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THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
RIVERSIDE
X/^JC Ji
m
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
IN
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor
History is past Politics and Politics present History. Freeman
VOLUME I
LOCAL INSTITUTIONS
PUBUSHKD UNDER THE AUSPICES OF TIIK JoHNS HOPKINS L'KIVKRSITT
N. MURKAY, PUBLICATION AOKXT
BALTIMOK E
1 88 :t
JOHN MURPHY A CO., TRINTERS,
BALTIMORE.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
I. An Introduction to American Institutional History. By Edward
A. Freeman, D. C. L., LL. D. With an Account of Mr.
Freeman's Visit to Baltimore. By the Editor.
II. The Germanic Origin of New England Towns. "With Notes on
Co-operation in University Work. By Herbert B. Adams,
Ph. D., Associate Professor of History, Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity.
III. Local Government in Illinois. By Albert Shaw, A. B. Local
Government in Pennsylvania. By E. li. L. Gould, A. B.,
Fellow in History, Johns Hopkins University.
IV. Saxon Tithingmen in America. By Herbert B. Adams.
V. Local Government in Michigan and the Northwest. By Edward
W. Bemis, A. B., Scholar in History, Johns Hopkins Univer.Mty.
VI. Parish Institutions of Maryland. With Illustrations from Pariah
Kecords. By Edward Ingle, A. B.
VII. Old Maryland Manors. With the Kecords of a Court Leet and
a Court Baron. By John Johnson, A. B.
VIII. Norman Constables in America. By Herbert B. Adams.
IX-X. Village Communities of Cape Anne and Salem. By Herbert B.
Adams.
XL The Genesis of a New England State. By Alexander Johnston,
Professor of Political Economy and Jurisprudence, Princeton
College.
XII. Local Government and Free Schools in South Carolina. By B.
J. Ramage, A. B., Scholar in History, Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity.
iii
INDEX TO FIRST VOLUME
OF
Johns Hopkins University Studies
IX
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE.
Abbeville county, XII. 20.
Abbott, Michael, VII. 34.
Acts of Assembly, Maryland, VI. 5,
7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 21, 23, 26,
26, 29, 31, 32, 39.
Adair, Kob't, VI. 40.
Adams, H. B., Freeman's visit to
Baltimore, I. 5-12 ; the Germanic
Origin of New England Towns,
II.; Saxon Tithingmen in Amer-
ica, IV. ; Norman Constables in
America, VIII. ; Village Com-
munities of Cape Anne and Salem,
1X-X.; Alex., VI. 9; Henry, II.
41.
Adamites, XT. 21.
Addison, John, VI. 14.
Adultery, VI. 20, 33, 35.
Afferors, VII. 14, 15.
Aldis, W. S., II. 15; IX-X. 55.
Ale tasters, VII. 14.
Alfred, IV. 16.
Alienation, recorded in court baron,
VII. 38.
Allen, Rev. Dr. E., history of Cov-
entry parish, VI. 8; history of
St. Paul's parish, 48; W. F., pa-
per in the " Nation," II. 40.
All Saints parish, extracts from rec-
ords of, VI. 42-49.
Aims-House Farm, IX-X. 60.
America, Spanish conquest of, I. 15;
English settlements in, 10; Eng-
lishmen of, 2:!.
American Constitution, I. 38; XI.
14,15; democracy, II. 6 j revolu-
tion, VI. 23,24.
Andrews, M., VI. 46.
Andross, Gov., III. 24, 25.
Annapolis, I. 9; VI. 17, 30.
Appenzell, I. 38.
Arms for manorial tenants, VII. 20.
Aristocracy, Calvert's plan for, in
Md., Vll. 7.
Aristotle, I. 9.
Askew, .Michael, VI. 45.
Assembly, (Connecticut), XI. 14,15;
(Maryland), see Acts, VI. 14:
(Pennsylvania), members of, paid
from county rate, III. L'7 ; return
of county rate made to, 29.
Assessment, 111.22,23; by court of
sessions and grand jury, 27 ; board
of, 27, 28.
Assessors, (Maryland), V I
(Pennsylvania), 111. U7, 28; i
tion of, 33 ; dimes of, 3 I.
Assistants, XI. 20.
Athens, I. 14.
Atlantis I. 1 1.
Attaway, Tims., VII 37.
Auditor, (county . Ill 33 ; 1 1<
ship), :;.'i ; election uf, :;).
Austin, John, VI. 45.
41 ;
j.v-
VI
INDEX.
Awsbury, Henry, VII. 87.
B
Bachelors taxed, VI. 21, 36.
Bacon, VI. 5, B, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 17,
19, 21, 22, 37.
Bagby, Levine, VI. 48.
Bailiff of manor, VII. 13, 31-36.
Baker, Michael, VI. 32, 36.
Ball, Jno, VII. 37.
Baltimore, Lord, VI. 5, 80 ; county,
26, 87, 38; city, 26, 27; gentle-
men of, assist in printing records,
29.
Bancroft, III. 37; XI. 8.
Bankers, vestry as, VI. 23, 35.
Bankes, Geo., VII. 34.
Barefoot, Jno., VII. 37.
Barnwell county, XII. 38.
Baronies in Md., Bill for, VII. 7.
Bartholomew county, XII. 20.
Bartlett, Walter, VII. 33.
Beall, Geo,, VI. 31, 32; James, 82;
Josiah, 36 ; Alex., 36 ; William,
36; Samuel, 36.
Beaufort, school, XII. 14 ; district,
20.
Bell, John, VI. 34.
Bellowes, Francis, VII. 34.
Bemis, Edward W., on Local Gov-
ernment in Michigan and the
Northwest, V.
Bentlev, Rev. W., history of Salem,
IX-X. 27 ; North and South Fields
of Salem, 38.
Benton, Wm., VII. 34.
Beresford, R., XII. 35.
Berkley, eountv, XII. 20.
Birckhead, S., VI. 42.
Bishop, Whittingham, VI. 5 ; of
London, 7, 9, 30 ; of diocese, 27.
Blackistone, Jno., VII. 35, 36, 37;
Nehemiah, 38.
Blackstone on constable, VIII. 6.
Blake, Rich., VI. 45.
Blay, Col., VI. 21.
Block, H. A., VIII. 30.
Books and libraries, Freeman '8 views
on, I. 8; in Maryland, VI. 8, 11,
15, 16,24,25,31,43,44.
Boston, XI. 12; fire, VI. 22.
Boucher, Rev. Jonathan, his epistle,
VI. 17; life and writings, 24.
Bourbourg, Brasseur de, his Sunday
experience in Boston, IV. 4.
Bourdillon, Rev. M , VI. 37.
Bowditch, N., IX-X. 30.
Boyce, Roger, VI. 40, 44.
Bradbourne, Edw., VII. 37.
Braddock's defeat, VI. 21.
Bradford, Gov., II. 29; Jno., VI. 30.
Brandford, XI. 22, 23, 27.
Bray, Rev. Thos., VI. 10, 11.
Brenson, Gerett, VII. 34, 35.
lirent, Giles, VII. 8; Margaret, 19.
Bricks, VI. 17, 37, 38, 39.
British government in North west,V.
9 ; museum, I. 8.
Brodhead, J. R., V. 29.
Brooke, Rev. Clement,VI. 37; Lord,
XI 7.
Brooklyn, I. 35.
Brown, Geo. W., I. 9.
Bruce, Wm., VI. 14.
Bryce, James, I. 9.
Bullock, John, VII. 35, 36, 37.
Burgesses, XI. 21, 23.
Burial Hill, a natural acropolis,
VIII. 17.
Burlington, V. 11.
Burnes, James, VI. 37.
Butler, Rev. Edw., VI. 15.
By-laws, VII. 14.
Caesars, I. 11.
California schools, V. 21 ; townships,
22.
Calvert county, VI. 14, 42, 43;
Charles, 30; Leonard, VII. 6.
Camden district, XII. 20.
Campbell, J. V*, on feudalism in
Michigan, V. 8, 9, 12; James,VI.
20, 21.
Cape Ann, legal basis for settlement
of, IX-X. 4; fisher plantation a
failure, 4, 5; failure of Dorchester
men, 12.
Cape Cod, VIII. 17.
Carnall, Chris , VII. 31, 33.
Carre, Sir Robert, III. 24.
Carroll, Peter, VI. 40; Charles, of
Carrollton, VII. 6.
Carver, John,' governor of Ply-
mouth, II. 25; VIII. 19.
Casey, Thos., VII. 35.
INDEX.
Vll
Cass, Oov., influence on local gov-
ernment in Michigan, V. 12, 13.
Caswell, Rich., VI. 14, 37.
Catline, Thos., VII. 35, 37, 38.
Centralization, French, V. 8, 9 ; ten-
dency in the United Estates, 25.
Chapels of parish, VI. 16, 29, 37 ; on
manors, Vli. 10.
Charity schools, VI. 22.
Charles II., XI. 7, 25, 26, 29.
Charleston, XII. 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 18,
19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 32, 33, 34,
36, 37; district divided, XII. 20.
Charlestown, VI. 9.
Chauntry, J no., VII. 35.
Cheptico Indians, VII. 33; King
of, 34.
Cheraws, district of divided, XII. 20.
Cheshire, Wm., VII. 35, 37.
Chester county, XII. 20.
Chesterfield county, XII. 20.
Chew, Joseph, VI. 29, 33.
Childs, James, XII. 35.
Childsbury, free school of, XII. 14,
35.
Chillman, Rich., VII. 37.
Choate, R., on beginning of N. Eng.
institutions, II. 27; VIII. 21.
Christ Church parish, VI. 14.
Chrysoloras, I. 11.
Church, parochial, III. 23 ; built by
order of court of sessions, 25 ;
penal laws of Maryland read in,
VI. 9, 21 ; description of, IB, 17,
18,24; wardens, III. 22, 23,25;
VI. (see wardens); XII. 11;
church members in Conn., XI. 22,
23, 24 ; church and state in Conn.,
15, 17, 21.
Circuits, judicial, XII. 27.
City, a corporate town, I. 37 ; organ-
ization in III., III. 18.
Claggett, John, VI. 35, 36, 46.
Claims, territorial, of Conn., XI.
7-10.
Clark, Rev. J. S., his theory of town
corporation, II. 27.
Claremont, XII. 20.
Clarendon county, XII. 20.
Clergy, deficiency of, III. 23; (see
ministers).
Clerk of county, III. 29; of town-
ship, 33; of parish, VI. 8, 12, 17,
32 ; of vestry, 16, 18, 32, 33, 36, 37,
89, 41, 43, 44; commissary's, 17.
Climate, effects of, on South Caro-
lina, XII. 6.
Cockshutt, Thos., VI. 42,43.
Coke on constable, VIII. 6.
Cole, Robt., VII. 34, 35, 37.
Collections in Penna., law of, III.
22, 28, 29.
Collectors, how appointed, III. 23,
34 ; duties of, 34.
College royal in Virginia, VI. 12.
Colletin county, XII. 20.
Colony, laws of, Mass., VIII. 28-30;
Connecticut, XI. 13-21; New
Haven, 17, 21-25.
Colonization of Connecticut, XI.
10-13.
Colorado schools, V. 21 ; townships
in, 21 ; woman suffrage in, 24, 25.
Combes, Abraham, VII. 37.
Comegys, Wm., VI. 21.
Commissaries, appointment and du-
ties, VI, 13, 15, 17.
Commissioners, (county), III. 33;
XII. 26; duties and powers of,
III. 33-36; XII. 26.
Common lands, II. 22; of New
Castle, III. 25; fields stinted,
common pasturage, IX-X. 48, 49.
Commonable ground, II. 20.
Commoners, Salem, IX-X. 70.
Communal interests, Saxon influ-
ence of, II. 38.
" Compromise system " of local gov-
ernment in Ohio and Indiana,
III, 11.
Compton, Bishop, III. 23.
Conant, K., IX-X. 7.
Congregations, VI. 26; XI. 11.
Congregationalists, XI. 17.
Congress, XI. 6, 7, 14, 15.
Connecticut, governor of, I. 35; lo-
cal institutions, II. 30; women
eligible on school board, V. 25;
territorial claims of, XI. 7-10;
river, 9, 10, 11, 15; colonization
of towns, 12; colony, 13-21 : state
of, 14; church and slate in, 15, 17,
2 1 , 22, 23, 24 ; charter, 26 ; county
system of, 28.
Constables (in 111.) III. 12; (Penna.)
III. 21 ; official term of, 21 ; laws
framed by, 21 ; general duties, 22,
23, 24, 25, 28 ; how chosen, 21, 27 ;
ecclesiastical duties of, 22; court
of, 25; (Md.), VI. 8, 19,20; VII.
Vlll
INDEX.
14, 36, 38; oath of, 16; (New
England), derivation of term,
Vlll. 6^ 7-; origin of, 8; an elec-
tive officer, 13; Indian, 25; sun-
day duties of, 27; power of, 82,
83 ; documents concerning duty
of, 36-88; duty in harvest time,
IX-X. 45; (Conn.), XI. 19,22,24.,
Constantinople, I. 11.
Constitution of towns framed hy
constables and overseers, III. 21,
24; first American, XI. 14, 15;
Locke's fundamental, XII. 7.
Convention, federal, XI. 16.
Convery, (Conoray), Edw., VII. 35,
36, 87.
Conway, M. D., IV. 4.
Cook, Prof. A. S., II. 41.
Cooke, John, VI. 86; Miles, VII.
26.
Cooley, Judge, decision of, V. 15;
opinion of, 18.
Cooper, Robert, VII. 34, 35; An-
thony Ashley, XII. 7.
Corinth, I. 22.
Coroner excused from vestry, VI.
14, 37.
Council of Plymouth, XI. 7, 8, 10, 16.
Counters of tobacco, VI. 19, 32, 41,
44, 45.
County in New England, III. 7 ; in
Mich., V. 10: Illinois, 18; Mas-
sachusetts, 18; Michigan, 18;
Minnesota, 18; New York, 18;
"Wisconsin, 18; Connecticut, XI.
28; origin of in South Carolina,
XII. 2U ; court in Virginia, III.
7; commissioners in 111. under
constitution of 1818, 10 ; under
present laws, 15; government,
(Illinois), 111. 16,16^17; (Penn-
sylvania), 23, 27, 33 ; board in Illi-
nois, III. 15, 16 ; clerk, 16 ; super-
intendent of schools, 16; judge,
16; officers in Penna., see asses-
sors, clerks, commissioners, audi-
tors, treasurers, etc. ; (Michigan)
supervisors, V. 13; aid to schools,
18; divided into parishes, VI. 6,
16; court, 6, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 25,
33, 34, 36, 38, 44 ; Somerset, 8, 10 ;
Calvert, 14, 42, 43; Anne Arun-
del, 16; Charles, 14, 47; Balti-
more, 26, 27, 38 ; Prince George,
7, 30, 31, 33, 36, 46: government
in South Carolina, XII. 24-28.
Court Leet, I. 18; in Maryland,
VII. 7; procedure, 13; deodand
levied by, 14; election of manorial
officers in, 14, 36, 38; jurisdiction
over Indians, 16; origin of, 17;
records of court leet, St. Clem-
ent's manor, 31-38; jurisdiction
of, VIII. 14; court baron in
Maryland, VII. 7; seizin given
in court, 12; procedure in, 16;
origin of, 18; swearing of fealty
in, 38 ; alienation recorded in, 38 ;
records of court baron, St. Clem-
ent's manor, 31-38.
Courtney, Mayor, XII. 36.
Courts, English origin of in Amer-
ica, I. 25; ( Pennsylvania), courts
in the 17th century, III. 20;
under duke of York, 21 ; court
sessions, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 29, 30,
35; town court, origin of, 22; of
Chester county, 22; of New Cas-
tle, 23, 25: of Delaware, 24; of
Upland, 25, 26 ; constables, 25 ; of
Whore Hill, 25; county courts,
VI. 6, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 25, 33, 34,
36,38,44; XI. 28; XI 1. 20,27,
ecclesiastical, VI. 13 ; English, 8 ;
general court, XI. 11, 14, 16, 16;
17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 2ft, 26,
27, 28; particular, 17; held at
Charleston, XII. 18, 19.
Coventrv parish, VI. 8.
Cowan, A., VI. 41, 42.
Crofts, Mr., XII. 87.
Crook, Joseph, VI. 40.
Curate, VI. 8, 37.
Currency, depreciation of in 1779,
III. 32.
Cushman, R., IX-X. 3.
Customs, parish, VI. 9, 10, 15, 16;
of manors recognized by Mary-
land court of appeals, VII. 19.
D
Dakota school districts, V. 19; local
government in, 20; woman suf-
frage in, 24.
Dallam, Wm, VI. 38.
DalmatiH, 1. 11.
Darlington county, XII. 20.
Darrumple, Wm., VI. 42.
Dash, John, VII. 86, 37.
Dates, change of, VI. 30.
INDEX.
IX
Davis, W. T., IX-X. 30.
Dav, Edw., VI. 39; John, 39, 41.
Deans, Rev. Hugh, VI. 40, 46,
Deed, VII. 38.
Delahay, Arthur, VII. 33, 34.
Delaware, III. 23,24,25; English
laws in, 24.
Demosthenes, I. 36.
Deodand, VII. 14.
Deputies, XI. 15, 16, 19, 23, 26.
Detroit, V. 9, 10.
Dexter, Rev. H. M., II. 25.
Dickinson, J., of Hatfield, Mass.,
privilege of removing his house
into town, II. 29.
Diggs, Wm, VI. 34.
Diocese of Maryland, VI. 5, 26.
Diocletian, 1. 11.
Districts, school, in Dakota, V. 19;
beginning of in South Carolina,
XII. 17; abolition of, 24.
Dixy, W., IX-X. 17.
Doctor excused from office of war-
den, VI. 14.
Dollovan, Derby, VII. 37, 38.
Dorchester, XI. 11, 13; free school
established in, XI I. 14, 35.
Doreimr, Naomy, VI. 43.
Douglas, Senator, V. 19 ; XI. 12.
Downe, Abraham, VI. 43.
Duckiiii; stool, VII. 36.
Duke of York, III. 20; extent of
possessions in America, 21 ; his
" Book of Laws," 21 ; adminis-
tration of, 21, 24, 27.
Dutch, III. 24; XL 10, 20,23.
Dwiggin, Koger, VII. 35, 37.
Dwight, Rev. T., II. 28; XL 8.
E
Eastern question, I. 10.
Easthampton, L. 1., XI. 20.
Ecclesiastical court, VI. 13.
Edgar, order for tithingmen, VIII.
10.
Edgefield county, XII. 20.
Edmonds, James, VII. 35, 37.
Edmondscn, John, VII. 26.
Education, modern plan of, II. 46;
parochial, XII. 13, 14; county,
26; see also "Schools."
Edward the Confessor, I. 25; IV.
^0; Edward III., VIII. 11.
2
Egypt, I. 11.
Election of vestry and wardens VI.
14, 15,29, 31, 39.
Elizabeth, (^ueen, IV. 3.
Elseburgh, constables court in, III.
25.
Endicott, Gov., IV. 11; VIII. 28;
IX-X. 20, 35.
England, American minister to, 1.21 ;
municipal election, I. 37 ; commu-
nity of pasturage in, I 2); origin
of local institutions in, VIII. 10,
11; VI. 5, 7,21,25,44; emigrants
from, XL 11, 12, 13; restoration
in, 25, 26.
English people in their three homes,
I. 31 ; kernel of in America, 31 ;
constitution, 39; II. 23; law, I.
25; XL 10, 20; VI. 7, 8.
Epidauros, I. 11.
Episcopal church established in
South Carolina, XII. 9, 10.
Erdmnnnsdoerffer, Rrof. } II. 40.
Escheat, VII. 18, 19.
Estrays, VII. 38.
Evans, A., I. 12.
Evelin, Capt. Geo., VII. 7.
Essex Institute, 11. 36; IX-X. 41.
P.
Fairfield, XL 20, 28; XII. 20.
Farniington, Conn.. XI. 18,20.
Farrer, Robert, VII. 35.
Fealty sworn in court baron, VI I.
17,38; fine for neglect. 33.
Federal constitution, XI. 15; con-
vention, 15.
Felstead, Wm., VII. 35,37.
Felt, J., IX-X. 40.
Fen wick, George, XI. 7, 11, 12.
Fines, VI. 6, 10, 15, 16, 20,21,44.
Finn, Francis, VI. 35.
Fletchall, Thos. VI. 32.
Flint. John, VI. 29, 35.
Florence, 1. 28.
Forfeiture, VII. 19.
Form of induction, VL 30; of in-
denture, 46; of resignation, 47.
Foster, Richard, VII. 33, :'.4, 35, 33,
Fowler, Sam'l, VI. 43 ; Joseph, V II.
35, 37.
France, I. 7.
INDEX.
Frank-pledge and tithingmen, their
relation, IV. 1 ">
Frazer, Bishop, V. 19; Rev. John,
VI. 29.
Freeman, E. A., An Introduction to
American Institutional History,
. I.; II. 62; IV. 19.
Free negroes at the South, I. 7.
Freeholder*, VI. 6, 7, 13, 29, 81, 34,
86, 42.
Free schools, VI. 11, 12; XII. 13,
26-28, 29-40.
French towns, I. 18; in northwest
territory, V. 8, 9.
Fulham, parish records, VIIT. 11.
Fundamental constitutions, Xll. 7.
G
Gabriel's war, I. 6.
Galpin, V. 6.
Gambrall, Rev. Theo. C , VI. 15.
Game protected, VII. 35.
Gardiner, Capt. Luke, VII. 33,34,
35, 36, 37.
Garfield, I. 20.
Gaylard, James, VII. 35, 36.
Gemistus, Georsjius, I. 11.
General court, XI. 11, 14, 15, 16, 17,
18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26,
27, 28.
Genesis of a New England State,
Study VI. By Alexander Johns-
ton.
Germanic Origin of New England
Towns, Study II. By H. B.
Adams.
Georgia, I. 7.
George III., I. 21 ; George I., VI.
14.
George's, "Wm., VII. 35.
Georgetown, VI. 37; district di-
vided, XII. 20.
Gerard, Justinian, VII. 35, 36, 37.
Germany, I. 7. 27.
German league, I. 18.
German villages, description of, II.
14.
Gildersleeve, Prof. B. L., note on
Virginia dialects, I. 14.
Giles, John, VI. 39.
Gilman, Pres. D. C., II. 43.
Gittings, Thos., VI. 39; James, 41.
Gladstone, I. 20.
Glebe land, VI. 9, 34, 40, 41, 42.
Gofte, XI. 25.
Goldsmith, VII. 33.
Gould, E. R. L., on Local Govern-
ments Pennsylvania, III. 20-37.
Governor, appoints justices of peace
in Va., III. 7, 22, 23, 25, >'.)
Gov. Lonir, II. 7; VI. 7, 8, 10, 11,
18, 14, 19, 21, 22, 30, 37; Stuyve-
sant, XL 13; election of, 15; du-
ties, 16, 23, 24 ; Winthrop, 26, 20 ;
deputv, 26, 29.
Grain, VI. 25, 42.
Granville, Rev. Bevil, VI. 47;
county, XII. 20.
Graves, T. 1X-X. 15.
Gray, Alex., VI. 42.
Great Britain, I. 6, 32; XL 28.
Green, J., on the origin of English
townships, I. 9; S. A. Green, IV.
12; James, VII. 35,37.
Greenwich, XL 23.
Griitli, I. 18.
Guilford, Conn., XL 22, 23, 25, 27.
H
Haines, E. M., on local government,
V. 6.
Hale, Chief Justice, VIII. 15.
Hall, Joseph, VI. 42.
Hallam, III. 25.
Hamilton, John, VII. 37; marquis
of, XL 9.
Hamor, C., VII. 32.
Hanson, VI. 18, 21, 25; Edmond,
VII. 34.
Harbin, Wm., VI. 29, 31; Edw.
Villers, 37.
Harding, John, VI. 31.
Harris^urg, I. 34.
Harrison, Wm., VII. 37.
Hart, Rich., VII. 37.
Hartford, XL 10, 11, 14, 18, 28;
treaty of, 13, 23.
Hatfield side-meeting, II. 32.
Hayward, IX-X. 47, 48.
Haywood, Raphael, VII. 34.
Heighe, James, VI. 42, 43, 45.
Hengest, I. 15.
Herzegovinia, I. 12.
Hewes, Thos., leader of Dorchester
employes, IX-X. 7.
Hickman, Wm., VI. 45.
INDEX.
XI
Higginson, Rev. F., on attractions
of Salem, IX-X. 23,24.
Highway commissioners in 111., III.
12, 13; how controlled in bouth
Carolina, XII. 26.
Hillry, Thos., VI. 43.
Hilton county, XII. 20.
Historical society Maryland, I. 9,
10.
History, progress of English insti-
tutional, VIII. 4.
Hog-reeves, functions and elections
of, VIII. 34, 35.
Holland, I 17; Wm., VI. 44.
Hollister, XI. 8.
Holmea(r)d, James, VI. 29, 31.
Holmes, Wm., XI. 10.
Homoselle, story of Gabriel's war
I. 6.
Hoskins, Jno., VII. 35, 37.
House of Commons, I. 32; II. 19;
house of representatives, of lords,
I 32
Howard, G. E., II. 41; J. B., VI.
41 ; T. G., 41.
Howison's history of Virginia, I. 6.
Hubbard, Bela, V. 8 ; on Capt.
Standisb, IX-X. 7, 8.
Hue and cry, VII. 15.
Hull, Gov. V. 10.
Humboldt, II. 48.
Humphrey, J., VIII. 5.
Hundreds in Pennsylvania, III. 26 ;
in Maryland, relation of parish
to, VI. 6, 32; constable of, 8;
counters in, 32, 41 ; in South Car-
olina, new parishes settled on the
basis of, XII. 14, 15.
Hundredmen, institution of, IV. 17.
Huntington, XI. 20, 23; shire, II.
19.
Hutchens, Nich., VI. 40.
Huxlev's method of teaching, II. 48.
Idaho schools, V. 21.
Illinois, New England and Virginia
systems of local government in,
III. 7; part of original Virginia
grant, III. 8; French occupation
and early French settlements of,
8;' taken by Virginians in revo-
lutionary war, 8; organized as a
Virginia county, 8; ceded to IT.
S., 8; first territorial trrant, '.< ;
admission to Union and first con-
stitution respecting local institu-
tions, 9, 10; constitution of 1847,
11 ; adoption of township system,
11-18; town officers and" func-
tions, 13; V. 14, 16; school?, III.
14, 15; county government, 15,
16; taxes, 16, 17; village organi-
zation, 17, 18; chy do., 18; V. 7,
25; XI. 5.
Illvrian emperors and their land, I.
11 : letters, 12.
"Impressions of America," Free-
man's, I. 19.
Indenture, form of, VI. 46.
Independence, War of, I. 18, '21,22,
Indiana, local government of. V. 22.
Indians in Plymouth colony, IV. 9;
in Maryland, VII. 15, 16; under
jurisdiction of court leet, 33; XI.
11, 12, 14, 17, 18, 28.
Induction of minister, VI. 7, 30;
form of, 30.
Ingram, Hannah, VI. 42.
Ingle, Edward, Parish Institutions
of Maryland, VI.
Innkeeper, excused from vestrv, VI.
39.
Inspectors of tobacco, VI. 19, 36, 45,
Institutions, American, I. 15-17;
parochial and manorial, VIII. 14 ;
of Maryland, VI.; VII.
Institutional history, study of. I.
13, 14; a science of modern ori-
gin, IV. 17.
Interest, rate of, VI. 23, 35.
Introduction to American Institu-
tional History, Study I. By K.
A. Freeman.
Iowa, local government in, V. 22.
Italy, I. 11, 19.
Ithaca, I. 10.
Jackson, Wm., VI. 29,
Jacob, 38; Thos., VII
James I ., Sunday Act, 1 V
.James, Michael" VII. 31
Jefferson, Thos., his conn
the ordinance of 17*7,
local government, V. -
50,
',i, ;
3;
XI
ctii
II w
III
N j
Ml
INDEX.
Jesuits' estates in Maryland, VII.
20.
Johns, Rich., VI. 41.
Johnson, John, I. 13 ; on Old Mary-
land Manors, VII.; Rev. Thos ,
VI. 37.
Johnston, Dr. Chris., Jr., VII 29;
Alexander, The Genesis of a Now
England State (Connecticut). X 1.
Joppa, VI. 37, 40, 41, 42; VII. 6.
Jordan, Thos., VII. 87.
Judd, H , his MS. collection, II. 30.
Judges of Michigan, V 11.
Judicial system of Illinois, III. 16.
Justices of peace in Virginia, III.
7 ; in Illinois, It, 13, 14 : in Penn-
sylvania, 23, 27; in Maryland,
VI. 5, 14, 33,36.
Jury, under Duke of York's admin-
istration, III. 21, 22; grand, VI.
13, 89; XI. 28; trial by, XI. 17.
Kallikratidas, I. 20.
Kansas, schools, V. 21 ; townships,
22 ; woman suffrage, 24, 25.
Keith, George, VII. 35.
Kemble on Frith borgas, IV. 16.
Kentucky, local government in, V.
23 ; woman suffrage, 24.
Kent county, VII. 8; Fort Manor,
8 ; Island, early courts on, 24.
King, XI. 6, 7, 9, 10, 14, 15, 20, 25,
26, 27, 29.
Kingsley, C, II. 42.
Kingston-on-Thames, parish records
of, VIII. 11; county, XII. 20.
Knape, John, VII. 34.
Knott, Francis, VII. 37.
Korkyra, I. 22.
Kovalevsky, Prof. M., II. 52, 53, 54.
Kyrene, I. 23.
Lamar, Thos., VI. 32.
Lambard, W., extract from, IV. 12,
13; VIII. 3; on constables and
tithingmen, 13.
Lancaster county, XII. 20.
Lands, town, XI. 16.
Lanman, Prof. C. R., II. 46.
Lannum, Ralph, VI. 83.
Lathrop, Capi., massacre of his men
at Bloody Brook, IX-X. 46.
Latrobo, J. H. B.. I. 8.
Laurens county, XII. 20.
Law, English, "XI. 10; parish, VI.
7; penal, 9, 27.
Lawson, Anthony, parliament held
at house of, XII. 8.
Leatherbury, John, VI. 38.
Leckv on French centralization, V.
8. "
Lee, J. W. M., I. 8; Joshua, VII.
35, 37; John, 37.
Lefebur. Capt. Peter, VII. 35, 37.
Lefevre's letter to the Times on
"Commons," II. 22.
Legislatures in New England, rep-
resentatives from towns, III. 6;
how corrupted, V. 7.
Leipzig, I. 28.
Lendrum, Andrew, VI. 46
Leslie, Copt., invasion of " North
Fields," IX-X. 39, 40.
Lewger, John, VII. 29.
Lewis, Lawrence, Jr., III. 20;
Lewisburgh county, XII. 20.
Lexington county, XII. 20.
Liberty county, XII. 20.
Libraries. Whittingham, VI. 5, 12 ;
parish, 10. 11, 44.
Liddiard, Thos., VII. 37.
Lincoln county, XII. 20.
Lingan. Thos., VI. 43.
Local Government in Illinois and
Pennsylvania, Study III. By
Albert Shaw and E. R. L. Gould.
Local Government in Michigan and
the Northwest, Study V. By
Edward W. Bemis.
Local Government and Free Schools
in South Carolina, Study XII.
By B. J. Ramage.
Local institutions of U. S., I. 5 ;
V. 22 ; the basis of national, II,
49; importance of. III. 20; devel-
opment of, 20; V. 23. 24; how
to be studied, III. 20 ; govern-
ment in Pennsylvania; III; not
changed by revolution, 28, 37 ;
compromise between northern
and southern, 32; characteristic
features, 32, 33, 37 ; ignorance of,
V. 5; advantages of, 7; meaning
of, 6 ; genesis of in northwest, 11 ;
INDEX.
-Mil
character of in Michigan, 15; in
south, 23, 24; in west, 24; in
general, 25; in South Carolina,
early methods of, XII. 8, 9 ; pres-
ent need of, 27, 28.
Locke, John, his constitution for
Carolina, XTI. 7
London. I. 28 ; Bishop of, VI. 7, 9,
30 ; merchant of, 33.
Long Island, III. 26; XI, 9, 12;
towns, 20.
Lord, Rev. Jos., XII. 35.
Lord's waste, assignment of, IT. 21.
Lotteries to open roads, III. 29 ; to
build churches, III. 29.
Louisiana, I. 18; women eligible to
school offices, V. 24.
Lowell Institute, I. 1.
Lucas, Thos., VI. 31,32.
Ludlam, Rev. Mr., XII, 34.
Lutton, Caleb, VI. 29, 31.
M
Maeaulay, I. 33.
Mace, Clove, VII. 34; Kowland,
31, 32.
MacPherson, Rev. Mr., VI. 21.
Macy, Prof., of Iowa College, 11.50.
Magistrates, XL, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,
21, 22, 23, 26, 27.
Magruder, Alex., VI. 32, 36; Sam-
uel, 35; Ninnian, 35.
Manchester guardian, I. 12.
Maine, I. 26.
Mantield, Vincent, VII. 37.
Mannyng, Thos., VII. 34.
Manor, mode of erecting in Mary-
land, VII. 7; E-velinton, 7; Bo-
hemia, 8: Doughoregan. 8; Great
Oak, 8 ; Kent Fort, 8 ; My Lady's,
8; Nanticoke, 8; Queen Anne's,
8; Susquehanna, 8; buildings and
grounds, 9; St. Gabriel's, 12; St.
Michael's, 19: Newtown, 20;
Cooke's Hope, -26; courts of, (see
court leet and court baron.)
Manorial system of England, VII.
7.
Manors in Pennsylvania, III. 26;
in Maryland. 26; in New York,
26;
Mansell, John, VII. 31, 32.
Mansfield, John, VII. 33.
Manual labor-schools, VI. 12.
Marblehead, IX-X. 32.
Marim county, XII. 20.
Marlborough county, XII. 20.
Marriage, VI. 10,*18, 38. 39, 45,
46.
Marsh, Rich., VII. 35.
Marshall, W., IX-X. 59.
Maryland, laws of, I. 8; historical
society, 9; institutions, 13, 16;
parishes of, VI ; diocese of, 5, 26 ;
manuscripts, 12; convention of,
25; manors, VII; planters, first
generation of, 6.
Massachusetts, institutions, I. 13;
customs, 14; governor, 35; his-
torical society.' IV. 12, VIII. 3;
laws in Michigan, V. 10; women
suffrage in, 24, 25; need of
county supervisor of schools, 18;
power of town in. 15, 16; fish-
eries, first colonial enterprise,
IX-X. 9; general court, IX-X.
43, 44, 68; colonial harvest law,
45; aristocratic feeling in col-
ony, 47; towns, XI. 5, 11, 13;
boundary, 10, 13, 26; traders,
11; congregations, 11, 12, 29;
bav, 13; magistrates, 13.
Mass"alia, I. 23.
Mattabezeck (Middletown), XI. 19.
Mayflower, I. 15.
Mediaeval agricultural communities
of England, the survival of the
Teutonic village, II. 21.
Mendip, I. 12.
Methodism, VI. 25.
Michigan settled by New Eng-
enders and New Yorkers, V . 12 ;
power of the governor, 13;
woman suffrage in. 24,25; local
government in, 10-20.
Middletown, XI. 20.
Midlemore, Josias, VI. 46.
Migration of the modern scholar,
II. 44, 45; <>n parallels of lati-
tude illustrated in the colonization
of Illinois, III. 5, 6.
Milan, I. 11.
Miles, Manuel, VII. 35, 37.
Milford, XI. 22, 23. 25, 27.
Miller, Wm., VI. 15.
Milner, Isaac, VI. 33.
Ministers in Maryland, V I. 5; in-
ducted by governor, 7; nominees
XIV
INDEX.
of Bishop of London, 7 ; life of, 9,
10; employment of, 12: character
of, 12, IS; admonish bad livers,
20; salaries reduced, 23 ; standing
at the revolution, 24, 2"), 29, SO,
32, 84, 35, 37. 40, 41, 42, 44, 47,
48 ; see also Clergy.
Minnesota, history of local govern-
ment in, V. 16 ; woman suffrage
in, 24. 25; town meetings in, 1(5
Missouri. I. 18; compromise bill of
1820, III. 11; immigration after
1820, 11; local -government in,
V. 22.
Mondeford, Francis, VII. 35.
Monroe, James, I. 6.
Montesquieu, on origin of English
constitution, II. 11.
Morgan, L. H., II. 5, 6.
Mosby, Wm., I. 6.
Mourt's Relation, II. 24, 25.
Mundell, Root., VI. 36.
Murdock, Rev. Geo., VI. 30, 31,
32,34; William, 35.
N
Narragansett river, XI. 9, 12, 26.
Narrative and critical history of the
U. S.,IL 80.
Nasse, on mediaeval agricultural
communities in England, II. 18, 19.
Nation, The, I. 9, 10, 11, 12.
Naumkeag, first settlement of, IX-
X. 13; farming prospects of, 14.
Nebraska, schools of, V. 21 ; woman
suffrage in, 24.
Negroes in Maryland, the Church's
treatment of, VI. 22.
Netherlands, Dutch, I. 17 ; New, I.
17; XI. 10.
Nevada, schools of, V. 21 ; town-
ships in, 21.
Newberry county, XII. 20.
New England town meeting. I. 16;
history, 29; the birth place of
American institutions, II. 5, 6;
character of its towns, 6 ; local
institutions, 8; towns, 8,28; III..
6,7; survival of "common fence,"
II. 32; origin of institutions,
VIII. 12; landing of armed men
in, 16; State, genesis of a, XI;
colony, 9; union, 12, 13, 26.
New Hampshire, woman suffrage in,
V. 24, 25.
New Jersev, women eligible to school
offices, V. 25.
New Haven, I. 10; origin of, XI.
12; colony, 17; town founded, 21 ;
24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 ; boundaries,
28.
New London, XI. 18, 20, 28.
Newtown, XL 11, 13, 14.
New York, governor of, I. 34: III.
26; woman suffrage in. V. 24;
town meeting, 16; local irovern-
mcnt, 16, 17,^18: XL 5, 18, 20.
Nichols. Simon, VI. 37.
Nekomedeia, I. 11.
Ninety-six, XII. 14.
Norman conquest, I. 15; John Nor-
man, VII. 31, 33, 35, 36, 37.
Norman Constables in America,
Study VIII. By H. B. Adams.
Norris, Sam., VII. 33.
North and South, contrast between,
VII. 5.
Northwestern territory, III 8, 9;
local government in, V. 8-20.
Norwalk, XL 18, 19, 20.
Oakley, Thos., VII. 35.
Oaths, VI. 13, 14, 29, 31 ; constab-
ulary, VIII. 25.
Oderic, I. 28.
Ogden, Neh., VI. 32.
Ohio gives laws to Michigan, V. 10 ;
township officers, 14; local gov-
ernment in, 22.
Old Maryland Manors, Study VII.
By John Johnson.
Orange county, XII. 20.
Orangeburgh district, XII. 20.
Ordinance of 1787, its fundamental
principles, III. 8, 9.
Oregon, schools of, V. 21 ; woman
suffrage in, 24.
Overseers of poor in Illinois, III.
13, 14; in Pennsylvania, 21 ; offi-
cial term of, 21 ; duties of, 21, 22,
24, 81, 34, 36; of highways, 25,
27 ; duties, 30, 34 ; election of, 33 ;
how appointed, 29.
Oxford, I. 26.
Oyster Bay, XL 13.
INDEX.
XV
Paca, John, VI. 39.
Page, Bingle, VI. 32, 34.
Palatine, rights, I. 16; South Caro-
lina erected into, XII. 7, 8.
Paler, John, VII. 35, 37.
Palfrey on the word "town," II.
26, 27.
Parish Institutions of Maryland,
Study VI. By Edward Ingle.
Parishes in Pennsylvania, 111. 21,
22, 23, 24 ; named after Saxon
Ton, IV. 20; institutions of
Maryland, VI ; histories, 5, 8, 48;
origin of, 6; poor, 6, 22; relation
to hundreds, 6, 32; laws, 7; Prince
George's, 7,29-37; Coventry, 8;
clerk, 8, 12, 17, 32; extent of, 9,
10, 17; customs, 9, 10, 15, Hi;
Stepney, 10; libraries, 10, 11;
Piscataway, 14; Christ Clmrch,
14; St. James', 15, 41, 42; St.
Ann's, 18, 21 ; St. John's, 18, 19,
29-42; divided, into precincts, 19,
44; St. Thomas', 21, 40; opposi-
tion to. system, 23; state of at
revolution, 24 ; do. at present, 26 ;
St. Paul's, 26, 40, 48; records,
27-48; All Saints, 42-47; Wil-
liam and Mary, 47 ; a civil insti-
tution, V11I. 24: creation of in
South Carolina, XII. 10; duties
of officers, 11 ; different from those
of Louisiana, 16.
Parker, Prof., on the word " town,"
11. 26 ; on local government, V.
6; Gabriel, VI. 44.
Parliament, 1. 32; XI. 15, 29.
Patrol, organization of, XII. 15-16.
Paupers in Illinois, III. 13, 14 ; (see
also Poor).
Peabody Institute, I. 5, 10 ; George,
founder of, II. 56.
Pearson's historical maps of Eng-
land, IV. 19; VIII. 14.
Peloponnesos, I. 23.
Penal laws read in church, VI. 9, 21.
Penance, VI. 20, 21.
Pendleton, Henry, introduces the
Virginia county system, XII. 29.
Penn,"\Villiam, III. 26; his attitude
towards local government. 37.
Pennsylvania laws in Michigan, V.
10; women eligible to school of-
fices in, 25.
Perry, Benj., VI. 34; governor, his
message to convention of 1805,
XII. 23, 24.
Pequots, XI. 11, 14.
Peters, XI. 8.
Pews, VI. 17, 18, 31, 32, 34,39, 43.
44, 46.
Philadelphia, I. 10, 34, 35.
Phillips, VI. 42; Bart., VII. 34,
35, 37.
Philosophy, Platonic, I. 11.
Phippen, on old planters of Salem,
IX-X. -8.
Pilgrims build their first town, II.
26.
Pillory, VII. 36.
Pinokneysville, XII. 35.
Piscataway parish, VI. 14.
Plan of parish church, VI. 48.
Plantation system in the south,
III. 7.
Planters, first generation of Mary-
land, vii. <>:
Plymouth settled upon agrarian
principles, II. 24, 33; XI. 6;
council of, 7, 8, 10, 13, 15.
Polfe, William, VI I. 37.
Politics, Comparative, I. 14.
Poll-tax in Illinois, III. 13.
Poor in Pennsylvania, III. 20,23,
25; exempt from taxation, 23 ; tux
to have preference, 30; measures
against imposition, 30; record of,
kept, 31, 36; measures against
growth of, 31, 32; a township
charge, 35; county regulations
regarding, 36; township do., 36;
in Michigan, V. 10; of parish in
Maryland, VI. 6, 22 ; not taxable,
6 ; (see Paupers).
Porter, Henry, VII. 35, 37.
Poulter, Henry, VII. 37.
Powell, John] VI. 29, 31; Mary
Ann, 32.
Pratt, E., II. 66: J., VIII. 22.
Precinct of parish, VI. 19, 44.
Price, Koht., VI. 40.
Prices in Maryland, VI. 10. 23,31,
32. 33, 34, 36, 38, 40. 43, 11
Prichard, John, V I. 35.
"Prime Ancient Society," XI. 17.
Prince George's parish, VI. 7, 29-
37 ; county, 30, 31, :;:;, ::;, 46.
Pritchett, John, V I. 2'.<.
Private schools in Maryland, VI. 12.
Probate judge, XII. 27.
XVI
INDEX.
Proprietors, VI. 7, 30; charter of,
XII. 7.
Providence, I. 10.
Public schools in Maryland, VI. 22,
46, 47.
Punishments VI. 16, 20; VII. 34,
86; XI. 21, 22, 23; (see Fines).
Puritans against intemperance, IV.
6.
Q
Quakers, XI. 21.
Quinnipiack, XI. 21.
R
Ragusa, I. 11, 12, 19.
Ramage, B. J., on free neeroes at
South, I. 7; on Local Govern-
ment and Free Schools in South
Carolina, XII.
Ranters, XI. 21.
Rasiera, de, II. 29.
Kates and levies, III. 20; town, 22,
23 ; public, 22 ; how collected, 22 ;
county, 25; how expended, 27;
basis of, 27, 29. 34; township, how
applied, 34; limit of. 34, 35.
Rawlings, Daniel, VI. 45.
Reader, VI. 18.
Records, extracts from parish, VI.
29-48 ; of court baron and court
leet, VII. 31-38.
Rectors, privileges of, XII. 10, 11 ;
(see Ministers).
Register of vestry, VI. 16, 27, 29,
30, 32, 41, 43, 46.
Representatives, house of, XI. 14.
Republicans, I 36.
Restoration, XI. 25.
Revolution, American, VI. 23, 24 ;
XI. 29.
Rhode Island, I. 16, 31, 34: women
eligible to school offices in, V. 25;
XI. 6, 13; charter of, 16,29.
Richland county, XII. 20.
Richmond, I. 5.
Rider, S. S., I. 40: Simon, VII.
35, 37.
Ridings, III. 21, 22, 23.
Ringgold. Major James, VII. 8.
Riot in Joppa, VI. 40.
Ritter, C, II. 48.
Rives, Thomas, VII. 36. 37.
Roads in Illinois, III. 13; and
bridges in Pennsylvania. 20, 25,
26 : laid out by order of governor
and council, 29; by grand jury,
29; people work on, 26, 80, 35;
viewers of, 29, 35 ; damages, how
awarded. 35; in Michigan, V. 10;
parish, XII. 12; county, 26.
Roberts, John, VI. 40.
Robertson, Sam'l, VI 45.
Rome, Old and New, I. 11.
Rookes, Chas., VII. 37.
Roswoll, William, VII. S3, 34;
John, 37.
Rovce, Dr., II. 44.
Ruck, John, II. 10.
Rumsey, B.. VI. 41.
Kunsdall, Edw., VII. 34.
s.
Sabbath breakers, VI. 6, 15, 21;
Act for observance of, XII. 9.
Sage, James, VI. 38.
Saxon Tithinscmen in America,
Study IV. By H. B. Adams
St. Clement's island, VII.. 29;
manor, records of court leet of,
31-38.
St. James' parish, VI. 15, 41, 42;
(Santee) school in, XII. 14;
Ames, VI. 18, 21 ; Thomas', 21,
40 ; school, XII. 14; Paul's, VI.
26, 40, 48; John's, 18, 29-42.
St. Louis, I. 10.
St. Mary's city, VII. 5; county, 7.
St. Patrick's creek, VII. 29.
Salaries in Maryland, VI. 5, 8, 9,
10, 18, 23, 24, 25, 30, 31, 32, 34,
38, 39. 40,41, 42,43.
Salem,, its communal domain. II.
36; town records, IV. 2, IX-X.
72; origin of name, IX-X. 16;
ministers of, 21; commercial
record, 26; house-lots, 31, 32;
land grants, 33; maids' lots, 35;
common fields, 38, 48; do.
meadows, 52, 53; do. woodlands,
54; do. pastures, 55-58; town-
herds, 58 ; cattle-range, 63 ; agra-
rian laws, 64; cottage rights, 65:
cottagers, 66 ; old commoners con-
INDEX.
XVII
trol town meetings, 69; town
common, origin of, 72; reserva-
tion of public lands, 73, 74;
division of commons, 75, 76;
great pastures, 76, 77 ; survival of
archaic customs, 77-79.
Salisbury, great council of, I. 26.
Salley, Benj.,VIL 35, 37.
Samson, Robt., VII. 37.
Sandwich records, 11.35.
Saunders, John, VII. 35.
Saunderson, Rich., VII. 35, 37.
Say, XL 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15.
Savbrook, (Seabrook), XI. 11, 12,
20.
Schmid, R., on frankpledge, IV. 15.
School lands, the basis of local
government, III. 10; organiza-
tion in Illinois, 14,15; funds, 15;
relation of to local government,
V. 18, 19; district in Dakota, 19;
government in Michigan, 19, 20;
Montana, Idaho, Washington
Ter., Oregon, Wyoming Ter.,
Colorado, California, Nebraska,
Kansas, Nevada, 21; South Car-
olina, Tennessee, Virginia, West
Virginia, 23; in Maryland, free,
VI, 11, 12; private, 12; manual
labor, 12; charity, 22; public,
22, 46, 47; commisioners in South
Carolina, XII. 26; free in do.
29-40; normal, 40.
Scott, Sir Walter, II. 21; Han-
nah, VI. 39.
Seager, Thos., VI. 42, 43.
Sectionalism in Illinois, XII. 11.
Sele, XL 7, 8, 11, 12, 15.
Senate, L 32, 33, XL 14, 16.
Serfdom, Indian, IV. 10.
Setauket, XL 20.
Sexton, VI. 18, 39, 42, 43, 45.
Shadock, Henry, VII. 35, 37.
Shaftsbury, Earl of, one of the pro-
prietors of South Carolina, XII. 7.
Shankes, Jno., VII. 34, 35, 36, 37.
Sharpe, Gov., VI. 7, 21, 22.
Shaw, A., II. 50; on Local Govern-
ment in Illinois, III. 5-19.
Sheffield, Lord, patent to Plymouth
colony, IX-X. 3.
Shepherd, Henrv, E., I. 8.
Sheredine. Thos", VI. 39.
Sheriff, 111. 21, 22, 24, 25, VI. 8,
21, 33, 39, 40, 44, 45.
Shirlev, J., letter of to Bradford,
IX-X. 5.
Shrewsberry county, XII. 20.
Sidesman, duties of, VIII. 2:'>.
Sirnp.-.in, William, VII. 35, 37;
Marmaduke, 37.
Sinclair, ,S't/- John, II. 19.
Skinner, John, VI. 45.
Slavery, effect on manorial svstem,
VII. 21.
! Sligh, Thos., VI. 39.
j Slv, Kob't, VII. 34, 35; Gerard, 37.
! Smith, T., IV. 19; VIII. 14; John,
VI. 42, 43: Wm., 43; Richard,
43; VII. 33; Nicholas, 37; Sir
Thomas, VIII. 14; CW. John,
IX-X. 7.
Society, manorial, type of, VII. 8.
Pollers, B., on Palatinate of Dur-
ham, I. 16 ; Sabrit, V 1. 4:;.
: " Somerleaze," I. 12.
i Somerset, I. 8, 10; county, VI. 8, 10.
1 South field proprietarv, Salem, rec-
ords of, IX-X. 46, 4*7.
' Southampton, XL 19, 20.
| Soutbold, XL 20, 22, 24, 25.
; Spain, I. 23.
Spalato, I. 11.
I Spanish conquest, I. 15.
', Spartanburgh, XII. 20.
Spelman, IV. 21.
I Sports in colonial Maryland, VII. 11.
j Sprigg, John, VII. 37.
! "Squatter Sovereignty," XI. 12.
j Staliinges, Rich., VI.* 44, 45, 46.
Stamford, XL 17, 22, 2:'., 24, 25.
j Standish, Capt. Miles, VIII. 16.
Stanlev, Jno., VII. ',!.
; StarbuVk, Mary, IX-X. 34.
; State government in Virginia, III.
7; genesis of a New England
State, XI: Church and Stat.' in
Connecticut, 15, 17, 21, 22, 2:1,
24; reconstruction of, in South
Carolina, XII. 22, 23.
Stepney parish, VI. 10.
| Steward of manor, VII. 12, 31, 33,
34, 35, 36.
Stirling, earl of, XI. 9, 12, 20.
Stockbridge, peaceful Indians of,
IX-X. 17.
Stocks, VII. 36; (spc Punishments )
Stone, F. I'., HI- 26.
Stoughton, T., Vlll. 27.
Stratford, XL 20.
XV111
INDEX.
Stringham, Dr., II. 44.
Stubbs, I. 26, 27, III. 25, IV. 14,
19, VIII. 9.
'Studies in Historical and Political
Science," I. 12, 11. 8ft
Stuyvesant, Governor, XI. 13.
Suffrage, conditions as to sex, V.
24; as to age, in Michigan,
14.
Sumnar, Robt., VI, 46.
Supervisors', board of, in Michigan,
V. 15, 17, 18; in Wisconsin, 17,
18; in Minnesota, 17, 18; in New
York, 18.
Supreme court, I. 25.
Survey of public lands, effect on
local institutions, III. 10.
Surveyor of county, III. 33.
Suttle* Jno., VII. 87.
Sutton, Francis, VII. 31.
Switzerland, I. 16, 18, 19, 29.
Sydesman, (see Sidesman).
Syracuse, I. 22.
T.
Tacitus, I. 28, 31 ; on German vil-
lages, II. 12; on lands, 16.
Talbot, George, VII. 8.
Tax, assessor in Illinois, III. 12, 14,
16, 17; collector, 12, 14, 16; paid
in kind in Pennsylvania, 23; poll,
25, 27, 28; levied for one year
only, 27; on bachelors, VI. 21.
Taxables in Maryland, VI. 6, 8, 21,
44.
Taxation in Illinois, III. 17 ; ex-
emptions from, 23, 28; appeals
from, how tried, 27, 28, 34; sub-
jects of, 29; in Michigan, V. 10,
14, 16; ip New York, 16.
Tenants on manors, VII. 10.
Tennessee, local government in, V.
23.
Tennison. Jno., VII. 36, 37.
"Terra Mariae." I. 16.
Territorial claims of Connecticut,
XI. 7-10.
Teutonic race,T. 11,13,15; councils,
the seeds of modern institutions,
II. 13.
Texas, XI. 5, 6.
Thomas, Rev. Samuel, XII. 33.
Thomlinson, Grove, VI. 31, 32.
Thompson, Gov., advocates local
support of free schools, XII. 27 ;
:'.!, 40.
"Three-field system," II. 16, 17.
Tit'rnan's, Mrs., novel " Homoselle,"
I. 6.
Tilden, Marmaduke, VII. 7.
Tipstaff, emblem of constabulary
office, IV. 1 ; do. of royal author-
ity. V11I. 81.
Tithing, probable origin of, IV.
18; with Saxon ending ton identi-
cal with parish, IV. 20.
Tithingman, a kind of Sunday
constable, IV. 1, 2; functions of,
IV. 5,6: authority of, extended to
family, 7; origin of, 8; and petty
constable, IV. 20; an elective offi-
cer, 21,22; patriarchal office of, 22.
Tobacco in Maryland, VI. 6. 8, 10,
15, 16, 19, 29,' 30, 32, 33, 39, 40,
43, 44, 45.
Tocqueville, on New England, III.
G.
Tolley, Walter, VI. 38, 39, 40, 41.
Town, applied to collection of houses,
I I. 28 ; how applied in New Eng-
land, 28; in Pennsylvania, offi-
cers, how chosen, 111. 21 ; by-laws
of, 21 ; court of, 22, 23, 24 ; status
of, under proprietary government,
27; meeting, I. 13; III. 6; in
Illinois, 12, 13 ; importance of, V.
6; in Michigan, 10, 11, 14, 15;
in Wisconsin. Minnesota, New
York, 16 ; in Ohio, Indiana, Iowa,
22; land, II. 22; XI. 16; brook,
25 ; neck of Cape Cod, survival of
land community, 34 ; Sunday pas-
tures of do., 1X-X. 69; officers in
Illinois, III. 12 ; clerk, 12, 13, 14 ;
supervisor, 12, 13; auditors, 14;
board of health, in Massachusetts,
V. 15, 16; XI. 5, 11, 13; in
Maryland, Charles, VI. 9; An-
napolis, 17, 19, 21, 23; George,
37; Joppa, 37, 40, 41,42,46; in
Connecticut, XI. 14 ; magistrates,
14, 16, 17. 19, 21. 22, 23 ; commis-
sioners, 16, 19, 27 ; local affairs of,
16, 17, 23; incorporated. 18, 19;
rates, 19. 20, 24; of Long Island,
20; burgesses of, 21, 23.
Townships, the town's landed do-
main, II. 28; in New England,
INDEX.
XIX
III. 6, 7; in Illinois, 11, 12; in
Pennsylvania, officers of, (see As-
sessors, clerk, overseers,) manage-
ment of roads vested in, 30, 35;
road-tax of, 30; poor-tax of, 31;
in Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio,
Indiana, V. 17 ; in New York,
18; in Nevada, Nebraska, Iowa,
Kansas, Missouri, 22; XI. 6, 11.
Tramps, law against, VJLI1. 26.
Trask, W. B., VIII. 5.
Traske, Jas., VII. 37.
Treasurer, of county, III. 28, 33;
of township, 33.
Treat, Rev. Mr., on Indian institu-
tions, IV. 9, 10.
Trier, I. 11.
Trumbull, XI. 8.
Trustee of township in Ohio and
Indiana, V. 17.
" Tun," its identity with "Town,"
II. 31.
Turk, I. 11.
Turner, Ed., VII. 33-; Jno., 35.
Tyson, John, VI. 36.
IT.
Union, New England, XI. 12, 13;
of towns, 22; of Connecticut and
New Haven, 25-29; county, XII.
20.
United States, best historical field
for Americans, I. 10; English
kernel of, XI. 6.
Unity of English people, I. 20.
University, Johns Hopkins, I. 7, 8,
16, 13, 14; Cornell, 7,29; Yale,
29; Harvard, 29; Studies, II. 52.
Upgate, Rich., VII. 35, 37; John,
37.
Upham, W. P., on the first houses
in Salem, IX-X. 28; C. W., on
Salem common lands, IX-X. 39.
Uri, I. 16, 39.
Utah, woman suffrage in, V. 25.
Venice, The Subject and Neighbor
Lands of, I. 11.
Vermont, woman suffrage in, V.
24,25; XI. 6.
Vestry, origin of select, VI. 6, 7 ;
duties of/8, 11, 13, 16, 18, 19, 20,
21, 22,25,26, 27, ::0, 31, 32, 36,
37, 38, 39,40,41. XII. 11; man-
ner of electing, VI. 13, 14, 25,
26, 27. XII. 11; qualifications of,
VI. 14; foreman of, 14; house,
15, 31, 32, 38, 41 ; meeting, 15, 27,
29-45; clerk of, 16. 18, 32, 33, 36,
37, 39, 41, 43, 44; number of,
XII. 11.
Village community system, 1. 14;
organization in Illinois, 111. 17,
18 ; in Michigan, V. 15.
Virginia, I. 5, 6, 7, 16, 17, 18;
Saxon dialects in, II. 42 ; planta-
tion system, III. 7; laws in
Michigan, V. 10; fleet, VI. 10;
College Koval in, 12; clergy, 24;
XII. 17, 20.
Voltaire's opinion of Montesquieu's
teutonic predilections, II. 11.
Von Hoist, on local government,
V. 16.
w.
Wads worth, VI. 43.
Wages, (see Salarv).
Wait/., G., IV. 14.
Wallace, on lands in Russia, II. 18.
Ward, derivation of, VIII. 23.
Warden, church, duties of, VI. 9,
13, 15, 25, 27. 32, 33, 40; election
of, 14, 15, 29, 31, 37 ; qualifica-
tions of, 14, 15.
Warwick, Earl of, XI. 7, 8, 9, 10, 15.
Washington, I. 18, 20; territory,
schools in, V. 21 ; woman sutfrage
in, 24; county, XII. 20.
AVaters, H. F., communication to
Salem gazette, IX X. 79-81.
Watertown, XI. 11, 13, 14.
Watts, Win., VII. 35, 36, 37.
[ Wells, Martin, VI. 44.
| Welsh barony, III. 26.
Wenham,town and common, IX-X.
51,52.
West, Win.. VII. 35, 37.
West Virginia, local government
in, V. 28.
Wethersford, XI. 11, 14, 17, 18.
Whallev, XI. 25.
I Wheatland, Dr. 11., IX-X. 77.
XX
INDEX.
White, J., character and career of,
IX-X. 19; Planters' plea, IX-X.
66.
"Whittingham, Bishop, his legacy to
the diocese of Maryland, VI. 5;
library of, 5, 12.
Wickham, Nath., VI. 29, 31.
"Wickocomacoe Indians, VII. 33.
Wilkinson, Rev. Mr., VI. 20; Jos.,
44; Win., VII. 37.
"William the Conqueror, I. 1, 35;
III, VI. 14; and Mary parish, 47.
Williams, Michael, VII. 37; Ed.,
87; R., IX-X. 6; H. L., 40.
Williamson, Rev. Alex., VI. 8, 15 ;
Rev. James, 44, 46.
Willey, Humphrey, VII. 37.
Wilmott, Rich., VI. 40.
Winchester, statute of, VIII. 9.
Windson.XI. 10, 11, 18.
Winslow, E., IX-X. 3.
Winsor, J., II. 40.
Winter Island, reservation on,
IX-X. 74.
Winthrop, A., VIII. 3; R. 0., 3;
governor, XI. 25, 26.
Winton county, XII. 20.
Wingan county, XII. 20.
Williamsburg county, XII. 20.
Wisconsin, I. 6, 18; women eligible
to school offices in, V. 25.
Woman suffrage in U. S., V. 24.
Wood, Francis, VII. 37; W.,
sketch of Salem, IX-X. 24, 25.
Woodbury, J., VIII. 27.
Worsley, Rev. Geo. H., VI. 41, 42.
Worthington, Charity, VI. 43.
Wyoming, schools, V. 21 ; woman
suffrage in, 24, 25.
Y.
York, I. 11; Duke of, XI. 20;
county, XII. 20.
Zealand, I. 17.
AN INTRODUCTION TO
American Institutional History
"The local annals of Maryland or of any other State are something more than
mere local history, something more than part of the history of the United States
or of the whole English-speaking people. They are really contributions to the gen-
eral science of politics no less than the lessons which we should have had if
Aristotle's comments on the kindred commonwealths of old Greece had been spared
to us." Freeman.
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
IN
Historical and Political Science
HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor
History is past Politics and Politics present History. Freeman
AN INTRODUCTION TO
American Institutional History
WRITTEN FOR THIS SERIES
By EDWARD A. FREEMAN, D.C.L., LL.D.
PuBI.JSHlU) BY THK .lolINS Hoi'KINS UNIVERSITY
B A L T Uio R !:
1882
JOHN MURPHY A CO., PRINTERS,
BALTIMORE.
MR. FREEMAN'S VISIT TO BALTIMORE.
By the Editor.
Mr. Freeman came to America in the fall of 1881, on the joint invita-
tion of the Lowell Institute in Boston and of the Peabody Institute in
Baltimore. The united influence of these two local institutions, repre-
senting the intellectual union of Northern and Southern cities, was
seconded by two other influences of a local character: first, by Mr.
Freeman's natural desire to visit his own son, who married in Baltimore
and who now lives upon a plantation in Virginia ; secondly, by an ardent
longing to see with his own eyes a New England Town Meeting, which,
in the genealogy of local institutions, is a long-lost child of Old England
and a grandchild of the Fatherland. The historian of " The English
People in their Three Homes " regards the local institutions of the
United States, North and South, as the historic offspring of England and
Germany, as truly as his own name, once applied to all freemen of the
English Colonies in America, is directly perpetuated by children and
grandchildren in the Old Dominion, where he indulged what he pleas-
antly calls " oldfatherly emotions towards the last-born bairn's bairn,"
and where, true to historical impulses, he began a " Virginia Domesday "
in the old forms : " Freeman tenet ; Bell tenuit Ante Ouerratn. Valebnt
. . . dollar io s ; modo . . , Waste fuit." AVith the grim humor of Wil-
liam the Conqueror, who, when he fell to the earth upon landing at
Pevcnsey, grasped the soil and thus took seizin of England, Mr. Freeman
describes his son's territorial conquest upon the shore of the Rapidan,
" Potuit ire quo voluit aim ista terra, for the soil of the Old Dominion
sticketh to the boots and is carried about hither and thither ! "
This extract from a letter dated Somerleaze, Rapid Ann Depot, Cul-
peper County, Virginia, December 2oth, 1881, needs no better com-
mentary than the following extract from the Inquisitio Eliensis, Domes-
day, iii, 497 (or Stubbs' Select Charters, 8G) : " Deinde quomodo vocatur
mansio, quis tenuit earn tempore Regis Eadwai-di ; quia modo tenet ; . . .
quantum valebat totum simul ; et quantum modo; . . ." The suggestion
of Domesday-forms came to Mr. Freeman not only from the history of
Virginia land-tenure, but from Professor William F. Allen's paper on
"The English Cottagers of the Middle Ages," a paper which had been
sent Mr. Freeman in answer to his query "about a man in Wisconsin,
who has written something about villainage what a long way oil ;>
know about such things how can I get it? " And after receiving the
5
6 Mr. Freeman's Visit to Baltimore.
tborfe paper, Mr. Freeman inquired with manifest surprise, " Are his
cottagers the cotarU t>t' l>. mesday '.'" The historian of the Normun Con-
quest whs reminded of items in Domesday by the "Afri" of the South,
who still survive in emancipated forms. The negroes of the Old Do-
minion are no longer " servi," but their varying economic condition
might justify their enumeration in some such classes as appear in the
Norman census: "villani," " cotarii," " sochemani" " liberi homines."
It brings the historiun of " The English People in their Three Homes "
to the very heart of both North and South to think of him as spending
Christmas with his American children upon a Virginia Plantation, culled
after the Old Home in England, " Somerleaze," where, resting from lec-
ture- and labors, he indulges "oldfatherly emotions " towards his Ameri-
can grandchild. It is pleasant to think of the Nestor historian "among
the hills, enjoying the air, with the Blue Ridge right in front," and
reading a novel about the Old Dominion written by a Virginia lady now
living in Baltimore. He writes to this city for information touching the
plot of the historical novel. " Was there not an negro revolt once here-
abouts called Gabriel's War? I was reading a pretty story called
Homoselle, where it comes in, and I seem to have heard of it before ;
but nobody here can tell me. If the chronology of the story be right,
it must have been between 1837 and 1861." And later he returns to the
point : " I knew I had heard something of that Gabriel's War, but Mrs.
Tiernan must have altered the date. You say it was early in this cen-
tury ; but Homoselle lies in the time 1837-1801. For, on the one hand,
Victoria reigns in Great Britain ; on the other, Peace and Slavery reign
in Virginia.* I want to know another thing. Homoselle speaks of a
Gabriel's War, a negro insurrection headed by a slave of uncommon ability, known as
" General Gabriel," occurred in the year 1S00. The uprising was planned with great skill
ami secrecy, and embraced about one thousand slaves. The plan was to make a night
attack upon Richmond, massacre the male inhabitants, spoil the city, seize arms, and create
a general panic among whites throughout the State, whereupon, it was thought, a general
insurrection could be kindled among the slave population. On the night of the proposed
attack there was a furious rain-storm; but the slaves, undaunted, advanced with their
scythe-blades and axes. The attack was frustrated by two unforeseen events, the rapid
rising of a creek before Richmond, and the betrayal of the plot by a faithful servant of
William Mosby a slave named Pharaoh who swam the creek at the risk of his life
ami gave the alarm in Richmond. The town was at once put under arms, and the slaves,
finding that their plot was discovered, rapidly dispersed. James Munroe was at that time
Governor of Virginia and he offered a reward of three hundred dollars for the arrest of
Gabriel, who was finally taken and executed. Many other conspirators were found out
and were duly tried and convicted by the court of "Oyer and Terminer," made up of
county justices. The Court Records of Henrico County contain evidence upon this mat-
ter, see Howison's History of Virginia, ii, 392-3. This insurrection naturally created the
greatest horror throughout all Virginia, and the story of Gabriel's War was repeated until
it became a household tale. The authoress of Homoselle AiA not need to consult the written
history of Virginia for information, for the oft-told story was stamped upon every child's
imagination. Mrs. Tiernan never saw llowisoirs account of Gabriel's War until after
her story was written, the scene of which she purposely laid in later times of which she
herself had personal knowledge. Without regard to the exact chronology of Gabriel's
War, Mrs. Tiernan utilized a popular tradition for literary purposes, which is not only
an artistic but a |tcrfectly legitimate method in Culturgeschichte. H. B. A.
Mr. Freeman's Visit to Baltimore. 7
free negro in Virginia. Another story speaks of free negroes as for-
bidden to dwell there. Some of your students of State laws will know
the date of that hit of legislation."*
Mr. Freeman's visit to Baltimore occured before his visit to Virginia.
He lectured first in Boston, then at Cornell University, and immediately
afterwards in Baltimoreat the Peabody Institute, beginning November
15 and continuing until November 25. Both Cornell and Johns
Hopkins Universities availed themselves of Mr. Freeman's visit to
America to engage him for short courses of lectures before their students.
On arriving in Baltimore, the first place Mr. Freeman visited was the
University-Library. Although the historian professes " to hate libraries
as well as schools," his professions should not be taken quite literally.
He evidently enjoyed what some peoplecall the "Johns Hopkins School,"
and he stayed one entire forenoon, and came again the next day. Ib-
found some things tha-t he had never before seen, and he manifested con-
siderable interest in the so-called " New Book Department " an arrange-
ment for securing the most recent scientific literature from England,
France, and Germany. Mr. Freeman saw at once the cosmopolitan rela-
tions and practical value of this department and also of the University
system of " exchanges " with tin; proceedings of academies and other
learned societies of the old world. He even intimated that his own
*Free negroes were " permitted by the court of any county or corporation to remain
in this State " (Code of Va., 1849, 460, Code, 1860, 520) ; but the law against emancipated
negroes abiding in the State or Colony was of very ancient standing. According to the
Act of 1091, no person could set free a slave, without paying for his transportation out of
the country within six months after setting him free. The Act. of January '/5, lSoO, was
fundamental to all Virginia legislation during the present century touching the condi-
tion of freedmen ; it was provided that if any slave thereafter emancipated should
remain within the State more than twelve months after his right to freedom accrued,
lie should forfeit such right and might be sold for the benefit of the poor of the county or
corporation. Cf. Acts 1815-16, Code 1819, Acts 1SJ0-7, 1830-1, 18:j0-7. By an Act of
1840-1, "No free negro shall migrate into this State." By the Va. Const of 18.M, which
was in force in 18G0, "Slaves hereafter emancipated shall forfeit their freedom by remain-
ing in the commonwealth more than twelve months after they become actually free, and
shall be reduced to slavery as may be prescribed by law/' The letter of the law was
probably more severe than the spirit of its execution. In point of fact, both free and
emancipated negroes were always allowed in Virginia by permission of the justices ol
a county court. In fact, the law alio wed 'free negroes" to " In- registered and num-
bered" every live years by the clerk of the county court (Codes of 1SI9, lSi! I). Kree,
negroes were even allowed to own slaves of a certain kind, for example, a lice negro
could own his wife and children, and their descent, also his own parents. Vnd con-
versely, a free negro wife might own her husband, children, and parents.
A student from South Carolina, Mr. 15. ,1. Uamage, says it was no uniiMial thing before
the war for free negroes to own considerable property, both real estate ami -law-, lie
calls attention to an interesting item in the Baltimore /'<(//, September 27, lss_' " Henry
Todd, who lives in Darien, is tie' wealthiest colored man i rgia. Win n a youth, his
master died ami left him his freedom. When tie- Confederacy fell, lie lost twenty sla\>
and some Confederate bonds. After the war, he ( inner! larmiiu; operation- and en-
gaged in the lumber business, lie is now li.l years old and is worth >l"". in : I
investments."' It. 1>. A.
8 Mr. Freeman's Visit to Baltimore.
retired life at his country-home in Somerset cut him off in some degree
from the main stream of contemporary literature, to which members of
the Jonns Hopkins have constant access. This frank confession is not at
all inconsistent with Mr. Freeman's well-known answer to the American
professor who asked him where ho wrote his books : " In my own house,
to be sure, where else should 1 ?" Although the historian of the Norman
Conquest declares that he has never in his life consulted the library of
the British Museum, yet he himself admits that, " There are times for
which the library of the British Museum, or any other public library
must be invaluable; but these times are not the eleventh and twelfth
centuries," The point is, that for a man's own special study, it is possi-
ble to have, in some cases, all necessary original materials around him.
That point Mr. Freeman saw illustrated again and again in the special
department-collections of the Johns Hopkins Universitas Studiorum.
But it would be strange indeed if the great and rushing stream of nine-
teenth century literature did nc impress the English historian of politics
even more profoundly than it does those who are borne upon the current.
He feels keenly enough the utter hopelessness of keeping up with the
ever-growing mass of German books, and yet more with the vaster mass
of treatises which are hidden away in German periodicals and local
transactions. Of all of these every German scholar expects us to be
masters, while to most of us they are practically as inaccessible as if they
were shut up in the archives of the Vatican."
The continuity of human history is the life principle of Mr. Free-
man's philosophy. This principle he found already transplanted to
American shores. He found it germinating in the Public Schools of
Baltimore through the influence of his friend the Superintendent of
Public Instruction, Henry E. Shepherd, formerly a student at the Uni-
versity of Virginia, now President of Charleston College, South Carolina.
He found this principle bearing fruit in the Johns Hopkins University.
The English historian became interested at once in the studies of His-
torical and Political Science, which were there in active progress. He
met students in private and in public. He visited their special libraries
and work-shops, where he lent his master-hand in aid of apprentice
tasks. "With Bacon's folio edition of the Laws of Maryland before him,
he pointed out to Maryland young men graduates of the Johns Hopkins
University, the City College, and the Public Schools the continuity of
Old English institutions in their native State. He went with a member
of the University to the Library of the Maryland Historical Society,
where in the company of Mr. John H. B. Latrobe, the President, Mr.
J. W. M. Lee, the Librarian, and other members of that institution, he
examined some of the manuscript records of Colonial Maryland. And,
before leaving Baltimore, he penned the following letter which was
intended by him to quicken public as well as individual interest in the
collection and publication of the Maryland State Papers :
Mr. Freeman's Visit to Baltimore.
11 Mount Vernon Hotel, Baltimore, November 21th 1881.
" I cannot leave Baltimore without saying a word or two about the Stale
records of Maryland, of which you were good enough to give me a
glimpse both in the University Library and in that of the Historical
Society. I did not see much, but I saw enough to get some notion of
their great interest and importance. But the few things which I saw
either in print or in manuscript must, I fancy, be mere fragments from
far greater stores at Annapolis or elsewhere A systematic publication
would be a very great gain, and the State Legislature would surely not
refuse its help, if the matter were pressed upon it by influential persona
and societies in the State. During the short time that I have been in
America, I have been more and more impressed by the deep interest of
the early history of all these lands, first as provinces, then as independent
States. Each State has in the most marked way its own character, and
gives some special kind of instruction in comparative political history.
The local annals of Maryland or of any other State are something more
than mere local history, something more than part of the history of the
United States or of the whole English-speaking people. They are really
contributions to the general science of politics no less than the lessons
which we should have had if Aristotle's comments on the kindred com-
monwealths of old Greece had been spared to us "
This letter, shown to influential men, and read to the Historical Society
by the Hon. George William Brown, in connection with a similar letter
written by James Bryce, M. P., who was in Baltimore at the same time
with Mr. Freeman, has at last resulted, through the combined action of
the Society and of the State Legislature, in the transfer of the mass of
Colonial and Revolutionary Archives from Annapolis to Baltimore,
where, in a well-lighted but fire-proof vault lately constructed by private
subscription, the manuscript records can be used to the best advantage by
students of Maryland History. The State has also provided for the
gradual but systematic publication of these Archives under the auspices
of the Maryland Historical Society. Thus by the institution of an
honorable Record Commission,.a purely scientific undertaking is removed
from all political influences. These results are the direct historic out-
growth of Mr. Freeman's letter, supported by personal and corporate
power. The letter was first published in the New York Nation,* immedi-
*Note in the Nation, December 22, 1881, in connection with a review el' the "Calendar
of Virginia State Papers;" cf. article in the Baltimore American, December 21, lssi ;
editorial in the Sun, December 20, 1SS1 ; New York Times, December 29, lssi. An
account of the Archives themselves and of the provisions of the Bill which passed the
Maryland Senate March 10 and the House of Delegates. March 12, Issj, may ! found in
the Nation " Notes," March ISO, 1882; also, in the same number, an account of the "St, vens
Index of Maryland Documents in the State Taper Ottice, London," which Index,
containing descriptions and abstracts of l,72!i Maryland documents now preserved in
2
10 Mr. Freeman' 8 Visit to Baltimore.
ately afterwards in Baltimore newspapers, and a copy of it was sent to
every member of the Maryland Legislature. The letter is reproduced
above in a more complete form than heretofore, for the sake of its per-
manent preservation as a contribution to the Science of Maryland
History.
Mr. Freeman's visit to Baltimore has a certain historical value, which
will become more and more apparent when the influence which he
exerted here upon the Historical Society and upon the Johns Hopkins
University goes forth into the State of Maryland and into the country at
large. The English lecturer made an impression wherever he went in
this country, in Boston, Ithaca, New Haven, Providence, New York,
Philadelphia, St. Louis, and other places; but it is the writer's belief,
based upon careful inquiry, that the impression produced upon the stu-
dents of the Johns Hopkins University, the young life of Baltimore,
was the best, the strongest, and the most abiding of all. While his
public lectures at the Peabody Institute and elsewhere excited much
attention and remark at the time they were given, yet these popular
addresses, tested by the comparative method, were everywhere less quick-
ening and less permanent in their historic influence than the half dozen
informal "talks " given to a company of advanced students, meeting in
Hopkins Hall upon the afternoons of days alternating with Mr. Free-
man's public lectures at the Peabody Institute. In a room of small size,
before a strictly University audience, without a sheet of paper between
him and his hearers, with no lyceum-apparatus save a pointer and one or
two outline-maps prepared for the illustration of special matters, Mr.
Freeman in plain English, vigorous, and eloquent set forth " the
Eternal Eastern Question " in the light of past Politics and present His-
tory. He spoke of the Roman Power in the East: the Saracens and the
Slavs; the final Division of the East and the West; the Turks, Franks,
and Venetians; the Ottomans and the Beginnings of Deliverance.
Probably no such telling, inspiring course was anywhere given by the
English historian in his American tour.
Circumstances contributed to make Mr. Freeman's lectures at the
Johns Hopkins University a peculiar and remarkable success. In the first
place, the President of the University had insisted upon it that Mr.
Freeman should talk to the students upon some special theme instead
of reading one of his two general ^courses of written lectures. The
informality of these " talks " which Mr. Freeman was at first very reluc-
tant to give, was made doubly pleasing by the fact that the historian
proved a good extempore speaker. The author of the Norman Conquest
has " stumped " the County of Somersetand knows how to make a good
England, was presented to the Maryland Historical Society by George Peabody, and thus
supplements the Annapolis collection. These Nation "Notes" of March 30, 1882, were
reprinted in the Johns Hopkins University Circular, May, 1882.
Mr. Freeman's Visit to Baltimore. 1 1
off-hand speech. .In the second place, the natural orator was doubtless
tired by the enthusiasm of his student-hearers and bv the presence and
applause of another historian and politician, his friend James Brvee
M. P., whos.e remarkable lectures upon English Polities followed close
upon Mr. Freeman, upon the same platform, and upon the same days.
. But what most of all contributed to Mr. Freeman's success at the Uni-
versity was the unimpeded rush of his own thought and feeling into the
historic fields of South-Eastern Europe, on which political interest was
then centering anew.
Mr. Freeman had come to America directly from Dalmatia without
tarrying in England. He had come from the historic border-ground
between the Aryan and the Turk, between Venice and the Ottoman
Power, between Old and New Rome. He had come to the Western
Empire of the English People, which, expanding with the great Teutonic
race from local centres, is repeating in the continental island of Atlantis
and in the continent of Asia, with Egypt and Ocean between, the experi-
ment of the Roman People upon a grander and nobler scale. He came
from ancient municipal centres of Grecian culture and Roman do-
minion, from Ragusa, upon the rocks of the Dalmatian coast, a city
of refuge for the Grecian colony of Epidauros, * as Home was a city of
refuge for the village communities of Italy, from Spalato in Dalmatia,
once a city of refuge for a Roman Emperor, Diocletian, who. born in this
lllyrian border-land, was the first to propose the institution of two
Caesars and of Roman capitals wherever Emperors took up their abode,
whether at Spalato, Nikomedeia, Milan, Trier, or York.
The English historian of " The lllyrian Emperors and their Land"
came to a new York and to other capitals of a westward-moving English
Empire. Like an historical ambassador from the East, such as Emanuel
Chrysoloras, who came from Constantinople to Rome in 1300 in the
interest of the Eastern Empire and tarried in Italy three years to teach
Greek; or as Georgius Gemistus (Pletho) who came in the interest of the
Greek Church to attend the Council of Florence in 143!) and remained
in that city for many years to lecture upon Platonic Philosophy, even so
the historian of " The English People in their Three Homes," coming to
Boston and Baltimore with a message upon his lips that invited national
belief in the civic kinship and religious unity of England and America,
came also with another message from the East. He came representing the
history of an older Eastern Empire than that of England in Egypt
and India. He came with a book in pros upon "The Subject and
Neighbor Lands of Venice "f (Spalato, Ragusa, and other Dalmatian
*Kpidauros in Dalmatia is now known as Kaj;usa Verchia. <'un<>ii*l> en
mother-town ha* taken its daughter's name. It is as tlemgli Knglaiui tdmuld .1
name, Old America.
f Reviewed in the Nation, February '', lsv-'.
1 2 Mr. Freeman's Vhit to Baltimore.
cities) and before that book was published in America, Mr. Freeman bad
told students in Baltimore the story of the Republic of Ragusa, " the one
spot along that whole coast from the Croatian border to Cape Tainarcs
itself, which never came under the dominion either of the Venetian or of
the Turk," that city upon the rocks which ' has always sat on a little ledge
of civilization .... with a measureless background of barbarism behind
her." Before Mr. Freeman's article on "The Revolt in Dalmatia" was
published in the Nation (February 16, 1882), the latest dispatches upon
which that article was based, had been made known in Baltimore. The
letters and telegrams from Ragusa to the Manchester Ouardianby Arthur
Evans,* Mr. Freeman's son-in-law, "were almost the only trustworthy
sources of information in England regarding affairs in Dalmatia. Mr.
Freeman left Ragusa in June, 1881, when, as he says in the Nation, "the
storm was beginning." From that time on, Mr. Evans kept him
informed as to the progress of the Revolution, and those manuscript
letters from Ragusa were shown to students in Baltimore.
In such ways, through living, winged words, eirea nrepdevra, young
men in America were made to realize that contemporary Politics is
only History in the making. And they will use a motto from Mr. Free-
man History is past Politics and Politics present History f not
only upon the wall of their class-room, but upon their published
"Studies in Historical and Political Science," to which the Historian of
Politics kindly offers an Introduction, which he wrote after his return to
England, to his own Home at "Somerleaze." There in the South-West
of England, in his own library, looking out upon his own land and trees,
with his face toward the low-lying hills of Mendip, the historian of
the Norman Conquest meditates upon the relation of Past and Present.
That his thoughts occasionally go out from the old country to the new,
is evident not only from his voluntary contribution to American past
Politics, but from his sending to Baltimore, to the Seminary of Historical
and Political Science, his most recent contributions to English magazines
and newspapers, sources of present History.
Mr. Evans has been for some years an authority upon affairs in South-Eastern Europe.
His letters to the Manchester Guardian during the year 1877 have been published in book-
form under the title of "Ulyrian Letters A revised selection of correspondence from
the Ulyrian provinces of Bosnia, Herzegovina, etc." (London, 1878.) An earlier work
by, Mr. Evans is entitled " Through Bosnia and the Herzegovina on foot during the
insurrection, August and September, 1875" (Second edition, London, 1877;.
fThis motto is the pith of a sentence in Mr. Freeman's address in Birmingham, Nov-
ember 18, 1880, "On the Study of History," printed in the Fortnightly Jleview, March, 1881,
p. 320, where he says it is "a highly practical truth that history is simply past politics
and that politics are simply present history;" cf. p. 329. Another origina'l form of the
aphorism is: " History is the politics of the past, politics are the history of the present."
Note also the same idea in Mr. Freeman'* Lectures to American Audiences, p. >7:
"Now the position for which I have always striven is this, that history is past 'politics!
that ]K)litics are present history."
INTRODUCTION
AMERICAN INSTITUTIONAL HISTORY.
The study of the local institutions of the states, counties,
towns, and the like, through the United States, and indeed
through America generally, is, to my mind, a matter of a good
deal more than local interest. Its immediate attraction of course
is strongest for those to whom it is a matter of local interest ;
but its importance goes a great deal further. Whenever institu-
tions have grown up of themselves, as they largely have done in
at least the Eastern States of the Union, they become a matter
of scientific study. The institutions of Massachusetts or Mary-
land, such at least among them as have been handed down from
the foundation of those colonies, are not simply the institutions
of Massachusetts and Maryland. They are part of the general
institutions of the English people, as those are again part of the
general institutions of the Teutonic race, and those are again
part of the general institutions of the whole Aryan family.
There I must stop; some of my friends are able to go further;
and, if they can prove that something which I am satisfied with
showing to be English, Teutonic, Aryan, is really common to all
mankind, they do me no wrong. The history, in short, of a
Massachusetts township or a Maryland manor * becomes, if looked
at in a scientific spirit, part of the general history of the world.
Of course I assume that they are studied in a scientific spirit.
* The subject of Old Maryland Manors has been investigated by John
Johnson, a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University. Interest in this
research was heightened by the examination, in the Library of the Mary-
land Historical Society, of the records of an actual Court Leet, held
upon St. Clement's Manor, in St. Mary's County. Tin' Court Leet, the
existence of which in Maryland has long been denied, was a popular
institution, a kind of Town Meeting on the Lord's Manor. Such a man-
orial survival is, like the old Town Pasture at Annapolis, a connecting
link between Province Marvland and Early England. 11. it. a.
14 An Introduction to
Even the researches of the dullest local antiquary have their use;
that is, they may be turned to some use by a more intelligent
inquirer, by one who sees in them a value which the original col-
lector fails to see. The scientific view of such matters consists
mainly in dealing with them by the comparative method. To say
that a certain custom exists in Massachusetts now and to say that
a certain custom existed at Athens ages ago are both of them
pieces of knowledge which, if they go no further, are of no great
value or interest. But, if you can bring the Massachusetts cus-
tom and the Athenian custom into some kind of relation towards
one another if you can show that, among much of unlikeness in
detail, the likeness of a general leading idea runs through both
if you can show that the likeness is not the work of mere chance
but that it can be explained by common derivation from a com-
mon source if again you can show that the points of unlikeness
are not mere chance either, but that they can be explained by
differences in time, place, and circumstance if you can do all
this, you have indeed done something for the scientific study of
Comparative Politics.*
* Three or four years ago, at a suggestion from Professor B. L. Gilder-
sleeve, the editor of this series began to collect materials illustrating
the local institutions of the ancient Greeks, with the view of ultimately
drawing certain historical parallels between their Village Community
system and that of the Teutonic race, especially of its New England
branch. The agrarian customs, the local assemblies, market places,
village elders, the predominance of kinship in the village constitution,
the sanctity of house and home, the reverence for ancient landmarks and
the bounds of the village, the branching out of hew communities from
the parent stock, and the association of kindred villages in a larger
municipal commonwealth, these and other features of Greek and Teu-
tonic local life are strikingly similar and illustrate the fact that the old
Aryan tree has been budding and blossoming in much the same wy for
three or more thousand years. The Grecian branch of institutional
genealogy is assuming fresh interest from year to year in the light of
German monographs and revisions of earlier standard works. In view
of this fact and of the increasing importance of, Grecian Village Com-
munities in the comparative study of local institutions, it has been
thought best to intrust the Grecian topic to Dr. John Franklin Jameson,
instructor in classic history at the Johns Hopkins University, who from
the nature of his present pursuits, will have special opportunities for
investigating the above subject. H. B. A.
American Institutional History. 1 5
But, coming nearer our own concerns, the institutions of the
American States form a natural and important part of the insti-
tutions of the Teutonic race, and specially of the English branch
of it. The institutions of England are the general institutions
of the Teutonic race, modified as they could not fail to be, by
settlement in a great European island, and by the events which
have taken place since that settlement. The institutions of the
American States are the institutions of England, modified, as
they could not fail to be, by settlement in a greater American
continent, and by the events which have taken place since that
settlement. We do not rightly understand the history of our
people on either side of Ocean, unless we take in the close
analogy notwithstanding many points of unlikeness between
the English settlements in Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries,
and the English settlements in America in the seventeenth cen-
tury. The likeness comes out most strongly if we contrast either
with the Norman Conquest in England or with the Spanish con-
quests in America. These again differ greatly from one another;
but they agree in the comparatively short time in which the work
was done. In both of them settlement took the form of conquest,
and of conquest on a great scale. But those who came in the three
keels of Hengest and those who came in the Mayflower were
both of them in a different position. They settled in small com-
panies and won the land bit by bit. They brought with them the
institutions of their elder country, such of them at least as suited
the condition of their new country ; they planted them afresh,
and what they planted grew up with such changes as were
wrought by the nature of the new soil in which it was planted.
The most notable thing of all, yet surely the most natural thing
of all, is that the New England settlers of the seventeenth cen-
tury largely reproduced English institutions in an older shape
than they bore in the England of the seventeenth century. They
gave a new life to many things which in their older home had well
nigh died out. The necessary smallness of scale in the original
settlements was the root of the whole matter. It, so to speak,
drove them back for several centuries: it caused them to repro-
duce, in not a few points, not the England of their own day, but
the England of a far earlier time. It led them to reproduce in
many points the state of things in old Greece and in mediaeval
1 G An Introduction to
Switzerland. Such a state as Rhode Island is as essentially
ancient as Uri itself; that is, a new Rhode Island could no more
come into being now than a new Uri. A New England town-
meeting is essentially the same thing as the Homerica dyo<r/ n the
Athenian ixxfyfria, the Roman comitia, the Swiss Landesge-
meinde, the English folk-moot. The circumstances of New
England called the primitive assembly again into being when in
the older Englaand it was well nigh forgotten. What in Switzer-
land is a survival was in New England rather a revival. But
the causes alike of the survival and of the revival are part of the
general history of the institutions of the Teutonic race.
But New England does not make up the whole of the English
settlements in America. We have further to compare the points
of likeness and unlikeness, and the causes of the likeness and
unlikeness, between the New England states, which so largely
came of themselves and other states which arose under other
influences. We mark a difference between the proprietary colo-
nies, and those which were practically independent common-
wealths from the beginning. Maryland reproduced English
institutions no less than Massachusetts; but Massachusetts and
Maryland did not reproduce exactly the same English institu-
tions. But it is plain that the more popular institutions were
more at home on the soil of the New World. A lord pro-
prietor whose rights were measured by these of the Bishop of
Durham was an anomaly in a newly settled land. Greater local
independence, closer connexion with the Government of the
mother country, were either of them more natural states. Mary-
land, therefore, advanced in the direction of Massachusetts;
Massachusetts did not advance in the direction of Maryland.*
I noticed in Virginia, the only one of the Southern States of
which I have seen anything, that I heard the word county at least a
*The Palatinate of Durham, after which the proprietary powers of
Lord Baltimore were modelled in the charter of Terra Mariae, has been
made the subject of careful investigation by Mr. Basil Sollers, a graduate
of the City College, Baltimore, and a member of the University-
Seminary of Historical and Political Science. Although Palatine rights
were granted to the Lord Proprietor, yet practically, from the very out-
set, the government of Maryland was a government by the people.
H. B. A.
American Institutional History. 17
hundred times for once that I heard it in New England. The
merest glance at the two countries shows that, setting aside the
results of late events, the whole political organization of the two
countries is different. Both have reproduced English institutions ;
but they have not reproduced the same English institutions. I
suppose that Virginia and New England must be the most
strictly English parts of the United States ; the mixture of any
foreign element in the original settlement must have Been very
small in either. But the two lands represent two different sides
of England. Virginia more nearly reproduced the England of
the time of the settlement. New England more nearly repro-
duced the England of an earlier time. The causes of this differ-
ence, causes inherent in the different circumstances of the two
settlements, again take their place in the general course of
English and of Teutonic history.
Thus far one has had to speak wholly of reproductions of
strictly English institutions. In some of the other States we find
materials for study of another kind. The State of New York,
once New Netherlands, affords us the remarkable phenomenon of
a land settled by one body of Teutonic settlers and afterwards by
the accidents of warfare transferred to another. The two sets of
colonists were both of the same original stock and the same origi-
nal speech ; but the circumstances of their several histories had
made them practically strangers to each other. On the Nether-
Dutch of Holland and Zealand transplanted to the new world
came in the Nether-Dutch of England. The two elements have
been fused together into one whole, but not without leaving
memories and signs of the old distinction. Here is a held of
special interest. We have not only, as in New England, to com-
pare a newer England with an older ; we have also to compare
an older and a newer Holland ; and to study the changes wrought
in it by the infusion of an element really kindred though out-
wardly foreign. And again another question is raised. The
same elements which were brought together in the State of New
York have been more lately brought together at the Cape of
Good Hope. But the results have been widely different in the
two cases. I do not profess to have worked out the causes of
the difference; but the question is one which is well worth
searching into.
3
18 An Introduction to
In other parts of the Union my favourite talk about Old,
Middle, and New England ceases locally to apply. I see with
pleasure that one of the subjects set down for research is French
Towns in Wisconsin. I have not myself seen anything of the
State of Wisconsin. But at St. Louis I was strongly impressed
With a line of thought which comes out much more forcibly in
Missouri than it can come out in Wisconsin. We cannot call
Wisconsin a colony of the English people in the same sense as
Massachusetts and Virginia, though both Wisconsin and Missouri
may be called colonies of the English people in a wider sense.
Wisconsin was for a while a possession of the British crown, and
changed its allegiance as a result of the War of Independence.
But when I crossed the Father of Waters, and found myself at
St. Louis, my first feeling was that I had got altogether out of the
historic range of which Massachusetts and Virginia form parts.
Here was a land which was no colony of the English people, no
possession of the British crown, which the War of Independence
in no way touched, which had no part or lot in Washington or
his fellows, but which was bought for money by the United States,
after they had become the United States, and after Washington
was no more. Yet I found myself in an English-speaking land,
a land in which traditions and memories common to the whole
Union were as strong as anywhei'e else. I know that traces of
the elder state of things have by no means wholly vanished ; but
they do not strike the visitor on the surface. I was at once
struck with the outward analogy between those parts of the
American Union which formed part of the old Louisiana and
those parts of the Swiss Union which formed no part of the old
German League. The Romance Cantons of Switzerland have
absolutely nothing to do with the history, rich and legendary, of
the original Three Lands. Yet the history of the Three Lands,
real and legendary, has been thoroughly adopted by the Romance
Cantons ; Tell and the Three Men of Griitli may be seen at
Geneva and at Lugano no less than at Altdorf itself. Here a
wholly distinct people has adopted the history and legend of the
body into which it has been itself adopted. In the American
case, though the land of the old Louisiana has nothing to do with
the War of Independence and its worthies, yet the mass of its
inhabitants have the same right in them as the inhabitants of
American Institutional History. 19
other parts of the Union. That is to say, the Romance lands of
Switzerland have adopted the traditions of their Teutonic neigh-
boars while still retaining Romance; the Romance lands of
America have adopted the traditions of their Teutonic neigh-
bours by the more eifectual process of receiving their Teutonic
neighbours within their borders.
I have gone off a good way from the subject on which I origi-
nally meant to say a few words. But my very wanderings may
help to show how easily the study of the local institutions of the
American States connects itself with the general study of Euro-
pean history, and with the study of the general history of insti-
tutions, above all with the institutions of the Teutonic race and
specially of its English branch.
* Doubtless I visited America under circumstances which were
likely to make me dwell on likenesses rather than on unlikenesses.
It might haply have been otherwise if I had known nothing
of the continent of Europe, or if I had entered America, as some
have done, on its western side. But I came to America from
the east, and that as a somewhat old stager in continental
Europe. I came as one fresh from Italy, Greece, and Dalraatia,
as one who had used his own house in England as an inn on the
road between Ragusa and Boston. Among a people of the same
tongue, of essentially the same laws and manners, I naturally
found myself at home, after tarrying in lands which were altogether
foreign. But I have no doubt that deeper causes than this would
naturally lead me to seize on the most English side of everything
American. To me the English-speaking commonwealth on the
* It has been thought not inappropriate to reprint in connection with
this Introduction, which was prepared by Mr. Freeman expressly for this
University Series, the following extracts from his " Impressions of Amer-
ica," recently published in the Fortnight!)/ Review (August and September,
1882), articles touching American Institutions and dwelling upon the
importance of studying them in the ligbt of Kurope.m hi-!' r;. oid of
the comparative method. u. is. a.
20 An Introduction to
American mainland is simply one part of the great English folk,
as the English-speaking kingdom in the p]uropean island is another
part. My whole line of thought and study leads me to think,
more perhaps than most men, of the everlasting ties of blood and
speech, and less of the accidental separation wrought by political
and geographical causes. To me the English folk, wherever they
may dwell, whatever may be their form of government, are still
one people. It may be that the habit of constantly studying and
comparing the history of England with the History of old Greece,
makes it easier for me to grasp the idea of a people, divided
politically and geographically, but still forming in the higher
sense one people. The tie that bound Greek to Greek was dearer
to Kallikratidas than the advancement of Spartan interests by
barbarian help. And so, to my mind at least, the thought of
the true unity of the scattered English folk is a thought higher
and dearer than any thought of a British Empire to the vast
majority of whose subjects the common speech of Chatham and
Washington, of Gladstone and GarGeld, is an unknown tongue.
It may be more important to ask how far the doctrine of the
essential unity of the divided branches of the English people is re-
ceived by those whom it concerns on the other side of the Ocean.
This is a subject on which I rather distrust my own judgment. I feel
that it is a subject on which I am an enthusiast, and that my enthusi-
asm may possibly bias and color any report that I may try to make.
And, of course, I can give only the impressions which I have drawn
from certain classes of people, impressions which may be widely
different from those which another man may have drawn from
other classes of people. As far as I can speak of my American
acquaintances, I should say that with most of them the essential
unity of the English folk is one of those facts which everybody in
a sense knows, but of which few people really carry their knowledge
about with them. The main facts of the case are so plain that
they cannot fail to be known to every man among a people
who know their own immediate and recent history so well as the
Americans do. That the older American states were in the
beginning English colonies, that the great mass of their inhabitants
are still of English descent, that, though the infusion of foreign
elements has been large, yet it is the English kernel which has
assimilated these foreigu elements that the German in America,
American Institutional History. 21
for instance, learns to speak English, while the American of
English descent does not learn to speak German ail these are
plain facts which every decently taught man in the United States
cannot fail in a certain sense to know. That is, if he were exam-
ined on the subject, he could not fail to give the right answers.
But the facts do not seem to be to him living things, constantly
in his mind. Those Americans with whom I have spoken, all of
them without a single exception, readily and gladly accepted the
statement of what I may call their EnglUhry. when it was set
before them. Once or twice indeed I have known the statement
come from the American side. But, though the acceptance of
the doctrine was ready and glad, it seemed to be the acceptance
of a doctrine which could not be denied when it was stated, but
which he who accepted it had not habitually carried about in his
daily thoughts. And when the statement came from the Ameri-
can side, it came, not as an obvious truth, but rather as the result
of the speaker's own observation, as a fact which he had noticed,
but which might have escaped the notice of others. I will illus-
trate my meaning by an incident which happened to myself. At
a college dinner to which I was asked, one gentleman proposed
my health in words which in everything else were most kind and
flattering, but in which I was spoken of as a man of " a foreign
nationality." In my answer I thanked the proposer of the toast
for everything else that he had said, but begged him to withdraw
one word : I was not of a foreign nationality, but of the same
nationality as himself. My answer was warmly cheered, and
several other speakers took up the same line. The unity of Old
and New England was in every mouth ; one gentleman who had
been American Minister in England told how exactly the same
thing had happened to him at a Lord Mayor's dinner in London,
how he had been spoken of as a foreigner, and how he had
refused the name, just as I had done
In the broad fact of the War of Independence there is really
nothing of which either side need be ashamed. Each side acted
as it was natural for each side to act. We can now see that
both King George and the British nation were quite wrong ; hut
for them to have acted otherwise than they did would have needed
a superhuman measure of wisdom, which few kings and few
nations ever had. The later American war within the present
22 An Introduction to
century, a war which, one would think, could have been so easily
avoided on either side, is a far uglier memory than the War of
Independence. Still the War of Independence must be, on the
American side, a formidable historic barrier in the way of perfect
brotherhood. A war of that kind is something quite unlike an
ordinary war between two nations which are already thoroughly
formed. Two nations in that case can soon afford to forget, they
can almost afford to smile over, their past differences. It is other-
wise when one nation dates its national being in the political
sense of the word " nation " from the defeat and humiliation of
the other. If the American nation had parted off peacefully
from the British nation, there would be no difficulty on either side
in looking on the two English-speaking nations as simply severed
branches of the same stock. The independent colony would, in
such a case, have far less difficulty in feeling itself to be, though
independent, still a colony, far less difficulty in feeling that all the
common memories and associations of the common stock belong
to the colony no less than to the mother-country. In such a case
the new England might have been to the old what Syracuse, not
what Korkyra, was to their common mother Corinth. But when
independence was won in arms, and that by the help of foreign
allies, when the very being of the new power was a badge of
triumph over the old, it is not wonderful that the natural self-
assertion of a new-born people often took the form of putting the
past, the dependent past, as far as might be out of sight. Parents
and brethren had become enemies ; strangers had acted as friends ;
it was not wonderful if it was thqught a point of honor to snap
the old ties as far as might be ; to take up in everything, as far as
might be, the position of a new nation, rather than that of a
severed branch of an old nation. I can understand that the
Englishman of America may be tempted to see something of
sacrifice, something like surrender of his national position, when
he is called on to admit himself simply to be an Englishman of
America. The Englishman of Britain has no such difficulties.
To his eye the kindred lies on the surface, plain to be seen of all
men. But it is not wonderful if the eye of the Englishman of
America is a degree less clear-sighted. He may be pardoned if
to him the kindred does not lie so visibly on the surface ; if it is
to him something which he gladly acknowledges when it is
American Institutional History. 23
pointed out, but which he needs to have pointed out before lie
acknowledges it
The ideal after which I would fain strive would be for all mem-
bers. of the scattered English folk to feel at least us close a tie to
one another as was felt of old by all members of the scattered
Hellenic folk. Geographical distance, political separation, fierce
rivalry, cruel warfare, never snapped the enduring tie which
bound every Greek to every other Greek. So the Englishman of
Britain, of America, of Africa, of Australia, should be each to
his distant brother as were the Greek of Massalia, the Greek of
Kyrene, and the Greek of Cherson. I have no doubt that it is a
piece of pedantry to hint at the fact, but the fact is none the less
true and practical, that, in order to compass this end, the scat-
tered branches of the common stock must have a common name.
This the old Greeks had. The Hellen remained a Hellen where-
ever he settled himself, and wherever he settled himself the land
on which he settled became Hellas. The Greek of Attica or
Peloponnesos did not distinguish himself from the Greek of Spain
by calling himself a Greek and his distant kinsman a Spaniard.
But it is hard to find a name fitted in modern usage to take in nil
the scattered branches of the English folk. A certain class of
orators on both sides of Ocean would seem to have dived into
the charters of the tenth and eleventh centuries, and to have
hence fished up the antiquated name of " Anglo-Saxon." We
hear much big talk about the "Anglo-Saxon race," somewhat to
the wrong of that greater Teutonic body of which Angles and
Saxons are fellow-members with many others. But those who
use the name probably attach no particular meaning to it ; to
them it goes along with such modern creations as Anglo-Nor-
mans, Anglo-Indians, Anglo-Catholics. The very narrow his-
torical sense of the word "Anglo-Saxon " is never thought of. It
is not remembered that its use was to mark the union of Angles
and Saxons under one king, a use which naturally was forgotten
as the distinctions between Angles and Saxons was forgotten.
Anyhow the name is antiquated and affected; it is not the name
which most naturally springs to any man's lips: it is a name
artificially devised to answer a certain purpose. For the English-
man of Britain and the Englishman of America to greet one
another as " Anglo-Saxons is very much as if the Greek ol
24 An Introduction to
Peloponnesos and the Greek of Spain had greeted one another,
not as Hellenes, but as Danaans or Pelasgians. Yet there cer-
tainly is a difficulty, such as the Greek never felt, in their greeting
one another by their true name of Knglishraen
In England I have ever preached the lesson "antiquam ex-
quirite niatrem," while in America I have, at the expense of meter,
preached it in the shape of " antiquiorem exquirite matrem." I am
not likely to forget that if the English settlements in America are
colonies of the English settlements in Britain, so the English
settlements in Britain are themselves colonies of the older
English land on the European mainland. In the wider history
of the three Englands no fact is of greater moment ; it is in fact
the kernel, almost the essence, of their whole history. Still the
constant acknowledgment and carrying about of that fact is a
kind of counsel of perfection which every one cannot be expected
to bear in mind. The analogy between the European and Ameri-
can settlements is real, but it is hidden. The points of unlikeness
lie on the surface. The far longer time of separation between
the first England and the second, the consequences following on
that longer separation, above all the far wider break in the
matter of language and institutions to say nothing of the wide
diversity in date and circumstances between the settlements of the
sixth century and the settlements of the seventeenth all these
things join together to make the relations between the first
England and the second altogether unlike the relations between
the second England and the third. The oldest England on the
European continent should never be forgotten by the men of the
middle England in the isle of Britain. But it never can be to
them all that the middle England in the isle of Britain surely
ought to be to the men of the newest England on the mainland
of America.
The main ties between the motherland and her great colony
are the two main results of community of stock ; that is, commu-
nity of language and community of law It is pleasant
to see an American law library, with English and American books
side by side. It is pleasant to hear an American legal pleading,
in which the older English legislation, the older English decisions,
are dealt with as no less binding than the legislation and decisions
of the local courts and assemblies, and where the English legisla-
American Institutional History. 25
tion and decisions of later times are held to be, though not
formally binding, yet entitled to no small respect. As to out-
ward appearances indeed, most of the American courts have lost
the pomp and circumstances with which we are accustomed to
clothe the administration of the higher justice at home. It is
only in that great tribunal which can sit in judgment on the legis-
lation of a nation, in the Supreme Court of the United States,
that any trace is left of the outward majesty of the law as it is
understood in England. But look at any American Court, in
such States at least as I have visited, and we see that the real
life of English law and English justice is there. All the essential
principles, all the essential forms, are there. The very cry of
oyez, meaningless most likely in the mouth of the crier who utters
it, not only tells us that it is the law of England which is adminis-
tering, but reminds us how largely the older law of England was
recast not more than recast at the hands of the Norman and
the Angevin. We feel that the law which is laid down by the
banks of the Hudson or the Potomac is still the law of King
Edward with the amendments of King William. Sometimes
indeed, when we find the newer England cleaving to cumbrous
tradition which the elder England has cast away, we feel that
a few further amendments of later days would not be out of
place
I am not forgetful that the laws of different States are very far
from being everywhere the same, and that the legislation of some
States has brought in some startling differences from the legisla-
tion both of England and of other States. But we may still
carry on our eleventh century formula. The law is not a new
law; it is the old law, with certain perhaps very considerable
amendments. Even if it be held that a new superstructure hns
been built up, it has been built up upon an old groundwork.
