was censured to be whipped, lose his ears, and be banished the plantation, which was presently executed." This sentence, so worthy of Draco, convinces us that some of the early judges in the colony were men who had baptized their passions with the name of holiness, and then felt that they had a right to murder humanity in the name of God.

June 5, 1638: "John Smyth, of Meadford, for swearing, being penitent, was set in the bilboes."

Oct. 4, 1638: "Henry Collins is fined five shillings for not appearing when he was called to serve upon the grand jury."

Sept. 3, 1639: "Nicholas Davison (Mr. Cradock's agent), for swearing an oath, was ordered to pay one pound; which he consented unto."

Nov. 14, 1644: The General Court order that all Baptists shall be banished, if they defend their doctrine.

Nov. 4, 1646: The General Court decree that "the blasphemer shall be put to death."

May 26, 1647: Roman Catholic priests and Jesuits are forbidden to enter this jurisdiction. They shall be banished on their first visit; and, on their second, they shall be put to death.

“Edward Gould, for his miscarriage, is fined one pound." There was a singular persecution of the Baptists in the carly times among us. They were not sufficiently numerous to be formed into an organized society; and yet they were so skilful in defending their creed, and so blameless in their daily walk, that they became very irritating to the covenant Puritans; and some wished they should be cropped! In April, 1667, a great dispute was held at Boston between them and the Calvinists. Who were the champions in this gladiatorial encounter we do not know, nor where victory perched; but we have proof of blind, unchristian persecution, which stands a blot on the page of history. At the "Ten Hills," in Mistick, lived a servant of John Winthrop, jun., who professed the Baptist faith. Mary Gould, his wife, who was with him in his creed, writes to John Winthrop, jun., March 23, 1669, concerning her husband's imprisonment in Boston on account of his peculiar faith. Whether what was done at "Ten Hills " was approved at Medford we do not know; but these facts tell volumes concerning the ideas, principles, and practices of some of the Puritan Pilgrims of New England.

Indians convicted of crime, or taken prisoners in war, were sold by our fathers as slaves!

June 14, 1642: "If parents or masters neglect training up their children in learning, and labor, and other employments which may be profitable to the Commonwealth, they shall be sufficiently punished by fines for the neglect thereof."

Nov. 4, 1646: The General Court order:

"If a man have a rebellious son, of sufficient age and understanding, viz., sixteen, which will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them, then shall his father and mother, being his natural parents, lay hold on him, and bring him to the magistrates assembled in court, and testify unto them, by sufficient evidence, that this their son is stubborn and rebellious, and will not obey their voice and chastisement, but lives in sundry notorious crimes. Such a son shall be put to death."

1672: Our ancestors had the gag and ducking-stool for female scolds. Such 66 persons were to be gagged, or set in a ducking-stool, and dipped over head and ears three times, in some convenient place of fresh or salt water, as the court judge meet."

"Down in the deep the stool descends :

But here, at first, we miss our ends.

She mounts again, and rages more

Than ever vixen did before.

So throwing water on the fire

Will make it but burn up the higher.

If so, my friend, pray let her take

A second turn into the lake;

And, rather than your patience lose,

Thrice and again repeat the dose."

The stocks stood in the centre of a village. The offender had both hands and both feet entrapped between two boards; sometimes only one foot and one hand.

The whipping-post stood near the meeting-house, and was often used: even women suffered the indignity.

Conspicuous in the meeting-house was the stool of repentance, on which moral culprits sat during divine service and on lecture-days. Sometimes they wore a paper cap, on which was written their sin. Wearing a halter round the neck was another form of punishment. The pillory was often used; and the offender was saluted by the boys with rotten eggs.

Military offenders were obliged to ride the wooden horse, or sit in the bilboes. Branding on the forehead, the cage, and the gallows, were each resorted to, according to the degrees of crime.

The Christian sentiments of the heart are outraged by the shameless exhibitions and cruelties sometimes witnessed on "lecture-day." What a transition, What a transition, from the altar of God to the public whipping-post, to see women whipped upon the bare back! This was teaching Puritan individualism with a vengeance.

The custom of whipping did not cease in Medford till 1790!

SLAVERY.

