History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 216

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 216

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Very early deeds imply that Crane Pond was, for some years after the incorporation of Bradford, in- cluded in Rowley. Crane Pond, and the meadows near, were known by the present name, as early, it is thought, as 1670. Many of the earlier grants and transfers were of Crane Pond lands, and the records of the locality refer to an old grant, and a new grant ; the former line is supposed to have rnn north and the latter south of the pond. There are deeds on rec- ord from John Wallingford, to his brother-in-law, Jonathan Look, of land near Pond Brook (this pond must have been Crane Pond, for Pentucket and Rock were always designated by their names), also Jona- than Wheeler is said to have had a division with the

above on the south side of the pond in Rowley. Without the pond being named, it seems to show an apparent knowledge of but one pond, and from the names of the parties, Wallingford, Look and Wheel- er, it is conclusive that the pond was Crane Pond, and was then (1694), within the limits of Rowley. Look probably lived in the neighborhood of these Crane meadows. Seven years later he signed the parish petition with the others. His name disap- peared from Rowley history soon after.

These owners of lands in Rowley were under the old grant. The new grant was made not long after. It will be recalled that in 1681, a request came to Rowley from Bradford, for an enlargement of their territory, and perhaps after many appeals, the town of Rowley, April 7, 1699, appointed a committee, "to meet with the Bradford Committee, when there may be a convenient opportunity, to settle the line between Rowley and Bradford, and what they shall do (says the record), shall be a valid act." Probably the con- venient time did not arrive, for in 1701, nothing ap- parently having been done, Bradford petitioned the General Court to interfere. Rowley, then forced to definite action, chose on September 22, 1701, a com- mittee "to meet a Bradford committee, at the house of Samuel Hale, and to come to some agreement if pos- sible, but if they could not agree, then to refer it for a settlement by arbitration."

Doubtless a satisfactory agreement was reached at that meeting, and the new line run at the south of Crane Pond, as before stated, making it essentially the line between Georgetown and Groveland, as it exists to this day. About the time that the Wheelers, Brownes, Goodrich, Look, Plumer and Henry Poor were taking the first steps toward clearing the land and establish- ing homes along what is now Thurlow, North and Jewett Streets, complaints were rife of trespassing on the undivided land, to the injury of those who might follow them.

We have seen Goodrich and his family, by one sharp blow taken from this little band of hardy axe- men and pioneers, but this did not deter the others ; they held the ground gained, but sometimes, no doubt, entertained bitter thoughts against the Rowley men at the village, that they should fret and fume, over the cutting of a little wood and fencing stuff. These were braving all the danger of opening up the wil- derness, while their Rowley neighbors were living in peace and security, and one can imagine that a sense of injustice, sometimes impelled them to a degree of lawlessness. However, in spite of any consciousness of freedom, these few families may have felt, the town saw fit to vote, January 14, 1694-95, for an appoint- ment " of a Committee to prosecute any persons, and especially Benjamin Plumer and Henry Poor, that have trespassed by falling or carting away timher." The forest was preserved with jealous care from the first, one town ordinance following another in quick succession, and making the laws operative over the

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

whole territory, from Merrimac to the sea. The peat-bogs were as yet unopened, although right at their feet. The coal-fields were waiting for the trans- portation by steam as the motive power, and the vast lumber districts, were practically almost as far away as if in the moon.

This severe ordinance not proving effectual, and the clamors of some of the people still demanding ac- tion, an evidently annoyed citizen, at a meeting March 19, 1699-1700, moved, and it was

"Agreed & Voated, that if any person or persons shall fall, top, or Carry away any tree or trees, or part of any of sd tree, from of any part of the Town's Comon, called the three Thousand Acres, for any use whatsoever, without liberty from the Select men, being mett together, & in writing under hands, they Shall pay for every tree fallen, lopped, or carried away, nineteen Shillings, Six pounds & tree (threepence), the one-halfe of sd penalty to the Informer, the other half to the use of the Towne."

This seemes like a kind of half-waggery, and yet it may be that there was a desperation at seeing one of their dearest laws set at naught. "ffeb. 6, 1694-5, Committee chosen to Issue a Controversie Between the Town and Beniamin Plumer," about some land that it was thought Plumer had fenced in, supposed to belong to the town.

He rebutted the charges of encroachment, by call- ing the attention of the town to a highway through his farm. Plumer declared himself ready to submit his case to the committee named. There seems to have been no definite settlement reached for many years, for the next record informs us, of date January 2, 1712-13, that Benjamin Plumer is satisfied about the road across his farm. Probably the question of the land encroach ment was also settled.

