Fleeing Boston

It was a cold and wet morning in early November of 1708 that chilled you to the bone. The rains had come again the night before and drenched everything. It stole through the many cracks in the walls, bringing the uncomfortable dampness with it. Although the temperature was still well above freezing, the damp chill made it feel as though winter had fully descended.

The hay and corn not all put up yet left William Brooks uneasy about provisions for the likely long winter to come. The tobacco still curing would be ready to go to Burlington shortly. Things were too wet to do much of anything except rework damaged tools from summer's farming and get them ready for the coming spring, still five months away. His pregnant wife, Amanda had been busy all summer filling up the root cellar at the back of the house with all manner of root crops. The root cellar dug deep into the steep incline of the hill that rose far above the tree tops surrounding the house. Timbers framed its face and a thick oaken door sealed it from the harshness of the summer sun, now disappearing more each day. Amanda also cleaned out the smoke house in anticipation of the salting, drying and smoking meats. That would begin in the next few weeks. On the inside walls she stretched more cloth pieces to better hold in the smoke and heat for curing and drying.

The chickens were providing 8-10 eggs a day. Amanda's mother taught her even eggs could be preserved for up to nine months by wiping cooking grease on them before placing them on the root cellar floor where it was cooler.

It had been nearly six years since leaving their home in Norfolk County Massachusetts, two miles southwest of Boston, to move just south of Burlington, New Jersey. The New Jersey colony first settled in 1664, some 34 years after the Massachusetts colony. Their small, two-room log home was situated in Burlington County on the banks of the Delaware River at Rancocas Creek. They were 15 miles northeast of Philadelphia and across the Delaware River.

In Boston the Puritans made life so difficult for all faiths, especially Quakers and Seventh Day Worshippers. People were leaving in droves. They were moving to the rich farm lands and forests of New Jersey. One wouldn't think Christian Puritans would behave so, but the Quakers and Seventh Day Worshipers were different. That made them a target. Puritans thought them not strict enough. As well, their mother land, England, had for some time been increasingly intruding into their lives in Boston without any regard for their privacy and freedom whatsoever. Between edicts and a tax on most things, they felt pushed and at the same time restricted.

There seemed to be less and less room for them to spread out on their 20-acre cabbage farm near Boston. They tilled all they could but the small area that was their home site.

In Burlington County, Virginia they were able to purchase 160 acres from the proceeds of their Boston farm. Their move of 140 miles took them four weeks to complete in the spring of 1702. They were unable to get crops out in time for a harvest before the coming winter. The winter that first year had been especially painful for them with few rations and a hovel for housing. However, William, 21, and Amanda, 17, were young, strong and had the company of other kith and kin during the daring move. Only a few settled near them. She had been born in 1686 and he in 1681.

William and Amanda had only six acres of their land tillable, but it was proving enough to supply their needs and some left over to trade and barter with neighbors. They rebuilt their livestock holdings to two milking cows, a bull, eight sheep, two of which were about to birth, and 28 chickens, of which about half were layers. The Devons were a breed of cattle introduced from England some 40 or so years earlier. They were hearty cattle, a bright red whose horns were white with black tips. They were foragers who did well in brushy country which is what the frontier land was made up of. The Devons were good milkers, insuring large amounts of butter and cheeses as well. These and other such things were bartered with nearby neighbors.

Their two Marsh Tacky horses, a mare named Lizzie and a stallion named Rooster, were strong and more than able to pull the wooden plough and harrow through the sometimes moist soil near the river bottoms. They were not attractive, but a dirty brown. They were descendants of the many horses the Spanish brought to the colonies decades before. The soil was especially fertile, and the corn did well here. William also had a small stand of tobacco every year that was grown for trade with merchants who shipped it to Great Britain.

William and Amanda had two children shortly after arriving in Burlington County. Their first born was Sadie, now age five. She was a white blond headed little girl, who looked like an overgrown china doll. She was quite the little grown up, helping mama with small chores already.

Her most important chore seemed to be tending to her little sister, Ester, who was age three and inclined to get into everything. Ester was especially attracted to their cistern. It had been dug shortly after arriving. It had a wooden top standing some three feet above the ground with a leather hinged lid. The cistern was connected to the spring by a long wooden trough so that spring water would continually fill it.

It was thought most water was not to be safe to drink. Even so William often drank deeply from the stone-lined pool at the spring. He constructed it the summer before last. The water from the spring was cold. The spring was a good place for crocks of butter and other foods to avoid spoilage in the summer months. Round circular wooden lids fit tightly in the containers. It also proved a good place to keep a jug of ale.

Ester just would not stay away from the nearby cistern where she risked falling in. Sadie would find her climbing on it and once again drag her back to the house screaming.

This particular November morning was more bleak than usual. Amanda was pregnant with her third child. Her labor she thought had begun the day before, but wasn't regular like. She was doing poorly. William was beside himself. He thought he could care for her, and if things had been natural like, no doubt he could have.

Miranda Roberts, their neighbor from a farm three miles to the North was with her now. The day before, William visited the Roberts farm, asking if Miranda could come and look in on Amanda. Amanda had been in irregular labor since noon on Wednesday. William was in a panic. This was the...