USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Mattapoisett > Mattapoisett and Old Rochester, Massachusetts : being a history of these towns and also in part of Marion and a portion of Wareham. > Part 1
USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Rochester > Mattapoisett and Old Rochester, Massachusetts : being a history of these towns and also in part of Marion and a portion of Wareham. > Part 1
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MATTAPOISETT
AND
UD ROCHESTER
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M. L ..
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
(Plymouth Co.
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00082 9611
second
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جه
MIDDLEBORO
LAKEVILLE
TREMONT
ROCHESTER shippatuit Band
PIERCEVILLE
27
WARREHAM
SHOWS stand
WAREPAM
Leonard's Rand
Black mores/ @VILLAGE
Vaughn's Hill
Mary's
6 Town Mills and Ist HerringWeir
7 Old Town Road
8 Parlowtown Road
9 Old Sippican Road
10 Matta poisett Village "I Cannonville 12 Pine Islands 13 Hammondlown 14 Tinkhamtown and Tripp Mills 15 RandalHown
16 Neds Point Light 17 TOwsers Neck
18 Eel Pond 19 Cordwood Point 20 Strawberry Point 21 Indian Woods 22 Aucoat 23 Wolf Island
24 Wheel of Fortune 25 Quittacus Fonds 26 Doggetts Brook 27 Horse Neck
28 Sippican 290/d Landing
30 Charles Neck
31 Weweantit River 32 Sippican River
33 Happy Alley
34 Little Neck 35 Cromesett Point. 36Wareham Harbor
ACUSHNET
ple
CENTRE
J2
2
26
35
MARIO
Great
Hille
PIYER
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1
MATIA POISETT
Neck
MARION-
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~IslandLight,
16
passe's Point
19
Amassawarrock Weck
HARBOR
RamIsland
BUZZARDS BAY
F.M. Metcalf-C.E New Bedfordness
MAP OF OLDROCHESTER TERRITORY
I ministers Rock 2 /$+Church and Town House
7
3 200 Church
4 3.0 Church 5 4*Church
3
ROCHESTER
est
1
FAIRHAVEN
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22
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HARBOR
MATTAPOISETT
Angelica Point
NO POCHESTER
: FREETOWN,
MATTAPOISETT AND OLD ROCHESTER MASSACHUSETTS
BEING A HISTORY OF THESE TOWNS AND ALSO IN PART OF MARION AND A PORTION OF WAREHAM
PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF A COMMITTEE OF THE TOWN OF MATTAPOISETT
E
NCORPORATED 1857
7
PLYN
SECOND EDITION
WITH ADDITIONAL LISTS OF SOLDIERS
THE MATTAPOISETT IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION 1932
Copyright, 1907, BY THE GRAFTON PRESS
1127704
B Y VOTE of the town, Mattapoisett is celebrating the seventy-fifth anniversary of its incorporation. As a feature of that event, because of the demand for this book, and its growing scarcity, the Mattapoisett Improvement Association voted to publish a new edition of " Mattapoisett and Old Rochester " including therein some additional information as to Revolutionary sol- diers. Copies of this second edition may be obtained by addressing the Association.
HUYBERTIE PRUYN HAMLIN, Pres. DR. IRVING NILES TILDEN, Vice Pres. NATHAN S. MENDELL, Secy. BYRON P. DUNN, Treas.
LEMUEL LEBARON DEXTER,
HARRIET MENDELL HAMMOND, CHARLES S. MENDELL, JR. Committee on Local History
August, 1932
M ATTAPOISETT was set off from Rochester and incorporated as a separate town, May 20, 1857. The town voted to observe, in 1907, the fiftieth anniver- sary of its corporate existence, and appointed a committee of arrangements. Recognizing that the history of old Rochester-town had never been adequately presented, nor the story of "Mattapoisett Quarter" told, the first act toward this anniversary celebration was the appointment of the undersigned as a committee to gather historical data and secure its publication. An arrangement was at once made with Miss Mary Hall Leonard, of Rochester, to prepare the chapters on the early history of the old town; lists which appeared to be of genealogical or his- torical interest have been copied; and chapters especially relating to Mattapoisett have been added. It is hoped that the story told in this volume may give some picture of early life in one of the old towns of Plymouth Colony, and that it may set forth things, both new and old, which will be of interest to those who participate in this anniver- sary, and of increasing and permanent value as a contri- bution to local history.
