History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

\
1764.] FIRST SCHOOL-COMMITTEE—NEW COURT-HOUSE. 315
24'" Sept. 20 days work at the way. * * * Tuesday 9'^
October. 29 days work at the way." The whole number
of days' work charged by him was five hundred sixty-
three, " reckoning a team and hand with them two days or
€qual to 2 men." The road commenced " against Benjamin
Edwards pasture bars at Rocky Hill," and probably followed
the old path to Park Hill, and to King's saw-mill on
the Manhan River. The entire distance was 3003 rods,
about nine and one half miles.
Prosecuted for Ma- Disorder was not altogether confined to one
licious Mischief. (Jay in the week, nor entirely to the meet-
ing-house. Only occasionally, however, did
the young misbehave themselves to such an extent as to
get into the clutches of the law. Soon after the appointment
of Sunday wardens, several young men from this
and other towns were brought before the court, charged
with malicious mischief. In May, 1764, Elijah King of
Charlestown, N. H., Joseph Burt of Northfield, and John
Hunt Jr. of Northampton, were presented by the jury for
making a riot and disturbance in Northampton, and breaking
the windows of the school-house, on the evening of
January 16, 1764. They were discharged. At the same
time the above named persons and William Mather of
Northampton were presented for the following unlawful
and unseemly acts. They were charged with "carrying
taking down Benjamin Ed-
away Ithamar Strong's sled ;
wards barn yard bars and letting out his cattle ; taking
down Simeon Clapp's barn yard bars ; carrying away a
small sleigh 1 called a pung of the value of 5s. belonging
to Ebenezer Hunt, carrying away a small sleigh called a
pung of the value of 5s. belonging to Josiah Clark Jr.,
taking down Bela Strong's bars and opening the doors of
his stable and manger and letting the cattle into his barn,
1 Sieighs or •' Slays " as they were sometimes spelled, were not common, only six
or eight being in use in Northampton in 1764. They were for the most part ordinary
sleds with plank runners, and those for use with one horse were called " pungs."
Sleigh-rides were not among the winter diversions in this section till the last two decades
of the eighteenth century. These sleighs were quite large, some having four
seats and were capable of holding twelve or flftecu persons. The young people of
Northampton rode down to Elias Lyman's and Lemuel Pomeroy's in Southampton, to
Capt. Samuel Fairfield's in Williamsburg, and to other places in the valley. Nearly
all the sleighs in the village were called in requisition when one of these rides occurred.
Occasionally they had a dance and usually took the village fiddler, a colored
man, with th^m.