Chapter 8 - Bellingham and the Revolution

The American Revolution was not a distant affair to the early residents of Bellingham. The Town had 627 residents in 1776. It was not unreasonable to assume that this remote, agrarian town was relatively untouched by the events taking place in Boston and the surrounding area. This was not the case. From the earliest days of the unrest, the Town of Bellingham and its citizens were deeply interested and at least peripherially involved in the changes taking place. Representatives of this Town attended the conspiracies and were present when the decisions were made. Its citizen soldiers participated in most of the decisive battles in New England and many in other areas of the colonies.
 

The years of 1774 and 1775 were ones of indecision in the Town and the Colony. Should the Town get actively participate or should it wait and how far should any participation go? Once the Revolution became a reality, Bellingham showed strong and unwavering support. The Town raised its citizen militia, added its vocal representatives to the various area, state and federal meetings and exercised many of the rights it had failed to use while under the King.
 

Since its inception up to 1774 Bellingham had failed to send a representative to the General Court. The Town claimed poverty and the great distance and time required to travel by horse to Boston as reasons for not being represented. If there was any dissatisfaction with the government of the King and his colonial representatives it was unwritten.
 

There may have been some truth to the claim of poverty, but it was more likely a disinterest in the doings of a body distant from the Town and a feeling of impotence in their ability to provide input. Always independent, the Town had a diversified religious community that guarded its independence lest they be made to do that which they did not wish to do. When the die was cast and the government became one of the people, the Town was only too willing to pay the cost and to send men to many parts of eastern Massachusetts for conventions, meetings and sessions of the General Court. Once the day was won, however, the Town reverted to its old ways, probably as it found that its voice was still not heard and overall conditions remained relatively unchanged.
 

Beginning in 1721, each year, the Town Meeting voted for town officers; each year the Town rejected electing a Representative to the General Court, even though the colonial government required such a representative. In 1774, after apparently being fined for their failure (a situation that had occurred several times in the past), the following article appeared on the warrant for a town meeting to be held April 4, 1774:
 

"To see if the town will agree by a committee or any other way Petition to the great & general Court to have a part of the Valuation Laid on the town of Bellingham abated that the Provence treasurer directed to set to Bellingham the Last year. A Less sum to ever thousand pound than it now stands and to see if the town will also agree by a committee or any other way to Petition to Sd general court to have the fines laid on this town two years past for not sending a Representative abated."
 

The Town Meeting of May 18, 1774 answered a warrant article to end this non representation as follows:
 

"Put to Vote to see if the town will chuse a man to Represent the town at the Great and General Court according to the Presept and passed in the negative."
 

The Town meeting not only did not send a Representative, it wanted its money back. A Committee was established to write an answer:
 

"Put to Vote wether the town will Chuse a committee of three men to prepare & present to the Grate & General Court of this Provence a Pettition that the Sd General Court abate a part & make the sum Less that is set as this Towns Proportion to each thousand pound in the Provence Tax & that the Province Treasurer may be directed to send for a less Sum to Bellingham in the 100 pounds & also that Sd committee pray Sd Court to remitt the Sums we ware fined for not sending a Representative the last year & in the year 1771 by sending for a Less sum to this town the next year."
 

"Passed in the affirmative."
 

"Voted that the town direct Said committee to lay the poverty of the town of Bellingham before the Great & General Court & pray they would excuse said Town from sending a Representative & not fine us the presnt year."
 

The committee was formed and the following petition from the poor Town of Bellingham was sent to the General Court:
 

"Petition to the Gen Ct We apprehend that the Town is overburdened in the valuation of 1772 in that there is set to our town more than our Proportion to each £1000. And in being fined £6 in the year 1771 and £8 in the year 1773 for not sending a Representative."
 

"Our reasons of complaint are: That one third of the Inhabitants are Really Poor and the limits of the Town Small Being two miles a quarter and 8 rods wide in the middle and southward, towards the North a little wider & 5 or 6 miles long. That the greater part of the land is sandy Dry Pitch Pine or hard Barren land. That the assessors who returned our valuation to the General Court in 1772 made a mistake. They set down to us two Iron works when in fact there not nor ever was any in Bellingham. That sd Assessors set to us 10 Tan houses or shops. That one of these has been Useless for more than 7 years & no profit to the Town. That several of the shops are Blacksmiths & so little done in it, that it would be as well for the owners & the Town if there was none in it. That one Potash is only a shed & but one small kettell in it & never much Done in it. That in 1772 we had not one Trading shop in the town. That there are four Mills set to the Town; which are all on the same stream & Dont go above four months in a  Year By reason of flowing meadows in the spring & want of water in the fall. That we are obliged to go out of Town for most of our Smith work mill work & all our Shop Goods. That Endeavors have been used to obtaine the Oreginal accounts that the Committee of valuation had but have been unsuccessful therein. That we have been favoured by Several Respectfull members with Copys of some of them And by them we find that shops &c are set to Bellingham which is the farthest Town in the County of Suffolk from Boston at a gereater sum than in other towns nearer. That Cow Pastures Tuns of English hay Barels of Cyder ... are set to us as high as in other towns. All which appears to us Unequal. That it is a grief to us that we are not Able to mainttain a Member with You & Support our families & our Poor & Pay our Taxes. That we hope eir long to Enjoy the Priviledge of a Member with You. That we acknowledge the favours shown us by the Assembly Perticularly that when we were fined about 20 years ago, on our Setting forth our Poverty the then Assembly remitted our fine & we never were fined before or since until the Year 1771."
 

"We pray for a lower rate, remission of said fines, and excuse for not sending a Represent this year"
 

John Metcalf
 

Robert Smith
 

Samuel Scott
 

Committee
 

This committee did not proffer the above Petition."
 

Certainly the Town did after the Town Meeting.
 

While the cry of poverty may have been embellished by the distance from Boston and the unlikelyhood of a visitor from the government, clearly, even in rural Bellingham, the tax burden was being felt. The call for Town Meeting to be held July 12, 1774 was more ominous.
 

Article 2 requested "To See if the town will vote to grant ninteen shilling which your Part of five hundred pounds which the Counsel and House of Representatives granted to enable the Committee of Correspondence appointed by the Respective Houses to do their duty reposed in them."
 

The town meeting "Voted to grant ninteen shilling which is our part of the charg of the Committee Correspondent"
 

Article 3 requested "To See of the town will act any thing conserning the Covenant sent to us from Boston in agreeing to not by any goods imported from Great Brittien as is mensioned in Sd covenant or make a new agreement as they shall think proper."
 

The Town was not ready to join in further. The meeting "Voted to ajurn the third artical in the warrant to September meeting"