CHARLES S. HAMLIN. LEMUEL LEBARON HOLMES. HARRIET MENDELL HAMMOND. WILLIAM E. SPARROW, JR. LEMUEL LEBARON DEXTER. Committee.
MATTAPOISETT, July 15. 1907.
"The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who have lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs." -GEORGE ELIOT.
LEMUEL LEBARON HOLMES A Justice of the Superior Court in Massachusetts; a native of Mattapoisett and a lover of her history and tradition, who suggested the preparation of this book and whose death, August 4, 1907, prevented his seeing its completion, this book is dedicated
CONTENTS
I Earliest Times
Mary Hall Leonard 1
II General Features
66
66
21
III The Beginnings of Rochester Town, 1679-1700
IV The Settlers and Settlements .
V The Early Church and Precincts
66
66
72
VI The Eighteenth Century
VII The Revolutionary War
66
66
126
VIII After the Revolution
66
65
143
IX The Division of the Town
Lemuel LeBaron Dexter 166
X The Church in the Second Precinct
Lemuel LeBaron Dexter 187 XI Maritime and Other Industries Lemuel LeBaron Holmes 279 XII Mattapoisett in the Civil War . James S. Burbank 302 XIII Mattapoisett, the Town
. Lester W. Jenney 313
XIV Mattapoisett of the Present
. Mary Frances Briggs 336
EXTRACTS FROM THE RECORDS
I Old Rochester Soldiers and Sailors . 349
II Assessors' Rate-Bill, Rochester, 1776 .. 360
III A Schedule of Maximum Prices, Established for 1777 363
IV Assessors' List, Mattapoisett Precinct, 1740 . 366 V List of Members, Second Church in Rochester, - Mattapoisett Precinct,- 1772 . 368
VI Infant Baptisms and Marriages from the Records of the Second Church in Rochester, 1740-1857 . 370
66
66
36
48
66
97
ILLUSTRATIONS
Map of Old Rochester Territory Frontispiece
FACE
Neds Point at Low Tide. Photo by Gertrude W. Dexter 14 Mattapoisett River near the Sea. Photo by Harriet M. Hammond 18 Sippican Harbor. Photo by Tirrell 22 The Great Rock, Mattapoisett. Photo by Tirrell 32 Minister's Rock, Little Neck, Marion. Photo by Frank B. Howland 44
The Lieut. John Hammond House. Photo by Lemuel LeB. Dexter 50 The Whitridge, or Winslow, House. Photo by Frank B. Howland 54 Meeting-house of the First Parish, Rochester Center. Photo by Tirrell 90
Mattapoisett Herring Weir. Photo Hutchinson & Co. 104
The "Dexter Elm" and Mill, Mattapoisett. Photo by Robert Humphrey . 114
Rochester Common. From an old photograph . 130
Cannon Street, Mattapoisett, about 1880. Photo by William B. Nelson . 146
Water Street, Mattapoisett. Photo by Harriet M. Hammond 162 Map of Mattapoisett Village, 1856. From Walling's Map 166
Town House, Rochester Center. From an old photograph 170
The Old Landing, Marion. Photo by Lemuel LeB. Dexter 182
Second Precinct Relics. Photo by Reed . 188
"The Old Mansion." Photo by Robert Humphrey 208
Mattapoisett Academy. Photo by Lemuel LeB. Dexter 221 Thomas Robbins. From a Steel Engraving . 231
Congregational Meeting-house, Mattapoisett. Photo by Seaton Lee Sparrow 241
First Christian Meeting-house, Mattapoisett. Photo by Lemuel LeB. Dexter 262
Interior of the First Christian Meeting-house, Mattapoisett, 1905. Photo by Andrew T. Sampson 267
Universalist Meeting-house and Rogers School Building. Photo by Robert Humphrey . 272
xii
Illustrations
FACE
Ship Niger. Photo by Tirrell . 282
The Old Barstow House. Photo by Sarah H. Sparrow 286
Bark Sunbeam. Photo by Tirrell . 294
Barstow Street, Mattapoisett. Photo by Elizabeth H. Holmes 306
West District Schoolhouse. Photo by Lemuel LeB. Dexter 318
The Old Engine House. Photo by Lemuel LeB. Dexter 326
Mattapoisett Village from Neds Point. Photo by Tirrell 338
Lovers' Bridge, Mattapoisett River. Photo by Tirrell . 342
Mattapoisett Harbor. Photo by Lemuel LeB. Dexter 344
MATTAPOISETT AND OLD ROCHESTER
FOREWORD
