USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Medway > The handbook of Medway history : a condensed history of the town of Medway, Massachusetts > Part 1
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01114 8811
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/handbookofmedway00maso_0
£
1713.
1913.
The Handbook
.... OF ....
Medway History.
A Condensed History of
The Town of Medway, Massachusetts,
By ORION T. MASON.
Our old town lies beneath the hill, Its shady streets are wide and still, Its river murmers past the mill As years increase. The church and school retain their place, While on the whole a quiet grace Rests like God's blessing on the race, In sweetest peace. -Rev. J. O. Knowles.
G. M. BILLINGS, PRINTER. 1913.
1241137
ANCIENT ARMS AND ACCOUTREMENTS.
PREFACE.
This little pamphlet in a humble way aims to fill a his- torical want. Our town is this year two centuries old and its history is worthy of record and preservation.
The compiler believes that the facts contained herein will be of value and interest to anyone who has any association whatever with Medway or Millis.
Every fact recorded is believed to be true.
I wish here to thank all friends who have in any way as- sisted.
ORION T. MASON,
Medway, April 1, 1913.
FIRST SETTLEMENTS IN MASSACHUSETTS COLONY.
Salem first mentioned, Aug. 23, 1630. Charlestown first mentioned, Aug. 23, 1630. Boston first named, Sept. 7, 1630. Dorchester first named, Sept. 7, 1630. Watertown first named, Sept. 7, 1630. Roxbury first mentioned, Sept. 28, 1630. Medford first mentioned, Sept. 28, 1630. Marblehead first mentioned, July 2, 1633. Ipswich first named, Aug. 5, 1634. Newbury first named, May 6, 1635. Hingham first named, Sept. 2, 1635. Weymouth first named, Sept. 2, 1635. Concord first named, Sept. 3, 1635. Dedham first named, Sept. 8, 1636.
EARLIEST SETTLERS AT BOGGESTOWE FARMS.
1653, Nicholas Wood of Dorchester.
1653, Thomas Holbrook of Dorchester.
1653, Henry Leland of Dorchester.
1653, Hopestill Leland of Dorchester.
1657, Daniel Morse of Medfield. 1658, John Hill of Dorchester.
1658, Thomas Breck of Dorchester.
1658, Benjamin Bullard of Dedham.
1658, George Fayerbanke of Dedham. 1660, Thomas Bass.
All of these, except Fayerbanke, settled on land now Sherborn. The sites of the dwellings built by them can in some instances be discerned at the present time. They all sleep in the old burying ground at South Sherborn, near Death's bridge, in unmarked graves, and their descendants are scattered all over our country.
SUMMARY OF IMPORTANT EVENTS OF MEDWAY, MASSACHUSETTS.
1614. Charles River discovered by Capt. John Smith ; first called the Massachusetts River.
1628. March 19. Plymouth Council sealed a patent of that part of New England between three miles south of Charles River and three miles north of the Merrimac from the Atlantic to the South Sea.
1629. Royal charter giving power of government passed the seals.
1636. Dedham, Incorporated September 7th. Its territory including all the lands along the easterly and souther- ly banks of the Charles River.
1638. Extract from Dedham Records: "The 21st of ye seventh month, Jno. Rogers, and Jno. Fayerbanke ap- poynted to goe upon ye discovery of Charles River with such men as shall be by ye courts appoynted call them upon ye second day of ye next week."
1649. Dedham granted lands west of Charles River three miles from east to west and four miles from north to south. This was the old grant, so called, in Medway, Its western line is just west of Christ Church in Med- way.
1651. Jan. 11. Medfield incorporated a town with jurisdic- tion on west bank of the river.
1652. First highway laid out on west bank across broad meadows.
1653. Abraham Harding and Peter Adams have grants of land in Grape Meadows.
"Great Bridge" across the river first mentioned in Medfield Records.
1655. July 22. First white child born on the west bank of the river. Mehitable, daughter of Nicholas Wood.
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1658. Sergeant George Fayerbanke, son of Jonathan, of Ded- ham, became the first settler (on land afterward in the limits of Medway) at "The Farms."
Medfield votes to lay out uplands on the west side of river.
