Response of Agents for the Town of Edgartown to the Petition of Inhabitants of Tisbury and Chilmark to the Massachusetts General Court

To His Excellency Francis Bernard, Esq., Captain-General, Etc., to the Honorable Majesty's Council, and House of Representatives in a General Court Assembled

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For as much as Your Excellency and Honors have been pleased to order that the town of Edgartown should be served with a copy of a petition of James Athearn and Jonathan Allen, Esqs., as agents for the town of Tisbury and Chilmark, for the removal of the shire town in Dukes County from Edgartown to Tisbury, in order for our offering reasons, if any we have, why their prayer ought not to be granted. Wherefore, we, the subscribers, as agents for said Edgartown, beg leave to make answer as followeth, and in the first place, we shall shew the true force (if any there be) in their reasons which they have alleged for the removal thereof, and then offer some further reasons why their prayer ought not to be granted.  May it please Your Excellency and Honors, they allege that it would be for the good of the community of the County, which we propose they intended to lay down as a general proposition and to support by their following reasons. 1 They say that in case the Courts should be held in Tisbury, the bills of cost in the County for the travail of jurors and evidences would be less than now, to which we answer that we send a number of jurors equal to both the other towns, so that when those of Chilmark have got to Tisbury (to which place they must come, be the Courts held here or there).  They in conjunction with those of Tisbury make a number equal to that of Edgartown, and we very humbly inquire whether it costs any more to pay a certain number of men for travailing eight miles east than an equal number eight miles west and whether there would be a diminution of charge for the travail of evidence in case the courts should be held in Tisbury is altogether uncertain, but, allowing there would and as great a diminuation as they [ illegible ] with the best appearance of reason pretend, we can't suppose that it would nearly be equal to the interest of the money which it would cost the County to remove the courthouse and gaol (both of which it is to be noted are now in very good repair at Edgartown) so that it would not throughout all ages in any part countervail that charge to the County.

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Again, they allege that they apprehend that it will accommodate the inhabitants of the County much more than at present for those persons obliged to attend courts can’t return home at night, which they might if the courts were held at Tisbury. by which we conceive that they can’t intend that none of the inhabitants of the County can now return home of night, whereas they might all return home at night in case the court were held at Tisbury for this is most evidently false, it being as easy for people that live within one, two, three, etc., miles of court to return now as then, but that they can’t in so great a proportion return now as then; and here it is true that the inhabitants of Chilmark have now eleven miles to travail, whereas those of Edgartown would then have but eight, and that, other things being equal, those of Edgartown can as well return from Tisbury on account of the distance as those of Tisbury from Edgartown, but notwithstanding these things, considering that the people of Chilmark and Tisbury mostly live by farming and keep horses, whereas many of those of Edgartown follow seafaring business and keep no horses; there can doubtless in as great proportion and with the same ease return now as then it being much easier to ride eleven miles than to walk eight. They plead in favour of the inhabitants of the Elisabeth and No Man’s Land Island on which they say there are near twenty families, that after, they have a sailed three leagues to the north shore, they have twelve miles to travail to the place where the courts are now held, and so can’t go home at night, whereas [ illegible ] the courts were held at Tisbury, they might go home at night, to which we answer that if the Court were held at Tisbury, there would have three ^ or four Miles to Travail from any part of the [ illegible ] shore which distance we can hardly reasonably suppose they could travail after sailing three leagues and perform business at court and return the same day.   It is true these people have further to travail now than in case the courts were held at Tisbur,  but this is no charge to the County in general, for they are never required to serve as jurors, the advantage of their so doing being in no measure a compensation for the trouble of warning them), and with regard to the inhabitants of those islands in particular as they have seldom if ever any occasion to attend courts, except for the renewal of their license for inn-holding.  We question whether the charge of this additional travail to them would ever preponderate their part of the charge of removing the courthouse and prison.  

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Again they further assert that that part of Edgartown where the courts are now held in poorly furnished with pasture or hay to keep horses, to which we answer that they don’t generally attempt to put up their horses, and so it is possible that sometimes when they have desired it, they may have found the less provision therefor, but it does not appear that they have any reason to complain, there being several persons that live near who declare they have ever been ready to take proper care of their horses and never refused any when applied to for twenty years past, and are still ready to furnish them with good hay at one shilling per night at March Court, and pasture at eight pence per night at October Court, provided they are disposed to put them up.