Here there is a tie, not only to the mother-country, but to an old
side of the mother-country. A real American lawyer must be an
English lawyer too. He cannot fail to know something of the
history of the land whose laws it becomes his duty to master ; he
may know at least as much as the English lawyer himself conde-
scends to know. And I can witness that there are American
lawyers who go somewhat further than the ordinary English law-
yer thinks it his business to go. If a good many are still floun-
4
26 An Introduction to
doring in the quag-mire of Blackstone, there are some who have
in m!c their way to the firm ground of Stubbs and Maine.
The nature of Blackstone suggests a state of mind which I
certainly cannot call an American peculiarity, which it may be
going too far to call even an American characteristic. For the
state of mind of which I speak, though it was brought forcibly to
my notice on the other side of Ocean, is only too common in
England also, and in many parts besides. I remember years ago
acting as Examiner at Oxford with a man who, whatever may
have been his attainments as a lawyer, had certainly made a good
deal of money at the bar. He made the men who were examined
say that the Conqueror introduced the feudal system at the Great
Council of Salisbury. I implored him to say nothing of the
kind, and explained to him that the legislation of Salisbury was
the exact opposite to what he fancied. My colleague refused to
hearkeu ; he had to examine in law ; Blackstone was the great
oracle of the law ; Blackstone put the matter as he put it, and
he could not go beyond Blackstone. This is an extreme case of
a man who cannot get beyond his modern book, and to whom the
notion of an original authority is something which never came
into his head. I believe there is in all parts of the world a large
class of people into whose heads it never does come that history
is written from original sources. I have had talks with people,
and have received letters from people, who clearly thought that I
or auy other writer of history did it all from some kind of intui-
tion or revelation, who had no idea that we got our knowledge
by turning over this book and that. And I have known others
who have got beyond this stage, who know that we get our know-
ledge from earlier writings, but who fancy that these earlier
writings are something altogether strange and rare, the exclusive
possession of a certain class, and placed altogether out of the
reach of any but members of that class. They are amazed if
you tell them that for large parts of history, for all those parts
with which I am mainly concerned, the sources lie open to every
man, and that the only advantage which the professed historian
has is the greater skill which long practice may be supposed to
have given him in the art of using the sources. Now this state
of mind, one which practically does not know that there are any
sources, common enough in England, is commoner still in America.
American Institutional History. 27
There, if we except a small body of scholars of the first rank,
original sources seem to be practically unknown. It struck me
that, with regard to reading and knowledge at least in those
branches of which I can judge America stands to England very
much as England stands to Germany. I conceive that in Ger-
many the proportion of those who know something is smaller
than it is in England, while the proportion of those who know a
great deal is certainly larger. Anyhow this distinction is per-
fectly true between England and America. There is a mysterious
being called the " general reader," of whom some editors seem to
live in deadly fear. Now I had long suspected that the "general
reader" was not *so great a fool as the editors seemed to think,
and my American experience has confirmed that suspicion.
America strikes me as the land of the "general reader;" and,
if so, I am not at all disposed to think scorn of the "general
reader." It seemed to me that in America the reading class, the
class of those who read widely, who read, as far as they go, intel-
ligently, but who do not read deeply the class of those who,
without being professed scholars, read enough and know enough
to be quite worth talking to form a larger proportion of man-
kind in America than they do in England. On the other hand,
the class of those who read really deeply, the class of professed
scholars, is certainly much smaller in proportion in America than
it is in England. The class exists; it numbers some who have
done thoroughly good work, and others from whom thoroughly
good work maybe looked for; but it sometimes fails to show
itself where one might most have expected to find it. Men from
whose position one might have expected something more seem
hardly to have grasped the conception of original authorities.
One sees college library after college library which docs not con-
tain a volume of the Chronicles and Memorials, where the exist-
ence of that great series seems to be unknown. I met men who
admired Dr. Stubbs as they ought to do, who had read his Con-
stitutional History carefully, but who had never so much as heard
of those wonderful prefaces, those living pictures of men and
times, on which, even more than on the Constitutional History,
the fame of the great Professor must rest. How little some men,
even in the chair of the teacher, have grasped the nature of the
materials for historic study came out in a curious dialogue which
28 An Introduction to
I had with an American professor, I think a professor of history.
He asked me, " Where do you write your works t n " In my own
house, to be sure," I answered, "where else should I ?" " O but
you can't do them in your own house ; you can't have the rare
books and the curious manuscripts ; you must be always going to
the British Museum." He was a good deal amazed when I
explained to him that all the important books for my period were
printed, that I had them all around me in my own not wonder-
fully large library, that it was the rarest thing for me in writing
ray history to need a book that was not in my library, that I had
never in ray life made use of the British Museum library, and not
very often of the Bodleian itself that, for a few unprinted manu-
scripts which I knew would be of use to me the British Museum
would give me no help, as they did not happen to be there that,
as a mere affair of the pocket, it was cheaper as well as more
convenient to buy books for oneself than to take long journeys in
order to read other people's books elsewhere. All this seemed
altogether a new light to my friend. Of course a student of some
other periods could not have made the same answer that I did.
There are times for which the library of the British Museum or
any other public library, must be invaluable, but those times are
not the eleventh and twelfth centuries. But it is plain that to
my professor all centuries were much alike ; he knew that there
were such things as original sources, but they seemed to him to
be something strange, mysterious, and inaccessible, something of
which a private man could not hope to be the owner. That a
man could have the Chronicles and Florence and Oderic lying on
his table as naturally as he might have Caesar and Tacitus had
never come into his head. I heard a good deal in America of
the difficulty of getting books, which I did not quite understand.
It is surely as easy to get a book, whether from London or from
Leipzig, in America as it is in England ; the book simply takes
somewhat longer to come. But I can understand that American
scholars may keenly feel one difficulty which I feel very keenly
too. This is the utter hopelessness of keeping up with the ever-
growing mass of German books, and yet more with the vaster
mass of treatises which are hidden in German periodicals and
local transactions. Of all of these every German scholar expects
us all to be masters, while to most of us they are practically as
American Institutional History. 29
inaccessible as if they were shut up in the archives of the Vatican.
When a German, and yet more when a Swiss, scholar gets any
fresh light, his first impulse is carefully to hide it under a bushel,
and then he expects all mankind to enter in and see the dark-
ness.
I think I may fairly say that the state of things of which I
speak, not so much mere ignorance of original sources as failure
to grasp the existence and the nature of original sources, while
sadly rife in England, is yet more rife in America. But I need
hardly say that America has men of sound learning in various
branches of knowledge of whom no land need be ashamed. At
Harvard, at Yale, at Cornell, the most fastidious in the choice of
intellectual society may be well satisfied with his companions.
And there is a younger school of American scholarship growing
up, of which, and of its researches, I cannot help saying a few
words more directly. Students of early English history and lan-
guage have had of late to acknowledge much valuable help in
several shapes from the western branch of their people. But the
school of which I have to speak is one which, among its other
merits, has the special merit of being distinctively American, of
being the natural and wholesome fruit of American soil. Its
researches have taken that special direction which one might say
that American research was called upon to take before all others.
The new school is the natural complement of an elder school which
has been useful in its time, but which could at the utmost serve
only as the pioneer toward something higher.
Even from the days before independence, the English colonies
in America have never lacked local historians. Every State,
every district, almost every township, has found its chronicler.
And worthily so; for every State, every district, every township,
has its history. In New England above all, the history of even
the smallest community has some political instruction to give us.
The history of New England is a history of exactly the same
kind as the history of old Greece or of mediaeval Switzerland,
the history of a great number of small communities, each full of
political life, most of them reproducing ancient forms of Teutonic
political life, which have died out in the elder England and which
live only among the lakes and mountains of the elder Switzer-
land. The institutions of anv community in the Thirteen Colo-
30 An Introduction to
nies, above all of any community in New England, are more than
a mere object of local interest and curiosity. They show us the
institutions of the elder England, neither slavishly carried on nor
scornfully cast aside, but reproduced with such changes as changed
circumstances called for, and those for the most part changes in
the direction of earlier times. As many of the best reforms in
our own land have been often unwittingly, and when unwit-
tingly all the better simply falling back on the laws and customs
of earlier times, so it has specially been with the reforms which
were needed when the New England arose on the western shore
of Ocean. The old Teutonic assembly, rather the old Aryan
assembly, which had not long died out in the Frisian sea-lands,
which still lived on in the Swabian mountain-lands, rose again to
full life in the New England town-meeting. Here we have, sup-
plied by the New England States, a direct contribution, and one
of the most valuable of contributions, to the general history of
Teutonic political life, and thereby to the general history of
common Aryan political life. And other parts of the Union also,
though their contributions are on the whole of less interest than
those of New England, have something to add to the common
stock. Each of the colonies reproduced some features of English
life ; but different colonies reproduced different sides and, so to
speak, different dates of English life. All these points in the
local history of the colonies need to be put in their right relation
to one another and to other English, other Teutonic, other Aryan
institutions. This would seem to be a study to which the
scholars of the United States are specially called. The study of
institutions, the scientific exposition of what America has to teach
us on that head, has been taken up by those who have come in the
wake of the older school of American inquirers. On the more
homely researches of the local chronicler there naturally follows a
newer and more advanced class of inquirers, men who not only
collect facts, but who know how to put the facts which they col-
lect into their proper place in the general history of mankind.
I have hitherto abstained from mentioning names ; it is often
invidious to pick and choose, and some of those whom I have had
in my eye may claim the benefit of the proverb that good wine
needs no bush. But a young and growing school, which still has
difficulties to struggle against, may be glad of a good word on
American Institutional History. 31
either side of Ocean. I cannot help mentioning the school which
is now devoting itself to the special study of local institutions, a
school which is spread over various parts of the Union, but wliicli
seems to have its special home in the Johns Hopkins University
at Baltimore, ....
To trace out the local institutions, and generally the local history
of their own land, to compare them with the history and institutions
of elder lands, to show that it is only on the surface that their own
land lacks the charm of antiquity, is the work which seems chalked
out for the inquirers of this school, and a noble and patriotic work
it is. An eye accustomed to trace the likenesses and unlikenesses
of history will rejoice to see the Germans of Tacitus live once
more in the popular gatherings of New England to see in the
strong life of Rhode Island a new Appenzell beyond the Ocean
to see the Great City of Arcadia rise again in the federal capital
by the Potomac. North and South, and the older West also,
has each its help to give, and materials to furnish. Viewed
rightly, with the eye of general history, it is no mean place in the
annals of the world that falls to the lot of the two great common-
wealths between which the earliest, and till our own days the
greatest presidencies of the American Union were so unequally
divided
I said before that it is a witness to the life and strength of the
true English kernel in the United States that, notwithstanding
the lavish admission of men of all kinds to citizenship, that English
kernel still remains the kernel round which everything grows and
to which everything else assimilates itself. There is that kind
of difference between the English in Britain and the English in
America which could not fail to be under the different circumstances
of the two branches. Each of them is the common forefather of
earlier times modified as the several positions of his several de-
scendants could not fail to modify him. In constitutional matters
the closeness with which the daughter has, wherever it was possible,
reproduced the parent is shown perhaps in the most remarkable
way in the prevalence alike in the Union, in the Slates, and in
many at least of the cities, of the system of two houses in a legis-
lative body. We are so familiar with that system from its repetition
in countless later constitutions that we are apt to forget that, when
the Federal constitution of the United States was drawn up, that
32 An Introduction to
system was by no means the rule, and that its adoption in the
United States was a very remarkable instance of cleaving to the
institutions of the mother country. Though the United States
Senate, the representative of the separate being and the political
equality of the States, has some functions quite different from those
of the House of Lords, yet it would hardly have come into the
heads of constitution- makers who were not familiar with the House
of Lords. I may here quote the remark of an acute American
friend that the Senate is as superior to the House of Lords as the
House of Representatives is inferior to the House of Commons.
A neat epigram of this kind is seldom literally true ; but this one
undoubtedly has some truth in it. It follows almost necessarily
from the difference between the British and American constitutions
that in the American Congress the Upper House should be, in
character and public estimation, really the Upper House. In
Great Britain no statesman of the first rank and in the vigor of
life has any temptation to exchange the House of Commons for the
House of Lords. By so doing he would leave an assembly of
greater practical authority for one of much less. But in the
United States such a statesman has every temptation to leave the
House of Representatives for the Senate as soon as he can. As
neither House can directly overthrow a Government in the way
that the House of Commons can in England, while the Senate
has a share in various acts of the executive power with which the
House of Representatives has nothing to do, the Senate is really
the assembly of greater authority. Its members, chosen for six
years by the State Legislatures, while the Representatives are
chosen by the people for two years, have every advantage as to
the tenure of their seats, and it is not wonderful to find that re-
election is far more the rule in the Senate than in the House. I
had to explain more than once that it was a rare thing in Eng-
land for a member of Parliament to lose his seat, unless he had
given some offense to his own party or unless the other party had
grown strong enough to bring in a man of its own. In America,
it seems, it is not uncommon for a Representative to be dismissed
by his constituents of his own party, simply because it is thought
that he has sat long enough and because another man would like
the place. Here the difference between paid and unpaid mem-
bers comes in: where members are paid, there will naturally be a
American Institutional History. 33
larger stock of candidates to choose from. I was present at sit-
tings of both Houses, and there was certainly a most marked
difference in point of order and decorum between the two. The
Senate seemed to be truly a Senate ; the House of Representa-
tives struck me as a scene of mere hubbub rather than of real
debate. One incident specially struck me as illustrating the con-
stitutional provision which shuts out the Ministers of the Presi-
dent from Congress. One Representative made a fierce attack
on the Secretary of the Navy, and the Secretary of the Navy
was not there to defend himself. Generally I should say, the
House of Representatives and the Legislative bodies which
answer to it in the several States, illustrate Lord Macaulay'a
saying about the necessity of a Ministry to keep a Parliament in
order. One result is the far larger powers which in these assem-
blies are given to the Speaker. And these are again attended
by the danger of turning the Speaker himself into the instrument
of a party.
The differences of procedure between our Houses of Parlia-
ment and the American assemblies, Federal and State, are very
curious and interesting, specially just now when the question of
Parliamentary procedure has taken to itself so much attention.
But I must hasten on to give my impression of other matters,
rather than attempt to enlarge on a point which I cannot say that
I have specially studied. The State legislatures are the features
of American political life which are most distinctive of the federal
system, and to which there cannot be anything exactly answering
among ourselves. It must always be remembered that a State
legislature does not answer to a town council or a court of quar-
ter sessions. It is essentially a parliament, though a parliament
with limited functions and which can never be called on to deal
with the highest questions of all. Still the range of the State
legislatures is positively very wide, and takes in most things which
concern the daily affairs of mankind. A large part of their bus-
iness seems commonly to consist in the passing of private bills,
acts of incorporation and the like. Some Stat es seem to have found
that constant legislation on such matters was not needed, and
have therefore thought good that their legislatures should meet
only every other year. In Pennsylvania, therefore, where I had
good opportunities of studying some other matters, 1 had no
5
34 An Introduction to
opportunities of studying the working of a State legislature.
When I was there, municipal life was in full vigor in Philadelphia,
but State life was dead at Harrisburg. But I came in for a sight
of the legislature of New York at the time of the " dead lock "
early this year. For week after week the Lower House found it
impossible to elect a Speaker. And this was not the result of
absolute equality between' the two great parties. It was because
a very small body of men, who had no chance of carrying a
candidate from among themselves, thought fit, in ballot after
ballot, to hinder the election of the acknowledged candidate of
either side. This illustrates the result of the rule which requires
an absolute majority. I pointed out to several friends on the
spot that no such dead lock could have happened in the British
House of Commons. I know not how far the existence of a
regular Ministry and Opposition would hinder the possibility of
this particular kind of scandal ; but it is hard to conceive the
existence of a ministry in our sense in a State constitution. Even
in our still dependent colonies the reproduction of our system of
ministries going in and out in consequence of a parliamentary
vote, may be thought to be somewhat out of place. Still the
Governor, named by an external power, has much of the position
of a king, and his relations to his ministry and his parliament
can in a manner reproduce those of the sovereign in the mother-
country. But it is hard to conceive an elective Governor, above
all the Governor of such a state as Rhode Island or Delaware, work-
ing through the conventionalities of a responsible ministry.
Indeed even in such a state as New York there is still something
patriarchal about the office of Governor. While I was in the
Capitol at Albany, the friends of a condemned criminal came to
plead with the Governor in person for the exercise of his preroga-
tive of mercy. Now the population of the State of New York,
swelled by one overgrown city, is greater than that of Ireland ;
even in its natural state, it would be much greater than that of
Scotland. I thought of the days when the King did sit in the
gate.
The personal heads of the Union, the State, and the City, the
President, the Governor, the Mayor, all come from English tra-
dition. If we study the commonwealths of other ages and coun-
tries, we shall see that this great position given to a single man,
American Institutional History. :)")
though by no means without precedent, is by no moans the
rule. The title of Governor especially is directly handed on
from the days before independence. It would hardly have
suggested itself to the founders of commonwealths which had
not been used to the Governor sent by the King. The pow-
ers of the Governor and the duration of his office differ widely
in different States, even in neighboring and closely kindred
States. The Governor of Massachusetts still keeps up a good
deal of dignity, while the Governor of Connecticut is a much
smaller person. Yet the Governor of Connecticut holds office
for a longer time than his brother of Massachusetts. The
Mayor too does not hold exactly the same place in every city.
At Brooklyn, when I was there, a great point in the way of
reform was held to have been won by greatly enlarging the
powers of the Mayor. Men who could well judge held that
purity of administration was best attained by vesting large pow-
ers in single persons, elective, responsible, acting under the eve
of the public. And I was told that, even in the worst casus,
better results come from the election of single officers than from
the election of larger numbers. The popular election of Judges,
which has been introduced into many States, is one of the things
which British opinion would be most united in condemning. We
should all agree in wishing that both the Federal courts and
the courts of those States which, like Massachusetts, cleave to
older modes of appointment may stay as they are. But, from
what I could hear both in New York and other States which
have adopted the elective system, the results are better than
might have been expected. Each party, it is said, makes it a
point of honor to name fairly competent candidates for the judi-
cial office. So again the municipal administration of New York
city was for years a by-word, and the name of Alderman was
anything but a name of honor. But even in the worst times,
the post of Mayor was almost always respectably filled. Even,
so I was told, in one case where the previous record of the
elected Mayor was notoriously bad, his conduct in office was not
to be blamed
I was greatly interested in the municipal election which I saw
at Philadelphia early this year. The municipal administration of
that city has, like that of 2s'ew York, long had a bad name.
36 An Introduction to
Corruption, jobbery, the rule of rings and " bosses," and above
all, what to us sounds odd, the corrupt administration of the Gas
Trust, were loudly complained of. And I certainly am greatly
deceived if what I saw and studied was anything but a vigorous
and honest effort to bring in a better state of things. Repub-
licans and Democrats brought themselves to forget their party
differences ; or rather party names, and to work together for the
welfare and honor of their common city. The movement was
described to me in a way at which I have already hinted, as an
union of honest men of both parties against the rogues of both
parties. And such, as far as I could judge, it really was. I did
indeed hear it whispered that such fits of virtue were not uncom-
mon, both in Philadelphia and elsewhere, that they wrought some
small measure of reform for a year or two, but that in order to
keep the ground that had been gained, a continuous effort was
needed which men were not willing to make, and that things fell
back into their old corrupt state. And it is certainly plain that
the man who gains by maintaining corruption is likely to make
great habitual efforts to keep up a corrupt system, while the man
who opposes it, who gains nothing by opposing it, but who gives
up his time, his quiet, and his ordinary business, for the public
good, is tempted at every moment to relax his efforts. This failure
of continued energy is just what Demosthenes complains of in the
Athenians of his day; and experience does seem to show that
here is a weak side of democratic government. To keep up
under a popular, system an administration at once pure and
vigorous, does call for constant efforts on the part of each citizen
which it needs some self-sacrifice to make. The old saying that
what is everybody's business is nobody's business becomes true as
regards the sounder part of the community. But it follows next
that what is everybody's business becomes specially the business
of those whose business one would least wish it to be. Yet my
Philadelphian friends assured me that they had been steadily at
work for ten years, that they had made some way every year, but
that this year they had made more way than they had ever made
before. The immediate business was to dislodge " bosses " and
other corrupt persons from the municipal councils, and to put in
their stead men of character and ability, whether Republican or
Democratic in politics. And this object, surely one much to be
American Institutional History. 37
sought for, was, as far as I could see, largely accomplished. I
did indeed hear the murmurs of one or two stern Republicans,
who could not understand supporting a list which contained any
Democratic names. But the other view seemed to be the popular
one. I read much of the fugitive election literature, and attended
one of the chief ward-meetings. I was greatly struck by the
general hearty enthusiasm in what was not a party struggle, but
an honest effort for something above party. The speaking was
vigorous, straightforward, often in its way eloquent, It was
somewhat more personal than we are used to in England, even at
an election. But here again my comparison is perhaps not a fair
one. As I before said, I know nothing of English municipal
elections, and the Philadelphian reformers had to deal with evils
which have no parallel in the broader walks of English political
life. Whatever may be our side in politics, we have no reason to
suspect our opponents of directly filling their pockets at the
public cost.
A municipal election is of more importance in America than
it is in England, because of the large powers, amounting to
powers of local legislation, which are vested in the cities. This
would seem to be the natural tendency of a Federal system. It
would indeed be inaccurate to say that the City is to the State
what the State is to the Union. For the powers of the city may
of course be modified by an act of the State Legislature, just as
the powers of an English municipal corporation may be modified
by an Act of Parliament, while no mere act of Congress, nothing
short of a constitutional amendment, can touch the powers of a
Sovereign State. But it is natural for a member of an Union,
keeping independent powers by right, to allow to the members
of its own body a large amount of local independence, held not
of right but of grant. An American city is more thoroughly a
commonwealth, it has more of the feelings of a commonwealth,
than an English city has. As for the use of the name, we must
remember that in the United States every corporate town is called
a "city," while, in some States at least, what we should call 11
market-town bears the legal style of "village." In New Eng-
land the cities are interlopers. They have largely obscured the
older constitution of the towns. The word town in New Kng-
land does not, as with us, mean a collection of houses, perhaps
38 An Introduction to
forming a political community, perhaps not. It means a certain
space of the earth's surface, which may or may not contain a
town in our sense, but whose inhabitants form* a political com-
munity in either case. Its assembly is the town meeting, the
survival, or rather revival, of the old Teutonic assembly on the
soil of the third England. This primitive institution best keeps
its ancient character in the country districts and among the smal-
ler towns in our sense of the word. Where a " city " has been
incorporated, the ancient constitution has lost much of its impor-
tance. It has not been abolished. In some cases at least the
two constitutions, of town and city, the Teutonic primary assem-
bly and the later system of representative bodies, go on side
by side in the same place. Each has its own range of subjects;
but it is the tendeucy of the newer institution to overshadow
the older. I deeply regret that I left America without seeing
a New England town-meeting with my own eyes. It was a
thing which I had specially wished to see, if only in order to
compare it with what I had seen in past years in Uri and
Appenzell. But when I was first in New England, it was the
wrong time of the year, and my second visit was very short. I
thus unavoidably lost a very favorable chance of seeing what
I conceive that the English parish vestry ought to be but is
not
One of the points on which I have always tried to insist most
strongly is the true historic connection between the constitutions
of England and of the United States. It might be a good test of
those who have and those who have not made comparative politics
a scientific study to see whether they are most struck by the
likenesses or the unlikenesses in the two systems. The close
analogy in the apportionment of power among the elements of
the state is a point of likeness of far more moment even than the
difference in the form of the Executive, much more than that of
the different constitution of the upper House. The American
constitution, as I have rather made it my business to preach, is
the English constitution with such changes very great and I
important changes beyond doubt as change of circumstances
made needful. But as those circumstances have certainly not been
changed back again, it is at least not likely that the constitu-
tion of America will ever be brought nearer than it now is to
American Institutional History. 39
the constitution of England, however likely it may be that the
constitution of England may some day be brought nearer to the
constitution of America
To me the past history and the present condition of the United
States is, before all things, a part of the general history of the
Teutonic race, and specially of its English branch. Of that his-
tory the destiny, as far as it has already been worked out, of the
American commonwealths forms no unimportant part. And their
future destiny is undoubtedly the greatest problem in the long
story of our race. The union on American soil of so much that is
new and so much that is old, above all the unwitting preservation
in the new land of so much that is really of the hoariest antiquity
in the older world, the transfer of an old people with old institutions
to an altogether new world, and that practically a boundless world,
supply subjects for speculation deeper perhaps than any earlier
stage of the history of our race could have supplied. Like all
other human institutions, the political and social condition of the
United States has its fair and its dark side; the Union, like all
other human communities, must look for its trials, its ups and
downs, iu the course of its historic life. It has indeed had its
full share of them already. The other members of the great
family may well be proud that the newest, and in extent the
vastest, among the independent settlements of their race, has
borne, as it has borne, a strain as hard as any community of men
was ever called on to go through. And we of the motherland
may watch with special interest the fortunes of that branch of
our own people on whom so great a calling has been laid. And
truly we may rejoice that, with so much to draw them in other ways,
that great people still remains in all essential points an English
people, more English very often than they themselves know,
more English, it may be, sometimes than the kinsfolk whom they
left behind in their older home.
II
THE GERMANIC ORIGIN
NEW ENGLAND TOWNS
"Si Ton veut lire l'admirable ouvrage de Tacite sur les moeurs des Germains, on
verra que c'est d'eux que les Anglois ont tir<j l'idee de leur gouvernement politique.
Ce beau systeiue a 6t6 trouvfi dans les bois." Montesquieu.
"Das Studiuru des Gemeindewesens in Amerika, dem Sie sich jetzt widmen, wird
sicher sehr fruchtbar werden. In der Gemeinde ist die grosse Mehre der Burger mehr
als im State veranlasst, an offentlichen Aneelegenlieiten und gemeinsamen Interessen
zu betheiligen. Die Gemeinde ist iiberdem auch die Vorschule fiir den Stat. Der Bau
der Republiken hat seine Grundlage in der Selbstandigkeit der Gemeinden." Bluntschli.
"AH New England is an aggregate of organized democracies. He that will under-
stand the political character of New England must study the constitution of its towns,
its schools, and its militia." Bancroft.
"If you wish to see Old England, you must go to New England." Freeman.
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
IN
Historical and Political Science
HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor
History is past Politics and Politics present History. Freeman
II
THE GERMANIC ORIGIN
OF
NEW ENGLAND TOWNS
Read before the Harvard Historical Society, May 9, 1881
By HERBERT B. ADAMS, Ph. D.
With. Notes on Cooperation in University \N orlc
Published by the Johns Hopkins L'nivkksitv
B A L T I M It K
1882
JOHN MURPHY A CO., PRINTERS,
BALTIMORE.
THE GERMANIC ORIGIN
O F
NEW ENGLAND TOWNS.
The reproduction of the town and parish systems of Old
England under colonial conditions in America is one of the
most curious and suggestive phenomena of American history.
The process was so quiet, so unobtrusive, so gradual, so like
the growth of vegetation in spring time in short, so natural,
that it seems to have escaped the notice of many historians of
the larger colonial life. They have dealt with questions of
church and state, with patents and charters, Pilgrims and
Puritans, Baptists, Quakers, wars, witches, colonial unions
and struggles for national independence, but the origin and
growth of that smaller communal life within the colonics has
been somewhat neglected. And yet these little communes
were the germs of our state and national life. They gave the
colonies all the strength which they ever enjoyed. It was the
towns, parishes and counties that furnished life-blood for
church and state, for school and college, for war and peace.
In New England especially, towns were the primordial cells
of the body politic. In all the colonies, civic communities
were the organic tissues, without which the colonial body
would have been but a lifeless mass.
At the opening meeting of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, which met in Boston August 2fi,
1880, Mr. Lewis H. Morgan, in his inaugural address, paid
the following tribute to the towns of New England : " Your
Excellency, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
5
6 The Germanic Orif/in of
without intending to depart from the proprieties of the occa-
sion, it may be proper to say that those of us who come from
beyond the Hudson can but feel that in entering New
England we reach the birthplace of American institutions.
To some of us it is the land of our fathers, and we cannot
approach the precincts of their departed presence without the
sentiment of filial veneration. Here they laid broad and
deep the foundations of American freedom, without which
American science would have been an infant in leading-strings
to-day. Here was developed the township, with its local self-
government, the basis and central element of our political
system. Upon the township was formed the county, composed
of several towns similarly organized ; the State composed of
several counties, and, finally, the United States, composed of
several states; each organization a body politic, with definite
governing powers in a subordinate series. But the greatest
of all, in intrinsic importance, was the township, because it
was and is the unit of organization, and embodies the great
principle of local self-government. It is at once the greatest
and the most important of American institutions, because it
determines the character of the State and National Govern-
ment. It is also historically significant because it shows that
American Democracy may justly claim to be the daughter of
that Athenian Democracy which generated and produced the
most signal outburst of genius and intellect in the entire
history of the human race. Nor is this presage of the future
without its own significance. What was achieved for philos-
ophy and art under the free institutions of Athens may yet be
achieved for science in the evolution of the same forces in
America." *
Mr. Morgan's recognition of the historic significance of
New England towns, in their relation to science and national
growth, addressed as this recognition was to the chief magis-
trate of Massachusetts, recalled to mind the words of Gov-
* Report in Boston Journal, August 26, 1880.
New England Towns. 7
ernor Long himself in an oration delivered in June, 1877, on
the occasion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of
the founding of the town of Hanover, Massachusetts. His
words give an inner view of the life and character of New
England towns, a subject which Mr. Morgan viewed chiefly
in its external relation to history and science. " I believe in
our towns," said Mr. Long. " I believe in their decency and
simple ways. I believe in their politics, in their form and
administration of government, in their school and church
influences, in their democratic society, in their temperance
organizations, in their neighborly charities, in their proud
lineage and history, and in the opportunities they offer. I
know that our fathers who founded them and put their
money and labor, and their hopes into the institutions
and character of these towns, did not mean they should
decay ; that they should be abandoned, that any native born
in them should turn his back upon them, or be prouder of a
home elsewhere than in them. Their worth is not more in
the things that are seen, than in the things that are not seen ;
not more in the farm and shop and academy and railroad,
that in the mellow, pious, soft, refining influences of charac-
ter which pervades them like an atmosphere, and exhibits to
you in humble cottages men and women plain in manner and
dress, but of rare intelligence and refinement ; men who think
and read and are scholars and gentlemen, however humble
their occupation ; women who are poets and sisters of charity ;
where else do you find the like?" *
It would be easy to multiply eulogies of New England
towns, but difficult to voice more clearly their intrinsic worth
and far-reaching historic significance than have the men whose
words have been quoted. Seen from within, these New Eng-
land towns and villages are as full to-day of youthful fresh-
ness, quiet beauty, and energetic life as the denies of Grecian
Attika, in the spring-time of the world ; seen from without
Report in Old Colony Memorial, Plymouth, Muss., June 21, is;
8 The Germanic Origin, of
as an organic^ deeply rooted, wide-expanding growth, New
England's Jocal institutions are like the tree Jgdrasil, of
Scandinavian mythology, for the principle of local self-gov-
ernment which they embody, takes hold upon all the past
and upholds the future in its spreading branches.
The importance of towns in the social and political struc-
ture of New England has been recognized in passing by
discerning travelers like Lafayette and Tocqueville, and,
indeed, by certain New England publicists and historians;
but most of these notices have been extremely cursory and
more or less inaccurate. There is also a vast number of local
histories, but they generally avoid the one important question,
the genesis of the town as an institution. Most writers, espe-
cially local historians, assume that New England towns are
either the offspring of Puritan virtue and of the Congrega-
tional church, or else that they are the product of this rocky
soil, which is supposed to produce free institutions spontane-
ously, as it does the arbutus and the oak, or fair women and
brave men. But the science of Biology no longer favors the
theory of spontaneous generation. -Wherever organic life
occurs there must have been some seed for that life. History
should not be content with describing effects when it can
explain causes. It is just as improbable that free local insti-
tutions should spring up without a germ along American
shores as that English wheat should have grown here without
planting. Town institutions were propagated in New Eng-
land by old English and Germanic ideas, brought over by
Pilgrims and Puritans, and as ready to take root in the free
soil of America as would Egyptian grain which had been
drying in a mummy-case for thousands of years.
The town and village life of New England is as truly
the reproduction of Old English types as those again are
reproductions of the village community system of the ancient
Germans. Investigators into American Institutional History
will turn as naturally to the mother country as the historians
of England turn toward their older home beyond the German
New England Towns. 9
Ocean. "For the fatherland of the English race," says
Green in his History of the English People, " we must look
far away from England itself. In the fifth century after the
birth of Christ the one country which we know to have borne
the name of Angeln or England lay within the district which
is now called Sleswick,a district in the heart of the peninsula
that parts the Baltic from the Northern seas. Its pleasant
pastures, its black-timbered homesteads, its prim little town-
ships looking down on inlets of purple water, were then but
a wild waste of heather and sand, girt along the coast with a
sunless woodland, broken here and there by meadows that
crept down to the marshes and the sea. ... Of the temper
and life of the folk in this older England we know little. But
from the glimpses that we catch of it when conquest had
brought them to the shores of Britain their political and social
organization must have been that of the German race to
which they belonged. In their villages lay ready formed the
social and political life which is round us in England to-day.
A belt of forest or waste parted each from its fellow villages,
and within this boundary or mark the ' township,' as the
village was then called from the 'tun' or rough fence and
trench * that served as its simple fortification, formed a com-
plete and independent body, though linked by ties which
were strengthening every day to the townships about it and
the tribe of which it formed a part. . . .
"The woodland and pasture-land of an English village
were still undivided, and every free villager had the right of
turning into it his cattle and swine. The meadow-land lay
in like manner open and undivided from hay-harvest to
spring. It was only when grass began to grow afresh that
the common meadow was fenced off into grass-fields, one for
each household in the village; and when hay-harvest was
According to the laws of the Colony of Massachusetts Hay, the boun-
darics of Massachusetts Towns were to be " a greatc heapc t>f stones, or a
trench, of six foote long & two foote broade." Mass. Col. Kec, ii, 210.
10 Ihe Germanic Origin of
over fence and division were at an end again. The plow-land
alone was permanently allotted in equal shares both of corn-
land and fallow-land, to the families of the freemen, though
even the plow-land was subject to fresh division as the num-
ber of claimants grew greater or less. . . . The life, the sover-
eignty of the settlement resided solely in the body of the
freemen whose holdings lay round the moot-hill or the sacred
tree where the community met from time to time to deal out
its own justice and to make its own laws. Here new settlers
were admitted to the freedom of the township, and by-laws
framed and headmen and tithing-man chosen for its gover-
nance. Here plow-land and meadow-land were shared in
due lot among the villagers, and field and homestead passed
from man to man by the delivery of a turf* cut from its soil.
Here strife of farmer with farmer was settled according to the
f customs ' of the township as its elder men stated them, and
four men were chosen to follow headman or ealdorman to
hundred- court or war. It is with reverence such as is stirred
by the sight of the head-waters of some mighty river that one
looks back to these village moots of Friesland or Sleswick.
It was here that England learned to be a ' mother of Parlia-
ments.' It was in these tiny knots of farmers that the men
from whom Englishmen were to spring learned the worth of
public opinion. . . . The *talk ; of the village moot ... is
the groundwork of English history."'!'
Thus, English historians, Green, Freeman and Stubbs,
recognize their older fatherland. The origin of the English
Constitution, as Montesquieu long ago declared, is found in
* The custom of conveying land by turf and twig, ramo et cespite,
according to mediaeval usage, was once known in Salem. In 1695, John
Kuck granted a homestead to his son Thomas before witnesses, and, as
part of the act of conveyancing, took hold of a twig in the garden, saying,
" Here, son Thomas, I do, before these two men, give you possession of
this land by turffe and twigg." Felt, Annals of Salem, i, 187. Cf. Lav-
eleye, Primitive Property, 121, note 3.
f Green, History of the English People, vol. i, ch. 1.
New England Towns. 11
the forests of Germany. If we read, said this illustrious
Frenchman, who was as fervent an admirer of England as
Tocqueville was of America, if we read the admirable work
of Tacitus concerning the manners and customs of the Teu-
tons, we shall find that it was from them that the English
derived their political system.* Voltaire was accustomed to
ridicule Montesquieu for his Teutonic predilections, hut the
researches of Palgrave, Kemhle, Stuhbs and Sir Henry Maine
have established the truth of this Germanic view. The tree
of English liberty certainly roots in German soil. Proofs of
this fact were first made fully apparent to English historians
by the labors of those patient German specialists, Von Maurer,
Hanssen, Meitzen, Nasse and George Waitz, who have shown
in the early Constitutional History of Germany the same or-
ganizing power as Canon Stubbs has exercised in writing the
Constitutional History of England. The amount of valuable
details which German specialists in Institutional History have
dug up from the rich soil of mediaeval Germany is something
marvellous to contemplate. To attempt even a resume in a
sketch of this character would be to attempt the impossible.
But along the lines of this pioneer work, through guiding
vistas of light now made in the German forests bv years of
German toil, the American student may wander at will,
noting such points as may prove of suggestive interest to the
younger Germany and the newer England beyond the
Atlantic.
The student has only to cross the river Neckar from Hei-
delberg to find himself in the Odenwald, or forest of Wodan,
the most classic as well as the most primitive region in all
Germany. The student has only to travel a few hours south-
ward from the Odenwald and the Bergstrasse to reach the
heart of the Black Forest. In either of these parts of Ger-
many he can discover surviving features of the ancient village
community system as described by Tacitus. With the Ger-
Montesquieu, Esprit dcs Lois, Livre \i, i-h. f>
12 The Germanic Origin of
mania for a guide-book, let us follow the student through a
Teutonic village. It is very generally known, says Tacitus,
that the Germans do not live in cities, and also that they
have no fondness for joining their plantations together. They
settle apart in different places, according as spring, or open
field, or woodland attracts their fancy. Villages they plant,
not according to our fashion, with closely connected or adjoin-
ing buildings, but every man surrounds his own house with
a fence, either for security against accident by fire, or because
they are such bungling architects.*
There are two facts in this statement by Tacitus, which
deserve special attention. The first fact is, that by the
expression, "they settle apart in different places," colunt
discreli ac diversi, is meant the individual farm or patriarchal
hamlet, what the Germans call a Hof; the second fact is that
by the expression, " villages they plant," vicos locant, is
meant the village community, what the Germans call a Dorf.
Tacitus probably saw what every stranger sees to this day on
visiting the country villages of South Germany, namely,
compact settlements, but with separate buildings and home
lots, exactly like those of a New England farming town.
Straggling hamlets, or isolated farms, there also must have
been in the days of Tacitus as in the days of our Puritan fore-
fathers. Doubtless many of these German hamlets grew into
villages, just as the hamlets or villages of New England have
in many cases grown into towns. The ending helm in many
village names along the Bergstrasse, like Dossenheim, Wein-
heim, is clear indication of the original patriarchal character
of such places. The German heim is the same as the English
home, Saxon ham, which appears in the names of so many
old English places like Doddingham, Billingham, Petersham,
Hampton) (or Hometown), and the like. The distinction
between the hamlet and the village is perhaps one of degree
rather than one of kind. The Hof became the Dorf by a
Tacitus, Germania, cap. xvi, (Baumstark's edition for Students, 68.)
New England Towns. 13
natural process of development. No one can say where the
hamlet ends and the village begins.
But let us proceed upon our tour of observation. The
traveler of to-day will find in the interior of the Odenwald far
more primitive villages than in the Black Forest. The latter
is now traversed by government roads in every direction, and
even a railroad has been constructed in these latter days, so
that hurrying travelers can behold the scenery from the cars!
Things are no longer what they were when Auerbach wrote
his Black Forest Tales for children. But there is still much
left to amuse and instruct the students who tramp through
the Forest every Whitsuntide vacation (Pfingstcn) from Hei-
delberg, Freiburg and other German universities. The Oden-
wald is also visited, but not so frequently because it is more
difficult in that primitive region to obtain food and drink,
except upon one or two main routes. Traversing either the
government chauss6es or the common dirt roads through the
Odenwald or Black Forest, the student may explore the
numerous valleys and forest villages, which are to this day
skirted with evergreen forests, dimly suggesting to his fancy
the ambuscades into which the Roman legions fell when they
penetrated the Teutoburger Wald. In such forests liberty
was nurtured. Here dwelt the people Rome never could
'conquer. In these wild retreats the ancient Teutons met in
council upon tribal matters of war and peace. Upon the
forest hill-tops they worshipped Wodan, the All Father; in
the forest valleys they talked over, in village-moot, the lowly
affairs of husbandry and the management of their common
fields. Here were planted the seeds of Parliamentary or
Self-Government, of Commons and Congresses. Here lav the
germs of religious reformations and of popular revolutions,
the ideas which have formed Germany and Holland, England
and New England, the United States in the broadest sense of
that old Germanic institution.
What now are the external characteristics of one of these
primitive forest-villages? Emerging from the wood or rocky
14 The Germanic Origin of
defile, the traveller comes suddenly upon a snug little settle-
ment perched upon the sunny hillside or nestling in some
broadening meadow. Surrounded by forest, this settlement
is indeed a Mark, or, as Americans would say, a "clearing."
Basdeke is here better than Tacitus, and you will discover
that the place is called perhaps Schoenwald, or Beautiful
Forest, or possibly Schoenau, or Beautiful Meadow. Such
villages are usually planted near a brook or some constant
stream, and frequently bear a name like Rohrbach or Lauter-
bach, either of which terms would signify the same as Roaring
Brook, so familiar in New England. An ancient part of
Salem, (that part which was the home of George Peabody, the
philanthropist), was once known .as Brooksby. These Ger-
man villages are made up of little houses, separate from one
another, but withal tolerably compact, with outlying fields
divided into narrow strips, as shown by the growing crops.
Let us enter one of these villages and see how the houses are
constructed. The first impression is that they are rather
rude and bungling. That is exactly what Tacitus thought
when he saw their prototypes. Low-roofed and thatched with
straw, which is held down perhaps by stones, with wide
spreading eaves and rude wooden frame-work, filled in often-
times with rough stones plastered together, these huts alto-
gether remind the modern traveller of Swiss chalets. The
inhabitants appear to live in the upper part of these one
storied buildings, for there is a stone stair-case outside leading
up to an elevated doorway, and underneath there is often a
stable for cattle, although in some houses calves and children
may be seen growing up together. Underneath the projecting
roof at the gable ends of the houses are beehives of wicker
work, upheld by a beam or shelf. If a stranger enters one of
these forest villages on a day in June, he will hear nothing
but the humming of the bees; for men, women and children
are all in the hay-fields.
And this brings us. to a consideration of that old system of
co-operative husbandry and common fields, which are the
New England Towns. 15
most peculiar features of a German village community. In
the haying season, to this day, in many parts of* Germany, the
villagers may be seen gathering the grass-crop together. To
this day, in some localities, the fallow and stubble lands are
used in common by the whole village for the pasturage of
cattle and the feeding of swine. A r illage cow-herds, swine-
herds and goose-herds are still employed in many parts of
Germany. To this day the arable land of the Mark is tilled
under certain communal laws. The time of harvesting and
the time of allowing the cattle and swine of the village to
enter upon the stubble lands is still determined by agreement
among the inhabitants. The narrow, un fenced strips of land
stretching up the hillsides to the forest-border, bear striking
evidence that they were originally formed by the allotment
of some ancient common field.
In the Contemporary Review, July, 1881, there is a pleasant
picture of village customs in the Thuringian forest by Pro-
fessor "W. Stead man Aldis, in an article entitled, "Notes from
a German Vill-age." The village described is Gross Tabarz,
where the Professor spent a summer vacation with his family.
" The economic state of the village, which is only a type of
many others in the district, is decidedly primitive. Every
well-to-do family has its little strip of ground, or sometimes
several such strips have been accumulated in one family by
inheritances or intermarriages. The village butcher, with
whose family ours was soon on tolerably intimate terms, was
the owner, or at least the cultivator with perpetual rights, of
many little fields situated in almost as many parishes. . . .
During the spring and summer, while the grass in the
meadows is allowed to grow for hay, or for Grummet, as
the second crop is called, the cows and geese are alike ban-
ished from the private land, and are taken under the charge
of a Hirt on to the common land, the borders of the roads,
or the small bits of mountain meadow among the forests not
allotted by the Gemeinde to private owners. . . . After the
second crop of hay has been all gathered in, which is supposed
16 The Germanic Origin of
to be achieved by the beginning of September, and for the
gathering of which the village schools have a special holiday,
the meadows are open to the cattle and geese of all the inhab-
itants, and the Hirts have no longer such an arduous task.
The pasture land becomes again for the time the property of
the Commune, the 'common land' which it originally was,
and is dotted with red oxen or snow-white geese. During
the months of July and August, the whole population, male
and female, is for the most part occupied in getting in the
crops of different kinds, which seem to form a continuous
series, beginning with the first crop of hay, at the beginning
of July, and ending with the Grummet, or second crop, early
in September."
Let us now glance at our guide-book and see what Tacitus
says concerning the customs of the ancient Germans in the
matter of land holdings. Lands, he says, are taken up peri-
odically by the whole body of cultivators in proportion to
their number. These lands they afterwards divide up among
themselves according to their dignity or title. The wide extent
of open space renders the division of fields an easy matter.
The situation of the plough-lands they change every year,
and there is land enough left over. They do not attempt to
improve by labor so vast and fertile a tract of ground, for the
sake of planting orchards, laying out grass-plots, and irriga-
ting gardens ; the only crop they want is wheat or barley.*
In the custom, mentioned by Tacitus, of shifting the situa-
tion of the ploughed lands every year, we may perhaps see a
germ of the famous Three Field System, which is of some
importance in tracing the historical connection between the
agrarian customs of England and those of ancient Germany.
The system was probably perfected before the Saxon conquest
of Britain, and has survived in, both countries until our own
times.
On the exposition of cap. xxvi of Tacitus' Gerniania, cf. Baumstark's
edition, Nasse's Agricultural Community of the Middle Ages (Appendix),
and Dr. Den man W. Koss' "Studies," i, 23; ii, 12.
New England Towns. 17
Imagine a river valley, like that of the Neckar, which
skirts the Odenwald, and a little stream flowing down from
the hillside forest into the river below. In the Odenwald
many villages are built along the line of such streams or
brooklets, which serve as a kind of water main-street for the
villagers living along the bank. The houses lie apart, as
Tacitus says in his description of a German village, and every
villager has his own houselot and enclosure. The whole
village domain is the Mark, or clearing. It belonged orig-
inally and belongs still to the village community as an organ-
ized body, as a civic unit. Certain parts, of course the best,
were originally set off for tillage; other parts remained
common for wood, pasture, and meadow, Wald, Weide, and
Wiese. The Three Field System relates, however, not to the
latter divisions, but to the arable land and to that only.
The land used for tillage was divided up into three great
fields, first, second, and third. Each villager had one or more
lots in each great field, but the peculiarity of the system lies
in the fact that every villager was obliged to plant his lot or
lots in each great field, according as the whole village should
determine. For example, if the proprietors, in village-mote
assembled, should resolve by a majority to plant the first
great field with wheat, an individual proprietor would have
no alternative; he must do as his neighbors agree. And so
of the second great field, which, perhaps, the villagers would
vote to plant with oats or barley; and likewise of the third
field, which must lie fallow for one. year. A rude system of
rotation of crops was customary in all Teutonic farming com-
munities. The fallow land of one year was cultivated the
year succeeding; and the spring crop of one field gave place
to a winter crop, or else lay fallow in turn. The most inter-
esting fact about this Three Field System is that it indicates
a communal spirit even in the management of lands allotted
and perhaps owned in severalty; it shows that the arable
land as well as the pasture, meadow, and woodland, was under
the control of the village community ami subject to communal
a
18 The Germanic Origin of
decrees. There is reason to believe, from the passage in Taci-
tus above quoted, that the situation of the ploughed lands
was changed from time to time, and that land devoted to
tillage was afterwards turned into pasture or grass land, and
other portions of the village domain were allotted for plough-
ing in severalty. The custom of re-distributing farming
lands, after a certain term of years, was very general, not
only in Teutonic, but in all Aryan villages. The term varied
with different nations and in different communities. Origi-
nally, with the Germans, a fresh distribution was probably
made every year, but as the Three Field System developed,
the term became longer. In Russia, as Wallace has shown
in his interesting work, lands were once re-distributed every
thirteen years. The field meetings of Teutonic farmers for
the distribution of lands and the regulation of crops w.ere the
germs of English parish meetings and of New England town
meetings. The village elders, still so called in Russia, although
young men are frequently elected to the office, are the proto-
type of the English Reeve and Four, and of the New Eng-
land Town Constable and Board of Selectmen.
In the year 1871 was published, in England, under the
auspices of the Cobden club, a translation of a little German
treatise, by Professor Nasse,* of the University of Bonn, on
the agricultural community of the middle ages and inclosures
of the sixteenth century in England. It was a work which
may be called epoch-making in the history of real property
and of communal institutions in Great Britain. It awakened
English lawyers to a consciousness of the survival in their
very midst of a system of local land tenure older than the
Feudal system and dating back at least to the time of the
Saxon conquest of Britain. Ever since the days of Black-
stone, lawyers had puzzled themselves to account for certain
* First mentioned to American readers by Professor William F. Allen
in The Nation, September 22, 1870, from a notice in Sybel's Hisiorische
Zeitachrift.
New England Toions. 19
extraordinary customs of village land holding in England
for certain phenomena of joint ownership in commons, like
the lammas lands, which were common to an entire village
for pasturage, after the 13th of August, old style, or like the
so-called " shack lands," which, after the above date, were
common to the owners or possessors, but not to the whole
village. Lawyers had found no solution to the problem of
the origin of such communal practice, except in special privi-
leges granted to tenants by the lord of the manor, or else iu
immemorial custom.
Professor Nasse derived his facts concerning the existence
of such communal land-holdings in England, from a report
of a Select Committee on Commons Inelosure, instituted in
order to frame laws for the dissolution of common holdings,
by order of the House of Commons, 1844, and from the
reports of the Board of Agriculture, about the beginning of
the present century, under charge of Sir John Sinclair. These
latter reports were abridged by Mr. Marshall, a man often
referred to by Sir Henry Maine. It appears that Marshall at
this very early period was strongly impressed by the mere
facts concerning the vast extent of communal land-holdings
in England, and had come to the conclusion that once "the
soil of nearly the whole of England was more or less in a
commonable state."*
The reports above mentioned revealed some most remarka-
ble facts concerning the survival of communal land hold intra
in parishes where the Feudal system was supposed to have
centralised all forms of folkland, and to have destroyed all free
peasant proprietaries. In Huntingtonshire, out of 2 10,000
acres, 130,000 were found to be held in common, that is, by
no individual owners in particular, but by village or fanning
communities, under the supremacy of some manorial lord.
* Nasse on the Agricultural Community of the Middle A^'- and Inclo-
sures of the Sixteenth Century in England. London: Maemillan & C<>.,
1871.
20 The Germanic Origin of
In Wiltshire, by far the largest part of the land was thus
held; in Berkshire, one-half the county; in Warwickshire,
50,000 acres; and in Oxfordshire, over one hundred parishes
held lands on the communal system ; and in Northampton-
shire eighty-nine parishes perpetuated this ancient type of
village land holding. Nasse says, "in by far the greater
part of England the old English peasantry . . . held the
land in common, precisely as the present villagers of the
greater part of middle Europe hold theirs." *
There were found to be three sorts of commonable ground.
I, arable; 2, meadow; and 3, pasture land. The arable
land was found very generally to be subject to certain com-
munal laws, in regard to the rotation or harvesting of crops.
The Three Field System, as already described, was frequently
discovered in English parishes, and it was also noticed that
the three great divisions of arable land were often separated
from one another by broad strips of grass land, which were
kept common, in order to eke out the pasture in the fall of
the year after the crops had been gathered and the stubble
lands thrown open to the village cattle. The meadow lands
were either held wholly in common, or by a system of shifting
severalties, whereby grass-lots were assigned for the season to
individuals, and were then again made common for pas-
turage and subject to a fresh distribution."}* Community of
pasturage was found to be of very general occurrence in
the rural districts of England. There were two sorts,
stinted pasturage, i. e., where villagers were limited as to
* Nasse, 6, 9, cf. extract from Marshall, p. 100: "Each parish and
township (at least in the more central and northern districts) comprised
different descriptions of land, having been subjected during successive
ages to specified modes of occupancy under ancient and strict regulations,
which time had converted into law. These parochial arrangements,
however, varied somewhat in the different districts, but in the more cen-
tral, and greater part of the kingdom, not widely."
f This custom was maintained for years in the farming communities
of Plymouth and Salem, Massachusetts.
New England Towns. 21
the number of cattle tliey could pasture in the common
field, (for example, it was often the rule that no one should
pasture in commons more stock than he could keep through
the winter); and unstinted pasturage, where there was no
such limit.
Such phenomena as these had been frequently observed in
England and Scotland. Sir Walter Scott remarked such
agricultural customs in the Orkney and Shetland islands, but
was unable to explain them satisfactorily to himself. It was,
as Sir Henry Maine says, by using Von Maurer's results as a
key, that Nasse was able to decipher the whole system. The
English Agricultural Community, of the Middle Ages, which
survived the crushing weight of feudalism and has perpetu-
ated itself down to our own times, stands forth as the historic
survival of the Teutonic village with its Three Field System.
Under the very heel of the Norman conqueror, the old com-
munal spirit of the Saxons endured. It endured in the
townships and parishes of England. It has endured upon
almost every Lord's manor, where there was almost invariably
a large tract of land known as the Common or Lord's Waste.
Upon this tract, landless tenants preserved certain immemorial
common rights, for example, to wood and turf, to grass and
pasture. These rights were only vestiges of the ancient rights
of Saxon villagers, but these rights to commonage serve as a
connecting link between the manorial system of Mediaeval
England and the Village Community system of Ancient
Germany. The periodical assignment of portions of the
Lord's Waste for cultivation by the peasants was in the Court
Leet (German Leute, people) or popular court of the Manor,
in which court all minor matters relating to tenants were
adjusted. In the customs of the Court Leet and of the old
English Parish meeting, which is but the ecclesiastical out-
come of old Saxon self-governing assemblies, is to be found
the prototype of New England town meetings.
Nasse has truly observed that "agrarian relations have a
tendency to a more lasting duration than other human insti-
22 The Germanic Origin of
tutions." * The extent of Common Lands in England, which
have survived, not Only Feudalism, but Parliamentary Acts
for Commons Enclosure, is something enormous. The report
of landowners prepared by the Local Government Board a
few years ago, shows that there are still over a million and
a half acres of Common Land, f and the report of the
Commons Preservation Society says that "five million acres
of Common Land have been enclosed since Queen Anne's
reign." Much of the land remaining unenclosed is called
"Town Land" or "Commons;" it consists of great open
spaces and public fields or heaths, upon which villagers pas-
ture their cattle and boys play ball. Societies have been
formed for the preservation of these tracts, especially when,
like Hampstead Heath, they are in the vicinity of large cities.
Essays on the advantage of " Open Spaces," and on the
" Future of Our Commons," have appeared in the English
reviews. Mr. Lefevre, in a letter to the Times, quoted by
Octavia Hill, says : " The right of the public to use and enjoy
Commons, (which they have for centuries exercised), it must
be admitted, is not distinctly recognised by law, though there
is a remarkable absence of adverse testimony on the subject.
The law, however, most fully recognises the right of the
village to its green, and allows the establishment of such right
by evidence as to playing games, &c, but it has failed as yet
to recognise the analogy between the great town and its
Common, and the village and its green, however complete the
analogy may be. But some of these rights of Common, which
are now so prized as a means of keeping Commons open, had,
if legal theory is correct, their origin centuries ago in custom.
For long they had no legal existence, but the courts of law at
last learned to recognise custom as conferring rights. The
custom has altered in kind ; in lieu of cattle, sheep, and pigs
turned out to pasture on the Commons, human beings have
*Nassc, 13.
f Octavia Hill, "Our Common Land," 8.
New England Towns. 23
taken their place, and wear down the turf instead of eating
it."
We have seen how the Saxons transferred from ancient
Germany to the eastern part of England the village commu-
nity system and agrarian customs of their forefathers; let us
now see how the dominant or communal idea of these villages
and some of these old Teutonic practices in the matter of
land-holding, were transferred across another and broader sea
than the German ocean, and took root in the eastern parts of
New- England. States are not founded upon shipboard, though
the vessel be as staunch as the Mayflower, and constitutions
cannot be framed upon paper, though it be the Pilgrims'
compact.
A band of Saxon pirates tossing upon the waves of the
North Sea and preparing to descend upon the coasts of Britain
could not constitute a State, in passage, however excel hut
their discipline, however faithful their allegiance to the
authority of Hengist and Horsa. But those Saxon pi rates
bore with them a knowledge of self-government, which, when
rooted in the soil of Britain, grew into Saxon England and
the law of the land. Magna Carta and the Bill of Bights
are only the development of those germs of liberty first planted
in the communal customs of our Saxon forefathers. The
Constitution of England is not written at all; it is simply a
rich but sturdy growth of popular institutions, derived orig-
inally from the forests of Germany, and transplanted across
the sea. What is thus maintained and acknowledged con-
cerning our Saxon forefathers, may likewise be urged con-
cerning the Pilgrim fathers. They were merely one branch
of the great Teutonic race, a single offshoot from the tree of
liberty which takes deep hold upon all the past. This offshoot
was transplanted to Plymouth, and it grew up, not like Leb-
anon, filling the whole earth, but, to all appearances, like the
first Saxon settlements of* England and like other tortus of
local self-government, budding, spreading, and propagating
after its kind.
24 The Germanic Origin of
The importance of the territorial factor in the constitution
of Plymouth Colony has never been sufficiently emphasized.
The personal factor, i. e., the character, the virtues, and the
religious zeal of the Pilgrims do not need to be further
extolled. Americans are in no danger of forgetting the faith
and heroism of those men and women who made their flight
in winter across a barren sea to preserve the rights of con-
science, the rights of Englishmen, and good old English ways,
but Americans, in their enthusiasm for men, have failed to
notice certain important and fundamental things in the origin
of Plymouth. Underneath all the phenomena of Pilgrim
zeal and suffering, more enduring than the Pilgrims' noble
compact, unnoticed like the upholding power of earth, lies the
primordial fact of the local settlement of the Pilgrims in a
form of civic community older than Saxon England, older
than the primitive church, and older than the classic states of
antiquity. That form of civil community was based upon
land.
The elements of permanence and continuity in all civil
society are based upon the soil and the material interests
connected with it. Generations of men are born and pass
away, but an abiding relation to some fixed territory keeps
civil society together and constitutes a state in the true sense
of that term. Government may exist upon shipboard or
among wandering tribes of Indians, but no state or body
politic can possibly endure unless it be grounded upon terri-
torial interests of a stable and lasting character. No state
without a people, and no state without land. These are the
axioms of political science.
Let us now inquire into the exact nature of the common-
wealth which the Pilgrims actually founded. Mourt's rela-
tion, (so called from George Morton, who published it in
England in 1622), a journal of the beginnings and proceed-
ings of the English plantation settled at Plymouth in New
England, a journal written, says Mr. Dexter, from day to day
on the ground, gives us the best contemporary account of the
New England Towns. 25
mode in which the first village republic in New England was
planted. None of the so-called colony records go back to the
foundation of the colony itself. But Mourt tells the whole
story from the first landing, down to the town meeting of
April 2, 1621, when Mr. John Carver was re-elected governor,
being a man well approved.
"After our landing and viewing of the places as well as we
could, we came to a conclusion, [December 30] by most
voyces, to set on the maine Land, in the first place on a high
ground where there is a great deale of Land cleared and hath
beene planted with Corne three or four years agoe, and there
is a very sweet brooke runnes vnder the hillside and many
delicate springs of as good water as can be drunlce, . . .
Thursday, the 28. of December, [January 7, N. S.] so many
as could went to worke on the hill where we purposed to
build our platforme for our Ordinance, and which doth com-
mand all the plaine and the Bay, and from whence we may
see farre into the sea, and might be easier impayled, having
two rowes of houses and a faire street. So in the afternoon we
went to measure out the grounds, and first, we tooke notice
how many Families they were, willing all single men that
had no wiues to ioyne with some Fa mi lie, as they thought
fit, that so we might build fewer houses, which was done, and
we reduced them to 19. Families; to greater Families we
allotted larger plots, to euery person halfe a pole in breadth,
and three in length, and so Lots were cast where euery man
should lie, which was done, and staked out." [Mourt's Rela-
tion, edited by H. M. Dexter, 64, 67, 68.]
On this tract of cleared land, or the village Mark, on the
north side of the " very sweet brooke," which, like the springs
spoken of by Tacitus, still attracted Teutonic fancy, and which
is known to this day as the Town Brook, arose the first town
or village community in New England. The first work was
the construction of the so-called Common House, "about
twenty foot square," says Bradford, "for their common use,
to receive them and their goods." The land was taken pos-
4
26 The Germanic Origin of
session of as a communal domain, and the first labor bestowed
upon it was communal labor. But the Pilgrims, like the
ancient Teutons, knew well that a principle of individuality
must enter into the development of communal life. Like the
Teutons, the Pilgrims regarded the family as the unit of social
order, and gave scope for family interests in the division of
house-lots and in the construction of private dwellings. Like
the Teutons again, the Pilgrims took up land in proportion
to their number and immediate wants. Speaking of the size
of the family allotments, the Journal says, " we thought this
proportion was large enough at the first, for houses and
gardens, to impale them around, considering the weaknes of
our people," etc. Here, too, by a curious chance, an old
Teutonic idea appears in the notion of fencing and impaling.
The radical idea of a town (from Tun, Zun, modern German
Zaun, a hedge) is that of a place hedged-in, for the sake of
protection.
"Tuesday the 9. January," [19th N. S.] continues the
Journal, " was a reasonable faire day, and wee went to labour
that day in the building of our towne, in two rowes of houses
for more safety: we divided by lott the plot of ground
whereon to build our Towne."
Professor Parker, in his paper read before the Massachu-
setts Historical Society on " The Origin, Organization, and
Influence of the Towns of New England,"* was condemning
original sources when he criticised Mr. Baylies for using the
word "Town" in his Historical Memoirs of New Plymouth
as descriptive of the Plantation made in 1620. Baylies only
paraphrased the quotation above made when he said the
emigrants found " a high hill which could be fortified in a
manner so as to command the surrounding country," and
resolved " to lay out a town."
Palfrey, in his history of New England, says " the name
town first occurs in the record of the second colonial meeting
Proceedings of the Mass. Hist. Soc., Jan., 1866.
New England Toicns. 27
of the Court of Assistants, in connection with the naming (in
1630) of Boston, Charlestown, and VVatertown." * This state-
ment may have been intended to apply solely to the Massa-
chusetts colony, but inasmuch as the author is calling attention
to the "early origin" of New England Towns, it is but fair
to note that the name "Town" occurs ten years earlier than
1G30, and that in the first records of Plymouth. And the
word is frequently used in Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrim
Fathers and in Plymouth Colony Records in such a clear
sense that no one can possibly doubt but that Plymouth vil-
lage communities had not only the name of "Town" but the
actual thing, yes, the old Scandinavian 'Thing, the Saxon Tun
Gemot, in their frequent Town Meetings. "There already
ay, in the Mayflower's cabin, before they set foot on shore,"
said Rufus Choate, "was representative government. . . .
there already was the legalized and organized toicn, that sem-
inary and central point, and exemplification of elementary
democracy. . . . There was reverence of law,"f and upon
this ancient Saxon basis, the Devonian rock of England, were
founded the institutions of a new world. J
The original idea of New England Towns, like that of
their Old English and Germanic prototypes, was that of a
village community of allied families, settled in close proximity
* Palfrey, History of New England, i. 380.
f Life and Writings of Rufus Choate, i. 285.
Jin a monograph upon Plymouth Plantations will he shown the influ-
ence of English precedent upon Plymouth law and institutions. The
ecclesiastical theory that "The Town corporation is the offspring of
Puritan Congregationalism," asserted strangely enough in reference to
Plymouth Colony (which was not Puritan but Separatist) by Dr. Joseph
S. Clark, in his Historical Sketch of the Congregational Churches of
Massachusetts, (p. 56), is entirely untenable, and so likewise is the theory
of Professor Parker, Frothingham and other writers, that the Town
system is peculiarly the product of New England and not based upon
precedent. There is scarcely a feature of New England Town Life which
has not its prototype in the municipal history of the mother country.
Studies illustrating this view have been made of the leading Town Insti-
tutions of Massachusetts.
28 The Germanic Origin of
for good neighborhood and defense, with homes and home lots
fenced in and owned in severalty, but with a common Town
Street and a Village Green or Home Pasture, and with common
fields, allotted outside the Town for individual mowing and
tillage but fenced in common, together with a vast surround-
ing tract of absolutely common and undivided land, used for
pasture and woodland under communal regulations. It is
important to observe that, historically speaking, the word
"Town" applies more particularly to the village itself, and
that the word "Township," which is of very common occur-
rence in the early local annals of New England, better char-
acterizes the Town's landed domain. It is true that the
latter term has fallen into disuse in New England, and for-
tunately so, for with the definite legal idea now attached to
this word Township in the Western States, as a tract of land
six miles square, the term no longer characterizes our Towns,
which are far from being of any definite size or of any regular
pattern. The word "Town" is now almost universally
employed in New England to characterize the whole extent
of the Town's domain, and properly, for almost everywhere
population has swarmed from its old village-hive, and houses
are now built from one end of the Town to the other. But
it is curious to see how popular usage still clings to the old
idea, when, for example, persons living at the " ends of the
Town," talk about going " into Town," " into the village,"
or to the "centre." The idea of a Town is like that of the
Greek tiozv in distinction from the tzoXcz; or the Latin urbs
in distinction from civitas. This historical view is borne out
by the definition of a " Town " given by President Dwight
in his famous Travels in New England and New York, begun
at the close of the last century, when he wrote, "You must
remember that by a Town I all along intend a collection of
houses in the original village, and not those of the township."
Let us turn now to an early description of the Town of
Plymouth, written by Isaack de Rasieres, a French Protest-
ant in the service of the Dutch West India Company as
New England Towns. 29
Chief Commissary of New Netherlands (New York), who
visited Plymouth in 1627 upon an embassy, and whom Gov-
ernor Bradford called "a man of fair and genteel behavior."
De Rasieres wrote concerning New Plymouth an interesting
letter, which was discovered some years ago in the archives
at the Hague* by John Romeyn Brodhead, Secretary of the
American Legation at London. The letter was first printed
in the Collections of the New York Historical Society. The
following is a brief extract:
"New Plymouth lies on the slope of a hill stretching east
towards the sea-coast, with a broad street about a cannon shot
of eight hundred [yards] long, leading down the hill, with a
[street] crossing in the middle, northwards to the rivulet,
and southwards to the land. The houses are constructed of
hewn planks, with gardens also enclosed behind and at the
sides with hewn planks, so that their houses and court-yards
are arranged in very good order, with a stockade against
sudden attack ; and at the ends of the streets there are three
wooden gates." f
Town gates and stockades were very common in early New
England villages, where they served not only for defence,
but for agrarian and pastoral purposes. Upon the frontier,
for example in the Connecticut valley, palisaded Towns were
at one time a military necessity. The original idea of a Town
reappears in the local records of Northampton, Hatfield,
Deerfield, and Greenfield; for example, John Dickinson of
Hatfield was allowed, by vote March 6, 1690, " liberty to
remove his house into town " and retain his lot outside pro-
vided he do his share of fortifying and build again upon his
lot when he could do so without fear of the Indians. " Kor
many several years," says Judd in his manuscript collections
* The use of the article in the name of this Town, the Hague, (Ji-rman
der Haag, French la Haye, is extremely interesting as an historical sur-
vival. Here is a developed Teutonic village called to this day The lh >, ,
just as the English word Town perpetuates the idea of the Saxon Tun.
f Collections of the JS'cw York Historical Society, New Serir-, vol. ii.
30 The Germanic Origin of
on Hatfield, " the inhabitants were cooped up within these
limits. Many had huts or houses in the street."* In
Greenfield it was voted on September 10, 1754 "to picquet
three houses in this district immediately." Individual houses
were frequently thus impaled, and it is not improbable that
the use of picket fences to this day for separate inclosures in
the rural districts may be a remote survival of that old Saxon
*Judd, MS., Hadley and Hatfield, i, 148. The late Sylvester Judd,
author of the History of Hadley, one of the best local histories ever
"written in New England, left behind him an extensive manuscript col-
lection, in many bound volumes, of materials relating to the history of
the Connecticut Valley, particularly of Northampton and of the towns
in that environment. It is unfortunate for this latter Town, one of the
richest and rarest in New England for historical interest, that so capable
a man as Mr. Judd was never in position, by reason of his pressing
duties as editor of a country paper, to write a history of the valley. But
his manuscript treasures have now been purchased by public-spirited
citizens, and it is to be hoped that this collection, which is really the
corner-stone of Northampton history, may be the first acquisition of the
Forbes Library, that recent munificent endowment of over two hun-
dred thousand dollars by a late citizen of the Town for a free public
library composed "of works of science and the arts, in their broadest
acceptation, of ancient and modern history, and of the literatures of our
own and other nations." (Extract from the Will of Judge Forbes). The
Forbes Library, the Clark Institute, Smith College and the Smith Chari-
ties are noble institutions, and yet they sprang, historically, from seed
sown by those simple agrarian communities, Northampton and Hatfield,
which are worthy of more than passing attention. The Town Records
of Northampton, are of remarkable interest and full of cases of "sur-
vival." Secluded from association with the Bay Towns as were these
inland communities of the Connecticut Valley, some of them like Wind-
sor, Springfield and the Towns above, are really more interesting than
many that lie further to the eastward. These Valley Towns are not only
quite as ancient as the average of seventeenth century Towns, but on the
whole rather more conservative, less influenced even by Puritan innova-
tions.
To the courtesy of the Judd family and of Mr. J. R. Trumbull, the
writer of this monograph has been indebted for the use of the Judd
manuscripts at various intervals and for various purposes ; also to Mr.
Billings, Register of Deeds in the County of Hampshire, for access to
early records of the county court and for copious extracts from the Town
Records of Hatfield.
New England Towns. 31
instinct for palisading every individual home and house-lot,
as we have already seen in trie case of Plymouth.
An interesting commentary on the relation of the indi-
vidual home and hamlet to the Town or village community
similarly enclosed, is given in Nasse's Agricultural Commu-
nity in the Middle Ages (15), where he says, " The names of
places shows that, among the Saxons, only the dwelling-
place that is, house and homestead was inclosed; the
arable land and the pastures being open and unfenced. Out
of 1,200 names of places which Leo collected from the first
volume of Kemble's 'Codex Diplomat. iEvi Saxonici,' 187
were formed with tun. This word, it is well known, is iden-
tical with the modern 'town/ the Dutch tuin (garden), and
the German zaun, and was, as R. Schmid remarks, less used
by the Anglo-Saxons to signify 'that wherewith a space is
inclosed, than the inclosed space itself.' We may, however,
see very plainly that it was principally house and homestead
which bore this name; for instance, in the laws of Alfred I.
2, in cyninges tune; 13, on eorles tune. Even at the
present day the courtyard in the country in England is signi-
fied by the word town. Apparently, as was also the ease in
Germany, not only the individual homesteads, but also sev-
eral situated near each other, were surrounded by an inelo-
sure; which explains the reason why not only the homestead,
but also the whole village was called ' tun.' In many places
for example in the laws of Athelstan II. Fr. 2, where an
expiatory fine is to be divided among the poor; as well as in
Edgar IV. c. 8 the word 'tun' cannot be intended to be
used for individual homesteads, but only for places, a signifi-
cation which later became the ruling one." Nasse, in a foot-
note, 3, page 16, says, "the old Jute law prescribes (from
1240 A. D.) iii, chap. 57, van thunen tho makende (on making
hedges) 'that every village shall be inclosed by a hedge,'
and gives detailed rules for the duty of every villager to put
up his part of the common fence which enclosed the whole
village as well as single farmsteads."
32 The Germanic Origin of
A chapter might be written upon the survival in New
England of this ancient institution known as the "Common
Fence." The local records of every old New England Town
are full of such references. Take the following from the MS.
Records of Hatfield Side, January 14, 1660: "Agreed and
voted at a side meeting [another case of Old English survival !]
that there shall he a common fence made from Goodman
Fellows to the landing place, every man fencing the end of
his lot, and Isaac Graves to fence his part next to Goodman
Bool's meadow lot, the rest to be done in common." May
11, 1663, "Agreed at a side meeting that every man shall set
down a stake with the two first letters of his name by every
parcel of fence by the 13th of this month." It would be
difficult to say which is the more curious, the survival of " old
Jute law," or this revival of old English usage. It has taken
some time for hedgerows to find root again in New England,
but Hay wards, (not from hay, but from the Saxon Hege,
wardens of the hedges,) Fence Viewers and Field Drivers,
were offices that our ancestors had probably filled in the old
country, and they revived them here at once. Hatfield Side
voted, May 7, 1662, "that the South Meadow should be
cleared of cattle and Horses by Friday next, any cattle with-
out Keeper, or with keeper on mowing ground shall pay 1
shilling each to him that brings them to the pound and 4
pence to the Pound Keeper." The Village Pound, which
Sir Henry Maine * says is probably older than the Kingdom,
was instituted at Hatfield before the Church, before the Town
itself, when Hatfield was not yet a Parish of Hadley. This
simple enclosure, the Cattle Tun, represents a communal idea
which was growing in that little hamlet on the west side of
the Connecticut river. Already while only the Pound,
* Maine, Early History of Institutions, 263. He says, u there is no
more ancient institution in the country than the Village Pound ; it is
older than the King's Bench and probably older than the kingdom."
The name " Pound " is derived from the Saxon pyndan, to pen or enclose.
New England Towns. 33
Common Meadows and Fences occupied the village mind it
was voted "at side meeting that when there is a meeting
legally warned, whoever shall not come shall forieit 1 shil-
ling, whoever shall come a half hour late, 6 pence, whoever
shall depart before the close, 6 pence." Verily here was a
budding Tun within a Town.
The most striking indication of historic connection between
the village communities of New England and those of the
Old World lies in the sovereignty of the people, particularly
in its agrarian laws.
Plymouth was not settled upon the principle of squatter
sovereignty every man for himself, but upon communal
principles of the strictest character. These were not adopted
simply because of the co-partnership of the Pilgrims with
London merchants or chiefly through the influence of a spirit
of Christian communism, though doubtless both of these
motives had considerable weight in the early management of
the colony. There are features of communal administration
in the matter of landed property too peculiar and too closely
resembling those elsewhere considered, in the case of the
historical village community, to permit of any other satisfac-
tory explanation than that of inherited Saxon customs. Land
community was maintained too long at Plymouth and in the
towns which were planted around Plymouth on the same
communal principles, to be accounted for on any theory of a
temporary partnership of seven years or on religious grounds.
Vestiges of the old Germanic system of common fields are
to be found in almost every ancient town in New England.
In the town of Plymouth there are to this day some two
hundred acres of Commons known as Town Lands. This tract
is largely forest, where villagers sometimes help themselves
to fuel in good old Teutonic fashion. Jn studying the terri-
torial history of the Plymouth plantation, I have gathered
many interesting materials concerning the perpetuation of
land community in that region. It is impossible in this con-
nection to enter into details. One or two concrete facts like
5
34 The Germanic Origin of
the following will illustrate the survival of land community
in the region of Plymouth colony.
In the old town of Sandwich, upon Cape Cod, at the
point where the ship canal was projected in 1880, there is a
little parcel of land of 130 acres known as the Town Neck.
This is owned by a company of twenty-four proprietors, the
descendants or heirs of the first settlers of the town, and this
tract is managed to this day as a common field. Originally the
Town Neck, with other common lands, belonged to the whole
town. In the MS. Town Records of Sandwich I find, under
the date May 22, 1658, this vote: "If any inhabytant want-
eth land to plant, hee may have some in the Towne Neck, or
in the Common for six yeare and noe longer." Later in 1678,
April 6, townsmen are given liberty to improve Neck Lands
" noe longer than ten yeares, . . . and then to be at the
townsmen's ordering againe." In the year 1695, the use of
the Town Neck was restricted to the heirs of original proprie-
tors, and the land was staked out into thirty-eight lots. The
lots were not fenced off, and the whole tract continued to lie
as a common field, under the authority of the entire body of
proprietors, like the arable lands of a German village com-
munity. In 1696, April 4, it was agreed that the Town
Neck should be improved for the future by planting and
sowing as a common field, until the major part of those inter-
ested should see cause otherwise to dispose or improve the
same. The common fence was to be made up and a gate to
be provided by the 1st of May. A field-driver or hayward
was to keep the Town Neck clear of creatures and to impound
for trespass. In 1700 it was voted that the Neck be cleared
of creatures by the 16th of April, and that no part of the land
be improved for tillage other than by sowing.
And thus from the latter half of the seventeenth century
down to the present day have the proprietors of Sandwich
Town Neck regulated the use of this old common field.
Every year they have met together in the springtime to deter-
mine when the fences should be set up and how the pasture
New England Towns. 35
should be stinted. The old Commoners' Records arc for the
most part still in existence as far back as the year 1093, and
before this time the Town Records are full of agrarian legis-
lation, for the Town Neck was then virtually town property.
There arose in Sandwich and in every New England village
community the same strife between old residents and new
comers as that between the patricians and plebeians of ancient
Rome; the old settlers claimed a monopoly of the public land
and the new comers demanded a share. In most old New
England towns, the heirs of original settlers or of citizens
living in the community at a specified date retained a mon-
opoly of the common lands for many years until finally com-
pelled by. force or public opinion to cede their claims to the
town. Jn Sandwich, however, a vestige of the old system
has survived to this day. Every spring, for many years, has
appeared a public notice (I last saw one in the Seaside L J ress,
May 8, 1880) calling together the proprietors of the Town
Neck at some store in the village, to choose a moderator and
a clerk, and to regulate the letting of cow rights for the ensu-
ing year. I came on the track of this curious old common
field one summer vacation in Provincetown, at the land's
end of Cape Cod, where also and at Truro I found some
interesting bits of fossil land tenure. I met in Provincetown
a man who said he was taxed for one-sixth of a cow right in
Sandwich, which he had inherited from his grandfather. I
knew that a cow right meant a vestige of common pasture and
so investigated the matter. In Sandwich I found the old
Commoners' records extending back for nearly two centuries,
in the possession of a farmer in whose family the clerkship
had been for several generations. lie said nobody had ever
asked to see those records before, and with Arcadian simplicity
allowed rae to take the whole collection to my hotel for
examination. I created quite an excitement in the place by
reason of my inquiries, for it happened that just about that
time the Ship Canal was under discussion in Sandwich, and
the villagers concluded that I was examining into the title ot
36 The Germanic Origin of
the proprietors to the Town Neck with a view to land specu-
lation.
In the town of Salem also I have discovered very inter-
esting survivals of the old English system of common fields.
Originally, the whole region round about the first settlement
was common land. The region of North Danvers and of the
town of Peabody was once a part of "Salem's communal
domain. Winter Island long was, and Salem Neck still is,
more or less common land. The outlying portions of Salem
were gradually granted out to individuals with important
reservations by the town* in the interest of parish churches,
for the poor and for the encouragement of certain public
works, like the manufacture of glass, which was very early
attempted by the thrifty Puritans as a business enterprise,
like the manufacture of New England rum, although with
less profit. There were for many years in the town of Salem
certain common fields owned by associated proprietors just as
in the case of the Sandwich Town Neck. Such were the
North and South Fields in Salem. The old Commoners'
records of the South Field are still preserved in the library of
the Essex Institute, and date back as far as 1680. Under the
date of October 14 of that year, I find the following: Voted,
that the proprietors have liberty to put in cattle for herbage
that is to say, 6 cows, 4 oxen, 3 horses or yearlings, or 24
calves, to 10 acres of land, and so in proportion to greater or
lesser quantities of land ; and no person shall cut or strip
their Indian corn stalks after they have gathered their corn,
on penalty of forfeiting herbage." These old common fields
have long since disappeared, for they are now built over by
the city of Salem; but there still survives, at a little distance
from the heart of the town, an example of the same sort of
land tenure upon quite a large scale. The so-called Great
Pastures of Salem, some three hundred acres, are, to this day,
owned and managed by a small company of proprietors in
common, of whom Dr. Wheatland, of the Essex Institute, has
been, for many years, the clerk. He has in his possession the
New England Towns. 37
records of the proprietary, extending back for manv genera-
tions. These records are full of old time regulations in regard
to common fencing, common pasturage, cow commons, sheep
commons, and the like. The votes are much the same from
year to year. We can hardly expect much variety in the
administration of common fields during the short period of
New England history since the system endured for so many
centuries in Europe without any appreciable modification.*
The life principle enduring in these apparently dead forms
of land tenure is the sovereignty of the community over its
individual or associate members. Although inheriting defi-
nite rights in the common land, shareholders are subject to
the will of the majority. Communal sovereignty over lands
exists even where individual landed rights appear most abso-
lute. The other day a newspaper scrap was sent me from the
South concerning a Mississippi planter who wanted to turn
his plantation into a stock farm. His neighbors who were in
the habit of planting cotton remonstrated and carried the case
into public court, praying for an injunction to prevent the
man from sowing grass seed, on the ground that the grass
would spread over adjoining plantations and unfit them for
raising cotton. The injunction was granted by the court and
illustrates how, in a quarter of our country where individu-
alism is supposed to be most rampant, the sovereignty of the
community over land is recognized by law, even in the matter
of what farmers plant.
Traces of the old system of agrarian community are crop-
ping out in many different States of the American Union,
which itself is based, as a permanent and necessary institu-
tion, upon the idea of territorial commonwealth, with self
governing States gradually organized out of the Common
*The village community of early Salem is one of the most remarkable
cases of historic survival in New England. An attempt to point out
some of the most striking features of that old plantation has been made in
a monograph upon "Cape Ann and Salem Plantations," now in press at
the Essex Institute, and to be republished in this University series.
38 The Germanic Origin of New England Towns.
Land of the nation, * as New England Towns were organized
out of village folk-land. Wherever in this common Saxon
land the student may care to institute researches into the
beginnings' of civic life, there he will find, if he digs deeply-
enough, the old Saxon principle of land community uniting
men together upon a common basis and around a common
centre.. Whether that centre be the Town Commons of the
North or the Court Greens of the South, the Common Pas-
tures of Massachusetts or the Common Pastures of South
Carolina; the folk-land of a ville, parish, township, state, or
nation, it is after all much the same in principle, for these
communal interests are all derived from a common Saxon
source. There is much to learn by a study of the local
beginnings, agrarian and economic, of these United States.
There is surely a common country of historic worth yet to be
discovered, for mere surface mining, here and there, in vari-
ous quarters, indicates a vast and wide-reaching common-
wealth below. It is the commonwealth of law and custom, of
race and kinship, historic mines that can never be exhausted,
for they extend not only underneath all imaginary sections
of our land, but under the dividing sea of .Revolutionary
History itself, uniting the New World inseparably to the
Old.
* Maryland's influence in founding a National Commonwealth, Fund
Publication No. 11, Maryland Historical Society, 1877. By H. B. Adams.
In this monograph there is evidence showing not only that the in-
fluence of Maryland predominated in securing the great land cessions
to the United States, but that the common relation of the English Colo-
nies in America to these western lands, won by the blood and treasure of
all, was in itself a most substantial ground for permanent and necessary
Union. After the Revolution, the loosely confederated States would have
broken apart if it had not been for their common interest in the western
territory as a potential means of paying off State debts and rewarding
soldier-veterans. Moreover the great West afforded field for republican
expansion upon necessarily federal principles.
COOPERATION IN UNIVERSITY WORK.
By The Editor.
[These explanatory remarks were made November 17, 18S2, before the Historical and
Political Science Association of the Johns Hopkins University for the sake of developing
still further, on the part of its members, that cooperative spirit which is the motive power
of this University Series. H. B. a.]
The need of some channel for the systematic publication of Johns
Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science,
gave rise to the idea of a series of monographs, each complete in
itself, but all contributing toward a common end, the development
of American Institutional and American Economic History. The
idea of a serial publication of numbered monographs, one paper
sustaining another, was already current in Holtzendorff's Deutsche
Zeit und Streit Fragen ; in Virchow's and Holtzendorff's Samni-
lung gemeinverstiindlicher wissenschaftlicher Vortrilge ; in Con-
rad's Sammlung nationalokonomischer und statistischer Abhand-
lungen des staatswissenschaftlichen Seminars zu Halle; and in
Schmoller's Staats- und socialwissenschaftliche Forschungen. But
the special impulse to this University Series was the Giessener
Studien auf dera Gebiet der Geschichte, instituted in 1881 by
Wilhelm Chicken, editor of the Monograph-History of the World,
(Allgemeine Geschichte der Welt in Einzeldarstellungen,) a serial
work which has been in progress since 1878, through the coopera-
tion of historical specialists, a work which has an earlier parallel
in the political held in Bluntschli's Staatsworterbueh (1S.">7). and
a later parallel in the economic field in Schoenberg's Haudbuch
des politischen Oekononomie (1882), both composed by special-
ists upon the sound economic principles of division of labor and
scientific cooperation.
The impulse received, in the first instance, from Germany was
strengthened by a knowledge of the efficient workings of the
cooperative method of writing municipal and national history in
40 Cooperation in University Work.
America, under the direction of Professor Justin Winsor of Har-
vard University ; also by observation of the cooperative method
in the conduct of the American Journals of Mathematics, Phi-
lology, Chemistry, the Studies from the Biological Laboratory,
and the Journal of Physiology, the latter edited by an English
scholar with the cooperation of English and American special-
ists, but published in this country under the auspices of the
Johns Hopkins University ; still further by acquaintance with
the Peabody Fund Publications of the Maryland Historical So-
ciety; and by practical suggestions from Mr. Sidney S. Rider,
publisher of the Rhode Island Historical Tracts.
The idea of studying American Institutional and American
Economic History, upon cooperative principles, beginning with
local institutions, and extending ultimately to national institu-
tions, developed gradually from an interest in municipal history,
first awakened in the Seminary of Professor Erdmannsdoerffer at
the University of Heidelberg, where, in 1875, while reading the
Gesta Friderici Imperatoris, by Otto of Freising, seminary-dis-
cussion turned upon the Communes of Lombardy and the question
of the Roman or Germanic origin of city government in mediaeval
Italy. This awakened interest, quickened by the reading of Carl
Hegel, Arnold, Von Maurer, Fustel de Coulanges, was ultimately
directed toward England and New England by a suggestion upon
the last page of Sir Henry Maine's Village Communities, where,
quoting Palfrey's History of New England (ii, 13, 14) and certain
remarks in The Nation (No. 273)* upon the passage by Professor
William F. Allen of the University of Wisconsin, Sir Henry calls
attention to the survival of Village Communities in America.
This suggestive idea, verified in all essential details with reference
to Nantucket, Plymouth Plantations, Cape Anne, Salem and the
oldest towns in New England, has been extended gradually to a
* Professor Allen's communication was published in The Nation, Sep-
tember 22, 1870, as a " Note " upon Maine's "Ancient Law," before his
"Village Communities " appeared (1871). Professor W. F. Allen was
the first to verify Sir Henry Maine's agrarian theory in America by inde-
pendent research in the island of Nantucket, "a study published in The
Nation, January 10, 1878, under the title, "A Survival of Land Community
in New England." Cf. Nation, Nov. 10, 1881.
Cooperation in University Work. 41
cooperative study of American local institutions in all the older
States and throughout the North-west, where, in Wisconsin, Pro-
fessor Allen, the original pioneer, has joined in the work, sup-
ported by his Seminary of advanced students. The idea is
represented in the distant University of Nebraska, at Lincoln, by
Professor George E. Howard, who, trained at German Universi-
ties, is this year teaching " Institutional History " by the compara-
tive method, with Maine, Hearn, Laveleye, Fustel de Coulanges,
and Lewis H. Morgan for suggestive guides.
It is interesting to see the knowledge of Aryan institutions thus
advancing westward. The science of English Institutional History
is represented in the University of California by Albert S. Cook,
the newly appointed Professor of English, who, while Associate
at the Johns Hopkins University, cooperated most efficiently with
the Historical Seminary in teaching its members Anglo-Saxon
and in publishing for their use "Extracts from the Anglo-Saxon
Laws" (Henry Holt, 1880), illustrating the early "institutions
and manners of the English people." This work was the direct
outgrowth of Seminary needs, for Stubbs ; Select Charters con-
tained but few extracts from Anglo-Saxon Law and these only in
the English translation by Thorpe. Mr. Cook's edition was made
very serviceable to students by constant reference to Stubbs' Con-
stitutional History and to the Essays in Anglo-Saxon Law by
Professor Henry Adams, formerly of Harvard College, and by
his pupils, Henry Cabot Lodge, Ernest Young, and J. Laurence
Laughlin, who, advancing from German and English ground, were
among the first to give a decided impetus to the study of historical
jurisprudence in America.
The career of Mr. Cook well illustrates the way in which mod-
ern science is conveyed in personal forms from one country or one
University-centre to another. Graduating from Rutgers College
in 1872, he taught and studied for a few years in this country,
and then went to Goettingen, afterward to Leipzig. In l*"'.) lie
was called to Baltimore to teach Early English, of which in
America and in Germany he had made a specialty. In 1881 he
went to England to study with Professor Sweet, then back again
to Germany, where, at Jena, in the summer of 1S82 he took his
Doctor of Philosophy, with a thesis on the Northumbrian Dialect,
approved by Professor Sievers. It is probable that his previous
6
42 Cooperation in University Work.
University connections with Baltimore, together with other influ-
ences proceeding from English and German experience, had some
bearing upon his immediate call to a professorship in the Univer-
sity of California. Thus from the region of Saxe-Weimar, or as
Freeman says, "that make-believe Saxony which is really Sla-
vonic," a knowledge of Early English was borne across real Saxon
land, across the Ocean, across a Continent, to the most western
home of the English people, a home which Charles Kingsley
called "a New World beyond a New World." Saxon Studies,
like Saxon Conquests, have pushed westward as well as eastward,
beyond Old Saxon and Old English frontiers. It is interesting
to see scientific Markgrafen, like Cook and Sievers, stationed
upon the modern borders. " What Saxon is Cook studying at
Jena? Why go so far?" writes Freeman. "They talk a fine
West-Saxon in Virginia,* with their ea and eo well turned out,
almost as on Sumormetan, only on Sumorsaetan they distinguish
* Mr. Freeman knows Virginian in onjy one of its varieties. Tide-
water, Piedmont, Valley, Southwest all present marked differences. The
" Tuckahoe " is bewrayed by his speech as soon as he crosses the Blue
Kidge. The broad a, in a host of words, in which it is unknown to tbe
dictionaries, belongs to the older settlements and persists in certain
primitives even after they have been transplanted to the foot of the
mountains. The first a in Chamberlayne is pronounced in three or four
different ways, all Virginian and so all right. The notorious slurring of
the medial r, common in large belts of English speech, is observable
everywhere in Virginia, but much less in some sections than in otbers,
and the volatilization of the final r is not so marked in the Piedmont as
it is in the Tide-water section, while the Lower Valley bas a guttural r
final, due to German influence. Scotch-Irish has told on the dialect of the
Upper Valley and the Southwest. Clipping of final consonants is noto-
riously Scotch, and easy theorists have exaggerated the African influence.
But this is not a subject for any one except a trained and unprejudiced
observer. Almost everybody notices differences of pronunciation, but
very few can register them with precision and reproduce them with accu-
racy. It is high time that linguistic students should enter upon this field
of research before the outlying districts of the South are brought into the
quicker life of the other States. The Southern shibboleths will in time be
lost, and I have myself heard from Southern lips such pronunciations as
" Noo-Yark," "Toosday," and " dooty," which used to wound the Southern
ear almost as much as the gasping of the Cockney, which we call " drop-
ping the A." B. L. Q.
Cooperation in University Work. 43
janua* and dama which on Magdslande sound alike." But it
takes a West-Saxon thus to recognize West-Saxon. Old Eng-
land explains New England. Schleswig and Switzerland reveal
Early England to the English historian. A knowledge of Old
World science is absolutely indispensable to scientific discov-
ery in the New World. The local dialects of America can
never be studied with an understanding mind until American
students study the local dialects of England, as Dr. Cook has
studied the Northumbrian dialect. There is, perhaps, a certain
historic fitness in the fact that Old English is so well taught in
Germany, the oldest of the three homes of the English people ;
and it is surely very natural that Saxon studies should traverse
and re-traverse the old lines of Teutonic migration.
There is nothing in the wandering of peoples or in the history
of the Errantes Scholares of the Middle Ages which rivals the
migrations of the modern scholar. In 1875, the year President
Oilman came eastward to Baltimore from the University of Cali-
fornia, whither he had been called in 1872 from a professorship
in Yale College, a student who that year graduated from Berkeley
came eastward by the advice of his teachers and wandered, like a
veritable fahrender Schiller, from one institution to another until
he reached the University of Leipzig, upon the historic border
between the Teuton and the Slave. At the same time, the newly
appointed President of the Johns Hopkins University was wan-
dering over Europe, visiting the chief educational institutions of
* Readers who happen not to be familiar with the peculiar pronunciation
of Piedmont Virginia (Magdsland), and who therefore fail to apprehend
Mr. Freeman's allusion, may now enjoy what the President of the Del-
phian Club thought the crowning felicity of human existence "a joke
well explained." In the region referred to, the final r is usually silent;
and thus door [janua) and doe [dama) are pronounced exactly alike. The
writer remembers to have met with an indigenous ballad, set to music,
and much in favor with the fair sex, in which " store," " sure," and " so "
were made to rhyme with each other. It represented the reasonable irri-
tation of a maiden at the timidity of a bashful lover, who could not screw
his courage to the proposing-point ; and in one stanza she complains:
"I know liis love is constant,
Affectionate and pure: |>yo]
What ails the bashful fellow
That he cannot tell uic so?" W. H. H.
44 Cooperation in University Work.
Germany, France, and England, with a view to the transmigration
of ideas from the Old World to the New. In 1876 the American
student, quickened by European travel and experience, returned
to his native land to enter upon a philosophical Fellowship at the
new University, the President of which had been inaugurated in
the Monumental City on the 22nd of February of that year. The
University, like the ideas of its President and like the culture of
the returning student, was neither German nor French nor English,
but American and cosmopolitan. This country and all its insti-
tutions, though they adopt the best which the Old World can
teach, will constitute a New World still by natural selection, and
by independent organization in harmony with a new environment.
The California student, who had been schooled in German Uni-
versities for one year, studied for two more years at the Johns
Hopkins University and then took his degree of Doctor of Phi-
losophy, with this significant thesis, "The Interdependence of the
Principles of Human Knowledge." He was then called across
the Continent, to his Alma Mater, to become an Assistant Pro-
fessor in literature and philosophy. From that frontier-post, his
contributions to the Galifornian, the Berkeley Quarterly, and
the Journal of Speculative Philosophy came migrating east-
ward. "Mind-stuff" and other "Realities" pushed across the
sea, marched into England from the West, and effected a certain
intellectual conquest in self restricted Saxon ways by publication
in a very special philosophical journal known as ''The Mind,"
(July, 1881; Jan., 1882). And now Dr. Royce himself has again
migrated eastward, having been invited to a position as lecturer
upon Philosophy in Harvard College, as substitute for Professor
James, who has again wandered to Europe.
At the same time Dr. Royce was returning eastward, Dr. *
Stringham, a graduate of Harvard College and afterward a
Fellow of the Johns Hopkins University, then travelling Fellow
of Harvard, was returning westward from the University of
Leipzig to his old home in Kansas, to push on thence to his new
western home in the University of California, where he has ac-
cepted a professorship in Mathematics. And now a student from
California, bearing letters from the faculty of the institution at
Berkeley, has come eastward to Baltimore, leaving an associate
editorship of the San Francisco Bulletin, for the sake of discover-
Cooperation in University Work. 45
ing, for himself, an old world of science. And already in the
light of Institutional studies he is investigating the municipal
history of St. Louis, and is preparing to develop a veritable mine
in the study of frontier law and of the wonderful evolution of
self-government in California mining-camps, where old Saxon
forms of associated families of men sprang full armed into life
and law. A student from Professor Howard's Seminary in
Nebraska has also come eastward to continue his western studies.
He represents, moreover, a comity of scientific associations first
established at German Universities between his American instruc-
tors. And with the student from Nebraska comes a Regent of
the Nebraska University, a graduate of Amherst College, who,
although a man of middle age, has entered the same Seminarium
with his western protege.
Such facts illustrate not only the remarkable migrations of the
modern scholar, but that curious system of intercollegiate exchange
which has developed so rapidly of late in America. Within the
space of the last six years, a graduate of Harvard College has
held in Baltimore a Johns Hopkins University Fellowship, one of
the Harvard "travelling" Fellowships at Leipzig and Bonn, a
tutorship at Harvard, a professorship at Bowdoin College, and
a professorship in the University of Virginia, where he, a New
England man, succeeded a Virginian who had been called north
to Columbia College. There are signs of a new era in the educa-
tional history of this country. A graduate student from South
Carolina comes to Baltimore and, through association with a
graduate of Brown University, obtains the Prineipalship of a
High School in a Connecticut Town. A graduate of Columbia
College lectures in Baltimore and Ithaca. A graduate of Iowa
College in 1874, afterwards a student at Andover Theological
Seminary, held a Fellowship in Political Science for two years in
Baltimore, took his degree of Ph. D.,* studied one year at Ueidel-
* Dr. Henry C. Adams' graduating thesis for the. Doctor's degree at the
Johns Hopkins University, taken in 1878 alter special examination in
History by Mr. George Bancroft and in Political Economy by Professor
Francis A. Walker, was published in the Tubingener Zeitschrift fur die
gesammte Staatswissenschaft, 1879, under the title Zur (Jesehichte der
JBesteuerung in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika in der L'eriode von
1789-1816. The paper should be republished and the subject continued
in America.
46 Cooperation in University Work.
berg under Knies and Bluntschli and at Berlin under Wagner and
Engel,.then, after his return to America, lectured in quick succes-
sion at three different institutions, at Michigan, Cornell, and Johns
Hopkins Universities. C. R. Lanman, a Doctor of Philosophy
from Yale College, who afterward studied two years in Germany,
advanced in four years from a Fellowship and an Associateship
in the Johns Hopkins to a professorship in Harvard College.
He was succeeded by a former pupil in Baltimore, who, born in
Austria, migrated to America, entered the University of Chicago,
graduated in 1877 at Furman College, South Carolina, from the
instruction of Professor Toy, studied under Professor Whitney in
New Haven one year, took his Ph. D. in Baltimore in one year
more, and then studied a year longer in Germany before returning
to the Johns Hopkins. A Harvard Lecturer and a Michigan
University Professor spend half their time in Baltimore. College
training and professorial experience are no longer local and pro-
vincial. Stronger currents of influence are already arising: col-
legiate reciprocity, the exchange of thought, methods, and men ;
university education in the Old World and in the New; special
qualifications for special work; character born of good training
at home, and developed by school, college, university, and the
world, these are ideas which must prevail.
Among the most encouraging sigus of the times are the cordial
relations subsisting between the higher institutions of learning,
and especially in that growing brotherhood of scholars which is
to be found in every real University centre. At the Johns Hopkins
during the past year there have met, upon the common ground of
science, representative graduates from fifty-two different Colleges
and Universities, students from twenty-one different States of the
American Union, and from various foreign countries. If to this
record should be added a full account of the various College and
University connectionsthat, at onetimeoranother, have been enjoyed
by the ninety-four Fellows, by the eighty-six different Instructors,
Lecturers, Associates, and Professors who have been connected
with the Johns Hopkins, it would certainly appear that the leading
institutions of Europe and America had met in Baltimore by rep-
resentation. The College and University system of the world
would appear in microcosm. Without special knowledge of or
inquiry into the subject, one might enumerate the following Euro-
Cooperation in University Work. 47
pean centres of learning which have afforded instruction and
scientific training to members of the Johns Hopkins University
staff: Oxford, Cambridge, London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Leipzig,
Munich, Goettingen, Tubingen, Heidelberg, Strassburg, and other
German Universities, the round of two or three of which is always
made by American as well as by German students. Lecturers
from Oxford, Cambridge, the University of London, Freiburg ira
Breisgau, Harvard, Yale, Brown, Cornell, Michigan, Wisconsin,
Virginia, and Tennessee have appeared in Baltimore. More than
one hundred students and instructors have gone forth from the
Johns Hopkins University to lecture or teach elsewhere. Fifty
different institutions of collegiate or university grade have had
instructors from Baltimore.
It is interesting to view geographically the migration of influ-
ence from this University centre into the South, the South-West,
the West, across the Continent, and around the world. The Johns
Hopkins has sent professors or teachers to University of Virginia,
University of North Carolina, two Colleges and a Theological
Seminary in South Carolina, University of Louisiana, Universities
in Tennessee and Kentucky, three Colleges and a University in
Pennsylvania, two Colleges and a University in Ohio, University
of Michigan, University of Wisconsin, University of California,
University of Tokio, and University of Bonn. Baltimore specialists
have continued work in Universities of Vienna, Berlin, Leipzig,
Jena, Munich, Heidelberg, Strassburg, Bonn, Goettingen, Paris,
London, Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh. Harvard and eight
of the higher institutions of learning in New England, (including
those at Amherst, Northampton, and Williamstown), Cornell,
Princeton, Western Maryland College, and various institutions in
the City of Baltimore, have seen fit to employ the services of
Johns Hopkins men as lecturers or instructors.
It is, to some extent, upon the historic basis of such connections
as these that the Johns Hopkins University is gradually widening
its lines of practical influence and efficient cooperation. Such
connections afford a vantage-ground for the up-building of Science,
for the extension of new methods in America, for the local estab-
lishment of new ideas. The present plan for the cooperative study
of Historical and Political Science is for advanced students,
whether teachers or pupils, here or elsewhere, to investigate in a
48 Cooperation in University Work. .
systematic way the Institutional or Economic History of their own
section or locality. Young men, with slight experience in scien-
tific research, will see an obvious advantage in beginning work
upon familiar ground and upon limited areas. It is not necessary
to re-write the History of the " Constitution " or to grapple with
the giant of American Finance in order to learn how to deal with
historic and economic questions. History and Economy begin at
home. The family, the hamlet, or neighborhood, the school or
parish, the village, town, city, county, and state are historically
the ways by which men have approached national and international
life. It was a preliminary study of the geography of Frankfort
on the Main that led Carl Ritter to study the physical structure
of Europe and Asia, and thus to establish the new science of
Comparative Geography. He says, " Whoever has wandered
through the valleys and woods, and over the hills and mountains
of his own State, will be the one capable of following a Herodotus
in his wanderings over the globe." And we may say as Ritter
said of the science of geography, the first step in History is to
know thoroughly the district where we live. In America, Guyot
has represented for many years this method of teaching geog-
raphy. Huxley in his Physiography has introduced pupils to a
study of Nature in its entirety by calling attention to the physical
features of the Thames valley and the wide range of natural
phenomena that may be observed in any English Parish. Hum-
boldt long ago said in his Cosmos, "Every little nook and
shaded corner is but a reflection of the whole of Nature." There
is something very suggestive and very quickening in such a phil-
osophy of Nature and History as regards every spot of the earth's
surface, every pebble, every form of organic life, from the lowest
mollusk to the highest phase of human society, as a perfect micro-
cosm, perhaps an undiscovered world of suggestive truth. But it
is important to remember that all these things should be studied
in their widest relations. Natural history is of no significance if
viewed apart from Man. Human history is without foundation
if separated from Nature. The deeds of men, the genealogy of
families, the annals of quiet neighborhoods, the records of towns,
states and nations are per se of little consequence to history unless,
in some way, these isolated things are brought into vital connec-
tion with the progress and science of the world. To establish
Cooperation in University Work. 49
such connections is sometimes like the discovery of unknown
lauds, the exploration of new countries, and the widening of the
world's horizon.
American local history should first be studied as a contribution
to national history. This country will yet be viewed and reviewed
as an organism of historic growth, developing from minute germs,
from the very protoplasm of state-life. And some day this country
will be studied in its international relations, as an organic part of
a larger organism now vaguely called the World State, but as
surely developing through the operation of economic, legal, social,
and scientific forces as the American Union, the German and
British Empires are evolving into higher forms. But American
History in its widest relations is not to be written by any one man
or by any one generation of men. Our History will grow with the
Nation and with its developing consciousness of internationality.
The present possibilities for the real progress of historic and eco-
nomic science lie, first and foremost, in the development of a gen-
eration of economists and practical historians, who realize that
History is past Politics and Politics present History ; secondly,
in the expansion of the local consciousness into a fuller sense of
its historic worth and dignity, of the cosmopolitan relations of
modern local life, and of its own wholesome conservative power
in these days of growing centralization. National and interna-
tional life can best develop upon the constitutional basis of Local
Self Government in Church and State.
The work of developing a generation of specialists has already
begun in the College and the University. The evolution of local
consciousness can perhaps be best effected through the Common
School. It is a suggestive local fact that the School Committee
of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, lately voted (Berkshire.
Courier, September 6, 1882) to introduce into their village High
School,* in the hands of an Amherst graduate, in connection with
Nordhoff's " Politics for Young Americans" and Jevons' "Primer
of Political Economy," the article upon "The Germanic Origin
of New England Towns," which was once read in part before
*The catalogue of the Great Barrington High Sc1i.mi1 (1882) shows that
the study of History and Politics is there founded, as it should be, upon
a geographical basis.
