History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

in 1710. About the same time James Hovey
was a prisoner in the hands of the French and
Indians in Canada. Later nine young men from
Maiden hiid down tlieir lives in the jjerformance
of their duty in the celebrated siege of Louisburg,
in 171-.5.
In the successive campaigns of the French war,
which began in 175.5 and extended over a period
of nearly eight years, the men of Maiden took an
active part, although no full company was recruited
here. Lieutenant Simon Wade was wounded in
the futile expedition against Crown Point, and was
killed at the capitulation of Fort William Henry,
in 1757, when the savages of Montcalm's army,
in the presence of their French allies, inhumanly
massacred the greater part of the unfortunate gar-
rison. In a company commanded by Dr. Ebenezer
Marrow of ^ledford, in 1758, were Lieutenants
Samuel Burditt and Darius Green, with thirty-one
non-commissioned officers and privates of Maiden.
This company was sent to the westward with the
forces under General Abercrombie, and participated
in the unsuccessful and bloody attempt upon Ticon-
deroga, in which the colonial troops experienced a
heavy loss and were afterwards much reduced by
sickness. The Maiden men who died in this cam-
paign were James Whittemore, John Burditt, Jr.,
Ezekiel Floyd, Joseph Jenkins, and Nathaniel
Wayte. In a company in service in 1763, commanded
by Captain Moses Hart of Lynn, were
eleven men of Maiden ; and individuals were
scattered in various regiments during the war.
This war was the nursery of the army of the Revolution
; and there seems to have been a growmg
fondness for military life, at this time, among all
classes. The enrolled militia of Maiden in 1758
was one hundred and thirty-four men, under the
command of Captain John Dexter. In 1763 its
officers were Captain Ezra Green, Lieutenant .Tabez
Lynde, and Ensign Thomas Hills.
As we tread the threshold of the Eevolutiou it
may not be unprofitable to inquire into the state
of the town as it approached the close of the
colonial period. Materials to satisfy such an in-
quiry, though scattered, are happily not insuffi-
cient for our purpose. In common with the great
body of the people of Massachusetts Bay, the in-
habitants of ^Maiden were alive to the great dangers
of the time. They were heartily in sympathy
MALDEN. 125
tants of the town, in 1765, were divided into one
hundred and seventy-four families, inhabiting one
hundred and forty-four houses. Of the aggregate
number of nine hundred and eighty-three, forty-
eight were negroes and four hundred and sixteen
were under sixteen years of age. During the next
eleven years the population increased to one thou-
sand and thirty. In 1767 seven work-houses or
shops are mentioned ; and £ 244 was the value of
the " Trading Stock " of the community. Of mon-
ey at interest £1,169 Qs. 8c/. appears; and the
live stock of the farmers consisted of eighty-four
horses, one hundred oxen, and four hundred and
eighty-six cows, besides sheep and a few swine.
The taxable products of the land were fifty-eight
hundred and thirty-nine bushels of grain and six
hundred and fifty-two barrels of "Cyder," with
one thousand and fifty-two tons of hay, of which
but two hundred and thirty-four tons were of Eng-
lish grass, the salt marslies then, and in earlier
years, furnishing a large proportion of the hay ob-
tained. By these figures the sparseness of the
])opulation of the territory now covered by the
towns of Jlalden, Melrose, and Everett may be
understood. The simplicity of their condition may
appear in the fact that, eight years before, one
chaise and fourteen chairs were the wheel carriages
sufficient for the wants of this community. Trav-
elling was performed upon foot and on horseback;
and a few years earlier the purchase of a "shay"
was the plentiful source of spiritual disquiet in the
soul of Mr. Emerson.
Slavery existed in a mild and patriarchal form;
but it was still a real slavery wherein human beings
had a money value and were sold like cattle or the
ground on which they trod. The names of a few
of these servitors have come down to us ; but the
names of Brahma Bucknam and Cato Lynde, of
Phyllis Willis and Violet Hills, belong to a day and
a condition wliich have passed away. The comparative
value of human flesh in Maiden may be known
by the hiventory of Deacon John Pratt, which was
made in 1742, when an " oald negroman" and a
cow were valued alike at £10 each. The inven-
tory of the estate of Ezra Green, made in 1768,
valued "a Negro man named Jeferre " at £20,
while the more youthful " Negro Boy Named
Simon " was invoiced at £ 33. A " Negro Garl
Named Vilot," increased the inventory only by
with the cause of liberty, and evinced their readi- the amount of £ 10 13*. 4 r/. Several individuals
ness to act in its defence. Their action at a later who had been slaves remained in Maiden withiTi
period we shall consider in its place. The inhabi- the last fifty years, tlie last of whom was Simon