342
Fire-Engines in America
[Book III.
for on the 24 th of January 1735, the mayor was ordered “ to issue his War-rant to the treasurer to pay Mr. Anthony Lamb, overseer of the fire-engines,or Order, the sum of three pounds, current money of this colony, in fullof one quarter of a year’s salary, due and ending the first instant.” Onthe same date a Committee was appointed to employ workmen “ to putthem in good repair, and that they have full power to agree with anyperson or persons by the year, to keep the same in such good plight, re-pair and condition, and to play the same as often as there shall be occasionupon any emergency.”
April 15, 1736. “ A convenient house [was ordered] to be made conti-guous to the watch-house in the Broad Street for securing and well keepingthe fire-engines of the city.” This seems to have been the first enginehouse. May 1, 1736. Jacobus Turk, a gunsmith, was appointed to takeCharge of the fire-engines and to keep them in repair at his own cost, fora salary of ten pounds current money. Mr. Turk undertook during thenext year to malte an engine, for May 15, 1737, the common council or-dered the sum of ten pounds to be advanced “ to the said Jacobus Turk,to enable him to go on with finishing a small fire-engine he is making foran experimentprobably the first made in America .
November 4, 1737. The common council drew up a petition to the le-gislature to enable the Corporation “ to appoint four-and-twenty able bo-died men, inhabitants within this city, who shall be called the firemen of thiscity, to work and play the fire-engines within the same, upon all occasionsand emergencies, when they shall be thereunto required by the overseerof the said engines, or the magistrates of the said city : and that the saidfiremen as a recompense and reward for that Service, may by the samelaw be excused and exempted from being elected and serving in the officeof a Constable, or being enlisted, or doing any duty in the militia regiment,troop, or Companies, in the said city, or doing any duty in any of the saidoffices during their continuance as firemen aforesaid.” This law waspassed by the assembly in September following, and the duty of firemen de-fined. The next notice of engines occurs ten years afterwards, in March1748, when the Corporation “ ordered that one of the fire-engines of thiscity, of the second size, be removed to Montgomery’s Ward of this city,near Mr. Hardenbrooks; and that a shed be built thereabouts at the chargeof this Corporation for the securing and keeping the same.” By this itappears that several engines besides the two original ones were then inuse. The one just named was a different size (much smaller) than thosefirst ordered. It is uncertain whether the additional ones were made byMr. Turk, but probably not, since both large and small ones were orderedfrom London for several years after this date. From the following ex-tract we find that several of the large fire-engines (the sixth size of New-sham) belonged to the city. February 28, 174.9, “Ordered that MajorVanhousand and Mr. Provost do take care to get a sufficient house builtfor one of the large fire-engines, to be kept in some part of Hanover squareat the expense of this Corporation, and that there be a convenience madetherein for hanging fifty buckets: and also ordered that there be one hun-dred new fire buckets made for the use of this Corporation with all con-venient speed.”
May 8, 1752. “ Ordered that Jacob Turk have liberty to purchase sixsmall speaking trumpets for the use of this Corporation,” i. e. for the pur-pose of giving directions to firemen during conflagrations. June 20, 1758.“ One large fire-engine, one small do. and two hand do.” were orderedto be procured from London . July 24, 1761. Mr. Turk, after superin-tending the engines for twenty-five years, was superseded by Jacobus