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Chapter X
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Among the encroachments of
the arbitrary power of the Mother Country, was the attempt to impose taxes upon
the Colonies without their consent. Those taxes were at first levied in
the form of duties; but the people objected to this incipient plan of raising a
revenue for the support of a government in which they had no action, and their
opposition eventuated in the establishment of their independence.
1765. This year an act was passed,
by the Parliament of England, called the Stamp Act; requiring the people of the
American colonies to employ papers stamped with the royal seal, in all
mercantile and legal transactions. This act called forth a general spirit
of opposition, particularly in Boston; where, on the night of the twenty-sixth
of August, a party of the people collected, and nearly demolished the house of
Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson, and several others. In
many other places the people manifested their displeasure, by tolling bells, and
burning the effigies of the stamp officers.
1766. This year the stamp act was repealed. The people
of Lynn manifested their joy by ringing the bell and making bonfires. On
the first of December, they directed their representative, Ebenezer
Burrill, Esquire, to use his endeavors to procure an act to compensate
Mr. Hutchinson, and others, for their losses in the riot of the
preceding year.
On Saturday, the eighth of
February, an English brig, from Hull, was cast away on Pond Beach, on the south
side of Nahant.
1768. On
the seventh of November, John Wellman and Young
Flint, were drowned in the Pines' river, and their bodies taken up the
next day.
A Catamount was killed by Joseph
Williams, in Lynn woods.
1769. A snow storm, on the eleventh of May, continued twelve
hours.
On Wednesday evening, July nineteenth, a
beautiful night arch appeared. It was widest in the zenith, and terminated
in a point, at each horizon. The color was a brilliant white, and it
continued most of the evening.
On the eighth of
August, as a party were going on board a schooner in the harbor, for a sail of
pleasure, the canoe, in which were six women and two men, was overset, and two
of the party drowned. These were Anna Hood, aged 23,
daughter of Benjamin Hood, and Alice Bassett,
aged 17, daughter of Daniel Bassett.
In a great snow storm on the eighth of
September, several buildings were blown down, and a sloop driven ashore at
Nahant.
1770. After the
repeal of the stamp act, the English Parliament, in 1767, passed an act imposing
duties on imported paper, glass, paints and tea. This again awakened the
opposition of the colonies. The General Court of Massachusetts, in 1768,
published a letter, expressing their firm loyalty to the king, yet their
unwillingness to submit to any acts of legislative oppression. This letter
displeased the English government, the General Court was dissolved, and seven
armed vessels, with soldiers, were sent from Halifax to Boston, to ensure
tranquillity. On the fifth of March, 1770, a part of these troops, being
assaulted by some of the people of Boston, fired upon them, and killed four men.
The soldiers were imprisoned, tried, and acquitted.
On the twelfth of April, the duties on paper,
glass, and paints, were repealed; but the duty on tea, which was three pence
on a pound, remained. On the twenty-fourth of May, the inhabitants of
Lynn held a meeting, in which they passed the following resolutions.
'1. Voted, We will do our endeavor to
discountenance the use of foreign tea.
'2.
Voted, No person to sustain any office of profit, that will not comply
with the above vote.
'3. Voted, No taverner
or retailer shall be returned to sessions, that will not assist in
discountenancing the use of said tea; and the selectmen to give it as a reason
to the sessions.
'4. Voted, unanimously, that
we will use our endeavors to promote our own manufactures amongst
us.'
The disaffection against the English
government, appears to have been occasioned, not so much by the amount of the
duty on the tea, as by the right which it implied in that government to tax the
people of America without their consent. The colonies had always admitted
their allegiance to the English crown; but as they had no voice in parliament,
it was ungenerous, if not unjust, in that parliament, to impose any taxes which
were not necessary for their immediate
benefit.
A great storm, on the nineteenth of
October, raised the tide higher than had been known for many years.
1771. On the ninth of
January, Mrs. Rebecca Hadley, wife of Mr. Thomas
Hadley, of Lynnfield, left her house to visit an acquaintance, and did
not return. On the twenty-sixth she was found, drowned in the stream above
the mill-pond, into which she probably fell, in attempting to cross
it.
