Dighton Town (part 1 of 3)

One Te

| | Andrews E. F..Dealer in Choice Family Groceries, Cor? | Flour, Meal, Salt, Dry Goods, Boots, Shoes, Oils, | Crockery and Wooden Ware, Patent Medicines, Yankee Notions, &c., Dighton P. O. | Briggs C. W..Ship Carpenter, P. O. Dighton Briggs I. P.. Farmer and Market Gardener | Chace B. A..Manufr of Spool Cotton, two, three and | see ply Yarns, North Dighton, Res Ridge st, Fall | iver Chadwick J. W..Overseer, "Mount Hope Thread Mill," | North Dighton Cobb J. M..Engineer, Marine Engines, Dighton P. O. "Dighton Furnace Co"..Manufrs of Stoves and Gas | Pipe. Manufry at North Dighton, Salesrooms 96 and 98 North st, Boston, Geo, F, Gavitt, Treas | Dunbar Geo..Dealer in Dry Goods, Groceries, Boots, Shoes, Rubbers, Meal Flour,Hardware, and Genl | Mdse,Main st, North Dighton Earle Weston.. Farmer and Stock Dealer Green J. W..Farmer, P. O. North Dighton | Hathaway Dealer in Groceries and Provisions, cor of Main and Water sts, North Dighton | Horr F, A..Moulder, Res High st, North Dighton | Horton J, H..Farmer, Brick and Stone Mason, P, 0. Dighton Jonvs Rev. E. F..Pastor of M. E. Church, Res High st, North Dighton Lincoln L. & Co,.Manufr to order, Manilla, Wrapping, Roll and Packing Papers. We make a specialty of Tack, Screw, Fine Blue Thread, Cop, Tube and | Callendar Papers, North Dighton Park Aes .Paper Maker, Res Westville, City of 'aunton Rose Samuel... Farmer, P. 0. North Dighton Simmons H. M..Dealer in Boards, Shingles, Laths, Clap Boards, and Lumber of all lengths and dimensions, P. O. Dighton Sullings Mrs. M. C..Res Dighton Village Talbot Chas..Physician and Surgeon Warner J. Farmer, North Dighton Westcoat R. Farmer and Blacksmith, P.O. Dighton Whitmarsh C Geni Dealer in Choice Groceries and | Provisions. A good supply always on hand, P.O. Dighton | Whitmarsh W. B.. Postmaster, Dighton | ase H tcher and Genl er in all kinda of eats

Town Of Berkley Taos Moor

Buffington B.8. Manufr of all kinds of Wagons and o = | ag Mpslangsley - p a \ oe Hiearooable Terme, Livery » diddy - * "ore 7 ; 443 ff nee Chace Thos. C..Manufr and Des b ~ = ~ + Sarees 2 | : Pomnaing a st me arn and dispatch. Swan- NM aes oe y ee ee Chace Jas. T..Manufr and Desler in Shoes; a good sup- "<= eae g | Chant Poeteeler an Goods aud Choice Groceries, < xX Flour, Grain, &c., &c Packer Gis . . vt oy Marist Gardener, Swansea ¥ ALA iaenckester K eso \ STA Chace ae ees P. 2a 6.Browr - 2 == Gardner Geo. C,. Farmer, P. O.Swansea ee \' Hrs -- @ Sis eer TET Hood & Bros. Geo. S..Dealers in Choice Family Grocerb: Z < 2 ' B.Bosworth - poe be ety « Crockery, Hardware, Agricula> =~ a > : ( Y s, &e., &e Bogivaras = jay =a L C , "S F D Chee "Mount Hope Iron Co"..Manufy af Somerset, Mass.,

Pierce Leonard C..''Somerset Potters Works," Manufrs of Fire Bricks, Gas Tile, Bricks for Blast Furnaces, Forges and Cupolas, Stone Ware, Stove Linings, &c., &. L. Chace, Agt, Somerset, Mass

Linaey / "Somerset Co-operative Foundry Co"..,Manufrs of all ELM, kinds of Stoves and Furnaces Tharstor Shurtleff F. A..Physician and Surgeon

Town Of Somerset

"Mount Hope Iron Co"..Manufy at Somerset, Mass., Store at No. 120 Milk st, Boston. Manufrs of Supao Nails and Spikes of meets description; also

Pierce Leonard C..''Somerset Potters Works," Manufrs of Fire Bricks, Gas Tile, Bricks for Blast Furnaces, Forges and Cupolas, Stone. Ware, Stove Linings,

Source changes here: from History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, by Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Ed, published 1883; 14,728 words in this source stream.

Dighton Town

serious, industrious, earnest people, thoroughly impressed, through their religious teachings, that this life is but the prelude to either endless joy or endless torment; hence even the children had much of the earnestness and staidness of their elders.

Whether the people enjoyed life as much then as people do now is a question that has been often discussed. It is argued that cultivated perceptions of the beautiful in nature and art are one of the chief aids to rational enjoyment of life, and that such cultivated perceptions being lacking in colonial times, the people then were deprived of a great source of enjoyment; and, furthermore, that, having few books, and those chiefly dreary homilies or tedious disquisitions on the doctrinal points of their gloomy religion, while newspapers and magazines were almost unknown, they knew but little of the enjoyment to be derived from a healthy love of reading.

On the other hand, it may be said that, living a simpler and more physically active life, those who survived the perils of infancy had better health than the majority of people have now. They knew but little of nervous disorders or of dyspepsia, which make life a torment to so many people nowadays, and if having plenty of work to do is a chief source of happiness, as Carlyle and other philosophers have taught, they found labor enough to do at hand in clearing the wilderness and finding food and clothing for themselves and their large families. On the wThole, it is to be doubted whether existence is more enjoyable to their descendants than it was to them.

Most of the dwellings of that period have disappeared long ago, and the few that remain have, with rare exceptions, been altered and modernized until it is difficult to tell how they originally looked.

The most striking feature of the architecture of one of these old houses is the huge chimney, around which the house was apparently built. The kitchen fireplace was usually an enormous chasm, in which cord-wood was burnt without sawing, and in which one could sit and look up the sooty cavern to the sky. On cold winter evenings the huge high-backed settle was drawn up in front of the fire to keep off draughts. The mug of cider was brought up from the cellar, and perhaps a dish of apples or nuts passed around, or oysters were roasted on the coals. While the fire blazed up brightly there was little need of the tallow candles which flared and sputtered and sent miniature eruptions of melted grease down the candlesticks. Punctually at nine o'clock the family retired to their four-post bedsteads and feather-beds, to be up in the morning at break of day or earlier.

In one aspect of their lives the colonists were intensely'practical and seemingly devoted to material interests, but when we think how their religious belief dominated over their lives, and what sacrifices they were ready to make for the support of the church, we perceive that they led dual lives ; with

The town officers chosen for 1712, the first year of the town government, were as follows : Town Clerk, Joseph Deane ; Col. Ebenezer Pitts, Edward Paull, and James Tisdale were chosen selectmen ; John Burt and David Walker, constables ; Samuel Waldron, Daniel Axtel, and Abraham Shaw, assessors ; Ensign John Crane, town treasurer ; John Wood and Isaac Hathaway, tithingmen ; Abraham Hathaway and John Wood, surveyors for ways; Thomas Burt and Isaac Pool, fence-viewers; Johu White and Richard Wood, field-drivers; Joseph Maxfield, flax'-culler.

The pay for doing the town's business was very moderate, as were the prices for other kinds of work. The town clerk and the selectmen charged at the rate of three shillings a day, and land surveyors had the same pay. Town-meetings were held in the meetinghouse. This saved the expense of a town hall, and was appropriate enough, as much of the town busipess related to church matters. It was the town that built the meeting-house, hired the minister, and collected his rates.

The records of town-meetings for many years after the town was incorporated contain but little that would interest the general reader. They are mostly brief entries, poorly written and worse spelled, of the election of town officers and representatives to the General Court, varied by transcripts of bills paid by the treasurer. Some of the town offices that were annually filled then have long since been abolished. Such were the cullers of flax, clerk of the market, tithing men, and hog-reeves. What were the duties of clerk of the market in a farming community, such as Dighton was then, I have not been able to find out. The tithingman was required by law to be selected from the " most prudent and discreet inhabitants," and he was a sort of inspector-general of the township. He was required "to inspect all licensed or unlicensed houses where they shall have notice or have grounds to suspect that any person or persons doe spend their tyme or estates by night or day in tippling, gaming, or otherwise unprofitably, or doe sell or retayle strong drink, wine, cider, rumm, brandey, jerry, or methylin without a license." They were also required " to inspect the manners of all disorderly persons, and to present to the magistrate the names of all single persons who live from under family government, stubborn and disorderly children and servants, night-walkers, tipplers, and Sabbath-breakers, by night or day, and such as absent themselves from the worship of God on the Lord's dayes." The tithingman was required to be provided, at the expense of the town, with "a black staff, two feet long, tipt at one end with brass about

1 Emerson somewhere hyperbolically remarks that the Puritans and their immediate descendants were so righteous that they had to hold ou to the huckleberry bushes to prevent being translated.

three inches." It has been handed down that these black batons were sometimes tipped at the other end with a rabbit's foot or a turkey's tail feather, wherewith to tickle the eyes or noses of the sleeping saints in the congregation, while sinners who wandered in the land of Nod during the services were smartly rapped on the head with the brass end of the staff. Such were the important duties of the tithingmen, and it is needless to say that they were regarded with a wholesome fear by evil-disposed persons.1

The duties of the hog-reeve, as might be inferred from his title, were of a very different nature. It was customary to allow hogs to run in the streets, and the hog-reeve was required to provide them with yokes around their necks to keep them out of fenced incisures, and to put rings into their noses to prevent their rooting. The hog-reeve was paid for his services by the owner of the animals.

