Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

GENEALOGICAL, ISTOTES OF BAKITSTABLE FAMILIES. 155
©ever change—aever cease to operate. They believed that on the
maa who was the head of a family, more' powerful incentives
operate to induce him to be temperate, industrious, honest and
frugal, than on the man who lives in celibacy. The married man,
if there be a spark of energy in his character, that spark will
soon kindle into a flame, and he will toil early and late, he will
save what he earns that he may have a house of his own—a place
that he can call home—a freehold estate of which he is both landlord
and tenant. Thus impelled, toil is no burden—he forms habits
of industry and tl\rift, and like other habits they become a
second nature. Home and its associations have, especially after
a day spent in toil, more attractions for him, than the haunts of
vice and dissipation—where evil communications would corrupt
his manners, uproot and destroy those germs of virtue early implanted
in the mind by parental teachings, and subsequently confirmed
by the harmonizing influences of the domestic circle. The
young man was bound to his wife, to his children, to his parents,
to his native town, to the colony. He had no inducements to
wander. Land was wealth—it cost little save the labor of rescuing
it from the wilderness—building materials were scattered over
the whole land, and industry soon converted them into comfortable
dwellings. Families were wanted to build up towns, and to
give strength to the colony. Immigration had nearly ceased in
1640 ; few came over during the next century, and for that reason
the population of New England at the commencement of the Eevolutionary
War was as homogenius a race, as that of any country
in the world.
In early times a large family was considered a blessing,
which the early tax lists confirm and prove. As a class, those
who paid the highest taxes had the largest families. It is also a
noticeable fact that the men of standing, influence and respectability,
had numerous children. The reverse, at the present time,
is perhaps a nearer approximation to the truth.*
Generally our fathers were unable to give large dowers to
their daughters. They had land, and herds and flocks ; but no
money. By common consent or usage, the sons inherited the
lands. Sometimes an unmarried daughter was provided with a
home at the old homestead. A goodly custom prevailed, and in
the families of many farmers has come down to the present time,
each girl of the family was allowed to take for her own, a certain
proportion of the annual product of wool and flax. This she spun
and wove with her own hands into cloth, out of which she made
*Ill one of the small states or circles of Germany, pauperism had increased to such an
alarming extent as to make it probable that if some check could not be deyised, the whole
Eopulation would be involved in a compaon ruin. A law was enacted that no man should
ave a certificate to marry granted to him until he had first proved to the satisfaction of the
magistrate that he had the means of supporting a family. The law was rigidly enforced,
and after the lapse of one generation not a beggar was to be found in the State.