The roads in this locality were becoming more of a question to consider at the meetings of the town. April 12, 1699, the importance of one road at the northwestern corner of the town resulted in this ac- tion : " Rock brook meddow to be leased to Robert Haseltine, Thomas Carleton, Jona. Platts (all perhaps, of Bradford) and John Spofford, of Rowley, for seven years, they to maintain the bridge called Haseltines, and in addition, to pay three shillings yearly. This was the bridge near the Edward Poor place, on West Street. Nothing looking toward a settlement in South Georgetown had as yet been done. There were a few land grants, however."

At about 1683 or '84, Thomas Palmer had fifty-six acres laid out near Lake Raynor, and at the westerly end, bounded by the old Newbury and Andover road, on the southerly side of the Bald hills. Others, with acreage not stated, were Deacon William Tenney, Thomas Stickney, John Burbank and Samuel Cooper. Some of these lots, as laid out, are said to have bor- dered " on the path now used from Samuel Spofford to Jacob Pearly." Spofford was then married, and may have built the house that very anciently was built, on what is now the northwesterly limits of the farm on Baldpate Street, now owned by Henry Ken-

nett. It is possible, however, that this house was built at a later day by Richard Dole.

Not far from this time, Thomas Nelson, of Rowley, and John Rolfe, of Newbury, sold this Samuel Spof- ford two hundred and fifty acres near Shaving Crown hill, which was one-fourth part of Mrs. Rogers' one thousand acre grant. This immense tract came into the hands of Gershom Lambert, as a gift from Mrs. Rogers. Lambert was a brother of Thomas Nelson's first wife, and uncle of the wife of Rolfe, and pre- sented this land to Mrs. Rolfe with the other children of Thomas Nelson, that it might be sold for their benefit.

In 1712 another fourth part was sold to Moses Tyler. Gershom Lambert was a resident of Salem for some time, but as early as 1691 had removed to New Lon- don, Conn.

Cooper, Stickney, and Palmer probably about to be dispossessed of their grants for some unknown cause, perhaps because they were laid out on the re- served tract, petitioued the town of Rowley, March 18, 1700-01, to relieve them, and find them some common land, belonging to the town, on the southerly side of the line, between Rowley and Boxford. All these lots had evidently been laid out north of and near Lake Raynor. Cooper seems finally to have secured his grant, for in 1727 a long narrow tract in Boxford, north of the lake, from the shore to the town line, was sold by a Samuel Cooper, to Nathaniel Perkins and Jacob Pearley. May 22, 1704, Captain John Spofford, had sixty acres laid out to him, also on this north shore of the lake. This was a grant to his father, John Spofford, then deceased. It adjoined Palmer's land.

To return for a brief space to another part of the Byfield district, from that already described, we find just as the seventeenth century was closing the name of Benjamin Stickney, as another of the earlier settlers, and who was a brother of Andrew Stickney, who is supposed to have lived near the Rowley line by the Ewell place. This Benjamin is said to have built a log house on the summit of Long Hill, at as early a date as 1699.

In 1700 a framed-house was erected by him, which as late as 1870 was occupied by Mayor Ira Stickney, a direct descendant in the sixth generation. Some few years later it was accidentally burned to the ground. In 1713 the road over Long Hill and past his house was opened. In the great snow of 1717 he kept a path open by drawing a log every day. A bear is said to have once taken a pig from his pen in the night; he arose, caught a whip and chasing the ani- mal, lashed him until he dropped the pig, when he secured it and returned to the house. Mr. Stickney was never known to be sick until he had passed his eightieth birthday.

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GEORGETOWN.

CHAPTER LII.

GEORGETOWN-(Continued) ..

PARISH PETITIONERS AND OTHERS WHO SETTLED PRIOR TO 1730.

AT the dawning of the eighteenth century, the question of the validity of the Indian title, to the territory within the original limits of Rowley, began to cause something of a ferment. About 1700 three Indians, who claimed to be grandsons of Musquonomo- net, the former Sagamore of Agawam, and were then probably living in this or some town near by, were encouraged by parties, to assert their claim to the territory, on the ground that the aboriginal title had never been extinguished. This claim, if based on precedents, was undoubtedly correct. Many towns had apparently recognized at an early period of their settlement the Indian ownership, and by the payment of some trifle in money or goods, had gone through the farce of a purchase. Rowley, unlike many of her neighbors, had done nothing, however, simply from neglect. At that time, after seventy years of settle- ment, the claim was made by these Indians, with many precedents in their favor. Late in the year 1700, a committee was appointed by the town, "to treat with the Gentlom Improved and Impowered as Attorneys for the Indians, which make a Demand of our Lands, & Labour to cleare up our Title to sd Lands."

