Читать книгу Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony - George Francis Dow - Страница 10

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It is a lamentable fact that the present generation possesses little accurate information on the every day life and surroundings of the early settlers in Massachusetts. Some of the finer pieces of furniture have been preserved together with a few portraits and pieces of silver and here and there an article of costume of special beauty or unusual association. The newly settled country had no artists to paint pictures of household interiors in the manner of the Dutch painters and the diarists and letter writers of that time when they used a quill pen, devoted little thought to the homely happenings of the household or to the costume and furniture with which every one was familiar. Judge Samuel Sewall's diary[20] throws much light on New England life two centuries and more ago, but many are the questions we would like to ask. In August, 1702, he rode to Newbury to attend the funeral of his sister Mehitable and returned home by way of Andover where he found that the keeper of the ordinary was sick and so went to Mr. Woodman's daughters "and there din'd on Pork and Beans; afterward had Fowls rosted and dress'd very well." It would be interesting if we could know more about that dinner. Did the Judge eat in the same room in which the fowls were "rosted" and was the table furnished with woodenware or pewter, or both? Had the Woodmans begun to use two-tined forks or did the Judge hold the meat in one hand while he cut it up and conveyed it to his mouth with the knife? Was a roasting jack fastened over the fireplace? Was the dinner served on a table-board? Did all stand while "a blessing" was asked? What was served for dessert? Did the Judge wash his hands at the washbench in the kitchen and if not, where did he find the washbasin? What pictures were on the parlor walls and was there a bedstead in the corner and if so, how was it furnished and how made? A bedstead known to have been used in a New England house of 1702 is almost unknown today. If the Judge had only devoted five minutes, while writing up his diary, to a close description of that bedstead and its furnishings he would have settled many existing doubts.

It seems entirely reasonable that a distinguished guest in the house would not be required in the morning to go to the washbench in the kitchen and use the family basin. The dignity of Judge Sewall and the delicacy of Madam Belcher would rebel at the thought of an exhibition of disheveled attire before the serving maid and the numerous children of the family. In the humblest home, on occasion, it would be a simple matter to place in the chamber of a guest, on a table or even on a chair, a basin and a jug of water with a towel.

In the journal of the travels of Dr. Alexander Hamilton of Annapolis, Md., who rode through New England in 1744, may be found the description of the furnishings of a chamber in an inn. Doctor Hamilton was accompanied by a negro servant and on a Sunday morning at Marblehead he asked for his portmanteau. "I was told by my man Dromo that it was in his room. I had the curiosity to go and see what kind of a room his room was, and upon a reconnoitre found it a most spacious one, furnished a la mode de Cabaret, with tables, chairs, a fine feather-bed with quilted counterpane, white calico canopy, or tester, and curtains, every way adapted for a gentleman of his degree and complexion."

Of course 1744 is many years after the period when oak furniture was commonly in use; yet Reid's tavern, "at the sign of the Dragon," in the fishing village of Marblehead, could not have been the resort of fashion or wealth and if a negro slave was given so well furnished a chamber what may have been the furnishings of the chamber occupied by Doctor Hamilton?

In a farmer's family, in the early days, it was undoubtedly the habit to wash faces and hands in a small tub or keeler on the washbench in the kitchen. In suitable weather it is altogether likely the men of the family may have washed out of doors, beside the back door, in a bucket of water freshly drawn from the well or brought from the spring. The farm hands, on coming in from the fields, for dinner, or at night, always "washed up" at a bench out of doors and this custom persisted until well into the nineteenth century. My mother, when young, for a time lived on a farm (about 1850) and several times I have heard her describe the farm hand who came to the back door one noon, and looking at his hands remarked, "I guess they are clean enough," and so went into his dinner, without washing.

Henry W. Erving of Hartford, Conn., writes: "A couple of years ago I made a pilgrimage to my great-grandfather's former home in Westford, Conn., in company with a kinsman over eighty years old—the last of his generation. It was a very comfortable house, with four rooms and a leanto, with a stone chimney. My great-grandfather lived there as early as 1750. My cousin called my attention to the old well near the door where, by the curb, there was a large stone hollowed out like a trough. He said the 'men folks' as they came from the field, would fill that trough with a bucket or two of water from which they would 'souse' themselves thoroughly, thus not disturbing the goodwife. And of course in the rustic neighborhoods the old customs existed long after they were abandoned in the larger villages and towns.

"You will hardly believe, when I say it, but I distinctly remember as a very small boy, going to a house in this same primitive town of Westford where we were invited to dinner. The only drinking vessel on the table was one of the quart Staffordshire mugs (would that I had that mug in my collection today) which was filled with water, milk or cider, I have really forgotten which, and passed around the table at the demand of any thirsty one. The family consisted of a man and his wife, an ancient grandmother, and several children with not too clean faces. I couldn't refuse the mug when urged upon me and selecting a place on the brim at the right of the handle, I drank, when one of the children exclaimed, 'See, mar! He's got granny's place.' Of course that practice in this instance was possibly nearly a century out of period."

One of the standard examples of American humor is the picture of the Mayflower loaded to the cross-trees with the chairs, chests and cradles that devout New Englanders now own and claim were brought over on that memorable voyage. It is so easy to attribute age and romantic history to a treasured family relic that it has become possible for a museum in the city of New York to exhibit a punch bowl of Staffordshire ware, as a veritable relic of the Mayflower. The bowl could not possibly have been made before 1780–1790. There is another piece of Staffordshire treasured in the china closet of a New England family, which the owner is certain was formerly possessed by an ancestress who died years before the Revolution. Well authenticated family tradition vouches for the fact which cannot be disputed. Yet, the observer will soon discover a steamboat pictured on one side of the pitcher and what is more interesting, the stars and stripes are flying from the masthead and the canton of the flag contains fifteen stars.

