USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Historic homes and places and genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 6
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to be fallen into the hands of the Indians." The entire adult population of the town at that time was 158, including four soldiers. The Indian question eventually settled itself, and the friendly Indians withdrew to other scenes.
The town, when it had reached its greatest area, about 1726, embraced in addition to the territory now occupied by the town, a large part of Carlisle, the whole of Westford, and all of Lowell, with three exceptions. Certain farms "erected above the town of Chelmsford, about Merrimack River", were in 1667, "to have their dependances upon and perform services and bear charges with the said town of Chelmsford." While the town has been mainly agricultural, its manufacturing element has been important, overshadowed only by the larger plants of its vig- orous daughter, Lowell. Westford was incorporated in 1729, and a hundred years afterward, in 1826, the new town of Lowell was incorporated. Carlisle was incorporated April 28, 1780.
Authorities: Wilkes Allen published a "History of Chelmsford", 1820. See also Courier- Citizen Company of Lowell, "Illustrated History of Lowell", 1897. H. S. Perham left an in- complete history of Chelmsford at his death.
GROTON
The original grant of the township of Groton was made in 1655, and comprised a tract eight miles square. Subsequently its shape was changed from the first plan. It comprised all of the present towns of Groton and Ayer, nearly all of Pepperell and Shirley, large parts of Dunstable and Littleton, smaller parts of Harvard and Westford, and small portions of Hollis and Nashua, the latter two towns being in the State of New Hampshire. The town is mentioned by name on Hubbard's map, under the date of 1677, as one of the towns assaulted by Indians in Philip's War. One of the two petitions for the plantation of Groton was headed by one of Governor John Winthrop's sons, named Deane Winthrop, and the name of Groton was given in honor of that family, as Groton, in England, was the birthplace of Governor John Winthrop, and also of Mr. Deane Winthrop. The grant of the plantation was made by the Court of Assistants on May 25, 1655, and this is understood to be the date of the incorporation, which Dr. Green says is not found mentioned elsewhere.
Probably there is no town in New England which has been so thoroughly written up by the unaided efforts of a single man as this Massachusetts town of Groton by Dr. Samuel A. Green of Boston, eminent as a physician, publicist and antiquary, who by innumerable publications, large and small, has done wellnigh everything to make this characteristic New England community famous in the world at large, and no apology is offered by the present writer for drawing liberally upon his material.
Among their other trials the settlers were annoyed for a long period by vagrant Indians, many of whom were their neighbors, and some of these vagrants took an active part in the burn- ing of Groton during Philip's War. Warfare among them did not require generalship so much as knowledge of places, and the head of an assaulting party was one familiar with the clearings and the lay of the land in the threatened territory. Later, as the time of King Philip's War approached, the possession of firearms on their side made the Indians bold and insolent, and serious trouble ensued. On March 2, 1676, a small band of prowling Indians pillaged eight or nine houses and drove off some cattle. The inhabitants at once gathered into garrison-houses. A number of English were killed before the general assault on March 13, 1676 (1675-6) when the enemy appeared in a force of not less than four hundred in number and burned the town, de- stroying the meeting-house and about forty empty dwelling-houses. With one exception the garrison-houses withstood the attack. The loss on the English side was, so far as known, three persons killed, three wounded, and two made prisoners, one of whom escaped and the other was ransomed.
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The town was then abandoned by its inhabitants for two years, when they returned and es- tablished themselves anew. The savages, at best, made bad neighbors; they were shiftless and drunken, and occasionally made raids in which individual settlers were murdered and their houses burned. The town was made virtually a military post. A second attack on the town came in the summer of 1694. The enemy were repulsed at one garrison, but surprised other houses, where the people were off their guard, and killed and carried off from the vicinity about forty persons. A large majority of the prisoners taken were children. Other assaults with loss of life occurred in 1697, 1704, 1706, 1709, and 1724. The inhabitants, owing to their constant vigilance, became soldiers rather than farmers. They were so poor that they could not even afford to send. one of their number as representative to the General Court, held at Boston, since in early times. the representative was paid by the town that sent him. The district of Shirley was set off from Groton in 1753, and the district of Pepperell in the same year. Ayer was incorporated in. 1871.
