Of the occupants of the houses not yet referred to on the south side
of Leyden street at various times within my memory, the first to be
mentioned is Robert Roberts, who built the house on the brow of the
hill, now owned by Wm. S. Robbins. Mr. Roberts was for many years
a substantial merchant, engaged in navigation and foreign trade,
and was one of the founders of the Plymouth Bank, of whose Board of
Directors he was a member from the time of its organization in 1803,
to his death in 1825. His sister Mary married John Clark, whose
daughter, Eliza Haley Clark, occupied the house in question many
years, and died December 23, 1882. I remember hearing when young a
story about the source of a part of Mr. Roberts’s wealth which may
have been, like so many stories about others, without any foundation
in fact. The story was that one of his vessels, either under command
of himself or of another, was in a French port at one period of the
French revolution and had taken on board the wealth of some refugees
who had planned to escape from the persecution of the revolutionists,
and sail for America, but that they were arrested and guillotined,
and that their property never claimed by its owners, fell into the
possession of Capt. Roberts and other owners of his vessel.
The only change within my recollection in the occupation of the next
house, which has been for many years in the possession and occupancy
of Salisbury Jackson, and his children and grandchildren, was the
conversion in 1835 of one of the rooms on the street floor by Mr.
Jackson into a store, which he opened in that year after having
occupied for some years a store in the Witherill building on the
corner of Main street and Town Square. In later years the store was
abandoned, and the building restored to its original condition. I
associate an old lady by the name of Johnson, who I think about 1830
occupied one or two rooms in the Jackson house, with a bonnet called
the Navarino bonnet, which had a great run for a time among females
everywhere, old and young. I wonder if any of my readers remember
as I do the Navarino bonnet? The battle of Navarino, which secured
Greek independence, was fought October 20, 1827, in which the Turkish
and Egyptian navies were destroyed by the combined fleets of England,
Russia and France, and so great an interest was felt at that time in
Greek affairs that some ingenious originator of fashion invented a
bonnet made of paper resembling cloth, and of the prevailing shape,
with a crown a little turned up behind, and a front, which entirely
concealed the face and chin from a side view, to which in order to
attract attention and sales he gave the name of the battle. Every
woman bought one, and every woman wore one, the streets were full of
them, and in the meeting houses they were in their glory. But alas,
they were fair weather bonnets, and like the feathers of a rooster,
wore a most bedraggled and flopping appearance when exposed to the
rain. The fashion was short lived, and went out like that of hoop
skirts, as rapidly as it came in, while the world still wonders what
became of them. If any one of my readers has one of these relics
of bygone days, I would be glad to have it to help my memory in
recalling the appearance of my sisters, when one day they reached
home in a drenching rain.
Of Capt. James Bartlett, the occupant of the next house west of the
Jackson house from 1801 to his death in 1840, and of Leander Lovell,
his son-in-law, the next occupant, by whose heirs it was sold in
1880, to recent owners, mention has been made in previous chapters.
The site of the next house, owned and occupied by Mr. Wm. H. H.
Weston, is an especially interesting one. For its early history,
which it is unnecessary to repeat, my readers are referred to page
164 of the first part of “Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth.” On that
spot James Cole kept an ordinary, for which he was licensed in 1645.
Judge Samuel Sewall refers to it in his diary under date of March 8,
1698, in which occurs the following entry: “Got to Plymouth about
noon, I lodge at Cole’s; the house was built by Governor Winslow, and
is the oldest in Plymouth.” The present house was built in 1807 by
General Nathaniel Goodwin, and was occupied by him until his death,
March 8, 1819. In 1827 it was sold by his heirs to Thomas Russell,
who made it his residence until his death, September 25, 1854.
General Goodwin was born in Plymouth in 1749, and while engaged many
years in iron manufactures, was more widely known as an officer
in the militia and military superintendent for Plymouth county
during the revolution. In the latter capacity he kept a record of
enlistments in many of the towns in the county, including Plymouth
and Kingston, which is more complete than the lists in the archives
of the Commonwealth. This record was given to me some years ago
by his grandson, the late Captain Nathaniel Goodwin, and has been
given by me to the Pilgrim Society. After the battle of Saratoga,
fought on the 7th of October, 1777, General Burgoyne and his army
taken prisoners of war by General Gates, were marched to Cambridge
and placed in barracks on Winter and Prospect hills, while Burgoyne
himself was quartered in the Borland house in that town. General
Goodwin was detailed under General Heath to command the guard having
charge of the prisoners, and the following Plymouth men were enlisted
to form a part of the guard:
Nathaniel Barnes
Wm. Bartlett
Wm. Blakeley
Wm. Cassady
George Churchill
Israel Clark
James Collins
Thomas Dogget
Lemuel Doten
Stephen Doten
Thomas Ellis
John Harlow, Jr.
