20 WHAT DIXEY KNEW ABOUT IT. 



a suggestion as to naming the town, his words would have 

 little less than the weight of law in the minds of Lothrop 

 and Dixey, both trained to arms in the old school of sol- 

 dierly deference to the wishes of a superior officer. Both of 

 these, as well as Leverett, were living in 1668 when the 

 town was finally chartered and named, and also in 1671 

 when Conant's petition for a change of name was presented 

 to the General Court. In this last year, Leverett, always 

 in a very influential position near the seat of power, after 

 serving as deputy for many years, as Speaker of the House 

 of Deputies, and as Assistant to Gov. Bellingham, became 

 Deputy Governor under that magistrate, and two years 

 later succeeded him as Governor for the colony. Had he 

 been aware of a desire on the part of his father-in-law. 

 General Sedgwick, that the town he furnished with a bell 

 be called Beverly, and had he wished to see that desire 

 fulfilled, he certainly had opportunities for doing so. 



When William Dixey made his deposition in 1679 re- 

 citing the suggestion made at his house by Leverett to 

 Sedgwick he well knew who named the town, and why it 

 was named Beverly. If Sedgwick named it so, for some 

 personal association he had with the name, Dixey knew 

 that to be the fact. Would he have been more likely to 

 state it or to omit it in giving his testimony? If, on the 

 other hand, the town was named by some other person 

 than Sedgwick, Dixey knew that fact. Would he have 

 been more likely to follow up the statement that Sedg- 

 wick had been asked to name the town with the further 

 statement that he did not do so? And again, if Dixey dis- 

 closed his knowledge on this point, would the magistrate 

 in writing out his evidence have been more likely to re- 

 cord what he said, as bearing on the claim to the bell, or to 

 reject it as irrelevant ? The probabilities are nicely matched. 

 It is the problem of the lady and the tiger over again ! 



