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GC 974.402 C38f pt . 3
Gc 974.402 C38f pt.3 1271412
M. L
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
1
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01102 4533
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NUMBER THREE.
THE
HISTORY
OF
CHARLESTOWN,
MASSACHUSETTS.
No. 3
BY RICHARD FROTHINGHAM, JR.
"The History of a Town is united with that of the Country to which it belongs, and with that of the Ages through which it has stood."
K
CHARLESTOWN : CHARLES P. EMMONS.
BOSTON :
CHARLES C. LITTLE AND JAMES BROWN.
1846.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIII.
1640. - Charlestown Village. - Location. - Municipal Government. - Woburn Incorporated. - Extract from its Records. - Woburn Church Organized. - Thomas Carter -His Ordination. - Bounda- ries. - A Letter. - Final Agreement. - Land of Nod. - 105
CHAPTER XIV.
1640 to 1650. - Commerce. - Bounty on Wolves. - Shops. - The Castle. - Harvard College. - The Tide Mills. - Town Hill. - Rate for a School. - Petition of the Ferrymen. - Customs on Wines. - Case of Witchcraft. - Town Order. - A Fire. - John- son's Description of the Town. -
113
CHAPTER XV.
1650. - Mistick Side. - Settlements. - Malden Incorporated. - Church Gathered. - Marmaduke Matthews - his Ordination. - Congregationalism. - Matthews accused - his Defence - his Con- fession - his Fine. - Petition in his Behalf - his Confession to the Court. - Malden Church Arraigned - its Defence - its Fine. - Submission of the Church. - Departure of Matthews. - Mal- den Ministers. - 120
CHAPTER XVI.
Ecclesiastical History - 1640 to 1650. - Thomas Allen. - Theolog- ical Controversies. - Samuel Gorton. - The Baptists. - The Cambridge Platform. - Death of Thomas Allen. - 130
1
CHAPTER XVII.
Biographical Sketches. - Increase Nowell. - Robert Sedgwick. - Thomas Graves. - Francis Willoughby. - Richard Russell. 134
CHAPTER XVIII.
1650 to 1670. - Penny Ferry. - Grants of Land. - Trees. - Mans- field Petition. - Malden Debts. - By-Law respecting Strangers. - The Poor. - Burying Hill. - Town House. - Cow Commons. Division of Land in 1658. - Names of the Inhabitants. - Josselyn's Visits to the Town. - Town Buckets. - Letter of Charles II. - Petition of Middlesex Artillery Company. - Grant to Charlestown. - Ezekiel Cheever's Petition. - Selectmen's Order respecting Boys. - Petition of Freemen. - Fine of John Davis. - Seating the People and Church Rates. 147
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Warren Schol House. - -
-
- 119 -
First Congregational Church.
-
133
105
HISTORY OF CHARLESTOWN.
1271412
CHAPTER XIIT.
1640. - Charlestown Village. - Location. - Municipal Government. - Woburn Incorporated. - Extract from its Records. - Woburn Church Organized. - Thomas Carter. - His Ordination. - Boundaries. - A Letter. - Final Agreement. - Land of Nod.
THE territory called Woburn was regarded in 1640, as "re- mote land," whose roads were Indian pathways, with crevices of rocks and clefts of trees for shelters. To explore it, or occupy it was viewed as a " great labor," not to be undertaken without prayer, not to be accomplished without danger. The history of its settlement, minutely detailed by the early authorities, affords a good illustration of some of the peculiarities of the times, and of the way in which towns were organized.
In May, 1640, Charlestown petitioned the General Court for a grant of land "to accommodate such useful men as might settle" here, and form " a village for the improvement of such remote lands as are already laid out ; " hence the grants of May 13 and October 7, 1640, made on the condition of their being built upon within two years.1 A committee, September 28 and November 4, were appointed to locate "The Village," who were instructed " to advise with Mr. Nowell and the elders in any difficulties they meet with." This Committee, November 17, agreed as follows :
" That (beside the land already granted by the Court to particular men) there shall be laid out at the head of the new grant betwixt Cambridge Line and Lynn, quite throughout, land at such breadth as shall contain three thousand acres to remain as their proper land to accommodate with farms there such as they shall have occasion.
Second, That the bounds between Charlestown and the village shall be from the Partition of the Ponds to the north-west corner of Mr. Cra- dock's Farm, and from thence to that part of Lynn village (since called
] See page 53. The last grant is in the following words : 1640, Oc- tober 7. At a General Court : - Charlestowne petition is granted them the proportion of four miles square, with their former last grant to make a village ; whereof five hundred acres is granted to Mr. Thomas Coytmore, to be set out by the Court, if the town and he cannot agree ; in which they shall not cross Cambridge Line, nor come within a mile of Shawshine river, and the great swamp and pond to lie in common."