It is undoubtedly true that some pieces of furniture were brought over from England by the first settlers and the tradition connected with such pieces can be authenticated by an examination of the chair or chest showing that it is made of English and not American oak. While most family possessions, for convenience in shipment, came over in bales or bundles, covered with canvas in the true European manner, a custom followed by emigrants of a later day, yet, many articles of fine clothing and the treasured belongings of the better-equipped families came over neatly stowed in chests and cupboards and some of those chests have survived.

It is all a matter of common sense reasoning which can be backed up by an examination of early records and also the furniture itself. Why pay a considerable value in money to transport, in an overcrowded ship, utilitarian pieces of furniture, that could be made in the newly settled colony, by workmen who were going over in the same ship? Timber could be had here for the cutting and until sufficient time had elapsed to permit the making of chairs, beds and other required furniture, one could sit on rudely made stools and boxes and sleep on pallet beds made up on the floor just as many of them would be obliged to sleep while on board ship.

Some estimate of the culture of the New England people during the seventeenth century and of their appreciation of the refinements of life may be reached with a degree of accuracy through a study of the carefully itemized inventories of their estates made at time of death. During that period the Royal Governor from overseas, with his little court of officials and followers, had not introduced London fashions and furnishings to the extent that existed in the eighteenth century. Moreover, the wealth of the colonies had not grown to the point where the refinements of life were not only esteemed but demanded by loving spouses and by those who had taken ship for England or the Continent and there had observed how other people lived.

Among the early settlements made in the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay was one at Agawam, now the town of Ipswich. The news had reached Boston that the French were pushing their settlements westward along the coast, bringing with them "divers priests and Jesuits," which so alarmed the Governor and the Assistants that it was decided to forestall the French and hasten the planting of new towns north of Boston. The first move was to send the Governor's son John, with twelve others, to establish themselves at Agawam. There were no roads and so they sailed along the coast in a shallop and took possession of the town site in March, 1633. Their families and other settlers soon followed and the increase of population was such that in August, 1634, the Court of Assistants decreed that the place be called Ipswich, after old Ipswich in England, "in acknowledgment of the great honor and kindness done to our people, who took shipping there."

Three months later, in November, 1634, one John Dillingham arrived in Ipswich and the selectmen granted him six acres of land on which to build a house. He was from Leicestershire and with his wife and daughter had come over in the fleet with Winthrop in 1630, and remained in Boston until he removed to Ipswich. Life in the frontier settlement was too severe for him and he died during the next winter. On July 14, 1636, his widow, Sarah, made her "last will and testament" being in "perfect memory though my body be weake & sick" and a few days later she too was dead, leaving her orphaned daughter to be cared for by Richard Saltonstall and John Appleton, under the direction of the Quarterly Court. And this was not at all difficult for John Dillingham had left a "goodly estate," for the times. This Dillingham home has been selected for analysis because it is one of the earliest estates in the Colony of which we have exact and detailed information, a number of documents relating to it having been preserved among the miscellaneous papers in the Massachusetts State Archives.[21] Moreover, it shows the furnishings and equipment of a settler living in a town of only two years growth from the wilderness.

The Dillingham homestead consisted of a house of two rooms and outbuildings with thirty acres of upland, sixty acres of meadow, i.e., grass land, and six acres of planting ground near the house, of which four acres were planted with corn. Apple trees and other fruits were fenced off in the garden. For livestock there was a mare, three cows, two steers, two heifers, four calves, and four pigs. There was an indentured servant, Thomas Downs, to help cultivate the land and care for the stock, and a maid, Ann Towle, who not only helped with the housework but also worked in the fields. "She hath been a faithful servant," wrote Richard Saltonstall, executor of the estate, "and though she was discharged by her mistress a little before her time was out, yet it may be borne by the estate, considering her diligence." Ann had come over in the ship Susan and Ellen, which arrived in April, 1635. Her passage cost £5.

The Dillinghams occupied a good social position in the youthful settlement but their two-room house did not contain any really fine furniture. The parlor was also used as a bedroom, a practice which was common everywhere in the seventeenth century. It had two bedsteads valued at £1. 6. 8.; a cupboard, 10s.; a sea chest, 10s.; two "joyned Chaires," 5s.; a round table, 7s.; a deske, 4s.; and a band box, 2s. There was also a large nest of boxes valued £2. and a small nest of boxes worth only three shillings. The feather beds, boulsters, and pillows on each bed were valued at about twice as much as a bedstead and the coverlets averaged about £1. a piece. There were flaxen sheets for Mrs. Dillingham's bed and coarse sheets for the beds of the maid and the indentured servant. A warming pan bears silent testimony to the cold of the winter season. Another bedstead valued at only three shillings may have been in the garret and occupied by Ann Towle, the maid. A chest stood in the kitchen—more generally spoken of at that time as "the hall," in accordance with the English usage—and two boxes, probably used for storage and also for seats. That was all the furniture listed in the kitchen that was considered of any value. The tables, stools, benches, shelving, or other furnishings seemingly necessary to housekeeping at that time either did not exist or were so crude in construction as to have little or no value in estimating the estate. We find five cushions, however, valued at fifteen shillings.

