Documentary history of Chelsea : including the Boston precincts of Winnisimmet, Rumney Marsh, and Pullen Point, 1624-1824, vol 1, Part 40

Author: Chamberlain, Mellen, 1821-1900; Watts, Jenny C. (Jenny Chamberlain); Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918; Massachusetts Historical Society
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Boston : Printed for the Massachusetts Historical Society
Number of Pages: 762


USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Chelsea > Documentary history of Chelsea : including the Boston precincts of Winnisimmet, Rumney Marsh, and Pullen Point, 1624-1824, vol 1 > Part 40


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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£.1" .3"-


2 " 14 " -


0" .2" 5 To Jos: Belcher for Summering a Cow .


To Jona Bill for 1 Cows hire 6/7₫ To Danl Whittemore 1/6d 0" 8" 1


To Jacob Wenslow 6d To Phinneas Upham 9s 11₫ To Jer: Belcher for Rent 23/. Joha Eustice 5s Edmd Needham 4/. Jos: Bill 10/. Isaac Lewis 6/.


-"10 " 5


1" .8"-


Thos Townsend 3/2₫ David Cole 20s. Jona Eustice Con- stable for Rates 42/. Edwd Watts in pt of 2 Years Rent 15li


18“ .5" 2


Thos Gyles 22s. 4d John Pratt 40/. Samli Wording 8/s . Samuel Jenks 12/. John Langdon 3/6₫ John Brentnal 2/6d


3 " 10" 4


Doctr Morris 8/4d To ye Accomptant John Center a Debt 30/"


1 " 18 "


To the Admrs for their Expences


2"_"-


To Drawing, Allowing & Registring this Accot her mark Ruth @ Center -


£277" 2" 7


£45" .6 " 10


45 " 6 " 10


John Center -


Rests £231 "15" 9


Distribution 35 of ye Estate of John Center late of Wiñisimett deced


SUFFOLK. SS./.


By the Honble Jsaac Addington Esq! Judge of Probate &c.


Jt Appearing to me by the Accompt of Ruth Center Widow & John Center . . . that the Surplusage or Remaining Goods & Chattels of ye deced; Debts, funeral & just Expences being Allowed, Amounts to Two hundred thirty One pounds, fifteen shills & Nine pence to be Distributed to the Widow & Children, Jonath" Center the Second Son haveing had Eight pounds already Advanced to him by ye Said deced in his Life time towards his portion upon Marriage. -


35 Suff. Prob. Rec., L. 16, f. 378. ,


VOL. I .- 25


-" 5"-


1"-"-


-"18"-


" 8"-


386


HISTORY OF CHELSEA


[CHAP. VII


Pursuant Therefore to the Act or Law, For the Setling and Distribution of the Estates of Jntestates, and the Power and Authority to me thereby given, J Do Order the Distribution of the s! Sum of Two hundred thirty one pounds, fifteen shills. & Nine Pence in manner following, That is to say, To Ruth, Widow of the Intestate forever Seventy Seven pounds, five shills & three pence for her Third part thereof. To John Center Thirty Six pounds Two shills & four Pence for his double Portion, And to Jonath" Center £10 " 1 " 2. And to Elizabeth, Eliner, Mehetabel, Ruth, Sarah, and Jeremiah, Eighteen pounds one shilling & two pence each being their Single parts & portions of their sª Fathers Estate. And that the s! Adm's pay the s! Seven Children, or their respective Guardians their Several Portions accordingly, Each of them to give Bond wth Surety's as the Law directs, if Debts afterwas be made to Appear, to Refund & Pay back to ye Admin's their Ratable parts thereof, & of the Admrs Charges. Dated at Boston the Fourth day of February Anno Dni 1707-8.


Isª Addington]


387


APPENDIX 11


CHAP. VII]


APPENDIX 11


Farm of Daniel Watts


[SEPTEMBER 27, 1739, Daniel Watts conveyed to Benjamin Blaney twelve aeres of land. September 9, 1740, Benjamin Blaney and his wife Abigail mortgaged for £100 in Manufactory Bills eight aeres of upland with four aeres of salt marsh adjoining thereto, both on the south side of the road from Winnisimmet to Malden ; bounded east and south on Daniel Watts by a wall and a diteh cut through the marsh to the ereek; thenee by thie ereek to Malden line; by Malden line to the road.1 February 28, 1792, Benjamin Blaney and Hannah his wife conveyed the marshland, then estimated as five aeres lying " within the Dyke " of Island End River, to Dr. Samuel Danforth for £50 lawful money.2 December 27, 1803, Benjamin and Hannah Blaney sold seven aeres of upland to Joseph and William Heard of Boston. This was bounded north by the highway; west by Whittemore, i. e., Malden line; south by marsh of Dr. Samuel Danforth, a diteh dividing said upland from said marsh; and east by land of Dr. Danforth.3 In 1816 William Heard conveyed his right therein to Joseph Heard.4 It is marked on Hopkins' Atlas as the Heard estate.


