USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Framingham > History of Framingham, Massachusetts, early known as Danforth's Farms, 1640-1880; with a genealogical register > Part 10
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Land Grants.
with brush, grass and mud. The dam in question had, in the course of centuries, received the accumulations of vegetable and earthy matter; had widened and hardened till it became a safe bridge for men and horses. It served our ancestors as a way to meeting in Sherborn for twenty years before Framingham was incorporated. The first county road in that part of the town was laid out over it.
EARLY LAND GRANTS. - In the early days of the Massachusetts Colony, the General Court exercised the right to dispose of all the lands within her bounds. These grants were freely made, in part to persons holding official position, and in part to such as had rendered important service to the infant colony, or had contributed money to defray the costs of adventures. And in these grants, no respect was paid to Indian ownership and occupancy, further than to allow the grantee to purchase, at the best advantage he could get, whatever right and title the natives possessed.
Until a place was pitched upon for a town site, lands had only a nominal value, and were bestowed on public favorites with a lavish hand. And it not unfrequently happened that grants to different individuals overlapped, or that two grants covered the same territory ; and to save itself from liability in such cases, the General Court was careful to insert this significant proviso: " Provided it be not formerly disposed of by this Court, and be not prejudicial to any plantation." Most of the grants which were located on our territory contained such a saving clause.
MRS. GLOVER'S FARM. - The earliest grant of land within our town limits by the General Court, was made in 1640, to Mrs. Elizabeth Glover, widow of the Rev. Josse Glover. The action of the Court is as follows :
" June 6, 1639. It is ordered that Mr. Mayhew & Mr. Flint shall set out Mrs. Glover's 600 acres, where it may not prejudice any plan- tation, on the west side of the river of Concord."
Oct. 7, 1640. "The 600 acres formerly granted to lye on the west side of Sudbury river is now granted her on the east side of the said river, without the last addition to the bounds of Sudbury, & between the said bounds & the great pond at Cochituate."
"Wee, whose names are under written, have laid out Mrs. Glover's farm as followeth, viz: Sudbury line is the northeast bounds ; the northwest bounds thereof is the great river ; the southeast bounds the river that issueth out of the great pond at Chochichowicke; the southeast bounds from the place where the little river runs out of the great pond, till you come to the northeast end of the said pond, & so
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to the northwest end of the little pond, & from thence to the north- east end of the said little pond, and from thence to the nearest place of Sudbury line, according to the marked trees. Witness hereunto the 7th of the roth mo. 1644. Tho. Mayhew, Peter Noyes, Edmond Rice."
This farm, laid out as 600 acres, was found on measurement to contain 960 acres ; embracing all that land lying between Sudbury town line (now Wayland) on the north, Sudbury river on the west, Cochituate brook on the south, Cochituate pond on the east, and from the northeast point of this pond to the nearest point of Dudley pond, and so by this pond to its northeast corner, and from there north direct to the old Sudbury line.
Mrs. Elizabeth Glover was the widow of Rev. Josse Glover, rector of Sutton in Surry, England, who made a contract June 7, 1638, with Stephen Day, of Cambridge, Eng., printer, to come over with wife and children in the ship John of London, at the expense of Glover, with the design of setting up a printing-press in New England. He em- barked in 1638, or early in 1639, and died on the passage, and was buried at sea.
Mr. Glover was a warm friend of the Massachusetts Colony, and had in various ways helped forward the settlement ; and his printing- press was intended to be set up at Cambridge, the seat of the incipi- ent university. These facts indicate the reason for the public grant of lands to his widow.
Mrs. Glover married, June 22, 1641, Henry Dunster, the first presi- dent of Harvard University. She died Aug. 23, 1643, before the actual laying out of the granted land.
