USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Groton > Historical sketch of Groton, Massachusetts. 1655-1890 > Part 1
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Gc 974.402 G916g
974.402 G916g 1154042
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01100 9468
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historicalsketch1655gree
AN
HISTORICAL SKETCH
OF
GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS.
1655-1890.
BY
SAMUEL A. GREEN.
Gc C 974.402 69169
GROTON : 1894.
974.4494
To the Memory
OF GEORGE DEXTER BRIGHAM (TOWN CLERK, 1855-1893),
A LIFE-LONG FRIEND AND NEIGHBOR IN MY NATIVE TOWN, WHO OFTEN GAVE MOST CHEERFUL HELP IN MY LOCAL INVESTIGATIONS,
THIS SKETCH IS INSCRIBED. 1154042
PREFACE.
THE following pages were written originally for a "History of Middlesex County," published in Philadelphia four years ago ; and a few copies were then separately struck off. They were intended merely as a sketch of the town, and not as a full or formal history. In justice to the writer this statement seems to be necessary, as the annals of Groton, so rich in material, and covering so long a period of time, are here treated in a very scanty way. Through some misunderstanding the work was not divided into Chapters, as had been the intention of the author, who had no opportunity to see the revised proofs.
With the exception of the notice of Major Palmer, the brief biographies at the end of the book were not written by the author of this His- torical Sketch. Luther Blood, a notice of whom there appears, died on September 22, 1893.
S. A. G.
BOSTON, March 16, 1894.
-
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH
OF THE
TOWN OF GROTON.1
THE town of Groton lies in the northwestern part of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and is bounded on the north by Pepperell and Dunstable ; on the east by Tyngsborough and Westford; on the south by Lit- tleton and Ayer; and on the west by Shirley and Townsend. The First Parish meeting-house-or "the tall-spired church"-is situated in latitude 42° 36' 21.4'' north, longitude 71º 34' 4'' west of Greenwich, according to the latest observations of the United States Coast Survey. It is distant nearly thirty-one miles in a straight line from the State House at Bos- ton, but by the traveled road it is about thirty-four miles. The village of Groton is situated principally on one long street, known as Main Street, a section of the Great Road, which was formerly one of the principal thoroughfares between Eastern Massachu- setts and parts of New Hampshire and Vermont. The Worcester, Nashua and Rochester Railroad passes
1 Reprinted from " The History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts."
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2
GROTON.
through it, and traverses the township at nearly its greatest length, running six miles or more within its limits. It is reached from Boston by trains on the Fitchburg Railroad, connecting with the Worcester, Nashua and Rochester road at Ayer, three miles dis- tant from the village.
The original grant of the township was made in the spring of 1655, and gave to the proprietors a tract of land eight miles square; though subsequently this was changed by the General Court, so that its shape varied somewhat from the first plan. It comprised all of what is now Groton and Ayer, nearly all of Pepperell and Shirley, large parts of Dunstable and Littleton, and smaller parts of Harvard and Westford, in Mas- sachusetts, and small portions of Hollis and Nashua, in New Hampshire. The present shape of the town is very irregular, and all the original boundary lines have been changed except where they touch Town- send and Tyngsborough.
The earliest reference to the town on any map is found in the Reverend William Hubbard's "Narra- tive of the Troubles with the Indians in New-Eng- land," a work published at Boston in the early spring of 1677, and in London during the ensuing summer under a different title. The map was the first one cut in New England, and of course done in a crude man- ner. It was engraved probably by John Foster, the earliest Boston printer. The towns assaulted by the Indians in Philip's War are indicated on the map by figures ; and at that period these places were attract- ing some attention both here and in the mother country.
3
GROTON.
There were two petitions for the plantation of Groton, of which one was headed by Mr. Deane Winthrop, and the other by Lieutenant William Martin. The first one is not known to be in exist- ence, but a contemporaneous copy of the second is in the possession of the New England Historic Genea- logical Society. The signatures vary in the style of handwriting, but they do not appear to be autographs, and may have been written by the same person. The answer to the petition is given on the third page of the paper, and signed by Edward Rawson, secretary of the Colony, which fact renders it probable that this is the petition actually presented to the General Court as the original one, after it had been copied by a skillful penman. It was found many years ago among the papers of Captain Samuel Shepley, by the late Charles Woolley, then of Groton, but who subse- quently lived at Waltham; and by him given to the New England Historic Genealogical Society. The petition is written on the first page of a folio sheet, and the answer by the General Court appears on the third page of the paper. Near the top of the sheet are the marks of stitches, indicating that another paper at one time had been fastened to it. Perhaps the petition headed by Deane Winthrop was attached when the secretary wrote the action of the General Court, beginning, "In Ans" to both theise peticons." The grant of the plantation was made by the Court of Assistants on May 25, 1655-as appears by this document-though subject to the consent of the House of Deputies, which was given, in all proba- bility, on the same day. In the absence of other evi-
4
GROTON.
dence, this may be considered the date of the incor- poration, which is not found mentioned elsewhere.
