Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

'316 GKNEALOGIOAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES.
are included in the records and documents, which have been preserved,
in which he had an interest, they would fill a moderate
sized volumn. The reader of these records should remember that
they were made by the personal enemies of Mr. Dexter, and though
the"^ facts may be accurately stated, yet some allowance is to be
made for the hostile feeling which existed in the minds of the
writers.
In March, 1631, he had a quarrel with Gov. Endicott, in which
the Salem Magistrate struck Mr. Dexter, who complained to the
Court at Boston. Mr. Endicott m his defence, says, "I hear I
am much complained of by goodman Dexter for striking him ;
understanding since it is not lawful for a justice of the peace to
strike. But if you had seen the manner of his carriage, with such
daring of me, with his arms akimbo, it would have provoked a
very patient man. He has given out, if I had a purse he would
make me empty it, and if he cannot have justice here, he will do
wonders in England ; and if he cannot prevail there, he will try it
out with me here at blows. If it were lawful for me to try it at
blows, and he a fit man for me to deal with, you would not hear
me complain." The jury to whom the case was referred, gave on
the 3d of May, 1631, a verdict for Mr. Dexter, assessing the
damage at £10 sterling ($44.44.)
In March, 1633, the court ordered that Mr. Dexter "be set in
the bilbows, disfranchised, and fined £10 sterling, for speaking
reproachful and seditious words against the government here
established." The bilbows were a kind of stocks set up near the
meeting-house in Lynn, in which the hands and feet of the culprit
were confined
"A Bastile, made to imprison hands,
By strange enchantment made to fetter,
The lesser parts, and free the greater."
Mr. Dexter, having been insulted by Samuel Hutchinson, he
met him one day on the road, "and jumping from his horse, he
bestowed about twenty blows on his head and shoulders, to the no
small danger and deray of his senses, as well as sensibilities."
These facts show that Mr. Dexter was not a meek man. He had
many difficulties with his neighbors, and one of the vexatious lawsuits
in which he was engaged, he left as a heritage to his children
and to his grand-children. Whether justice was or was not on his
side in all these cases, the troubles that environed him at Lynn,
induced him to seek a quieter home. In 1637, he and nine of his
neighbors obtained from the Plymouth Colony Court a grant of
the township of Sandwich. He went there that year, and with
the commendable public spirit for which he had ever been distinguished
built the first grist mill erected in that town. He did not
remain long, for in 1638, the next year, he had 350 acres of land
assigned him as one of the inhabitants of Lynn, and he