University of Virginia Library

7. CHAPTER VII.
RETROSPECTIVE AND EXPLANATORY.

At this day of comparative abstinence and general sobriety,
one is hardly prepared to receive the accounts that
might be given of the consumption of intoxicating liquors
in former times. In the Old World, drinking was cultivated
as an Art; it was patronized by courtiers, it fellow-shipped
with rustics; it belonged to the establishment, and
favored dissent; it followed in the wake of colonial migration,
and erected its institutions in the New World. Contemporary
with the foundation, it flourished with the growth
and dilated with the extension of this Western Empire.
Herein comes to pass a singular historical inversion; what
we rigorously denounce as “distilled damnation,” the Puritans
cheerily quaffed under the names of “Strong Water,”
and “Aqua Vitæ.” While we expel rum from our houses
as a pestilence, an earlier age was wont to display it with
picturesque effect, and render it attractive by environments
of mahogany and silver.

In Livingston there were five distilleries for the manufacture
of cider-brandy, or what was familiarly known as
pupelo. There was also consumed a proportionate quantity
of alcoholic liquors of other kinds. The amount annually
required for a population of about twelve hundred
could not have been less than six thousand gallons. It
found its way into every family, loaded many sideboards,
filled innumerable jugs; all denominations of men bowed

to its supremacy. In the account kept with Parson
Welles at Deacon Penrose's, rum composed at least one
half the items. Master Elliman, as we have seen, was not
exempt from the habits of his age. He drank constantly,
and at times excessively. To the cheer prevailing at the
Pond he was no stranger. His botanical excursions were
enlivened and relieved by the humor of Pluck and the liberality
of his entertainment. There were other causes
operating to bring together these two persons of qualities
and manners in some respects so apparently opposed. On
these we must beg the patience of the reader while we
briefly delay.

The first permanent settlement in Livingston was effected
in the year 1677, at the close of the war of King Philip or
Pometacom, the chief of the Wampanoags. The original
inhabitants came partly from the old colonies, and were
reënforced by migrations direct from Europe. A one-story
log-house with thatched roof constituted the primitive
church edifice; a tin horn, in place of a bell, being used to
summon the people to worship. What is now known as the
Green early became the centre of the town, and on the four
streets before mentioned many of the planters established
themselves. The town underwent and survived the various
incidents and vicissitudes that belong to our national history;
Queen Anne's war, Lovell's war, the Seven Years'
war, incursions from the Indians, drafts of men for the
frontiers, small-pox, throat-distemper, Antinomianism, Newlightism,
Scotch Presbyterianism, an attempted “visit from
Whitefield,” settling ministers, the stamp-act, succession of
sovereigns, kings in England, governors at home, earthquakes,
tornadoes, depreciation of currency, taxes, etc., etc.
A period of more exciting interest approached. The question
of a final separation from the mother country engaged

all minds. Committees of Safety, Inspection, Vigilance or
Correspondence, whatever they might be called, were
formed in every village; these cöperated with the County
Committees, which in their turn became auxiliary to those
of the State. “The towns,” say our historians, “assumed,
in some respects, the authority of an individual community,
an independent republic. The Committee met daily and
acted in a legislative, executive and judicial capacity. All
suspicious persons were brought before them, and if found
guilty were condemned.” “Numerous arrests, imprisonments
and banishments were made.” “The Committee
was empowered to use military force. Many tories and
their families were expelled the State, and others required
to give security to reside in prescribed limits; and occasionally
the jails, and even the churches, were crowded
with prisoners, and many were sent for safe-keeping to the
jails of neighboring States.” An “Association,” as it was
termed, covenant, or oath, was prepared and offered for the
signatures of the people of Livingston. The sessions of the
court, which had been interrupted elsewhere, received little
or no disturbance in this town. Judge Morgridge, a resident
of the place, who received his commission under the
king, and faithfully administered the old laws of the State,
was equally devoted to the interests of the people. News
of the battle of Lexington had arrived; Tony, the negro
barber, fiddler and drummer, had gone through the streets
at midnight, sounding alarms from time to time.