The Palisade built on George Fayerbanke' land on north side of Boggestowe Pond by settlers at "The Farms," as a refuge from Indians.
SITE OF PALISADE.
1659. General Court grants to Medfield land in addition to their former bounds on the west side of the river, two miles east and west and four miles north and south. (This embraced what is now West Medway, Metcalf Station, the south part of Holliston, and the most of Medway) and was called the New Grant.
John Fussell granted eight acres of upland, (now Union street, Millis).
May 11. On same day, new grant made to Med- field, and three Quakers, Stephenson, Dyer, and Hen- derson, executed in Boston.
1660. At Medfield annual town meeting, Feb. 6th, ordered that New Grant be divided among all the inhabitants in Medfield that were proprietors.
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1660. One of the twelve copies of the Law Books allotted to Medfield, placed with George Fayerbanke for the use of the inhabitants on that side of the river.
April 20th. Ordered that highways be laid out in New Grant. (Vine Lane, Evergreen, Mechanics and Oak streets constituted one of these highways.)
1661. Ralph Wheelock, founder of Medfield, was the first man to draw by lot, land in the New Grant, 156 acres. (Taking in part of the Village.)
Dwight's Causeway made a town road. (Now Dwight street in Millis.)
Medfield grants Robert Hinsdell 46 acres of land on Boggestowe brook in exchange for a bell.
1662. Joseph Daniel second white settler. (On farm now owned by Louis LaCroix of Millis.)
1665. First wedding on the west bank. (Joseph Daniel and Mary Fayerbanke, daughter of Sergeant George Fayer- banke.)
Committee chosen by the town to consider the complaint of George Fayerbanke and view the cartway across Boggestowe Brooke at ye mill.
1669. Committee chosen by Medfield to join with one from Mendon "for the settling of the Common Rode way from town to town." (Afterward the old Hartford Post Road.)
Hinsdell sells his mill to Peter Woodward.
1670. Highway from Great Bridge to Mendon laid out.
1672. Boston and New York post established through Hart- ford, via Dedham, Medfield and Mendon.
Medfield paid 21£ Is to John Awashnog, a Natick Indian, in settlement of his claim to land in the New Grant.
1674. George Fayerbanke was a principal citizen in the new town of Sherborn from this date until 1681, holding town office several years. Medfield afterward protest- ed and collected taxes from his estate.
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1675. Sixty persons in Medfield and the Farms subscribe to the new Brick College. (Harvard).
Out of fourteen families at Boggestowe Farms, seven live within the limits of original Medway. George Fayerbanke, George Fayerbanke, Jr., Joseph Daniel, Jonathan Adams, Peter Calley, John Fussell and William Allen. (Thirty soals.)
Mill in Boggestowe destroyed by Indians.
1676. Medfield surprised at daybreak, Feb. 21st, by Indians under King Philip. Nearly half the houses and barns on the east side of the river burned. Seventeen per- sons killed. Savages retire across Great Bridge, which they burn, and hold a feast on what is now the Moses Adams farm in Millis. The spot is marked by a group of Tupello trees which have been called the King Philip trees for over two hundred years.
KING PHILIP TREES.
John Fussell, nearly one hundred years old, burned by the Indians in Jonathan Adams' house. All the rest of the dwellers at the farms were in George Fayer- banke's palisade.
Jonathan Wood killed by Indians at Deaths bridge. His brother Eleazer struck down by a tomahawk, scalped and left for death, but afterwards recovered.
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1676. Five dwellings burned by the Indians on the west side of the river. (Those of George Fayerbanke, Jr., Joseph Daniel, William Allen, Jonathan Adams and Peter Calley.)
Feb. 22. Indians make an attack on the palisades at the farms, but are repulsed and retire to the south- ward.
Feb. 22. Fayerbanke palisade sheltered six fam- ilies from Sherborn side, numbering 38 souls, and six families from Medway side, 30 souls.
May 6th. Another Indian attack on the palisades, burning arrows shot over and a cart loaded with burn- ing flax rolled down the hill in an attempt to fire the place. For a second time the Indians are repulsed and beaten off.
