USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Dunstable > History of the town of Dunstable, Massachusetts, from its earliest settlement to the year of Our Lord 1873 > Part 1
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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Amor Kendall
TOWN OF
A HISTORY
OF THE
TOWN OF DUNSTABLE,
MASSACHUSETTS,
FROM ITS
EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1873.
BY THE REV. ELIAS NASON, M. A.,
AUTHOR OF THE "LIFE OF HENRY WILSON, ' THE "LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER," THE "GAZETTEER OF MASSACHUSETTS," AND OTHER WORKS.
" It is wise for us to recur to the history of our ancestors. Those who do not look upon themselves as a link connecting the Past with the Future, do not perform their duty to the world." - DANIEL WEBSTER.
" And shall we not proclaim That blood of honest fame Which no tyranny could tame By its chain ? "
WASHINGTON ALLSTON.
BOSTON: ALFRED MUDGE & SON, PRINTERS, 34 SCHOOL STREET. 1877.
1142861
· PREFACE.
IN writing this history of the town of Dunstable, Mass., I have pre- ferred to arrange it in the form of annals, because the intimate connection between the civil, ecclesiastical, military, and educational affairs seemed to demand that they should be presented in the order of time rather than apart in groupings by themselves. By recurring to the index, any partic- ular name, event, or subject may be readily found. As the space was limited, I have endeavored to avoid, as much as possible, theories, com- ments, and deductions, and to compress as many facts as appeared to be of interest into the number of pages fixed upon for the work. For the same reason the genealogies of the families have been omitted, although I have introduced, as far as practicable, the dates of births, deaths, and marriages, together with other points of importance to those engaged in tracing back the lineage of the sons and daughters of Dunstable.
The materials for this work have been drawn mainly from the town, parish, church, and State records, and the places whence citations have been made in general indicated. In pursuing my investigations I have been most kindly assisted by the Committee of Publication, consisting of Messrs. Benjamin French, Josiah Cummings Proctor, John Adams Park- hurst, and Dexter Butterfield, by Messrs. John Ward Dean and William B. Trask, of Boston, as well as by several others, to all of whom I would here tender my very sincere acknowledgments.
NORTH BILLERICA, MASS., April 21, 1877.
ELIAS NASON.
0 3.
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HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN MASSACHUSETTS. - SURVEYS OF DUNSTABLE. - ORIGI- NAL GRANTS OF THE LAND. - WILLIAM BRENTON'S GRANT. - OTHER GRANTS. - THOMAS BRATTLE'S GRANT. - DIVISION OF THIS GRANT. - PETITION OF THE PROPRIETORS FOR INCORPORATION. - THEIR NAMES. - ACT OF INCORPORATION. - JONATHAN DANFORTH'S SURVEY OF THE TOWN. - EXTENT OF THE TOWN. - CHARACTER OF THE PROPRIETORS. - NAME OF THE TOWN. - DUNSTABLE, ENGLAND.
" In the fathers of New England we behold a body of men who, for the liberty of faith alone, resolutely and deliberately exchanged the delights home and the comforts of civilized life for toil and danger, for an ungenial climate and a rugged soil." GULIAN C. VERPLANCK.
" We have no title-deed to house or lands ; Owners and occupants of earlier date From graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands, And hold in mortmain still their old estates."
H. W. LONGFELLOW.
THE early English settlements, commenced along the shore of Massachusetts Bay,- as that of Plymouth, 1620; of Salem, 1626; of Boston, 1630 ; and of Newbury, 1633,- were gradually extended into the wilderness, then infested with wild beasts, and tribes of wandering savages who justly held themselves to be the rightful owners of the soil.
Sir Henry Rosewell and others obtained, on the 4th of March, 1629, a royal charter of a grant of land in New England in- cluded by a line running three miles south of the Charles River, and another line running three miles north of the Merrimack River, from the Atlantic to the South Sea, or Pacific Ocean. The corporation was entitled " The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England," and under its favor- able auspices the tide of immigration set in rapidly to this unex-
6
IIISTORY OF DUNSTABLE.
