USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Chelmsford > History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts > Part 8
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1 Firstly it is Agred beetwine both parties that the inhabitants of Chelmsford do pay yearly to the said Clarke the Just and full sum of eightey pownds in maner as Foloeth Twenty pounds in Curent mony and sixtey pounds in provision viz fortey-pownds in Corn of all sortes as God giues and the other twenty pownd in porke Beefe and other flish beefe not exseding tow pence halfe peny p pownd more over its allso Agred that the towne shall soply mr Clerk with wood sofitient for his family use yearly which is by Agreement thirty cord yearly
2 Secondly it is allso Agreed that the said towne shall pay sixty pownds in mony towards the parchas of Corsers land lying in Chelmsford and that thay build an house vp on the said land which house shall bee forty foott in length twenty in bredth fiveten in stud and a kiching Adioyning of sixten foot square tenne foott stud prouided that the said Clark shall pay on Quarter partt of what this bulding shall Cost
3 Thirdly it is Agred that the said towne make an Adition to the salary Above stated if he stand in nede and the towne bee Abell ther to
4 Fourthly that the selectt men shall stand ingaged yearly to the performance of the Aboue Agreements by making a Rate and proporsining the Inhabitants his partt of the Forsaid sum and leuey the same.
5 Fifthly its Agred that his yearly salary shall bee paid with in the yeare
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Finaly it is Agred that if the said mr Clarke do growndlisly remov[e] and leave the worke of his ministry in Chelmsford then the said land and house as Above shall rettorne into the hands of the towne of Chelmsford thay paying to mr Clerke what hee hath expendid towards the parches and bulding and bettring the Acomendatione And For A confirmation of this Agrement As above this fifth day of the Twelfth mont[h] one thousand sixe hundreth seventy and seuen wee have sett to our hands
Thomas Clarke: Samell Adams Clerk in the Name of the Inhabitants*
This house which the town provided for Mr. Clarke was certainly of ample proportions, being 40 x 20, two stories in height, with an ell 16 feet square for a kitchen.
There is good reason to believe that the house was the parson- age later occupied by his successors in the ministry, Rev. Samson Stoddard, and Rev. Ebenezer Bridge, and, if so, it is still standing. It stood upon the site of the present passenger depot, and was removed to its present location upon Littleton road, when the railroad was put through the village in 1872. It is now known as the railroad house. The house has been enlarged by the addition of a wing facing upon Littleton road. The old part facing east corresponds in width and height to the house built for Mr. Clarke, although now somewhat longer. When the house was remodelled about twenty years ago, the walls of one room were found lined up with plank.
In the "Settlemt of the Garrison in the Wt Regiment of Middx. March, 1691/2" five families were assigned to Mr. Thomas Clarke's house, besides his own. The meaning of this is that these families were to resort to his house for safety, in case of an Indian attack.
This fact explains the object of the plank lining found in the walls of this old house, and supports the belief that is it the identical house built by the town for Mr. Clarke two hundred and twenty-seven years ago. [This was written in 1904.]
Mr. Clarke acknowledges over his own signature that "the purchas of Corsers land and bulding a house on the same is fully performed by the inhabitants" * * 27th 11 mo 1679
Rev. Thomas Clarke was born in Cambridge, March 2, 1652-3. His father was the Ruling Elder of the church, Jonas Clarke. He graduated from Harvard University in 1670.
*First book, p. 144.
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HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
He served, probably as chaplain, in the Narragansett cam- paign, in King Philip's war, as the following record of his services show:
October 17. 1676 "Mr Thomas Clarke, minister, being seven weekes in the army at Narraganset, & officiating at the request of the comander in chiefe during that time, the Court judgeth it meete to grant him sixe pounds money to be payd by the tresurer."*
There is very little material from which to form an estimation of Mr. Clarke's character. Mr. Allen, writing more than eighty years ago, could find "neither church records, manuscript sermons," nor "cotemporary notices" relating to him.
It appears from the town records that he made few requests of the Town, and these in every case were granted, the most of them unanimously.
He soon concluded that, rather than take three-quarters of his salary in grain, "porke beefe and other flesh" he would prefer to try a smaller salary to be paid in money, and, accordingly, in 1679, the selectmen made another agreement with him, that, for the next three years, he was to be paid yearly seventy pounds "in spesy" [specie].
By some means he became indebted to the town the same year for the sum of seven pounds and ten shillings, which he acknowledges upon the Town book (p. 150).
