Rule 2. “That there shall be no more Powwawing amongst the Indians. And
if any shall hereafter powwaw, both he that shall powwaw, and he that
shall procure him to powwaw, shall pay twenty shillings apiece.”
Rule 4. “They desire they may understand the wiles of Satan, and grow out
of love with his suggestions and temtations.”
Rule 5. “That they may fall upon some better course to improve their time
than formerly.”
Rule 15. “They will wear their haire comely, as the English do, and
whosoever shall offend herein shall pay four shillings.”
Rule 23. “They shall not disguise themselves in their mournings as
formerly, nor shall they keep a great noyse by howling.”
Rule 24. “The old ceremony of a maide walking alone and living apart so
many days, [fine] twenty shillings.”
[39] _Page 53, note 1._ Shepard, p. 9.
[40] _Page 54, note 1._ Wilson’s _Letter_, 1651.
[41] _Page 54, note 2._ _News from America_, p. 22.
[42] _Page 54, note 3._ Winthrop, vol. ii., p. 2.
[43] _Page 55, note 1._ Hutchinson, vol. i., p. 90.
[44] _Page 55, note 2._ Hutchinson, vol. i., p. 112.
[45] _Page 55, note 3._ Winthrop, vol. ii., p. 21.
[46] _Page 55, note 4._ Hutchinson, vol. i., p. 94.
[47] _Page 55, note 5._ Bulkeley’s _Gospel Covenant_, p. 209.
[48] _Page 55, note 6._ Winthrop, vol. ii., p. 94.
[49] _Page 56, note 1._ _Gospel Covenant_, p. 301.
[50] _Page 57, note 1._ Shattuck, p. 45.
[51] _Page 57, note 2._ Hutchinson, vol. i., p. 172.
[52] _Page 57, note 3._ See his instructions from the Commissioners,
his narrative, and the Commissioners’ letter to him, in Hutchinson’s
_Collection_, pp. 261-270.
[53] _Page 58, note 1._ Hutchinson’s _History_, vol. i., p. 254.
[54] _Page 58, note 2._ Hubbard’s _Indian Wars_, p. 119, ed. 1801.
Mr. Charles H. Walcott, in his _Concord in the Colonial Period_ (Estes
& Lauriat, Boston, 1884), gives a very interesting account of the
Brookfield fight.
[55] _Page 58, note 3._ Hubbard, p. 201.
[56] _Page 59, note 1._ Hubbard, p. 185.
[57] _Page 59, note 2._ Hubbard, p. 245.
[58] _Page 60, note 1._ Shattuck, p. 55.
[59] _Page 60, note 2._ Hubbard, p. 260.
[60] _Page 61, note 1._ Neal’s _History of New England_, vol. i., p. 321.
[61] _Page 61, note 2._ Mather, _Magnalia Christi_, vol. i., p. 363.
[62] _Page 61, note 3._ “Tradition has handed down the following
anecdote. A consultation among the Indian chiefs took place about this
time on the high lands in Stow, and, as they cast their eyes towards
Sudbury and Concord, a question arose which they should attack first. The
decision was made to attack the former. One of the principal chiefs said:
‘We no prosper if we go to Concord—the Great Spirit love that people—the
evil spirit tell us not to go—they have a great man there—he _great
pray_.’ The Rev. Edward Bulkeley was then minister of the town, and his
name and distinguished character were known even to the red men of the
forest.”—Shattuck’s _History_, p. 59, note.
