Darrow School - Shaker Post Yearbook (New Lebanon, NY)

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1936 The Peg Board As my friends had given up all attempts and hopes to educate, and thereby fit me for good society, I was allowed to follow my own instincts and affinities, and these led me to associate almost exclusively with the servants, of whom eight or ten were kept on the place, there being two distinct classes of human beings, and two separate establishments, at Chadwick Hall, as on a Southern plantation in the olden times of .seven years ago. Here I was allowed to educate myself to my heart's content, reading and studying the vegetables and fruits fand of these there were variety and abundance, including the apple and pear to the apricot and gooseberryj, in all of which I was deeply interested. The land and its crops, the animals and the servants who attended them, together with, those who officiated in- doors, were all my school-masters and mistresses, and the servants were not less my particular friends, for I was a Democrat. When almost twelve years of age, my father and brother, whom I did not know, ap- peared at Chadwick Hall, not to me among the servants, but to my uncle and aunts in the parlour, and to my grandmother, who had not given me up for lost, as had the others fso far as a school education was concernedj, but had taught me to say prayers before going to bed, and when I rose in the morning, had caused me to learn the text, and patiently endure an occasional gentle knock on the head from the sexton's long wand. For all of this I had a proper respect, but an organ fwhich I heard for the first timej in another church alarmed me, and caused me to cry out in a fright, to the amazement of a large congregation. My father, brother, and uncles and aunts, as I subsequently learned, had a sharp contention about taking me off to America, of which I only knew so much as I used to hear the common people sing in a doggerel originating at a time recruits for the Revolutionary war were being raised: The sun will burn your nose off, And the frost will freeze your toes off, But we must away, To fight our friends and our relations In North America. The different parties became warm in their feelings, and quarrelled, each party laying claim to meg and, as neither would give way, Englishmen-like, they agreed to settle the matter on this wise: I, Frederick, was to be called into the parlour, no word upon the subject to be spoken to me previously, and uncle was to put a question to me, which he did, as follows: Frederick, will you go to America with these men Cwho are your father and brotherj, or will you stay with us? I will go to America with my father and brother, was my instant reply, and that settled it. I was soon fixed off, and on my way to Liverpool. This was-in the year 1820 and I attained my twelfth year at sea. Evans refers to Licky Hill as the scene of one of Cromwell's battles. The battle to which he refers was probably a skirmish not known to history, but remembered locally and perhaps magnified in local tradition. Concerning the reference to a battle Mr. Palfrey has this to say: There is no record of any fighting near Lickey Hills during the Cromwellian times that I can trace. There may have been some skirmishing, of course, but the nearest battle would be Worcester, sixteen miles away in 1651. It is curious to note, however, that there is a Battlefield Brook running through the Estate. Who Elder Frederick's uncles were we have not yet been able to ascertain. They may have been managers of the Chadwick Hall estate. But be that as it may, Evans's association with this old English manor and his schooling in Stourbridge suggest that he came of good family. In any event, the Peg Board purposes to carry these researches farther, and it is possible that in some future number information of a more definite character concerning the boyhood of this great Shaker theologian may be presented. 67

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The Peg Board 1936 may be of some interest to the student in anthropology. When I came of age, and on my return to England in 1830, I was relating to an aunt on my father's side, whom I had never before seen, that I had always had stored up in my memory one thing that I could not account forg I could remember nothing before or after it to give it a meaning, and none of my mother's relatives knew anything about it. I saw the inside Q' a coach, and was handed out of it from a woman'.f arms into lhose cj some other person. My aunt was utterly astonished, and stated that my mother was coming down from London to Birmingham, when I was not more than .fix months old, that something happened to the horses which frightened the party badly, and that I was handed out fjust as I had seen and rememberedl by my mother into the arms of another person. - When I was four years of age my mother died, and I was thrown among her relatives, who sent me to school at Stourbridge, where there were some two hundred scholars, and the position the master assigned to me was that of the poorest scholar in the school, which effected my release from the schoolroom, to my great satisfaction and peace of mind, for, if there was one thing more than another that I hated, it was schoolbooks and an English schoolmaster, with his flogging proclivities. I was then about eight years old! As yet no definite record of Evans's attendance has been found in any Stourbridge school However, through the kindness of Mr. Harry E. Palfrey, Chairman of the Governors of the King Edward School at Stourbridge, the following interesting information has been made available to US. Mr.Palfrey says: I I am greatly 'interested in your statement about Evans and the Shakers, and his early connection with Stourbridge. Unfortunately the records of our Grammar School in the early 1 9th century are practically non-existent and there are no records of the scholars in the school. Indeed about the critical time of Evans' boyhood there were no boys in the school for several years as you may gather from a quotation I enclose. There were four schools in Stourbridge between 1808 and say, 1830 viz. CID The Grammar School of K. Edward VI C21 Oldswinford Hospital C31 Wheeler's Charity School 14D Scott's School I have ascertained that there is no trace of Evans at the Oldswinford Hospital. Wheel- er's Charity School was closed many years ago and the funds are administered by the Governors of the Grammar School. Scott's School came to an end about 20 years ago. I have the accounts for Scott's School in the early 19th century 11793-18325 but there is no mention of Evans. I am afraid, therefore, it is not possible to trace his scholastic career in Stourbridge. The name Evans is fairly common in this district and there was a very well-known surgeon, William Evans, who would be a contemporary of Frederick. From Stourbridge Evans went to live at Chadwick Hall, a fine old English manor house which is still standing. He thus continues his narrative: Henceforth my lot was cast with my uncles and aunts at Chadwick Hall, near Licky Hill, the scene of one of Cromwell's battles, where a systematic arrangement of all things obtained, from the different breeds of dogs,-the watchdog in his kennel, the water spaniel, the terrier of rat-catching propensities, the greyhound, the pointer, and the bulldog,-to the diversity of horses of the farm, the road, the saddle, and hunting, there were five hundred sheep, with a regular hereditary shepherd to change them from pasture to pasture in summer, and to attend to all their wants, and fold them in the turnip-fields all the winter. Every field on the farm was subject to a rotation of crops as regular as the seasons, which are generally bad enough for the English farmer. The farm was very hilly and woody, and dotted with five fish-ponds formed from a stream that ran through it. There was plenty of fish and game, and the woods were vocal with the great variety of singing birds, from the jackdaw to the nightingale. 2. Frederick W. Evans, Autobiography of a Shaker, Glasgow and New York, 1888, pp. 2. If. 66