In the early history of the Colony the proceedings of the General Court, as a rule, were not dated day by day-though there are many exceptions-but the beginning of the session is always given, and occa- sionally the days of the month are recorded. These dates in the printed edition of the records are fre- quently carried along without authority, sometimes covering a period of several days or even a week; and for this reason it is often impossible to learn the exact date of any particular legislation, when there are no contemporaneous papers bearing on the subject.
The petition and endorsement are as follows :
" To the honored Generall Courte assembled at Boston the humble pe- thun af vs whis names ar here vnder written humbly shoeth
' That where as youre petioners by a prouidence of god have beene brought oner in to this wildernes and liued longe here in: and being sunithing straightned for that where by subsistance in an ordinarie wain af gols prouidence is to be had, and Considdering the a lowance that girl glues to the sunes of men for such an ende : youre petioners Ijust there fore Is that you would be pleased to grant vs a place for a plantation vpon the Riner that runes from Nashaway in to merimake at a place or a boute a place Caled petaupaukett and waubansconcett and youre petioners shall pray for youre happy prosedings
" WILLI'M MARTIN
RICHARD BLOOD JOHN WITT WILLI'M LAKIK
RICHARD HAGEN TIMOTHY UMPER JOHN LARIN JAR& BLOOD MATHE FARMINGTON ROBERT BIAWYD
5
GROTON.
"In Ansr to both theise peticons The Court Judgeth it meete to · graunt the peticoners eight miles square in the place desired to make a Comfortable plantaçon wch henceforth shall be Called Groaten formerly knowne by the name of Petapawage : that Mr Damforth of Cambridge wth such as he shall Asossiate to him shall and hereby is desired to lay it out with all Convenjent speede that so no Incouragement may be wanting to the Peticoners for a speedy procuring of a godly minister amongst them. Provided that none shall enjoy any part or porçon of that land by guift from the selectmen of that place but such who shall build howses on theire lotts so given them once wthin eighteene months from the time of the sayd Townes laying out or Townes graunt to such persons ; and for the prsent Mr Deane Winthrop Mr Jnº Tinker Mr Tho : Hinckly Dolor Davis. Wm. Martin Mathew ffarington John Witt and Timothy Couper are Appointed the selectmen for the sayd Towne of Groaten for one two yeares from the time it is layd out, to lay out and dispose of particular lotts not exceeding twenty. acres to each howse lott, And to Order the prudentiall affairs of the place at the end of which tjme other selectmen shall be chosen and Appointed in theire roomes : the selectmen of Groaton giving Mr Danforth such sattisfaction for his service & paines as they & he shall Agree ;
"The magists haue passed this wth reference to the Consent of theire bretheren the deputs hereto
" EDWARD RAWSON, Secrety " 25 of May 1655.
"The Deputies Consent hereto " WILLIAM TORREY Cleric."
The entry made by Secretary Rawson in the Gen- eral Court Records, at the time of the grant, is sub- stantially the same as his indorsement on Martin's petition, though it distinguishes between some of the names signed to each petition. It is evident that the one headed by Deane Winthrop was also signed by John Tinker and Thomas Hinckley ; and probably by Dolor Davis, Richard Smith and Amos Richard- son, as is inferred from a petition dated May 16, 1656, and given later in this account of the town. The Roman letters and Arabic figures within paren- theses refer to the volume and page of the General
6
GROTON.
Court Records at the State-House. The entry is as follows :
"In Anse to the peticon of M' Deane Winthrop Mr Jnº Tincker Mr Tho: Hinckly &c & of Lieu Wm Martin Timothy Cooper &c The Court Judgeth it meete to Graunt etc." (IV. 204).
Charles Hastings Gerrish, of Groton, has a contem- poraneous copy of this record made by Secretary Rawson, which was perhaps sent originally to the selectmen of the town. It was found among the pa- pers of the late Hon. John Boynton, at one time town clerk.