July 2nd. A band of Indians found near the farms. With help from Medfield town, they are driven away and the war was ended in this locality.
Abraham Harding completed the first frame house on this side of the river.
1677. Josiah and John Rockwood build. (On land near Oak Grove Farm in Millis.)
1678. John Richardson becomes a citizen on the west side of the river. (On the farm now occupied by E. F. Rich - ardson, a lineal descendant )
1680. Peter Adams and Samuel Daniel remove to the Farms.
1681. Vincent Shuttleworth settled near the Joseph Daniel place. He was afterward fined 4£ for deserting from the impress to fight Indians and was the first town pau- per.
John Partridge, John Adams and John Clark move across the river and become settlers.
Medfield votes to give fifty acres of land to anyone who would build a grist mill on the river. This mill was built where the Rockville Felt Mill now stands.
1682. George Fayerbanke, Sr., the first settler, drowned while crossing the river.
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1685. Colony of Massachusetts Bay agrees to pay half the expense of building Great Bridge, "as it is a County way."
Gamaliel Hinsdale was appointed to prosecute John Sunchamang, an Indian, suspected of firing the mill. (At Rockville )
1686. The Great Bridge, burned by the Indians ten years previous, this year rebuilt.
Granted Joseph Daniel the stream of Boggestowe Brook if he would maintain a grist mill.
1688. Jonathan Adams, second, a settler on the west bank.
John Pond built on the south bank of the river on Wrentham land. (This house, now standing and owned by Monroe Morse, is the oldest house in Med way )
1691. Oct. 7. Union of Massachusetts and Plymouth Colo- nies by Royal Charter.
1692. May 14. Sir Wm. Phips arrives in Boston with new charter.
1693. Samuel Hill, Joseph Daniel, 2nd, and Jonathan Fisher become settlers.
George Fayerbanke and Joseph Daniel two of the selectmen of Medfield.
1695. Joseph Daniel a selectman of Medfield.
1698. Medfield raises 12£ 10s to be expended for schooling, "50 shillings on the West Bank of the river."
1699. 3£ raised for schooling on the West Bank and Ser- geant Joseph Daniel chosen to take care of same.
1700. "Payed unto Peter Adams for his wife's keeping School on that side of the river, it being the full of his due, 2€ 9s 11d." And Mrs. Adams was Medway's first school teacher.
1702. Black Swamp laid out in one hundred and twenty-three lots and given to Medfield owners. Twenty six allotted to settlers on the West Bank.
1704. Voted school to be kept on both sides of the river, pro-
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JOSEPH DANIEL HOUSE.
portionately to the charges of the inhabitants on either side.
1705. Medfield votes to build a new Meeting House. "The inhabitants on the West Side of the river shall have half their pay toward building refunded if they build a Meeting House on that side within twenty years "
George Fayerbanke and Joseph Daniel are appointed and act on this committee in charge of building the new Meeting House.
1710. Edward Clark moves from Medfield and builds the Clark Homestead, now standing in Millis, the oldest in town.
Timothy Clark, brother of Edward, starts a tavern on the old Hartford Road. (Now the Dr. Emerson place, so called, in Med way )
1711. Timothy Clark, Constable to collect taxes on this side of the river.
Nathaniel Whiting comes from Wrentham and builds a grist mill and dwelling at the falls on the river. (The site now occupied by the Sanford Mills. This property remained in the possession of his descendants until 1864.)
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OLD CLARK HOUSE.
1712. July 12. The dwellers on the west bank of the river petition the General Court for a division.
1713. The General Court recommends that Medfield build an- other meeting house on the west bank of the river but on March 9th the town petitions declaring "their inability to do so."
A committee sent out from Boston reports to the Court in favor of a division of Medfield.
George Fairbanks empowered by the General Court to notity and summon voters for the first town meet- ing.
October 25th a bill was passed by the General Court for the incorporation of the Town of Medway (in the 12th year of the reign of Queen Anne). Honorable Jo- seph Dudley, Provincial Governor of Massachusetts Bay.
Nov. 23. First town meeting held at home of Peter Adams. John Rocket chosen town clerk. John Rocket, Sergeant Samuel Partridge, Jonathan Adams, Jr., Ser- geant Jonathan Adams, Edward Clark, Selectmen.