Court week came, and in addition to such scenes as for
many years had characterized that occasion—huckstering,
wrestling, horse-racing—at the present moment there assembled
great quantities of people, from Livingston itself, and
the neighboring towns, who were animated by unusual
topics. There was little business for the functionaries of

law, and more for the officers of the people. The County
Committee was in session. Numbers of delinquents were
brought from various parts, and lodged in the jail. The
Crown and Bowl was filled with people, among whom was
Pluck. While others were drinking to the Continental
Congress, he toasted the king; when rebuked, he replied
in some wanton language. This, in addition to other conduct
of a suspicious nature, exposed him to the action of
the Committee, before which he was taken; that body consisting
in part of his fellow-townsmen, Deacon Hadlock and
Mr. Gisborne the joiner. The proceedings in his case may
be known by the subjoined extract from the records:—

The next day an event occurred that aroused the people
still more against Pluck. Another individual in town had
rendered himself obnoxious to public sentiment. This was
Colonel Welch, a brother-in-law of Judge Morgridge, who
had derived his title for services against the French in the
Seven Years' war. He occupied a large house at the
head of the West Street, near “Deacon Hadlock's Pasture.”
He refused to sign the Association, and used language
which gave the people cause to doubt his patriotism.
He declined also accepting a command in the Continental
army, and intimated that his present commission could not
be supplanted or nullified. He had already been summoned
before the Town Committee, where his replies were
not satisfactory. Further measures were proposed.

At this crisis of affairs, late in the evening, Judge
Morgridge visited his brother-in-law, and informing
him of what was in progress, suggested that he had no
other alternative but recantation or flight. The Colonel
replied that the former he would not do, and if it

came to the latter, that should be done; and with his family
made hasty preparations for departure. In the middle of
the night he left Livingston, went to New York, whence
he ultimately sailed for Nova Scotia. When the two families
had indulged those tokens of regret, speedily finished,
which were natural to the occasion, and the Colonel was on
the point of starting, it was discovered that one horse delayed,
and the cause was soon obvious. Cæsar, a servant
of Judge Morgridge, was found clinging passionately to
Phillis, the servant of the Colonel. Such a moment for the
expression of what they might feel was certainly most inopportune,
and the lovers were unceremoniously parted.
The next morning, Pluck understanding from Cæsar what
had happened, and withal as we say now-a-days, endeavoring
to make capital out of the fellow's distress, appeared
on the Green, and more than half in liquor made boast
of toryism, applauded the conduct of Colonel Welch,
and declaimed on the cruelty practised towards the negro.
Already sufficiently odious, he would have done better not
to trifle with an indignant populace. He was declared not
only inimical but dangerous, and by order of the Committee
was confined in jail.

Among a multitude of fellow-prisoners Mr. Hart found
one of whom till that moment he had known but little; this
was his townsman and subsequent acquaintance, Master
Elliman. This gentleman, inveterately attached to olden
time, without reverence for the people, and as his subsequent
conduct would indicate, with no other regard for
kings than what consisted in a preference for an old and
long-established state of things over any new projects that
might be started, possibly unwilling to have his quiet
disturbed, perhaps averse to receiving dictation from those
whose children he had flogged, or who themselves may

have been under his thumb; certainly we have reason
to believe, from no conscientious scruples; this gentleman,
we say, received the Committee who waited upon him
with an irritating indifference, and refused to sign the
oath. It was considered unsafe to have him at large,
and he was thrown into prison.

Thus commenced an intimacy that in the result proved
not unfavorable to one as yet unborn, Margaret. Whatever
points of resemblance might exist between Pluck
and the Master, these became strengthened by their
confinment together, and contrariety was forgotten in a
sense of common sorrow. The cells of the jail were
crowded, comforts did not overflow, and whatever relief
could be had from an exchange of sympathies the convicts
would naturally betake themselves to. In the end
it appeared that Pluck and the Master became very good
friends, and the visits of the latter to the Pond, originating
in the double cause which has now been related, were
in after years not infrequent. Add to this a deep and
ingenuous interest in Margaret, and we shall understand
why he came so often to her house, and exerted himself
so readily for her instruction. The durance of these
recusants lasted no more than two or three months.—
Pluck, as being of less consequence, was released almost
on his own terms. In the Kidderminster Chronicle
appeared the following, which relates to the Master:—