.


At the death of Hon. Samuel Watts the house and land of Daniel Watts were divided between Dr. Edward Watts and Mrs. Samuel Danforth. The former sold his portion to Moses Collins, March 13, 1773. On August 9, 1774, Moses Collins of Malden conveyed to Dr. Samuel Danforth the western portion of the house and 49 aeres, it being the land bought of Dr. Edward Watts except 16 aeres of upland next Mr. Whittemore's on the west side of the road, i. c., west of Washington Avenue, and 22 aeres of marsh "in the blown country." 5 Mareh 3, 1792, Moses Collins and his wife Lydia conveyed to Danforth for £136 lawful money, 13 aeres of marshland, it being part of the 22 acres in the " blown Country " purchased of Dr. Edward Watts, "and is the whole


1 Suff. Deeds, L. 60, f. 76.


Ibid., L. 172, f. 128.


3 Ibid., L. 207, f. 202.


4 Ibid., L. 252, ff. 43, 45; also L. 381, f. 140,


5 Ibid., L. 126, f. 139.


388


HISTORY OF CHELSEA


ICHAP. VII


of my right in said purchase of twenty two Acres." " When the direct tax of 1798 was assessed, the sixteen acres of upland excepted in the conveyance to Samuel Danforth in 1774, were owned by Moses Collins and improved by Joseph Sergeant. They were valued at $320, and were bounded south on the town road (to Malden) ; west on the "County Line"; north on Daniel Pratt; and cast on the town road (to Lynn). February 16, 1803, Moses Collins of Chelsea with his wife Hannah conveyed to Thomas Williams of Noddle's Island for $1200, sixteen acres of upland bounded northwest by Moses Collins, northeast by Daniel Pratt; southeast and southwest by the road leading to Boston over Malden Bridge; also 23/4 acres of salt marsh. March 19 Thomas Wil- liams conveyed the same to Samuel Danforth.7 By this and other purchases Dr. Samuel Danforth acquired the whole of the Daniel Watts farm, except the Heard estate, and all the marshland of the Ferry farm north of Island End River. A list of his purchases follows :


August 9, 1774, from Moses Collins, 49 acres of the portion of Dr. Edward Watts in the Daniel Watts farm (L. 126, f. 139).


Sept. 16, 1788, from Mary Harris for £15, 7 acres of marsh (L. 163, f. 190) ; sold to Aaron Dexter, Sept. 27 (L. 167, f. 257).


July 3, 1790, from Samuel (3) Watts, 36 acres of marsh for £175 5s. 9d. (L. 168, f. 67).


Nov. 6, 1790, from Mrs. Ann Hough, 6 acres of marsh for £36 lawful money (L. 168, f. 233).


Feb. 28, 1792, from Benjamin Blaney, 5 acres of marsh for £50 lawful money (L. 172, f. 128).


March 3, 1792, from Moses Collins, 13 acres, the marsh in the "blown country," for £136 lawful money (L. 172, f. 129).


March 6, 1792, from Mrs. Ann Hough, 6 acres of marsh (L. 172, f. 128). March 13, 1792, from Isaac Smith, 9 acres of marsh for £90 (L. 172, f. 148). This was a part of the marsh sold by the executors of the estate of Hon. Samuel Watts. (Suff. Deeds, L. 138, f. 62; Suff. Prob. Rec., L. 71, f. 295. )


May 15, 1793, Samuel Danforth and Aaron Dexter exchanged 7 acres of marsh, Danforth conveying title to 7 acres south of the ereck, and Dexter to the 7 acres north thereof which Mary Harris had conveyed to Danforth, and Danforth to Dexter, in 1788 (L. 176, f. 41; L. 177, f. 28).


Oct. 29, 1798, Danforthi made a similar exchange of marshland with H. H. Williams, conveying title to a parcel of land south of Island End River, and receiving title to a parcel north thereof (L. 191, ff. 205, 209).


