Law and Order in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, 1774-1821, with Emphasis on the South Parish/ Precinct Benjamin A
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Bridgewater State University Virtual Commons - Bridgewater State University Bridgewater, Massachusetts: A oT wn in Transition Local History 2014 Law and Order in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, 1774-1821, with Emphasis on the South Parish/ Precinct Benjamin A. Spence Recommended Citation Spence, Benjamin A. (2014). Law and Order in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, 1774-1821, with Emphasis on the South Parish/Precinct. In Bridgewater, Massachusetts: A oT wn in Transition. Monograph 9. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/spence/9 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Law and Order in Bridgewater, Massachusetts 1774-1821 (With emphasis on the South Parish/Precinct) Dr. Benjamin A. Spence © 2014 1 An Explanation For several years I have had the pleasure of delving into the history of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, concentrating mainly on the first quarter of the twentieth century and providing, when appropriate, historical background to make my discussions clearer. Although my research and writing are ongoing, I have decided to make available the drafts of a number of topics which I have explored at length, with hope that the material presented will prove helpful to many readers. I would request that credit be given if my findings are used by other writers or those making oral presentations. As my study has proceeded, many people have been helpful and, hopefully, I will be able to thank all of them during the course of my writing. At this point, let me mention just a few who have been especially supportive. Many thanks to the Trustees of Bridgewater’s Public Library for allowing me access to the sources in the town library, facilitated by help from the research librarians under the competent direction of Mary O’Connell. I also very much appreciate the kind assistance of staff members of the Bridgewater Town Hall in the use of town records. Without the constant guidance of Dr. Steven G. Young, I would have been at a loss many times in the use of the computer. How can I fully express my thanks to Sylvia B. Larson who has been willing since I started this project to spend numerous hours using her fine editing and writing skills to improve these drafts. Her probing historical mind and her sharing of my interest in Bridgewater’s history have been invaluable to me. Any errors in the text, of course, are solely mine. What a great joy it was to share many of my findings with S. Mabell Bates, who, as friend, head of the Special Collections at the Bridgewater State University Library, and member of the Bridgewater Historical Commission, provided me with valuable historical material and was a constant source of inspiration. My research has also been enriched by many conversations with Robert Wood, a member of the Bridgewater Historical Commission and the town’s leading authority on property deeds. He has been most generous in sharing his findings with me. Lastly, my research, particularly concerning Bridgewater Normal School, would have been far less interesting without my many conversations with David K. Wilson, long associated with public relations and institutional research at Bridgewater State University. I appreciate his sharing historical knowledge of this institution, videotaping my tours of Bridgewater’s School Street and Central Square, and publicizing my essays, especially the one on the Gates House. In preparing this essay, I also owe a special debt of gratitude to James “Mike” Bois, George B. Rizer, and David R. Moore, citizens of Bridgewater who contributed in different ways to a collection of historical pictures of the town. Bois, one of the Bridgewater Historical Collectors, for many years gathered over 450 scenes of Bridgewater, many of which were included in the 1987 and 1994 pictorial histories, prepared by the Collectors. Equally important was the contribution of Rizer, a professional photographer for the Boston Globe, who with his artistic skill reproduced all the pictures in these two works, “bringing to life some that were faded or in some way defective.” Thanks to the skillful and time-consuming work of David R. Moore, chairman of Bridgewater’s Historical Commission, over 500 pictures, including many found in the two earlier pictorial histories, have now been placed on a computer disc, labeled the Rizer 2 Collection. This project has created an historical treasure easily accessible to those interested in the town’s rich heritage. I will continue to include pictures from this collection in future essays. A note concerning bibliography: At some juncture, I will add an essay on the sources used in my study. For now, the numerous footnotes will give the reader a good idea of the research materials used in this historical account of the Town of Bridgewater. My essays on education, churches, stores and services, manufacturing, transportation, fire service, and the Parker-Gates-Shaw House in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, concentrate on the years 1900 