1772. Mr.
Sparhawk, of Lynnfield, in his diary, thus remarks: 'An amazing
quantity of snow fell in the month of March, such as I never knew in the time
that I have lived.' On the fifth of March, the amount of snow which fell,
was 16 inches; on the ninth, 9 inches; on the eleventh, 8 inches; on
the thirteenth, 7 inches; on the sixteenth, 4 inches; and on the twentieth,
15 inches. Thus the whole amount of snow, in sixteen days, was nearly five
feet on a level.
A fishing schooner was
wrecked on Long Beach, on the twenty-first of March, and Jonathan
Collins and William Boynton, the only two men on
board, were drowned.
On the fifteenth of May,
Abigail Rhodes, a daughter of Mr. Eleazer
Rhodes, was lost. On the twenty-fourth, a great number of people
went in search of her, in vain. On the second of June, another general search
was made; and on the twenty-first of July, her bones were found in a swamp near
the Pirates' Glen. There were strong
suspicions of unfairness in
regard to her death. She left a house in Boston street, in the evening, to
return to a cottage in the forest, where she had been living, and was seen no
more alive. Several persons were apprehened on suspicion, but as only
circumstantial evidence was elicited, they were discharged.
1773. The opposition to the
duty on tea continued unremitted. The East India Company sent many cargoes
to America, offering to sell it at a reduced price; but the people resolved that
it should not be landed. Seventeen men, dressed like Indians, went on
board the vessels in Boston harbor, broke open 342 chests of tea, and poured
their contents into the water.
A town meeting was
held at Lynn, on the sixteenth of December, in which the following resolutions
were passed:
'1. That the people of the
British American Colonies, by their constitution of government, have a right to
freedom, and an exemption from every degree of oppression and slavery.
'2. That it is an essential right of freemen
to have the disposal of their own property, and not to be taxed by any power
over which they have no control.
'3. That the
parliamentary duty laid upon tea landed in America, is, in fact, a tax upon
Americans, without their consent.
'4. That
the late act of parliament, allowing the East India Company to send their tea to
America, on their own account, was artfully framed, for the purpose of enforcing
and carrying into effect the oppressive act of parliament imposing a duty upon
teas imported into America; and is a fresh proof of the settled and determined
designs of the ministers to deprive us of liberty, and reduce us to slavery.
'5. That we highly disapprove of the landing
and selling of such teas in America, and will not suffer any teas, subjected to
a parliamentary duty, to be landed or sold in this town: and that we stand ready
to assist our brethren of Boston, or elsewhere, whenever our aid shall be
required, in repelling all attempts to land or sell any teas poisoned with a
duty.'
The tea fever raged very high at this time,
especially among the ladies. A report having been put in circulation
through the town, that Mr. James Bowler, who had a bake-house
and a little shop, on Water Hill, had a quantity of tea in store, a company of
women went to his house, demanded the tea, and destroyed it. This exploit
was certainly as great a piece of patriotism on their part, as that performed in
Boston harbor the same year, and deserves to be sung in strains of
immortality. Slander, however, who is always busy in detracting from real
merit, asserted that the women put on extra pockets on that memorable night,
which they filled with the fragrant leaf, for their own private consumption.
A deer was this year started in the Malden woods,
and chased by some hunters, through Chelsea, to the Lynn marsh.
He plunged into the Saugus river, and attempted to gain the opposite
shore; but some Lynn people, coming down the river in a boat, approached and
throwing a rope over his horns, brought him ashore at High Point.
1774. The destruction of the
tea at Boston, gave great offence to the English government, and an act was
passed, by which the harbor of Boston was closed against the entrance or
departure of any vessels. The inhabitants of Lynn held several meetings,
in which they expressed their disapprobation of the shutting of the port of
Boston, and their abhorrence of every species of tyranny and oppression.