Mrs. Dillingham died possessed of a few really fine furnishings—possibly treasured ancestral pieces—for she bequeathed a silver bowl to the wife of Richard Saltonstall, and to the wife of John Appleton she gave a silver porringer. It would be extremely interesting today to know what has become of these two pieces of Colonial silver. No other silver is mentioned but on shelving in the kitchen rested 40½ pounds of pewter valued at £2. 14. 0. As a pewter plate of the time weighs nearly two pounds and a platter much more the supply of pewter for the table was not large. Wooden plates, trenchers, and bowls are not mentioned, but there were twenty-five pewter saucers, six porringers, seven spoons, and five shillings worth of knives. As for table forks, they were practically unknown in the Colony at that time. Governor Winthrop brought over a fork in 1630, carefully preserved in a case, which is supposed to be the first and only table fork in the Colony in the earliest days of the settlements. Knives, spoons, and fingers, with plenty of napery, met the demands of table manners in the seventeenth century.

The large fireplace in the kitchen had its usual equipment of pot-hooks, fire shovel and tongs, gridiron, trivet, and bellows, and beside it was an old dark lantern valued at only two shillings. There were iron pots, kettles, skillets and ladles; a brass pot and a mortar. There was a frying-pan with a hole in it and in a box were kept "bullets, hinges and other smale things." Two beer vessels were listed; a case of bottles, two jugs, three pans, a tray, and two baskets. Such was the simple equipment of the Dillingham kitchen. There were plenty of table-cloths and napkins but no curtains at any of the windows. If a broom were used it probably was made of birch twigs bound together around a long handle. Candlesticks do not appear in the inventory and the only store of food mentioned (aside from twenty-one new cheeses valued at £2. 16. 0.) was seven bushels of rye, two firkins and a half of butter, a half bushel of malt, six pounds of raisins, and some spice. Our ancestors had a highly developed appreciation of the value of condiments. In a Salem inventory at a somewhat later date appear salt, pepper, ginger, cloves, mace, cinnamon, nutmegs, and allspice.

Mrs. Dillingham's wearing apparel unfortunately is not listed item by item, but given a total value of £5. 8. 4. Her linen amounted to an almost equal sum. Some of her deceased husband's clothing is included in the inventory, such as a coat with silver buttons, a red waistcoat, a suit of serge and a black suit of serge unmade, a jacket of cloth, and an old suit and cloak. Little Sara Dillingham, the orphaned child, when sent to school to goodwife Symonds was supplied with "a stuffe petticoat & waskote" and four "shifts with shewes"; also a gown that cost £2 10s. Perhaps after a time she may have been able to read and fully appreciate the books formerly in her loving father's chest. They were: "Perkins works in 3 volumes, Seaven Treatises bound in 2 volumes, the Spowse Royall, the bruised reade, & a little new testiment."

Six years later, in 1642, there died in the same town, Richard Lumpkin, who had emigrated from Boxted, in Essex, and became an influential citizen in the new town in the new county of Essex. He was elected a representative to the Great and General Court and was deacon of the Ipswich church at the time of his death. He left an estate valued at £300. In the hall of his house stood a long table, with two forms and a stool beside it, having a total value of only fifteen shillings. The hall also contained three chairs and six cushions valued at four shillings. That was all the furniture in the room that was of any value. There were books, however, valued at £2. 10. 0., a musket and a fowling piece and other small furnishings. In the parlor was a table with six joined stools, three chairs and eight cushions, a bedstead, and a trundle bed with curtains, and a chest, the latter valued at only four shillings. In the chamber over the parlor was a bedstead with its trundle bed, a table valued at three shillings, four chests and two boxes; not a chair or stool is named in connection with the room. The kitchen was in the leanto and while it contained a good supply of brass and iron pots and kettles and also pewter dishes, the table, bench, stools and wooden plates, etc., that must have been in the room were of so little value that they do not appear in the inventory.

It is when we meet with joined and wainscot chests and court, livery, and standing cupboards that we find pieces that may have been brought from overseas. When Mr. Thomas Millard of Newbury (note the title of honor), died in 1653, he possessed a wainscot cupboard, table, chairs and stools. He also left behind him three silver spoons, a silver cup, and a silver salt seller, and among the kitchen utensils were tinned pudding pans, a brazen chaffing dish and a lanthorn and lamp made of latin ware.

The widow of the Rev. Jose Glover married, in 1641, Henry Dunster, President of Harvard College. Among the furnishings of her house were "eleven featherbeds or downe … one of them haveing philop and Cheny curtaines in graine with a deep silke fringe on the vallance, and a smaller on the Curtaines, and a Coverlett sutable to it, made of Red Kersie, and laced with a greene lace, round the sides and 2 downe the middle, also … an outlandish quilt, also to another a blue serdge suite very rich and costly, curtaines and valances laced, and fringe, and a blue Rug to the bed, also a greene sute in the same manner, also another red wrought suite, with a sheet and all things Compleate, also a Canopie bed, with Curtenes, a Chest of Drawers of part of this Chest was filled with rich lenen a dammeske suite seuerall diepere suits a fine hollen[d] suit with a stech: with abundance of flaxen linen for Common use, in another parte of the chest of drawers tape, tafety for Chaire and Stooles … also 29 siluer spones a very faire salt with 3 full knops on the top of it[22] 3 other siluer salts of lesser sorts a great siluer trunke with 4 knop to stand on the table and with suger: 6 porrengers, one small one: 3 bere boules 4 wine cups a siluer grate with a Couer on it: 6 siluer trencher plates: also blankets and Coverletts and Rugs euery[way] Compleat to furnish so many beds."[23]

By way of contrast let us glance at the inventory of the possessions of William Googe of Lynn, who died in 1646, ten years after Mrs. Dillingham had willed that her body be "decently buyried" and her child "religiously educated if God give it life." Googe left a house and twelve acres of land and the total value of his possessions amounted to but £28. 11. 7, with debts of £4. 9. 7. He left a widow and three small children, and though dying in very lowly circumstances he may have known better times, for John Mascoll, the servant of Mr. Googe of Lynn, was fined in 1643, for neglecting the watch. The title of honor, "Mr.," was used but sparingly in those early days and usually indicated a degree of social standing in the community.

