USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Historical collections: containing I. The Reformation in France; the rise, progress and destruction of the Huguenot Church. Vol I > Part 9
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After inducing the Indians to aid in destroying the forts, he set sail for France, arriving safely at Rochelle, June 1, thirty- four days after their departure from the river May, in Florida, with the loss of a small pinnace with eight men, and but a few men slain in the assaults upon the forts.
Dominic de Gourgues was a native of Mount Marsan, in the province of Guyenne ; for many years he held an office in the army of France, and was respected as a gentleman and man of fortune. He died in the year 1582.
Notwithstanding the sad termination of this Huguenot colony, planted through the benevolent design of Admiral Coligny, it was not without some favorable results in the planting of the first English colony in America-that of Jamestown, in 1607, in Virginia.
As small circumstances sometimes tend to great results, so it may be said of some instances that arose out of this fatal enterprise.
In providing for the success of this French colony, there were furnished for the expedition several persons skilled as draftsmen and artists, whose duty it was to take notice of anything curious, or particularly noticeable in either the geog- raphy, climate, animal, or vegetable life of the country, and
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REFORMATION IN FRANCE.
to make drafts, or take special note of the same. This im- portant duty was faithfully and skillfully performed by an artist by the name of Jacques de Morgues, of Dieppe, one of the party who escaped from Fort Caroline, with Captain Rene de Laudonniere, in 1565, at the time of the massacre by Menendez.
On the return of De Gourgues, Walter Raleigh, a young Englishman, had abruptly left the University of Oxford to take part in the civil war between the Huguenots and Catho- lics of France ; and, with the Prince of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV, was learning the art of war under the veteran Coligny, then the first general in Europe.
The Protestant party was, at that time, greatly excited witlı indignation at the massacre which De Gourgues had avenged, and young Raleigh could not but gather from his associates in the Huguenot army, and its commander, Coligny, who had been instrumental in planting the unfortunate colony in Florida, much intelligence respecting that country and the navigation of its coasts. Some of the unhappy men who had escaped from the first expedition, on their arrival off the coast of France, were taken by English mariners to that country, and conducted to Queen Elizabeth, and had excited in the public mind in England a desire for the possession of the southern coast of America.
The reports of Hawkins, who had been the benefactor of the Huguenots at the river May, added to this excitement in England ; and Jacques de Morgues, the painter, who had sketched in Florida the most remarkable appearances of nature, was ultimately engaged by Sir Walter Raleigh in his attempts to plant a colony in this more southern latitude ; hitherto the efforts of the English, and particularly those of 1578 and 1583, by Sir Humphrey Gilbert (who was the step- brother of Sir Walter Raleigh), had been in the northern regions of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
This shows that through the information received from some
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REFORMATION IN FRANCE.
of the members and associates which carried into effect this ill-fated Huguenot enterprise, on the southern coast of this republic, the efforts of the English were directed to more southern latitudes, and the result was the founding of the first English colony in North America, which, as a reasonable prob- ability, prevented the acquisition of this great southern part of the present territory of the United States by the Spaniards, or perhaps by the Catholic French, by extending their posses- sions east over the same, from their settlements along the Mississippi river and Florida.
Besides being the first in the field in planting a colony on this southern coast, the Huguenots were the first to establish permanent colonies in New France, or what is now known as the Canadas and Nova Scotia.
While John Verrazzani, a Florentine, under the patronage of Francis I, of France, explored all the coast of this republic from near Cape Hatteras to Nova Scotia, in the year 1524, touching the coast of North Carolina, and entering the harbors of New York and Newport, Rhode Island ; and while James Cartier, a mariner of St. Malo, discovered the great river of Canada in 1534, and at different times sailed up its channel and discovered the island of Hochelaga, now known as Mon- treal, so named by this explorer in the year 1535-yet neither attempted to plant colonies, but acted simply the part of discoverers.
But finally in 1541-'42 an actual attempt was made to plant a colony on the banks of the St. Lawrence, when a fort was built near the present site of the city of Quebec.
In this last enterprise Cartier was appointed Captain-Gen- eral and Chief Pilot, as an associate with Francis de la Roque, of Picardy, and Lord of Roberval, a person of distinction, who received the commission and title of Lord of Norimbega, a name given to all this northern region ; yet, with all his high
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titles and the efforts of this generalissimo, they failed to estab- lish colonies.