On the seventh of October, a congress of delegates
from the several towns of Massachusetts, assembled at Salem, to consider the
state of affairs. The delegates from Lynn were Ebenezer
Burrill, Esq., and Capt. John Mansfield. They
made addresses to Governor Gage, and to the clergy of the
province, chose a committee of safety, and recommended measures for the
regulation of the public conduct.
The night of
October 25th was one of surpassing splendor. The northern lights cast a
luminous night arch across the heavens, from the eastern to the western
horizon.
1775. On the morning
of Wednesday, the ninteenth of April, the inhabitants of Lynn were awakened, by
the information that a detachment of about eight hundred troops, had left
Boston, in the night, and were proceeding toward Concord. On receiving the
intelligence that the troops had left Boston, many of the inhabtants of Lynn
immediately set out, without waiting to be organized, and with such weapons as
they could most readily procure. One man, with whom I was acquainted, had
no other equipments than a long fowling-piece, without a bayonet, a horn of
powder, and a seal-skin pouch, filled with bullets and buck shot. The
English troops arrived at Lexington, a little before five in the morning, where
they fired upon the inhabitants, assembled in arms before the meeting-house, and
killed eight men. They then proceeded to Concord, where they destroyed
some military stores; but being opposed by the militia, they soon began to
retreat. The people from Lynn met them at Lexington, on their return, and
joined in firing at them from the walls and fences. In one instance, says
my informant, an English soldier coming out of a house, was met by the owner.
They leveled their pieces at each other, and firing at the same instant,
both fell dead. The English had sixty-five men killed, the Americans
fifty. Among these were four men from Lynn, who fell in Lexington.
1. Mr. Abednego
Ramsdell. He was a son of Noah Ramsdell, and was
born 11 September, 1750. He had two brothers, older than himself, whose
names were Shadrach and Meshech. He
married Hannah Woodbury, 11 March, 1774, and resided in the
eastern part of Essex street. He had gone out early on that morning to the
sea shore, with his gun, and had killed a couple of black ducks, and was
returning with them, when he heard the alarm. He immediately threw down
the birds, and set off. He was seen passing through the town, running in
haste, with his stockings fallen over his shoes. He arrived at Lexington
about the middle of the day, and fell immediately.
2. Mr. William Flint. He married Sarah
Larrabee, 5 June, 1770.
3. Mr.
Thomas Hadley. His wife, Rebecca, was
drowned, as mentioned in 1771.
4.
Mr. Daniel Townsend. He was born 26 December,
1738. A stone has been erected to his memory, at Lynnfield, with the
following inscription.
'Lie, valiant
Townsend, in the peaceful shades; we trust,
Immortal honors
mingle with thy dust.
What though thy body struggled in its gore?
So did thy Saviour's
body, long before;
And as he raised his own, by power divine,
So the same power
shall also quicken thine,
And in eternal glory
mayst thou shine.
In the number of the wounded was
Timothy Munroe, of Lynn. He was standing behind a house,
with Daniel Townsend, firing at the British troops, as they
were coming down the road, in their retreat toward Boston.
Townsend had just fired, and exclaimed, 'There is another
redcoat down,' when Munroe, looking round, saw, to his
astonishment, that they were completely hemmed in by the flank guard of the
British army, who were coming down through the fields behind them. They
immediately ran into the house, and sought for the cellar; but no cellar was
there. They looked for a closet, but there was none. All this time,
which was indeed but a moment, the balls were pouring through the back windows,
making havoc of the glass. Townsend leaped through the
end window, carrying the sash and all with him, and instantly fell dead.
Munroe followed, and ran for his life. He passed for a
long distance between both parties, many of whom discharged their guns at him.
As he passed the last soldier, who stopped to fire, he heard the redcoat
exclaim, 'Damn the Yankee! he is bullet proof - let him go!' Mr.
Munroe had one ball through his leg, and thirtytwo bullet holes through
his clothes and hat. Even the metal buttons of his waistcoat were shot
off. He kept his clothes until he was tired of showing them, and died in
1808, aged 72 years. Mr. Joshua Felt was also wounded,
and Josiah Breed was taken prisoner, but afterward
released.