" In Dighton, at the Annuel Town meeting in march ye 20, anno 1733, the Inhabitanes of said Town did uanumosley vote that thare Reprasantative, Mr Edward Shove, should Exhibit a pettion to the great and genral court for so much un propriated Lands as thay in thare great Wisdom shall think fit to be for the supporting the scool in said Dighton."

There was certainly need of a liberal grant of land by the Great and General Court for the support of a "scool" in this town, if the orthography of the town clerk is to be taken as a sample of the literary qualifications of the people.

It was customary then to establish by a vote of the town the prices at which farm produce and other merchandise should be sold at. The following are some of the prices fixed by vote in 1727: Winter wheat, six shillings and sixpence per bushel ; Indian corn, two shillings and sixpence; oats, one shilling and five pence; bayberry (this was vegetable wax, tried from the berries of the bayberry, or wax-myrtle), fourteen pence per pound; butter, ten pence per pound ; bar-iron, two pounds three shillings per hundred ; tobacco, three pence per pound. (Think of that, ye slaves of the weed, and sigh for the good old times !)

In 1728 a town-meeting was called " to consider what to do, and send such instructions to our representative, Mr. Edward Shove, as the inhabitants of the said town of Dighton shall think fit under our difficult circumstances, by reason of His Excellency the Governor, his long and vehemently insisting on a fixed and stated salary, which we humbly conceive, if it should be granted that a Governor should have a fixed or stated salary granted him in this province, contrary to the former custom and practice of this

1 The last tithiugmen chosen in this town were Anthony Reed, Joseph Briggs, and Thomas Porter, who were elected at the annual meeting in 1834.

our General Court in granting allowances to our former worthy Governors in time past, it would greatly infringe on the privileges and freedoms granted to us by their Majesties' royal charter." The town thereupon instructed its representative to oppose this dangerous innovation and infringement of the people's rights, not seeming to consider that the Governor had any rights in the matter of his own salary. The Edward Shove who represented the town at that time was a son of the Rev. George Shove, of Taunton. He lived on the east side of the river, and was a prominent man in town affairs. The Rev. George Shove was much opposed to the Quakers, and it is a little singular that most of his descendants belonged to the broad-brimmed fraternity.

It was the custom in those days for the selectmen to warn out of town any new-comers whom they thought might become a charge to the town ; their warrants to the constable to this effect frequently occur in the records. The following is a sample of one of these warrants :

" Bristol ss. Dighton, October the 2d. "You are in His Majesty's name forthwith required to warn the following persons out of town as the law directs, they being not lawful inhabitants of said town. The names of said persons is (as) followeth : The man's name is Stephen Huchinson, and his wife's Abigail Huchinson, and seven children, whose names are Daniel, Stephen, Richard, Joseph, Lemuel, Abigail, and Lydia, who are now in the house of Thomas Joslin, as we are informed, in Dighton. Fail not, and make return of your doings to us, or one of us, quick as may be. "To Ebenezer Pool, Constable of Dighton.

In 1751 the population had increased to such an extent that it was voted to build three school-houses, one near Mr. Jonathan Burt's house, one near Col. Richmond's, to be under the care of Josiah Talbot, Esq., and one near the house of Robert Vickerv, to be under the care of Mr. George Gooding. Two of these houses were sixteen feet square, and one was twenty feet. They were probably painted red, as that was the favorite color for the district schoolhouse. At almost every town-meeting the bills for boarding the schoolmaster were voted to be paid, but only once was there mention of that functionary's name; in 1755 one John Richmond is mentioned as the schoolmaster.

Another singular omission of the records is that no mention is made of either of the wars between Great Britain and France, although in Queen Anne's war, as it is called, which lasted more than a dozen years, in the early part of the eighteenth century, men from this town must have served ; while in George the Second's war, towards the middle of the century, a number of men from Dighton were enlisted. The

Bristol County regiment which went with the expedition that captured the fortress of Louisburg, on Cape Breton Island, in 174"), was commanded by a Dighton man, Col. Sylvester Richmond, who was born in 1698, so that he was forty-seven years old when he went on the expedition mentioned.1 How he acquitted himself as colonel we do not know, but his military conduct might have surpassed that of his associate officers or of his commander and yet not have been worthy of special commendation. There was no lack of bravery, but there was very little judgment shown in the conduct of the siege, and not much discipline among the troops. Only the mutinous condition of the garrison in the fortress made its capture possible. The siege was conducted in a most unsoldier-like manner, the rear of the besieging army being a scene of disgraceful confusion, the men being chiefly engaged in the unmilitary occupation of skylarking, running races, pitching quoits, wrestling, shooting birds, or chasing the balls shot from the fort, a bounty being paid for each one brought into camp. A wellconducted sortie from the fortress would have destroyed the undisciplined besiegers. On the 17th of June, however, the Dunkirk of America, as Louisburg was sometimes called, surrendered to the New England troops. " If any one circumstance," says a historian of that time, " had taken a wrong turn on our side, and if any one circumstance had not taken a wrong turn on the French side, the expedition must have miscarried."

Before undertaking the expedition Col. Pepperell, the amiable merchant who was placed in command, had consulted the celebrated preacher Whitefield, who gave his approval, and, after manner of the crusades, furnished a motto for the flag : " Nil desperandum Christo duce." The grand battery was captured without bloodshed in a singular manner. The warehouses in the northeast part of the town having been set on fire in the night, a strong wind drove the dense smoke into the battery, and caused such a panic among the French that they hastily abandoned the battery and fled into the city. In the morning, as a young lieutenant named Vaughan was reconnoitering with thirteen men, he observed that there was no smoke issuing from the chimneys of the barracks, and that the flag- Btaff was without a flag. He thereupon bribed an Indian to climb in through an embrasure and open the gate. He thus found himself in possession of the works, and immediately sent the following report to the general in command : " May it please your Honor to be informed that, by the grace of God and the courage of thirteen men, I entered the Royal Battery about nine o'clock, and am waiting for a reinforcement and a flag." Before reinforcements could arrive the French had sent a hundred men in boats to retake the battery, but Vaughan and his baker's dozen of New Englanders gave them so warm a reception that they were prevented from landing. Europe was astonished at this victory, and in England it was sought to claim all the glory for the navy at the expense of the provincial army.

After his return from the French war, Col. Richmond took a prominent part in town affairs, and was soon appointed high sheriff of Bristol County, holding the office for many years. His father's name was Sylvester, and he had a son and grandson of that name. His wife's name was Elizabeth, and they had eight children. He was a justice of the peace, and married many couples in this town. Marriage was considered only a civil contract in those days, and justices enjoyed almost a monopoly of the splicing business. There is no record of any marriages by Rev. Nathaniel Fisher for many years after he was settled in Dighton. Col. Sylvester Richmond died in 1783, aged eighty-four years. His wife died in 1772, at the age of seventy-two.

Col. Richmond's house and farm were on the north slope of Richmond Hill, to which his ownership gave the name. Only a part of one of the chimneys of the house is now standing to mark its site. It was a picturesque, gambrel roofed old mansion a generation ago, with an immense fireplace in the kitchen, where, it was said, the colonel's slaves were wont to gather in cold weather. For many years it was inhabited by two old maiden ladies, granddaughters of Col. Sylvester, who made some pretence of carrying on farming. The cart-path from the road to the rear of the house was a thoroughfare for the school children while going to and from the huckleberry pastures during the summer vacations, and they could not always resist the temptation to pocket some of the red-cheeked lady-apples and luscious sugar-pears that often strewed the path, for which pilferings they were generally roundly scolded by the watchful guardians of the premises, whose names were Sally and Nancy. In return for these jobations, one of the older bovs, who had a reprehensible propensity for punning, was wont to speak of the scolding Sally as " Sally-rate-us," while an admonition from her sister was termed the " Edict of Nance," an allusion, probably, to the historical Edict of Nantes. The house had the reputation in its later years of being haunted; stories of strange sights and sounds seen and heard by some of its tenants are still current in the neighborhood. One of these stories, related to the writer by an Irishman who is known by the sobriquet of "Sleepy Bill," and vouched for as true by his wife, was to the following effect. Let it be premised that the house stood six or seven rods from the nearly disused road that leads over the hill, and was approached by the cart-path already mentioned, which was closed at the road by bars. This cart-path ran along within a foot or two of the south side of the house, on the lower floor of which was the bedroom occupied by the Irishman and his wife Kate, the head of whose bed was against the south wall.

The somnolent William said that one night about one o'clock he and his " old woman" were awakened by what seemed to be a long procession of carriages that appeared to come up the cart-path from the road, and go past the house down into the swamp at the rear. Having previously heard unaccountable sounds in and about the house, they were too much frightened to get up and see what was going on, while the twenty or more carriages rumbled and jolted along over the frozen ground close to their heads. They appeared to move slowly, like carriages in a funeral procession. Another night they were awakened by a terrible crash in the front hall, as if the whole staircase had fallen and been broken into fragments, but no assignable cause for the racket could be found in the morning. A boarder of theirs related that, coming home rather late one moonlight evening, he was astonished and very much frightened to see several people, dressed in the costume of long ago, dancing what he termed a " breakdown" in the front door-yard. He did not tarry to make the acquaintance of these ancient disciples of Terpsichore, but beat a retreat in doublequick time, and found a lodging elsewhere.

The uncanny reputation given to the old house by these stories and others of a similar nature, together with its dilapidated condition, made it difficult to obtain tenauts who would stay in it long, and it rapidly went to ruin. While it was tenantless the cellar was dug over more than once in the night-time by parties acting under the direction of clairvoyants, who professed to see large sums of money buried there. Whether any pot of doubloons or of Spanish dollars ever rewarded the diggers is not known, but, judging from the ill success that has attended the long-continued search for Capt. Kidd's buried treasure, it is probable that the search in the old Richmond cellar was unsuccessful.

