Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town

X. The Origin and Stability of a New England Town

CHAPTER X The Origin and Stability of a 3\(ew England Town T HE historical debate on "the origin" of a type of social and political structure called "the New England town" is probably not over, but the question itself may be superficial today. We can now realize that there were multiple origins and many distinct early towns, and that all of these towns and their relationships need careful examination. How far back to search for origins was an unsolved dilemma for a previous generation of historians. Charles Andrews was undoubtedly correct when he insisted that there were only superficial likenesses between the German tun, the Anglo-Saxon village, and the New England town, despite Herbert B. Adams's insistence to the contrary.1 There are three major difficulties in this whole investigation —the difficulty of finding and transcribing much of the documentary material; the complex interaction between village, regional, and more extensive social, political, and economic structures; and finally, the validity of the search for "the origin." A geneticist can watch the growth of biological structures in controlled experiments and can observe the intricate linkages through hundreds of generations. But the purpose of his experiments is to discover means to eradicate deleterious genes and to improve human genotypes. The purpose of those historians who insisted on the origin of the town has no such clarity. If the question of the origin seems superficial, the investigation of the change, transition, and stability of English local institutions across the At- 140 PURITAN VILLAGE lantic ocean in the seventeenth century is not. The members of these groups came from quite diverse social and political locales in England, with definite sets of attitudes and drives, usually expressed in religious terms —but not always . England itself contained a large variety of local institutions. As a skilled archivist and local historian has said, "No place is 'representative' of English local government in seventeenth-century England. The evidence one finds tells us what local government was like in one distinct village, or parish, or town or borough, no more, no less."2 Apparently those men and women who emigrated to New England and formed new groups were inventive, as were some who settled in southern areas.3 Certainly they had the unique challenge of a "town grant," which could be defined more or less as the inhabitants wished. They made a staggering number of changes. How many men today, founding a "godly plantation" on the moon or on any habitable planet, would make as many significantalterations in religion, in social organization, in local government , and in attitude and values generally? Consider what might be called the constructive dissent in the first generation of Sudbury men. What were the selectmen there actually doing? They were constructing a community of free townsmen. This seems to have been their principal ideal, and their loyalty to the town even transcended their professions of religious faith. They had been trained in a variety of local institutions in England. They knew how to function as jurymen, vestrymen, borough councilors, or parish officers. But they must have wanted more, for they constructed an entirely new type of town. Even the minister succumbed to the charged atmosphere. When his leadership over the youth was threatened by John Ruddock, when his sermons did not prevent "prophanation of the Lord's Day," he appeared in town meetings and prosecuted his cause "with violence."4 "Put it to vote!" shouted Edmund Brown. He could not believe that the new political entity would abandon him. But it did —at least for a while. John Ruddock and his group, facing severe restrictions, wanted to construct a new town. Examine the solemn meetings in Sudbury in January, 1655. Note how completely absent the traditional legal sanctions are. The selectmen did not bolster themselveswith citations of Elizabethan laws, English customs, or warrants from local justicesof the peace. As far as one can tell from reading the Sudbury orders, the selectmen assumed that once the General Court had made the initial town grant, they were the principal source of power in their area, ORIGIN AND STABILITY OF A NEW ENGLAND TOWN 141 subject only to the approval of the townsmen. It was very significant that when the General Court sent out an investigating committee in 1656, not only was there resentment in Sudbury, but also there is no indication that the townsmen followed the recommendations on the sizing of the...