Chapter I: Front Matter

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* * * * *

Child Life in Colonial Days

_Frontispiece_]

CHILD LIFE

IN COLONIAL DAYS

Written by ALICE MORSE EARLE

author of _Home Life in Colonial Days_

and other Domestic and Social

Histories of Olden Times

With many Illustrations

from Photographs

MDCCCXCIX

New York
The Macmillan Company
London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.
1915

All rights reserved

COPYRIGHT, 1899,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped November, 1899. Reprinted December,
1899; March, 1904; February, 1909; March, 1915.

Norwood Press

J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

_THIS BOOK

HAS BEEN WRITTEN

IN TENDER MEMORY

OF A

DEARLY LOVED AND LOVING CHILD

HENRY EARLE, JUNIOR

MDCCCLXXX-MDCCCXCII_

_Foreword_

_When we regard the large share which child study has in the interest of the reader and thinker of to-day, it is indeed curious to see how little is told of child life in history. The ancients made no record of the life of young children; classic Rome furnishes no data for child study; the Greeks left no child forms in art. The student of original sources of history learns little about children in his searches; few in number and comparatively meagre in quality are the literary remains that even refer to them._

_We know little of the childhood days of our forbears, and have scant opportunity to make comparisons or note progress. The child of colonial days was emphatically "to be seen, not to be heard"--nor was he even to be much in evidence to the eye. He was of as little importance in domestic, social, or ethical relations as his childish successor is of great importance to-day; it was deemed neither courteous, decorous, nor wise to make him appear of value or note in his own eyes or in the eyes of his seniors. Hence there was none of that exhaustive study of the motives, thoughts, and acts of a child which is now rife._

_The accounts of oldtime child life gathered for this book are wholly unconscious and full of honesty and simplicity, not only from the attitude of the child, but from that of his parents, guardians, and friends. The records have been made from affectionate interest, not from scientific interest; no profound search has been made for motives or significance, but the proof they give of tenderness and affection in the family are beautiful to read and to know._

_The quotations from manuscript letters, records, diaries, and accounts which are here given could only have been acquired by precisely the method which has been followed,--a constant and distinct search for many years, combined with an alert watchfulness for items or even hints relating to the subject, during as many years of extended historical reading. Many private collections and many single-treasured relics have been freely offered for use, and nearly all the sentences and pages selected from these sources now appear in print for the first time. The portraits of children form a group as rare as it is beautiful. They are specially valuable as a study of costume. Nearly all of these also are as true emblems of the generous friendship of the present owners as they are of the life of the past. The rich stores of our many historical associations, of the Essex Institute, the American Antiquarian Society, the Long Island Historical Society, the Deerfield_ _Memorial Hall, the Lenox Library, have been generously opened, carefully gleaned, and freely used. The expression of gratitude so often tendered to these helpful kinsfolk and friends and to these bountiful societies and libraries can scarcely be emphasized by any public thanks, yet it would seem that for such assistance thanks could never be offered too frequently, nor too publicly._

_Nor have I, in gathering for this,--as for my other books,--failed to exercise what Emerson calls "the catlike love of garrets, presses, and cornchambers, and of the conveniences of long housekeeping." Many long-kept homes have I searched, many an old garret and press has yielded conveniences for this book._

_Though this is a record of the life of children in the American colonies, I have freely compared the conditions in this country with similar ones in England at the same date, both for the sake of fuller elucidation, and also to attempt to put on a proper basis the civilization which the colonists left behind them. Many statements of conditions in America do not convey correct ideas of our past comfort and present and liberal progress unless we compare them with facts in English life. We must not overrate seventeenth and eighteenth century life in England, either in private or public. England was not a first-class power among nations till the time of the Treaty of Paris, in 1763. When our colonies were settled it was third-rate. Life among the nobility was magnificent, but the life of the peasantry was wretched, and middle-class social life was very bleak and monotonous in both city and country. From early days life was much better in many ways in America than in England for the family of moderate means, and children shared the benefits of these better conditions. A child's life was more valuable here. The colonial laws plainly show this increased valuation, and the child responded to this regard of him by a growing sense of his own importance, which in time has produced "Young America."_

_It is my hope that children as well as grown folk will find in these pages much to interest them in the accounts of the life of children of olden times. I have had this end constantly in my mind, though I have made no attempt, nor had I any intent, to write in a style for the perusal of children; for I have not found that intelligent children care much or long for such books, except in the very rare cases of the few great books that have been written for children, and which are loved and read as much by the old as by the young.