14
106
HISTORY OF CHARLESTOWN.
Reading) that turns from Charlestown head line by a straight line, provided that this line shall be half a mile from the lots in the nearest place ; that the lands of the village bordering upon that common may have benefit of common for milch cattle and working cattle. And the village is to allow so much land as shall be taken in more than the straight line besides the three thousand acres.
Third, That the place of the village meeting house should be above the head of the old bounds near against Robert Cutlers."
This agreement, the Woburn Records say, " was in part assent- ed to but afterwards denied." Difficulties arose; " many, fearing the depopulation " of Charlestown, " had a suspicious eye over" the villagers. A new committee were selected "to compound any differences ; " they, " considering the weightiness of the work and the weakness of the persons," held first, a meeting for fasting and prayer, and then proceeded with their "great labor."1 The Woburn Records note every step. One meeting was held " be- fore Mr. Nowell and Mr. Symmes, who gave them no small dis- couragement ; " at another, January 11, 1641, many, after having been admitted to sit down with the villagers, "being shallow in brains fell off; " at another, February 16, forty gathered to mark the " meets and bounds," when, " the way being so plain backward that divers never went forward again." At length, February 27, Mr. Nowell, " the noble Captain Sedgwick," Lieutenant Sprague and others, " advised the removal of the house lots, and place for the meeting house to the spot where they were finally located," near the centre of the town. The lots were laid out March 6, when the settlers began to build.
Before this time, however, the villagers had provided a local government. They met, December 18, 1640, at the house of Mr. Thomas Graves, in Charlestown, and agreed upon a series of "Town Orders," which were signed by thirty-two persons,2 the
1 " The committee were obliged to spend nights without shelter, "whilst rain and snow did bedew their rocky beds." They have recorded one remarkable providence as " never to be forgotten." Some of the compa- ny sheltering themselves under the body of a large tree, which lay at a distance from the ground, no sooner was the last of them come from under it, at break of day, than to their amazement it fell ; and they were obliged to dig out their provisions, their united strength being insufficient to re- move it." - Chickering's Dedication Sermon, p. 14.
2 The names of the signers were : -
Edward Johnson, John Seers,
Edward Winn,
Edward Converse, John Wyman,
Henry Belden,
John Mousall,
Francis Wyman,
Francis Kendall,
Ezekiel Richardson,
Thomas Graves,
John Tedd,
.
107
HISTORY OF CHARLESTOWN.
most of them inhabitants of this town. The preamble to this doc- ument, which is too long to quote in full, reads as follows: " The free fruition of such liberties and privileges as humanity, civility and christianity calls for as due to every man with his place and proportion without impeachment and infringing, which hath ever been and ever will be; the tranquillity and stability of Chris- tian Commonwealths, and the denial or the deprival thereof, the dis- turbance if not the ruin of both; we hold it therefore our duty," 1 to subscribe " these orders." The gist of them was, that each in- habitant should pay sixpence for every acre then laid out, and for all afterwards twelvepence; that all that did not build in fifteen months were to return their lots, and none were to sell to any but such as the town should approve of: that all orchards and garden plots were to be " well enclosed" by "pale or otherways;" that " no manner of person " should entertain "inmates either married or other," more than three days without the consent of " four of the Selectmen" under a penalty of sixpence for each day's offence ; and, finally, that none were to cut young oak timber " under eight inches square " under penalty of five shillings for each offence. Small things, some may think, to follow so high sounding a pre- amble. But let them not be despised; for such are the fibres of our national tree.
In a few months the General Court extended to the villagers sub- stantial encouragement. It repealed an existing law providing that no immunity should be granted to any new plantation, and the next entry on the records grants (June 14, 1641,) to Charlestown village " two years immunity from public rates from the end of this Court for such stock as they have there only." The next year is the act of incorporation : 1642, September 8:2 " Charlestown
Samuel Richardson,
Nicholas Davis,
Henry Tottingham, Richard Lowden,
Thomas Richardson, William Learned,
Nicholas Trarice, John Carter,
William Greene,
James Thomson,
James Converse,
Benjamin Butterfield,
John Wright,
Daniel Bacon,
Henry Jefts,
Michael Bacon,
James Britten,
James Parker, Thomas Fuller,
John Russell.