50 Cooperation in University Work.
the Village Improvement Society of Stockbridge, Massachusetts,
August 24, 1881, and published in the Pittsfield Evening Jour-
nal of that day. Local demand really occasioned a University
supply of the article in question. The possible connection between
the College and the Common School is still better illustrated by
the case of Professor Macy, of Iowa College, Grinnell, who is one
of the most active pioneers in teaching "the real, homely facts of
government," and who in 1881 published a little tract on Civil
Government in Iowa, which is now used by teachers throughout
that entire State in preparing their oral instructions for young
pupils, beginning with the township and the county, the institu-
tions that are "nearest and most easily learned." A special
pupil of Professor Macy's, Albert Shaw, A. B., Iowa College,
1879, is now writing a similar treatise on Civil Government in
Illinois for school use in that State. There should be such a
manual for every State in the Union.
It is curious to see how influences act and interact. In 1881,
Mr. Shaw came to the Johns Hopkins University, leaving the
conduct of a Grinnell newspaper in the hands of an associate
editor. Here in Baltimore, the young man from Iowa joined the
Historical Seminary and wrote a paper upon " Local Government
in Illinois," which won high praise from James Bryce, M. P., and
was, at the latter's request, published in the Fortnightly Review,
October, 1882, and will soon be republished in this University
Series. From such influences and such connections, local and
metropolitan, Mr. Shaw is now advancing to a study of the City
Government of Chicago, in connection with other workers in the
municipal field, which at present perhaps is the most important in
American Politics.
Studies in Historical and Political Science in connection with
the Johns Hopkins University will advance upon municipal lines
towards the scientific investigation of State and National Insti-
tutions, political, economic, and educational. By combination of
strength and by continual reinforcement, American History and
American Economics may finally advance in lines both long and
firm, as seen, for example, in the "Narrative and Critical His-
tory of the United States," which is the joint work of specialists
in various parts of the country. Extensive tracts of historic and
economic ground have been already preempted, but enough
Cooperation in University Work. 51
remains for student immigration throughout the coming genera-
tion. The beauty of Science is that there are always New Worlds
to discover. And at the present moment, there await the student
pioneer vast tracts of American Institutional and Economic His-
tory almost as unbroken as were once the forests of America, her
coal measures and prairies, her mines of iron, silver and gold.
Individual and local effort will almost everywhere meet with quick
recognition and grateful returns. But scientific and cosmopolitan
relations with College and University centres, together with the
generous co-operation o'f all explorers in the same field, will cer-
tainly yield the most satisfactory results both to the individual
and to the community which he represents.
It is highly important that isolated students should avail them-
selves of the existing machinery of local libraries, the local press,
local societies, and local clubs. If such things do not exist, the
most needful should be created. No community is too small for
a Book Club and for an Association of some sort. Local studies
should always be connected in some way with the life of the
community and should always be used to quicken that life to
higher conciousness. A student, a teacher, who prepares a paper
on local history or some social question, should read it before the
Village Lyceum or some literary club or an association of teachers.
If encouraged to believe his work of any general interest or per-
manent value, he should print it in the local paper or in a local
magazine, perhaps an educational journal, without aspiring to the
highest popular monthlies, which will certainly reject all purely
local contributions by unknown contributors. It is far more
practicable to publish by local aid in pamphlet form or in the
proceedings of Associations and learned Societies, before which
such papers may sometimes be read.
It is highly desirable that every paper which appears in con-
nection with the Johns Hopkins University Studies should bear
the stamp of corporate recognition by some worthy local organi-
zation. Such approval and especially such preliminary publica-
tion, will introduce an unknown student to science with credentials
from a local constituency. Every paper which is to be printed in
this University Series has some such endorsement. In cases where
it is impracticable to secure preliminary publication or local recog-
nition, papers may be submitted to the Editor of this Series for
52 Cooperation in University Work.
reference to a special committee and for ultimate report to the
Johns Hopkins Historical and Political Science Association,
which, with its tributary Seminaries of American Institutional
and Economic History is at present the main and not inadequate
supply for this University publication upon the present basis.
This experiment of a University Series in the field of Historical
and Political Science, like many other experiments in connection
with the educational policy of the Johns Hopkins, is "tentative."
It is primarily an attempt to meet a felt want on the part of grad-
uate students of History and Politics at this institution. It is
secondarily a means of efficient cooperation between graduates
here and friends of Historical and Political Science elsewhere,
along lines of inquiry that have been already opened in American
Institutional and Economic History. The plan is upon a very
safe footing and will not outrun the range of actual experience.
Every step thus far has been experimental. Every paper upon
the published list has relations established with some local clientage,
some learned society, magazine, or journal, or else with the Johns
Hopkins University. The foundations of the enterprise are thus
historical and economic.
Encouragement has been given to the undertaking by the Presi-
dent and Trustees of the Johns Hopkins University, by the His-
torical Societies of Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina; by
the New England Historical and Genealogical Society, by the
Essex Institute, the Magazine of American History, by the Penn-
sylvania Magazine of History and Biography, by the American
Antiquarian Society, the American Social Science Association,
and by the Fortnightly Review. Aside from such corporate
recognition, three eminent specialists in the field of History and
Politics have expressed their hearty approval of this project: Mr.
Edward A. Freeman, who stands as godfather to the series by a
contribution to its first number; James Bryce, M. P., who re-
quested one of the Studies for publication in an English Review ;
Maxime Kovalevsky, Professor of History and Politics in the
University of Moscow, who last summer came to this country to
investigate our agrarian history and the germ-life of American
Institutions, which subjects he found already in process of inves-
tigation at the Johns Hopkins University.
The international comity of Science is well illustrated in the
visit of this Russian Professor, the friend of Turgeuieff, who intro-
Cooperation in University Work. 53
duced him to this country through Henry Holt, of New York.
After visiting Harvard University, Professor Kovalevsky came to
Baltimore with letters of introduction to members of the Johns
Hopkins, with some of whom he had already indirect acquaintance
through the cosmopolitan associations of German Universities.
On his way to Baltimore he visited the library of the Pennsylvania
Historical Society in Philadelphia and asked Mr. Stone, the libra-
rian and editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and
Biography, if he had any materials upon the subject of Local Self
Government in that State. "Nothing except proof-sheets," was
the response, and Mr. Stone handed Professor Kovalevsky an
article which Mr. E. R. L. Gould had lately read before the
Pennsylvania Historical Society and which was about to be printed
in the Magazine. The Professor continued his journey to Balti-
more and sought out Mr. Gould, as well as the scientific resources
of the Seminary, which, together with those of the Maryland
Historical Society, were placed entirely at his command. He
gathered much in a few days, chiefly documents, touching the
history of our Public Lands and the mode of settling and organ-
izing the Great West. He requested the cooperation of the
Seminary in making known to Russia the Institutional and Eco-
nomic History of the United States. He made arrangements for
the sending to Moscow of all monographs in this Series as soon as
published, and even secured proof sheets of Mr. Gould's article
and other University papers in their first form of publication.
But he gave the Seminary far more than he received. He held
long conferences with individual members ; he put them upon
the track of old world monographs that had escaped American
notice; he put individuals in communication with European
scholars; he gave many useful suggestions as to the best methods
of exploiting Old English Institutional and Economic History,
upon which subjects he himself has worked for many years.
Professor Kovalevsky is the leading Russian authority in the
field of economic and institutional history, wherein there have
been and are so many co-workers in various countries, among
whom are George and Konrad Von Maurer, Hanssen, Meit/.en,
Thun, Nasse, Knies, Roscher, Biicher, Held, Inama-Sternegg,
Brentano, Colin, Ochenkowski, Miaskowsky, Laveleye, Kustel de
Coulanges, Rogers, Sir Henry Maine, Mr. Scebolim, Henry Adams,
54 Cooperation in University Work.
H. C. Lodge, Ernest Young, J. Laurence Laughlin, W. F. Allen,
and D. W. Ross. In the Revue Historique, the French rival of
the Hislorische Zeitnchrift, is an appreciative Review, May and
June, 1882, of Kovalevsky's labors in the history of communal
institutions. In speaking of his two most recent works, written
in Russian, one on Communal Property (I. Moscow, 1879) and
the other on the Social Organization of England at the close of
the Middle Ages (Moscow, 1880), it is said, " Ce sont les ouvrages
les plus importants et les plus solides qui aient vu le jour en Russie
dans ces deux dernieres annees." The first work, not yet com-
pleted, concerns communal property among the native races of
America, the agrarian policy of Spain in the East Indies, com-
munal property in India, modifications of the land tenure in India
by Mohammedan and English dominion, land tenure in Algiers
and the agrarian policy of France. Kovalevsky has also written
an Umriss einer Gesehichte der Zerstiickelung der Feldgemein-
schaft im Kanton Waadt (Zurich, 1877), and various other works,
in French and Russian.
The advice and encouragement of such a cosmopolite in Sci-
ence, who is equally at home in Paris, London, Berlin, and
Moscow, who has investigated the social and economic history of
countries as wide apart as India and America, who studies the
Landesgemeinde of Switzerland, the Town Meeting of New
England, and the Russian Mir as kindred institutions, who views
the American Prairies of the Great West and the Russian Steppes
of the Great East in the same economic light, who represents in
his political philosophy the wide horizon of internationality as
well as nation, state, and narrow commune, the advice and
encouragement of such a man cannot but quicken American
youth who are beginners in Science. There is no danger of their
studies being lost or absorbed in such a master mind. On the
contrary, through such influences, through such connections with
European scholars and European journals, good local work in
America will pass into higher international forms and yet remain
distinctively American.
European scholars are only too glad to accept and recognize as
authoritative the special work of American students investigating
upon their own ground, with all the advantages of local acquaint-
ance, local observation, local libraries, (private and public), local
Cooperation in University Work. 55
societies, local sympathy, and local cooperation. Foreign scholars,
who travel through this country in a hurried way, know well that
their knowledge of the land is superficial and their experience
necessarily limited. Observers of American Democracy like
Tocqueville, Kovalevsky, Freeman, Bryce, and Herbert Spencer
may ascend the very citadel of scientific privilege; they may view
the country with their own eyes, through newspapers, or through
books, but they can never command the American situation. Nor
is this their ambition. Their primary object is to sketch America
for the benefit of their own countrymen ; and they are always glad
to carry home suggestive ideas for the completion of their sketches.
Professor Kovalevsky would have been delighted to find in Bal-
timore articles on the Local Self-Government of every State in
the Union. Mr. Bryce would have been pleased to find some
scientific account of the origin and course of that municipal rev-
olution in Philadelphia, where, in classic speech, Mr. Freeman
described the overthrow of one-man power as procumbit humi
bos !
American students are beginning to find out the scientific sig-
nificance of contemporary Municipal and National Politics in
America. They are beginning to see what wide-reaching eco-
nomic, institutional, administrative, educational, political, and
international problems may be investigated at home without going
abroad for original material. Old world science and old world
methods have been introduced into this country in a liberal way
during the past few decades, and from this scientific vantage-
ground it would seem to be most advisable for American students
of History and Politics to enter fields for which there are in this
country very superior advantages. While recognizing the unity
of all Science, we must nevertheless admit that there are limita-
tions and varying conditions for the successful prosecution of
certain branches. It would obviously be very poor economy for
an American, living in this country, to attempt to write the mu-
nicipal or economic history of any English Town, German Free
City, or French Commune, for which work the best, if not the
only, materials are upon the other side of the Ocean. On the
other hand, not even Deutscher Fleiss, or a German University,
or the British Museum, can amass and control the materials,
manuscript and printed, relating to a single American city or one
56 Cooperation in University Work.
of the older New England Towns. And yet such resources can
easily he commanded by Americans at home, through the media-
tion of State Historical Societies, or through connection with
American antiquarians and local historians. Why should Amer-
icans attempt to write the history of foreign governments, foreign
institutions, old world economies, when there is so much to do
upon home-ground ? The results of European investigations lie
before our very doors, and can be employed in a thousand legiti-
mate ways for the upbuilding of American Institutional and
American Economic History. Pioneer work and fresh discoveries
are everywhere possible in this country; but this cannot be said
so emphatically of the Old World. All the benefit of scientific
method and scholarly training that could be derived from travers-
ing and re-traversing the archaeological fields of Europe, may be
enjoyed in America, with the additional advantage of finding new
truth in independent ways.
No country has such scientific possibilities as America, where
in a College Town of 12,000 inhabitants, like Northampton, Mas-
sachusetts, one individual, Judge Forbes, leaves a bequest of over
two hundred thousand dollars for a free public library " of science
and the arts in their broadest acceptation, of ancient and modern
history, and of the literature of our own and other nations ; " or
where, as in the city of Baltimore, another individual, George
Peabody, endows with $1,250,000 an institute, comprising, (in
addition to lecture courses, a conservatory of music, and an art
gallery), "an extensive library, to be well furnished in every
department, to satisfy the researches of students who may be en-
gaged in the pursuit of knowledge not ordinarily attainable in the
private libraries of the country;" and where another individual,
Enoch Pratt, endows another public library with over a million
dollars; and where still another philanthropist endows a Univer-
sity and a Hospital upon a scientific basis with a total fund of
$7,000,000. And if such generous foundations are not enough to
gratify the growing wants of young Americans, there is the
expanding Library of Congress, the Library of the State Depart-
ment, with its manuscript treasures, the Smithsonian Institute,
and the scientific resources of the National Government, which,
through proper channels, may be commanded by the poorest
student.
Cooperation in University Work. 57
And yet even these prospects, my hearers, are not the widest
which are opening to view. Through University cooperation in
Baltimore, the individual scholar may now command the latest
results of scientific inquiry, even before it takes permanent form
in printed volumes and in the great libraries of Town, City, and
Nation. Through our University Journals, the teacher of science,
and the special student, even though removed from scientific cen-
tres, may learn of the progress of his department in this country
and in Europe. Through a system of scientific exchanges, now
developing in Baltimore, the Proceedings of learned societies, the
most recent discoveries in foreign laboratories of science are
quickly made known to American students. Through a New
Book Department, the freshest monographs and the newest books,
French, German, and English, are brought to student-notice
immediately upon publication, so that Americans in Baltimore
are more sure of seeing these things than is possible in the smaller
German University towns, where such library organization is
unknown.
By organized, cooperative effort, American students earn estab-
lish organic relations with Europeau Universities, Old World
Societies, foreign magazines of a special character, scientific appli-
ances for publication, both in this country and in Europe, in
fact with the whole complex of Modern Science, into which no
individual student can possibly find his way without scientific
associations. Fellowship in Science will always afford the indi-
vidual greater strength than he can acquire alone. A connection
with learned societies, special libraries, special journals, is highly
advantageous. Cooperation in University work and the organi-
zation of scientific results are very important for American
students, who wish to advance the cause of special education in
this country, and thereby the cause of American Science.
Ill
Local Government in Illinois
Local Government in Pennsylvania
"It is not creditable to us as an educated people that while our students are well
acquainted with the state machinery of Athens and Rome, they should be ignorant of
the corresponding institutions of our own forefathers: institutions that possess a living
interest for every nation that realises its identity, and have exercised on the well-being
of the civilised world an influence not inferior certainly to that of the Classical
nations. " Stubbs, Select Charters.
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
1 N
Historical and Political Science
HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor
History is past Politics and Politics present History.- Freeman
III
Local Government in Illinois
By ALBERT SHAW, A. B.
Kepriiitecl from tlie Fortnightly Review
ANI>
Local Government in Pennsylvania
By E. R. L. GOULD, A. B.
Head before the Pennsylvania Historical Society, May I, ISS2
P. A LT I M (i i: K
Publishkd by Tin'. Johns Hopkins Inivkusiiv
JANUARY, 18 8.5.
JOHN MOKPHY & CO., PRINTERS,
BALTIMORE.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN ILLINOIS.
It is difficult to approach the study of the political systems
to-day iu operation in the new Western States without a
feeling that they are wholly artificial and superimposed in-
ventions rather than growths. Such preconceptions must in
good measure yield before a study of the simple facts. Arti-
ficial and mathematical as is that checker- board system of
local geography which a township map of Illinois depicts, it
nevertheless furnishes metes and bounds for local govern-
ments which are neither novel nor experimental, hut arc
transplanted scions from older growths of Anglo-Saxon com-
munal life, which have already taken firm root in prairie
soil and have easily adapted themselves to the modifying
influences of the new environment. It must he remembered
that the prairie farmer is descended from people who for cen-
turies have had the habit of attending to their own local
affairs ; and that with all bis fondness for paper constitutions
and minute written laws, he is but re enacting, under modi-
fied forms, the social arrangements under which the Auglo-
Saxon usually insists upon living, wherever yon transplant
him. The safeguards and maxims of the common law ari-
as truly the heritage of the young Anglo-Saxon in the Mis.
sissippi Valley as of his cousin on the Severn or the Thames.
The precise forms under which the people of Illinois are
to-day governing themselves have been largely shaped by
certain facts in the history of the State, and will be best un-
derstood in the light of a preliminary historical sketch.
Migration from the Atlantic States to (lie interior and
Western States has always followed the parallels of latitude.
A
t> Local Government in Illinois.
Illinois is a remarkable illustration of this tendency. A
glance at the map will show that the State's greatest length
(nearly four hundred miles) is from north to south ; and that
the parallels which mark its northern and southern limits
include the sea-board States from New Hampshire to North
Carolina. Natural^', then, Southern Illinois derived its
population from Virginia and other Southern States, while
Northern Illinois was chiefly settled from Massachusetts and
other New England States. The inquiry into the habits and
opinions of government which these people brought with
them to their new homes must carry us a step further back.
M. de Tocqueville, who made his survey of American
institutions at. a time when the migratory tide was setting
strongly toward Illinois, and when her institutions were in a
formative stage, says that " two branches may be distin-
guished in the Anglo-American family, which have grown
up without entirely commingling the one in the north, the
other in the south." New England had been colonized by
men who were, in the language of the same writer, u neither
lords nor common people, neither rich nor poor." A people
so similar in education, so agreed in religious beliefs, and so
equal in property and in social rank, formed the best material
for a pure democracy that the world had ever seen. Gradu-
ally they covered New England with a congeries of small
self-governing agricultural communities, each with a strongly
individual character, and bearing some striking resemblances
to the ancient Teutonic "mark." Qualifications for the ex-
ercise of political privileges were not onerous, and the whole
body of qualified citizens were accustomed to assemble in
u town meetings," where they elected officers, discussed
neighborhood interests, made laws, and voted taxes. Even
when, after the separation from England, the State govern-
ments had become firmly established, the towns were still
permitted to make and administer most of those laws which
were of immediate concern to them. The legislature of the
State was composed of representatives from the towns, and
made laws which affected the towns only in matters of com-
mon interest. Such State laws, furthermore, were executed
Local Government in Illinois. 7
by the town officers within their respective jurisdictions.
The New England county was an aggregation of towns to
constitute a judicial district, wherein might be maintained
a judiciary establishment midway between the justices'
courts of the towns and the superior court of the State. The
county had no very distinct political character. As a whole,
the New England system was one highly localized both in
administration and in authority.
In Virginia the structure of society was radically dif-
ferent. Opposed to the small freeholds of New England, we
find from the beginning a tendency to mass the land in large
estates. The institution of slavery, which always dishonors
and degrades free labor, forbade the growth of a strong
middle class. The wealthy planter had no interest in com-
mon with his tenants and servants. The communal life of
village or neighborhood could not develop under such an
industrial system. The planter was a sort of feudal lord on
his own domain, and local self-rule by majorities found no
place. We find territorial divisions, but chiefly for con-
venience in limiting the jurisdiction of courts, collecting
State taxes, and holding State elections. The State Govern-
ment was the centre both of authority and administration.
The Governor appointed all justices of the peace throughout
the State. The justices residing in any county constituted
a county court, which, in addition to judicial functions, was
intrusted with the management of all the county Imsiness.
This court co-operated with the Governor in appointing
sheriff and coroner. It appointed constables and road com-
missioners, levied taxes, and when the State had made some
provision for schools, the county court appointed the board
of school commissioners. A landed aristocracy thus became
the State's fiscal agents, the local magistrates, and the sole
managers of county affairs. The subdivisions of the county
for elections, schools, and care of paupers, were mere parti-
tions of territory, without political significance.
These two diverse systems of New Kngland and Virginia
were destined to meet and to strive for supremacy in Nlinois.
Though Illinois forms a part of the vast territory claimed
8 Local Government in Illinois.
by the British Crown in virtue of Cabot's voyage of 1498,
and was, in part, included in the original Virginia grant, it
nevertheless was in possession of the French until finally
ceded to England at the close of the "French and Indian
War," in 1763. French peasants to the number of three
thousand had formed village settlements in the southern part
of the State, on the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. For
fifteen years they maintained a military government, with
headquarters at the French village of Kaskaskia. In 1778,
during the Revolutionary War, the State of Virginia sent
out a little force of men, who made their way through the
wilderness, took Kaskaskia, and readily persuaded all the
French villagers to swear allegiance to Virginia. That en-
terprising commonwealth proceeded to organize Illinois as a
Virginia county, including under that name the entire coun-
try north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi. Although
before a decade had elapsed Virginia and the other individual
States had ceded their western territories to the United
States, Illinois had already received some impress of Vir-
ginian forms of government.
Under the famous "Ordinance of 1787," Congress estab.
lished a provisional government for the country north of the
Ohio, which now took the name of the "Northwestern Ter-
ritory." This charter did not provide for municipal corpo-
rations. It allowed the people a representative assembly,
and exacted a very low property qualification from electors.
While the Legislature was permitted to make all needful
laws, the Governor, himself appointed by Congress, was au-
thorized by the ordinance to appoint all minor officers
throughout the territory. This, manifestly, was after the
Virginian pattern, and was, in fact, the work of no less a Vir-
ginian statesman than Mr. Jefferson. But, while the ordi-
nance made no provision for the immediate exercise of local
self-government, it did establish principles which formed a
basis for the healthy municipal life of a later period. It or.
dained free trade in land, and the law of partible inheritance
by which all the children of an intestate were equal heirs.
Add to these two the provision forever excluding slavery,
Local Government in Illinois. ( j
and a landed aristocracy becomes impossible a citizenship
of small freeholders is infallibly guaranteed. Among other
rights forever confirmed to the people by this enlightened
Charter of 1787, we find freedom of opinion and worship,
trial by jury, the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus, the
_ judicial methods of the common law, and proportionate repre-
sentation.
One by one Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana were carved from
the Northwestern Territory, till, in 1800, Illinois was erected
into a territorial government under its present name. In
1818 it was allowed to form a State constitution, and passed
from its political wardship to the status of a self-controlling
commonwealth. Meantime, immigration had been almost
exclusively directed to the southern part of the State. The
early French settlements, and Virginia's temporary connec-
tion with them, seem to have been the determining influences
in producing a fact which is the key to much of the legisla-
tive history of the State, viz., that the southern half of the
State was settled earliest, and that these pioneers were from
Virginia, Kentucky, and the Carolinas. It was they who
formed the Constitution of 1818, and the instrument hears
witness to the origin of its authors. It is true that these
sturdy frontier-men were not from aristocratic ranks of
Southern society. They may be said to represent that re-
vival of democracy and of the old Anglo-Saxon spirit which
the second war with England awakened in the lower classes
of the South; and their exodus to the free soil of the wilder-
ness may be characterized as a protest against the semi-feud-
alism that was crushing them in Virginia. Nevertheless.
they were Southern men, accustomed to Southern forms of
government, and intensely prejudiced against anything that
savored of Xew England.
At the time of its admission to the Union, Illinois was di-
vided into fifteen large counties. The Constitution of 1818,
and laws made pursuant to it, placed the entire business
management of each count}' in the hands of a court of three
County Commissioners. We have here a reproduction of the
Virginia Court, with two important differences, however:
10 Local Government in Illinois.
First, these Commissioners were elected by the people of the
county; and, second, by a process of differentiation, this Illi-
nois Court had no judical functions, the county judiciary
being made a distinct tribunal. The people also chose in
every county ;i sheriff, coroner, clerk, treasurer, surveyor, and
recorder. The Commissioners appointed election judges, road
supervisors, and overseers of the poor, dividing the county
into districts for these purposes. Every election precinct was
entitled to two justices of the peace, who were appointed by
the Governor of the State. After 1826, however, the people
of each precinct were allowed to elect their justices. The
Commissioners had a narrow range of discretionary power,
but there was no power given to communities to control
local affairs, or to enact by-laws in promotion of neighbor-
hood interests.
But even at this time there had been planted in Illinois,
and throughout the whole West, a germ capable, under right
conditions, of developing a highly organized township system.
In dividing and designating the public domain, the Congress
of the United States had early adopted the system of survey
into bodies six miles, square, and had given these divisions
the New-England name of toicnships. For purposes of record
and sale, each township was divided into thirty-six sections
a mile square, and these were further subdivided. Every
man held his land by a deed which reminded him that his
freehold was part of a township, and there is much even in a
name. But further than this, the United States had given to
the people of every township a mile of land, the proceeds of.
which should be a permanent township school-fund. To
give effect to this liberal provision, the State enacted a law
making the township a body corporate and politic for school
purposes, and authorizing the inhabitants to elect school
officers and maintain free schools. Here, then, was a rudi-
ment of local government. As New-England township life
grew up around the church, so western localism finds its
nucleus in the school system. What more natural than that
the county election district should soon be made to coincide
with the school township, with a school-house for the voting-
Local Government in Illinois. 11
place? or, that justices of the peace, constables, road super-
visors, and overseers of the poor, should have their' jurisdic-
tions' determined by those same township lines?
The admission of Missouri to the Union as a slave State.
under the " Compromise Bill" of 1820, seems to have turned
the tide of southern migration toward that quarter; while
from that time the free State of Illinois began to receive con-
stant and strong accessions from New England and New
York. The northern counties particularly were filled with
swarms from the eastern hive. There resulted a sectional
bitterness and strife in legislative councils, northern ideas
gradually hecoming dominant. The struggle culminated in
the convention which met in 1847 to revise the constitution,
and in good measure ceased with the adoption of the revised
instrument the following year. This constitution met the
question of local government with a compromise. It provided
that the Legislature should enact a general law for the poli-
tical organization of townships, under which any county
might act whenever a majority of its voters should so deter-
mine. Under the Act accordingly passed by the General
Assembly, all the northern counties proceeded promptly to
adopt township organization, while the southern counties
retained their old county system described above. This was
one of those happy, but unusual, compromises whereby both
parties gain their principle. It was rendered possible by
the distinctly sectional line of demarcation which separated
the two elements of population. In Ohio and Indiana the
same diverse elements of population had been more thor-
oughly commingled; and their "compromise system"' was
the outcome of mutual concession a hybrid affair, in which
township organization was very limited and imperfect.
The form of township government adopted by the Illinois
Legislature was a modification of the New England system,
changes being made to meet western conditions. It may be
regarded as the model system of the Union. One by one the
southern counties of the State have become converted to it,
until at the present time only about one-fifth of the one
hundred and two counties in Illinois cling to the old county
12 Local Government in Illinois.
system. "Without comment on the minute changes made in
the course of thirty years' legislation, we may pass to a view
of the local institutions as they are now in operation.
When the people of a county have voted to adopt the
township system, the commissioners proceed to divide the
county into towns, making them conform with the congres-
sional or school townships, except in special cases. Every
town is invested with corporate capacity to be a party in
legal suits, to own and control property, and to make con-
tracts. The annual town-meeting of the whole voting popu-
lation, held on the first Tuesday in April for the election of
town officers and the transaction of miscellaneous business,
is the central fact in the town government. The following
is a summary of what the people may do in town-meeting:
They may make any orders concerning the acquisition, use,
or sale of town property ; direct officers in the exercise of
their duties; vote taxes for roads and bridges, and for other
lawful purposes; vote to institute or defend suits at law;
legislate on the subject of noxious weeds, and offer rewards
to encourage the extermination of noxious plants and ver-
min ; regulate the running at large of cattle and other ani-
mals ; establish pounds, and provide for the impounding and
sale of stray and trespassing animals; provide public wells
and watering-places; enact by-laws and rules to carry their
powers into effect ; impose fines and penalties, and apply
such fines in any manner conducive to the interests of the
town.
The town officers are a supervisor, who is ex-offieio over-
seer of the poor, a clerk, an assessor, and a collector, all of
whom are chosen annually; three commissioners of high-
ways elected for three years, one retiring every year; and
two justices of the peace and two constables, who hold office
for four years.
On the morning appointed for the town-meeting, the voters
assemble, and proceed to choose a moderator, who presides
for the day. Balloting for town officers at once begins, the
supervisor, collector, and assessor acting as election judges.
Every male citizen of the United States who is twenty-one
Local Government in Illinois. 13
years old, who has resided in the State a year, in the county
ninety days, and in the township thirt}- days, is entitled to
vote at town-meeting; but a year's residence in the town is
required for eligibility to office. At two o'clock, the mode-
rator calls the meeting to order for the consideration of busi-
ness pertaining to those subjects already enumerated. Every-
thing is done by the usual rules and methods of parliamentary
bodies. The clerk of the town is secretary of the meeting,
and preserves a record of all the proceedings. Special town-
meetings may be held whenever the supervisor, clerk, and
justices, or any two of them, together with fifteen voters,
shall have filed with the clerk a statement that a meeting is
necessary, for objects which they specify. The clerk then
gives public notice in a prescribed way. Such special meet-
ings act only upon the subjects named in the call.
The supervisor is both a town and a county officer. If' is
general manager of town business, and is also a member of
the County Board, which is composed of the supervisors of
the several towns, and which has general control of the
county business. As a town officer, he receives and pays
out all town money, excepting the highway and school
funds. His financial report is presented by the clerk at
town-meeting. The latter officer is the custodian of the
town's records, books, and papers.
The highway commissioners, in their oversight of roads
and bridges, are controlled by a large body of statute law.
and by the enactments of the town-meeting. Highways are
maintained by taxes levied on real and personal property,
and by a poll tax of two dollars, exacted from every able-
bodied citizen between the ages of twenty-one and fifty. It
may be paid in money, or in labor under the direction of
the commissioners. One of the commissioners is constituted
Treasurer, and he receives and pays out all road moneys.
The supervisor acts as overseer of tin 1 poor. The law
leaves it to be determined by the people of a county whether
the separate towns or the county at large shall assume the
care of paupers. When the town has tin- matter in charge,
the overseer generally provides for the indigent by a system
14 Local Government in Illinois.
of out-door relief. If the county supports the poor, the
County Board is authorized to establish a poor-house and
farm for the permanent care of the destitute, and temporary
relief is afforded by the overseers in their respective towns,
at the county's expense.
The Board of Town Auditors, composed of the super-
visor, the clerk, and the justices, examine all accounts of
the supervisor, overseer of poor, and highway commission-
ers; pass upon all claims and charges against the town, and
audit all bills for compensation presented by town officers.
The accounts thus audited are kept on tile by the clerk for
public inspection, and are reported at the next town meeting.
The supervisor, assessor, and clerk constitute a Board of
Health. The clerk records their doings, and reports them at
the meeting of the town.
~Ho stated salaries are paid to town officers. They are
compensated according to a schedule of fixed fees for specific
services, or else receive certain per diem wages for time ac-
tually employed in official duties. The tax-collector's emo-
lument is a percentage.
The Justices of the Peace have jurisdiction in minor
criminal cases, in civil suits, when the amount in controversy
does not exceed the value of two hundred dollars, and in all
actions brought for violation of city- or town ordinances.
For school purposes, the township is made a separate and
distinct corporation, with the legal style, " Trustees of
Schools of Township , Range ," according to the num-
ber by which the township is designated in the Congressional
Survey. The School Trustees, three in number, are usually
elected with the officers of the civil township at town-meet-
ing, and hold office for three years. They organize by
choosing one of their number President, and by selecting
some fourth person for School Treasurer, who shall also be,
ex-officio, their secretary. They have authority to divide the
township into school districts. It must be remembered that
the township is exactly six miles square. It is the custom
to divide it into nine districts two miles square, and to erect
a school-house near the centre of each. As the county roads
Local Government in Illinois. 15
are in most instances constructed on the section lines and
therefore run north and south, east and west, at intervals of
a mile the traveller expects to find a school-house at every
alternate crossing. The people who live in these suit-dis-
tricts elect three school directors, who control the school in
their neighborhood. They are obliged to maintain a free
school for not less than five nor more than nine months in
every year, are empowered to build and furnish school-
houses, hire teachers, and fix their salaries, and determine
what studies shall be taught. They may levy taxes on all
the taxable property in their district, but are forbidden to
exceed a rate of two per cent, for educational or three per
cent, for building purposes. They certify to the township
school treasurer the amount they require, and it is collected
as hereafter described. This last-named officer holds all
school funds belonging to the township, and pays out on the
order of the Directors of the several districts.
The township funds for the support of schools arise from
three sources. (1) The proceeds of the school lands given
by the United States Government, the interest from which
alone may be expended. (2) The State annually levies on
all property a tax of one fifth of one per cent., which con-
stitutes a State school fund, and is divided among the coun-
ties in the ratio of their school population, and is further
distributed among the townships in the same ratio. (3) Any
amount needed in addition to these sums is raised by taxa-
tion in the districts under authority of the directors.
All persons between the ages of six and twenty-one years
are entitled to free-school privileges. Women are eligible
to every school office in the State, and are frequently chosen
directors.
The average Illinois county contains sixteen townships.
The county government is established at some place desig-
nated by the voters, and called the "county seat.'' The
corporate powers of the county are exercised by the County
Board, which in counties under township organization is
composed of the several town supervisors, while in other
counties it consists of three commissioners elected by the
16 Local Government in Illinois.
people of the whole county. The Board manage all county
property, funds, and business ; erect a court-house, jail, poor-
house, and any necessary buildings; levy county taxes, audit
all accounts and claims against the county, and, in counties
not under township organization, have general oversight of
highways and paupers. Even in counties which have given
the care of highways to the townships, the County Board
may appropriate funds to aid in constructing the more im-
portant roads and expensive bridges. The proceedings of
the Board are recorded by the County Clerk, who also draws
orders on the Treasurer for all claims which they have
audited and allowed. In his office, official bonds and other
important papers are filed and recorded.
The treasurer, sheriff, coroner, and surveyor are county
functionaries, who perform the duties usually pertaining to
their offices. The County Superintendent of Schools has
oversight of all educational matters, advises town trustees
and district directors, and collects complete school statistics,
which he reports to the County Board, and transmits to the
State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Every county elects a judge, who has full probate juris-
diction, and appoints administrators, executors, and guar-
dians. He also has jurisdiction in civil suits at law involv-
ing not more than $1,000, in such minor criminal cases as
are cognizable by a justice of the peace, and may entertain
appeals from justices' or police courts. The State is divided
into thirteen judicial districts, in each of which the people
elect three judges, who constitute a Circuit Court. The tri-
bunal holds two or more sessions annually in each county
within the circuit, and is attended at every term by a grand
and a petit jury. It has a general original jurisdiction, and
hears appeals from the County Judge and from Justices'
Courts. To complete the judicial system of the State, there
are four Appellate Courts and one Supreme Court of last
resort.
Taxes, whether for State, county, or town purposes, are
computed on the basis of the assessment made by the
Town Assessoi, and are collected by the Town Collector.
Local Government in Illinois. 17
The assessor views and values all real estate, and requires
from all persons a true list of their personal property. The
assessor, clerk, and supervisor constitute a Town Equalizing
Board, to hear complaints, and to adjust and correct the
assessment. The assessors' books from all the towns then
go before the County Board, who make such corrections as
shall cause valuations in one town to bear just relation to
valuations in the others. The County Clerk transmits an
abstract of the corrected assessment of the county to the
Auditor of State, who places it in the hands of a State
Board of Equalization. This board adjusts valuations be-
tween counties. All taxes are estimated and collected on
this finally corrected assessment. The State authorities, the
county board, the town supervisors, the highway commis-
sioners, the township school trustees, and the proper offi-
cers of incorporated cities and villages, all certify to the
county clerk a statement of the amount they require for
their several purposes. The clerk prepares a collection book
for each town, explaining therein the sum to be raised for
each purpose. Having collected the total amount, the col-
lector disburses to each proper authority its respective quota.
In all elections, whether for President of the United
States, representatives of Congress, State officers, or county
officers, the township constitutes an election precinct, and
the supervisor, assessor, and collector sit as the election
judges.
The words "town" and "township," as they occur in this
article, signify a territorial division of the county, incorpo-
rated for purposes of local government. There remains to he
mentioned a very numerous class of municipal corporations-
known in Illinois statutes as "villages" and "cities." A
minimum population of three hundred, occupying territory
not more than two square miles in extent, may, by popular
vote, become incorporated as a " village," under provisions
of the general law. Six village trustees arc chosen, and they
make one of their number president", thereby conferring on
him the general duties of a mayor. At their discretion, the
trustees appoint a clerk, a treasurer, a street commissioner, a
18 Local Government in Illinois.
village constable, and other officers, as they deem necessary.
The people may elect a police magistrate, whose jurisdiction
is equal to that of a justice of the peace. When a territory
not more than four square miles in extent contains at least
one thousand inhabitants, the general law provides for or-
ganization and incorporation as a u city." Its government
will consist of a mayor and aldermen, who constitute the
city council. Cities whose population does not exceed three
thousand, are divided into three wards, each ward electing
two aldermen. The number of wards and aldermen increases
in the ratio of population. Mayor and aldermen are elected
for two years. The mayor has a veto on the ordinances of
the council, though he may be overruled by a two-thirds vote.
The council controls a wide range of subjects, which are spe-
cified in the statutes of the State. They manage the city's
finances, appropriating money, levying taxes, and borrowing
money though the city's total indebtedness may never ex-
ceed five per cent, of its assessed .valuation. Their authority
extends to streets, gas and water supply, parks, harbors,
markets, cemeteries, public amusements, the liquor traffic,
police and police courts, jails and workhouses, the fire de-
partment, and numerous other city interests. They have
power to make ordinances, and affix penalties, not exceeding
six months' imprisonment, or a fine of two hundred dollars.
Other city officers vary with the population, and need not be
enumerated.
These incorporated villages and cities remain parts of the
civil township, and share in the burdens and privileges of
town government. They also remain parts of the school
township, and are' subject to the general provisions of the
school law, excepting that in school districts containing
more than two thousand inhabitants the three district direc-
tors are superseded by a board of education consisting of six
members, and of three additional members for every ten
thousand of additional population. Such districts must
support schools from six to ten months in the year, may be
divided into sub-districts, and may employ a superintendent
of schools.
Local Government in Illinois. 19
Such is a synopsis of local self-government in Illinois;
and such, with more or les^ important differences, are the
minor political institutions of nearly every State in the
Union. Without a high conception of their influence no
just estimate of the American character is possible. They
have been the training-school for popular rule and represent-
ative institutions. They have acquainted the masses with
principles of practical politics, and have given them that
" habit of political debating and acting which is essential to
the training of intelligent and useful citizens." The town-
ship system, Old England's best gift to the nation, has always
been the groundwork and basis of democracy in America.
LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA.
Few perhaps fully realize the importance of a comprehen-
sive study of local institutions. The centralizing tendencies
of the present time are so strong, that the attention of the
student of political science is apt to he concentrated upon
federal rather than on local authority. He is prone to over-
look the fact that the nation is a highly composite organism
of which the state, the county, and the township, are sub-
ordinate, but very essential members. He is liable to forget
that an inadequate or improper performance of functions by
the latter is attended by an infusion of disorder, which in-
terrupts the harmonious workings of the whole.
The scope of the present paper will not extend beyond a
sketch of those three departments of local management
embraced under the heads of Rates and Levies, Roads and
Bridges, and the Poor. The early administration of colonial
justice has already been treated in an excellent essay on the
"Courts of Pennsylvania in the 17th Century," by Mr. Law-
rence Lewis, Jr., while the question of Public Schools will
be reserved for future discussion.
Before proceeding to give a minute description of Local
Self-Government as at present administered in the Quaker
State, we shall briefly consider its institutional development.
Institutions are not the creations of a single mind nor the
products of a separate age. They represent a growth, an
evolutionary process. They are the great unities of history.
They progress as the social order changes, and we must dili-
gently study their varying stages of development to intelli-
gently comprehend their present character.
In the first place, we shall portray the method of local
administration which obtained when the Duke of York
possessed the territory which now comprises the States of
20
Local Self-Government in Pennsylvania.
21
New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and part of New Jersey.
We venture to do so because of the interest such a sketch
will afford from an historical point of view, and also because
it will furnish an excellent parallel to the later system of
Pennsylvania under Proprietary government. Moreover, the
Duke's "Book of Lawes," with few exceptions, formed the
legal basis of the proceedings of the courts upon the Dela-
ware after the year 1G7G. 1 We shall speak more particularly
of these courts in relation to their legislative character in a
subsequent part of the present paper. They claim our atten-
tion because they possessed not only judicial functions, but
exercised in addition an important control over local affairs,
during the years which immediately preceded the arrival of
William Perm.
The administration of the Duke of York was a close
imitation of the English system. It recognized the old
municipal divisions of ridings, towns, and parishes. The
chief officer of the former was a High Sheriff, while the
interests of the latter were presided over by a Constable, and
a Board of Overseers, at first eight, but afterwards four in
number. The sheriff was selected yearly by the governor from
three nominees presented to him by the justices of the last
sessions. The town officers were directly the choice of the
people. The constable was chosen for one year; the overseers
for two, one-half of them retiring annually. Under this
primary colonial regime the principal unit of local govern-
ment was the town or parish. Each town bad its own peculiar
constitution and by-laws, which, when sanctioned by the
court of sessions, became the basis of its own administration.
Such constitution and laws were framed by the constable and
a majority of the overseers, and local observance became
binding upon local inhabitants. Every town had likewise
1 That these enactments were in force in 10TG is clear by the following.
Tt was one of the provisions of the " Hook of Lawes" that, " no jury shall
exceed the number of seaven nor be under six unless in special causes upon
Life and Death." This year, at Whorekill, in a suit about some tobacco, "the
president of the court and six. of seven of the jury, acknowledged their pro-
ceedings to be erroneous, etc." Hazard, Annals of Pennsylvania, p. 425.
15
22 Local Self- Government in Pennsylvania.
its own court, 1 held at convenient intervals, whore small cases
were heard and decided by its officers. The constable and
overseers were also, cx-qfficio, church-wardens, and in this
capacity were the ecclesiastical governors and moral guar-
dians of the parish. They not only made provision in the
rates for the support of the church and minister, but it w -as
their further duty to make known to the semi-annual court
of sessions all unpunished transgressions of the moral code. 2
There were two taxes, the public charge, the proceeds of
which were applied to the maintenance of the general civil,
military, and ecclesiastical authority ; and the town rate,
which went to the support of purely local government.
Both were levied and collected in exactly the same manner.
Upon the receipt of a " precept" from the sheriff of the riding,
the constable and overseers of the various towns made out a
list of taxable persons and appraised all real and personal
property. These statements were returned to the sheriff, who,
having examined and certified them, transmitted them to the
governor. If any inhabitant thought he had been unfairly
dealt with in his assessment, he could make complaint to the
court of sessions, and there have his grievance redressed.
The law which governed collections reads as follows: "The
constable shall appoint a day and place and give reasonable
warning to the inhabitants to bring in their proportions,
upon which every man so warned shall duely attend to bring
in his rates, etc." 3 Constables were held responsible for the
1 The "Towne Court" of the Duke's Laws is a very ancient institution.
It is the court of the tithing or township transformed. It represents the
survival of the Anglo-Saxon ' tun-gemot." The establishment of these
local self-governing communities in the English colonies of America, is sim-
ply a repetition of the course pursued by our Saxon forefathers, in their set-
tlement of Britain.
2 This kind of censorship was exercised, during the first few years of Pro-
prietary rule, by the Grand Jury. For an example, see Watson, Annals of
Philadelphia, vol. ii. p. 91.
The following presentment at the Chester Co. Court, in 1683, though of a
quite different character, is somewhat amusing: "The Grand Jury present
want of rings to the snouts of swine."
3 Duke of York's Laws, pp. 49, 50.
Loccll Self- Government in Pennsylvania. 23
collection of the rates, and were empowered to recover arrear-
ages by process of law, even after their term of oiiice had
expired. When the full amount of the levy could not he
obtained, the deficiency was supplied by an extra assessment.
Produce was received instead of money, in payment of the
town and public taxes. Xone were exempt from taxation
except justices of the peace and indigent persons, and even
the justices were subsequently made liable for the town levy.
Local taxation was designed chiefly for the support of the
poor and for the maintenance of parochial churches. 1 The
needy and the helpless of every parish were the especial
charge of the church wardens. They were doubtless con-
sidered more in the light of an ecclesiastical than a civil re-
sponsibility. Under this regime, we see that county govern-
ment in the form we now know it, did not practically exist.
The riding, it is true, came in as a division between the town
and the province, but it had little or no significance as a
political factor. It simply represented an aggregation of
towns or parishes, and possessed no organized system of
municipal government. That such was the case is shown by
the following law regarding lunatics. "That in regard the
conditions of distracted persons may bee both xevy charge-
able and troublesome, and so will [trove too great a burthen
for one towne alone to bearc, each towne in the rideing where
such person or persons shall happen to bee, are to contribute
1 "Churches shall bee built within three years after this assize, to which
end a Towne Kate may bee made, to begin with thisyea.ro." Duke of York's
Laws, p. 63.
Upon the Delaware, ministers seem to have been supported by voluntary
subscriptions. The petition of the Court of New Castle to the <rovernor in
KITS was to the effect that he would " grant leave and permission to obtain
and have an orthodox minister, to bo maintained by the gilt of the free ami
willing givers.' - Hazard. Annals, p. 4f>.">. This rcquosl wasp-anted. /'</',/.
p. 458.
Ministers who were supported out of the " Towne Hate." elsewhere in the
Duke's dominions, could not always have been in the established chunh.
since, according to the report ot Hishop Compton in KJSI). there were at
that time on\y four clergymen of the Church of Kugland in North America.
Hazard. Annals, p. 409.
24 Local Self-Governmtnt in Pennsylvania.
towards the charge which may arise upon such occasions." 1
Each town, therefore, helped to bear the burden, but the con-
tributions were made distinctly and separately, and not as
individual quotas to a permanent county rate. The town or
parish was of much greater importance than in later times.
It dealt with the leading questions of local government, and
its constable and overseers formed a legislative body whose
acts, as we have already seen, could only be disallowed by
judicial negation. 2
After the conquest of the Dutch settlements upon the
Delaware by Sir Robert Carre, in 1664, it was agreed that
the magistrates then in power should be continued, for a time
at least, in the enjoyment of their civil jurisdiction. In
1668 we have the record of the constitution of a court, con-
sisting of a schout and five counsellors, appointed tor two
years. 3 English laws were not immediately imposed upon
the people, but it was ordained that the Duke's enactments
"be showed and frequently communicated to the said coun-
sellors, and all others, to the end that being therewith ac-
quainted, the practice of them also in convenient time be
established." 4 The result thus gradually aimed at was finally
consummated by the precept of 1672, which declared "Eng-
lish laws to be established in the town and river. The office
of schout to be converted into sheriff for the corporation and
river, to be chosen annually." 8 In 1676 a proclamation from
Governor Andross set forth that the Duke's "Book of Lawes,"
with the exception of the enactments regarding constables'
1 Duke of York's Laws, p. 64.
2 "The Constable by and with the consent of five at least of the overseers
for the time being, have power to drdaine such and so many peculier Con-
stitutions as are necessary to the welfare and improvement of their Towne
and if any inhabitants shall neglect or refuse to observe them, the Constable
and overseers shall have power to Levie (such) fines by distress; Provided
that they (the constitutions) bee not of a Criminall Nature and that every
such peculier Constitution be confirmed by the Court of Sessions within four
months (later by the next Court) after the making thereof." pp. 50, 51.
3 Hazard, Annals, p. 371. * Ibid. p. 372.
6 Ibid. p. 397.
Local Self- Government in Pennsylvania. 25
courts, 1 county rates, and a few other matters which pertained
particularly to Long Island, should form the basis of civil
administration along the Delaware. There were at this time
three general courts in operation : one at Xew Castle, one at
Upland, and one at Whorekill. These establishments were not
only of a judicial nature, but were also endowed with legis-
lative authority. They could enact "all necessary by-laws
or orders (not repugnant to the laws of the governor), to be
binding for the space of one whole year," 2 for the adminis-
tration of local matters within their respective districts.
They ha'd power to make " fitting rates for highways, poor,
and other necessaries.'' 3 This levy, on account of convenience,
generally took the form of a poll-tax ; 4 the constables making
out the list of "tydables." 5 It was the duty of the sheriff to
make collections. 6 No rates could be laid until the sanction
of the governor had been obtained. 7 For the better manage-
ment of roads and bridges, the court appointed yearly a
number of men to be overseers of highways and viewers of
fences. 8
The court also ordered the building and repair of churches 9
and selected the church wardens. 10 No mention is made of
the manner in which the poor were taken care of, but it is
altogether likely that they were the charge of the church
1 It is reasonably certain, that, notwithstanding Gov. Andross' proclama-
tion, constables' courts were in full operation upon the Delaware. One had
been established at New Castle in 1672 (Hazard, Annals, p. 39G-7), and
we have no record showing that it ceased to exercise its powers after the
above-mentioned ordinance was promulgated. On the contrary, the order
issued in 1G77, that the commons were to be regulated by the town, shows
that NewCastle still had some kind of separate government. In 1078,
permission was given to Elseburgh, a place within the jurisdiction of the
justices of New Castle, to have a constable's court. (Hazard, Annals, p.
458-9.) The record of the establishment of these courts in America fur-
nishes one more example of the reproduction of English institutions upon
colonial soil. The evidence of their survival is a point of some historical
interest, as it makes against the idea of Stubbs and llallam, who are inclined
to deny that the petty constable ever possessed judicial authority.
2 Hazard, Annals, p. 427. 3 Ibid p. 441. ' Ibid. p. 447.
5 Ibid. p. 442. 6 Ibid. p. 4 17. 7 Ibid. p. 428.
8 Ibid. p. 480. 9 Ibid. p. 407. ,0 Ibid. p. 401.
26 Local Self-Govamment in Pennsylvania.
wardens, as in New York. Though the court had the power
to lay a road-tax, we find no record that such a course was
pursued. It was the survival of an old feudal custom in
England which compelled all the inhabitants of a particu-
lar district to work upon the highways or else to suffer
certain pecuniary penalties in case they failed to fulfil the
requirement. This system was in vogue in the time of
Charles II., 1 and we have evidence that it also obtained in
Pennsylvania. " The imposition of a fine of 25 gilders, for
neglecting to work on the roads, was among the last acts of
Upland Court under the Duke's government." 2
The tenth section of the charter to William Penn gave
him the power to divide " the country and islands into towns,
hundreds 3 and counties." By a subsequent clause he also re-
ceived authority to erect manors, 4 and to introduce thereon
1 See Statutes of the Realm, 22 Charles II., ch. 12, 10, for fines imposed.
In case the labor required by statute was not sufficient to complete all neces-
sary repairs, a tax could be imposed to defray the expense of finishing the
remaining work. Ibid. 11.
2 Smith, History of Delaware Co., p. 124.
3 We have not been able to find any evidence to show that hundreds ever
existed as local divisions in Pennsylvania, although they were common in
Maryland and Delaware.
4 Mr. F. D. Stone, Librarian of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, has
called our attention to what may have been a manor in full operation upon
a similar basis to those in England. It is cited in Dr. George Smith's
History of Delaware County. It bore the name of the Welsh Barony, and
consisted of a tract of land comprising about 40,000 acres. The settlers
were Welsh Quakers, and amongst other immunities granted to them by their
charter, was the privilege to have " our bounds and limits by ourselves,
within the which all causes, Quarrels, crimes, and titles [shall be] tryed and
wholly determined by officers, magistrates [and] jurors of our own language,
which are our equals."
Tradition has it that a certain stone building situated upon the manor of
Moreland, was used in early times as a prison-house for the refractory
tenants and servants of the first Chief Justice. The whole subject is an
exceedingly interesting one, and will claim the attention of the writer in a
future paper. The subject of the Manorial System of Maryland is under
investigation by Mr. John Johnson, a graduate of the Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity. Mrs. Martha J. Lamb has undertaken the "Historic Manors of
New York."
Local Self-Government in Pennsylvania. 27
the English system of manorial government. We have seen
that the tendency of the Duke of York's laws was to centre
local government in the towns. Under the Proprietary ad-
ministration a totally different order of things was instituted.
The county now became the element of primal importance.
In fact it may be safely asserted, that, during nearly the entire
portion of the first half-century of the government of Penn
and his descendants, the town had little or no significance
as a political division. The county court of general sessions
was the real centre of authority, and all local affairs were
administered by officers which it commissioned. 1 Though
the town was afterwards admitted to a share of municipal
government, it has never quite regained the position it held
previous to 1682. We shall further notice, in passing, how
some matters were gradually handed over, conditionally, to
township control.
By an act passed in 1682, which was subsequently declared
a fundamental law, it was enjoined that no separate tax at
any time should continue longer than one year. The objects
for which county taxes were raised, were " for the support of
the Poor, building of prisons, or repairing them, paying the
salary of members belonging to the assembly, paying for
Wolf's Heads, expence of Judges, with many other necessary
charges." 2 It was the duty of the justices of the court of
sessions, with the assistance of the grand jury, to estimate
the general county expenses, and to make an assessment, upon
the basis of the provincial tax, to defray them. The enact-
ment of 1696 inaugurated a much more convenient system.
It provided that six assessors should be annually chosen for
each county, to act in conjunction with the justices and
grand jury, in determining public charges. This body could
levy a rate of one penny in the pound, and six shillings />, r
caput upon all freemen between 16 and 60 years of age. The
1 "The court about this time (IG8.">) appointed the justices, constables,
road overseers, etc." Watson, Annals of Philadelphia, vol. i. p. .'int. Seven
years later, in one county at least, the road overseers were elected by the
people. See Records of Chester Co. Court for lu'Xl.
2 Laws of the Province of Penna., 1G82-1700, p. -33.
28 Local Self- Government in Pennsylvania.
assessors heard and decided all appeals. The Proprietary
and his deputies were alone exempt from taxation. It was
the duty of the various constables to bring the assessors ;i
list of the taxable inhabitants of their districts, together with
an accurate valuation of property liable to taxation. The
assessment board determined, the required number of collec-
tors and appointed them. The county treasurer was also an
appointee of this body. It seems that the above method for
raising county rates did not prove satisfactory, since nume-
rous supplemental acts were passed to make provision for the
collection of arrearages.
In 1724 a new system was introduced, which, though not
unlike the former in its essential features, yet prescribed a
mode of procedure somewhat different from that recognized
by previous law. It provided for the election of three com-
missioners to perform the functions which had hitherto be-
longed to the court of sessions, with a few additional duties.
The commissioners issued the " precepts" to the constables,
constituted a tribunal for trying appeals, inaugurated pro-
ceedings against delinquent collectors, and imposed pecuniary
penalties upon the county treasurer, and the assessors for
neglect of duty. To facilitate the collection of rates, each
county was divided into a definite number of districts. The
limit to the assessment provided for by this enactment, was
fixed at three pence in the pound, and a nine shillings poll-
tax.
The Revolution did not change the form of local govern-
ment, which had obtained immediately before the year 1776.
There was no distinct difference between the administration
of the province and of the commonwealth. But in relation
to the topic at present under consideration, an advance was
made towards the present system in 1779. In that year the
assessment board, consisting of the three commissioners and
six county assessors, appointed 1 two assistant assessors for each
township, to discharge the duties which had hitherto devolved
upon the constables, in making the returns of taxable inhabit'
1 These officers were afterwards elected by the people.
Local Self -Government in Pennsylvania. 29
ants and property. By this act stringent measures were also
adopted for collecting unpaid rates. If settlement was not
made within thirty days, the delinquent's goods could be sold ;
and if, after three months' time, his obligations had not been
met, bis real estate could be seized and disposed of by the
commissioners to satisfy the claim. The office of clerk of the
commissioners, or county clerk, which still exists, was first
inaugurated at this time. Supplemental legislation this same
year- enacted, that the owners and not the occupiers of real
estate should be taxed. Afterwards a proviso was introduced
which caused all local rates to be assessed upon the basis of
the last State tax. The principle of the division of labor was
carried out in making the assessment, each county assessor,
with the two assistants, instead of the whole board, perform-
ing this duty for every separate district. Collectors were
now appointed by the commissioners alone. A return of all
county levies was required to be made annually to the general
assembly.
In early colonial times the management of roads and
bridges was vested in the county. All public highways
were laid out by order of the governor and council, 1 while
private roads, connecting with them, and cart-ways leading
to landing-places, were opened-up at the instance of the court
of quarter sessions, 2 if the viewers had previously made a
favorable report upon the projected enterprise. Roads and
bridges were made at the expense of the county; but it was
not unusual for a lottery 3 to be established to liquidate the
cost of the undertakings. The court named the overseers.
1 Colonial Records, vol. i. p. 163.
2 The court gave the order to proceed with the work, after the grand jury
had presented the need of a new road. Smith (Hist. Del. Co., ]>. 1(13) quotes
from the Chester County Court records the following : " The mad from Darby
to Haverford to be laid out by the grand jury and other neighbors." In
1699, six viewers were appointed to do work of this kind ; or rather to make
a report upon proposals regarding new roads.
3 Lotteries were often made use of to raise funds to open mads, construct
bridges, and build churches. For legislation authorizing these establish-
ments, see Laws of Pennsylvania.
30 Local Self-Government in Pennsylvania.
and these officers were responsible for the good repair of all
highways within their territorial limit. Every freeholder
was compelled when summoned to work upon the roads,
under penalty of a line if he refused to obey. Later enact-
ments transferred highways from county to township super-
vision, directing tlmt the latter should assume all financial
burdens entailed in their management. The overseers or
supervisors were thenceforth township officers, and two were
elected annually for each municipality. They were em-
powered to levy a road tax, within certain limits, after
having obtained the requisite permission from two justices
of the peace. They could also hire laborers to repair high-
ways and bridges if they thought fit, instead of summoning
the inhabitants to do the work as heretofore.
The Poor question has occupied the attention of the law-
makers of Pennsylvania to a considerable extent; and much
legislation is to be found upon the subject among the acts of
the general assembly. In early times numerous experiments
were tried, but the law of 1771 seems to have been the one,
which, on the whole, yielded the most satisfactory results.
It does not difler very materially from the present poor law
of the State. At an earlier period charity had been dispensed
at the instance and discretion of the county court; the funds
being supplied out of the regular county rate. The poor tax
had preference over all others, and was first paid in the dis-
bursement of the moneys. A curious expedient was resorted
to to prevent undeserving persons from receiving public sup-
port. Every recipient of relief was obliged to wear a badge
"with a large Roman (P) together with the first Letter of
the name of the county, city, or place, whereof such poor
person is an inhabitant, cut either in red or blue cloth." 1
1 It was customary in England, in addition to the ordinary punishment, to
mark criminals with the initial letter of the crime for which they had been
convicted. This proceeding was also followed in Pennsylvania. A part of
the sentence against Long Finne, for his rebellious acts, was that he should
be " branded on the face with the letter R." Hazard, Annals, p. 378. See
also Records of Chester Court, January 1, 1693, for the punishment accorded
to a woman who had been found guilty of fornication.
Local Self- Governm en t in Pen n sylva n la. 3 1
The act of 1771 provided for the appointment of two over-
seers in each township, by the justices of the peace, at a yearly
meeting specially convened for the purpose. These officers
could, with the authority of two justiecs, levy a three-pennv
rate on property, and a six shillings poll-tax as often as was
thought advisable. The amount thus -raised was employed
to provide subsistence, shelter, and employment for all those
whom misfortune had made a burden to society. The tax
was recoverable by ordinary process of law, and was levied
on the same basis as the county dues. T)ie overseers were
responsible for the collection of the amount assessed, and if
they refused to pay over moneys in their possession, they
were deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and punished with
imprisonment. They were required to keep an account of all
receipts and expenditures, and their books were audited by
three freeholders annually chosen by the people. A list of
the poor was kept on record, and an order From a justice of
the peace was necessary for the inscription of new names
therein. Strongly protective measures were adopted against
the growth of pauperism, as for example, the requirements
for gaining a legal settlement in a township, and the restric-
tions attached to the removal of the poor from one district to
another. ]S T ew-comers had to bring with them certificates,
and householders must give notice of the arrivals of guests
coming from any place outside of the province, except Europe.
Any one, to become legally settled, must have been an office-
holder for one year, or must have resided in the same locality
at least two years, and contributed to the poor fund. Widows
were deemed settled in the same place as their former hus-
bands, and indented servants must have performed one year
of service in some particular locality to fulfil the required
conditions of residence. All having near relatives who were
paupers, were compelled by the province to support them, it
in a position to do so. Notwithstanding all this defensive
legislation, and despite the influence of these well-timed
measures, it would appear that the demands upon public
charity were augmented instead of diminished. Complaints
were made from time to time that the means tor supporting
32 Local Self-Government in Pennsylvania.
the poor were entirely inadequate, and in 1779, an act was
passed limiting the rate at seven shillings and six pence in
the pound, and at not more than six pounds, and not less
than three pounds per poll. 1
The Present System.
Local self-government in Pennsylvania at the present time
affords a peculiarly interesting study, representing as it does
a condition of affairs in which neither the town polity of
New England nor the county administration of the South,
forms the decidedly predominating element. It occupies the
middle-ground between these two opposing phases of local
life. In the Southern States the county is the more impor-
tant factor, and its subdivisions are such only in name, exer-
cising but little control over their own affairs. In New
England, on the contrary, the highest political vitality is to
be found in the town. The system of Pennsylvania aims at
a partition of powers. The officers of the township assume
the management of local roads and highways, and in some
counties provide also for the support of the pauper popula-
tion. But while they have the power to impose a tax for
these purposes, rates can only be levied upon the basis of the
last adjusted county assessment, and the law prescribes certain
limits beyond which they cannot go. Furthermore, no pro-
' An explanation of this seemingly high rate is to be found in the fact,
that the continental currency had that year reached a very low state of
depreciation. There has been preserved in the Library of the Pennsylvania
Historical Society, a copy of a publication called the United States Maga-
zine, bearing the date of 1779, for which the subscription rates were $3.00
per copy or $24.00 a year! It is possible that the apparently high price
charged for this periodical may have been due, in some degree, to its wide-
spread popularity, and to the extraordinary demand indicated by the follow-
ing lines, taken from the dedicatory ode :
"Statesmen of assembly great ;
Soldiers that on danger wait ;
Farmers that subdue the plain ;
Merchants that attempt the main ;
Tradesmen who their labors ply ;
These shall court thy company;
These shall say, with placid mien,
Have you read the magazine?"
Local Self-Government in Pennsylvania. 33
vision is made for any such democratic institution as a town-
meeting, where the people nun - come together to vote appro-
priations, and to frame by-laws for their own government.
Xeither is the township represented by a supervisor upon the
county board, as in Xew York, Michigan, Illinois, and other
of the Northern and Xorth- Western States. The count v is
the leading local unit, and, under the commonwealth, may
be said to w T ield the largest share of political [tower. It
regulates affairs directly, and its officers are responsible to
the people for the exercise of administrative control. The
chief authority is vested in three commissioners, who are
elected for a term of three years. In addition to duties
which will be subsequently mentioned, this board is required
to transact the county business, to keep a record of its pro-
ceedings, to publish annually a correct account of all receipts
and expenditures of the previous year, to make an annual
statement to the secretary of the commonwealth of all sums
paid for the support and maintenance of justice, and to
have charge of the erection and control of the county public
buildings. Each county has also a treasurer, a surveyor, and
three auditors. It is not necessary to define the duties of these
functionaries. We do not include in this enumeration those
offices which pertain to the administration of justice, as it is
our intention to confine this discussion to purely municipal
matters.
A board of supervisors, generally two or three in number
constitutes the highest township authority. But this nume-
rical limit is not absolute, since the law provides for an in-
crease at the pleasure of the electors. The term of office of
this governing board extends over a period of three years.
There are also an assessor, two assistant assessors (in triennial
years), a town-clerk, a treasurer, three auditors, and two over-
seers of the poor, where the poor are a township charge.
Under a constitutional provision, the election of township
officers takes place annually on the third Tuesday of Feb-
ruary.
The county rates and levies are made in the following
manner. Every third year the board of commissioners issues
34 Local Self- Government in Pennsylvania.
a notice to the assessors of the different townships, requiring
them to return, within a certain specified time, a correct list
of the names of all taxable persons residing within their ter-
ritorial jurisdiction. The assessors and their assistants im-
mediately proceed to make out the required statement, and
to furnish also an accurate valuation of such real and personal
property as the law directs. Upon this basis, the commis-
sioners levy a certain rate per centum, which rate is uniform,
throughout the different townships. The commissioners
cause transcripts of the assessments to be prepared and fur-
nished to each assessor, together with the rate per centum of
the amount levied. They also fix a day on which appeals
shall be heard. The assessor is then required to give notice,
either written or printed, to every taxable inhabitant in
the township, of the amount for which he stands rated, and
to inform him also of the day set for hearing appeals. All
objections raised to the assessment are decided by the com-
missioners ; but if any inhabitant takes exception to their
ruling, he may present his case for final judgment before the
court of common pleas. The taxes thus levied are collected
by a collector for each township, appointed by the board of
commissioners. The selection is usually made in accordance
with the recommendation of the various assessors, though the
range of choice is not necessarily limited to such nominees.
The State taxes are furnished through the medium of the
several counties, and the commissioners perform the same
duties in relation to their levy and collection, and the same
proceedings are had regarding appeals, as in the case of
county rates.
The township has the power to lay certain rates indepen-
dently of county authority or jurisdiction. For instance,
the supervisors are authorized to assess the taxables of their
township for a sum not exceeding one cent on the dollar upon
the valuation of their property, to keep the roads, highways,
and bridges in good order. It is also the duty of the over-
seers of the poor, where the poor are in the charge of the
township, to make a similar provision for the support of the
indigent and helpless, having first obtained the consent of
Local Self-Government in Pennsylvania. &")
two justices of the peace. These rates can only he laid in
accordance with the last adjusted county valuation. The
township assessor aids in fixing the assessment, and collection
is made by persons designated hy the supervisors and over-
seers, in a meeting convened for the purpose.
Roads and highways lying within the boundaries of a
township are under its management. They are controlled
hy the Supervisors, and the expense of their good keeping is
borne out of the fund raised by the above-mentioned assess-
ment. It is allowable for any person to work out his road-
tax instead of paying it in money. This is usually done.
With this fact in view, and with the poor more generally
in the care of the county, it will be seen that the tendency
is to reduce purel}* township rates to a minimum. The super-
visors are also responsible for the repair and renewal of all
causeways and small bridges situated on township highways.
If a road forms the dividing line between two townships,
the expense of its good keeping is shared equally by the two
districts. When a number of inhabitants think it is advisa-
ble that a new highway should be opened up, they send a
petition to that effect to the court of quarter sessions. This
judicial body at once appoints viewers, who proceed to in-
spect the locality through which it is proposed the road shall
run. They make their report to the court, and if a favorable
view is entertained, the road is confirmed and viewed to
be opened. Damages, to be paid by the county, may be
awarded for any injury to property, even though the owners
were petitioners in behalf of the project. Bridges over
large rivers or streams, which would entail more expense in
construction than it is reasonable should be borne by one or
two townships, are built at the cost of the county. Pro-
ceedings are instituted at the order of the court of quarter
sessions, who act upon the representation of the township
supervisors, or a petition of interested inhabitants.
The poor are legally a township charge: though their
care is generally placed in the hands of the county commis-
sioners. In the latter event, the commissioners, with tin;
approval of the court of quarter sessions, select suitable real
estate, and erect thereon a building called a -House lor the
36 Local Self- Government in Pennsylvania.
Destitute." This establishment is used for tlie accommoda-
tion of all poor persons who have gained the required legal
settlement. Three citizens, one of whom is chosen every
year, constitute a board of directors. This body manages
the internal economy of the institution. It also has authority
to bind oijjt children as apprentices and to provide employ-
ment for the able-bodied poor. The directors furnish a
yearly financial estimate to the commissioners, so that due
provision may be made for a poor-fund in levying the
county rate. The board is further empowered to make
any suggestions which they may deem expedient, for im-
provements or alterations in the institution. It may grant
relief, to a limited extent, to needy persons who are not in-
habitants of the almshouse. The judges of the various courts
of the county, and ministers of the gospel of all denomina-
tions are, ex officio, visitors of the institution. In this capacity
they are entitled to examine into its general condition, and
to scrutinize the books of the hoard of directors. As soon as
the poor become the charge of the county, the office of over-
seer in the different townships is abolished.
When the poor are under the control of the township, their
care is entrusted to two overseers, and their maintenance
provided for by means of a small tax. The overseers are
obliged to furnish relief to all applicants for assistance, who
have gained a legal settlement in the township. Aid must
also be given to those who have not a legal settlement, until
they can be removed to their former place of residence. The
duties of the overseers in relation to binding out children as
apprentices, and finding suitable work for those capable of
active employment, are similar to those devolving upon the
county directors. No one is entitled to be placed upon the
poor-book without an order from two justices of the peace.
Every house-keeper receiving a transient poor person is re-
quired to give notice to the overseers within ten days after
such reception, or, in case of default, to become responsible
for all further maintenance.
A few isolated and comparatively unimportant exceptions
may occur to the method of local administration as set forth
in the preceding pages. These need not demand our present
Local Self- Government in Pennsylvania. 37
consideration. A general likeness pervades the municipal
organization of the State, and the foregoing sketch repre-
sents, as accurately as possible, that system which prevails
throughout the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Passing in rapid review the facts which have just claimed
our attention, we cannot help noticing the liberal methods
which, from the very first, existed in the administration of
local affairs. The control over matters pertaining to self-
government was not given to individual isolated commu-
nities, as in New England; nor was it concentrated in the
larger unit, the county, as in Virginia and Maryland. And
yet the system of Pennsylvania was quite as democratic as
the one, and as healthfully centralized as the other. The
power to make by-laws for municipal management, as well
as the authority to legislate for the entire province, was, from
the beginning, in the hands of the people or their delegates.
All public officers were either elected directly, or chosen by
those who were. Penn himself could not appoint even a
justice of the peace. The words of the historian Bancroft are
strictly true: "But for the hereditary office of Proprietary,
Pennsylvania had been a representative democracy."
The present system of local self-government does not belong
entirely, nor even largely, to the period of the commonwealth.
It has, of course, been improved and modified by enactments
since 1776, but, as a whole, it is simply the continuation of
provincial beginnings. The central idea upon which it is
based has been the same throughout. That idea is the in-
alienable right of the people to a control over their own
affairs, and may, doubtless, to some extent, be considered as
the practical realization of the words of Tenn: " if the people
want anything which will make them happy, 1 shall readily
grant it." The great principle of popular sovereignty was
virtually recognized by the illustrious founder of this State
in every department of its provincial administration; and
upon this foundation principle the political superstructure of
Pennsylvania has slowly and surely risen, until now it may
well be called the keystone of the arch of American Liberty.
Johns Hopkins Univkrsity,
Mav. 1882. c
IV
SAXON TITHINGMEN
IN AMERICA
" Iraposuerunt justiciaries super quosque x frithborgos, quos decanos possumus dicere,
Anglice autem tyenthe-heved vocati sunt, hoc est caput x." Law of Edward the Confessor.
" Praesit autem singulis hominum novenis decimus." Law of Henry I.
"A Tything-man in each Manor, a Constable in each Hundred." Bacon, Lines of
Maryland, 16S8.
"See to it that there bee one man appointed to inspect the ten families of his neigh-
bours, which tything man or men .... haue power, in the absence of the constable to
apprehend . . . . " Colonial Law of Massachusetts, 1677.
Tithing-Men are still annually chosen in the Town-Meetings of Northampton,
Massachusetts. Town Records, 1882.
"The History of Institutions .... abounds in examples of that continuity of life,
the realisation of which is necessary to give the reader a personal hold on the past and
a right judgment of the present. For the roots of the present lie deep in the past, and
nothing in the past is dead to the man who would'learn how the present comes to be
what it is." Sltibbs. Constitutional History of England.
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
I X
Historical and Political Science
HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor
History is past Politics and Politics present-History. Freeman
IV
SAXON TITHING-MEN
IN AMERICA
Read before the American Antiquarian Society, October 21, 1881
By HERBERT B. ADAMS, Ph. D.
B A LT I MO K K
Published by tiik Johns Hopkins Inivkkmm
February, l s ^
JOHN MURPHY A CO., PRINTERS,
BALTIMORE.
T I T H I N G M E N
By Hkubeut B. Adams.
The office of Tithingman has never been satisfactorily ex-
plained. New England traditions describe this institution
only in its later ecclesiastical form, which was by no means
its primitive character even in this country. The oldest
people in Xew England remember the Tithingman as a kind
of Sunday Constable, whose special duty it was, in the old
parish meeting-house, to quiet the restlessness of youth and
to disturb the slumbers of age. Many are the tales which
grandfathers can tell concerning this ancient watchman of the
congregation, who saw to it that all persons were attentive
except himself, and who occasionally broke the peace by
sharply rapping with his tune-book and pointing at some
whispering boy, or else by patrolling the aisles to arouse
sleeping saints by means of his black pole, tipped at one
end with brass. 1 In some churches there were two or three
1 This was the old English Tipstaffe, an emblem of the constabulary
office, and representing the person of the Kinic- We shall consider tlie
subject of the Tipstaffe or Black Rod more particularly in a paper on
" Constables." By the Province laws of Massachusetts (I. 1 .">.". :52'.t)
Tithingmcn were required to "have a black static of tun feel lonsr.
tipped at one end with brass about three inches, as a badffe of their
office." We find these black staves mentioned in local town records. , .
g., in the town records of Salem, in Kill!, i. 147; in t he town record- of
Groton. edited by Dr. Green, i. 11), Item, -toe black static." three shil-
lings sixpence. Survivals of these black wands have been seen In the
writer in actual use by special constables at Amherst College Commence-
ments, winch are still held in the old parish church. The use of wand-,
with ribbon tips, by ushers, is only an aesthetic transformation <>f the
ancient Tipstaffe. It is said that in some early New Kmrland parishes,
the Tithinjjman's rod was tipped at one en I. not with brass, but with a
squirrel's tail. This end was used in awakening women. The other
end was a deer's hoof, which carried sharp conviction to men and boys.
1
Tithingmen.
of those grim, vigilant Tithinjraien. It is said that one or
two of them sometimes sat under the very shadow of the
pulpit, facing the congregation. 1 But more usually one
Tithingman sat at each door of the meeting-house to keep
out dogs, and one often sat in the gallery to keep in
boys. 2
From original town records it appears that it was the duty
of the early New England Tithingman, not merely to pre-
serve order in the meeting-house, but to see to it that every
one went to church. The Tithingman was a kind of eccle-
siastical "whipper-in." After looking over the congrega-
tion to find if any seats were vacant, the Tithingmen would
steal out and explore the horse-sheds, the adjoining fields
and orchards, the inns and ordinaries, and even the houses
of the village, in order to search out skulkers from divine
service. According to the town records of Salem, it is clear
that as early as 1644, in that village at. least, two men were
" appointed euery Lord's day to walke forth in the time of
God's worshippe, to take notice of such as either lye about
the meeting-howse wthout attending to the word or ordi-
nances, or that lye at home or in the fields, w'thout giuing
good account thereof,, and to take the names of such persons
& to present them to the Magistrate, whereby they may be
accordinglie proceeded against." 3
A study of the statutes of the mother country, of the
period immediately preceding the Puritan migration, shows
that the custom of enforcing attendance upon church services
1 Blood. History of Temple, N. II., p. 87.
* In the town of Salem, the Tithingmen or Constables, used to see to
it that no boys escaped from church and that no dogs slunk in. The
" Dog Whipper" was a regular institution in certain old English towns,
notably in Exeter and Congleton (in Chester). Mr. Edward A. Free-
man has called our attention to a curious law of Edgar (see Thorpe's
Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, ii. 251), whereby parish priests
were to see to it that no dog should enter church, nor yet' more a swine,
if it could possibly be prevented !
3 Town Records of Salem, 131, part 1, 1634-1659, published in the
Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, second series, Vol. I.
Tlthhvjntvn.
was by no means original with the settlers of Now England.
By an Act 1 passed in the reign of James I., all people were
obliged by law to " repaire every Sunday" to church, under
penalty of twelve pence for every absence. Upon sufficient
information, given of course by the Parish Constable or
Tithingman, the justice of the peace issued a warrant to the
church warden to distrain goods, if necessary, in collecting
such parish tines. All servants, sojourners, and strangers
within a man's gates were brought under the operation of
this law, so that the custom of Sunday inspection of every
household must have been in vogue in Old England, long
before it was revived at Salem. These laws requiring church
attendance are of very ancient standing. By the first Act
of Elizabeth's reign, " every person and persons inhabiting
within this Realme shall diligentlye and faithefully, having
no lawfull or reasonable Excuse to be absent, endevour them-
selves to resortc to theyr Parishe Churehe or Chapped
accustomed upon every Sondaye and other dayes ordeined
and used to bee kept as Holy days, and ther tabvde or-
derlye and soberly during the tyme of the Common Prayer.
Preachinges and other Service of God upon payne flf
punishment by the Censures of the Churehe, and also upon
payne that every person so offending shall forfeite for every
suche offence twelve pens, to be levied by the Churche-
wardens of the Parishe to thuse of the Poore." s The
Church of England and its Puritan reformers can claim no
monopoly in this kind of legislation, for it roots far back in
the middle ages in the earliest Catholic laws of England
against irregular attendance upon conventicles contrary to
the Catholic faith, especially against the meetings of Lol-
lards. 3
In early New England, the execution of the laws for the
1 Statutes of tho Realm, 4 Jac. I. c. v.
2 Statutes of the Realm. 1 Eli/, e. 2. III.; c-f. 2:! Eliz. c. i.
Eli/. <- i.
* Rolls of Parliament, III., 4ti7, ">*;.; IV.. 24.
TitltilHJIIK'll.
observance of the Sabbath in other ways than church-going
was intrusted to the local Tithingmen. Travel on that day
was strictly forbidden. There arc many persons still living
who can remember that the parish Tithingman once dis-
charged the pious function of stopping all unnecessary riding
and driving on Sunday. An amusing story is told of the
writer's grandfather, who was Tithingman for his parish in
Amherst, Massachusetts, and notoriously strict in the dis-
charge of his office both in church and out. Early one
Sabbat!) morning he saw a man driving past his house, with
a little hair-trunk in the back end of his wagon. Sus-
pecting that the man was upon a journey, the Tithingman
hailed him : " Sir, do you know that travel on Sunday is
forbidden by law?" " Yes. sir," said the stranger in a
somewhat melancholy tone. The Tithingman caught the
idea. " Of course," he said, "in case of sipkness or death,
a Sabbath journey is sometimes permitted." The traveller
replied in a subdued manner, " my wife is lying dead in the
town just above here." " Oh, well," said the Tithingman,
" you can drive on." The man drove on a safe distance,
then looked back and called out : ' ' She has been lying dead
for twenty years ! "
The law against Sunday travel has been rigidly enforced,
in one way or another, by Tithingmen, Constables, local
police, or local opinion, down to the present da}' in many
parts of New England. The late Brasseur de Bourbourg,
who made Mexican antiquities his life study, once told the
writer of an unhappy experience in Boston forty years ago,
in trying to procure a carriage on the Sabbath, for the sake
of visiting some Catholic dignitary. But neither Catholic
nor Protestant England has set Puritan New England a liberal
example in the matter of Sunday laws. Moncure D. Con-
way, in a recent letter to the Cincinnati Commercial, nar-
rates the serious difficulty encountered by three American
travellers in attempting to procure a Sunday dinner in Lon-
don, and that after attending church. Not only are Sunday
4
T.ithingmen.
accommodations for travellers very much restricted to this
day in many parts of old England, but travelling itself on
the Sabbath has been more or less restrained by law, ever
since the time of the Saxon kings, in whose good Catholic-
reigns Sunday used to begin on Saturday at sunset, and
close Sunday evening. 1 The statutes of England at the
time the Puritans came over, are full of legislation against
breach of the Sabbath by travellers, traders, drovers,
butchers, laborers, boatmen, wagoners, and by conveyances
of every description.
From the colonial laws of Massachusetts it appears that
the functions of the Tithingman were not restricted to the
arrest of " all Saboath breakers," but extended to the in-
spection of licensed inns for the sake of discovering " dis-
orderly ti piers " on the evening of that, day or " at any
other time" during the week. He could carry offenders
before any magistrate and commit them to prison " as any
constable may doe." For Sunday offenders was reserved
the special disgrace of imprisonment in the town "cage*'
which was " set up in the market place." 2 Even by such
links as these are the towns of Xew England bound to
old English parish life. :t The expression jail-bird has some
significance in the light of the evolution of prisons from
cages. The use of the pillory and the stocks in punishment
for drunkenness are similar links of parish habit. The
very liquors that Xew England Tithingnien were instructed
to seek out in unlicensed houses or to obtain a satisfactory
account of in regular inns, afford as suggestive a comment-
ary upon the English origin of intemperance in New Eng-
land as docs the mention of beer in the Noise sagas of
Vineland upon the Teutonic origin of the first white settlers
1 Lingard. History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church. I.,
309- 1 1 .
- Records of Massachusetts, v. 1 .">:!.
:! Palgrave, English Commonwealth. Anrlo Saxon IVriod. Vol. ii.. p.
clxvi.
Tithingmep.
of America. " Strong beere, ale, eider, perry, 1 matheglin, 2
ramme, brandy,'' 3 these things all have a very English
smack. Legislation against the excessive use of these
drinks did not be<rin in New England. The Puritans of
Massachusetts struggled against intemperance as did their
English fathers before them, and in precisely the same way,
by fines and penalties, by laws executed through " Con-
stables, Churchwardens, Headborough.es, Tithingmen, Ale-
cunners and Sydemen," as described in the act of the fourth
year of King James I.*
It is perhaps not generally known that the office of
Tithingman in early New England was very like that of a
parish constable, of which office, indeed, the former is the
historical prototype. In Massachusetts, and elsewhere in
New England, the two institutions long continued to exist
side by side, although as far as local and colonial records
give any decisive evidence, Constables were appointed long
before Tithingmen. But the latter is by far the more
ancient office in the mother country, and it may have been
revived by local hamlets in New England, years before it
was formally recognized in town or colony records. The
Tithingmen had many functions in common with Constables.
Both endeavored to repress tippling, gaming, night-walk-
ing, strolling, begging, roaming streets or fields, and idle-
ness in general. They were to see to it that every man
was about some lawful and useful business. They restrain-
1 A liquor prepared from the juice of pears, like cider from apples.
2 A fermented liquor made of honey and water boiled together. The
name Metheglin is Welsh and is derived from medd (mead) and llyn
(liquor). It is one of those familiar household terms which have come
down to us from that " exterminated " race, the Kelts. Words like dad,
babe, lad, lass, gown, flannel, clout, crock, cabin, basket, bran, flask,
mattock, are collectively stronger evidence of Keltic influences surviv-
ing in Saxon homes than even the above home-made drink.
3 Records of Massachusetts, v. 240.
* Statutes of the Realm, 4 Jac. I. c. v. Cf. I. Jac. I. c. 9.
<;
Tithingmen.
ed butchers and drovers from cruelty to animals, and kept
boys and " all persons from swimming in the water." '
The Tithingman may be distinguished from the Constable
by the fact that the former's duties related more especially
to the control of family life and of the morals of his neigh-
borhood. The Tithingman's power came nearer home than
did that of the Constable ; it reached over the threshold of
every family in the hamlet; it was patriarchal, fatherly,
neighborly, in the strictest sense. The Tithingmen visited
("otters to see if they kept Saturday night. The Tithing-
man saw to it that family government was maintained ; that
all single persons were joined to some family ; that children
and servants were properly taught and trained at home ;
that the same were kept from all disorderly, profligate, idle,
uncivil and rude practices abroad ; in short, that the whole
community grew up as one united family in the nurture and
admonition of the law. 2 The Tithingman was the father of
the hamlet ; he felt himself personally responsible for the
character and conduct of all households in his neighborhood.
In point of fact, the Tithingman was held strictly to account
by the Selectmen, or Townsmen, for the presence of any
new-comer into his hamlet. By a town order of Dor-
chester, in the year 1(378, it was required "that the tithing-
men in their seuerall presincts should inspect all inmats
that doe come into each of their presincts, either single per-
sons or famelies, and to giue spedy information therof vnto
the Select men from time to time or to some of them that
order may be taken about them."''
1 Sec references to next paragraph.
* Records of Massachusetts, v., 241. Acts and Resolves of the Pro-
vince of Massachusetts nay, i., 58, 59, CO. Hudson's History of Lexing-
ton, <;!>.
3 Fourth report of the Record Commissioners of Boston. Dorchester
Town Records, 22;$. Compare the duty of constables as stated in the
statute of Winchester (12.S5) to present all such as do lod.ire stranirers
in uplandish towns, for whom they will not answer." Statutes of the
Realm, i.. ".is.
riiltingmen.
The Tithingmen were not appointed by the Selectmen,
and possibly they were not originally chosen in town moot-
ing, but elected by neighborhoods or hamlets. 1 By an Act
of the General Court of Massachusetts in 1079 " the select-
men of each touue take care that ty thing men be annually
chosen in their seuerall precincts of their most prudent &
discreet inhabitants, & sworne to the faithful I dischardge of
their trust." * Tithingmen were empowered, like Constables,
to assist one another in their several precincts, " and to act
in one anothers jlrecincts w'th as full power as in their
oune, and yet to reteyne their speciall charges w'thin their
ouue bounds." 3 It is a very remarkable fact, which, as far
as we know, has entirely escaped attention as regards its
historical significance, that the Tithingman of Massachusetts
was originally the head man of a neighborhood of at least
ten families. This was the revival in all its purity of the
Saxon Tithing, an institution more ancient than towns or
parishes, a patriarchal institution underlying all local forms
of Saxon self-government. It was the unit of the Hundred,
which archaic type of organization is still known in Dela-
ware and remembered in Maryland, a subject which we
shall soon investigate. In 1(538 a bill was introduced into
the General Assembly of Maryland providing for ' ' a Ty th-
ingman in each Manor" and "a Constable in each Hundred." *
There can be no doubt as to the perpetuation of the Saxon
Tithing in New England, although in the South it does not
appear to have been so common as the Hundred. By an
Act of the Massachusetts Colony as late as 1(577 the select-
men of every town then existing in Massachusetts were
ordered " to see to it that there bee one man appointed to
inspect the ten families of his neighbours." b Such was the
1 In later times, Tithingmen were always elected in town meeting. See
Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, L, 155, 328.
2 Records of Massachusetts, v., 240.
3 Ibid. 155.
4 Bacon, Laws of Maryland, 1638, ch. ii., 12.
4 Records of Massachusetts, v., 133.
Tithingmen.
original character of the Tithingman's office in Xevv Eng-
land as well as in Old England. Arnold has probably none
wrong in his History of Rhode Island 1 in connecting the
duty of Tithingmen with that of collecting tithes. The cor-
respondence of names was purely accidental. In this view,
we are supported by Mr. Edward A. Freeman, who says
there is no historic connection between Tithes and Tithing-
men.
In Plymouth Colony, the Saxon Tithing was reinstated
for the government, of the Indians. It was ordered that in
each town where Indians dwelt that every tenth Indian
should be appointed Tithingman by the Court of Assistants.
His duty Avas to have the care and oversight of his nine
men and to present their faults and misdemeanors to a so-
called " overseer," who received his commission from the
governor. 2 This was precisely like the duty of the Tithing-
men of Old England at the time the Pilgrims came over.
English Tithingmen were required by law to report to
the justice of the peace the names of all rogues and vaga-
bonds apprehended, punished or sent to the house of cor-
rection. Courts of law were actually introduced among the
Indians of Plymouth Colony, the white settlers considering,
very wisely, that such a course would have i% a g<*od tend-
encye to the ciuilliseingof the said Indians." 1 In a letter of
the Reverend .Mr. Treat, of Eastham, to the Reverend
Increase Mather, this good missionary remarks, that there
are five hundred Indians in his township. " They have four
distinct assemblies, in four villages, in which they have
four teachers of their own choice. . . . There are also six jus-
tices of the peace, or magistrates in these villages, who
regulate their civil affairs, and punish criminals and trans-
gressors of the civil law. They have three stated courts,
and other inferior officers." 4 These were probably Tithing-
1 Arnold. History of Rhode Island, ii.. Mil.
2 Plymouth Colony Laws, 2.">::.
a Ibid. 2,-W.
4 Pratt. History of Kastham. Wollflcel and Orleans, :'.>.
Ttthmgmen.
meth Indians, like white men, were strictly watched on
the Sabbath. They were forbidden to hunt or fish, to
plant or hoe corn, to carry burdens, or * to doe any seruill
worke on the Lord's day." '
There are some rather curious facts concerning this con-
dition of practical Indian serfdom in the towns of Plymouth
Colony. By a system bf courts and Tithingmen, the Indians
were brought as completely under the subjection of the
whites as were ever the subdued Britains under the Saxons,
or the conquered Saxons under the heel of their Norman
lords. And it is very interesting to observe that, in all
three instances, the servile population was held down by
the very same means. Indians were not only restrained
from their natural freedom by these Tithingmen, but were
to a great extent reduced to "seruill worke" and the
"carrying of burthens," at first, probably, by a kind of
voluntary enthrallment for the sake of protection, like
the Saxon freemen, then by the slowly increasing pressure
of the law. The following extract from the Plymouth
records is very interesting in the light of comparative
jurisprudence, particularly in the light of the Fugitive
Slave law, " if any Indian whoe is a servant to the Eng-
lish shaH run away amongst any Indians, such Indians
whither such a runaway Indian is come, shall forthwith giue
notice of the said Runaway to the Indian Constable [or the
Tithingman] whoe shall immediately apprehend such
Indian servant, and carry him or her before the Ouerseer
or next Majestrate, whoe shall cause such servants to be
whipt and sent home by the Constable to his or her
master, whoe shall pay said Constable for his service ." 2
It is also worthy of note that Indian captives, taken in war,
were sent South and sold as slaves to the Bermudas. s
Indians were also sold for debt or theft, at public auction,
1 Plymouth Colony Laws, 60.
2 Ibid., 255.
3 Ibid. 242. King Philip's son was sold into slavery in the Bermudas.
10
Tithingmen.
by the Constable of Plymouth towns. 1 We have in New Eng-
land an interesting survival of this old Saxon custom in the
practice of farming out the labor of the town's poor to the
highest bidder. Convict labor, southern chain-gangs, and
Delaware whipping-posts, all repose upon the same solid
Saxon ground, servitude to the laic. It is folly to heap re-
proaches upon the Pilgrim Fathers or upon any generation
of men. We Americans, whether in the North or at the
South, are of the same English blood; we have inherited
kindred institutions, with much the same virtues and about
the same vices.
Tithings and Tithingmen were no development of New
England Puritanism. These institutions for the strict and
wholesome government of neighborhoods were transmitted
to us from the mother country. We may perhaps discover
the first step of the transmission process in the instructions
given to Governor Endicott, in 1(525), by the Massachusetts
Company while they were yet in England. This business
association of honorable and enterprising Englishmen, who,
according to their own accounts, provided for New England.
" Ministers, men skylfull in making of pitch, of salt. Yyne
Planters, Wheat, rye, barley, oates, stones, of all sorts
of fruites," 2 this thoughtful Company provided also the seeds
of English self-government in Towns and Tithings. They
said to Endicott by letter, " wee hope vow will f'vnde many
religious, discreete, and well ordered persons, well vow
must sett over the rest devyding them into famylies, placing
some wth the ministers, and others under such as, beeing
honest men (and of their owne calling as neere as may bee)
may haue care to see them well educated in their general!
callings as Christians, and particuler according to their seuer-
all trades or fitness in disposition to learne a trade." 3 To
any one familiar with the English law of that period con-
1 Plymouth Colony Laws. '!:'<',.
Records of Massachusetts, i.. 21
J Ibid. :{!);{; cl". :'.'.7. loo. lit:..
1 1
Tit It I iii/men.
cerning the training of servants and apprentices, the above
instructions to Endicott, which are repeated over and over
again, will appear to he only the natural outgrowth of the
family regulations of the mother country.
In the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society at
Boston is preserved a curious little volume in old English
black-letter, on " The Dvties of Constables, Borsholders,
Tythingmen, and such other lowe and Lay Ministers of the
Peace, by William Lambard, of Lincolnes Inne, Gent,
London, 1614." Published before either Pilgrims or Puri-
tans came over and possibly brought to this country by one
of the first settlers (for another of the writings of this same
William Lambard was owned by Adam Winthrop and w 7 as
brought over by his son, Governor John Winthrop, together
with the Charter of Massachusetts) , the above treatise must
be an important and trustworthy source of information as to
the exact nature of these offices in Old England at the
period of their transmission to the New World. It appears
that there w r ere many variations of the name of Tithingman
in the mother country, just as in the Town Records of
Groton, carefully edited according to the original spelling,
by Dr. Samuel A. Green, we find a great variety of terms,
from Tidingman and Tighing man to Tiethengman and
Tiethenman. J In Saxon Law we find Tineman, Tynmanna,
Teothungman, Teothungmannus. In mediaeval Latin occur
Decanus, Decimus, Decimalis Homo. We also find Head-
Borough, Head-Boroughman, Borough Elder, Borsholder
(Borhs-Ealdor) or the Elder of the Pledge, Chief of the
Pledge, Capitalis, Princeps Plegii, and the like. These
names we have gathered from many different sources, but
they are all intelligible in the light of the following extract
from Lambard's Constable : ' ' Now whereas every of these
tithings or boroughs did use to make choice of one man
amongst themselves, to speak, and to do, in the name of
1 Green. The early Records of Groton, Massachusetts, 101, 108, 112,
116, 125.
12
Tidiingmen.
them all ; ho was therefore in some places called the Tything-
man, in other places the Borough's elder (whom we now
call Bors-holder) , in other places the Boro-head or Head-
borough, and in some other places the Chief-pledge; which
last name doth plainly expound the other three that are next
before it; for Head or Elder of the Boroughs, and Chief of
the Pledges, be all one."
This extract from Lambard we have taken from Touhnin
Smith's work on the Parish (280), showing that Lambard is
recognized as good authority by one of the best modern
writers upon the subject of English local institutions. Black-
stone based his account of "Constables" and "Justices of
the Peace " upon Lambard, and scarcely ever went back of the
hitter's authority. But Lambard while trustworthy in mat-
ters belonging to his own time, is to be read with great cau-
tion and in the light of modern research as regards all ((no-
tions of Saxon antiquities. The following extracts from
Lambard we have made from the edition of the Duties of
Constables, now preserved in-the library of the .Massachu-
setts Historical Society. He says, " In some of the West-
erne parts of England where there lie many Tythinginen in
one parish, there only one of them is a Constable for the
King, and the rest do serue but as the ancient Tithingmen
did." Lambard also says, "In some shires, where euerie
Third borow hath a Constable, there the officers of the
other two be called Third borowcs." The latter office is the
same as that of Tithingman. Although not everywhere
taking the name of Petty Constable, which was a term
introduced by the Normans, the Saxon Tithingman acquired
under the Norman regime certain constabulary functions,
and these we have partly noticed in our account of the
New England Tithingman. Lambard says the Tithingman
really combined two offices " the one being his ancient and
first office, and the other his later made office." l'pon the
basis of original records and of an unpublished manuscript
account of constabulary duties, which was brought over to
Tithinginen.
this country by one of the early settlers of Dorchester, we
shall treat of the office of " Constables " in a special mono-
graph, to be published by the New England TTintorin flnm,
alogical Society. 1 We are here concerned with the ancient
Tithingman, who was the father of the Norman petty con-
stable and the irrandfather of New England selectmen.
According to Lambard, the ancient office of Tithingman
was headship of the Frank-pledge. This is not the whole
truth, for the institutions of Tithing and Tithinginen are
older than that of Frank-pledge. Canon Stubbs 2 and
George Waitz 3 , the most recent authorities upon English
and German constitutional history respectively, maintain
that, before the Norman conquest, there is no positive
proof of the existence of collective responsibility for crime
committed within a Tithing. On the other hand, Palgrave 4
and the older authorities are inclined to discover germs of
the system of Frank-pledge even in Anglo Saxon times.
By a law of Canute, every freeman who desired to enjoy
the privilege of exculpation by the oath of his friends or
the protection of Wer-geld (money payment for injury)
was to be enrolled in a Hundred and in a Tithing ; he was
to be brought under pledge or " Borh," and this was to
hold him to right. The term Frank-pledge is a vulgar cor-
ruption of the Saxon Frith-borh or peace-pledge. Whether
or no the outgrowth of Saxon beginnings, this institution in
Norman times was certainly the collective personal pledge
of ten or more men to their lord. The idea of associate re-
1 Historical and Genealogical Register, April and July, 1882.
* Stubbs' Constitutional History of England, i., 87.
3 Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte, i., 458 (ed. 18G5.) Waitz
takes strong ground: " Es gab keine (jesannntbiirgerschaft unter den
Angelsachsen, weder fiir das Wergeld noch in irgend welcheni andern
Sinn, weder vor noch nach Aelfreds Zeiten."
4 Palgrave, English Commonwealth, part ii., exxiii. " The S3 r stem was
developed between the accession of Canute and the demise of the Con-
queror ; and it is not improbable that the Normans completed what the
Danes had begun."
14
Till I ilKJUK-ll .
sponsibility is here of* more importance than the mere num-
ber, for as many as eighty men were sometimes admitted
into one Tithing. Ten was the least number allowed in
Frank-pledge. 1 Probably the Normans infused greater
energy into the Saxon Tithing and gave to the idea of
Frith-Borh a more strictly collective sense, jis a better
surety for the preservation of the peace.'-' The old Saxon
Tithingman certainly became the Borhs-Ealdor (the Bors-
holder of Lambard) which signifies the same as the Elder
or Chief of the Pledge.
The custom of Frank-pledge and the relation of Tithing-
man to the same are well described in the laws of Henry I.
and also in those of Edward the Confessor, both of which
collections, however, belong to a period later than the time
of the kings whose names they bear. In the laws of Henry
there is an ordinance relating to the Hundred, giving special
authority, if necessary, to all freemen, whether retainers or
men having their own hearthstone (heorthfest), to convene
twice a year in their own Hundred, for the purpose of
ascertaining whether the Tithings are full, whether any
have withdrawn, if so, how and why, and whether any have
been added. It was enjoined, moreover, that a Tithing-
man (decimus) preside over every nine men. and one of the
better sort over every Hundred, who should be called an
Alderman ( aldremannus )* and take diligent care to pro-
mote the execution of law, whether human or divine. 4
1 Palgrave, ii.. cxxv.
2 Dr. Reinhold Schmid, in his edition of the (Jeset/.e der Angelsaehseii
(ed. of Is.YS, ]>. (54!)) culls attention to the fact that we have no evidence
of the Normans possessing any sueli institution a- l-'rank-pledire in
Normandy and says : ' So we.it unsere Ivunde von dem Verhaeltniss bis
jetzt reicht, blcibt daher der angelsaechsische I rsprunir der Zehnt-
buergersehaft das Wahrscheinlicherc." To this conclusion we had
already come before discovering Schmid'- note upon Kechtshnerg-
schaft,'' but we gladly rest our results upon hi- solid ant hority.
3 " Vocabantur elderenian, non propter seiiectuten scd propter
sapientiain." Law of Ed. Con. (Thorpe i.. I."i>. i
4 Ancient Laws and Institutes of Kngland. i., ">1"< : also in Stubbs'
Select Charters, lot;.
15
Tithingmen.
The law of Frank-pledge, or Frith-Borg, ascribed to Ivl-
ward the Confessor, was not framed until the twelfth
century. Weadopl Kcmble's translation : "Another peace,
the greatest of all, there is whereby all are maintained in
tinner state, to wit in the establishment of a guarantee,
which the English call Frithborgas, with the exception of
the men of York, who call it Tenmannetale, that is, the
number often men. And it consists in this, that in all the
vills throughout the kingdom, all men are bound to be in a
guarantee by tens, so that if any one of the ten men offend
the other nine may hold him to right." ' The custom of
viewing Frank-pledge in the court leet or popular court of
the man >r, for the purpose of seeing that the tenantry are
properly enrolled in Tithings, is said to prevail in York-
shire to this day. 2
The origin of Tithings, and of their multiple the Hun-
dred, is one of the most obscure questions in the early
history of English institutions. Blackstone and the earlier
writers dispose of the question very summarily by ascribing
the above types of local organization to Alfred : "to him,"
says Blackstone, " we owe that masterpiece of judicial
polity, the subdivision of England into tithings and hun-
dreds, if not into counties." The monkish testimony of
Ingulph, upon which this widely accepted statement rests,
is utterly worthless upon this point. It was customary in
the Middle Ages to ascribe every good institution either to
Alfred or to Edward the Confessor. If pious monks and
popular opinion are to be followed in institutional history,
then we must ascribe to King Alfred the origin of trial by
jury. As an able critic, presumably Palgrave, said years
ago in the Edinburgh Review, 3 if Alfred was really the
1 Ancient Laws and Institutes, i., 450. Kemble, Saxons in England, i.,
249-50.
2 Stubbs' Constitutional History of England, i., 88, note 4.
3 Edinburgh Review (Feb. 1822), p. 289; cf. Hallam, Middle Ages,
note vi. to ch. viii,, part II.
16
Titkingmen.
originator of Hundreds and Tithings, and shires, " he must
also have been the creator of the common law itself, which
only proceeds in conjunction with these divisions." The
fact is, Blackstone and the older writers, Coke, Littleton,
Bracton, knew really very little about the origin of English
institutions. The whole science of institutional history is
one of modern growth and can be pursued only in the light
of comparative politics and of comparative jurisprudence,
along lines of inquiry opened up by such pioneer investi-
gators as Von Maurer, Hanssen, Nasse, AVaitz, (ineist,
Stubbs, Freeman, Maine, and specialists in Anglo-Saxon
law. The study of Saxon institutions was not possible
before the labors of Palgrave, Kemble, Thorpe, and Rein-
hold Schmid in classifying materials and editing statutes
and codices. But with all these modern facilities, it is not
easy to trace out to one's entire, satisfaction the origin of
England's early institutions of law and government.
We find Tithings mentioned in the law of Canute already
cited. AVe can trace back the institution through several
Saxon reigns, but finally we lose all trace of it. Among
the laws of Edgar, in the ordinance relating to the Hundred
it is ordered that if a thief is to be pursued, the fact is to be
made known to the Hundrcdman and he is to inform the
Tithingman, and all are to "go forth to where God may
direct them," so that they "do justice on the thief, as it
was formerly the enactment of Edmund." 1 Here, if we
mistake not, we arc upon the historic track of the old Saxon
Hue and Cry. AVe note from the laws of Edgar that " if
the hundred pursue a track into another hundred," 2 warning
is to be given to the Hundrcdman there, so that lie may
join in the chase. Following a track from one Hundred
into another would seem to imply territorial limits. In the
laws of Edgar, it is also prescribed that no one shall take pos-
session of unknown cattle without the testimonies of the men
1 Ancient Laws and Statutes of Knirland. i.. L'.V.t.
" Ibid. 201.
C 17
Tithingmtn.
of the Hundred, or of the Tithingman." ' In the laws of
Athelstan, among the so-called Judicia Civitatia Lundonim
it is ordered that, in tracing or pursuing 8 criminal, every
man shall render aid, l< SO long as the trtiek is known ; and
after the track has failed him, that one man be found [from
one Tithing] where there is a large population, as well as
from one Tithing where a less population is, either to ride
or to go (unless there be need of more.)" 2 This appears
to imply a territorial seat even for the Tithing, as an in-
tegral part of the Hundred, as well as a varying number of
inhabitants within the Tithing itself.
Probably the Saxon Tithing had its origin in the personal
association of warriors by tens and hundreds. Such a
decimal system of military organization existed among
various early Teutonic peoples, if not throughout the whole
Aryan family of nations. Even the Jews fought by tens,
and fifties, and hundreds. Undoubtedly kinship had origin-
ally something to do with the marshalling of hosts. The
Homeric w r arriors fought under patriarchal chiefs. The
ancient Germans, according to Tacitus, were arrayed by
families and near kinsmen (familiae et propinquitates). 3
And it is not at all. unlikely that, after the conquest of
Britain, the Saxons settled down in Tithings and Hundreds
upon somewhat clannish principles. . Of course the com-
position of the host, when levied, would vary from time to
time, but a certain idea of territorial permanence would
soon attach itself to the local Tithings and Hundreds from
the very fact of the allotment of lands.
There seems to be great reluctance on the part of German
1 Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, i., 261.
2 Ibid. 233, cf. ii., 499 and Schinid, Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 161.
3 Tacitus, Germania, cap. 7. Prof. W. F. Allen, in a note upon this
passage, in his edition of the Germania, calls attention to the parallel
passage in Caesar, de hello Gallico, vi., 22, where it is stated that land
was assigned gentibus cognationibusque hominum. "From the two
passages, it appears that the divisions of laud, and military divisions,
were alike founded upon Kinship."
18
Tithhiymen.
specialists like Gneist and Schmid to admit thai tin; Saxon
Tithing ever became territorial before the Norman conquest,
after which time Schmid, 1 at least, concedes the existence
of the territorial Tithing, although he, like the rest of the
German critics, continues to distinguish very sharply
between the local Saxon Tithing and the purely personal
Frank-pledge. Stubbs, the best English authority upon
the subject of Saxon institutions, says that Tithings of a
territorial character exist to this day in the western counties
of Somersetshire, 2 Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Worces-
tershire, and in all counties south of the Thames, except
Cornwall and Kent. Stubbs, who follows Pearson upon
this point, says the Tithings of some counties answer to the
townships of others. This statement and the researches of
Pearson, in the text of his Historical Maps of England
during the first thirteen centuries, 3 uncover a secret which
none of the German writers appear to have discovered.
They deny the existence of a territorial Tithing among tin*
Saxons, because the name does not occur in the Domesday
Book. 4 Toulmin Smith read the secret of the Tithing in his
researches into the history of the English Parish and it will
be as clear as daylight to anyone reflecting upon the natural
relation of the personal Tithing to its landed domain. A
group of at least ten families, a Tithing of inhabitants,
constituted a Saxon Township, which is the secular basis ot
the ecclesiastical Parish.
We cannot enter in this connection upon the subject of
1 Schmid, Die (Jesetzc der Anjjelsachsen, ills.
2 Mr. Kdwunl A. Freeman says lie lives in the Tithini: of litirrott.
Soinerleaze, Wells. County of Somerset, which Tithini:. before the
recent rtisjhway Act of the Poor Law. used to meet ami tax it-elf for
local purposes. Notices of the tnectim;' of the Tithing n-nl to he
posted, like the notices of a New Knylaiid Town Meeting.
