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Samuel  Sewall 


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LIBRARY  OF 

WELLES  LEY  COLLEGE 


FROM  THE  FUND  OF 
ELIZABETH     W.     MANWARING 


Samuel  Sewall 


AND 


THE  WORLD  HE  LIVED  IN 


BY 


REV.  N.  H.  CHAMBERLAIN 


SECOND  EDITION 


BOSTON 

DE  WOLFE,  FISKE  &  COMPANY 

1898 


M 


Copyright,  1897, 
By  De  Wolfe,  Fiske  &  Co. 


TYPO<iRAIMIY   HY  C.   J.  PETERS   St   SON,    RoSTON 


Pbesbwobk  uv  S.  J.  Pabkuill  &  Co. 


TO 


THE     MEMORY     OF     THE     LATE 

fficorge  !£>  lEllis;, 

DOCTOR   OF    DIVINITY,    AND   GREATLY   LEARNED    IN   THE   LORE 

OF   THE   FOREFATHERS    OF    NEW    ENGLAND, 

OF   WHOSE   STOCK   HE   WAS, 

^i}is  Booft, 

alas!    so   late,    is    NOW    DEDICATED    BY   HIS   FRIEND, 

The  Author. 


PREFACE. 


Samuel  Sewall,  sometime  business  man,  coun- 
cillor, judge,  and  always  Puritan,  began  his  Diary 
with  an  entry,  Dec.  3,  1673,  as  to  what  he  lectured 
on,  that  day  to  the  students  of  Harvard  College,  he 
himself  having  been  there  graduated  in  1671.  The 
last  entry  is  Oct.  13,  1729.  By  a  coincidence,  signif- 
icant enough  to  any  student  of  this  Diary,  it  ends 
with  negotiations  for  a  Puritan  marriage  match : 
"Judge  Davenport  comes  to  me,  between  ten  and 
eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  speaks  to  me  on 
behalf  of  Mr.  Addington  Davenport,  his  eldest  son, 
that  he  might  have  liberty  to  wait  upon  Jane  Hirst, 
now  at  my  house,  in  the  way  of  courtship.  He  told 
me  he  would  deal  by  him  as  his  eldest  son,  and  more 
than  so.  Intended  to  build  a  house  where  his  uncle 
Addington  dwelt,  for  him  ;  and  that  he  should  have 
his  pue  in  the  old  meeting  house.  I  gave  him  my 
hand  at  his  going  away  and  acknowledged  his  re- 
spect to  me  and  granted  his  desire.  He  said  Madam 
Addington  would  wait  upon  me.  ...  I  informed 
his  Honor,  the  Lieut.  Governor  of  what  Mr.  Daven- 
port had  been  about.  His  Honor  approved  of  it 
much.  Commended  the  young  man,  and  reckoned 
it  a  very  good  match." 


VI  PREFACE. 

Sewall's  Diary,  therefore,  covers,  in  time,  more  than 
fifty-five  years  of  the  old  New  England  life,  and  when 
that  life  was  putting  itself  into  form.  The  book  is 
too  late  to  show  the  details  of  the  first  planting  of 
Massachusetts  Colony  under  Winthrop,  except  by 
occasional  back  glances,  more  than  one  generation 
having  lapsed  between  1630  and  1673.  Yet  there 
were  in  his  day  many  of  "  the  renowned  settlers," 
as  he  styles  them,  who  first  came ;  and  he  was  near 
enough  in  time  to  know  things  from  the  start,  the 
great  head  man,  and  "  Fidus  Achates  "  of  New  Eng- 
land Puritanism,  John  Winthrop,  having  died  as  late 
as  March  26,  1649,  or  less  than  twenty-four  years 
before  Sewall's  Diary  begins. 

The  Diary  itself,  towards  its  opening,  is  broken, 
probably  by  the  loss  of  one  or  more  of  its  manuscript 
volumes.  There  is  a  gap  from  July,  1677,  to  March, 
1684-168 5.  This  gap  has  been  partially  filled  by 
the  able  editors  of  the  Diary,  from  the  Diary  of  Sew- 
all's father-in-law,  John  Hull,  the  Colonial  treasurer 
of  "Pine  Tree  Shilling"  memory;  so  that  Sewall's 
book,  as  it  now  stands  before  the  public,  thanks  to  the 
love  and  care  of  its  editors,  is  substantially  continu- 
ous and  complete.  Sewall  wrote  his  Diary  in  long, 
thin  blank  books  with  flexible  leather  covers,  such  as 
business  men  then  used,  in  a  plain,  downright  hand, 
of  which  the  signature  attached  to  his  portrait  in 
this  book  is  a  fair  specimen.  These  books,  preserved 
with  care  by  his  descendants,  have  of  late  years  been 
annotated  and  printed  by  the  Massachusetts  Histori- 
cal Society  in  three  large  volumes,  amounting,  with 


PREFACE.  VI 1 

the  indices,  to  rather  more  than  fifteen  nundred 
pages.i  It  is  perhaps  needless  to  say  that  "  Samuel 
Sewall  and  the  World  He  Lived  in"  bases  itself  upon 
this  larger  publication,  though  the  colors  for  its 
pictures  have  been  taken,  when  vivid  and  honest, 
wherever  found. 

Diaries  are  about  the  commonest  of  unpublished 
literature,  and  almost  every  business  man  makes  one 
every  year.  Yet,  with  the  millions  of  such,  only  two 
diarists  in  the  English  tongue  have  as  yet  attained 
to  much  fame,  —  Samuel  Pepys  and  John  Evelyn. 
Of  these  two,  Pepys  is  the  better  known  to  readers. 
John  Evelyn  was  a  gentleman,  as  Pepys  was  not,  and 
a  Christian,  as  Pepys  only  was  by  spasms ;  both  lived 
in  London,  Evelyn  in  five  reigns ;  and  both  wrote 
down  with  vivid  pens  such  things  of  the  great  world 
as  they  saw  fit ;  and  both  will  last  as  among  the 
makers  of  English  literature.  With  these  two  Eng- 
lishmen, in  due  time,  by  a  well-weighed  and  just  ver- 
dict, Samuel  Sewall  will  be  associated  in  the  same 
lasting  fame.  Not  that  he  resembles  either,  though 
more  like  Evelyn  ethically,  and  like  Pepys  physi- 
cally. The  two  Englishmen  were  Church-of-England 
men,  and  Evelyn  a  sincere  and  consistent  devotee. 
Sewall  was  the  very  type  of  the  Puritan,  and  few 
lives  were  ever  more  thoroughly  colored  by  their  reli- 
gion than  his.  All  had  been  versed  in  affairs,  and 
knew  their  times,  Pepys  showing,  perhaps,  the  most 

1  He  had  the  habit,  also,  of  carrying  about  with  him  a  pocket  almanac,  in 
which  to  jot  down  on  the  spot  anything  which  struck  his  fancy  ;  and  very 
often  these  entries  are  enlarged,  and  used  to  fortify  the  Diary,  Several  of 
these  useful  almanacs  are  still  in  existence. 


\iil  PREFACE. 

dynamic  ability  in  administration,  though  quite  in 
one  direction  ;  Sewall  wrought  more  in  a  longer  and 
more  varied  public  career  than  the  others ;  while 
Evelyn,  as  the  virtuous  associate  of  the  great  and  the 
pure  in  heart,  was  in  this  world's  affairs  an  atmos- 
phere rather  than  an  actor  who  controlled.  Both  the 
Englishmen  show  more  literary  merit,  better  form, 
and  Evelyn  especially  has  vastly  greater  continuity 
and  deliberation  in  his  entries,  than  Sewall. 

With  this  showing,  on  what  ground,  then,  can  the 
claim  be  made  for  Sewall's  Diary,  as  a  permanency 
in  English  literature,  sure  to  come  finally,  upon  its 
merits,  to  a  lasting  fame  t  First  of  all,  because  his 
Diary  is  the  only  one  of  New  England,  and,  as  to 
that  matter,  of  the  American  nation  so  far,  which 
our  people,  so  rich  in  other  things,  can  claim  for 
its  own  ;  and  for  its  own,  as  one  of  its  most  ancient 
and  elaborate  historical  monuments  in  its  ever  cres- 
cent literature.  We  have  no  other  book  like  it ; 
perhaps  no  other  storehouse  of  old  ways  and  social 
life  so  abundant  as  it.  Sewall  never  took  the  time 
or  the  pains,  being  too  busy,  to  get  himself  a  well- 
mannered  style  and  fixed  forms  as  a  literary  man. 
Perhaps  the  exacting,  and  even  narrow,  zeal  of  Pu- 
ritanism, always  unfavorable  to  art,  dissuaded  him. 
Yet  there  are  not  lacking  passages  in  his  Diary 
and  Letter  Book  which  show  his  ability  to  have 
written  the  strongest,  well-ordered  English  had  he 
willed  it.  Proofs  of  this  ability  will  be  found  in 
this  book  later  on.  Sewall's  Diary,  then,  will  last 
because  it  is  a  rich  mine  of  New  England  history  ; 


PREFACE.  IX 

because  it  fulfils  this  cradle  of  so  much  gone  into 
a  nation's  life,  greater  than  its  own,  with  the  records 
and  riches  of  its  own  unique  and  primitive  life,  as 
no  other  man  ever  has,  or  at  this  late  day  can. 
As  a  nation  ages,  it  looks  back,  and  to  its  monu- 
ments. When  this  is  done,  it  wdll  discover  easily  in 
the  waste  of  its  earlier  days,  certainly  in  its  province 
of  New  England,  that  in  Sewall's  Diary  there  is 
more  of  its  own  history,  on  its  human  side,  than  in 
any  other  writing  of  the  times,  not  even  excepting 
the  Winthrop  literature.  Indeed,  by  its  very  form, 
as  a  Diary,  Sewall  unconsciously  was  compelled, 
for  our  comfort,  to  ally  himself  with  the  new  men 
in  history,  and  not  the  old,  in  writing  primarily  of 
the  people,  of  their  dress,  periwigs,  funeral  and  wed- 
ding favors,  their  dinners,  town  meetings,  personal 
quarrels,  and  the  innumerable  trifles,  and  even 
foibles,  which  make  up,  for  most,  so  much  of  life. 
As  a  man  of  such  social  position  and  locality  that 
he  was  almost  sure  to  meet  almost  any  body  or 
thing  going,  and  a  frequent  traveller  through  the 
colony ;  officially  so  connected  with  government  here 
and  abroad  as  to  see  the  inner  working  of  affairs  ; 
as  a  judge  brought  in  contact  with  the  tenure  and 
rights  of  property  in  some  of  its  more  picturesque 
effects  ;  now  involved  in  the  Salem  witchcraft  busi- 
ness, and  for  years  seeing  the  crime,  of  the  land 
coming  into  court  for  trial,  and  perhaps  sentence, 
—  there  was  no  other  man  of  his  age  so  well  fitted 
to  write  a  Diary  like  his.  And,  besides,  he  had  the 
mind  to  write  and  persistency  in  writing  on  for  fifty- 


X  PREFACE. 

five  years,  such  as  no  other  New  England  man 
of  his  age,  at  least,  displayed.  His  performance 
in  his  Diary  is  in  all  ways  suggestive  and  charac- 
teristic. It  is  very  much  as  this  land  then  was, — 
chaotic,  migratory,  rough,  granite,  actual,  sincere. 
The  barbaric  wilderness,  savage,  cruel,  vast,  serves 
as  the  background  of  all  his  pictures,  and  not  sel- 
dom, as  an  atmosphere,  is  often  blown  into  them. 
While  the  Diary  is  rough,  uncouth,  and  almost 
Gothic  in  its  blunt,  sometimes  even  coarse,  down- 
rightness,  it  is  always  sincere,  confidential,  and 
friendly.  Sewall  puts  no  gall  in  his  ink,  shows  no 
malice,  means  to  be  just,  with  an  intention  that  does 
not  often  fail  him,  and,  in  short,  writes  himself 
down  as  a  strong-bodied,  great-souled,  honor-loving 
Puritan  ;  not  altogether  above  his  age,  —  no  genius, 
no  saint  except  in  intent,  but  withal  as  good 
''an  all-round  man"  as  New  England  has  ever  had. 
It  is  this  man  who  has  written  our  one  great  diary. 
Neither  Evelyn  nor  Pepys  uses  more  vivid  colors 
than  he.  Often  theirs  are  neither  so  vivid  nor 
picturesque.  Sewall's  colors  are,  indeed,  often  only 
glimpses,  flashes  that  reveal  long  vistas  into  old 
things.  Put  in  the  permanency  of  his  Diary,  and  one 
with  an  eye  for  the  inner  meaning,  —  the  searcher 
after  the  light  "that  never  was  on  land  or  sea,"  — 
the  lover  of  man  who  sees  under  all  fashions 
of  humanity  an  incarnation  of  the  Divine  which 
makes  it  reverend,  holy,  watches  patiently  and  ea- 
gerly its  honest  pages,  to  meditate  over  the  grave 
and  almost  endless  problems  which   inhered   in   the 


PREFACE.  XI 

old  New  England  life  of  the  men  called  Puritans. 
Sewall's  value  is  not  simply  in  what  he  records, 
but  also  in  what  he  suggests.  The  people  who 
never  forget  whose  sons  they  are,  will  ever  remem- 
ber Sewall  as  the  man  who  holds  the  candle  to 
so  many  of  the  ancient  secrets  of  the  fathers. 

The  question  whether  Sewall  ever  expected  his 
Diary  to  be  published  does  not  merit  very  much 
discussion,  however  we  may  decide  it.  There  are 
certain  facts  which  seem  to  answer  either  way.  For 
instance,  it  may  be  said  that  any  sane  man,  having 
written  so  singular  a  record,  and  intending  publica- 
tion, would  take  ample  precautions  to  have  it  edited 
by  some  child  or  friend  judicious  enough  to  prune 
it  sharply  in  the  interest  of  his  own  honor.  Noth- 
ing of  the  sort  appears  to  have  been  done.  ,  Possi- 
bly so  sincere  a  man,  having  written  with  so  much 
Puritan  sobriety,  might  judge  that  nothing  of  the 
sort  needed  to  be  done.  There  seems  to  be  a  two- 
fold presumption  that  he  intended  publication.  For, 
first,  if  he  did  not,  what  possible  motive  could  have 
kept  him  at  the  long  and  exacting  labor  of  so  volu 
minous  a  record }  Second,  traces  are  not  wanting 
in  the  Diary  itself  of  the  fact  that  Sewall  regarded 
the  New  England  Puritans  as  servants,  not  of  them- 
selves, but  of  that  great  Master  of  men  whose  Law 
revealed  to  Moses  they  endeavored  to  make  the 
statute  law  of  the  Colony,  and  in  whose  hand  they 
held  themselves  as  clay  to  the  potter,  to  take  on 
what  shape  and  stamp  He  willed  so  that  His 
world  through  their  toil  and  sacrifice  might  become 


XU  PREFACE. 

more  truly  His.^  That  the  Puritan  was  a  man  with 
a  mission  he  himself  firmly  believed,  and  the  fact 
has  been  often  pointed  out.  Nor  was  this  self- 
conceit,  but  self-surrender  and  self-absorption,  on  his 
part,  into  that  Supreme  Other  Self  who  made  him 
and  all  mankind.  With  the  cross  lights  of  heaven 
and  history  beating  almost  fiercely  down  upon  the 
humility  of  him  and  his  home  in  the  wild,  was  it 
strange  that  an  educated  man,  and  a  leader  among 
his  people,  should  try  to  tell  to  posterity  how 
strangely  and  wonderfully  God  had  dealt  with  His 
chosen .''  From  this  standpoint,  at  least,  one  is 
forced  to  conclude  that  Sewall,  as  the  writing  of  his 
Diary  proceeded,  became  aware  that  he  was  writing 
for  posterity. 

The.substance  of  this  Preface  has  already  furnished 
the  reasons  why  "  Samuel  Sewall  and  the  World  He 
Lived  in  "  is  now  submitted  to  the  public.  A  word 
or  two  as  to  its  plan  and  purpose,  and,  indeed,  as  to 
its  right  to  task  the  overwearied  eye  of  conscientious 

1  There  is  a  very  striking  expression  of  this  feeling  in  Sewall's  speech  in 
Council  after  Lieutenant-Governor  Dummer  had  taken  the  oaths  of  office 
Jan.  2, 1723  :  "  When  the  representatives  v^^ere  returned  to  their  own  chamber 
I  stood  up  and  said,  If  your  honor  and  this  honorable  board  please  to  give 
me  leave,  I  would  speak  a  word  or  two  on  this  solemn  occasion.  Although 
the  unerring  Providence  of  God  has  brought  you  to  the  chair  of  government 
in  a  cloudy  and  tempestuous  time  ;  yet  you  have  this  for  your  encouragement 
that  the  people  you  have  to  do  with  are  a  part  of  the  Israel  of  God,  and  you 
may  expect  to  have  of  the  prudence  and  patience  of  Moses  communicated  to 
you  for  your  conduct.  It  is  evident  that  our  almighty  Savior  counselled 
the  first  planters  to  remove  hither  and  settle  here ;  and  they  dutifully  followed 
his  advice ;  and  therefore  He  will  never  leave  nor  forsake  them  nor  theirs  ;  so 
that  your  honor  must  needs  be  happy  in  sincerely  seeking  their  interest  and 
welfare ;  which  your  birth  and  education  will  incline  you  to  do.  Difficilia 
quae  pulchra.  I  promise  myself  that  they  that  sit  at  this  board,  will  yield 
their  faithful  advice  to  your  honor  according  to  the  duty  of  their  place." 


PREFACE.  Xlll 

readers.  It  does  not,  then,  pretend  to  original  re- 
search ;  it  avoids,  with  intention,  the  minute  exact- 
ness of  the  antiquarian,  and  it  uses  for  its  groupings  ^ 
and  pictures  of  the  ancient  Puritan  life  such  material, 
from  any  quarter  whatsoever,  as  could  be  verified  and 
made  useful.  It  has  tried  not  to  mutilate  or  mislead 
in  its  excerpts,  and,  in  general,  hopes  to  have  suc- 
ceeded. It  is  indebted,  first  of  all,  to  the  Diary 
itself,  as  given  to  the  public  by  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society ;  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  without 
the  aid  of  the  publications  of  that  Society  any  such 
book  as  this  would  be  impossible.  Since  that  Society 
exists  to  bring  the  treasures  of  American  history  to 
the  American  people,  it  is  hoped,  that  in  its  own  way, 
this  book,  availing  itself  of  the  Society's  help,  wdll 
assist  in  enlarging  public  interest  in  ancient  things  ; 
and  it  hereby  refers  all  readers,  in  the  ten  thousand 
historical  matters  which  it  does  not  handle,  to  the 
publications  of  the  Society,  which  now  happily  are 
become  aids  in  any  study  of  our  history. 

Furthermore,  the  author  is  deeply  indebted  to  the 
historical  essays  of  Dr.  George  E.  Ellis,  and  espe- 
cially to  his  "  Puritan  Age  in  Massachusetts,"  —  a 
philosophy  of  New  England  Puritanism  which  is 
sure  to  last  long  in  honor. 

THE   AUTHOR. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Samuel  Sewall  and  the  English  South  Land    .  3 

II.  The  Puritan  in  Old  England 10 

III.  The  Puritan  Exodus 21 

IV.  Sewall  and  the  Puritan  Church 43 

V.  Sewall  and  the  Puritan  Commonwealth  ...  64 

VI.  Sewall  as  a  Business  Man 86 

VII.  Town  and  Country  Life  to  1700 98 

VIII.  Sewall,  the  Indians  and  Negroes no 

IX.  Sewall  in  England 135 

X.  Sewall  and  the  Salem  Witchcraft 157 

XI.  Current  New  England  Life  from  1700  to  1714,  178 

XII.  Sewall  and  the  Puritan  Home-Life     ....  205 

XIII.  Betty  Sewall  and  Puritan  Marriages  ....  224 

XIV.  Anne  Bradstreet  and  Our  Puritan  Literature  236 
XV.  Sewall  and  the  Church  of  England    ....  254 

XVI.  Current  New  England  Life  from  1714  to  Oct. 

i3»  1729 271 

XVII.  Judge  Sewall's  Courtship  of  Madam  Winthrop, 

Aliaruniqiie 281 

XVIII.  Sewall  and  Sundries 297 

XIX.  A  Summary 304 

Appendix ........311 


SAMUEL  SEWALL 
AND  THE  WORLD  HE  LIVED  IN. 


SAMUEL   SEWALL 
AND   THE  WORLD  HE  LIVED   IN. 


CHAPTER    I. 

SAMUEL  SEWALL  AND  THE  ENGLISH  SOUTH  LAND. 

Samuel  Sewall  was  born  at  Bishopstoke,  Hamp- 
shire, England,  March  28,  1652,  —  ''so  that  the  light 
of  the  Lord's  Day  was  the  first  light  that  my  eyes 
saw,  being  born  a  little  before  daybreak.  I  was 
baptized  by  Mr.  Rashly  (sometime  member  of  the 
old  church  in  Boston,  England),  in  Stoke  Church, 
May  4,  1652.  Mr.  Rashly  first  preached  a  ser- 
mon, and  then  baptized  me ;  after  which  an  en- 
tertainment was  made  for  him  and  many  more." 
His  great-grandfather,  Henry  Sewall,  beyond  whom 
the  family  cannot  be  traced,  was  a  linen-draper  at 
Coventry,  where  he  acquired  a  fortune,  and  was 
several  times  elected  mayor.  His  grandfather,  the 
eldest  son,  a  Puritan,  from  dislike  to  the  English 
Church,  sent  over  Sewall' s  father,  Henry,  ''  with 
neat  cattle  and  provisions  suitable  for  a  new  planta- 
tion. .  .  .     Mr.  Cotton  would  have  had  my  father  settle 

3 


4  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

at  Boston ;  but,  in  regard  of  his  cattle,  he  chose 
to  go  to  Newbury,  where  my  grandfather  soon  fol- 
lowed him."  In  1646  the  father  married,  "being 
then  about  thirty-two,  and  my  mother  about  nineteen 
years  of  age."  The  climate  not  agreeing  with  some 
of  the  elders,  Henry  Sewall  returned  with  them  to 
Hampshire,  England,  in  1647,  where  Samuel  Sewall 
was  born,  and  bred  until  1661,  when  the  family 
returned  to  New  England  by  way  of  London. 

Sewall's  early  years  were  therefore  spent  in  the 
English  South  Land.  This  fact,  of  itself,  is  of  no 
particular  account ;  but  in  connection  with  the  other 
fact  that  many  of  Sewall's  neighbors  in  Boston  were 
from  there,  and  retained  and  transmitted  at  least  the 
memory  of  its  old  customs,  it  may  be  as  well  to 
look  a  little  at  the  civilization  of  the  seventeenth 
century  then  extant  in  South  England,  when  Sewall 
and  so  many  of  the  old  Bostonians  emigrated.  In- 
deed, he  will  add  the  next  most  charming  page  in 
our  written  history  who  will  relate  the  life  of  Old 
England,  with  the  primitive  life  of  the  New.  The 
English  South  Land  lies,  of  course,  along  the  Eng- 
lish Channel,  which  has  always  been  an  open  gate 
for  English  discovery  and  enterprise  towards  the 
West.  The  sun  is  warmer  there  than  in  the  North 
Land,  and  its  gardens  and  orchards  fuller.  It  is 
the  land  of  the  Saxon,  as  the  North  is  of  the  Dane ; 
a  land  where  William  the  Conqueror  landed  ;  with 
men  and  women  of  a  ruddy  countenance,  and  of  old, 
contented,  full-fed,  sunny-hearted,  and  inclined  to  the 
Saxon  repose,  in  contrast  with  the  Norseman's  en- 


THE  ENGLISH  SOUTH  LAND.  5 

terprise.  Sewall's  portrait  shows  the  Saxon  type. 
London  has  for  long  been  the  heart  of  England; 
but,  in  general,  movements  in  English  religion  or 
politics  have  originated  towards  the  North.  In  this 
South  Land,  so  conservative  of  ancient  habits,  when 
Sewall  was  born,  the  civilization  was  narrow,  rustic 
more  than  a  trifle  coarse,  but  also  hearty,  pictu- 
resque, and  vivid,  as  out  of  warm  Southron  blood.  It 
would  surprise  many  a  demure  and  proper  family  of 
our  date  if  they  could  only  know  how  their  English 
ancestors  fared  three  hundred  years  ago  across  seas. 
Women  scolds  (and  they  were  plenty)  were  then 
ducked,  although  Lord  Holt  gravely  said  of  one  such 
brought  before  his  court,  that  if  they  ducked  her  she 
would  be  sure  to  scold  on  to  her  life's  end.  Women 
were  employed  to  whip  petty  criminals  in  public ; 
and  a  good  wife,  as  late  as  1718,  earned  her  shilling 
this  way.  The  drunkard's  cloak,  for  punishment,  was 
a  cask  with  a  hole  in  the  top  for  his  head  and  a  hole 
each  side  for  his  arms.  Apprentices,  for  the  first 
seven  years,  were  forbid  to  keep  fighting-cocks  or 
hunting-dogs.  Cock-fighting  was  a  school  exercise, 
and  the  cost  put  in  the  term  bills.  A  common  vil- 
lage house  was  made  of  oak  beams,  with  the  inter- 
stices on  the  outside  filled  up  with  mortar  ;  a  deep 
ground  cellar,  entered  by  a  flight  of  steps  that 
trenched  far  out  upon  the  sidewalk,  the  steps  pro- 
tected by  a  trap-door  ;  while  the  shops  were  open 
to  the  streets,  and  without  glass.  Very  often  there 
were  only  two  or  three  chimneys  in  a  good-sized 
town,  and  these  on  the  squire's  or  parson's  house. 


6  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

(The  first  Boston  chimneys  were  chiefly  of  wood,  and 
hence  frequent  fires.)  Many  of  the  old  churches 
stand  there  to-day,  but  the  rule  of  them  in  ancient 
days  was,  to  say  the  least,  peculiar.  When  pews  first 
came  in,  in  King  James  I.'s  days,  their  green  baize 
was  found  to  harbor  insects,  and  a  regular  charge 
was  made  in  some  parishes  for  "  salting  the  fleas." 
Charges  were  also  made  for  "mossing  the  church," 
which  probably  was  some  way  of  scouring  it  on  great 
occasions,  just  as  the  roads  were  only  repaired  when 
some  great  person  was  to  pass  by.  The  old  amuse- 
ments in  churches  and  churchyards  have  been  de- 
scribed so  often  as  not  to  need  mention  here.  To  a 
poor  widow,  asking  the  price  of  a  funeral  sermon  for 
her  husband,  a  parish  clerk  made  answer  that  some 
were  \os.  —  one  even  as  low  as  Js.  6d.,  which  no  one 
would  ever  know  to  be  a  funeral  sermon ;  but  that 
there  would  not  be  a  dry  eye  in  the  house  if  the 
guinea  one  was  preached.  Marriage  notices  were 
often  accompanied  by  such  mundane  announcements 
as  these:  **  Mr.  Baskett  to  Miss  Pell  with  ^^  5,000," 
"  Lord  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph  to  Miss  Orell  with  ^30,- 
000."  Old  Fuller  saw  an  ancient  lady  being  drawn 
to  church  near  Lewes  in  her  own  coach  by  six  oxen. 
William  Blackstone,  Boston's  first  white  settler,  after 
he  went  away,  used  to  go  about  in  a  cart  with  one. 

The  social  life  was  still  more  curious.  All  work 
that  could  be  was  apparently  done  out-doors.  The 
women  washed  in  the  street.  In  some  places  there 
was  a  town  "  spit  "  for  roasting  meats,  and  the  cooks 
about  dinner-time  were  seen  running  around  to  hunt 


THE  ENGLISH  SOUTH  LAND.  J 

up  their  dogs  to  turn  the  same.  In  Charles  11. 's  time 
only  12,000  tons  of  coal  were  mined  in  contrast  with 
188,277,525  tons  in  1894,  and  the  common  people 
must  have  used  fagots.  Mantelpieces  got  their  name 
from  the  English  custom  of  hanging  up  their  clothes 
there  to  dry.  They  must  have  been  rather  coarse 
eaters  and  drinkers,  though  the  drink  was  some- 
times thin,  as  witness  the  indictment  against  Isabella 
Stansby  (35  Henry  VIII.)  for  brewing  ale  "not 
mighty  of  corn."  The  ale-wives  —  i.e.,  women  who 
sold  beer  —  were  always  giving  the  magistrates  much 
trouble.  Potatoes,  first  planted  by  an  Irishman  in 
Devon,  were  long  objected  to  as  breeding  leprosy. 
Cider  was  much  in  vogue,  especially  in  the  South 
Land,  where  orchards  abounded,  and  were  usual  places 
of  family  retreat,  where  company  was  entertained ; 
and  the  Quaker  George  Fox's  Journal  shows  that 
there  was  often  preaching  in  such  places.  New  Eng- 
land people  come  honestly  enough  by  orchards  and 
cider,  and  Governor  Endicott  tells  us  how  at  Salem  he 
bought  two  hundred  and  fifty  acres,  and  paid  for  three 
hundred  apple-trees.  Wickliffe  must  have  known  the 
strength  of  old  cider ;  for  he  translates  St.  Luke  i.  i  5, 
where  in  our  version  it  is  "strong  drink,"  "  He  shall 
be  great,  and  shall  not  drink  wine  nor  cider." 

All  travel  was  slow,  and  to  a  degree  dangerous, 
even  in  times  of  peace.  The  roads  were  mere  lanes, 
and  bad  at  that.  Guides  were  often  sent  to  show 
the  fords  and  the  way  from  one  town  to  another. 
Heavy  wagons  with  iron  wheel-tires  were  sometimes 
forbidden  by  law  as  dangerous  to  roads  and  bridges. 


8  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

Hackney  coaches,  at  their  introckiction,  were  abhorred 
for  the  same  reason,  and  because  it  was  thought 
that  they  would  raise  the  price  of  hay.  That  rascal 
Titus  Oakes  denounced  the  letter  mail  as  a  popish 
plot ;  and  when  the  mail  came  to  Glasgow,  then  a 
fortnight  distant  from  London,  its  arrival  was  an- 
nounced by  the  firing  of  cannon.  The  post  coach 
would  sometimes  agree  with  its  passengers  before- 
hand to  stop  over  at  any  town  on  the  way  where 
a  cock-fight  was  proceeding.  There  is  not  wanting 
such  public  news  as  this  :  "  The  fly  coach  from  Lon- 
don to  Exeter  slept  at  Morcomb  Lake  the  fifth 
night,  proceeded  next  morning  to  Axminster,  where 
it  breakfasted,  and  there  a  woman  barber  shaved 
the  coach."  The  bells  rang  in  Bridgewater,  nine- 
teen days  after  Cromwell  had  been  made  Protector. 
Tradesmen  from  the  provinces  going  up  to  London 
made  their  wills,  and  then  often  walked  afoot,  much 
in  the  same  solemn  frame  of  mind  as  Sewall  had 
when,  on  his  return  amid  vivid  dangers  from  Cam- 
bridge or  Roxbury  Neck,  he  writes  *'  Laus  Deo." 

This  old  English  life  explains  a  great  many  quaint 
fashions  and  habits  of  mind  in  our  forefathers.  Of 
course  the  Puritans'  piety  often  turned  from  the 
ancient  ways  with  horror ;  but  then  they  were  also 
men  of  the  English  blood,  and  the  cases  are  not 
infrequent  in  our  history  where  the  blood  got  the 
better  of  the  piety,  which  is,  .at  least,  human.  At 
any  rate,  many  of  our  ancient  New  England  ways, 
as  well  as  the  names  of  our  ancient  towns  especially, 
derive  themselves  from  the  English  South  Land. 


THE   ENGLISH  SOUTH  LAA'D.  9 

Sewall's  account  of  his  voyage  and  landing  as  a 
young  emigrant  nine  years  old  at  Boston  is  :  "  We 
were  about  eight  weeks  at  sea,  where  we  had  noth- 
ing to  see  but  water  and  the  sky ;  so  that  I  began 
to  fear  that  I  should  never  get  to  shore  again ;  only 
I  thought  the  captain  and  the  mariners  would  not 
have  ventured  themselves,  if  they  had  not  hopes 
of  getting  to  land  again.  On  the  Lord's  Day  my 
mother  kept  aboard ;  but  I  went  ashore,  the  boat 
grounded  and  I  was  carried  out  in  arms,  July  6, 
1661." 


lO  SAMUEL    SEWALL. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE   PURITAN    IN    OLD    ENGLAND. 

While  this  book  intends  to  avoid  philosophies, 
vain  or  valid,  it  would  fail  to  show  the  roots  of  its 
theme  if  it  did  not,  at  the  start,  attempt  to  give 
some  account  of  English  Puritanism,  —  that  singular 
religious  movement  which  colors  Sewall's  life  and  the 
New  England  world  he  lived  in.  Indeed,  that  move- 
ment has  certain  unwasting  colors  which  tone  and 
characterize  Englishmen  in  all  the  empires  of  that 
dominant  race,  now  scattered  over  the  globe,  and 
for  ages  to  come  determines,  in  a  reach  neither 
feeble  nor  short-armed,  many  things  in  the  destiny 
of  peoples  which,  for  want  of  a  more  exact  term, 
we  may  call  the  Anglo-Saxon.  But  Puritanism  was 
that  child  of  the  Reformation  which  was  born  in 
the  land  of  the  English,  and,  though  kin  to  all 
Protestantism,  had  its  own  special  gait,  genius,  and 
conduct.  Now,  as  to  the  Reformation,  so  called. 
In  all  the  eighteen  ages  since  the  Mysterious  One 
"was  brought  up  at  Nazareth,"  no  movement  of 
man  is  more  full  of  subtle  mystery  and  hidden 
fountains,  unreachable  by  speculation,  than  this  same 
Reformation,  especially  as  to  its  beginnings.  One 
may  attribute  it  to  the  new  Greek  learning,  to  the 


THE   PURITAN  IN  OLD   ENGLAND.  1 1 

printing-press,  to  the  Saracens,  to  commerce  with 
Oriental  nations,  even  ;  to  accident,  to  fate,  —  and 
yet  there  is  something  down  below  these  accidents 
of  time,  inspiring  and  urging  on  this  great  revolu- 
tion in  the  mind  of  Christendom.  Agnosticism 
may  call  it  kismet  or  destiny.  The  writer  of  this 
book  assumes  for  a  standpoint,  and  with  the  as- 
sent of  all  reformed  Christianity,  that  the  springs 
of  this  movement  were  in  the  mind  of  One  who, 
for  want  of  a  wiser  name,  the  English-speaking 
peoples  are  wont  to  call  God.  At  any  rate,  no  im- 
perial event  in  civilization  is,  as  to  its  origin,  more 
entitled  to  have  applied  to  it  those  ancient  words  : 
"The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  ye  hear 
the  sound  thereof,  but  cannot  tell  whence  it  cometh 
or  whither  it  goeth.  So  is  every  one  that  is  born 
of  the  Spirit."  This  is  especially  true  of  the  Ref- 
ormation in  England.  The  seeds  of  that  reform 
which  modified  the  religion  of  the  West,  —  the  poli- 
tics and  economics  of  dominant  races  also,  —  grew, 
for  some  reason,  first  on  English  soil ;  and  as  leaves 
falling  from  the  autumn  trees  are  sometimes  borne 
aloft  of  winds,  and  while  some  fall  nigh  at  hand, 
others  are  carried  across  seas  to  lands  strange  to 
their  fading  beauty,  so  the  seeds  of  England's 
mighty  reform,  first  of  all  disseminated  in  its  own 
soil,  were  borne  across  the  channel,  by  what  air- 
currents  one  knows  not,  until  they  infected  the  Con- 
tinent with  what  some  men  call  heresy,  and  John 
Huss  died  in  the  orchards  of  Constance  for  the 
new  faith  some  generations    before    Martin   Luther 


12  SAMUEL  SEWALL. 

entered  on  his  gigantic  strife  with  ancient  errors 
which  had  preoccupied  Western  Christendom.  That 
John  Wickliff e  and  the  Lollards  were  the  prereformers 
of  Europe  is  apparently  a  fact.  But  they  were  all 
Englishmen.  How  came  tJiey  to  be  first — they  of  a 
semi-civilized  and  not  rich  people,  —  before  Venice  or 
Paris  or  Madrid  moved  themselves  }  It  may  be  argued 
to  those  who  count  much  on  heredity  in  men  and 
peoples,  that  the  race  blood  had  something  to  do  with 
all  this.  It  may  be  said,  perhaps,  that  English  blood 
was  mixed,  —  but  it  was  never  mixed  with  pliant  nor 
servile  blood,  —  perhaps,  that,  the  Danish  vikings,  out 
of  their  Northern  liberties,  going  forth  in  ships  to  con- 
quer and  plunder  Europe,  had  imbibed  the  freedom  of 
their  ships  springing  as  war-horses  over  the  free  waves 
of  the  sea ;  or  on  deck  had  watched  stars  at  night 
growing  innumerable  to  their  barbaric  vision,  until 
the  Norse  race  attained  the  consciousness  that  this 
world  is  very  vast,  and  the  Maker  of  it  too,  —  too 
vast,  indeed,  to  echo  all  His  wisdom  in  the  chants 
of  priests,  or  contain  all  His  virtue  in  a  bit  of  sac- 
ramental bread  ;  and  that,  in  fact,  in  His  free  world 
He  wills  freedom,  for  men  to  be  men,  not  court 
eunuchs  of  any  church  or  kingdom,  mumbling  Pater 
Nosters  and  living  lies  ;  but  men  obedient  to  laws 
and  ways  as  free  and  as  exact  as  those  by  which 
the  waves  surged  and  swept  on,  or  the  wind  filled 
the  sails  of  their  ships  bearing  them  to  port.  The 
Norsemen  at  first  killed  all  the  English  priests,  and, 
settling  down  in  England's  North  Land,  gave  a  Norse 
energy  to  the  English  church,  as  seen  in  Wickliffe 


THE   PURITAN  IN  OLD   ENGLAND.  1 3 

and  the  Lollards.  In  a  measure  the  same  facts  may 
be  true  of  other  strains  of  English  blood,  not  neces- 
sary to  be  stated  here. 

Wickliffe  came  in  the  fourteenth  century,  and  was 
only  a  voice,  like  St.  John  the  Baptist  in  the  wil- 
derness, demanding  a  reform  towards  decency  and 
righteousness.  But  the  temper  of  reform  must 
have  been  older  than  he,  and  the  crying  evils  of 
the  land  also.  No  Puritan  was  ever  more  bitter  or 
unsparing  towards  false  prelates  or  corrupt  churches 
than  he  and  the  Lollards  were.  They  were  root 
and  branch  men  against  Rome,  as  all  their  fathers 
were,  and  as  the  Lollard  tracts  published  by  the 
Camden  Society  show.  Then  came  Henry  VIII.  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  with  his  wives  and  cause  — 
whatever  the  last  may  be.  But  the  Lollards  had 
been  already  for  almost  three  hundred  years  the 
Puritans  of  England,  and  they  gave  the  king  small 
thanks,  going  their  own  solitary  and  dangerous  way, 
in  a  courage  which  no  English  king  nor  prelate  ever 
quelled  by  axe  or  stake.  Nothing  is  argued  here 
as  to  what,  if  anything,  was  good  or  bad  in  the 
English  Reformation.  Whether  good  or  bad,  Lol- 
lardism,  evolved  into  Puritanism,  was  the  soul  and 
flame  of  it,  and  did  not  quail  before  Henry,  before 
Mary,  before  Elizabeth,  —  nor  even  before  a  dead 
headless  king  on  the  scaffold  which  it  had  built. 
It  is  the  radical  Protestant  element  of  the  English 
Reformation. 

In  the  years  between  Henry  VIII.  and  Charles  I. 
Puritanism  evolved  itself  into  its  logical  form,  and 


14  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

crystallized  its  own  consciousness.  This  it  was  able 
to  do  because  it  could  now  educate  itself  at  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  and  because  its  leaders  had  wider 
data  and  more  exact  tests  to  go  upon  in  proving  all 
matters  touching  the  religious  or  political  status  of 
man,  holding  fast  only  what  was  found  good.  A  great 
movement  never  explodes ;  it  takes  steps,  and  so  long 
as  it  is  living  it  moves  on,  never  looking  back,  but 
always  in  the  direction  of  its  first  infant  and  virgin 
vision.  If  in  any  age  it  halt  and  pitch  tents  it  is  to 
be  up  and  about,  delving  lustily  in  the  soil  of  its  new 
domain.  When  it  is  quelled,  or  drowses,  it  accepts 
its  grave,  out  of  which,  so  perennial  is  true  greatness, 
come  perfumes  gracious  to  the  great.  It  does  not 
appear  that  Puritanism  has  ever  yet  died  at  the  heart, 
and  the  fragrance  of  its  granite  virtues  remain  as 
a  benison  upon  its  posterity.  Oliver  Cromwell  and 
John  Milton,  if  now  on  earth,  would  find  conscience 
and  conduct  free  enough  in  these  United  States  to 
please  even  these  foes  of  kings  and  priestcraft.  Life 
is  not  a  machine  framed  out  of  articulated  parts,  but  a 
river  whose  lapse  is  continuous,  running  deep  or  shal- 
low as  the  soil  serves,  and  when  fretted  or  barred  by 
rock  or  dike  gathering  head  until  it  overtops  the  ob- 
stacle, and  sweeps  on,  generally  in  a  white  rage  of 
ruin.  Under  Henry  VIII.  the  Puritan  tide,  restrained 
so  long  by  the  barrier  of  the  ancient  ecclesiasticism, 
broke  through  and  swept  away  the  Roman  bondage 
which  had  ruled  in  the  name  of  God  ;  under  Charles 
I.,  and  under  like  restraint  of  personal  government  in 
the  place  of  English  statute  law,  it  swept  away  the 
throne. 


THE   PURITAN  IN  OLD   ENGLAND.  1 5 

But  what,  now,  was  this  radical  Protestantism,  which 
we  call  English  Puritanism,  to  work  such  dominating 
results  ?  There  were  in  it  those  masterful  ideas 
which,  ever  looking  towards  both  church  and  state, 
have  hastened  and  agonized  ever  since  in  the  West 
to  establish  true  liberty,  both  in  religion  and  politics. 
But  how  ?  And  why  ?  The  Reformation  was  an  at- 
tempt at  a  new  and  radical  adjustment  between  the 
individual  and  human  society.  For  of  old,  man  had 
seemed  to  exist  for  church  and  state  ;  now  it  was  de- 
manded that  church  and  state  should  exist  for  man. 
Of  old,  these  twin  corporations  of  authority  had 
seemed  by  their  very  magnitude  and  magnificence  to 
abase  by  contrast  and  by  conduct  into  littleness  the 
worshipper  and  the  subject.  Henceforth,  to  a  degree, 
every  man  was  to  be  his  own  priest,  and  a  king 
because  he  was  a  man.  Protestantism  at  its  core  is 
the  apotheosis  of  individualism,  and  the  most  relent- 
less of  democracies.  It  declares  the  individual  to  be 
the  unit,  the  articulated  blood  globule  of  society  upon 
whose  health  and  safety  the  peace  and  thrift  of  all 
human  institutions  depend;  that  when  this  individual 
blood  globule  is  hurt  in  its  identity,  or  confused  in 
masses  with  others,  like,  by  any  corporation,  exactly 
as  the  cobra's  poison  works  by  confusing  and  com- 
pounding the  blood  globules  of  its  victim  in  an  unar- 
ticulated  mass,  then  the  common  weal  shrivels  and 
tends  to  the  dust.  This  enthronement  and  canoni- 
zation of  the  individual,  accepted  gradually  but  infalli- 
bly by  English  Puritanism,  rested  upon  a  religious 
idea  which   was  this,  —  that   as  an  incarnate   God, 


1 6  SAMUEL   SEW  ALL. 

while  wearing  our  flesh,  had  once  died  for  every  man, 
so  no  man  thus  redeemed  could,  without  sacrilege,  be 
abased  by  any  tyranny  of  prelate  or  king  from  his 
privilege  of  remaining  a  "  child  of  God  and  an  inheri- 
tor of  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  This  point  is  argued 
with  a  most  eager  pathos  by  Macaulay  in  his  Essay 
on  John  Milton,  in  a  passage  now  fashionably  sneered 
at  by  some  of  our  callow  critics,  but  which  yet  re- 
mains the  most  accurate  statement  of  Puritanism  in 
its  ideal  logic  extant  in  the  English  tongue.  Here  is 
the  root  of  English  Protestantism  as  seen  in  all  its 
ages  in  all  its  sects,  —  in  the  right  of  private  judg- 
ment of  the  Scriptures,  in  a  town  meeting,  in  a  revo- 
lution, in  a  civilization.  Puritan  politics  are  born  of 
Puritan  dogmatics,  —  and  their  whole  history  shows 
not  otherwise.  Here  is  the  root  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution, and  ours  also,  and  the  mainspring  of  English 
civilization  for  the  last  three  hundred  years. 

Charles  I.  and  the  Church  of  England  obstructed 
this  Puritanism  with  ecclesiastical  and  political  beha- 
viors which  the  Puritan  thought  unjust,  and  offences 
against  man.  In  due  time  the  rule  of  both  became 
intolerable,  and  Hampden  protested  against  the  ship- 
money  demanded  by  the  king,  while  a  thousand  Puri- 
tan parsons  distressed,  and  were  distressed  by,  the 
primate  of  all  England,  Laud.  Revolution  logically 
followed,  and  both  king  and  primate,  and  greater  than 
both,  Strafford,  died  under  the  axe.  Many  men  had 
died  so  long  before ;  but  for  the  first  time  in  history 
private  men,  under  solemn  guise  of  law  and  prayers, 
smote  so  their  own  sovereign.     The  edge  of  the  axe 


THE   PURITAN  TV  OLD   ENGLAND.  1/ 

which  smote  Charles  was  this  root  idea  of  Puritan- 
ism, and  the  sound  of  it   in  falUng  proclaimed  that 
the  privilege  of  the  people  makes  henceforth  the  law 
of  the  land.      It  is  idle  to  say  that  all  this  sad  work 
might    have    been   avoided   by    the   wisdom    of    the 
parties  to  the  dispute.     The  parties  to  the  dispute 
were  the  victims,  not  the  criminals.      The  cause  in 
issue  had  been  framed  of  old  by  generations  of  prel- 
ates   and  statesmen  long    before  Wickliffe  and  the 
Stuarts,  and  the  case  had  to  be  tried  upon  its  merits. 
The  authorities  of  the  English  church  and  state  were 
thought  by  their  adherents  to  hold  a  venerable  trust, 
which  most  Englishmen  to-day  would  pronounce  trea- 
son, to  surrender  without  trial ;  and  Puritanism  could 
do  no  other  than  it  did.     A  gentle  primate,  as  Abbot 
was,  would  have  no  more  availed  for  final  peace  than 
Laud  did.      A   wiser  and  better  king  than   Charles 
might  have  postponed,  but  could  not  have  prevented, 
the   struggle.      Despite    Cavalier    follies,  or    Puritan 
absurdities,  the  cause  and  the  contention  had  to  come. 
If  it  had  come  much  later,  England  would  have  cer- 
tainly fared  much  worse.      The  head  of  an  Alpine 
stream  against  the  barrier  of  a  fallen  avalanche  grows 
more  threatening  every  hour.     War  against  Charles  I. 
in   the   seventeenth   century  makes   Queen  Victoria 
possible  in  the  nineteenth.     The  Puritan  temper  has 
never  faded  out  of  the  consciousness  of  that  England 
which,  some  ways,  is  the  freest  of  all  lands. 

The  Puritan  drift,  having  killed  a  king,  created  an 
English  Commonwealth  of  Parliament  and  Oliver 
Cromwell's  sword.      In  the  name  of  God  Puritanism 


1 8  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

maintained  itself  for  a  few  years,  and  failed.  But 
while  it  lasted  it  ever  appealed  to  the  "higher  law" 
of  God  as  the  supreme  and  salutary  fountain  of  all 
true  government.  It  maintained  in  its  highest  cir- 
cles the  duty  of  regicide  upon  due  occasion.  Its 
mouthpiece,  John   Milton,  writes  :  — 

"Why  not  inflict  justice  on  tyrants?  To  teach  lawless  kings 

and  all  who  so  miicli  adore  them  that  not  mortal  man  or  his 

imperious  will  but  justice  is  the  only  true  sovereign  and  su- 
preme majesty  on  earth." 

It  analyzed  human  government  down  to  its  roots, 
and  elaborated  a  philosophy  of  a  nation's  economic 
and  political  life  which,  while  improved  upon  when 
seen  under  the  new  lights  of  human  experience,  must 
still  remain  as  the  very  woof  of  all  republics  which 
endure.  This  philosophy  stands  forth  in  such  ring- 
ing and  subtle  sentences  as  these  of  Milton  :  — 

"  For  indeed  none  can  love  freedom  heartily  but  good  men ; 
the  rest  love  not  freedom  but  license  which  never  hath  more 
scope  or  more  indulgence  than  under  tyrants.  Hence  it  is  that 
tyrants  are  not  oft  offended  nor  stand  much  in  doubt  of  bad 
men,  as  being  all  naturally  servile.  But  in  whom  virtue  and 
true  worth  most  is  eminent,  them  they  fear  in  earnest,  as  by 
right  their  master.  Against  them  lies  all  their  hatred  and  sus- 
picion." 

Yet  Puritanism  failed  as  a  governing  force  on 
Englishmen.  It  failed,  not  because  its  root  ideas 
were  false,  but  because  the  Puritans  themselves,  be- 
ing liien,  were  fallible,  and,  as  themselves  said,  had 
their  treasure  in  earthen  vessels,  not  in  the  box  of 


THE  FUR  I  TAN'  IN  OLD   ENGLAND.  19 

alabaster.  These  earthen  vessels  became,  under  the 
hammers  of  the  enemies  whom  their  fanaticism  bred 
up,  but  broken  potsherds ;  yet  the  very  precious  oint- 
ment which,  as  some  thought,  fell  to  the  earth  at 
their  overthrow  has  lent  a  fragrance  to  the  atmos- 
phere of  Anglo-Saxon  living  ever  since.  They  failed 
because  their  environment  was  hopelessly  against 
them.  They  appealed  to  the  will  of  the  people,  obe- 
dient to  their  new  faith ;  and  the  will  of  the  vast 
majority  of  Englishmen  was  away  from  them,  and 
towards  the  national  church  and  king.  This  the  Res- 
toration proves.  To  one  looking  below  the  surface, 
they  do  not  appear  to  have  failed  in  Time,  — only  for 
a  time.  For  ever  since  in  England  —  in  her  times  of 
danger,  as  when  Charles  II.  kept  unclean  house  with 
the  still  uncleaner  gold  of  France,  a  purchased  slave 
of  Louis  XIV.  ;  when  James  II.  tampered  with  Eng- 
land's faith  and  England's  statute  law,  as  his  father 
had ;  when  Wilberforce  pleaded  for  free  soil  under 
the  British  flag  for  black  as  well  as  white ;  when  the 
Corn  Laws  agitation  shook  the  vested  rights  of  the 
English  aristocracy  almost  to  overthrow,  as  Greville's 
Memoirs  tell  us ;  when  again  and  again  England  has 
looked  to  her  sword  as  she  took  the  field  against  the 
Gaul  or  the  Muscovite,  and  the  thunder  of  her  battle- 
ships quelled  almost  the  winds  to  calm  —  the  sturdy 
Puritan  temper  has  vindicated  its  right  to  still  live 
in  honor,  and  still  remains  a  menace  to  all  tyranny  in 
church  or  state  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

Some  people  affect  to  laugh  at   English   Puritan- 
ism ;  but  they  are  not  wise  who  do  so.     Some  Ameri- 


20  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

cans  read  their  prayers  and  almost  endless  sermons 
with  a  smile,  but  forget  the  prowess  of  their  virtues. 
But  every  wise  lover  of  the  privilege  of  man  greets 
their  memory  with  the  sympathy  bred  from  the 
knowledge  that  the  very  and  urgent  problems  which 
the  English  Puritans  in  the  seventeenth  century 
tried  to  solve,  and  failed,  inhere  in  the  history  and 
future  of  this  republic,  and  are  still  unsettled. 


THE  PURITAN  EXODUS.  21 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE    PURITAN    EXODUS. 

If  a  Puritan,  just  come  to  Massachusetts  Bay, 
had  been  asked  what  phrase  would  best  describe 
his  singular  emigration,  he  might  have  answered, 
in  his  religious  intensity  and  sincerity,  that  it  should 
be  called  the  New  Exodus.  If  questioned  further, 
he  would  have  stoutly  affirmed  that  the  Puritans, 
once  more  in  the  economy  of  Heaven,  had  become 
a  chosen  people,  and,  on  denial,  would  have  pointed 
to  the  Covenant  which  they  had  formally  made  with 
God  as  proof.  For  indeed  there  was  a  correspon- 
dence in  fortune  between  the  Puritans  and  the  Chil- 
dren of  Israel.  The  Puritan,  too,  had  come  out  of 
the  Egypt  where  the  Pharaohs  were  the  archbishops 
and  the  idolatry  was  out  of  Mass  Book  and  Prayer 
Book.  He,  too,  had  passed  the  Red  Sea,  which,  if 
not  divided  in  his  behoof,  had  yet  availed  by  dis- 
tance to  keep  back  his  enemy  from  his  track.  He, 
too,  had  left  the  pyramids  of  an  old  civilization,  rich 
in  the  storied  monuments  of  palace  and  cathedral, 
for  the  wild,  and  the  Promised  Land  which  lay  at 
the  end  of  his  travail.  Above  all,  both  Hebrews  and 
Puritans  worshipped  the  same  Jehovah,  the  statute- 
book  of  whom  had   become  the   supreme  authority 


22  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

in  both  theocracies.  It  should  be  added  that  a  simi- 
larity in  circumstance  and  religion  is  apt  to  create  a 
resemblance  in  character. 

Of  course  the  Puritans  were  not  the  first  white 
men  at  the  Bay.  When  Winthrop  arrived  here 
(1630)  probably  three  hundred  whites  were  here; 
with  him  came  about  one  thousand,  and  in  the  next 
twenty  years,  in  some  three  hundred  ships,  there 
came  out  some  twenty  thousand  more. 

To  emigrate  or  go  a  sea  voyage  was  no  novelty 
in  the  seventeenth  century  to  Englishmen.  But 
generally  the  men  who  expatriated  themselves  were 
young  or  unmarried  or  reckless  or  given  to  wild 
adventures.  But  the  Puritans  were  generally  in 
middle  life,  married,  and  with  families,  with  roots 
struck  deep  down  into  the  English  soil,  conservative 
and  prudent  in  business  ventures,  and  their  emigra- 
tion was  a  violent  and  sorrowful  wrenching  away 
of  themselves  from  what  most  civilized  men  count 
most  dear.  That  they  emigrated  at  all  shows  that 
they  were  in  deadly  strife  with  something  in  Eng- 
land ;  and  that  something  was  no  less  than  a  na- 
tional church,  backed  in  its  rule  by  the  Crown. 
Ages  of  high  religious  excitement,  curiously  enough, 
whether  in  Mohammedan  or  Christian,  tend  to  take  a 
pessimistic  view  of  this  world's  affairs,  possibly  be- 
cause they  measure  them  by  those  celestial  grandeurs 
to  which  they  believe  themselves  heritors,  and  find 
earthly  things  small  and  mean  in  contrast.  Besides, 
ages  like  the  Puritan  age  have  so  full  faith  in  God's 
care  of  His  own,  that  the  best,  believing  that  what- 


THE    PURITAN   EXODUS.  23 

ever  is  is  right,  come  very  near  to  being  fatalists. 
The  sharpness  of  the  Saracen  scimitar  against 
Christendom  of  old  was  not  more  love  of  God  than 
a  sense  that,  if  he  liked,  God  would  keep  His  safe 
in  the  most  fatal  strife.  There  were  shades  of  mel- 
ancholia and  fatalism  even  in  Puritans  of  the  lofti- 
est mind, — at  least,  among  the  early  settlers  in  New 
England.  Nor  perhaps  were  these  lessened  by  the 
overthrow  of  Cromwell's  Commonwealth  and  the 
Restoration  of  Charles  II.  A  high-bred  Puritan 
writes  :  — 

"  For  the  business  of  New  England,  I  can  say  no  other 
thing  but  that  I  believe  confidently,  that  the  whole  disposi- 
tion thereof,  is  of  the  Lord  who  disposeth  all  alterations,  by 
his  blessed  will  to  his  own  glory  and  the  good  of  his ; 
and  therefore  do  assure  myself  that  all  things  shall  work 
together  for  the  best  therein.  As  for  myself,  I  have  seen  so 
much  of  the  vanity  of  the  world,  that  I  esteem  no  more  of  the 
diversities  of  countries,  than  as  so  many  inns,  whereof  the 
traveller  who  hath  lodged  in  the  best  or  in  the  worst,  findeth 
no  difference  when  he  cometh  to  his  journey's  end  ;  and  I  shall 
call  that  my  country  where  I  may  most  glorify  God  and  enjoy 
the  presence  of  my  dearest  friends." 

But  whatever  be  the  more  recondite  aspects  of 
the  Puritan  Exodus,  one  thing  is  plain  ;  viz.,  that 
the  emigration  became  very  often  an  epic  and  a 
tragedy  in  the  hearts  of  the  men  and  women  who 
sailed  away  or  stayed  behind.  In  most,  of  course, 
all  this  agony  failed  to  write  itself  down,  and  went 
voiceless  to  the  grave  with  those  who  suffered,  as 
is  the  lot  of  most. 


24  SAMUEL    SEWALL. 

But  the  letters  of  men  like  Winthrop  doubtless 
voice  the  common  pangs,  though  the  voice  in  him 
and  them  sounds  like  a  man  who  will  not  quail. 
There  are  certain  letters  of  his  to  different  members 
of  his  family  hardly  to  be  outm'atched  in  power 
by  any  like  letters  in  the  literature  of  the  world. 

As  the  date  for  embarking  for  New  England 
approaches,  and  business  in  London  and  elsewhere 
multiplies,  his  letters  preparing  his  wife  for  their 
separation  (she  was  now  in  delicate  health)  multiply 
also.     Jan.  31,  1629,  he  writes:  — 

"  I  must  now  begin  to  prepare  thee  for  our  long  parting 
which  grows  very  near.  I  know  not  how  to  deal  with  thee 
by  arguments ;  for  if  thou  wert  as  wise  and  patient  as  ever 
woman  was,  yet  it  must  needs  be  a  great  trial  to  thee,  and 
the  greater  because  I  am  so  dear  to  thee.  That  which  I  must 
chiefly  look  at  in  thee,  for  a  ground  of  contentment  is  thy 
godliness.  If  now  the  Lord  be  thy  God,  thou  must  show  it 
by  trusting  in  him  and  resigning  thyself  quietly  to  his  good 
pleasure.  If  now  Christ  be  thy  husband  thou  must  show 
what  sure  and  sweet  intercourse  is  between  him  and  thy  soul 
when  it  shall  be  no  hard  thing  for  thee  to  part  with  an  earthly 
mortal,  infirm  husband  for  his  sake.  The  enlargement  of 
thy  comfort  in  the  communion  of  the  love  and  sweet  fami- 
liarity of  thy  most  holy,  heavenly  and  undefiled  Lord  and 
Husband  will  abundantly  recompense  whatsoever  want  or  in- 
convenience may  come  by  the  absence  of  the  other.  The  best 
course  is  to  turn  all  our  reasons  and  discourse  into  prayers  ; 
for  he  only  can  help  who  is  Lord  of  sea  and  land  and  hath 
sole  power  of  life  and  death.  ...  So  I  kiss  my  sweet  wife 
and  rest, 

Thy  frail,  yet  faithful  husband 

Jo  Winthrop." 


THE    PURITAN    EXODUS.  25 

Feb.  14  he  writes  :  — 

My  sweet  Wife, — 

The  opportunity  of  so  fit  a  messenger  and  my  deep  engage- 
ment of  affection  for  thee,  makes  me  write  at  this  time,  thous-h 
I  hope  to  follow  soon  after.  The  Lord  our  God  hath  oft 
brought  us  together  with  comfort,  when  we  have  been  long 
absent ;  and  if  it  be  good  for  us,  he  will  do  so  still.  When  I 
was  in  Ireland,  he  brought  us  together  again.  When  I  was 
sick  here  at  London  he  restored  us  together  again.  How 
many  dangers,  near  death,  hast  thou  been  in  thyself  ;  and  yet 
the  Lord  hath  granted  me  to  enjoy  thee  still.  If  he  did  not 
watch  over  us,  we  need  not  go  over  sea  to  seek  death  or  mis- 
ery ;  we  should  meet  it  at  every  step,  in  every  journey.  And 
is  not  he  a  God  abroad  as  well  as  at  home  .'*  Is  not  his  power 
and  providence  the  same  in  New  England  that  it  hath  been 
in  Old  England  ?  If  our  ways  please  him  he  can  command 
deliverance  and  safety  in  all  places  and  can  make  the  stones 
of  the  field  and  the  beasts,  yea  the  raging  seas  and  our  very 
enemies,  to  be  in  league  with  us.  But  if  we  sin  against  him 
he  can  raise  up  evil  against  us  out  of  our  own  bowells,  houses, 
estates  &c.  My  good  wife,  trust  in  the  Lord  whom  thou  hast 
found  faithful.  He  will  be  better  to  thee  than  any  husband 
and  will  restore  thee  thy  husband  with  advantage.  But  I  must 
end  with  all  the  salutations  with  which  I  have  laden  this  bearer, 
that  he  may  be  the  more  kindly  welcome.  So  I  kiss  my  sweet 
wife  and  bless  thee  and  all  ours  and  rest  Thine  ever. 

Feby.  14,  1629.  Jo  Winthrop. 

Thou  must  be  my  valentine,  for  none  hath  challenged  me. 

On  shipboard,  and  preparing  to  set  sail  on  the 
morrow,  he  writes  this  graphic  and  all-wise  pathetic 
letter  :  — 

My  faithful  and  dear  Wife,  — 

It  pleaseth  God  that  thou  shouldst  once  again  hear  from  me 
before  our  departure,  and  I  hope  this  shall  come  safe  to  thy 


26  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

hands.  I  know  it  will  be  a  great  refreshing  to  thee.  And 
blessed  be  his  mercy  that  I  can  write  thee  so  good  news  that 
we  are  all  in  very  good  health  and  having  tried  our  ships  en- 
tertainment, now  more  than  a  week,  we  find  it  agree  very  well 
with  us.  Our  boys  are  well  and  cheerful,  and  have  no  mind  of 
home.  They  lie  both  with  me  and  sleep  as  soundly  in  a  rug 
(for  we  use  no  sheets  here)  as  ever  they  did  at  Groton ;  and  so 
I  do  myself,  (I  praise  God).  The  wind  hath  been  against  us 
this  week  and  more;  but  this  day  it  is  come  fair  to  the  north, 
so  that  we  are  preparing  (by  God's  assistance)  to  set  sail  in 
the  morning.  We  have  only  four  ships  ready  and  some  two 
or  three  Hollanders  go  along  with  us.  The  rest  of  our  fleet, 
being  seven  ships  (the  Pilgrim  Mayflower  being  one)  will  not 
be  ready  this  sennight.  We  have  spent  now  two  Sabbaths  on 
shipboard  very  comfortably  (God  be  praised)  and  are  daily 
more  and  more  encouraged  to  look  for  the  Lord's  presence  to 
go  along  with  us.  Henry  Kingsbury  hath  a  child  or  two  in  the 
Talbot,  sick  of  the  measles,  but  like  to  do  well.  One  of  my 
men  had  them  at  [South]  Hampton,  but  he  was  soon  well 
again.  We  are,  in  all  our  eleven  ships,  about  seven  hundred 
persons,  passengers  and  two  hundred  and  forty  cows  and 
about  sixty  horses.  The  ship  which  went  from  Plimouth 
carried  about  one  hundred  and  forty  persons  and  the  ship 
which  goeth  from  Bristowe  [Bristol]  carrieth  about  eighty 
persons.  And  now,  my  sweet  soul,  I  must  once  again  take  my 
last  farewell  of  thee  in  Old  England.  It  goeth  very  near  to 
my  heart  to  leave  thee  ;  but  I  know  to  whom  I  have  committed 
thee,  even  to  him  who  loves  thee  better  than  any  husband  can, 
who  has  taken  account  of  the  hairs  of  thy  head  and  puts  all 
thy  tears  in  his  bottle,  who  can  and  (if  it  be  for  his  glory) 
will  bring  us  together  again  with  peace  and  comfort,  O,  how 
it  refresheth  my  heart  to  think  that  I  shall  yet  again  see  thy 
sweet  face  in  the  land  of  the  living  !  — that  lovely  countenance 
that  I  have  so  much  delighted  in  and  beheld  with  so  great 
content.  I  have  hitherto  been  so  taken  up  with  business  as 
I   could  seldom  look  back  to  my  former  happiness  ;   but  now 


THE   PURITAN  EXODUS.  2/ 

when  I  shall  be  at  some  leisure  I  shall  not  avoid  the  remem- 
brance of  thee,  nor  the  grief  for  thy  absence.  Thou  hast  thy 
share  with  me  but  I  hope  the  course  we  have  agreed  upon  will 
be  some  ease  to  us  both.  Mondays  and  Fridays  at  five  of  the 
clock  at  night  we  shall  meet  in  spirit  until  we  meet  in  person. 
Yet,  if  all  these  hopes  should  fail  blessed  be  our  own  God  that 
we  are  assured  we  shall  meet  one  day,  if  not  as  husband  and 
wife,  yet  in  a  better  condition.  Let  that  stay  and  comfort  thy 
heart.  Neither  can  the  sea  drown  thy  husband  nor  enemies 
destroy,  nor  any  adversity  deprive  thee  of  thy  husband  or  chil- 
dren. Therefore  I  will  only  take  thee  now  and  my  sweet 
children  in  my  arms  and  kiss  and  embrace  you  all,  and  so 
leave  you  with  my  God.  Farewell,  farewell.  I  bless  you  all 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus.   .   .  . 

Thine  wheresoever 

Jo    WiNTHROP. 

From  aboard  the  Arbella  riding  at  the  Cowes  March  28 
1630. 

Elsewhere  in  the  story  of  Sewall's  voyage  into 
England  one  sees  how  it  fared  with  passengers 
crossing  the  Atlantic  in  English  ships.  The  ships 
themselves  were  small,  far  below  in  architecture 
vessels  of  these  days  both  in  safety  and  convenience ; 
the  fare  was  meagre,  enemies  abounded,  charts  and 
pilots  were  few,  shoals  many,  and,  in  short,  the  voy- 
age out  of  Old  England  into  New  was  beset  with 
hardships  and  dangers. 

In  trying  to  get  insight  into  our  old  New  Eng- 
land civilization  one  fact  should  never  be  forgotten ; 
to  wit,  that  our  ancestors  here  were  emigrants,  —  ex- 
actly what  that  word  implies.  True,  they  were  rare 
and  singular  emigrants,  but  for  all  that,  at  least  for  a 
hundred  years,  New  England  folk  fared  as  emigrants, 


28  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

and  as  the  descendants  of  emigrants,  in  a  wilderness 
rife  with  fevers,  labors,  and  foes.  And  the  strife  to 
conquer  a  civilization  out  of  all  this  began  with  the 
voyage.  John  Winthrop  in  his  Journal  gives  us  very 
representative  pictures  of  how  it  usually  fared  on  an 
English  ship  with  Puritan  emigrants.  By  the  Puri- 
tans who  stayed  behind  such  a  company  were  regarded 
with  all  that  tender  interest  and  respect  which  Chris- 
tians show  nowadays  in  taking  leave  of  those  who  go 
out  to  some  dangerous  missionary  field  on  the  Congo 
or  in  Burmah.  Tuesday,  April  6,  1630:  "Capt.  Bur- 
leigh, captain  of  Yarmouth  Castle,  a  grave  comely 
gentleman  and  of  great  age  came  aboard  us  and 
stayed  breakfast  and  offering  us  much  courtesy  de- 
parted, our  captain  giving  him  four  shot,  out  of  the 
forecastle  for  his  farewell.  He  was  an  old  sea  cap- 
tain in  Elizabeths  time  and,  being  taking  prisoner  at 
sea  was  kept  prisoner  in   Spain  three  years." 

Of  course  in  those  days  all  ships  went  armed,  and 
the  men  as  well.  "  Our  captain  called  over  our  land- 
men and  tried  them  at  their  muskets  and  such  as 
were  good  shot  among  them,  were  enrolled  to  serve 
in  the  ship,  if  occasion  should  be."  April  9,  while 
still  in  the  Channel,  there  was  a  warlike  turmoil  on 
board.  "  We  saw  these  eight  ships  [mistaken  for 
enemies]  to  stand  towards  us  ;  having  more  wind 
than  we  they  came  up  apace  ;  whereupon  we  all 
prepared  to  fight  with  them  [the  English  ships  were 
only  four]  and  took  down  some  cabins  which  were 
in  the  way  of  our  ordnance  and  out  of  every  ship 
were  thrown  such  bed  matters    as   were   subject  to 


THE   PURITAN  EXODUS.  29 

take  fire  and  we  heaved  out  our  long  boats  and  put 
up  our  waste  cloths  and  drew  forth  our  men  and 
armed  them  with  muskets  and  other  weapons  and 
instruments  for  fire  works  ;  and  for  an  experiment 
our  captain  shot  a  ball  of  wild  fire  fastened  to  an 
arrow,  out  of  a  crossbow,  which  burnt  in  the  water 
a  good  time.  The  lady  Arbella  [Johnson]  and  the 
other  Women  and  children  were  removed  into  the 
lower  deck,  that  they  might  be  out  of  danger.  All 
things  being  thus  fitted,  we  went  to  prayer  upon  the 
upper  deck.  It  was  much  to  see  how  cheerful  and 
comfortable  all  the  company  appeared  ;  not  a  woman 
or  child  that  showed  fear,  though  all  did  apprehend 
the  danger  to  have  been  great,  if  things  had  proved 
as  might  well  be  expected,  for  there  had  been  eight 
against  four,  and  the  least  of  the  enemy's  ships  were 
reported  to  carry  thirty  brass  pieces  ;  but  our  trust 
was  in  the  Lord  of  Hosts  ;  and  the  courage  of  our 
captain  and  his  care  and  diligence  did  much  encour- 
age us.  It  was  now  about  one  of  the  clock  and  the 
fleet  seemed  to  be  within  a  league  of  us  ;  therefore 
our  captain,  because  he  would  show  he  was  not  afraid 
of  them,  and  that  he  might  see  the  issue  before  night 
should  overtake  us,  tacked  about  and  stood  to  meet 
them,  and  when  we  came  near  we  perceived  them 
to  be  our  friends.  .  .  .  And ,  so  (God  be  praised) 
our  fear  and  danger  was  turned  into  mirth  and 
friendly  entertainment."  Is  it  strange  that  men  who 
would  burn  their  bed-straw,  and  then  go  to  prayer 
upon  the  upper  deck,  in  preparation  to  fight  two 
ships  with  one,  even  turning  back  to  meet  them,  are 


30  "   SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

found  in  history  to  be  stout  men  to  win  their  way 
to  their  will  ? 

They  solaced  themselves,  Winthrop  writes,  after 
the  scare,  by  each  ship  launching  out  a  skiff  and 
boarding  some  fishermen ;  "  and  we  bought  of  them 
o:reat  store  of  excellent  fresh  fish  of  diverse  sorts." 

There  were  prayers  on  board  several  times  a  day, 
and  frequent  sermons,  when  the  weather  served ; 
fasts  for  head  winds,  and  thanksgivings  for  fair. 
These  ordinances  were  only  intermitted  when  min- 
isters and  people  were  all  seasick.  Yet  they  car- 
ried the  world  with  them,  notwithstanding  so  much 
of  heavenly  exercise.  The  world,  in  this  case,  were 
thieves,  brawlers,  and  people  who  wouldn't  keep  their 
quarters  clean.  Plenty  of  salt  water  under  a  master 
washed  away  the  dirt ;  and  as  for  the  others,  pat  and 
homely  punishments  soon  reduced  them  to  their  duty. 
"This  day  [April  lo]  two  young  men  falling  at  odds 
and  fighting  contrary  to  the  orders  which  we  had 
published  and  set  up  in  the  ship  were  adjudged  to 
walk  upon  the  deck  till  night  with  their  hands  bound 
behind  them  which  accordingly  was  executed  ;  and 
another  man  for  using  contemptuous  speeches  in 
our  presence,  was  laid  in  bolts  until  he  submitted 
himself  and  promised  open  confession  of  his  of- 
fence. .  .  .  Set  two  fighters  in  the  bolts  till  night 
with  their  hands  bound  behind  them.  ...  A  maid 
servant  in  the  ship  being  stomach-sick  drank  so 
much  strong  water  that  she  was  senseless  and  had 
near  killed  herself.  We  observed  it  a  common  fault 
in  our  young  people  that  they  gave  themselves  to 


THE   PURITAN  EXODUS.  3 1 

drink  hot  waters  very  immoderately.  ...  A  servant 
of  one  of  our  company  had  bargained  with  a  child  to 
sell  it  a  box  worth  yi.  for  three  biscuits  a  day  all 
the  voyage  and  had  received  about  forty  and  had 
sold  them  and  many  more  to  some  other  servants. 
We  caused  his  hands  to  be  tied  up  to  a  bar  and 
hanged  a  basket  with  stones  about  his  neck  and  so 
he  stood  two  hours." 

The  voyage  lasted  from  March  29  to  June  12. 
Winthrop's  Journal  shows  all  sorts  of  weather,  much 
of  it  stormy.  He  speaks  of  ''  a  small  gale,"  "a  good 
gale,"  ''a  stiff  gale,"  and  "a  handsome  gale."  There 
were  fogs  also.  Occasionally  the  captains  came 
aboard  to  dine,  or  one  ship  waited  for  another  ship 
laggard  or  in  distress  of  rigging.  Occasionally  they 
borrowed  meal  or  other  edibles  from  each  other.  In 
some  of  the  other  ships  both  cattle  and  passengers 
died,  while  several  children  were  born.  When  there 
was  a  new  baby  on  board  Winthrop's  ship,  and  there 
was  need  of  help  from  a  consort,  ''  we  shot  off  a 
piece  and  lowered  our  topsails  and  then  she  brailed 
her  sails  and  stayed  for  us."  With  the  customary 
Winthrop  taste  for  scientific  observation,  he  remarks 
that  the  sun's  rays  are  not  so  warm  as  at  home. 
"This  evening  [June  i]  we  saw  the  new  moon 
more  than  half  an  hour  after  sunset,  being  much 
smaller  than  it  is  at  any  time  in  England.  .  .  .  May 
1 7.  We  saw  a  great  drift ;  so  we  heaved  out  our  skiff 
and  it  proved  a  fir  log  which  seemed  to  have  been 
many  years  in  the  water,  for  it  was  all  overgrown 
with  barnacles  and  other  trash.    We  saw  two  whales." 


32  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

Sometimes  a  strange  vessel  would  run  away  from 
them,  despite  their  friendly  signals,  or  their  consorts 
fell  or  sailed  out  of  sight,  to  their  vexation.  They 
were  now  nearing  land,  Monday  7  (June).  ''About 
4  in  the  morning  we  sounded  and  had  ground  at 
thirty  fathom,  and  was  somewhat  calm  ;  so  we  put 
our  ship  a-stays  and  took,  in  less  than  two  hours, 
with  a  few  hooks,  sixty  seven  codfish,  most  of  them 
very  great  fish,  some  a  yard  and  a  half  long,  and  a 
yard  in  compass.  This  came  very  seasonably,  for 
our  salt  fish  was  now  spent  and  we  were  taking  care 
for  victuals  this  day  (being  a  fish  day)."  June  8 
they  made  land  at  Mount  Desert.  Then  they  stood 
along  the  coast,  towards  Salem,  catching  many  mack- 
erel, and  sighting  vessels  until  Saturday  12  (June). 
"  About  4  in  the  morning  we  were  near  our  port. 
We  shot  off  two  pieces  of  ordnance  and  sent  our  skiff 
to  Mr.  Pierce's  ship  which  lay  in  the  harbour."  In  the 
afternoon  Governor  Endicott  and  the  Salem  pastor 
came  on  board,  and  the  emigrants  had  touched  their 
new  home.  "  In  the  mean  time  most  of  our  people 
went  on  shore  upon  the  land  of  Cape  Ann  which  lay 
very  near  us  and  gathered  store  of  fine  strawberries. 
An  Indian  came  aboard  us  and  lay  there  all  night. 
.  .  .  Lord's  Day  i  3.  In  the  morning  the  sagamore 
of  Agawam  and  one  of  his  men  came  aboard  our  ship 
and  stayed  with  us  all  day.  Thursday  17.  We  wxnt 
to  Mattachusetts  to  find  out  a  place  for  our  sitting 
down.  Went  up  Mestick  River  about  six  miles." 
So  the  Exodus  reached  Boston. 

The  land  they  settled  was  strange  to  them.     They 


THE   PURITAN  EXODUS.  33 

had  to  learn  the  cUmate,  and  to  provide  for  it ;  and 
their  experiments  in  crops,  following  English  meth- 
ods, had  to  be  slowly  verified  by  results.  There  was 
almost  no  cleared  land  for  their  tillage,  except  the 
Indian  cornfields,  which  they  left  to  their  owners. 
Salt  marshes  and  fresh  meadows  might  give  them 
hay  for  the  mowing,  but  in  general  it  was  a  huge 
forest  they  set  themselves  to  subdue.  This  was  the 
main  business  for  generations.  The  highest  in  rank 
formed  no  exception.  Lieutenant-Governor  Stough- 
ton,  as  Sewall  tells  us,  was  found  by  his  visitors 
carting  in  his  corn  ;  Chief  Justice  Lynde  took,  occa- 
sionally, a  hand  at  mowing ;  and  Endicott  appears  to 
have  held  a  sort  of  farm-school  on  his  acres,  with 
himself  as  teacher  by  example.  Many  of  the  Win- 
throps  were  practised  farmers.  Agriculture  stood 
first  in  the  general  business  interests  of  the  country. 
The  invoices  of  the  merchants  show  this,  —  spades, 
scythes,  and  sieves  for  sifting  meal,  being  the  most 
common  entries.  There  were  no  roads  but  Indian 
trails  and  the  rivers.  Men  were  sent  out  to  find  the 
best  course  from  one  place  to  another.  These  roads, 
at  least  in  the  shore  districts,  followed  the  highlands, 
to  avoid  rivers  and  creeks,  which  would  have  neces- 
sitated bridges,  which  they  were  too  poor  to  under- 
take. When  a  miserable  bridge  was  ordered  over 
Eel  River,  every  town  in  Plymouth  Colony  was 
taxed  to  pay  for  it.  Most  intercourse  between  towns 
was  by  a  horsetrack  and  on  horseback.  Judge  Lynde, 
who  succeeded  Sewall  as  chief  justice,  while  on  his 
circuit  makes  this  entry  in  his  Diary  as  late  as  1726  : 


34  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

''  1726.  At  landing  [over  the  Merrimac  from  New- 
bury, north  shore]  we  rode  by  a  stone  wall  where  our 
horses  were  mired  and  floundered  and  I  hurt  my  right 
hand  against  the  wall,  but  through  God's  goodness,  not 
much  ;  and  had  not  God  helped  I  might  have  dashed 
not  my  hand  or  foot,  but  my  body  and  head  against 
the  rocks.  God's  name  be  praised  now  and  ever  for 
his  preventing  as  well  as  his  restoring  mercies  thus 
repeated  to  me." 

Sewall  escaped  the  most  primitive  of  these  hard- 
ships, coming  here  some  thirty  years  after  Winthrop, 
in  1 66 1.  But  he,  too,  had  to  face  the  dangers  of  the 
road  in  his  frequent  journeys  as  a  judge  or  business 
man.  He  writes  it  down  in  his  Diary  that  one  of  his 
friends  had  a  wonderful  escape  crossing  Charlestown 
Ferry,  and  lives  were  sometimes  lost  there.  After 
his  dangerous  journeys  from  Boston  to  Roxbury, 
Brookline,  and  especi'ally  Cambridge,  he  signifies  his 
gratitude  for  his  safety  by  pious  entries  in  his  Diary. 

Such  distant  journeys  as  from  Boston  to  Salem 
or  Portsmouth  often  began  and  concluded  with  stated 
prayers.  Private  houses  were,  in  most  places,  the  only 
inns.  The  first  houses,  even  at  Boston,  must  have 
been  very  much  like  sheds  or  shanties,  and  this  must 
have  been  even  worse  in  the  smaller  places.  Under 
oak-trees,  or  in  the  lee  of  some  huge  rock,  they  held 
their  meetings,  or  in  some  storehouse.  At  the  found- 
ing of  New  Haven  Colony  the  Rev.  Mr.  Davenport 
preached  in  a  barn,  but  from  a  lordly  text  (Prov.  ix. 
i):  ''Wisdom  hath  builded  her  house  ;  she  hath  hewn 
out  her  seven  pillars." 


THE   PURITAN  EXODUS.  35 

Rev.  Mr.  Wilson  of  Boston  upon  occasion  could 
harangue  a  crowd  from  a  tree,  as  is  on  record.  Our 
fathers  had  ''faculty,"  and  could  adapt  themselves 
to  circumstances  with  a  tact  2iX\^  finesse  not  excelled 
by  the  acknowledged  ability  in  these  respects  of  the 
best  class  of  pioneers  in   our  West. 

It  took  time  for  the  Puritans  to  adapt  themselves 
to  their  new  home.  That  home,  for  those  who  could 
use  it,  was  no  desert,  though  a  wild.  Sea-food  for  the 
coast-dwellers  was  marvellously  plentiful ;  and  it  has 
always  been  an  enigma  to  those  who  know  the  land, 
why,  with  the  sea-sands  about  them  crammed  with 
shellfish,  any  one  of  the  Plymouth  Pilgrims  in  health 
had  need  to  die  with  hunger  in  their  winter  famine. 
Yet  owing  to  bad  crops  there  was  sometimes  want 
among  the  people. 

At  one  time,  tradition  is  that  there  was  but  one 
pint  of  corn  in  the  whole  settlement  of  Plymouth 
Colony,  which  gave  to  each  person  only  five  kernels. 
At  the  Pilgrim  Celebration  in  1820,  five  kernels  were 
placed  by  the  plate  of  each  guest,  in  memory.    . 

Yet  food  was  sometimes  very  high.  The  authori- 
ties were  charged  in  the  Narragansett  War  (1675) 
for  pork  at  the  rate  of  twenty  dollars  a  barrel.  In 
fact,  for  generations  New  England  lived  on  the 
edge  of  lack,  and  was  only  kept  from  falling  into 
actual  food  want  by  the  unremitting  energy  of  its  peo- 
ple. In  the  earlier  years  food  was  imported  again 
and  again.  Nor  was  this  limitation  in  physical  com- 
forts and  thrift  confined  to  the  common  people. 

