USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Ancient Middlesex with brief biographical sketches of the men who have served the country officially since its settlement > Part 1
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1800
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NEW COUNTY SEAL Of the County of Middlesex. Adopted by Vote of the Board of County Commissioners July 15, 1905
EXI
W
ANCIENT MIDDLESEX
WITH BRIEF
Biographical Sketches
OF THE
Men Who Have Served the County Officially Since Its Settlement
BY LEVI S. GOULD
OUNTY
SEX
D
*
*
A.D. 1630.
SOMERVILLE JOURNAL PRINT 1905
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.1 AUG 1905 D. of D.
DE CONCE
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
In the Year One Thousand Nine Hundred and Four.
[CHAPTER 238.]
AN ACT
To authorize the Printing and Distribution of a History of the Officials of the County of Middlesex.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows :-
1. SECTION 1. The County Commissioners of the county 2. of Middlesex are hereby authorized and empowered to 3. print, at the expense of said county, the "history of the 4. officials of the county of Middlesex," as prepared by Levi 5. S. Gould, and to distribute the same without charge 6. among the public libraries and other public institutions 7. of said county, and among such other persons or institu- 8. tions as they may see fit: provided, that the entire ex- 9. pense of such printing and distribution shall not exceed 10. seven hundred and fifty dollars.
1. SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon its pas- 2. sage.
Approved April 14, 1904.
EDITOR'S NOTE
To the inhabitants of Middlesex County : It is not intended to dignify the rambling sketches which follow as in any sense a general history of Middlesex County ; such an undertaking has been attempted by others, but without signal success. A great deal has been written, however, by a multitude of authors, among whom Samuel Adams Drake and William T. Davis are conspicuous, of deep interest to every American citizen, and it is to be hoped that some one of commanding ability as an his- torical writer may yet appear to collect the multitude of scattered fragments and cement them together in an harmonious volume. Much of the matter herein has been gathered from storehouses of information open to all who care to investigate, and have the essential elements of time and patience at their command. It was collated as a "labor of love," without the hope of fee or re- ward, and with no thought of publication for general circulation. but at the earnest solicitation of many citizens of Middlesex, and under the authority conferred by Chap. 238 of the Acts of 1904. is now published by the Commissioners, as a collection of por- traits and biographical sketches of faithful officials, considered worthy of preservation amongst the public archives and munici- pal libraries of the County. To this has been added certain in- cidents believed to be of public interest. and others of historic value to all the people of ancient Middlesex. Believing that like- nesses are of special interest in biographical sketches, every method which experience could suggest has been adopted to ob- tain them, and where they do not appear it is good opinion that none ever existed, or, if they did, have been lost through lapse of time or indifference, or at least cannot be identified if still in existence. The Editor regrets that any are missing. Portraits in Colonial times were very expensive, and therefore rare, being obtained only by bringing artists to New England from the
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ANCIENT MIDDLESEX.
mother country, or by going abroad to meet them. About the period of the Revolution, however, miniatures and silhouettes were common enough, until the advent of daguerreotypes had revolutionized the art of picture making. The likenesses here- with are largely reproductions of family relics, which in the originals were a somewhat motley collection of paintings, litho- graphis, sketches, daguerreotypes, and photographs obtained only by the expenditure of many months of patient research and earnest solicitation. The signatures are mostly fac-similes traced from original official documents. The compiler has indulged in sentiments and opinions of his own, which, if seemingly over- drawn, should be excused as perhaps a superabundance of zealous admiration for the life work of the founders and patriots, and for all other elements which have contributed to the settle- ment, progress, and welfare of this most historic county. In addition to those who cannot be specially enumerated, he is deeply indebted to the New England Historic Genealogical So- ciety for the use of its superb collection of genealogical records ; to the State Librarian, C. B. Tillinghast, Esq .; to the Librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, Charles K. Bolton, Esq .; to Horace G. Wadlin, Esq., Librarian of the Boston Public Library, for permission to peruse its valuable files of ancient newspapers ; to William C. Lane, Esq., Librarian Harvard University; to the American Library Association of Boston ; to Charles Cowley, Esq., of Lowell; and to Dr. Samuel A. Green, of the Massachii- setts Historical Society, for kindly information.
SerSJould
Chairman County Commissioners
Melrose, January, 1905.
AN INCIDENT OF THE EARLY COLONIAL PERIOD
ORDINATION OF REV. THOMAS CARTER, FIRST MINISTER OF WOBURN. From a Painting in the Woburn Public Library.
