cattle from one side to the other, for three years from the first day of the next month, for the yearly rent of forty pounds to be paid quarterly to the treasurer: Provided, that he see it be well attended and furnished with sufficient boats; and that so soon as may be in the next spring he set up a convenient house on Boston side, and keep a boat there as need shall require. And he is allowed to take his wonted fees, viz., 2d. for a single person, and pence apiece, if there be more than one, as well on lecture days as at other times; and for every horse and cow with the man which goeth with them 6d., and for a goat 1d., and a swine 2d. And if any shall desire to pass before it be light in the morning, or after it is dark in the evening, he may take recompence answerable to the season and his pains and hazard, so as it be not excessive.”
The ferry was a great accommodation, of course, and could not be dispensed with. Johnson mentions it quite early in his “Wonder-Working Providence.” In speaking of Charlestown, the “neighbor of Boston, being in the same fashion, with her bare neck,” he says “there is kept a ferry-boat to convey passengers over Charles River, which, between the two towns, is a quarter of a mile over, being a very deep channel.” But at times, no doubt, the ferry proved troublesome and annoying. So that in the month of October, 1632, Mr. Winthrop records that “about a fortnight before this, those of Charlestown, who had formerly been joined to Boston congregation, now, in regard of the difficulty of passage in the winter, and having opportunity of a pastor, one Mr. [Edward] James, who came over at this time, were dismissed from the congregation of Boston.” This, it was said, was after a rather boisterous summer on the bay and harbor.
At a General Court, holden at Boston, the 18th of May, 1631, there were present Mr. Winthrop, governor; Mr. Dudley, deputy-governor; Mr. Ludlowe, Capt. Endicott, Mr. Nowell, Mr. Pinchon, Mr. Bradford, assistants (at which the governor and lieutenant-governor were chosen),—“Thomas Willins [Drake gives the name as Williams] hath undertook to sett up a ferry between Winnisimmet and Charlestown, for which he is to have after three pence a person and from Winnisimmet to Boston four pence a person.” Mr. Savage, in a note to Winthrop’s journal, speaking of Samuel Maverick at Noddle’s Island, says, “Winisemet Ferry, both to Charlestown and Boston, was also granted to him forever.” He certainly did conduct a ferry on one or both these routes for a time.
Jan. 23, 1635.—“Thomas Marshall was chosen by general consent for ye keeping of a ferry from Milne Point [Copps’ Hill] vnto Charlestowne, and to Wynnyseemitt, and to take for his ferrying vnto Charlestowne, as ye ferryman there hath, and vnto Wynnyseemitt for a single psn six pence; and for every one above ye number of two, two pence apiece.” It is not probable that this ferry was continued for many years.
In December, 1637, Edward Bendall was “to keepe a sufficient ferryboate to carry to Noddle’s Island and to the shippes ryding before the Town: taking for a single person ijd. and for two 3d.”
In 1640, the Charlestown Ferry was granted to Harvard College, to the support of which the town had been annually contributing, and had received from the ferry fifty pounds for the year previous, 1639. This grant was continued, and, for nearly one hundred and fifty years before the bridge was built, it was a source of very handsome income to the institution. In 1644, it appears by the records of the town, William Bridge was appointed to keep the ferry in place of Mr. Converse, and “to have a penny a person for each that goes over, except they agree with him by the year, and two pence a person for each that goes over unseasonably.” When the bridge was built in 1785, the gratuity to the college was continued by the terms of the Act authorizing it; and the sum of two hundred pounds per year was paid to it in commutation of its claim to the ferry.
Johnson, in his “Wonder-Working Providence,” describes Boston as surrounded by the brinish floods, and as having, on the north-west and north-east, “two constant Faires, kept for traffique thereunto.” A ferry to Cambridge is spoken of in 1652; and in the fall of that year Mr. Cotton took cold in crossing it, and died soon after.
In 1648, “the ferrymen, Francis Hudson and James Heyden, state in a petition to the General Court, that the ferry never was less productive: that contrary to law disorderly passengers would press into the boats, and on leaving refuse to pay their fare; that some pleaded they had nothing to pay, and others that they were in the country’s service. And they further state, that the payment generally tendered was ‘usually in such refuse, unwrought, broken, unstringed and unmerchantable peag’ (wampum), at six a penny, that they lost two pence a shilling, being forced to take peag at six a penny and pay it at seven. They petition that if the Court intend ‘all soldiers with their horses and military furniture be fare-free,’ that they might be paid for it by the colony: that strangers, not able to pay, may be ordered to give in their names: that the ‘peag hereafter to us paid may be so suitably in known parcels handsomely stringed, and their value assigned, that it may henceforth be a general, current and more agreeable pay.’”
At a session of the General Court, at Boston, the 10th of the eight month, 1648, “For preventing ferry men’s Damage by Persons not paying, &c., it shall be lawful for any Ferry man to demand and Receive his due before his Boat put off from the Shore, nor shall he be bound to pass over any that shall not give satisfaction, & any Ferry Man may refuse any wampum not stringed or Unmerchantable and such persons whether Horse or Foot which are passage free by Order of the Court must show something sufficient for their Discharge, or else pay as others do, except Magistrates and Deputies, &c., who are generally known to be free.”
And again, Oct. 18, the Court ordered that “all ‘payable peag’ should be ‘entire without breaches, both the white and the black, suitably strung in eight known parcels, 1d., 3d., 12d., 5s., in white; and 2d., 6d., 2-6d., and 10s., in black.’ The Court also ordered that for transporting officers in the colony service, the ferrymen should be allowed £4 per annum for the past, and £6 per annum for the time to come.”
“Peag,” or “wampum,” or “wampumpeag,” simply means stringed shells of a peculiar kind, or Indian money; and this, it seems, came early into use, as Hubbard says, “The people of New Plymouth, in the year 1627, began trade with the Dutch at Manhados, and there they had the first knowledge of Wampumpeag, and their acquaintance therewith occasioned the Indians of those parts to learn to make it.” Hutchinson thinks the New England Indians, prior to this time, had not “any instrument of commerce;” and speaks of the Narragansetts as coining money, making pendants and bracelets, and also tobacco pipes. There seems, however, to have been among the Massachusetts settlers some other kinds of money in use, as, in 1635, the court ordered that brass farthings shall be discontinued, and that musket-balls shall pass for farthings.
Penny Ferry, across the Mystic River, where the Malden Bridge now is, was established by the town in April, 1640, when it was voted, “That Philip Drinker should keep a ferry at the Neck of Land, with a sufficient boat, and to have 2d. a single person, and a penny a piece when there go any more.” It was not a source of any profit to the town for many years.
In 1651, the Penny Ferry was granted for a year to Philip Knight, who appears to have had the income of it for taking care of it, he agreeing “to attend the ferry carefully, and not to neglect it, that there be no just complaint.”
In 1698, Judge Sewall makes the following entry in his diary: “February 19, I go over the ice and visit Mr. Morton, who keeps his bed. 21st, I rode over to Charlestown on the ice, then over to Stower’s (Chelsea), so to Mr. Wigglesworth. The snow was so deep that I had a hard journey—could go but a foot pace on Mystic river, the snow was so deep. 26th, a considerable quantity of ice went away last night, so that now there is a glade of water along Governor’s island, about as far as Bird island. 28th, a guard is set upon Charles River to prevent persons from venturing over on the ice for fear of drowning; and the ferrymen are put upon cutting and clearing the ice, which they do so happily, that I think the boat passeth
