USA > Connecticut > Windham County > History of Windham County, Connecticut. Volume I, 1600-1760 > Part 4
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Early in the spring of 1687, the New Roxbury planters began planting and sowing and in anticipation of the goodly harvest expected, on April 29, appointed Edward Morris, Nath. Johnson and Joseph White " to treat and agree for the building of a corn mill on as reasonable terms as they could, which terms the public was to stand to and each man to bear his equal proportion." William Bartholomew, of Bran - ford, a former resident of Roxbury, was the person selected and secured as miller, who-" for building a corne mill on the falls below Muddy Brook pond "-now Harrisville-" and finding the town with grinding good meal, clear of grit, as other towns have generally found," received, "(1.) a place at the falls to set a mill which shall have the benefit of the streams ; (2.) a fifteen-acre home-lot, with rights, fifteen acres of upland and thirty acres of meadow ; (3.) a hundred acres of upland." A ten-acre home-lot was also granted to his son, Isaac, and in Septem- ber-" twenty acres more were granted to William Bartholomew, provided he bring his wife and settle upon it by next June." As no town organization was yet practicable, at a general meeting of the inhabitants of New Roxbury, July 2d, 1687, "John Chandler, Sen., Nath. Johnson, Jos. Bugbee, Jas. White and James Peake were chosen to order the prudential affairs of the place, as selectmen, for the year ensuing."
The condition of public affairs continued to give the Colonists great anxiety. Under the administration of Andross all previous land titles were vacated, and the first settlers of Massachusetts, after fifty or sixty years' possession, were obliged to pay heavily for new deeds of their lands and homesteads. The New Roxbury settlers had received no governmental confirmation of their grant since taking possession, and their homes and property were wholly at the mercy of the arbitrary
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
and unscrupulous Governor. The mother town was almost equally interested in securing her grant, and joined with the colonists in earnest efforts to procure a confirmation from Government. Petitions were presented to the Governor in July and October, without effect. In November, 1687, John Chandler, Sen., Joseph Peake and Nathaniel Johnson were chosen by the planters, " to join the committee sent by Roxbury to get a patent of confirmation of this half the grant in the name and behalf of the whole number of inhabitants," but this united effort was equally fruitless. " A humble petition" was presented to Sir Edmond Andross in April, 1688, by John Chandler, Samuel Scar- borough, and Nathaniel Johnson, representing themselves as " dwellers in a place called New Roxbury, where a tract of land, seven miles square, was granted by General Assembly to Roxbury, and one half, sixteen thousand acres, given to us that should plant the same, which we have done, to our very great charge, and now pray your Honor to confirm the same to us on the terms already given, or on such mode- rate quit-rent as may be agreeable to your Excellency's wisdom and the great distance and poverty of place and inhabitants will allow."
Thirty settlers had previously expressed their satisfaction with this petition, and obliged themselves to pay such charges as might arise according to their proportion of land, but this provison was needless. No notice was taken of their request, and neither confirmation given nor quit-rent demanded. Governor Andross and his officials were too much absorbed in enforcing authority over refractory governments and extortioning levies from wealthy towns and corporations to heed the cry of a remote and straitened settlement. Their poverty and obscurity were their safety. No greedy government officer claimed land or taxes, and the New Roxbury settlers were left to pursue their way unmolested.
In the first four years little was accomplished. Land was broken up and cultivated, fences put up, orchards set out, highways constructed, houses made more comfortable, John Holmes, agreeing to run the sawmill, was allowed the piece of land on which the mill stood-three hundred and four acres, bounded east and north by the brook, laid out for the town's use-" provided he leave convenient way to carry timber to mill." Home lots were laid out from time to time, for the sons of such proprietors as reached the age entitling them to claim them :-
Lot 41, to William Bartholomew. Lot 42, to Isaac Bartholomew. Lot 43, to Clement Corbin. Lot 44, to Samuel Rice. Lot 45, to William Bartholomew, Jun. Lot 46, to Joseph Bugbee, Jun. Lot 47, to Nathaniel Johnson, Jun. Lot 48, to Jabez Corbin.
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NEW ROXBURY.
