Part 28

[15] _Page 36, note 1._ Nashawtuck, a small and shapely hill between the Musketaquid and the Assabet streams, at their point of union, was a pleasant and convenient headquarters for a sagamore of a race whose best roadway for travel and transportation was a deep, quiet stream, the fish of which they ate, and also used for manure for their cornfields along the bluffs. Indian graves have been found on this hill.

[16] _Page 36, note 2._ Josselyn’s _Voyages to New England_, 1638.

[17] _Page 36, note 3._ Hutchinson’s _History of Massachusetts_, vol. i., chap. 6.

[18] _Page 36, note 4._ Thomas Morton, _New England Canaan_, p. 47.

[19] _Page 37, note 1._ Shattuck, p. 6.

The old Middlesex Hotel, which stood during the greater part of the nineteenth century on the southwest side of the Common, opposite the court- and town-houses, had fallen into decay in 1900, and was bought and taken down by the town as an improvement to the public square to commemorate the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of Concord Fight. It is probable that Jethro’s Oak, under which the treaty was made, stood a little nearer the house of Rev. Peter Bulkeley, the site of which, about one hundred paces distant on the Lowell road, is now marked by a stone and bronze tablet.

[20] _Page 38, note 1._ Depositions taken in 1684, and copied in the first volume of the Town Records.

[21] _Page 39, note 1._ Johnson’s _Wonder-Working Providence_.

[22] _Page 39, note 2._ _New England’s Plantation._

[23] _Page 39, note 3._ E. W.’s Letter in Mourt, 1621.

[24] _Page 40, note 1._ Peter Bulkeley’s _Gospel Covenant_; preached at Concord in New England. 2d edition, London, 1651, p. 432.

[25] _Page 41, note 1._ See petition in Shattuck’s _History_, p. 14.

[26] _Page 41, note 2._ Shattuck, p. 14. This was the meadow and upland on the Lowell road, one mile north of Concord, just beyond the river. On the farm stands the unpainted “lean-to” house, now owned by the daughters of the late Edmund Hosmer.

[27] _Page 42, note 1._ Concord Town Records.

[28] _Page 43, note 1._ Bancroft, _History of the United States_, vol. i., p. 389.

[29] _Page 44, note 1._ Savage’s _Winthrop_, vol. i., p. 114.

[30] _Page 44, note 2._ Colony Records, vol. i.

[31] _Page 44, note 3._ See Hutchinson’s _Collection_, p. 287.

[32] _Page 46, note 1._ Winthrop’s _Journal_, vol. i., pp. 128, 129, and the editor’s note.

[33] _Page 46, note 2._ Winthrop’s _Journal_, vol. ii., p. 160.

[34] _Page 48, note 1._ Town Records.

With the exception of the anecdotes in this and the following sentence, almost the whole of this account of the theory and practice of the New England town-meeting was used by Mr. Emerson in his oration, given in December, 1870, before the New England Society in New York. The greater part of the matter used in that address is included in the lecture on Boston, in the volume _Natural History of Intellect_.

The New England Society of New York recently published the Orations delivered before it previous to 1871, including Mr. Emerson’s, as far as it could be recovered from the scattered manuscript, and the newspaper reports of the time.

[35] _Page 50, note 1._ Hutchinson’s _Collection_, p. 27.

[36] _Page 51, note 1._ Shattuck, p. 20. “The Government, 13 Nov., 1644, ordered the county courts to take care of the Indians residing within their several shires, to have them civilized, and to take order, from time to time, to have them instructed in the knowledge of God.”

[37] _Page 52, note 1._ Shepard’s _Clear Sunshine of the Gospel_, London, 1648.

[38] _Page 52, note 2._ These rules are given in Shattuck’s _History_, pp. 22-24, and were called “Conclusions and orders made and agreed upon by divers Sachems and other principal men amongst the Indians at Concord in the end of the eleventh Month (called January) An. 1646.”

The following are interesting specimens of these:—

Rule 2. “That there shall be no more Powwawing amongst the Indians. And if any shall hereafter powwaw, both he that shall powwaw, and he that shall procure him to powwaw, shall pay twenty shillings apiece.”

Rule 4. “They desire they may understand the wiles of Satan, and grow out of love with his suggestions and temtations.”

Rule 5. “That they may fall upon some better course to improve their time than formerly.”