The war was now begun in
earnest. On the 23d of April, the people of Lynn chose a committee of
safety, to consult measures of defense. This committee consisted of
Rev. John Treadwell, minister of the first parish, Rev.
Joseph Roby, minister of the third parish, and Deacon Daniel
Mansfield. A company of alarm men was organized, under the
command of Lieutenant Harris Chadwell. Three watches were
stationed each night; one at Sagamore Hill, one at the south end of Shepard
street, and one at Newhall's Landing, on Saugus river. No person was
allowed to go out of the town without permission, and the people carried their
arms to the place of public worship. Mr. Treadwell,
always foremost in patriotic proceedings, appeared, on the Sabbath, with his
cartridge box under one arm, and his sermon under the other, and went into the
pulpit with his musket loaded.
On the
seventeenth of June, was fought the memorable battle of Bunker Hill. The
Lynn regiment was commanded by Colonel John Mansfield.
The English, in the battle, lost two hundred and twenty-six men killed, and the
Americans one hundred and thirty-nine.
Mr.
John Lewis died this year, aged ninety-two. He lived
on the place of his ancestors, in Boston street, and was for many years a
deacon of the first parish. He owned the second tannery in Lynn, which was
on the brook opposite his house. He was a gentleman extensively beloved
and respected. He married Mary Burrill in 1715, and had
five children. 1. Lydia, who married Rev.
Nathaniel Henchman, in 1734. 2. Sarah. 3.
Mary, who married Rev. John Carnes, in
1747. Lois. 5. John, who was born
7 November, 1724; graduated at Harvard University in 1744; practised medicine;
and died 21 October, 1754.
For many years the tavern
in Saugus was kept by Zaccheus Norwood, and after his death, by
his widow, who married Josiah Martin, who then became landlord,
as tavern keepers were then called. In 1775, he enlisted in the war, and
Mr. Jacob Newhall then took the tavern, which he kept through
the Revolution, and until the year 1807. He died in 1816. He was a
man very highly esteemed, and his house was considered the best, as it had
always been the most noted, in Essex county.
1776. In January, the English troops were quartered at Boston,
and the American at Cambridge, separated by Charles river. It was the
intention of General Putnam to cross over to Boston, as soon as
the river should become sufficiently frozen. Three of his soldiers, one of
whom was Henry Hallowell, of Lynn, hearing of this design, set
out to try the strength of the ice, by throwing a large stone before them.
A party of about fifty of the English soldiers, on the opposite shore, commenced
firing at them; which they only regarded by mocking with their voices the noise
of the bullets. They continued on the ice till the English party retired;
when, thinking they had gone to procure a cannon, they returned, after picking
up more than seventy balls on the ice, which they presented to General
Putnam, as trophies of their venturesome exploit. The soldiers from
Lynn were under command of Capt. Ezra Newhall.
On the twenty-first of May, the people of Lynn
voted, that the ministers should be invited to attend the annual town meetings,
to begin them with prayer. I was once at the meeting of a town in New
Hampshire, in which this practice prevails, and was convinced of its
propriety. There are occasions on which prayer is made, which are of less
apparent importance than the choice of men, to govern the town or commonwealth,
and to make laws on which the welfare and perhaps the lives of the people may
depend.
A company of soldiers was furnished for an
expedition to Canada. On the 2d of August, the town allowed them fifteen
pounds each, and voted that ten pounds should be given to any person who would
voluntarily enlist.
An alarm was made, at midnight,
that some of the English troops had landed on King's beach. In a short
time the town was all in commotion. Many persons left their houses
and fled into the woods. Some families threw their plate into the wells,
and several sick persons were removed. Some self possession, however, was
manifested. Mr. Frederick Breed, for his exertions in rallying
the soldiers and marching them to Wood End, where he found the alarm to be
false, received a commission in the army, and afterward rose to the rank of
Colonel.
1777.
Rev. Benjamin Adams was born at Newbury, in the year 1719, and
graduated at Harvard University, in 1738. He was ordained minister of the
second parish, now Lynnfield, November 5, 1755, and died May 4, 1777, aged 58,
having preached 21 years. He married Rebecca Nichols, and
had seven children; Rebecca, Dr. Benjamin, Elizabeth, Sarah, Ann, Joseph
and Nathan, (twins.)
