USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Eastham > Eastham, Massachusetts, 1651-1951 > Part 2
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Early Indian deeds to the first comers of Eastham are not preserved, but twenty years after the settlement a sort of con- firmatory deed was recorded, commencing: "Be it Known to all men to whom these presents shall come that we whose names are underwritten do freely acknowledge that we have given, bargained and sold unto Mr. William Bradford, Mr. Thomas Prence and the rest of the purchasors of Nausett those severall tracts of lands and are in hand paid by severall payments and in severall Kindes, viz, in Moose skins, Indian coates, wampam,
little knives, etcs . .. " Mattaquason gave the deed in 1666, "with Oquamoshod, George's father, Namanamoche, Jeffery, Amanuit, Mr. John, with the consent of George and the rest of the ancient Indians Natnaught, Pompmo, etcs." It was signed: Sagamores of Manamoitt, Mattaquason (his mark) Sampson (his mark) alias Masquaramino, Antony (his mark) Lieutenant Indian (his mark) and John Quason. And it was witnessed by Francis, Sachem, another Indian whose name be- gan with R, remainder not decipherable, James (his mark) alias Wamisco, and Simon. If all this does not make clear reading, neither does the ancient deed in the State Archives.
Besides Mattaquason and George as principal sachems of the Nausets, there appears this Francis, a witness to the 1666 confirmatory deed. When the great Philip and other chiefs in 1662 made an acknowledgment of loyalty to the Crown, "Fran- cis, sachem of Nausett" was among the five signers. Five years
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EASTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS
later he got into trouble "for his abusing of Captaine Allin, by unhumaine and beastly carriages toward him, when hee was cast on shore att Cape Codd," for which he was fined ten pounds.
Other Nausets appear in old records occasionally, not usually on happy matters. Their sad story after the white settlers came is that of Indians everywhere in our land in the face of a more dynamic civilization. When the white men came the Indians here were already weakened by epidemic-as William Bradford put it, " ... abundantly wasted in ye late great mortalitie which fell in all these parts about three years before ye coming of ye English, wherein thousands of them dyed." Somewhere in Eastham, in a locus never certainly known, the Pilgrim exploring party, the day before the First En- counter, saw a large Indian graveyard. Mourt's Relation de- scribes it thus:
Anon, we found a great burying-place, one part whereof was encom- passed with a large palisado, like a church-yard with young spires four or five yards long, set as close one by another as they could, two or three foot in the ground. Within it was full of graves, some bigger and some less. Some were also paled about; and others had like an Indian house made over them, but not matted. These graves were more sumptuous than those at Cornhill (Truro); yet we digged none of them up, but only viewed them and went on our way. Without the palisado were graves also, but not so costly.
In the dealings of Eastham men with the Nausets one finds many bright spots. Samuel Treat, the town's first minis- ter, greatly befriended them, understood them, spoke their lan- guage, and helped the Nausets to adapt themselves to a world so greatly changed. The Nauset tribe, much wasted away when the Pilgrims came, continued to decline. In 1674, only thirty years after Eastham's first settlers arrived, Richard Bourne estimated that there were but 309 Nausets living on Cape Cod east of Mashpee, and of these, 44 remained in Eastham. A century later, the Province census of 1765 showed in Eastham just four Indians: one male and three females! And now only ancient shell heaps mark the site of the Indian homes around Town Cove, reminder of a vanished race.
1651
1951
II The Founding of Eastham,
Two decades after the Pilgrim's First Encounter with the Nausets one picks up again the main thread of the Eastham story, and it leads to Plymouth. The seat of the Old Colony had then begun to overflow and close around it men found little but barren lands. In 1639 Plymouth permitted three new settlements on Cape Cod: at Sandwich, Barnstable and Yarmouth, but these were not of Plymouth men; to Sandwich went "ten men of Saugus" with their families, to Barnstable John Lothrop and his church flock from Scituate, and to Yar- mouth a group of Bay colony families. In Plymouth the old stock, leaders of colony and church, began to look around for greener fields on the horizon, before all were taken up by others.
