History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 214

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 214

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).

There are several deeds on record, of these original grants to Peabody, Bigsbye, Stiles, Gould, Dorman and others, bearing dates from May to July, 1661, and in each the grantors are Philip Nelson and oth- ers, as the executors of Mr. Jewett, who probably died suddenly, as the wording of each is, "he having de- parted this life before a legal assurance was made."

It was necessary that this claim, which Gould had upon what is now Georgetown, should he closed, and on the same date, July 2, 1661, we find Jewett's execu- tors, doubtless by authority of the town of Rowley, selling Gould two-sixths parts village land in Box-

801

GEORGETOWN.

ford; the previous day Stiles and Reddington having had their lands conveyed. From the action of the town of Rowley December 20, 1658, more than two years before, it would seem that Jewett had a claim upon this three thousand acre tract at that time. As a persuasive to yield his claim,

" It was Agreed and Voated at a general and Leagull towne meeting. that Mr. Joseph Jewit, Should have a thousand Acres of Land in ye North, beyond ye Haseltines part of ye thousand, in exchange of Three thousand Acres of Land, which is to be laid out as conveniently as can bee, for ye Town of Rowley, in ye village land about ye hald hills, and he to have forty Acres of Medow, as conveniently as can bee with yo towns land."

This town action towards liquidating Mr. Jewett's claim (however his claim was founded), began to look like an attempt for a settlement. It is doubtful whether this proposition was accepted at the time; if it was, then the action of Gould with the executors, the July after Jewett's death, was in the form of ab acquittance to any claim he had on this famous tract, so tossed about in shuttlecock fashion. Perhaps, in those early days, having hopes that a more speedy settlement of the wilderness would follow, special privileges were granted to such as Jewett and Gould, that they might be encouraged to stimulate and has- ten emigration. In the villages along the sea, there was doubtless a fixed timorousness, from fear of prowl- ing Indians ; and settlers in the interior gave a sense of protection, and were, to a certain extent, a safe- guard.

The colonial laws forbidding persons journeying alone, receiving Indians into the honses of the colo- nists, aud similar enactments, whether from a troubled conscience, because of known wrong in dealing with the Indian, or whatever the cause, all show a sense of lurking danger. To the herdsmen in their loneli- ness at the pen-house on the rocky hills, there must have been fear in a special manner continually with them, not probably from their aboriginal neighbors of Pentucket and Agawam, but from the unsubjected tribes of the wilderness beyond. Wild and ferocious beasts, and possibly savage men, made every sense alert, and their life here certainly was no holiday task. The nights may not have altogether been spent here, but the days most assuredly were.

While harvesting the hay on the Rainer meadow one can imagine their watchfulness and their thoughts of probable danger. The frequent stories of frontier life are of death from the Indian arrow or bullet, while at work haying in the meadows. When the men of every household were ordered to have their mus- kets with them while in the meeting-house on the Lord's or lecture days, there was fear of a subtle enemy, and how numerons and powerful they had no possible means of knowing. We, to-day, know that they were but comparatively few in number, but their methods of warfare were such that imagination vastly magnified the numbers of the foe and greatly in- creased the timorousness and alarm. Besides, in spite of continual colonial restriction against supplying 50%

the Indians with arms or ammunition, there were from the first, those who withdrawing from the set- tlemeuts, defied the law, and living apart from the white man, fraternized with the Indian to the Euglishman's fear and often injury.

At the time the young cattle of the Rowley planters were first herded above Pen Brook, on this tract, which was sometimes called the "Upper Commons," only the few families which were then located at each of the plantations, Pentucket and Cochicowick (Haver- hill and Andover), shut off the frontier. All beyond, both north and west, was an untraversed wilderness.

At a later day both of these towns were raided, once and again by Indians, bringing dismay and death to many a peaceful home. The locality, now George- town, was doubtless a favorite Indian fishing ground, often visited. Many of the rude Indian household utensils have been turned up by the plough near the brooks and Parker River, and also at a distance from them ; by the shores of the ponds; and in By- field, near Warren Street, quite a large storehouse of entting instruments and stone points has been un- covered. Perhaps more prolific fields for these coveted relics of a buried past than any other are Parker River, in the vicinity of the woolen-mill, and the southeasterly slope of the foot-hills of Baldpate.

