History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

420 HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY
Deacon Amos Brown, Joel Dix, Thomas Livermore,
Samuel Peirce, Ezra PeircCj Silas Stearns, Daniel
Stearns, Jonas Viles, Josiah Whitney, Thomas
Wellington, Jacob Bemis, and Tluuldeus Bemis each
paid 1 10 to liire men to go to Rliode Island in the
summer of 1777, and these sums should be refunded.
George Stearns, Elijah Smith, Joseph Lock, William
Peirce, Samuel Gooden, and Coburn
went in July, 1778, "to guard prisoners of Con-
vention," and were gone fifteen days ; they should
be allowed £-i each. Josiah Leavitt, Ephraim
Peirce, Jr., Jonathan Smitli, Peter Warren, and
John Livermore were of the guard which escorted
prisoners to Rutland, and for that service siiould
receive £6 each. Two men were also sent in the
summer to guard prisoners until the 1st of Jan-
uary; there sliould be allowed for them the expense
of hiring them, £70 (supposed). Four men
were sent for to guard the lines in and about
Boston until tiie 1st of January, 1779 ; two of
them are hired and sent, and are to receive £18 per
month, including their wages ; this will cost about
£t!0 ; tiie other two are drafted, and if they go or
hire substitutes are to be paid at the same rate;
tills will amount to about £51.. Captain Abraham
Peirce, Lieutenajit Samnel Stearns, Samuel Bigelow,
Jolm Gleason, J.m'I Ilarnni-lon, Elislia Harrington,
Eliphalet Warren, \Vi1Ii;mi,> ( uslnug, i'.czahvl Elagg,
Samuel Green, Sainnd Stcanis, Jr., John Ijiver-
inore, Nathan Lock, Warham Cusliing, and Jonathan
Hagar went to the lines at the alarm in Au-
gust, 1778 , they should be allowed £3 each. If
it should appear that there were otlier inhabitants
of tiie town who had done service eitiier in person
or in money during the war, they should have tlie
allowance made in the report in similar cases. Tiie
entire total of these sums is £3,308 6*. 4c/., which
amount should be proportioned and assessed upon
tlie real and personal estate ; those whose payment
as by tiie above list is short of their assessment to
make up the deficiency, and those whose payment
is in excess of tiie assessment to be reimbursed
" ill r;i>c I hey will receive it when offered." The
snii) rcroiiiinciided by tlie committee was granted,
Ijiit the \ol(' u;i> Mil)sc(|ueiil]v ivcoiisidcred. James
Kho.'s, -AuA lwrntv-li\c
^.I.Tlincn ,.f Wailhaiii
tlie record for i7 7s.
At tlin regular
1779, Captain' A biah
April 8, the
live jiairs of
iigs from the
This closes
uel Stearns, and Isaac Hagar were elected com-
mittee of correspondence, and at the May meeting
Abner Sanderson was chosen representative, and
he was instructed, by a vote of twenty-four to ten,
to cast his ballot in favor of a new state constitu-
tion under similar restrictions made under a pre-
vious vote (see 1777). On the 18th of June a
committee was chosen to hire men for the army on
the town's credit. . A week later they reported but
one man engaged, on account of the high bounties
demanded ; the meeting directed them thereupon
to make the best terms they could. A convention
was held at Concord on the 14th of July to regu-
late the prices of merchandise. On the 2d of
August the report of the convention was read at
a town-meeting in Waltham, and a committee of
eleven chosen to carry out the vote of that body.
On the 9th of August the committee reported the
following scale of prices : Innholders, for a good
meal of butcher's meat with vegetables, 12«., if
with tea, 15«.; West India flip, 12.?. per mug;
bowl of toddy, 12.s.; for labor, haying and stone-
wall work, 12 i. per day and found; mechanics,
with their own tools and found, 60.$.; for black-
smith shoeing a horse, £4; shoemakers, best
men's shoes, £5 8 «., women's £4 1*.; tailors,
making a coat, £6, breeches, £3; weavers, weav-
ing cotton and linen shirting, 6«. per yard ; hat-
ters, for a good beaver, £32 10*.; farmers, hay
36 «. per cwt., oats 36.$. per busiiel, etc. Per-
sons taking more than above rates to have their
names published in the newspapers by the commit-
tee of correspondence, inspection, and safety, in
order that they may be dealt with according to
Resolution 2 of the Concord Convention. It must
be remembered, in considering these prices, that
they are founded on a depreciating currency. On
tlie 18th of August Jonas Dix, Esq., and John
Clark were chosen delegates to the constitutional
convention to be held at Cambridge, September 1.
The town granted Jonas Dix, Esq., in behalf of
the committee appointed to raise men for the
army, £2,838. September 20, the town voted to
hire four men to serve in the army in Rhode
Island, and October 14, voted to hire eight men
to reinforce the army under General AVashington.
In Novembi'r the town granted £2,180 18*. 6d.
til ilrfray tlie cxpeiise of employing these men..
Ill .liilv ilii' coiiiiiiiilcr rc|iorted having hired Jo-
siali \Vvcr, Kli .loncs, Hlisha Harrington, Thaddeus
1
r in ^iarch, (loodin, and Richard lloppin at $1,540 each, and
itenant Sam- Habakkuk Stearns and Joseph Perry at S840 each.