1714. Medway's proportion of the Province tax, 52€ 14s. First Meeting House built on Bare Hill.
First death recorded in Town Book, Sarah Rocket.
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1714. 22€ 9s 4d received from Medfield to help build the Meeting House.
June 3. First birth recorded in Town Book, that of Samuel Richardson.
First public worship in the town October 7th at the house of Peter Adams, whose drum called the people to meeting.
Burial place laid out on Bare Hill. (Now the older part of the Millis cemetery.)
First Church of Christ organized.
FIRST CHURCH.
1715. Rev. David Demming called as Minister, with a yearly salary of 52€.
Rev. David Demming granted 60€ yearly by the town Sept. 12, and the same day he accepted
Stony Plain Road laid out June 4th.
Joseph Daniel, second settler, died, aged eighty.
Granted to Rev. David Demming 28 acres south- ward of ye Meeting House. (Now owned by Charles La Croix in Millis.)
Proprietors of undivided land in Medfield and Med- way hold a joint meeting.
1716. Sarah and Abigail Allion first twins born in the town.
Sarah Adams drowned in a spring near her fath- er's house April 1.
1717. Rev. David Demming acknowledges his gratification and ministerial salary in the Town Book.
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1717. May 13. 4£ voted for building a pound and keeping a school.
1718. Voted 2£ for a school.
1719. Voted to put in a casement not to exceed four feet of glass in Meeting House.
Voted the minister's pew to be next the pulpit.
1720. Highway laid out from "Bouggusty Neck to ye brook commonly known as Charles Brook."
1721. First tea set brought into town by Timothy Clark, Tavern Keeper. (The sugar bowl is still in the posses- sion of a descendant.)
1722. Rev. David Demming dismissed from the pastorate of the First Church at his request.
May 14. Town loans rated at "12 pence on ye pound." No person to borrow above 20€ nor under 10£ and one Bonus man be required."
1723. Dea. Peter Adams died Dec. 8th.
1724. Rev. Nathan Bucknam of Boston called to First Church.
Dec 23 Rev. Nathan Bucknam ordained and in- stalled at twenty-one years of age.
3£ 10s voted to make glass windows in the Meet- ing House.
1725. Fence Viewers first chosen.
1726. On Nov. 30th the town committee perambulated the bounds with a Holliston committee "until the later not being fully satisfied broke off."
First Noon House built by Lieut. Bullard and Sergt. Hill near the Meeting House.
Jonathan Adams first representative to the Gene- ral Court.
The northern part of the New Grant called Mucks- quit in the town record.
1728. March 4. All town bills paid and 1£ 1s 9d in the treasury.
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1730. Town fined 16£ 11s id for not sending a representa- tive.
Voted "to buy a burying cloth 'yt is deacent for ye town' ".
Jonathan Adams representative.
About this date Bears ceased to be troublesome around Winthrop Pond.
1731. Proposed to have Meeting House in the "Senter" of the town. Negatived.
Voted to sing Psalms the old way. Jonathan Par- tridge chosen to lead.
1732. Feb. 9. Selectmen warned Mary Burnit out of town before Feb. 13th.
Voted 30s to Doctor Jairo for "fisicking Hezikiah Vickkors".
1733. Potatoes began to be planted in Massachusetts.
Voted to choose three assessors to make the rates.
Paid John Richardson for sweeping the Meeting House 1 year, 16s.
Voted swine shall go at large.
1733. On March 5, Rev. Mr. Bucknam came into open town meeting and declared that his salary was not sufficient for his support, whereupon the town voted him 20£ more.
1734. Selectmen procure a book at the town's expense to re- cord births and marriages in.
Town Pound built by Michael Metcalf for 7€
1735. Edward Clark representative.
"Paid Mr. Salter of Boston for one hundred weight of bullets, for one half bbl. of powder and one hundred flints 15£ 15s."
Several families living near Long Walk brook in Wrentham set off to Medway.
1736. First Covenant signed by members of the First Church. Rev. Nathan Bucknam sold his Negro Boy London to Jasper Adams for 140 €.
