Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 6.

[p. 68]

Strangers in Medford, (continued from vol. 4, no. 2).

Names.	From.	Date.	Warned out.	Remarks.
Chandler, Ballard			Jan. 30, 1791
Christian, John			Jan. 30, 1791
Clark, Sarah	Boston,	Sept. 27, 1766	May 16, 1767
Clark (two children)	Boston.	May 27, 1772		Children of Elizabeth Clark.
		Jan. 2, 1773		In family of Wm. Henderson.
Clisby, Joseph				‘Not to be rated. . . in this town which I lately lived in,’ Apr. 30, 1790.
Clisby, Joseph			Jan. 30, 1791	Cooper.
Coffin, Samuel			Aug. 31, 1797
Collins, Richard   (wife)	London	June 26, 1756		Peruke Maker.
	Boston			In house of Israel Mead.
Conory, Daniel	Stoneham,	May 8, 1764.	Mar. 1, 1765	Brother of Isaac Conory.
Conory,1 Isaac   Sarah (mother)   Hannah Sisters   Lydia	Stoneham,	May 8, 1764	Mar. 1, 1765
Conory, Peter	Stoneham,	May 8, 1764	Mar. 1, 1765	Brother of Isaac.
				Jan. 30, 1791
Convers, Ebenezer			Aug. 31, 1797
Convers, James			Aug. 31, 1797
Convers, Joseph			Aug. 31, 1797
Cook, Isaac	Charlestown,	Mar., 1771		In family of Nathan Tufts, Jr.
Cook, Joseph   wife and children			Dec., 1759	‘Taken in by Capt. Whitmore.’

[p. 69]

Cook, Joseph, Jr.   Margery (wife)   a boy	Cambridge, May 10, 1756	Nov. 27, 1756	Tenant of Joseph Tufts.
Cook, Joseph   Margery (wife)   Isaac   Abigail Children	Charlestown, May, 1759	Nov. 21, 1759
Cook, Joseph   Isaac   Abigail Children   ‘and the others’	Bowdoinham at the Eastward, May or June, 1766	Nov. 8, 1766
Cook, Lydia		Feb. 1, 1780
Cook, Mary	Charlestown, Nov. 25, 1766	May 16, 1767	‘Young child’ in family of Benjamin Teel.
Copeland, James		Aug. 31, 1797
Corey, Thomas		Jan. 30, 1791
Corrigell, James   Elizabeth (wife)	Boston, July 2, 1760
Crane, David		Jan. 30, 1791
Cowen, Elizabeth	Maiden, Sept. 3, 1758		Maid in family of Simon Tufts.
Cozens, Nathaniel   Rebecca (wife)   and a child		Nov. 29, 1754
Cristie, Martha			Notice from Town of Boston, Aug. 27, 1803.
Crocker, John and family	Stoneham	Feb. 26, 1755

[p. 70]

Names.	From. Date.	Warned out.	Remarks.
Crowell, Aaron   wife and family		July 10, 1751
Crowell, Robert   wife and family		July 10, 1751
Cutter, David	Woburn abt. May 18, 1757	Feb. 8, 1758	‘Taken in by Wm. Faulkner’
Mary (wife)   one child			‘To James Long's farm of Medford.’
Cutter, Elizabeth	Woburn, on or before Dec.		Widow ; in family of Sarah Cutter.
Cutter, Polly		Jan. 30, 1791
Rebecca		Jan. 30, 1791	Widow.
Darby, James		Jan. 30, 1791
Darling, John   Mary (wife)   John, Jr.   Mary   Thankful   Lydia   Eunice		Aug. 10, 1777
Davis, Abel		Jan. 30, 1791
Davis, Elizabeth	Woburn Precinct,2 Nov. 15, 1755		In service to Timothy Hall.
Davis, Elizabeth		Jan. 30, 1791
Davis Lucy	Charlestown, May 21, 1759	Sept. 5, 1759	In service to Zebulon May.
			In service to Benj. Pierce.

[p. 71]

Delahunt, Elizabeth	Boston,	Oct. 12, 1770		Housekeeper for Col. Royal
Dexter, Timothy			Jan. 30, 1791
Dickson, Jonathan   Martha (wife)   Benjamin3 (nurse child)	Cambridge,	May 26, 1772		In house of Richard Crease.
Dike, Jonathan	(See John Adams）
Dixon, Josiah   Hannah (wife)	Charlestown,	Apr., 1755	Dec. 1, 1755
Dix, Sarah	(See Sarah Reed）
Dogget, widow of Isaac   Bathsheba (daugh'r)	Braintree		Feb. 26, 1755
Dolbeir, Susannah	Boston,	May 17, 1758	Nov. 27, 1758	Servant of Thos. Seccomb.
Dorumpel,4 Robert	Newtown,	May 15, 1764		In family of Timothy Tufts.
Dunster, Rebecca	‘Masson town,’	June 6, 1770		In family of Joseph Tufts.
Eades, Josiah (?)	Watertown,	June 21, 1755		Orphan. Age 16. Apprentice to Ebenr. Tidd.
Eastabrooks, Nehemiah   wife and child'n			Jan. 30, 1791	Distiller.
Emerson, Abigail	Cambridge,	Mar. 27, 1754	Feb. 26, 1755	In service to Zacheriah Poole.
English, William			Aug. 31, 1797
Evens, Anna	Wilmington,	Sept. 17, 1765	Sept. 1, 1756	In service to Hezekiah Blanchard.
Farley, Mary	Billerica,	Aug. 12, 1765	Feb. 24, 1766	In family of Aaron Blanchard.
Farrington, Daniel			5Jan. 30, 1791
Fillebrown, James	Cambridge,	Mar. 10 1766	May 16, 1767	Apprentice to Nath'l Pierce.
		2, 1767

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[p. 72]

‘Over the Hill to the poorhouse.’

