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Archiver > VERMONT > 1999-05 > 0926748805


From: "Jackie M. Botala" <>
Subject: [VERMONT-L] more old papers...
Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 23:13:25 -0700


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Town Officers

Two tithingmen were elected each year at town meeting.
Their duties were many. A tithingman was usually selected
from the most dignified of church members. Armed with his
clack staff about two feet long and tipped with a piece of
brass or pewter, he was well equiped to bump heads of
mischevious boys.
The tithingmen were also supposed to look for the men
who broke the Sabbath, the profane youth or man, and bring
them to the proper court for chastisement.
It was also his duty to inspect licensed houses.

The hog hayward was elected to look after the swine of
the town. In 1783, when the office first appeared in town
records, hogs were not restrained in pens but allowed to
run at large. After a while, as their number increased and
more and more land was put under cultivation, the hogs
caused so much damage that they could no longer be
allowed to run where they chose.
And so, the job of hog hayward came into being. He had
two responsibilities, first to the owners of the hogs, and
secondly to the owners of the property. Tithingmen and hog
haywards were last elected in 1839.

In the early days of Vermont and fences were scarce, the
only way a man could identify his cows or horses was by branding.
In order that the branding might be done decently and with
authority, a brander of horses was elected annually.
In later years, identification of animals was accomplished
by ear crops. Thus Issac Morgan used a crop of the right ear
and a sowlers' (swallows') tail in the left. Daniel Havens' mark
was a round hole "in the offe ear". Daniel Rix' animals bore
a crop of the end of the right ear and David Bowens' a round
hole in "ye right ear and a slit from ye same to ye end of ye ear".

(Contributed by Mary Whitney Kidd, from History of Royalton)

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