Chapter IV: Part 4

[Letter of John Dickinson, member of the Continental Congress, to the President of Congress, in reference to the mutiny of the army, when the soldiers had surrounded and threatened Congress. It was written under the influence of strong excitement, as is evinced by the many erasures and additions in the original. The troops had surrounded the Congress building, demanding their arrears of pay, and honorable discharge from service, under dire threats of violence. It relates to one of the most trying periods of the Revolution, and one which threatened the country with internal troubles.]

PHILADELPHIA, _July 27, 1783_.

SIR:

Yesterday evening the Soldiers from Lancaster began their March for that Place Under the Command of their officers.--Those in the barracks behave very quietly, & are desirous of being dismist.--Colonel Hampton informs me that Letters were sent by the principal Authors of the late Disturbance, to excite General Armand’s Legion & Colonel Moylan’s Regiment, to join in the Mutiny. The general Disposition of those Troops I know not; But I expect to receive immediate Advice of any Movements of Importance among them, which I shall communicate to Congress.

I am, Sir
Your very obt. Serv’t.
JOHN DICKINSON.

Mr. Thomson[40] who does me the Honor of charging himself with this Letter, will deliver to Congress a copy of the last proposals of the Soldiers to Councils, & the Act of Council thereon.

His Excellency
The President of Congress.

[Congress had adjourned from Philadelphia to Princeton, N. J.--ED.]

FOOTNOTES:

[38] Robert Morris, the great financier.

[39] Gen. John Morin Scott

[40] Probably Charles Thomson, the Secretary of Congress.

MINOR TOPICS

THE FIRST U. S. FLAG

The first Stars and Stripes were displayed at Fort Schuyler (the present Rome, N. Y.), August 5, 1777. This much every schoolboy is supposed [it is very much of a supposition, however, how many in the average High School could tell the story off-hand--ED.] to know. What is not generally known is that this historic flag is still in existence; being in the possession of Mrs. Abram Lansing, of Albany, N. Y., a grand-daughter of Colonel Gansevoort, and who possesses also the original of the following letter:

Poughkeepsie, 29th August, 1778.

COL. PETER GANSEVOORT,
Fort Schuyler.

Dear Sir:

The great distance which your duty calls us apart obliges me at this time to give you this trouble which otherwise I would not. You may remember I was to have an order for eight yards of broadcloth on the commissary for clothing of this State, in lieu of my blue cloak _which was used for colours at Fort Schuyler_. An opportunity now presenting itself, I beg (you) to send me an order enclosed to Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, paymaster at Albany, or to Henry Van Vaughter, Albany, where I will receive it, and you will oblige one who will always acknowledge the same with true gratitude

Please to make my compliments to the other officers of the regiment

I am, dear Sir, your humble servant,

Abraham Swartwout, Captain.

GENEALOGICAL

[All communications for this department (including genealogical publications for review) should be sent to William Prescott Greenlaw, Commonwealth Hotel, Boston.]

QUERIES

27 _a._ ALLEN--In 1808, William B. Allen began to publish in Haverhill, Mass., _The Merrimack Intelligencer_. In February, 1812, he took his brother, H. G. Allen (Horatio Gates Allen?) into partnership. January 1, 1814, H. G. Allen, who had bought the interest of William B. in 1813, “sold out his paper, printing office and book store to William Greenough and Nathan Burrill.” [Chase’s History of Haverhill.] Wanted, the names of parents and birthplace of Wm. B. and H. G. Allen.

* * * * *

_b._ HOWARD--Benjamin Howard, born in 1691, resided in Chelmsford, Mass. Whose daughter was his wife, Mary?

* * * * *

_c._ SNOW--Samuel Howard, b. 1731, son of Benjamin and Mary, married (Int. pub. Sept., 1758), Mary Snow. Who was she?

* * * * *

_d._ WRIGHT--Mary, wife of Timothy Wright of Stoneham, Mass., died Oct. 27, 1755, aged 45 years (gravestone). Who was she? Timothy Wright’s second wife whom he married in 1756 was Mary Green, the widow of Thomas Green.