Eleazer Holmes, Jr.
Samuel Holmes
Daniel Howland
Edward Morton
Josiah Morton
Levi Paty
Ebenezer Rider, Jr.
Benoni Shaw
Nathaniel Torrey
Benjamin Weston
John Witherhead
General Goodwin and General Burgoyne became friends, and as a memento
of their friendship, Burgoyne gave to General Goodwin his rapier,
which was also given to me by his grandson, and is now a loan from
me in the cabinet of the Pilgrim Society. General Goodwin was like
Mr. Roberts and Mr. Hedge, an original subscriber to stock in the
Plymouth Bank in 1803, and was a Director from the date of its
organization until his death in 1819.
General Goodwin, I have always heard, was a man of fine figure and
bearing, and vain of his appearance, especially when in uniform.
His grandson, Capt. Nathaniel Goodwin, told me the following story
about him and his negro servant Pompey, a freed slave, which
illustrates the familiarity of the slaves with their old masters and
the characteristic vanity of the General. One muster day morning the
General, wearing his regimentals, said: “Pompey, how do I look?” “You
look like a lion, massa.” “Lion, Pompey; you never saw a lion.” “Yes
I have, massa; massa Davis hab got one.” “That isn’t a lion, you
fool, that is a jackass.” “I don’t care, massa, you look just like
dat er animal.”
Thomas Russell, who bought the above mentioned Goodwin house in
1827, and occupied it until his death, was a brother of Captain John
Russell, mentioned in a previous chapter as an enterprising ship
owner, and married in 1814 Mary Ann, daughter of William Goodwin, and
their children were Elizabeth, born in 1815, Lydia Cushing, 1817,
who married Hon. Wm. Whiting; Mary, who married Benjamin Marston
Watson of Plymouth; William Goodwin, 1821, Thomas, 1825, and Jane
Frances, who married Abraham Firth of Boston. Of these children Mrs.
Watson alone survives. Mr. Russell was for many years the treasurer
and manager of the Cotton Mill at Eel River, established in 1812.
After his retirement from that position, he was often the trusted
adviser in the settlement of estates, and in 1837 Mr. Barnabas
Hedge, supposing himself seriously involved in the liabilities
of the Tremont Iron Works in Wareham, in which he was largely
interested, made an assignment to his son-in-law, Charles H. Warren
and Mr. Russell for the security of his indebtedness. Mr. Hedge was,
however, under the management of his assignees extricated from his
embarrassments, and was left with a handsome fortune. In accordance
with the provisions of law then in force, Mr. Russell was chosen
by the legislature in 1842 Treasurer and Receiver General of the
Commonwealth, and again in 1844. It is worthy of mention that within
eighty-five years from the adoption of the constitution in 1780 to
1865 three citizens of Plymouth should have served as treasurer
during a period of fourteen years. These were Thomas Davis, from 1792
to 1797, Thomas Russell in 1842 and 1844, and Jacob H. Loud in 1853
and 1854, and from 1866 to 1871. If the term of Hon. Nahum Mitchell
of East Bridgewater of five years from 1822 to 1827 be added, the
county of Plymouth was represented in the treasurer’s office more
than a quarter of the time.
The various occupants of the site on which the Baptist church stands,
are deserving of notice. The house, taken down when the church was
erected in 1865, was built in 1703 by Dr. Francis LeBaron, who was a
passenger in a French vessel wrecked on Cape Cod in 1694, and settled
in Plymouth. A family tradition says that he was a Roman Catholic,
and was buried with a cross on his breast, but Mrs. James Humphrey of
New York told me that her grandmother, Elizabeth wife of Ammi Ruhama
Robbins of Norfolk, Conn., who was a granddaughter of Dr. LeBaron,
told her that the Doctor was a Huguenot. It is a singular fact that
one hundred years later in 1794 or 1795, another French vessel was
wrecked on Cape Cod, on which there was a passenger named LeBaron,
whose descendants are living in one or more of the southern states.
