History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 14

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1818

USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 14

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. The son of the last-named Joseph Russell, also named Joseph, was born on the 8th of October, 1719, and died on the 16th of October, 1804, aged eighty- five years. We may fairly consider this last-named Joseph Russell as the founder of New Bedford. He owned the tract of land bounded on the south by land of his brother Caleb, the division lines being midway between the present Bedford and Russell Streets, and on the north by land of Manasseh Kemp- ton, whose division line was between the present Elm and William Streets, and bounded easterly by the river. His homestead was on the County road, as it was called, between the present court-house and the residence of Mrs. Charles W. Morgan. He is described as " a man of great industry, prudence, and enterprise, and of strict integrity of character, a large farmer and extensive land-owner." He was also en- gaged in mercantile business, owning several vessels trading at Southern ports and the West Indies. He was the first to engage in the whale-fishery and to establish a sperm-oil factory in New Bedford.

In 1686, Cook, for the twelfth time, was returned as a delegate to the General Court. He was the last representative sent by Dartmouth to Plymouth under the independent charter of the colony.

For a short period the despotism of Sir Edmund Andros saved the people of the colony the necessity of any representation in the government. With his administration closed the political existence of Ply- mouth as an independent State. United with Mas- sachusetts, its history is mingled with that of this an- cient commonwealth. This was probably the end of Cook's political career, and it is most likely that the close of his earthly soon followed. In a confirmatory deed of William Bradford, Governor, in 1694, his name is not mentioned upon the list of proprietors.

Both the others who had with him shared the rep- resentative honors of the town are named in the in- denture.

Anthony Slocum was the companion and business associate of the founder of the town. This individual, whose descendants are numerous upon the territory of the ancient town of Dartmouth, and whose name was early given to a portion of that territory which it still retains, does not appear to have transmitted that name to posterity in connection with the occu- pancy of public station. Two of his descendants, however, were active in the affairs of the town,- Holder Slocum, Sr. and Jr., father and son. The father is probably entitled to the notoriety of having been elected representative to the General Court a greater number of times than any other individual

who ever was clothed with the honors of the office. It is believed that for a period of nearly thirty years he was a member of the General Court of the com- monwealth.

It is said that one year the good people of Dart- mouth decided to permit Squire Slocum to remain at home. This strange event in the history of the town, although it was no. doubt well known to the person most interested, the rejected squire, was not in due form communicated to the old mare, the faithful ani- mal who for many years had annually borne to the metropolis her honored master, the able and popular representative of Dartmouth. The time for the meet- ing of the General Court drew near, and the well- trained and experienced companion of the Dartmouth legislator instinctively apprised of the fact, and not as usual feeling the weight of her master's portly person and well-lined saddle-bags upon her back, concluded there was some mistake in the matter, and without further parley or delay started for Boston.

The town of Dartmouth was slow of growth. For the farmer it had few attractions. Much of the soil was poor, and it was long in recovering from the blow which was given to the settlement by the extermina- ting hostility of the Indians.

Indian History .- In 1676 this locality was devas- tated by a cruel Indian war, full of barbarity and atrocity, carried on by King Philip, the younger brother of Wamsutta.

Five years previous to this time the following agree- ment was made at the Dartmouth Indian encampment under date Sept. 4, 1671 :

" MEMORANDUM .- That we, the Indians living near about the town of Dartmouth, in the jurisdiction of New Plymouth, whose names are here underwritten, do freely own ourselves to be loyal subjects to His Majesty of England, and to his Colony of New Plymouth; and do hereby sol- emnly engage ourselves and ours to be subject to His Majesty's authority there established and to behave faithfully and friendly towards them ; and that we will from time to time, if we hear of any malicious design aching against them, discover it to some of them with all speed; and that also that we shall be ready to afford them any assistance against their enemies according to our ability, even as we expect friendship and amity and protection from them. For the performance thereof we have hereunto set our hands in the presence of

" ASHIAWANOMEETH.

" NOMAN.

(" Between 40 & 50

" MAINOKUM.

Indians living near

" JEFFREY. "JAMES.

or in the town of Dartmouth.") " JOIN, etc."