:i Pearson Historical Maps. ,")<) :>_'.
4 (i neist. Das KiiLdische Verwalttin.nsreclil . i.. "> I. In den uneiidlielien
Kan/.elheiten. welclie das norinaunisehc l)omesda\ hook uieht. Loimnen
die Worte tlcniniit, decenna, ti'Wihuj. hjihimj audi nielit ein ein/.iues
Mai vor.
l'.i
Tithing men.
the transformations of Tithing, Township, and Parish, but
shall one day do so more fully in papers upon the Origin of
Northern Towns and Southern Boroughs. We call atten-
tion, however, to a few important and fundamental facts.
1. Many modern places in England, that are recognized
as Tithings, end in the Saxon word Ton, meaning Town,
e. g., the Tithing of Alkington, in Berkeley Parish.
2.' Many Tithings are geographically identical with
Parishes, although many Parishes often include several
Tithings.
3. Many names of English Parishes end in the Saxon
Ton and correspond territorially with old Saxon Towns.
4. ' In the later part of the Middle Ages, taxation in
England was levied upon Tithings, Towns, and Parishes;
the existence of ten householders in a township or parish
was the criterion of local liability to taxation.
5. The Tithingman, and his historic kinsmen, the Town
Reeve, and the Parish Constable, assessed and collected
taxes.
6. The Saxon Tithingman became the Norman Petty
Constable. It is a principle of the common law that
wherever there is -a Petty Constable, there is a Parish.
The following extract from the Laws of Edward the Con-
fessor (Thorpe I., 454), throws considerable light upon the
functions of the English Tithingman in the Middle Ages:
Cum autem viderunt quod aliqui stulti libenter foriftfa-
ciebant erga vicinos stios, sapientiores cepei*unt consilium
inter se, quomodo eos reprimerent, et sic impomerunt
justiciarios super qiiosque x. frithborgos, quos decanos
possumus dicere, Anglice autem tyenthe-heved, vocati sunt,
hoc est caput x. Isti autem inter villas, inter vicinos tracta-
bant causas, et secundum quod forisfavturo3 erant, emenda-
tiones et ordinationes faciebant, videlicet de pascuis, de
pratis, de messibus, de certationibus inter vicinos, et de
multis Jiujusmodi quce frequenter insurgunt. Compare
20
Tithingmen.
Kemble, Saxons in England, I., 253. Spelman (Works
II., 51) says, " every hundred was divided into many
Freeborgs or Tithings consisting of ten men. which stood
all bound one to the other, and did amongst themselves
punish small matters in their court for that purpose, called
the Lcet, which was sometimes granted over to the Lord
of Manours, and sometimes exercised by peculiar officers.
But the greater things were also carried from thence into
the Hundred Courts; so that both the streams of Civil
justice and of Criminal did there meet, and were decided by
the Hundreds as by superior judges both to the Court
Baron and Court Leet also." Then commenting on the
above law, Spelman continues, " Edward the Confessor
(LI., cap. 32) saith, that there were justices over every
ten Freeborgs, called Deans, or Tienheovod (that is. head
often) which among their neighbours in Towns compounded
matters of trespasses done in pastures, meadows, corn, and
other strife, rising among them. But the greater matters,
saith he, were referred to superior justices appointed over
every ten 'of them, whom we call Centurions, Centenaries,
or Hundredors, because they judged over an hundred
Freeborgs."
In the face of this testimony, it is difficult to understand
how German critics and even Ha Ham (Middle Ages, eh.
VIII., part 1) and Stubbs (Const. Hist. I., DO) can doubt
that the Tithingman settled small causes between man and
man. The Selectmen of early New England Towns and
the Parish Officers of Maryland had similar judicial func-
tions. Upon the question of village-judgeship, Stubbs
makes a ve-v prudent modification of his first statement :
" The Tithingman is of course an elective officer. The idea
that he was a sort of village-magistrate is without basis;
although in a simple community of peasants the office of
Constable, for such seems to have been the position of the
Tithingman, was held in more honour than it is now." Pear-
son, in his History of England ( I.. 252) savs, The only
r rillt!n<imen.
t
popular magistrates ill the country were the Tithing and
Hundred Reeves j (he former were always, the latter
mostly, elected by their respective communes. The smaller
questions of debt and police were probably decided by
these met! ill their respective courts; the freemen of the
Tithing would meet as occasion required; the Hundred
Court was summoned once a month." In the court of
the. Tithing we may discover the germ of vestry meeting
and town meeting, and in Tithingmen, the origin of Select-
vestrymen and Selectmen.
The Saxon Tithingman was the Selectman of the Tithing.
He was an elected officer, like the Petty Constable, who
succeeded him. The mediaeval Tithingman's functions were
patriarchial and authoritative. He was the Town Father in
the true and original sense of that term. His relations were
with families, as in early New England. He watched over
his hamlet as the New England Tithingman watched over his
neighborhood and the congregation. He kept the public
peace ; he was arbiter between neighbors and kinsmen ; he
regulated the division of lands, the use of pastures and
meadows ; he announced the time of harvest and when
enclosures were to be removed or fences put up. He was
a man having authority in a small neighborly way. He
foreshadowed the Petty Constable and the easy-going' Select-
men of our modern New England Towns. But the main
idea of his office was the same as that perpetuated in the
original Tithingmen of New England, viz : elective, patri-
archal headship over a neighborhood of at least ten families.
This is the original, fundamental character of the office,
considered as a local institution.
We have found the heart of our subject. We have
stripped off' the ecclesiastical tissue, which in later times
enshrouded the New England Tithingman, who is now
undoubtedly dead. We have dissected away the outer
layer of constabulary duties, and have found, in the patri-
archal control of a Tithing, the real mechanism which for
22
Tithingmen.
many centuries gave such energetic life to the Tithingrnnn.
The biologists in Baltimore have recently succeeded in
isolating the mammalian heart, and in keeping it alive, by
a transfusion of foreign blood, for hours after the rest of the
body is entirely dead. Possibly by some such method of
procedure, in the case of a live subject like the modern
Constable or Selectman, we may derive a more intimate
knowledge of that older institution, whose life is now beating
on in kindred forms.
23
V
Local Government
Michigan and the Northwest
[Extracts from the Ordinance cf May 20, 1785, for ascertaining tbe mode of disposing of
Lands in the Western Territory.]
" Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assembled, that the territory ceded
by individual States to the United States, which has been purchased of the Indian
inhabitants, shall be disposed of in the following manner:
"The surveyors .... shall proceed to divide the said territory into townships of
six miles square, by lines running due north and south, and others crossing these at
right angles, as near as may be,
"There shall be reserved the Lot No. 16, of every township, for the maintenance of
public schools within the said township."
[Extract from the Ordinance of July 13, 1787, for the Government of the Territory of the
United 8tates, north-west of the river Ohio.]
"Keligion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the
happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
I N
Historical and Political Science
HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor
History is past Politics and Politics present History. Freeman
V
Local Government
Michigan and the Northwest
Read before the American Social Science Association, September 7, 1 SS2
By EDWARD W. BEMIS, A. B.
B A LT IMOll K
Published by the Johns Hopkins Usivkksitv
MARCH, 188:5.
JOHN MURPHY A CO., PRINTERS,
BALTIMORK.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
IN
MICHIGAN AND THE NORTHWEST.
Not long ago, at a college in a neighboring State, a professor
proposed for debate, " Resolved, That the New England town-
meeting should be abolished." In a class of nearly one hundred,
not ten could be found willing to discuss the subject, and only one
showed a comprehension of its general bearings. this in a New
England college. So great ignorance, probably, does not prevail
among those New England citizens whose duty at the polls has taught
them something of the government of their town or city. Yet it
is undeniable that few persons have any accurate knowledge of the
local political institutions of other parts of the country than their
own. For instance, in a recent conversation, a judge of acknowl-
edged reputation for legal wisdom, in a State east of New York, a
man even of legislative experience, said he was entirely unac-
quainted with the county government of the Empire State. A
member of the supreme bench of one of the northwestern States
confessed to much the same ignorance respecting Ohio.
Nor is the reason for this ignorance far to seek. The import-
ance of the subject is hardly yet realized. We seldom value or
study what we share with all around us. If money for schools,
for roads, or for the poor is raised in the same manner in our town
and the next, in our county and beyond, we assume it is so with
our State and its neighbor, with the East and the West, with
Pennsylvania and Illinois, with New York and Missouri, or. if we
learn of a difference, we imagine that ours must be the better. 1 1'
we go to our libraries for information, we return no wiser than we
went. As the old method of writing history was to narrate the
exploits of kings and their armies, so the study of politics is still
mostly confined to the doings of Reichstag. Parliament, Congress,
State Legislatures and Common Councils.
Previous to 1872, when E. M. Haines, of Illinois, read a valua-
ble paper before the Social Science Association, on the "Growth
6 Local Government in
of Township Organization in the West," scarcely anything on the
subject of local government, save Professor Parker's paper in the
Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society on the Towns
of New England, had been written in this country. With the ex-
ception of a brief article by Galpin, in Walker's Statistical Atlas
in 1874, only two or three short articles have since appeared, al-
though such writers as Bancroft and Freeman have borne testimony
to the need of information upon this subject. Several men at the
Johns Hopkins University are now pursuing their investigations in
this direction and their results will be published in a regular series
of University Studies in Historical and Political Science.
Now what is meant by local government, and why is its treatment
so important? The government of the United States consists of
four distinct centres of political power : the central power, with
its seat at Washington ; the State, with its important legislative
powers ; the county, the seat of many judicial powers ; and, lastly,
cities and villages, and those small incorporations, rareby more
than thirty-six square miles in area, into which more than half the
States of our Union are divided, and which, in the East, are usually
called towns, and, in the West, townships. The assembling of the
electors together in these small civil divisions, at. annual or special
meeting, for determining, not only what officers shall manage the
affairs of the township, but, as in many States, how such affairs
shall be managed, what taxes shall be raised for schools, roads,
bridges, parks, commons, cemeteries, public buildings, and other
subjects of local concern, determining, too, what by-laws the}' will
have for their regulation, and, in short, how the prudential affairs
of the townshio shall be managed in the manner most conducive
to its peace, welfare and good order ; all this has an influence upon
the people, the importance of which cannot be over-estimated. Of
all the means of political education, none perhaps has been so
effective in creating an interest in republican institutions as well
as in calling forth the intelligence necessary for their preservation,
as the town-meeting.
It is not, however, to the town-meeting alone that we refer when
we speak of local government, but to all agencies by which matters
purely local in character, are taken from federal or State juris-
diction and placed in the hands of the local authorities. Counts'
legislation and county powers, in so far as related to subjects of
exclusively county interest, are just as much parts of local self-
Michigan and the Northwest. 7
government, as the government of town, village, or city. Indeed,
the increasing tendency to transfer power from the State to the
county is very marked in some sections and deserving of careful
study. It needs but the slightest acquaintance with the workings
of onr State legislatures to convince any one that much of the
corruption, the "log-rolling," and worse, which disgrace American
politics, results from the control which is given to our legislatures
over purely local matters by means of special legislation. Authority
for building a bridge or house of refuge, erecting a town hall or a
prison, is sought in the legislature, although only the one member
from the district affected knows anything of the merits of the bill.
If that member has already sold his vote none of his associates are
sufficiently acquainted with the measure to defeat it, but pass the
bill out of courtesy, wiiile individual responsibility for the corrup-
tion or misjudgment is lost in the numbers voting. Not so when
these questions are brought before the local district which alone is
interested. Every member of a county or township-board is
acquainted with the measure under discussion, and popular con-
demnation follows close upon abuse of trust. The worst class of
men seek to enter our legislatures because of the profitable meas-
ures requiring their approval, but which might better be adjusted
in local assemblies. Illinois, fourteen years ago, by passing an
act forbidding local bills and special acts of incorporation, and
relegating all that was necessary to the local bodies, diminished
her pages of statute laws from three thousand to two hundred.
Understanding, then, the importance of local government, both
for political education and pure administration of public affairs, it
becomes of great interest to study our various systems of local
self-government, both in their development, present condition, and
probable future.
Although from the same stock, and subjects of the same laws,
the settlers along the northern and southern portions of our Atlan-
tic coast were led by circumstances, which we need not here dis-
cuss, to adopt very different systems of local government. At the
beginning, the parish of South Carolina resembled the New Kng-
land town, as a student from the Palmetto State has shown ; but,
by 1850, nearly all power in the South was concentrated in the
State and county, while in New England the local unit endured.
But town and parish were survivals of the old English and
German village community. The theory of State lights was
8 Local Government in
a favorite one at the South, but decentralization of power, or
local self-government, was much greater at the North.
We might study simple town government in New England, or
its modified form in New York. But it would be as interesting,
and more instructive, to any one investigating the ultimate effect
of these institutions and their relative merits, if we could find some
large area of country where the two systems of centralized and
decentralized power have been brought together on a new field ;
and especially interesting would it be if any one method of gov-
ernment had gained the ascendency after a fair trial of strength.
Such a country is that which was originally called the Northwest
Territory, or that beyond the Ohio, land that is now divided into
the five States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wis-
consin.
The French, 1 the early settlers of Michigan, and of a few places
to the South and West, were never given local rights, but were
under military and personal government. Land was granted on
feudal conditions, 2 while trade was in the hands of a close corpora-
tion. One great trouble with the French settlements and a chief
cause of their decline, was their entire lack of local government.
"The progress of France," says Lecky, 3 "in more distant quar-
ters [than Europe] has been restricted by an incurable incapacity
for successful colonization, due principally to the French passion
for centralization and over administration." French colonization
in this county was contemporaneous with the increasing centrali-
zation of French institutions under Louis XIV. Everything must
be done for the people, nothing by them. Modern French history
is a sufficient commentary on such a system. With all local offi-
cers appointed at the capital, Paris was the most powerful corpora-
tion in the State. If the Parisians favored kingdom or republic,
this was the government of France. The present stability of the
French Republic is partly due to the powerful and awakened con-
servative influence of the peasantry, who are allowed far more local
government than eight}" years ago.
'For a very interesting account of French customs, character, mode of life,
education, etc., see paper on The Early Colonization of Detroit, by Bela
Hubbard, Michigan Pioneer Collections, Vol. I, pp. 347-368.
2 This is well described in the early chapters of J. Campbell's valuable
work, " The Political History of Michigan."
'History of England in the Eighteenth Century, Vol. I, p. 358.
Michigan and the Northwest. 9
The evils of centralized government increase directly with the
separation of the governing and the governed. The effect is well
described by Judge Campbell in a recent paper. 1 "A system of
personal oversight," he says, "was maintained over every man
who came into the country, and there is no instance recorded, and
probably none existed, where any one ever settled down in the
wilderness as a squatter or pioneer and cleared a farm for himself.
There were no farming settlements except under restricted and
lixed regulations, and every one who went into the country went
as a roving adventurer, and not as a settler." Complete centrali-
zation left no room for independence.- The natural result was
seen when invasion came. As long as the feudal lords were honest
and patriotic, resistance to conquest was strong ; but when those in
authorit}' proved false, the colonists fell helpless before the English,
instead of resisting as did the settlers of the Atlantic coast in 1770.
Under British control there was still no local government in the
Northwest. The governor and council had almost absolute power.
There were less than four hundred Englishmen, and the idea that
Frenchmen were entitled to representation, or even to the right
of habeas corpus, was deemed preposterous. Tartly in consequence
of such facts, few settlers were attracted to this region, and popu-
lation increased slowly. 3
On the evacuation of the territory, in 1788, the country assumed
the name of the Northwest Territory, and was organized in accord-
'Early French Settlements in Michigan. Pioneer ('oil., Vol. If, p. t>G.
*" Simple and frugal in their habits, contented with their lot, they renewed
in their forest recesses of the new world, the life of the old. They were free
from ambition and its cares, and without aims. While they enjoyed much
personal license, they had no conception of municipal freedom ami of self-
government of liberty regulated by law, originating from the Mill of tin:
governed themselves. They received with equal and unquestioning subinis.
siveness their law from the king and his subordinates, and their religion from
their priests." 'the Northwest during the Revolution, by (.'has. I. Walker.
Mich. Pioneer Coll., Vol. J 1 1, p. It.
3 Many went to St. Louis, Arkansas and New Orleans. "Detroit, which
had probably numbered more than (100 inhabitants in I7(>.'>, had hut about liOO
at the commencement of the Revolution. The whole Detroit settlement did
not then exceed 700 or SOU, in the place of 2500, as estimated by Rogers in
17(i0 No new settlements had been formed, ami I am satisfied
that at the commencement of the Revolution, exclusive of officers and sol-
diers and their families, the entire white population of the Northwest did net
exceed .3,000 souls." Mich. Coll. Vol. Ill, p. 15.
10 Local Government in
ance with the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787, the importance
of which can scarcely be exaggerated. It secured freedom, educa-
tion and political development to what are now five great States,
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. We cannot
trace the growth of these individual States. It will answer our
purpose to sketch as briefly as possible the growth of local powers
in that one of the five which first adopted the town-meeting, and
by its success induced man) - other States, west and south, to make
the same attempt with as marked success.
Counties were established in Michigan by Gov. Hull, in 1805,
and for the same object as the counties of old Virginia, for judi-
cial purposes. Indeed, one-fourth of the laws of Micnigan at
that time were taken from Virginia and the rest from Ohio, Massa-
chusetts and New York, in about equal proportions. 1 As the Ohio
legislation was in part a copy of Virginia and Pennsylvania laws,
the influence of the two different systems of local government,
centralized and decentralized, was about equal. The French pre-
ferred central control, but most of the new settlers were from
New York and New England where local power was most devel-
oped. In 181 5, - before a sign of local government was visible in
the rural districts, an act reincorporating Detroit allowed the
electors in town-meeting to levy taxes for such purposes as they
saw fit. The same power was granted to Prairie du Chien in 1821.
The growth of local power outside of the cities was somewhat
as follows: Gov. Hull, before 1813, appointed commissioners to
supervise the highways and bridges in the as yet unincorporated
townships or divisions of territoiy six miles square, into which all
western land is divided by the governmont surveyor. Then these
commissioners in 1820 were given the relief of the poor. Soon'
after, in the same year, by vote of the governor and judges, it
became the duty as well as privilege of the governor to appoint
three county commissioners, with somewhat enlarged powers.
In 1825, Congress gave power to the governor and council of
Michigan to incorporate townships and provide for the election of
county and township officers. This may be considered as the
foundation of local government in Michigan, establishing, as it did,
local elections for all local officers ; but the powers of the county
lr This statement is based on an analysis of the Territorial Laws, published
in one volume.
2 See Territorial Laws. Acts of 1815.
Michigan and the Northwest. 11
still vastly exceeded those of the town. From a law of 1x27 we
judge that the town-meeting could only appropriate money for the
destruction of noxious weeds, birds and animals, and for the main-
tenance of the township poor. Another and important power was,
however, conferred upon the township that year, namely, raising
money for schools. From that time until the present, the powers
of the township have slowly but continuously increased.
The genesis of local government in Western hamlets is very
simple. First comes the settler, who, axe in hand, clears the
ground for his humble dwelling and plants whatever seed he has
brought with him. Then comes another settler and another, until,
perhaps, a dozen families are established near. Two wants are
now felt : roads, or at least paths, from house to house, from ham-
let to market town, and a school-house for the multiplying children.
There is no strong central authority to provide these things, but
the settlers meet and voluntarily vote to tax themselves. The
services of a supervisor, collector, clerk, constable, and justice of
the peace are required. Mam- a township record begins like that
of Burlington. 1 " Was organized in 1837, and held its first town-
ship meeting, April 3d, of that year, electing Justus Goodwin,
supervisor; (). ('. Freeman, town clerk; Justus Goodwin, Gihesia
Sanders and Moses S. Gleason, justices of the peace; Levi
Haughtailing, constable and collector. Established six road dis-
tricts ; voted, $100 to build a bridge across the St. Joseph river,
and 850 for bridging the Nottawa creek. Voted, .">() for common
schools and $o bounty for wolf scalps." The township would
naturally assume other powers in due time with the increased
community of interests.
The local institutions of the Fast were transplanted to a new
soil, losing in the journey none of their pristine vigor, but casting
oil' such portions as were found unsuited to a change of circum-
stance and time. Of the four supreme court judges of .Michigan,
Ihree are of New York or New Fngland birth. The same is true,
of fifteen of the twenty-four State circuit judges. Five of the latter
are of Michigan birth, and three of Ohio.- Probably no State
can rival Michigan in number of sons from New York and New
England. Of the 49G members of the Michigan Pioneer Associa-
'Rccortls of Burlin-ton, Calhoun Co. Mich. Coll., Vol. II., p. 21 I.
^Michigan Manual lor 1 S.S 1 , pp. 41 J? 42:!.
12 Local Government in
tion in 1881, 407 are from these sections. 1 From such a fact alone
we might expect an aptitude for local government ; but apart
from this, the kindrei fact of participating in the organization of
communities and new governments, has had much to do with the
easy transplanting of local institutions, and with the energy and
force of character displayed by the settlers. " There is something
so staid, so stereotyped, so entirely finished in those old settle-
ments," [of the East] remarks a recent speaker, 2 "that there is
small opportunity for development; but let the persons that are
there struggling for an existence amid those old fossilized, stereo-
typed institutions, start out into a new country, and they can get
into a position in the organization of society, the organization of
States, the organization of counties, the organization of towns,
the organization of villages, the establishment of schools and
churches ; and thus it is by being brought into contact with this
necessity the opportunity is afforded to develop into a higher type,
and a greater vigor of life, than is possible in the old country."
A marked feature of the political development of Michigan, is
the influence of the governors and judges of the territory. Their
legislation, in the words of Judge Campbell, was " rather a first
preparation for popular government than the result of popular dis-
content." From 1813 to 1831, Governor Cass was a great
power in the territoiy. He was thoroughly imbued with New
England ideas of local government, under which he was born and
brought up. He it was, more than any one else, who instituted
county and town government in Michigan. He gradually abandoned
the appointment of county and township officers, and urged, nay
required the people to elect them. He evinced his far-reaching
discernment and foresight in the following words : " In proportion
as government recedes from the people, they become liable to abuse.
Whatever authority can be conveniently exercised in primary
assemblies, ma}' be deposited there with safety. They furnish
practical schools for the consideration of political subjects, and no
one can revert to the history of our revolutionary struggle without
being sensible that to their operation we are indebted for much of
the energy, unanimity and intelligence which was displayed by our
Michigan Pioneer Collection, Vol. I, p. 92; Vol. II, p. 186; Vol. Ill, p.
2(J8.
2 See Michigan Pioneer Collection, Vol. II, p. 398.
Michigan and the Norlliwest. 13
government and people at that important crisis." 1 And in this he
voices the sentiments of Jefferson, who says : ; ' These wards,
called townships in New England, are the vital principle of their
governments, and have proved themselves the wisest invention
ever devised by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-
government and for its preservation. "-
In the constitution which Michigan adopted on becoming a State,
in 1837, the governor had important powers. "With the consent
of the senate, he could appoint the judges and all State oflieers :
could adjourn the legislature if he thought lit, and could remove
from office not only State officers, but even those of the county
and township if he thought them incompetent. Internal improve-
ments also were sanctioned. All this is now changed. Uv the
constitution of 1850 the power of the governor was greatly re-
stricted. Nearly all offices, ministerial as well as county and
town, were made elective ; while mismanagement of the finances
in making internal improvements had so displeased the people, that
the power was taken away. Exclusive control was given to the
count}' board of supervisors in the settlement of claims against
counties,'' and the express provision was inserted that the legisla-
ture might confer upon politically organized or incorporated town-
ships, incorporated villages and cities, and upon the boards of
supervisors of the several counties, 4i such powers of a local legis-
lative and administrative character as they may deem proper." 4
The county seat cannot be removed without vote of the electors,
and when, in 1870, the constitutional amendment was submitted
to popular vote, allowing county supervisors to raise 82.000 for
public buildings, highways, bridges, etc., without vote of the
county, instead of 81,000 as at present, the adinendment was de-
feated, 01,1)0-4 to ;3J,1.S0.
'Life of Cass by W. G. L. Smith, p. 181.
He also says : "Those institutions have elsewhere produced the most ben-
eficial (.'fleets upon the character of communities, and upon thu general course
of public measures. They embrace within their scope those questions ot
local police which are necessary to every citizen, and which every citizen is
competent to discuss and determine. In the more extensive concerns ot" a
country the necessary regulations for these subordinate matters cannot he
adopted and enforced " [ by the central authorities ].
-Letter of .Jefferson to Samuel Kerchival, duly 1L\ ISO!. Writings, Vol.
VII. p. 13.
'Constitution of 1S.V), Art. X. Sec. 10.
'Article IV. Sec. 38.
14 Local Government in
Michigan was the first State in the West to adopt the town-
meeting. She has been followed in this by Wisconsin, Minnesota
and Illinois. The three States Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, were
settled more largely bj- people from Pennsylvania, Kentucky and
Virginia, than were Michigan and Wisconsin. As a natural con-
sequence they have adopted a compromise system similar in many
respects to that of Pennsylvania. Ohio 1 and Indiana 2 have town-
ship officers elected by the people, but few questions of an admin-
istrative or legislative character are submitted to the voters. In
Illinois, 3 however, in 1848, a law was passed 4 b}* which a vote of a
majority of the legal voters allows a county to adopt township organ-
ization w r ith power lodged in the town-meeting, as in Michigan and
Wisconsin. Seventy-five of the one hundred and two counties
have already so voted ; seven since 1870, and there is no doubt
but that the others will follow.
The town meeting in Michigan 5 is thus conducted : The first
Monday in April of each year, every citizen of the United States,
twenty-one years of age and upwards, who has resided in the
State six months and in the township the ten days preceding, has
the right of attending and participating in the meeting. The
supervisor, the chief executive officer of the township, presides,
and, with the justice of the peace, whose term of office soonest
expires, and the township clerk, constitute the inspectors of elec-
tion. After the choice of officers for the ensuing year the electors
proceed, from twelve to one or three, as the case ma}' require, to
the discussion of town business. Complaint is perhaps made
that the cattle in a certain part of the township are doing damage
by running at large ; a by-law is passed, forbidding the same
under penalty not exceeding ten dollars. A bridge ma}- be wanted
in another part of the township, but the inhabitants of that road
district cannot bear the expense ; the town-meeting votes the
necessary amount, not exceeding the limits of law, for the laws
restricting the amount of taxation and indebtedness are very par-
ticular in their provisions. The electors may regulate the keeping
and sale of gunpowder, the licensing of clogs, and the maintenance
Revised Statutes of Ohio, 1880, Part I, Titles X and XI.
2 " " of Indiana, 1881, Chap. 90, Article 32.
3 " " of Illinois, 1880, Chap. 139.
4 For law as amended, see Illinois; L, 1831, pp. 216-218.
5 IIowells' Annotated Statutes of Mich, 1882, G69-717.
Michigan and the Northwest. 1,">
of hospitals, and may order the vaccination of all inhabitants.
The voters in town-meeting are also to decide how mneli of the
one-mill-tax on every dollar of the valuation shall lie applied to the
purchase of books for the township library, the residue going to
schools. The annual reports of the various township ollieers
charged with the disbursement of public moneys also report at this
time. In slu.rt, whatever is local in character and affecting the
township only, is subject to the control of the people assembled in
town meeting. 1 Yet we may notice some minor differences be-
tween the New England town-meeting and its sister in Michigan.
Jn the latter, the by-laws and regulations art' less varied in
character. This is <A\w, to the fact that in the West, that part of
the township where the inhabitants are most numerous, the village,
and for whose regulation many laws are necessary, is set oil' as an
incorporated village, just as in nearly all the central and western
states. These villages have the privilege, either directly in village
meeting, or more often through a council of live or more trustees,
of managing their own local affairs, their police, lire department,
streets and water works. 2 In some States, however, they are con-
sidered pa,rts of the township, and as such vote in town-meeting
on all questions touching township roads, bridges, the poor and
schools.
'The voters may order the raising of any sum within certain limits which
they may consider necessary or proper for the ordinary expenses of township
government or for special local purposes. [See Upton v. Kennedy, 'it!
Michigan, 220.]
The extreme local self-government of Michigan is nowhere more strongly
defined than in a decision of .Indue Cooley and associates on the supremo
bench, in Kobbins v. Barron, .">."> Mich, I2<!: The hoard of supervisors [of
the county] do not originate township or school taxes, hut they take the cer-
tificate of the township clerk of the several amounts which the proper author-
ities have voted for those purposes and direct the amounts specified, it' they
appear to he authorized by law, to he spread upon the tax-roll of the town-
ships. The supervisors have no discretion in the premises: they have only
to see that the sums are authorized hy law and then their duty to l;i*c the
proper direction is imperative. If they should wrongfully refuse to u:i\e it,
they might he compelled by mandamus to do so. lint we also think that if
the township authorities should proceed to levy the taxes \\ liich had been law-
fully voted, their action would he perfectly valid whether the proper direction
had been given by the supervisors or not. . . . The action of the super-
visors is not, we apprehend, required to give the local ollieers power in the
premises, but rather to insure the duty being surely and regularly performed.*'
-Towns may now, in Massachusetts, authorize districts to maintain street
16 Local Government in
Similar powers are lodged in the town-meeting in Wisconsin, 3
Minnesota, 4 and Illinois f Minnesota, as a territory, had the county
system, there "being no incorporated townships. On becoming a
State in 1858, the Illinois system was adopted bodily, and changed
again at the end of two years for the county system ; but soon the
New England settlers compelled a return to the township system.
In some important respects the New York town meeting 6 has less
power than further west, as witness the provision allowing the
town highway commissioner to expend $250 a year without vote
of the town. 7 The electors as a body are not usually called upon
in New York to determine directly, at the polls, questions of local
management and expenditure, and even when so consulted their
vote is more frequently considered advisory than binding, for local
government in New York finds its greatest development in the
county board.
An}- stud}' of town goverment would be incomplete without an
examination of the powers and duties of town officers. "The
capacity for self government," says Von Hoist, 8 " shows itself to a
very essential degree in the moderate self limitation by the people
of their direct political activity and a correct perception of the
things which they can better accomplish b}' their delegates." In
the early days of the New England town the number of officers
was proportioned to the variety of duties required of them. De
Tocqueville, fifty 3-ears ago, mentions nearly twenty town officers
as the usual number. But the tendency now is toward consoli-
dation.
In Massachusetts 9 the three selectmen are usually assessors,
overseers of the poor, of public health and roads, besides carrying
out the orders of the town-meeting and managing most of the
lamps, libraries, sidewalks, police, and a fire department. [See Public Stat-
utes of Mass. 1882. Chap. 27, Sec. 37.]
3 Rev. Stat Wis. 1878, Chap. XXXVIII.
4 Rev. Stat. Minn. 1878, Chap. X, Sees. 1-35.
5 Hev. Stat. 111. 1880, Chap 139, Sees. 1-83.
6 Kev. Stat. N. Y., 7ed., Chap. XI, Title II, Article 1. and Title VI. L,
1847, Chap. 197. L, 1872, Chap. 513. L, 1873, Chap. 46.
7 Rev. Stat., 7ed, Chap. XVI, Title I, Article I, Sec. 4 ; L, 1832, Chap. 274,
and L, 1857, Chap. 615.
^Constitutional History of the United States. Vol. Ill, p. 155.
9 Pub. Stat, of Mass., 1882, Chap. 27, Sec. 101 ; Chap. 52, Sees. 3, 4 : Chap.
80, Sec. 3 ; Chap. 102, Sec. 90, etc.
Michigan and the Northwest , 17
town business. Michigan, following the example of Xew York,
has but one important local officer a supervisor, 1 whose duties
are rather executive and clerical than administrative. As assessor
he takes the valuation and submits it to the county board for re-
vision. Receiving again the valuation as corrected, and from the
township clerk a statement of the amount to be raised, he appor-
tions the tax among the inhabitants, and delivers the list to the
treasurer for collection. He is required to take the State census
every ten years, to report violations of the liquor law. to inspect
dams and see to the maintenance of shutes for lish. lie provides
temporary relief for the poor of the township, and represents his
township in the transaction of all legal business. Michigan town-
ships have but one supervisor, yet there is always a township
board, 1 ' composed of the supervisor, township clerk, and those two
of the four justices of the peace whose terms of office soonest
expire. This board exercise many of the powers of the Massa-
chusetts selectmen. They may remove school district officers for
illegal use of money; they are the court of appeal for all dissatis-
fied with the decisions of the highway commissioner: they yearlv
examine and audit the accounts of the township treasurer, and of
all others charged with the disbursement of the public moiiev :
they determine the bond of the clerk, preserve town rccoids, call
special town-meetings, till vacancies in town officers, may raise
money for necessary purposes when the town has neglected to do
so. and exercise other powers of a similar nature, while as a board
of health they possess other important powers. Wisconsin 1 has
three supervisors who correspond to the New Kngland selectmen.
The assessor is a separate officer elected by the people. Minnesota
is still more like Massachusetts, for the three supervisors have
charge of the roads and bridges also, and review t ;e assess i:ent
list. In Ohio there are three township trustees who have the entire
charge of local affairs, being, with the clerk and treasurer, the
only township officers. In Indiana, with but one township trustee
'See Oreon. Township Laws <it' Michigan. 1ST!'.
'-Ibid; and Howell's Annotated Stat., Sees. 711 ;.">".
I'lider tlie Revised Statute-; of ls:',s. p, CI, See. In, tlie township hoard was
authorized to raise money, independently of any vote o1 the electors, to pay
claims audited. Tins power was not mentioned in the |{e\ied Statutes of
184C, and in is p.), March :I, Art. 200, tlie hoard \\a- prohibited from voting
any sum for any purpose other than ordinary town>hip cxpeiws.
:, Kev. Slat. Wis. 1S78, Sees. Sli> 827, and Chap. ">:'. etc.
18 Local Government in
and no township board ? more power must be given to the count}',
and uo taxes are there levied without the advice and consent of
the county commissioners. The same is true of New York. The
town supervisor is largely controlled b} T the county board. The
duties of the other township officers, the clerk, treasurer, high-
way commissioner, constables and justices of the peace are
sufficiently indicated by their titles.
Inasmuch as many of the thousand or more townships of a State
lack the political education and conservatism necessary for perfect
self-control ; since also many through lack of means cannot
raise sufficient money for roads, bridges, schools and the poor, a
higher authority is needed, with the power of equalizing the valu-
ation of several contiguous towns, of taxing the whole number
for the benefit of the poorer, and of exercising a general oversight
over township expenses. This power resides in all States, to a
more or less degree, in a county board. In New. York, where no
tax can be raised save for schools or a town hall, and no bridge
rebuilt, in town or village, without the approval of the county, it
may be well to have the board composed as there of the super-
visors of every town in the county ; but where the powers of the
county are not as great, e. g. in New England and much of the
West, three commissioners elected by the whole county or its dis-
tricts are better. In Michigan, for instance, which has borrowed
the organization of the count}' board from New York, and its
powers from Massachusetts, the board is too large. Judge Cooley,
in a recent letter, sharply criticises it. There is so little responsi-
bility in a board of 16 to 24 members, that there is a likelihood of
illegal and unwarranted action. Matters of local concern are con-
trolled by combinations in the board. Illinois has the Michigan
system. Wisconsin has a board composed of men chosen from
two or more towns. Minnesota has three county commissioners
with little power. Further west the county renders valuable aid
in raising money for schools, for the tax from the richer towns aids
the schools of the poorer.
The importance of this power is not fully appreciated. For
lack of similar provision in Massachusetts, there is ^scarcely any
State or county aid or control of schools. Every town is left to
its own resources with poor results. All educators earnestly advo-
cate county and State control of schools, that there may bs uni-
formity of methods, and that the country districts, the nurseries
Michigan and the Northwest. lit
of our great men in the past, may not degenerate. Bui two
influences oppose : the fear of centralization on the part of the
small towns which need it most, and the dislike of the rich cities
to tax themselves for the country districts.
We have reserved until now the consideration of the relations
of local government to public education. A government like ours,
resting on public opinion, must educate the voters. Convinced
of this, the intelligent and far-sighted statesmen of the last
century passed the ordinance of May 20. 17*.~>. which gave one
section of land a mile square in ever}' township in new States and
territories for school purposes, to be kept as an inalienable fund.
In accordance with this ordinance and that of 184s, introduced by
Senator Douglas, which gives two sections instead of one. there
have been given to nineteen States and eight territories for
school education, over 106,000 square miles, or nearly ;i> much as
all New England and New York.' A wiser provision was never
math' by government, but its value is not confined, as is usually
supposed, to its direct effects on public school education. Local
self-government." says a recent English writer, Bishop l'razer,
" is the mainspring of the American school system
As the immigrants singed westward, from Ireland and from
Germany, from the Connecticut and the Susquehanna, they found
a vast educational fund awaiting them, but to secure its benefits
local organization of school districts and local taxation were neces-
sary. The public fund alone was not suflicient. but it acted as a
great stimulus. Now what has been the result? Dakota has
already 400 school districts where the voters meet at annual and
spe: ial meeting to dis -uss and vote local taxes for everything re-
lating to school purposes, in short the district meeting is modelled
after the town-meeting for which it is the fitting school.
In Michigan, the voters in district meeting direct the purchase
of a site and the building of a scIioo1-1ioum\ the amount of Un-
tax, however, being strictly limited by law.- They also may \olc
'40th Congress, :>d session House of Hep Kx. Dec 17. Tart I. ]]>. L'^'5 L':'.l.
or Report of I'. S. Com. of Kducution, Issu, pp. XXVII. XXX IV.
-Act No. K'.t, I,, b. of ISS1 (if 27), Chip. II. See. L'n. The voters have
power '" Sixth, to vote such tax as the 1 1 n , t i 1 1 _ r shall ih em -utlieii nt. to pur-
chase or lease a site or sites, or to build, hire or purchase a -chonl-l e or
houses; but the amount of (axes t > he raised in an\ district f>r the purpose
of purchiisiii.i! or building a school-house or lioii-r- in the -.en. \ > ar that anv
bonded indebtedness is incurred, shall not exceed in districts containing los
20 Local Government in
to repair the school-house, to provide the necessary school appar-
atus, direct the sale of school property and the management of
suits at law. They also determine the length of school terms,
while the district board of three elected officers estimate and vote
the tax for the entire support of schools over and above what is
voted by the electors. 3
When, however, we speak of the school district meeting as a
preparation for the town-meeting, we are not ignorant of the many
injurious effects attending the district system in the older States.
It caused, and continues to do so in some States, such subdivision
of school moneys, and such local strife, as to injure greatly the
efficiency of the schools.
In some States, notabby Massachusetts, the town system has
been substituted with good results. Under this latter system, all
the money for the school districts of a town is voted in one sum
at the town-meeting, and afterwards applied at the discretion of
the public school committee. 4 But where township government
does not exist, and the people are too scattered to have similar
interests, the school district system is the only one practicable,
and its effect in promoting local government is manifest.
In 1880, some 35,000 of the 100,000 people in Southern Dakota
were from Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and other
States which have complete local government, and the town-meet-
ing has alread}* been introduced by popular vote in the more
thickly settled counties. 5
than ten children between the ages of five and twenty years, $250 ; in districts
having between ten and thirty children of like age, it shall not exceed .$500;
and in districts having between thirty and fifty children of like age, it shall
not exceed $1,C00."
3 Districts, with eight hundred children between five and twenty, must main-
tain a school nine months in the year, and not less than five months where
there are from thirty to five hundred children, and at least three months for
smaller neighborhoods, on pain of forfeiture of their share of the one-mill tax
and primary school interest fundi But if this is not provided for at the annual
district meeting, the district board must make provision for it.
4 Pub. Stat. Mass. 1882, Chap. 44, Sec. 28, 46-48.
5 R. F. Pettigrew, Congressional delegate from Dakota, writes as follows :
" Dakota Territory, at least that portion south of the 46th parallel, has been
settled very largely by people from Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota,
Illinois and Indiana. In 1880 there were 100,000 people in Southern Dakota;
10,000 of whom were born in Wisconsin, 6,000 in Minnesota, 5,000 in Iowa,
4,000 in Illinois, and 4,000 in Michigan, over 2,000 in New York, and many
Jfichtqan and iJte JYorf/ttretif.
21
Montana, equal in size to Dakota, lias too small a population as
yet (only 40,000) for township organization : bill here. too. over
an area three times as large as Pennsylvania, we find school dis-
tricts, 105 in number, with local powers.' 1
The same, may be said of Idaho', Washington Territory", Ore-
gon 8 , Wyoming. Colorado, Nevada. California. Kansas and Ne-
braska. 1 " In some, as p, tj. in Idaho and Washington Territory,
the people do not have tli3 entire management of their s -ho >'.s in
school district meeting, for the county commission ts. usually three
in number, assess a tax of from one to eight mills on a dollar in
addition to funds arising from the sale of public lands, but tin-
voters are called upon to elect district trustees, to vote yes or n<<
on the question of some specified sum which these trustees may
propose as a local tax. and also to decide in district meeting
all questions relating to building, repairing or removing a school-
house.
The township six miles square is impossible in Colorado, where
the people live in the mountains and valleys, along the banks of
streams, or in long narrow belts on the plains, where the land can
be irrigated. Nevada has begun township organization, although
were horn in the New Falkland States. The township organization N adopted
as each county becomes sufficiently settled to maintain it. It is adopted by
the whole county by the votes ol' the people. ( Inly the older counties now
have the township organizations. The o'her counties are adopting tlii--\--
teni a- fast as they obtain sufficient wealth and population. TIm
tion but what within a \ cry short time every county in Dakota will posi >
the township system similar to New Falkland. This system will spread into
all tin' territories of the Northwest. It is the bulwark and l'oiin laiion of
institutions, and is the school in which men are tauidit the science of self-
government more than any other
See also Ucv. Stat. 1 S 7 7 . Chap. L':'..
"Report for 1S7S !l of Hon. \V. F.u'bert Smith. Ter. Supt. of I'ublie Instruc-
tion, of Montana.
In 1.SS0, N'.t school districts, an increase of ."..". in o;i i;
Ter. Sii|it. of Kducatiou. 1S7!I so, p. ;; (( .
"In lssi, ::>(; school districts. While in I-;: 1 . :': n-p rt. ' 1,'ep. IVr.
Supt. l.ss] . pp. \\, lo.
" \ population of less than -i\ to the square mile rend. ; - tow i
tion impossible. Nearly all of the L'li counties ha\c each an :in-:i n|ii:il t"
Delaware and Rhode I-dand united, but bete al-o we lir.d \ n v
of local (axes in the lin>7 school districts.
'"Consult the School Laws and Kdiicatinnal Reports of the I d and
State Supts., or the summary given in the Report of the I S I
of Kducatiou for 1 S7'. and for IsSii.
Local Government in
most of the power resides in the county commissioners. Township
organization, similar to that of Indiana, has just been provided for
in the Constitution of California. Kansas has 999 townships,
similar to those of Indiana, with township officers but without the
town-meeting. Provision was made for township organization in
Nebraska, in the Constitution of 1877, and two acts in accordance
with it have since been passed, but failed to become law ; the first
act being declared unconstitutional, and the second, in 1881, being
vetoed by the governor because of its many defects. But another
attempt will soon be made. In Ohio, and Indiana, and Iowa, the
voters are required to approve the expenditure of money for
school buildings and a few other purposes, though nearly all other
local expenditures are left to the discretion of the township and
county officers. Missouri adopted optional township organization
in 1879, and already thirteen of the 114 counties have voted it.
As might be expected, the great trouble 1 has been in securing the
large number of competent officers requisite for township adminis-
tration. Such a change as that from county to township govern-
ment cannot be made in one year or five j-ears. It is only of the
tendencj* we are speaking. In Missouri much power is lodged in
the voters in district meeting, but, as elsewhere, subject to strict
limitations in the amount which they can raise. Thus we have
found that the increase of local powers has been unprecedented
during the last decade, and seems destined to continue until all
the great West and Northwest have experienced its benefits. The
following table, compiled from the census of 1880, gives some of
the more important facts concerning local self-government in those
States where it is most complete :
No.
Townships.
No.
Counties.
Population
Maine,
455
16
648,936
New Hampshire,
230
10
346,991
Vermont, .
239
14
332.286
Massachusetts,
320
14
1,783,085
Connecticut,
1G6
8
622,700
Rhode Island, .
3-4
5
275,531
All New England,
1,450
67
4,009,529
New York,
937
60
5,082,871
New Jersey,
236
21
1.131,116
Illinois,
1,008
75
2,649, 841 a
Michigan,
1,054
77
1,636.937
Wisconsin,
891
62
1,314,497
Minnesota,
1,100
72
780,773
6,676 434 16,605,564
'Letter from State Supt. Public Instruction, July 23d, 1882.
'Only three fourths of the State have as yet adopted township organization.
Michigan and the Northwest. 2.)
While emphasizing the important bearings of school district
organization upon the development of local government in the
new Northwest, Ave cannot forbear a brief reference to a similar
and noteworthy movement in an older section of our I'nion.
Now that the large plantations of the South are being divided
and manifold industries are taking their place, the mechanic and
the artisan appear at the cross-roads and form the nucleus of a
village, instead of finding employment on the lands of wealthy
planters ; and with the village hamlet comes the fust beginning
of local self-government. A few towns in South Carolina
have recently incorporated themselves for local taxation for
school purposes, and the movement is spreading.' Thanks to the
increasing agitation of prominent Southern educators, the people
already have this right of local taxation for school purposes in
Kentucky, Tennessee, 2 Virginia, 3 and West Virginia ; 4 while in
Alabama,"' by recent enactment, the school ofllcers are required to
call meetings of the patrons of the schools and consult with them
concerning school matters. These movements toward local govern-
ment are very recent and will doubtless increase if the national
government, in giving money to public education, as is proposed.
shall couple it with the condition that an equal amount shall 1 e
raised by local taxation. Some of the Northwestern States have
long done this, withholding aid from districts which failed to main-
tain schools for a certain number of months in the year. We are
again reminded of the words of Jefferson when writing of this very
subject local incorporation for schools he remarks: Where
every man is a sharer in the direction of his ward-republic [< . </.
school district or township] or of some of the higher ones, and
feels thai lie is a participator in the government of affairs, not
merely at an election one day in the year, but every day: when
there shall not be a man in the State who will not be a member of
some one of its councils, great or small, he will let the In-art he
torn out of his body sooner than [allow ] his power [ to ] be wrested
'Report State Supt. of S. ('., 1MS1, pp. 11, 1."., advocate- it -tmnulv.
2 1 n cities ami incorporate towns by ad of legislature in Issi, -> < Iicpuri
State Supt. Tennessee, ISSI, p. (.
:l See School Laws, anil Report of I'. S. Com. of K lueatioii. 1 ss ! .
U.lem.
'School Law-, ed. of Issi, pp. \r,. Hi.
"Letter to Joseph C. Cabell. Ks<j., Feb. J.l, Islfi. Writing, \1. VI . p.
.Ml.
24 Local Government in
from him by a Cresar or a Bonaparte. How powerfully did we
feel the energy of this organization in the case of the embargo. I
felt the foundations of the government shaken under my feet by
the New England townships. There was not an individual in their
States whose body was not thrown with all its momentum into
action ; and although the whole of the other States were known to
be in favor of the measure, yet the organization of this little selfish
minority enabled it to overrule the Union. What would the un-
wieldy counties of the middle, the south and the west do? Call a
county meeting, and the drunken loungers at and about the court
houses would have collected, the distances being too great for the
good people and the industrious generally to attend. The character
of those who really met would have been the measure of the weight
they would have had in the scale of public opinion. As Cato. then,
concluded ever} T speech with the words, '-Carthago dele/ida est,'
so do I every opinion, with the injunction, 'divide the counties
into wards.' Begin them onty for a single purpose ; the}' will soon
show for what others they are the best instruments."
The wish of Jefferson seems destined to be fulfilled. As the
New England town was built up about the church, so the Western
and Southern town is centering its political activity about the school.
It is also noteworthy that it is in the local government of the
school district that woman Suffrage is being tried. Says United
States Commissioner of Education, John Eaton, in his last report r 1
"Women's opportunities to influence education as voters and
school officers have been greatly enlarged [during 1880-1881].
They may vote at school meetings in Kansas, Nebraska, New
Hampshire, Vermont, Dakota, and Wyoming ; at school elections
in Colorado and Minnesota ; and for members of school com-
mittees in Massachusetts. They can vote at school meetings in
Michigan and New York if they are tax-payers ; in Washington
Territory if they are liable to taxation. Widows and unmarried
women in Idaho may vote as to special district taxes if they hold
taxable property. In Oregon, widows having children and taxable
property, may vote at school meetings. In Indiana, ' women not
married nor minors, who pay taxes and are listed as parents,
guardians, or heads of families, may vote at school meetings.'
In Kentucky, any white widow having a child of school age, is a
qualified school voter ; if she has no child, but is a taxpayer, she
'Kcport of U. S. Com. Ed., 1880, p. XXV.
Michigan and the Xorthwest,
2;>
may vote on the question of tuxes. Women are eligible t school
offices generally in Illinois, Iowa. Kansas. Louisiana, Massa-
chusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania. Vermont and
Wyoming; to school district oil ices in Colorado; to anv office
except State Superintendent in Wisconsin. They may serve on
school committer in New Hampshire and Rhode Island, as school
trustees in New Jersey, and as school visitors in Connecticut.
Some ofliees are open to them in .Maine, and all ollices in Califor-
nia, unless specially forbidden by the constitution. In I tali, no
discrimination on the ground of sex is made as to voting in
general."
If society be an organism wherein the good of each member is
the good of the whole, then the importance of local self-govern-
ment is established. For does not this system of self-government
bring to the masses that self-respect and feeling of equality before
the law which is a prime condition of progress? Docs it not also
compel, for the sake of self-protection on the part of the more
cultured, such attention to public education as will give the
humblest citizen the means of determining what is for his true
interest and or that of society? History gives but one answer.
We note a growing tendency to give the general government more
control over vast public interests, such as railroads and telegraph- :
and with the improvement of the civil service this form of central-
ization will be rapidly developed. We also note a corresponding
increase of local power over matters of purely local interest.
Centralization of national interests, in so far as we can properly
speak of centralization under a republican government, and decen-
tralization of local interests, are principles not contradictory but
harmonious, and they are coming into prominence with every
decade of our history. Methods may change, but progress is
still the watchword, and the nation still lives in the strength and
devotion of eiti/ens whose powers have been developed, whose
self-respect lias been aroused under the American principle ol
local self-gevernment .
VI
PARISH INSTITUTIONS
MARYLAND
"The Parish, as we see it in Western Christendom, owes its origin to several causes,
and is the final result of several earlier forms. The TTapoucia of early days was neither
a parsjh nor a diocese, but the community of Christians living within a city or a dis-
trict, regarded in relation to the non-Christian population which surrounded it. Every
such community seems to have had a complete organization, and there is no trace of
the dependence of any one community upon any other." Hatch, Organization of the
Early Christian Churches (Bampton Lectures, 1880.)
"The limits of parishes were probably, in almost all cases, fixed by the previously
existing organization. Where the Roman organization prevailed, the Parish was the
pagus, vicus, or castellum, with its surrounding territorium. Where, as in Euglaud, the
Roman organization had been almost completely swept away, the Parish was identical
with the township or the manor. . . . Between Parishes, as between townships, were
frequently tracts of more or less unsettled or common laud, on which chapels might
be erected without trenching on any parochial right." Hatch," Parish" in Smith's Dic-
tionary of Christian Antiquities.
I
" As the kingdom and shire were the natural sphere of the bishop, so was the town-
ship of the single priest; and the parish was but the township or cluster of townships
to which that priest ministered. . . . The parish and the township, have existed for more
than a thousand years side by side, identical in area and administered by the same
persons, and yet separate in character and machinery. . . . The parish, then, is the
ancient vicus or tun-scipe regarded ecclesiastically." Stubbs, Constitutional History of
England.
"The earliest records which we have of the proceedings of Parliament, find Parishes
treated as the known and established integral subdivisions of the hundred. ... It is
decisive of the point as to the identity of the Parish, as an Institution, with the 'lylhing
of freemen and their tythingman, that the existence of a separate constable is an
unquestionable criterion of the separate recognition of a Parish." Toulmin Smith, The
Parish.
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
1 s
Historical and Political S c i e n c e
HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor
History is past Politics and Politics present History. FYreman
VI
PARISH INSTITUTIONS
MARYLAND
With Illustrations from Parish Records
By EDWARD INGLE, A. B.
i: a i.t r m o k i:
Pum.lsiiKU my Tin: .Johns Hopkins I'mvuimtv
a run., iks:i.
JOHN MURPHY A CO., PRINTERS,
BALTIMORE.
PARISH INSTITUTIONS
O K
MARYLAND.*
Before the last years of the seventeenth century hut few
Church of England ministers had been attracted to the colony
planted by Lord Baltimore on the shores of the Chesapeake.
Those who had ventured to take up an abode (here were
supported mainly by voluntary contributions, with now and
then a legacy, or by the produce of their farms. Frequent
complaints were made to England of the low state of morality
and religion in the Province. Movements were started with
a view of checking these evils, and the result was the passing
in 1G92 of an "Act for the Service of Almighty God and the
Establishment of the Protestant Religion" in Maryland. t
Agreeably to such provisions the justices and freeholders of
*In the library left by the late Bishop "Whittingham to the Diocese of
Maryland, there is a rare collection of materials illustrating the social,
civil and religious history of the Province and State of Maryland. Copies
of manuscripts found in English libraries, original parish records, parish
histories, a remarkable collection of Maryland laws and documents, tie-
diaries, letters and sermons of early Maryland clergy- the-e, if properly
handled, could be made fresh and interesting source- of knowledge upon
many point.- of our history. From such materials in part has been drawn
the following paper upon the Parish Institution- of Maryland. Bacon'*
"Laws" have been the basis; but. inasmuch a- one mu.-t ret believe that
measures succeeded, simply because enactment- favoring them are t" he
found in tin; statute books, every point made in this >keteh has been veri-
fied, it is believed, by concrete examples.
f Bacon, lu'JU, Chap. II.
6 Parish Institutions of Maryland.
each of the ten counties divided their respective counties into
parishes, varying in size according to their number of taxa-
bles.* A fine of one hundred pounds of tobacco was imposed
upon Sabbath-breakers, and was to be used for the benefit of
the poor of the " Parish, City or borough " where the offence
should be committed.
In the newly settled country, a meeting of all the inhabi-
tants of a parish in Vestry was well nigh impossible. This
probably was a reason for the adoption of the representative
system of Select Vestries, a usage that had already sprung up
All males and all female slaves of the age of sixteen years and over
were taxables, except the clergy of the Church of England, who had
benefices in the Province, paupers, and disabled slaves. Bacon, 1715,
Chap. XV, 5.
"Within four years the counties had been divided into thirty-one par-
ishes, (Historical Collections of the American Colonial Church. Maryland,
p. 13). At first the parishes were contained within the limits of the
county ; but later, as the number of counties and parishes increased, some
parishes lay in parts of two and even three counties. The hundreds were
not of necessity integral parts of the parish, although they were made the
basis of the new division. It is probable that the hundreds had been laid
out according to natural boundaries, i. e., the rivers and their tributaries,
and the parishes were subject to the same idea, as may be seen from such
of their names as Herring Creek, Middle Neck, South River, &c. In the
Records of Baltimore County Court, 1692, fol. 338, is the following: " We
do think fit to order that one parish be in Spesutia? hundred and another in
Gunpowder river hundred." In the same, 1693, fol. 126: "We, the vestry-
men for Patapsco hundred, met together at the house of Maj. John Thomas."
The word "hundred " was used here not for "parish " but simply to des-
ignate the parish until a proper title had been given. Thus in the June
Court, 1693, fol. 115, it is shown that "the vestrymen of this parish of
Gunpowder hundred " had agreed to build a church on Elk Neck, Gun-
powder river, and to call the parish Copley (later St. John's). As popu-
lation became denser, the number of hundreds in the county, without regard
to parish bounds, became greater, so that frequently one hundred was in
two parishes. So much confusion resulted from this, that finally the
County Courts were empowered to lay out anew the hundreds in such a
manner that no hundred should lie in more than one parish. When a
new parish was to be erected in an old one, the consent of the incumbent
was obtained, and then a petition was sent to the Assembly for an Act
enabling the new parish to be made.
Parish Institutions of Maryland. 7
from other causes in England. * ]5y Vestry was usually
meant the house or room where parish meeting- were held;
hut the term was frequently used to denote not only the place
of meeting, but also the assembly itself, and the members
taken collectively. The freeholders chose the Vestry, which
was a corporate body for the holding and disposal of church
property and the acceptance of bequests. f The Act of 1692
with some later ones had the effect of organizing Vestries, of
building more churches, and of bringing a number of clergy
into the colony, but there was still felt a need of further leg-
islation in regard to ecclesiastical matters. Accordingly, in
1702, another Act became the law, by which the Church of
England was more firmly established in the Province.*
As an institution of Englishmen the parish system of Mary-
land was based upon the parish laws and customs of the
mother-land, but there were various modifications to suit the
new conditions. The materials for a reconstruction of this
system are meagre, but the laws on the subject tell what had
to be done, and various parish records show what really was
done.
The Governor, for the Proprietor, inducted a Minister into
a parish. He usually made appointments from nominees of
the Bishop of London, and a Vestry was obliged to accept
whomsoever the Governor sent. Occasionally he consulted the
wishes of parishioners. In the record book of Prince George's
parish is a cony of a letter from Gov. Sharpe to Mr. Alex.
* For a condensed statement of the duties and capacities of English
Vestries, consult "A Compilation containing t In Con>titulion and Canons
of the 1'. K. Church in the Diocese of Maryland, A. ," pp. "d -*". The
subject is treated at length by Toulmin Smith in "The I'ari-h,'' and by
J. F. Archb'dd in "Shaw's Parish Law."
[The name Vestry is derived through the French from the Latin rs-
tiaritun, from vextis, a garment.
+ Bacon, 1701 2, Chap. I. In 1700 an Act had bee, pu<-ed and sent to
the King in Council. It was not approved in all it- part-, but, having
been omitted from the general repeal, was ,-ent back with amendment.- In
.Maryland. Tins former Act amended was the Act "t 1701-1.'.
8 Pariah Institutions of Maryland.
Williamson, whom he had licensed "to act as curate" until
another rector might be appointed, " which step," the letter
states, " I conceive would be more agreeable to the Parish-
ioners than if I were immediately to induct that gentlemen."
The people thought they ought to have the privilege of
choosing their own rector, as they were the ones who con-
tributed towards building churches, and paid the salaries of
incumbents. In 1768 one of the parishes refused to receive
ministers presented by Lord Baltimore through his Governor,
and upon an appeal to English Courts, a decision was given
in favor of the parish.* But as a rule Vestries accepted the
Governor's appointee, and, when they had done this, they
could not rid themselves of him unless he chose to resign.
There are, however, accounts of unpopular ministers having
been mobbed and locked out of church. In one parish after
the death of the incumbent, the long dissatisfied parishioners
requested the Governor not to induct another rector so disa-
greeable to them.
For the support of the clergy, forty pounds of tobacco were
levied each year upon every taxable. The Constable of the
hundred made a list of the names of all taxables and gave it
to the Sheriff. He, after collecting the tobacco and deducting
five per cent, as a fee, paid the remainder to the incumbents
of the parishes in the county. As there was not an over
abundance of prayer-books in use among congregations, every
minister had to keep a clerk who acted for the congregation.
One can almost see him in his desk below the pulpit, and
Coventry Parish, Somerset County. This parish had been contending
for its rights for a long time. In 1749 the Vestry had indicted a newly
presented rector for breaking into the parish church, the doors of which
had been closed against him. The minister was acquitted only by the
vote of the chief justice. One of the ministers appointed to the parish
declared that he had been threatened with a ducking in a mill pond, and
that armed resistance had been made against him. A full history of the
troubles is given in Dr. E. Allen's manuscript " History of Coventry
Parish."
Parish Institutions of Maryland. <)
hear him making the responses in sonorous tones, or lining
out the hymns. It is, perhaps, a warm June morning, and
while the elders are peacefully dozing, the youths east lowing
glances through doors or windows towards their sleek steeds*
fastened in a shady spot convenient to the "upping block,*'
or they watch with interest the efforts ofa Church Warden
to drive some stray dog from the church. Those who are
not overcome by the general drowsiness, join in the singing,
or patiently hearken to the delivery of the usually prosy
sermon, or to the reading of the penal laws of the Province.
Service over, the congregation breaks up into groups, some
reading the notices posted at the church door, others discussing
the latest bits of news, the prospects of a fine tobacco-crop,
and others exchanging friendly greetings. At last the few
stragglers disappear and the rector wends his wav to the
''glebe." In many parishes there were glebe-lands, which
the incumbent either occupied or rented. Glebes were gen-
erally donated to the parish, but when there was no minister,
and the church property needed no repairs, the parish funds
could be expended in buying and stocking a glebe. The
incumbent did not always insist upon everybody's paying the
tax for his support. In 1712. the rector of the parish where
Charles-town had been recently laid out, declared that all
persons taking up their abode in the new town should be free
from such a tax.f lie must have been either a man of means,
or settled in a wealthy parish. Many of the clergy wen;
poorly compensated for the labor and trouble they were com-
pelled to undergo. | The parishes were very large, and the
* " Thoy arc nil sjroal horsemen iuitl have so much v : 1 1 1 n (r the -mid If,
tliat nilhiT than walk to church five miles, they will l'" ei^ht '> catch
their horses and riile there, so that you would think the churches looked
like the outside skirts .!' u country horsefnir." "Itinerant Observations
in America," Lond. Maer. 1 745-0. Reprinted in Coll. (Jeor^ia Hist Soc
: Huron, 174.', Chap. XXIII, 18.
+ Kxtracts from a letter written in 1711 by Ah \ Adam- to the liishop
of London, [lli-l. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch. Mil , p. f,:>) : "For the-e four
)
10 Parish Institutions of Maryland.
parishioners lived scattered in every direction. The minister
was, therefore, obliged to travel about on horseback in order
faithfully to discharge his duties to his congregation. The
clergy, however, enjoyed certain immunities and small emolu-
ments. They were not taxed and were exempt from militia
service. It was quite usual for them to receive a fee for
delivering a sermon at the funeral of a wealthy parishioner.
If a minister was in the parish, a lay magistrate, who dared
perform the marriage ceremony was liable to a heavy fine of
tobacco. Banns were published in the parish to which the
prospective bride belonged, and her rector received the fee.
If there was no incumbent, the Governor granted a license
and then any minister could officiate at the wedding.
An Act was passed in 1704* to secure the parishes in the
possession of their libraries, which the Rev. Dr. Bray had
years I alone have served, as a Presbyter of the Church of England, the
whole County of Somerset, consisting of four parishes, so that six Con-
gregations are supplied by me, which obliges me to travel 200 miles per
month, besides my pastoral charge in my own parish (Stepney), which
has a church and chapel, and is near 30 miles in length, and some 16 or
18 miles in breadth, which possibly is a labour that few in America un-
dergo : yet, my Lord, 1 can't subsist without some assistance, for Tobacco,
our money, is worth nothing, and not a Shirt to be had for Tobacco this
year in all our County: and poor ten shillings is all the money I have
received by my Ministry and perquisites since October last."
11 1 humbly desire your Lordship to send me a Letter to be chaplain to
some man-of-war that comes to convey the Virginia Fleet next year, and
after 1 have got some money by being chaplain aboard to pay my Debts
(which are not very considerable as yet), I assure your Lordship I am
resolved to return to my Parish as soon as times amend, and I can com-
fortably subsist among them."
" Our Cloathing, household furniture, Malt, beer, sugar, spice, Coffee,
Tea, and such Things generally come from England, and are sold by y e
mereh t8 here at above one hundred ^ cent. The expense of living here
is generally valued doubl. w^ it is in England." (Ibid. p. 138). Many
of the clergy were for a long time without surplices, and some were com-
pelled to teach in order to gain a livelihood.
* Bacon, 1704, Chap. LVI. Papers of the Rev. Dr. Bray, Lond. 1699,
p. 32. For a life of Dr. Bray, see Hawks, " P. E. Church, U. S.," Vol.
II, pp. 83-114, and Todd's "Life and Designs of Dr. Bray," London,
1808.
Parish Institutions of Maryland. 1 1
suggested, and at considerable expense, had procured for "the
Incouragement and Promoting of Religion and Learning in
the Foreign Plantations, and to Induce such of the Clergy
of this Kingdom as are Persons of Sobriety and Abilities to
accept of a Mission into those Parts." Two-thirds of the
books sent to America were bestowed upon the parishes in
Maryland. The parish library belonged to the incumbent,
who was held accountable for the books to the Governor and
Council, and to the Vestry, and had to pay triple co.it for any
damages. When he removed, he had to deliver to the Vestry
the library in as good a condition as possible. As the books
were " for the sole Use of the Minister," they were mostly
theological and classical works. Put at least one collection,
it seems, provided against temporal as well a< spiritual foes.
In it were contained, besides "Catechetical Lectures," "The
Lawfulness of Common Prayer," and "The Whole Duty of
Man," a book on "Martial Discipline," one on Articles of
War, a perspective glass, a pocket compass, and a dark
lantern.
The Vestries were required to inspect twice a year the parish
libraries, but they must have neglected their duty in this
respect, for few if any of the books are known to exist.*
Dr. Bray wrote in 1700 that the Governor of Maryland
had caused an Act to be passed whereby free schools were to
be established for the propagation of the Gospel, and the
*Tlie following extract from "Notes and Queries, " Oct. 7, IsS'J, may
in some degree explain their disappearance!: "1 can well remember in
1852 paying my lirst visit to Beverly and inspecting tin* noble perpen-
dicular of St. Mary in that town In one of the vestries in the
north transept was a small library, consisting mainly "I goodly folios,
chiefly theological, covered with dust, in a most dilapidated condition,
and I \v:i< then informed, the tires in the church had uualiy been lighted
from this literary source for some time. Thirteen years afterward ....
a second visit was paid to the same church, then undergoing nMoratiori.
The pew- had gone and also the small collection in the library had become
' line by degrees, ami beautifully le>-,' for it was apparently reduo 1 to
one book, a copy of the Hcxnpla. .John I'ickford, M . A."
12 Parish Institutions of Maryland.
education of the youth in the Province. These schools were
to be for the "instruction of youth in Arithmetic, Navigation
and all useful learning, but chiefly for the fitting such as are
disposed to study divinity, to be further educated at his Ma-
jesty's College Royal in Virginia."* In an Act of J723,f
it is stated that youths were to be educated, so that they might
the better serve Church and State. It is probable that for
the purpose of looking after the interests of the Church, one
minister was a member of the board of seven school visitors
in his county. The minister may have occupied this position
by reason of his attainments, for there were talented men
among the Maryland clergy. One found enjoyment in com-
piling the laws of the Province, and superintending a manual
labor school, another was clerk of the upper House of the
Assembly, while not a few kept private schools. Such con-
scientious laborers were, however, comparatively rare. It was
no unusual thing for ministers, who had been disgraced at
home,! to be sent to .America to reform. Reformation did
not always take place. Many, removed from the restraints
of ecclesiastical superiors, became careless in the performance
of their duties, and some, indeed, acquired a bad reputation
for scandalous living. Drunkenness was their chief failing,
but more heinous crimes were committed by them. One, who
had enjoyed his parish during thirty years, had become dis-
abled by age. Refusing the assistance of neighboring clergy-
men, he authorized his clerk, a convicted felon, to read the
*Md. MSS. in the Whittingham Library, p. 32.
f Bacon, 1723, Chap. XIX.
jln the Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Gh. Md., pp. 128-129, is a list of the
clergy in Maryland in 1722. This was evidently prepared by a "Whig.
The following are some of the descriptions: "A stickler for the present
happy establishment," "A Whig & an excellent scholar & good liver,"
"An Idiot & Tory," "A Grand Tory & a Bake," "A Whig & a good
Christian," "A Whig of the first rank, and reputed a good liver, but a
horrid preacher," "Tried for his life in Virginia for shooting a man.
Keformed." The story of the notorious Bennett Allen is not worth
repeating.
Parish Institutions of Maryland. 13
whole service, and generally neglected his other parochial
work. The Vestry much aggrieved complained of his conduct,
and also accused him of drinking, quarreling, and fighting.*
To check evils of this kind "Commissaries" were appointed,
one for each " shore. " These held visitations from time to
time, and investigated complaints from parishes. As thev
were somewhat ignorant of their powers, thev were hindered
in their work, and accomplished little good either in correcting
abuses, or in reconciling the people in general to the existing
Establishment. f The Assembly passed several acts unfavor-
able to the clergy, and in J 771 J an especially stringent one,
by which every minister appointed to a parish was compelled
to swear that he had no "simoniacal contract for his benefice."
li he were absent from his parish one month at a time, or
two months during the year, he was subject to a fine of ten
shillings; if a Vestry or the Church Wardens should complain
of a minister, the Grand Jury was to investigate the charges,
and if these were sustained the offender was to be tried bv a
court consisting of three clergymen, three laymen, and the
Governor, or, if he was not a member of the Church of Knir-
land, by the first person on the list of the Council, who was
a Churchman. This last provision was most obnoxious to
the clergy, who thought that a court composed in part ot
laymen smacked of I'resbvtcrianism, and should, therelbre,
be abolished.
But the greatest historical interest centres in the Vestrv of
which the Minister was "Principal." In every parish six
select Vestrymen were chosen by the freeholders. Kvcry
Vestryman subscribed the test, took the special oath <>l his
ollice, and the general oaths of allegiance, abjuration and a-so-
*llist. Cll. Amer. Col. Ch. Mil., pp. l-'H) KM.
| Tin? Commissaries were opposed on all Miles. In "lie
minister \vln> was preparing to sue the Commis-arv It ilmna^'"-, w;i-
prisventeil I'll .in mi doing liy falling in a ilrunk'ii li" ii
Inirning to death. See Sprague's Annul-, pp. :{! ".7. ILiwU.- \' II
lis L'iO, Hist. Coll. Amer. ('..]. Cli. Mil., pp. Hi) I I. ai.d .1- wli
I lluiisoii, 1771, Chap. XXXI.
14 Parish Institutions of Maryland.
ciation,* which were administered at the first election by a
Justice of the Peace, afterward by the " Principal." The
legal time for elections was every Easter Monday, when the
two Vestrymen who had served longest, were dismissed, and
others appointed in their place. No one could serve as Ves-
tryman more than one year in three. This law was strangely
misconstrued by some, for, in one parish, some members of
the Vestry were elected for a period of three years, and actu-
ally obeyed the decree of the parishioners, and that too in
a town where the law should have been best understood, for
County Court was held there. The only qualifications neces-
sary for a Vestryman were, that he should be "sober and
discreet" and not a member of the Romish Church. Keepers of
ordinaries were excused from acting, and a certain Mr. Caswell
was prevented from continuing in a Vestry by reason of his
being coroner. Some Vestrymen were not even open pro-
lessors of religion. They were generally men well known
and of good report in the parish. For instance, the inhabi-
tants of Piscataway Parish elected as foreman of the Vestry,
Mr. John Addison, who was at the time a member of the
Governor's Council and Chief Justice of Charles County. In
the same Vestry were other prominent men. These were not
chosen, it should be remembered, with a view of connecting
their civil functions with those of Vestrymen, but because it
was believed they would not abuse the confidence reposed in
them. Occasionally accidents prevented the holding of elec-
tions at the proper time, in which case the old Vestry con-
tinued in office, and its acts were approved by the Assembly.f
Two Church Wardens were elected annually in the same
manner as the Vestry, but were always reeligible.| Their
* The oath of association was taken during William's reign ; the oaths
of allegiance and abjuration were used after the accession of George 1.
f Bacon, 1760, Chap. VI.
X " William Bruce, Churchwarden Elect for Christ Church Parish in
Calvert County, appeared, & alleged he was exempted from the Office of
Churchwarden, being a Practitioner of Pbysick, and was excused." (Hist.
Coll. Amer. Col. Ch. Md., p. 95).
Parish Institutions of Maryland. 15
special duties were to take care of the church linen, " pewter
or plate," and to provide bread and wine for the communion.
Expenses incurred in procuring the elements were defrayed
by parish funds. Sometimes the rector took charge of these
matters. An entry in one parisli record book states that the
Rev. Edw. Butler had given up the "communion furniture.''
In another we read that the Rev. Alex. Williamson was paid
"five pounds five shillings for finding wine for the parish n-e
for over a year." In 1765 the Vestry of St. -lames' Parish
ordered that "persons intruding into other persons' pews
should be taken out by force and put in the stocks." The
Church Wardens probably executed this order, for they had
to preserve " order in and around the church." When the
"Commissary" held a visitation, the Wardens met him, and
gave an account of the state of their parishes. At the onlv
two visitations which, it is known, the Wardens attended, thev
were required upon oath to report at the next visitation the
conduct and character of the incumbents, the condition of the
parish property, and any infringements of the laws relating
to Sabbath-breaking, and other immoralities. Vestrymen
and Church Wardens who refused to serve without good
excuse were fined one thousand pounds of tobacco.
The "Principal" summoned the Vestry meeting, but, that
"nothing might be done unawares," the first Tuesday in each
month was Vestry day. At "eleven of the clock, forenoon,"
the Vestry met, and three constituted a quorum. In some
large parishes it was the custom, for convenience, to meet after
service on Sundays. Usually there was a small Vestry-house,
either adjoining or close by the church. Absent members
could be fined. Some Vestrymen, for lack of something
better to do, spent their time at meeting in fining their absent
* An Historical Sketch of Anne Arundel County. By lev. Tbeo. ('.
GarnbrHll, I87ti. Under the tobacco Act of 17'JS. the Clmr.h Warden-
were ordered to summon a Vestry meeting to till vaeaneio.- in the number
of counters.
16 Parish Institutions of Maryland.
brethren. As a rule such fines were remitted at the next
meeting.
After a long ride through the wilderness, the Vestrymen
did full justice, no doubt, to the provisions for their refresh-
ment. In one parish "a quart of rum and sugar equivalent"
and "as much diet as would give the vestry a dinner" was
prepared by the sexton, at the expense of the parish. As this
custom caused after a time "great scandal," it was abolished,
and each Vestryman was required to furnish his own dinner.
The proceedings of the Vestry were recorded in a book by
the clerk or register, chosen and paid by the Vestrymen. The
register kept also an account of all births, marriages and fu-
nerals in the parish. Any one failing to give notice of such
occurrences in his family, was liable to be fined. Refusal to
make an official entry in the register book was punishable by
a fine. A small fee was given the clerk for searching a record,
or for giving a certificate. Notices of Vestry meetings, or
concerning other parish matters, were sent by the clerk, who
also presented at court the pleas of the Vestry.
Vestrymen were the guardians of parish property and the
censors of parish morals. If the church buildings needed
repairs or additions, the Vestry contracted for improvements.
If the Vestry had not sufficient means to pay parish charges,
it petitioned the County Court to levy a tax. This tax could
not exceed yearly ten pounds of tobacco per poll. As a parish
became more thickly settled, or if the church was not conve-
nient to all parishioners, the Vestry summoned them to decide
whether a chapel of ease should be built, and if so, where.
If a chapel was desired, a petition was sent to the Assembly
for an Act authorizing the parish to erect one. Voluntary
subscriptions or taxes imposed by the County Court paid for
the building of churches and chapels. The sites selected for
these edifices were generally near springs or wells, in order to
save the trouble of carrying water. The land was, perhaps,
given outright by some piously disposed parishioner, and if
there was a doubt as to how much had been given, two acres
Parish Institutions of Maryland. 17
were surveyed and appropriated for the purpose.* Sometimes
the Vestry bought the land. In the laying out of Maryland
towns, places were left for a "church, chapel, market-house,
or other public buildings." In Annapolis three lots were
reserved, one for the use of tiie minister, one lor the sexton
and parish clerk, and the remaining one for the Vestry's clerk
and the Commissary's clerk.
Before the churches were erected services were held in the
court-houses or in private residences. Even when there was
a parish church, such places were used for worship, in order
to reach every parishioner. The churches were usually built
of wood, but some were of bricks or stone. The church at
Annapolis, as early as 1704, had a belfry and a bell, but
most churches were plain structures devoid of such luxuries.!
Besides, in a parish containing at least thirty square miles, a
bell would have been of little use for calling together the
congregation. The interiors wen; equally free from orna-
mentation. For some time many churches were without
flooring save the bare earth, and they were not even plastered
or glazed. As the parish prospered, floors were made of wood,
bricks, or tiles. The pulpit was at one side and the chancel
at one end. There were also a reading desk, or " pew," and
"a place for the dark to sit in."
The pews were high-backed, with seats around three sides,
and sonietimes had doors which were locked against intruders.
* Bacon, 1701, Chap. XXXVIII, and 1722, Chap. IV.
f Tin; Rev. Joniitliiin Boucher wrote in 1771 tin epistle from the "1<1
church lit Annapolis. Jt appeared in tho Md. Gazette, and the following
is an abstract :
"And often have I heard ii said
Thill some \ntoA people are afraid
Lest I should lunihle, on (heir hind,
Of which, indeed, this seems n |< I',
They seldom come heneuth my roof.
While I alone, not worth your can'
Am lell your sad neglect to hear ;
Here in Annapolis, alone,
<om| has the mi am -I house in I \\ i
18 Paiish Institutions of Maryland.
The pews were either "built" by individuals, who had ob-
tained the sanction of the Vestry, or bought from the Vestry
at public auction or private sale. As they were very large,
some of them seven feet by five, few could be built in the
church, but, as the congregation grew, galleries were erected,
and in them bench pews were placed. In 1774, an Act
allowed the Vestry of St. Ann's Parish to build a new church.*
By this Act, it was ordered that pews should be made to
accommodate the Provincial officers and Assemblymen, stran-
gers, the incumbent, Vestrymen, and Church Wardens. Those
who subscribed most towards the building-fund were to have
the preference in the choice of pews, and no one subscribing
less than twenty pounds sterling was entitled to a choice.
No person could have more than one pew. Galleries were to
be built, one for the use of parishioners in general, one for
servants, and one for slaves. It was the duty of the sexton
to keep in good order the church and churchyard, and some-
times to hang the greens in the church at Christmas, Easter
and Whitsuntide. He also attended to the digging of the
graves, and, if a married man, undertook to keep the church
linen clean. One sexton employed himself in teaching school
in the Vestry-house. It was not a rare event for a woman
to be sexton.
In every parish church in Maryland, the Vestry was obliged
to set up a table of forbidden marriages, and to do all that
was possible to prevent infringements of such laws. The
Vestry of St. John's Parish, Baltimore County, cited one man
to appear and explain his marriage with his deceased wife's
sister. Another was summoned for uniting himself in mat-
rimony with his late wife's niece. Both failed to justify
themselves, so the clerk was ordered to present them to the
County Court. Where there was no rector, the Vestry chose
a reader, and paid him from the proceeds of the clergy-tax.
A coramiltee, consisting of the "principal Vestryman [here
Hanson, 1774, Chap. XL
Parish Institutions of Maryland. 19
the oldest] and four of his brethren of longest standing," had
to render to the Governor an account of all expenditure- of
the poll tax during a vacancy in their parish, but this law
was not unfrequently neglected. The committee was no doubt
suggested by the Reeve and four best men who represented
the old English town or parish.*
In the year 1728, an Act was passed restricting the exces-
sive production of tobacco. f Although it was disallowed, its
provisions were carried out for a space of three years. Each
Vestry, having divided its parish into "precincts," appointed
for each, two counters, or tellers, of tobacco plants. The
counters appeared and signified to the Vestry their acceptance,
and the names of those who refused to serve, without good
reason, were presented by the register to the County Court.
Previous to 1728, the Vestry had been connected in another
capacity with the tobacco interest, for Vestrymen and Church
Wardens were included among the officers who could arrest
persons attempting to "run" tobacco from the Province.];
Some years later Vestries nominated inspectors of the staple.
From these nominees, who had to be "able and sufficient
planters well skilled in tobacco," the Governor made his
appointments. No inspector could vote at the choosing of
his successor. |j It is obvious why 'the Vestries were con-
cerned in this question. Their main source of revenue was
the tobacco, and it was to their interests to see that it did not
become depreciated.
*See "Constables." By It. B. Adams, ]>. 11.
f Bacon, 17l'S, Chap. II. As this Act was disapproved it is not i;iven
in full in Bacon's Laws, but it may be seen in the Hist. Coll. Anier. Col.
Ch. Md., pp. 270-280.
+ Bacon, 1722, Chap. XVI.
\ An interesting review of the inspection laws of Colonial Maryland
is to ho found in the Brief of Charles J. M. Gwinn in the ca-c of Turner
vs. State of Maryland, U. S. Supreme Court, October Term, 18*2. Seo
Note in University Circulars, February, 188J.
" Bacon, 1708, Chap. XVHI.
20 Parish Institutions of Maryland.
In the young colony inhabited by all kinds of characters,
it is not surprising to learn that immorality was prevalent.
But means were at hand to restrain workers of iniquity.
Persons suspected of immoral conduct were summoned before
the Vestry, " to show cause why they should not be prose-
cuted." Some would promise to marry, others to separate.
It is curious to note that a month's time was frequently
allowed, in which such arrangements were to be consum-
mated. This may be explained by the fact that, in many
instances, the offender was a bachelor with his housekeeper,
and, in case of separation, he had to provide himself with
a substitute. If the Vestry's summons was disregarded, the
guilty parties were admonished by the Minister, or by a
deputation from the Vestry. If the evil practices were still
continued, information of such a state of affairs was sent to
the clerk of indictment at the County Court, where the fact
of admonition already given was sufficient evidence to convict
offenders. Adulterers and the like were fined, or, in default
of fine, could be whipped till the blood ran, but, after 1749,
corporal punishment for these offences was abolished. Persons
who swore in the presence of a Minister, Vestryman, or Church
Warden, were subject to a fine. Any of these officers could
commit to the stocks for an hour such an offender who did
not pay his penalty, or could appoint, in the absence of a
Constable, a deputy Constable to whip the aforesaid. The
lashes could not exceed thirty-nine at one whipping.
For certain misdemeanors, penance was done. The Rev.
Mr. Wilkinson wrote in 1724, "It has been owned by many
that there was a visible reformation on our shore, the sight
of one person perform ing penance struck a greater terror upon
all offenders than all the pecuniary and corporeal punishments
which the secular courts inflict, as some of 'em have publickly
acknowledged."* The following is an account of such a per-
formance: "The fifth day of July last came James Campbell
* Jtliet. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch. Md., p. 244.
Parish Institutions of Maryland. 21
to ye Communion table and asked pardon of Col. Blav and
Mr. William Comegys for calling them murderers of yc parish :
at ye same place the aforesaid Campbell did condescend to pav
what Charge should Increw upon the writ that was served
upon him for his fault."* The Vestry of St. Thomas' Parish
cited men lor running their mills on Sundays. The eccle-
siastical censure neither injured the offender in property or
person, nor relieved him from further prosecution by the civil
authorities. That the excuse of ignorance might not be made,
every Minister was required to read from the chancel four
times a year the penal laws of the colony.
Alter Braddock's defeat it was thought necessary to take
special measures of defence against the Indians, who in roving
bands had come very near the settlements. Accordingly, to
pay for an increase in the militia, taxes were laid upon some
additional items, among these, " batchelors." The Vestrv
prepared every year a list of all such delinquents in the
parish, who were over twenty-five years old. This list was
then fastened upon the church-door, (which, in Maryland, was
the usual place for advertising parish business), and when
revised and corrected was sent to the Sheriff of the eountv.f
Among the " taxed bachelors" in 17G0 were Gov. Sharpe,
Messrs. Husband and Love, and the Rev. Mr. Mael'herson,
rector of St. Ann's, Annapolis. Although the clergy were not
legally taxable, yet a number of them appear to have suffered
from this imposition upon poor, lone bachelors. The Act
continued in force for eight years when it ceased by limitation.
*<>](! Kent. By Hanson, p. 35"). Penance is -till dune in Krc_'land:
"An extraordinary scene was witnessed on Sunday evening .Inly 'M), at
All Saints' Church, East Clevedon, when a man named Uw-'llyn Harm-is
did public nominee for the seduction of a servant girl, wh>> imw awaits
her trial fur manslaughter. The church was crowded and tin- vicar I
delivered an address on Church discipline, Hartree cniife>-ed hi- -in and
promi.-ed to take his place in the Assize Court next to the unfortunate
girl upon her trial at Wells." P. 126, ' Note* and Queries," An-;. 12, 1--'.'.
; Bacon, 175(1, Chap. V. Mills were also u.-ed a.- plat - - for :id\< rti.-ing
Mich matters.
22 Parish Institutions of Maryland.
Many Marylanders no doubt owe their existence to this tax,
for it was, to say the least, an incentive to matrimony. Many
names appear but once in the list, and it is to be presumed
that their owners had resolved to choose the less of two
evils. It was perhaps because " misery loves company,"
or possibly from the belief that "in* union is strength" that
this persecuted class sought refuge at church in "bachelors'
pews."
As regards the parish poor, colonial laws and local records
afford comparatively little information. Legacies were occa-
sionally left to the Vestry for the benefit of the poor, by whom
were no doubt meant needy ones connected immediately with
the parish church. Where there were endowed public schools,
the parish had generally the right of sending a certain num-
ber of " charity scholars." It was the law that masters of
these schools were to be licensed by the ordinary, and were
to teach their scholars the Catechism, and were to bring them
to church on Sundays and Holydays. The "Charity School"
founded by the indefatigable efforts of the Rev. Thomas Bacon
was aided in some measure by "collections at the Offertory on
Sacrament Sundays." To this school negroes could be sent
and taught to " .Read and Write and instructed in the Know-
ledge and fear of the Lord, gratis ; but maintained at the
Expence of their respective Owners."* After a great fire
in Boston (1760) appeals for help were made to Maryland.
Gov. Sharpe ordered collections to be made in all the churches,
and his proclamation met with a liberal response. Of the
amount raised, members of the Established Church contrib-
uted five-sixths. These are examples of the church charities
of early times, and they differed little in principle from those
of the present. The Vestrymen were also the bankers of
* Bacon's " Sermon, &c," Lond., 1751. The negroes were not neglected
in spiritual concerns. As often as was convenient in some parishes they
were instructed and catechised, and baptized. Many were communicants
in the churches. ,
Parish Institutions of Maryland. 23
the parish and lent money at the rate of four per cent.
interest.*
Tims parish life went on, and the parishioners were in-
structed in the school of liberty by exercising what little
local government they possessed and in the interchange of
opinions at the Easter elections or in the closer assembly of
the Vestry. But, from its beginning, the Established Church
in Maryland met with opposition. Romanists and Dissenters
very justly considered that it was an injustice for them to be
called upon to contribute towards the support of an alien
ecclesiastical system, whose evils but not whose goods, they
were accustomed to share. Intelligent observers perceived
that the clergy were likely to become demoralized by their
connection with the civil authority. The ill-feeling was ex-
pressed in many ways. In 1763, the salary of the Minister
was reduced one-quarter .f This was done under an Act for
improving tobacco. Inasmuch as many planters had been
wont to reserve the worst of their tobacco for paying the
clergy-tax, it is to be hoped that a reduction of the Min-
ister's salary was a premium upon giving him better tobacco.
Efforts were made to increase the number of the parishes,
and thereby to decrease still further each incumbent's stipend.
Then were passed the laws of 1771 already mentioned.
The underlying cause of this discontent was the strong sen-
timent of the people that the existing parish system was an
infringement of their rights as freemen; and this feeling,
without doubt, helped to strengthen that opposition to the
mother country, which resulted in the American Revolution.
The parish had aided the cause of independence in two par-
*ln the 'Annuls of Annapolis" it is stated tlmt in \Ci'.U) Mnj<r Kdw.
Dorsey reported that there was in lianck, f'>r building theclmrrh at Annap-
olis, 4-">8 pounds sterling.
f In 1730 it had been decreed that one-quarter of the M ini-t<-r's salary
should be paid in grain or other commodities. The ] rospi-rity of the
colony, however, had rendered this law in-operative in reducing the viiluf
of the livings.
24 Parish Institutions of Maryland.
ticulars. It had preserved for its adherents the memories of
their old English liberties, and by its manifest evils, had
taught its opponents to view with jealousy any attempts of
England to interfere with the local affairs of the colonies.
Having accomplished these things, it had done its best work,
and was no longer needed.
A fair idea of the state of the parishes at the outbreak of
the great struggle, can be obtained from a perusal of the fol-
lowing extracts from the writings of a clergyman of Mary-
land:* "Our churches in general are ordinary and mean
buildings, composed of wood without spires or towers or stee-
ples or bells, and placed for the most part (like those of our
remotest ancestors in Great Britain) no longer perhaps in the
depths of forests, yet still in retired and solitary spots and
contiguous to springs or wells. ... In both Maryland and
Virginia there are not six organs; the psalmody is every-
where ordinary and mean and in not a few places there is
none ... at present most of our parishes have two churches
in which duty is alternately performed ... in several par-
ishes there are three. Between the list of taxables as set
down in the sheriff's book, and what the incumbent actually
receives it is well known there is a wide difference. . . . We
have but fourty-four clergy. . . . The utmost that the most
able and careful of the clergy in Maryland can expect is to
live decently in a private way, and to educate their children
in such a manner as that by their own industry and a small
portion they may be able to live above contempt when we are
gone."
The lack of entries in many record books during the next
three or four years, serves to show the blank which then
existed in parish life. During the Revolution the Church in
* " A View of the Causes and Consequences of the American Revolu-
tion, &c." By Rev. Jonathan Boucher. London, 1797, pp. 232-234.
Mr. Boucher was a loyalist and received harsh treatment at the hands of
his parishioners. A short sketch of his life is given in Neill's " Notes on
the Va. Col. Clergy," p. 29.
Parish Institutions of Maryland. 25
Maryland lost considerable ground for various reasons. Manv
of the clergy considered that they were still hound hv their
oath to the English government. These, and others from
choice, adhered to the royal cause and endeavored to induce
their congregations to do the same. Consequently great
numbers left the Church, and attached themselves to Metho-
dism, which was just beginning to thrive in America. In
the "Declaration of Rights," adopted in the Maryland ('< in-
vention of 1 77(3, it was ordained that no County Court should
thereafter levy a tax upon application of a Vestry, or of Church
Wardens. The legislature might, however, impose a general
tax for the support of tiie Christian religion, but each person
could denote lor what denomination his quota should be ex-
pended. The property of the Church of England remained
in the possession of the parishes, but even those who stood bv
the Church were too much occupied with the more momentous
questions of the time to give much heed to parish matters.
The loyal clergy vacated their livings, and the churches thus
deprived of their rectors began to decay. The Ministers who
remained, being without an assured salary, had to make great
shifts to support themselves.
The attention of the Assembly was called to this sad state
of affairs, and it passed a new Vestry Act. In a " (/aural
meeting,'' the legal voters of a parish, who had paid pari-h
charges, elected seven Vestrymen "for the preservation of the
church, care of the glebe, and for the happinc-s and welliirc
of the state."' Their civic duties wen; taken away, although
the Wardens kept the peace in churches, and could eject from
them anv disorderly persons.* The names of many of the
old members now reappear in the record books, but the titles
of " ( 'olonel," " Major," eVc, have been added, flic members
of the Vestry now chose their Minister, and paid him by the
subscriptions of the parishioners. Grain was the principal
commodity used in payment of such debt-. Thi> was eol-
* Hanson. 177'', Chap. IX.
26 Parish Institutions of Maryland.
lected through personal application by the Vestrymen. The
Minister controlled the glebe (which was vested in the Vestry)
during his incumbency. When any improvements were made,
some parishioners contributed material, others their services.
Sometimes the glebe was rented, in which case the lessee agreed
generally to improve it.
In 1798,* another Act became the law upon which is based
the present existing Vestry system of Maryland ; for, later
laws referring to the incorporation of religious bodies have
the proviso that nothing therein contained shall affect the
election of Vestries according to the usages of the Protestant
Episcopal Church. Although this Act is easy of access, it
may be well to mention the most important features. Eight
Vestrymen were elected, the former Vestrymen being the
judges of election. All Vestrymen and Church Wardens took
the oath of fidelity to the Government, professed belief in the
Christian religion, and subscribed to the oath of office. The
first Monday in February, May, August, and November was
the legal Vestry day. Four members constituted a quorum.
The Minister was chairman and collected the votes. If there
was a tie he had the deciding voice, unless he was personally
interested in the. result. The Vestrymen chose the Church
Wardens, and " called " their rector. The Vestry was a cor-
porate body, but could dispose of no church property without
the consent of both of the Wardens.
At present Vestries are governed by the provisions of their
charters, if they have any, which conform generally to the
Constitution and Canons of the Diocesan Convention. Par-
ishes still exist as geographical divisions, and there are also
"separate congregations" whose Trustees are called Vestry-
men. For example, St. Paul's Parish is Baltimore City and
a part of Baltimore County. But within this parish are more
than two dozen congregations. The power of constituting,
* " A Compilation containing the Constitution and Canons of the P. E.
Church in the Diocese of Md., &c," pp. 73-104.
Parish Institutions of Maryland. 27
dividing and uniting parishes is vested in the Convention of
the Diocese. Many of the old glebes have been sold, and in
some parishes the proceeds have been converted into stocks
or bonds. Where there is a glebe, the Minister sometimes
farms it, for the country clergy are not the best rewarded
individuals. There are eight Vestrymen, four of whom are
voted out and their places filled at congregational meeting on
Easter Monday in each year. Vestrymen are rceligible and
are generally continued in office. Very often the meeting of
the congregation consists of the members of the old Veslrv,
who solemnly reelect themselves. It is on record that at one
meeting in Baltimore the only persons present were the two
Wardens, who appointed each other chairman and secretary,
respectively, and elected the Vestry. The Vestry elects two
Church Wardens either from their own body or from the con-
gregation. The Wardens, if they arc not also Vestrymen,
cannot vote in Vestry meeting, but can take part in discus-
sions. In city churches, one of the Wardens makes prepara-
tions for the celebration of the communion, but in the countrv
it is a matter of convenience as to which of the officers of
the church shall attend to such matters. The Wardens may
assist at the offertory. They notify the Bishop of the election
of a new Minister, and may also certify the election of lav
delegates to the Convention, but the Register of the Vestry
generally does this. Although the powers of officers of the
peace were taken from the Wardens in 1802, nevertheless
as representatives of the Vestry, they still have the ancient
right of keeping order in church, and are objects ol terror to
small boys or other disturbers of public service. The \\ aniens
are also the custodians of the church property.
The parish of Maryland, which was originated here for
religious purposes, but which, as an institution by Knglish
people, naturally possessed some of the historical features ot
the old English parish, gradually severed its connection with
civil matters, until to-day it exists tor the furtherance ol'
ecclesiastical objects alone.
EXTRACTS
K K M T I! K
PARISH RECORDS OF MARYLAX
Prince George's Parish.
Whereas at the Request of the Inhabitants of tin- Eastern, Branch and
Hock Creek, The Reverend M* John Frazer did appoint this |v<-f-ont day
being the 18 th day of September 1719, For the said Inhabitants to meet
in order to make Choice of a proper place for building a Chappel, and
Contributing towards building the same.
And forasmuch as very few of the Inhabitants are met on tin- Occasion,
those therefore present, to prevent delays have thought lilt to Subscribe
their Name-, and what Sums they are willing to give, and have Nomi-
nated the place they think most proper, Leaving Room in said Collum
for other of the Inhabitants to Name what place they think more Conve-
nient, that so a proper place may be pitch 'd upon by the Majority.
Benefactors Names | \ a | Tob'-' in s | Proper place for build.
December the :>' 17-ti
Then mei the freeholders of Prince Georges Pari.-h at the Parish
Church at Rock Creek, As is directed by Act of Assembly to Choose
Vestry Men. and other Parish Officers, And accordingly tiny made Choice
of the following Gentlemen to be Vestry Men, (viz') M r N'ath- Wiekham
.lun-M'Mohn Powell, M' James Holmeard, M- John Flint, M- .Joseph
Chew, and M r John Pritchett. And for Church Wardens M r ("abb
Lutton, and M r W'" Harbin; and they Qualified thcin-elv.-s for their
Place.-, by taking the Several Oaths as the Act of AsM-mbly direct- for
Such Officers to take.
After the Election was over, the Gentlemen of the Vestry met, and
made Choice of Will'" Jackson, for their Register, and appoint. .1 to n i
again on Frvdav the lu'-' December 1 7 1-' ' ; .
Those I'xtriu-lH from Msirylauil Parish Ko.or.ls have In .-n piihli-l h. k i ml
Ci >r>]rat ion <[' K''iil i.iocii in Hnllini.uo, an<l, it is Impel, n-i.-t to
hrini; ahout ;i mure neaoral movement towards tin 1 pti " : .1>> ,i> inn
parish records, hill also of' many other ancient ilocmii.iits, w he li ii n ' "ill
.-mill eriiiuhle to pieces.
30 Extracts from the
Fryday December the 16^ 1726
The Gentlemen of the Vestry met according to appointment (all present)
and agreed to allow W' u Jackson Eight hundred pound of Tobacco *$
Annum for being Register, and likewise ordered that a Letter Should be
forthwith Sent to M r . John Bradford desiring the favour of him to meet
them at the Parish Church, on the 3 d day of January 172f about the land
the Parish Church Stands on, to make it over.
Tuesday the 10 th January 172f*
The Gentlemen of the Vestry according to appointment met all present.
And Invested M* George Murdoch as Rector of this Parish, he behaving
himself well and doing his duty, duely, and truely, as an Incumbent
ought to do.
His Induction from his Excellency to the
Gentlemen of the Vestry
Maryland ss-
Charles Calvert Esq' Governour of
Maryland, and Commander in Chief &c.
To the Gentlemen of the Vestry of Prince
Georges Parish, in Prince Georges County
Greeting.
"Whereas the Reverend M r George Murdoch an Orthodox Minister of
the Church of England, was sent and Recommended by the Lord Bishop
of London and Diocesan of this Province to officiate as such in Virginia
or Maryland, I do therefore Recommend and appoint the said George
Murdoch to be Rector of your Parish, and direct you to Recieve him as
Incumbent thereof, and will you to be aiding and assisting to him, in all
things becoming, to the end he may Recieve the full benefits and Perqui-
sites of his Office appertaining, together with the fourty "$ Poll arising
within the Parish aforesaid.
Given at the City of Annapolis this 29 th Day of December in the thir-
teenth Year of the Dominion of the Right Hon 1 Charles Lord Baron of
Baltemore, Absolute Lord Proprietor of the Province of Maryland, and
Avalon &c. Annoque Domini 1726. And in the thirteenth Year of his
Majesties Reigne
Cha Calvert.
Until 1752, the 25th of March was observed in England as the beginning of the year.
Most European nations had already adopted the reform calendar of Gregory XIII. (1572).
The English, always slow to accept outside innovations, had retained the Old Style,
but, for convenience in foreign trade, were accustomed to use both the Old and the New
Styles between January 1st and March 25th. So January, 172|, means that it was in the
year 1726, Old Style, but in 1727, New Style. For further information in regard to the
change see the article "Calendar" Ency. Brit,, Hening's Statutes, "Vol. I, p. 393, Ac, Mag.
Amer. Hist., Vol. VIII, p. 223, also a pamphlet entitled "What New Doctrine is This?"
and the Providence "Monthly Reference List" for October, 1882.
Parish Records of Maryland. 31
The following is a Copy of M^ George Bealls
Obligation for his performance of the building the
Vestry House.
Know nil Men by these p'sents, that I George Beall of Prime Georges
County in tho Province of Maryland have agreed with the; Gentlemen of
the Vestry of Prince Georges Parish, to build a Vestry House It; Foot
long, 12 Foot wide overjetted, an Inside Chimney, the House t<> he y Foot
pitch'd plank'd above and below, a plank dour to the House, with Lock
and key, and Iron hinges, the boards to beall drawn a Small plank Table,
the House to be fram'd, and to find All Necessaries whatsoever, and to
have it compleatcd workman like by Easter Sunday it being tie- 2' 1 day of
April next ensuing the Date hereof, and to have for doing the Same, Two
Thousand five hundred pound of Tobacco, if not Compleatcd and finished
according to Agreement, to forfeit Five Thousand pound of Tobacco;
dust Causes to the Contrary Excepted, As Witness my hand this 10 l ' day
of Janry 1725
Signed before the Vestry Geo. Beall
Witness
W. Jackson Reg r
April the ".'' 1727. Being Easter Monday the freeholders of the Parish
met. According as the Act of Assembly directs 'to put out two of the
Gentlemen of the Vestry, and to Choose two others in their Booms and
likewise two Church Wardens, They thought litt to put of the Ve>try
Ml Nath 1 Whickham Jun r and M? John Powell, and Elected \l r WiH m
Harbin and >[' Thomas Lucas in their Kooms, and likewise Chose M* John
Harding, and M.' Grove Thomlinson Church Wardens for the En.-uing
year, in the Kootn of M Will"' Harbin, and M' Caleb Lutton. And tin y
Qualified themselves for their places by taking the Several Oaths aa is
Directed by Act of Assembly for Such Officers to take.
At the same time the Gentlemen of the Ve.-try C"ii->nted that M r
M urdoch should preach to the upper inhabitants of the Parish, every third
Sunday, in some Convenient place, they shall appoint.
Sunday tho 28"' May 1727. After Divine Service the C.-ntletm-n i
Vestry met At>out Sending for Books for the I'se of the Church; M r
dam" Hoi moard offered to Send for them if the K.-t of the (o-ntleiuen
thought lit, ami they accordingly accepted his oiler, ami
send for the following Books, (viz 1 ) One Large folio Church Bilde, Two
Large folio Common Prayer Books, and he Should be paid in Tobaou al
1 ~f' pound.
Tuesday the 15-" August 1V_'7.
The Gentlemen of Ve.-try according to nppointtm nl n
to treat with workman about Erecting Pew.- in ti.e ( huuh, and they
32 Extracts from the
Agreed with M* Mingeldo Pgge to Erect fourteen Pews, and to alter the
Desk, and to make it less, and to make a place for the Clark to Sit in ... .
and to pay him Five Thousand Pounds of Tobacco for Doing the Said
work.
And likewise agreed to pay M' George Beall Three hundred pounds
of Tobacco, for puting up two new Girders in the Church.
And likewise to pay M r Nehemiah Ogden Three hundred Pounds of
Tobacco for Iron work for the said Girders.
And likewise to pay M r f Mary Ann Powell Two hundred and fifty
Pounds of Tobacco, for a Dyaper Cloth, and two Napkins, for the Com-
munion Table.
And likewise to pay William Jackson One hundred, Sixty Eight Pounds
of Tobacco, for a book to Kecord, the Several proceedings of the Vestry.
Tuesday the 21** November 1727.
At the same time they agreed to pay MT Grove Thomlinson Church
"Warden Two Hundred and Sixteen Pounds of Tobacco for Wine for the
Sacrament, due from Easter to this time.
And likewise to pay Owen Read Three Hundred Pounds of Tobacco,
for Digging a Well, and making a back in the Vestry House.
And likewise The Keverend M' George Murdoch agreed to pay the Gen-
tlemen of the Vestry, for the Use of the Parish, Two Thousand Pounds
of Tobacco upon Condition that he might Recieve the fourty ^ Poll, for
the whole Year, when but Eleven Months his due, which amounts to the
said Sume ^ Month, which they agreed too.
May the 10 1729
The Gentlemen of the Vestry, and the Church Wardens of the Parish
met, pursuant to an Act of Assembly, to Nominate, and appoint Counters
to Count Tobacco Hills &c* in the Several Hundreds in this Parish
And accordingly they N ominated, and appointed, M* Thomas Fletchall,
and M' Alexander Magruder to be Counters for Potomack and Minocezsy
Hundreds.
And Likewise M* James Beall, and M* Nicholas Baker for the Eastern
Branch Hundred
And M* Thomas Lucas, and M' Thomas Lamar,forEock Creek Hundred
At the same time Orderd that William John Jackson be paid Eight
Hundred pounds of Tob for a Years Salary for being Register, and finding
paper &c* for the use of the Parish.
And Likewise Order'd that Grove Thomlinson Church Warden be paid
One Hundred, and fourty pounds of Tobacco for Wine for the Sacrament,
& his Extraordinary Trouble in fetching it.
And Order'd that no Churchwarden hereafter be paid anything for
their Trouble &c-
Parish Records of Maryland. 33
June 29 th 17:! 1
Order'd that the threes Hogsheads of Tohacco Rec'ced of the Sheriff on
the Parish accompt Bo Shipt to M* Isaac Milner Merchant in London on
the Parish Risque and that the following Goods be Sent for, (for the
Produce of the Said Tohacco) for the Use of the Parish Church.
Five Casements three inches long, and Seven Inches Wide
Five lights Thirty Inches Long and Seventeen Inches Wide
Ten lights Twenty one Inches long and Seventeen Inches Wide
Two lights Twenty Inches long and Eleven Inches Wide.
And a Surplice.
Order'd that Ralph Lannum he Paid Fifty pound of Tobacco for Rolling
one of the Said Hogsheads.
Febry the 7 173
.... Order'd that Summons be Issued for Nehemiah and W
to appear before the said Vestry on Easter .Monday. . . .
Easter Munday March y e 2G th 17:;:!
. . . Also Nehemiah and Mary not Appearing According
to Appointment to Clear themselves of the Suspition of Fornication were
Order'd to Seperate &c.
March y e .'{1 th 173:5
Then Benj" Murdoch Clark of the Vestry Pursuent to the Abovesaid
Orders Concerning Nehemiah & Mary & William
& Grace did Serve them fcc.
On Whitsun Munday May y" 14 th 17:13
Also Neh. Appear'd & Said he was Maried to the Woman that
he is Accus'd of Living in Fornication with but could Shew no Certificate
nor any other Proof hut Said Since the Vestry was not Satisfi'd he was
willing to he publish'd Ami Mari'd Over Again which the Vestry thought
litt to Consider Upon it that providing that the Woman would (Joe in A
Short Time and swear before a Magistrate that She knows nothing of her
Husband being alive. It should be done otherwise to proceed according
to Law.
A Coppy of Mary Oath.
Prince Georges County Aug' s 1 ' 17-::!
Then came Mary before me one of his Lordships .Justices of (he
County Court A; made Oath on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God
that She had not Seen or heard from her Husband William Hither
by Letter or l'roxsey for this Eight or Nine Year- bygone A: doth not at
this Time Believe he the Said William is Alive Swornr before
me Date Above Written
Jos: Chew
ft
34 Extracts from the
On Munday November the 5 th
Then it was Agreed that Nehemiah & Mary should bo
Presented the Court Ensuing if he be not Married before that Time.
