USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Freetown > History of the town of Freetown, Massachusetts : with an account of the Old Home Festival, July 30th, 1902 > Part 1
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01100 0343
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/historyoftownoff00unse
A HISTORY
-- - OF THE
Town of Freetown,
Massachusetts.
with an account of
The Old Home Festival,
July 30th, 1902.
FALL RIVER, MASS. : PRESS OF J. H. FRANKLIN & COMPANY, 78 BEDFORD STREET. 1902.
ET us now praise famous men, And our fathers that begat us. The Lord bath wrought great glory by them, Through bis great power from the beginning. There be of them that have left a name behind them, That their praises might be reported.
And some there be which have no memorial, Who are perished as though they had never been, And are become as though they had never been born, And their children after them; But these were merciful men, Whose righteousness bath not been forgotten.
Ecclesiasticus, xliv. 1, 2, 8-10.
1142910 YE FREEMEN'S PURCHASE. 1659-1683.
BY PALO ALTO PIERCE.
T HE purchase of the four mile tract known as " Ye Freemen's Purchase" was transacted in 1659. The land was transferred by deed from Wamsitti and his squaw Tattapanum to twenty -six persons known hereafter as "original purchasers" in con- sideration of "twenty coats, two rugs, two iron pots, two kettles and one little kettle, SOUTH MAIN STREET. eight pair of shoes, six pair of stockings, one dozen of hoes, one dozen of hatchets, two yards of broadcloth, and a debt satisfied to John Barnes, due from Wamsitti to the said Barnes," which in in all probability was for fire water. These proprietors were a colonial body and all transactions till 1683, when the town was incorporated, were chronicled in what is known as " The Proprietors' Records," which unfortunately cannot be found.
In 1747 a portion of Tiverton was annexed, and in 1803 Fall River was set off.
A brief history of the original purchasers is as fol- lows (Authority - Davis' Landmarks of Plymouth) :
Of Timothy Foster, the owner of the first lot, very little can be learned. Ralph Earl, however, was an early
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settler upon this lot, and he was a son of William Earl of Portsmouth, R. I. A sister of Ralph became the wife of John Borden, who owned the northerly half of this lot as early as 1710.
Humphrey Turner, owner of the second lot, (now in- cluded in the City of Fall River), was of Scituate, where he was constable from 1636 to 1639. He was a representative to Colonial Court from 1640 to 1650. His son Joseph was the next owner. He sold in 1671 to Israel Hubbard who in turn sold to Capt. Benjamin Church, who settled thereon in 1700.
Christopher Wadsworth, owner of the third lot, to whom early records refer as "Xtofer Wadsworth," settled first in Duxbury. He was constable of that town in 1633, a selectman in 1666, serving six years, and a representative to Colonial Court in 1640, serving four years. He died in 1677.
Edmund Chandler, owner of the fourth lot, where the City Farm of Fall River now is, retained it through life. His son Joseph was the next owner. He sold in July 1673 to Henry Brightman of Portsmouth, R. I. Edmund Chandler was constable of Duxbury in 1637 and representative to Col- onial Court in 1639. Matthew Boomer was the first settler on this lot in 1675. He is referred to by colonial record as "residing in the Government without order, not attending Public Worship of God, living lonely and in a heathenish manner."
Samuel House, owner of the fifth lot, was a resident of Scituate, dying there in 1661. His sons, Samuel and Joseph, sold, March 20, 1678, to Henry Brightman and Thomas Cornell of Portsmouth, R. I. The next year Cornell sold his half to George Lawton, Jr., of Portsmouth. Brightman and Lawton were the first settlers.
Henry Howland of Duxbury, owner of the sixth lot, did not occupy, but his sons, John and Samuel, became actual settlers. John died in 1687. Samuel died in 1716. Henry, the original purchaser, died in 1670.
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George Watson, owner of the seventh lot, retained the same through life, it descending to children and grandchild- ren, as his grandson John Watson sold his right, July 20, 1706, to Henry Brightman.
Ralph Partridge of Duxbury, owner of the eighth lot, died before the deed was given, and at the division in 1660 his heirs received the lot which his grandsons Ralph and Peter Thatcher on Oct. 29, 1694, conveyed to John Reed, who became an actual settler and lived thereon till his death, Jan. 3, 1723. Ralph Partridge emigrated to America in 1636, and died in 1655.