Key to the Painting-The figure in the centre of the picture is a representation (ideal) of the Rev.
Thomas Carter, when two lay members of his church were in the act of " laying on hands." The man with the belt represents Capt. Edward Johnson: the other is unknown. The ministers in the background are, from the reader's left hand, first, John Cotton of Boston; second, Richard Mather of Dorchester: third, John Eliot of Roxbury; fourth, at the side of the pulpit, John Wilson of Boston-the faces of these four are taken from contemporary portraits-all the other figures are imaginary. The man on a bench with his cloak slipping from his shoulders represents Increase Nowell, a magistrate whose duty it was to be present. Be- sides the ministers whose names have been mentioned, there were present Symmes and Allen of Charlestown, Shepard of Cambridge, Dunster, president of Harvard college, Knowles of Watertown and Allin of Dedham.
JOHN WINTHROP, GOV. OF MASS. BAY COLONY. From 1629 to 1634, from 1637 to 1640, and from 1642 to 1644.
COUNTY
ESEX
1773
1630.6
OLD SEAL
COUNTY
IN
M
*
A.D. 1630
PRESENT SEAL
Impressed upon the broad seal of the County of Middlesex is the following legend: Incorporated A. D. 1630. How or when this historical inaccuracy occurred it is impossible to ascer- tain. The records show that Middlesex-shire, Essex-shire, Suffolk-shire, and Norfolk-shire were legally incorporated May 10, 1643, the latter county not being the present Norfolk, but a county including the towns of Salisbury and Haverhill in Massa - chusetts, and Hampton, Exeter, Dover, and Strawberry Bank, now Portsmouth, in the province of New Hampshire. It is very likely, however, that the date of 1630 is intended to conform to the arrival of John Winthrop, who brought the new charter fix- ing the limits of what many are pleased to term as the original territory of Middlesex County, being from three miles south of the Charles river to three miles north of the Merrimack ; with a limitless boundary westward to the sea, in other words, stretch- ing for an equal width from the Atlantic to the Pacific! As it exists to-day, what an empire has been developed within those original lines, rivalling the wealth of the Indies! That charter covered the present locations of Troy, Albany. Buffalo, Dunkirk, Detroit, Kalamazoo, Chicago, Dubuque, Sioux City, Fort Laramie, and many other important cities : it would take a strip out of the states of New York, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Ne- braska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon ; it would graze the bor- der lines of California, Nevada, and Utah, and through a claim to most of the waters of Lakes Erie and Saint Clair had the power to control the mighty commerce of the Great Lakes!
Jo: 11
: winthrop
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ANCIENT MIDDLESEX.
It was in 1614, six years before the landing of the Pilgrims, that Captain John Smith, on a voyage of discovery, sailed into "the opening betwixt Cape Cod and Cape Ann," now Boston Harbor, but at that time known only by the Indian names of "Shawmut and Mishawum," the latter referring to the present location of Charlestown. On Smith's return to England, he de- scribed the country in glowing terms to the Prince of Wales, later on the ill-fated monarch Charles 1., who gave the name of "Charles" river to its principal stream. In 1622 a royal pa- tent, which included Mishawum and Shawmut, was issued to Robert Georges, but it is not apparent that any settlements under it were effected north of the Charles in the territory later known as Middlesex County.