At the end of two years from the date of the above arrange- ment, they returned again to the original agreement of 80 pounds in money and provisions, and, at the same time, "7 the 12 mo 1681" Mr. Clarke's debt was "by a vnanimus voat of the towne * * Freely Forgiuen him" *
With such a great scarcity of ready money as existed at that time, it must have been very difficult for the town to pay their minister wholly in specie.
It seems that the minister did not find 30 cords of wood enough to keep his house warm, and the Town voted "30 of octobor 1683 * *
* Mr Thomas Clerke shall have Forty Cord of wood alowed him by the towne yearly"
The Town also granted him 10 acres of land near Beaver brook "22: 11: 1680"
In 1688 Mr. Clarke asked of the Town an increase in his salary, which was granted unanimously, as appears by the following vote.
*Sibley's Harvard Graduates, Vol. 2, p. 322.
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This seuenth day of Febuary 1687-8 mr Thomas Clerke requesting of the inhabitants that his yearly salary may be inlarged to which the Inhabitants doe Answer and Agree vnaimosly that mr Clark shall have paid him yearly on hundreth pownd that is twenty pownds in Current mony and eightey pownds in Corne of all sortes at the price as it goeth From man to man in the towne not respectting the Country and this to bee paid the one halfe of mony and Corne eury halfe year which is in full satiffacttion of the former Agrementt for mony Corne Flesh and wood to which mr Thomas Clarke doth Asent to And Acsept of as wittnes my hand the day Above in the behalfe of both parties
Samell Adams* clerk
From these transactions, showing that every request made by Mr. Clarke was cheerfully granted, it is manifest that harmonious relations existed between the pastor and his people, and that he was held by them in affectionate regard.
WITCHCRAFT.
The witchcraft delusion occurred during Mr. Clarke's ministry and there was one suspected case at Chelmsford. The good sense displayed by Mr. Clarke in handling the matter shows him to have been free from that fanaticism which had seized upon the minds of the people at Salem with such disastrous consequences. The circumstances of the case are related in Mather's Magnalia:t
"There was at Chelmsford an afflicted person, that in her fits cried out against a woman, a neighbor, which Mr. Clark, the minister of the Gospel there, could not believe to be guilty of such a crime, and it hapned while that woman milked her cow, the cow struck her with one horn upon her forehead and fetched blood; and while she was thus bleeding a spectre in her likeness appeared to the party afflicted; who, pointing at the spectre, one struck at the plase, and the afflicted said, 'you have made her forehead bleed;' hereupon some went unto the woman and found her forehead bloody and acquainted Mr. Clarke of it; who fortunate went to the woman and asked, 'how her forehead became bloody?' *First book, p. 183. tVol. 2, p. 478.
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HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
and she answered, 'by a blow of a cow-horn,' as abovesaid; whereby he was satisfied, that it was design of Satan to render an innocent person suspected."
The diary of Chief Justice Samuel Sewall, of Boston, mentions a visit to Chelmsford, in 1702, when he enjoys the hospitality of Mr. Clarke, but, unfortunately for us, he does not record his impressions of the man. He says:
"Monday Octr 26. 1702 Went to Chelmsford, by that time got there twas almost dark. Saw Capt Bowers and his Company; Gave a Volley and Huzza's. Supid at Mr. Clark's; I and Col. Pierce in his study."*
We find one allusion to Mr. Clarke in the records of the Brattle Street church, Boston, which reveals his character in a very favorable light. It was at the time when that house of worship was new, and the church was having serious differences and troubles with their neighbors, (ministers and others) about their proceedings. The clerk "records in the Church Book an Acknowlegment of their great Obligations to * the Rev Mr. Clark of Chelmsford," and others, "for their good and kind Endeavours for their peaceable Settlement."t
Mrs. Mary Clarke, the wife of the minister, died Dec. 2, 1700. He again married, Oct. 2, 1702, Miss Elizabeth Whiting, the daughter of Rev. Samuel Whiting of Billerica, # who survived him many years.
Mr. Clarke's death occurred Dec. 4, 1704. The following brief account of it is found in Judge Sewall's diary, p. 118.
Decr. 7th. Mr. Clark of Chelmsford dies of a fever; was taken very suddenly the Friday before, after he had been at a Funeral: buried the 11th.
The Fairfield manuscript journal contains the following appreciative notice of him. "A great loss to all our towns, and especially to the frontier towns on that side of the country, who are greatly weakened with the loss of such a worthy man"§
Something may be judged of a man by his descendants. Those of Mr. Clarke have been people of intelligence and force of character. The most distinguished among them was his great grandson, the patriot Governor, John Hancock.