In the winter of this year, John Lewis, aged 26, and
Benjamin, aged 15, brothers, of Lynn, died on board the Jersey
prison ship, in the harbor of New York. Their deaths were principally
occasioned by severe treatment, and by unwholesome food prepared in copper
vessels.
1780. The town of
Lynn granted as much money as would purchase twenty-seven hundred silver
dollars, to pay the soldiers. Within two years, the town granted seventy
thousand pounds, old tenor, to defray their expenses. The principal money
in circulation was the paper money issued by Congress, which had greatly
depreciated. A soldier of the Revolution says, that, in 1781, he sold seventeen
hundred and eighty dollars of paper money, for thirty dollars in silver.
The continental currency, as it was called,
consisted of small pieces of paper, about two inches square. The one
dollar bills had an altar, with the words, depressa resurgit, the
oppressed rises. The two dollar bills bore a hand, making a circle with
compasses, with the motto, tribulatio dital, trouble enriches.
The device of the three dollar bills was an eagle pouncing upon a crane,
who was biting the eagle's neck, with the motto, exitus in dubio, the
event is doubtful. On the five dollar bills was a hand grasping a thorn
bush with the inscription, sustine vel abstine, hold fast or touch not.
The six dollar bills represented a beaver felling a tree, with the word
perseverando, by perseverance we prosper. Another emission bore
an anchore, with the words, In te Domine speramus, In thee, Lord, have
I trusted. The eight dollar bills, displayed a harp, with the motto,
majora minoribus consonant, the great harmonize with the little.
The thirty dollar bills exhibited a wreath on an altar, with the legend, si
recte, facies, if you do right you will succeed. When I was
a child, I had thousands of dollars of this uncurrent money given me to play
with.
The 19th of May was remarkable throughout New
England for its uncommon darkness. It began about the hour of ten in the
morning. At eleven, the darkness was so great, that the fowls retired to
their roosts, and the cattle collected around the barns, as at night.
Before twelve, candles became requisite, and many of the people of Lynn
omitted their dinners, thinking that the day of judgment had come. The
darkness increased through the evening, and continued till midnight.
It was supposed by some, to have been occasioned by a smoke, arising from
extensive fires in the western woods, and combining with a thick fog from the
sea. The Rev. Mather Byles, of Boston, of punning memory,
made a happy remark on this occasion. A lady sent her servant, in great
alarm, to know if he could tell the cause of this great darkness. 'Tell your
mistress,' replied he, 'that I am as much in the dark as she
is.'
The winter of 1780 was the coldest since
1741.
At the commencement of the war, there
were twenty-six slaves in Lynn; all of whom were made free this year. In
1675, there was a slave in Lynn, named Domingo Wight, who had a
wife and two children. Another slave, in 1714, named Simon
Africanus, had a wife and six children. Zaccheus
Collins had four slaves, whose names were Pharaoh, Essex,
Prince, and Cato. Prince was
purchased at Boston, in 1746, for seventy-five dollars. In 1757, he
married Venus, a slave to Zaccheus Gould.
Joshua Cheever had a slave named Gift,
whom he freed in 1756, at the solicitation of Hannah Perkins,
who became his wife in 1745, on condition that he should free his slave at the
age of twenty-five years. John Bassett had a slave, named
Samson, whom he liberated in 1776, because 'all nations were
made of one blood.' Thomas Cheever had two slaves,
Reading and Jane, who were married in
1760. Samuel Johnson had two slaves,
Adam, who married Dinah, in 1766.