As our tired century has grown gray it has developed an interest in things youthful,--in the beginnings of things. Its attitude is akin to that of an old man, still in health and clear-headed, but weary; who has lived through his scores of crowded years of action, toil, and strife, and seeks in the last days of his life a serene and peaceful harbor,--the companionship of little children. There is something of mystery, too, in "the turn of the century" something which then makes our gaze retrospective and comparative rather than inquisitive into the future. Hence this year of our Lord MDCCCXCIX has been the allotted day and hour for the writing of this book. There has been a trend of destiny which has brought not only a book on oldtime child life, and that book at this century end, but has included the fate that it should be written by Alice Morse Earle. Kismet!_

Contents

Page

I. Babyhood 1

II. Children's Dress 34

III. Schools and School Life 63

IV. Women Teachers and Girl Scholars 90

V. Hornbook and Primer 117

VI. School-books 133

VII. Penmanship and Letters 150

VIII. Diaries and Commonplace Books 163

IX. Childish Precocity 176

X. Oldtime Discipline 191

XI. Manners and Courtesy 211

XII. Religious Thought and Training 227

XIII. Religious Books 248

XIV. Story and Picture Books 264

XV. Children's Diligence 305

XVI. Needlecraft and Decorative Arts 321

XVII. Games and Pastimes 342

XVIII. Children's Toys 361

XIX. Flower Lore of Children 377

List of Illustrations

John Quincy, One Year and a Half Old, 1690. Owned
by Hon. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, Mass.
_Frontispiece_

Page

Miniature, Governor Edward Winslow, Six Years Old,
1602. Owned by Rev. Dr. William Copley Winslow,
Boston, Mass. _facing_ 4

Mayflower Cradle, 1620. In Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, Mass. 10

Townes Cradle. In Essex Institute, Salem, Mass. 14

Old Pincushion. Owned by Mrs. Sophia C. Bedlow,
Portland, Maine 19

Indian Cradle. In Memorial Hall, Deerfield, Mass. 20

Governor Bradford's Christening Blanket, 1590. Owned
by John Taylor Terry, Esq., Tarry town, N.Y. 22

Standing Stool, Eighteenth Century 24

Go-cart 27

De Peyster Twins, Four Years Old, 1729. Owned by
Mrs. Azoy and Miss Velasquez _facing_ 26

Baptismal Shirt and Mittens of Governor Bradford,
1590. In Essex Institute, Salem, Mass. 35

Robert Gibbs, Four and a Half Years Old, 1670. Owned
by Miss Sarah Bigelow Hagar, Kendal Green, Mass.
_facing_ 36

Infant's Mitts, Sixteenth Century. In Essex Institute 39

Jane Bonner, Eight Years Old, 1700. Owned by Connecticut
Historical Society _facing_ 42

Infant's Robe, Cap, and Christening Blanket. In Memorial
Hall, Deerfield, Mass. 46

Ellinor Cordes, Two Years Old, 1740. Owned by Mrs.
St. Julian Ravenel, Charleston, S.C. _facing_ 48

Daniel Ravenel, Five Years Old, 1765. Owned by Mrs.
St. Julian Ravenel, Charleston, S.C. _facing_ 50

Children's Shoes. In Bedford Historical Society, Bedford,
Mass. 51

Gore Children, 1754. Painted by Copley. Owned by the
Misses Robins, Boston, Mass. _facing_ 54

Jonathan Mountfort, Seven Years Old, 1753. Painted by
Copley. Owned by Mrs. Farlin, Detroit, Mich.
_facing_ 58

Boy's Suit of Clothing, 1784. In Memorial Hall,
Deerfield, Mass. _facing_ 60

Mary Lord, 1710 _circa_. Owned by Connecticut Historical
Society. _facing_ 66

"Erudition" Schoolhouse, Bath, Maine, 1797 70

Oldtime School Certificate of Landlord of Wayside Inn,
Sudbury, Mass. 73

"Old Harmony" Schoolhouse, Raritan Township, Hunterdon
County, N.J. 76

Samuel Pemberton, Twelve Years Old, 1736. Owned by
Miss Ellen M. Ward, Boston, Mass. _facing_ 78

