ANOTHER HODGEPODGE

We’re all immortal, as long as our stories are told. ~ Elizabeth Hunter

don't forget to feed the hogs!

Our cousin Abel Richardson (4C7X) of Woburn did his part in the final French and Indian War, participating in the Battle of Lake George. When he returned, he married Mary Thompson and they had eight lovely children born over a span of seventeen years. Abel also did a stint in the Revolutionary War. His property was near to the Aberjona River and a "magnificent elm possibly the largest in New England" stood in front of his house. Stories have come down through the generations about soldiers gathering under that landmark tree on their way to Cambridge during the Revolution.

Another story that has come down through the generations is related by Richardson family historian Nathaniel Richardson (7C4X):

He [Abel] had a grist-mill on the Aberjona River in Winchester. . .where the great and constantly traveled road from Woburn to Boston crosses that stream. . .Abel married Mary Thompson, a good woman, who had not a few trials to contend with. Her husband going away one day, told her to take a bag, go to the mill, get some meal, and feed the hogs. This she forgot to do; when he came home he said he would not horsewhip her, but would whip her with the rod of God. He took down the Bible, put it into the mealbag, and laid it on to his wife’s back until she fled the house.

Both Abel and Mary lived into their 90s and were married for seventy years. Let's hope the hog incident was the exception and not the rule in their marriage.

from "warning out" to the poorhouse

Our cousin Gershom Proctor (1C8X), grandson of our immigrant ancestor Robert Proctor (8GGF), was born in Chelmsford in 1691. In May of 1763, Gersham appealed to the selectmen of Chelmsford to find a less expensive way of taking care of the town's poor. From Chelmsford town records: "the request of Gershom Proctor, and others, to see if the freeholders of this town will think of and come into some method to maintain the poor of this town with less cost and expense to the town than they have been for a number of years past, or act anything that they think proper thereon."

Taking care of the less fortunate had become a real problem for towns like Chelmsford. The plight of one woman, Mary Lambert, was a case in point. In 1728, down-on-her-luck Mary appeared unable to care for herself and her child. The town paid Edward Foster ten shillings for "keeping Mary Lambert and child." Shortly after Foster took over Mary's care, it appears that she got herself into trouble of some sort. Though obviously a woman without means, the long arm of the law made sure she paid for her transgression. Accounts were kept by the town detailing every expense related to the problematic Mary Lambert.

Our cousin Samuel Chamberlain (1C8X) was the first to deal with Mary's legal woes. Samuel, son of our aunt Sarah Proctor (7A) and husband of our aunt Abigail Hill (7A), was paid three shillings "for 1 day aboute Mary Lambert" and then paid £1 10 shillings "to cost of court convicting Mary Lambert."

Next, our cousin Josiah Fletcher (4C7X) got into the act by "going to Dunstable and getting a warrant for Mary Lambert." Josiah also had the distinction of "carrying Mary Lambert to the House of Correction" for which he was paid one shilling six pence. A stay in the House of Correction, however, wasn't free. Chelmsford paid Josiah Scotton £6-9-6 "for keeping Mary Lambert and her child with victuals and drink and fireing in the House of Correction at Charlestown." Mary, who stayed there for eleven weeks, had "allowance being made for her labour in that Time." The allowance surely went to Chelmsford to defray her expenses.

While we can find no records as to what happened to poor Mary after the was released from the House of Corrections, it was the expense of cases like this that caused our cousin Gershom Proctor to suggest finding a cheaper way to deal with the town's down-and-outers. The idea of an almshouse or workhouse had been voted down repeatedly by the selectmen. One idea that began to appeal to the townspeople of Chelmsford was the time honored tradition of "warning out."

"Warning out" was basically a formal notice of eviction from the town. The first step to "warning out" would be a vote by the selectmen "that no one should own land within the town unless he had been approved and admitted as an inhabitant by a majority vote at a public town meeting." That simple town rule made it fairly easy to get rid of anyone who might be deemed a burden to the town or of unsavory character.

That this rule had been on the books for many years was proven by one another one of our cousins, Caleb Littlefield (1C11X). It's possible that Caleb's reputation preceded him before he ever set foot in Chelmsford. Originally from Wells, Maine, he became involved in a "love-scrape" with a girl in his hometown and promptly skedaddled off to Massachusetts. Caleb rattled around various communites for a while until, in 1685, he landed in Chelmsford. He was living in a house formerly owned by a Chelmsford resident when he was "warned to leave town, not being an inhabitant, or bring security to the selectmen."

Cousin Caleb did leave Chelmsford but it seems that, by 1713, he had cleaned up his act, married and was living in Rhode Island.