[1643
plored and inhospitable region. As many as seventeen ships, bringing about 1,500 passengers, arrived during the year 1630.
In the selection of their farms, it was natural for the settlers to follow the course of the larger streams, since along their margins extended the rich alluvial lands, which, in some instances, the Indians had reduced to tillage, while the waters afforded, not only an abundant supply of fish, but also a ready means of intercommunication between the settlements
Haverhill, then called Pentucket, was settled as early as 1640; the Indian deed - for it was customary to remunerate the natives for their lands - bears the date of Nov. 15, 1642. Groton, Billerica, - then including Tewksbury, - and Chelmsford, including Westford, were all incorporated in 1655. Beyond these towns an unbroken tract of wilderness extended as far as Canada.
Attracted by the fertility of the soil and the heavy growth of timber in the valleys of the Merrimack, Nashua, and Souhe- gan Rivers, enterprising men from Boston, Salem, Woburn, and other towns began, as early as 1660, to obtain grants of tracts of land of three hundred acres and upwards, lying along these rivers, to erect garrison houses of logs, and to clear away the timber, which could be readily floated down the streams and shipped for market.
A survey of the valley of the Merrimack River was made by Captains Simon Willard and Edward Johnson in 1652, and the colony of Massachusetts Bay then claimed all the land three miles north and east of this river, to a large rock in the Win- nepesaukee River, and thence due west as far as New York. The county of Middlesex, organized May 10, 1643, held jurisdic- tion over this vast unsettled region, and within it was embraced all that extensive territory which a few years later became the town of Dunstable.
Four years subsequent to the above-mentioned survey, William Brenton, who afterwards became governor of Rhode Island, obtained a grant of a large tract of land lying on both sides of the Merrimack River, and which at a later day formed almost all of the township of Litchfield. It extended on the west side of the Merrimack River, from a little stream called Naticook Brook, just above Thornton's Ferry, down to about
7
EARLY GRANTS OF LAND.
1671]
a mile south of Pennichuck Brook, and was long known as " Brenton's Farm." No attempts, however, were made to set- tle on this land anterior to 1720. About the year 1660 tracts of land of five hundred acres cach, on the Souhegan River, were granted to Captains William Davis, of Boston, and Isaac Johnson, of Roxbury, the latter of whom was killed in the Nar- ragansett fight, Dec. 19, 1675. The town of Charlestown obtained a grant of one thousand acres, lying at or near Dram Cup Hill, now in Milford, N. H., for a school farm, and in 1662 the town of Billerica secured a grant of five hundred acres for the same purpose. It subsequently obtained a much larger grant.
It was the policy of the General Court to extend the settle- ments. The value set upon the land was very low, and hence extensive tracts of this wild waste were readily secured. Mrs. Anna Cole obtained a grant of five hundred acres ; Mr. Phineas Pratt and others, a grant of three hundred acres, "for straights and hardships endured by them in planting at Plymouth." Other grants were successively made, among which was one of four hundred acres to Gov. John Endecott, six miles north of Pawtucket Falls and one mile west of Beaver Brook; another to Henry Kimball, long known as "Kimball's Farm," and now in the towns of Hudson and Pelham, N. H .; while certain tracts on the southerly side of Salmon Brook were granted to Samuel Scarlett, Capt. Joseph Wheeler, and to his son, Lieut. Joseph Wheeler. Edward Cowell had a grant of two hundred and fifty acres lying on the north of Massapoag Pond, and Capt. Thomas Brattle, a noted citizen of Boston and a public benefactor, had a grant of 1,650 acres, extending north- easterly from Mr. Cowell's land, and embracing what is now the village of Dunstable. It was known for almost a century as " Brattle's Farm," and the settlement made upon it bore the name of " Brattle End." Capt. Brattle bought this land July 14, 1671, of Kanapatune and Patatucke,* Indians, and it is described as being 2,000 acres, "in the wilderness on the west side of the Merramack, between the river and Mashapopog Pond, on the line of Chelmsford." The land was formerly
* He was of Wamesit, and one of the owners of the territory of Groton. He was called by the English, Jacob Patatucke.