1 This preamble is a mutilated transcript of the beginning of the " Gen- eral Laws and Liberties of the Massachusetts Colony." See Massachusetts Collection, vol. xxxviii. p. 216 where these laws, drawn up by Ward, the author of the Simple Cobler of Agawam, are reprinted.
2 Colony Records. The date of May 18, in American Quarterly Re- gister, vol. xi. p. 187, and p. 25 Chickering's Sermon is incorrect.
108
HISTORY OF CHARLESTOWN.
Village called Woburn." 1 Henceforward Woburn is a town co- equal in rights and obligations, with its parent town. Its citizens regularly gather in town-meetings, choose selectmen, 2 manage their local affairs, and send their representative to the General Court.
The first volume of the Town Records of Woburn commences with the following narration of its history by its first Recorder, Edward Johnson : the reader may find more of the same kind of poetry in the author's Wonder Working Providence : -
RECORDS FOR THE TOWNE OF WOBURNE
ffrom the year 1640 : the 8 : day of th : 10 month.
Paulis per Fui.3
In peniles age I Woburne Towne began ; Charles Towne first mou'd the court my lins to span ;
To vewe my land-place, compild body reare, 4 Nowell, Sims, Sedgwick, thes my paterons were. Sum fearing I'de grow great upon these grounds, Poor I wase putt to nurs among the clownes, Who being taken with such mighty things, As had bin work of noble Queeins and Kings- Till Babe gan crye and great disturbance make- Nurses repent they did hur undertake. One leaves her quite - another hee doth hie To foren lands free from the Baby's crye. To (two) more of seaven, seeing nursing prou'd soe thwarte, Thought it more ease in following of the carte. A neighbour by, hopeing the Babe wold bee A pritty Girl, to rocking hur went hee.
1 Woburn is the name of a market town in Bedford county, England,- the population in 1830 was 1827 .- McCulloch's Gazetteer. It is also the name of a parish in Buckinghamshire. It is memorable for the case of a con- tested election in 1604, when a controversy concerning the election of Sir Francis Goodwin proved the cause of establishing the great constitutional doctrine, that the House of Commons have the sole right of deciding on the validity of their own elections and returns .- Lyson's Buckingham- shire, p. 670.
2 The first board of selectmen were, Edward Johnson, Edward Con- verse, John Mousall, William Learned, Ezekiel Richardson, Samuel Richardson and James Thomson. The first representative was Edward Johnson, who served in this capacity twenty-eight years, and for thirty years was town clerk.
3 I have been a little while : "I" meaning the Town.
4 This couplet required uncommon abbreviation ere the metre would come right to Johnson's critical ear. " Compild body reare " means - my compact body to rear.
5 The distinguished patrons of Woburn, fearing it would one day rival Charlestown, discouraged the enterprise, and gave it to those they re- garded as of a lower grade in society, or as the " clownes." But difficul- ties discouraged them also, and they " repent they did her undertake."
ยท
109
HISTORY OF CHARLESTOWN.
Two nurses, less undanted then the rest.1 Ffirst houses ffinish - thus the Girle gane drest. Its rare to see how this poore Towne did rise By weakest means - too weak in great ons eys. And sure it is, that mettells cleere exstraction Had neuer share in this poore Towns erextion. Without which metall, and sum fresh suplys, Patrons conclud she neuer upp would rise. If ever she mongst ladys have a station, Say twas ffrom parentes, not her education. And now conclud the Lords owne hand it wase That with weak means did bring this work to pass. Not only Towne, but Sister Church to ade, Which out of Dust and ashes now is had.
Then all inhabit Woburne Towne stay make The Lord, not means, of all you undertake.
But, many discouragements surmounted, the town was still but half founded : "It being," Johnson writes in his account of Woburn, "as unnatural for a right New England man to live without an able ministry, as for a smith to work his iron without a fire." Yet the villagers were prudent,-"not rashly running to gether themselves into a church, before they had hopes of at- taining an Officer to preach the word, and administer the seals unto them;" and for some time they remained members of the Charlestown church. "Upon some hope they had of Mr. Carter's help," they applied (July 4, 1642,) for permission to form a new church. But the old society was " found backward," and they " were put off fourteen days, at which time, after much agitation, they had liberty to gather a church." They lost nothing, how- ever, by waiting, as the history of Malden church will testify.
