USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Ware > An address, delivered at the opening of the new Townhall, Ware, Mass., March 31, 1847 : containing sketches of the early history of that town, and its first settlers > Part 1
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Gc 974.402 W22h 1781140
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01068 8825
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AN
ADDRESS
DELIVERED
AT THE OPENING OF THE
NEW TOWN -HALL,
in -
Ware, Mass, March 31, 1847.
CONTAINING
SKETCHES OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF THAT TOWN, AND ITS FIRST SETTLERS.
BY WILLIAM HYDE.
PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE TOWN.
BROOKFIELD, MASS. MERRIAM AND COOKE, PRINTERS. 1847.
1781140
It was not expected, that the request for an address, would have led to the result here shewn; and had the labor required been anticipated, it would have been declined. The pressure of other cares would have ex- cused from the attempt. But having commenced and become interested in the pursuit, there seemed to be no alternative but to find the truth, and to prove it by record evidence. Tradition was found a very unsafe guide, and the principal interest in the following pages will be the copies from original papers found among the archives of the commonwealth in the Secretary's Office, and from the records of the original proprietors of Hardwick and of Palmer, and from the Registry of Deeds at Springfield. These are inserted in their proper connexion, rather than in an appendix. Hon. Joseph Cum- mings has furnished much valuable information with regard to the bounda- ries of the ancient grants, and the earliest settlers. The true history of the Equivalent Lands, after much research, was found in Trumbull's History of Connecticut. For some facts in the Ecclesiastical History, credit is due to a sermon preached by Rev. A. B. Reed, Thanksgiving, 1830.
3999
ADDRESS.
IT is a matter for mutual congratulation, that we are per- mitted to assemble this day in this commodious Hall. That the town has undertaken and completed so convenient a building for the transaction of public business, with a room for the accommodation of a Grammar School, and offices for the Selectmen and Assessors, evinces, under our pecu- liar circumstances, a spirit of liberality in the inhabitants, in which we may well rejoice.
In consequence of the rise of a flourishing village upon the eastern border of the town, the centre of business and of population had become so much changed, it seemed but an act of simple justice that the Town Hall should be locat- ed so as to accommodate the great majority of the voters. It is an unpleasant matter to disturb existing relations. An ancient centre is a spot about which we are drawn by the attachments of youth, and the force of habit. But the times change, and the busy habits of our New England population force us to change with them, and though the erection of this building on this place may prove inconvenient to a few of the inhabitants, it cannot fail to promote the convenience and comfort of the majority.
It has been thought that the opening of this Hall was a fit occasion for some historical account of the town. In complying with the request of the building committee to pre- pare something of the kind, I did not anticipate the labor it would cost me. My place would more properly have been filled by some native of the town, and there are those more capable than I can be expected to be, to give an interesting relation of the early settlements. And what I have done, has been in the fragments of time, stolen from severer duties.
In my inquiries, I have endeavored to trace the early grants of the territory to their true origin. I had written the introductory chapter of the history, relying on the con- monly received traditions, which were supposed to be cor- rect by the older inhabitants, were put forth as true in a his- torical sermon, by the Rev. Mr. Read, preached Thanks-
mall
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
giving day, 1830, and were afterwards incorporated into Bar- ber's Historical Collections of Massachusetts. In searching for the confirmation of that story, I became convinced it was entirely wrong, and am at a loss to account for the tradition. The story in Barber's History is, that the principal part of Ware was a tract of 10,000 acres, granted to the soldiers in the Narragansett war,-that they viewed the lands of little value, and afterwards sold them to John Reed, Esq. of Boston, for two coppers per acre .*
The true history of the 10,000 acre tract is this. The first settlements in the western part of Massachusetts, were made at Springfield, in 1636, which in process of time, em- braced Suffield, Enfield, and Somers within its bounds. Those towns, as well as Woodstock, were settled from Mas- sachusetts, and were under her jurisdiction. The charter of Connecticut, granted by Robert, Earl of Warwick, in the reign of King Charles, in 1631, conveyed "all that part of New England in America, which lies and extends itself from a river there called the Narragansett River, the space of forty leagues upon a straight line near the sea shore to- wards the southwest, west and by south or west, as the coast lieth towards Virginia, all the breadth afore- said, throughout the main lands there, from the Wes- tern Ocean, to the South Sea." When the line was run by Connecticut, it took in the towns above nam- ed. Massachusetts declined giving them up. A long con- troversy ensued, which lasted sixty-six years. In 1713, an agreement was made between the colonies, that the line should be run according to the charter. Massachusetts should retain jurisdiction over the towns settled by her, and should grant as an equivalent as many acres of unimproved land to Connecticut.