Jo: Endicott LGG
The charter of the corporation known as "The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England," under the provisions of which it became possible to settle the territory known as Middlesex County, was originally granted to John En- decott and others in the month of March, 1628. Subsequently its powers were enlarged and others granted shares therein, among them being John Winthrop, who came over as Chief Governor in the "Arbella," arriving in Salem June 12, 1630, Endecott's posi- tion thereafter being that of Local Governor. The officers sanctioned by the charter were a "Governor, Deputy Governor, eighteen Assistants" [a Treasurer, Secretary of the General Court, Major-General, Admiral at Sea, and Commissioners of the United Colonies], to be chosen by the Freemen at a General Court to be holden on the last Wednesday in Easter. The Free- men (or legal voters) were only such as were members in good standing of a church, so that heretics or irreligious persons were absolutely excluded from all participation in any affairs of gov- ernnient. The territory conveyed in the words of the charter was : "That part of New England between Merrimack river and Charles river, in the bottom of Massachusetts bay, and three
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miles to the south of every part of Charles river and of the southernmost part of said bay, and three miles to the north of every part of said Merrimack river and in length within the breadth aforesaid from the Atlantic ocean to the South sea," etc. The first "Court of Assistants" was holden on board the Gov- ernor's ship, "Arbella," in Charlestown Harbor, August 23, 1630, and the first General Court was convened at Boston October 19 of the same year. The General Court was to consist of the "Governor, the Assistants, and all the Freemen of the Colony," and was to assemble "four times a year," when necessary, offi- cers were chosen and laws and ordinances enacted. Besides "ordering and dispatching such business as should from time to time happen touching said company or plantation," the General Couit was charged with "settling the forms and ceremonies of government and magistracy," the "imposition of lawful fines. mulcts. imprisonment, or other lawful correction," etc., partak- ing of a judicial character. As may be seen. this charter contains all the essential elements of pure democracy, and it was granted by Charles I .. that ill-fated monarch who lost his head to the Puritanical sentiment of the mother country, which proclaimed him as a "tyrant, a murderer, and a traitor to his country": nevertheless, to use his own words, this charter was granted "so that the inhabitants may be so religiously, peaceably, and civilly governed as their good life and orderly conversation may win and invite the natives of the country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Savior of mankind." As the General Court was composed of all the Freemen in the colony, and the officers were annually elected by "show of hands," it was to all intents and purposes a town meeting presided over by the Governor or some other official. In the course of time the inevitable happened (just as it has in later days by the transition of towns into cities). as the population had increased by immi- gration and plantations had pushed out into the wilderness to such a distance from the common meeting place, that it finally became not only inconvenient, but at times positively dangerous, to attend the stated conclave of the court. In this dilemma. constantly increasing, the Freemen got together in their scat- tered communities and chose delegates from among themselves,
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clothing them with the power to do all things which they them- selves might do if personally present, except the right to elect "The Governor, Deputy Governor, Assistants, Treasurer, Sec- retary of the General Court, Major-General, Admiral at Sea, and Commissioners of the United Colonies," which right, except in the matter of obsolete officials, has been handed down to the present generation. The first meeting of delegates assembled in General Court on the fourteenth day of May, 1634, and they represented the towns of Newtown (now Cambridge), Water- town, Charlestown, Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, and Saugus, which included Lynn and Salem apparently. As Virginia ap- pears to have adopted a similar method in 1620, it seems to be certain that the above was the second body, composed of a direct and equal representation of all the people which ever assembled for the purposes of legislation. During a period of 20 years, through the entanglement of all forms of political intrigues and alliances, with the mutability of religious and social problems to contend with, the basic principle of equal representation em- bodied in that gathering has never been abandoned, neither have the people seriously considered such a proposition. In all the preliminaries attending the establishing of a permanent form of government by Governor John Winthrop, the arena was princi- pally in Middlesex County, and the actors therein were largely lier citizens.
The actual settlement of Charlestown, which formed the nucleus of Middlesex County, must be ascribed to Ralph, Richard, and William Sprague, three young gentlemen of mod- erate wealth and of a good family, who left "old England" as sailing companions of John Endecott, the intrepid, on his mem- orable voyage to Salem in 1628." By permission of Endecott. these three brothers started out on foot and penetrated the wil- derness. They came to the junction of two rivers, where they found an Indian fishing village called Mishawum, now Charles- town, and it was they who, by consent of the aborigines, estab- lished at this point what may be justly assumed to be the original settlement of Middlesex County, in 1628-1629. Of the heroic
*Some authorities contend that they came the next year. See memo- rial, Sprague family, by Richard Soule, Jr .. p. 88 to 97.
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band who followed them there, more than one hundred suc- cumbed to the privations of the winter of 1629, and the re- mainder, sick and discouraged, must have perished except for the timely arrival of Governor John Winthrop in 1630. During that year seventeen ships arrived, bringing 1,500 people, but they in turn were so illy prepared to withstand the rigors of the New England climate through lack of food, medicine, and shelter that more than two hundred died before winter had really set in, and many others thereafter.
Zaky Gangu 1634. Richard Sprague
william S3mayaud
At this point it is well to refer more particularly to the Sprague brothers. They were the sons of Edward Sprague, a fuller, of Upway County of Dorset, England. Ralph was about twenty-nine years of age on his arrival. He resided in Charles- town and Malden all the rest of his days, and his tombstone, with that of his brother Richard, is still to be seen in the old Phipps- street burial place in a fair state of preservation .* The General Court elected him a Constable of Charlestown in 1630. In 1634 he was a member of the first board of Selectmen, and in 1635 and afterwards-in all, nine years-he was a representative to the General Court. He was, in 1638, a member of the A. & H. A. Co., and in 1611 Lieutenant and Captain of the train-band. Some of his children were born in England ; three of them, John. Samuel, and Phineas, settled in Malden, where each founded families, that of Phineas being specially prominent down to the
*Joanna Sprague. his widow, according to ancient records, married Deacon Edward Converse, of Woburn, September 9, 1662. Deacon Converse in his will made in 1659 mentions a wife then living, but as he did not die until 1663, probably the first wife died previous to 1662 .- [Ed.