Rule 15. “They will wear their haire comely, as the English do, and whosoever shall offend herein shall pay four shillings.”

Rule 23. “They shall not disguise themselves in their mournings as formerly, nor shall they keep a great noyse by howling.”

Rule 24. “The old ceremony of a maide walking alone and living apart so many days, [fine] twenty shillings.”

[39] _Page 53, note 1._ Shepard, p. 9.

[40] _Page 54, note 1._ Wilson’s _Letter_, 1651.

[41] _Page 54, note 2._ _News from America_, p. 22.

[42] _Page 54, note 3._ Winthrop, vol. ii., p. 2.

[43] _Page 55, note 1._ Hutchinson, vol. i., p. 90.

[44] _Page 55, note 2._ Hutchinson, vol. i., p. 112.

[45] _Page 55, note 3._ Winthrop, vol. ii., p. 21.

[46] _Page 55, note 4._ Hutchinson, vol. i., p. 94.

[47] _Page 55, note 5._ Bulkeley’s _Gospel Covenant_, p. 209.

[48] _Page 55, note 6._ Winthrop, vol. ii., p. 94.

[49] _Page 56, note 1._ _Gospel Covenant_, p. 301.

[50] _Page 57, note 1._ Shattuck, p. 45.

[51] _Page 57, note 2._ Hutchinson, vol. i., p. 172.

[52] _Page 57, note 3._ See his instructions from the Commissioners, his narrative, and the Commissioners’ letter to him, in Hutchinson’s _Collection_, pp. 261-270.

[53] _Page 58, note 1._ Hutchinson’s _History_, vol. i., p. 254.

[54] _Page 58, note 2._ Hubbard’s _Indian Wars_, p. 119, ed. 1801.

Mr. Charles H. Walcott, in his _Concord in the Colonial Period_ (Estes & Lauriat, Boston, 1884), gives a very interesting account of the Brookfield fight.

[55] _Page 58, note 3._ Hubbard, p. 201.

[56] _Page 59, note 1._ Hubbard, p. 185.

[57] _Page 59, note 2._ Hubbard, p. 245.

[58] _Page 60, note 1._ Shattuck, p. 55.

[59] _Page 60, note 2._ Hubbard, p. 260.

[60] _Page 61, note 1._ Neal’s _History of New England_, vol. i., p. 321.

[61] _Page 61, note 2._ Mather, _Magnalia Christi_, vol. i., p. 363.

[62] _Page 61, note 3._ “Tradition has handed down the following anecdote. A consultation among the Indian chiefs took place about this time on the high lands in Stow, and, as they cast their eyes towards Sudbury and Concord, a question arose which they should attack first. The decision was made to attack the former. One of the principal chiefs said: ‘We no prosper if we go to Concord—the Great Spirit love that people—the evil spirit tell us not to go—they have a great man there—he _great pray_.’ The Rev. Edward Bulkeley was then minister of the town, and his name and distinguished character were known even to the red men of the forest.”—Shattuck’s _History_, p. 59, note.

[63] _Page 61, note 4._ On this occasion the name of Hoar, since honored in Concord through several generations, came to the front. John Hoar, the first practitioner of law in Concord, an outspoken man of sturdy independence, who, for uttering complaints that justice was denied him in the courts, had been made to give bonds for good behavior and “disabled to plead any cases but his oune in this jurisdiction,” who had been fined £10 for saying that “the Blessing which his Master Bulkeley pronounced in dismissing the publique Assembly was no more than vane babling,” and was twice fined for non-attendance at public worship, proved to be the only man in town who was willing to take charge of the Praying Indians of Nashobah, whom the General Court ordered moved to Concord during Philip’s War. The magistrates who had persecuted him had to turn to him, and he made good provision on his own place for the comfort and safe-keeping of these unfortunates, and their employment, when public opinion was directed against them with the cruelty of fear. Soon, however, Captain Mosley, who had been secretly sent for by some citizens, came with soldiers into the meeting-house, announced to the congregation that he had heard that “there were some heathen in town committed to one Hoar, who, he was informed, were a trouble and disquiet to them;” therefore, if the people desired it, he would remove them to Boston. No one made objection, so he went to Mr. Hoar’s house, counted the Indians and set a guard, Hoar vigorously protesting. He came next day; Hoar bravely refused to give them up, so Mosley removed them by violence and carried the Indians to Deer Island, where they suffered much during the winter. See Walcott’s _Concord in the Colonial Period_.