From Francis LeBaron the house descended to his son, Dr. Lazarus
LeBaron, who sold it in 1765 to Nathaniel Goodwin, the husband of
his daughter, Lydia. From Nathaniel Goodwin it descended to his son,
General Nathaniel Goodwin, who occupied it until, in 1807, he built
and occupied the W. H. H. Weston house. The General leased the house
to John Bartlett and William White, who occupied it as a tavern. I
have no knowledge as to who John Bartlett was, but William White came
from New Bedford, having married Fanny Gibbs of Wareham, and was
the father of Arabella White, who married the late Capt. Nathaniel
Goodwin. I have no means of knowing precisely when Bartlett and
White terminated their lease, but it is certain that in October,
1818, John H. Bradford kept a tavern in the house, as on the 9th of
that month George Cooper, clerk of the Standish Guards, notified the
members of the company to meet on the 21st at the house of John H.
Bradford. At first the tavern was called as above, “the house of John
H. Bradford,” but later it came to be called Bradford’s Tavern, and
was so called until it was sold in 1857. It was a stately mansion.
Its broad front, its spacious doorway, its broad hall, and its large
wainscotted rooms, told the story of its ancient grandeur. There the
“daughters of Lazarus” reigned as queens, and the fashion of the town
engaged in the minuet of the olden time.
John Howland Bradford, or Uncle Johnny, as he was affectionately
called, the landlord during a period of forty years, perhaps more
widely known than any landlord of his time, was born in Plymouth,
July 14, 1780, and never married. He was an interesting character,
such as only an old New England town could produce, with only an
ordinary public school education, but under the moral influences
of an enlightened Christian home, he grew into manhood with habits
of truth, industry, kindness of heart, and correct living, which
no worldly influences could weaken. No better man has within my
observation ever lived. His sphere of life was narrow, but he filled
it full. Let every man do this and the machinery of social life
will run without friction or jar. I never knew of his attendance
at any church, and I do not believe that any theological question
ever presented itself to his mind. His character, however, was such
as Christianity seeks to form, and as long as it is formed, it is
not worth while to ask whether it be the result of the lessons of
Christianity acting directly on the man, or on those under whose
ministrations his habits have been formed. When he died, December 7,
1863, we may be sure that the promise made to the pure in heart was
kept that “they shall see God.”
The hostess of Bradford’s Tavern was Mrs. Abigail (Leonard) Hollis,
wife of Henry Hollis and daughter of Thomas Leonard, of Plymouth. Mr.
Hollis came from Weymouth and married his wife in 1819. He died March
9, 1838, and his widow died September 27, 1859. Two of their children
were John Henry, a merchant in New York at the time of his death, and
our late townsman, William T. Hollis. I have no recollection of Mr.
Hollis, or his occupation, but I have no doubt that he was connected
in some capacity with the tavern. His wife was a strong minded,
vigorous woman, and was the mainstay in everything connected with
the domestic concerns of the house. Her oldest son, John Henry, was
my schoolmate in the High school, and I can testify to the care she
bestowed on his moral and intellectual instruction. The inscription
on her gravestone:
“Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die,” was not
only intended as the statement of a general truth, but also as a
recognition of its truth as specially applicable to her.
Among the guests at Bradford’s Tavern the memory of some lingers
in my mind. When I was quite young, perhaps about the year 1830, a
stranger arrived at the tavern on the evening stage from Boston, who
was destined to keep the tongue of gossip wagging for some time. He
was somewhat portly, but moderate in height, and dressed in linen
and broadcloth of immaculate neatness and fashionable in style. His
name was Surrey, but the register contained no place of residence.
Occasional visitors for a day or two were not uncommon, and excited
no remark, but when this stranger remained for a week or more with
neither acquaintance nor business to protract his stay, the gossips
began to wonder who he was, whence he came, to what nationality he
belonged, and what the purpose of his visit could be. In suitable
weather he took his morning and evening walk about the town, making
no visits, entering no store or church or public meeting, and asking
no questions concerning the town or people. From his dignified
bearing he won the name of Lord Surrey, and was never referred to
by any other name. He made occasional excursions to Boston, where
apparently he received funds, and bought new clothes. He paid his
board promptly, and his habits and demeanor were beyond criticism. At
the end of a year he left town and gossips were left to wonder where
he had gone, whether he was a refugee from abroad, or whether he
was merely an eccentric man who was floating about the world at the
dictate of a capricious will.
I remember another visitor at the tavern quite as mysterious, a man
of gentlemanly appearance, who could not speak a word of English,
and who remained six months without disclosing his nationality, and
went as he came, a stranger in a strange land. Mr. Salisbury Jackson,
whose humor led him to speak of every day incidents in a manner to
amuse his hearers, in describing a visit to the unknown, said that
he tried him in French, but found that he was not a Frenchman. He
then tried him in Spanish, but he was not a Spaniard. He then tried
him in German, but he was not a German. He then, after failing to
make him out an Italian, tried him in the original tongue and fixed
him. No efforts of available linguists could fix his nationality more
successfully than the humor of Mr. Jackson, and he went as he came,
and was for a long time remembered as the mysterious stranger.
