USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Billerica > History of Billerica, Massachusetts, with a Genealogical register > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61
"3. That such towns as Lancaster, Groton, and Marlborough, that are forced to remove. and have not some advantage of settlement (peculiar) in the Bay, be ordered to settle at the frontier towns that remain, for their strengthening ; and the people of the said towns to which they are appointed are to see to their accommodation in the said towns.
"4. That the said towns have their own nfen returned that are abroad. and their men freed from impressment during their present state.
"5. That there be appointed a select number of persons in each town of Middlesex, who are, upon any information of the distress of any town, forthwith to repair to the relief thereof; and that such information maybe seasonable, the towns are to dispatch posts, each town to the next, till notice be conveyed over the whole country, if need be.
"And in reference to the line of stocadoes proposed to the serious consideration, after our best advice upon it. it is conceived by ourselves and by all the persons sent by the several towns, that it is not admissible for the reasons following :
"1. The excessive charge to effect it, maintain and keep it, the line being conceived, by those that know it best, to be longer than is proposed ; neither can several fords fall in the line, unless it be run so crooked that it will be more disadvantage than profit.
"2. The length of time before it can be accomplished, in which time it is to be feared that many of the towns included will be depopulated, unless other means prevent.
"3. The damage it will be in taking off' laborers, which in this season of the year had need be improved in sowing and planting. help in many places being very scarce.
"4. The usefulness of it, when it is done, it being so easy a matter to break through it, and the rivers which are to fence a great part of these
117
THE INDIANS AND WAMESIT.
towns are fordable in several places, and in all other places passable by rafts, &c., which is much in use by the Indians at this day. We might add the great discontent and mourning of the people in general, so far as we have had opportunity to discover concerning it, that we fear the imposing of such a thing would effect an ill consequence. These things considered, besides several other reasons of weight that might be added, cause us to present our apprehensions, as in the first place we did. that the drawing of this line at this time is not admissible; but all with humble submission to your Honors in the case.
"Your humble servants,
"HUGH MASON. JONATHAN DANFORTH. RICHARD LOWDON."
The share that Billerica took in the military service is suggested by items like these :7 Samuel Whiting is enrolled among the troopers ; Job Lane is impressed ; and Daniel Rogers, from December to Feb- ruary, 1675. And when, fifty years after, Massachusetts rewarded the soldiers in this war somewhat tardily by land-grants, the following Billerica men or their heirs shared in these "Narragansett" grants, proving that they had been in the service : Samuel Hunt, John Needham, James Paterson, Nathaniel Rogers, John Shed, John Sheldon, John Stearns, Joseph Thompson.
These and possibly others are the men alluded to in the following action of the town, in June, 1676: "The selectmen, considering the necessity of some speedy care to be taken that ye corne of those souldiers that are now in the country service should forthwith be dressed, do order the constables to take special care of ye same, & * to impress persons into that worke, as need shall require ; & that ye constables lay not the burden of this worke upon some few particular persons, but as much in general as may bee, only taking them most that may bee in ye best capacity to attend it with least damage."
The position of the Christian Indians at Wamesit and other "praying towns" was one of especial embarrassment and hardship during these dark days. Gookin was their candid judge, as well as their true friend, and his estimate of their attitude was amply vindicated by later developments.8 They were honestly friendly, and desired to act on the former advice of Passaconaway. Gookin wished that advantage be taken of this fact, and that their forts at
7 Massachusetts Archives. Vols. LXVIII, LXIX, and CXIV, p. 104.
8 See his account of the Christian Indians, in Archeologia Americana. Vol. II, p. 411.
118
HISTORY OF BILLERICA.
Fort Hill and elsewhere should be manned by a few English soldiers, who could direct and use the activity of the Indians in the public defence. But the excited imaginations of the English, generally, could appreciate no distinction of friendly and hostile Indians, and every red man was a foe to be dreaded and distrusted, if not shot at sight; and Captain Gookin's wise plan of defence stood no chance of being accepted. The hostile Indians, of course, sought every opportunity, and found many, to foment this jealousy, if they could not win the Christian Indians to their side.