[64] _Page 62, note 1._ Sprague’s _Centennial Ode_.

[65] _Page 62, note 2._ Shattuck, chap. iii. Walcott, chap. iii.

[66] _Page 63, note 1._ Hutchinson’s _Collection_, p. 484.

[67] _Page 63, note 2._ Hutchinson’s _Collection_, pp. 543, 548, 557, 566.

[68] _Page 63, note 3._ Hutchinson’s _History_, vol. i., p. 336.

The month of April has been fateful for Concord, especially its nineteenth day. On that day the military company under Lieutenant Heald marched to Boston to take part in the uprising of the freemen of the colony against Andros. On that same day, in 1775, the minute-men and militia of Concord, promptly reinforced by the soldiers of her daughter and sister towns, marched down to the guarded North Bridge and returned the fire of the Royal troops in the opening battle of the Revolution. Again on the nineteenth of April, 1861, the “Concord Artillery” (so-called, although then a company of the Fifth Infantry, M. V. M.) left the village for the front in the War of the Rebellion; and yet again in the last days of April, 1898, the same company, then, as now, attached to the Sixth Regiment, M. V. M., marched from the village green to bear its

## part in the Spanish War.

[69] _Page 64, note 1._ Town Records.

[70] _Page 64, note 2._ The following minutes from the Town Records in 1692 may serve as an example:—

“John Craggin, aged about 63 years, and Sarah his wife, aet. about 63 years, do both testify upon oath that about 2 years ago John Shepard, sen. of Concord, came to our house in Obourne, to treat with us, and give us a visit, and carried the said Sary Craggin to Concord with him, and there discoursed us in order to a marriage between his son, John Shepard, jun. and our daughter, Eliz. Craggin, and, for our incouragement, and before us, did promise that, upon the consummation of the said marriage, he, the said John Shepard, sen. would give to his son, John Shepard, jun. the one half of his dwelling house, and the old barn, and the pasture before the barn; the old plow-land, and the old horse, when his colt was fit to ride, and his old oxen, when his steers were fit to work. All this he promised upon marriage as above said, which marriage was consummated upon March following, which is two years ago, come next March. Dated Feb. 25, 1692. Taken on oath before me. Wm. Johnson.”

[71] _Page 64, note 3._ Town Records, July, 1698.

[72] _Page 64, note 4._ Records, Nov. 1711.

[73] _Page 65, note 1._ Records, May, 1712.

[74] _Page 66, note 1._ Records, 1735.

[75] _Page 66, note 2._ Whitfield in his journal wrote: “About noon I reached Concord. Here I preached to some thousands in the open air; and comfortable preaching it was. The hearers were sweetly melted down.... The minister of the town being, I believe, a true child of God, I chose to stay all night at his house that we might rejoice together. The Lord was with us. The Spirit of the Lord came upon me and God gave me to wrestle with him for my friends, especially those then with me.... Brother B—s, the minister, broke into floods of tears, and we had reason to cry out it was good for us to be here.”

[76] _Page 67, note 1._ Church Records, July, 1792.

[77] _Page 67, note 2._ The Rev. Daniel Bliss has left the name of having been an earnest, good man, evidently emotional. His zealous and impassioned preaching gave offence to some of the cooler and more conservative clergy, and indeed bred discord in the church of Concord. The “aggrieved brethren” withdrew, and, for want of a church, held public worship at a tavern where was the sign of a black horse, hence were called “the Black Horse Church.” Their complaints preferred against Mr. Bliss resulted in councils which drew in most of the churches of Middlesex into their widening vortex. Yet he remained the honored pastor of the town until his death. His daughter Phebe married the young William Emerson, his successor; he was therefore Mr. Emerson’s great-grandfather.

[78] _Page 67, note 3._ Town Records.

[79] _Page 70, note 1._ Town Records.

[80] _Page 71, note 1._ Town Records.

[81] _Page 71, note 2._ The spirited protest of this County Convention, presided over by Hon. James Prescott of Groton, is given in full in Shattuck’s _History_, pp. 82-87.

