William & Mary Dyer

Thursday, May 17, 2012

William Dyer and the Anglo-Dutch war

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The First Dutch War,
by Abraham Willaerts (Dutch painter)

On 17 May 1653, William Dyer, along with newly-elected Governor John Sanford and Nicholas Easton, formed an admiralty court to attend to Rhode Island colony’s part of all prizes secured in the war against the Dutch. “Prizes” were Dutch ships and their cargo, Dutch trading posts or farms encroaching on what the English colonists considered their chartered territory, or even Dutch trade goods from the East Indies carried by English, American, French, or Spanish ships. This taking of prizes, or privateering, was a powerful and lucrative business. It was a license to be a pirate in the employ of a government. The privateer shared a percentage of the prize with the employer, along with the advantage to the authorizing government of valuable ships which could be fitted for their own navy.

The first Anglo-Dutch war (there were three of them) was all about trade with foreign ports, following England's Navigation Act.

Cross-section of a 17th-century merchantman,
the sort that Dyer and Hull may have commanded--or taken as prize.
It's certainly a ship that plied the West Indies, America's east coast,
the Mediterranean, and the English Channel.

Captain William Dyer was at this time Rhode Island attorney general, and had already been commissioned by England’s Council of State in early October 1652. His orders were to

“raise such forts and otherwise arm and strengthen your Colony, for defending yourselves against the Dutch, or other enemies of this Commonwealth, or for offending them, as you shall think necessary; and also to take and seize all such Dutch ships and vessels at sea, or as shall come into any of your harbors, or within your power, taking care that such account be given to the State as is usual in the like cases. And, to that end, you are to appoint one or more persons to attend the care of that business; and we conceive the bearer hereof, Mr. William Dyer, is a fit man to be employed therein; and you are to give account of your proceeding to the Parliament or Council.”

It was signed by James Harington, president of the Council of State that month, and John Thurloe, clerk of the council—and spymaster for the Commonwealth of England.

(Did Thurloe, who had a network of spies in the West Indies, America, and Europe, expect spy reports from William Dyer? Hmmm… Interesting thought, because William appears to have been a royalist, not a fan of the puritan parliament.)

With very similar language to the orders from England, Rhode Island’s legislature commissioned him commander-in-chief upon the sea on May 27.

[I modernized the antiquated spelling for your ease of reading.]

This certifies whom it may concern that whereas we the free inhabitants of Providence Plantations having received authority and power from the Right honorable Council of State by authority of parliament to do something ourselves from the Dutch, the enemy of the Commonwealth of England, as also to assist them as we shall think necessary as also to seize all Dutch vessels or ships that shall come within our harbors within our power.

And whereas by true information and great complaint of the severe condition of many of our cantonments of English natives living on Long Island are subjected to the double sovereigns of the Dutch province at the manors there and the desperate hazard they are subjected to by the bloody plotting of the governor and all, show who are decided and declared to have demand in and any ways of the Indians by bribes and promises to set off and destroy the English natives in those places by which exposure one cantonment is put in trouble as quite desperate hazards and in continual fear to be set off and murdered unless some speedy and defensible remedy is so provided.

These present we consider and as all neighbors by our general assembly met the 19th of May 1653. It was agreed and is to remind by the said assembly that it was necessary and for our own defense (where if the English there should be attacked or set off) we could not long enjoy our stations chosen as before we have thought it necessary both to defend our selves and so sustain them to give.

And we hereby give by virtue of our authority provided us before full power and authority to Capt. William Dyer and Capt. John Underhill to take all Dutch ships and vessels as shall come into their power and so to defend themselves from the Dutch and all enemies of the Commonwealth of England. And do further think it necessary that they offend the Dutch, offer all inducements also to take them by indulgence, and to prevent the effusion of blood, provided also that no violence be given nor no detriment sustained to them it shall submit to the Commonwealth of England which being which authority though thus may offend them at the Expedition of Capt. William Dyer and Capt. John Underhill who by devise and counsel of three councilors one of which councilors dissenting have power to bring the same to conformity to the Commonwealth of England provided that the states so provide and all vessels taken be brought into the harbor at Newport and according to the law to show before and states that further provided also that these seized and authorized by us do give account of their proceedings to the said Court and assistants of the Colony and accordingly provide further instructions to order their assigns by the President and assistants aforesaid.