In this condition this northern country remained ; and, in fact, with the exception of the Spanish colony at St. Augus- tine, the result of the Huguenot enterprise before related, more than forty years elapsed before any successful attempt was made to establish a colony in any part of North America, north of the above-named colony, by Spain. As Mr. Bancroft has expressed it,
" This Huguenot colony at the South sprang from private enterprise ; a government which could devise the Massacre of St. Bartholomew was neither worthy nor able to found new States."
" At length, under the mild and tolerant reign of Henry IV, the star of France emerged from the clouds of blood, treachery, and civil war, which had so long eclipsed her glory."
The number and importance of the fishing stages had increased ; in 1578 there were 150 French vessels at New- foundland, and regular voyages for traffic with the natives began to be successfully made. One French mariner, before 1609, had made more than forty voyages to the North Ameri- can coast. Colonization was again attempted in 1598, but the enterprise entirely failed.
Finally, after some other movements for this purpose, a commission was issued by Henry IV to a Huguenot, the able, patriotic, and honest Governor of Pons, Pierre du Gua, Sieur de Monts. To him was granted the monopoly of the fur trade in all parts of North America, lying between Cape Race, in Newfoundland, up to the fiftieth degree of north latitude, inclusive. All Huguenots or French Protestants, it was or- dained, were to enjoy in America, as then in France under the Edict of Nantes, full freedom of their public religious wor- ship. Much good was expected to result from this enterprise to be conducted by the able and honest Sieur de Monts ; nor were the public or his patron, King Henry IV, disappointed.
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REFORMATION IN FRANCE.
De Monts was distinguished as one ever zealous for the glory of his country. His ships, with emigrants, embarked at Havre de Grace in March 1604 ; Samuel de Champlain as the naviga- tor. They sailed towards Acadia, which M. de Monts preferred to Canada, because of its milder climate, and which was then the chief place of resort for the French fur trade, and was con- sidered at this time the finest country of New France. They at last arrived on the coast, and entered the Bay of Fundy, and finally the bay, now at Annapolis, but named by Baron Jean de Pontrincourt, who with his family were of the com- pany, Port Royal. From here they sailed to the entrance of the St. Croix river, and decided to make a settlement on an island at the mouth of the same, which proved unsatisfactory, but after remaining here through the winter abandoned the place, and returned to Port Royal, Nova Scotia, and there established the first French colony in the spring of 1605. This occurred two years before the James river was discovered, three years before any settlement was effected in Canada, and fifteen years before the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth .*
* The following authors have been consulted in writing the foregoing sketch, to wit :- Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, vol. II, his History of the Reformation; W. S. Browning's History of the Huguenots ; Rev. John G. Lorimer's Historical Sketch of the Protestant Church of France ; Nathaniel William Wraxall's History of France under the kings of the race of Valois, including the reign of Francis I, and to the close of the reign of Charles IX. Miss Pardoe's Louis XIV, and the Court of France in the seventeenth century; M. Charles Weiss' History of French Protestant Refugees; the Rev. P. F. X. De Charlevoix' History of New France; Bancroft's History of the United States; Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida, by B. F. French; Hayden's Dictionary of Dates; Bishop Burnet's History of his own Time; Hume's History of England; Henry Thomas Buckle's History of Civilization in England; the Massacre of St. Bartholomew and History of Civil Wars in the reign of Charles IX, by Henry White; Samuel Smiles' The Huguenots, their Settlements, Churches, and Industries ; Menzel's History of Germany; D'Aubigne's Reformation ; the History of the Reformed Religion in France, by Rev. Edward Smedley ; the Memoirs of the Duke of Sully (Maximilian Bethune); Henri Martin's History of France; and various other works relating to the History of Germany, Spain, England, and the Netherlands; also, An Analysis of the History of the Reformation, and prior and subsequent History of the English Church, by Rev. W. H. Pinnock, LL. D., 3d edition; Cambridge, England, 1854.
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OXFORD.
SECTION II.
CHAPTER I.
THE GRANT FOR OXFORD : IT'S HISTORY, AND THAT OF THE
COLONY OF HUGUENOTS, OR FRENCH PROTESTANTS, WHO FORMED HERE THE FIRST PLANTATION.