[82] _Page 72, note 1._ General Gage, the Governor, having refused to convene the General Court at Salem, the Provincial Congress of delegates from the towns of Massachusetts was called by conventions of the various counties to meet at Concord, October 11, 1774. The delegates assembled in the meeting-house, and organized, with John Hancock as President, and Benjamin Lincoln as Secretary. Called together to maintain the rights of the people, this Congress assumed the government of the province, and by its measures prepared the way for the Revolution.

[83] _Page 72, note 2._ This eloquent sermon to the volunteers of 1775, still preserved in MS., is very interesting. The young minister shows them the dignity of their calling, warns them of the besetting sins of New England soldiery, explains to them the invasion of their rights and that they are not rebels, tells them that he believes their fathers foresaw the evil day and did all in their power to guard the infant state from encroachments of unconstitutional power, and implores the sons to be true to their duty to their posterity. He fully admits the utter gloom of the prospect, humanly considered: would Heaven hold him innocent, he would counsel submission, but as an honest man and servant of Heaven he dare not do so, and with great spirit bids his injured countrymen “Arise! and plead even with the sword, the firelock and the bayonet, the birthright of Englishmen ... and if God does not help, it will be because your sins testify against you, otherwise _you may be assured_.”

[84] _Page 74, note 1._ Journal, July, 1835. “It is affecting to see the old man’s [Thaddeus Blood] memory taxed for facts occurring 60 years ago at Concord fight. ‘It is hard to bring them up;’ he says, ‘the truth never will be known.’ The Doctor [Ripley], like a keen hunter, unrelenting, follows him up and down, barricading him with questions. Yet cares little for the facts the man can tell, but much for the confirmation of the printed History. ‘Leave me, leave me to repose.’”

Thaddeus Blood, who was only twenty years old at the time of Concord fight, later became a schoolmaster, hence was always known as “Master Blood.” He was one of the Concord company stationed at Hull, in 1776, which took part in the capture of Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell and his battalion of the 71st (Frazer) Highlanders as they sailed into Boston Harbor, not being aware of the evacuation of the town. They were confined at Concord until their exchange. See _Sir Archibald Campbell of Inverneill, sometime Prisoner of War in the Jail at Concord, Massachusetts_. By Charles H. Walcott, Boston, 1898.

[85] _Page 74, note 2._ In his poem in memory of his brother Edward, written by the riverside near the battle-ground, Mr. Emerson alluded to

Yon stern headstone, Which more of pride than pity gave To mark the Briton’s friendless grave. Yet it is a stately tomb; The grand return Of eve and morn, The year’s fresh bloom, The silver cloud, Might grace the dust that is most proud.

[86] _Page 76, note 1._ Captain Miles commanded the Concord company that joined the Northern Army at Ticonderoga in August, 1776, as part of Colonel Reed’s regiment.

[87] _Page 77, note 1._ Judge John S. Keyes, who clearly remembers the incidents of this celebration, seen from a boy’s coign of vantage, the top of one of the inner doors of the church, tells me that the ten aged survivors of the battle, who sat in front of the pulpit, bowed in recognition of this compliment by the orator, and then the audience all bowed to them. The sanctity of the church forbade in those days cheering or applause even at a civic festival.

[88] _Page 77, note 2._ The following was Mr. Emerson’s note concerning his authorities:—

“The importance which the skirmish at Concord Bridge derived from subsequent events, has, of late years, attracted much notice to the incidents of the day. There are, as might be expected, some discrepancies in the different narratives of the fight. In the brief summary in the text, I have relied mainly on the depositions taken by order of the Provincial Congress within a few days after the action, and on the other contemporary evidence. I have consulted the English narrative in the Massachusetts Historical Collections, and in the trial of Horne (_Cases adjudged in King’s Bench_; London, 1800, vol. ii., p. 677); the inscription made by order of the legislature of Massachusetts on the two field-pieces presented to the Concord Artillery; Mr. Phinney’s _History of the Battle at Lexington_; Dr. Ripley’s _History of Concord Fight_; Mr. Shattuck’s narrative in his _History_, besides some oral and some manuscript evidence of eye-witnesses. The following narrative, written by Rev. William Emerson, a spectator of the action, has never been published. A part of it has been in my possession for years: a part of it I discovered, only a few days since, in a trunk of family papers:—