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1737. First schoolhouse built.
Town paid Seth Harding for "killing a 'wild catt' 1 £."
Eight voters request to be set off from the New Grant to Holliston, "negatived."
Samuel Metcalf, representative.
Mar. 7. Voted to build three schoolhouses, one at the East part, one in the New Grant, and one at "ye Bent of ye river."
May 16. Town refused to grant any money for building schoolhouses.
1738. Jeremiah Adams, representative.
Lieutenant Daniel Richardson and Deacon John Barber first jurymen drawn from Medway.
1739. Edward Clark, representative.
London and Sambo, negroes baptized by Mr. Buck- nam.
Town joins with Wrentham in building a bridge over Charles River at "The falls." (The site of the Franklin Bridge in Medway.)
1740. First persons bound out by the town. Elizabeth and Mercy Vickors bound out to Hugh Brown.
Edward Clark first town treasurer.
1741. Church refused to allow baptism of a negro child until of age.
Jeremiah Adams, representative.
Town paid 48s to Samuel Daniel for "boarding ye School Mrs. and for house room to keep ye school."
Stephen, slave of Lieut. Timothy Clark, and Charles, slave of Capt. Nathaniel Whiting, baptized by Rev. Na- than Bucknam.
1742. Town paid almost 20£ this year for bounties on squir- rels and blackbirds killed.
1743. Oct. 13. "Thanksgiving Day for ye Kings victory."
1744. Town pays 45£ 5s to find out the exact centre of its territory.
Town meeting called to order and moderator chosen
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in the open air on the exact geographical centre of the town. Then adjourned to the Meeting House on Bare Hill and voted not to build a new meeting house in the centre of the town.
1745. Captain Nathaniel Whiting impressed sixty five men this year for service in the French and English war.
45£ expended this year for maintaining five schools.
July 18. Thanksgiving day for victory at Cape Briton.
1746. Upon the incorporation of the west precinct in Wren- tham, six families set off from Medway to Wrentham where they originally belonged.
30€ old tenor paid to "New Grant Neibors" for four months' preaching in the winter time.
Esquire Edward Clark died, aged 67.
Paid Uriah Morse for entertaining the Selectmen 1£ 6s.
1747. Town votes not to maintain two ministers, one at the east and one in the New Grant.
Benjamin Gould killed by a tree in Black Swamp, Jan. 14.
1748. Seven storms in February and enormous drifts.
Captain Nathaniel Whiting and forty-eight other in- habitants of the New Grant petition the General Court for a new precinct.
Paid 1£ to John Carpenter for "marching soldiers." West precinct established by the General Court.
1749. Voted "an equal or suitable quantity of Cyder Rum and Beer and a baiting furnished to the men engaged in raising the new meeting-house at first Precinct."
Separation of town and church in town records.
First Meeting House burned Jan. 18.
First precinct organized Feb. 3rd.
Second meeting house built on Bare Hill and occu- pied first time May 21st.
First meeting house built in west precinct, site op- posite Winthrop St.
25£ voted for a military company in the New Grant.
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1750. "Chicking Brook" first mentioned in Town Book. Town stocks built.
Second Church organized, covenant signed by thir- ty- four persons.
Second burying place laid out. (Now the old part of Evergreen Cemetery, West Medway.)
1751. Mendon Association of ministers formed.
First town meeting held at the west precinct May 15th.
1752. Rev. David Thurston of Wrentham ordained as minis- ter of the Second precinct Church June 23.
1753. Captain Nathaniel Whiting and John Pond chosen ruling elders of the west precinct Church.
Hope Lovell accepted by the town as constable "notwithstanding his being removed out of the town bounds."
1753-4. Year of the great mortality in Sherborn and Hollis- ton ; 53 persons died in Holliston in two months, 41 in 22 days. Medway apparently exempt.
1754. Jonathan Adams, Jr., gave the town 1£ 4s and it was accepted and put in the town treasury.
Mr. Eleazer Adams, a Baptist, fined for non-payment of Ministerial rates. On his refusal to pay the fines, he was carried to Boston and imprisoned.
Sixty men from the town did duty in the French and English war.
1755. "Dear Reives" John Carpenter and Moses Thompson.