Looking around, they settled upon Nauset as the likeliest place, remembering it for its Indian corn and for its great marshes-the hay grounds of old. Its ownership was already in the hands of the "old-planters, or purchasers" these being the group of Plymouth old comers who, upon surrendering the patent to the colony, had reserved for themselves in 1640 three large tracts, that on Cape Cod being: "from the bounds of Yarmouth 3 miles to the eastward of Naemschatet, and from sea to sea, crose the neck of land." This tract or old reserve en- compassed, broadly, the present Eastham, Orleans, Brewster and most of Harwich and Chatham. Among these purchasers were Thomas Prince, Edward Bangs and Nicholas Snow, soon to be numbered among Eastham's first settlers.
Bradford's account of the removal and events leading up to it gives a clear picture from the pen of this loyal Pilgrim and pillar of Plymouth church and colony, of the settlement of Nauset. He set it down in his history under the year 1644:
Many having left this place (as before noted) by reason of the
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EASTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS
straightnes and barrennes of the same, and their finding of better accomo- dations elsewher, more suitable to their ends and minds; and sundrie others still upon every occasion desiring their dismissions, the church begane seri- ously to thinke whether it were not better joyntly to remove to some other place, then to be thus weakened, and as it were insensibly dissolved. Many meetings and much consultation was held hearabout, and diverse were mens minds and oppinions. Some were still for staying togeather in this place, alledging men might hear live, if they would be contente with their condition; and that it was not for wante or necessitie so much that they re- moved, as for enriching of them selves.
Others were resolute upon removall, and so signified that hear they could not stay; but if the church did not remove, they must; insomuch as many were swayed, rather then ther should be a dissolution, to condescend to a removall, if a fitt place could be found, that might more conveniently and comfortablie receive the whole, with shuch accession of others as might come to them, for their better strength and subsistence; and some shuch like cautions and limitations. So as, with the aforesaide provissos, the greater parte consented to a removall to a place called Nawsett, which had been superficially viewed and the good will of the purchassers (to whom it belonged ) obtained, with some addition thertoo from the Courte.
But now they begane to see their errour, that they had given away already the best and most commodious places to others, and now wanted them selves; for this place was about 50 myles from hence, and at an out- side of the countrie, remote from all society; also, that it would prove so straite, as it would not be competente to receive the whole body, much less be capable of any addition or increase; so as (at least in a shorte time ) they should be worse ther then they are now hear. The which, with sundry other like considerations and inconveniences, made them chang their resolutions; but shuch as were before resolved upon removall tooke advantage of this agreemente, and went on notwithstanding, neither could the rest hinder them, they haveing made some beginning.
Then Bradford closes his passage on Nauset with these memorable words:
And thus was this poore church left, like an anciente mother, growne olde, and forsaken of her children, (though not in their affections,) yett in regard of their bodily presence and personall helpfullness. Her anciente members being most of them worne away by death; and these of later time being like children translated into other families, and she like a widow left only to trust in God. Thus she that had made many rich became her selfe poore."
First in the removal which was Plymouth's loss and Nau- set's gain were seven men and their families: Thomas Prince,
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THE FOUNDING OF EASTHAM
who had already twice been governor of the colony, John Doane, Nicholas Snow, Josias Cook, Richard Higgins, John Smalley and Edward Bangs. The first act of the Plymouth Court in recognition of the new Nauset settlement appears under the date of March 3, 1645:
The Court doth graunt unto the church of New Plymouth, or those that goe to dwell at Nossett, all that tract of land lying between sea and sea, from the Purchasors bounds at Namskeckett to the old Hering Brooke at Billingsgate, with the said Hering Brook and all the Meddowes on both sides of the said brooke, with the great Basse Pound there, and all the meddowes and islands lying within the said tract.
Next important record concerning Eastham is the act of the Court dated June 2, 1646:
Nawsett is graunted to be a towne shipp, and to have all the priv- ledges of a towneshipp, as other townes within this gouerment have.
From that entry dates the incorporation, or perhaps the better word is creation, of the body politic then Nauset, soon to become Eastham. Nauset was the fourth town settled on Cape Cod and tenth in Plymouth Colony. It followed in order on Plymouth, Duxbury, Marshfield, Sandwich, Scituate, Yarmouth, Barnstable, Taunton and Rehoboth. Eastham's first century properly begins with its existence as Nauset, the name spelled in a delightfully varied manner of ways, which includes Nossett, Nawsett, Nawsit, Noset, Norset, and nearly every other pos- sible combination of those letters.