Thomas Mansfield had two slaves, one of whom, named
Pompey, had been a prince in Africa; and, after his liberation,
lived in the forest on the east of Saugus river. For many years, the
slaves in all the neighboring towns used to have a holiday allowed them once a
year, to visit King Pompey; and doubtless this was to them a
day of real happiness. On the little glade by the river side, the maidens
gathered flowers to crown their old king, and the men talked of the happy hours
they had known on the banks of the Gambia. Hannibal, a
slave of John Lewis, was an example of the good effects which
education and good treatment may produce in the colored people. He was
brought from Africa when a boy, and was treated rather as a servant than a
slave. He married Phebe, a slave of Ebenezer
Hawkes. By the indulgence of his master, and by working extra
hours, he earned enough to purchase the freedom of three children, at forty
dollars each; but Phebe being a faithful slave, her master
would not part with her short of forty pounds; yet, with a motive of hope before
him, Hannibal was not to be discouraged, and in a few years her
purchase was accomplished, and his own freedom was given to him. He
married in 1762, and had three sons and six daughters. I have seldom known
a more worthy family. Ebenezer Burrill had two slaves;
Jedediah Collins, two; Joseph Gould, two; and
James Phillips, Samuel Burrill, Theophilus Burrill, Joseph Gaskins,
Daniel Bassett, James Purinton, Ralph Lindsey, and Dr. Henry
Burchsted, one slave each; being in all, with their children, about
forty slaves.
Rev. Joseph Mottey
was ordained minister of the Lynnfield parish on the 24th of September.
On the 29th of November there was an earthquake.
Dr. John Perkins, of Lynnfield,
died this year aged 85. His wife Clarissa died in 1749,
and he wrote a poem on her death. He was a very eminent physician in his
time, had studied two years in London, and practised physic forty years in
Boston. In 1755, he published a tract on earthquakes; and also an essay on
the small pox, in the London Magazine. He left a manuscript of 368 pages,
containing an account of his life and experience, which is preserved in the
library of the American Antiquarian
Society.
1782.
Rev. John Treadwell relinquished the care of the first
parish this year. He was born at Ipswich, September 20, 1738; and was
ordained at Lynn, March 2, 1763, where he preached nineteen years. He
returned to Ipswich, and in 1787, removed to Salem. He was representative
of Ipswich and Salem, a senator of Essex county, and judge of the court of
common pleas. In 1763, he married Mehetabel Dexter, a
descendant of Thomas Dexter, who bought Nahant. He had a
son, John Dexter Treadwell, born at Lynn, May 29, 1768, who
became a highly respected physician at Salem.
Mr. Treadwell was a great patriot, a member of the committee of
safety, and foremost in all the proceedings of the town during the
Revolution. It is perhaps somewhat of an anomaly in ethics, to find a
minister of the gospel of peace bearing arms; but the British were obnoxious to
dissenters, from an opinion that they wished to establish the church in America.
There has always been a prejudice in New England against the Episcopal
Church, but there is abundant evidence that a man may be a good churchman and
yet a true patriot. Washington and several other
Presidents were members of the church and some of our most distinguished
military and naval heroes have been churchmen.
Mr. Treadwell was very fond of indulging in sallies of wit: and
like his namesake in Shakspeare, he was not only witty in himself, but the cause
of wit in other men. One Sunday, observing that many of his audience had
their heads in a reclining posture, he paused in his sermon, and exclaimed, 'I
should guess that as many as two thirds of you are asleep!' Mr.
Josiah Martin, raising his head, looked round and replied, 'If
I were to guess, I should guess there are not more than one half!' The
next day Mr. Martin was brought up for disturbing divine
service; but he contended 'it was not the time of divine service; the minister
had ceased to preach, and it was guessing time.' He was accordingly
discharged.
Dr. Jonathan
Norwood was a son of Zaccheus Norwood, born September
19, 1751, and graduated at Harvard University, in 1771. He lived on the
north side of the Common. His death was occasioned by falling from his horse, on
the night of the 18th of March.
1783. This year, the war, which had spread its gloom through
the colonies for seven years, was terminated by a treaty of peace, signed on the
third of September; and the then thirteen United States took their rank as
an independent nation. The red cross banner of England was exchanged for a
flag with thirteen stripes and thirteen stars; and Americans now regard the
people of England, like the rest of mankind - in war, enemies; in peace,
friends.
