Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

454 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BAENSTABLE FAMILIES.
strength, he devoted his leisure time to the study of surgery and
medicine, in which, aided by his father-in-law. Rev. Mr. Thornton,
who was a physician as well as a minister, he acquired much
skill and performed several diflScult surgical operations with success.
In 1687 he had, in a great measure, recovered from the
effects of his wound, and proposed to remove to Boston and es-
tablish himself in that town as a physician. To accomplish this
was the object of Mr. Henchman's letter. He removed to Hingham,
where he practiced medicine several years, and from thence
to Lewes, Sussex County, Penn.
In 1689, it appears by Church's history, that he again was a
soldier in the French and Indian wars of that period. He was a
Captain and fought with great bravery under Major Church in the
defence of Falmouth, now Portland, Sept. 21, 1689. . Mather in
his Magnalia, and he certainly knew, states that the Capt. Nathaniel
Hall who fought so bravely at Falmouth, was the same
man who had served as an officer in King Phillip's war.
The history of his keeping an ordinary or tavern, in Yarmouth,
presents many curious points. The Court conferred on
him the sole right of keeping an ordinary in Yarmouth, then including
the present town of Dennis, and forbid all others from
selling wines or spirituous liquors without license, and constituted
him an agent to prosecute all offenders, and gave him the fines
collected. He had absolute power conferred on him, and the
grant was to continue during his natural life. Excepting at his
house no traveler could procure lodging. The consequence was,
his house was thronged with customers and was the resort of the
intemperate and the lascivious. In two years he became dissatis-
fied, and his wife who was a very pious woman, was utterly disgusted
with the business of keeping an ordinary. He sought
other employment, and sold out to Jasper Taylor Sept. 17, 1690,
"the liberty and privilege of keeping a house of public entertainment
in said Yarmouth, to retail all sorts of strong drink, without
further license during the natural life of said Hall, with onehalf
of all the fines taken of any English person for retailing
strong drink without license in said Yarmouth." In the enjoyment
of the privileges conveyed, Taylor avers that Hall covenanted
to save him harmless. The papers are full of legal quibbles,
and it is difficult to sift out the simple truth. The following are
some of the facts : Taylor was complained of for keeping an ordinary
without license, and was amerced in £4 fines. At the October
term of the Court of Common Pleas held in Barnstable on the
first Tuesday in October, 1703, Taylor sued Hall on his covenant
and obtained a judgment, and from this judgment Hall appealed
to the Suserior Court to be held in Plymouth. He did not deny
in his "Eeasons of Appeal" that he had made such sale, but that
the covenant was void in law, and "no covenant." In law Mr.