In 1767 the meeting-house on the hill was destroyed by fire, the work of an incendiary. The building of a new meeting-house had been agitated for sometime. The old house was found too small for the increasing congregation, but there was a division of opinion as to the proper location for the new one. Some thought the old place the best situation that could be found ; others preferred Buck Plain, as that would be nearer to their own homes, while a few were in favor of enlarging the old house. One dark night there was a blaze upon Meeting-House Hill, and the question of repairing and enlarging the primitive structure that stood on its summit was decided beyond reconsideration in the negative. After the fire the dispute about the site for the new house still continued to agitate the community, and there being no prospect of agreement, it was found necessary to call in referees from another town to settle the vexed question. The names of five men were drawn from the juror-box in Attleborough, and the referees thus called upon, after a careful hearing of all parties in the dispute, decided to stick up a stake on Buck Plain as the spot where, in their opinion, the new house should be built. The place chosen was about a mile westerly from where the first house stood. There were but few houses in the immediate vicinity. Nature has not been lavish in her gifts to that level portion of the town known as Buck Plain. The land is not remarkable for fertility, and the plain is chiefly covered with a low growth of scrub-oaks, and such was undoubtedly the case in the early settlement of the locality.

The origin of the name is said to have been as follows: Informer times there were three distinct families bearing the name of Briggs in the town, and to distinguish them they were called respectively the "Stout Briggses," the " Buckhorns," and the " Whippoorwills." What was the signification of the latter appellation is not, perhaps, known at the present day. Possibly some members of the family lived in the woods, and were nocturnal in their ways. The " Buckhorns" were so called from certain curious protuberances like budding deers' horns that appeared on the heads of many of that branch of the name, even down to a late period. The "Stout Briggses" were distinguished for great bodily strength, the word stout being here used in its original sense of strong, and not in the later sense of corpulent as Washington Irving used it in his sketch of the " Stout Gentleman." According to the story which has been handed down, one Samuel Briggs, of the Buckhorn branch, lived not far from the locality that is now called Buck Plain ; how long ago the tradition does not state, but it was some time, probably, in the first half of the last century. Samuel was crossing the plain one day when he came upon a large buck lying under a rock among the scrub-oaks fast asleep. Being an active young man he determined, as he had no gun to shoot the animal with, to attempt to capture it alive. He therefore crept cautiously up to the sleeping deer, and sprang upon its back, seizing one of its horns in each hand. The astonished and frightened buck leaped to its feet, and made off at a headlong pace in the direction of the river, which was more than a mile distant, Briggs clinging to his back as best he could. On they tore through bushes, briers, and scrub-oaks, and reaching the river at last, the panic-stricken animal plunged in with its rider, who managed to drown and capture it. According to the tale, when Briggs reached the river he was very nearly in purls naturalibus, all of his clothing having been torn off excepting his shirt collar and wristbands. Mazeppa's famous bareback ride was a tame affair compared to Samuel Briggs' ride on the buck. Although the Cossack hetman's condition as to clothing was much the same throughout his involuntary ride as Briggs' condition was at the end of his, yet, unlike the latter, his clothes were not torn from him piecemeal by cruel thorns, nor was he in danger of falling off, being securely tied to his horse's back. While Mazeppa's ride has been the theme of poets like Lord Byron, of novelists like Bulgarin, and of

Dig H Ton

The meeting-house that was built on the plain was much more capacious than the one that was burnt. It was fifty-five feet long by forty-five wide, and with twenty-four-feet studs. The sum of five hundred pounds was appropriated in town-meeting for building expenses. While it was building meetings were held at the house of Samuel Whitmarsh, nearly opposite. In after-years this Buck Plain meeting-house was cut down to one tier of windows, and used exclusively for a town hall. When the present townhouse was built a few years ago the old house on the plain was sold at auction, and torn down by the purchaser.

Among the names that are prominent in the records of vital statistics of the period before the Revolutionary war are those of Shove, Walker, Talbot, Gooding, Hathaway, Pitts, Stephens, Atwood, Deane, Ware, Briggs, Pool, Whitmarsh, Waldron, Jones, Andrews, Fisher, Paull, Williams, Westcoat, Austin, Bobbitt, afterwards Babbitt, Goff, Wide, afterwards Ide, Burt, Nichols, Crane, Hoar, afterwards Hoard, Smith, Perry, Baker, Simmons, Phillips, Pierce, Shaw, Luther, Cleveland,- Tuels, afterwards Tew, Vickery, Linkhorn, afterwards Lincoln, Peck, and Francis. The number of children to a family at that time would probably average more than twice the number of the average family of to-day, twelve to fourteen being not uncommon in the days of our great-grandfathers.3

1 It is no more than just to state that there are some reasons for doubting whether the honor of this exploit belongs to Samuel Briggs or to one Matthew Gooding, it having been claimed by some that the latter was the hero of the affair. The writer does not pretend, in the absence of authentic data, to decide to which party the credit belongs, but when the above account was written he had not heard the Gooding side of the story. It is evident, however, that there would scarcely be two claimants to an apocryphal exploit, so it may be set down as tolerably certain that either Samuel or Matthew performed the feat above related. Perhaps as much controversy will be excited in the future over the question, " Who rode the buck?" as has been caused in the past by such unsettled problems as who the "man in the iron mask" was, who wrote the "Junius" letters, who killed Tecumseh, and who wai the author ot " Beautiful Snow."

2 The name of Cleveland has been brought before the public lately by the election iu New York of a Governor of that name. Moses Cleveland came to America from Ipswich, Eugland, about 16o5, and settled in Woburn, in this State. He had a family of seven sous and four daughters. He died in 1701. From him are descended all the Clevelands in this country who are of New England origin. The city of Cleveland, Ohio, was named after one of his descendants and a relative of the Dighton Clevelands. Winiuan, in his " Puritan Settlers," states that the family derived the name from Cleveland, in the county of Durham, England. Early in the thirteenth century, Sir Guy de Cleveland was present at the siege of Boulogne, in Frauce, afterwards at the battle of Poictiers, where he commanded tbe spearmeD. The name is a corruption of ClifTeland.

3 Children were so numerous in those days that it is probable they were individually less thought of by their parents than are the individual boys and girls of one of the small families of the present day. Thus it is stated in the records »f the Walker family that Capt. Elijah Walker, born in 1730, and who married Hannah Pigsley, had fourteen children, of whom " two or three were drowned by falling at different times

The Revolutionary Period. - The town records of the Revolutionary period are, as usual, provokingly meagre and unsatisfying, being generally only brief entries of certain expenditures for war purposes, and mentioning only a few of the names of those who served in the army.

The first indication of the coming contest with the mother-country is found in the record of a townmeeting held Dec. 12, 1767. A town-meeting had just been held in Boston, at which resolutions to abstain from certain " foreign superfluities" had been passed, and copies of these resolutions had been sent by the selectmen of Boston to the selectmen of Dighton, and probably to the selectmen of most of the towns in New England. The foreign superfluities mentioned were glass, paper, printers' colors, and tea, on which articles the British Parliament had recently fixed an import duty when brought into the colonies, thereby causing great indignation throughout the country.

At the Dighton town-meeting Joseph Atwood was chosen moderator, and it was voted to refer the matter to a committee of three, consisting of Ezra Richmond, Esq., Abiezer Phillips, town clerk at that time, and Capt. Stephen Beal.4 The meeting was then adjourned. What action the committee took is not mentioned. It is probable that the people of this town were somewhat conservative at that time and not quite ready to follow the lead of the fiery radicals in Boston, and that nothing came of the resolutions that were sent to Dighton.

In 1771 a vote was passed to release " the Quakers and Anabaptists from all the charge relating to the meeting-house," and from all taxes to support the minister. This vote shows the advance in liberal ideas since the settlement of the Rev. Mr. Fisher, when Quakers and Baptists were obliged to contribute to his support.

" Voted, unanimously, that it is highly necessary at this time for this town to enter into an agreement not to consume any British manufactures which shall be imported from Great Britain after the 31st day of August, 1774."

" Voted, to choose five men to take into consideration and draw a covenant, or something similar to the Boston covenant, which should be proper for ye inhabitants to agree together in and sign, and the company chosen was Doct. William Baylies, Capt. Elkanah Andrews, Sylvester Richmond (3d), Deacon George Codding, David Walker."

into the well in the back-yard, the well having been left for years without a curb." In a family of fourteen childreu two or three down in the well would hardly be missed. Elijah Walker was captain of the Ninth Company, of forty-six men, of the Second Regiment of Bristol County militia iu the Revolutionary war. He was a farmer, and was one of the selectmen in 1780. His children may have been drowned while he was away soldiering, and so unable to attend to having the well curbed.

1 Stephen Beal was made captain of the First Company of the Dighton militia in 1762. He lived on Richmond Hill, where the cellar of his house is still to be seen. He was pound-keeper for many years, the old pound being only a few rods from his house. It was owing to his ownership that the picturesque piles of rock that crown the hill were named Beat's Hocks.

" At a Town-Meeting held at Dighton on Monday, the third day of October, Voted to choose Col. Elnathan Walkerand Dr. William Baylies to represent the said Town of Dighton in the General Court, to be empowered and directed to act at the Provincial Congress to be holden at Concord on ye second Tuesday of October, provided the business of the General Court will admit of their attendance." 1

"Gentlemen, - We have chosen you to represent us in the Great and General Court to be holden at Salem, on Wednesday, the fifth of October next ensuing.