8
HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE.
[1673
owned by the Indian Cuttah-huno-a-muck, who may be con- sidered the original proprietor of what is now the town of Dunstable, Mass .* A plan of this famous farm, by Jonathan Danforth, dated Sept. 27, 1672, is still preserved, and by it many questions as to the original owners of the land in that section of the town may be determined. Who the owners of the " Brattle Farm " were about thirty-six years subsequent to the death of Mr. Brattle may be seen from the following inter- esting document : -
" DUNSTABLE, Oct. 25, 1718.
" At a meeting of us whose names are underwritten, being the propri- etors of ye farme that was Mr. Thomas Brattles, and having divided ye greatest part of it amongst us into lots, both ye upland and ye medow, doe all agree that every one of us shall bee allowed all necessary ways across our lands, both open and bridle ways, for the improvement of our lands, and to ye meeting-house as the major part of the propriety shall order and determine, and in case anyone be more damnified than ye xt he shall be recompenced for his damage by ye way exing. Witness our hands. THOMAS CUMINGS, NATHANIEL CUMINGS, JACOB KENDLE, ABRAHAM TAYLOR, JOHN TAYLOR, JAMES JEWELL, THOMAS JEWELL." }
In September, 1673, a grant of 1,000 acres was made to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, of Boston. This land extended westerly from the Merrimack River, along the right bank of Nashua River, as far as Spectacle Brook, and thence northerly about one mile. Upon it stands to-day the most densely settled part of the industrial city of Nashua.
The proprietors of these extensive plantations were for the most part leading men in the colony of Massachusetts Bay ; and having conferred together, they presented to the General Court, in 1673, the following petition, asking to be incorporated as a town, in order that, as such, they might be of greater ser- vice to the country : -
* See Brattle Family, p. 3. Major Thomas Brattle, born about 1624, married Elizabeth, daughter of William Tyng. He was a merchant of Boston, commanded several expeditions against Philip, and died April 5, 1683, in his sixtieth year. He was one of the founders of the Old South Church. His son, Thomas Brattle, H. C., 1676, was one of the founders of Brattle Street Church, and died May 18, 1713.
t In addition to their meadow lands, they had severally the following portions of the " Brattle Farm ": Thomas Cummings, 125 ; Eben'r Taylor, 153 ; Abraham Taylor, 1584 ; James Jewell, 213 ; John Taylor, 188 ; Thomas Jewell, 138; Jacob Kendall, 133; Nathaniel Cummings, 108; Gershom Proctor, 151 ; and Samuel Harwood, 21I acres.
9
PETITION OF THE PROPRIETORS.
1673]
COPY OF THE PETITION OF THE PROPRIETORS OF THE LANDS ALONG THE MERRIMACK, NASHUA, AND SOUHEGAN RIVERS, TO BE INCORPORATED AS A TOWN.
To the Honored Governor, Deputy Governor, with the Magistrates ana Deputies now assembled in the General Court at Boston : -
The petition of the proprietors that are laid out upon the Merrimac River, with others who desire to joyn with them in the settlement of a plantation there.
HUMBLY SHEWETH
That whereas, there is a considerable tract of countrys land that is invironed with the proprieties of particular persons and towns, viz. : by the line of the town of Chelmsford, and by Groton line, and by Mr. Bren- ton's farm, by Souhegan farms, and beyond Merrimac River, by the outer- most line of Henry Kimball's farm, and so to Chelmsford line again - All which is in little capacity of doing the country any service except the farms bordering upon it be adjoined to said land, to make a plantation there ; and there being a considerable number of persons who are of a sober and orderly conversation, who do stand in great need of accommodations, who are willing and ready to make present improvement of the said vacant lands. And the proprietors of the said farms are therefore willing to join with and give encouragement to those that shall improve the said lands : the farms that are in the tract of land before described being about 14,000 acres at the least : -
Your petitioners therefore humbly request the favour of the Honorable Court that they will please to grant the said tract of land to your petition- ers, and to such as will join with them in the settlement of the lands before mentioned, as that those who have improved their farms there, and others who speedily intend to do the same, may be in the way for the support of the public ordinances of God, for without which the greatest part of the year they will be deprived of, the farms lying so far remote from any towns : and farther that the Honorable Court will please grant the like immunities to this plantation, as they in their favours have for- merly granted to other new plantations. So shall your petitioners be ever engaged to pray.