On the warm sunny hillsides near Baldpate, which are sheltered from the driving blasts of winter, the race who got the start and came before us had their frequent camping-ground.

The Indian became extinct iu this immediate lo- cality about a century ago ; the last representatives were Papahana, a man who died in Groveland, and another who died at Captain George Jewett's, in Row- ley.

When our fathers first saw them they were shrunken from their former condition; perhaps they would have rallied and evolved a partial civilization like their New York neighbors, but it was not to be. Another race doubtless preceded them, leaving ouly faint traces behind.

Professor Putnam, the anthropologist and archæol- ogist, if we mistake not, places the period of the stone age, to which the triangular stones found buried deeply in the gravel belong, as pre-historic and the work of a prior race; the labor of man just begin- ning to realize his position, his relations to the ani- mal world around him, and his undeveloped power. These peculiar stones are occasionally found here, and of various sizes, but having similar outlines. A furore for collecting Indian curios was awakened here some years ago, and intensified by the Georgetown Advocate, through its junior editor, H. N. Harriman, Esq., who is himself an ardent investigator and enthusiastic col- lector.

Returning to the early land grants, it is recorded that March 23, 1651, Anthony Crosbie had seven hun- dred acres laid out ; the deed says near Elder's Pond, whether in Georgetown or Boxford it is impossible to

802

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

say; but in 1672 he had seventy acres laid out in Georgetown, located somewhere between North Street and Marlborough, and recorded in the Rowley book as "Crosbie's farm," adjoining land of Francis Parrot, also Reedy Meadow, and Deacon Thomas Mig- hill's land. A part of this land was in the right of Philip Nelson.

This Crosbie was the first physician in Rowley and probably a son of Cnshins Crosbie, one of the first settlers of Rowley. Perhaps his death or the Indian war of three or four years later prevented his settle- ment, as there is no record of any occupancy.

In 1661, besides the Brocklebank grant east of Pen Brook, was an allotment of land, near and on the west side of Pentucket Pond, to Mary, the widow of Mr. Ezekiel Rogers. This lot was bounded on the east end by a highway leading to Andover, and as this highway was probably the Andover Street of to- day, the lot must have reached the town centre, and included the land between the two ponds, eastward to the centre. Those who settled on Mrs. Rogers' land, more than half a century afterward, had farms at sev- eral points on this very tract, from above Pond Street westward to beyond Main Street. On the south and west it was bounded by common land. This was a grant in the interest of Thomas Barker (the first hus- band of Mrs. Rogers), who died in 1650. It was to make his lot proportionable to the lower lots, and a large lot at this distance from the town would not ex- ceed in value a small area there.

January 22, 1663-64, another tract, containing three hundred and seventy acres, was laid out to Mrs. Rogers, also in the right of Thomas Barker. This was situated on the north side of the pond known as Pentucket, and also on the north side of the brook running in and out of the pond, westerly to the great rock, and extending easterly to a marked tree, to the brook which "issueth out of the pond runneth into the Crane meadow, so-called."

At this early day these meadows and Parker River were known as Crane Meadows and Crane Brook. Probably the lot previously laid out extended to the south side of Rock Pond Brook.

In 1666 or 1667 the "Three thousand acre " tract, made public domain once more by the clearance of all private claims, was laid out to the town of Rowley.

John Pickard and Ezekiel Northend, appointed by Rowley for this important work, also laid out, as carefully as their appliances and the wildness of the territory traversed permitted, the balance of the Vil- lage land to citizens of Rowley and Rowley Village. This covered all of the town of Boxford, excepting the land already settled upon. The system of divi- sional grants to individuals was based on the size of the house lots as laid out to the first settlers at Row- ley. In this village land allotment some of the larger grants covered land previously laid out to in- dividuals, as, for instance, Mr. Philip Nelson's two thousand acres included the meadow previously

granted to Joseph Jewett, which had been allowed in extinguishment of his claim on the Georgetown three thousand acres.