With a few remarks respecting men and
manners before the Revolution, we will take our leave of the olden time.
People were then generally a plain, plodding, go-a-foot, matter-of-fact, sort of
people. Rail-roads and steam boats had not even been thought of; the
stage-coach and the omnibus were unknown; and when something which was intended
to answer the purpose of a coach at last appeared, it was a lumbering vehicle,
drawn by two horses, passing through the town twice a week, in going to and
returning from Boston. A few of the more wealthy farmers kept a
chaise, or a chair, which was only 'tackled' on Sundays, or perhaps once a month
for a journey to a neighboring town. People walked, without thinking it a
trouble, from three to six miles on Sunday to meeting; the farmer rode on
horseback, taking his wife behind him; and two or three spinsters of the family,
or perhaps a young wife, followed in chairs placed in a horse-cart - for a
four-wheeled wagon was unknown in the town for more than one hundred and forty
years after its settlement; and when Mr. Benjamin Newhall,
about the year 1770, introduced the first ox wagon, it was humorously said, that
his hired man had to drive down to the Common to turn it. The physician
made his visits on horseback, with his big saddle-bags on each side, stuffed
with medicaments -for an apothecary's shop was as rare as an opera house.
There were no lectures, or lyceums, or libraries, or concerts in those days;
there were few excitements, for people had not leisure to promote them; a
reputation could not then be destroyed, as now, in a day, for they lived too
remote for common slander - but when the spirit of invective and evil, which had
been confined for sixty years, did at length break forth, as in the time of
witchcraft, it was as if a mountain lake should suddenly burst its cerements of
porphyry, uprooting the finest trees, and bearing boulders of granite through
the cultivated valleys.
Gentlemen, in those
days, wore hats with broad brims, turned up into three corners, with loops at
the sides; long coats, with large pocket folds and cuffs, and without
collars. The buttons were commonly plated, but sometimes of silver, often
as large as half a dollar. Shirts had bosoms and wrist ruffles; and all
wore gold or silver shirt buttons at the wrist, united by a link. The
waistcoat was long, with large pockets; and the neckcloth or scarf, of fine
white linen, or figured stuff, broidered, and the ends hanging loosely on the
breast. The breeches were usually close, with silver buckles at the
knees. The legs were covered with long gray stockings, which on holidays
were exchanged for black or white silk. Boots, with broad white tops; or
shoes, with straps and large silver buckles, completed the equipment.
Ladies wore caps, long stiff stays, and high heeled
shoes. Their bonnets were of silk or satin, and usually black. Gowns
were extremely long-waisted, with tight sleeves. Another fashion was, very
short sleeves, with an immense frill at the elbow, leaving the rest of the arm
naked. A large flexible hoop, three or four feet in diameter, was for some
time quilted into the hem of the gown, making an immense display of the lower
person. A long, round cushion, stuffed with cotton or hair, and covered
with black crape, was laid across the head, over which the hair was combed back
and fastened. It was almost the universal custom, also, for women to
wear gold beads - thirty-nine little hollow globes, about the size of a pea,
strung on a thread, and tied round the neck. Sometimes this string would
prove false to its trust - at an assembly, perhaps - and then, oh! such a time
to gather them up, before they should be trampled on and ruined! Working
women wore petticoats and half gowns, drawn with a cord round the waist, and
neats' leather shoes; though they generally throughout the country had a pair of
'Lynn shoes' for Sunday. Women did not 'go a-shopping' every day then;
there were few shops to go to, and those contained only such articles as were
indispensable, and in very limited variety.
Those
times had their benefits, but we would not wish their return. Nature
brings not back the mastodon; why, then, should we wish a recurrence of those
gigantic days, which produced great men in proportion to great evils. That
the men were more honest and generous, or the women more amiable and virtuous
then, is not to be contended. The charm about them consists chiefly in
this, that they lived in the early period of our history - a period which will
always be interesting - the records of which will be read with as much avidity a
thousand years hence, as they are to-day.
Lynn had
168 men in the Revolutionary War, of whom fifty-two were lost, besides the four
men killed at Lexington.
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