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Lastly, they inform Your Excellency and Honors that the ferry [ illegible ] from the Vineyard to the mainland is in Tisbury, by which we suppose they intend to intimate that in case the courts are held in Tisbury, people from the mainland (if any there be) who have occasion to attend our courts could do it more easily but we beg leave to inform Your Excellency and Honors that although Tisbury does enjoy the privileges of the ferry, yet the difference is but very small in the distance from it to the courts where they are now held or in Tisbury, and that the distance to either place is so great that people would be obliged to transport their horses, it being eight miles now and six miles to Tisbury.  And that people from Boston, Rhode Island, and Nantucket (to which places our trade is almost solely confined) can come within twenty rods of the courthouse by water, whereas in case the courts were held in Tisbury, they would be obliged after landing to travail six or eight miles. And we would here just observe with regard to the inhabitants of the Elisabeth Islands that there is no harbour upon the north shore, and the waves are frequently so high that it is probable that they would be obliged to land at Holmes’s Hole, and then the difference of their travail would be no greater than that of the people who come over the ferry from the mainland.

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And as further reasons why the prayer of the aforesaid petitioners ought not to be granted, we beg leave to inform Your Excellency and Honors that the Indians who often have occasion to attend courts are much better accommodated now than in case the courts were held at Tisbury, for here they can within call of court furnish themselves plenty of shellfish for provision, whereas then they would be obliged to spend their money therefor, if any they have, and otherwise to live upon people or suffer hunger, and now when any of them are in gaol, others easily furnish them with shellfish and with firewood, which they have a great plenty of on Chappaquiddick, which lies near the courthouse, whereby their lives are rendered the more comfortable.  Likewise, as we are liable to be ransacked by privateers or the like in time of war (of which the General Court in the last Spanish war was so apprehensive as to grant us a considerable sum of money for building a fortification) in case the courts were held at Tisbury our danger hereof would be greatly Increased; for if any enemy knew when our courts were held and that they were held there, (as they might easily inform themselves) they would doubtless choose such a time to plunder us.

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Furthermore, this is the only safe harbour for shipping upon the Island, and the people, not only of this, but of the other towns carry on their trade and business here, and as our courts are held just before our whalemen sail in the spring, and about the time they make up their voyages in the fall, so people can conveniently transact their business here at court times.  Whereas, there they would be greatly removed therefrom.

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Again, that although the other two towns have increased faster than we for some time past, yet there is no rational prospect of their doing so for the future, for the Island has now as many inhabitants as the land will comfortably support so that if there should be any further increase of inhabitants it seems they must be supported by whaling, fishing, and seafaring business, and as there is no other safe harbour except this (as we before observed) so it seems that this must be the place for carrying on such business, and there is a prospect (with the Divine blessing) of an increase herein, in the place, in as much as the situation of this is much more commodious therefor than that of [ illegible ] seem now to be running into it as sailed from this town the summer past nineteen masters of vessels and upwards of fifty sailors. Disorders often arise among the sailors who lie in the harbour and [ illegible ] of them have been obliged to be committed to gaol, which now can very easily be [ illegible ] and the prisoners be delivered immediately whenever the wind [ illegible ] for sailing.  Whereas, it would be vastly incommodious to send them up eight miles from the Harbour, and where the vessel was ready to sail, to wait [ illegible ] could be brought back again, and it is not at all unlikely that were the instruments of correction removed they would take the advantage thereof and be guilty of greater disorders and if it should there be objected that Holmes’s Hole harbor is more used than this by coasters and foreigners, it may be very easily answered that it is much easier to sail into this harbour (a thing which they frequently do when they are under apprehensions of a storm, that harbour being much exposed to a northeast wind than to send six miles by land.

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Lastly, the charge of moving the courthouse and prison would be very heavy upon this small County, especially at this time in as much as the Province taxes are high and we have been of late at some very considerable expenses in the County, e.g., we have settled two ministers, one the last year, the other this.2  We have built a new ferry-boat, repaired the courthouse, and lately paid for building a gaol, and been at the charge of imprisoning and trying an Indian for murder. These or the like Reasons we humbly conceive ought to continue Mother Towns in the enjoyment of their privilege of [ illegible ] notwithstanding they lie not in the center, especially since Your Excellency and Honors have not seen fit to remove the shire towns [ illegible ] in several counties in the Province in which a removal we apprehend might with parity or superiority of reason be urged as it in this, and we beg that considering these things Your Excellency and Honors would be pleased to continue us in the enjoyment of these privileges which we have had from the beginning and readily dismiss their petition, especially seeing it is not the first time that they 3 thus troubled us, which we shall have the more occasion to hope for if we may be favoured with a hearing on the floor.

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And as in duty bound shall ever pray, etc.,

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Agents of the town of Edgartown

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John Norton

John Sumner

Edgartown, January 8, 1762

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• 1. Deleted Text:  In the first place
• 2. One of them, Samuel Kingsbury of Dedham, was the minister at Edgartown from 1761 to 1778.
• 3. Deleted Text: have