Googe had been a soldier, for among his personal belongings at death were a sword and belt, a musket and bandoleers, and also gunpowder. One cow and four hogs comprised his entire livestock, and five bushels of wheat, ten bushels of Indian corn, and flax in the bundle lay in the garret of his house, which was frugally furnished with a chest, a chair, an old chair, a stool, and a trunk. The family probably slept on pallet beds made up on the floor, for bedding is listed but no bedsteads. They had a frying pan, a gridiron, a skillet, a posnet, an earthen pot, six spoons, and the following woodenware, viz.: "3 wood trayes & 3 wood boules & 3 wood dishes, 1s. 9d.; one runlitt, 1s.; paieles & tubs, 3s." Two bags valued at two shillings bring to a close the list of the earthly possessions of William Googe of Lynn. When the inventory was brought into court it very properly gave the goods to the widow "for the bringing up of her three small children." So reads the record.

Doubtless there were many families in the Colony little better conditioned, judging from the relatively small number of estates settled through the courts when compared with the deaths and estimated population.

Googe's house and twelve acres of land were valued at only £8. This must have been a very simple, thatch-roofed house of not more than two rooms, comparable with the outlying farmhouse of Jacob Perkins that was burned in Ipswich in 1668. And thereby hangs a tale. Master Perkins and his wife had gone to town one summer afternoon leaving the house in charge of Mehitable Brabrooke, a sixteen-year-old serving maid. We will let the ancient document in the court files relate what happened.

"About 2 or 3 aclocke in the afternoone she was taking tobacco in a pipe and went out of the house with her pipe and gott upon the oven on the outside & backside of the house (to looke if there were any hogs in the corne) and she layed her right hand upon the thatch of the house (to stay herselfe) and with her left hand knocked out her pipe over her right arme upon the thatch on the eaves of the house (not thinking there had been any fire in the pipe) and imediately went downe into the corne feild to drive out the hogs she saw in it, and as she was going toward the railes of the feild … she looked back, and saw a smoke upon her Mistress' house in the place where she had knocked out her pipe at which shee was much frighted."[24]

The wife of a neighbor came running to the assistance of Mehitable and afterwards testified that when she reached the house she looked into both fireplaces and saw no appearance of fire, only a few brands nearly dead under a great kettle hanging in the chimney. She also looked up into the chamber through the floor boards that lay very open on the side where the smoke was.

Could photographs more vividly picture the scene? The thatch-roofed farmhouse had two rooms on the ground floor and a chimney with two fireplaces. An oven was built on the backside probably having an opening inside the kitchen fireplace in the usual manner. The house was of but one story judging from the low roof that the maid was able to reach when standing on the oven, and the floor of the chamber in the loft had wide cracks between the boards so that it was possible to look through from below and see the under side of the roof. In similar homes lived many a family in the early days in comparative comfort.

As for the careless Mehitable, she was brought before the Quarterly Court on suspicion of wilfully setting the house on fire; a serious offence, which as late as 1821, was the cause of the execution in Salem of a sixteen-year-old boy. Among those who deposed at her trial was a young man who said that as he and she were going into the meadow, before the fire, to make hay, she told him that her mistress was angry with her, but she had "fitted her now" for she had put a great toad into her kettle of milk. As it turned out the Court ordered Mehitable to be severely whipped and to pay £40 damages to her master Jacob Perkins. It now seems incredible that a serving maid of 1668 could ever get together so large a sum of money.

The settlers in the New England Colonies, unless persons of wealth or possessed of large families, during the early years lived generally in houses having but one room and an entry-way on the ground floor. Above would be a chamber—sometimes only a garret. As the family increased in size and became more prosperous another room would be added to the house on the other side of the entry and chimney, making the structure a so-called two-room house. Still later, with the need for more room, a leanto would be built on the back of the house, thereby supplying three additional rooms on the ground floor with a kitchen in the middle. The earlier kitchen would then become a living-room or "sitting room"—in the New England phrase. This earlier kitchen was usually called "the hall" during the seventeenth century and in it centered the life of the family. It was the room where the food was cooked and eaten. There the family sat and there the indoor work was carried on. A loom sometimes occupied considerable space near a window and frequently a bed was made up in a corner, on which the father of the family slept, and there sometimes also he died.

The principal feature of this common room was its huge fireplace in which hung pots and kettles suspended by means of pot chains and trammels from the hardwood trammel-bar or lug-pole that rested on wooden cross bars and so bisected the wide flue in the chimney. These large fireplaces in the early days were sometimes called "chimneys" in the vernacular of the time. They were generally as wide as eight feet and a ten foot opening is not unknown.

This cavernous opening was spanned by a wooden lintel—a stick of timber sometimes sixteen inches or more square, and when exposed to a roaring fire, piled high with logs, this became an element of danger, the charring wood smoldering all night and setting fire to the house. The trammel-bar in the flue also caught fire not infrequently and gave way, allowing the pots and kettles to fall to the hearth, bringing disaster to the dinner or to the curdling milk and sometimes to those seated near. A trammel stick in the house of Captain Denney gave way from this cause and a large kettle filled with wort[25] fell down and spilt the boiling liquid over four of his children who were sitting or lying on the hearth, some of them asleep, "which scalded them in so terrible a manner, that one died presently after, and another's life is dispaired of" continues the record.

