The history of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, By a committee of the Dorchester antiquarian and historical society ...

178 HISTORY OF DORCHESTER.
of Neponset usually known by the name of Pine
Neck. It began at the house of John Hill, and run
to Robert Pierce's, and was a rod and a half broad.
The winter of 1645-6 was very cold, and extended
very far south. Winthrop says that in Virginia,
" the ships were frozen up six weeks." This year
the enormous quantity of eight hundred butts of
Spanish wine was brought over, and there was great
difficulty in collecting the duties thereon, and finally
they were forced to break open the cellar doors to
take it by force. Most of the discreet men regretted
the encouragement given to the importation, and
the General Court had a short time previous made
an order for an impost duty of ten shillings on every
butt. Hubbard says, "had there been a greater
impost laid thereon, it might have turned the
stream of traffick into another channel, that might
have been beneficial to the place."
The office of Constable was a very important one,
and many of those chosen paid a fine rather than
to serve. Their badge of office was a black staff,
from 5 to 5 1-2 feet long, with five or six inches at
the ends tipped with brass.
It was about this time that the traffic in slaves began. Our progenitors have been accused of indifference, if nothing worse, in regard to this nefarious
traffic; but the following extract from the Colony
Records shows that they set their faces like a flint
against it.
1646, 4th November. "The Genrall Corte conceiving themselues bound by ye first opertunity to