Jonathan Smithers' lot not being improved was made over to Joseph Deming and Samuel Lyon. That of John Ruggles, on Westwood Hill, " he never coming to possess it-was given to John Bugbee, Sen." The lot assigned to Samuel Rice, a new settler, was laid out " by John Marcy's on West Hill." Jabez Corbin's lot adjoined that of James Corbin, his father. Joseph Peake was settled " north side of Sawmill Brook, southwest from the Great Pond." The first death occurring in the settlement was that of Joseph Peake, Sen., whose place on a committee was filled by Samuel Scarborough, March 1, 1688.
March 12, 1688, Edward Morris, John Chandler, Sen., Benjamin Sabin, Joseph Bugbee, William Bartholomew, Samuel Rice and John Butcher were chosen and impowered by the inhabitants to state and lay out highways which were thought necessary for the present and future good of the whole town. This committee attended to the matter with all expedition, and made report as follows :-
1. A highway running through Joseph Peake's lot, two rods wide, into the common towards the mill.
2. One out of the first, by Jonathan Davis's, and so on to the west side Planting Hill; thence running north under east side of hill into Jos. Peake's ; six rods wide.
3. One between thirteenth and fourteenth lots, extending west to common.
4. One between twenty-second and twenty-third, extending to mill, four rods wide.
5. One between tenth and eleventh, two rods wide.
6. One from the brook, at the north end Eastward Vale, to go and be by the Pond, through the plaine to Muddy Brook, from thence to Plaine Hill, eight rods.
7. One between part of tenth lot and land granted to John Holmes, three rods, till it comes to Sawmill Brook, thence four rods, till it comes between the Ponds, and so over the brook into the woods, with another turning to the mill through the Common.
8. One between forty and forty-second, to a rocky hill.
9. One east side of twenty-seventh lot, extending north into the highway from Muddy Brook to Plaine Hill.
10. A narrow way from Plaine Hill by thirty-seventh lot.
11. One between eighth and ninth, thence to the clay pits.
12. One from the south part of Wabbaquasset Hill to Long Hill.
13. One leading over a brook south end of west meadows, and so into woods.
14. One going out of the highway, north part, east side of West Hill.
15. One between thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth lots.
16. One going out from one over Plaine Hill.
17. A highway going out of the way leading to Muddy Brook, to lead to the road called Connecticut Road, extending through the interval west side of Muddy Brook.
This report was accepted, and the several highways were constructed. A bridge was also built over Sawmill Brook, near John Chandler's. Other improvements waited a more formal town organization and funds from Roxbury. No further attempt was made to secure a patent from Andross. The settlers chose to bide their time in patience. During these anxious years, one of their oldest and must useful citizens was removed from them-the senior Edward Morris. A rude gravestone
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
on Woodstock Hill-the oldest in Windham County-bears this inscription-
" Here Lies Buried Ye Body of Edward Morris. Deceased, Sept. ye - 1689."
His son Edward succeeded to the home-lot, "east side of Plaine Hill."
The Revolution, deposing James II. and establishing William and Mary upon the throne of Great Britain, was warmly welcomed by the New Roxbury Colony, and as soon as practicable after the resumption of colonial government, they renewed their attempts to secure formal confirmation. At a town-meeting in Roxbury, Jan. 13, 1690, it was voted, "To move or request the General Court to grant the settlement in Nipmuck to be a town, confirm the same and give it a name," and a memorial was shortly prepared, representing :-
" That the conditions of their grant had with great difficulty been per- formed, although at present, through the great overturns that have been, said village is not in all respects at present in capacity though with much earnest- ness labored for ; and we do pray the Honorable Court to contribute to our encouragement by favorable acceptation of the conditions so fulfilled, whereby they will be animated cheerfully to encounter the difficulties attending such a work, especially in these difficult and dangerous times."
Roxbury's significant admission that her colony was not in all respects " in capacity " to claim the confirmation of the grant, referred undoubtedly to its failure to fulfill that important condition-the settle- ment of an orthodox minister-a failure that in less difficult and dangerous times might have cost them their township. The " great overturns that had been " were probably deemed a sufficient excuse for this omission. This memorial from Roxbury was soon followed by one still more urgent from Edward Morris, William Bartholomew, Nathaniel Johnson and John Butcher, "in behalf of themselves and the rest of the inhabitants of the plantation granted to Roxbury," praying :-
" That having fulfilled the conditions of the grant, your Honors would please to grant us confirmation according as it is already taken up west of Quinebaug River, and grant us the privilege of a township, and give the town a name, and grant it to be rate-free for five years and appoint us a committee to regulate us in case of any differences that we cannot issue ourselves."
