WOMEN OF COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY TIMES^s MERCY IVARREN BY ALICE BROWN IVITH PORTRAIT CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS NEW YORK MDCCCXCVI PREFACE There are few co7isecutive incidents, save the catalogue of births, marriages, and deaths, to be gathered concerning the life of Mercy Otis Warren. Therefore it seems necessary to regard her through those picturesque events of the na- tional welfare which touched her most nearly, and of u'hich she ivas a part. It is impossible to trace her, step by step, through her eighty-six years; she can only be regarded by the flash- light of isolated topics. In compiling this sketch of the Revolutionary period, I am especially indebted to Winslow Warren, Esq., and Charles Francis Adams, Esq., for their generosity and courtesy in allow- ing me the use of the valuable manuscripts in their possession. I have also to 7naJce grateful acknoivledgment to the Collections of the 3Iassa- chusetts Historical Society ; the life of James Otis, by William Tudor ; the Life of Thomas Hutchinson, by James K. Hosmer ; a History Vll PREFACE of American Literature^ hy Moses Coit Tyler ; American Literature, hy C. F. Richardson ; the Governor'' s Garden, by George It. R. Rivers ; to all Mrs. Alice Morse EarWs delightful pictures of a hy-gone day, and to scores of hooks so vivid or so accurate as to have hecome the commonplace of reference. A. B, Boston, October 3, 1S96. Vlll CONTENTS PAGE !-IN THE BEGINNING — Ancestry of Mercy Otis Old-World Associations— of the first John Otis — Dissension in Hingham John Winlhrop's Trial — Life on Cape Cod — Distinguished Members of the Otis family II-BARNSTABLE DAYS Childhood in Colonial Times— Intimacy between James and Mercy Otis — James Otis's Tastes and Education — Life at the Barnstable Farmhouse — A Harvard Com- mencement-Professional Life and Marriage of James Otis — Marriage of Mercy Otis to James Warren . 15 HI—LIFE AT PLYMOUTH Ancestry of James Warren — Early Events of his Life — Development of Mercy Warren's Character in Rela- tion to Events — Life at Clifford — Removal to Plym- outh Town — Birth of Children — Writs of Assistance — James Warren's Advance in Political Life — Attack upon James Otis — Birth of Mercy Warren's Two Youngest Sons — Her Friends and Intellectual Life — John Adams's Relation to the Warren Family — Friends and Correspondents of Mrs. Warren — The Celebrated Mrs. Macaulay — Committeesof Correspondence — The Colonial Clergy 32 ly—THE TESTIMONY OF LETTERS An Academic Style — James Warren's Letters — His Account of the J'.attle of Bunker Hill — Letter "To " — a Youth just Entered CoUedge Mrs. Warren's "Vapours" 67 ix CONTENTS PAGE V—THE WOMAKS PART Feminine Abstinence from Luxuries — The Squabble — Win- of the Sea Nymphs— Satirical Poem Hannah of — Fear of throp's Letter on the Battle Lexington — British Troops— Mrs. Warren's Character-Drawing The Small-Pox FI-EARLY AMERICAN LITERATURE — Our First English Source of American Literature Book-Makers — American Colleges and Newspapers . 135 j/n—LITERARY IVORK Period of Mercy Otis Warren— Her Undaunted Ex- — Adams's pression in Political Matters John Flattery — His Defence of Satire — The Group — The Adulator and The Retreat — Poems — Mrs. Warren's Place among the Pamphleteers '53 nil— THE HISTORY OF THE REJ^OLU- TION Letters from James Freeman — A Collection of Mottoes — Mrs. Warren's Portraiture of Public Men- Distrust of the Order of the Cincinnati 191 IX—AN HISTORIC DIFFERENCE John Adams's Remonstrance — Mrs. Warren's Retort — — of the Talk of Monarchy Comparison — History with its Manuscript — Reconciliation An Exchange of Gifts 2" X—THOUGHT AND OPINION Intolerance of Scepticism — Exchange of Literary Criti- cisms with Abigail Adams — Attitude toward the Woman Question — Criticism of Lord Chesterfield ... -233 CONTENTS PAGB XI— THE BELOyED SON Three Copleys — The Dark Day — Winslow's Sailing — Purchase of the Hutchinson House — Winslow's Return and Second Trip Abroad — Death of Charles Warren — Winslow's Return and Death — Death of George Warren 246 XII—ON MILTON HILL The Hutchinson Estate — Governor Hutchinson — The Warren Family at Milton — Their Return to Plymouth — Present Aspect of the Hutchinson- Warren Estate . 