" We do hereby instruct you that in all your doings as Members of the House of Representatives you adhere firmly to the Charter of this Province, granted by their Majesties, King William and Queen Mary, and that you do no act which can possibly be construed into an acknowledgment of the validity of the act of the British Parliament for fettering the government of Massachusetts Bay, more especially that you acknowledge the Hon. Board of Councillors elected by the General Court at their session in May last, as the only rightful Constitutional council of this Province ; and we have reason to believe that a conscientious discharge of your duty will produce your distinction as an House of Representatives, we do empower and instruct you to join with members who may be sent from other Towns in the Province, and to meet with them at a time to be agreed upon in a general Provincial Congress, to act upon such matters as may come before you, in such manner as may be most conducive to the true interests of this Town and Province, and most likely to preserve the liberties of all America."

The above instructions were read in town-meeting, and were voted without dissent. On the 26th of December following another meeting was held, as the warrant set forth, " To elect and depute as many members as the town should deem necessary to represent them in a Provincial Congress, to be holden at Cambridge on the first day of February next ... to consult upon such further measures as under God shall be effectual to save this people from impending ruin, and to secure those inestimable privileges derived from our ancestors, and which it is our duty to preserve for posterity."

At the meeting it was voted to choose a committee "to carry into execution the resolves of the Continental Congress," and the following-named persons were chosen : Sylvester Richmond (3d), Rufus Whitmarsh, Peter Pitts, Joseph Gooding, Dr. William Bayl Elnathan Walker was lieutenant-colonel of the Second Regiment in the Second Brigade from about 1760 to 1762. He was the son of Lieut. James Walker, of Taunton, the third of that name. Col. Walker's farm was in the northwest corner of Dighton. He had three wives, viz., Hannah Crossman, daughter of Robert, of Taunton ; Bethia Tisdale, daughter of Joseph, and Mrs. Phebo King, daughter of Deacon Samuel Leonard, of Raynham. Col. Walker's will was probated in 1775. The inventory amounted to four hundred and thirty-seven pounds. He had ten children. He was deacon of the First Congregational Church, and gave more towards the building of Buck Plain meeting-bouse than any other person. The building committee consisted of himself, David Walker, and Dr. George Ware. He was one of the selectmen for several years, and was several times representative to the General Court. He was a justice of the peace, and was often chosen moderator of the town-meetings. His influence in town affairs was large, and he was a worthy and respected citizen.

In March, 1775, a vote was passed to raise minutemen, who were to train two half-days per week, and were allowed one shilling each for every half-day employed in training. The town also assumed the cost of an instructor in military tactics. In May of the same year it was voted to hire one hundred and thirtyfive pounds, lawful money, to be paid into the hands of Henry Gardener, of Stow, for the use of the province. At another meeting in May it was voted that the selectmen should purchase " twenty small arms for the use of the town," and a committee was chosen to see that the militia was provided with arms and ammunition. At that time the qualifications necessary to be a voter included the owning "of an estate of freehold in land of forty shillings per annum at ye least, or other estate to ye value of forty pounds sterling."

In October, 1775, a meeting was held "to choose a field officer," and Sylvester Richmond1 (3d) was chosen. In this year the sum of thirty-five pounds was raised for school purposes.

At a meeting held May 20, 1776, it was voted " that if ye Honorable Congress should for the safety of the united colonies declare them independent of the King of Great Britain, they, the said inhabitants, will solemnly engage with their lives and fortunes to support them in the measure." This vote, it will be perceived, was some six weeks before independence was declared. The town was now as radical as even Boston could desire. On the 22d of July it was voted " to give, as a bounty to each soldier who has enlisted, or shall enlist, to go to New York, ye sum of five pounds, exclusive of the province bounty." These men were enlisted for two months. At that time the prices of

- William Brown was a merchant and vessel-owner. His store was at the Four Corners, and he owned the house now belonging to the estate of the late Dr. Charles Talbot.

3 Abiezer Phillips held the office of town clerk for thirty-five years. He was a deacon of the church, was representative to the General Court for several years, and was several times chosen selectman. He was twice married, and had twelve children.

4 Silvester Richmond (3d) was son of Col. Silvester, who was at the taking of Louisburg. He was born Nov. 20,1729. Silvester (3d I was major in the Second Regiment in the Second Brigade from Feb. 7, 1776, to June 9, 1778. He was then promoted to be lieutenant-colonel, holding the office till 1781. In August, 1778, he served under Gen. Sullivan on Rhode Island, having about one hundred and fifty men and company officers under his command. About nine hundred men from the Bristol County brigade were with Sullivan's expedition. After his return from the war, Lieut. -Col. Richmond was made a justice of the peace.and took a somewhat active part in town affairs until his death, which occurred near the close of the last century. Before his death he gave a large tract of woodland to the Second Congregational Society, which had recently built a meeting-house at the Four Corners, for the support of a minister. He lived at the old homestead on the north slope of the hill. His wife was Abigail Nightingale, of Providence, and they had seven children, including Sally and Nancy, the two old maids previously mentioned, and a son named Silvester.

bold, and that of Hopkins tremulous and uncertain, from the palsy that afflicted him. "I was determined," Ellery used to say in after-years, "to see how they all looked as they signed what might be their death warrant. I placed myself beside the secretary, Charles Thomson, and eyed each closely as he affixed his name to the document. Undaunted resolution was displayed in every countenance."

Commodore Talbot. - Commodore Silas Talbot was a native of this town. He distinguished himself in the Revolutionary war on both the ocean and the land. His parents were Benjamin and Zipporah Talhot. The house they lived in, and iu which Silas, the ninth of their fourteen children, was born, has long since been torn down. It stood in the lots, with (inly a cart-path as a way of approach, between the road leading from the Lower Four Corners to Pitts' Corner and Hunter's Hill, and southerly of the house now owned by Isaac Pierce. Benjamin and Zipporah were buried in the family cemetery near by, with several of their children. They were poor, hard-working people, unable to do much in the way of education for their children, and Silas was early in his boyhood placed on board a vessel as cabin-boy, perhaps as good a school as he could have had for the work he had to do in after-life. He was born Jan. 21, 1751. When he was twelve years old his father died, and as his mother had other children younger and weaker than he to support, he was necessarily thrown upon his own resources for the future. He learned the stone-mason's trade, then considered a very lucrative one, and removed to Providence, R. I. In 1822 he married a young lady named Richmond, and went to housekeeping in Providence, then a small town. He engaged occasionally in mercan-' tile speculations, "iu which," says H. T. Tuckerman, who wrote his biography, "he exhibited more than ordinary boldness and sagacity. An instance is related of his sailing down the river when lumber had unexpectedly risen to a high price, intercepting a vessel thus loaded, purchasing the cargo, and making -ales in town at an enormous advance."

When the Revolutionary war broke out Talbot and a numher of other young men hired an old Scotch drum-major who had deserted from the British army to drill them in military tactics in the loft of a sugarhouse. In June, 1775, he was commissioned as a captain in one of the three newly-raised Rhode Island regiments, and went to Boston with the regiment to take part in the siege of that town. He next went with the army to New York, at which port was a ileet of British men-of-war. Here he was placed, at his own request, in command of a fire-ship, in which he sailed up the Hudson River some fifteen miles, anchoring a short distance above Fort Washington. Soon after he had cast anchor three of the enemy's war vessels sailed up the river and anchored a few miles below where he lay. A night attack was immediately resolved upon. " At two o'clock in the morning," says the biographer, " they weighed anchor and dropped slowly down with the tide. The nearest of the ships was the 'Asia,' of sixty-four guns, whose tall spars and towering hull no sooner loomed upon the gaze of Talbot's hardy band than they steered directly for her broadside. Unsuspicious of any danger, it was but a moment before her little adversary had flung her grappling-irons that the 'Asia' fired, and then a scene ensued that baffles description. . . . In an instant the darkness of a cloudy night gave place to a red, flashing glare that revealed the fort, the waters, and the fields with the distinctness of noonday, and brought into vivid relief the huge vessels of war, now alive with their startled crews, who hastened to the relief of the ' Asia,' some pouring water on the rising flames, others disengaging the fire-ship from her side."

The attack was unsuccessful, at least in destroying any of the enemy's ships, but it served the purpose of driving them from their position into the lower bay, and it likewise had an encouraging effect on the American cause. Congress passed a vote of thanks to Capt. Talbot, and he was at once promoted to the rank of major. He had remained too long on the fire-ship, being the last to escape, and he was severely burned. It was some weeks before he recovered from his injuries.

We next hear of Maj. Talbot in the defense of Mud Island, in the Delaware River, and here he displayed his accustomed daring. His arm was broken by a musket-ball, and he received a wound in the thigh. He returned home to recover from his wounds, and as soon as his condition permitted joined the Conti nental army under Gen. Sullivan's command, on the mainland of Rhode Island, where he rendered essential service in superintending the building of eightysix flat-bottomed boats, intended to carry one hundred men each, for the transportation of the army to the island. These boats were calked by candle-light, and Talbot, wearied by his unceasing efforts to forward the work, was accustomed to sleep under the boats, while the din of the calking-mallets was ringing over his head. An incident of the campaign will illustrate the cool daring of this born leader of men. The crossing from the mainland was commenced on Sunday, the 9th of August, and the light corps, to which Maj. Talbot was attached, marched down the road towards Newport until within a cannon-shot of the enemy's lines. Talbot was then sent forward alone by Col. Laurens, who was in command of the corps, to reconnoitre. He had neared the enemy's outposts, when he saw three British artillerymen in a garden, foraging for vegetables. Without hesitating an instant he jumped his horse over the wall and threatened them with immediate death if they stirred. Thinking that lie was one of their own officers, they made some apology for being absent from their posts, and gave up their hangers. He then drove them before him to the American lines as prisoners of war.