The   Winthrop  letters,    especially    those    of    Wait 


36  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

Winthrop,  give  us  a  very  vivid  picture  of  the  hard- 
ships which  even  the  best  suffered  in  their  house- 
hold life  in  the  early  years  of  the  colony.  In  these 
letters  we  see  able,  educated  men  very  busy,  far- 
sighted  business  men  of  property  facing  a  poverty 
and  meagre  diet  at  which  the  mechanics  and  labor- 
ers of  to-day  would  stand  aghast.  It  was  not  always 
so,  and  some  of  the  younger  Winthrops  came  to  have 
comforts  ;  yet  the  poverty  must  have  lasted  very  long 
with  the  common  people,  and  the  toil,  beyond  that  of 
serfs,  has  reached  in  the  country  far  into  this  cen- 
tury. Nearly  all  of  them  were  farmers,  dreading 
Indians  and  pirates,  raising  cattle  in  the  wilds  or  on 
distant  islands,  which  seem  to  have  been  favorite 
places  for  such  work,  probably  because  the  sea  served 
as  a  fence,  the  herdsmen,  whites  and  Indians,  living 
there  in  solitary  huts,  and  the  owners  going  there  in 
all  sorts  of  weather  in  questionable  boats,  and  far- 
ing on  board  and  on  horseback  with  their  servants. 
Bad  crops  in  a  bad  season,  with  no  reserve  of  food, 
with  their  base  of  supplies  in  England  or  the  West 
Indies,  and  these  hampered  by  hostile  Dutch  or 
French  fleets  and  the  dangers  of  winter  passage,  not 
only  kept  the  larder  lean,  but  came  often  close  to 
starvation.  Their  letters  miscarried  or  came  late,  and 
their  goods  also.  From  Hartford  to  Boston  was  a 
long  journey,  before  which  prayers  were  said,  and  in 
which  horses  were  worn  out  and  carriage  was  expen- 
sive ;  and  the  coasting-vessels  around  Cape  Cod  often 
fell  into  mishap,  or  put  back.  Women  waited  all 
the  season  for  calicoes  which  did  not  come,  and  went 


THE  PURITAN-  EXODUS.  37 

into  the  winter  without  woollens,  shoes,  or  sugar  for 
their  household,  while  meat  ran  low ;  and  of  wheat, 
not  to  mention  Indian  corn,  there  was  often  actual 
dearth.  They  sent  one  another  a  shirt,  a  cravat,  a 
pair  of  stout  shoes,  stockings,  a  little  spice,  a  few 
raisins,  and  still  fewer  oranges,  medicines,  salves, 
as  a  great  mercy.  A.  Winthrop  had  often  a  deal 
of  trouble  to  find  for  himself  or  brother  an  honest 
leather  belt,  cloth  for  a  coat,  a  white  hat,  or  a  peri- 
wig ;  and  many  of  these  letters  are  full  of  such  trifles, 
showing  the  dearth.  Wait  Winthrop  of  Boston  begs 
of  his  brother  of  Connecticut  to  send  him  tallow  for 
candles,  and  on  one  occasion  tells  him  that  if  he 
comes  on  he  will  be  obliged  to  sit  in  the  dark  for 
lack  of  them.  They  even  made  tallow  from  the 
bayberry-bush,  of  green  color  and  sweet  odor ;  and 
in  one  case  complaint  is  made  that  there  was  so 
much  straw  in  their  makeup  that  they  were  good  for 
nothing.  "Your  candles  were  so  intimately  mixed 
with  straw  and  joined  together  that  they  were  good 
for  little."  "Carter  has  sold  your  punch  bowl,"  Wait 
writes  to  Fitz-John,  "and  Mears  has  not  sent  your  hat." 
Occasionally  something  finer  goes, — a  few  bottles 
of  white  wine  and  claret,  a  small  cask  of  brandy. 
Upon  one  occasion  Roger  Williams  sends  the  wife 
of  Governor  Winthrop  of  Connecticut  a  basket  of 
chestnuts,  and  say  he  will  send  more  if  she  likes. 
Under  date  of  June  22,  1680,  Wait  Winthrop  writes 
to  his  brother  Fitz-John  from  Boston  :  "  Here  is  nei- 
ther wash  bales  nor  sweet  powder  to  be  had.  I  use 
starch,  sprinkled  with  a  little  rose  water,  and  so  dried 


38  SAMUEL  SEWALL. 

and  beaten.  As  soon  as  I  can  light  on  some  suit- 
able ribbon  and  linen  shall  send  some.  I  do  not 
know  where  to  get  a  miller  but  shall  enquire.  I 
have  sent  you  a  map  of  the  town  with  Charlestown, 
taken  by  Mr.  Foster  the  printer  from  Noddles  Island. 
'Twas  sent  for  Amsterdam  and  there  printed." 
Again  he  writes  to  the  same,  *'  I  am  sorry  to  hear 
from  John  Perry  that  you  were  not  so  well  of  your 
teeth,  but  hope  you  are  now  better.  ...  I  have  sent 
you  300  of  bricks  and  a  dozen  and  a  half  of  paving 
tiles  for  your  oven ;  also  a  new  spade  and  a  round 
one  which  I  had  by  me.  The  horse  nails  I  thought 
might  be  useful  to  you  when  you  have  but  bungling 
smiths.  They  cost  but  sixpence  the  pound.  My 
wife  returns  thanks  for  the  cheeses  and  the  tallows." 
The  rats,  as  repeatedly  noted,  take  tithe  of  about 
every  thing  shipped  by  water  ;  the  cattle  driven  from 
the  Connecticut  come  to  town  thin  and  lame,  some 
break  away  into  the  woods  and  are  gobbled  up  by 
Indians  or  bears,  the  drovers  overcharge  for  driv- 
ing—  and,  upon  the  whole,  the  times  are  out  of  joint 
with  the  best.  Is  it  strange  that  in  such  hardship 
Wait  Winthrop  writes  to  Fitz-John  :  "  I  desire  you 
would  take  notice  that  I  have  no  thoughts  of  jour- 
neying after  you  but  of  resting  before  you.  Our 
times  are  in  God's  hands  let  us  endeavor  to  live  to 
his  glory  and  take  no  thought  for  the  rest.  .  .  .  He 
has  certainly  made  no  good  observation  that  cannot  by 
this  time  of  day  say  with  Solomon  all  is  vanity  and 
vexation  of  spirit.  I  d(nil)t  not  that  you  remember 
my  father's  often  expression  O  quantiun  est  hi  rebus 


THE  2'URITAN  EXODUS.  39 

itianis,'' — which  loosely  translated  may  read  :  '*Oh, 
how  thin  is  everything !  "  There  was  much  search 
after  the  precious  and  useful  metals,  often  with  high 
hopes  and  temporary  success.  Winthrop  writes  in 
1648  :  "  Mr.  Endicott  hath  found  a  copper  mine  in  his 
own  ground.  Mr.  Leader  hath  tried  it.  The  furnace 
runs  8  tons  a  week  and  their  bar  iron  is  as  good  as 
Spanish."  Skilled  workmen  came  out  to  mine  and 
smelt,  and  valuable  earths  and  supposed  minerals 
were  even  sent  to  be  assayed  from  the  West  Indies. 
Most  of  these  expectations  realized  nothing. 

Yet  the  Winthrops  were  gallant  gentlemen,  facing 
the  times  with  both  a  prayer  and  a  smile.  Fitz-John 
had  been  one  of  Cromwell's  Ironsides,  and  they  all 
were  ready  to  face  Indians  or  the  Devil  if  the  war 
was  just.  Many  of  Fitz-John's  comrades  with  Crom- 
well who  came  here  were  lifelong  sufferers  from 
rheumatism,  caught  by  lying  out  in  the  rain  or  on 
damp  ground  in  campaigning  against  King  Charles. 
They  were  thrifty  farmers,  above  all,  fond  of  good 
horses,  whose  points  they,  knew,  always  ready  to  im- 
prove the  breed,  and  selling  them  in  Boston  or  Bar- 
badoes  with  much  ado  as  to  price,  the  best  market, 
etc.  They  looked  after  the  breed  of  dogs,  stocked 
rabbit  warrens,  tried  hard  at  raising  wild  turkeys  on 
their  island.s,  and  were  among  the  earliest  scientific 
farmers  in  the  land.  They  were  Puritans,  with 
their  religion  sweetened  and  clarified  by  their  blood, 
which  was  Cavalier,  whatever  their  politics  might  be. 
In  their  letters  the  reader  is  sensible  of  a  warm 
human  atmosphere  which  not   even    the    wilderness 


40  SAMUEL   SEW  ALL. 

can  chill,  and  after  his  introduction  as  a  stranger  he 
is  apt  to  remain  a  fast  friend.  Indeed,  one  is  apt 
to  feel,  when  one  begins  to  read  a  Winthrop  letter, 
especially  if  addressed  to  a  lady,  as  if  he  ought  to 
stand  hat  in  hand  before  the  high-bred  courtesy 
which  is  sure  to  be  therein. 

The  Puritan  had  three  great  enemies  to  contend 
with  in  his  struggle  for  physical  existence  ;  viz.,  the 
wilderness,  the  Indians,  backed  often  by  the  French, 
and  wild  creatures.  It  was  the  fate  of  the  Puritan 
to  be  always  in  strife  with  something.  The  stress 
which  the  Indians  laid  on  him  is  told  elsewhere.  His 
struggle  with  wild  creatures,  if  thoroughly  told,  would 
form  a  very  amusing  as  well  as  picturesque  chapter 
of  our  history.  To  say  that  the  Puritan  who  had 
not  been  afraid  to  face  Prince  Rupert  and  his  Cav- 
aliers was  often  in  danger  of  being  overmastered 
and  put  to  flight  by  a  flock  of  blackbirds  or  vermin 
that  burrowed  in  holes,  would  perhaps  excite  sur- 
prise. But  the  fact  is,  that  the  loss  this  way  to  New 
England  folk  was,  of  old,  something  appalling.  With 
their  flocks  never  safe  from  wolves  or  bears,  nor 
their  crops  from  predatory  birds,  multiplying  by  aid 
of  the  very  corn  they  plundered,  it  was  not  the  least 
of  our  forefathers'  tasks  to  destroy  these  enemies. 
This  they  did  by  town  and  State  laws,  which  they 
and  their  boys  enforced  with  traps  and  guns  and  by 
bounties.  How  much  a  dozen  for  blackbirds'  heads  } 
was  a  very  grave  question  in  many  a  town  meeting, 
and  there  are  those  living  who  have  seen  the  bounties 
paid.     The  selectmen  always  buried  the  heads,  and 


THE  PURITAN  EXODUS.  4 1 

kept  strict  watch  over  the  grave,  to  keep  back  Yankee 
thrift  from  robbing  the  town  treasury  by  reiterated 
resurrections  of  the  same.  Specific  bounties  for  dif- 
ferent creatures  prevailed.  In  one  place  this  was  the 
tariff.  A  wolf's  head  hung  on  a  tree  by  the  meeting- 
house brought  the  killer  \os.  Bounties  :  ij-.  a  dozen 
blackbirds  ;  2s.  a  dozen  woodpeckers  and  jays  ;  3^. 
per  dozen  for  crows. 

An  exception  should  be  made  in  favor  of  the  larger 
seaports  in  this  delineation  of  the  narrow  and  stinted 
life  of  our  Puritan  ancestors.  Narrow,  and  to  a  de- 
gree sordid,  in  its  circumstance  that  life  certainly 
was ;  but  the  world  was  then  en  voyage ;  and  as  the 
laws  against  vagabonds  permitted,  visitors  —  seamen 
in  ships,  traders,  and  a  few  wayfarers  of  polyglot  na- 
tionality —  came  to  Boston,  and  fared  according  to 
the  custom  of  the  place,  introducing  their  sins  and 
their  wines  to  a  limited  extent  to  the  palate  of 
human  nature  as  they  best  could.  Boston  men  traded 
with  the  West  Indies,  especially  the  Bermudas ;  with 
Bilboa  in  Spain,  sending  salt  fish  for  fast  days  ;  with 
England,  and  with  the  French  colonies  in  America, 
and  the  Southern  colonies.  Sewall's  Diary  shows 
that  he  and  the  leading  men  of  his  time  interested 
themselves  with  the  world's  affairs  as  far  East  as 
the  Turk,  and  grasped  eagerly  at  even  rumors  that 
came  late  across  seas,  of  changing  dynasties,  and  the 
fate  of  wars  on  the  seas  or  the  Continent.  But  with 
this  abatement,  the  fact  must  stand  that  the  early 
days  of  the  New  England  Puritans  were  those  of  emi- 
grants.    Their  Exodus  had  brought   them  to  a  land 


42  SAMUEL   SFAVALL. 

where  the  heathen  raged,  and  the  ungodly  imagined 
vain  things.  They  realized  that  it  was  the  Land  of 
Promise,  but  chiefly  through  the  eye  of  prophecy, 
while  the  Holy  City  of  Jerusalem,  whose  foundation 
stones  they  wrought  at,  as  they  would  judge  if  they 
were  now  on  earth,  is  not  yet  built.  It  would  be 
untrue  to  say  that  these  emigrants  were  mere  reli- 
gious fanatics  ;  or  to  say  that  they  were  knights  with- 
out reproach.  False  history  is  a  most  expensive 
luxury,  not  only  because  it  poisons  the  fountains  of 
philosophy  for  posterity,  but  because  it  costs  a  deal 
of  honest  writing  to  disprove  its  lies.  It  is  perhaps 
enough  to  say  of  them  that  they  wrought  mightily 
for  man  in  that  wild,  aspiring  drift  of  Protestantism, 
whose  outcome  in  politics  as  well  as  religion  neither 
they  nor  their  posterity  were  able  to  comprehend. 

What  they  thought  of  their  own  fortunes  here  is 
well  stated  (1708)  by  old  Schoolmaster  Chiever  on 
his  deathbed,  referring  to  the  Puritan  hardships  : 
"  The  afflictions  of  God's  people,  God  did  by  them 
as  a  goldsmith ;  knock,  knock,  knock ;  knock,  knock, 
knock  to  finish  the  plate  :  it  was  to  perfect  them, 
not  to  punish  them." 


SEWALL   AND    7^11  E   PURITAN  CHURCH.  43 


CHAPTER    IV. 

SEWALL    AND    THE    PURITAN     CHURCH. 

*'  The  Puritans  were  the  servants  of  posterity  to  endure  the  sowing 
of  a  nation  in  a  wild  —  to  break  the  ice  that  others  might  drink  the 
living  waters." 

"  New  England  civilization,  like  its  soil,  has  a  granite  base,  but  a 
deep  and  sturdy  loam  on  top,   to  last  for  ages." 

"  The  entire  man,  so  to  speak,  is  to  be  seen  in  the  cradle  of  the 
child.      So  it  is  with  nations."  De  Tocqueville. 

*'  The  civilization  of  New  England  has  been  like  a  beacon  lit  upon 
a  hill  which  after  it  has  diffused  its  warmth  around,  tinges  the  dis- 
tant  horizon  with   its  glow."  De  Tocqueville. 

Apology  should  perhaps  be  made  for  the  risk 
which  this  chapter  must  undergo  of  dulness.  Here- 
tofore some  things  have  been  said  of  Puritanism  as 
a  mysterious  evohition  among  Englishmen  ;  now 
some  things  as  to  how  it  fared  when  it  set  up  its  own 
house  in  New  England.  For  with  its  old  roots  it 
raises  here  old  problems  in  their  new  environment. 

It  can  hardly  be  reiterated  too  often  that  Puri- 
tanism was  an  antithesis,  a  protest,  a  revolt  in  time 
against  the  old  religions  of  Romanism  and  Angli- 
canism. The  key  to  this  revolt  is  to  be  looked  for 
among  the  things  from  which  this  revolt  was  made. 
It  has   been  often   said  that   Puritanism  ran  narrow 


44  SAMUEL  SEWALL. 

but  deep.  All  metaphors  have  in  them  the  danger 
possibly  to  mislead.  But  if  we  regard  truth  as  glob- 
ular, a  sphere,  then  certainly  Puritanism  moved  in  a 
tangent  of  the  circle,  with  a  centrifugal  force  which 
could  not  fail  to  disturb  and  antagonize.  Any  truth 
dislocated  or  distorted  from  its  relations  to  Truth  be- 
comes error ;  and  thus  it  happens  that  while  the 
Puritan  movement  carried  with  it  truths  which  the 
world  will  not  willingly  let  die,  it  was  destined  to 
such  extremes  and  isolation  that  England  recoiled 
from  its  colors  in  disgust,  and  it  has  disappeared,  in 
form  at  least,  from  its  new  home.  How  and  why 
did  Puritanism  revolt  t     From   what  t 

Not  hopelessly  to  involve  the  answer  in  dulness, 
it  may  be  stated,  then,  that  for  more  than  twelve 
centuries  Christendom  had  held  this  opinion ;  to  wit, 
that  as  God  who  made  man  had  determined  to 
save  him.  He  had  set  about  it  in  two  revelations,  — 
the  Mosaic,  which  was  temporary,  and  only  a  type 
and  prophecy  of  the  second  ;  that  the  second,  which 
we  call  Christianity,  was  the  final  and  permanent 
economy  in  the  salvation  of  the  human  race  ;  that  the 
heart  of  it,  its  stock  and  root,  was  an  incarnation  of 
the  Divine  in  the  human  ;  that  this  Incarnation  of 
God  through  a  human  virgin  introduces  and  main- 
tains in  the  circle  and  sphere  of  humanity  the  con- 
stant and  immanent  activity  of  God  in  man's  be- 
half ;  that  this  incarnate  God,  —  thus  once  and  for  all 
time,  visibly  come  on  earth,  —  did,  by  His  own  will 
and  grace,  elect  to  remain  on  earth,  visible  and  forever 
present  in  His  church,  framed  by  Him,  and  vivified 


SEWALL  AND    THE  PURITAN  CHURCH.  45 

by  His  indwelling  ;  that  in  a  mystical  way,  but  truly, 
this  church,  visibly  composed  of  men  and  women, 
grafted  in  Him,  but  yet  also  a  storehouse  of  ghostly 
riches,  feeds  its  children  with  the  bread  of  life,  which 
is,  in  a  most  lofty  and  supernatural  sense,  Himself ; 
and  that  this  church,  intended  for  all  men,  is  the  one 
church  historic  for  men,  because  there  cannot  be  two 
Christs  or  Incarnations,  but  only  one.  Whatever 
accretions,  forms,  ceremonies,  or  doctrines  may  have 
been  had  or  held  for  twelve  centuries,  though  in  an  ac- 
knowledged constant  variation,  this  theory  remained 
untouched  and  unquestioned  till  the  Reformation. 
The  question  is  not  raised  here  as  to  whether  this 
theory  is  true  or  false,  nor  does  that  question  here 
concern  the  philosophy  of  Puritanism.  But  it  must 
be  noted,  even  by  the  logic  of  Protestantism,  affirm- 
ing private  judgment,  that  what  is  each  man's  privi- 
lege must  be  all  men's  privilege,  although  they  stand 
together  in  a  corporate  society  of  faith,  and  that  a 
church  of  Divine  origin  must  have  a  governing  au- 
thority somewhere.  As  God,  so  far  as  the  Catholic 
dogma  went  and  human  salvation  required,  dwelt  in 
His  church,  that  authority  must  also  reside  there. 
And  as  God  apparently  on  earth  must  speak  and 
act  through  His  own  human  organism  so  created, 
human  creatures  and  governors  must  be  His  mouth- 
piece. 

When  we  consider,  also,  that  the  old  faith  held 
God  to  be  forever  the  director  of  His  own,  it  does 
not  look  strange  that  Churchmen  held  that  a  great 
solemn  assembly  of  their  chiefs,  which  they  called 


4.6  SAMUEL  SEWALL. 

a  General  Council,  was  the  voice  of  God,  and  to  be 
obeyed.  Here  is  the  logical  development  of  the  doc- 
trine of  church  authority.  From  this  authority, 
extant  and  enforced  so  long,  all  Protestantism  re- 
volted, and  for  reasons  which  satisfied  at  least  itself. 
It  was  a  specific  revolt  against  a  specific  form  of 
Christianity.  But  then  there  must  be  authority, 
which  is  government,  somewhere,  unless  Christen- 
dom was  to  turn  to  chaos.  But  where .''  Since 
back  of  all  question  of  authority  lay  the  new  but 
root  Protestant  idea  of  the  dignity  and  privilege 
of  the  individual  man,  this  idea  added  itself  to  the 
necessity  of  change,  if  change  must  come,  and 
declared  the  individual  conscience  to  be  supreme 
authority  in  religion.  It  does  not  matter  that  this 
idea  was  never  fully  realized  even  among  the  Puri- 
tans, as  Roger  Williams  and  the  Quakers  show,  sim- 
ply because  the  theory  was  so  transcendental  as  to 
be  impossible.  The  right  of  private  judgment  was, 
and  remains,  one  of  the  root  ideas  of  logical  Prot- 
estantism. Puritanism  in  England  or  here  never  re- 
volted from  much  of  the  old  theology.  It  believed 
in  man's  perdition  or  salvation,  as  he  disobeyed  or 
obeyed  God's  will  ;  in  the  Mosaic  Dispensation,  in 
the  Incarnation,  the  Atonement,  the  Trinity,  the 
grace  of  God,  the  future  life,  very  much  as  the  old 
church  did.  Even  in  its  dogma  of  the  supreme 
authority  of  the  Bible,  it  only  taught  what  the 
Catholic  Church  has  always  held  and  holds ;  only 
that  church  claims  to  be  that  supreme  court  of 
judicature,  to  interpret  the  meaning  of  that  author- 


SEWALL    AND    THE   PURITAN  CHURCH.  47 

ity,  —  a   task   which   Protestantism  relegates  to   the 
individual. 

Again,  the  early  Puritan  found  himself  in  at 
least  the  only  visible  institution  in  the  West  which 
called  itself  a  church.  If  he  left  that  church, 
there  was  no  other  to  go  to  unless  he  made  one. 
Nothing  was  more  natural  than  that  the  man  who 
held  himself  able  to  interpret  the  oracles  of  God 
should  build  the  church  of  God.  This,  accordingly, 
he  proceeded  to  do.  But  as  before  he  did  it  that 
church  was  not,  and  invisible  to  boot,  that  idea  of 
an  invisible  church,  so  rife  to-day  with  Protestants, 
sprang  up  and  throve.  George  Fox,  the  Quaker, 
applied  the  caustic  to  that  theory  when  he  held 
that,  as  a  believer  and  regenerate  man,  he  carried 
about  the  whole  Christ  under  his  waistcoat,  in  his 
heart,  and  fed  on  Him  and  was  fed  by  Him  there 
he  had  no  need  of  any  sacrament  or  outward  sign 
to  part  or  impart  the  Christ  in  morsels.  In  due 
time,  having  first  been  rid  of  Roman  rule,  the 
Puritan  found  himself  confronting  the  Church  of 
England.  But  that  church,  rightly  or  wrongly,  has 
always  held  that  it  was  a  part  of  the  Catholic 
Church  ;  that  it  was  not  a  new  church  of  the  Refor- 
mation, any  more  than  an  old  house  swept  becomes 
a  new  or  another  house ;  that  it  had  preserved,  and 
intended  to  preserve,  all  those  signs  or  notes  by 
which  the  Catholic  Church  verifies  itself,  especially 
the  three  notes  of  orders,  creeds,  and  sacraments; 
and  that  it  never  could  or  would  conform  to  Rome 
or  Geneva ;  and  that,  on  the  Genevan  basis,  it  would 


48  SAMUEL   SEW  ALL. 

cease  to  be  the  Catholic  Church  in  England.  True, 
for  three  hundred  years  and  now,  many  in  the  Church 
of  England  have  denied  the  theory  and  the  claim. 
No  church,  perhaps,  has  been  more  rent  or  more 
betrayed ;  but  if,  at  the  Puritan  asking,  this  church 
refused  assent,  and  had  not  the  reason  of  self-pres- 
ervation to  allege,  it  certainly  committed  a  deadly 
sin  against  charity ;  and  if  any  one  mistakes  inces- 
sant clamors  in  that  church  to-day  as  signs  of  any 
return  to  Puritan  methods,  or  any  one  should  pro- 
ceed to  touch  its  "notes"  of  Catholicity,  the  flame 
of  its  resistance  would  either  consume  itself  or  its 
foe.  It  should  never  be  forgot  that  compliance  by 
the  Church  of  England  with  the  Puritan  demands 
would,  as  its  dominant  conscience  then  held  and 
holds,  have  been  simply  suicide. 

Now,  then,  we  are  in  condition  to  understand  the 
mooted  question  whether  the  New  England  Puritans 
were  Nonconformists,  as  they  called  themselves,  — 
i.e.,  people  who  refused  merely  the  forms,  —  or  Sepa- 
ratists,—  i.e.,  men  who  had  broken  entirely  from 
the  Church  of  England,  —  as  they  denied  they  were. 
They  were  simply  Separatists,  because  their  root 
ideas  touched  the  very  vitals  of  the  Anglican  sys- 
tem, and,  so  far  as  they  prevailed,  destroyed  it,  root 
and  branch.  The  irony  of  history  is  seldom  more 
bitter  than  when  it  tells  us  that  these  non-conform- 
ing Puritans  of  New  England,  professing  their  affec- 
tion for  the  Church  of  England,  when  that  church 
came  here  with  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  treated  it  as 
outcast  and  felon  against  their  civilization. 


SEW  ALL   AND    THE   PURITAN  CHURCH.  49 

Yet  one  would  greatly  err  who  should  say  that 
there  was  any  taint  of  hypocrisy  in  such  men  as 
Winthrop  and  Higginson  when  they  wept  over  and 
professed  their  love  for  the  Church  of  England. 
Not  simply  that  they  had  been  worshippers  in  its 
parish  churches,  where  they  had  often  heard  their 
own  beloved  doctrines  from  men  of  the  Puritan 
stamp,  but  because  they  did  assent  to  and  love  much 
of  doctrine  which  the  Church  of  England  held  and 
holds  in  common  with  most  Christians.  What  they 
did  not  love  was  that  other  part  of  doctrine  which 
they  asked  the  Church  of  England  to  give  up,  and 
which  it  retains  till  now,  as  necessary  to  its  exist- 
ence as  a  part  of  the  historic  church  of  God.  The 
Puritan  heart  loved  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  of  the 
Prayer  Book,  but  its  head  hated  the  Communion 
office  as  Roman,  and  the  office  of  Institution  of  the 
Priesthood  as  an  insult  to  their  own  ministry. 
They  honestly  called  themselves  Nonconformists ; 
but  they  were,  by  the  resistless  tide  of  their  own 
logic  and  the  assent  of  the  root  ideas  of  the  Church 
of  England,   Separatists. 

By  their  Charter  —  a  very  liberal  and  friendly  one, 
with  certain  specified  and  guaranteed  privileges  — 
the  Puritans  of  New  England  remained  under  Eng- 
lish law.  That  this  was  so,  at  least  in  the  judgment 
of  English  lawyers,  is  plain  from  the  fact  that  the 
Charter  was  finally  revoked  on  the  ground  that  they 
had  violated  the  laws  of  the  realm ;  and  the  colonies 
then  passed  into  a  province,  under  a  very  different 
code,  imposed  by  the   Crown  authorities.      This,  at 


50  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

least  theoretical  position,  should  be  kept  in  mind 
when  we  look  at  the  Puritan  methods  in  establishing 
their  church.  To  a  degree  only,  their  way  of  church 
establishment  was  logical.  It  was  logical  that  each 
Puritan  should  stand  upon  his  rights  of  conscience 
to  interpret  God  and  serve  Him  ;  it  was  logic  for 
the  Puritan  to  agree  with  his  fellows  to  make  com- 
mon terms  with  God  in  a  covenant  wherein  all  em- 
braced, agreed  ;  it  was  logic  to  rest  all  authority  in 
the  Bible,  and  to  interpret  that  Bible  into  laws  in 
church  and  state  for  themselves.  But  it  was  neither 
logical  nor  Protestant  then  or  now  for  them  to  im- 
pose their  conduct  as  a  rule  for  any  other  man's  faith 
or  behavior  ;  to  punish  men  by  refusing  them  citi- 
zenship because  they  were  not  church-members ; 
in  other  words,  to  make  themselves,  either  by  sy- 
nod or  any  other  form  of  clerical  or  lay  association, 
church  authority  for  dissenters  when  they  themselves 
had  flouted  the  old  authority  and  stood  against  the 
Church  of  England  for  the  free  exercise  of  con- 
science by  every  Puritan.  Very  likely  the  Puritan 
here  could  not  have  done  any  differently.  The 
trouble  was  in  his  premises,  —  which  time  has  shown 
to  be  impossible  of  acceptance  by  the  average  human 
being.  The  realm  of  the  Puritan  enthusiasm  lay 
too  far  above  the  specific  gravity  of  mankind  on 
its  religious  side,  to  be  elsewhere  than  in  the  clouds  ; 
and  by  consequence,  from  the  start  the  unregenerate 
throve  in  numbers,  and  very  shortly  became  the 
majority  in  a  commonwealth  which  was  always  alien 
to  them. 


SEWALL   AND    THE  PURITAN  CHURCI{.  $1 

It  was  people  like  Roger  Williams,  Ann  Hutchin- 
son, and  the  Quakers  who  speedily  reduced  the  Pu- 
ritan position  to  its  logical  dilemma,  if  not  absurdity. 

Roger  Williams  actually  refused  to  pray  with  his 
wife,  or  join  in  grace  with  her  at  table,  because  she 
still  attended  the  Puritan  public  worship  ;  so  intense 
was  his  individualism. 

He  and  the  rest  at  Providence  made  a  law  that  no 
man  was  to  be  hurt  for  his  conscience.  In  course 
of  time  the  women  and  children  had  the  habit  of 
going  to  meetings,  in  public  or  private  houses,  every 
day  in  the  week,  if  there  were  so  many.  A  certain 
man  forbade  his  wife  to  go.  The  town  undertook  to 
censure  him  for  it.  It  was  argued  for  the  offender 
that  the  law  was  never  meant  to  break  down  God's 
ordinance,  which  called  for  the  wife's  obedience  to 
her  husband ;  and  against  him,  that  if  the  townsfolk 
should  thus  restrain  their  wives  the  country  would 
cry  out  on  them.  Now,  unless  the  law  had  limit, 
no  man  was  to  be  hurt  for  forbidding,  ujDon  his  con- 
science, his  wife  to  anything  ;  and  unless  his  wife 
was  held  to  have  no  conscience,  it  is  hard  to  see  how 
the  law  could  punish  her  if,  upon  her  conscience, 
she  refused  him  in  everything.  So  hard  is  it  for 
even  pious  people  to  live  in  the  air.  There  is  no 
record  of  the  upshot  of  this  matter,  but  even  the 
timid  may  be  bold  to  believe  that  the  women  went 
their  own  way,  as  usual. 

The  Puritan  church  developed  itself  along  the  line 
of  this  individualism  until  it  dominated  the  individual 
with   its   majorities,    and   forced   its   minorities  to   a 


52  SAMUEL  SEWALL. 

minute  and  definite  obedience,  compared  with  which 
the  Catholic  rule  had  been  license.      Nowhere  on  the 
face  of  the  round  globe  have  men  ever  been  so  di- 
rected, inspected,  and  limited  in  a  voluntary  submis- 
sion to  public  form  and  the  general   mind  as  here. 
In  the  churches  the  rule  of  the  congregation  was  in 
theory  supreme  ;  but  in  due  time  church  synods  like 
those  at   Cambridge    and    Saybrook   tended  to   mar 
this   independency  and   impose  their  own  decisions. 
But,  however  governed,  logically  the  Puritan  meeting- 
house from  the  start  took  precedence  of  the  trading- 
house  and  the  state  house.     The  first  meeting-houses 
were  very  like  barns,  and  have  all  disappeared.     Their 
successors  were  also  of  wood,  very  much  like  the  one 
at   Hingham,  and  are  also  mostly  gone.     The  third 
crop   of   houses,  at  least  in  cities,  was  of  increased 
dignity,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Old  South  Meeting- 
House,  Boston,  still  extant,  and  apparently  of  a  Dutch 
type  of   architecture,  while   those   of  to-day  assume 
multiform  phases  of    heathen  or  mediaeval  architec- 
ture, both  of  which  at  the  start  the  Puritans  abjured. 
All  was  in  sharp  antithesis  to  most  of  the  current 
ecclesiastical  architecture  of  the  times   across  seas, 
and  a  protest  against  aesthetics  in  religion. 

But,  however  built,  these  houses,  especially  in  the 
country,  were  the  centres  of  affairs.  In  some  towns 
people  were  forbid  to  dwell  more  than  a  mile  from 
meeting  ;  the  houses  were  often  fortified  with  pal- 
isades, and  sometimes  a  ditch.  Here  on  the  green 
auctions  were  held  ;  wolves'  heads  were  nailed  up ; 
publishments   of    intended    marriages    were    posted ; 


SEWALL   AND    THE   PURITAiV  CHUKCIL  53 

town  meetings,  in  absence  of  any  other  town  house, 
were  held  ;  and  on  Sunday  the  scattered  townsfolk 
gathered  to  hear  the  gospel  and  the  news.  Care 
was  taken  by  the  authorities  that  a  meeting-house 
should  be  built  wherever  white  men  went,  and  that  a 
parson  should  be  fed. 

The  Puritan  parson  was  often  the  only  man  in  the 
place  liberally  educated.  According  to  the  times 
he  was  a  gentleman,  of  very  positive  character,  often 
acting  as  both  lawyer  and  physician  to  his  flock,  a 
man  of  faculty,  and  a  general  promoter  of  the  public 
good.  A  reverence  attended  him  which  it  is  hard 
in  these  days  to  understand ;  and  in  most  cases  it 
was  deserved.  Town  privileges  and  glebe  lands 
were  assigned  to  the  clergy,  and  they  were  the  chief 
conservators  of  civilization  among  their  flock. 

Rev.  James  Keith  settled  at  Bridgewater,  1664, 
had  a  double  house-lot,  twelve  acres,  with  a  house  on 
it,  and  ^40  salary,  one-half  to  be  paid  in  Boston.  In 
1667  thirty  cords  of  wood  were  added  yearly.  This 
gives  probably  a  fair  view  of  the  temporalities  of  the 
clergy  in  those  days. 

The  church  services  were  long,  the  sermon  some- 
times lasting  a  couple  of  hours,  and  the  chief  prayer 
half  as  long  ;  there  were  no  organs  or  musical  instru- 
ments to  assist  the  music,  which  was  led  by  a  pre- 
centor, and  the  tune  was  usually  one  of  four,  York 
and  St.  David's  being  two.  The  chief  persons  sat 
in  the  foreseat  near  the  pulpit,  and  the  rest  as  they 
were  ordered  by  "the  seating  committee,"  —  boys 
and  negroes  in  the  galleries.     At  an  early  date  tith- 


54  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

ing-men  with  long  rods  came  into  fashion,  who  kept 
the  gallery  youngsters  quiet. 

The  custom  was  for  all  the  people  standing  to  wait 
till  the  ministers,  whom  they  faced,  passed  down  the 
aisle  out  of  the  meeting-house.  Sewall  notes  :  "  The 
Governor  Dudley  turned  to  talk  with  Col.  Townshend  ; 
so  his  back  was  upon  the  ministers  as  they  went  out." 

A  Plymouth  deaconess  sat  in  a  convenient  place 
in  the  meeting-house  with  a  birch  rod  in  her  hand 
to  awe  little  children  into  due  propriety.  The  old 
writers  say  *'  she  honored  her  place,  and  was  an 
ornament  to  the  congregation." 

A  deal  has  been  said  of  the  grotesque  nature  of 
some  of  the  Puritan  prayers,  and  the  very  odd  things 
which  were  often  prayed  for.  This  state  of  things 
was  aggravated  in  New  England  by  the  custom  of 
sending  up  notes  for  the  prayers  of  the  congregation 
for  voyages,  births,  sorrows,  afflictions,  and  bereave- 
ments. When  thanks  were  given  for  mercies  re- 
ceived, the  petitioner  rose  in  his  pew.  The  free 
Puritan  prayers  were  for  deliverance  from  Indian 
assaults,  foreign  interference,  plagues,  murrain,  fail- 
ure of  crops,  storms  and  earthquakes,  and  changes 
in  the  government  at  home.  Indeed,  everything  that 
interested  them  they  prayed  over,  first  or  last.  As- 
suming that  the  Christian  theory  of  prayer  is  valid, 
it  is  hard  to  see  why  all  this  was  not  logical,  since 
there  is  nothing  either  great  or  small  to  Him  who 
hears  prayers,  and  a  man  might  as  properly  pray  for 
a  sick  horse  as  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen. 

The  Scotch,  in  their  large  declaration,  1637,  begin 


SEWALL   AND    THE   PURITAN  C/IURCH.  55 

their  petition  against  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  in 
this  most  democratic  fashion  :  "  We,  men,  women, 
and  children  and  servants,  having  considered,"  etc. 
Yet  some  of  the  Puritan  prayers,  both  sides  of  the 
water,  could  only  befit  privy  councillors  of  God,  who 
had  at  all  times  the  run  of  His  palace.      One  said  :  — 

"  O,  my  good  Lord  God  I  hear  the  king  hath  set  up  his 
standard  at  York  against  the  ParHament  and  the  city  of  London. 
Look  thou  upon  them,  take  their  cause  into  thine  own  hand  ; 
appear  thou  in  the  cause  of  thy  saints,  the  cause  in  hand.  It  is 
thy  cause.  Lord.  We  know  that  the  king  is  misled,  deluded 
and  deceived  by  his  Popish,  Arminian  and  temporizing,  rebel- 
lious malignant  faction  and  party." 

"They  would,"  says  Dr.  Echard,  *' in  their  prayers 
and  sermons  tell  God  that  they  would  be  willing  to  be 
at  any  charge  and  trouble  for  him,  and  do  any  kind- 
ness, as  it  were,  for  the  Lord  ;  the  Lord  might  now 
trust  them  and  rely  upon  them,  they  should  not  fail 
him  ;  they  should  not  be  unmindful  of  his  business  ; 
his  works  should  not  stand  still,  nor  his  designs  be  neg- 
lected. They  must  needs  say  that  they  had  formerly 
received  some  favors  from  God,  and  have  been  as  it 
were  beholden  to  the  Almighty  ;  but  they  did  not 
much  question  but  they  should  find  some  opportunity 
of  making  some  amends  for  the  many,  good  things 
and  civilities  which  they  had  received  from  him. 
Indeed,  as  for  those  who  are  weak  in  the  Faith  and 
are  yet  but  babes  in  Christ,  it  is  fit  that  they  should 
keep  at  some  distance  from  Christ,  should  kneel 
before  him  and  stand  (as  one  may  say)  cap  in  hand 
to  the  Almighty ;  but  as  to  those  who  are  strong  in 


56  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

all  Gifts  and  grown  up  in  all  grace  and  are  come  to  a 
fulness  and  ripeness  in  the  Lord  Jesus,  it  is  comely 
enough  to  take  a  great  chair  and  sit  at  the  end  of 
the  table  and  with  their  cock'd  hats  on  their  heads 
to  say,  '  God,  we  thought  it  not  amiss  to  call  upon 
thee  this  evening  and  let  thee  know  how  affairs 
stand.  We  have  been  very  watchful  since  we  were 
last  with  thee  and  they  are  in  a  very  hopeful  condi- 
tion. We  hope  that  thou  wilt  not  forget  us  ;  for  we 
are  very  thoughtful  of  thy  concerns.  We  do  some- 
what long  to  hear  from  thee  and  if  thou  pleasest  to 
give  us  such  a  thing  as  Victory  we  shall  be  (as  one 
may  say)  good  to  thee  in  something  else  when  it  lies 
in  our  way.'  " 

Mr.  Vines,  in  St.  Clement's  Church,  London,  used 
these  words :  *'  O  Lord,  thou  hast  never  given  us  a 
victory  this  long  while  for  all  our  frequent  fasting. 
What  dost  thou  mean,  O  Lord,  to  fling  into  a  ditch 
and  there  to  leave  us."  One  Robinson  at  South- 
ampton (1642)  prayed  thus:  ''O  God,  O  God,  many 
are  the  hands  lift  up  against  us,  but  there  is  one 
God,  it  is  thou  thyself,  O  Father,  who  does  us  more 
mischief  than  they  all."  "Gather  upon  God,"  said 
another  in  a  Fast  sermon  before  the  Commons,  "  and 
hold  him  to^  it  as  Jacob  did;  press- him  with  his 
precepts,  with  his  promises,  with  his  hand,  with  his 
seal,  with  his  oath  ;  that  is,  it  I  may  -speak  it  rever- 
ently enough,  put  the  Lord  out  of  countenance  ;  put 
him,  as  you  would  say,  to  the  blush,  unless  we  be 
masters  of  our  requests." 

Even  Sewall  shows  the  same  temper  when,  writing 


SEWALL   AND    THE   PURIIAN  CHURCH.  57 

in  1686  to  his  uncle,  Stephen  Dummer,  in  England, 
of  the  attempts  made  to  convert  the  Indians,  he 
says  :  — 

"As  to  the  design  of  converting  them,  we  in  New  England 
may  sorrowfully  sing  the  127  Psalm:  'Except  the  Lord  build 
the  house  they  labor  in  vain  that  build  it.''  I  am  persuaded  it 
would  be  a  most  acceptable  sacrifice  to  God,  importunately  to 
beseech  Him  to  put  His  hand  to  that  work  and  not  in  a  great 
measure  to  stand  and  look  on." 

But  Sewall  is  prone  to  a  more  submissive  and  filial 
piety  in  his  prayers.  He  writes  in  a  time  of  sick- 
ness :  — 

"  The  Small  Pox  is  in  a  pretty  many  families  in  town.  Hath 
been  and  is  also  a  mortal  fever  of  which  many  have  died.  I  de- 
sire your  prayers  that  I  may  be  fitted  for  the  good  pleasure  of 
God  who  alone  is  able  to  preserve  from  what  is  mentioned  and 
from  the  Indians,  French  or  any  other  evil.  .  .  .  March  30 
1687.  We  are  now,  blessed  be  God,  pretty  well  got  over  a  dry 
and  cold  winter.     Small  Pox  is  in  town  but  not  many  die  as  yet." 

To  the  Rev.  John  Higginson  he  writes  (1706)  :  — 

"  Let  me  also  entreat  your  prayers  for  me  and  my  family, 
that  the  blessing  of  God  may  rest  upon  the  head  of  everv  one  in 
it  by  reason  of  the  good  will  of  Him  who  dwelt  in  the  Bush." 

When  his  son  Sam  was  leaving  his  business  place, 
because,  as  it  certainly  proved,  too  shiftless  to  fill  it, 
his  good  father  writes,  just  after  he  had  been  told  by 
a  gossip  that  somebody  had  called  him  a  knave  :  — 

"  The  good  Lord  give  me  truth  in  the  inward  parts  and 
finally  give  rest  unto  my  dear  son  and  put  him  into  some  calling 
wherein  he  will  accept  of  him  to  serve  Him.  .  .  .  Feb'  26.  I 
prayed  with  Sam  alone  that  God  would  direct  our  way  as  to 
a  calling:  for  him." 


58  SAMUEL   SEW  ALL. 

"  Jany  13,  1696.  When  I  came  in  past  7  at  night  my  wife 
met  me  in  the  entry  and  told  me  Betty  had  surprised  them.  It 
seems  Betty  Sewall  had  given  some  signs  of  dejection  and  sor- 
row ;  but  a  little  after  dinner  she  burst  out  into  an  amazing  cry 
which  caused  all  the  family  to  cry  too  ;  Her  mother  asked  the 
reason ;  she  gave  none  ;  at  last  said  she  was  afraid  she  should 
go  to  hell  —  her  sins  were  not  pardoned.  She  was  first  wounded 
by  my  reading  a  sermon  of  Mr.  Norton's  about  the  5th  of  Jany. 
Text  John  7.34.  Ye  shall  seek  me  and  shall  not  find  me.  And 
those  words  in  the  sermon  (John  8.21.)  'ye  shall  seek  me  and 
shall  die  in  your  sins '  ran  in  her  mind  and  terrified  her  greatly. 
And  staying  at  home  Jan'  12  she  read  out  of  Mr.  Cotton  Mather 

—  '  Why  hath  Satan  filled  thy  heart,'  which  increased  her  fear. 
Her  mother  asked  her  whether  she  prayed.      She  answered  Yes 

—  but  feared  her  prayers  were  not  heard  because  her  sins  [were] 
not  pardoned.  Mr.  Willard  [the  Sewalls'  minister]  though  sent 
for  timelier,  came  not  till  after  I  came  home.  He  discoursed 
with  Betty  who  could  not  give  a  distinct  account,  but  was  con- 
fused, as  his  phrase  was,  and  as  he  had  experienced  in  himself. 
He  prayed  excellently."" 

"  Feb'  22.  Bettv  comes  into  me  almost  as  soon  as  I  was  up 
and  tells  me  the  disquiet  she  had  when  waked ;  told  me  was 
afraid  she  should  go  to  hell,  was  like  Spira,  not  elected.  Asked 
her  what  I  should  pray  for,  she  said  that  God  would  pardon  her 
sins  and  give  her  a  new  heart.  I  answered  her  fears  as  well  as 
I  could,  and  prayed  with  many  tears  on  either  part ;  hope  God 
heard  us.     I  gave  her  solemnly  to  God.'' 

"  Sabbath  May  3.  Betty  can  hardly  read  her  chapter  for 
weeping;  tells  me  she  is  afraid  she  is  gone  back,  does  not  taste 
that  sweetness  in  reading  the  Word  which  once  she  did ;  fears 
that  what  was  once  upon  her  has  worn  off.  I  said  what  I  could 
to  her  and  in  the  evening  prayed  with  her  alone." 


The  Diary  concludes  its  notice  of  Betty  Sewall's 
religious  ''concern  of  mind"  with  the  last  entry. 
The  reader  will  no  doubt  see  in  the  affair  the  deep 
sincerity  of  the  Puritan  mind  in  what  is  called  con- 


SEWALL   AND    THE  PURITAN  CHURCIL  59 

version.  The  picture  stands  for  thousands  of  others 
like,  from  that  day  till  now.  Certainly  such  a  state 
of  mind  no  one  sneers  at ;  and  however  aside  many 
may  be  in  accounting  for  the  mental  phenomena,  all 
must  respect  the  earnestness  of  the  sorrow,  and 
wish  it  a  to-morrow  of  peace.  This  picture  of  Betty 
Sewall's  mind  and  her  father's  case  certainly  antago- 
nize the  vulgar  theory  that  the  Puritans  were  hypo- 
crites. 


"  May  7,  1696.  Col  Shrimpton  marries  his  son  to  his  wive's 
sister's  daughter,  Elizabeth  Richardson.  All  of  the  Council  in 
the  town  were  invited  to  the  wedding  and  many  others.  Only  I 
was  not  spoken  to.  As  I  was  glad  not  to  be  there  because  the 
lawfulness  of  the  intermarrying  of  Cousin-Germans  is  doubted  ; 
so  it  grieves  me  to  be  taken  up  in  the  lips  of  talkers  and  to  be 
in  such  a  condition  that  Col  Shrimpton  shall  be  under  a  tempta- 
tion in  defence  of  himself  to  wound  me ;  if  any  should  happen 
to  say,  Why  was  not  such  a  one  here  ?  The  Lord  help  me  not 
to  do  or  neglect  anything  that  should  prevent  the  dwelling  of 
brethren  together  in  unity.  And  Oh  most  bountiful  and  gra- 
cious God  who  givest  liberally  and  upbraidest  not,  admit  me 
humbly  to  bespeak  an  invitation  to  the  marriage  of  the  Lamb 
and  let  thy  Grace  with  me  and  in  me  be  sufficient  for  me  in  mak- 
ing myself  ready.  And  out  of  thy  infinite  and  unaccountable 
compassions,  place  me  among  those  who  shall  not  be  left ;  but 
shall  be  accepted  by  thee  here  and  taken  into  glory  hereafter. 
Though  I  am  beyond  conception  vile  who  may  say  unto  thee 
'  What  doest  thou? '  Thou  canst  justify  thyself  in  thy  proceed- 
ings. And,  O  Lord  God  forgive  all  my  unsuitable  deportment 
at  thy  table  the  last  Sabbath  day,  that  wedding  day;  and  if 
even  I  be  again  invited  (Invite  me  once  again)  help  me  entirely 
to  give  myself  to  thy  Son  as  to  my  most  endeared  Lord  and 
Husband.  And  let  my  dear  wife  and  all  my  children  partake  in 
this  privilege  and  that  not  as  umbras  [probably  he  means  as 
shadows  or  echoes  of  himself]  but  on  their  own  account." 


6o  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

There  must  also  have  been  some  quaint  sermons 
listened  to.  A  fight  between  a  snake  and  a  mouse 
having  been  seen  at  Watertown,  Mr.  Wilson  of 
Boston,  a  very  sincere  and  holy  man,  showed  in  a 
sermon  how  the  snake  was  the  Devil  and  the  mouse 
a  poor  contemptible  people  (the  Puritans)  which  God 
had  brought  here  to  overcome  Satan  and  dispossess 
him  of  his  kingdom. 

Nor  was  there  always  lacking  to  the  austerity  of 
Puritan  worship  a  certain  grim  mother-wit,  which  on 
occasion  made  itself  heard. 

A  Puritan  minister  was  preaching  to  a  fishing  con- 
gregation in  Plymouth  Colony.  He  besought  them 
to  set  a  good  example,  because  they  came  out  to 
convert  the  world  to  Christianity,  when  one  of  the 
congregation  interrupted  him  with,  "  Sir,  that  is  what 
the  people  of  the  Bay  came  out  for ;  but  we  came  to 
catch  fish." 

The  Puritan  Sabbath  in  all  its  colors  was  Hebraic 
and  ascetic.  It  began  at  sunset  on  Saturday,  and 
ended  at  sunset  on  Sunday.  In  the  old  religion, 
Sunday  was  a  feast  day  ;  they  made  it  a  fast,  probably 
following  their  usual  rule  to  adopt  the  exact  opposite 
practice  from  that  which  prevailed  in  alien  churches. 
In  this,  excepting  the  Scotch,  they  were  singular 
among  Protestants.  Even  Calvin  at  Geneva,  where 
he  ruled  with  a  rod  of  iron,  allowed  games  and  pas- 
times after  the  morning  service.  But  the  Puritans 
were  the  first  and  only  ones  to  vie  with  the  Mosaic 
code  in  causing  all  lightheartedness  to  cease  from 
the  day.      All  work,  travel,  unnecessary  or  avoidable, 


SEWALL   AND    THE  PURITAN  CHURCH.  6l 

absence  from  public  worship,  was  punished  by  fine 
or  the  whipping-post.  Strict  public  watch  was  kept 
for  delinquents.  In  the  home,  silence  and  Scripture 
prevailed.  The  social  life,  austere  at  the  best,  was 
clouded  with  the  thick  darkness  of  an  imposed  so- 
lemnity worse  than  solitary  confinement  in  a  cave  or 
closet ;  and  this  custom  of  Sabbath-keeping,  while 
so  much  of  Puritanism  has  ceased,  continues  in  a 
modified  form  in  many  quarters  to  this  day.  Sewall 
was  a  strict  observer  of  this  fast,  and  is  always 
urgent  for  the  strict  enforcement  of  the  Sabbath 
laws.  He  notes  in  his  Diary  when  a  warship  fires 
guns  coming  up  the  harbor,  or  when  there  is  a  bustle 
of  soldiers  escorting  a  royal  governor  on  the  Sabbath  ; 
as  a  magistrate,  he  is  on  the  alert  to  stop  all  carousing 
Saturday  nights,  and  bids  a  cooper  hammering  at  his 
barrels,  a  trifle  late,  to  give  over.  There  is  a  charac- 
teristic entry  in  his  Diary,  Nov.  i8,  1709:  — 

*'  Capt  Teat  by  his  letter  desires  a  license  of  the  Governor  to 
work  on  his  ship  on  the  Lords  Day  ;  the  ship  was  on  the  ground 
and  feared  he  should  be  nipped.  Governor  argued  hard  for  it ; 
Captain  was  judge  of  the  necessity.  I  argued  against  it ;  he 
had  time  enough  before,  and  had  time  enough  to  come  before 
the  sailing  of  the  Mast  Fleet.  At  last  the  Governor  collected 
the  voices  and  said  it  was  carried  by  one  ;  when  I  was  asked  I 
said,  I  am  dissatisfied,  he  ought  not  to  be  licensed." 

Feb.  5,  1703,  Sewall,  with  other  Puritans,  rode 
out  to  Roxbury  — 

*'on  purpose  to  speak  to  the  Governor  against  having  illumina- 
tions, especially  in  the  town  house ;  that  so  the  profanation  of 
the  Sabbath  [i.e.,  Saturday  night]  might  be  prevented.      I  said 


62  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

twould  be  most  for  the  honor  of  God  and  that  would  be,  most  for 
the  honor  and  safety  of  Queen  Anne.  Governor  said  twould  be 
hard  for  him  to  forbid  it,  considering  how  good  the  Queen  was, 
what  successes  God  had  given  her.  Feby  6.  between  eight 
and  nine  all  the  bells  begin  to  ring  to  celebrate  Queen  Anne's 
birthday,  being  the  last  of  the  week.  .  .  .  Feb  ii.  The  Gov- 
ernor under  his  hand  remits  the  fines  of  several  sentenced  to 
pay  5J-.  apiece  for  drinking  at  Mrs.  Monk's  on  Saturday  night  last 
about  9  o'clock.     I  had  warned  Mrs.  Monk  an  hour  before." 

The  governor  here  interfered  to  remit  the  fine  of 
men  who  were  drinking  their  queen's  health  in  an 
orderly  manner,  at  a  licensed  inn,  at  a  sober  hour. 
Yet  this  was  a  part  of  the  British  realm,  and  sup- 
posed to  be  under  the  protection  of  English  law,  as 
it  was  certainly  under  the  protection  of  the  English 
arms.  Can  the  anomaly  of  the  Puritan  rule  here  on 
its  political  side  be  more  sharply  stated  than  in  an 
incident  like  this } 

An  examination  of  the  colonial  laws  will  show 
that  the  Puritans  intended  to  enforce  their  religion 
with  industry  and  exactly,  and  did  so.  For  certain 
heresies,  such  as  denying  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
the  resurrection  of  the  body,  or  Sabbath-keeping,  or 
infant  baptism,  or  the  authority  of  magistrates,  or 
even  more  subtle  problems  of  Christianity,  the  pen- 
alty was  banishment.  They  whipped,  branded,  ban- 
ished, and  hung  dissenters  from  their  dogma,  and  the 
abler  of  them  were  foremost  in  enforcing  punishment. 
When  Sewall  came  on  the  stage  the  day  of  the  great 
heresies  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  'and  the  Quakers  had 
mostly  passed,  though  more  were  coming.  Yet 
Sewall   shows  that  he  would  have  hung  as  well  as 


SEWALL   AND    THE   PURITAN  CHURCH.  63 

the  rest.  He  votes  against  allowing  the  Quakers, 
who  petition,  to  fence  in  the  graves  of  their  fellow- 
Christians  on  Boston  Common  who  had  been  hung 
as  martyrs. 

The  fine  gold  of  Puritanism  had  begun  to  grow 
dim  before  the  first  fathers  were  in  their  graves. 
Fever  is  neither  normal  nor  long-lived  in  man.  The 
Puritan  ecstasy  cooled  in  the  chill  atmosphere  of 
that  human  nature  which,  though  sometimes  climb- 
ing the  hills,  usually  abides  at  a  lower  level  of 
religious  and  political  mediocrity.  The  form  which 
was  temporal  passed ;  the  essential  became  an  atmos- 
phere which  still  abides  and  thrives.  The  sun  sets, 
but  its  heat  remains  in  its  absence.  The  Puritan 
religion  was  impossible  to  man  ;  but  its  root  ideas  of 
the  privilege  of  man  as  against  the  claim  and  usur- 
pation of  the  old  ecclesiasticism  will  in  time  force 
acceptance  from  those  very  churches  which,  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  refused  assent.  The  Puritan 
crossed  the  line  of  his  own  logic  ;  failed  to  see  his 
own  drift,  —  in  fact,  was  in  a  tide  which  he  did  not 
and  could  not  resist  ;  wrought  according  to  his  light, 
and  vanished.  The  Puritan  long  since  went  out,  but 
his  light  remains.  His  box  might  not  be  of  alabas- 
ter, but  its  treasure  will  last  as  long  as  the  story  of 
the  woman  who  poured  the  precious  ointment  upon 
her  Master's  head  as  He  sat  at  meat. 


64  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 


CHAPTER    V. 

SEWALL    AND    THE    PURITAN    COMMONWEALTH. 

"  The  book  of  '  the  Prince'  is  closed  forever  as  a  state  manual; 
and  the  book  of  '  the  people  '  — a  book  perhaps  of  darker  sophistries 
and  more  pressing  tyranny  —  is  as  yet  unwritten." 

"  Men  are  not  corrupted  by  the  exercise  of  power  or  debased  by 
the  habit  of  obedience;  but  by  the  exercise  of  a  power  which  they 
believe  to  be  illegal,  and  by  obedience  to  a  rule  which  they  believe  to 
be  usurped  and  illegal."  De  Tocqueville. 

"  'Tis  better  to  have   tried  and   failed 
Than  never  to  have  tried  at  all." 

In  the  political  economy  of  Puritanism  the  state 
existed  for  the  church,  not  the  church  for  the  state. 
Religion  was  first,  not  politics.  The  logic  of  all 
vital  Protestantism  is  towards  democracy,  and  only 
that  subordination  or  restraint  of  the  individual  in  a 
well-ordered  state  which  is  for  the  necessary  good  of 
all.  Yet  the  Puritan  rule  in  New  England  did  not 
reach  so  far,  but  stopped  short  at  a  theocracy,  —  a 
government  in  which  God  is  the  distinct  head  and 
fountain  of  law.  Now,  if  the  Puritan  had  been 
exactly  at  one  with  God,  His  infallible  mouthpiece 
and  chief  justice  (as  he  was  not),  then  the  Puritan 
commonwealth  would  have  been  a  complete  and  satis- 
factory theocracy,  both  in  theory  and  practice.  But 
exactly   so  far   as  he  missed  and  mistook  his   own 


SEW  ALL   AND    THE  PURITAN  CHURCH.  65 

decisions  for  God's,  and  imposed  them  as  law  upon 
other  men,  his  government  became  an  oligarchy.  In- 
deed, that  was  the  real  quality  of  government  here 
so  long  as  the  church-members  governed  the  major- 
ity outside  their  church,  who  had  no  vote.  The 
Puritan,  therefore,  was  never  a  democrat.  In  1636 
Rev.  John  Cotton  wrote  to  Lord  Say  and  Seal  a  very 
clear  statement  of  what  sort  of  government  was  in- 
tended. He  says  :  ''  Democracy  I  do  not  conceive 
that  ever  God  did  ordain  as  a  fit  government  either 
for  church  or  commonwealth.  If  the  people  be  gov- 
ernors, who  shall  be  governed  t  As  for  monarchy 
and  aristocracy,  they  are  both  of  them  clearly  ap- 
proved and  directed  in  Scripture,  yet  so  as  referreth 
the  sovereignty  to  Himself  and  setteth  up  Theocracy 
in  both,  as  the  best  form  of  government  in  the  com- 
monwealth as  in  the  church."  The  Puritans  intensi- 
fied classes  among  themselves  much  more  than  we 
do.  Not  only  were  ladies  set  in  the  foreseat  and 
a  carpenter's  wife  in  the  back,  but  the  common 
people  themselves  accepted  the  situation. 

There  was  a  meeting  of  the  church  and  congrega- 
tion at  the  South  Church,  Oct.  3,  1707,  their  pastor, 
Mr.  Willard,  having  just  died  ;  and  Sewall  writes  : 
"  It  was  very  thin,  several  came  not  because  Mr. 
Pemberton  [the  officiating  minister]  said.  Gentlemen, 
of  the  church  and  congregation  ;  affirmed  they  were 
not  gentlemen  and  therefore  they  were  not  warned 
to  come."     Adjourned. 

The  Puritans  found  the  constitution  of  their  alleged 
theocracy  in  the  Jewish  Scriptures.     As  to  the  ques- 


66  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

tion  why  they  did  not  go  to  the  Christian  Scriptures 
instead,  a  double  answer  may  properly  be  given ;  viz., 
that  in  the  Holy  Oracles  of  the  apostles'  age  there 
were  no  formularies  of  government  such  as  seen  in 
the  Mosaic  code,  and  that  the  Old  Testament  in  gen- 
eral being  a  history  of  other  men's  affairs  in  many 
ages,  it  was  there  other  men  might  find  the  richest 
fund  of  counsel  when  they  came  to  administer  their 
own.  Their  general  conception  of  the  place  which 
the  Bible  should  occupy  in  human  affairs  is  well 
stated  in  their  own  words  :  — 

"  The  whole  Council  of  God,  concerning  all  things  necessary 
for  his  own  glory,  Man's  salvation,  faith  and  life  is  either  ex- 
pressly set  down  in  Scripture  or  by  good  and  necessary  conse- 
quence may  be  deduced  from  Scripture.  Unto  which  nothing 
at  any  time  is  to  be  added,  whether  by  new  revelations  of  the 
Spirit  or  traditions  of  men." 

It  was  inevitable  that  these  New  England  Lollards 
(if  such  a  phrase  may  be  ventured  on  to  remind  the 
reader  that  the  Puritan  on  all  sides  of  him  —  in  reli- 
gion, politics,  and  social  life  —  was  the  child  and  off- 
spring of  a  profound  and  ancient  movement  which 
drove  him  on  to  his  destiny,  and  still  thrives  in  the 
world)  should  take  God's  word  for  the  constitution 
of  his  commonwealth.  It  is  hard  to  see  where  they 
could  have  discovered  any  other ;  and  in  inventing 
one,  this  sacred  monad  and  individual  —  this  Puritan 
—  for  whom  Christ  died  and  the  whole  creation 
groaned  in  sympathy,  might  not  be  able  to  agree 
with  his  next-door  neighbor,  —  a  cobbler,  may  be,  of 
old  shoes  on  earth,  but  a  king  and  priest  in  that  near- 


SEWALL   AND    THE  PURITAN  CHURCH.  6/ 

ing  world  in  which  he  was  to  live  forever  as  a  cove- 
nanted citizen.  It  should  be  only  noticed  that  he 
who  had  refused  as  against  his  conscience  to  listen 
to  the  ancient  church  interpreting  Scripture,  was 
now  forced  to  interpret  for  himself,  and  imposed  his 
interpretation  on  the  rest,  —  on  at  least  all  aliens. 

The  first  result  of  this  attempt  to  establish  and 
maintain  his  impossible  creed  was  not  exactly  a  reign 
of  terror,  but  a  government  full  of  severity  and  hard- 
ship. The  Puritan  himself  suffered  with  the  rest ; 
and  the  New  England  life  became  granitic,  and 
vexed  by  harsh  restraints  and  unreasonable  demands. 
Human  nature,  thus  challenged  and  irritated,  re- 
venged itself  by  a  constant,  if  often  silent,  protest. 
Under  harsh  laws  even  the  most  unmentionable 
crimes  and  the  fiercest  passions  revealed  themselves 
to  an  extent,  considering  the  population,  hardly  real- 
ized to-day.  The  wicked  people,  if  not  many,  were 
very  wicked,  although  environed  with  the  Puritan 
piety.     All  suffered,  and  the  saints  not  least. 

In  their  unique  selection  of  the  Mosaic  code  for 
their  own  civil  constitution  lies  perhaps  the  explana- 
tion of  the  actual  status  of  the  Puritan  clergy  in  their 
commonwealth.  For  nothing  was  more  reasonable 
to  be  believed  than  that  if  the  Mosaic  code  was  to 
be  the  common  law  of  the  land,  then  that  class  of 
men  who  were  best  versed  in  it  were  certainly  the 
best  interpreters  of  it.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
Puritan  clergy,  not  only  as  admirably  educated,  but 
as  professional  men,  were  best  fitted  to  expound  and 
apply  the  same  to  current  events  in  the  common- 


6S  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

wealth.  They  were,  in  fact,  not  so  much  by  appoint- 
ment as  from  the  nature  of  things,  a  supreme  court 
of  judicature,  to  decide  what  the  laws  should  be  or 
the  Scripture  meant.  The  colonial  statute  book 
abounds  in  Scripture  texts  in  the  nature  of  prece- 
dents to  ratify  and  affirm  the  statute  ;  and  in  inscrib- 
ing these  laws  it  was  directed  that  wide  margins 
should  be  left  to  insert  these  texts.  From  this  point 
of  view  we  may  regard  the  mooted  question  whether 
the  Puritan  clergy  were  sinners  above  all  who  dwelt 
at  Jerusalem  ;  whether,  in  short,  they  were  the  head 
tyrants  in  their  commonwealth.  Certainly  any  law 
resting  not  on  justice,  but  on  force,  if  enforced,  is 
tyranny.  The  Puritans  had  many  such  laws,  and 
the  logical  conclusion  stands  against  their  fame.  But 
this  tyranny  was  not  irregular,  not  personal,  but  for- 
mal and  legal.  It  was  a  part  of  the  situation  ;  and 
the  Puritan  in  general  is  more  entitled  to  the  sym- 
pathy of  history  than  its  blame.  The  clergy  could 
not  escape  the  necessity  of  expounding  their  theo- 
cratic code,  and,  in  fact,  were  often  invited  by  the 
.magistrates  to  do  so.  If  they  had  not  done  so,  the 
state  would  have  gone  very  close  to  being  compelled 
to  change  its  constitution.  But  in  fact  the  clergy 
were  willing  to  do  so,  as  being  as  much  a  part  of 
their  duty  to  their  religion  and  their  government  as 
it  was  to  baptize  a  child,  or  pray  protection  from 
smallpox  or  the  Indians.  Human  nature  is  seldom 
transfigured  even  in  a  parson ;  and  the  Puritan  parson 
was  always  a  man,  and  sometimes  a  very  meddlesome 
and  mischievous  one.     Increase  and  Cotton  Mather, 


SEWALL   AND    THE  PURITAN  CHURCH.  69 

as  bold  men  as  ever  filled  a  pulpit,  and  leaders  in 
their  own  order,  were  no  saints,  even  when  they 
wrought  the  hardest  for  the  common  weal ;  but  their 
New  England  would  not  have  fared  so  well  without 
them.  But,  with  these  limitations,  there  are  few 
facts  more  firmly  established  as  a  part  of  our  history 
than  that  the  Puritan  clergy  here  were  no  tyrants 
over  the  laity,  nor  pre-eminent  tyrants  among  them. 
They  had  their  power,  beyond  their  calling,  inasmuch 
as  they  represented  the  laity  of  their  church.  It  is 
incredible  to  most  students  of  our  colonial  annals, 
that  if  at  any  time  the  clergy  had  given  a  decision 
against  the  conscience  of  their  laity,  that  the  latter 
would  not  have  stood  against  them  and  controlled 
them.  Instances,  indeed,  of  individuals  are  not  want- 
ing where  this  was  done,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  case 
of  Rev.  John  Cotton  and  the  Antinomian  wrangle. 
To  hold  that  this  handful  of  men,  face  to  face  with 
magistrates  as  able  as  Winthrop,  the  elder  Dudley, 
Stoughton,  and  a  host  of  others,  could  or  did  control 
the  public  wdll  to  the  clerical  pleasure  is  irrational, 
and  can  never  be  maintained  in  the  forum  of  history. 

What  they  actually  did  was  to  aid  the  land  where 
they  had  come  with  such  counsel  as  they  had,  when 
it  was  needed,  and  sometimes  when  it  was  even  de- 
manded by  the  civil  authorities  as  a  duty  inherent  in 
their  pastoral  office  which  they  could  not  and  would 
not  avoid. 

Two  cardinal  necessities  imposed  themselves  upon 
the  Puritans,  involved  as  they  were  in  a  vast  material 
enterprise  ;  to  wit,  to  subdue  a  wild  to  a  field,  where 


*JO  SAMUEL   SEW  ALL. 

the  wild  was  a  continent  :  (i)  It  was  necessary  to 
maintain  spiritual  vitality  enough  to  mould  and  satu- 
rate the  material  with  the  spiritual,  and  not  suffer 
the  calamity  of  a  reverse  process,  as  the  Spaniards  in 
South  America  had,  since  no  vital  civilization  was 
ever  wrought  out  by  muscle  alone,  by  whole  men  of 
brain  and  soul,  with  these  gone  into  it ;  (2)  It  was 
necessary,  inasmuch  as  they  dwelt  so  far  from  social 
customs  and  the  wonted  forms  of  law,  that  on  the 
frontier  of  barbarism,  with  all  human  ties  working 
themselves  loose,  stringent  laws  should  be  enforced 
rigorously.  To  the  first  necessity  the  New  England 
Puritan  answered  with  his  church  ;  to  the  second, 
with  his  commonwealth. 

In  this  way  we  may  approach  the  mooted  question 
as  to  whether  we  should  praise  or  blame  the  Puritans 
for  their  treatment  of  such  people  as  the  Quakers, 
Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and  Roger  Williams.  Some  of 
these  they  hung,  and  the  rest  they  banished ;  while 
the  victims  all  clamored  —  Williams  the  loudest,  at 
least  in  history  —  that  they  suffered  for  conscience' 
sake.  Assuming  that  they  did,  what  then?  The 
Puritan  suffered  much  toil  and  vexation  in  hanging 
them  or  driving  them  out  for  his  conscience'  sake. 
When  the  consciences  of  two  sets  of  people  are  at 
strife,  the  conscience  backed  by  the  more  robust 
physique  must  drive,  or  at  least  will  try  to  drive, 
the  other  to  the  wall.  Both  sides  would  have  done 
it,  and  one  side  did  it.  It  can  hardly  be  repeated 
too  often  that  the  Puritan,  when  we  judge  his  beha- 
vior, is  to  be  judged  by  the  standards  of  his  age,  not 


SEWALL   AND    THE    COMMONWEALTH.  J\ 

ours,  unless  we  insist  that  he  ought  to  have  been  a 
prophet,  and  seen  his  duty  with  our  eyes.  To  say 
that  he  was  both  falhble  and  peccable  is  merely  to 
insist  on  the  idle  affirmation  that  he  was  not  God. 
To  pass  him  by  with  a  jest,  —  to  say,  for  instance, 
that  after  this  age  has  heard  so  much  of  the  bless- 
ings which  have  flowed  from  the  Pilgrims  landing  on 
Plymouth  Rock,  it  is  high  time  to  inquire  what  bless- 
ings would  have  flowed  in  upon  us  if  Plymouth  Rock 
had  landed  on  the  Pilgrims,  may  be  a  witticism,  but 
it  is  surely  not  the  philosophy  nor  the  rectitude  of 
history.  The  fact  is,  the  Puritan,  by  an  English  char- 
ter, was  put  in  command  here,  and  was  responsible 
for  what  went  on.  He  held  the  helm,  and  made  his 
voyage.  The  captain  of  a  ship,  by  statute  law,  is 
made  to  a  degree  an  autocrat  on  his  quarter-deck,  — 
let  us  say,  to  express  the  dynamics  of  his  command, 
a  tyrant.  But  if  he  makes  his  voyage,  and  keeps  his 
ship  in  mid  channel  on  entering  port,  "  his  sea  words  " 
to  the  forecastle,  and,  to  a  degree,  his  violence,  are 
very  reasonably  condoned  to  his  responsibility  and 
to  his  proved  success.  Men  are  human,  burdens  are 
Heavy,  arid  human  laws  at  least  recognize  these  facts 
when  men  are  brought  into  judgment.  To  take  the 
case  of  Roger  Williams,  one  of  the  most  amiable  and 
troublesome  of  mortals.  He  chose  to  come  on  board 
the  Puritan  ship,  with  the  Puritan  at  the  helm  and 
responsible  for  the  voyage,  as  Williams  was  not.  As- 
sume that  Williams  brought  on  board  (as  he  did)  his 
absolute  but  ideal  truth  that  conscience  is  and  ought 
to  be  free,  and  that  the  Puritan  denied  his  truth  (as 


T2  SAMUEL   SEW  ALL. 

he  did),  which  in  the  abstract  was  certainly  error,  — 
what  then  ?  No  man  who  knows  the  times  but  must 
confess  that  if  any  or  all  these  sectaries  which  Wil- 
liams represents  had  had  their  way,  the  Puritan  com- 
monwealth would  have  fallen  into  such  general 
mutiny  as  would  have  perilled  both  the  voyage  and 
cargo.  It  was  because  the  Puritan  drove  out  or  hung 
such  men  as  Williams,  with  their  ill-timed,  abstract 
truths,  that  he  managed  to  found  a  civilization  which 
this  day  gives  open-handed  freedom  of  conscience  to 
sixty  millions  of  Americans.  ''  He  builded  better 
than  he  knew  "  when  he  punished  to  preserve ;  and 
his  works  live  after  him. 

The  charter  —  which  so  far  as  the  English  Crown 
was  the  fountain  of  authority  to  New  England  as  a 
part  of  the  British  realm,  was  the  formal  authority 
under  which  the  Puritan  set  up  his  government  in 
Massachusetts  Colony  —  was  granted  by  Charles  I.  in 
1628  to  a  trading  company,  according  to  the  ancient 
custom  whereby  trading  guilds  of  all  sorts  had  been 
granted  special  privileges  from  time  immemorial ;  as 
James  I.  had  granted  a  charter  to  Plymouth  Colony  ; 
as  a  hundred  years  before  the  East  India  "Company 
had  been  allowed  to  trade  and  rule  in  India ;  and  as 
some  twenty  years  later  the  Hudson  Bay  Company 
had  gained  it  special  rights  in  the  North.  But  this 
trading  company  of  Massachusetts  Bay  chose  to 
transfer  its  government  speedily  out  of  England  into 
the  colony  itself,  and  to  color  its  behaviors  with  the 
peculiar  religion  of  its  members,  as  no  other  like 
corporation   ever  did.     Yet  on  its  secular   side   the 


SEWALL   AND    THE   COMMONWEALTH.  73 

company  remained  for  a  long  time  a  trading  company, 
with  a  monopoly  of  furs.  To  a  great  degree  a  reli- 
gious mission  on  the  part  of  the  adventurers  in  this 
mixed  undertaking  was  recognized  by  the  terms  of 
the  charter  itself.  It  is  formally  declared  that  the 
authority  granted  by  the  charter  is  on  purpose  that 
''  the  inhabitants  there  may  be  so  religiously,  peace- 
ably and  civilly  governed,  as  their  good  life  and 
orderly  conversation  may  win  and  incite  the  natives 
of  the  country  to  the  knowledge  and  obedience  of 
the  only  true  God  and  Savior  of  mankind  and  the 
Christian  faith  which  in  our  royal  intention  and  the 
adventurer's  free  profession  is  the  principle  end  of 
this  plantation."  The  emphatic  phrase  "in  our 
royal  intention  and  the  adventurer's  free  profession  " 
is  repeated  in  the  Provincial  Charter  after  given  by 
King  William  III. 

The  very  fact  of  this  charter,  thus  given  and 
taken,  was  itself  an  assertion  that  the  English  Crown 
claimed  sovereignty  over  the  land  and  the  people, 
and  that  the  latter  agreed  to  the  claim  in  accepting 
their  privileges.  The  New  England  Puritans,  there- 
fore, from  the  start  professed  themselves  as  subjects 
of  the  English  Crown.  The  charter  repeatedly  affirms 
it.  In  the  unique  position  in  which  they  after  found 
themselves  so  far  away  from  the  central  government, 
and  with  such  singular  exigencies  often  arising,  and 
with  the  generous  powers  granted  by  the  charter 
itself,  the  Puritan  rulers,  without  blame  from  just 
history,  might  sometimes  transcend  their  powers,  or 
be  tempted  into  extravagances  in  lawmaking  incom- 


74  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

patible  with  a  due  respect  for  the  rights  of  the  Crown. 
But  this  possibility  does  not  explain  their  conduct. 
Man,  in  contrast  with  all  other  animals,  is  liable  to 
fits  of  bad  logic  and  contradictory  conduct,  arising 
from  his  complex  nature,  which  they  never  show. 
The  wolf  has  the  logic  of  his  unvarying  appetite. 
He  has  tasted  lamb  ;  he  likes  it ;  therefore,  undis- 
turbed of  heart  or  conscience,  he  eats  lamb  every 
time  he  can.  But  man  finds  himself  with  a  double 
nature,  each  warring  against  the  other,  and  is  there- 
fore liable  to  perturbations  and  vagaries  in  conduct. 
To  say  that  the  New  England  Puritan  was  a  con- 
scious rebel  from  the  start,  is  not  true  ;  to  say  that 
he  was  a  predestinated  rebel  from  the  start,  is.  Men 
like  Winthrop  no  doubt  intended  to  be  loyal,  and 
were.  Even  men  like  Endicott  and  the  elder  Dud- 
ley must  have  intended  to  remain  good  subjects 
after  their  fashion,  though  the  fashion  was  a  poor 
one.  Certainly  these  men  in  a  seaport  town,  edged 
round  with  savages,  and  exposed,  and  even  doomed 
if  left  to  themselves,  to  Holland,  France,  and  Spain, 
could  never  have  intended  to  break  from  the  Crown, 
even  though  Endicott  cut  the  cross  from  the  English 
colors,  and  Dudley,  unlet  of  Winthrop,  would  have 
misled  the  colony  into  overt  treason.  The  disturb- 
ing cause  of  those  perturbations  in  the  Puritan's  polit- 
ical behavior,  apart  from  personal  traits,  his  constant 
oscillation  between  obedience  and  disrespect  to  his 
king,  was  the  persistently  on-pressing  logic  of  that 
English  Reformation  which  had  made  him  Puritan. 
In    England   itself  that    Reformation  did  not  leave 


SEW  ALL   AND    THE    COMMONWEALTH.  75 

English  kings  at  peace,  nor  always  on  their  thrones. 
Was  the  Puritan  of  New  England,  urged  on  by  his 
heredity  of  personal  liberty  and  individual  dignity, 
less  loyal  than  the  men  who  from  that  age  till  now 
have  dethroned  or  changed  kings,  destroyed  rotten 
boroughs,  brought  in  the  Corn  Laws  in  a  furious  pro- 
test against  feudalism,  opened  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
to  dissenters,  and  in  general  insisted,  according  to 
the  compact  and  logic  of  the  Renaissance,  that  man 
should  come  by  his  own  ?  It  is  idle  to  stand  after 
the  event  and  cry  out  that  the  men  before  the  event 
foresaw  it.  The  Puritans  were  not  a  family  of 
prophets,  but  a  society  of  fallible  but  able  men  who 
wrought  at  the  work  in  hand,  and  were  satisfied  with 
a  day's  work  that  showed  progress,  leaving  to  to- 
morrow its  own.  Our  Revolution  of  1776  was  as 
natural  and  inevitable  as  that  the  crocus-bulb  lifts 
forth  its  flower  under  the  returning  spring.  Yet  it 
is  most  improbable  that  the  colonial  Puritans  fore- 
saw that  event.  It  was  their  staying  power  which 
was  their  real  value  to  the  future.  They  seldom 
forgot  they  had  a  king  to  dread,  yet  they  ever  re- 
membered with  joy  that  they  were  Puritans  and  men. 
The  clouds  which  low  down  veil  the  face  of  the  land- 
scape are  visible,  and  through  their  rift  instant 
glimpses  of  spaces  beyond  are  possible  ;  but  the 
great  air  currents  overhead,  moving  resistless  to  com- 
mand the  storm,  are  invisible.  The  Puritan,  even 
when  regarding  his  own  movement  in  time,  very 
often  beheld  only  its   clouds. 

In  the  colonial   charter   traces   are  found   of  that 


']6  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

almost  universal  search  for  the  precious  metals  which 
was  carried  on  in  new  lands.  The  only  tithe  or  tax 
which  the  Crown  reserved  for  itself  was  one-fifth  of 
all  the  gold  and  silver  mined ;  which  apparently,  and 
to  this  day,  the  laws  of  geology  forbade  to  be  very 
much.  Otherwise,  on  the  part  of  the  Crown,  the 
privileges  granted  were  very  generous.  The  gov- 
ernment was  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  governor, 
deputy-governor,  and  a  court  of  assistants  ;  all,  after 
the  first  appointment  by  the  king,  to  be  elected  by 
the  citizens  every  year.  To  this  compact  body  was 
committed  the  care  of  the  state  and  the  power  of 
making  laws,  with  the  simple  proviso  that  these 
should  not  be  against  the  laws  of  the  realm.  Sub- 
stantially by  this  charter  the  colonists  were  left  free 
to  manage  their  affairs,  which  might  be  divided  into 
two  classes ;  viz.,  the  affairs  of  their  own  .people,  and 
the  affairs  which  involved  themselves  with  the  dig- 
nity and  rights  of  the  Crown.  Sometimes  these 
rights  were  in  both  classes. 

The  affairs  of  their  own  people  the  government 
managed  with  energy  and  much  practical  common- 
sense.  They  threw  off  new  towns  from  the  common 
centres  of  the  first  ones  like  Boston,  Salem,  and 
Newbury,  exactly  as  fast  as  their  people  settled  in 
the  wild  ;  and  each  of  these  became  little  municipali- 
ties, emphasizing  their  own  local  interests  and  wishes 
in  those  town  meetings  which  were  so  many  cradles 
of  independence  and  statesmanship,  narrow  in  their 
limits,  but  very  practical  and  useful  to  the  state. 
Persons    neglecting    town   meeting    in    some    places 


SEWALL   AND    THE   COMMONWEALTH.  'J'J 

were  fined  \s.  6d. ;  for  being  late,  refusing  to  answer 
the  roll-call,  or  leaving  the  meeting  before  it  closed, 
gd.  This  articulation  of  the  state  into  the  little 
sovereignties  of  towns,  with  its  resultant  benefits, 
lies  at  the  basis  of  American  Democracy.  Among 
no  people  in  the  world,  perhaps,  according  to  their 
population,  have  so  many  persons,  for  the  last  three 
hundred  years,  engaged  in  governing  as  here.  Our 
town  records  show  a  little  of  this  work ;  but  the 
amount  of  human  mind  and  energy  which  have  gone 
into  managing  local  affairs,  and  still  continue,  is 
something  wonderful.  It  was  the  practice  in  politics 
of  the  individualism  of  Protestantism,  and  a  good  ex- 
ample of  its  capacity  to  mould  men  into  good  citi- 
zens. The  colonial  government  insisted  on  schools 
and  churches  wherever  they  could  be.  had  ;  and  no- 
where, according  to  the  population,  have  there  been 
more.  They  were  the  first  to  enroll  the  militia. 
They  set  everybody  to  do  something,  while  tramps 
and  vagabonds  were  at  a  frightful  discount.  In 
short,  they  brought  up  the  people  to  be  industrious, 
intelligent,  religious,  thrifty,  self-reliant,  and  created 
a  citizenship  more  than  Spartan  in  its  energy  and 
permanency.  Social  life  and  manners  here  might 
have  been  or  may  be  lacking  some  tenderness  or 
elegance  to  be  found  elsewhere,  but  nowhere  was  or 
is  there  more  of  the  dominancy  and  mastership  which 
insures  economic  successes  than  here. 

At  first  only  church-members  were  citizens  ;  and 
until  a  change  was  made  which  included  all  really 
responsible  people  in  political  equality,  the  Puritans 


78  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

wrangled  bitterly  over  the  matter,  which  was  settled 
in  the  interests  of  a  progressive  democrac}^  The 
sectaries,  like  the  Quakers,  gave  them  some  distrac- 
tions, and  in  Puritanism  it  was  inevitable  that  each 
man  should  stand  stoutly  for  his  own  ;  but  with  these 
exceptions  it  may  be  said  in  general  that  in  the  colo- 
nial period  at  least  the  government  and  the  governed 
were  in  assent  and  harmony.  A  marked  exception 
to  harmony  was  the  case  of  Sir  Harry  Vane,  of  whom 
Sewall  says  :  — 

"  He,  Henry  Vane,  worked  hard  for  his  election,  May  17, 
1637.  Indeed  Mr.  Vane  seemed  to  stand  so  hard  for  being 
chosen  again,  as  to  endeavor  to  confound  and  frustrate  the 
whole  business  of  the  election  rather  than  he  himself  should  fail 
of  being  chosen"  (p.  295). 

"There  was  a  great  struggle,  he  being  the  principal  magis- 
trate for  managing  the  election.  My  father  has  told  me  many 
a  time  that  he  and  others  went  on  foot  from  Newbury  to  Cam- 
bridge, Forty  miles  on  purpose  to  be  made  free  and  help  to 
strengthen  Gov''"  Winthrop's  party.  The  New  English  planters 
were  at  this  time  hardly  bestead ;  being  infested  by  the  Pequot 
Indians  and  the  new  opinions,  at  the  same  time." 

Of  course  the  floating  population,  or  stray  men  and 
women  of  other  religions,  cannot  be  included  in  the 
statement.  Where  the  laws  of  England  did  not 
include  a  difficulty,  they  made  one  to  cover  it ;  but  in 
general,  especially  as  to  rights  of  property,  the  colony 
may  be  said  to  have  lived  under  English  law. 

It  must  be  said  of  the  Puritans  as  lawmakers,  that 
their  unique  blending  of  religion  and  politics  together 
often  produced  singular  situations,  which,  if  there 
had  been  lawyers  (as  there  were  few  or  none  in  the 
earlier    days)    free    to    argue    a    case    arising    under 


SEWALL   AND    THE    COMMONWEALTH.  79 

them,  would  have  been  likely  to  produce  awkward 
results.  For  instance,  if  a  certain  act  had  been 
declared  a  crime,  with  a  certain  penalty  affixed  to  it, 
and  the  cited  authority  for  the  same  had  been  a  pas- 
sage out  of  the  Pentateuch  of  Moses,  a  sharp  lawyer 
might  have  led  the  court,  owing  to  the  difficulties  of 
time  and  space,  a  long  journey  before  it  was  able  to 
certify  to  the  fact  of  Moses  or  the  authenticity  of  his 
authorship.  But  they  had  no  such  lawyers,  and  so 
no  dilemma. 

The  Puritan  also  sinned  against  the  great  natural 
law  of  proportion,  both  in  making  and  enforcing  his 
laws.  This  is  apt  to  be  the  case  with  all  enthusiasts, 
who  are  apt  to  push  their  ideas  beyond  their  legiti- 
mate relations,  until  they  border  on  fanaticism.  For 
instance,  their  laws  against  extravagance  in  dress 
were  as  solemnly  formulated  and  as  seriously  enforced 
as  if  it  had  happened  to  be  a  sin  against  the  Holy 
Ghost.  This  Puritan  tendency  to  apply  what,  as 
Hawthorne  says  with  his  customary  subtlety  of. analy- 
sis, well  "befitted  a  people  amongst  whom  religion 
and  law  were  almost  identical,  and  in  whose  charac- 
ter both  were  so  thoroughly  interfused  that  the  mild- 
est and  severest  acts  of  public  discipline  were  alike 
made  venerable  and  awful,"  appears  very  often  in 
the  colonial  statutes. 

In  the  affairs  of  the  Crown  the  colonial  govern- 
ment was  less  fortunate.  They  had  not  been  planted 
three  years  before  bitter  complaints  were  laid  against 
them  before  the  Crown.  Complaints  continued  to 
be  made.     Visitors  and  enemies  here  reported  insub- 


80  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

ordinations  on  all  hands.  Many  of  their  complaints 
were  groundless  ;  but  after  all  allowance,  it  remains 
true  that  the  Puritans  were  often  guilty  of  gross 
imprudence,  considering  that  they  were  English  sub- 
jects. In  general  this  imprudence  showed  itself  in 
their  assuming  supreme  prerogatives  ;  as  of  life  and 
death  in  the  doubtful  case  of  the  Quakers;  in  their 
banishment  of  English  subjects,  or  forbidding  them 
entrance  to  their  colony  ;  in  their  tampering  with 
the  English  laws  of  trade  (a  matter  always  of  sensi- 
tive interest  to  a  commercial  nation  like  England) ; 
in  their  coining  money  ;  and  in  assuming  in  public 
acts  the  title  of  commonwealth,  though  a  part  of  a 
kingdom.  Besides,  they  ever  showed  an  even  fierce 
desire  to  be  let  alone  by  England.  Their  agents 
there  at  court  had  much  trouble,  and  did  not  always 
follow  straight  paths  in  explaining  to  the  English  gov- 
ernment the  ongoings  of  their  principals.  Finally, 
in  simple  preservation  of  the  Crown  authority  (4th 
Charles  II.),  their  charter  was  "  cancelled,  vacated,  and 
annihilated,"  as  the  record  runs,  and  a  new  charter, 
"the  Province  Charter"  as  it  is  called,  issued  in  the 
reign  of  William  and  Mary,  1691. 

