Father and Son Team
James and John Bailey
Named Rowley Pinder in 1660
[This account was drawn from Mr. Ezechi Rogers Planatation by A.E. and E.M.A. Jewett, pages 121 ff, published by the Jewett Family of Rowley in 1946. A copy is preserved in the Congregational Library of Boston. Some of the original spelling is included.]
In 1663, it was ordered “That all hogs and pigs aboue eight weeks old shall be driven daily as far as long meadow…and allsoe all hogs are to be shut vp in some close place eury night and at any time of the day when They come home if the owner knowe of them.”
Many of the hogs were driven daily to that section of the town known for many years as “Rooty Plain.” The derivation of the name is obvious. It is now called Millwood.
The town chose 12 hog reeves in 1760, and also voted that “the Swine have liberty to go at large ye year ensuing.” This probably means they should be under the charge of the swineherd. A hog reeve’s duty was to impound stray hogs. The duty of the deer reeve was to protect the deer, which had become scarce and were in danger of extinction.
Year after year the town at the annual meeting voted on the question of the care of swine…. In 1635, the General Court ordered that pounds be built in order that all swine found at large should be confined, and later the same order applied to other farm animals….
Early in the history of Rowley small enclosures of stone or wood were built for the confining of cattle, sheep, horses, or swine found running at large and men were regularly chosen to the office of pinder. The first one of record is John Palmer, 1650-51…. James Bailey or his son, John, and Samuel Stickney in 1660.
Pinder is an old English word meaning the poundkeeper of a manor, and pinfold the enclosure in which the animals were confined. “Pinder,” “pinfold,” and “gates” seem to have been peculiar to Rowley, as they are seldom if ever found in the records of neighboring towns. They may have been common in Yorkshire where most of the Rowley settlers originated, or the people of this town more tenacious of the old English names. After the close of the 17th century, “pinder” became “pounder” and in later years “hayward” or “field driver.”
The last pound in Rowley, which some of the older people remember, was built of stone and stood on the westerly side of Central Street near the former site of the chapel of the Universalist society. It was purchased by that society and the stones used in the foundation of the building.