The names of the Indians making this engagement are not given. Those annexed appear to have been the witnesses to the instrument. This engagement is important in its connection with two other events in the annals of the town,-the conveyance to Cook and others by Wasemequen and Wamsutta in 1654, and the infamous enslaving expatriation of the Dartmouth Indians in 1676. Here the right of the Indians, not- withstanding the stipulations of the gleed from the two chiefs to a residence upon the soil, is clearly recognized.

All rights which the Indians may have had were

NEW BEDFORD.

subsequently violated by the New Plymouth govern- ment, when one hundred and sixty of the sons of the soil were seized and sold into slavery. This act of treachery naturally aroused within the breast of the Indians feelings of most bitter hatred and deep-seated revenge.

The rulers were unprepared to defend the colony against the storm which they had brought upon their heads. In their distress they again called upon Capt. Benj. Church, who had been treated by them with ingratitude, insult, and neglect, because he had dared to raise the voice of remonstrance and condemnation because of their treacherous act. He was, however, at length pacified. Tradition tells us that he whittled himself into the belief that it was his duty to protect the settlement against the threatened destruction. Using a knife for some trifling purpose he cut his finger, and regarding this event as an indication of the will of Providence that he must lay aside all pri- vate affairs and give himself up to the service of his country, he threw down his knife, and arming him- self, proceeded to Plymouth and took command of the forces of the colony. Having made a treaty with Awashuncks, the queen-sachem of the Yaconts, he succeeded in enlisting a number of her tribe into his company, and having obtained enlarged powers from the government he proceeded to a vigorous proseeu- tion of the war. It was near Horse Neck Beach that Capt. Church entered into the treaty with the Indian queen and her chiefs, and when, in pursuance with a previous arrangement, he came to visit the queen, he found large numbers of her people sporting upon the marble-like surface of the beach, some racing horses, some playing at foot-ball, and others fishing from the rocks.

On one of his expeditions Church pursued his ene- mies into the Accushena territory. Having crossed the river, probably at the spot now called Acushnet village, he came in contact with a small band of the Saconet Indians, who had refused to become a party to the treaty made by their queen, and who had joined Philip in the contest that was then raging. The party were accompanied by Little Eyes and his family. He made the whole party prisoners, and refusing the ad- vice of his Indian allies to put Little Eyes to death, because that chief had once threatened the life of the English commander, he placed them all on an island in the Acushnet, and left Lightfoot to guard them. The island was probably that which was nearest to the shore. Fish Island, as this temporary place of confinement for Indian prisoners is now called, pre- sents at this time a very different aspect from what it did when Little Eyes and his companions in captivity were landed upon its shore, and looking upon the main, saw their conqueror and his party enter the forest which skirted the banks of the river, as he wended his way to the south on a visit to the fortified station at the head of the Aponegansett. They passed the night near Russell's orchard, which was in the

vicinity of that place, and learned in the morning that a large party of Indians had the same night made the orchard their resting-place. Ascertaining the route they had taken, he retraced his steps to fol- low them. Coming to a cedar swamp, about three miles from their halting-place by the orchard, the forces were divided, and the ruins of John Cook's house at Accushena being agreed upon as the place of rendezvous, the two parties started in pursuit of the enemy. The company under the command of Church, which seems to have been composed entirely of English, soon fell in with and killed and captured sixty-six of the enemy. Church was now informed that his mighty foe Metacom was near, and that a party of Indians, consisting of more than one hun- dred, had passed across the river and marched down upon Sconticutt Neck. He then paddled over to the island where Lightfoot had been left with Little Eyes and his party, and there heard a confirmation of the fact that a large body of Indians had moved down the Neck. They were soon discovered returning from their excursion, and Church, concealing himself and his little band, escaped that destruction which would probably have been his fate had he been discovered and forced into a contest.

