Military History. 213 



Here then our Military History commences, and the church 

 erected for the worship of Almighty God was in truth a fortress 

 of the Lord against the heathen enemies of the bodv, as well as 

 against the beguilers of the soul. Nor was the worthy pastor 

 apparently less lilted to command in a temporal than to lead in 

 a spiritual capacity. Of its actual use as a defensive post we have 

 n> lack of evidence. In June, IGo'J, according to the "Records 

 of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New Eng- 

 land"' (from which the authority for much here given is derived), 

 k - Himrham had liberty to use their meeting house for a watch 

 house ; " and again, December 1640, " Hingham Meeting house for 

 the present is allowed tor their watch house." Already, in 1636, 

 the delegates in General Court had ordered " that the military 

 men in Hingham [with other towns] be formed into a regiment 

 of which John Winthrop, Sen. Esq., be Colonel, and Thomas 

 Dudley, Lieut.-Colonel." This indicates the existence here at a 

 very early period of at least a part of a company, and our ances- 

 tors certaiulv had eminent commanders in two such remarkable 

 men as Governor Winthrop and Governor Dudley. Among the 

 interesting orders from the central authority about this time was 

 one providing that captains be maintained from the treasury, and 

 not from their companies ; it was evidently passed for the purpose 

 of giving greater independence to the officers, and was manifestly 

 in the interest of the strict discipline towards which all legislation 

 constantly tended. It was also enacted that musket-balls of full 

 bore should pass current for a farthing apiece ; which, although 

 pertaining to the finances and currency rather than to the mili- 

 tary, is a fact of sufficient interest to justify its mention in this 

 connection. In 1*335 it was ordered that no dwelling-house be 

 built above half a mile from the meeting-house, and in this order 

 Hingham had the honor of being specially included by name ; in- 

 dicating perhaps that she had already shown a tendency to exceed 

 that limit and to stretch herself out along the main street, towards 

 the neighboring colony with which her people had later so much 

 in common. 



Aers passed in 1634, 1635, and 1636 required towns to provide 

 at their own charge a place in which to keep such powder and 

 ammunition as the military authorities should order them to take 

 from Boston, and fixed a penalty for neglect ; commanded all 

 persons to go armed with muskets, powder, and ball, to all public 

 assemblies, and forbade any one going unarmed at any time above 

 a mile from his dwelling-house ; and specifically directed " that 

 the military officers in every town shall provide that the watches 

 be duly kept in places most fit for common safety, and also a 

 ward on the Lord's day, the same to begin before the end of the 

 first month and to be continued until the cud of September, and 

 that everv person above the age of eighteen years (except magis- 

 trates and elders of the churches) shall be compellable to this 