The  new  charter,  after  consolidating  Plymouth  and 
Massachusetts  into  one,  abridged  the  liberties  hereto- 
fore enjoyed,  in  favor  of  the  Crown.  The  election 
of  the  chief  magistrates  was  taken  from  the  people, 
and  they  were  appointed  by  the  Crown  :  — 

"From  henceforth  forever  there  shall  be  one  governor;  one 
lieutenant  or  deputy  governor ;  and  one  secretary  of  our  said 
province  or  territory  to  be  from  time  to  time  commissioned  by 


SEWALL   AiYD    THE    COMMONWEAL  TIL  8 1 

us,  our  heirs  and  successors  ;  and  eight  and  twenty  assistants 
and  counsellors  to  be  advising  and  assisting  to  the  governor  of 
our  said  province  or  territory  for  the  time  being,  as  by  these 
presents  is  hereafter  directed  and  appointed." 

It  was  also  ordered  by  the  new  charter  that  once 
a  year  a  Great  and  General  Court  should  be  elected, 
two  from  each  town,  who  should  elect  the  counsellors. 
Together  these  formed  the  government.  But  the 
governor  could  dissolve  or  adjourn  the  court,  veto  its 
nominations,  and,  in  general,  as  the  king's  servant, 
secure  the  king's  interests,  or  at  least  prevent  the 
perilling  of  them.  There  was  also  a  very  liberal 
right  of  appeal  allowed  from  the  courts  to  the  Privy 
Council.  An  examination  of  this  charter  shows  that 
it  was  intended  to  carefully  provide  against  the  irregu- 
larities before  complained  of,  and  it  certainly  seri- 
ously limited  the  old  colonial  privileges.  It  was  a 
curb  —  put  on,  too,  upon  the  fiery  Puritan  steed 
with  stern  phrases  which  show  the  English  states- 
man at  Whitehall  resolutely  bent  on  restraint.  And 
this,  too,  in  the  reign  of  a  man  as  liberal  and  Protes- 
tant as  King  William. 

It  is  not  intended  here  to  explain  how  the  new 
charter  tended  to  multiply  dissensions  between  the 
Crown  and  its  colony.  The  story  is  long ;  and  much 
of  it,  especially  its  details,  are  in  Sewall's  Diary. 
But  with  a  rough  democracy  in  the  General  Court, 
and  a  king's  appointee  in  the  governor's  chair  armed 
with  large  powers,  it  will  be  seen  that  there  was 
opportunity  at  least  for  constant  wrangle  which 
would  insure   a  chronic  feud.     That  feud  was,  and 


82  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

deepened  into  the  Revolution.  There  was  but  one 
governor  popular  from  the  date  of  the  charter  until 
it  ceased  to  operate.  Each  side  held  its  own  with  its 
best.  It  is  shorter  to  say  what  was  not,  than  what 
was,  a  bone  of  contention.  It  was,  in  fact,  a  struggle 
between  the  old  and  the  new ;  between  the  privilege 
of  the  king  and  the  privilege  of  the  people  ;  and  the 
future  belonged  to  the  people. 

The  transition  period  between  the  old  charter  and 
the  new  was  one  of  extreme  anxiety  to  the  colonists, 
especially  in  the  matter  of  their  real  estate,  which 
constituted  most  of  their  wealth.  Eminent  lawyers 
at  the  time,  and  Chief  Justice  Parsons  later  on,  held 
that  when  the  colonial  charter  fell,  it  carried  with  it 
all  laws  made  under  it,  and  all  land  titles  as  well. 
If  this  were  so,  no  man  was  sure  even  of  the  house 
he  had  built,  paid  for,  and  lived  in.  In  fact,  the 
whole  question  of  these  early  land  titles  from  which 
we  derive,  so  far  as  theory  goes,  was  and  is  always  in 
the  air.  If  any  one  owned  the  lands,  it  must  have 
been  the  Indians  ;  but  their  occupation  of  them  was 
peculiar  and  uncertain.  The  king  claimed  the  land 
by  the  right  of  discovery  and  the  tacit  or  explicit 
agreement  of  his  brother  kings.  But  what  claim  had 
an  English  king  to  own  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific  between  certain  lines  of  latitude  }  To  dis- 
cover a  watch  in  the  street  hardly  gives  any  one  but 
the  owner  a  title  to  it.  The  Puritans  recognized  the 
ownership  to  be  in  the  Indians,  and  bought  of  them 
in  a  fair  bargain,  at  least  so  far  as  law  could  insure 
fair  dealing.      But  they  had   asked  no   further  title 


SEIVALL   AND    THE    COMMONWEALTH.  83 

from  the  king  who  claimed  ownership,  and  themselves 
as  subjects.  When,  therefore,  their  charter  fell,  and 
so  far  the  king's  favor  with  it,  it  was  quite  possible 
that  the  English  courts,  had  the  Crown  claimed  it, 
would  have  declared  these  Indian  titles  void  in  law, 
and  the  land  reverted  to  the  king.  A  bad  king  would 
have  probably  done  this  ;  but  the  new  charter  left 
their  ownership  where  it  was,  —  untouched. 

Sewall  himself,  especially  under  the  Province  Char- 
ter, had  rare  opportunities  to  see  the  inside  of  New 
England  politics  ;  and  his  Diary  abounds  in  minute 
and  rare  bits  of  intelligence.  Besides  his  high  social 
standing,  which  brought  him  in  contact  with  the 
leaders  on  both  sides,  he  was  a  member  of  the  Royal 
Council  of  the  Province  from  1692  to  1725  (thirty- 
three  years),  when  he  declined  re-election ;  and  as 
judge  and  chief  justice  all  law  matters  were  open  to 
him.  He  was  a  Puritan  in  his  politics,  but  a  discreet 
one.  He  writes  it  down  :  "  Great  Britain  was  not 
habitable  to  our  fathers  because  the  civil  government 
fell  upon  them  unmercifully."  In  a  time  when  the 
Provincial  courts  were  changed,  and  justice,  as  he 
probably  judged  it,  in  jeopardy  from  the  king,  he 
writes  :  "  So  that  old  Court  is  like  to  die  and  sink 
in  the  midst.  The  Lord  be  our  King  and  Lord  and 
Law-Giver.  Pardon  our  Court-Sins  and  sanctify  our 
frequent  Deaths." 

All  the  way  through,  in  his  Diary,  Sewall  shows 
himself,  so  far  as  the  Crown  went,  a  conformist  to 
what  he  judged  the  political  necessities  of  the  hour. 
Puritan  he  was  in  church  and  state,  and  he  took  good 


84  SAMUEL  SEWALL, 

care  (and  it  was  easy  for  him)  not  to  allow  himself  to 
lose  touch,  with  the  on-marching  but  hampered  logic 
of  New  England  institutions.  But  he  was  also  hu- 
man, constitutionally  prone  to  peaceful  ways,  —  no 
radical,  having  too  much  sound  English  flesh  and 
health  about  him  for  that,  —  and  perhaps  with  a  set- 
tled conviction  that,  as  lives  were  or  might  be,  he 
and  his  fellow-citizens  would  come  by  more  of  their 
own  if  they  watched  and  waited  an  opportunity  than 
if  they  forced  the  issue,  and  stolidly  planted  their 
feet  in  spots  where  there  was  no  retreat  except  it 
cost  an  overthrow.  He  might  be  ready  enough  to 
jostle  the  king,  especially  when  the  latter  nodded  or 
was  busy,  but  not  to  try  issues  with  him  when  seated 
on  the  throne  and  reaching  out  his  sceptre.  Sewall 
remembered  his  covenant,  and  wished  it  immortal ; 
but  while  he  served  it  his  best,  he  had  one  eye 
always  open  to  what  the  Master  of  Englishmen  at 
Whitehall  might  choose  to  think  or  command.  He 
was  also  a  rich  man,  and  property  is  always  conser- 
vative. He  stands  stoutly  upon  equity  and  his  Eng- 
lish rights  when  the  old  South  Church  is  invaded  by 
the  Prayer  Book ;  but  when  the  charter  is  taken 
away,  and  the  question  is  in  all  quarters  whether  all 
their  land  titles  have  not  gone  with  it,  he  is  found 
an  humble  petitioner  to  the  Crown  that  his  land  may 
be  assured  to  him,  though  this  behavior  is  evidently 
regarded  by  many  as  unpatriotic  and  time-serving- 
He  is  out  of  the  country  when  Andros  is  overthrown 
by  a  Boston  mob,  and  his  Diary  nowhere  expresses 
any  animosity  to  that  able  servant  of  the  king.     But 


SEWALL   AND    THE    COMAIONWEALTIL  85 

when  the  news  comes  out  by  letter  to  England  he 
notes  it  down  :  '^  We  were  surprised  with  joy."  Yet 
if  he  had  said  that  on  the  London  Stock  Exchangee 
he  would  probably  have  gone  to  the  ToA^er,  with  a 
chance  of  the  confiscation  of  his  New  England  prop- 
erty. He  was  a  good  man,  but  also  a  wise  one  in 
his  generation. 

The  political  history  of  the  Puritan  commonwealth 
in  New  England  shows  that  the  American  Revolu- 
tion was  not  an  explosion,  but  an  organic  growth 
whose  roots  reached  back  beyond  Winthrop  and  the 
New  England  fathers.  The  English  Cabinet  in  the 
reign  of  King  George  the  Third  indeed  blundered, 
but  less  than  is  often  supposed.  It  was  their  chief 
misfortune  to  be  late,  as  it  was  the  fault  of  their 
predecessors  to  be  careless.  The  reform  after  the 
Andros  enieiite  did  not  drive  deep  enough  to  cut  up 
the  roots  of  the  danger  and  prepare  peace  through 
obedience.  Or,  more  likely,  the  flame  of  political 
Puritanism  in  this  land  was  too  fierce  to  be  quelled 
either  by  oil  or  water. 

The  exact  net  results  of  the  Puritan  church  and 
commonwealth  to  this  land  can  never  be  expressed 
in  any  one  formula,  because  Puritanism  in  our  insti- 
tutions exists  both  as  a  form  and  as  an  atmosphere. 
Looking  only  at  the  form,  however,  it  is  safe  to  ven- 
ture this  as  summary  :  In  this  nation  so  far,  in  reli- 
gion Puritanism  has  been  dimimcendo ;  in  politics, 
crescendo. 


S6  SAMUEL   SEW  ALL. 


CHAPTER   VL 

SEWALL    AS    A    BUSINESS    MAN. 

Sewall's  early  education  was  at  his  father's  house 
ill  Newbury,  under  charge  of  his  father's  minister, 
Rev.  Mr.  Parker,  who,  leaving  the  pulpit  after  he 
became  blind,  had  the  courage  to  support  himself  by 
private  pupils  in  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew.  It  has 
been  often  noted  that  the  per  cent  of  college  men  in 
the  colony  was  large.  His  life  here  was  that  of  the 
wilderness,  with  a  smack  of  Old  English  in  it ;  and 
he  probably  took  his  share  of  the  hardship.  He 
graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1671  in  a  class  of 
eleven,  most  of  whom  remained  his  fast  friends  dur- 
ing life.  In  this  class  there  were  four  Samuels,  two 
Johns,  one  Isaiah,  one  Peter,  and  one  Thomas,  with 
only  two  secular  names,  William  and  Edward. 

It  would  be  a  curious  inquiry  as  to  the  origin  of 
the  Puritan  names,  and  why  so  many  were  out  of  the 
Bible,  and  especially  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.  That 
these  Hebrew  proper  names  had  generally  a  pious 
meaning  might  be  one  reason  ;  that  so,  in  a  sense, 
their  names  would  thus  be  written  in  '^  the  Lamb's 
Book  of  Life  "  might  be  another ;  while  names  like 
Grace  or  Mercy  carry  their  own  right  to  be  given  to 
women.     The  cases  are  not  unknown  where  Puritan 


SFAVALL   AS  A    BUSINESS  MAX.  8/ 

ministers  even  refused  to  baptize  unless  with  a  Scrip- 
tural name.  Three  years  later  Sewall  took  his  Mas- 
ter's degree,  coming  first  with  the  significant  thesis, 
"  All  peccatum  originale  sit  et  peccatuvi  et  poena  ?  " 
which  may  be  freely  translated  ''  Whether  original 
sin  be  both  sin  and  its  punishment  ? "  The  college 
had  now  been  established  some  thirty  years  ;  and  its 
culture  from  the  start,  although  hedged  in  by  the 
general  poverty,  had  been  a  white  flame  in  the  dark- 
ness of  that  wilderness  which  was  with  a  very  definite 
gravity  trying  to  drag  down  the  Englishmen  here  to 
its  own  level.  There  had  been  presidents  already, 
and  Rev.  Charles  Chauncey  at  Sewall' s  graduation 
was  at  the  head.  That  sweet  man  of  God,  President 
Dunster,  whose  fault  was  to  have  had  that  charity 
in  dealing  with  the  acrid  theological  quarrels  of  his 
age  without  which  ''  there  is  nothing  worth,"  had 
already  departed  under  a  heavy  load  of  obloquy  to 
his  Old  Colony  home,  and  had  there  died.  Gracious 
hands  had  embalmed  him  in  a  rude  way  by  filling  his 
coffin  with  tansy  and  other  herbs  ;  and  so  he  was 
brought  to  Cambridge,  and  buried  just  across  the 
road  from  the  college  where  he  had  so  wrought  and 
suffered.  Generations  after,  the  inscription  on  his 
gravestone  having  become  illegible,  the  corporation 
(1845)  gave  him  new  funeral  honors,  and  identified 
the  body  by  these  same  herbs  still  retaining  their 
fragrance,  very  much  as  when  they  opened  the  coffin 
of  Charles  V.  of  Spain  the  sprigs  of  thyme  were 
almost  as  fragrant  as  when  they  had  been  gathered 
seven  ages  before  in  the  woods  of  Yuste. 


88  SAMUEL  SEWALL. 

After  graduation,  as  was  usual,  he  became  a  Resi- 
dent Fellow,  taking  part  in  teaching  and  discipline. 
He  was  also  made  keeper  of  the  college  library, 
which,  we  may  be  sure,  was  both  small  and  Puritan. 
The  first  entry  in  his  Diary,  Dec.  3,  1673,  concerns 
his  teaching  at  Cambridge.  Incidentally  Sewall 
gives  us  little  glimpses  of  college  life,  —  how  his 
hair  is  cut ;  that  he  sends  his  younger  brother's 
clothes  out  to  wash ;  borrows  money,  gives  treats, 
glances  at  the  new  brides,  and  very  like  at  young 
ladies  not  yet  come  to  that  estate  ;  gets  gloves  and 
visits  from  young  men  and  maids  ;  has  his  brother 
bring  him  from  Boston  an  hourglass  and  penknife 
{\\s.  ^d)  \  buys  beer  (4</.),  wine  (3^.),  with  6d.  to 
Onesephoros  (a  black  slave  probably),  tobacco  pipes 
(3<3?'.),  all  in  honor  of  the  peace  ju^t  come,  very  much 
as  young  men  go  on  in  such  places  always.  Sewall 
makes  no  entry  as  to  Commencement  expenses.  But 
Judge  Lynde  writes  down  these  expenses  of  his  son 
at  graduation  in  1734:  — 

*'  I  paid  Mrs.  Frances  Wardell  for  William's  Commencement 
things  viz  a  large  cake,  4  gall  West  India  Rum  at  8^.  6^.,  2  neats 
tongues  at  5^./  4  gallons  of  Madeira  wine  at  lOi".  —  all  these  came 

to  ^9.  4,  5- 

"  Day  before  Thanksgiving  1734.  I  bought  and  paid  for  3 
quarters  of  lamb  and  2  quarters  of  mutton  20^-.  and  turkey  and 
4  fowls  6i-.  and  bread  with  cyder  for  the  poor." 

The  students  and  the  town  boys  were  at  logger- 
heads, as  ever.  *'  In  the  evening  the  townsmen  of 
Cambridge  had  a  meeting  and  Mr.  Gookin  and  I 
being  sent  for  went  to  them.     They  treated  us  very 


SEWALL    AS  A   BUSINESS  MAN.  89 

civilly  and  agreed  that  the  school  boys  should  sit  no 
longer  in  the  students'  hinder  seat.  It  was  also  con- 
sented to  by  us  that  some  sober  youths  for  the  pres- 
ent might  be  seated  there."  He  notes  a  more  serious 
event  in  the  college  discipline,  —  that  a  young  man, 
accused  of  blasphemy,  after  examination  by  the  cor- 
poration and  advice  had  from  the  lieutenant-governor 
and  the  leading  ministers,  was  condemned  and  sen- 
tenced to  diverse  punishments ;  such  as  being  de- 
graded in  public  and  private  before  all,  and  finally 
publicly  whipped.  The  whipping  was  done  in  the 
library,  the  culprit  on  his  knees,  the  president  seeing 
the  job  well  done.  "  Prayer  was  had  before  and 
after  by  the  President."  Sewall  keeps  his  eyes  open 
for  things  beyond  the  college.  "  This  day  two  boys 
killed  at  Watertown  with  the  tumbling  of  a  load  of 
brush  on  them,  on  which  they  rode."  Sept.  7  (1674)  : 
''  First  frost." 

He  makes  a  home  visit  to  Newbury,  and  his  Diary 
shows  in  another  place,  April  29,  how  things  went 
on  sometimes  on  the  new  farms  :  "  My  father  having 
found  things  out  of  order  at  the  little  farm,  viz  fences 
down,  ground  eaten  and  rooted  up  by  cattle  and  hogs 
and  wanting  a  good  tenant,  the  season  of  the  year 
now  spending,  resolves  and  goes  and  lives  there  ;  not- 
withstanding the  littleness  and  unprettiness  of  the 
house."  He  returned  to  Boston,  and  entered  the 
family  of  John  Hull,  the  New  England  mint-master 
and  merchant,  whose  daughter,  Plannah  Hull,  he 
married  Feb.  28,  1676.  Of  this  wife  of  his  youth, 
whom  he  lived  with  forty-two  years,  many  things  are 


90  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

said  by  Sewall,  but  she  says  nothing.  A  single  letter 
which  her  husband  preserves  in  his  Letter  Book  alone 
remains ;  but  that  shows  her  a  matronly,  broad- 
hearted,  sensible  English  woman,  and  she  bore  her 
husband  eleven  children.  Sewall  says,  "  She  saw 
me  when  I  took  my  degree,  and  set  her  affection 
on  me,  though  I  knew  nothing  of  it  till  after  our 
marriage."  (Being  a  woman,  very  likely  not.)  She 
was  an  heiress,  and  brought  her  husband  a  powerful 
family  connection  ;  and  as  Sewall  was  himself  well- 
bred,  the  lines  from  the  start  had  fallen  to  him  in 
pleasant  places.  He  became  and  remained  a  repre- 
sentative Bostonian  of  the  higher  rank  all  his  life. 

Sewall  would  naturally  seemed  destined  for  the 
ministry,  and  had  indeed  preached  on  occasion,  and 
.  was  urged  by  the  clergy  to  ordination  and  a  parish. 
He  tells  us  that,  on  one  occasion,  preaching  for  his 
old  schoolmaster,  Rev.  Mr.  Parker,  "  Being  afraid  to 
look  on  the  glass,  ignorantly  and  unwillingly  I  stood 
two  hours  and  a  half."  An  hourglass  stood  on  the 
pulpit,  which  the  sexton  sometimes  turned,  while 
some  probably  yawned.  But  his  marriage,  with  his 
wife's  property  and  the  care  of  his  own,  seem  to 
have  driven  him  into  business,  though  all  his  life 
he  shows  his  theological  training  and  a  bias  towards 
the  clerical  profession.  John  Hull  was  now  old,  and 
he  seems  to  have  turned  over  his  business  corre- 
spondents to  Sewall.  Both  his  Diary  and  his  Letter 
Book  show  him  very  soon  exporting  and  importing 
with  the -rest.  For,  next  to  God,  trade  seems  to 
have  had  most  attraction  for  the  thrifty  Puritan,  and 


SEWALL   AS  A   BUSINESS  MAN.  91 

the  bias  is  strong  on  his  posterity.  But  commerce 
then  was  in  a  very  precarious  condition.  Pirates 
swarmed,  and,  when  caught,  had  short  shrift  with  a 
rope.  Dutch  and  French  enemies  made  ventures 
by  sea,  uncertain  and  often  disastrous.  Foreign 
trade  was  chiefly  to  London,  Bristol,  Bilboa  in  Spain, 
and,  above  all,  to  the  West  Indies,  where  at  this 
time  most  of  the  emigrating  Europeans  had  settled. 
Mackerel  stood  first  as  an  export ;  next  oil,  codfish, 
shingles,  tar,  alewives,  beaver,  and  even  cranberries. 
The  imports  were  such  as  the  estate  of  the  colonists 
allowed,  —  the  usual  dry  goods  of  the  age,  and  things 
which  agriculture  called  for.  There  is,  in  Sewall's 
entries,  a  large  demand  for  sieves,  probably  to  sift  In- 
dian corn  and  other  grains,  milk-strainers,  cod  hooks 
and  lines,  salt,  shot,  nails,  tobacco  pipes,  scythes, 
knives,  needles,  lead,  chairs,  books,  oranges,  sweet- 
meats, and  chocolate.  Nor  is  Sewall  behind  his  neigh- 
bors in  looking  well  to  his  invoice  when  it  reaches 
him.  "The  last  cod  hooks  you  sent,"  he  writes, 
*'are  complained  of  as  not  well  seasoned  and  dear. 
Several  would  bend  out  and  come  straight  and 
not  hold  a  fish."  Again  :  "■  Be  sure  that  each  bunch 
contains  a  dozen  [sieve  bottoms]  for  the  party  I 
sold  the  last  to  complains  that  sundry  held  out  but 
eleven."  He  sometimes  handled  queer  goods,  as, 
for  instance,  when  he  writes  abroad  that  he  will  take 
a  certain  legacy  in  thirty  dozen  alchemy  (some  sort 
of  pinchbeck)  spoons  ;  forty  brass  candlesticks  ;  big 
kettles,  not  above  twenty  or  twenty-four  gallons  ;  and 
pewter  platters,  not  exceeding  eighteen  inches  over. 


92  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

basins,  and  porringers.  He  keeps  an  eye  on  the 
crops.  '*  English  corn  usually  2s.  6d.  now  5^.  or  ^s.  6d. 
a  bushel.  The  English  harvest  is  promising  though 
much  rye  blasted  and  good  for  nothing.  A  strange 
plague  of  flies  spoils  most  all  our  pease  ;  it  breeds  in 
them  and  at  last  flies  away."  In  1686  mackerel  are 
quoted  at  i6s.  a  barrel,  and  pork  at  the  same  price. 
Here  is  an  order  he  sends  to  England :  "  6  dozen 
scythes  of  a  pretty  long  sort  with  strong  flat  backs, 
narrow  plates,  strong  heels,  being  hard  metal  ;  6 
dozen  of  rubstones  [whetstones]  20  dozens  of  good 
strong  servicable  knives  with  bone,  horn  and  wooden 
hafts."  "  Let  there  be  no  silk  grass  in  any  of  these 
silks,"  he  writes,  ''but  let  them  be  all  silk.  Let 
none  of  these  silks  exceed  6s.  pr.  yard  ;  as  much 
under  as  you  can."  New  England  people  had  this 
help  in  commerce  ;  they  were  so  far  away  from  Lon- 
don that  they  paid  little  attention  to  the  Acts  of  Trade 
imposed  on  other  Englishmen,  which  increased  their 
profits.  This  was  taken  notice  of  to  their  detriment 
by  the  king's  government,  and  after  the  capture  of 
Quebec  in  17  59  the  Acts  were  enforced  here.  There 
were  suspicious  and  even  criminal  prosecutions  of 
traders  here  for  selling  guns  and  other  things  contra- 
band in  war  to  the  king's  enemies  ;  and  the  Puritans 
were  sometimes  smitten  by  the  very  war  armaments 
that  greedy  and  cruel  men  of  their  own  stock  had 
sold. 

Sewall  was  also  a  general  trader  in  lands  and 
cattle,  as  the  Winthrops  were.  Such  men  bought 
land  in  large  blocks,  and  sold  out  in  parcels.     Sewall 


SEWALL   AS  A    BUSINESS  MAN.  93 

had  land  at  Martha's  Vineyard  and  the  Narragansett 
country,  and,  indeed,  all  over  the  State ;  and  the 
care  and  sale  of  it  took  much  of  his  business  time 
and  energy.  He  also  appears  to  have  been  a  good 
judge  of  horses.  Whether  he  ever  hired  Indians  to 
hunt  skins  for  him  does  not  appear  ;  but  we  know- 
that  beaver-skins  in  his  day  were  almost  as  precious 
as  gold. 

He  can  also  be  downright  in  business,  especially 
if  he  fears  fraud,  to  his  loss.  Indeed,  the  Puritans 
had  a  way  of  playing  around  a  subject  in  a  preamble  ; 
but  when  they  come  to  the  point  they  bring  it  out 
with  a  blow,  as  of  a  sledge-hammer.  Sewall  had 
consigned  goods  to  a  Mr.  Higginson,  who  had  after 
died,  leaving  the  account  unsettled.  Irritated  at  the 
delay,  he  writes  :  "  Whatever  be  done  with  Mr.  Hig- 
ginson's  own  estate,  it  is  utterly  unreasonable  that 
the  estates  of  other  men  should  be  buried  with  him 
and  no  account  given  of  them."  Here  is  a  letter  to 
a  man  who  had  borrowed  money  of  him  :  — 

"Dec.  3d,  1700.     To  Mr.  Jn'  Williams  of  Barbadoes. 

Sir,  I  presume  the  old  verse  '  If  knocking  thrice,  no  one  comes 
go  off'  is  not  to  be  understood  of  creditors  in  demanding  their 
just  debts.  The  tenth  year  is  now  current  since  I  lent  you  ten 
pounds,  merely  out  of  respect  to  you  as  a  stranger  and  a  scholar  : 
you  having  then  met  with  disappointment  by  the  loss  of  effects 
sent  for  your  support.  You  have  written  to  me  that  you  would 
not  let  my  kindness  rot  under  the  clods  of  ingratitude.  But  there 
has  been  hitherto  Vox  and  praeterea  nihil  [a  promise  and  no 
pay] .  I  am  come  again  to  knock  at  your  door  to  enquire  if  any 
ingenuity  or  honor  dwell  there.  Not  doubting  but  if  there  do  I 
shall  reap  benefit  by  it  and  that  you  will  pay  to  my  order  the 


94  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

money  which  I  sent  you  gratis  July  23d  1691,  of  which  I  have 
not  yet  received  one  penny." 

Same  date  he  writes  to  his  correspondents  in  Bar- 
badoes  about  Williams  :  — 

"  I  w'ould  intreat  you  to  deal  with  him  effectually  in  my  behalf. 
Recover  the  money  and  remit  it  to  Mr.  John  Ive,  merchant  in 
London  for  my  account." 

He  has  also  j^reserved  two  dunning  letters  of 
his  to  President  Leverett  of  Harvard  College,  with 
whom  he  had  probably  ceased  to  be  on  terms  be- 
cause of  theological  differences  :  — 

*'  To  Mr.  Leverett  Dec'  4,  1718. 
Rev(i  Sir; 
I  have  a  very  considerable  account  to  make  up  with  Mr.  Si- 
mon Stoddard,  Treasurer  of  the  trustees  [for  evangelizing  In- 
dians] and  he  calls  on  me  to  do  it.  For  this  end  I  greatly  want 
the  hundred  pounds  I  lent  you  Aug.  12  1715  which  you  promised 
to  pay  by  the  Ninth  of  December  next  following.  I  pray  you 
then,  that  it  may  be  paid  at  or  before  the  9th  of  this  inst  Dec' 
without  fail." 

Reverend  Sir  ; 
I  have  heard  nothing  from  you  since  my  sending  to  you  the 
above  written.  Pray,  sir,  let  the  answer  now  be  a  speedy  per- 
formance of  your  promise  which  I  have  under  your  hand.  I  find 
it  too  burdensome  to  me  to  have  great  accounts  lie  open  and  un- 
unsettled.  ...  It  is  necessary  that  they  be  finished  in  order  to 
my  obtaining  an  acquittance.  Noii  respo)idere  est  conteinnere. 
Sir ;  your  real  friend  and  most  humble  Servt, 

Samuel  Sewall. 

Boston,  Feby  17,  1718. 

Besides  trade  abroad  and  visiting  his  plantations, 
Sewall  was  a  busy  man  at  home.     He  lived  at  Cot- 


SEWALL   AS  A   BUSINESS  MAN.  95 

ton  Hill  on  Tremont  Street,  almost  opposite  King's 
Chapel  burying-ground,  on  property  once  belonging 
to  Sir  Harry  Vane,  and  with  neighbors  of  his  own 
rank.     The  colony  records  show  (1684)  :  — 

"In  answer  of  the  petition  of  Sam'  Sewall  Esq,  humbly 
showing  that  his  house  of  wood  in  Boston,  at  the  hill  where  the 
Revd  John  Cotton  formerly  dwelt,  which  house  is  considerably 
distant  from  other  building  and  standeth  very  bleak,  he  humbly 
desiring  the  favor  of  this  court  to  grant  him  liberty  to  build  a 
small  porch  of  wood,  about  seven  foot  square,  to  break  off  the 
wind  from  the  fore  door  of  said  house,  the  court  grants  his 
request." 

Here  and  elsewhere  on  his  Boston  lots  he  planted 
apple,  walnut,  and  shade  trees  ;  probably  had  a  gar- 
den and  flowers  ;  pastured  sometimes  his  cows  on  the 
Common  with  his  neighbors'  ;  dug  and  blasted  rocks 
there  for  underpinning  ;  and,  in  general,  was  a  thrifty 
family  man  in  the  fashion  then  in  vogue.  It  is  a 
tradition  that  on  one  state  occasion  no  less  a  person 
than  Governor  Hancock  had  these  same  vagrant  cows 
milked  without  leave  for  his  guests'  breakfast.  Bow- 
ditch  shows  how  some  of  the  most  valuable  lots  on 
Beacon  Hill  gained  their  boundaries  from  cow-paths, 
and  their  titles  from  less  honest  enclosure.  Sewall 
was  also  appointed  master  of  the  public  printing- 
press,  1 68 1,  an  office  he  held  some  three  years, 
printing  public  and  religious  documents,  and  espe- 
cially the  Assembly's  Catechism,  five  hundred  copies 
of  which  he  gave  away  to  the  children  of  his  rela- 
tions. He  was  made  a  freeman  in  1678,  having 
joined  the  Old   South  Church  the  year  before,  as  a 


96  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

prerequisite  to  citizenship.  His  name  also  appears 
as  a  deputy  from  Westfield  to  the  General  Court 
in  1683,  as  his  father-in-law,  John  Hull,  had  been 
in  1674,  it  being  the  law  then  that  a  man  might  be 
elected  from  a  town  other  than  that  in  which  he 
lived.  As  all  this,  however,  concerns  his  political 
life,  it  will  be  treated  of  elsewhere.  He  of  neces- 
sity belonged  to  the  Boston  Fire  Department,  the 
Police  and  Watch,  was  obliged  to  go  the  rounds  with 
the  rest,  or  hire  a  man,  and  was  apparently  very 
fond  of  military  life,  and  was  for  long  a  captain  in 
the  militia.  Indeed,  the  Puritans  insisted  that  every 
citizen  should  take  his  share  of  the  public  burdens, 
were  admirable  organizers,  set  every  man  to  his  work, 
according  to  his  station,  and  were  before  their  time 
in  making  a  levy  en  7nasse  into  the  militia.  This  is 
why  in  all  wars  they  showed  such  martial  ability, 
and  one  reason  why  their  colony  did  not  perish  as 
so  many  others  had,  especially  in  the  French  and 
Spanish  immigrations.  Sewall  is  a  fine  example  of 
a  busy  Puritan  business  man,  with  an  unsmirched 
record  of  success. 

Yet,  to  show  the  uncertainties  and  vexations  of 
commerce  in  those  days,  this  incident  may  be  noted. 
Sewall  undertook  to  send  a  package  of  New  England 
books  to  Sir  William  Ashurst,  the  agent  of  the  Prov- 
ince in  England.  The  vessel  was  taken  by  a  French 
privateer,  and  condemned  in  the  West  Indies.  The 
books,  as  of  no  account,  were  given  to  the  captain 
of  the  vessel,  who,  on  his  return  to  Boston,  gave  them 
to  Dr.  Increase  Mather,  who,  in  turn,  finding  them  to 


SEWALL   AS  A   BUSINESS  MAN,  97 

have  been  once  owned  by  Sewall,  returned  them,  who 
in  a  very  dehcate  equity  sent  them  back  to  Mather, 
with  the  very  gravely  humorous  remark,  "  For  aught 
I  know  they  have  had  travel  enough,  and  may  now 
properly  abide  at  home." 


98  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

TOWN    AND    COUNTRY    LIFE   TO     I /GO. 

The  above  date  is  neither  exact  nor  logical  so  far 
as  it  marks  any  epoch  in  New  England  history.  The 
true  epoch  here  is  Oct.  23,  1684,  when,  under  Charles 
II.,  the  English  Chancery  Court  vacated  the  original 
charter  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  the  colony  became 
a  Province,  under  a  very  different  administration  of 
law.  The  wide  reach  of  this  change  will  appear 
farther  on.  Besides,  there  had  been  no  break  in  the 
life  of  the  people,  either  for  the  fifty-four  years  the 
charter  had  lasted,  nor  for  the  newer  years  of  our 
Provincial  existence,  terminating  at  the  Revolution. 
The  social  change,  indeed,  foreran  the  political.  The 
Puritan  in  a  drift  stronger  than  his  will  had  wrought 
at  his  ideas  ;  but  human  nature  was  stronger,  and 
the  logic  of  his  position,  little  as  he  knew  it,  bore 
him  on  to  what  he  thought  disaster,  and  what  we 
know  to  be  a  better  fulfilment  of  himself  than  he 
had  as  yet  attained.  So  the  thread  of  this  old  life 
was  continuous,  though  it  showed  many  and  changing 
dyes.     The  thread,  however,  was  never  broken. 

Of  course  the  colonial  life  now  before  us  was  one 
of  vicissitudes,  springing  from  all  sources, — foreign 
and  Indian  wars,  Cromwell's  victories  and  the  resto- 


< 

■J 


■A 


■-/: 


<1 


TOWN  AND    COUNTRY  LIFE    TO   1700.  99 

ration  of  the  Stuarts,  bad  harvests,  diseases,  fires,  and, 
above  all,  religious  dissensions,  which  all  helped  to 
make  up  a  rather  motley  whole.  Yet  the  grays  of 
Puritanism  always  made  the  picture  a  sober  one, 
to  a  degree  lacking  lustre,  but  ever  showing  variety. 
Sewall's  station  forced  him  to  see  more  of  this  than 
most,  and  he  writes  it  down.  The  life  of  the  com- 
mon people  in  the  country,  as  before  seen,  was,  and 
remains  even  till  now  in  spots,  a  stern  and  Spartan 
one.  It  must  have  been  worse  at  the  start.  In  the 
few  large  towns,  especially  in  Boston,  life  had  more 
colors  and  juices,  always  classing  by  themselves  that 
body  of  really  able  men,  the  country  Puritan  clergy. 
Some  things  quoted  and  arranged  out  of  Sewall's 
Diary  ought  to  give  us  plain  impressions  of  what  is 
intended  in  the  above  title  :  — 


[1675.]  "A  Scotchman  and  Frenchman  kill  their  master, 
knocking  him  in  the  head  as  he  was  taking  tobacco.  They  are 
taken  by  hue  and  cry  and  condemned.  Hanged.  April  5,  1676, 
Wednesday.  Gov.  Winthrop  dies.  Sep.  13  [same  year].  There 
were  eight  Indians  shot  to  death  on  the  Common  on  Wind-mill 
hill,  Sep.  21.  Stephen  Gobble  of  Concord  was  executed  for  mur- 
der of  Indians  ;  three  Indians  for  firing  Eames  House  and  murder. 
The  weather  was  cloudy  and  rawly  cold,  though  little  or  no  rain. 
Mr.  Mighill  prayed  ;  four  others  sat  on  the  gallows,  two  men 
and  two  impudent  women,  one  of  whom  at  least  laughed  on  the 
gallows  as  several  testified.  Nov.  27.  about  5  M.  Boston's 
greatest  fire  broke  forth  at  Mr.  Moor's,  through  the  default  of 
a  tailorss  boy,  who  rising  alone  and  early  to  work  fell  asleep  and 
let  his  light  fire  the  house.  .  .  .  N.B.  The  house  of  the  man 
of  God,  Mr.  Mather  and  God's  House  were  burnt  with  fire.  Yet 
God  mingled  mercy  and  sent  a  considerable  rain  which  gave 
check  in  great  measure  to  the  (otherwise)  masterless  fire.    This 


lOO  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

day,  at  even,  went  to  a  private  meeting  held  at  Mr.  Nath.  Will- 
iams'. Feby.  8,  1677.  John  Holiday  stands  in  the  pillory  for 
counterfeiting  a  lease,  making  false  bargains,  &c.'" 

There  is  a  gap  in  Sewall's  Diary  from  July,  1677, 
to  March,  1685,  probably  due  to  a  loss  of  one  or 
more  volumes. 

"  Monday,  April  20,  1685.  The  King  is  proclaimed;  8  com- 
panies, the  troop  and  several  gentlemen  on  horse  back  assisting  ; 
three  volleys  and  then  cannon  fired.  Monday,  June  8.  Charles- 
town  was  to  have  had  a  great  bustle  in  training  on  Tuesday  with 
horse  and  foot,  Cap.  Hammond  engaging  some  of  Boston  to  be 
there ;  but  now  'tis  like  to  be  turned  into  the  funeral  of  their 
pastor;  he  dying  full  and  corpulent.  June  20.  Carried  my 
wife  to  Dorchester  to  eat  Cherries,  Raspberries,  chiefly  to  ride 
and  take  the  air;  the  time  my  wife  and  Mrs.  Flint  spent  in  the 
orchard,  I  spent  in  Mr.  Flint's  study  reading  Calvin  on  the 
Psalms.  An  Indian  was  branded  in  the  court  and  had  a  piece 
of  his  ear  cut  off  for  burglary.  Sep.  22,  Jno  Gardiner  came  in 
last  night ;  this  morning  the  news  he  brings  runs  through  the 
town  viz  that  James,  late  Duke  of  Monmouth  was  beheaded  on 
Tower  Hill,  on  the  15th  of  July  last.  Argyle  drawn,  hanged 
and  quartered.  Neighbor  Fifield  brought  me  the  news,  who  had 
it  from  the  crier  of  fish.  Nov.  26.  Mary  an  Indian,  James's 
squaw  was  frozen  to  death  upon  the  neck,  near  Roxbury  Gate, 
being  fuddled. 

Dec.  30.  An  Indian  man  is  found  dead  on  the  Neck,  with  a 
bottle  of  rum  between  his  legs.  Jany.  22,  1686.  Joseph  Redknap 
of  Lynn  buried,  being  about  1 10  years  old  ;  was  a  wine  cooper  in 
London ;  was  about  30  years  old  at  the  Great  Frost.  Jany.  24, 
Sabbath.  Friday  night  and  Saturday  were  extreme  cold  so  that 
the  harbor  frozen  up  and  to  the  Castle.  This  day  so  cold  that 
the  sacramental  bread  is  frozen  pretty  hard  and  rattles  sadly  as 
broken  into  the  plates.  Sabbath  April  18.  Cap.  Ephf  Savage 
puts  up  a  bill  to  have  God's  hand  sanctified  in  sending  the  small- 
pox into  his  family." 


TOlViV  AND   COUNTRY  LIFE    TO  1700.  lOI 

The  smallpox  was  frequent  and  fatal  in  the  colony, 
the  people  being  unskilled  in  managing  it.  Sewall's 
Diary  abounds  in  references  to  it,  and  the  ministers 
preached  about  it.  When  Sir  Edmund  Andros  comes 
up  in  his  frigate  to  assume  the  new  government,  this 
is  a  part  of  the  ceremony  :  — 

"Castle  fires  about  25  guns;  a  very  considerable  time  after 
the  frigate  fires,  then  the  sconce  and  ships,  Noddles  Island, 
Charlestown  battery,  frigate  again,  ships  with  their  ancients  out 
and  forts  their  flaggs.    Not  many  spectators  on  Fort  Hill." 

"  Feby.  15,  1687.  Jos.  Maylem  carries  a  cock  at  his  back 
with  a  bell  in  his  hand  in  the  main  street ;  several  follow  him 
blindfold  and  under  pretence  of  striking  him  or  his  cock,  with 
great  cart  whips  strike  passengers  and  make  great  disturbance." 

This  was  an  old  English  sport  for  Shrove  Tuesday, 
the  day  before  Ash  Wednesday. 

Andros  had  now  come,  and  the  old  English  ideas 
were  creeping  in  with  him,  marking  the  change  which 
Sewall  saw  and  dreaded.  Hence  the  above  very 
emphatic  entry.  If  Jos.  Maylem  had  done  this  ten 
years  before  he  would  have  gone  to  the  pillory  or 
the  whipping-post.  The  entry  March  10  following 
shows  how  the  ministers  faced  the  new  danger  :  — 

"Mr.  Mather  preaches  the  [Thursday]  lecture.  Speaks 
sharply  against  Health  drinking,  cardplaying,  drunkenness,  pro- 
fane swearing.   Sabbath  breaking  &c.     Text  Jer.  2.21." 

"Monday  March  14,  1687.  Cap.  Thaxter  of  Hingham  sinks 
down  and  dies  as  went  to  fodder  his  cattle." 

There  was  a  deal  of  apoplexy  in  the  colony,  as  the 
Diary  shows. 


I02  SAMUEL   SEW  ALL. 

"  Two  persons,  one  arrayed  in  white,  the  other  in  red,  go 
through  the  town  with  naked  swords  advanced,  with  a  drum 
attending  each  of  tliem  and  a  quarter  staff,  and  a  great  rout 
following  as  is  usual.  It  seems  His  a  challenge  to  be  fought  at 
Cap.  Wing's  next  Thursday." 

More  old  English  sports.  And  the  redcoats  who 
came  with  Andros  apparently  countenanced  and 
urged  on  such  fun.  The  wicked  maypoles,  with  their 
festivities,  also  now  came  in.  Morton's  had  been  cut 
down  years  ago  at  Mount  Wollaston,  and  he  driven 
out.  Here  is  a  hint  of  those  darker  shades  of  life, 
which  for  evident  reasons  are  quoted  sparingly  :  — 

"  Nov.  3.  Mrs.  Anne  Williams  tells  me  that  an  English  maid 
was  executed  last  Thursday  at  Bristol  for  murdering  her  Indian 
child.^' 

"Sabbath  Jany.  22  1688.  My  Lady  Andros  was  prayed  for 
in  public ;  who  has  been  dangerously  ill  ever  since  the  last 
Sabbath.  One  of  a  Dutch  church  in  London  is  admitted  to  the 
Lords  Supper  with  us.  About  the  beginning  of  our  afternoon 
exercise  the  Lady  Andros  expires.  .  .  ,  Friday  Feby.  10.  Be- 
tween 4  and  5  I  went  to  the  funeral  of  the  Lady  Andros  having 
been  invited  by  the  Clerk  of  the  South  Company,  Between  7 
and  8  torches  illuminating  the  cloudy  air.  The  corpse  was  car- 
ried into  the  herse  drawn  by  six  horses.  The  soldiers  making 
a  guard  from  the  Governor's  house  down  the  prison  lane  to  the 
South  meeting  house,  there  taken  out  and  carried  in  at  the 
western  door  and  set  in  the  alley  before  the  pulpit,  with  six 
mourning  women  by  it.  House  made  light  with  candles  and 
torches.  Was  a  great  noise  and  clamor  to  keep  people  out  of 
the  house  that  might  not  rush  in  too  soon.  I  went  home,  where 
about  9  o'clock  I  heard  the  bells  toll  again  for  the  funeral.  It 
seems  Mr.  Ratcliffs  text  was  Cry,  all  flesh  is  grass.  The  min- 
isters turned  in  at  Mr.  Willards,  'Twas  warm  thawing  weather 
and  the  ways  extreme  dirty.  No  volley  at'  placing  the  body  in 
the  tomb.  On  Saturday  the  mourning  cloth  of  the  pulpit  is 
taken  off  and  given  to  Mr.  Willard "  [the  minister  of  that 
parish]. 


TOWN  AND    COUNTRY  L/FE    TO   1700.  103 


Nothing  in  Sewall's  Diary  better  shows  the  grim 
and  bitter  aversion  of  the  Puritans  to  the  English 
church  and  state  than  this  quotation.  It  is  cold 
beyond  ice,  and  most  significant  in  its  silence.  Here 
was  a  high-bred  English  lady,  wife  of  the  king's 
governor,  innocent  of  any  politics,  a  stranger  in  a 
strange  land,  dead  and  to  be  buried.  Sewall  had  no 
doubt  often  made  his  bow  to  her.  At  any  rate,  he 
was  a  man  of  high  station,  nearly  always  in  public 
office,  a  suitor  to  Sir  Edmund  to  have  his  land  titles 
made  valid  under  the  new  Charter  ;  a  man  of  un- 
doubted heart  and  kindness,  with  a  wife  and  children 
of  his  own  at  home,  and  many  of  his  own  kin  dead 
—  and  what  does  he  do  on  this  occasion }  He  would 
have  gone  to  the  grave  of  his  humblest  friend  from 
Hampshire,  and  stayed  till  the  sand  was  shovelled  ; 
but  here  he  goes  in  a  while,  —  we  do  not  say  because 
absence  would  have  brought  him  harsh  gossip,  or 
perhaps  worse,  or  because  he  had  an  eye  to  funeral 
pomp  in  general,  and  would  not  miss  the  show,  —  and 
before  the  minister  preaches  his  sermon,  with  a  fit 
text,  at  least,  and  shorter  than  the  two  hours'  dis- 
course of  Sewall's  parson,  which  he  always  listens  to 
with  decorum  to  the  end,  he  goes  home  and  busies 
himself  in  some  gossip  about  the  dirty  streets  and 
what  became  of  the  mourning  cloth.  Not  a  trace  of 
pathos,  nor  a  single  religious  reflection,  in  which  he 
easily  abounds  at  other  funerals,  though  this  one 
might  in  its  circumstance  have  moved  a  heart  of 
stone,  —  only  the  Puritan  heart  was  harder  than  flint 
against  any  who  seemed  to  stand,  even  remotely,  as 
this  dead  lady  did,  against  their  cause. 


I04  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

The  entries  grow  more  significant  of  the  times  and 
the  changes  they  bring  :  — 

"  Feby.  29.  Mr.  Giles  Masters,  the  King's  attorney,  dies. 
March  27"".  Last  night  a  cold,  blustering  N.  W.  wind.  Three 
Indian  children,  being  alone  in  a  wigwam  at  Muddy  River,  the 
wigwam  fell  on  fire,  and  burnt  them  so  that  they  all  died." 

From  November,  1688,  to  November,  1689,  Sewall 
was  out  of  the  country  on  a  visit  to  England.  The 
record  of  that  visit  appears  elsewhere.  The  Home 
Journal  opens  with  the  date  of  Nov.  22.  The  Indian 
massacres  at  Schenectady  and  Hampton,  with  other 
atrocities  of  a  guerrilla,  warfare  in  which  the  sav- 
ages are  being  gradually  exterminated,  are  of  frequent 
mention  under  date  of  the  new  year,  1690. 

"May  21,  1690.  Mr.  Eliot  [the  missionary]  dies  about  one 
in  the  morning.  Sabbath  July  20.  When  Mr.  Willard  was  in 
his  first  prayer  there  was  a  cry  of  fire  which  made  the  people 
rush  out.  'Twas  said  Mr.  Winslow's  chimney  was  on  fire. 
Just  about  the  same  time  the  house  next  the  old  meeting  house, 
the  chimney  smoked  so  and  beat  into  the  house  that  made  great 
disturbance  there." 

What  with  their  wooden  chimneys,  and  their  carry- 
ing about  pans  of  live  coals,  borrowed  to  kindle  some 
neighbor's  fire,  —  for  there  were  no  matches,  and 
flintstones  and  tinder  were  sometimes  difficult,  —  the 
old-time  people  in  Boston  fared  hard  from  fires,  and 
the  meetings  were  often  disturbed  in  consequence. 

"Oct.  1691.  The  Marshal  General  tells  me  that  above  fifty 
sheep  were  killed  at  Cambridge  last  night  having  their  throats 
bitten  and  blood  sucked.  [Wolves!]  Dec.  25.  1691.  Gen- 
eral Court  passes  an  order  for  prohibiting  Frenchmen  being  in 


TOWiV  AND    COUNTRY  LIFE    TO   1700.  105 

the  seaports  or  frontier  towns  except  by  license  from  the  Gov- 
ernor and  Council ;  and  pass  an  order  for  laying  a  duty  on 
things  exported  and  imported  to  defray  the  charge  of  a  guard 
ship." 

AH  which  presages  war. 

Letter.  Mrs.  Martha  Oakes.  Not  finding  opportunity  to 
speak  with  you  at  your  house,  nor  at  my  own  I  write  to  per- 
suade you  to  be  sensible  that  your  striking  your  daughter  in  law 
before  me  in  my  house  is  not  justifiable ;  though  twas  but  a 
small  blow,  'twas  not  a  small  fault ;  especially  considering  your 
promise  to  refrain  from  speech  itself;  or  at  least  any  that  might 
give  disturbance.  As  for  New  England  it  is  a  cleaner  country 
than  ever  you  were  in  before  and  therefore  with  disdain  to  call  it 
filthy  is  a  sort  of  blasphemy  which  by  proceeding  out  of  your 
mouth  hath  defiled  you.  I  write  not  this  to  upbraid,  but  to 
admonish  you  with  whom  I  sympathise  under  your  extraordinary 
provocations  and  pressures  ;  and  pray  God  command  you  free- 
dom from  them.         S.  Sew  all. 

Here  was  a  woman  who  had  lost  her  hot  temper, 
and  had  reviled  New  England  to  boot,  and  Sewall 
admonishes  her  like  the  high-toned  and  plain-spoken 
man  he  was.  There  is  another  letter  addressed  by 
him  (1693)  to  a  man  of  birth  and  station  in  the  col- 
ony, in  which  he  remonstrates  with  him  on  his  intem- 
perance, which  merits  reading,  as  exposing  the  sturdy 
Puritan  temper  in  such  matters  :  — 

Dicere  quae  pHd7iit,  scribere  jiissit  Amor. 
Sir  ; 

Not  seeing  you  in  the  assembly,  to  speak  to  you  and  for  the 

reason  forementioned  I  am  put  upon  writing  my  salutations  to 

Mr.  Ward,  yourself  and  good  lady :  and  telling  you  that  I  have 

sympathised  with  you  and  your  family  as  to  the  report  that  went 

of  some  being  afflicted  by  a  person  in  your  shape, 1  and  that  I 

1  Probably  some  charge  of  witchcraft. 


I06  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

fully  believe  the  letter  asserting  your  innocence.  Allow  me  also 
to  intimate  that  I  was  grieved  upon  this  day  was  fortnight  when 
I  heard  and  saw  that  you  had  drunk  to  excess  ;  so  that  your 
head  and  hand  were  rendered  less  useful  than  at  other  times. 
You  may  remember  you  were  sitting  in  the  south  side  of  the 
Council  Chamber,  on  the  bench.  I  drew  near  to  you  and 
enquired  concerning  Mr.  Ward;  you  answered  he  was  better 
which  made  you  so  merry  ;  you  also  told  me  of  the  breaking 
up  of  the  ice  of  the  river  Merrimac  having  received  the  account 
from  your  son  Cotton.  That  is  the  time  I  intend.  Let  me 
intreat  you,  Sir,  to  break  off"  this  practice  (so  His  rumored  to  be) 
not  as  the  river ;  but  obstinately  and  perpetually  to  refuse  the 
yoke.  As  to  your  being  denied  a  judge's  place  by  the  Governor, 
I  no  ways  influenced  him  in  the  matter,  neither  do  I  know  who 
did.  And  I  was  surprised  to  hear  any  talk  of  the  north  regi- 
ment of  Essex  being  put  under  any  other  Major.  Don't  furnish 
your  enemies  with  arms.  I  mention  this  that  you  may  believe, 
I  write  not  of  prejudice,  but  kindness ;  and  out  of  a  sense  of 
duty  as  indeed  I  do.  Take  it  in  good  part  from  him  who  desires 
your  everlasting  welfare.         S.  S. 

The  Latin  motto  which  heads  this  letter  should  be 
noted.  It  was  custom  among  the  well-bred  of  those 
days  to  use  such  mottoes  so,  and  this  is  a  very  happy 
one.      Under  date  of  March  7th  Sewall  writes  :  — 

"  Not  having  had  an  opportunity  to  send  my  letter  I  was  this 

day  surprised  to  see  Major  S in  the  Court.     I  came  home  at 

noon  and  took  my  letter  and  delivered  it  with  my  own  hand  just 
at  night,  desiring  him  to  read  it  at  his  lodging;  but  he,  being 
impatient,  sat  down  in  the  very  place  mentioned  and  discoursed 
me  gave  me  thanks  and  desired  my  prayers.  God  give  a  good 
effect." 

Here  were  two  able  and  well-bred  Puritans.  The 
picture  shows  that  under  those  old  skies  in  the  wild 
there  could  be  shown  the  most  gracious  colors  of  true 
knighthood. 


TOWJV  AND    CO  UN  TRY  LIFE    TO   1700.  lO/ 

"  Sep.  30,  1692.  The  Swan  brings  in  a  rich  French  prize 
of  about  300  tuns,  laden  with  claret,  white  wine,  brandy,  salt, 
linen,  paper  &c.  Go  to  Hog  Island  with  Joshua  Gee  and  sell 
him  3  white  oaks  for  30^-.  I  am  to  cart  them  to  the  water  side. 
Novr  4.  Law  passes  for  justices  and  ministers  marrying  per- 
sons. It  seems  they  count  the  respect  of  it  too  much  to  be  left 
any  longer  with  the  magistrate. ''  [As  in  the  old  church,  the 
marriage  had  always  been  by  the  clergy,  it  being  regarded  as  of 
a  sacramental  character,  the  Puritans  disallowed  the  practice, 
and  their  marriages  so  far  had  been  generally  by  the  civil  magis- 
trate.] "  And  salaries  "  [Sewall  adds]  '•  are  not  spoken  of;  as  if 
one  sort  of  men  might  live  on  the  air.  They  are  treated  like  a 
kind  of  useless,  worthless,  folk."  Nov.  5  [the  date  of  the  Guy 
Fawkes  Gunpowder  Plot]  no  disturbance  at  night  by  bonfires. 
Nov.  19.  I  drove  a  tree  nail  in  the  governors  briganteen  ;  and 
invited  his  excellency  to  drink  a  glass  of  brandy." 

Sewall  was  used  to  drive  a  nail  in  a  new  meeting- 
house or  private  dwelling  for  luck,  according  to  an  old 
English  superstition.  When  Governor  Simon  Brad- 
street  on  his  deathbed  called  in  Sewall  and  other  gen- 
tlemen to  help  him  add  a  codicil,  he  "  called  for  ale, 
and  made  us  drink."  May  23,  1693,  Sewall  laid  the 
corner-stone  of  his  new  house,  next  Cotton  Hill. 

"The  foundation  of  the  cellar  is  finished  by  stones  gotten 
out  of  the  Common.  .  .  .  Cap.  and  Deacon  Eliot  is  buried. 
He  was  one  of  the  most  serviceable  men  in  Boston,  condescend- 
ing to  his  friends.  One  of  the  best  and  most  respectful  friends 
I  had  in  the  world.  Lord  awaken  us.  Died  in  the  61  st  year  of 
his  age.     Was  one  of  the  first  that  was  born  in  Boston." 

In  1693  a  bill  forbidding  representatives  to  be  cho- 
sen except  in  the  town  where  they  lived  was  passed, 
against  strong  objections  that  this  was  against  Eng- 
lish precedent  and  law.      Sewall  voted  for  the  bill. 


I08  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

"  Aug.  17,  1695.  A  duel  was  fought  this  day  upon  the  Com- 
mon, between  Peggy  and  one  Capt  Cole.  June  20,  1696.  W'l^ 
Veasy  is  bound  over  for  plowing  on  the  day  of  thanksgiving." 
[Probably  a  Church  of  England  man.] 

"  Wedns\  May  15,  1695.  Set  out  for  Portsmouth,  have  a 
guard  of  six  men  from  Newbury.  Cap.  Smith  of  Hampton 
meets  us  with  twelve,  by  Gov.  Ushers  order,  long  arms."  "  Sep. 
17.  Govr  Bradstreet  drank  a  glass  or  two  of  wine,  eat  some 
fruit,  took  a  pipe  of  tobacco  in  the  new  hall  [Sewall's  new  house] 
and  wished  me  joy  of  the  house  and  desired  our  prayers  ;  came 
to  us  over  the  little  stone  bridge."  "  Sep.  20.  The  Lord  Bella- 
mont  is  made  our  governor." 

"  Dec.  21,  1696.  Note,  this  morn  Madam  Eliza  Bellingham 
came  to  our  house  and  upbraided  me  with  setting  my  hand  to 
pass  Mr.  Whartons  accH  to  the  Court  where  he  obtained  a  judg- 
ment for  Eustace's  farm.  I  was  wheadled  and  hectored  into  that 
business  and  have  all  along  been  uneasy  in  the  remembrance  of 
it ;  and  now  there  is  one  come  who  will  not  spare  to  lay  load. 
The  Lord  take  away  my  filthy  garments  and  give  me  change  of 
raiment." 

Evidently  a  case  where  Sewall's  good-nature  had 
led  him  to  an  act  of  which  conscience  complained. 
And  a  brave  woman,  having  her  right  clad  in  plain 
words,  was  at  his  elbow  to  blame. 

Oct.  I,  1697,  there  is  a  picnic,  to  Noddle's  Island 

probably ;  and  as  his  parson,  Mr.  Willard,  and  eleven 

other   young   people   went  there  it  was  no  doubt  a 

jolly  New  England  frolic  of  "ye  olden  tyme."     The 

dinner  is  significant  and  toothsome  :  — 

"  Had  first  honey,  butter,  curds  and  cream.  For  dinner,  very 
good  roast  lamb,  turkey,  fowls,  aplpy  [i.e.,  apple  pie].  After 
dinner  sung  the  121  Psalm.  Note.  A  glass  of  spirits  my  wife 
sent  [was  it  for  the  judge  or  parson,  or  both?]  stood  upon  a 
joint  stool  which  Simon  W.  [Willard  the  younger]  jogging,  it 
fell  down  and  broke  all  to  shivers.  I  said  it  was  a  lively 
emblem  of  our  fragihty  and  mortaUty."' 


rOWJSr  AND    COUNTRY  LIFE    TO   1700.  109 

Elsewhere  he  tells  of  dining  off  boiled  venison, 
and  making  a  cold  dinner  at  home,  in  his  wife's 
absence,  off  baked  pigeons  and  pound  cake. 

"  Oct.  16.  The  fires  make  great  havock  of  hay  meadow, 
fence,  timber  &c.  Air  hath  been  filled  with  smoke  for  above  a 
week." 

Indeed  these  country  fires  often  obscured  the  sky 
for  days. 

"  Oct.  20.  When  I  first  saw  the  Lieu  Governor  at  Dor- 
chester [Stoughton]  he  was  carting  ears  of  corn  from  the  upper 
barn."    "  Feb.  21,  1698.    I  ride  over  to  Charlestown  on  the  ice." 

"July  15,  1698.  Mr.  Edward  Taylor  [his  classmate?]  comes 
to  our  house  from  Westfield.  Monday  July  18.  I  walked  with 
him  upon  Cotton  Hill  thence  to  Beacon  hill,  the  pasture  along 
the  stone  wall ;  as  came  back  we  sat  down  on  the  great  rock 
[nearly  opposite  Joy  Street]  and  Mr.  Taylor  told  his  courting  his 
first  wife  and  Mr.  Fitch's  story  of  Dr.  Dod's  prayer  to  God,  to 
bring  his  affection  to  close  with  a  person  pious  but  hard 
favored." 

Samuel  Sewall's  prayer  in  like  case  would  have 
probably  differed  as  to  the  second  term. 

There  must  have  been  some  queer  terms  used  at 
Puritan  weddings  sometimes,  as  witness  Sewall's 
note^  on  Mr.  Willard's  marrying  Atherton  Haugh 
and  Mercy  Winthrop,  at  Mr.  Dean  Winthrop's, 
Pulling  Point,  and  this  further  exercise  at  their 
wedding. 

"  Sang  a  Psalm  together.  I  set  S'  David's  tune.  Sung  part 
of  two  psalms  concluded  with  the  4  last  verses  of  the  115.  Mr. 
Dean  Winthrop  lived  there  in  his  father's  days  and  was  wont  to 
set  up  a  bush  when  he  saw  a  ship  coming  in.  He  is  now  yj 
years  old." 

1  See  Appendix,  Note  A. 


no  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 


CHAPTER    VIIL 

SEWALL,  THE    INDIANS   AND    NEGROES. 

"  Some  Puritans  one  day  saw  a  dog  «ind  six  Indians.  The  white 
men  ran  away,  but  they  whistled  the  dog  away  with  them." 

While  anxious  to  avoid  the  appearance  of  levity 
in  such  grave  affairs,  the  writer  has  dehberately 
chosen  to  put  this  ancient  anecdote  at  the  head  of 
this  chapter,  as  a  pat  iUustration  of  what  has  gen- 
erally happened  to  the  American  Indians  from  the 
white  civilization. 

Here  were  the  two  races  in  the  wild  with  one 
piece  of  property,  to  wit,  a  dog,  between  them.  The 
property  passed  to  the  whites. 

Small  boys  still  manage  somehow  to  associate  the 
idea  of  romance  with  the  Indians  ;  students  of  our 
colonial  history  do  not.  Yet  mystery  and  misery  in 
a  race  almost  perished  at  the  East,  the  former  occu- 
pants of  vast  domains  now  given  over  to  the  whites, 
involve  the  pity  of  every  one  who  studies  the  record 
of  the  Indians  in  New  England.  Yet  it  is  said  that 
ten  Englishmen  took  to  the  Indian  life  where  one 
Indian  became  civilized.  The  birds  and  foxes,  at 
least  in  summer,  when  food  abounds,  disport  them- 
selves with  a  certain  largeness  of  freedom  and  con- 
tent ;  and  one  can  readily  see  that  in  the  vagabond 


SEIVALL,  THE  INDIANS  AND   NEGROES.         I  [  I 

and  careless  life  of  the  red  men,  free  from  everything 
but  their  simple  physical  needs,  there  was  an  attrac- 
tion to  even  the  white  man  on  the  lower  side  of  his 
nature.      Dr.   G.    E.    Ellis,   a   chief  authority,  in  his 
book  on  the  Indians,  lays  his  finger  on  the  core  of 
the  matter  when,  explaining  the  fraternity  which  the 
Indians    displayed  for  dirt,  he  says   the    Indian    re- 
garded dirt  as  a  part  of  that  Nature  to  which  he  him- 
self belonged,   and   hence  started   no  quarrel  in  his 
wigwam  with  brush  or  broom,  —  an  animate   part  of 
that  great  wild  he  dwelt  in,  in  such  sense  that  the 
bear  might  be  his  grandsire,  or  the  moose  his  uncle. 
He  was  of  the  human  family,  and  all  possible  virtues 
might  lie  dormant  in   him,  but  so  feebly  alive  that 
they  seldom    gave    sign,    and    were    oftenest    thrust 
aside  by  the  lower  and  more  violent  passions  of  the 
brute.     Yet    our    earliest  records  show  him,  before 
contact  with  the  whites  had  called  out  his  worse  ele- 
ments, often  hospitable,  generous,  and  kind,  at  the 
expense  of   his  own   comfort.     Conscience,  and  the 
truth-speaking    that    goes    with    it,   were   very  rudi- 
mental  in  him  ;  and  the  white  man,  with  his  better 
standards,   called  him  treacherous.      He  was   simply 
a  savage,  with  all  that  term  implies.     Perhaps  Roger 
Williams  is  the  best  witness  of  all,  as  to  what  the 
Indian  who  confronted  the  Puritan  really  was,  both 
because  he  himself  was  full  of  truth  and  mercy,  and 
because   in   his    Rhode    Island    banishment    he    had 
dwelt  with  them  and  they  with  him  longer  and  more 
intimately  than  any  other  white  man  of  equal  merit. 
In   his  letters  of  advice  to  the  Winthrops  and  the 


112  SAMUEL  SEWALL. 

Puritan  authorities  he  discriminates  with  great  cau- 
tion and  frankness  :  — 

"  I  commonly  guess  shrewdly  at  what  a  native  utters,  and,  to 
my  remembrance,  never  wrote  particular,  but  either  I  know  the 
bottom  of  it,  or  else  I  am  bold  to  give  a  hint  of  my  suspense." 

DwelHng  near  the  great  Narragansett,  Mohican, 
and  Pequot  tribes,  and  visiting  in  the  wigwams,  he 
writes  :  — 

"  "'TIS  true  there  is  no  fear  of  God  before  their  eyes,  and  all 
the  cords  that  ever  bound  the  barbarians  to  foreigners  were 
made  of  self  and  covetousness  ;  yet  if  I  mistake  not  I  observe  in 
Miantonimo  some  sparks  of  true  friendship  ;  could  it  be  deeply 
imprinted  on  him  that  the  English  never  intended  to  despoil  him 
of  the  country,  I  probably  conjecture  his  friendship  would  appear 
in  attending  of  us  with  500  men  against  any  foreign  enemy." 

He  writes  (1647)  *  — 

To  John  Winthrop  Jr.,  New  London,  Conn"^. 

Sir,  Concerning  Indian  affairs  reports  are  various  ;  lies  are 
frequent.  Private  interests,  both  with  Indians  and  English,  are 
many ;  yet  these  things  you  may  and  must  do.  First,  Kiss 
truth  where  you  evidently,  upon  your  soul,  see  it.  2.  Advance 
justice  though  upon  a  child's  eyes.  3.  Seek  and  make  peace, 
if  possible  with  all  men.  4.  Secure  your  own  life  from  a  re- 
vengeful malicious  arrow  or  hatchet.  I  have  been  in  danger  of 
them  and  delivered  yet  from  them  ;  blessed  be  His  holy  name  in 
whom  I  desire  to  be, 

Your  worships,  in  all  unfeigned  respects  and  love 

Roger  Williams. 

"The  report  was,"  he  says  elsewhere  "(as  most 
commonly  all  Indian  reports  are),  absolutely  false." 


SEIVALL,  THE   INDIANS  AND  NEGROES.        II3 

A  peacemaker  Williams  always  was  between  the 
two  races,  and  his  management  and  advices  to  both 
often  prevented  violence.  Yet  the  peace  he  sought 
was  to  be  based  on  justice  towards  the  red  men. 
"  Mercy,"  he  writes  to  John  Winthrop,  ''  outshines 
all  the  works  and  attributes  of  Him  who  is  the 
Father  of  mercies."  When  the  Narragansetts  com- 
plained that  their  Pequot  prisoners  and  their  booty 
had  been  taken  from  them  by  the  English,  he 
writes  :  — 

"For  though  I  would  not  fear  a  jar  with  them,  yet  I  would 
fend  off  from  being  foul  and  deal  with  them  wisely  as  with 
wolves  endowed  with  men's  brains." 

[1637.]  "Concerning  Miantonimo  I  have  not  heard  as  yet 
of  any  unfaithfulness  towards  us.  I  know  that  they  belie  each 
other ;  and  I  observe  our  countrymen  have  almost  quite  forgot- 
ten our  great  pretences  to  King  and  state  and  all  the  world, 
concerning  their  souls.  I  shall  desire  to  attend  with  my  poor 
help  to  discover  any  perfidious  dealing  and  shall  desire  the 
revenge  of  it  for  a  common  good  and  peace,  though  myself 
and  mine  should  perish  by  it ;  yet  I  fear  the  Lord's  quarrel  is 
not  ended  for  which  the  war  began,  viz.,  the  little  sense  of  their 
soul's  condition  and  our  large  protestations  that  way.  The  gen- 
eral speech  is,  all  must  be  rooted  out.  The  body  of  the  Pequot 
men  yet  live  and  are  only  removed  from  their  den.  The  good 
Lord  grant  that  the  Mohawks  and  they  and  the  whole,  at  the 
last,  unite  not." 

He  writes  of  the  Pequot  captives  made  slaves  to 
the  whites  :  — 

"  My  humble  desire  is  that  all  who  have  those  poor  wretches 
might  be  exhorted  as  to  walk  wisely  and  justly  towards  them,  so 
as  to  make  mercy  eminent,  for  in  that  attribute  the  Father  of 
Mercy  most  shines  to  Adam's  miserable  offspring." 


114  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

In  this  same  first  Indian  war,  when  every  Indian 
of  every  age  and  sex  was  killed  at  sight,  Canonicus, 
although  the  Pequots'  bitter  enemy,  said  to  Roger 
Williams  that  it  would  be  pleasing  to  all  natives  that 
the  women  and  children  of  the  Pequots  should  be 
spared. 

In  the  same  war  he  writes  :  — 

"Divers  of  the  friendly  Indians  were  hurt  by  the  EngHsh 
because  they  had  no  mark  to  distinguish  them.  You  may  please 
therefore  to  provide  some  yellow  or  red  for  their  heads.  The 
Connecticut  English  had  yellow  but  not  enough/'' 

He  even  extends  his  care  to  the  comfort  of  the 
Indian  chiefs,  his  neighbors.  He  writes  to  John 
Winthrop  (1637)  :  — 

"  Sir,  if  anything  be  sent  to  the  princes  I  find  that  Canoni- 
cus would  gladly  accept  of  eight  or  ten  pounds  of  sugar,  and 
indeed  he  told  me  he  would  thank  Mr.  Governor  for  a  box  full." 

And  again  :  — 

"  For  any  gratuities  or  tokens  Canonicus  desires  sugar  ; 
Miantonimo  powder." 

The  first  attitude  of  the  Puritans  towards  the 
Indians  was  one  of  justice,  good-will,  and  a  strong 
desire  for  their  conversion  to  civilization  and  religion. 
It  was  expressly  stated  in  their  charter  as  the  king's 
wish  and  their  own.  In  fact,  they  regarded  them  as 
their  wards,  and  took  firm  measures  accordingly. 
Whenever  and  wherever  else  on  this  continent  the 
red  man  suffered  wrong  at  the  hands  of  the  white 


SEWALL,   THE    INDIANS  AND   NEGROES.         II5 

man's  government,  here  in  the  first  years  of  the 
colony  he  did  not.  The  Puritan  in  his  treatment  of 
the  Indians,  in  contrast  with  the  Spaniard  shows  Hke 
an  angel  of  light.  It  may  go  without  saying  that 
bad  white  men  did  maltreat  and  rob  them,  —  men 
themselves  dwelling  on  the  very  outskirts  of  civilized 
decencies,  and,  for  long,  emigrants  from  honor.  But 
what  they  did  was  in  the  very  teeth  of  plain  Puri- 
tan law  forbidding,  with  sharp  penalties,  the  outrage. 
This  the  colonial  laws  prove.  The  first  law  regard- 
ing Indians  is  one  establishing  the  Indian's  right  and 
title  to  all  lands  which  they  had  improved  and  occu- 
pied, solemnly  appealing  to  the  Word  of  God  as 
demanding  the  same  (Gen.  i.  2%  ;  ix.  i.  Psalms  cxv. 
16).  There  were  laws  also  that  civilized  Indians 
might  either  dwell  among  the  English  on  equal  terms 
with  them,  or  have  townships  granted  to  them,  and 
dwell  there  as  citizens,  exactly  as  the  English  had 
and  did  ;  that  noiie  should  meddle  with  ''  their  plant- 
ing grounds  and  fishing  places  ;"  in  1633-1637  that 
no  man  should  pretend  to  buy  land  of  the  Indians 
except  by  license  of  the  General  Court,  under  penalty 
of  forfeiting  the  land  so  bought,  with  the  intent,  ap- 
parently, that  government  oversight  might  control 
private  greed  or  craft  against  Indians ;  that  their 
planted  grounds  were  to  be  protected  from  the  white 
man's  cattle  ;  and  that  the  towns,  at  the  public  ex- 
pense, were  to  help  any  Indian  in  their  jurisdiction 
fence  his  own  land,  if  he  asked  it  ;  in  short,  that  the 
Indians  should  have  justice. 

Of  course   these  wards   of  the   Puritans  were   to 


Il6  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

a  degree  put  under  watch  out  of  sheer  necessity. 
All  powder,  shot,  bullets,  guns,  were  at  first  forbid- 
den to  be  sold  to  them,  as  well  as  boats  and  skiffs ; 
but  as  they  hired  Indians  to  hunt,  and  the  Massa- 
chusetts Company  claimed  the  monopoly  of  fur  skins 
just  as  legally  by  their  charter  as  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company  after  did,  this  law  was  repealed  a  few  years 
before  King  Philip's  War.  Besides,  the  Dutch  and 
French  were  always  ready  to  sell  these  contraband 
goods,  and  did  so,  to  the  mortal  hurt  of  English- 
men. They  further  prohibited  the  sale  of  every  sort 
of  strong  drink  (1657),  "under  penalty  of  40^".  for 
one  pint,  and  so  proportionately  for  greater  or  lesser 
quantities  so  sold,  bartered,  or  given,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, as  above  said."  For  the  better  execution  of 
this  order,  all  trucking-houses  erected,  but  not  allowed 
by  the  Court  were  to  be  demolished  ;  the  Grand  Jury 
of  every  shire  were  to  inquire  and  present  every  vio- 
lation of  the  law,  the  only  exceptions  being  when,  in 
good  faith,  any  Indian  was  to  be  relieved  in  any  case 
of  sudden  extremity  (and  then  only  one  dram  was  to 
be  given),  or  a  physician  gave  an  order  in  case  of 
sickness,  which  order  was  to  be  indorsed  by  a  ma- 
gistrate. 

This  law  repealed  the  preceding  one  of  1 644,  which 
ordered  :  — 

"  The  Court  apprehending  that  it  is  not  fit  to  deprive  the 
Indians  of  any  lawful  comfort  which  God  alloweth  to  all  men  by 
the  use  of  wine,  do  order  that  it  shall  be  lawful  for  all  such  as 
are  or  shall  be  allowed  license  to  retail  wines,  to  sell  also  to  the 
Indians  so  much  as  may  be  fit  for  their  needful  use  or  refresh- 
ins:." 


SEWALL,  THE   INDIANS  AND   NEGROES.         II/ 

Yet  the  Puritans  could  not  afford  to  forget  the 
saying  of  Roger  WiUiams  that  the  Indians  were  as 
"wolves  endowed  with  men's  brains."  In  due  time 
laws  were  made  forbidding  Indian  powwows,  or  "  the 
worship  of  the  Devil,"  as  the  statute  has  it,  fining 
their  drunkenness  with  \os.  or  ten  stripes,  as  the 
offender  chose,  or  was  in  funds,  and  insisting  in  a 
general  way  on  Indians  not  offending  in  English  set- 
tlements the  Puritan  Sabbath  or  ordinary  customs  of 
society.  The  severity  of  all  such  laws  increased  dur- 
ing and  after  King  Philip's  War,  when  the  whites  had 
felt  how  sharp  the  wolves'  teeth  were. 

The  behavior  of  the  Indians  towards  the  whites 
was  both  natural  and  consistent.  They  took  gen- 
erally from  the  higher  civilization  at  their  doors,  as 
savages  do,  all  that  was  worst  and  very  little  that 
was  best.  Shiftlessness  was  first  nature  to  them,  all 
the  roots  of  their  life  growing  thereto;  and  they 
withered  before  the  race  that  built  barns  and  filled 
them.  Some  waited  on  the  overlords  with  white 
faces,  and  the  rest  abode  in  wigwams,  and  accepted 
the  old  dirt  and  want  therein,  every  year  made  more 
acute,  if  possible,  by  the  crescent  fields  of  the  white 
man's  thrift.  The  great  tribes  in  the  New  England 
South  Land  of  Rhode  Island  and  the  Connecticut 
seacoast  haughtily  repelled  intrusion  upon  their  bar- 
barism, and  perished,  tribe  by  tribe,  and  uncon- 
verted. The  Cape  and  Island  Indians  of  our  south 
coast,  numerous,  and  comfortably  fed  from  the  sea, 
remained  in  peace,  and  died  out.  The  Eastern  Indi- 
ans   of  the   province    of    Maine,  recruited  from  the 


Il8  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

Canadian  wilds  behind  them  and  the  French  arms, 
fought  long  and  bitterly,  until  their  fragments  hid 
themselves  somewhere  in  their  ruined  wigwams. 
The  great  Mohawk  tribes,  with  the  same  white  allies, 
made  their  occasional  intrusions  with  the  tomahawk, 
but  met  their  fate  at  other  than  New  England  hands. 
It  was  no  wrong  that  slew  them,  but  the  Kismet  or 
Fate  of  their  barbarism.  King  Philip's  War  was  as 
much  destiny  as  is  the  monthly  circuit  of  the  moon 
or  the  gravity  of  water.  It  may  well  be  questioned 
whether  a  single  Indian  ever  comprehended  the  exact 
nature  of  an  English  title  deed  to  which  he  set  his 
mark,  or  more  than  one  jot  and  tittle  of  any  Puritan 
dogma  to  which  he  opened  his  ears.  King  Philip, 
with  larger  opportunity  and  observation,  banded  his 
race  together  to  destroy  the  whites.  That  he  was  in 
no  wise  a  great  savage  both  his  defective  statesman- 
ship and  soldiership  show.  His  complaint  was  that 
the  whites  had  encroached  on  his  fields,  and  fenced 
their  own,  and  made  dams  to  the  injury  of  Indian 
fisheries.  The  cause  which  he  forced  to  issue  was, 
whether  he  knew  it  or  not,  that,  as  the  two  races 
could  not  live  together,  one  must  die,  and  the  strife 
of  arms  must  decide  which. 

King  Philip's  War  marks  an  epoch  not  only  in  the 
history  of  our  white  civilization,  but  of  the  red  bar- 
barism as  well.  After  its  issue  the  Indian's  position 
was  never  the  same,  nor  the  white  man's  attitude  to 
him.  For  the  English  colonists  it  was  the  Day  of 
Judgment,  in  whose  fires  it  was  to  be  seen  whether 
the   Puritan  was  a  man   of   chaff   and  stubble,   or  a 


SEW  ALL,  THE  INDIANS  AND  NEGROES.        II9 

being  of  those   more  precious  metals  which  the  fire 
anneals    only    to   purify   from  dross.     The    Puritans 
themselves   understood    the    crisis   this  way.     Their 
commissioners  to  the   Indians  were  told  to  manage 
the  business  ''  with  clearness  and  confidence,  so  that 
no  panic,  fear,   or  weakness  of  mind  might  appear  ; 
and  let  them  know  that  the  English  were  resolved  to 
make  war  their  work,  until  they  enjoyed  a  firm  peace." 
Though  not  the  first  of  Puritan  tragedies,   either 
in  its  dignity  or  scope.  King  Philip's  War  was  per- 
haps  the   gloomiest,   and,   considering    the    numbers 
involved,   the  reddest.      It  was  rich  in  dramatic  ele- 
ments and  situation.      From  the   time  of   the  inter- 
view in  Taunton   Meeting-house,,  when  the  Puritans 
marched  in   first,  and   kept   on   one  side,  while   the 
Indian  warriors    marched    in,    not   with   the   martial 
tramp  of   armed  men,   but  with   the    soft,   noiseless 
tread  of  subtle  savages,  their  long  hair  hanging  down 
their  shoulders,  and  eyes  flashing  latent  fire,  all  be- 
ing armed,   and    Philip    said,   *' Was    not    my  father 
the  friend  of  the  English }     Was  not  my  brother  at 
peace  with  them  }      Is  God  angry  that  there  should 
be  blood  on  our  hatchets,  and  that  the  hearth  of  the 
English  should  be  red  }  "   until  the  hour  when  Philip 
fell  dead  in  the   swamp-mud,  and  his  only  son  was 
doomed  to  foreign  slavery,  there  arose  over  the  land 
a  wail  ;  but  it  was  the  wail  of  men  and  women  able 
to  conquer  fate  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  of  hosts, 
and  to  transmit  the  treasures  of  the  Puritan  civiliza- 
tion, unimpaired,  though,  as  it  were,  from  their  fireless 
hearthstones  where  they  lay  slain,  and   from  where 


120  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

their  Absaloms  with  golden  hair  had  perished  red- 
handed  somewhere  in  the  wild  against  the  savage. 
The  sufferings  which  English  women  and  children 
taken  captive  endured  seem  incredible,  and  the  won- 
der is  that  any  survived,  especially  women  with  very 
young  children.  Mrs.  Rowlandson,  wife  of  the  min- 
ister of  Lancaster,  gives  one  of  the  most  vivid  pic- 
tures of  how  these  captives  fared.  There  must  have 
been  something  very  vital  in  that  old  stock  when  she 
could  write  of  certain  little  children  :  ''  The  children 
said  they  did  not  shed  one  tear,  but  prayed  all  the 
while  when  their  mother  was  killed  and  burnt  before 
them."  Mrs.  Rowlandson  was  brought  personally  in 
contact  with  Philip.      She  says  of  him  :  — 

"Philip  spake  to  me  to  make  a  shirt  for  his  boy,  which  I 
did  ;  for  which  he  gave  me  a  shilling.  I  offered  the  money  to 
my  mistress  but  she  bade  me  keep  it,  and  with  it  I  bought  a 
piece  of  horseflesh.  Afterwards  he  asked  me  to  make  a  cap  for 
his  boy  for  which  he  invited  me  to  dinner.  I  went  and  he 
gave  me  a  pancake  about  as  big  as  two  fingers.  It  was  made 
of  parched  wheat,  beaten  and  fried  in  bear's  grease ;  but  I 
thought  I  never  tasted  better  meat  in  my  life. 

"  I  was  with  the  enemy  eleven  weeks  and  five  days  and  not 
one  week  passed  without  their  fury  and  some  desolation  by  fire 
and  sword  upon  one  place  or  other.  They  mourned  for  their 
own  losses,  yet  triumphed  and  rejoiced  in  their  inhuman  and 
devilish  cruelty  to  the  English." 

The  statistics  of  King  Philip's  War  are  in  all  its 
histories.  Only  here,  afar  off,  let  us  see  its  incidents. 
The  Indian  time  of  attack  was  generally  after  the 
leaves  came  out  in  the  later  spring  and  summer,  since 
a  bare  forest  would  prevent  ambuscades,  their  favor- 


SEWALL,  THE   INDIANS  AND   NEGROES.         121 

ite  mode  of  warfare.  Having  no  magazines,  they 
were  always  with  a  daily  famine  before  them,  and, 
being  obliged  to  scatter  to  their  lands  to  plant  and 
gather  corn,  they  were  liable  in  such  dispersion  to 
be  cut  off  coming  or  going  and  in  detail.  The 
whites  had  the  sea  and  its  transportation,  and  behind 
them  the  civilized  world,  as  long  as  they  had  money. 
They  strained  every  nerve  and  won,  though  the  war 
dragged.  Eastward,  many  years.  There  were  not 
lacking  touches  of  grim  humor  among  the  white 
combatants.  Captain  Mosely  of  Boston  wore  a  wig, 
of  which  in  battle  he  used  to  disencumber  himself, 
acquiring  among  the  Indians  the  soubriquet  of  "the 
man  of  two  heads,"  very  much  as  Captain  Cook  did 
among  the  Sandwich  Islanders.  Rev.  Mr.  Niles  says 
of  him,  "When  he  came  to  engage  the  enemy,  he  was 
wont  to  hang  his  wig  upon  a  bush  and  still  to  wear 
his  head  upon  his  shoulders  and  do  great  exploits 
among  them." 

But  the  general  substances  of  the  Indian  wars  in 
New  England  were  cruelty  and  sorrow.  The  Pequot 
War  was  first  ;  and  the  English  breaking  in  by  a 
night  surprise  into  the  Pequot  fort,  only  those  sav- 
ages lived  who  managed  to  get  out.  The  tribe  lapsed 
or  was  scattered  among  the  more  distant  Indians. 
Forty  years  after  came  King  Philip's  War  ;  and  the 
crisis  of  it  was  that  other  attack  on  the  Narragansett 
fort,  not  far  from  the  elder  Pequot  one,  where  on  a 
Puritan  Sabbath,  in  a  palisaded  fort,  with  only  one 
entrance  of  a  felled  tree  to  some  thirty-five  hundred 
savages,  a  thousand  Englishmen,  marching  eighteen 


122  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

miles  in  deep  snow  without  food  and  on  a  stormy 
night,  broke  in,  put  to  the  sword  all  who  stood, 
marched  back  all  night,  till  two  p.m.,  while  their 
wounded  died  or  froze,  to  Wickford,  and  had  a  crust 
of  bread  for  their  late  dinner.  The  English  loss  was 
seventy  killed  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  wounded,  — 
more  than  one  in  five  ;  while  the  martial  tribe  that 
gathered  in  the  Kingston  swamp  had  its  mouth  this 
day  filled  full  with  war  and  blood. 

