The “Acknowledgment” of Deacon James Hawes, May 2, 17851

Introduction

James Hawes (1739–1821) was one of Westborough’s most prominent residents. Born in Wrentham, he moved with his wife Hannah to Westborough in 1764 as the town’s first physician, perhaps choosing the town because his younger sister Abial had married Moses Wheelock of Westborough two years earlier.2 Their only child, James, was born on January 30, 1770, and baptized on May 24, 1778, four weeks after his parents joined the church. By that time, Hawes had proved his usefulness to the community, serving as a member of the town’s Committee of Correspondence, selectman, and town clerk. His public service would continue, with election as the town’s representative to the General Court, moderator, treasurer, and additional service as clerk and selectman.3 He was chosen as a deacon of the church in 1780.4

The matter for which he eventually made an “acknowledgment” first appeared in the church records on April 7, 1785, when, at Hawes’s request, a meeting was appointed for April 12 “for the purpose of hearing Rehearsed some Matter of Difficulty taken place between said Hawes and the Select Men of Westborough in adjusting an account in favor of Adonijah Rice for whom the Select Men were Agents.”5 Before adjourning on the 7^th, Hawes was asked whether he had paid the full sum owed to Rice’s creditors, to which he replied, “every copper.” It was then asked, “What no abatement?” “Not one farthing,” Hawes replied. Had he paid “the whole face” of a note owned to Dr. Daniel Brigham for Adonijah Rice’s medical care? Yes, he replied, “every farthing.”

He was then asked whether anyone had “flung in any thing in there account with Mr. Rice Seeing he was a poor Man.” No, replied Hawes, only to have it testified that Dr. Brigham had received only part of his bill. Brigham had thought that “Rice’s Poverty was Such that his Creditors loose part of their Due.” Although Hawes “said many things to expulpale [sic] himself for the Answers he gave the Selectmen,” the church voted its dissatisfaction with his conduct and adjourned.

At the church’s next meeting, Hawes acknowledged that he had “(through inadvertancey) Done that which gave just Reason to his Brethren to Suspect his Veracity,” but the church voted that it was not satisfied and put the matter off until May 2. At that subsequent meeting, after “some conversation on the matter,” a three-member committee was appointed to propose to Hawes “what he ought to confess in Order for the Churchs Satisfaction.” The meeting was adjourned for fifteen minutes (the short adjournment suggesting perhaps that someone had already drafted a statement for Hawes). The church re-convened, heard Hawes’s “Acknowleddgment,” and voted its satisfaction.

Unlike other documents whose filing notations use the word “confession,” his statement was recorded as an acknowledgment. Why the difference both in the filing notation and most of the words used in the church records? Hawes seems clearly to have lied, and the church sought and received confessions from other individuals for their sins. Perhaps it was Hawes’s stature within the church and the community that led the church to accept an acknowledgment rather than a confession.

The Acknowledgment

[On the reverse side:]

May the 2^d 1785 the Church met According to adjourment to consider the Difficulty that had arose Respecting Deacon Hawes in a Settlement between him and the Selectmen in the Interest of Adonijah Rice–

be a Committee