"Here is good living for those who love good fires," wrote Higginson in his New-Englands Plantation, and under the spell of the glowing flames, the bare, whitewashed walls, the brown timbers and floor boards of the ceiling, the dress of pewter, and the simple furnishings of the room, enriched by the shadows, became a place full of cheer—a place where privation and homesickness might be forgotten in the glow of the bright firelight. On cold nights the short bench inside the fireplace was a chosen place and the settle, a long seat made of boards with a high back to keep off the draft, was drawn before the fire and here sat the older members of the family.

The larger kettles hanging in the fireplace, were of brass and copper and some of them were of prodigious size. Hot water was always to be had and these kettles also served for the daily cooking, the cheese-making, soap-boiling, and candle-dipping.

Much of the food of the average New Englander until comparatively recent times consisted of corn-meal, boiled meats and vegetables and stews. Every well-equipped household had its spits for roasting and many had gridirons, but the usual diet of the average family was "hasty pudding"—cornmeal mush and milk—varied by boiled meat or fish served in the center of a large pewter platter and surrounded by boiled vegetables. Baked beans and stewed beans appeared on the table several times every week in the year. Indian bannock, made by mixing corn meal with water and spreading it an inch thick on a small board placed at an incline before the fire and so baked, was a common form of bread. When mixed with rye meal it became brown bread and was baked in the brick oven with the beans and peas.

The brick oven was a feature of every chimney. Sometimes in early days it was built partly outside the house but so far as known the opening was always in the kitchen fireplace. To reach it the housewife must stoop below the oaken lintel and stand inside the fireplace, taking care that her woolen skirts did not come near the flames. To heat it for a baking, a fire was built inside, usually with specially prepared pine or birch wood that had been split and seasoned out of doors for a short time and then housed. The fire and ashes were then taken out by means of a peel—a long-handled, flat-bladed shovel made for the purpose—and when dusted out with a broom made of hemlock twigs it was ready for the brown bread, beans, peas, Indian pudding, pies, and rye drop cakes which were made with rye meal, eggs and milk and baked directly on the bricks in the bottom of the oven.

Between the years of 1635 and 1655, court records and inventories of estates in the Massachusetts Bay Colony mention the following articles of food:

Bacon, beef, butter, cheese, eggs, fowls, lamb, milk, mutton, pork, suet, veal, wild game, and cod, herring, mackerel, salmon and sturgeon.

Barley, beans, Indian beans, bran, cabbages, carrots, chaff, corn, English corn, Indian corn, hops, Indian meal, rye meal, oatmeal, oats, parsnips, peas, pumpions, rye, squashes, turnips and wheat.

Apples, berries, fruit, honey, raisins, sugar and vinegar.

Biscuit, blewlman, bread, cake, malt, salad oil, porridge, rye malt, yeast, salt and many kinds of spices.

Much of this food was raised on the farm and nearly every family had its garden. Such articles of food as were imported were usually obtained at the shops in the larger towns by barter, as money was scarce. In 1651, a farmer came through the woods to Salem in his cart bringing twelve bushels of rye. He stopped at a shop owned by George Corwin and from the daybook kept at the time and still carefully preserved, we learn that among other necessaries he carried home sugar for the goodwife, and for the children a doll and a bird whistle.

In the early years domestic animals were too valuable to be killed for meat but game was plentiful and was roasted by being trussed on iron spits resting on curved brackets on the backs of the andirons. This, of course, required constant turning to expose the roast on all sides in order to cook it evenly—a task frequently delegated to a child. A skillet would be placed beneath to catch the drippings. Sometimes a bird was suspended before the fire by a twisted cord that would slowly unwind and partly wind again, requiring some one in frequent attendance to twist the cord. Families of wealth possessed a "jack" to turn the spit. This was a mechanism fastened over the fireplace and connected with the spit by means of a pulley and cord. A heavy weight suspended by a cord which slowly unwound, supplied the power that turned the spit.

In "the hall," usually upon open shelves, but sometimes upon a dresser, was displayed the pride of the housewife—the dress of pewter and latten ware. "China dishes," imported by the East India Company or made in Holland, were used sparingly during the early years of the colonies. There was much earthenware and stoneware bottles and jugs, but it was wooden ware and pewter that were commonly used. When Lionel Chute died in 1645 he bequeathed his silver spoon to his son James.[26] It was the only piece of silver in the house. Of pewter he died possessed of fourteen dishes "small and great," eleven pewter salts, saucers and porringers, two pewter candlesticks and a pewter bottle. The widow Rebecca Bacon who died in Salem in 1655, left an estate of £195. 8. 6., which included a well-furnished house. She had brass pots, skillets, candlesticks, skimmers, a little brass pan, and an excellent supply of pewter including "3 large pewter platters, 3 a size lesse, 3 more a size lesse, 3 more a size lesse," having a total value of £1.16. She also had a pewter basin, six large pewter plates, and six lesser, nineteen pewter saucers, two fruit dishes, an old basin and a great plate, two candlesticks, one large salt and a small one, two porringers, a great flagon, one lesser, one quart, two pints and a half pint; and an old porringer. She also left "1 silver duble salt, 6 silver spoones, wine cup & a dram cup of silver."

