HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN WHALE FISHERY. 9 



rules governing them were: " I. All whales killed or wounded & left at 

 sea the killers to repaire to the inspectors & give marks, time, place, 

 which shall be recorded. 2. All whales brought or cast ashore to be viewed 

 by inspector or deputy before being cut & marks & wounds recorded 

 with time & place. 3. Any person cutting or defacing whale before 

 being viewed unless necessary shall lose right to it, & pay 10£ to 

 county, & fish to be seized by inspectors for owners' use. Inspectors 

 to have power to make deputy and allow 6s. per whale. 4. Those find- 

 ing whale a mile from shore not appearing to be killed by man shall be 

 first to secure them, pay 1 hogshead of oyle to ye county for each 

 whale." * 



In 1G47 (May 25) at a meeting of the general court held at Hartford, 

 Conn., the following resolve was passed : " Yf Mr. Whitiug, w th any 

 others shall make tryall and p r secute a desigue for the takeiug of whale 

 w th iu these libertyes, and if vppon tryall w th in the terme of two yeares, 

 they shall like to goe on, noe others shalbe suffered to interrupt the, for 

 the tearme of seauen yeares." t Whether Mr. Whiting, who seems to 

 have been quite a prominent man and a merchant at Hartford, ever did 

 " prosecute his designe," or not, we are left to conjecture ; but so far as 

 we at present know, this is the earliest official document showing any 

 intention in that direction, and many years elapse before Connecticut 

 again claims attention upon this subject. 



It is probably safe to assert that the first organized prosecution of the 

 American whale-fishery was made along the shores of Long Island. 

 The town of Southampton, which was settled in 1G40 by an offshoot 

 from the Massachusetts Colony at Lynn,$ was quick to appreciate the 

 value of this source of revenue. In March, 1G44, the town ordered the 

 town divided into four wards of eleven persons to each ward, to attend 

 to the drift-whales cast ashore. When such an event took; place two 

 persons from each ward (selected by lot) were to be employed to cut it 

 up. "And every Inhabitant with his child or servant that is above six- 

 teen years of age shall have in the Division of the other part," (i. e. what 

 remained after the cutters deducted the double share they were, ex offi- 

 cio, entitled to) " an equall proportion provided that such person when 

 yt falls into his ward a sufficient man to be imployed aboute yt."§ Among 

 the names of those delegated to each ward are many whose descendants 

 became prominent in the business as masters or owners of vessels — the 

 Coopers, the Sayres, Mulfords, Peirsons; Hedges, Howells, Posts, and 

 others. A few years later the number of "squadrons" was increased 

 to six. 



* Plyui. Col. Rec. vi, pp. 252-3. 



tConn. Col. Rec.,i, p. 154. 



\ Southampton was settled under a patent from the Earl of Sterling, and the priv- 

 ileges accorded were essentially those of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1664 the 

 commissioners to adjust the colonial hounds decided this and the adjacent towns to bo 

 within the jurisdiction of the Duke of York. 



$ Howell's Hist, of Southampton, p. 179. 