Count d'Estaing's departure with the French fleet to Boston rendered the retreat of the American army from the island a necessity, and in the retreat and the fight which preceded it Maj. Talbot's aid was very efficient, and was commended in the dispatches of the commanding officer to Congress. His next exploit was the capture of one of the enemy's armed vessels. The British, in order to close the east passage, had anchored a vessel of some two hundred tons in the passage, off a point of land called Fogland. This vessel had formerly been in the naval service, but had been cut down to one deck, and was armed with twelve eight-pounders and ten swivels. She had a crew of forty-five men, and her deck was protected from boarding-parties by strong netting. She was named the " Pigot," and was commanded by a lieutenant named Duulap. This armed galley effectually prevented any American vessels from passing up or down Seconnet River, to the great annoyance of the people of Rhode Island and Southern Massachusetts.

Maj. Talbot resolved to capture or destroy the " Pigot," but his project was for some time coldly received by Gen. Sullivan, who deemed it impracticable, but at length consented to furnish a draft of men for the purpose. The major immediately selected a sloop in Providence named the "Hawk," and armed her with two three-pounders and sixty men. Before he could get at the " Pigot" he would have to pass one of the enemy's forts at Bristol Ferry and another at Fogland's Ferry, in Seconnet River, and both forts were safely passed in the night.

After reaching the upper end of the island, the " Hawk" drifted silently down the Seconnet River, with a kedge lashed to the jib-boom to tear the nettings of the enemy. The Fogland fort was passed without alarming the sentinel, although he could be seen pacing back and forth before the barrack lights. Fearing that he should miss the object of his search in the darkness, the major cast anchor just below the fort, and sent a boat forward with muffled oars to reconnoitre. The men in the boat reported the " Pigot's" situation, and the anchor was again hove up, while the strong ebb tide swept the " Hawk" down upon her prey. They were soon hailed by the watch on the deck of the " Pigot," but making no answer a volley of musketry was fired at them, but before the " Pigot's" guns could be brought to bear the kedge on the "Hawk's" jib-boom had torn away the netting and was caught in the shrouds, while her crew leaped on the "Pigot's" deck and drove every man below excepting her commander, who fought gallantly in his night-clothes, but was soon captured. Not a man was killed on either side. The prize was carried into Stonington. For this daring exploit Maj. Talbot again received the thanks of Congress, and was promoted to be a lieutenant-colonel in the army, while the Assembly of Rhode Island presented him with a sword. The next vear he was made a captain in the navy, although there was no man-ofwar for him to command. He was, however, authorized to arm a naval force to protect the coast from the cruisers of the enemy. Lack of money and lack of vessels made the task a difficult one, but the captured " Pigot" and a clumsy sloop called .the " Argo" were finally equipped and manned, the" Argo" being the flag-ship. Her armament consisted of twelve small guns and her crew of sixty men.

In May, 1779, Capt. Talbot sailed from Providence, and soon captured the " Lively," of twelve guns, and two privateer brigs from the West Indies. The prizes were carried into Boston amid great rejoicing. Talbot then cruised about in search of a Tory privateer named the "King George." She was commanded by a Capt. Hazard, a Rhode Islander. She carried fourteen guns and eighty men. One fine day, when about forty leagues from Long Island, the " King George" was seen, and the " Argo" bore down upon her, giving her a broadside when near enough, and then ranging alongside, Talbot and his men leaped on board, and the " King George" was surrendered without the loss of a man on either vessel.

Not long afterwards the " Argo" fell in with a large armed ship, and a desperate fight, lasting four hours, took place, the vessels being all the time within pistol-shot of each other. Nearly every man on the quarter-deck of the "Argo" was killed or wounded. Capt. Talbot had the skirts of his coat shot off, and hia speaking-trumpet was pierced in two places by bullets. At length the mainmast of the ship fell and she surrendered.

After this fight the owners of the " Argo" reclaimed her. Capt. Talbot then took command of a privateer called the " George Washington." But now his good fortune deserted him. He fell in with a fleet of British men-of-war, two of which gave chase and captured the " Washington" before night. Her commander and crew were carried to New York, and thrust into the hold of the Jersey prison-ship.1 The horrors which they endured while in captivity were almost too much for their endurance, nor was their condition improved when they were transferred to another hulk called the " Yarmouth," in which a deadly fever soon broke out. Only Talbot's strong constitution and iron will enabled him to survive through the dreadful imprisonment. He was finally carried to England, and exchanged for a British officer. When he arrived home he had been absent two years. Not long afterwards he married his second wife, a Miss Morris, of Philadelphia, and buying the forfeited estate of Sir William Johnson, in New York State, he removed there with his family and engaged in farming. In 1793-94 he was again before the public, now as a

1 Capt. James Briggs, of this town, was also for a time immured in that floating hell, the Jersey prison-ship, as was also Rev. Thomas Andros, of Berkley, who wrote au account of his imprisonment.

member of Congress, and he was soon appointed to the command of one of the six ships that Congress had decided to add to our little navy. When hostilities commenced with France in 1799, he was placed in command of the frigate "Constitution," and was on the West Indian station.1 In 1801 he resigned his command, thinking himself unjustly treated by the Secretary of the Navy, who had given precedence to Commodore Truxton. His decision was evidently unjust, as Commodore Talbot was the senior officer, and had performed greater services for the country than Truxton. But republics are proverbially ungrateful. The remainder of his life was passed in New York City, where he built a handsome house, and where he married his third wife.

'' In person," says his biographer, " Capt. Talbot was tall and graceful, in features determined but attractive. A portrait of him, painted by Benjamin West, is in possession of his descendants in Kentucky. . . . He was an accomplished gentleman, with a dignity of manners that stamped him for a leader, and yet with a frank urbanity of spirit that endeared him as a companion. He was thirteen times wounded, and carried five bullets in his body. In private life, the elegant hospitality he exercised, the ardor of his personal attachments, the winning grace and self-respect of his manners, his acquaintance with life in all its phases, and a certain generous nobility of feeling rendered him in his prime one of the best specimens of a self-made American officer the country has produced. He died in the city of New York on the 30th of June, 1813, and was buried under Trinity Church. No monument has been erected to his memory, but his gallant deeds are inscribed on the immortal records of the war of independence, and his name is enrolled among the patriot heroes of America."

Such is the picture that has been handed down to us of Commodore Silas Talbot. Brought up in poverty, with little of the education to be derived from schools, and cast upon his own resources at an early age, he showed himself equal to any station to which his energy, sagacity, and bravery caused him to be promoted; he possessed in no small degree "that strong divinity of soul that conquers chance and fate."

Hodijah Baylies. - Although not born in Dighton, Maj. Hodijah Baylies, aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington, was a citizen of this town for many years. Maj. Baylies was born in Uxbridge, Mass., Sept. 15, 1756. His father's name was Nicholas, and his mother before her marriage was Elizabeth Parks. His ancestors were Quakers, and resided in the parish of Alvechurch, county of Worcester, England. His grandfather, who was named Thomas, came over from England with his son Nicholas and a daughter named Esther in June, 1737. He returned to England the next year, but came back under a contract with one Richard Clarke, of Boston, as a clerk in an ironworks, bringing his wife and two daughters with him. Another son, Thomas, came over later, and for some years kept a store in Taunton, and was interested in the manufacture of iron. Nicholas, Maj. Baylies' father, settled in Uxbridge, but after the death of his brother Thomas, Jr., which occurred in 1756, he moved to Taunton, and was a large land-owner and manufacturer of iron in that place.

Hodijah Baylies was the youngest of eight children. Two of his brothers, William and Thomas S., were residents of Dighton, and were prominent men in the town. They will be more particularly mentioned hereafter. Hodijah graduated at Harvard College in 1777, and almost immediately entered the army as a lieutenant, his first service being on the Hudson River. When Gen. Lincoln was appointed to the command of the Southern Department, Lieut. Baylies was selected by him as one of his aids. In the campaigns that followed he took part in much hard fighting at Savannah, Charleston, and elsewhere, acquitting himself creditably in whatever situation he was placed. He was in the city of Charleston during the memorable siege by the British, and when Lincoln finally surrendered to Clinton on the 12th of May, 1780, he was included among the prisoners of war. He rejoined the army as soon as his exchange was effected ; was present at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, and having been selected by Washington as one of his aids, remained in this position until the end of the war. He stayed for some time with Washington at Mount Vernon after peace was concluded, receiving a brevet as major in the army. He returned to the North in 1784, and married Elizabeth Lincoln, daughter of Gen. Lincoln, who resided in Hingham, in this State. After residing for a time in Hingham he removed to Taunton, and engaged in business as a manufacturer of iron, the works being at Westville. The anchors for the frigate " Constitution" were made at the Baylies Forge.

