USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Watertown > Historical sketch of Watertown, in Massachusetts, from the first settlement of the town to the close of its second century > Part 1
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
V
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01068 8692
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historicalsketch00fran 0
AN
HISTORICAL SKETCH
OF
WATERTOWN.
IN MASSACHUSETTS,
FROM THE
FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWN
TO
THE CLOSE OF ITS SECOND CENTURY.
BY CONVERS FRANCIS,
CONGREGATIONAL MINISTER OF WATERTOWN.
1
CAMBRIDGE : E. W. METCALF AND COMPANY.
M DCCC XXX.
NOTICE.
SUCH parts of the following narrative, as were suited to the purposes of a public occasion, were contained in an Address, delivered by the writer, on the 17th of September, 1830, in commemoration of the close of the Second Century of the town. The whole is now published in a regular historical form, following the order of time. It is respectfully inscribed to the inhabitants of Watertown, for whose use chiefly it was composed. C. F.
HISTORY OF WATERTOWN.
1204343
WE live at a period of patriotic remembrances. It has become the fashion of the times to gather up memorials of the fathers of New England. A more general interest, than ever before, is felt in tracing their footsteps, and in searching their records. This feeling is one of the manifestations of the pleasure we naturally find in the exercise of that wonderful pow- er of retrospection, which enables us almost to ante- date our lives, to merge the distinctions of time in a sense of fellowship with the past, to overleap the bar- riers of years and centuries, and to add to the short span of our own days the days of those who have gone before us. But besides this, it is our good for- tune, that the ties of association with the memory of our ancestors are, in a remarkable degree, minutely local. Not only is their general history, in its whole extent, so recent, comparatively, that we are able to trace it in clear and distinct lines quite up to its com- mencement, without being lost in the shadowy re- gions of conjecture and fable, but we can identify the men and their doings with the smallest subdivisions of the republic, with our towns and hamlets. Our whole land, in all its youthful strength and vast resour- ces, is a monument to the Pilgrims, who, when they began their cheerless work, would have deemed it the wildest dream of romance, had they been told of the mighty edifice which was to be reared on their labors, and who toiled and suffered with strong patience, and
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with a trust in God that never wavered. But, below these magnificent views, there are other reminiscen- ces, which, if they have no grandeur, are not without interest and value. With the names and the deeds of our fathers we can associate the green fields and the beautiful groves of our villages, the virtues and the enjoyments of an industrious neighbourhood, the schools at which our children seek instruction, and the sanctuaries where we call upon the name of our God. Our recollections become domesticated feelings, and have a lodgement among our most familiar pos- sessions. Our daily walks seem almost overshad- owed by the presence of a past generation; for their footsteps have not long disappeared from the places, which, in the midst of the cares and pleas- ures of common life, we recognise and love as our homes. To cherish and perpetuate some of these village recollections of our fathers, is the purpose of the following narrative.
The character of the Puritans has of late been a favorite topic, both among ourselves and in England. Its peculiarities have been traced with felicitous skill, and its merits portrayed with powerful eloquence, by some of the most gifted writers of our times. The men of this generation stand in a position favorable for doing justice to its claims. We are sufficiently re- mote from the excitement, in which the Puritans lived and acted, to estimate fairly their excellencies and errors, the value of their labors, and the consequences of their principles. It cannot be a matter of wonder, that two centuries ago they should have been the objects of bitter sarcasm and abusive reproach, when we consider that their faults were precisely such, as would naturally be met with the most unsparing hos- tility, and that they themselves in some cases mani- fested but little forbearance in applying epithets of infamy to their adversaries. The nature of the con- test, in which they were so deeply concerned, was adapted to bring out the sharp, stern, uncompromis-
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ing qualities of human character, to confound a zeal for trifles with a zeal for essential principles, and sometimes to engage, the aid of unholy passions in a holy cause. We can hardly be much surprised, there- fore, at the foul asperity with which Parker, Whitgift, Dugdale, and others of that day, spoke or wrote of the Puritans, - the poor and pitiful abuse which they heaped upon men, who were struggling for sacred rights against the strong arm of power. We may not conceal or deny their faults; but, at the same time, we may not forget the provocations they endur- ed. We may not forget the iniquitous proceedings of the High Commission and the Star Chamber, those disgraceful instruments of cruel persecution, which brought their terrors to bear on the crimes of not wearing a white surplice, of not baptizing with a cross, and of refusing to kneel at the sacrament. We