* * * * *

_e._ PERRY--Who was Deborah Perry of Lynnfield, who married, Feb. 14, 1796, Wright Newhall? She died in August, 1855, aged 80. G2.

ANSWERS

19 _a._ CHAMBERLAIN--James Savage derived his information relative to Rebecca Chamberlain from Farmer’s and Moore’s “Historical Collections” (vol. II, p. 70), published at Concord, New Hampshire, in 1823, and republished in Smith’s “Boston News-Letter” (vol. I, p. 232), in 1826.

The article on the “Early History of Billerica, Mass.,” in the “Historical Collections,” although unsigned was doubtless prepared by John Farmer himself, as he had published in 1816 his “Historical Memoir of Billerica.”

In the article in the “Historical Collections” here referred to we read: “Though there is no positive evidence that any of the inhabitants of Billerica were put upon trial for the supposed crime of witchcraft in the time of this delusion, yet it may be safely inferred that several were suspected and one or two apprehended. Besides the authority of Hutchinson, the town records inform us that during the height of the delusion, two persons were in the prison at Cambridge, and that they both died there. Rebecca, wife of William Chamberlain, died there Sept. 26, 1692, and John Durant, Oct. 27, 1692. They were probably both victims of the infatuation which prevailed at that time.”

The writer has made a careful examination of the original court files of Middlesex County for 1691 and 1692 and finds nothing for or against Farmer’s statements. However, John Farmer, a native of the town of Chelmsford, adjoining Billerica, does not write as though this phase of his subject were traditional with him, but rather conjectural.

GEO. W. CHAMBERLAIN,
Weymouth, Mass.

* * * * *

20 _d._ GRIDLEY--On Dec 19, 1717, John Gridley, then of Beverly, Mass., married Joanna, daughter of Josiah^8 Dodge, of Wenham, Mass. [Genealogy of the Dodge Family of Essex County, page 35.]

* * * * *

_g._ PARROTT--Mrs. Martha Parrott of Greenland, N. H., in 1805 was the widow of John Parrott, whom she had married after the death of his first wife, and by whom she had one son, Enoch Greenleaf Parrott, named for a friend of the family, Enoch Greenleaf, of Weston, Mass. Mrs. Parrott’s maiden name was Brackett; she was probably a daughter of James and Martha (Cate) Brackett, of Greenland, N. H. X.

BOOK NOTICES

WEYMOUTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY. WESSAGUSSET AND WEYMOUTH, an historical address by Charles Francis Adams, Jr., delivered at Weymouth, July 4, 1874, on the occasion of the celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Permanent Settlement of the Town. WEYMOUTH IN ITS FIRST TWENTY YEARS, a paper read before the Society by Gilbert Nash, November 1, 1882. WEYMOUTH THIRTY YEARS LATER, a paper read by Charles Francis Adams, before the Weymouth Historical Society, September 23, 1904. Published by the WEYMOUTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 1905. 8vo, pp. 164.

In the beginning of his second paper in this volume, Mr. Adams tells how it came about that he delivered his first address at Weymouth thirty years before, never having given thought to independent historical investigations before he was invited by the town to deliver the historical address on the occasion of the 250th anniversary. He confesses that at that time he hardly knew where the town was, much less anything of its history. The acceptance of that invitation, he states, marked a turning point in his life which had previously been devoted to civil and military affairs, and he expresses gratitude to Weymouth because the path into historical research, thus unexpectedly opened to him, has led him for thirty years through pastures green and pleasant places. Besides affording him pleasure, it has brought him honors in new fields of usefulness, and his labors have been profitable to students of Massachusetts history. The mature outcome of the earlier address was presented in print a dozen years ago in a two-volume work called, “Three Episodes of Massachusetts History.”

In the later address Mr. Adams is merciless in his destruction of the myth known as “The March of Miles Standish.” The familiar poem is shown to be without any historical support, the “march” having taken place by boat!