Giles Badger of Newbury left to his young widow, a glass bowl, beaker, and jug valued at three shillings; three silver spoons valued at £1, and a good assortment of pewter, including "a salt seller, a tunell and a great dowruff." The household was also furnished with six wooden dishes and two wooden platters. In other inventories appear unusual items such as a pewter brim basin, pewter cullenders, pewter beer cups, pans, and mustard pots. Pewter tankards were common. There were new and old fashioned candlesticks. Pewter salts came in three sizes and the saucers were both small and large. In 1693, best London pewter plates cost the Boston shopkeepers 9½ pence per pound in quantity.

The seventeenth century "hall" must have had little spare room for its daily occupants, for in addition to its table and chairs, its settle, stools and washbench, the long ago inventories disclose such chattels as powdering tubs in which the salted meats were kept, the churn, barrels containing a great variety of things, keelers and buckets, bucking tubs for washing, and the various implements used in spinning and weaving, washing and ironing, cooking and brewing, and the making of butter and cheese. In the chimney hung hams and bacon and suspended from the ceiling were strings of dried apples and hands of seed corn.

It is claimed by some that the floors were sanded. That certainly was true at a later period but there are strong elements of doubt as to the prevalence of this custom during the seventeenth century. Sand, however, was used freely with home-made soft soap, to scrub the floors which were always kept white and clean, and whenever an early house is restored or taken down sand is always found, sometimes in considerable quantity, where it has sifted down through the cracks between the floor boards. The downstairs rooms had double floors but the chamber floors were made of one thickness of boards with here and there a knothole and frequently with cracks between the boards through which the dust and dirt from above must have sifted down upon the heads of those seated at dinner or engaged in their daily tasks in the rooms below. Not only does the structural evidence show this to be true but a number of instances occur among the papers in Court files, where witnesses have deposed as to what they had seen and heard through the cracks in chamber floors. A grandson of Governor Endecott once fell a victim of two gossiping sixteen-year-old girls who had spent some time on their knees peeping through the cracks in a chamber floor. Capt. Richard More, the last survivor of the company on the Mayflower, late in life kept a tavern in Salem. He was spied upon in this manner and eventually brought before the justices of the Quarterly Court to answer for his evasion of the law set forth and maintained at that time.

The parlor, called "the foreroom" at a later time, was the room where guests of station were received. The best bed hung with curtains and valance and covered with a rug, stood in a corner. In those days rugs were not used on floors but as bed furnishings. Even the baby's cradle had its rug. Carpets, likewise, were too fine for wooden floors and were used as table covers. Of bedsteads there were many kinds—high and low, canopy, close, corded, half-headed, joined, side, standing, inlaid, and wainscot, and slipped under the higher bedsteads during the daytime, were trundle or "truckle" beds in which the children slept at night. Lionel Chute, the schoolmaster, had an "old darnkell coverlet" on his bed while some of his neighbors possessed branched and embroidered coverlets and several had coverlets made of tapestry.

Among the better families the parlor and chamber windows had curtains hung from rods or cords. In the parlor stood chests in which were stored the family clothing and bedding, for closets did not exist in the seventeenth century house. There were great chests and small chests, long boarded and great boarded chests, chests with a drawer, carved chests, wainscot chests, trunks, and boxes. A few stools and chairs, a looking-glass, a small table, and perhaps a cupboard completed the furnishings of the well-supplied parlor. In Capt. George Corwin's best room there were chairs with leather bottoms and straw bottoms, a clock valued at £2, a screen having five leaves, a napkin press, and a "Scriture or Spice box." White calico curtains hung at his chamber windows and the maid had a "Calico Cuberd cloth" in her room. Parlor walls were whitewashed and bare of ornament. The first families owned a portrait or two in oils and here and there a map in unglazed frame decorated a wall. The Puritan character did not warm to the fine arts and austere living was the aim if not always the achievement of the time.

The chambers in the second story must have been curiously furnished rooms, containing a huddle of stores of all descriptions. Henry Short, the town clerk of Newbury, died in 1673 leaving a goodly estate valued at nearly £2,000.[27] He owned a negro slave and his house was large and well furnished. There was an old parlor and a new parlor containing beds, chests, chairs, trunks, and boxes. In the chamber over the new parlor there was a good feather-bed and bed clothing but no bedstead. Wool and yarn were stored in this room together with boxes, tubs, some feathers, and miscellaneous "lumber"—the phrase of the period for odds and ends. The chamber over the kitchen, a comfortable room of course, in winter, had its bed and bedding, also "5 hogsheds, 6 barrels, 5 Iron hoopes, a pair of stockcards, meale trough & other lumber, a parcell of old Iron, a pike, a bed cord & other cordage." Small wonder in such a clutter that the rooms frequently had other tenantry than the human occupants.

When Jasper Dankers arrived in Boston in 1680, the captain of the packet took him to his sister's house where he lodged. "We were taken to a fine large chamber," he writes, "but we were hardly in bed before we were shockingly bitten. I did not know the cause, but was not able to sleep. … My comrade who was very sleepy, fell asleep at first. He tumbled about very much; but I did not sleep any the whole night. In the morning we saw how it was, and were astonished we should find such a room with such a lady."[28]

Early in the eighteenth century the walls of rooms in some Massachusetts houses began to be covered with "painted paper" hangings imported from England. These papier paints were first introduced into England, from France, about 1634, and probably were brought into New England by Governor Andros and his followers. Michael Perry, a Boston bookseller, who died in 1700, had in his stock "7 quires of painted paper and three reams of painted paper." His successor, Daniel Henchman, dealt in painted papers as appears from his account books commencing in 1712. In 1713 two quires of painted paper cost four shillings, and two quires of blue paper, three shillings. In 1714, Isaac Thomas of Pembroke paid £2. 10. 0 for "6 Rowls Paint'd Pap'r & 2 Q'r Paper."