Timothy Hatherty of Scituate, owner of the ninth lot, sold his right to Capt. James Cudworth, who in 1681 sold out to Simon Lynde of Boston from whom it descended to his son Samuel Lynde, also of Boston, who gave it to his grandchildren, Thomas and Elizabeth Valentine. Timothy Hatherty was Governor's Assistant for many years, and Colonial Treasurer from 1640 to 1642.
Love Brewster, owner of the tenth lot, was born in England, came to America in 1626, and settled in Dux- bury, where he died. This lot passed to his son Wrestling Brewster, who sold the southerly half to John Boyers, who in turn sold it to Edward Thurston, Sr. of Portsmouth, R. I., Oct. 3, 1702. His son Thomas settled thereon. Thomas died March 22,1730.
Richard Morse of Duxbury, was owner of the eleventh lot, but very little can be learned of him. He appears as owner of a certain tract of land in Duxbury called "Eagles Nest." Thomas Gage was the first settler upon this lot.
Walter Hatch of Scituate, owner of the twelfth lot, was the son of William Hatch, ruling elder of the Second Church of Scituate. His son Joseph was the next owner, who on June 8, 1705 sold the same to Jonathan Dodson, a settler.
Thomas Southworth, of Plymouth, owner of the thirteenth lot, came to America in 1628. He was a brother of Constant Southworth. Thomas was a lieutenant of militia, commissioned March 7, 1648, and promoted to
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the rank of captain in August, 1659. He was representa- tive from Plymouth three years to the Colonial Court and Governor's Assistant fifteen years. He died Dec. 11, 1669.
William Paybodie, owner of the fourteenth lot, ex- changed the same for land elsewhere. This lot was soon after owned by Capt. Benjamin Church. William Pay- bodie was Town Clerk of Duxbury from 1666 to 1684. He was representative to the Colonial Court twenty-three years. He was born Nov. 24, 1619, and died in 1707.
OLD BARNABY HOMESTEAD.
Josiah Winslow, Sr., owner of the fifteenth lot, was the youngest son of Gov. Edward Winslow. Josiah emigrated to America in 1629, settled at Marshfield, was Town Clerk of Marshfield in 1646, and so remained till his death in 1674. He was born in 1605. He sold this lot April 8, 1661, to William Makepeace of Boston, who occupied it till his death. William Makepeace was drowned August, 1681. It was upon this lot and a portion of the sixteenth lot that the reservation to Tabatacusen was made.
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John Waterman, owner of the sixteenth lot, was a son of Robert Waterman and his wife Elizabeth, who was a daughter of Thomas Bourne. This lot was next owned by Lieutenant Job Winslow of Swansea, a son of Kenelm. He became a settler. He died July 14, 1720.
Samuel Jackson of Plymouth, (afterward Scituate), owner of the seventeenth lot, sold his right to William Randall, who sold to Nicholas Cotterell of Newport, R. I., and in 1683 and 1690 the most of this lot became the prop- erty of Lieutenant Thomas Terry, whose sons settled thereon.
Nathaniel Morton, owner of the eighteenth lot, sold in March, 1671, to John Hathaway, Sr., of Taunton (now Berkley), whose son, John Jr., settled thereon. Nathaniel Morton was the son of George, who came to Plymouth in 1623. Nathaniel was Colonial Secretary from 1647 to 1685.
Constant Southworth, owner of the nineteenth lot, came to America with his mother, then a widow, in 1628. He settled in Duxbury and represented that town in the Colonial Court for twenty-two years. He was Colonial Treasurer from 1659 to 1679, Governor's Assistant for sev- eral years, and Commissary General in King Philip's war. He died March 10, 1679. The lot passed to his children who sold in 1682 to John Bailey and Ralph Payne, both of whom settled thereon, and the inlet of Assonet Bay, known as Payne's Cove, derives its name from the latter.
Thomas Bourne of Marshfield, owner of the twentieth lot, represented his town in the Colonial Court in 1640-41 and 1644. He died May 11, 1664, aged 85 years. The lot next was owned by his son John, who gave it March 4, 1687, to his daughter Anna, wife of John Bailey, and Martha, wife of Valentine Decro.
Samuel Nash was owner of the twenty-first lot, it being that on which the southerly portion of Assonet* is situated. He was a lieutenant, and led a force against
*Assonet is an Indian name signifying a song of praise according to the Rev. Orin Fowler in an Historical Sketch of Fall River written in 1841.
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the Indians in August, 1645. He was Colonial Marshal for many years.