*Sewall Papers, Vol. 2, p. 67.
+Sibley's Harvard Graduates, Vol. 2, p. 322. #Allen.
§Mass. H. C., Vol. 9, p. 195.
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The epitaph upon Mr. Clarke's grave stone, in Forefathers' cemetery, is in Latin:
MEMENTO FUGIT MORI HORA
Huic pulveri Mandatæ sunt
Reliquia Revdi Dom Thoæ Clark
Gregis Christi Chelmsf:
Pastoris Eximij, qui fide &
spe Beatae Resurrectionis amimã
in sinum Jesû Expiravit Die
VII Decembr, Anno Dom
MDCCIV & Ætatis suae LII .*
The following receipt shows the cost of the monument:
"Chelmsford 17th Nov. 1708
"Recievd of Mr. William Fletcher the sum of fifty shillings in money to be bestowed for a monument over the grave of the Rev. Mr. Thomas Clark late of Chelmsford deceased: it being the donations of sundry persons in Chelmsford for that use. I say received by me.
"JOHN HANCOCK."
The signer of this receipt was Mr. Clarke's son-in-law, Rev. John Hancock, of North Cambridge, now Lexington, and the grandfather of the Governor.
*Here to the dust are committed the remains of the Reverend Master Thomas Clark, the distinguished pastor of the flock of Christ in Chelmsford, who, in the faith and hope of a blessed resurrection, breathed forth his soul into the bosom of Jesus the 7th of December, in the year of the Lord 1704, and the 52nd of his age. [W.]
CHAPTER II. EARLY GRANTS-THE INDIANS.
EARLY GRANTS.
T THE Charter of Massachusetts Bay, given by King Charles I, in 1629, granted "all that part of America lying and being in breadth from forty degrees of northerly latitude from the Equin- oxial line to forty-eight degrees of the said northerly latitude inclusively, and in length of and within all the breadth aforesaid throughout the main lands from sea to sea."
The maps of the previous century gave the extent of the Continent northward as much less than it is in reality, and some people in England as late as 1651 believed that the Pacific Coast was at the foot of the western slope of the Alleghanies. [Narr. and Crit. Hist. of America, Vol. II. p. 456.] The Charter continues:
"All that part of New England in America aforesaid, which lies and extends between a great river there, commonly called Monomack, alias Merriemack, and a certain other river there, called Charles river, being in the bottom of a certain bay there, commonly called Massachusetts. * * And also all *
* those lands lying within the space of three English miles on the south part of the said part of the said Charles river * * and also all *
* the lands lying * * within the space of three English miles to the southward of the southermost part of the said bay
* * and also all those lands * * which lie * within the space of three English miles to the northward of the said river called Monomack, alias Merrymack, or to the northward of any and every part thereof, and all lands and hereditaments whatsoever, lying within the limits aforesaid, north and south in latitude and breadth, and in length and longi- tude of and within all the breadth aforesaid, throughout the mainland there, from the Atlantic and western sea and ocean on the east part to the south sea on the west part."
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EARLY GRANTS-THE INDIANS
De Monts, Champlain and Capt. John Smith are all three claimants to the title of discoverer of the Merrimack. De Monts named it for himself, but the name did not obtain acceptance. Champlain called it "la riviere du Gua," after one of his associates. Captain John Smith, who explored this locality in 1614, named the Charles for his King, and allowed the Merrimack to retain its Indian name. Cowley says: "Like all the great rivers on the Atlantic coast, the Merrimack pursues a southerly course, but after following this course from Franklin (N. H.) to Tyngs- borough, a distance of eighty miles, the Merrimack, unlike any other stream on the Atlantic, makes a detour to the northeast, and even runs part of the way northwest. It is obviously unnatural, that, after approaching within twenty miles of the head waters of the Saugus, as the Merrimack does, on entering Massachusetts, it should suddenly change its course, and pursue a circuitous route of more than forty miles to the sea. If the history of bygone ages could be restored, we should probably find the Merrimack discharging its burden at Lynn, and not at Newburyport."
Samuel Maverick, in his "Description of New England" (1660), says: "Above Twelve miles above Watter Town is an In-land Towne called Concord. It lieth on the River Meromack I conceive about 20 miles above the first falls but good passing on it there in small Boats from place to place. They subsist in Husbandry and breeding of Catle."