March 19, 1803, from Thomas Williams, 16 acres of upland and 234 acres of marsh for $1200 (L. 205, f. 47).


0 Suff. Deeds, L. 172, f. 129.


7 Ibid., L. 205, f. 47.


389


APPENDIX 11


CHAP. VII]


When the direct tax of 1798 was assessed, Samuel Danforth owned a farm of two hundred eight and one half acres. The house covered 1140 feet, was of two stories, with twenty-two windows, was " Verry old," and with half an acre of land and a wood house was valued at $440. Two hundred and eight acres of upland and marsh, with three barns, a shed, and a corn barn were ap- praised at $4027.75. Nathaniel Chittenden was the tenant. Pre- sumably John Adams was tenant in 1791. According to the records of the selectmen, Feb. 16, 1789, Adams came from Med- ford with a wife Lydia and nine children.


October 16, 1813, Samuel Danforth conveyed to Thomas Furber his lands in Chelsea and Malden. Of the land sold (1) 159 acres lay south of the road from Winnisimmet to Malden, between the road and Island End River; with the lands of H. H. Williams (the Ferry farm) southeast, and Joseph Heard and Malden line west. (2) Fifty-two acres lay north and east of the road from Winnisimmet to Lynn or, as it is called in this conveyance, the road to Chelsea meeting-house. Beginning at the angle of the road from the ferry, near Mr. Cary's gate, the boundary line of this parcel ran northwest by that road to the corner where the road to Malden diverged from the road to Chelsea meeting-house, near which corner the mansion house stood; thence northeast by the road to Chelsea meeting-house to the land of Edward and Caleb Pratt, " where there is a small brook "; thence by said Pratt and Aaron Hall and Samuel Pratt, to the land of Mr. Cary; thence south to the angle of the road near the gate. (3) Twenty-eight acres lay in Chelsea and Malden north of the road to Malden, and west of the road to Chelsea meeting-house. Beginning at the angle of the above roads, which was nearly opposite the mansion house, the line followed the road to Malden, crossing the county line to the land of Joseph Whittemore; thence north by said Whittemore to Edward and Caleb Pratt; east by said Pratt, recrossing the county line, to the road to Chelsea meeting-house; south by said road to the corner first mentioned. Several parcels of land in Malden were conveyed by the same deed.8


February 24, 1820, Thomas Furber mortgaged all the marsh- land in Chelsea owned by him to the Directors of the Massachu- setts Bank.9 It was bounded north by upland of Joseph and William Hurd and upland of said Furber; southeast by a ditch between it and the marsh of the heirs of H. H. Williams deceased; on all other sides by the creek and river. This land,


& Suff. Deeds, L. 243, f. 14.


: Ibid., L. 266, f. 264.


390


HISTORY OF CHELSEA


[CHAP. VII


known as the Furber marsh, passed in 1844 and 1845 to the Winnisimmet Company. Thus of Samuel Danforth's farm only 36 acres of upland lay south of the road from Winnisimmet Ferry to Malden (Washington Avenue). The following further deserip- tion is given in a mortgage in 1820.10 Beginning at the corner of Mr. Heard's land on the County road (near the two roads lead- ing to Chelsea ineeting-house and Malden) the boundary followed the road till it met land late belonging to H. H. Williams near the Salem Turnpike; then it ran by land of Williams to the Dyke Marsh; then by the edge of the marsh to the land of Mr. Heard; then by Heard's land to the first mentioned bound in the road. It contained a large orehard.


Joshua Carter owned all the upland of the Daniel Watts farm, except the Heard estate, but owned none of the marshland.11 William B. Reynolds, administrator of the estate of Joshua Carter, petitioned the Probate Court for permission to sell at publie auction the farm in Chelsea and Malden, then estimated to contain about 120 aeres, and a lot of upland (about 1700 ft.) on Malden Street in Chelsea Village; permission was granted January 28, 1850.12 The property continued in the possession of the heirs. January 1, 1851, 5.846 aeres north of Washington Avenue were conveyed to Kasimir Vogel, silk manufacturer. The lot was bounded on the southwest 534 feet by Washington Avenue; northwest 655 feet by the Carter estate; east 345 feet by the Cary estate ; southeast 630 feet by the Cary estate.13 Vogel estab- lished a silk manufactory there.


