Explorers of town property may have hiked the cart path leading from Strawberry Hill Street to the 66-acre Larrabee-Whiting Estate.  While all that remains of Thomas Larrabee’s farmhouse is a cellar hole, our erstwhile Town Historian Frank Smith tells us that it was built by Larrabee’s fellow veterans upon his return from the Revolutionary War in 1778.  In 1865 the property was willed by his son Deacon Joseph Larrabee to “to the inhabitants of Dover forever for the relief, comfort, and benefit of the poor persons who have a legal settlement in Dover.”

Deacon Larrabee’s language is revealing in its precision as Massachusetts law required a town to support only those paupers who were either born within its limits or who had “acquired a settlement” therein.  While the so-called “settlement laws” were exceedingly complex and changed over time, a legal settlement was generally attained by marriage, parentage, birth, or being a citizen of Massachusetts or another state with an estate having a certain principal value or yearly income.  Prior to 1780 legal settlement could also be attained by virtue of slavery. Settled paupers were thus a town responsibility, overseen either by the Selectmen or a Board of Overseers.

In order to ensure that transient individuals did not become a financial burden upon the community the Selectmen issued “warnings out”.  On August 21, 1784 the Selectmen of Dover issued their warrant to Constable Theodore Newell to warn out one Joseph Senaah, then boarding at the home of James Draper.  The warning notes that “said Joseph Senaah being reputed to be born at Natick in the County of Middlesex, about 23 years ago, and to have gained a legal residence in Barre with his parents since that time…is now unable to support himself by reason of weakness and bodily infirmity, and is not admitted to be an inhabitant or [to have] gained a legal residence in said Dover.”  The intention was not so much to force these transient individuals to leave as to make it clear that in the event of illness or injury the town would not be responsible for their care.

In 1817 the Town purchased the William Bacon property on Pine Street for use as an alms house, but this arrangement does not appear to have lasted long as in 1821 it was voted “that paupers be put out at auction to those who will take them on best terms excepting those as in the opinion of the overseers could not be put up at auction for the advantage of the district.” 

This practice, knowing as venduing the poor, was common to New England and entailed the auction not of the individuals themselves, but of responsibility for their care and keeping to the lowest bidder.  The auction was held at the Williams Tavern on March 19^th, 1821 and it must have been a troubling prospect for the community in that it seems to have happened only once. 

Smith notes that in later years the board of overseers of the poor chose to provide financial support within private families or through a monthly allowance.

On display at the Sawin Museum is a Town Paupers Register dating from 1868 in which are recorded the names of those town residents classified as fully supported, along with their age, color, gender, ability to perform labor, temperance or lack thereof, and whether sane, insane, or “idiotic”.  The names are those of well-known Dover families – for example, John Chickering, age 53, able to perform some labor and temperate, but insane, had been confined to the Insane Asylum in Taunton since September of 1848. 

Others, such as Lydia A. Bliss, age 34, temperate and sane, were supported in Dover despite having a legal residence in Hingham, and the cost was apportioned between the two communities.  Of particular interest is the fact that many of the pages in the paupers register have been removed. 

The second portion of the register lists travelers lodged, and persons sent to the state almshouse (of which there appear to have been none). The list of lodgers, however, is significantly longer than the list of town paupers, and unlike the former, consists largely of names that are unfamiliar. This, like the warnings out issued decades earlier, reflects the town’s wish to ensure that those passing through not become a financial burden.

By Elisha Lee