Early Journal Content on JSTOR, Free to Anyone in the World
This article is one of nearly 500,000 scholarly works digitized and made freely available to everyone in
the world by JSTOR.
Known as the Early Journal Content, this set of works include research articles, news, letters, and other
writings published in more than 200 of the oldest leading academic journals. The works date from the
mid-seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries.
We encourage people to read and share the Early Journal Content openly and to tell others that this
resource exists. People may post this content online or redistribute in any way for non-commercial
purposes.
Read more about Early Journal Content at http://about.istor.org/participate-istor/individuals/early-
journal-content .
JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary source objects. JSTOR helps people
discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content through a powerful research and teaching
platform, and preserves this content for future generations. JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit
organization that also includes Ithaka S+R and Portico. For more information about JSTOR, please
contact support@jstor.org.
106 MASSACHUSETTS HISTOEICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
MARCH MEETING, 1883.
The regular meeting was held in the Society's rooms,
on Thursday afternoon, March 8,, the President, the Hon.
Robert C. Wintheop, in the chair.
The record of the last meeting was read and approved.
The Librarian read a list of the donors to the Library dur-
ing the last month. The Cabinet-keeper stated the gifts to
the Cabinet.
The Corresponding Secretary reported that Captain G. V.
Fox, of Washington, D. C, had accepted his election as a
Corresponding Member.
The President, in announcing the deaths of two Resident
Members of the Society, Dr. Chadbourne and Mr. Thayer,
spoke as follows : —
We can hardly claim, Gentlemen, any primary or principal
part in the loss which has been sustained by our Common-
wealth and country, since our last meeting, in the death of
the Hon. Paul A. Chadbourne. Elected one of our Resident
Members as recently as June, 1880, his name has been on our
roll for less than three years; and I believe that we have only
once enjoyed the satisfaction of welcoming him personally at
our meetings.
But we are not the less sensible, on that account, how
important a life has been prematurely closed, and how varied
and valuable have been his services to his fellow-men. With
no early advantages of family, fortune, or education, he had
earned a reputation for ability, energy, and learning, which
cannot soon be forgotten.
To have been selected as the successor of the accomplished
and venerable Mark Hopkins, as President of Williams Col-
lege, would alone have been a distinction of no common char-
acter. But his service in that sphere, for nearly ten years,
was only one of his many kindred services in the cause of edu-
cation, science, and religion. His name is associated also with
Madison University in Wisconsin, with Bowdoin College in
his native State of Maine, and with the Massachusetts Agri-
cultural College at Amherst, of which he was the President
at his death. The honorary degrees both of Doctor of Laws
and of Doctor of Divinity had been conferred upon him by
1883.] DEATHS OF DB. CHADBOURNE AND MB. THAYEB. 107
these or other institutions, while a service of two or three
years in our State Senate had entitled him to the secular pre-
fix by which he is designated on our roll.
He died in New York, after a short illness, on the 23d of
February last, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, leaving a deep
sense of an unfinished career, from which much valuable fruit
might still have been confidently expected.
But death has come nearer home to us. Gentlemen, in the
departure of our Associate Member, Mr. Nathaniel Thayer,
who died yesterday morning, at his residence in this city, in
the seventy-fifth year of his age.
The son of one of the most distinguished Congregational
clergymen of Massachusetts, and the younger brother and
heir of one of the most eminent and successful bankers of our
city, Mr. Thayer had long ago established his own individual
title to be counted among the great financiers and benefactors
of Boston.
For many years a member of the corporation of Harvard
University, he was the founder of one of its most spacious
and costly halls, which will bear down his name, with those
of his father and brother, to a grateful posterity, and which
is only one of his numerous benefactions to that institution.
A close and constant friend of the late beloved Louis
Agassiz, he nobly volunteered to assume the whole expense
of his most interesting and important scientific expedition to
Brazil.
More recently, in connection with our late valued associate,
Dr. Chandler Robbins, he was one of the foremost founders
and supporters of that Children's Hospital which has at
length obtained a permanent home, and of which he was the
President when he died.
But these constitute but a small part of his contributions
to the public welfare and to personal want ; and I should be
in danger of doing injustice to his memory by any attempt,
on this occasion, to recall and enumerate the varied objects of
his bounty. The details of such a career must be left for the
formal memoir, for which it is our custom to provide.
Meantime his personal life and character have been known
to us all, and we can all bear witness to the virtues and excel-
lences which we have witnessed. Shut off for many months
from the occupations of business and from the intercourse of
friends by serious and exhausting illness, he bore his infirmi-
ties and sufferings with a brave and patient spirit, and awaited
that change which he and all around him had long antici-
108 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
pated, but which came at last so suddenly, with a Christian's
hope and faith in a blessed hereafter.
I am instructed by the Council to submit the following
Resolutions : —
Resolved^ That the Massachusetts Historical Society have
heard with deep regret of the deaths of their distinguished
and respected associates, Hon. Paul Ansel Chadbourne and
Nathaniel Thayer, Esq., and that memoirs of them be pre-
pared for some future volume of our Proceedings.
Resolved^ That the memoir of Mr. Thayer be committed to
Dr. George E. Ellis, and that of Dr. Chadbourne to Professor
Egbert C. Smyth.
Dr. George E. Ellis, in seconding the first Resolution,
said : —
It is with reason that this Society bears on its charter list,
of one hundred members, the names of men known and hon-
ored among us for other services than those of chroniclers of
past times or events, or of any form of authorship except that
of good deeds. Such were among its founders nearly a cen-
tury ago. Such have ever since been on its roll, as they are
to-day. The Society lives by and lives for all the means and
agents that foster intelligence, prosperity, patriotism, and all
benevolent objects in this community. It gladly welcomes
selected associates worthy and conspicuous in the manifold
forms of high service for passing years or for all time to come.
Those who write history, and those who do what will enter
into history, need not weigh together their respective claims
to membership. Among those who have sat in these halls,
we recall the names of such as Perkins, Coolidge, Gardner,
Welles, Tudor, Lawrence, Sears, Brooks, Mason, E. B. Bige-
low, and others, whose works, other than those of research or
chronicling of the past, none the less are historical, because
of extended and permanent good.
Mr. Thayer had been a member of this Society for nine-
teen years. He certainly was not a familiar presence at our
monthly meetings, but he kept himself well informed of our
proceedings. In rare intervals of leisure from engrossing
business cares of his own and of others, there were no vol-
umes of which he so much enjoyed the perusal as those which
go from these halls. Had he had time or taste for the use of
his pen in narrative or history, he might have drawn from his
own ledgers and letter-books a relation of the most authentic
1883,] DEATH OF MR. THAYER. 109
and extraordinary character of his own agency in the marvel-
lous development of intercommunication and traffic in the
middle and western sections of this country. Hazardous and
anxious contingencies came in with some of the complications
and fluctuations of these enterprises, but large success for
himself and for others crowned the results.
The best part of the record of every man's life is that of
what he has done for others. Our community has been
trained to stand in inquisition by the side of Death, which is
the great Probate Judge, as it takes the keys and searches the
safe and the pockets of every deceased rich man, to find out
what he has given away, and to whom. Mr. Thayer antici-
pated that inquisition. As soon as he realized the possession
of very large means, he once said to me in words so strong and
simple that they struck into my memory, "A power of money
has come to me. If it is to make me happy, it will be by en-
abling me to do good with it." The good he did with it was
most varied and comprehensive in object and method. It had
the largeness of the ocean in its patronage of the interests of
the highest sciences, and it ran into every stream and little
rill which feeds great charities or helps and cheers private
and unknown beneficiaries. A costly scientific expedition, a
munificently planned herbarium, a noble college hall, a stu-
dents' refectory, a town library building, a whole ward of free
beds in more than one hospital, signalize a list of donations
from which probably not a single one of all our ingeniously
special benedictive and benevolent agencies is omitted. Many
who during his long debility were uncertain whether he still
survived, were assured of the fact by the recognition of his
generous response to some of the most recent appeals. The
papers of the day which announced his decease found his
name and gift on the last of them. He would wish the
privacies of his large kindness to remain so.
No tribute to Mr. Thayer, however brief or inadequate,
may omit connecting him with the beautiful Nashua valley
town of Lancaster, and with the grateful and affectionate
regard of all who dwell there. It was his birtliplace, the
scene of a happy boyhood, held by him to be his real home,
for active work, rest, hospitality, and enjoyment for a great
part of each year. Highways, farms, church, library, burial-
ground, are all of them memorials of him. Filial veneration
for his father, so long the pastor of the whole town, was the
root of the bond which bound him there. The people in it
who Avere old when he was young, and their children and
children's children, growing on with his own years, seemed to
110 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
him alike his father's parishioners. The farmers would come
to the walls and fences of the fields as he was driving by over
the old roads, welcoming his cheerful and kindly interest in
their work and crops. The Boston banker always appeared
at his best as the Lancaster farmer.
The Rev. Dr. Peabody then spoke as follows : —
Mr. President, — I cannot suffer the resolution before you
to pass without paying my hearty, if inadequate, tribute to
my dear friend, Mr. Thayer. I have never known a man who
more truly lived to do good. He coined his own happiness
from the happiness that he diffused. He seemed to assimilate
into the substance of bis own joy all the joy he gave. Simple
in his tastes and habits, he sought and prized wealth, that
as employer, host, citizen, private and public benefactor, he
might make the most generous and liberal investments in
whatever could contribute to comfort, enjoyment, and well-
being, whether among those near him, or among those, how-
ever remote, whom his kindness could reach. I was his
almoner in one of the many fields of his generous cave. I
furnished, at his no small cost, the dining hall, built almost
wholly at his charge nearly twenty years ago, designed to
board at the lowest possible rate such students of Harvard
College as could afford to pay no more. For twenty-one years
of active service in the college faculty, I gave in his behalf
whatever I saw fit to needy students, the only conditions
being that I should not use his name, and that I should never
leave a deserving applicant unaided. The subsidies thus be-
stowed amounted to many more thousands of dollars than the
years for which I was his agent in bestowing them. At the
same time there were always in college, students — sons of
clergymen with small salaries, of widows, of Lancaster men
— whom he supported entirely and with the most liberal pro-
vision. L\ his native town it is impossible to say in what
conceivable form his beneficence has not been felt alike in its
public institutions and in every home where there has been
want or distress. There are few persons in the town iu need
of counsel, sympathy, or aid, who have not ample reason to
bless his memory, and there can hardly be a man, woman, or
child within its borders who is not to-day a sincere mourner.
From what has incidentally come to my knowledge during
my long intimacy with him, I am led to regard his public
benefactions as but a small part of his charity. Far-off kin-
dred, when in necessity or tribulation, have been counted by
1883.] DEATH OF MR. THAYER. Ill
him as near relatives, and those of them who in their pros-
perity hardly knew him, have in their adversity been sought
out by him, and had his most assiduous ministries of mercy.
There have been constantly those who could on no pretext
whatever have laid claim to his bounty, whom he has relieved
as soon as he knew them to be impoverished or straitened. I
have made so many discoveries of this sort without any clew
from him, that I have come to consider it as hard to conceal
good deeds meant to be done in secret as it is to smother fire
with linen garments. He had ever the profound feeling that
his wealth was a stewardship for the service of God by serv-
ing man, and his aim was not to prepare for an account in
the far-off future, but day by day to render an account
worthy to be entered in the book of eternal remembrance.
With the munificence which has given him a justly hon-
ored name in our whole community, and far beyond it, we
who have known him cherish equally the memory of the
quiet, modest virtues, the gentle, lovely, winning traits of
character which made him unspeakably dear in the nearer
circles of kindred and friendship, and of the Christian faith
and principle which governed his active life, sustained him
in infirmity and suffering, and poured the light of the eternal
day on the death-shadow as it gathered over him.
The following letter was received from the Rev. Dr.
Lothrop: —
12 Chestnut Street, March 8, 1883.
My dear Mr. Winthrop, — I am exceedingly sorry not to be
at the meeting of the Historical Society this afternoon, for as Mr.
Thayer's death will be noticed, I should be glad to embrace the oppor-
tunity of saying a few words about one whom I have known for nearly
sixty-five years, whose memory will ever be pleasant to me, as to
many others, and whose life and character I hold in reverence, honor,
and gratitude ; but I feel that my first duty to-day is to be at my post
as a member of the Standing Committee of the Massachusetts Society
of the Cincinnati, when at our dinner and adjourned meeting this
afternoon some important matters connected with our Centennial,
which occurs in May, 1883, may come up for conversation and dis-
cussion, and perhaps action. So please hold me excused.
Ever faithfully yours,
S. K. Lothrop.
Hon. R. C. Winthrop,
President of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
The Resolutions were then unanimously adopted.
112 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
The following committees were appointed in view of the
approaching annual meeting : To nominate officers for the
ensuing year, Messrs. Lodge, A. T. Perkins, and Chase ; to
audit the Treasurer's account, Messrs. Cobb, Abbott Law-
rence, and Lyman.
Signor Cornelio Desimoni, Vice-President of the Histori-
cal Society at Genoa, Italy, was elected a Corresponding
Member of the Society.
The Rev. Dr. Paige, in presenting to the Society a copy
of his " History of Hard wick,'* said : —
Mr. President, — It may be remembered by some of the
gentlemen now present, that six years ago, on the eighth day
of March, on which day I attained the age of seventy-five
years, I presented a copy of my '' History of Cambridge " as a
birthday offering. That work was undertaken as early as
1841, and this Society, at the suggestion of the venerable Dr.
Harris, kindly granted me permission to explore its treasures
before I was admitted to membership. I commenced my task
with earnestness and zeal, but not long afterwards I was
made to believe it was my duty to lay it aside for a season,
and to write a *' Commentary on the New Testament." While
engaged on that long-continued labor, however, I embraced
every opportunity, here and elsewhere, to collect materials,
which, after many years, were arranged and combined ; and
the " History of Cambridge '* was the result. My mind then
reverted to another work contemplated in my early days,
namely, a " History of Hard wick," my native town. To this
labor I devoted such strength and ability as remained to me,
and the History was substantially completed a year ago ; but
various obstacles hindered its publication until now. It af-
fords me great satisfaction, on the arrival of another birthday,
to lay this volume on the table. It contains the first literary
work projected by me, though it be the last which I have ac-
complished ; even as my Commentary was the last projected
and the first accomplished.
I have been a member of this Society almost forty years,
having been admitted May 30, 1844. I regret that during
this long period I have contributed so little aid to the work
in which it is engaged ; but I rejoice in the belief that I am
not regarded as an altogether unprofitable associate.
And now, Mr. President, having probably accomplished
literally my last labor of any considerable importance, I have
a painful impression that I ought to resign my membership,
and give place to a younger and more active man. But I
1883.] EABLY POETR AIT-PAINTERS IN BOSTON. 113
confess myself hardly equal to such an act of self-denial. I
am so selfish that I cannot yet quite resolve to surrender the
privilege of attending our stated meetings, and looking upon
the pleasant faces which surround this table, and listening to
the voices which have so long and so often l3oth cheered and
instructed me. Under such circumstances, I hope to be par-
doned' if I cling a little longer to my present position, which
affords me so much enjoyment in my old age.
The President, in reply, said that it was not usual to make
any formal acknowledgment of presents from members to
the Library, but he was sure that, in this case, the Society
would like to record a vote of thanks to Dr. Paige for his
gifts of his '' History of Hardwick " to-day, and of his "History
of Cambridge" six years ago. A vote of thanks proposed by
the President was unanimously adopted.
Communications from the Third Section having been called
for, Mr. R. C. Winthrop, Jr., said : —
I desire to call the attention of the Society to the present
state of the evidence upon the somewhat vexed question as
to how early in the Colonial period it can be proved that por-
traits were painted in Boston. It would be easy for me, or
any one else interested in the subject, to appear here with a
long list of portraits fondly believed by their possessors to
date from the early Colonial period, and to many of which
interesting family traditions have become attached ; but we all
know how untrustworthy such traditions are. Our volumes
of Proceedings contain two formal communications on this
subject, — the first, by Mr. Whitmore, in 1866, entitled
" Early Painters and Engravers of New England." He begins
by stating that " it has commonly been supposed that the earli-
est portraits painted in New England, except possibly a few
executed by amateurs, were those by Smibert," and he then
proceeds to show that there was at least one earlier resident
portrait-painter, namely, Peter Pelham, who was here some
years before Smibert. Mr. Whitmore gives no authority for
this implication that portraits anterior to Smibert and Pelham
were by " amateurs," and it was perhaps only a conjecture.
There is no difference that I am aware of between an ama-
teur and a professional artist, except that the one paints for
relaxation, and the other as a permanent or temporary means
of livelihood ; and when we consider what very busy lives
people led in Boston in the seventeenth century, it would
certainly seem more probable that, if any portraits were then
15
114 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
painted here, the work was done rather for compensation than
for amusement.
The second communication on this subject was in 1867, and
entitled ''The Alleged Portrait of Rev. John Wilson, with
some Notices of other Early Portraits." It was read by Mr.
Deane, but written by Dr. John Appleton, then Assistant-
Librarian of this Society. After seriously impeaching the
authenticity of the Wilson portrait, Dr. Appleton goes on to
say : " It appears to be conclusively established that there was
some one exercising the art of a ' limner ' in Boston before
1667, as appears from Cotton Mather's statement in relation
to Wilson." This statement was made in 1695, and, setting
aside any question of Cotton Mather's accuracy. Dr. Apple-
ton then proceeds to name four portraits which, after careful
investigation, are believed to have been painted in Boston
prior to 1680. They are —
1. The portrait of Dr. John Clark, belonging to this So-
ciety, by no means despicable as a work of art, and inscribed
" ^TATis sUuE 66. ANN.suo.," at which time he is known
to have been living in Boston.
2. & 3. Two portraits of children named Gibbs, inscribed
with their ages and the date 1670, and which have continued
in possession of their descendants to the present time.
4. The portrait of Increase Mather, sent by him to his
brother Nathaniel, in Dublin, and acknowledged by the latter
in a letter dated March 2, 1680.
Besides these four cases, Dr. Appleton cites a letter written
by Nathaniel Mather to his brother Increase, in March, 1684,
introducing one Joseph Allen, who was about sailing for Bos-
ton, and describing him as one who " by his own ingenuity
and industry acquired good skill in watchmaking, clock-
making, graving, and limning ; and his design in going to
New England is, that he is under a necessity of earning his
bread by practising his skill in some of those things." This
was clearly no amateur, but it has not yet been possible to
identify any portraits which he painted here.