The new Nauset was represented at Plymouth Court in 1647; elected its first constable, John Smalley; chose its first supvisors of the Highwaies," Nicholas Snow and Edward Bangs; and generally functioned as any other town for the five years of its existence as the Town of Nauset. Then came the third Plymouth Court record important in the town's history :
June the 7th, 1651: It is ordered That the Towne of Nawsett be henceforth called and knowne by the name of Eastham.
Who suggested substitution of Eastham for the Indian Nauset or exactly why, will probably never be known. The Pilgrims, all their acts showed, were resolved never to forget
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EASTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS
nor let their descendants forget, whence they came. All new towns received a name out of old England. On Cape Cod this practice continued long after the first comers went to their rewards; it continued until the first nine towns had been named, that is, until 1794, when the easterly precinct of Yarmouth was named for its minister, the Rev. Josiah Dennis. Whether our Cape Cod Eastham comes from the Eastham in Cheshire, or the East Ham in Essex, is not known, though the name was rarely written in two words in early records.
THE CONFIRMATORY GRANT OR DEED
Sometimes people inquire after the "charter" of an old town like Eastham, hoping to see, perhaps, a rare and im- pressive parchment document setting forth its rights, privileges and duties under the royal seal of some monarch. Such docu- ment does not exist. Such charter or act of incorporation as Eastham had is as already set forth here from the Plymouth Colony records. But there does exist a confirmatory deed or grant, which came about because of unusual circumstances.
Some forty years after Eastham's settlement James II had ascended the throne and sent Sir Edmond Andros to Boston with a commission to merge the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies. Andros questioned the validity of old charters and of all land titles, particularly those based on grants by Plymouth under its assumed powers. Andros upset things mightily, for if he was right, every man's ownership of his lands was endangered. Like several other towns then existing, East- ham searched the Court records and sought some kind of a document to show that, from the town's settlement, Eastham men possessed their lands under a valid, lawful claim, and chain of title. Such a document they did obtain, from Gov- ernor Thomas Hinckley, the Barnstable man then Colony head. It is long, but since it is not to be found in printed Plymouth Colony records, nor apparently has it ever been printed before, we set it forth here in full:
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THE FOUNDING OF EASTHAM
[Eastham Confirmatory Deed or Grant ]
Be it known unto all men by these presents that a certain tract of land was granted and in Publick Court confirmed by William Bradford and his associates holden at New Plymouth in the twentieth year of our Sovereign Lord the King Charles the first King of England &c: of happy memory Annoque Domini 1644 unto Mr. Thomas Prince John Doane with others the Inhabitants then of the Church and Town of New Plymouth for the erecting of a Town at Nausett comonly so called by the Indians and since called by the name of Eastham by the English and were allowed all such priviledges as the Court is granted & allowed to the other Townships as of Court record doth appear doth contain all the lands lying between sea & sea from the Purchasers bounds at Namskekett to the herring Brook at Billingsgate with ye sd herring brook and all the meadows on both sides sd brook, with the great Bass Pond there & all the meadows & uplands ly- ing within ye sd tract and was since more perticularly bounded by run- ning the dividing line between the sd purchasers and Town by mutual agreement of the agents on both sides appointed thereunto as an instru- ment signed by them doth and may appear and having allso obtained the right of the natives by purchase of sundry parcels of sd lands of sundry of them as pr their deeds doth and may appear the sd Court as well by their act made in the year of our Lord 1636 one thousand six hundred thirty & six as by sundry other acts since made in the year of our Lord 1671 and in the year 1685 in June last past do declare ratifie and confirm all such lands as have been granted by the Court unto perticular Townships or perticular psons shall be held to them their heirs successors & assigns forever according to the tenure of our charter or letters patent granted to William Bradford and his associates viz to be holden of his Majesty as of his Mannor of East Greenwich in the County of Kent in fee and common soccage and not in capitee nor by Knights service yielding and paying to our Sovereing Lord the King his Heirs & Successors for ever one fifth part of the oar of the mines of gold & silver and other fifth part thereof to the President & Councel which shall be had and obtained within the limits of their bounds for all services and demands whatsoever and for the public confirmation of all such lands with all and singular the priviledges and appurtenances thereto belonging as are contained within the Bounds granted unto the several grantees as aforesd the Court ordering the common seal of this government to be thereunto affixed now therefore further Know ye that I Thomas Hinkly Gouvernor of the Colony of New Plymouth for our Sovereign Lord the King for this present year of our Lord 1685 for the more full assurance and absolute confirmation of all the sd lands con- tained within the limits and bounds granted as aforesd whether upland swamps meadow marsh or flatt lands with appurtenances whatsoever thereunto belonging unto the sd Town of Eastham and to the several pro- prietors thereof respectively according to their & every of their common
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EASTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS
or perticular respective right title interest & propriety into the sd granted lands & other the Premises or into any part or parcel thereof by grant or allowance from sd Court or from sd Town of Eastham or by any other lawful way or means whatsoever had or to be had & obtained, To Have & To Hold unto the said Town and to their several respective proprietors whatsoever and to their & every their heirs successors and assigns for ever and to their and every of their use and behoof Respectively for ever in manner and form aforesd according to the true intent and meaning of these presents yielding & paying as aforesd, have by virtue of the power com- mited to me hereunto set the common seal of this government this four- teenth day of July anno domini 1685 and in the first year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord the King James ye Second by the grace of God King of England &c.
The words interlined at New Plymouth over the second line & the words unto the several grantees over the 23rd line before the ensealing.
Thos. Hinckley Govern. (seal)
EASTHAM, THE MOTHER TOWN
For half a century after Eastham's founding it was the only town on Cape Cod east of Yarmouth. Town boundaries were not well defined nor all the rights and duties of towns formulated, in the colony's early years. As newer settlements grew up around the old towns the Plymouth court, until they were able to support a meetinghouse, minister, and assume other responsibilities, kept them under a shadowy sort of guardian- ship of the first towns. The Cape's four original mother towns were Sandwich, Barnstable, Yarmouth and Eastham, from which, as the years rolled on, all other Cape towns were set off. Francis Baylies, Plymouth's historian of the last century, called Eastham "the common mother of all towns below Yarmouth." Old Eastham unquestionably was mother to Wellfleet and Or- leans, and foster mother at least, to Truro, Chatham and Har- wich.
In 1668, one finds, for instance, "It is ordered by the Court that Paomett (Truro) and soe farr as the Cape Head be reputed within the constablericke of Eastham ... It is likewise ordered that the lands att Mannamoite (Chatham) be att present re- puted to be in the constablericke of Eastham." Again, in 1674:
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THE FOUNDING OF EASTHAM
"Mannamoiett, Paomitt and Satuckett (Harwich) under the constableship of Eastham, and shall belong unto and be of sd Township." In brief these outlying settlements were placed under Old Eastham's care for the collection of taxes, enforce- ment of other laws, and for such representation as their citizens had in the all important colony government. The years passed, and as these settlements continued to grow, the time came when each could maintain its own meeting house and minister, and sought and eventually gained the status of independent towns.
Harwich, the old Satuckett, incorporated in 1694, was the first new town on the lower Cape after Eastham; a century after its incorporation, its north precinct became Brewster. Pro- prietors of the Pamet lands, most of them Eastham men, who held their meetings in Eastham for a decade before removing to Truro, secured set off of their new settlement as Dangerfield in 1705, and as Truro in 1709. The act of incorporation, nam- ing the new town "Truroe," shows clearly its relation to East- ham: "Whereas there is a certain tract of land known by the name of Pawmet, at present a district of Eastham and under the constablerick of that town . . " Mannamoiett, which had been allowed its own meeting house in 1678, finally became Chatham in 1712. Creation of these several towns still left Old Eastham with a well defined area of some fifty square miles, bounded by Truro on the north, Chatham on the south, Har- wich and the bay on the west, and the Atlantic ocean on the east. It thus existed without substantial change for another half century, or, dating from its founding, for more than a cen- tury.