John Barnes of Plymouth was owner of the twenty- second lot, which included much of the land on which Assonet Village has been built. The south line of this lot corresponded with the south line of the burying ground opposite the Christian Church. The north line was prob- ably near the north line of land owned by the Pickens estate and Mrs. W. H. Hathaway, a little south of Elm street. From west to east it extended from the bay four miles into the woods. In August, 1666, John Barnes sold this lot to Hugh Cole of Swansea, and in 1685 it passed into the hands of Benjamin Chase, who was the first to settle on it. It is of interest to know that by the deed of 1685 all the meadows along the river below the path are excepted from sale, showing that there was a path along the river corresponding to what is now Water Street, though not on the same lines, ever since the settlement of the town. This is the John Barnes to whom Wamsitti became indebted for sundry articles taken up at his shop, and the transaction is mentioned in the deed of "Ye Free- men's Purchase."
John Tisdale of Marshfield, (afterward of Taunton), was owner of the twenty-third lot. It is upon this lot that a portion of Assonet Village is located. He was a selectman of Taunton in 1672, and served till his death in June, 1675. He was a Representative to the Colonial Court in 1674. He was killed by the Indians, his dwelling burned, and his gun carried away by them, to be recov- ered at Rehoboth, Aug. 1, 1675. His son Joshua settled upon this lot and died thereon about 1714. The high rock east of Assonet station was upon this lot and hence has been known as Joshua's Mountain. The north half of this lot was at one time owned by George Winslow, through his wife Elizabeth, who was the daughter of Joshua Tis- dale. He deeded the same May 12, 1741, to Barnabas Tisdale. (See Register 31-60).
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Kenelm Winslow, owner of the twenty- fourth lot, was a brother of Gov. Edward Winslow and came to America in 1629. He was a son of Edward Winslow and wife Magdaline Ollyver of Droitwich, England, and was born April 29, 1599. He removed to Marshfield about 1641, thence to Freetown about 1659. He died at Salem Sept. 13, 1672, aged 73 years. This lot was set- OLD MAN OF JOSHUA'S MOUNTAIN, ASSONET, MASS tled by Nathaniel, son of Kenelm, and Josiah, a grandson. Nathaniel did not long remain, but Josiah continued to reside thereon till his death, April 3, 1761. He was born Nov. 7. 1669.
James Cudworth, owner of the twenty-fifth lot, was born about 1612. He was a son of Rev. Ralph Cudworth, and brother of Rev. Ralph Cudworth, D. D., author of "The Intellectual System of the Universe." He came to Plymouth in 1634, but removed to Scituate, where he held office, both civil and military. He was Governor's Assist- ant for several years, and in 1681 was Deputy Governor of Plymouth Colony. He was at one time Commander- in-Chief of the combined forces of Massachusetts and Plymouth Colonies. He was sent to England to transact business for Plymouth Colony, and while there died of small pox, aged 70 years. His grandson James settled upon his purchase. He was born April 3, 1665, and died about 1729.
John Damon of Scituate was owner of the twenty- sixth lot. He represented his town in the Colonial Court in 1675 and 1676. He died June, 1677. This lot passed
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to his heirs, who in 1713 and 1714 sold to Timothy Lindall of Boston, who caused it to be settled upon. It remained in the Lindall family till the War of the Revolution.
In 1683 Freetown ceased to be proprietary and became a town corporate. The earliest record occurs in 1685, the two missing years probably being entered in the old Pro- prietors' Records, which are lost.
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ยท
FREETOWN, MASS. 1683-1780.
BY GILBERT M. NICHOLS.
D OT much of community affairs or of dealings between town and town would appear in the early history of New England settlements, and the story of the first hundred years must tell of the people and their privations, and of the individual battle for existence. With the wild beast and unsleeping savage prowling about their dwellings or waylaying them in the daily path of duty, even in the fields where they compelled the resisting soil to yield up to them its scanty store, the pioneers of our independence and pride early learned the price of lite itself. Little of historic importance seemed to be happening among these bleak and barren hills where the settlers were grimly struggling for a foothold ; yet through faith that kept them brave, and strife that made them strong, by unremitting vigilance and toil and well-earned victories, they were laying deep the foundations of New England character, whereon their posterity might safely build the beautiful and the enduring in that " self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control," which alone could lead them to the " sovereign power " that was their destiny.