* I find a deed on record at Springfield, Sept. 10, 1740, from John Read to Thomas Read, of " one full half right or share in a township lately granted by the Great and General Court of the Province to the officers and soldiers which was formerly in ye Fight with the Indian En- emy at the falls on Connecticut River, commonly called the Falls Fight, which township lyeth near or adjoining to Deerfield in ye county of Hampshire, of which Fight my honored Father, Thom- as Read, deceased was then and there one of the soldiers." The township here referred to is Bernardston, and the fight, the battle at Turner's Falls, during Phillip's War, in 1676. It may have been con- founded with the tract in Ware, owned by Mr. Read, who was a law- yer of some eminence in Boston, and owned other large tracts of land. There is a deed on record at Springfield, of 23,010 acres on the south- erly side of Deerfield, made by agents of the town of Boston to him. Templeton and Westminster were Narragansett towns.
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
On running the line, it was found at Connecticut River to run ninety rods north of the north-east bounds of Suffield, and that Massachusetts had encroached upon Connecticut, 107,793 acres. She made a grant of that quantity of land to Connecticut, which was accepted as an equivalent. This tract included Belchertown, Pelham, part of Enfield, and the 10,000 acres in Ware. The whole was sold soon after in 1716, in sixteen shares, for the sum of £683, New Eng- land currency, which was a little more than a farthing per acre. The money went into the funds of Yale College."
The towns of Suffield, Enfield, Somers and Woodstock, continued in Massachusetts till 1747, when they were taken into Connecticut.
Among the purchasers of the Equivalent lands, were Gov. Belcher and John Read, Esq., of Boston. Nathan Gould, Esq., the deputy-governor of Connecticut, and Peter Burr, Esq., one of the assistant judges.
In proof that I am right, I find a deed of mortgage on the records at Springfield, from John Read Dec. 12, 1722, " Of all that my Ten Thousand acres of land, being near Brookfield, in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, be- ing that two sixteenth parts of the lands commonly called the Equivalent Lands, which in the late division of the Equivalent Lands, fell to the Hon. Nathan Gould and Pe- ter Burr, Esq. and to the said John Read." It was known afterwards, as "the Manor of Peace," as being a peace offering to Connecticut.
The south-east corner of the Read tract was near where the barn of Samuel Gould now stands, thence the line run due north to Hardwick line, passing west of Muddy Brook, and near Isaac Osborn's, thence west to Swift River, and south by the river to Palmer or the " Elbows," as it was then called, from the angles made by the branches of the Chicopee River. The South line was a continuation of the South line of Belchertown, bearing E. by N. This tract covered all the western portion of the town. The tract west of Swift River was called Cold Spring, and went into the hands of Gov. Belcher, and when incorporat- ed, called Belchertown.
The eastern part of the town was included in a pur-
* Trumbull's History of Connecticut, vol. 1, page 446. The cur- rency of Connecticut was in bills of credit, which, by a law of the col- ony, passed for twenty shillings in value, equal to silver at eight shil- lings per ounce, Troy weight sterling, in all payments at the treasury. Trumbull, vol. 2, p. 49.
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
chase made of the Indian proprietors Dec. 27, 1686. " John Magus, Lawrence Nassowanno, attorneys to Ano- gomok, Sachem of the tract of land called Wombeme- sisecook, James and Simon, sons and heirs of Black James, Sachem of the Nipmug country, for divers good causes and considerations, especially for and in consid- eration of the sum of twenty pounds current money of New England," conveyed to "Joshua Lamb, Nathaniel Paige, Andrew Gardner, Benjamin Gamblin, Benjamin Tucker, John Curtis, Richard Draper, and Samuel Ruggles of Rox- bury, Mass. a certain tract or parcel of land, containing by estimation twelve miles long, north and south, and eight miles wide, east and west, situate, lying and being near Qua- baug, commonly known by the name of Wombemesisecook, being butted and bounded southerly upon the land that Jo- seph Dudley Esq. lately purchased of the Indians, Easterly the southernmost corner upon a pond called Sasagookapaug, and so by a brook that runneth into said pond, and so up Northerly unto a place called Ueques, and so still Northerly until it meets with a River called Nenameseck, and Wester- ly by the River until it comes against Quaboge bounds, and joins unto their bounds, or however otherwise butted and bounded."
