The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-02-21
TIE CuRFEW RINGER.
historic PersonaEe Who Aroused the
Sleepy Heads of Boston in the
Seventeenth Century.

Seventeenth Century.
Curfew rings in Chelsea. Curfew
ringing is an old custom abolished in
Boston In 1880. In 1919 Richard Taylor
| was the curfew ringer here. Other
towns near by also had the curfew;
Ipswich, 1853; Hartford. 1865; Salem
1913; Hadley 1876; Charlestown, 1854,
Newbury, 1905. Its original purpose
was that of a fire inguisher-couvre
re feu-at eight or at nine O'clock in
tonight" In 1868 well-known writer
announces that the Boston curfew was
to warn young people home. In
Romeo and Juliet" act. ~. scene
FV., the yesty Capulet, arousing his
household early in the morning, slonts:
Come. stir. stir. stir, stir, the second
cock hath crowd -fis three O'clock. "
Taylor was Dostonan from l641. lr
business he was railor. His shop in
1862 was "at the south end of Mrs. Ham
bros house," and in 1861 under the
stairs, northwest corner, in the town
house, to continue there during his life
and that of his wife. She died in 1913;
and in 1875 the heirs sold the lease for
lie remainder of the 61 years granted
him by the town in 1863 He held sew
eral public offices-wood colder, corn
lneasarer, uperintendent of the town
watch. guardian of he town clock.
Clocks in those days were not com
mon. Eostcn in l645 had a horologe on
Merchants row, near these between
which was known rs Edward Tynge's
Dali poste;" and Charlestown, as late
rs 1856, had q sun dial on its public
meeting house. Sand glasses We're also
much in use. Thus, in 1914, Capt. Stagg,
in a man-of-war of "a guns, demanded
the surrender of a Bristol merchant
man then lying in Boston harbor be-
tween Copp's Hill and Charlestown,
Sand giving them only so minutes by
his sand glass in which TO comply. The
merchantmen surrendered. Bu. if you
had seen the conMnotion which pre-
vailed along the water front, and if you
had heard the denunciatory sermons of
the ministers of Boston concerning the
affair. you would not have given much
for the safety of Stagg. his vessel, his
crew or his half-hour glass. But Stage
carried away with him his vessel, its
cargo. and everything except, perhaps.
his daughter. who seems to have be-
come the wife of an established Boston
physician and the ancestor of q we'll
known Boston family. The wisest of
the Boston authorities took the sensi-
bile view, in reference to this apparently
high-handed act of Stagg. that in the
contest then going on between King
Charles and the parliament they could
not afford to quarrel with the Earl OF
Warwick, 'magnus Admrallus An
gliae." whose commission Stage was
obeying.
The Bostonians in 1899 had at least
one bell. In 1862 another one. given to
the town by valiant sea fighter. Capt.
Cromwell, was set up as a clock. In
1857 the town paid Taylor "for repair
ing the clock for his direction to ring
by and in future he was ''to bee az.
charges to keepe a clock and to repayre
it" out of G 5 allowed him by the own
In 1868 he still had charge of the town
clock. At the same time the bell ''reere
Goodman Taylor's dore" was rung at
clock and at II. During the eighteenth
century bells were rung at various
hours, IL, 1 and 9, though not always
the same bell-at the Old South church.
DR.. Sewall's, the Old Brick church. the
Old North,the New South, the West
and that of Rev. Mr.. Byles. In 1884 bells,
were also rung for opening the markets,
What clangor, and for every day in
the year, too! The racket must have
been intolerable even worse than that
Of independence day Many We're the.
petiticrs from Boston bell ringers for
more bell ringing and more pay Oc-
casionally, however. under the plea of
economy. the voters of Boston in town
meeting would do away With at least
! part of the bell ringing then prevail
ing. Bells have also rung for town
, meetings and for funerals. Thus Rich
ard Taylor appears as the first New
England curfew ringer.-E. Rider, in
Rocfor 1rrnpcor;,,4