In the first census of the houses, families, and number of people ever taken in the Province- of Massachusetts Bay in 1765, the town of Groton had 1408 inhabitants. In 1776, 1639 inhab- itants. In 1790, 1840. In 1790 it was the second town in population in Middlesex county, Cambridge alone exceeding it. Lawrence Academy in this town, founded in 1792 as the Groton. Academy, and later named the Lawrence Academy from the benefactions of members of the Lawrence family-Amos and William, brothers-has long made the town famous.
Authorities: Butler, Caleb, "History of the Town of Groton", 1848. Green, S. A., very numerous publications, including "An Historical Sketch of Groton", a reprint, 1894.
Concerning the old houses of Groton the Historical Society there have just had photographs made of the oldest, which number some thirty-five. The following ten are the oldest: Parsonage, built by town, 1706; John Longley, 1712; Groton Inn, 1770; Samuel Bowers Tavern, 1730; Abel Prescott, 1750; Amos Lawrence, 1770; Elnathan Sawtell Tavern, 1775; Gov. Sullivan,. 1775; John Capell Tavern, 1785; Beniamin Bancroft, 1775.
MARLBOROUGH
Marlborough, incorporated June 12, 1660, was originally a part of the town of Sudbury. Its increase in population was such that in 1656 its people petitioned the court that some of them having viewed the country had found a place about eight miles from Sudbury, which they conceived might be favorable, and therefore asked that a grant of eight miles square, or an equal amount of land, be given them, on which to make a plantation. In the same year, under date- of May 14, the General Court granted them six miles square, or the equivalent thereof, in the place desired, for the purpose named, under the usual conditions imposed upon new settlements- at that period. And this appears to be the beginning of the settlement of the town, known after- wards as the town of Marlborough. Being a frontier town it early became a military post. Garrisons were also established at certain houses. On March 26, 1676, the town was attacked by the Indians while the people were assembled in their meeting-house. An immediate rush to the garrison-houses saved the people from worse consequences. They were able to successfully defend themselves when secured in a garrison, but could afford no protection to their property. Thirteen dwellings and eleven barns were burnt, and much other damage done. Their meeting- house and their minister's house, erected at the public charge, shared the fate of the other houses- in the general conflagration. The Indians, numbering about three hundred, considering them- selves master of the situation, retired to the woods not far distant, and encamped for the night. Lieutenant Jacobs of the garrison considered the bold design of surprising them in their camp; and, accordingly, in the night of the 27th, with a party of his own men and some from the town, attacked them when they lay in profound slumber, and killed and wounded about forty, without
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sustaining any loss himself. In the later French and Indian wars the town was in a constant state of alarm, and twenty-six garrisons were instituted.
Marlborough undoubtedly derives its name from a place of the similar name in England. In addition to its present territory it included, when incorporated, all of Westborough and North- borough (set off in 1717), Southborough (set off in 1727), and Hudson (set off in 1866). It was incorporated as a city May 23, 1890.
Authorities: Allen, Joseph, "Topographical and Historical Sketches of the town of North- borough, with the early history of Marlborough", 1826. Felton, Cyrus, "Record of Events" (part one and two) 1879-1880. Hudson, Charles, "History of the Town of Marlborough," 1862. Pitman, J. A., "Notes on the History of Marlborough", 1905.
SHERBORN
Sherborn, like other towns of the early period, was first brought into notice by the grants of land in its territory, which were given to prominent men of the colony, but who were residing elsewhere. As early as 1643 and for thirty years afterwards, these grants were constantly made. These non-residents eventually conveyed their grants to actual settlers. The first transfer of this kind was made in 1652. The early settlers were men in the prime of life, and most of them were men of substance. Their territory was a wilderness, and known by the Indian name of Bogistow. Their affiliations at that time were largely with the town of Medfield, and they be- came enrolled and taxed as its citizens for about twenty-five years, although their territory was not included in Medfield bounds. In 1674 the number of families was twenty, and the popula- tion about 108, and on October 31, 1674, the General Court granted their petition to be incorpo- rated, and ordered that the name of the town be called "Sherborne."