A HISTORY of a locality, even if it be a brief history, is the work of many minds. The largest contribu- tions are made by the contemporary writings of the past. The Plymouth Colony records, the Old Rochester Pro- prietors' book, the many town books of Old Rochester covering a period of 160 years, the ancient church and parish books of the First and Second Precincts, two or three descriptive articles published many years ago in the Massachusetts Historical Collections, the "Memoirs " of Hon. Abraham Holmes, the private writings of several early ministers of Rochester, including the diary of Dr. Thomas Robbins - these are the prime sources from which the historical material here presented has been drawn. To these may be added a number of anniversary sermons preached by later ministers in the different pre- cincts, the historic gatherings of William Root Bliss and Rev. Noble Everett for the town of Wareham, and the addresses given at the Rochester Bicentennial celebra- tion in 1879.
But there are many persons besides the writers of these old records who have had a part in this history, even if their contributions were not always committed to writing. Such men as John Hammond and John Bourne Sturte- vant of several generations ago, have passed on to others the facts that they had learned. Aged men of to-day,
2
Foreword
like Mr. Silas B. Allen and Mr. Ichabod Blankinship, of Marion, out of the memories of a long lifetime, have furnished historic facts for these chapters. Especially valuable has been the aid given by the late Mr. John S. Ryder, for many years parish and church clerk at Roches- ter Center, who through his writings and in many con- versations has placed at the author's service his large knowledge of Rochester history.
There are also many younger investigators and cor- respondents in all the four quarters of Old Rochester and in neighboring towns who can find in these pages interesting historic items which they themselves have furnished toward the preparation of this book.
Especially should recognition here be given to the direct aid given by the Mattapoisett Historical Com- mittee, under whose commission this work has been performed, an aid without which these chapters on Old Rochester history could scarcely have been completed within the limited time that was available for this work.
The thanks of the writer are also due to Mr. A. H. Weld, town clerk of Rochester, for personal courtesies in the laborious task of collecting historic information from the old town books and papers.
That a writing of this kind is necessarily imperfect every local historian is aware, and no one knows so well as the writer the imperfections that belong to these pages. But it is hoped, nevertheless, that they may give a gen- erally correct as well as vivid picture of the old town of the past, and form, as it were, a worthy background for the local histories of this region that will yet be written.
To the sons and daughters and grandchildren of Old Rochester, scattered far and wide through this Union of
3
Foreword
States, belongs the task to fill out the historic picture that has been sketched and to continue it in a panoramic scroll through the years that follow the period that has been in outline covered. Since the division of Old Rochester into three towns at the middle of the nine- teenth century, each of the parts of the old town has had fifty years of local history added to its past.
And history is still making, and the history of the new must be recorded by those who are the actors in these historic events as they occur.
Moreover, the history of a town in its last analysis must exhibit a history of the families who have composed the town, a field which it is obviously impossible to enter upon extensively in a book of this kind. But every family needs its own historian, and every family has its own historical contribution to make toward the final history of the community in which it holds a part.
If the preparation of these chapters should lead the descendants of Old Rochester to search their attic chests and desks of family papers and gather and put in order these more intimate details of local and family history, the best result of this brief history of Old Rochester may be said to have been accomplished.
MARY HALL LEONARD.
