In the course of my research into Massachusetts town names I came across the story of Pelham, a small town in Hampshire County which incorporated in 1743. The story goes:
“The selection of the name Pelham for the town doubtless came from the fact that Lord Pelham was travelling in this country at the time. It has been said that Lord Pelham, pleased to learn that a town had selected his name to be placed in the act of incorporation, signified his pleasure by sending from England a bell for the meeting house. If one was sent it never arrived in Pelham. The reason why the bell did not reach its destination, it has been said, was caused by the fact that no money was forthcoming to pay the freight charges on its arrival in Boston, and that after waiting in vain for payment on the freight bill the bell was sold to the Old South Church. If Lord Pelham was so kind and thoughtful as to order a bell sent over from England it was very unfortunate that he did not open his purse and pay for its free delivery in Boston, if not in Pelham.”
This struck me as a weird anecdote, until I started finding similar stories from other towns. (8 of them, but I’ll save them for Part Two.) There’s so much to unpack here. (You can skip to the end if you are both impatient and curious.)
First of all, nothing about Pelham’s story makes sense. The Lord Pelham mentioned was Henry Pelham, who was NOT a Lord, just a regular guy. Well, not too regular, seeing as he was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1743 to 1754. Pelham the town was incorporated in 1743. (Interestingly, Pelham was married to Catherine Manners, daughter of The 2nd Duke of Rutland. Her nephew John Manners was the Marquess of Granby. If those names sound familiar, congrats: my obsession is burrowing into your brain.)
Here are the things we have to believe in order to think this story is true:
- That the Prime Minister of Great Britain took a few months out of his schedule to visit the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Let’s assume he was on the fastest ship available. That still would take him about 2 months coming and going.
- That Pelham then ventured 90 miles from Boston to the hills of Hampshire County, most of which was wilderness. Today a horse could make it in a few days. I assume it took longer in 1743.
- That Pelham stopped at an unincorporated district (then called Lisburne, presumably after the city in Northern Ireland) and visited with the settlers, a cohort of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian farmers who probably didn’t know or care much about parliamentary politics back in London. The other option is that he didn’t stop there, but somewhere nearby and they just heard later that he’d been in the area. Either way, they were so impressed that they decided to name their town after him upon incorporation.
- That at some point Pelham learned about this, was delighted and made the offer of the bell.
- That Pelham subsequently returned to England, had a bell cast and made incomplete arrangements to ship it to New England. Bells were expensive and heavy. The largest Revere bell weighed in at 2,488 pounds. That’s only a little bit lighter than a Honda Fit. In 1818, a Revere bell was cast for a church in Maine. It cost $350 to make and another $165 to ship from Boston. (Source) Altogether, that’s roughly $13,500 in 2026 dollars (which could probably buy you a used Honda Fit!)
- That the ship’s captain saw this perhaps perhaps 2,000 pound bell and agreed to sail across the whole ding-dang Atlantic Ocean with it without asking who was paying the freight.
- That upon arrival in Boston, the captain waited around for someone to pay him, gave up and decided to sell it.
- That the Old South Meeting House, one of the most studied and documented churches in the country,
which already had a bell,bought it and lost it or obfuscated the records so nobody knows they even had it.
That’s a pretty wild set of circumstances.
Here’s what I think really happened:
The residents of Lisburne District petitioned to incorporate as a town. They either left the name blank or suggested Lisburne. Governor Shirley or the General Court changed this to Pelham. Why? It was worthwhile to curry favor with powerful people back home, especially when stuck governing an increasingly unruly people in a backwater place like Massachusetts.
In part two, I’ll look at the other towns with a bell story to see how they compare and what we might learn from this. (If anything!)
Just as an aside:
I haven’t connected him to Francis Bernard yet, but they must have rubbed elbows at some point? Right?
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