"
Thus it may be seen that the ancient tithingman was pre-eminently a general
_snook_, to use an old and expressive word,--an informer, both in and
out of meeting,--a very necessary, but somewhat odious, and certainly at
times very absurd officer. He was in a degree a constable, a selectman, a
teacher, a tax-collector, an inspector, a sexton, a home-watcher, and above
all, a Puritan Bumble, whose motto was _Hie et ubique_. He was, in
fact, a general law-enforcer and order-keeper, whose various duties,
wherever still necessary and still performed, are now apportioned to
several individuals. The ecclesiastical functions and authority of the
tithingman lingered long after the civil powers had been removed or had
gradually passed away from his office. Persons are now living who in their
early and unruly youth were rapped at and pointed at by a New England
tithingman when they laughed or were noisy in meeting.
VII.
The Length of the Service.
Watches were unknown in the early colonial days of New England, and for a
long time after their introduction both watches and clocks were costly and
rare. John Davenport of New Haven, who died in 1670, left a clock to his
heirs; and E. Needham, who died in 1677, left a "Striking clock, a watch,
and a Larum that dus not Strike," worth L5; these are perhaps the first
records of the ownership of clocks and watches in New England.
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