It is further provided that Capt. John Underhill is constituted Commander-in-Chief upon the lands and Captain William Dyer Commander-in-Chief at the sea, yet to join in counsel to be assisted both to other for the preparings of the several seizures for the honor of ye Commonwealth of England in which they are employed.

Given under the Seal of the Colony of Providence Plantations this the present 27th of May, 1653.

Per me, Will Lytherland, General Recorder.

Captain John Underhill was magistrate of Flushing, New Netherland (later called NewYork), a Dutch territory, from 1651-1653, all the time he was commander-in-chief upon the land for the English citizens of New England. He was married to a Dutch woman, Helena; her mother, also Dutch, resided with their family. Underhill was a military officer-for-hire from his training days in 1620s Netherlands, to his career with the English colonists in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and on Long Island. After some run-ins with the Massachusetts courts, they refused his compensation and he couldn’t find work, so he sailed back to England, where he also could not find the right fit. So he offered his services to the Dutch of Long Island and Manhattan for some years. Now, with a conflict brewing in the English Channel, he was back in the employ of the English, and he was knowledgeable about the disputed territories, defenses, finances, and weaknesses of the Dutch in New England.

This 1635 map considers Connecticut and Long Island to be
"New Netherland" for settlement and trading purposes.
In other words--the Dutch claimed it as their own.

A commission was given May 27, 1653, to Captains Dyer and Underhill to “go against the Dutch” in the first Anglo-Dutch war of 1652-54. The war had been fought, on and off, in the English Channel since the year before, and it was destined to end in treaty early in 1654. But during the second half of 1653, with the unscrupulous Captain Edward Hull authorized to prey on Dutch vessels in Long Island Sound, the Anglo-Dutch war was fought between the shores of Long Island and Connecticut. The two commanders were ordered to do their best to prevent violence and bloodshed if possible.

According to Rhode Island records, Dyer’s and Underhill’s first target was the House of Good Hope, a Dutch trading post on the south side of the tributary to the Connecticut River at Hartford.

__________

Huyshope Avenue and Park River, Hartford, the site of
House of Good Hope.
Google Maps.

This is the location of House of Good Hope: south bank of Little River (now the underground Park River) where it met the Connecticut River. The street called Huyshope memorializes the grounds of the trading post. The smaller river was diverted and covered over, and is now covered by Park Street and buildings. Photo: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Park_River_Conduit.JPG

Paddling Hartford’s Park River (formerly Hog River, formerly Little River), article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/31/nyregion/paddling-hartford-s-scenic-sewer-abused-underground-river-up-close-noxious.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
___________

According to my research, there was no battle at House of Good Hope in William Dyer's raid. The Dutch traders had abandoned the fort before their goods could be taken as plunder.

To read more about William Dyer's real-life role as Commander in Chief Upon the Seas, read the biographical novels Mary Dyer Illuminated (Vol. 1) and Mary Dyer: For Such a Time as This (Vol. 2), available in paperback and Kindle, HERE: http://bit.ly/RobinsonAuthor

*****

Christy K Robinson is author of these sites:

Discovering Love (inspiration)
Rooting for Ancestors (history and genealogy)
William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th century culture and history of England and New England)

and of these books:

·          We Shall Be Changed (2010)
·          Mary Dyer Illuminated (2013)
·          Mary Dyer: For Such a Time as This (2014)
·          The Dyers of London, Boston, & Newport (2014)
·          Effigy Hunter (2015)
·          Anne Marbury Hutchinson: American Founding Mother (2018)

Monday, May 7, 2012

Cures for what ails ye

Woman bathing in a stream,
Rembrandt

Some unpleasant medical and physical conditions, it seems, have been around forever. Many of them are preventable with hygiene practices, healthful eating practices, or knowing which products we can purchase at the supermarket or corner store like Walgreens, CVS, or Boots.

Twelve generations ago, all sorts of quack remedies were available to treat conditions we generally avoid by bathing, cleaning our teeth, eating wholesome, fresh foods, and drinking pure water. Immersion bathing probably wasn’t very common for city dwellers, and without many changes of clothing, the aromas must have been quite ripe at any time of the year.

Because of the cost of consulting a physician, many with minor ailments benefited from the skills of an herbalist-healer or midwife. Depending on the spiritual climate, though, healers were sometimes accused as witches.