“‘1775, 19 April. This morning, between 1 and 2 o’clock, we were alarmed by the ringing of the bell, and upon examination found that the troops, to the number of 800, had stole their march from Boston, in boats and barges, from the bottom of the Common over to a point in Cambridge, near to Inman’s Farm, and were at Lexington Meeting-house, half an hour before sunrise, where they had fired upon a body of our men, and (as we afterward heard) had killed several. This intelligence was brought us at first by Dr. Samuel Prescott, who narrowly escaped the guard that were sent before on horses, purposely to prevent all posts and messengers from giving us timely information. He, by the help of a very fleet horse, crossing several walls and fences, arrived at Concord at the time above mentioned; when several posts were immediately despatched, that returning confirmed the account of the regulars’ arrival at Lexington, and that they were on their way to Concord. Upon this, a number of our minute-men belonging to this town, and Acton, and Lyncoln, with several others that were in readiness, marched out to meet them; while the alarm company were preparing to receive them in the town. Captain Minot, who commanded them, thought it proper to take possession of the hill above the meeting-house, as the most advantageous situation. No sooner had our men gained it, than we were met by the companies that were sent out to meet the troops, who informed us, that they were just upon us, and that we must retreat, as their number was more than treble ours. We then retreated from the hill near the Liberty Pole, and took a new post back of the town upon an eminence, where we formed into two battalions, and waited the arrival of the enemy. Scarcely had we formed, before we saw the British troops at the distance of a quarter of a mile, glittering in arms, advancing towards us with the greatest celerity. Some were for making a stand, notwithstanding the superiority of their number; but others more prudent thought best to retreat till our strength should be equal to the enemy’s by recruits from neighboring towns that were continually coming in to our assistance. Accordingly we retreated over the bridge, when the troops came into the town, set fire to several carriages for the artillery, destroyed 60 bbls. flour, rifled several houses, took possession of the town-house, destroyed 500 lb. of balls, set a guard of 100 men at the North Bridge, and sent up a party to the house of Colonel Barrett, where they were in expectation of finding a quantity of warlike stores. But these were happily secured, just before their arrival, by transportation into the woods and other by-places. In the mean time, the guard set by the enemy to secure the pass at the North Bridge were alarmed by the approach of our people, who had retreated, as mentioned before, and were now advancing with special orders not to fire upon the troops unless fired upon. These orders were so punctually observed that we received the fire of the enemy in three several and separate discharges of their pieces before it was returned by our commanding officer; the firing then soon became general for several minutes, in which skirmish two were killed on each side, and several of the enemy wounded. It may here be observed, by the way, that we were the more cautious to prevent beginning a rupture with the King’s troops, as we were then uncertain what had happened at Lexington, and knew [not][A] that they had began the quarrel there by first firing upon our people, and killing eight men upon the spot. The three companies of troops soon quitted their post at the bridge, and retreated in the greatest disorder and confusion to the main body, who were soon upon the march to meet them. For half an hour, the enemy, by their marches and counter-marches, discovered great fickleness and inconstancy of mind, sometimes advancing, sometimes returning to their former posts; till, at length they quitted the town, and retreated by the way they came. In the mean time, a party of our men (150) took the back way through the Great Fields into the east quarter, and had placed themselves to advantage, lying in ambush behind walls, fences and buildings, ready to fire upon the enemy on their retreat.’”

[89] _Page 78, note 1._ Fifty years after his death the town erected a cenotaph to the memory of its brave young minister, whose body lies by the shore of Otter Creek, near Rutland, Vermont. On it they wrote:—

“Enthusiastic, eloquent, affectionate and pious, he loved his family, his people, his God and his Country, and to this last he yielded the cheerful sacrifice of his life.”

[90] _Page 78, note 2._ Town Records, Dec. 1775.

[91] _Page 79, note 1._ These facts are recorded by Shattuck in his _History_.

[92] _Page 79, note 2._ Bradford’s _History of Massachusetts_, vol. ii., p. 113.

[93] _Page 79, note 3._ Shattuck.

[94] _Page 80, note 1._ Town Records, May 3, 1782.

[95] _Page 81, note 1._ Town Records, Sept. 9, and Bradford’s _History_, vol. i., p. 266.

[96] _Page 81, note 2._ The Rev. Grindall Reynolds, late pastor of the First Church in Concord, wrote an interesting account of Shays’s Rebellion, and various papers concerning his adopted town which are included in his _Historical and Other Papers_, published by his daughter in 1895.

[97] _Page 81, note 3._ Town Records, Oct. 21.