THIS was the first grant for a town within the limits of the territory, now the county of Worcester, after the disas- trous war of King Philip. There had been granted but four townships in this great interior territory, then known as the Nipnet or Nipmuck country, previous to this time, viz. : Lan- caster, in 1653, a place known to the English as early as 1643, as the Indian town called "Nashaway ;" Mendon, petitioned for by some inhabitants of Braintree in 1660, and granted for a town in 1667 ; Brookfield, a place known as the Indian town of the Quaboags, visited by the Rev. John Eliot in 1655, to make known to these natives the revelations of the Gospel ; it was granted to a number of the inhabitants of Ipswich, in the county of Essex, in 1660, and not incorporated as Brook- field until 1673 ; the fourth was Quinsigamond, granted by the request of Daniel Gookin, the Indian agent of the colony, as a favorable place for a town, being an intermediate place between Boston and Springfield, located in 1668, on his and others' petition, made in 1665.
These grants were in the midst of the native occupants of this interior, and mostly located by their solicitation, the first settlers being generally traders, who gained a support by 8
106
EARLY HISTORY OF OXFORD.
traffic with these Indians; and although their progress as towns had been slow, yet they were regarded before this war as permanently established, with little fear from these natives, as there had been a general peace with the Indians since the Pequot war of 1637. This unexpected war of Philip soon extended to this interior, and where peace and quiet had reigned uninterruptedly, a war of extermination and desola- tion, without any apparent cause or warning, followed. All these plantations, during the years 1675 and 1676, were des- troyed, and several years intervened before settlements again commenced in either.
Quinsigamond had only about six English dwellings at this time, which were burned ; and several years passed before another attempt for a settlement began, when, on the petition of Daniel Gookin and others, in 1684, this Indian name was changed for Worcester; but the place was not organized as a town till September 28, 1722.
The English planters were, from their first settling in the country, accustomed to respect the Indian ownership of the soil, and paid for lands they occupied ; and following this war, although but a remnant of these natives remained, and a powerless body, yet the General Court, before proceeding to make new grants in this interior, deemed it proper to seek out the native owners, however humble, and to purchase, at a satisfactory price agreed upon, a large tract of this country. For that end in view an order was passed, February 15, 1681, appointing the Hon. William Stoughton, of Dorchester, and Hon. Joseph Dudley, of Roxbury, to attend to that duty. Having so done, they report as follows :
" Whereas, we were appointed by the General Court, by their order, February 15, 1681, to transact some matters relating to the Indians, con- cerning their lands, and being upon that occasion at Natick, on the 19th of May, there were presented to us the deeds of sale hereto annexed, from the principal men of Natick, which they acknowledged before us, made to Samuel Gookin and Samuel Howe, for a parcel of remote and
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EARLY HISTORY OF OXFORD.
waste lands, belonging to the said Indians, lying at the uttermost westerly bounds of Natiek, and, as we are informed (having seen the plot thereof), is for quantity about - acres, more or less, being mean lands, and said to be, the most part, composed with lands belonging to the English; and having inquired into the matter, we conceive it would be no prejudice or inconvenience to the Indians, or their plantation at Natiek, to sell the same to the persons concerned, which at ye request of parties, both English and Indians, we offer to the Court for their confirmation of ye sale.
"WILLIAM STOUGHTON. " JOSEPH DUDLEY. "May 27, 1682."
The Indian deeds referred to in the foregoing report are deemed of sufficient interest to appear in connection with this history, which are as follows :
FIRST DEED.
" To all Christian people to whom this present Deed shall come:
" Know ye, that we, Waban, Pyambobo, John Awassawog, Thomas Awassawog, Samuel Awassawog, John Awassawog, Jr., Anthony Tray, John Tray, Peter Ephraim, Nehemiah James, Rumeny Marsh, Zackery Abraham, Samuel Neaucit, Simon Sacomit, Andrew Pittyme, Ebenezer Pegin, John Maquaw, James Printer, Samuel Acompanit, Joseph Milion, and Samuel Cocksquamion, Indian natives, and natural descendants of the ancient proprietors and inhabitants of the Nipmuek country (so called) and lands adjacent within the Colony of Massachusetts, in New England, for, and in consideration of the sum of thirty pounds, current money of New England, to us in hand, at and before the ensealing and delivery of these presents, well and truly paid by William Stoughton, of the town of Dorchester, Esq., and Joseph Dudley, of the town of Roxbury, Esq., both within the Colony of Massachusetts, the receipt of which valuable sum we do hereby aeknowledge ourselves therewith fully satisfied, have granted, bargained, and sold unto said William Stoughton and Joseph Dudley, their heirs and assigns, forever, all that part of the Nipmuck country, lying and being beyond the great river called Kuttatuck or Nipmuek river (now Blackstone), and between a range of marked trees; beginning at the said river, and running south- east till it fall upon the south line of said colony, on the south, and a certain imaginary line four miles on the north side of the road as it now lieth to Springfield, on the north; the said great river Kuttatuck or Nipmuck on the east, and the said patent line on the west; all the
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EARLY HISTORY OF OXFORD.
lands lying within the said limits or bounds, be they more or less. In witness whereof, we have hereunto put our hands and seals this 10th day of February, Anno Domini, one thousand six hundred and eighty- one, and in the four-and-thirtieth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord, King Charles the Second, over England, " &c.
