USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Historical collections: containing I. The Reformation in France; the rise, progress and destruction of the Huguenot Church. Vol I > Part 10
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"HARTFORD, Oct. 23d, 1678.
" HONORED SIR :
"I am desired by our General Assembly to intreat so much favor from
* Francis Willoughby was Lieutenant-Governor of the colony of Massachusetts six years, 1665-1670, Richard Bellingham being Governor at the same time.
+ Mr. Hopkins provided similarly for the college and school at New Haven. The receipt of these funds was not realized until many years afterwards. Mrs. Hopkins survived her husband, who died in 1657, over forty years, dying December 17, 1698, at whichi time the executors, overscers, and trustees named in the will had deceased, and the property devised had passed to other hands. It became necessary to institute a suit in chanccry in the Eng- lish courts, and, after much delay, a decision was arrived at by Sir Simon Harcourt, Lord- keeper, who decreed that the money be paid over according to the will of the testator. This, as appcars, was received in 1714, and, as the decree directed, was invested in lands, in the interior of Natick (as then known). A tract of 13,000 acres was purchased of the Natick Indians, comprising, with an additional grant from the province, the town of Hopkinton, in Middlesex county (which derived its name from this benefactor), and part of the town of Upton, in the county of Worcester. Governor Joseph Dudley, and other distinguished persons in the province, to the number of twenty-one, were the first trustees. The rents of these lands for many years yielded only $222.22, annually, until March, 1823, when it was agreed that the rent should, in future, for ninety-nine years, be $666.67, one penny sterling per acre, and afterwards three pence sterling. This contract was soon compro- mised for a net sum, which, in 1853, amounted to over $30,000.
See Quincy's History of Harvard University ; also, see Mr. Savage's Notes to Winthrop's History of New England, vol. I, pp. 228-230.
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yourself as to be concerned on their and our behalf, either by your own hand or some other person that you judge meet, and can prevail withall to present this, our humble address, into his Majesty's hand, with the beseeching his Royal candor to pardon both our slowness and* mean- ness therein, as coming from his poor wilderness subjects lately saved out of the hands of a barbarous enemy, and much unskilled in making such a sublime presentation of themselves, yet could not in duty forbear the adventuring to make ourselves known in the capacity of loyal sub- jects, upon confidence of finding his Majesty unchangeable in the grace we have formerly experienced. If anything hereabout should occasion charge, we shall, with all readiness, be responsible, and remain your obliged and thankful servants,
WM. LEETE,
"Subscribed these for the Hon. Robert ) on behalf, as above,
Thompson, Esq., at Newington, (Gen'l Assembly)."
near London.
Major Thompson was one of the referees to whom the ad- justment of the charter bounds between Connecticut and Rhode Island was submitted by Governor John Winthrop, Jr., and Mr. John Clark, in 1663. Afterwards the colony of Connecticut, as well as Massachusetts, had frequent occasion to ask his good offices for the presentation of petitions and
* The petition to his majesty, Charles II, forwarded with this letter to be presented, referred to the continuanee of that charter of the colony obtained of his majesty by John Winthrop, Jr., in 1662, the same charter of said colony, which Sir Edmund Andros, then Gov- ernor of the Territories in America belonging to the Duke of York, afterwards James II, was making effort to violate.
Sir Edmund Andros, having served as Governor over the Territories of the Duke of York in America a number of years, and known as a very unscrupulous and exacting man, received appointment and was commissioned, June 3, 1686, Captain-General and Governor- in-Chicf in and over the colonies of Massachusetts Bay and New Plymouth, the provinces of New Hampshire and Maine, and the Narragansett country, or King's Province. He arrived at Boston on the 20th of December, and published his commission the same day. On the 22d he dispatched special messengers to Rhode Island and Connecticut, with letters to their governors, announcing his arrival, and that he was authorized to receive the sur- render of the charters of those colonies, if tendercd by them. At the same time, Edward Randolph, another despotic tool of James II, wrote Governor Treat, of Connecticut, urging him to avail himself of the only door yet open, by an early application to his excellency, to be annexed to his government, and informing him that a third writ of quo warranto had been issued against the colony, returnable February 9.