In 1857 the tavern house was sold to Wm. Churchill, who sold it to
Wm. Finney, who resold it to Mr. Churchill, from whom it was bought
by the Baptist Society in 1862. From 1857 to the date of his death,
December 7, 1863, Mr. Bradford boarded with Jacob Howland, who
occupied chambers in the Witherell building on the corner of Main
street and Town Square.
I have spoken of Pompey, a colored servant, once a slave of General
Nathaniel Goodwin, with whom he lived in the old tavern house. He
died within my recollection, and I think he was the last of the old
slaves living in Plymouth. I remember his living with Nathaniel
Goodwin, Cashier of the Plymouth Bank, who lived in what was called
the bank house, which stood on Court street, where the Russell
building now stands. Prince, whom I also remember, was once a slave
of Dr. Wm. Thomas, and lived until his death, after the death of
Dr. Thomas, with his son, Judge Joshua Thomas, who died January 10,
1821, and afterwards with his widow, in the house now occupied as an
inn, called the Plymouth Tavern. There is no reason to doubt that
the institution of slavery was recognized, and as firmly upheld in
Plymouth as in other considerable towns in the northern states. So
far as the slave trade was concerned, though it was abolished by
an act of Congress in 1808, there is reason to believe that in the
town of Bristol, R. I., within the limits of the original Plymouth
Colony, until by a Royal Commission in 1751, that town was taken from
Massachusetts and added to Rhode Island, it was pursued until 1820.
In that year Congress declared the trade to be piracy, and Captain
Nathaniel Gordon, engaged in the trade, was in November, 1861,
convicted and executed in New York. It was the generally entertained
belief that one or more citizens of Bristol were engaged in the
trade, which led Mr. Webster to make the following denunciatory
reference to the trade in his memorable oration delivered in Plymouth
on the celebration in 1820 of the anniversary of the Landing of the
Pilgrims. “It is not fit that the land of the Pilgrims should bear
the shame longer. I hear the sound of the hammer; I see the smoke of
the furnace where manacles and fetters are still forged for human
limbs. I see the visages of those who by stealth and midnight labor
in this work of hell foul and dark, as may become the artificers of
such instruments of misery and tortures. Let that spot be purified,
or let it cease to be of New England. Let it be purified or let it
be set aside from the Christian world; let it be put out of the
circle of human sympathies and human regards, and let civilized man
henceforth have no communion with it.”
Slavery existed in Massachusetts until the adoption of its
constitution on the 15th of June, 1780. Article first of the
“declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of the Commonwealth”
declared as follows: “All men are born free and equal, and have
certain natural, essential and unalienable rights, among which may
be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and
liberties; that of acquiring, possessing and protecting property; in
fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.”
Whatever may have been the intent of the framers of the constitution
in constructing the above article, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts
decided as early as 1781 in the case of Walker vs. Jennison that
slavery was abolished in Massachusetts by the declaration of rights,
and that decision has been repeatedly confirmed by later ones. But
singularly enough, notwithstanding these decisions a slave was sold
by auction in Cambridge as late as 1793. Precisely how many slaves
there were in Plymouth when the constitution was adopted, I have no
means of knowing, but it is certain that, as elsewhere at the North
where soil and climate and public opinion were unfavorable, the
number had been for some years gradually lessening. The growth of
slavery at the south was however astonishing. It has been estimated
that at various times forty million slaves were taken from the shores
of Africa, and at the first census in 1790, there were 697,897 slaves
in the United States. This number increased to 893,041 in 1800, to
1,191,369 in 1810, to 1,538,022 in 1820, to 2,009,043 in 1830, to
2,487,455 in 1840, to 3,204,313 in 1850, and to 3,953,760 in 1860.
I have seen an assessor’s record for the year 1740, which states that
in that year there were thirty-two slaves in Plymouth between the
ages of twelve and fifty, from which it may be fair to assume that
there were at least fifty of all ages. The following were the owners
in the above year:
Robert Brown, one; Samuel Bartlett, one; Timothy Trent, one; James
Hovey, one; Hannah Jackson, one; Samuel Kempton, one; Isaac Lothrop,
four; Thomas Jackson, two; Lazarus LeBaron, two; John Murdock, one;
Thomas Murdock, one; Job Morton, one; Ebenezer Spooner, one; Haviland
Torrey, one; David Turner, one; James Warren, one; John Watson, one;
James Warren, Jr., one; Rebecca Witherell, one; Seth Barnes, one;
John Bartlett, one; Stephen Churchill, one; Wm. Clark, one; Nathaniel
Foster, two; Sarah Little, one; Joseph Bartlett, one.