The Woburn church was organized August 14, 1642, when there were interesting services. Messengers from the neighboring churches formed the council, and Rev. Zechariah Symmes was the preacher. One of the magistrates, "the honored Mr. Increase Nowell," was present, both " to prevent the disturbance that mnight follow " the introduction into the infant church of " those cursed opinions that caused such commotion in this and the other colonies," and to " countenance the people of God in so pious a work." All about to enter into church communion, stood forth before this grave assembly, and related their religious experiences. After the elders had questioned them on doubtful points, and they had an-
1 " A neighbor by " is Johnson, the author of the metre in the text : the " two nurses " who persevered were John Mousall and Edward Con- verse. Mss. Com. of Rev. Samuel Sewall, to whom I am indebted for many favors.
110
HISTORY OF CHARLESTOWN.
swered "according to that measure of understanding the Lord had given them," and " all were satisfied," they entered into a covenant, and received the fellowship of the churches.1
.
A few months later, 1642, November 22, a minister was or- dained. Thomas Carter came to this country in 1635, was made freeman in 1637, resided some time in Dedham, and, when in- vited to preach at Woburn, was a member of the Watertown church.2 Johnson characterizes him as " apt to teach the sound and wholesome truths of Christ." The occasion of his induction into office furnished an eminent instance of lay ordination. It was not done without differences and discussion. The Woburn church had no elder, " nor any members fit," so Winthrop writes, " to solemnize such an ordinance." Some advised that the church should desire the elders of other churches to perform the cere- mony ; others, fearing the tendency to " a dependency of churches," and " so a presbytery, would not allow it." It was done by the laymen. After Mr. Carter " had exercised in preaching and prayer the greater part of the day," two persons in the name of the church laid their hands upon his head, and said, " We ordain thee, Thomas Carter, to be pastor of this church of Christ," and one of the elders closed by prayer. Winthrop was evidently dis- pleased with the service : the ceremony, he writes, was performed " not so well and orderly as it ought."3
A controversy respecting the boundaries between the two towns continued several years. An unusual vote appears on the records relative to it, dated May 8, 1643, when it is stated that the " church " chose four men to settle the difficulties; the Woburn records also mention that the "church " of Charlestown appoint- ed commissioners to act in relation to this business. How far the church claimed or exercised authority, in this transaction, does not appear. A few years later, March 17, 1646, the new town agreed " to send to the Selectmen of Charlestown " the following admirable letter,4 a model of directness of purpose and Christian courtesy : -
" To our much respected and much approved good ffreinds of Charls- towne, chosen to order the prudentiall affaiers therof.
" Much Respected and Antient ffreinds :
1 The quotations are from Wonder Working Providence, chapter 22.
2 Amer. Quarterly Register, vol. xi. p. 187 .- Chickering's Dedication Sermon, p. 25.
3 Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 91.
4 Woburn Records.
111
HISTORY OF CHARLESTOWN.
Wee are Bould to interupt your presant presious Implyments with Request for Issue of those things which sartaine of our Beloved Brethren amoung you were chosen unto. Now our humble Request is, that they may End it forthwith. If otherwise they cannot so doe, our further Re- quest is, that sume others unintrested in the things may put a ffreindly Isue to the same. Our last Request is, that if nether of these will doe, then in a brotherly and ffreindly way to petistion to the generall Court, that wee may not bequeth matter of differance to our posteryty. Thus with hope of a presant answer in uritting to our soe Resanabl Request,
Wee Remain yours to be commanded in all Saruis of love in Christ our Lord."
This letter did not produce an immediate settlement. In 1649, March 3, four of the selectmen of Woburn were chosen to speak with their " brethren of Charlestown " about " settling the bounds suddenly." At length, in 1651, January 10, the business was concluded, and an agreement entered at length upon the Re- cords. It provides; first, that the line of division between the two towns shall run " from Cambridge Line by the north-west end of Mr. Nowell's lot and so all along between Mr. Symmes's farm and Edward Converse's farm until it come to the east side " of those adjoining Charlestown common : second, that Woburn shall have five hundred acres of land out of this common - making here a fence " of two rails" to constitute the boundary line be- tween the two towns. Third, that Charlestown shall have three thousand acres of land within the bounds of Woburn, to begin " at the uttermost corner northerly, next Reading Line, and so to run southerly along two miles deep on the east side of Shawshine Line," till the tract amounted to three thousand acres. 1
1 The Charlestown Records contain much matter about this tract, called the " Land of Nod." The town retained an interest in it ; how much does not appear, but enough to produce trouble and litigation, and for a century (to 1742) committees were, at intervals, appointed to look after it. Still there is no clear account of this land in the records.