This name was given to it from the name of the town of Sherborne (not Sherborn) in England, and was assigned to it, as in similar instances, as the name of the native place of some settler or proprietor. The town was known by the name of Sherburne for more than a century, but in 1852 it was altered to Sherborn, under an idea that such was the name as spelt in England.
Two strong garrison-houses had been built in the new town for protection against Indian enemies, and later three others were added. To these the inhabitants were accustomed to flee on any alarm or report of hostile Indians. This they were obliged to do for many years before and after Philip's War, and even as late as 1705. In fact, the settlers were obliged to do this for a great length of time.
A bold attack upon Medfield was made by the Indians with three hundred warriors, Feb- ruary 21, 1675-6. It was regarded as a daring raid, because the town was so near Boston, and well supplied with garrison-houses, and two hundred soldiers were quartered there. The sur- prise and conflagration at Medfield, where fifty persons were murdered, was followed by two attacks on Bullard's strong garrison-house at Sherborn. Unable to face the muskets inserted in the port-holes, and finding all trees and bushes cut away and the land burned over all around it, to afford an uninterrupted view for the unerring marksmen, and finding also all shelter for them- selves in which to lurk cut off, the Indians decided, after a trial of a disastrous front attack, to try burning it. The garrison was placed on a side hill, and the plan tried by the Indians was to fill a cart with flax, set it on fire, and from the declivity above push it down against the building, which must take fire from the burning mass. Although a clear and open course was selected for the cart, it deviated slightly from the straight track and struck a rock, where it stopped and burned itself out without harm to anybody. The Indians then gave up the siege and retired disappointed. Two months later a second attack on the same garrison was made. But the inmates sallied forth and punished the enemy so severely that no attack was ever again attempted.
In 1679 the town adopted a famous "social compact", or species of town orders or by-laws, S -- 3h
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to prevent questions and mistakes as to their action in certain matters in the future. The first article provided that all persons receiving grants of land from the town "shall become subject to all the orders of the town", provided that such orders do not conflict with those of the General Court, and such grantees shall engage themselves and their successors by subscribing each one his name in the town book; otherwise, his grant is of no effect. The second article provided that questions, differences or contentions shall be submitted to arbitration, and settled in that way whenever possible. The third article provided that only such persons should be received into the township as the grantees believed to be honest, peaceable and free from scandal and erro- neous opinions. The fourth article provided that no inhabitant should, for seven years, on any pretence whatever, without the consent of the selectmen, sell, or in any manner convey to others any part of the land which had been granted him by the town, except to some formerly " accepted by our society"; with the exception always of heirs at common law. The intention of the third and fourth articles was to exclude persons of disreputable character, and such individuals as might create dissensions in the community. The compact was signed by thirty-two heads of families, and it was ratified and allowed by a vote of the General Court.
The town started very well with the election of suitable officers, but obstinate disagreement arose about the location of their meeting-house. This trouble led to conditions which prevented the immediate settlement of a minister, and in 1680 certain inhabitants petitioned the General Court on the subject, stating that without a minister "their hopeful plantation would be ruined, and they and their wives and children be forced either to live like heathen, without God's Sab- bath and ordinances, or remove." An advisory committee of the court failing to settle the dif- ferences among the inhabitants, though it was invested with that power, the strong arm of au- thority was then used, and the court appointed a committee to order and govern the "pruden- tials" of the town for three years as to the laying out of lots and raising of taxes. The town could do nothing but submit. This new committee soon decided the question of the location of the meeting-house, and placed it in a more central and satisfactory position than the inhabitants had planned. The first minister was not ordained until 1685.
In 1700 the town lost a portion of its territory by the incorporation of Framingham. In 1724 another portion was made the town of Holliston. The population of the town of Sherborn in 1764 was 630, included in 113 families.
Authorities: Biglow, William, "History of Sherburne", 1830. Morse, Abner, "A Genea- logical Register of the Inhabitants, and History of the towns of Sherborn and Holliston", 1856.