It would be difficult now to trace these lines, except the one formed by Ware River, which it appears was called by the Indians " Nenameseck." It appears from the proprie- tors' records, where the deed is recorded, that they claimed the land from Rutland, now Barre, on the north, to the Quabaug River, in Warren, covering Hardwick, parts of Ware, Palmer, and Brookfield, and that part of Warren north of the River. South of the Quabaug belonged to Brimfield. The same proprietors bought about the same time of the Indians, the tract now forming the towns of Lei- cester and Spencer.
The first attempts made to survey and lay out the lands was in 1727, at which time only two of the original proprie- tors were living, when they petitioned the Legislature to confirm the territory to them, which was refused. In 1728, a committee, one of whom was the Rev. Timothy Ruggles of Rochester, son of one of the purchasers, and father of the afterwards famous Brigadier Ruggles, was chosen to lay out a town six miles square within their claim, but it was not until 1732, that the Legislature confirmed to Joshua Lamb and others, the tract of six miles square, then called Lambs- town, and which was afterwards incorporated as the town of Hardwick.
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
As early as 1727, settlements were made in what is now Palmer, under grants or permits from the proprietors of Lambstown, by a colony of emigrants from the north of Ireland, among whom were Isaac Magoon and James Brak- enridge. The government did not admit their right, and in 1732, they petitioned as follows :-
" To His Excellency, Jonathan Belcher Esq., Captain General and Governor in chief in and over his Majesties Province of the Massachu- setts Bay in New England, The Honorable His Majesties Council, and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, May 31, 1732.
The petition of the subscribers dwelling and residing on a tract and parcel of land lying and situate between Springfield and Brookfield, Brimfield and the land called the Equivalent land and Cold Spring, Humbly Sheweth-
That they are sensible the said land belongs to the said Province, yet the reason why your petitioners entered on the said land was as follows. Some from the encouragement of Joshua Lamb, Esq. and Company, that the said land belonged to them, and that they would give to such of your petitioners as entered thereon under them a good right and title to such a part thereof as they respectively contracted for. Yet notwithstanding your petitioners are now sensible that the said Lamb & Co. have no right to the said land, and that the same will prove great- ly to your petitioners damage-that as to such as hold under them with- out relieved by your Excellency and Honors-and that others of your petitioners entered on from necessity, not having wherewith of their own to provide. Yet nevertheless your petitioners are duly sensible that they deserve your discountenance. But confiding in the reasons offered, they humbly request your compassionate consideration-that they may be put under such regulation as may have a tendency to pro- mote the flourishing of religion, &c.
Therefore your petitioners most humbly pray, that your Excellency and Honors would take the premises into your wise consideration, and either grant them the said tract of land or put them under such restric- tions and regulations as in your consummate wisdom shall be thought most reasonable, and your petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray.
JAMES DORCHESTER. JOSEPH WRIGHT.
DANIEL FULLER. ANDREW MACKIE. JAMES SHEARER. JAMES STEPHENS. DANIEL KILLAM. DAVID SPEAR. THOMAS LITTLE. SAMUEL DOOLITTLE. JAMES BRAKENRIDGE. ROFERT HARPER. WILLIAM SHAW. 1 JOHN HARVEY.
JOHN BEMON. DUNCAN QUINTIN.
ELIJAH VOSE. ELISHA HALL. ALEXANDER TACKEL. ROBERT FARRELL. JOSEPH FLEMING. AARON NELSON. JOHN HENDERSON. DAVID NEVINS. JOSEPH BROOKS. ROBERT NEVINS.
HUMPHREY GARDNER. NICHOLAS BLANCHER. WILLIAM CRAWFORD.
SAMUEL NEVINS.
MICAH TOUSLEY.
JOSEPH GERISH.
SAMUEL SHAW. ANDREW RUTHERFORD.
DANIEL PARSONS.
JAMES M'CLENATHAN.
JAMES LAMBERTON.
THOMAS M.CLENATHAN
ROBERT THOMPSON.
JOSEPH WRIGET, JR.
SAMUEL BROOKS,
12 other names not to be read.
BERNARD MONITT.