So far as I am aware, no new light was shed upon this sub-
ject until the publication of the second volume of Judge
Sewall's Diary, in which, at page 170, occurs the entry,
familiar, doubtless, to some of us : —
"Nov. 10, 1706. This morning, Tom Child the painter died.
" Tom Child had often painted Death,
But never to the Life before :
Doing it now, he's out of Breath,
He paints it once and paints no more."
1883.] EARLY PORTRAIT-PAINTERS IN BOSTON. 116
The editors of Sewall state that in Child's will, dated in
1702, he is termed a painter-stainer, that Se wall's lines evi-
dently imply he was a portrait-painter, and they add, '' Here
may be the long-sought-for artist who preceded Peter
Pelham."
Finally, there appeared a year ago the fourth and last
volume of the " Memorial History of Boston," the sixth
chapter of which is devoted to an article on " The Fine
Arts in Boston," by an accomplished gentleman and a partic-
ular friend of mine, among whose varied tastes antiquarian
research has never found a place, and who, I am firmly per-
suaded, knows no more about the Puritans than he does
about the Patagonians. Thus, the first page of an article
which subsequently becomes interesting and valuable has
apparently been evolved out of the writer's internal con-
sciousness, in disregard or ignorance of the record. With
one magisterial sweep of his pen he extinguishes Dr. Cotton
Mather and his limner, Mr. William H. Whitmore and his
amateurs, Dr. John Appleton and his four authenticated
cases, Mr. Joseph Allen and Tom Child, — and he starts with
the uncompromising and emphatic statement that " not until
a hundred years after its foundation do we find any traces of
art in Boston." A few paragraphs farther along, while telling
his readers about John Smibert, a certain misgiving appears
to have seized him, and he inserts a sort of parenthetical
qualification that "perhaps Pelham may have done a few
heads," and that it is " not certain" there may not have been
other artists ; but he leaves the force of his original assertion
unimpaired, and it is evident that Mr. Winsor, the learned
editor of the Memorial History, perceived that his contribu:-
tor was somewhat beyond his depth, as he came to his res-
cue in a footnote, — a cautious footnote, — in which he says
that there is " a surmise that one Tom Child was a still ear-
lier limner of features," and adds, " See also some notes on
presumably earlier portraits " in this Society's Proceedings
for 1867, to wit. Dr. Appleton's article. The average
general reader, however, pays little attention to footnotes,
and still less takes the trouble of verifying the references in
footnotes, so that, as I have reason to know, many persons
have unhesitatingly accepted the statement that for the first
hundred years not a trace of art can be found in Boston.
Well, sir, I can perfectly well understand that sceptical per-
sons — and scepticism is the fashion — may say, ''Oh, we put
no faith in Cotton Mather ; we imagine Mr. Whitmore's ama-
teurs to have been as unreal as the ghost of Banquo ; as to
116 MASSACHUSETTS HISTOBICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
Dr. Appleton's cases, you cannot prove those dates on the
Clark and Gibbs portraits were not put on after the event ;
you cannot prove Dr. Increase Mather did not go privately
to Europe, have himself painted, bring the portrait over here
and send it back to his brother in Dublin; you cannot
prove Joseph Allen ever handled a brush in Boston, or that
Tom Child was more than a sign-painter." I am free to con-
fess that we cannot now absolutely and conclusively prove
any one of these facts ; but so many fresh sources of informa-
tion develop themselves unexpectedly year by year, that I
by no means despair of not only gradually establishing the
accuracy of these instances, but of bringing to light many
others.
In the mean time, I desire to call the Society's attention to
a little bit of evidence on this subject contained in the very
last volume of the Society's Collections, — Part IV. of the
Winthrop Papers, — which came out only a few months ago.
The greater part of that volume is dry reading, and I dare
say the passage I am about to quote has escaped notice. It
is on page 500, in a letter from Wait Winthrop, then one of
the judges in Boston, to his elder brother, Fitz-John Win-
throp, at New London, in Connecticut. Under date of Oct.
81, 1691, he says: ''If you could by a very careful hand,
send the little picture of my grandfather, put carefully up in
some little box, here is one would copy it for my cousin
Adam ; the great one here in the town-house had some dam-
age, especially in one of the eyes, and he desires to see that
[the little one]."
I may say, in explanation, that this " little picture " was a
miniature of Governor Winthrop the elder, which is still in
existence; that the "great one in the town-house " was
evidently the portrait which has so long hung in the Sen-
ate-chamber of Massachusetts ; and that the copy then about
to be painted was in all probability the portrait now belonging
to the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester, to which
it was given by a descendant of " cousin Adam," who was
Mr. Adam Winthrop, a merchant of Boston. The most
sceptical person will now not dispute that in 1691 there was
at least one gentleman in Boston who had a fancy for a por-
trait of his grandfather, who took some trouble to get it
painted, and who found an artist to do it. The date is not
as early as I wish it was, but it is between thirty and forty
years before the period assigned in the Memorial History to
the first trace of art in Boston, and it will be noticed that
the request is mentioned rather as a matter of course and not
1883.]
EABLY PORTBAIT-PAINTERS IN BOSTON. 117
as if the presence here of an artist were novel or unheard of.
I may add, that when the writer of that letter died (many
years later, it is true, but still long within the period in ques-
tion), an inventory of his personal effects shows " eight pic-
tures," obviously portraits, in his house in Boston; and as he
died at a very advanced age, they had probably been long
in his possession. He was by no means the richest man in
town ; and if he, in the latter part of the seventeenth century,
had eight portraits hanging on his walls, we may fairly sup-
pose other leading citizens had as many, and that they were
all painted in England is most improbable.
I shall be very glad if gentlemen whose reading is more
extensive than mine will furnish other and earlier evidence
bearing upon this subject ; and if the Society will be patient
with me a few minutes longer, I should like to call attention
to one or two other passages in the article in the Memorial
History from which I have already quoted. The writer's
opening sentence is, '' A Puritan society was not favorable to
art." There we are all agreed. I am not aware that art de-
veloped itself more rapidly in Virginia than in Massachusetts,
but the most ardent admirer of the New England Puritans
would not venture to claim them as art-patrons. The first two
lines of the sentence immediately following, however, caused
me to rub my eyes. It begins, ''Men believing in a literal
interpretation of the Scriptures frowned on every thing like
graven images, and devoted themselves grimly to the work,"
and so forth. Taken in connection with what follows about
there not being a trace of art here for a hundred years, and
about portrait-painting being the first branch of art to spring up
in a young country, the writer is apparently under the impres-
sion that because the Puritans believed in a literal interpre-
tation of the Bible and abhorred stained -glass and sculptured
stone in places of worship, as reminding them of the Church
of Rome which they hated and the church of Archbishop
Laud which they feared, that therefore a Puritan gentleman
would consider his grandmother's portrait a graven image,
and shudder at the thought of possessing a likeness of his
wife or daughter. Why, sir, many of us have visited the
National Portrait Gallery in London, and some, at least, of
the innumerable private collections scattered throughout the
length and breadth of England, and we have seen hundreds
of portraits, representing not merely Puritan soldiers, states-
men, and divines, but private individuals of Puritan families,
male and femalei I shall be happy to be corrected, but I
have never seen a jot or tittle of evidence to show that Oliver
118 MASSACHUSETTS HISTOKICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
Cromwell and John Milton were any less willing to have their
features transferred to canvas than King Charles I. or Lord
Clarendon was. The only difference I have ever been able to
perceive between a Puritan and a Cavalier portrait is, that
the former is ordinarily characterized by more sober apparel
and fewer accessories; this, however, is not an invariable
rule, and perhaps the most liberal display of neck and bosom
I remember to have seen depicted was in a portrait of one
of Oliver Cromwell's daughters. Take the leading Puritans
who crossed the ocean to found these New England Colonies.
There is an original portrait of John Endicott, which has
always been in possession of his descendants ; there is a fine
portrait of Sir Richard Saltonstall, of which a copy hangs on
our staircase; I will not include the portraits of John Cotton,
Thomas Dudley, or Francis Higginson, as the authenticity
of all three has been disputed, but there is no doubt what-
ever about those of the two John Winthrops, of Sir Harry
Vane, of Winslow, Davenport, and others whom I will not
take up time by mentioning. |
One single quotation more. After stating that there was
not a trace of art for one hundred years, the writer goes on :
*' By that time the severe race of Puritans had passed away,
the young Colony had prospered and drawn over from Eng-
land many who had less sad views of life, w^ho saw no harm
in fine clothes, and hung on the walls of their houses a few
good pictures brought from their old homes." In other
words, we are asked to believe that not only were no portraits
painted here for a century, but that our ancestors were so
severe that it took them one hundred years to consent to
hang pictures brought from England on their walls, and that
all this time the portraits of the Fathers of New England
and their families were consigned to cellars and attics.
Doubtless there were some fanatics, — there are fanatics in
all parties and in all ages, — a sprinkling of men who could n't
afford family portraits themselves and so thought it wrong in
other people to have any, but that there was any wide-spread
prejudice against them I confidently deny. There is con-
temporary evidence that at Governor Winthrop's death, in
1649, at least one portrait (his own) was hanging in his prin-
cipal room, — it is almost certain there were others, — and
there is no reason to suppose his house differed materially
from the houses of other magistrates and elders.
Then, again, as to dress. An ingenuous and unsuspecting
reader, obtaining his or her first impressions of Puritan soci-
ety from this article, would suppose it took us here in Boston
1883.] EAELY POBTRAIT-PAINTERS IN BOSTON. 119
one hundred years to develop a taste for fine clothes ; whereas,
if the writer had taken the trouble to run his eye over Mr.
Scudder's admirable article in an earlier volume of this same
History, he would have seen that before our fathers had been
four years on this peninsula that taste became so strong it
had to be restrained by sumptuary laws ; and in 1651 it was
enacted that no woman not enjoying property to the value of
£200 should wear '' lace, or tiffany hoods, or scarves," and
that no man worth less than that amount should wear gold
or silver lace on his coat, knotted ribbon at his knees, &c.
What the Puritans aimed at was not a general denunciation
of what we should consider very fine clothes indeed, but to
compel persons to dress according to their station in life, to
prevent servant-girls from aping their mistresses, and young
men from running up bills at their tailor's. And if any one
undertakes to reply that these sumptuary laws were intended
for what may be termed the outsiders in the Massachusetts
Colony, and that the strictest Puritans delighted only in the
plainest and saddest-colored raiment, I would say that who-
ever will take the trouble to consult old inventories and mar-
riage settlements will find the evidence largely the other way.
I will give an instance in my own family, simply because it is
always easier to quote one's own family, but I have no doubt
I could find similar instances in other families. In an inven-
tory of certain movables in Governor Winthrop's house in
Boston, at the time of his death, I find such items as these :
'* Two tufted velvet jerkins," " one scarlet cap," '^ two satin
doublets," " one clothe of gold scarf," " two clothe of gold
belts," (Sec. If the present Governor of Massachusetts were to
walk down State Street in a scarlet cap, a tufted velvet jer-
kin, and a cloth-of-gold scarf, we should certainly consider
him a very un-Puritanical looking person ; yet this was appar-
ently Governor Winthrop's Sunday-best, — a man renowned
for the simplicity of his daily life, and a typical Puritan if
there ever was one.
I have detained the Society too long, and will only add
that my reason for dwelling so much upon the article in the
Memorial History is this. The forty-eight volumes of this
Society's Collections are, to all intents and purposes, for spe-
cial students. Setting aside the comic portions of Judge
Sewall's Diary, the general reading public takes no more
interest in them than in the sacred books of the Hindus ;
whereas the Memorial History of Boston is not merely a
great literary achievement and a monumental work of refer-
ence, but it has attracted the attention of thousands who
120 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
would be repelled by a purely antiquarian publication. They
turn over its pages, look at the illustrations, read a little here
and there, often obtaining their first impressions of the sub-
ject, and it is very desirable such impressions should be well
founded. The exceptional interest in art now prevailing in
this neighborhood has caused this particular article to be,
perhaps, more read than any other in the whole four volumes,
and the passages to which I have called attention seem to me to
convey some very erroneous ideas of the early Colonial period.
Mr. Henry Lee then alluded to a portrait in his posses-
sion of Major Thomas Savage, who came to New England
from Taunton, Somersetshire, in 1635 and, so far as is known,
never revisited his native country. It is a large three-quar-
ter portrait, with numerous accessories, and, in one corner,
a coat of arms and the inscription, " Anno 1679, ^T 73."
A woodcut of it is given in the Memorial History of Boston,
vol. i. p. 318, and there can be no doubt it was painted here.
Mr. C. F. Adams, Jr., remarked, that in the old Adams
mansion at Quincy, now the summer residence of his father's
family, there were two very ancient oil-paintings, similar to
those of the Gibbs children, and probably by the same hand.
They came from the house at Mt. WoUaston, in Quincy,
which Colonel John Quincy built and lived in, and which,
abandoned as a dwelling-house early in the present century,
was demolished about thirty years ago. John Adams came
into possession of the property on the death of Norton Quincy,
the son of John Quincy, in 1801, and going there one day
some years later he found these pictures, then, like every
thing else about the house, in a very neglected condition.
He had them at once put into his carriage and took them
home. But no better care was taken of them in his house
than had been taken of them at Norton Quincy's, and it was
probably some twenty-five years later that President J. Q.
Adams one day carelessly gave the better of the two pictures
to his daughter-in-law, the present Mrs. Charles Francis
Adams, who subsequently had it restored. The other picture,
then in a sadly damaged state, was not attended to until
about 1850.
The two apparently represent a mother and child ; the
picture of the child being a work of some merit, and in a fair
state of preservation. It represents an infant of two years
of age, full length and life size, standing on a white and
black checkered canvas carpet or painted floor, holding an
1883.] EARLY POUTE. AIT-PAINTERS IN BOSTON. 121
apple in one hand, which it points at with the other. The
date is in the upper right-hand corner, and is apparently
1670. The other picture is very inferior. It represents a
young woman in a very stiff white dress, standing, and hold-
ing a folded fan in her hand. It is perfectly conventional
and uninteresting. There is no date. The two are unques-
tionably portraits of members of the Quincy family. John
Adams always asserted that the child's picture was a portrait
of Colonel John Quincy, and that the other was the portrait
of John Quincy's mother. She was a Shepard, daughter of
the Rev. Thomas Shepard, of Charlestown, and she married
Daniel Quincy, of Braintree, Nov. 9, 1682. The wedding
was marked by a terribly tragic incident, of which Sewall
gives an account (Coll. V. vol. vi. p. *18). In the midst of
the festivities, the bride's aunt, Mrs. Brattle, was taken ill
and died in her chair. '' At length out of the kitchen we
carry the chair and her in it, into the wedding-hall ; and after
a while lay the corpse of the dead aunt in the bride-bed. So
that now the strangeness and horror of the thing filled the
just now joyous house with ejulation. The bridegroom and
bride lie at Mr. Ayres, son-in-law to the deceased, going away
like persons put to flight in battle." There is also a mention
of this incident in a letter of Samuel No well to John Richards
of Nov. 9, 1682 (Coll. V. vol. i. p. 432).
John Quincy was not born until 1689. As already men-
tioned, the date on the picture of the child now looks like
1670. The old-fashioned way of forming the figures is, how-
ever, very deceptive, and it may be 1690. It is either the
one or the other. The evidence of John Adams is tolerably
direct. He married John Quincy's granddaughter, and was
a frequent guest at his house. The two pictures were hang-
ing there at that time, and were comparatively new. John
Quincy could not but have known whose portraits they
were, especially if one of them represented his own baby-
hood. As he was born in 1689, the date of the painting
would be fixed for 1690, and not 1670. It was from John
Quincy and his wife that John Adams undoubtedly got his
information, and the tradition of two hundred years is thus
handed down through only two lives. In any event, there
the two pictures are, and one of them is by no means bad as
a work of art. As bearing upon the query just raised by Mr.
Winthrop, there is no room at all for doubt that they were
painted in Massachusetts in the latter part of the seventeenth
century, and it is most reasonable to suppose that they were
the work of either Tom Child or Joseph Allen.
16
122 MASSACHUSETTS HISTOEICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
Mr. GooDBLL spoke as follows : —
Mr. President, — I know nothing about the conversation at
our last meeting, concerning the execution of Mark and Phillis
in 1755, beyond what was reported in the newspapers, but,
as I minutely examined the records of the case several years
ago, and as I do not think that a full account of this inter-
esting trial has ever been published, I venture to call the
attention of the Society to the details of this — the only case
of petit treason, I believe, in the history of Massachusetts.
It is not surprising that the execution of a woman, by burn-
ing, so lately as when Shirley was governor, — a period when
the province had greatly advanced in culture and refinement,
— should seem to any one incredible. Indeed, even so critical
and thorough a student of our provincial history as our late
distinguished associate. Dr. Palfrey, once wrote to me inquir-
ing if the rumor of such a proceeding had any foundation in
fact, and if so, whether the execution took place according to
law, or by the impulse of an infuriated mob. It gave me
great satisfaction to be able to settle his doubts on this subject
by referring him to the records of the Superior Court of Judi-
cature, where the judgment, from which I shall presently read
to you, and a copy of which I sent to him, appears at length.
The subject is important at this day only as serving to de-
fine the nature of the " cruel and unusual punishments " pro-
hibited by the thirty-first article of the Declaration of Rights,
in our state Constitution, since this mode of punishment, hav-
ing continued after the adoption of the Constitution, cannot
have been considered by the framers of that instrument either
as " cruel " or " unusual" in the sense in which they used these
words.
The particulars of the crime for which the malefactors,
Mark and Phillis, were executed are briefly as follows : Cap-
tain John Codman, a thrifty saddler, sea-captain, and mer-
chant, of Charlestown, was the owner of several slaves whom
he employed either as mechanics, common laborers, or house
servants. Three of the most trusted of these, Mark, Phillis,
and Phebe, — particularly Mark, — found the rigid discipline
of their master unendurable, and, after setting fire to his
workshop some six years before, hoping by the destruction
of this building to so embarrass him that he would be obliged
to sell them, they, in the year 1755, conspired to gain their
end by poisoning him to death.
In this confederacy some five or six negroes belonging to
other owners were more or less directly implicated. Mark,
1883.] THE MURDER OF CAPTAIN CODMAN. 123
the leader, was able to read, and signed his examination, here-
after referred to, in a bold, legible hand. He professed to
have read the Bible through, in order to find if, in any way,
his master could be killed without inducing guilt, and had
come to the conclusion that according to Scripture no sin would
be committed if the act could be accomplished without blood-
shed. It seems, moreover, to have been commonly believed
by the negroes that a Mr. Salmon had been poisoned to death
by one of his slaves, without discovery of the crime. So,
application was made by Mark, first to Kerr, the servant of
Dr. John Gibbons, and then to Robin, the servant of Dr. Wm.