Wannalancet, the Wamesit sachem, had retired at the beginning of the war to the vicinity of Penacoock (Concord), and subsequently to the region of the upper Connecticut, resisting overtures from the English to induce him to return. A portion of the tribe remained at Pawtucket. James Richardson, of Chelmsford, was for a time in charge of them ; and a barn or haystack belonging to him was burned by skulking hostile Indians, as were two or three houses in the same town. The unfortunate Wamesits were falsely charged with these acts ; and a party of fourteen Chelmsford men, under pretence of scouting for Philip's forces, went out to assail them .? Calling the unsuspecting Indians from their wigwams, two of the party fired. Five women and children were wounded, and one boy was killed. The others were restrained from their murderous purpose, and the outrage was severely condemned by the better part of the English. The murderers were tried; but the juries, swayed by the popular feeling, would not convict them. The Indians saw that however friendly they might be their lives were in peril, and fled to the woods for safety. The Council sent Lieutenant Henchman to persuade them to return, but at first without avail. After three weeks of great suffering for want of food, most of them, however, did return. The Council directed Major Henchman to treat them kindly, and sent Rev. John Eliot, with Majors Gookin and Willard, to encourage them and try to persuade the Chelmsford people to treat them better.
It is not easy to determine the order of events, and the following incidents were probably concurrent with or prior to some of those above mentioned. The Court, as well as the Chelmsford men, undertook to punish the Wamesits for wrongs of which not these but others were guilty. They were summoned, and brought down to Boston ; convicted, on no good evidence, of the Chelmsford fires,
9 Felt's Annals. Vol. II, p. 578.
119
THE INDIANS AND WAMESIT.
and for a time imprisoned. Most of them were soon liberated and sent home, under conduct of Lieutenant Richardson. But a military company was encountered at Woburn on their way, and one of the soldiers against orders fired and killed a young brave. The murderer was acquitted by a jury. The Indians, alarmed by these repeated wrongs, again fled. They left behind six or seven persons too old or invalid to accompany them; and the wigwam in which these unfortunates were left was set on fire by inhuman white men and consumed with all its inmates. The wretched remnant of the Wamesits, convinced at last that there was no peace for them in their Pawtucket homes, finally joined their chief in the depths of the forest, and did not return until the war was over.
It would not be strange if in retaliation for their wrongs some of the Wamesits were responsible, as was charged, for later assaults. Mr. Hubbard, the pastor of Ipswich, in his Indian Wars, thus explains an attack at Andover. He records the burning of a house there and wounding of one Roger Marks, and adds : "Two more houses about Shawshen, beyond the said Andover, were burned about March 10; also they killed a young man of the said Town, April 8, the son of George Abbot. And another son of his was carried away the same day, who yet was returned some few months after, almost pined to Death with Hunger." Mr. Abbot lived on the Shawshin, in the west part of Andover, and the inference which has been drawn from Hubbard's language, that the houses "about Shawshen" which were burned were in Billerica, has no good foun- dation and is improbable.
Joseph Abbot, of Andover, was slain, as we have seen, on April 8. The next day, which was the Sabbath, a special alarm occurred in Billerica, and troops from below were summoned to the defence of the town. Increase Mather tells us :10 "This day, being the Lord's Day, there was an alarum at Charlestown, Cambridge, & other towns, by reason that sundry of the enemy were seen at Billerica, and (it seemeth) had shot a man there." A letter from John Cotton is also quoted, saying, "the Indians beset Billerica round about, the inhabitants being at meeting."
Read Mather's doubtful statement about " a young man murdered there," in the light of Hubbard's record that Joseph Abbot was killed at Andover the day previous, and it becomes clearly probable that
10 History, (Reprint of 1862,) p. 133.
120
HISTORY OF BILLERICA.
the trouble and bitterness of that anxious day were not intensified by the actual death of any one here. This probability is strengthened by the fact that Danforth, who records carefully by name all the victims of the massacres in 1692 and 1695, makes no such record at this time, as he surely would not have omitted to do, if one of the sons of Billerica had then fallen, in circumstances so sad and striking
Another glimpse of this Sabbath alarm is preserved in the following curious paper. John Seers, constable of "Wooburne," petitions the Court, 1676, May 10, complaining of John Wiman, "for resisting his impressment of a horse, when some time last April, Capt. Jno. Cottler marched through oburn with several soldiers to go to bilerekye against the Indians, he having a warrant from our honred. maygor Willard, late deseased, to myselfe & the constable at bilerekye, to impress horses or anything. * because of the stir at bilerekye, about 20 of the best of our horses & men were gone up to help them, & horses were very scarc." He goes on to recite the hard words and resistance of Wyman, and prays "for such action as will prevent such abuse, * * that soe I & other constables may not goe in fear of our lives, when we are upon the execution of our ofess," etc.