The record of the House of Deputies is also prac- tically the same, though there are a few verbal vari- ations. It begins :
"There beinge a pet. prferd by Mr Dean Winthrop Mr Tho: Hinck- ley & divers others for a plantation vpon the river that Runs from Nash- away into Merimacke called petapawage & an other from some of the Inhabitants of Concord for a plantation in the same place to both which the Court returned this answer that the Court Thinkes meet to graunt (te " (III. 462).
The following letter from the Hon. J. Hammond Trumbull, whose authority in such matters is unques- tioned, gives the meaning and derivation of the In- dian name of the town :
" HARTFORD, Dec. 22, 1877.
" MY DEAR DR. GREEN,-Prlaupauket and Pelapawage are two forms of the mme name, the former having the locative postposition (-et), meaning 'at " or 'on ' a place; and both are corruptions of one or the Other of two Indian names found at several localities in New England. From which of the two your Groton name came I cannot decide without mime knowledge of the place itself. I leave you the choice, confident that wine or the other in the true name.
"' Putupjag,' used by Eliot for ' bay,' in Joshua xv. 2, 5, literally haut "aprrailing' or ' bulging water,' and was employed to designate eltier a local widening of a river making still water, or an inlet from a river expanding into something like a pond or lake. Hence the name
7
GROTON.
of a part of (old) Saybrook, now Essex, Conn., which was variously writ- ten Pautapaug, Poattapoge, Potabauge, and, later, Pettipaug, &c., so des- ignated from a spreading cove or inlet from Connecticut River. Potta- poug Pond, in Dana, Mass., with an outlet to, or rather an inlet from Chicopee River, is probably a form of the same name. So is ' Port To- bacco,' Charles County, Md. (the 'Potopaco' of John Smith's map), on the Potomac.
"But there is another Algonkin name from which Petaupauk and some similar forms may have come, which denotes a swamp, bog, or quagmire,-literally, a place into which the foot sinks; represented by the Chippeway petobeg, a bog or soft marsh, and the Abnaki potepaug. There is a Pautipaug (otherwise Pootapaug, Portipaug, Patapogue, etc.) in the town of Sprague, Conn., on or near the Shetucket River, which seems to have this derivation.
"If there was in (ancient) Groton a pond or spreading cove, connected with the Nashua, Squannacook, Nissitisset, or other stream, or a pond- like enlargement or 'bulge' of a stream, this may, without much doubt, be accepted as the origin of the name. If there is none such, the name probably came from some ' watery swamp,' like those into which (as the ' Wonder-working Providence' relates) the first explorers of Concord 'sunke, into an uncertaine bottome in water, and waded up to their knees.'
" Yours truly,, J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL."
The last suggestion, that the name came from an Algonkin word signifying "swamp " or "bog," ap- pears to be the correct one. There are many bog meadows, of greater or less extent, in different parts of the town. Two of the largest-one situated on the easterly side of the village, and known as Half- Moon Meadow, and the other on the westerly side, and known as Broad Meadow, each containing per- haps a hundred acres of land-are now in a state of successful cultivation. Before they were drained and improved they would have been best described as swamps or bogs.
It is to be regretted that so many of the Indian words, which have a local significance and smack of
8
GROTON.
the region, should have been crowded out of the list of geographical names in Massachusetts. However much such words may have been twisted and distort- ed by English pronunciation and misapplication, they furnish now one of the few links that connect the present period with prehistoric times in America. "Nashaway," mentioned in the petition, is the old name of Lancaster, though spelled in different ways. Mr. Trumbull has given some interesting facts in re- gard to this Indian word, which I copy from a paper by him in the second volume of the "Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society : "
" NASHAUS (Chip[pewa], nessawaii and ashuicies), 'mid-way,' or ' between,' and with ohke or auk added, the 'land between ' or 'the half-way place,'-was the name of several localities. The tract on which Lancaster, in Worcester county (Mass.) was settled, was ' be- tween' the branches of the river, and so it was called 'Nashaway ' or 'Nash wake ' (nashaud-ohke); and this name was afterwards trans- ferred from the territory to the river itself. There was another Nasha- say in Connecticut, between Quinebang and Five-Mile Rivers in Windham county, and here, too, the mutilated name of the nashaue-ohke was transferred, us Ashairog or Assairog, to the Five-Mile River. Nat- chaug, in the same county, the name of the eastern branch of Shetuck- et river, belonged originally to the tract 'between' the eastern and western branches; and the Shetucket itself borrows a name (nashaue- luk-ut) from its place 'between' Yantic and Quinebaug rivers (page 33)."