Charlestown, in a large division of its territory, April 23, 1638, allotted a tract, extending between Lynn and Cambridge, called the "Great Plot,"-the "remote lands " alluded to in the petition of 1640 (see page 105) When Woburn was incorporated it was agreed that the bounda- ry line should run so that a part of this "Great Plot," together with five hundred acres of commons adjacent to it, should belong to Woburn ; while Charlestown was recompensed by retaining the proprietorship of three thousand acres of land, lying at the northern extremity of the four mile square grant, though, for municipal purposes, this also was assigned to Woburn. This three thousand acres - described in the text - was called the " Land of Nod,"- the name being probably suggested by a compari- son of its forlorn condition,- so far remote from church ordinances, - with the Nod to which Cain wandered when he went " from the presence of the Lord." -- Genesis, iv. Its Indian name is given in an old deed, Nena Saawaattawattocks, and the " old Saggamore of these parts," was John Tahattawon.
112
HISTORY OF CHARLESTOWN.
Woburn, besides these difficulties, had trouble in dividing its own lands. There is extant a curious petition to the General Court, signed by twenty-five of its citizens, dated October 7, 1667, and
Though Woburn had municipal jurisdiction over Nod, yet it never claimed to own rights in its soil. Charlestown, accordingly, originally granted it to individuals. Under date of 1643 there is a record as follows : " Proportions of Land granted out to these follos :
Robert Sedgwick, 300. William Stitson, 250.
Zacheriah Symmes, 300. William Phillips, 200.
Thomas Allen, 300. Ralph Woory, 200.
Richard Russell, 300. Robert Cooke, 250.
Francis Willoughby, 300. Thomas Graves, 250
John Allen, 300. Mr. Barnard, 200.
This was the original grant of Nod, though it was not laid out until seven years afterwards, nor lotted out until 1718. Of these proprietors, Graves and Sedgwick, Cooke and others, resigned their lots to the town. The latter, in 1652, granted five hundred acres of Nod to Captain Francis Norton, retaining a propriety of part of it. Nod lay in common for many years, some of its proprietors neglecting to look after it. Francis Wil- loughby bought the shares granted to Francis Norton and John Allen, and then owned one thousand one hundred and fifty acres. In 1683, May 1, Lawrence Hammond, who had married Governor Willoughby's widow, sold this quantity to John Hull. Judge Sewall married Mr. Hull's daughter, and thus came into the possession of rights in Nod. He (about 1703) anthorized the Richardsons', of Woburn, to cut timber on it. On hearing of this, Charlestown appointed a committee to examine its rights to the land of Nod, who reported, 1704, December 25. The following is an extract from this report : " We are informed that there are several persons that claim part of that tract of land (Nod) which we cannot allow of, for we are very well satisfied that this tract of land was originally the Jand that Woburn exchanged with Charlestown, for lands then belonging to Charlestown, and we cannot find any record that this land was ever legally conveyed to any particular person."
The other claimants were five citizens of Andover, who exhibited a deed from " Sam Johnson, grandson and heir " of the old Saggamore Tahat- tawon, who for nine pounds relinquished, " all Indian and native rights" to Nod, or its native name Nena Saawaattawattocks. The town accepted the report of its committee, contested the right of Judge Sewall, and claimed the whole of Nod. The case was tried at a Special Court on the 18th of September, 1705, when the decision was against the town. The lat- ter appealed to the Superior Court, which affirmed the former judgment. (Mss. Com. Rev. Samuel Sewall.) The result was, that the town had but a share of Nod, instead of owning the whole. The rights of individ- ual proprietors being thus confirmed, they met at Charlestown, April 14, 1718, and voted to divide the whole three thousand acres. Captain Burnap, a noted surveyor, was employed to draw a plan of it.
In the same year, November 12, the land was lotted out. (Judge Sew- all's Mss. Com. by Rev. Samuel Sewall.) After this, several committees were raised in relation to Nod. A vote of 1742, May 10, indicates that a part of the town's share of it had been sold, and a committee was then authorized to sell the remainder.
Such is the carly history of Wilmington, incorporated in 1730, and made up of the land of Nod with a part of Reading. To this day the tract between Lubber's Brook and Andover Line, among the farmers of that region, goes by the soporific name of Nod.
113
HISTORY OF CHARLESTOWN.
beginning :- " May it please this honorable court to vouchsafe some help to our town of Woburn in dividing a lump of this wilderness earth." The church, however, lived in harmony with its minister more than forty-two years. Mr. Carter died September 5, 1684. In ten years the town increased to about sixty families - the church to seventy-four members. But it would be obviously impro- per to devote further space to Woburn - it shared largely in the early dangers, and partook of the prosperity of the country.
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