FRAMINGHAM
Framingham, though incorporated as a town June 10, 1700, was known much earlier as Danforth's Farms. The first land grant within its territory was made as early as 1640. It was without proprietary records during this period, and many of the estates were held by unregis- tered leases. There was no civil organization among its first settlers, who were scattered over an extensive tract and dependent for such few privileges as they had upon the nearest incorpo- rated towns. The land was known in ancient records as "wilderness land." Sudbury, settled in 1638, was to the north; no settlement existed to the south nearer than Medfield; on the west was the new township of Marlborough. The nearest settlements to the east were in Watertown, in Newton, then a part of Cambridge. The Natick Plantation, reserved for the Indians, was in a sense a neighbor. Among the early grants in "Framlingham Plantation" were these: The Governor Danforth grants (embracing the greater part of the territory of Framingham); Glover's Farm, 1640, (named for the Glover family, distinguished, not only for the eminence of its mem- bers-but for its marriage connections with the Winthrops, Appletons, and Dunsters); Rice's Grants, Edmund Rice, 1652; Stone's Grants (John Stone of Sudbury, 1656); Richard Wayte of
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Boston, 1658; Richard Russell, colony treasurer, 1659; Elijah Corlett, schoolmaster of Cam- bridge-a native of London, in England, and a man of more than local reputation-1659; Colonel William Crowne's, 1669; and Eames's, Gookin and Howe's purchase, Lynde's farm, and others, probably smaller, belong to this numeration of early grants.
It is probable that the first house was erected on the territory soon after the year 1647. The name of Framingham for the plantation was that of the birthplace of Mr. Thomas Danforth in England. The only event of Philip's War particularly connected with Framingham was the destruction of Thomas Eames's house. The family were attacked by about a dozen Indians in February, 1675-6, when the father was absent, and they either killed or took captive all that were found at home, numbering probably ten persons. Three-Samuel, Margaret, and Nathaniel- returned, and were subsequently married. Four captives at least were carried away. The number of killed, including the wife, was probably four. Eames, in his inventory of loss, states that he lost, in the first place, a wife and nine children. The actors in the affair were known, and several of them were soon arrested and tried. One of them testified that he was one of the per- sons who destroyed Thomas Eames's family-killing of some and carrying captive the rest, and burning the house, barn and cattle; and did confess that he himself carried away on his back one of Eames's sons. That two of Eames's daughters were taken captive, but were well used otherwise. Three Indians suffered the death penalty for this crime, and two were pardoned.
In 1696, owing to the increasing number of the inhabitants, a petition was preferred to the General Court that the plantation might be incorporated as a township. This was accomplished in 1700. Its population in 1765 was 1280. In 1840, 3030.
Authorities: Ballard, William, "A Sketch of the History of Framingham", 1827. Barry, William, "A History of Framingham", 1847. Framingham, "Memorial of the Bi-centennial Celebration of the Incorporation of the Town", 1900. Temple, J. H., "History of Framingham", 1887.
DUNSTABLE
Dunstable to-day is of much smaller area than the town of the period of its incorporation in the year 1673. It was one of those New England towns of the early period which owed their origin to grants of land which at different dates were made to individuals and corporations, for farms and other purposes, these grants being consolidated later into townships. The owners of these extensive farms in Dunstable were for the most part leading men in the colony at large, and, having conferred together, they presented a petition to the General Court, asking to be incorporated as a town, which was granted October 16, 1673. This tract of land was very large, and included the present towns of Dunstable and Tyngsborough, and parts of Dracut, Groton, Pepperell, Townsend, Nashua, Hollis, Hudson, and sections of Brookline, Milford, Amherst, Merrimack, Londonderry, Litchfield, and Pelham, New Hampshire. The new town is said to have received its name in compliment to Mistress Mary, the wife of Hon. Edward Tyng, who emigrated from Dunstable, England. Her son, Colonel Jonathan Tyng, became possessor of a large tract of land in the part which is now the town of Tyngsborough. The old English town is situated in Bedfordshire. Dense forests covered originally nearly the whole of this region, and English settlers are supposed to have appeared here as early as 1655. The safety of the early inhabitants was greatly promoted by the erection of a small fort or garrison-house. The Indians of the vicinity, however, were for the most part friendly to the English, but on the outbreak of Philip's War, in 1675, the inhabitants, generally knowing that the new settlement of Dunstable was peculiarly exposed as an outlying frontier, left their fort or garison-house, the meeting-house they were then erecting, and their dwelling-houses, and sought protection in other towns, such as Chelmsford, Concord, Billerica, Woburn, and Boston. Hon. Jonathan Tyng, however, re- mained, the only Englishman who stood bravely at his post throughout the war. His house
e
1- 's of
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stood on the right bank of the Merrimack river, nearly opposite Wicasuck island, and about a mile below the central village of Tyngsborough. Fortifying his house as best he could, and send- ing to Boston for supplies, he stood alone as an outpost between the enemy and the settlements below. He was born in 1642, and died suddenly in Woburn in 1724, and in the latter place his gravestone is still standing.