Plainly the day when twenty troopers from Woburn came to the rescue of Billerica was one of serious alarm and agitation here. But the days of this dark trial were approaching an end, and, August 1, it was ordered, "that the garison soldiers of Billerica, Chelmsford, & Groton be dismissed," unless those towns should within six days make the necessity of their continuance appear to the Council. Philip was killed on the 12th of August, and peace ensued, except on the eastern border, where the war dragged on another season. But its alarms no longer thrilled the homes of Billerica. Families could return to their houses and resume their accustomed duties. Farmers could plant and reap without expecting to hear a warwhoop ; and Mr. Whiting could write his sermons undisturbed by a sentinel's tread, and preach without having guns stacked at the church. Groton was less fortunate, in its greater suffering, and it was not till the spring of 1678 that its exiled inhabitants were able to reoccupy their deserted homes.
Of the condition in which the town was left at the close of the war, we have fortunately a description in the language of the
121
THE INDIANS AND WAMESIT.
selectmen, whose petition to the General Court, "1676, 8m, 12," is preserved : __ 11
"Whereas, by an order of this Honrd Court, May the last, for the levying of 10 single country rates. it was ordered that the frontier towns. which were considerably weakened in persons or estates by reason of ye enemie, should represent their condition to this Court.
"These are humbly to entreat this Hon'd Court to consider the condition of our towne, being weakened both in psons & estates by reason of the distress of the war. by reason of some persons removing from us the last winter & spring into other inland towns, & have paid their last 10 rates in those places to which they went ; others put off their cattell or took them to other towns, (for fear of losing them here by ye enemie,) & so are lyable to pay rates where they are, or else have spent great part of them in billetting garrison souldiers.
"Six persons & their families removed out of town & paid elsewhere, so that, Whereas, our single country rate in Aug .. 1675, was 14. 07, 09; when we took an exact list of all, according as the law directs, ye whole was but 11, 10, 3. We humbly intreat this Honrd Court to give order to the country treasurer to abate us such a proportion as our rate falls short of what it was, that so our inhabitants may not be burthened beyond the true intent of ye law, especially considering that part of that estate that paid in our town the last year, do pay these 10 rates in other towns, & we nevertheless pay or full rate, according to law. Also. we humbly intreat this Honrd Court to consider or poor towne in reference to the great charge we have been at in keeping garrison soulders for the defense of towne & country, both the last year & this sumer, which in all does amount to as much as 12 men's billet 35 weeks, or 420 weeks of one man. the burden of the same lying upon some few men, others there not capable to do it; also many of our inhabitants are grown very low, several persons at this time having no bread corne; yet considerable families to provide for; & in general we all drew very heavily, not knowing how to pay our dues & maintain our families.
"We humbly intreat this Honrd Court to consider our low condition & abate us in our after rates, as in your wisdom you shall see meet; so shall you further oblige your
" Humble Servants.
"JONATHAN DANFORTH, RALPH HILL. JOSEPH THOMPSON, JOHN FRENCH, The Selectmen of Billerica." 1
Chelmsford and other towns presented similar appeals for relief, and were answered favorably ; but for some reason which does not
11 Massachusetts Archives. Vol. LXIX, 69.
122
HISTORY OF BILLERICA.
appear, answer to Billerica was not made until 1677, October, and after a second petition had come from the selectmen. Then the Town Record says :12 "the Court ordering that those families which did depart ye towne should pay their ten rates to us, notwithstanding their payment of them elsewhere." Seven names follow of the persons concerned : "John & Robert Blood, Mih : Bacon, Tim : Brooks, Josia Bracket, Jno Poulter, & Jos : Foster"; and the sum which the constables are ordered to collect was thirty-one pounds, "and to add or abate for transportation."