By Helen T. Wild.

‘THE poor ye have always with you’ is amply exemplified in town records from the earliest times. The meeting-house, the minister, and the town charges furnish the bulk of subject matter for the early books. One cannot read these ancient documents without realizing the truth of a recent newspaper squib, ‘It is easier for one parent to support ten children than for ten children to support one parent.’ Children were often paid for boarding their aged fathers or mothers. In one pitiful case several sons out of a large family absolutely refused to do anything for their mother's support.

For this article we have not gleaned from ancient records, but from a little book tucked away on an upper shelf at City Hall, inscribed on the first page, ‘Doings of the Overseers of the Poor for the Town of Medford, 1811.’

From this first page we learn that, at that time, there was no almshouse in use in the town, and the paupers were boarded out. We can imagine the comforts the poor creatures enjoyed when we read that the price paid for board was thirty-three cents a week in addition to whatever labor the dependent could furnish.

In the latter part of 1811 the town poor were returned to Medford from Woburn, where they had been quartered, and Leonard Buckman took the contract to board the grown people at one dollar per week. These were doubtless too decrepit to be capable of labor.

The annual report of the overseers in 1812 states that there were thirty-six persons supported by the town, beside children boarded in families. The cost for the support of the town poor for the preceding year was $1359.80, ‘as near as can be calculated.’ December 3, 1812, Benjamin Young, as keeper of the new workhouse, was allowed for his services, and those of his wife, at the rate of two hundred fifty dollars per annum. By the [p. 73] terms of the agreement, Young was to maintain himself and family, and to have house rent and the use of the kitchen fire.

In 1813, thirty-three persons were supported wholly by the town, and thirteen assisted.

The families of soldiers of 1812 were grudgingly granted aid, for Medford, led by their pastor, Rev. David Osgood, was bitterly opposed to the war. One man is referred to as being, not in the army of the United States, but ‘in Mr. Madison's army.’

September 23, 1815, a great gale passed over West Medford and nearly wrecked the poorhouse, together with many other buildings, blowing down the chimneys and breaking the windows.

This house, or a portion of it, is still standing on Canal street, and has lately become a home for aged inventors.

The unfortunate, the decrepit, the lazy, the vicious, and the insane were housed ninety years ago under the workhouse roof. In 1816 it was voted by the selectmen that a new place ‘for the better security and comfort’ of one of the last named class be built in the cellar.

In 188, by act of Congress, soldiers of the Revolution received pensions, and at that time a little group of veterans left the poorhouse to maintain themselves on this slender stipend. Others, too feeble to shift for themselves, remained behind, their pensions being used for their benefit by the overseers.

A set of rules for the government of the poorhouse was promulgated in 1818, and the first one was, ‘If any will not work, neither shall he eat.’ And what kind of fare was he deprived of if he persisted in being lazy? In 1820, by act of the General Court, an adult pauper was allowed one dollar per week for support, and a child fifty cents a week.

In order to bring expenses within the proper limit, the following bill of fare was presented to Leonard Bucknam, the keeper, to be rigidly followed.

Dinners for a week: two of baked or stewed beans, [p. 74] two of soup, two of fish, or pudding with milk or molasses, and one of boiled victuals. Breakfasts and suppers: once a week tea, or coffee of peas, rye, or barley; all the rest, pudding with milk or molasses, or milk porridge, one third milk.

In 1829, Deacon Galen James, a strong total abstinence advocate, became chairman of the board, and stringent rules were laid down concerning strong waters, which many of the occupants of the poorhouse craved.

The overseers of the poor of Medford were always chosen from her most prominent citizens, and they doubtless administered affairs in their charge in as fair a manner as their resources and the customs of the day warranted; but, nevertheless, the workhouse was a nightmare in those days to many a poor soul battling with poverty. There was only one deeper abyss of misery, and that was imprisonment for debt in the common gaol.

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Heber Reginald Bishop.

The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record for April prints a sketch, with portrait, of Heber Reginald Bishop, who died in New York, December 10, 1902.

Mr. Bishop was born in Medford, March 11, 1840, and was the youngest son of Nathaniel Holmes Bishop and Mary Smith Farrar. He was educated at the Medford High School and at the academy in North Yarmouth, Maine.

In 1856, he began his business career, and five years after was the head of a prosperous house in Cuba, where he remained until 1876, when he returned to this country.

He then became interested in some of the largest enterprises in New York city, and spent his leisure time in travelling and collecting art treasures from all lands.

Mr. Bishop presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art one of the finest collections of jade in existence. In 1902 he completed an illustrated catalogue of it, which is also a valuable book of reference. [p. 75]