From Kingdom to Colony

by Mary Devereux

  CHAPTER I

  Marblehead, and July, in the year of our Lord 1774.

  In the harbor (now known as Great Bay) the water lay, a smooth,glistening floor of amethystine hue, shut in protectively by the"Neck," thrust out like a strong arm between it and the rougher seabeyond, stretching, purple and endless, to the rim of the cloudlesshorizon.

  To the north and northwest lay the islands, the nearer ones sharplyoutlined in trees and verdure, but showing here and there a grayness ofbeach or boulder, like the bald spot among some good man's otherwiseplentiful locks.

  Looking eastward, Cat Island was closest of all to the mainland, thecharred ruins upon it showing sharply in the brilliant afternoonsunshine; and here, amid the desolation, a few of the blackened timbersstill remained upright, like arms lifted in protest against thevengeance visited upon the hospital a short time before by thewell-meant zeal of the infuriated townsfolk.

  In August of the previous year, during an epidemic of smallpox, ameeting was called in the townhouse, and Elbridge Gerry, John Glover,Azor Orne, and Jonathan Glover petitioned that a hospital be built onCat Island, for the treatment of smallpox patients, or else that thetown permit certain individuals to do this at their own expense.

  The town refused to build the hospital, but gave permission to theindividuals to construct one, provided the adjoining town of Salem gaveits consent; it being also stipulated that the hospital should be soregulated as to shield the inhabitants of Marblehead from any "dangerof infection" therefrom.

  The necessary approval having been obtained from Salem, preparationswere made in September for erecting the hospital.

  By this time some of the people of Marblehead had become impressed withthe fear that by the establishing of the hospital the dread diseasewould become a prevailing pest amongst them. Their terror made themunreasonable, and they now fiercely opposed the scheme to which theyhad once given their consent, and demanded that the work be abandoned;but the proprietors, filled with indignation at what they consideredrank injustice, persisted in carrying out their worthy project tocompletion.

  In October the hospital was finished, and placed in charge of aneminent physician from Portsmouth, who had attained a wide reputationfor his success in the treatment of smallpox. Several hundred patientscame under his care, with gratifying results. But a few had died, andthis fact brought about bitter and active hostility from themalcontents. They demanded that the place be abandoned at once; andthreats of violence began to be made.

  The feeling gained in strength and intensity, until at length theproprietors gave up the contest. And then, to assure themselves thatthe hospital should not be reopened, a party of the townspeople,closely disguised, crossed to Cat Island one night in the followingJanuary, and left the buildings in flames.

  But now these summer weeks found the town excited and tumultuous overstill graver matters. The British government had found itimpracticable to enforce the duty upon tea, and resorting tosubterfuge, adopted a compromise whereby the East India Company,hitherto the greatest losers by the diminution of its exports fromGreat Britain, was authorized to send its goods to all places free ofduty.

  Although the tea would now become cheaper for the colonists, they werenot deceived by this new ministerial plan. And when the news wasreceived that the East India Company had freighted ships with teaconsigned to its colonial agents, meetings were held to devise measuresto prevent the sale or unloading of the tea within the province.

  The agents, when waited upon by the committee chosen for that purposein Boston, refused flatly to promise that the tea should not beunloaded or sold by them; and they were forthwith publicly stigmatizedas enemies to their country, and resolutions were adopted providingthat they, and all such, should be dealt with accordingly.

  In December, 1773, the historical "Tea Party" took place in Bostonharbor; and in the following spring Governor Hutchinson resigned, andGeneral Thomas Gage was appointed in his stead.

  Bill after bill was passed in Parliament and sanctioned by the King,having in view but the single object of bringing the people ofMassachusetts to terms. The quartering of English troops in Boston wasmade legal. Town meetings were prohibited except by special permissionfrom the Governor. And finally the infamous "Port Bill" was passed,which removed the seat of government to Salem, and closed the port ofBoston to commerce.

  In July subscriptions were being solicited by order of the town ofMarblehead for the relief of the poor of Boston, who were sufferingfrom the operation of the "Port Bill," and all the buildings whichcould be utilized, even to the town-house, were placed at the disposalof the merchants, for the storage of their goods.

  In defiance of Parliament, whose act had practically suppressed alltown meetings, the people of Marblehead continued to assemble andexpress their views, and discuss the grave questions then agitating theentire country. The very air of the sea seemed to murmur of war andthe rumors of war; and the hearts of thinking men and women were heavywith forebodings of the struggle they felt to be imminent.

  But the little town was lying brooding and peaceful this Julyafternoon. Its wooded hills to the west sent shadows across the grassymeadows and slopes, rising and falling to meet the sand-beaches, orending in the headlands of granite that made sightly outlooks fromwhich to scan the sea for threatening ships.

  Under the pines that made shadows along the way, a horseman was goingleisurely along the road leading to the Fountain Inn.

  To his left lay level meadow lands, rising into hills as they nearedthe inn, the old Burial Hill--the town's God's Acre--being highest ofall. To his right, the green fields and marshes stretched unbroken tothe sea, save for here and there a clump of bushes and tangled vines,or a thicket of wild roses. The road before him ended in two branches,one leading to the rising ground on the right, where stood the FountainInn, while to the left it terminated in a sandy beach, before whichstretched the peaceful waters of Little Harbor, now whitened with thesails of East Indian commerce, and the craft belonging to the fishingfleets that plied their yearly trade to the "Banks" and to Boston.

  No large ship could come nigh the shore in Little Harbor; whereas inthe deep bay lying between the Neck and the town, the enemy's vesselsmight anchor by the land itself. And here the townsfolk kept a mostactive lookout, which left the hills and beaches of Little Harboralmost deserted.