The ambition of our forefathers was not the winning of great possessions nor the nice observance of proprieties. Their problem was how and where best with axe and gun to subjugate a wilderness, make a home and rear the
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family of ten or a dozen children, sound in wind and limb, resourceful, resolute and strong to stand alone. The conditions of those times would not tolerate a leisure class nor admit of eight-hour agitations. The labor days were long and the holidays were few, when every household had to supply its own requirements. Neighbors would unite their strength to raise the frame of barn or dwelling, which was built near some perennial spring not too far from the "trail," and out of native timber the furnishings were hewn, plain, substantial, like themselves, made for use and warranted to last for generations. In winter the men were employed in cutting away the woods and clearing the land for planting, or they were threshing out the wheat and rye with flails on frosty mornings. Huge stacks of wood were thrown up near the house to feed the . great open fire that was kept blazing on the ample hearth, whereto every morning the green oak back-log was rolled, and the shining andirons set before. When not too blustering and cold, they used to haul loose-lying boulders from field or woodland, and enclose the clearings with those same walls which, now in ruins, are become the boundary lines of pathless woods once more, or only serve to mark the industry of the settlers in those days when sheep and cattle roamed at large through all the woods, and their divers " (y)earmarks " became matter of record more voluminous than all else, excepting only the data of town meetings. In late autumn and early spring, the neighbor- ing teams of oxen were yoked to the long-beamed, iron- shod wooden plow, and the land that had been cleared of timber and underbrush by axe and fire and made fertile by the ashes, was broken up and roughly prepared for potatoes or corn, which was soon to be seen zigzagging among the blackened stumps, yet thriving as if in a garden, quite free from weeds and insect enemies. Much of the winter forage for stock was gathered from natural meadows and marsh lands, and here in summer time the swishing scythes were glancing in the early morning, and
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the " whinney-whet " of the mower's rifle mingled pleas- antly with the plover's mellow note, while even the lonely bittern listened unalarmed.
What the women did in those days was of no less importance, and as each family kept sheep upon the hill- side, so each housewife spun the yarn, wove the cloth and fashioned garments for her household. Some sunny day in spring, after the May storm had blown over, the sheep were washed and sheared, and the wool picked apart-this last task very often given to the small boys and girls. The next procedure was carding the wool into rolls, and for this two hand cards were employed. With the wool placed on one of them, the Colonial dame carded it with the other till it was entirely transferred from the first to the second. This process was repeated as many times as in her judgment was necessary, when she made the wool into rolls about a foot long. and then it was ready for the spinning wheel. A pretty picture was that of the Puritan maiden
"Seated beside her wheel, and the carded wool Ilke a snow-drift, Piled at her knee, her white hands feeding the ravenous spindle, While with her foot on the treadle she guided the wheel in its motion."
But we are told by one who remembers her grand- mother's method that she always stood, and walked back and forth at her spinning. As she walked away from her wheel the thread spun out and was twisted; as she returned, the yarn was wound on the spindle, and so she continued walking backward and forward till the spinning was done. The hand loom was next brought into use, and the yarn was woven into cloth. If intended for blankets or underwear, the wool was left its natural color ; but if designed for outer garments for clothing the family, then it was dyed a beautiful or desirable hue with the bark of various trees, the leaves of the peach or mosses gathered from the rocks. Peach leaves made a pleasing shade of yellow, while the stain derived from moss was a bright brown.
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Early in the eighteenth century the town, recognizing its community interests, hired a minister of the gospel, and also opened a school for the children, albeit their free- born spirits ill might brook the formalities and limitations which church usage of the times would force upon them. But before church or school had been established, even from the time of the town's incorporation, the citizens had assembled at convenient places for the choice of such officers as should serve them, and for sober consideration of questions of common interest. They had gathered about the great heirloom of their Anglo-Saxon ancestry, worth more to them than school or ritual, and in recogni- tion of the rights of the people, in veneration of order and law, they had held their town meetings. In most communi- ties the meeting-house of the church was made the moot- house of the town, but it was the " middle schoolhouse " (near the bleachery of to-day) that sheltered the legal voters of Freetown through the stormy town-meeting- times of old. There, where they had learned to read, they were called upon to reason, and there these "children of a larger growth " were " warned " again to gather where they might give and take post-graduate courses in matters pertaining to the public weal, and learn decision, assertion, and withal, submission to the will of a majority-until the next spring meeting. Every question of common interest was submitted to this most absolute of bodies, and thoroughly discussed, with many adjournments it may be, until sooner or later, for better or for worse, it was settled by the will of the majority. Every record in the old books might tell its story of a battlefield of wit and tongue, where, as likely as not (and is not human nature still the same?), the victors in the contest over election of selectmen celebrated their victory by making the defeated candidate their hog-reeve, and he had to serve.
