USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume I > Part 2
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Hampden-2
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HAMPDEN COUNTY-1636-1936
eager to seek a new home west of the Atlantic. With that object in view, several influential English gentlemen solicited and obtained from King Charles I a charter that gave to them all the lands in New England from a line running westerly three miles north of the Mer- rimac River to a line running westerly three miles south of the Charles River and extending to the west from the Atlantic Ocean.
After much debate, it was decided the charter should be trans- ferred with the colony to New England and the government of it settled there.
When King Charles II dissolved his third Parliament with the avowed purpose of ruling without it, thus putting his heel on the statute liberties of England, there dwelt in an Essexshire hamlet a warden of the established church.
He was thirty-nine years of age, and of gentle birth, acute, restive, and singularly self-assertive. He had seen some of the stoutest men in the realm break into tears when the King cut off free speech in the Commons, and he had seen ritualism, like an iron collar, clasped on the neck of the church, while the Duke of Buckingham, a young, jeweled courtier was accepted as the King's favorite. A colonial enterprise backed by some Lincolnshire gentlemen had been noised abroad, and the warden joined his fortunes with them. Thus William Pynchon, of Springfield in Essex, England, became one of the incorpo- rators mentioned in the royal charter of the Massachusetts Bay Com- pany in America. When we trace back the lineage of the family we find a sturdy quality that flourishes in the fastness of Wales, yet they were not strangers to the graces of the gentry and the pride of family. It seems that one of them, whose name at that period in its development was Pinco, instead of Pynchon, came to England accompanied by "his sworn brother" in war, and the two of them campaigned with Wil- liam the Conqueror at the time of the Norman Conquest. As a reward they received, among returns for their services, a village in Lincolnshire.
Various spellings of the Pynchon name continued to arrive, and finally the first William Pynchon appeared. He is said to have been an "oppulent butcher," and from him descended a line of important Baronets and Squires of high degree, one of whom was Nicholas Pyn- chon, who became High Sheriff of London in 1533. After a few more generations there was another William Pynchon, and he was the Essex Pynchon, founder of Springfield, Massachusetts.
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WILLIAM PYNCHON
Such photographs of his home region as have found their way to America suggest a very appealing, idyllic charm-"a land flowing with milk and honey," and it would seem that leaving the Mother Country must have given a cultured, sensitive man like William Pynchon many a heartache.
He was a person of broad and aggressive thought who loved both money and adventure. Besides, he loved the gospel in its purity and loathed political corruption, but at the same time distrusted the phase of Puritanism which drifted away from royalty.
After King Charles had risen from his bed, where he had fallen in unkingly tears on hearing of Buckingham's assassination, he resolved to continue the fight for the divine right of kings by adopt- ing two notable policies, and in the very month when he dissolved the Parliament that had bolted its doors against the royal messenger, he signed the famous Massachusetts Bay charter. The eagerness of His Majesty to be well rid of his Puritan subjects explains the liberal terms he gave when he transferred the Massachusetts wilderness to Endicott, Pynchon, and other associates. They and their heirs and assigns forever received from the King, in the territory of Massachu- setts Bay, "all lands and woods, havens, rivers, waters, mines, min- erals, jurisdictions, liberties, inheritences," and so on, using some words which in spelling or quaintness are distinctly puzzling. The chief consideration was a payment of "one-fifth part of the gold and silver ore which from time to time, and at all times hereafter, shall be there gotten."
Every person joining the corporation was required to take the freeman's oath, swearing "by the great and dreadful name of the ever living God" to maintain and preserve all the "liberties and privi- leges" of the colony; and did not doubt his right to exclude freemen who developed heretical opinions. John and Samuel Brown, who found themselves in trouble for using the book of Common Prayer, were sent back to England from Salem, and it was arranged that the dispute should be put out for arbitration. The Browns nominated Mr. Pynchon, among others, to deal with this problem, and in the end it is believed they were paid a small sum for their financial losses in America.