Easter Monday April y e 7 th 1735.
Also Agreed with M r John Bell Churchwarding To Alow him foure
hundred & fifty lb of Tobacco for finding Bread & Wine for the Sacra-
ment & taking Care of the Linning and Vessels for the year Ensuing.
May y e 6 th
1735
Then Agreed with Bingle Page and Benjamin Perry to Build a Gallery
fitting it with Seats as Maney as is convenant and to be done workman
like likewise to put Eight good Substantial new Blocks of Locas or Chest-
nut well Season'd to the Said Church and also to put Six good blocks to
the Vestrey house in the roome of those that are alredey there qualefied
as the other before mentiond and to have for the Same Six Thousand
pounds of Tobacco (makeing good the Wether hording of the Church and
the West dore) to have it Compleatly finished by the twenty fifth of De-
cember Next on the penalty of Nie Thousand pounds of Tobacco.
Oct r 7 e 14 th
1735.
Then it was agreed with the Kev . George Murdock that he Should pay
for two years Quit-Rent for the Glebe-land (Viz) Eight Shilings Sterling
to M r William Diggs and be Deducted out of what he owes to the Parish.
Nov 1 7 e 5 th
1735
Likewise that Notis Should be given to the freeholders &c And Notes
Set up that on the first Tuesday in Dec r the Vestrey to meete to agree
about the Sale of the Pewes.
Sept 7 e 23
1740
At the Same time the Rev d - George Murdock Brought In
the following Account (Viz) '
< s
To 10| Ells of Holland for a Surplice \
at 14 Shilings ^ Ell J
To Making 1 10
To Thomas Willson for survaying 1 ..
the Chap- Land /
To George Murdock for Commone Truble 1
10 19
Parish Records of Maryland. .'35
which was agreed that lie Should have an order on William Murdock
Late Shriefi" and Accordingly had one for the Sd Sum (Viz 10 jiound
Nineteen Shilings
Nov'y' 18 th
17 jo
. . . and at the Same time ^S\ T - Francis Finn brought a Letter from M r
John 1'rieliard with this Subscription
For the Lay Gentlemen of y* Vestrey of Prince Georges Parish.
Which was orderd to be Recorded & is as followeth
Gentlemen
I Reced a Letter from John Flint who stiles himself Clerk of y e Vestrey
and by Your Order requires me to Attend y e Vestry to Morrow to clear
Myself of a supition of my living in Adultery I look upon my Answer
in writing to he as Sufficient and as clear as. if I was before You. And
therefore deny tin; charge, If I could Possibly leave my sickly Negro
family and with convenience be absent from my buisness In Attending
my Store I would however wait Upon you Gentlemen of the Laity.
But whilst your Hector is there; 1 hope to be Excus'd for that 1 look
upon the Censure to proceed from his malice and Vexatious temper, in
the intervales of his want of y right use of bis sences the deprivation of
which at some times he is Deem'd to be under in the opinion of Severall
of his Brother Clergymen and Severall Gentlemen in this A: the Neigh-
bouring County Therefore I do not think proper to Attend Your Sutnons
whilst he is present.
1 am with due Kespect Your most
hum Serv-
Nov'y 17 1740 Jn" Prichard
And the Vestrey thought fit to Refer their opinion whilst the third
tusday in December.
June y e 7
174:5
Likewise agreed to lend Samuel magroiider y c :)' Twenty live pound at
4 ~r' Cent Y' A iiimm.
And Ninnian Maugrouder Six pound at 4 "(' Cent
And John Flint Six pound at 4 "(-' cent ~r' Annum
And John Claggett thirty two pound at 4 "(-' r ''" 1
And all oil' them to give Security for the payment of the Same to the
Said Vestrey with the Intrest due thereon according to their >c\erall
Sum* and time.
Oetol/y" l"'
17-1-
Then the Gentlemen of the Vestrey met Present ....
36 Extracts from the
And did Nominate and Recommend for Inspectors At I r George
Gordon 8 warehouse at the mouth of Kock Creek The following Gen' men
(Viz)
Cap' Alexander Maugrouder
Mess Josiah Beall
John Clagget
Alexander Beall Son of Will m Beall
Likewise for Bladenshurg
ICeM Samuel Beall Jun*
N icholas Baker.
Mar y 8
27 1749
Then came the folowing Certifiecation
Prince Georges County Decern y e 5 th 1748
Mary Land ss'
I Hereby Certifie that this day Came before me The Subscriber one of
his Lordships Justices for the County aforesaid Alex' Beall and Qualified
himself by takeing the severall oathes to the Goverment as Alsoe the oath
of Inspector and Declard the test & Subscrib'd the same and the oath of
Abjuration
Sworne before Jn Cooke
To the Vestrymen & Church "I
"Wardens of Prince Georges Parish J
May y e 12
1751
And at the Same time Orderd that I Should Acquaint his Excellence
with the Death of Alex' Maugrouder one of the Inspectors for Rock-Creek
Inspecting house and who was the Next Nominated for Inspectors
Likewise to set up notes to Acquaint all the freeholders to meet the
Vestrey the first Tusday in June for to Chuse one for a Vestrey man in
the Rome of Alex' Maugrouder being Dead, and for any Carpinters that
will undertake the Raileing of the Chappel yard and the Chancel to meet
at the Same time And place.
July y e 20
1756
Then the Gentmen of the Vestrey met pressent
And after taking the Oath Appointed for that Purpose did Nominate
the Batchelors in the Said Parish aged Twenty five years and upwards
with the place of abode and Value of there Estate
April y e 18 th
1757
Memorandum that John Tyson Bought a Botle Screw of M r Rob' Mun-
dell on y e Parish ace' price on Shiling.
Pariah Records of Maryland. 87
Tusdaj December 4 t! ' 1759
.... at Which time the Keverend M r Clement Brooke Informed the
Vestery that the Reverend M r George M unlock had Imployed him the
Said Brooke as his Currate to Olliciate in his the Said M unlock- Parrish.
The Vestery not being fully Satisfied Concearning the Matter In Dispute
between the Keverend M r Thomas Johnson and the Reven M r Clement
Brooke Thought Proper to Adjorn to the Keverend M r George Murdocks
house; on Saterday the Eight Instant In Order to Take Moore fuller In-
structions from him the Said Murdock lie being very Ancient and Incu-
pible of Attending the Vestery.
June '27 th 1768 Att Kereek Chaple
.... att the same Time the Vestry agrees that Mes> r . James Burm-* and
Edward Villers Harbin do meet at Geo. Town Un the 25' day of duly in
Order to Exspose the Parish Tobacco to Publiok Sale and that Simon
Nicholls Advertise the Same.
Tusday March 24 1707
Order that Simon Nicholls Purchas at the Cost of the Parish One of
the Kev M r Bacons Body of Law for the use of Said Purish.
St. John's Parish, Baltimore County.*
[July 30, 1730.]
Then did the Keverend M. Bourdillon infirm this Vestry that it was
his Excellency the Govenors pleasure to Call him to Affiliate in Another
parrish ami that he did resign Up to his Excellency this parrish. . . .
[July 8, 1740]
M* Kichard Caswell being Elected a Vestry man last Kaster Munday
for this Parrish hut he being Corroner is not ohlidged to Serve in said
Office Therefore it is now ordered that the Clerk putt up notes for the
Parritioners of said Parrish to nieett in the Town of ,Io]>pa on the tlrst
Tuesday in August Ensuing in order to Chuse a Church Warden.
[May, 1742 1
Ordered notes be put up to employ any person that will undertake t"
make and bring To Joppa Twelue Thousand bricks j
In the extracts from the l>ooks (if St. John's and All Saint-' l\iri-h., th-- dates in
brackels are merely fur the sake of reference and arc not :i part of l lie ! L-in.iI n < op I.
fMnny of the old churches in Maryland were Imill of brick- liroiirfht.il i- >ai<l
England. But all bricks used iu the I'rovince were not impoi -ted, a- ihc bdl.-wiiirf fads
38 Extracts from the
[June, 1742.]
M* William Dallam agreed with the vestry to deliver Twelve thousand
bricks at Joppa Town in the parrish Church yard & to be viewed by Two
of the Vestrymen who shall be At that time quallitied According to Law
& if s- Bricks be Approved of by the Two Vestrymen as Afors*? to be good
& Sufficient then the Vestrymen do agree to pay the said M* Dallam thirty
Shillings Currant money "ty thousand.
[Oct. 4, 1743.]
The Vestry agrees that Superscription should be offered to the Inhabi-
tants of this Parrish in order to Raise as much Money as will Build an
Addition to the North-side of the church.
[Apr. 3, 1744.]
Ordered that Summons Issue for Jacob Jackson and bis present wife
who was Neace to his Deceased wife to show cause if any why they shall
not be prosecuted According to Law, for Marrying contrary to the Table
of Mariage.
[May 1, 1744.]
Jacob Jackson and his wife appearing According to a summons ISsued
from the last Vestry returnable here now, and haveing no Legall Defence
to make and it fully appearing that they have Married contrary to the
Table of Marrage it's ordered that there be an Information made thereof
to the Next county Court to be held for Baltimore.
John Leatherbury agrees to do the Brick work of a Vestry house for
which he is to have Thirteen shillings ^3 Thousand for Laying the Brick
and to find himself Diet and Lodging he is to Begin the said work by the
Twentieth of June & have it finished with all expedition
[May 5, 1747.]
The vestry have agreed with M* Walter Tolley to make Twenty thou-
sand bricks to Be merchantable and delivered in the church yard at or
upon the Twentieth Day of July next for which he is to be paid thirty
Shillings currant money ^ Thousand.
[June 2, 1747.]
The vestry here present have agreed with James Sage to lay about
twenty thousand bricks in Two porches by way of buttments to the church
for which they are to Allow him at the Rate of Ten Shillings ^ Thousand
the vestry finding him Accommodations and Attendance the Work to
clearly prove. As early as 1694, a contract was undertaken by a resident of Kent Island
to make a certain number of bricks for building a church. Of course these bricks were in
quality inferior to the imported ones, but the people were not so ignorant of the resources
beneath their feet as some suppose. However, bricks were valuable and the total disap-
pearance of certain old tpwns may be explained by the fact that, when all the townsfolk
sought a more favorable site, they carried the bricks of their houses with them.
Parish Records of Maryland. 3ii
begin so soon as the bricks Shall be burned and ready the .-aid .la...' - to
be paid fur .-aid Work three, months after finished.
[August, 1747.]
M r Jolin Day son of Edw: Appears & declares ho keeps a puhlick house
is therefore Exempt from the office of a vestryman and is from tlii.- day
by the vestry here Present discharged from said office.
[April II, 1748.]
M r : Thomas (Sittings is by the majority of y e parrishioners here present
chosen As a vestryman to Serve in said Office three year's from tlii- date
According To Act of Assembly.
[duly. 1748.]
Ordr': 1 that the clerk put up notes to Advertise that the ground in tie-
new Addition to the church Whereon may he built Ten pews 7 feet deep
te 5 feet wide is to be sold at said parrisb church on the lir-t tue.-dav in
August next at three clock in the Afternoon by Way of puhlick vandue
to the highest bidder or bidders for curr- or Sterling money.
[April 3, 1750.]
Ordered that puhlick notice lie given that no person presume to hr.-ak
any of the Church ground on any pretents whatever before Applying to
the Sexton.
[dune I, 1751.]
Robert Price lias an Order on M* Thomas Shoredine high Sherrilf of
Baltimore county for the (Quantity of live hundred pound- of Tub" being
for his Acting as Sexton for this parish One Year.
[Aug. 4. 1752 ]
Then was Five thousand seven hundred & ninety Four pound- of Tub?
charged to Mess' Tho* Sligh Walter Tolley and John Paca .Inn- The.\
being the surities of \\ r Thomas Sheredine in relation To his due perfor-
mance in hi- Sherritls Office.
'[Sept. I, 1752.]
Tile vestry have agr i that no seat< in the Addition -hall ho \
ated hut all held in common for This reason beeau-e their bargain with .
M' Walter Tolley relating thereto has not been complyid in l>\ him
therefore its agreed what was disbursted by said Tolley mi Account of the
said work Shall be refuned to him with Interest by the - M ;d Ve-try.
Jolin (Jiles Appeared According to his summon- from the V.
marrying Ilannah'Scott sister to His late wile Deceased, aid heme. Ad-
Hum i shed to put In t away ha- refused to do it therefore the V i -
Orders the Clk. to make Presentment to the gran 1 .1 in n a - -l the
(tiles A; said Hannah Scott, a- having Offended again-l the \ ' ' A
hly in that ea-e made and provided.
40 Extracts from the
[March 6, 1753.]
A Dispute ariseing about the boundery between Saint Pauls and Saint
Johns parrish, The Vestry have Taken the same into consideration and
have Appointed Mess* "Walter Tolley and Rich*? Wilmott to meet Two
parrishoners of Saint Thomas's Parrish to Enquire Into the said bound-
dery and to report the state of the case on or before the first Tuesday in
June Next to the said Vestry of Saint Johns, parrish.
[Aug., 1753.]
Then the vestry agreed with M' Roger Boyce to cause to be made Ten
or Twelve Benches Ten Or twelve feet lenth One and a quarter Inch thick
Fourteen or fifteen Inches broad of white Oak or popler, the said benches
to be placed at Nicho 8 - Hutchens and to be by him Kept From the weather
for which the vestry have agreed to Allow the said Hutchens One hundred
Pounds of Tob for Every time Church is There Kept, ....
[May 2, 1758.]
The vestry having been informed that Joseph Crook Vestryman of this
Parish Aiding Abeted in a Certain Riot commited in the Town of Joppa
Easter Monday last & was In church Neither Easterda.y nor nionday.
Therefore the Vestry are of Opinion that the Said Jos. Crook Be no longer
a member of the said Vestry and hereby Impower the Rector to Call upon
him & give Notice hereof to the Parishioners to Ghuse a New member
In his Room, *
[Oct. 2, 1759.]
"Whereas, the Reverend M' Deans Complained to the Vestry that Peter
Carroll and Rob' Price Tenants on the Glebeland have committed great
wast on the said lands And have Also Subsett the said lands, And whereas,
the said Carroll and Price & The Reverend M* Deans, have Left to the
Vestry for Remediing the same And they having Viewed the said ldnds
Therefore are of Opion that All the former Leasses shall be Revoked and
New ones, Granted in their Stead Upon the Terms of the former Leases,
Subsetting and was Being Especially Barred.
It is also the Opinion of the Vestry That one Vestryman & the Two
"Wardens Shall Yearly Examine weather any further Wast or Subsetting
shall Be Done on the Glebe lands.
[Sept. 2, 1766.]
Jn Roberts had an Order from the vestry on Rob' Adair Esq' Sherr.
for five Pounds One shilling and tenpence half penny Curr y Being for
*Easter occurred this year on the 26th of March. In the absence of any other record
of the "riot," it may not be amiss to suggest that it was probably the accompaniment of
the Vestry election. At that time there were no "primaries," and consequently riotous
spirits had to find vent in parish elections. As the voting was viva voce, it was easy to
detect one's opponent.
Parish Records of Maryland, 41
some wood for the Parish use unci his Acting as Clk of the vestrv one
Year Ending July the Fourth.
[Sept. 6, 1768-1
Ordered Jn" Beale Howard Be paid what Cost he is at on Acct. of An
Attachment Laid in his hands as a vestryman by Rich'! Johns, if not
Recovered of said R- Johns.
[Aug., 177:..]
Ordered that the Register procure from the Assessors of the several
Hundreds in this Parish a List of the Parrishioners Names. That for the
future the Vestry meet at the Vestry House to do Busini --.
[Feb., 1780.]
M r Worsley Requests the Favour of the Vestry to Collect the last years
Sallary due 1' March & to take such Methods as they think proper fur
this year.
M' Rumsey Agreed to take his Hundred. M r Cowan Agreed to Collect
all near him, M r Jn'; Beale Howard to Collect all he could. M r T. G How-
ard D. M* Tolley being disordered in his feet could not go about.
M r Worsley proposes that the Gentlemen who are so kind t<> take this
trouble will at the same time make Memorandums how & what each Sub-
scriber will pay for this Year in Cash or produce
The Vestry Agreed with M' Worsley to Continue Minister, who in-
formed them he had let the Glebe for this Year.
N. B. The following Memorandum was made upon Paper in May last
& lest it sho- be lost is now transcribed into the Vestry Book
A Letter from S c - James's Parish was delivered by two Vestrymen of
the s. Parish, to B. Rumsey & J. B. Howard Esq, & afterwards shewn t >
the rest of tin; Vestry, who thinking it a Matter which concerned the
whole Congregation, as much as themselves, desired M r Wor.-ley to nii<r*
it in the Church & take the Sentiments of the whole Parish, that no
Umbrage might be given; the Purport of which as appear.- hy tic- Let-
ter, was to request the Attendance of the Mini-ter of this Parish one
Sunday in tie- .Month, at S- James's Church. It was accordingly done,
in a full Congregation & every Person present was unanimous in agreeing
thereto; & no Vestry meeting, the Gentlemen of the Vestry were waited
upon by M' Worsley t<> know if they agr 1 with the Congregation \- B.
Rumsey, Esq, Col. A. Cowan, J. 15. Howard K-q, T << Howard K-.|,
Major Ja" Gittings & M r John Day, severally declared their A.--ent
thereto; M r Worsley therefore proposed the following Regulations for
Divine Service
Monthly Quod Atte-tor Romans
The first Sunday at Joppa Geo II Wor.-hy.
The second Sunday at M T - Hunters in Joppa Parish
(i
42 Extracts from the
The third Sunday at Joppa
The fourth Sunday at S' James's Church
The fifth Sunday at Joppa.
Joppa Dec' 11. 1780
Rec^ of the Rev*? M* G. H. Worsley Orders for Twenty One Bushels of
"Wheat being in full for my Sallary from March 1780 to March 1781
f me
Alexander Gray.
Mess 1 ?
10 A. Cowan
7 S. Birckhead
4 W. Mashers
21
[Dec. 24, 1781.]
Hannah Ingram the Sexton appeared and informed the Vestry M* Phil-
lips protested the Order for seven Bushells of "Wheat part of her Sallery
due for the Year 1780 and also prayed Payment for the Year 1781.
[June 3, 1782.]
The Register is ordered to write to the Tennants on the Gleib to come
and Settle their Accounts at the next meeting of the Vestry.
All Saints' Parish, Calvert County.
Ann? 1704
Viz
July y e 2* This day y e Vestry meett M' Thomas Cocksutt
Then y e Vistry agreed with Tho. Seager M' James Heigh
to be sexton for to take care & look after M' W m Dar rumple
y* Church & also to sweep itt & Open y e M' Joseph Hall
Church doors and Windows & to secure M* Jn Smith att Cocktown
them againe & in y e Winter time to make M* Jn Smith att Hallerick
fire in y 9 Vestry & also to cleare y e Spring & doe all things fitting for
y e Said place & in consideration thereof they agree to allow him one halfe
of y e profitts old "W m y e Duchman y e Other halfe & after y* to have
y e whole proffits ariseing theirefrom
y e Vestry Adjd till y e next
meeting
Jan 1 ? 5 th 1710
Resolved that Those p'sons that take up Pews & not freeholders, haue
the pews no longer then they Continue in the parish, & "When they
Parish Records of Maryland. 43
remoue, or dye, the pew to belong to the parish, to be disposed of by tl.e
Vestry.
Or' 1 ! 1 y'. M' Wadsworth pay to M* W- Smith Two hand- pound of
Tobaco, due from him to the parish for his part of the pew in the porch.
[Nov. 15, 1711 ]
.... ordred that Tho- Seager burn the Leaues Round tho Church and
Church y- and at all Times To "fTformo his office of Sexton as formerly
Takeing noe Notice of What Tho" Hillry forewarneing him to Digg
Graues.
[May 8, 1721.]
At a Vestrey met and held at All S* Parish Church Caluert County
the Eight day of .May One Thoussand Seven Hundred Twenty one, by
the Vestrey men thereunto appointed and authorised being "p' r,i ''"t
MT Thomas Cockshutt
M? James Heighe
M r John Smith
M r Abraham Downe
Ordered that the Clerk of the Vestrey do Enter the Deposition- of Charity
Whittington, and Naomy Doreing in the Register of All Saints Parish
and also to Register the birth of Leuine Bagby who was born in tie- year
of our Lord lt>77 as appears by an Old bible, now in the Clerks hands and
presented to this Vestrey.
Ordered that Samuel ffowler Sen 1 - be allowed one Thousand pound of
Tobacco for his being Sexton and Looking after the Church this Knsueing
year.
The Vestrey Ajourns till the 15 th of this Instant.
[Oct. 9, 1722.]
It is agreed on by the Vestry that M* Thomas Lingan A: partners hauo
their Choice of the pews in the New porch in Consideration that the pulpit
be Removed into their Few '' 27.
[Oct 30. 1722.]
Order'd that Samuel Howler Sexton Wash and Clean the Church and
Clear the Church Yard as soon as possible if he doth ii"t Comply he is to
be mulct of his wages.
Order'. I that M' Richard Smith Merch' hauo the fourth part of the
Ministers pew he paying to the Vestry two hundred pounds id' Tobacco
for it.
[May ",, 1721.]
Order'd that Coll. John Smith and M r Sah*S '1 :- hauo Liborty to
hauo a Small Narrow Window made with an Arch'd Top ouer Kaeh of
44 Extracts from the
their Pews prouided that it doth not Damnify the Church and they to
haue it done on their own Cost.
[Nov. 14, 1725.]
The Vestry orders Richard Stallinges Clk. of the Vestry to go to Court
to desire the Court to Leuy three pounds of Tobacco *$' poll on y e Taxa-
ble persons of the parish to pay the parish Charges.
[Apr. 11, 1726.]
The Vestry agrees with Martin Wells Carpenter to mend the Upping
Block on the South Side of the Church and to put in a good Locust piece
at Each Porch door and the Vestry house Door to fend off the water and
agrees to pay him two Hundred pounds of Tobacco.
[May 15, 1729]
Then the Vestry Laid out the S* Parish into nine precincts and Chose
two persons in Each precinct to be Counters of Tobacco &c according to
the Act of Assembly
Ordered that R*? Stallinges Clk. of the Vestry giue to Each and E%'ery
of the Counters a Copy of the Order for their being Chosen by the Vestry
and a Copy of their Precincts.
[July 4, 1734.]
Ordered that the Necessaries for the parish use that Cap' Joseph Wil-
kinson was to Send to England for, that the Reverend M-, James Wil-
liamson doth agree with the Vestry to Send for, and to Charge but Twenty
five 'ffi- Cent Sterling on them from the first purchase of them and to
haue Tobacco for the Same at a penny p* pound Sterling Viz- a purple
Velvet Cushion a yard Long for the Pulpit with Gold fring, a Large
Church Prayer Book, a new Surplice, for a man of midle Stature, a Spade,
and a Decent free Stone font for the Church, Ordered that the Reverend
M* James Williamson haue an order on MT.Gabriel Parker late Sherf for
the Ballance that is in his hand due to All S 1 - 8 Parish in part of pay for
the above Necessaries.
The Vestry fines M? William Holland Vestry man and Mr. Roger
Boyce Church Warden for their not attending at this Vestry the Sum of
fifty pounds of Tob" Each.
[Dec. 8, 1734.]
The Vestry Adjourns for one Hour, then to meet at the House of the
Reverend M-. James Williamson to View the Library &c.
Then the Vestry did View the Library and found all in order according
to the Cattulogue except two Books which were wanting [Viz.] the Prac-
tical Believer in 8Vo: and Doctor Hornecks Delight and Judgment.
Parish liecords of Maryland. 45
[Nov. 30, 1736]
This day M* Richard Blake Vestryman Reported to this Vestry that
himself and Ml James Heighe Church Warden forewarn'd George
and Mary not to Cohabit together for the future upon their Pen-
alty as the Law in that Case Provides.
[Nov 2, 1742.]
Old- that R'- Stallinges Reg' Set up Advertisement at x" Church Diir
to acquaint y e parishoners of S- parish that they come forthwith to S J
Reg' & haue all former & futur Births, Marriages and Burial- put on the
Parish Records or they will be prosecuted as the Law Directs.
[May 19, 1747 ]
Order'd that R'! Stallinges Clk. of the Vestry go to M' John Skinner
& know if he will undertake the Tarring and find the tarr and workman
to Tarr y e Roof and weather boards of the Church and to know hi- Lowest
price and when he Can haue it done.
[Apr. 11, 1748 ]
Order'd that the Vestry Clk: draws orders on M' Daniel Rawlings Slur.
to pay unto Michall Askew Sexton 10OO lb Tob and to Richard Stallinges
Vestry Clk 1000 D
Order'd that the Clk: Sett up Advertisements to sjivo notice that the
vestry will Dispose oft* 7000 and odd pounds of Tobacco in the Shcr"
hands for Cur- money to the highest Bidder at All b'* Parish Church on
the first tuesday in June next,
[Mar. (i, 1749.]
Order'd that tin; Absent (lent, of the Vestry appear at the next Wtry
to Show Cause why they did not attend at this Vestry and that the Clk
of the Vestry giue notice to them.
[Apr. lti, 1750.]
Then the Vestry Chose Mes" Sam" Austin and Sam- Robertson for
Inspectors in the Room of M- W" Miller dun- Deceased to he transmitted
to his Excellency with all Convenient Speed
M \V Hickman Discharg'd from being a, Vestryman on ace if being
an Inspector.
[Nov. r,, 17.11.1
Orderd That y c Clerk Give Notice to M r John Skinner Sh.rritV f. 'ive
an Aeco: of y" Insolvenccs by Name, and also the Dividend "f llie Vcstr\ 's
part of Tobacco.
46 Extracts from the
Addenda.
[1J
Sir:
I should be much obliged to you if you would please to call at M.
Andrews before you leave Town this afternoon as a young man & young
[woman] are there waiting for you in great Need of your Assistance
I am Sir
Sunday Your most Ob'
April 28, 65 * * * *
[2]
Rev! Sir/
Your & Mistr 8 Deans Company is Desired at the funeral of Doctor
Josias Midlemore next thursday being the 20 th Instant. It is to hold at
S k Georges Church.
If you will be So good as to give notice to Your Congregation that
those who are Inclined to Come may know the day & that there will be
a Sermon will very much oblige Your's
by order from Mis- And Lendrum
Midlemore
Saturday 16^ 1755.
[3]
To the Gentlemen of the Vestrey of All S t8 Parish.
This is to Certifio you That I Assign ouer all my Right and Title of my
part of the pew N 6, which is in partnership with William Wood, unto
Thomas Haruey of S* Parish and his Heirs for Euer, and pray that the
same may be Recorded in the Records of All S' s Parish, I hauing receiued
full Satisfaction for the Same as Witness my hand this 9' b day of May 1720
Testes Robert Sumnar.
Rich. Stallinges.
[4]
This Indenture made this Eleventh day of October In the Year of Our
Lord One thousand Seven hundred and Sixty four Between John Clagett
of Frederick County and Province of Maryland of the one part Gentle-
man And The Reverend M- Alexander Williamson Rector of Prince
Georges Parish in the County and Province aforesaid of the other part
Witnesseth That th.e said John Clagett being sensible, how much neces-
sity there is for having a Publick Schooll in the Parish aforesaid, for the
Parish Records of Maryland. 47
Instruction of Youth ; and one Corner of his Land having been deemed
Convenient for Erecting the said house upon : He therefore out of Senti-
ments of Tenderness and Regard for the rising Generation, Hath, given
granted aliened Infeoffed and confirmed and by these presents doth freely
and clearly give grant alien Infeoff and confirm unto the .-aid M* Alex-
ander Williamson and his Successors for the use of a Publick School for
ever All that part of a Tract of Land being part of a Tract of Land
called Clagetts purchase lying in the Parish and County aforesaid
Signed Sealed and Delivered John Clagett.
in the Presence of
Clui'1 Jones
Andrew Heigh.
[5]
Maryland ss.
In the name of God Amen I Bevill Granville Rector of the parish of
William & Mary in charles County in the province aforesaid do by these
presents resign and give up to the Right Honorable the Lord Proprietary
all my right title & interest in the said living of William &, Mary in the
County aforesaid & to all perquisites benefits & advantages thereto
belonging. "Witness my hand this '2~> day of January 1732
Witness. Bevill Granville
48 Extracts from the Parish Records of Maryland.
WEST DOOR.
GROUND PLAN
OLD PARISH CHURCH
ST. PAUL'S, KENT ISLAND.
From the Rev. Dr. Allen's Manuscript History.
VII
OLD MARYLAND MANORS
"Keep leets and law-days and in sessions sit." Othello.
" You would present her at the leet because she brought stone jugs and no sealed
quarts." Taming of the Shreu:
"I know my remedy; I must go fetch the third borough" [Tithingman]. Taming of
the Shrew.
"A Ty thing-man in each Manor, a Constable in each Hundred." Bacon, Laws of Mary-
land, 1638.
" Proces in Court Baron est Summons, Attachement & Dislres, que est proces al commo
Ley." Le Court Leele et Court Baron, John Kilchin. London, 1C23.
" And By-laws for the common weale may be made in a Leet." Antiquity, Authority, and
Uses of Leets, Robert Powell. London, 1641.
"We also, by these Presents do give and grant licence to the same Baron of Baltimore
and to his heirs, to erect any parcels of land within the Province aforesaid into manors,
and in every of those manors to have and hold a Court Baron .... and view of Frank-
Pledge, for the conservation of the peace and better government of those parts." Charter
of Maryland, Art. 19.
"And We do ... . authorize you that every two thousand acres .... so to he passed
.... be erected and created into a mannor And we do hereby further authorize
you that you cause to be granted unto every of the said Adventurers within every of their
said manors respectively, .... a Court Barron and Court Leet, to be from time to time
held " Instructions from Lord Baltimore to Governor Calvert, 1636.
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
I N
Historical and Political Science
HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor
History is past Politics and Politics present History. Freeman
VII
OLD MARYLAND MANORS
With the Records of a Court Leet and a Court Barou
By JOHN JOHNSON, A. B.
B A LTIMO R K
Pt'iiListiKD Kv tiik .Johns Hopkins I'nivi.umiv
MAY, 1883.
JOHN MURPHY & CO., PRINTERS,
BALTIMORE.
OLD MARYLAND MANORS.
A striking contrast between the North and the South is
presented by the small landholders of* the former and the
great estates of the latter. Tracts of thousands of acres wen;
not at all uncommon in colonial Maryland, and sometimes
land-grants included even tens of thousands. These irreat
estates had a strong shaping influence on the life of early
Maryland. Separating their owners by wide intervals, they
prevented that association of interests and feelings that was
strong in the towns of the northern colonies. The man who
lived in the center of a tract of ten thousand acres must
necessarily have been thrown largely upon his own resources for
amusement and for culture. The cooperation which makes
schools and libraries of easy attainment in a thickly settled
community was absent among such people. Consequently edu-
cation could be obtained only at great cost and inconvenience.
The planter who was determined to have his children well
taught had to send them abroad, as was done in the case of
Charles Carroll of Carrollton.
There were some towns founded in Maryland, it is true, in
the earliest days. The vanished city of St. Mary's, the lost
Joppa, and others that have disappeared as completely as
the "cities of the plain," furnished a stimulus to civiliza-
tion in some parts of the colony. But in spite of these in-
stances, it is true that most of the life of Maryland in the lat-
ter half of the seventeenth and the whole of the eighteenth
century, was country lite. And it was a country life that pre-
sented many analogies to tli,e country lite of Englishmen
during the same period.
5
6 Old Maryland Manors.
The first generation of Maryland planters led that sort of
hand-to-mouth, happy-go-lucky existence that marked the
beginning of all the colonies. Until means became adapted
to ends, but little comfort and still less culture, were to be
found. Many of the earliest settlers of high consideration
made their cross-mark on titles, deeds and conveyances. Their
ignorance, however, was the knowledge of the class from
which the best born of them sprang the English country
gentry of the seventeenth century.
The share of Maryland planters in the conveniences of life
does not appear to have been large at first, though even then
they made an attempt at good living. In the inventory
accompanying the will of Governor Leonard Calvert, the item
of a silver sack-cup follows that of two pairs of socks. Sack
probably occupied far more personal attention than did wear-
ing apparel. Indeed, one of our historians ventures the state-
ment that this potent liquor is oftener mentioned in the records
of Maryland than in the pages of Shakespeare. Beds in the
early days were lamentably lacking. Travellers either deprived
the host of his, or slept upon deer skins or fodder piled upon
the floor. All the appointments of a household were necessa-
rily meagre.
But after this early period had passed and Marylanders had
learned for good and all of what their soil and their climate
were capable, a settled order of things began, which continued
into the present century. The life of the Maryland planter of
this second period was such as left few traces in the written
accounts that have come down to us. In the few letters and
journals of the colonial epoch few, because so rarely the colo-
nists had the knowledge, and more rarely still the taste to write
either letters or journals in these few are to be found histor-
rical suggestions. Of the famous estates of the colonial era, a
small number are still in the hands of the descendants of col-
onial families. An idea of the former condition of things can
be obtained by visiting these localities. There are still found
the ancient houses, the chapels, the out-buildings, that have
Old Maryland Manors. 7
remained from colonial times. There, more clearly than else-
where, we may see the vestiges of the old aristocratic spirit
which has almost disappeared under the democratic' attrition
of more than a century. These traces will not last much
longer, and if any record of this old system is to he kept, it
should be made at once.
The (Adverts desired to found in Maryland a new landed
aristocracy. Though the "Bill for Baronies" never passed
the Assembly, the Proprietor was able to establish manors,
and to give to the manorial lords rights of jurisdiction over
their tenants. The lord of the manor thus became a person
of prime importance. "While his wealth as a large land-
holder gave him one element of consideration, his judicial
dignity gave him another.
The reason the settlers consented to the introduction of this
system is not hard to find. Our Maryland ancestors, follow-
ing the example of certain great proprietors, proposed to live
in scattered, rural ways, on large estates. The manorial sys-
tem, which had been used for a like purpose in the old coun-
try, lay ready to their hands and they adopted it. Similarly,
the men of Xew England, proposing to live in close com-
munities, adopted the township system. Once taken up, tie
manorial system became general, so that English manors,
English halls, English lords of the manor were scattered all
over our State.
In accordance with his charter right,* the Proprietary, in
1636, issued instructions that every two thousand acres given
to any adventurer should be erected into a manor, with " a
Court Barron and a Court Leet, to be from time to time held
within every such mannor respectively/' f These instructions
were repeated many times, and the records are filled with
such grants. Capt. George Evelin, Lord of the Manor of
Eveliiiton, in St. Mary's county; Marmadukc Tilden, Lord
* Sec Charter of Maryland, Art. 1'.'.
f Kilty, p. 31. Conditions of Plantation, lGuli.
8 Old Maryland Manors.
of Great Oak Manor, and Major James Ringgold, Lord of
the Manor on Eastern Neck, both in Kent; Giles Brent, Lord
of Kent Fort, on Kent Island ; George Talbot, of Susque-
hanna Manor, in Cecil county; these are a few names picked
at random. In the Library of the Maryland Historical
Society is to be found a conveyance dated 1734 for a parcel
of land to be held "as of the Manor of Nanticoke." In the
same collection are preserved the rent-roll of Queen Anne's
Manor, and a statement of the sale, in 1767, of twenty-seven
manors, embracing one hundred thousand acres. In 1776,
there were still unsold seventy thousand acres of proprietary
manors lying in nine counties. * In the Maryland Reports f
is to be found a notable law suit over Anne Arundel Manor.
The Proprietor, Lord Frederick Calvert, sought by means of
a common recovery to break the entail upon the manor, and
thus prevent its passing into the hands of a natural son of the
former Proprietor.
At the present day we find many estates called manors.
Those that have attracted most notice are My Lady's Manor
and Bohemia Manor. At the beautiful and historic seat of the
Hon. John Lee Carroll, Doughoregan Manor, the name, the
mansion, the chapel, the grounds, all still show surviving evi-
dences of the original state of affairs. But it is with the
social side of this system that we are here concerned. Its
civic aspect will be treated in a subsequent part of this paper.
It is, however, rather the patriarchal than the feudal type of
society that is presented at the period we have materials for
describing. It is not easy to picture the combined elegance
and simplicity of those old homesteads the appearance they
presented of aristocratic state mingled with republican good-
fellowship. The entrance to the place was, perhaps, through
a wood of old oaks and chestnuts, that had passed their sapling
growth a century before George Calvert, first Baron of Balti-
* Scharf II., p. 104.
f 2 Harris & McHenry, p. 279.
Old Maryland Manors. 9
more, appeared as a stripling in the English Court. Emerg-
ing from the wood, the road was lined with a double colonnade
of locusts or beeches with footpaths between. Xearing the
mansion, pines and firs replaced the deciduous trees, and the
evergreen branches formed a symbol of the ever fresh hospi-
tality awaiting the approaching guest.
Before the door stood the old elms, planted by the founder
of the family, and the lawn was terraced in the English style.
The turf a peculiar pride of the master of the house was
so thick and close that it would be hard to find a finger's
breadth of earth without its blade of grass. Conifers stood
at intervals over the half dozen acres forming the lawn, and
at either end of a terrace a catalpa with a trunk of Califor-
nian proportions shaded a rustic seat.
The house itself was in most cases a long, low structure of
brick. The finest residences were remarkable for their large
size and striking appearance. * The rooms of the old houses
were grouped about a large hall-way in which some of the
family usually sat. The walls everywhere were wainseotted
to the ceiling. Sometimes the woodwork was finely carved
and of rare material. Upon the walls hung the portraits of
the ancestors of the family, often as far back as six or seven
generations. A side-board in the dining-room displayed a
portion of the plate, bearing the family crest. Flanking the
plate stood a great array of glasses and decanters. For in the
early days the proper discharge of the sacred duty of' hospital-
ity involved various strong potations. Even now the visitor
to the Maryland country house is almost always invited to
take something to drink on entering or leaving tin' dwelling.
Various oflices stood around the mansion. Notable among
them was the stone smoke-house. The quarters of mast-fed
hogs hung from the roof, and the fires in the pit below were
tended by superannuated negroes, their faces greasy with lard
and begrimed with soot beyond their natural blackness.
* Eddis'a Letters.
10 Old Maryland Manors.
In some places the family chapel stood close by the house.
On one side of the main aisle sat the slaves, on the other the
free white tenants; and no considerations of comfort could
induce the freemen to cross the interval that served as a
boundary between them and the despised race. Beneath the
brick floor of the chapel and marked by a marble slab, were
the graves of dead members of the family of the lord of the
manor. Any one attaining special distinction was buried by
the side of the chancel and, within the chancel rails, let into
the wall was a tablet to his memory. If the family belonged
to the ancient church, frescoes and oil paintings, occasionally
copies of considerable beauty, adorned the place.
The mode of burial curiously illustrated the prevalent feel-
ing of class distinction, and at the same time preserved an
ancient custom of the mother country. While the lord's
family lay buried beneath the floor in the chapel, the tenants'
graves were at a distance hidden among the trees. At some
of these graves stood a neat slab of stone with a pious inscrip-
tion. Still farther removed, with only a board as a memorial .
of each, were the graves of the slaves. Not even death could
unite what God had put asunder.
At a considerable distance from the great house was the
dwelling of the overseer. Around him in numbers sufficient
to people a small town, lived the negroes whose labor pro-
duced the wheat and tobacco upon which the fabric of society
rested. Out of the number of these dependents a few of the
likeliest went to the mansion as domestic servants.
Scattered at intervals over the estate, wherever their farms
lay, were the houses of the free white tenants. The tenant
farms were frequently several hundred acres in extent, and
were held on leases of twenty-one years. The rent was low
and was usually paid in kind, not in money. The system had
some of the evils incident to English land tenure of the pres-
ent day, and has now given way to short leases, or has dis-
appeared entirely by the breaking up of the estates on which
it was practised.
Old Maryland Manors. 11
In various ways on those estates the traditional sports of
the mother country were kept up. One of the patriarchs of
colonial Maryland, when importuned by his relatives to break
the entail upon his estate, replied : " If one of you inherit the
whole, 1 shall be responsible for the production of one fox-
hunter. If I divide it, I shall make as many fox-hunters as
I make heirs." Fox-hunting was a pursuit in which Marv-
landers delighted. In no characteristic is the Englishry of
the settlers (to use Mr. Freeman's term) more clearly shown
than in this. On horses that seemed almost tireless, and with
dogs like the horses, they sometimes chased Reynard across
the eastern peninsula, from the Chesapeake to the Atlantic.
The return journey and the stops at hospitable mansions on
the way took more time than the pursuit of the fox, and the
whole expedition sometimes lasted a week.
Aside from the social aspect of these old estates, they are
also worthy of notice from a civic point of view. The history
of Maryland owes its interest not so much to striking events
as to the continuity of old English institutions and ancient
habits of local self-government. When the early colonists
came to Maryland they invented no administrative or judicial
methods. The old institutions of England were transplanted
to Maryland and acclimatized. In the new soil they were
modified and destroyed, or they were modified and perpetu-
ated, lint in either case there is perfect continuity between
the institutions of colonial Maryland and those of the older
country. For our new institutions, like new species, were
not created; they grew from the old. Lord Baltimore
modeled his colony alter the Palatinate of Durham, and the
details of local administration were what they had been at
home. Old methods were adapted to new conditions.
The manor was the land on which the lord and his tenants
lived, and bound up with tin; land were also the rights ol gov-
ernment which the lord posse.-sed over tin 1 tenants, ami they
over one another. For the owner-hip of' the manorial estate
carried with it the right to hold two courts, in which dis-
12 Old Maryland Manors.
putes could be decided and tenant titles established and
recorded ; and in which, also, residents on the estate exercised
a limited legislative power. These manorial jurisdictions have
descended from a time previous to the accession of Edward
the Confessor, and their reproduction and continuance in
Maryland form a striking instance of the permanence of
ancient English customs.
A tradition has come down in Maryland that these courts
were held occasionally by members of the Proprietary family
owning manors.* In a court baron, held on St. Gabriel's
Manor, in 1649, the steward gave a tenant seizin by the rod,
each party, according to ancient custom, retaining as evidence
of the transfer a part of a twig broken in the ceremony, f In
the library of the Maryland Historical Society are preserved
the records of a court baron and a court leet of St. Clement's
Manor, in St. Mary's county, held at intervals between 1G59
and 1672. | We can hardly believe that these records are the
only ones of their kind that were kept in the Province. For
a single one that has been preserved there must have been
many lost. When we consider that so many documents
belonging to the government of the colony, and for whose
preservation great precautions were once taken, have never-
theless been destroyed, it will appear but natural that papers
left entirely in private hands, and of but little value or inter-
est to their possessors should have entirely disappeared.
Moreover, as will presently be shown in detail, the profits of
the manorial courts were not inconsiderable. Consequently,
they would not soon be relinquished. Nor is it likely, where
every owner of two thousand acres could obtain these rights
of jurisdiction, that only two persons in the whole Province
* Kilty, p. 93.
f Bozman, vol. 2, note, p. 372. The same old English custom obtained
in early New England.
% See Appendix for a copy of these records, furnished by the kindness
of the Librarian of the Maryland Historical Society, J. W. M. Lee.
Old Maryland Manors. 13
would exorcise tliem. It seems probable that in the early
period of the existence of the colony manorial courts were not
uncommon.
The popular court of the manor was the court leet or
court of the people. When the grant of the leet included the
view of frankpledge, as in the Maryland manors, that cere-
mony took place at the leet, though in the records no mention
of the view is made. At the opening of the leet, the steward,
who was the judge, having taken his place, the bailiff made
proclamation with three "Oyez,"and commanded all to draw
near and answer to their names upon "pain and perill."
Then followed the empanelling of a jury from the assembled
residents on the manor, all of whom between the ages of
twelve years and sixty were required to be present. The
duties of a leet jury seem to have been those of both grand and
petty juries. All felonies and lesser offenses were enquirable.
The statute, 18 Edw. II., names the following persons as
proper to be investigated at a leet:
"Such as have double measure and buy by the great and
sell by the less. . . . Such as haunt taverns and no man
knoweth whereon they do live. . . . Such as sleep by day
and watch by night, and fare well and have nothing, " a set
that need watching. The leet had also a general supervision
of trade, fixed the price of bread and ale, * and set its hands
on butchers that sold "corrupt victual." The game laws also
were enforced by the leet. At the leet held at St. Clement's,
in St. Mary's county, Robert Cooper was fined for fowling
without license on St. Clement's Island. The notion that
hunting was for the rich alone showed itself in another way.
Of the chase or park of the English manors, some traces may
be found in Maryland. A writer in "A Description of the
Province of New Albion," which adjoined Maryland on the
cast, speaks of " storing his Parks with Elks and fallow 1 >eor,"
probably following a Maryland example. On the Bohemia
* Seo Appendix fur instances.
14 Old Maryland Manors.
Manor, the remains of tlie walls of a deer park were pointed
out as late as 1859.* That any necessity existed for a park
is not to be believed. Venison was so common a food that
Hammond, in Leah and Rachel, says "that venison is
accounted a tiresome meat." An aping of aristocratic man-
ners may, perhaps, have induced some of the settlers to enclose
a wood for a park, but nothing else could have done so.
Another important function of the court leet, was the levy-
ing of a deodand or fine upon the cause of any accident to life
or limb. A reckless driver running over a child or a careless
woodman felling a tree and killing a passer-by, was mulcted
by the jury of the leet. Before the period of Maryland man-
ors, the cart or the tree causing the injury became the prop-
erty of the lord, the idea being that he would expend its
value in masses for the soul of the deceased. In this is prob-
ably to be found the origin of the name given to the payment,
deodand. f In actual fact, however, the soul of the departed
was not of sufficient importance in the eyes of most lords to
compel the loss of a piece of property so easily acquired as the
forfeited article.
The leet could enact by-laws regulating the intercourse of
residents with each other, and the regulations had all the force
of a town ordinance. In the leet also constables, ale-tasters,
affeerors and bailiffs were elected; and interference with the
exercise of their duties, as breaking into the pound, taking
away impounded cattle, or resisting distraint for rent was
punishable by the leet. | The fines imposed went to the lord
*Scharf, vol. 1, p. 430.
J- See interesting remarks on this topic in lectures on the Common Law
by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
+ Manorial courts are still held in some parts of Great Britain. In
Notes and Queries, October 21, 1882, it is stated that on October 3, 1882,
a court leet. for the manors of Williton Regis, Williton Hadley and West
Fulford was held. Appointments of inspectors of weights and measures,
of bailiff, and of hay ward were made. The leet for the town of Watchit
was held also, and appointed a port-reeve, ale-tasters, a crier, a stock
driver and an inspector. Leets were also held the same month on the
estates of the Duke of Buccleugh. (N. & Q., November 4, 1882.)
Old Maryland Manors. ] 5
and were often profitable. Besides fines, other punishments
were used. In 1670 the jury of St. Clement's leet ordered
the erection of <l a pair of Stocks, pillory and Ducking
Stoole." *
The presence of irresponsible strangers seems to have been
peculiarly distasteful to our ancestors. By a law of Edward
the Confessor, a man was forbidden to entertain a stranger
above two nights unless he would hold his guest to ri^ht.
So the constable on the manor anciently took security of all
heads of families for the keeping of the peace by strangers in
their houses. Curiously enough, the leet at St. Clement's
presented John Mansell for "entertayning Benjamin Ilamon
tv, Cybil, his wife, Inmates," and ordered him " to remove
his inmates or give security;" a proceeding that would have
been in perfect keeping a thousand years ago.
The Maryland county justices were required to appoint
constables in every hundred, who swore on taking office to
"levy hue and cry and cause" refractory criminals to be
taken.f The hue and cry carries us back to remote Anglo-
Saxon times, when all the population went to hunt the thief.
The duties of the manorial constable were doubtless the same
in the manor as those of the constables of the hundred in
their districts.
The afl'cerors, mentioned above, were sworn oflicers chosen
from the residents. Their duty was to revise the fines
imposed by the leet jury, and to temper justice with mercy.
They are mentioned several times in the records of St. Clem-
ent's, in one case reducing to two hundred pounds an amerce-
ment of two thousand pounds of tobacco imposed on a certain
Gardiner, who had taken wild hogs belonging to the lord.|
The Maryland Indians were very early reduced to a depen-
dent condition, and it became the dutv of the leet to include
* Sec Appendix.
f Park,, Laws of Maryland 1708, p. 99.
+ Sec Appendix.
16 Old Maryland Manors.
i
them in its policejurisdietion. * There is an account in the St.
Clement records of the fining of two Indian boys for some
thievish pranks. Moreover, " the King of Chaptico" him-
self is presented for stealing a sow and her pigs and having
" raised a stock of them." This was apparently too weighty
a' matter for the simple jury of the tenants, so it was referred
to "ye hon ble , ye Gov'." The matter of losing hogs seems to
have been a great grievance for the tenants, and the jury
accordingly reported that they "conceive that Indians ought
not to keepe hoggs, for under pretence of them they may
destroy all ye hoggs belonging to the man*, and therefore
they ought to be warned now to destroy them, else to be
fyned att the next court." The conquered Britons were
treated in a spirit almost as liberal.
The elasticity of an old institution like the leet in being
thus adapted to the government of savages is worthy of note.
It is a striking illustration, also, of the principle that impels
men to adapt old forms to new conditions, and it deserves to
be placed by the side of the institution of tithing men among
the Indians of Plymouth. f Doubtless other methods of police
and government for the Indians were adopted in various
places by the colonists, and curious survivals of old forms like
the above might be noted by the investigator.
In the court baron of the freeholders the freehold ten-
ants acted as both jury and judges. A freeholder could be
tried only before his peers. So that if the freeholders fell
below two in number the court could no longer be held.
Before this court were brought points in dispute between the
lord and his tenants as to rents, forfeitures, escheats, trespass
and the like. Besides these matters, actions of debt between
tenants and transfers of land took place in the court baron.
Here, also, the tenant did fealty for his land, swearing, %
*See Appendix.
f" Studies," IV. Saxon Tithingmen in America, p. 10.
% Gurdon, p. 615. See Appendix for instances of swearing fealty.
Old Maryland Manors. 17
"Hear you, my lord, that I, A. B., shall be to you both true
and faithful, and shall owe my Fidelity to you for the Land I
hold of you, and lawfully shall do and perforin such Customs
and Services as my Duty is to you, at the terms assigned, so
help me God and all his saints." *
* Tlie origin of manorial courts is very obscure and goes back to nn
early period. Among the Anglo-Saxons, as early, perhaps, as the eighth
century, conquest, purchase, grant and commendation had given ri-e to
great estates. By this means all the arable land in some neighborhoods
became the property of a wealthy lord. Consequently, the hitherto inde-
pendent village community of owners of arable land became a dependent
community of tenants. At the same time hunting, fishing, pasture,
wood cutting, all the rights to the use of common wild land, rights that
had formerly run with the ownership of a share of arable hind, became
rights of the lord, to be exercised and enjoyed by the tenant only by the
sufferance of the lord. Thus, it appears, originated the title of the lord
to the waste and to the game inhabiting it.
Contemporaneously with these agrarian changes went on as great a
judicial change. Among the Anglo-Saxons jurisdiction belonged t<> the
state, not to the king. Hut jurisdiction and the profits of jurisdiction
were separate. While justice was a public trust, the profits of justice were
merely a source of royal revenue. So it came about, as early as the ninth
century, that the tines of the hundred courts, lines for which every offenco
might be commuted, were often granted by the king t" any neighboring
magnate. This grant of profits was very different from a i^rant id' juris-
diction. The date at which private jurisdiction originated is unknown.
Tin; earliest grants of it date from the rei^n of Kdward the Confessor,
but private courts existed before his time. Though he and his Norman
advisers were the lir-t to regard jurisdiction as royal property, to bo
granted away, a revolution had already taken place in the customs of the
people, who had abandoned the ancient judicial system, for the loose
administration of the popular courts no longer satisfied the needs of an
advancing civilization.
So clumsy and slow was the machinery of the hundred court that suits
were al st always compromised. A favorite method of settlement was
arbitration. The most natural arbitrator between tenants was the lord,
and only a contract between the parties was needed to give him the powers
of the hundred court. While the lord's decision was binding in law
< > i 1 V as the result of a contract, yet his private authority anions his
tenants was e; r ,. a t enough to enforce the settlement. Here, then, seems
to he an origin, and a Saxon origin, f.fr the jurisdiction of a manorial
lold.
18 Old Maryland Manors.
Some of the feudal incidents of the manorial tenure may be
found mentioned in the records of the Maryland Land Office.
Here is an example quoted in the Land-holder's Assistant:*
"Whereas certain lands and tenements holding of the manors
hereunder named have ceased for these three years last past to
pay the rent due. . . . These are therefore to summon the said
several tenants to pay the said rent and arrears and charges of
this process unto the lord of the manor .... or else to be at
the court .... to show cause why the said land should not
So much for the origin of private jurisdiction in general. An expla-
nation of the specific origin of the three courts, the leet, the common
law court baron and the customary court baron, brings us to a contro-
versy. Professor Stubbs, on the authority of Ordericus, derives the courts
of the manor from the tun-gemot. (Hist. I., p. 399.) Henry Adams
denies the existence of the tun-gemot (Essays in A. S. Law, p. 22), and
derives both the court baron and the court leet from the hundred court.
As to the customary court he is silent. Professor W. F. Allen has still a
third view, the court baron, according to him, being of feudal origin, and
not being found earlier than the end of the eleventh century. He makes
the non-existent tun-gemot of Professor Adams the germ of the customary
court. All these views are so ably supported that it would be highly
desirable to reconcile them, though it is probably impossible.
Adams appears to have proved that all manorial jurisdiction was orig-
inally obtained by the lords' assuming the powers of the hundred court.
This may have been done by prescription, the tenants agreeing, or per-
haps by actual royal grant of jurisdiction following on grants of profits.
But Allen's conclusions have a direct bearing here. He maintains,
with great force, that the freeholders, the suitors and judges of the court
baron, took their rise in the feudal period. No freeholders, in our sense,
are to be found, he says, earlier than the end of the twelfth century. He
thinks that in the interval between Domesday and this period, certain of
the members of the class of villeins were advanced to the dignity of free-
holders, while all the other original holders lost their earlier rights and
fell into copyhold tenure. The court baron was established on a French
model for the use of these promoted tenants. The Saxon manorial court,
which Allen derives from the court of the township, and Adams from the
hundred court, became the customary court of the copyholders. As they
had fallen in status, so did it, and all important business of the estate was
transacted in the court baron or the court leet. (See Allen's Origin of
Freeholders in Proceedings of the Wisconsin Academy.)
* Kilty, p. 103.
Old Maryland Manors. lij
e.cheat to tlie Lord of the Manor. ... In the Manor of St.
Michaels: One tenement of 100 acres .... yearly rent 2
barrels of corn and 2 capons arrear, ') years. . . ." In
the manors of St. Gabriel and Trinity like claims were made.
These are apparently the only instances on record of claims
to escheats by manor lords. "At a court held at St. Mairies,
7th December, 1 (348, came Mrs. Margaret Brent and required
the opinion of the court concerning . . . the tenements apper-
taining to the rebels within his Manors, whether or no their
forfeitures belonged to the Lord of the Manors. The resolu-
tion of the court was that the said forfeitures did of right
belong to the Lord of the Manors by virtue of his Lordship's
Conditions of Plantation. . . ." * While this interests us as
the record of a feudal forfeiture in Maryland, it has an added
attraction, due to the fact that this is probably the first mention
of a female attorney. Another fact showing how the manorial
tenure entered into the life of the people, is a decision of the
Maryland Court of Appeals, made as late as 1835. In this
casef it was held that a tenant on a manor was entitled on
giving up his lease to the benefit of those manorial customs
that were commonly recognized as good by the tenants, and
that had been observed by the tenants during an indefinite
time.
The manorial grants were originally used to promote emi-
gration to the colony. To this purpose was soon added
another, namely, that of military defence. Jt seems to have
been the desire of the Proprietor to introduce a body of culti-
vators that could at any time be turned into militia. Accord-
ingly, in 1(541, he issued the following "Conditions of Plan-
tion:" " Whatsoever person .... shall be at the charge to
transport into the Province .... any number of able men
. . . . provided and furnished with arms and ammunition
according to a particular hereunder exprest . . . , shall be
* Quoted by Kilty, p. 104.
j- Dor soy vs. Kuglo, 7 Gill and Johnson, 321.
20 Old Maryland Manors.
granted unto every such adventurer for every twenty persons
lie shall so transport .... two thousand acres .... which
said land shall he erected into a Mannor .... with all such
Royalties and Privileges as are usually belonging to Mannors
in England. . . .
"A particular of such arms and ammunition .... for
every man .... which shall be transported thither.
"Imprimis One Musket or Bastard-Musket with a snap-
hance Lock.
" Item Ten pound of Powder.
"Item Fourty pound of lead Bulletts, Pistoll and Goose
Shot, each sort some.
"Kern One Sword-and Belt.
"Item One Bandelier and Flask."
Such legislation bears an analogy to the Assize of Arms,
under Henry I., and to parts of the Statute of Winchester,
under Edward I. The idea of military defence by the mass
of the people is common to these instances of English legis-
lation of the middle ages, and to this regulation of the Mary-
aud Proprietary of the seventeenth century.
In addition to these grants to private persons, manors
were given to the Church. Newtown Manor, formerly an
estate of the Proprietary, is to this day in the hands of the
Jesuits. In Charles and St. Mary's counties, large estates,
still bearing the title of manors, are at present owned by that
society. All efforts have been unavailing to obtain access to
any documents relating to these lands. If search were per-
mitted in the archives of the order, much interesting material
might be discovered.
It should not be thought that the aristocratic character of
the manor was injurious to the growth of liberal ideas. The
manor was a self-governing community. The manor officers
were elected by the tenants, and juries were drawn from
among the same body. By-laws for their own government
were adopted by most voices. So there was ample scope for
individuality to show itself. The extinction of the manorial
Old Maryland Manors. 21
system was probably not due to any democratic feeling of
opposition to it as a relic of feudalism, but to another cause.
The early introduction of slavery must soon have made it
more profitable for the lord to cultivate all his estate than to
rent it to tenants, unless the estate were of immense size.
The very large estates, however, were quickly sub-divided
when population increased. Consequently, the relations which
made a manor possible soon ceased to exist. At the same
time the necessity for a system of private jurisdiction passed
away. The manorial courts were adapted to a state of society
in which law-abiding men lived far apart, and surrounded bv
unquiet neighbors; a society in which bloodshed was fre-
quent and property insecure. In such circumstances it was
needful to have in each community a person uniting in him-
self the influence of wealth and the majesty of law. When
higher civilization made violence rare, and when better means
of communication made it easy to reach the public courts,
private authority was no longer needed. The feudal society
of the manor reverted to the patriarchal society of the plan-
tation. Serfs or slaves now replaced the free tenants of
former times. The rights of these villeins en r/ros were
entirely at the will of the owner of the estate. Controversies
between them never reached the dignity of legal adjudication.
Between them and their owners controversy was in the nature
of things impossible. Here there was no scope for manorial
courts. Controversies between master and master went, as
before, to a public tribunal. The court baron and the court
leet, having served their turn, were cast aside. J f they played
no great part in the history of the State, they are interesting
as an extinct species, an institutional fossil, connecting the life
of the present with the life of the past.
EDITORIAL NOTES.
The historical significance of the St. Clement records is that they prove
incontestably the existence of a Court Leet in Maryland. These Records
are the first of their kind that have been utilized by students of Mary-
land History. McMahon does not appear to have noticed any such Records.
Bozman, in his History of Maryland, vol. ii. 39, says, " although the power
and right of holding courts-baron and courts-leet might have been inserted
in some or all of those grants of manors, yet we are told from good authority,
that no memorial appears on the records of the province, of any practical
use of either of those kinds of courts." Soharf, i. 12:!, quotes this passage
as final.* The '-good authority" upon whom Bozman relied was Kilty,
who, in his Land-Holder's Assistant, 93, says, " no memorial appears on
record " of the practical use of the privileges of Court Baron and Court
Leet in those "inferior Manors " erected by the Conditions of Plantation,
issued in 1630. But Kilty, as quoted by Bozman in the above passage,
was not speaking of all manors, but only of those which assumed the name.
Upon the very same page, 93, Kilty states that in some manors, namely,
in those erected by special order of the Proprietary, "ami more especially
in those held by the Proprietary in his own name, it is understood that
the privileges attached to them were actually exercised.'' But even Kilty
mentions no concrete examples or existing records, of a Court Baron and
a Court Lett.
Bozman, however, after having unfortunately quoted Kilty in such a
partial way as to lead to the now current notion that there never was
any case of Court Leet in Maryland, appears to have come upon certain
indications of the existence of such an institution. He says in a foot mite
to page 39, " But 1 find in the Council Proceedings from l(>3f> to lt;."i7, p.
2:'., a commission there recorded, for holding a court-leet in the isle of
Kent directed 'to Robert Philpot, William Cox, Thomas Allen, of the
isle of Kent, gentlemen, to be justices of the peace within the said island,
to hold a court-leet in all civil actions not exceeding 1200 lbs. tobacco;
and to hear and determine all offences criminal, within the said Maud,
which may be determined by any justice of the peace in Kngland, not
extending to the loss of life or member. Given at St. Mary's, February
9th, Ib37. Witness, Leonard Calvert.' A- proceedings,'' continues
Bozman, '' most probably took [dace under this <-ommi>.-ion, there mu-t,
of consequence, have been some written memorials of those proceedings
'I'Ih' existence of manorial curt'* in Maryland is, huwuvi-r, rccuguuetl |.\ Scliurf in
a later volume, ii, 50.
23
24 Old Maryland Manors.
onco existing, though probably now lost. As the business of Courts-lect
in England has long ago been gradually absorbed by the courts of quarter
sessions for the shire or county, so with us, it is probable, that if any courts-
leet or courts-baron were ever held in the province, the county-courts,
at a very early period, swallowed up their jurisdictions. To trace these
transfers of judicial power, would at this day be unneccessary, if it were
a possible task, except it be to throw some light on the history of those
times."
If a Court Leet was actually instituted upon Kent Island, then it was
probably one of the oldest authorized local courts in Maryland, for the
first county court in this province was not opened until about the
middle of February, 1638, judicial power having been hitherto retained
by the governor and his council and the General Assembly of Freemen,
or the Colonial Parliament. Authority, however, to hold a local court
in Kent Island had been granted to Captain George Evelyn on the 30th
of December, 1037. He was authorized "to elect and choose six of
the inhabitants of Kent for his council," a local court of seven men.
Bozman states in his Notes and Illustrations, 580, that the Court Leet,
that was authorized the following year but soon superceded by the " Com-
rminder" [High Constable, cf. Bozman, ii, 138] of Kent, was more like a
county court than a manorial court. "The court held under the commis-
sion before stated [Bozman, ii, 39] Ho certain justices of the peace on the
isle of Kent to hold a court leet ' there, seems to have partaken more of the
nature of what was subsequently called a county court, than a court
pertaining to a manor ; and ' the manor of Kent fort,' the only manor ever
erected on the isle of Kent, was not then granted." The conclusion, then,
is by Bozman, as regards the Kent Island case, that it was no Court Leet
at all, in the technical sense of the term.
But Bozman thereupon, in his Notes and Illustrations, ii. 581, begins
to approach the real truth touching the actual existence of manorial courts,
a truth which Mr. John Johnson has only elucidated in its fulness in the
foregoing monograph. "However, it does appear," says Mr. Bozman,
" that at subsequent periods of time, one or two rare instances occurred of
the holding both courts baron and courts leet in two distinct manors.
4 A court baron was held at the manor of St. Gabriel, on the 7th of March,
1650, by the steward of the lady of the manor, when one Martin Kirke
took of the lady of the manor in full court, by delivery of the said steward,
by the rod, according to the custom of the said manor, one messuage, having
done fealty to the lady, was thereby admitted tenant ' (MS. Extracts from
therecords). "This," continues Bozman, "seems to have been conformable
to the ancient practice of courts baron in England, on the admission of
any tenant of a manor. The steward thereof, taking hold of one end of a
rod and the tenant of the other, the former repeats to him : ' The lord of
of this manor by me his steward doth deliver you seisin by the rod, and
admit you tenant to the premises,' &c. (See the Practice of Courts Leet
Old Maryland Manors. 25
and Courts Baron, by Chief Justice Scroggs)." Here, then, is instanced by
Bozman himself a concrete case of a manorial court, the records of which
Mr. Bozman appears to have seen.
But now follows mention of a Court Leet upon the identical manor, the
records of which Mr. Bozman had not seen but which arc now first pub-
lished. Bozman came upon the traces of manorial courts at St. Clement's,
not from local records, but from public records. lie says, ii, 581 : " Also,
in October, 1661, Thomas Gerrard petitioned to the provincial court, stating,
that at a court leet and court baron, held for the manor of St. Clement's, on
the 27th of October, 1(159, Robert Cole was fined, for marking one of the
Lord of the manor's hogs, and prayed to have satisfaction for the unlawful
marking and killing such hog, as the laws of the province provided.'* The
grant of this manor, which lay in St. Mary's county, was made to Thomas
Gerrard in the year 1639, and appears to be one of the oldest grants of a
manor now extant on the records of the province. It contained a clause
of power to Thomas Gerrard to hold a court baron and court leet. The
last mentioned case, which occurred in this manor, seems to have been ono
of those petty misdemeanors, which would have been properly cognizable
by a court leet in England ; but, as the lord of a manor could not judge
in his own case, for a trespass to himself, (See 2 Bacon's Abridgement,
505,) this principle probably occasions his application, as above, to the
provincial court."
The local Becords of the Manor of St. Clement's, herewith published,
indicate that a Court Leet was there held for at least a considerable period,
namely from 1659 to 1672. The Records are defective and may originally
have covered a much longer time. The manuscript is well preserved,
what there is of it, and is written in the quaint old English hand, char-
acteristic of English clerks of the seventeenth century wherever found,
whether among the Pilgrim Fathersor among the Pilgrimsof St. Mary's.
The manuscript was presented to the Maryland Historical Society many
years ago by a Catholic gentleman, Colonel B. U. Campbell, who died
April 28, 1855, aged sixty, and who was buried with great honors, after
a celebration of High Mass in the Cathedral, in the presence of the Arch-
bishop and ''all the Roman Catholic clergy " (See contemporary newspaper
accounts, e. g. The. American, May 1, 1855) Colonel Campbell was u
partner in the Baltimore branch of the well known English bankers,
Brown and Company of London, and he is spoken of in the resolutions of
the Maryland Historical Society, Mny 3, 1855, as "one of its earliest and
most valuable members. " The manuscript Records of the Catholic Manor
of St. Clement's, presented to the Society by Colonel Campbell, together
with other documents relating to the History of Maryland, is preserved
in Portfolio No. 6, Document I, and is described in the Catalogue of the
Manuscripts of the Society, printed in 1854. under the supervision of
* The above is not the exact text of Gemini's petition, but conveys its substance. 11. Ii. A.
26 Old Maryland Manors.
Lewis Mayer, Esq., assistant librarian, as "Manuscript Records of Courts
Baron and Courts Leet, held in St. Clement's Manor, at several times,
from 1659 to 1672, folio." Mr. Gatchell, the present assistant librarian
of the Society, has put the Editor in possession of these facts touching the
original records of St. Clement's and concerning Mr. B. U. Campbell,
who presented them to the Society.
The existence of these Records was, in fact, well known to gentlemen
who are familiar with the library resources of the Maryland Historical
Society, but Mr. Johnson is the first to make known tho historical signifi-
cance of Court Leet in Maryland. Not until his inquiries touching tho
origin and character of Old Maryland Manors were well advanced did he
obtain knowledge of the existence of these Records. His inquiries of Mr.
George Johnston, author of the History of Cecil County, as to the possible
survival of the old English Court Leet upon Maryland Manors led that
gentleman to a conference with Mr. J. W. M. Lee, librarian of the Mary-
land Historical Society and to the examination of the long catalogued but
never utilized Records of the Manor of St. Clement's. Mr. Lee kindly
undertook the task of making an exact transcript of the Records and thanks
are due to him for supervising their accurate reproduction by the printer.
The survival upon one of the Maryland Manors, of a Court Leet (Ger-
man Leute, people), or thatold English popular court of manorial tenants,
is interesting and important as showing the continuity in Terra Marine
of that ancient Germanic institution of village folcmote, which has evolved
into modern Parish and Vestry-Meetings, and also into Town-Meetings
and City Councils.
The Editor of this series takes great pleasure in publishing the following
note touching Cooke's Hope Manor in Talbot County, communicated by
the eminent antiquary and local historian, Dr. Samuel A. Harrison, of
Easton, Maryland. "A Manor of one thousand acres granted to Miles
Cooke by patent dated Jan 17 th 1659, under the great seal of Caecilius,
Lord Baltimore, lying north of Great Choptank river, on the north side
of the east branch of a creek of the said river called Tredavon. This
manor is mentioned in a deed from Mr. Saml. Cooke, through his
attorneys, to Mr. John Edmondson, dated Apr. 17 th 1683. The following
is an extract from this deed of the attorneys of S. C. to J. E. recorded in
Liber No. 4, p. 195, of the Land Records of Talbot County, Maryland.
"... Containing and Laid out for One thousand Acres (more or less)
together with all Royalties & Priviledges (Royal mines excepted) most
usually belonging to Mannors in Enghtnd, to have and to hold ye same
unto him ye s d Miles Cooke his heirs and assigns for ever to be holden as
of ye Honour [?] of St. Marey's in free and Comon Soccage by fealty
only for all services under ye yearly rent of Twentie [? Seventie] Shill-
ings Sterling in silver or Gold or ye full value thereof in such comodaties
as ye s d Lord Proprietary or his heirs should accept thereof, and ye s d Lord
Proprietary did by his Letters Pattent Erect ye s d Thousand Acres into a
Old Maryland Manors. 27
Mannorby ye name of yc Mannor of Cookes Hope Together with Court
Baron and all things thereunto Belonging by ye Law or Custome of
England, as by ye s d Letters Pattents Relation thereunto had doth and
may more at large appearc."
The following note upon manorial Tithingman in Maryland is thought
by the Editor to be of sufficient interest to justify it- reprint from Bozman,
ii, 1:18, who quotes it from the manuscript Bill of 1638, folio 21. The
motto relating to Tithingmen, printed upon the reverse of the bastard-title
of this paper, was taken from Bacon's printed Laws of Maryland, which
only gives the heading of the Bill. The following is an extract from the
text : " The lord of every manor within this province, (after any manor
shall be erected), shall yearly at the first court baron held after M ichaelmas
in any year nominate and appoint some inhabitant of the manor, (not
being in the council), to be tithing-man of that manor, to have the same
power as a tithing-man in England." Bozman adds, "The duties of a
tithing-man in England were, at this time, nearly the same as those of a
petly constable. They were usually chosen by the jury at the court-leet,
a criminal court appertaining to a manor."
NOTE ON THOMAS GERRARD
LORD OF ST. CLEMENT'S MANOR.
Thomas Gerrard, Surgeon, was a brother-in-law of Marmnduke Snow,
and came into the province about the year 1638. On the 29th of October,
1G.'}9, " Thomas Gorrard Gent, demandeth Land of the Lord Proprietary
due him by conditions of Plantation for transporting; himself with liveable
men servants in the years of our Lord 1(>'>8 and li:!!." The five able
men servants were John Longworth, Peter Hay ward, Samuel Barrett,
Thomas Knight and Robert Brassington. The following day (Oct. 30th)
an order was issued to the Surveyor to lay out for Mr. Thomas Gerrard,
1000 acres of land including St. Clement's Island. The laud was surveyed
Nov. 2, and the Surveyor's report is as follows : " Set forth for Thomas
Gerrard Gent, a neck of land lveing over against St. Clements Island,
bounding on the South with Pot.owmack River, on the north east with a
Creek running westward out of St. Clement-; Bay, Called St. Patrick's
Creek, on the east with the said Clement's bay, on the northwest with a
Creek running out Mattapanient bay called St. Catherines Creek on the
west and south west with part of the said Bay and Potowmack River, the
said neck containing in the whole nine hundred and fiftie acres or thereabouts.
Likewise set forth for the said Thomas Gerrard, the Island over against
the said neck called St. Clements Island, and Containing four score acres
or thereabouts. (Signed) .John Lewger Surveyor."
On the following day (Nov. 3), a patent was issued to Thomas Gerrard
of the above tract, constituting it a Manor by the name of St. Clement's
Manor, and giving him, his heirs and assigns authority to hold Courts
Baron and Courts Leet upon the said Manor. Tims. Gerrard was com-
missioned Privy Councilor September 18, 1644, and being several times
reappointed, held this position until 1658. He himself was a Roman
Catholic, but his wife, Susan, was a Protestant. (See trial of Fitzherbert,
in Davis' Day Star). In 1642 he was accused before the council of dis-
turbing the worship of the Protestant inhabitants by taking away the;
Key of their Chapel and carrying away their books. He was found guilt v
and sentenced to pay a line 500 pounds of tobacco. He was .-till alive in
1666, and had children. The approximate date of his death and the names
of his children could be learned from his will which i? no doubt on record
at Annapolis.
Christopher Johnston, Jk., M. A., M. D.
29
RECORDS*
OF THE
COURT LEET AND COURT BARON
op
st. Clement's manor,
1659-72.
S! Clkmknts ) _ A Co irt I>et & Court Baron of Thomas Gerard
th
Clkmknts ) A
> ss
Manour > Esq! there held on Thursday the xxvii 1 " of October
1G59 by Jn" Ryves gent Steward there.
Constablk : Richard (foster Sworne.
Rksiants: Arthur Delahay : Robt e : Cooper: Seth Tinsley: "Willm: at
Robt e Coles : J u7 Gee Jn? Green Benjamin Hamon Jn" Mattant.
ffrkkhold" 8 Robt e Sly, gent: Willm : Barton c;ent: Robt'Cole: Luke:
Gardiner: Barthollomew: Phillips Christopher Carnall : Jn'! Norman:
Jn" Goldsmith.
Lkaseholdkrs Thomas Jackson : Rowland Mace: Jn" Shankes Richard
ffoster: Samuell Harris: John Mansell : Edward Turner: ffrancis
Sutton with: Jn" Tennison :
Jury am> "l Jn" Mansell ~| Jn" Tennison
Homages J Burtholl: Phillips Jn" Goldsmith I
.1 ii '' Shankes Jn" Mattant
J. Sworne ,, Sworne
I n" Goo Sam : Harris
Edward Turner Jn" Norman
Seth Tinsley J xolVr Carnall J
Mj thank* art: due- to the Maryland Historical Society for |ii-niiisloii to print (hose
records. 1 am also under obligation id Mr. .). U . M. }., I.il.rariau i.f the Sx lely, ft-r
kind and c tin iini aid in dr< ij>liri nir and transcribing them ; ami to Mr. tieo. JuLusluu,
ol L'lWton, for calliug ruv attention to theuj in the lir^t instance. -J. J.
31
32 Old Maryland Manors.
Ord t Ag t Sam : Wee the aboue named Jurors doe p'sent to the Cou r that
Harris wee finde how about the 3 day of oetob r 1659 that:
Jmprimis weep'sent that about the third of October 1659 that Sam-
uell Harris broke the peace w th a Stick and that there was bloudshed
comitted by Samuell Harris on the body of John Mansell for w oh hee i9
fined 40 1 tob w ch is remitted de gratia dni.
Wee doe find that Samuell Harris hath a licence fro' the Gou'no* &
wee conceive him not fitt to bee p r sented.
Ord r ao t Rout* Jtem wee p r sent Robert Cole for marking one of the
Cole. Lord of the Manno" hoggs for w c hee is fined 2000
Tohco affered to 1000 1 .
Jtem wee p r sent Luke Gardyner for catching two wild hoggs & not
restouringe the one halfe to the Lord of the Manno r w CJ he ought to
haue done & for his contempt therein is fined 2000 1 Tobco afferred to
200 1 of Tobco.
Jtem we p r sent that Cove Mace about Easter last 1659 came to the
house of John Shancks one of the Lord of the Manno tenants being
bloudy & said that Robin Coox & his wife were both vpon him & the
said John Shancks desired John Gee to goe w th him to Clove Maces
house & when they the s d John Shancks & John Gee came to the said
Cloves his house in the night & knocked att the dore asking how they
did what they roplyed then the s' 1 John Shancks & John Gee haue for-
gotten But the s John Shancks asked h,er to come to her husband &
shee replyed that hee had abused Robin & her and the said John Shancks
gott her consent to come the next morning & Robin vp to bee freinds
w th her husband & as John Shancks taketh shee fell downe on her knees
to bee freinds w l her s husband but hee would not bee freinds w th her
but the next night following they were freinds and Bartholomew Phil-
lipps saith that shee related before that her husband threatened to beate
her & said if hee did shee would cutt his throat or poyson him or make
him away & said if ever Jo: Hart should come in agayne shee would
gett John to bee revenged on him & beate him & hee heared the said
William Asiter say th' shee dranke healths to the Confusion of her
husband and said shee would shooe her horse round & hee the said Bar-
tholomew Phillips heard the said Robin say if ever hee left the house
Cloves should never goe w l a whole face. Jt is ordered that this busi-
nesse bee transferred to the next County Co M according to Law.
Also wee present John Mansell fore entertayning Beniamyn Hamon
& Cybill his wife as Jnmates Jt is therefore ordered that the s d Man-
sell doe either remove his Jnmate or give security to save the pish
[parish] harmlesse by the next Co rt vnder payne of 1000 1 Tobco r .
Also wee p r sent Samuell Harris for the same and the same order is
on him that is on John Mansell.
Old Maryland Manors. 33
Also wee present the Freeholders that have made default in their
appearing to forfeit 100 1 Tobco apeice.
Wee doe further p r sent that our Bounds are at this p'esent unpfect
& very obscure. Wherefore w' the consent of the Lord of the
Manno* Wee doe order that every mans land shall bee bounded marked
and layed out betweene this & the next Co rt by the p'sent Jury w th the
assistance of the Lord vpon payne of 200 Tob'coe for every man that
shall make default.
S T . Clkmknts \ 88 t At a Court Leot & Co r Baron of ThOms Gerard
Masno" ' Esq r there held on thursday the 26 th of Aprill 16G0
by John Ryves Steward there
Constable Richard fibster
Resiants Robert Cowx William Roswell John Gee John Greene Benia-
min Uamon
Freeholders: Robert Sly gent Will'm Barton gent Robt Cole Luke
Gardiner Christopher Carnall John Norman John Goldsmith.
Leaseholders Thorn's Jackson Richard fibster Samuell Norris John
Mansfeild Edward Turner John Shancks Arthur Delahay
Clove Mace John Tennison
Jury and "I Christopher Carnall ~) Richard Smith ^
Homage / John Tennison
John Gee
Edward Turner
Beniamvn llamon
John Norman
John Love
George Harris
Willm Roswell
r
John Greene J Walter Bartlett J
Wee the above named Jurors doe p r sent to the Co n Luke Gardiner
for not doeing his Fealty to the Lord of the Manno r Jt is ordered
therefore that hee is fined 1000 1 of Tobcoo
Wee p'sent fower Jndians viz
for breakinge into the Lord of the Manm" orchard whereof three of
them were taken <te one ran away & they are fyned '20 arms length of
Roneoke.
Wee p'sent also two Jndian boyes for being taken w ' hoggs flesh &
running away fro' it & they are fined 40 arms length.
Wee )i r sent also a Cheptico Jndian for entringe into Edward Turners
house fe stealinge a shirt fro' thence & hee is lined 20 arms length if he
can be knowne
Wee p T 8ent also Wickocomacoe Jndians for takeinge away Christo-
pher Carnalls Cannowe fro' his landing & they are fyned 20 arms
length if they bee found
5
34
Old Maryland Manors.
Wee p'sont also the King of Cheptico for killing a wild sow & took
her piggs & raysed a stock of them referred to the ho e the Gouno .
Wee concieve that Jndians ought not to keepe hoggs for vnder
p'tence of them they may destroy all the hoggs belonginge to the Man-
no' & therefore they ought to bee warned now to destroy them else to
bee fyned att the next Court Referred to the hO ble the Gou'no*
Wee reduce Luke Gardiners fyne to 50 1 of Tobcoe
We am'ce the fower Jndians to 50 arms Length of Roneoke & the
Jndian that had his gun taken fro' him to bee restored agayne to the
owner thereof
The Jndian boyes wee am'ce 40 arms Length of Roneoke as they are
above am'ced
Wee am'ce the Cheptico Jndian for stealing Edward Turners shirt
to 20 arms length of Roneoke
Wee am'ce also Wickocomacoe Jndians for takeinge away Christo-
pher Carnalls Cannowe to 20 arms Length of Roneoke
Memorand that John Mansfeild sonne of Mansfeild deceased
came into this Co did atturne tent to the Lord of this Manno r
S T Clements ") A Court Leet & Court Baron of Thomas Gerrard esquire
Manno 8 / there held on Wednesday the Three & Twentieth of
October 1661. by Thomas Mannyng Gent Steward there for this tyme
Bailiff William Barton Gent.
Constable Raphael Haywood Gent
Resiants M r Edmond Hanson George Bankes ffrancis Bellowes Tho :
James John Gee Michael Abbott.
ffrekholders Robt Sly Gent Will Barton Gent Luke Gardiner Gent,
absent Robt. Cole Gent. Raphael Haywood Gent Bartho Phillips Gent.
Jury Rich : ffoster
Edward Conoray
Edward Runsdall
John Shankes
John Knape
Gerett Brenson
Clove Mace
Robt Cooper
Arthur De La huy
John Tenison
Jury and
Homage
Robt Cole
Bartho Philips
Edward Conovay
Edward Ransdell
Gerett Brenton
Clobe Mace
Edmond Hanson
Robt Cooper
Arthur De La hay
Wm Rosewell
Tho: James
Mich. James.
[Several leaves of the record missing.]
Old Maryland Ifanors. 35
The Court adiorned till two of the Clocke in the afternoono.
John Gee and Rich, foster sworne
The Jury presents that Bartho: Phillips his Landes not marked and
Bounded Hound
The Jury Lykewise present that the Land belonging to Robt Cooper
and Gerett Breden is not marked and bounded Round
The Jury Presents Robt Cooper for Cutting of sedge on S* Clements
Jsland and fowling w th out Licence for \v he is Amerced 10 of Tob.
A tiered to 10 1 of Tob.
The Jury Present that Edward Conoray while ho was Rich fosters
servant did by accident worray or Lugg w tl doggs on of the L d of the
manno Hoggs and at another tyme Edward Conoray going to shoot
at ducks the dog did Run at somebodys Hoggs but we know not whose
they were and did Lugg them for w cl the Jury doe Amerce Rich:
lloster 60 l of Tob Aflered to 20 1 of Tob.
The Jury presents M r Luke Gardiner for not appearing at the Lords
Court Leet if he had sufficient warning
S T Clemknts"! A Court Leet of Thomas Gerard Esq r . there held on
Mano" / Thursday the eighth day of September 1070. by
James Gaylard gent, steward there.
Essoixks: Benjamin Salley gent James Edmonds Rich Vpgato Cap'
Peter Lefebur these are essoined by reason they are sick and cannot
attend to do their suit.
FKkkkhoi.dkks: Justinian Gerard gent, Robt Sly gent, Thorn Notley
gent, Capt Luke Gardiner, Benjamin Bailey gent, Robert Cole, Bar-
tholomew Phillipps, Jn . Bullock W Watts, James Edmonds, Richard
Vpgate, Simon Rider, Jn'- Tenison, Rich 11 - llbster, Edward Connory,
J no" Shankes, Jn"- Blackiston,
Lkas.kiioi.dkks: Robte Cowper Capt Peter Lefebur, Henry Shadock,
Rich'- Saunderson Jn" Hoskins, Thomas Catline.
Rksiants: Rich d Marsh, Joseph ffowler Roger Dwiggin Thom Casev,
Jn Saunders, Henry Porter, fl'rancis Mondcford \Y '." Simpson W"
George.- George B es VV-" West, W Clieshire, Jn" Paler, Robto
fl'arrer George Keith, Joshua Lee James Green, Thorn oakely, Jn?
Turner, Maunce .Miles, Jn" Dash W'" fl'elatead Jn'-' Chauntry :
Jurv Rich d ll'oster ) Jn" Blackiston ]
J n" Tenison Jn" Stanley
Edward Connory ' . Kieh d Saunderson ( ,
.. . r Sworne ,.,.,, , . s \sorne
Robte Cowper Jn" Bullock
Tiiom Catiline Thorn oakely
W? Watts J Jn': Paler ' J
36 Old Maryland Manors.
Bayliff Jn Shankes & Sworne.
Prksentm": Wee p'sent that Barthollomew Phillips his land wa9 not
layd out according to order of Court formerly made wherefore he is
lined one hundred pounds of tobacco & caske to the Lord.
"We p r sent John Tenison for suffering his horses to destroy John
Blakiston's Corne field.
We p r sent that Jn Stanly and Henry Neale killed three marked
hogs vpon the Lords Mano* w"! 1 Capt Gardiner received w c : hogs were
not of Capt Gardiner's proper marke which is transferred to the next
Provinciall Court, there to be determined according to the Law of the
Province.
We p r sent that Edward Connery killed or caused to be killed five
wild hogs vpon the Lords Mano* this was done by the Lords order and
License
We p r sent that the Lord of the Manno' hath not provided a paire of
stocks, pillory, and Ducking Stoole Ordered that these Jnstrum ts of
Justice be provided by the next Court by a generall contribution
throughout the Mano*
We p r sent That Edward Convery's land is not bounded in
We p r sent That Thomas Rives hath fallen five or sixe timber trees
vpon Eichard fibsters land within this Mano* referred till view may be
had of Rives his Lease
We p r sent That Robert Cowper's land is not bounded according to a
former order for which he is fined 100 1 tobco.
We p r sent That Jn'l Blackiston hunted Jn? Tenisons horses out of
the s d Blackistons corne field fence which fence is proved to be insuffi-
cient by the oathes of Jn Hoskins and Daniell White
We p r sent Richard fibster to be Constable for this Mano T for the
yeare ensuing who is sworne accordingly.
We p r sent that Jn Bullocks land is not bounded.
We p r sent M r Thomas Notly, M r Justinian Gerard & Capt Luke
Gardiner, ffreeholders of this Mano r : for not a appearing' to do their
suit at the Lords Court wherefore they are amerced each man 60 1 of
tobacco to the lord
Jt is ordered That every mans land w th in this Manno r whose bounds
are vncertein be layd out before the next Co r ' in p r sence of the greatest
part of this Jury according to their soverall Grants vnder penalty of
100 1 tobcO for every one that shall make default.
Affeir Thomas Catline ->
Willm Watts } Sworne -
S* Clements | gs A Court Leet & Court Baron of Thomas Gerard
Mano r J Esq' there held on Monday the 28 th of October 1072
by James Gaylard gent Steward there,
Old Maryland Manors. 37
ESSONIES
FFREKHOI.DERS. Justinian Gerard gent Gerard Sly gent Thomas Notley
gent Boiijamine Sally gent Capt Luke Gardiner Robt" Cole Bartholo-
mew Philips Jn" Bullock. W Watts James Edmunds Richard Vpgate
Simon Rider John Ten nison Richard fibster Edward Connory Jn" Shankes
Jn Blackiston Thomas Jourdaine.
Leaseholders Capt Peter Lefebur Henry Shaddock Richard Saunderson
Jn" Hoskins Thomas Catline
Resiants Joseph flbwler Roger Dwiggin Henry Porter W Simpson
"William Georges W"' West W Cheshire Jn" Paler Joshua Lee Maurice
Wiles Jn" Dash W m ffelstead Richard Chillman Robte Samson Henry
Awsbury Jn" Hammilton W Wilkinson Abraham Combos Willm
Harrison J n Rosewell Vincent Mansfeild Edward Williams Marma-
duke Simson Nicholas Smith Humphry Willey James Traske Derby
Dollovan Jn Vpgate Thomas Rives Michaell Williams Jn* Sprigg
Charles Rookes fl'rancis Knott Richard Hart Willm Polfe Thomas
Attaway James Green Jn" Ball Thomas Liddiard Edward Bradbourne
Jn" Suttle Jn Lee Jn Barefoot ffrancis Wood.
Jury W' m Watts Jn Bullock
Jn" Ten nison Thorn oakly
Jn Rosewell J. Sworne. Thorn Jorden Sworne.
Jn" Stanly Jn" Hoskins
Richard Saunderson I Jn" Paler
fl'rancis Knott. ^ Vincent Mansfeild
Edward Bradbourne complaineth agt Jn" Tennison that lie unjustly
deteineth from him 2<M> tobco to the contrary whereof the s d Ter.nison
having in this Coart taken his oath the s Bradbourne is nonsuited.
'We p'sent Jn" Dash for keeping hoggs <k cattle upon this Manno'
for wh ch he is fined 1000 1 tobco.
We p sent Henry Poulter for keeping of hoggs to the annoyance of
the lord of the Mano r . Ordered that ho remove them within 12 days
under paine of 4(H( tobco & caske.
We p r seiit the s Henry Poulter for keeping a .Mare & foale upon this
Mano r to the annoyance of Jn" Stanly ordered that he remove the -' 1
mare & foale w l in 12 daies vnder paine of 1< h l of tobco & caske
We p'svnt Joshua Lee for injuring Jn" Hoskins hi> hoggs by setting
his doggs on them & tearing their eares & other hurts for which he is
lined KM) 1 of tobco iV caske
We p'sent Humphry Willy for keeping a tipling house & selling his
drink without u License at unlawful] rates fur w' ' he is lined according
to act of assembly in that case made & provided
38 Old Maryland Manors.
We p r sent Derby Dollovan for committing an Affray and Shedding
blood in the house of the s d Humphry "Willy Ordered that the s d
Dolovan give suretys for the peace.
We p'sent W Simpson for bringing hoggs into this Mano r for
which he is fined 3 1 of tobeO And ordered that he remove them in 10
days vnder paine of 300 1 of tobco & caske
We p r sent Kobte Samson & Henry Awsbury for selling drinke at
unlawfull rates for which they are each of them fined according to act
of Assembly.
We p r sent [Simon Rider for keeping an under tenant contrary to the
teno r of his Deed referred till view may be had of the s d Deed.
We p'sent that Raphaell Haywood hath aliened his ffreehold to Simon
Rider upon w oh alienacon there is a reliefe due to the lord
We p'sent an alienacOn from James Edmonds to Thomas Oakely
upon w ch there is a Reliefe due to the lord and Oakely hath sworne
fealty.
We p r sent that upon the death of M r Robte Sly there is a Releife
due to the lord & that. M r Gerard Sly is his next heire who hath sworne
fealty accordingly
We p r sent an alienacon from Thomas Catline to Anne Vpgate
We p r sent that upon the death of Richard Vpgate there is a Releife
due to the lord & [Anne] Vpgate his relict is next heire
We p'sent M r Hehemiah Blackiston tenant to the land formerly in
possession of Robert Cowper M r Blackiston hath sworne fealty accord-
ingly
We p r sent an alienacon from W m Barton to Benjamine Sally gent
upon w ch there is a Releife due to the lord & M r Sally hath sworne
fealty to the lord.
We p r sent an alienacon from Richard ffoster of p of his ffreehold to
Jn Blackiston upon which there is a Releife due to the lord
We p r sent a Stray horse taken upon this Mano' and delivered to the
lord
We p r sent Robte Cole for not making his appearance at this Court
for which he is amerced 10 1 of tobco affeired to 6 1 of tobco.
We p r sent Edward nder to be Constable for this yeare ensuing
Sworne accordingly.
Akfeiro rs W m Watts 1 Sworne
Ja- Bullock /
VIII
NORMAN CONSTABLES
A M E R I C A
(Enter Dogberry, Verges, and Sexton, in gowns; and the Watch, with Conrade and
Korachio).
Doy. Is our whole dissembly appeared ?
Verg. 0, a stool and a cushion for the sexton
Sex. But which are the offenders that are to be examined? Let them come before
master constable.
Doy. Yea, marry, let them come before me. ... I am a wise fellow ; and, which is
more, an officer; and, which is more, a householder; and, which is more, as pretty a
piece of flesh as any in Messina ; and one that knows the law, go to ; and a rich fellow
enough, go to; and a fellow that hath had losses; and one that hath two gowns, and
everything handsome about him. SJiakespeare.
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
I N
Historical and Political Science
HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor
History is j.;i>l Politics and Politics present History. Freenuin
VIII
NORMAN CONSTABLES
I N
A M E RICA
Read before the New England Historic, Genealogical Society. February I, I8S2
By HERBERT B. ADAMS, PH. D.
H A LT I M I) K E
l'uiii.isnKD by tii k Johns Hoi-kins I'nivumiv
J INK, 1883.
JOHN MURPHY A CO., PRINTERS,
BALTIMORE.
CONSTABLES.
[Reprinted from the N. E. Historical and Genealogical Reoister for April, 1882 J
CONSTABLES.-
By Herbert B. Adams.
IX the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society there is ;i
small black letter volume, bearing the imprint of London, LG14,
and entitled "The Dvties of Constables, Borsholders, Tythingmen,
and such other lovve and lay Ministers of the Peace by William
Lambard of Lincolnes Inne, Gent." By the same author and in the
same library there is another work imprinted in London, 159b', and
entitled "A Perambulation of Kent: Conteining the Description,
Ilystories, and Customer of that Shyre," written originally in the
year 1570 and first published in 1576. The latter work bears upon
the reverse of the fly-leaf the name of Adam Winthrop, and upon
the reverse of the title-page a Latin ode by Winthrop in praise of
Lambard. f Scattered through the work are many annotations and
curious scraps of writing in Winthrop's hand. This very book was
brought to America by the first governor of Massachusetts, who was
well read in the laws of England, like his father and like his schol-
arly descendant, the Hon. Robert C Winthrop, who presented the
above volume to the Historical Society, of which for many years he
has been the honored president. \ Through John Winthrop it is
* This paper was read before t lie New England Historic, Genealogical Society, Feb. 1,
1882.
t Adam Winthrop speaks of Lambard as a "student of the common I.awe Iwirrister
wise, learned ami religious, as appereth by tins booke." A few years a<*o, from a kind of in-
herited family interest in Lambard, the Hon. Robert ('. Winthrop, when visiting Seven
Oaks, County Kent, noted the existence of a monument to " the old perambulator of Kent,
and 'the father of County Historians.' " (Sec Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical
Society, 1S7-1-I!, 1!'7.) Liniburd died at Greenwich near the seat of that ancient feudal ma-
nor, so famous in Kuglisti colonial charters, which describe how lauds are to be held of his
Majesty, " as of his manor of Kast Greenwich in the County of Kent in tree and Common
Soccage and not in Capite nor by Ivnightes service." (See Plymouth Laws. jr>. Compare
with Records of Massachusetts, i. 4.) In the Nouvelle liiographie Utiurale there i- an ac-
count of Lambard, based upon Nieliol's Life of Lambarde and Bridgmun's fci/ai Hihiiix/ra-
phy. From this account it appears that our author was born in 1/otidon in I ">.')'>, and died,
Aug. 19, 1601. He was a justice of the peace in the county of Kent, 1579, and, by reason
of his speeial knowledge of legal antiquities, finally became Ma.-tcr of the Rolis, or kee| cr
of the archives of Knvlaml, through the favor of Queen Kli/.abeth He compiled various
learned works, some of which we hive found in Baltimore: a eolleetion of Saxon law.* en-
titled Archaionomi;\ sivc de priseis Anglorum legibus libri (Peabndy I.ibr.); Kin naivha,
or Duties of Justices of the Peace (Mass. Hist. Soc.) ; Paiuh eta Botulinum ; Atcheion (or
High (Joints of Justice in Kngland, to lie found in the Mil. Kpiscopal Lihr.) ; Peramhula-
tion of Kent. The latter work i- the corner stone of the local history of I'.ngland. Lam-
hard was collecting materials tor the upbuilding of this work when he heard that Camden
was engaged upon the same great task. Li in bard discontinued hi- own ic*carelus, liui
they weie afterward il"-'i'M published as a Dietionariuiu Anglne Topi graphieuin ct Ili-to-
riciini, which is a truly monumental treatise, although incomplete. Lambard deceives
' great reverence, for he was the founder of the modern science of local hi-ion which has
grown to such grand proportions in Knglish Town and County Histories, and in Winsor's
Memorial History ol Boston. Local history is the best Inundation tor national historv.
Mr. Kdward A. Freeman, in mi address to the Somerset-hire Areha-ologieal and Natural
History Society (Proceedings, ISS'i, vol. xxvi.), -aid "the proper way of studying loeal
history " was "a- a eontrilmtion in general history."
I The lion. Robert ('. Winthrop, in the lir-t Voluuii I the 1 -. of Jolui
Winthrop, II-:*, dc-cribes this v.iluaHe work with parti ular ret'ert nc. to tin niami
notes by his am estor. A copy of this book was broicrht ovi r to thi country by one
not improbable that the influence of William Lambard crept into the
early local legislation of Massachusetts. At all events, this latter
treatise which describes the freest of English Counties or the customs
of Kent, whence the freehold land tenure of almost every English
colony in America was derived, and the former essay on Constables,
which describes the parish institutions of the mother country at the
time the Puritans came over, are both historical monuments deserv-
ing not only watchful guardianship, but scientific attention.
The writings of William Lambard represent the most advanced
state of English knowledge in the sixteenth century concerning the
origin of municipal institutions. The work contains many errors
and numerous incorrect etymologies, but these are faults of the time
rather than of the man. Practically Lambard was the transmitter
if not one of the fathers of English Institutional History. After
him, in the reign of James I., came Lords Bacon and Coke and the
now forgotten Dr. Cowell, commenting on the laws and Institutes
of England, as handed down by Granville, Bracton, Britton, Fleta,
Fortescue, Littleton and others. In the reign of Charles II. ap-
peared Sir Matthew Hale, with the first regular History of the Com-
mon Law. For a century after Hale there was no really monu-
mental treatise on English institutions, with the exception perhaps
of Spelman's works and Dr. Wood's Institutes, until the year of the
American Stamp Act (1765) when Blackstone's Commentaries were
first published. Like all his predecessors, Blackstone was practi-
cally and necessarily a compiler. Whatever he had to say regard-
ing the municipal institutions of England, concerning Constables,
Tithingmen and Justices of the Peace, he extracted from older wri-
ters like Dr. Burns and William Lambard. Thus our monumental
author of the sixteenth century has been built into the very founda-
tions of English Institutional History. Since Blackstone there
has been reared upon the basis of his work and that of his pre-
decessors, a History of English Law by Reeves, the publication
of whose treatise began the year American independence was
acknowledged by Great Britain (1783). During the present cen-
tury, the Institutional History of England has been greatly advanced
by the writings of Palgrave, Kemble, Thorpe, Sir Henry Maine,
Stubbs and Freeman, all of whom owe much of their inspiration to
the historical science of Germany. From impulses proceeding from
German scholars and from the new school of English historians, have
sprung the recent American studies in historical jurisprudence, the
essays in Anglo-Saxon Law by Henry Adams, Heniy Cabot Lodge,
Ernest Young and J. Laurence Laughlin, the Placita Anglo-Nor-
mannica, by Melville M. Bigelow, and the recent lectures by O. W.
Holmes, Jr., on The Common Law.
early settlers of Patuxet (Plymouth), who appears to have removed to Rhode Island. This
copy, through the courtesy of Mr. Winsor, was borrowed Ijv the writer of this paper from
tliu Library of Harvard College, and led to the discovery in Baltimore bv Mr. Albert S.
Cook of a third copy of the self-same edition (1596), which through the generosity of Mr.
Cook is uow in our possession.
Along this line of march, over old roads into new fields, American
Institutional History will one day advance. It is the purpose of a
little company of graduate students at the Johns Hopkins University
to reconnoitre the ground.* They are now studying upon cooper-
ative and. to some extent, upon representative principles, the local
institutions of their respective states or sections of country. A few
students represent Maryland ; others Virginia, the Carolinas, Ken-
tucky, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.
One man has entered the field of Ohio ; others, that of Michigan
and the Northwest, where English institutions were planted upon
French soil. A student from Canada will investigate the Anglo-
French institutions of his Province. The writer of this monograph
is studying the origin of the town institutions of New England, and
presents the following research upon Constables as a contribution to
the main subject.
The importance of the Petty Constable as a connecting link be-
tween New England Towns and Old English Parishes has never yet
been recognized. To trace the origin and development of the con-
stabulary office and to show its exact process of transition from the
old country to the new is the object of this paper. Besides Lambard
and the old time authorities, we have utilized the resources of mod-
ern historical science, the Statutes of the Realm and of the English
Colonies, together with certain hitherto unpublished manuscripts
brought over to New England by Jonas Humphrey, who settled in
the parish-town of Dorchester, Massachusetts. According to the
traditions of his family, he was a constable in Wendover, County
Bucks, in England. An official warrant and a list of constabulary
duties, preserved by this faithful officer, are the best possible sources
of information as to the character of the constable's office at the time
of the Puritan migration.
We are indebted for copies of the above-mentioned documents to
the eminent antiquary of Dorchester, who lately prepared for pub-
lication the Suffolk Deeds (Boston, 1880), Mr. William B. Trask,
a descendant of Capt. William Trask, one of the old planters of
Salem. While utilizing in the body of this monograph many facts
derived from the Humphrey manuscripts, we shall append the same
in full, as they are likely to prove an interesting contribution to the
history of our local institutions. Mr. Trask's letter, giving a brii f
account of Jonas Humphrey and of the manuscripts themselves,
will constitute the best preface to their separate perusal. Tin >e
documents will clearly show that the duties of constable were not
only more honorable, but also far better understood in Humphrey's
day than in the time of Blackstone.
The latter, in his very inadequate account of constables, says :
* Richard Frothinghiun, in his work on tho Rise of the Republic of the United States,
20, say-, " I have not met with a volume, or even an csav, mi ihe growth of the munici-
pal system in the United State-."
" Considering what manner of men are for the most part put into these
offices, it is perhaps very well that they are generally kept in igno-
rance" of the extent of their powers.* This observation, which
has been quoted over and over again, as though it were an infallible
precept of the Common Law, and which even finds honorable men-
tion in the last edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, in the article
on "Constables," may perhaps account in some measure for the gene-
ral disrepute and comparative obscurity into which this ancient office,
once dignified and well known, has now fallen. Time was when
the best men of an English parish held in rotation the office of Pa-
rish Constable. No one was permitted to decline the responsibility
of village headship, except women, who were allowed to furnish
substitutes. In an old book entitled w English Liberties," published
in London, 1719, it is said, "The Petty Constable is chosen by the
people of the Parish. . . . The Petty Constables ought to be hon-
est and able Men both in Body and Estate, and not of the meaner
Sort ; and therefore it hath been held that they ought not to be cho-
sen by the House or Custom, if not fit to execute the Office. But
'tis now ruled, That a Custom for the Inhabitants to serve by Turns
is good ; so if it happen on a Woman she must provide one to serve
the Office."f
In attempting to reconstruct the historical idea of the office of con-
stable, we cannot rely with any degree of confidence on Blackstone,
for the constabulary office had evidently begun to degenerate even
in his day ; and, as we have already implied, the learned judge him-
self, in his enumeration of constabulary duties, merely quoted from
older writers like Lambard, who were better informed. Neither can
we rely implicitly upon Lambard or Lord Coke, for both of these
early authorities fail to explain even the origin of the constable's
name. Coke in his Institutes, following Lambard, says, "Consta-
ble or cunstable is compounded of the Saxon words cuninge per con-
tractionem kinge, and stable, id est columen, quasi columen regis,
anciently written cuningstable."J In other words, Lord Coke seri-
ously maintains that the Constable, etymologically considered, is the
support or mainstay of the King. Such an unwarrantable deriva-
tion of the name constable represents the fantastic, unscientific phi-
lology of the sixteenth century, inherited from the mediaeval monks,
who explained the origin of words with even more originality than
did Home Tooke or Noah Webster.
As a matter of fact, the term constable was introduced into Eng-
land through the Norman-French Connetable, old French Conesta-
ble or Cunestable. The word is derived from the Low Latin Con-
* Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (Judge Cooley's eel.), i. 3o5.
t English Liberties or the Free-born Subject's Inheritance, containing Magna Charta,
Charta tie Foresta, &c Lastly, of Justices of the Peace, Coronors', Constables, Church-
wardens, Overseers of the Poor, Surveyors of the Highways, &c. Compiled first by Henry
Care. .. In the Savoy, 1719. ^
X Coke, Institutes, Part iv. cap. xvii.
stabulus (comes stabuli, or count of the stable). It is a word
common to all the Romance languages, although in somewhat vary-
ing forms. Jt appears in the Provencal, in Italian, in Spanish and
in Portuguese. Both the Latin and the French forms were early
imported into England. In Magna Carta we have Constabularius.
In the Rolls of Parliament frequently occurs the form Conestable.
The institution itself, as understood by the Normans and the peo-
ples of Southern Europe, was akin to the Byzantine comes stabuli
and the classic Master-of-Horse. Undoubtedly the office had its
origin in menial service in. connection with the royal stable. Pri-
marily a constable was a hostler. The constabulary office belongs
to a nexus of court institutions, like those of chamberlain, cup-
bearer and steward, which arc of immemorial antiquity and common
to both Aryan and Shemitic monarchies.
We shall discuss the whole subject of the institutions of the Royal
Household in a special paper on the Origin of the Modern Ministe-
rial System, but, in this connection, would merely remark that the
name constable suggests a certain Byzantine influence surviving in
the office itself, as the name of Caesar survives in the Russian Czar,*
and the German Kaiser, or as the idea of the classic Imperator sur-
vives in modern emperors. Undoubtedly at a very early date Teutonic
kings and dukes had their ministerial officers, their hostlers of high
degree. The Franks had their Marschalk (from Mar, a horse, and
Schalk, a knave or servant), an institution surviving in France to this
day, in two forms, (1) Marechal de France, (2) Marechal fer-
rant, or slioer of horses. The Lombard kings and dukes had their
Marpahis. The Saxons had their Ilorsethegn or Staller. Of neces-
sity such offices would exist in the equine establishment of every
Teutonic chieftain. It is highly probable that an old Germanic in-
stitution was baptized by a Latin name, Constabulus, just as a Ger-
man military leader becomes a dux or duke. Classic titles, Byzan-
tine trappings and court usages were introduced into the royal house-
holds of almost every Teutonic king or count; but while thus clothed
upon with a Latin name and oriental dignity, mediaeval consta-
bles owe their historic origin to menial service. In the South Ger-
man town of Heidelberg there stands in a good state of preserva-
tion an ancient feudal stable, built of old red sand-stone, and known
as the JMarstall. It is now used as a riding-school for University
students ; but it is a good surviving type of the original horse-stalls
whence the Marshals of Saxony and of Fiance, the Fail Marshals
and Lord High Constables of England, rode forth to glory and
honor.
