1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



277 



our Essex Registry the inventory of 

 an estate in what is now Danvers, 

 where a "stand of bees" was ap- 

 praised at 5 pounds, which, taking 

 into consideration the purchasing 

 power of money, is not far from 

 present prices. 



Some one has said that "new 

 truths" are usually the "old errors" 

 and, when I read how municipal own- 

 ership will solve all economic trou- 

 bles, it recalls the early experiment of 

 the town of Newbury in municipal 

 bee-keeping. 



The writer has spent a good deal of 

 time in tracing this, perhaps the first 

 attempt in the colony at municipal or 

 public control of a utility. 



Fortunately for the historian, how- 

 ever unfortunate for the "expert" 

 who was put in charge of the enter- 

 prise, he became our first pauper, and 

 the controversy over his support put 

 the apiarian experiment on record, in 

 town, county and province. 



The town received its first settlers 

 in 1^5, and five years later the 

 "seven men," or, as we should say 

 now, the select men, established a 

 town apiary, which was also undoubt- 

 edly intended as an educational "ex- 

 periment station," on the farm of one 

 Davis, who is described as a "renter," 

 which would certainly imply that it 

 was plantation or "common" land; 

 the old records saying about this 

 time "Quacacunquen is allowed to be 

 a plantation and the name thereof to 

 be Newberry." There were at that 

 time 91 free-holders. 



This town bee-yard was put in 

 charge of a man named Eels, who was 

 brought from what is now the town 

 of Hingham "with," say the colonial 

 records, "ye expectation of his doing 

 service that ye town was not ac- 

 quainted with." It would be inter- 

 esting to know where the bees were 

 obtained, and one or two "clews" are 

 now being followed with that purpose 

 in view. A little story is told of a 

 local Indian, who curiously observed 

 the bees at work. He had seen the 

 horse and ox — animals previously un- 

 known to him and his people — and 

 marveled that they should toil at the 

 command of the settler. The honey- 

 bee was also a stranger, and the situ- 

 ation seemed to have become serious. 

 "Huh I white man work, make horse 

 work, make ox work, now make fly 

 work; this Injun go away.!" 



The winter following the establish- 

 ment of Newbury's apiary was per- 

 haps the most severe this locality has 

 ever experienced, there being in all 

 probability no possible flight from 

 early in November until March. It 

 will be remembered that Boston Har- 

 bor was closed by ice from November 

 18 to Febi-uary 21. It is probable 

 that the second year saw the bees in 

 very poor condition. Eels was an old 

 man and evidently discouraged. In 

 a year or two he seems to be "living 

 with" John D^vis, rather than con- 

 ducting a business, and, homesick, 

 perhaps, he "swarmed out" and got 

 as far as Ipswich, on his way to his 

 old home, where he was hived in the 

 jail by an alert constable, and the 

 controversy began as to what town 

 should support him. 



A petition was sent to the "Great 

 and General Court," and after due 

 consideration the Colonial Legisla- 

 ture sent down the following order: 



"May ye 14, 1645. It is conceived 

 John Eels should be placed in some 

 convenient place where he may be 

 implied in his trade of beehive mak- 

 ing, etc., and ye town of Nevvbury to 

 make up what he wanteth of defray- 

 ing ye charge of his livelyhood." 



One might infer from the term 

 "livelyhood" that the clerk himself 

 had some personal experience in bee- 

 keeping; at any rate the spelling is 

 singularly appropriate. 



At the time of which I write there 

 must have been a very considerable 

 interest in bees and beekeeping, for, 

 during the same year that Newbury 

 was maintaining a municipal yard, 

 the question of the ownership of an 

 escaped swarm was adjudicated by 

 the full bench of the Superior Court, 

 "Mr. John Endicott, Deputy Gover- 

 nor, presiding, with Mr. Symon Brad- 

 street, Mr. Emanuel Downing, Esq., 

 Mr. William Hawthorne and Mr. Ed- 

 ward Holliocks on the bench." 



The defendant was brought in on 

 a warrant or "presentment," which 

 charged "having sinned against ye 

 county not only in taking away ye 

 good of his neighbor, but by Lying 

 and insineuating to deceive." The 

 Court came in at Salem, on the 25th 

 of the eleventh month, which wouiu 

 be, according to our present calendar, 

 January 13, 1641, and the case was 

 tried before a jury. 



The details of the trial are quite 

 fully given, but as the testimony was 

 taken in long hand, the peculiar long 

 hand of a man who wrote in the char- 

 acters of the 16th century, and as the 

 tongue of the witness frequently out- 

 ran the quill of the clerk, I found it 

 by no means easy to read. It is, of 

 course, devoid of punctuation, and 

 the paper crumbling with age. 



John Kirtland, living in what is 

 now Lynn, evidently had a small 

 apiary and to him came his good 

 neighbor, Jno. Deacon, who testified: 

 "I heard a noyes of bees, and thought 

 they were my neighbor Kirkland's 



bees and so told him: If you will 

 come I will show you where they are, 

 and so did show him ye place, but ye 

 bees were gone, next morning; said 

 he could not find them, and I pittied 

 him, for ye bees were not found 

 there." 



The summer passed and in Novem- 

 ber the defendant came to Kirkland 

 and presented a claim for damage to 

 his corn, the previous season, offering 

 to settle for a certain tree in Good- 

 man Kirkland's woodland. This de- 

 layed claim for unproved damage 

 does not seem to have aroused sus- 

 picion, and the tree was freely given. 

 The new owner, however, made the 

 mistake of employing a man to cut it 

 who was evidently of a practical 

 mind, for he testifies: "I put myself 

 to all ye conceits I could know what 

 he would do with that tree; at last I 

 laid my head to ye tree and there a 

 humming and I said there is bees." 



"Goodman Deacon also testifieth 

 there is bees in it." 



Kirtland testifies: "I gave him ye 

 tree but not ye bees." 



The jury found as follows : "We 

 find for plaintiff his bees and if living 

 and well in spring only to pay ye 

 charges of court; if all dead to pay 

 30 shillings." Coui-t charges were 

 15 shillings, and two days later an 

 execution was entered in that amount, 

 but the Court, with a leaning to 

 mercy, ordered that, considering "it 

 was ye first time, and ye estate not 

 great, the punishment shall bee only 

 a fine of 20 shillings." 



Thus, 280 years ago, the Massachu- 

 setts Court established a precedent, 

 and fixed the value of an absconding 

 swarm. 



At this time, a first-class carpenter 



received 18 pence per day, while a 



good "stok of bees" was woii:h from 



1 pound to 1 pound 6 shillings, or the 



equivalent of about 15 days' labor. 



Honey in the comb was appraised 

 at 1 shilling 9 pence. 



In the old days when Ipswich was 

 our shore town, there came before 

 the court, "the Hon. Judges, Mr. Sy- 

 mon Bradstreet, Mr. Samuell Sy- 

 monds. Major General Dennison, Mr. 



Araliian apiary in Algi-na. 