Old Eastham's long and narrow sea-bounded area made one central meeting house inconvenient to many. In 1718 the town agreed to the building of another meeting house for the south parish, which was done the following year. In 1723 the north precinct was created under the name of Billingsgate. The south parish was born more or less comfortably; the north pre- cinct with some pain. Four families objected to being included within Billingsgate, and were counted out: James Brown, Josh- ua Brown, John Walker and Samuel Harding. The new Bill-
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DETAIL OF 1730 MAP-In drawing this for "The British Empire in North America" (London, 1732), Henry Popple put Eastham into two words in the largest type used for any Cape Cod settle- ment. Note also the now forgotten East Ham in Rhode Island.
ingsgate was bounded on the north by the Truro bound line, and south by Indian brook and Billingsgate Point. The act mentions that with this setoff, Old Eastham would hereafter be supporting three ministers-something no other town on Cape Cod could afford at that time. Billingsgate as a precinct enjoyed an independent status in all church matters; it had its own assessors, treasurer, constable, precinct committee and regular precinct meetings, although for other governmental pur- poses it remained a part of Eastham. When its constable got into difficulty, his petition commenced, "Samuel Brown of Bill- ingsgate in the town of Eastham . " His trouble came in 1726 when he forwarded some taxes to Boston in James Gam- bel's sloop; unfortunately the sloop was cast away, all on board
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THE FOUNDING OF EASTHAM
drowned, and Constable Brown's twenty-three pounds in bills of credit went to the bottom of Cape Cod Bay. The Province graciously remitted the sum.
The relationship of Billingsgate to Eastham as a precinct continued to 1763 when, after another petition, and remon- strance from Eastham, the Province passed an "Act to Incor- porate the North Precinct in Eastham into a District by the name of Wellfleet." The petition signed by Elisha Doane and others, cited, among other things, "that the place for transact- ing Town Affairs is ten miles distant from the Meeting House in said North Parish." The new status of Wellfleet as a dis- trict gave it all powers of a town save that it must continue with Eastham to choose and support a representative to the General Court. Sylvanus Snow didn't want to be in Wellfleet, and his property was set off to Eastham though within the new district. Supporting one representative jointly didn't work out very well one year, for in 1770 both town and district voted not to send anyone to the "Great and General Court," in order to save money. The Court thereupon fined town and district jointly ten pounds and assessed this sum in their taxes. Four years later the representative, Barnabas Freeman, managed to get an act passed returning the money, to be divided, to East- ham five pounds, four pence, and to Wellfleet four pounds, eight shillings, four pence. The joint election of representa- tive ended in 1775 and thence Wellfleet moved from the status of district to town.
The transition of the south part of Old Eastham from par- ish to town came easier. What is now Orleans had been set off as the south parish in 1718 in a compromise, when the question arose of building a new meeting house. After much debate on the new location, it was proposed to build two new meeting houses, one in south and one in north part, and that "if the people cannot lovingly agree on the line dividing the two distinct parishes, the town will invite discreet men from neighboring towns to settle the question ... " The discreet neighbors called in were Joseph Lothrop and John Baker of Barnstable and Elisha Hall of Yarmouth. The south parish
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EASTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS
then managed its own ecclesiastical affairs for three-quarters of a century. The "Act To divide the Town of Eastham, in the County of Barnstable, and to incorporate the southerly Part thereof into a Town by the name of Orleans" was passed March 3, 1797.
From the latter year, Old Eastham becomes just Eastham. It seems fitting to capitalize Old Eastham because geographical- ly it was so much larger, and because its history for nearly a century and a half encompassed that of the area now covered by the three towns.
From a town, then, which included in its boundaries the present Wellfleet and Orleans, and stood in an early relation as guardian of Truro, Harwich and Chatham, Old Eastham en- tered the 19th century as one of the smallest of Cape towns, with only Provincetown embracing a lesser land area. Gov- ernor Bradford's plaint when so many of the "considerablest" of Plymouth migrated to Eastham, "Thus she that had made many rich became her selfe poore," might with justice be written of Old Eastham. Save, of course, that mere size of a body politic is no measure of its qualities. The heart of Old Eastham, the plains of Nauset, which first attracted the Pilgrims, appropriate- ly remained as the Eastham which survived, and continues to thrive today as it reaches its 300th anniversary.
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