ISAAC MAGCON.
ISAAC MAGOON, JR.
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
In the House of Representatives, Nov. 24, 1732. In answer to this petition, voted, that Col. Alden and Jas. Bradford, with such others as the Honorable Board shall appoint, be a committee to repair to the land. petitioned for, carefully to view the situation and circumstances thereof as well those of the petitioners, and also the quantity and quality of the said land and to report their opinion at the next May session, what may be proper for the court to do thereon, and that the petition be referred accordingly. Sent up for concurrence. J. Quincy, Speaker.
In Council, Nov. 27, 1732. Read and concurred. Ebenezer Buzzell Esq. joined in the affair. J. Willard, Sec'y.
Consented to. J. BELCHER.
The Committee appointed by the General Court at their session in Nov. last to repair to the land petitioned for by James Dorchester and sundry others-Having in pursuance of the vote of said Court repaired to said lands, and carefully viewed the inhabitants thereof as well as these of the petitioners, and also the quantity and quality of said lands, do report our opinion thereon, as follows, viz.
We find the land petitioned for to be a tract of land commonly called the Elbow tract, lying near Springfield and the Equivalent Lands, con- taining 17,014 acres, (viz. contents of five miles square, and 1014 acres, over) exclusive of particular grants taken up and laid out within the same, bounded and included within the lines and boundaries of the adja- cent land as hereafter laid down, viz. Easterly in part upon the west line of Brookfield township, from the N. West corner the said line runs So. 2 deg. West to the river, called Quabog alias Chicopee river, thence bound- ing on Brimfield township, as the said river runs, easterly in part and southerly, and in part westerly so far down said river, as to where the south end line of a tract of Equivalent land called Cold Spring town- ship crosses or skirts the said River, thence bounding Northerly on the said line as it keeps East by the Needle of the surveying instrument, to the South East corner of said tract or township, which is the mouth of Swift River, thence bounding Westerly in part on the said tract or township of Equivalent land as the river runs to where the south line of another tract of Equivalent land, containing 10,000 acres belonging to John Read Esq. strikes up or runs from said river-thence bounding Northerly upon said line as it runs E. and by N. to the So. E. corner of said tract, being a heap of stones by the root of a great red oak tree, fallen close by one on the west side of a run of water, about 18 rods southerly of the river, called the Ware River-thence bounding Wes- terly on the east line of said tract, as it runs North by the Needle, until an east line there will strike the N. E. corner tree of Brookfield, as by a plan presented herewith appears.
We find the greatest part of said land to be a Pine land. High- hills and low vallies. the hills very poor and mean, the vallies pretty good. We also find that the said tract of land lies in a broken form, and is much discommoded by farms claimed by particular grants from this court, which have taken up the best of the land. We also find that the circumstances of the petitioners and settlers, are difficult and much intricate and perplexed. some of them having entered and settled without regulation, and interfered and encroached upon other men's titles and improvements, and in many instances, two several settlers on the same spot, under different pleas and pretences of right-some having
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
lately laid out, some partly laid out, and others only pitched, interfering one with another as aforesaid. We would further inform this honora- ble court that we have taken great pains and care to inspect and in- quire into every particular instance relating to the said tract of land, and find it needful to prevent further charge and difficulty-to report particularly, viz .- That we find there are entered and settled and about settling on the said tract of land the number of eighty persons the most whereof are families and built houses, and made considerable improve- ments, and are now and have been constantly for more than three years supplied with a minister to preach the word of God unto them, who has been supported by a free contribution. We also find that about 48 of the above number were introduced and led on or en- couraged to settle and make improvements by Joshua Lamb, Esq. & Co. and their committee, who claimed the said tract of land by virtue of an Indian purchase, and the rest of the number had actual contracts with them for certain parcels thereof and received deeds of convey- ance and orders from them for laying out of their lots, and have had the most of them laid out accordingly. We are therefore humbly of the opinion that the several persons and families hereafter named, that were so admitted and settled under and by the said claimers, have their several and respective lots hereafter confirmed to them, their heirs and assigns in such proportions and under such restrictions and limitations and considerations as follows and are hereafter mentioned, viz."
Then follow specific grants to eighty-five different per- sons, among whom were Isaac Magoon, and Isaac Magoon Jr., the former was bounded north by the Read farm, near the south east corner.
Other portions of the territory were to be apportioned among part of the grantees according to certain rules. The first grants being generally 100 acres each.