We  have  a  glimpse  of  that  day's  fury  in  a  petition 
of  a  certain  Samuel  Hall  to  the  General  Court  for 
compensation  for  his  clothes  lost  in  "  the  Swamp 
Fight."  When  Captain  Mason  (son  of  the  old 
captain  against  the  Pequots)  was  shot  down,  Hall 
writes :  — 


"  I  was  just  before  him  when  he  fell  down  and  shook  him  by 
the  hand  I  being  shot  down  before  in  that  very  place,  so  that  he 
fell  very  near  me.  But  Cap.  Mason  got  up  again  and  went  forth 
and  I  lay  bleeding  there  in  the  snow  and  hearing  the  word  com- 
manded to  set  fire  on  the  wigwams  I  considered  I  should  be 
burned  if  I  did  not  crawl  away.  It  pleased  God  to  give  me 
strength  to  get  up  and  get  out,  with  my  cutlass  in  my  hand,  not- 
withstanding I  had  received  at  that  time,  four  bullets,  two  in 
each  thigh,  as  was  manifest  afterwards." 

There  has  been  no  armed  strife  in  this  land  which 
better  shows  the  toughness  and  mastery  of  the  Puri- 
tan blood  in  battle  than  this  of  the  Narragansetts' 
fort. 

Sewall  was  in  public  life  during  this  war,  and  his 
Diary  very  well  expresses  the  daily  alarm  and  distress. 

A  few  excerpts  will  show  the  work  that  was  now 


SEW  ALL,   THE   LNDIANS  AND  NEGROES.        1 23 

going  on  in  the  New  England  woods  almost  every- 
where :  — 

"  June  6,  1676.  Hatfield  fight.  5  English  killed  and  about  14 
Indians.  June  7.  90  Indians  killed  and  taken  by  Connecticut 
Ferry.  June  22.  Two  Indians,  Capt  Tom  and  another  executed 
after  lecture.  Last  week  two  killed  by  Taunton  scouts,  as  they 
were  in  the  river,  fishing."  "  Note  this  week  troopers,  a  party 
killed  two  men  and  took  an  Indian  boy  alive."  "Just  between 
the  thanksgiving,  June  29  and  Sabbath  Day  July  2  Capt  Brad- 
ford's expedition  20  killed  and  taken;  almost  an  100  came  in; 
Squaws  Sachem."  "  July  i.  9  Indians  sold  for  ^30,  Capt  Hincks- 
man  took  a  little  before.  The  night  after,  James,  the  printer 
and  other  Indians  [Christians]  came  into  Cambridge.  July  i, 
1676.  Mr.  Hezekiah  Willet  slain  by  Narragansetts,  a  little 
more  than  gunshot  off  from  his  house,  his  head  taken  off,  body 
stript.  Jethro,  his  nigger,  then  taken  ;  retaken  by  Capt  Bradford 
the  Thursday  following.  He  saw  the  English  and  ran  to  them. 
He  related  Philip  to  be  sound  and  well,  about  a  1000  Indians 
(all  sorts)  with  him,  but  sickly ;  three  died  while  he  was  there. 
Related  that  the  Mt  Hope  Indians  that  knew  Mr.  Willet  were 
sorry  for  his  death,  mourned,  combed  his  head  and  hung  peag 
[wampum,  the  Indian  shell  coin,  their  barbaric  money]  in  his 
hair." 

A  touch  of  nature  which  shows  that  some  of  these 
Indians  had  kind  hearts,  though  most  slew  so  cruelly. 

"  July  8.  9  Indians  —  2  English  sallied  out,  slew  5  and  took 
two  alive.  These  Indians  were  killed  not  many  miles  from 
Dedham."  "July  9,  10.  This  week  Indians  came  in  at  Plym- 
outh to  prove  themselves  faithful,  fetch  in  others  by  force; 
among  those  discovered  are  some  that  slew  Mr.  Clark's  family ; 
viz.  two  Indians  ;  they  accuse  one  of  them  that  surrendered  to 
the  English.     All  three  put  to  death." 

"  Note.  One  EngHshman  lost  in  the  woods,  taken  and  tor- 
tured to  death.  Medfield  men  with  volunteers,  English  and 
Indians,  kill  and  take  Canonicus  with  his  son  and  50  more." 


124  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

"July  27  Sagamore  John  comes  in,  brings  Mattoonus  and  his 
son  prisoner.  Mattoonus  shot  to  death  the  same  day  by  John's 
men." 

July  22,  1695,  he  writes  :  — 

"  We  are  grievously  oppressed  by  our  French  and  Pagan 
enemies  by  land  and  sea.  Our  blood  and  estates  are  running 
out  apace.  As  several  captives  escaped  inform  us  our  heads 
are  set  at  a  certain  rate  by  the  Governor  of  Quebec  as  foreskins 
of  the  Philistines  were  of  old.  God,  in  his  time  will  confound 
all  the  worshippers  of  graven  images." 

Later  on  he  writes  a  letter  to  his  cousin  in  Eng- 
land, which  in  one  sentence  expresses  the  current 
remorseless  temper  of  the  Puritan  public  towards 
the  Indians  : —  ^  ^^ 

"  It  hath  been  generally  a  sick  summer  with  us.  The  autumn 
promiseth  better.  As  to  our  enemies  God  hath,  in  a  great  meas- 
ure, given  us  to  see  our  desire  upon  them.  Most  ringleaders  in 
the  late  massacre  have  themselves  had  blood  to  drink,  ending 
their  lives  by  bullets  and  halters.  Yet  there  is  some  trouble  and 
bloodshed  still  in  the  more  remote  eastern  parts.  What  is  past, 
is  so  far  from  ushering  in  a  famine,  that  all  sorts  of  grain  have 
been  very  plenty  and  cheap.  S.  S." 

Boston,  Oct.  23,  1676. 

The  condition  of  the  country  generally  at  this 
time  and  for  years  after  is  summed  up  in  this  later 
incisive  sentence  of  Sewall  :  — 

"  Our  husbandmen  got  their  bread  in  the  peril  of  their  lives 
by  reason  of  the  sword  of  the  wilderness.  Every  now  and  then 
we  hear  of  some  slain  here  and  there." 

A  letter  of  Sewall's  to  the  captive  minister  of 
Deerfield,  then  in  the  French  hands  in  Canada,  ex- 


u 

q 

< 
I— ( 
< 


SEIVALL,   THE   INDIANS  AND   NEGROES.        1 25 

presses,  perhaps,  the  current  religious  sense  of  our 
people  about  these  Indian  sufferings  :  — 

"  The  divine  poet  gives  us  an  account  of  God's  feeding  his 
people  with  the  bread  of  tears.  Well.  God  times  things  best 
and  I  endeavor  of  wait  and  hope  that  your  merciful  return  will 
be  a  plain  instance  of  it.  As  you  prayed  earnestly  for  those  who 
returned  last,  so  you  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  they  landed  well 
here  the  2d  inst. 

S.  S.  TO  Rev°.  John  Williams. 
Aug.  22,  1706." 

A  few  men  both  before  and  after  King  Philip's 
War  set  resolutely  about  the  conversion  of  the  Indi- 
ans. After  that  war  they  found  little  sympathy  from 
the  whites,  but  they  kept  on.  The  most  success- 
ful missions  were  at  Cape  Cod,  Martha's  Vineyard, 
Natick,  and  the  territory  forty  miles  around  Boston. 
Mayhew  went  to  the  Vineyard  from  Watertown ; 
Bourne,  whose  labors  as  yet  have  had  too  scant  rec- 
ognition from  our  historians,  wrought  up  and  down 
the  Cape,  with  his  headquarters  in  Sandwich  ;  and 
Eliot,  of  course,  was  at  Natick.  The  success  in  gen- 
eral was  slow  and  checkered.  The  missionaries  were 
sincere  and  painstaking,  but  they  had  the  English 
prejudice  ;  and  even  Eliot,  when  he  spent  the  Sab- 
bath in  Natick,  ate  victuals  which  his  wife  cooked  at 
home,  and  dwelt  apart  in  a  chamber  fitted  up  in 
his  meeting-house.  Yet  Frenchmen  and  gentlemen 
spent  their  lives  in  the  dirt  and  smoke  of  Canadian 
wig-wams  alone  to  convert  this  same  race  to  substan- 
tially  the  same  religion.     This  curious  antipathy  of 


126  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

races  is  still  preserved  in  this   commonwealth  in  one 
of  the  few  still  extant  Indian  missions. 

The  missionaries  treated  the  Indians  very  much 
as  grown  children.  On  their  earlier  visits  they 
treated  the  little  ones  ''  to  apples,  and  their  elders  to 
tobacco  and  what  else  they  had  at  hand,"  before 
unfolding  to  them  the  riches  of  the  gospel.  They 
bought  and  imported  agricultural  and  mechanics' 
tools,  and  tried  to  teach  them  useful  arts.  There 
were  found  white  men  who  would  nurse  the  Indians 
through  smallpox,  even  when  their  own  people  had 
deserted  them.  They  tried  to  gather  them  into 
compact  settlements,  where  they  might  be  less  ex- 
posed to  the  influences  of  their  savage  countrymen, 
and  where  the  civilizing  influence  of  the  whites 
might  make  itself  felt.  In  fact,  they  appealed  to 
all  that  was  in  them  ;  but  there  was  not  much  in 
them,  or  at  least  not  much  which  white  men  act- 
ually touched.  Not  more  than  four  thousand  con- 
verts at  the  most  answered  their  toil.  There  is 
much  significance  in  a  sentence  like  this  :  *'  Saga- 
more John  near  Watertown  began  to  hearken  after 
God  and  his  ways  but  was  kept  down  by  fear  of 
the  scoffs  of  the  Indians."  For  an  Indian  to  be 
converted  often  was  to  be  denationalized,  and  a 
traitor  to  boot,  in  the  eyes  of  his  countrymen. 
They  were  taught  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Deca- 
logue, and,  hardest  of  all,  were  liberally  treated  to 
the  Puritan  theology  in  its  full  strength.  One  in- 
stance of  the  order  of  public  worship  as  had  by 
Eliot    may    stand   for    all  :    "  Began  with    prayer  in 


SEWALL,  THE   INDIANS  AND  NEGROES         12/ 

English,  then  he  preached  \y^  hours  in  Indian,  'run- 
ning through  Christianity.'  The  Indians  were  then 
asked  if  they  understood  all,  and  they  answered  with 
a  multitude  of  voices  that  they  understood  all.  Ques- 
tions put  and  answered  on  both  sides."  There  was 
undoubtedly  some  good  done  and  actual  conversions, 
The  Indians  respected  the  word  of  an  Englishman. 
A  native  rebuked  an  Englishman  for  felling  a  tree 
on  the  Sabbath,  and  a  chief  ordered  his  tribe  not  to 
shoot  pigeons  in  that  holy  season.  Many  wished  to 
learn  of  the  white  man's  God,  and  some  actually 
showed  the  virtues  of  Christianity.  The  converts 
had  new  names  given  them  significant  of  some  Chris- 
tian virtue. 

These  converts  during  the  war  behaved  variously. 
Many  joined  the  enemy,  and  were  among  the  most 
cruel.  Others  stayed  in  their  places,  and  many,  for 
safer  oversight,  were  put  on  islands  in  Boston  and 
Plymouth  Harbors,  from  whence,  at  peace,  they  went 
home  again.  Opinions  were  divided  as  to  what  ex- 
actly these  converts  in  this  crisis  showed  themselves 
to  be,  with  the  majority  against  them. 

Here  is  one  sample  of  the  behavior  :  — 


"James  the  printer  was  an  Indian,  son  of  a  deacon  of  the 
Church  of  '  Praying  Indians '  at  Grafton.  He  was  educated  at 
the  Indian  School  in  Cambridge,  and  helped  in  the  printing  of 
Eliot's  Bible.  He  ran  away  to  join  Philip's  warriors,  but  came 
back  when  mercy  was  promised  all  who  would  come  in  within 
14  days.  He  resumed  printing,  and  his  name,  with  that  of 
Green,  his  master,  appears  as  printer  of  the  Indian  Psalter  in 
1709.'" 


128  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

Sewall,  from  early  manhood,  as  his  Diary  shows, 
took  a  warm  interest  in  the  conversion  of  the  Indi- 
ans, aUke  creditable  to  his  head  and  heart.  He  was 
one  of  the  commissioners  appointed  from  England 
to  overlook  their  interests,  and  he  took  many  long 
journeys  to  Martha's  Vineyard  and  elsewhere  in  their 
behalf.  He  often  rewarded  the  best  scholars  among 
them  with  a  Psalter  or  Bible,  and  worshipped  with 
them.  Yet  withal  he  judged  them  and  their  religious 
prospects  carefully,  and  no  man's  opinion  of  them 
is  more  entitled  to  respect.  These  opinions  are  ex- 
pressed in  his   Diary  and  letters. 

The  idea  was  prevalent  that  the  Indians  were  the 
lost  tribes  of  the  house  of  Israel." 

On  Martha's  Vineyard. 

*'Sep.  i6,  1706.  Gave  the  squaw  that  has  lost  her  feet  10 
pounds  of  wool. 

"  Jan^  30,  1708.  John  Neesnummin,  Indian  preacher,  comes 
to  me  with  M""  R.  Cotton's  letters  ;  I  shew  him  to  Dr.  Mather. 
Bespeak  a  lodging  for  him  at  Mathias  Smith's  ;  but  after,  they 
sent  me  word  they  could  not  do  it.  So  I  was  fain  to  lodge  him 
in  my  study.  Jan^  31.  P.M.  I  sent  him  on  his  way  towards 
Natick,  with  a  letter  to  John  Trowbridge,  to  take  him  in  if  there 
should  be  occasion.'" 

Here  is  another  illustration  of  the  prevalent  and 
constant  antipathy  of  the  whites  towards  the  Indians. 
Here  was  an  educated  Indian  preacher,  with  letters 
of  introduction  from  his  friend  Cotton  of  Sandwich, 
himself  a  preacher  to  them.  Sewall  first  turns  him 
over  to  a  tavern,  which  refuses  to  have  him.  Then 
he  makes  a  bed  for  him  in  his  library  instead  of  his 


SEWALL,  THE  INDIANS  AND   iXEGROES.        1 29 

guest  chamber,  and,  after  keeping  him  all  the  next 
day,  probably  for  business,  sends  him  forth  on  a  late 
January  afternoon,  to  fare  along  the  Indian  trail  to 
Natick,  with  a  letter  in  his  pocket  requesting  some- 
body to  take  him  in  if  he  fares  late,  and  all  at  the 
risk  of  losing  his  way  in  the  snow,  or  of  being 
refused  entertainment  at  any  white  man's  house. 
The  old  American  antipathy  to  the  negro,  as  well  as 
what  remains  of  it  now,  is  well  known.  Aggravate 
that  antipathy  by  the  negroes'  frequent  cruel  mur- 
ders and  ever-present  nastiness,  and  we  have  the  Puri- 
tan feeling  towards  the  Indians  in  1700  a.d.  Yet 
Sewall  behaved  better  than  most  of  his  neighbors. 

The  New  England  Indians  were  preached  to  and 
perished,  not  because  of  the  preaching,  but  of  the 
Will  or  Fate  which  some  men  are  not  ashamed  to 
call  God.^  They  were  a  singular  race,  —  singular 
in  the  mystery  of  their  origin,  their  history,  and  the 
terms  of  their  decay.  The  Arabs  on  the  Nile,  in  the 
late  British  expedition  to  rescue  Gordon,  had  noth- 
ing but  contempt  for  the  negroes  around  them  ;  but 
in  every  bivouac  they  fraternized  on  terms  of  the 
most  friendly  equality  with  the  Indians  who  came 
out  with  the  Canadian  boatmen.  In  New  England 
as  a  class  they  never  obtained  respect,  and  at  the 
last  most  were  unworthy.  Yet  Chief  Justice  Lynde 
tells  us  in  his  diary  (1732)  that  of  the  grand  jury  at 
Nantucket,  out  of  eighteen,  nine  were  Indians.  He 
also  tells  us  that  one  of  their  people  was  a  justice 
there,  named  Corduga.     In  overseeing  the  Indians' 

1  See  Appendix,  Note  B. 


130  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

morals,  if  they  did  not  tend  their  corn,  and  for 
"  rogue  tricks  and  being  drunk,"  his  invariable  sen- 
tence was,  "  Ten  stripes  for  each  offence." 

Here  follow  certain  opinions  of  Sewall  about  the 
best  way  of  dealing  with  the  whole  race  :  — - 

*'  The  Indians  themseh-es  are  divided  in  the  desires  upon 
this  matter  [of  Christian  civiHzation] . 

"  Some  old  men  wished  the  old  ways  ;  young  men  the  new. 

"The  Indians  differed  in  dialects.  The  Bible  was  in  the 
Natick  dialect  —  Nantucket  could  not  understand  N.  H.  .  .  . 
Their  language  is  also  continually  changing  ;  old  words  wearing 
out  and  new  ones  coming  in.  A  discreet  person  lately  visiting 
the  Indian  villages  writes  :  '  There  are  many  words  of  Mr.  Elliotts 
forming  which  they  never  understood.  This  they  say  is  a  grief 
to  them.  Such  a  knowledge  in  their  Bibles,  as  our  English 
ordinarily  have  in  ours,  they  seldom  any  of  them  have.' 

"  The  best  thing  we  can  do  for  our  Indians  is  to  Anglicise 
them  in  all  agreeable  instances  ;  and  in  that  of  language  as  well 
as  others.  They  can  scarce  retain  their  language  without  a 
tincture  of  other  savage  inclinations,  which  do  but  ill  suit, 
either  with  the  honor  or  with  the  design  of  Christianity. 

"  I  should  think  it  requisite  that  convenient  tracts  of  land 
should  be  set  out  to  them  ;  and  that  by  plain  and  natural  boun- 
daries, as  much  as  may  be ;  as  lakes,  rivers,  mountains,  rocks  ; 
upon  which  for  any  man  to  encroach  should  be  accounted  a 
crime.  Except  this  be  done,  I  fear  their  own  jealousies,  and 
the  French  Friars  will  persuade  them,  that  the  English  as  they 
increase  and  think  they  want  more  room  will  never  leave  till 
tl-iey  have  crowded  them  quite  out  of  all  their  lands.  And  it 
will  be  a  vain  attempt  for  us  to  offer  heaven  to  them,  if  they 
take  up  prejudices  against  us  as  if  they  did  grudge  them  a  living 
upon  their  own  earth." 

This  necessary  action  Sewall  insists  on  again  and 
again,  as  his  Letter  Book  shows. 


SEIVALL,  THE   INDIANS  AND   NEGROES.        I31 

"  The  Savoy  Confession  of  Faith,  English  on  one  side  and 
Indian  on  the  other,  has  been  lately  printed  here ;  as  also  sev- 
eral sermons  of  the  President's  [Increase  Mather]  have  been 
transcribed  into  Indian,  and  printed  which  I  hope  in  God's  time, 
will  have  a  very  good  effect. 

To  Sir  Wm  Ashhurst. 
May  3,  1700.''' 

Sewall  did  for  the  Indians  apparently  all  he  could. 
Cotton  Mather  sets  down  that  Judge  Sewall  built  the 
Indians  a  meeting-house  at  his  own  charge  for  one 
of  the  Indian  congregations,  but  does  not  tell  us 
where,  and  ''  gave  those  Indians  cause  to  pray  for 
him  because  '  he  loveth  our  nation  for  he  hath  built 
us  a  synagogue.'  "  From  the  first  volume  of  Sewall's 
Letter  Book,  lately  published,  it  appears  that  this 
meeting-house  was  somewhere  in  Sandwich,  Barn- 
stable County,  Cape  Cod.  Sewall,  as  his  Diary  shows, 
had  often  visited  here  in  his  guardianship  of  the 
Indians.  He  writes  to  the  carpenter,  Edward  Milton, 
Sept.  26,  1687  ■  — 

"  Capi  Thomas  Tupper  tells  me  that  you  are  to  build  a  con- 
venient comfortable  meeting  house  for  the  natives  at  Sandwich 
24  ft.  long —  18  broad  wnth  two  galleries — ^30.  Now  if  it  may 
any  way  forward  the  work,  I  do  engage  that  on  the  finishing  of 
the  work  you  shall  not  miss  of  your  pav." 

[The  next  year.]  "  April  13,  1688.  Elder  Chipman  visits 
me  and  tells  me  that  the  Indian  Meeting  House  is  raised." 

July  9,  1688,  he  writes  the  contractor:  — 

"Upon  Capt  Tupper's  sending  me  word  that  the  house  is 
ceiled  as  it  ought  to  be,  I  will  pay  you  five  and  twenty  shil- 
lings in  money  to  you  or  to  your  order.     If  it  be  not  well  filled 


132  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

between  the  clapboards  and  the  ceihng,  I  doubt  the  house  will 
be  cold." 

He  suggests  shavings  for  filling.  Recent  inqui- 
ries fairly  establisli  the  fact  that  this  meeting-house 
was  built  at  Herring  River,  Sandwich,  near  or  among 
the  Herring  Pond  Indians,  the  descendants  of  whom 
now  live  there,  and  still  have  their  own  meeting- 
house, not  two  miles  from  where  this  primitive  house 
of  worship  was  built. 

The  proofs  for  this  locality  will  be  found  in  the 
note.^ 

Sewall  also  showed  himself  a  life-long  friend  of 
the  negro,  and  that  very  much  beyond  the  current 
philanthropy  of  his  age.  Elsewhere  will  be  found 
his  argument,  "  On  the  Selling  of  Joseph,"  against 
slavery.  But  the  slavery  of  the  negro  was  in  New 
England,  as  in  all  Christendom,  and  Sewall  foresaw 
the  danger  and  the  duty.  Indeed,  too  much  praise 
can  hardly  be  allotted  to  Sewall' s  memory  for  his 
stout  stand  all  his  life  against  wrong  of  any  sort  to 
these  defenceless  and  often  maltreated  Africans.  In 
this  respect  Sewall  stands  pre-eminent,  and  at  least 
a  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  his  times.  Very 
unlike  the  Indians,  except  in  misery,  they  both  served 
and  troubled  their  owners  with  a  mild  chronic  med- 
ley of  laziness  and  unreliableness. 

Wait  Winthrop  writes  of  one  of  his  brothers 
slaves  :  — 

♦'  I  fear  black  Tom  will  do  but  little  service.     He  used  to 
make  a  show  of  hanging  himself  before  folks  but  I  believe  he  is 
1  See  Appendix,  Note  C. 


s. 


X 


SEW  ALL,    THE   INDIANS  AND   NEGROES.        1 33 

not  very  nimble  about  it  when  he  is  alone.  'Tis  good  to  have 
an  eye  on  him,  and  if  you  think  it  not  worth  while  to  keep  him, 
either  sell  him  or  send  him  to  Virginia  or  the  West  Indies  before 
winter.''" 

These  poor  creatures,  thus  bound  to  an  inimical 
and  masterful  race,  had  no  future  of  comfort,  no 
hope  of  progress  ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  a  few  men, 
among  whom  Sewall  ranks  first,  they  would  have  had 
no  marriages  or  natural  relationships  respectable  in 
law.  An  extract  or  two  from  the  Diary  will  give  us 
glimpses  of  the  situation  :  — 

"I  essayed  June  22  [1716]  to  prevent  Indians  and  negroes 
being  rated  with  horses  and  hogs  ;  but  could  not  prevail."' 

"  Thursday  Sep.  26,  1700.  Mr.  John  Wait  and  Eunice  his 
wife  and  Mrs.  Debora  Thayer  come  to  speak  to  me  about  the 
marriage  of  Sebastian,  negro  servant  of  said  Wait  with  Jane, 
negro  servant  of  said  Thayer.  Mr.  Wait  desired  they  might  be 
published  in  order  to  marriage.  Mrs.  Thayer  insisted  that 
Sebastian  might  have  one  day  in  six  allowed  hini  for  the  sup- 
port of  Jane,  his  intended  wife  and  her  children,  if  it  should 
please  God  to  give  her  any.  Mr.  Wait  now  wholly  declined 
that  but  freely  offered  to  allow  Bastian  five  pounds  in  money 
pr  annum  towards  the  support  of  his  children  by  said  Jane  (be- 
sides Sebastian's  clothing  and  diet.)  I  persuaded  Jane  and  Mrs. 
Thayer  to  agree  to  it  and  so  it  w-as  concluded  ;  and  Mrs.  Thayer 
gave  up  the  note  of  publication  to  Mr.  Wait  for  him  to  carry  it 
to  W'l^  Griggs,  the  town  clerk  and  to  Williams  in  order  to  have 
them  published  according  to  law." 

This  closing  extract  from  his  Letter  Book,  refer- 
ring to  an  old  scandal  of  which  the  writer  has  been 
able  to  find  no  trace  elsewhere,  fitly  exposes  Sewall's 
great  generous  heart  in  his  care  for  the  .down- 
trodden :  — 


134  SAMUEL  SEWALL. 

"  The  poorest  boys  and  girls  within  this  province,  such  as 
are  of  the  lowest  condition,  whether  they  be  English  or  Indians 
or  Ethiopians,  they  have  the  same  right  to  religion  and  life,  that 
the  richest  heirs  have.  And  they  who  go  about  to  deprive  them 
of  this  right,  they  attempt  the  bombarding  of  Heaven  ;  and  the 
shells  they  throw  shall  fall  down  upon  their  own  heads. 

To  Addington  Davenport,  Esq.,  gomg  to  Judge  Smith 
of  Sandwich  for  Jdlliiig  ]iis  negro,  1719.'" 

There  spoke  the  will  of  Lollard,  Puritan,  and  Prot- 
estant. The  student  of  history,  believing  in  the  rela- 
tionship of  cause  and  effect  in  all  the  ages  of  time, 
and  looking  across  this  land  to  find  no  slave  between 
the  seas,  though  the  white  marbles  marking  its  sol- 
diers' stately  sleep  are  on  ten  thousand  hillsides. 
South  Land,  must  fain  confess  that  this  Puritan 
judge  was  also  prophet,  and  that  our  strain  has 
loyally  enforced,  in  later  days,  that  ancient  will. 


SEWALL   IJV  ENGLAND.  1 35 


CHAPTER    IX, 

SEWALL    IN    ENGLAND. 

In  November,  1688,  Sewall  undertook  his  only 
voyage  back  to  the  mother  land.  All  the  fall,  as 
his  Journal  shows,  he  had  been  making  ready  by 
interviewing  his  relatives  and  collecting  supplies. 

"Monday  Oct.  15.  Speak  to  Gilbert  Cole  to  bottle  me  a 
barrel  of  beer  for  the  sea."  "In  the  afternoon  coming  out  of 
town  I  met  Mr.  Ratcliff  [the  Church  of  England  minister],  who 
asked  me  if  I  were  going  for  England.  He  asked  when  ;  I  said 
in  Cap.  Clark.  He  prayed  God  Almighty  to  bless  me  and  said 
must  wait  on  me."  "  Novr  7.  Brother  Stephen  comes  to  town 
and  brings  me  my  letter  of  attorney  and  other  writings."  [Papers 
to  authorize  him  to  settle  money  affairs  in  England.]  "  I  asked 
his  Excellency  [the  Governor]  if  he  has  any  service  for  me  to 
Hampshire  or  Coventry.  He  said  none  in  particular."  "  Nov. 
16.  Brother  Stephen  and  I  with  Mr.  Pole  and  Cap.  Clark  go  on 
board  the  America.  It  rained  before  we  got  aboard  and  all  the 
way  as  w^e  came  from  the  ship  ;  had  a  glass  of  good  Madeira. 
Brother  commends  the  ship,  dines  with  us  and  returns  to  Salem." 

He  was  now  a  man  of  station  and  repute  in  Bos- 
ton, and  his  object  in  going  was  probably  to  revisit 
the  scenes  of  his  childhood,  and  to  renew  family 
friendships,  while  at  the  same  time  he  might  assist 
Cotton  Mather,  now  resident  agent  of  Massachusetts 
in   London,  to  make  terms  with  the  king's  govern- 


136  SAMUEL  SEWALL. 

ment  in  behalf  of  the  colony,  which  was  now  sub- 
^  stantially  without  a  settled  government,  and  the 
titles  of  whose  citizens  to  their  landed  property  were 
supposed  to  be  put  in  jeopardy  by  the  withdrawal 
of  their  charter.  Sewall  had  come  out  when  he 
was  nine  years  old,  and  was  now  thirty-six  years  of 
age. 

The  Journal  of  this  visit  is  a  manuscript  volume  by 
itself,  and  its  record  of  the  voyage  itself  shows  more 
thrift  and  comfort  aboard  than  of  old.  Each  pas- 
senger apparently  laid  in  his  own  luxuries  before- 
hand ;  and  Sewall  \vas  always  a  good  purveyor.  His 
wife  and  friends  had  also  assisted.  We  find  such 
entries  as  these  :  — 

"  Nov  27.  Ate  my  wife's  pastry  the  remembrance  of  whom 
is  ready  to  cut  me  to  the  heart."  [Friday  Dec.  7.]  "  Breakfast 
on  one  of  my  wife's  plum  cakes."  "  Dreamed  much  of  my  wife 
last  night.  Gave  me  a  piece  of  cake  for  Hannah  Hett ;  was  in 
plain  dress  and  white  apron." 

There  are  such  entries  as  these  :  — 

"  One  of  the  geese  dies  yesterday  or  to-day."  "  This  day  eat 
Simon  Gates'  goose;"  "Killed  the  sheep  to-day;"  "Killed 
the  shoat"   [young  hog]. 

From  all  which  we  may  conclude  that  there  was 
fresh  meat  aboard.  Nor  did  the  Puritan  afloat  or 
ashore  willingly  lack  somewhat  to  drink.  Yet  there 
was  little  drunkenness  in  those  days  of  pure  liquors 
and  much  out-door  exercise.  Just  before  going  into 
port  Sewall  tells  us  they  met  a  pink  (vessel)  fourteen 
days  from  Liverpool,  "  who  sent  us  some  bottles  of 


-       SEIVALL   IN  ENGLAND.  137 

very  good   beer,   and  we  him  one  of  my  bottles  of 
brandy.     We  bought   3   cheeses  of  him." 

Sewall  apparently  had  a  rough  voyage  of  some  six 
weeks  when  he  landed  at  Dover,  Jan.  13,  1689.  He 
was  not  a  bad  sailor  himself,  and  gives  us  many  nau- 
tical hints  of  how  they  handled  or  lost  sails,  etc.,  and 
how  things  went  on  in  the  cabin  :  — 

"Just  at  night,  the  wind  blows  very  hard,  just  in  our  teeth, 
so  He  by  under  the  IVIizzen,  the  other  sails  being  furled.  Scarce 
any  sleeping  all  night  things  in  the  cabin  were  so  hurled  to  and 
again." 

For  the  first  week  they  had  head  winds :  — 

"Nov.  30.  'Tis  a  very  laborious  day  by  reason  of  hail, 
snow,  wind  and  a  swollen  sea  all  in  a  foaming  breach."  "  Dec. 
4th.  Can't  dress  victuals  to-day."  [Again]  :  "  wind  aft,  so  cabin 
shut  up  and  burn  candles  all  day."  "My  Erasmus  was  quite 
loosened  out  of  the  binding  by  the  breaking  of  the  water  into 
the  cabin  when  it  did."  "The  good  Lord  fit  us  for  his  good 
pleasure  in  this  our  passage." 

He  keeps  his  eyes  open  for  all  that  is  going  on,  — 
for  a  rainbow ;  gulls  on  the  banks  of  Newfoundland  ; 
"a  woodcock  that  flies  on  board  of  us  which  we 
drive  away  essaying  to  catch  him  "  (Dec.  24) ;  a  storm 
petrel;  "a  flock  of  sparrows  seen  to-day"  (Jan.  5). 
"  Some  say  they  saw  a  Robin  Red  Breast  to-day  " 
(same  date).  He  can  even  lay  a  wager  (no  uncom- 
mon Puritan  pastime)  as  to  when  they  will  see  land, 
and  sets  it  down  that  he  puts  up  his  stakes.  He  and 
the  other  gentlemen  aboard  make  up  a  purse  of  be- 
tween  thirty   and   forty  shillings  for   him  who  first 


138  SAMUEL  SEWALL. 

sees    land.      *'  I    gave    an    oblong    Mexico    piece    of 
Eight." 

But  Sewall's  main  vocation  on  shipboard  was  to 
prayers  and  the  reading  of  pious  and  now  forgotten 
books  of  Puritan  theology,  and  there  was  evidently 
much  employ  over  their  contents.  The  second  day 
out  in  great  discomfort  of  foul  weather  :  — 

"  Benny  Harris  reads  the  21  of  the  Proverbs  which  is  the  first 
chapter  I  heard  read  on  shipboard.  I  much  heeded  that  verse 
'  He  that  wandereth  out  of  the  way  of  understanding  shall  re- 
main in  the  congregation  of  the  dead.' "  "  Mr.  Clarke  reads  the 
first  two  chapters  of  Isaiah  and  Capt.  Clark  prays."  [Their  first 
Sabbath  at  sea,  Nov.  25.]  "Strong  east  wind.  I  read  the 
74th  Psalm,  being  that  I  should  have  read  at  home  in  the  family. 
Sung  the  23d  Psalm." 

Of  a  Puritan  book  he  writes :  — 

"This  day  I  finished  reading  Dr.  Manton.  Blessed  be  God 
who  in  my  separation  from  my  dear  wife  and  family  hath  given 
me  his  apostle  James  with  such  an  exposition." 

Then  follow  Sewall's  reflections,  which  are  very 
keen  in  personal  applications  to  himself  and  his  fellow- 
Christians.  **  Paul's  thorn  in  the  flesh  meant  of  some 
racking  pain,  not  of  a  prevailing  lust."  Nor  can  he 
quite  give  over  on  shipboard  his  old  pastime  of  dream- 
ing, which  he  always  regards  with  an  awful  eye :  — 

"  Last  night  I  dreamed  of  military  matters,  arms  and  cap- 
tains, and  all  of  a  sudden,  Major  Gookin  [his  ancient  friend  and 
fellow-soldier]  very  well  clad  from  head  to  foot,  and  of  a  very 
fresh  lively  countenance  .  .  .  his  coat  and  breeches  of  blood 
red  silk  beckoned  me  out  of  the  room,"  etc. 


SEW  ALL   IN  ENGLAND.  1 39 

When  his  ship  approached  land  it  was  nigh  upon 
wrecked  on  Scilly  rocks  ;  but  after  this  narrow  es- 
cape, in  an  easy  and  gossipy  way  among  the  friendly 
vessels  making  port,  and  yet  with  one  eye  always 
open  for  a  hostile  foreigner,  Sewall  landed  at  Dover, 
while  the  ship  went  on  to  London.  He  now  found 
himself  face  to  face  with  the  social  life  of  Old  Eng- 
land in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  seems  to  have 
enjoyed  it,  at  least  the  Puritan  and  godly  side  of  it, 
with  much  gusto.  He  went  across  Kent  to  Canter- 
bury by  way  of  Chatham  and  Rochester  to  London, 
arriving  in  three  days  from  Dover,  Jan.  16,  1689. 
The  entries  are  as  follows  :  — 

"  Sabbath  Jany.  13.  Through  God's  grace  lan4ed  about  9  or 
10  o'clock.  Mr.  Newgate  and  I  went  and  heard  one  Mr.  Goff 
in  a  kind  of  mah  house.  In  afternoon  all  went."  "Jany.  14. 
Rode  in  a  coach  to  Canterbury.  Getting  there  a  little  before 
night  viewed  the  Cathedral  which  is  a  very  lofty  and  magnificent 
building,  but  of  little  use.  Visited  Aunt  Fessenden  her  son 
John  and  her  three  daughters.  Cousin  John  supped  with  us  at 
the  Red  Lion."  "Jany.  15.  Came  to  Rochester  through  Sitting- 
burn  (where  dined)  and  Ranam  [Raynham?]  with  other  little 
places.  No  room  in  the  inn  by  reason  of  soldiers  so  lodged  at 
the  coffee  house." 

In  London  he  indulges  in  a  round  of  sight-seeing, 
writing  down  with  a  brief,  vivid  pen  sharp  observa- 
tions of  men  and  things.  First  of  all,  as  was  Puritan, 
he  waited  on  the  ministry  of  the  Word. 

"Jany.  30.  Heard  Dr.  Sharp  preach  before  the  Commons 
from  Psalm  51."  "  Next  day  heard  Mr.  Chauncy  [probably  an 
ejected  minister]  preach."  "  May  31.  Is  a  fast  kept  at  Dr. 
Annesly's  ;    they  began  with   singing  and  sang  4  or  5    times. 


140  SAMUEL   SEW  ALL. 

After  all,  had  a  contribution.  Five  ministers  exercised.  Four 
wore  their  own  hair."  [Which  was  a  comfort  to  him  who  hated 
periwigs].  June  7.  "  Go  and  hear  Mr.  Stretton  and  sit  down 
with  him  at  the  Lord's  Supper.  He  invites  me  to  dinner.'" 
"  Before  sermon  read  the  32  Psalm,  the  50th  of  Jeremiah,  the 
I2th  of  Matthew.  Had  one  plate  of  bread  about  5  bottles  of 
wine  and  two  silver  cuds.  At  night  about  10  aclock  a  great  fire 
breaks  forth  in  Mincing  Lane."  "  Went  to  the  funeral  of  Mr. 
Loves,  formerly  an  assistant  to  Dr.  Owens.  Was  buried  in  a 
grave  near  the  Dr's.  tomb.  A  pretty  many  men  and  women 
there.  July  21.  Went  in  the  afternoon  to  Stepney  and  heard 
Mr.  Lawrence.  He  fears  the  clouds  returning  after  the  rain 
as  to  Anti-Christian  powers.  His  heart  much  upon  the  1000 
years.  Something  in  this  sermon  as  I  perceive  by  them  that 
know;  few  sermons  without.  Gives  notice  that  Mr.  Crouch, 
the  minister  is  dead  and  will  be  buried  tomorrow,  5  o'clock 
from  Armourer's  Hall." 

So  far  as  Sewall's  rather  blind  reference  to  the 
above  sermons  are  concerned,  it  looks  as  if  these 
Puritan  parsons,  with  due  economy  and  care  of 
their  lives  and  property,  were  engaged  in  flinging  at 
the  king  and  the  current  course  of  English  politics. 
There  was  something  in  these  sermons  undoubtedly. 

"  Aug.  17.  Go  to  the  new  meeting-house  [in  Deal]  34  wide 
and  41  foot  long ;  two  galleries,  one  at  each  end,  of  4  seats 
apiece.  Roof  is  double  with  a  gutter  in  the  middle  ;  built  with 
brick  covered  with  tile.'"  "  Sabbath  Aug.  18.  Heard  Mr.  Larner 
in  a  barn.'"  [Quite  like  New  England.]  "  Aug.  25.  Mr.  Mather 
preaches  for  Mr.  Larner  in  the  afternoon.  Oct.  6.  Go  to  Mr. 
Jacobs  and  in  the  afternoon  sit  down  with  him  at  the  Lord's 
Supper ;  and  so  I  go  from  one  Pit  to  another  to  see  if  I  can 
find  any  water  to  refresh  me  in  my  disappointments  and  dis- 
comforts.'" 

He  mentions  hearing  one  preach  from,  ''  Have  no 
fellowship  with  the  works  of  darkness,"  who  said  that 


SEWALL   IN  ENGLAND,  I4I 

erroneous  worship  was  a  work  of  darkness  ;  whereby 
the  preacher  probably  meant  every  form  of  worship 
except  his  own. 

A  description  of  tlie  Lord's  Supper  in  the  then 
Puritan  fashion  may  end  Sewall's  notes  in  this  Hne. 

"  Sabbath  May  5,  1689.  Went  to  Dr.  Annesly's  [noted 
among  the  ejected  ministers]  in  Httle  S^  Helena's  with  Cap. 
Hutchinson  where  the  Lord's  Supper  was  administered.  The 
Dr.  went  all  over  the  meeting  first,  to  see  who  was  there,  then 
spake  something  of  the  sermon,  then  read  the  words  of  institu"- 
tion,  then  prayed  and  eat  and  drunk  himself,  then  gave  to  every 
one  with  his  own  hand,  dropping  pertinent  expressions.  In  our 
pew  said,  '  Now  our  Spikenard  should  give  its  smell ;  ■"  and  said 
to  me  '  Remember  the  death  of  Christ.'  The  wine  was  in  quart 
glass  bottles.  The  deacon  followed  the  Doctor  and  when  his 
cup  was  empty  filled  it  again ;  as  at  our  pew  all  had  drunk  but 
I,  he  filled  the  cup  and  then  gave  it  me ;  said  as  he  gave  it  — 
must  be  ready  in  new  obedience  and  stick  at  nothing  for 
Christ." 

For  English  churches  and  the  Prayer  Book  he 
shows  an  indifferent  taste;  but  the  great  schools  of 
Cambridge  and  Oxford  interest  him  very  much,  prob- 
ably for  their  classical  lore,  and  because  many  of  his 
personal  friends  and  Puritan  preachers  had  been 
therein  educated.     He  took  journeys  to  both  places. 

"Wednesday  June  26.  Mr.  Mather,  his  son,  cousin  Hull 
and  myself  set  out  for  Cambridge  45  miles  ;  got  thither  by  7 
o'clock  with  one  set  [of]  4  horses.  Lay  at  the  Red  Lion." 
"  Thursday.  Mr.  Little  of  Emmanuel  College  shows  us  the  gar- 
dens, walks,  new  chapel,  gallery,  library  of  the  college,  in  it  a 
Bible  Mss.  of  Wickliffe's  translation.  Mr.  John  Cotton  and 
Hooker  had  been  fellows  as  appeared  by  tables  hanging  up. 
The  street  where  it  stands  is  called  Preacher's  street  from 
Black  Friars  formerlv  resident  there." 


142  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

A  clear  case  of  Puritan  nomenclature,  which  has 
probably  long  since  been  erased.  He  mentions,  prob- 
ably in  astonishment,  that  this  Fellow,  who  evidently 
took  them  round,  had  in  his  chamber  pictures  of 
Sir  Roger  Le  Strange,  Jesus  Salvator,  and  King 
Charles  IL  hanging  u^d  together.  It  is  clear  from 
all  we  know  of  Sewall  that  he  at  least  had  no  doubt 
that  his  Lord's  picture  was  here  found  in  very  bad 
company. 

"  Saw  St.  Johns  College  which  stands  by  the  river.  Hath  a 
good  hbrary  and  many  rarities  among  which  was  a  petrified 
cheese.  Trinity  College  is  very  large  and  the  new  case  for  the 
library  very  magnificent ;  paved  with  marble  checkered  black  and 
white ;  under  it  a  stately  walk  on  brave  stone  ;  the  square  very 
large  and  in  midst  of  it  a  fountain.  In  the  hall  many  sparrows 
inhabit  which  is  not  known  of  any  hall  beside.  At  meal  times 
they  feed  of  crums  and  will  approach  very  near  men.  Mr. 
Little  dined  with  us  at  our  inn :  had  leg  of  mutton  boiled  and 
Colley-Flowers  [cauliflowers],  carrets,  roasted  fowls  and  a  dish 
of  pease."  "Three  musicians  came  in,  two  harps  and  a  viol 
and  gave  us  music.  Just  before  night  our  landlady's  son  had  us 
along  Bridge  St.  Went  to  the  Prison  and  Session  House,  just 
by,  which  is  very  ordinary  like  a  cow  house,  cattle  having  free 
egress  and  regress  there.  Gallows  just  by  it  in  a  dale,  conven- 
ient for  spectators  to  stand  all  round  on  the  rising  ground.  In 
sum  Cambridge  is  better  tlian  it  shows  for  at  first  3  the  meanness 
of  the  town  buildings  and  most  of  the  colleges  being  brick." 
"  June  28.  Mr.  Harwood  and  I  stepped  out  and  saw  Queens 
College  and  in  the  garden  a  Dial  on  the  ground  —  the  hours  cut 
in  box.  Over  against  it  stands  Catharine  Hall,  the  printing 
room  60  foot  long  and  20  foot  broad  —  six  presses.  Had  my 
cousin  Hull  and  my  name  printed  there." 

Sewall  had  always  a  bias  in  favor  of  printing- 
presses,  using  them  to  print   his  own  writings  and 


SEWALL   IN  ENGLAND.  1 43 

Others,  and  his  name  has  been  printed  by  them,  not 
at  his  expense,  probably  nigh  ten  thousand  times. 

"  As  came  homewards,  saw  Aadley  Inn  or  End  —  I  can't  tell 
which  is  the  right  name.  Tis  a  stately  palace.  Dined  at  Saffron 
Walden ;  went  out  and  saw  the  saffron  roots  which  are  ten  shil- 
lings the  bushel ;  about  an  acre  might  yield  an  hundred  pounds 
or  more.  Have  a  fair  church.  Went  into  the  vault  and  saw  the 
Earl  of  Suffolk's  cofifin,  who  died  January  last.  Stands  on  tres- 
sels  and  may  see  it  on  the  outside  at  the  grate.  Outside  is  black 
velvet  and  a  small  plate  of  copper  telling  time  of  his  death." 

In  the  early  part  of  1689  Sewall  made  most  of 
his  pilgrimages  to  his  old  friends  and  certain  fa- 
mous places  out  of  London,  as  he  has  marked  down 
thus : — 

*'  1689.     Wed^  Jany-  16.     Came  to  London." 

♦'  Wed^  Feby.  13.     Went  out.'' 

"  Sat^   March  16  into  London." 

"  Thurs^  March  28  went  out." 

"  Monday  April  15.     Came  into  London." 

"Feb.  18.  Bought  a  bay  horse  at  Winchester  fair  for  which 
am  to  pay  four  pounds.  —  A  pr.  boots,  spurs  &c  \^sh.  — a  letter 
id.  —  tavern  6<r/." 

On  the  next  day  he  bought  bridle,  saddle,  saddle- 
cloth for  6s.,  and  a  new  girt  for  6d.  He  after  paid 
\s.  6d.  for  a  whip.  And  he  appears  to  have  gone 
generally  on  horseback. 

"Feby.  20.  Saw  the  stone  of  my  aunt  Rider's  grave." 
"Feby.  21.  Cousin  Jane  Holt  came  in  the  morning  to  invite 
me  to  dinner.  Had  very  good  bacon,  veal  and  parsnips,  very 
good  shoulder  of  mutton  and  a  fowl  roasted,  good  currant  suet 
pudding  and  the  fairest  dish  of  apples  I  have  eat  in  England." 


144  SAMUEL   SKWALL. 

This  is  probably  a  capital  menu  for  English  coun- 
try folk  in  that  age.  Sewall  was  always  sensitive 
about  his  fare,  and  the  insight  which  he  gives  us  into 
the  current  living  of  well-to-do  people  is  interesting, 
if  not  amusing.  He  carefully  writes  it  all  down  in 
such  entries  as  these  :  — ■ 

"  Eat  part  of  two  lobsters  that  cost  3.  c^d.  apiece  [at  a  state 
dinner  apparently].  As  we  came  home  were  entertained  by 
Mr.  Stephen  Mason  with  cider,  ale,  oysters  and  a  neat's  tongue, 
being  ten  of  us  or  eleven." 

Occasionally  there  are  roast  ducks  and  cherries. 
He  notes  green  pease  at   6d.  per  peck. 

"  Went  to  a  garden  at  Mile  End  and  drank  currant  and  rasp- 
berry wine,  then  to  the  Dog  and  Partridge  and  played  ninepins. 
At  that  house  a  soldier  was  shot  by  his  drunken  companion  the 
n:ght  before."  "  Had  a  dish  of  bacon  with  pigeons,  sauce, 
beans  and  cabbage.  Then  roast  veal-tarts.  The  governor  came 
in  and  drank  to  us  in  a  glass  of  ale  that  being  the  drink  I  chose 
and  Mr.  Brattle."  "  Sep.  30.  Mr.  Bedford  invited  Mr.  Brattle 
and  me  to  dinner  to  Mr.  Dracots'.  Had  a  dish  of  fowls  and 
bacon  with  livers ;  a  dish  of  salt  fish  and  a  piece  of  mutton, 
cheese  and  fruit ;  no  wine."  "  Dined  with  very  good  beef,  bacon 
and  roast  fowls."  "  About  6  aclock,  Mr.  Mather,  son  and  I 
supped  on  two  dunghill  fowls."  "  Mr.  Mather  prays  and  we  get 
to  bed  just  at  9."  "  At  the  Cheker  have  a  hog's  cheek.  Send 
for  my  cousins.  I  treat  them  with  ale  and  wine  but  Uncle  Rich- 
ard will  call  for  one  pint  and  indeed  Cousin  Mercy  Stork  and  he 
seem  the  most  kind  of  all  my  relations." 

Very  good  fare,  no  doubt,  all  this  ;  but  what  with 
the  wild  fowl,  venison,  and  fish  of  Massachusetts 
Bay,   Sewall  was  used  to  fare  better  at  home. 


SEWALL   JiV  ENGLAND. 


145 


"Feb^'25.     Went  to  Winchester  in  the  morning  and  there 
met  with  letters  from  my  dear  wife  and  New  England  friends 
dated  Jan^  last.     Laus  Deo.    Viewed  Winchester  College.    Left 
my  Indian  Bible  and  Mr.  Mather\s  letter  there.     Went^nto  the 
Hall  and  Arbor  to  see  the  choice  of  Knights  of  the  Shire.     It 
came  to  the  poll,  I  offered  my  voice  but  was  refused  because  I 
would  not  lay  my  hand  on  and  kiss  the   Book  though  I  offered 
to  take  my  oath.     [Sewall  undoubtedly  was  a  landowner  there, 
but  his  Puritan  scruple  against  taking  his  oath  as  the  law  was,' 
forbade.]     My  rapier  was  broken  short   off  I  suppose  coming 
down  the  steps.     Feb^  27.     Rid  to  Salisbury.     The  chancellor's 
clerk  showed  me  the  Cathedral,  Chapter  House  and  Cloisters. 
Got  the  organist  to  give  us  some  music.     Showed  as  a  strange 
thing  (a  bishop,  I  think)  that  lay  north  and  south  [the  body  was 
generally  laid  before  the  Reformation  east  and  west,  the  head  to 
the  west,  that  so  as  it  was  thought  in  the  resurrection  the  dead 
might  rise  looking  towards  the  east,  from  whence  the  Lord  was 
to  appear  in  judgment] .    The  cathedral  is  very  neat  and  stately. 
Two  crosses  in  it.     Candles  on  the  Communion  Table;  so  at 
Winchester.      The    bells    hang   in  a   steeple  distant  from   the 
church.     Tell  us  there  are  12  small  chapels  for  prayers  every 
hour.     The  Bible  over  the  passage  that  leads  into  the  chorus 
[choir?]  that  so  persons  may  hear  on  both  sides.     The  spire  is 
excellent  for  height  and  beauty.     Dined  with  the  chancellor's 
clerk.     His  lady  gone  to  a  christening  to  which  she  was  invited 
but  could  not  stay,  but  showed  us  in  a  manner  her  whole  house, 
plate,  library  and  bedding.     Her  daughter  of  four  months  old  I 
took  out  of  the  cradle  and  kissed  though  asleep.-' 

Sewall's  pen  writes  him  down  as  a  lover  of  chil- 
dren ;  and  in  England  he  seems  to  have  played  the 
role  of  my  Lord  Bountiful  among  the  little  men 
and  maids  related  to  him  when  he  met  them.  He 
gave  them  buckles,  gloves,  spoons,  primers,  shillings, 
linen,  silk  stockings,  etc.,  with  a  Puritan  modicum  of 
kisses  thrown  in  to  boot.  This  mostly  appears  from 
the  items  of  his  cash  account  preserved  in  the  year's 


146  SAMUEL  SEIVALL. 

almanac.      He  has  an  honest  eye  for  young  people 
generally.     Under  date  of  March  7  writes  :  — 

"  Went  home  with  Jane  Kirby,  Cousin  Thomas  Holt's  mis- 
tress ;  but  I  knew  it  not  till  I  met  her.  It  being  late  I  observed 
a  boy  run  parallel  with  us  in  the  grounds  and  asked  her  about 
it.  I  took  him  up  [on  horseback?]  and  when  set  him  down  by 
the  mill,  lent  him  half  a  crown  to  buy  paper  and  quills,  told  him 
if  he  learned  to  write  and  read  well,  'twas  his  ;  if  not  I  must 
have  it  again  with  I  know  not  how  much  interest  and  put  him  to 
a  great  deal  of  trouble."  "  The  tenant's  wife  [on  his  farm  at 
Lee]  teaches  scholars.  One  was  reading  whom  I  marked  and 
gave  them  6d.  to  buy  apples." 

Hapi^y  children  with  russet,  or  rosy,  or  golden 
apples !  And  peace  be  to  the  man  who  gave  the 
sixpence,  and  wrote  it  down  in  his  almanac,  as  a 
thrifty  New  Englander  should ! 

"  Saturday  March  9.  Ride  to  Tichfield,  view  the  church  and 
Oake's  pulpit,  removed  from  the  pillar  where  it  stood  in  his 
time  to  the  other  side.  Sexton  spoke  much  in  his  praise,  and 
inquired  after  his  children.  Saw  Miss  Bromfield's  monument 
who  died  in  1618.  Dined  with  Cousin  Thomas  Dummer  and 
bought  the  first  pound  of  tobacco  which  he  sold  in  a  fair." 

If  Samuel  Sewall  smoked,  it  was  a  meditative 
performance  in  creature  comforts  which  the  statute 
laws  of  Puritans  never  forbade.  Clay  pipes  were, 
and  continued  to  be,  imported  from  the  very  start. 

The  next  day  after  Sewall' s  first  return  to  London 
the  Lord  Mayor  died,  Sunday,  March  17. 

"  Monday  [he  writes]  went  and  saw  the  Jews  burying  place 
at  Mile  End.  Some  bodies  were  laid  east  and  west ;  but  now  all 
are  ordered  to  be  laid  north  and  south.     Many  tombs.     Engrav- 


SEWALL   IN  ENGLAND.  1 47 

ings  are  Hebrew,  Latin,  Spanish,  English,  sometimes  on  the 
same  stone.  Part  of  the  ground  is  improved  as  a  garden  -r-  the 
dead  are  carried  through  the  keeper's  house.  First  tomb  is 
about  the  year  1659.  Brick  wall  built  about  part.  I  told  the 
keeper  afterwards  that  I  wished  we  might  meet  in  heaven.  He 
answered  and  we  drink  a  glass  of  beer  together,  which  we  were 
then  doing." 

The  Jews,  as  evidently  that  chosen  people  from 
whom  the  Puritans  had  taken  the  pattern  of  their 
theocratic  government  and  their  conversion,  were  to 
forerun  the  second  appearing  of  that  Redeemer  whom 
the  Puritans  fondly  hoped  might  come  suddenly  ''  as 
a  thief  in  the  night  "  to  their  waiting  distress.  Hence 
probably  Sewall's  interest. 

According  to  the  above  schedule  of  travel,  Sewall 
again  went  out  with  Mather  and  their  two  sons,  each 
named  Samuel,  on  a  mixed  business  and  pleasure 
tour,  the  objective  point  being  Oxford. 

[March  28.]  "  Sam  and  I  went  to  Bray  Church  and  writ  out 
two  epitaphs  by  candlelight."  "  Saturday  March  30.  Mr.  Mather 
and  we  ride  in  the  coach  to  Oxford,  5  miles,  little  ones,  costs  us 
I2J-.  of  which  I  pay  5  and  Mr.  Mather  the  rest.  At  New  College 
eat  and  drank  ale,  wine.  Lent  cakes  full  of  currants,  good  butter 
and  cheese,  by  means  of  Mr.  Benj.  Cutler,  the  butler  to  whom  Dr. 
Woodward  sent  a  letter  on  my  behalf."  "  About  300  soldiers 
come  to  town  ;  so  the  horses  were  pressed  and  we  could  not  get 
out.  Mr.  Holland  [a  Fellow  of  Corpus  Christi,  Oxford]  shows 
me  his  chamber,  cellar,  library  &c.  Said  Holland  treated  me 
very  civilly  though  I  told  him  I  was  a  New  England  man"  [i.e., 
a  rank  Puritan] . 

"Warwick.  April  5.  St  Mary's  Chapel.  Richard  Beau- 
camp's  statue  in  brass,  very  lively,  veins  and  nails  of  his  hands." 


148  SAMUEL   SFAVALL. 

Sewall  now  goes  to  Coventry,  where  his  family 
were  of  old  and  held  office.  Visits  the  churches  and 
the  town  hall  where  his  great  grandfather  had  been 
mayor ;  also  his  relatives.  With  an  eye  to  business 
he  offers  to  confirm  certain  land  property  which  had 
been  willed  them.  ''  Lap  worth  [his  cousin's  hus- 
band] said  he  would  not  give  3<^."  Owing  either  to 
the  manners  of  the  times  or  some  family  wrangle,  it 
certainly  looks  from  this  entry,  as  from  other  things 
which  Sewall  lets  drop,  as  if  he  and  his  relatives,  at 
least  a  part  of  them,  did  not  get  on  well  together. 
Sewall,  of  course,  is  fond  of  music,  which  he  always 
sets  going  when  he  can,  as  he  notes  :  — 

"  Went«.nd  dined  with  Cousin  Allen,  with  beans,  bacon  and 
a  very  good  line  veal  roasted.  Beans  5^  a  quart.  Cousin  Sarah 
played  on  her  flute.     Cousin  Atwell  sings  well." 

The  musicians  of  his  ancestral  city  took  occasion 
to  do  him  honor,  and  probably  put  money  in  their 
purse. 

*'  Had  three  of  the  city  Waits  bid  me  good  morrow  with  their 
wind  music."  "About  200  soldiers  I  saw  drawn  forth  to  the 
westward  of  the  town  which  had  their  drums,  cross  a  horse  neck 
[probably  a  white  cross  on  their  horse  trappings]  and  a  trumpet. 
In  the  Lords  hall  Guy's  pot  was  filled  with  brandy  punch  ;  when 
in  the  field  heard  the  volleys  and  huzzas,  the  Pope  carried 
about." 

The  weeks  between  his  country  journeys,  spent  in 
London  we  judge  from  his  Diary,  were  given  up  to  a 
very  vigorous  course  of  sight-seeing  and  attempts  to 
manage  for  the  benefit  of    Puritan  politics  in  New 


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SEWALL   IN  ENGLAND.  1 49 

England.  They  were  stirring  times.  James  II.  had 
just  gone  out,  and  Dutch  William,  with  James's 
daughter,  now  reigned.  The  old  fires  of  religious 
rancor  only  smouldered  ;  the  Pope  was  acutely  ab- 
horred of  most  "true-born"  Englishmen,  and  from 
such  repeated  overturns  of  the  throne  as  there  had 
been  in  the  last  forty  years,  there  had  grown  up  a 
widespread  sense  of  uncertainty  and  insecurity.  Sol- 
diers were  moving  about,  foreign  spies,  and  perhaps 
home  traitors,  were  abroad,  and  the  future  was 
clouded.  Sewall's  home  was  in  the  west,  and  his 
interests  also,  except  as  they  might  be  affected  by 
arbitrary  power  in  London  ;  and  so  at  much  of  what 
went  on  about  him  he  looked  with  an  indifferent  eye. 
Only  he  looked  straight  into  the  masquerade  of  life 
in  London  streets,  and  the  genial  and  human  part 
of  him  reached  beyond  his  religious  asceticism  to 
fraternize  with  his  kind  at  their  toil  or  pastime.  He 
went  to  the  Tower,  Guild  Hall,  St.  Paul's ;  saw  a  city 
election,  <' which  the  sheriffs,  with  their  gold  chains, 
managed  ;  "  heard  the  Mayor's  speech  ; 

"  saw  [Feb.  12]  the  Princess  [Anne]  pass  in  her  barge  ancients 
and  streamers  of  ships  flying,  bells  ringing,  guns  roaring.'' 
"  April  30.  Queen's  birthday.  Streamers,  flags,  guns.  Spent 
43-.  3^.  in  going  to  Greenwich."  '.'  May  27.  Saw  the  Dutch 
ambassadors  make  their  public  entrance.  Came  up  through 
Crouched?  Friars  were  about  50  coaches,  with  6  horses  apiece, 
besides  pages  on  foot  and  youths  on  horseback.  The  main 
streets  thwacked  [packed?]  with  people  and  yet  little  mess  of 
people  in  Fen  Church  and  Lombard  streets." 

He  ^oes  off  with  Mr.  Brattle  to  swim  in  Thames 


150  SAMUEL  SEWALL. 

(July  8)  from  the  Temple  stairs,  and  had  a  wherry 
to  wait  on  them. 

"  I  went  in  in  my  drawers."  "  Saw  the  Physick  garden  and 
in  it  among  other  things  an  ohve  tree,  orange  tree,  cortex  Peru- 
vianus." 

This  was  the  garden  for  medical  plants  established 
at  Chelsea,  1673,  by  the  Company  of  Apothecaries. 
Sir  Hans  Sloane  used  and  developed  this  garden  in 
the  interests  of  medical  botany,  and  he  it  was  who 
brought  quinine  into  use. 

He  takes  great  interest  in  citizen  and  other  sol- 
diers, being,  as  we  have  seen,  a  soldier  himself  in 
Boston. 

"July  16.  Saw  London  Artillery  pass  by  about  2  o'clock. 
Most  had  buff  coats  and  feathers  in  their  hats.  Marched  5,  6,  7, 
and  8  in  a  rank.  The  pikes.  Had  music  besides  the  drums." 
*'  July  23.  The  white  regiment  marches  into  the  artillery  ground 
of  which  the  Lord  Mayor  is  colonel  and  so  they  have  the  pre- 
eminence. Consist  of  eight  companies,  14  or  15  hundred  in  the 
whole,  perhaps.  Some  had  silver  head  pieces."  "  Saw  an  en- 
sign buried.  The  company  was  drawn  up  in  one  rank,  —  pikes, 
—  next  the  house  of  mourning.  When  ready  to  go  rank  6  came 
to  funeral  posture ;  colors  covered  with  mourning  went  after 
pikes  then  captain,  then  parson  and  corps  posted  [or  stacked] 
the  pikes  when  the  service  was  saying.  Gave  3  vollies  but  saw 
not  the  colors  open  all  the  while." 

We  find  him  every  now  and  then  incommoded  by 
the  movement  of  the  army^,  coming  and  going.  At 
Plymouth,  on  his  way  home,  (Sept.  23)  :  — 

"  Many  soldiers  march  away  to  make  room  for  Dr.  Bolton's 
regiment  lately  come  hither  by  sea.  Two  sergeants  go  out  of 
our  house  and  two  other  soldiers  come  in." 


SEWALL   IN  ENGLAND.  151 

He  visits  the  pillory,  the  law  courts,  and  the 
gallows  :  — 

"  July  12.  This  clay  two  stood  in  the  pillory  before  the  Royal 
Exchange  for  speaking  against  the  government.  They  were 
exceedingly  pelted  with  dirt  and  eggs.  Another  that  stood  for 
forgery  liad  none  thrown  at  him  that  I  took  notice  of."  "  Mon- 
day July  15.  I  rid  to  Tyburn  and  saw  eighteen  persons,  16  men 
and  2  women  fall.  They  were  unruly  in  the  prison,  which  has- 
tened their  execution." 

Sewall  generally  brings  up  in  a  graveyard,  if  he 
does  not  set  out  from  one  at  home  and  abroad.  He 
tells  us,  for  instance,  that  he  saw  the  monument  of 
Lockier  in  St.  Mary's  Ovary  (died  1672),  a  very  suc- 
cessful rich  quack,  one  couplet  on  his  stone  being 
this:  — 

"  His  virtues  and  his  pills  are  so  well  known 
That  envy  can't  confine  them  under  stone." 

[July  9.]  "  Went  to  Stepney,  saw  Thomas  Saffin's  tomb 
[the  son  of  a  Bostonian  who  died  and  was  lately  buried  here]. 
50  shillings  given  for  the  grounds.  'Tis  a  very  large  burying 
place.  Were  to  be  10  buried  this  night ;  we  saw  several  graves 
open  and  the  bones  thick  on  the  top.  The  Lord  help  me  to 
improve  my  flesh,  bones  and  spirits  which  are  so  soon  to  become 
useless  and  it  may  be  exposed  in  one  part  or  other  of  God^s 
creation."" 

On  Thomas  Safifin's  tomb,  who  was  evidently  some- 
body, or  the  son  of  somebody,  this  quaint  epitaph, 
noted  and  copied  in  the  Spectator,  October,  1 7 1 2,  was 
inscribed  :  — 

"  Here  Thomas  Saffin  lies  interred,  why? 
Born  in  New  England  did  in  London  die  ; 
Was  the  third  son  of  right  begat  upon 
His  mother  Martha,  by  his  father  John. 


152  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

Much  favored  by  his  prince  he   'gan  to  be 
But  nipt  by  death  at  the  age  of  twenty-three  ; 
Fatal  to  him  was  that  we,  smallpox,  name 
By  which  his  mother  and  two  brethren  came 
Also  to  breathe  their  last,   nine  years  before 
And  now  have  left  their  father  to  deplore 
The  loss  of  all  his  children  with  his  wife 
"Who  was  the  joy  and  comfort  of  his  life." 

One  main  purpose  of  Sewall's  visit  to  England 
connected  itself  with  the  current  politics  of  New 
England,  which  was  to  secure  safe  land  titles,  which 
the  withdrawal  of  the  charter  had  made  insecure.  A 
letter  of  his  to  an  English  friend  under  date  of  April 
26,  states  the  case  personally  and  succinctly  :  — 

"  There  was  Capn  John  Hull  of  Boston  in  N.E.  with  whom 
in  his  lifetime  you  had  some  correspondence  by  way  of  mer- 
chandise. He  died  in  Sep.  1683,  leaving  a  widow  and  a 
daughter  who  is  my  wife,  by  whom  I  had  an  estate  that  might 
afford  a  comfortable  subsistence  according  to  our  manner  of 
living  in  New  England.  But  since  the  vacating  of  the  charter 
and  erecting  a  government  by  commission,  the  title  we  have  to 
our  lands  has  been  greatly  defamed  and  undervalued  ;  which 
had  been  greatly  prejudicial  to  the  inhabitants,  because  their 
lands,  which  were  formerly  the  best  part  of  their  estate,  became 
of  very  little  value  and  consequently  the  owners  of  very  little 
credit.  Sir  I  am  glad  that  you  are  returned  again  to  England, 
to  your  country,  possessions  and  dear  relations  and  to  your  seat 
in  parliament.  I  hope  your  former  distresses  will  help  you  to 
sympathize  with  others  in  the  like  condition.  I  and  several 
besides  me  are  here  far  removed  from  our  wives  and  children 
and  have  little  heart  to  go  home  before  some  comfortable  settle- 
ment obtained  whereby  we  might  be  secured  in  the  possession 
of  our  religion,  liberty  and  property.  I  am  informed  some  favor- 
able votes  have  been  passed  in  the  House  of  Commons  wherein 
N.E.  was  mentioned.     I  intreat  your  forwarding  of  such  votes. 


SEWALL   IN  ENGLAND.  I  53 

as  you  have  opportunity,  in  doing  which  you  will  be  a  partner 
with  God  who  is  wont  to  be  concerned  in  relieving  the  oppressed. 
.  .  .  My  hearty  service  presented  to  you,  I  take  leave,  who  am 
Sir  your  humble  Servant,  Sam.  Sewall." 

Thomas  Papillon,  M.P.,  to  whom  this  letter  was 
addressed,  was  of  a  Huguenot  refugee  family,  and 
undoubtedly  Puritan.  Sometimes  Sewall  and  his 
confreres  in  patriotism  were  obliged  to  answer  to  writ- 
ten or  printed  pamphlets,  arraigning  the  colonists  for 
misbehavior,  —  documents  likely  to  be  well  received 
by  the  government  after  the  restoration  of  Charles 
II.,  and  in  which,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  laws  of 
the  realm,  the  accusers  had  often  strong  ground  to 
stand  on. 

"  May  20.  Met  to  answer  the  print  and  in  the  evening 
another  accosts  us,  called  an  abstract  of  our  repugnant  laws, 
full  of  untruths  almost  as  the  former.  To  comfort  me  when  got 
home  met  with  a  letter  from  my  dear  brother  by  way  of  Bilboa 
dated  the  12  March;  all  friends  and  my  wife  and  children  well 
but  New  England  bleeding.  May  21  writ  to  Mr.  Flavel  of  our 
N.E.  affairs.  He  wrote  and  sent  N.E.  documents  in  behalf  of 
his  cause  to  those  who  were  in  station  and  ability  to  aid.  He 
writes  to  me,  '  I  find  it  inconvenient  to  be  out  of  the  way  because 
we  that  are  here  count  it  our  duty,  if  we  can  in  anything  to 
assist  Mr.  Mather.  If  you  come  to  town  I  should  be  glad 
to  see  you  on  the  N.E.  walk  or  at  my  chamber.''" 

From  which  it  incidentally  appears  that  there  was 
a  "  walk  "  or  place  in  London  where  New  England 
merchants,  sea  captains,  and  travellers  might  meet 
and  confer.  What  exactly  Sewall  and  the  others 
with  him  accomplished  it  is  hard  to  say.  King  Will- 
iam was  Protestant  to  the  core,  and  in  reli^rion  was 


154  SAMUEL   SEW  ALL. 

their  sympathizer ;  but  the  Enghsh  law  still  stood 
above  him  and  them,  and  no  loyal  man  could  afford 
to  ignore  the  inroads  which  the  Puritan  7'egmie  in 
Boston  was  apparently  disposed  to  make  upon  it. 
That  the  titles  to  their  lands  were  made  valid  we 
know.  What  might  have  been  worse  we  do  not 
know.  Perhaps,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  presence 
of  such  men  in  London  as  Sewall  and  Mather,  the 
colonists  would  have  fared  much  worse  than  they 
did.  But  the  fact  that  they  never  got  back  their 
old  charter  out  of  even  the  hands  of  their  English 
Protestant  friends  goes  very  far  to  show  that  in  the 
judgment  of  conservative  English  statesmen  they 
were  not  entitled  to  the  powers  it  gave  them,  nor 
were  to  be  trusted  with  them. 

Sewall  now  set  about  his  return.  In  a  roundabout 
way  through  Kent,  and  so  down  the  Channel  to 
Plymouth,  from  whence  an  excursion  was  made  into 
Cornwall,  he  finally  set  sail  out  of  Plymouth  Sound, 
Oct.  II.  Sewall's  Journal  in  England  is  remarkable 
for  what  it  leaves  out.  One  would  hardly  gather 
from  his  pages  that  everywhere  about  him  was  a 
great  national  church,  secure  and  dominant  in  the 
religion  of  the  realm.  Puritan  as  he  was,  he  makes 
no  mention  either  of  John  Milton  or  Cromwell, 
though  their  graves  were  there  somewhere,  cover- 
ing the  dust  of  the  greatest  of  England's  Puritans. 
Perhaps  Sewall's  caution  made  him  close-mouthed. 
Certainly  his  was  a  judicious  pen. 

Sewall  was  always  making  presents  to  his  friends, 
but   he   was   also   ready   to   save   a   penny  when   he 


SEW  ALL   LN  ENGLAND.  I  55 

could,  as  a  good  many  men  after  him  have  pinched 
themselves  into  a  fortune,  and  then  left  at  death, 
with  an  open  hand,  thousands  to  some  noble  charity. 
He,  while  in  London,  always  got  shaved  by  the 
quarter,  because  it  was  cheaper ;  yet  he  would  give 
four  crowns  to  Irish  Protestants.  He  would  give 
silver  spoons,  but  would  buy  stockings  where  they 
made  them,  as  cheapest.  One .  would  get  a  very 
good  idea  of  the  times  and  the  cost  of  living  by  the 
study  of  the  freight  bills  of  what  men  like  Sewall 
brought  out  and  took  home.  An  English  Testament, 
Oxford  print,  costs  \s.  2d.  ;  quire  of  paper,  6d.  ;  hat 
for  self  and  son,  £^2  Js.  ;  four  good  muffs,  £,2  6s.  ; 
twelve  bottles  of  beer,  los. ;  map  of  England,  Ire- 
land, and   Scotland,    los.   6d. 

"  Went  and  was  trimmed  by  Cousin  Harry  Ward  and  gave  his 
wife  who  sat  by  him  in  the  shop  }i  doz.  silver  spoons  marked 
E.  W.  1689.  Cost  63,9.  (weighing  10  oz.  iipt.),  or  at  the  rate 
of  more  than  $30  a  dozen." 

The  grand  dames  of  Boston,  as  his  cash  account 
shows,  were  always  sending  over  for  spoons,  and 
were  not  averse  to  the  follies  of  English  haber- 
dashery. 

"To  a  bed  of  straw  to  lay  under  my  feather  bed  2s.  q^^.'' 
[this  was  for  the  voyage.]  "  Sep.  26.  Plymouth  delivered  to  be 
washed  2  shirts,  2  handkerchiefs,  5  cravats,  i  cap  and  i  binder." 
[Did  the  Puritans  wear  as  much  linen  as  we  ?  ] 

Ships  in  the  way,  "  rogues,"  or  French  enemies, 
sometimes   in   sight,  —  for  there  was   now  war  with 


156  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

France,  —  their  armed  convoy  leaving  them  some 
hundred  and  twenty  miles  from  land,  some  with 
measles,  scurvy,  and  his  friend  Mr.  Brattle  spitting 
blood,  the  wind  often  in  their  teeth,  a  rough  voyage 
concludes  itself  Nov.  29  in  Piscataqua  River  (Ports- 
mouth). 

"  Saturday,  Nov.  30.  Ride  to  Newbury.  Friends  there  ex- 
ceedingly glad  to  see  me,  being  surprised  at  my  coming  that 
way." 

Let  a  single  excerpt  from  Sewall's  Diary  conclude 
his  visit  to  England  :  — 

"  Friday,  Nov.  15.  9,  morning.  Sound  and  find  ground  in 
45  or  50  fathoms.  Bring  the  ship  to  and  put  out  fishing  lines. 
Mr.  Fanuel  only  catches  a  good  cod,  which  had  several  small 
fish  in  him,  supposed  to  be  anchoves.  Very  foggy  weather. 
Judge  are  on  the  southermost  point  of  the  Bank.  And  now  we 
have  tasted  afresh  of  American  fare.  Lord  give  me  to  taste  more 
of  thyself  everywhere,  always  adequately  good.'" 


A  Skwall  Portrait. 


SEIVALL    AND    7YIE   SALEM    WirCIICKAFT.       1 5/ 


CHAPTER    X. 

SEWALL    AND    THE    SALEM    WITCHCRAFT. 

"  Why  should  I  hate  any  man?  He  whom  I  hate  is  either  good  or 
bad.  If  he  be  good  then  am  I  wrong  to  hate  him.  If  he  be  bad  he 
will  amend  and  so  be  saved,  or  else  persevere  in  ill,  and  so  everlast- 
ingly perish.  If  he  shall  be  saved,  why  should  I  hate  him  whom  eter- 
nally I  must  love?  If  he  shall  be  damned,  his  pain  shall  be  so  great 
that  rather  we  had  cause  to  pity  than  to  add  affliction  to  affliction  in 

hating  and  cursing  him."  „     ^ 

^  '^  Sir  Thomas  More. 

"First  Witch.     Round  about  the  cauldron  go; 

In  the  poison'd  entrails  throw. — 
Toad,  that  under  the  cold  stone 
Days  and  nights  hast  thirty-one 
Sweltered  venom  sleeping  got, 
Boil  thou  first  i'  the  charmed  pot. 
All.     Double,  double  toil  and  trouble; 

Fire,   burn;    and,   cauldron,  bubble. 


Macbeth.     Infected  be  the  air  whereon  they  ride, 
And  damned  all  those  that  trust  them." 

Macbeth. 

The  Salem  witchcraft  business  requires  careful 
handling  by  those  who  would  be  just  both  to  the 
sufferers  and  the  offenders  therein.  Sewall's  part  in 
the  matter  was  a  brief  though  sad  one,  as  one  of  the 
judges  who  pronounced  sentence  of  death  upon  the 
innocent.  A  man  with  his  large  heart  would  never 
forget    his    hand  in    that    strange    misery   until    his 


158  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

death's  day.  Nor  is  it  without  a  certain  pathos  of 
filial  love  towards  the  dead,  that  shortly  after  Sewall's 
decease  his  son  moved  in  the  General  Court  (1738) 
that  inquiry  should  be  made  as  to  the  condition  of 
the  victims'  families,  looking  towards  some  sort  of 
restitution,  poor  at  best.  The  witches'  "  caldron  " 
at  Salem  was  as  purely  imaginary,  so  far  as  witches 
went,  as  the  one  that  Shakespeare  makes  to  bubble 
with  ill-odored  and  poisoned  ingredients  on  an  im- 
aginary moor  in  Scotland  ;  yet  into  that  Salem  cal- 
dron, out  of  the  hands  of  that  Puritan  age  and  people, 
were  poured  some  of  the  most  mixed,  unreachable, 
and  poisonous  motives  of  which  probably  the  human 
mind,  in  its  most  occult  relationship  to  the  human 
body,  has  as  yet  shown  itself  capable  of  emitting. 
Yet,  sad  to  say,  its  bubbles  turned  to  blood,  and  the 
smoke  of  this  witches'  incense  creates  a  great  sorrow 
among  all  lovers  of  New  England  folk  until  now. 

There  is,  perhaps,  no  more  valid  canon  of  histori- 
cal criticism  than  this,  that  the  people  of  an  age  are 
to  be  judged  as  to  conduct  by  the  ethics  and  environ- 
ment of  that  age,  and  by  no  other.  Ancient  Rome 
is  not  to  be  judged  by  the  ethics  of  modern  Italy. 
In  judging  the  Salem  witchcraft  catastrophe,  we 
must  start  with  this  postulate.  But  at  that  time  the 
peoples  of  Christendom  devoutly  believed  in  actual 
witches,  the  English  people  being  as  stout  devotees 
of  that  delusion  as  any.  English  statute  law  de- 
clared witches  and  witchcraft  to  be  verities  by  making 
so-called  witchcraft  a  crime  punishable  with  death. 
English  judges  had  sentenced  thousands  of  men  and 


SEIVALL   AND    THE   SALEM   WITCHCRAET.       1 59 

women  for  the  offence,  and  European  tribunals  had 
destroyed  by  due  process  of  law  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  accused  persons  for  what  we  know  to  be 
a  purely  imaginary  felony.  Very  few  Englishmen 
in  the  Puritan  age  disbelieved  in  witches.  Even  as 
late  as  1840,  in  West-  Dorsetshire,  England,  there 
were  people  who  undertook  to  argue  that  a  prevailing 
sickness  there  was  brought  about  by  witchcraft.  It 
is  needless  to  note,  perhaps,  what  the  Old  Testament 
holds  in  this  matter. 

The  Puritans  held  with  the  rest,  only  with  a  more 
tenacious  grip.  This  was  natural ;  we  may  well  say, 
inevitable.  This  very  attitude  in  church  and  state 
made  them,  more  than  most,  doomed  to  the  mistake. 
They  held  that  they  were  God's  chosen  people  in  the 
wilderness  just  as  actually  as  the  Jews  had  been ; 
that  they  had  honored  Him  by  founding  institutions 
based  on  His  revealed  law;  that  they  were  His  and 
He  was  theirs  by  a  solemn  compact ;  that  He  was 
therefore  cognizant  of  their  every  word  and  deed  ;  in 
minute  oversight  of  His  creatures,  not  even  a  spar- 
row fell  to  the  ground  unnoticed.  When,  therefore, 
an  attack  seemed  to  be  in  progress  at  Salem  upon 
His  church  and  people  by  His  arch  enemy  the  Devil, 
it  was  not  simply  an  attack  on  them  and.  their  dear- 
est aspirations,  but  on  Him  ;  and  they  were  bound,  on 
penalty  of  being  held  traitors  to  Him  in  the  Judg- 
ment Day,  not  to  stand  neutral,  but  to  fight  His 
battle  by  destroying  witchcraft  from  the  land.  They 
could  logically,  as  New  England  Puritans,  do  nothing 
else.     It  is  argued  every  now  and  then   that  their 


l6o  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

clergy  were  the  chief  malefactors  in  urging  the  peo- 
ple on  to  this  wrong.  That  this  point  is  not  well 
taken  ought  to  appear  from  the  fact  that  in  the 
Salem  witchcraft,  as  indeed  in  everything  else  they 
put  their  hand  to,  as  ought  to  appear  in  our  whole 
colonial  history,  the  Puritan  clergy  voiced  and  en- 
forced with  the  power  of  an  educated  class  the 
deliberate  conscience  and  judgment  of  their  own  peo- 
ple, who  fed  them  voluntarily  and  reverenced  them 
greatly.  If  this  were  not  so,  how  came  it  to  pass 
that  later  on  this  same  people  parted  from  this  same 
clergy  both  in  politics  and  religion,  and  went  their 
own  way .''  With  a  few  exceptions  of  the  more 
fortunate-minded,  the  management  at  Salem  was  ac- 
cording to  the  consensus  of  the  whole  community. 
Cotton  Mather  is  pointed  to  as  one  of  the  chief  male- 
factors in  inciting  the  Salem  horrors.  That  Cotton 
Mather  was  a  very  human  sort  of  man,  and,  therefore, 
sometimes  blamable,  may  go  without  saying.  But 
Cotton  Mather  actually  agonized  over  the  bewitched, 
or,  as  the  ancient  phrase  went,  "  behagged,"  children, 
whom  he  took  into  his  house  in  Boston  in  such  a 
way  as  to  remove  all  suspicion  that  he  was  juggling, 
or  any  way  trying  to  do  anything  else  than  to  probe 
to  the  bottom  of  the  fact.  To  say  that  he  was  mag- 
nifying his  office  in  order  to  hold  his  place  in  affairs, 
—  an  imputing  of  motives,  —  is  not  verified  by  the 
record.  He,  and  most  men  about  him,  thought  that 
any  man  who  disbelieved  in  witches  would  disbelieve 
in  the  Devil  ;  and  that  he  who  would  disbelieve  in 
the  Devil  would  speedily  come  to  disbelieve  in  God. 


SEWALL  AND    THE   SALEM   WITCHCRAFT.        l6l 

One  thing  more  as  a  proviso.  *  The  times  were 
ripe  for  such  an  outbreak  as  that  at  Salem.  They 
were  out  of  joint  politically,  the  charter  being  lost, 
and  people  were  sore  and  apprehensive  of  some  great 
calamity.  They  were  in  the  slough  of  an  unknown 
transition.  Besides,  a  new  generation  had  sprung 
up,  born  here,  wonted  from  youth  to  hardship  and 
solitude,  cruel  from  King  Philip's  War,  less  educated 
than  their  fathers,  though  of  like  faith,  and  actually 
falling  backward  into  a  barbarism  bred  from  the  wil- 
derness. Add  to  this  the  fact  that  the  Puritan  mind, 
in  spiritual  things  at  least,  was  always  high-strung,  so 
that  its  vibrations  were  likely  to  be  unnaturally  acute, 
and  it  certainly  looks  as  if  no  epoch  in  our  history 
was  so  provocative  of  an  honest  but  fierce  outburst 
of  fanaticism  as  the  year  1692,  when  nineteen  per- 
sons were  put  to  death  at   Salem  for  witchcraft. 

This  is  no  place  to  tell  the  story,  only  to  illustrate 
it,  and  narrate  Judge  Sewall's  part  in  it.  In  brief, 
certain  children  and  half-grown  women  at  Salem, 
aided  by  a  few  base  persons  and  an  Indian,  began 
the  calamity  by  accusing  some  other  persons  —  their 
neighbors,  generally  —  of  bewitching  them.  Their 
cries,  contortions,  and  physical  distresses  and  general 
absurdities,  if  stated,  would  seem  incredible,  if  not 
impossible,  to  any  one  who  had  not  read  the  record. 
Nothing  shows  like  it  in  our  history.  The  com- 
munity rose  en  masse  to  inquire  and  to  decide.  It 
was  trial  by  a  mob,  only  the  mob  was  pious.  The 
accusations  were  in  general,  and,  with  a  few  excep- 
tions, against  respectable  people,  and  finally  reached 


1 62  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

far  and  wide,  touching  the  best,  —  magistrates  and 
ministers,  or  their  wives.  Then  the  fierce  flame 
burned  itself  out,  and  there  were  graves,  gallows, 
broken  families,  ruined  fortunes,  and  misery  for  gen- 
erations as  a  residuum.  Here  it  is  only  intended  by 
some  extracts  from  the  court  documents  to  open  the 
gates  for  a  while  upon  this  untold  and  untellable 
tragedy.  The  preliminary  court  of  inquiry  assumed 
from  the  start  two  things,  —  the  honesty  of  the 
accusers  and  the  guilt  of  the  accused,  as  was  natural 
in  such  a  stark  delusion,  but  very  poor  form  in  law. 
Children  were  accused ;  a  man  was  charged  with 
bewitching  a  dog.  He  barely  escaped  with  his  life. 
They  killed  the  dog,  —  which  was  certainly  a  less 
expense  in  judgment  than  though  it  had  been  a  cow. 
It  was  made  a  point  against  the  innocence  of  Giles 
Corey's  wife,  one  of  the  accused,  that  she  was  seen 
so  often  on  her  knees  to  God  that  she  certainly  must 
be  in  the  service  of  the  Devil.  It  was  put  in  argu- 
ment against  Rev.  George  Burroughs,  evidently  a 
patient,  sweet,  but  athletic  clergyman,  that  his  feats 
in  running  and  handling  heavy  weights  were  beyond 
those  of  mortal  man,  unless  assisted  by  the  Devil. 
What  we  should  say  were  proofs  of  innocence  were 
taken  for.  the  contrary.  It  was  a  whole  community 
acting  as  the  prosecuting  attorney  in  a  court  which 
judged  the  case  against  the  defendants  before  it  sat, 
in  a  court-house  become  an  asylum  for  almost  every 
one  except  the  innocent,  and  with  no  keeper  for  the 
insane !  The  preliminary  court  of  inquiry  opened 
and   closed   with   prayers   against   the   accused,    and 


SEWALL   AND    THE   SALEM   WITC/ICRAFT.       1 63 

when  any  one  of  the  latter,  in  turn,  wished  "  to  go  to 
prayer,"  as  the  phrase  was,  to  pray  God's  help  and 
justice  on  his  side,  he  was  denied.  Those  who  con- 
fessed escaped ;  those  who  protested  innocence  were 
committed  without  bail.  While  in  jail,  awaiting  trial, 
they  were  generally  excommunicated  by  the  churches 
to  which  they  belonged.  The  citizens  of  Gloucester 
actually  shut  themselves  up  in  their  stockade  fort, 
expecting  an  attack  from  the  devils  in  force. 