264 XIII— TERMINUS An Aged Couple — America after the Revolution — Mrs. Warren's Dread of an American Monarchy — Death of James Warren — Mercy Warren's Illness and Death — Her personal Belongings — Her Influence Zl MERCY WARREN IX THE BEGINXING Mercy Otis Warren belongs to that vital period \Mieii there came between the two Eug- lands, New and Old, the breaking of ancient bonds, the untwining of fibres grown from the of she was born at a when hearts each ; day the Colonies were outwardly stanch in alle- giance, and she lived through the first irritation " preluding wrath with one we love," to defec- tion, victory, and peace. In time, in feeling and influence, her life kept pace, step for step, with the growth of a nation. Throughout the first youth of our Colonies, New England was still the willing daughter of her motherland. To every pilgrim settled here, and even to his children, born in a species of exile, it was "home;" and few were they who quite relinquished hope of returning thither, either for travel, study, or the renewal of precious associations. Indeed, spite of the ful- 1 1 MERCY WARREN filment of desire in having reached that air of freedom for which they so long had fainted, our forebears honestly felt with Cotton Mather : " I conclude of the two Englands what oar ' Saviour saith of the two wines ; No man hav- ing tasted of the old, presently desireth the for " new ; he saith, the old is better.' Thus identified in recent life and ever-present longing, there is some special savor in tracing family descent at a period when every bud was near the stem in parent ; for, the beginning of our stock, it is possible to catch some lustre cast by Old World culture and beauty, the while you detect the hardening of sinews responsive to the stimulus of Old World wrongs. The ancestry of Mercy Otis took rise in that hardy yeomanry wdiich has ever been the bulwark and strength of England. John Otis, founder of the American branch to which she belongs, is usually believed to have been born in Barnstaple, Devon, whence he came to Hingham, of the Massachusetts, in 1635, and there drew lots in the first division of land. This incident of the allotment of land is virtu- the first of him and because it ally mention ; took place in the company of the Rev. Peter Hobart and his twenty-nine associates, it has been conjectured that, like all the band, Otis came from Hingham in Norfolk. It may 2 IN THE BEGINNING be, however, that he left Devon and lived for a time at Hingham before embarking for America. Or, if the genealogical ferret would run down a further quibble, he may scent it in a note among the Hingham records, of land granted John Otis in June and ; whereas Hobart only- arrived at Cliarlestown in June, and did not proceed to Hingham until September, John Otis was very evidently there before him. The name, as it crops out in old records both here and in England, is variously spelled as and but Ottis, Otys, Ote, Otye, Oatey ; happily it is not to be identified with the one-syllabled Otcs relegated to Titus of unholy memory. Thus varied, it appears significantly in the Subsidy Rolls, — a quantity of most precious manuscript, preserved at the Rolls Oflice in London, and brought thither from the Tower, where it lay for more than two hundred years, rich in truthful records which are now invalu- able. Therein are set down the names and residences of most English people from the time of Henry VHI. to that of Charles H., — a means whereby the genealogist may occasion- ally put hi^ finger on the still-beating pulses of the past. It is a trivial fact that among the Somerset families appears, under several forms, the name Otis ; yet when snapped into another isolated record, it completes an unbroken chain 3 MERCY WARREN of inference. For there was one Richard Otis of Glastonbury, who, in 1611, gave, according to the terms of his will, all his wearing apparel to his sons Stephen and John. Now, was this the John who afterwards made his temporary stay in Devon or Norfolk, and then found his last home in America ? it was and here is rea- Apparently ; the pretty son for such guesswork. On the fourth of June, 1636, there were granted to our John Otis of Hingham, in the Massachusetts, sixteen acres of land, and also ten acres for planting ground on Weari-All-Hill. That name alone is signi- ficant. Says the historian of Hingham, rela- " tive to the latter grant : It is very steep upon its western slope, and from this cause known to the early settlers, in their quaintly expres- sive nomenclature, as Weary-All-IIill." But the reason is possibly further to seek than in the of the town fathers for spontaneous fancy ; it goes back to England and to Glastonbury town. Every pilgrim to Glaston knows the step ascent, lined now with houses built of the severe gray stone so common there (much of it filched from the ruined Abbey), at the top of which is a grassy enclosure, and a little slab to mark the spot where Joseph of Arimathea rested when, with his disci[)les, he stayed his wanderings in Glastonbury and built there a 4 IN THE BEGINNING little wattled church, the mother of EiiG^land's worship. On the top of Weary-AU-lIill he struck his a into staff, thorn-branch, the earth ; and it burst into bloom, the first of all the famous thorns to blossom tlicreafter at Christ- mas time.