The town of Chelmsford's adoption of "warning out" to deal with undesirables led to a definite increase in the number of citizens asked to leave town. According to Eleanor Parkhurst who wrote the article "Poor Relief in a Massachusetts Village in the Eighteenth Centry, "[b]eing warned out often meant a very real hardship to the persons whose presence was, for some reason, considered undesirable. During the year 1795, and within the space of fifteen days, Chelmsford warned 211 persons to leave the town."

As the practice of warning out increased, "cautions" began to be entered with the Court of Sessions for people who were reluctant to leave town. In 1739, our cousin Aaron Chamberlain (2C7X), possibly constable at the time, was reimbursed "for money paid to the Clerke of the Court for entering a Caution against a person that was warned out of the town of Chelmsford." Occasionally, when neither warning out nor a caution worked, an undesirable could be bodily carried out of town. The fee for this service was £4.

Note: Aaron's mother was another Abigail Hill (1C8X), grandaughter of our immigrant ancestor, Ralph Hill (9GGF).

Another trick towns began adopting was the ever-reliable "bidding out" process. According to Parkhurst "pauper auctions placed the poor with guardians who took a stipend in exchange for room and board. The lower the stipend, the greater the possibility for abuse. Hosts worked their boarders hard, in what was in essence a form of indentured servitude." In an 1851 article, "Report on the Poor and Insane," Thomas R. Hazard wrote about the practice: “When stripped of all disguises, selling the poor to the lowest bidder is simply offering a reward for the most cruel and avaricious man that can be found to abuse them...”

In 1796, Cousin Aaron Chamberlain did just that in the case of widow Ruth Dutton: "Voted, to give Deacon Aaron Chamberlin one shilling per week for his bidding off the widow Ruth Dutton and for his trouble." Evidently, one shilling a week seemed a fair price to pay for the town to rid their hands of Widow Dutton.

Children were more difficult cases. Endless war had left many widows and orphans with no way of supporting themselves. Cousin Aaron became involved in one such case. He promised to pay or "cause to be paid" over two pounds for "the use and Benifit of Benoni Cory, a poor child of the said town, to be paid when he shall arrive at the full age of twenty-one years..." The witness to that document was our cousin Amos Kidder (2C7X).

Even family members, at times, seemed reluctant to take care of their own. In 1803 our Cousin Elijah Proctor (2C7X) "made application to the selectmen for the support of his mother-in-law, to see if the town will appoint some suitable person or persons to see if there be any property to be found that belongs to her for her support or to act anything theron that the Town many think proper."

It wasn't until 1823 that a town workhouse was opened in Chelmsford under the direction of the overseers of the poor. That year it was decided to buy a piece of property "to make the necessary preparations for the reception of the poor." Our cousin Josiah Fletcher was on the committee that oversaw the the construction of that workhouse.

I'll leave the last word on the plight of the poor in colonial times to Eleanor Parkhurst:

If the history if our relief shows anything at all, it bears witness to the painfully slow growth of public interest and knowledge concerning the problem of dependency and its causes - an interest and knowledge that must be stimulated still further to provide a reasonable and more adequate type of care for these unfortunates.

the failed doctor

The information I have on Lysander Richardson (4C6X) comes from The Richardson Memorial written by John Adams Vinton. I might add that, of all the genealogical record books and memoirs I've seen, The Richardson Memorial has proved to be the best.

Our cousin Lysander Richardson was born in New Salem, MA in 1763. In 1777, when his sick father, Israel (3C7X), was called out to reinforce the Continental Army during the Burgoyne Campaign, Lysander took his place. He was only fourteen at the time. Lysander marched out with another young man, Joseph French, from New Salem to Stillwater, a distance of about 100 miles.

Note: Although I can't place him, Joseph French most probably came from our Dunstble, MA French family. There were many Josephs sprinkled amongst that clan.

When he returned from the war, in 1781, Lysander moved with his father to Woodstock, VT where he began the study of medicine with Dr. Stephen Powers. Powers, however, made it clear that Lysander could not practice with ten miles of his own practice. So, in 1786, Lysander moved to the nearby town of Barnard and set up his office there.

Medicine, however, did not appear to be Lysander's true calling. By 1787 he was back at his father's house in Woodstock with a new wife in tow. Two years later, possibly to get Lysander out of his house, Israel not only bought a 37 acre farm but also had a house built there for his deadbeat son

In 1793, restless Lysander leased out the property his father had purchased for him and moved to Pittsford where he took up the practice of medicine once more.

