PETITION OF JANE ARMITAGE, OF LYNN. Communicated by CHARLES HERVEY TOWNSEND, Esq., of New Haven, Conn. THE HE following document is copied from the Massachusetts Archives, book 111, folio 1. Joseph Armitage, the husband of the petitioner, settled in Lynn as early as 1630. Lewis, in his History of Lynn, under this date, gives an account of him, to which a few additions are made by Newhall in his edition of that work. He was a tailor by trade, and "lived on the north side of the common, a little east of Mall Street, his land extending to Strawberry brook. first tavern in town, called the Anchor." He opened the For a hundred tavern in Essex and seventy years this was the most celebrated County, being half way from Salem to Boston. He died June 27, 1680, aged 80 years. His wife Jane died March 3, 1675. His children were John, and Rebecca, who married Samuel Tarbox in 1665." In the Massachusetts Colony Records (vol. ii. p. 46) the following entry appears among the doings of the Court at the session commencing Sept. 7, 1643: "Goody Armitage is alowed to keep the ordinary, but not to draw wine." The marginal memorandum was probably not made till the next session, which commenced Oct. 17. To the Right wor" the Gouernor, Deputie Gouerno & their honored assotiats The humble peticon of Jane wife of Joseph Armentage Humbly sheweth that whereas the indigent and lowe estate of your poore peticonesse is evident not to a few; in as much as her husbands labours & indeauo haue beene blasted and his ames & ends frustrated by a iust hand beinge also made incapable of such other ymploymt as hee is personally fitted for by reason of the sensure vnder weh for the p'sent hee lyeth & alsoe being outed of such trade & comerce as might haue afforded supportacón to his familie consistinge of diuers p'sons & small Children in comiseracon of whom togither with yo' peticonesse, the inhabitants of o towne were pleased (as farr as in them lay) to continue yo' poore peticonesse in the Custodie of the said Ordinary & that benefitt weh might accrew from the same to take towards makeinge of theire liues the more cumfortable wherevpon & by reason whereof yo' peticonesse said husband procured the most convenient howse in Lynn for that purpose albeitt itt was very ruinous & much cost bestowed respectinge his p'sent condicón in repaireinge & fittinge vpp of the same accordingly; And also whereas some of his Credito haue of theire clemencie and gentle goodnes furnished him Lewis (History of Lynn, 2d ed. p. 91) states that this tavern was afterwards purchased by Capt. Thomas Marshall, who kept it for the accommodation of the travelling public for more than forty years." See also John Dunton's "Letters from New England (Publications of the Prince Society), pages 264-5. wth Comodities apt for the mainteyning of an ordinary to the intent some Voted & granted Octob. 26th* [1643] May itt therefore please this Honored Assembly to take the p'misses into tender consideracón & wth bowells of comiseracon to way the lowe estate of yo' said Peticónesse & her familie and to reconfirme the Custodie of the said Ordinarie to yo Peticonesse dureinge this winter season & further as shall seeme good in yo sight vpon the well demeanor of yo* Peticonesse in the said place, &c. * This marginal memorandum is in a different hand from the body of the document which appears to have been penned by the Rev. Samuel Whiting, of Lynn, Mass. (ante, xxviii. 233), whose signature heads the list of signers. The date [1643] within brackets seems to be a modern addition. The following are the names of the signers, fac-similes of whose autographs are given: Sa: Whiting, Tho: Cobbett, Edw: Holyoke, Edward Tomlins, Thomas Marshall, Georg Keser, John Dolitle, Francis Lightfoote, William King, Robert Persons, Richard Johnson, Thomas Parker, Phillip Kirtland, James Axcy, Godphery Armitage, Henry Geans, Robert Bridges, Richard Walker, Will'm Cowdry, Nathaniell Handforth, John Wood, Thomas Laughton, Boniface Burton, Nicholas Browne, Edward Baker, Roger Mawry, John Gillowe, John Ramsdalle, Tim. Tomlins, William Longley, Thomas Hvdson, Henery Rodes, Thomas Townsend, Robert Driver, Zachrie Fitch. REV. JOHN ELIOT'S RECORDS OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN ROXBURY, MASS. THE Communicated by WILLIAM B. TRASK, Esq., of Boston. HE first volume of the records of the First Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts, was deposited November 6, 1872, in the house of the New England Historic, Genealogical Society, to be kept in their safe for preservation and reference. Its first fifty-five and a half pages contain a list of the members of the church, in the hand-writing of the Rev. John Eliot. The dates of admission are not given. Of some of the members notices of their families and themselves are given, blanks being left under the names of others. These records were printed, in 1850, by the late John Wingate Thornton, Esq., in his "Lives of Heath, Bowles and Eliot." He also printed a large portion of the Rev. Samuel Danforth's record of admissions to and dismissions from the church, beginning March, 1649, which follows Eliot's list of members. The entries now printed commence on page 245 of the record book. 1643, month 8 day 29. Robert Potter* was excomvnicate, his sins w first in the tims of mis Hutchinson, w" divers of of Church w' seduced to familesme & scizme, he was of theire side & company, & so fild wth them as y he departed to the Ila'd rath' then would