As soon as the Constitution of the United States had been ratified in 1789, Maj. Baylies was appointed collector of customs at Dighton, and at once removed to this town with his family. His father had died in Taunton two years before, in his ninetieth year. Maj. Baylies held the office of collector of customs until 1809.2 In 1810 he was appointed judge of probate for the county of Bristol by Governor Gore, holding the office until 1834, when, at the age of seventy-eight, but in the full vigor of his mental faculties, he re-

2 The following are the names of the collectors who held the office after Maj. Baylies: Nathaniel Williams, from 1809 until his death in 1823; Hercules Cushman, from 1823 to 1S25; Seth Williams, Esq., son of Nathaniel, from 1825 to 1820; Dr. William Wood, from 1829 to 1833; mthI Horatio Pratt, from 1833 to 1834. In the latter year Dr. P. W. Leland was appointed, and the office was removed to Fall River. While Dighton was the port of entry the custom-house was not, as at present, in a building costing half a million of dollars, but the books were kept at the residences of the collectors.

signed. During bis later years he was known as Judge Baylies, his military title being seldom used in connection with his name. He owned a fine farm in Digbton, of some two hundred acres in extent, including the woodland, some of which was heavily timbered.1 The house that he bought was a tavern during the Revolution, and was remodeled and enlarged by him. He had four children, - William G. (who lived in Boston, and died in 1848), Edmund, Amelia, and Benjamin L. Edmund was born in 1787, at Hingham, engaged in commerce in Boston early in life, and made several voyages to Russia, acquiring a handsome fortune. He married a Miss Eliza Payson, and bought a residence in Taunton, not far from the Neck-of-Land Bridge.2 Amelia married Dr. Alfred Wood, formerly of this town, but now residing in Taunton. Benjamin L. never married ; he lived at the homestead until his death, a few years since. Judge Baylies died April 26, 1843, in the eightyseventh year of his age. His wife had died twenty years before, at the age of sixty-three. She is said to have had an excellent judgment and a kind heart, gifts that were inherited by her daughter Amelia.

Maj. Baylies was said to have been one of the handsomest men in the army. His deportment, while showing his military training, was yet easy and graceful, and his manners were polished and engaging. While he was in the army, Robert Treat Paine, the jurist and statesman, who knew him well,

1 A large tract of this woodland was termed the Pine Swamp, and is still known by that name, although the timber was cut off a few years ago. It was probably the only large tract of the primeval forest in the town, and was an interesting spot, to visit. The trees were of various sorts, chestnut, hemlock, and pine predominating. The swamp is evidently the bed of a filled-up lake. In some places a fifteen-feet pole can be thrust down without reaching hard pan. On the south side is a steep bill or ridge of gravel that was formerly covered with large chestnut- and hemlock-trees, under which there was always a twilight gloom even at midday. This ridge of gravel is probably a terminal moraine, piled up by the action of ice in the glacial period. Another smaller bit of the primeval woods is found on the Baylies farm, near the river, and is now called Simmons' Grove, from Mr. C. N. Simmons, the present owner of the farm. This grove is noted for tbe clam-bakes that are annually held there by the Methodist ami Baptist Societies. The trees are chiefly white-oaks, and the grove gives one a good idea on a small scale of the appearance of the forest at the time when Winslow and Hopkins made their journey from Plymouth to Pokanoket, and found the trees " standing not thicke but a man may well ride a horse among them."

It was on the northerly slope of the steep Pine Swamp Hill, however, that the solemn grandeur of the primeval forest impressed itself most strongly on the lover of nature. As in the land of the Lotus-Eaters, it seemed there to be always in the afternoon, and on dark cloudy days to be very late in the afternoon, "'twixt the gloaming and the murk." It was in some such bit of wild woodland scenery, no doubt, that Longfellow wrote these lines, -

"This is the forest primeval : the murmuring pines and the hemlocks, Bearded with moss and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight Stand, like Druids of old. with voices sad and prophetic, Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms."

- Edmund Baylies had three children, - Elizabeth, Ruth, and Edmund Lincoln. The latter, who was commonly called Lincoln Baylies, was born in 1829. He married Nathalie E. Ray, of New York. In 1869 he went to Europe, being much out of health. The change did not prove as beneficial as was hoped, and be died at Geneva, Switzerland, Nov. 28, 1869. He possessed in a marked degree the good sense and probity characteristic of most of the Baylies family. He left four children.

said to his mother, "Your son, madame, has all the elegance of the British officers, without any of their vices." The vigor of his mental faculties was sustained to the last. " His perceptions," says a writer in an obituary notice in a New Bedford paper, " were clear and acute. His conversation, marked by strong sense, abounding with anecdotes and interesting reminiscences of the Revolution, exhibited, almost to the last days of his life, the liveliness of youth, without any of the garrulity of age, always tasteful, animated, and correct."

Judge Baylies' father, Deacon Nicholas, was a man of more than ordinary intelligence and force of character, of excellent judgment, and of sterling integrity, respected by all who knew him. It was remarkable that in those days of dram-drinking he was a practical teetotaler, not tasting of ardent spirits, it is said, for more than sixty years. He left eight children, sixty-five grandchildren, and thirty-five greatgrandchildren.

Dr. William Baylies. - William Baylies, brother of Hodijah, was born in Uxbridge, Nov. 24, 1743, and graduated at Harvard in 1760. He was a man of fine mental endowments, and held many positions requiring high intelligence and a sound judgment. He was a member of the Provincial Congress which convened in 1775. During the Revolution he was often in the councils of the State. In 1784, while in the State Senate, he was appointed by Governor Hancock register of probate for Bristol County and a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He was a member of the State Convention which ratified the Constitution, and in 1800 was an elector of President and Vice-President. He also represented his district in Congress fur four years. He was an original member of the medical, historical, agricultural, and humane societies of this State, and was an early member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was, besides, a skillful physician, and practiced medicine in Digbton for many years. He died in 1826. His son, Hon. William Baylies, LL.D., statesman and lawyer, was born in Digbton, Sept. 15, 1776. He practiced law for many years in West Bridgewater, and there the poet, William Cullen Bryant, studied law under his tuition. He died in Taunton, Sept. 27, 1865, and was buried in the old cemetery on the hill in Dighton. On the reverse of this monument is the following eulogium, far more deserved than are many of the flattering words of praise to be found on tombstones:

"This stone commemorates the virtues of one pure alike in public and in private life, and honored and beloved in both. An upright statesman, a persuasive lawyer, a prudent and faithful counselor, sincere in word and purpose, calm and kind in temper, equitable in judgment, wise in action, who never lent his great talents to the aid of injustice, and abhorred the gain that is acquired in making the worse appear the better cause. He lived a long, useful, and spotless life, and left a noble example to the generation which comes after him."

William Baylies, and his father, the doctor, before him, owned the farm now belonging to the heirs of the late Silas P. Briggs. The house was formerly

Mason & Co., importers and commission merchants, at No. 43 Broadway. In this business Capt. Pendleton continued to the day of hi> death. He leaves a widow and three daughters.

"It was while in command of the 'Lucy Thompson,' in 1853, that public attention was first called to ('apt. Pendleton by his rescue of some of the passengers of the ill-fated 'San Francisco,' and especially by his manner of extending his aid. The 'San Francisco' was a new steamship, owned by Mr. Aspinwall, and built especially for the California trade. She was of two thousand five hundred tons burthen, and was regarded as one of the finest steamers that ever sailed from this port. She started on her first voyage from New York Dec. 21, 185:5, having on board about six hundred souls, including officers and crew. Among the passengers were eight companies of the Thirtieth Regiment United States Artillery, comprising about five hundred men, bound for California, under command of Col. William Gates, and a number of ladies and children composing the families of the officers of the regiment. The ' San Francisco' sailed with fine weather and good prospects for an excellent voyage, but on December 27th, when only three days out of port, a terrific gale was encountered, and the new steamship proved to he totally unmanageable in the heavy seas. On the first day of the storm her masts went by the board, and one hundred men were swept overboard and lost by one powerful sea. For five days she labored in the rolling waves, threatening at every moment to founder, and each day a number of unfortunates were swept into the sea and drowned. To add to the horrors of the situation the sailors began to drink heavily, plundering the stores of the purser, and all discipline was at an end on the steamship. The cholera also broke out on the dismantled vessel, and scores were prostrated by this scourge, so that there seemed to be only one choice for all, - death bydrowningor destruction by the fell disease. On December 20th, however, the bark ' Kilbey;' Capt. Lowe, was spoken, and she took off upward of a hundred of the passengers. Two days later the' Three Bells,' Capt. Creighton, who died a short time ago, rescued another lot, and on Jan. 2, 1854, the 'Antarctic,' Capt. Stouffer, took the remainder of the passengers from the sinking ship, which soon after sank beneath the waves.

" The ' Kilbey," when she took the passengers from the ' San Francisco,' was herself in distress. She had been out forty-eight days, was short of provisions, and had only one cask of water to serve out to her own crew and the strangers. Capt. Murray, however, thought it probable that he would meet some vessel soon which would relieve him of his charge, and he refused to leave the men to die on the 'San Francisco.' For fifteen days the 'Kilbey' sped along, meeting no ship and encountering heavy gales, which split her sails and almost dismantled her, while her provisions had been reduced to such a low ebb that for nearly ten days a handful of parched corn was all that could be allowed to each person on board. Hope of deliverance had well-nigh fled, when, on January loth, the 'Lucy Thompson,' Capt. Pendleton, was sighted, and, in answer to the signal of distress shown by the ' Kilbey,' lay to, although a terrific gale was blowing and the sea ran dangerously high. Capt. Pendleton sent a boat to the 'Kilbey,' and on ascertaining the condition of things on i the vessel offered to take on the ' Lucy Thompson' one hundred of the passengers of the 'San Francisco,' and to furnish provisions to the ' Kilbey.' It was a matter of great difficulty and danger to transfer the passengers with the heavy sea running, but the work was safely done, and tin- two vessels proceeded on their way, the 'Kilbey' to Boston, and the ' Lucy Thompson' to this port. Col. Gates, as soon as he boarded the 1 Lucy Thompson,' sent his quartermaster to Capt. Pendleton to assure him that he should be paid well for his rescue of the United States offind Boldiers. To this the captain replied that he had done only his duty, and he could not think of taking money for saving human life. Capt. Pendleton continued to hold this noble view of his duty to the day of his death, refusing to put in any claim for payment against the government, although be was frequently urged to do so by his friends, and although his officers and men all filed claims and were duly paid for their - The 'Lucy Thompson' arrived here with the rescued igera Jan. 15, 1854, and Capt. Pendleton, with the other captains of the vessels who had taken the people from the 'San Francisco,' were the and dollars for a testimonial to be given to the captains, and at a public dinner Capt. Pendleton was presented with a handsome service of plate, valued at two thousand dollars. This was inscribed, ' Presented by the merchants and citizens of New York to Capt. C. B. Pendleton, of the ship " Lucy Thompson," as a testimonial of the appreciation of his humane and g illant efforts in assisting to save the passengers and crew of the steamship " San Francisco" after the terrific gale of the 24th December, 1853.' The citizens of Boston also sent to Capt. Pendleton a handsome silver pitcher, and from Philadelphia came a purse of two hundred and fifty dollars. This money he invested in a picture descriptive of the rescue of the passengers, painted by Walters, the Liverpool artist Iu after-years the house of ('apt. Pendleton was often the scene of reunions of the rescued passengers of the 'San Francisco.'"

