USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Groton > Historical address delivered at Groton, Massachusetts, July 12, 1905, by request of the citizens : on the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of the town > Part 4
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Voted that The Comtee that Got the Timber for The meeting house haue Liberty with such as shall subscribe thear to to build a porch at the front Dore of the meeting house up on their own Cost
Then voted that the Select men prouide some Conuiant place to meet in upon the Sabbath Till further order.
According to Joseph Farwell's note-book the raising took place on May 22, 1754, - which day fell on Wednesday, -- and lasted until Saturday, May 25. It is to be hoped that during these three days no accident happened on account of the liquid stimulant. Probably the work on the building was pushed with all the speed then possible and available; and, probably too, it was used for worship long before it was fin- ished. During this period of interruption in the public ser- vices it is very likely that the Sunday meetings were held at the house of the minister, Mr. Trowbridge, who then lived on the site of the High School building.
According to Farwell's note-book, on August 18, 1754, Mrs. Sarah Dickinson became a member of the church, the first person so admitted in the new meeting-house. She was the widow of James Dickinson, who had died only a few weeks before, and was buried in the old graveyard. According to the same authority, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper
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was administered in the new building for the first time on November 15, 1754.
The early settlers did not believe much in outward cere- mony; and the new meeting-house was never formally dedi- cated by a special service. Perhaps, when the house was first opened for worship, Mr. Trowbridge preached a sermon in keeping with the occasion; and very likely in his prayer he made some allusion to the event. We are told that the prayer of the righteous man availeth much. The homage paid to the Creator of the universe each Sunday, both by the pulpit and the pews, would consecrate any such structure to its high purpose. Simple in their religious faith, the worshippers had no use for ecclesiastical forms. Not alone by their words, but by their thoughts, they dedicated the meeting-house. Some- times words not spoken have more meaning than those which are uttered.
The Common, in front of the present meeting-house, was a place closely connected with the life of the town. Here at an early period the two militia companies used to meet and drill at regular times, known as training-days. On the Common the two companies of minute-men rallied on the morning of that eventful nineteenth of April, and received their ammuni- tion from the town's stock, which was stored in the Powder- House near by. Here they took farewell of friends and families, knowing full well the responsible duties that rested on their shoulders, and the dangers that threatened them. These men marched hence on that memorable day as British subjects, but they came back as independent citizens who never knew again the authority of a king.
In that house Mr. Dana, a young and rising lawyer of Groton, pronounced a eulogy on General Washington, which was delivered on Saturday, February 22, 1800, a few weeks after his death. The military companies of the town at- tended the exercises. Miss Elizabeth Farnsworth (1791- 1884) and Mrs. Sarah (Capell) Gilson (1793-1890) as little girls were present on the occasion, and they both gave me their faint recollections of the day.
The meeting-house was remodelled in the year 1839,
-
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when it was partially turned round, and the north end of the building made the front, facing the west, as it now stands. Formerly the road to the easterly part of the town went diagonally across the Common, and passed down the hill to the south of the meeting-house; and there was no highway on the north side. Before this change in the building was made, the town-meetings were always held in the body of the house ; and the voting was done in front of the pulpit. In my mind's eye I can see now the old pulpit, with the sounding- board hanging overhead.
The town-clock in the steeple, so familiar to every man, woman, and child in Groton, was made by James Ridgway, and placed in the tower some time during the spring of 1809. It was paid for. in part by the town, and in part by private subscription. Mr. Ridgway was a silversmith and a clock- maker, who during the war with England (1812-1815) carried on a large business in this neighborhood. He after- ward removed to Keene, New Hampshire, where he lived for many years. His shop was situated on Main Street, nearly opposite to the Groton Inn, but it disappeared a long time ago.
The bell of the meeting-house was cast in the year 1819 by Revere and Son, Boston, and, according to the inscription, weighs 1128 pounds.