"And that all and each of the afore named Person or Grantee Both first and last mentioned, (excepting the Rev'd Mr. John Harvey*) do pav into the Public Treasury of this Province the sum of Five Hun- dred Pounds within two years as also forthwith to Pay the further sum of Sixty Seven Pounds, Eleven Shillings and Nine pence the charge and Expense of this Committe on the affair, Each man or Grantee his Equal part or Proportion of said sums according to the Quantity of his Grant of first allotment, and if any of the aforenamed persons or Gran- tees Either first or last mentioned Do not fulfill the aforesaid conditions within the Term of time herein Limited. Their lots be forfeited and other way Disposed of as this Court shall order. And that all Public Charges arising for the future (Untill they be settled and Invested with the powers and privileges of a Township), shall be raised upon their several lots according to the Quantity of acres and that all such of the aforesaid persons or Grantees as are Intitled to Draw after Rights and
* Rev. John Harvey was settled as the first minister of Palmer, in 1734. He was ordained by the Londonderry Presbytery. He was suc- ceeded by the Rev. Robert Burns, in 1753. The Church was Scotch Presbyterian till the settlement of Rev. Simeon Colton, in 1811.
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
Divisions shall pay a Double Proportion to all such Charges according to the Quantity of the Grants or first lots. And that they the afore- named Settlers and Grantees Do Erect and Build a Suitable House for Public Worship, and settle a minister within two Years and that they be allowed to Bring in a Bill for Erecting and setting themselves off a Township accordingly."
This report was signed by Ebenezer Buzzell, and adopted.
From these documents, it appears that the southern part of the town, and all east of the Read manor, as far north as Brookfield line extends, was included in what was then called the " Elbows."
Allusion is made in the report of the committee to for- mer grants. The most ancient document I have found per- taining to the history of Ware is the following petition, dat- ed in 1673, thirteen years before the Indian deed to the pro- prietors of Hardwick, which is copied from the original, in the archives of the commonwealth, and with the graut and the deed following it, the title of the territory of this village, can be easily traced to the present proprietors.
" To the Honoured Governour, Deputie Governour, Magistrates and Deputies now assembled and holding Generall Court in Boston.
The humble petition of Richard Hollinworth of Salem, most hum- bly sheweth.
That your most humble petitioner's ffather came into this country about forty yeares since, and brought a great ffamily with him, and a good estate. And being the first builder of vessells, being a ship-car- penter, was a great benefit to this countrey, and as great or greater than any one in the infancie of the countrie of a private man as it is fully knowne, yett gained not himselfe an estate, but spent his own that he brought, and notwithstanding all his service and the largeness of his family, being twelve in number, he never had more granted him by the countrie but fortie one acres of upland, and not one acre of meadow, and the land lying soe remote from the towne of Salem, it proved little worth to him or his, and none of his children have ever had anything but have lived by their labour with God's blessing, and your petitioner hath used maretan employment, and through many dangers and with much difficultie gotten a livelyhood for himselfe and his family, and being brought very low by his loss by the Dutch take- ing all from him, is constrained to apply himself unto yourselves, whom God hath sett as ffathers of this Commonwealth.
And doth most humbly beseech you seriously to consider the prem -. ises, and if it may stand with your good Jikeing and charitie to grant unto him a competent parcell of land that he may sitt downe upon with his family, viz. his wife and six children, for he would leave the seas had he any competencie of land whereby with his own in dus- try and God's blessing he might mainetaine his family. And he shall take it as a great favour. And as in duty bound, shall ever pray, &c."
" In answer to this petition, the Deputys judge meet to graunt the pe-
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HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
titioner five hundred acres of land where he can find it free from any former graunt, ye Honorable Magistrates consenting hereto.
8: 11 : 1673. WILLIAM TORREY, Chairman.
Consented to by the Magistrates.
EDWARD RAWSON, Sec'ry.
Hollingsworth never located the land granted by the Gen- eral Court to him. His heirs afterwards sold the grant to Samuel Prince of Rochester. June 14, 1715, it appears by the records of the council, " a plot of 500 acres was presented by Samuel Prince, lying on Ware River, survey- ed by William Ward, being a grant of that quantity to Richard Hollingsworth in 1673." "It was ordered that the plat be confirmed as Hollingsworth's grant, if that grant has not been laid out before."
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