٠
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MATTAPOISETT AND OLD ROCHESTER
CHAPTER I
EARLIEST TIMES
O N the west shore of Buzzards Bay are many long peninsulas or "Necks," enclosing harbors having a general southeasterly trend. Near each harbor once stood an Indian village, - as Agawam, Sippican, Matta- poisett, and Acushena, - having the same name as the harbor and also of a tract of country reaching a few miles inland.
These shores were known to white men at an early date. When Bartholomew Gosnold, the English explorer, in 1602, sailed across from Cuttyhunk and entered Acush- net River, the description given by Archer shows that it was the shores to the west of Sconticut Neck that he chiefly explored. Yet the other historian of the party, Brereton, alludes to "many harbors thereabouts," and one can easily imagine that these adventurous navigators may have caught glimpses of the easterly Necks as well. But, however this may be, the descriptions given by Brereton and by Archer of the rocks and shells along the shores, the open woods (kept free from underbrush by the Indians), the plants and animals, apply to the old Rochester lands as well as to those of Dartmouth.
6
Mattapoisett and Old Rochester
In 1627 an agent from Fort Amsterdam (now New York) named Isaac De Rasières, "the chief merchant and second to the governor," was sent for trading pur- poses to Plymouth. He sailed up through Buzzards Bay, " accompanied by a noise of trumpets," and was met by the Plymouth people at the head of the bay, then called Manomet.
He must have had glimpses of these shores and head- lands, but has left no record of what he saw.
The first definite historical reference to Mattapoisett 1 occurs in 1640-1. At that time the Plymouth Colony was entering on a new stage of civic history. Governor Bradford surrendered the patent of the colony lands into the hands of the freemen. Charters were given to the towns outside of Plymouth, which now began to send delegates to the General Court, thus forming a represen- tative government, and certain outside tracts were now set aside for the special use of the "Old Comers." 2 It was in accordance with this new policy that the General Court passed the following act :
"May 2, 1640-1. The Court hath graunted a com- petent porcion of vpland & hey ground to yt sufficient for a plantacion at Mattapoyst to Mr. Charles Chauncey Mr. John Atwood & Thomas Cushman & to be bounded by such as the Court shall especially assigne therevnto wch were nominated to be Mr. Thomas Prence and
1 In the early records, however, the name Mattapoisett is often given to Gardner's Neck, Swanzey, where in 1623 Edward Winslow visited while on his second embassy to Massasoit. It was there also that the first English blood was shed in King Philip's War.
2 The Pilgrims who came in the Mayflower, the Fortune, and the Anne were called "Old Comers" or "Forefathers."
7
Earliest Times
Captaine Miles Standish, puided alwayes that such of the purchasers as shall take vp their lands there shall not have it elswhere also."
These bounds were not laid out, however, and none of the "Old Comers" took up their lands in the "planta- cion of Mattapoyst." A year and a half earlier (January 22, 1638-9) the plantation of Seppekann, east of Matta- poisett, had been offered to eight men of Scituate for the benefit of Rev. John Lothrop's congregation who had fled from London to escape the persecutions of Archbishop Laud, and tarried for awhile at Scituate. This grant was not accepted, as Mr. Lothrop's congregation preferred to settle in Barnstable; but forty years later two of the sons of Parson Lothrop and other descendants of these Scituate men became original proprietors of the lands of Sippican and Mattapoisett in the town of Rochester. In 1649 a new grant of Sepecan was offered to the towns- men of Plymouth as a place for pasturage and wintering of cattle, and in 1651 the Sepecan grant was defined as "eight miles by the sea and four miles into the land." Lands thus granted to the freemen of the colony were to be purchased from their Indian owners. The land grant gave the right to make such a purchase, but was not to take effect until the Indians had been paid for their owner- ship rights. Liberty was now given to the town of Ply- mouth, " to purchase the lands of Sepecan," and the town itself took action relating to such a purchase "when its true pprietors shall be made manifest." The town also gave liberty to seven men of Plymouth "to Imploy men in hearding and wintering the cattell at Sepecan."
In 1666, King Philip gave power to Watachpoo and Sampson, two subordinate chiefs, to sell the lands of
8
Mattapoisett and Old Rochester
Sepecan; and in 1688 he made a curious drawing (which has been preserved in the Plymouth Colony Records) to show the lands that might be sold.