Church now took his prisoners from the island and proceeded to Mattapoisett. There he halted and sent a messenger to the appointed place of rendezvous, the ruins of John Cook's house at Accushena, to ascertain the fate of his band of Indian allies. Here the sin- gular fact was ascertained that this party had killed or captured the same number (sixty-six) that had met with the same fate from the company under Church's immediate command. The Indians joined their commander and his party at Mattapoisett, from whence the whole body with their captives proceeded to Plymouth. Of the subsequent events of Philip's war we have no occasion to speak. Philip, broken- hearted by the captivity of his wife and son, fled be- fore the foe who was bent upon his destruction, and, surrounded in a swamp near his residence, was shot through the heart by an English soldier. This put an end to the conflict. Prisoners continued to be taken, and when they had all been disposed, either by being hung or shipped to Bermuda, the rulers and the fighting men rested from their labors, and the people of the land had peace.

A portion of the town of Rochester, described as ex- tending from the westernmost side of Sippican River and southwestwards to Dartmouth bounds, was as- signed for the residence of the Indians who had not been engaged in hostilities against the colony. They were deprived of the right to bear arms, and strictly charged to confine themselves to the prescribed bounds of the territory which the clemency of the conquerors had assigned them for a habitation. After this time we have but little about the Indians. Their numbers rapidly decreased, and after the lapse of a few years only here and there a solitary individual

HISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

remained to tell the story of the good Massasoit, and the brave but unfortunate Metacom.

Sarah Obadiah, an Indian woman with a most un- Indian-like name, was the last of the race who, upon the old territory of Dartmouth, lived after the primi- tive manner of her fathers. The costume of course was abandoned, but in a wigwam situated near the stone ship upon the rock, a spot in the south part of a village well known to most of the inhabitants, lived the last of the Dartmouth Indians. This was a fa- vorite locality of the Indians, and doubtless has been one of their much-loved hunting-grounds.

CHAPTER VII.

NEW BEDFORD .- (Continued.)

Persecution of the Quakers-" Presented" for Non-attendance at Church -Various Rules and Regulations-Punishments-Fine for Attending Quaker Meeting-Arthur lowland fined for making " Molion of Mar- riage"-The Kemptons-Other Early Settlers-The Russells-Pioneer Whaling-Early Locations-Joseph Rotch-Isaac Ilowland-Priva- teers-View of the Village upon the Eve of its Destruction by the British.

AMONG the orders of the court concerning the Quakers was the following :

" If any person or persons called Quakers, or other such like vagabonds, shall come into any town in this government, the marshal or constable shall appre- hend him or them, and upon examining, so appear- ing, he shall whip them, or cause them to be whipped, with rods so it exceeds not fifteen stripes, and to give him or them a pass to depart the government, and if they be found without the pass and not acting there- unto they shall be punished again as formerly ; and in case the constable shall be unwilling to whip them, and cannot find any one to do it, they shall bring them to Plymouth to the under-marshal, and he shall inflict it."

Another regulation says, "Whereas, by order of court, all free men of this corporation, as Quakers, or such as encourage them, or such as speak contemptu- ously of the laws thereof, or such as are judged by court grossly scandalous, as liars, drunkards, swearers, shall lose their freedom in this corporation."

1651. Ralph Allen, Sr., and wife, George Allen and wife, and William Allen are presented with others for not attending public worship according to law. Arthur Howland, for not attending public wor- ship. This Arthur seems to have been a troublesome fellow to the strict Puritans of the colony. Ralph Allen and Richard Kirby are fined five pounds, or to be whipped, for vile sketches against ordinances.

1655. Sarah Kirby sentenced to be whipped for divers suspicious speeches.

1656, Sunday. Persons for meeting at the house of William Allen are summoned to answer for the mis- demeanor.

1656. Sarah Kirby whipped for disturbing public worship.

1657. Arthur Howland, for permitting a Quaker meeting in his house, and for inviting such as were under government, children and others, to come to said meeting, was sentenced by the court to find se- curities for his good behavior; in case he should refuse he is fined four pounds. He refused to give bonds, and was fined. "The said Arthur Howland, for resisting the constable of Marshfield in the exe- cution of his office, and abusing him in words by threatening speeches, is fined five pounds." And again, Arthur Howland, for presenting a writing in court, which said writing, on the reading thereof, ap- peared to be of dangerous consequences, he owning it to be his own, and for making known the said writing to others, was sentenced by court to find securities for his good behavior. We have now another Howland upon the stage.