cannot but remember, that the Puritans were goaded, oppressed, and held-in contempt under Elizabeth, who was just as much a Protestant as was necessary to make herself a pope, and no more; that their hopes of protection were grievously disappointed by James, that notable professor of kingcraft, who had said, when in Scotland, -" As for our neighbour kirk of England, their service is an evil said mass in Eng- lish, - they want nothing of the mass but the liftings," - but to whom the possession of the sceptre suddenly taught the bad lessons of intolerance towards all who would not conform to that same kirk; that, under the first Charles, measures were dealt to them, scarcely milder than those of the Inquisition; and that the second Charles paved the way to his restoration with promises to them, which he never meant to keep. These and similar cirumstances rise to our remem- brance, when we are told of their hard and offensive qualities ; and we are disposed to pardon much to the feelings of wronged and injured man. For the want of that amenity, which imparts a fascinating grace to life and manners, there was an ample atonement in
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the good which these men effected by their moral heroism in the cause of God, and of the rights of hu- manity, -by the spirit of self-sacrifice, with which they threw themselves into the pass where the best interests of man were to be defended. It is easy enough to turn into ridicule their harsh and untracta- ble temper, their rigorous adherence to unimportant peculiarities, and their extravagance of religious zeal. But, while these grew out of temporary circumstances, and were shared perhaps in quite an equal degree by the adversaries, from whom the reproach comes, shall we forget that these men sowed that precious seed, from which has sprung the rich harvest of blessings enjoyed by our community? Shall we leave out of the account, that, scorned and flouted as they were by the proud hierarchy of their land, they were still the trusty guardians of that vital principle of freedom, the claims of which have since been so widely felt and respected ? The world owes them much; and the progress of time and events is continually devel- oping more distinctly the amount of the obligation. It is not strange, indeed, that while the prejudices of party strife were fresh and strong, it should have been said of the Puritan, -"As he is more generally in these times taken, I suppose we may call him a church-rebel, one that would exclude order, that his brain might rule." * But the dispassionate judg- ment of England's philosophical historian, at a later day and from a better point of view, has declared the truth of the case in a memorable acknowledg- ment ; " So absolute," says he, " was the authority of the crown, that the precious spark of liberty had been kindled, and was preserved by the Puritans alone ; and it was to this sect, that the English owe the whole freedom of their constitution." +
But the Puritan character is too wide and fruitful a topic for this place. Its essential elements were
* Owen Felltham's Resolves, &c. London, 1677. p. 6.
+ Hume's History, Vol. V. p. 134.
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noble and praiseworthy. It was the form taken by the strong action of mental energies, not always wise- ly guided, but aiming with untired perseverance at exalted objects. At the period when New England was settled, the Puritans had for many years been growing in numbers and strength .* But the hope of religious liberty, from time to time disappointed, was so far crushed, that at length many of them turn- ed their eyes away from home, and fixed them on this western region, then lying a mere wilderness under the shade of deep forests, and trodden by no human foot but that of the savage. The enterprise was, strictly speaking, an ecclesiastical concern, and presents the singularly striking case of a nation receiv- ing its existence distinctly and wholly from religious · causes. + Our fathers loved their native land with fond affection ; they had become attached in no ordi- nary degree to the soil on which they trod ; all the charms of domestic and local associations were there, - their pleasant firesides, and their beautiful fields. They endured and forbore, till endurance and for- bearance were in vain. It must have been by a strong moral effect, that they could resolve, in the cause of what they believed to be religious truth and freedom, to sever the ties that bound them to their homes, and to seek a refuge on these shores. While wind and waves were bearing them onward, doubt- less they looked back with the exile's feeling to their father-land; and had they not loved the rights of conscience and their duty to God better than that
* In the reign of Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh declared in parliament, that the Brownists alone, in their various congregations, were increas- ed to the number of twenty thousand .- Sir Simonds D'Ewes' Journals of the Parliaments during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. London, 1682, p. 517.