Clarke, at the North End of Boston, for poison from their
masters' apothecary stores, which was to be administered by
the two women.
Essex, the servant of Thomas Powers, had also furnished
Mark with a quantity of " black lead " for the same purpose.
This was, unquestionably, not the harmless plumbago to which
that name is now usually given, but galena, or plumbum ni-
grum^ a native sulphuret of lead, probably used for a glaze by
the potters of Charlestown.
Kerr declined to have any hand in the business; but Robin
twice obtained and delivered to Mark a quantity of arsenic, of
which the women, Phebe and Phillis, made a solution which
the}'' kept secreted in a vial, and from time to time mixed with
the water-gruel and sago which they sometimes gave directly
to their victim to eat, and at other times prepared to be inno-
cently administered to him by one of his daughters. They also
mixed with his food some of the ''black lead," which Phillis
seems to have thought was the efficient poison, though it ap-
peared from the testimony that he was killed by the arsenic.
The crime was promptly traced home to the conspirators ;
and on the second day of July, the day after Captain Cod-
man's death, a coroner's jury found that he died from poison
feloniously procured and administered by Mark. Ten days
later, Quaco, — the nominal husband of Phebe, and one of the
negroes implicated, — who was the servant of Mr. James Dal-
ton, of Boston, was examined before William Stoddard, a jus-
tice of the peace, and on the same day Robin was arrested
and committed to jail. The examination of Quaco was fol-
lowed by the examination of Mark, and of Phillis, later in
the month. These last were taken before the Attorney-
General and Mr. Thaddeus Mason.
At the term of the " Superiour Court of Judicature, Court
of Assize, and General Goal Delivery," held at Cambridge
on the second Tuesday of August following, the grand jury
124
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
[Mar.
found a true bill for petit treason against Phillis, and against
Mark and Robin as accessories before the fact. As this is the
only indictment for this offence known to have been found
in Massachusetts, and was drawn by that eminent lawyer,
Edmund Trowbridge, then Attorney-General, it is worthy of
being preserved in print, in connection with the coroner's ver-
dict and the examinations of the suspected parties, which are
as follows : —
[^Coroner's Inquest,']
[Two-penny "I __
stamp. J Middlesex ss.
An Inquisition Indented, Taken at Charlestown Within the County
of Middlesex Aforesaid the Second day of July in the Twenty ninth
year of the Reign of our Lord George the Second by the Grace of
God, of Great Britain France and Ireland, King Defender of the
Faith &f, before John Remington Gentleman one of the Coroners of
our said Lord the King, Within the County of Middlesex Aforesaid ;
upon view of the Body of John Codman of Charlestown Aforesaid
Gentleman then and there Being dead by the oaths of Josiah White-
more, Samuel Larkip, Samuel Larkin Junf Richard Deavens, William
Thompson, Nathaniel Brown, Samuel Kettle, John Larkin, Thomas
Larkin, David Cheever, Barnabas Davis, Edward Goodwin, Benja-
min Brazier, Samuel Sprague, Richard Phillips, Samuel Hendley and
Michael Brigden Good and Lawfull men of Charlestown Aforesaid
Within the. County Aforesaid ; Who being Charg'd and Sworn to In-
quire for our said Lord the King, When, and by What means, and how
the Said John Codman Came to his Death — upon their Oaths do Say
that the said John Codman Came to his death By Poison Procured by
his negro man servant Mark Which he took and Languishd untill the
first of July Current and then died and so the Jurors Aforesaid upon
their oaths do Say, that Aforesaid Mark in manner and Form Afore-
said, the Aforesaid John Codman then and there feloniously did Poison
against the peace of our Soverign Lord the King his Crown and
Dignity —
In Witness, Whereof, as Well I the Coroner Aforesaid, as the
Jurors Aforesaid, to this Inquisition have Interchangeably put our
hands and Seals, the day And year Abovesaid.
RiCH^ Phillips
Sam^^ Kettell
John Larkin
Samuel Larkin Jn?
William Thompson
Thomas Larkin
Richard Devens
Seal.'
Seal.;
Seal.
Seal.^
^Seal.'
'Seal.^
^Seal.'
John Remington Coroner
Josiah Whittemore
Sam^ Hendly
MicH^^ Brigden
Nath^^ Brown
David Cheever
Sam^^ Larkin
Benjamin Brazier
Barnabas Davis
Samuell Sprague
EdwP Goodwin
;Seal.
Seal.
;seai.;
Seal.
Seal.
;Seal.
Seal.
Seal.
Seal.^
Seal.'
Seal'
1883.] THE MUKDER OF CAPTAIN CODMAN. 125
\_Examination of Quaco,"]
On the 12*^ July 1755. was Examined Quacoe a Negro man be-
longing to M' James Dalton of Boston Victualler He s^ Quacoe says
that some time the last winter one Kerr a Negro man belonging to
Doctf Jn° Gibbons came to the s^ Quacoe & told him that Mark
belong? to M' Codman had Been w*!" him to get some Poyson and
the s'f Quaco says that Ker told him that Mark asked the sf Kerr
whither Phoebe had been w*^ him for said Poyson. The said Quacoe
also says that he Spoke to Phoebe M"" Codman's negro woman whom he
called his Wife & told her not to be Concerned with Mark for that she
would be Brought into Trouble by him, for that Mark had been wl^ Kerr
Gibbons to get Poyson, & had askt s*^ Kerr whither Phoebe had not
been w*^ him for s*^ Poyson. The s^ Quacoe also says that the above
discourse w*^ Phoebe was when they were going to Bed the Saturday
night after the discourse had w*^ Kerr Gibbons. He also says that
he charged her not to be concerned w*^ Mark about Poyson on any
acco* whatever.
The above Examination Taken on the 12*? July 1755 at Boston
f W^ Stoddard J Pacts
^Mittimus against Bohin,']
Suffolk ss:
To The Keeper of His Majestys Goal in Boston and to the Consta-
bles of Boston Greeting —
I herewith Comit to you MT Constable Pattin the Body of
Robin a Negro man belonging to Df William Clarke of the
L. s.
North End of Boston, who is this day Charged w*^ being Concerned
in the Poysoning of the late MT John Codman of Charles Town
Deceased. Take Care of him and deliver him to The Keeper of His
Majestys Goal in Boston ; and you the s^ Keeper are hereby Com-
manded to Receive the Body of the Said Robin and him Safely Keep
untill he shall be discharged by Due Course of Law,
Given under my hand and Seal at Boston the Twelfth day of July
anno Domini 1755 and in the Twenty ninth Year of the Kings
Reign.
W^ Stoddard, Just: Pacts.
[^Examination of PhillisJ]
MiDD* ss :
The Examination of Phillis a negro Servant of John Codman late
of Charlstown deceased taken by Edmund Trowbridge and Thaddeus
Mason Esq" at Cambridge in the County of Middlesex the 26*.^ Day
of July Anno Domini 1755. And y® 2*^ of Aug* following —
126 MASSACHUSETTS HISTOBICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
Quest^. Was Mf John Codman late of Charlstown deed, your
Master ?
Answ'', Yes he was.
Ques*. How long was you his servant ?
Answ"". He my said Master bought me when I was a little girl and
I continued his servant untill his Death.
Quest^. Do you know of what sickness your said master died ?
Answer, I suppose he was poisoned.
Ques*. Do you know he was poisoned ?
Answ^, I do know he was poisoned.
Qties*. What was he poisoned with ?
AnswT—li was with that black lead.
Ques', what black Lead is it you mean ?
Answ^. The Potter's Lead.
Ques^. How do you know your s^ master was poisoned with that
Lead?
Ansvf, Mark got some of the said Potter's Lead from Essex Pow-
ers and my young mistress Molly found some of the same Lead in the
Porringer that my Master's Sagoe was in, he complain'd it was gritty ;
and that made Miss Molly look into the Porringer, and finding the
Lead there, she ask'd me what it was, I told her I did not know. — I
cleaned the Skillet the Sagoe was boiled in and found some of the
same stuff in the bottom of the skillet that was in the bottom of the
Porringer. And presently after Mark was carried to Goal, Tom
brought a Paper of the Potter's Lead out of the Blacksmith's Shop,
which he said he found there; and I saw it and am sure it was the same
with that which Was in the bottom of the Porringer and the Skillet.
Quest. Do you know that any other Poison besides the Potter's
Lead was given to your s^ master ?
Ansvf, Yes.
Quest. What was it?
Answ"^, It was Water which was poured out of a Vial.
Quest, How do you know that, that Water was Poison?
Answ'', There was a White Powder in the Yial, which Sunk to the
Bottom of it. —
Quest, Do you know who put the Powder into the Yial ?
Answ^, I put the first Powder in.
Quest, Where did you get that Powder ?
Answ^, Phebe gave it to me up in the Garret, ihQ Sabbath Day
morning before the last Sacrament before my master dyed, and Phoebe
at the same time told me Mark gave it to her.
Ques*. What was the Powder in when Phoebe gave it you?
Answer, It was in a White Paper, folded up Square, both ends being
turn'd up, & it was tyed with some Twine.
Quest, How much Powder was there in the Paper?
Answ^. There was a good deal of it I believe near an ounce.
Quest, Did you put all that Powder into the Yial ?
Answ^, No, I put in but a little of it, only so much as lay on the
Point of a narrow Piece of flat Iron, with which I put it in, which Iron
1883.]
THE MUKDER OF CAPTAIN CODMAN. 127
Mark made & gave it to me to give to Phebe, Mark gave me the s^ Iron
the Saturday before the Sabbath afores^. I ask'd him what it was for,
he would not tell me; he said Robbin gave him one, and he had lost it;
and that he himself went into the shop and made this. I gave the
s* Iron to Phoebe that same afternoon, in the Kitchen ; and the next
morning she gave it to me in the Garret, and Quaco was there with
her ; she whispered to me and told me to take the Paper of Powder
which was in the hollow over the Window, and the flat Iron which was
with it and put some of it into the Yial with the Iron which I did ; and
she bid me put some water into it, but I did not; but she afterwards
put some in herself, as she told me, and she put it into the Closet in the
Kitchen in a Corner behind a black Jug ; and the same Vial was kept
there untill my master dyed.
Quest. Had your Master any of that Water which was put into the
said Vial given to him?
Answ'^, Yes he had.
QuesK How was it given to him ?
Answ^, It was poured into his barly Drink and into his Infusion,
and into his Chocalate, and into his Watergruel.
Quest, Who poured the Water out of the s*^ Vial into the Chocalate?
Answ''. Phoebe did, and Master afterwards eat it.
Quest. Who pour'd it into his barly Drink ?
Ansvf. I did it myself ; I pour'd a drop out of the Vial into the
barly Drink, & I felt ugly, and pour'd the Water out of the mug again
off from the Barly, and put clean Water into the mug again & cover'd
it over that it might boil quick.
Quest. Who pour'd the Water out of the Vial into the Infusion ?
Ansvf. Phoebe did.
Quest. How do you know it?
Ansuf. I came into the Kitchen and saw her do it.
Quest. Did your master drink the Infusion after that water was so
pour'd in ?
Answ''. He drank one Tea Cup full of it.
Quest. How do you know that Phoebe poured any of the poisoned
Water out of the Vial into your Master's Chocalate ?
Answ''. She told me she had done it.
Quest. When did she tell you so ?
Ansvtf. That Same Day.
Quest. Was it before or after your Master eat that Chocalate that
the poison'd Water was pour'd into, that She told you so ?
Answ^, Before he eat it.
Quest. Did you see him eat that Chocalate ?
Answ'^. Yes, I did, he eat it in the Kitchen on a little round Table.
Quest. Who put the Second Powder into the Vial ?
AnsW. Phoebe put it in ; I left Part of the Powder she gave me in
the Paper, and she afterwards put that into the Vial as she told me.
as I was in the cellar drawing some Cyder, I heard Phoebe tell Mark
that the Powder was all out, and all used up ;
Quest, When was it that you heard Phoebe tell Mark so ?
128 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
Answ^. The Wednesday before my master dyed.
Quest. Do you know of any more Powder being got to give to your
master ?
Answer, Yes, but master never took any of it.
Quest Who got this last Powder ?
Answ^. Mark got it.
Quest, What did he do with it ?
Answ'', He gave it to me ; in our little House.
Quest, What Sort of Powder was it that Mark gave You ?
Ansvf, I[t ?] was white the same as the first.
Quest, What was it in ?
Answ^, In a Peice of Paper ; he had more of that Powder than he
gave me, it was in a Paper folded up in a long Square, he tore off Part
of that Paper, and put Some of the Powder into it, and gave it to me
and kept the rest himself, and at the same time that he gave it to me
he told me that Robbin said we were damn'd Fools we had not given
Master that first Powder at two Doses, for it wou'd have killed him,
and no Body would have known who hurt him, for it was enough to
^kill the strongest man living ; upon which I ask'd Mark how he knew,
it would not have been found out, he said that Mr. Salmon's Negros
poison'd him, and were never found out, but had got good masters, &
so might we.
Quest, What did you do with that Powder which Mark gave you ?
Answ^, I put it into the Vial, & set it in the Same Place it was in
before, there was some of the first Powder & Water remaining in the
Vial when I put this last in.
Quest. Do you know that any of the Water that was in the Vial
iafter you put this last Powder in was given to your Master ?
Answ^, No, he never had a drop of it. The next Day after Master
died Mark came into the Closet where I was eating my Dinner and
ask'd me for that Bottle, I ask'd him what he wanted it for, and he
would not tell me, but insisted upon having it, upon which I told him
that it was there behind the Jugg, and he took it and went directly
down to the Shop in the yard, and I never saw it afterwards 'till Justice
Mason shew it to me, on the Fast Day night.
Quest, Do you know where Mark got that Powder which he gave
to you ?
Answ'^, He had it of Robbin, Doc*'' Clark's Negro ; that liv'd with
Mr. Vassall.
Quest. How do you know that Mark had that Powder of Robbin ?
Answ^. The Thursday night before my master died Mark told me
he was going over to Boston to Robbin to get some more Powder for
he sf Phoebe told him y* the other was all out ; and Mark went over
to Boston, and return'd again about nine o' Clock ; and I ask'd Mark
if he had got it, and he told me no, he had not, but Robbin was to
bring it over the next night ; and between 8 & 9 o'Clock that next
night, a negro Fellow came to me in our Yard & ask'd me for Mark,
And I ask'd him his name but he would not tell me, and I said to
him, Countryman, if you'l tell me your name PU call Mark, for I know
1883.] THE MURDEK OF CAPTAIN CODMAN. 129
where he is, but he would not, I then askt him if he was not
Robbin Vassall, (for I mistrusted it was he) and upon that he laughed
and said his name was not Robbin Vassall, but he came out of the
Country and wanted to see Mark very much about his Child ; and
upon my refusing to tell him where Mark was the negro went away
down to the Ferry, and I followed him at some distance & saw him go
into the Ferry Boat, and the Boat put off, with him in it. That same
Fryday, in the afternoon, Mark told me, if any Negro Fellow shou'd
come ; & say that he came out of the Country to call him, I ask'd
him what negro it was that he expected wou*d come ; he told me it
was Robbin, and that he was to say that he came out of the Country
to speak with Mark about his Child, and bid me tell no Body
about it.
Quest, Do you know Robbin DoctT Clark's negro?
Answ^, I do, and have known him for many years.
Quest. How then happeu'd it that you cou'd not certainly tell
whether the negro afores^ that askt for Mark was Robbin or not ?
Answ^, Because it was dark. So dark I cou'd not see his Face so
as certainly to know him, but I am fully satisfied it was Robbin.
Quest, What Reason have you to be satisfyed it was Robbin ?
Answ'', That same night I told Mark that a negro Fellow had been
there and ask'd for him & wanted him, he ask'd me why I did not call
him, I told him our Folks called me and I could not, Mark told me
he was very Sorry I did not, and asked me if he gave me any Thing,
I told him he did not, he said he was very sorry he did not ; then I
ask'd him who it was, and he said it was Robbin, and then he told me
that he thought Robbin & he had been playing blind-mans BufF, for
they had been over the Ferry twice that night and mist one another ;
and that Elij^ Phipps & Tirao Rand told him that a negro Fellow
had been over the Ferry to speak with him about his Child. And
then Mark told me he would the next Night go over to Robbin and
get some more of the same Powder, and would bring it over on the
Sabbath Day, & he went to Boston on the Saturday night, but did
not return till Monday morning, when he brought it and gave it to me
in the little House, as I told you before.
Quest, Did you see Robbin at Charlstown in the Time of your
master's sickness or about the Time of his Death ?
Answ'', Yes, I saw him on y® Tuesday the Ship was launched,
when my master catch'd Mark buying Drink at M" Shearman's to treat
him with, & drove him away ; and I saw him at Charlstown on the Sat-
urday after my Master was buried ; but I did not speak with him at
either of those Times. The Tuesday he was before our Shop Door, in
the Street, with Mark and had a Bag upon his shoulder ; and on the
Saturday in the afternoon I saw him going up the Street by our House,
while Phoebe and I were washing in the back yard ; I told Phoebe
there was Robbin a going along this minit, and she said is he? and
ask'd me what Cloaths he had on ; I told her he had a bluish Coat on
lined with a straw coloured or yellow lining and the Cuffs open
& lined with the said Yellow lining, and that he had a black wigg on ;
17
130 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
and I told Phoebe I believed he was gone up to Mark to tell him not
to own that he had given any Thing to him, and Phoebe said she
believed so to; and I went into the street to the Pump with a Pail to
get some Water, designing to see whether he went that Way, and I
saw him go right up the main street, and I could see him as far up as
Mr. Eleazer Phillips's, and I did not see him afterwards. I never see
him with a Wigg on before, but as he went by us he look'd me full in
the Face and 1 knew it was Robbin. When I told Phoebe that
Robbin was going by, I thought she saw him, but she questioned
whether it was he, and I told her I was sure it was he, for I had
known him ever since he was a boy, and I told her I would lay a
mug of Flip that it was he, but she wou'd not ; and then it was that I
told her I believed he was gone up to Mark &c.
Quest, Do you know what Powder that was which Mark & Phoebe
gave you, and you put into the Vial ?
Answ^. Mark told me it was Ratsbane, but I told Phoebe I be-
lieved Mark lied & that it was only burnt allom, for I told her, that
upon taking Ratsbane they would directly swell, and Master did not
swell ; and she said she believed so to.
Quest. How many Times was any of that Water, which was in the
Vial afores*^, put into your master's victuals ?
AnsW, Not above Seven Times.