THOMAS BRATTLE.
JONATHAN TYNG.
PETER BULKLEY.
JOSEPH PARKER. JOHN MORSE, Sen.
SAMUEL COMBS.
JAMES PARKER, Jr.
SAMUEL SCARLET.
JOHN PARKER. JOSIAH PARKER.
ABRAHAM PARKER. JAMES KNAPP.
ROBERT PROCTOR.
SIMON WILLARD, Jr.
THOMAS EDWARDS. THOMAS WHEELER, Sen.
JOSEPH WHEELER. JAMES PARKER, Senior. ROBERT GIBBS. JOHN TURNER. SAMPSON SHEAFE.
WILLIAM LAKIN.
NATHANIEL BLOOD.
ROBERT PARRIS.
JOHN JOLIFFE. ZACHARIAH LONG.
IO
HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE.
[1674
This petition, signed by such a large number of respectable men, was granted by the General Court on the sixteenth day of October, O. S. 1673, and the town was thus incorporated .*
The following is a copy, verbatim et literatum, of the Act of Incorporation as it stands in the Records of the Secretary of the State : -
" In ansr to the petition [of] Mr. Thomas Brattle, James Parker, Jonathan Tyng, Willyam Lakin, in behalfe of themselues & others joyn in their humble petition, to desire the favour of this Court to grant them liberty to setle a plantation wth their farme, and a considerable tract of land belong- ing to the country being environed wth the proprietyes of particular persons & tounes, as by the lyne of Chelmsford, and by Groaten lyne, and by Mr Brentons farme, by Souhegon farmes, and beyond Merrimack River by the outermost lyne of Henry Kemballs farme, & so to Chelmsford lyne againe, as also such imunties to the plantation as this Court have formerly granted to other new plantations, the Court judgeth it meete to grant their requests, prouided that a farme of five hundred acres of vpland & meadow be layd out of this tract for the countrys vse and that they proceed in set- tling the plantation as to finish it once within three yeares & procure and mainteyne an able & orthodoxe minister amongst them.
"EDWARD RAWSON, Secretary."
Capt. Jonathan Danforth, of Billerica, a noted land surveyor, who died in 1712, and of whom it was said, -
" He rode the circuit, chained great towns and farms ; To good behaviour ; and by well-marked stations, He fixed their bounds for many generations,"
was appointed to perambulate and make a plan of the new territory. He completed the survey in May, 1674, and thus described the boundaries : -
" It lieth upon both sides of the Merrimack River on the Nashaway River. It is bounded on the south by Chelmsford, by Groton line, partly by country land. The westerly line runs due north until you come to Souhegan River to a hill called Dram Cup Hill, to a great pine near to ye said river at ye north-west corner of Charlestown school farm ; bounded
* George W. Chase, in his Remarks on the Census of Massachusetts, 1860, assigns " Oct. 15, 1673," as the date of the Act of Incorporation, and this was in accordance with other writers. The Hon. Samuel T. Worcester gave, in 1873, the 16th of October as the true date. On looking at the original records at the State House, I find that the session of the General Court, during which the Act was passed, began Oct. 15, 1673, and continued several weeks, but the Act of Incor- poration was passed the second day of the session.
II
SURVEY OF CAPT. DANFORTH.