An array of potions and lotions that were considered cures for baldness, body odor, halitosis, and flatulence is chronicled in The Path-Way To Health. The book's subtitle reads: "Wherein are to be found most excellent and approved Medicines of great vertue, as also notable Potions and Drinks, with the Art of distilling divers precious Waters, for making of Oyls, and other comfortable Receit for the health of the body, never before printed."

This edition says 1654, but the original
edition would have been 1596.
These libraries carry the 228-page book.

The book’s intended market was the physician, but probably also the apothecary who supplied the ingredients: snail’s blood, arsenic, lye, bird eggshells, herbs, distilled and brewed alcohol, seeds, cats' dung, and oils.

The author, Peter Levens, a physician and surgeon, held an MA degree from Oxford University in England, as did Dr. John Clarke, the principal author of Rhode Island’s charters of liberties and a Baptist minister. (The Master’s degree would not have been in medicine. In Dr. Clarke’s case, it was in theology.) Dr. Clarke was a friend and neighbor of William and Mary Dyer in Portsmouth and Newport, Rhode Island, and was one month younger than William Dyer.

Peter Levens lived in the 16^th century, obtaining his Bachelor’s degree at Oxford in 1556 (during Queen Mary’s bloody reign), his MA in 1559 (just after Elizabeth I ascended the throne), and then practicing medicine and teaching grammar school. The Path-Way to Health was published in 1596, 1608, 1632, 1644, 1654, and 1664. This medical journal was written in English at a time when all scholarly work was recorded in Latin. Levens believed that books written in unknown or difficult-to-understand languages hid knowledge from people, and those who hid such wisdom were guilty of “malice exceeding damnable and devillish.”

Dr. Clarke, who emigrated to Boston in 1637 and moved with the Hutchinsons and Dyers (and many others) to Rhode Island, returned to England from late 1652 to about 1664, where he was the Rhode Island agent or representative working for their interests, and where he practiced medicine in London. Three editions of Path-Way to Health were published during the times Dr. Clarke lived in England! It’s very likely that he would have known of, or possibly used, this journal. I wonder if he treated Newport families with these or other remedies from the book.

Visit of the Physician, by Gabriel Metsu, 1660s

Some of Path-Way’s suggested cures:

To cure baldness:

Take the ashes of Culver-dung [chicken dung] in Lye [potassium salts from ashes], and wash the head therewith.

Also, Walnut leaves beaten with Beares suet, restoreth the haire that is plucked away. Also, the leaves and middle rinde of an Oak sodden in water, and the head washed therewith, is very good for this purpose."

To take away haire in unwanted places:

Take the shels of two Egges, beat them small, and stil them with a good fire, and with that water annoynt the place; or else take hard Cats dung, dry it and beat it to powder, and temper it with strong Vineger, then wash the place with the same, where you would have no haire to grow.

Also, take the bloud of a Snaile without a shel, and it hindereth greatly the growing up of haire.

Also, take Labdanum [a sticky brown resin], the gum of a Ivie tree, Emmets Eggs, Arsenick and Vineger; and binde it to the place where you wil have no haire to grow.

Or boil Frankensence and Barrows grease into an ointment.

A remedy for louse nits:

Smear the scalp with the gall of a Calfe.

Where nails have been rent from the flesh:

A mixture of brimstone, arsnick and vinegar can ease pain.

Take Wheat flower, and mingle the same with Honey, and lay it to the nails, and it wil help them.

For stinking breath:

Wash the mouth out with water and vinegar, followed by a concoction of aniseed, mint and cloves sodden in wine.

For a stench under the armpits:

First, pluck away the haires of the arme holes, and wash them with white Wine and rosewater that cassialigna has been sodden in, and use it three or four times.

To help break wind in the belly [flatulence]:

Drink a mixture of cumin seeds, fennel seeds and aniseeds in wine three times a day.

For women with great bellies:

Take an handful of Isop, a handful of Herb-grace, a handful of Arsmart, and seethe all these herbs in a quart of Ale til it come to a pint, then preserve the same in a glass, and give the woman so grived a quarter of a pint at once, first in the morning and last at night.

For Womens paps [breasts] that arte rancled and be ful of ache:

Take Grounsel, and two times as much of Brouswort, and wash them both, and stamp them, and temper them with stale Ale, and straine it through a cloth, and give it to the Patient thereof first thing in the morning and last at night.

1517--Feldbuch diagram of blood-letting points.

Rules for Blood Letting:

The vein above the thumb is good against all fevers.