Selectmen Of Dighton

In the preparation of these pages the sources from which information has been obtained have been so various, and the individuals to whom the writer is under obligations so numerous, that only a few of them can be mentioned here, and he can only extend to the great majority, collectively, his sincere thanks. Among those not already mentioned to whom he is indebted are Hon. Henry Williams, of Taunton; Gen. E. W. Pierce, of Freetown ; C. A. Reed, Esq., of Taunton ; and H. W. Hart and G. E. Gooding, Esqs., of North Dighton. Mr. W. R. Taylor, of Bristol, R. I. ; Rev. L. Kinney (historical sketch of Baptist Church) ; and also the pastors and clerks of several of the religious societies for the loan of records.

Biographical Sketches Weston Earle

WESTON EARLE. Ralph Earle emigrated from England probably between the years 1633 and 1638. There is a tradition presumed from the directness of its descent to be authentic that he came from Exeter. Of this, however, we have obtained no positive proof. No efforts have been made to trace his family prior to his arrival in this country.

From the records of the Colonial Court it appears that Ralph Earle, with nineteen other residents of Portsmouth, R. I., petitioned the king, under date of April 30, 1638, for " permission to form themselves into a body politic." Upon the records of the town of Portsmouth, R. I., under date of first of eighth month, O.S. (October) 1638, there is " A Catalogue of such (persons) who by the Genrall consent of the company were admitted to the Inhabytants of the Island now called Aqueedneck, having submitted themselves to the Government that is, or shall be, established according to the word of God therein." This catalogue contains fifty-nine names, of which that of Ralph Earle is one. Again, under date of " April ye 30th 1639," his name, with twenty-eight others, is appended to the following declaration of allegiance : " We whose names are under [written doe acknowledge1] ourselves the legell subjects of [his majestie] King Charles, and in his name [doe hereby bindej ourzelves into a civil body politicke unto his lawes according to matters of justice."

At a town-meeting, June 2, 1649, Ralph was " chosen treasurer for this next year ensuing, and also overseer for the poor," and at another town-meeting, April 29, 1650, he, with five others, was chosen " for the committee for the General Assembly at Newport in May next." At a town-meeting in 1647 he had been " chosen to keep an Inn, to sell beer and wine, and to entertain strangers," but at a similar meeting, Nov. 12, 1650, with a species of hair-splitting worthy of the metaphysicians, it was " voated and granted that Ralph Erl's house wherein he now dwelleth be recorded an Inn, in ye room of ye former vote that he was an Innkeeper." It would appear that he was an inn-keeper by compulsion rather than choice. Jan. 16, 1651, he was "chosen to oversee the work of the Prison," etc. May 5, 1655, with two others, he was chosen as juryman " for the Generall Court of tryals to be held in Providence." In 1667, he joined a " troope of horse," which had been ordered to be raised, and on the 10th of August signed, with eighteen others, a paper approving "the choyce of our captaine and Lieftenant to the full." It appears that Ralph was afterwards captain of this troop. April 28, 1669, he was placed on the Grand Jury ; and June 7, 1671, he and eleven others of Portsmouth, R. I., and several residents of Newport, were appointed by the General Assembly of the colony as a Special Court, to sit on the 15th of the same month, to try " two Indians now imprisoned upon criminall charge."

Several deeds of real estate from Ralph to other persons are upon the records of Portsmouth. In the "New England Genealogical and Antiquarian Register," vol. vi. p. 369, it is stated that Ralph claimed the lands of the Dutch " House of Good Hope," now Hartford, Conn., and commenced a lawsuit therefor against Richard Lord and James Richards, of Hartford, possessors of the Dutch land ahout 1667. Earle affirmed that he purchased the land of Underhill in August, 1653, and paid him twenty pounds sterling for it, but Underhill protested against Earle's claim. "It is not improbable," continues the writer in the " Register," " that there was some foundation for this claim." There are many papers on the subject in the archives of Connecticut. We have no record of the date of Ralph's decease, but his " Will was Entered and Recorded the 14th day of the 11th month (O.S.), 1677, as Atest John Anthony, Town Clarke," of Portsmouth.

Thomas Earle, of Portsmouth, was received a freeman of the colony in 1764. No other record of his name has been found. He was probably a son of Ralph, and died not long after the year just mentioned.

Ralph} Earle married lone ; settled in Portsmouth, R. I., in 1638. His children were Ralph, William2, Mary, Martha, and S.irah. William2 died in 1715. His children were William, Ralph, Thomas3, John, and Prudence. Thomas3 lived in Warwick, R. I. He died in 1727. His children were William, Thomas, Mary, Oliver*, Sarah, Lydia, and Rebecca. Oliver* married Rebecca Sherman, and lived in Swansea, Mass. He died in 1766. His children were Joshua, Caleb5, Thomas, and Mary. Caleb5 was born in 1729, and died in 1812. He lived in Swansea, Mass. He was twice married, first to Sarah Buffinton, in 1745. They had six children, - Elizabeth, Weston6, Caleb, Benjamin, Joshua, and David. His second wife was Hannah Chase. They were married in 1769. Their children were Mary, Jonathan, Rebecca, Daniel, Sarah, Oliver, and William. Weston* was born in Swansea in 1750, and died Sept. 5, 1838. He married three times, first Hepsibeth Terry. Their children were Caleb, Sarah, Hepsibeth. His second wife was Sarah Slade. (See Slade biography, in Somerset.) Their children were John1, Slade, Edward S. His third wife was Martha Smith. They had one son, Thomas G. John' was born May 24, 1790. At the age of sixteen he began teaching, and continued in this employment during the winter months for thirty-seven years. In addition to the common school studies he taught navigation and the higher branches. He was also a successful farmer, was for several years a member of the General Court, and for two years occupied a seat in the State Senate. He held many responsible positions in the town, where his value was recognized, was a justice of the peace, and was often called upon to administer estates. He died in the seventy- fifth year of his age. He married Roby, daughter of Asa

Their children were Weston8; Sarah, born in 1811, married Philip Simmons' in 1835; John M., born in 1819; Elizabeth M., born in 1822, married, in 1857, F. A. Boomer, of Fall River, Mass. (See biography in history of Fall River.)

Weston8 Earle was born Feb. 19, 1810, in Swansea, where he continued to reside, working on his father's farm until he was twenty-one. He then went to Rochester for three years, when he returned to Swansea, where he worked on a farm until he was twentyeight. In 1837 he purchased his present farm, where he has lived since 1838. He is a firm supporter of the Republican party. He was for many years one of the selectmen of Dighton. He is a descendant in the eighth generation from Ralph Earle, who came from England, and was one of the first purchasers and settlers of the island of Rhode Island (in 1638). His wife's name was lone, and the subject of this sketch has a grandson and granddaughter named after the original Ralph and lone Earle.

Mi\ Earle married Content (daughter of Benjamin Slade and Elizabeth Robinson), born Feb. 8, 1798, at Swansea. She was the youngest of eight children, who all lived to an advanced age.

Charles H. Gooding

Charles H. Gooding was born in Dighton, Mass., Feb. 5, 1812. He is the fifth generation of the Goodings who have resided on the ancestral farm settled by George Gooding in 1684. He had emigrated from Somersetshire, England, and purchased the place before King Philip's war. George Gooding had four children, three daughters and one son, viz. : Matthew, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch. His grandfather and father both bore the name of Joseph, the latter born in 1772. His mother was Betsey Austin, daughter of Seth Austin, Sr., of Dighton, and he is the youngest of a family of six children, of whom he and his sister Betsey, widow of the late Samuel L. Thaxter, are the only survivors.

Mr. Gooding was well educated in the branches taught at the common schools of his native town, and received additional advantages at a grammar school in Fall River, where his father resided and carried on the clock- and watch-making business and a general jeweler's store. Charles learned of his father the trade of a clock- and watch-maker, though he did not continue to follow that pursuit. He served as deputy postmaster at Fall River about one year, and in 1834 went to the city of New York, and was about ten years engaged there as a book-keeper for his brother, Albert Gooding, who was a merchant in the Spanish West India trade. In 1844 he settled on the homestead in Dighton. Under the administration of Presidents Taylor and Fillmore he was inspector of customs at Dighton, a branch of the Fall River office being then kept at that place. He has carried on the homestead farm since his return there in 1844.

Mr. Gooding was married, Feb. 5, 1857, to Mary Almy, daughter of Capt. Abraham Briggs, of Dighton, and widow of Mr. Gilbert L. Talbot. She was a native of Providence, R. I. They had no children. She died Sept. 24, 1880, aged sixty-six years and two months.

A Whig and a Republican in politics, he is yet an Independent, and believes more in principles and men than in party. In religious faith and worship his affiliations are with the Unitarian Church, and he is a supporter of the church of this order in Dighton.