1674]
by Souhegan River on the north, and on the east side Merrimack it begins at a great stone which was supposed to be near the north-east corner of Mr. Brenton's land, and from thence it runs south-south-east six miles to a pine tree marked 'F,' standing within sight of Beaver Brook ; thence it runs two degrees west of south four miles and a quarter which reached to the south side of Henry Kimble's farm at Jeremie's Hill; thence from ye south-east angell of said farm, it runs two degrees and a quarter westward of the south, near to the head of Long Pond, which lieth at ye head of Edward Colburn's farm, and thus it is bounded by ye said pond and ye head of said Colburn's farm ; taking in Capt. Scarlett's farm so as to close again, all which is sufficiently bounded and described.
" DUNSTABLE, 3d Mo. [May] 1674."
This tract of land, equal in extent to many a dukedom in Europe, embraced about two hundred square miles, or 128,000 acres, and included what are now the towns of Dunstable and Tyngsborough, and parts of the towns of Dracut, Groton, Pep- perell, and Townsend, Mass., together with the city of Nashua, the towns of Hollis, Hudson, and sections of the towns of Brookline, Milford, Amherst, Merrimack, Londonderry, Litch- field, and Pelham, N. H.
The western line extended from some unknown point in what is now Townsend,* about ten miles due north by Musca- tanapus, or Bear Pond, near Brookline Centre, to Dram Cup Hill, now in Milford, on Souhegan River. The northern boun- dary extended along this river to the Merrimack River, and thence to a high rock now to be seen in Londonderry, in all, about sixteen miles ; the eastern line, starting from this rock, ran by Beaver Brook; and Long Pond, near Mr. Edward Colburn's farm, to a point a little below Wicasuck Island, and the southern line ran due west, including the whole of Massa- poag Pond, to some point now undetermined in the "country's land."
By the Act of Incorporation all the lands of the town, granted or ungranted, became the property of the grantees, who, some twelve years subsequently, purchased the title thereto of the Wamesit and Naticook Indians for the sum of £20 sterling.
* Incorporated June 29, 1732.
t This stream flows through Dracut, and enters the Merrimack River in the city of Lowell. Long Pond, partly in Dracut and partly in Pelham, N. H., was called by the Indians Pimmomittiquonnit ; it sends a tributary into Beaver Brook.
12
HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE.
[1674
In no town of this Commonwealth were the lands taken up by more noted men, who, though they did not all become actual settlers, still exercised a most favorable influence on the new plantation. Among the grantees were the brave Gov. John Endecott (1588-1665), who held the highest military office in the colony ; William Brenton, a noted fur-trader, and subsequently governor of Rhode Island ; Gov. Joseph Dudley, (1647-1701), once a member of the British Parliament; Capt. Thomas Brattle, a brave and benevolent citizen of Boston ; and the Rev. Thomas Weld, first minister of Dunstable. Among the petitioners were Peter Bulkley,* Speaker of the House of Deputies ; Sampson Sheafe, a member of the Provincial Council of New Hampshire ; and Jonathan Tyng, who was honored with many important offices, and of great service to the infant colony.
The new town is said to have received its name in compli- ment to Mrs. Mary, wife of the Hon. Edward Tyng, who emi- grated from Dunstable, England, about 1630, and whose son Jonathan became possessor of a large tract of land in what is now the town of Tyngsborough. The old English town from which, not only the Tyng family, but other early settlers came, is pleasantly situated at the base of the Chiltern Hills in Bed- fordshire, eighteen miles south-southwest of Bedford and ten miles east-northeast of the Boxmore Station of the London and Northwestern Railway. It had, in 1851, 3,589 inhabitants, and with its green fields and neatly trimmed hedge-rows, its ancient stone church and brick dwelling-houses, makes a very picturesque appearance. Henry I founded here a priory of black canons, which now forms a part of the ancient church. At the Red Lion Inn, Charles I slept on his way to Naseby. The name " Dunstable " is supposed to be derived from Dun, a notorious robber who lived here in the reign of Henry I ; but it comes more probably from "dun," a hilly place, and " staple," a mart or emporium. This town is celebrated for the manufacture of straw plat bonnets and hats, also for the
* " Mr. Bulkley was Speaker of the House of Deputies,- son, I suppose, of the celebrated minister of Concord of the same name." - Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, I, p. 281.