In 1669, Joseph Bartlett, who had been improving the lands of Sepecan, agreed to pay to the town of Plymouth forty shillings for the use of these lands and to surrender the lease of the lands that he had held. In 1670 agents of Plymouth town agreed with the Indian Totosin (also called Tousand) about " a psell of Land 1 desired by him att Sepecan."
In 1670 it was voted by the General Court of Plymouth that the profits of the upland and meadow lands at " Aga- wam, Sepccan, and places adjacent," together with the rental of the Cape Cod fisheries, should be used for the support of a school at Plymouth, and in 1672-3, agents from Plymouth colony were appointed to purchase " what- ever lands are yet unpurchased of Plymouth graunt att Sepecan and places adjacent."
If any such purchase was made by the colony at this date it was not recorded. In 1674, however, the town of Plymouth voted that "Whereas the proffits of lands att Sepecan Agawam & places adjacent were given for the free scool att Plymouth ... the Towne declares that theire graunt was only of the lands there and thereabouts which were purchased by the Towne of the Indians before the sd May the 20th 1672."
In 1679, when the Rochester proprietors began to nego- tiate with the General Court of Plymouth for a township grant, the town of Plymouth still claimed a right to these lands and appointed "Agents to treat with the purchasers of Sepecan concerning our title to the said lands & places
1 This land afterwards became known as Towser's Neck.
9
Earliest Times
adjacent & to leave to Composition with them Respect- ing the Controversy betwixt the said Towne & them about it," and also "impowered agents to prosecute a suite Respecting the premises."
It appears from these records that while various attempts were made by the colony and the town of Plymouth to purchase "the lands of Sepecan and places adjacent," and while certain tracts were really purchased, no general purchase of these lands from the Indians was ever made. In 1673, when the last attempt at purchase was proposed, the Indian troubles were already gathering, and at the close of King Philip's war the remaining Indian lands passed into the hands of the English by right of con- quest.
The records of "Sepecan and places adjacent" cover to some extent "the plantacion of Matapoyst," which also was never as a whole purchased from the Indians. A year or two before the war, an interesting record occurs which shows that Mattapoisett was still under Indian ownership, and also gives the bounds of the "tract called Mattapoisett." (See Plymouth Colony Records, Vol. XII, p. 225.)
"Oct. 3, 1673, Papamo, Machacam and Achawana- mett being the Right owners of the land heer mensioned doe desire to have them Recorded in the Court of Plymouth Collonie that soe wee may preserue our lands for our children: the bounds of our land are as followeth, from the Easteren bounds of Dartmouth att the watersyde to a place called Wassapacoasett: and soe into the woods to the southeast end of a pond called Masquanspust 1 which
1 In Winthrop's History of New England (reprint of 1826) there is a list of Indian names which gives Musquunipash as a part of Rochester.
10
Mattapoisett and Old Rochester
is about six or seauen myle; and along the south syde of the pond to a great spruce tree marked, on four sydes, which is the head bound, on the east syde of our land, and from thence to a swamp which lyeth south from the Marked tree. The swamp is called quanumpacke: and from thence to the two Rockes lying by the Pathsyde; which goeth from Dartmouth to Sandwich; Eastern syde of Dartmouth bounds is the Westersde of our bounds; and Sandwich path is our head bounds, on the west syde of our land from Dartmouth bounds, to them two Rockes be- fore Named, our Tract of land is called by the name of Mattapoisett."
Soon after this (November 8, 1673), Tuspaquin, Philip's brother-in-law, the Black Sachem of Assawampsett, sold for ten pounds to John Tomson, John Lothrop, and Bar- nabas Lothrop of Barnstable a tract of land extending from Queetiquash River, Queetiquash Pond, Sniptuit River and a Neck of Land, to Dartmouth; and July 2, 1674, the three Indian owners of Mattapoisett again recorded the bounds of their land with the statement that a part of this land had been sold by Tuspaquin to these men of Barnstable, which sale these Indian owners had " condescended unto."