+ "It concerneth New England," said the celebrated John Norton, in a tract printed at Cambridge in 1659, "always to remember, that originally they are a plantation religious, not a plantation of trade." - And Increase Mather insists with emphasis, that " it was with regard unto church order and discipline, that our pious ancestors, the good old Puritan Nonconformists, transported themselves and their families over the vast ocean to these goings down of the sun."
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land, the hearts of the stoutest must have sunk
within them. While they were laying here the foundation of a structure, destined to rise in beauty and greatness of which they could form no concep- tion, they struggled with want and sorrow, and died in loneliness, but in strong faith. When we read the simple, pathetic, and almost childlike story, which they tell of themselves and their doings, we cannot but wish that the veil might have been lifted from the future, and that they might have enjoyed a cheering foresight of the abundant good, that in the course of God's providence was to crown their labors. But the memorial of these undaunted Christians was not forgotten before God. The shield of Heaven was extended over the infant colony, till " a little one became a thousand, and a small one a strong nation."
Previously to the time at which this historical sketch is to begin, settlements had been made at Plymouth and Salem. Of these the object I have in view will not require me to take notice. The accounts of them are familiar to us, or may easily be had from well known sources. I shall accordingly pass to the im- mediate purposes of this narrative.
The year 1630 was distinguished by the arrival of Winthrop's fleet, bringing a colony, well qualified by the variety of their occupations, and by their spirit of self-denial and perseverance, to form new settlements in the wilderness. Among these were the men, who first visited the place afterward called Watertown. They were from the West of England; and the ves- sel in which they came (the Mary & John) arrived on the 30th of May, somewhat earlier than the other vessels. Their captain, in defiance of the agreement he had made with them, refused to take them to Charles River, and inhumanly turned them and their goods ashore at Nantasket. The leading men of this company were Roger Ludlow, Edward Rossiter, Esq. Rev. John Maverick, and Rev. John Warham. Hav- ing been left in this unceremonious manner to take
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care of themselves, they procured a boat from the people at Nantasket, and proceeded to Charlestown. There they found a few English people, who had removed from Salem the year before, and several wigwams. They took with them "an old planter who could speak Indian," and directed their course up Charles River, till they found the stream narrow and shallow, and landed their goods. The bank of the river is said to have been steep, and the place is described as being "well-watered." It was doubt- less very near the spot, on which the United States' Arsenal is now situated. As their number was but ten, they might well be not a little alarmed to learn, as they did at night, that three hundred Indians were in their neighbourhood. The planter, whom they had brought from Charlestown, had probably been so well acquainted with the natives, that he knew how to gain their confidence ; for when, on this occasion, he went to them and requested them not to come near the English, they readily complied. The next day a friendly intercourse took place between the two par- ties. Some of the Indians appeared at a distance, and shortly after one of them advanced and held out a bass. The English, probably understanding this as an invitation to a better acquaintance, sent a man with a biscuit, which the Indians took in exchange. After this amusing mode of introduction, there seems to have been perfect amity between them ; and, says one of the company in his interesting narrative, the Indians " supplied us with bass, exchanging a bass for a bisket-cake, and were very friendly unto us." *
* The narrative here referred to was written by Capt. Clap, one of the party, whose adventures he relates. It is entitled " Memoirs of Capt. Roger Clap, relating some of God's remarkable Providences to him in bringing him into New England," &c. This pamphlet, distinguished by a pious simplicity, is the original source of the information we have concerning this first visit to Watertown. From it Prince took his state- ment : See Chron. Hist. of New England, new ed. 1826. p. 277 .- also, Holmes's Annals, second ed. Vol. I. p. 202.