As Mr. Nelson's first wife was of the Jewett family, perhaps no difficulty arose. Gould received a large tract in one corner of the territory, and any special claims he may have had were, no doubt, satis- factorily cancelled. The action by the exeentors of Joseph Jewett in 1661, as shown by the deeds on record at Salem, were of at least one-half of the entire territory, confirmed to Francis Peabody, Thomas Dorman, Robert Stiles, Joseph Bigsbye, Abraham Reddington, William Foster and Zaccheus Gould. That these deeds were recognized as having at least a partial validity can be seen by examining the list of grantees at this final division, for each of these parties are recorded as having a large grant. These parties had probably been buying for years the rights that families at Rowley had in the village lands; so that when the time came to grant private ownership of what the Henry Georges of to-day contend should never be held as private property-the land, all there was for them to do was to show that they had pur- chased these rights, and these large allotments were secured. There is no other way to account for the striking disparity in these divisions.

One thing to-day is beginning to be recognized, that as from the land all existence is principally maintained, monopoly in land should be condemned, and no man or family, even in the infancy of a settle- ment, be permitted to mark off or fence in more than may be cultivated or cared for. A part of a lot south of Lake Raynor, laid out by Ezekiel Northend for himself at that time, was through one of his female descendants, owned by the family for about two hun- dred years.

At about this period the permanent settlement of Georgetown begins. This westerly part of the town, from the centre across Baldpate Hill, to where, twenty years afterwards, the boundary line between Rowley and Boxford was run, was at last unincum- bered, and the Rowley people were discussing earnestly the wisest course to take in the encouragement of a settlement.

Northend and Pickard having completed their work, probably in 1667 (a thankless task no doubt, as for many years afterward it was difficult to get men to serve as lot-layers, many positively refusing to serve), a meeting of the town of Rowley was therefore ac- cordingly called for February 23d, 1667-68. At this date " It was agreed and voted that there should be a small farme laide out in the three thousand Acres of Land that was exchanged for the land at the necke, and the rent of the saide farme it is agreed that it shall be for ever for the use of the ministry or the towne's use." Directly beneath this record, ap- parently written by another hand, and at a later date, is found this,-"Samuell Brocklebank that no line convenient will give Leas on." The principal busi-

803

GEORGETOWN.

ness of the meeting seems to have been matters pertain- ing to this "farme," as the next record is "Chose Jolın Piekard, John pearson and Ezekiel Northend, to bee Added to the select men, to make a bargon with any who should appeare to take the saide ferme, provided that they Let not above thirty Acres of meddow, or halfe of the meddow belonging to the thre Thousand Acres, provided allso that they put the towne to no charges, provided allso that they lay not out above thre-score Akres of upland to the saide farme." The same parties were made the committee, to lay out the "saide farme," which was done that year.

A partial " bargon " had been made with John Spaf- ford, an original settler in the town of Rowley. He was a Yorkshireman, whose family was one of the twenty who were among the first comers, having a house-lot on Bradford, near Wethersfield Street, and not long before his acceptance of the agreement with the town, had leased and occupied the farm of Sam- uel Bellingham, of Boston, styled gent ; and was liv- ing on it at the time of its sale to Joseph Jewett, clothier. This farm in Rowley was a legacy to Sam- nel from William Bellingham, and probably included the house-lot on Holmes Street, adjoining Mr. Thomas Nelson's. March 17th, 1668, is this rec- ord: "Seventeenth day of March, in the year one Thousand six hundred sixty-eight, it was agreed and voated, that John Spofforth, it he would goe to the farme that was granted to be laide out in the thre Thousand Akers, that he should have the benefit of penninge the cattell, for the terme of seven years, he keepinge the herde of the younger cattel as care- fully and as cheape, as any other should doe."

So carefully had the surveyors supposed they had examined and classified the land, that the thirty acres of meadow was said to be one-half of this class of land, found within the three thousand acre tract. Their meadow land was our bog of to-day, and thirty years ago was free from trees and bushy growth, but much that was at that time familiar to us as cleared meadow, was in the early days, covered no doubt, in patches at least, with a dense growth of maple, birch, pine and other trees. "March 19, 1668-69, John Spotforth took a Lease of this farm, laid out for the vse of the ministry," in a specific document drawn up at considerable length, and signed in the presence of witnesses by "John Spofard, his mark."