(1) New Salem, MA (2) Woodstock, VT (3) Barnard, VT (4) Pittsford, VT

After a year, Lysander again called it quits and returned to his farm in Woodstock, "relying on the paternal affection of his father, who would not allow his favorite son to suffer." Israel's faith in his son was not well rewarded. According to Vinton:

...by and by he (Lysander) began to be vexed and harassed with lawsuits, and in 1798 was imprisoned in the county jail for failure to meet the payment of a bond. . .His son, Chauncey (5C5X), who gives these statements. . .at the age of more than eighty years, vividly recalls his painful sensations when his father drew him, at the age of five, through the port-hole of the prison door into the cell where he was confined.

Lysander was eventually released and, when Israel died in 1800, he went to live on his deceased father's farm. Lysander died in 1813 at the young age of 50. He and his wife had 9 children. When Lysander died, six of his children were between the ages of 16 and one year old. Chauncey, only 20 when his father left this world, took over the care his mother and younger siblings.

every son a doctor

The branch of the Kittredge clan descending from our uncle John (8U) produced a plethora of doctors. One of John's great-grandson's, however, had a special claim to fame that earned him a spot in an edition of Ripley's Believe it or Not. Every one of our cousin Benjamin Kittredge's (3C7X) eight sons, like their father, became a physician.

Benjamin was born in Tewksbury in 1741. He married Rebecca Ball in February of 1767 and ten months later they welcomed their first son, Benjamin, Jr (4C6X). The couple would go on to have ten children in all, only two of them daughters. As the sons grew up and began plying their trade, they dispersed far and wide, none of them practicing medicine in the same town. Only son Henry stayed in Tewksbury. Benjamin went to Exeter; John to Framingham; Theodore to Kittery, Maine; George to Epping, NH; Charles to Watertown; Jacob to Billerica and later Ohio; Rufus to Portsmouth, NH.

(1) Henry (2) Benjamin (3) John (4) Theodore (5) George (6) Charles (7) Jacob (8) Rufus

Eight years after Benjamin's death in 1830, his farm was purchased by the town of Tewksbury to be used as a "poor farm." The land at the time was owned by Benjamin's granddaughter, Rebekah (5C5X). The town paid her $3,500 for her grandfather's farm. Below is a picture of the property which was used as a poor house for 90 years. The town owned the property until it was sold in 1918.

tragic death

Our cousin William Kittredge (1C9X) lived a long and hopefully happy and productive life. His end was not so happy. A fire broke out at his home in Tewksbury on the night of April 26, 1789. William died in the blaze at age 90. He was buried at the Old Center Burying Grounds in Tewksbury. His gravestone reads:

ERECTED In Memory of Lieut. WILLIAM KITTREDGE who departed this Life April ye. 26, 1789 in the 92d year of his age.

He's gone at length, how many grieve,

Whom he did generously relieve,

But, O how shocking he expired,

Amidst the flames of raging fire!

Yet all who sleep in Christ are bless'd,

Whatever way they are undress'd.

Elijah and Ivory Wildes, not movers but Shakers

The Wildes brothers, Elijah (2C7X) and Ivory Wildes (2C7X) were born in the middle of the 18th century in Groton, MA. They were the grandsons of our aunt Mary Howlett Wildes (7A). Our Wildes cousins were instrumental in creating a community of Shakers.

The Shaker religion came to America at the "eve of the Revolution" and became a practicing religion here in 1787. According to the National Park Service site, "[l]ike the Quakers, the Shakers were pacifists who had advanced notions of gender and racial equality. The Shakers believed in opportunities for intellectual and artistic development within the Society."

Elijah and Ivory lived in the section of Groton that, in 1753, broke off from its mother city and became the town of Shirley.

(1) Groton (2) Shirley

I can't find any information on when exactly our Wildes cousins took up the Shaker religion but, in 1793 they, along with two other men, donated "hundreds of acres" of land that became the Shirley Shaker Village. It appears that The Wildes' property had been used by the Shakers for at least ten years before the land was given to them. From the Shirley Historical Society website:

Shaker foundress Mother Ann Lee visited the Wilde brothers on their adjoining farms in the southern part of Shirley in 1783. Her followers saw her as the female embodiment of the Christ spirit. Her worship services were full of singing, dancing, and speaking in tongues. Their whole focus was on living the Godly life in every part of their day. . .By 1790 there were sixty men, women, and children worshiping, working, and living together on the Wilds property. It had been decided that they could only follow the way if they lived in community, sharing their possessions, their work, and their worship every day.

The village was divided into three "families," the Church, North and South. Elijah became the elder of the Church family and Ivory of the North. Both men are buried in the Shirley Shaker Cemetery in nearby Lancaster, MA.

At its peak, the village contained 26 buildings. In 1857, noted author and literary critic William Dean Howells visited the Shirley Shaker Village and painted a version what he saw there:

Today, the site of the village is part of the National Park Service and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Tours are conducted by the Shirley Historical Society.