148 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



here." In the decade following 1650, the Court records show frequent suits for the adjudica- 

 tion of the claims of rival whalers; moreover, the fact that at this time the General Courts of 

 the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies began to formulate regulations for the pre- 

 vention of strife and misunderstanding over the ownership of dead whales, is evidence that 

 the industry was then beginning to flourish and that numerous whales were killed. 



Even at this early date, it appears that the Government claimed a portion of the oil of 

 whales cast on shore within the bounds of the Colony. So in 1652, "Mr. Howes" was appointed 

 "to receive the oil of the country" for the town of Yarmouth, Mass. 1 At the same time it 

 was ordered by the town of Sandwich, Mass., "that Edmund Freeman, Edward Perry, Geo. 

 Allen, Daniel Wing, John Ellis, and Thos. Tobey, these six men, shall take care of all the fish 

 [including whales and 'grampuses'] that Indians shall cut up within the limits of the town, 

 so as to provide safety for it, and shall dispose of the fish for the town's use; also that if any 

 man that is an inhabitant shall find a whale and report it to any of these six men, he shall 

 have a double share; and that these six men shall take care to provide laborers and what- 

 ever is needful, so that whatever whales either Indian or white man gives notice of, they may 

 dispose of the proceeds to the town's use, to be divided equally to every inhabitant." Appar- 

 ently it was not long before a misunderstanding arose as to the legal definition of the phrase 

 "every inhabitant," for in the following year, 1653, the town ruled "that the pay of all whales 

 shall belong to every householder and to every young man that is his own, equally." This 

 method of sharing the proceeds of drift whales seems to have met with small favor, or per- 

 chance certain shrewd citizens thought to make a greater personal profit from such occasional 

 finds, for in the same year, September 13, 1653, it was further ordered "that Richard Chad- 

 well, Thos. Dexter, and John Ellis, these three men, shall have all the whales that come up 

 within the limits and bounds of Sandwich, they paying to the town for the sd. fish 16 a whale." 

 It was also "provided that if any of these three men have notice given them by any person 

 who has seen a whale ashore or aground and has placed an oar by the whale, his oath may, if 

 required, be taken for the truth and certainty of the thing, and the sd. three persons shall 

 be held liable to pay for the sd. whale although they neglect to go with him that brings the 

 word. And if they do not go with him, then sd. person shall hold the sd. whale, and by giving 

 notice to any third shall have paid him for his care herein 1. [The whale then evidently becomes 

 town property.] And in case there come ashore any part of a whale, these four men, Mr. Dil- 

 lingham, Mr. Edmund Freeman, Edward Perry, and Michael Blackwell, are to be the judges 

 of the whale before it shall be cut off from, to determine the quantity less a whole whale; and 

 then, without allowing further word, those three men, viz. : Rd. Chadwell, Thos. Dexter, and 

 John Ellis, shall make payment for sd. whale, 5 in oil, 5 in corn, and I in cattle, all market- 



1 Swift, C. F. History of Old Yarmouth, 1884, p. 84. 

 - Freeman, F. History of Cape Cod, 1862, vol. 2, p. 50. 



