Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BAKNSTABLE FAMILIES. 377
field. Miles Standish was chosen Captain ; Nathaniel Thomas,
Lieutenant ; Nathaniel Souther, Clerk ; and Matthew Fuller and
Samuel Nash, Sergeants.
To be a sergeant in a militia was then an office of honor, and
conferred distinction on the holder.
When the company met, the exercises were always begun and !
ended with prayer, and at the^ annual election of officers, on the
first of September, an occasional sermon was preached. None
but freeman of honest and good report, approved by the officers,
and by a majority of the company, were admitted. Servants
were not admitted, neither were freeman who were not of honest
and good report. ,No conversation was allowed while the company
was on parade and the most exact discipline was exacted.
For absence, without a sufficient excuse, a fine of two shillings
was imposed, and if not paid in a month, the delinquent party
was summoned to appear before the company, the fine was
exacted, and his name was stricken from the roll of the company.
For each defect in arms or equipments a fine of six pence
was imposed, and if any one was defective for six consecutive
months, his name was also stricken from the roll of the company.
The arms and equipments required of each was a musket or
piece approved; a sword; a rest; and a bandilier. Only 16
pikes were required, namely, 8 for Plymouth, 6 for Duxburv, and
2 for Marshfield.
All the officers of the company were forever after to be
known by their titles ; each member paid six pence a quarter for
the use of the company ; and at the decease of a member, the
company assembled with their arms, and he was buried as
a soldier.
No person propounded for a member could be received on the
day he was nominated ; and before admission, he was required to
take the oath of fidelity. The fifteenth rule of the company
required "That all postures of pike and muskett, motions, ranks,
and files, &c., messengers, skirmishes, seiges, batteries, watches,
sentinels, &c., be always performed to true military discipline."
This company was established on the same principle as the
ancient and honorable artillery company of Boston, which has
maintained its organization to the present time.
The freemen of Sandwich, Barnstable, and Yarmouth, "provided
they be men of honest and good report," were granted by
the Court liberty to form a similar company ; but I do not learn
that they accepted the privilege. In each town there was a
military company, which included all between the ages of 16 and
60, "able to bear arms." The "military discipline" was not
intended to supercede the ordinary trainings. It was intended as
an honorable association of the freemen, for instruction in the art
of war.