Upon consideration that this plantation appeared to be within Massachusetts patent lines, and no particular proprieties previously granted, the "petition was granted by the deputies and honorable magistrates consenting." March 15, 1690, it was further voted by the deputies, " That the name of the plantation granted to Roxbury be Woodstock, and that Captain Thomas Thurston, Lieutenant Samuel
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WOODSTOCK.
Barber, of Medfield, and Josiah Chapin, of Mendon, be a committee to advise and assist." That the town was indebted for its name to Judge Sewall, appears from an entry made in his diary :-
" March 18, 1690. I gave New Roxbury the name of Woodstock because of its nearness to Oxford, for the sake of Queen Elizabeth and the notable meetings that have been held at the place bearing the name in England."
IV.
WOODSTOCK.
THE new Roxbury Colony, thus invested with town privileges, was enabled to institute a more regular government and make arrange- ments for settling the much-desired minister. No immediate change was made in public officers. At the first town-meeting in Woodstock, March 31, 1690, the selectmen were ordered "to make a rate of expenses, and deliver the same to be collected by John Holmes, con- stable," and in May, were empowered "to treat with Mr. Josiah Dwight about settling in the work of the ministry ; leaving it to their discretion what to give him, so as they exceed not what was formerly proposed to others, specially in the money part." From the terms of this vote, it is probable that Mr. Dwight was then in Woodstock and had preached to the satisfaction of the people. He was son of Timothy Dwight, of Dedham, was graduated from Harvard College in 1687, and though but twenty years old, had already completed his ministerial studies. The terms proposed by the selectmen were, "thirty pounds a year and diet before settlement, ten pounds in money ; after settle- ment, forty pounds the first year; fifty pounds the second year ; sixty pounds afterward ; ten pounds each year in money, paid quarterly, the remainder in current pay. Also, a twenty-acre home-lot, with town rights and divisions, and to build and finish a house by Jan. 1, 1692- said house and land, if it please God you are taken away by death, after possession, to be yours-or after ten years abiding with us."
Mr. Dwight accepted these terms, October 17, and thenceforth officiated as minister of Woodstock, holding religious services at Wabbaquasset Hall or in private houses. A committee was appointed "to manage the building a minister's house ; forty feet long, nineteen feet wide, fourteen feet stud, with a cellar seventeen feet square, a stack of four chimneys, and two gables to be raised and covered; one end to be finished by May, 1692, and the other as soon as they can
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
conveniently-workmen to bring in their account weekly to John Chandler, Jun." An orchard had been previously set out for the minister. Ordination and church organization were delayed for some years. Most of the Woodstock settlers were members of the church in Roxbury, and still enjoyed its fellowship and care. Children, as they grew up, united with the church in the mother-town. Mr. Dwight himself joined the Roxbury church in 1692, together with John Lyon, John May, Penuel Bowen, Jonathan Curtis and Edward Morris.
Important town meetings were held on November 27 and 28, 1690, when new town officers were chosen and various public works inaugurated. John Chandler, Jun., was chosen Town-clerk; Jonathan Peake, Matthew Davis and Samuel Rice, surveyors. The selectmen elected were John Chandler, Sen., William Bartholomew, Benjamin Sabin, John Leavens and Joseph Bugbee, in whose hands were placed " the whole power of the town excepting granting lands and admitting inhabitants." It was voted, "that the town be at the charge of digging clay, tempering of it, making a yard, cutting wood and carting it for bricks for the minister's chimneys." As cattle were allowed to roam at large, a capacious pound was ordered, forty feet square, with four lengths of rails each way and seventeen rails in height, to stand in front of Matthew Davis's lot on Plaine Hill, near the highway. The houses of Benjamin Sabin and Nathaniel Johnson, in the southern and eastern extremities of the settlement, were selected to be the watch- houses of the town, and it was ordered, " That every man get a ladder to his house by the first of February next, on penalty of five shillings." As no schools were yet practicable, "it was requested and procured that John Chandler teach and instruct children and youth how to write and cypher." With regard " to several quarrels," which unfortunately had arisen, the town wisely agreed "to stand to the determination of the General Court's Committee."
