THE IMPORTANCE OF 



in every town, that there may be a school-master 

 set up to train up children to reading and writing." 

 In 1670, " the court did freely give and grant all 

 such profits as might or should accrue annually to 

 the colony, for fishing with nets or seines, at Cape 

 Cod, for mackerel, bass or herring, to be improv- 

 ed for and towards a free school, in some town of 

 this jurisdiction, for the training up of youth in 

 literature for the good and benefit of posterity, 

 provided a beginning be made within one year af- 

 ter said grant, &c." This school was immediate- 

 ly established at Plymouth, and was supported by 

 the proceeds of the Cape fishery, until 1677, 

 when they were distributed among several towns 

 for the same purpose. After the union of Massa- 

 chusetts with Plymouth, in 1692, this fishery be- 

 came free.* 



Many of the towns in the colony of Massachu- 

 setts began at an early date to cultivate their river 

 fisheries. Wears were erected upon the rivers in 

 Watertown and Roxbury, as early as 1631. In 

 1641, we learn from Winthrop, that 300,000 dry 

 fish were sent to market. 



The English commenced the whale fishery at a 

 very early period. Before the American Revolu- 

 tion, it had grown into an important branch of 

 trade, then considered of great value to the na- 

 * Deane's History of Scituate. 