The vein between the thumb and the forefinger, let blood for the hot headache, for frenzy and madness of wit.

Also be ye always well advised, and wary, that ye let no blood, nor open no vein, except the Moon be either in Aries, Cancer, the first half of Libra, the last half of Scorpio, or in Sagittarius, Aquarius, or Pisces.

Hmmm, I wonder if the snail minded being “bled” outside of those prescribed times!

Most of us, even the back-to-natural-remedies folks, vegans, PETA supporters, and just plain squeamish (that would be me), give thanks for antiperspirant, moisturizer, Rogaine, tweezers or wax, antiseptic, mild soap and minty shampoo, analgesic burn ointments, Gax-X, toothpaste and breath fresheners. Not to mention hot showers any time we wish!

*****

Christy K Robinson is author of these sites:

Discovering Love (inspiration)
Rooting for Ancestors (history and genealogy)
William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th century culture and history of England and New England)

and of these books:

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

My Dearest Dust

Lady Katherine Dyer and the epitaph to her beloved husband

Hand-holding effigies of Katherine Mortimer and Thomas Beauchamp,
Countess and Earl of Warwick, St. Mary's, Warwick.
Both died in 1369.

Guest post by Johan Winsser

In 1641 Lady Katherine Dyer erected in the church of St Denys in Colmworth, Bedfordshire, a large, ornate tomb to the memory of her beloved husband, Sir William Dyer, who died twenty years earlier at age 38. It is composed of prostrate statues of Sir William and Lady Katherine Dyer and below them, between the carved figures of Faith, Hope, and Charity, smaller statues of their seven surviving children and one grandchild, who died in infancy.

Inscribed on the tomb is the following remarkable epitaph.

If a large hart, joined with a noble minde

Shewing true worth unto all good inclin’d

If faith in friendship, justice unto all,

Leave such a memory as we may call

Happy, thine is; then pious marble keepe

His just fame waking, though his lov’d dust sleepe.

And though death can devoure all that hath breath,

And monuments them selves have had a death,

Nature shan't suffer this, to ruinate,

Nor time demolish’t, nor an envious fate,

Rais’d by a just hand, not vain glorious pride,

Who'd be concealed, wer’t modesty to hide

Such an affection did so long survive

The object of ’t; yet lov’d it as alive.

And this greate blessing to his name doth give

To make it by his tombe, and issue live.

Altar at St. Denys, Colmworth, Bedfordshire

My dearest dust, could not thy hasty day

Afford thy drowzy patience leave to stay

One hower longer: so that wee might either

Sate up, or gone to bedd together?

But since thy finisht labor hath possest

Thy weary limbs with early rest,

Enjoy it sweetly; and thy widowe bride

Shall soone repose her by thy slumbering side;

Whose business, now, is only to prepare

My nightly dress, & call to prayer:

Mine eyes wax heavy & the day grows old,

The dew falls thick, my blood grows cold.

Draw, draw the closed curtayns: & make roome:

My deare, my dearest dust; I come, I come.

Sir William (1583-1621) was the eldest son of Sir Richard Dyer of nearby Great Staughton, Huntingdonshire, and therein closely related to the prominent West Country Dyers that included Sir James Dyer, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and Sir Edward Dyer, the Elizabethan courtier and poet. Sir William was an active man who was once called to account for hunting deer in the king’s park and on another occasion was party to a melee in which a man was killed. He was heir to a substantial estate, but owing to the early death of his father and his own youthfulness, came into straightened times that required him to lease and sell off much to meet his obligations.

Sir William’s sister Anne married first the much older Sir Edward Carre of Sleaford, Lincolnshire, and second, Sir Henry Cromwell, cousin to the future Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell. While the ancestry of Mary Dyer’s husband William and his possible relationship to Anne (Dyer, Carre) Cromwell remains unknown, it is notable that Sleaford is adjacent to Kirkby Laythorpe, where William was born, that William did very well on behalf of Rhode Island (and himself) when he appeared before Cromwell’s Council of State seeking a new charter for Rhode Island and a privateering commission; and that Anne’s son, Sir Robert Carre, was in 1664 sent to New England, New York, and Delaware to bring those colonies to the king’s account—and on whose coattails William and Mary’s son William, quickly rose to be customs collector and mayor of New York.