On this interesting occasion we are all glad to have present with us the venerable Zara Patch, a native of Groton and the oldest inhabitant of the town. . His ancestry in both branches of the family runs back nearly to the beginning of the settle- ment, and in his person is represented some of the best blood of old Groton stock; and we welcome him at this time. He is the last survivor of nineteen citizens who signed the call for the due observance of the bi-centennial anniversary, on October 31, 1855, which was issued in the preceding May.
Fifty years ago the town had a celebration of the two- hundredth anniversary of its settlement, similar to the one we are now holding. On that occasion Governor Boutwell was President of the day, and the Reverend Arthur Buck- minster Fuller, a younger brother of Margaret Fuller, - of a
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family once resident here, - made the historical address, which was delivered in the Congregational Meeting-house. Colonel Eusebius Silsby Clark, who lost his life in the War of the Rebellion, at Winchester, Virginia, on October 17, 1864, was the Chief Marshal. Of his six aids on that day John Warren Parker and myself are the sole survivors, and the only representatives of those who had an official connection with the exercises; and now we are left the last two leaves on the branch. At that celebration Mr. Parker was also one of the Committee of Arrangements; and we are all glad to see him present on this occasion.
Groton is a small town, but there are those who love her and cherish her good name and fame. She has been the mother of many a brave son and many a fair daughter, duti- ful children who through generations " arise up and call her blessed." She is the Mount Zion of a large household. Of her numerous family, from the nursling to the aged, by her example she has spared no pains to make them useful citizens and worthy members of society. In former years she was relatively a much more important town than she is now. At the time of the first national census in 1790, in population Groton was the second town in Middlesex County, Cambridge alone surpassing it. In order to learn the true value of some communities, and to give the inhabitants of Groton their proper rank, they should be weighed and not counted; and by this standard it would be found that the town has not been lessened even in relative importance. Bigness and great- ness are not synonymous words, and in their meaning there is much difference between them. In all our thoughts and deeds, let us do as well by the town as she has done by us.
Fellow Townsmen and Neighbors, - the stint you set me is now done. On my part it has proved to be not a task, but a labor of love. If anything that I may have said should spur others to study the history of an old town that was typical of life among plain folk in the early days of New England, and one that has left an honorable record during the various periods of its existence, my aim will have been reached.
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APPENDIX.
The Name of Groton.
I AM indebted to the courtesy of Dr. Edward Mussey Hartwell for the following paper on the origin of the name of Groton. From any other source I could not have obtained such a scholarly essay on the subject; and it places me under great obligations to him. Dr. Hartwell passed his boyhood in Littleton, where his father's family belonged; and he fitted for college mostly at Lawrence Academy, so that he has inherited an historical interest in the neighborhood.
STATISTICS DEPARTMENT. BOSTON, July 3, 1905.
HON. SAMUEL A. GREEN, Librarian,
Massachusetts Historical Society.
DEAR DR. GREEN, - What follows contains the gist of my notes on Groton. For the sake of conciseness and brevity, I forbear (1) from fully describing the sources whence my citations are derived, and (2) from quotation of authorities regarding the linguistic affinities of the components of the word Groton. However, I may say that. I can support every statement by documentary evidence that seems conclusive to me.
Groton occurs as a place name both in England and the United States. Groton in England, which is situated in the County of Suffolk, appears to be a small parish of some 1560 acres, of which 39 are in common. The " Dictionnaire des Bureaux de Poste " published at Berne in 1895, gives six post-offices in various parts of the United States having the name of Groton. Two of them, viz., Groton, Massachusetts, and Groton, Connecticut, date from Colonial times, i.e., from 1655 and 1705 respectively, and numbered among their original grantees or proprietors members of the Winthrop family whose ancestral seat was Groton in the Babenberg Hundred, County Suffolk, England, whence it is reasonable to suppose all Grotons in this country have derived their name. Among them Groton, Mass., is the most
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ancient. The name (spelt Groaten) appears in a vote of the General Court dated May 29, 1655, to grant a new plantation at Petapawag to Mr. Deane Winthrop and others. In later records of the General Court, e. g., May 26, 1658, the form Groten appears ; and in the same records under date of November 12, 1659, both Groten and Groaten appear.