The following slaves are mentioned in the town records at various
dates:
Cæsar, Hester, Eunice, Philip and Esther, slaves of Edward Winslow
in 1768; Cato and Jesse, slaves of John Foster in 1731; Britain,
slave of John Winslow in 1762; Cuffee, slave of Isaac Lothrop in
1768; Nanny, slave of Samuel Bartlett in 1738; Hannah, slave of James
Hovey in 1762; Cuffee, slave of George Watson in 1768; Dick, slave of
Nathaniel Thomas in 1731; Phebe, slave of Haviland Torrey in 1731;
Dolphin, slave of Nathaniel Thomas in 1731; Flora, slave of Priscilla
Watson in 1731; Eseck, slave of George Watson in 1757; Rose, slave of
William Clark in 1757; Prince, slave of Wm. Thomas in 1771; Plymouth,
slave of Thomas Davis in 1753; Nannie, slave of Deacon Foster in
1741; Jane, slave of Thomas Jackson in 1760; Jack, slave of Thomas
Holmes in 1739; Patience, slave of Barnabas Churchill in 1739; Pero
and Hannah, slaves of John Murdock in 1756; Quamony, slave of Josiah
Cotton in 1732; Kate, slave of John Murdock in 1732; Quash, slave
of Lazarus LeBaron in 1756; Phillis, slave of Theophilus Cotton in
1751; Silas, slave of Daniel Diman in 1772; Venus, slave of Elizabeth
Edwards in 1772; Pompey, slave of Nathaniel Goodwin in 1775; Cæsar,
slave of Joshua Thomas in 1779; Venus, slave of Elizabeth Stephens in
1772; Quba, slave of Barnabas Hedge in 1775; Plato, slave of unknown
in 1779; Ebed Melick, slave of Madame Thatcher of Middleboro.
Besides Pompey and Prince, Quamony Quash, an old slave, commonly
called Quam, lived within my remembrance, and died April 18, 1833.
Most of the slaves emancipated by the constitution, accepted their
freedom, and so far as I know, only Pompey and Prince continued
as servants of their old masters. A few of them squatted on land
belonging to the town of Plymouth, which on that account took the
name of New Guinea. Among these were Quamony, Prince, Plato and Cato,
but it is probable that Prince divided his time between his home at
New Guinea and the house of his old master, where I remember him a
faithful servant of the widow of Judge Joshua Thomas.
It is not improbable that Plymouth was associated with the first
claim made on a citizen of Massachusetts for the restoration of a
slave to his master. Information concerning it I found among my
grandfather’s papers. In 1808 the brig Thomas, Solomon Davie master,
at some port in Delaware, received on board a slave who had deserted
from his master, David M. McIlvaine, and until 1812 remained in my
grandfather’s service, receiving wages as a hired man. In 1812 Mr.
McIlvaine found the slave on board the brig in Baltimore, and a claim
for his restoration being made, he was given up. In the meantime the
slave who called himself George Thomson, bought a small house on
the brow of Cole’s Hill, and in a settlement of a suit to recover
wages, which my grandfather had paid to Thomson, Mr. McIlvaine,
in consideration of the money paid, conveyed to my grandfather
the house, and the following articles of personal property, which
were in the keeping of a colored woman, named Violet Phillips, and
were the property of Thompson—a blue cloth coat, fine; a black
cloth coat, fine; one pair of ribbed velvet pantaloons; one black
bombazet trousers; one white shirt; one white waistcoat; one black
bombazet waistcoat; one black silk waistcoat; three yellow marseilles
waistcoats; one pair white cotton stockings; two checked shirts; one
new fur hat; one chest, and one trunk in which were the title papers
to his house, and one silver watch.
Of many stories about these old slaves I have room for only one. When
the use of biers, instead of hearses was universal, occasionally two
of these freedmen would be hired as bearers. On one occasion, when
Quamony and Plato were employed, they had heard that gloves were
given to the bearers, and just as the procession was about to start,
Quamony said to Plato, “Hab you hab’m glub?” “No,” said Plato, “I no
hab’m no glub.” “Nor I hab’m glub nudder,” said Quamony, “We no bare
widout glub, let the man in the box carry hisself.”