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ANCIENT MIDDLESEX.
present generation. With his brother Richard, he owned quite a tract of land at "Pond Feilde," now in the heart of the city of Melrose. It was occupied by his descendants during many gen- erations. He died in Malden in 1650. Richard, the second son of Ralph, was a wealthy and influential citizen of Charlestown. He was born in England. In 1674 he commanded an armed ves- sel during the war of that period, and cruised in Long Island Sound to protect the commerce of that section. He was repre- sentative to the General Court in 1681, from which he was ex- pelled on account of the Andros episode, but was repeatedly re-elected thereafter. Captain of train-band, 1680, and deposed of his command in 1689 for upholding Andros. Sergeant A. H. A., 1683. He died in 1703, bequeathing a handsome sum to Har- vard College and to other worthy purposes. Richard, the second of the three brothers, was perhaps the most prominent of either. He died in Charlestown, without issue, November 25, 1668. He was captain of a pinnace, on which he made many trading voy- ages, and finally became a merchant. He was one of the Select- men, and a representative to the General Court in 1644, and from 1659 to 1666. He was captain of the Charlestown Train Band, a member of the A. & H. A. Co., first sergeant in 1652, ensign in 1659, and lieutenant in 1665, and altogether quite a military character, as shown by his love for the sword he carried, which was bequeathed by him to his brother William, who in turn handed it down to his son Anthony. He left a large estate for the times, distributed principally to his nephews, but he left a bequest, among the first of note, to Harvard College, viz .: "thirty-one sheep and thirty lambs," probably to crop the college green !
Edward Convan 6 , 658
William was the youngest, being barely twenty years old when he came. He married Millicent Eames, of Charlestown, in 1635, and settled in Hingham in 1636, where he was Selectman in 1645 and Constable in 1661. He died in 1675. No stone marks his resting place. He founded a large and highly re- spected family. Among others, Judge Peleg W. Sprague, a
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Senator of the United States, was a descendant. While the Spragues must ever be considered as dominant factors in the ex- ploration and first settlement of Middlesex County, truthful his- tory should not lose sight of the fact that they discovered, on their arrival at Mishawum, an "English house, thatch'd and palizad'd," inhabited by a smith named Thomas Walford, who "received them coldly." He had a wife, Jane, accused later on of being a witch, and three children. How he got there, and why he remained, has never been satisfactorily ascertained, but it was said that he manufactured articles contraband of war for the Indians; at all events, he was not in accord, spiritually or otherwise, with our Puritan fathers, who finally sequestered his estate and drove him into the wilderness. Previously to this he had been fined for some trifling offense, which he paid by killing a wolf! His principal offense seems to have been in remaining faithful to the Church of England, which in those days could not be condoned. Probably he was not a really bad man, as subse- quent history proves. He appears to have settled in the neigh- borhood of what is now the city of Portsmouth, where he became somewhat conspicuous in church and state, and died in Novem- ber, 1660, leaving a valuable property and a son of prominence. Thus it is that the first Englishman to establish a home among the savages of Middlesex County, and to live with them in peace, paving the way for others, became the first victim of the bigotry and intolerance of his own countrymen. He may have been an original settler under the patent of Robert Georges, as some authorities assert that he came to Weymouth with the "Wessa- gussett" colony in 1623, and that he went to Mishawum in 1625 to ' ?? , after the former settlement had been abandoned.
2 gemas
Esalfons
Besides Thomas Walford the ancient record contains only the names of the following persons as contemporary with the Spragues at Charlestown in 1629, viz. :-
Thomas Graves, a general expert in engineering, mining, and mineralogy, came from Gravesend, county of Kent, England.
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ANCIENT MIDDLESEX.