The Manor of Groton in Babenberg Hundred in the Liberty of St. Edmund and the County of Suffolk, England, according to the Domes- day Book (1086) belonged to the Abbey of Bury of St. Edmund's in the time of Edward the Confessor (1042-1065). In 1544 the re- quest of Adam Wynthorpe to purchase " the Farm of the Manor of Groton (Suffolk) late of the Monastery of Bury St. Edmund's " was granted by Henry VIII. (into whose hands it had come when the monasteries were suppressed) for the sum of £408. 185. 3d. Gov- ernor John Winthrop, grandson of Adam Wynthorpe, was Lord of the Manor of Groton in 1618. In 1630 or 1631 he sold his interest therein for £4,200. I find the name of this manor spelt variously at different times as follows :
I. Grotena (a) in Domesday Book in 1086.
(b) in Jocelin de Brakelond's Chronicle in 1200.
(c) in the Hundred Rolls in 1277.
2. Grotene (a) in Joc. de Brakelond about 1200.
(b) in the Patent Rolls, 1291 and 1298.
3. Grotona in Joc. de Brakelond about 1200.
4. Grotone (a) in Joc. de Brakelond about 1200.
(b) in the Patent Rolls in 1423.
(c) in Dugdale's citation of a MS. of 1533.
5. Groton (a) in Dugdale's citation of a MS. of 14th Century.
(b) in Records of the Augmentation Office, 1541 and 1544.
Jocelin de Brakelond was a monk of Bury St. Edmund's who, as Chaplain of the Abbot, wrote the Chronicle which bears his name. It covers the period 1173-1203, i. e., the incumbency of Abbot Samson. The frequent mention of Groton in this Chronicle, written just at the beginning of the thirteenth century, may be accounted for by the fact that the Abbey and certain claimants named de Cokefeld had a law-suit over lands at Groton.
Since 1541 Groton appears to have been the form of the name of the English manor, parish or hamlet. It may be remarked : (1) that "de Grotena " is found as a personal name in the Hundred Rolls,
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1297 ; and "de Grotton " in the Scotch Rolls, 1327 ; while a holding named Grotton, "late of the Monastery of Delacres in Staffordshire " is mentioned in the records of the Augmentation Office, 1547; and Grotton, a railway station in Lancashire, is mentioned in a " Compre- hensive Gazetteer of England and Wales," a recent but undated work.
The Latinized " in Grotena " and " Grotenam " of the Domesday Book give rise to the suggestion that Groten has the force of an adjective (meaning gravelly, gritty, stony or sandy), which served to characterize a tract of land, or perhaps a hill, a pit, a ham, or a ton. I take grot to be one form of the Old English greót, grut (Middle English, greet, gret, and Modern English, grit), meaning gravel.
The following is a series of forms in which variants of greót seem to have an adjectival force :
(1) Greotan edesces lond, relating to land in Kent, in a charter dated 822. Possibly greotan may stand for greatan, meaning big.
(2) Gretenlinkes, in Hampshire, in a land charter of 966.
(3) Gretindun (later Gretton in Dorsetshire), mentioned in a charter of 1019.
(4) Gretenhowe, the name of Gretna in Scotland, in 1376.
(5) Grotintune, a manor in Shropshire, Domesday Book, 1086.
(6) Gratenton (?), a manor in Berkshire, Domesday Book, 1086.
On the other hand, the form Greotan may be the dative plural of greot (for greotum ?) used in a locative sense "at the gravels," since Gravelai and Gravelei occur as place names in Domesday Book and Gravell occurs in the Hundred Rolls, temp. Edw. I.
The following scheme, derived from various standard lexicons, exhibits the etymological affinities of Greot (grit) :
Old
Middle Modern
Saxon Griot, griet,
cf. English and Ger- cf. English, German
greot, ·
man, and Norse.
English Greót, grut, grot, gret,
Greót, Greet, grit, gryt, Grit, grot, grout.