[63] _Page 61, note 4._ On this occasion the name of Hoar, since honored
in Concord through several generations, came to the front. John Hoar,
the first practitioner of law in Concord, an outspoken man of sturdy
independence, who, for uttering complaints that justice was denied him in
the courts, had been made to give bonds for good behavior and “disabled
to plead any cases but his oune in this jurisdiction,” who had been fined
£10 for saying that “the Blessing which his Master Bulkeley pronounced
in dismissing the publique Assembly was no more than vane babling,” and
was twice fined for non-attendance at public worship, proved to be the
only man in town who was willing to take charge of the Praying Indians of
Nashobah, whom the General Court ordered moved to Concord during Philip’s
War. The magistrates who had persecuted him had to turn to him, and he
made good provision on his own place for the comfort and safe-keeping
of these unfortunates, and their employment, when public opinion was
directed against them with the cruelty of fear. Soon, however, Captain
Mosley, who had been secretly sent for by some citizens, came with
soldiers into the meeting-house, announced to the congregation that he
had heard that “there were some heathen in town committed to one Hoar,
who, he was informed, were a trouble and disquiet to them;” therefore,
if the people desired it, he would remove them to Boston. No one made
objection, so he went to Mr. Hoar’s house, counted the Indians and set a
guard, Hoar vigorously protesting. He came next day; Hoar bravely refused
to give them up, so Mosley removed them by violence and carried the
Indians to Deer Island, where they suffered much during the winter. See
Walcott’s _Concord in the Colonial Period_.
[64] _Page 62, note 1._ Sprague’s _Centennial Ode_.
[65] _Page 62, note 2._ Shattuck, chap. iii. Walcott, chap. iii.
[66] _Page 63, note 1._ Hutchinson’s _Collection_, p. 484.
[67] _Page 63, note 2._ Hutchinson’s _Collection_, pp. 543, 548, 557, 566.
[68] _Page 63, note 3._ Hutchinson’s _History_, vol. i., p. 336.
The month of April has been fateful for Concord, especially its
nineteenth day. On that day the military company under Lieutenant Heald
marched to Boston to take part in the uprising of the freemen of the
colony against Andros. On that same day, in 1775, the minute-men and
militia of Concord, promptly reinforced by the soldiers of her daughter
and sister towns, marched down to the guarded North Bridge and returned
the fire of the Royal troops in the opening battle of the Revolution.
Again on the nineteenth of April, 1861, the “Concord Artillery”
(so-called, although then a company of the Fifth Infantry, M. V. M.) left
the village for the front in the War of the Rebellion; and yet again in
the last days of April, 1898, the same company, then, as now, attached to
the Sixth Regiment, M. V. M., marched from the village green to bear its
part in the Spanish War.
[69] _Page 64, note 1._ Town Records.
[70] _Page 64, note 2._ The following minutes from the Town Records in
1692 may serve as an example:—
“John Craggin, aged about 63 years, and Sarah his wife, aet. about 63
years, do both testify upon oath that about 2 years ago John Shepard,
sen. of Concord, came to our house in Obourne, to treat with us, and give
us a visit, and carried the said Sary Craggin to Concord with him, and
there discoursed us in order to a marriage between his son, John Shepard,
jun. and our daughter, Eliz. Craggin, and, for our incouragement, and
before us, did promise that, upon the consummation of the said marriage,
he, the said John Shepard, sen. would give to his son, John Shepard, jun.
the one half of his dwelling house, and the old barn, and the pasture
before the barn; the old plow-land, and the old horse, when his colt was
fit to ride, and his old oxen, when his steers were fit to work. All this
he promised upon marriage as above said, which marriage was consummated
upon March following, which is two years ago, come next March. Dated Feb.
25, 1692. Taken on oath before me. Wm. Johnson.”
[71] _Page 64, note 3._ Town Records, July, 1698.
[72] _Page 64, note 4._ Records, Nov. 1711.
[73] _Page 65, note 1._ Records, May, 1712.
[74] _Page 66, note 1._ Records, 1735.
[75] _Page 66, note 2._ Whitfield in his journal wrote: “About noon I
reached Concord. Here I preached to some thousands in the open air; and
comfortable preaching it was. The hearers were sweetly melted down....
The minister of the town being, I believe, a true child of God, I chose
to stay all night at his house that we might rejoice together. The
Lord was with us. The Spirit of the Lord came upon me and God gave me
to wrestle with him for my friends, especially those then with me....