At a town meeting, February 24, 1691, at the house of Benjamin Sabin, John Chandler, Jun., was chosen " clerk of the writs ; Jonathan Davis, constable." At this meeting, the meadows of the town were distributed among forty five proprietors, each receiving his portion of good and bad meadow. This division was made by John Butcher, surveyor, assisted by William Bartholomew and Benjamin Sabin, in judging of the " quality of the land and making allowance to those that was not so good as their neighbors." Five shillings a day, in land, were allowed Mr. Butcher for his services. John Holmes, in consideration of his important services in running the sawmill, had been already allowed, as part of his after division, "the corner of land lying at the east end of his lot, south side of the Sawmill Brook, down to Muddy Brook and the highway between the ponds . he
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WOODSTOCK.
paying the town two thousand slit work and two thousand boards, that is to say, ye sawing of them." A hundred acres were now granted to William Bartholomew, the manager of the grist inill, " on the Long Hill by the south meadow to Mashamoquet line." Ten acres, for a home-lot, was also granted to John Jones, "provided he settle here and improve and stay seven years or else return the same to the town." Bridges, during this year, received much attention. Two new ones were ordered between Bartholomew's and Sabin's. Peter Aspinwall agreed to repair the bridge by John Chandler's and keep it in repair seven years, to offset his proportion of town charges. The town also agreed " to be at the charge of making a way unto the cedar swamp on the other side of the Quinebaug River, for a road to Providence," and Benjamin Sabin was chosen "to oversee the works and take account of the same, and Peter Aspinwall if he can't do it." The work was done by the latter personage, and proved a very difficult and laborious enterprise, and led to the permanent removal of Peter Aspin- wall to " the other side of the Quinebaug."
In October, measures were taken for building a meeting-house. John Leavens, Edward Morris, Jonathan Peake and John Chandler, Sen., were appointed a committee for building, with power to let out the work and improve men to work on the same. A rate of " nine- pence an acre in pay and four-pence in money " was levied to pay Mr. Dwight's salary and town charges. A five-rail fence was ordered about the clay pits, to take in two acres of land. It was also agreed that "men that failed to attend town meetings should pay three shillings" for each omission.
Now that Woodstock had secured minister, mills, pound, ways and bridges, she began to be seriously annoyed by Indians. Many Wabba- quassets had returned to their ancient homes and hunting fields, little improved by their sojourn in Mohegan, or inclined to be friendly with Massachusetts settlers in possession. Their chief, Tokekamowootchaug, and his followers, were idle, drunken and disorderly, "to the great grief of good men and the prejudice of themselves and better disposed Indians, who were oftentimes beaten and bruised and almost brought to death's door" by them. The condition of public affairs at this time greatly increased the alarms and anxiety of the Woodstock settlers. England and France were at war, and all the Indian tribes were dis- turbed and uneasy. The fierce Mohawks took part with the French, and other tribes were doubtful and uncertain. The Wabbaquassets were ready and willing to aid Connecticut, whose authority they acknowledged, but their dislike of Massachusetts jurisdiction made them very unsafe and unreliable residents, and obliged the settlers to exercise
5
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
constant care and vigilance. A petition to the Governor of Massa- chusetts, February 22, 1692, from the selectmen of Woodstock, reported many outrages and disturbances from drunken Indians, and prayed for authority to punish such offenders, that for the future such disorders and woful practices might be prevented. Among other Wabbaquassets now residing in Woodstock was found John Acquitta- maug, who well remembered his transportation of corn to Boston at its first settlement, and ever maintained friendly relations with the Massachusetts settlers.
The division and distribution of land occasioned some jealousy and dissatisfaction. Parties were not always satisfied with the portions assigned them, and private sales failed to meet the public approval. To remedy these evils, it was voted at a public meeting, January 8, 1692, " That there be a committee of three men, chosen by the town, to give their voice and suffrage upon all lands that shall be brought in under the surveyor's hands to be recorded, and none shall be recorded but such as they shall approve of, and if any person shall be grieved, they shall have their liberty to appeal to the grand committee appointed by the General Court, and they that be called before committee shall bear the cost of this meeting, and that this be done as soon as may be." Nathaniel Johnson, William Bartholomew and Edward Morris were accordingly appointed to this office. In March, it was agreed, "That the meeting-house should be thirty feet long, twenty-six feet wide and fourteen feet stud, with one gable on each side." A com- mittee was appointed to set out the work. Mr. Dwight's house, with its chimneys and gables, was so far completed in 1693 as to be used for public meetings. A code of by-laws was now completed, for the better ordering of the town, and a "clark of the market " added to its officers. John Chandler, Jun., was allowed twelve-pence for writing the notes of every town-meeting, and sixpence for every record of grants, he giving a copy of the same into the bargain." "A very clear vote," also granted him twenty acres of land "for writing in the town-books and recording ear-marks." Though so active and useful in Woodstock, young Chandler was now much occupied in sur- veying land in Connecticut, laying out for Major Fitch innumerable land sales. November 10, 1692, he married Mary Raymond, of New London, and for some years made his family residence in that town, but still retained his interest and offices in Woodstock.