A  few  extracts  from  the  records  of  the  inferior 
court  may  serve  to  disclose  the  madness  :  — 

EXAMINATION    OF    A    CHILD    WITCH. 

Q.  How  long  have  you  been  a  witch?  Ever  since  I  was  six 
years  old.  How  old  are  you  now?  Near  eight  years  old; 
brother  Richard  says  I  shall  be  eight  years  old  in  November 
next.  Who  made  you  a  witch?  My  mother.  She  made  me 
set  my  hand  to  a  book.  How  did  you  set  your  hand  to  it? 
I  touched  it  with  my  fingers  and  the  book  was  red  ;  the  paper 
of  it  was  white.  She  said  she  had  never  seen  "  the  Black 
Man,"  —  i.e.,  the  Devil,  —  but  she  had  touched  the  book,  and 
so  become  the  Devil's  own  in  Andrew  Foster's  pasture,  and  that 
her  mother,  cousin,  and  aunt  among  others  were  there. 

Q.    What  did  they  promise  to  give  you? 

A.  A  black  dog.  Did  the  clog  ever  come  to  you?  No. 
But  you  said  you  saw  a  cat  once  —  what  did  that  say  to  you  ? 
It  said  it  would  tear  me  in  pieces  if  I  would  not  set  my  hand  to 
the  book.  She  said  further,  her  mother  baptized  her,  and  the 
Devil  or  "  black  man"  was  not  there  as  she  saw,  and  her  mother 
said  when  she  baptized  her,  "  Thou  art  mine  forever  and  ever, 
Amen." 

But  Martha  Currier  defended  herself  with  an  honest  woman's 
anger.  She  denied  everything  in  every  particular ;  that  she  liad 
ever  seen  or  dealt  with  the  Devil,  or  hurt  any  one.  She  said  to 
the  magistrates,  "It  is  a  shameful  thing  that  vou  should  mind 


164  SAMUEL   SEW  ALL. 

these  folks  who  are  out  of  their  wits  ;  "  and  turning  to  her  ac- 
cusers, now  resting  from  their  fits  a  little,  cried,  "  You  lie!  I  am 
wronged."  Her  courage  threw  the  great  crowd  into  uproar ;  and 
the  record  closes  in  these  words  :  "  The  tortures  of  the  afflicted 
were  so  great  that  there  was  no  enduring  of  it,  so  that  she  was 
ordered  away,  and  to  be  bound  hand  and  foot  with  all  expedi- 
tion ;  the  afflicted  in  the  meanwhile,  almost  killed,  to  the  great 
trouble  of  all  spectators,  magistrates,  and  others." 

The  magistrates  were  told  by  one  of  the  witnesses,  out  of 
court,  that  the  accused  confessed  to  her  that  "she  had  been  a 
witch   these  40  years." 

She  also  deposed  that  she  afflicted  persons  by  pinching 
them';  that  she  had  no  images  or  "puppets"  of  these  persons 
by  her,  but  that  she  went  to  them,  not  in  her  body,  but  in  her 
spirit,  and  that  her  mother  carried  her  to  the  place  of  mischief. 
Being  further  asked,  "How  did  your  mother  carry  you  when 
she  was  in  prison?"  she  replied,  "  She  came  like  a  black  cat." 
How  did  you  know  it  was  your  mother?  The  cat  told  me  so; 
that  she  was  my  mother.  "  The  confession"  of  another  infant 
of  this  same  mother  runs  thus  :  Have  you  been  in  the  DeviPs 
snare?  Yes.  Is  your  brother  Andrew  ensnared  by  the  Devil's 
snare?  Yes.  How  long  has  your  brother  been  a  witch?  Near 
a  month.  How  long  have  you  been  a  witch?  Not  long.  She 
afterwards  added  to  her  last  answer,  "  About  five  weeks." 
Rather  young  witches,  anyway,  this  Sarah  and  Andrew  also, 
and  Simon  Willard  clerk  writes  of  this  ghastly  nonsense  "This 
is  the  substance."  Simon  Willard. 

The  wife  of  honest  shipmaster  Cap.  Cary  of  Charlestown  was 
also  accused  and  May  (24)  he  went  down  with  his  Elizabeth  to 
face  the  danger.  They  attended  Court.  "  The  prisoners  Cap. 
Cary  says  were  placed  7  or  8  feet  from  the  justices  and  the 
accusers  between  the  justices  and  them.  The  prisoners  were 
ordered  to  stand  right  before  the  justices,  with  an  officer  ap- 
pointed to  hold  each  hand,  lest  they  should  therewith  afflict 
them ;  and  the  prisoners'  eyes  must  be  constantly  on  the  jus- 
tices ;  for  if  they  looked  on  the  afflicted  they  would  either  fall 
into  fits  or  cry  out  of  being  hurt  by  them." 

Elizabeth  Cary  was  in  due  form  cried  out  on  by  two  girls  in 


SEWALL   AND    THE  SALEM   WITCHCRAET.       1 65 

the  court  room  and  on  arrest  told  the  judges  tliat  she  never  had 
any  knowledge  of  them  before  that  day.  Now  comes,  in  that 
old  sailor's  story,  touches  of  human  love  and  pathos,  still  sweet 
and  tender  in  the  sympathy  of  those  who  after  two  hundred 
years  read  the  record.  "  She  was  forced  to  stand  with  her 
arms  stretched  out.  I  requested  that  I  might  hold  one  of  her 
hands,  but  it  was  denied  me ;  then  she  desired  me  to  wipe 
the  tears  from  her  eyes  and  the  sweat  from  her  face,  which  I 
did.  Then  she  desired  that  she  might  lean  herself  on  me,  say- 
ing she  should  faint.  Justice  Hathorne  replied  that  she  had 
strength  enough  to  torment  these  persons  and  she  should  have 
strength  enough  to  stand.  I  speaking  something  against  their 
cruel  proceedings  they  commanded  me  to  be  silent  or  else  I 
should  be  turned  out  of  the  room.  The  Indian,  before  men- 
tioned, was  also  brought  in  to  be  one  of  her  accusers ;  being 
come  in  he  now  (when  before  the  justices)  fell  down  and  tumbled 
about  like  a  hog  but  said  nothing."  This  was  a  fellow  whom 
just  before  in  the  tavern  the  Captain  had  treated  to  some  cider 
and  he  had  made  no  charge  against  his  wife.  "  The  justices 
asked  the  girls  who  afflicted  the  Indian ;  they  answered  she, 
meaning  my  wife.  The  judges  ordered  her  to  touch  him  in 
order  to  his  cure,  but  her  head  must  be  turned  another  way, 
lest  instead  of  curing  she  should  make  him  worse  by  her  looking 
on  him,  her  hand  being  guided  to  take  hold  of  his."  What  fol- 
lowed had  better  be  left  in  the  old  records.  ...  "I  beingr  trou- 
bled  at  their  inhuman  dealings,  uttered  a  hasty  speech  That  God 
would  take  vengeance  on  them  and  desired  that  God  would  de- 
liver us  out  of  the  hands  of  unmerciful  men.  Then  her  inittiiiuis 
was  writ.  I  did  with  difficulty  and  charge  obtain  the  liberty  of 
a  room,  but  no  beds  in  it ;  if  there  had  been,""  he  adds  naively, 
"Could  have  taken  but  little  rest  that  night."  She  was  com- 
mitted to  Boston  prison ;  but  I  obtained  a  habeas  corpus  to 
remove  her  to  Cambridge  prison.  Having  been  there  one  night 
the  jailer  put  irons  on  her  legs  (having  received  such  a  com- 
mand ;)  the  weight  of  them  was  about  8  pounds  ;  these  irons 
and  her  other  afflictions  soon  brought  her  into  convulsion  fits, 
so  that  I  thought  she  would  have  died  that  night.  I  sent 
to  entreat  that  the  irons  miirht  be  taken  off  but  all  entreaties 


1 66  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

were  in  vain.  The  trials  at  Salem  coming  on  I  went  thither 
to  see  how  things  were  managed  ;  and  finding  that  the  spectre 
evidence  was  there  received  together  with  idle  if  not  malicious 
stories  against  people's  lives  I  did  easily  perceive  which  way  the 
rest  would  go.  I  acquainted^herwith  her  danger  and  that  if  she 
were  carried  to  Salem  to  be  tried  I  feared  she  would  never 
return.  I  did  my  utmost  that  she  might  have  her  trial  in 
our  own  County ;  I  with  several  others  petitioning  the  judge 
for  it ;  but  I  soon  saw  so  much  that  I  understood  thereby 
it  was  not  intended,  which  put  me  upon  consulting  the  means  of 
her  escape  which  through  the  goodness  of  God  was  effected. 
She  escaped  first  to  Rhode  Island  and  then  as  a  safer  place 
to  New  York  where  Gov.  Fletcher  was  very  courteous  to  us." 
"  They,  the  accused  had  trials  of  cruel  mockings,  which  is  the 
more  considering  what  a  people  for  religion,  I  mean  the  profes- 
sion of  it,  we  have  been,  those  that  suffered  being  many  of  them 
church  members  and  most  of  them  unspotted  in  their  conversa- 
tion till  their  adversary  the  Devil  took  up  this  method  for  accus- 
ing them."  Jonathan  Gary. 

By  the  Provincial  Charter  of  1691  Sewall  had  been 
appointed  one  of  the  Council,  an  office  to  which  he 
was  annually  chosen  till  1725,  when  he  was  re- 
elected, but  declined  to  serve,  having  outlived  all 
the  other  councillors  then  appointed  with  him.  All 
through  March,  1692,  the  Salem  fury  had  been 
gathering  head;  and  on  April  11,  probably  as  a  ma- 
gistrate, he  went  down,  in  company  with  the  lieu- 
tenant-governor and  four  others,  to  look  into  the 
matter. 

"Went  to  Salem  where  in  the  meeting  house  the  persons 
accused  of  witchcraft  were  examined  ;  was  a  very  great  assem- 
bly ;  'twas  aw'ful  to  see  how  the  afflicted  persons  were  agitated. 
Mr.  Noyes  prayed  at  the  beginning  and  Mr.  Higginson  con- 
cluded." 


SEIVALL    AND    THE   SALEM   WITCHCRAFT.       1 6/ 

A  rather  rustic  event  in  the  life  of  a  rich  man  like 
Sevvall,  living  in  Boston,  and  noted  down  by  him 
under  date  of  Saturday,  Feb.  27,  may  perhaps  illus- 
trate the  abnormal  excitement  of  men's  minds,  and 
apprehension  of  coming  evil,  running  close  upon 
a  panic,  before  pointed  out  :  — 

"Between  4  and  5  morning  we  are  startled  at  the  roaring 
of  a  beast,  which  I  conjectured  to  be  an  ox  broken  loose  from  a 
butcher,  running  along  the  street,  but  proved  to  be  our  own 
cow  bitten  by  a  dog,  so  that  were  forced  to  kill  her ;  though 
calved  but  Jan.  4th  and  gives  plenty  of  milk.  Happy  are  they 
who  have  God  for  their  spring  and  breast  of  supplies." 

The  men  who  could  turn  from  a  cow  bit  by  a  dog 
to  God  for  mercy  would  be  very  likely  to  look  out  to 
Him  and  for  Him  in  so  strange  a  matter  as  the 
Salem  misery. 

There  were  now  nearly  one  hundred  accused  per- 
sons in  jail,  and  worse  threatened.  Governor  Phipps, 
on  his  return  from  his  Eastern  expedition,  found  him- 
self forced,  by  public  opinion,  to  appoint  a  special 
commission  of  oyer  and  terminer  to  try  these  cases, 
of  which  Stoughton  was  chief-justice,  with  six  asso- 
ciates, including  Sewall.  This  court  substantially 
was  the  government  of  the  Province,  so  great  was 
the  solemnity  thought  to  be. .  They  were  appointed 
June  13,  1692,  and  for  the  counties  of  Suffolk, 
Essex,  and  Middlesex.  This  court  met  at  Salem  in 
June  and  August,  sending  some  nineteen  persons 
to  death.  After  the  executions  of  Sept.  22,  they 
adjourned  to  meet  a  few  weeks  later ;  but  they  met 
no  more.      In  January,  1693,  the  grand  jury  brought 


1 68  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

in  bills  against  some  fifty  persons ;  but  all  were 
acquitted  except  three,  and  they  were  reprieved. 
None  who  confessed  were  brought  to  trial.  May, 
1693,  Governor  Phipps,  by  proclamation,  discharged 
all  those  in  jail,  and  the  delusion  vanished  as  rapidly 
as  it  had  spread. 

With  the  exception  of  an  entry  April  11,  there  are 
no  entries  in  Sewall's  Diary  for  the  three  months 
of  April,  May,  and  June,  when  the  excitement  was 
at  its  height.  The  entries  elsewhere  in  his  journal 
touching  this  matter  are  few,  and  generally  very 
brief.  He  evidently  was  ashamed,  cast  down,  full  of 
sorrow,  and  probably  afraid  of  personal  prosecution 
and  loss  of  property  at  the  hands  of  the  survivors 
suing  for  damages.  The  court  he  belonged  to  was 
no  doubt  illegal,  and  its  proceedings,  as  judged  by 
the  ethics  of  English  law,  more  than  questionable. 
From  other  sources,  however,  we  can  gain  insight  as 
to  how  things  went  on  in  court.  First  of  all,  neither 
he  nor  his  associates  were  lawyers  nor  conversant  with 
right  legal  procedure ;  although  a  high  modern  legal 
authority  is  of  opinion  that  Sewall  was  the  best  of 
his  associates.  Indeed,  as  their  law  based  itself  on 
the  Jewish  Scriptures,  ministers,  not  lawyers,  were 
the  best  expounders  of  the  same,  and  the  common 
law  of  England  was  at  a  discount.  Therefore  lawyers 
were  systematically  discountenanced,  and  orders  are 
not  wanting  by  which  they  were  to  be  heavily  fined  if 
their  plea  was  over  an  hour  in  length.  The  prosecut- 
ing attorney  at  Salem  was  a  lawyer,  and  the  court  as- 
sisted.    There  was  very  much  testimony  before  the 


SEWALL   AND    THE  SALEM   WITCHCRAFT.       1 69 

court,  but  very  little  evidence.  One  of  the  rulings 
of  Chief-Justice  Stoughton  ought  to  be  remembered. 
He  told  the  jury  ''that  the  Devil  could  not  appear 
in  the  form  of  any  one  who  was  not  in  league  with 
him.  It  followed,  therefore,  as  the  Devil  had  ap- 
peared in  the  form  of  many  of  the  accused,  according 
to  the  eye-witnesses  there,  the  defendants  must  be 
guilty."  But  in  this  Stoughton  must  have  forgot- 
ten his  Scriptures,  which  speak  of  Satan  sometimes 
appearing  as  ''an  angel  of  light."  It  was  a  fatal 
court  to  every  one,  though  Stoughton  stuck  to  it  all 
his  life  that  right  had  been  done,  and  resigned  his 
place  on  the  bench  rather  than  even  tacitly  allow  the 
opposite. 

Under  date  of  July  20,  Sewall  writes  :  "  Fast  at  the 
house  of  Capt.  Alden,"  etc.  Alden,  the  son  of  the 
Plymouth  Pilgrim,  "the  tall  man  in  Boston,"  as  his 
accusers  called  him,  for  thirty  years  a  respected 
member  of  the  South  Church,  a  brave  seaman  in 
command  of  the  colony's  armed  vessels,  doing  noble 
service  in  the  French  and  Indian  wars,  and  seventy 
years  of  age,  was  now  in  jail  for  witchcraft.  May 
31  he  had  gone  down  and  met  his  accusers  at  Sa- 
lem,—  "a  group  of  wenches  playing  their  juggling 
tricks,"  as  he  describes  them,  who  charged  him  with 
afflicting,  after  the  manner  of  witches,  people  whom 
he  had  never  seen  nor  known.  The  honest  indigna- 
tion and  "  sea  language  "  which  he  apparently  used 
upon  them  did  not  save  him  from  being  sent  to 
Boston  jail,  where  he  now  was  while  Sewall,  his 
fellow-parishioner  and  judge,  was  holding  a  fast  with 


I/O  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

Revs.  Cotton  Mather  and  Willard,  and  a  galaxy  of 
Puritan  church-members,  at  the  captain's  house  for 
the  latter's  salvation.  It  is  incredible  that  there 
should  be  hypocrisy  of  this  quality  on  earth.  But 
if  we  supjDOse  them  honest,  then  their  Puritan  be- 
havior at  Salem  must  at  least  have  been  honest  also. 
After  fifteen  weeks  in  jail.  Captain  Alden  escaped  to 
Plymouth  Colony,  and  probably  died  in  his  bed. 

"  J^^y  30-  Mrs.  Gary  makes  her  escape  out  of  Cambridge 
prison  who  was  committed  for  witchcraft."  [That  lady^s  story 
has  been  told  before.] 

"  Aug.  19.  This  day  George  Burroughs,  John  Willard,  Jno 
Procter,  Martha  Currier  and  George  Jacobs  were  executed  at 
Salem,  a  very  great  number  of  spectators  being  present.  Mr. 
Cotton  Mather  was  there,  Mr.  Sims,  Hale,  Noyes  and  Cheever, 
[ministers] .  All  of  them  said  they  were  innocent,  Currier  and 
all.  Mr.  Mather  says  they  all  died  by  a  righteous  sentence.  Mr. 
Burroughs  by  his  speech,  prayer,  protestation  of  his  innocence, 
did  much  move  unthinking  persons  which  occasions  their  speak- 
ing hardly  concerning  his  being  executed." 

Most  of  which  is  no  doubt  true,  though  Cotton 
Mather  is  wrong  as  usual.  This  day  the  victims  had 
been  hung ;  men  and  women,  drawn  a  long  way  from 
jail  in  a  big  wagon  which  '^  stalled  "  or  broke  down, 
over  a  rough  road  to  the  highest  hill  thereabouts, 
with  its  jagged  rocks  thrust  through  the  thin  soil, 
clad  in  the  gray  mosses  which  grow  there  ever  since, 
from  that  eminence  overlooking  the  summer  land 
and  sea  of  their  wild  Essex,  to  go  asking  justice 
from  some  One,  if  there  were  justice  either  below 
or  above  the  stars,  and  the  charity  which  had  been 
denied  them  here.     They  all  died  stoutly,  as  Sewall 


SEWALL   AND    THE   SALEM   WITCHCRAFT.       \J\ 

writes.  Burroughs  had  been  his  friend,  and  had  dined 
with  him  years  before,  as  his  Diary  tells.  Stripped 
of  his  prison  clothes  in  that  death  whose  majesty 
the  rags  they  clad  him  in  could  not  obscure,  —  un- 
coffined  body  flung  into  the  shallow  grave  the  rocky 
ledge  allowed  him,  on  that  gallows'  plot  of  shame,  — 
his  right  arm  stiffened  until  it  rotted  or  dogs  tore 
it,  was  seen  as  if  pointing  to  those  heavens  where 
''  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling  and  the  weary 
are  at  rest."  There  are  no  witches  that  we  know 
of.  But  if  there  were,  there  is  perhaps  no  spot  in 
all  this  West  where  they  should  be  more  at  home 
in  the  weird  desolation  of  their  barren  and  uncanny 
lives  than  that  same  belt  of  rocky  moorland,  south 
of  Salem  city  as  it  remains  to-day ;  gray,  mossy, 
rock-crested,  with  its  long,  narrow  glens  creeping  in 
among  the  hills,  yet  seeming  to  have  gone  and  going 
nowhere,  down  into  which  the  scattered  cedars  of 
funeral  plumage  seem  to  speer  as  sentinels  on  watch 
for  something  which  they  never  find  —  that  land  at 
whose  west  gate  two  centuries  ago  Puritan  sincerity 
in  a  sad  mistake  built  the  Witches'  Gallows. 

"  Monday,  Sept.  19,  1692.  About  noon,  at  Salem  Giles 
Corey  was  pressed  to  death  for  standing  mute." 

This  execution  is  unique  in  American  annals.  By 
English  law,  a  man  might  be  pressed  to  death  if  he 
refused  to  plead  yea  or  nay  to  his  indictment.  In 
case  of  a  recalcitrant  prisoner,  he  was  brought  three 
times  into  court  and  told  the  penalty.  Remaining 
obstinate,   he  was  then  to  be  laid   bound  hand  and 


\J2  SAMUEL  SEW  ALL. 

foot  on  the  floor  of  his  prison  cell,  with  heavy  iron 
weights  on  his  body.  The  first  day  he  was  to  have 
three  morsels  of  the  worst  bread  for  food,  and  the 
second  day  three  draughts  of  standing  water  found 
nearest  the  prison  walls  ;  and  so  weights  were  added 
until  he  died.  Giles  Corey  had  a  somewhat  unsavory 
reputation,  well  or  ill  earned  it  is  hard  to  say,  and 
was  a  downright  man  in  his  will,  and,  when  touched, 
in  his  heart.  When  his  wife  was  accused  of  witch- 
craft he  was  first  inclined  to  stand  against  her;  but 
her  piety  and  sad  end  brought  him  to  flout  the  whole 
business  as  a  wrong.  Very  naturally  he  had  his 
turn  as  an  accused  wizard.  If  he  pleaded  not 
guilty  he  knew  he  was  sure  to  be  condemned,  and 
to  confess  that  he  was  a  wizard  was  not  in  him. 
There  was  a  dilemma  here.  For  if  he  had  pleaded 
and  been  condemned  he  expected  his  property 
would  be  confiscated  and  his  heirs  impoverished.  He 
made  his  will  in  prison,  and  held  his  tongue.  They 
pressed  him  to  death,  —  somewhere,  tradition  has  it, 
in  the  rocky  fields  of  the  others'  doom ;  and  the  same 
tradition  reports  that  in  his  agony  he  cried  out  to 
put  on  more  rocks,  as  he  would  never  plead.  There 
is  an  old  saw  which  says  that  time  has  two  ages  ; 
one  in  which  men  of  oak  build  houses  of  willow,  and 
the  other  when  men  of  willow  build  houses  of  oak. 
Giles  Corey  must  have  been  a  man  of  oak,  however 
housed.  There  was  a  certain  grim  thrift  which 
followed  the  Puritan  even  in  his  dealings  with  ac- 
cused persons.  He  insisted  that  men  should  pay 
their  own.     Those  who  were  released  from  jail  paid 


SEWALL   AND    THE  SALEM   WITCHCRAFT.       1/3 

their  own  charges,  —  for  chains,  board,  and  court  fees. 
Many  were  ruined  in  consequence ;  and  their  descen- 
dants, counted  now  among  the  most  respected,  are 
entitled  to  cherish  their  memories. 

Sewall  cherished  his  memories  thereof.  Signs 
multiplied  of  a  reaction.     Get.  26,  1692,  he  writes  :  — 

"A  bill  is  sent  in  about  calling  a  fast  and  convocation  of 
ministers  that  may  be  led  in  the  right  way  as  to  the  witchcrafts. 
The  season  and  manner  of  doing  it  is  such  that  the  Court  of 
Oyer  and  Terminer  count  themselves  thereby  dismissed,  29 
noes  and  33  yeas  to  the  bill.'" 

"  Dec.  24.  Sam  recites  to  me  in  Latin  Math.  12  from  the 
6th  to  the  end  of  the  12th.  The  7th  verse  did  awfully  bring  to 
mind  the  Salem   Tragedy." 

That  verse  is  this  :  '*  If  ye  had  known  what  this 
meaneth,  I  will  have  mercy,  and  not  sacrifice,  ye 
would  not  have  condemned  the  guiltless." 

There  were  those  who  would  have  had  the  Salem 
court  and  its  abettors  pursued  and  punished  for  their 
mistake.  How  near  they  were  to  doing  so  cannot  now 
be  known,  nor  just  why  they  failed.  Their  stand 
was  at  least  stout  enough  to  compel  the  legislature, 
in  what  looks  like  a  penitence  somewhat  late,  to  ap- 
point a  fast  Jan.  14,  1697,  for  what  had  been  done 
amiss  '<  in  the  late  tragedy  raised  among  us  by  Satan 
and  his  instruments,  through  the  awful  judgment  of 
God."  Since  witchcraft  times,  Sewall  had  lost  sev- 
eral little  children ;  and  at  this  fast,  like  the  brave, 
honest-hearted  man  he  was,  he  put  up  the  following 
petition  in  his  own  parish  meeting-house,  **  standing 
up  at  the  reading  of  it  and  bowing  when  finished  :  "  — 


1/4  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

"  Copy  of  the  bill  I  put  up  on  the  fast  day,  giving  it  to  Mr. 
Willard  as  he  passed  by,  and  standing  up  at  the  reading  of  it 
and  bowing  when  finished  ;  in  the  afternoon. 

"  Samuel  Sewall,  sensible  of  the  reiterated  strokes  of  God 
upon  himself  and  family  and  being  sensible  that  as  to  the  guilt 
contracted  upon  the  opening  of  the  late  Commission  of  Oyer 
and  Terminer  at  Salem  (to  which  the  order  of  this  day  relates,) 
he  is  upon  many  accounts,  more  concerned  than  any  that  he 
knows  of,  desires  to  take  the  blame  and  shame  of  it,  asking 
pardon  of  men  and  especially  desiring  prayers  that  God  who 
has  an  unlimited  authority  would  pardon  that  sin  and  all  other, 
his  sins,  personal  and  relative  and  according  to  his  infinite 
benignity  and  sovereignty  not  visit  the  sin  of  him  or  of  any 
other  upon  himself  or  any  of  his,  nor  upon  the  land ;  but  that 
he  would  powerfully  defend  him  against  all  temptations  to  sin 
for  the  future  and  vouchsafe  him  the  efficacious,  saving  conduct 
of  his  word  and  Spirit." 


What,  then,  as  a  study  in  psychology,  was  the 
Salem  witchcraft }  No  one  nor  a  dozen  definitions 
can  ever  expose  all  its  substances.  That  it  was  a 
true  witches'  caldron  like  that  which  Shakespeare 
fancies,  in  the  strange  mixture  bubbling  in  it,  com- 
pounded partly  out  of  the  base  passions  of  "envy, 
hatred,  and  malice,"  and  tinged  with  human  delusions 
running  as  low  as  African  Voodooism  and  Indian 
superstition,  will  be  allowed  by  all  who  have  looked 
into  the  matter.  That  the  accusers  —  children,  and 
Puritan  children  to  boot  —  sometimes  lied,  showed 
cunning  and  deceit,  may  be  also  granted.  Yet  the 
limitation  must  be  at  once  applied  even  to  that 
admission.  These  very  children  were  growing  up  in 
an  atmosphere  where  one  who  did  not  believe  in 
witches  would   be   a   wonder.      Beginning   first  with 


SEWALL   AND    THE  SALEM   WirCHCRAFT.       1 75 

some  silly  pastime  of  fortune-telling  maybe,  of  an  age 
and  sex  liable  to  very  acute  vibrations  of  their  ner- 
vous energy,,  epileptic  to  a  degree  in  some  one  of  the 
many  forms  that  disease  assumes,  brought  into  noto- 
riety before  a  public  whose  credulity  only  heightened 
their  physical  and  mental  mania,  perhaps  growing  vain 
of  their  recognition  by  persons  in  authority,  testifying 
before  crowds,  and  become  centres  of  interest,  —  was 
it  anything  strange  if  they  came  to  mistake,  and  even 
deceive  themselves  ?  that  what  at  first  in  their  minds 
was  a  spasm  of  mental  aberration  came  to  be  thought 
by  themselves  to  be  truth,  and  truth  which  involved 
itself  with  the  machinations  of  the  Devil  ?  If  one 
should  say  in  rebuttal  that  the  accusers  were  often 
proved  to  be  liars,  the  answer  is  that  in  insanity 
itself  it  is  often  impossible  to  say  when  the  patient 
is  or  is  not  a  responsible  being,  and  that  if  these 
children  were  in  any  wise  insane,  they  are  not  to  be 
set  down  as  mere  impostors. 

The  matter  certainly  runs  deeper.  The  human 
mind,  in  its  relation  with  the  body,  is  to-day,  and 
always  has  been,  the  Terra  Incognita,  the  "  Dark 
Continent,"  even  to  science,  as  is  shown  in  the  phe- 
nomena of  mesmerism,  and  what  calls  itself  spiritual- 
ism. This  mystery  is  heightened  when  such  complex 
human  creatures  are  brought  together  in  masses 
under  excitement  such  as  is  often  seen  in  revivals. 
An  excited  crowd  lays  its  stress  on  every  one  com- 
posing it,  and  incites  to  imitation.  Even  a  mother 
watching  her  child's  convulsions  often  finds  it  hard 
work  to  resist  the  impulse  to  suffer  likewise.       Un- 


1/6  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

doubtedly  a  certain  physical  and  mental  atmosphere 
often  aids  in  the  outbreak  of  some  kind  of  occult 
mania,  such  as  the  Salem  witchcraft  was.  For  proof 
of  this  we  have  only  to  look  at  certain  undoubted 
historical  facts  in  mediaeval  times  ;  such,  for  instance, 
as  the  "Dancing  Mania," — a  sort  of  epidemic  disorder 
allied  to  hysteria,  and  evidently  the  result  of  imitative 
emotions  acting  upon  susceptible  subjects  under  the' 
influence  of  a  craving  for  sympathy  or  notoriety.  As 
to  this  mania,  there  is  evidence  to  show  that  there 
was  much  imposture,  and  also  much  real  convulsive 
suffering  beyond  the  control  of  the  will.  Such  con- 
vulsions were  common  in  Germany,  Italy,  and  Asia, 
where  the  dancing  dervishes  are  still  a  standing 
example  of  what  is  partly  disease.  They  even  exist 
in  religious  excitements  sometimes  now.  In  July, 
1374,  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  there  appeared  assemblies 
"of  men  and  women  who,  made  frantic  by  the  wild 
celebration  of  St.  John's  Day,  began  to  dance  on  the 
streets,  screaming  and  foaming  like  persons  pos- 
sessed. This  mania  varied  in  form  according  to 
mental,  local,  or  religious  conditions.  The  dancers 
were  insensible  to  external  impressions,  but  had  vis- 
ions of  blood,  the  Saviour,  the  Virgin  Mary,  etc.,  and 
danced  in  a  wild  delirium  till  they  fell  from  exhaus- 
tion, groaning  as  if  in  death.  Some  dashed  out  their 
brains  against  the  walls.  The  mania  spread  over  the 
Low  Countries,  and  as  far  south  as  Strasbourg ;  wher- 
ever the  dancers  went,  many  from  contagion  joining 
them.  It  was  remarked  that  this  mania  spread  among 
people  kept  on  a  low  diet,  or  diseased,  mentally  dis- 


SEIVALL    AND    THE   SALEM   WITCIICRAET.        \JJ 

tressed,  and  prone  to  religious  excitements,  all  of 
which  elements  inhered,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the 
Salem  misery.  The  religious  rite  of  exorcism,  as 
then  had,  proved  an  efficacious  remedy,  at  least  in 
the  beginning  of  the  mania  ;  and  Paracelsus,  the 
great  reformer  of  medicine  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
applied  immersion  in  cold  water  with  great  success. 
A  tub  of  cold  water  in  Salem  meeting-house,  well 
used,  would  have  perhaps  changed  some  of  the  sad- 
dest pages  in  our  colonial  history.  A  kindred  mania 
showed  itself  in  1730  at  Paris,  where,  around  the 
tomb  of  a  certain  holy  Francis,  religious  persons 
"threw  themselves  into  the  most  violent  contortions 
of  body,  rolled  about  on  the  ground,  imitated  birds, 
beasts,  and  fishes,  and  at  last,  when  they  had  com- 
pletely spent  themselves,  went  off  in  a  swoon."  Even 
the  king's  order  to  imprison  them  did  not  completely 
stop  the  mischief,  and  in  some  French  country  places 
the  mania  has  shown  itself  in  this  century.  It  is 
submitted  from  all  this  that  the  key  to  the  Salem 
mania  is  here,  and  that  modern  science  will  some 
day  relate  it  to  these  mediaeval  miseries. 

From  all  which,  the  reasonable  conclusion  is,  that 
allowing  for  all  the  evil  which  it  wrought,  and  for  all 
the  baseness  of  any  or  all  the  originators  and  chief 
actors  in  it,  the  Salem  witchcraft  business,  when  re- 
viewed by  the  judicial  mind,  is  entitled  not  so  much 
to  blame  as  pity. 


178  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 


CHAPTER    XL 

CURRENT  NEW  ENGLAND  LIFE  FROM  I /OO  TO  I714. 

"  Wedns'.  Feby.  28,  1700.  We  ship  off  the  iron  chest  of 
gold,  pearls  &c.  40  bales  of  East  India  goods,  13  hogsheads, 
chests  and  case,  one  negro  man  and  an  East  Indian  born  at 
Ceylon.  I  look  upon  it  as  a  great  mercy  of  God,  that  the  store 
house  has  not  been  broken  up,  no  fire  has  happened.  Agreed  in 
the  weight  of  gold  with  our  former  weight  and  had  so  comfort- 
able a  day  at  last  to  finish  our  work.  Cap.  Winn  would  not  give 
a  receipt  till  he  had  them  on  board  the  sloop  Antonio,  which  rid 
off  just  without  the  Outward  Wharf.  Gave  a  receipt  for  the  gold 
at  Cap.  Belchar's  as  soon  as  it  was  weighed." 

This  entry,  of  course,  was  about  the  pirate  Robert 
Kidd's  captured  treasure,  now  in  Boston,  and  thus 
being  sent  away.  For  those  times,  the  amount  was 
large,  especially  of  specie.  He  was  arrested  in  Bos- 
ton, and  ^1,000  in  gold  and  a  bag  of  silver  were 
seized  at  the  same  time.  On  information,  they  sent 
to  Mr.  Gardiner  of  Gardiner's  Island  in  the  Sound, 
and  obtained  gold,  silver,  and  jewels,  left  there  by 
Kidd,  worth  ^4,500,  and  six  bales  of  goods,  one  val- 
ued at  ^2,000  ;  the  total  value  being  about  ;£  14,000. 
Kidd  said  he  had  more  hid,  as  he  probably  had,  and 
if  let  go  at  large  would  recover  ^50,000  to  ^60,000, 
hid  by  himself,  which  no  one  else  could  recover.  He 
was  not  let  go,  for  evident  reasons,  and  Kidd  was 


o 

X 

Q 

< 

o 


u 
^ 


NEW  ENGLAND   LIFE   FROM  1700    TO   1714.       1/9 

hung  as  a  pirate  in  London.  Sewall  and  the  rest 
show  a  curious  nervousness  over  the  handling  and 
preserving  of  the  property  in  their  hands,  possibly 
from  fear  that  Kidd  might  have  accomplices  in  Bos- 
ton, or  that  some  men  in  high  station  might  inter- 
fere surreptitiously,  somehow.  For  Kidd  was  not  a 
mere  vulgar  pirate ;  besides  being  a  sea-captain  of 
ability,  he  had  gone  out  as  a  privateer  under  the  pat- 
ronage of  Lord  Bellomont,  Governor  of  New  York. 
He  was  probably  executed  justly  ;  but  it  should  be 
remembered  that  ever  since  the  European  nations 
had  sent  discoverers  and  traders  to  the  New  World, 
there  was  a  peculiar  state  of  affairs  on  the  high  seas. 
England,  before  and  after  the  Spanish  Armada,  had 
been  often  at  war  with  Spain ;  of  late,  also,  with 
France  and  the  Dutch.  Her  merchant  ships  went 
armed,  and  often  made  more  profit  by  a  capture  on  the 
way  than  by  sales  in  a  friendly  port.  England  had 
also  encouraged  this  semi-belligerent  commerce,  by 
licensing  private  adventurers  and  privateers.  These 
had  often  been  of  great  national  service.  It  was  nat- 
ural, therefore,  that  such  adventurers,  raised  in  such 
rough  commerce,  liable  in  war  times  or  any  other  to 
be  pounced  upon  by  the  ships  of  an  alien  nation,  and 
themselves  consigned  to  a  captivity  worse  than  death, 
should  come  to  have  rather  dulled  consciences  when 
they  sighted  a  ship  on  the  seas,  where  a  stranger,  by 
custom,  was  nearly  always  held  to  be  an  enemy  ;  and 
that  few  were  too  nice  to  fill  their  pockets,  if  they- 
could  do  so  without  risking  their  necks.  Kidd  seems 
to  have  been  a  felon,  but    he  was  an  unlucky  one 


l8o  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

among  a  great  multitude  like  him,  who  managed  to 
die  in  their  beds  in  spite  of  English  law.  There  was 
sometimes  a  crowd  of  such  lawless  men  on  the  New 
England  coast.  Sewall's  Diary  shows  that  armed 
vessels  were  sent  out  after  them  again  and  again  ; 
and,  worst  of  all,  some  of  the  law-breakers  seem  to 
have  been  of  New  England  and  Puritan  stock. 

''The  Selling  of  Joseph,"  Sewall's  anti-slavery  tract, 
was  published  June  24,  1700.  Considering  the  age, 
and  brutal  treatment  of  blacks  by  whites  current 
everywhere  in  the  world  about  him,  and  that  New 
England  then  bought  and  sold  slaves  to  its  heart's 
content,  this  tract  must  always  stand  as  a  monument 
to  Sewall's  foresight  and  magnanimity  of  soul.  It 
runs  thus : — 

"  Forasmuch  as  hberty  is  in  real  value  next  unto  life ;  none 
ought  to  part  with  it  themselves,  or  deprive  others  of  it  but  upon 
most  mature  consideration.  The  numerousness  of  slaves  at  this 
day  in  the  Province  and  the  uneasiness  of  them  under  their  sla- 
very hath  put  many  upon  thinking  whether  the  foundation  of  it 
be  firmly  and  well  laid  ;  so  as  to  sustain  the  vast  weight  that  is 
built  upon  it.  It  is  most  certain  that  all  men  as  they  are  the 
sons  of  Adam,  are  coheirs;  and  have  equal  right  unto  liberty 
and  all  other  outward  comforts  of  life.  God  hath  given  the 
earth  (with  all  its  commodities)  unto  the  sons  of  Adam.  Psalm 
115.  16.  [He  also  quotes  Acts  xvii.  26,  27,  29.]  Now  although 
the  title  given  by  the  last  Adam  doth  infinitely  better  men's  es- 
tates, respecting  God  and  themselves;  and  grants  them  a  most 
beneficial  and  unviolable  lease  under  the  broad  seal  of  Heaven, 
who  were  l)efore  only  tenants  at  will ;  yet  through  the  indulgence 
of  God  to  our  first  parents  after  the  fall,  the  outward  estate  of 
all  and  every  of  their  children  remains  the  same,  as  to  one 
another.  So  that  originally  and  naturally  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  slavery.     Joseph  was  rightfully  no  more  a  slave  to  his  breth- 


NEW  ENGLAND   LIFE   FROM  1700    TO   1714.       l8l 

ren  than  they  were  to  him  ;  and  they  had  no  more  authority  to 
sell  him  than  they  had  to  slay  him.  And  if  they  had  nothing 
to  do  to  sell  him,  the  Ishmaelites  bargaining  with  them  and 
paying  down  twenty  pieces  of  silver  could  not  make  a  title. 
Neither  could  Potiphar  have  any  better  interest  in  him  than 
the  Ishmaelites  had.  Gen.  37.  20,  27,  28,  For  he  that  shall  in 
this  case  plead  alteration  of  property  seems  to  have  forfeited  a 
great  part  of  his  own  claim  to  humanity.  There  is  no  propor- 
tion between  twenty  pieces  of  silver  and  liberty.  The  com- 
modity itself  is  the  claimer.  .  .  .  'Tis  pity  there  should  be 
more  caution  used  in  buying  a  horse  or  a  little  lifeless  dust 
(gold)  than  there  is  in  purchasing  men  and  women  ;  whereas 
they  are  the  offspring  of  God  and  their  liberty  is  '  a?/?'o  pretio- 
sior  o/mii''  (more  precious  than  gold).  And  seeing  that  God 
hath  said  '  He  that  stealeth  a  man  and  selleth  him,  or  if  he  be 
found  in  his  hand,  he  shall  surely  be  put  to  death,'  Exod.  21. 
16.  This  law  being  of  everlasting  equity,  wherein  manstealing 
is  ranked  amongst  the  most  atrocious  of  capital  crimes,  what 
louder  cry  can  be  made  of  that  celebrated  warning,  '  Caveat 
emptor  I '  (let  the  buyer  beware  !). 

"And  all  things  considered,  it  would  conduce  more  to  the 
welfare  of  the  Province  to  have  white  servants  for  a  term  of 
years  than  to  have  slaves  for  life.  Few  can  endure  to  hear  of 
a  negro's  being  made  free  ;  and  indeed  they  can  seldom  use 
their  freedom  well ;  yet  their  continual  aspiring  after  their  for- 
bidden liberty  renders  them  unwilling  servants.  And  there  is 
such  a  disparity  in  their  conditions,  color  and  hair,  that  they 
can  jiever  embody  with  us  and  grow  up  into  orderly  families  to 
the  peopling  of  the  land.  As  many  negroes  as  there  are  among 
us,  so  many  empty  places  are  there  in  our  train  bands,  and  the 
places  taken  up  of  men  that  might  make  husbands  for  our 
daughters.  ...  It  is  likewise  most  lamentable  to  think  how 
in  taking  negroes  out  of  Africa  and  selling  of  them  here  that 
which  God  hath  joined  together  men  do  boldly  rend  asunder ; 
men  from  their  country,  husbands  from  their  wives,  parents 
from  their  children.  How  horrible  is  the  uncleanness,  mor- 
tality if  not  murder,  that  the  ships  are  guilty  of  that  bring  great 
crowds  of  these  miserable  men  and  women.     Methinks  when 


1 82  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

we  are  bemoaning  the  barl^arous  usage  of  our  friends  and  kins- 
folk in  Africa  [Sewall  refers  to  Christians  taken  by  the  Al- 
gerines]  it  might  not  be  unseasonable  to  enquire  whether  we 
are  not  culpable  in  forcing  the  Africans  to  become  slaves  among 
ourselves.  And  it  may  be  a  question,  whether  all  the  benefit 
received  by  negro  slaves  will  balance  the  account  of  cash  laid 
out  upon  them  and  for  the  redemption  of  our  own  enslaved 
friends  out  of  Africa." 

There  is  much  more  like,  which  can  be  read  in  the 
Diary  (vol.  ii.,  p.  i8).  This  is  remarkable  doctrine 
for  the  age  ;  and  the  logic  of  it  made  New  England 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  later  the  hotbed  of  the 
anti-slavery  movement  which  freed  our  slaves. 

"  Jany.  2,  1701.  Just  about  break  a  day  Jacob  Amsden  and 
3  other  trumpeters  gave  a  blast  with  the  trumpets  on  the  Com- 
mon near  Mr.  Alford's.  Then  went  to  the  Green  Chamber  and 
sounded  there  till  about  sunrise.  Bell  man  said  these  verses 
a  little  before  break-a-day  which  I  printed  and  gave  them.  The 
trumpeters  cost  me  five  pieces   f^-" 

These  verses  Sewall  calls  "  My  Verses  on  the  New 
Century,"  and  are  here  given  :  — 

I 

*'  Once  more!     Our  God  vouchsafe  to  shine: 
Tame  thou  the  rigor  of  our  clime. 
Make  haste  with  thy  impartial  light 
And  terminate  this  long  dark  night. 

2 
Let  the  transplanted   English  vine 
Spread  further  still;    still  call  it  thine; 
Prune  it  with  skill :    for  yield   it  can 
More  fruit  to  thee  the  husbandman. 

3 
Give  the  poor  Indians  eyes  to  see 
The  light  of  life  ;    and  set  them  free; 


NEIV  ENGLAND   LIFE   FROM  1700    TO   171 4.       1 83 

That  they  religion  may  profess 
Denying  all  ungodliness. 

4 
From  hard'ned  Jews  the  veil  remove, 
Let  them  their  martyr'd  Jesus  love; 
And  homage  unto  him  afford 
Because  he  is  their  rightful  Lord. 

5 
So  false  religions  shall  decay 
And  darkness  fly  before  bright  day; 
So  men  shall  God  in  Christ  adore; 
And  worship  idols  vain  no  more. 

6 

So  Asia  and  Africa 

Europa  with  America; 

All  four,  in  concert  joined,  shall  sing 

New  songs  of  praise  to  Christ  our  King." 

"  May  29,  1 701.  This  day  a  burlesque  comes  out  upon  Hull 
street,  in  a  travestie  construing  my  Latin  verses.'" 

"Monday,  June  2,  1701.  Mr.  Pemberton  preaches  the 
Artillery  Sermon  from  Luke  3.  14.  Dine  at  Monks.  Because 
of  the  rain  and  mist,  this  day  the  election  is  made  upon  the 
town  house.  Sewall  Capt  ;  Tho.  Hutchinson  Lieut.;  Thos. 
Savage  Jr.  Ensign,  «S:c. ;  Col.  Pynchon  gave  the  staves  and 
ensign.  I  said  was  surprised  to  see  they  had  mistaken  a  sorry 
pruning  hook  for  a  military  spear;  but  paid  such  a  deference 
to  the  company  that  would  rather  run  the  venture  of  exposing 
my  own  inability  than  to  give  any  occasion  to  suspect  I  slighted 
their  call,  &c.  Drew  out  before  Mr.  Usher's,  gave  three  volleys. 
Drew  into  the  town  house  again  ;  sent  Sergt  Chauncey  for  xMr. 
Pemberton  who  said  he  was  glad  to  see  the  staff  in  my  hand ; 
prayed  with  us.  Had  the  company  to  my  house  treated  them 
with  bread,  beer,  wine  sillabubs.  They  ordered  Mr.  Checkley 
and  me  to  thank  Mr.  Pemberton  for  his  sermon,  which  we  did 
on  Tuesday,  desiring  a  copy." 

Sewall  had  long  served  in  other  Boston  companies. 
From  all  which  it  appears  that  on  this  occasion  he 


I  84  SAMUEL  SEWALL. 

had  been  popular  and  hospitable  as  usual ;  had  made 
a  judicious  witty  speech;  had  listened  to  a  current 
Puritan  sermon ;  and  that,  as  usual,  the  Ancient  and 
Honorable  Artillery  Company  had  neither  gone  hun- 
gry nor  dry. 

"  Oct.  20,  1 701.  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  came  to  Mr.  Wilkins' 
shop  and  there  talked  very  sharply  against  me  as  if  I  had  used 
his  father  worse  than  a  neger ;  spake  so  loud  that  people  in  the 
street  might  hear  him.  Then  went  and  told  Sam,  that  one 
pleaded  much  for  negroes  and  he  had  used  his  father  worse 
than  a  negro  and  told  him  that  was  his  (Sam's)  father.  I  had 
read  in  the  morn  Mr.  Dod's  saying  '  Sanctified  afflictions  are 
good  promotions.'  I  found  it  now  a  cordial.  '  When  my  father 
and  my  mother  forsake  me  then  the  Lord  taketh  me  up.'  Oct. 
22.  I  with  Major  Walley  and  Capt  Saml  Checkley  speak  with 
Mr.  Cotton  Mather  at  Mr.  Wilkins'.  I  expostulated  with  him 
from  I  Tim.  5.  i.  Rebuke  not  an  elder.  He  said  he  had  con- 
sidered that.  I  told  him  of  his  book  of  the  Law  of  Kindness 
for  the  Tongue,  whether  this  were  correspondent  with  that. 
Whether  correspondent  with  Christ's  rule.  He  said  having 
spoken  to  me  before  there  was  no  need  to  speak  to  me  again ; 
and  so  justified  his  reviling  me  behind  my  back.  Charged  the 
council  with  lying  hypocrisy,  tricks,  and  I  know  not  what  all. 
I  asked  him  if  it  were  done  with  that  meekness  as  it  should ; 
answered,  yes.  Charged  the  Council  in  general,  and  then  showed 
my  share,  which  was  my  speech  in  Council  viz.  If  Mr.  Mather 
[Increase,  the  father]  should  go  again  to  Cambridge  to  reside 
there  with  a  resolution  not  to  read  the  Scriptures  and  expound 
in  the  Hall,  I  fear  the  example  of  it  will  do  more  hurt  than  his 
going  thither  will  do  good.  This  speech  I  owned.  Said  Mr. 
Corwin  at  Reading,  upbraided  him  saying.  This  is  the  man  you 
dedicate  your  books  to.  I  asked  him  if  I  should  suppose  he 
had  done  something  amiss  in  his  church  as  an  officer,  whether 
it  would  be  well  for  me  to  exclaim  against  him  in  the  street  for 
it.  (Mr.  Wilkins  would  fain  have  had  him  gone  into  the  inner 
room  but  he  would  not.)     I  told  him  I  conceived  he  had  done 


A'EIV  ENGLAND   LIFE   FROM  1700    TO   1711^.       1 85 

much  unbecoming  a  minister  of  the  Gospel  and  being  called  by 
Maxwell  to  the  Council  Major  Walley  and  I  went  thither,  leav- 
ing Capt  Checkley  there. 

"  Oct.  23.  Mr.  Increase  Mather  said  at  Mr.  Wilkins'  If  I  am 
a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ  some  great  judgment  will  fall  on  Capt 
Sewall  or  his  family.  Oct.  24,  I  got  Mr.  Moody  to  copy  out 
my  speech  and  gave  it  to  Mr.  Wilkins  that  all  might  see  what 
was  the  ground  of  Mr.  Mather's  anger.  I  perceive  Mr.  Wilkins 
carried  his  to  Mr.  Mather's.     They  seem  to  grow  calm." 

The  Mathers  were  very  able  men  of  affairs.  In- 
crease Mather  had  been  president  of  Harvard  College, 
and  while  in  that  office,  and  indeed  after,  was  sub- 
stantially the  head  of  the  Puritan  ministers.  Nor 
did  he  ever  knowingly  hide  his  talents  in  a  napkin. 
The  presidency  was  now  vacant,  and  Increase  Mather 
would  go  back  only  on  his  own  terms,  which  were 
not  acceptable  to  men  like  Sewall.  One  of  his  con- 
ditions were,  that  he  should  retain  his  parish,  and 
reside  in  Boston  ;  really,  that  he  should  do  exactly 
as  he  pleased  in  teaching  when,  where,  and  so  much 
as  he  chose.  This  was  evidently  bad  policy  for 
everybody  except  him,  and  it  lost  him  the  place. 
The  Mathers  had  and  gave  always  reasons,  such  as 
they  were,  for  their  will ;  but  the  true  reason  here 
was  undoubtedly  that  Increase  Mather  was  unwilling 
to  give  up  the  flatteries  and  other  perquisites  of  a 
Boston  parish  and  a  residence  at  the  centre  of  affairs 
for  the  seclusion  of  Cambridge.  His  son  very  natu- 
rally took  his  side,  and  both  came  to  grief  accord- 
ingly. Yet  perhaps  no  other  two  men,  father  and 
son,  have  ever  exercised  a  wider  or  a  more  mixed 
influence  on  New  England  affairs  than  they.      In  the 


1 86  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

present  bitter  quarrel,  as  recorded,  Sewall's  com- 
mand of  temper  and  the  equities  of  his  position  had 
very  much  the  best  of  the  son. 

"Monday,  Oct.  6,  1701.  Artillery  trains  in  the  afternoon. 
March  with  the  company  to  the  Elms.  Go  to  prayer.  March 
down  and  shoot  at  a  mark.  By  far  the  most  missed,  as  I  did  for 
the  first.  Were  much  contented  with  the  exercise.  I  asked  their 
acceptance  of  a  half  pike  which  they  very  kindly  did.  They 
would  needs  give  me  a  volley  in  token  of  their  respect  on  this 
occasion.  The  pike  will,  I  suppose,  stand  me  in  forty  shillings, 
being  headed  and  shod  with  silver." 

A  Latin  motto  was  engraved  on  it. 

"Oct.  28,  1701.  Mr.  William  Atwood  takes  the  oaths  &c. 
to  qualify  himself  to  exercise  his  authority  here  as  Judge  of  the 
Admiralty.  He  asked  for  a  Bible  ;  but  Mr.  Cook  said  it  was  our 
custom  to  lift  up  the  hand ;  then  he  said  no  more  but  used  that 
ceremony.  Thus  a  considerable  part  of  executive  authority  is 
now  gone  out  of  the  hands  of  New  England  men." 

"Idem.  My  wife  treats.  Boiled  pork,  beef,  fowls:  very 
good  roastbeef,  turkey  pie,  tarts." 

"  Feby.  21,  1702.  Cap.  Timo  Clark  tells  me  that  a  line  drawn 
to  the  Comet  strikes  just  upon  Mexico,  spake  of  a  revolution 
there,  how  great  a  thing  it  would  be.  This  blaze  had  put  me 
much  in  mind  of  Mexico.  I  have  long  prayed  for  Mexico  and 
of  late  in  those  words  that  God  would  open  the  Mexican  foun- 
tain." 

Sewall  was  always  looking  to  the  conversion  of  the 
world,  especially  of  the  Roman  world,  and  of  course 
to  the  conversion  of  the  Spanish  colonies  to  the 
south  of  him. 

"  May  4,  1702.  Artillery  company  trains  ;  rainy  day.  Marched 
out  and  shot  at  a  mark.  Before  they  began  I  told  them  that  I 
had  called  them  to  shoot  in  October,  and  had  not  mvself  hit  the 


NEW  ENGLAND   LIFE   FRO.M  1700    TO  ITl^.       1 8/ 

butt.  I  was  willing  to  bring  myself  under  a  small  fine,  such  as 
a  single  Justice  might  set ;  and  it  should  be  to  him  who  made 
the  best  shot.  I  judged  for  Ensign  Noyes  and  gave  him  a  silver 
cup  1  had  engraven ;  telling  him  it  was  in  token  for  the  value  I 
had  for  that  virtue  in  others  which  I  myself  could  not  attain  to. 
Marched  into  the  Common  and  concluded  with  prayer.'" 

"May  28,  1702.  Buffington  from  Newfoundland  brings 
prints  of  the  King's  death  March  8  at  8  M.  Queen's  speech  to 
her  Lords  at  S'  James.  Then  we  resolved  to  proclaim  her 
Majesty  here,  which  was  done  accordingly  below  the  town 
house.  Regiment  drawn  up  and  Life  Guard  of  horse,  Council, 
representatives,  ministers,  justices,  gentlemen  taken  within  the 
Guard.  Mr.  Secretary,  on  foot,  read  the  order  of  the  Council 
&c.  Mr.  Sheriff  Gookin  gave  it  to  the  people.  Volleys,  guns. 
Went  into  the  chamber  to  drink  &c." 

This  entry  marks  the  death  of  King  William  and 
the  enthronement  of  Queen  Anne,  both  events  affect- 
ing the  politics  and  administration  of  the  Province, 
and  that,  on  the  whole,  not  favorably. 

Next  comes  the  new  governor. 

"June  II.  Thursday  before  I  was  dressed  Sam  gave  the 
word  that  Gov.  Joseph  Dudley  was  come.  Go  with  Capt  Crofts 
in  his  pinnace  to  meet  the  Governor  and  congratulate  his  arrival. 
We  get  aboard  a  little  before  he  got  within  Point  Alderton. 
Capt  Heron  introduced  us.  After  all  had  saluted  the  Governor 
I  said,  Her  Majesty's  Council  of  this  Province  have  commanded 
us  to  meet  your  Excellency  and  congratulate  your  safe  arrival  in 
the  Massachusetts  Bay,  in  quality  of  our  governor ;  which  we 
do  very  heartily,  not  only  out  of  obedience  to  our  masters  who 
sent  us,  but  also  of  our  own  accord.  The  clothes  your  Excel- 
lency sees  us  wear  [they  were  in  court  mourning  for  King 
William]  are  a  true  indication  of  our  inward  grief  for  the 
departure  of  King  William.  Yet  we  desire  to  remember  with 
thankfulness  the  goodness  of  God,  who  lias  at  this  time  peace- 
ably placed  Queen  Anne  upon  the  throne.    And  as  her  Majesty's 


1 8 8"  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

name  imports  grace  so  we  trust  God  will  show  her  Majesty  favor ; 
and  her  Majesty  us.  And  we  look  upon  your  Excellency's  being 
sent  to  us  as  a  very  fair  first-fruit  of  it,  for  which  we  bless  God 
and  Queen  Anne." 

All  of  which  is  no  doubt  very  graceful  official 
courtesy,  with  the  usual  modicum  of  sincerity.  Ex- 
cept as  it  interested  the  welfare  of  the  Province,  it  is 
very  doubtful  whether  Sewall  and  his  associates 
cared  a  straw  who  reigned  in  England  ;  and  Dudley 
very  soon  found  out  of  what  tough  fibre  these  men 
were  who  stood  before  him,  whenever  he  crossed 
their  policy,  as  he  often  did.  But  in  making  his 
bow,  Sewall  kept  his  eyes  wide  open  for  signs,  good 
or  bad,  in  the  governor's  surroundings. 

"The  Lt  Governor  a  stranger  sent,  whom  we  knew  nor 
heard  anything  of  before.  [Povey,  the  one  referred  to,  made 
not  a  long  stay,  returning  in  1705.]     I  saw  an  ancient  minister, 

enquiring  who  it  was,  Governor  said  it  was  G Keith,  had 

converted  many  in  England  [to  the  Church  of  England,  of 
course]  and  now  Bishop  of  London  had  sent  him  hither  with 
salary  of  200  guineas  p^  annum.  I  looked  on  him  as  Helena 
[probably  Helen  of  Troy  who  made  so  much  mischief].  This 
man  [mark  the  unsavory  title]  craved  a  blessing  and  returned 
thanks  though  there  was  the  Chaplain  of  the  ship  and  another 
minister  on  board." 

There  was  also  one  other  significant  and  distaste- 
ful observation  that  Sewall  made  :  — 

"  Governor  has  a  very  large  wigg."  "  Drink  healths  ;  about 
one  and  twenty  guns  fired  as  we  leave  the  ship  and  cheers ; 
then  Capt  Scott  and  another  ship  fired.  Castle  fired  many 
guns  ;  landed  at  Scarlet's  wharf,  where  the  Council  and  regi- 
ment waited  for  us  ;  just  before  we  came  to  the  North  Meeting 


NEW  ENGLAND   LIEE   FROM  1700    TO   1714.       1 89 

house,  clock  strick  five.  Marched  to  the  town  house.  There 
before  the  court,  ministers  and  as  many  else  as  could  crowd  in 
the  Governors  and  D  Governor's  commissions  were  published ; 
they  took  their  oaths  laying  their  hands  on  the  Bible  and  after, 
kissing  it.     Had  a  great  treat." 

There  was  a  Bible  here,  it  will  be  observed,  though 
the  poor  king's  attorney,  Atwood,  a  short  time  before, 
on  his  oath-taking  in  Boston  full  of  Bibles,  was  not 
granted  one.  But  then,  Dudley  was  nearer  the 
throne,  and  no  man  to  be  trifled  with,  being  of 
Puritan  stock  himself. 

"Just  about  dark  troops  guarded  the  Governor  to  Roxbury. 
He  rode  in  Major  Hobby's  coach  drawn  with  six  horses  richly 
harnessed."  "June  28.  Governor  partakes  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
at  Roxbury.  In  the  afternoon  goes  to  Boston  to  hear  Mr.  Myles 
[the  Church  of  England  minister  at  King's  Chapel]  who  in- 
veighed vehemently  against  schism.  June  29.  The  governor 
refused  to  let  us  give  our  Yes  and  No  in  papers." 

This  last  entry  is  significant  of  Dudley.  He  laid 
a  firm  hand  on  the  helm,  but  under  was  a  crank  Pu- 
ritan ship. 

"  Oct.  26,  1702.  Billerica.  Visited  languishing  Mr.  Samo 
Whiting,  I  gave  him  2  balls  of  chocolate  and  a  pound  of  figgs 
which  he  very  kindly  accepted." 

"Dec.  30,  1702.  I  was  weighed  in  Col.  Byfield's  scales,  193 
pounds  net.  Col.  B  weighed  63  pounds  more  than  1 :  had  only 
my  close  coat  on.  The  Lord  add  or  take  away  from  this  our 
corporeal  weight,  so  as  shall  be  most  advantageous  for  our  spir- 
itual growth." 

"  Feb.  3,  1703.  I  carried  the  news  to  Salem  that  was  brought 
by  Andrew  Wilson  from  Oporto,  eight  weeks,  of  the  extraordi- 
nary success  of  our  fleet  against  the  Flota  in  the  river  of  Vigg, 
which  we  first  heard  of  in  part  by  the  way  of  Cork." 


190  SAMUEL   SEW  ALL. 

This  news  was  the  success  of  the  Dutch  and  Eng- 
lish against  the  Spanish  treasure  fleet,  the  2  2d  of 
October,  when  much  booty  was  had. 

"Tuesday,  Feby-  16,  1703.  2  P.M.  Town  meeting  at  Boston 
to  choose  representatives.  Mr.  Cohnan  prayed.  Voters  459. 
This  was  the  most  unanimous  election  that  I  remember  to  have 
seen  in  Boston  and  the  most  voters." 

"  March  16,  1703.  Though  all  things  look  horribly  winterly 
by  reason  of  a  great  storm  of  snow,  hardly  yet  over  and  much  on 
the  ground  ;  yet  the  robins  cheerfully  utter  their  notes  this  morn. 
So  should  we  patiently  and  cheerfully  sing  the  praises  of  God 
and  hope  in  his  mercies  though  stormed  by  the  last  efforts  of 
Anti-Christ." 

"April  15,  1703.  I  heard  Mr.  Sherman  had  run  a  line  within 
mine  at  Kibbe's.  I  got  Deacon  Moss,  Thos  Holbrook,  Ebenezr 
Leland  to  go  with  me  ;  Fairbank  was  also  there.  Went  to  my 
bounds,  asserted  them,  in  the  presence  of  Mr.  Lynde's  tenants 
whom  I  sent  for,  then  ordered  Kibbe  to  pull  up  the  stakes.  Told 
Mr.  Lynde's  tenants  what  my  bounds  were,  and  that  within  them 
was  my  land  ;  forewarned  them  of  coming  there  to  set  any  stakes 
or  cut  any  wood."' 

"July  5,  1703.  Coming  home  from  Cambridge  I  ordered 
Mr.  Sheriff  to  take  up  a  scurvy  post  out  of  the  middle  of  the 
highway  that  had  been  a  nuisance  for  many  years.  Gave  his  son 
a  shilling  for  his  pains." 

"Lord's  Day,  April  23,  1704.  There  is  great  firing  at  the 
town,  ships,  Castle  upon  account  of  its  being  the  Coronation 
Day,  which  gives  offence  to  many,  to  see  the  Lord's  Day  so  pro- 
faned.    Down  Sabbath,  up  St.  George." 

"  June  30,  1704.  After  dinner,  aboiit  3  P.M.  went  to  see  the 
execution.  [Pirates.]  Many  were  the  people  I  saw  upon  Brough- 
ton's  Hill.  But  when  I  came  to  see  how  the  river  was  covered 
with  people  I  was  amazed.  Some  say  there  were  100  boats.  150 
boats  and  canoes  saith  Cousin  Moody  of  York.  He  told  them. 
Mr.  Cotton  Mather  came  with  Cap^  Ouelch  and  six  others  for 
execution  from  the  prison  to  Scarlet's  wharf,  and  from  thence  in 
the  boat  to  the  place  of  execution.     [The  place  was  on  the  Bos- 


NEW  EiVGLAND    LIFE    FROM  1700    7'0    1714.       IQI 

ton  side  of  the  Charles  River  flats.]  Mr.  Bridge  [a  minister] 
was  also  there.  When  the  scaffold  was  hoisted  to  a  due  height 
the  seven  malefactors  went  up  ;  Mr.  Mather  prayed  for  them 
standing  upon  the  boat.  When  the  scaffold  was  let  to  sink  there 
was  such  a  screech  of  the  women  that  my  wife  heard  it,  sit- 
ting in  our  entry  next  the  orchard  and  was  much  surprised  at 
it;  yet  the  wind  was  S.W.  Our  house  is  a  full  mile  from  the 
place." 

Once  for  all,  we  may  remark  on  the  Puritan  treat- 
ment of  criminals  condemned  to  death.  The  judges 
often  prayed  and  preached  on  passing  sentence.  On 
Sunday  preceding  an  execution,  or  at  the  Thursday 
Lecture,  the  doomed  culprit,  heavily  chained,  was  the 
subject  of  direct  and  special  prayer  and  exhortation, 
and  often  of  sharp  objurgation,  in  the  meeting-house 
crowded  with  curious,  excited,  and  morbid  spectators. 
Then  followed  the  public  procession,  with  the  dread 
ministrations  of  law,  through  the  streets,  the  crimi- 
nal being  drawn  in  a  cart,  with  his  cofifin  behind  him. 
Women,  shrieking  and  swooning,  mingled  in  the 
throng  which  extended  from  the  foot  of  the  scaffold 
as  far  as  the  wretched  spectacle  was  visible  ;  and  a 
broadside  of  gallows  literature  was  peddled  about. 
The  Boston  paper  of  that  date  said  :  "  There  were 
sermons  preached  in  their  hearing  every  day.  And 
prayers  daily  made  with  them.  And  they  were  cate- 
chised. And  they  had  many  occasional  exhortations." 
If  the  criminals  were  hardened  men,  all  this  must 
have  been  a  slow  torture,  and  they  would  have  much 
preferred  to  be  let  alone.  This  batch  of  pirates  was 
thought  to  have  died  very  obdurately  and  im peni- 
tently, hardened  in  their  sin.     Captain  Ouelch,  in  his 


192  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

dying  speech,  in  a  vein  of  grim  humor  warned  the 
bystanders  to  beware  "how  they  brought  money 
into  New  England  to  be  hanged  for  it."  Some  of 
these  were  probably  of  New  England  stock,  and  the 
captain's  words  may  illustrate  what  has  been  before 
said  of  the  sea  ethics  of  privateers  and  adventurers. 
This  account  is  mainly  from  the  notes  in  the  Diary, 
vol.  ii.,  pp.  109,  1 10,  III. 

Se wall's  Diary  connects  him  in  another  way  with 
sea-robbers.  He  was  greatly  interested  in  the  fate 
of  New  England  Christians  taken  and  made  slaves 
by  the  Mohammedan  pirates  of  the  Barbary  States. 
So,  apparently,  were  the  public  ;  yet,  except  in  Sewall, 
slight  traces  remain  of  this  Christian  philanthropy. 
Joshua  Gee  was  one  of  these  captives  who,  as  the 
record  shows,  apparently  was  ransomed  and  returned 
to  Boston,  where  he  was  a  carpenter,  and  a  man  in 
whom  Sewall  always  took  an  interest. 

"  I  am  sorry  [he  writes]  that  there  is  no  news  of  honest 
Joshua  Gee.  The  Turks'  unjust  detaining  of  him  I  believe 
helps  to  add  some  drops  to  those  vials  God  is  pouring  out  upon 
them." 

"  A  friend  of  mine  Mr.  Joshua  Gee  who  drank  of  Algier 
water  and  is  good  after  it.  He  is  a  good  man  and  has  as  con- 
siderable business  as  most  carpenters  in  town."' 

Again  he  writes  :  — 

"  Twould  be  a  very  noble  undertaking  for  the  English  nation 
for  to  redeem  these  miserable  slaves ;  as  it  seems  there  is  a 
report  of  such  a  thing.  I  pray  you  to  use  suitable  applications 
that  if  there  be  any  bounty  money,  ours,  i.e.  the  New  England 
captives,  may  share  in  it." 


NEW  EA^GLAND   LIEE   FROM  1700    TO   17 14.       1 93 

"  March  29,  1703.  By  her  Majesty's  bounty  all  the  captives 
are  redeemed  out  of  Salle." 

« 

Under  date  of  March  29,  1699,  there  is  an  inter- 
esting record  in  Sewall's  Letter  Book  of  moneys 
collected  for  one  Thomas  Thatcher  of  Yarmouth, 
apparently  a  captive  :  — 

*'  His  relations  ;!^5o. 
Joshua  Gee  ;^5o. 
Hingham  ;^io. 
Barnstable  £?>.  14. 
Sandwich  ;i^3.  8. 

Yarmouth,  Eastham  Harwich  £16.  5. 
Judith  Thatcher  £g.  11. 
By  a  friend  7sh. 

From  some  correspondence  over  this  fund  thus 
raised  it  would  seem  as  if  "poor  Thatcher,"  as 
Sewall  names  him,  died  before  delivery. 

"  Jany.  26,  1705.  Mr.  Hirst  and  I  went  to  Brookline  to  see 
my  little  granddaughter  Rebecca  Sewall.  He  and  I  were  on 
horseback.  Had  some  difficulty  in  going  because  of  some  deep 
descents  between  banks  of  snow.  But  went  and  came  very 
well.     Blessed  be  God.     Feby.  24.     Singing  of  birds  is  come." 

"March  26.  Set  out  for  Barker's,  a  soldier  from  Deerfield 
accompanied  us  with  his  fusee." 

Sewall  was  now  probably  going  from  Weymouth 
to  Plymouth  to  hold  court.  The  soldier  for  a  guard 
shows  the  danger  from  Indians. 

"  March  6,  1706.  At  night  a  great  ship  of  370  tuns,  building 
at  Salem  runs  off  her  blocking  and  pitches  ahead  16  foot.  Her 
deck,  not  bolted  off,  falls  in  and  opens  at  the  bows  ;  so  that 


194  SAMUEL   SEW  ALL. 

'twill  cost  a  great  deal  to  bring  her  right  agen ;  and  Capt  Dows 
thinks  she  will  be  hundreds  of  pounds  the  worse." 

"Lord's  Day,  June  15,  1707.  I  felt  myself  dull  and  heavy 
and  listless  as  to  spiritual  good  ;  carnal,  lifeless  ;  I  sighed  to 
God  that  he  would  quicken  me."  "June  16.  My  house  was 
broken  open  in  two  places,  and  about  twenty  pounds  worth  of 
plate  stolen  away,  and  some  Imen ;  my  spoon  and  knife  and 
neckcloth  was  taken.  I  said,  is  not  this  an  answer  to  prayer  ? 
Jane  came  up  and  gave  us  the  alarm  betime  in  the  morn.  I 
was  helped  to  submit  to  Christ's  stroke  and  say  '  Welcome 
Christ.'"  "  June  19.  The  measuring  bason  is  found  with  Mar- 
garet Barton,  just  carrying  it  off  to  sea,  to  Hingham  ;  said  she  had 
it  of  James  Hews,  he  gave  it  her  to  sell  for  him.  Mr.  Secretary 
sent  her  to  prison."  "June  21.  Billy  Cowell's  shop  is  entered 
by  the  chimney  and  a  considerable  quantity  of  plate  stolen.  I 
gave  him  a  warrant  to  the  constable,  they  find  James  Hews  hid  in 
the  hay  in  Cabal's  barn,  on  the  back  side  of  the  Common  ;  while 
they  was  seizing  of  him  under  the  hay,  he  stripped  off  his 
pocket,  which  was  quickly  after  found  and  Cowell's  silver  in  it." 

"  Sep.  8.  [He  was  now  apparently  on  the  South  Circuit,  Plym- 
outh Colony.]  Midweek  sentenced  a  woman  that  whipped  a 
man  to  be  whipped ;  said  a  woman  that  had  lost  her  modesty 
was  like  salt  that  had  lost  its  savor ;  good  for  nothing  but  to 
be  cast  to  the  dunghill ;  —  seven  or  eight  joined  together,  called 
the  man  out  of  his  bed,  guilefully  praying  him  to  show  them  the 
way;  then  by  help  of  a  negro  youth,  tore  off  his  clothes  and 
whipped  him  with  rods  ;  to  chastise  him  for  carrying  it  harshly 
to  his  wife." 

"  Oct.  The  five  stone  posts  are  set  up  in  our  front.  I  went 
to  Brookline  and  chose  some  apple  trees  from  which  my  son  is 
to  send  me  apples." 

"  June,  1708.  There  was  an  enquiry  by  the  magistrates  as  to 
'  debaucheries  at  North's,  the  Exchange  tavern.'  As  the  upshot 
a  certain  young  man  is  fined  20^  for  lying;  5-^  curse;  10^  breach 
of  the  peace  for  throwing  the  pots  and  scale  box  at  the  maid 
and  bound  over  to  keep  the  peace." 

"  Lord's  Day,  Aug.  29,  1708,  about  4  P.M.  An  express  brings 
the  news,  the  doleful  news  of  the  surprise  of  Haverhill  by  150 


NEIV  ENGLAND   LIFE   FROM  1700    TO   1714.       195 

French  and  Indians.  Mr.  Rolf  and  his  wife  and  family  slain. 
About  break  of  day  these  words  run  much  in  my  mind,  I  will 
smite  the  Shepherd  and  the  Sheep  shall  be  scattered.  What 
a  dreadful  scattering  is  here  of  poor  Haverhill  flock  upon  the 
very  day  they  used  to  have  their  solemn  assemblies.*^ 

"  Dec""  7,  1705.  Went  to  Brookline,  set  out  about  noon,  saw 
the  Governor  [Dudley]  at  his  fence  who  invited  me  in  to  dinner, 
&c.  Passed  on.  After  dinner  met  the  Governor  upon  the  plain 
near  Sol  Phipps  ;  told  me  of  what  happened  on  the  road,  being 
in  a  great  passion ;  threatened  to  send  those  that  affronted  him 
to  England." 

This  simple  entry  in  the  Diary  stands  for  one 
of  the  most  singular  and  perhaps  grotesque  events 
put  on  record  by  Sewall,  which,  as  illustrating  the 
sturdiness  and  wilfulness  of  the  old  New  England 
stock,  is  worth  recounting.  The  simple  fact  was 
that  two  farmers,  with  two  carts  with  wood,  refused 
in  a  rather  narrow  and  snowy  lane  to  turn  out  for 
the  governor's  chariot  as  he  rode  on  public  busi- 
ness ;  and  so  a  ludicrous  and  rather  dangerous  fracas 
ensued.  The  affidavits  on  both  sides  have  been 
preserved,  and  they  show  that  somebody  lied  or  had 
gone  quite  daft  over  the  fray.  The  governor,  un- 
doubtedly an  exceedingly  choleric  man,  insisted  that 
the  queen's  justices  of  her  Majesty's  Superior  Court 
should  make  it  a  case  of  high  treason  ;  which,  if  as- 
sented to,  would  have  put  the  two  farmers  in  a  very 
awkward  position.  Dudley  swore  that  while  he  was 
taking  his  journey  toward  New  Hampshire  and  the 
Province  of  Maine,  for  her  Majesty's  immediate  ser- 
vice there,  having  dismissed  his  guards,  about  a  mile 
from  home  he  met  two  carts  in  the  road,  loaden  with 


196  SAMUJiL   SJiWALL. 

wood,  the  carters,  he  is  since  informed,  being  Win- 
chester and  Trowbridge ;  that  his  chariot  had  three 
sitters  and  three  servants  depending,  with  trunks 
and  portmantles  for  the  journey,  drawn  by  four 
horses,  one  very  unruly,  and  he  was  attended  only 
that  instant  by  Mr.  Wm.  Dudley,  the  governor's 
son  ;  that  seeing  the  carts  approach,  he  directed  his 
son  to  bid  them  give  him  tlie  way,  because  his  chariot 
was  not  fit  to  ])reak  the  way;  that  his  son  told  them 
this  ;  that  then  the  second  carter  came  to  the  other's 
hclj),  and  one  said  he  would  not  go  out  of  the  way  for 
the  governor ;  whereupon  the  latter  came  out  of  the 
chariot  and  bade  Winchester  give  way,  who  said 
boldly,  simply,  '*  I  am  as  good  flesh  and  blood  as 
you ;  I  will  not  give  way.  You  may  go  out  of  the 
way."  Came  towards  the  governor  ;  that  thereupon 
the  latter  drew  his  sword  to  secure  himself  and  com- 
mand the  road,  and  went  forward,  yet  without  either 
saying  or  intending  to  hurt  the  carters,  or  once  point- 
ing or  i)assing  at  them,  and  again  commanded  them 
to  give  way  ;  that  thereupon  Winchester  answered 
that  he  was  a  Christian,  and  would  not  give  way, 
but  advanced,  and  at  length  laid  hold  on  the  governor, 
and  broke  the  sword  in  his  hand  ;  that  very  soon 
after  came  a  justice  of  peace  and  sent  the  carters 
to  prison.  Dudley  further  informed  the  justices,  as 
an  additional  and  culpable  insolence,  that  they  would 
not  give  their  names  nor  once  pull  off  their  hats. 
All    lliis  he  averred  on  his   honor  as  governor. 

The    other    side   swore    to  a   \'ery   different    story, 
denying   substantially  all   the   governor's  averments, 


NEW  ENGLAND   LIEE   FROM  1700    TO   1714,       19/ 

and  making  themselves  out  very  well-behaved  and  in- 
nocent victims  of  the  governor's  unreasonable  wrath. 
They  claimed  that  they  couldn't  turn  out  ;  and  that 
all  the  violence  was  on  the  other  side.  John  Win- 
chester swore  that  Dudley  tried  to  stab  his  horse  and 
him.  "  The  Governor  followed  me  with  his  drawn 
sword,  and  said,  *  Run  the  dogs  through,'  and  with 
his  naked  sword  stabbed  me  in  the  back  ;  he  struck 
me  on  the  head  with  his  sword,  giving  me  a  bloody 
wound.  I  then,  expecting  to  be  killed  dead  on  the 
spot,  to  prevent  his  Excellency  from  such  a  bloody 
act  in  the  heat  of  his  passion,  I  catcht  hold  on  his 
sword  and  it  broke  ;  but  in  his  furious  rage  he  struck 
me  divers  blows  with  the  hilt  and  piece  of  sword 
remaining  in  his  hand,  wounding  me  on  the  hands 
therewith  ;  while  I  called  on  the  byestanders  to  take 
notice  that  what  I  did  was  in  defence  of  my  life. 
Then  the  Governor  said,  *You  lie,  you  dog;  you  lie, 
you  divil,'  repeating  the  same  words  divers  times. 
Then  said  I  such  words  don't  become  a  Christian  ; 
his  Excellency  replied,  '  A  Christian,  you  dog,  a 
Christian,  you  divil  !  I  was  a  Christian  before  you 
were  born.' "  Thomas  Trowbridge  swore  that  he 
was  stabbed  in  the  hip,  and  was  lashed  with  his  own 
cartwhip,  as  Winchester  had  been  just  before. 

After  their  affidavits,  one  wonders  that  they  were 
not  all  killed  on  the  spot,  or  died  soon  of  their 
wounds  in  the  prison.  Yet  for  aught  we  know,  they 
died  of  old  age  in  their  bed.  But  they  had  good 
reason  to  rue  this  collision  with  the  governor.  Their 
fathers  sued  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  rather  tardily 


198  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

granted.  They  could  procure  no  counsel,  probably 
because  of  the  Dudley  influence.  Some  would  have 
had  ;£^500  and  more  sureties  ;  but  they  were  finally 
bound  over  to  the  Superior  Court  in  ^300  bail  and 
three  suretees,  each  ^100.  Sewall,  whose  son  had 
married  Dudley's  daughter,  was  put  in  as  a  justice, 
—  a  rather  delicate  position  in  the  affair,  —  but  he 
evidently  stood  the  carters'  friend,  and  writes  in  his 
Diary  :  — 

"  I  am  glad  that  I  have  been  instrumental  to  open  the  prison 
to  these  two  young  men,  that  they  might  repair  to  their  wives 
and  children  and  occasions  and  might  have  liberty  to  assemble 
with  God's  people  on  the  Lord's  Day." 

The  young  men,  evidently  Puritans  in  politics,  very 
possibly  consoled  themselves  with  the  reflection  that, 
after  all,  they  didn't  turn  out  for  the  governor's 
chariot.  The  matter  passed  in  among  the  clergy  and 
the  gentry,  and  after  nigh  a  year,  at  a  session  of  the 
Superior  Court,  Nov.  5,  1706,  four  justices  being 
present,  "they  were  discharged  by  solemn  proclama- 
tion. 

"  Nov"".  I.  Governor  Dudley's  best  horse  dies  in  his  pasture 
at  Roxbury  as  go  to  Dedham.  Governor  calls  and  smokes  a 
jDipe  with  my  wife  at  night."     [Hannah  Sewall  was  now  ill.] 

"  Jany.  6,  1709.  Presently  after  Lecture  the  act  of  Parliament 
regulating  coin  is  published  by  beat  of  drum  and  sound  of  trum- 
pet. In  Council  a  Spaniard's  petition  is  read  praying  his  free- 
dom." 

It  would  appear  from  the  record  here  that  this 
Spaniard  was  in  peril  of  being  held  as  a  slave  on  the 
ground  of  his  olive  complexion,  all  men  of  that  color. 


NEIV  ENGLAND   LIFE   FROM  1700    TO   1714.       1 99 

his  claimant  argued,  being  .slaves.  The  man  was 
probably  freed,  though  no  further  mention  is  made  of 
him. 

"  April  7.  The  taking  of  several  vessels  laden  with  provis- 
ions on  the  back  of  the  Cape  over  against  Eastham  last  Wednes- 
day makes  the  town  very  sad."' 

"May  2.  Being  Artillery  day  and  Mr.  Higginson  dead 
[their  agent  in  London]  I  put  on  my  mourning  rapier ;  and  put 
a  black  ribbon  into  my  little  cane." 

"  Nov.  19.  Very  cold.  Have  the  news  of  the  great  battle; 
Confederates  beat  the  French." 

This  was  the  battle  Malplaquet  won  by  Marlborough 
and  Prince  Eugene  over  Marshal  Villars.  Thus  the 
struggle  between  the  Gaul  and  the  Briton  for  the 
possession  of  North  America  was  now  proceeding  on 
both  continents,  and  Sewall's  Diary  makes  brief  but 
frequent  mention  of  its  epochs. 

"March  27,  1710.  [He  was  now  on  a  journey  in  Plymouth 
Colony.]  Am  much  disheartened  by  the  snow  on  the  ground 
and  that  which  was  falling  there  being  a  dismal  face  of  winter. 
Yet  the  sun  breaking  out  I  stood  along  about  10  M.  Every- 
thing looked  so  wild  with  snow  on  the  ground  and  trees  that 
was  in  pain  lest  I  should  wander." 

Passages  like  the  above  are  rare  in  Sewall's  Diary. 
Yet  he  had  a  keen  vision  for  what  he  chooses  to 
look  at.  He  must  have  seen  in  those  wild  ways  he 
travelled  many  wonderful  sun  rises  and  sets  ;  and 
the  spring  woods,  then  as  now,  must  have  been  full 
of  flowers  and  beauty.  Yet  his  Diary  is  bare  of  any 
record  thereof.  Rainbows  and  lightnings,  eclipses 
of  the  moon  and  hailstorms,  he  knows  and  respects. 


200  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

But  did  he  never  see  the  Northern  Lights,  or  the 
splendid  but  mighty  flower-garden  of  New  England 
autumn  forests,  stretching  up  and  along  the  moun- 
tain sides  ?  He  gives  no  mention ;  and  indeed  the 
reasons  for  the  relations  of  the  Puritan  mind  to  what 
we  call,  for  want  of  a  better  name,  the  Beautiful, 
despite  John  Ruskin's  attempted  explanation,  is  one 
of  the  more  recondite  of  psychological  problems. 

"  April  30.  Last  night  the  rudder  of  Cap*  Rose's  ship  was 
cut.  The  reason  was  Capt  Belchar's  sending  of  her  away  laden 
with  wheat  in  this  time  when  wheat  is  so  dear.  May  i.  Forty 
or  fifty  men  get  together  and  seek  somebody  to  head  them  to 
hale  Capt  Rose's  ship  ashore ;  but  were  dissuaded  by  several 
sober  men  to  desist,  which  they  did.  May  2.  This  midweek 
morn  Mr.  Pemberton  stood  in  his  gate  and  occasioned  my  going 
in  with  him.  He  spake  very  warmly  against  the  unlawful  as- 
sembly ;  I  said  such  motions  ought  to  be  suppressed ;  the  thing 
should  be  thoroughly  and  effectually  dealt  in.  I  said  'twas  an 
ill  office  in  Capt  Belchar  to  send  away  so  great  a  quantity  of 
wheat  [about  6,000  bushels,  besides  bread]  in  this  scarce  time. 
Mr.  Pemberton  said  I  cherished  those  evil  seditious  motions  by 
saying  so.  I  said  he  unjustly  charged  me.  He  that  withholds 
corn,  the  people  will  curse  him  though  I  did  not  affirm  that 
Scripture  justified  the  rioters.  I  mentioned  something  of  God's 
people,  that  though  they  brought  themselves  into  straits  by  their 
own  fault  yet  God  pitied  and  helped  them.  Mr.  Pemberton  said 
with  much  fierceness  they  were  not  God's  people  but  the  Devil's 
people  that  wanted  corn.  There  was  corn  to  be  had  ;  if  they 
had  not  impoverished  themselves  by  rum  they  might  buy  corn. 
I  was  stricken  with  this  furious  expression." 