But the citizens of Freetown early learned to look outside the limits of their own little community, and we find them in 1690 giving serious consideration to the well-
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being of the colonies as a whole. No doubt they were much indebted to the Great and General Court for the suggestion, but we find them raising the banner of patriotism and joining in the sentiment of the English right to rule, during the campaign against the Canadian French in that year.
Not many men were required of them at first, nor any great amount of munitions of war, but there appears among other charges against the town in that year: To
HOME OF COL. THOMAS GILBERT.
one pair pumps for Tarbo Cary, 3 shillings 6 pence; to clock for Tarbo Cary's snapsack, 5 shillings; to cash paid for Thomas Traintor's musket, 1 pound 6 shillings, and another charge of " 2 shillings for mending the country's gunn," which one of the two recruits was to carry through the privations and dangers of King William's war. From this time on, as occasion required, Freetown failed not to furnish her quota of soldiers and supplies.
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Through the French and Indian War the honor of this section was well sustained by Thomas Gilbert. In 1745, as captain of a company, presumably from his own neigh- borhood, he shared in the glory of the Louisburg cam- paign, where the small force under Sir William Pepperell besieged and captured the notorious fortress which had sheltered the enemies of our fishing industry in northern waters for so many years.
In 1755 the same soldier, serving as lieutenant- colonel, is known to have been with the victorious forces at Crown Point, and later, in the battle of Lake George, when his senior officer was killed, he took command of the regiment. Gilbert afterward became prominent as the leader of the Loyalists in southern New England.
The war cloud of the Revolution was now gathering on the horizon, and the far-sighted of the colonists were preparing for the storm, a history of which comes down to us largely by old tradition and grandmother's tales of "Whig and Tory times." From all sources it appears that the people were wide-awake to the great subject of government, though bitterly divided on the question at. issue. In that part of our town annexed to us from Tiverton in 1747, and still known as New Freetown, a company of minutemen were training, under Captain Levi Rounseville, and making ready for the call that would soon be sounded in the "Lexington Alarm." Southward the dozen households located along the plung- ing Quequechan were watchful and brave, liberty men all, who, later in the conflict, proved themselves competent to defend their own against the marines of England. But while the southern and eastern portions of the town were preparing to contest the rule of the mother country, the village of Assonet, under the master spirit of old Colonel Gilbert, held loyal to the crown, as appears from the adop- tion of the following resolutions relative to the destruction of tea in Boston harbor :
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PROVINCE OF YE MASSACHUSETTS BAY,
January, 1774.
BRISTOL, SS.
At a Legal Town meeting at Freetown, in sd. County, on Monday, ye 1?th day of Instant, A. D., 1724, on purpose to know ye minds of sd. inhabitants of sd. Town Respecting a Body of People Assembling together at Boston on ye Sixteenth Day of December last past, and then Destroying 342 Chests of Tea, Capt. George Chase, Moderator of sd. Meeting, after sum Debates and Duely Considering ye bad Consequences which probably may arise from ye proceeding of sd. Body, the Question was put wether ye Town would act on ye affare, and it passed in ye Affirmative. then ye Town made Choice of Thomas Gilbert, Abiel Terry, James Winslow, Esqrs., Capt. Jael Hathaway and Doc'r Bullock a Committee to Draw up sum Votes and Resolves Respecting ye Destroying sd. Tea, and lay ye same before this meeting on Wednesday, ye 26th Day of this month, at Eleven of ye Clock in ye forenoon, then ye meeting was Ajornd, and ye Committee Resold ye following Resolves, viz:
1st-That it is ye Duty of this Town at this time to Express our Sentiments in Matters which so nearly Concern us more spedely, as there seams to be Reason to fear there is a Spirit of Anarchy, Disorder and Confusion prevailing in sum parts of this Province.
2nd-Resolrd, That ye Body of People at Boston on ye 1 6th Day of December last, taking upon themselves the Stile and Appelation of a Body of People who did not Indeavor to prevent a number of people (in Indian Dress or Disguise) from acting there Savage Nature in ye Destruction of ye Tea aforesd, as we Apprehend, was not doeing there Duety, but was Contrary to Law, and we fear will bring upon us the Vengeance of an Affronted Majesty, and also plunge us in Debt and Misery when ye Injured owners of sd. Tea shall make there Demand for ye Vallue of ye Same.
3rd-Resolvd, That this Town do hereby Declare that we Abhor, Detest and for Ever bare our Testimony against the proceedings of ye Body and Indians aforesd, or any others who
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