* Tlic notion Mint the won! Tzar was a corruption of ('a>sar. wis formerly unquestioned,
but Creasy, in liis Platform of International Law, Vila, ami in his History of tin" Ottoman
Turks, i. 311, says it is an Oriental, |Hssil)ly a Tartar word, meaning sovereign ruler.
Hi- thinks the Russians acquired it through the Sclavonic translation of the Uihle. Hut Mr.
Kdward A. Fireman, in his recent lectures Iwforc the students of the Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity, on the Historical Geography of South-Kustern Kurope, came to the rescue of the
old etymology, saying that he had been assured by a Slavonic friend of undoubted author-
ity, that the old derivation is the correct one.
8
The office of the Lord High Constable ( Constabularius totius
Anglice) came into prominence as an hereditary office in the person
of Miles of Gloucester in the reign of Stephen (1135-1154), al-
though probably long before this constables had existed in every
royal town and castle, in every earldom and upon every great mano-
rial estate. Of course the office diminished in dignity the nearer it
approached the common people. Among the subject Saxons existed
a lowly office known by various names, as Tithingman, Borhs-
Ealdor, Elder of the Pledge, Head-Borough, or Borough-Reeve,
upon whom the shadow of the Norman name of constable was soon
to fall, as the umbra nominis Homani had fallen upon many old
Teutonic institutions. We cannot dwell at length in this connec-
tion upon the office of the Lord High Constable; suffice it to say,
he was the representative of the King in all matters pertaining to
armies and castles. He provided for all the King's horses and all
the King's men. He mustered the royal forces and saw to it that
every vassal sent his proper quota of armed men and horse. If an
expedition was to be undertaken into foreign parts, the Lord High
Constable provided means of transportation and served as kind of
Inspector-General. He, in conjunction with the Earl Marshal, took
cognizance of all offences committed during the foreign campaign,
and decided all questions relating to the disposition of prisoners and
booty. From the exercise of such functions arose Courts Martial
and Martial Law.
According to Lambard and Blackstone the lower constabulary
office was drawn from that of the Lord High Constable, " as it were
a very finger from that hand." Blackstone differentiates the lower
office into the High Constable of the Hundred and the Petty Con-
stable of the town or parish. On the authority of Spelman, he says
Petty Constables were " first instituted about the reign of Edward
III.* We have looked through the statutes belonging to this reign
and fail to find any sufficient ground for the above statement. It is at
best rather a loose way of describing the origin of an institution to
refer it to " about the reign " of a King who reigned for fifty years
(1327-77). As to the origin of High Constables, Blackstone is more
precise. He ascribes this institution to the Statute of Winchester,
13 Edward I. (1285), when it was enacted that M in every hundred
and franchise two constables shall be chosen to make the view of
armour." f Although Blackstone and all the host who follow him
are wrong on this point also, for the Constable of the Hundred is
much older than the Statute of Winchester, yet in this connection it
is interesting to observe that the latter office appears to be intimate-
ly related to the militia system of which the Lord High Constable
was the administrative head. By the Statute of Winchester, every
man in England was to " have in his house harness for to keep the
* Blackstone, 855. Compare Lambard.
t Stubbs, Select Charters, 474.
peace." All men from fifteen to sixty years of age were to possess
anus and armor according to their estate, the highest requirements
being "an hauherke, an lielme of iron, a sword, a knife, and a
horse;'' and the lowest, simply a how and arrows. The Constables
were to make a r ' view of tumour" twice a year, and report all de-
linquents to some justice of the peace, who in turn reported them to
the King in Parliament. This mode of procedure has its exact
counterpart in the presentment of delinquents in arms and armor
before the Plymouth and Massachusetts General Courts.
Other curious parallels between constables of old England in the
thirteenth and of New England in the seventeenth centuries are the
requirements in the Statute of Winchester that the above local offi-
cers shall report defaults in the highways, in watch and ward, and in
bringing matters to justice ; but the following is especially note-
worthy : Constables "shall present all such as do lodge strangers in
uplandish towns for whom they will not answer." The records of
Plymouth and Massachusetts colonics arc full of such enactments ;
for example in Massachusetts it was ordered "that the cunstables
should inform of new comers, if any be admitted without license."
It had been enjoined by the General Court that "no towne or person
shall receive any stranger" without the allowance of magistrates.* It
was ordained bv the town of Newbury, Mass., that no one should
be admitted as an inhabitant without the consent and approbation of
the body of freemen resilient in that town.f It has been thought
that such restrictions upon new comers were marks of Puritan intol-
erance. They were simply revivals of old English law. J The Stat-
ute of Winchester is said by Canon Stubbs to be "a monument of
the persistence of primitive institutions working their way through
the substratum of feudalism and gaining strength in the process. "
For earlier outcroppings of the institutions of the Constable of the
Hundred, and the Constable of the town or parish, we have only to
turn back to the Assize of Arms,|| 36 Henry III. (1252), whereby
in every township one or two constables, according to the number of
inhabitants, and in every hundred one chief constable {capital is
conxUtbularius) were to be appointed. At the summons of the lat-
ter all men sworn to arms wire to muster from their respective hun-
Mass. Col. Roc. i. 19(1,241.
t Collin, History of Newbury, '2-',.
I Besides the evidence on this point in the Statute of Winchester, see also the Writ of
1233 for the conservation of the peace (Tie forma pads consorvamla) : Item uulliis bospi-
tctur aliqueui extraneum ulna imam noeteiii nisi possit invenive plegins de tidelitate ct quod
nullum damnum eveniet per cum, ct res[>ondeat pro eo sieut pro uuo do f.iniilia sua.
Stubbs, Select Charters 3<>2.
Compart* with the aliovc the following extract from the MS. Town Records of Plymouth,
Oct. 29, 1(1(58 : "Ordered !>y the Town, that the Selectmen shall henceforth have power to
require any that shall receive any strangers, so as to entertain them in t ^ > their houses, to
give security unto them to save the Town harmless from any damage that may accrue unto
them hy their entertainment of such as aforesaid." It was likewise agreed that John
Even-on lie forthwith warned to depart the town with all convenient speed !
{ Stubbs, Select Charters, 47".
|| Stubbs, Select Charters, 372.
2
10
drcds and follow his behests in whatever related to the preservation
of the King's peace. Whoever were found under arms and not
deputed for the above purpose were to be arrested. If they refused
to allow themselves to be arrested, then the constables of the hundreds
and of the towns were to levy the Hue and Cry upon the offenders
and pursue them from town to town (de villa in villain) until they
were finally taken. We are here very evidently on the historic track
of ancient Saxon customs. We are at once reminded of a law dat-
ing back as far as the time of King Edgar (957-975) concerning
the pursuit of a thief: "If there be present need, let it be made
known to the hundred-man, and let him [make it known] to the
tithing-men ; and let all go forth to where God may direct them to
go : let them do justice on the thief, as it was formerly the enact-
ment of Edmund. We have also ordained : if the hundred pursue
a track into another hundred, that notice be given to the hundred-
man, and that he then go with them."* There appears to be some
connection between the Hundredman of the days of King Edgar and
King Edmund (941-946) and the Constable of the Hundred in the
day 8 of Henry III. There surely is some relation between the
Saxon Tithingman above mentioned and the Norman Petty Consta-
ble. Although there is a gap of three hundred years, yet the bridge
between these Saxon and Norman institutions is natural and un-
broken .
When the Normans made the conquest of Saxon England they
found the country self-governed. The whole land was minutely
subdivided into so-called Hundreds, or Wapentakes, and Tithings.
The origin of these local divisions is of very great antiquity. They
root in the military institutions of the ancient Teutons, whereby kin-
dred warriors were mustered by tens and hundreds. The Hundred
was the institutional multiple of the Tithing. But in many cases
the Hundred was the long Hundred of six score, and it appears that
the Tithing was sometimes known as Dozeine (Dizaine-10), for ex-
ample in the Year Books of Edward III. It seems probable that
the Hundred may have frequently contained twelve Tithings, and that
there was some connection between these twelve local units and the
judicial representation of the Hundred by twelve men, although in
the Shiremoot and Hundredmoot the Tithing, Town, or Parish was
represented directly by its Reeve, or Constable, and four best men.
Undoubtedly both the Tithing and the Hundred were originally per-
sonal in their composition. Ten or more warriors made a Tithing,
and ten or more Tithings constituted the Hundred, of which possi-
bly a type survives in the militia company of one hundred men, for
there is no break between the military institutions of Medvheal and
Modern England. When a Teutonic Host, or army, settled down
by kith and kin in local precincts bearing the names of families, then
* Thorpe, Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, i. 259, 261.
11
Tithings and Hundreds gradually became territorial in character,
varying in size according to the amount of land occupied. In the
more thickly settled parts of England Tithings and Hundreds are
much .smaller than in the more sparsely settled regions. Naturally
with increasing population the numerical divisions would not re-
main constant. There are cases known where a Tithing contained
as many as eighty men. The point was that there must be at least
ten heads of families in order to constitute a Tithing, Town, or
Parish.
Doubtless for a long period the Saxon Tithings and Hundreds
sent their full quota to the muster of the Host, but gradually public
demands diminished until finally, in the reign of Edward III., only
one man-at-arms, equipped and furnished for sixty days, was re-
quired from each parish, although, if occasion demanded, the quota
was increased. The requirement was always made of the Reeve
and four best men, as representative of the town or parish. It is
interesting to note that, down to modern times, English parishes
kept each their suit of "town armour," usually in the parish church,
for which reason the arms were sometimes called " church armour,'
or "church harness." in the parish records of Kingston-on-Thames,
is an item of thirteen shillings, four pence, paid in 1603 "To James
Allison and four others, for carrying the armour at the coronation."
Here is perhaps the idea of military representation of the town by
Iteevc and Four. In the parish records of Fulham, Middlesex,
there is the following inventory of parish armor : " Anno 1583. Note
of the armour for the parish of Fulham, viz. Fulham side only.
First, a corslet, with a pyke, sworde, and daiger, furnished in all
points, a gyrdle only excepted. Item, two hargobushes [arque-
buses, German hahenbuechse , or gun with a hook, or forked restj,
with flaskes ami touch boxes to the same ; two morrvons [helmets
without visors] ; two swords, and two daigers, and two hanglesses
unto two swords : which are all for Fulhamc side only. All which
arinore are, and do remayne, in the possession and appointment ot
John l'ulton or Xorthend, being constable of Fulham-syde the yerc
above wryttcn."
The local institutions of England developed from military germs
implanted in the village community system of immemorial antiquity.
The above example ot' town armor in the keeping of the constable
is onlv a historical survival, s u direst in <j- the original martial charae-
ter of the entire community. We must regard the local settlement
of our Saxon forefathers as tin; permanent encampment of a Teu-
tonic Host, by Hundreds and Tithings, or by companies and squads,
under the command of Hundredmen and Tithingmen, who mustered
their respective quotas from local precincts, and who, in the midst
of agrarian pursuits, served as watchful sentinels, ever ready to
arouse a peaceful population to arms. With the Saxons the ob-
ject of wars and forays was to secure a better footing lor peace.
12
When the war or expedition was over, it remained the duty of the
Hundrcdmen and Tithingmen, as local watchmen and police magis-
trates, to keep the peace. Hence arose the civil functions of officers
once purely military. The Saxon system of Watch and Ward,
which is the germ of our modern police system, the Courts of the
Tithing and of the Hundred, which are germs of the town meetings
and General Courts of New England, these institutions, together
with Petty Constables and Justices of the Peace, were all the out-
growths of military beginnings. The ancient Tithingman became
the Parish Constable, the keeper of the village peace and of the town
armor, whose chief duty, as late as the time of the Tudors, was " to
prepare the muster of his district, which the constable of the shire
would embody in the array of the county, to be in tui-n marshalled,
in the army of the realm by the high constable of England."* Pal-
grave says the mailed leader of the Hundred became a rustic peace
officer. f But constables and their developed type, the modern
policemen, are more interesting historically than justices of the
peace, for the former represent the actual survival of a more or less
military power in the midst of civil society. Constables may be
plain men in civic garb, but let these quiet sentinels of slumbering
towns and villages but give the alarm of approaching danger. The
whole community springs at once to arms. The entire town, if
necessary, becomes a constable's watch. The alarm will quickly
spread from hamlet to hamlet, and from shire to shire, until the
whole people becomes again an armed host, a Landsturm sweeping
peril from its borders. The American Revolution sprang from
town meetings in the North and parish meetings in the South, both
warned by constables. The great armies levied by both sections of
country during our late civil war, were but the uprising of the old
militia spirit still lurking in our local institutions. And even the
military system of Germany, with its power to draft the entire male
population, must be regarded only as a more perfect development
of primitive Teutonic institutions of a martial character.
The Normans reconstructed England upon the basis of existing
local institutions. The Hundred and the Tithing: were both retain-
ed, the latter, however, under the name of innumerable Townships
and Parishes into which ancient Tithings had grown. The- fact that
Tithings are not distinctly mentioned under that name in the Domes-
day Book is not of such importance as GneistJ and other writers
have alleged, for an original Tithing of inhabitants very natu-
rally adopted some local name derived either from a leading family
* The Parish in History, 29. By a hereditary High Churchman. London, 1871.
t 1'algrave, English Commonwealth, i. 201.
t Oneist, Verwaltungsrecht, i. 51, 59. But compare Palgrave, English Commonwealth
ii. exxi., where he shows that territorial Tithings existed in the reign of Henry III. (1216-
72), and, indeed, as early as the reign of Athelstan (925-941). In the Rolls of the Itinerary
of Devonshire, 23 Henry III., occur such entries as " Thedinga de Herticumbe," spoken
of as synonymous with the " Villa de Herticumbe."
13
or from geographical surroundings. But the old name of Tithing
lingered on, in connection with local names, in very many English
counties, in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, and " in all coun-
ties south of the Thames (except Kent and Cornwall) where they
answer to the townships of other counties."* Tithings still exist in
the south-west of England, in Somersetshire and Wiltshire. Mr.
Edward A. Freeman, the English historian, during his recent visit
to Baltimore, informed us that he lived in the Tithing of Burcott,
Wells, County Somerset, which Tithing used to tax itself for local
purposes before the recent Poor Law and Highway Act.
There can be no doubt as to the substantial identity of the insti-
tutions of Saxon Tithingman and Norman Petty Constable. In
the Polls of Parliament belonging to the rime of Henry VI. ( 1 422
61), these officers are spoken of synonymous, " Chescnn Conestable,
Tithingman, ou chief Plegge, de ehescun Yille on Hamell.'' The
coexistence of the old and new names may be thus explained. The
head-men of the more important Tithings became known as Pettv
Constables, whereas in the villa and hamlets of less importance,
although in the same neighborhood, the old Saxon Tithingmen re-
mained. In some places they were called Chief Pledges, Elders of
the Pledge or Borhs-Ealdors (corrupted in Lambard's time into
Bondholders), Head-Boroughs, Borough-Peeves, Third-Boroughs
and the like. 'In some shires," says Lambard, '' where enerie
Third Borow hath a Constable, there the officers of the other two
be called Third-borowes."f In a special treatise on the duties of
the Justice of the Peace, Lambard says: "To be short, euerv Con-
stable, petie Constable, Tithingman and Borowhead, be Conserva-
tors of the Peace by their offices within the limits of their Hundreds,
Towns, Tithings and Boroughs. And by the same reason our Bors-
holders in Kent and their Third horow in Warwickshire be Conser-
vators also within their Boroughs. For Borowhead. Borsholder,
Tythingnian be three seuerall names of one selfesame oilier, and doe
signitie, the ehiefe man of the free pledges within the Borow or
Tything."| Free Pledge or Frank Pledge is only a corruption of
the Saxon Frith-Borh or Pence-Pledge. It was the personal Tith-
ing, the Tenmannetale of Yorkshire, or ten men who were bound
together, unde' 1 the authority of the Tithingman, to keep the peace.
The Saxon Tithingman and the Norman Petty Constable were
both elective officers. They were the Selectmen of their neighbor-
hoods. The Betty Constable, so called to distinguish him from the
High Constable of the Hundred, continued to be elected by his Tith-
ing, \ ill, or Parish, down to recent times. lie was elected in one
of two ways, either in the Vestry-Meeting of the Parish or in the
Court Led (German LwAc) or popular Court of the Manor. The
Tithingman, Gerefa, lfeeve, or Constable, appears to have acted as
* Stuhhs, Constitutional History of England, i. 80.
r I.ainbanl, Duties of Constables, S.
I Laiiibanl, Kiietiaiclia, It.
14
the a^ent of the Lord of the Manor, or of the Town, in regulating
the Tithing and keeping the Peace-Pledge of the little community,
but " he seems," says Palgrave, " to have been usually nominated
or elected by the tenantry, who chose him by the presentment of
the Leet Jury ; at least, such was the general custom after the Con-
quest, a custom which was recognized as a part of the traditionary
Common Law, and to which we may assign the same antiquity as
to the other portions of the system."* Sir Thomas Smith, an old
English writer contemporary with the fathers of New England, says,
" Constables are commonly made and sworn at the Leets, chosen
thereto by the homage : and they keep that office [though usually
an annual one in England] sometimes two, three, or four years,
more or less, as the Parish doth agree. "f The connection between
Parish and Manorial institutions is very close and sometimes confus-
ing. The Court Leet appears to have been a kind of popular po-
lice court for the town or parish over which a Lord had jurisdiction.
The Leet was the common people sitting in judgment upon itself;
it was a judicial survival of the primitive Tun Gemot or Town
Meeting of the Saxon Tithing. The Vestry, or Parish Meeting, is
only another civic form in which this ancient local institution has
perpetuated its vitality. In some Parishes the Petty Constable was
chosen at the Vestry Meeting instead of at the Court Leet, but what-
ever the local custom in regard to the election of the constable, he
was required to warn and be present at all Parish Meetings, and,
before the time of Archbishop Laud, frequently presided over Parish
deliberations. "The Parish makes the Constable," said Selden,
" and when the Constable is made, he governs the Parish. "J There
can be no doubt but that the Petty Constable, like the ancient Sax-
on Tithingman, was once the chief man of his neighborhood.
Toulmin Smith says the Constable " formerly took precedence of the
Churchwardens in Parish affairs. He long ranked as the first man
of the Parish. "
We must regard the Parish and the Manor as institutions super-
imposed upon primitive Village Communities, Tithings, Townships,
Hamlets (or Vills) of the Saxons. Mr. Pearson is inclined to be-
lieve that " the Tithing in many parts of England was the basis of
the manor, the lord becoming the natural president of the Tithing
Court, as he bought up the hind or received the service of the free-
holders by voluntary transfer."! The Church, too, built upon ex-
isting foundations. Pagan villages like Totteridge (the ridge of
Tuisco or Tuto), Wednesbury (the borough ofWodan), Torring-
ton (the town of Thor), became Christian Parishes.! Mr. Pearson,
* Palsrave, English Commonwealth, i. 67, 81, 82, 124.
f Sir Thomas Smith, Commonwealth of England (1621), Book ii. cap. 25, quoted in Toul-
min Smith's " Parish," 123.
+ Selden, Table Talk, " People."
S Toulmin Smith, The Parish, 121.
\ Pearson, Historical Maps of England, 52.
IT " The Parish in History," 6.
15
in the preface to his Historical Mnps, says the priests adopted the
secular divisions which they found ready to their hands. lie has
shown in his maps the territorial identity of many ancient Saxon Tith-
ings with modern English Parishes and Townships. He says, "Ten
families constituted a tithing, the self-governing unit of the state,
which is now represented among us by the parish, and ten tithings
were a hundred, whose court administered justice among the little
communities themselves."* Pearson has shown that the Hundreds
of Devonshire contain on the average about ten Parishes each, a
strong argument for the historical identity of these civic units with
the original territorial Tithings in Devonshire of which Palgrave
speaks.
Most important for this line of inquiry is a principle of the Com-
mon Law which has been repeatedly enunciated in England, to the
effect that wherever there is a Constable there is a Parish or a Town-
ship, f " A separate Constable," says Touhnin Smith, "is an un-
questioned criterion of the separate recognition of a Parish. The
fact of having a Constable has always been the necessary incident of
a Parish or Vill. "J Chief Justice Hale observed on this point:
" One Parish may contain three vills : the Parish A may contain
the vills A, 1$, C; that is, when there are distinct Constables in
every one of them : but if the Constable of A doth run through
the whole, then is the whole but one vill in law." The term Vill is
the Norman equivalent of the Saxon Tun, Town, or Tithing.
Blackstone says, " Tithings, towns or vills arc of the same signifi-
cation in law. "|| The Parish often embraced several of these petty
local divisions. In the time of Edward IV. some Parishes in Corn-
wall are said to have prospered so much as to have become divided
into as many as twelve or fifteen parts, each treated as a \ ill by it-
self. Doubtless an original Tithing of inhabitants took up more
and more waste land as circumstances required, and, doubtless, witli
an increasing population, colonial hamlets sprang up, electing their
own Tithingmen, becoming independent, or remaining more or less
united under the comprehensive name of some one leading Tithing,
Town, Parish or Manor, like the Villcs or Parishes composing a
New England Town. If
It is an interesting fact, which has never yet been emphasized,
that the origin of New England towns is closely connected with
military and constabulary institutions. As the Saxon Tithings and
Hundreds began in the local settlement of armed bands, keeping
corporate watch and ward, so originated the first " Wards" of IMy-
* Pearson, Hist, of Kngland during the early Middle Aires, i- '-'"" ) -
t fineist. Self-Government in Pngland, 8t; Fischel, The Kngli>h Constitution, 323.
+ Touhnin Smith, The Parish, 16, 120.
I With Iron v. Rosearriot, 1 Modern Hep., 78, quoted liy Touhnin Smith, 120.
|| Blackstone, Commentaries, i. 111.
il The multiplication of Villes or Parishes within original town limits may he seen in a
ease like Newton, now a city, l>ut once a town embracing Newton Outre, Ncwtouvillo,
West Newton, Newton Upper Falls, Newton Lower Palls, Auburndalc, Newton Come;-, \r.
1G
mouth Colony. It should not be ignored that the first landing in
New England was not that of missionaries or defenceless exiles upon
Plymouth Hock, but of armed men exploring Cape Cod, "with
every man his musket, sword, and corslet, under the conduct of
Captain Miles Standish." Undoubtedly the motives of the invaders
were peaceful, but they came with arms in their hands, actually
equipped with " armor" and " coats of malle," with " curtlaxes and
short swords." There are repeated references in the Pilgrim Jour-
nal to the "armor" which they wore. They say, " We marched
through boughs and bushes which tore our very armor in pieces."
When the explorers came upon a heap of buried Indian corn, the
record says " we set our men sentinels in a round ring, all but two
or three, which digged up the corn," of which the company took
away as much as they could carry, " for we were so laden with ar-
mor that we could carry no more." This corn the Pilgrims after-
ward paid for when they found the owners, but their original pro-
cedure is very remarkable. The setting of a cordon of sentinels for
three men to dig corn was a state of armed peace worthy of the an-
cient Saxons. When the explorers thought they were approaching
an Indian village, they confess " we lighted our matches [match-
locks] and prepared ourselves." Of course they did. They were
Englishmen believing in self-defence. Every step of their advance
was marked by cautious military measures. One night a great
noise was heard. The sentinels called, "Arm! Arm!" The Pil-
grims bestirred themselves and shot off a couple of muskets and the
noise ceased. The next day a real attack was made by the Indians.
Again the little company flew to arms. Captain Standish had a
flint-lock ready, and " made a shot," and after him another. He
told the rest "not to shoote till they could take full aime." Some of
the company ran out from the barricade " with coats of malle on, &
cutlesses in their hands," to get their guns from the shallop, which
secured they "letflye" among the Indians "and quickly stopped
their violence." Thus "it pleased God to vanquish our enemies and
give us deliverance."*
* These details and many more of a similar character may be found in Young's Chron-
icles of the Pilgrims (or Dcxter's Mourt's Relation) and in Bradford's History of Plymouth.
Plantation.
[Reprinted from the N. E. Historical and Genealogical Register for July, 1882.]
CONSTABLES.
Iiv Herbert 13. Adams.
I^IIE first landing at Plymouth, on "Forefathers' Day," was
. by one of these exploring parties. They found there a good
harbor for shipping, and they " inarched also into the land," and
found divers Indian cornfields, a deserted Village .Mark, with run-
ning brooks, altogether "a place very good for situation." So the
explorers, who had been ranging up and down Cape Cod for more
than a month, returned to the Mayflower which had been anchored
all this time in the harbor at Cape Cod, but which sailed into Ply-
mouth harbor on the 2(>th of December. On the 28th another
exploring party " went a land " and "marched along the coast for
some seven or eight miles." Two days afterward, on the 30th of
December, which should be forever memorable as the founders' day
of Plymouth Town and Colony, the Pilgrims, "after landing and
viewing the places came to a conclusion by most voices, to set
on a high ground, where there is a great deal of land cleared."
There above the open Mark rose the "great hill" upon which the
Pilgrims proposed to plant their "ordinance," so as to command
the surrounding country. Fort Hill, now called Burial Hill, was a
natural acropolis, chosen for the defence of the "town," which was
to be built beneath its shelter. The; whole locality they thought
could be easily "impaled." This was the very idea of a Saxon
Town, from Tun or Zun, a place hedged in. Plymouth Rock well
symbolizes, in the popular mind, the landing of the Pilgrims in the
place of their settlement, although the final disembarkatiou did not
3
18
occur, perhaps, until March 31, 1621 ;* but on Dec. 30th, 1620, the
real corner-stone of Plymouth and of New England was laid in the
"conclusion by most voices to set on a high ground," on the sea-
ward slope of Fort Hill, which symbolizes the Town-idea of our
Forefathers, a self-guarded village community, keeping watch and
ward, and maintaining peace within its borders. There upon that
acropolis was afterward builte a fort with good timber, both
strong and comly, which was of good defence, made with a flate
rofe & batllments, on which their ordnance were mounted, and wher
they kepte constante watch, espetially in time of danger. It served
them allso for a meeting house, and was fitted accordingly for that
use."t
It is a noteworthy fact that after the assertion of the democratic
principle of "most voices," or a majority vote in the choice of a site
for settlement and for the building of a Town, the first institution
actually planted was of a military character. Before any Church Meet-
ing or regular Town Meeting on shore, before the Common House
which first sheltered both was built, the Pilgrims instituted what
they called "the court of guard. "J This was a night watch set by
those on shore, Monday, January 4, 1621, from fear of the Indians,
and for the protection of the products of the Pilgrims' first day's
labor in felling timber and providing stuff for building. On the fol-
lowing day all able-bodied men came ashore and resumed their labor,
but they returned to the ship that night leaving " some twenty to
keep the court of guard." Thus, ever on the alert, the Pilgrims
proceeded to build their town " in two rows of houses for more
* 1621, March 21 (31), " a fine warm day. This day with much ado, we got our carpen-
ter, that had been long sick of the scurvy, to fit our shallop to fetch all from aboard."
Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 190.
It may be that this passage refers solely to movable goods, and not at all to passengers
yet on board ; but the Journal of Jan. 29 (Feb. 8) says on that day, " Both the lonsr-boat
and the shallop brought our common goods on shore" (see Young, 170). And yet after
this date we find Pilgrims still on board, for the Journal of Feb. 4 (14) says, " though we
rid in a very good harbor, yet we were in danger, because nur ship was light, the goods
taken out and she unballasted." It is probable that some of the pilgrim band did not land
as early as is commonly supposed, for Bradford (92) speaks of " schuch ot ye passengers as
were yet abord," who showed great kindness to the sailors when they in their turn began
to fall ill. When the thatch of the Common House was destroyed by fire on the 24th of
January, Bradford (100) says " some were faine to retire abord for shilter." There was a
constant going to and fro between ship and shore throughout the winter, the men remain-
ing on board for days during stormy weather. Probably there never was any general dis-
embarkation upon Plymouth Rock at any one time, whether on the 21st of December,
when the Mayflower was far away at Cape Cod, or on the 4th of January, according to the
view advanced by S. H. Gay, in his article in the Atlantic Monthly, November, 1881,
" When did the Pilgrim Fathers land at Plymouth ?"
t Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation, 126. It is very interesting that the Ply-
mouth Church was first sheltered in the Common House and afterward in a Fort surmounted
by six cannon. So fully were the Pilgrims imbued with the martial spirit that they actually
marched to church, assembling " by beat of drum, each with his musket or firelock, in front
of the captain's door." They marched up Fort Hill three abreast. " Behind comes the Gover-
nor, in a long robe; beside him, on the right hand, comes the preacher with his cloak on,
and on the left the captain with his side-arms and cloak on, and with a small cane in his
hand, and so they march in good order, and each sets his arms down near him. Thus they
are constantly on their guard night and day." Letter of De Rasieres, a Dutch officer from
New Netherlands, who visited New Plymouth in 1627. See Collections of New York Hist.
Society, New Series, i. 362, or Russell's Pilgrim Memorials, 143.
J Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 169.
19
safety." But their first building was a Common House for a "gen-
erall randevoze." Here the first Church .Meeting on land was
held January 31, 1G21. Here was held the first regular Town
Meeting in New England, February 27, " for the establishing of
military orders." Miles Standish was chosen Captain, and was given
"authority of command in affairs."* This was the first strictly local
election in New England. It occurred more than a month before
the election of Carver as Governor of Plymouth. To be sure Car-
ver had been "confirmed" Governor on board the Mayflower in
the harbor at Cape Cod, November 21, 1G20, immediately after the
signing of the Compact, but Governors and Assistants had been
chosen for each ship " to order ye people by ye way, "J before the
Colony set sail from Southampton. It is true John Carver was actu-
ally Governor when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth ; but it is also
true that Miles Standish was at that time Captain, and had long been
recognized as such in the conduct of explorations. The point is, that,
in the actual foundation of the Colony at Plymouth, the choice of a
military officer to command in affairs antedated the choice of civil
officers, just as the "court of guard" antedated the General Court
or Town Meeting, in the strictest meaning of those terms, although
of course the "common sense of most" was the actual basis even
of these martial institutions for defence. The salus publica was
the foundation principle of Plymouth as of all civil society.
Immediately after the election of Standish, the popular assembly
was broken up by the appearance of two savages on Strawberry Hill
or Watson's Hill. The Townsmen armed at once and sent their
headman, Captain Standish, accompanied by Stephen Hopkins,
across the intervening Town Brook to parley with the Indians.
From this time on, for many years, Captain Standish served as Chief
Messenger for the Town Meeting, General Court or Folkmoot of
Plymouth. He was chief spokesman in parleys with the Indians.
He demanded of the fishermen at Cape Ann the restoration of Ply-
mouth property. lie arrested Morton at Merry Mount, and levied
the expense of sending the rogue back to England upon Cape Ann
and other local plantations then existing in New England. He ar-
rested Indians and kept them in custody. lie protected the lite of
one Indian siniplv because he was "a messenger," it being against
" the hni' <>f units in Europe to lay violent hands on any such."
He exercised the right of life and death over Indians beyond Ply-
mouth borders, for in Massachusetts, at Mr. Weston's feeble planta-
tion, where certain treacherous savages were plotting the destruction
of all the settlements, Standish and his men shut up the leaders in a
cabin and there killed them, " striving to the last." Other Indians
were killed or hanged by his orders. He returned home to Ply-
mouth, says the Pilgrim record, " in safety, blessed be God! and
* Young's Clironich-softlic Pilgrims, 180.
t Bradford, Hist, of Plymouth Plantation, r>8.
20
brought the head of Wituwamat with him," which was "brought to
the fort and there set up." There is something old English about
this method of procedure. It looks like primitive martial law.
During the absence of Standish an Indian had come into Town who
was suspected of being a spy. By order of the Governor he was
arrested, taken to the Fort, " locked in a chain to a staple in the
court of guard, and there kept," being told that he must remain con-
tent "till the return of Captain Standish from Massachusetts."*
What shall we call this Captain of Plymouth's Guard, this Keep-
er of the Town's Fort or Castle, this leader of expeditions, this or-
ganizer of militia by "squadrons or companies," appointing his own
officers, holding " a general muster or training,"! this Captain-Gen-
eral who became in 1645 the head of a military commission appoint-
ed by the four United Colonies of New England, but who still " con-
descended" J to review the local militia of Plymouth, this Marshal
exercising the right of life and death in the conduct of Indian cam-
paigns, this Martinet of a little village, where the first offence was
John Billington's " contempt of the Captain's lawful command with
opprobrious speeches," the offender being therefor " convented be-
fore the whole company and adjudged to have his neck and heels
tied together"? What shall we call the man under whose direc-
tion all such penalties must have been executed in early Plymouth?
Surely not a mere Petty Constable, not simply a Captain of the local
Militia, for he had also authority of command in public affairs. He
was a colonial officer of the martial type, sometimes carrying the
law in his own person like an ancient Roman prastor, an Earl
Marshal or a Lord High Constable of England. Let us call Miles
Standish the first martial representative in New England, as Miles
of Gloucester was the first representative in Old England, of the
iron hand of sovereign constabulary power, whence the " lower con-
Btableship was drawn and fetched, as it were, a very finger of that
hand."
In the year 1632 it was ordered by the General Court " in re-
gard of our dispersion so far asunder, and the inconveniency that
may befall," that every inhabitant provide himself a sufficient musket
or other serviceable piece for war, also with ammunition. || Such
* Standish's Expedition against the Indians of "Wessagusset, in Young's Chronicles of
the Pilgrims, 336-45. The above details have been gathered from Moun's Relation and
from Bradford's History of the Plymouth Plantation.
t Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 284.
J Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Second Series, vol. x. 60, " Notes
on Duxbury."
$ Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 199. This being "the first offence " committed
in Plymouth, it was pardoned upon the culprit humbling himself; but soon after two ser-
vants, who had fought a duel, were adjudged to the above Old English penalty, which was
duly inflicted. John Billington was afterward, in 1630, hung for murder, being tried and
executed by due forms of law. See Hutchinson, Hist, of Massachusetts, vol. ii. 413. The
execution must have been under the supervision of Captain Miles Standish, for there was,
at that time, no other High Sheriff or Constable in PIvmouth Colony. The first differentia-
tion of these offices did not occur until 1634.
|| Plymouth Col. Records, i. 6; Laws, 14, 31. For "Public Armcs," see Laws, 51, 1C5;
" Jowncs Armes," 181. Town Armor !
21
requirements, involving constabulary inspections and the evolution
of a system of penalties for default in armor, carry us back to the
ancient Statute of Winchester, whereby every man in the kingdom
was obliged to have in his house defensive armor for keeping the
peace; or, to the still earlier Assize of Arms (1181 ) whereby the
freemen of every community were to have each a doublet of mail,
a head-piece of iron, and a spear.* New England is linked to Old
England by an iron chain of martial habits and martial institutions.
Captain Miles Stnndish and the Town Constables of Plymouth Col-
ony are as much links in this chain connecting the beginnings of our
Towns with the Parishes of the mother country as if these men had
come over to New England with the Town Armor and Parish Rec-
ords of their native hamlets. In fact, the Pilgrims entered New
England in coats of mail, armed also with the Town idea and the
Common Law. "There already ay in the Mayflower's cabin,"
said Rufus Choate, "was representative government. There already
was the legalized and organized town, that seminary and central
point and exemplification of elementary democracy. "f
By the law of England, the criterion of the existence of a Parish
or Township is the presence of a local Constable. It is worth while
to apply this criterion to a study of the genesis of Towns and Par-
ishes in New England. We do not suppose that this has always been
a conscious standard for legislative action in the recognition of towns
or for the actual determination of Town or Parish units, but we
claim that without a Constable, or some power representing the cor-
porate responsibility of the community for the preservation of the
local peace, a Town would be an impossibility. There have been
Towns in New England without Selectmen, without Ministers, with-
out a Church or a Common School, but theie never was a Town
without a Constable, lie is the sine qua non of an organized Par-
ish or Township, and that by the authority of the Common Law,
than which there is no greater authority in the history of English
institutions. Miles Standish was practically the first Constable of
Plymouth. lb; was the first officer chosen with "command in
affairs." There is no evidence of the existence of anv other Consta-
ble at Plymouth until flan. 1, Ki.*54, when Joshua Pratt was "cho-
sen to the office of messenger and constable tor Plvmouth, and sworne
to faithfulnes in the same. "J The Constable of Plymouth in his ca-
pacity of Messenger, appears to have been a kind of High Sheriff". In
l(i.">7 we find a Plymouth man sworn Messenger for the whole Gov-
ernment and Constable for the Town of Plvmouth. The duties of
Messenger, according to the earliest law upon the subject, were to be
ready at the Governor's command or anv of the As>i.tants' warning,
to doe such service as shall be appointed for the good of the seve-
* Stul.hs's SHi'ct Charters, l.'i-t.
t LilV anil Writiturs ot'Riifii* Clioati', i. :)>'>.
I t'lyiitouth Col. Itecurds, ; 21.
22
ral Colonies,* within this Government," and to be esteemed a pub-
lic officer for the execution of warrants in any part thereof. The
use of the plural form " Colonies " as synonymous with Towns or
Plantations within the Government of Plymouth, is curious and sug-
gestive. As Constable for the special " ward " of Plymouth, this
officer was to have charge of the region from Jones's River south-
ward, as far as any inhabit. He was to serve as " Jaylor to
keep such as shall be committed." He was to execute punishment
and penalties, and to give warning of marriages approved by civil
authority. He was furthermore to act as Sealer of Weights and
Measures, and as Surveyor of land, according to government orders.
In his oath the Meesenger swore loyalty to the King, and promised
to promote " the welfare of the severall Colonies w ,h in this Gov-
ernment of New Plymouth," and as "Constable in the ward of
New Plymouth," to see that his Majesty's peace be not broken. f
Here, therefore, in the hands of one local officer, we see a bundle of
powers derived from the Petty Constable of the English Parish, the
High Constable of the Hundred, and the High Sheriff of the
County.
On the very day Joshua Pratt was chosen Constable and Messen-
ger for Plymouth, Christopher Wads worth was "chosen constable for
the ward of bownded between Jones River & Green's Harbour, and
to seme the King in that office for the space of one whole yeare &
to enter upon the place with the Gov r elect. "J In like manner and
at the same time, Anthony Amiable was chosen Constable for the
Ward of Scituate. The omission of the name Duxbury in the first
instance is interesting, for the omission implies that the locality
bounded by Jones's River and Green's Harbor was literally a Ward
of Plymouth, although there can be no doubt as to the identity of
the place with Duxbury, which name, according to Justin Winsor,
was bestowed in compliment to Standish, who settled in the above
region, and whose ancestral acres in England were known as Dukes-
berry. M As early as 1630," says Winsor, "for facilities of pastur-
age and better planting, lands had been occupied in Duxbury, the
people returning- to Plymouth in the winter for better housing and
ease of attending worship. ' In the Plymouth Colony Records,
under the date 1632, we find a formal agreement on the part of
Captain Standish, John Alden, Jonathan Brewster and Thomas
Prince, to move back into Plymouth for the winter time, in order
that they may the better repair to the worship of God.j| In 1634
" a palisade was ordered to be made beyond the creek at Eagle's
Nest, where Standish, Brewster and Pay body lived, "1[ and that same
year a Constable's Ward was instituted in the above district.
* Plvmouth Laws, 18. f Ibid, 19.
t Plymouth Col. Records, i. 21.
Winsor, Historical Account of Plymouth Colony and County. 5, in Plymouth County
Atlas, G. H. Walker & Co., Boston, 1878.
i| Plymouth Col. Records, Book of Deeds, 6.
<ft Collections of Mass. Hist. Soc, Second Series, x. 68.
23
The term "Ward," first used in designating Duxbury as a civic
unit, is a very important connecting link between the Parish insti-
tutions of Old and New England. Wards are familiar enough in
modern city politics, but historically City Wards were derived from
Hundreds, each Ward being under a Hundredes Euldor of Alder-
mannus Ihmdreti, and each Ward having subdivisions called
Tithings or Precincts."* But Old English Parishes had also their
Wards and Precincts, which were often synonymous with Villa or
Townships. The Parish Ward was simply a Constable's Beat or
District. The term Ward is derived from the Saxon Weard or
Guard, and is closely connected with the ancient system of Watch
and Ward, from which our modern police system has evolved. Both
Watch and Ward were under the direction of a local Tithingman
or Constable. The Ward was kept by day and the Watch by night.
By the Assize of Arms (1"2")2), for enforcing Watch and Ward,
there were to be appointed in every Vill or Parish four or six men,
according to the size of the place, who should watch throughout the
night from sunset to sunrise, and if any stranger attempted to pass
them, they were to arrest and detain him until the morning, when,
if he could give a good account of himself, he was set free, but if
he proved a suspicious character, he was handed over to the Tun
Gerefa or Town Constable. Jf strangers would not allow them-
selves to be arrested, the aforesaid watchman levied the Hue and
Cry upon them, that is, they raised the Town and pursued the fugi-
tives with shouts and cries from Parish to Parish, until they were
finally captured, cum clamore et hutesio (Hue and Cry) de cilia
in villain, donee capiantur.\
The ancient Plymouth records contain frequent allusion to "those
on Duxborrough Side." In old English usage, a '' >\^\v " was
something more than the name would seem to imply : it was ;i dis-
trict, an outlying quarter of the Town or Parish, but frequently an
organic part of the same, like Fulham Syde of Fill ham Parish. The
Syde hail its Sydcinan,^ whose duties were much the same as those
of a Tithingman or Petty Constable. A Syde without a local officer
was only a geographical idea. A Sydeman made the place a civic
community. The term Side is not uncommon in the Towns of New
England ; for example, East Side in the Town of Woburn. The name
frequently occurs as the designation of a particular neighborhood as
lying on this or that side of the Town, just as we say " North End"
or " North Part." Vills, like Sides in New England, are frequently
* Pnl^rnvc, Knslisli Commonwealth, i. 200 ; Thorpe, Ancient Law- and Institutes of
England, ii., Glossary, " Hundredes l-'.aldor." According to Stul.hs, u< tin North of V.wf.-
lanil ' the shire:* arc divided int.. Wards, and to the south into Hundreds." Const. Hist,
i. 96.
t Stubhs's S ( let-t Charters, .".71 . See also Statute of Winchester. l'JSo, for similar regula-
lations conecmiiif: Watch and Ward, Stuidis's Select Charters, 47-1-4.
I In the 4 .lac. I., cap. v., we find penalties prescribed lor lie repression of drunkenness,
and the presentment of offenders is made one of the duties of " CuUst.ddcs, Churchward-
ens, HeuUboroughs, Tithingmen, Aleeunners and Sydcmcii."
24
mere localities without any organic life, although the Vill is usually
more personal, for example, Iiellogg\'\l\e, whereas the Side is more
geographical, taking its name usually from some point of compass.
But a Side or a Vill without a Constable has no civic existence in
the Common Law.
We must regard Duxbury Side as a Vill or Parish of Plymouth
until June 7, 1637, when it was recognized as art independent, self-
governing " township "* by the General Court. A church, or chapel
of easement, was established on Duxbury Side as early as 1632, but
the existence of a Church does not constitute a Parish according to
the Common Law. The Parish is a civil institution both in origin
and history. The only fact which gave Duxbury, in 1634, a legal
existence as a Vill or Parish within the Town or larger Parish of
Plymouth was the election in a Plymouth Town Meeting of a Con-
stable for that Ward. As a Church-society Duxbury enjoyed nei-
ther unity nor pastoral headship for several years after her first set-
tlement. Many of her leading citizens continued to attend church
at Plymouth, and there was no regular minister in Duxbury until
1636.f But the presence or settlement of a minister does not make
a Parish. In point of law and in point of fact, however, Duxbury
was a Parish unit from the moment Christopher Wadsworth was cho-
sen Constable for a Ward J of Plymouth bounded by Jones .River
and Green's Harbor.
For several years after 1634 Constables for the Wards of Duxbury
and Scituate continued to be chosen in Plymouth Town Meeting.
For instance, it was agreed January 1, 1635, that Christopher
Wadsworth and Anthony Annable, Constables of Duxbury and Scit-
uate, should continue in their places another year. The practice
of electing Constables in the presence of all the freemen of the colo-
ny appears to have gone on lor several years after the recognition
of Duxbury and Scituate as independent self-governing Towns, but
we are inclined to suspect that, from the very beginning of constab-
ulary elections, the candidate was nominated by the neighborhood
or precinct which he was appointed to govern. In 1645 we find
" constables chosen by the severall townships and presented to this
court and sworn. "|| Plymouth and Scituate then had two Consta-.
bles each; Duxbury, Sandwich, Marshfield, Barnstable, Yarmouth,
* Plymouth Col. Records, i. 62. Cf. ii. 31, for an interesting case where " eich side of the
towne, viz. the Eele Kiuer and Joames Riuer shall for eich side bring six musketts w th
shott, pouder, and the towne of Plymouth other six euery Lord's day to the meeting with
their swords and furniture to euery piece, ready for service if need require."
t Clark, Historical Sketch of the Congregational Churches in Massachusetts, 15. Win-
sor, History of Duxbury, 171.
J '1 he use of the term " Ward " for a germinant town was very general throughout Ply-
mouth Colony. Constables were always sworn to serve in such and such a Ward (Laws,
10), always corresponding to a local settlement or Plantation ; for example, "the ward of
Barnstable (Plym. Col. rtec, i. 137) One of the most interesting cases is the " Ward of the
River Kcnnebecke " (iii. .59), the Pilgrim trading-post. This ward was something like the-
Constables' Beats along the rivers of Alabama.
Plymouth Col. Records, i. 32. || Ibid, ii. 83.
25
Taunton, Rehoboth, each one Constable. In 1052 the Constables
of Sandwich, Yarmouth and Eastham were allowed "to be sworne
at home."* Thus gradually the Towns of Plymouth Colony settled
back into old English Parish usages of electing and qualifying their
own Petty Constables, just as these same towns gradually became
known under good old English names, although for the most part
planted in old Indian localities, and at first designated as such.
The process of reproducing the Parish institutions of the mother
country could not have been entirely an unconscious one with the
settlers of Plymouth Colony. Constabulary oaths expressing loy-
alty to the King prove that the colonists still felt themselves Eng-
lish subjects and under the sovereignty of English law. The cor-
respondences between the local institutions of Plymouth and those of
old England, are too striking to admit of other interpretation than
conscious imitation. In the prefaces to their Law books, the Ply-
mouth legislators confess that they did not reject such of the laws of
their native country "as would conduce vnto the good and grouth of
soe weak a begining as any Impartial! eye Not forstaled with pre-
judice may ezely deserne."'!' The Plymouth lawgivers even re-insti-
tuted Tithings for the government of the Indians by a system of
Frank Pledge. As the conquered Saxons, living under Norman
lords, were held to right in their own villages by a system of Ten-
mentale under their own elected Tithingmen, so the Indian villagers
were bound to keep the peace in groups of ten, each group under
the charge of an Indian Tithingman, whose duty it was to " take
the inspection, care, and oversight of his nine men and present theire
faults [and] Misdemenors to the overseer, "| who was appointed by
the Governor. The white overseer and the Indian Tithingmen ap-
pointed Indian Constables, holding office for a year, whose duty it
was to attend the courts kept among the Indians for the purpose of
" ciuilliseing " them, and to execute the warrants of the Overseer. If
an Indian servant of a white man ran away into an Indian neigh-
borhood, the Indians with whom he took refuge were bound by law
to give immediate "notice of the said Runaway to the Indian Con-
stable who shall imediatly apprehend such Indian servant ; and
cany him or her before the Overseer or next Majestrate, whoe shall
cause such servants to be whipt ; and sent home by the Constable to
his or her master whoe shall pay said Constable for his service." ||
It was required by law that " in every Constableriek there be a
paire of stocks and a whipping post erected. Also a cage wn, shall
be of competent strength to detainc a prisoner. & these to be erected
in such places as shall be thought meet by the severall neighbor
hoods where they concerne, vpon the penalty of X s. lor any towne-
Plymouth Col. Records, iii. 8. f Ibid, Laws, 72.
+ IM<1. 253.
$ Ibid, '2.'}'.t. Courts were held also among the Indians of Massachusetts. Mas.-. Col.
Hoc, ii. KS8.
|| Ibid, 2.55.
4
26
ship w ch shalbe defectiue herein."* Such local institutions as the
Town Cage,t the Parish Stocks, the Whipping Post, and a Consta-
ble to superintend whippings, cannot be explained as indigenous to
New England, for they are the common inheritance of all English
colonies in America. One Parish custom in particular clearly allies
the Towns of Plymouth Colony with Old English Parishes, and that
is the method of dealing with Tramps. By a law of 1661, reenacted
in 1663, it was ordered by the General Court of Plymouth, that
" if any person or persons shall come into this Gouvernment, that
according to the law of England may justly be accounted vaga-
bonds ; the Marshall or the Constable of the Towne wherevnto they
come, shall apprehend him or them ; and vpon examination soe ap-
peering ; hee shall whip them or cause them to be whipt with rodds ;
soe as it exceed not fifteen stripes ; and to give him or them a passe
to depart the Gouvernment, and if any such person or persons shal-
bee found without theire passe ; or not acteing according therevnto
they shalbee punished again as formerly. "$
The above regulation was first revived at Plymouth, not by Stat-
ute but as a part of English law, for as early as 1641 we find that
Jonathan Hatch was taken as a vagrant, and for his misdemeanors
was censured to be whipt, & sent from constable to constable to
Leiftennant Davenport at Salem. " How minutely this procedure
corresponded with old English Parish usage may be seen by exam-
ination of Lambard's Duties of Constables, where it is said to be
incumbent upon the Constable, Headborough, or Tithingman of the
Hundred, Parish or Tithing, to arrest every Rogue and publicly
whip him upon the bare back until it be bloody, and then send him
from Parish to Parish, by the officers of the same, until the Rogue
come to the place where he was born ; but if that place is not known,
then to the Parish where the Rogue last dwelt for a whole year ;
and if that also is unknown, then to the Parish through which the
Rogue last passed without receiving a flogging. || Such a vigorous
policy would probably exterminate the modern Tramp.
The law against vagabonds was applied with considerable severity
to strolling Indians. It was enacted by the General Court that no
Indian should remove from one place or " plantation " to another
without a permit in writing from his " overseer," declaring whither
he was going, for what reason, and how long he was going to stay.
If any Indian was found without his pass, he was arrested by the
Constable of the place into which he came, taken before "the next
overseer," who made the Indian pay a fine of five shillings " or be
* Plymouth Col. Records, Laws, p. 11, 95 circa 1636.
t Cages were set up in the market places of the larger towns in Massachusetts. Mass.
Rec, v. 133.
t Plymouth Col. Records, Laws, 206.
$ Plymouth Col. Records, ii. 36.
|| Lambard, Duties of Constables, 45-6. Compare with Lambard's Eirenarcha, 204. The
English Statutes are full of legislation regarding Rogues, Vagabonds, and Sturdy Beggars,
e. g. 7 James I. cap. 4.
27
whipt and sent home to his owne place." If there was no local
"overseer" of Indians in the place whither the vagabond came, then
"the English Constable in that Towne " discharged the above office.*
If Indians were found drunk in any "Township," they were taken
by " the Constable of the Towne and sett in the stockes."f By ano-
ther law, the penalty for the first offence was five shillings " or be
whipt;" for the second, ten shillings "or be whipt; and soe for
euery time any of them shalbe convicted of drunkenes before any
Court, Majestrate, ouerseer, tithingman or English Constable. "J
The judicial functions of old English Parish officers are here revived.
It is noteworthy that the first Selectmen of Plymouth Colony had
judicial duties.
The close connection between Petty Constables and Tithingmen
in Plymouth Colony is evident from the coexistence of these institu-
tions in the regulation of Indian Tithings and Indian villages, and
from the fact that, in early Plymouth Towns, Constables discharged
the Sunday duties, which, in later times, were usually associated
with the office of Tithingman, although, as we have elsewhere
shown, the Tithingman in early New England was by no means
a mere Sunday Constable or ecclesiastical whipper-in, but the
head- man of a neighborhood of at least ten families, as in Saxon
England. From the laws of Plymouth Colony we learn that great
abuses had arisen in sundry Towns by reason of certain persons be-
having themselves profanely on the Lord's day, staying out of
Meeting, playing, Jesting, and sleeping in the vicinity of the Meet-
ing House. The Constables were instructed to take notice of such
persons and to "sett them in the stockes." The Constables were also
to prevent " vnessesary violent ryding on the Lord's day."j| All
these peculiar customs originated, not with the Pilgrims or Puri-
tans, but in the Parishes of Old England.
The reproduction of constabulary institutions in the Massachusetts
Colony we cannot notice in detail, but the process was immediate,
and even more perfect than in Plymouth Colony. At the third
Court of Assistants held at ( 'liarlestown September 2*. K>30, John
"Woodbury was chosen Constable of Salem, and Thomas Stoughton
Constable of Dorchester. At a Court held three weeks later, Con-
stables were appointed for Charlestown, Roxburv and Watertown.^T
It is not likely that these colonial appointments were anything more
than the confirmation of existing officers and of candidates presented
* Plymouth Col. Records. Laws, 254.
t Ibid, ML t Ihiil, 2-j.J.
$ " Tithiugiiien," Proceedings of American Antiquarian Society, Now Ser., vol. i. Part 3.
|| Fly mouth Col. Records, Law;,, 214, 'J'.'t. Compare the Sunday duties of Plymouth
Constables with tho<e of the Salem Constables, see extract from MS. Town Records, 1 67*,
in Osgood and Ihitchelder, Sketch of Salem, 17: " three constables are to lie at the three
great doors of the meeting-house and allow none to go out till all the exercises are Mulshed.
All the hoj - are to sit on the three pair of stairs in the meeting-house, inelmliiig those of the
pulpit. One constable is t,. keep tin doe- ..lit of the meeting-house." This otlleu reminds
us of the I)oj;-\Vliipper in Knglisli Parishes.
l Mass. Col. Ree.,i. 7i. 1'J.
28
by a local constituency. John Woodbury, who "did now [in 1630]
take the oath of a constable," was the old planter who had been
sent as messenger to England in 1626 by Roger Conant and his
companions. In 1628, before Captain Endicott came over, old
Naumkeag had levied a local tax* of 1 10 shillings, in payment
of an assessment made by Plymouth colony for the expenses incur-
red by Captain Miles Standish in arresting Morton at Merry Mount
and in sending the rogue back to England. Who more likely to
have collected and paid over this tax than faithful John Woodbury ?
In 1629 Gov. Endicott received orders from the Massachusetts
Company to " appoint a carefull and dilligent overseer to each fami-
ly, "f With the adoption of this system, which is the first approach
in New England to the old English system of Tithingmen, it is
highly probable that some one family overseer should have had su-
perior authority over all the rest, just as did the " overseer " appoint-
ed by the Governor of Plymouth colony, over the Indian Tithing-
men throughout Plymouth towns. Governor Endicott was distinctly
instructed! by the Massachusetts Company to look into the work-
ings of his government by families, and, if need be, to make an
example of offenders ; " otherwise," said the Company, " your
government wilbe esteemed as a scarcrow." Correction, they
added, was ordained for the fool's back. As a wholesome warning
to offenders, " a house of correction " was to be instituted. Endi-
cott had authority to inflict punishment according to the nature of
the offence and the laws of England. Public whippings and com-
mitment to a lock-up or house of correction imply the existence of a
Constable. When, therefore, we find Captain Endicott at the Court
of Assistants, September 28, 1630, nominating John Woodbury as
Constable for Salem, we are inclined to think it was merely for the
sake of confirmation under the new government, and that John
Woodbury was already quite familiar with constabulary duty.
Let us now sum up in brief the more important functions of Petty
Constables as reinstituted in New England. The following enu-
meration is drawn from the laws of the Massachusetts Colony, but
what was true of the local institutions of that Colony is true to a great
extent of other New England Colonies. Every one of the following
duties has its Old English prototype : a Constable had power to
" whipp & punish " or to provide for the same ; to send or convey
persons " from connstable to connstable ; " to " speede away all hues
& crys " against thieves, robbers, murderers, manslayers, peacebreak-
ers, on penalty of forty shillings in capital cases ; to apprehend with-
out warrant all persons " overtaken with drincke," all profane
swearers, Sabbath breakers, vagrants, night-walkers ; to search, for
Morton, New England's Memorial (ed. 1826), 142; Gov. Bradford's Letter Book, 1624-
30, in Collections of Mass. Hist. Soc., 1st series, vol. 3, p. 63.
t Mass. Col. Rec., i. 400.
t Massachusetts Col. Records, i. 393, 397, 400, 401, 405.
20
such persons in suspected or disorderly places and in houses licensed
to sell beer or wine ; not to apprehend by order of magistrate with-
out a warrant ; to warn any person to assist him, and none to refuse
on penalty of ten shillings ; to " carry his black stafFe " in execution
of his office that none may plead ignorance ; to take notice of " com-
mon coasters, vnprofitable fowlers, & other idle persons, & tobacco
takers and of such as harbor any young people, children, servants,
apprentices, students or schollers," without hastening them to their
respective employments ; to aid custom house officers in the search
for wines, by breaking open cellars, &c. ; to levy all fines and
" gather all toune rates ; ; ' to clear accounts with the " countrje Tre-
surer ;" to register in a book all lost goods or strays and to cry the
same at " three generall toune meetings or lectures ; " to present the
names of all persons refusing " to watch & ward ;" to begin " the
constables watch " annually on the first of May and not give over
nntil the last of September : to see that the watch be of " sufficient
able men, & not youths; " to secure or commit K any inhabitant or
stranger after tenne of the clocke at night, behaving themselves de-
boist,"* and not giving a good account of themselves to "ye con-
stable or watchman," the Constable to carry them before a maixis-
trate the next morning ; to provide " at the tonnes charge " all
weights and measures required by law for "toune standards," and,
upon warrant from the " toune sealer " to warn all inhabitants to
bring in their weights and measures to be tried and sealed ; to serve
all attachments as may be directed in any civil case ; to " warne the
freemen of theire toune in the 2d week of March annually to mete
together ; " to make return under their hand of the names of depu-
ties ; to pay the Marshal General three pence out of every attachment
that may be served ; to execute warrants for the choice of jurymen,
and to warn the persons chosen ; in case of the untimely or unnatu-
ral death of any person, to "summon a jury of twelve discrcetc
men " to inquire into the cause and manner of the death ; to give
warning unto the inhabitants of their town of husbands living
apart from their wives ; not to refuse the office of a Constable being
orderly chosen thereto under penalty! of five pounds, and if in
Boston, ten pounds : "incase; of any servants running from theire
master, or inhabitants going privily away, with suspition of the in-
tention, in ye absence of a magistrate, the connstable and two of the
clieife inhabitants is to presse men, boates and pinnaces, at the puh-
lique charge, to pursue such persons by sea or land, <& bring them
Dohoist, perhaps from tin' past participle of "dcliosh," an old English corruption of
debauch, tn he found in Beaumont ami Fletcher.
fin Old England penalties were ever) where in vogue for refusing local offices. I.ani-
hard gives abundant examples. It was regarded a- a duty I'm- the best men in the Parish to
serve in the office of ("on -table, ami that by a system of rotation, not indeed for the sake of
spoil, but in order that the burden of the office might be shared by all We have a> yet
found no English precedent for the town policy of A-hbv, M i->.. which from 1811 to ls;C>.
sold the office of Constable to the highest bidder. See Drake. S. A., Hist, of Middlesex
Countv, i. 2'2o. And yet military offices used to be sold in Englund.
30
bncke by force of armes ; " to inform the Court of all new comers
who settle themselves without license.*
This remarkable list of duties, which we have given in the very
language of the original laws, comprises, together with the control of
Highways nnd Bridges, the chief substance of constabulary duty in
early New England. By comparing this list with that given in the
Humphrey manuscript-warrants of constabulary duty issued in Old
England, it will be seen that the early English institution was repro-
duced in every essential detail. f The original object of Massachu-
setts in proclaiming its constabulary law was that " each connsta-
ble may vnderstand his duty." The object of the English warrants
was to give the " Articles to be diligently enquired of by the Petty
Constable & Tithingmen in euery parish, town, & hamlet." This
spirit is very different from the degenerate conception of Constables
entertained by Blackstone, who says of constabulary power, " con-
sidering what manner of men are for the most part put into these
offices, it is perhaps well that they are generally kept in ignorance."
Our Forefathers in England and New England made their best men
Constables and Captains of Militia, and clothed both offices with
dignity and honor. Historically the one office is as honorable as
the other, for Constables and Commanders of the Militia were in
ancient times one and the same. Militia Captains represent more
fully perhaps the survival of the original constabulary spirit, the
idea of armed force, which is the foundation and defence of all civil
institutions.
But Constables, in their civil capacity, are also cases of historic
survival. Every one of the powers enumerated above, however
ignorant the modern Petty Constable may be of their full signifi-
cance, links the communal life of to-day to its Old English be-
ginnings. Every item of constabulary duty is an assertion of a fun-
damental principle in civil society, the sovereignty of the communi-
ty, of the salus publica, over the individual. The Constable rep-
resents the organized force of the State or Commonwealth. The
* Mass. Col. Records, iv. Part 1., 324-27. Cf. ii. 150-1. See also Laws of the Colony and
Province of Massachusetts Bay ( 1814), 82-81, and the recent edition of the Acts and Re-
solves of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, under " Constables." Public Statutes of
Massachusetts (1882), "Constable." We have examined the Colonial Records of Con-
necticut, the New Haven Colonial Records, and the Records of the Colony of Rhode Isl-
and and Providence Plantations, as well as those of Plymouth Colony, but have no where
found so complete an exhibition of constabulary duty as that given in the first citation of
the Col. Records of Massachusetts. In the last edition of the Public Statutes of the Com-
monwealth of Massachusetts (1882) may be found certain cases of survival, such as the
power of requiring aid in cases of escape (217,239), and the duty of enforcing the law
against Sabbath-breaking and profane swearing.
t For other means of comparison between constabulary duty in New England and Old
England, see Lambard's " Duties of Constables," and Wilcox's " Office of Constable, com-
prising the laws relating to High, Perty and Special Constables, Head boroughs, Tithing-
men, Borsholdera and Watchmen, with an account of their institutions and appointment."
This is an English book, based upon Lambard and published about 18 17, republished in
Philadelphia, in 1840, by John S. Littell, in the so-called " Law Library." There are some
interesting remarks upon Constables in The Nineteenth Century, Feb. 1881, by Henry A.
Blake, on "The Irish Police." He says, " Everything in Ireland, from the muzzling of a
dog to the suppression of a rebellion, is done by the Irish constabulary."
31
entire strength of the People, the whole weight of the Common Law,
the accumulated force of civic experience and institutional history, may
be brought to bear in the restraint of violence and in the keeping of
the public peace by constabulary power. Consider what was rep-
resented by the "black staffe " which the Constables of early New
England carried in the execution of their office, that none might
plead ignorance. It was a black staff, "about five foote, or five &
a halfe foote long, tiped at ye upper end, about five or six inches,
with bras.se."* This Tipstaffe was something like the Black Rod
still borne by the Gentleman Usher of the English Parliament, when
he taps at the door of the House of Commons and summons them
to the bar of the House of Lords. The black staff of the New Eng-
land Constable was " provided by ye towne " as a symbol or badge
of office. AVe find mention of the Black Staff in the Town Records
of Salem and Groton.f What did this emblem signify historically?
It meant the approach of royal authority or of the sovereignty of the
Commonwealth. Among the East Saxons it was customary, once
a year, to carry the Wardstaff of the King, which represented his
person, from Hundred to Hundred, from Manor to Manor, and from
Parish to Parish, as a token of the entrance of the King's peace.
Wherever the Staff came, borne by the Bailiff of Ongar Hundred,
tenants and land-owners kept watch with the sacred emblem over
night "until the sunne arrising," so that "the King be harmless and
the countree scatheless." In the morning the Lord of the Town or
Manor repaired to the Wardstaff, and, in the presence of all the
Watch, scored thereon a notch as a token of loyal service done that
year. Then the Staff was delivered again to the Bailiff and sent on
to the Lord of the next Town or Manor, with a message in verse
'called the "Tale of the Wardstaffe," ending with these words :
" Sir, by leave, take this Staffe,
This is the Tale of the AYardstafic.''
And thus through all the Towns and Hundreds of Essex, the
willow staff was borne until it came to Atte Wode, where it was
thrown into the sea. J "With some such ceremony perhaps the Con-
stable's Tipstaffe was early associated as symbolizing the presence
of the King. Possibly the local keepers of tjie King's peace simply
touched the Wardstaff with their own staves, thus deriving a certain
measure of royal authority. It was certainly the custom in the Hun-
dreds or Wapentakes of the North of Lngland for the chief men of
the district to recognize the authority of the Ilundredman by touching
* Mass. Records, ii. 1.51 ; iv. Part T. 32.5. Constables "acting from their mine authority "
were required liy law to take witli them their lilaek staves in the execution of their office ;
but when armed with a warrant, they might carry their Tipstaffe or not, as they pleased,
see v. 29. Items concerning the use of this ancient emblem may also be found in the Acts
and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Hay. c. g. i. 1 ">'.
t Salem Town Records (Historical Collections of iv-scx Institute, Second .Series, vol. i.
147: "two hlaekstauesof sixc foot long or thereabout be provided for ye Constables, & Kd:
Batter to speak to (Iran: Perrv to banc them made." S. A. Green, Kailv Records u! tiro-
ton, 19 : Item " toe black stall; 3 (>."
I Palgrave, English Commonwealth, ii. clviii.-clxii., " Tale of the Wardstaff."
32
his lance with their own weapons in a public assembly.* If we may-
believe Herbert Spencer, the idea of royal sceptres developed from
the chieftain's spear, and " the spears borne by subordinates, sym-
bolizing their deputed authority, gradually changed into staves of
office, batons of command, and wands. "f The Old English Tip-
staffe was the legal badge of office for both Constables and Tithing-
men in the Massachusetts Colony. In the Plymouth Towns every
Constable was required by law to have " a constables staffe " to distin-
guish him in the discharge of his office, and to be delivered to his
successor as a symbol of the transfer of power .J These Tipstaves
have continued in use in many New England Towns down to a very
recent date. We remember to have seen within a few years at Am-
herst College Commencements, held in the old Parish Meeting
House, a force of special Constables employed to seat the " congre-
gation," and bearing black staves as an emblem of their official au-
thority. An aesthetic transformation of ancient custom may be seen
at Smith College Commencements, Northampton, where young
ladies acting as ushers carry tasteful wands, tipped, not with brass,
but with ribbon, and where the only vestige of constabulary duty
is a male professor, who stands on guard.
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of ancient constabulary power
as perpetuated in New England down to the present day, is the pow-
er to "speede away all hues & crys" against thieves, robbers, mur-
derers, and breakers of the public peace. This power connects New
England Towns most intimately, not only with Old English Parishes
but with Saxon Village Communities. In the early middle ages
the Hue and Cry was a terrible means of executing justice. It let
loose an entire village, like a pack of wolves, in pursuit of an out-
* Laws of Edward the Confessor, xxx. (Thorpe, Ancient Laws and Institutes of Eng-
land, i. 455). Everwichescire, Nicholescire, Notingeharascire, Leicestrescire, Norhamtun-
escire, et usque ad Watlingestrete, et viii. milliaria ultra Watlingestrete, sub lege An-
glorum. Et quod alii vocant hundredum, supradicti comitatus vocant wapentagium, et
hoc non sine causa: cum enim aliquis accipiebat prefecturara wapentagii, die constituto,
conveniebant omnes majores contra eum in loco uhi soliti erant congregari, et, descendente
eo de equo suo, omnes assurgebant contra eum, et ipse erigebat lanceam suam in altum, et
omnes de lanceis suis tangebant hastam ejus, et sic confirmabant se sibi. Et de armis, quia
arma vocant wappa, et taccare, quod est confirmare.
t Herbert Spencer, Ceremonial Institutions, 177. In Hazlitt's edition of Blount's Ten-
ures of Land and Customs of Manors, p. 80, is a very curious allusion to the Tithingman's
wand. "The Tithingman of Combe Keynes is obliged to do suit at Winfrith-court ; and
after repeating the following incoherent lines, pays threepence, and goes out without say-
ing another word :
With my white rod,
And I am a fourth post,
That threepence makes three,
God bless the King and the lord of the franchise ;
Our weights and our measures are lawful and true,
Good-morrow, Mr. Steward ; I have no more to say to you.
On default of any of these particulars the court leet of Combe is forfeited."
% Plymouth Colony Records, Laws, 122 ; Brigham's edition of Plymouth, Laws
(1836), 266. "Every Constable shall have a Black Staffe tipped with Brasse, as a
Badge of his office, which as he hath opportunity, he shall take with him when he
goeth to discharge any part of his office, yet notwithstanding, the want of his staffe shall
not hinder him from executing his office in any kinde, if occasionally he be without it, nor
exempt any from assisting him therein that may know him to be the Constable."
Mass. Col. Records, iv. Part I. 324.
33
law or fugitive. Every man called upon by the Reeve or Tithing-
man was obliged to leave work or repose and join the human hunt.
When the Hue and Cry reached the next village, the head man of
that place was obliged by the law of the Saxons to summon his
villagers and speed away. The whole Hundred and the whole Shire
were thus quickly aroused, and woe then to the wretched outlaw.
The country was filled with human hounds thirsting for his blood.
It is fearfully significant of the immense power invested in the early
New England Constable that he too could raise the old Saxon Hue
and Cry, "by foote, & if need be, by horse,"* in hot pursuit of all
capital offenders. In the King's name the Constable could raise the
Town and compel all men to join him in the pursuit of a criminal.
Not even the Selectmen could refuse his call for aid, under penalty
of the law.f And to this day the Petty Constables of New
England have the same old power. Should it become necessary,
the lowly officer of any obscure hamlet could assert, like the High
Sheriff^ of a County, the authority of the Commonwealth and com-
mand all the men in his neighborhood to join him in the preservation
of the peace. Petty Constables have the power of the State behind
them, and rely upon it. We have seen a crowd of men called upon
by a Parish Constable to aid him in arrest. The familiar cry of " Stop
Thief! " if raised by a Petty Constable, converts all persons who
hoar it into a constabulary band, or regular Hue and Cry to chase the
offender. With a warrant issued in due form, a Petty Constable
may pursue a criminal by foot or by horse, by railroad or tele-
graph, from Town to Town, from County to County, and may "ap-
prehend him in any place in the Common wealth. "
In these modern times of civic order and well-regulated peace, the
iron hand of Law is seldom laid with its full force upon a transgressor.
Constables occasionally serve a writ, or arrest a vagabond "overtaken
with drincke," but the chief duty of their office now appears to be
that of attending to their own private concerns and ignoring the
pranks of small boys. The Constable may be a quiet, unobtrusive
man, but Ik; still represents the majesty of Law. There is latent
power in the constabulary office, as in all our homely local insti-
tutions. The authority of the Townsmen sometimes sleeps, but it
is a lion sleeping before the gate of a citadel. The young lions of
liberty play fearlessly within the reach of Law, and still the lion
sleeps. But let an enemy approach from without, or a traitor come
forth from within. Lehold, a lion stands in the way. There is
a lion in the street.
* Mas. Col. Records, ii. 182. t Ibid, ii. 150.
X Public Stiitutes of M;i*v. ( IK82). *J i 7 . '-!.'$'.>.
} Ilcnick, Town Otliecr (IMV), Ml. Public Statutes of Mass. (ISS'2), J3.I.
34
Addendum.
Hog-Reeves or Hog-Constables.
In many old Towns in New England, for example in the ancient
Town of Plymouth, there is a surviving type of a local officer,
which is more primitive than the office of Tithingman or Petty Con-
stable. Before there were keepers of the village-peace in the Sax-
on sense, there were keepers of swine which roamed tribal domains.
Before nomad chieftains had stables and hostlers, they had their
flocks and herds and droves of swine, all with appointed herdsmen.
Although doubtless every chief had his servants trained for tribal
defence, as did Abraham his three hundred and eighteen men,* yet
pastoral institutions, like the herdsmen of Gerar who strove with
Isaac's herdsmen, f carry us back to a more rudimentary stage of soci-
ety than a numerically organized martial Host, like the Hundreds
and Tithings of the Saxons when they occupied Britain. In fact
the invading Saxons brought with them, in all probability, ideas of
older institutions than Hundredmen and Tithingmen, in short primi-
tive, more or less servile institutions, inherited by their ancestors from
the high pasture-lands of Asia, and connecting our Aryan race with
all pastoral peoples, if not with primitive savagery. Among those
institutions was that one of which Scott has given us a graphic de-
scription in the person of Gurth,J the Saxon Swine-Herd, who in
the upland pastures of the West Riding of Yorkshire represented not
merely the survival of primitive Saxon speech, but the survival of a
primitive pastoral office. In fact Scott calls him a second Eumauis,
who was the S wine-Herd of Odysseus. In Saxon England Swine-
Herds were a very necessary institution. Swine were so numerous in
the days of King Edgar that he was obliged to proclaim a law to the
effect that no animal of this species should be allowed to enter Church
if it could possibly be hindered. Hog-Reeves and Dog-Whippers
were stationed at cathedral doors in time of service to prevent pro-
fane intrusion. The function of dog-whipping was handed on to
New England Tithingmen and Constables, who sat at the doors of
the Meeting- House to keep out dogs and keep in boys. Hogreeves
were almost everywhere instituted in our early Towns.
In New England the very first liberties specifically granted to
Towns were concerning the herding of cattle and swine, and the reg-
ulation of fences and common fields. In the colonial records of
* Genesis, xiv. 14. f Ibid, xxvi. 20; cf. xiii. 7.
% Scott, Ivanhoe, chap. i. " One part of his dress . . . was a brass ring resembling
a dog's collar soldered fast around his neck, so loose as to form no impediment to his
breathing, yet so tight as to be incapable of being removed, excepting by the use of the
file. On this singular gorget was engraved in Saxon characters, an inscription of the fol-
lowing purport: ' Gurtb, the son of Beowulph, is the born thrall of Cedric of Rother-
wood.' " Rotherwood is an old name designating a place for Rother-beasts (from the
Saxon hrudher, mod. Ger. Rind). The term was usually applied to cows and oxen. Rother-
beasts are mentioned in the 3 and 4 Edward VI. Rother-beasts were brought over to New
England, see White's Planter's Plea, in Young's Chronicles of Massachusetts.
$ Thorpe, Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, ii. 251.
35
Massachusetts we find resolutions like the following : " Euery towne
shall haue liberty to make such orders aboute swine as they shall
judge best for themselues."* Towns were ordered to choose yearly
" 6ome one discreet person, who shalbee called the hogreeve, "J who
had power to seize all " wild swine," going without a keeper, with-
out yoke or tethering line, or some means of restraint. Swine were
often allowed to run at large if properly yoked or ringed. | It is
rather surprising to one familiar with the open lawns and beautiful
streets of Stockbridge, the model town of Berkshire, to find in its
original Town Records repeated entries like the following : " Voted,
that the hoggs be yoked and run at large by the 15th of April next."
In Stockbridge the llogreeves, as indeed all Town Officers, with the
exception of Moderator and Town Clerk, were originally Indians.
The Town Records are full of strange, uncouth Indian names, which
appear all the stranger from their combination with Old Testament
or Christian names ; for example, Jehoiakim Xau-naum-pe-tonk,
Constable ; David Xau-nau-nee-ke-nuk, Tithingman ; Jacob Nau-
nauqhtaunk, Hogreeve ; Solomon Waunaupaugus, Peter Popgun-
aupeet, and John Konkapot, Selectmen. We find " hog constibls
and lens uewers " in the Early Records of Groton, recently edited
by J)r. Samuel A. Green with careful reference to historical ortho-
graphy. The variety of ways in which Groton Town-Clerks con-
trived to spell || the same office is marvellous to behold. Evidently,
like General Jackson, they despised a man who could spell a word
in only one way.
The election of llogreeves is still kept up in many old New Eng-
land Towns. The conferment of that office at the annual Town-
Meeting is now regarded as a kind of municipal joke. Almost in-
variably the honor is given to persons who are least likely to appre-
ciate it, for example to newly married men. In the town of Ply-
mouth a rising young lawyer and a Harvard graduate, soon after his
marriage, was dignified by his fellow townsmen with the venerable
office of Hogreeve. Jn a Western Massachusetts Town we have
heard of a popular minister who was elected Hogreeve by the unani-
mous vote of his parishioners. He retaliated in a little speech, say-
ing that he had always supposed that he had been invited to that
town as a shepherd of the sheep, but he was now surprised to learn
that it was really as keeper of quite a different sort of animals.
* Muss. Records, i. 11!); of. i. Ill), 86, 87 ; Plymouth Col. Records, Laws, 15, 'J-'). '27, '!-!.
t Mass. Records, i. 1S2. In (iroton, Mas-., there were Swine-Herds and Overseers of
the Swine. See Green, Kaiiv Records, 111, 11"), "Swinerd."
{ Green, Early Records of Groton, IN, 108; Town Record.- of Salem, 64,08, So, 130, 143,
152.
jS MS. Town Records of Stockbridge, March 15, 1748.
|| Green, Kurly Records of Groton, SS; cf. DU, " Constibll; " 98, " Constabclle ;" 'A
" cunstabell;" 10S, "feucfuer;" 115, " fence ueers," llfi, "fene newer."
36
Documents defining the Duties of Constables.
18 Somerset Street, Boston, Mass.,
Sept. 15, 1881.
H. B. Adams, Esq.,
Dear Sir : Jonas Humfrey,* of Dorchester, the ancestor of the family
(Humphrey or Humphreys) in that town, arrived in " 1637," on " the
9 th of September."! The next clay, as appears by the Dorchester Town
Records, he bought the house, home lot, and other lands of William Han-
num.t This home lot has been in possession of the family to the present
time, and is now owned and occupied by Deacon Henry Humphreys, of the
seventh generation in descent from Jonas,who was, according to tradition, a
constable in Wendover, co. Bucks, England, before coming to this country.
Tradition further states that he brought with him two original papers in
which the duties of a constable are set forth very explicitly, in twelve arti-
cles. The first document sent you with this, I carefully copied from one
of those papers. The second was transcribed from a manuscript copy.
The original of the latter $. saw and made a fac-simile of more than thirty
years ago. I am sorry to say that both the original and the fac-simile are
now missing. Yours truly,
William B. Trask.
To the Constables of Wendouer Burrough cum fforence|| and to eu'y of
them
These are in his Ma t8 : name to will & require yo w to giue notice of these
Articles hereunto annexed to the Church wardens & ou'seers of y e poore of
yo r pish and that both you and the said Church wardens & ou'seers doe
bringe vnto his Ma u : Justices at the Red Lyon in Wendouer on Wednes-
day the 27 th . of this Instant Moneth of June by Eight of the Clock in the
forenoone their Presentm'*: according to each Articles as they shall be-
longe to their seu'all offices And farther that Yo w : doe certifye to his
Ma 18 Justices exactly w l : Alehouses are licensed and W l : vnlicensed w th in
yo r lib'ties Strictly enioyning all the said Alehouse keepers licensed and
vnlicensed not to fayle to be before his Ma ts : Justices at the same tyme and
that w th the aduice of the minister & some three o r fower of the most Sub- .
stantiall Inhabitants yo w doe certifye vnto them what number of Alehouses
are fit to be licensed in you r pish and what psons are fittest to keepe them
and alsoe that you certifye to them what psons there are that doe vsually
vent & sell Tobacco by retayle in yo r towne & of their fitnesse soe to doe,
together w th the names of such othe r psons as you shall thinke fitt to be
admitted to vse that trade together with the trade w ch they now vse And
farther that you keepe a diligent and strict Warden by daye & Wacth by
night and that you doe vpon Tewsdaye the 26 th of this Instant June take
* See History of Dorchester, 101, 124.
t Manuscript of the late Deacon James Humphreys, who died in Dorchester, July 13,
1845, aged 92 years.
t See Fourth Report of the Record Commissioners, Boston, 1880, page 24.
} Clapp Memorial, xvii., 274, 275.
i| " The parish of Wendover includes the Borough and the Forrens, the latter being tha t
portion, within the limits of the township, which was not entitled to burgage privileges."
Ibid, xvii.
37
w th you sufficient ayde and make a priuate & dilygent search w lh in yo r lib-
ertyes fo r Rogues vagabonds and idle persons & that yo w bringe before his
Ma' 8 : Justices to the place aforesaid on the sayd 27 th day of June all such
of them as shall seeme stuidve dangerous and incorrigible and that yo w : doe
punish & send away accordinge to law all such as are not dangerous & in-
corrigible and that yo w : be then & there p r sent to giue a strict accoirrpt of
the due execution hereof fayle not dated this 20 th day of June 1632 :
Ifrom S' Leonards p me W"' Gkaunge
You and the Church wardens remember to pay the q'teridge fo r the kings
bench Marshalseys and inayned souldyers to me on the Day abouesayd at
yo r towne.
Warrant Bucks.
Articles to be diligently enquired of and distinctly & particulary an-
swered unto in writing by the high Constables within every hundred, and
by the petty Constables & Tithing men in euery parish, town & hamlet, at
the assises to be holden for the Countye of Bucks.
1. You shall enquire of and truely report the name of all Popish recu-
sants in your parish who do forbeare to repaire to the Church according to
the law. The names of men & women or dame of the Who do not
familye, The names of the servants by their surnames I ordinarily
& names of baptisms, the names of all Schollmasters resort
And you shall certifye the names of all such persons, as to the Church
make or resort unto any pryvate Conventicles, or meetings, under colour of
exercise of religion.
2. You shall present the names of all such, as doe not resort to devine
service every Sunday according to the law, & Certifye. whether the 12 d for-
feyted be required & received and duely imployed for the poore ; of whom it
hath been levied & of whom neglected.
.'5. You shall certifye, what felonyes have been comited within your
towne & parish, which have come to your knowledge : against whome, of
what kind & nature. & who hath prosecuted the same ; & if any robbe-
ry es since the assises last past have been committed, you certifie whether
hue and cry have been made, and the same have been duely pursued by
horsemen & footmen, or in whose default, or by whose negligence the
same hath fay led to be duely pursued, & also whether watches have been
duely kept for the apprehension of fellions or vagrants, or by whose default
the same have been neglected.
1. You shall Certify'', what, vagrant persons have been apprehended
within your parish since the tynie aforesaid, and what lett pass not, appre-
hended, or not punished ; who have been sent to the house of correc-
tion, when &, how they have been delivered from thence ; & liv whose neg-
ligence same hath happened, & who have relieved such vagrants with meat,
drink, or lodging.
5. You shall enquire & certifye what cottages erected, by whom, & by
whose mealies contrary to the statute of 3 d Kli/. & what inmates intertayn-
ed, & by whom.
b. You shall certifye how many tavernes, innes, alehouses, it typling
houses their arc in the parish, who keep the same, how long they have kept
them. & which of these alehouses are licensed, and which not, & in what
38
places their houses stand, & whether they sell ale or beere according to
the assise or not; which of these innes intertayne neighbours as alehouses ;
who hath been drunk within the parish since the last assise, & in what inne
or alehouse, the same hath hapned, & who have mayntayned any urdawful
games their.
7. You shall enquire who are or have been since the tyme aforesaid in-
grossers, forestalled, regrators, of corn within said county, or any other
county, who dwell or reside within your precinct, what kind of corne or
grain & of what quantitye they have been ingrossers, & forestallers, or re-
grators ; & who are maltsters within your parish to sell there mault againe,
& who use brew houses for ale or beere within your parish, & who of them
6ell to any unlicensed alehouse.
8. You shall certifie the names of all the petty Constables in your towne
& parish, & their abilyties, & by whom they have been made, nominated,
or chosen to the end that men of abilytie & good discretion maybe choseu
to these places.
9. You shall enquire, & certifye, what servants have been put out of
service, or have put themselves out of service, & their termes not expired,
where this hath hapned, & what is become of such servants; & what un-
married persons of able bodye live out of service, whether they have meanes
to live without labor ; if they doe labor, who sett them on worke.
10. You shall enquire what bridges, or high waves are in decay in your
parish, & through whose default the same hath hapned.
11. You shall enquire and certifie what causes are provided in your
parish for setting the poore on worke, or how or by what meanes the
poore are sett on worke in your parish ; & what apprentices have been
placed, or bound forth in your parish, & who refused to receive & keep any
apprentice soe offered to be put forth by the Justices of peace ; what bas-
tard hath been born within your parish, who the mother, who the reputed
father, how they have been punished, & how the bastard provided for.
12. You shall enquire & certifie what ryotts have beene committed in
your parish, within the time aforesayd, by whome, when & how the same
hath beene punished.
High Constable of the hundred shall call the petty constables before him,
a weeke before the Assises, & receive their answers in writing, to every one
of these 1 2 articles.
And, the High Constable & every of the petty Constables shall affirme
the truth of their Certificates upon their Oath, on or before the Assises, be-
fore one of the Justices of the peace, a week before the assises or at the
monthly meetings of the Justices of that division.
You are to returne answer Jo. Heath
in writing to euery of Fv s Haynes
these 12 articles to me
at Wendouer the 27 th
of June alsoe.
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
IN
Historical and Political Science
HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor
History is past Politics and Politics present History. Freeman
IX-X
VILLAGE COMMUNITIES
CAPE ANNE AND SALEM
From the Historical Collections of the Essex Institute
By HERBERT B. ADAMS, Ph. D.
BALTIMORE
Published ry tiik Johns Hopkins University
JULY AND AUGUST, 1883.
JOHN MURPHY & CO., PRINTERS,
BALTIMORE.
IX-X
VILLAGE COMMUNITIES
CAPE ANNE AND SALEM
"The nature of everything is best seen in its smallest portions." Aristotle.
" The doctrine of the sovereignty of the people came out of the townships and took
possession of the states. Political life had its origin in the townships ; and it may almost
be said that each of them formed an independent nation." Be Tocqueville.
" By Cape Anne there is a plantation a beginning by the Dorchester [England] men,
which they hold of those of New Plimoth." Captain John Smith.
"In planting the colony at Cape Ann, the stock was consumed, but a foundation was
laid on which now rests one of the leading States of -a great nation." Babson, Hist, of
Gloucester.
"There are in all of us, both old and new planters, about three hundred, whereof
two hundred of them are settled at Nehum-kek, now called Salem, and the rest have
planted themselves at Masathulets Bay, beginning to build a town there, which we do
call Cherton or Charles town." Higginson.
"Some native merchant of the East, they say,
(Whether Canton, Calcutta or Bombay),
Had in his counting-room a map, whereon
Across the field in capitals was drawn
The name of SALEM, meant to represent
That Salem was the Western Continent,
While in an upper corner was put down
A dot named Boston, SALEM'S leading town." Rev. Charles T. Brooks.
THE
FISHER-PLANTATION
AT
CAPE ANNE
Br Hkkuekt B. Adams.
Early in the year 1(524 Robert Cushman, the chief bus-
iness agent of the Pilgrim fathers, wrote Governor Brad-
ford from England: "We have tooke a patente for Cape
Anne." 1 This patent, which may be seen in the library of
the Essex Institute at Salem, was issued by Lord Sheffeild,
a member of the Council for New England, to the asso-
ciates of Robert Cushman and Edward Winslow, the latter
having been sent to England in 1623 in the interests of
Plymouth Colony. The patent gave "free liberty, to rb'sh,
fowle, hawke, and hunt, truck and trade" in the region of
Cape Anne. Five hundred acres of land were to be re-
served "for puhlig vscs, as for the building of a Towne,
Scholes, Churches, Ilospitalls" and for the maintenance of
such ministers, magistrates, and other local officers as
might be chosen by the corporation. Thirty acres of land
1 Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation. MO.
(3)
were to be allotted to every person, young or old, who
should come and dwell at Cape Anne within the next
seven years. These allotments were to be made "in one
entire place, and not singling indyvers or remote parcells."
The whole grant was not to exceed one and a half miles
in length along the water front. A yearly rent of twelve
pence were to be paid Lord Sheffeild for every thirty acres
occupied. Authority was given to make laws and ordi-
nances for the government of the plantation and to repel
intruders by force of arms.
Such was the legal basis for the settlement and defence
of an English town upon Cape Anne, where Gloucester
was afterwards built. In these provisions for local gov-
ernment, schools, churches, hospitals, freehold land tenure,
and commons for public use, we recognize the leading in-
stitutions which have entered into the town -life of New
England. The idea of all these institutions originated in
Old England, and ancient statutes of the realm are full of
legislation regarding them. Even the Yankee disposition
to truck and trade, to hunt and fish, was inherited from
a nation of traders and adventurers, and by them from
their Germanic forefathers. English commerce and Eng-
lish colonies sprang primarily from the amber-dealing
tribes of the Baltic and sea-roving, colonizing bands of
Northmen. The spirit of Saxon and Norman enterprise
dawned upon New England from shores beyond the
ocean.
But the Fisher Plantation at Cape Anne proved for the
Pilgrims a failure, partly because, as Bradford says,
"they made so pore a bussines of their fishing ;" 2 and
partly because of the exorbitant charges by English mer-
chants for advancing colonial goods. Bradford says,
* Bradford, 197.
"they put 40 in ye hundred upon them, for profite and
adventure, outward bound ; and because of ye venture
of ye paiment homeward, they would have 30 in ye hun-
dred more, which was in all 70 per cent !" 3 The audacity
of these shop-keepers who wrote their "loving friends"
about " ye glorie of God and the furthrance of our coun-
trie-men" is, however, less amazing than the fearless en-
terprise of the colonists who dared to assume such finan-
cial burdens, and actually succeeded, in a few years, in
paying oil" a debt of 2,400. They did it by an extensive
fur-trade with the Indians, whom they paid in wampum,
the value of which the Pilgrims had learned from Dutch
traders, and the art of manufacturing which from qua-
haugs and periwinkles, they probably acquired from the
Narragansetts. 4
* Bradford, 201. James Shirley, one of the English capitalists, writing to Gov-
ernor Bradford, says: ''It is true (as you write) that your ingagments are great,
not only the purchass, but you are yet necessitated to take up y stock you work
upon ; and that not at 6 or 8 per cent, as it is here let out, hut at 30. 40, and some
at 00 per cent, which, were not your gaiuos great, and God's blessing on your honest
indeaours more then ordinarie, it could not be y< you should longe subei6te in
y maintaining of, & upholding of your worldly affaires" (Bradford, 228-9). Such
facts are very solid testimony in favor of the business energy of the Pilgrim
fathers.
4 "That which turned most to their profite," says Bradford (234) "was an
entrance into the trade of Wampampeake" (wompam and peag). They learned
the value of this kind of currency from the Dutch who " tould them how vendable
it was at their forte Orania" (Fort Orange, or Albany). The Pilgrims bought
50 worth of this shell money from the Dutch, and introduced it in payment for
beaver and other peltry, among the inland tribes of New England, and at the
Plymouth trading post on the Kennebec. "At first", says Bradford, very naively,
" it stuck, & it was 2 years before they, [i. e. the Plymouth people] could put of
this small quantity, till y* inland people knew of it; and afterward they could
scarce ever y<tt enough for them, for many years togeatlicr." We have been told
by a local antiquary in Plymouth that the Pilgrims established a manufactory of
fiat wampum upon Plymouth beach. Probably they got the idea from the Ithode
Island Indians, "for," as Bradford says, "ye Narigansets doe geather ye shells of
which yey make it from their shors" (235). Compare Hubbard's History of New
Kngland, to 100; Wheildon's Curiosities of History, 32; Arnold's Ithode Island,
i, 81 ; Collections of Rhode Island Hist. Soc., iii. 20 et scq. There appear to have
been two sorts of shell-money ; 'the black or dark-purple, which was made from
quahaugs or round clams, ami the white, which was made from the stem of
periwinkles. J. Hammond Trumbull says " wompam was the name of the white
6
English speculators were not slow to realize the pos-
sible advantages which might accrue from an occupation
of the stern and rock-bound coast of New England.
Even before the issue of the Cape Anne patent to men of
Plymouth, certain merchants from the west of England,
especially of Dorchester, 6 had sent their agents to catch
fish off the promontory of Cape Anne, which in 1614 had
been named "Tragabizanda " by Captain John Smith "for
the sake of a lady from whom he received much favor
while he was a prisoner amongst the Turks," 6 but which
soon gracefully yielded to the baptismal name of the con-
sort of King James. In 1624, encouraged by the fame of
New Plymouth and by the Rev. John White of Dorches-
ter, the merchants of that neighborhood sent over sundry
persons to carry on a regular plantation at Cape Anne,
"conceiving that planting on the laud might go on equally
with fishing on the sea." John Tylly was appointed
overseer of the fisheries and Thomas Gardener, of the
plantation, at least for one year. At the end of that time,
beads collectively; when strung or wrought in girdles, they constituted waumpeg
.... The English called all peag, or strung beads, by the name of the white,
wampom," see pp. 140, 175-7, of his edition of Roger Williams, " Key into the
language of America," Publications of the Narragansett Club, vol. i. This remark-
able treatise by Roger Williams, which may also be found in the Collections of
the Rhode Island Hist. Soc. vol. 17-163, contains a chapter on Indian Money
or " Coyne," which is, perhaps, the most authentic source of original information
concerning this subject. Other notices may be found in Wood's New England's
Prospect ii, cap. 3; Lechford's Plaine Dealing, (Trumbull's ed. 1867) 116; and
Josselyn's Account of Two Voyages to New England (ed. 1865) 110-11. The latter
says the Indians work out their money " so cunningly that neither Jew nor devil
can counterfeit."
'Hubbard, General History of New England, 105.
'Ibid. Compare Capt. John Smith's description of New England (ed. 1865) 17,
where we find "Cape Trabigzanda" given as the old name of "Cape Anne." Else-
where, 44, he speaks of " the faire headland Tragabigzanda." However the Turkish
beauty would have spelled her name if she had had a chance, it is quite certain
that Princess Anne of Denmark (1589-1619), daughter of Frederic II, spelled hers
with an "e." The Patent was for "Cape Anne" and the older writers all have
it so. Thornton also adopts this, the true historic form. Although Cape Ann is
now sanctioned by popular usage, it is nevertheless a kind of slipshod vulgarism,
like Rapidan for Rapid Ann, Mary Ann for Marianne or Mariana.
Roger Conant was made governor. The little colony
appears to have sheltered itself under the protection of
the Plymouth patent. 7 Captain John Smith, in his Gen-
erall Historie, which was published in 1624, with an ab-
stract of Mourt's Relation, says "by Cape Anne there is a
plantation a beginning by the Dorchester men, which
they hold of those of New Plimoth, who also I)}' them
have set up a fishing worko." 8
A quarrel soon broke out between the two parties. In
the absence of the Plymouth fishermen, some Dorchester
employes, under the command of one Mr. Hewes, came
over to Cape Anne and took possession of a fishing stage
built by Plymouth people the year before. Captain
Stand ish and his men came up and peremptorily de-
manded the restoration of the staging. The occupants
barricaded themselves upon it with hogsheads, while the
Captain's party stood threatening upon shore. The dis-
pute grew hot, says Hubbard, and high words passed be-
tween the opposing parties. The affair might have ended
in blood and slaughter, if it had not been for the prudence
and moderation of Governor Conant, who promised the
Plymouth men that another staging should be built for
them. Hubbard's pious condemnation of Standish, who
undoubtedly had justice on his side, is an unconscious
satire upon "the unco guid " spirit which pervades early
New England history. " Captain Standish had been bred
a soldier in the Low Countries, and had never entered the
school of our Savior Christ, or of John the Baptist, his
harbinger, or, if he was ever there, had forgot his first
lessons, to oiler violence to no man, and to part with the
'Thornton, Landing at Cape Anne, for text of Patent ami interesting observa-
tions thereon, 31-47.
Smith, General! Historic, 247. Cf. Bradford, Hist, or Plymouth Plantation,
note by Mr. Deane, 1G9.
8
cloak rather than needlessly contend for the coat, though
taken away without order. A little chimney is soon
fired ; so was the Plymouth captain, a man of very
little stature, yet of very hot and angry temper. The
fire of his passion soon kindled and blown up into a
flame by hot words, might easily have consumed all, had
it not been seasonably quenched." 9 The conduct of Stand-
ish, instead of being reprehensible, appears to have been,
on the whole, remarkably forbearing.
Hubbard also speaks in rather contemptuous terms of
the Plymouth title to Cape Anne as "a useless Patent." 10
It was the only legal basis that the Cape Anne colony
ever had, but it is truly remarkable that the Dorchester
intruders should have asserted the right of defence, which
the patent gave the Plymouth people and their associates,
against the real owners of the soil and have finally
expelled them altogether. This was the virtual conclu-
sion of the whole matter : the Plymouth people went off
to the Kennebec in 1625, 11 and the Dorchester men re-
mained in possession of. Cape Anne. There was more
Hubbard, 110-11. Cf. Bradford, 196. i Hubbard, 110.
u In the latter part of the above year the Plymouth people sent a boat-load of
Indian corn up the Kennebec river, and brought home 700 lbs. of beaver skins, be-
sides other peltry. Bradford, 204.
In the year 1627, Plymouth colony sent Mr. Allerton to England with "what
beaver they could spare to pay some of their ingagements, & to defray his chargs ;
for those deepe interests still keptethem loto. Also he had order to procure apatente
for a fltt trading place in ye river of Kenebeck; for being emulated both by the
planters at Piscataway & other places to ye eastward of them, and allso by ye
fishing ships, which used to draw much proflte from ye Indeans of those parts,
they [the Plymouth people] threatened to procure a grante, <f shutte them out from
thence . espetially after they saw them so well furnished with commodities, as to
carie the trade from them [Plymouth]. They thought it but needful to prevent
such a thing, at least that they might not be excluded from free trade ther, wher
them selves had first begune and discovered the same, and brought it to so good
effecte." We perceive by this extract from Bradford's History (221-2) that the
Pilgrim Fathers were wise in their own generation. With the Kennebec trading-
post in mind, Messrs. Bradford, Standish, Allerton, Winslow, Brewster, Howland,
Alden, and Prince hired the trade of Plymouth colony for a term of six years,
assumed all the debts of the corporation, bought off the Merchant Adventurers
(retaining the aid of a few of the more honorable capitalists), and thus placed the
affairs of New Plymouth upon a good business foundation. Bradford, 226-32.
method in the above seizure of the Plymouth staging than
would appear from Hubbard's account. It seems from
Bradford's version of the affair that certain of the mer-
chant adventurers, who had fitted out the Plymouth col-
ony, were now trying to dislodge them from their fishing
station. Already factions had arisen among the English
company, and " some of Ly fords & Oldoms friends, and
their adherents, set out a shipe on fishing, on their owne
accounte, and getting ye starte of ye ships [of Plymouth]
that came to the plantation, they tooke away their stage,
& other necessary provisions that they had made for fish-
ing at Cap-Anne ye year before, at their great charge,
and would not restore ye same, exccpte they would fight
for it." 12
The first foundation of Massachusetts was for the same
end as the first occupation of the islands of Venice, namely,
for fishery. There is a more general truth than is usual-
ly imagined in the story told in Cotton Mather's Mag-
nalia of the Puritan minister who once ventured to address
a congregation of fishermen at Marblehead. He was ex-
horting them to be a religious people, otherwise, he said,
you will contradict the main end of planting this wilder-
ness. "Sir," said one of the fishermen, ''you are mis-
taken. You think you are preaching to the people at
the Bay. Our main end was to catch fish" ! u Without
doubt, both Pilgrims and Puritans had religious motives
in coming to America, but they had also secular motives.
As English colonists under English law, they came to plant
civil as well as religious society, and they distinguished
more sharply between things civil and ecclesiastical than
is commonly supposed. Moreover, the investment of
English capital in the colonial enterprise of both Pil-
" Itrailford, li. Cf. 169, note.
13 Young, Chronicles of Mass., 6.
10
grims and Puritans cannot be explained upon religious
grounds. The prospective fur-trade and fisheries procured
financial support for Plymouth and Massachusetts. When
Pilgrim agents were soliciting King James for a colonial pa-
tent, he inquired what profits might arise. "Fishing," they
replied laconically. "So God have my soul," said the King,
"'tis an honest trade ; 'twas the Apostles' own calling." 14
But fishing never proved very profitable to Plymouth in
early times. The Pilgrims had such constant bad luck
that it became proverbial, "a thing fatal." 15 Bradford
said they "had allway lost by fishing." 16 Their chief bus-
iness success lay in trading wampum and Indian corn for
beaver-skins and other peltry. On the other hand, not
merely the material support but the original motive for
the Cape Anne Colony, which was the first foundation of
Massachusetts, lay chiefly in the fisheries. "During the
whole lustre of years, from 1625", says Hubbard, "there
was little matter of moment acted in the Massachusetts,
till the year 1629, after the obtaining the Patent; the
former years being spent in fishing and trading by the
agents of the Dorchester merchants, and some others of
West Country." 17 Long previous to 1625 "the foresaid
merchants . . . yearly sent their ships thither" 18 to Cape
Anne for purposes of fishing. The idea of a permanent
plantation there was suggested by the prosperity of Ply-
mouth, but the plantation was to be mainly in aid 19 of the
fisheries. Fishing continued to be and has always been
the chief interest at Cape Anne. It was for the possession
of this vantage ground that the Pilgrims and Dorchester
employes were rivals.
The planters of Cape Anne, who professed themselves
14 Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 383. " Bradford, 168, 16 Ibid, 262.
" Hubbard, 110. Ibid, 106.
l * White, Planter's Plea, in Young's Chron. of Mass., 6-6.
11
"servants of the Dorchester Company" 20 were by no means
irreligious men. They leaned, however, more towards
the Church of England than toward the Separatism of
Plymouth. Hubbard says "the Adventurers, hearing of
some religious and well-affected persons, that were lately
removed out of New Plymouth, out of dislike of their
principles of rigid Separation (of which number Mr.
Roger Conant was one, a religious, sober, and prudent
gentleman . . .) they pitched upon him for the managing
and government of all their affairs at Cape Anne. . . .
Together with him, likewise, they invited Mr. Lyford,
lately dismissed from Plymouth, to be the minister of the
place ; and Mr. Oldham, also discharged on the like account
from Plymouth, was invited to trade for them with the
Indians. All these three at that time had their dwelling at
Nantasket. Mr. Lyford accepted, and came along with
Mr. Conant. Mr. Oldham liked better to stay where he
was for awhile, and trade for himself, and not become liable
to give an account of his gain or loss. But after a year's
experience, the Adventurers, perceiving their design not
like to answer their expectation, at least as to any present
advantage, threw all up ; yet were so civil to those that
were employed under them, as to pay them all their
ivages, and proffered to transport them back whence they
came, if so they desired." 21
The Cape Anne experiment thus proved a failure for
the Dorchester merchants, as it had done for the Pilgrim
fathers. It would obviously be quite as unfair to ascribe
to base and material motives the failure of the merchants
in planting a sterile shore as it would to ascribe to spirit-
ual considerations the failure of the Pilgrims in fishing a
barren sea. The Dorchester merchants appear to have
,0 Thornton, Landing at Cape Anne, 58, 59; see depositions of Woodbury ami
Brackenbury. " Hubbard. 10U-7.
12
been very honorable and generous men. The Reverend
John White, whom Hubbard calls "one of the chief foun-
ders of the Massachusetts Colony," 22 was associated with
them as a stock-owner (as he probably had been with the
capitalists who fitted out the Plymouth colony 23 ) although,
as Wood tells us, he "conformed to the ceremonies of the
Church of England." 24 The explanation of the failure of
the Cape Anne enterprise is not to be sought in the char-
acter of the men, for a better set of colonists never trod
the shores of the New World than the Old Planters 25 who
left the unproductive Cape and founded the town of Sa-
lem. The plain fact is that the spot originally chosen
was a poor one for a new plantation. Roger Conant never
liked the place, and soon began to make inquiries for one
more commodious, which he found a little southwest-
ward from Cape Anne, upon the further side of a creek
called Naumkeag. Cape Anne was consequently aban-
doned, but it was the stepping-stone to Salem.
Ibid, 107.
s Bradford's Letter-Book, Collections of Mass. Hist. Soc, 1st series, iii, 48, for
list of Plymouth adventurers. Cf. Bradford's History, note by the editor, 213.
34 Young's Chronicles of Mass., 26, note.
6 The best account of the antecedents and belongings of the Old Planters of
Salem may be found in George D. Phippen's article upon this subject in the Hist.
Coll. of the Essex Institute, i, 97 et seq. Thornton's Landing at Cape Anne is
also a pioneer effort in this interesting Held of Massachusetts beginnings. The stu-
dent of Hubbard would naturally infer that only four or five men removed with
Roger Conant from Cape Anne to Naumkeag, but Mr. Phippen shows that there
were more than a dozen emigrants. He gives the following list; Roger Conant,
(governor), John Lyford (minister), John Woodbury (who became the first con-
stable of Salem), Humphrey Woodbury, John Balch (ancestor of the Beverly
Balches), Peter Palfrey (progenitor of the historian of New England), Capt. Traske
(ancestor of W. B. Traske of Dorchester, who lately transcribed the Suffolk Deeds),
William Jeffrey, John Tylly, Thomas Gardner, William Allen, Thomas Gray, Wal-
ter Knight, Richard Norman and his son of the same name, which clings yet to
the reef of Norman's Woe, where one of the family was lost. Compare Thorn-
ton's list (Landing at Cape Anne, 63). Mr. Phippen thinks that, including men,
women and children, there must have been, at least, thirty people in the little mi-
gration which colonized Salem. The colony at Cape Anne, he conjectures, num-
bered not far from fifty persons. White, in his Planter's Plea, says, "In building
bouses the first stones of the foundation are buried underground and are not seen."
We shall find the Old Planters very lively stones in the upbuilding of Salem.
ORIGIN
SALEM PLANTATION
Br Herbert B. Adams.
One of the proximate causes for the removal of Roger
Conant and his associates to the green, inviting meadows
of Naumkeag was undoubtedly the desire of obtaining
better accommodations for the pasturing of cattle. Some
of the colonists had now gone home to England or had re-
sumed their seafaring life; "but a few of the most hon-
est and industrious," as the Reverend John White tells us
in his Planters' Plea, "resolved to stay behind and take
charge of the cattle sent over the year before." 1 Not lik-
ing the pastoral facilities of Cape Anne, which White
says had been chosen rather on account of its advantages
for fishing, the little company of a do/en or more men,
White, Planters' Plea, In Young's Chronicles of Massachusetts, 12.
