Is a fence viewer anything like a train spotter?
In this week's case, the relative in question is Francis Holmes, also sometimes referred to as Francis Homes. Francis seems to be an immigrant from England who began life in America in the Massachusetts Bay colony. In 1636, he and his family sold their land to newly arrived Puritan immigrants and moved to Watertown, Conn.
About the time the Holmses moved to Connecticut, Thomas Hooker, a Congregationalist minister who became known as the "father of Connecticut," decided to take a group of residents from Waterford, Conn., on a two-week journey, following a Native American trail, to a spot near present-day Hartford, where they began a settlement.
One of the sources I found on Francis indicates that his family was one of the group, but I can't pin that down. If they were among those settlers, they later moved to Wethersford and then to Stamford, which became their permanent home. From his will, he appears to have run a blacksmith shop, which he left to his son John.
Two items caught my eye as I read the sketch of his life. One was that he testified in the trial of a man name Robert Penoyer (sometimes spelled Pennoyer). I've yet to find those proceedings, but according to the Mindrum Family History website, Penoyer was accused of verbally abusing Francis and a night watchman after having a wee bit too much wine. He was awarded 20 shillings for his suffering.
Another site indicated that alcoholism seemed to be a feature of Penoyer's life, and that in addition to verbally abusing people while intoxicated, he had a habit of being overly familiar and annoying women he met while in that state. Francis later ran into to some trouble while having imbibed too freely, but the details are scarce in that incidents.
One oddity about Penoyer is that he may, and I stress may, have been the son of a man with the surname Butler who was involved in England somehow in a murder, possibly as a witness, and decided to change his name to Penoyer to avoid being caught up in the crime.
The other thing that caught my eye was that Francis served Stamford as a fence viewer. This being a position I had never heard of before, I looked it up. Now you might think that this some kind of archaic office from the colonial period, and you'd be right -- it being one of the oldest offices in New England. But you might be surprised to know that the office still exists in at least 10 states, mostly those part of the original colonies.
Back in the day, settlers clearing their fields tended to build fences delineating their properties out of stones they dredged up. Fence laws have existed for a long time, and someone had to be in charge of enforcing those laws and settling disputes that might arise between neighbors.
Fence viewers could settle disputes such as damage caused by escaped and trespassing livestock and the proper location of the fences, and could enforce maintenance of the fence line. If a property owner fails to fix a fence, he/she may have to pay the neighbor costs to repair the fence. In Connecticut, the cost of fences that separate adjoining properties must be shared between the parties. If they can't agree on who pays how much, the fence viewer makes the call.
Failure to perform the office in modern Vermont can result is a lawsuit in which the aggrieved part may collect all of $5 in damages.
In modern Connecticut, the office may be filled by a town selectman or may be appointed by the local government, which may decide to create a three-person committee instead of an individual. Fence viewers earn the princely sum of $2. A fence viewer would need to feel a sense of civic duty to fulfill that job.
Think about all that the next time you read Robert Frost's "Good fences make good neighbors."
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