This was, undoubtedly, written with no knowledge of the grants first to Cambridge and then to Chelmsford settlers and others, after Maverick had removed, but makes Concord to include the land thus granted, even to the Merrimack.
Maverick describes Woburn: "Fower or five miles above Mouldon [Malden] West is a more considerable town called Wooburne, they live by ffurnishing the Sea Townes with Provisions as Corne and Flesh, and also they ffurnish the Merchants with such goods to be exported."
Of Wenham he says: "Six Miles from this Towne [Ipswich] lyeth a Town Called Wenham seated about a great Lake or Pond which abounds with all manner of ffresh ffish, and such Comodities as other places have it affordeth."
Woburn and Wenham and Concord helped to settle Chelms- ford.
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HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
May 13, 1640, the General Court granted to Mrs. Margaret Winthrop, widow of the late Governor John Winthrop, three thou- sand acres of land, and the next year this was assigned about the lower end of Concord river, near Merrimack. This was east of the Concord and south of the Merrimack. Thirty acres of meadow were granted on the west side of the Concord, to compensate for poor land on the east side. In 1642 the report of those appointed to view it was that it was generally ordinary land, not of the best: "neither did wee see any medowe worth the mentioning there about, except a parcell on the west side of Concord Ryver which wee conceive may bee some 30 acres," which (as there were some Indians holding land within the large grant, and there being "no medow of any worth there") was also granted her. This was in Wamesit, and is mentioned in Tyng's deed of 1686, as excluded from the Wamesit purchase. In a later document, twenty-one acres of this is described as lying on the west side Concord river at the upper end of the meadow there, and is bounded about by the bounds of Chelmsford Township in that place, and below by a pine tree marked near the meadow side, and so runs cross the meadow to a stake that stands on the west side of a cove that runs toward Chelmsford field, not taking in the cove. [See also Mass. Bay Records, Vol. IV, pt. 2, p. 109.]
In 1661 Mr. Deane Winthrop petitioned to have the land laid out for the use of the heirs, and Thomas Addams of Chelmsford was one of the committee appointed. The land (or part of it) included in the Chelmsford grant was originally given to Cam- bridge, June 2, 1641, and June 14, 1642. The language is: All the land lying upon Shawshin Ryver, and between that and Merrimack Ryver, not formerly granted by this Court, are granted to Cambridge, so as they erect a village there within five years, and so as it shall not extend to prejudice Charlestown village [Woburn], or the village of Cochitawit [Andover] &c. This grant was confirmed absolutely March 7, 1643-4, and included the present town of Billerica, portions of Bedford and Carlisle, and a part of Tewksbury or of Chelmsford, or of both, [Paige's History of Cambridge, page 3.]
The record is as follows:
"Shawshin is granted to Cambridg wth out any condition of makeing a village there; & the land between them & Concord is granted them, all save what is formly granted to the Millitary company or others, pvided the church & psent elders continue at Cambridge."
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EARLY GRANTS-THE INDIANS
This liberal grant was made to induce Mr. Shepherd and his church to remain in Cambridge, and not emigrate to Connecticut as Thomas Hooker and his company had done. Shepherd was the son-in-law of Hooker, who urged him to follow him to Connecticut. (Hazen's Billerica.)
In 1652, under a commission from the government of the Colony, the river (Merrimack) was explored by Captain Simon Willard and Captain Edward Johnson as far as Lake Winne- pesaukee. In the same year certain inhabitants of Concord and Woburn petitioned the General Court for the privilege of ex- amining the region at the confluence of the Concord and Merrimack with the intention of making a settlement, which was accomplished the next year. The Town of Chelmsford was settled in 1653, and incorporated May 29, 1655.
THE INDIANS.
At the time (1604) when the Sieur de Champlain discovered the Merrimack the region between the Concord and Merrimack rivers, afterwards called Concord Neck, and up to the Pawtucket falls, was the rendezvous of the Pawtucket or Pennacook Indians, the foremost of the five New England tribes, numbering, prior to the great plague in 1617, several thousand souls.
The territory over which they roamed included all of what is now New Hampshire. Wamesit, at the confluence of the rivers, Merrimack and Concord, was their capital or headquarters, and these streams attracted the red men on account of the abundant supply of fish which they afforded. "Merrimack" means sturgeon, and this fish with salmon, shad, and alewives were easily taken in goodly numbers. "It was no unusual spectacle to see thousands of the dusky sons and daughters of the forest encamped here in the season of Spring, catching with rude stratagem their winter's store of fish. Aside from this periodical convention of Indians this region contained one or two villages of more permanent inhabitants-one at Pawtucket falls and another at Massick or Wamesit falls." [Cowley.]
