USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Plymouth > Town annual report of Plymouth, MA 1636-1705 (vol. 1) > Part 1
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Plymouth Public Library
PRESENTED BY
F. E. PARLIN MEMORIAL LIBRARY Everett, Marcachusetts
November
1947
Everett Public
Purchas,
6 ap 1897
P 974.4
Shelf Ofa. 775. PT4 . I Recession Ofc. 11117
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/annualreportofto1636unse
PUBLISHED BY
W. B. CLARKE & CO.,
340 Washington Street, BOSTON.
-
RECORDS
C. 3
-OF THE-
TOWN OF PLYMOUTH.
PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE TOWN.
HIR 9711.40
REC
VOL. 1.
1636-1705
1636 TO 1705.
V.I
PLYMOUTH : AVERY & DOTEN, BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS. 1889.
PLYMOUTH,
PV
974.4
PREFACE.
At the annual meeting of the Town of Plymouth held on the seventh of March, 1887, it was voted, on motion of Arthur Lord, " that a committee of three be appointed by tlie Moderator to con- sider the expedieney of printing and publishing the whole, or any part, of the Town Records as a part of the history of the Town, and report at the adjourned meeting, with an estimate of the expense."
The committee, consisting of Arthur Lord, Charles G. Davis, and William W. Brewster, presented at the adjourned meeting, held on the 4th of April, the following report :
"The committee appointed under Article 16 of the warrant relating to the printing and publishing of the Town Records as a part of the history of the town, subinit the following report :
The records of the proceedings of the town, from the date of the earliest reeord to the year 1828 are contained in four volumes, which are numbered and dated as follows : Vol. 1, 1660 ; vol. 2, 1660 to 1710; vol. 3, 1716 to 1795 ; vol. 4, 1795 to 1828.
The cates above given do not accurately cover the periods included in the several volumes. These volumes contain the record of all the formal aetion of the town, which it would be expedient, in the opinion of the committee, for the town to publish. These embrace the records of the town meetings, the laying out of highways, the grants of land by the town, and eover the important periods of local history, the union of the colonies, the various French and Indian wars, the Revolution, the war of 1812, and the interesting action of the town in relation to
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PREFACE.
the Embargo, and contain much of national and public, as well as local interest, which has never been published in permanent form.
The first volume, which in the lapse of years has become some- what illegible and worn, was copied under a vote of the town in 1824, by Rossiter Cotton, and that copy in 1860 was compared with the original and corrected by Daniel J. Robbins, under the direction of the Selectmen, in compliance with a vote of the town. A copy of volume 2 of the records was made by Daniel J. Robbins in 1860, under a vote of the town, and these copies, with the certificates of the copyists, are deposited for safe keep- ing in the Registry of Deeds.
With the aid of these copies it is believed that an accurate transcript of the records could be made for publication. The im- portance of their publication will be readily admitted. Within the past few years many other towns, notably Braintree, Dedham and Groton, have caused to be published their early records, and the wi ler interest in the Plymouth records affords a much stronger argument than exists in those towns for their publication.
The committee have considered mainly the question of expense, believing that the only opposition to the publication of the town records would arise on that ground. From estimates which have been submitted to them by responsible printers here and in Boston. it is believed that the expense of the publication of an edition of one thousand copies of one volume of about three hundred pages, which would include all the records in the first volume of town records and part of the second would be about one thousand dol- lars. This would include all the records to a date subsequent to 1700.
The committee are assured that an edition of that size could be readily disposed of at a price which would repay to the town all money by it expended in its publication ; so that all the burden the town would assume would be the granting of the use of the money necessary until the edition was sold.
Believing that under this view of the matter the town would
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PREFACE.
gladly incur the slight expenditure to insure the publication of its early records, they recommend the adoption of the vote submitted herewith.
They make no recommendation as to the publication of the remaining volumes at this time, believing that their publication can await that of this first volume, and that then the town will willingly vote to continue their publication, if experience shall show that the opinion of the committee as to their probable cost to the town was correct."
In accordance with the above recommendation of the committee it was voted "that a committee of five, of whom the Moderator shall be one, be appointed by the chair with authority to print or publish, at a cost not exceeding one thousand dollars, so much of the town records as a part of the history of the town as they shall deem expedient, and that the Selectmen be authorized to borrow a sum of money not exceeding such amount as may be required to carry out this vote."