When Peter Sergeant of Boston died in 1714, the inventory of his estate disclosed "one large gilt looking glass, in the cedar room, £5. One suit of Imagery Tapestry hanging, £20. One suit of red china £5." Two years later the house was purchased by the Provincial Government for a governor's residence and in 1741 we find the Provincial Treasurer paying Daniel Henchman £5. 8. 0. for four rolls of painted paper and shortly another bill was presented for "New Tacking the paper hanging above in the chamber & new papering one roome below stairs."

In 1734, John Maverick, shopkeeper, bought of Henchman, four quires and five sheets of painted paper for £1. 3. 9. In 1736, Colonel Estes Hatch bought 10 rolls painted paper for £16. 5. 0. which was probably used in his mansion in Dorchester, bought after the Revolution by Colonel James Swan.

The painted paper of the eighteenth century was sold at first in sheets, 22 by 32 inches, called elephant size. Later these were pasted together to make 12 yard lengths. In the earlier stages of manufacture the designs were colored by hand. Stencils of pasteboard were used, and in the last half of the eighteenth century blocks of pear and sycamore wood were used, as in calico printing. One who painted coats of arms and other things pertaining to heraldry, as well as one who painted or stained linen cloth, was known as a "painter stainer." So, also, those who stained colored or stamped paper for hangings were known as "paper stainers."

When Thomas Hancock built his house on Beacon Hill he desired painted paper for some of his rooms. Extracts from his letter to John Rowe, stationer, London, explain his wants:

"Sir: Inclosed you have the Dimensions of a Room for a shaded Hanging to be Done after the same Pattern I have sent per Capt. Tanner. The pattern is all that was left of a Room lately come over here, and it takes much in ye Town and will be the only paper-hanging for sale here which am of opinion may Answer well. … If they can make it more beautiful by adding more Birds flying here and there, with some Landskips at the Bottom, Should like it well. Let the Ground be the same colour of the Pattern. At the top and bottom was a narrow Border of about 2 inches wide which would have to mine. …

"A hanging done much handsomer sent over three or four years previous was made by Dunbar in Aldermanbury. …

"In other of these Hangings are great variety of different Sorts of Birds, Peacocks, Macoys, Squirrill, Monkys, Fruit and Flowers, etc. … I think they are handsomer and better than Painted hangings done in Oyle so I beg your particular Care in procuring this for me and that the patterns may be taken care off and Return'd with my Goods."—Letter of Thomas Hancock to John Rowe, Stationer, in London, Jan. 23, 173⅞.

In the eighteenth-century Boston newspapers may be found numerous items showing the use of wall paper and the fact that it frequently was imported from England. But while it is true that it could be purchased in the shops in Boston it does not follow that rooms in every house were papered. Nor is it likely that the rooms of houses in the country had papered walls save when the owner was a wealthy man. London fashions would first be found transplanted into the seaport towns and later would be adopted by the country. Undoubtedly the home of the Governor, or of some well-to-do sea captain, was the first house to be so decorated. On September 22, 1762, died Daniel Starr of Boston, "who has been for many years employed in Papering Rooms." This item appears in the news items of the Boston News-Letter. Eight years later the same newspaper prints the following advertisement:

"George Killcup, jun. Informs the Gentlemen and Ladies in Town and Country That he Paints Carpets & other Articles, and Paper Rooms in the neatest manner. He will take English or West India Goods as Pay.

"Said Killcup is ready to pay those he is indebted to, in Painting or Papering Rooms."—Boston News-Letter, March 17, 1768.

"Roll Paper for Rooms," with "most sorts of Stationary Ware" were advertised for sale by John Parker, over against the shop of Mr. Dolbeare, Brazier, at the Head of the Town Dock, Boston.—Boston News-Letter, June 3–10, 1736.

J. Boydell, the printer of the Boston Gazette, advertised in November, 1736, a house in Boston, to be sold, in which two chambers in the first story were "hung with Scotch Tapestry, the other Green Cheny."

John Phillips, bookseller, advertised "Stampt Paper in Rolls for to Paper Rooms," in the October 26, 1730, issue of the New England Journal.

"Sundry sorts of Painted Paper for Rooms" were to be sold at public vendue at the Exchange Tavern in King Street, with other importations.—New-England Journal, August 29, 1738.

"Flowered Paper, or Paper Hangings for Rooms, to be Sold; Inquire of the Printer."—Boston Gazette, February 2, 1742.

"Beautiful Arras-Hangings for a Room" to be sold at vendue.[29]—Boston News-Letter, August 22, 1745.

Against the earlier background of whitewashed walls hung few decorations. Between 1635 and 1681 there were 960 estates probated in Essex County, Massachusetts. The county had several seaport towns and its inhabitants were more prosperous than many other parts of the Colony. In the inventories of these 960 estates, pictures are listed but eight times and maps were found in but three homes. William Hollingsworth, the shipbuilder and merchant of Salem, possessed seven framed pictures. They are the only framed pictures mentioned. Hilliard Veren of Salem, who died in 1668, had three pictures in his hall chamber and Robert Gray of the same town had in his parlor a large looking-glass with some earthen dishes and a picture, the whole valued at £2. The Rev. Nathaniel Rogers of Ipswich, had two pictures in his parlor and Thomas Wells of Ipswich, bequeathed to his son Thomas, the new pictures of the King and Queen and the one of the "five sencces." He also possessed maps and paper pictures.