to 1910. The essay Law and Order in Colonial Bridgewater and this one taking the story to 1820 will be followed by an account of this topic through 1925. Copies of my nine essays can be found in the public libraries of Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, and Brockton, as well as in the Maxwell Library of Bridgewater State University, Memorial Building of the Old Bridgewater Historical Society in West Bridgewater, and the Old Colony Historical Society in Taunton, Massachusetts. An electronic version of my essays is available on Bridgewater State University’s repository, Virtual Commons (http://vc.bridgew.edu/spence/). I was delighted when Michael Somers, Director of the Maxwell Library, proposed this project. Many thanks to Ellen Dubinsky, Digital Services Librarian, and her staff for so competently putting my essays on line. Since I have not been able at this point to include indices for any of my essays, this electronic source allows readers to see if a particular historical item is referred to in the text. 3 Table of Contents Pages 1. Introduction 5 2. Law and Order in Bridgewater: 1656-1775 5 3. Overview of Bridgewater: 1770’s-1821 24 4. Three Pillars of the Criminal Justice System: 1774-1782 31 5. The Writing of the Massachusetts Constitution: 1776-1780 43 6. Law and Order in Bridgewater: 1780-1820 63 7. A Selective Chronology: 1620-1823 75 8. About the Author 80 *My main focus throughout this essay is on the South Parish of Bridgewater which in the early 1820’s became the present-day Town of Bridgewater. 4 Introduction As in every aspect of its civic life between 1774 and 1821, what became known as Old Bridgewater experienced both continuity and change in its efforts to maintain law and order. Before looking at its criminal justice system during these last four decades as one town composed of five parish/precincts, however, this essay first reviews how, as part of Plymouth Colony between 1656 and 1691 and then of the Province of Massachusetts until the 1770’s, this inland community worked diligently to be a “peaceable kingdom,” based upon its Puritan heritage. Corrections and/or additions have been made to my original account of law and order in colonial Bridgewater as, in my continuing research, I discovered new information. Since my focus remains on Bridgewater’s South Parish/Precinct, I deemed it important to look as some of its demographic, economic, religious, social, physical, and educational changes from the Revolution to the breakup of the old town. Where possible I indicate their possible impact on law and order in what would become present-day Bridgewater in the 1820’s. As had been the case in the Provincial years, Bridgewater citizens accused of crimes during the war years were answerable to a justice system composed of the Congregational church, town government, and county court, each in its own way committed to the maintenance of a law-abiding and harmonious community based on the long established ethics of Puritan traditions. Following the outbreak of hostilities between England and her American colonies, it became increasingly clear, however, that most folks in this small town sensed that their “mother country,” would no longer be the ultimate arbiter in matters of law and order. Rather, sovereignty in all aspects of civic life now resided with the collective will of the people. This heady idea found formal expression in the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, a document overwhelmingly approved by Bridgewater voters at their town meeting. Nevertheless, despite late eighteenth century harbingers of new approaches to strengthen the American criminal justice system on municipal, state, and national levels, citizens in smaller Massachusetts communities, including Bridgewater, continued to rely on pillars of law and order dating to their colonial past: Congregational churches, town governments, especially their elected constables, and county sheriffs, justices of the peace, and courts; one would wish that the work of all these participants of the criminal justice system had been more systematically recorded.1 Law and Order in Colonial Bridgewater -1656-1775 For the first one-hundred and twenty years of its history, Bridgewater, incorporated as the tenth and first inland town of Plymouth Colony on June 3, 1656, was part of the far-flung English/British Empire that emerged in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As such, its approach to criminal justice was, in a general way, subject to English Common Law, embodied in the so-called unwritten Constitution of 1 Benjamin A. Spence, “Law and Order in Colonial Bridgewater, Massachusetts, with Special Emphasis on its South Parish/Precinct, 2012;” Samuel Walker, Popular Justice: A History of the American Criminal Justice (New York-Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 49-111; Lawrence M. Friedman, Crime and Punishment in American 5 England, aptly described in 1888 by James Bryce in The American Commonwealth as consisting, “largely of customs, precedents, traditions, understandings, often vague and always flexible.” But, as I noted in my previous essay, “it was not simply a matter of copycatting what at the time was being done in England.