With the close of the war the houses and farms were soon reoccupied. A carpenter was engaged to complete the unfinished-meeting house, and matters seemed to progress favorably until 1689, when another Indian war began, and Dunstable, from its still exposed situation, was liable to be attacked. Friendly Indians gave warning of one contemplated attack, and the General Court sent a supply of men for their defence, but, notwithstanding that aid, the people were still "weak", and unable to keep their garrisons up, and send out men at the same time to gather hay; so a scout of twenty infantry or footmen was requested of the court for a month, until the haying season was ended. The town, too, was short of provisions, by reason of its having to billet soldiers during all the previous winter, and a supply of meat was needed; for bread they could supply themselves; otherwise, without this help they insisted they would have to leave the town. Murders again became so numerous that by the year 1696 two-thirds of the inhabitants had abandoned the town. In 1702 another war was started, in which the Indians took active part, and the people of Dunstable for ten years longer were still in constant fear of assault. On the night of July 3, 1706, a party of two hundred and seventy Indians attacked a garrison-house in which had been posted, unknown to the Indians, an English captain and twenty "troopers" of his command. The door of the house had been left open by the owner and his wife, who had gone out at close of day for the milking. The Indians had shot and killed the wife, and had wounded and made captive the husband. Both parties were taken by surprise. Rush- ing into the house, the Indians found before them the body of armed men. In the melee which followed, several of the English were either killed or wounded, and the Indians were forced out. After withdrawing, the Indians set fire to another house and killed a woman, and also on that same day killed, at another garrison-house, a man and three women. On the 27th of July, 1706, the Indians killed one of their enemies, a friendly Indian, and took one white woman captive. The Mohawk bands were fiercer fighters than the local Indians, and small bands of. the English sometimes encountered them by mistake, to their loss, as we shall show under the year 1724. The average young Englishman considered himself as more than a match for the average New England Indian. The savages, however, were very crafty, and usually won, when they won at all, by superiority of position or of numbers. It was their habit to entice, if they could, small bodies of the armed English to a distance from their base of support, and then selecting their own position in advance, overwhelm them in a sudden manner by superior numbers. When parties of this kind were cut off, a stronger force was usually sent to their rescue, who, on arriving at the spot, would find only the dead bodies of their countrymen, which they would bring in and bury, and such forces would find that the Indians had departed before their arrival.
In 1711 the number of fortified houses in Dunstable was seven. The population at that time was thirteen families, seven males, and nineteen soldiers, a total of eighty-six persons. The time of the people was spent mostly in the garrisons, and but little in the way of improve- ment was made. Their crops were slender, and the people were destitute of the common sup- plies. Had not fish, game, and berries been abundant, the settlers would have been compelled to leave their lands and return to the older towns. With the return of peace in 1713 the town began to increase in numbers.
War began again in 1724, and the former experiences were renewed. In September two men were carried captive by a party of French and Mohawk Indians. A party of ten English, or more, pursued them. This party was ambushed by the other party, and all were either at once killed or made prisoners. Eight of the bodies of those killed were recovered and buried in
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