Rev. Mr. Glover had by his first wife, Sarah Owfield, Roger, who died in Scotland ; Elizabeth, who married Adam Winthrop ; Sarah, who married Deane Winthrop; and by his second wife, Elizabeth Harris, Priscilla, who married, Oct. 14, 1651, John Appleton, of Ipswich, Mass .; John, who graduated at Harvard, 1650, studied med- icine, and died unmarried in London in 1668. On the death of Mrs. (Glover) Dunster, President Dunster was appointed guardian to the minor children and administrator of the Glover estate. Sept. 29, 1647, John Glover, then a member of college, and President Dunster his guardian, leased for the term of ten years, to Edmund Rice, the whole farm of said John Glover inherited from his mother. By the terms of the lease, Edmund Rice contracted to make a fence between the two farms of John Glover and Henry Dunster,1 easterly, and so all
1 Dunster's farm was a tract of 600 acres of land, granted in 1640 to President Dunster, lying to the south and east of Mrs. Glover's farm, to which it joined, and bounded on the west by Cochituate pond. It was frequently called the "Pond farm." In 1642, and again in 1653, Mr. Dunster leased this farm to Edmund Rice; and June 24, 1659, Mr. Rice and his son Benjamin bought it of the executors of Mr. D.'s will. Midd. Deeds, 11. 146.
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the lands encompassed either by Cochituate brook or the great river westerly ; and also to keep in good repair the fences already on the farm between the great pond and the river. It was further stipulated that Mr. Rice should build on the premises, "during the first five or six years, a dwelling-house, thirty foote long, ten foote high stud, one foote sill from the ground, sixteen foote wide, with two rooms, both below or the one above the other : all the doores well hanged, and staires, with convenient fastnings of locks or bolts, windows glased, and well planked under foote, and boarded sufficiently to lay corne in in the story above head. He was also to build a barn fifty foote long, eleven foote high in the stud, one foote above ground, the sell twenty foote if no leantes, or eighteen foote wide with leantes on the one side, and a convenient threshing-floare between the doares." [Barry.]
The exact location of these buildings is not easy to determine. Mr. Barry concluded that they were placed within the present limits of Framinghamn. But a careful study of the earliest deeds of sale of the Glover lands leaves little doubt that they stood near Dudley pond, within the present limits of Wayland. The following affidavit, dated 1656, refers to the house in question : " Edmund Rice, aged about 62 years, testified that the house where Robert Wilson now dwells, Mr. Dunster's tenant, was built by John Glover." In 1697 the house was occupied by Dennis Headly, who purchased the same, with eighty acres of land, of Thomas Drury in 1701.
On the final settlement of Mrs. Glover's estate, the farm in ques- tion fell to John Glover and his sister, Priscilla Appleton. John willed his part to his sister, who thus held the title to the whole in her husband's name. It remained in the family, and was known as the " Appleton farm" for a long term of years. June 17, 1697, John Appleton, Jr., and his wife Elizabeth sold the estate, then called 960 acres, for 440 pounds, New England currency, to Thomas Brown, Thomas Drury and Caleb Johnson, all of Sudbury. These three owners parcelled the farm out among themselves. Brown and Drury sold Dec. 12, 1698, one-third to Johnson ; and same date, Brown and Johnson sold one-third to Drury. Brown retained as his share of the uplands 200 acres on the northerly side, lying mainly in Framing- ham ; Drury took 200 acres on the southerly side in Framingham, and 100 acres at the northeasterly corner in Wayland ; and Johnson held the 200 acres of upland in the middle. The meadows were divided into small lots, and set off to each according to conveniency and value. Johnson built on his part, where is now the Marrs' house. Drury had already located at Rice's End. Brown never occupied his part. Brown sold his 200 acres of upland in 1701-2 as follows: 115 acres
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on the northerly side to Daniel Stone, Jr., his son-in-law, and 85 acres lying next to Caleb Johnson, to Elnathan Allen. Allen, or his son Obadiah, built where is now the Bradbury house, and after some years sold to Benjamin Farley (of Billerica and Roxbury), whose widow, Anna, sold 1723, to Caleb Johnson, Jr. Caleb and his brother Solo- mon (who had inherited their father's lands here) sold this Allen lot, together with the original 200 acres, in 1729, to Thomas Kendall, whose heirs held it till a recent period.