"Signed, sealed, and delivered in presence of us,
" Waban, X his mark and scal.
Pyambobo, O 66 66
John Awassawog, O 66
Samuel Awassawog, m «
Samuel Bowman, h 66
John Awassawog, Jr. V “ 66
Anthony Tray, A
Thomas Tray, ? 66
Benjamin Tray, P 66
Jethro, B 66 ٠٠
Joseph Ammon, Jo 66
. 6
Peter Ephraim, be 66
Andrew Pittyme, An
Nehemiah, 66
66
Zackery Abraham, H 66
.6
Samuel Neaucit, M 66
66
Thomas Waban, m 66
George Moonisco, G. 66
.6
Eleazer T. Pegin
١٩
Simon Sacomit,
Great Jacob Jacob,
Elisha Milion, - Menumion, O. alias, 66
The second deed was of the same date, embracing the same territory, with the consideration of twenty pounds lawful money of New England, making fifty pounds as the full pay- ment for the relinquishment of the Indian title to the tract of country thus conveyed, but had a reservation as follows:
"Reserving always unto ourselves, our heirs and assigns, out of the above said grant, a certain tract of land five miles square, at such two places as we shall choose, to be wholly at our own use and dispose."*
* This reservation was selected and located at Chabanakongkomun, surveyed in October, 1684, to Black James and others. It extended west from Chabanakongkomun pond (from which the Indian town here took its name), over Maanexit river (French river). Nearly all of this tract, with other lands between the towns of Oxford and Woodstock, became the prop- erty of Joseph Dudley, and afterwards fell to his sons, the Hon. Paul and William Dudley. Part of this Indian land is now within the limits of Thompson, Conn., and part in Dudley.
Samuel Ruggles, Sen ..
Daniel Morse, Samuel Gookin,
John Allen, Obadiah Morse.
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EARLY HISTORY OF OXFORD.
Signed and witnessed as follows:
" Signed, sealed, and delivered in presence of
" Black James, U and Seal.
Sam Jaco, E . 6
William Parker.
Benjamin, O 66
Isaac Newell.
Simon Wolamp, Lo 66
John Gove.
Wolowa Nonek, F 66
Samuel Ruggles, Jr.
Pe Pey Pegans, 66
Peter (his X mark) Gardiner.
Poponi Shant, Ts,
Ralph Brodhurst.
Cotoosowk, son of Wolompaw, by his order 66
Wabequola, Wab Siebquat, his mark S "
The grant for Oxford, as expressed on the records of the Court, is in the following words :
"This Court having information that some gentlemen in England are desirous to remove themselves into this colony, and (if it may be) to settle themselves under the Massachusetts ; for the encouragement of such persons, and that they may have some from among themselves, according to their motion, to assist and direct them in such a design, this Court doth grant to Major Robert Thompson, William Stoughton, and Joseph Dudley, Esq., and such others as they shall associate to them, a tract of land in any free place, conteyning eight miles square, for a township, they settling in the said place within fower years, thirty families, and an able orthodox minister, and doe allow to the said town- ship freedom from country rates for fower years from the time above limited."-May 16, 1683 .*
On the petition of these grantees, in 1685, the General Court extended the time for settling upon this grant, the thirty families, as follows:
"In answer to the motion and request of William Stoughton and Joseph Dudley, Esq., on behalf of Major Thompson and themselves, desiring this Court's favor to enlarge the time of their grant of their plantation, this Court do enlarge the time for settling that plantation therein mentioned, the space of three years from this day."-January, 1685.+
The grantees and their associates interested in this grant were men of distinction ; and some of them had great influence
* See Records of General Court, vol. v, p. 402.
t See Records of General Court, vol. v, p. 594.