Quest. When was the first Time ?
Answ^. The next Monday morning after Phoebe gave me the first
Powder, then it was put into his Chocalate, by Phoebe. The next was
also put in to his Chocalate by Phoebe on the next Wednesday morning,
and I thinking she put in more than she should, told her her hand was
heavy, and there was no more put in, that, I know of till the next
Fryday, when Phoebe put some into his Chocalate, and my Master eat
the Chocalate all the three times aforesaid in the Kitchen, and I was
there & saw him ; The next was on the Saturday following, when I put
Some into his Watergruel, but I felt ugly and threw it away, and made
some fresh, and did not put any into that. The next was on the after-
noon of the same Saturday, I made him some more Watergruel &
pour'd some of the Water out of the Vial into it, and it turned yellow,
and Miss Betty, ask'd me what was the matter with the Watergruel
and I gave her no answer; but that was thrown away, and more fresh
made, and Miss Molly was going to put the same Plumbs in again, and
Phoebe told her not to do it, but she had better put in some fresh
Plumbs, and she did ; and no Poison was put into that ; It was by
Phoebe's advice that I put it into the first this afternoon. And he had
no more, that I know of 'till the next Monday night, when Mark put
some of the Potter's Lead into Masters Sagoe.
Quest. How do you know that Mark put any of the Potter's Lead
into the Sagoe ?
Ariswer. When I went out of the Kitchen I left the Sagoe in the
little Iron Skillet on the Fire, and no body was in the Kitchen then,
but when I returned, Mark was Sitting on a Form in the Corner, and
I afterwards found Some of that Lead in the Skillet, and neither
Phoebe nor I had any Such Lead.
1883.] THE MURDER OF CAPTAIN CODMAN. 131
Quest. Do you know of any other Poison prepared for, or given to
your Master ?
AnsW, No, I do not.
Quest Who was it that first contrived the poisoning your Master
Codman ?
Answ^, It was Mark who first contrived it, He told Phoebe and I
that he had read the Bible through, and that it was no Sin to kill him
if they did not lay violent Hands on him So as to shed Blood, by
sticking or stabbing or cutting his Throat.
Quest. When was it that Mark first proposed the poisoning his
Master ?
Answ^. Some time last Winter ; he proposed it to Phoebe and I,
but we would not agree to it, and told him. No Such Thing should be
done in the House ; This before my Master brought him home from
Boston.
Quest. Did he ever afterwards propose the poisoning his s*^ Master?
Answ^. Yes he did, a Week or a Fortnight after my Master brought
him home from Boston, he proposed it to me first, and I would not
agree to it, and then he proposed it to Pha;be.
Quet. Wliat Reason did Mark give for poisoning his Master ?
Answ. He said he was uneasy and wanted to have another Master,
and he was concerned for Phoebe and I too.
Quest. Do you know how your Master's Work house that was
burnt down came on Fire ?
Answ''. Yes I do.
Quest. How came it on fire ?
Ansio''. I set it on fire, but it was thro' Mark's means, he gave me
no rest 'till I did it.
Quest. How did you Set your Master's Work House on fire ?
Answ^. I threw a Coal of Fire into some Shavings between the
Blacksmith's Shop & the Work House, and I went away & did not
see it kindle.
Quest. Who put the Shavings there ?
Answ'', Mark did.
Ques*. Was any Body concern'd in the burning the Work house
besides Mark and you ?
Answ^. Yes, Phoebe knew about it as w^ell as I.
Quest. W^here was Phoebe & Mark when you put the Coal of Fire
into the Shavings ?
Answ'\ The were up Garret in bed.
Quest. Who first proposed the Setting the Workhouse on fire ? and
what reason was given for doing it ?
Answ"". Mark first proposed it, to Phoebe and I ; and the Reason he
gave us was that he wanted to get to Boston, and if all was burnt
down, he did not know what Master could do without selling us.
Quest. Why did you, when Phoebe pour'd Some of the Water out
of the Vial into the Chocalate tell her, " her hand was heavy ? "
AnsW, I thought she pour'd in too much, more than she should I
felt ugly and I wan't willing she shou'd put in so much and that he
132 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
should be kilFd so quick. Mark's orders were to give it in two Doses,
that was the Directions Robbin gave to Mark, as Mark told me, and
Mark Said Robbin told him there was no more taste in it than in Cold
Water.
Qicest Why did you not tell your Master or some of the Family
that Phoebe had poisoned the Chocalate, and thereby prevent your
Master's eating it ?
Ansvf, I do not know why I did not tell.
The mark of X Phillis.
[^Examination of Marh']
Middlesex ss :
The Examination of Mark a Negro Servant of John Codman late
of Charlstown deceased taken by Edmund Trowbridge & Thaddeus
Mason Esq? at Charlstown in the County of Middlesex the
Day of July Anno Dom : 1755.
Quest, What is your name?
Answ^, Mark.
Quest. Are you a Servant or Freeman ?
Ansvf, A Servant. Mf John Codman decf was my master.
Quest, How long was you his Servant?
Ansvf, For several Years before & untill his Death.
Quest, Do you know what occasioned your s? Master's Death ?
Ansvf, He was poisoned.
Q, What was he poisoned with ?
A, With Poison that came from the Doctor's.
Q, What Doctor ?
Ansvf, Doctr Clark that lives at the North End of Boston.
Q, What sort of Poison was that?
A. It was a White Powder put up in a Paper.
Q, How do you know that that Powder came from Doctf Clark's ?
A, Robbin the Negro Fellow that belongs to Doctf Clark gave it
to me.
Q, When & where did Robbin give you that Powder ?
An, A Week Day night, at his Master's Barn.
Qu, Was there any Person present with you when Robbin gave you
that Powder?
An. No. The first Time, the negro man his fellow Servant called
him out, it was in the Evening near 9 o'Clock.
Qu, How many Times had you such Powder of Robbin ?
An, Twice only.
Qu, When was the last Time you had any such Powder of him ?
An, The Sabbath Day night before my sf Master died, in the Even-
ing after Candle Light.
1883.]
THE MURDER OF CAPTAJ:N CODMAN. 133
Qu. Where was it you had this last Powder of him, and what was
it in ?
An, He gave it to me in the same Barn, it was done up in a long
square in two Papers, the outtermost Pape^r was brown and the iner-
most Paper was White, as the other was.
Qu, What did Robbin give you these Powders for ?
An, To kill three Pigs belonging to Quaco as Phoebe told me.
Qu, How long ago was it Since Robbin gave you the first of these
Powders ?
An, I can't certainly tell.
Qu, Was it before Robbin & you wenj together at John Harris
y® Potters Work house ?
Ans^, I think it was before.
Qu, How long before was it ?
Ans^, About a Week before.
Qu, Did you pay Robbin any Thing for these Powders ?
An, No. I did not.
Q, What did you do with them ?
Ans, Phoebe had the first ; and she sent Phillis for the second and
I gave it to her.
Qu, When & where did you give Phoe be the first Paper of that
Powder ?
An, In our Garret ; the same night I brought it over.
Qu, Was any Body there when you gave it to her ?
An, No.
Qu, What did she do with it ?
An, She took it & put it upon the Table.
Qu, Did you give her the whole of the l^owder you had of Robbin
the first Time ?
An, Yes. I gave her the Paper with all the Powder in it, as I
received it of Robbin.
Qu, Did you tell her what was in the Paper ?
An, No. She knew what was in it ; for she told me what to get.
Qu. What did she tell you to get ?
An, Something to kill three Pigs.
Qu, Did Robbin give you any Directions how to use that Powder,
and tell you what Effect it would have ?
Ans, He told me to put it into about 2 Quarts of Swill or Indian
meal, and it would make 'em swell up.
Qu, Did you tell her how she must use tlie Powder ? or what Effect
it would have ?
Ansvf, yes I told her as Robbin told me.
Qu. Do you know whether she used that Powder or any Part of it?
Ansvf, no otherwise than as Phoebe & Phillis told me Since my
master's Death.
Qu, Who did you give the Second Papei!* of Powder to ?
An, To Phillis.
Qu, When & where did you give that Paper of Powder to Phillis ?
Ans, In the little House ; She came to empty a Pot over the
134 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
WharlBfe, and I gave it to her, The Monday before my s? Master died,
after Breakfast in the Forenoon.
Qu : Did you then give her all the Powder you rec^ of Robbin the
Second Time ?
Ans. Yes. I to/)k o"ff the brown Paper and gave it to her in the
white Paper, that it was in, when Robbin gave it to me.
Qu, What did she do with it ?
Ansvf. She caried it into the House to Phoebe as Phillis told me,
She came to me & told me Phoebe sent her for that Thing that She
sent me for, and thereupon I gave Phillis the Paper.
Qu : How was your Master poisoned with these Powders ?
Answ"". Phoebe & Phillis told me that they used them for that End.
Qu : When did they tell you this ?
Answ'^, The next Day after my master died.
Q : Were they together when they told you So ?
Answ^, No, Phillis told me of it first, and said that Phoebe used
all that I brought first, that Way ; and that the last was used so too by
her and Phoebe ; and then I went to Phoebe and ask'd her about it,
and She denyed it at first but when I told her that Phillis had told me
all about it, then she owned it.
Ques* Had you no Reason before your s? master dyed to think that
the Powders you had of Robbin were given to your master or that he
was poison'd therewith ?
Answ'', No other Reason than hearing Phoebe the Saturday night
before master died ask Phillis, if she had given him enough, to which
she replyed, yes. I have given him enough, and will stick as close to
him as his shirt to his back ; but who she meant I did not then know,
nor untill after master died.
Quest, Was there no Discourse had between you Phoebe & Phillis
about getting more Poison, after you had the first, of Robbin ?
Answ. The Fryday before my master died Phoebe told me that she
had lost that stuff* that I had brought to her from Robbin, and desired
me to get her some more. I told her I wou'd when I went over to
Boston ; this was in the Forenoon, when she was washing in the back
yard.
Quest. Did you get her any more of Robbin?
Ans^. Yes, and that was it which I gave to Phillis
Quest, When did you go over to get the last Poison ?
Ans, on the Saturday night before my master died ; I went over
after Sunset ; I went directly to Robbin ; & told him I wanted some
of the same I had of him before for that was lost, Robbin was then
at the Comer of his master's House out in the street, he told me he
could not get any then, but if I wou'd come on the Sabbath Day night
he would let me have some, and I went to him on the Sabbath Day
night after Candle Light, and he then gave it to me.
Quest, Was there any Body with you on the Saturday night when
you ask'd for the Poison, or do you know whether any Person saw you
& Robbin together that Evening?
Answ^, No, nobody was there, and I dont know that any Body saw
us together that Evening.
1883.] THE MUKDER OF CAPTAIN CODMAN. 135
Quest, How long was you with Robbin at M!; Harris's Work
house ?
Answ^', I made no tarry there, but left him at the Pot house, and he
and the young man that was with him followed me and overtook me a
little below Mf Waite's Slaughter house ; And they went with me into
the Lane leading from the market Place to the long Wharffe near M"
Shearman's, while I went into M? Shearmans and got a mug of Toddy,
in the mug I brought from Mf Harris's Work house, and I carried it to
them and they both drank with me.
Quest. Had you any Discourse with Robbin in private or between
you and him alone that Day ?
Ansr, No, none at all.
Quest. Where did you drink the Toddy ?
Ansuf. In the Lane afores^.
Quest. Where did you all go after you drank the Toddy ?
Ansuf'. We all came 'away together & went thro' M!: Sprague's
Yard & so thro' M? Silence Harris's yard & Entry into the street.
and they went directly down to the Ferry and I went into my master's
Yard with the Pots 1 brought from the Potters Work house.
Quest. Did you then go with them to the Ferry or nearer to it than
your master's House ?
Ansvf. No, I did not.
Quest. Did Robbin give you, or did you give Robbin any Thing
between the Time of your coming out of Mf Harris's Entry and his
going over the Ferry ?
Answ''. No, I did not give him any Thing neither did he give me
any Thing.
Quest. After you had parted with him when you came thro' the
Entry, did you call him back?
Ansuf, No, I did not.
Quest. Did your master that Day forbid M'^' Shearman's letting you
have any more Drink ?
Ansvf. Yes, my master told her not to sell any Drink to any of his
Servants.
Quest. Did Robbin know of it ?
Ansuf. Not that I know of; he see master go into M*:" Shearman's
Shop, and pass'd by Robbin in the Lane as Robbin told me.
Quest. Did you ever apply to any body else, besides Robbin for
Poison ?
Ansvf. No, only to Carr, Doctf Gibbon's negro man, and then
Phoebe sent me for it. She had been with Carr before on the same
account, & he told her he cou'd not get her any then, as she told me ;
Quest. Did you get any Poison of Carr ?
Ans''. No, he told me he wou'd not let me have any, untill he had
seen Quaco, and did not know whether he shou'd then or not, and I
never went to him afterwards.
Quest. Did you never ask DoctT Rand's Cato for any Poison ?
Ansvf. No, I do not know that I ever did, in the World.
Quest. Had you and Phoebe any Conversation together about your
136 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
master in or near your Blacksmith's Shop or in the yard the Mon-
day before your master (Jied ?
Ansvf, I had not, that I know of.
Quest. Did you that Day before Tom or any other of your master's
Servants say that you knew that your master would dye or utter any
Words to that effect?
Answ''. No, I did not. The Day before master dyed, Phoebe came
into the Shop to dress Tom's Eye & got to dancing & mocking master
& shaking herself & acting as master did in the Bed ; And Tom said
he did not care, he hop'd he wou'd never get up again for his Eye's
sake, and Scipio was there at the same time and saw her.
Quest, Did you ever Say that your master had been offer'd £400
for you but wou'd not take it, and now he shou'd not have a farthing
or Words to that effect ?
Answ''. No I never said any such Thing. Mark.*
Quest. Did you ever tell Phoebe or PhilKs that the Week before
your master dyed, that you went over the Ferry to see Bobbin to get
some more Poison, and that he came over the Ferry in another Boat
and so you mist each other and that he Bobbin pretended to the Ferry-
man that he was a Country negro and wanted to see you about your
Child, or Words to that Effect ?
Ansvf. I never told them or either of them so.
Quest. How came that Viall buried near your Forge in the Black-
Smith's Shop, that you told M!; Kettell of, and he found there ?
Answ^'. I buried it there.
Quest. When did you bury it there ?
Ansvf. In the afternoon of that Day that master dyed.
Quest. Where did you get that Vial ?
Answ^. I took it from Phillis that same Afternoon.
Quest. Did any body see you take it from her ?
Answ"". No. When I took it from Phillis she own'd that Phoebe
had given the first Poison that I brought to master ; and that she and
Phoebe had given him all the Best saving what was then in the Bottle,
and thereupon I went to Phoebe and charged her with it, she at first
deny'd it, but at last own'd it it and begg'd me to say nothing about it ;
I told her if I had known she wou'd have put it to that use I would
not have got it for her ; then I call'd Pompey to go down to the shop
with me for I wanted to speak with him, intending to shew him the
Vial, and he came into the shop but before I had an opportunity to
speak to him Mf Kettell took me.
Quest. Where was the Vial when you talked with Phoebe as
afores*^ ?
Answ"^. I had it in my Pocket, and told her so, then I went into the
shop and buried it, then I went into the House immediately to call
Pompey to shew it to him.
* Mark signed his deposition here, and the entry, " continued," was made at
the end of the sheet; the next sheet beginning, "Mark's Examination, con-
tinued."
1883.] THE MURDER OF CAPTAIN CODMAN. 137
Quest Why did you bury the Vial before you called Pompy ? or
shew it to any body ?
Ansvf I buried it because I did not want any body should see it
before I shewed it to him.
QuesVJ Have you lately had any Potters powder'd Lead by you or
in your Possession ?
Answ"^. Only that I had from Essex Powars ; which was as I sup-
pose ground to Powder.
Quest, When did you get that powder'd Lead of Essex ?
Ans^, I had it of hira that Day I went there for six butter Pots,
which my master's son Isaac sent me for.
Quest. What did you get that Lead for ?
Answ"^, To see if it would melt in our Fire, upon a Dispute between
Tom and I about it ; Tom said it would melt, and I told him I did not
believe it would ; I carried it home and laid it upon the Wall Plate in
the Blacksmith's shop, and I never moved it afterwards or thought
any Thing about it, *till it was show'd to me by the Justice.
Quet, Do you know that any Part of that Lead you had of Essex
or any Lead like unto it was given to your master or put into his
Victuals or Drink ?
Answ'', I do not.
Quest. Do you know of any Proposal made of poisoning your
master ?
A71SW. No, I do not, nor ever heard any such Thing proposed by
any Body.
Quest, Do you know of any Cushoe nuts being procured for that
Purpose ?
Ans'uf, No ; I have not seen a Cushoe nut since I have been in this
Country.
Quest, Do you know of any Copperas or Green stuff being provided
for that Purpose ?
Ansvf, No I do not.
Quest, What Time on the Saturday before your master dyed was it
that you heard Phoebe ask Phillis, if she had given him enough, and
Phillis said she had, and would stick as close to him as his Shirt to his
Back?
Ansvf, In the afternoon about Dark ; and before I went to Boston.
Quest. How came you, after you had heard this Talk between
Phoebe and Phillis, to get her s^ Phoebe more Poison ?
Ansvf, I did not know what she meant by their Talk, nor who
they meant, by him.
Quest. Did you tell Carr that Phoebe sent you for that Poison
you apply ed to him for ?
Answ"", She did not tell me it was Poison, but told me to ask Carr
for that Thing he had promised her ; he said he knew what it was
and would not send it, 'till he had talked to Quaco, and did not
know that he should send it afterwards ; and I said no more to Carr
about it.
Quest, Did you ever ask Carr at any other Time for Poison ?
18
138 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
-iws**. No.
Quest Did you never ask him for something to Poison or kill a
Dog?
Answ"", No, not that I know of.
Quest, Was you ever bit by a Dog ?
Answ^, No. I never was.
Quest. Do you know any Thing more of your master's being poi-
soned than you have before related ?
Ans"". No, 1 do not.
Mabk.
[^Bill of Indictment.']