forsake them, & being there he refused to heare the church who had lovingly sent after him: secondly for that he was now tossed wth oth' winds of new doctrine forsakeing the Iland & joyning wth Gorton & yt not only in his heresys but also in his hereticall blaspheamous & rep'chfull writings and publikly owned them in Court, & maide himselfe guilty of all those wicked ways: There happened (by Gods p'vidence) a dreadfull example of Gods judgment this yeare vpon one Williâ Frankling who belonged to Boston towne, & take M Ting his farme above muddy river belonging to Boston; But he 66 Mr. Potter came to this country in 1634, in the ship with the Rev. Nathaniel Ward, afterwards minister of Ipswich, who says, that he expressed by the way so much honesty and godlinesse as gained my good opinion and affection towards him." He was a member of the Rev. John Eliot's church in Roxbury. Savage says he was admitted in 1634, the same year of his arrival; had a wife Isabell. He became an inhabitant of Rhode Island in 1638; took the oath of allegiance there, April 30, 1639; was one of the surveyors for ye highways" that year, and one of the twelve grantees of Warwick, R. I., in 1642-3. For his heretical opinions he was ordered by the Court to be confined in Rowley, Mass. Gorton, Holden and others were imprisoned in Charlestown, Ipswich, Salem, Roxbury, Dorchester and Boston. While in prison Mr. Ward visited him, had "free speech with him in the open prison yard," where he gave him good advice. Mr. Potter was an Assistant in Rhode Island in 1648; commissioner, 1651, 1652; licensed to keep an ordinary or tavern in Warwick, 1655. "He died," says Fuller, in the latter part of 1661, leaving a son John and a daughter Deliverance, who married James, son of John Greene. John died in 1694, intestate, and his estate falling to John, Jr., he shared it with his brother William, as per deed of April 10, 1694." Winthrop's Journal, ii. 147; Records of the Colony of Massachusetts, i. ii.; Dean's Memoir of Rev. Nathaniel_Ward, p. 82; Arnold's History of Rhode Island, vol. i.; R. 1. Colonial Records, i. 70, 72; Fuller's History of Warwick, p. 47. + Rhode Island. spent his sab: at o' towne being neerer; & after a season desired to joyne to of church: & had app'bation so to doe, & was received. But Satan p'sently did enter into him & having a boy whom he had bought for some years time* & p'ving sick & naughty; after he was joyned to the church he grew more passionate, cruel & feirce against him, though he had bene sharpe afore, yet vnknowne or vndisposed to vs, but now he grew out-raigeous, so yt by sundry cruel strips & oth' kind of ill vseage the boy dyed vnder his rigorous hand, & yt (by a strange p'vidence of God & his own folly) at Boston, as if God ment to bring him on the stage for an example to all oth's for weh sin that day month yt he was admitted he was excomunicated & though much paines were taken to have brought him to repentance & reconciliation to the church, yet all in vaine, he p'testing p'tly to deny & p'tly to mine his cruel actions towards the boy, so y' in y estate he was executed at Boston as publick records will shew. 1644. A strange p'vidence of God fell out at Boston where a peece of Iron in a dong cart, one was smote into the head & brains of the daughter of Jakob Eliot† deakon of the Church & brought forth some of the braines; and after more of the braines came forth, & yet the Lord cured the child, the braines lying next the skin in that place. Soon after that one william Curtis of Roxbury was cast off from a cart of loggs vnto the ground with such violence, yt his head & one side of his face were bruised, blood gushed of of his eare, his braine was shaken, he The name of the lad whom Mr. Franklin had taken as an apprentice, was Nathaniel Sewell, one of the twenty children who arrived from England in the ship Seabridge, in the summer of 1643. This pauper boy was most cruelly treated by his master, as stated by Gov. Winthrop. "His master used him with continual rigor and unmerciful correction, and exposed him many times to much cold and wet in the winter season, and used divers acts of rigor towards him, as hanging him in the chimney, etc., and the boy being very poor and weak, he tied him upon an horse and so brought him (sometimes sitting and sometimes hanging down) to Boston, being five miles off, to the magistrates, and by the way the boy calling much for water, would give him noue, though he came close by it, so as the boy was near dead when he came to Boston, and died within a few hours after." Winthrop, in his Journal (ii. 184, 185) states that the case of Franklin was brought before the court of assistants at Salem. He" was found guilty of murder, but, some of the magistrates doubting of the justice of the case, he was reprieved till the next court of assistants." The reasons of the doubters, which were two in number chiefly, are given in detail on page 184. The Court Records, vol. ii. page 45, say, "William Franklin is referred to the magistrates; if they see cause, he may have a second trial for his life, the next quarter court.' But the magistrates did not "see cause" sufficient, and Franklin was executed. " + Winthrop, ii. pp. 202, 203. “One of the deacons of Boston church, Jacob Eliot (a man of a very sincere heart and an humble frame of spirit), had a daughter of eight years of age, who being playing with other children about a cart, the hinder end thereof fell upon the child's head, and drove a