This l'lea was obviously written In the interests of the colonization as a business.
The work is lull of llnancial data, matters of profit anil loss in the llshcries and fur-
trade, and throws more li^'lit upon "the causes moving such a- have lately vndcr-
taken a plantation in New England" than any existing documentary evidence,
apart from the original records of the Massachusetts Company.
(13)
14
who now remained, transported themselves witli their fam-
ilies and cattle, to Naumkeag, where they found fresh
fields and pastures new. A common for pasture was Sa-
lem, therefore, in its historic origin, and a common for
historical browsing does Salem yet remain.
Another occasion for the original occupation of Naum-
keag was the excellent opportunity here presented for
raising Indian corn. We are told by an almost contem-
porary historian, who probably obtained his information
from Roger Conant himself, that Naumkeag "afforded a
considerable quantity of planting land,
Here," continues Hubbard in his narrative, "they took up
their station upon a pleasant and fruitful neck of land, en-
vironed with an arm of the sea on each side". 2 It ap-
pears that the place was to a considerable extent, an open
tract of country. It was certainly the inviting meadow
and the "quantity of planting land" which attracted the
attention of the first explorers. Here they found, already
cleared for their use, what the ancient Germans would
have termed a Mark. Here lay the camporum spatia? the
wide-extending open spaces, in which, according to Tacitus,
the Germans found division of land an easy matter. There
can be little doubt that the first settlers of Naumkeag: found
here as good an opening as did many German villages in
the Black Forest or the Odenwald. The Reverend Fran-
cis Higginson, in his New England's Plantation, says,
"Though all the country be, as it were, a thick wood for
the general, yet in divers places, there is much ground
cleared by the Indians, and especially about the Planta-
tion [Naumkeag] ; and I am told that about three miles
from us a man may stand on a little hilly place and see di-
8 Young's Chron. of Mass., 21.
* Tacitus, Germania, Cap. 26.
15
vers thousands of acres of ground as good as need to be,
and not a tree in the same." 4
It is one of the most interesting facts connected with
the plantation of many New England towns that they
were built upon open spaces formerly cultivated by the In-
dians. Plymouth was planted, not under "the rocking
pines of the forest" but in an old Indian corn-field, prob-
ably near the site of some ancient Indian village, which
had been devastated by the pestilence that swept off so
many Indian tribes before the English came over. The
Pilgrim record says, "we came to a conclusion by most
voices, to set on the main land, . . upon a high
ground, where there is a great deal of land cleared, and
hath been planted with corn three or fouryears ago." 5 Al-
though there is no such original record of the planters of
Naumkeag, yet doubtless it was by some such informal
vote, by the agreement of the greatest number, that
Roger Conant and his little company determined to occupy
this "pleasant and fruitful neck of land." So pleasant, in
fact, and at the same time so ancient did the Puritan clergy
afterward consider this old Indian locality, that some of
* Francis Eligginson, New England's Plantation (Young, 244.)
Thomas Graves, also, a professional engineer and surveyor, who came over with
Hlgginson, to lay out towns and investigate the resources of the country, its mines,
minerals, salt springs, etc., con linns the above testimony. Graves had been a great
"traveller in diver-- foreign parts," but says, ''Thus much 1 can a 111 nil in general, that
I never came in a more goodly country in all my life, all things considered. If it
hath not at any time been manured and husbanded, yet it is very beautiful in open
lands mixed with goodly woods, and again open plains, in some places live hun-
dred acres, some places more, some less, not much troublesome for to clear for
the plough to go in; no place barren but on the tops of the bills. The grass and
weeds grow up to a man's face in the lowlands, and by fresh rivers abundance of
grass and large meadows, without any tree or shrub to hinder the bcj the." Graves
says that, for cattle, corn, and grapes, he never saw any such land, except in Ger-
many and Hungary, to which latter country he is always inclined to liken New
England. See Young, 364. For an interesting note on Thomas Graves, see Young,
152.
n Mourt's Relation, or the Journal of liradford and Winslow, in Young's Chron-
icles of the Pilgrims, 124, 107,200, 829; Young's tin on. id Mass. 244.
16
the more learned divines were disposed to identify Naum-
keag with the Hebrew Nahumkeike, signifying by inter-
pretation, the "bosom of consolation," or, as Cotton
Mather said, a "haven of comfort." 6 And Francis Hig-
ginson, who, with "a company of honest planters," joined
the original settlers, called the place Salem from the Peace, 7
which they found here ; although, according to another
account, there arose some little jealousy between the old
and new comers, which was finally allayed, the new He-
brew name then replacing the old by common consent to
commemorate the establishment of an era of good feeling
among neighbors. 8 But without laying stress upon pious
etymologies, or upon the theory that Salem was once the
abode of the lost tribes of Israel, we may safely say that
the discouraged fishermen from Cape Anne found here a
tolerably attractive opening in what has been called "an
immeasurable expanse of lofty forests shrouded in the sable
gloom of ages." 9 We may also rest assured that the Puri-
tans, wandering away from their mother country and mother
church, sought and found here upon this beautiful neck of
Indian land, within the arms of the sea, that peace which
the exiled Dante 10 found only in his grave.
The forest clearing originally occupied by the planters
Mather, Magnalia, i, 328.
T Higginson's Journal in Young's Chron. of Mass., 21.
8 Young, Chron. of Mass., 12, 21, 31, 145. The name of Concord, N. H., was
thus chosen to commemorate the establishment of peace between two rival juris-
dictions.
8 Drake, History and Antiquities of Boston, 56 (a passage concerning the condi-
tion of the country about Conant's plantation).
10 Dante's Divine Comedy, Inferno. Longfellow's Illustrations, Letter of Frate
Ilario: "Hither he came, passing through the diocese of Luni, moved either by
the religion of the place, or by some other feeling. And seeing him, as yet un-
known to me and to all my brethren, I questioned him of his wishings and his
seekings there. He moved not ; but stood silently contemplating the columns and
arches of the cloister. And again I asked him what he wished, and whom he
sought. Then, slowly turning his head, and looking at the friars and at me, he
answered: "Peace."
17
of Naumkcag was held by them in virtual commonage.
They were acting as representatives of the Dorchester
Company, which had sent over the very cattle that the
colonists were now trying to preserve in the interest of
their patrons. For the encouragement of these faithful
men and as an earnest of future aid towards the establish-
ment of a permanent plantation, the Dorchester merchants
who had now combined with some London capitalists, sent
over in 162(! twenty-four additional kinc. 11 These also
must have been pastured as a common herd together with
the creatures sent over in 1625. A common of pasturage,
therefore, was the open country about Salem from the very
beginning. There is some reason for believing that plant-
ing ground was taken up by the white settlers in common
with the Indians. In the deposition made by William Dixy,
of Beverly, in 1G80, to confirm Salem's Indian land titles,
occurs the following interesting testimony: "I came to
New England and ariued in June 1029 at cape an, where
wee found the signes of buildings and plantation work,
and saw noe English people, soe we sailed to the place now
caled Salem, where we found Mr. John Endecott, Gouer-
nor and sundry inhabitants besides : sonic of whom s d
they had beene seruants to the Dorchester company : iSc had
built at eape an sundry yeares before wee came oner, when
we came to dwell heare the Indians bid vs welcome and
shewed themselues very glad that we came to dwell among
them, and I vnderstood they had kindly entertained the
English y* came bother before wee came, and the English
and the Indians had a feild in comon fenced in together. nx *
There is sutlicient evidence of the friendly relations exist-
11 White, Planter's l'lea, in Young's Chron. of Mass.. 12.
" Thornton, Landing at Cape Anne, 81. Compare the depositions of oilier old
settlers, given in Thornton's appendix, in regard to the title from the Indians, also
the Indian deed of lands.
18
ing between the early settlers and the natives, and of the
fact that both planted side by side. Nowhere else in Mas-
sachusetts, save in the town of Stockbridge, have we as
yet found more delightful tokens of a recognized commu-
nity of village interests between the white and red men
than in the peaceful town of Salem, the Indian Naumkeag.
In Stockbridge, Indians not only owned lands 13 in com-
mon with the whites, but shared in the town offices, voted
in town meeting, and communed with their pale faced
brethren in the church. The Naumkeag Indians were
also kindly treated by the white settlers and frequently
paid them friendly visits, as did the Stockbridge Indians 14
to their friends after withdrawing from their old village-
home.
The Reverend John White had promised Roger Conant
by letter that, if he and a few other faithful men would
hold fast and not desert the business of the plantation, a
regular patent should be procured and "whatever they
should write for, either men, or provision, or goods where-
with to trade with the Indians" 15 should be sent over.
Hubbard says Mr. White was prompted to make this offer
because some intimation had come from Roger Conant
that the region of Salem "might prove a receptacle for such
as upon the account of religion would be willing to begin
a foreign Plantation in this part of the world." 16 This
"The-Anglo Indian land community at Montauk, Easthampton, Long Island
is perhaps the most remarkable case that has survived until a recent date. The
subject has been investigated by Mr. J. F. Jameson, a Fellow of the Johns Hop-
kins University.
"The history of the Stockbridge Indians is under investigation by the writer in
connection with the Evolution of Village Improvement in the mission town of Stock-
bridge.
16 Hubbard, 108. A fur-trade with the natives wa one of the economic foun-
dations of Massachusetts as well as of Plymouth, see Hubbard, 110, and Higgin-
son, in Young's Chron. of Mass. Roger Conant was an especially enterprising
fur-trader. In 1631, he and Peter Palfrey, and others, formed a Company "for traf-
fic in furs, with a truck house at the eastward,*' or as we should now say, "down
in Maine," see Hist. Coll. Essex Inst., i, 102.
18 Ibid, 107.
19
may have been Roger Conant's thought, but it is more
likely that it was good Mr. Hubbard's pious reflection, for,
at the time of the alleged communication, Roger Conant
was a Church of England man ; Lyford, the minister of
Naumkeag, was warmly devoted to the interests of the
established church, as his Plymouth career would show;
the Reverend John White himself was at no time in his
life more than a very moderate Puritan, for he is said to
have conformed to the ceremonies of the established
Church and he held church livings in England until the
end of his days. Mr. White was a very philanthropic,
learned, and orthodox divine. He was one of the As-
sembly which framed the Westminster catechism and
was highly respected by the Puritan party, but he was
no extremist or Puritan propagandist. 17 In his Planter's
Plea, he tells the plain, unvarnished truth about the
colonial establishment of Massachusetts. He says some
of the adventurers desired to continue their attempt
at a plantation ; that they sent over more cattle to en-
courage the old planters and to attract others ; they
conferred with some gentlemen of London and per-
suaded them to take stock in the enterprise. "The bus-
iness came to agitation afresh." Some approved it and
others dissuaded. The matter was common talk in Lon-
don and was soon noised abroad. Some men became so
much interested in the project that they promised "the help
of their purses if tit men might be procured to go over."
Upon inquiry, John Endicott and other good men were
found, who were willing to go to New England and carry
on the work of "erecting a new Colony upon the old foun-
dation." Money was subscribed ; a patent was secured ;
and Endicott, with a few men, was sent over to Naum-
keag, where he arrived in September, 1628, "and uniting
17 Voting's Cliron. of Mass., 2C.
20
his own men with those which were formerly planted in
the country into one body, they made up in all not much
above fifty or sixty persons." From another source of in-
formation, it appears that, later in the year, a small band
of servants was sent over by the Massachusetts Company,
which was now forming.
The Planter's Plea gives us the raison d'etre of this
enterprising and excellent Company. The safe arrival of
Endicott's party and the favorable reports he sent back to
England encouraged other capitalists to join the enter-
prise, and, "all engaging themselves more deeply," the
next year about three hundred more colonists, "most ser-
vants," were sent over with some horses and sixty or sev-
enty "rother-beasts" 18 (. e., cows and oxen, from Saxon
hrudher, Old German hrind) . The widening fame of En-
dicott's good government and of the success of the col-
ony "began to awaken the spirits of some persons of com-
petent estates, not formerly engaged." Being "without
any useful employment at home" and thinking to be ser-
viceable in planting a colony in New England, such men,
of whom doubtless John Winthrop, Matthew Cradock, Sir
Richard Saltonstall, Isaac Johnson, and Thomas Dudley
are good types, joined the Massachusetts Company, prob-
ably with some remote intention of going out to America,-
just as Englishmen now go out to India or Australia. We
may add in passing that Matthew Cradock, the first gov-
ernor of the Company and the predecessor of Winthrop,
never came to America at all, but he sent out many ser-
vants who started for him a plantation of 2500 acres
on the Mystick River (Medford) and impaled for him a
deer-park : he had his own business-agent in Massachu-
setts and invested capital in ship-building, in the fisher-
18 In the Statutes of the Realm, 3 and 4 Edw. vi., we have found "An Act for
thebuyinge of Rother Beasts and Cattell".
21
ies, and in the fur-trade. 19 Mr. White says that other
people, "seeing such men of good estates" engaged in the
enterprise, some out of attachment to these parties and
"others upon other respects" (presumably religious
grounds), united with them. Thus the Company was
formed and a competent number of persons were secured
to embark for New England.
Ministers were provided by the Company as a matter
of course. Even the Dorchester merchants hired a minis-
ter. Messrs. Bright (who was devoted to the established
church), Iligginson, and Skelton (who were Puritans still
in the Church) went out to New England, not :is voluntary
missionaries, but upon very good contracts for those
times, before men were passing rich, on 40 a year.
Iligginson was to have 30 for his outfit, 10 for books,
free transport to New England, a house, glebe-lands and
fire-wood, the milk of two cows, and 30 a year for three
years, at the end of which time "if he shall not like to
continue," he was to have free passage home. Provision
was made for his wife and children, in case he should die.
It is very curious to note in the records of the Massachu-
setts Company, the items there entered for the outfit of the
colony : Ministers, men skilful in making pitch and salt,
vine planters, w patent under seal, wheat, rye, barley,
oats, stones of all sorts of fruit, potatoes, hop-roots, hemp,
ilax, tame turkeys, linen and woollen cloth, pewter bottles,
pint and quart measures, brass ladles, spoons, kettles,
Young's (Jliron. of Mass., 137.
30 Endicott wanted "Frenchmen experienced in planting vines." The Com-
pany, in a letter to the Governor, said they had made diligent inquiry, but could
not get hold of any of that nation. "Nevertheless", they say. "God hath not left
us altogether unprovided of a man [Mr. Graves] able to undertake that work," i. e.
labor in the vineyards of the Mass. Co. Governor Endicott planted a vineyard
of his own in Salem. Governor Winthrop agreed to plant a vineyard upon so-
called Conant's Island, afterwards the Governor's Garden or Governor's Island,
the yearly rent of which was to he a hogshead of the best wyne that shall grow
there," payment to begin after the death of the Governor I (Mass. Col. Hcc, i.'.tj,
13H; cf. Young's Chron. of Mass., 152.)
22
arms and apparel for 100 men, 45 tun of beer, and six
tuns of water, 20 gallons of Spanish wine, 20 gallons of
aqua vitae and 20 gallons of oil 21 this for one ship with
a hundred passengers !
When Higginson and three ship loads of emigrants
reached Naumkeag in June, 1629, there were found living
under Endicott's government about one hundred planters.
"We brought with us," says Higginson, who does not
count servants, 22 "about two hundred passengers and plant-
ers more, which, by common consent of the old planters,
were all combined together into one body politic, under the
same Governor. There are in all of us, both old and new
planters, about three hundred, whereof two hundred of
them are settled at Nehum-kek now called Salem, and
the rest have planted themselves at Masathulets Bay, be-
ginning to build a town there, which we do call Cherton
or Charles town. We that are settled at Salem make
what haste we can to build houses, so that within a short
time we shall have a fair town." 23 This account was writ-
ten before the end of September, 1629, so that it appears
the town-life of the Massachusetts colony was already be-
ginning to bud and blossom in the wilderness.
The appearance of Salem at the time of Higginson's
arrival is pleasantly described by that entertaining divine,
"Mass. Col. Records, i,23-7.
" Barry, History of Mass., i, 165. Barry thinks there were one hundred and
eighty servants sent over to Salem.
"New England's Plantation, Or a Short and Trve Description of the Com-
modities and Discommodities of that Countrey, Written by Mr. Higgeson, a reu-
erend Diuine there resident. Whereunto is added a Letter, sent by Mr. Graues,
an Enginere, out of New-England. The third Edition, enlarged!" (See Young's
Chron. of Mass., 258-9). The publisher, in a prefatory note, says the work was
"not intended for the press." "It was written by a reverend divine now there living,
who only sent it to some friends here which were desirous of his Relations."
Possibly the letter of Mr. Graves, the professional engineer, who was employed
by the Company, was also not intended for publicatipn, but his brief report and
Higginson's long and highly interesting account of the plantation quickly found
their way into print. Higginson's glowing sketch wept through three editions
in a single year, showing a marked public iutares); iu the fortunes of the Massachu-
setts colony.
23
who though perhaps a triilc inclined to view the colonial
fields of Massachusetts through benignant glasses, can be
safely followed in local matters which he must have regarded
with tolerably clear vision. " When we came first to Xe-
hum-kek," he says very simply, "we found about half a
score houses, and a fair house newly built for the Governor."
The Governor had a garden with lot of green pease grow-
ing in it, as good as were ever seen in England. There
were also in the plantation plenty of turnips, parsnips,
carrots, pumpkins, and cucumbers. The Governor had
planted a vineyard with great hope of increase. An
abundance of corn was growing. The planters hoped
that year to harvest more than a hundred fold. Higginson
says it is almost incredible what great crops of Indian
corn the planters have raised. One man told him that
from the setting of thirteen gallons of corn he had had an
increase of fifty-two hogsheads, every hogshead holding
seven bushels, London measure, and every bushel had
been sold to the Indians for an amount of beaver skins
equivalent to eighteen shillings. Thus, from thirteen
gallons of corn, worth six shillings, eight pence, reckons
the good minister, a single farmer made in one year about
327, or over $1,500. We must make allowance for
good-natured ministerial arithmetic and for the use of a
very large sized fish as fertilizer in every hill of the old
planters' corn, but we may, with probable truth, picture
to ourselves a tolerably flourishing plantation made up of
individual gardens and home-lots. We know that the
old planters took up lands for themselves from the fact
that Governor Endicott was instructed by the Massachu-
setts Company in the spring of 1(529, to allow the first
comers to keep "those lands w ch formerly they have
manured j" 24 and the above account of the success of one
planter would indicate that at least the arable lands were
"Muss. Col. Uec, i,3^.
24
occupied in severalty. Higginson gives us to understand
that even servants were to enjoy each the use of fifty
acres. Some intimation, thereupon, of the plan proposed
by the Massachusetts Company, May 19, 1629 (whereby
each adventurer in the common stock was to have fifty
acres for every member of his family and for every servant
transported) 25 appears already to have reached the planta-
tion. There was land enough for all. "Great pity it is,"
says Higginson, "to see so much good ground for corn
and for grass as any is under the heavens, to lie alto-
gether unoccupied, when so many honest men and their
families in Old England, through the populousness there-
of, do make very hard shift to live one by the other."
The Indians do not object to the coming and planting of
the English here, because there is an abundance of
ground which the Indians can neither use nor possess.
This land, he asserts, is fitted "for pasture or for plough
or meadow ground." As for wood, a poor servant may
have more timber and fuel than could many a nobleman
in England. Nay, all Europe could not afford to make
so great fires as New England. And as for fresh water,
he continues, the country is full of dainty springs, and
some great rivers, and some lesser brooks. Near Salem
we have as fine clear water as we could desire, and we
can dig wells and find water wherever we please. 26
Higginson's account of the attractions of Salem is to
some extent confirmed by William Wood, who came
over to this country with Higginson, for a tour of obser-
vation, and wrote a very good description of the Massa-
chusetts towns that were planted before his return to
England in August, 1633. Wood's account of Salem is
not quite so flattering to local pride, but it enables the
reader to obtain a very matter-of-fact picture, entirely
" Ibid, 43.
Higginson, New England's Plantation (In Young's Chron. of Mass., 242-64).
25
free from any suspicion of couleur de rose. " Four miles
north-east from Saugus," says Wood, "lieth Salem, which
stands on the middle of a neck of land very pleasantly,
having a South river on the one side, and a North river
on the other side. Upon this neck, where the most of
the houses stand, is very bad and sandy ground. Yet,
for seven years together, it hath brought forth exceeding
good corn, by being fished but every third year. In
some places is very good ground, and very good timber,
and divers springs hard by the sea-side. Here, likewise,
is store of fish, as basses, eels, lobsters, clams, &c.
Although their land be none of the best, yet beyond those
rivers is a very good soil, where they have taken farms,
and get their hay, and plant their corn. There they
cross these rivers with small canoes, which are made of
whole pine trees, being about two foot and a half over,
and twenty foot long. In these likewise they go a fowl-
ing, sometimes two leagues to sea. There be more ca-
noes 27 in this town, than in all the whole Patent ; every
household having a water-horse or two. The town wants
an alewife river, which is a great inconvenience. It hath
two good harbours, the one being called Winter, and the
other Summer harbour, which lieth within Derby's fort;
which place, if it were well fortified, might keep ships
from landing of forces in any of these two places." 28
In this sketch of primitive Salem we see foreshadowed
a rising city by the sea. These rude gondolas plying
across the rivers and up and down the harbor represent
for a simple agrarian folk that same in-dwelling maritime
spirit which gradually transformed the rude fisherman of
the Adriatic lagoons into merchant princes, trading with
the Kasfcrn Umpire as the merchants of Salem were des-
tined to trade with the farthest Orient. The beginning
37 In 1G3G, UogerConniit w.ic on the committee lor inspecting the rnnoesof Salem.
'-"William Wood. New England's Prospect, in Young's t'hron. of Mas*., 4WM0.
26
of Salem's foreign trade was precisely like that of Venice,
namely, furnishing salt fish to Catholic countries, a trade
which developed into the import of silks and spices of
the Orieut. In a recent poem by a son of Salem, who
looks back upon the first settlement of this place through
the field-glass of History, the bard exclaims
Yonder we see from the North Kiver shore
The farmers of the region paddling o'er ! * 9
And the poet-sculptor Story, living under dreamy
Italian skies, has suug of Salem his native town.
Ah me, how many an autumn day
We watched with palpitating breast
Some stately ship, from India or Cathay,
Laden with spicy odours from the East,
Come sailing up the bay ! 30
From a poem by the Rev. Charles T. Brooks, at the Celebration of the Two
Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Landing of Endicott, Historical Collec-
tions of the Essex Institute, xv,212.
80 From an ode by William W. Story, on the above occasion, ibid, 236.
The Visitor's Guide to Salem (H. P. Ives, 1880) says, page 6, "Salem has had a
most remarkable commercial record. In 1825 there were one hundred and ninety-
eight vessels owned in Salem. In 1833 there were one hundred and eleven engaged
in foreign trade. Salem 'led the way from New England round the Cape of Good
Hope to the Isle of France, and India and China. Her vessels were the first from
this country to display the American Hag and open trade with St. Petersburg, and
Zanzibar, and Sumatra; with Calcutta and Bombay; with Batavia and Arabia;
with Madagascar and Australia.'"
The Rev. Charles T. Brooks has put into verse a story familiar to Salem people
of the grandeur of this city as viewed in the imagination of the Orient.
Some native merchant of the East, they say,
(Whether Canton, Calcutta or Bombay),
Had in his counting-room a map, whereon
Across the field in capitals was drawn
The name of Salem, meant to represent
That Salem was the Western Continent,
While in an upper corner was put down
A dot named Boston, SALEM'S leading town. Ibid, 213.
On the subject of Salem's oriental trade, see article by Robert S. Rantoul, on
"Old Channels of Trade," in the Bulletin of the Essex Inst., ii, 145-154; and "The
port of Salem," by the same writer, Hist. Coll. Essex Inst., x, pp. 52-72, and G. F.
Cheever's "Remarks on the Commerce of Salem, 1626-1740," in the Hist. Coll. of
Essex Inst., i, 67, 77, 117; also, see "Life of Elias Hasket Derby," Freeman Hunt's
"Lives of American merchants, New York, 1858" vol. ii, pp. 17-100, and "Historical
Sketch of Salem," by Osgood and Batchelder, Institute Press, 1879, chap, viii, p.
126-227, and a Letter of Robert S. Rantonl to the National Board of Health, Salem,
March, 1882, on the "Early Quarantine Arrangements of Salem," Essex Inst. Bul-
letin, vol. xiv, pp. 1-56.
ALLOTMENTS OF LAND IN SALEM TO MEN,
WOMEN, AND MAIDS.
By Herbert B. Adams.
The situation of the original houselots of the Old Plant-
ers of Salem has been the subject of careful investigation
and some friendly controversy among local antiquaries
and historians. It is interesting to trace the development
of correct views from earlier but erroneous opinions.
The Reverend William Bentley, in his Description and
History of Salem, published by the Massachusetts Histor-
ical Society in LXOO, says, "when Francis Higginson ar-
rived in 1(>2!>, there were only six houses, besides that of
Governor Endicott, and these were not on the land now
called Salem" 1 What authority Mr. Bentley had for this
latter statement does not appear in his monograph. Prob-
ably he had in mind some local tradition connected with the
locality of the Old Planters' Common Meadow, which of
course lay without the village. Following upon Mr. Bent-
ley's track, in 1<X3">, came Robert Rantoul, si-., with his
Memoranda of Beverly, published by the Massachusetts
Historical Society, wherein he states very positively, "Ro-
ger Consult, John Woodberry and Peter Paltry first settled
in 1B2G, on the neck of land between Collin's Cove on
the south, and the North river on the north, in Salem.
Bridge Street, leading from the compact part of Salem to
Essex (Beverly) Bridge, runs over this neck of land.
Their first houses were near to the margin of the river, and
their lots running from the river across the neck to Col-
lin's Cove." - This firmly planted opinion seems to have
1 Collections of tlao Ma.-s. Hist. Soc 1st Scries, vi, 231.
I in, i, 3d scries, vii, 254. Also Hist. Coll. Essex Inst., xviii, 307-8.
:$ i 27 1
28
held its ground in Salem until a very recent date. Even
Mr. Phippen, in his admirable sketch of the Old Planters,
accepted the traditional notion, with certain modifications,
suggestive of the real truth. He says, "The Old Planters
appear to have occupied the larger part of the peninsula
lying between the North River and Collin's Cove; and
they may not have been strangers to that larger peninsula
beyond, which aftenvards became the centre of the town." z
In 1859 came the full development and substantiation
of this latter view by Mr. William P. Upham, who made
a most thorough examination of old deeds and land titles
and established the position, now cordially accepted by
Mr. Phippen, 4 that "the old Planters occupied that portion
of our territory which has ever remained the nucleus and
central body of the town." 5 Mr. Upham, in a series of
articles on the First Houses in Salem, published in the
Bulletin of the Essex Institute, gives most conclusive
proof 6 of this assertion. His results maybe summed up
in the following statement: "The manner in which the
house lots in the central part of the town were* originally
laid out, seems to indicate that the earliest settlement was
made in the vicinity of Elm street and Washington street
upon the South river. Between these streets the lots
were small, irregular, and not in conformity with the plan
upon which the rest of the town was laid out. East of
there, all along the South river to the Neck, house-lots
were laid out running back from the river ; and along the
North river, west of North street were larger house-lots,
also running back from that river. Essex street was pro-
bably a way that came gradually into use along the ends
of these lots ; and as they were all of the same depth from
3 Hist. Coll. of the Essex Institute, i, 103.
4 Bulletin of the Essex Institute, i, 51. 6 Ibid, i, 51.
See especially ii, 33-36, 49-52. These articles extend through two volumes of
the Bulletin, i, 37,53, 73, 129 and 145, et seq. ii, 35, 49.
29
the river this street acquired, and has retained the same
curves that the rivers originally had." 7 Mr. Uphara is in-
clined to believe that the Old Planters did not all live
closely together, but were somewhat scattered, each man
having his separate house-lot and lands. Mr. Upham has
completely overthrown the ancient tradition that the Old
Planters "settled upon the comparatively small peninsula
lying between Naumkeag, now North River, and Shallop
or Collin's Cove," where Mr. Phippen supposed "Conant
and some of his followers built their first small and unsub-
stantial cottages." 8 This latter view probably arose from
the popular misconception that the Old Planters' houses
must necessarily have been upon their Common Meadow.
Mr. Upham thinks the land in that vicinity was not occu-
pied for building purposes until nearly ten years after the
original settlement of Naumkeag, that is, until after Bev-
erly and Ipswich were planted.
The historical reconstruction of the ground plan of
New England Village Communities is one of the most im-
portant subjects which can occupy the local antiquary.
The situation of the original houselots, the first laving out
o Jo
of streets and lanes, the names of village localities, the
transfers of real estate, the perpetuation of ancient land-
marks which our fathers have set, the first site of churches
and burying grounds, the lines of old forts and of village
stockades (from which historical idea of a place hedged-in,
the Town itself from Tun, Zun, Zaun or hedge aetu-
1 Ibid, ii,. r >2.
"Hist. Coll. of the Essex Inst., i, 107. It is an interesting fact that the frame-
work of the "fair house newly built for the Governor" is .still standing in Salem,
north corner of Washington ami Church streets, but it is still more interesting
that this structure, though not the first in Salem, was the original "great Frame
House " orectetl In 11 VU at Cape Ann by the Old Planters, but pulled down, brought
to Salem, and reconstructed for Mr. Endecotl's u-c" pee ('. M. Kndicott in Hist.
Coll. Essex ln-t.. ii,:ii>; cf. i, KYI, 1*>U. This is probably the oldest material struc-
ture in New England, and it is for Salem what '-the Common House," if yet stand-
'ng, would be for Plymouth.
30
ally sprang), these things are all important in the study
of town origins. They are the material foundations upon
which the town rests as an abiding institution. Genera-
tions of men pass away, but old landmarks remain. It
is worth while to clear away the accumulated rubbish of
years and to discover the sub-structure of every New
England village, just as modern antiquaries have un-
earthed the oldest walls of Rome. From an original di-
agram, preserved in the colonial records of Plymouth,
we are able to determine with positive certainty the di-
rection of the first street and the exact situation of the
first house-lots in the oldest village of New England.
Mr. William T. Davis, a noted antiquary of Plymouth,
has during the past few years been examining old deeds
and local records with a view to writing the history of
the real estate of that ancient town. He published some
of his materials in the Plymouth Free Press, under the title
of "Ancient Landmarks." 9 The city of Boston has pub-
lished a similar series of monumental studies called the
Gleaner Articles, first contributed more than twenty-five
years ago to the Boston Daily Transcript by a learned
conveyancer, Nathaniel Bowditch. 10 The studies of Mr.
Phippen and Mr. Upham stand in the same fundamental
relation to the beginnings of Salem and of the Massachu-
setts Colony as do the studies of Mr. Davis and Mr.
Bowditch to the beginnings of Plymouth and Boston.
Such good works ought to grow from more to more.
The territorial history of every town should be not
merely written, but pictorially described by means of
maps, showing early topography and ancient landmarks.
In a circular issued Feb. 15, 1882, Mr. Davis proposes to publish his researches
in an octavo volume of 600 pages, entitled "Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth."
10 Fifth Report of the Record Commissioners. Materials for the continuation of
such studies are now easily accessible in the volume of Suffolk deeds, transcribed
by that eminent antiquary, William B. Trask, a descendant of Capt. Wm. Trask, one
of the old Planters of Salem.
31
The house-lots of ancient Salem, as in all village commu-
nities, were quite small, considering the amount of avail-
able land in the plantation. In 1637, nearly two years
after Mr. Conant had received his grant of two hundred
acres in Beverly, it was ordered by the town of Salem,
that Mr. Conant's house, with half 11 an acre of ground and
the corn standing upon the same, should be bought at the
town's expense for the use of old Mr. Plase and wife, who
should occupy the premises for the rest of their lives.
The place was then to revert to the town, which agreed
to settle with the executors or assigns of Mr. Plase for
whatever improvements he had made upon the ground.
Now if Mr. Conant, the leading man of old Naumkeag,
had only half an acre for his home-lot, it is fair to presume
that his associates possessed at most only half acre home-
steads. The idea of a home-lot was a plot of ground suf-
ficient for a dwelling-house and out-buildings, for a door-
yard and garden, with perhaps a small inclosure for feeding
cattle or raising corn. When Higginson arrived in Salem,
he noticed at once the Governor's garden, with its growing
pease, and other gardens full of vegetables. This type
of a house- or home-lot is familiar enough to New Eng-
land people. We see it everywhere in our country towns
and villages, where the houses are built together with any
considerable degree of compactness. Tacitus might say of
the early settlers of New England as he said of the ancient
Germans, " Vicos locant non in nostrum morem conexis et
cohaerentibus cvdijiciis: suam quisque domum spatio cir-
cumdat. 12 At no time in the early history of Salem were
town-lots large. They were usually about an acre in ex-
tent. In the so-called Book of Grants, which are the
oldest records of this town, we read in one place of two
acre house-lots, but a page or two later, it appears that
11 Town Records of Salem, i, M. Cf. 121. Tacitus Ucruiauiu, cap. 10,
32
"the two acre lots were limited to one acre. 13 Even
smaller house-lots than a half acre were sometimes granted ;
for example, "Augustin Kellham is admitted for inhabi-
tant & is to haue a quarter of an acre before Esties house." 14
Half acre lots were very frequently granted to fishermen at
Winter Harbor and to poor people upon the Town Neck.
Many of these small grants were to be held only during the
town's pleasure, and were therefore, strictly of the nature
of "cottage rights" upon the wasteland of an English manor.
So-called cottage rights, as we shall further see, became
an important criterion in Salem 15 at the beginning of the
eighteenth century, for the division of common land. The
inhabitants of Marblehead, which formerly belonged to
Salem territory, were granted house-lots and nothing more,
it being ordered by the town of Salem that " none inhab-
iting at Marble Head shall haue any other accommodation
of land, other than such as is vsually giuen by the Towne
to fishermen viz. a howse lott & a garden lott or ground
for the placing of their flakes ; according to the company
belonging to their families, to the greatest family not aboue
2 acres : & the common of the woods neere adioyning for
their goates & their cattle." 16 Cottage rights appear to
have been granted to the men engaged in the Glass Works,
with common in the Glass House Fields. 17
But other lands than house-lots were speedily occupied
in the settlement of the town of Salem. Indeed, it is
very certain that the Old Planters owned more land than
their homesteads. Governor Endicott, as we have seen,
was instructed by the Massachusetts Company to confirm
Mr. Conant and his men in the possession of lands which
they had already improved and to grant them such other
"Town Records of Salem, i 9, 11. Ibid, 53.
"Ibid, 17, 33, 53, 62, 63. Cf. Report of the City Solicitor on the Sale of the Neck
Lands, 11.
"Town Records of Salem, i, 27-2S. The town of Gloucester is built upon the
"fisherman's field." See Thorntons Lauding at Cape Ann, 83-4. 1T Ibid, 94, 225.
33
lands as might seem fitting. 18 And yet we are inclined to
think that the Old Planters' farms were very limited in
extent until after the grants in Beverly, of which we
shall elsewhere speak. In spite of the large stories told to
good Mr. Higginson about the enormous crops raised by
the Old Planters, we believe that their corn fields were
not very different from the type represented by Roger Co-
nant's half acre in 1037. Probably the enterprising Mr.
Conant had as much land as any of his associates, yet all
that he possessed in the vicinity of the town, in 1637,
was something less than forty- four acres, of which pre-
sumably a very small proportion was actually under culti-
vation. At Plymouth an acre of planting ground sufficed
for an individual from 1623, when the first distribution of
arable land occurred, down to 1627, when the partnership
with the London merchants was dissolved and twenty
more acres were allotted to each person. The normal
amount of planting ground allowed to an individual du-
ring the early years of Salem history was ten acres. Al-
most the first entry in the Book of Grants is in regard to
the division of ten acre lots. It was ordered that the
least family should have ten acres, but greater families
should have more, according to the number of persons in
the household. 19 A "10 acre lott and a howse lott" 20 were
regarded as a proper allowance for the head of a family.
Mr. Plase, the blacksmith, who was established in Mr.
Conant's old house, with a shop and forge at town ex-
pense, petitioned for a "tenne acre lott" 21 and obtained it.
Lieutenant Davenport likewise received a ten acre lot. 23
Ten acres were enough for good fanning in those days as
now. To be sure, many attempts were made to inclose
more, but the town authorities resolutely punished :ill such
incroaehments. John Pickering, Edmund Giles, Abra-
'- M;i-s. Col. lice. i. SW. "Salem Town Records of Salom. 8. -" Ibid, II.
-' Mil. BO, 1*21. I bill. 27.
34
ham Warren, Major Hathorne, and many others were
fined for "taking in of towne common" 23 or incroaching
upon the highways. Offenders were obliged to tear down
their fences and open again to commons the land which
they had inclosed. John Gatshell was fined ten shillings
for building upon town land without leave, but the fine
was abated to five shillings on condition that he should
cut his long hair ! 24
It is very pleasant to find that women, who were heads
of families, received in early Salem their proportion of
planting land. 25 Wallace, in his interesting work on Rus-
sia, has shown how in the town meeting or village Mir
of that country, the women have their voice in the matter
of distributing communal land, and a very high-keyed
voice it is said to be. In Russia the women have not such
a delicate consideration for the feelings of the other sex,
as used to be shown by Mary Starbuck in the Island of
Nantucket, who often addressed town meetings in her
husband's name (for he was a bashful man), and always
prefaced her remarks by these gracious and winning words :
"Mr. Moderator and Fellow townsmen 1 My husband
thinks", so and so. To be sure, Russian widows have
no husbands, but a tender allusion to the dear departed
would certainly be more likely to influence a jury of fel-
low townsmen than angry vituperation. It is, however,
very curious that in Russia the object of feminine anxiety
is to have as small an amount of land as possible, for land
signifies taxes. Land is actually imposed upon Russian
widows if they have sons old enough to engage in farming.
In Salem and Plymouth and the towns along Cape Cod,
women could not get enough land. Still, in Salem, Tom
More's widow drew her ten acres. Mistress Felton,
"vidua," and her son Nathaniel received twenty acres. A
" Ibid, 46, 101, 105, 164, 190, 216. * Ibid, 55. Town Records of Salem, i, 21-27.
35
very large grant of one hundred and tifty acres was prom-
ised Mrs. Higginson, if she should come, but this liberality
was because of a special contract made with her late hus-
band by the Massachusetts Company. Widow Mason
received twenty acres and Widow Scarlet, thirty. Evi-
dently, the amount of land in both cases was determined
by the size of the family.
It is, on the whole, rather disappointing to find that
maidens or spinsters did not fare quite so well in the dis-
tribution of land as the numerical claims of that class in
society would seem to justify. The town fathers of Salem
began well by granting so-called "maids lotts," but very
soon this course began to be looked upon as highly indis-
creet, for, in the records, we find a note in Governor En-
dicott's own handwriting, to the effect, that, in future, the
town desired to avoid "all presedents &, evil events of
graunting lotts vnto single maidens not disposed of!"
Hereafter, "it is ordered that noe single maiden not
disposed of in marriage," and then follows in the rec-
ord a painful blank. At this point in his writing the Gov-
ernor evidently came to a realizing sense of the odious Act
he was about to inscribe in the local statutes, and he at
once ran his pen through the entire passage. But he did
not improve very much upon the phraseology of the law
against single maidens by resorting to this expression,
"for the avoiding of absurdities !" M The Governor at-
tempted to refine his language, but he persisted in his
cruel purpose. Deborah Holmes was refused land "being
a maid," but the Governor endeavored to be kind, for he
gave her a bushel of Indian corn ! This maiden was evi-
dently of mature years and well content to take care of
herself, but the Governor and the Selectmen assured her
that it "would be a bad president to keep hous alone."
"Town Kecorils of Salem, i, 2$, JJ
[From Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, Vol. XIX,
pp. 241--25.-5.]
COMMON FIELDS
IN
SALEM
IJY HERBERT B. ADAMS.
The reproduction of the old English system of Com-
mon Fields, or associate ownership of land for tillage and
pasture, is a curious chapter in the agrarian history of early
New England towns. Nearly all of them had the system
to a greater or less extent. The writer has discovered
evidence of its general prevalence throughout the Plan-
tations of Plymouth Colony, where to this day there are
many remarkable cases of survival, especially upon Cape
Cod. P>ut evidence is not lacking of the long continuance
of this ancient system upon a large scale in Salem, the
oldest of towns in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. In
the year 1640, there were in Salem no less than ten Com-
mon Fields of associated proprietors, who fenced more
or less in common, under the supervision of fence viewers
or surveyors of fences, who were appointed in Town
Meeting. There was a special committee for each tield.
In the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
(37)
38
most of these old communal proprietorships were broken
up into individual and separate holdings, but the North
Fields and the South Fields, which are spoken of as early
as 1642-3, continued as Common Fields down to about the
middle of the eighteenth century, and are still frequently
referred to by citizens of Salem who are conversant
with the traditions of the Fathers. The Rev. Charles T.
Brooks, in his poem delivered September 18, 1878, at the
commemoration of the fifth half century of the landing of
Endicott, refers to the ancient Common Fields, so familiar
to the early settlers :
" North Fields and South Fields little dreamed that day
Of horse-cars running on an iron way."
In the Rev. William Beutley's "Description of Salem," *
published in the year 1800, the old North Fields are spo-
ken of as " the lands lying north of North river" and as
containing "four hundred and ninety acres." He speaks
of "an hill called Paradise, from the delightful view of
the western part of the town." He says that South Fields
"are the lands included between Forest and South rivers,
and are divided from the great pasture by the Forest-river
road. These lands are in good cultivation. Near the
town are some settlements ; the rest remain in farms and
lots, possessed by the inhabitants of the town
The South Fields contain six hundred acres." 2 Certain
parcels of ungranted or unoccupied land in the old North
Fields remain common to this day, for example the tract
of four or five acres known as "Liberty Hill, " now used
as a public pleasure ground. A few years ago there was
considerable discussion in Salem as to the ownership of
such tracts. It was the opinion of a prominent legislator,
Collections of the Massachusetts Hist. Soc. 1st Series, vi, 218.
2 Ibid, 217.
39
Hon. Charles "W. Uphara, then Mayor, in a Report on the
Common Lands of the City of Salem in 1852, 3 that
" Liberty Hill or any other unappropriated lands, if any
there be in North Fields, belong to the proprietors of that
district by a sort of special commonage, but cannot be
disposed of, or appropriated by them, without the consent
of the town first had and obtained. This seems to have
been the principle upon which the North Field common
lands were administered."
This opinion is sustained by the fact that at a Salem
town meeting, March 8, 1684, it was voted that the pro-
prietors of North Fields, or the major part of them, should
have liberty to make such orders, from time to time as they
should find necessary for the sufficient fencing and well
improving of the said fields, and all such orders made by
them, relating to the premises, being presented to the
Selectmen and approved of by them were to hold good.
But the Selectmen had the right of veto, showing that the
authority over common fields which were owned by an
individual proprietary was still vested in the town.
A local incident in American Revolutionary history,
related by Mr. Felt in his Annals of Salem, well illustrates
the independent spirit which characterized the ancient
proprietors of North Fields, an agrarian commonwealth
within the larger self-governed community of Salem.
When Colonel Leslie, commander of a detachment of
British forces, was directing his ma'rch towards the " hill
called Paradise " in order to seize the artillery which had
been hidden there, he found the road through North Fields
blocked at a certain bridge, which still belonged to the
old proprietors, although the Common Field had been
Salem City Documents, for year 1852, )>.:!0. The writer'- attention was cnlleil to
tills opinion of the late Hon. Chuiles W.Upham byMr. KobeitS. Rautoul of Salem.
40
broken up for more than a quarter of a century. The
Colonel remonstrated with the farmers for obstructing the
King's highway. " This is not the King's highway," said
one of those sturdy yeomen. "This is a private way be-
longing to the proprietors of North Fields." Graphic
accounts of the memorable scene at North Bridge are to
be found in the printed speeches of Henry L. Williams,
George B. Loring, and Edmund B. Willson, on the occasion
of the Centennial Anniversary of Leslie's expedition to
Salem, which invasion of local rights occurred February
26, 1775. "This deliberate, open resistance," said Mayor
Williams, "by our townsmen to the decrees of the crown
took place about seven weeks before the resistance at
Lexington and Concord." There is not the shadow of a
doubt, if Colonel Leslie, the officer sent from Boston by
General Gage to take away the Salem guns, had offered
violence to the North Field farmers, that the American
Revolution would have flamed out then and there, for the
yeomen were armed for battle ; the local militia men were
prepared, if necessary, to defend the Bridge. "You had
better not fire," said John Felt, a plain-spoken townsman
who had been remonstrating with Leslie ; "you have no
right to fire without further orders, and if you do fire you
are all dead men. For there," said Felt, pointing to the
assembled townsmen, " is a multitude, every man of whom
is ready to die in this strife." And Leslie did not fire.
Another leading man came forward and expostulated fur-
ther with Leslie. "And who are you, sir?" demanded the
British Colonel. The man replied, " I am Thomas Barnard,
a minister of the gospel, and my mission is peace."
He had come with his congregation from the old North
Church, when the alarm arose that Sunday morning, "The
regulars are coming !" The whole town poured out, and
nothing but the entreaties of the minister induced them to
41
lower the draw-bridge and allow Leslie to march over a
few rods on condition that he should march straight back
again without any further aggressions on proprietary rights.
This withdrawal without seizing the guns cost Leslie his
commission, but it prevented Salem Common Fields from
becoming the first battle ground of the American Revolu-
tion. 4
One summer, a few years ago, in the Bodleian Library
of the Essex Institute, at Salem, through the kind offices
of Dr. Henry Wheatland and Mr. William P. Uphain,
there came into the hands of the writer a rare old
manuscript. It was not one of the lost books of Livy,
neither was it Cicero's missing treatise De Gloria, which
was lost by Petrarch's poverty-stricken old schoolmaster
who was forced to pawn it for bread. The Salem manuscript
was no scholar's work. No monk had illuminated its pages ;
no humanist had revised its text. The Salem manuscript
was characterized chiefly by bad writing, bad spelling,
and by its general resemblance to the most primitive town
records in New England, records kept oftentimes upon old
account-books. There was nothing externally attractive
about this dingy old manuscript, but it had for the student
of New England local history more interest than a beautiful
church missal or a classic palimpsest would have afforded,
if found in that library of the Essex Institute. For this
manuscript was the original record of the Proprietary of
Kelt. Anna]- of Siilom, i. IS.'). See nl-o a Salem City I>ocumeiil (1S7.1 entitled
" Memorial Service* nt the Centennial Anniversary of Leslie'.- K \|ii'iliiioii to Snleui,
Sundin . t'elininrj - ,; , I77. r >." See al.-o " Leslie's Ketreat" l>> C. M. Kmlit-oit, in Pro-
ceed. Kssex Inst., i. v.i. Also, Kssc.x Inst. Hit Coll. Vol. w ii, |>|>. hw it;,
No special men! ion was* made in these Memorial Services held in the North Church,
of the proprietors of North fields nnd of their I leclaration of Independence; and
yel this is one ol the most remarkable assertions of the local -pirn which kindled
the American ({evolution. Il was the surviving spirit of an old Kuglish agrarian
community, an institution older than the Cn>WMi of England, a* selling its sotureign,
immemorial right to ils own properly.
42
the South Fields in Salem, an old agrarian community,
the survival of an institution which was old when the
Christian Church and the Roman Empire were young.
The system of land community and Common Fields, with
small individual allotments held under joint control, as
instituted at Salem and Plymouth, reminds us of those old
Roman days described by Bradford, the historian of Ply-
mouth Plantation, in the words of Pliny (lib. 18, cap. 2) :
" How every man contented himselfe with 2 acres of land,
and had no more assigned them." And chap. 3. "It was
thought a great reward, to receive at ye hands of ye peo-
ple of Rome a pinte of corne. And long after, the greatest
presente given to a Captaine y* had gotte a victory over
their enemise, was as much ground as they could till in
one day. And he was not counted a good, but a dangerous
man, that would not contente himselfe with 7 Acres ot
land. As also how they did pound their corne in morters,
as these people were forcte to doe many years before they
could get a mille." 5
The records of the South Field Proprietary are incom-
plete. They do not open until the year 1680. Originally
they covered a period from at least 1672 to 1742. But
what was true of later times was probably also true of the
earlier. There is but little change in agrarian customs.
6 Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation, Collections of the Massachusetts
Hist. Soc, 4th Series, vol. 3, 168. For an interesting account of this original source
of New England history, and how it was stolen from the tower of the old South
Church in Boston, during the American Revolution, when that church was used for
a riding school and stable by British soldiery, see the Editorial Preface by Mr.
Charles Deane; see also an interesting paper on " Governor Bradford's Manuscript
History of Plymouth Plantation and its Transmission to our Times," by Professor
Justin Winsor, of Harvard College, a paper read before the Mass. Historical So-
ciety, Nov. 10, 1881. The existence of this priceless manuscript in the library of
the Bishop of London, at Putnam on the Thames, was accidentally discovered
years ago by members of the Massachusetts Historical Society, which had a copy
made from the original, and this copy was published by the Society in 1856. It is
one of the surviving shames that the original manuscript, stolen probably by some
British soldier, has never yet been restored by England to New England.
43
In an old town on Cape Cod we have examined a continuous
series of Commoners' Records from the latter part of the
seventeenth century down to 1880, and have found scarcely
any change in the character of votes or the modes of
business procedure. In order, however, that there may
be no question as to the nature of these old Common Fields
at the time when there were ten of them in the one town
of Salem, letuseitea few extracts from the Massachusetts
Colony Records, which supply most admirably all missing
evidence concerning the period before 1(580. In the spring
of 1643, the year the Massachusetts colony was divided
into four shires, with Salem heading the list of Essex
towns, it was ordered by the General Court, " For
preventing disorder in come feilds w ch are inclosed in
common, .... that those who have the greater quantity
in such feilds shall have power to order the whole,
notwithstanding any former order to the contrary, & that
every one who hath any part in such common feild shall
make and maiutaiue the fences according to their severall
quantities." 6
In the fall of the same year was passed an Act which
leaves no doubt as to what was meant by the ordering of
afield. " Whereas it is found by experience that there
hath bene much trouble & difference in severall townes about
the manner of planting, sowing, & feeding of common
conic feilds, & that upon serious consideration wee tinde
no generall order can provide for the best improvement of
every such common lleild, by reason that some consists
onehj of plowing ground, some haveing a great part /it
onehj J 'or planting, some of meadowe and feeding ground;
also, so that such an order as may be very wholesome &
good for one feild ma}' bee exceeding preiudiciall &
inconvenient for another, it is therefore ordered, that
Mas-. Col. ttee. ii, :S!I, l!Ci
44
where the commoners cannot agree about the manner of
improvement of their feild, either concerning the kind of
graine that shalbee somen or set therein, or concerning the
time or manner of feeding the herbage thereof, that then
such persons in the severall tovvnes that are deputed to
order the prudenciall affaires thereof, shall order the same,
or in case where no such are, then the maior part of the
freemen, who are hereby enioyned w th what convenient
speed they may to determine any such difference as may
arise upon any information given them by the said common-
ers ; & so much of any former order as concerns the
improvement of common feilds, & that is hearby provided
for, is hearby repealed." 7 But four years later, the Court
went back to the old system, leaving the regulation of
Common Fields entirely in the hands of the majority of
interested proprietors. 8 The above order is significant
of the actual survival in New England of old English
agrarian customs.
The practice of allowing the selectmen, in so-called
private Town Meeting, to regulate the management of
Common Fields seems, from the town records of Salem, to
have been already in vogue in this place before the passage
of the above Act, at least as regards the control of common
fences and the regulation of pasturage upon the stubble
lands. In the spring of 1638, it was ordered by Mr.
Endicott, John Woodbury, aud the rest of the Town
Fathers, "fforasmuch as divers of our towne are resolued
to sowe English graine this spring . . . that all common
& particular home ffences about the towne shall be suffi-
cientlie made vp before the twentieth of the ffirst moneth
next [April] vppon the payne or penaltie of 5 s. euerie
day after that any one is defectiue therein." 9
One of the most extraordinary features of this old
Mass. Col. Rec, ii 49. Ibid, 195. Town Records of Salem, i,84.
45
system of common husbandry, as practised in early
Massachusetts, was the impressment of artisans by the
town constable to aid farmers in harvest time. This
undoubted power of the community over the time and
labor of its individual members, a power seen in very
recent times when constables impressed labor for mending
the town roads, is a connecting link between New England
towns and old English parishes. The following is the
exact text of a colony law (1646), upon this matter of
impressing labor in harvest time : " Because y e harvest of
hay, corne, flax, & hemp comes usually so neare together y*
much losse can hardly be avoyded, it is ordered & decreed
by y 8 Courte, y l y e cunstable of every towne, upon request
made to y w , shall require artificers or handicrafts men,
meete to labour, to worke by y e day for their neighbours
needing y m , in mowing, reaping, & inning thereof, and y l
those whom they help shall duely pay y m for their worke,
& if any person so required shall refuse, or y e cunstable
neglect his office herein, they shall each of y m pay to y e
use of y e pore of y e towne double so much as such a
dayes worke comes unto : provided no artificer &e, shalbe
compeled to worke for others whiles he is necessarily
attending on like busines of his ownc." 10 This impress-
ment of laborers for harvest was only the revival of old
English parish law, n and is precisely the same in principle
Jo Mass. Col. Bee., ii, 180-1.
"In I.ambard's "Constable, Horsholder, and Tythingman," acurious ohl vol-
ume, published in the year 1610, we And the following law : "In the time of Hay. or
Cornharvest, the Constable, or any such other Officer, vpon request made, and for
avoiding the losse of any corne, gralne. or hay, may cause all such Artificers and
persons (as may be meete to labour) by his discretion to serve by the day, for the
mowing, reaping, shearing, getting, or inning of corne, graine, or hay. according to
the skill and qualitie of the person; and if any such person shall refuse .-> to doe,
then ought such Officer (vnder the pain of fortie shillings) to imprison such refuser
in the Stockes, by the space of two daies and one night." See also :> Eli/., cap. 4.
This law appears to have been in operation in England down to very recent times,
sec J. W. Willcock, The Office of Constable (England, 1J.!7; Philadelphia, KMO,
p. 3b).
2
46
as the requirement of local militia by the Selectmen to
perform escort duty in the transportation of grain from
the frontier towns to places of greater security. n The
case of Captain Lathrop of Beverly, and his company,
"the very flower of the county of Essex," as Hubbard
calls them, will naturally recur to the Salem mind. These
men were sent as a guard to some planters who were
coming: down the shore of the Connecticut river from
Deerfield to Hadley with wagon-loads of grain and house-
hold goods. In crossing Muddy Brook, now called Bloody
Brook, the company which was marching carelessly (some
of the soldiers having put their guns in the carts, in order
to be free to gather grapes) were suddenly attacked by
Indians from the adjoining swamps, and nearly the whole
band of soldiers and planters were cut off. n
Returning now to the old records of the South Field
Proprietary, let us examine a few illustrative extracts,
which, to the outside world, will doubtless be more
interesting in their original form than they would in
any modern paraphrase : "It is ordered & voated by the
proprietors of the Southfield that the proprietors shall
meet on the last Tuesday in ffebruary, every year for the
making such orders as may be needfull for the Good of
the Southfield, & it is left to the moderator & the Clarke u
to appoint the place where they shall meet & this shall be
accounted sufficient warning without any further notice
Given of the tyme when to meet, & it is farther agreed
that such as doe meet shall pay Sixpence each person to be
spent at the house where they meet [at a tavern?] and
such as doe not meet on that day shall pay eighteen pence
" Mass. Col. Bee, v, 66.
" Judd's History of Hadley, 147-9. Edward Everett's Oration at Bloody Brook.
Washington Gladden, From the Hub to the Hudson. Several grandchildren of
the old planters of Salem and Beverly perished in that terrible massacre at Bloody
Brook, Sept. 18,1675. See Essex Inst. Hist. Collections, Vol. xix, pp. 137-142.
14 In this mode of spelling "clerk," we have a suggestion of Its original
pronunciation. Compare also the family name, 'Clark.'
47
Each person for non appearance and this to stand as a
Constant order Continually, the tyrae of the day is to be
at one of the Clock." The proprietors sometimes met at
a private house, and perhaps occasionally in the open fields.
The proceedings at a proprietors' meeting were always
conducted according to rules of parliamentary procedure.
A New England man, in reading the old Commoners'
records of Salem, would be chiefly impressed by the fact
that here is described a miniature Town Meeting. A
moderator is always chosen ; a clerk records the proceed-
ings ; surveyors (not of highways) but of fences are
appointed ; field drivers are chosen ; and taxes levied.
Among the officers chosen at a Commoners' meeting was
the Hay ward, or, as he is sometimes called in the later
town records, "the watchman upon the walls of the
pasture." Old Homer's ancient men, watching from the
walls of Troy the conflict of human cattle, were hardly
more ancient than this time-honored agrarian office. The
swine-herd of Odysseus was a near kinsman of the Saxon
Hay ward. The office had nothing whatever to do with
haying, or with grass-lots, as the name might at first seem
to imply. It is derived from the Saxon liege (German
Hag, English hedge) and means the warden of the hedges
or fences. Many German places derive their names from
the hedge with which they were originally surrounded (e. g.
"VVendhagen, Grubenhagcn, the Hague). In fact the word
town means only a place that is hedged in, from the old
German Zan or Tun, modern German Zaun, meaning a
hedge. The office of hay ward was originally constabulary
in character. He was appointed in feudal times in the
Court Lcet (German Leute), or popular court of the Nor-
man manor and English parish, thus coming down into the
parish life of New England.
Let us now glance at the duties of the ancient watchman
of the old South Field. "Voted, That the Gates att both
48
Ends of the field be made good & well repaired. And that
the Little Gates Especially be Made and Hung so as to be
easy for Travellers to pass at the Charge of the proprietary,
and that the Haywards accordingly are Desired & Impow-
ered to do it & to Render an Account of the Charge
the next proprietors meeting" "Voated that the
Haywards . . or any of the proprietors of the Southfield
shall have power to take up & Impound any horse kind or
any other cattle w ch shall be found loose upon his own
ground or the grounds of any other proprietor of the
Southfield feedings unless they be tyed & that none shall
tether in the night time vpon the penalty of what the law
doth determine in case of Damage fleazant [faisant] . And
this to be from the tenth of April [more usually 25 of March]
to the 14th of October . . & that the ffield be drove
by the Hay ward the 10th of Aprill & not to be broken
open till 14th October next." M This custom of clearing
the Common Field of all creatures in the spring and of
breaking down the barriers again in the fall, so that the cat-
tle of the whole village may pasture upon the stubble is quite
parallel to the old English 16 Lammas lands, which belong
to individuals but are subject to certain rights of common-
age. Lammas day, when the fences of the Common Fields
were thrown down, was the occasion of a village festival
in old England.
It will be remembered that in old England there were
two sorts of pasturage in Common Fields, whence crops
had been gathered, (1) stinted, (2) unstinted. The latter
15 A similar order, taken from the latter part of the South Field Records (1741) is
even more striking than the above which bears the date of 1695 : Voted, That no
Person shall Teder any Hor6e Kind Cattle &c in said field, in the Night time, Nor
in the Day time, Neither shall any Persons Bait their Creatures on their own Land
on Penalty of forfeiting their Herbage, save only while they are at work there . . .
the Haywards to Judge of the Same and to Debar them of their Herbage in the
fall according to their Discretion or Have Power to take their Creatures from their
Tedering Ropes & Impound them which they shall think most proper."
"Laveleye, Primitive Property, 114, 241.
49
must have been customary at Salem during the early part
of the seventeenth century, but at the time the records of
the South Field begin, 1680, stinted pasturage was the
rule. In that year it was voted " That on ye 14 of October
next ye Proprietors have Liberty to put in Catle For
Herbige . . y l is to say 6 Cows 4 Oxen 3 Horses or 12
Yearlings or 24 Calves to 10 Acors of Land and so in
proportion to Greater or Lesser Quantities of Land
According as they Have & no person shall Cutt or Stripe
their Indian Come Stalkes after they have gathered their
Come on penalty of forriting Herbidge." At first sight,
such a law might seem merely the resultant of local
conditions, and of the somewhat commonplace discovery
that Indian corn-stalks were good for foddering cattle.
But there were similar laws in the agrarian communities
of old England at this period. Gleaners had definite
rights, and it was required that grain-stalks should be left
at a certain height for the benefit of the village cattle.
It appears from the South Field records that rights to
rt herbage" could be leased and transferred : " When the
proprietors Shall put in their Creatures for Herbage they
Shall Give an Account to the Haywards of the Number
of the same And Whosoever shall Hire Herbage of any
person Shall bring from Under the Hand of the Leasor
for so much as he Hires to the Haywards by the 14 of
October Next." Two other points are especially worthy
of attention. First, many of the lots in the South Field
appear to have been very small, a half acre, three quarters
of an acre, an acre, and so on in such small proportions.
Second, bits of common land lying in the great field were
granted out by the Proprietary to individuals for a term
of seven years.
SALEM
MEADOWS, WOODLAND, AND TOWN NECK,
BY HERBERT B. ADAMS.
We have examined the subject of common fields, where
planting lands were associated together under certain com-
munal laws as regards the choice of crops, the regulation of
fences, the reservation of herbage, and the employment of
the lands of individuals for a common pasture in the fall
of the year. We have seen that the old English system
of land community was reproduced at Salem in some of its
most striking features. Let us now briefly consider
the topics of common meadow, common woodland, and
common pasture, in the full sense of that term. In these
matters we shall find that the old English customs were
still more minutely followed. The first item of interest,
in connection with the subject of common meadow, is the
fact that the Old Planters 1 enjoyed such a common all for
themselves. It was known as "the Old Planters medow
ncere Wenham 2 common." And yet even this meadow
'Town Records of Salem, i, 7<i, 138.
' Wenham Common is mentioned only onee in the town records of Salem, but
Wenham Swamps are frequently noticed. These great swamps are interesting
because they continued for many years common to both Ipswich and Wenham, ns
were certain swamps to Plymouth and Plympton. By an Act of the Province
legislature in 17.V>, the proprietors of Ipswich and Wenham were authorized to
meet and prohibit the general use of Wenham Great Swamp as a common pasture,
in order that the growth of w<*>d and timber might not be hindered. (Province
Laws, iii, 790).
Wen'iam is a curious case of one town budding from another. It appears from
the Massachusetts Colony Records (i,'279) that the inhabitants of Salem agreed to
plant a village near Ipswich River and the Court thereupon ordered, in 1(>3U, that
all lands lying between Salem and said river, not belonging by grant to any other
town or person, should belong to said village. In KU3, it was ordered by the Court
that " Knon" lie called " Wcnnan" and constitute a town, with power to send one
deputy to the General Court (li, 4-4). Johnson, in his Wonderworking Providence
(W. F. Poole's ed 189), calls Wenham Salem's " littlo sister." lie says Salem
(51)
52 OLD planters' meadows.
was under the authority of the town, for it was ordered
in 1638 "that the meadow that is in common amongst
some of our Brethren Mr. Conant & others shall be fenced
in the ffirst day of April & left common again the last of
September euery yeare." This signifies that a piece of
grass-land common to a little group of men for mowing
was also common to the whole town for pasture in the
fall. 8
The whole town of Salem once had its common meadows,
just as did the town of Plymouth, 4 where the practice
continued long after the partnership with the London
merchants was dissolved. In both places, it was long
customary in town meeting to assign lots where men should
mow for one year, or for a longer period. The word " lot"
as applied to land carries a history in itself. In 1637, it
was ordered by the selectmen of Salem "that all the marsh
ground that hath formerlie beene Laid out for hay grass
shall be measured." 5 This was the first step towards the
allotment of the Salem meadoAvs. Before this time they
had been absolutely common, as is clear from a vote like
the following, passed in 1686, by the Selectmen : "Wm.
Knight Rec d for an inhabitant, but noe Lands to appropriat
vnto him but a 10 acre lott, & common for his cattle grasse
nourished her up in her own bosom till she became of age, and gave her a goodly
portion of land. " Wenham is very well-watered, as most inland Towns are, the
people live altogether upon husbandry, New England having trained up great
store to this occupation, they are increased in cattle, and most of them live very
well, yet are they no great company; they were some good space of time there
before they gathered into a Church-body" [1044].
Mr. William P. Upham, in the bulletin of the Essex Institute, ii, 51, says, in
1053 the town granted to George Emery the herbage of that parcel of land which
was John Woodbury's in the old planters' marsh and all right of commonage the town
might have claimed to him and bis heirs forever, and in 1058, to Wm. Hathorne the
town's right and privileges in the planters' marsh. Mr. Upham thinks the marsh
was common to the old planters before Endicott's arrival, ii, 52.
* Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation, 2}0^7, Plymouth Col. Rec, i, 14,
40,50.
'Town Records qf Sajem, i, 44.
DIVISION AMONG FAMILIES. 53
& hay" 6 Eight months after the above order in reference
to the measurement of the meadows, it was "agreed that
the marsh meadow Lands that haue formerly layed in
common to this Towne shall now be appropriated to the
Inhabitants of Salem, proportioned out vnto them according
to the heads of their families. To those that haue the
greatest number an acre thereof & to those that haue least
not aboue haue an acre, & to those that are betweene both
3 quarters of an acre, alwaies provided & it is so agreed
that none shall sell away theire proportions of meadow,
more or lesse, nor lease them out to any aboue 3 yeares,
vnlesse they sell or lease out their howsesw tll their meadow." 7
This restriction upon the alienation of allotted land is
repeatedly paralleled in the records of Plymouth Planta-
tion, where grants were made to lie to so and so's house-lot
in Plymouth and not to be sold from it. 8
The above division 9 of Salem meadows among the fami-
lies of the town was managed by the "ffive Layers out,"
Captain Trask, Mr. Conant, John Woodbury, John Balch,
and Jeffrey Massey. In the town records, there is to be
seen in the handwriting of Mr. Conant, a list of the heads
of families, and before each name stands the number of
persons thereby represented. Roger Conant headed a
family of nine persons ; John Woodbury, six ; John Balch,
six; Captain Trask, seven; and Mr. Endicott, nine.
These heads of households received each an acre, for, by
Ibid, 28. 'Ibid, 61, 101-4.
Restrictions upon the alienation of land were very frequent at Plymouth and
elsewhere. See Ply. Col. i, 46 (eight cafes), 82. Cf. Laveleye, Primitive Property,
118. 121, 162. Mass. Bee., 1,201; Conn, liec, i, 351; Allen, Wenham, 20; Freeman,
Cape Coil, ii, 254; Lambert, New Haven, 163; Bond. Watertown, 996.
The granting of hay-lots by t he year to old and new comers went on to some
extent after the above division of the common meadow, which doubtless remained
common, like the Old Planters' meadow, alter the hay had been gathered. The
following is a specimen of an annual hay-grant: "Graunted for the yeare to mr.
flit>k & Mr. flbgge the hay grasse of the salt marsh medow. at the side of the old
Planters fields" Town Krc. of Salem, i. 8*.
54 WOOD-COMMONAGE.
the town vote, the greatest families could not have more
than that amount of meadow. It gratifies one's sense of
justice to be assured that Goodwife Scarlet, Mistress
Robinson, the Widow More, Widow Mason, Widow Fel-
ton, Widow Greene, and "Vincent's mother" received
each their proper allowance.
Common of wood, as well as of meadow, was long
practised at Salem. It was ordered in 1636, that all the
land along the shores on Darby's Fort Side, up to the
Hogsties and thence towards Marblehead, 10 along the shore
and for twenty rods inland, should be "reserued for the
Commons of the towne to serue it for wood & timber." 11
But the privilege of wood commonage was not to beabused.
Whatever a townsman needed for fuel, fencing, or building
purposes, he could freely have, but it was strictly ordered
that "noe sawen boards, clap boards or other Timber or
wood be sold or transported" out of town by any inhabi-
tant unless the above be first offered for sale " to the
thirteene men." 12 Similar restrictions in regard to the
export of timber prevailed in Plymouth Colony. 13 In the
early history of Massachusetts, the colonial government,
at one time, undertook to regulate the cutting of timber,
10 Marblehead is an interesting case of a town voluntarily created by another
town. Usually legislative action came first and towns were forced to allow the
secession of precincts. In 1648, it was declared at a general town meeting in
Salem that " Marble Head, with the allowance of the general Court, shal be a towne,
and the bounds to be the vtmost extent of that land which was mr. Humphries
fa i*m e and sould to Marble Head, and soe all the neck to the Sea, reserving the
disposing of the fferry and the appoynting of the fferry man to Salem." (Town
Kec, i, 156-7). Cf. Mass. Col. Rec, i, 165. "It was proued this Court that Marble
Necke belongs to Salem." Cf. Ibid, 226. In 1649, May 2, " Upon the petition of the
inhabitants of Marble Head, for them to be a towne of themselues; Salem haveing
granted them to be a towne of themselues, & appointed them the bounds of their
towne, w h the Courte doth graunt." Mass. Col. Rec, ii, 266.
11 Town Records of Salem, i, 17, 34, 112, 196, 219.
"Ibid 30-1. An Act for the Preservation of Timber may be found in the Statutes
of the Realm, 27 Eliz. An Act concerning " clap boards" occurs in the 35 Eliz.
u Plymouth Col. Rec, Book of Deeds, 8.
COMMON PASTURE. 55
by requiring permission therefor from the nearest assistant 14
or his deputy, but this regulation seems to have been of no
practical consequence. The matter was tacitly relegated
to the towns, and the}' delegated the execution of their
forestry laws to their own selectmen.
We have considered the topics of House Lots, Plant-
ing Lands, Meadow Lands and Wood Lands. The first
two groups were lands held in severalty, although Plant-
ing Lands were common for a part of the year. The
three chief categories of strictly Common Land are Wood,
Pasture, and Meadow, corresponding to the old German
terms, Wcdd, Weide, und Wie.se. The reappearance of
Common Wood and Common Meadow in the land system
of Salem we have already seen. We come now to the
last, and, in some respects, the most interesting division
of our subject, namely, Common Pasture. This should
not be confounded with the temporary pasturing of
stubble lands or hay meadows after harvest. Heal Com-
mon Pasture is always common, and there are usually no
allotments of land in severalty.
A recent number of the Contemporary Rev ieiv contains
an interesting sketch of customs of common pasturage
that still survive in Germany. The article is entitled
" Notes from a German Village," and was written by an
English professor 15 who spent a summer vacation in the
little town of Gross Tabarz, on the northern slope of the
Thnringian mountains. "Early every line morning," ho
says, "we were awaked by the blowing of the Kuh-hirCs
horn as he passed through the village, and any one watch-
ing his progress would see a cow turned out from one
14 Mans. Col. Roc, i, 101. Cf. JiiiIkc Kndicotl's Urief, I. vim v. Naliiint, li.
"Contemporary Review, July, IWI. Article l>y Prufe.tMir Alilif.
56 NEAT-HERD8, 8WINE-HERD8, GOAT-HERDS.
outhouse, two more out of a second, and soon, the proces-
sion gradually increasing until, on leaving the village,
the Hirt and his assistant would have from eighty
to a hundred and twenty cows and bulls under the
charge of themselves and their two dogs. In wander-
ing in the daytime through the forests we often heard
from a distance the tinkling of the large bells which
the cows carry, and in a few minutes would meet the
whole procession coming gently along the high road or
narrow lane, somewhat to the alarm of the more timid
members of our party, but by no means to the dimi-
nution of the picturesqueness of the scene. By six
o'clock in the evening the Hirt had gathered his flock
together, and driven them back to the village, where the
ox knows its owner, and, unbidden, each turns into its
own stable."
When we read the above description, we were tempted
to believe that the English professor had written his story
of summer experience upon the basis of old records in
Salem. Like the villages of the Thuringian Forest,
Salem once had its cowherds, swineherds, and goatherds.
They too, of old time, came through the streets of the
village blowing their horns, and creatures were turned
out to their pastoral care. In the spring of 1641,
it was agreed in Salem town meeting that "Laurance
Southweeke & William Woodbury shall keepe the milch
cattell & heifers . . this summer . . . They are to be-
gin to keepe them, the 6th day of the 2d moneth. And
their lyme of keeping of them to end, the 15th day of
the 9th moneth. They are to driue out the Cattell
when the Sun is halfe an hower high, & bring them
in when the sun is halfe an hower high. The cattle
are to be brought out in the morning into the pen neere
CATTLE PENS. . . . BRANDING CATTLE. 57
to Mr. Downings pale. And the keepers are to drive
them & bring such cattle into the Pen as they doe receaue
from thence." 18
The duty of village swineherds was similar. Early in
the morning they were " to blow their home" as they went
along the street past the houses, and the townsmen brought
out their swine to the keeper, who took charge of the
drove until sunset, when all returned to town and every
townsman received his swine again, which he kept over
night in a pen upon his own premises. 17 The cattle were
also kept over night by each owner, either in private yards
or in the common cow houses. 18 In the morning the
creatures were driven to the great Cattle Pen, 19 at the gate
of which the herdsman stood waiting, and, at a certain
hour, drove all afield. If a townsman arrived late with
his cows, there was no help for it, but to follow after and
catch up with the herd, or else to be his own herdsman
that day and run the risk of his cows breaking into in-
closures upon the plantation. 20 The herdsman was origi-
nally paid for his services by the town, but afterwards by
individuals, at a rate fixed upon in town meeting, usually
about four shillings sixpence per season, for the charge of
every cow, the settlement being made in butter, wheat,
and Indian corn. 21 The cattle of every town were marked
with the first letter of the town's name, roughly painted
with pitch. Towns whose names began with the same let-
ter, for example, Salem, Salisbury, Sudbury, Strawberry
Bank (Portsmouth) were obliged to agree upon differ-
ently shaped letters. Salem had a plain capital S ; Salis-
'"Tiiwn accords of Salem, i, 99. For other illustrations of the duties of the
Town's Herdsmen, see Kelt's Annals, i. 277-80. Herdsmen were employed in the
Great Pastures of Salem down to a very recent date. Kelt, i, '11*2.
" Hist. (oil. Essex Inst. xl, 3*3. Town Records of Salem, i, 10*).
" Ibid, I>4. " Ibid, 10, 39, 40, 86. Ibid, 41. " Ibid, 207.
58 TOWN FLOCKS, HERDS AND HOUNDS.
bury, the sign of the dollar, $ ; Sudbury added an up-
right dash to the top of its initial S ; Strawberry Bank
added a straight stroke downward from the tail end of its
S. 22
It is perhaps not generally known that Salem had not
only town herdsmen, but actually town cows, town sheep, 23
town dogs, 24 and a town horse. 25 In the town records we
read of a " townes cowe " killed by the butcher, and the
Selectmen are ordered to sell the beef and hide for the
town's benefit. Both cows and sheep came into the pos-
session of the town in settlement for debts or taxes.
But a most singular order was that which was passed in
Salem in 1645, whereby half a dozen brace of hounds were
to be brought out of England, the charges to be borne by the
town. These town dogs were probably used for herding
cattle or hunting wolves. Perhaps Salem's order was the
first suggestion for the Act passed by the colonial legisla-
ture of Massachusetts three years later, whereby the Select-
men of every town were authorized to purchase, at the
town's expense, as many hounds as should be thought best
for the destruction of wolves, and to allow no other dogs
to be kept in town, except by magistrates, or by special
permit. 26
Town flocks and herds, and town herdsmen imply the
existence of town pastures. The first mention of this
subject in the town records of Salem was in 1634, shortly
alter the division of the ten acre lots. It was then agreed
that the Town Neck should be preserved for the feeding of
" Mass. Col. Rec, ii, 190, 225. Town Records of Salem, i, 185, 189, 195.
Ibid, 139. Felt, Salem, i, 281.
3 Mass. Col. Rec, ii. 252-3, ibid for law relating to Sheep Commons. The keep-
ing of greyhounds for coursing deer or hare, and of setters for hunting, was for-
bidden in the parishes of Old England. See Lambard's Constable (1610) 81, and
the statute I Jac, Cap. 27.
STINTING THE NECK LANDS. 59
cattle on the Sabbath. Individuals were forbidden to feed
their goats there on week-days, but were required to drive
them to one of the larger Commons, so that the grass upon
the Neck land might have a chance to grow for pasture on
the Lord's day. 7 For Salem, the Town Neck was a kind
of home-lot for baiting the town's cattle. In old Eng-
land such a pasture would have been termed a Ham. Wil-
liam Marshall, an English writer of the last century, in
describing the agrarian customs of his country, says :
" On the outskirts of the arable lands, where the soil is
adapted to the pasturage of cattle . . one or more stinted
pastures, or hams, were laid out for milking cows, work-
ing cattle, or other stock which required superior pastur-
age in summer." 28 The practice of stinting the Neck land
for pasture must have begun at a very early date, but not
much is said about the matter in the published volume of
the town records (1634-1659). However, the following
vote of .the old Commoners, in the year 1714, will serve
to illustrate the principle as applied to a permanent town
pasture : " Voted, that y e neck of land to y c Eastward
of the Block house be granted and reserved for y e use of
y e town of Salem, for a pasture for milch cows and rid-
ing horses, to be fenced at y e town's charge, and let to y e
inhabitants of y e town by y e selectmen and no one person
to be admitted to put into said pasture in a summer more
than one milch cow or one riding horse, and y e whole
number not to exceed two and a half acres to a cow and
"Town Records of Salem, i, 9.
* Laveleye, Primitive Property, 245, cf. 69. Nasso, in his Agricultural Com-
munity of the Middle Ages, p. 10. quoting Marshall, observes : " Every village . .
in the immediate vicinity of the dwelling-houses and farm-buildings, had some
few inclosed grass lands for the rearing of calves, or for other cattle which it
might be thought necessary to keep near the village (the common farmstead or
homestall)."
60 TOWN FARM AND POOR HOUSE.
four acres to a horse ; y e rent to be paid into y e town
treasurer for y e time being for y e use of the town of
Salem." 29 Authority to stint common pasturage was
given by the colonial legislature to the selectmen of every
town in the year 1673. 30
It is noteworthy that a part of the Neck lands con-
tinued to be used, and was specially known as a Town
Pasture until long after the middle of the nineteenth cen-
tury. According to a survey made in the year 1728,
there were at that time about one hundred and three acres
of land in the Town Neck, a part of it having been
planted by poor people holding cottage rights during the
town's pleasure. In 1735, that part of Winter Island
which was not needed for drying fish was let out with the
Neck as a common "town pasture," and so both Neck and
Island continued to be used together with a common
stint, e. g., "2 acres to a cow & 4 to a horse," but with
special preference allowed to inhabitants dwelling nearest
the Neck. In 1765 the town authorized its treasurer to
let the Island and the Neck together for the pasturage of
seventy-two milch cows at 10s. 8d. In 1824 Winter Isl-
and was annexed to the so-called Alms House Farm,
which, by this time had enclosed about ninety acres of the
old Neck lands. Instead of the town's cattle, the town's
poor were now fed in commons upon the Town's Neck.
It is a curious and instructive commentary upon the trans-
formation of communal institutions, that an old Town
Pasture should become the material basis for a Town
Report of the City Solicitor on the sale of the Neck Lands, communicated to
the City Council, Dec. 27, 1858. To Judge Endicott's valuable report we have been
greatly indebted for facts in the paragraphs concerning Winter Island and the
Town Neck. Cf. Felt's Annals of Salem, i, 191-2.
Mass. Col. Rec, iv, Part 2, 563.
NECK GATE DISAPPEARS. 61
Farm and a Hospital. 31 The twenty-three acres remaining
from the Neck land passed under the control of the Over-
seers of the Poor, who annually appointed a Hay ward and
voted when the town or city of Salem (city since 183fi)
might drive its cows afield. Of course a fixed rate was
now demanded for every creature and accommodations
were strictly limited. There used to be gates leading
into the Town Pasture upon the Neck. They seem to
have lasted until a comparatively recent period, for a
Salem poet of our time has sung their praises.
What rapturous joy
Kindles the heart of an old Salem boy,
As he returns, though but iu thought, to take
That old familiar walk " down to the Neck ! "
The old " Neck Gate " swings open to his view.
At morn and eve, to let the cows pass through. 38
11 " In 1747, a committee having been appointed to select a site for a pest house,
reported Roadie's Point on the Neck (where the work house now stands), and rec-
ommended one to be built there. The Town accepted the report, and voted a siun
to build it, "and that Roadie's Point be the place for erecting said house "(see
above Report, 13). " It also appears from the records that the town exchanged
certain portions of the land received from the commoners, about live acres, for
land belonging to Allen's farm at Roache's Point and at Pigeon Cove. And in
1799, a hospital was built for small pox patients, which was standing within the
last twenty years " {ibid, 14).
We note that a Work House was ordered by the town of Salem, March lfi, 1770,
to be placed on the northeast part of the present Town Common or Training
Field. Some very interesting rules for the management of a parish Work House,
whicli is an Old English institution, may be found in the MS. Town Records of
Salem under the dato of March, 1772.
3a From Mr. ISrooks* poem, previously mentioned.
[Fkom Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, Vol. XX,
pp. 101-17!).]
THE
GREAT PASTURES OF SALEM.
BY HERBERT B. ADAMS.
Originally there were still larger Town Pastures in
Salem than the Town Neck. These were known as Cow
Pastures or the Cattle Range. In 1640 it was resolved
by the Town that none of the Commons within the Cattle 1
Range should henceforth be granted to any individual use.
The boundaries of this great tract, known as the Cattle
Range, are described in the original records as beginning
at the head of Forest river, where fresh and salt water
meet, and as extending thence southward, and up to Mr.
Humphrey's farm," thence to the pond, "and so about to
Brooksby," or to the present town of Peabody. The area
of this great Common Pasture once embraced about four
thousand acres, and what remains of it is known to this
1 Town Records of Snlcm. i. 108, 109. Felt. Annals of Salem, i, 199.
Q " It i-- agreed, that Mr. Ilumfrey his ground shall begin al the dill, in the way
to Marble Head, well is the hound betwixt Salem A: I. inn .V so along the line be-
tween the said townes to the rocks, one mile by estimation. lo the great red oako
marked," ete. See Mass. Col. Hecords. i, -2fi. Mr. lliiuilrcy's Farm was the his-
toric germ of Swamnscott. He was one of the six original patentee- ol the Massa-
chusetts Colony.
(63)
64
day as the Great Pastures of Salem. They now embrace
about three hundred acres and are a familiar land-mark to
every native of the region. A local bard has not forgot-
ten them in his enumeration of the attractive features of
this ancient town :
" The old town-pastures have not passed from sight,
' Delectable Mountains ' of his childhood there
They stretch away into the summer air.
Still the bare rocks in golden lustre shine,
Still bloom the barberry and the columbine,
As when, of old, on many a "Lecture day,"
Through bush and swamp he took his winding way,
Toiled the long afternoon, then homeward steered,
With weary feet and visage berry-smeared." 3
The division of the original Cattle Kange or Town Pas-
tures among the various parishes and dependents of Salem
is one of the most important chapters in her local history,
although it has received little attention. The witch trials,
which occurred only a few years before the passage of
Salem's agrarian laws, have quite eclipsed them in the
popular mind, which always dwells upon the phenomenal
element in human history rather than upon natural and
underlying laws. The communal spirit, implanted and
fostered in the parishes of Salem by the acquisition and ad-
ministration of common land, was of more vital and
enduring consequence in the history of that town than
any temporary obscuration of the common sense, chron-
icled as one "dark day." Agrarian laws, or the admin-
istration of the ager publicus, acquired by conquest,
constitute the real economic history of Old Rome, and we
may well believe that the long conflict between the Old
Commoners, or Patricians, with the Cottagers, or Plebe-
ians, of Salem was of great moment in the upbuilding of
this village commonwealth. The grounds of the conflict
1 From the Rev. Charles T. Brooks' poem, previously mentioned.
65
were as deep-seated as the aristocratic class-distinctions
of Old England, which are felt in New England to this
day ; and the results of the conflict are as lasting and
potent for good as the freehold land tenure, which in
Salem, as elsewhere, evolved for many poor cottagers, or
landless inhabitants, out of the ancient Town Domain.
In a former chapter it has been shown that many poor
people, workingmen, servants, and fishermen, were re-
ceived into the town of Salem simply as inhabitants,
oftentimes with the right of building a cottage upon some
bit of waste land, but without any recognition as landed
proprietors. Some of these poor people were granted
house-lots, to be held during the town's pleasure. These
so-called "cottage-rights" were akin to the shanty-rights
that are sometimes temporarily allowed to Irish squatters
along the lines of our American railways, or upon the
waste and unoccupied land of our towns and cities. Such
privileges, when accorded by any real authority, were
like the Old English cottage-rights, whereby poor peasants
were allowed to build a hut or cottage upon the lord's
waste land, the common land of the manor. Upon this
waste, the peasants usually enjoyed certain rights of com-
monage ; for example, to wood, turf, and pasturage; and
they often cultivated in common certain portions of arable
land and gathered the hay from certain common meadows,
paying their lord in produce or in base services for the
privilege of retaining these immemorial customs. In the
Middle Ages, such tenants were variously known in man-
orial records as Coltagii, Coterelli, Cotlandarii, Colerii,
Bordarii, Cotmanni, any one of which terms signifies
much the same as Cottagers. 4
For the best discussion of the Knglish Cottagers, sec Professor William F.
Allen's paper on "The Rural Classes of England," 1,5, 8, 10, 11. Cf. Laveleye,
"Primitive Property," 22, '217.
66
Many of the first settlers of New England were, in
economic respects, akin to this class of Cottagers. More
of our New England colonists than is commonly supposed
belonged in Old England to the landless class, and, like
all emigrants since the world began, most of them left
their native country in order to improve their economic
condition. Many of these English emigrants were so
poor that they came out to America as indented servants,
virtual serfs, until they could work out their freedom.
By an express order of the General Court of Massachu-
setts, no servant could have any land allotted him until
he had faithfully completed his term of service ; & and, in
Salem, men who had yet to serve were absolutely refused
recognition as inhabitants of the town. 6 Of this class of
men, who were the slaves of English capital, Salem un-
doubtedly had its share. The Reverend John White, in
his " Planter's Plea," speaks of three hundred colonists,
"most servants," who were sent over to Salem by the
Massachusetts Company ; and Barry, the historian of
Massachusetts, admits that there were originally one hun-
dred and eighty servants sent to that town. 7
In Massachusetts, stock companies, in which, by the
way, the governments of both town and colony originated,
took the place of what, in Old England, had been a feu-
dal or manorial regime. English capital, and the spirit
of corporate association for economic purposes, were fun-
damental facts in the colonization and local upbuilding
of Massachusetts. Although landless men acquired free-
holds by patient industry in the older towns, or by adoption
into westward moving companies, yet, in the beginning,
these men had a struggle for existence almost as hard as
6 Mass. Col. Records, i, 127. Town Records of Salem, i, 47.
7 For references, see chapter on the " Origin of Salem Plantation."
67
that of poor men in Ireland to-day. Undeniably there
was an aristocratic aversion on the part of our thrifty
Puritan forefathers against granting land to new comers,
unless they were men of some property. This feeling
was entirely natural. Our forefathers were brought up
in the English parishes, and they regarded with contempt
all paupers and vagabonds. 8 To this day the old feeling
survives in New England, and a poor man who gets any-
thing out of one of our towns gets it by the hardest. In
Salem and in the first Plantations of Massachusetts, the
poor white trash of the period had greater difficulties to
contend with than it did originally in Virginia, for the
communal spirit, intensified by the Puritan idea, not only
forbade dispersion and squatter sovereignty, but wisely
kept the control of the commune in the hands of good,
substantial citizens, who were able to pay taxes and help
support preaching.
In the year 1GG0, it was enacted by the General Court
of Massachusetts that, after that date, no cottage or mere
dwelling house, except such as were already in existence'
or should thereafter be erected by town consent, should
be admitted to the; right of commonage, which, in those
times, meant chiefly the right of pasturing town-land.
This Act, 9 although indicating a continuity of the ancienl
communal spirit, marks nevertheless the lir.-t important
concession to the plebeian element in our Massachusetts
low ns. The concession was as necessary as it was impor-
tant for the economic evolution of the original narrow
communes. The ranks of the cottagers, originally land-
less men, but now in many eases possessed of small hold-
ings by thrift and purchase, had been greatly strengthened
" I'm' an curly I iv, - again > l VagalM-nd* and Trumps, m c M;;.* .Col. Kcrord.-, iv,
Tail .'. 13.
" Mass. Col. Uncords, iv. l'uit I, 117.
68
by the so-called " New Comers," a wealthier class who had
pressed into the village communities of Massachusetts
and who, by reason of their wealth, had obtained lands,
although like the Cottagers they were kept out of any
dividend of the Commons. Towards the close of the
seventeenth century these New Comers and the Cottagers,
or the Nbvi Homines and the Plebs of our New England
towns, became a very strong party, so strong, indeed, in
some communities, that they overthrew the patrician ele-
ment, or the descendants of the Old Comers, and carried
town meetings by revolutionary storm. 10
In the year 1692, the General Court, still under the
influence of the patrician party in the towns, determined
to allow a division of the Common Lands " by the major
part of the interested" proprietors, but it was carefully
enjoined, as in 1660, that "no cottage or dwelling-place
in any town shall be admitted to the privilege of common-
age of wood, timber and herbage, or any other privileges
which lie in common in any town or peculiar, other than
such as were erected or privileged by grant before the
year one thousand six hundred sixty-one, or that have
since, or shall be hereafter granted." This Act 11 of 1692
is the real point of departure for the division of the Salem
Pastures and of all other Common Lands in Massachusetts.
The local authorities in Salem were evidently familiar
enough with the text of this law, for it is frequently
quoted in the town records, and the town clerk speaks of
the original as in "Folio 23, Province Law Book." The
Salem town records which cover this period of agrarian
"The histories of old towns like Haverhill and Newbury afford a striking
commentary on that agrarian revolution by which the common people of Massa-
chusetts declared their independence of lordly townsmen in the commune long be-
fore the English Colonies in America threw.off the tyranny of a privileged class of
rulers.
11 Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, i, 65.
69
agitation have not yet been printed, but even a cursory
examination of the manuscript volumes, now preserved in
the oflice of the city clerk of Salem, will convince the
student that the Land Question occupied public attention
far more steadily than did the contemporary question of
Witchcraft. For agrarian communities, the chief interests
are always connected with the use of the soil, just as for
tisher-folk the chief thought is always concerning the
spoil of the sea. In reading the town records of Plym-
outh or of Salem, one cannot fail to perceive that the
undercurrent of New England town-life, however broken
the surface, is one steady and unceasing drift of hard
common sense, driven on by the resistless pressure of
cumulating majorities, and by the grinding force of public
necessity.
The pressure upon the Old Commoners of Salem be-
came so strong in 1702 that they voted, agreeably to the
colonial law of ten years before, that all persons who had
cottage right previous to 1661 should be classed among
the " proprietors" of Common Lands. It was also voted,
in the above year, for the benefit of the New Coiners, or
" For ye Incouragement & Growth of this Town : That
all Free-holders of this Towne vizt : Every one yt hath
a Dwelling house & Land of his own proper Estate in Fee
Simple Shall h:ive & is hereby Admitted unto ye privi-
ledge of Commonage." At the same time it was care-
fully provided that nothing should be done in reference
to the division, stinting, fencing, or disposal of the Com-
mons, unless the matter be brought before town meeting
" in an orderly way by ye Selectmen of ye Towne, & there
Debated & Voted, as hath been usual 1." It is important
to state that the Old Commoners in Salem seem to have
always constituted the sovereign element in town meeting
and to have controlled the machinery of local govern-
70
mcnt. The Novi Homines and the Plebs never really
obtained the upper hand in this aristocratic old village
republic. All agrarian reforms in Salem were brought
about by concession on the part of the patrician element,
and not through popular revolution. The town fathers,
or the heirs of Old Comers, slowly yielded to the wishes
of the New Comers, and thus the agrarian commune was
gradually widened without losing its aristocratic and sov-
ereign character ; for newly admitted members immedi-
ately became as conservative of communal rights as had
been their more favored predecessors.
In 1713, a meeting of Commoners was called under
warrant from a justice of the peace, issued in due form
to one of the Proprietors. This meeting, after it had
been duly organized, encountered from some quarter an
obstructive line of policy. Complaint was made because
the meeting was held in too small a place and without
sufficient warning. After much debate, it was agreed to
make present proceedings null and void and to summon a
new meeting. A fresh warrant was issued by a different
justice and the people gathered together in the chief meet-
ing house of Salem. A moderator and a clerk were
appointed as in ordinary town meetings (of which agra-
rian meetings were probably the prototype), and a com-
mittee of nine was chosen to receive claims to the Common
Lands of Salem. This committee was instructed to re-
ceive such claims as were authorized by the town vote
of 1702 and by the Province law of 1660. The com-
mittee had also to consider what should be done for those
who paid heavy taxes (that is, for the patrician element)
and what for those who had no claims at all.
The committee posted apublic notice upon the door of
the Meeting House, warning inhabitants to bring in their
claims to shares in the Common Lands. According to
71
previous instructions, the committee proceeded to record
applications in two distinct columns, one for cottages
erected before the year 1061, and the other for all free-
holders privileged by the town vote of 1702. Any one
studying these parallel lists will notice that many free-
holders represent also certain cottage rights established
upon their own farms (as upon Old English manors), and
also upon the Town waste, and even upon the Village
Green. For example, Colonel John Hathorne, a well-to-
do man (whose name represents the famous Hawthorne
family) claims a house or freehold in the village, also a
house upon his farm, and two cottage rights there. Mr.
Gedney's name stands for three freeholds and for six cot-
tage rights, four of them being in his great pasture and
one upon Antrum's farm. John Pickering (the ancestor
of Washington's Secretary of War) represents three free-
holds and six cottage rights, one of the hitter bein at
Co 7 O
Glass House Fields, and another in South Field Point.
Some of the cottage rights were in North Fields and some
in South Fields. One cottage right was in the " Horse
Pasture ;" another on "the Towne Common." 1 '-' One man,
who is spoken of rather disrespectfully as "Old Nichols,"
had a cottage near the Pound, in North Fields. The
cottage rights are usually specified by the name of some
owner, past or present; and, in some instances, a consid-
erable number of rights appear to have been massed in
13 In early times, the present Town Common (Washington Square] of Salem ap-
pcars to have been a kind of Town Waste. People wore sometimes allowed to
build shanties upon it, possibly for the purpose of serving refreshments on
Training Days. Portions of the Common were leased for public purposes down to
the year 1T7!< (Felt, ii, 15)7) and possibly until u much later period, for the custom
continues to this day in many old communities, where the Selectmen arc empow-
ered to lease Town Land. At one time, theie were public buildings upon the
Common, e. g., a school-house, a liie-ongine-hou.-e, an alms-house, a cuimon-homo,
etc. Churches were sometimes built upon the Town Common in the older villages
of New England.
2
72
one man's hands, indicating possibly that cottage rights,
after they were recognized as valuable, were bought up
by rich men, as were Revolutionary and Pension Claims
in after times.
In 1713, the same year in which the town of Salem
first recognized the claims of her Cottagers and all Free-
holders to share in the division of her common and un-
divided lands, was passed that vote which secured forever
for public use the old Town Common or Training Field,
the beautiful Washington Square of to-day. The origin
of this Common is coeval with the origin of the town, for
this tract was part of the oldest Town Land. The first
distinct reservation of Salem Town Common was in 1685,
when it was appointed by the town as a place where peo-
ple might shoot at a mark. 13 In the year 1713, it was
voted, " That the common lands where trainings are gen-
erally kept, before Nathaniel Higginson's house, be and
remain as it now lays to continue forever as a Training
Field for the use of the said town of Salem." 14 Origi-
nally Salem Common was a marshy tract, full of sedge
and brush. "We have seen the men who have cut the
flags and hoops on the Common and had rights to it, till
the final settlement between the Cottagers and Common-
ers in 1713, " 15 says an old resident writing in 1819. The
15 Felt, Annals of Salem, ii, 495.
"MS. Town Records of Salem, vol. iii. The first volume of the Town Records
of Salem, 1634-59, has been published by the Essex Institute, in a form and with a
literal exactness that are worthy of wide imitation. The other volumes, which
must also be published and utilized before early Salem History can appear to the
world as something besides Salem Witchcraft, are preserved in the vault at the
office of the City Clerk. The second volume covers the period from 1659 to 1680;
the third, from 1680 to 1748; and the fourth from 1748 to 1775; etc. Little concep-
tion of the richness of these unpublished Town Records can be had from the brief
use made of them by the writer of this monograph, or by other investigators with
only special points of interest in view.
16 Quoted from Essex Register, of August 4, 1819, by B. F. Browne, Hist. Coll.
of Essex Inst., iv, 2.
73
surface of the now level Common was for a longtime very
uneven, with numerous hills and marshy hollows, and
pools of standing water. The tract was levelled about
the beginning of the present century, at an expense of
twenty-tive hundred dollars ; and, in honor of this public
improvement, the Selectmen, in 1802, ordered the Com-
mon to be called " Washington Square," but the old name
of "The Common" is still retained in popular use, like
the name of "Boston Common," 16 and it is to be hoped
that it will survive forever, as an open record of the orig-
inal land community from which the modern city has
evolved.
At the same time the Town Common was reserved, it
was also voted that all highways, burying places, and
other common lands lying between the Town Bridge and
the Block House, should remain common forever for the
use of the town. Thus were secured to Salem those nec-
essary communal foundations for the living and for the
dead, for the present and the future. The reservation
of land for cemeteries, for streets and sidewalks, and for
all public open spaces, is not ordinarily thought of as a
survival of the principle of agrarian community in the
midst of individual landed property which now seems to
prevail almost everywhere, but this survival is none the
less real because it is common and unnoticed.
Before proceeding to a division of the Common Lands,
the Proprietors made still further reservations for the ben-
efit of the community. From that magnificent town pat-
rimony of four thousand acres of Commons, sixty acres
were now granted for the use of the poor "and such oth-
ers as are Livers in the Town but not Privileged to a Right
18 An nt tempt was once made t<> change the name of " Boston Common" into
Washington Park."
74
in the Common Lands." These were they who had no
claims. It is interesting to observe how this reservation
for the poor was administered. The sixty acres were ap-
pointed for a cow pasture, three acres to a cow right ; and
the Selectmen were from year to year to nominate such
poor people as deserved the right of commonage. Thus,
it should be observed, there was no premium placed on
poverty, for only " such as have a cow of their own to
keep " could secure the right of common pasture. A cot-
tager who owned only a goat or a pig was ruled out from
town bounty, for he could not be classed with his betters
who owned a cow. An end, however, was made to all
possible jealousy of Salem's aristocratic poor, when, in
in 1834, the town sold the pasture for six hundred dol-
lars, and thus re-asserted its right of communal domain.
But, by this time, the town was providing for its poor in
a more excellent way. The Town Farm had now taken
the place of the old Town Pasture, and Winter Island was
reserved for the benefit of poor fishermen, who could there
find a place to dry their fish. But a rent of five shillings
per annum had to be paid to the town for the use of Win-
ter Island, 17 thus indicating that the title to this tract, like
the right to the reservation for the poor, was still vested
in the town.
Besides the reservations for the poor, for the Town
Common, and for other public purposes, small lots were
assigned for the benefit of the clergy of Salem. In Old
England, and in Southern Colonies like Maryland and Vir-
During the late civil war, Winter Island was given over to the United States
Government, for the purpose of harbor-defence, but since the return of peace Con-
gress has granted the use of the Island to Plummer Farm School, so that the old
locality is still a kind of public agrarian interest. The Neck lands, once a kind of
Home Pasture for " Riding Horses," Milch Cows, etc., have now been converted
into a pleasure-ground called "The Willows," where cook-shops, booths, and
merry-go-rounds preserve for " the dear old Neck" its primitive character of a
Home Pasture, or out-door nursery, for Salem children.
75
ginia, such reservations would have been called Glebe
Lands. Ten acres were granted to the ministry of the
First Parish of Salem ; but for the clergy of the Second
Parish five acres were considered enough. Five acres
were also allotted to the pastor of the Village Precinct,
afterwards known as Dan vers, and five to the Middle Pre-
cinct, later called South Dan vers, now Peabody. "The
East Parish lot," says Felt, "was sold in 1832 for $146.
That of the First Parish was disposed of in 1819 for $565.
This sum was added to the fund for supporting their
ministry, except enough of its income to purchase twenty
bushels of potatoes annually for the clergyman then their
pastor, which had been the amount of the rent." 18
Including these Glebe Lands and four hundred acres
which were reserved to satisfy incidental claims, for ex-
ample those of the town of Lynn in the boundary dis-
putes then pending, there were altogether at the disposal
of the Proprietors something over four thousand acres,
not reckoning abatements made on account of the quality
of the land. Upon adding up the claims, there were
found to be 1,132 rights to commonage. Of these, 138
rights or the equivalent of 460 acres, belonged to the in-
habitants of Salem Village and "Ry all's Side," or the
North Precinct; 204 rights or 680 acres belonged to the
dwellers in the Middle Precinct; and 75)0 rights, or 2,(530
acres, to the Proprietors of the body of the town, or of
the two lower parishes of Salem proper.
In the year 1722-3, the Commons of Salem were di-
vided between the claimants, according as they happened
to be grouped in the above named local precincts. To
Salem Village and Myall's Side" was granted all the Coni-
'Felt, Annuls of Salem, i, 100.
'The Records of Ihc Proprietors of Salem Village and Uyall's Side from lTiiU-UO
arc ftill in existence.
76
mon Land beyond Ipswich River. The Middle Precinct
received the Commons lying in that neighborhood. The
body of the town of Salem retained the Common Lands
lying on the south side of a line drawn from the north-
east end of Spring Pond, beginning at a run of water
there, thence easterly to so-called Tylly's Corner, then
back of the Glass House Fields and down the plains to
the house formerly owned by Humphrey Case, and so on
to Norton's house and the Town Bridge, which entire cir-
cuit embraced the greater part of the Commons, or over
2,500 acres, besides the so-called "Flint's Pasture."
After this grand division of communal property, a new
board of Commoners was instituted for each precinct, and
the same old system of corporate administration of com-
mon property went on unchecked, and with the old spirit
of aristocratic exclusiveness as regards all New Comers.
The above division not only gave greater strength to all
freeholders and cottagers in the community, but it fur-
nished an economic basis for two new towns, besides va-
rious parishes. The old system of agrarian community
has died out in the younger towns which branched off
from Salem, but in the mother- town it has been perpetu-
ated down to the present day.
The history of the gradual curtailment of the Great
Pastures of Salem, from their original extent of 2,500
acres, at the time of the above distribution, to their pres-
ent comparatively narrow limits of 300 acres, does not
fall within the scope of this monograph, which is less con-
cerned with purely topographical details than with the
origin and continuity in Salem of an archaic system of
which the Great Pastures are a curious survival. Every
year since the above division, the Proprietors of the
Great Pastures have met, elected a moderator, listened to
the report of the clerk, and have passed their customary
77
orders concerning the " stinting" of pasturage. The com-
mon domain, like the board of Commoners, has been
gradually shrinking up, as did the Roman Senate and the
dominions of Rome. The heirs of the original Proprie-
tors, the decuriones of Salem, have been gradually dying
oil' or selling out their rights to others. Farm after farm
has been set off by vote of the Commoners to those who
desired individual possession of their rights. Piece by
piece the old Commons have been parcelled out into indi-
vidual holdings ; but still, down to the very present, a
remnant of the once Great Pastures has been preserved.
The actual quantity of land is of little significance com-
pared with the fact that for nearly three centuries this old
system of commonage has remained practically the same
in the town of Salem. The writer has examined, at the
house of Dr. Henry Wheatland, the present Commoner's
clerk, the original records, which are remarkably com-
plete, and he finds that a vote recorded in the last
quarter of the nineteenth century differs very slightly
in substance from votes passed throughout the seven-
teenth century. The charm of novelty should not be
expected in a system which has its chief interest in the
fact of endurance without a change tor more than a
thousand years in Old England before the English thought
of conquering for themselves a New England.
And here, in passing, let us notice one illustration of
the survival of archaic custom in the method of conveying
land in early Salem "by turtle and twigg," which is men-
tioned by Palgrave as a Saxon form, to which later deeds
and records were only collateral. This singular custom,
not unknown among ruder peoples than the Saxons, was
kept up in the rural parishes of old England and was
thence directly transmitted by the Puritan Fathers to
78
these New England shores, where it long survived in the
towns of Essex county, which after all was but a colony
of modern East Saxons, with a North-folk and a South-
folk, for county neighbors, though without a Wessex.
What links in history are these old county names and
local customs ! What an iron grip upon early English
precedent was that in 1695 when John Rusk of Salem, in
the presence of two witnesses, took a twig from a growing
tree and a piece of green turf,, both upon his own land,
and said, " Here, son Thomas, I do, before these two men,
give you possession of this land by turffe and tvvigg !"
The right of alienating shares in the Great Pastures
by deed was very early provided for by the old commoners
of Salem. In 1732 a committee of nine men was appoint-
ed to measure, lay out, and convey lots from the common
domain. Lots large enough for building purposes were
thus frequently sold off by vote of the majority of com-
moners, who divided the proceeds. Individual rights
were conveyed by deed, signed by the Committee in the
name of the Proprietary. There are several such deeds
in the town records, e. g., vol. iii, under the dates,
December 25, 1732 ; June 26, 1733 ; September 19, 1738.
The above committee also compounded with persons who
had encroached upon the Commons ; for example, a man
who had built a shop upon common land, was allowed to
remain by paying thirty-five shillings per rod for the
ground occupied.
From the open air meetings of Saxon townsmen delib-
erating as to when and how they should plant, harvest
and pasture their Common Fields, it is but a single step
in history to the Court Leet, or popular assembly of
tenants, upon the manorial estate of an English lord, or
of a Maryland proprietor. It is but another step in his-
79
tory from these popular assemblies to the modern lawn
meeting in Sir Walter's Park, whither Hocked
" His tenants, wife and child, and half
The neighboring borough with the Institute
Of which he was the patron " Tennyson's " Princess."
From the Field Meetings of English Institutes, the tran-
sition is easy to a Field Meeting 20 of the Essex Institute.
Here, as the English poet sings, all the sloping pasture
seems to murmur, sown with happy faces and with holiday,
and here, too, as in Sir Walter's Park, sport goes hand
in hand with science.
ADDENDUM.