1756. Forty-two men did duty as Provincial soldiers.
1757. The French family of Neutrals assigned to the town, cost 9£ 18s 2d this year.
1758. Jonathan Adams, representative.
Ninety-four men served in the war against the French this year.
One hundred weight of beef bought for the French family.
1759. Fifty men on the war pay roll.
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1759. Seventeen Medway men in Fort Cumberland, Nova Scotia, in Captain Adams' company.
1760. Elisha Adams, representative. Also '63 and '65.
Voted to allow four pence an hour to a min that labors on the roads.
Voted to build a house for the poor, eighteen feet square, without chimney room. 10€ voted.
Aug. 20. The General Court assigns a family of French Neutrals to this town. James Omaro, his wife Lucy, Nistazza, the daughter, and Barzilla, the son.
On Nov. 24th Lieutenant Theophilus Clark, aged forty-four, and his son, Jotham, aged seventeen, having been engaged in the defence of their country, on the way from the camp to their friends, they died.
1761. Town votes to appropriate the 10€ voted the year previous for a house for the poor for schools.
1762. Sambo, a negro man, late of Wrentham, warned out of town.
1763. Elisha Adams, representative.
Voted to sell the law books now in the treasury for the most they will fetch.
The Stamp Act passed by the English Parliament. 1764. 30€ spent for schools.
1765. First Town Census. Houses 123, females 388, males 380, negroes 17. Total 785.
Elisha Adams representative to General Court and this year the town votes instructions for his conduct, ordering him to work against the Stamp Act.
1766. Jonathan Adams, representative. Also '67.
A committee of three chosen to seat the meeting house.
1767. Jonathan Adams, representative.
1768.
Elisha Adams, representative.
Ishmael and Hannah Coffee, negroes, have sixteen children born to them between this date and 1793.
Town votes to accept from Widow Mary Adams "her negro and other articles."
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1768. Town concurs with town of Boston by vote "to lessen the use of superfluities imported from afar."
1769. Jonathan Adams, representative.
Reverend David Thurston granted dismissal from church in second precinct.
Special seats built in meeting house of First Church for negroes.
Caesar Hunt, a slave, buys his freedom of Joseph Lowell for 13£ 6s 8d.
1770. Town votes unanimously to forego the purchase or use of tea.
Negroes, Mulattoes and Indians prohibited sitting or standing in any of alleys or stairs of the meeting house.
Coffee begun to be used.
Voted to forego the purchase of any goods that are imported from Great Britain.
First auditing of accounts of the town officers.
1771. Town paid zs to Simeon Fisher "for rum for workmen in the water at the bridge."
1772. Aug. 16. "Dyed. Seth Barber, aged some minnets." Town records.
Bounty of Is offered for each crow killed in town.
1773. Committee of Correspondence chosen by the town.
Rev. David Sanford of New Milford, Connecticut, installed minister over church in west precinct, April 14.
Town votes that any head of a family buying or using tea will be viewed as an enemy of the country.
1774. Daniel Adams first Medway boy to graduate from Harvard.
Town adds 100 lbs. of powder, 200 lbs. of bullets and 200 flints to its stock of ammunition.
Two iron field pieces bought by town.
A subscription gotten up and forwarded to the suffering people in Boston.
Town doubles its store of ammunition.
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1774. Paid Captain Turner for iron work and a journey for the cannon 6€ 5s.
13£ 10s voted to the minute men of the town as a bounty.
1775. Jan. 9. Thirty pounds voted to encourage enlistment in the military company.
Captain Jonathan Adams and Lieutenant Moses Adams, delegates to Provincial Congress at Watertown.
The two cannon carried to camp at Roxbury and thus lost to the town.
Church in west precinct abolishes half way cove. nant.
Second Church withdraws fellowship from First Church.
Forty three coats furnished to soldiers in service of Massachusetts.
Captain Jonathan Adams chosen representative to the Provincial Congress at Cambridge.
April 19. Thirty-seven men from the east parish and twenty-seven from the New Grant answer the Concord and Lexington alarm.
Nineteen men from Old Grant serve at Roxbury and Cambridge eight months.
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