A letter from the Under-Sheriff of London, indorsing the writ, was delivered by the same messenger.
This shows the condition of the New England colonies at the close of the reign of Charles II, and in the short reign of Jamcs II, formerly Duke of York. It was fortunate for these colonies that the revolution in England, in 1688, displaced these despots and placed the Prinee of Orange on the throne, under a constitution that protceted the rights of the people.
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management of their affairs in England. He received a spe- cial grant of 500 acres of land from Massachusetts, besides his share of the grant for Oxford, in 1683, in acknowledgment of "his good-will and friendship to that colony. This grant was subsequently laid out in the territory east of Woodstock, which afterwards became the north part of Killingly; and, in 1731, the General Assembly of Connecticut granted to Joseph Thompson, Esq., of the Inner Temple, London, grandson and heir of the said Robert Thompson, Esq., of the parish of Stoke, Newington, deceased, 2,000 acres near the grant be- fore to his grandfather, which, with the 500 as aforesaid, making 2,500 acres, was given in remembrance of the valua- ble services of Major Thompson .*
In 1728 the settlers here formed themselves into a society, by name, "The North Parish of Killingly ;" but, in 1730, in honor of Major Robert Thompson, changed the name to Thompson's Parish, and it so remained till the year 1785, when, by their petition and the inhabitants of Killingly to the General As- sembly of Connecticut, setting forth that the town was eighteen miles long by seven wide, and very inconvenient for the voters to attend Freeman's meetings, it was resolved that Thompson's Parish be made a separate town by the name of Thompson.
It also appears that Major Robert Thompson bought the interest of the Rev. Henry Whitfield in the town of Guild- ford, in Connecticut, after Mr. Whitfield's return to England.
This estate was much the largest and most valuable in that town, Mr. Whitfield being the most wealthy and chief founder of the town, in the year 1639. He received of Colonel George Fenwick a large part of the eastern portion of the town, and had erected a large and expensive stone house on
* Governor Gurdan Saltonstall, in behalf of his great-grandfather, Sir Richard Salton- stall, owned 1,000 acres here, and Josiah Wolcott, son-in-law of John Campbell, the first minister of Oxford, had 2,000 acres here, formerly the property of Thomas Freak. The first sale of land in this tract was by this Mr. Wolcott and his wife, Mary, of Salcm, to Josiah Sabin, April 10, 1716.
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his plantation, beautifully located, fronting the sound, which is a fine house at the present time, all of which became the property of Major Thompson, and descended to his heirs. Mr. Whitfield returned to England about 1652. Thus it will be seen that Major Thompson was a man of note, both in Eng- land and in these colonies, and was largely and earnestly interested in their behalf.
The other two gentlemen named in the grant for Oxford are familiarly known by the provincial history of Massachu- setts, and by the biographical notices of them by both Eliot and Allen in their biographies of noted men of this early period of New England.
Both Stoughton and Dudley filled a large place in the his- torical affairs of New England in their day ; both were largely engaged in the public business of these colonies a large part of their lives, and wielded great influence in matters relating to them, both in these colonies and the mother country, and the affairs of the same for that period were largely shaped by their labors.
Stoughton was a man of learning and piety, a benefactor of Harvard College. Stoughton Hall was erected at his expense in 1698 ; he also left by his will several tracts of land for aiding students at the college and scholars at Dorchester. He died, July 7th, 1701, aged 70.
Hon. Joseph Dudley was son of Governor Thomas Dudley, a graduate of Harvard in 1665; was agent of the province in England many years; and, in 1686, was appointed President of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, but was superseded by Andros, and then appointed Chief-Justice of the colony.
In 1689 he again visited England, and, in 1690, returned with a commission as Chief-Justice of the Colony of New York. Soon after, on visiting England, he received the appointment of Lieutenant-Governor of the Isle of Wight, England, which office he held eight years, and was then appointed, by Queen
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Anne, Governor of Massachusetts, and continued in that office till November, 1715. He died, April 2, 1720, aged 73.