In  all  this,  Sewall  seems  to  show  a  clearer  head 
and  a  warmer  heart  than  his  pastor,  who  aj^pears  in 
the   Diary  as    a  rather  splenetic   and  wrong-headed 


•J 


NEW  ENGLAND   LIFE   FROM  1700    TO   1714.      20I 

man,  ready  to  take  offence  and  to  blame.  After 
more  than  a  usual  bitter  taste  of  his  parson's  vituper- 
ations, Sewall  writes  :  — 

"  These  things  made  me  pray  earnestly  and  with  great  con- 
cern that  God  would  vouchsafe  to  be  my  Shepherd  and  perform 
what  is  mentioned  in  the  23d  Psalm,  that  he  would  not  leave 
me  behind  in  my  stragglings  but  bring  me  safely  to  his  Heavenly 
Fold." 

The  Puritan  parsons  had  a  way  of  fighting  their 
battles  by  praying  or  not  praying  for  the  authorities, 
judges,  and  the  like,  according  to  their  pleasure. 
On  the  Sunday  following  the  occasion  referred  to, 
Sewall  notes  with  regret  that  his  pastor  ordered  the 
singing  of  the  first  five  verses  of  the  Fifty-eighth 
Psalm. 

"  I  think  if  I  had  been  in  his  place  and  had  been  kindly  and 
tenderly  aifectioned  I  should  not  have  done  it  at  this  time.  'Tis 
certain  one  may  make  libels  of  David's  Psalms  ;  and  if  a  person 
be  abused  there  is  no  remedy ;  I  desire  to  leave  it  to  God  who 
can  and  will  judge  righteously." 

If  Tate  and  Brady's  version  of  that  Psalm  was  sung, 
this  was  a  sample  of  what  Judge  Sewall  was  obliged 
to  listen  to  :  — 

I 

"  Speak,  O  ye  judges  qf  the  earth, 
if  just  your  sentence  be : 
Or  must  not  innocence  appeal 
to  Heaven  from  your  decree  ? 
2 
Your  wicked  hearts  and  judgments  are 

alike  by  malice  swayed; 
Your  griping  hands  by  weighty  bribes 
to  violence  betrayed." 


202  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

And  much  more,  and  worse,  of  the  same  sort.  Is 
not  here,  in  such  clerical  conduct,  one  reason  for  the 
decline  of  power  in  the  Puritan  pulpit  ? 

"  About  7  or  8  o'clock  of  the  night  between  the  2^  and  3d  of 
October  [1711]  a  dreadful  fire  happens  in  Boston  ;  broke  out  in 
a  little  house  belonging  to  Capt  Ephraim  Savage  by  reason  of  the 

drunkenness  of Moss.    Old  meeting  house  and  town  house 

burnt.  Old  meeting  house  had  stood  nearly  70  years.  The 
Lt  Governor  Taylor  arrives.     Saw  the  fire  twenty  leagues  off." 

"  Oct.  II.  Fifth  day.  Fast.  A  collection  was  made  for  suf- 
ferers by  the  fire ;  two  hundred  and  sixty  odd  pounds  gathered 
at  the  South  Church,  the  oldest  meeting  house  in  town." 

"Dec.  31.  Major  Walley  has  prayer  at  his  house  respecting 
his  foot ;  began  between  2  and  3  p.m."' 

"  Feby.  22,  1712,  Mr.  Pemberton  comes  to  see  me  and  com- 
municates to  me  the  Mock  Sermon  and  mentions  my  going  to 
I\Ir.  Secretary  which  I  do ;  but  'twas  night  before  we  could  con- 
cert measures." 

This  straw  shows  that  the  wind  was  already  blow- 
ing against  the  Puritan  sermons ;  for  some  ribald 
fellow  had  made  and  spoke  a  scurrilous  one  before 
a  few  of  his  boon  companions,  and  got  bound  over 
to  the  next  court  in  ^50,  to  stand  trial  accordingly. 

"  March  26,  171 3.  Mr.  Saml  Danforth  visits  us  in  the  even- 
ing.    Has  hopes  of  Mr.  Jno.  Williams'  daughter." 

This  child  of  the  Deerfield  minister  was  captured 
and  carried  to  Canada,  where  she  joined  the  French 
Church,  and  married  an  Indian,  taking  up  the  sav- 
age life.  She  lived  and  died  so.  By  what  seems 
a  strange  anomaly  in  these  early  days,  ten  whites 
Indianized  to  one  Indian  who  became  Christian. 


NEW  ENGLAND   LIFE   FROM  1700    TO   17 IJ^.      203 

"  Seventh  Day,  Feb.  6,  1714.  I  went  to  the  town  house  on  the 
occasion  of  the  Queen's  birthday.  .  .  .  My  neighbor  Colson 
knocks  at  my  door  about  9  p.m.  or  past  to  tell  of  the  disorders 
at  the  tavern  at  the  South  End  in  Mr.  Addington's  house,  kept 
by  John  Wallis.  He  desired  me  that  I  would  accompany  Mr. 
Bromfield  and  Constable  Howell  thither.  It  was  35  minutes 
past  9  at  night  before  Mr.  Bromfield  came  ;  then  we  went.  I 
took  yEneas  Salter  with  me.  Found  much  company.  They  re- 
fused to  go  away.  Said  were  there  to  drink  the  Queen's  health 
and  they  had  many  other  healths  to  drink.  Called  for  more 
drink ;  drank  to  me  ;  I  took  notice  of  the  aifront,  to  them. 
Said  must  and  would  stay  upon  that  solemn  occasion.  Mr. 
Netmaker  drank  the  Queen's  health  to  me.  I  told  him  I  drank 
none ;  upon  that  he  ceased.  Mr.  Brinley  put  on  his  hat  to 
affront  me.  I  made  him  .take  it  off.  I  threatened  to  send  some 
of  them  to  prison;  that  did  not  move  them.  They  said  they 
could  but  pay  their  fine  and  doing  that  they  might  stay.  I  told 
them  if  they  had  not  a  care  they  would  be  guilty  of  a  riot.  Mr. 
Bromfield  spake  of  raising  a  number  of  men  to  quell  them  and 
was  in  some  heat,  ready  to  run  into  the  street.  But  I  did  not 
like  that.  Not  having  pen  and  ink  I  w^nt  to  take  their  names 
with  my  pencil  and  not  knowing  how  to  spell  their  names  they 
themselves  of  their  own  accord  writ  them.  Mr.  Netmaker,  re- 
proaching the  Province,  said  they  had  not  made  one  good  law. 
At  last  I  addressed  myself  to  Mr.  Banister.  I  told  him  he  had 
been  longest  an  inhabitant  and  a  freeholder,  I  expected  he  would 
set  a  good  example  in  departing  thence.  Upon  this  he  invited 
them  to  his  own  house  and  away  they  went ;  and  we,  after  them, 
went  away.  I  went  directly  home  and  found  it  25  minutes  past 
10  at  night  when  I  entered  my  own  house." 

Judge  Sewall's  better  nature  and  good  judgment 
shine  here.  His  emotions  on  this  occasion  must 
have  been  mixed.*  He  himself  was  a  boii  vivant^ 
knew  personally  many  of  these  very  gentlemanly 
revellers  ;  and  yet  they  were  breaking  down  the 
barriers   of   the   ancient    Puritanism   by  such  festiv- 


204  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

ity  on  Saturday  night.  They  and  he  knew  the 
law,  and  he  enforced  it,  evidently  with  patience  and 
good-humor. 

The  matter  was  not  allowed  to  rest  there.  Mon- 
day, early,  they  were  all  fined  five  shillings.  Many 
of  them  paid ;  some  appealed,  and  gave  bonds  to 
prosecute  their  appeal.  Mr.  John  Netmaker  was  the 
private  secretary  of  General  Nicholson,  commander 
of  her  Majesty's  forces.  He  was  fined  an  additional 
five  shillings  for  profane  cursing,  which  he  paid. 
Next  he  was  bound  over  and  required  to  give  bonds 
"for  contempt  of  her  Majesty's  government  of  this 
Province,  and  villifying  the  same  at  the  house  of  John 
Wallis,"  etc.  Finally,  Netmaker  and  his  friends  lost 
temper,  and  refused  to  give  bonds.  Sewall  and  Brom- 
field  promptly  sent  him  to  jail.  A  council  was  called, 
and  after  a  long  and  bitter  wrangle  the  governor, 
substantially  by  his  own  order,  released  Netmaker, 
under  protest  from  the  two  magistrates,  who  had 
only  executed  the  laws.  But  the  trouble  was  that 
these  same  laws  were  unreasonable  and  unendurable 
to  any  but  Puritans. 


SEWALL   AND    THE  PURITAN  HOME-LIFE.      20$ 


CHAPTER    XII. 

SEWALL    AND    THE    PURITAN    HOME-LIFE. 

The  substance  of  the  old  New  England  domestic 
life  was  English ;  the  coloring  of  it  was  Puritan. 
The  homes  of  Old  England  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury were  hearty,  generous  in  diet  (if  regard  be 
had  to  quantity  only),  homely,  industrious,  and  full 
of  the  love  of  kindred.  Most  were  religious  after  a 
fashion- ;  had  their  proverbs  and  superstitions  ;  were 
narrow,  or  greatly  lacking  in  interest  for  almost  any- 
thing that  did  not  lie  close  to  their  narrow  circle 
of  existence,  and  with  personal  manners  which  were 
explicit,  if  not  refined.  These  conditions  were  only 
modified  in  New  England  in  the  emigrant's  lot  by  the 
inevitable  differences  from  those  in  the  mother  land ; 
but  the  white  men  here  were  Englishmen  in  families. 
Puritanism  quickened  and  enlarged  the  mental  move- 
ments of  its  votaries,  and  even  the  Sunday's  sermon 
and  the  endless  annex  of  lectures  and  private  meet- 
ings quickened  and  vitalized  thought.  The  Puritan 
sermons,  before  the  quicker  pulse  of  these  new  days, 
may  seem  endless  and  barren  ;  but  they  would  never 
have  been  listened  to  by  other  than  keen  and  intelli- 
gent auditors.  The  story  has  been  already  told  of 
the   privations  of  the  earlier  emigrants  ;  these  con- 


206  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

tinued,  especially  in  country  places,  a  long  time.  In- 
deed, our  climate  and  soil  at  the  best  devote  our 
agricultural  people  to  a  narrow  and  Spartan  thrift. 
It  was  so  in  Sewall's  day.  There  was  affluence 
among  the  few  in  a  few  places,  but  the  great  body 
of  the  people  wrought  hard  in  the  field.  Women 
drudged  for  a  lifetime  at  home  ;  girls  followed  their 
mother's  steps  till  marriage,  and  then  they  doubled 
their  toil,  if  possible  ;  boys  early  became  of  age  in 
their  privilege  to  fare  with  the  hardiest  apprentices ; 
and  slaves  knew  no  holiday  except  the  Sabbath,  when 
"  their  works  of  necessity  "  multiplied  according  to 
the  greed  or  cruelty  of  their  masters,  while  a  day's 
work  by  custom  lasted  as  long  as  the  sun,  and  in 
winter  exceeded  his  shining.  For  labor,  it  was  the 
Iron  Age.  Of  course  industry  was  a  prime  social 
virtue.  Vagabonds  had  short  shrift ;  the  idle  were 
put  out  of  countenance  by  the  public  blame,  while 
"dudes"  did  not  then  grow  in  this  soil.  No  people 
were  ever  more  busy.  In  1655  the  court  passed 
a  law  that  "all  hands  not  necessarily  employed  on 
other  occasions,  as  women,  girls  and  boys,  shall  and 
hereby  are  enjoyned  to  spin  according  to  their  skill 
and  ability,"  and  that  the  selectmen  overlook  and 
assess  the  spinning.  Each  spinner  was  to  spin  every 
year  for  thirty  weeks  three  pounds  a  week  of  linen, 
cotton,  or  woollen,  under  penalty  of  twelvepence  for 
every  pound  short.  So  resolute  were  the  authori- 
ties to  enforce  this  law  that,  by  one  of  its  provis- 
ions, each  town  was  divided  into  districts,  and  an 
inspector  appointed  over  each,  to   report   any  delin- 


SEIVALL    AND    THE   PURITAN  HOME-LIFE.       20/ 

quency.  There  was  spinning  in  Sewall's  house,  and 
this  domestic  trade  throve  till  nigh  the  middle  of 
this  century. 

The  house  appointments  of  most  people  were  sim- 
ple, and  like  to  those  in  Old  England.  Indeed,  except 
in  the  matter  of  religion  and  its  cognate  affairs,  the 
Puritan  was  wont  to  cultivate  the  domestic  methods 
of  the  fatherland.  Even  casement  windows  with 
leaded  panes,  as  in  English  cottages,  were  common 
until  the  lead  was  used  for  Revolutionary  bullets, 
and  a  new  style  of  American  house-building  came  in. 
A  few  strong  chairs,  a  big  oak  table,  chests,  pewter 
plates  and  platters,  a  few  bedsteads,  and  a  Saxon 
settle  in  the  chimney-corner,  and  a  brass  kettle  or 
two,  all  in  old  English  fashion,  made  up  the  major 
part  of  the  furniture.  They  even  brought,  with  great 
care,  English  flower  and  garden  seeds,  and  planted 
them.  The  same  was  true  of  their  orchards,  and 
their  farm  stock  also,  although  the  cows  and  horses 
sometimes  reached  here  by  the  roundabout  way  of 
the  West   Indies. 

Indoors,  the  social  life  was  demure  and  ascetic,  — 
prayef  and  work  only  in  abundance.  Dancing  was 
out  of  the  question,  and  cards  also ;  musical  instru- 
ments were  rare,  and  looked  at  askance  by  Puritan 
prejudice,  while  as  to  books  at  hand,  their  dulness 
was  hardly  outmatched  by  the  dulness  of  a  conver- 
sation with  a  cow.      Public  balls  were  forbidden. 

In  May,  165 1,  it  is  ordered  :  — 

"Whereas  it  is  observed  that  tliere  are  many  abuses  and 
disorders  by  dancing  in  ordinaries  [taverns]   whether  mixed  or 


208  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

unmixed,  upon  marriage  of  some  persons,  this  Court  doth  order 
that  henceforward  there  shall  be  no  dancing  upon  such  occasion, 
or  at  other  times  in  ordinaries,  upon  the  pain  of  five  shilhng  for 
every  person  that  shall  so  dance  in  ordinaries." 

Dancing-masters  were  not  in  vogue  ;  and  when  one 
Stepney  was  brought  over,  and  found  such  lions  in 
his  way  as  to  make  his  calling  unprofitable,  Judge 
Sewall  writes  down,  apparently  with  some  glee,  that 
the  dancing-master  had  run  away  in  debt. 

The  fare  varied  ;  was  usually  in  plenty,  but  was 
never  rich.  The  elders  said  that  brown  bread  and 
the  gospel  were  good  fare  enough  for  them ;  and 
their  posterity  were  never  stinted  in  such  nourish- 
ments. Sewall's  account  of  his  diverse  dinners  when 
travelling  (and  he  had  the  best)  shows  that  substan- 
tial, good  dining  was  possible  in  most  places,  but 
luxury  was  not.  Grace  said,  and  the  children  stood 
at  table  while  the  parents  sat,  in  token  of  respect, 
speaking  only  when  spoken  to.  The  dress  was  also 
Puritan ;  ample,  simple,  and  useful.  There  was  a 
deal  of  leather  worn  by  the  men,  and  very  little  silk 
by  the  women.  The  silk  dress  of  Roger  Williams's 
wife  is  set  down  at  forty  shillings,  which,  assuming 
that  money  was  worth  five  or  six  times  more  then 
than  now,  would  make  it  a  trifle  costly.  The  girls 
no  doubt  longed  after  ribbons,  which  came  late,  if  at 
all,  and  human  nature  soon  found  means  to  bedeck 
itself  in  what  that  aore  counted  fashion.  Laws  were 
passed  by  the  court  against  extravagance  in  dress. 

In  Octol^er,  1651,  "  It  is  therefore  ordered  by  this  Court  and 
the  authority  thereof  that  no  person  within  this  jurisdiction,  or 


SEWALL   AND    THE  PURITAN  HOME-LIFE. 


209 


any  of  their  relations  depending  upon  them,  whose  visible  es- 
tates, real  and  personal,  shall  not  exceed  the  true  and  indifferent 
value  of  two  hundred  pounds,  shall  wear  any  gold  or  silver  lace 
or  gold  or  silver  buttons  or  any  bone  lace  above  two  shillings 
per  yard  or  silk  hoods  or  scarfs,  upon  the  penalty  of  ten  shil- 
lings for  every  such  offence ;  and  every  such  delinquent  to  be 
presented  by  the  Grand  Jury." 

As  late  as  1675,  and  the  distresses  of  the  Indian 
war,  the  court  seeking  for  causes  why  the  hand  of 
God  lay  so  heavy  on  them,  make  this  deliverance :  — 

"  Whereas  there  is  manifest  pride  openly  appearing  amongst 
us  in  that  long  hair,  like  woman's  hair,  is  worn  by  some  men, 
either  their  own  or  other's  hair  made  into  periwigs,  and  by 
some  women  wearing  borders  of  hair,  and  their  cutting,  curl- 
ing, and  immodest  laying  out  their  hair,  especially  amongst 
the  younger  sort,  this  Court  doth  declare,  this  ill  custom  as 
offensive  to  them.  The  evil  of  pride  in  apparel,  both  for  cost- 
liness in  the  poorer  sort,  and  vain  new  strange  fashions  both 
in  poor  and  rich,  with  naked  breasts  and  arms,  or  as  it  were, 
pinioned  with  the  addition  of  superstitious  ribbons,  &c.,  the 
County  Courts  are  charged  to  attend  to  this  grievance." 

In  the  richer  circles  of  Boston,  and  from  a  very 
early  date,  there  is  visible  a  restiveness  under  these 
sumptuary  laws  such  as  boded  ill  for  their  mainte- 
nance ;  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  they  slowly  fell  into 
disuse,  and  a  few  went  down  at  once  before  the 
fashion  as  it  was  had  the  other  side  of  the  water. 
There  was  a  great  strife  over  periwigs,  and  Sewall 
nearly  all  his  life  was  in  a  rage  against  them,  as  his 
Diary  shows.  Uncouth  as  the  fashion  seems  to  us, 
it  was  affected  by  the  gentility  of  those  days,  and 
even  Puritan  laws  were  not  strono:  enouGrh  to  keen 


2IO  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

them  off  men's  heads.  Sewall,  in  his  baldness  and 
cold  rooms,  wore  a  velvet  cap  ;  and  one  reason  why 
his  courtship  of  Madam  Winthrop  came  to  naught, 
was  that  he  would  not  promise  her  to  wear  a  wig. 
The  Puritans  often  remind  one  of  a  grist-mill,  where, 
when'  there  is  no  other  grist  to  grind,  the  upper  and 
nether  millstones  grind  one  another. 

This  is  the  way  Sewall  goes  for  a  young  parson 
in  his  favorite  foray  against  periwigs  :  — 

"  Tuesday,  June  lo,  1701.  Having  last  night  heard  that 
Josiah  Willard  had  cut  otf  his  hair  (a  very  full  head  of  hair) 
and  put  on  a  wig  I  went  to  him  this  morning.  Told  his  mother 
what  I  came  about  and  she  called  him.  I  enquired  of  him  what 
extremity  had  forced  him  to  put  off  his  own  hair  and  put  on  a 
wig?  He  answered  none  at  all.  But  said  that  his  hair  was 
straight  and  that  it  parted  behind.  Seemed  to  argue  that  men 
might  as  well  shave  their  hair  off  their  head  as  off  their  face. 
[Sewall  himself  wore  no  beard.]  I  answered  men  were  men  be- 
fore they  had  hair  on  their  faces,  half  of  mankind  have  never  any. 
God  seems  to.  have  ordained  our  hair  as  a  test,  to  see  whether 
W'e  can  bring  our  minds  to  be  content  to  be  at  his  finding ; 
or  whether  we  would  be  our  own  Carvers,  Lords,  and  come  no 
more  at  him.  Your  calling  is  to  teach  men  self  denial.  'Twill 
be  displeasing  and  burdensome  to  good  men  ;  and  they  that 
care  not  what  men  think  of  them  care  not  what  God  thinks  of 
them.  Allow  me  so  far  to  be  a  censor  7nornni  for  this  end  of 
the  town.  Prayed  him  to  read  the  tenth  chapter  of  the  third 
book  of  Calvin's  Institutions.  [The  subject  of  this  chapter  is, 
"  How  One  Ought  to  Use  the  Present  Life  and  Its  Aids."] 
Told  him  that  it  was  condemned  by  a  meeting  of  ministers  at 
Northampton  in  Mr.  Stoddard's  house,  when  the  said  Josiah 
was  there.  Told  him  of  the  solemnity  of  the  Covenant  which 
he  and  I  had  lately  entered  into,  which  put  me  upon  discoursing 
to  him.  He  seemed  to  say  would  leave  off  his  wig  when  his 
hair  was  grown.     I  spake  to  his  father  of  it  a  day  or  two  after. 


SEIVALL   AND    THE   PUKITAiV  HOME-LIFE.      211 

He  thanked  me  and  told  me  when  his  hair  was  grown  to  cover 
his  ears  he  promised  to  leave  off  his  wig.  If  he  had  known  it 
would  have  forbidden  him.  His  mother  heard  him  talk  of  it; 
but  was  afraid  positively  to  forbid  him  lest  he  should  do  it  and 
so  be  more  faulty." 

Here  is  poor  parson  Josiah  Willard  and  his  periwig 
again  :  — 

"  Nov.  30.  I  spent  this  Sabbath  at  Mr.  Colman\s,  partly 
out  of  dislike  to  Mr.  Josiah  Willard's  cutting  off  his  hair  and 
wearing  a  wig.  He  that  contemns  the  law  of  nature  is  not  fit 
to  be  a  publisher  of  the  law  of  grace.  Partly  to  give  an  exam- 
ple of  my  holding  Communion  with  that  Church  who  renounce 
the  Cross  in  baptism,  human  holydays  «&c.  as  other  New-English 
churches  do.  I  perceive  by  several,  that  Mr.  Colman's  peo- 
ple were  much  gratified  by  my  giving  them  my  company.  Sev- 
eral considerable  persons  expressed  themselves  so.  The  Lord 
cleanse  me  from  all  my  iniquity." 

Sewall  does  not  exactly  shine  in  these  passages, 
either  as  a  student  of  history  or  as  a  large-minded 
man.  Wigs  he  undoubtedly  hated  to  the  end,  and 
loved  those  who  hated  with  him.  But  he  might 
have  read  how  that  that  same  mediaeval  church 
which  could  force  a  German  emperor  on  his  knees 
in  the  snow  as  a  penitent,  miserably  failed  when  it 
undertook  to  deal  with  the  women's  headdresses  of 
that  era ;  and,  besides,  he  stood  against  the  fashion, 
which  is  apt  to  be  a  blunder  in  a  public  man  careful 
of  his  popularity,  as  Sewall  was.  The  wigs  throve 
in  spite  of  his  misery,  until  fashion  bade  them  dis- 
appear. Yet  Sewall  held  out  against  fate,  and  hated 
the  Devil  and  periwigs  all  his  days.      Even  Madam 


212  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

Winthrop,  in  the  very  heyday  of  his  winter  love,  could 
not  persuade  him  to  wear  one.     He  told  her :  — 

"  As  to  a  periwig,  my  best  and  greatest  friend,  I  could  not 
possibly  have  a  greater,  began  to  find  me  with  hair  before  I  was 
born  and  had  continued  to  do  so  ever  since  ;  and  I  could  not 
find  it  in  my  heart  to  go  to  another." 

There  was,  indeed,  a  certain  sweetness,  perhaps 
one  should  fairly  say  much  sweetness,  in  the  family 
circle,  though  it  must  be  confessed  by  the  candid 
student  of  those  times  that  it  was  very  often  the 
sweetness  of  violets  on  the  edge  of  an  April  snow- 
drift. There  was  also  a  stately  courtesy  among  the 
best,  veiling  often  a  very  tender  regard,  which  was 
yet  tough  enough  to  reach  beyond  the  grave.  This 
Sewall  shows  in  his  frequent  lamentations  for  his 
fallen  friends  :  — 

"July  4,  1701.  The  Court  understanding  the  Lt  Governor's 
growing  illness  [Stoughton]  were  loath  to  press  him  with  busi- 
ness and  sent  Mr.  Secretary,  Mr.  Speaker  and  Mr.  White  to 
discourse  his  honor  and  propound  an  adjournment.  He  agreed 
to  it  very  freely.  I  said  the  Court  was  afflicted  with  a  sense  of 
his  honors  indisposition ;  at  which  he  raised  himself  up  on  his 
couch.  When  coming  away,  he  reached  out  his  hand  ;  I  gave 
him  mine  and  kissed  his.  He  said  before,  '  Pray  for  me.''  This 
was  the  last  time  I  ever  saw  his  honor." 

Here  we  observe  a  high  ritual  of  friendship  and 
respect,  coupled  with  a  free  use  of  titles.  Yet  Sewall 
seldom  gives  the  title  of  "  reverend  "  to  a  minister, 
and  objected  stoutly  to  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  bap- 
tism. In  such  unintended  ways  he  many  times 
shows  the  radical   antagonism  of  Puritanism  to  the 


Joseph  Sew  all, 

(  SON  ) 

A  Pastor  of  the  Old  South  Church. 


SEWALL    AND    THE   PURITAN  HOME-LIFE.      213 

old  church  ways,  and  that  the  root  of  the  coming  to 
New  England  was  to  have  a  free  church  and  a  state 
for  that  church. 

"July  15.     Funeral  day  of  Lt  Governor." 

Sewall's  own  domestic  life  must  have  been  one 
of  the  most  charming  expressions  of  Puritan  house- 
keeping. He  was  from  the  start  rich,  and  with  a 
tender  heart  he  brought  up  his  children  with  a  gen- 
tle but,  if  necessary,  an  unsparing  hand.  Here  is  a 
case  in  point  :  — 

"  Nov.  6,  1692.  Joseph  threw  a  knob  of  brass  and  hit  his 
sister  Betty  on  the  forehead  so  as  to  make  it  bleed  and  swell ; 
upon  which  and  for  playing  at  prayer  time  and  eating  when  re- 
turn thanks  I  whipped  him  pretty  smartly.  When  I  first  went 
in  (called  by  his  grandmother)  he  sought  to  shadow  and  hide 
himself  from  me  behind  the  head  of  the  cradle  ;  which  gave  me 
the  sorrowful  remembrance  of  Adam's  carriage." 

His  wife  {jiee  Hannah  Hull)  must  have  been  a 
gracious  and  stately  matron,  busy,  like  Martha,  about 
the  many  things  of  a  large  family.  Sewall  often 
refers  to  her  in  his  Diary,  and  after  her  death  utters 
this  plaintive  cry  in  a  letter  to  his  friend,  "  I  have 
lost  a  most  constant  lover  and  a, most  laborious  nurse 
for  42  years  together." 

Only  one  letter  of  hers  is  extant,  and  that  was 
written  to  her  cousin  in  Bermuda,  who  had  evidently 
tried  to  send  her  a  present  of  some  sort,  which  had 
been  confiscated  by  some  one  of  that  horde  of  petty 
thieves  which  the  Puritan  shipmasters  of  those  days 


214  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

knew   so   well,   before   it   reached    Hannah    Se wall's 
hands. 

The  letter  follows  :  — 

Hannah  Sewall  to  Love  Fowle. 

Boston,  N.E.,  July  25,  1686. 
Good  Cousin; 

My  husband  wrote  to  Mr.  Fowle  the  28  of  May  last  after 
which,  viz.  on  June  the  10,  I  received  your  kind  letter  dated  the 
4th  of  May  upon  which  I  made  enquiry  after  the  loving  token 
you  sent  me,  and  the  account  I  had  was  that  they  were  half 
stolen  before  they  came  on  board  and  the  rest  delivered  to  Mr. 
Prout,  who  told  us  he  received  so  few,  would  but  in  a  manner 
pay  the  freight,  and  knew  not  but  they  were  for  himself,  and  had 
eaten  them  up  or  near  eaten  them.  I  am  sorry  for  the  frustra- 
tion of  your  intended  kindness  to  me  ;  but  your  desire  is  kind- 
ness and  that  I  have  received  and  gratefully  accepted  and  would 
entreat  you  to  prevent  the  inconvenience  of  being  so  deceived 
for  the  future,  by  forbearing  to  give  yourself  the  trouble  of 
sending.   .  .  . 

I  am  glad  to  hear  of  God's  blessing  you  with  children.  I 
buried  two  sons  lately.  ...  I  have  one  son  and  two  daughters 
living.  The  Lord  do  me  good  by  his  various  ways  of  Provi- 
dence towards  me.  My  service  to  yourself  and  Mr.  Fowle,  with 
my  husband's,  I  take  leave,  who  am  your  loving,  obliged  cousin 

Hannah  Sewall. 

The  Puritan  respect  for  parents,  and  their  social 
relations,  are  vividly  expressed  in  Sewall's  Diary, 
where  he  tells  of  his  parents'  death:  — 

"May  14,  1700.  Get  to  Newbury  a  little  before  sunset,  visit 
my  sick  father  in  bed,  call  in  the  Major  General  whom  father 
salutes.  Kissed  my  hand  and  I,  his,  again.  Mr.  Tappan  came 
in  and  prayed  with  him  and  us."  "May  15.  Walks  into  the 
west  end  of  the  house  with  his  staff,  breakfasts  there.  I  read 
the  17''^  Luke  and  went  to  prayer.     My  father  would  have  stood 


r 


i 


SEIVALL   AND    THE   PURITAN  HOME-LIFE.      21 5 

up,  but  I  persuaded  him  to  sit  still  in  his  chair.  Took  leave  and 
went  on  to  Portsmouth."  [He  was  now  on  circuit  and  in  a  press 
of  legal  business.]  "  May  17.  13enj,  Moss  Jr.  is  sent  to  acquaint 
me  that  my  dear  father  died  the  evening  before.  It  rains  hard. 
Holds  up  about  5  p.m.  I  ride  to  Hampton  [from  Portsmouth] 
lodge  at  Mr.  Cotton's  where  am  very  kindly  entertained.  May 
18.  Ride  to  Newbury  in  the  rain.  Bury  my  father.  Sabbath, 
May  19.  Mr.  Tappan  in  the  afternoon  preached  a  funeral  ser- 
mon from  Prov.  19.  20.  Said  my  father  was  a  true  Nathaniel 
[i.e.,  a  man  in  whom  there  was  no  guile.]  It  seems  about  a  fort- 
night before,  upon  discourse  of  going  to  meeting  my  father  said 
he  could  not  go,  but  hoped  to  go  shortly  to  a  Greater  Assembly. 
The  Lord  pardon  all  my  sins  of  omission  and  commission  towards 
him  and  help  me  to  prepare  to  die.  Accept  of  any  little  labor 
of  love  towards  my  dear  parents.  I  had  just  sent  four  pounds  of 
raisins,  which  with  the  canary  were  very  refreshing  to  him. 
Worthy  Mr.  Hale  of  Beverly  [he  also  had  a  hand  in  the  Salem 
witchcraft  business]  was  buried  the  day  before  my  father.  So 
was  Mr.  John  Wadsworth  of  Duxbury  who  died  May  15^1^  1700. 
I  used  to  be  much  refreshed  with  his  company  when  I  went  to 
Plymouth  ;  and  was  so  this  last  time." 

"Jany.  14,  1701.  Having  been  certified  last  night  about  10 
o'clock  of  the  death  of  my  dear  mother  at  Newbury,  Sam  and  I 
set  out  with  John  Sewall,  the  messenger,  for  that  place.  Hired 
horses  at  Charlestown ;  set  out  about  10  o'clock  in  a  great  fog. 
I  followed  the  bier  single.  Went  about  4  p.m.  Nath'-  Bricket 
taking  in  hand  to  fill  the  grave  I  said  Forbear  a  little  and  suffer 
me  to  say  that  amidst  our  bereaving  sorrows  we  have  the  comfort 
of  beholding  this  saint  put  into  the  rightful  possession  of  that 
happiness,  of  living  desired  and  dying  lamented.  She  lived 
commendably  four  and  fifty  years  with  her  dear  husband  and 
my  dear  father.  And  she  could  not  well  brook  the  being  di- 
vided from  him  at  her  death  ;  which  is  the  cause  of  our  taking 
leave  of  her  in  this  place.  She  was  a  true  and  constant  lover  of 
God's  word,  worship  and  saints  ;  and  she  always  with  a  patient 
cheerfulness  submitted  to  the  divine  decree  of  providing  bread 
for  herself  and  others  in  the  sweat  of  her  brows.  And  now  her 
infinitely  gracious  and  bountiful  master  has  promoted  her  to  the 


2i6  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

honor  of  higher  employments,  fully  and  absolutely  discharged 
from  all  manner  of  toil  and  sweat.  My  honored  and  beloved 
friends  and  neighbors  !  My  dear  mother  never  thought  much  of 
doing  the  most  frequent  and  homely  offices  of  love  for  me ;  and 
lavished  away  mjiny  thousands  of  words  upon  me  before  I  could 
return  one  word  in  answer ;  and  therefore  I  ask  and  hope  that 
none  will  be  offended  that  I  have  now  ventured  to  speak  one 
word  in  her  behalf;  when  she  herself  is  become  speechless. 
Made  a  motion  with  my  hand  for  the  filling  of  the  grave.  Note, 
I  could  hardly  speak  for  passion  and  tears.  Mr.  Tappan  prayed 
with  us  in  the  evening.  Jan.  1 6.  The  two  brothers  and  four  sis- 
ters being  together,  we  took  leave  by  singing  of  the  90  Psalm 
from  the  8th  to  the  15th  verse  inclusively." 

"  My  mother  being  dead  lie  writes],  almost  all  my  memory 
is  dead  with  her." 

In  his  letter  to  Governor  Dudley  (Aug.  10,  1702), 
speaking  of  his  sister's  (Mrs.  Moodey)  death,  at 
Newbury,  his  Puritan  quality  of  mind  shows  more 
distinctly:  — 

"  She  lived  desired  and  dies  lamented  by  her  neighbors.  Cer- 
tainly I  have  lost  a  noble  spring  of  love  and  respect.  Though 
she  was  a  very  ingenuous,  tender  hearted,  pious  creature ;  yet 
but  a  little  crazy  cistern  and  the  breaking  of  it  so  soon  (37  years 
3  mo.)  is  a  rebuke  directing  me  to  the  Fountain  of  living  waters. 
I  ask  your  Excellency's  pardon  that  I  have  wept  these  tears  in 
your  presence.     Griefs  disclosed,  divide. 

I  am  your  Excellency's  most  humble  Serv'. 

S.   S. 

When  his  sister  Hannah  Tappan  dies,  in  1699,  he 

writes  :  — 

"  We  have  lived,  eight  of  us  together,  thirty  years  and  were 
wont  to  speak  of  it  ( it  may  be  too  vainly).  But  now  God  begins 
to  part  us  apace.  Two  are  taken  away  in  about  a  quarter  of 
a  year's  time.     And  methinks,  now  my  dear  brother  and  sister 


SEWALL   AND    THE   PURITAN  HOME-LIFE.      21/ 

are  laid  in  the  grave  I  am  as  it  were  laid  there  in  proxy.  The 
Lord  help  me  to  carry  it  more  suitably,  more  fruitfully,  toward 
the  five  remaining ;  and  put  me  in  a  preparedness  for  my  own 
dissolution.     And  help  me  to  live  upon  him  alone." 

As  a  close  to  these  memorials  of  Puritan  family 
affection,  this  picture  of  the  last  days  of  the  Apostle 
Eliot  may  be  added.  Three  years  before  his  death, 
his  wife  died,  in  1687.  As  he  stood  by  her  coffin, 
with  tears  streaming  down  his  old  face,  he  said, 
"  Here  lies  my  dear,  faithful,  pious,  prudent,  prayer- 
ful wife.  I  shall  go  to  her,  but  she  shall  not  return 
to  me."  He  sat  waiting  for  death.  When  Minister 
Watton  visited  him,  he  said,  ''  Brother,  you  are  wel- 
come ;  but  retire  to  your  study  and  pray  that  I  may 
be  gone."  He  said,  "  My  memory,  my  utterance,  fail 
me,  but  I  thank  God  my  charity  holds  out."  His 
last  words  were,  "Welcome  joy  !  " 

Here  are  some  letters  of  the  Winthrops  which 
show  the  Puritan  social  life  in  some  of  its  best 
aspects  :  — 

Letter  of  John  Winthrop  to  His  Sister. 

My  Good  Sister; 

I  have  been  too  long  silent  to  you,  considering  mine  ow^n 
consciousness  of  that  great  debt  v^^hich  I  owe  you  for  your  love 
and  much  kindness  to  me  and  mine.  .  .  . 

I  partake  with  you  in  that  affliction  [her  husband's  last 
sickness]  which  it  pleaseth  the  Lord  to  still  exercise  you  and 
my  good  brother  in.  I  know  God  hath  so  fitted  and  disposed 
your  mind  to  bear  troubles,  as  your  friends  may  take  the  less 
care  for  you  in  them.  He  shews  you  more  love,  in  enabling  you 
to  bear  them  comfortably,  than  you  could  apprehend  in  the  free- 
dom from  them.  Go  on  cheerfully,  my  good  sister,  let  experience 
add  more  confidence  still  to  your  patience.     Peace  shall  come 


2l8  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

There  will  be  a  bed  to  rest  in,  large  and  easy  enough  for  you 
both.  It  is  preparing  in  the  lodging  appointed  for  you  in  your 
Father's  house.  He  that  vouchsafeth  to  wipe  the  sweat  from  his 
disciples'  feet  will  not  disdain  to  wipe  the  tears  from  those 
tender  affectionate  eyes.  Because  you  have  been  one  of  his 
mourners  in  the  house  of  tribulation  you  sliall  drink  of  the  cup 
of  joy  and  be  clothed  with  the  garment  of  gladness  in  the  King- 
dom of  his  glory.  The  former  things,  and  evil  will  soon  be 
passed  ;  but  the  good  to  come  shall  neither  end  nor  change. 
Never  man  saw  heaven  but  would  have  passed  through  hell  to 
come  at  it. 

Your  loving  brother, 

Jo.  WiNTHROP. 
March  25,  1628. 

In  the  absence  of  his  son  John,  a  student  at 
Trinity  College,   Dublin,  John  Winthrop   writes  :  — 

[1623.]  "We  all  think  long  to  see  you,  and,  it  is  like,  my- 
self shall  (if  it  please  God)  go  over  to  you,  before  I  shall  be  will- 
ing you  should  take  so  great  a  journey  and  be  so  long  withdrawn 
from  your  happy  studies  to  come  to  us.  It  satisfieth  me  to  know 
you  are  well  and  can  want  nothing  and  that  (I  believe)  God 
blesses  you.  I  shall  continue  to  pray  for  you  and  will  not  be 
wanting,  to  my  power  to  further  your  good  in  everything,  and 
know  this,  that  no  distance  of  place  or  length  of  absence,  can 
abate  the  aifection  of  a  loving  father  towards  a  dutiful  well 
deserving  child.  .  .  .  And  so  in  haste  I  end ;  and  beseeching 
daily  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  be  with  thee  and  bless  thee  I  rest 

"  Your  loving  father 

"Jo.  Winthrop." 

There  spoke  a  right  royal  gentleman  ! 
To  the  same  son,  gone  on  some  naval  enterprise  in 
the  king's  fleet,  Winthrop  writes  :  — 

[1627.]  "  Only  be  careful  to  seek  the  Lord  in  the  first  place 
and  with  all  earnestness,  as  he  who  is  only  able  to  keep  you  in 


SEWALL    AND    THE   PURITAN-  JIOME-LIFK.      2ig 

all  perils  and  give  you  fovor  in  the  sight  of  those,  who  may  i^e 
instruments  of  your  welfare  ;  and  account  it  a  great  point  of 
wisdom,  to  keep  diligent  watch  over  yourself  that  you  may 
neither  be  infected  by  the  evil  conversation  of  any  that  you  may 
be  forced  to  converse  with,  neither  that  your  own  speech  and 
behavior  be  any  just  occasion  to  hurt  or  ensnare  you.  Be  not 
rash,  upon  ostentation  of  valor,  to  adventure  yourself  to  unneces- 
sary dangers  ;  but  if  you  be  lawfully  called,  let  it  appear  that 
you  hold  your  life  for  him  who  gave  it  you  and  will  preserve  it 
unto  the  farthest  period  of  his  own  holy  decree.  For  you  may 
be  resolved,  that  while  you  keep  in  your  way,  all  the  cannons 
and  enemies  in  the  world  shall  not  be  able  to  shorten  your  days 
one  minute.  For  my  part,  as  a  father,  who  desires  your  welfare 
as  mine  own,  I  cease  not  daily  to  commend  you  to  God,  beseech- 
ing him  to  preserve,  prosper  and  bless  you,  that  I  may  receive 
you  again  in  peace  and  have  assurance  of  enjoying  you  in  a 
better  life  when  your  course  here  shall  be  finished." 

He  writes  to  his  son  Henry  (1628),  who  later  was 
drowned  in  Salem  Harbor,  and  who  appears  to  have 
been  a  son  very  much  needing  guidance  : 

"  It  is  my  daily  care  to  commend  you  to  the  Lord  that  he 
would  please  to  put  his  true  fear  in  your  heart  and  the  faith  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  you  may  be  saved  and  that  your  ways 
may  be  pleasing  in  his  sight.  I  wish  also  your  outward  pros- 
perity, so  far  as  may  be  for  your  good." 

Margaret  Winthrop's  Letter  to  Her  Husband. 
My  Most  Sweet  Husband  ; 

How  dearly  welcome  thy  kind  letter  was  to  me  I  am  not 
aljle  to  express.  The  sweetness  of  it  did  much  refresh  me. 
What  can  be  more  pleasing  to  a  wife  than  to  hear  of  the  welfare 
of  her  best  beloved  and  how  he  is  pleased  with  her  poor  en- 
deavors !  I  blush  to  hear  myself  commended,  knowing  my  own 
wants.  But  it  is  your  love  that  conceives  the  best  and  makes 
all  things  seem  better  than  they  are.     I  wish  that   I   ma}-  be 


220  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

always  pleasing  to  thee  and  that  those  comforts  we  have  in  each 
other  may  daily  be  increased,  as  far  as  they  be  pleasing  to  God. 
I  will  use  that  speech  to  thee,  that  Abigail  did  to  David,  '  I  will 
be  a  servant  to  wash  the  feet  of  my  lord.''  I  will  do  any  service 
wherein  I  may  please  my  good  husband.  I  confess  I  cannot  do 
enough  for  thee  ;  but  thou  art  pleased  to  accept  the  will  for  the 
deed  and  rest  contented. 

I  have  many  reasons  to  make  me  love  thee  whereof  I  will 
name  two  ;  First  because  thou  lovest  God  ;  and  secondly  because 
that  thou  lovest  me.  If  these  two  were  wanting,  all  the  rest 
would  be  eclipsed.  But  I  must  leave  this  discourse  and  go 
about  my  household  affairs.  I  am  a  bad  housewife  to  be  so 
long  from  them  ;  but  I  must  needs  borrow  a  little  time  to  talk 
with  thee,  my  sweetheart.  The  term  is  more  than  half  done.  I 
hope  thy  business  draws  to  an  end.  It  will  be  but  two  or  three 
weeks  before  I  see  thee,  though  they  be  long  ones.  God  will 
bring  us  together  in  his  good  time  ;  for  which  time  I  shall  pray. 

I  thank  the  Lord  we  are  all  in  health.  We  are  very  glad 
to  hear  so  good  news  of  our  son  Henry.  The  Lord  make  us 
thankful  for  all  his  mercies  to  us  and  ours.  And  thus  with  my 
mother's  and  my  own  best  love  to  yourself  and  all  the  rest  I 
shall  leave  scribbling.  The  weather  being  cold  makes  me  make 
haste.  Farewell  my  good  husband  ;  the  Lord  keep  thee. 
Your  obedient  wife 

Margaret  Winthrop. 

Groton,  Nov.  22,  1628. 

Samuel  Winthrop  to  His  Father. 

Teneriffe,  April  5,  1646. 
Honored  Father.  Sir:  By  Mr.  Peter  Bickford,  by  way 
of  the  Barbadoes  I  presented  you  my  duties  and  tidings  of  my 
health  and  welfare  which  God  is  pleased  to  continue  unto  me 
even  at  this  present  time,  blessed  be  his  name  for  it.  This 
conveyance  is  in  like  manner  by  the  Barbadoes,  by  Cap.  Peter 
Strong  which  the  remembrance  of  my  duty  and  near  alliance 
would  not  suffer  me  to  pretermit  without  expressing  my  filial 
obedience  and  craving  your  paternal  blessing  upon  me  your 
unworthy  son,  who  hopes  it  is  not  in  anger  but  in  judsfment 


SEWALL    AND    THE   PURITAN  HOME-LIFE.      221 

and  mercy  that  God  hath  distanced  not  only  from  kindred  and 
father's  house  but  also  from  the  precious  means  of  grace,  which 
God  knows,  to  my  helpless  grief,  I  am  deprived  of  which  though 
sore  at  the  present  yet  I  hope  will  prove  sweet  in  the  end  and 
a  tedious  absence  now  will  produce  a  more  convenient  presence 
for  the  enjoyment  of  them  hereafter.  Concerning  the  outward 
man,  here  is  as  great  a  likelihood  for  the  raising  my  outward 
estate  as  in  any  place,  considering  the  troubles  of  this  age  and 
that  with  a  little  stock  which  I  trust  God  will  provide  for  me 
by  some  means  or  other  in  his  due  time.  The  gentlemen  with 
whom  I  reside  are  very  loving  unto  me  and  seem  desirous  of 
my  company  which  my  present  resolution  is  to  grant  and  your 
pleasure  manifested  to  the  purpose  shall  confirm.  In  the  mean 
time  I  request  your  prayers  to  God  for  me  that  he  may  help  me 
so  to  demean  myself  in  the  time  of  my  stay  that  I  may  do  what 
may  be  pleasing  to  himself  and  to  those  to  whom  I  do  belong. 
What  spare  time  I  have,  which  in  the  summer  time  is  indiffer- 
ent, I  spend  in  reading  God's  word  and  in  other  good  studies 
so  that  the  theory  of  my  learning  may  not  be  diminished,  how- 
ever the  practice  be  lost.  I  submissively  crave  your  blessing 
and  prayers,  desire  the  prolonging  of  your  many  comfortable 
years  and  desist.  Your  obedient  son, 

Samuel  Winthrop. 

One  often  meets  in  Sewall  and  other  Puritan  au- 
thors references  and  glances  at  some  of  the  old-time 
domestic  tragedies  now  stilled  in  the  grave  of  time, 
which  repeat  themselves  so  long  as.  men  mismate 
and  husband  and  wife  repent  at  leisure.  For  in- 
stance, there  is  Mrs.  Usher.  Sewall  was  her  busi- 
ness agent,  and  his  Diary  refers  to  her.  She  was 
the  daughter  of  that  Lady  Alice  Lisle  who  was  tried 
before  Jeffreys  and  beheaded  for  alleged  complicity 
in  the  Duke  of  Monmouth's  rebellion,  1685.  Her 
husband  was  the  legal  adviser  of  the  High  Court 
of  Justice  which  condemned  Charles  I.  and  perished 


222  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

by  assassination  at  Lausanne,  a  refugee.  Her  daugh- 
ter Bridget  became  the  wife  of  Dr.  Hoar,  the  third 
president  of  Harvard  College.  After  his  death  she 
married  (1676)  Mr.  Hezekiah  Usher,  a  Boston  mer- 
chant. Her  story  is  not  told,  but  Mr.  Usher's  is,  in 
this  extract  from  his  will  :  — 

"In  the  first  place  I  desire  that  all  my  due  debts  should  be 
paid  as  soon  as  possibly  may  be,  and  unto  my  dear  wife  whom 
I  may  count  very  dear  by  her  love  to  what  I  had  but  not  a  real 
love  to  me  who  should  accounted  it  more  worth  than  any  other 
outward  enjoyment ;  and  for  her  covetousness  and  overreach- 
ing and  cunning  impression  that  has  almost  ruinated  me  by  a 
gentle  behavior,  having  only  words  but  as  sharp  swords  to  me, 
whose  cunning  is  to  be  like  an  angel  of  light  to  others  but  want- 
ing love  and  charity  to  me  and  like  Sir  Edmund  [Andros]  to 
oppress  the  people  and  his  hand  not  to  be  seen  in  it  and  done 
by  his  Council. 

*'  And  therefore  I  do  cut  her  off  from  the  benefit  of  all  my 
estate  and  do  not  bestow  anything  upon  her  but  what  the  law 
doth  allow.  Because  I  look  upon  her  as  deceivable  in  going 
over  for  England,  getting  and  grasping  all  her  estate  to  be  in 
her  hand  and  of  mine  whatever  was  done  for  her  by  me  to  be 
ungrateful ;  and  her  staying  away  to  be  an  implicit  divorce  and 
gives  it  into  the  hands  of  women  to  usurp  the  power  out  of  the 
hands  of  their  husbands,  rather  than  in  a  way  of  humility  to 
seek  their  husband's  good.  If  they  can  live  comfortably  abroad 
without  them  they  regard  not  the  troubles  or  temptations  of 
their  husbands  at  home  and  so  become  separate ;  which  is  far 
worse  than  the  doctrine  of  devils  which  forbid  to  marry.  .  .  . 
And  this  my  will  I  make  to  be  a  warning  to  those  women  who 
have  no  love  for  their  husbands  but  to  what  they  have ;  which 
one  had  better  had  a  wife  that  had  not  been  worth  a  groat  than 
to  have  one  that  hath  no  love  for  him." 

He  furthermore  directs  that  all  his  papers  writ  on 
bad  wives   such  as  he  has  met,   be  overlooked   and 


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PLANTA  r  I  ON  /^S5 


KNRV  SE 

W.'P.Y  S  F 

'•'  -S  H  I  F  E 
V.  '■  I  '  //  ■•  T  T  ; 
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U  /  I;  0     MAY    t    ;^  ^     /  7  0  0 
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FELL   TOt  GROUND    lANUARV 
t    /J   rOLLOWINC  /tTAT     74* 
P  5  A  L     2  7      f  0        : 


Gravestone  of  Sewall's  Father  and  Mother. 


SEWALL    AND    THE   PURITAN  HOME-LIFE.       223 

edited  by  some  judicious  person,  ''one  that  is  for 
men  to  rule  in  their  own  house,  that  it  may  be  a 
matter  of  benefit  to  some  that  may  follow  after  me;" 
and  that  the  editor  shall  have  ^30  or  ^40  for  his 
trouble. 

The  conclusion  of  these  two  lives  was  that  he  died 
(1697)  when  she  was  abroad,  and  on  her  return  she 
lived  single  until  her  demise  in  1723. 

She  directed  by  her  will  that  she  should  be  buried 
in  her  first  husband's  (Dr.  Hoar)  grave  at  Braintree, 
which  was  at  least  the  expression  of  her  hope  that  in 
the  Judgment  Day  she  should  not  rise  very  near  to 
Mr.  Usher.  The  latter's  "  papers  "  have  never  been 
edited. 


224  SAMUKL   SEM'ALL. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

BETTY    SEWALL    AND    PURITAN    MARRIAGES. 

Upon  occasion,  Judge  Sewall  makes  this  entry :  — 

"  Pray  for  good  matches  for  my  children  as  they  grow  up ; 
that  they  may  be  equally  yoked." 

It  was  the  Puritan  habit  to  marry,  not  once,  but 
several  times,  if  death  came  to  separate.  It  was  not 
reputable  not  to  marry  ;  and  as  the  human  instincts 
agreed  with  custom,  there  was  much  marrying  in  the 
Puritan  commonwealth.  Instances  of  old  maids  and 
bachelors,  especially  the  latter,  were  rare  ;  though 
Sewall's  eldest  daughter,  Hannah,  died  in  middle  age 
unmarried,  a  life-long  invalid,  in  her  father's  house. 
The  custom  was  held  to  be  derived  from  the  explicit 
directions  of  Scripture,  and  was  for  these  several 
reasons  well  observed.  In  a  matter  of  so  much  im- 
portance, strict  laws  were  passed  and  enforced  ;  and 
very  careful  and  sensible  laws  they  were.  It  was 
made  law  in   1641:  — 

•*  If  any  person  shall  wilfully  and  unreasonably  deny  any 
child  timely  or  convenient  marriage  or  shall  exercise  any  un- 
natural severity  towards  them  ;  such  children  shall  have  liberty 
to  complain  to  authority  for  redress  in  such  cases." 


BETTY  SEW  ALL   AND  PURITAN  MARRIAGES. 


225 


It  was  ordered  in  1646  that  no  orphan,  during  her 
minority,  should  be  given  in  marriage  by  any  one 
except  with  the  approbation  of  the  major  part  of  the 
selectmen  of  the  town  where  the  party  resided.  It 
was  ordered  in  1639  that  no  person  shall  be  joined 
in  marriage  before  the  intention  of  both  parties  has 
been  three  times  published  at  some  public  lecture 
or  town  meeting,  in  both  towns  where  the  parties 
reside,  or  be  set  up  in  writing  upon  some  post 
of  their  meeting-house  door  in  public  view,  there  to 
stand,  so  as  it  may  easily  be  read  by  the  space  of 
fourteen  days.  The  publishing  of  marriages  on  the 
meeting-house  door  continued  into  the  present  gen- 
eration. The  laws  also  required  a  strict  registry  of 
marriages,  births,  and  deaths. 

In  1647  a  very  important  law  with  a  preamble, 
concerning  marriages,  was  passed  :  — 

"  And  whereas  God  hath  committed  the  care  and  power  into 
the  hands  of  parents  for  the  disposing  of  their  children  in  mar- 
riage, so  that  it  is  against  rule  to  seek  to  draw  away  the  affec- 
tions of  young  maidens,  under  pretence  of  purpose  of  marriage, 
before  their  parents  have  given  way  and  allowance  in  that  re- 
spect ;  And  whereas  it  is  a  common  practice  in  diverse  places, 
for  young  men  irregularly  and  disorderly  to  watch  all  advantages 
for  their  evil  purposes,  to  insinuate  into  the  affections  ot  young 
maidens,  by  coming  to  them  in  places  and  seasons  unknown  to 
their  parents  for  such  ends,  whereby  much  evil  hath  grown 
amongst  us,  to  the  dishonor  of  God  and  damage  of  parties; 
For  prevention  whereof  for  time  to  come  ;  It  is  further  Ordered, 
That  whatsoever  person  from  henceforth,  shall  endeavor  directly 
or  indirectly,  to  draw  away  the  affection  of  any  maid  in  this 
jurisdiction  under  pretence  of  marriage,  before  he  hath  obtained 
liberty  and  allowance  from   her  parents   or   governors  (or  in 


226  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

absence  of  such)  of  the  nearest  magistrate,  he  shall  forfeit  for 
the  first  oftence  £5  ;  for  the  second  towards  the  party  ^10  and 
be  bound  to  forbear  any  further  attempt  and  proceedings  in  that 
unlawful  design  ;  And  for  the  third  offence  he  shall  be  committed 
to  prison  and  upon  hearing  and  conviction  by  the  next  Court 
shall  be  adjudged  to  continue  in  prison  until  the  Court  of  As- 
sistants shall  see  cause  to  release  him,"' 

Sewall  himself  always  pays  great  respect  to  this 
law  in  managing  matrimonial  affairs  for  his  children 
and  others  ;  and  undoubtedly  it  was  a  law  of  good 
effect,  however  much  it  might  sometimes  interfere 
with  the  raw  or  senseless  imaginings  of  lovers  and 
idle  youth  above  described.  It  seems  to  have  been 
the  custom  for  the  elders  intending  a  match,  es- 
pecially on  the  man's  side,  to  send  a  suitable  present 
to  the  lady's  parents,  as  a  preliminary  to  his  ap- 
proaches. If  the  match  was  to  be  refused,  the  pres- 
ent Vv^as  probably  returned.  This  custom  perhaps 
explains   a  rather  blind  letter  of   Sewall's,  with  no 

address,  but  dated  :  — 

Boston,  Jan.  13,  1701. 
Madam ; 

The  inclosed  piece  of  silver,  by  its  bowing,  humble  form  be- 
speaks your  favor  for  a  certain  young  man  in  town.  The  name 
(Real)  the  motto  {Phcs  idtra)  seem  to  plead  its  suitableness  for 
a  present  of  this  nature.  Neither  need  you  accept  against  the 
quantity ;  for  you  have  the  mends  in  your  own  hands ;  and  by 
your  generous  acceptance  you  may  make  both  it  and  the  giver 
o-reat.  Madam  I  am 

Your  affect  friend 

S.  S 

It  was  also  ordered,  in  1646,  that  no  one  should 
be  married  by  any  one  except  a  magistrate  or  one 
appointed  by  the  authorities.     This  law  was  due  to 


BETTY  SEWALL   AND   PURITAN  MARRIAGES.      22/ 

the  reaction  against  the  Church  of  England,  where 
the  clergyman  always  marries  ;  and  some  still  re- 
gard the  rite  as  a  sacrament.  However,  this  law 
must  have  soon  fallen  into  disuse ;  for  we  find  in 
Sewall's  time  that  marriage  was  solemnized  by  the 
minister  Yet  under  this  law,  as  Winthrop  tells  us 
(Journal  11. ,  43),  Governor  Richard  Bellingham,  the 
last  survivor  of  the  patentees  named  in  the  charter, 
performed  a  marriage  service  for  himself  and  his  new 
bride  :  — 

"  His  last  wife  was  ready  to  be  contracted  to  a  friend  of  his 
who  lodged  in  his  house  and  by  his  consent  had  proceeded  so 
far  with  her  when  on  the  sudden  the  Governor  treated  with  her 
and  obtained  her  for  himself.  He  was  fifty  and  the  lady  twenty 
and  Bellingham  also  solemnized  the  marriage  himself." 

An  event  such  as  this,  and  others  like,  scattered 
not  plentifully  through  the  Puritan  annals,  remind  us 
that  the  Puritan  in  his  love  affairs  could  be  as  re- 
morseless and  as  enterprising  as  when  smiting  at 
a  Cavalier  with  his  long  sword,  or  hunting  an  Indian 
trail  with  a  tribe  of  savages  hid  somewhere  in  the 
wild  before  his  handful  of  white  men.  We  may 
assume,  in  history,  that  in  all  those  vital  affairs,  of 
which  lovemaking  is  by  no  means  the  least,  mankind 
constitutes  one  brotherhood.  The  ashes  of  all  Puri- 
tan lovers  are  cold  enough,  but  Sewall's  Diary  shows 
the  blood  to  have  been  very  warm  which  throbbed 
under  Puritan  bodice  and  doublet.  Nor  is  evidence 
altogether  lacking  in  Sewall's  Diary  that  the  Hester 
Prynne  of  Hawthorne's  ''  Scarlet  Letter  "  must  have 
had  her  kin   at   hand,  —  cousins   at   least   in   blood. 


228  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

Cold  and  stern,  on  a  surface  congested  by  most  for- 
bidding social  customs,  our  fore  fathers  and  mothers 
loved  mightily  as  they  wrought.  The  fine  ladies  of 
our  old  Boston  life,  as  we  see  them  in  their  portraits, 
seem  to  wear  a  veil  of  reserve  thicker  than  those  of 
their  sisters  of  the  East,  and  to  seclude  themselves 
from  the  ordinary  weaknesses  and  passions  of  us 
mortals.  But  the  eyes  look  straight  and  open,  the 
head  sets  firm  and  steady,  and  it  is  often  a  sweet 
mouth  that  might  easily  vibrate  with  almost  bound- 
less contempt  or  anger,  or  grow  set  and  pale  in  a 
crisis  ;  and  altogether  they  impress  us  as  women  of 
large  reserved  powers,  —  as  many  show  themselves 
to  be, — worthy  mothers  of  a  stalwart  and  able  race. 
Comedy  and  tragedy  mix  themselves  in  men's  love 
affairs  as  in  no  other.  Here  is  a  bit  of  comedy 
worthy  Hogarth,  from  an  early  entry  in  Sewall's 
Diary :  — 

"  Saturday  Even,  Aug.  12,  1676.  Just  as  prayer  ended  Tim 
Dwight  sank  down  in  a  swoon  and  for  a  good  space  was  as  if 
he  perceived  not  what  was  done  unto  him  ;  after  kicked  and 
sprawled,  Ivnocking  his  hands  and  feet  upon  the  floor  like  a  dis- 
tracted man.  Was  carried  pick  pack  to  bed,  there  his  clothes 
pulled  off.  The  Sabbath  following,  Father  went  to  him,  asked  if 
he  would  be  prayed  for  and  for  what  he  would  desire  his  friends 
to  pray.  He  answered  for  more  sight  of  sin  and  God's  healing 
grace.  I  asked  him,  being  alone  with  him  whether  his  troubles 
were  from  outward  cause  or  spiritual.  He  answered,  spiritual.  I 
asked  why  then  he  could  not  tell  it  his  master,  since  it  is  the 
honor  of  any  man  to  see  sin  and  be  sorry  for  it.  He  gave  no  an- 
swer as  I  remember.  Asked  him  if  he  would  go  to  meeting.  He 
said  'twas  in  vain  for  hini ;  '  his  day  was  out.'  I  asked  what  day ; 
he  answered  '  of  Grace.'     Notwithstandin":  all  this  semblance 


BETTY  SEIVALL   AXD  PURITAN  MARRIAGES.      229 

(and  much  more  than  is  written)  of  compunction  for  sin,  "'tis  to 
be  feared  that  his  trouble  arose  from  a  maid  whom  he  passion- 
ately loved ;  for  that  when  Mr.  Dwight  and  his  master  had 
agreed  to  let  him  go  to  her  he  eftsoons  grew  well.'" 

A  happy  recovery  to  Master  Tim  out  of  all  his 
troubles  ! 

There  was  one  question  concerning  marriages 
which  very  acutely  vexed  the  Puritan,  especially  as 
the  profoundest  of  human  passions  was  often  arrayed 
against  public  opinion.  The  matter  is  stated  by  this 
extract  from  the  colony  laws  (1679)  •  — 

"  In  answer  to  the  question,  Whether  it  be  lawful  for  a  man 
who  hath  buried  his  first  wife  to  marry  with  her  that  was  his 
first  wife's  natural  sister.  The  Court  resolves  it  on  the  negative." 

The  following  letter  of  Sewall  puts  plainly  the 
Puritan  verdict  on  this  point  ;  especially  their  aver- 
sion, founded,  j-s  they  thought,  on  the  Mosaic  Law, 
to  marriages  of  too  near  blood  :  — 

To  Cousin  John  Sewall,  at  Newbury,  Feb.  23,  1703. 

You  tell  me  you  have  been  advised  to  marry  the  widow  of 
your  cousin  German.  You  say  you  have  thought  it  not  so  near 
as  second  cousins  by  blood.  In  this  you  are  plainly  mistaken, 
for  it  is  by  casuists  laid  down  as  a  rule  in  these  cases,  that  de- 
grees of  consanguinity  and  affinity  do  equally  affect  marriage. 
For  my  own  part  it  is  not  plain  to  me  that  it  is  lawful  for  first 
cousins  to  marry.  I  rather  incline  to  think  it  is  unlawful.  .  .  . 
Learned  men  and  councils  have  been  against  these  kind  of 
matches ;  yet  because  you  ask  my  advice,  I  will  not  refrain  to 
give  it.  Do  that  which  is  safe,  which  is  most  safe,  in  a  matter 
of  the  greatest  importance.  Be  sure  you  have  the  license  of 
Heaven  to  produce.     If  one  were  to  purchase  a  hundred  acres 


230  SAMUEL  SEWALL. 

of  land  to  build  and  plant  on ;  one  would  choose  to  have  an 
undoubted  and  undefamed  right  to  it ;  and  not  venture  the  per- 
plexity and  disappointment  of  a  crazy  title.  Much  more  ought 
a  man  to  be  concerned,  to  choose  such  a  woman  to  be  his  wife 
to  whom  he  may  have  a  good,  clear,  indisputable  title  without 
the  least  flaw  or  appearance  of  it.  Do  that  which  is  honorable 
and  of  good  report.  (Phil.  iv.  8,  9.)  Marriage  is  honorable. 
James  Printer  told  me  the  Indians  call  cousin  Germans,  brothers, 
as  the  Jews  did.  And  he  told  me  the  Indians  seldom  marry  so 
near.  'Tis  pity  that  any  English  Christian  should  need  to  be 
put  to  an  Indian  school  to  learn  the  practice  of  temperance  and 
sobriety.  The  generality  of  good  people  use  to  be  displeased 
and  grieved  at  these  matches  ;  and  ordinarily  that  which  grieves 
the  Saints  grieves  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God.  .  .  . 

Your  loving  uncle, 

S.  S. 

Elizabeth,  or  "Betty"  Sewall  as  her  father  calls 
her,  was  his  fourth  child,  and  was  born  Dec.  29, 
1 68 1.  Her  religious  experience  has  already  been 
given.  So  far  as  is  known  to  us,  there  is  no  portrait 
of  her  extant,  and  only  such  personal  history  as  is 
writ  by  the  father,  of  whom  she  seems  to  have  been 
a  favorite  child.  But  in  the  absence  of  all  such  tes- 
timony, and  from  the  glimpses  we  get  of  her,  we 
imagine  her  to  have  been  a  demure,  fresh-colored, 
shapely  maiden,  with  the  Saxon  look  the  father  has ; 
not  averse  to  beaus,  but  very  careful  whom  and 
how  she  entertains  ;  a  trifle  inconstant  and  unsteady 
about  her  heart,  but,  withal,  as  wholesome,  fresh- 
natured,  and  by  blood  as  vivacious  and  charming,  a 
specimen  of  Puritan  womanhood  as  throve  and  wed 
in  the  colony.  A  few  glimpses  like  this  serve  to 
explain  her  :  — 


BETTY  SEIVALL   AND   PURITAN  MARRIAGES.      23  I 

"  1699,  Jany.  At  night  Cap.  Tuthill  comes  to  speak  with 
Betty  who  hid  herself  all  alone  in  the  coach  for  several  hours 
till  he  was  gone,  so  that  we  sought  at  several  houses  till  at  last 
came  in  of  herself  and  look'd  very  wild.'"  "Jany,  9.  Speaks 
with  her  in  my  presence.  Jany.  10.  At  night  sent  Cap.  Tut- 
hill away  because  company  was  here  and  told  him  was  willing 
to  know  her  mind  better.'" 

"Jany.  20.  Cap.  Brown  and  Turner  breakfast  here;  Betty 
came  in  afterward  and  served  almonds  and  raisins  and  filled  a 
glass  of  wine  to  us  ;  and  it  fell  to  her  to  drink  to  Cap.  Turner. 
She  went  out  of  the  way  at  first  after  I  had  spoke  to  her  to  fill 
wine ;  which  surprised  me ;  and  I  contrived  that  of  the  raisins 
on  purpose  to  mend  the  matter,"" 

Sewall  might  mend  as  he  liked,  and  carry  votes 
in  Council,  but  a  young  Puritan  maiden,  as  much 
coquette  as  Betty  Sewall,  was  bright  enough  to  mend 
his  ways,  and  she  was  now  doing  so.  Her  courtship 
by  Mr.  Grove  Hirst  apparently  was  full  of  vicissi- 
tudes, bred  of  her  own  fastidiousness  or  coquetry, 
though  they  finally  married.  On  one  occasion,  return- 
ing home  from  his  Circuit,  Judge  Sewall  writes  :  — 

"  Find  my  family  in  health  and  only  disturbed  at  Betty''s 
denying  Mr.  Hirst  and  my  wife  hath  a  cold,"'^ 

Years  before  he  had  written  fondly  of  her  :  — 

"  Little  Bettie  can  read  and  spin  passing  well; 
things  very  desirable  in  a  woman." 

This  passage,  in  its  rhythm  and  Saxon  words, 
reminds  one  of   Shakespeare's  Cordelia  :  — 

"  Her  voice  was  ever  soft, 

Gentle  and  low;    an  excellent  thing  in  woman." 


232  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

The  subjoined  letter  of  advice  to  his  daughter  in 
regard  to  her  relations  with  Mr.  Hirst  is  an  admira- 
ble summary  of  practical  truths  which  those  intend- 
ing courtship  might  ponder  with  profit :  — 

Elizabeth.  Mr.  Hirst  waits  on  you  once  more  to  see  if 
you  can  bid  him  welcome.  It  ought  to  be  seriously  considered, 
that  your  drawing  back  from  him  after  all  that  has  passed  be- 
tween you  will  be  your  Prejudice ;  and  will  tend  to  discourage 
persons  of  worth  from  making  their  Court  to  you.  And  you  had 
need  well  to  consider  whether  you  be  able  to  bear  his  final  Leav- 
ing of  you  howsoever  it  may  seem  grateful  to  you  at  present. 
When  persons  come  toward  us,  we  are  apt  to  look  upon  their 
Undesirable  Circumstances  mostly;  and  thereupon  to  shun 
them.  But  when  persons  retire  from  us  for  good  and  all,  we 
are  in  danger  of  looking  only  on  that  which  is  desirable  in 
them,  to  our  woeful  disquiet.  Whereas  it  is  the  property  of  a 
good  Balance  to  turn  where  the  most  weight  is,  though  there 
be  some  also  in  the  other  scale.  I  do  not  see  but  the  Match  is 
well  liked  by  judicious  persons  and  such  as  are  your  Cordial 
Friends,  and  mine  also. 

Yet,  notwithstanding,  if  you  find  in  yourself  an  unmovable, 
incurable  Aversion  from  him,  and  cannot  love  and  honor  and 
obey  him,  I  shall  say  no  more,  nor  give  you  any  further  trouble 
in  this  matter.  It  had  better  be  off  than  on.  So  praying  God 
to  pardon  us  and  pity  our  Undeserving  and  to  direct  and 
strengthen  and  settle  you  in  making  a  right  judgment  and  giv- 
ing a  right  answer,  I  take  leave,  who  am,  Dear  Child, 

Your  loving  father. 

Your  mother  remembers  to  you. 

The  upshot  of  the  matter  is  as  follows  in  the 
Diary  :  — 

"Oct.  1 8,  1700.  In  the  following  evening  Mr.  Grove  Hirst 
and  Elizabeth  Sewall  are  married  bv  Mr.  Cotton  Mather." 


BETTY  SEWALL   AND  PURITAiV  MARRIAGES.         2XX 

Sewall  had  only  four  out  of  his  fourteen  children 
who  married,  most  dying  young ;  and  one  of  these,  at 
least,  made  anything  but  a  happy  marriage.  Consid- 
ering all  things,  it  would  be  hardly  true  to  say  that 
the  marriages  of  Sewall's  children  rivalled  at  all 
that  of  their  parents.  But  eight  years  later  another 
daughter  was  about  to  assume  the  silken  ties,  and 
here,  again,  the  way  was  a  trifle  rough. 

Sewall's  daughter  Mary  was  now  about  to  have  a 
beau,  Mr.  Gerrish  of  Wenham,  bent  on  serious  busi- 
ness. Sewall  proceeds  to  make  preparations.  The 
elders  on  both  sides  had  had  probably  their  consulta- 
tions, and  Sewall  now  proceeded  to  prayer. 

"Jany.  24,  1709.  I  propound  to  Joseph  to  pray  with  his 
mother  and  me  for  his  sister  Mary ;  he  declines  it  and  I  pray 
and  was  assisted  with  considerable  agony  and  importunity  with 
many  tears.  The  Lord  hear  and  help."  "Jany.  31.  Mr.  Spen- 
cer calls  here  and  I  enquire  of  him  about  Mr.  Gerrish  of  Wen- 
ham,  what  he  should  say.  He  answered  not  directly;  but  said 
his  cousin  would  come,  if  he  might  have  admittance.  I  told 
him  I  heard  he  went  to  Mr.  Coney's  daughter.  He  said  he 
knew  nothing  of  that.  I  desired  him  to  enquire  and  tell  me. 
I  understood  he  undertook  it ;  but  he  came  no  more." 

Here  was  finesse  somewhere ;  but  Sewall  was  a 
hard  man  to  beat,  looking  out  for  his  own,  and  be- 
sides, was  one  of  the  richest  of  Puritan  papas. 

"  Feby.  4.  Nurse  Smith  buried.  Coming  from  the  grave  I 
asked  Mr.  Pemberton  [the  parson]  whether  S.  Gerrish  courted 
Mr.  Coney's  daughter.  He  said  no:  not  now.  Mr.  Coney 
thought  his  daughter  young."  "  Feby.  7.  I  delivered  a  letter  to 
S.  Gerrish  to  inclose  and  send  to  his  father  which  he  promised 
to  do.     Feby.  17.     I  receive  Mr.  Gerrish's  letter  just  at  night 


234  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

Feb.  i8.  I  leave  word  at  Mr.  Gerrish's  [S.  G.]  shop  that  I 
would  speak  with  him  after  Mr.  Bromiield's  meeting  was  over. 
He  came  and  1  bid  him  welcome  to  my  house  as  to  what  his 
father  writ  about.  So  late,  hardly  fit  then  to  see  my  daughter, 
appointed  him  to  come  on  Tuesday,  invited  him  to  supper.  I 
observe  he  drunk  to  Mary  in  the  third  place.  Feb.  23.  When 
I  came  from  the  meeting  at  Mr.  Stevens,  I  found  him  in  the 
chamber,  Mr,  Hirst  and  wife  [Betty  Sewall]  here.  It  seems  he 
asked  to  speak  with  Mary  below  ;  her  mother  was  afraid  because 
the  fire  was  newly  made  :  and  Mr.  Hirst  brought  him  up.  This 
I  knew  not  of :  He  asked  me  below,  w^hether  it  were  best  to 
frequent  my  house  before  his  father  came  to  town.  I  said  that 
were  the  best  introduction ;  but  he  was  welcome  to  come  before 
and  bid  him  come  on  Friday  night."  "  Feb  24.  Mr.  Hirst 
tells  me  Mr.  Gerrish  courted  Mr.  Coney's  daughter.  I  told  him 
I  knew  it  and  was  uneasy.  Friday  Feb.  25.  In  the  evening  S. 
Gerrish  comes  not;  we  expected  him,  Mary  dressed  herself:  it 
was  a  painful  disgraceful  disappointment."  "  Saturday.  Sam 
Gerrish  goes  to  Wenham  unknown  to  me,  till  Lord's  Dav  nio^ht 
Capt  Greenleaf  told  me  of  it.  He  was  not  seen  by  us  till  Wedns 
March  2." 

The  course  of  true  love  was  not  just  then  running 
smooth  in  the  Sewall  family;  but  on  March  14  :  — 

"The  Revd  Mr.  Joseph  Gerrish  [/^;7?]  comes  to  our  house 
in  the  evening  and  dines  with  us  the  next  day.  At  night  his 
son  comes  and  Marv  goes  to  him.  Comes  the  next  night 
also."  "  Friday  night.  S.  Gerrish  comes.  Tells  Mary  except 
Saturday  and  Lord's  Day  night  intends  to  wait  on  her  every 
night ;  unless  something  extraordinary  happens." 

This  is  the  first  time  in  the  Diary,  so  far  as  has 
been  noted,  when  Sewall  applies  the  term  "rever- 
end "  to  a  minister. 

"  June  3.  Mary  returns  well  from  Wenham.  Laii.';  Deo.'''' 
[She  had  been  out  to  see  her  lover's  family,  all  wliich  promises 


BETTY  SEU'ALL   AND   PURrfAN  MARRIAGES.       235 

well  for  a  wedding.  Midweek,  Aug.  24.  The  wedding  comes.] 
"  In  the  evening  Mr.  Pemberton  marries  Mr„  Samuel  Gerrish 
and  my  daughter  Mary.  He  began  with  prayer  and  Mr.  Ger- 
rish, the  bridegroom's  father  concluded.'" 

Next  day  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  and  Mr.  Pemberton 
and  wife,  with  others,  dined  with  Sewall,  who  invited 
the  governor  and  Council,  with  about  twenty  others, 
to  drink  a  glass  of  wine  with  him  in  the  evening. 
The  house  was  well  filled  with  the  Boston  fashion. 

"  Gave  them  variety  of  good  drink  and  at  going  away  a  large 
piece  of  cake  wrapped  in  paper.  They  very  heartily  wished  me 
joy  of  my  daughter's  marriage." 

Mary  Sewall's  married  life  was  short.  She  died 
in  her  father's  house  Nov.  16,  17 10,  a  little  more 
than  a  year  after  her  nuptials. 


236  SAMUEL   SFAVALL. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

ANNE     BRADSTREET     AND   OUR    PURITAN    LITERATURE. 

"  How  doth  his  warmth  refresh  tliy  frozen  back, 
And  trim  thee  brave  in  green,  after  thy  black. 
Both  man  and  beast  rejoice  at  his  approach, 
And  birds  do  sing  to  see  his  glittering  coach." 

Anne  Bradstreet  on  "  The  Sun  and  Earth." 

For  reasons  evident  to  every  student  of  that 
period,  our  early  Puritan  literature  is  scant  and  a 
trifle  starved.  Letters  require  leisure,  and  leisure 
presupposes  a  more  or  less  comfortable  estate  ;  while 
our  forefathers  were  among  the  busiest  of  mortals, 
and  fortunes,  for  the  most  part,  lay  in  a  not  near 
future.  Besides,  literature  for  the  Puritan  was  more 
than  a  trifle  aside  from  his  mission  and  his  temper. 
What  had  he  to  do  with  sonnets,  epigrams,  idyls,  or 
verses  to  a  lady's  eyes  .''  —  he  who  was  always  con- 
fronting the  Judgment  Day,  and  agonizing  with  all 
his  English  energy,  on  land  or  sea,  to  attain,  if  haply 
he  might  find  it,  to  the  reward  of  the  just  made  per- 
fect. Besides,  had  not  the  emissaries  of  the  Evil 
One  been  busy  with  their  pens  against  God  and  his 
saints  t  Were  there  not  Hudibras  Butler,  Congreve, 
and  Wycherley,  Vanbrugh,  and  a  host  of  others  to 
fling   mud  at    him    and  to  asperse  his  holy  cause  1 


A.  BRADSTREET  AND  PURITAN  LITERATURE.      237 

Had  not  even  that  gentle  daughter  of  Israel,  Mrs. 
Lucy  Hutchinson  written  :  "  Every  stage  and  every 
table  and  every  puppet  play  belched  forth  profane 
scoffs  upon  them  [the  Puritans]  ;  the  drunkards 
made  their  songs  and  all  fiddlers  and  mimics 
learned  to  abuse  them  as  finding  it  the  most  gainful 
way  of  fooling"?  So  polite  literature  came  very 
close,  in  the  Puritan  consciousness,  to  a  profanity. 
It  is  quite  possible  that  there  were  not  five  copies, 
perhaps  not  one,  of  Shakespeare's  plays  in  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  for  nigh  the  first  hundred  years.  And 
even  these  five  very  likely  were  brought  in  by  peo- 
ple not  Puritans.  Judge  Sewall  notes  in  his  Diary 
that  he  found  and  perused  at  a  certain  place  on  his 
circuit  a  copy  of  Ben  Jonson ;  but  that  place  was  in 
Rhode  Island.  It  was  true  that  in  England  John 
Milton,  both  in  prose  and  verse,  had  written  books 
which  the  world  will  not  wilhngly  let  die ;  but  these 
books  were  either  on  Puritan  politics  or  religion,  and 
gave  themselves  little  concern  with  the  mere  aesthet- 
ics or  forms  of  literary  art.  The  Puritan  painted  no 
pictures  and  wrote  no  plays.  But  if  this  be  a  true 
record,  it  should  be  at  once  added  that  this  same 
Puritan  spent  his  life  in  creating  those  substances 
out  of  which  literature  enriches  itself.  The  world 
has  not  yet  recognized  the  rich  stores  of  romance 
and  tragedy  which  are  unappropriated  in  the  history 
of  the  New  England  Puritans.  Hawthorne  has  done 
his  part  generously,  but  there  are  more  to  come. 
The  disturbances  of  home-life  among  the  Puritan 
clergy  in  Old  England,  when  they  were  driven  from 


238  ^  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

their  rectories,  and  their  sons  and  daughters,  with 
broken  social  ties  that  had  run,  may  be,  into  the  cir- 
cle of  House  and  Castle,  made  wanderers  and  with  a 
social  brand  ;  men  separated  from  their  wives  in  the 
long,  uncertain  Atlantic  voyage,  and  wives  at  home  in 
the  passive  but  mighty  heroism  of  those  who  wait  and 
must  be  still ;  letters  out  of  those  same  homes  with 
names  of  the  new-born,  or  a  sad  wail  sounding  across 
seas  for  the  first-born  of  the  defenceless  flock  ;  all 
the  blood,  the  plot,  the  violence  of  Indian  wars  ;  all 
the  ravages  of  pirate  ships  along  the  coast  some  of 
whose  sailors  were  prodigals  out  of  pious  families, 
born  of  the  very  blood  they  spoiled,  and  whose  pun- 
ishment,  when  taken,  was  the  gallows  at  the  hands 
of  kindred ;  all  the  plannings,  craft,  uncertainties  of 
politics,  over  which  friends  broke  from  each  other, 
and  plighted  sons  and  daughters  were  forced  to  face 
broken  vows,  in  a  strife  which  ran  through  British 
governors  and  patriot  deputies,  from  Andros  and 
the  elder  Dudley  to  Gage  and  Samuel  Adams  ;  all 
distances  of  abode  and  an  ever-changing  estate  of 
men  and  women  whose  passions  of  love  or  hate  were 
not  cooled,  but  rather  made  intense,  by  the  strange, 
exacting,  but  tonic  life  of  the  New  England  land  — 
all  these  are  still  unexhausted  storehouses  from 
which  genius  one  day  will  bring  forth  riches  in 
triumph. 

There  are  exceptions  to  this  statement  of  the 
actual  poverty  of  our  early  New  England  literature, 
provided  we  make  the  word  elastic  enough.  If  ser- 
mons and  religious  controversies  are  to  be  counted 


A.  BRADSTREE  T  AND  PURITAN  LITER  A  TURE.      239 

in,  there  is  plenty  of  that  sort ;  indeed,  a  singular 
fecundity.  Cotton  Mather  is  a  wonder  in  composi- 
tion, —  unique*  in  quantity,  and  the  reverse  in  quality ; 
cultivating,  as  a  wit  puts  it,  his  memory  till  he  lost 
his  mind.  There  are  others  who  approach  him  in 
these  respects.  There  are  two  mysteries  in  the  old 
New  England  civilization  which  demand  solving  by 
some  one.  (i)  Exactly  why  and  where  did  that 
composite  holy  day  and  fast  day  all  in  one,  the 
Puritan  Sabbath,  come  from  t  (2)  Why  and  where 
did  the  New  England  Puritan  sermon  come  from  } 
To  some  men  who  have  looked  at  these  problems, 
and  seen  the  difficulty  of  the  analysis  and  the  curi- 
ous precipitate  liable  to  remain  if  the  analysis  suc- 
ceed, the  bewilderment  is  a  little  like  what  must  have 
been  the  mind  of  the  ancient  Job  when  asked,  "  Out 
of  whose  womb  came  the  ice }  And  the  hoary  frost 
of  heaven,  who  hath  gendered  it.-^"  How  men  could 
ever  write,  or  other  men  listen  to,  or  read,  such  lucu- 
brations, is,  like  the  wisdom  of  God,  past  finding  out. 
Yet  there  are  libraries  of  such  books  hid  away  from 
this  judicious  generation  by  dust  and  neglect.  And 
except  as  warnings  to  the  coming  generations  of 
scribes,  or  to  furnish  an  occasional  tint  or  antithesis 
to  the  historian,  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  further 
use  is  in  them. 

There  are  also  many  crude  and  shapeless  histories 
and  narratives  of  travels,  voyages,  and  current  events 
in  the  New  England  commonwealth  which  will  al- 
ways have  a  certain  interest  to  the  antiquarian  and 
the    philosopher    of    men.     They,    too,    sleep    under 


240  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

their  shroud  of  dust,  and  give  little  bread  to  the 
hungry. 

There  are  two  marked  exceptions  to  the  general 
drift  of  old  New  England  literature.  In  brief,  these 
are  John  Winthrop's  Journal  and  the  Winthrop  pa- 
pers in  general,  and  Judge  Sewall's  Diary.  The  re- 
spect of  this  book  for  the  Winthrop  character  and 
agency  in  moulding  New  England  is  elsewhere  in 
its  pages ;  and  Sewall's  Diary  must  speak  for  itself. 