1657. "Henry Howland, for entertaining a meet- ing in his house, contrary to order of Court, is fined ten shillings." And still another, Loeth Howland, "for speaking opprobriously of the ministers of God's word, is sentenced to set in the stocks for the space of an hour or during pleasure of Court, which was per- formed and so released paying the fees."

1657. Ralph Allen, Jr., and William Allen being summoned, appeared to answer for a tumultuous car- riage at a meeting of the Quakers at Sandwich ; their being admonished in that respect were cleared, not- withstanding irreverently carrying themselves before the court, coming in before them with their hats on, were fined twenty shillings apiece.

Here is the case of the whipping and fining before spoken of,-

1658. H. Norton and John Rouse were sentenced to be whipped for coming into the jurisdiction con- trary to call. The sentence was executed. "The same day performed," is the language of the record, and the under-marshal requiring his fees they re- fused to pay them, and they were again returned to prison until they would pay.

1658. William Allen is fined forty shillings for en- tertaining Quaker meeting. About this time there was a part added-demanded, as says the record- because, among other things, " of the letting loose as a scourge upon us those gangrene-like doctrines and persons called Quakers."

1659. We now find upon the records the follow- ing: "The Court taking notice of sundry scandalous falsehoods in a letter of Isaac Robinson's tending greatly to the prejudice of this government and in- couragenient of those commonly called Quakers, and thereby liable according to law to disenfranchise- ment, yet we at present forbear the sentence until further inquiry."

1660. Daniel Butler for rescuing a strange Quaker was sentenced to be whipped. Joseph Allen fined ten shillings for attending a Quaker meeting. Here we

NEW BEDFORD.

have some wholesale operations,-twenty-five persons were fined ten shillings each for attending Quaker meeting, and among them were Joseph, Benjamin, William, and Matthew Allen, Richard Kirby and Richard Kirby (2d), and Daniel and Obadiah Butler.

1661. The obstinate Howlands are again intro- duced. Henry Howland for entertaining a Quaker meeting in his house is twice fined four pounds. Loeth Howland breaks the Sabbath and is fined ten shil- lings.

1662. Another Howland Sabbath-breaker. Sam- uel Howland, having no meal in the house, went to the mill and took home his grist. Fined ten shill- ings, or the whip.

1664. Arthur Howland is again in difficulty. But it is not for new heresy of opinion that he is brought before the magnates of the land. The following is the record : " Arthur Howland, for inveighling Mistress Elizabeth Prince and making motion of marriage to her, and prosecuting the same contrary to her parents' liking and without their consent and directly contrary to their mind and will, was sen- tenced to pay a fine of five pounds, and to find secur- ities for his good behavior, and in special that he desist from the use of any means to obtain or retain her affections as aforesaid." He paid his fine, a pretty heavy one for those days, and gave the bonds required by the sentence of the court. "Arthur Howland acknowledges to owe unto our sovereign lord the king the sum of fifty dollars; John Duncan, the sum of twenty-five dollars ; Timothy Williams, the sum of twenty-five dollars. The condition that whereas the said Arthur Howland hath disorderly and unrighteously endeavored to obtain the affections of Mistress Elizabeth Prince, against the mind and will of her parents. If, therefore, the said Arthur Howland shall for the future refrain and desist from the use of any means to obtain or retain her affections as aforesaid, and appear at the court of His Majesty, to be holden at Plymouth the first Tuesday in July next, and in the mean time be of good behavior to- wards our sovereign lord the king and all his liege people, and not depart the said court without license, that then, etc."

The next year we find him again before the court, and again coming under a solemn agreement no fur- ther to offend in the premises.

Early in the history of the colony we find the name of Kempton. Manasseh and Julia Kempton are entered upon the records as sharing in the allotment of the cattle in 1627. These were the ancestors of the present Kemptons, and the name of Manasseh Kempton is included among the proprietors of the town of Dartmouth in the confirmatory deeds from Governor Bradford in the year 1694. In that docu- ment are the names of all the families mentioned, and many others which always have been and still are the most common in this vicinity,-John Russell, Manasseh Kempton, Benjamin Howland, John

Spooner, Arthur Hathaway, Samuel Allen, Joseph Tripp, William Shearman, Joseph Taber, Seth Pope, and Jonathan Delano. Peleg Slocum and Abraham Tucker are names which in the four towns of West- port, Dartmouth, New Bedford, and Fairhaven are familiar to all the inhabitants.