We append to this brief sketch the following article, recently published in the Taunton Gazette, respecting the occupation pursued by several members of this family :

" The Gooding Family of Clockmakeks. - A recent notice of the death of a member of the Gooding family, the last of the brothers, natives of Dighton, suggested the grouping of a brief genealogical reminiscence relative to the history, mechanical skill, and occupation of this family of clock and watchmakers. Probably no similar instance can be cited in this country where so many of one family followed that ingenious business, to whom may be added nearly a dozen descendants pursuing the same occupations, nearly all citizens of this State.

" The old homestead where they were born stands upon the estate of their late pilgrim ancestor, George Gooding,1 who died Jan. 1, 1712, in his eightieth year. His son Matthew inherited the estate ; Joseph was the third, Joseph (2d) the fourth, in lineal descent, and the eldest of the five brothers, and three sisters - Rebecca (Mrs. Reed), Deborah (Mrs. Standish), and Elizabeth (Mrs. Perry) - comprised the family of the fourth generation.

" Joseph (4th) was born in 1772, and at an early age developed a remarkable mechanical genius and a peculiar aptitude for clock and watch machinery. When about sixteen years of age his father sent him as an apprentice to an English Quaker, an ingenious watch and elockmaker in Hanover, where he remained a few years, until he was as expert as his master in the business. He returned to Dighton, and commenced the manufacture of brass clocks before he was twentyone years of age, in a little room in the old homestead. He afterwards, in 1797, built a store near the Upper Four Corners, and enlarged the business, with

1 Joanna, a daughter of George Gooding (3d), married John Godfrey, Esq., and was the mother of Brig.-Gen. Godfrey, men of note during the last century in this county.

two of his brothers as apprentices, in making the tall, mahogany-cased clocks, after the English style, recently imported from London at great expense. These clocks, besides the time-dial, noted the day of the month and the moon's phases, some of which may be found in old family residences at the present day. All the delicate brass-work was executed by his own hands and those of his brother apprentices. Not a cog-wheel or pinion was turned out by machinery, as done by the million at present. None of those grand mahogany-cased time-keepers are now made, yet many are still keeping note of the time and the phases of the moon as correctly as they did nearly a century ago. Those who hold them in possession as family heirlooms are loth to part with their venerable Gooding clocks for any consideration, which have proved such reliant time-keepers. At the manufacture of these famous clocks the younger brothers, as they left the humble school and patrimonial farm, served apprenticeship with their senior brother, Joseph.

"In 1826, Joseph removed his business to Troy (now Fall River), then having a population of less than three thousand, and followed watchmaking, at which he was an adept; also a designer, engraver, and die-cutter, and skillful at all. After remaining a dozen years he returned to his homestead in Dighton in 1838, and resumed the repairing of clocks and watches until his death, in 1853, at the age of eighty and they had two daughters and four sons. The two eldest, Joseph and Albert, followed their father's business, and went to Bogota, South America. AVilliam also removed there in the shell-comb manufacture. Albert and William died some years ago, and Joseph died recently. Charles H., who cultivated the ancient family estate of nearly two centuries, also repairs clocks for diversion, continuing the family occupation.

"Josiah, the second brother, after finishing his trade, settled in Bristol, R. I., and followed the clock and watch business until his death, in 1864, at the age of eighty-eight years. He left four sons, two of whom, James and Josiah, continued the same business. One remains in the father's store.

" John, the third brother, went into business in Plymouth, remaining there until his death, some eight years ago, at the age of ninety, leaving three sons. Benjamin succeeded his father, and James is one of the prominent members of the Walthain Watch Manufactory, and aided in building up that enterprising establishment to its present vast proportions and wide reputation.

" Alanson, after leaving his apprenticeship, settled in New Bedford, and followed the business until 1840, when he retired. He made a trip to Europe several years ago. He died Nov. 18, 1877.

menced the clock and watcli business in Duxbury, where he married and remained a few years. He subsequently removed to Boston, and continued the favorite business in Dock Square, Washington and State Streets, until age caused him to retire about a dozen years ago. He died on the 10th of December at the age of ninety-two years and six months, leaving five daughters and a son, but none to continue the business of the father.

"The five brothers averaged over half a century in devotion to that business, and they sustained the remarkable aggregate age of nearly four hundred and forty years. Their sister, Mrs. John Reed (mother of Henry Gooding Reed, of Taunton), died in January, 1872, at the venerable age of ninety, making the aggregate of the five brothers and sister over five hundred and thirty years. All lived remarkably temperate and even-tenored lives, worthy representatives of their sturdy pilgrim ancestry and lineage, as well as their successors and descendants, who follow them in the ingenious line of occupation. It is a rare record of a family, hence it may be of readable interest to the relatives, friends, and others who may not have heard of the Gooding clock and watchmakers."

Alfred W. Paul

Alfred W. Paul is of Scotch descent, and is lineally connected with one of the oldest families in Taunton. Two brothers, Richard and William Paul, came to i this country from Scotland at an early day, the former on board of the ship " Castle" in 1636-37. He was born in 1615, and Nov. 7, 1638, married Margary Turner, of Taunton, Mass. The same year he took an inventory of the estate of John Bryant, of Taunton. He was licensed to keep a victualing-house Aug. 3, 1640 ; was subject to military duty 1643 ; was on a | jury of inquest September, 1650, and again July 23, 1653 ; June 7, 1652, he was surveyor of highways, and died at the age of about thirty-nine in 1654, his " widow" being mentioned in the will of Elizabeth Pool, dated March 17th of that year.

That William was not a son but a younger brother of Richard is evident from the fact that he "was born in Scotland in 1624." The lineage of the subject of this sketch is traceable directly back to this ancestor, William. He was a weaver by trade, and married Mary, daughter of John Richmond, of Taunton. He sold a dwelling-house to his sons, John and Edward, Feb. 27, 1687; gave five acres of land towards the payment of Rev. Mr. Danforth, the Taunton minister, Feb. 27, 16S8 ; was a large land-owner in the "Taunton South Purchase," containing the present town of Dighton, which was bought of the Indian "King Philip" in 1672 by a company in Taunton, of which William Paul was a member. In two different divisions of the purchase he received lots Nos. 3, 28, 46, and 86, the last division having been made March 18, 1683-84. The dates of the deaths of William and

Source changes here: from History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, by Hurd, Duane Hamilton, [from Old Catalog] Ed, published 1883; 13,756 words in this source stream.

Dighton Town

serious, industrious, earnest people, thoroughly impressed, through their religious teachings, that this life is hut the prelude to either endless joy or endless torment; hence even the children had much of the earnestness and staidness of their elders.

Whether the people enjoyed life as much then as people do now is a question that has been often discussed. It isargued thatcultivated perceptions of the beautiful in nature and art are one of the chief aids to rational enjoyment of life, and that such cultivated perceptions being lacking in colonial times, the people then were deprived of a great source of enjoyment; and, furthermore, that, having few books, and those chiefly dreary homilies or tedious disquisitions on the doctrinal points of their gloomy religion, while newspapers and magazines were almost unknown, they knew but little of the enjoyment to be derived from a healthy love of reading.

On the other hand, it may be said that, living a simpler and more physically active life, those who survived the perils of infancy had better health than the majority of people have now. They knew but i little of nervous disorders or of dyspepsia, which make life a torinent to so many people nowadays, and if having plenty of work to do is a chief source of happiness, as Carlyle and other philosophers have taught, they found labor enough to do at hand in clearing the wilderness and finding food and clothing for themselves and their large families. On the whole, it is to be doubted whether existence is more enjoyable to their descendants than it was to them.

Most of the dwellings of that period have disappeared long ago, and the few that remain have, with rare exceptions, been altered and modernized until it is difficult to tell how they originally looked.

The most striking feature of the architecture of one of these old houses is the huge chimney, around wliich the house was apparently built. The kitchen fireplace was usually an enormous chasm, in wdiich cord-wood was burnt without sawing, and in which one could sit and look up the sooty cavern to the sky. On cold winter evenings the huge high-backed settle was drawn up in front of the fire to keep off draughts. The mug of cider was brought up from the cellar, and perhaps a dish of apples or nuts passed around, or oysters were roasted on the coals. While the fire blazed up brightly there was little need of the tallow candles which flared and sputtered and sent miniature eruptions of melted grease down the caudlesticks. Punctually at nine o'clock the family retired to their four-post bedsteads and feather-beds, to be up in the morning at break of day or earlier.

In one aspect of their lives the colonists were intensely practical and seemingly devoted to materi-.d interests, but when we think how their religious belief dominated over their lives, and what sacrifices they were ready to make for the support of the church, we perceive that they led dual lives ; with

The town officers chosen for 1712, the first year of the town government, were as follows : Town Clerk, Joseph Deane ; Col. Ebenezer Pitts, Edward Paull, and James Tisdale were chosen selectmen; John Burt and David Walker, constables; Samuel Waldron, Daniel Axtel, and Abraham Shaw, assessors ; Ensign John Crane, town treasurer ; John Wood and Isaac Hathaway, tithingmen ; Abraham Hatliaway and John Wood, surveyors for ways; Thomas Burt and Isaac Pool, fence-viewers; John White and Richard Wood, field-drivers ; Joseph Maxfield, flax-culler.

The pay for doing the town's business was very moderate, as were the prices for other kinds of work. The town clerk and the selectmen charged at the rate of three shillings a day, and land surveyors had the same .pay. Town-meetings were held in the meetingbouse. This saved the expense of a town hall, and was appropriate enough, as much of the town business related to church matters. It was the town that built the meeting-house, hired the minister, and collected his rates.