Mr. Pynchon's importance in the enterprise of transferring the charter from England to Massachusetts was evident from the begin-
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ning, and he was named by the King as assistant, pending organiza- tion. He was at the meeting in England in May, 1629, when he paid his "adventure money" to the treasurer, and in October was placed on the committee in charge of taking the historic charter across the ocean. The fleet of four vessels which sailed in April, 1630, carried the charter with the seal of England attached to it by strings of braided silk, and it carried Mr. Pynchon and his feeble wife with four children, Ann, Mary, John, and Margaret. Another son was left in England and later went to the Barbados. Most of the immigrants had families with them.
When the fleet left its anchorage England and Spain were at war, with the hostilities mostly carried on at sea. It was understood that cruisers were lying in wait for the emigrant vessels destined for New England, and it became important that the four ships should find ways for mutual aid and defence. They were armed, and to each was assigned a special post of duty. There was little favorable weather before the 8th of April, when the fleet weighed anchor. On the morning of April 9 there was quite an alarm. Eight sails were in sight astern that seemed to be Spanish cruisers from Dunkirk waiting for the emigrant ships, and as Winthrop says in his journal, "we all prepared to fight them." To the "Arbella," named after Lady Arbella, wife of Isaac Johnson and of high rank in England, was assigned "the place and title of Admiral." The Lady Arbella and other women and children were removed to the lower deck that they might be out of danger.
"All things being thus fitted we went to prayer on the upper deck." "It was a pleasure to see how cheerful and comfortable all the com- pany appeared, not a woman or child showed fear, though all thought the danger was great." Soon afterward it was discovered the ships were not Spanish cruisers.
The emigrants suffered from the high winds and extreme cold the greater part of the voyage. There was some sickness among the passengers, especially among the children. "They lay groaning in the cabins, and we fetched out a rope which we stretched from the steer- age to the mainmast, and made them stand, some on the one side, and some on the other, and sway it up and down until they were warm. By such means they soon grew well and merry."
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June 7 Winthrop says they put their ship "astays" and with a few hooks in less than two hours caught sixty-seven codfish, most of them very great fish, some a yard and a half long. This was a very season- able supply for the passengers who had now been sixty-eight days on shipboard. June 8 they saw land about ten leagues distant, which proved to be Mount Desert. They now had "fair sunshine," Win- throp says, "and so pleasant a sweet air as did much refresh them, and there came a smell off the shore like the smell of a garden." June II they were all day within sight of Cape Ann and on Saturday some of them landed at their destined port, which was Salem, and were visited by John Endicott, the founder of the town, and by its minister.
On their return to Salem these gentlemen had with them Governor Winthrop and some others. There, Winthrop says, "we supped with a good venison pasty and good beer, and at night returned to our ship, but the greater part of the voyagers went on shore at Cape Ann, which lay very near, and gathered a store of fine strawberries." The new colonists began at once to look for good places near Massachu- setts Bay for planting settlements. Pynchon selected Roxbury for the site of his home, and became the founder of that town. Without any question "Rocksbury's" name was descriptive of its substance.
His wife died soon after landing and left one son and three daugh- ters. Not long afterward Mr. Pynchon married a second wife, who is described in the Roxbury church records as a grave matron of the church at Dorchester.
Mr. Pynchon aided in establishing a church at Roxbury and was active in other public affairs. He attended the first General Court at Charlestown, and was made treasurer of the colony. Curiously enough, the court fined him and two assistants a "noble apiece" for being tardy. He had to cross the river and no doubt there was some good reason for being late.
It seems fairly certain that early plans were made for an exten- sive beaver trade and for some commerce by sea. The General Court authorized Mr. Pynchon to receive various goods as a gift to the plantation, and that naturally implies wharfage facilities. Certainly, in later years, he owned a wharf at Boston. Mr. Pynchon secured a license to trade in beaver skins with the Indians, but trade was dis- appointing, nor was the outlook encouraging for the town of Roxbury.