Soon after, by the payment of nine pounds to Sam- uel English, Joseph English and John Umpee, the title to the territory now included in the towns of Georgetown and Rowley, was made good, to the ac- knowledged satisfaction of these three claimants. These upper commons were still but a slight remove from the ancient solitude.

In 1705 John Holmes, then of Newbury, and con- nected in some way with Bartholomew Pearson, deeded fifteen acres west of Rock Pond, to Eldad Cheney, of Bradford, and Nicholas Cheney, of Newbury. The highway now known as Bailey Lane was crossed, and the lot touched on Crag (Scrag) and Rock Pond Brooks. Holmes perhaps permanently settled near the Bradford line abont 1731. It is thought that he was living in Byfield in 1730, as his name was not on the list of parish petitioners, but it appears in 1732, as dismissed from the church in Byfield, to the church in the west parish in November of that year. We find him in 1722 deeding land to Jonathan Harriman, and again to Harriman in 1725 several lots on range H, in the vicinity of Rock Pond, and at the same time one-eighth part of the iron works, said to be on the south side of Rock Brook, and the deed adds, " with what provision is now made, and the privilege of the yard and stream, for nineteen years from date." These iron works had probably been opened but a

few years at the longest. Gage records that they were worked in 1739, and that a Samuel Barrett lived near by, who it is thought carried them on. Besides the bog ore which was dug near the yard, the farmers carted the ore to be worked at the yard from other bogs in the town.

Dr. Jeremiah Spofford, of Groveland, at a late day, could show places on his father's farm on West Street, where this iron ore had been dug. The remains of these iron works, not far from the embankment of the Georgetown and Haverhill Railroad, were plainly traceable a few years ago.

In 1707, Benjamin Plumer, styled clothier in 1718, who had made so much trouble for the town by his trespassing some years before, bought of Mark Prime one-half of the Mrs. Rogers or Lambert farm, for two hundred pounds. Plumer had regained the confi- dence of the town, for in 1702-3, he was made over- seer (the English term) of all the highways in Rowley, above and including " Ry plain bridge" (the bridge near the Georgetown Town farm). This Lambert farm was to a slight extent improved by him, while he is supposed to have been living at the time in the vicinity of Thurlow or Jewett Street, for, in 1713, he bought forty-two acres of land of Jonathan Spofford, where, the deed states, "my house now is." This land, John Spofford, the father of Jonathan, bought of the Brownes in 1693. Joseph and Jonathan Plumer, who had purchased the Shepard farm in 1694, were perhaps brothers of Benjamin, but probably never lived here.

The name of Jonathan Bradstreet is seen on the record at about this date, appearing first as an owner of land near Crane pond and brook. This land in Rowley was held in partnership with David Wheeler, John and Ebenezer Browne. Nathaniel Browne, the former owner, had removed to Connecticut. Ahout 1710 or '11, Bradstreet bought of Jonathan Wheeler sixty acres, or a part of the Payson farm. This farm was a special grant of the town of Rowley to Rev. Edward Payson, their fourth minister, and was in harmony with the land-allotment to all the previous ministers. Wheeler had bought this farm not long before this partial sale. The word farm, as used at that time, was misleading, it being in anticipation. The farming operations of the Rowley ministers did not contemplate agriculture in the wilderness, and this grant to Mr. Payson was the last of its class. This land was located near Elder's plain (now Marl- boro' district), but on the hilly tract at the north and northeast.

The Bradstreet house may have been that which, for three-fourths of a century, was known as the Kezar house, and was demolished by Dr. David Mig- hill about 1850. The material was used in enlarge- ment of the Mighill house on Baldpate. The family, in 1739, removed to Lunenburg, Mass. Jonathan Bradstreet, then known as Captain, with his wife, Sarah, and Dorcas Spofford, the wife of his son Sam-

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

uel, were dismissed to the church in Lunenburg, April 15th of that year.

At the same period when Bradstreet settled, the names of several Boyntons frequently occur. Men- tion has already been made of Captain Joseph and Richard Boynton, as owners of the Swan lands, ex- tending from Pen Brook north and east of Pen Brook avenue.

