Old Houses of New England

Front matter

OLD HOUSES of New England

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

MACMILLAN & CO., Liwitep

Introduction

OUR PURITAN HERITAGE

OO BHE « old houses of New England manifest their $ origin in the shires of Old England from which 0 T rT 6 their builders came; they express also in their 0 many additions the progressive life of the suc-

PSO ceeding generations. In their individual types they indicate the original status of the owner and something of the purpose which he brought with him, while in the variation of their development they express both change of ownership and variation of idea following the progress of the thought of the community.

The roots of these primitive homes reach back into the English Middle Ages and in themselves represent a persistence of the idea of individuality, in contrast to the growing power of monarchy, which accompanied the Renaissance on the continent of Europe. It was in protest against the attempt of the Stuarts to absorb into the ruling power the right of the individual to do or to think as he pleased, more definitely the latter, that moved many rectors of the Church of England to abandon livings held under the Crown and with their flocks to shake the dust of their native villages from their feet and to go into voluntary exile. This exile led them first to Holland, whose toleration towards all shades of religious belief made her a haven of refuge for the

XU Introduction oppressed, and later to the shores of the New World where their purpose was to establish, not a community whose criterion should be a complete freedom of religious thought, but a church-state modeled on their own conception of the Mosaic law. Fleeing a state of intolerance at home, they proceeded, mortal wise, to establish a state of intolerance abroad, under which they undertook to bar, through the ungentle pressure of the stocks, the lash and even the gallows, those who persisted in differing with their conception of man’s proper relation to his God. This was necessary if they were to maintain their idea of a church-state.

It was fortunate for our future as a people that this rigidity of doctrine was accompanied by a well-developed idea of civil and political liberty and of the inherent right of the individual to the expression of his own ideas. It is fortunate also that the Puritan revolt drew to this promised land a high quality of citizenship selected from the best of the gentry and yeomanry of old England. The unsuccessful attempt to implant absolutism on the free-born Englishman resulted in England’s losing a small but very important section of its best, the very bone and sinew, so far as it went, of the nation, just as the revocation of the Edict of Nantes permanently removed from France a large and important element of the most enlightened of her people, which in some degree also went to the upbuilding of the new nation across the sea.

The concept of civil liberty, therefore, in the long run modified the rigidity and the self-righteousness of the revolting parsons and the complete separation of church and state in New England was finally achieved through the bloodless revolution which seated the Prince of Orange on the throne

Introduction Xill of England, re-established Parliamentary rule and confirmed the freedom of religious worship.

The acceptance of the idea of the religious as well as the political rights of the individual was, however, not attained in New England without several generations of struggle. The early chronicles of practically every section of the growing communities are marked by the recurring religious differences in which the rigid minority is less and less able to enforce its rule on the revolting majority.

Our ancestors were apt at controversial argument and as their ideas were largely centered on the religious theme, the expounding of doctrine was a function often assumed by even the humblest member of a congregation. A most healthful discussion was therefore constantly in progress. The method adopted to settle an argument in the early days was the forcible ejection from their midst of the minority, and the exodus of the latter toward the frontier where, in spite of hardship and the rigors of climate and attacks of the Indians, they managed to establish communities which grew and prospered sufficiently finally to leaven the whole lump with the leaven of religious liberty. The expanding of the colonies and the founding of separate communities was, as it turned out, hastened by these religious differences.

The major part of the Puritan emigration to America was about coincident with the Long Parliament in England. As the Puritan party led by Cromwell then became dominant at home the exodus to America ceased and the colonies in New England, remote from the homeland and now practically left to themselves, proceeded to develop from within. This development proceeded apace, the colonists, filled with that genius for self-government which generations of struggle

XIV Introduction with the Crown had given them, organized each community as a self-governing body deriving its powers from the votes of the majority of eligible voters. Eligibility was entirely a question of religious belief and was restricted in the dominant communities to those who were acceptable as communicants in the Church. A fellow of Oxford or Cambridge, even a Baronet’s son might sit on the Board of Selectmen of his town with a craftsman or a miller but no Episcopalian was admitted, even to citizenship, in the beginning. The towns scrutinized with great caution the qualification of new applicants and, particularly on the religious side, shades of doctrine were deemed: of great importance. Grants of land and rights to the Cow Commons were made to those who were accepted, and once admitted, the community assumed responsibility for their welfare and exacted in full measure, their contribution to the common needs.