piece of the skull before it into the brain, so as the brains came out, and seven surgeons (some of the country, very experienced men, and others of the ships which rode in the harbor) being called together for advice, etc., did all conclude, that it was the brains (being about half a spoonful at one time, and more at other times), and that there was no hope of the child's life, except the piece of skull could be drawn out. But one of the ruling elders of the church, an experienced and very skilful surgeon, liked not to take that course, but applied only plasters to it; and withal earnest prayers were made by the church to the Lord for it, and in six weeks it pleased God that the piece of skull consumed, and so came forth, and the child recovered perfectly; nor did it lose the senses at any time." Cotton Mather says (ii. 356), “One Abigail Eliot had an iron struck into her head, which drew out part of her brains with it; a silver plate she afterwards wore on her skull, where the orifice remain'd as big as an half crown. The brains left in the child's head would swell and swage, according to the tides; her intellectuals were not hurt by this disaster; and she lived to be a mother of several children." Savage supposes that this daughter of Jacob Eliot, a brother of the Rev. John Eliot, the Apostle, was Hannah, born Jan. 29, 1636-7, who in 1644 would have been in the eighth year of her age. She married June 4, 1653, Dea. Theophilus Frary, of the Old South church. Jacob had a child named Abigail, born April 7, 1639, at the time mentioned above, only five years old, who married Dec. 16, 1657, Thomas Wyborne. The two sisters, Abigail and Hannah, had children. senseless divers days, yet by degres thro' Gods mercy he recovered his senses, yet his cheeke drawne awry & p'alitik, but in a quarter of a yeare, he was pretty well recovered, to the wonder of all men. 1645. Toward the end of the first month call'd march; there happened (by Gods p'vidence) a very dreadfull fire in Roxbury streete ;* none knoweth how it was kindled, but being a feirce wind, it suddenly p'vailed. And in this mans house was a good p't of the Countrys magazine of powder of 17 or 18 barrels; weh made the people, yt none durst come to save the house or goods till yt was blowen vp, & by that time the fire had taken the barnes & outhousing (wch were many & great) so y' none were saved. In this fire were strang p'servations of Gods p'vidence to the neighbors & towne, for the wind at first stood to cary the fire to oth houses; but suddenly turned & caryed it fro' all other houses; only carying it to the barns and out housing thereby. & it was a feirce wind, & thereby drove the vehement heat fro' the neighbour houses, wch in a calmer time would by the x'y heate have bene set on fire. But above all the p'servation of all people fro' hurt & other houses fro' fire at the blowing vp of the powder many being in greate danger yet none hurt, & sundry houses set on fire by the blow, & yet all quenched, through Gods rich mercy in Christ. 1645. aboute the 16th of 5 month was this anagrā sent to m' Dudley then Govno by some namelesse author. Thomas Dudley ah! old, must dye A deaths head on your hand you neede not weare a dying head you on your shoulders beare you need not one to minde you, you must dye you in your name may spell mortalitye younge men may dye, but old men these dye must t'will not be long before you turne to dust. before you turne to dust! ah! must; old! dye! what shall younge doe, when old in dust doe lye? when old in dust lye, what N. England doe? This yeare we had sundry strange & p'digeous signes, a storme of haile at Boston w the stones were as big or bigger then muskett bullets, and fell terribly. The week after the like was at Dedha', w' some were in fashon like cross barr cañon shott, oth's like musket bullets. there was also a feirce Winthrop has it, " 2. 6." "Two great fires happened this week, one at Salem. The other was at Roxbury this day. John Johnson, the surveyor general of the ammunition, a very industrious and faithful man in his place, having built a fair house in the midst of the town, with divers barns and other out houses, it fell on fire in the day time (no man knowing by what occasion), and there being in it seventeen barrels of the country's powder and many arms, all was suddenly burnt and blown up, to the value of 4 or 500 pounds, wherein a special providence of God appeared, for he being from home, the people came together to help, and many were in the house, no man thinking of the powder, till one of the company put them in mind of it, whereupon they all withdrew, and soon after the powder took fire, and blew up all about it, and shook the houses in Boston and Cambridge, so as men thought it had been an earthquake, and carried great pieces of timber a great way off and some rags and such light things beyond Boston meeting house. There being then a stiff gale at south, it drove the fire from the other houses in the town (for this was the most northerly), otherwise it had endangered the greatest part of the town. This loss of our powder was the more observable in two respects, 1. Because the court had not taken that care they ought to pay for it, having been owing for divers years; 2. In that, at the court before, they had refused to help our countrymen in Virginia, who had written to us for some for their defence against the Indians, and also to help our brethren of Plimouth in their wants."-(Vol. ii. p. 211.] |