I3
DUNSTABLE, ENGLAND.
1674]
number and size of the larks it sends to London market. A certain kind of straw braid in Massachusetts long bore the name of " Dunstable."
The ancient Norman kings had a palace in this town, and here Edward I erected a cross to mark the spot where the body of his deceased queen rested on its way to sepulture in Westminster Abbey. The town is also noted as the place where Archbishop Cranmer, in 1553, pronounced the sentence of divorce between Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragon. As the parish register in early times was not well kept, it fur- nishes nothing in respect to the families which emigrated to America, yet the present citizens of old English Dunstable express a kindly interest in the welfare of its namesake in New England.
14.
HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE.
[1665
CHAPTER II.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ORIGINAL TOWN. - JOHN CROMWELL THE FIRST SET- TLER. - AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE INHABITANTS. - NAMES OF EARLY RESIDENTS. - AN ACCOUNT OF THE INDIANS OF THIS REGION. - THEIR MODE OF LIVING. - PASSACONAWAY. - JOHN ELIOT. - WANNALANCET. . -HIS CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY AND FRIENDSHIP. - PHILIP'S WAR. - EXPOSED SITUATION OF DUNSTABLE. - OBADIAH PERRY. - JONATHAN TYNG'S BRAVERY. - HIS PETITION TO THE GENERAL COURT. - PRAY- ING INDIANS REMOVED TO WICASUCK FALLS.
" Beneath the same sun that rolls over your heads, the Indian hunter pursued the panting deer ; gazing on the same moon that smiles for you, the Indian lover wooed his dusky mate." CHARLES SPRAGUE.
" Each town was a small but perfect republic, as solitary and secluded in the New England wilderness as the Swiss cantons among the Alps." GEORGE W. CURTIS.
"Ye sons, think deep ; be strong in heart and hand ; Remember God, who with his silver key Unlocked the western gates, and gave this land To Freedom's sons, and all whom truth makes free." FRANCES M. CAULKINS.
THIS whole region was then, with the exception of an occa- sional clearing in which the Indians had planted maize, beans, and squashes, covered with a heavy growth of pine, oak, wal- nut, maple, birch, and other kinds of timber. It was well watered by the noble Merrimack, the Nashua, the Souhegan, and the Nissitisset Rivers, together with their numerous trib- utaries and several beautiful ponds, whose waters were fre- quented by the wild fowl and well stored with fish. The beaver built its dam by felling trees across the minor streams ; the otter, mink, and muskrat were often seen gliding over the still waters ; bears, wolves, and catamounts ranged through the tangled forests, and their peltries well repaid the huntsman
15
JOHN CROMWELL.
1665]
for his venturesome excursions. Here and there an Indian trail appeared, for the most part leading to some waterfall where the red men met in the fishing season, and where they generally built their wigwams and performed their savage rites. Here and there a trading-post, as that of Cromwell, had been established, and the woodman's axe or gun occasion- ally resounded through the wilderness.
The name of the first white settler of this broad domain is not certainly known ; there is a tradition, however, that one John Cromwell from Boston came to what is now Tyngs- borough as early as 1665, for the purpose of trading with the Indians. He used his foot, it is said, as a pound weight in buying peltries of the natives ; but on being detected in this iniquitous proceeding, came near to pay the penalty with his life. A party of the Pennacook Indians whom he had thus defrauded came down the river to wreak on him their ven- geance ; but on being advertised of their approach, he gath- ered up his ill-gotten treasure and saved himself by flight. The cellar of his house, which the Indians burned, is still visible, and not many years since a sum of money is said to have been found in a rusty iron pot by some one who was ploughing a field in the vicinity. The Rev. Nathaniel Pren- tice, in his account of Tyngsborough, October, 1815, thus refers to him : - *
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