The committee as appointed by the chair consisted of the Moderator Wm. T. Davis, Arthur Lord, Charles G. Davis, Wm. W. Brewster and Thomas B. Drew. The editorial management of the publication was placed by the committee in the hands of the chair- man, whose introductory chapter will further explain its character and scope.
The present volume of three hundred and thirty-six pages in- cludes the first volume of town records, and ninety-eight pages of the second, closing with the record of the town meeting held May 21st, 1705.
It is the hope of the committee that sufficient interest will be excited by the volume to secure a continuance of the work of publication.
WM. T. DAVIS, ARTHUR LORD, CHARLES G. DAVIS, WM. W. BREWSTER, THOMAS B. DREW, Committee of Publication,
Plymouth, Nov. 15th, 1889,
INTRODUCTION.
The records of Plymouth, exclusive of the records of births, deaths and marriages, are contained in nine volumes, the first covering the period from 1636 to 1692; the second from 1692 to 1716 ; the third from 1716 to 1795 ; the fourth from 1795 to 1828 ; the fifth from 1828 to 1854 ; the sixth from 1854 to 1866 ; the sev- enth from 1866 to 1878; the eighth from 1878 to 1887, and the ninth from 1887 to the present time.
These records have been kept by Nathaniel Sowther from 1636 to April, 1645 ; by Nathaniel Morton from March, 1647, to June, 1685 ; by Thomas Faunce from July, 1685, to May, 1723 ; by John Dyer from March, 1723-4, to March, 1732-3; by Gershom Foster from March, 1732-3, to March, 1733-4; by John Dyer again from March, 1733-4, to March, 1739-40; by Edward Winslow from March, 1739-40, to January, 1741-2; by Samuel Bartlett from January, 1741-2, to March, 1766; by John Cotton from March, 1766, to March, 1767; by Ephraim Spooner from March, 1767, to April, 1818 ; by Thomas Drew from April, 1818. to March, 1840 ; by Timothy Berry from March, 1840, to March, 1852 ; by Leander Lovell from March, 1852, to March, 1878, and from March, 1878, to the present time by Curtis Davie, the pres- ent Town Clerk.
Nathaniel Sowther was chosen Clerk of the Colony Court on the third of January, 1636-7, in obedience to a law passed probably November 15, 1636. Before that time the Plymouth Colony rec- ords were kept by the different Governors, William Bradford, Ed- ward Winslow and Thomas Prence, and are in their handwriting. At the time of the passage of the above law another law was passed providing " that every man's marke of his cattle be brought to the towne book where he lives and that no man give the same but shall alter any other brought by him and put his owne upon them."
There was no Town Clerk at the time of the passage of this law, and Mr. Sowther, as clerk of the Colony Court, opened a "town
Y
INTRODUCTION.
book" and made the entries relating to marks of cattle to be found on the opening pages of this volume.
These entries, which are not dated, must have been made be- tween November 15th, 1636, the date of the passage of the law and the last day of March, 1637, the date of the succeeding entry.
Not only was there no Town Clerk at that date, but it is difficult to define the exact point of time when Plymouth became a town. It was never incorporated, nor ever by any act of colonial legisla- tion created into a municipality. Its first recognition by the Gen- eral Court as a town was in an order passed on the 28th of Octo- ber, 1633, "that the chiefe governin' be tyed to the towne of Plymouth and that the Gov' for the time being be tyed there to keepe his residence & dwelling. and there also to hold such Courts as concern the whole."
The bounds of the town were not fixed by law until the second day of November, 1640, when it was ordered by the Court of As- sistants : .. Whereas by the act of the General Court held the third of March in the sixteenth year of his said Majestie's now reign (163-40) the Governor & Assistants were authorized to set the bounds of the several townships it is enacted and concluded by the Court that the bounds of Plymouth township shall extend south- wards to the bounds of Sandwich township and northward to the little brook falling into Black Water from the commons left to Duxbury and the neighborhood thereabouts and westward eight miles up into the lands from any part of the bay or sea ; always provided that the bounds shall extend so far up into the woodlands as to include the South Meadows toward Agawam lately discov- ered and the convenient uplands thereabouts."
