704 GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



PROTECTION OF FISH DURING SPAWNING SEASON. For the regulation of the fisheries the following orders were 

 passed by the general court in 1668 and 1679 : 



"It is ordered by this court and the authority thereof, that no man shall henceforth kill any codfish hake had- 

 dock or politick to dry for sale in the mouth of December or January because of their spawning tyme, nor any mack- 

 rell to barrell in the month of May or June, under penalty of paying two shillings for each quintall of fish and five 

 shillings for each barrell of mackrell; nor shall any fisherman cast the garbage of the fish they catch overboard at or 

 near the ledges or grounds where they take the Csh nor shall any of the boates crew neglect to obey the order of the 

 major of the vessel to which they belong for the tymcs and seasons of fishing, nor shall they take or drink any more 

 strong liquors than the major thinks meet to permit them, under the penalty of twenty shillings for the first offence, 

 for the second 40, for the third three months imprisonment. * * 29 (8) 1668." ' 



DUTIES OF FISHERMEN. The following order was passed by the general court Juno 13, 1679 : 



" For encouragement of fishing trade: It is ordered by this court & authority thereof that all fishermen that 

 are shipt upon a winter & spring voyage shall duly attend the same according to custom or agreement with respect 

 to time, and all ffishermeu yt are upon a fishing voyage for the whole summer shall not presume to break off from 

 said voyage before the last of October without the consent of the'owuer, master & shoreman upon the penalty of 

 paying all damages." 3 



ABATEMENT OF TAXES ON FISHING VESSELS, 1694. The general court passed the following order November 2, 

 1694: 



"Upon reading the petition of sundry of the inhabitants of Marblehead, on behalf of said town, praying that 

 they may be eased of the duty of tonnage for their fishing shallops, and that they may only be considered and taken 

 in as other ratable estate: voted That Fishing Boats be abated of the said duty of tonnage and that they pay onely 

 to the Publick as other ratable estate, according to the valuation set by the act or acts of the court for the granting of 

 publick taxes and no otherwise." 3 



TROUBLE WITH FOREIGNERS, 1695. The Marblehead fishermen seem to have suffered through the invasions of 

 foreigners. Felt records the following entry made on the town records September 23, 1695 : 



" September 23, 1695. As a French privateer had captured shallops at the Isle of Shoals, another in our bay, and 

 it is said that ' Major Brown's ketch, which was taken, and other booty, are in a harbor in or near Casco Bay,' a 

 commission is requested for a ketch and shallop, with 40 or 50 fishermen of Marblehead and Salem, to sail from this 

 place, in pursuit of the enemy. The petition was allowed, and funds were granted for the enterprise." 



NAVAL PROTECTION FOR THE FISHERIES. Concerning the protection of the fisheries, the military authorities had 

 the following correspondence in 1696. 



Letter to Captain Legg, at Marblehead : 



"Upon application of yourself and other Gentlemen concerned in ye Fishery I was ready to gratify you with a 

 convoy so far as might become best with ye other service proposed by his Majesty's ship into ye Bay of Fuudy, and 

 did accordingly order Captain Paxton to attend that service, he then acquainting me only of his want of fifteen men, 

 and I understood you were ready to supply them rather than to faile of his assistance, and I expected it had beeu 

 done, and that he had been gone to sea. But I have this day received at Letter from Captain Paxton at Marblehead 

 in which he advises of want of 30 men more to complete his number, and that he has not yet received any from yourself, 

 and therefore expects positive orders, &c.' M 



Letter from William Stoiighton to Capl. Went. Paxton, Commander of His Majesty's ship Nncporl, dated Ilosloii, May 4, 1696. 

 " I received yours of this date whereby I understand you are still at Marblehead and am surprised at the account 

 you give of the want of 30 men to make up your compliment. You never mentioned more than fifteen unto me before 

 your going hence, which I expected would be made good unto you by the Gentlemen concerned in the Fishery and 

 you say they will provide them. I hoped that a considerable part of that service would have been performed before 

 this. I am sorry that the Fishery should not be assisted having made provision for that design but the time is very 

 much passed away that I fear the other service proposed for you (which is of such importance) will be disappointed 

 in case you should pursue your order to continue with them till they make their Fare. But if you think it may be 

 with the safety of his Majesty's ship without a further supply of men to convoy them to the Fishing Ground, and so 

 to return back to this place, I do consent to and order your going so far with them. Let not the time run out farther, 

 that if you are not in a capacity for this service other measures may be taken, of which give me speedy notice." 6 



THE FISHERIES or MARBLEIIEAD FROM 1715 TO 1790. In the autobiography of Parson Barnard, chosen minister 

 of Marblehead in 1715, are found these words, referring to his arrival there in 1715 : "Nor could I find twenty families 

 that could stand on their own legs; and they were generally as rude, swearing, drunken, and fighting a crew as they 

 were poor. I soon saw the town had a price in its hands, and it was a pity they had not the heart to improve it." 6 

 After giving this most deplorable account of the moral, social, and commercial state of the settlement before 1720 

 he states that by the middle of the century a great change had been experienced, and thus describes the rise 01 the 

 fishery trade: "Mr. Joseph Swett, a young man of strict justice, of great industry, enterprising genius, quick appre- 

 heii.Mon, and firm resolution, but small fortune, was the first man who engaged in it (sending fish to foreign markets). 

 He sent a cargo to Barbadoes, and from the profits of the voyage found that he increased his stock, and wt-ut on build- 

 ing vessels, till he was enabled to send vessels to Europe, loading them with fish and pointing out to otltei's the path to 



1 Massachusetts Maritime Manuscripts, vul. i, p. 59. 'Ibid., vol. iii, p. 83. 



'Ibid., vol. ii, p. 184. 'Ibid., p. 88. 



'Ibid., p. 549. TJiirp.T's Mapi/inc, July, 1874. 