In June, 1677, an expedition, numbering two hundred Indians from Natick and forty English soldiers, was sent, under Captain Benjamin Swett, of Hampton, to the Kennebec, where the Indians were reported to have six forts well furnished. It ended in disaster ; and one Billerica soldier who was involved has left a record of it in his petition for relief.13 Thomas Dutton states that he "was imprest from Billerica and sent to the eastward." He was in "that fatal scirmish in which Capt. Swett, the worthy commander, was slain, and almost all his offisirs, with about 50 men and 21 more wounded." Dutton was one of the wounded ; "shot through the side of my belt & through the left knee, & fell down not able to help" himself. He recites a long story and asks, with apparent justice, for relief from the General Court.
12 See also Records of Massachusetts. Vol. V, p. 173.
13 Massachusetts Archives. Vol. LXIX, 209.
-
CHAPTER VIII.
.
INDIAN AND MILITARY HISTORY.
FROM the close of Philip's War, in 1676, a period of peace with the Indians ensued for fifteen years. These years were not, however, free from anxiety and frequent alarms. The most interesting incident in the Indian history of Billerica during this period was the procuring of an Indian Deed. It is found in the Middlesex Records, Vol. IX, p. 274, and, omitting much legal phraseology, affirms, "that Sarah Indian, daughter of John Tahattawan, John Thomas and his wife Robert, John Nomphow and his mother Bess, all of Weymesitt, and Thomas Waban and his mother, the relict of old Waban, of Natick, deceased ; For and in consideration of the full and just sume of 13 pounds sterling, silver, New England coyned, to them well and truly payd, by Jonathan Danforth, of Billerica, for the use of said town of Billerica ; i. e. to Sarah aforesaid, 5 p., to John Thomas and his wife, 50 shillings, to John Nomphow and his mother, 3 p., to Thomas Waban and his mother, fifty shillings, etc., Have granted * all * and all manner of Indian right and claim to that whole parcel of land, granted by the General Court of this Colony, to be called by the name of Billerica, lying on both sides of the Shawshin river, and on both sides of Concord river, bounded by Merrimac river North, Andover North east, Woburn South, and Concord West, to have and to hold * without the lawful claim of any Indian whatsoever."
The date of this deed is, 5 June, 1685. Whether the motive which led to the acquisition of an Indian title at this late day was purely benevolent may be doubted. A conflict of claims as to the bounds of the town on the west side of Concord River had arisen. The bounds of the grant from the General Court were obscure, and, in 1684, the Bloods had obtained an Indian deed to quite a large tract, claimed also by Billerica, in the vicinity of the present Carlisle
124
HISTORY OF BILLERICA.
Village. The line described in the deed to Blood was "to begin at the North corner of Mr. Allen's farm," or not far from opposite the Two Brothers rocks, "to begin to state a straight line over the highest place of the great hill, called by ye Indians Puckatasset, till it come to Chelmsford line," including all the land between the Bloods farms and Chelmsford line, "till you come to a little brook at Concord village, [now Acton line, ] and so down to the great river by Concord old bounds." This description includes meadows which Billerica had granted to her own citizens twenty years earlier, and to which her right was confirmed, in 1700, by the General Court. When Billerica obtained her Indian deed, it was probably felt, to be prudent to secure whatever title the natives could give, and not leave the benefit of it to the unjust claim of the Bloods.
With the increase of English neighbors, the Indians at Wamesit found their home there less satisfactory, or the prices offered for their lands more so, and gradually sold their reservation. "Wanalanset, Sachem," and others sell to Jonathan Tyng, 1687, December 2, two parcels, of which one was on the east of Concord River, and is described as containing " the old Planting ground, which the Indians, who were the former proprietors thereof, and their associates, used to employ & improve, by planting, fishing, & Dwelling thereon, for many years past, and contains 212 acres, more or less ; and is bounded by Merrimac river four score pole, and so runs in a straight line nearest the south, to take in the greatest part of the old Fort Hill ; and bounded south by the fence of the old Indian field, and West by Concord river."1
This description includes less than half of the five hundred acres granted by the Court to the Indians there ; but it is improbable that they would have sold this angle between the rivers first, and, if they did not, then this is the date when the Indian title there ceased.
Mr. Tyng, however, deemed his Indian title not quite sufficient, and petitioned the Governor," reciting that he had given satisfaction to the Indians to leave the same, and praying for a grant of the said lands, under " such moderate quit-rents and acknowledgment as to yo" Excy shall seem meet."