Speaking of this incident in Weymouth history, he says, “It smacks of the savage; it is racy of the soil; it smells of the sea. It begins with the flight of Phineas Pratt from Wessagusset to Plymouth, his loss of the way, his fear lest his foot-prints in the late-lingering snow banks should betray him, his nights in the woods, his pursuit by the Indians, his guidance by the stars and sky, his fording the icy river, and his arrival in Plymouth just as Miles Standish was embarking for Wessagusset. Nothing then can be more picturesque, more epic in outline, than Standish’s voyage, with his little company of grim, silent men in that open boat. Sternly bent on action, they skirted, under a gloomy eastern sky, along the surf-beaten shore, the mist driving in their faces as the swelling seas broke roughly in white surge over the rocks and ledges which still obstruct the course they took. From the distance came the dull, monotonous roar of the breakers, indicating the line of the coast. At last they cast anchor before the desolate and apparently deserted block-house here in your Fore river, and presently some woe-begone stragglers answered their call. Next came the meeting with the savages, the fencing talk, and the episode of what Holmes, in still another poem, refers to as

‘Wituwamet’s pictured knife
And Pecksuot’s whooping shout;’

all closing with the fierce hand-to-hand death grapple on the blood-soaked, slippery floor of the rude stockade. Last of all the return to Plymouth, with the gory head of Wattawamat, ‘that bloody and bold villain,’ a ghastly freight, stowed in the rummage of their boat.... That Longfellow wrote very sweet verse none will deny; but, assuredly, he was not Homeric. At his hands your Weymouth history failed to have justice done it. The case is, I fear, irremediable.”

Notwithstanding its many variations from the historical facts, the poet’s version of this affair, because of its poetical setting, is probably destined to be the only version to be widely known outside of the limited circle of historical students.

Mr. Adams endeavors to establish as a fixed fact in Massachusetts history that Weymouth as a permanent European settlement antedated Boston by at least six years; and, moreover, that this fact has singular historical interest. That it was a struggle for possession between two forms of civilization and of religious faith; one being ecclesiastical and feudal, the other theological and democratic; the fate of the two settlements during the earlier and crucial period depending not on events in Massachusetts, but upon a struggle for supremacy going on in England. “Gorges represented Charles I; Winthrop, the Parliament. If the fortune of war had turned otherwise than it did turn, and Charles I. had emerged from the conflict victorious, there can be little question Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and not John Winthrop, would have shaped the destiny of Massachusetts. Its history would then have been wholly other than New England will find much of interest in it was.”

Students will find much of interest in the three papers printed in this volume.

THE FRANKLIN BOOK SHOP

S. N. RHOADS, Proprietor. 1105 Walnut Street. Philadelphia, Pa.

Old and Rare items in Nature Study and Americana.

Publisher of Rhoads’ Reprint of Ord’s North American Zoology and the Mammals of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In preparation, illustrated work on Peale’s MSS. Journals of the Long’s and Wilkes’ Exploring Expeditions, 1819, 1841. Send for Prospectus. Special discounts on last catalogue Geology, Ethnology, Etc. Send for it.

* * * * *

Transcriber’s note

Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Spelling has been retained as published except in the printer errors listed below. Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized where the words exist in the same article.

The following printer errors have been changed.

=CHANGED FROM TO=
Table of
Contents: “FANCIES OF NAVESINK” “FANCIES AT NAVESINK”
Page 228: “of self-givernment” “of self-government”
Page 247: “it its stead some” “in its stead some”
Page 257: “they had interferred with” “they had interfered with”
Page 268: “loss of time detatched” “loss of time detached”
Page 269: “Aubrey and two campanies” “Aubrey and two companies”
Page 272: “explusion of the American” “expulsion of the American”
Page 276: “WOMAN IN THE POSTOFFICE” “WOMAN IN THE POST OFFICE”
Page 290: “additions in the orginal” “additions in the original”