High German Grioz, Norse :
Griesz, Gries, Gruse, Graus.
Icelandic Grjót (griot), Grjót, Danish and
Grjot, Gryttn.
Norwegian Grjót, Grjót, Gryt(e),
Swedish Old Frisian gret. Low German grott.
Gruus, Grus, Gryttn. Grus, Grytt.
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Grot, for greót, appears to be an old and rather rare form. It should be stated that British place (and personal) names having Gret are much more numerous than those having Grot in the first syllable. Gretton is the name of several manors mentioned in Domesday, e. g., the present Girton (formerly called Gritton) (cf. Girton College), near Cambridge (Cambs.) and Gretton in Northamptonshire, still called Gretton. The last was Gretton (gryttune in 1060), Greton in 1086, Gretton in 1277, 1678, and 1895.
Other forms besides Gretton are : Gret-á == Gritwater, a stream in Cumberland, cf. Greta-marsc ( = Grit-water-marsh ?), 821 ; Greta- bridge = Gritwater bridge, Gret-ford, Gret-ham, Gret-land, Gret-well. Southey, the poet, lived at Greta Hall.
Gretá river in Cumberland had its counterpart in Grjótá, in the eleventh century in Iceland, translated Gritwater by Dasent in " The Burnt Nial." Gryttnbakki = Gravel hill or Gravel bank, is the name of (1) a modern post-office in Iceland and (2) another in Denmark. Grytten is a place name of today in Norway.
The Icelandic (Old Norse) Grjot-garth meant stone fence. Akin to garth (gard) are the Norwegian gaard and Swedish gård, a landed estate or homestead ; and the English Cloister-garth, yard, garden, and orchard (ort-geard).
Ton in Groton, Boston, etc., is related to M. E. Ton (Tone), O. E. tun, tune, O. Norse tún, O. Frisian tún, O. H. German taun, and German zaun, a hedge or fence. Ton and tun originally meaning an enclosing hedge or fence, meant also, field, yard, manor, hamlet, village and town or city.
Garth (yard) presents a parallel series of similar meanings, e. g., O. Norse for Constantinople was Myckel-gaard, i. e., the Great City.
I think that Groton stands for Grot-ton (cf. Gretton, Grit-ton) and is practically equivalent to the Icelandic Grjót-garth, and that your suggestion in 1876 as to the meaning of Groton was a happy one. Floreat Grotena !
Yours faithfully, EDWARD M. HARTWELL.
Bi-centennial Celebration.
The following extracts from the town-records relate to the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the settle- ment of Groton, which took place fifty years ago. They
مقد فضه
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have never yet been printed, but are given here, as they have a certain connection with the celebration recently held. With the exception of the Reverend Edwin A. Bulkley, every man whose name is mentioned in these extracts is now dead, showing the ravages which half a century may bring about.
SS
FAITH
HOLY BIBLE
GRO
S
LABOR
1655
In the warrant for the Town Meeting, November 13, 1854, Article 2 is as follows : -
To see if the town will take any measures to notice or celebrate the Two Hundredth anniversary since the settlement of the town of Groton in the year 1655 or pass any vote in relation to the same.
(P. 389.)
In the proceedings of the meeting it is recorded that: --
The subject matter of this article [2] was referred to the following committee with instructions to report at a future meeting.
Stuart J. Park
Jacob Pollard
Josiah Bigelow
Abel Tarbell
Wm. Shattuck
Joseph Sanderson
Willard Torrey Calvin Blood
Norman Shattuck
Joseph Brown
John Pingree
Silas Nutting
Elnathan Brown
Joseph Rugg
Charles Prescott
Charles A. Hutson (p. 392.)
Proceedings at the Town Meeting, March 5, 1855 : -
The committee chosen in Nov. last upon the Article "To see if the town will take any measures to notice or celebrate the two hun-
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dredth anniversary since the settlement of the town of Groton in the year 1655 or pass any vote in relation to the same " have attended to that duty and submit the following Report :
That there are eras or waymarks in the history of a people which it well becomes them to notice or celebrate, and such we consider the approaching anniversary of the incorporation of this town, and would therefore recommend to the town to celebrate said anniversary with becoming festivities, and that a committee be chosen to take the whole subject into consideration and report at the next April meeting a plan or mode of celebrating said anniversary.
