Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

144 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
turbance one Sabbath day, and was brought, with the rest, before the
court of which his father was a member, uo parental consideration
prevented the imposition of the regular fine. Tlie boy subsequently
became the noted Indian fighter, Samuel Holyoke.
It was some time after the first meeting-house was put up that
glass was secured for the windows, and the natural curiosity of the
children went to the usual lengths, and some of the windows were
broken. The selectmen at once laid down a rule that a child caught
at any sports about the meeting-house should be fined, and in case
the governors or parents refused to pay the fine the children should
be duly whipped in the presence of the board. Having run beyond
the date of this chapter, we will go a step farther and add some
orders passed in 1680 : —
Wher as there have hen for a longe tyme great disordir in our asembl}' by
many young persons flocking out of tlie meetuig lious before the blessing is
protiounsed many of them eanot be thought to have any nesesyty so to do and
thare being a Cuiitry law that doth comend it to the select mens care and it being
a grief to seryous minds, we doe declare and order that no person so doe ex-
ceptin thare sliall be a nesesary ocasyon :
and
we doe request and order Increse
Sickes to keejie the east doore and Isaack Gleson and Benjamen Thomas to
looke to the South doore. And we doe request Liftenant Stebins to apoynt on
of the gaurd to see to the youth there about etc.
It is also ordered by the Selectmen that all persons or boys under the age of
twelve years of age sit on that seat under the Decons seat and also on that seat
against it and on the stars, only they must not Block up the stars when Mr
Glover corns.
The death of Mrs. Mary Holyoke, October 26, 1657, may be called
a sad sequel of her father's practical banishment. Her sister, Mrs.
Henry Smith, as we have seen, finally went crazy, but whether as a
result of her father's persecution is not known. John Pynchon was
called to P^ngland in 1664 by the death of William Pynchon, which
took place at Wraisbury, October 29, 1662. His body was not
carried to Writtle, where many of his family are buried, but he lies in