Town Government by Selectmen: Animal Control, Rences, Land Grants, Education and More
You may have seen the book Boston Firsts written by Lynda Morgenroth. She mentions a Boston first that occurred in Dorchester—the manufacture of chocolate by John Hannon in 1764.[1] As it turns out, this claim for first may not be true. The Brown family of Providence is reported to have manufactured chocolate as early as the 1750s.[2]
Dorchester should be acknowledged for other firsts of great importance, such as establishing a school with public money in 1639 and establishing the form of New England town government.
On October 8, 1633, the Dorchester town meeting of its inhabitants produced what is probably the earliest “home rule” document in American institutional history.[3] The entry in the records says that the inhabitants would select twelve men to act as a steering committee for the town. Dorchester claims the credit therefore of having been the first plantation to establish the New England town meeting by selectmen[4] and prides itself as having established the system of local government by town meeting, which has so powerfully influenced the character of our people and the structure of our institutions.[5]
This act, which is printed here, acquires some importance from the fact of its precedence, and that the example was followed the next year by the other settlements, and led to the law of the General Court, passed in 1636, regulating town governments, which has continued in force to the present day.[6]
“Imprimus It is ordered that for the general good and well ordering of the affayres of the Plantation there shall be every Mooneday … a generall meeting of the inhabitants … to settle (and sett downe) such orders as may tend to the generall good as aforesayd; … It is also agreed that there shall be twelve men selected out of the Company, that may or the greatest part of them, meete as aforesayd, to determine as aforesayd …”[7]
Edward Everett said that Dorchester set the example in 1633 of that municipal organization which has prevailed throughout New England and has proved one of the chief sources of its progress.”[8]
Prior to this time decisions were reached by the inhabitants of the town by consensus. It is easy in looking back to imagine why it would be easier to delegate the routine affairs of the town to a committee. For example, the Dorchester town records are full of entries regarding the control of livestock.
In the beginning decade following the arrival of settlers from the West of England on the ship Mary and John in 1630, the town set up the ownership and use of land following the English open field system. Each family had a home lot of an acre or two, large enough for a house and gardens. Each family also had a grant of about 16 acres in the “great lots”, a large cultivated area that was fenced in common, where the inhabitants made group decisions about the crops to plant and cooperated in the use of oxen for plowing. Large tracts of land for pasturage were held in common for the use of all. The area now known as South Boston was called the cow pasture or the neck, and Columbia Point was called the calf pasture.
In that first meeting on October 8, 1633, the Selectmen decided that maintaining the fence around the common fields was the responsibility of the person along whose land the fence passed. Failure to keep the “pale” in good repair would incur a fine of 3 shillings per goad (possibly equal to a rod or 16.5 feet). The Selectmen also ordered that “every man for future tyme that put any Cattle in the necke be of what condition soever shall p’sently pay Two shillings an head.”
Through the years the records continue with the management of livestock and the maintenance of fences to keep the cows and pigs out of the corn. On May 20, 1634, the Selectmen ordered that within two days all pig sties shall be removed from all the pales (fences) or they would impose a fine of 20 shillings per day. Anyone who did not keep the pale in good repair would be liable for a fine of 10 shillings per day. After this time anyone whose swine were caught trespassing should make up for the damage caused.
In November of 1634, the Selectmen ordered the construction of a public animal pound of sawn bars and posts. Then in December they ordered that if any hogs commit any “trespasse in any of the corne fields within the Plantation,” the owner of the fence where they break in shall pay one half of the damage and the owner of the swine shall pay the other half. In July of 1635 they ordered that such swine, goats or other cattle as trespass should be impounded and there to be kept till the owner shall pay for the trespass and if the owner did not satisfy the claim within 3 days after being notified, the Bailiff could sell the swine to pay for half the damage. The Bailiff could attach the goods of the person responsible for the fence to pay the other half.[9]
In 1636 the Selectmen ordered that Mr. Stoughton and Mr. Holman, upon furnishing 3 bulls for the herd of cows at that side of town, were to be paid 12 pence for each cow. The Selectmen gave the contract for keeping the cows from the 17th day of April to the 15th of November to Mathias Sension and Thomas Sampford, who were to be paid 5 shillings per head. Everyone who wanted his cows to be pastured in common was ordered to bring his cows into the open place before the meeting house within an hour of sunrise. The Keepers would be ready to drive them away, blowing their horn along the Town. The Keepers would not wait beyond the appointed time but would drive away those which were ready to the Pasture. Those who through their own neglect did not make it in time could not argue for a reduction in fees.
Orders for the control of animals and fences continued on in meeting after meeting. The Selectmen also handled many other issues including land transfers, the cutting of timber on common lands, rewards for destroying wolves, and the assessment and collection of taxes.
Perhaps their order on May 20, 1639 was one of their most notable acts. At that meeting they established an obligation of 20 pounds yearly on Thompson’s Island towards the maintenance of a school for Dorchester be paid to a schoolmaster to teach English, Latin and other tongues as well as writing. It was left for further discussion whether “maydes shalbe taught with the boyes or not.”[10] To our knowledge the school had only male students, and girls did not attend public school until the 19th century. “It is claimed that this was the first public provision made for a free school in the world, by a direct tax or assessment on the inhabitants of a town.”[11]
At the end of Dorchester’s first decade, the Selectmen were still dealing with animal control. Hogs were not allowed to stray out of a man’s property without risk of a fine. Richared Lippincott was chosen to keep the pound; fences were to be mended; no one could put cattle on the neck till April 15th; two men were chosen to keep the cows. In 1640 the Selectmen chose two men to be supervisors of highways to oversee the making and amending of highways within the plantation. The supervisors had the authority to take any man’s team or servants or other workmen or money to fulfill their responsibility.
The town continued under this form of government until January 1, 1870, when it was annexed to the city of Boston following a vote of the town in 1869.
[1] Lynda Morgenroth. Boston Firsts. Boston: Beacon Press, 2006. p. 3. She calls the company that Hannon began and that the Baker family continued the “first, finest, most long lasting chocolate mill in America.” A statement in her preface is puzzling—The Firsts we chose had to be in an area that was part of Boston at the time of the event’s occurrence. Please note that Dorchester was a separate town, not part of Boston, until 1870.
[2] Charles Rappleye. Sons of Providence. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. p. 20, 28. Refers to chocolate manufacture in Rhode Island by the Brown family in the 1750s and early 1760s.
[3] John Fairfield Sly. Town Government in Massachusetts (1620-1930). Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1967. p. 30-31.
[4] George Emery Littlefield. Early Schools and School-Books of New England. New York: Russell & Russell, 1965. p. 62.
[5] Dorchester Old and New, 1630-1930. Dorchester: Chapple Publishing Company for the Dorchester, Massachusetts, Tercentary Committee, 1930. p. 16.
[6] History of the Town of Dorchester, Massachusetts. By a Committee of the Dorchester Antiquarian and Historical Society. Boston: Ebenezer Clapp, Jr., 1859. p. 32.
[7] Fourth Report of the Record Commisioners of the City of Boston. 1880. Dorchester Town Records.Second edition, 1883. Boston, 1883. p. 3.
[8] Everett, Edward. Dorchester in 1630, 1776, and 1855. An Oration Delivered on the Fourth of July, 1855. Boston, 1855. p. 34.
[9] Dorchester Town Records.
[10] Dorchester Town Records. See also William Dana Orcutt. Good Old Dorchester. Cambridge, 1893. p. 289-290. Orcutt examines some of the claims by other towns for the first public school.
[11] Littlefield. p. 70. See Littlefield p. 64 to 70 for a discussion of claims for the first school.