Stuart J. Park
Josiah Bigelow
Wm. Shattuck
Joseph Rugg Willard Torrey
Norman Shattuck Silas Nutting
(p. 403.)
The above report was accepted and the following gentlemen were chosen a committee to report a plan or mode of celebrating said anniversary at the next April meeting.
Geo. S. Boutwell
Josiah Bigelow
Rev. David Fosdick
David Lakin
B. Russell
Dr. George Stearns
S. J. Park
Norman Smith
Peter Nutting
Daniel Needham
Nath! Stone
Rev. Daniel Butler
B. P. Dix
Rev. Crawford Nightingale
" E. A. Bulkley
" George E. Tucker
J. F. Hall, Jr.
„ [John M. ] Chick
Noah Shattuck
George F. Farley
Joshua Gilson
Calvin Fletcher
P. G. Prescott
Abel Tarbell
J. G. Park
Walter Shattuck
Wm. Shattuck
(p. 403.)
John Spaulding
Curtis Lawrence
Geo. W. Bancroft
Proceedings at the Town Meeting, April 2, 1855 : -
Voted, That the report of the Committee on the second Centennial Anniversary celebration be accepted and placed on file, also chose the following persons a committee to make preparations and arrange-
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ments for the celebration as mentioned in said report with discretion- sty powers as to the same, to wit.
Geo. F. Farley
Joshua Green S. J. Park Geo. S. Boutwell
General
Committee
David Fosdick, Jr. J
District No. I. Henry A. Bancroft District No. 9. Thos. Hutchins
2. Curtis Lawrence
66 IO. Rufus Moors
3. Josiah Bigelow
II. John Pingree
4. Edmund Blood
12. Nath! Stone
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5. Wm. Shattuck
13. E. D. Derby
6. Solomon Story
14. S. W. Rowe
7. Reuben Lewis
15. Ch's. Prescott
8. Calvin Blood
66 16. Allen Blood
(p. 407.)
Many years ago I obtained the letters and other manu- scripts, together with the printed circulars, connected with the Bi-centennial Celebration ; and I have had them carefully arranged, bound in a volume, and placed in the Library of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
List of Indian Words.
The following Indian names, applied by the early settlers to streams, ponds, or places, in the original township of Groton and neighborhood, for the most part are still in com- mon use. The spelling of these words varies, as at first they were written according to their sound and not according to their derivation. In the absence of any correct standard either of spelling or pronunciation, which always character- izes an unwritten language, the words have become so twisted and distorted that much of their original meaning is lost; but their root generally remains. It is rare to find an Indian word in an early document spelled twice alike. In the lapse of time these verbal changes have been so great that a native would hardly recognize any of them by sound. Even with all these drawbacks such words now furnish one of
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the few links in a chain of historical facts connecting modern times with the prehistoric period of New England. As the shards that lie scattered around the site of old Indian dwell- ings are eagerly picked up by the archaeologist for critical examination, so these isolated facts about place-names are worth saving by the antiquary for their philological value. "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost."
Babbitasset - formerly the name of a village in Pepperell, now included in East Pepperell.
Baddacook - a pond in the eastern part of the town.
Catacoonamug - a stream in Shirley, which empties into the Nashua. Chicopee - a district in the northerly part of the town, and applied to the highway approaching it, called Chicopee Row.
Humhaw - a brook in Westford.
Kissacook - a hill in Westford.
Massapoag - a pond lying partly in Groton and partly in Dunstable. Mulpus - a brook in Shirley.
Nagog - a pond in Littleton. .
Nashoba - the old name of the Praying Indian village in Littleton,
now applied to a hill in that town as well as to a brook in Westford. Nashua - a river running through the township, and emptying into the Merrimack.