Ebenezer Boynton, who may have been a cousin or brother of Joseph, was an early landholder, and owned the house in " Marlboro'," now the property of Mrs. Jacob F. Jewett. The name of this Boynton is found as early as 1714, as the owner of land near that belonging to Samuel Brocklebank.

In 1725, he sold his house and thirty acres of land situated on Elder's plain, to Joseph Nelson, for one hundred and forty-three pounds. This farm was a part of the original Elder Humphrey Raynor grant, from which the plain took its name. By inheritance it came to Humphrey Hobson, a grandson, who deeded, in 1709, sixty-two acres to Edward Hazen, said to be an exchange. Hazen, who sold to Boynton, may have built here, intending it for his home. It is supposed, however, that, after selling here, he was the builder and occupant for many years of the an- cient house in Boxford, on the Salem road, lately de- molished by Thomas B. Masury, upon the site of which the present house stands.

Joseph Nelson, the first of this surname to locate in Georgetown, bought in 1707, the year after his mar- riage to Hannah, the daughter of Deacon Samuel Brocklebank, the Jonathan Harriman place on Brad- ford Street, Rowley, and probably lived there until his removal here. There is reason to believe that a part of this house was built by Boynton or Hazen, as early as 1715. Boynton, perhaps, intended after sell- ing to build for himself more to the westward, but was prevented, for we find him selling, the next year, thirty acres more to Mr. Nelson, with a barn upon it. This tract adjoined land he had previously sold to John, the eldest son of Deacon Brocklebank. He also sold Richard Boynton nine lots on, range T, in the "Three thousand acres." Nelson had been an owner of land for years in this same Elders plain, buying of Jonathan Boynton and his father-in-law, Deacon Brocklebank.

This Jonathan Boynton was, we think, a son of Cap- tain Joseph, and figures prominently in our early his- tory. In 1710 or 1711 Joseph deeds to Jonathan one hundred and twenty acres, located on the east side of the above-named tract of land, then belonging to Ha- zen. This ran back to the south, reaching the town commons. Doubtless he built on this land ; perhaps it included the Tenney estate, on Tenney Street, and that the house occupied by three generations of that name was built by him. Boynton was the first parish clerk, and in office until 1740. A Boynton family re- moved to Tewksbury from this town about 1738, and a Jonathan Boynton to Lunenburg in 1758. Jonathan

Boynton and wife, Elizabeth, were dismissed in June to the church in that town. It is not known whether this was the parish clerk, or a Jonathan Boynton of a later generation. Others of this surname who were not residents, were Caleb, a land-holder in South Georgetown, and Benoni, who married a sister of Nathaniel Mighill, and had a freehold in this part of the town. It is a curious fact, not generally known, that Sir William Phips at one time bought or rented a Boynton house in Rowley and perhaps resided there.

In the spring of 1714 Deacon Samuel Brocklebank, the son of the captain, who was killed by the Indians deeded to his son John for £60, to be paid to his eldest son, Samuel S., (then probably deceased), three daughters £20 to each when they come of age, or marriage, which may come first, all the land "then belonging to this farm, west of the brook, which runs midway of the present Elm and Central Streets, known to the present generation as the Brocklebank house, recently taken down by Mrs. G. W. Boynton, and upon the site of which her present house stands. Its demolition removed a distinguishing time-mark from the central village.

At the time this land was deeded to John Brockle- bank, Main Street, from his father's house, now M. G. Spofford's, to the present centre, was not opened. There is no reference to a highway or a path even, and the land as deeded beginning in the rear of the Chaplin shoe factories, had the brook for a boundary until it came " unto ye great brook " with that for a bounds until the angle is reached, and from that bend across the wooded upland to the " Andover road," now North Street, at some point east of the Baptist Church. The land of Richard Boynton bounded on the east. The course was then westward, with Ando- ver road as the bounds, until near the house of Miss M. A. Sawyer, on Andover Street. " It (says the deed), come to Land that I had allowed for my high- way Through my farm." This old proprietors' way, the westerly bounds of this ancient farm, not far from the railroad, is visible to this day, a lane south of the residence of D. C. Smith, on Central Street, being, perhaps, its southern terminus. This road was used by the farmers on Spoffords' hill, until the opening of Central Street from the Brocklebank house to Chaplin- ville, which was laid out about midway of this farm. The sandy knoll, now Harmony Cemetery, had for some years a watch or block-house on its highest point, built to guard against raids from the Indians. In 1720 Deacon Brocklebank deeded theremaining half of his farm ("where I now dwell," says the deed) to his youngest son Francis Brocklebank. The conditions were specified sums, to daughters Elizabeth (Pingry) and Hannah (Nelson), and several granddaughters, with care for himself and wife through life, and Chris- tian burial. The father was living in 1722, and aided in correcting the boundary line west of Baldpate hill.