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The Peg Board 1936 The story of Frederick Evans's life after he came to America falls outside the scope of this article, but we should note in closing this study of his boyhood that his experiences at Chadwick Hall had, apparently, a considerable inliuence upon his future career, for he says: The example of the order and economy practiced at Chadwick Hall was not lost upon me. Two uncles, John and James managed the farm. One remained at home mostly, the other attended the fairs and markets, which latter are held twice a week at the principal towns. Here the farmers and dealers meet to sell and buy all the products of their farms, the grain being bought and sold by samples. The fairs were much the same thing, but the sales were principally of live stock on a large scale. On these occasions servants Cmale and femalej congregated together, and hired themselves out for the ensuing year, each one pro- ducing his character on paper from his former employer. To these markets and fairs my uncle John used frequently to take me, and there I learned somewhat of the relative value of property, and how to buy and sell. At home I learned to take care of horses, cattle, and sheep. Everything moved as if by machinery. For instance, there were some twenty horses, and in the morning at a regular hour, they were all turned out to water, as we now turn out cows. Whilst they were gone, their mangers were cleaned, and the racks emptied of any hay left in them over night, this was put aside to be aired, and fresh hay was given, at night, however, the aired hay was first fed out, nothing was wasted or lost. In the house it was the same. Once a month they washed, once a week they baked bread made from unbolted wheat, black enough, but sweet. S. P. C. fr. Chadwick Hall HADWICK Hall, the boyhood home of Elder Frederick Evans has had an interesting history The following account was received from the Mayor of Worcester, England, who had it in turn from Mr. E. F. A. Keen, Librarian and Secretary of the Public Library, Art Gallery, and Hastings Museum, Victoria Institute, Worcester: EXTRACTED FROM THE VICTORIA HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WORCESTER, VOLUME 3 Chadwick Manor House, about 3M miles north of Bromsgrove, on the west side of the Halesowen road, is a late 17th-century building of brick with stone dressings. In the Domesday survey it is stated that 3 hides at CHADWICK fCeldwic, xi cent., Chadelwic, Chadleswich, Chadeleiwyz, Chadewyz, xiii cent., Chadeleswych, xiv cent., Chaddyswyche, xv cent.j had been formerly held by thegns of Earl Eadwine, but in 1086 it was part of the royal manor of Bromsgrove, and Urse held it of the king, Alvred being the tenant under Urse. The interest of Urse passed to the Beauchamps and followed the descent of Elmley Castle. In the 12th century Ralph de Lens was holding the vill of Chadwick in demesne, and in I I95, after his death, his widow Beatrice of London held Chadwick and Willingwick as dower, with reversion to her son Roger. In 1232 Roger son of Ralph de Lens gave to the hospital of St. Wulfstan, Worcester, his capital messuage and lands in Chadwick. Roger's son Ralph, who probably succeeded him shortly after, was also a benefactor of the hospital, and in 1248 he gave to it the dower lands of his mother Felicia. In return for this the hospital gave to him and his wife Mary a corner house in Worcester, opposite that of Hugh de Pakenton, and a corrody, half of which was to cease on the death of either Ralph or Mary, and the other half on the death of the survivor. Thomas de Lens appears at one time to have held the manor, but before 1274 it seems probable that the Master of St. Wulfstan's had acquired it, for at about that time he appropriated to himself the asize of 68