The following communication, made to the Salem
Gazette, August 16, 1881, by Mr. II. F. Waters, a well
known antiquary of Salem, is valuable for its items of
historical interest and for its exact transcription of votes
from the original Town Records :
Messrs. Editors: In connection with the paper of Mr.
Adams, at the Institute meeting, the following "votes"
from our old town records may not be uninteresting.
Additional information is given in the Report, prepared
some years ago by Judge Endicott, then City Solicitor,
upon the Neck lands. The "Blockhouse" stood about on
the site of the late pound at the head of the Neck, and
the land shore was known as the " Blockhouse Field "
10 So-called ''Field Meetings" for the regulation of Common Lands, used to be
held in Connecticut, see Lambert, New Haven, 96-7, and of necessity must have
existed in the " Perambulation" and "Division" of Salem Commons, to .-ay noth-
ing of the associate planting and harvesting of Common Fields. Hut the Field
Meetings of the Essex Institute are not the direct continuation of the earlier
Salem institution, although they are, perhaps, the outgrowth of the same original
idea; for the Field Meetings of English scientific societies, which suggested the
Field Meetings of the Essex Institute (see Bulletin of the latter, i 89), are them-
selves the cultivated product of the old English instinct for open air assemblies.
The name Field Meeting, actually surviving in its original sense in this country,
If not also in England, is sufficient proof of this view.
80
into this century. It belonged to the heirs of Benjamin
Ives, who sold it to their kinsman Richard Derby.
As to the acres " sett a Part " for the use of the ministry
. . . for pasturage,, this privilege seems to have been
commuted later for a money payment, as Dr. Bentley
records being waited upon by a farmer from Danvers, who
brought him rent for the use of the "Minister's Field,"
much to the good divine's surprise, as he had previously
known of no such perquisite.
" Att a Meeting of the Proprietors of the Lands lying in Comon In
the Town of Salem, held at the Meeting-house in the first Parrish In
Salem November the Twenty-Second Day one Thousand Seaven Hun-
dred and Fouerteen being Legally warned
Voated That Coll'o Samuell Browne Esq'r is Chosen Moderator for
the Meeting.
Voated That the Returne of the Committe who were Appointed to
Receive the Claims to the Comon Lands In Salem as Itt is entred on
the other Leafe Backward is Received allowed and approved.
Voated That whereas there are Severall Claims nott yett ffully made
out to thee Committee, and others who have Neglected to bring in
their Claimes : Therefor for Compleating the same That the Proprietors
doe grant further Liberty to the Committee for fouer or five months
next Comeing to Receive & Enter all such further Rights and Claimes
as any person may have to make that none may be excluded that have
Right and that Notifications be by them Accordingly Posted up in the
most Publick Places in the three several Parrishes of the time and
place of the Committee's Meetings.
Voated That there be sixty Acres Granted for the use of the Poor
of this Town and such others as are Livers, in the Town but not
Privileged to A Right in the Comon Lands and the same to be for a
Cow Pasture : To be allowed Three Acres to A Cow the selectmen
from year to year to Propose and allow the persons so to be Priviledged
and they are to be such as have a cow of their own to keep.
Voated That Winter Island be wholly Reserved and Granted for the
Use of the Fishery, and such shoremen as Dry fish there who live in
the Town that pay an acknowledgment or Rent of five shillings per
annum for a Room to dry ffish for a fflshing vessell and such as live in
other Towns who come and dry ffish there shall pay an acknowledg-
ment or Rent of Twenty Shillings per annum for a fish room for each
vessell : To be lett by the Selectmen of the Town of Salem yearly and
81
and the rents to be pd into the Town Treasurer for the use of the
Town : the Hirers to fence in the same att their own charge.
Voated That the Neck of Land to the Eastward Part of the Block-
houses be Granted and Reserved for the use of the Town of Salem for
a Pasture for Milch Cows and Rideing Horses, to be fenced at the
Townes charge and lett out yearly to the Inhabitants of the Town by
the Selectmen, and no one Person be admitted to put into said Pasture
in a stfrner more than one milch Cow or one Rideing Horse, and the
whole number not to exceed Two Acres and a half to a Cow and fouer
Acres to a Hors, the Rent to be paid into the Town Treasurer for the
Time being for the use of thee Town of Salem.
Voated That there be Tenn acres of the Comon Lands sett a Part
and Reserved for the use of the Ministry in the body of the Town for
Pasturage, and five Acres more for the Village Precinct Ministry and
five acres more for the Middle Precinct Ministry in suiteable and con-
venient places for them.
Voated That there be about Fouer Hundred Acres on the moste
remote part of the Town towards or on the west end of Dogg Pond
Rocks and Hills adjoining to Linn Line where there may be Last
Damage to the known Proprietors to be Reserved for any such as may
come and make out any Right or Claime after the first day of June
next ensuing.
Voated That all Dwelling Houses built in thee Town of Salem since
the year one Thousand Seaven Hundred and Two to this day being
the L'2d day of November 1714 Bee and hereby are admitted to and
allowed a Right in the Comon Lands in Salem.
Voated That all the Comon Lands in Salem not otherwise disposed
off bee measured by an Artist and Returned to the Committee who
are desired to gett the same done.
Voated That the said Comon Lands be ffenced, ami stinted or
divided to and amongst the Proprietors of said Comon Lands in Pro-
portion to their Rights and According to Quality as neer as may bee
that have or shall make out their Rights before the first day of June
Next ensuing as hereafter may be agreed on by the major part of the
Propriety.
Voated That the Committee who were Chozen to Receive the
Claimes to the Comon Lands or the major part of them are ordered
and Iinpowercd to Sell and dispose of some small Pieces and Stripe
of the Comon Lands in this Town of Salem as may be suffltient to
defray the Necessary Kxpences of the Committees and the charge of
measuring the saide Comon Lands."
XI
THE
GENESIS
NEW ENGLAND STATE
CONNECTICUT)
"There was only one thing dearer to him [the New Englander] than his township
his hearth. The 'town' was as ancient as the neighborhood, and older than the
county; his great-grandson knows that it is much older than the State, or the Union
of the States. E. G. Scotl.
"In this part of the Union [New England] the impulsion of political activity was
given in the townships; and it may almost be said that each of them originally formed
an independent nation. It is important to remember that they have not been invested
with privileges, but that they seem, on the contrary, to have surrendered a portion of
their independence to the State." De Tocquevilte, (Reeve's Trans.).
"Each New England State may be described as a confederacy of minor republics
called towns." Palfrey.
" The inhabited part of Massachusetts was recognized as divided into little territo-
ries, each of which, for its internal purposes, constituted a separate integral govern-
ment, free from supervision." Bancroft.
inatrt pnlrfcra filia pnlcfcriorl
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
I N
Historical and Political Science
HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor
History i.i past Politics untl Politics present History. Freeman
XI
T II E
GENESIS
OF A
NEW ENGLAND STATE
(CONNECTICUT)
Head before the Historical and Political Science Association, April 13, ISS3
BY ALEXANDER JOHNSTON, A. M.
k a i. i I m o it i:
I'Ciii.Isiikd nv TlIK .! iin- Hopkins I'nivkksit*
SKI'TKM III; It, 1883.
JOHN MURPHY A CO., PRINTERS,
BALTIMORE.
THE
GENESIS OF A NEW ENGLAND STATE
ICONNKCTICUTi
In the new interest which has sprung up of late years in
the institutional history of the United States, it is a little
strange that the territorial forms and features, the bodies, of
the States themselves are usually left so far out of account.
It may be that this neglect has come from their comparative
constancy of outline. It is easy to trace most of the internal
workings of the State to the town system or its equivalents,
and to accept them as a purely natural outgrowth. But it is
just as easy to see that the external outline of New York,
Illinois, or Texas has, from a very early period, been much
the same as at present, and to accept it as artificial, as imposed
on the State spirit by some superior power.
And it must be confessed that this distinction holds good
as a general rule. Each of our States has had, throughout
its history, a remarkable uniformity of feature. There is
comparatively little of that breaking up and reuniting, that
shooting out of a crystal here, or disappearance of a limb
there, which gives the idea of natural growth in a French
kingdom, while it makes it difficult to say just where the
growth took permanent shape. Our States, we might almost
say, came into the world full grown, like Minerva. Even
the Massachusetts towns, the accepted exemplars of their class,
found their Commonwealth boundaries waiting lor them when
they came into existence, and conformed to them. In the
original States there is usuallv a certain sequence of events:
6
6 The Genesis of a
a grant of territory by the King to a great mercantile com-
pany or court favorite; a subsidiary, or an entirely new, grant
to actual colonizers; and the location of the colony with fairly,
if clumsily, defined boundaries, which have continued sub-
stantially the same down to our own day. In the States
subsequently formed there is a quite parallel sequence of
events: the acquisition of jurisdiction by the nation; the
establishment of territorial boundaries by Congress; and the
erection of a State within the external limitations already
imposed. Of course, the general idea will not bear minute
examination : all the States have had their variations of
outline, some of them pregnant with significance; and the
historical geography of the United States is a field where
some worker will yet find a rich and virgin soil. Neverthe-
less it remains true that the individuality of the future State
is sufficiently constant from its first connection with human
interest, history and government to give good reason for con-
sidering it in the beginning as a human creation rather than
a natural growth.
We look, then, as a general rule, to the will of the gov-
erning power- of a colony for the body, the territorial form,
of a township, while we look to the Germanic heredity of the
people for its spirit; we look to the town spirit for the spirit
of the future State, and to the will of a King or of a Congress
for its body, its territorial form and boundaries. It is the
purpose of this article to direct attention to one of the few
exceptions to this general rule, the present State of Connec-
ticut,* a State which was born, not made, which grew by
natural accretion of townships, which formed its own govern-
ment, made its own laws, engaged in its own alliances, fought
* Rhode Island and Vermont are the other exceptions, and as well
deserve examination. "We can hardly include Plymouth among the
exceptions, for that colony only claimed individuality by charter pur-
chase ; nor Texas, whose admission to the Union was a flagrant violation
of every precedent of State origin.
New England State [Connecticut.) 7
its own wars, and built up its own body, without the will of
King, Kaiser, or Congress, and which, even at the last, only
made use of the royal authority to complete the symmetry of
the boundaries it had fairly won for itself.*
Territorial Claims.
The accepted story of the transmission of the title to the
jurisdiction of Connecticut is very simple. The soil was a
part of James I.'s grant to the Council of Plymouth; a part
of the smaller grant to the Karl of Warwick in lrj.'iO by the
Council of Plymouth ; a part of the still smaller grant to
Viscount Say and Sele, Lord Brooke, and others in 1631 by
Warwick ; and the territory, as it now stands, was confirmed
to the colony of Connecticut by Charles II. 's charter of 1602,
with the consent of the survivors of the last named grantees.
Minor difficulties, such as Fenwick's troublesome claim under
the Say grant, were bought off by the colony; the Indian
possessory title was extinguished by purchase and conquest,
and the colony's chain of title to its own territory seemed to
be without a weak link. In that case, there Mould have been
nothing out of the ordinary in the Connecticut colony, and
* Authorities in Gknkral: Trumbull's Colo/iial Records of Connec-
ticut; Houd ley's Colonial Records of New Haven; IJowen's Boundary
Disputes of Connecticut; Trumbull's History of Connecticut ; Hollister's
History of Connecticut; Dwight's History of Connecticut : Peters' General
History of Connecticut (MeCormick's reprint of 1877); At water'- Colo-
nial History of New Haven; Bacon's Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut ;
Fowler's Local Law in Massachusetts and Connecticut ; Savage's Winthrop's
New England; Brotlbeiid's History of New York; OVallnghtm's History
of New Netherland; Thompson's History of Long Island; Wood's First
Towns of Long Island; Holland's History of Western Massachusetts;
Hartley's Hartford in the Olden Time; Stiles's History of Ancient Wind-
sor; Hull's History of Norwalk ; Huntington's History of Stamford:
Cnulkins's History of New London: Mead's History of Greenwich;
Howell's Early History of Southampton, I,. I.: H<md'> History of Water-
town, Mass. Kefcrcnccs are made tu the author's name, except in the
ease of records.
8 The Genesis of a
the formation of its territorial body would have followed the
general rule.
But there was a weak link, or rather a non-existent link,
the grant to "Warwick : he who looks for it will look in vain.
Trumbull and D wight* assume that the Say and Sele grant
was really from the Council of Plymouth, of which Warwick
was the President; but the Say and Sele grantf is, by its
terms, from Warwick personally, and the Council of Plymouth
is not even named in it. Hollister| takes a much more ten-
able ground : he admits that no trace can be found of a grant
to Warwick, but assumes that such a grant must have been
made, since Warwick would not otherwise have ventured to
make the Say and Sele grant. Peters scouts the notion of
a grant to Warwick, and taunts the colonial government with
its inability to show any original title. Bancroft || and other
general authorities state the grant to Warwick without noting
any doubt as to its validity, and it is generally accepted
without question as the basis of Connecticut's territorial
claims, subsequently confirmed by the charter.
On the other hand, not only is it evident that the original
settlement of Connecticut was legally a sheer intrusion, in
absolute disregard of the paper title on which it afterwards
professed to rely, but the Plymouth Council itself did not
recognize the Warwick grant, or the claims of the Say and
Sele associates under it. On the contrary, when it divided
*1 Trumbull, 27; Dwight, cap. 1.
fit is given in 1 Trumbull, 495.
% 1 Hollister, 20.
\ Peters, 11. "The Governor and Company of Connecticut gave a
formal answer, setting up a title under the Earl of "Warwick, who, they
said, disposed of the land to Lord Say and Sele and Lord Brooke, and
the Lords Say and Brooke sold the same to Fenwick, Peters, and others.
The Earl of Arran answered that, when they produced a grant from the
Plymouth Company of those lands to the Earl of Warwick, it should have
an answer. But the colony was silent."
J) 1 Bancroft's United States, 395.
New England Slate (Connecticut.) 9
the remaining property in the soil among its members in
1035, before surrendering the jurisdiction to the King, it
granted the territory between the Narragansett and Connec-
ticut rivers to the royalist Marquis of Hamilton, and recorded
the grant. This was the only Connecticut grant, up to the
charter, which came from a source having an ostensible power
to grant, and it became obsolete by non-user, since the royalist
patentee was unable to make any attempt to colonize under it
until colonization was completed without his assistance.* On
the other side of Long Island Sound lay the fine' territory of
Long Island. This was covered by a royal grant to the Earl
of Stirling in 1635; but the grantee made no attempt to
assert any rights of jurisdiction, and his grantees had at first
as open opportunity as the settlers on the mainland to erect
independent town republics. f
The nearest approach to the truth seems to be that an
informal, and consequently invalid, grant of some kind was
made to Warwick, and that the original colonists, in their
subsequent search for a paper title, took this as the best one
available to them, though they had never respected it in
practice. They were in no position to feel or assert any pride
in that which makes their colonization noteworthy, the absence
of an original patent. They would have asserted the Ham-
ilton patent with equal warmth, if it had offered superior
advantages; they chose the Warwick title because Say in
10(52, while he was a republican, was yet a man of influence
with the King, because he was a friend to New Englanders
and disposed to assist any New England colony, and because
lie, the only surviving patentee, was too rich to care for (put
rente and too old to be a dangerous ally. The truth is, that
* Tin' Hamilton heirs, in 1683 and subsequent years, sued for a recovery
of their alleged rights in the soil, l>ut their suit was denied for the reason
that it would he unjust to disturb lont; -'tiled titles, in id to give the heirs
tin' benefit of the colonists' improvements. See I TrumhnU t .'JOU.
j- T/ujmjiton, 117; 1 Q'CaUaghan y 210, U15; Wood, 0, 20.
o
] The Genesis of a
the colonization and organization of Connecticut took place
without the remotest connection with any paper title what-
ever, and that the Warwick title was purely an after thought
to bolster up, by the forms of English law, the really better
title of the colonists, acquired by their own purchases, con-
quests, and colonization. For the purposes of this article the
Warwick and Say titles may be dismissed as practically both
non-existent.
In 1634, then, the territory now occupied by Connecticut
was a veritable No-Man's-Land. It had been granted, indeed,
to the Plymouth Council, but the grant stood much on a par
with a presentation of a bear skin whose natural owner was
still at large in the forest. On the north, the Massachusetts
boundary line had been defined by charter, though its exact
location, in its whole length, was still in the air; on the east,
the Plymouth purchase boundary was in the same condition ;
on the west, the asserted Dutch boundary of New Netherlands
was in the same condition. The debatable ground between
these unsettled boundaries offered one of the few opportuni-
ties which the town system has had to show how it can build
up the body, as well as provide the spirit, for a State. A
brief sketch of the manner in which the work was done will
show that the towns, the natural outgrowth of the colonists'
natures, formed their own colonial governments, pushed back
the asserted boundaries of their neighbors, and obtained for
themselves a local habitation and a name among common-
wealths long before the King added the sanction of his royal
assent to a work which had already been accomplished with-
out it.
Colonization.
Movement toward the vacant territory fairly began in 1633.
In that year the Dutch established a trading house where
Hartford now stands; William Holmes, a Plymouth skipper,
sailed up the Connecticut river, passed the Dutch station, and
established a trading house where Windsor now stands; and
New England Slate (Conneclicul.) 11
a few Massachusetts traders and explorers had made their way
through the wilderness to the same point. In the following
year the first real settlements took place. In 1630 and 1632
the towns and congregations of Dorchester, Watertown and
Newtown, in Massachusetts, had been founded, each by a
distinct body of immigrants from England.* For various
reasons they became dissatisfied with their location, and de-
sired a removal further west. After a year's persistent appli-
cation they wrung from the General Court a reluctant consent,
conditioned on their remaining within the jurisdiction of
Massachusetts. f In 1634, before the consent was given, a
few persons from Watertown settled at Wethersfield. In
1635 the main Watertown body followed to Wethersfield,
and the Dorchester body to Windsor; and in 1636 the main
Newtown body removed to Hartford. At the end of the
year 1636, these three townships, the nucleus of the Connec-
ticut colony, contained about 160 families and 800 persons.
In the following year they contained a sufficient number of
fighting men to declare war against the Pequots, and almost
annihilated that tribe. X
In 1635, the Say and Selc associates built a fort at the
mouth of the Connecticut river. In 1639, Colonel George
Fenwick, the only one of the associates who showed any dis-
position to urge the claim, brought colonists to Saybrook, or
Seabrook, as the fort was often called, and it kept up an inde-
pendent existence for some years. Fenwick was treated by
the Connecticut colonists with the deference due to a possibly
formidable rival. In 164 4 various reasons recalled him to
England, and he sold Saybrook to the Connecticut colony.
The equivalent was to be certain tolls upon vessels passing
the fort, Mid they netted Fenwick about 1,600. In return
he transferred the fort and promised, "if it came into his
* 1 Mather's Mogilalia, 75.
t 1 Suvuge'a Winthrop, 1(17.
I See the Connecticut authorities.
12 The Genesis of a
power," to transfer all the land from Saybrook to the Narra-
gansett river. This agreement was never executed, but it
quieted the only one of the Say and Sele associates who had
shown any disposition to interfere with the pushing and
ambitious Connecticut colony. Saybrook now became a Con-
necticut town.*
In 1637 the wealthiest body of immigrants that had yet
come from England arrived at Boston."}" They resisted all
inducements to settle in Massachusetts, and in 1638 founded
a colony of their own at what is now New Haven. Their
title rested entirely on purchase from the Indians, as did all
their subsequent extensions. When their stronger neighbor,
the Connecticut colony, by its Fenwick purchase, acquired a
pseudo title under the Say and Sele grant, the New Haven
colony at first showed signs of a disposition to assert the
Stirling grant as perhaps giving it some kind of a paper
title beyond its mere purchases on Long Island; J but it soon
settled back, for its right to existence, upon its Indian pur-
chases and its recognition as a member of the New England
Union in 1643.
There were thus, in 1638, three independent colonies
within the present limits of Connecticut. One of them, the
Saybrook colony, rested on a paper title, which rested on
nothing and was never perfected. The other two, the sur-
vivors after 1644, had not even a baseless paper title to rest
upon. Both were as perfect examples of "Squatter sover-
eignty " as Douglas could have asked for. Without a shadow
of reliance upon authority, they formed their own govern-
ments, proprio vigore, made war, peace and alliances, levied
taxes, and collected customs. In 1643 they united with
* Dwight, cap. 12. The agreement is in 1 Conn. Rec, 266,
fAtwater, 80.
%2 New Haven Rec, 300. "Our title to those lands from the Lord
Starling."
\ See New Haven authorities.
New England State (Connecticut.) 13
Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay in the New England Union.
In 1G50 they joined in the treaty at Hartford with Governor
Stuyvesant, which put the boundary between New York and
Connecticut* very much as at present, except that it was a
straight line throughout, and continued across Long Island
from Oyster Bay to the Ocean. Before the charter was
granted, Massachusetts f had agreed to a boundary line not
very far from that which was ultimately settled ; and as Mas-
sachusetts claimed the territory on the east, the modern State
of Rhode Island, the limits of the commonwealths were fairly
settled. Let us see how their towns developed them, and
how they treated their towns.
The Connecticut Colony.
It must be noted that these Newtown, Watertown, and
Dorchester migrations had not been altogether a simple
transfer of individual settlers from one colony to another.
In each of these migrations a part of the people was left
behind, so that the Massachusetts towns did not cease to
exist. And yet each of them brought its Massachusetts
magistrates, its ministers (except Watertown), and all the
political and ecclesiastical machinery of the town ; and at
least one of them (Dorchester) had hardly changed its struc-
ture since its members first organized in l(i30 at Dorchester
in England. The first settlement of Connecticut was thus
the migration of three distinct and individual town organiza-
tions out of the jurisdiction of Massachusetts and into abso-
lute freedom. It was the Massachusetts town system set
loose in the wilderness.
At first the three towns retained even their Massachusetts
names; and it was not until the eighth court meeting, Feb-
* 1 hrvdhtad, 510.
t Rowen, 17, (map).
% 1 Bond, '.ISO; Hartley, '.; Stiles, 25 (note).
14 The Genesis of a
ruary 21, 1636(7),* that it was decided that "the plantacon
nowe called Newtowne shalbe called & named by the name
of Harteforde Towne, likewise the plantacon now called
Watertowne shalbe called & named Wythersfeild," and "the
plantacon called Dorchester shalbe called Windsor." On the
same day the boundaries between the three towns were
"agreed" upon, and thus the germ of the future State was
the agreement and union of the three towns. Accordingly,
the subsequent court meeting at Hartford, May 1, 1637,f for
the first time took the name of the "Genrall Corte," and was
composed, in addition to the town magistrates who had pre-
viously held it, of "comittees" of three from each town.
So simply and naturally did the migrated town system
evolve, in this binal assembly, the seminal principle of the
Senate and House of Representatives of the future State of
Connecticut. The Assembly further showed its consciousness
of separate existence by declaring "an offensive warr ag' the
Pequoitt," assigning the proportions of its miniature army
and supplies to each town, and appointing a commander. In
June it even ordered a settlement to "sett downe in the
Pequoitt Countrey % & River in place convenient to mayn-
teine o r right y 1 God by Conquest hath given to us." So
complete are the features of State-hood, that we may fairly
assign May 1, 1637, as the proper birthday of Connecticut.
No King, no Congress presided over the birth : its seed was
in the towns.
January 14, 1638(9), the little Commonwealth formed the
first American Constitution^ at Hartford. So far as its pro-
* 1 Conn. Rec, 7.
f 1 Conn. Rec, 9.
X The Pequot Country was, in general terras, the south-eastern part of
the State, east of the Connecticut river. Massachusetts claimed a share
in the rights of conquest, but Connecticut never relaxed her hold upon
it, and the charter gave her a formal approval of her claim. Bowen, 26
(map).
\ 1 Conn. Rec, 20.
New England Slate (Connecticut.) 15
visions arc concerned, the King, the Parliament, the Plymouth
Council, the Warwick grant, the Say and Sele grant, might
as well have been non-existent: not one of them is mentioned.
It is made, according to the preamble, on the authority of the
people dwelling on "the River of Conncctecotte and the
Lands thereunto adioyneing; " its objects are to establish
"an orderly and decent Gouerment," which should "order
and dispose of the affayres of the people," and to maintain
"the liberty and purity of the gospel 1" and "the diseiplyne
of the churches;" and for these purposes its authors "doe
therefore assotiate and conjoyne our seines to be as one Publike
State or Comonwealth." The only sovereignty recognized in
the constitution or the oaths of office prescribed by it, is that
of the people. It cannot, therefore, be said that the govern-
ment of Connecticut was formed by the three towns, though
it undeniably grew out of them and was conditioned on every
side by their precedent existence. Its establishment has some
parallels to that of the Federal Constitution one hundred and
fifty years afterward. In both cases the constituent units,
towns and States, never independent in fact before or after,
were nominally independent before but not after. In both
cases, while the units remained the same as before, the con-
stitution was not framed by General Court or by Congress,
but by an unprecedented body, a popular convention in the
one case, a Federal Convention in the other. In both cases
the new political creation succeeded to a part of the powers
which the constituent units had before exercised. Here the
parallel ceases: there was no occasion for any ratification by
the towns, since their inhabitants had united in framing: the
constitution itself.
There were to be two "General Assemblies or Courts"
yearly, in April and September: the former for the election
of a Governor and other magistrates for one year; the latter
"for makeing of lawes." A General Court was to consist of
a Governor, Magistrates, and Deputies. Each town was to
16 The Genesis of a
nominate two persons as Magistrates; * and out of the whole
mini her nominated the General Court was to choose by ballot
not less than six for the next year, but might " ad so many
more as they judge requisitt." The three towns were each
to send four Deputies " to agitate the affayres of the Comon-
wealth;" new towns were to send Deputies according to
their population. If the Governor and Magistrates at any
time refused to summon a General Court upon petition of the
freemen, the towns, through their constables, were to issue
the summons, and in such case the Governor and Magistrates
were to be excluded from the General Court. The election
of local officers and the management of local affairs were left
entirely to the towns, with an indefinite power of supervision
in the General Court. " In w oh said Generall Courts shall
consist the supreme power of the Comonwealth, and they only
shall haue power to make lawes or repeal the, to graunt leuyes,
to ad mitt of Freemen,f dispose of lands vndisposed of to
seuerall Townes or p r sons, and also shall haue power to call
ether Courte or Magestrate or any other p r son whatsoeuer into
question for any misdemeanour, and may for just causes dis-
place or deale otherwise according to the nature of the offence,
and also may deale in any other matter that concerns the good
of this coitionwelth, excepte election of Magestrats, w oh shall
be done by the whole boddy of Freemen." This constitution
was not only the earliest but the longest in continuance of
American documents of the kind, unless we except the Rhode
Island charter. X It was not essentially altered by the charter
of 1662, which was practically a royal confirmation of it;
and it was not until 1818 that the charter, that is, the con-
* These officers, the germ of the future Senate, exercised judicial powers
in their towns ; and, as the General Court grew stronger, it also appointed
commissioners " with magestraticall powers " for the towns.
f In 1*543 the General Court left the admission of freemen to a major
vote of each town, retaining only a formal right of confirmation.
+ Connecticut, 1639-1818; Rhode Island, 1663-1842.
New England Stale {Connecticut.) 17
stitution of 1G39, was superseded by the present constitution.
Connecticut was as absolutely a State in 1G39 as in 1776.
In both the Connecticut and the New Haven colonies the
General Courts not only made laws and pardoned offences
against them, but exercised the judicial power on appeal from
the Particular Courts, the magistrates of the towns. The
records of both are cumbered with tedious civil and criminal
suits, in which Connecticut provided for, and New leaven
denied, trial by jury. But the essential difference between
the two was, that Connecticut left to the towns a control over
their civil and religious affairs which the more somber tone
of New Haven denied. The early Connecticut town and its
church were identical ; * the officers and affairs of both were
settled to the people's liking at one meeting; and the General
Court interfered only to apportion taxes and decide differences.
From the first appearance of a New Haven town, the General
Court was always meddling". Connecticut gave the town sys-
tem full and t'v^e play: New Haven aimed to be a central ized
theocracy, responsible for the moral well being of its depend-
ent towns. The consequence was that Connecticut rapidly
outstripped her rival in the race for the formation of new
towns and the appropriation of the No-man's-land around
them. Her early Indian wars gave her extensive rights of
conquest, which her restless citizens were not slow to perfect
by settlement. Even the unchecked religious dissensions in
her churches hastened the process of town formation by scat-
tering new settlements governed by Connecticut notions, f
Thus, long before the grant of a charter, Connecticut had
*In 17'J'S, members <>f other sects than the Congregational having
become numerous, the General Court allowed the formation of other
churches. When this was done, the Congregational church took the legal
name of "The Prime Ancient Society,'' and the town meetings were
separated from it.
f A Wethersileld offshoot left the Connecticut colony, colonized Stam-
ford, and very naturally became the most unmanageable of the New
Haven towns.
18 The Genesis of a
hemmed her rival in by towns of her own, confined her to
the territory around the original settlement, and left her no
room for expansion.
Connecticut histories state that the towns were " incorpor-
ated" in 1639 by the General Court. The only incorporation
was a series of general acts, passed October 10, 1639, the first
after the adoption of the constitution ; but these were only a
formal legislative confirmation of recognized town privileges.
They enacted * that " the Townes of Hartford, Windsore, and
Wethersfield, or any other of the Townes within this juris-
diction," should have power to dispose of vacant lands, choose
their own officers and courts, and control their local affairs;
and they confirmed to the towns the probate jurisdiction and
control over the records of real estate transfers which they
still retain. They speak also of the towns' "lymitts bounded
out by this court." In the case of neighboring towns, par-
ticularly where there were any differences of opinion, the
court always exercised this power of settling town boundaries,
beginning in the next year, 1640.f The boundaries of the
new towns of Farmington and New London were laid out by
the court in 1645 and 1649,J and this method of locating a
new town was thereafter increasingly more frequent until
1662. After that year the General Court's authority in the
matter became exclusive.
But, as a general rule, before the charter was received, the
town boundaries were fixed by agreement of the inhabitants
or by Indian purchase, and the tacit recognition of the Gene-
ral Court and its agents. The "incorporation" of a new
town usually consisted in such fatherly advice as was given
in 1650 to the persons intending to settle Norwalk : they are
directed to make all preparations for self-defence, to divide
*1 Conn. Jtec, 36.
f 1 Conn. Rec, 47.
J] Conn. Rec, 133, 185. But in New London local government had
already been begun by the people. Caulkins, 56.
New England Stale (Connecticut.) 19
up the land subject to the rectification of "aberrations" by
the General Court, and to "attend a due payment of theire
proportions in all publique charges." * The organization of
a primitive Connecticut town was thus altogether popular,
sometimes with, sometimes without, the General Court's
express control.
As soon as the population of any defined purchase or grant
became numerous enough to demand local government, a gen-
eral meeting elected a constable and two or more townsmen,
ordered the erection of a pound and (generally) of a minister's
house, and took charge of allotments of land. As soon as the
little town gained some consistence, the General Court's agents
appeared with a demand for the town's "rate" or statement
of persons and property, for purposes of taxation. For these
purposes the constable was a Commonwealth's officer as well
as a local officer, and through him and the magistrates or
commissioners the town was attached to the Commonwealth. f
As soon as the rate showed a sufficient number of freemen,
the town might send a Deputy to the General Court; but this
troublesome privilege was at first unused. Until 1647 the
twelve Deputies from the three original towns sufficed to
make laws and lay taxes for all the towns.^ Even when the
number of Deputies begins to increase, the towns which they
severally represent are not named. But the growth of the
Connecticut town system may be seen by this steady increase
in the number of Deputies after 10544, when Southampton,
L. I., was admitted as a town. In May, 1647, the number
of Deputies rose from 12 to IS; in May, 10)49, to 20; in
May, 1651, to 22; in May, 1654, to 24; in May, 1655, to
25; and in February, 1656(7), to 26. At first only the three
*In 16.">1 the General Court formally voted that Mattabezeck (Middle-
town), and Norwalk should be towns, and choose eonsUibles.
fThe process may be followed in detail in the local h i ^t< >r t > among the
authorities.
JOnee, in 1645, thirteen were present.
20 The Genesis of a
original towns appear in the "rates." In 1645, Stratford,
Fairfield, Southampton, L. L, Saybrook, and Farmington
appear in the rates. In 1653, Norwalk, Middletovvn, and
New London close the list of formal additions to the rate list
of towns, until the advent of the charter. The other smaller
towns, whose independent existence is constantly recognized
in the General Court proceedings, were rated as parts of these
principal towns.
The natural expansiveness of the free Connecticut town
system was exemplified on Long Island.* After 1662 the
colony's claim to that island rested on the charter's grant of
the "island's adjoining" its coast: before that date, its claim
was exactly on a par with its claim to the mainland, the vol-
untary action of the towns. In 1635 the King had granted
Long Island to the Earl of Stirling. He seemed to care
nothing for its jurisdiction ; and, as purchases were made,
the settlers formed towns and applied for admission to Con-
necticut! Southampton was admitted in 1644, Easthamp-
ton in 1649, Setauket in 1658, Huntington in 1660, and
Southold and the other English towns in 1662, after the
grant of the charter. In 1664 the Duke of York, having
bought the Stirling patent, extended the jurisdiction of New
York over Long Island, and Connecticut was unable to resist
him. J In 1673, when the Dutch recaptured New York, the
English towns on Long Island again took shelter with Con-
necticut; but in the following year the Duke was again put
into possession of his province, and Connecticut finally lost
Long Island.
During its period of independent existence, the Connecticut
commonwealth, as has been said, gave the town system full
* Springfield, Mass., was also for a time claimed as a Connecticut town,
1 Holland, 30-33. More than a century afterward, Connecticut's claim to
a part of Pennsylvania was only asserted by means of the continued vital-
ity of her town system, and its extension to Wyoming.
f Southold entered the New Haven colony, by purchase.
X 1 Brodhead, 726.
I Wood, 24-28.
New England State (Connecticut.) 21
and free piny. The instances of interference with local gov-
emment are very few. In October, 1656, the towns were
forbidden to entertain "Quakers, Ranters, Adamites, or such
like notorious heretiques," under penalty of o per week.
In February, 1656(7), the General Court limited the right of
suffrage by declaring that the phrase "admitted inhabitants"
in the constitution meant only "householders that are one &
twenty yeares of age, or have bore office, or have 30 estate."*
This was reaffirmed in 1658. In March, 1657(8), it was
ordered that no persons should " imbody themselves into
church estate" without consent of the General Court and
approbation of their neighbor churches. With these excep-
tions, Connecticut towns did very much as they pleased in
civil and religious affairs, provided they paid their rates
promptly.
New Haven Colony.
June 4, 1639, the planters at Quinnipiack (New Haven)
met and framed a civil government which was at least closely
bound up with the ecclesiastical government. f They agreed
that the Scriptures should be the law of the town ; that only
church members should be burgesses and choose magistrates
from their own number; that twelve burgesses should now
be chosen by general vote; and that these should choose seven
of their number to be the seven pillars of the church and the
first General Court. In the following year the name of the
town was changed to New Haven. The management of
public; affairs by the General Court was of the most austere
character. Sumptuary laws and acts to regulate prices and
wages were immediately passed ; and the authority of the
church was upheld by punishing criminally such as did
"expressly crosse y 8 rule" by venturing to " eate, drinke, &
* 1 Conn. lire, 29:?.
11 Xew Haven Rec, 11. liacoi, lit, argues t" the contrary; but sec
.1 twdtcr, 91.
22 The Genesis of a
to shew respect unto exeomraunjcate persons." This system
did not at first provoke any resistance in the original off-
shoots* from New Haven, the towns of Milford, Guilford,
and Branford, whose people were wholly at one with those
of New Haven. But it was a constant source of heart-
burning in the more distant acquisitions of Stamford and
Southold ; f it checked any extension of the New Haven
jurisdiction outside of these six towns; and in the final
struggle between Connecticut and New Haven, it proved
to be the latter's vulnerable point.
New Haven extension was altogether by purchase ; and,
when the union of the towns was consummated, the General
Court controlled the town organizations much more minutely
than Connecticut attempted to do. Constables and magis-
trates for the new towns were appointed at first by the
General Court, and the right of confirmation at least was
always insisted upon, even when the towns began to assert
their own right of choice. Some symptoms of weakening
were shown as internal dissensions grew warmer. In J 656
two constables were appointed for Stamford, but one of them
was not to serve if the freemen of that town were not willing,
" though the court be of another minde." J But, as a general
rule, all the towns were to follow implicitly the civil and
ecclesiastical methods of the parent town ; even the officers
of their " trayned bandes" were to be church members,
approved by the magistrates whom the General Court had
appointed or confirmed.
In this manner five dependent or co-ordinate towns were
formed. The neighboring towns of Milford and Guilford,
bought in 1639, were independent at first, but were admitted
to the General Court in 1643. Stamford, bought in 1610,
* Fowler, 68.
f Huntington, 73 ; Atwater, 387.
X 2 New Haven Rec, 173.
I Unsuccessful efforts were also made to colonize in Delaware Bay.
New England State (Connecticut.) 23
was admitted in 1641. Southold, L. I., bought in 1640, was
admitted in 1649. Greenwich was also bought in 1640, but
the Dutch seduced the purchasing agents into making it a
Dutch town.* In 1650, by the treaty of Hartford, it was
restored to New Haven and became a part of Stamford. The
last of the towns, Branford, granted to a new colony in 1640,
was also independent at first: it was admitted in 1651. In
1656 and 1659 Huntington, L. I., applied to be admitted,
but was refused because it insisted on the right of trying all
its civil cases, and all its criminal cases not capital. "f* All
the New Haven towns were thus restricted to the same mould.
One trivial exception was made in the ense of Milford, which
had made voters of six persons, not church members, before
its admission. This was allowed to stand, after much nego-
tiation, on condition that it should never be repeated, and
that the six interlopers should never hold ofiiee.
October 27, 1643, the General Court, which was now com-
posed of the Governor and the Magistrates and Deputies of
New Haven, Stamford, Milford, and Guilford, adopted a
series of " foundamentall orders" as a constitution. J All
persons were to have the rights of "inheritance and com-
merce," but only church members were to l>e burgesses,
vote, or hold oilice. The towns were to choose their own
courts, but these were only to try civil cases under 20, or
inflict punishment of "stocking and whipping," or a fine of
50. All higher cases, and appeals in the lower cases, were
reserved to the General Court. The free burgesses were to
choose the Governor and other commonwealth officers, those
at a distance voting by proxy. The Governor, the Magis-
trates of each town, and two Deputies from each town, were
to meet at New Haven in General Court annually in April
and October. The General Court was to maintain the purity
* Mead, 28.
+ 2 New Harm Rec, 237, 209.
\ \ New Haven Rec, 112; Fowler, 71.
24 The Genesis of a
of religion and "suppress the contrary," make and repeal
laws, require their execution by the towns, impose an oath of
fidelity upon the people, levy rates upon the towns, and try
causes according to the Scriptures. In April, 1644, " the laws
of God, as they were delivered by Moses," were adopted as
the criminal code of the Commonwealth.*
The records of the General Court from 1644 until 1653
have disappeared, but it is evident that internal difficulties
had taken shape during the period covered by the break. In
1653 the General Court remarked with asperity that it had
" heard sundrie reports of an vnsatisfying offensive way of
cariag in some at Southold, as those w ch grow weary of that
way of civill gouerment w ch they haue for diuers yeares (and
w th much comfort and safty) lined vnder," and warned the
offenders to abate the scandal.f Soon afterward the Gov-
ernor called attention to a public appeal to the people "to
stand for their libberties, that they may all haue their votes
and shake of the yoake of gouermt they haue bine vnder in
this jurisdiction." In the next year there were incipient
rebellions in Southold and Stamford, and it was ordered that
"a serious view be made" in each town, and the oath of
fidelity be administered to all the inhabitants. Several of
the Southold people were haled before the Court for sedi-
tiously declaring that this was " a tyrannicall gouerm'." Two
years afterward the Court complained that men not church
members had been allowed to vote in some of the towns,
contrary to the "foundamentall orders," and directed that
" these orders be exactly attended." The Southold consta-
bles were specially instructed to make a "reformation" in
that town.
This persistent attempt to keep the towns in pupilage, and
the political power in the hands of church members, con-
trasted very unfavorably' with the policy of Connecticut,
*1 New Haven Rec, 130.
f 2 New Haven Rec, 17.
New England Slate (Connecticut.) 25
where, after 1643, the General Court admitted as voters all
who were approved by a major vote of any town, with a
general property qualification. The struggle was between a
free town system and a system of shackled towns; and the
latter was at a disadvantage. A strong Connecticut party had
grown up before the charter was granted, not only in Stam-
ford and Southold, but in Guilford and Milford. In 1661
several of the magistrates refused to take the oath of fidelity;
and the spirit of disaffection had eaten so deep that, if we
may accept the unchallenged assertion of the Connecticut
General Court, the annihilation of the New Haven jurisdic-
tion, and the absorption of its territory into Connecticut, were
urged by the "cheife in gouerment" at New Haven in letters
to Governor Winthrop.* This result, as accomplished by the
charter in 1662, seems to have been only a hurrying of an
inevitable catastrophe.
The Union.
The Restoration in England left the New Haven colony
under a cloud in the favor of the new government : it had
been tardy and ungracious in its proclamation of Charles II.;
it had been especially remiss in searching for the regicide
colonels, Goffe and Whalley;f and any application for a
charter would have come from New Haven with a very ill
grace. Connecticut was under no such disabilities; and it
had in its Governor, John Winthrop, a man well calculated
to win favor with the new King. \ The General Court had
a clear perception of its proper line of action, and followed
up its advantages with promptitude, energy, and success. Its
objects W2re to obtain from the King, in the first Hush of the
Restoration, a confirmation of the privileges which it had
*'_> A T eio Haven lire, 536; 1 Mathor's Magnalia, 7*
f See Secretary Ruwson's letter to Gov. Lecte in *J .Veto Haven Itec, -119.
+ 1 Hollister, 20T.
26 The Genesis of a
evolved out of a free town system, and to remove peaceably
the obstacle to complete State-hood which was imposed by the
independent position of New Haven. In March, 1660, the
General Court solemnly declared its loyalty to Charles II.,
sent the Governor to England to offer a loyal address to the
King and ask him for a charter, and laid aside .500 for his
expenses. Winthrop was successful, and the charter was
granted April 20, 1662.
The acquisition of the charter raised the Connecticut leaders
to the seventh heaven of satisfaction. And well it might, for
it was a grant of privileges with hardly a limitation. Prac-
tically the King had given Winthrop carte blanche, and
allowed him to frame the charter to suit himself. It incor-
porated the freemen of Connecticut as a " body corporate and
pollitique," by the name of "The Governor and Company of
the English Collony of Conecticut in New England in Amer-
ica." There were to be a Governor, a Deputy Governor, and
twelve Assistants (hitherto called Magistrates). The Gov-
ernor, Assistants, and two Deputies from each town were to
meet twice a year in General Assembly, to make laws, elect
and remove Governors, Assistants and Magistrates. The
people were to have all the liberties and immunities of free
and natural subjects of the King, as if born within the realm.
It granted to the Governor and Company all that part of New
England south of the Massachusetts line and west of the
"Norroganatt River, commonly called Norroganatt Bay" to
the South Sea, with the " Islands thereunto adioyneinge."
These were the essential points of the charter,* and it is diffi-
cult to see more than two points in which it altered the con-
stitution adopted by the towns in 1639. There were now to
be two deputies from each town ; and the boundaries of the
Commonwealth now embraced the rival colony of New Haven.
The former change had already been recommended without
*See the charter in 2 Conn. Rec, 3 ; and the process of obtaining it in
1 Trumbull, 239, and 1 Eollister, 202.
New England Slate (Connecticut.) 27
result by the General Court ; and the latter was longed for
by all the leaders of the colony, and was the objective point
of the move for a charter. The fundamental point of the
constitution, the supreme power of the General Court, was
unchanged. Both Connecticut and New Haven had fixed
their boundaries of their own will, or by agreement with
their neighbors. But the separate existence of the smaller
Commonwealth marred the fair proportions of the Common-
wealth, in its natural outline, and Connecticut threw the
King's sovereignty into her own scale in order to effect a
peaceable removal of an obstacle to her complete State-hood.
The town spirit built the Slate, and the King added his bene-
diction to the structure.
New Haven did not submit without a struggle, for not
only her pride of separate existence but the supremacy of her
ecclesiastical system was at stake. For three years a succes-
sion of diplomatic notes passed between the General Court of
Connecticut and "our honored friends of New Haven, Mil-
ford, Branford, and Guilford." Southold had promptly
accepted the charter, and there was a strong party in Stam-
ford and Guilford which desired to take the same course.
To strengthen this party, Connecticut appointed or confirmed
constables and magistrates in the towns named, and a war of
annoyances was kept up on both sides. In October, 1664,
the Connecticut General Court appointed the New Haven
magistrates commissioners for their towns, " with magistra-
ticall powers," established the New Haven local officers in
their places for the time, and declared oblivion for any past
resistance to the laws.* In December, Mil ford having
already submitted, the remnant of the New Haven General
Court, representing New Haven, Guilford, and Branford, held
its last meeting and voted to submit, f " with a salvo jure of
our former rights and claims, as a people who have not yet
*1 Conn. Rfc, \M .
f'J N. II. lire, 04'J; Atwatrr, 610.
28 The Genesis of a
been heard in point of plea." The next year the laws of
New Haven were laid aside forever, and her towns sent depu-
ties to the General Court at Hartford.
One of the propositions made by Connecticut in 1663* was
that the New Haven towns should be formed into a distinct
county, with its own court. New Haven's refusal to unite
on any terms caused this and the other propositions to fall
through, and the union was finally perfected without any
conditions. But the new General Court, in May, 1666, con-
stituted and bounded the four counties of Hartford, New
London, New Haven and Fairfield, and gave them separate
courts "f* and, in the next year, grand juries. The county
system of Connecticut is thus only an outgrowth of the
union. In 1701 the General Court further voted that its
annual October session should thereafter be held at New
Haven. This provision of a double capital was incorpor-
ated into the constitution of 1818, and continued until in
1873 Hartford was made sole capital by constitutional
amendment.
The General Court, in its new form, at once took on all
the features of a power superior to the towns, and resting
no longer on the towns' authority. The settlement of the
boundaries of new and old towns at once became a peculiar
field of the General Court ; and, until the number of towns
increased so far as to form a safeguard, regulation of, and
interference in, the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of the. towns
was far more common and minute than before. In 1685-6
all the towns whose title rested on Indian purchase received
patents therefor from the General Court. This step was, for
many of the towns, the first real " incorporation : " it may be
compared, mutatis mutandis, to the conversion of an allod into
a feud.
It must, of course, be granted that the state of affairs in
Great Britain during the years 1634-60 had very much to do
* 2 New Haven Rec, 493.
f2 Conn. Rec, 34, 61.
Niw England State (Connecticut.) 29
with this opportunity of the town spirit to build up the form
and fashion of a state in Connecticut. Chalmers * sneeringly
says of the " little colony of New Haven " that it "enjoyed
the gratifications of sovereign insignificance" until Charles II
annexed it, without its consent, to Connecticut. On the con-
trary, the position of Connecticut was significant in the high-
est degree. With its neighbor commonwealth of Rhode Island,
it held for over a century the extreme advanced ground to
which all the other Commonwealths came up in 1775.f
King and Parliament sustained the royal veto power over
the enactments of other colonies; even Massachusetts lost the
power to elect her own Governor; but Connecticut's posi-
tion still kept alive the general sense of the inherent colonial
rights which only waited for assertion upon the inevitable
growth of colonial power. The charter of Connecticut was
the key-note of the Revolution ; and the terms of that charter
are due, under God, to the free action of the town system
transplanted into the perfect liberty of the wilderness.
* 1 ftevolt of the Colonies, 53.
| Fowler, 101.
XII
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
FREE SCHOOLS
SOUTH CAROLINA
"Every parish is the image and reflection of the State." Thomas Erskine May.
"The township appears in its ecclesiastical form as the parish or portion of a parish."
Canon Slubbs.
"The institutions of any community in the thirteen colonies .... are more than a
mere object of local interest and curiosity. They show us the institutions of the elder
England, neither slavishly carried on nor scornfully cast aside, but reproduced with such
changes as changed circumstances called for, and those for the most part changes in the
direction of earlier times." Freeman.
"It is the prerogative of self-government that it adapts itself to every circumstance
which can arise. Its institutions, if often defective, are always appropriate; for they are
the exact representation of the condition of a people, and can be evil only because there
are evils in society, exactly as a coat may fit an ill-shaped person. Habits of thought and
action fix their stamp on the public code; the faith, the prejudices, the hopes of a people,
may be read there; and, as knowledge advances, each erroneous judgment, each perverse
enactment, yields to the embodied force of the common will." Bancroft.
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
I N
Historical and Political Science
HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor
History is past Politics and Politics present History. Freeman
XII
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
A N D
FREE SCHOOLS
I N
SOUTH CAROLINA
First Pari read More the Historical Society of South Carolina, December 15, 1882.
By B. JAMES RAMAGE, A. B.
It A LT I M (> It K
Published by tiik Johns Hoi-kin." L'nivkrsitt
OCTUliKK, ihh:.
JOHN MURPHY A CO., PRINTERS,
BALTIMORE.
Local Government in South Carolina.
(The Parish, the District, and the County).
The history of the growth of local government in the
Southern States presents characteristics which at once dis-
tinguish our local unit from that of the Eastern and Western
States. In the South the county is the centre of political life.
The schools, the roads, the poor, and other local matters are
regulated by county officers. In the Eastern States and in
many of the States of the Northwest, all such local questions
are controlled by the towns* or townships. The political activ-
ity of Southern communities is, therefore, less minutely sub-
divided than elsewhere in the United States; and, as a con-
sequence, there is more centralization in the management of
local matters.
This great difference between the local machinery of the
two sections of our country is, at first, very strange to the
student of American institutions. And when he recalls the
fact that the early settlers of Virginia and the Carol inas came
from tiie same land as did the early settlers of Massachusetts
and Rhode Island, he is, perhaps, even more impressed with
the opposing characteristics of the local institutions of the
South and those of the North. The causes of these pecu-
liarities are many. There were the differences between the
first settlements of the North and those of the South, and
* Tin' term "town " is liable to mislead those who are only acquainted
with the use of the word to express th>' idea of n larger collection of houses
and inhabitants than a village. In the North the term is synonymous
with township.
6 Local Government in South Carolina.
the differences between the settlers themselves. The colonists
of the North, notably those of New England, were composed
principally of religious refugees, united by the bonds of a
common moral idea. Most of the colonists of the South came
over simply as Englishmen who wished to better their con-
dition. They were recruited from no particular rank in
society. Churchman and dissenter, cavalier and roundhead
sat about the same camp fire. Massachusetts was a colony ;
South Carolina, a province. Compact settlements were neces-
sary on the one hand for the purpose -of protection against
foreign and domestic enemies; for the purpose of maintaining
public worship; and for organizing the government of the
infant State. The partial absence of any of these causes left
it wholly to the choice of the Southern colonists whether they
should found cities or settle in agricultural communities. Their
patrons shielded them from the incursions of the red men ;
although deeply religious, like most genuine Englishmen, they
lacked the zeal of fresh converts to a new creed ; and their
government was in a large measure provided for them. Dif-
ference of climate tended to increase the difference produced
by these social and moral causes. The rigors of the Northern
winters enforced the growth of cities and thickly settled com-
munities. The mild climate of the South favored the culti-
vation of the soil and the isolation of estates.
There are, however, more points of resemblance between
the beginnings of the colonies than are usually supposed.
There are similarities of political structure which characterize
not only all English settlements of this country, but which
reach far back in the past history of our Teutonic race. By
a kind of political atavism, old institutions re-appear in
our history, now clearly and definitely outlined, now only
faintly resembling their Germanic prototypes, but everywhere
possessing those qualities which distinguish the polity of the
Anglo-Saxon race wherever it finds a home.
Nowhere can this divergence from an original identity of
political structure be better illustrated than in the develop-
Local Government in South Carolina. 7
merit of local government in South Carolina. The economic
and social peculiarities of this State; its influence on other
Southern States; and the successive changes which its consti-
tution has undergone, make it, in many respects, a typical
Southern commonwealth. It happens, that, though claimed
by the Spaniards, named by the French, and settled by the
English, South Carolina is an English colony in the fullest
sense of that term ; for, from England South Carolina received
her people, her customs, her laws, and that ancient religious
system which wove itself so thoroughly into her political
texture during the early years of her provincial life.
.By their charter, the proprietors of South Carolina were
vested with great powers and privileges. These noblemen
seemed to have cherished the idea that they were founding a
mighty empire. The great philosopher, John Locke, who
was a personal friend of one of the proprietors, the Earl of
Shaftesbury, previously known as Anthony Ashley Cooper,
was employed to frame a constitution for the government of
the future province. Locke finished his labors in 1669, and
presented his "Fundamental Constitutions." The form of
government was amended by Shaftesbury. These funda-
mental constitutions had for their object the better govern-
ment of the province, and were adopted in order "to avoid
erecting a numerous democracy."* The province was erected
into a county palatine, like that of Durham. The eldest of
the Lord Proprietors was to be Palatine, and, at his death,
the eldest of the seven surviving proprietors was to be his
successor. The other officers were admirals, chamberlains,
chancellors, constables, chief justices, high stewards, and
treasurers. The whole province was divided into counties.
Each county consisted of eight signiories, eight baronies, and
four precincts, each precinct consisting of four colonics. The
eight signiories were the share of the eight proprietors, and
consisted of twelve thousand acres each. The baronies Ix'longed
* Pn'iimMr of tho Fiinilamrntul Constitution*.
8 Local Government in South Carolina.
to the nobility of the province, and also consisted of twelve
thousand acres each. The nobility of the province were the
"landgraves" and ^cassiques." There was a landgrave for
each county, and twice as many cassiques as landgraves. In
every signiory, barony, and manor, its respective lord had
power to hold a court leet for the trial of civil and criminal
cases. Every manor consisted of not less than three thousand
acres. Every lord of a manor enjoyed the same powers,
jurisdictions and privileges which appertained to a landgrave
or cassique in his baronies. County courts were erected in
each county. These courts were composed of a sheriff and
four justices, one from each precinct. There were also pre-
cinct-courts, each of which consisted of a steward and four
justices of the precinct. Every jury consisted of twelve
land owners, and a verdict was rendered according to the
consent of the majority.*
Such in brief is the substance of this remarkable frame of
government. It never went wholly into operation and was
abrogated by the proprietors in 1693. It is chiefly inter-
esting as showing the first attempt to provide a system of
local government for the province. But time and experience
illustrated that this could be successfully provided for only
by the people themselves. The early methods of local admin-
istration in the province are wrapt in obscurity. The, early
acts of the provincial parliament f relative to the manage-
ment of highways, the organization of the militia, the raising
of revenues, and the punishment of various offenses against
law and morality, are not now to be found. Only their titles
have been preserved.
One of these old laws, the title of which is frequently
encountered, reads as follows: "At a Parliament held at
Charlestowne, at the house of Mr. Anthony Lawson, the
* Charters and Constitutions of the United States, part 2, pp. 1397-1408.
fThe iirst assembly in the province was for several years known as the
Parliament.
Local Government in South Carolina. 9
eighth day of December, 1691, Annoque Regni Regis et
Reginae . . . tertio. An Act for the Better Observance of
the Lord's Day, commonly called Sunday. Forasmuch as
there is nothing more acceptable to Almighty God than the
true sincere performance of and obedience to the most divine
service and worship, which although at all times, yet chiefly
upon the Lord's Day, commonly called Sunday, ought soe to
be done, but instead thereof many idle, loose, and disorderly
people doe wilfully profane the same in tipling, shooteing,
gatneing, and many other vicious exercises, pastimes and
meetings, whereby ignorance prevails and the just judgment
of Almighty God may reasonably be expected to fall upon
this land if the same by some good orders be not prevented ;
Be it therefore enacted by the Pallatine and the rest of the
Lords and absolute Proprietors of this Province, by and with
the consent of the Commons in this present Parliament assem-
bled, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same,
that from and after the ratification hereof, all and every person
and persons whatsoever shall on every Lord's Day apply
themselves to the observation of the same,"* etc. This
would seem to argue that the Puritans were not the only
colonists who enforced the local observance of the Sabbath
and church attendance.
The nearest approach to any system of local government
beyond the limits of municipalities is found in the creation
of the parishes. The parish was, of course, introduced alter
the establishment of the Episcopal church. But the estab-
lishment of the Episcopal church in the province was only
brought about by stealthy innovations and in the face of
much opposition. In 1698 a maintenance was settled by law
on a minister of the Church of England at Charlestown.f
This Act, however, did not encounter serious hostility owing
to the popularity of the minister and the small sum voted
Statutes at Large of South Carolina, Vol. II, pp. f)H ami 69.
+ Statutes at Large of Soutli Carolina, Vol. II, p. l."."i.
10 Local Government in South Carolina.
him.* A few years later, in 1704, through the influence of
the proprietors and civil officers, the Church of England
secured a legal establishment, notwithstanding the fact that
the Episcopalians had only one church in the entire province
while the Dissenters had four. In this year a majority of
representatives were sent to parliament who were members of
the Church of England.
Soon after the organization of the provincial parliament
the new members succeeded in passing a bill which virtually
excluded all Dissenters from that assembly. But this oppres-
sive measure was soon afterwards repealed. The Episcopa-
lians, nevertheless, continued to rule the province. Laws
were passed for the maintenance of ministers, the erection of
churches and chapels, arid the division of the counties into
parishes. f The parishes were of various sizes and in 1706
their bounds were definitely set by law.
The principal officers of the parish were the rector, the
vestrymen, the churchwardens, the overseers of the poor,
the sexton, the clerk, the register, and the commissioners of
roads. At the head of the spiritual welfare of the parish was
the rector. During his ministration he could enjoy the use
of the glebe-lands, the buildings of the parish (except one
room in the rector's house at Charlestown, which was reserved
for a parochial library), all the negroes that belonged to the
parish with their increase, and the parish cattle with their
increase. He also received a salary from the province vary-
ing in amount according to the church. The rector was
chosen by the parishioners, but a vacancy was filled by
the vestry which proceeded to an immediate election. No
rector was allowed to marry parties contrary to the table
* Kamsay, Vol. IT, pp. 2-10. Also for a very excellent history of the
church in South Carolina, see Dalcho's Church History.
f Statutes at Large of South Carolina, Vol. II, pp. 232-246. Also
Grinike'8 Collection of the Public Laws of South Carolina, pp. 11-12.
Local Government in South Carolina. 1 1
of marriages. He could not hold a seat in either branch of
the legislative assembly.*
The duties of the vestrymen were both civil and ecclesias-
tical and were copied from the duties of the corresponding
office in England. In the words of the law describing their
qualifications and powers, the vestrymen were elected for the
" promotion of the good laws of the Province and the easy
despatch of parish business."! They were, moreover, to be
"sober and discreet men." Their number, besides the rector,
was at first nine and later seven, all residents of the parish.
They were chosen yearly by the freeholders and taxpayers of
the parish. The election was held on Easter Monday at the
parish church. The parish church seems to have been both
the civil and religious centre for transacting local affairs. On
the doors of the church were posted all important public
notices. After his election each vestryman was required to
take the oath of office.
-The next officer in the parish was the churchwarden. There
were two of these in each parish. They assisted the vestry-
men in keeping the parish buildings in order. In conjunc-
tion with the overseers of the poor, they had a general super-
vision of the pauper class of the parish. They also managed
the parochial elections. The overseers of the poor were yearly
nominated by the vestry. Rich people having poor relatives
were compelled to assist them. The poor were relieved from
various public monies and fines. A person who, in moving
from one parish to another, might become a pauper, could be
*"Tlie ministers of the gospel lire by their profession dedicated t<> the
service of ( Jod and the car-' of souls, and ought not to be diverted from tin-
great duties of tlieir function, therefore no minister of the gospel or public
preacher of any kind . . . Bhall be eligible either as governor, lieutenant
governor, ; member of the senate, house of representatives <>r privy coun-
cil in this State." Constitution of South Carolina of 177s, section XXI.
This disqualification no longer exists.
+ Statutes at Large of South Carolina, Vol. II, p. '-"JO, sections XXV 111,
XXIX, XXX, XXXI, and XXX11.
12 Local Government in South Carolina.
returned to the parish whence he came.* Poor children were
hound out by the churchwardens and the overseers of the
poor. A register was kept of the names of persons receiving
aid. The churchwardens and overseers of the poor were to
account yearly before the vestry for all money spent, f Neglect
of duty was punished by a fine.
The sexton, the clerk, and the register of births were ap-
pointed by the vestry. They received a small perquisite
attached to their office. Parishioners had a right to inspect
the records of the parish at any time and to take exceptions
to them, if they thought proper. In the parish register were
contained all the deaths and christenings of parishioners,
except those of negroes, mulattoes, and slaves.
The commissioners of the roads were elected by the free-
holders of their respective parishes. In 1719, the parishes
were made election districts and each parish sent representa-
tives to the commons' house of Assembly. In some cases two
* Public Laws of South Carolina, p. 105, Section V.
f A few of the old Kecords and Kegisters of the parishes are still in
existence. Through the kindness of the Rev. John Johnson of Charles-
ton, the writer was permitted to have access to some of the Records of
the old parishes of Prince Frederick's and St. Thomas. Some of these
still exist in a remarkable state of preservation, while others are fast going
to decay. It is to be hoped that efforts will soon be made to have these
important historical materials rescued from destruction. It may not be
uninteresting to subjoin one or two extracts from these Records, kindly
furnished by the Rev. Mr. Johnson.
" Complaint made that the widow Hughes a poor woman living near
the church was a starving she and children/ agreed this day that the
Wardens take the Two Bjgest Children and Put them out apprentices in
creditable houses and that the Widow go to work to maintain herself and
youDg child as she is very able & a Great deal of spinning offered her."
27 Sep 1777.
" Agreed that Margaret Marten shd. be allowed 10 pounds pr week
for her maintenance and cloathing at the expense of John McNight her
son." 20 May 1779."
Local Government in South Carolina. 13
parishes united in sending delegates.* It must not be pre-
sumed that the parishes, when first created, were complete
political divisions of the province. Far from it. Their
importance and status in this regard were acquired years after
their erection. Their growth from ecclesiastical to political
divisions was, however, gradual and sure. From a territorial
division for church purposes, they slowly passed into a politi-
cal division possessing many of the attributes of a self-gov-
erning community.
The early legislators of the colony were deeply impressed
with the importance of local education. f So dominant was
this idea that it had much to do with the establishment
of the Church of England in the province, and the division
of the counties into parishes in order to obtain aid from the
society for propagating the Gospel in foreign parts. This
society, which was established in the mother country, only
lent its aid to those colonies in which flourished the Episcopal
church. The society soon seconded the efforts of the colonial
educators, and lent its aid in supplying parish ministers and
teachers. Parochial libraries were founded and parish schools
were established, at first under the immediate control of the
vestrymen.
The history of popular education in South Carolina dates
from these beginnings. As far back as 1712, a free school
Statutes at Large of South Carolina, Vol. Ill, pp. o0-56.
By the provision of this act, the parish of St. Philip's, Charlestown,
sent five members ; Christ Church, two ; St. John's, three ; St. Andrew's,
three ; St. George's, two ; St. James', Goose Creek, four ; the parishes of
St. Thomas' and St. Dennis', three; the parish of St. Paul's, four; St.
Bartholomew, four; St. Helena, four; and St. James', San tee, with Win-
yaw, two.
f No view is more erroneous than that which represents the lack of
educational facilities in South Carolina during colonial days. Mr.
McMaster, in his recent work on the History of the People of tho
United States, says that in no colony was so little attention paid to edu-
cation as in South Carolina. It is pleasant to note the letter of Colonel
Edward McCrady, Jr., of the South Carolina Historical Society, in the
yation, July ~>, 18H3, disproving Mr. McMaster s statement.
14 Local Government in South Carolina.
was established in Charleston. Similar institutions were
planted at Dorchester, Childsbury, Beaufort, Ninety-Six, St.
Thomas' Parish, St. James (Santee) and elsewhere. Many of
these schools owe their origin to legacies bequeathed them by
generous parishioners, like Beresford, Ludlam, Childs, and
others. With the growth of primary education, the demand
for the higher education increased, resulting in the establish-
ment of several academies and no less than five colleges before
the expiration of the eighteenth century. Many charitable
societies also maintained schools, usually for the education of
the poor. Constant public encouragement was given to edu-
cation by donations, immunities, and by vesting, in school
boards, escheated property in villages or parishes. In some
cases, especially during early times, even slaves were taught
to read.* The parishes were confined to that portion of the
State which was first settled the region near the coast
but they gradually increased in number.
In some instances plans for settling new parishes were based
on the hundred. The method is thus described by Ramsay :f
"According to a new plan, adopted in England, for the more
speedy population and settlement of the province, the gov-
ernor had instructions to mark out eleven townships in square
plats on the sides of rivers, consisting each of twenty thousand
acres; and to divide the land within them into shares of fifty
acres for each man, woman, and child that should come to
occupy and improve them. Each township was to form a
parish, and all the inhabitants were to have an equal right to
the river. So soon as the parish should increase to the number
of an hundred families they were to have a right to send two
members, of their own election, to the assembly, and to enjoy
the same privileges as the other parishes, already established.
Each settler was to pay four shillings a year for every hun-
* Carroll's Historical Collections of South Carolina, Vol. II, pp. 538-
568.
f History of South Carolina, Vol. 1, pp. 108-109.
Local Government in South Carolina. 15
dred acres of land, except the first ten years, during; which
term they were to he rent free. Accordingly ten townships
were marked out, two on river Altamaha, two on Savannah,
two on Santee, one on Pedee, one on Wacamaw, one on
Wateree, and one on Black river."
Contemporary with the adoption of the parish system was
the creation of the patrol.* It was a sort of police of the
parishes. Its objects and functions are best set forth in the
preamble to the Act establishing it, passed November 4, 17<)J.
The Act is entitled "An Act to settle a Patrol." f It tlm *
states the object of the patrol : " Whereas on the sight or
advice of an enemy it will be necessary for the safety and
defence of the inhabitants of this Collony to draw together
to the sea coast, or such other place as the General 1 shall
direct, all the forces thereof; to prevent such insurrections
and mischiefs as from the great number of slaves we have
reason to suspect may happen when the greater part of the
inhabitants are drawn together," etc. In the early days of*
the province, constant petty expeditions were fitted out by the
Spaniards from Saint Augustine against Charleston, and, in
retaliation, by Charleston against Saint Augustine. Soldiers
were therefore kept constantly employed in defending the
coast. The large number of slaves in the province made it
extremely dangerous to leave the wives and children of the
soldiers unprotected from servile insurrection. The patrol
was therefore, in its inception, a homeguard. Its organiza-
tion, with some modifications, lasted through the lights and
shadows of almost two centuries of slavery. The patrol pro-
vided themselves with horses, pistols, and guns, and were
ready to appear on duty at any alarm. Under the direction
According to Skcat, the word pntrol is from the old French verb
patrouiller, to puddle. There is no connection, however, between the
word and the peculiar method of corporal punishment which it suggest.*.
The verb is formed from the noun patte, the pnw or foot of a beast, :ucl
hence it came to mean a g<nng of the rounds.
f Statutes at Large of South Carolina, Vol. II, pp. '_'M *_''. V
16 Local Government in South Carolina..
of their captain, they rode from plantation to plantation and
arrested all slaves on the road who were found without a pass
from their owner. The student of English constitutional
history will not be slow to recognize in the patrol the straet-
warden of the king's highway. Like its old English proto-
type, the patrol could not maltreat a prisoner, and was,
moreover, answerable before the law for good behavior.
From what has previously been said it will be inferred that
the parish of South Carolina is of English and not of French
origin, as is often stated. The parish of South Carolina and
the parish of Louisiana are radically different. The Louisiana
parish corresponds to the county in other States. The South
Carolina parish was a subdivision of the county, and in char-
acter more nearly approached the Northern and Western
township. It is true that, after the revocation of the Edict
of Nantes, large numbers of Huguenot refugees came over to
the province. A majority of the inhabitants of the parishes
of St. Dennis, in the Orange quarter, and St. James, on the
Santee, was composed of French settlers. But they did not
arrive until the English were firmly established elsewhere in
the Carolinas. Besides, the English were too jealous of the
French to allow them any influence at all, and for a while
excluded them from the legislature. This spirit of intoler-
ance in time passed away. The proprietary government,
having become burdensome to the people, was overthrown in
1719, and the people put themselves under the direct control
of the King. The parishes continued to extend their organ-
ization. Charleston remained the centre of political power.
Here was the provost marshal, or sheriff of all the province,
and here also, for a long time, was held the only court. But
a change was destined to ensue. Already the division between
North and South Carolina had taken place.* The colony
was soon to become the seat of a struggle between two oppos-
*The division was formally made about 1729, but it had practically
existed many years before.
Local Government in South Carolina. 17
ing systems of local government. One of these systems rep-
resented the old Teutonic idea of the township as it was
afterwards merged into the parish ; the other was the later
county system. It is noteworthy that the two systems of
local government which have struggled for the mastery in
this country, should have so early encountered each other
in South Carolina.
The District.
Until near the middle of the last century the inhabited
portion of South Carolina was confined to the parishes which
fringed the coast. After the overthrow of the proprietary
government and under the more immediate management of
the Crown, a steady stream of immigration poured in from
the old country. The new comers were principally composed
of English, French, and Irish, with a few Scotch, all of whom
settled in the parishes. At the same time, the northern portion
of the colony was rapidly settled by an entirely different class
of people, colonists from the present Middle States, from
Virginia and North Carolina. The settlements of these
sturdy pioneers were confined to the mountain regions and
to the fertile valleys of the interior. A wide space of inter-
vening territory separated them from the inhabitants of the
parishes. The sections of the colony became, to all practical
purposes, two distinct colonies. This was most unfortunate
and became the seed of much discontent in after years.* The
lower section was rich, strong, and powerful. It possessed
some good schools, many intelligent men, and an attempt at
local government. In its constitution and character it ap-
proached the colonics of New England and Virginia. The
upper section more nearly resembled a Western territory of the
Indeed tho local disputes between the " up country " and the "low
country " still survive in many instances, though not with the patno degree
of animosity as in former time-.
a "
18 Local Government in South Carolina.
present time. It was largely composed of rough pioneers,
who, dissatisfied with their condition in the older colonies,
had removed to this unexplored portion of South Carolina.
Some effort was made as early as 1725 to establish county
and precinct courts, but the general court in Charleston soon
absorbed all judiciary proceedings.* For many years there
was but one sheriff for the whole colony, and he held his
office by patent from the Crown. He was subjected to the
same penalties as a sheriff in England. At this time all civil
and criminal cases were tried in Charleston by the general
court. The justices of the peace could have no jurisdiction
in any cause which involved more than twenty pounds. A
court of chancery, consisting of the governor and a majority
of the council, had been established in 1721. f There were
also two other courts: a court of the King's bench and
common pleas, and a court of vice admiralty. But the gen-
eral court at Charleston was the most powerful judicial assem-
bly of the colony. All criminal, as well as all civil cases,
were tried in this court, a fact which necessarily, produced
much inconvenience and disorder. To punish a horse-thief
or prosecute a debtor one was sometimes compelled to travel
a distance of several hundred miles, and be subjected to all of
the dangers and delays incident to a wild country. For the
purpose of expediting the administration of justice and of
summarily punishing criminals, the settlers began to organize
themselves into bands and, under the name of "regulators,"
endeavored to control local affairs. Alarmed at these pro-
ceedings, the colonial government manifested some disposi-
tion to improve the condition of the colonists of the upper
section.
In the preamble to an Act entitled "an Act for establish-
ing Courts, building Gaols and appointing Sheriffs and other
officers for the more "convenient administration of justice in
* Brevard's Digest, Vol. I, pp. v-xx. Ramsay, Vol. II, pp. 125-159.
f Statutes at Large, Vol. Ill, p. 284.
Local Government in South Carolina. 19
this Province,"* passed in 1768, the Assembly th us organ-
izes the defective system of government for the up-country:
"whereas, the establishing courts, building gaols, and appoint-
ing sheriffs in different parts of this Province, under proper
regulations, will tend to promote the interests of our most
glorious Sovereign and his good subjects therein, also to pre-
serve their just rights, liberties and properties and the public
peace, inasmuch as the distance from Charleston of many
persons who, however remote from thence, are often obliged,
either as parties, jurors or witnesses, to attend the courts at
present held there for trial of all criminal causes and of all
civil actions exceeding the value of twenty pounds current
money . . . which hardships deter numbers of people from
becoming inhabitants of this Province, etc." The Assembly
then proceeded to create new district courts at Beaufort,
Georgetown, Cheraws, Camden, Orangeburgh and Ninety-Six.
The title of provost marshal was purchased from its holder
for the sum of <5,000 sterling, and seven new sheriffs were
appointed, one for each new district and one for Charleston."}"
The courts held in Charleston were not Circuit Courts.
Brevard regards them in the same light as "the Courts of
Westminster Hall in England." In the new Circuit Courts
the judges could render a decision, in some small oases, with-
out a jury, provided both litigants agreed to this summary
method of settling their dispute. The right to a trial by
jury, however, was not denied. The creation of the district
courts and of tin; district was the historic origin of local gov-
ernment in the up-country, although the inhabitants of the
district did not even possess the right of electing their own
sheriff.
Owing to the vast size of the district, the same evils that
had been experienced under the old judicial system began
to make themselves felt with the increase of population.
* Statutes of South Carolina, Vol. VII , M)7-20. r >.
f Ha in say.
20 Local Government in South Carolina.
Accordingly, steps were soon taken to improve further the
administration of the judiciary by decreasing the size of the
districts. It was now that the constitutions of the older
colonies began to exert their influence on South Carolina.
The General Assembly, at its session in 1783, considered the
propriety of dividing the districts "into counties of con-
venient size, of not more than forty miles square, unless
where the number of inhabitants and situation of the lands
require some deviation."* Commissioners were appointed for
each district, whose duty it was to "fix and ascertain" the
boundary lines of each district and county. Two years later,
in 1785, the districts were divided into thirty-four counties,
as follows : Ninety-Six into the counties of Abbeville,
Edgefield, Newberry, Laurens, Union and Spartanburgh ;
Camden district into the counties of Clarendon, Richland,
Fairfield, Clareraont, Lancaster, York, (new acquisition) and
Chester ;f Cheraws into Marlborough, Chesterfield and
Darlington ; Georgetown into Winyaw, Williamsburgh,
Kingston and Liberty; Charleston into Charleston, Wash-
ington, Marion, Berkeley, Bartholomew and Colleton ; Beau-
fort into Hilton, Lincoln, Granville and Shrewsberry ; and
finally Orangeburgh district was divided into Lewisburgh,
Orange, Lexington and Winton counties. J
The county system was introduced through the influence
of Henry Pendleton, a settler from Virginia, and was closely
modeled after the county system of that colony. || Seven
Justices of the Peace were elected for each county by the
General Assembly, and court was held by them every three
months. They held their office during good behavior, and
filled all vacancies in their number by co-optation. Three
Statutes at Large, Vol. IV., p. 561.
fThe influence of Pennsylvania is seen in the names of the counties.
J Vol. IV., pp. G61-664.
|| Ramsay.
gO'Neall's Annals of Newberry District, pp. 12-22.
Local Government in South Carolina. 21
of the justices constituted a quorum. The county courts
never extended to the parishes. The Episcopal Church ceased
to be the established church of South Carolina when the
British government in America was overthrown by the
war for independence. The parish system, however, was
still retained by the inhabitants of the low-country. All the
political power and patronage were still wielded by the inhabi-
tants of the parishes, and the up-country possessed no influence
whatever. By the constitution of 1776, the low-country was
allowed twice the number of representatives enjoyed by the
up-country, though the latter was perhaps the more populous.
This privilege produced much dissatisfaction.
After an experiment of a few years, the county system and
the county courts were abolished. The name of "district"
was substituted for that of "county," and this form was
preserved until after the close of the civil war. With the
increase of population and education, the districts gained the
privilege of electing some of their own local officers, such as
sheriffs and clerks of courts. The general economy of the
district differed little from that of the county in other States,
with the exception of the absence of a district court. The
districts were grouped into judicial circuits, and the circuit
judge traveled from one court of his circuit to another.
The manifest injustice in the distribution of the power and
representation of the State continued to produce much dis-
satisfaction in the up-country. By the constitution of I7i)0
the cause of contention was in a measure adjusted. Each
district was allowed one senator and two or three representa-
tives. But even this concession on the part of the low-coun-
try was far from being entirely satisfactory to the inhabitants
of the districts, for it still left them with a minority represen-
tation, though possessing a much larger population. Each
parish was allowed to send a senator to the assembly, and
Charleston was allowed to send two, one for each of the
parishes of Saint Philip and Saint Michael. Kaeh parish also
22 Local Government in South Carolina.
sent two or more representatives to the assembly.* The
parishes steadily opposed any increase of power on the part
of the districts. The districts were equally determined to
secure a more equitable apportionment of representation and
a more equal share in the government. Again and again
unsuccessful attempts were made to effect a harmonious set-
tlement of the dispute. The capital was in time moved from
Charleston to the new town of Columbia in the interior, f
By an amendment to the constitution, in 1808, the house of
representatives was made to consist of one hundred and
twenty-four members, half of whom represented the white
population and half the taxables.| The constitution of the
senate remained unchanged. The senate was therefore con-
trolled by the low-country and the house of representatives
by the up-country. As the governor, the judges, and all other
important officers were appointed by the assembly, the pro-
visions of this amendment were readily accepted by both
sections of the State. A sort of double government was
instituted. Part of the public officers resided in Charleston
and part in Columbia. There was a treasurer for the low-
country and one also for the up-country, and, with very few
modications, this system was preserved until after the close of
the civil war. The organization of the district was preserved
in the up-country and that of the parish in the low-country.
After the close of the civil war, in obedience to the procla-
mation of President Johnson and the orders of Provisional
Governor Perry, a convention of the people of South Carolina
assembled in Columbia September 13, 1865, to re-organize
the State government. The ordinance of secession was re-
pealed and a new constitution adopted. Many of the changes
in the constitution and improvements in the methods of
Constitution of 1790. Article I., sections 3-8.
fThe act for laying off the town of Columbia and erecting the new
State buildings therein was passed by the assembly March 22, 1786. See
Statutes of South Carolina, Vol. IV., pp. 751-7G2.
X Amendment of 1808. Also Calhoun, Vol. I., pp. 402-406.
Local Government in South Carolina. 23
local government were suggested by Governor Perry in his
message to the convention.* " The great political convulsions
which have taken place in the Southern States," said he in
his message to the convention, "and the terrific war which
has swept over South Carolina, devastating her territory and
depriving her citizens of all civil government, are too well
known to you, and too painful in their detail, for me to bring
them unnecessarily in review before you. Instead of dwelling
on the past, and grieving over its errors and misfortunes, let
us, with manly fortitude, look to the future, and accommodate
ourselves to the circumstances which surround us, and which
cannot be changed or avoided. The President of the United
States has manifested a generous and patriotic solicitude for
the restoration of the Southern States to all their civil and
political rights, under the Constitution and laws of the United
States. He desires to see the Federal Union reconstructed as
it was before the secession of those States; and he will oppose
the centralization of power in Congress, and the infringement
of the constitutional rights of the States, with the same zeal,
energy and power with which lie resisted the assumed right
of secession on the part of the States. In order to accomplish
this re-union of the States, the President desires that South
Carolina, as well as all the other States in rebellion, should
accept as inevitable and unavoidable the great final results of
the war."
The parishes were abolished and the district system was
extended to the low country. The triumph of the district
over the parish was complete when Charleston district, instead
of the parish's of Charleston, sent its delegation to the assem-
bly. Boundaries of the judicial and election districts remained
unchanged. The semi-duplicate form of State government
was abolished and provision was made for only one treasurer
with his office at Columbia. Slavery was forever prohibited
in the State; the "freedmen," however, were not enfranchised.
* Message Nu. I, Journal of the Convention, pp. 11-19.
24 Local Government in South Carolina.
Governor Perry thus speaks of the aristocratic character of
the government of South Carolina: "The general assembly
of South Carolina is an electoral college for the State as well
as a legislative body.' They have the election of Governor,
electors of President and Vice-President, Lieutenant Gov-
ernor, United States Senators, Judges and Chancellors, all
State officers, Magistrates, Commissioners of Roads and
Bridges, Poor and Free Schools, Commissioners and Masters
in equity, and various other officers. This embarrasses legis-
lation, occupies a great deal of the time of members, and is
productive of evil consequences. The most of these elections
and appointments should be taken from the legislature." *
Acting upon this wise suggestion, the power of the legisla-
ture was greatly diminished. Many of the officers who had
formerly been appointed by the legislature were made elective.
Local government was also greatly increased. The period
embraced by the operation of this constitution is, however, so
short and so full of the anarchy and disorders engendered by
the great civil conflict as to be almost devoid of any local
government.
The County.
The county system is the present system of local govern-
ment for the whole State of South Carolina. By the consti-
tution of 1868, commonly known as the reconstruction con-
stitution, the district was abolished and the county erected in
its stead.f Various amendments have been made to the con-
Journal of Convention of 1865, page 15.
fThis constitution was framed by a convention (called under the
reconstruction acts of Congress by Major-General Canby). It assembled
at Charleston, January 14, 1868, and completed its labor March 17, 1868.
The constitution was submitted to the people April 14 and 16, 1868, and was
ratified by 70,000 against 27,288 votes. It may further be added that the
" freedmen," who voted at the election, were unanimously in favor of the
constitute. See Charters and Constitutions, Part II., p. 1646.
Local Government in South Carolina. 25
stitution since that time, especially since the overthrow of
the reconstruction government, but the main features of the
county system remain the same now as when first adopted.
Without commenting on the particulars of these changes, it
may be best .to give some account of the operations of the
county system in the State; to enumerate the officers and
their respective duties, and briefly to describe the other char-
acteristics of local government as it exists in South Carolina
at the present day.
The entire State is divided into thirty-four counties, which
are bodies politic and corporate, and can sue and be sued.*
They also possess many other rights which are usually
enjoyed by corporate bodies. Each county, with the excep-
tion of Charleston, sends one senator to the State Senate. In
Charleston there still remains a faint survival more tradi-
tional than real of the old parish system. That county
is, therefore, entitled to two senators, one for each of the old
parishes of St. Philip's and St. Michael's. The present house
of representatives consists of one hundred and twenty-four
members, who are apportioned among the several counties
according to the population in each. Some counties send
to the house of representatives two, others five, and Charles-
ton as many as eighteen members. Both senators and
representatives are elected by the qualified voters of the
county, and each receives a salary of five dollars per diem
during a session of the assembly. They are also entitled
to mileage at the rate of ten cents a mile for the distance
travelled in going to and from the meetings of the assembly.
A senator serves for four years and a representative two years.
The following officers are also elected by the people : a
sheriff, a clerk of the Court of Common Pleas and General
Sessions, a judge of probate, a school commissioner, three
countv commissioners and a coroner.
General Statutes of South Carolina, 1882, pp. 18l-82(5
4
26 Local Government in South Carolina.
Except the municipalities, there is no political division of
the State beyond the county. The towqahip exists barely in
name. There is no assembly of the inhabitants of the county
for the discussion of local business. The county commis-
sioners have jurisdiction over all roads, ferries and bridges.
These commissioners also control all matters relating to taxes,
disbursements of money for county purposes, and all other
business pertaining to the internal improvement and local
concerns of the county. Each township constitutes a highway
district, the superintendent of which is appointed by the
county commissioners. Each highway district is expected by
law to be divided into sections of from two to five miles, and
in each section an overseer of roads is required to be appointed
by the superintendent of highways. All able bodied men
between the ages of sixteen and fifty years are liable to road
duty. They must work on the roads not more than twelve
nor less than three days yearly, or instead pay one dollar a
day for each day required. In every county there is provided
a poor house, with a farm, for the accommodation of the
pauper class. The county commissioners are the overseers of
the poor, and provide employment and comfort for the inmates
of the poor house. The commissioners bind out poor chil-
dren, and may also send all pauper lunatics, idiots, and
epileptics to the State lunatic asylum.
The school commissioner has a general oversight of the
free schools in his county. The city of Charleston constitutes
an exception, having her own superintendent of schools. The
school commissioner and two other persons appointed by the
State board of examiners constituted county board of exami-
nation, and examine all applicants for teachers' positions.
In each school-district three men are appointed by the county
board of examiners, who constitute the trustees of the district.
An annual tax of two mills is levied by the county commis-
sioners for the support of free schools. The money raised by
the tax is distributed among the school districts in proportion
to the number of pupils attending the free schools.
Local Government in South Carolina. 27
The county in South Carolina differs from the county in
many other States from the fact that it possesses no judicial
organization of its own. We have already seen that two
unsuccessful attempts were made to introduce the county
courts into the State in early times. But the system failed
from various causes. The counties, like their institutional
predecessor, the district, are grouped into judicial circuits,
and a judge is elected by the legislature for each circuit. In
each circuit there is also a solicitor, who is elected by the
qualified voters of the circuit. The governor, with the advice
of the senate, appoints a number of trial justices for each
county. Their number depends entirely upon the demands
of the county. The justices hold their office for two years
and have jurisdiction over offenses in which fine or forfeiture
is under one hundred dollars and imprisonment is less than
thirty days. Trial justices appoint their own constables.
The jurisdiction of the court of the probate judge is very
limited in character. It only extends to those matters testa-
mentary and administrative which cannot be conveniently
decided in the other courts. It also has jurisdiction over all
business pertaining to minors and the allotment of dower,
and in cases of larceny. The following county officers are
appointed by the governor : the auditor, the treasurer and the
master in equity. The present system of local government is
far from being a satisfactory one to the inhabitants of the
State. Many of the counties are very large, which makes it
exceedingly inconvenient to those who live at a great distance
from the county seat. The results are bad roads, worse bridges,
and an imperfect system of free schools a system which
lacks the stimulating support of local taxation.
There is a growing demand for an improved system of
local administration. This desire manifests itself in various
ways, although a constitutional amendment looking towards
the reduction of the size of the counties was lately de-
feated. A step in the ri<j;lit direction was taken by Governor
Thompson, in his inaugural address, where he strongly advo-
28 Local Government in South Carolina.
cates local taxation for the support of the free school system.*
A bill looking to that end was rejected in the senate in 1882.
No better comment upon the rejection of this measure can be
made than that already expressed by the Charleston News
and Courier: "It was a mistake, we think, to reject the
senate bill permitting the levying of local taxes for educa-
tional purposes to supplement the proceeds of the State tax.
The general tax cannot be increased. It is as high as the
people can bear, but each locality, knowing its own needs
and its own ability, should be free to raise an additional fund
under authority of law if it desired to do so." f
The future development of local government in the State
will be in the direction of local support of the free schools.
Local control will follow close upon local support. In other
words, the school house will be for the new South Carolina
what the church was for old South Carolina and for New
England, namely, the parent of local self-government. When
once the advantages of local support for schools are seen in
the greatly improved condition of southern education, the
system will extend to the local control of the poor, the roads,
the bridges, and all other common affairs now under the con-
trol of the townships throughout the West.
Such is the outlook for local government in South Caro-
lina. Historically, the parish, the district and the county are
inseparably connected. They approach, meet, and overlap
each other in the two centuries of South Carolina history.
Everywhere they identify themselves with those principles of
self-government, the continuation of which has made the
English race what it is in the Old World and in the New.
Those who have read Governor Thompson's reports on free schools
while he was Superintendent of Education, will know that this idea of
local taxation for free schools is strongly urged.
f Charleston News and Courier, December, 1882.
Free Schools in South Carolina.*
It is often urged as a matter of reproach that the more
Southern colonies of our Union failed to establish common
schools, while their sister colonies were earnestly striving to pro-
vide for the general enlightenment of the population ; that
the Southern States continually discouraged school-establish-
ment, and that, on the whole, the Southern people are opposed
to the entire system of common school education. Now this
is a grave charge. If it can be supported by sufficient evi-
dence, one might almost call it a crime on the part of the
Southern people. Indeed, it would be something extraordi-
nary and almost paradoxical, i/, in an English colony and
among English parishes, men could be found opposing the
education of their fellows of the same race and blood. It
would be something anomalous in the annals of the English
people. A recently deceased Baltimore newspaper once pub-
lished the astounding fact that " no such thing as free schools
were known in the South before the late war, and that the
oldest of them have only been in existence for a lew years ! "
As a matter of fact, schools for the education of the people
were among the earliest institutional germs in the Southern
States. To discover these germs, we have only to look into
the early legislation of South Carolina. This particular State
* Authorities. Statutes at Large <>f South Carolina. Acta of the (im-
eral Assembly. Kamsay's History of South Carolina. Simin's ili.-tory of
South Carolina. Dalcho, Episcopal Church in Smith Carolina. Reports
of the Superintendent of Education. Mayor Courtnay, Education in
South Carolina. Carroll's Collections.
29
30 Free Schools in South Carolina.
is taken as an example, not because common schools have no
history in other Southern States, or because the State of South
Carolina has done any more in this direction than any of her
neighbors. ^Perhaps other States have furnished as good a
record, and some may have done even more for popular edu-
cation. But inasmuch as the old institutions and customs of
the mother country were so perfectly reproduced in South
Carolina ; and, further, because from South Carolina so many
other Southern communities have gone forth ; and, lastly,
because her public policy and history have so often been the
public policy and history of the whole South, a sketch of
free-school legislation in South Carolina may serve as a
typical sketch of the beginnings of Southern education.
Of course, certain peculiar circumstances and local condi-
tions must be taken into account in such a study as is
proposed. The effect of climate upon the habits, customs and
industries of communities should be remembered. The state
of society must be examined. And especially should be
noted the nature of the chief occupation of the inhabitants.
Indeed, these things must be* investigated in the study of any
social question, and it is highly necessary in considering the
question of free schools.
The climatic influences on the early settlers of South Caro-
lina are at once seen by the tendency of the people to engage
in rural pursuits. From the earliest times, the principal
occupation of the people was agriculture. Experience has
abundantly shown that the exclusive pursuit of this industry
is unfavorable to the general diffusion of knowledge. Pagan
and heathen still suggest by their etymology the characteristic
ignorance of the rural population in classic Italy and in mediae-
val Europe. Even in our own time and generation, we look
to the great centres of population and of wealth for the higher
development of systems of education. In such communities
the people are collected together and their children can be
conveniently educated. Moreover, there is the additional ad-
vantage, in such communities, of obtaining that superior train-
Free Schools in South Carolina. 31
ing which only the friction of ideas can give. Until very
recently, little attention has been devoted in South Carolina
to manufacturing interests. In almost all Southern commu-
nities, manufactures, as such, from the very nature of English
colonization in that section, were almost totally neglected, and
it may be seriously questioned whether they will ever be exten-
sive in the South. From the pursuit of agriculture to the almost
total exclusion of any other occupation, the growth of munici-
palities was slow. One should not expect, therefore, to find
that the development of the common school system in South
Carolina was as rapid as in other colonies where the industries
of the people were more varied. It goes without saying that
it would be absurd to compare the growth of free schools in
the manufacturing communities of ?sew England with the free
schools of the agricultural communities of the South, and
thereupon urge that the one section upheld the system, while
the other opposed it. Rather let the comparison be made, if
made at all, between the free school system of the South at
one period of history, and the free school system of the South
at another period.
As to the social aspect of our study, it may be said that
slavery existed in South Carolina from very early times.
This fact prevented the growth of a strong middle class out
of whose ranks the patrons of common schools are so strongly
recruited. The common people which was generated in
South Carolina was that hybrid of slavery and freedom,
known in provincial language as the " poor white trash."
This class was perfectly contented so long as it maintained
a questionable superiority over the negro, and so long as
nature afforded it a means of" subsistence without toil, without
money, and without price. The semi-tropical climate of the
South afforded ample means for satisfying human wants by
hunting and fishing. Poaching prevailed on the remote
lands of the planters, and thus the "poor white trash " eked
out an existence as precarious as that of the Indian, and cared
as little as the savage for education and restraint. Little
32 Free Schools in South Carolina.
could be done, therefore, in this direction by common schools.
Of course, little effort was made to educate the slaves, though,
as we shall presently see, the attempt was successfully made
in the early days of the colony.
But if the agricultural pursuits and social condition of
South Carolina had such an influence upon its educational
economy, the very nature of the agricultural pursuits contribu-
ted largely to render the school system different from other
systems. It is easy to conceive of the evolution of an almost
perfect system of free schools in those communities where
only a small farm is amply sufficient to support an entire
family. In such communities of small farms, with dwellings
in sight of each other, the children can conveniently and
safely attend school. The case was entirely different in South
Carolina. From the very first settlement of the colony, there
was a constant tendency on the part of the settlers to occupy
large plantations. After the introduction of great staples,
such as cotton and rice, this tendency increased.
The growth of towns, with all their good effects upon free
schools, was a small factor in the educational history of South
Carolina. Indeed, there was scarcely any town worthy of the
name outside of Charleston. All lite was spent on the plan-
tations, and education was carried on to a great degree by the
employment of tutors. Having thus described the early
social and industrial condition of the State, we are better pre-
pared to investigate the origin and growth of the free school
system in South Carolina.
The history of free school legislation in South Carolina
naturally divides itself into four periods, embracing nearly
two centuries. Each period, while greatly differing from the
others in length and characteristics, is closely connected with
all the rest. (1). The first is the colonial period, and repre-
sents the first efforts of the early settlers to provide for the
education of the masses. (2). The second period extends
from 1811, when the benefits of free schools were extended to
the districts, and a more general system was established, to the
Free Schools in South Carolina. 33
close of the civil war in 1865. (3). The third period covers
that dark chapter in the history of the State commonly called
the reconstruction period. (4). To the fourth and last divi-
sion belongs the growth of the free school system in the
State since the downfall of the carpet-baggers' regime, in 1876.
As it is our purpose to consider more especially the germs of
free schools in South Carolina, more attention will be paid to
the first of these periods than to any other.
It was but natural that in Charleston free schools should
first take root and flourish. It was at first the only town in
the colony. It was here that the poorer classes were found
in larger numbers than in the rural localities. About the
beginning of the last century a society was formed in London
for the purpose of propagating the gospel in foreign parts. It
lent its support principally to those colonies where the Epis-
copal church was the established order. From the fact
that the Church of England was the established church of
South Carolina, it received liberal aid from this charitable
society. It is interesting to observe, in contemporary writings,
the interest which the early parishes manifested in local edu-
cation, and also the encouragement which they gave to it.
In 1705, the Reverend Samuel Thomas, a missionary of the
above society, speaks of Goose creek parish in South Carolina :
" The number of heathen slaves in this parish I suppose to be
about 200; twenty of which I observe to come constantly to
church, and these and several others of them well understand-
ing the English tongue and can read." Of another parish he
remarks: " I have here presumed to give an account of one
thousand slaves belonging to our English in Carolina, so far
as they know of it, and are desirous of Christian knowledge,
and seem willing to prepare themselves for it, in learning to
read, for which they redeem time from their labour. Many
of them can read in the 15ible distinctly, and great numbers
of them were learning when 1 left the Province." Further,
in the same memorial, Mr. Thomas says, "South Carolina is
but auinlant colony, and their treasury at best but small, out
5
34 Free Schools in South Carolina.
of which they have, at present, appropriated 2,000 pounds to
the service of the church, for the building six churches and as
many parsonage houses, and buying glebe land ; so that for
every particular parish the publick disburse three hundred
and thirty-three pounds, and 50 annually for all the six
parishes ; which, considering their present circumstances, is
very extraordinary, and perhaps such instances of zeal can
hardly be paralleled in these parts of the world."
The seeds of free schools planted by the charitable society
of London, and nurtured by the people of the colony were not
slow in maturing. In 1712, a free school was established in
Charleston, through private donations, and the legislature
was its especial guardian. It appears that it was the object
of this school, not only to furnish its pupils with a classical
education, but to teach writing, arithmetic and merchant
accounts. In order to encourage private donations, it was
enacted that any person giving 20 could nominate a scholar
to be taught free for five years. The master, in addition to
enjoying the use of the lands, houses, and other property of
the school, received a salary of 100 per annum. He was
required to teach, without charge, twelve scholars, who were
appointed by the commissioners of the school. The same act
went further in establishing schools. It fixed a donation of 10
annually on each parish schoolmaster, and empowered the
vestry of each parish to draw upon the public receiver for 12
in order to defray the expenses of building the parish school.
The first royal governor, after the revolution from proprie-
tary misrule, was an earnest advocate of popular education,
and did much to foster the growth of free schools. Many
parishioners caught the growing enthusiasm and made dona-
tions for the encouragement of education. Especial mention
should be made of the gift made by the Reverend Mr. Lud-
lara, of Goose Creek. He left his entire estate, valued at
2,000, for the foundation of a free school.
About the beginning of the last century a colony of Con-
gregational ists, from Dorchester, Massachusetts, under the
Free Schools in South Carolina. 35
guidance and direction of the Reverend Joseph Lord, settled
in South Carolina at a place to which they gave the name of
their old home in New England. With other institutions,
these excellent puritans brought with them their system of
free schools. An act was soon passed by the colonial legisla-
ture for founding and erecting a free school at Dorchester, in
St. George's parish. The free school idea of the town of Dor-
chester, Massachusetts, was thus transplanted to the free school
of Dorchester town, South Carolina, where town and parish
were reunited.
In 1735, Richard Beresford bequeathed a large sum of
money towards erecting a free school in St. Thomas' parish.
Shortly afterwards, free schools were erected at Ninety-Six,
Beaufort, and in St. Thomas' parish. Many other societies
were chartered, having for their object the erection of free
schools. Colleges were founded at Charleston, Beaufort,
Cambridge, and Pinckneysville. In many instances the State
vested all the escheated property of a parish or a village in
the trustees of schools and academies.
It is not maintained that the State, as yet, had established
any extensive system of free schools, yet it is clear that great
encouragement was given to all educational efforts. The
matter of regulating the schools, however, was left to the
parishioners themselves. This is seen in the case of St.
Thomas' parish, where at Childsbury, James Childs bequeathed
X600 towards erecting a free school, and the parishioners, by
local subscription, increased the amount to .2,800. These
parish free schools continued to flourish by local support,
and their influence was potent for the intellectual good of
South Carolina.
We now come to the second period in the history of free
schools in this State. This period began in 1811, when the
State assumed control of the schools, and extended until 1865.
The act which established this system was entitled "an Act
to establish Free schools throughout the State," and provides
that "there shall be established in each election district
36 Free Schools in South Carolina.
within this State, a number of free schools equal to the num-
ber of members which such district is entitled to send to the
house of representatives in the legislature of this State. In
each of these schools the primary elements of learning, read-
ing, writing and arithmetic, should always be taught, and
such other branches of education as the commissioners, to be
hereinafter appointed, may from time to time direct."
Every citizen of the State was allowed to send his children
or wards to the free school in his district free of charge.
Where more children applied for admission to a school than
the same could conveniently accommodate, preference was
always given to the poor children. Three hundred dollars
per annum was the amount appropriated for the support of
each school. The schools were controlled by commissioners
appointed by the legislature. The commissioners had a
general oversight of the schools in their district, determining
their situation, appointing the teachers, deciding on the admis-
sion of the scholars, and drawing on the comptroller for the
school money. The act recognizes the existence of other free
schools at that time in the following manner: "In all dis-
tricts where a school or schools are already, or may hereafter
be established by private funds or individual subscription, it
shall be lawful for the commissioners of the free schools, at
their discretion, to unite such part or parts of the fund pro-
vided by this act for such district with such school or schools,
in such manner as may appear to them best calculated to
promote the objects of this act."
Free schools were thus legally established throughout the
State. But in point of fact they did not exist long before an
effort was made by the members of the legislature from the
sparsely settled districts to abolish the whole system. This
was in 1813, two years after their general adoption. The
objection was that they were too inconvenient and too expen-
sive. This argument called forth an eloquent plea for free
schools by a representative from Charleston. The speech is
quoted at length in Mayor Courtenay's little monograph,
Free Schools in South Carolina. 37
entitled "Education in South Carolina." A few words will,
however, illustrate the spirit of the address. Speaking of the
objection to the whole free school system on account of the
scattered population in one or two districts, Mr. Crofts, the
representative from Charleston, thus appealed to his oppo-
nent: "Let him look back and rejoice that this institution so
flourishes in the bud. Let him look forward, and anticipating
the fruit which it will bear, and the bounties which it will
dispense, let him recoil from the meditated blow, and throw
away the axe with which he assails its roots. What will be
his feelings when it is prostrate, leafless and desolate? It is
urged that owing to the sparse population of one or two dis-
tricts the free schools there are comparatively useless, and
therefore the whole system ought to be abolished. This evil
time will, of itself, remove; and what kind of influence is
that which would abolish a general good in order to get rid
of a partial evil? There is a cloud, Mr. Speaker, which the
sun cannot penetrate why does he shine at all ? There are
rocks impenetrable to the dews of heaven why are not
showers withheld altogether? There are barren places that
produce nothing why is not agriculture abandoned ? No,
sir, let us rejoice in the good we have done, and regret not
that we cannot do everything at once."
Free schools were not abolished in South Carolina. They
continued to receive the support of the State, and were man-
aged on the same plan as when first established, only increas-
ing in number.
In 1828, seventeen years after their general establishment,
there were eight hundred and forty schools in the State
and nine thousand and thirty-six pupils. Twelve years later,
in 1840, there were five hundred and sixty-six free schools,
with twelve thousand five hundred and twenty pupils. In
1850 there were seven hundred and twenty-tour tree schools in
the State with seventeen thousand eight hundred and thirty-
eight children attending them. The support of these schools
for the same year was two hundred thousand and six hundred
38 Free Schools in South Carolina.
dollars. At the outbreak of the civil war, in 1861, free schools
had grown so rapidly that twenty thousand children attended
them, and they had an annual support of more than two hun-
dred thousand dollars.
When the men who had been engaged in the great war of
secession returned to their homes in South Carolina, poverty
stared them in the face. The homes of many had been
destroyed by the ravages of war. The freedom of the blacks
had also been proclaimed. Before their emancipation the
negroes represented the wealth of the State. After the eman-
cipation of the negroes, the embarrassing question arose how
it was possible to educate three times the number of children
on one-third of the money. The reconstruction undertook to
answer this question. Many earnest and zealous teachers
came from the North to engage in the great work. But with
them came political demagogues and over-zealous reformers.
They exercised little judgment. Instead of trying to secure
the co-operation of the native teachers, they ignored them.
The social sentiments of the people were utterly disregarded.
Instead, therefore, of securing the sympathy, good-will, and
encouragement of the white population, these intruders
incurred righteous indignation. The corrupt administration
of the "carpet-bagger" and of the negro seriously interfered
with the free schools. The whole system had well nigh
collapsed when the radical ring was overthrown in 1876.
As an illustration of the reckless expenditure of the school
money by negro officials during the carpet-bag regime, the
following example will suffice. The amount of the past school
indebtedness of Barnwell county, taken from the report of
the Superintendent of Education of South Carolina was:
From November 1, 1872, to November 7, 1876 $3,648.13
From November 1, 1876, to November 1, 1878 890.88
$4,539.01
When the people of South Carolina resumed control of
their local affairs in 1876-77, the outlook of the free schools
Free Schools in South Carolina. 39
was perhaps even gloomier than at the close of the war. At
that time the State was a battle-field covered, as it were, with
blasted homes, smoking ruins, with the dead and wounded.
But in 1877 that battle-field presented the appearance of
having suffered pillageatthe hands of camp followers. Much
of the school fund had been squandered; the teachers were
badly paid ; the pupils poorly taught; the school buildings
in many places were badly out of repair. More than this, a
school debt of more than $200,000 was left for the white
population to pay. But the people did not despair. Earnest
and energetic souls inspired them, and, with the determination
characteristic of their race, the people of South Carolina
slowly began the great work that lay before them. The
schools were organized on a more equitable basis; the teach-
ers were selected with more care ; attention was paid to the
pupils. Provision was made for the liquidation of the enor-
mous school debt of 1877. The legislature provided that the
poll tax of most of the counties should be used to extinguish
the debt. Free school resources were subjected to a very
severe strain, but the teachers were convinced of the honesty
of the administration, and confidence was soon restored.
During the year 1880-1 there were 3,057 public schools in
the State of South Carolina, an increase of 84 over the pre-
ceding year. The school population, white and colored, was
133,458 out of a total population of 995,577. The total
number of teachers was 3,249, the average wages being
$25.45 per month lor males, and $24.48 for females. The
entire amount of salaries paid to teachers during the year
was $309,855.10, and the total available school fund was
$415,108,943. These facts present a most hopeful picture
l'or the free schools of South Carolina. This cheering out-
look is largely due to the heroic efforts of the last Superin-
tendent of Education of the State, Col. Hugh S. Thompson,
now Governor of the State, who held the above educational
position from the time of the overthrow of the carpet-bag
government. With indefatigable zeal he revived the free
40 Free Schools in South Carolina.
school system and gave it an impetus which, if sustained by
the co-operation of the people, will be of lasting good to the
State.
One of Colonel Thompson's special schemes was the organ-
ization of two Normal schools, one for white and one for
colored teachers. These schools, which meet every summer,
are largely attended, being free of charge. iThey are con-
ducted by the best teachers and lecturers in the South and
West. The expenses incurred are defrayed by the State.
The good done by these Normal schools cannot be over-esti-
mated. While quickening the teachers, they also influence
the pupils and interest the whole public in the great cause in
which they are engaged. In the words of the official report
on these institutions: "The importance of the work will,
perhaps, be better understood by all when it is known that
the students of the Institute, taking the actual number as
stated by them, had charge of the education of an aggregate
of about 15,000 children, or, of nearly one-fourth of the white
children of the State who are attending school. It cannot be
too strongly emphasized that normal institutes are maintained
for the benefit of the children of the State, not for the per-
sonal benefit of the teachers who attend them."
The growth of municipalities will have a powerful influence
upon the growth of the free schools, and free schools will react
upon the municipalities aud quicken local life. A demand
for the right of local taxation for he support of schools is
already growing in South Carolina. This, however, is but
a return to old colonial principles. When everywhere
adopted, local taxation will be found to be of great practical
benefit, not only in increasing the influence and efficiency of
the free schools, but also in demonstrating to the people the
great advantage of controlling all their local affairs. Cheer-
ing signs for the future of free schools in South Carolina
must be welcomed, not only by the citizens of the State, but
by good citizens everywhere, and by all who prefer enlighten-
ment to ignorance, morality to vice, happiness to misery,
and who honor an intelligent, upright, law-abiding people.
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