The Winthrops had already raised the question, whether the lapse of the Indian title would not open the way for them to reclaim the full bound of their early grant. When the Indian reservation at
1 Middlesex "Deeds." Vol. XVI, p. 617.
2 Massachusetts Archives. Vol. CXXVIII, 274.
-
125
INDIAN AND MILITARY HISTORY.
Wamesit was taken from their grant, the Court gave them leave to locate an equivalent elsewhere ; but, for some reason, they did not avail themselves of this permission. They may have anticipated the departure of the Indians, and preferred to retain the chance of recovering here. For this purpose, as early as 1679, Mr. Wait Winthrop presented a petition to the Court.3 After reciting the fact and motives of the grant to his grandmother, he adds that "about ye yeare 1661 or 1662 some psons, zealous To settle ye Indyans in some civil and ecclesiastical state, moved ye Gen1 Court to grant pt of sd land, called, as I suppose, Wameset, for an Indian plantacon, which ye Gen1 Court granted, ordering ye like quantity or value of other lands To be laid out to us in Lew thereof." He explains why the interests of the family were not defended, in opposition to this action, and proceeds to say, "that noe land hath been laid out since for our family ; and Though God has pleaded our Right by expelling ye Indian inhabitants and leaving ye land in statu quo prius, yet I have informatcon that some English have, by Addresses to ye Honrd Court, petitioned for ye same or part thereof. My humble request therefore is, that That which was soe long agoe, and upon such good and grateful consideracons granted to us, may not be disposed from us, or. if any grant to that purpose be already made, the same may bee suspended Till our Claymes and right may, at ye Appointment of this Hon'ble Court, further appeare." The Court, however, seems not to have favored Winthrop's petition, and Mr. Tyng secured the title, which he sold to Borland, in 1687.
The peace secured by Billerica and other towns from Indian assaults was precarious and maintained only by constant vigilance. In 1689, Dover suffered a deadly assault, in which Major Richard Waldron, one of her oldest and foremost citizens, was barbarously murdered. European policy was perhaps the occasion of this out- break, for the Revolution in England gave the French, who ruled Canada, a pretence for instigating this attack. Five days later, July 12, Lieutenant Henchman reports+ Indian spies around the garrisons in Dunstable and asks for relief, "20 men or more," a request soon repeated by the selectmen of that town.
There was need enough for the military company which existed in Billerica, and of which an interesting glimpse is preserved in a report to the "onered goviner and counsel and jentlemen represent-
3 Massachusetts Archives. Vol. XLV, 173.
+ Massachusetts Archives. Vol. CVII, 198.
126
HISTORY OF BILLERICA.
atives," giving account of the choice of officers, 1689, June 17.5 Captain Danforth led the company out, gave them liberty of choice, manifested his own unfitness for the place and willingness that another be chosen. Only those who were twenty-one years old voted. They took Captain Danforth at his word, and gave him only twelve votes, to thirty-five for Lieut. Joseph Tompson. Sergt. John Marshall was chosen lieutenant and Oliver Whiting ensign. Samuel Frost, whose spelling is marvellous, if he was "Clark," makes this return, and craves confirmation of the company's choice from the authorities. The representatives confirm it, but the governor and council "consent not"; and, disregarding the popular will, they "insist that Danforth remain Captain and Tompson Lieutenant, though Oliver Whiting is allowed as ensign."
In 1690, the English, moved by these constant perils, and feeling that there would be no security as long as the French held Canada and sent their Indian allies on such bloody expeditions, laid their plans for the reduction of Canada. The result was disastrous. With great effort and cost an expedition set forth under Sir William Phipps against Quebec. But the delays were so great that it did not arrive in season for action, and could only return discomfited.
In this expedition Billerica was represented by no less a person than Captain Danforth, as appears from an order,6 dated July 15, 1690, "that Capt. Danforth, now going forth in their Majtes service, in the intended expedition for Canada, have liberty to hire some meet person in said town to serve his domestic occasions in his absence, and that the said person be exempted from impress to any public service other than attending duty in town during said expedition."
In 1691, the Indians fell upon Dunstable, September 2d, and murdered Joseph Hassell, his wife Anne, his son Benjamin, and Mary Marks. Hassell's father Richard lived for a few years in Billerica, and was a tything-man here in 1679. They came again to Dunstable, September 26th, and killed Christopher Temple and Obadiah Perry. The latter, when fleeing from Dunstable on the alarm of 1675, had been permitted to hire in Billerica and resided here for some years.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.