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One pioneer, John Pratt by name, probably expressed the feelings of many when he wrote back to England lamenting the barrenness of the soil. The Bay authorities heard of it and Pratt was forced to make a public retraction, giving the climate and soil a certificate of good character. Mr. Pynchon was one of the court chosen to examine Pratt's retraction. It would be interesting to know what he as a "gentleman of learning and religion" thought when he was signing his name to the acceptance of the retraction, in which Pratt acknowl- edged under the counter pressure of necessity that
"As for the barrennes of the sandy grounds I spake of them as I supposed them to be, and now by experience of my own, I find that such ground as before I accounted barren, yet, being manured and husbanded doth bring forth more fruit than I did expect."
The poor condition of the so-called soil at Roxbury, from which even proper husbandry could not, under the circumstances, supply encouragement to the tiller, led to a dispute about taxes levied on the several towns by the General Court, and in 1635 Mr. Pynchon refused to pay his part of the assessment. For his resistance he was fined five pounds.
The strangest instance of discipline connected with Mr. Pynchon's name arose in connection with the beaver trade. The laws as to giving firearms to the Indians were very strict. But the Indians were good hunters, and the temptation to lend them guns for a day or week, with perhaps an Englishman going along to supervise, was hardly to be resisted.
In the spring of 1634, Mr. Pynchon and an associate applied to the Court of Assistants for a special permit and it was granted, but shortly afterward the General Court levied a fine of ten pounds, half to be paid by Pynchon and his associate for breach of the law, and half by the Court of Assistants, "who gave them leave thereunto."
A theological cloud was now gathering over the Boston and Salem churches, and Mr. Pynchon concluded it was time to have a still deeper taste of the American wilderness. This led to a resolve to settle in the Connecticut Valley, and marks the beginning of the his- tory of Springfield.
Soon after the colonists arrived in New England, an Indian chief from the Connecticut River called on Governor Winthrop at Boston,
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WILLIAM PYNCHON
and urged that some of the English should visit the valley of the Con- necticut and settle there. He described the soil as fertile, and prom- ised to give eighty beaver skins yearly to settlers who came to the valley. This invitation, though not accepted at the time, produced an impression on some of the colonists. And now, when the most desir- able places about the Bay had been taken by emigrants, they felt cramped, and there was a longing for new plantings and perhaps better ones, for themselves and their increased stock of cattle. From many of the towns about Boston there came petitions to the General Court for authority to remove "themselves and their estates to the River of Connecticut," of whose attractions so much had been said.
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One consideration that led William Pynchon and his associates to leave Roxbury and settle in the Connecticut Valley was the prospect of better trade. Another was his dislike for Boston's tendency to limit the qualifications of freemen, while at the same time the privileges of those in authority were expanded. Many other persons were simi- larly disturbed by this setting up of the "standing council for the term of life."
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There had been much concern shown by the Bay authorities when the first suggestions were made to settle in the Connecticut Valley. They had even dismissed with a show of impatience Plymouth's pro- posal to join in a western trading expedition. They frowned, too, on the adventurous John Oldham with his visions of extraordinary gain. However, it seems quite possible that Mr. Pynchon gave Oldham substantial aid in exploring the Connecticut Valley. This is based on the fact that when Oldham's estate was settled it showed a consider- able indebtedness to Mr. Pynchon.
There is little doubt that Mr. Pynchon came to the valley as early as 1635, to satisfy himself that it was a region such as he and his followers would take permanent pleasure in for a future home. Until he had made certain the advantages of the place for his beaver trade, it is hardly probable that a man of Pynchon's caution would hazard a venture with so much peril as the removal of his family and property from the Bay to the river involved.
John Cable came here from the Bay in 1635 with John Wood- cock and built a small house on the west side of the Connecticut and south of the Agawam River, in a meadow, which, for that reason, was long known as "House Meadow." These men occupied the house for a time, and the "old Indian ground" about it, but abandoned it later.
The Springfield pioneers have been represented as coming to their new home by way of the "Old Bay Path," but some historians claim this path to Boston was not opened until 1673, nearly forty years later. Old records show that in 1647 the board of townsmen instructed the surveyor to "open a Horseway over the meadow to the Bay path." This indicates that probably the Indians did have a trail to the Connecticut at Agawam at the time Pynchon first came to the region.