There was no man in New England in his time who exer- cised a greater influence in her affairs, at home or abroad. He possessed rare ability, and was a learned man, a gentle- man in his deportment, and a firm supporter of the cause of education and religion. Among the associates of these three gentlemen whose names appear in the grant for Oxford, were Doctor Daniel Cox, Captain John Blackwell, of London, and Thomas Freak, of Hannington, in the county of Wilts, Eng- land. Of these Englishmen, Major Robert Thompson, Dr. Daniel Cox, Captain John Blackwell, and Thomas Freak, there is good reason to believe that some of them-Blackwell in particular-and probably others, and many of their friends who were Puritan Dissenters, and at this time oppressed for their religious belief, designed to remove and settle perma- nently in this country ; but changed their design for the reason of the favorable change in both political and religious affairs in England, consequent upon the death of King Charles II, and the short reign of James II, which brought to the English throne William of Nassau, the Prince of Orange, as William III, giving to England a constitution defining and protecting the rights of the people, against what had been the oppressive acts and designs of the two preceding reigning princes.
The following letter from Dr. Cox to Governor Bradstreet, dated " London, October 10, 1684," is evidence of the design referred to above :
"Divers persons in England and Ireland, gentlemen, citizens, and others, being inclined to remove themselves into foreign parts, where they may enjoy, without interruption, the public exercise of the Chris- tian religion, according to what they apprehend to be of Divine institu- tion, have prevailed with Mr. Blackwell to make your country a visit, and enquire whether they may be there welcome, and which they may reasonably expect -- that liberty they promise themselves and others, who will attend their motion."
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The following is another letter of similar import, there being only nine days' difference in their date; and while the first is from England, this latter is from France ; it being a singular coincidence touching the idea of fleeing from religi- ous oppression, and looking to New England, in America, as a place of refuge for the enjoyment of their religious faith, denied them in their own country :
" ROCHELLE, October 1, 1684.
" New England, the country where you live, is in great esteem ; I and a great many others, Protestants, intend to go there. Tell us, if you please, what advantage we can have, and particularly the peasants who are used to the plough. If somebody of your country would send a ship here to bring over French Protestants, he would make great gain."
The English Revolution of 1688 had a similar effect to that of the Revolution of 1640, in staying the emigration of Eng- lish Dissenters to New England. But in France there was no such relief, but if possible, it continued with increased severity, resulting in the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, causing hundreds of thousands of this proscribed class to exile themselves to foreign countries. It was of this class that entered the wilderness and formed the first plantation at Ox- ford. Captain John Blackwell came to New England, as proposed by Dr. Cox, and remained several years, and was the friend and associate of Mr. Dudley.
Besides being an associate in the grant for Oxford, he, with Captain James Fitch and others, obtained a separate grant as described,* "in the Wabquasset country," bearing date, "July 8, 1686." This grant afterwards became the town of Pom- fret, which was incorporated in 1713. The same reasons that changed the decision of Dr. Cox, Freak, and others, from removing to New England, no doubt induced Captain Black-
**: See Colonial Records of Connecticut, vol. from 1678 to 1689, p. 149. This describes bounds of Wabquasset country.
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well to abandon the idea of forming a settlement of his friends here, and to return home. He procured a division of the Wabquasset grant, which gave him a separate tract of 5,000 acres in the south part of the same, to which he gave the name of Mortlake. The name was that of a village in Surrey, in England, near the Thames, a few miles above London. This was the place of residence of General Lambert (the father-in-law of Blackwell), and Lord Pack, Lord Tichburn, Sir John Ireton, and many others of Oliver Cromwell's friends and supporters. The Wimbledon House and other courtly places were here established during the protectorate. Black- well's heirs sold the Mortlake estate to Jonathan Belcher, afterwards Governor of Massachusetts, and probably sold his Oxford lands to other parties in Boston-they, amounting to 7,714 acres, making 12,714 acres in the two grants. Mort- lake remained a separate district, but without corporate powers, until 1752, when it was annexed by the Assembly of Connecticut to the town of Pomfret.
