116. - Original site of, 123. - [See Weymouth.] - - =Weston=, Andrew, 133. - Thomas, 8-11, 89, 124, 125, 130, 133, 144. - Abandons Plymouth colony, 10. - At Wessagusset, 29, 133. - Character of, 10. - Dies in Bristol, Eng., 29. - Influence of, in settlements at Plymouth and Weymouth, 9. - Plans for settlement, 8, 9, 125. - Returns to England, 133. - Trials of his colony, 14-17, 21. - - =Weymouth=, Action on Stamp Act, 71, 72. - Action on tax on tea, 72, 73. - Allowed a deputy to the Gen’l Court, 45, 111. - Arrival of Weston’s party 8. - their character, 11, 12. - Attack on, anticipated in the Revolution, 74-76. - Attitude at opening of the Revolution, 73-76. - Birth record, 93. - Bridge, 91. - Centre of the Gorges movement, 132. - Changes in, 88. - Chooses three deputies, 45, 111. - Church troubles, 102-111, 138. - Comparative size of, 94. - Clergymen, 66-70, 95-113. - Council, 1637, 102, 103, 111. - Council, 1639, 103, 104, 106. - Date of settlement, 7, 90, 91, 114. - Deaths in 1718, 98. - Deserters from Continental army paid, 80. - Distance from Boston, 55. - Episodes in its early history, 118-123, 144. - European contemporaries with its settlement, 6. - Expenses, 58, 82-84. - Extinguishes Indian title in 1642, 94. - Families in 1644, 107. - Facts as to early settlement, 94. - Ferry, 56, 91. - First twenty years, 87. - Fisheries, 62. - Grant for tanyard, 61. - Great snow-storms in, 64. - Holidays observed, 66. - In the Civil War, 76, 147, 148. - Intemperance in, 147, 153. - Jealousy of, 95. - Made a plantation, 45, 100. - Meeting-house burned, 50, 51, 152. - Morals of, 65, 152. - Number of families in, before 1644, 93. - Old North Church, organization of, 87, 88. - Origin of name, 90. - Originally called Wessagusset, 116. - Pisciculture in, 62. - Plague centre of prelatical poison, 142. - Population of, 1635, 93. - Post Office established, 150. - Probable date of settlement, 114. - Records, extracts from, etc., 48-50, 54, 57-66, 77, 78, 81, 82, 90, - 92, 153, 154. - Religion in, 153. - Rival claimants to pastorate, 111, 112. - Rules concerning fires, 58. - Sad accident at, 66. - Schools, 57, 82, 83, 153. - School-master, 57. - Settlement antedates Boston, 127. - Sickness in, 52, 63. - Sketch of, by Cotton Tufts, 47, 52, 55, 64. - Soldiers and the Lord’s day, 66. - Soldiers in Canada campaign, 78-79. - Soldiers in Civil War, 79, 148-151. - Soldiers in Continental service, 77-81. - Snow-storm of 1717, 64. - Theory of pastoral succession, 113. - Town bounty to soldiers, 79-83. - Town debt, 77, 83. - Town meetings, 60, 61, 76. - Treatment of the poor, 153, 154. - Weston’s influence in, 9, 10. - - =Weymouth=, England, 36, 90, 91, 93, 97, 101, 131. - - =Weymouth= River, 13. - - =Wheelwright=, Rev. John, 140-142. - - =White=, Asa, 77. - Dr., 62. - James, 77, 78. - Samuel, 49. - - =Whitman=, Capt., 77, 82. - - =Whitman’s= Pond, 85. - - =Whitmarsh=, Ezra, 61. - - =Whittier=, John G., 118. - - =Wilson=, Rev. John, 44, 103, 104. - - =Winnisimmet=, 130, 135. - - =Winslow=, Edward, 11, 17. - - =Winthrop=, Gov. John, 34, 36, 87, 91, 93, 102, 106, 109, 127, 128, - 135-139, 141, 144. - His map of Massachusetts, 123. - Visits Wessagusset and Plymouth, 34, 44, 91, 94, 134. - - =Winthrop= settlement, contrasted with that of Gorges, 127, 128. - Theological and democratic, 127. - - =Wituwamat=, 25-28, 119, 120, 122. - - =Wollaston=, Capt., 37, 38. - Arrival of his company, 11, 12. - Settlement at Mt. Wollaston, 38. - Settlement broken up, 41-43. - - - =Yarmouth=, 100, 101. - - =York=, Maine, 101. - - - - -APPENDIX. - - -_The Number of Acres in each Person’s Lot in 1663._ - - 44 Bates. - _Bayley._ - _Berge._ - Bicknell. - _Blake._ - _Bolter._ - 3 Briggs. - 35 Burrell. - _Burg._ - _Butterworth._ - _Byram._ - _Charde._ - _Comer._ - 5 Cook. - _Down._ - _Drake._ - 10 Dyer. - 8 Ford. - 28 French. - _Fry._ - _Gilman._ - _Guppie._ - 2 Harding. - 4 Hart. - 29 Holbrook. - 8 Humphrey. - 34 Hunt. - 2 King. - 2 Kingman. - 5 Leach. - 13 Lovell. - _Luddon._ - 27 Nash. - _Newbury._ - 2 Osborne. - _Otis._ - 1 Parker. - 6 Phillips. - _Pitty._ - 18 Pool. - 7 Porter. - 68 Pratt. - _Priest._ - 11 Randall. - 3 Reed. - _Reynolds._ - 22 Richards. - _Roe._ - 2 Rogers. - 36 Shaw. - _Staple._ - _Streame._ - 22 Smith. - _Snooke._ - 2 Taylor. - _Thacher._ - 8 Thompson. - 25 Torrey. - 21 Vining. - 30 White. - 5 Whitman. - 1 Whitmarsh. - _Warrens._ - _Woren._ - - Total, 64. - - -_Poll List of 1774._ - - 1 Arnold. - _Ayrs._ - _Badlam._ - 7 Bayley. - 44 Bates. - 6 Beals. - 21 Bicknell. - 6 Binney. - 32 Blanchard. - 35 Burrell. - 4 Canterbury - 1 Colson. - 3 Copeland. - 50 Cushing. - 11 Derby. - 10 Dyer. - _Eager._ - 8 Ford. - 28 French. - _Goold._ - 1 Gurney. - 29 Holbrook. - 19 Hollis. - _Hovey._ - 8 Humphrey. - 34 Hunt. - _Jeffers._ - 4 Jones. - 13 Joy. - 2 Kingman. - 45 Loud. - 13 Lovell. - 27 Nash. - 20 Orcutt. - 6 Phillips. - _Pitty._ - 18 Pool. - 7 Porter. - 68 Pratt. - 25 Reed. - 8 Rice. - 22 Richards. - _Ripley._ - 2 Rogers. - 36 Shaw. - 22 Smith. - 25 Thayer. - 61 Tirrell. - 25 Torrey. - 1 Trufant. - Tufts. - 3 Turner. - 21 Vining. - 3 Vinson. - 1 Wade. - 1 Ward. - 1 Waterman. - 2 Webb. - 2 Weston. - 30 White. - 5 Whitman. - 1 Whitmarsh. - 4 Williams. - - Total, 63. - - - -Transcriber’s Notes - -Errors in punctuation have been fixed. - -In a few cases, where the original book left blank space to indicate an -omitted word, -- or ---- have been substituted. - -Page 42: “rest of the worties” changed to “rest of the worthies” - -Page 111: “in this place or people” changed to “in this place for -people” - -Page 132: “my deficiences” changed to “my deficiencies” - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WESSAGUSSET AND WEYMOUTH *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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