NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALE. 140 



able, at current prices." ^ It is clear that the chief purpose of these regulations was to insure 

 that the town received a certain amount from the proceeds of each whale or part thereof for 

 the public treasury. The aforementioned John Ellis seems to have had a great liking for 

 this whale enterprise, for again in 1659, six years after, he is appointed together with one 

 James Skiff "to take care of the whales and all other fish that yield oil in quantity," and later, 

 the town sold to him " the right of all such fish coming within the limits and bounds of the 

 town the next three years." At this time, too, there appears, among the list of subscriptions 

 for building a new meeting house, the item: "Rec. also in Oil £3.3.10," no doubt part of tlic 

 proceeds of some whale killed or stranded on the Sandwich shore.^ 



In the Massachusetts Bay Colony at this period, it was apparently the law that one third 

 of the oil of drift whales became the property of the Crown, one third went to the town, and 

 the remainder to the finders of the whale. This is evidenced from the Court records of May 

 14, 1654, wherein it appears that "an account concerning a whale taken at Weimouth being 

 presented to this Courte, itt is referred to the auditor gennerall to perv^se the accompt, and 

 examine what is due to the countrje, all charges being deducted, and ordei's that what vppon 

 examination shallbe found due, the countrje shall haue one third pte, the towne of Weimouth 

 another third pte, and the finders the other third pte." ^ 



In addition to these regulations for determining in general the rights of persons finding 

 stranded whales on the shores, it soon became necessary to define the title to such whales as 

 were cast up on the bounds of private homesteads. So, in the Court Records of June 6, 1654, 

 it is ordered for the Plymouth Colony, "that whatsoeuer whales or blubber shalbee cast vp 

 against the lands of the purchasers, that the proprietie thereof shalbelonge vnto the said pur- 

 chasers accordingly as vnto any of the pticulare townshipps when such whales or blubber 

 fales within any of theire precincts." * That is, apparently, that the whale was considered 

 the property of the land owner, who nevertheless, was to pay one third of the oil to the Crown. 

 It is to be inferred that the method of appointing certain persons to attend to the saving 

 of the oil of these ' drift ' whales was commonly resorted to by most of the towns of the Plymouth 

 Colony at least. As in the case of the citizens of Sandwich, such persons paid to the town 

 a certain amount for the local monopoly of this privilege. This arrangement, however, seems 

 at times to have aroused the cupidity of the less fortunate colonists, for in the Judicial Acts 

 of the Plymouth Colony"* in 1662, we find that "Thomas Howes, Sen"", and Robert Denis, 

 complaineth in the behalfe of themselues and the rest of theire naighbours, whoe by towne 

 order are to haue theire shares of the whales this yeare, w'' by Gods providence are or shalbee 



1 Freeman, F. History of Cape Cod, 1862, vol. 2, p. .51. 



2 Ibid., p. 62. 



^ Records of the Massafhusetts Bay Colony, 18.51, vol. 4, pt. 2, p. 191. 



■• Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, 1855, vol. 3, p. 53. 



* Ibid, 1857, vol. 7, p. 106. 