Lady Katherine was the daughter of John D’Oyley of Merton, Oxfordshire, and stepdaughter of Sir James Harrington of Exton, Rutland. “My Dearest Dust” is often attributed to Katherine Dyer, but uncertainly so. It is a beautiful and sophisticated composition, and no other works known to be by Katherine have been identified. Certainly she had the intelligence, family background, and likely private education to write it. But did she, or did she borrow or commission it? Its intimacy—and that she never remarried—argues that she wrote it herself.

Of curious note is the detailed dress of the four Dyer sons portrayed on the monument. Although Bedfordshire and the prominent West Country Dyer families were for the most part royalist, and two of the sons are dressed as such, the other two are dressed as roundheads (Puritan parliamentarians), thus suggesting a sad division in this family.

And how long did Lady Katherine have to wait to join her husband? Thirty-three years.

Read more:

Photos of the memorial effigies http://www.colmworthhistory.org.uk/#/lady-dyers-poem/4535905977

http://preferreading.blogspot.com/2012/04/sunday-poetry-lady-catherine-dyer.html

http://www.ralphmag.org/DG/dyer.html

English Heritage report on St. Denys church of Colmworth http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42413&strquery=dyer&fb_source=message "There is a fine monument in the chancel to the memory of Sir William Dyer, kt., who died in 1621, at the age of thirty-six, and his wife Catharine, daughter and co-heir of John Doyley of Merton, Oxfordshire. It was put up in 1641 by his widow and is of alabaster and black marble, with a canopy having a central arched panel, containing heraldry flanked by scrolls carried by three Corinthian columns. Under it lie, at two levels, the alabaster effigies of Sir William and his wife, both excellent pieces of sculpture, and below on the panelled base, between figures of Faith, Hope and Charity, are four sons and three daughters, standing, their attitudes very effectively varied, their treatment and that of the three symbolic figures being very far removed from the dull, mechanical journeyman's work so often found at the time. At Lady Dyer's feet is a figure of Henry, her grandson, only son of Sir Lodowick Dyer, who died in infancy 22 September 1637. At the back are two large shields: Dyer quarterly impaling Doyley of twenty-three quarterings, and the Doyley coat. Over the columns are three shields showing marriages of the children: Dyer impaling Lozengy argent and gules, Gery impaling Dyer, and on a lozenge Dyer impaling Doyley."

***********

Johan Winsser has been researching and writing about Mary Dyer for many years. Some of his research is found on his DyerFarm website. Thank you, Johan, for your contributions to Dyer genealogy research, and to this Dyer blog.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Portrait of a loser, 1640 New England

In June 1640, one James Sabire, who had been set in stocks in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, moved to Boston. There, he probably demanded a divorce from his pregnant wife Barbara, of the Boston magistrates. He charged Barbara with being an adulteress, and denying him his rights in the marriage bed.

Barbara Sabire wrote to the governor and assistants of Rhode Island, asking for a character reference and witness to her husband's abuse and her stellar behavior, probably hoping not to be set in stocks at Boston--or hanged as an adulteress! It appears that she sheltered in the home of William and Anne Hutchinson for nine months, perhaps during her pregnancy and delivery.

The letter below was written by William Hutchinson, to his friend-turned-enemy, John Winthrop, who had just been replaced in the governor's seat by the severe and strict Thomas Dudley.

Not only does the letter describe the horrible behavior of James Sabire, but between the lines, we can read what kind of relationships were expected of godly men toward their wives: honor, protection, providence, love, tenderness, loyalty.

Wine glass, jelly glass, tumbler,
and wine bottles,
all probably made in England,
and a salt-glazed stoneware jug
came from colonial Boston’s
Three Cranes Tavern's privies.
The earliest privy,
dating from 1635 to 1662,
contained two wine glasses
possibly manufactured in 1590.
(Courtesy Norma Jane Langford
via Archaeology magazine)

"To the Worshipful & much respected friend John Winthrop Esquire at his house in Boston

Right worshipful,

We have lately received a letter from Barbara Sabire, the wife of James Sabire, now resident in Boston, with you, wherein we understand that he hath made complaint of her, if not false accusations laid against her, therefore we thought good to testify, being desired thereunto, what he confessed upon examination, before us whose names are here underwritten.

The ground of his examination was from some false reports he had raised up against his wife. We called them false because they proved so to be when they were inquired into, but not to trouble you with those:

            1. A word or two of what he did confess, when the question was demanded of him, Did your wife deny unto you due benevolence, according to the rule of god or no? His answer was she did not, but she did and had given her body to him, this he confessed, & did clear her of that which now he condemns her for and this may evince it and prove it to be so.