For the want of a more certain date the 28th of October, 1633, when the order was passed by the Court of Assistants making the town of Plymouth the seat of the colonial government, may be properly considered the true period of the birth of the town as distinct from the Colony of New Plymouth. The town records were not begun, however, until three years later. when. as has been stated, Nathaniel Sowther, the Clerk of the Colonial Court, en- tered the marks of cattle in obedience to the requirements of law. The two clauses on the second page of this volume relating to the cattle of Nathaniel and John Morton, and dated 1653, are not parts of the original record, having been interlined by Nathaniel Morton at that date. after he became Clerk of the Colonial Court and assumed the functions of Town Clerk.
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INTRODUCTION.
Of Nathaniel Sowther little is known. He appeared in Plym- outh in 1635, and was made a freeman on the 4th of October in that year. He was chosen Clerk of the Colonial Court, as above stated, on the third of January, 1636-7, and was succeeded by Nathaniel Morton in 1647. In 1638 he bought of Lieut. Wm. Holmes a house lot where the northerly row of tombs now stands on burial hill, and there lived until his removal to Boston, about the year 1640. He died in 1655, leaving no male descendants. By a first wife, Alice, who died in 1651, he had two daughters ; Hannah, who married Wm. Hanbary, and Mary, who married Jo- seph Starr. In 1655 he married a second wife, widow Sarah Hill. It has been thought by some that his name Sowther was identical with that of Southworth, but in the records he invariably spelled it either Sowther or Souther, while the name of Southworth, which he had frequent occasion to write, he always spelled either South- worth or Southwood. It is a little singular that the pronunciation of Southworth at the present day as a christian name is almost always in accordance with the Southwood spelling which disap- peared from the records at a very early day.
There was no provision of law for a Town Clerk during Mr. Sowthier's term of service, and he continued to keep the town rec- ords as the Clerk of the Colony. The only requirement touching the subject was contained in an order passed by the General Court on the third of March, 1645-6, "that the Clarke or some one in every towne do keepe a register of the day and yeare of every marryage byrth and buriall & to have 3ยช a peece for his paynes." This order did not specifically require the appointment of a Town Clerk, and as long as the records were kept by the Clerk of the Colony in distinct town books, the demands of the order were sat- isfied.
The last entry made by Mr. Sowther bears the date of April 8, 1645, and the first entry of his successor, Nathaniel Morton, that of March 4, 1647. The last entry made by Mr. Sowther in the Colonial Court records bears date July 7, 1646, and the first made by Mr. Morton that of December 7, 1647. The gap in the Col- onial records is filled chiefly by the handwriting of Wm. Bradford, then Governor, one single entry having been made apparently by the same unknown hand which fills the gap in the town records.
No record exists of the precise time when Nathaniel Morton was appointed Clerk of the Colonial Court. It is only known that he entered his first record of the proceedings of the Court on the 7th
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INTRODUCTION.
of December, 1647, and his first record of the town on the 4th of the following March. The office held by him and Mr. Sowther was that of "clarke" until March 5, 1667-8, at which date he for the first time signed his name as secretary. Like his predecessor, he kept the town records in his capacity as Colonial Clarke or Sec- retary until the 4th of August, 1679, when, as appears from the record on page 160 of this volume, he "was sworne Clarke of the Towne of Plymouth for this present yeer."
Mr. Morton is known not only as the Secretary of Plymouth Colony, but as the author of "New England's Memorial" published in 1669. He was born in 1613, and came to Plymouth in the Ann with his father. George Morton, in 1623. He married in 1635 Lydia Cooper, and one of his children, Remember Morton, married in 1657 Abraham Jackson, the ancestor of a family which has always been prominent in the Old Colony. He lived for many years on the estate now occupied by Frederick L. Holmes. adjoining Hob's Hole Brook, but in the latter part of his life until his death he oc- cupied a house which stood on the easterly side of Market Street, immediately above the estate of Mrs. John B. Atwood. His last entry in the town records is dated May 18th, 1685, and he died on the 28th of the following month.