Naumox - a district, near the Longley monument, lying west of the East Pepperell road ; said to have been the name of an Indian chief.
Nissitisset - applied to the neighborhood of Hollis, New Hampshire, and to a river and a hill in Pepperell.
Nonacoicus - a brook in Ayer, though formerly the name was applied to a tract of land in the southerly part of Groton, and is shortened often to Coicus.
Nubanussuck - a pond in Westford.
Petaupaukett -a name found in the original petition to the General Court for the grant of the town, and used in connection with the territory of the neighborhood ; sometimes written Petapawage and Petapaway.
Quosoponagon - a meadow " on the other side of the riuer," men- tioned in the land-grant of Thomas Tarbell, Jr .; the same word as Quasaponikin, formerly the name of a tract of land in Lancaster, but now given to a meadow and a hill in that town, where it is often contracted into Ponikin.
مح فقط كدا. هامة
5I
Shabikin, or more commonly Shabokin, applied to a district in Harvard, bordering on the Nashua, below Still River village.
Squannacook - a river in the western part of the town flowing into the Nashua ; a name formerly applied to the village of West Groton. Tadmuck - a brook and a meadow in Westford.
Unquetenassett, or Unquetenorset - a brook in the northerly part of the town ; often shortened into Unquety.
Waubansconcett - another word found in the original petition for the grant of the town, and used in connection with the territory of the neighborhood.
List of Towns
established in the two Colonies, before the township of Groton was granted in 1655, together with the year when they are first mentioned in the records of the General Court.
PLYMOUTH COLONY.
1
1620
Plymouth
7 1639
Taunton
2
1633
Scituate
S
1641
Marshfield
3
1637
Duxbury
9
1643
Eastham
4
1638
Barnstable
10
1645
Rehoboth
5
6
1639
Yarmouth
MASSACHUSETTS-BAY COLONY.
1
1630
Charlestown
19
1640
Braintree
2
Salem
20
1641
Haverhill
4
Dorchester
22
Springfield
5
Watertown
23
1642
Gloucester
6
Medford
24
1643
Wenham
8
1631
Lynn
26
1644
Hull
9
Cambridge
27
Reading
10
1633
Marblehead
2S
1645
Manchester
11
1634
Ipswich
29
1646
Andover
12
. 1635
Newbury
30
1648
Topsfield
13
66
Hingham
31
1649
Malden
14
Weymouth
32
1650
Medfield
15
66
Concord
33
1653
Lancaster
16
1636
Dedham
34
May, 1655
Groton
17
1639
Rowley
35
¥
Billerica
18
66
Sudbury
36
Chelmsford
,
Trees from England.
Last September I wrote to the Reverend John W. Way- man, rector of the Groton Parish in England, and through his courtesy I procured several young elms and some acorns and beechnuts from the mother town. During the winter Professor Charles S. Sargent, who is at the head of the
Woburn
7
Roxbury
25
1652
Dartmouth
Sandwich
11
Salisbury
3
Boston
21
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Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, kindly took charge of the trees; and he also planted the acorns and nuts which came up in the spring. These trees and saplings have been set out temporarily on my land, and in due time, when of suitable size, they will be transplanted in some public place. It is hoped that they will foster and keep alive an interest between the two towns which are connected by sentiment, though separated in age by centuries and in distance by thousands of miles.
First Parish Meeting-house.
This cut was taken from a drawing made in the year IS38 by John Warner Barber, and originally appeared in his Historical Collections of Massachusetts (Worcester, 1839). It repre- sents the First Parish Meeting-house before it was remodelled in 1839, when it was partially turned round, and the north end made the front, facing the west. The Academy build- ing, on the right of the Meeting-house, was enlarged in the autumn of 1846, and afterward burned on July 4, 1868. The fence now around the Common in front of the Meeting- house was built in the autumn of 1842, the last post being placed at the northwest corner on October 3 of that year. The trees within the enclosure were set out about the same time, excepting the row of elins along Main Street, which were transplanted in 1828.
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