Middlesex ss. At His Majesties Superiour Court of Judicature Court
of Assize and General Goal Delivery held at Cam-
bridge in and for the County of Middlesex on the
first Tuesday of August in the Twenty ninth Year
of the Reign of George the Second by the Grace
of God of Great Britain France & Ireland King
Defender of the Faith &\
The Jurors for the said Lord the King upon their Oath present
That Phillis a Negro woman of Charlestown in the County of Mid-
dlesex Spinster Servant of John Codman late of Charlestown afore-
said Gentleman not having the Fear of God before her Eyes but of her
Malice forethought contriving to deprive the said John Codman her
said Master of his Life and him feloniously and Traiterously to kill and
murder, She the said Phillis on the thirtieth Day of June last at
Charlestown aforesaid in the Dwelling house of the said John there
did of her Malice forethought willfully feloniously and Traiterously
put a Deadly Poison called Arsenick into a Vial of water and thereby
did then and there Poison the same Water and that the said
Phillis knowing the Water aforesaid to be so poisoned did then and
there feloniously willfully traiterously and of her Malice forethought
put one spoonfuU of the Same Water so poisoned into a Pint of the
Said John's Watergruel and thereby poison the Same Watergruel
And that the said Phillis did then and there of her malice forethought
feloniously willfully and traiterously in manner as aforesaid poison
the Watergruel aforesaid, with a felonious and Traiterous Intent and
Design that the said John her said master then being should then and
there eat the Same Watergruel so poisoned and thereby be poisoned
killed & murdered And that one Elizabeth Codman not know-
ing the Watergruel aforesaid to be so poisoned then and there Inno-
cently gave the Same Watergruel so poisoned as aforesaid to the said
John to eat —
And that the said John then and there being the said Phillis*s Master
and being altogether ignorant of the Watergruel aforesaid's being
1883.] THE MURDER OF CAPTAIN CODMAN. 139
poisoned as as* aforesaid and Suspecting no Evil did then and there eat
the same Watergruel so poisoned as aforesaid And that the said
Phillis then and there was feloniously and traiterously present with
the said Elizabeth & John knowing of and consenting unto the said
Elizabeth's giving him the said John the Watergruel aforesaid so
poisoned as aforesaid and his eating the same as aforesaid And
that the said John by means of his eating the Watergruel aforesaid so
poisoned as aforesaid There Languished for the space of fifteen Hours
and then at Charlestown aforesaid Died of the Poison aforesaid given
him as aforesaid And So the Jurors aforesaid upon their Oath say
that the said Phillis did at Charlestown aforesaid of her malice
forethought in manner and form aforesaid willfully feloniously and
traiterously poison kill & murder the said John Codman her said
master against the Peace of the said Lord the King his Crown &
Dignity.
And the Jurors aforesaid upon their Oath further present That
Mark a Negro man of Charlestown aforesaid Labourer and Servant of
the said John Codman. And Robbin a Negro man of Boston in the
County of Suffolk Labourer & Servant of John Clark of Boston afore-
said Apothecary before the said Treason and murder aforesaid com-
mitted by the said Phillis in manner & form aforesaid did at Charles-
town aforesaid on the twentieth Day of June last of their malice
forethought (the said Mark then being Servant of the said John Cod-
man) feloniously & traiterously advise & incite procure & abet the
said Phillis to do and commit the said Treason & Murder aforesaid
against the Peace of the said Lord the King his Crown and Dignity.
Edm Trowbridge AW ^ Dom Reg^*
This is a True Bill.
Caleb Dana foreman.
The case was tried, at the same term at which the parties
were indicted, before Stephen Sewall, chief justice, and Ben-
jamin Lynde, John Gushing, and Chambers Russell, associate
justices, — all fairly read in the law, and the Chief Justice
eminent in his profession. Samuel Winthrop and Nathaniel
Hatch, jointly, were clerks of the court.f
Mark and Phillis were convicted, and sentence of death
was pronounced upon them in strict conformity to the com-
mon law of England. On the 6th of September, a warrant
for their execution was issued, under the seal of the court.
* Sic.
t This is assumed to be the ease, since both these clerks officially signed pa-
pers in this very case, though, from the loose custom which gradually obtained
with the clerks of our highest judicial court, of not recording their appointments,
it is impossible to verify this statement by the record. Samuel Tyley, Jr., and
Benjamin Rolfe were sworn in as joint clerks of this court, Feb. 26, 1718, and
Samuel Winthrop was clerk as early as June, 1745, and Nathaniel Hatch as
early as September, 1752.
140 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
commanding Richard Foster, Sheriff of Middlesex, to perform
the last office of the law, on the 18th of the same month ; and
upon this warrant the sheriff made return upon the day of the
execution.
The subpoenas to the witnesses against the accused, the cap-
tion and conclusion of the record of the case, and the warrant
for the execution of the condemned are as follows: —
Province of the ) George the Second by the Grace of God of Great
Massachusetts Bay, \ Britain France S^ Ireland King Defender
^'- ^ of y' Faith S^^.
To the Sheriff of our County of Middlesex his under
Sheriff or Deputy or to any Constable of the Town of
Charlestown within Said County, Greeting —
We Command you That you Sumon W*? Brattle Esqr Docter
Pinchin of Boston Joseph Rand Jun! Hatter Bartholomew Powers
Isaac Rand Phisitian W*? Kneland, Benj^ Codman Parnel Codman
Eliz^ Codman Mary Codman Ann Codman Catherine Codman, Pom-
pey Thomas Cuffee and Scipeo negro servants that were Jno. Cod-
man Dec^ James Kittle W'? Foster Phisitian Essex Servant to
thomas powers Serv* of Dr. Rand Dinah Serv* of RicM Foster Esqr
Ruth Adams
To appear Before our Justices of our Superiour Court of Judicature
Court of Assize and General Goal Delivery now held at Cambridge
within & for said County tomorrow at Eight of y® Clock before noon
to give Such Evidence in our Behalf (as you know) against Mark a
Negro man & Phillis a Negro woman both of Charlestown aforesaid —
Hereof fail not and so soon as may be make return of this Writ
with your Doings Therein into the same Court Witness Stephen
Sewall Esq. at Boston the sixth Day of August in the twenty ninth
year of our Reign Annoq. Domini 1755
Sam^ Winthrop Cler
[Endorsed Return.]
Middlesex ss. August 7, 1755
We have somoned the persons within named to appear & Give
Evidence at the time & place within mentioned.
James Kettell, Dept Sheriffs
& John Miller
Comtabel.
1883.] THE MURDER OF CAPTAIN CODMAN. 141
Province of the ) George the Second by the Grace of God of
Massachusetts Bay ss J g^eat Britain France S^ Ireland King
defender of the Faith S^c.
To the Sheriff of our County of Suffolk his under Sheriff
or Deputy or any Constable of the Town of Boston in
s^ County Greeting
We Command you that you Summon The Wife of Ichabod Jones
Eliz* Mercy Car, a negro man servant of John Gibbins Apothecary
Quaco the serv* of Dal ton Quaco a Negro man belonging to mf
John White
To appear before our Justices of our Superiour Court of Judicature
Court of Assize & General Goal Delivery now holden at Cambridge
within and for said County Tomorrow morning at Eight of y* Clock
before noon Then and there to give Such Evidence in our Behalf as
you know against Mark a Negro man & Phillis a Negro woman both
of Charlestown in our County of Middlesex —
Hereof Fail not and so soon as may be make Return of this Writ
with your Doings therein into the same Court
Witness Stephen Sewall Esq. at Boston the Sixth Day of August
in the twenty ninth year of our Reign Annoq, Domini 1755
Sam^ Winthrop Cler
\^Record of the Case."]
Province of the ^ Anno Regni Regis Georgii secundi Magnce
Massachusetts Bat > Britannice Francice Hibemice vicesimo-
Middlesex ss. )
' nono.
At his Majestys Superiour Court of Judicature Court of
Assize and General Goal Delivery began and held at
Cambridge within and for the County of Middlesex on
the first Tuesday of August Annoque Domini 1755 —
By the Hon°M« Stephen Sewall Esqf Chief Justice
Benjamin Lynde * ')
John Cushing& >• Esquires Justices
Chambers Russell )
* Judge Lynde makes a memorandum of this trial, and of the particulars of
the executions, in his diary under date of July 9, 1755. — Lynde Diaries (pri-
vately printed, 1880), p. 179. — Eds.
142 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
[^After reciting the words of the indictment, the record proceeds as fol-
lows, being, as far as where the record of the trial and sentence begins^
an extension of a memorandum on the indictment, "]
Upon this Indictment the said Phillis was arraigned and upon her
arraignment pleaded not guilty and for trial put herself upon God and
the Country and the said Mark was also arraigned upon this Indict-
ment and upon his arraignment pleaded not Guilty and for trial put
himself upon God and the Country, a Jury was thereupon Sworne to
try the issue Mf John Miller Foreman and fellows who liaving fully
heared the Evidence went out to consider thereof and returned with
their verdicts and upon their oath's say'd that the said Phillis is Guilty,
and that the said Mark is Guilty, upon which the prisoners were re-
manded, and being again brot and set to the Bar, the Kings Attorney
moved the Court that Judgment of Death might be given against
then^, whereupon they were asked by the chief Justice if they had
ought to say why Judgment of Death should not be given against them,
and having nothing material to offer Judgment of Death was pro-
nounced against them by the chief Justice in the name of the Court
in form following that is to Say that the said Phillis go from hence to
the place where she came from, and from thence to the place of Execu-
tion & there be burnt to Death, and that the said Mark go from hence
to the place where he came from, and from thence be drawn to the
place of Execution and there be hanged by the neck until he be dead
and God Almighty have mercy upon their Souls. Ordered that these
Sentences be put into Execution upon thursday the eighth* day of
September next between the hours of one and five of the Clock in the
Afternoon.
Warrant issued Sep. 6. 1755.
[ Writ of execution, or death-warrant,']
Pkovince of the J George the second by the Grace of God of
""'TZl^ZM'^ Great Brita^ France and Ireland King
' Defender of the Faith ^ G"-
To Richard Foster Esqf Sheriff of our County of Mid-
dlesex in Said Province
Greeting
Whereas at our Superiour Court of Judicature Court of Assize and
General Goal Delivery begun and held at Cambridge within and for
the County of Middlesex on the first Tuesday of August last the Grand
Jurors for us for the Body of our said County of Middlesex did on
* An error. It should have been " eighteenth."
1883.] THE MURDER OF CAPTAIN CODMAN. 143
their Oath Present That Phillis a Negro woman of Charlestown in
the County of Middlesex Spinster Servant of John Codman late of
Charlestown aforesaid Gentleman, not having the fear of God before
her Eyes, but of her malice forethought contriving to deprive the Said
John Codman her Said master of his life and him feloniously and
Traiterously to kill and murder, she the said Phillis on the thirteenth
day of June last at Charlestown aforesaid in the dwelling house of the
said John there did of her malice forethought willfully felloniously and
Traiterously put a Deadly Poison called Arsenick into a Vial of Water
and thereby did then and there Poison the same water — and That the
said Phillis knowing the water aforesaid to be so poisoned did then and
there feloniously willfully traiterously and of her malice forethought
put. one spoonfull of the same water so poisoned into a pint of the said
John-s watergruel and thereby poison the same watergruel — and that
the said Phillis did then and there of her malice forethought felloniously
willfully & traiterously in manner as aforesaid poison the watergruel
aforesaid, with a felonious and traiterous Intent and design that the
said John her said master then being should then and there eat the
Same Watergruel so poisoned and thereby be Poisoned killed and
murdered. And that one Elizabeth Codman not knowing the water-
gruel aforesaid to be so poisoned then and there Innocently gave the
Same Watergruel so poisoned as aforesaid to the Said John to eat, and
that the Said John then and there being the said Phillis' master and
being altogether Ignorant of the watergruel aforesaid's being poisoned
as aforesaid and suspecting no Evil did then & there eat the same
watergruel so poisoned as aforesaid & that the said Phillis then and
there was feloniously and traiterously present with the said Elizabeth
& John knowing of & consenting unto the s^ ^Elizabeth's giving him
the said John the watergruel aforesi so poisoned as aforesaid & his
eating the same as aforesf And that the said John by means of his
eating the watergruel aforesaid so poisoned as aforesaid there Lan-
guished for the space of Fifteen hours & then at Charlestown aforesaid
died of the Poison afores^. given him as aforesaid — and so the Jurors
aforesaid upon their Oath said that the said Phillis did at Charlestown
aforesaid of her malice forethought in manner and form aforesaid will-
fully feloniously and traiterously poison kill & murder the said John
Codman her Said master against our Peace Crown & Dignity, and
The Jurors aforesaid upon their Oath further present That Mark a
Negroman of Charlestown aforesaid Labourer and Servant of the said
John Codman before the said Treason and murder aforesaid committed
by the said Phillis in manner and form aforesaid did at Charlestown
aforesaid on the twentieth day of June last of his malice forethought
(the said Mark then being Servant of the said John Codman) felloni-
ously & traiterously advise and incite procure & abet the Said Phillis
to do & commit the said Treason & murder aforesaid against our peace
crown & Dignity (as in Said Indictm* is at large Set forth) upon
which Indictment the said Phillis and Mark were Severally arraigned
and upon their arraignment Severally pleaded not Guilty and for Tryal
put themselves on God and the Country, and Whereas the said Phillis
144 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
& Mark at our Court aforesaid were each of them convict of the
crime respectively alledg'd to be committed by them as aforesaid by
the Verdict of twelve good & lawful men of our Said County and were
by the consideration of our Said Court adjudged to Suffer the Pains of
Death therefor ; as to us appears of Record Execution of which said
Sentence doth still remain to be done we command you therefore that
on Thursday the Eighteenth day of September instant between the
hours of one & Five o*Clock in the day time you cause the said Phillis
to be drawn from our Goal in our County of Middlesex aforesaid
(where she now is) to the place of Execution and there be burnt to
Death & also that on the Same day between the hours of one & five of
the Clock in the day time you cause the Said Mark to be drawn from
our Goal in our County of Middlesex aforesaid (where he now is) to
the place of Execution & there be hanged up by the Neck until he be
dead, & for so doing this shall be your Sufficient Warrant — Hereof
fail not ; and make Return of this writ with your doings therein into
the Clerks Office of our Said Court as soon as may be after you have
Executed the Same Witness Stephen Sewall Esqf at Boston the
sixth day of September in the Twenty ninth Year of our reign Annoque
Domini 1755 —
By Order of Court
Nathaniel Hatch
Middlesex, ss — September the 18^ 1755.
I Executed this warrant as above directed, by causing Phillis to be
burnt to Death, and Mark to be hang*d by the neck until he was dead,
between the hours of one and five a Clock of Said day —
Rich? Foster Sheriff
It is worthy of observation that no such process as a formal
warrant was required for a capital execution by the laws of
England. In the King^s Bench, the prisoner was committed
to the custody of the marshal at the beginning of the trial,
and an award of judgment upon the record was all the au-
thority that that officer had for the execution. Formerly, it
was customary in courts of oyer and terminer, and of jail
delivery, to authorize the execution by a precept under the
hands and seals of three or more commissioners, of whom one,
at least, should be of the quorum ; but this custom had be-
come obsolete at the time of this trial, and only a calendar, or
abstract of the record, subscribed by the judge, was put into
the hands of the sheriff for this purpose ; and such is the
practice in England, I presume, to this day.
Even Blackstone, who is so blind to many gross imperfec-
tions in the jurisprudence of his native country, is forced
to remark, in view of the looseness of procedure in capital
cases, —
1883.] THE MURDER OF CAPTAIN CODMAN. 145
" It may certainly afford matter of speculation that in civil causes
there should be such a variety of writs of execution to recover a tri-
fling debt, issued in the king's name, and under the seal of the court,
without which the sheriff cannot legally stir one step ; and yet that the
execution of a man, the most important and terrible task of any, should
depend upon a marginal note." *
The courts and people of New England were always more
mindful of the sacredness of human life than those of other
nations, save, perhaps, the little community of the Nether-
lands. They also attached great importance to the formal
proceedings by which the ends of justice were reached in
criminal cases. This is well illustrated by an incident that is
recorded relative to the action of the judges of the Superior
Court of the Province when, after the conviction of Richard-
son for the murder of the boy Sneider, in 1770, it became evi-
dent to them that the cause of justice required that they should
intercede to prevent his execution. They were long in doubt
as to the sufficiency of a pardon obtained from the crown
through the recommendation of the Lieutenant-Governor
upon their certificate of its propriety, the only evidence of
the pardon being its insertion in the Newgate Calendar.
Hutchinson relates that *^ they were at length satisfied ; and
the prisoner having been brought into court early in the
morning, when scarcely anybody but the officers of the court
were present, pleaded his Majesty's pardon, and was dis-
charged, and immediately absconded." f
But, to proceed with a definition of the crime committed by
these negroes, and a more particular account of the punish-
ment for petit treason : —
By the statute 25 Edw. III., this crime, which had had a
wider application, was restricted to three classes of cases: 1,
where a servant killed his master or mistress ; 2, where a
wife killed her husband ; 3, where a clergyman killed his
prelate, or the superior to whom he owed canonical obedi-
ence. The sentence in the case of a woman was, that she
be burned to death, and in the case of a man, that he be drawn
to the place of execution and there hanged by the neck until
he be dead. J To mitigate the sufferings of felons at the
* Coram, book iv. cb. 82, p. 403. t Hist. Mass. Bay, vol. iii. p. 287, n.
X By Stat. 22 Hen. VIH. cb. 9, a person of eitber sex, who was convicted of
murdering anotber by poison, was to be boiled to deatb, and tbe offence was, by
the same act, declared high treason ; but this act was repealed by 1 Edw. VI. ch. 12,
after several executions under it, including that of Margaret Davy, who poisoned
her mistress. Though by the common law poisoning was deemed a most atro-
cious circumstance, it did not alter the punishment of the principal crime in-
volved. The law considered only the crime, and not the manner in which it was
committed. 19
146 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
stake, the executioner usually fastened one end of a cord to the
stake, and bringing this cord around the neck of the woman,
pulled it tightly the moment the torch was applied, and con-
tinued the strain until life was extinct, which, unless the cord
was sooner burnt asunder, generally happened before the con-
demned had suffered much from the intensity of the flames.
In cases of high treason, other barbarities were practised
upon the bodies of the criminals ; but these were frequently,
and in cases of persons of distinction, generally, remitted.
Indeed, even the hanging was dispensed with in these latter
cases ; and hence we read of the execution of great prisoners
of state, male and female, by beheading, which, strictly, is a
manner of death unknown to the laws of England, except as
an incident to the principal penalty by hanging or burning.
After the hanging, the body, according to rule, was to be cut
down (if possible, while yet alive), to be eviscerated, then be-
headed, and the trunk and limbs divided into four parts, to
be disposed of as the sovereign should order. By special writ,
under the privy seal, all these circumstances, except decapita-
tion, were, as I have already said, usually omitted.
