Warned Out

Many thanks to Barbara Tourtillot whose website is a remarkable collection of primary source documents for genealogical and historical research. Barbara created the site in honor of Edythe Frances (Buck) (Roy) Meservie who came from a long line of Easton residents. She writes "it is my hope to use this site to help preserve the memory of those that lived and died in the Town of Easton, Massachusetts." Her site includes a transcription of the town's birth, death, and marriage records from 1697-1847 and many other treasures. Recently I've been looking at her transcriptions of "warnings out" from 1790-1794 for clues about our Revolutionary Soldiers.

Warnings out were the ultimate expression of non-townie status. In the old days towns were founded by groups of people who in some sense pledged to work together rather like being a shareholder in a modern corporation. Folks who wanted to move into a town were supposed to be officially admitted. As population grew and more and more people moved about, this old policy began to be overwhelmed. By the years after the Revolution, the only importance of this old system was that a town was supposed to be responsible for the welfare of its "townies." If you weren't an official townie, you were the responsibility of the town where you can from.

The welfare system in Easton, where the poor were auctioned off to the lowest bidder, might make you wish you came from another town; but it was the only safety net offered. For some reason, between 1790 and 1794 Easton warned out a number of non-townies. This apparently had little effect since if you didn't leave the only penalty was to be denied welfare if you went broke. Another reason for these acts being too late and too little was that most of the people warned out had lived here for years and even fought for the town in the Revolution. My favorite is Dr. Samuel Guild who arrived in Easton in the late 1760's. He apparently became the head of our Sons of Liberty organization, taught school while establishing his practice, served on town boards during the war, enlisted on a privateering expedition and also served on land. He served the town as a physician for 48 years and delivered over 1,000 babies at a time when births were still usually performed by midwives. Yet on February 11, 1790, the town father's remembered that Guild had "lately" come to Easton from his native Walpole and warned him out. He and his wife and five children were given two weeks to depart. He, of course, ignored the order and more than a decade later, serving as the town Justice of the Peace, was instrumental in breaking up the George White crime ring. Chaffin writes Guild died May 11, 1816 "after an active, useful, and influential life." Not the first or the last time a short sighted town group valued a small (and in Guild's case potential) cost over good service. At least Guild seems to have taken the slight with good spirits.