Blackwell was a member of the English Parliament in 1656, under the Commonwealth of Cromwell, and a treasurer in his army. In the year 1657, Parliament, by a special act, settled upon him and his heirs large tracts of land in Ireland, in the counties of Dublin and Kildare .* He was excepted from the general pardon when Charles II was restored to the throne, and was, for a time, obliged to exile himself, as did his father-in-law, General Lambert, and many others, who had served under Cromwell. He and General Lambert resided several years in the island of Guernsey, off the coast of Nor- mandy. He came to this country in 1684, commissioned by the English and Irish Dissenters, to look for a place of refuge, and it is quite clear that he continued here four or five years, until after the Revolution of 1688.
* See vol. III, Colonial Records of Connecticut, pp. 202, 222, 246-247.
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Edward Randolph, a tool of the government of Charles II, and afterwards that of the Duke of York, who succeeded to the throne as James II, was employed at Boston, as an officer of the customs, while Captain Blackwell resided in this country, and wrote to his superiors at home, noticing the attention shown to him by Governor Dudley, viz .: "That Captain Blackwell, son-in-law to Lambert, and a violent Com- monwealth's man, was made a justice of the peace by Gov- ernor Dudley and his council, and consulted with about all public affairs." This might have been the occasion for the Duke of York (James II) taking prompt measures for superseding Governor Dudley by the appointment of Sir Edmund Andros. Dudley received his appointment, May 20, 1686, and was succeeded by the appointment of Andros, December 20, following, Blackwell being a resident of Boston at this time.
Thus it will be seen, by the foregoing, that Major Thomp- son and Captain Blackwell were men of high standing and character both in England and America, and it is presumed, from their connection in this association, that Doctor Cox and Thomas Freak were of a similar position in society.
The first survey of the grant for Oxford was made by John Gore, of Roxbury. Its contents were 41,250 acres. On the presentation of this survey and plan to the General Court, it was accepted on the 16th of May, 1683, and received the name of Oxford, in honor of Oxford, in Oxfordshire, in Eng- land, and its celebrated university, at which many of the noted Puritan fathers of New England received their colle- giate education.
The first object of the grantees was to furnish the thirty families of permanent planters. The grantees for the town of Woodstock, then known as New Roxbury, and the older plantations of Lancaster, Mendon, Brookfield, and Quinsig- amond (called Worcester in 1684), destroyed by the recent
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Indian war, were all in the market for procuring settlers at this time.
The disposition for removing from the old settled towns near Boston into a distant wilderness was much retarded by the knowledge that there were straggling bands of disaffected Indians (the remains of the several old native nations that escaped during the late war of Philip) hanging about the frontier settlements. It was found extremely difficult, at this time, to induce families to remove to any of these plantations. Woodstock, being located further south, and removed some- what from these encroachments, was the most successful; while it secured its required families of English settlers, the other plantations received but few. The grantees of Oxford, fearing the stipulated time in their grant would expire before their requisite number of families could be obtained for planting upon the same, applied to the Court for an extension of its limits, in this respect, which was granted, as before stated, extending the time three years from 1685. This was the year, it will be noticed, of the Revocation (by Louis XIV, of France) of the Edict of Nantes.
The French Protestants, called Huguenots, had for many years been suffering unprecedented cruelties and persecutions for their religious faith, but more aggravating and relentless during the twenty years immediately preceding this repeal, which had become unendurable, causing vast numbers of this conscientious and pure-minded people to exile themselves and families from their native country. All countries where there was protection for their faith received many of this distressed people. The greater number removed to the Netherlands and to England, and from thence many, through the aid of the benevolent, and from their own resources, found their way to the rising English colonies in America .* They had,
* Sce M. Charles Weiss' History of the French Protestant Refugees, vol. I, book 4, p. 326; also, see Hume's History of England, vol. VI, pp. 263-264.
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at an earlier period, sought this refuge, before their persecu- tions were so unbearable, and there were those who, in small numbers, were found among the founders of some of the first English colonies* here, leaving their native country during the siege of Rochelle, from 1627-1628.
" This extraordinary exodus of the French Protestants from France, through persecution, is unequaled in modern history, and nothing scarcely exhibits, with equal impressive force, the short-sighted policy of the ruler of a great nation, unless it be the expulsion of the Moors from Spain."t
This may be properly considered as one of the leading causes which lost to France her vast empire in America ; she proscribed all Protestants from settling in her American colonies, and by her policy furnished numerical strength and power to her antagonist, English colonies.