Brother B—s, the minister, broke into floods of tears, and we had reason
to cry out it was good for us to be here.”
[76] _Page 67, note 1._ Church Records, July, 1792.
[77] _Page 67, note 2._ The Rev. Daniel Bliss has left the name of
having been an earnest, good man, evidently emotional. His zealous
and impassioned preaching gave offence to some of the cooler and more
conservative clergy, and indeed bred discord in the church of Concord.
The “aggrieved brethren” withdrew, and, for want of a church, held
public worship at a tavern where was the sign of a black horse, hence
were called “the Black Horse Church.” Their complaints preferred against
Mr. Bliss resulted in councils which drew in most of the churches of
Middlesex into their widening vortex. Yet he remained the honored pastor
of the town until his death. His daughter Phebe married the young William
Emerson, his successor; he was therefore Mr. Emerson’s great-grandfather.
[78] _Page 67, note 3._ Town Records.
[79] _Page 70, note 1._ Town Records.
[80] _Page 71, note 1._ Town Records.
[81] _Page 71, note 2._ The spirited protest of this County Convention,
presided over by Hon. James Prescott of Groton, is given in full in
Shattuck’s _History_, pp. 82-87.
[82] _Page 72, note 1._ General Gage, the Governor, having refused to
convene the General Court at Salem, the Provincial Congress of delegates
from the towns of Massachusetts was called by conventions of the various
counties to meet at Concord, October 11, 1774. The delegates assembled
in the meeting-house, and organized, with John Hancock as President, and
Benjamin Lincoln as Secretary. Called together to maintain the rights of
the people, this Congress assumed the government of the province, and by
its measures prepared the way for the Revolution.
[83] _Page 72, note 2._ This eloquent sermon to the volunteers of 1775,
still preserved in MS., is very interesting. The young minister shows
them the dignity of their calling, warns them of the besetting sins of
New England soldiery, explains to them the invasion of their rights and
that they are not rebels, tells them that he believes their fathers
foresaw the evil day and did all in their power to guard the infant state
from encroachments of unconstitutional power, and implores the sons to be
true to their duty to their posterity. He fully admits the utter gloom
of the prospect, humanly considered: would Heaven hold him innocent, he
would counsel submission, but as an honest man and servant of Heaven
he dare not do so, and with great spirit bids his injured countrymen
“Arise! and plead even with the sword, the firelock and the bayonet, the
birthright of Englishmen ... and if God does not help, it will be because
your sins testify against you, otherwise _you may be assured_.”
[84] _Page 74, note 1._ Journal, July, 1835. “It is affecting to see the
old man’s [Thaddeus Blood] memory taxed for facts occurring 60 years
ago at Concord fight. ‘It is hard to bring them up;’ he says, ‘the
truth never will be known.’ The Doctor [Ripley], like a keen hunter,
unrelenting, follows him up and down, barricading him with questions.
Yet cares little for the facts the man can tell, but much for the
confirmation of the printed History. ‘Leave me, leave me to repose.’”
Thaddeus Blood, who was only twenty years old at the time of Concord
fight, later became a schoolmaster, hence was always known as “Master
Blood.” He was one of the Concord company stationed at Hull, in 1776,
which took part in the capture of Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell and
his battalion of the 71st (Frazer) Highlanders as they sailed into
Boston Harbor, not being aware of the evacuation of the town. They
were confined at Concord until their exchange. See _Sir Archibald
Campbell of Inverneill, sometime Prisoner of War in the Jail at Concord,
Massachusetts_. By Charles H. Walcott, Boston, 1898.
[85] _Page 74, note 2._ In his poem in memory of his brother Edward,
written by the riverside near the battle-ground, Mr. Emerson alluded to
Yon stern headstone,
Which more of pride than pity gave
To mark the Briton’s friendless grave.
Yet it is a stately tomb;
The grand return
Of eve and morn,
The year’s fresh bloom,
The silver cloud,
Might grace the dust that is most proud.
