Military History. 217 



and that they were commanded by a captain residing - in the latter 

 place. Winthrop says that in 1645 Hingham chose Lieutenant 

 Eames, who had been the chief commander for the previous seven 

 or eight years, to be captain, and presented him to the council for 

 confirmation. For some reason not now known, the town be- 

 came offended with Eames before his new commission could be 

 issued, and a new election was held, or attempted to be held, at 

 which Bozoan Allen was chosen captain ; whom, however, the 

 council refused to confirm. A bitter controversy lasting several 

 years ensued. The town became divided into partisans of the 

 two officers, and the quarrel occupied much of the time of 

 the deputies and magistrates until 1648. In it the Rev. Peter 

 Hobart, together with many leading - citizens, became deeply in- 

 volved, and the issues soon came to relate to civil and reli- 

 gious, rather than to military interests. The details of this 

 most unfortunate affair, which cost the town many of its 

 best families and much of its prosperity, would seem to be- 

 long more properly to the chapter on ecclesiastical history, and 

 there they may be found at length. 



Lieut. Anthony Eames, the first local commander of the town, 

 was one of the first settlers, coming here in 1636, in which year 

 a house lot was granted him on the lower plain. He seems to 

 have been an able officer and a leading and trusted citizen, being 

 a deputy in 1637, 1638, and 1643, and frequently holding positions 

 of responsibility and honor in the town. Together with Allen, 

 Joshua Hobart, and others, he was chosen to represent the town's 

 interests in Xantasket lands, and in 1643 he with Allen and 

 Samuel Ward had leave from the town to set up a corn mill 

 near the cove. From Lieutenant Eames, through his three 

 daughters, — Milicent who married William Sprague, Elizabeth 

 who married Edward Wilder, and Marjory who married Capt. 

 John Jacobs, — many of the people of Hingham are descended. 

 Pending the settlement of the trouble in the company, the 

 General Court ordered, August 12, 1645, that " Lieutenant 

 Tory shall be chief military officer in Hingham, and act accord- 

 ing as other military officers till the court shall take further 

 orders." Lieutenant Tory was from Weymouth, and was un- 

 doubtedly appointed as a disinterested party to the controversy. 

 He was succeeded in the care of the company in May, 1646, by 

 Maj. Edward Gibbons. The same day that Lieutenant Tory was 

 assigned to the charge of the company an important order was 

 passed by the General Court to the effect that the commander of 

 every company should select thirty men out of every hundred in 

 their command who should be ready for service at half an hour's 

 notice ; and further provided for the thorough arming and equip- 

 ping of every man, with penalties for neglect. Provision was also 

 made at the May session of the General Court for the training of 

 youth between the ages of ten and sixteen years of age, by experi- 