These persecutions excited the sympathies of all Protestant people, and wherever they sought a refuge they were received with kindness and hospitality. It was this spirit which, no doubt, induced the proprietors of this grant to seek for these exiles to supply the families required for their plantation.
The character of the English colonies in America, in rela- tion to their religion and spirit of political liberty, was well- known to the intelligent Protestants of France, as well as to those of England; and it is known that their attention was directed to these colonies for a place of escape. The follow- ing letter is a partial exhibit of this state of feeling in favor of this country. This was written at Rochelle, in France, October 1, 1684:
* Broadhead's History of New York, pp. 459, 692, 715, 730, 734-749. New York was the principal resort of the Huguenots who came to America before the repeal of the Edict of Nantes. The Hollanders, who founded this eolony, known for their spirit of toleration, received and protected alike those of different religious faith. Massachusetts received some of these early Huguenots at the first planting of that eolony: those who lett at the fall of Rochelle, in 1628; the writer's aneestor was of that elass.
+ See Weiss, vol. I, p. 249. It is estimated that 80,000 of these Huguenots established themselves in England in two years prior and subsequent to the Revocation.
# This letter is quoted in part in another place.
9
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" God grant that I and my family were with you; we should not have been exposed to the fury of our enemies, who rob us of the goods which God hath given to us to the subsistence of our souls and body. I shall not assume to write all the miseries we suffer, which can not be compre- hended in a letter, but in many books. I shall tell you briefly, that our temple is condemned, and razed, our ministers banished forever, all their goods confiscated ; and, moreover, they are condemned to a fine of a thousand crowns. All the other temples are razed, except the temple of Re and two or three others.
"By an Act of Parliament we are hindered to be masters of any trade or skill. We expect every day the Lord-Governor of Guyenne, who will put soldiers into our houses, and take away our children to be offered to the Idol, as they have done in other parts of the country.
" All of us hope for God's help, to whose providence we submit our- selves."*
It is well known that about the year 1686 the grantees of Oxford introduced into this plantation thirty families of French Protestants, and that they remained in a body on the same about ten years; that they had erected a meeting-house, and had their minister, who held regular meetings for religious worship with them, for a period of nine years. They also had erected a grist-mill, saw-mill, and a wash leather-mill, and it is believed that they had to some extent commenced the manufacture of tar and turpentine. They had made what they deemed reasonable protection against the assaults of enemies by the erection of two forts as works of defense.
Their advancement in numbers and stability, as an organ- ized town, had become such, in the year 1693, that the General Court of the province passed an act granting the town of Oxford the right to send to the Legislature a representative.
Furthermore, it appears that Gabriel Bernon, a French- man from Rochelle, France, had been instrumental in ship- ping from England many of these French families to Boston, which he did through the information received from Major Robert Thompson, whom he met in England, and who gave
* Sce Mass. Hist. Collections, vol. II, 3d series, p. 58.
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assurance of their receiving land for a plantation. It is evi- dent, also, that the land was furnished them at New Oxford, as then called, and that these French families did settle there, and were of the number that formed the plantation .*
Through the period of the existence of this plantation, Gabriel Bernon was their principal factor and chief reliance for aid, and it is clear that Mr. Bernon expended considerable sums of money there, and that it was through him that all the mills were erected for the encouragement of the settlement.
From all the evidence that has been seen, it is quite certain that the credit of introducing this colony of French Protest- ants upon the grant for Oxford belongs to Major Robert Thompson and Gabriel Bernon.
Mr. Bernon was a man of considerable distinction in France, having first fled from persecution from the city of Rochelle, to Holland, and from thence to England, where, through an introduction to Major Robert Thompson (then President of the Corporation for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians of New England), by Mr. Teffereau, Treasurer of the Protestant Churches of France, he was induced to give aid to quite a number of these French families to ship themselves to New England. They came to Boston with letters of intro- duction and credit to the Hon. Joseph Dudley and Hon. William Stoughton, joint grantees for the township of Oxford, with Major Thompson, who took measures to locate them there, and to put them in possession of land in that plan- tation. Their object, as is stated by Mr. Bernon, was “ to come over to New England to settle a plantation for their refuge."t
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