[86] _Page 76, note 1._ Captain Miles commanded the Concord company that
joined the Northern Army at Ticonderoga in August, 1776, as part of
Colonel Reed’s regiment.
[87] _Page 77, note 1._ Judge John S. Keyes, who clearly remembers the
incidents of this celebration, seen from a boy’s coign of vantage, the
top of one of the inner doors of the church, tells me that the ten
aged survivors of the battle, who sat in front of the pulpit, bowed in
recognition of this compliment by the orator, and then the audience all
bowed to them. The sanctity of the church forbade in those days cheering
or applause even at a civic festival.
[88] _Page 77, note 2._ The following was Mr. Emerson’s note concerning
his authorities:—
“The importance which the skirmish at Concord Bridge derived from
subsequent events, has, of late years, attracted much notice to
the incidents of the day. There are, as might be expected, some
discrepancies in the different narratives of the fight. In the brief
summary in the text, I have relied mainly on the depositions taken by
order of the Provincial Congress within a few days after the action,
and on the other contemporary evidence. I have consulted the English
narrative in the Massachusetts Historical Collections, and in the trial
of Horne (_Cases adjudged in King’s Bench_; London, 1800, vol. ii., p.
677); the inscription made by order of the legislature of Massachusetts
on the two field-pieces presented to the Concord Artillery; Mr. Phinney’s
_History of the Battle at Lexington_; Dr. Ripley’s _History of Concord
Fight_; Mr. Shattuck’s narrative in his _History_, besides some oral
and some manuscript evidence of eye-witnesses. The following narrative,
written by Rev. William Emerson, a spectator of the action, has never
been published. A part of it has been in my possession for years: a part
of it I discovered, only a few days since, in a trunk of family papers:—
“‘1775, 19 April. This morning, between 1 and 2 o’clock, we
were alarmed by the ringing of the bell, and upon examination
found that the troops, to the number of 800, had stole their
march from Boston, in boats and barges, from the bottom of the
Common over to a point in Cambridge, near to Inman’s Farm,
and were at Lexington Meeting-house, half an hour before
sunrise, where they had fired upon a body of our men, and (as
we afterward heard) had killed several. This intelligence
was brought us at first by Dr. Samuel Prescott, who narrowly
escaped the guard that were sent before on horses, purposely
to prevent all posts and messengers from giving us timely
information. He, by the help of a very fleet horse, crossing
several walls and fences, arrived at Concord at the time above
mentioned; when several posts were immediately despatched,
that returning confirmed the account of the regulars’ arrival
at Lexington, and that they were on their way to Concord.
Upon this, a number of our minute-men belonging to this town,
and Acton, and Lyncoln, with several others that were in
readiness, marched out to meet them; while the alarm company
were preparing to receive them in the town. Captain Minot,
who commanded them, thought it proper to take possession of
the hill above the meeting-house, as the most advantageous
situation. No sooner had our men gained it, than we were met
by the companies that were sent out to meet the troops, who
informed us, that they were just upon us, and that we must
retreat, as their number was more than treble ours. We then
retreated from the hill near the Liberty Pole, and took a new
post back of the town upon an eminence, where we formed into
two battalions, and waited the arrival of the enemy. Scarcely
had we formed, before we saw the British troops at the distance
of a quarter of a mile, glittering in arms, advancing towards
us with the greatest celerity. Some were for making a stand,
notwithstanding the superiority of their number; but others
more prudent thought best to retreat till our strength should
be equal to the enemy’s by recruits from neighboring towns that
were continually coming in to our assistance. Accordingly we
retreated over the bridge, when the troops came into the town,
set fire to several carriages for the artillery, destroyed 60
bbls. flour, rifled several houses, took possession of the
town-house, destroyed 500 lb. of balls, set a guard of 100
men at the North Bridge, and sent up a party to the house of
Colonel Barrett, where they were in expectation of finding a
quantity of warlike stores. But these were happily secured,
just before their arrival, by transportation into the woods
and other by-places. In the mean time, the guard set by the
enemy to secure the pass at the North Bridge were alarmed by
the approach of our people, who had retreated, as mentioned
before, and were now advancing with special orders not to
fire upon the troops unless fired upon. These orders were so
punctually observed that we received the fire of the enemy in
three several and separate discharges of their pieces before
it was returned by our commanding officer; the firing then
soon became general for several minutes, in which skirmish two
were killed on each side, and several of the enemy wounded.