All male persons convicted whether of high treason or of
petit treason were, unless specially exempted in the manner
I have stated, drawn to the place of execution. This was
originally an ignominious incident of the terrible penalty, and
required that the criminal should be rudely pulled along over
the ground, behind a horse ; later, however, a hurdle or wicker
frame, or a sledge, — that is, as we call it, a sled, — was used,
either from motives of humanity, or in order to prolong the
life of the traitor through subsequent stages of the punish-
ment. Properly, however, women were not to be drawn in
cases of petit treason * until 1790, after the repeal of the law
for burning, for which drawing and hanging were substituted.
Another incident to this punishment, though not peculiar
to it, since it applied to all atrocious felonies, was the gibbet-
ing, or hanging in chains. This was no part of the sentence,
but was performed in accordance with a special order or
direction of the court, given, probably, in most cases, ver-
bally to the sheriff. After execution, the body of the felon
* Hale, p. C, i. 382 ; ii. 397. This was the better opinion, though the law
was uncertain. It will have been noticed that though the judgment against
Phillis was that she go to the place of execution, the warrant required that she
be drawn thither according to the practice in England, which, though sustained
hy the current of authorities, is not sanctioned by the statutes referred to, nor
the cases cited by the commentators, and would have been challenged, proba-
bly, if the cruelties incident thereto had not become obsolete. Comp. Hale,
ut supra, witli Staundf. 182; Lamb. Eiren., 570; 3 Inst. 211; Hawk. P. C, ii.
ch. 48, § 6 ; Black. Comm. iv. 204; and Hale P. C. i. 85i . ii 9m,
1883.] THE MURDER OF CAPTAIN CODMAN. 147
was taken from the gallows and hung upon a gibbet conven-
iently near the place where the fact was committed, there
to remain, until, from the action of the elements, or the rav-
ages of birds of prey, it disappeared. Of the object of this
ghastly feature of capital punishment it is alleged, '* besides
the terror of the example," '' that it is a comfortable sight to
the friends and relations of the deceased " ; but the obvious-
ness of this reason is somewhat lessened by the doubt in which
we are left as to which deceased person, the criminal or his
victim, is referred to. In the case of Mark it is noticeable
that no sentence to the gibbet appears in the record, and I
have found no order for it, or mention of it, in the papers on
file.
Phillis and Mark were executed at the usual place of exe-
cution in Cambridge ; and tfie foUofwing account of the affair
is taken from the Bbston "Evening Post," of Sept. 22,
1755: —
" Thursday last, in the Afternoon, Mark^ a Negro Man, and PhiUis^
a Negro Woman, both Servants to the late Capt. John Codman, of
Oharlestown, were executed at Cambridge, for poisoning their said
Master, as mentioned in this Paper some Weeks ago. The Fellow was
hanged, and the Woman burned at a Stake about Ten Yards distant
from the Gallows. They both confessed themselves guilty of the Crime
for which they suffered, acknowledged the Justice of their Sentence, and
died very penitent. After Execution, the Body of Mark was brought
down to Gharlestown Common, and hanged in Chains, on a Gibbet
erected there for that Purpose."
Frothingham, in his " History of Gharlestown," * quotes this
item from the " Post," and adds, from Dr. Josiah Bartlett's
account of Charlestown,t that '* the place where Mark was
suspended in irons was on the northerly side of Cambridge
Road, about one fourth of a mile above our peninsula." He
also adds, from the same authority, that "Phebe, who was
the most culpable," became evidence against the others, and
that she was transported to the West Indies.
It is very likely that Phebe was transported, as described by
Dr. Bartlett, but there is nothing on record to show that she
was used as a principal witness. Indeed, the answers of
Phillis aiid Mark on their examination are mutually recrimi-
native, and amount to a plenary confession of the crime of
each. Besides, as neither the governor nor the court had any
* Pace 264.
t 2 Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. ii. p. 166, and note.
148 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
authority to grant a pardon for murder,* it is not likely that
any favor was shown to her in accordance with a promise
from either, nor is there any evidence that any lenity was
actually extended to her, except the negative circumstance
that she was not included in the indictment.
This completes the narrative of this remarkable case. The
body of Mark is said by Dr. Bartlett to have remained on the
gibbet '' until a short time before the Revolution." Certain
it is that when Dr. Caleb Rea passed through Charlestown on
the first day of June, 1758, on his way from Dan vers to join
the regiment, of which he had been chosen surgeon, in the
expedition against Ticonderoga, he found the body hanging,
and, having examined it, recorded in his journal that " his
[Mark's] skin was but very little broken, although he had
hung there near three or four years." f
Finally, another patriot, — Paul Revere, — in describing
his famous ride on the 18th of April, 1775, on a still more
important errand, says, "After I had passed Charlestown
Neck, and got nearly opposite where Marie was hung in chains^
I saw two men on horseback under a tree," % &c. ; thus al-
luding to the site of the gibbet as a place well known at
that time, — as undoubtedly it was, to all the country round.
I have said that this is the only case of petit treason to be
found in our records. There was, indeed, an earlier case in
which the penalty of death by burning was inflicted ; but in
regard to that case there is no suggestion anywhere to my
knowledge that the crime of petit treason had been commit-
ted, nor any allegation to that effect in the charge or indict-
ment, nor even a hint that any life was lost by tlie misconduct
of the condemned. § This was the case of Maria, a negress,
* See Hutchinson's Hist. Mass. Bay, vol. iii. p. 287, n. Instances of par-
dons and reprieves occur in our judicial history, but they were invariably granted
in the name of the king, by the commander-in-chief; and, if for a graver offence
than manslaughter, it seems to have been understood that a pardon was not to
be granted without previous express directions from the king. This was in
compliance with a clause in the royal instructions, issued to all the governors,
by which they were enjoined not to remit any fines or forfeitures above £10 in
amount, or to dispose of escheats, without the royal sanction ; forfeiture of
lands and chattels being a consequence of attainder upon conviction of the higher
class of felonies. The commission to Andros expressly excepted treason and
murder from the offences which he was authorized to pardon.
t Hist. Coll. Essex Inst., vol. xviii. p. 88, n.
X Letter of Colonel Revere to Cor. Sec. of Mass. Hist. Soc, Jan. 1, 1798 :
1 Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. v. p. 107.
§ Although the record contains no allegation of loss of life, Increase Mather
states in his diary, under date of Sept. 22, 1681, that a child was burnt to death
in one of the houses set on fire by this negress. Even if this were true, it is not
probable that the relation of master and servant subsisted between the deceased
and Maria, and neither this relation, nor the fact of treason, is averred in the
indictment. See Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc, vol. iii. p. 320.
1883.] THE MUEDER OP CAPTAIN CODMAN. 149
who was executed at Roxbury in 1681. Perhaps it will be
well to give the story of this case as it appears on the records
of the Court of Assistants.*
"Marjat Negro Servant to Joshua Lambe of Roxbury in the
County of Suffolk in New England being presented by the Grand Jury
was Indicted by the name of Marja Negro for no* hauing the feare of
God before hir eyes & being Instigated by the divil at or upon the
eleventh Day of July last in the night did wittingly willirjgly & fello-
niously set on fier the dwelling house of Thomas Swann of sd Roxbury
by taking a coale from vnder a still & carrjed it into another Roome
and layd it on floore neere the doore & presently went & crept into a
hole at a back doore of thy master Lambs house & set it on fier also
taking a Hue coale betweene two chips & carried it into the chimbe' by
which also it was Consumed as by y' Confession will appeare Contrary
to the peace of our Soueraigne Lord the king his croune & dignity
the lawes of this Jurisdiction in that Case made & prouided title firing
of houses = The prisoner at the barr pleaded & acknowledged hirselfe
to be Guilty of ye fact. And accordingly the nex* day being Again
brought to the Barr had sentenc of death pronnonc't ag* hir by the
Honno^^® Gounod that she should Goe from the barr to the prison
whenc she came & thence to the place of execution & there be burn*=
Y® lord be merciful! to thy Soule sd y® Gov."
The case was capital under the act referred to in the record.
The act reads as follows : —
•n Houses ^^^ ^^ ^^^ person of the age aforesaid, [16 years
urning ^^^es. ^^^ upwards] shall after the publication hereof, wittingly
and willingly, and felloniously, set on fire any Dwelling Bouse, Meeting
House^ Store House^ or shall in like manner, set on fire any out-House,
Barn^ Stable, Leanto, Stack of Hay, Corn or Wood, or any thing of like
nature, whereby any Dwelling Bouse, Meeting Bouse or Store Bouse
Cometh to be burnt, the party or parties vehemently suspected thereof,
shall be apprehended by Warrant from one or more of the Magistrates,
and committed to Prison, there to remain without Baile, till
*^'*^' the next Court of Assistants, who upon legal conviction
by due proof, or confession of the Crime, shall adjudge such person or
persons to be put to death, and to forfeit so much of his Lands, Goods
or Chattels, as shall make full satisfaction, to the party or parties
damnified. [1652.] %
It will be observed that the law prescribes no such punish-
ment as was ordered by the Assistants, and how the court
* Boston, Sept. 6, 1681. .
t I have followed Secretary Kawson in his peculiar use of the letter j. See
many similar instances in the Mass. Colony Kecords.
X Mass. Colony Laws, ed. 1672, p. 62.
150 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
were satisfied of the legality of their sentence is to me inex-
plicable, except upon the possible claim that they might right-
fully exercise the expansive discretion which they applied to
the case of the first Quakers, and so supply a deficiency in the
ordinances of the General Court, by administering the lex
talionis^ in this particular instance as a necessary terror to
evil-doers.
The public opinion which permitted the colonial magistrates
to exercise, unchallenged, a discretion not given to them by
positive law, as in this case and that of the first Quakers, and
in the instance of their conviction of a capital crime, of Tom,
the Indian, in 1674,f of whose guilt the jury were doubtful,
cannot be deemed to have enlarged their authority, by cus-
tom^ without a perversion of language and a disregard of
fundamental distinctions relative to the nature and source of
la W.J
Two other negroes who were suspected of complicity
with Maria were ordered to be transported. The record is
as follows : —
" Chessaieer ne- Chessalecr negro servant to Tho. Walker brickmaker
gros Sentence " jjq^ {^ Goale on suspition of Joyning w*^ Marja Negro in
Burning of D"^ Swans' & Lambs houses in Rox-
bury in July last The Court on Consideration of the
* Exodus xxi. 25. *' In all criminall offences, where the law hath prescribed
no certaine penaltie, the judges have power to inflict penalties, according to the
rule of God's word/' — Declaration of the General Court : Hutch. Coll. Papers,
p. 207. And see the first article of the Colonial "Liberties/' in Mass. Hist.
Coll., vol. viii. p. 216.
t Records of the Court of Assistants, 1674, p. 14.
X By the stat. 8 Hen. VI. ch. 6, the burning of houses, after a threat to do
so if money be not paid, &c., was made high treason, and the incendiary suffered
as any other traitor; that is, if a woman, she was burned to death. But this
statute was repealed in the reign of Edward VI., as regards the treason, and the
offence remained felony as at the common law, and punishable by hanging only.
That mistaken notions as to the nature of penalties to be inflicted in crimi-
nal cases, and as to the authority of the bench to impose unusual punishments,
were not solely entertained in this distant colony, and among men not bred to
the law, may be shown by many instances in the English law-books. One of
the most notable is Sir Edw. Coke's reference to the case of Peter Burchet, a
prisoner in the Tower, — who slew his keeper with a billet of wood, which drew
blood, — as an authority for inflicting the additional punishment of cutting off the
hand (under the stat. 33 Hen. VIII.) in the case of murder perpetrated in the
king's palace, when attended with bloodshed. In Elderton's case, Chief Justice
Holt, whose habits of thorough research were not less remarkable than his abso-
lute fairness and honesty, said, " I have searched for the case cited [as Jones's
case] about killing a man in the Tower. It is Burdelt and Muskett's case. Being
dissatisfied with niy Lord Coke's report of it, therefore I sent for the record, . . .
and there is judgment of death given, but no judgment that his right hand should
be cut off". It is indeed so related in Stowe's Chronicle, and in fact his hand was
cut off, but there was no judgment for it." Compare 3 Inst., ch. 65 (p. 140 1)
with 2 Ld. Raym., 978, 982.
1883.] THE MURDER OF CAPTAIK CODMAN. 151
Case Judged it meet to orde^ that he be kept in prison
till his master send him out of the country & then dis-
chardg y® charges of Imprisonment wch if he refuse to doe
aboue one moneth the country Tresurer is to see it donne
& when y^ chardges be defrayd to returne the ouerplus to
y® sd Walker
p mb - '^^^ ^^^^ Judgment & sentenc was declard against
ton! negro Jame^ Pcmbc^'ton's negro in all respects as ag* Chessaleer
sentence ^^^^.^ ^^^„ ^
Still another negro was convicted, at the same term of the
court, of the crime of arson, and ordered to be hanged, and
afterwards consumed to ashes in the same fire with Maria, as
appears by the following record : —
" Jack negro servant to IVP Samuel Woolcot of Weath-
e'sfield thou art Jndicted by the name of Jack Negro for
no* hauing the feare of God before thy eyes being Insti-
gated by the Divill did at or upon the foureteenth day of
July last 1681 wittingly & felloniously sett on fier Leif-
tehat W"' Clark s house in North Hampton, by taking a Jack negro Jn-
brand of fier from the hearth and swinging it vp & doune tenc^ ^^'
for to find victualls as by his confession may Appeare Con-
trary to the peace of ou*" Soueraigne Lord the King his
Croune & dignity the lawes of God & of this Jurisdiction
in that case made & prouided title firing of houses page
(52) to wch Jndictment at the barr he pleaded not Guilty,
& Afiirmd he would be trjed by God & the Country and
after his Confessions &c were read to him & his ownig
thereof were Comitted to the Jury who brought him in
Guilty and the nex* day had his sentence pronounct agt
him by the Gouernor that he should goe from the barr to
the place whence he came & there be hang*^ by the neck
till he be dead & then taken doune & burnt to Ashes in the
fier w*^ Marja Negro = The Lord be mercifull to thy soule
sajd the Gouerno'' " t
There was some excuse for the latter part of this sentence,
for since the offence was an atrocious felony, such as in Eng-
land would subject the offender to an infamous punishment,
it seemed proper to attach something more of ignominy to his
sentence than the mere execution by hanging.
Our forefathers of the colonial period regarded the Mosaic
law as of too sacred obligation to be impaired in the least de-
* Record of the Court of Assistants, ubi supra, pp. 138, 139.
t Ibid.
162 MASSACHUSETTS HISTOKICAL SOCIETY. [Mab.
gree ; much more to be expressly contravened by the courts
of justice in respect to the command, —
" And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to
be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain
all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day ;
(for he that is hanged is accursed of God ; ) that thy land be not
defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance." *
— they, therefore, by an ordinance passed in 1641, had re-
quired that the body of every executed criminal should be
buried within twelve hours after death, except in cases of
anatomy, which prevented the possibility of hanging in chains
after the English fashion ; and the only way in which they
could set a mark of infamy upon the deceased criminal, with-
out a breach of the colonial ordinance as well as of the divine
law, was to burn the body.f
But this tendency to a strict adherence to the laws of
Israel disappeared early in the provincial period, under the
operation of the same causes which led to the abandonment
of those rugged metaphrases of the Psalms of David, and of
the song of Deborah and Barak, &c., contained in the Bay
Psalm-Book, for the smoother though less literal version of
Tate and Brady and the presumptuous ''Imitations " of Dr.
Watts. When, therefore, under the new charter the offence
called for it according to the custom of England, the gibbet
was erected ; and though the occasions for its employment
were very rare, the report of sundry instances of its use has
come down to us, as in the case of the pirates whose bodies
hung in chains, from time to time, on the now vanished Bird
Island in Boston Harbor, a locality as near the place where the
fact was committed as could conveniently be used. I confess I
find it impossible to understand whence the provincial judges
claimed to derive their authority for ordering the bodies of
criminals to be hung in chains. We have seen that, even
if our fathers brought with them the right to exercise this
authority, they soon enacted provisions entirely inconsistent
with the practice ; and I am not aware of any subsequent act
of parliament, extending to the Colonies, that restored the
* Deut. xxi. 22, 23.
t Tlie ordinary punishment for all capital felonies during the colonial regime
seems to have been simply hanging. Heretics and witches were subjected to no
severer penalty ; and in 1674, Robert Driver, who was convicted of murdering
his master, Robert Williams of Piscataqua, and who thus incurred the penalty
for petit treason, was sentenced to be " hanged by the neck until he be dead."
— See Records of the Court of Assistants.
1883.] THE MUEDEB OF CAPTAIN CODMAN. 153
authority ; and certainly there was no law of the Province to
that effect.
I ought not to dismiss this subject without adding some-
thing to the brief allusion already made to the comparative
mildness of the laws of Massachusetts in respect to capital
punishment. The execution of Mark and Phillis took place
just about the time that Blackstone was delivering his lectures
at Oxford, which have since given him an enduring and world-
wide fame as a commentator on the laws of England. This
elegant defender and apologist for English laws and customs,
in his commentaries, admits, seemingly with reluctance and
regret, that there then existed on the statute-books of Eng-
land no less than one hundred and sixty capital offences. At
that time the number of capital offences in Massachusetts was
less than one-tenth this number, if we exclude those made so
by the acts relating to military offenders in actual service, and
felonies on the high seas, and a few others, which, like the
latter, were created by including among capital crimes certain
offences which, though theretofore exempt from the death
penalty by special circumstances and technical rules, had
always been capitally punished when committed under other
and not less justifiable circumstances.
Said Isaac Backus, whom I find to be a very trustworthy
authority, in a letter to this Society, under date of Feb. 20,
1794, " There has not been any person hanged in Plymouth
County for above these sixty years past." * More than a
century earlier, John Dunton mentions a sermon of Mather's,
preached at the execution of '' Morgan, the only person exe-
cuted in that country [Massachusetts] for near seven years."!
He must, however, I think, have forgotten the case of Maria,
the negro woman.
Again, when the English riot act (1 Geo. I. stat. 2, ch. 5)
was substantially adopted by the Province in. 1751, the legis-
lature studiously avoided the harshness of the former act by
substituting forfeiture of lands and chattels, and whipping
and imprisonment, for the death penalty .J
In 1761 Governor Bernard vainly labored with his utmost
zeal to secure the passage of an act or acts making it felony,
without benefit of clergy, to forge public and private secu-
rities or vouchers for money, or to coin or counterfeit the cur-
* 1 Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. iii. p. 152.
t Ibid., 2d series, vol. ii. p. 102.
X Compare provincial statute 1750-51, ch. 17 (Prov. Laws, vol. iii. p. 540),
with the act of parliament referred to.