Our fathers held slaves in Medford. There are persons now living among us who remember slaves in their family. They were treated, generally, much after the manner of children. Africans were brought to this colony and sold among us, for the first time, Feb. 26, 1638. In 1637, Captain William Pierce was employed to carry Pequot captives and sell

them in the West Indies! On his return from Tortugas, "he brought home a cargo of cotton, tobacco, salt, and negroes"! Slavery was thus introduced as early as 1638; but, in 1645, the General Court passed this noble, this truly Christian, order:

"The General Court, conceiving themselves bound by the first opportunity to bear witness against the heinous and crying sin of man-stealing, as also to prescribe such timely redress for what is past, and such a law for the future, as may sufficiently deter all others belonging to us to have to do in such vile and most odious courses, justly abhorred of all good and just men, do order, that the negro interpreter, with others unlawfully taken, be, by the first opportunity (at the charge of the country for the present), sent to his native country of Guinea, and a letter with him of the indignation of the court thereabouts, and justice thereof, desiring our honored governor would please put this order into execution."

May 29, 1644: Slaves took the name of their first master. "John Gore is granted leave to set his servant, Thomas Reeves, free."

Respecting taxes on black servants, we have the subsequent items: Each of them, in 1694, was assessed twelvepence; from 1700 to 1719, as personal estate; 1727, each male fifteen pounds, and each female ten pounds; from 1731 to 1775, as personal property. In 1701, the inhabitants of Boston gave the following magnanimous direction: "The representatives are desired to promote the encouraging the bringing of white servants, and to put a period to negroes being slaves."

Colonel Royal (Dec. 7, 1737) petitions the General Court, that, having lately arrived from Antigua, he has with him several slaves for his own use, and not to sell, and therefore prays that the duty on them be remitted. The duty was four pounds a head. This petition was laid on the table, and rests there yet. In 1781, a final blow was given to slavery in Massachusetts; and in this the inhabitants of Medford unanimously rejoiced. To show how anxious our fathers were to prevent all abuse of an existing custom, the town passed the following vote, Aug. 4, 1718: "Voted that every inhabitant of this town (Medford) shall, when they buy any servant, male or female, be obliged to acquaint and inform the selectmen of said town, for their approbation." It was a settled law with our fathers, that " no man shall hire any

slave for a servant for less time than one year, unless he be a settled housekeep."

Men sold their labor for a certain number of years, or to pay the expenses of immigration; and, in such cases, were sometimes called slaves. Referring to such cases, we find the following: "Ordered that no servant shall be set free, or have any lot, until he has served out the time covenanted."

April 1, 1634, the General Court passed an order, "that if any boy (that hath been whipped for running away from his master) be taken in any other plantation, not having a note from his master to testify his business there, it shall be lawful for the constable of said plantation to whip him, and send him home." One hundred years after this time, our Medford ancestors found themselves willing to pass the following:

Sept. 17, 1734: "Voted that all negro, Indian, and mulatto servants that are found abroad without leave, and not in their masters' business, shall be taken up and whipped, ten stripes on their naked body, by any freeholder of the town, and be carried to their respective masters; and said master shall be obliged to pay the sum of 2s. 6d. in money to said person that shall so do."

This vote, we presume, must have been imported from Jamaica. Did our progenitors so learn Christ?

1680: "There are as many (one hundred and twenty) Scots brought hither and sold for servants in time of the war with England, and most now married and living here, and about half so many Irish brought hither at several times as servants.”

Judge Sewall, of Massachusetts, June 22, 1716, says, "I essayed to prevent negroes and Indians being rated with horses and cattle, but could not succeed."

No cargoes of slaves were brought into Medford; but how many cargoes of Medford rum went to Africa and the West Indies, and were returned in slaves to Carolina or Rhode Island, we cannot say. The gentlemen of Medford have always disclaimed any participation in the slave-trade.

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The following extract from a letter, dated Boston, 14th January, 1759, may show what was done at that time. It is as follows:-’

"Captain William Ellery. Sir, -The Snow Cæsar' is fully loaded and equipped for sea. My orders are to you, that you embrace the first favorable opportunity of wind and weather, and proceed to