Nathan Hale Schoolhouse, East Haddam, Conn. 82

Old Brick Schoolhouse, Norwich, Conn. From "Old
Houses of Norwich," by Miss Mary E. Perkins 85

Elizabeth Storer, Twelve Years Old, 1738. Painted by
Smibert. Owned by Dr. Townsend, Boston, Mass. _facing_ 98

Carved Busks. Owned by Essex Institute 106

"Dorothy Q." "Thirteen Summers," 1720 circa. Owned by
Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston, Mass. _facing_ 108

Elizabeth Quincy Wendell, 1720 circa. Owned by Dr.
Josiah L. Hale, Brookline, Mass. _facing_ 112

Hornbook. Owned by Mrs. Anne Robinson Minturn,
Shoreham, Vt. _facing_ 118

Hornbook. Owned by Miss Grace L. Gordon, Flushing,
L.I. 120

Back of Hornbook. Owned by Miss Grace L. Gordon 123

"The Royal Battledore" _facing_ 124

"My New Battledore" _facing_ 126

Reading-board, Erasmus Hall, Flatbush, L.I. 127

Page of New England Primer 130

"The Grammarian's Funeral" _facing_ 134

"Readingmadeasy" _facing_ 136

Page from Abraham Lincoln's Sum Book _facing_ 138

Battledore, "Lessons in Numbers" _facing_ 140

Title-page of "Cocker's Arithmetic" 140

"American Selection," by Noah Webster, Jr. _facing_ 142

"The Little Reader's Assistant," by Noah Webster,
Jr. _facing_ 144

Exhibition "Piece" of Anne Reynolds _facing_ 152

Ornamental Letter 154

Writing of Abiah Holbrook _facing_ 154

David Waite, Seven Years Old. Owned by Professor
Langley, Washington, D.C. _facing_ 158

Page of "White" Bible _facing_ 162

Anna Green Winslow. Owned by Miss Elizabeth Trott,
Niagara Falls, N.Y. _facing_ 164

Pages from Diary of Mary Osgood Sumner. Owned by
Dr. P. H. Mell, Auburn, Ala. _facing_ 166

Joshua Carter, Four Years Old. Painted by Charles Wilson
Peale. Owned by Miss Anna Thaxter Reynolds, Boston,
Mass. _facing_ 170

Page from Diary of Anna Green Winslow 174

Samuel Torrey, Twelve Years Old, 1770. Owned by Miss
Frances R. Morse, Boston, Mass. _facing_ 176

The Copley Family _facing_ 180

Facsimile from Sir Hugh Plat's "Jewel House of Art and
Nature," 1653 183

Polly Flagg, One Year Old, 1751. Painted by Smibert.
Owned by Mrs. Albert Thorndike, Boston, Mass. _facing_ 184

James Flagg, Five Years Old, 1744. Painted by Smibert.
Owned by Mrs. Albert Thorndike, Boston, Mass. _facing_ 188

Katherine Ten Broeck, Four Years Old, 1719. Owned
by Miss Louise Livingstone Smith, Argyle, N.Y. _facing_ 192

Illustration from "Plain Things for Little Folks" 195

Whispering Sticks 198

Illustration from "Early Seeds to produce Spring Flowers" 201

Cathalina Post, Fourteen Years Old, 1750. Owned by
Dr. Van Santvoord, Kingston, N.Y. _facing_ 204

Illustration from "Young Wilfrid" _facing_ 206

William Verstile, 1769. Painted by Copley. Owned by
Mrs. Charles Pinney, Derby, Conn. _facing_ 210

The Pepperell Children. Owned by Miss Alice Longfellow,
Cambridge, Mass. _facing_ 214

Title-page of the "School of Manners" 216

Page of the "School of Manners" 218

Thomas Aston Coffin, Three Years Old. Painted by Copley.
Owned by heirs of Miss Anne S. Robbins, Boston,
Mass. _facing_ 222

Mrs. John Hesselius and her Children, John and Caroline.
Painted by John Hesselius. Owned by Mrs. Ridgeley,
Baltimore, Md. _facing_ 228

Charlotte and Elizabeth Hesselius. Painted by John
Hesselius. Owned by Mrs. Ridgeley, Baltimore, Md.
_facing_ 234

Charles Spooner Cary, Eight Years Old, 1786. Owned
by Mrs. Edward Cunningham, East Milton, Mass. _facing_ 240