Forty-eight acres one hundred eleven rods, with the mansion house of Joshua Carter, were conveyed to the Chelsea Highland Company in 1856.14 This, with the land conveyed to Vogel, was all of pareel number (2) in the deed from Samuel Danforth.]


10 Suff. Deeds, L. 267, f. 66; also a plan, L. 589, f. 304; L. 653, f. 170.


11 Supra, p. 317.


12 Suff. Prob. Rec., L. 351, ff. 98, 238.


13 Suff. Deeds, L. 616, f. 101; plan, L. 650, f. 274.


14 Ibid., L. 703, f. 1.


.


1


391


APPENDIX 12


CHAP. VII]


APPENDIX 12


[1. Plan of the Ferry farm, S. P. Fuller, surveyor, January, 1830. Suff. Deeds, L. 351, f. 153. Gives the site of the tavern, mansion house, and barns, the line between the upland and the marsh.


2. Plan of the Ferry farm, Alexander Wadsworth, surveyor, July 18, 1831. L. 354, f. 248.


3. Plan of the Shurtleff farm by Nathl. Shurtleff, August 17, 1829. L. 393, f. 185. Gives the site of the house and barns, the line between upland and marsh and the division of the fields.


4. Plan of Winnisimmet, Alonzo Lewis, surveyor, 1836. L. 410, end. The Ferry and Shurtleff farms divided into building lots.


5. Plan of the lands of the Winnisimmet Co. in Chelsea and Malden, J. H. Shearer, engineer, 1846. Suff. Plan Books, i. 20, 25; ii. 37. Same corrected 1850 by John Fenno, Suff. Deeds, L. 616, end; Plan Books, iii. 19. Gives the outline of the creeks, and the division line between upland and marsh.


6. Plan of the Hotel Estate by Alonzo Lewis, 1855. Suff. Plan Books, i. 12; ibid. by John Low, 1853. Suff. Deeds, L. 652, end. Plan of lots between Broadway and Medford Street by John Cunningham. L. 731, f. 144. A detail of the Ferry farm.


7. Plan of Mount Bellingham, Alonzo Lewis, surveyor, July, 1835. L. 393, end. Detail of Shurtleff farm. Plan of Mount Bellingham, presumably according to a survey by Alonzo Lewis, Suff. Plan Books, i. 11. Gives site of Shurtleff house.


8. Plan of Garden Cemetery, surveyed by David Gould and John Low, 1844. L. 517, f. 302. Detail of Shurtleff farm.


9. Plan of the United States Marine Hospital Land by Alonzo Lewis, October 16, 1835. 24 Cong. 1 sess. House Doc. 18. Gives site of Shurtleff house.


10. Plan of the United States Marine Hospital Estate by B. S. Alexander, April 2, 1857. Suff. Deeds, L. 718, end.


11. Proposed plan of the estate of the Cary Improvement Co. in Chelsea, 1849. Boston Public Libr., No. 13 in *Map 94. 3.


12. Assessors' plan of Caryville, 1875, by Joseph R. Carr, Jr. Suff. Plan Books, iv. 16 A and 16 B.


392


HISTORY OF CHELSEA


[CHAP. VII


13. Plan giving site of Cary house. Suff. Deeds, L. 612, f. 89.


14. Plan of Road from Chelsea Free Bridge to Salem Turn- pike, R. H. Eddy, engineer, December 2, 1835, drawn by HI. W. Wilson, C. E. Suff. Deeds, L. 405, f. 192. Gives point of division between the marsh and the upland on the line of the road.


15. Plan of the Salem Turnpike, Essex Co. Court Records, Salem. Gives the points where the line between marsh and upland in the Cary farm, and where the boundaries of the Cary, Shurtleff, Williams, and Dexter farms crossed the road.


16. Plan of land of Joshua Carter south of Washington Avenue by John Low, May, 1848. Suff. Deeds, L. 589, f. 304. Gives site of the Carter house.


17. Plan showing the division line between the marsh and upland, and the line between the lands of the heirs of Joshua Carter and lands of the Winnisimmet Co .; also the plan of the streets mutually agreed upon, by John Low, 1853. L. 653, f. 170.


18. Plan of the estate of Kasimir Vogel, July 13, 1853. Suff. Deeds, L. 650, f. 274.


19. Plan of Chelsea Highlands by George B. Parrott, 1856, L. 743, end; ibid. by John Cunningham, October 31, 1860. L. 840, end; ibid. by Joseph R. Carr, Jr., Jan. 1, 1872. L. 1092, end; ibid. by Carr, June 22, 1882. L. 1567, f. 453, etc.]