It may here be observed, by the way, that we were the more
cautious to prevent beginning a rupture with the King’s troops,
as we were then uncertain what had happened at Lexington, and
knew [not][A] that they had began the quarrel there by first
firing upon our people, and killing eight men upon the spot.
The three companies of troops soon quitted their post at the
bridge, and retreated in the greatest disorder and confusion to
the main body, who were soon upon the march to meet them. For
half an hour, the enemy, by their marches and counter-marches,
discovered great fickleness and inconstancy of mind, sometimes
advancing, sometimes returning to their former posts; till, at
length they quitted the town, and retreated by the way they
came. In the mean time, a party of our men (150) took the back
way through the Great Fields into the east quarter, and had
placed themselves to advantage, lying in ambush behind walls,
fences and buildings, ready to fire upon the enemy on their
retreat.’”
[89] _Page 78, note 1._ Fifty years after his death the town erected a
cenotaph to the memory of its brave young minister, whose body lies by
the shore of Otter Creek, near Rutland, Vermont. On it they wrote:—
“Enthusiastic, eloquent, affectionate and pious, he loved his family, his
people, his God and his Country, and to this last he yielded the cheerful
sacrifice of his life.”
[90] _Page 78, note 2._ Town Records, Dec. 1775.
[91] _Page 79, note 1._ These facts are recorded by Shattuck in his
_History_.
[92] _Page 79, note 2._ Bradford’s _History of Massachusetts_, vol. ii.,
p. 113.
[93] _Page 79, note 3._ Shattuck.
[94] _Page 80, note 1._ Town Records, May 3, 1782.
[95] _Page 81, note 1._ Town Records, Sept. 9, and Bradford’s _History_,
vol. i., p. 266.
[96] _Page 81, note 2._ The Rev. Grindall Reynolds, late pastor of
the First Church in Concord, wrote an interesting account of Shays’s
Rebellion, and various papers concerning his adopted town which are
included in his _Historical and Other Papers_, published by his daughter
in 1895.
[97] _Page 81, note 3._ Town Records, Oct. 21.
[98] _Page 82, note 1._ Town Records, May 7.
[99] _Page 82, note 2._ Town Records, 1834 and 1835. In 1903-4 the
town, with a population of about 5000, appropriated for public purposes
$65,752, the amount for school purposes being $28,000.
[100] _Page 82, note 3._ The Unitarian and the “Orthodox” (as the
Trinitarian Congregationalist society has always been called in Concord)
churches have for a century been good neighbors, and for many years have
held union meetings on Thanksgiving Day. At the time of Mr. Emerson’s
discourse it is doubtful if Concord contained a single Catholic or
Episcopalian believer. The beginning of the twentieth century finds
a larger body of Catholic worshippers than the four other societies
contain. Yet all live in charity with one another.
[101] _Page 83, note 1._ Mr. Emerson’s honored kinsman, Rev. Ezra Ripley,
who sat in the pulpit that day, was eighty-four years old, and when,
six years later, he died, he had been pastor of the Concord church for
sixty-three years.
[102] _Page 83, note 2._ Lemuel Shattuck, author of the excellent
_History of Concord_, which was published before the end of the year.
[103] _Page 85, note 1._ In Mr. Emerson’s lecturing excursions during the
following thirty-five years, he found with pleasure and pride the sons of
his Concord neighbors important men in the building up the prairie and
river towns, or the making and operating the great highways of emigration
and trade.