The town is indebted for its name to Deane Win- throp, a son of Governor John Winthrop and one of the petitioners for the grant. He was born at Gro- ton, in the county of Suffolk, England, on March 16, 1622-23; and the love of his native place prompted him to perpetuate its name in New England. He stands at the head of the first list of selectmen ap- pointed by the General Court, and for a short time
9
GROTON.
was probably a resident of the town. At the age of exactly eighty-one years he died, on March 16, 1703-04, at Pullen Point, now within the limits of Winthrop, Massachusetts.
The following letter, written by a distinguished representative of the family, will be read with in- terest :
" BOSTON, 27 February, 1878.
" MY DEAR DR. GREEN,-It would give me real pleasure to aid you in establishing the relations of Deane Winthrop to the town of Gro- ton in Massachusetts. But there are only three or four letters of Deane's among the family papers in my possession, and not one of them is dated Groton. Nor can I find in any of the family papers a distinct reference to his residence there.
" There are, however, two brief notes of his, both dated ‘the 16 of December, 1662,' which I cannot help thinking may have been writ- ten at Groton. One of them is addressed to his brother John, the Gov- ernor of Connecticut, who was then in London, on business connected with the Charter of Connecticut. In this note, Deane says as fol- lows :
" ' I have some thoughts of removing from the place that I now live in, into your Colony, if I could lit of a convenient place. The place that I now live in is too little for me, my children now growing up.'
"We know that Deane Winthrop was at the head of the first Board of Selectmen at Groton a few years earlier, and that he went to reside of Pullen Point, now called Winthrop, not many years after.
"I am strongly inclined to think with you that this note of December, 1662, was written at Groton.
" Yours very truly,
" ROBERT C. WINTHROP. " SAMUEL A. GREEN, M.D."
A few years before the incorporation of the town, Emanuel Downing, of Salem, who married Lucy, a sister of Governor John Winthrop, had a very large farm which he called Groton. It was situated in what was afterward South Danvers, but now Peabody, on the old road leading from Lynn to Ipswich, and thus named, says Upham, in his "Salem Witchcraft,"
.
10
GROTON.
" in dear remembrance of his wife's ancestral home in 'the old country'" (I. 43). Downing subsequently sold it to his nephews, John Winthrop, Jr., and Adam Winthrop, on July 23, 1644, when he speaks of it as " his farme of Groton." The sale is duly recorded in the Suffolk Registry of Deeds (I. 57).
Groton in Connecticut-younger than this town by just half a century, and during the Revolution the scene of the heroic Ledyard's death-was named in the year 1705, during the Governorship of Fitz-John Winthrop, out of respect to the Suffolk home of the family.
New Hampshire has a Groton, in Grafton County, which was called Cockermouth when first settled in the year 1766. Subsequently, however, the name was changed by an act of the Legislature, in accordance with the unanimous wish of the inhabitants who ap- proved it, on December 7, 1796. Some of its early settlers were from Hollis, New Hampshire, and others from this town.
Vermont, also, has a Groton, in Caledonia County, which received its charter on October 20, 1789, though it was settled a short time before. A history of the town, written by General Albert Harleigh Hill, ap- peared in Miss Abby Maria Hemenway's "Vermont Historical Gazeteer" (IV. 1145-1168). Taken bodily from this work, a pamphlet edition was also pub- lished, with some slight variations, but with the same paging. The author says :
"It received the name of Groton through the influence of its earliest settlers, who were born in Groton, Mass. These sterling old patriots who, mid all the stirring activity of those days, forgot not the old birthtown, but hallowed its memory by giving its name to their new settlement and town in the wilderness " (page 1145).
11
GROTON.
New York, too, has a town called Groton, situated in Tompkins County; and Professor Marvin Morse Baldwin, in an historical sketch of the place, pub- lished in the year 1858, gives the reason for so nam- ing it. He says :
"At first, the part of Locke thus set off was called Division ; but the next year [1818] it was changed to Groton, on the petition of the in- habitants of the town, some of whom had moved from Groton, Mass., and some from Groton, Ct., though a few desired the name of York " (page 8).
There is also a Groton in Erie County, Ohio. It is sit- uated in that part of the State known as the fire lands, and so called after the Connecticut town. The name was originally Wheatsborough, and its first settlement was made in the year 1809.
The latest place aspiring to the honor of the name is in Brown County, South Dakota, which was laid out six or eight years ago on land owned by the Chi- cago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Company. I am informed that various New England names were selected by the company and given to different town- ships, not for personal or individual reasons, but be- cause they were short and well sounding, and unlike any others in that State.