English explorers of that early period discovered that the site of Woodstock, Connecticut, was in a rich corn region, where the grain was stored in Indian "barns" or cellars with baked clay walls. From Woodstock old trails branched off in all directions. It was an Indian trail center. Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, was supplied with corn in 1630 by Indians, who carried it in skins on their backs to the Bay. This early supply train proceeded from Woodstock past the sites of such places as Grafton and South Framingham, and along
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WILLIAM PYNCHON
the north bank of Charles River, after which they continued to Cam- bridge and Boston. These Indians did not break through an untrod- den forest. They took the trail known later as the Old Connecticut Path, which had been developed from an English bridle path for horses and cattle.
One trail from the Woodstock center continued from there to Springfield, and another to the Falls on the Connecticut above Hol- yoke. There was also an Indian trail which was an offshoot from the Old Connecticut Path, and among other places ran through what is now Springfield, Brimfield, Warren, and West Brookfield. Pynchon may have used this branch but it is generally agreed that when Mr. Pynchon approached the Connecticut Valley on his preliminary expe- dition in 1635, he came by the Old Connecticut Path. With him he had an Indian interpreter and one other companion.
It was at. once apparent to him that he would not be content to settle his Roxbury company below the other Connecticut plantations, and he decided to prospect. So he ascended the "grate" river until he came to the mouth of the Agawam, where he found Indians that were skilled beaver hunters. He was unaware that he had pushed far enough north to be outside of the Connecticut jurisdiction, and he struck a bargain with these Indians, who had a fort on a hill over- hanging the east bank of the river, and who had extensive planting grounds on the west side of the Connecticut south of the Agawam River.
This bargain was completed in July, 1636, by a deed from two ancient Indians of Agawam for themselves and other Indian pro- prietors, conveying to William Pynchon and others, and their heirs and associates forever, a large part of the territory now occupied by Springfield, Longmeadow, West Springfield and Agawam. The sign- ing of the deeds was quite a ceremony, with a company of at least thirteen Indians who put their marks on paper for the first time. As they crowded about the table they seemed to have no difficulty in thinking of designs to stand for their signatures. For instance, one drew a canoe, and another a bow and arrow. Besides the Indians apparently two of the white men could not write and had to make their marks to serve in place of signatures, just as the savages did. This deed was fully explained to the Indians by Haughton, an Indian interpreter from the Bay, who was perfectly understood by them.
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They received an adequate consideration according to the values of that time, and were never dissatisfied with the bargain. For the lands sold by the Indians they received eighteen fathoms of wam- pum, eighteen coats, eighteen hatchets, eighteen hoes, and eighteen knives; and reserved to themselves the ground then planted, and lib- erty to take fish and deer, ground nuts, walnuts, acorns and a kind of wild peas. If any of the white men's cattle spoiled the Indians' corn they were to pay its worth. One of the other specifications was that hogs were not to cross the Agawam River except in acorn time. Wrutherna, one of the Indians, received from Mr. Pynchon two coats as an extra consideration. Of the fifteen articles in the agreement signed by the planters the first three have a special significance. They read :
"Firstly ---- We intend, by God's grace, as soon as we can with all convenient speed to procure some godly and faithful minister with whom we purpose to join in church covenant to walk in all the ways of Christ.
"Secondly-We intend that our town shall be composed of forty families, or if we think after to alter our purpose it shall not exceed the number of fifty families, rich and poor.
"Thirdly-Every family shall have a convenient propor- tion for a house lot, as we shall see meet for every ones quality and estate."
By the limitation of the town to forty families it is evident that the original planters intended to make the town a compact settlement and not one of scattered farms, separated from each other by long distances. This was essential for mutual safety, living as they did in the midst of an Indian neighborhood, and so remote from the pro- tection of the older settlements.