Engaged by the Massachusetts Bay Company, March 5, 1628, he came to Salem with Endecott, or, as some authorities assert, with Higginson, and shortly afterwards moved to Charlestown, where he "laid out the town in lots" and built the "Great House" in the square, previous to the arrival of Winthrop, by whom it was oc- cupied until his removal to Boston. It is believed to have been in existence as late as 1:15, when the town was burned by the British. He is said to have been one of the Commissioners to lay out the town of Woburn, and that he became one of its first town officers, but the latter statement is open to doubt, as he has been frequently confounded with "Rear Admiral" Thomas Graves, who was a resident of Woburn in its earliest history, and became quite active in public affairs. Thomas the "Admiral" died May 31, 1653, leaving a large estate. The technologial training of Thomas the engineer must have been of great service to the colony. The date and place of his death have not been ascer- tained. For some misdemeanor the Court of Assistants in 1631 ordered the house of "Thomas Graves at Marble Harbor to be torn down," and that "no Englishman" should "give him enter- tainment," thus making him an outlaw beyond the possibility of relief.
cho: Grands
Abraham Palmer, a merchant from London, came over with Higginson. He was Deputy from Charlestown to the first Gen- eral Court in 1634, and Town Clerk, besides holding other im- portant town offices. He was a military man, and took part in the Pequot war as sergeant. Ile sailed in the Mayflower of Boston for Barbadoes in 1652, on a venture to be settled in Lon- don. He died the following year either in London or Barbadoes, authorities differ.
Abr. Palmer&
Walter Palmer, was, without doubt, a younger brother of Abraham. September 28, 1630, he was acquitted of the murder of one Austin Bratcher, who was killed on the Cradock farm in Medford "by blows on the head" during the summer of 1630. He was a constable of Charlestown in 1633. In 1643 he was in Rehoboth, and in 1646-4 the first Representative from that town.
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ANCIENT MIDDLESEX.
In 1650 he was surveyor of highways there. In 1653 he removed to Stonington. His will was probated in the Suffolk Registry May 11, 1662. His descendants were numerous.
Mal tex
Nicholas Stowers, was one of the founders of the church in Charlestown, and also a member of the church in Boston in 1630. He was an active and useful citizen. He died in Charlestown March 17, 1646.
Simon Hoyte, was originally of Dorchester, and went to Charlestown in 1629. In 1633 he was living in Scituate. He was of Windsor in 1639, of Fairfield in 1650, and of Stamford, Conn., in 1659, where he died during that year.
Rev. Francis Bright was bred in Oxford, England, in 1603, and matriculated at the New College in 1625. With his wife and two children he came to Charlestown in the "Lion's Whelp" in 1629. After remaining about two years, he became discouraged, and returned to England in 1630 or '31.
John Stickline (or Stickling). He probably removed to Watertown in 1630, from which town he served as a juryman May 18, 1631. He afterwards appears to have removed to Weathersfield, Conn.
John Meech (or March), was an inhabitant in 1628-29. John March, who may have been the same man, made a will which was probated in 1665. The latter John was a town officer. If he was not the "John Meech" mentioned, then all record of the original John is lost.
NOTE .- These two men, Edward Johnson and John Mousell, were among the first settlers of Woburn .- [ED.
Edwarle Johnson 1658. 1638.
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The hardships and privations which fell to the lot of the colo- nists were of the severest character. Gentle women, accustomed to the comforts of an English home, came with their husbands, and were obliged to endure the rigors of the seasons "in hastily constructed log houses, the interstices of which were rudely filled with mud or clay," utterly inadequate to afford protection from the biting blasts of winter, and but scantily furnished with the commonest necessities of domestic life. Surrounded by "dreary wastes of fen and marsh," with dense forests stretching into the interior far beyond the knowledge of man, inhabited by hostile Indians, with myriads of hungry wolves and other savage beasts prowling about, they must have lived in constant dread and peril ; but this was not all; famine stared them in the face, as their crops were almost a failure during the first two years, and they were obliged to subsist principally on shell-fish, mussels, clams, lobsters, and the like for meat, and on ground-nuts and acorns as substitutes for bread. Little wonder, then, that the ranks of this devoted band faded away through fever and the many climatic ills which afflict us to this day, even in the possession of all the comforts of the civilization of the twentieth century. One witness and participator in their sufferings wrote: "Almost in every family lamentation, mourning, and woe were heard, and no fresh food to cherish them." Another witness said : "Many died weekly. yea almost daily." Amid all these trials and tribulations their heroic spirits were not broken, but only cast down, and they looked forward with abiding faith in the God of their salvation for that heavenly benediction which finally came as the harvest of their sufferings. The heroic struggles of these devoted pioneers were reflected a century and a half later upon the his- toric fields of ancient Middlesex, where their descendants, fired by the same self-sacrificing spirit of loyalty to God and their hearthstones, completed the fabric of political and religious free- dom which their forefathers, under the special sanction of the King of England, had unwittingly founded in 1629 and 1630.
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