In the middle of the last century-according to the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (XXIV. 56 note, and 60) for January, 1870-there was a place in Roxbury sometimes called Groton. It was a corruption of Greaton, the name of the man who kept the "Grey Hound" tavern in that neigh- borhood.
Groton, in England, is an ancient place; it is the same as the Grotena of Domesday Book, in which
12
GROTON.
there is a record of the population and wealth of the town, in some detail, at the time of William the Con- queror, and also before him, under the Anglo-Saxon King, Edward the Confessor. A literal translation of this census-return of the year 1086 is as follows :
" In the time of King Edward [the Abbot of ] Saint Edmund held Gro- ton for a manor, there being one carucate and a half of land. Always [ there have been] eight villeins and five bordarii [a rather higher sort of serfs ; cotters). Always [there has been ] one plouugh in demesne. Al- ways two ploughs belonging to homagers [tenants], and one acre of mead- ow. Woodland for ten hogs. A mill serviceable in winter. Always Que work-horse, six cattle, and sixteen hogs, and thirty sheep. Two free men of half a carucate of land, and they could give away and sell their land. Six bordarii. Always one plough, and one acre of meadow [belong- ing to these bordarii]. It was then (i. e., under King Edward] worth thirty shillings, and now valued at forty. It is seven furlongs in length and four in breadth. In the same, twelve free men, and they have one carucate ; it is worth twenty shillings. These men could give away and sell their land in the time of the reign of King Edward. [The Abbot of Saint Edmund has the soc, protection and servitude. Its gelt is seven pence, but others hold there."
This extract is taken from the fac-simile repro- duction of the part of Domesday Book relating to Suffolk (page CLVIII), which was published at the Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton, in the year 1863. The text is in Latin, and the words are much abbreviated. The writing is peculiar and hard to de- cipher. The same entry is found, in printed char- acters, in the second volume of Domesday Book (page 359. b.), published in the year 1783.
Some idea of the condensed character of the record may be gathered from the following copy of the beginning of the description of Groton, in which the matter within the brackets is what the Norman scrivener omitted : "Grotenā. [m] t.[empore] r.[egis]
13
GROTON.
e.[dvardi] ten[uit] S.[anctus] e.[dmundus] p[ro] man.[erio]" etc. A carucate was " a plough land," or a farm that could be kept under tillage with one plough. It is variously estimated at from twelve acres to a hundred.
It is curious to note the different ways which the early settlers had of spelling the name; and the same persons took little or no care to write it uniformly. Among the documents and papers that I have ex- amined in collecting material for a history of the town, I find it spelled in twenty-one different ways. viz : Groton, Grotton, Groten, Grotten, Grotin, Groa- ten, Groatne, Groaton, Groatton, Grooton, Grorton, Grouten, Grouton, Groughton, Growton, Growtin, Groyton, Grauton, Grawten, Grawton and Croaton. From the old spelling of the word, it may be inferred that the pronunciation varied; but at the present time natives of the town and those "to the manner born " pronounce it Graw-ton. This method appears to hold good in England, as the Reverend John W. Wayman, rector of the parent town, writes me, under date of August 13, 1879, "That the local pro- nunciation is decidedly Graw-ton. The name of the parish is described in old records as Grotton, or Growton." I learn from trustworthy correspondents in all the American towns of the name, that the . common pronunciation of the word in each one of them is Graw-ton. With the exception of the town in South Dakota, I have visited all these places, in- cluding the one in England, and my observation con- firms the statement.
The following paragraph is taken from the Gro-
1.4
ROTON.
on Mercury, of June, 1851, a monthly newspaper edited by the late George Henry Brown, postmaster at that time :
".We have noticed amongst the mass of letters received at our Post Office, the word GROTON spelled in the following different ways : Grot- tun, Grawtou, Graton, Grotown, Groutown, Growtown, Growtan, Grow- ten, Growton, Gratan, Grattan, Grewton, Grothan, Graten, Groten, Grouton."
The daily life of the founders of Massachusetts would be to us now full of interest, but unfortunately little is known in regard to it. The early settlers were pious folk, and believed in the literal interpretation of the Scriptures. They worked hard during six days of the week, and kept Sunday with rigid exactness. The clearing of forests and the breaking up of land left little leisure for the use of pen and paper ; and letter-writing, as we understand it, was not generally practiced. They lived at a time when printing was not common and post-offices were unknown. Their lives were one ceaseless struggle for existence ; and there was no time or opportunity to cultivate those graces now considered so essential. Religion was with them a living, ever-present power ; and in that channel went out all those energies which with us find outlet in many different directions. These con- siderations should modify the opinions commonly held in regard to the Puritan fathers.
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