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EARLY HISTORY OF OXFORD.
in the province. The first gentleman named in this grant, Major Robert Thompson, although for a considerable period a resident of New England, and a firm friend of the Puritans, sympathizing with them in his religious faith, has not been remembered by any of the authors of the biographical dic- tionaries, designed to perpetuate the names and acts of men distinguished in the history of this section of our country.
Major Thompson's connection with the grant for this town, as the first-named in the act for establishing the same by the General Court, the eminence of his associates, and his connection otherwise with the affairs of New England, is deemed a sufficient reason for introducing here some his- torical facts in illustration of his character, and for the preservation of his memory.
It appears that Major Thompson was a member of the first corporation established in England, by an act of Par- liament, July 19, 1649, for the Propagation of the Gospel Among the Indians of New England. The colony of Mas- sachusetts had, at the suggestion of some of the leading men among the ministers of the Gospel, passed an act, in Septem- ber, 1646, for Christianizing the Indians; among these min- isters was the Rev. John Eliot, who had here received, while examining this religious question, that inspiration which led him to devote the future of his life to this benevolent object .*
The limited means of the colony at this early period were not equal to carrying on the plans designed for promoting this object. It was, therefore, determined to have this matter presented to the pious and benevolent in England, to enlist their aid in its behalf.
Edward Winslow, of Plymouth, being then the agent of
* See Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, vol. I, pp. 150-157, 3d edition, 1795; also see Court Records, October 1, 1645, vol. II, pp. 55, 84, 134, purchase of land at Natick for the first township for collecting and civilizing the natives.
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EARLY HISTORY OF OXFORD.
the colony at the English court, was instructed to use his influence in favor of the cause. The result was the act of incorporation as aforesaid ; and in effecting the same, Mr. Winslow received essential aid from Herbert Pelham, Rich- ard Hutchinson, Robert Thompson, and Richard Floyd, all of whom had been in New England, and whose names were inserted, with others, in England ; William Steel, James Shirley, Abraham Babington, Robert Houghton, George Dun, William Mullins, John Hodgson, Edward Parks, Ed- ward Clud, Thomas Aires, and John Stone, with Edward Winslow, as the first corporators in this act of Parliament.
Judge William Steel was elected its first President, Rich- ard Floyd the Treasurer. Mr. James Shirley was the special friend of Plymouth colony, while Herbert Pelham and Rob- ert Thompson were well-known friends of the early settlers in both the colony of Massachusetts and that of Connecticut .*
Major Thompson was identified with this religious enter- prise, established in the last year of the reign of Charles I, and continued through the dictatorship of Cromwell; and, when renewed by Charles II, in 1662, with the Hon. Robert Boyle as the second President, he was continued a member of the same. When the Hon. Robert Boyle resigned the office of President, after serving the society more than twenty years, Major Thompson became its third President.t
It further appears that Major Thompson was a particular friend of Edward Hopkins, the son-in-law of Theophilus Eaton, one of the founders of the colony of New Haven, and who was the successor of John Haynes, as the second Gov- ernor of the colony of Connecticut.
He calls Major Thompson his loving friend, and in his
*See Hutchinson's Massachusetts, vol. I, p. 154 ; also, Bradford's History of Plymouth Colony, pp. 157, 229, 246, and 250 ; and Colonial Records of Connecticut, 1678-1689, p. 261 ; likewise, Hazzard's Collections, State Papers, vol. I, pp. 318 and 635 ; also, vol. II pp. 146-147 ; and 483.
t Soc Hutchinson's History Massachusetts, vol. I, p. 324.
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EARLY HISTORY OF OXFORD.
" Will," made March 17, 1657, appoints him and Francis Willoughby its overseers.
It is presumed, from the reading of this will, that Major Thompson was his relative by marriage. After devising several considerable sums to friends and relatives, he adds : " My further mind and will is-
" That within six months after the deccase of my wife, £500 be made over into New England, according to the advice of my loving friends, Major Robert Thompson and Mr. Francis Willoughby, * and conveyed into the hands of the Trustees-Theophilus Eaton, Esq., Mr. John Dav- enport (the Rev. as supposed), Mr. John Culick, and Mr. William Good- win, in further prosecution of the aforesaid public ends (to give some encouragement in those foreign plantations for the breeding up of hope- ful youth-both at the grammar school and college at Cambridge, for the public service of the country in future times), which, in the simpli- city of my heart, are for the upholding and promoting the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ in those parts of the earth."+
The following letter to Major Thompson, by Gov. William Leete, of the colony of Connecticut, will show something of his standing and character in England :
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