            2. He did here likewise report his wife was with child, which we understand he doth also deny unto your worships and that will also prove him to speak falsely if he shall say his wife did deny him marriage fellowship until he did come under your government:

            3. This we must witness that his wife was not the ground or cause of his being set in the stocks, but for his disturbance of the peace of the place at unseasonable hours whereas people were in bed, and withal for his cursing and swearing and the like.

Again a word or two concerning his life when he was with us, It was scandalous and offensive to men, sinful before God; and towards his wife. Instead of putting honour upon her as the weaker vessel, he wanted [lacked] the natural affection of a reasonable creature, we also found him idle and indeed a very drone sucking up the honey of his wife’s labour, he taking no pains to provide for her, but spending one month after another without any labour at all, it may be some found one day in a month he did something being put upon it, being threatened by the government here; and indeed had he not been relieved by his wife and her friends where she did keep, he might have starved. Besides he is given very much to lying, drinking strong waters [whiskey], and towards his wife showing neither pity nor humanity, for indeed he could not keep from boys & servants, secret passages betwixt him and his wife [sexual demands she felt were immoral? rape?] about the marriage bed, and of those things there is more witnesses than us, and concerning her.

She lived with us about 3 quarters of a year, whose wife was unblameable before men for anything we know, being not able to charge her in her life & conversation but, beside her masters testimony, who best knows her is this, that she was a faithful, careful, & painful both servant & wife to his best observation, during the time with him.

Those things we being requested unto, we present unto your wise considerations hoping that by the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses, the innocent will be acquitted, & the guilty rewarded according to his works; thus ceasing further to trouble you we take our leaves & rest.

Your worshipful Loving friends

William Hutchinson [assistant governor]

William Baulston [treasurer]

William Aspinwall [secretary]

John Sanford [constable]

Portsmouth, Rhode Island, the 29th of 4th 1640 [29 June 1640]

Source: DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF RHODE ISLAND, p. 172

_____________________

No matter how I search the internet with different spellings, word searches, Winthrop’s Journal, Winthrop Papers, Documentary History of Rhode Island, date searches, etc., I cannot find record of James and Barbara Sabire outside this letter. Did Barbara's baby live? Was James whipped, fined, or exiled? Was the court case dropped? Perhaps they emigrated back to England, as many did at this time, and got caught up in the Civil Wars. Maybe they moved to New Hampshire or Long Island.

But one thing is certain: there was no divorce in Rhode Island or Massachusetts. With the harsh Thomas Dudley in the chief seat of the magistrates' panel, we can hope that Mr. Sabire was punished according to his many unsavory deeds, beginning with a drying-out period in jail. But Mrs. Sabire was tied to her husband and master unless they were able to obtain a divorce in England (possible, but very unlikely), or Mr. Sabire died in his cups.

Related article: The scarlet letter, D: punishment for drunks in the 1600s http://bit.ly/I9OtZd

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Christy K Robinson is author of these sites:

Discovering Love (inspiration)
Rooting for Ancestors (history and genealogy)
William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th century culture and history of England and New England)

and of these books:

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The scarlet letter, D: punishment for drunks in the 1600s

1655: An alcoholic is punished in a Drunkard's Cloak,
what amounts to a pillory.

Alcohol addiction is a neurological disease which affects body and mind, and is characterized by an uncontrolled consumption of alcohol. Treatment of alcoholism includes detoxification, counseling, support group participation, education, and sometimes medication. But treatment for addiction is a relatively-recent innovation. More commonly in history, “treatment” was punishment and shame.

In 17^th century England, nearly everyone drank alcoholic beverages, because water, especially in towns, was often contaminated and carried disease. Ale, beer, and cider were fermented and brewed at home, and had a relatively small alcohol content, about four percent. Wine was usually imported from warmer climates like France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. Everyone drank alcohol, including children and pregnant women, and it may have saved many lives from infectious disease, poisoning, and parasites that they’d have picked up from polluted water.

Whiskey had been distilled in Ireland and Scotland for several hundred years, and the English used it not only as a beverage, but as the base for some medications. They called it variously “strong waters,” or aqua vitae, the water of life. Governor John Winthrop and his eldest son, John Jr., dispensed medication based on aqua vitae.

