Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

204 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BAKNSTABLE FAMILIES.
lower. A large square chamber occupied the space directly over the
parlor, with lodging rooms on the rear. The garret, which was
spacious, was occupied by the servants, and as a general place of deposit.
Some of the early settlers kept their bee-hives in the garret,
placing them on a shelf on the outside in the summer, and removing
them inside in winter.
Very little was expended to please the eye. Paint was unknown,
and excepting the seams between the boards, few rooms were
ever plastered. White sand from the beach supplied the place of
carpets, and the furniture was of rude domestic manufacture.
Mr. Lothrop and the large company arrived in Barnstable Oct.
11, 1639, O. 8., Oct. 21, new, bringing with them the crops which
they had raised in Scituate.
Though they had much to do to prepare for the winter, yet
they did not forget their duty to God. Oct. 31, 1639, O. S., was
set apart as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer. It was the
first fast day observed in Barnstable, the special object whereof was,
"For the grace of our God to settle us here in church estate, and to
unite us together in holy walking, and make us faithful in keeping
Covenaunt w'th God and one to another."
The Rev. Joseph Hull and the Rev. John Mayo were both residents
in Barnstable when Mr. Lothrop came, but there is no record
that a church had been organized. Mr. Hull was the leading man
in the plantation—the lands had been granted to him and Mr. Dimmock
as a committee in behalf of themselves and their associates
he had procured an act of incorporation, had established a civil community,
and had exercised his gifts as a preacher before any of Mr.
Lothrop's church came. Very soon after we find him an
wanderer, a persecuted man. In my account of Mr. Hull
exile, a
the details
are given. However great may be our veneration for Mr.
Lothrop and his followers, our sympathies are irresistably enlisted
on the side of poor Mr. Hull. The historian finds it a difficult matter
to explain ; he cannot ''make bricks without straw."
On the 11th day of Dec. 1639, O. S., the first day of Thanksgiving
was observed in Barnstable. The public service was at poor
Mr. Hull's house. The special object of the meeting was to give
thanks to God for his exceeding mercy in bringing them safe to
Barnstable, preserving their health in the weak beginnings, "of
their plantation and in their church estate." The day was very
cold, and after the close of public service they divided into "three
companies to feast together, some at Mr. Hull's, some at Mr.
Mayo's, and some at Brother Lumberd Senior's."
During the first winter they had no lack of food. Fish were
abundant in the waters, wild game visited the coast in immense
flocks, and the woods were filled with deer and other animals that
tested the sportman's skill. Of the forty-five families then in Barnstable
not more than ten, probably not more than eight, had com-