There  are  also  another  class  of  writings  ;  substan- 
tially, histories  or  travels  which,  though  in  general 
in  bad  form,  have  a  certain  archaic  value  liable  to 
last.  The  brave,  heroic  Daniel  Gookin,  Sewall's 
friend  for  the  Indians,  who  stood  so  bolt  upright  for 
the  good  ones  in  King  Philip's  War,  and  became  so 
unpopular  that  the  very  "  small  boys  "  hooted  him 
in  his  house,  and  who  after  stood  equally  straight 
against  English  emissaries  like  Randolph,  until  he 
became  the  most  popular  man  in  the  colony,  was 
said  to  have  written  a  valuable  history  of  his  times, 
especially  touching  the  red  men  and  Christianity,  the 
manuscript  of  which  was  destroyed  by  fire.  But 
Wm.  Wood  in  his  ^'  New  England  Prospect  "  shows 
marked  literary  skill,  and  the  naturalist  Josselyn  has 
somewhat  to  be  read.  The  political  and  theological 
tracts  are  numerous. 

One  man,  and  he  the  strongest  writer,  may  be 
taken  to  represent  Puritan  authorship  here  of  the 
second  class,  —  Nathaniel  Ward  of  Agawam,  now 
Ipswich,  He  graduated  at  Emmanuel  College,  Cam- 
bridge,  1603,  and  resided  at  the  university  as  one  of 


A.  BRADSTREE  T  AND  PURITAN  LITER  A  TURE.      24 1 

its  learned  writers  and  scholars.  He  was  the  literary- 
friend  of  men  like  Sir  Francis  Bacon,  Archbishop 
Usher,  and  the  divine,  Parens  of  Heidelberg.  First 
he  studied  and  practised  law  ;  travelled  several  years 
on  the  Continent,  and  then  took  orders  in  the  Angli- 
can Church.  For  ten  years  he  was  a  country  parson 
in  Essex,  where  he  was  excommunicated  for  his 
Puritanism  (and  probably  his  tongue)  by  Archbishop 
Laud  in  1633.  Then  with  all  this  wealth  of  learning 
and  experience,  he  came  here,  and  settled  as  pastor 
in  the  wilderness  at  Ipswich,  where,  nevertheless,  he 
sometimes  had  several  university  men  in  his  congrega- 
tion, Simon  Bradstreet  among  them.  While  on  the 
Continent,  somehow  he  made  the  intimate  acquain- 
tance of  the  family  of  the  unfortunate  but  beauti- 
ful Princess  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  James  I.,  and  so 
sister  of  Charles  I.,  but  now  married  to  the  Elector 
Palatine  of  Germany  (with  her  ruined  but  ivy-clad 
tower  in  Heidelberg  Castle  still  standing),  and  ap- 
pears to  have  been  attached  to  her  court.  Anyway, 
he  seems  to  have  dandled  her  infant  son,  —  after, 
the  famous  Prince  Rupert.  For  when,  years  after, 
Prince  Rupert  had  become  the  profane,  brave  soldier 
he  was,  ''swearing  like  a  trooper,"  Rev.  Nathaniel 
Ward  wrote  from  across   seas  into   England  :  — 

"  I  have  had  him  in  my  arms.  ...  I  wish  I  had  him  there 
now.  If  I  mistake  not  he  promised  then  to  be  a  good  prince ; 
but  I  doubt  he  hath  forgot  it.  If  I  thought  he  would  not  be 
angry  with  me  I  would  pray  hard  to  his  Maker  to  make  him 
a  right  Roundhead,  a  wise-hearted  Palatine,  a  thankful  man  to 
the  English  :  to  forgive  all  his  sins,  and  at  length  to  save  his 
soul  notwithstanding  all  his  God-damme's." 


242  SAMUEL   SEW  ALL. 

In  1647,  with  the  strife  between  king  and  parlia- 
ment running  swiftly  towards  the  king's  scaffold, 
Ward,  this  long-brained,  cultured  man,  as  Professor 
Tyler  so  felicitously  says,  with  a  radical  brain  and 
a  conservative  heart,  wrote  his  "  Simple  Cobbler  of 
Agawam,"  an  "oaky,"  rambling  book,  a  prose  satire 
on  the  mental  chaos  of  the  times.  New  England 
varieties,  and  English  politics. 

The  title-page  runs  curiously  thus  :  — 

"The  Simple  Cobbler  of  Agawam  in  America;  willing  to 
help  mend  his  native  country,  lamentably  tattered  both  in  the 
upper  leather  and  sole,  —  with  all  the  honest  stitches  he  can 
take ;  and  as  willing  never  to  be  paid  for  his  work  by  old  Eng- 
lish wonted  pay.  It  is  his  trade  to  patch  all  the  year  long, 
gratis.  Therefore  I  pray  gentlemen  keep  your  purses.  By 
Theodore  de  la  'Guard.     In  rebus  arduis  ac  tenui  spe 

ORTISSIMA    QUAEQUE     CONSILIA    TUTISSIMA    SUNT.        Cic.        In 
English : 

When  boots  and  shoes  are  torn  up  to  the  lefts 
Cobblers  must  thrust  their  awls  up  to  the  hefts; 
This  is  no  time   to  fear  Apelles  gram; 
^  Ne  sutor  quidem  idtra  crepidam.''  " 

The  keynote  is  in  the  opening  sentence  :  — 

"Either  I  am  in  an  apoplexy  or  that  man  is  in  a  lethargy 
who  doth  not  now  sensibly  feel  God  shaking  the  heavens  over 
his  head  and  the  earth  under  his  feet.  .  .  .  The  truths  of  God 
are  the  pillars  of  the  world,  whereon  states  and  churches  may 
stand  quiet  if  they  will ;  if  they  will  not  he  can  easily  shake  them 
off  into  delusions  and  destractions  enough." 


*i3' 


In  mere  felicity  of  phrase  Roger  Williams  is  per- 
haps entitled  to  carry  off  the  palm  from  all  his  New 


A.  BRADSTREE  T  AND  PURITAN  LITER  A  TURE.      243 

England  contemporaries.  He  often  appears  in  these 
pages ;  and  the  reader  will  often  remark  a  delicacy  in 
the  phrase  or  turn  of  his  sentence  which  is  rare  now, 
as  it  certainly  was  then.  Never  with  the  balanced 
and  able  mind  of  a  man  like  John  Winthrop,  and  by 
nature  not  even  a  good  wreckmaster  of  the  very 
things  which  he  would  have  destroyed ;  yet  no  wise 
man  will  willingly  affront  his  memory,  even  when 
pointing  out  his  weaknesses.  The  fact  is  that  Roger 
Williams  was  made  up  after  a  polyglot  pattern.  He 
was  a  sort  of  Oriental  caravan,  bearing  all  sorts  of 
balm,  myrrh,  and  frankincense  for  delight  and  use ; 
but  he  wandered  often  from  the  track,  brought  little 
bread,  though  a  few  pearls  of  great  price,  and,  to  say 
truth,  had  not  great  store  of  anything  to  feed  the 
hungry  into  mastery  in  the  land  to  which  he  fared. 
Yet  his  spices  are  still  fragrant.  Here  are  a 
few  :  — 

"  Alas,  Sir,  in  calm  midnight  thoughts  what  are  these  leaves 
and  flowers  and  smoke  and  shadows  and  dreams  of  earthly  noth- 
ings about  which  we  poor  fools  and  children,  as  David  saith, 
disquiet  ourselves  in  vain." 

"  We  are  born  to  trouble  as  the  sparks  are  to  fly  upward. 
Above  the  sun  is  our  rest  in  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  all  blessed- 
ness, unto  whose  arms  of  everlasting  mercy,  I  commend  you, 
desirous  to  be  yours,  even  in  Him." 

"  Your  worships,  sorry  that  I  am  not  more  yours  and  neither 
of  us  more  the  Lord's."  Roger  Williams. 

Speaking  of  a  hard  winter,  with  deep  snows,  he 
writes  :  — 

"  It  hath  pleased  the  Most  High  to  besiege  us  all  with  his 
white  legions."      "  Prince  Rupert  was  one  whose  name  in  these 


244  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

parts  sounds  as  a  north-east  snowstorm.*'     "  Better  an  honor- 
able death  than  a  slave's  life."' 

Here  is  an  epigram  worthy  of  being  written  on  the 
senate  house  of  any  free  people. 

"I  fear  not  so  much  iron  and  steel  as  the  cutting  of  our 
throats  with  golden  knives." 

By  some  standards  none  of  these  books  would  be 
ranked  as  literature ;  though  there  was  not  one  of 
these  men  who  had  not  in  him  the  power  of  litera- 
ture, both  as  to  form  and  substance.  Sewall's  Diary 
may  be  only  reckoned  a  storehouse  in  which  litera- 
ture may  find  its  riches ;  yet  the  man  who  could 
write  in  as  good  form  as  this,  had  he  set  about  it, 
could  have  written  what  would  stand  the  brunt  of 
most  modern  criticism  :  — 

"  Communion  with  God  is  the  centre  which  rests  the  motions 
of  a  weary  soul ;  'tis  the  rest  and  refreshment  of  a  man's  spirit. 
(Psalm  ii6.  7)  '  Return  unto  thy  rest  O  my  soul.'  When  we 
attain  perfect  communion  with  God  in  heaven,  we  attain  to  per- 
fect rest ;  and  all  the  rest  the  spirit  of  man  finds  on  earth  is 
found  in  communion  with  God." 

Composed  by  S.  S.  in  London  while  on  his  visit  to  England. 

Perhaps  (to  indulge  in  the  pleasantry  of  a  con- 
scious bull)  the  one  real  literary  man  of  these  old 
days  in  New  England  was  a  woman,  —  Anne  Brad- 
street.  If  so,  the  honor,  justly  given,  derives  itself 
not  more  from  her  performance  than  from  the  fact 
that  she  seems  to  have  given  herself  more  to  writing 
as  a  serious  business  than  any  New  England  man  of 


A.  BRADSTREE  T  AND  PURITAN  LITER  A  TURE.      245 

affairs  (her  own  father  and  husband,  for  instance) 
had  leisure. 

Anne  Bradstreet  was  born  in  England  (161 2), 
probably  at  Northampton.  Her  father,  Thomas  Dud- 
ley, after  associate  with  Winthrop  in  the  Puritan  Ex- 
odus of  1630,  and  later  governor  of  the  colony,  was 
the  son  of  Captain  Roger  Dudley,  killed  in  battle 
about  I  586.  He  himself  had  been  a  soldier,  and  of 
later  years  steward  to  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  whose 
estates  he  rescued  from  their  embarrassments,  prov- 
ing himself  an  able  business  man,  and  raising  Simon 
Bradstreet,  son  of  a  Nonconformist  minister  to  be 
his  coadjutor  in  the  task.  At  a  very  early  age  Anne 
Bradstreet,  from  her  father's  oifficial  position,  was 
much  at  the  castle,  and  was  there  educated  by  the 
magnificence  and  culture  common  to  a  nobleman's 
house  of  that  era.  At  the  age  of  sixteen,  in  1628, 
she  married  Simon  Bradstreet,  nine  years  her  senior, 
with  whom  she  lived  till  her  death  at  sixty  (1672). 
They  emigrated  to  New  England,  where  the  husband 
became  colonial  secretary,  judge,  legislator,  governor, 
ambassador,  royal  ambassador,  and  soldier  in  turn, 
dying  at  the  age  of  ninety-four.  After  several 
changes  in  abode,  the  family  finally  settled  near 
Andover,  Mass.,  where  she  reared  eight  children, 
although  of  a  delicate  constitution  ;  and  in  this  quiet 
country  home  most  of  her  literary  work  was  done, 
before  thirty, — from  1630  to  1642.  It  will  surprise 
some  to  read  that  her  writings  were  enough  to  fill 
a  royal  octavo  volume  of  some  four  hundred  pages. 
She  herself  writes  of  her  earlier  life  :  — 


246  SAMUEL   SEVVALL. 

"After  a  short  time  I  changed  my  condition  and  was  mar- 
ried and  came  into  this  country  where  I  found  a  new  world  and 
new  manners  at  which  my  heart  rose.  But  after  I  was  convinced 
it  was  the  way  of  God  I  submitted  to  it/^ 

No  wonder  that  a  lady,  raised  almost  in  an  earl's 
family,  should  feel  her  heart  rise  against  the  almost 
sordid,  certainly  the  low,  estate,  especially  of  the 
Lord's  maidens,  who  were  also  wives,  set  to  rear 
families  in  the  New  England  wild. 

It  is  not  intended  here  either  to  catalogue  or 
analyze  Anne  Bradstreet's  literary  work,  or,  indeed, 
to  give  much  more  than  significant  extracts  from 
her  writings.  Any  one  who  would  study  the  sub- 
ject thoroughly,  is  respectfully  referred  to  a  charm- 
ing life  of  her  written  in  the  most  crystal  English  by 
the  late  John  Harvard  Ellis,  who  evidently  himself 
died  too  early  not  to  bequeath  a  loss  to  American 
historical  literature.  But  one  point  should  be  looked 
at  beforehand.  It  will  surprise  very  many  to  hear 
that  the  Puritans  of  New  England  were  almost  uni- 
versally addicted  to  verse-making,  very  much  in  the 
same  fashion  as  led  the  Lady  Mary  Montagu  to  say 
that  in  her  time  "  verse-making  had  become  as  com- 
mon as  taking  snuff."  Rather  poor  verses  they  no 
doubt  were  in  both  cases  ;  but  men  and  women  made 
them  all  the  same,  and  in  case  of  the  Puritans,  prob- 
ably for  two  reasons.  Assuming  the  fact  to  be  sub- 
stantially as  stated,  —  and  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  Puritans  as  English  folk  had  inherited  from  their 
Saxon,  Norse,  and  Celtic  ancestry  about  as  much 
folklore  in  the  shape  of  jingling  rhymes  and  saws  in 


A.  BRADSTREET  AND  PURITAN  LITER  A  TURE.      247 

verse  full  of  an  earthy,  robust  common-sense,  as  any 
people  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  —  these  rhymes  and 
saws  in  their  almost  universal  currency  would  make 
some  sort  of  rough  rhyme-making  and  versification 
a  natural  avocation  for  our  forefathers.  Governor 
Dudley,  her  father,  died  with  a  copy  of  some  verses 
in  his  pocket ;  and  Anne  Bradstreet,  evidently  a  sen- 
sitive and  imaginative  child,  must  have  heard  the 
like,  and  no  doubt  better,  from  her  youth  up.  Be- 
sides, it  should  never  be  forgot  that  the  honest  Puri- 
tans, both  men  and  women,  lived  in  a  sort  of  religious 
ecstasy  which  was  bred  even  more  from  a  quivering 
heart  than  their  strong  head.  As  is  well  known,  all 
strong  emotion  tends  to  express  itself  rhythmically, 
and  takes  on  the  form  of  poetry,  as  is  often  seen  in 
very  young  and  sensitive  children,  who,  when  led 
away  from  a  death-bed,  or  the  spot  where  a  favorite 
dog  or  bird  has  just  been  buried,  proceed  to  make  a 
poem  on  the  sad  event,  in  all  sincerity  of  grief.  So 
far,  we  may  be  sure  that  Anne  Bradstreet  was  reared 
in  such  an  atmosphere,  where  poetical  feeling,  as 
it  does  everywhere  to-day,  far  outruns  all  or  any 
artistic  forms  of  poetical  expressions.  Yet,  on  the 
other  hand,  a  comparison  of  dates  will  show  that 
Anne  Bradstreet's  era  is  one  of  poetical  expression 
and  performance,  hardly  excelled  before  or  since  in 
England. 

Here  are  a  few  extracts  from  poems  addressed  to 
relatives  ;  this  first  to  her  father.  Governor  Thomas 
Dudley,  whom  she  elsewhere  calls  a  magazine  of  his- 
tory, her  guide  and  instructor  in  her  love  of  books  :  — 


248  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

*'  Most  truly  honored  and  as  truly  dear 
If  worth  in  me  or  aught  I  do  appear 
Who  can  of  right  better  demand  the  same 
Than  may  your  worthy  self  from  whom  it  came." 

A.  B. 

Next,  an  epitaph  on  "my  dear  and  ever-honored 
mother,"  Mrs.  Dorothy  Dudley,  who  died  1643, 
M..  61  :  — 

MRS.    DOROTHY    DUDLEY. 

ANNE    BRADSTEET'S     MOTHER. 

A  worthy  matron  of  unspotted  life 

A  loving  mother  and  obedient  wife 

A  friendly  neighbor,  pitiful  to  poor 

Whom  oft  she  fed  and  clothed  with  her  store. 

To  servants  wisely  aweful,  but  yet  kind, 

And  as  they  did,   so  they 'reward  did  find; 

A  true  instructor  of  her  family 

The  which  she  ordered  with  dexterity. 

The  public  meetings  ever  did  frequent, 

And  in  her  Closet   constant  hours  she  spent; 

Religious  in  all  her  words  and  ways 

Preparing  still  for  death,  till  end  of  days; 

Of  all  her  children,  children  lived  to  see 

Then  dying  left  a  blessed  memory. 

Next,  a  quaint  conceit  on  her  own  children  :  — 

"  I  had  eight  birds  hatched  in  one  nest 
Four  cocks  there  were,  and  hens  the  rest 
I  nurst  them  up  with  pain  and  care 
Nor  cost   nor  labor   did  I  spare, 
'Till  at  the   last  they  felt  their  wing 
Mounted  the  trees  and  learned  to  sing."  A.  B. 

"  Upon  my  son  Samuel  [her  eldest  son]  going  for 
England,   Nov.   6,    1657":  — 


A.  BKADSTREET  AiYD  PURITAN  LITERATURE.      249 

"Thou  mighty  God  of  sea  and  land 
I  here  resign  into  thy  hand 
The  son  of  prayers,   of  vowes,  of  tears 
The  child  I  stayed  for  many  years. 
Thou  heard'st  me  then  and  gav'st  him  me. 
Hear  me  again  I  give  him  Thee. 
He's  mine  but  more  O  Lord  thine  own, 
For  sure  thy  grace  on  him  is  shown 
No  friend  I  have  like  Thee  to  trust 
For  mortal  helps  are  brittle  dust 
Preserve,  O  Lord  from  storms  and  wrack 
Protect  him  there  and  bring  him  back  : 
And  if  thou  shalt  spare  me  a  space 
That  I  again  may  see  his  face 
Then  shall  I  celebrate  thy  praise 
And  bless  Thee  for't  even  all  my  days. 
If  otherwise  I  go  to  rest 
Thy  will  be  done,  for  that  is  best 
Persuade  my  heart  I  shall  him  see 
Forever  happefy'd  with  Thee." 

The  true  Puritan  rage  against  the  EngUsh  Church 
and  Crown  is  very  vividly  expressed  in  these  hnes, 
addressed,  apparently,  to  her  native  land,  considered 
somehow  as  existing  apart  from  both  :  — 

"Dear  Mother  cease  complaints  and  wipe  your  eyes 
Shake  off  your  dust,   cheer  up  and  now  arise, 
You  are  my  mother  nurse  and  I  your  flesh.   .  .   . 
Blest  be  the  nobles  of  thy  noble  land 
With  ventur'd  lives  for  Truth's  defence  that  stand. 
Blest  be  thy  commons  who,   for  common  good 
And  the  infringed  Laws,  have  boldly  stood. 
Blest  be  thy  counties  who  did  aid  thee  still 
"With  hearts  and  states  to  testify  their  will. 
Blest  be  thy  preachers  who  do  cheer  thee  on. 
O,  cry  the  sword  of  God  and  Gideon:        [Judges  vii.  18-20.] 
And  shall  I  not  on  them  with  Mero's  curse 
That  help  thee  not  with  prayers,  arms  and  purse  ? 


250  SAMUEL   SEVVALL. 

And  for  myself  let  miseries  abound 

If  mindless  of  thy  state  I  e'er  be  found. 

These  are  the  days  the  church's  foes  to  crush 

To  root  out  Popelings,   head,   tail,   branch,   and  nesh; 

Let's  bring  Baal's  vestments  forth  to  make  a  fire 

Their  Myrlires,   Surplices,   and  all  their  tire 

Capes,  rotchets,  crosiers  and  such  empty  trash 

And  let  their  names  consume,   but  let  the  flash 

Light  Christendome  and  all  the  world  to  see 

We  hate  Rome's  whore  with  all  her  trumpery. 

Go  on  brave   Essex  with  a  loyal  heart 

Not  false  to  King  nor  to  the  better  part; 

But  those  that  hurt  his  people  and  his  crown 

As  duty  binds,  expel  and  tread  them  down." 

But  undoubtedly  the  most  remarkable  of  all  the 
literary  performances  of  Anne  Bradstreet  is  her 
"  Meditations,"  which  she  dedicates  to  her  son  in 
the  letter  subjoined:  — 


For  My  Dear  Son  Simon  Bradstreet. 

Parents  perpetuate  their  lives  in  their  posterity  and  their 
manners  in  their  imitation.  Children  do  naturally  follow  the 
failings  than  the  virtues  of  their  predecessors,  but  I  am  per- 
suaded better  things  of  you.  You  once  desired  me  to  leave 
something  for  you  in  writing  that  you  might  look  upon  when 
you  should  see  me  no  more.  I  could  think  of  nothing  more  fit 
for  you,  nor  of  more  ease  to  myself  than  these  short  Meditations 
following.  Such  as  they  are  I  bequeathe  to  you  ;  small  legacies 
are  accepted  by  true  friends,  much  more  by  dutiful  children.  .  .  . 
The  Lord  bless  you  with  grace  here  and  crown  you  with  glory 
hereafter  that  I  may  meet  you  with  rejoicing  at  that  great  day 
of  appearing  which  is  the  continual  prayer  of 

Your  affectionate  mother 

A.  B. 

March  20,  1664. 


A .  BRADSTREE  T  AXD  PUR  I  TAX  LITER  A  TURE.      2  5  I 


MEDITATIONS. 

There  is  no  object  that  we  see ;  no  action  that  we  do ;  no 
good  that  we  enjoy ;  no  evil  that  we  feel  or  fear  but  we  may 
make  some  spiritual  advantage  of  all ;  and  he  that  makes  such 
improvement  is  wise  as  well  as  pious. 

Many  can  speak  well  but  few  can  do  well.  We  are  better 
scholars  in  the  theory  than  in  the  practical  part ;  but  he  is  a  true 
Christian  who  is  a  proficient  in  both. 

Youth  is  the  time  of  getting ;  middle  age  of  improving  and 
old  age  of  spending ;  a  negligent  youth  is  usually  attended  by 
an  ignorant  middle  age  and  both  by  an  empty  old  age.  He  that 
hath  nothing  to  feed  on  but  vanity  and  lies  must  needs  lie  down 
in  the  bed  of  Sorrow. 

The  finest  bread  hath  the  least  bran ;  the  purest  honey,  the 
least  wax;  and  the  sincerest  Christian  the  least  selflove. 

Downy  beds  make  drowsy  persons  but  hard  lodging  keeps 
the  eyes  open.  A  prosperous  state  makes  a  secure  Christian 
but  adversity  makes  him  consider. 

Sweet  words  are  like  honey  —  a  little  may  refresh  but  too 
much  gluts  the  stomach. 

Authority  without  wisdom  is  like  a  heavy  axe  without  an 
edge,  fitter  to  bruise  than  polish. 

The  reason  why  Christians  are  so  loath  to  exchange  this 
world  for  a  better,  is  because  they  have  more  sense  than  faith  ; 
they  see  what  they  enjoy  they  do  but  hope  for  that  which  is  to 
come. 

If  we  had  no  winter  the  spring  would  not  be  so  pleasant;  if 
we  did  not  sometimes  taste  of  adversity,  prosperity  would  not  be 
so  welcome. 

That  house  which  is  not  often  swept ,  makes  the  cleanly 
inhabitant  soon  loathe  it,  and  that  heart  which  is  not  con- 
tinually purifying  itself,  is  no  fit  temple  for  the  Spirit  of  God  to 
dwell  in. 


252  SAMUEL  SEJFALL. 

Corn  till  it  have  past  through  the  mill  and  been  ground  to 
powder,  is  not  fit  for  bread.-  God  so  deals  with  his  servants ; 
he  grinds  them  with  grief  and  pain  till  they  turn  to  dust  and 
then  are  they  fit  bread  for  his  Mansion, 

He  that  walks  among  briers  and  thorns  will  be  very  careful 
where  he  sets  his  foot.  And  he  that  passes  through  the  wilder- 
ness of  this  world  had  need  ponder  all  his  steps. 

An  aching  head  requires  a  soft  pillow  and  a  drooping  heart  a 
strong  support. 

Dim  eyes  are  the  concomitants  of  old  age ;  and  short  sight- 
edness  in  those  that  are  eyes  of  a  republic  foretells  a  declining 
state. 

Sore  laborers  have  hard  hands  and  old  sinners  have  brawny 
consciences. 

Wickedness  comes  to  its  height  by  degrees.  He  that  dares 
say  of  a  less  sin,  "  Is  it  not  a  little  one?  "  will  ere  long  say  of  a 
greater,  "  Tush  !  God  regards  it  not !  " 

Fire  hath  its  force  abated  by  water,  not  by  wind ;  and  anger 
must  be  allayed  by  cold  words  and  not  by  blustering  threats. 

As  the  brands  of  a  fire,  if  once  severed,  will  of  themselves  go 
out,  although  you  use  no  other  means  to  extinguish  them  —  so 
distance  of  place  together  with  length  of  time  (if  there  be  no 
intercourse)  will  cool  the  affections  of  intimate  friends,  though 
there  should  be  no  displeasance  between  them. 

Since  Anne  Bradstreet's  day,  many  of  her  New 
England  sisters  of  Puritan  stock,  in  the  name  of  the 
Puritan  ideas  of  liberty  and  piety  in  literature,  have 
fairly  won  fame  before  the  world  as  philanthropists 
and  artists,  while  others  are  surely  approaching  the 
gates  of  the  great  temple.  By  that  same  beautiful 
river  of  the  lordly  elms,  intent  on  marshalling  its 
tides,  have  dwelt  and  will,  women  who  make  this 
world    purer   and    the    next    nearer    for   the   poetry 


A.  BRADSTREE  T  AND  PURITAN  LITER  A  TURE.      253 

(sometimes  in  prose)  which  they  have  written  and 
Hved  out.  It  is  they,  at  least,  and  women  Hke  them 
of  Massachusetts  Bay,  who  will  keep  in  honor  the 
memory  of  their  eldest  New  England  sister  in  their 
great  Guild  of  Letters,  —  Anne  Bradstreet. 


254  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

SEWALL  AND  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND. 

It  is  hardly  to  the  honor  of  that  part  of  the  human 
race  called  Christians,  that  they  have  been  so  seldom 
able  either  to  understand  or  withstand  human  opin- 
ions adverse  to  their  own,  with  charity.  For  charity, 
as  time  shows,  is  not  only  the  first  of  Christian  vir- 
tues, but  it  is  also  the  youngest  and  most  difficult. 
The  British  race,  in  managing  its  religious  affairs, 
reveals  this  defective  habit  of  man.  The  agnostic, 
of  course,  regards  all  this  with  wonder  or  contempt. 
For  men  to  quarrel  over  a  guess,  and  spend  lives  and 
gold  over  a  remote  hypothesis  ;  to  die,  self-exiled, 
in  some  far-off  clime  among  savages,  forsaking  home 
and  fatherland,  for  a  delusion  from  which  that  com- 
mon-sense which  is  all  men's  birthright  should  have 
saved  them, — is  to  him  acutely  absurd.  Yet  men,  and 
those,  too,  of  no  base  degree,  have  done  this  a  thou- 
sand times.  But  British  Christians  have  never  been 
of  the  agnostic  .type.  No  men  ever  held  more  dog- 
matically and  unswervingly  to  their  religion  than 
those  children  of  the  English  Reformation  called 
Puritans.  What  for  them  was  true  in  Christianity 
was  true  in  all  time  and  space.     What  was  contrary 


SEWALL   AND    THE   CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.      255 

thereto  was  equally  false  in  duration  and  extension. 
Since,  then,  their  religion  was,  in  their  mind,  man's 
salvation,  its  opposite  must  work  man's  perdition  ;  and 
he  who  upheld  that  opposite  must  be  logically  the 
enemy  of  the  human  race.  It  makes  naught  to  say 
that  the  Puritan,  having  rejected  the  old  church  as 
false  authority,  made  himself  a  new  and  more  vulgar 
one,  which  lacked  even  the  dignity  of  antiquity. 
Such  are  ever  the  necessities  and  limits  of  the  hu- 
man mind  in  religion,  that  it  will  find  what  it  thinks 
solid  ground  somewhere  to  stand  on,  and  will  allow  no 
one  to  meddle  with  its  foundations.  Neither  mod- 
esty nor  timidity  will  cause  it,  when  the  gauntlet  of 
its  adversary  is  thrown  down,  to  hesitate  to  pick  it 
up. 

For  the  Puritan,  his  new  religion  was  both  an  ec- 
stasy and  a  fanaticism.  His  strong,  sturdy  English 
nature,  inflamed  with  his  new  love,  became  revolt 
and  bitterness  against  its  enemies.  "■  It  was  the 
Puritan  pulpit,"  as  Dr.  South  said,  "that  supplied 
the  field  with  swordsmen  and  the  parliament  house 
with  incendiaries." 

It  resulted,  hence,  that  Puritan  zeal  evoked  a 
counter  flame  in  its  enemies  often  quite  as  con- 
suming as  its  own.  This  was  in  measure  true  as 
regards  the  opponents  of  the  Reformation  every- 
where. That  mediaeval  church,  which  had  reposed 
in  the  serenity  of  its  unquestioned  creeds  for  a  thou- 
sand years  and  more,  giving  the  Holy  Bread  and  the 
Kiss  of  Peace  to  its  laity,  with  only  an  occasional  fire- 
stroke  at  sporadic  men   like   Huss   and   Savonarola, 


256  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

roused  itself  at  the  new  danger,  to  preach  death  to 
the  heretics,  and  to  argue  that  as  heresy  destroyed 
the  soul,  while  other  murder  only  destroyed  the  body, 
heresy  should  be  erased  with  fire  and  sword  as  the 
greatest  of  crimes.  Hence  Alva,  the  Spanish  Ar- 
mada, the  Thirty  Years'  War  in  Germany,  and  the 
untold  misery  of  man.  It  hardly  avails  to  say  that 
we,  heirs  of  a  privilege  which  the  men  of  old  pur- 
chased with  their  sorrow,  are  wiser.  Wiser  we  may 
be,'  but  better  only  with  a  limit.  The  Puritan  reli- 
gion may  have  been  an  evil,  but  is  no  religion  a 
good }  Liberty  of  conscience  may  be  a  good,  but 
if  it  be  followed  by  the  lack,  what  then  t  The  re- 
formers and  their  enemies  hated  each  other  in  a 
circle,  but  each  loved  somewhat  which  was  and  is 
true  and  fruitful  of  good.  As  we  pass,  two  quota- 
tions may  serve  to  cast  a  sidelight  upon  the  ear- 
nestness and  bitterness  of  the  Reformation  age,  as 
between  the  old  and  the  new. 

One  Romanist,  to  show  his  absolute  faith  in  Tran- 
substantiation,  said  that  he  believed  Christ  not  only 
to  be  present  in  the  Sacrament,  but  that  he  was  there 
booted  and  spurred  as  he  rode  to  Jerusalem. 

The  underlying  bitterness  of  the  Reformation  age 
against  Rome  and  her  mysteries  is  perhaps  exposed 
as  well  as  in  any  other  way  in  a  carved  group  in 
Strasbourg  Cathedral,  where  was  represented  a  boar 
carrying  the  holy  waterpot  and  sprinkling-brush ;  a 
wolf,  the  cross ;  a  hare,  the  taper  ;  a  pig  and  a  goat, 
a  box  of  relics  in  which  lay  a  sleeping  fox  ;  and  an  ass 
reading  mass,   whilst  a  cat   served   as   reading-desk. 


SEWALL   AiVD    THE    CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.      257 

All  this  was  to  a  degree  true  of  the  controversy 
between  the  Puritan  and  the  Church  of  England. 
Neither  side  was  indifferently  Christian.  Both  were 
Protestant,  and  advocates  of  reform.  Both  agreed  to 
withstand  the  claims  of  Rome,  and  had  withstood  to- 
gether the  Jesuits  and  the  Armada.  The  question  at 
issue  between  the  two  was  as  to  more  or  less  in  re- 
form, and  the  Puritan  stood  stoutly  for  more.  Error 
and  wrong  were  on  both  sides  ;  only  the  Church  of 
England,  being  in  power,  imposed,  by  now  historic 
public  acts,  through  its  ally,  the  Crown,  its  judgments 
upon  the  Puritan ;  and  these  were  sometimes  wrong. 
The  Puritan  had  his  way  under  Cromwell  and  the 
Commonwealth.  That  he  was  always  right,  few  would 
hardly  care  to  affirm  ;  especially  in  the  face  of  the 
fact  that  in  the  Restoration  of  Charles  II.  the  Eng- 
lish nation  declared  that  it  would  brook  Puritanism, 
as  a  governing  force,  no  longer.  Yet  the  bitterness 
was  there,  and  corroded.  Before  remarking  on  Sew- 
all's  attitude,  as  a  representative  man,  towards  the 
Church  of  England,  it  is  only  fair  to  place  as  a  back- 
ground the  current  church  attitude  towards  the  Puri- 
tan, as  seen  in  a  very  spicy  correspondence  between 
Roger  Williams  and  Mrs.  Sadlier,  daughter  of  the 
famous  lawyer.  Sir  Edward  Coke,  a  lady  apparently 
of  much  spirit  and  mental  acumen,  but  a  Church-of- 
England  woman.  Williams  had  been  a  protege  of 
Sir  Edward,  and  on  his  visit  to  England,  in  1653, 
addressed  the  daughter  a  characteristic  letter,  accom- 
panied by  some  of  his  own  books  as  a  present.  The 
letter  begins  :  — 


258  SAMUEL    SEWALL. 

London,  1652. 
*'  My  Much  Honored  Friend,  Mrs.  Sadlier, — 

*'  The  never-dying  honor  and  respect  which  I  owe  to  that  dear 
honorable  root  and  his  branches,  and  among  the  rest  to  your 
much  honored  self,  have  emboldened  me  once  more  to  enquire 
after  your  dear  husband's  and  your  life  and  health  and  welfare." 

He  then  proceeds  to  magnify  his  own  travails  in 
the  wilderness,  and  to  give  the  lady  a  round  dose  of 
the  current  Puritan  piety.      She  replies  :  — 

Mr.  Williams  ; 

Since  it  hath  pleased  God  to  make  the  prophet  David's  com- 
plaint ours,  (Psalm  Ixxix.)  O  God  the  heathen  have  come  into 
our  inheritance  [the  Puritans  were  now  in  power] ,  I  have  given 
over  reading  many  books  and  therefore  with  thanks  have  re- 
turned yours.  Those  that  I  now  read,  besides  the  Bible,  are 
first,  the  late  King's  book  [Charles  I.,  lately  beheaded  by  Wil- 
liams's friends]  ;  Hooker's  Ecclesiastical  Polity ;  Rev.  Bishop 
Andrew's  Sermons  with  his  other  divine  meditations  ;  Dr.  Jer- 
emy Taylor's  works  ;  and  Dr.  Thomas  Jackson  upon  the  Creed. 
Some  of  these,  my  dear  father  was  a  great  admirer  of  and  would 
often  call  them  the  glorious  lights  of  the  Church  of  England. 
These  lights  shall  be  my  guide.  I  wish  they  may  be  yours  ;  for 
your  new  lights  that  are  so  much  cried  up,  I  believe,  in  the  con- 
clusion they  will  prove  but  dark  lanterns  ;  therefore  I  dare  not 
meddle  with  them. 

Your  friend  in  the  old  way, 

Anne  Sadlier. 

Not  a  whit  discouraged  by  this  rather  tart  reply, 
Williams  returns  to  his  point  with  :  — 

"My  Much  Honored  Kind  Friend,  Mrs.  Sadlier; 

"  Your  last  letter,  my  honored  friend,  I  received  as  a  bitter 
sweeting — [a  kind  of  well-known  English  apple] — as  all  that 
is  under  the  sun  is  —  sweet  in  that  I  hear  from  you  and  that  you 
continue  striving  for  life  eternal ;  bitter  in  that  we  differ  about 


SEWALL   AND    THE    CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.      259 

the  way,  in  the  midst  of  the  clangers  and  distresses.  You  were 
pleased  to  direct  me  to  divers  books  for  my  satisfaction.  I 
have  carefully  endeavored  to  get  them  and  some  I  have  gotten  ; 
and  upon  my  reading,.!  purpose  with  God's  help,  to  render  you 
an  ingenious  and  candid  account  of  my  thoughts,  results  »S:c. 
At  present  I  am  humbly  bold  to  pray  your  judicious  and  loving 
eye  to  one  of  mine. 

"  'Tis  true  I  cannot  but  expect  your  distaste  of  it ;  and  yet  my 
cordial  desire  of  your  souPs  peace  here,  and  eternal,  and  of  ccfti- 
tributing  the  least  mite  to  it,  and  my  humble  respects  to  that 
blessed  root  of  which  you  spring,  force  me  to  tender  my  ac- 
knowledgments, which  if  received  or  rejected,  my  cries  shall 
never  cease  that  one  eternal  life  shall  give  us  meeting,  since  this 
present  minute  hath  such  bitter  partings." 

"The  one  of  mine  "  turns  out  to  be  a  controversial 
tract  against  Rev.  John  Cotton,  asserting  that  "  in 
soul-matters  no  weapons  but  soul-weapons  are  reach- 
ing and  effectual."  Cotton,  it  appears,  had  contro- 
verted a  former  tract  of  Williams's,  entitled  "The 
Bloody  Tenent  of  Persecution  for  Cause  of  Con- 
science."     He  signs  himself:  — 

"  I  am  your  most  unworthy  servant,  yet  unfeignedly  respec- 
tive, 

"  Roger  Williams." 

To  which  Mrs.  Sadlier  replies  :  — 

Sir  ;  I  thank  God  my  blessed  parents  bred  me  up  in  the  old 
and  best  religion  and  it  is  my  glory  that  I  am  a  member  of  the 
Church  of  England,  as  it  was  when  all  the  reformed  Churches 
gave  her  the  right  hand.  When  I  cast  my  eye  on  the  frontis- 
piece of  your  book  and  saw  it  entitled  "  The  Bloody  Tenent  "  I 
durst  not  venture  to  look  into  it,  for  fear  it  should  bring  into  my 
memory  the  much  blood  that  has  of  late  been  shed  and  which  I 
would  fain  forget ;  therefore  I  do  with  thanks  return  it.     I  can- 


26o  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

not  call  to  mind  any  blood  shed  for  conscience :  —  some  few 
that  went  about  to  make  a  rent  in  our  once  well  governed 
Church  were  punished,  but  none  suffered  death.  But  this  I 
know  that  since  it  has  been  left  to  every  man's  conscience  to 
fancy  what  religion  he  list,  there  has  more  Christian  blood  been 
shed  than  was  in  the  ten  persecutions.  And  some  of  that  blood 
will,  I  fear,  cry  till  the  day  of  judgment.  But  you  know  what 
the  Scripture  says,  that  when  there  was  no  King  in  Israel,  every 
man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes — but  what  be- 
came of  that,  the  sacred  story  will  tell  you. 

Thus  Entreating  you  to  trouble  me  no  more  in  this  kind,  and 
wishing  you  a  good  journey  to  your  charge  in  New  Providence  I 

rest, 

Your  friend  in  the  old  and  best  way. 

[No  signature.] 

But  the  man  who  always  insisted  that  that  sturdiest 

fighter  of  all  England,  George  Fox,  the  Quaker,  ran 

away  from  a  discussion  with  him  at  Newport,  R.I., 

was  not  to  be  denied  this  way,  even  by  a  lady.     He 

proceeds  with  a  long  letter,  in  which  he  thrusts  the 

Puritan  knife  into  the  old   sores,  and   speaks   plain 

words   of   King   Charles  I.     Yet   both   the  opening 

and   the   close   are  colored  with  a  chaste   Christian 

charity   very    amiable,   after   two    centuries,   to    the 

reader  :  — 

(Winter  of  1652-3.) 
My  Honored,  Kind  Friend,  Mrs.  Sadlier; 

I  greatly  rejoice  to  hear  from  you,  although  now  an  opposite 
to  me,  even  in  the  highest  points  of  heaven  and  eternitv.  .  .  . 
This  I  humbly  pray  for  your  precious  soul,  of  the  God  and 
Father  of  mercies,  even  your  eternal  joy  and  salvation  Ear- 
nestly desirous  to  be  in  the  old  way,  which  is  the  narrow  way 
which  leads  to  life,  which  few  find. 

Your  most  humble,  though  most  unworthy  servant, 

Roger  Williams. 


SEIVALL   AND    THE    CHURCH  OF  EXGLAND.      26 1 

Mrs.  Sadlier,  as  is  customary,  had  the  last  word, 
and  it  was  a  bitter  one  :  — 

Mr.  Williams; 

I  thought  my  first  letter  would  have  given  you  so  much  satis- 
faction, that,  in  that  kind  I  should  never  have  heard  of  you  any 
more  ;  but  it  seems  you  have  a  face  of  brass,  so  that  you  cannot 
blush.   .   .   .     For  the  foul  and  false  aspersions  that  you  have 
cast  upon  that  King  of  ever  blessed  memory,  Charles  the  mar- 
tyr, I  protest  I  trembled  when  I  read  them,  and  none  but  such 
a  villain  as  yourself  would  have  wrote  them.   .   .   .     For  Milton's 
book  that  you  desire  I  should  read,  if  I  be  not  mistaken,  that  is 
he  that  hath  wrote  a  book  of  the  lawfulness  of  divorce ;  and  if 
report  says  true,  he  had  at  that  time  two  or  three  wives  living. 
This,  perhaps,  were  good  doctrine  in  New  England ;  but  it  is 
most  abominable  in  Old  England.     For  his  book  that  he  wrote 
against    the    late    King,   that    you    would    have    me    read,    you 
should  have  taken  notice  of  God's  judgment  upon  him,  who 
stroke  him  with  blindness,  and,  as  I  have  heard,  he  was  fain  to 
have  the  help  of  one  Andrew  Marvell,  or  else  he  could  not  have 
finished  that  most  accursed  libel.     God  has  begun  his  judgment 
upon  him  here  —  his  punishment  will  be  hereafter  in  hell.     But 
have  you  seen  the  answer  to  it?     If  you  can  get  it,  I  assure 
you  it  is  worth  the  reading.      [From  all  which  it  is  plain  that 
the  Puritans  were  not  the  only  privy  councillors  of  God  who 
knew  exactly  what  he  did  with  his  poor  creatures  in  the  other 
world.]    .   .   .     Bishop  Laud's  book  against  Fisher  I  have  read 
long  since  ;  which  if  you  have  not  done,  let  me  tell  you  he  has 
deeply  wounded   the   pope ;    and    I  believe,    howsoever  he  be 
slighted,  he  will  rise  a  saint,  when  many  seeming  ones,  as  you 
are,  will  rise  devils. 

I  cannot  conclude  without  putting  you  in  mind  how  dear  a 
lover  and  great  an  admirer  my  father  was  of  the  liturgy  of  the 
Church  of  England  and  would  often  say,  no  reform  church  had 
the  like.  He  was  constant  to  it,  both  in  his  life  and  at  his 
death.     I  mean  to  walk  in  his  steps. 

By  what  I  have  now  writ  you  know  how  I  stand  affected.  I 
will  walk  as  directly  to  heaven  as  I  can,  in  which  place,  if  you 


262  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

will  turn  from  being  a  rebel  and  fear  God  and  obey  the  King, 
here  is  hope  I  may  meet  you  there ;  howsoever  trouble  me  no 
more  with  your  letters  for  they  are  very  troublesome  to  her 
that  wishes  you  in  the  place  from  whence  you  came. 

Anne  Sadlier. 

On  the  outside  of  Williams's  first  letter  to  her  is 
a  note  of  hers  upon  him,  which  in  style  and  temper 
sounds  very  much  like  a  description  for  the  police. 
It  concludes  thus  :  — 

"  I  leave  his  letters,  that,  if  ever  he  has  the  face  to  return 
into  his  native  country,  Tyburn  may  give  him  welcome." 

Sewall  himself  inherited  the  Puritan  bitterness,  and 
he  shows  it.  Though  born  in  England,  his  whole 
makeup,  except  his  blood  in  heredity,  was  as  a  son 
of  New  England.  He  came  on  the  stage  after 
Cromwell  and  the  Commonwealth,  when  the  Puritans 
were  embittered  by  defeat  and  severe  laws  of  repres- 
sion and  hardship.  Puritanism  had  grown  sullen, 
sore,  and  expectant,  biding  its  time,  which  came  in 
the  American  Revolution.  Sewall  was  in  full  sym- 
pathy with  it  ;  and  the  one  thing  from  which  he  is 
altogether  averse,  even  at  the  expense  sometimes  of 
his  heart  and  breeding,  is  the  Church  of  England. 
This  extends  to  almost  everything  belonging  to  it, 
■ — its  liturgy,  customs,  holy  days,  symbols,  and  min- 
isters ;  though,  as  he  aged,  and  the  church  came  in 
under  a  semi-court  patronage,  he  found  it  both  safe 
and  in  the  way  of  good  breeding  to  keep  terms  with 
its  clergy,  with  a  grave  reserve  which  had  behind  it 
a  very  limited  good  will. 


SEWALL   AND    THE    CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.       263 

As  a  member  of  the  Old  South  Church,  he  had 
a  taste  of  his  old  enemy  when  Sir  Edmund  Andros 
insisted  on  occupying  it,  in  the  absence  of  his  own, 
for  the  worship  of  the  Church  of  England. 

The  question,  "What  right  had  the  Church  of 
Endand  to  establish  itself  in  Boston  ?  "  creates  for 

o 

fair-minded  men  examining  it  a  very  difficult  di- 
lemma in  ethics.  To  say  that  a  national  church 
should  not  go  where  the  nation  went ;  that  where 
his  soldiers  might  come  in  defence,  the  king's  church 
should  not  come  in  worship  ;  or  that  the  king's  wor- 
ship should  be  forbidden  to  any  of  his  loyal  subjects 
in  any  of  his  domains  ;  or  that  a  church  vindicated 
by  the  favorable  verdict  of  a  nation  after  a  long  war 
and  much  bloodshed,  and  set  up  again  as  an  indis- 
putable fact  in  that  people's  life,  should  be  repudi- 
ated and  forbidden  by  a  province  of  that  nation, 
peopled  by  those  very  Puritans  who  had  gone  to  the 
wall  in  the  late  struggle,  would  seem  to  be  plain, 
flat  treason  to  the  realm  and  king.  The  Puritans, 
of  course,  never  undertook  all  this  in  plain  act,  but 
they  and  Sewall  wrought  for  it  all  they  could,  and 
perhaps  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  all  they  dared. 
On  the  Puritan  side,  it  might  be  said  that  their 
charter  gave  them  very  generous  powers  to  regulate 
their  own  affairs  ;  that  they  had  borne  at  their  own 
charges  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day  in  subduing 
the  wild,  and  giving  a  new  and  valuable  colony  to 
the  Crown  ;  that  they  had  come  three  thousand  miles 
across  seas  to  be  rid  of  this  very  church  and  enjoy 
their  own  ;  that  the  two  had  been  and  were  antag- 


264  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

onists  ;  and  that  it  was  aside  from  reason,  justice, 
and  common  humanity  to  now  propose  or  impose  a 
religion  here  which  they  and  their  fathers  had  re- 
fused everywhere  ;  that,  in  short,  it  was  cruelty  and 
slavery  both  to  admit,  much  less  nurture,  among 
Puritan  exiles  in  Massachusetts  Colony,  the  church 
of  Archbishop  Laud  and  of  Charles  I.  Nor  could 
the  Church  of  England  fairly  claim  entrance  here 
because  it  was  the  better  way.  That  all  might  be. 
But  so  long  as  the  Puritans  thought  theirs  the 
better  way,  it  is  hard  to  see  why  the  Church  of 
England  here  was  not  an  intrusion  as  against  the 
prince  of  virtues,  Christian  charity,  —  an  intrusion 
both  ungracious  and  lacking  mercy.  The  church 
came,  of  course,  and  went  on  its  comfortable  mis- 
sion till  now.  Happily  this  book  is  not  called  on  to 
decide  the  ethics  of  its  coming. 

The  General  Court  in  1659  passed  an  Act :  — 

"  For  preventing  disorders  arising  in  several  places  within 
this  jurisdiction,  by  reason  of  some  still  observing  such  festivals 
as  were  superstitiously  kept  in  other  Countries  to  the  great  dis- 
honor of  God  and  offence  of  others  ;  It  is  therefore  ordered  by 
this  Court  and  the  authority  thereof,  that  whosoever  shall  be 
found  observing  any  such  day  as  Christmas  and  the  like,  either 
by  forbearing  labor,  feasting,  or  any  other  way  upon  any  such 
account  as  aforesaid,  every  such  person  so  offending  shall  pay 
for  every  such  offence,  five  shillings  as  a  fine  to  the  Country." 

The  inclusion  here  of  both  the  active  and  pas- 
sive observance  of  Christmas  is  truly  remarkable.  It 
was  lucky  that  the  fine  was  not  fixed  at  ^100,  and 
it  probably  would  have  been  if  it  had  been  thought 


SEWALL   AND    THE    CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.      265 

that  SO  extreme  a  penalty  would  have  killed  Christ- 
mas. This  law  in  the  Record  Book  is  sandwiched 
in  between  laws  against  gaming  and  dancing,  and  is 
followed  by  this  preamble  of  a  law  against  cards 
and  dice :  ''  And  whereas  not  only  at  such  times 
[Christmas,  etc.]  it  is  a  custom  too  frequent  in 
many  places,  to  expend  time  in  unlawful  games  as 
cards,  dice,  &c."  There  is  a  wise  economy  here 
in  refraining  from  the  mention  of  the  fact  that 
Christmas  was  kept  according  to  English  law  from 
time  immemorial,  and  that  by  their  own  charter  the 
dates  of  holding  their  own  law  courts  were  fixed  by 
church  days.  Nor  is  it  quite  possible  to  imagine  a 
more  unmitigated  offence  against  a  pious  Church- 
man than  thus  to  involve  in  a  public  law  one  of  his 
most  cherished  festivals  with  the  vulgar  sports  of  dice 
and  cards.  It  is  surprising,  considering  the  nature 
of  the  earlier  Puritan  legislation,  that  the  Massachu- 
setts Colony  kept  its  charter  as  long  as  it  did.  Had 
it  not  been  for  the  home  troubles  in  England,  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  the  charter  would  have  been  voided 
long  before. 

Sewall  kept  a  keen  Puritan  eye  on  Christmas,  as 
indeed  he  did  on  all  other  festivals  of  the  old  reli- 
gion. As  his  Diary  shows,  he  remarks  with  pleasure 
when  Christmas  is  treated  like  any  other  day ;  and 
his  alarm  is  acute  when  any  new  church  custom 
begins  to  make  headway.  This  is  Sewall's  general 
way  of  noticing  its  recurrence  :  — 

**Decr  25,  1685.  Friday.  Carts  come  to  town  and  shops 
open  as    is  usual.     Some  somehow  observe    the  day ;    but  are 


266  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

vexed  I    believe  that  the   body  of  the  people  profane   it,  and 
blessed  be  God  no  authority  yet  to  compel  them  to  keep  it." 

The  trouble  with  the  whole  Puritan  system,  so 
far  as  it  attempted  to  control  human  nature,  was 
that  it  was  a  system  "in  the  air,"  —  too  transcen- 
dental for  ordinary  mortals,  and  crossing  the  trend 
of  human  instincts,  so  that  as  time  went  on  the 
Puritan  7'egivie  grew  outlaw  and  superannuate,  with 
new  floods  coming  in  ;  but  Sewall  never  heartily  mod- 
ified himself,  and,  as  he  aged,  seems  to  have  gained 
small  comfort  from  the  waning  fortunes  of  a  los- 
ing fashion. 

"Oct.  I,  1702.  The  Governor  and  Council  agree  that 
Thursday  Oct.  22  be  a  fast  day.  Governor  moved  that  it  might 
be  Friday,  saying  Let  us  be  Englishmen.  [But  they  were  first 
of  all  Puritans,  as  SewalPs  Diary  proves.]  I  spake  against 
making  any  distinction  in  the  days  of  the  week.  Desired  that 
the  same  day  of  the  week  might  be  for  fasts  and  thanksgiving." 

This  is  the  temper  of  aversion  to  old  church  cus- 
toms which  avoided  Friday,  the  day  of  the  cross, 
and  especially  Good  Friday,  almost  until  this  day 
no  governor  of  this  State  ever  daring  to  change 
the  order.  We  used  to  fast,  obedient  to  the  yearly 
proclamation,  by  making  merry. 

"Nov.  26,  1703.  When  mention  was  made  of  putting  them 
to  their  oath  [these  men  were  before  the  governor  and  Council] 
Harrison  said  he  was  ready  to  swear,  but  then  it  must  be  by 
laying  his  hand  on  the  Bible.  Governor  said  '  So  he  ought,' 
and  ordered  Mr.  Secretary  to  fetch  the  Bible.  Mr.  Paine  also 
slipped  on  his  hand.  Mr.  Harrison  first  looked  into  it  to  see 
that  Hwas  the  Bible.     When  he  had  sworn,  seemed  to  applaud 


SEWALL   AND    THE   CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.      26/ 

himself  and  said  he  would  have  this  forwarded  and  upheld. 
When  questions  were  asked  him  he  answered  '  By  that  Booke 
it  is  true/  " 

Mention  has  been  already  made  of  Sewall's  silence 
in  the  matter  of  Lady  Andros's  funeral.  He  lapses 
into  the  same  ungracious  silence,  and  even  worse,  in 
the  face  of  any  disaster  to  any  man  identified  with 
the  Church  of  England,  as  one  who,  before  some  ter- 
rible calamity  fallen  on  his  bitter  enemy,  is  too  well 
bred  to  aggravate  the  other's  sorrow  with  a  sneer, 
and  too  sincere  to  lament.  Take  an  instance  or 
two  :  — 

"Oct.  26,  171 1.  A  man  falls  from  a  scaffold  at  the  Church 
of  England  [King's  Chapel]  into  the  street  and  is  stricken 
dead." 

"Aug.  20,  1720.  'Tis  said  Mr.  Lucas,  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land minister,  cut  his  own  throat  at  Newbury.  However  the 
minister  of  Marblehead  set  a  good  face  on  it,  had  the  corpse 
carried  into  the  church,  preached  a  funeral  sermon  and  buried 
him  therein  ;  a  rueful  consecration  of  the  chapel." 

"  Tuesday,  April  23d,  1706.  Governor  comes  to  town  guarded 
by  the  troops  with  their  swords  drawn;  dines  at  the  Dragon, 
from  thence  proceeds  to  the  town  house.  Illuminations  at 
night.  [This  was  probably  St.  George's  Day.]  Capt  Pelham 
tells  me  several  wore  crosses  in  their  hats  ;  which  makes  me 
resolve  to  stay  at  home.  Because  to  drinking  healths  now  the 
keeping  of  a  day  to  fictitious  S'  George  is  plainly  set  on  foot. 
It  seems  Capt  Dudley's  men  wore  crosses.  Somebody  had 
fastened  a  cross  to  a  dog's  head.  Capt  Dudley's  boatswain 
seeing  him  struck  the  dog  and  then  went  into  the  shop,  next 
where  the  dog  was  and  struck  down  the  carpenter,  one  Davis, 
as  he  was  at  work,  not  thinking  anything.  Boatswain  and  the 
other  with  him  were  fined  iqs  each  for  breach  of  the  peace,  by 
Jer.  Dummer,  Esq. :  pretty  much  blood  was  shed  by  means  of 
this  bloody  cross  and  the  poor  dog  a  sufferer." 


268  SAMUEL  SEW  ALL. 

Probably  the  poor  dog  was  a  sufferer,  as  Sewall's 
sympathetic  nature  notes ;  and  Sewall's  sympathy 
for  that  particular  dog  was  perhaps  sincere.  But  so 
was  the  other  dog  killed  at  Andover  for  the  misery 
of  being  bewitched.  But  among  the  people  called 
Christians,  both  then  and  now,  it  is  merely  impos- 
sible to  find  words  to  express,  what  lies  open  in 
Sewall's  entry  here.  It  does  not  merely  shock,  it 
repels  far ;  for,  whatever  be  allowed  to  these  Puritan 
times,  it  comes  from  a  man  who  in  most  other  ways 
seems  so  amiable. 

"  To  Jere  Dummer,  1710. 

"  Barter  away  none,  nothing  of  our  religious  privileges  though 
you  might  have  millions  in  lieu  of  them.  Be  watchful  and  dili- 
gent for  their  preservation." 

About  Deacon  Brown  and  the  Church-of-England 
people  at  Newburyport,  who  petitioned  to  be  erected 
into  a  parish,  Sewall  writes  to  Colonel  Thomas  Noyes, 
March  3,  1 7 1 2  :  — 

"  Notwithstanding  their  aprons  of  fig  leaves  they  walk  naked 
and  their  neighbors  see  their  shame ;  yet  I  apprehend  it  will  be 
most  advisable  for  those  of  the  West  Precinct  not  to  meddle 
with  them  or  forcibly  take  anything  of  them  towards  defraying 
anv  of  the  charges  of  the  Precinct.  This  seems  to  me  best  for 
the  Precinct,  and  best  for  Newbury  and  for  the  Province.  And 
most  for  the  interest  of  religion.  And  we  should  stick  at  nothing 
for  Christ." 

March  12,  same  year,  he  writes  to  Mr.  John  Web- 
ster of  the  same  town  concerning  Brown  :  — 

"I  desire  you  to  go  to  him  in  your  own  name  and  mine; 
but  especially  in  the  name  of  God.     Give  him  Mr.  Higginson's 


SEWALL  AND    THE   CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.      269 

sermon ;  tell  him  I  have  sent  it  to  him  as  a  token  of  my  love. 
Demand  of  him  whetlier  that  which  Mr,  Higginson  and  the  New 
England  worthies  accounted  the  Cause  of  God,  he  does  advisedly 
to  account  it  the  Cause  of  the  Evil  one  and  to  desert  it  accord- 
ingly? Ask  him  whether  he  be  persuaded  that  Mr.  Bridger  doth 
more  earnestly  desire  and  seek  his  good  than  you  do  who  have 
lived  by  him  and  loved  him  above  these  fifty  years?  Enquire  of 
your  friend  Joshua  Brown  whether  what  he  is  now  about,  be  a 
justifiable  Keeping  of  the  Fifth  Commandment ;  and  whether  he 
be  now  denying  himself  and  taking  up  his  Cross  and  following 
Jesus  Christ?  Ask  him  whether  it  be  best  to  have  the  Apocry- 
pha and  the  Canonical  Scriptures  yoked  up  together?  Whether 
it  be  best  to  have  the  Sign  of  the  Cross  in  baptism?  Whether  it 
be  best  to  have  a  great  number  of  days  in  the  year,  placed  as 
high  as  the  Lord's  day,  if  not  above  it?  I  shall  not  enlarge, 
hoping  that  by  the  good  spirit  of  God  you  will  be  assisted  to 
speak  beyond  what  I  can  write." 

In  August,  1708,  Sewall  addressed  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Henry  Flint,  tutor  in  Harvard  College,  which  shows 
the  anxious  eye  about  any  sort  of  approach  to  the 
Church  of  England,  and  is  therefore  here  quoted  :  — 

"  I  thank  you  for  your  good  sermon  yesterday.  The  subject  is 
excellent  and  always  seasonable.  Upon  this  occasion  you  will 
allow  me  the  freedom  of  speaking  what  I  have  lately  been  often 
thinking.  According  to  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel  the  saying 
Saint  Luke  and  Saint  John  has  been  disused  in  New  England. 
And  to  take  it  up  again  is  distasteful  to  me  because  it  is  a  change 
for  the  w^orse  :  I  have  heard  it  from  several ;  but  to  hear  it  from 
the  senior  fellow  of  Harvard  College  is  more  surprising  ;  lest  by 
his  example  he  should  seem  to  countenance  and  authorize  in- 
convenient innovations.  Thus  I  reckon  ;  but  if  reckoning  with- 
out my  host  I   reckon  wrong ;  your  adjusting  the  account  will 

gratify, 

"  Sir,  your  humble  Servant; 

"  Samuel  Sewall.'' 


270  SAMUEL  SEWALL. 

In  Sewall's  Diary,  under  date  of  Aug.  26,  1708, 
there  is  an  account  of  a  subsequent  interview  between 
these  parties  :  — 

"  Mr.  Henry  Flint  in  the  way  from  Lecture  came  to  me  and 
mentioned  my  letter  and  would  have  discoursed  about  it  in  the 
street.  I  prevailed  with  him  to  come  and  dine  with  me  and 
after  that  I  and  he  discoursed  alone.  He  argued  that  saying 
Saint  Luke  was  an  indifferent  thing  ;  and  'twas  commonly  used  ; 
and  therefore  he  might  use  it.  Mr.  Brattle  used  it.  I  argued 
that  it  was  not  Scriptural ;  that  'twas  absurd  and  partial  to  Saint 
Matthew  &c.,  and  not  to  say  Saint  Moses,  Saint  Samuel  &c. 
And  if  we  said  Saint  we  must  go  thorough  and  keep  the  holy 
days  appointed  for  them  and  turned  to  the  order  in  the  Com- 
mon Prayer  Book."" 

A  single  fact  will  serve  to  show  the  trend  of  the 
Puritan  temper.  The  Jane  Hirst  referred  to  in  the 
preface  was  Betty  Sewall's  daughter,  and  therefore 
Sewall's  grandchild.  Yet  it  is  she  who  Sewall  agrees, 
as  guardian,  shall  be  courted  by  the  rector  of  Trinity 
Church,  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  England. 


NEW  ENGLAND   LIFE   FROM  171  Ji.    TO   1729.        2/1 


CHAPTER    XVI.  . 

CURRENT     NEW    ENGLAND    LIFE    FROM      I714    tO 
OCT.     13,     1729. 

"May  12,  1714.  In  a  piece  of  a  Gazette  mentioned  a  large 
Dromedary  seven  foot  high  and  twelve  foot  long,  taken  from  the 
Turks  at  the  siege  of  Vienna,  to  be  sold." 

"  June  3.  This  Court  the  Deputies  send  in  a  bill  to  complain 
of  a  duty  laid  on  boards  brought  from  Kittery  and  Berwick 
[Maine]  by  the  government  of  New  Hampshire." 

A  TARIFF  tax  between  two  provinces  forsooth ! 
The  court  proposed  as  a  remedy  a  duty  on  wines  from 
New  Hampshire  !  It  was  thought  that  the  board 
tax  would  amount  to  ^£^500  against  the  Bay  State. 
The  deputies  seem  to  have  contented  themselves 
with  voting,  June  25th,  that  the  tax  ''is  a  great 
grievance  and  abuse  to  her  Majesty's  good  sub- 
jects of  this  Province,  highly  injurious  to  the  gov- 
ernment and  a  breach  of  the  good  correspondence 
between  the  Provinces."  So  the  matter,  without 
much  more  ado,  ended.  Yet  there  is  a  smack  of 
Puritan  stubbornness  in  the  refusal  of  the  deputies 
to  send  a  messenger  north  to  confer  about  the 
matter,  because,  they  said,  "  it  imported  our  inability 
to  help  ourselves." 


2/2  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

"July  13.  P.M.  I  lay  a  brick  in  Mr.  Colman's  house  build- 
ing near  his  meeting  house  [Brattle  Square]  ;  gave  Hill  the 
mason  3^'. ;  Coffee  [negro]  called  him  from  above.  This  Coffee 
tells  me  he  gives  Mr.  Pemberton  ^40  for  his  time  that  he  might 
be  with  his  wife.     I  gave  him  5^-.  to  help  him." 

"Aug.  31.  About  4  P.M.  visited  Mr.  [Rev.]  Peter  Thatcher, 
Milton.  He  was  very  glad  to  see  me,  said  'twas  a  cordial.  Car- 
ried him  two  China  Oranges." 

"Sept.  17.  News  was  brought  to  us  of  the  Queen''s  death 
[Anne]  as  we  sat  on  the  bench.  Chapman  told  it  Mr.  Corwin, 
and  he  standing  up  with  a  very  sad  countenance  said  to  me, 
'  Sad  news.'     I  was  afraid  Boston  was  burnt  again." 

Here,  again,  Sewall's  silence  is  significant.  Queen 
Anne  was  a  High  Churchwoman,  and  had  given 
much  aid  to  the  Church  of  England  here.  It  was 
not  the  crown  that  Sewall  so  much  abhorred,  but  the 
mitre  behind  the  crown.  Not  a  word  of  eulogy, 
regret,  or  meditation  over  a  dead  queen,  though  he 
can  sometimes  pity  a  dog. 

"  Sept.  20.  At  Milton  heard  the  Proclamation  of  George  I. 
was  to  be  on  Wednesday." 

So  midweek  George  I.  was  jDroclaimed  with  oaths, 
and  a  state  dinner  at  the  Green  Dragon,  when  one 
divine  craved  a  blessing  and  another  gave  thanks. 
The  new  king  was  not  a  great  theologian,  nor  did  he 
or  his  strain  meddle  much  with  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, which  ought  to  have  made  them  more  accepta- 
ble in  Puritan  Boston  than  0ueen  Anne,  Mary's 
sister,  and  daughter  of  James  H. 

"Ocf  8th.  I  visit  Mr.  William  Homes,  Mr.  Tliomas  Craig- 
head, ministers,  in  order  to  know  what  was  best  to  be  done  as 


NEW  England  life  from  171I1,  to  1720.    273 

to  the  ships  coming  up.  [Probably  missionaries  to  the  Indians, 
detained  down  the  harbor  by  some  infectious  disease  on  ship- 
board.] Carried  them  a  bushel  turnips,  cost  me  5^-.  and  a  cab- 
bage cost  half  a  crown.  [To  keep  down  scurvy.?]  Dined  at 
the  Castle.     Mr.  Stanton,  the  chaplain,  gone  a  gunning." 

"  Dec  10.  The  king  is  styled  the  Supreme  Lord  of  the 
Massachusetts." 

This  entry  may  fairly  lead  us  to  suppose  that  at 
penning  it  Sewall  was  jealous  for  the  Lord  Jehovah, 
whom  all  Puritans  fondly  hoped  was  and  was  to  be 
*'  the  Supreme  Lord  of  the  Massachusetts." 

Lord's  Day,  Dec.  26,  Sewall  leaves  his  own  meet- 
ing, and  goes  to  communion  at  another,  noting :  — 

"  I  did  it  to  hold  communion  with  that  Church  ;  and,  so  far 
as  in  me  lay,  to  put  respect  upon  that  affronted,  despised  Lord's 
Day.  For  the  Church  of  England  had  the  Lord's  Supper  yes- 
terday, [Christmas] ,  the  last  day  of  the  week  :  but  will  not  have 
it  to-day,  the  day  that  the  Lord  has  made.  [But  according  to 
the  Bible  it  was  the  seventh  day  of  the  week  which  the  Lord 
made  a  Sabbath.  The  first  day  was  made  a  Sunday  merely  by 
church  authority.]  And  Genl  Nicholson  who  kept  Saturday 
was  this  Lord's  Day  rummaging  and  chittering  with  wheel- 
barrows to  get  aboard  at  the  Long  wharf  and  firing  guns  at 
setting  sail.  I  thank  God,  I  heard  not,  saw  not  anything  of  it, 
but  was  quiet  at  the  New  North." 

"  July  6,  1 71 5.  This  day  it  is  fifty  four  years  since  I  first  was 
brought  ashore  to  Boston  near  where  Scarlett's  wharf  now  is  ; 
the  Lord  help  me  to  redeem  the. time  which  passes  so  swiftly. 
I  was  then  a  poor  little  schoolboy  of  nine  years  and  k  old." 

May,  1 7 16.  About  this  time  an  anonymous  letter 
was  published,  reflecting  on  the  government.  This 
was  attributed  to  Wm.  Dummer,  a  relative  of  Sew- 
all :  — 


2/4  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

"  In  the  Council  Lieut.  Governor  spake  very  coarsely  of 
cousin  Wm.  Dummer ;  —  '  this  fellow^  ^.wd  I  think  worse.  I 
said  he  was  a  gentleman  and  his  father  and  grandfather,  which 
calmed  him  and  brought  him  to  better  language.  I  said  at  the 
same  time  [speaking  probably  of  politicians]  There  are  some 
men  in  the  world  are  so  mortally  sick  of  the  plague  of  selfish- 
ness, that  except  they  might  be  charioteers,  they  wished  the 
chariot  burnt  or  off  the  wheels,  I  was  for  upholding  government 
whether  in  or  out  of  it." 

Very  possibly,  but  within  limitations.  Sewall  was 
a  Conformist,  and  his  blood  tended  to  a  middle  course 
of  compromise.  But  too  sharp  a  challenge  to  his 
conscience,  as,  for  instance,  if  the  government  had 
proposed  to  set  a  cross  on  the  Old  South  Meeting- 
House,  would  likely  have  driven  him  to  become  a 
very  stout  and  unsparing  rebel ;  at  least  in  his  Diary. 

Here  is  a  bit  of  personal  gossip  which,  consider- 
ing the  very  grave  person  involved  in  it,  is  not  a 
trifle  grotesque  :  — - 

"Now  about  Aug.  15  Dr.  C.  Tvlather  fishing  at  Spy  Pond, 
falls  into  the  water,  the  boat  being  ticklish,  but  receives  no 
hurt." 

"  Novr  7,  1717.  Last  night  died  the  excellent  Waitstill 
Winthrop  Esq.,  for  parentage,  piety,  prudence,  philosophy,  love 
to  New  England  ways  and  people  very  eminent.     Help  Lord  !  " 

"  Dec  22.  Lord's  Day  we  had  great  lightning  and  three 
claps  of  loud  thunder,  the  last  very  sharp  and  startling.  This 
was  a  little  before  the  rising  of  the  sun.  Two  houses  in  Boston 
were  stricken  with  it." 

"Lord's  Day  Feby  23,  1718.  I  set  York  tune  and  the  con- 
gregation went  out  of  it  into  St.  David's  in  the  very  2^  going 
over.  They  did  the  same  3  weeks  before.  This  is  the  2d  sign. 
This  seems  to  me  an  intimation  and  a  call  for  me  to  resign  the 
precentor's  place  to  a  better  voice.     I  have  through  the  Divine 


A'EIV  EXGLAND   LIFE  FROM  171^    TO  1720.      275 

long  suffering  and  favor  done  it  for  24  years,  and  now  God  by 
his  providence  seems  to  call  me  off;  my  voice  being  enfeebled. 
I  spake  to  Mr.  White  earnestly,  to  set  it  in  the  afternoon  ;  but 
he  declined  it.  I  then  went  to  the  two  pastors,  my  son  Sewall 
and  Prince,  and  laid  this  matter  before  them,  told  them  how  long 
I  had  set  the  tune  ;  Mr.  Prince  said  '  Do  it  six  years  longer.'  I 
persisted  and  said  that  Mr.  White  or  Franklin  [Benjamin  Frank- 
lin's father]  might  do  it  very  well." 

"March  2.  I  told  Mr.  White  the  Elders  desired  him,  he 
must  set  the  tune,  he  disabled  himself  as  if  he  had  a  cold.  But 
when  the  psalm  was  appointed  I  forebore  to  do  it,  and  rose  up 
and  turned  to  him  and  he  set  York  tune  to  a  very  good  key.  1 
thanked  him  for  restoring  York  tune  to  its  station  with  so  much 
authority  and  honor.  I  was  glad.  I  saw  'twas  convenient  that 
I  had  resigned,  being  for  the  benefit  of  the  congregation,  (p.m. 
Madam  Winthrop's  Essex  is  baptized,  she  undertaking  for  the 
child's  education).'" 

"March  24.  Had  much  business  in  the  probate  ofifice.  In 
proving  Gaul's  will  one  of  the  witnesses  held  up  his  left  hand. 
I  bid  him  hold  up  his  right  hand.     He  told  me  he  had  none." 

"  March  31 .  Madam  Rebecca  Brown  comes  to  town."  [Un- 
doubtedly an  eligible  match  lately  recommended  to  him  by 
President   Leverett.] 

"  April  16.     I  was  nominated  for  Chief  Justice,"  [etc.]. 

"  Jany  23,  1719.  A  notorious  counterfeiter  of  the  new  twenty 
shilling  bill,  is  apprehended ;  had  his  plate  made  in  London  and 
came  over  in  Clark.  He  went  to  England  on  purpose  to  get  it 
done." 

"March  31.  This  day  a  ship  arrives  from  Lisbon,  6  weeks' 
passage ;  brings  news  that  war  is  declared  by  France  against 
Spain  ;  and  also  by  England  against  Spain.  The  King  of  Sweden 
[Charles  XII.]  is  dead,  being  shot  in  the  trenches  before  place 
in  Norway  he  was  besieging." 

"  April  I.  In  the  morning  I  dehorted  Sam  Hirst  and  Grindal 
Rawson  from  playing  idle  tricks  because  'twas  first  of  April. 
They  were  the  greatest  fools  that  did  so.  New  England  men 
came  hither  to  avoid  anniversary  days,  the  keeping  of  them, 
such  as  thg  25th  of  December.     How  displeasing  must  it  be  to 


276  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

God,  the  giver  of  our  time,  to  keep  anniversary  days  to  play  the 
fool  with  ourselves  and  others.'" 

"  April  4.     Planted  buttonwood  trees." 

It  is  surprising  how  many  fruit  trees  and  shade 
trees  of.  English  stock  the  New  Englanders  set  out, 
and  in  how  short  a  time. 

"I  have  received  4  presents  lately;  4  oranges,  2  pieces  of 
salmon,  Madam  Foxcroft's  wedding  cake ;  and  this  (a  very 
good  pair  of  white  kid  gloves  and  a  gold  ring  with  the  motto, 
Lex  et  Libe?'tas)  which  is  a  very  fair  present  indeed.  I  have 
hardly  any  to  compare  with  it.  The  Good  Lord  help  me  to 
serve  faitlifully  the  Supreme  Donor." 

"May  12,  1720.  In  the  evening  I  join  the  Rev^  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Cooper  and  Mrs.  Judith  Sewall  in  marriage.  [This  young 
lady,  as  the  Diary  shows,  had  been  sought  by  no  less  a  person- 
age than  Colonel  William  Dudley,  the  governor's  son,  and  there 
had  been  negotiations  between  the  families  accordingly,  who 
were  already  intermarried  ;  but  the  young  Puritan  parson  carried 
off  the  prize,  as  we  see.]  I  said  to  Mr.  Simeon  Stoddard  and 
his  wife.  Sir  —  Madam  —  The  great  honor  you  have  conferred 
on  the  bridegroom  and  bride,  by  being  present  at  this  solem- 
nity, does  very  conveniently  supersede  any  further  inquiry  after 
your  consent.  And  the  part  I  am  desired  to  take  in  this  wedding 
renders  the  way  of  my  giving  my  consent  very  compendious. 
There's  no  manner  of  room  left  for  that  previous  question 
'Who  giveth  this  woman  to  be  married  to  this  man?'  Dear 
child  —  you  give  me  your  hand  for  one  moment  and  the  Bride- 
groom forever.  Spouse  —  You  accept  and  receive  this  woman 
now  given  you  &c.  Mr.  Sewall  prayed  before  the  wedding 
and  Mr.  Colman  after.  Sung  the  115  Psalm  from  the  9th  verse 
to  the  end.     Then  we  had  our  cake  and  sack  posset." 

There  is  one  entry  worth  quoting  in  this  connec- 
tion, as  a  glimpse  into  the  future  of  these  two  :  — 


NEW  ENGLAA'D   LIFE   FROM  17 IJ^    TO   17'29.      2// 

%  Tuesday,  Sept.  15,  1724. 

HoND  Sir  ; 

Our  dear  babe  quietly  departed  a  few  minutes  after  5,  p.m. 
I  humbly  trust  the  Good  Shepherd  ^Yho  laid  down  his  life  for 
the  lambs  as  well  as  the  sheep  has  gathered  it  into  his  bosom. 
Asking  prayers 

I  am,  your  afflicted  Son, 

William  Cooper. 

"  Lord's  Day,  April  3,  1726.  My  son  [Joseph  Sewall] 
preached  in  the  forenoon  from  Gen.  i.  26.  Read  the  whole 
chapter  and  commented  pithily  and  well  upon  it ;  and  after  that 
spoke  to  the  26th  verse.  I  desire  with  humble  thankfulness  to 
bless  God  who  has  favored  me  with  such  an  excellent  discourse 
to  begin  my  75th  year,  withal  delivered  by  my  own  son,  making 
him  as  a  parent  to  his  father." 

The  last  entry  in  the  Diary  is  Oct.  13,  1729. 
Speaks  of  a  request  made  to  Judge  Sewall  for  per- 
mission "  for  a  young  man  to  wait  upon  Jane  Hirst, 
now  at  my  house,  in  the  way  of  courtship.  I  gave 
him  my  hand  at  going  away  and  acknowledged  his 
respect  to  me,  and  granted  his  desire.  The  L* 
Governor  commended  the  young  man  and  reckoned 
it  a  very  good  match." 

Two  brief  entries  may  serve  to  show  the  political 
epoch  at  which  Sewall  passed  off  the  stage  of  affairs, 
on  which  he  had  been  so  long  a  conspicuous  actor  :  — 

"  Midweek,  Aug.  16,  1727.  King  George,  the  Second  is  pro- 
claimed at  Boston  at  2  p.m.  Aug.  17.  The  Revd  Mr.  Joseph 
Sewall  preaches  King  George's  funeral  sermon.  'Twas  his  turn 
and  the  Council  also  desired  him." 

July  10,  1 7 16,  Mrs.  Hirst  (Betty  Sewall)  died. 
She  suffered  from  a  long  languishment,  probably 
consumption.      Sewall  seems  to  have  been  proud  of 


278  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

her,  for  some  reasons  his  favorite  daughter.  At  the 
death-bed  Sewall  said,  "  When  my  flesh  and  my  heart 
faileth  me,  God  is  the  strength  of  my  heart  and  my 
portion  forever.  Thus,"  he  adds,  "■  I  have  parted 
with  a  very  desirable  child,  not  full  thirty-five  years 
old.  She  lived  desired  and  died  lamented.  The 
Lord  fit  me  to  follow  and  help  me  to  prepare  my 
wife  and  children  for  a  dying  hour." 

On  his  circuit  in  western  Massachusetts  he  notes  : 
"  Eating  our  Deerfield  bread  and  drinking  of  the  river 
out  of  David's  bottle."  Next  morning  he  breakfasted 
on  ''  roast  fowls."  The  same  night  he  lodged  where 
there  was  no  glass  in  the  house. 

"  Oct.  5,  1716.  Governor  and  Lt  Governor  laid  their  hands 
on  the  Bible  and  kissed  it  very  industriously." 

"Deer  25,  1716.  Shops  are  open  and  sleds  come  to  town  as 
at  other  times." 

"  April  16,  1716.  This  day  I  first  saw  the  swallows.  I  think 
I  had  heard  some  chipper  before." 

"April  17.     I  see  plenty  of  them." 

"April  27,  1716.  Mr.  Bromfield  has  prayer  at  his  house  re- 
specting his  son  Edward,  tro-ubled  in  mind  ;  and  Henry,  student 
of  Harvard  College,  having  a  dangerous  swelling  on  his  back." 

"June  8,  1716.  This  day  I  received  a  letter  full  of  vile  re- 
proaches which  I  desire  to  spread  before  the  Lord." 

"  1 71 5,  Feby  6.  Tuesday  I  set  Winsor  tune  and  the  people 
at  the  2d  going  over  run  into  Oxford,  do  what  I  could." 

Going  to  the  gate  with  a  departing  guest,  from 
the  founding  of  Boston  at  least  to  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  was  in  general  a  courtesy  of  obli- 
gation. 

"Aug.  18,  1715.     Mr.  Pemberton  appears  in  a  flaxen  wigg." 


NEW  ENGLAND  LIFE  FROM  17U    TO  1729.        279 

After  the  governor  and  Council  had  arranged  some 
perplexing  affairs  of  state  at  the  expected  coming 
of  Governor  Burgess,   Sewall  writes  :  — 

"  I  acquainted  Mr.  Pemberton  with  this  transaction  that  he 
might  know  how  to  pray." 

This  management  between  the  Council  board  and 
the  pulpit  appears  again  and  again  in  the  Diary. 

"  Oct.  18.  Now  about  Dr.  Mather  shows  me  a  copy  of  Govr 
Dudley's  signing  a  petition  for  a  bishop  as  the  only  means  to 
promote  religion  here." 

Sewall  was  now  on  his  circuit. 

"  May  12,  1 7 14.  Not  being  able  to  get  hay,  sent  our  horses 
to  pasture  on  the  Kittery  side." 

Courts  were  often  held  in  houses  ;  oftener  in  meet- 
ing-houses. The  old  New  Englanders  had  the  same 
happy  faculty  of  adjusting  themselves  to  their  cir- 
cumstance that  our  Western  emigrants  have,  and 
their  posterity  have  not  forgotten  the  craft. 

"  July  17,  1 7 14.  Benjamin  Larnell  [Indian]  appears  to  have 
a  fever  by  being  delirious.  Lord's  Day,  i8h  .  I  put  up  a  note. 
20th.  My  son  comes  to  our  house  and  prays  for  Larnell  in  his 
mother's  bed  chamber.  I,  his  mother  and  sister  Hannah  pres- 
ent. July  22^.  Benj.  Larnell  expired  last  night  about  midnight. 
Was  delirious  to  the  last  as  far  as  I  can  perceive.  I  left  him 
about  1 1 .  Buried  this  day.  Bearers,  students  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege. They  had  white  scarfs  and  gloves.  I  and  the  President 
went  next  the  corpse.  The  note  that  I  put  up  at  Lecture  was 
Prayers  are  desired  that  God  would  graciously  grant  a  suitable 


280  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

improvement  of  the  death  of  Benj.  Larnell,  student  of  Harvard 
College.  I  spake  to  Mr.  Wadsworth  of  his  death  betime  in  the 
morning.     He  prayed  very  well  about  this  article." 

Sewall  mellows  as  he  ages,  as  good  fruit  always 
does.  Here  was  a  poor  Indian  youth,  gone  dead  in 
Sewall's  house,  and  buried  and  mourned  with  all  the 
decorum  which  sincere  sorrow  could  take  on. 

"  Sun^,  Jany.  15,1716.  An  extraordinary  cold  storm  of  wind 
and  snow.  Bread  was  frozen  at  the  Lord's  Table  ;  though  'twas 
so  cold,  yet  John  Tuckerman  was  baptized.  At  six  a  clock  my 
ink  freezes  so  I  can  hardly  write  by  a  good  fire  in  my  wife's 
chamber.'" 

"  Feb^  8.  Sloop  run  away  with  by  a  whale  out  of  a  good 
harbor  at  the  Cape.  How  suprisingly  uncertain  our  enjoyments 
in  this  world  are  !  " 

This  pious  reflection,  it  should  be  noted,  appar- 
ently does  not  refer  to  the  loss  of  the  sloop. 


SEWALL  'S  COURTSHIP  OF  MADAM  WINTHROP.      28 1 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

JUDGE    SEWALl's    COURTSHIP    OF    MADAM    WINTHROP, 

ALIARUMQUE. 

Judge  Sewall's  wife  Hannah,  mint-master  John 
Hull's  daughter,  died  Oct.  19,  1717.  She  had  been 
for  some  time  in  a  decline,  aggravated,  jorobably,  by 
some  sort  of  malarial  fever  ;  and  as  far  back  as  July  3 
her  husband  notes  that  he  has  been  kept  from  Com- 
mencement by  his  wife's  being  taken  very  sick  the 
night  before.  "This  is  the  second  year  of  my  ab- 
sence from  that  solemnity."  So  with  the  usual  Puri- 
tan solemnities  of  prayer  and  fast,  her  household 
waited  on  this  exemplary  wife  and  mother,  making 
her  exit. 

"  About  a  quarter  of  an  hour  past  four,  my  dear  wife  expired 
in  the  afternoon,  whereby  the  chamber  was  filled  with  a  flood  of 
tears.  God  is  teaching  me  a  new  lesson —  to  lead  a  widower's 
life.  Lord  help  me  to  learn  and  be  a  sun  and  shield  to  me, 
now  so  much  of  my  comfort  and  defence  are  taken  away." 

Next  day  he  writes  :  — 

"I  go  to  the  public  worship  forenoon  and  afternoon.  My 
son  has  much  adoe  to  read  the  note  I  put  up,  being  overwhelmed 
with  tears." 

Sewall  was  sincere  with  all  his  great  loving  heart 


282  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

in  his  sorrow,  and  kept,  as  his  Diary  shows,  her 
memory  in  love  till  his  death's  day.  So  much  it  is 
right  should  be  said  as  we  enter  upon  the  series  of 
very  remarkable  courtships  which  he  has  recorded  in 
his  Diary.  Whether  it  was  wise  in  him  to  make  the 
entries,  or  quite  gracious  in  posterity  to  print  the 
same,  is  a  question  with  two  plain  sides  to  it.  Men 
who  write  diaries  as  picturesque  and  vivid  as  Sew- 
all's  must  run  their  own  risk  ;  and  it  is  highly  im- 
probable that  he  would  have  taken  so  much  pains  in 
record,  if  he  had  not  had  an  eye  to  posterity  as  his 
readers.  Only,  in  justice  to  so  good  a  man,  we  must 
recollect  his  new  circumstance  and  danger.  Hannah 
Sewall,  like  every  good  and  competent  wife,  had  been 
the  balance-wheel,  the  conservative  element,  in  the 
Sewall  family.  When  she  died,  the  better  half  of 
him  gone,  it  was  not  strange  if  he  reeled  away  from 
his  ordinary  good  sense  into  marital  vagaries  border- 
ing on  absurdity.  A  man  under  a  heavy  burden 
staggers.  They  who  do  not  see  the  burden  as  he 
goes  down  the  street,  may  reasonably  suppose  that 
he  is  drunk.  To  say  so  much  is  simple  justice  ;  and 
if  any  reader  wishes  to  be  generous,  he  can  be  so  by 
ignoring  the  dates  that  are  to  follow.  Besides,  it 
was  expected,  with  the  rigor  of  a  society  law,  in  the 
Puritan  land,  that  widows  and  widowers  should  re- 
marry. They  all  did  it,  and  not  to  do  it  was  a  social 
offence.  Apparently  they  all  helped  each  other  to 
do  it,  and  for  a  man  in  Judge  Sewall's  social  station 
there  was  no  way  of  escape.  Nor,  truth  to  say,  did 
Sewall  try  to  find  one. 