393


GOVERNOR BELLINGHAM'S WILL


CHAP. VIII]


CHAPTER VIII


GOVERNOR BELLINGHAM'S WILL


HE Winnisimmet farms formed that part of Governor Bellingham's estate which, in 1672, he devised to trus- tees for the pious uses of the people there. But his will was contested; and the strife, beginning in the Colony in 1672, was renewed under the Province, and only settled under the State in 1787, -- a period of one hundred fifteen years. It divided the elergy, was a factor in loeal polities, and influeneed parties during the Revolutionary War. Nor was the contest confined to this side of the Atlantic; for at one stage the will received the construction of William Cowper, afterwards Lord Chancellor of England, and at another the decision of Sir Nathan Wright, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.1 This ease, unique in its duration and full of local affairs, presents, as none other does, an almost unbroken line of judicial proceed- ings in Massachusetts for more than a century; but I have been seriously embarrassed in determining the best way of telling its story. After several unsatisfactory attempts to set forth the substance of the various documents comprised in it (in which process it is impossible to retain many facts inciden- tally given but of great value), I have finally eoneluded to give these documents in full and allow them to tell their own story.2


THE WILL


AMONG many other vndeserved favors of God towards me, this is none the least, That for so long a tyme I haue lived vnder the


1 [The legal opinion of William Cowper, and the decision of Sir Nathan Wright, though they affected the estates of Governor Bellingham, were upon the will of Mrs. Elizabeth Bellingham, wife of Samuel Bellingham, son and heir of Governor Bellingham. Infra, pp. 513-521.]


2 The original will, though known to Samuel Sewall, has disappeared; but it was recorded, and during the litigation several certified copies were ' made for use both here and in England. I print from one of these with supplementary matter from others.


394


HISTORY OF CHELSEA


[CHAP. VIII


speciall Goverment of Christ in his Church, not without some soule satisfaction through the gracious presence of christ who hath walked in the midst of these Churches which I judge haue been constituted according to his mind. That I may testifie the Ingagement of my heart to the Lord, being now of pfect memory and vnderstanding I doe dispose of my temporall estate where- with the Lord hath blessed me by this my last will and testament, VIZt I doe give to my beloved wife the rent of that farme Nicholas Rice liveth in, to be paid her duely after my decease as also my dwelling house with the yard and feild adioyneing during her naturall life, To my onely sonne 3 and his daughter during their


3 Samuel Bellingham came over with his father in 1634. He was of the first class of Harvard College, in 1642, and at Rowley next year, but soon went to Europe, studied at Leyden, where he took his degree of M.D. Sometime, with his wife Lucy, he was at Rowley with his uncle William (brother of the Governor ), who dying without issue left the most of his estate to his nephew. His daughter Elizabeth is said to have been born in London, in or near which he afterwards resided. [In 1650 he was in New England and sold land at Rowley inherited from his uncle (N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg., xix. 107). Of his eight classmates at Harvard six migrated to England (Sibley, Harvard Graduates). Affairs there were then especially propitious for this. Nathaniel Mather wrote: " "T is a nocon of mighty great and high respect to have been a New-English man, 't is enough to gayne a man, very much respect yea almost any prefermt." (4 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., viii. 4.) June 30, 1660, Samuel Bellingham desig- nated himself as " of the Parish of Merton in the County of Surrey Gent." Thus he was living eight miles southwest of London at the restoration of Charles II. Within a few months he left England for Holland, as October 12, 1661, Francis Willoughby wrote thither from London requesting the repayment of fifty pounds loaned in 1660, and complaining of his silence " after eight or ten monthes absence wth a departure wthout frinds knowl- edge." He left behind in England a son, Samuel, who died before May, 1668; also " goods books and papers," which, in the hands of a merchant, Mr. Brookes, who " had received them in order to send them " to him, were lost in the great fire of London in 1666. (N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg., vii. 187; infra, p. 475.) While on the continent he studied medicine at Leyden. In 1670 he executed a power of attorney at Amsterdam. In August, 1678, he wrote from Bremen in Germany. March 30, 1682, Richard Wharton mentioned " Bremen in Germany from whence m! Bellinghamn had retired himselfe," and called it a " remote retirement." Mrs. Penelope Bellingham sought news of him in Germany in February, 1689/90, but had apparently no knowledge of his whereabouts in November, 1693. When he entered into a marriage contract with the widow Elizabeth Savage, March 30, 1695, he was " of the Parish of St Ann Westminster," England. Samuel Sewall, through his cousin and frequent correspondent, Edward Hull, one of the trustees under the marriage settlement, heard of this soon after, and wrote to Samuel Bellingham December 23, 1695: " I am glad to hear of your return to your native Land again, and of the change of Affairs in England that encouraged you so to doe." Sewall's Letter-Book in 6 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., i. 158.) ]