Within the bounds of the Lowell cemetery, during the progress of improvements, there have been exhumed, in past years, a large number of human bones, which would indicate that this was a burying place of the Indians. Near the Concord river a large skeleton, presumably that of an Indian chief, was found buried in what appeared to be charcoal. It was in a sitting posture,
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HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
facing the east, and the skull seemed to have been broken by the blow of a tomahawk. Another skeleton seemed to indicate that the chief's squaw had been buried near him. A number of Indian fireplaces, constructed with stones, and of circular form have been discovered in this vicinity, at a depth of four or five feet below the surface of the ground, indicating great antiquity.
The purpose of this History requires but a brief account of the Indian inhabitants of this region. Extended narratives may be found in the writings of Gookin, Hubbard, Drake and others, with descriptions of their wigwams, canoes, and implements of shell and bone and stone; their wampum (shell-bead money) and various personal ornaments. They were polytheists and polygamists, untruthful and fond of gambling; very hospitable and fond of extravagant dancing and reveling. Their government was a paternal despotism. These children of the forest were possessed of some noble traits and were grateful for kindness. They believed in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of all animal life. They had no priests, but the powwow, or medicine man, had almost unlimited influence among them.
Various writers have given us their observations on the relations of the Whites and Indians.
The Indians can hardly be said to have had proprietory right to the land. They were nomadic, occupying a certain territory as long as it afforded them a livelihood, their occupancy being determined largely by the superior strength of their particular tribe. The earlier cessions of land were made under a mis- conception on their part. They thought that the English, after a few years, would move on and leave the tract again to them. It was not easy to deal with them in buying land or in making treaties, as their government was on a loose system without a responsible head, so that it was uncertain that any compact made with them would be secure.
The Indian trade was one incentive to colonization, and the stubborn contest for supremacy on the part of the English, who felt that the country rightly belonged to those who could make the best use of it, developed among the pioneer settlers a bravery and spirit of endurance, which was an element of strength in the colony. The fierce and savage nature of the natives prevented their being largely domesticated as slaves and saved the northern colonies from the moral danger arising from contact with a servile race.
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EARLY GRANTS-THE INDIANS
These treacherous foes persecuted scattered settlements in the interior country, and thus compacted the population and enabled the colonies to make a more united stand against the English government, when this became necessary.
Passaconaway, "the child of the bear," a man of considerable ability, was the earliest Indian chief whose subjects dwelt upon the banks of the Merrimack, and whom history has made known to us. He was regarded as a magician for whom the trees would dance and the rocks move, who in the summer turned water into ice, and in winter made it burst into flame. He could bring dead serpents to life, and make himself a burning fire. Major Gookin says he saw him alive about 1663, at Pawtucket, when he was about one hundred and twenty years old. He flourished at the time of the first permanent English settlements in Massa- chusetts, and showed himself the friend of the white man. In 1644 he, with others, made a treaty with and submitted themselves to the English. In 1660 he resigned the sachemship to his son, Wannalancet, and at a great banquet, according to the early chronicles, made the following oration:
"Hearken to the words of your father! I am an old oak, that has withstood the storms of more than a hundred winters. Leaves and branches have been stripped from me by the winds and frosts. My eyes are dim; my limbs totter; I must soon fall. When young no one could bury the hatchet in a sapling before me. My arrows could pierce the deer at a hundred rods. No wigwam had so many furs, no pole had so many scalp-locks as Passaconaway's. Then I delighted in war. The whoop of the Penacooks was heard on the Mohawk and no voice so loud as Passaconaway's. The scalps upon the pole in my wigwam told the story of Mohawk suffering. The English came; they seized the lands; they followed upon my footpath; I made war on them, but they fought with fire and thunder. My young men were swept down before me when no one was near them. I tried sorcery against them but they still increased, and prevailed over me and mine. I gave place to them, and retired to my beautiful Island, Naticook, I, that can take a rattlesnake in my palm as I would a worm without harm,-I, that have had communication with the Great Spirit, dreaming and awake,-I am powerless before the pale-faces. These meadows they shall turn with the plow; these forests shall fall by the axe. The palefaces shall live upon your hunting grounds, and make their villages upon your fishing places. The Great Spirit says this, and it must be so. We are few and powerless before them. We must bend before the storm; peace with the white man is the command of the Great Spirit, and the wish- the last wish-of Passaconaway." [Indian Wars of N. E., Caverly.]
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