Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

490 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES.
ence for them. The study will make us more contented with our
lot in life, happier and better men.
In the summer of 1640 they had their lands to clear, fence and
plant, to build roads, and do many things that are incident to the
settlement of a new country, and they found little time, if they had
the means, of improving their dwellings. Many of them resided all
their days in the houses they first erected. Improvements were
made from time to time. The thatched roof, the paper windows,
and the cob work chimney disappeared, and shingled roofs, diamond
glass windows and brick chimneys and ovens were substituted. As
the family increased the house was enlarged, first by adding a lean-
to, and afterwards by adding another story. Some of the lareest
.
old houses now remaining, one of which will be described in this
aiticle, were built by adding one room at a time.
The second house in which Andrew Hallett, Jr., resided, in
Yarmouth, stood on the west side of the mill road, a little distance north
of the house now occupied by Mr. John Bassett. It has been suggested
that this was the Sympkins house repaired and enlarged.
family tradition is that he built it.
The
He bought the Sympkins land in 1644, but did not build his
house till some time afterwards, if the family tradition is reliable,
that Jonathan, born in 1647, first saw light in the old house. The
new house was built on a little knoll, and fronted due south, as all
ancient dwellings did. By such a location, our fathers secured two
objects which they considered essential : the rays of the sun at noon,
or dinner-time, as they called that hour of the day, shone parallel
with the side of the house, and their "great room" in which they
lived, was on the sunny or warm side of the house. The chimney
was uniformly built on the west side, and projected outside of the
frame. The exact size of Andrew Hallett's new house cannot be
stated accurately : it was about 22 feet by 26 on the ground, and was
only one or one-half stories high. The arrangement of the rooms
was the same as in the Dimmock house, which I have described.
The "great room," about 17 feet square, occupied the southeast corner.
The fireplace was eight feet wide and four deep, and the man-
tle, which was of wood, was laid about five feet and a half high, so
that the family could pass to the oven,* which opened on the back of
the fireplace near the south corner. There was a small kitchen or
work room at the northwest corner ; at the northeast corner a Small
pantry, with a trap door leading to the cellar. Between the pantry
and the great room was a bed-room, the floor of which was elevated
about two feet, to give greater depth to the cellar. The bed occu-
*The oven projected out on the west side of the house. I am not aware that there is a
single specimen of these old chimneys and projecting ovens now remaining in this County.
Mr. Oris Bacon'^ was the last I recollect in Barnstable. A man passing a house of this
construction, and thinking to pass a good joke on the lady thereof, knocked at the door on
her appearance, he said : "Madam, do you know your oven has got out of doors?" She
replied, "Will you have the kindness to bring it in, it is too hot for me to handle ?"