395


GOVERNOR BELLINGHAM'S WILL


CHAP. VIII]


naturall lives I give the farme, Leiftt John Smith is tenant in, THE other twoe farmes wherein John Belcher and Goodman Townsend are Tenants I doe give the rents of them towards the releife of fower Daughters of Coll William Goodrick 4 so long as they shall haue vrgent need (to be paid to their certayne Atturney here and by him sent to the eldest sister to dispose it for their use) and to pay my debts and other Legacies; ALLSO I doe freely and willingly dispose & give (after mine and my wives decease) The farme she hath during her life (and after the decease of my sonne and his daughter) my whole estate in Winisimett to be an annuall in-couragement to som godly ministers and preachers, and such as may be such, who shalbe by my Trustees Judged faith- full to those principles in Church discipline which are owned and practised in the first Church of Christ in Boston of which I am a member : A mayne one whereof That all Ecclesiasticall Juris- diction is comitted by Christ to each particuler organicall Church from which there is no appeale visible saintship being the matter and expresse covenanting the forme of the Church.5 ffor the reg- uler disposeing this Estate according to my true intention I doe


4 For his relation to the Goodrick family sec "The Townshend Fam- ily," 51. [See N. E. Gen. Reg., vii. 186, 187, for three letters from these nieces showing that they were in straightened circumstances and desirous of help from their uncle. In 1668 Frances, Sarah, and Elizabeth were living in York; Mary was the wife of Matthew Elwald, keeper of a " Scriviners Shopp neere the Pumpe in Chancery lane, London."]


5 [According to the account of James Allen (infra, pp. 399, 540) the in- ception of the will was at the height of the strife between the First and Third churches in Boston when the First Church was unreconciled to the withdrawal of some of its members to form the Third Church, and especially would not admit that an ecclesiastical council had power of control over the matter. Governor Bellingham strongly supported the First Church. In July, 1669, in his official capacity as Governor he summoned the magistrates to consider "a sudden tumult, some persons attempting to set up an edifice for public worship, which was appre- hended by authority to be detrimental to the public peace." The mag- istrates declined to act, but in May, 1670, a committee of the House of Deputies is said to have reported among the probable causes of God's dis- pleasure with New England the "invasion of the rights, libertjes, & priuiledges of churches; an vsurpation of a lordly & praelatticall power ouer Gods haeritage," leading to " the inevitable & total cxtirpation of the principles & pillars of the congregationall way," specifically referring to the " transaction of churches & elders in the constitution of the third church in Boston, as irregular, illegall, & disorderly." The strife was unhealed when the will was signed. Doubtless this was why Governor Bellingham decreed that especial emphasis be placed on the freedom of the individual church from all exterior ecclesiastical control. Sce Wm. Emerson, Hist. of the First Church, 156, 127-129; H. A. Hill, Hist. of the Old South Church; Hutchinson, Hist. of Mass. (ed. 1795), i. 249.]


396


HISTORY OF CHELSEA


[CHAP. VIII


request constitute and appoint mr John Oxenbridge mr James Allen Teaching Officers to the first Church of Christ in Boston m' John Russell of Hadley and Mr Anthony Stoddard " Shop- keeper in Boston to be ffcoffees in trust and Executors to this my last will and their heiers and Executors for ever, And in case of death or any other removeall whereby either of them are uncapable of acting (being so Judged by the rest) power is hereby given to the rest to Elect one or more in his or their stead, who shall haue the same power, And that three of these consenting shall make aney valid act. I doe desier them to observe these Instructions following.


1. MY WILL IS, that in convenient tyme a ministers house & meet- ing house bee built at Winnisimet when sufficient bee received out of the rents.


2. THAT Lotts for dwellers and Inhabitants be given out, and conveniencey of land to the Ministers house.


3. THAT four or six more or lesse young Students be brought vp for the ministry as the estate will beare.




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