In the homemaker’s guide, The English Housewife, published in 1615, a remedy for “heartsickness” (heart disease, or a broken heart?) was this: “Take rosemary and sage, of each a handful, and seethe them in white wine or strong ale, and then let the patient drink it lukewarm.”

At the Great Migration beginning in 1630, the English brought their beverages and remedies with them to America. In the ships of the Winthrop fleet were 42 tuns of ale (about 10,000 gallons), an equal amount of wine, and 14 tuns of water (3,332 gallons). Fresh water went bad in the wooden casks on the 8-12 week crossings, so alcoholic drink was necessary for health—and not terrible for a feeling of well-being!

When the fleet arrived and people eventually settled in Boston and Cambridge, they remarked on the sweet water of the New World.

“For the Countrey it is as well watered as any land under the Sunne, every family, or every two families having a spring of sweet waters betwixt them, which is farre different from the waters of England, being not so sharpe, but of a fatter substance, and of a more jetty colour; it is thought there can be no better water in the world, yet dare I not preferre it before good Beere, as some have done, but any man will choose it before bad Beere, Whey, or Buttermilke. Those that drinke it be as healthfull, fresh, and lustie, as they that drinke beere.” Source: William Wood, New-England’s Prospect

As I’ve written elsewhere in this blog, alcohol use was widespread and considered beneficial to peoples’ health. The problems arose when drinking became drunkenness. The offenders were punished with time in stocks, disfellowship from the church, or whipping. Boston was the major port in New England, followed by Newport, Rhode Island, and drunk sailors often appear in court records and histories.

An outdoor tavern, probably in London
(roof tiles instead of thatch).

There were a number of entries in Winthrop’s Journal about alcohol abuse and their various penalties, including instances of ships blowing up, sexual escapades (straight, gay, and bestial) being blamed on excessive drink, and this story of combining Sabbath-breaking with drunkenness (implying Divine justice for the drunkards):

One Cowper of Pascataquack [near modern Portsmouth, New Hampshire], going to an island, upon the Lord's day, to fetch some sack [strong, dry, sweet, light-colored wine of the sherry family] to be drank at the great house, he and a boy, coming back in a canoe, (being both drunk,) were driven to sea and never heard of after.

Massachusetts Bay Governor John Winthrop, in 1634, noted that Robert Cole (1598-1655), who had come to Massachusetts with the Winthrop Fleet in 1630, “having been oft punished for drunkenness, was now ordered to wear a red D about his neck for a year.” Some literature professors suggest that this was the origin of the story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter.

“Robert Cole was living in Roxbury, Massachusetts, when he petitioned to be made a "freeman" on 19 Oct 1630, and was granted that status by the General Court on 18 May 1631, along with 113 other men. He was disfranchised 4 Mar 1634, for a short time on account of his problem with drinking too much wine, when he was also ordered to wear a red letter "D" on his clothing for a year; however, his freeman status was reinstated about two months later on 14 May 1634, and the requirement to wear the letter ‘D’ was also revoked at that time.” Source:: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bbunce77/ColeChart.html

The Bible instructed churches not to keep company with a member who was “a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one not to eat.” 1 Cor. 5:18 KJV.

Robert Cole was actually treated with mercy, being removed from membership for a short time to clean up his act and be reinstated, compared to what he’d have endured as an alcoholic in his native England. There, he might have been sentenced to time in a torture device known as the drunkard’s cloak (see images), where he’d be driven around town (probably with sticks and stones), kicked, physically abused, spit or urinated on, and have feces flung at him. It's not a stretch to imagine that his tormenters would roll him down an incline in hopes that he'd crash.

In 1655, John Willis claimed that in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, “he hath seen men drove up and down the streets with a great tub or barrel opened in the sides, with a hole in one end to put through their heads, and so cover their shoulders and bodies, down to the small of their legs, and then close the same, called the newfangled cloak, and so make them march to the view of all beholders; and this is their punishments for drunkards and the like.”

Obviously to us in the 21^st century, the drunkard’s cloak was cruel and inhumane. In previous centuries, even as recently as 150 years ago in America, alcoholics were not treated for their disease, but punished in the hope that the persecution would be a deterrent to future antisocial behavior. Alcoholics have also been held up for ridicule in TV shows which depicted chronic drunks as bewildered fools who would sleep it off or be cured by drinking enough coffee. More likely, chronic alcohol abusers are prone to commit domestic violence, sexual abuse, and destroying lives on the road, while plagued with the most serious of health and mental problems of their own.