Margaret Graves Cary, Fourteen Years Old, 1786. Owned
by Mrs. Edward Cunningham, East Milton, Mass. _facing_ 246

The Custis Children, 1760 circa. Owned by General
Custis Lee, Lexington, Va. _facing_ 250

"The Holy Bible Abridged." Owned by American
Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass. _facing_ 254

Illustration from "Original Poetry for Young Minds" 256

Page of "Hieroglyphick Bible." Owned by American
Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass. 259

Title-page of "Merry Tales of the Wise Men of Gotham" 266

Page of "Merry Tales of the Wise Men of Gotham" 267

"The Renowned History of Goody Two Shoes" _facing_ 270

Title-page of "A New Lottery Book" 274

Two Pages of "A New Lottery Book" 276

Frontispiece of "Be Merry and Wise." Owned by
American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass. 278

Title-page of "Be Merry and Wise." Owned by American
Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass. 282

Page of "Cobwebs to catch Flies" 284

Woodcut by Bewick. "William and Amelia." From
"The Looking Glass for the Mind" 286

Woodcut by Bewick. "Caroline, or A Lesson to cure
Vanity." From "The Looking Glass for the Mind" 289

Woodcut by Bewick. "Sir John Denham and his Worthy
Tenant." From "The Looking Glass for the Mind" 291

Woodcut by Bewick. "Clarissa, or The Grateful Orphan."
From "The Looking Glass for the Mind" 294

Page from "The Juvenile Biographer" 296

"The Juvenile Biographer" _facing_ 298

Two Pages of "The Father's Gift" _facing_ 300

Page of "Vice in its Proper Shape." Owned by American
Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass. 302

"The Good Girl at her Wheel" 307

Illustration from "Plain Things for Little Folks" 309

Anne Lennod's Sampler 313

Colonel Wadsworth and his Son. Painted by Trumbull.
Owned by Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Conn. _facing_ 316

Jerusha Pitkin's Embroidery and Frame. 1751. Copyrighted.
Owned by Mrs. William Lee, Boston, Mass. 324

Lora Standish's Sampler. In Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth,
Mass 327

Fleetwood-Quincy Sampler. Owned by Mrs. Swan,
Cambridge, Mass 330

Polly Coggeshall's Sampler. Owned by Miss Julia Hazard
Thomas, Flushing, L. I. 334

Flowered Apron, 1750 _circa_. Owned by Mrs. Swan,
Cambridge, Mass 336

Mary Richard's Sampler. Owned by Miss Elizabeth Wendell
van Rensselaer 337

Ancient Lace Pillow, Reels, and Pockets. In Essex
Institute, Salem, Mass 340

"Scotch Hoppers" from "Juvenile Games for the Four
Seasons" 345

Ancient Skates. In Deerfield Memorial Hall _facing_ 346

"Skating." From Old Picture Book 349

Cornelius D. Wynkoop, Eight Years Old, 1742. Owned
by James D. Wynkoop, Esq., Hurley, N.Y. _facing_ 352

Page from "Youthful Sports" 355

Stephen Row Bradley, 1800 circa. Owned by Arthur C.
Bradley, Esq., Newport, N. H. _facing_ 356

Dolls' Furniture. One Hundred Years Old. In Bedford
Historical Society 359

Ancient Doll 362

Old Rag Doll. In Bedford Historical Society. 363

"French Doll." In Essex Institute, Salem, Mass. 364

"French Doll." In Essex Institute, Salem, Mass. 367

Dolls and Furniture. Owned by Bedford Historical Society 368

Chinese Coach and Horses. In Essex Institute, Salem, Mass. 369

Old Jackknives. In Deerfield Memorial Hall. 370

"Bangwell Putt." In Deerfield Memorial Hall _facing_ 370

White House Doll. Owned by Mrs. Clement, Newburyport,
Mass. 372

Ancient Tin Toy 373

Doll's Wicker Coach 374

Stella Bradley Bellows, 1800 _circa_. Owned by Arthur C.
Bradley, Esq., Newport, N. H. _facing_ 378

Daisy Chain. 381

Playing Marbles 385

Spanish Dolls. In Essex Institute, Salem, Mass. 389

Leaf Boats. Made from Leaves of Flower de Luce 395

Child Life in Colonial Days