Each head of a family was to have a house-lot and an allotment of planting-grounds, pasture, meadow, marsh, and timber land. Taxes were to be levied on land only. William Pynchon, John Burr and Henry Smith were given forty acres of meadowland south of the "End Brook," to be exempt from taxation on account of money paid out by them in founding the town. No man but Pynchon was allowed to have ten acres in his house-lot. Henry Smith, whose wife was Pyn- chon's daughter Ann, drew up the agreement. He seems to have been a man of notable character and reliability.
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WILLIAM PYNCHON
Mr. Pynchon left his men to plant and to build a house in the meadow about half a mile above the mouth of the Agawam River on the south side. He himself hastened back to the Bay. The house was built at the common expense and cost six pounds. It sheltered some of the first arrivals in 1636 and was still standing forty years later. When the rest of the settlers came a few probably traveled overland, but with practically only an Indian trail to follow it is prob- able that most of them with their families and goods came in the large shallops, sailing vessels of those times that could be sailed and poled up a shallow river like the Connecticut. It was not simply the danger from floods that induced the settlers to change the proposed site of their town, as some traditions have it. It was also because the Indians had cornfields on the west side which would be trespassed on by the live stock of the new settlers. Another difficulty was the Indians' demand of a large sum for their right in the lands on the west bank and insisting they should have a great shallop which the English needed.
The year 1636 was a busy and trying one for Mr. Pynchon. Besides being on the General Court Board of Commissioners to gov- ern for one year the plantations that might be started in the Con- necticut Valley, he had to take full charge of the transportation of his party and their household goods, and he advanced a large part of the money needed.
The March session of the General Court was full of excitement. Lack of security on account of the restless Indians was one thing, and special religious meetings of certain uneasy spirits in their houses of worship was another. This year, 1636, may be called the exodus year to the Connecticut Valley. Parties from the east were plodding through the wilderness to establish new homes at Hartford, Wind- sor, Springfield and Wethersfield all that spring and summer. Gov- ernor Winthrop's "Blessing of the Bay" sailed from Boston for the Connecticut River late in April, and about the same time most of the Roxbury pioneers betook themselves to the Massachusetts woods. Both the "Blessing of the Bay" and a vessel that belonged to John Winthrop, Jr., carried goods for the Roxbury party, and the first of the band to reach the journey's end arrived between April 26 and May 14. This instalment included at least a dozen families, and there was a horse litter which was the only practical vehicle for the
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aged or indisposed amid the forest tangles. Cows and pigs were included in this pioneer procession, while the armed outpost led the way over the pine plains or down sylvan ravines to clear away obstruc- tions or scout for savages. As for the red men, there is no reason to doubt that the party was well received at the Indian villages along the trail.
The General Court early passed a law that all dwellinghouses should be built within half a mile of the meetinghouse, and first set- tlers, except in a few special cases, condensed the population within what they thought safe limits. The street on which the houses were built followed the general course of the river, and the house-lots were on the west side of the street, and with some exceptions, were eight or ten rods wide. All of the house-lots extended from the street to the river, and each had an allotment on the east side of the street of the same width as the house-lot.
Construction of the first Springfield houses probably followed along lines with which the early settlers were familiar in England. The roofs were thatched with the best materials for that purpose which could be found and the sides were of saplings set upright, with twigs woven through them and daubed with clay. This served until boards could be sawed. Sometimes the houses were set against a hill and so received more protection from the weather.
The land east of the street and adjoining it was called in the allotments the "Hasseky Marsh." Farther east was usually an allotment of the same width of upland covered more or less with forest. Very early the "Hasseky Meadow" was crossed by a road or path about two rods wide running east and widening after passing the meadow. This road crossing the marsh was made passable by logs and was called a "corduroy" road. At its easterly end it was prob- ably connected with the path leading to the Bay long known as the "old Bay Road."
Some of the early settlers came here from the Connecticut towns down the river. Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield each had some representatives among Springfield's early inhabitants. Such settlers could avail themselves of the river as a way of travel. Boats, or as they were usually called canoes, were in frequent use for the carriage of goods and persons. Trees that were suitable for use in making boats were called "canoe" trees and the cutting of such trees was restricted by a vote of the plantation.
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