Thomas Faunce was chosen Town Clerk July 6, 1685, and his first entry was the record of the meeting at which he was chosen. He served until May 13th, 1723, at which date his last entry was made. He was born in 1647, and notwithstanding he was an old man at the date of his retirement, he lived until the 27th of Feb- ruary, 1745, after he had entered his ninety-ninth year. He was the son of John Faunce, who came in the Ann in 1623, and he married in 1672 Jean, daughter of William Nelson. His mother was Patience Morton, a sister of Secretary Morton, his predecessor in office. He was the last ruling elder of the First Church, having succeeded Elder Thomas Cushman, who died on the 10th of De- cember, 1691. During the closing years of his life Mr. Faunce lived in Chiltonville, on the southwesterly side of the old Manomet Road, a little north of the Eel River Bridge. As his term of ser- vice as Clerk extended beyond the period covered by this volume, a reference to his successors will be reserved for future publications of the records.
This volume is largely devoted to grants of land by the town and the bounding out of lands granted by the Colonial Court. Such records are somewhat dry in their details, but they disclose
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INTRODUCTION.
the methods, most interesting to the antiquary and historian, by which the foundation of our land titles was originally laid. The grants of lands by the Colony Court began before the town had secured any possessory rights, and the grants or sales made by the town did not cease until the present century had opened.
Until the spring of 1'624 the tillage lands of Plymouth were used in common. At that time. as Bradford says, the Pilgrims " began now highly to prize corn as more precious than silver, and those that had some to spare began to trade one with another for small things, by the quart, pottle and peck ; for money they had none, and if any had corn was preferred before it. That they might therefore increase their tillage to better advantage, they made suit to the Governor to have some portion of land given them for con- tinuance, and not by yearly lot, for by that means that which the more industrious had brought into good culture (by such pains) one year, came to leave it the next and often another might enjoy it ; so as the dressing of their lands were the more sleighted over and to less profit ; which, being well considered, their request was granted."
In compliance with the above request, one acre of land was given to each person. Sixty-nine acres were given to those who came in the Mayflower, including twenty-nine acres between the town brook and Fremont Street, east of Sandwich Street, sixteen on Watson's Hill, five between the Burial Hill and Murdock's Pond, and nineteen between Court Street and the harbor, bounded on the north by the Railroad Park.
Thirty-three acres were given to those who came in the Fortune in 1621, including six acres immediately north of the Railroad Park, eight immediately north of the second or Woolen Mill Brook, and nineteen between the first, or Shaw's Brook, and the Second Brook.
Ninety-five acres were granted to those who came in the Ann and the Little James in 1623, including forty-five acres lying north of the Second Brook and extending across the Third, or Cold Spring Brook, and fifty acres lying on both sides of Hob's Hole Brook, and along the shore farther south.
These lands, including one hundred and ninety-seven acres within a territory not more than two and a half miles long, and a quarter of a mile wide, were doubtless the old cleared corn lands of the Indians. Their grants are recorded in the Plymouth Colony Records.
XIT
INTRODUCTION.
The second division of lands also recorded in the Plymouth Colony Records was made January 3, 1627, when each free holder received twenty acres.
1 Up to the year 1651 the Colony granted and laid out to Free- men in different parts of the town lots varying in size from five to one hundred acres. Plymouth, at that time, included Plymp- ton, Kingston, Carver, and a part of Halifax. Jones' River Meadows lying in what are now Kingston and Plympton, were granted to eight men in 1640. In the same year the South Meadows were granted to eighteen men, and Dotie's Meadows to five men. All these grants are recorded in the Colony Records. The bounding out of many of these grants was subsequently made by the Town Surveyors and recorded in the Town Records.
The Winnatucksett Meadows, the Monponsett Meadows, the Punckatesett lands in what is now Tiverton. and lands in Free- town, which belonged to the town, were granted by the town, and their bounds are entered in the Town Records. Indeed, all the lands included within the original limits of Plymouth are granted and bounded out in either the Colony, Town or Proprietors' Records except a small part of Halifax, the bounds of which are recorded in the Pembroke and Middleboro records, and are a part of the major's and twenty-six men's purchase added to Halifax, and a small part of Carver, which the Proprietors of the South Purchase of Middleboro laid out by mistake within the bounds of Plymouth, and are bounded out in the records of the South Purchase of Middleboro.
On the 9th of February, 1701-2, a lot of thirty acres was granted by the town to every proprietor or freeman, and on the 16th of the following month it was voted that all the lands not disposed of within a tract a mile and a half square, should be held by the town, and all the unallotted lands outside of that tract should be granted to the freemen of the town. The bound- aries of the mile and a half may be found in a foot note on the 296th page.