Organization extended from the localities to the colonies and in 1643 the Confederacy arose of ‘“The United Colonies of New England” and each colony sent delegates to the General Court. This body represented the interest of all the colonies in their struggle with the home government and was effective in organizing their defense in the devastating war of King Philip.

The Confederacy included at first Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, New Haven and Connecticut, thirty-nine towns with a population of about 24,000. Maine at this time had a proprietary charter in control of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. New Hampshire had been settled by the followers of Mason and Gorges and by those of Mrs. Hutchinson and was, therefore, both Episcopalian and heretic. Rhode Island, which had united with the colonies of Aquidneck, purchased by

Introduction XV

Mrs. Hutchinson, and that of Roger Williams at Providence, was established on the principle of full religious toleration and was the avowed haven of every shade of religious belief. In 1644 and 1648 she applied for admission to the Confederacy but was refused as not possessing a sufficiently stable government.

Of the four colonies composing the Confederacy, Plymouth was less rigid and more tolerant than either Massachusetts Bay or New Haven, in which the theocratic idea ruled. Connecticut, on the other hand, was much more liberal than New Haven.

This Confederacy was the first American experiment in federation and the union, of itself, tended to break down rigidity, yet the separate colonies by their own acts had kept, ‘up to this time, the communities exclusively Puritan and they so remained for three quarters of a century. The movement was essentially ethical and as such could at any time change its form and did so through a gradual process following the break-up of the church-state idea.

After the Puritan exodus from England and during the following century but three minor emigrations were added which differed in doctrine or race, amounting to perhaps five hundred families all together. In spite of these infusions, at the end of the XVIIIth century, New England remained purely English in taste and inclination, populated as it was with the descendants of country squires and yeomen of old England.

This population of 26,000 in 1640 continued to multiply by itself with but little change until the beginning of the XIXth century. After the Revolution, the migration of New England families westward began to spread from New

Xvi Introduction

York to California. Their passage across the continent has — been marked by the transplanting of the principles of self-government which have marked their growth in New England. And their progress has been registered by the names of the New England towns from which they came.

The descendants of the Puritan families have thus spread all over our country and have intermarried with other elements in the communities into which they have moved. John Fiske in his “Beginnings of New England,” published in 1889, estimated that these descendants were responsible for at least a quarter of the population of that day, that is, about fifteen million persons. Even though the proportion may now have somewhat varied, there can be no question but that this inheritance still constitutes a large and very important element in the life of our day.

Many of the dwellings, even a number of those built in the XVIIth century, remain as monuments to mark this unique development of a peculiar people. They have now become the shrines to which each summer from every state in the union their descendants make their annual pilgrimage. The family, in many cases now grown to an army of thousands, has united its members to preserve the ancient dwelling. Many remain to be so conserved, still occupied by the last direct descendant, a single gentleman who has outlived his near relations or two or three maiden ladies, the last of their family; for the families which have remained behind have intermarried with each other and have gradually dwindled, as is the way of those who have withdrawn from the main stream of life. The charm of their remoteness and that of their ancient houses is the greater for its contrast with the intense activity of our commercial progress.

ES

Introduction XVil

Taken as a whole, the development of the New England homestead, expressing the life of its period, constitutes an American style which, as already mentioned, has its roots far back in mediaeval England and in its progress has borrowed much from Jacobean and Georgian England, yet the product, adapted to conditions and to materials of the new world, differs characteristically from its prototypes.

This development, while fairly homogeneous, offers variations due to differences of religious thought, of occupation and environment, traced in the foregoing, and these variations have formed the basis of our selections. The first two chapters expound the theme of which the later chapters are the elaborations.

Contents

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