It is hard to solve the mysteries of the old Indian names, but a study of these records makes it evident that the tract called Mattapoisett at one time covered the whole of the western part of Rochester, extending on the north to the Assawampsett region of Middleboro. The tract in North Rochester sold by Tuspaquin to John Tomson and the Lothrops is known as "The Tomson Purchase." A few months earlier a large tract of South Middleboro had been bought from Tuspaquin, which is known as
11
Earliest Times
"The South Purchase of Middleboro." The agents in this South Purchase were Benjamin Church and John Tomson, who were afterwards allowed to set off for their own use a certain part of the South Purchase extending to Sniptuit Pond. This became known as the Sniptuit Purchase, and a part of this was afterwards included within the bounds of Rochester.
In 1667 the Plymouth Court granted to Hugh Cole of Swanzey, "respecting his father's grant (being an ancient freeman), and his own grant, six score acres of land between the Mattapoisett river and the eastern bound of Acushena." This land Cole purchased of King Philip in 1671, and afterwards sold it to Samuel Hammond, one of the earliest settlers of Mattapoisett.
In 1676 the colony passed an act granting to the sol- diers of the Narragansett expedition of King Philip's war, lands to the value of one thousand pounds in Showam- mett, Assonett Neck, Assawamsit, Agawam and Sepecan, but it is not certain that any of the Rochester lands came into individual ownership under this act.
In 1679 the Rochester Proprietary was formed, which (July 22, 1679) purchased from the colony at a considera- tion of two hundred pounds (to be applied to the debt incurred by the war) a township grant of all the lands on Buzzards Bay, between Dartmouth, Middleboro, and Plymouth Purchase or Agawam. The whole territory is often referred to as the "lands of Sippican," but it in- cluded Mattapoisett and a large territory north of Sip- pican known as Menchoisett. The part of Sippican which in 1739 was set off into Wareham was also called Weweantit, and the northern part of Mattapoisett was later known as Sniptuit.
12
Mattapoisett and Old Rochester
Minister Le Baron in 1738 names the parts of Rochester as "Easterly part Sepican, Southerly Mattapoysett, West- erly Snippatuit - the middle part of Town Munchoiset"; and John Hammond (b. 1756) preserved in memory a distich learned in boyhood which names the "Quarters of Rochester" as
"Snipatuit, Monochesset, Sippican and Mattapesset."
These old Indian names are significant. Mattapoisett has been interpreted as " a place of resting "; Sniptuit means "rocky water"; Sippican "the long river "; Weweantit or "young bucks " is supposed to have been a place of resort for these animals; while Menchoisett or "much food" suggests that its arable lands had been used by the Indians for planting.
After the Rochester purchase was made, there were still some Indian claims to be satisfied. In 1667 an In- dian named Charles (alias Paumpmuitt) had bought of two sachems for the sum of eight pounds the peninsula known as Charles's Neck. This land he now sold to the Proprietary for six pounds. November 19, 1679, Joseph Lothrop, agent of the company, paid to Peter Suscacow (also called " Maniment Peeter") five shillings to satisfy his claim. But the most important claimant appeared in the person of an Indian named William Connett, who in 1683 laid claim to all the lands between Sippican River and Plymouth's westerly bound at Agawam. He also . committed trespass on these lands, and "did disclaime and defie the title of every these men called the purchasers of Sepecan." His claim was carried to the courts, but it was not pleaded. The parties came to an agreement by
13
Earliest Times
which Connett was given a proprietor's share in the lands of Rochester. Connett's name appears later as a sub- scriber towards the funds for the first gristmill of the town. But it soon disappears from the town history. A point of land in Mattapoisett eastward from Angelica has recently been named Connett Point in memory of this Indian who thus stoutly resisted the claims of the white invaders.
Within the Rochester territory are various traces of the old Indian life. Northwest of Mattapoisett village is a long ridge called "Indian Burying Hill," filled with bony deposits of Indian sepulture. Under the sands along the shores are buried heaps of clam and oyster shells (known to scientists as "Kitchen-middens") which mark the spots of ancient Indian feasts.
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