Perhaps we should think more about sweet spring water than an excess of alcoholic beverages. Those that drinke it be as healthfull, fresh, and lustie, as they that drinke beere.

*****

Christy K Robinson is author of these sites:

Discovering Love (inspiration)
Rooting for Ancestors (history and genealogy)
William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th century culture and history of England and New England)

and of these books:

Monday, April 9, 2012

What music was on Mary Dyer's iPod?

Woman With a Cittern,
by Pieter van Slingeland

William Dyer was born in 1609, near the Lincolnshire fens, and Mary Barrett probably in 1611 in the London area. They would have heard folk music performed at fairs and at special occasions like wedding and holiday dances. Fiddlers played recreational music. William probably heard bawdy songs in taverns and as he went about his apprenticeship in London. Mary, who seems to have been privately educated, may have had access to private parties or even court events, and she would have heard sinfonias, dance suites, chorales, and perhaps a masque (a participatory operetta with a moral to the story).

The instruments they’d have heard were flutes/recorders, drums, trumpets, the viol family, harps, guitars, lutes, bagpipes from Scotland and Ireland, and virginals (small keyboards similar to a harpsichord).

Woman Seated at a Virginal,
by Jan Vermeer

In English churches, there were organs, choirs, and sometimes string ensembles until the Puritan restrictions on music in religious meetings. When, in May 1644, the Puritan Parliament legalized the demolition of sacred objects (crosses, stained glass, paintings, tapestries, saint images, etc.), they declared that ‘all organs, and the frames or cases wherein they stand in all churches or chapels aforesaid, shall be taken away, and utterly defaced, and none other hereafter set up in their places.’

Church music

In New England, where the Dyers lived after 1635, there were no church organs—organs being related to the hated Catholic mass, and drawing attention away from God and to the skills of the performer. At Sabbath meetings of the Massachusetts Bay churches, they sang psalms without musical accompaniment. Rev. John Cotton disapproved of instruments in worship. In 1640, three ministers published the first book in the American colonies: a psalter that they approved for use in the churches of Massachusetts Bay. It was a text of psalms in rhyme, without notes because almost no one could read musical notation. In a short time, congregations forgot the tunes, and each singer sang in his or her own key, melody, and rhythm. (Perhaps something like a “Happy Birthday” cacophony today.)

Thomas Walter wrote at the end of the 17th century: "The tunes are now miserably tortured and twisted and quavered, in some churches, into a medly of confused and disorderly voices. Our tunes are left to the mercy of every unskillful throat to chop and alter, to twist and change... No two men in the Congregation quaver alike or together, it sounds in the ear of a good judge like five hundred different tunes roared out at the same time with perpetual interferings with one another." Source: Puritans at Play: Leisure and Recreation in Colonial New England, by Bruce C. Daniels, p. 54.

James Franklin (Benjamin Franklin's older brother) wrote in 1720s satire that he was "credibly informed that a certain gentlewoman miscarried at the ungrateful and yelling noise of a deacon" whom Franklin described as a "procurer of abortions."

Viol da gamba, two lutes, and a pocket fiddle

Music as art and recreation

Though church music was in a woeful state, colonial secular music flourished at celebrations of all sorts, including dances and festivals, and urban dwellers spent evenings “consorting” with their instruments, particularly violins and viols. The more highly-educated (ministers, teachers, merchants) had the larger, more expensive instruments like the viol da gamba (six-stringed, but similar in size to the four-stringed cello) or the virginal. Many households who valued music but had less money, used shoulder-held violins or a cittern, a wire-stringed instrument between a banjo and a mandolin. Military men naturally favored the trumpet, fife, or drum.

A Musical Party,
by Jacob van Velsen, 1631

William and Mary Dyer were educated, of the merchant class, and he was both a military man (captain of militia, and later, admiral) and a government official. They would have attended and hosted parties, harvest festivals, weddings, house raisings and sewing bees, and the militia training days when potluck feasts and dances occurred. It’s reasonable to expect that they at least danced and enjoyed musical performances in homes, if not took part in music-making themselves.

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Click the highlight for information on 17^th century musical instruments in New France (French territories in North America).

The following links are videos of 17^th century English music that might have touched the ears of the Dyers and their associates. Click the highlighted titles to open a new tab in You Tube.