In January, 1715, Jonathan Harriman, the same, who several years before had sold his homestead in

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GEORGETOWN.

Rowley to Joseph Nelson, bonght of Thomas Lam- bert, one-half of the Rogers or Lambert farm, near Pentucket Pond. The other half, it will be remem- bered, Benjamin Plumer, had been in possession of, since 1707. This extensive tract of six hundred acres or more, not having been divided, a division was then made by Harriman and Plumer. One Bayley had land near this farm. Perhaps the Bailey road was named for him. On the southwesterly side of the pond, it was agreed, that Harriman should have the easterly, and Plumer the westerly part of the farm.

On the northeasterly side, a line was run at some distance from the pond, Harriman to have the land at north of this line, and Thomas Plumer, a son of Ben- jamin, on the southerly side, or nearest the pond. This part of the Harriman land, must have crossed the bonndary into Bradford, but when granted to Mrs. Rogers, before the new line between Rowley and Bradford was run, was all within Rowley limits. Such a division seems to have been philosophical and harmonious. In its primitive aspects, it reminds one of the Orient, and recalls the story of Abram and Lot.

The brook above Pentucket was equally divided between Benjamin Plumer and Harriman, both hav- ing seen a mill privilege on the brook, and Harriman included in the division agreement, liberty to " Digg rocks and Gravel to make a Damm, and a conven- ient yard for a Mill."

This deed to Thomas Plumer from Benjamin, was given on the same day as Harriman's from Lambert, and was for one hundred and forty acres. At about this date (1715), was doubtless the erection of the Plumer house on Mill Street, now occupied by Mrs. J. C. Hoyt and Wm. Day. This house on the end toward the lake, has a facing of brick, and is said to have been so built, as a protection against Indians, and on this end only, because of its nearness to the lake, and that in approaching the house for attack, the builders supposed, the Indians would come along the lake in their canoes. This land of Thomas Plumer, all lay at the left of Parker River, as one descends the stream.

No highways are mentioned, therefore Mill Street, the Jacobs Road and North Street, to its junction with Thurlow Street, at Hale's corner in Groveland, were as yet, unopened. Jonathan Harriman, in 1721, then styled Sergt., deeds to his son Leonard, forty acres of the Lambert farm, and one-eighteenth part of the saw-mill. Afterwards, perhaps on the same day, an eqnal area, with an eighteenth part of the saw-mill to his son Nathaniel. John Harriman, another son it is supposed, built the house now owned by Flint Weston. He was the ancestor of H. N. Harriman, town clerk and publisher of the Georgetown Advocate. At a later date a son of his of the same name, built near by. The house of the father, is said to have been on the north side of the upper end of Pentucket Pond.

This land given to Nathaniel Harriman was bounded

on the south by land of John Adams. This land of Adams had been bought of Benjamin Plumer, the year before the Harriman purchase, and included, what has been known, since about 1800, as the Jacobs farm. The last of the name to occupy the Jacobs house, supposed to have been built by John Adams, was Israel Adams, known in the parish as "Pond Israel." Mr. Benja- min Jacobs, of Maine, then became the purchaser and lived here. Moses Tenney, the father of State Treas- urer Tenney, once lived here.

Nearly a half century ago, the house, a one story building, was removed, and is a part of the Aaron Pillsbury house on North Street.

The deed to Plumer from Prime, in 1707, has no reference to the Bradford road, now Main Street, but this to Adams, in 1714, las and it is so-called. An- other of the name of Adams, who bought thirty- five acres of land of Plumer in 1716, was Isaac, who as well as John, was previously of Rowley. This was situated at the southerly end of Pentucket Pond, on both sides of what is now Main Street, and was just one mile in length, on Harriman's line. The deed concludes, that " Whereas there is a road or way laid out over Sd. land, and whereas no Satisfaction has been made for it, Sd. Plumer doth by these Presents, Consign over to Sd. Adams, all that ye towne Shall Allow for it."

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 216

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