20
154 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
rent money of the Province. He sent a special message upon
the subject to the Assembly, in which he stated : —
" In regard to the popular prejudices against capital punishments
which have hitherto prevailed in this country, I shall only say that at
present they are very ill-timed. Whilst the people of this country
lived from hand to mouth, aud had very little wealth but what was con-
fined among themselves, a simple system of laws might be proper, and
capital punishments might in a great measure be avoided ; but when by
the acquisition, diffusion, and general intercourse of wealth, the temp-
tations to fraud are abundantly increased, the terrors of it must be
also proportionably enlarged; otherwise if, through a false tenderness
for wicked men, the laws should not be sufficient to protect the pro})-
erty of the honest and industrious, the rights of the latter are given up
to the former, and the undue mercy shown to the one becomes a real
injury to the other. To instance this, I need only say that I have no
doubt but that if these crimes had been capital some years ago, and
usually punished as such, they would not have been committed at all
at the present time."
The Governor's opinion, however, was not borne out by the
experience of the British government in its dealings with
crime. There, it was made a capital felony to steal in a dwell-
ing-house to the amount of 40s., or, privately, in a shop, goods
to the value of 5s., or to counterfeit stamps that were used
for the sale of perfumery, or such as were used for the certifi-
cates of hair-powder ; and yet, notwithstanding this severity,
all who considered the subject thoughtfully found that the
increase of capital crimes more than kept pace with the in-
crease of laws creating them ; and this became so alarmingly
evident that at length the conservative opposition to reform
was overborne, and Sir Samuel Romilly and his coadjutors
began those changes which have continued in the same direc-
tion to the present day. Before the reform was established,
however, executions became so frequent that it was not un-
common for citizens to avoid certain parts of London and its
environs on account of the intolerable odor, there, of decay-
ing human bodies, hung in chains by the highways and before
the doors of citizens.
Still the judges rode their circuits, leaving briefly minuted
" calendars " in the hands of the executioners, who erected
close behind them the gallows and the gibbet as monuments
of their dispensation of ''justice." Barristers bandied repar-
tees and cracked jokes over good dinners, and Serjeants hob-
nobbed with their brethren of the bench and of the coif,
apparently unconcerned at the responsible part they were
1883.] THE MUKDER OF CAPTAIN CODMAN. 155
enacting in this awful drama ; while the poor rabble put on
their best attire on the days of execution, and liberally patron-
ized the venders of cakes and ale who, near the gallows,
erected booths as on other gala days, — many of the specta-
tors, no doubt, thinking that it would not be so bad a thing,
after all, if it came their turn next to better their desperate
condition by swinging on the newly contrived gallows, on
which ten criminals could be hanged together.*
Alas ! well may we ask with astonishment if it is possible
that such a state of society really existed in the England of
Hannah More, of Sir William Jones and Edmund Burke, —
the land throughout which the Wesleys were preaching and
singing to eager multitudes of the free grace and abounding
mercy of God ; where the pious Cowper was pleading for the
relief of " insolvent innocence," and Clarkson and Wilberforce
and Granville Sharp w^ere rousing the public mind to the
evils of slavery in distant colonies !
The case of petit treason which we have been considering
occurred nine years before Beccaria startled all Europe with
'' the code of humanity," — his treatise on crimes and punish-
ments ; yet had he known of our experience in this Province,
he could have pointed to Massachusetts as the strongest practi-
cal illustration of the truth of his theory, that it is not neces-
sary to multiply extreme penalties in order to prevent crime,
but that we are to look for the amelioration of manners and
the diminution of public and private wrongs to the mental
and moral education of the people rather than to the terrors
of the law.
In 1777, when the Revolutionary War was beginning to
assume its gravest aspect, and when the hopes of traitors
were reviving, the barbarous incidents of the punishment for
treason were abolished by the legislature of Massachusetts,
and this crime was made punishable simply by hanging.
Eight years later the distinction between petit treason and
murder was abolished, — an improvement of the criminal code
in which we were followed by Great Britain five years later
still.f
* See a picture of the new gallows, in the illustrated " Newgate Calendar."
t The Massachusetts act is as follows : —
" Whereas it does not appear reasonable any longer to continue the distinc-
tion between the crimes of murder and petit treason :
" Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court
assembled, and by the authority of the same. That from and after the passing
of this act, in all cases wherein heretofore any person or persons would have
been deemed or taken to have committed the crime of petit treason, such per-
son or persons shall be deemed and taken to have committed the crime of mur-
156 MASSACHUSETTS HISTOBICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
So that it was possible that our good city of Boston might
have been disgraced by one of these horrible executions as
late as 1785, and that a delicate woman could, with all the
solemnity of legal forms, have been publicly burned to death
at Tyburn as late as 1790.
In point of fact such executions occurred in England long
after the burning of Phillis. A memorable case is that of
Anne Beddingfield, who was burned for petit treason at
Riishmore, near Ipswich, in 1763.
In 1813 the last of the minor infamous punishments, such
as whipping, branding, the stocks, the pillory, cutting off ears,
slitting noses, boring tongues, &c., were abolished in this
Commonwealth.
As for hanging in chains, I cannot find when the custom was
discontinued in Massachusetts. I do not remember to have
read of an instance of this kind since the adoption of the
Constitution, though I have made no special search for such
an instance. Some of my hearers may be able to refer me
definitely to the time and reason of the change.
In England, by the stat. 25 Geo. IL, ch. 35 (1752), which
was three years before the execution at Cambridge, provision
was made that hanging in chains should be included in the
sentence to be pronounced by the court against all persons
convicted of murder, and that the sentence should be exe-
cuted on the next day but one after it was pronounced. This
was changed by the stat. 9 Geo. IV., ch. 31, so as to give the
court a discretion to order hanging in chains or dissection ;
and the next year this act was extended to Ireland. By" the
stat. 2 & 3 Wm. IV., ch. 75, the court was authorized to order
the body to be hung in chains or buried ; and, finally, by the
stat. 4 & 5 of Wm. IV., ch. 26 (July 25, 1834), all laws re-
quiring bodies to be hung in chains were repealed.
No such sudden punishment as that prescribed by the act
of parliament of the 25 Geo. II., could be legally inflicted
here, — at least during the colonial period ; for the colonial
ordinance of 1641 required that four days at least should
intervene between judgment and execution.
The only barbarous treatment of the bodies of criminals
authorized by law in Massachusetts since the adoption of the
Constitution, that I am aware of, was prescribed by the act of
1784, to discourage the practice of duelling, which revived
some of the provisions of a law of the Province, passed in
der only, and indicted and prosecuted to final judgment accordingly ; and the
same punishment only shall be inflicted as in the case of murder. — [This act
passed March 16, 1785.] "
1883.] PROVINCIAL SEALS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 157
1728, denying duellists the right to be buried in a coffin, and
requiring the coroner or executioner to see that their bodies
be interred near the place of execution, or in the public
highway, with a stake driven through them.*
Now, happily, capital punishment is restricted in this Com-
monwealth and in England to two offences only ; and while,
here, even high treason is punishable simply by imprisonment,
in England, strong efforts have been repeatedly made, and
recently with a fair prospect of ultimate success, to induce
parliament to imitate our example and take away the death
penalty from this the highest crime known to the common
law.
Mr. Jenks exhibited a contemporary broadside ballad on
the execution of these slaves, belonging to the Bostonian
Society, whose officers had kindly lent it to him for this
purpose.
Mr. WiNSOR presented one of a few copies of an engraving
of a new map of New Sweden made by Professor Gregory B.
Keen, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, who
has compiled it from material in the archives at Stockholm,
and from local remains on the Delaware. It is a much more
accurate presentation of the geography of the Swedes' colony
on the Delaware than any ever before made.
Mr. GooDELL, in presenting to the members photo-litho-
graphs of the court seals used in Massachusetts during the
provincial period, made the following remarks: f —
No attempt is known to have been made to preserve the
shapes and devices of the seals of the colonial and provincial
courts of justice. As the use of such seals was made imper-
ative by law, and as they were essential to the proper au-
thentication of writs and other processes, they are of such
importance, both juridically and historically, as to make the
labor of restoring them profitable, as well as deeply interest-
ing, and to entitle a full and exact account of them to an
honorable place in our Proceedings.
Whether the account which follows, and the accompanying
lithographs, are thus deserving, depends upon the degree of
thoroughness and accuracy attained by the author in his in-
vestigations, and also upon his skill — - as a tyro, rather than
* Compare act of June 30, 1784, with Prov. Stat. 1728-29, ch. 15: Prov,
Laws, vol. ii. p. 616.
t The Society is indebted to Mr. Goodell for the photo-lithographs of these
seals here inserted. — Eds.
158 MASSACHUSETTS HISTOBICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
an amateur — in the art of pen-and-ink drawing. Of these
others must judge.
Of the original stamps, or mounted dies, used by the clerks
to impress these seals, only four are known to be in existence ;
namely, those of the Superior Court of Judicature, of the com-
mon-law county-courts of Plymouth and Essex, and of the
Probate Court of Plymouth County. The Essex county-
courts seal dates back, certainly, to the time of Andros, as
appears by its impression in wax on the original printed writs
of capias and summons returnable to the Inferior Court of
Common Pleas for that county in 1687.
No. 1 of the accompanying lithographic representations of
seals is, as the abbreviated Latin inscription signifies,* the
seal of the Superior Court of Judicature already referred to.
This court was first erected by the act of Nov. 2 >, 1692,f but,
having ceased to exist by reason of the disallowance of this
act, by the Privy Council, J it was revived, and continued to
the end of the May session of the General Court of 1(397, by
the act of Oct. 3, 1696,§ when it was reconstituted under the
name of the '' Superiour Court of Judicature, Court of Assize,
and General Goal Delivery." This last act,l| and the reviving
act of 1696, were disallowed by the Privy Council, Nov. 24,
1698. Upon receiving notice of this last disallowance, Gov-
ernor Bellomont, early in the May session of the General Court
of 1699, urged the Assembly to take immediate steps to re-
establish the court, and, accordingly, another act was passed^
erecting a court with the same title. Thus organized, it con-
tinued in existence until the' adoption of the Constitution.
The jurisdiction of the Superior Court was coextensive
with the territory of the Province, and it had '' cognizance of
all pleas, real, personal, or mixt, as well all pleas of ihe Crown,
and all matters relating to the conservation of the peace and
punishment of offenders, as civil causes, or actions i)etween
party and party, and between his Majesty and any of ])is sub-
jects, whether the same do concern the realty and relate to
any right of freehold and inheritance, or whether the same do
concern the personalty and relate to matter of debt, contract,
damage, or personal injury ; and also all mixt actions which
concern both realty and personalty brought before them by
* Siqllliim Curice Supcrions ex Provincia Massachusetts-Bay, Novce Anglico.
t 1692-3, oil. 33, § : Province Laws, vol. i. p. 73.
} Aug. 22, 1605, The date of the letter communicating official notice of the
disallovvauce is Dec. 26, 1695.
§ Province Laws, 1696, cb. 6.
j) Ibid., 1697, ch. 9. IF Ibid., 1699-1700, cli. 3.
1883.] PROVINCIAL SEALS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 159
appeal, review, writ of error, or otherwise, as the law directs;
and, generally, of all other matters, as fully and amply, to all
intents and purposes, whatsoever, as the courts of King's
Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer within his majesty's
kingdom of England have or ought to have." *
AH these acts required that all the processes and writs of
the court should issue out of the clerk's office, either " under
the seal of said office" or "under the seal of said court."
Accordingi}^ we find that a seal of the design here depicted
was used from the first organization of the court until the
period of the Revolution, when it was discontinued, and other
miscellaneous devices were used ; such as an antique head,
and, occasionall}^ what appears to be the head of Charles
Townshend, and, again, the arms of the Cushings, and of
other families, and St. George and the Dragon, — very similar
to, if not identical with, the seal shown in No. 23, — though
this last device does not appear to have been used after the
Declaration of Independence. The use of these miscellaneous
seals was continued until about 1785, when the present seal,
— issuing from a cloud, a hand holding a pair of scales in
equipoise, with the motto, " Nulli negahimus^ nulli vendemus
justitiam^^' — appears to have been adopted, although I have
been unable to find any record of its adoption. f
I have mentioned the fact that the original seal of the Supe-
rior Court is still in existence. Of this fact I was not aware
until after my drawings had gone to the lithographer, when,
while conversing upon the general subject of court seals, in
the presence of Mr. John Ward Dean, that modest and accom-
plished antiquary put into my hands the veritable original,
which had been intrusted to his keeping by an officer of the
Dorchester Antiquarian Societ}^ which is the owner or depos-
itary of this interesting treasure. The mingled emotions of
surprise, delight, and veneration with which I regarded this
almost miraculously preserved relic of provincial times — the
faint and broken impressions of which I had for more than
twenty years made the subject of desultory but deeply curious
study with a view to its pei'fect restoration — can be better
* Province Laws, 1699-1700, ch. 3, § 1.
t I found in the possession of the late Geo. W. Jenks, clerk of the courts for
Nantucket, an ancient die, — which had been recut on the back, for a notary pub-
lic, — bearing tlie device of an Indian facing to the right and holding a bow, with
the inscription, " S. J. Court. Massachusetts." This suggested the interesting
inquiry, which I am unable to answer, whether or not such a seal was adopted
by tlie Supreme Judicial Court before the present seal. A careful, though not
exliaustive, search among the files of this court has disclosed no evidence of its
use.
160 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
imagined than described. This was the seal that — through
what unknown vicissitudes during nearly two centuries —
had come to my hand from the hand of Jonathan Ellatson,
the first clerk. With this instrument the first original pro-
cess that issued from the Superior Court was sealed, and this
identical seal was impressed upon the Writs of Assistance.
S tough ton, the first chief justice in the days of William and
Mary, and Peter Oliver, the last chief justice under George
III., have looked down upon this bit of wood and silver in
the hands of the earlier or later clerks ; and so, doubtless,
have good old Samuel Sewall, and his nephew, Stephen, and
the two Lyndes, — father and son, — and the learned Edmund
Trowbridge and William Gushing. Newton and Bullivant,
no doubt, and Overing and Auchmuty, Read and Pratt, Jer-
emy Gridley and James Otis, John Adams and Josiah Quincy,
have toyed with this same little instrument while chatting
with the clerks or nervously addressing the court. And yet,
after more than a century of disuse, and after the fact of its
ever having existed is so far forgotten that not even a tradi-
tion of its use lingers in the clerk's office or is known to a
judge upon the bench, it is here * before us, of the same mate-
rials, and substantially as it appeared when the judges ap-
pointed by Sir William Phips first opened court in Boston.
The device is a portcullis, with chains appendant.!
No. 2 is the first seal of the Gourt of Vice- Admiralty estab-
lished for the district of Boston. It bears the date. May 1,
1716, and from the interior inscription, which appears to be an
abbreviation of ^^ per curiam^'" it was probably designed by
the court, which modestly adopted as its device one of the
three anchors on the seal of the High Gourt of Admiralty in
England.
* The original seal was produced at this meeting, and handed around for
examination.
t This device, which is strictly heraldic, was adopted by Henry VII. in token
of his descent from the house of Beaufort, on whose escutcheon it was originally
borne. He added the motto, Altera securitas, "implying that, as a portcullis is
an additional defence to a gate, so his descent from the Beaufort family [which
is traceable to John of Gaunt] afforded him an additional title to the crown."
From tlie time of Elizabeth — if not from that of the first of the Tudors — it has
been the principal badge on the collar of SS worn by the Lords Chancellors and
Lords Chief Justices of England. The identical collar worn by Sir Edward Coke,
and bearing tliis badge, was in the possession of Mr. Justice Coleridge as lately
as 1876. In pictures of the High Court of Chancery and Court of King's Bench
of the time of Henry VI., or earlier, preserved in illuminated MSS., the justices,
though clad in scarlet robes and the coif, do not wear collars, nor is the port-
cullis represented in the escutcheons on the walls of the court-rooms. Sir
Thomas More, who was appointed Lord Chancellor in 1530, and whose portrait
was painted by Holbein, is represented as wearing the collar containing this
badge.
1883.] PEOVINCIAL SEALS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 161
No. 3 is the seal of the Supreme Court of Probate, and is
remarkable as the first use, on a court seal in Massachusetts, of
the figure of Justice, or of the scales. By the Province char-
ter the Governor and Council were empowered to '' doe exe-
cute or performe all that is necessary for the Probate of Wills
Granting of Administracons for touching or concerning any
Interest or Estate which any person or persons shall have
within our said Province or Territory." For a short time
after the charter went into operation the Governor and Coun-
cil exercised probate jurisdiction for the entire Province ; but
on the 18th of June, 1692, judges and registers of probate
were appointed for the four principal counties, Suffolk, Essex,
Middlesex, and Hampshire, without any enabling act of the
legislature, but by a delegation of judicial functions, according
to the civil law, the rules of which were followed in the ec-
clesiastical courts. This delegation of judicial functions was
continued during the provincial period until probate courts
were established in all the counties, and recognized by the
legislature in numerous acts enlarging or defining their juris-
diction, establishing the fees of their judges and registers, and
providing for the security of heirs, distributees, and creditors,
and for the faithful p'erformance of duty by executors, admin-
istrators, and other appointees of these courts.
That these inferior ecclesiastical tribunals were supposed to
authenticate their peculiar processes by official seals, appears
not only from the actual practice of these courts, but also
from the act of Nov. 1, 1692, for the punishment of criminal
offenders,* which exempted judges and registers of probate
from liability to conviction of forgery for innocently affixing
" their seal of office " to any forged will. Of these seals par-
ticular details will be given hereafter.
Appeals from the probate courts lay to the Governor and
Council as the Supreme Court of Probate, which, after the
establishment of the county tribunals, retained, or rather
exercised, only this appellate jurisdiction. No attempt
seems to have been made by the Governor and Council to
separate the performance of their judicial functions from
their ordinary transactions in their executive capacity until
Feb. 9, 1760, when, at the instance of Governor Pownall,
who prepared and laid before the Council an elaborate ac-
count of their probate jurisdiction,! they formally organized
* Province Laws, 1692-93, ch. 18, § 8.
t See this message of Governor Pownall's, printed in Appendix HL to
Quincy's Mass. Reports, p. 673.
21
162 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
a Supreme Court of Probate, and adopted the seal here
depicted.*
No. 4. This most interesting seal is remarkable as being the
first seal ever adopted by a judicial court in Massachusetts.