In the first part of the eighteenth century we find the Russell family upon the soil of New Bedford. At what time he came is not known, but it was pre- vious to the year 1711, when the Allen and Kemp- ton families, which at the opening of what we may call the local history of New Bedford, shared with the Russells a large part of the town and all the territory of the village.

History is almost silent respecting the affairs of Dartmouth from the date of Governor Bradford's ad- ministration to the commencement of the war of the Revolution.

About the middle of the eighteenth century a large portion of the lands now occupied by the village of New Bedford was in the possession of two families, the Russells on the south and the Kemptons on the north. To Joseph Russell, son of the first settler John, and to Manasseh Kempton, Her Majesty's (Queen Anne) justices of the Quarter Sessions for the county of Bristol gave confirmatory deeds of their re- spective estates dated May 25, 1714. Russell was bounded by a line near Clarke's Cove on the south, and Kempton by a line near Smith Street; the divi- ding line was between William and Elm Streets. The occupants of the territory north and south of these boundaries it is impossible to ascertain. Subse- quently we find the Allens holding the land from the cove, the southern boundary of Russell, to the ex- tremity of Clarke's Point, and the Willis family join- ing the Kempton on the north. Beyond this were found the Peckhams and Hathaways. The inhabit- ants were all farmers with the exception of the Rus- sells.

Joseph Russell, son of Joseph Russell, Sr., and grandfather of the present generation, early embarked in the whaling business. His ships of forty or fifty tons went as far as our Southern coast on their voy- ages of six weeks' duration. At the same time, 1751, there were several vessels engaged in the same pur- suit from the Apongansett River. Daniel Wood, a name not unfamiliar to the New Bedford people in connection with whaling operations, was at that time the owner of some small vessels in the business, and at that period the Aenshnet had to give precedence to the Aponegansett as far as whaling was concerned. At that period a little wharf extending from the shore near the foot of what is now known as Centre Street, and a shed-like erection which was used for trying the blubber brought in by the little craft in their six weeks' excursion upon the "summer sea," were all the indications of commercial operations which our territory exhibited. That little shed was the only building in what we now denominate the village that

HISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

was then standing except the farm-houses of the Allens, the Russells, the Kemptons, and the Willis, which were all situated upon the county road. From this house, which from its elevated situation on the county road overlooked the forest which covered the whole intervening space between the road and the shore, the first of the Bedford whaling merchants could take an extensive view of the waters of the bay and the river, and when, shooting in by Hap's Hill, he discovered his sloop pointing her bows towards the harbor, he could be seen wending his way towards the little wharf over the cart-path, which was then the only way of reaching the water. The blubber landed, the thick column of smoke which rose above the street which skirted the shore gave notice to the inhabitants on the heights that one of Joseph Rus- sell's whalemen had arrived from a successful voyage.

All the purchasers of land from Joseph Russell pre- vious to the year 1664 were mechanics. John Louden, a ship-carpenter, bought the first lot disposed of by Mr. Russell from his homestead. This was in the year 1760. The next year he built a house, which was situated a few rods south of the four corners, and his ship-yard was on the east side of the way. Un- fortunately for him, and unfortunately for his descend- ants, he choose an easier mode of life and converted his dwelling into a tavern. He was the Boniface of the village when it was visited by the British ; his house was burnt, and he returned to his native town of Pembroke.

The same year another mechanic followed Louden. He had formerly been a dweller upon the soil, prob- ably in the north part of the Dartmouth settlement, but had been to Nantucket, and had there been initi- ated, in the language of the indenture, "into the art, trade, and mystery of building whale-boats." His name was Benjamin Taber, and was beloved by all who knew him as a worthy and venerable member and elder of the Society of Friends, and a most upright and valuable citizen. Many of his descendants are still here. The young boat-builder from Nantucket took the old house by the river-side and moved it up the hill.

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History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 14

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1818

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1818