FIEE DEPARTMENT. 



BY FRANCIS H. LINCOLN. 



Our ancestors early endeavored to protect themselves from 

 losses by fire. In the Selectmen's First Book of Records arc 

 the following orders : — 



Hingham, 1662. It is ordered by the Selectmen of this Town that 

 Euery house holder shall have a sufficient Ladder proportionable to ye 

 height of his house always in Redyness in case of Danger & sucli as are 

 found defective herein or weake after the publication of this order shall 

 pay hue shillings for Euery weeke that he or they continue in this Defect 

 as a fine to ye vse of ye towne and any one of the Selectmen are hereby 

 impowered to execute this order. 



Hingham, 1663. It is ordered by the Selectmen that if any person 

 shall take away the Ladder belonging vnto the Meeting-house except it be 

 in case of present Danger of fire, and then not to keepe it above four and 

 twenty houers, shall pay as a fine to the vse of the Town the sum of ten 

 shillings. Edmund Pitts is to execute this order. 



Regulations of a like nature -to the above were made, according 

 to the records, at later dates. 



There is little of interest relating to the means of putting out 

 fires for many years. Fire Wards were appointed according to 

 law, whose badge of office was a red staff surmounted with a 

 brass spike or spear, and such precautions as naturally suggested 

 themselves were taken by private individuals. 



At the beginning of the present century there was a movement 

 to procure fire-engines. They were not purchased and owned bv 

 the town, but by private individuals as " proprietors." The town 

 provided houses to keep them in, and in 1802 one hundred and 

 sixty dollars were paid by the Selectmen " for building 2 Engine 

 Houses." These were for the " Precedent, No. 1," and " Centre, 

 Xo. 2." There was a rivalry — when was there not rivalry in 

 iiro-cnginc matters ? — between those inhabitants " on the Plain " 

 and those " clown town," who had decided to procure these en- 

 gines, as to which should be completed first. The one for " the 

 Plain " was built there with the exception of the copper work, 

 which was clone by Hunneman & Co. of Boston. James Stephen- 

 son and Benjamin Thomas did the iron work. Peter Sprague 



VOL. I. — 17 * 