In connexion with the above mentioned traffic for fish with the natives, it may be proper to remark that Bass, which have become so rare in this
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No permanent settlement, however, was made by these men. They remained but a few days, and then removed to Mattapan, afterward called Dorches- ter, " because there was a neck of land fit to keep their cattle on." Hence, that part of Watertown where these first visiters landed took the name of Dorchester Fields, which was its common appellation till a comparatively recent period, and which I have heard some of our oldest inhabitants mention as being in use within their remembrance. It likewise occurs in the earliest town records. Tradition says that these Dorchester settlers were for some time in the habit of resorting to this place, which they had left, to plant corn in the spring and gather it in the autumn ; but it is by no means probable, that they would have been at so much trouble for what might have been had near at hand.
Shortly after their removal, a permanent establish- ment was effected by another company. The colony, who came to Massachusetts Bay, "were not much unlike the family of Noah at their first issuing out of the ark, and had as it were a new world to people, being uncertain where to make their beginning." * - They dispersed themselves in various directions, and laid the foundation of several towns in this vicinity.
region, were found in inexhaustible abundance when our fathers came hither. In a tract entitled " New England's Plantation, or a Short and true Description of the Commodities and Discommodities of that Coun- trey," written by Francis Higginson, one of the first pastors of the church at Salem, and printed in London, 1630, it is said, - " There is a fish call- ed a Basse, a most sweet and wholesome fish as ever I did eat; it is al- together as good as our fresh Sammon, and the season of their comming was begun when we came first to New England in June, and so con- tinued about three months' space. Of this Fish our Fishers take many hundreds together, which I have seen lying on the shore to my admira- tion ; yea, their Nets ordinarily take more than they are able to hale to land, and for want of Boats and Men they are constrained to let a many goe after they have taken them, and yet sometimes they fill two Boats at a time with them." Wood, in his " New England's Prospect," affirms that they were sometimes taken in nets "two or three thousand at a set." p. 39.
* Hubbard's History of New England, p. 134.
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In the course of the summer of 1630, a party of these adventurous emigrants, with Sir Richard Saltonstall and the Rev. George Phillips at their head, selected a place on the banks of Charles River for their planta- tion. On the seventh of September, 1630, the Court of Assistants at Charlestown ordered that " Trimoun- tain be called Boston; Mattapan, Dorchester; and the town upon Charles River, Watertown." * This is considered, I believe, as equivalent to an act of incorporation. Ten days must be added to the date on account of the difference of style ; t and then the second centennial anniversary of the day, on which this order was passed, and from which we date the foundation of the town, will be brought to the seven- teenth of September, 1830. Hubbard, the historian, seems to have been at a loss to account for the name given to this settlement ; "The reason for it," he says, " was not left upon record, nor is it easy to find, - most of the other plantations being well watered, though none of them planted on so large a fresh stream as that was."{ This last mentioned circum- stance probably was the true cause of the selection of the name in question ; and perhaps the discovery of some good springs, which might have been made first at this place, may have had some influence, especially with people who are said to have suffered | at Charlestown by want of fresh water. || There is a traditionary belief, that the name is to be ascribed to the circumstance of the first company, who came hither and landed at Dorchester Fields, having found - a spring of excellent water in the vicinity of the river. But it should be remembered, that the name was not selected till some time afterward, and can hardly be
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* Prince, p. 315.
+ To adjust the differences of style, ten days are to be added to a date occurring in the seventeenth century, and eleven days to one in the eighteenth century.
# Page 135.
|| Johnson's Wonder-Working Providence, Book i. Chap. 17. and Holmes 's Annals, Vol. I. p. 204.
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supposed to have had reference to this circumstance. The Indian name of the town was Pigsgusset. *
The territory thus called Watertown was, like most of the towns at that early period, very large, and its boundaries on the west side for a consider- able time somewhat undefined. Waltham, Wes- ton, and a part of Lincoln, besides what is now called Watertown, were embraced within its original extent. + It appears from the State Records, that the bounds between Watertown and Newtown, now Cambridge, were settled in 1634.1 We have no
means of ascertaining with precision the number of the first inhabitants ; but I find by the town records that in 1636 there were one hundred and eight townsmen. Probably the original number in 1630 . was considerably less than this. ||
One of the first inquiries in a history so largely ecclesiastical, as that of New England, regards the origin and formation of churches. The true date of the Watertown church is a subject of more perplex- ity and difficulty, than one would expect in a fact of this nature. It has engaged the attention and divid- ed the opinions of some of our most accurate and able antiquarians ; and I know not that any thing of importance can be added to their statements and reasoning. The most recent investigation of the subject is by the Hon. James Savage, to whose opin-
* Wood, on the last page of " New England's Prospect," gives this as the Indian name of Watertown. Ogilby in enumerating the towns in Massachusetts, says -" The ninth is called Watertown. anciently Pigs- gusset." America, being an Accurate Description, &c. Book II. Ch. 2. - The same Indian name occurs once, at a very early date, in the town records.