"Twenty and one yeares it extended, without rent or rates for the first five, exceptings three hundred of good white oake two inch planke, some time within two yeares, to be delivered at the meeting-house," the secular as well as the religious centre of the town, and " after five years, ten pounds yearly for the saide land and meddow, and thirty shillings for all stocke and land that he shall improve yearly," not in money payment, either, but with a tenderness which might sometimes be extended to the farmer in our day, its value in farm commodities, as "one-halfe in English

corne at price currant, the other half in fat cattell or leane; if he pay in lenne cattell, they are not to ex- ceede above seven yeares of age, or in Indian corne if he pleas," however, "what he doth pay in fat cat- tell, he is to pay at or before Mihilmas" (September 29th). He was restricted to the use of "timber for buildings and other necessaryes for farminge," and ' no saile of timber hut to the town of Rowley, and, no hay caceeding above five loads yearly." "All dunge to be laide upon the saide land, none to be given or soulde." "And what buildings he shall erect, he is to uphold them, and leave them tenant- able at the end of his lease, and allsoe all fences that he shall make, and he is to pay yearly cuntry rates, at the last yeare to live in the house untill May day, that so he may spend his fother upon the saide land." The mark of Spofard thus attached is the letter o, horizontally placed.

In locating the land in the preamble to the lease, it is said to be " at the pen where the young cattell of the towne have beene herded this last yeare, called by the name of gravelle plain."

The cabin or log-hut, known as the pen-house, was near by, and the responsible position of the herdsmen was now to pass into the hands of the Spofford family. John Spofford and his sons may have previously been entrusted with the serious duties of seeing that no harm befell this valuable property of the Rowley farmers seven miles away. Mr. Spofford had charges against Rowley the year before, of £3, 13s. for overseeing fences, and of £2, 10s. for killing a wolfe. Perhaps this wolfe was killed here, and, accustomed to live in the wilderness, he readily accepted the offer of the town, and, building his home, became a perma- nent settler. Soon after this date the town of Rowley required Boxford to pay the bounty on all wolves killed in this part of the town.

This family had a love for border life, or they would not so readily have come here. While there was heroism and daring, one can also conceive that thoughts of the Indian must have stalked like a spec- tre before their cottage as the nightfall gathered, and that the howling of the fierce winter wind brought vividly to memory stories of Indian cruelty, listened to shiveringly, around the fireside at their old home, to which their loneliness here added a tenfold terror. Es- pecially to the wife and mother the danger doubtless clung, with but little to make life buoyant or cheer- ful. Besides, with all of that day, they firmly be- lieved and looked for the malice of the prince of evil on every hand.

This darkened their lives, and could this family have looked ahead a century or more, and heard and seen the visible manifestations of an invisible and oc- cult force beneath the roof of some to come after them as bone of their bone, but scarcely an arrow's flight from where they then were, they would all have fled from their wilderness home, back to the village from whence they came. They did remain, however, with

804

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

nothing to disturb them, beyond the ordinary difficul- ties that await those who in a new country sow the seed and gather the harvest. At a period some years before a path of blazed trees had probably been opened toward Andover, but for years at least in the long, wearisome winter, as they looked abroad from this elevated country, not a column of smoke from a neighbor's chimney could be seen curling upward as a friendly sign and beacon. Their nearest neighbors were three miles away, with the old primitive forest between. From the records at Rowley it is probable, however, that before the Spoffords came Captain Samuel Brocklebank had a house at his farm on Pen Brook, which he occupied during the farm-season, spending the winters in Rowley.

This was an occasional occurrence, and the Colonial laws exempted the farmers or their servants from cer- tain duties while living on the farms at a distance from the villages. The road which passed this Spofford cottage connected with the highway, laid out at the same time, from Topsfield to Haverhill, leading from the old Ipswich and Andover road, southwest of Baldpate hill, just east of Shaven Crown, past the present Thwing farm, and across what is now the Andover road, over the " Haselltine brook (says the record) where they of Rowley Village have made a bridge over it, near the lower end of Robert Hasill- tine's meadow, and soe along as the highway now goeth, to A place commonly called the aptake." This aptake or uptake, was evidently then known, and the path from this point was already a highway. It had been used as such for some time, as trees were said to have been marked at various points, but the road had not been definitely laid out. Now changes were made, and the work was final. A report to that effect was made March 16, 1668-69. Two who signed the re- port were Samuel Brocklebank and Ezekiel Northend.

