Samuel Sewall did not like Quakers. This was hardly an extraordinary position among Massachusetts Puritans, but Sewall was particularly strong in his disapproval, going out of his way to oppose Quakers even when his fellow Puritans were willing to give them a chance. In 1708, when a group of Quakers petitioned the Governor and Council for permission to build a meeting house in Boston, Sewall opposed the measure, saying that he, "would not have a hand in setting up their Devil Worship" (Sewall Diary 23 Aug. 1708).
Sewall's diary is full of references to Quakers — he clearly kept a keen eye out for them. Of particular interest to me are his references to Quaker burials.
In June of 1685, a small group of Quakers asked Governor Simon Bradstreet for permission to build a fence around the graves of the "Boston Martyrs" — Marmaduke Stephenson, William Robinson, Mary Dyer, and William Leddra — on Boston Common. These four Quakers had been executed in 1659 (Stephenson and Robinson), 1660 (Dyer), and 1661 (Leddra), for the crime of returning to Massachusetts to proselytize after being banished on a previous occasion. Their fellow Quakers wished to honor them and, no doubt, draw attention to their own continued presence in the colony. This was a particularly sore subject in 1685, as the colony's charter had been revoked the previous year, partially due to concerns about the lack of religious toleration in Massachusetts. When Governor Bradstreet brought this request before the Council, it was unanimously denied. Sewall, writing in his diary, noted that, "it is very inconvenient for persons so dead and buried in the place to have any Monument" (Sewall Diary 17 June 1685).
The Quakers were not big on obeying earthly authorities, so they went ahead and built the fence anyway.
In August, Sewall passed by the gravesite on his way to Dorchester and saw
a few Feet of Ground enclosed with Boards, which is done by the Quakers out of respect to som one or more hanged and buried by the Gallows: though the Governor forbad them, when they asked Leave.
Of course, today, there is a big statue of Mary Dyer next to the State House, but this commemoration was a dramatic gesture of defiance in 1685.
I'm sure that many people will comment on the anniversary of Lexington and Concord today. I will defer to them in that matter and use my space here to point to another event of April 19th: the Baltimore Riot of 1861.
On the 86th anniversary of Lexington and Concord, the 6th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry arrived in Baltimore, en route to Washington as the first fully equipped regiment to answer Abraham Lincoln's call for troops to put down the rebellion (see James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, pg. 285).*
Since there was no direct rail connection between Boston and Washington, trains that had to make the journey had to switch lines in Baltimore. Usually, the cars were drawn by horses along a special track through the streets, but pro-secession saboteurs pulled up the rails to impede the progress of Union troops, forcing several companies of the 6th Massachusetts to get out and march across the city.
As they marched, the soldiers were assaulted with bricks, clubs, and gunshots by an angry crowd that grew and pressed in against them. Several companies returned fire.
The regiment fought its way through the city, killing 12 civilians and losing 4 men killed and several others wounded in the process. You can read a detailed account from the perspective of the 6th MVI here and book-length treatment here. The soldiers killed in Baltimore are often considered to be the first Union casualties of the Civil War.
The fact that all of this happened on the anniversary of Lexington and Concord escaped no one. In the words of the 6th MVI's regimental historian,
If it had been in the power of the government, for dramatic and patriotic effect, to arrange the programme in the best possible manner, could any other day have been so propitious for treason to strike down its first victims, as the anniversary of the day on which was "Fired that shot — heard round the world" — at Lexington, April 19, 1775? And is it not remarkable, taht some of the descendants of the very men who then shed their blood in the beginning of the first great war for independence, should have been the first to fall in the last, and that, too, on the same immortal day? The nineteenth of April will, hereafter, unite Lexington and Baltimore on the page of American history; for each begun a long and bloody war, and Middlesex county was represented in both conflicts.
The "dramatic and patriotic effect" of the Baltimore Riots was felt throughout the North. Lithographs, broadsides, and songs recounting the incident were valuable recruiting tools. My favorite is "The New York Volunteer":
(video with music by Bobby Horton)
'Twas in the days of seventy-six When freemen young and old All fought for Independence then Each hero brave and bold! 'Twas then the noble Stars and Stripes In triumph did appear And defended by brave patriots The Yankee Volunteers
'Tis my delight to march and fight Like a New York Volunteer!