Before the consummation, however, of this grant to the proprietors the town voted on the twenty-fourth of May. 1703, that all the common land described on page 314 should be devoted to a sheep pasture, but after the failure of this enter- prise the lands were disposed of, as stated in the foot note on the above mentioned page.
The proprietors, under the above grant, two hundred and one
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INTRODUCTION.
in number, organized, with the choice of Thomas Faunce as clerk. on the 26th of December, 1704, and on the 3d of the following January each proprietor received a twenty acre lot, and soon after a sixty acre lot. After the incorporation of the town of Plympton. on the 4th of June, 1707, the proprietors took the name of the Plymouth and Plympton Proprietors. and after the cedar swamps which had been previously surveyed by order of the town by Jacob Tompson had been divided in thirty-nine lots among the members, all the remaining lands, including more than thirty thousand acres, except a few strips and gores were laid out in ten great lots and also divided.
The successors of Thomas Faunce as Clerk of the Proprietors were Samuel Bartlett, chosen May 25, 1747 ; John Cotton, chosen April 6, 1767, and Rossiter Cotton, chosen March 31, 1790, soon after which date the affairs of the proprietors were closed. Their records contained in two volumes are deposited with the records of the town.
The land within the mile and a half tract was disposed of by the town at various times a few lots at the base of Burial Hill, on School Street, as late as the year 1810. The only lots remaining unsold, so far as the editor knows, are Training Green, Cole's Hill, Burial Hill, a part of Court Square, once called the "great gutter," a triangle of land at the foot of Middle Street, in the rear of the old Bramhall store, a strip twelve feet wide at the junction of Sandwich and Water Streets, a lot on School Street, two lots on South Street and the South Pond Road, ninety-four acres of woodland at New Guinea, on both sides of the Kingston line, Town Dock, and a hundred acres of woodland at Manomet Ponds, given by the Proprietors to the town for the benefit of the Indians.
In the preparation of his work for the press the editor has made a transcript of the original records, following closely their punctua- tion, orthography and use of capital letters. In some instances words have been supplied by the copies above mentioned where their illegibility or loss has occurred since the copies were made. In all other instances lost words are indicated by stars.
The numbers enclosed in square brackets show the numbers of the corresponding pages in the original records.
It will be observed that in some instances entries have not been made in chronological order. One of these will be found on the 26th page, another on page 208, others on pages 214, 215, 216, 218 and 329, and in various other places in the volume. These
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INTRODUCTION.
irregularities are to be accounted for in various ways. The original first volume of records was at some time in such a dilapidated condition that its leaves were separated and pasted at their inner edges on blank sheets of paper and rebound. In the arrangement of these sheets many of these irregularities occurred. It is evident also that there were loose papers in the town archives thought worthy of preservation which were inserted in the volume at the time it was rebound, without regard to their dates. In some instances these sheets were probably copied and entered wherever in any part of the original volume there was sufficient blank space.
It must be remembered in connection with the dates of various entries that until 1752 the year began in England and its colonies on the 25th of March, and that double dates were often applied to all days between the 1st of January, and the 24th of March, inclusive. Thus an entry made on the 10th of February, 1750, old style, would be 1751, new style, and would be dated 10th of February, 1750-1.
In conclusion, the editor trusts that the work on which he has bestowed much careful labor will meet the approval of both the committee of which he is a member and of the town whom he serves.
W. T. D.
PLYMOUTH RECORDS.
(NOTE .- A law was passed by the Colony Court, November 15, 1636, "That every mans marke of his Cattle be brought to the towne book where he lives and that no man give the same but shall alter any other brought by him and put his owne upon them.")
[1.] * Bartlet a peece cut out of the right eare before and * out of the left eare behind.
* Church 1cropt on both eares and a slitt in the downewarde.
* Little a slit in the further eare.
* Higgens a peece cut out behind in the right eare a slitt cut in the same place.
Edmund Chandler a slit cutt in the neather side of the left eare under the eare.
Steephen Tracy a slitt under each eare.
Richard Sparrow the top of the right eare cut of and two notches cut out of each side hether eare.
Mr John Weekes a swallow tayle cut out on the left eare.
William Pontuss swallow cropt upon the * and a snip cut out upon the outside of the right eare.
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