John Butcher, the first appointed surveyor of Woodstock, was also much occupied with Connecticut land surveys, assisting in running the Colony line and other important boundaries.
In 1693, Woodstock first attained " the conveniency of a shop," twelve rods of land adjoining his father's lot, being allowed to Jabez
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WOODSTOCK.
Corbin for that purpose. James Corbin and his son Jabez were the first traders or speculators of the Roxbury Colony, and their shop on Plaine Hill soon became a place of much public resort and the centre of an extensive traffic. They dealt largely in furs; they collected turpentine from the adjoining forests ; they took in the surplus produce of the planters, exchanging them and any marketable commodities for liquor, ammunition and other necessaries in Boston. The Indians, whose drunkenness caused such grief to good men, may have received their liquor from the Corbins in exchange for peltry. "James Corbin's cart " was one of the institutions of Woodstock, its chief avenue of communication with the outer world, and its owner was a person of no small influence and consideration.
Relations with the mother town had now become less amicable. The colony had cost Roxbury much and given her nothing. Her share of the grant was still in its native wildness, used only for pasturing such stock as could be trusted,-"cattle in the woods"-and, "a mare running in Woodstock," being included in the estates of Roxbury owners. Open and unenclosed, the land had no protection from tres- passers, and Woodstock people often found it convenient to get cedar and other timber there. These various causes made Roxbury some- what remiss in paying her promised bounty, occasioned much delay in furnishing the minister's house and meeting-house, and called out many petitions and remonstrances from the colony.
April, 1693, it was voted, " That if the town of Roxbury will pay the £100 due to us ; £10 by May next, and £60 next May, and pay for the surveying of the township, and will, within two months, send up a · committee to run a dividing line between us and the remaining half, setting forth to us the same according to agreement, we are willing to accept hereof in full satisfaction of all damages, providing this renouncing of damages may omit for other troubles." Roxbury not assenting, in September, John Butcher was chosen, "to join with Captain Chapin, of Mendon, to go to Roxbury, and agree and deter- mine all matters supposed to be in difference, particularly the £100 and the remaining part of land." By this mediation, all differences were arranged and part of the £100 remitted. The town, November 23, " returned thanks to Captain Chapin for his services, and voted to appropriate £8 of Roxbury money towards finishing the minister's house ; £10 of the same to buy nails and irons for the meeting house, and thirty shillings for the town standards."
During the winter, the meeting-house was completed, and in March, 1694, " the committee were enjoined to deliver the meeting-house and lot, with all appurtenances, to Mr. Dwight, and make return and acceptance." Of this first house of worship in Windham County
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
territory, nothing is known but its dimensions. It was doubtless a rude, ungainly structure, with rough board seats and no attempt at finish. All public meetings were thenceforward held in the meeting- house, and the selectmen were ordered to appraise the White House- probably Wabbaquasset Hall-and sell it, if they had opportunity, to defray town charges.
The completion of the meeting-house was now followed by the organization of the church, but, unfortunately, of this event there is no existing record-and just at this period a gap in Roxbury church records makes it impossible to ascertain the date of the dismissal of her Woodstock members. All that is known is, that prior to 1696 a church was regularly organized in the south half of Woodstock, "by a council assembled according to the common usage of the churches in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay," and that Mr. Josiah Dwight was ordained as its pastor. Cambridge platform was adopted for its rule of discipline. John Chandler, Sen., and Benjamin Sabin were chosen as deacons. The ordination of Mr. Dwight was now followed by his marriage, December 4, 1695, to Mary Partridge, of Hatfield.
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