Now, there's our City Regiments Just see what they have done: The first to offer to the State To go to Washington To protect the Federal Capital And the flag they love so dear! And they've done their duty nobly, Like New York Volunteers!
'Tis my delight to march and fight Like a New York Volunteer!
The Rebels out in Maryland They madly raved and swore, They'd let none of our Union troops Pass through Baltimore But the Massachusetts Regiment No traitors did they fear But fought their way to Washington Like Yankee Volunteers!
'Tis my delight to march and fight Like a New York Volunteer!
*A side note: If you would like to read a vehemently anti-Confederate account of the war's first days, look no further than the regimental history of the 6th MVI. Under the heading, "the First Blow Struck," you will find this succinct account:
The latent treason that had been ripening its poison for forty years in the southern portion of the Republic, on the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States proceeded to overt rebellion. It was confined to resolutions and words, until April 12, 1861, when it assaulted the flag of the country.
Forty-eight of the fifty-six Deerfield residents who were killed during the raid of 1704 are buried in a common grave behind the Deerfield Academy ice rink.
I've been so busy lately and this blog is suffering. I think that I'll try posting a gravestone of the day without much comment, just so that there is something new here every day.
Here's another stone from a Connecticut River Valley carver, though I'm not sure which one. The carver owes a lot to the Stebbins Family and William Holland for the crown and scroll motif, but this stone looks rougher than the others I've seen from the Stebbins workshop or Holland. Might it be an early stone by John Ely? I don't know the western Massachusetts carvers very well, but there is an extensive website dedicated to their work for anyone who is interested in the subject.
I was most interested in the lettering on this stone. Not only does the carver misspell "Joseph" (and Mary?) and employ idosyncratic capitalization, he uses commas as apostrophes in several instances. The words "died, " "April," "daughter," and "months" are rendered "di,d" "Apr,l" "daugh,r" and "mont,s." I've never seen anything quite like it. He also seems to place a tittle over his capital is, just like John Stevens I.
Some of the most distinctive gravestones in Western Massachusetts were created by Joseph Nash. Nash was active from the 1720s until the 1740s, carving stones for the dead of Northampton, Hadley, Hatfield, Springfield, and other communities in that section of the Connecticut River Valley.
The Old Burying Ground in Groton, MA is home to several beautiful Park workshop gravestones from the 1750s. Of these, the most impressive is the Jacob Lakin stone. Its unusual shape, intricate detail, and elevated position (on top of a tomb mound) make this stone an eye-catcher.
After my post on Bible names with trend potential, commenter Heather Rojo sent me on a quest to find colonial New Englanders named Vashti. Result: there are way more of them than I would have expected.
While poking around, I found the Cary family of Brockton, MA. What a fantastically eclectic group of names! Here is a sampling from their family entry in the Vital Records of Brockton, MA:
Today I introduce a new category to the colonial New England naming Olympics: most asymmetrically named couple. Our first nominees are from Groton, MA:
According to Samuel Abbott Green's history of Groton, Mr. Adams was called "Fib" by his neighbors. The Adams family had seven children: Susanna, Lucy, Jane, Lydia, Amos, James, and John.
Mephibosheth's parents, John and Mary Adams of Lexington, had a somewhat erratic naming style. Their children were
Mephibosheth (b. 1715)
John (b. 1717)
Michael or Micah (b. 1718)
Mary (b. 1721)
Abijah (b. 1722)
Prudence (b. 1727)
Samson (b. 1729)
George (b. 1733)
As far as I can tell, Mephibosheth was not named for any relatives — his grandfathers were named George and Gershom, his great-grandfathers were George, Thomas, Michael (itself an unusual name for a Puritan), and either John or William (records disagree). I haven't found many other Mephibosheths in Massachusetts, though there was a Mephibosheth Cain residing in the town of Canaan in 1797. Others:
Mephibosheth Bigsbie (or Bixby), b. 1690, Andover, MA
Mephibosheth Coddington, b. 1799, Taunton, MA
Mephibosheth Baily, b. 1778
As far as Biblical names go, Mephibosheth does not strike me as a particularly promising appellation. Beyond the spelling and nickname issues, there is the problem of the Bible's two Mephibosheths: one, a son of Saul hanged for his father's crimes in 2 Samuel 21, and the other a son of Saul's son Jonathan who is maimed during the escape from the Gibeonites who lynch his father and uncles and grows up to betray King David.