The connection with this ancient Salem and Haver- hill road was by the three-fourths mile of highway, at the northwest foot of Baldpate Street, known now as Spotford Street. For more than a century and a half this was the great central thoroughfare between Northern and Southern Essex, until the rapid growth of "Georgetown corner" turned the course of travel, and attracted it two miles to the eastward. In later years there were many farm-houses scattered along at frequent intervals, where entertainment for man and beast was provided, and "the sounds of revelry " and tales of good cheer had these old inns but a tongue to reveal them, would fill many a volume.

In March, 1662, Rowley appointed Lieut. Samuel Brocklebank and Richard Swan to join with the selectmen of Haverhill to decide where the road from Haverhill to Rowley should be. The preceding year Lieut. Brocklebank had his seventy-two acre farm laid out by Pen Brook, and as his evident intentions were, at that day, to make this his home, performing this duty for the town, he had more than official duty, for by opening up this road he was making his own

property accessible to the Merrimac River settle- ments, and his own settlement here seemingly an as- sured thing. The record from the Rowley 1st book, as previously given, is good evidence that this partial settlement actually occurred. The lamented ending of his useful life, may as well be told here.

June 24, 1675, was ever memorable in New Eng- land history as the date of the opening tragedy, in that calamity known as King Philip's War. This was followed by an alliance of several tribes, of which some had previously been friendly. This action of the Indians awakened general alarm throughout both Massachusetts and Plymouth Colonies. Soldiers were ordered to be raised, and Samuel Brocklebank, now captain, reports on the 29th of November, 1675, to Governor John Leverett that "This may certify, that we have impressid twelve men according to our war- rant, and have given them charge to fit themsellves well with warm clothing, and we hope they will, and doe endeavour to fixe themselves as well as they can ; only some of them are men that but latly come to town, and want arms, the which to provide for them we must press other men's arms, which is very griev- ous (except they can be provided for upon the coun- try's account, which would be very acceptable if it could be.) "

Writing this kindly note, in behalf of this little company of distressed townsmen, he bids farewell to all those useful labors for the town of his adoption, where, in the forest, he had fixed the highways, since traveled by myriad feet ; a lingering look up the long extent of hill and plain, along what is now Elm Street, which he had fondly expected to redeem from the wild reign of Nature, then controlling it; a final farewell to his wilderness home, with the peaceful sound of Pen Brook the only break upon the stillness, and to his village friends, now agitated with many an unwonted fear, and to Boston, and then from Marl- borough he makes his report, as a soldier ready for service, if his duty calls.

He wrote to Major Denison, of Ipswich, March 27, 1676, from the place last named. Asks to be dismissed with his men, saying that they can do nothing of ad- vantage where they are. Impatient to escape from this idle waiting, says also "that they have been in the country's service ever since the first of January at Narriganset, and within one week after their return were sent out again, having neither time or money, save a fortnight's pay, upon the march to recruit themselves." The previous day he wrote the Council an interesting letter, with a graphic account of the burning of many houses and barns in Marlborough, ending with a prediction of greater havoc soon to be made.

His premonitions were more than realized. On the 21st of the following April Captain Brocklebank, Cap- tain Wadsworth of Milton, Lieutenant Sharp of Brookline, with about one hundred men, were drawn into ambush by the Indians in the town of Sudbury,

805

GEORGETOWN.

and the three officers and probably upwards of fifty of the men were killed. They were all buried in one grave, in the forest near where they fell. About 1730 President Benjamin Wadsworth, of Harvard College, a son of the captain, erected a plain slab over the burial-place of these men, which, in 1840, was in a good state of preservation. A granite monument was also erected by the State of Massachusetts and the town of Sudbury iu 1852, and dedicated November 23d of that year, with an address by Governor Bout- well. The former headstone is placed directly in front of it. Two centuries later, on the anniversary of this sad event, a general observance of the day was had, many visiting Sudbury from the surrounding country. The writer, as a lineal descendant of Captain Brockle- bank and as a representative of the town, was invited by the committee of arrangements to be present.

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.

History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 214

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1 Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1538

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538