+ A map or plan of Watertown, curious and valuable for its antiquity, was in existence a few years ago, but is now lost. It was sketched in 1640, only ten years after the first settlement of the town, and was ob- tained by the Rev. Mr. Ripley of Waltham from one of the oldest inhab- itants of his parish, to whom it had come through several generations. This map and a copy of it were unfortunately destroyed in the fire in Court Street, Boston, in November, 1825.
# Dr. Kendall's Century Discourse, p. 18.
1| See Appendix, A.
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ion the greatest deference is due, and who makes the First church in Boston and the Watertown church precisely coeval, assigning the origin of both to the thirtieth of July, 1630. In this opinion there is good reason to acquiesce ; but it seems difficult, if not impossible, to divest the subject of all uncer- tainty .*
The first minister of Watertown was the Rev. George Phillips, who continued in that office fourteen years. In connexion with the Rev. Mr. Wilson, he had previously been engaged, since their arrival from England, in preaching in Charlestown and Bos- ton ; " their meeting-place," says Roger Clap, " being abroad under a tree, where I have heard Mr. Wilson and Mr. Phillips preach many a good sermon."} At the first Court of Assistants, held at Charlestown on board the Arbella, it was ordered that as speedily as might be convenient, houses should be erected for the ministers at the public charge. Sir Richard Saltonstall undertook to have this done for Mr. Phillips, and Gov. Winthrop for Mr. Wilson. Mr. Phillips was to have thirty pounds a year, and Mr. Wilson twenty pounds a year till his wife should come. These sums were to be raised, not exclu- sively from the towns to which the ministers belonged, but by a common charge on all the people, except those at Salem and Dorchester.[ They were ex- cepted because they already had ministers of their own, settled with them, for whom they were to provide.
It may readily be supposed that the sufferings and privations of men, who with a noble spirit took the wilderness of a new world for their portion, must
* See Appendix B.
+ Memoirs, p. 22.
# Prince, p. 314. On Nov. 30th of this year (1630), an order was pas- sed at the Court of Assistants to collect £60 for the maintenance of the ministers, and the portions of the several settlements in this payment were as follows: Boston £20, Watertown £20, Charlestown £10, Roxbury £6, Medford £3, Winnesemet £1.
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have been severe. During the winter after their arri- val at Massachusetts Bay, they were greatly distressed by an extreme scarcity of provisions. Shell-fish, ground-nuts, and acorns were the only food, which many could obtain. " One, that came to the Gover- nor's house to complain of his sufferings, was pre- vented, being informed that even there the last batch was in the oven." * Of the climate some of their writers speak very favorably. One of them affirms, that " a sup of New England's aire is better than a whole draft of old England's ale." Among the wild animals, the wolf was a very common annoyance, and against him they were obliged to keep special watch. On one occasion in the night, we are told the report of muskets, discharged at the wolves by some people of Watertown, was carried by the wind as far as Roxbury, and excited so much commotion there, that the inhabitants were by beat of drum called to arms, probably apprehending an attack from the Indians. In the town records, orders are found at different times, " that whosoever shall kill a wolfe in the town shall have for the same five shillings." In some instances, alarm was taken at the report of still more formidable animals in the neighbourhood ; and it is not surprising that imagination sometimes supplied whimsical terrors of this sort.+
The sufferings, to which the infant colony were exposed at the outset, carried discouragement to the hearts of many. The settlement at Watertown soon sustained a heavy loss in the departure of its distin- guished leader, Sir Richard Saltonstall. On the
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