It was designed in 1680,1 to be used on the probate letters
issued from the Suffolk County-Court, and in 1692 was adopted
as the seal of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, and the
Court of General Sessions of the Peace for that county. The
only impressions of this seal that I have discovered being
upon paper, over a wafer, and either lightly made, or else
much affected by time, I had great difficulty in making it
out. However, by comparing many impressions, I was, for-
tunately, able to ascertain, with sufficient accuracy, even the
most obscure details of the device and inscription.
No. 5 is the seal of the Probate Court for Suffolk County,
as shown by the legend, in abbreviated Latin. | Seventy-two
different impressions of this seal, selected from files contained
in more than fifty-six hundred envelopes, were carefully
studied and compared in order to accurately ascertain the
details of the device and the surrounding inscription. The
swan is an ancient heraldic royal device used even by Ed-
ward III., but chiefly by the Henrys, IV. and V., who derived
it from the Bohuns. No special reason for its adoption here
has been discovered.
No. 6 is the seal of the common-law courts of Essex County,
and is a monogram for " Essex." Over the monogram is a
legless bird, and beneath it a fleur-de-lys, each between two
* " Ordered, likewise, that there be a seal provided and appropriated to the
use of this court/' — Order in Council: Ibid.
t I must acknowledge my indebtedness to John Coffin Jones Brown, Esq., for
this important item. Since the meeting at which the accompanying lithographs
were exhibited, Mr. Brown referred me to the following entry in the Records
of the County Court : " At a County Court, held at Boston, 25 January, A^.
1680 [-1] Present, S^ Bradstreet, Esqr., Govr,
Wm. Stoughton ^
Joseph Dudley
Hump''. Dayie
John Richards
Samuel Nowell
John Hull
Ordered, that the Gierke provide a Seale for the Courts use to annex to pro-
bate of wills and grants of Adm"*"* the circumference thereof to bee the same of a
Shilling and a Ship engraven thereon with this inscription Sigillum Comitatus
SUFFOLCI^."
Mr. Brown also called my attention to the resemblance between this seal and
the Admiralty seal of Boston, in Lincolnshire, Eng., the device on which he has
incorporated in the seal which he ingeniously designed for the Bostonian
Society.
X Sigillum Comitatus Suffolcice, in Nova Ang/ia, de Probatione Testa mentorum : —
The seal of the Probate of Wills for the County of Suffolk in New England.
Esq"
1883.] PROVINCIAL SEALS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 163
groups of dots, which may have been intended for roses or,
possibly, estoiles. This ancient seal, which, as I have already
said, is still in existence, though somewhat changed by wear
and occasional recutting, is now used as the seal of the Board
of County Commissioners, which succeeds to the administrative
functions of the old Court of Sessions. It was originally de-
signed for the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, as has already
been said. Later, it was impressed upon the subpoenas and
other processes issued by Stephen Sewall, clerk of the Special
Court of Oyer and Terminer, before which the persons accused
of witchcraft were tried in 1692 ; although the warrant for
the execution of Bridget Bishop — and, perhaps, all the other
"death-warrants" — was sealed with the private arms of
Stoughton, the chief justice.
Upon the establishment of the Court of Common Pleas and
Court of Sessions, in 1692, it was adopted b}^ them, and con-
tinued in use as the seal of those courts until they were
abolished.
No. 7 is the seal of the Probate Court for Essex County,
and was adopted at the time of the establishment of the court.
The device — a lion rampant — still appears on the seal of
that court, though, since the Revolution, the legend '* County
of Essex " has been substituted for the Latin inscription of
the original seal.
No. 8 is the seal of the common-law courts of Middlesex
County. The admirable condition in which the files of the
Inferior Court of Common Pleas and of the Court of Ses-
sions for that county are kept enables us easily to trace the
use of this seal back to 1692-93, but the loss of the more an-
cient files of the County Court leaves us in doubt as to its
earlier use. Samuel Phips, the first clerk under the Charter,
occasionally sealed warrants and subpoenas of the Court of
Sessions with a stamp on which his initials were cut enclosed
in a circle.
In the seal here depicted the illiterate seal-cutter omitted a
" d " in '' Middlesex," and evidently intended " Registry "
by the anomalous word "• Regisley."
No. 9 is the seal of the Probate Court for Middlesex County.
A naturalist would hardly be able to classify the bird here
represented. The device intended was, undoubtedly, in the
language of the heralds, '' a pelican vulning herself." The
absence in this case of the characteristic pouch of the pelican
is not more remarkable than the absence of one of the two
legs characteristic of all perfect birds. If the "gouts" of
blood that are represented as falling from her self-inflicted
164 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
wounds were nourishing her brood around her, she would be
described by the heralds as " in her piety," and the appro-
priateness of this device, for a probate court, might then be
more apparent; but it is difficult to understand why the
attention of the afflicted petitioners to the Probate Court of
Middlesex should have been officially called to this example
of wanton self-injury.
No. 10 is the seal of the common-law courts of Plymouth
County. It is still preserved by the Clerk of the Courts,
though not in use. This is fortunate, since the ancient files
of the clerk's office were recently almost totally destroyed by
fire. On a few of the scattered papers of early date that were
saved from the fire, I was, by the kindness of their possessors,
enabled to discover the impression of this seal, and to observe
that it has undergone but very slight change since 1692.
No. 11 is the seal of the Probate Court for Plymouth County.
As the legend implies, the person here represented as kneel-
ing is the '' relicta^'' or widow. She holds in her left hand the
extended hand of her " orphan " child, and in her right hand,
what — though it more nearly resembles a fan, or bunch of
cigars — must have been intended to represent a petition to
the judge. The antique costume of these figures is noticeable,
and might be referred to a period much earlier than the date
of the establishment of the Probate Court in this county ; I
have not, however, found an instance of the use of this seal
before 1707. It was probably adopted by the first judge of
this court, about 1702, and is still in the custody of the Reg-
ister of Probate. The present seal of the same court exhibits
the same legend and device, though the latter, aesthetically,
is much improved.
No. 12 is the seal of the common-law courts of Bristol
County. It bears date 1687, whiah, no doubt, is the date of
its adoption, although the first instance of its use on record is
Nov. 28, 1689, while Stephen Burton was clerk. Like the
other county seals herein described, it was used for the Infe-
rior Court of Common Pleas and Court of General Sessions
of the Peace, until they were superseded by the Circuit
Court of Common Pleas.
No. 13 is the Probate Court seal of Bristol County. This
drawing was made from nine fragmentary impressions on wax,
discovered in a careful search through more than twenty-eight
hundred different envelopes of the filed papers of this court.
The results of this careful scrutiny left nothing for conjecture
except the first three letters of the word *' county," which
were not on either of the fragments found. No instance of
1883.] PROVINCIAL SEALS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 165
the use of this seal has been discovered before 1755, and from
the comparatively mo'dern appearance of the letters of the in-
scription, as well as from the neatness of the workmanship, I
should suppose it to be not older than 1750.
This seal evidently represents a probate court in session.
The judge, wearing a curled wig, sits at the left, in his gown
and bands, holding a book or paper in his left hand, which he
keeps open with his right hand, while on his left, and behind
a table, sits the register. On this table is an inkstand in
which a quill-pen stands upright. Another pen, and a book
or fold of paper, lie before the register, whose left arm is ex-
tended upon the table while with his right hand he is pass-
ing to the judge a folded letter. In the background, between
the judge and the register, is a Doric column or pilaster, and
between this and the judge is a casement, or window, with
lozenge-shaped panes. A parquetry j&oor extends from the
edge of the table-cloth — which hangs in folds nearly to the
floor — to the extreme front of the foreground. The whole
design presents a curious and interesting picture of what may
be fairly considered an actual scene in New England in the
middle of the eighteenth century, or earlier.
There was considerable irregularity in the use of seals in
the Probate Court of Bristol before and after the earliest
known instance of the employment of the seal here depicted.
Other seals were used by the same officers who used this seal.
Thus, Judge Blagrove, — 1729-44, — or his register, Stephen
Paine, used a shield, with an inscribed heart nearly filling the
field, and an estoile of eight points, or rays, for a crest ; and
Judge Leonard, or his son, the register of the same name,
after 1747, used different armorial devices, — sometimes a
double-headed eagle, displayed, and sometimes a lion ram-
pant, with his name, '' George Leonard," circumscribed ; he
also used a small seal representing a lymphad, or other vessel,
opposite a port flanked with towers, and superscribed, " Porto
Bello."
No. 14 is the seal of the common-law courts of Worcester
County. A seal of substantially the same design is still used
by the County Commissioners, and is known as the county
seal. An enlarged representation of it hangs on the wall of
the law library in Worcester. It continued to be used for the
Inferior Court of Common Pleas and Court of Sessions from
1731, when the county was established, until those courts
were superseded ; and some of the best impressions of it
may be seen on writs filed in the clerk's office in the years
1812-15.
166 MASSACHUSETTS HISTOEICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
No. 15 is the seal of the Probate Court of Worcester
County. The bird here intended I conceive to be a turkey,
though neither nature nor the heralds have anywhere pro-
duced its archetype. The peculiar fitness of this device as
an emblem for this county and court is not obvious on its
face, nor have I been able to discover any further facts relat-
ing to its adoption, than that it was used by the first appointed
officers of the Probate Court. After the Revolution it was
disused, and has long been forgotten by the probate officers
and even by the antiquaries.
No. 16, as appears by the inscription,* is, strictly, the seal
of the Probate Court for Hampshire County, — which origi-
nally included Berkshire, Hampden, and Franklin, — but it
appears to have been, also, the only seal used by the Inferior
Court of Common Pleas and of the Court of Sessions for that
large territory. It dates back, undoubtedly, to 1692, when the
Probate Court in Hampshire County was first established.
No. 17 was drawn from a fragment of what is supposed to
have been the original Probate Court seal of Nantucket
County. Of the impressions of this seal, — all of which are
indistinct and fragmentary, — it is possible that the more per-
fect ones may have been made by applying the seal twice, so
as to partly overlay a former impression, thus rendering the
inscription more obscure, and producing the appearance of
four arch-diadems where only two should appear. In 1715,
while this seal was in use, and while James Coffin was judge
and Eleazer Folger was acting as register, I find used as a
seal, an impression of arms which appear to be a chief, in-
dented, and a chevron. Just before the Revolution, and
later, another seal, not infrequently used, was a crest, — a
wyvern, or cockatrice ; more probably the latter. This last-
mentioned seal was used while Grafton Gardner was judge
and Frederick Folger was register. In 1771, under the same
judge and register, the device of St. George and the Dragon
(No. 23) was also used in a few instances.
No seal for the common-law courts seems to have been spe-
cially adopted in Nantucket ; it is certain that the files saved
from the fire of July, 1846, show no such seal ; and the sup-
position is confirmed by the practice, since 1800, of sealing
the writs of the Inferior Courts of Common Pleas with the
reverse of a cent, or with any other coin or instrument that
could be conveniently employed for that purpose.
No. 18 is the seal of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas
* Sigillum, Comitatus Hamptonice, de Probatione Testamentorum.
1883.] PROVINCIAL SEALS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 16T
and Court of General Sessions of the Peace for Cumberland
County, which was set off from the County of York in 1760,*
and, with the parent county and the county of Lincoln, re-
mained a part of Massachusetts until Maine was admitted into
the Union as a sovereign State in 1820. Tliis seal continued
in use after Maine became a State, and it is yet the county
Unfortunately, the great fire in Portland in July, 1866,
which destroyed the court-house, consumed all the files and
records of the probate office, which was, too confidently,
deemed fire-proof. I have not yet been able to learn from
any other source whether or not there was a probate seal from
the establishment of the court, which is as old as the county.
The earliest impression of a seal of this court that has come
to my notice is of comparatively recent date, and nearly re-
sembles, except in point of size, 'the seal now in use. The de-
vice is an urn surrounded by an inner inscription, '' JEquitas
SuPERSTiTiBUS," and an outer inscription, " Cumbp:bland
Probate Court." At least three distinct seals, substan-
tially identical in design, have been successively used by this
court ; but the first of these has not been traced back further
than thirty years. f
No. 19 is all that I have been able to make out of the seal
of the courts of Lincoln County, which was set off from York
County in 1760, by the act above mentioned. At first, no seal
was specially adopted for any of these courts ; but, at a Court
of Sessions held at Pownalborough, June 1, 1762, the follow-
ing order was passed : " Ordered that a seal presented by
Samuel Denny, Esq., the Motto whereof being a cup and
three mullets, being the lawful Coat of Arms of the said Den-
ny's Family, with the said Denny's name, at large, in the
verge thereof, be accepted, and that it be established to be
the common Seal of this Court." J
Denny was, at that time, chief justice of the Inferior Court
of Common Pleas for the county, and William Cushing —
afterwards distinguished, successively, as a justice and chief
justice of the Superior Court of Judicature of the Province,
and chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of the State,
* June 21 : Province Laws, 1760-61, ch. 7.
t I have seen a letter of administration and a letter of guardianship granted
in 1797, when William Gorham was judge and Samuel Freeman was register,
both of which letters bear the impression of seal No. 18 ; and I have not yet
seen a paper of earlier date than these, that was issued by the Court of Probate
for this county.
X Sessions Records, Lincoln County, vol. !., p. 17. I find no confirmation
of the claim of this family to these arms.
168 MASSACHUSETTS HISTOEICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
of Massachusetts, and a justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States — was judge of probate. Jona,than Bowman,
at that time clerk of the courts and register of probate, used
this seal alike in common-law and probate proceedings ; and
his successors continued the practice certainly as late as the
beginning of the Revolution.
A seal much used on writs and probate papers in Lincoln
County, before the adoption of the Denny arms, was the head
of one of the Georges, — a seal occasionally used officiallj^, and
sometimes on bonds and deeds, in other counties. This
device is shown in No. 24, and it is not unlikely that seals
bearing this royal likeness were to be had of the stationers or
haberdashers of that period.
Nos. 20, 21, and 22 are seals formerly in use in Barnstable
County.
All the court and probate files of this county were lost in
the fire which consumed the court-house at Barnstable on the
night of Oct. 22, 1827. Fortunately, however, most of the
books of probate records were saved, and in the first volume
of these, Barnabas Lothrop, the first judge of probate for this
county, not only made the first record of a letter testamen-
tary,* but affixed his seal thereto in wax. This impression
is shown in No. 22. No. 20 was used by Nathaniel Otis
while he was clerk, in 1729, as the seal of the Inferior Court
of Common Pleas. No. 21 was used from 1730 to 1750, while
John Sturgis was clerk. This last may have been used as
the initial letter for Barnstable, or for Bourne — members of
that family having held either one or more of the offices of the
Common Pleas or Probate Courts during this period. On
the whole, the indications are that no particular seal for
either of the courts of Barnstable County was adopted during
the provincial period.
In Dukes County I find occasionally used as the seal of the
Probate Court an intricate monogram, the faint and imper-
fect impressions of which I have been unable to decipher.f
In 1715 the initials '' B. S." occur, being evidently those of
Benjamin Skiffe, who was then judge of probate. Later, I
find a mitre sometimes used, and sometimes two keys crossed
saltierwise, among the miscellaneous devices appearing upon
the papers of the Probate Court ; but no evidence that a seal
was specially adopted for any of the courts.
York County seems also to have been without a regular
* Will of Edmond Hawes, Sept. 2, 1693.
t This may have been a double monogram for "J. Athearn," — Jabez Athearn
having been for many years register of the court.
1883.] PROVINCIAL SEALS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 169
court seal for either of its courts. Very early, an obscure
monogram was used on the writs of the Inferior Court of
Common Pleas ; and the impression of a seal, still more ob-
scure, but which may possibly have been the same, is found
on a few early probate papers. Finally, the common-law
courts seem to have adopted the device — shown in No. 23
— of St. George and the Dragon. This continued in use cer-
tainly as late as 1820.
The seal last described was occasionally used by the pro-
bate officers in 1731, and again ten years later. Towards the
end of the term of Charles Frost, who was register of probate
from 1700 to 1733, a small double monogram of his initials,
^ ' C. F." was used, and occasionally a rudely cut crest, —
a stag, lodged. Simon Frost, while register, — 1744-66, —
also used a seal bearing only his initials, rudely cut. Under
Judge Jeremiah Moulton, however, — 1746-65, — which
covered most of the time during which Simon Frost was reg-
ister, the seal most commonly used appears to have been a
fesse ; in the chief, two swords crossed, saltier- wise, and in
the base a mullet : crest, a mullet. I have not ascertained to
what family these arms, which are very neatly and artistically
cut on the seal in question, belong. This seal continued to
be used occasionally on probate papers as late as 1821. In
1776, under Judge John Bradbury, a bird — perhaps a dove or
a raven, and, apparently, a crest — was sometimes used. While
David Sewall was register, the full arms of the Sewalls — a
chevron between three bees : crest, a bee, — were used under
Judge John Hill ; and the crest, simply, under Judge Joseph
Simpson, in 1779. It appears from the foregoing that the
register, rather than the judge, appointed the seal of the
court.
In the County of Berkshire, which, as has been said, was
set off from Hampshire in 1761, no seal seems to have been
regularly adopted by either of the county courts. Among the
miscellaneous devices used in sealing the letters of the Probate
Court from 1773 to 1784 was one that appears to have been
the original corporate seal of Princeton College, New Jersey.
Private coats of arms were also used for the same purpose then
and earlier.
Although it is not my purpose at this time to describe seals
that were not in use before the adoption of the State Consti-
tution, I will so far overstep my proposed limits as to observe
here that the first seal used in Berkshire County was the pro-
bate seal, which appears to have been adopted about 1797,
and which continued in use until 1811 or 1812. It bore sub-
22
170 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. [Mar.
stantially the same device as that upon the State seal, with an
inscription showing that it was the seal of the Probate Court.
This was superseded by another seal, which first appears in
1813, on which are represented two figures; one evidently
meant for the judge of probate sitting in a round-backed
chair, and the other, a small boy standing before the judge,
whose left hand is laid tenderly upon the boy's head, while
his right clasps the boy's left hand. It is inscribed, ''Seal of
the Court of Probate, Berkshire," with an inner inscription
of ''Mass." on a scroll above the judge's head. This seal,
having been broken, was repaired, when the seal-cutter took
the liberty to substitute a straight-posted chair for the judge's
seat, and to make other slight changes in the design.
A regular seal for the common-law courts of Berkshire seems
to have been first used at the June Term of the Inferior Court
of Common Pleas in 1804 ; and it probably continued to be
used b}^ that court and the Court of Sessions until the estab-
lishment of the Circuit Courts of Common Pleas. The device
on this seal was an awkward figure of " Justice," with her
head extending into the verge of the seal, holding a sword in
her right hand and a pair of scales, equipoised, in her left
hand. The inscription is, SiG. Com. Pleas. Berk^ Mass.
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11