SEWALL  'S  COURTSHIP  OF  MADAM  WIN  Til KO  P.    283 

All  this  and  more  appears  in  the  Diary.  Boston 
seems  to  have  been  rich  in  marriageable  widows,  and 
those  of  Sewall's  social  station  were  well  known  to 
him  ;  and  to  them  he  turned  both  for  advice  and  sym- 
pathy. After  the  feminine  way  and  measure,  they 
apparently  gave  both. 

"  Dec'"  I,  1717.  Madam  Winthrop  comes  not  to  meeting  in 
the  afternoon.  I  enquire  of  Mr.  Winthrop.  He  saith  she  was 
not  well  at  noon ;  but  was  better." 

"  Dec*^  2.  I  visit  Madam  Winthrop  at  her  own  house.  Tell 
her  of  my  sending  Hannah  to  Salem  to-morrow  ;  ask  her  advice 
as  to  selling  Mr.  Hirst's  goods  ;  she  advises  to  sell  all  but  plate 
and  linen.  I  ask  her  to  give  and  take  condolence.  She  thanks 
me  for  my  kindness  ;  I  tell  her  she  is  beforehand  with  me. 
When  I  came  away  I  prayed  God  to  dwell  with  her,  counsel 
and  comfort  her.     She  desired  my  prayers." 

"  Jany.  18,  1718.  Inquired  of  Jno  Walley  how  Madam  Win- 
throp and  her  family  did.''' 

"  Feby  6.  This  morning  wandering  in  my  mind  whether  to 
live  a  single  or  a  married  life,  I  had  a  sweet  and  very  affection- 
ate meditation  concerning  the  Lord  Jesus.  Nothing  was  to  be 
objected  against  his  person,  parentage,  relations,  estate,  house, 
home.  Why  did  I  not  presently  close  with  him.  And  I  cried 
mightily  to  God  that  he  would  help  me  so  to  do." 

"Feby.  10.  I  receive  a  letter  from  Mr.  Winthrop,  having 
one  inclosed  to  his  mother  which  I  carry  to  her.  She  tells  me 
Mr.  Eyre  married  her  May  20,  1680.  Lived  together  above  20 
years." 

"  March  10.  In  Madam  Usher's  absence  Madam  Henchman 
took  occasion  highly  to  commend  Madam  Winthrop,  the  Major 
General's  widow.  March  14.  Deacon  Marion  comes  to  me, 
sits  with  me  a  great  while  in  the  evening ;  after  a  great  deal  of 
discourse  about  his  courtship  —  he  told  me  the  Olivers  said 
they  wished  I  would  court  their  aunt  [Madam  Winthrop].  I 
said  'twas  not  five  months  since  I  buried  my  dear  wife.  Said 
little,  but  said  before  'twas  hard  to  know  whether  best  to  marry 


284  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

again  or  no;  whom  to  marry.  Dr.  Mather  [Increase]  sends 
me  his  Marah  in  a  letter  in  which  is  this  expression,  '  But  your 
honor  will  allow  me  now  at  length  to  offer  you  my  opinion  that 
all  the  regards  are  not  yet  paid  which  you  owe  unto  the  Widoiv, 
and  which  are  expected  from  you.'" 

This  Marah  was  probably  one  of  the  elder 
Mather's  books,  with  the  title,  "  An  Essay  to  do 
Good  unto  the  Widow,"  and  the  grave  badinage  here 
of  the  Puritan  divine  at  the  expense  of  the  Puritan 
judge  is  characteristic. 

"  March  19.  Mr.  Leverett,  when  he  and  I  alone,  told  me 
his  wife  and  he  had  laid  out  Madam  Brown  for  me  and  yet  took 
occasion  to  say  that  Madam  Winthrop  had  done  very  generously 
by  the  Major  General's  family  in  giving  up  her  dower.  I  said  if 
Madam  Brown  should  leave  her  fair  accommodations  at  Salem, 
she  might  be  apt  to  repent  it." 

But  this  time,  either  because  fate  was  unpropi- 
tious,  or  Sewall's  discretion  had  the  upper  hand,  he 
turned  for  comfort  to  the  Widow  Denison,  whose 
story  is  told  in  the  Diary,  —  "  an  autumnal  matron," 
as  Hawthorne  would  phrase  it,  but  withal  a  business 
woman,  not  wasting  property  on  sentiment. 

"  March  19.  I  write  Mr.  W'"  .  Denison's  will,  being  desired 
by  a  messenger  from  Roxbury  with  minutes." 

March  26,  Sewall,  with  other  Puritan  notables,  at- 
tended Mr.  Denison's  funeral  at  Roxbury,  where  his 
pastor,  Mr.  Walter,  said,  "  he  was  a  man  of  truth 
and  of  trust,  a  man  of  prayer,  integrity  and  piety." 

**  Gov*"  Dudley  and  I  went  next  the  mourners.  Went  back 
to  the  house  in  a  coach.     At  coming  away  I  prayed  God  to  keep 


SE WALL'S  COURTSHIP  OF  MADAM  WINTHROP.    285 

house  with  the  widow."  "  Mr.  Danforth  gives  the  widow  Den- 
ison  a  high  commendation  for  her  piety,  prudence,  dihgence, 
humihty."  "  April  7.  I  prove  Mr.  Denison's  wilL  Her 
brother  Edmund  Weld  brought  the  widow  to  town  and  gave  me 
notice  beforehand.  I  gave  her  lo-f  to  give  her  sister  Weld  for 
her  Indian  Bible.  Mr.  Dorr  took  occasion  in  her  absence  to 
say  she  was  one  of  the  most  dutiful  wives  in  the  world.  Her 
cousin,  the  widow  Hayden,  accidentally  came  in  with  her.  April 
8.  Mr.  Boydell,  when  I  was  at  his  office  and  signed  the  papers, 
smiling  said  Mr.  Denison's  will  looked  as  if  it  was  written  by 
me.  I  told  him,  '  Yes,  but  there  was  not  a  tittle  of  it  mine,  but 
the  form.'' " 

"June  3d.  Go  to  Roxbury,  talk  with  Mr.  Walter  about  Mrs. 
Denison.  He  advises  me  not  to  see  her  then,  lest  should  sur- 
prise her  undressed.  Told  him  I  came  on  purpose  ;  yet  finally 
submitted  to  his  advice ;  he  spake  of  her  coming  to  town  on 
Thursday.  June  5.  Nobody  came  —  I  writ  to  Mr.  Walter. 
June  9.  Note.  Mrs.  D.  came  in  the  morning  about  9  o'clock, 
and  I  took  her  up  into  my  chamber  and  discoursed  thoroughly 
with  her.    She  desired  me  to  procure  another  and  a  better  nurse. 

"  I  gave  her  the  two  last  News  Letters  —  told  her  I  intended 
to  visit  her  at  her  own  house  next  lecture  day.  She  said  'twould 
be  talked  of.  I  answered  in  such  cases  persons  must  run  the 
gantlet.  Gave  her  Mr.  Whiting's  oration  for  Abijah  Walter 
who  brought  her  on  horseback  to  town.  I  think  little  or  no 
notice  was  taken  of  it."  . 

"June  17.  Went  to  Roxbury  Lecture.  Visited  Govr  Dud- 
ley, Mrs.  Denison  ;  gave  her  Dr.  Mather's  sermons  very  well 
bound  ;  told  her  we  were  in  it  invited  to  a  wedding.  She  gave 
me  very  good  curds.  July  2.  I  give  Mrs.  Denison  her  oath  to 
the  inventory  [of  her  husband's  goods].  At  night  when  all 
were  gone  to  bed.  Cousin  Moodey  went  with  me  into  the  new 
hall,  read  the  history  of  Rebecca's  Courtship  and  prayed  with 
me  respecting  my  widowed  condition.  July  16.  Went  and  vis- 
ited Mrs.  Denison.  Gave  her  King  George's  effigies  in  copper; 
and  an  English  crown  of  King  Charles  H.,  1677.  Eat  curds 
with  her  ;  I  craved  a  blessing  and  returned  thanks  ;  came  home 
after  it." 


286  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

"July  25.  I  go  in  the  hackney  coach  to  Roxbury.  Call  at 
Mr.  Walter's  who  is  not  at  home  ;  nor  Govr  Dudley  nor  his 
lady.  Visit  Mrs.  Denison  ;  she  invites  me  to  eat.  I  give  her 
two  cases  with  a  knife  and  fork  in  each  ;  one,  turtle  shell  tackling ; 
the  other  long  with  ivory  handles,  squared,  cost  4-^  6^;  pound 
of  raisins  with  proportionable  almonds.  Visited  her  brother 
and  sister  Weld." 

"  Aug.  6.  Visited  Mrs.  Denison,  carried  her  sister  Weld, 
the  widow  and  Mrs.  Weld  to  her  brother,  where  we  were  cour- 
teously entertained.  Brought  Mr.  Edmund  Weld's  wife  home 
with  me  in  the  coach  ;  she  is  in  much  darkness.  Gave  Mrs. 
Denison  a  psalm-book  neatl}^  bound  in  England  with  Turkey 
leather.  27th,  I  ride  and  visit  Mrs.  Denison,  leave  my  horse 
at  the  Grey  Hound.  She  mentions  her  discouragements  by 
reason  of  discourses  she  heard  ;  I  prayed  God  to  direct  her  and 
me." 

In  fact,  Sewall  visits  this  lady  upon  almost  every 
opportunity  ;  but  as  his  duties  as  circuit  judge  took 
him  away,  Mrs.  Denison  disappears  from  the  Diary 
while  he  is  on  his  travels.  The  next  significant 
entry  is  Oct.    15:  — 

"  Visit  Mrs.  Denison  on  horseback  ;  present  her  with  a  pair 
of  shoe  buckles  cost  5^-.  3^/."  "  Nov.  i.  My  son  from  Brook- 
line  being  here  I  took  his  horse  and  visited  Mrs.  Denison.  I 
told  her  'twas  time  now  to  finish  our  business.  Asked  her  what 
I  should  allow  her,  she  not  speaking.  I  told  her  I  was  willing 
to  give  her  ^250  pr  annum  during  her  life,  if  it  should  please 
God  to  take  me  out  of  tlie  world  before  her.  She  answered  she 
had  better  keep  as  she  was  than  to  give  a  certainty  for  an  uncer- 
tainty. She  should  pay  dear  for  dwelling  at  Boston.  I  desired 
her  to  make  proposals  but  she  made  none.  I  had  thought  of 
publishment  next  Thursday.  But  now  I  seem  to  be  far  from  it. 
May  God  who  has  the  pity  of  a  father,  direct  and  help  me  ! " 

Her  late  husband,  as  Sewall  well  knew,  had  left 
her  a  life  interest  in  all   his  estates.     The  trouble 


SE  WALL'S  COURTS/IIP  OF  MADAM  WIN  THRO  P.    287 

seems  to  have  been  that  Mrs.  Denison  declmed  to 
ahenate  any  of  her  interests  to  him  if  she  married. 
In  fact,  all  through  his  latter  courtships  Sewall 
shines  more  as  a  sharp  business  man  than  a  man 
either  of  tact  or  sentiment. 

"Nov''  28,  1718.  I  went  this  day  in  the  coach;  had  a  fire 
made  in  the  chamber  where  I  spake  with  her  before.  I  enquired 
how  she  had  done  these  three  or  four  weeks.  Afterwards  I  told 
her  our  conversation  had  been  such  when  I  was  with  her  last 
that  it  seemed  to  be  a  direction  in  Providence  not  to  proceed  any 
further;  she  said  it  must  be  what  I  pleased,  or  to  that  pur- 
pose." 

Then  there  apparently  proceeded  one  of  those  in- 
terminable wrangles,  not  peculiar  to  Puritan  court- 
ships, and  in  this  case  carried  on  with  due  Puritan 
decorum,  which,  as  usual  with  persons  in  such  rela- 
tions, came  to  nothing,  she  holding  to  her  own.  The 
close  only  shows  plain  colors  of  human  interest :  — 

"  She  asked  me  if  I  would  drink  ;  I  told  her  Yes.  She  gave 
me  cider,  apples  and  a  glass  of  wine ;  gathered  together  the 
little  things  I  had  given  her  and  offered  them  to  me ;  but  I 
would  take  none  of  them.  Told  her  I  wished  her  well,  should 
be  glad  to  hear  of  her  welfare.  She  seemed  to  say  she  should 
not  take  in  hand  a  thing  of  this  nature.  Thanked  me  for  what 
I  had  given  her  and  desired  my  prayers.  I  gave  Abijah  Weld 
an  Angel.  Got  home  about  9  at  night  My  bowels  yearn 
towards  Mrs.  Denison ;  but  I  think  God  directs  me  in  his  Provi- 
dence to  desist." 

We  catch  one  more  glimpse  of  the  lady,  Lord's 
Day,  Nov.  30,  wdien,  in  the  evening,  while  Sewall 
was  at  family  prayers  :  — 


288  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

"She  came  in,  preceded  by  her  cousin  Weld,  saying  she 
wished  to  speak  to  me  in  private.  I  was  very  much  startled 
that  she  should  come  so  far  afoot  in  that  exceeding  cold  season. 
She  asked  pardon  if  she  had  affronted  me.  Seemed  inclined 
the  match  should  not  break  off,  since  I  had  kept  her  company 
so  long.  I  fetched  a  tankard  of  cider  and  drank  to  her.  She 
desired  that  nobody  might  know  of  her  being  here.  I  told  her 
they  should  not.  She  went  away  in  the  bitter  cold,  no  moon 
being  up,  to  my  great  pain.     I  saluted  her  at  parting." 

The  last  glimpse  of  Mrs.  Denison  in  the  Diary  is 
this  :  — 

"  Dec.  22.  Mrs.  Dorothy  Denison  brings  an  additional  in- 
ventory. I  gave  her  her  oath  ;  asked  her  brother  Brewer  and 
her  to  dine  with  me;  she  said  she  needed  not  to  eat ;  caused 
her  to  sit  by  the  fire  and  went  with  her  to  the  door  at  her  going 
away.     She  said  nothing  to  me  nor  her  brother  Brewer." 

This  lady  remarried  in  1720. 
Next  comes  Mrs.  Tilly. 

"  Sept.  2,  1719.  Visit  Mrs.  Tilly  and  speak  with  her  in  her 
chamber ;  ask  her  to  come  and  dwell  at  my  house.  She  ex- 
presses her  unworthiness  of  such  a  thing  with  much  respect.  I 
tell  her  of  my  going  to  Bristol  [on  his  circuit  probably].  I 
would  have  her  consider  of,  she  answered  she  would  have  me 
consider  of  it.  Sept.  21.  I  gave  Mrs.  Tilly  a  little  book  entitled 
'  Ornaments  for  the  daughters  of  Sion.''  I  gave  it  to  my  dear 
wife  Aug.  28,  1702."  "  23d.  Eat  almonds  and  reasons  [raisins] 
with  Mrs.  Tilly  and  Mrs.  Armitage.  Discoursed  with  Mrs. 
Armitage,  who  spake  very  agreeably  and  said  Mrs.  Tilly  had 
been  a  great  blessing  to  them  and  hoped  God  would  make  her 
so  to  me  and  my  family." 

Oct.  29,  1 7 19,  they  were  married,  with  the  usual 
Puritan   festivities,   by  the   judge's  son,   Mr.  Joseph 


SEWALL  'S  COURTSHIP  OF  MADAM  WINTHROP,    289 

Sewall.  Not  to  make  further  mention  of  a  lady  who, 
though  his  wife,  seems  to  us  to  have  been  hardly 
more  than  a  shadow  in  Sewall's  real  life,  albeit  she 
was  an  exemplary  woman,  it  may  be  noted  that  she 
died  suddenly  May  26,  1720. 

Sewall's  opinion  of  this  wife  is  in  a  letter :  — 

"  She,  my  wife  carries  it  very  tenderly  and  is  very  helpful  to 
me,  my  children  and  grandchildren." 

After  Mrs.  Tilly's  funeral  there  is  no  record  of 
any  marital  movement  on  Sewall's  part  until  Oct.  i, 
when  he  writes  :  — 

"  Saturday  I  dine  at  Mr.  Stoddard's;  from  thence  I  went  to 
Madam  Winthrop's  just  at  3.  Spake  to  her  saying,  my  loving 
wife  died  so  soon  and  suddenly,  Hwas  hardly  convenient  for 
me  to  think  of  marrying  again ;  however  I  came  to  this  resolu- 
tion that  I  would  not  make  my  court  to  any  person  without  first 
consulting  with  her.  Had  a  pleasant  discourse  about  seven 
single  persons  sitting  in  the  Fore  Seat  Sept.  29  [the  Sunday 
before],  viz.  Madam  Rebecca  Dudley,  Catharine  Winthrop  [the 
lady  before  him],  Bridget  Usher,  Deliverance  Legg,  Rebecca 
Loyd,  Lydia  Colman,  Elizabeth  Bellingham.  She  propounded 
one  and  another  for  me ;  but  none  would  do,  said  Mrs.  Loyd 
was  about  her  age." 

As  before  noted,  Sewall  had  never  forgotten 
madam.     He  notes  :  — 

"  Feby.  3,  1718.  Sent  Madam  Winthrop,  'Smoking  Flax 
inflamed,'  '  The  Jewish  Children  of  Berlin,'  and  my  '  Small 
Vial  of  Tears  '  by  Mr.  Gerrish,  with  my  service.  She  thanks 
me  and  returns  her  service  to  me." 

Sewall,  prepense,  had  now  evidently  gone  to  Madam 
Winthrop  for  a  match,  and  he  was  to  find  his  match. 


290  SAMUEL   SEW  ALL. 

but  not  exactly  in  the  way  he  hoped.  He  was  now 
sixty-nine,  and  the  lady  fifty-six,  twice  married  be- 
fore, and  with  grown-up  children. 

"Oct''.  2.  Evening.  Waited  on  Madam  Winthrop  again; 
'twas  a  little  while  before  she  came  in.  Her  daughter  Noyes 
being  there  alone  with  me,  I  said  I  hoped  my  waiting  on  her 
mother  would  not  be  disagreeable  to  her.  She  answered  she 
should  not  be  against  that  that  might  be  for  her  comfort.  By 
and  by  came  in  Mr.  Airs,  chaplain  of  the  Castle  and  hanged  up 
his  hat,  which  I  was  a  little  startled  at,  it  seeming  as  if  he  was 
to  lodge  there.  At  last  Madam  Winthrop  came  too.  After  a 
considerable  time  I  went  up  to  her  and  said,  if  it  might  not  be 
inconvenient  I  desired  to  speak  with  her.  She  assented  and 
spake  of  going  into  another  room ;  but  Mr.  Airs  and  Mrs. 
Noyes  presently  rose  up  and  went  out,  leaving  us  there  alone. 
Then  I  ushered  in  discourse  from  the  names  in  the  Fore  Seat ; 
at  last  I  prayed  that  Katharine  [Madam  Winthrop]  might  be 
the  person  assigned  for  me.  She  instantly  took  it  up  in  the 
way  of  denial,  as  if  she  had  catched  at  an  opportunity  to  do  it, 
saying,  she  could  not  do  it  before  she  was  asked.  Said  that  was 
her  mind  unless  she  should  change  it,  which  she  believed  she 
should  not  —  could  not  leave  her  children.  I  expressed  my 
sorrow  that  she  should  do  it  so  speedily,  prayed  her  consid- 
eration, and  asked  her  when  I  should  wait  on  her  agen.  She 
setting  no  time,  I  mentioned  that  day  Sennight.  Gave  her  Mr. 
Willard's  'Fountain  Opened,'  with  the  little  print  and  verses; 
saying  I  hoped  if  we  did  well  read  that  book,  we  should  meet 
together  hereafter,  if  we  did  not  now.  She  took  the  book  and 
put  it  in  her  pocket.  Took  leave.  Oct.  5.  Midweek.  Al- 
though I  had  appointed  to  wait  upon  her,  Madam  Winthrop, 
next  Monday,  yet  I  went  from  my  cousin  Sewall's  thither  about 
3.  The  nurse  told  me  Madam  dined  abroad  at  her  daughter 
Noyes,  they  were  to  go  out  together.  Gave  Katee  a  penny  and 
a  kiss  and  came  away.'' 

"Oct.  6.  A  little  after  six  p.m.  I  went  to  Madam  Win- 
throp's.  She  was  not  within.  I  gave  the  maid  7.s.  ;  Juno,  who 
brought  in  wood,  \s.     After  the  nurse  came  in  I  gave  her  \Zd., 


SEWALL  'S  COURTSHIP  OF  MADAM  WINTHROP.     29I 

having  no  other  small  bill.  After  a  while  Dr.  Noyes  came  in 
with  his  mother,  and  quickly  after  his  wife.  They  sat  talking, 
I  think,  till  eight  o^clock.  I  said  I  feared  I  might  be  some 
interruption  to  their  business.  Dr.  Noyes  replied  pleasantly, 
they  feared  they  might  be  some  interruption  to  my  business, 
and  went  away.  Madam  seemed  to  harp  upon  the  same  string, 
must  take  care  of  her  children,  could  not  leave  that  house  and 
neighborhood,  etc.  I  gave  her  a  piece  of  Mr.  Belcher's  cake 
and  gingerbread  wrapped  up  in  a  clean  sheet  of  paper.  My 
daughter  Judith  I  said  was  gone  from  me  and  I  was  more  lone- 
some —  might  help  to  forward  one  another  in  our  journey  to 
Canaan.     I  took  leave  about  nine  o'clock." 

"  October  nth.  I  write  a  few  lines  to  Madam  Winthrop  to 
this  purpose.  Madam  :  These  wait  on  you  with  Mr.  Mayhew's 
sermon  and  an  account  of  the  state  of  the  Indians  of  Martha's 
Vineyard.  I  thank  you  for  your  unmerited  favors  of  yesterday 
[she  had  given  him  wine  marmalade,  etc.],  and  hope  to  have 
the  happiness  of  waiting  on  you  to-morrow  before  eight  o'clock 
after  noon.  I  pray  God  to  keep  you  and  give  you  a  joyful  en- 
trance upon  the  229th  year  of  Christopher  Columbus,  his  dis- 
covery, and  take  leave,  who  am,  madam,  your  humble  serv't. 

S.  S. 

"  Sent  this  by  Deacon  Green,  &c." 

"  Oct.  12.  In  the  little  room  Madam  Winthrop  was  full  of 
work  behind  a  stand.  Mrs.  Cotton  came  in  and  stood.  Madam 
pointed  to  her  to  set  me  a  chair.  Her  countenance  looked  dark 
and  lowering.  At  last  the  work  [black  stuff  or  silk]  was  taken 
away.  I  got  my  chair  in  place,  had  some  converse,  but  very 
cold  and  indifferent  to  what  'twas  before.  Asked  her  to  acquit 
me  of  rudeness  if  I  drew  off  her  glove.  Enquiring  the  reason  I 
told  her  'twas  great  odds  between  handling  a  dead  goat  and  a 
living  lady.  Got  it  off!  I  told  her  I  had  one  petition  to  ask  of 
her  to  wit,  to  change  her  answer.  She  insisted  on  her  negative. 
I  gave  her  Dr.  Preston's  '  The  Churche's  Marriage  and  the 
Churche's  Carriage,'  which  cost  me  6s.  Sarah  filled  a  glass 
of  wine,  she  drank  to  me,  I  to  her.  She  sent  Juno  home  with 
me  with  a  good  lantern.  I  gave  her  6^/.,  and  bade  her  thank 
her  mistress.     In  some  of  our  discourse  I  told  her  the  reason 


292  SAMUEL   SEIVALL. 

why  I  came  every  other  night  was  lest  I  should  drink  too  deep 
draughts  of  pleasure.  She  had  talked  of  Canary,  her  kisses 
were  to  me  better  than  the  best  Canary.  Explained  the  expres- 
sion concerning  Columbus.  [In  the  name  of  two  worlds,  what 
might  it  be  in  a  love  letter  !]  "' 

"Oct.  17.  In  the  evening  I  visited  Madam  Winthrop,  who 
treated  me  courteously,  but  not  in  clean  linen  as  sometimes. 
She  said  she  did  not  know  whether  I  would  come  again  or  no. 
I  asked  her  how  she  could  impute  inconstancy  to  me.  Gave 
her  this  day's  Gazette.  Heard  David  Jeffries  [her  little  grand- 
son] say  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  some  other  portions  of  the 
Scriptures.     Juno  came  home  with  me." 

"  Oct.  18.  Visited  Madam  Mico  who  came  to  me  in  a  splen- 
did dress.  I  said,  It  may  be  you  have  heard  of  my  visiting 
Madam  Winthrop,  her  sister.  [Probably.]  She  answered,  Her 
sister  had  told  her  of  it.  If  her  sister  were  for  it,  she  should 
not  hinder  it.  I  gave  her  Mr.  Homes's  sermon.  She  gave  me 
a  glass  of  Canary,  entertained  me  with  good  discourse  and  a 
respectful  remembrance  of  my  first  wife.     I  took  leave.'" 

This  is  the  lady  who  some  suggest  would  have 
listened  to  Sewall's  suit  more  patiently  than  her 
sister.  *'  The  splendid  dress  "  in  which  Sewall  notes 
she  came  to  him,  certainly  squints  just  a  trifle  that 
way. 

"Oct.  19.  Visited  Madam  Winthrop.  Sarah  told  me  she 
was  at  iMrs.  Walley's,  would  not  come  home  till  late.  Was 
ready  to  go  home,  but  said  if  I  knew  she  was  there,  I  would  go 
thither.  I  went  and  found  her  with  Mr.  Walley  and  his  wife 
in  the  little  room  below.  At  seven  o'clock  I  mentioned  going 
home  ;  at  eight  I  put  on  my  coat  and  quickly  waited  on  her 
home.  Was  courteous  to  me,  but  took  occasion  to  speak  pretty 
earnestly  about  my  keeping  a  coach.  I  said  'twould  cost  ^100 
per  annum.     She  said  'twould  cost  but  ^46.''' 

"  Oct.  20.  Madam  Winthrop  not  being  at  lecture,  I  went 
thither  first ;  found  her  very  serene  with  her  daughter  Noyes, 
etc.     She  drank  to  me,  and  I  to    Mrs.  Noyes.     After  a  while 


SEW  ALL  'S  COURTSHIP  OF  MADAM  IVINTIIROP.    293 

prayed  the  favor  to  speak  with  her.  She  took  one  of  the 
candles  and  went  into  the  best  room,  closed  the  shutters,  and 
sat  down  upon  the  couch.  She  spoke  something  of  my  needing 
a  wigg.     I  took  leave.-' 

"  Oct.  21.  My  Son  [the  parson]  and  I  pray  for  one  another 
in  the  old  chamber,  more  especially  respecting  my  courtship. 
At  six  o'clock  I  go  to  Madam  Winthrop's.  Sarah  told  me  hei 
mistress  had  gone  out,  but  did  not  tell  me  whither  she  went. 
She  presently  ordered  me  a  fire  ;  so  I  went  in,  having  Dr.  Sibb's 
'  Bowells'  with  me  to  read.  [This  was  a  book  on  "  The  Discov- 
ery of  the  Union  between  Christ  and  the  Church.'"]  A  while 
after  nine,  madam  came  in.  I  mentioned  something  of  the 
lateness  :  she  bantered  me  and  said  I  was  later.  I  asked  her 
when  our  proceedings  should  be  made  public.  She  said  they 
were  like  to  be  no  more  public  than  they  were  already.  Offered 
me  no  wine  that  I  remember.  I  rose  up  at  eleven  o'clock  to 
come  away,  saying  I  would  put  on  my  coat.  She  offered  not  to 
help  me.  I  prayed  that  Juno  might  light  me  home,  she  opened 
the  shutter  and  said  was  pretty  light  abroad  ;  Juno  was  weary 
and  gone  to  bed.  So  I  came  home  by  starlight  as  well  as  I 
could.     Jehovah  Jireh.     The  Lord  reigneth." 

"Oct.  24.  As  to  my  periwig,  I  told  her  my  best  and  great- 
est Friend  (I  could  not  possibly  have  a  greater)  began  to  find 
me  with  hair  before  I  was  born  and  had  continued  to  do  so  ever 
since,  and  I  could  not  find  it  in  my  heart  to  go  to  another.  She 
gave  me  a  dram  of  black  cherry  brandy  and  a  lump  of  the  sugar 
that  was  in  it." 

"  Nov.  4.  I  asked  madam  what  fashioned  necklace  I  should 
present  her  with.  She  said  none  at  all.  I  asked  her  where- 
abouts we  left  off  last  time  ;  mentioned  what  I  had  offered  to  give 
her;  asked  her  what  she  would  give  me.  She  said  she  could 
not  change  her  condition,  and  had  said  so  from  the  beginning." 

"Nov.  7.  I  went  to  Madam  Winthrop  ;  found  her  rocking 
her  little  Katie  in  the  cradle.  She  set  me  an  armed  chair  and  a 
cushion.  Gave  her  the  remnants  of  my  almonds.  She  did  not 
eat  of  them  as  before,  but  laid  them  away.  Asked  if  she  re- 
mained of  the  same  mind  still.  She  said  thereabouts.  I  told 
her  I  loved  her,  and  was  so  fond  as  to  think  that  she  loved  me. 


294  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

The  fire  was  come  to  one  short  brand  besides  the  block,  which 
brand  was  set  up  on  end  ;  at  last  it  fell  to  pieces,  and  no  recruit 
was  made.  She  gave  me  a  glass  of  wine.  I  did  not  bid  her  draw 
off  her  glove,  as  sometime  I  had  done.  Her  dress  was  not  so 
clean  as  sometime  it  had  been.     The  Lord  reigneth." 

And  so  with  the  one  black  brand  on  a  fireless 
hearth  the  curtain  falls  on  Sewall's  courtship  of 
Madam  Winthrop.  Soon  after  he  married  Mrs. 
Gibbs. 

The  rocks  on  which  Sewall's  matrimonial  venture 
here  split  apparently  were  several.  He  would  not 
agree  to  set  up  a  coach,  claiming  he  could  not  afford 
it,  nor  wear  a  periwig,  as  madam  wished  ;  he  had 
tried  to  drive  a  close-fisted  bargain  in  the  marriage 
settlement,  and  perhaps  had  tried  to  meddle  with  the 
status  of  her  slaves ;  and,  above  all,  she  was,  as  she 
said,  averse  to  separation  from  her  kin  and  grand- 
children, though  she  was  hardly  ingenuous  in  assign- 
ing as  one  reason,  that  the  Apostle  Paul  had  affirmed 
that  a  single  life  was  better  than  a  married  one,  inas- 
much as  she  had  married  twice  already.  So  this 
courtship  lapsed,  apparently  with  no  ill  will  on  either 
side.  There  are  entries  in  the  Diary  later  on  which 
look  like  willingness  on  Madam  Winthrop's  part  to 
leave  the  door  just  a  trifle  ajar;  but  Sewall  went 
another  way.  There  is  one  entry,  however,  of  the 
very  few  concerning  her,  made  on  the  Lord's  Day, 
Dec.  6,  1724,  which  quaintly  illustrates  the  man  and 
the  times  :  — 

"  At  the  Lord's  Supper  Deacon  Checkly  delivered  the  cup 
first  to  Madam  Winthrop  and  then  gave  me  a  tankard.     'Twas 


SEWALL  'S  COURTSHIP  OF  MADAM  WINTHROP.    295 

humiliation  to  me  and  I  think  put  me  to  the  blush  to  have  this 
injustice  done  me  by  a  Justice.     May  all  be  sanctified." 

In  this  precedency  of  the  cup  to  Madam  Win- 
throp,  Sewall  evidently  saw  a  slight  to  his  magistracy. 

"June  15,  1725.  I  accompanied  my  son  [the  minister]  to 
Madam  Winthrop,  She  was  abed  about  10,  morning.  [She 
was  evidently  in  her  last  sickness.]  I  told  her  I  found  my  son 
coming  to  her  and  took  the  opportunity  to  come  with  him.  She 
thanked  me  kindly  and  enquired  how  Madam  Sewall  did. 
Asked  my  son  to  go  to  prayer.  At  coming  I  said,  I  kiss  your 
hand,  Madam  (her  hand  felt  very  dry).  She  desired  me  to 
pray  that  God  would  lift  up  upon  her  the  light  of  his  counte- 
nance.'' 

The  last  entries  are  these  :  — 

"Monday,  Aug.  2^ ,  Mrs.  Katharine  Winthrop,  relict  of  the 
Hono  Waitstill  Winthrop,  Esq.,  died,  M  61." 

She  was  born  in  September,  1664.  Aug.  5,  Sewall 
was  one  of  her  bearers.  "Will  be  much  missed." 
After  the  funeral  Sewall  notes  he  made  a  wedding 
call,  and  "  had  good  bride  cake,  good  wine,  Burgundy 
and  Canary,  good  beer,  oranges  and  pears." 

March  29,  1722,  Sewall  married  the  widow  Mary 
Gibbs,  who  outlived  him.  There  were  certain  events 
in  the  precedent  negotiations  leading  up  to  this  third 
marriage  thoroughly  characteristic  of  Sewall,  which, 
lacking  current  interest,  are  here  passed  by.  They 
can  all,  of  course,  be  found  in  the  Diary. 

Sewall  himself  died  Jan.  i,  1730. 

In  the  Weekly  News  LetteVy  Jan.  8,  1730,  appears 
a  notice  of  Sewall's  death,  and  a  careful  but  friendly 
analysis  of  his  life  and  character  :  — 


296  SAMUEL  SEWALL. 

"  On  the  first  of  this  instant,  at  half  an  hour  past  five  in  the 
morning,  after  about  a  month's  languishment,  died  at  his  house 
here,  the  Honorable  Samuel  Sewall  Esq.,  in  the  78th  year  of  his 
age ;  who  has  for  above  forty  years  appeared  a  great  ornament 
of  this  town  and  country.  In  1684  he  was  chosen  a  magistrate 
of  the  Massachusetts  Colony  ;  in  1692  he  was  appointed  by  King 
William  and  Queen  Mary  one  of  the  first  Council  for  their  Majes- 
ties in  this  Province,  into  which  he  was  annually  chosen  and  sat 
till  1725  when  he  resigned  his  election.  In  1692  he  was  made 
one  of  the  Judges  and  in  1718  Chief  Justice  of  our  Superior 
Courts  of  Judicature  through  the  Province  in  which  he  sat  till 
1728  when  his  infirmities  growing  on  him,  he  resigned  that 
place  also.  In  171 5  he  was  made  Judge  of  Probates  for  this 
County  of  Suff"olk,  and  continued  in  that  ofiice  till  1728  when  he 
laid  it  down;  it  being  the  last  public  post  wherein  he  served  and 
honored  his  country. 

"  He  was  universally  and  greatly  reverenced,  esteemed  and 
beloved  among  us  for  his  eminent  piety,  learning  and  wisdom  ; 
his  grave  and  venerable  aspect  and  carriage ;  his  instructive, 
affable  and  cheerful  conversation  ;  his  strict  integrity  and  regard 
to  justice ;  his  extraordinary  tender  and  compassionate  heart ; 
his  neglect  of  the  world  ;  his  abundant  liberality ;  his  catholic 
and  public  spirit ;  his  critical  acquaintance  with  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures in  their  inspired  originals  ;  his  zeal  for  the  purity  of  insti- 
tuted worship ;  his  constant  diligent  and  reverent  attendance 
on  it,  both  in  the  church  and  family ;  his  love  for  the  churches, 
people  and  ministers,  the  civil  and  religious  interests  of  this 
country ;  his  tender  concern  for  the  aboriginal  natives  ;  and  as 
the  crown  of  all,  his  moderation,  peaceableness  and  humility 
rendered  him  one  of  the  most  shining  lights  and  honors  of  the 
age  and  land  wherein  he  lived  and  worthy  of  a  very  distinguishing 
regard  in  the  New  English  histories. 

"By  his  first  wife  he  had  seven  sons  and  seven  daughters; 
two  of  the  former  and  one  of  the  latter  only  survive  him.  His 
understanding  continued  with  him  to  his  last  hours.  He  died 
in  peace  and  was  yesterday  honorably  interred." 


SEWALL   AND   SUNDRIES.  297 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 


SEWALL    AND    SUNDRIES. 


Sometimes  a  clerk  itemizing  a  bill  grows  tired,  and 
masses  the  rest  of  the  account  under  the  head  of 
sundries.  In  our  examination  of  the  old  New  Eng- 
land life,  and  Sewall  as  its  expositor,  many  interest- 
esting  facts  in  and  out  of  his  Diary  have  failed  to 
connect  themselves  with  the  story.  In  this  chapter 
it  is  intended  to  gather  several  of  these  stray  items 
of  interest. 

Sewall  cannot  fairly  be  called  either  a  wit  or  a 
humorist.  Few  Puritans  ever  were  ;  and  such  a 
trifling  with  "  the  words  of  soberness  "  as  a  pun, 
would  make  against  the  punster,  especially  if  he 
were  in  public  station.  Hezekiah  Usher,  whose  will 
we  have  had  heretofore  in  these  pages,  made  perhaps 
the  best  pun  among  the  Puritans  when,  at  the  mis- 
behavior of  some  of  the  Christian  Indians  in  King 
Philip's  War,  he  said  that  ''the  praying  Indians  ought 
to  be  called  preying  Indians."  But  he  apparently 
died  insane.  Sewall  shows  often  an  impulse  towards 
humor,  and  the  turn  of  a  sentence  in  a  letter  some- 
times approaches  wit.  But  the  gait  is  always  a  trifle 
too  elephantine  for  success.     He  only  approaches  wit 


298  SAMUEL  SEIVALL. 

occasionally  by  joining  together  things  incongruous, 
as  where  he  notes  that  the  colony  at  one  time  was 
troubled  with  Indians,  small-pox,  and  heresy.  The 
only  resemblance  to  a  pun  which  we  have  noted  is 
in  the  following  entry  referring  to  his  devout  keeping 
of  his  thirty-fifth  marriage  day  :  — 

"  While  I  was  spending  a  little  fuel  in  private  devotion  I  was 
supplied  with  a  great  pennyworth  of  bast  i.e.  bark  of  the  bass 
or  lime  tree,  by  Bastian  [his  negro],  and  a  load  of  black  oak  by 
Nathl.  Sparhawk." 

Here  is  another  ponderous  endeavor,  a  cross  be- 
tween a  joke  and  a  solemnity.  When  writing  to  a 
correspondent,  he  suggests  :  — 

".  It  would  be  well  if  you  could  set  on  foot  the  printing  of  the 
Spanish  Bible  in  a  fair  octavo  ;  ten  thousand  copies  :  and  then 
you  might  attempt  the  bombarding  of  St.  Domingo,  the  Havana, 
Porto  Rico  and  Mexico  itself.  I  would  willingly  give  five  pounds 
towards  the  charge  of  it." 

When  a  certain  jury  gave  a  half  verdict,  Sewall 
writes,  "  I  dissented  from  it  as  too  small  a  plaster  for 
so  great  a  sore." 

It  looks  as  though  his  piety  sometimes  dried  up 
all  sense  of  humor.  The  Boston  boys  on  All  Fools' 
Day  had  a  habit  of  bewildering  ancient  gentlemen 
by  pointing  to  their  ponderous  shoe-buckles,  and 
suggesting  that  something  had  gone  wrong  with 
them.  Sewall  actually  wrote  to  the  Boston  school- 
masters (1708)  :  — 

"Pray  gentlemen  if  you  think  it  convenient,  as  I  hope  you 
will,  insinuate  unto  your  scholars  the  defiling  and  provoking 
nature  of  such  a  foolish  practice  ;  and  take  them  off  from  it." 


SEWALL   AND   SUNDRIES.  299 

Perhaps  his  most  creditable  attempt  at  wit  is  this. 
The  Rev.  Joseph  Gerrish,  a  country  clergyman  at 
Wenham,  had  declined  to  preach  the  sermon  before 
the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery,  and  Sewall 
writes  (May,  1709):  — 

"Your  choice  was  free  and  unanimous.  Tlie  commission 
officers  present  their  service  to  you,  expressing  their  sorrow  that 
they  fail  of  your  assistance.  The  reason  why  they  do  not  im- 
mediately fill  your  house  with  armed  men  and  insult  you  with 
military  importunity  is  because  they  apprehend  your  resolution 
fixed ;  and  they  desire  strictly  to  observe  John  Baptist's  instruc- 
tions (although  they  have  no  wages)  to  do  incivility  to  no  man ; 
much  less  to  yourself  for  whom  they  maintain  a  just  respect." 

Sewall  also  had  a  bias  towards  superstition,  —  at 
least  so  it  looks  to  modern  eyes,  —  which  he  shared 
with  many  of  his  neighbors.  But  in  Sewall,  as  an 
educated  man,  this  was  more  inexcusable.  Yet  even 
so  wise  and  great  a  man  as  John  Winthrop  could 
write  in  his  Journal  (1640)  :  — 

"  About  this  time  there  fell  out  a  thing  worthy  of  observation. 
Mr.  Winthrop  the  younger,  one  of  the  magistrates,  having 
many  books  in  a  chamber  where  there  was  corn  of  diverse  sorts, 
had  among  them  one  wherein  the  Greek  testament,  the  psalms 
and  the  common  prayer  were  bound  together.  He  found  the 
common  prayer  eaten  with  mice,  every  leaf  of  it,  and  not  any  of 
the  two  other  touched,  nor  any  other  of  his  books,  though  there 
were  above  a  thousand." 

An  examination  of  this  passage  fairly  reveals  the 
fact  that  the  educated  writer  actually  believed  that 
these  mice  had  rendered  a  noticeable  verdict  against 
"  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer."    But  then  they  were 


300  SAMUEL  SEWALL. 

only  mice,  and  a  friend  of  that  ancient  compendium 
of  the  prayers  of  Winthrop's  fathers,  might  have  re- 
torted with  an  equally  gross  non  scqtiitiir,  that  these 
mice  had  shown  admirable  taste  in  dining.  AjDtly 
enough,  the  next  entry  in  the  Journal  is  a  "  Query  of 
the  Child  at  Cambridge  Killed  by  a  Cat."  Is  it  any 
wonder  that  the  Salem  witchcraft  misery  came  .'* 

Yet  the  distinction  to  be  made  between  supersti- 
tion and  religion  is  often  a  very  large  and  difficult 
question.  In  general,  superstition  is  a  recognition 
of  the  supernatural,  not  based  either  on  revelation  or 
science.  The  agnostic,  declining  to  accept  the  super- 
natural at  all,  from  his  premise  rightly  calls  all  recog- 
nition of  it  superstition.  Of  course  that  has  never 
been  the  way  with  the  people  called  Christians.  It 
is  difficult  to  conceive  of  any  religion  using  words 
exactly,  which  does  not  recognize  the  supernatural. 
Certainly  the  Puritans  did,  and  with  a  precision  not 
always  shown  by  their  posterity.  If  they,  as  a  chosen 
and  covenanted  people,  dwelt  in  the  hollow  of  God's 
hand,  then  God  might  reveal  to  them  his  judgments 
in  a  mouse,  a  hailstorm,  a  clap  of  thunder,  a  me- 
teor, a  ship  capsized,  some  bad  man  killed  by  acci- 
dent, as  truly  as  in  His  oracles,  and  more  visibly  than 
in  His  work  upon  their  hearts  by  His  Holy  Spirit. 

Sewall  was,  like  every  other  sincere  Puritan,  always 
looking  out  for  omens,  or  deducing  divine  premoni- 
tions from  events.  The  whole  business  only  repeats 
the  lesson,  that  any  truth  carried  to  an  extreme  be- 
comes error,  and  in  this  case,  absurdity,  —  and  dan- 
gerous absurdity  to  boot.      He  is  greatly  afraid  of 


Judge  Samuel  Sewall  of  INIarhlehead. 


SEW  ALL   AND  SUNDRIES.  30I 

thunderstorms.     His   Diary    abounds    with  such   en- 
tries as  these  :  — 

"  March  13,  1719.  Between  i  and  2  or  3  last  night  there 
was  great  lightning  with  sharp  thunder.  Sam  and  Grindall  came 
down  into  my  daughter's  chamber.  I  humbly  and  thankfully 
bless  God  that  we  saw  the  quick  and  powerful  fire  ;  heard  the 
terrible  voice  and  yet  we  live.'"' 

"  Much  lightning  in  a  cloud  toward  the  Castle  which  many 
observed  and  talked  of."  "  Sabbath,  Dec''  4,  1698.  Last  night 
lying  awake,  but  with  my  eyes  fast  shut  lightning  flashed  in  my 
face,  I  could  not  tell  certainly  what  light  it  should  be ;  but  pres- 
ently heard  a  loud  clap  of  thunder.  This  day  between  the  ring- 
ing of  the  morning  bells,  it  thundered  several  times  but  with  a 
more  confused  and  rumbling  noise," 

Hailstorms  have  their  uses  as  his  monitors  in  the 
will  of  Heaven  :  — 

"  Monday,  April  29,  1695.  The  morning  is  very  w^arm  and 
sunshiny ;  in  the  afternoon  there  is  thunder  and  lightning  and 
about  2  P.M.  a  very  extraordinary  storm  of  hail  so  that  the 
ground  was  made  white  with  it,  as  with  the  blossoms  when 
fallen ;  'twas  as  big  as  pistol  and  musket  bullets.  It  broke  of 
the  glass  of  the  new  house  about  280  squares  of  the  front.  [He 
mentions  also  that  the  houses  of  the  gentry  near  by,  and  the 
new  meeting-house,  also  suffered.]  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  dined 
with  us  and  was  with  me  in  the  new  kitchen  where  this  was  ;  he 
had  just  been  mentioning  that  more  ministers'"  houses  propor- 
tionably  had  been  smitten  with  lightning ;  enquiring  what  the 
meaning  of  God  should  be  in  it.  Many  hail  stones  broke 
through  the  glass  and  flew  to  the  middle  of  the  room  or  farther. 
People  afterwards  gazed  upon  the  house  to  see  its  ruins.  I  got 
Mr.  Mather  to  pray  with  us  after  this  awful  providence.  He 
told  God  he  had  broken  the  brittle  part  of  our  house  and  prayed 
that  we  might  be  ready  for  the  time  when  our  Clay  Tabernacles 
should  be  broken.  'Twas  a  sorrowful  thing  to  me  to  see  the 
house  so  far  undone  again  before  'twas  finished." 


302  SAMUEL   SEW  ALL. 

It  seems  that  at  Milton  there  was  no  hail. 

He  mentions  to  Mr.  Mather,  while  they  were  both 
undoubtedly  nervous  over  the  divine  omen  of  a  hail- 
storm in  late  April,  that  the  very  time  in  the  summer 
that  the  Duke  of  Monmouth  invaded  England,  1685, 
a  hailstorm  had  cracked  his  south-west  windows. 

While  in  England  he  makes  this  entry  :  — 

*' June  15,  1689.  Being  at  Mrs.  Calvin's  alone  in  a  chamber, 
while  they  were  getting  ready  dinner,  I  as  I  walked  about  began 
to  crave  a  blessing  and  when  about  it  remembered  my  clothes 
I  had  bought  just  before  and  then  it  came  into  my  mind  that  it 
was  most  material  to  ask  a  blessing  on  my  person  ;  so  I  mentally 
prayed  God  to  bless  my  flesh,  bones,  blood  and  spirits,  meat, 
drink,  and  apparel.  And  at  dinner  paring  the  crust  of  my  bread, 
I  cut  my  thumb  and  spilt  some  of  my  blood,  which  word  [i.e., 
blood]  I  very  unusually  or  never  before  have  used  in  prayer  to 
my  present  remembrance." 

Under  date  of  Oct.  25,  1713,  there  is  an  entry 
which  shows  not  only  the  nervous  excitement  in 
which  many  godly  Puritans  lived,  but  also  this  same 
tendency  to  superstition  : — 

"  In  the  night  after  12,  Susan  comes  and  knocks  at  our  cham- 
ber door ;  said  she  could  not  sleep,  was  afraid  she  should  die. 
Which  amazed  my  wife  and  me.  We  let  her  in,  blew  up  the  fire, 
wrapt  her  warm  and  went  to  bed  again.  She  sat  there  till  near 
day,  and  then  returned  ;  and  was  well  in  the  morning,  Lausdeo. 
I  was  the  mom  star  fled  becaiise  I  had  spilt  a  whole  vinegar  can 
of  water  Just  before  we  went  to  bed;  and  made  that  re/lection 
that  our  lives  would  sho7'tly  be  spilth 

But  ''the  sundries  should  end."  A  pliable  and  a 
granite  man  in  streaks,  watching  for  the  coming  of 


SEWALL   AND  SUNDRIES.  303 

the  swallows  every  spring,  and  an  eclipse  ''until,"  as 
he  writes,  "  the  clouds  eclipse  it ;  "  finding  solemn  les- 
sons in  a  rainbow,  and  making  his  very  ailments  signs 
of  the  will  of  God ;  setting  down  all  the  funerals  he 
went  to,  all  the  bearers  that  served,  all  the  gloves 
and  scarfs  he  got  or  gave,  until  it  seems  as  though 
one  of  the  chief  industries  of  old  Boston  must  have 
been  grave-digging ;  at  weddings  frequent  and  at 
christenings  ;  in  travails  oft ;  in  quarrels  sometimes  ; 
praying  at  an  old  friend's  bedside ;  keeping  many  pri- 
vate fasts  at  his  own  or  others'  houses  ;  constant  in  the 
meeting-house,  and  always  alert  to  make  firm  bargains 
and  collect  just  debts  —  Sewall's  life  was  as  useful  as 
busy.  He  seems  to  have  had  his  Boswell  also  in  the 
Rev.  Nehemiah  Hobart,  a  few  of  whose  Latin  verses 
in  Sewall's  honor,  translated  by  another, — familiarly, 
R.  Henchman,  —  are  here  strained  out  into  this  His- 
tory, to  show  how  bad  they  are  —  and  perhaps  some 
things  else,  as  the  reader  uses  his  wit  to  discover :  — 

"  Sewall,   our  Israel's  judge  and  singer,  sweet 
Abroad,   (whilst  busied  on  the  judgment  seat), 
His  progress,   church  required.     The  Sacred  Quire 
At  home,  their  fair  praecentor  did  desire. 


Impartial  Judge  (the  glory  of  our  thrones) 
You  whom  our  country  for  their  Patriot  owns; 
Sing,   Sir,   at  home  or  travel,   (for  no  pains 
You  grudge).     Fair  justice,  in  your  circuit  reigns 
Nor  innocent,  nor  nocent  here  complains." 


304  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 


A  SUMMARY. 


It  remains  to  conclude  Sewall's  character  with  a 
brief  analysis.  In  these  pages,  and  chiefly  by  his 
own  pen,  he  has  substantially  written  himself  down 
as  he  was.  If  in  his  life-time  he  had  been  appealed 
to  to  describe  himself,  he  would  probably  have  said, 
in  the  Puritan  vernacular  of  his  age,  that  he  was  a 
man  in  whom  grace  and  nature  had  long  striven  to- 
gether for  the  mastery,  and  that  each  had  had  several 
falls.  He  who  stands  nearest  his  own  age  is  apt  to 
serve  it  best,  however  the  future  misses  such  a  man's 
forecast  and  preparation  for  its  own.  Sewall  was  in 
the  current  of  his  own  times  by  choice,  and  whatever 
enthusiasm  of  nature  he  had,  did  not  fray  itself  out 
against  his  environment,  but  accepted  it  cordially. 
Had  he  been  very  other  than  this,  and  gone  on  such 
transcendental  escapades,  for  instance,  as  Roger  Wil- 
liams did,  he  might  have  filled  several  pages  of  amaz- 
ing history;  but  in  his  necessary  alienation  from 
current  affairs,  the  world  would  certainly  have  missed 
his  Diary.  Puritanism  itself  was  a  revolution,  and 
its  enterprises  satisfied  his  zeal.  The  key  to  his 
character,  even  to  its  defects,  is  handed  the  reader, 


A   SUMMARY.  305 

when  he  is  tola  that  Sewall,  as  fully  as  any  other 
man,  was  a  man  of  his  age.  Puritanism  may  be 
looked  at  under  two  aspects,  —  as  formal  and  as  per- 
sonal. Formal  Puritanism  is  that  movement  in  its 
creeds,  politics,  manners,  and  its  other  visible  on-go- 
ings.  Personal  Puritanism  is  these  same  things  as 
they  are  found  in  the  individual,  as  elements  of  char- 
acter, but  colored  by  that  man's  personality.  Win- 
throp's  personal  Puritanism  differed  from  Endicott's, 
and  both  from  Sewall's.  Take  the  three  portraits  of 
Winthrop,  Endicott,  and  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  as 
they  hang  on  the  walls  of  the  Historical  Society,  — 
three  undoubted  Puritans  in  form,  and  of  the  same 
generation.  All  three  look  straight,  with  sincere, 
open,  honest  eyes,  as  into  the  future  ;  but  Winthrop's 
are  a  trifle  suffused,  as  with  a  hint  of  approaching 
tears,  while  the  poise  of  the  head  is  submitted,  as  if 
the  man  felt  the  weight  of  a  thousand  years  of  feu- 
dalism, from  which  it  was  the  mission  of  men  like  him 
to  release  posterity.  Saltonstall' s  eyes  have  also  the 
clear  light  of  honor,  and  are  even  rounder,  as  if  in 
wonder,  which  almost  approaches  timidity,  as  to  what 
he  sees,  and  yet  with  a  poise  and  face-lines  which 
tell  us  he  will  confront  gallantly  for  his  religion 
Prince  Rupert's  wildest  charge  of  cavalry,  or,  with  a 
smile  to  last  till  the  final  pallor,  endure  the  wild  and 
its  lack,  so  remorseless  to  a  man  of  breeding ;  being 
worthy,  so  far  as  his  face  goes,  at  least,  to  be  cousin 
to  Milton  in  his  culture,  and  the  peer  of  worthier  men 
than  those  who  have  only  six  hundred  years  of  her- 
aldry to  back  their  station.     Endicott  differs  from 


306  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

the  other  two  in  that  he  has  not  only  reached  fixed 
Puritan  conclusions,  but  has  flung  to  the  winds  every 
tradition  and  history  of  antiquity  that  contradicts 
them,  —  a  man  ready  to  carry  Puritan  logic  into  law 
or  battle.  The  mustache  he  wears  shows  like  the 
edge  of  a  scimitar.  Those  merciless,  unswerving  eyes, 
the  entire  pose,  denote  a  man  who,  if  he  thought 
God  bade,  would  batter  his  head  against  any  rock- 
ledge  in  Salem  fields,  and  die  so  in  an  obedience  dan- 
gerously near  to  Oriental  fatalism,  —  this  ancient 
man  of  ours,  who  shows,  so  far  as  the  portrait  goes, 
the  very  type  of  that  always  masterful  revolution 
which  bases  itself  on  religion.  These  men  have  but 
one  form  of  Puritanism ;  yet  are  there  three  persons 
here  to  color  it. 

In  form,  Sewall  is  an  exact  Puritan ;  no  man  of  his 
day  more  so.  Everywhere  —  iji  the  college,  in  the 
council,  in  the  meeting-house,  in  social  life  —  he  main- 
tains it,  in  all  its  grave,  granite  temper,  even  when 
the  form  itself  is  softening,  and  the  children  show 
defection.  But  by  nature  Sewall  was  not  a  Puritan 
(he  weighed  too  much  for  that),  but  something  very 
else,  —  a  Saxon,  an  earthborn,  robust  Englishman ; 
led  of  his  blood  towards  good  dinners,  merry  wassail 
out  of  deep,  silver-rimmed  horns,  as  Saxons  had  done 
long  before  Harold  had  died  at  Hastings  ;  fond  of 
merrymakings  ;  a  snatched  kiss  under  the  holly  ;  a 
lover  of  little  children  gleesome  in  the  Twelfth  Night 
dances  ;  and,  had  he  been  ecclesiastic,  and  come  to 
church  preferment,  an  abbot  with  the  merriest,  friend- 
liest house  and  brotherhood  of  any  between  Land's 


A   SUMMARY.  307 

End  and  the  Fore  Land.  This  trend  of  Sewall's 
human  nature  is  seen  in  his  portrait,  and  in  his  Diary 
to  boot. 

Here  is  intended  no  apology  for  Sewall.  The  man 
who  paints  his  own  portrait  has,  so  to  speak,  his  face 
in  his  own  hands,  and  cannot  complain  if  the  picture 
shows  some  adverse  features.  The  Diary  is  in  print 
to  read,  and  Sewall  stands  in  it  a  very  plain,  emphatic 
portrait.  It  is  said  sometimes  that  he  was  common- 
place, mercenary,  selfish,  sordid,  especially  in  mar- 
riage matches,  —  his  own  and  others.  The  man  who 
wrote  the  one  ancient  diary  of  New  England  which  is 
bound  to  live,  did  a  rather  uncommon  work  in  that, 
and  so  this  charge  may  pass.  He  was  no  more 
mercenary  in  a  love  of  money  than  most  people 
round  him,  or,  indeed,  most  of  us  after  him ;  and  if 
he  saved,  he  gave,  and  with  an  open  and  kind  hand. 
Most  of  his  New  England  associates  and  peers  were 
obliged  to  be  frugal,  and  Sewall  was,  whether  bond  or 
free.  That  he  was  selfish  in  such  sense  as  to  entitle 
him  to  wear  that  epithet  more  than  other  men  ought 
only  to  be  allowed  when  it  can  be  shown  that  he 
sought  his  own,  careless  of  the  rights  of  others.  It 
ought  to  be  graven  into  literature,  and  especially  all 
literature  like  La  Rochefoucauld's  "  Maxims,"  by  some 
one  with  a  chisel  of  everlasting  steel,  that  seeking 
one's  own,  careful  of  the  rights  of  others,  is  never 
selfishness.  He  undoubtedly  insisted  in  marrying 
upon  a  marriage  settlement,  and  said  what  he  judged. 
He  also  married  rich,  being  rich.  Both  were  customs 
of  the  times ;  and  to  have  courted  or  married  other- 


308  SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

wise  would  have  been  considered  by  his  contempora- 
ries both  as  bad  form  and  a  mismatch. 

The  man  who  wrought  better  or  more  loyally  for 
New  England  than  Sewall  did  will  come  late  in  our 
history  ;  and  any  man  who  can  show  anywhere  a  life 
as  fruitful,  gracious,  helpful,  kind,  and  wise  as  Sewall' s 
was,  should  certainly  have  the  justice  of  being  held 
in  lasting  honor. 

On  Sewall's  tombstone  might  fitly  be  inscribed  the 
words  written,  as  directed,  by  that  other  pious  diarist, 
and  of  another  church,  John  Evelyn,  of  blessed 
memory  :  — 

HE   FELL   ASLEEP  IN  FULL   HOPE   OF   A 

GLORIOUS   RESURRECTION   THROUGH   FAITH   IN  JESUS   CHRIST. 

LIVING    IN   AN   AGE 

OF   EXTRAORDINARY   EVENTS   AND   REVOLUTIONS, 

HE   LEARNT   THIS   TRUTH, 

THAT  ALL   IS   VANITY   WHICH   IS   NOT   HONEST, 

AND   THAT   THERE   IS  NO   SOLID   WISDOM 

BUT    IN    REAL    PIETY. 

One  final  word  as  to  the  New  England  Puritans 
who  made  up  the  world  that  Sewall  lived  in.  The 
writer  of  these  pages,  differing,  as  he  does,  toto  ccelo, 
from  Puritanism  as  a  system  of  applied  religion,  is 
yet  aware  that,  after  all  its  temporalities  of  form 
have  disappeared,  its  residuum  will  still  knead  itself 
into  the  bread  upon  which  nations  who  aspire  to 
greatness  must  always  feed.  That  residuum  has  gone 
into,  and  is  in,  this  nation's  life  infallibly,  exactly. 
That  other  elements  of  power,  and  from  other  sources, 
are  also  here  makes  nothing  against  the  statement. 


A   SUMMARY.  309 

The  very  transcendentalism  of  this  Puritanism  must 
ever  be  held  in  honor  by  just  history,  as  at  the  least 
a  losing  of  life  to  find  it,  according  to  the  ancient 
oracle.  In  the  heyday  of  its  resolute  youth,  the 
Puritans,  too,  said,  "  We  will  climb  the  hills  and  look 
at  the  stars."  They,  too,  or  at  least  their  sages, 
regarding  the  trend  of  this  world's  affairs,  even  in 
their  own  age,  as  away  from  the  Puritan  form,  would 
be  fain  to  also  confess,  "  We  are  old  ;  we  have  climbed 
the  hills,  and  the  stars  are  as  far  off  as  ever."  Yet, 
at  least,  the  same  stars  of  our  human  destiny  are 
still  there  to  be  looked  into ;  and  some  day  some 
generation  of  man  will  reach  them.  To  that  achieve- 
ment, whatever  else  it  be,  the  old  New  England 
Puritanism  remains  in  time  as  an  encouragement. 


^|8  Vita  fine  Uteris  eft  Mortis  Imago  ;  At 
W    ^^^^  ^^^^  Chrifto  eft  Morte  pejor. 

^^  5/  CHRISTUM  difcis,  nihil  eft  ftcatera  nefcis, 
^Si  CHRlSrUMmfcis^  nihil  ejiji cetera  Jtfcis, 

^iSAMUELIS  SEWALL 


W 
^ 


C3 


iM 


Liber. 


Anno  Domini. 

«^  ^f*  tf9  t^  4^  ^  «|«  «#»  *   «^  4^  «f» 


# 


I 


BOOK-PLATE  OF  SA?IUEL   SEWALL. 


APPENDIX. 


NOTE   A. 


"July  ii,  1699.  I  went  with  Mr.  Willard  to  Pulling  Point 
to  Mr.  Dean  Winthrop's  (77  afmonini) .  Between  one  and  two 
Mr.  Willard  married  Atherton  Haugh  and  Mercy  Winthrop  : 
said  Mr.  Atherton  Haugh,  Mrs.  Mercy  Winthrop ;  forbade  all 
unlawful  communion  with  other  w^omen,  and  vice  versa.  Gave 
very  good  advice  and  exhortation  ;  especially  most  solemnly 
charged  them  never  to  neglect  family  prayer.  .  .  .  When  Mr. 
Willard  asked  Mr.  Winthrop's  consent,  he  also  complimented 
me  respecting  Atherton  Haugh  [SewalPs  ward] .  I  said  I  was 
glad  that  had  found  so  good  a  family  and  so  good  a  wife.  And 
after,  when  saw  the  bridegroom  and  bride  together  after  the 
wedding  I  prayed  God  to  bless  them  and  give  them  such  an 
offspring  wherein  the  name  of  Haugh  and  Winthrop  might 
flourish." 

NOTE   B. 

It  is  the  aim  of  this  note  to  show  that  neither  the  Puritans 
of  New  England  nor  their  descendants  are  responsible  for  the 
gradual  extinction  of  the  New  England  Indians.  This  purpose 
in  a  New  England  man,  full  of  respect  for  his  ancestors,  is  to 
be  carried  out  by  exposing  a  curious  world-wide  fact  in  the 
ethnology  of  the  race.  This  exposition  may  be  made  by  a  quo- 
tation from  Charles  Darwin's  "Voyage  of  the  Beagle"  (London 
Ed.,  pp.  410-41 1)  :  "Wherever  the  European  has  trod,  death 
seems  to  pursue  the  aboriginal.  We  may  look  to  the  wide  ex- 
tent of  the  Americas,  Polynesia,  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and 
Australia,  and  we  find  the  same  result.    Nor  is  it  the  white  man 

311 


3  1 2  APPENDIX. 

alone  that  thus  acts  the  destroyer ;  the  Polynesian  of  Malay 
extraction  has,  in  parts  of  the  East  Indian  Archipelago,  thus 
driven  before  him  the  dark-colored  native. 

"...  The  Rev.  J.  WilHams,  in  his  interesting  work  ("Nar- 
rative of  Missionary  Enterprise,''  p.  282),  says  that  the  first  in- 
tercourse between  natives  and  Europeans  '  is  invariably  attended 
with  the  introduction  of  fever,  dysentery,  or  some  other  disease 
which  carries  off  numbers  of  the  people.  It  is  certainly  a  fact 
which  cannot  be  controverted  that  most  of  the  diseases  which 
raged  in  the  islands  during  my  residence  there  have  been  intro- 
duced by  ships  ; '  and  what  renders  this  fact  remarkable  is,  there 
might  be  no  appearance  of  disease  among  the  crew  of  the  ship 
which  conveyed  this  destructive  importation." 

It  is  the  belief  in  all  heathen  lands  visited  by  the  whites  that 
the  ships  bring  wuth  them  dangerous  outbreaks  of  diseases,  even 
though  there  should  be  no  sickness  on  sliipboard.  Darwin  says  : 
"It  is  impossible  that  such  a  belief  should  have  become  uni- 
versal in  the  northern  hemisphere,  at  the  Antipodes  and  in  the 
Pacific,  without  some  good  foundation."  And  he  adds,  "  Hum- 
boldt says  that  the  great  epidemics  at  Panama  and  Callao  are 
*  marked  '  by  the  arrival  of  ships  from  Chile,  because  the  people 
from  that  temperate  region  first  experience  the  fatal  effects  of 
the  torrid  zones.""  It  seems  further  to  appear  that  on  all  such 
occasions,  all  diseases,  both  native  and  foreign,  assume  a  more 
virulent  and  dangerous  intensity  than  usual.  So  far  forth  it  is 
submitted  to  the  candid  reader  that  the  decay  of  our  New  Eng- 
land Indians  was  due  to  this  well-nigh  universal  law  which  Dar- 
win points  out.  And  since  Roche's  discovery  of  microbes,  and 
their  exploration  by  other  scientists,  it  must  be  an  interesting 
inquiry  how  far  and  how  the  importation  of  civilized  microbes 
into  heathen  lands  throws  new  light  upon  the  facts  of  diseases 
which  Darwin  has  noted,  and  on  which  he  bases  a  far-reaching 
conclusion. 

NOTE  C. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  note  to  identify  the  spot  where  this 
meeting-house  was  built  by  Sewall.  First  of  all,  it  is  plain  that 
it  was  somewhere  in  Sandwich.     But  exactly  where?     Since  the 


APPENDIX.  3  1 3 

eye-witnesses  are  gone,  the  weight  of  the  evidence  must  be  in- 
cidental and  cumulative.  The  ancient  town  of  Sandwich,  until 
lately  divided,  was  about  ten  miles  square,  not  including  Mash- 
pee  Plantation,  which  at  a  very  early  date  ceased  to  belong  to 
the  town.  Most  of  the  territory  of  the  town,  then  and  now,  con- 
sists of  a  central  wood  ridge  or  plateau,  where  at  no  time  since 
1620  were  there  any  Indian  villages,  because  the  Indians'  food, 
gained  largely  from  the  sea,  was  to  be  found  along  the  sea-shores 
of  Massachusetts  and  Buzzard's  Bays.  And  there  we  find  they 
actually  were.  Beginning,  then,  east,  near  the  Barnstable  line, 
we  find  that  there  were  a  few  Indians  at  Scorton,  but  not  enough 
to  form  a  congregation.  And  if  there  had  been,  from  their  lo- 
cality these  Indians  would  have  been  more  likely  to  have  been 
taken  in  hand  by  the  West  Barnstable  parish  adjoining,  than  by 
the  more  distant  Sandwich  Christians.  There  is  no  tradition  of 
any  Indian  meeting-house  here.  Moving  west  along  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  some  five  miles  to  the  town  centre,  we  find  a 
Puritan  meeting-house  from  about  1640,  adequate  to  hold  both 
Indians  and  white  men,  and  no  tradition  of  any  other  place  of 
worship.  This  was  the  usual  parish  meeting-house  for  the  town  ; 
and,  within  the  memory  of  some  living,  taxes  were  paid  by  the 
whole  town  for  the  support  of  its  ministers.  Two  miles  west  of 
the  town  centre,  at  Scussett,  there  was  for  a  short  time,  and 
at  a  much  later  date,  a  small  meeting-house  created  by  some 
obscure  parish  wrangle,  which  was  for  the  white  malecontents 
—  not  Indians.  On  the  Buzzard's-Bay  shore,  though  Indians 
abounded,  there  is  no  tradition  nor  knowledge  of  any  Indian 
meeting-house,  except  some  eight  miles  south,  at  Cataumet, 
where  there  was  an  Indian  and  white  congregation  some  time 
before  1700  a.d.  But  midway  between  these  two  bays,  at  Her- 
ring River  village  (now  Bournedale),  on  a  sporadic  hill,  thrust 
out  onto  the  plateau  which  forms  the  watershed  between  the 
two  bays,  with  the  Herring  River  at  its  west  base,  flowing  from 
the  Plymouth  ponds,  south  and  west  into  Buzzard's  Bay,  is,  first 
of  all,  an  ancient  Indian  graveyard,  many  of  the  graves  still 
showing  their  form  in  rows,  which  shows  that  there  was  Chris- 
tian or  white  man's  burial ;  while  elsewhere  on  the  same  hill,  in 
all  quarters,  Indian  skeletons  have  been  dug  up,  buried  in  the 


314  APPENDIX. 

more  heathen  fashion.  In  other  words,  here  was  an  Indian 
burying-ground  before  the  coming  of  tlie  whites.  Midway  on 
the  south  front  of  this  round  hill,  half-way  up,  is  a  small  shelf  or 
tableland  of  a  few  rods  square  ;  and  here  the  tradition  of  both 
whites  and  blacks,  preserved  in  all  their  families,  declares  was 
once,  and  at  a  very  early  date,  an  Indian  meeting-house.  This 
meeting-house  must  have  been  central  for  the  Indians  on  both 
bays  ;  and  not  two  miles  from  this  spot,  northward,  there  now 
stands  a  modern  meeting-house  for  the  remnant  of  the  Herring 
Pond  Indians  who  live  here,  —  the  undoubted  centre  of  the 
ancient  Indians  round  about,  and  whose  war-path,  still  visible 
in  spots,  must  have  run  near  the  base  of  this  hill. 

But  why,  of  necessity,  must  this  have  been  SewalPs  meeting- 
house ?  There  were  two  missionaries  to  the  upper  Cape  In- 
dians, —  Richard  Bourne  and  Captain  Thomas  Tupper,  both 
names  still  remaining  in  this  locality ;  two  English  gentlemen, 
early  settled  here,  who  began,  apparently  without  ordinary  ordi- 
nation, the  work  of  Christianizing  their  Indian  neighbors. 

It  has  long  seemed  to  the  writer  that  when  the  labors  of 
these  two  men,  especially  Richard  Bourne,  are  weighed  in  the 
scales  of  exact  and  comparative  history,  these  laborers,  whether 
we  regard  the  scope,  the  success,  or  the  personal  sacrifice,  of 
their  work,  will  be  found  entitled  to  a  niche  of  honor  beside 
John  Eliot  and  Daniel  Gookin.  But  Bourne's  work  was  spe- 
cially at  Mashpee,  where  he  was  ordained  pastor  in  1670,  and 
where  he  tells  us  in  1674  he  had  about  five  hundred  parishioners, 
with  four  Indian  assistants  statedly  employed.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  recorded  that  "  Mr.  Tupper's  attention  was  toward 
the  northward  and  westward  of  Sandwich,  where  he  founded  a 
church  near  Herring  River,  which  was  supplied  by  a  succession 
of  ministers  of  his  name,  the  last  pastor  being  his  grandson,  who 
died  in  1787.  His  congregation  was  one  hundred  and  eighty" 
(Hist.  Coll.,  iii.,  188,  189).  It  is  this  "  Mr."  or  Captain  Tupper 
who  appears  in  SewalPs  letters  as  evidently  in  charge  of  the 
meeting-house,  and  is  so  addressed  by  the  judge. 

But  the  report  of  the  commissioners  employed  by  the  Society 
for  Propagating  the  Gospel  among  the  Indians  in  1698,  based  on 
an  inspection  made  by  Rev.  Grindal  Rawson  of  Mendon  and 


APPENDIX.  315 

Rev.  Samuel  Danforth  of  Taunton,  men  of  high  character,  and 
versed  in  the  language  of  the  Indians,  furnishes  cumulate  testi- 
mony. Their  record  of  Sandwich  is  this  :  "  Here  we  find  two 
assemblies  of  Indians,  Herring  River  and  Cataumet,  to  one 
whereof  Capt.  Thomas  Tupper,  an  Englishman,  preaches  every 
Sabbath  Day.  Here  are  likewise  Indian  preachers,  whose  abili- 
ties in  prayer  were  tried  ;  viz.,  Ralph  Jones,  a  person  well  reputed 
of  for  sobriety  [were  the  Indian  converts  usually  otherwise  ?], 
and  Jacob  Hedge.  There  are  in  number  348  persons,  men, 
women,  and  children,  generally  well  clothed.  Preaching  among 
these,  i7i  a  small  meetitig-hoiise  built  for  them  after  the  Etiglish 
fashion,  we  experienced  their  good  attention  and  had  their  thank- 
ful acknowledgments." 

What  this  "English  fashion"  was  may  be  known  from  the 
directions  given  by  Sewall  for  the  building,  as  recorded  in  his 
Diary.  Nor  was  there  at  the  time  of  building  any  other  meeting- 
house in  Barnstable  County  for  whites  or  Indians  built  in  that 
fashion. 

The  spring  at  the  foot  of  this  hill  is  still  called  "  Meeting- 
House  spring"  by  its  neighbors.  The  writer  was  told  by  an 
ancient  red  woman  of  this  village  that  she  had  heard  from  her 
grandmother  of  a  relative  who  used  to  tell  of  having  walked 
from  Manomet  village  with  a  shawl  over  her  head  in  Indian 
fashion,  and  actually  attended  service  in  the  meeting-house  on 
this  hill.  What  seemed  to  be  the  west  line  of  Sewall's  meeting- 
house on  the  plateau,  when  measured  in  the  grass  by  the  writer 
some  years  ago,  was  found  to  agree  in  length  with  that  given  by 
Sewall  in  his  Diary. 

A  careful  weighing  of  the  whole  testimony  therefore  leads  to 
the  reasonable  conclusion  that  the  site  of  SewalPs  meeting- 
house for  the  Indians  is  at  Herring  River  (Bournedale),  on  the 
hillside  among  the  graves,  as  heretofore  in  this  note  described. 

NOTE   D. 

The  fortunes  of  the  three  regicides,  Walley,  Goffe,  and  Dix- 
well,  in  New  England,  where  they  hid  themselves,  with  a  high 
price  set  on  their  heads,  throw  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  temper 


3l6  APPENDIX. 

of  our  colonial  politics.  It  was  the  temper  of  men  who  abhorred 
the  Restoration  in  church  and  state,  and  clung  to  the  memories 
of  the  Commonwealth  and  Cromwell's  mastery.  Here  w'ere  three 
well-known  men  doomed  and  searched  for  by  a  powerful  govern- 
ment in  one  of  its  own  little  provinces  professing  obedience  to 
English  laws.  These  men  had  been  repeatedly  seen  and  recog- 
nized here,  kept  up  a  long  correspondence  with  their  friends 
and  families  in  England,  and  had  been  searched  for  by  the 
king's  officers  among  thinly  peopled  and  not  widely  scattered 
communities,  where  every  man  was  inquisitive  and  knew  all 
his  neighbors  ;  and  yet  these  men  managed  to  live  for  years 
unreached  by  the  king,  and  to  die  quietly  in  their  beds. 

It  is  simply  impossible  that  their  whereabouts  were  unknown 
to  the  leading  Puritans  of  the  two  colonies  of  Connecticut  and 
Massachusetts  Bay.  They  were  concealed  in  the  houses  of 
Puritan  ministers  ;  and  these  ministers  had  their  professional 
and  family  connections  from  Hadley  and  New  Haven,  as  far 
east  as  Barnstable. 

The  clergy  especially  were  their  friends  and  protectors  —  In- 
crease and  Cotton  Mather  among  the  foremost.  SewalPs  Diary 
has  indeed  no  mention  of  them  ;  as  condemned  and  outlawed  by 
the  Crown  they  were  dangerous  men  to  meddle  with,  even  in  a 
private  diary.  Yet  it  is  incredible  that  Sewall,  moving  in  the 
social  circles  he  did,  should  not  have  been  in  their  secret.  The 
treatment  of  these  three  men  by  our  forefathers  furnishes  an  in- 
direct and  therefore  powerful  evidence  of  their  latent  but  chronic 
animosity  against  the  British  Crown. 

In  some  ways  the  story  of  these  three  regicides  is  unique,  in 
its  pathos  and  tragedy,  in  our  American  annals.  Walley  was 
Cromwell's  cousin,  a  major-general,  and  had  turned  the  tide  in 
Naseby  battle  ;  had  been  in  military  charge  of  Charles  I.  and  a 
force  in  England.  Goffe  was  his  son  by  marriage  of  his  daugh- 
ter. Hunted,  concealed  in  the  wild,  shut  off  from  family  and 
the  stir  of  civilized  life,  living  with  folded  arms,  as  it  were,  while 
a  new  England  had  risen  upon  the  wreck  of  their  own  endeavor, 
and  liberated  only  by  that  death  which  seemed  so  slow  in  com- 
ing, their  fate  was  to  endure  long  and  in  solitude  a  mental  hard- 
ship seldom  falling  into  our  human  lot. 


APPENDIX.  3  1 7 

A  letter  of  Goffe's  wife  from  England,  addressed  to  him  in  his 

concealment,  will  at  least  hint  at  the  pathos  of  the  situation. 

There  is  no  real  address  ;  the  letter  was  probably  enclosed  in 

one  to  a  New  England  sympathizer,  and  the  wife  addresses  him 

as  her  son  :  — 

[letter.] 

13"'  October,  1671. 

For  My  Dear  Friend  Walter  Goldsmilh  These : 
Dear  Child, — 

I  have  been  abundantly  refreshed  by  thy  choice  letter  of  the 
iQth  of  August  as  also  by  the  book  you  took  the  pains  to  write 
for  me.  .  .  .  We  are  all  in  health  and  do  experience  much  of 
the  love  and  care  of  our  good  God,  in  supporting  and  providing 
for  us  in  such  a  day  of  trial  as  this  is.  .  .  .  The  Lord  make  us 
truly  thankful  and  give  us  hearts  to  be  willing  to  be  without 
what  he  will  not  have  us  to  enjoy,  though  never  so  much  desired 
by  us,  we  are  to  be  at  the  disposal  of  our  Heavenly  Father,  and 
though  he  exercise  us  here  with  hard  things.  Heaven  wdll  make 
amends  for  all,  it  will  not  be  long  before  we  shall  see  him  as  he 
is  and  be  made  like  unto  him  who  suffered  for  us  that  through 
his  righteousness  we  may  be  made  righteous.  I  know  not 
whether  this  may  come  to  you  safe  and  therefore  shall  be  the 
briefer,  but  I  am  willing  to  take  all  opportunities  to  let  you 
know  how  it  is  with  us,  and  how  dear  you  are  to  me  and  your 
three  sisters  [his  daughters],  longing  greatly  to  see  you,  if  the 
Lord  see  it  good  for  us,  he  will  bring  it  to  pass  in  his  own  time. 
The  Lord  help  us  to  submit  to  his  will  and  to  keep  our  hearts 
close  to  himself.  ...  O  that  all  that  fear  the  Lord  would  cry 
mightily  to  God  for  poor  Ingland  for  the  sins  of  his  own  people 
are  great  and  my  sins  in  particular,  but  I  trust  the  Lord  will 
pacify  himself  upon  his  dear  Son.  I  bless  the  Lord  your  sisters 
[his  daughters]  are  not  taken  with  the  vanities  of  the  times. 

I  beg  your  prayers  and  promise  mine  and  with  my  endeared 
love  to  thyself  and  duty  and  service  to  all  friends,  committing 
you  and  them  to  the  safe  protection  of  the  Almighty  I  take  my 
leave  and  till  death  remain 

Your  dear  and  loving  Mother 

to  my  poor  Fra  Goldsmith. 


3l8  APPENDIX. 

NOTE   E. 

It  may  throw  a  side  light  upon  the  Sewall  stock  in  Eng- 
land to  copy  an  inscription  from  an  old  brass  in  S'.  Michael's 
Church,  Coventry.  On  the  top  of  the  brass  is  engraved  the 
figure  of  a  female  kneeling. 

Her  jealous  Care,    To  serve  her  God 
Her  Constant  Love  to  Husband  Deare, 
Her  harmless  heart    To  everie  07te 
Doth  live  although  her  Corps  lie  here. 
God  Grante  us  all  while  Glass  doth  run 
To  live  in  Christ  as  she  hath  done. 

ANN    SEWELL 

Y^    WIFE    OF    WiLLM    SeW^'-^   OF   THIS    CiTY, 

Vintner, 

DEPARTED    THIS    LIFE   2oT^    DeCEm'^    1609 
OF   THE    AGE    OF   46   YEARS; 

AN  Humble  follower  of  her  Savior  Christ  an  a  worthy 
Stirror  up  of  others  to  all  holy  vertues. 


NOTE    F. 

The  following  summary  of  the  main  events  in  SewalPs  life 

is  taken  bodily  from  the  published  address  of  Dr.  George  E. 

Ellis    on    Chief-Justice   Sewall   before   the   Old  South  Church, 
Boston,  1884:  — 

Samuel  Sewall,  born  at  Bishopstoke,  England,  March  28,  1652. 

Arrived  in  Boston  July  16,  1661. 

Graduated  at  Harvard  College,  1671. 

Resident  fellow  and  librarian. 

Married  by  Governor  Bradstreet  to  Hannah  Hull  Feb.  28,  1678. 

Joined  in  covenant  with  South  Church  March  30,  1677. 

Made  a  freeman  May,  1678. 

Undertook  the  management  of  the  printing-press,  Boston,  Oct.  12, 
1681.     Resigned  the  office  Sept.  12,  1684. 

Followed  mercantile  business  for  some  years. 

Chosen  deputy  or  representative  to  the  General  Court  from  West- 
field,  Hampden  County,  Nov.  7,  1683. 


Gravestone  of  Deane  Winthrop. 


APPENDIX.  319 

Commissioned  on  the  Council  June  11,  1686. 

Sailed  for  England  Nov.  22,  1688.  Landed  on  return  Nov.  29, 
1689. 

1692.     One  of  the  Royal  Council  of  the  Province. 

Appointed  by  Governor  Phipps,  June  13,  1692,  as  one  of  the 
seven  judges,  by  special  commission  of  oyer  and  terminer,  for 
trial  of  cases  of  witchcraft. 

From  1697  to  1703,  selectman,  moderator,  overseer  of  the  poor. 

July  25,  1699.  Commissioned  by  Governor  Lord  Bellomont  a 
judge  of  the  Superior  Court. 

Oct.  14,  1699.  INIade  a  commissioner  of  the  Society  for  Propagat- 
ing the  Gospel  among  the  Indians. 

June  24,  1700.  Published  the  first  anti-slavery  tract,  '*The  Sell- 
ing of  Joseph." 

June  2,  1 701.  Elected  captain  of  the  Ancient  and  Honorable 
Artillery  Company. 

Sept.  16,  1 713.  Attends  the  ordination  of  his  son  Joseph,  as 
colleague  pastor  of  the  South  Church. 

June  19,  1 71 7.  Appointed  by  Governor  Shute,  judge  of  probate 
of  Suffolk. 

Oct.  19,  1 71 7.     His  wife  Hannah  (Hull)  Bewail,  dies. 

Feb.  II,  1 718.     Appointed  by  the  governor,  chief-justice. 

Oct.  29,  1 719.      Married  the  Widow  Tilly. 

May  26,  1720.     She  dies  suddenly. 

March  29,  1722.      Married  the  Widow  Gibbs. 

June  4,  1725.  Declined  re-election  to  the  Council  after  thirty- 
three  years'  service. 

July  29,  1728.  Resigns  the  offices  of  chief-justice  and  judge  of 
probate. 

Jan.  I,  1730.  Dies  in  his  seventy-eighth  year,  and  buried  in  the 
Hull  tomb  in  the  Granary  Burial  Ground. 

NOTE    G., 

"  March  16,  1703.  Mr.  Dean  Winthrop  of  Pulling  Point 
dies  upon  his  birthday,  just  about  the  breaking  of  it.  He  was 
taken  at  eight  o'clock  the  evening  before.  Hardly  spake  any- 
thing after  his  being  in  bed.  81  years  old.  March  20  is 
buried  at  Pulling  Point  by  his  son  and  three  daughters. 
Scutcheons  on  the  pall.  I  helped  to  lower  the  Corpse  into 
the  grave.'' 


Date  Due                             1 

NOV  3  0  's: 

r 

- 

NOV    5  72 

0H^/t5  72 

M.  a?  m 

I  ^'C  .., 

Library  Bureau  Cat.   No.   1137 

m.^E 


LAPP 


3  5002  00086  2420 

Chamberlain,  Nathan  Henry 

Samuel  Sewall  and  the  world  he  lived  in;