Fifty years later John Smibert, the portrait painter, had his shop "at his House in Queen Street, between the Town House and the Orange Tree, Boston," where he sold "all sorts of Colours, dry or ground with Oyls and Brushes, Fans of several sorts, the best Mezotints, Italian, French, Dutch and English Prints, in Frames and Glasses or without, by Wholesale or Retail, at Reasonable Rates." About the same time the "Royal Waxwork" was to be seen at the House of Mr. Thomas Brooks, shopkeeper, near the Draw Bridge, and Thomas White, the engraver, was living in a house not far away.

Here are a few advertisements from early newspapers bearing on furnishing the house:

Bed Hangings. To be sold by Mrs. Susanna Condy, near the Old North Meeting House, a fine Fustian Suit of Curtains, with a Cornish and Base Mouldings of a beautiful Figure, drawn in London, on Frame full already worked; as also enough of the same for half a dozen Chairs. N.B. The Bed may be had by itself.—Boston Gazette, May 24–31, 1736.

Bed-Screws. Mr. John Barnard of Boston, having some time since Lent a Pair of large Bed-screws. These are desiring the Borrower to return them again to the owner, as he desires to Borrow again, to avoid the Curse due to the Wicked, that Borrow but never Pay.—Boston News-Letter, Oct. 22–29, 1716.

Bedstead. A Coach-head Bed and Bedstead with its Curtains and Vallents, &c., as it stands, being a blew China. To be disposed off. Inquire of the Printer.—Boston Gazette, June 16–23, 1735.

Canopie Beds. A Couple of very good Cannopie Beds lately come from England to be Sold on reasonable terms, by Rupert Lord Upholsterer and to be seen at Mr. Ramies House in Corn-Hill the next door to the Post-office, Boston.—Boston News-Letter, Jan. 4–11, 1713–14.

Mohair Bed. To be Sold reasonably for ready money, or on good Security, a yellow Mohair Bed lined with a Persian of the same Colour, and six Chairs of the same Mohair, little the worse for wear. Inquire of J. Boydell.—Boston Gazette, Oct. 17–24, 1737.

Press Bed. A Very good Press-Case for a Bed, to be Sold. Enquire of the Printer.—Boston News-Letter, Oct. 28-Nov. 4, 1736.

Carpets. Just imported from London, in the last ships and to be sold at Mr. Blanchard's in New Boston West End; a large assortment of fine Carpets for Rooms, very cheap for ready Cash.—Boston Gazette, Jan. 22, 1759.

Publick Vendue. At 5'o'Clock in the Afternoon will be sold by T. Fleet, at the Heart and Crown, in Cornhill—Bedding, Several Suits of Curtains and Bedsteads, a fine new Silk Damask Quilt and Quilted Cushions of the same, Black Walnut Chest of Drawers and Desk, Brass Candlesticks, Iron Dogs, sundry Suits of wearing apparel for men, new Castor Hats, China Ware, Rummolds, Druggets. … —Boston News-Letter, May 18–25, 1732.

Household Furnishings. This Afternoon at 3 o'clock will be Sold by Publick Vendue, by Daniel Goffe, at the Dwelling House of Mr. Jonathan Barnard, over against the Town-House in Cornhill, sundry sorts of Household Goods, consisting of Beds, Bedding, a Couch, Chairs, handsome Japan'd Tea Tables, Walnut and Mahogany Tables, Chest of Drawers, Peer Glasses, Sconces, Glass Arms, China Ware, Metzotinto and other Prints, several valuable large Pieces of Paintings, one handsome large Carpet 9 Foot 6 Inches by 6 Foot 6 Inches, a fashionable yellow Camblet Bed lin'd with Satten, a great easy Chair and Window Curtains, suitable for a Room, a Field Bedstead and Bed, the covering a Blew Harrateen, Kitchen Furniture, as Pewter of the best sort, Copper, Brass and Iron, a parcel of Books and some Shop Goods.—Boston News-Letter, May 8–15, 1735.

Furniture at Auction. To be sold by Auction, Household Furniture of the late Mr. Pyam Blowers, including: Fine Sconce Glasses, large Looking Glasses, Leather Bottom Chairs, sundry Mehogany and other Tables, a good Couch Squab and Pillow, a very handsome Yellow Damask Bed, an Easy Chair, a neat case of Drawers, … two Silver watches, sundry sorts of good China Ware, etc.—Boston News-Letter, May 17–24, 1739.

Furniture at Auction. To be Sold by Publick Vendue on Monday next at 3 o'Clock, Afternoon, at the House of Charles Paxton, Esq., the following Goods, viz.: A fashionable crimson Damask Furniture with Counterpain and two Sets of Window Curtains, and Vallans of the same Damask. Eight Walnut Tree Chairs, stuft Back and Seats covered with the same Damask, Eight crimson China Cases for ditto, one easy Chair and Cushion, same Damask, and Case for ditto. Twelve Walnut Tree chairs, India Backs, finest Cane, and sundry other valuable Household Furniture.—Boston News-Letter, Jan. 9, 1746.

Furniture. To be Sold, a crimson Harrateen Coach-Bed, Bedstead, and Feather-bed, six small chairs, and one two-arm Chair, with crimson Harrateen Seats, a Table, and two small Pictures, Enquire of the Printer.—Boston News-Letter, June 25, 1747.

Hand Boards. Lately arrived from London, & are to be Sold by Giles Dulake Tidmarsh at his Warehouse No. 4 on the Long Wharfe, Five Dutch Tea Tables, as Hand Boards and Looking Glasses, new Fashion.—Boston Gazette, Nov. 19–26, 1722.