Drury's sons settled on his 200 acres, which ultimately came into possession of Dea. William Brown and others.
THOMAS MAYHEW'S FARM .- "Oct. 17, 1643. Mr. Mayhew is granted 300 acres of land in regard to his charge about the bridge by Watertown mill, and the bridge to belong to the country." [Mass. Col. Rec., II. 51.]
"The above said Grant of 300 acres, I Thomas Mayhew, for me, my heirs executors and administrators, do assign and grant to John Stone and Nathaniel Treadway executors to the last will of Edward How, To have and to hold the same to them, & their heirs forever, etc. And is in consideration of a greater sum due to the said Stone and Treadway as executors to the last will of said Edward How deceased. Signed and Sealed Sept. 15, 1666."
"In obedience to this grant and assignment. Now laid out this 18th day of June 1708, said 300 acres to the heirs of John Stone and Nathaniel Treadway : This land lying between Marlborough, Magunkook and Framingham, and so bounded : This land is some good, some bad, some pine and some oak land, and some meadow in it, as may appear from the plat of the same surveyed by David Haynes."
" Marlborough Oct. 13, 1708. This may certify whom it concerns that we the subscribers being inhabitants of the town of Marlborough, do acknowledge that there is a strip of land lying between the River and our bounds, southerly of our line, which we do not claim nor own to be ours. Signed, John Woods Sen., Isaac Amsden Sen., John Bel- lows, Joseph Newton, James Woods, Nathaniel Joslin Sen."
"fframingham Oct. 18, 1708. These may certify whom it may concern that we the subscribers do acknowledge that this little strip of land here platted lyes between Marlborough and the River and Mr. Danforth's land. Signed, Peter Clayes, Benj. Bridges, James Clayes, Michael Pike." [Ancient Plans, I. 225.]
The heirs of the assignees petitioned the General Court for accept- ance of the foregoing plat and return. Under date of June 5, 1711, is the record : "This plat is not accepted, the land therein contained
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being challenged by Capt. Joseph Buckminster, under Mr. Danforth, who also presented a Record dated May 29, 1644, upon request of Mr. Mayhew the original Grantee, ordering the laying out 300 acres of land to him about Nashaway and Sudbury." Buckminster carried his point, and held the land in question ; and three years later pro- ceeded to lay out this Mayhew Grant, near Whitehall in Hopkinton, and petitioned the General Court for an act of confirmation - with what result the record shows: " In answer to the petition of Joseph Buck- minster of Framingham, for confirmation of a certain tract of land of 300 acres laid out in a place free from all other grants, lying between the towns of Framingham and Mendon, upon a grant made to Mr. Thomas Mayhew in the year 1643, purchased by the petitioner of those deriving from the said Mr. Mayhew, a plat thereof being laid before this Court -
" Ordered, that the prayer of the petitioner be granted. Provided the Plat exceed not the quantity of the grant, nor interfere with any other
grant.
Consented to, J. DUDLEY." "June 24, 1714."
The tract first described above, is the one which, in later times, has been known as "Fiddle Neck," and which in Gore's Plan of Framing- ham Plantation, 1699, is laid down as included in said plantation, though it was not included within the bounds of Mr. Danforth's grant. It was regarded as a part of Framingham till 1727, when it was set off to the new town of Southborough.
Thomas Mayhew was a distinguished merchant, who lived in Med- ford and Watertown, and took an active part in public affairs for many years. He obtained, in addition to the 300 acres above named, a grant of Martha's Vineyard, where he ultimately settled, and where he was a successful preacher to the Indians for thirty-three years.
GRANTS TO EDMUND RICE. - "Oct. 23, 1652, Edmund Rice of Sudbury preferring a petition for the grant of three little pieces of meadow containing about 20 acres, and 30 acres of upland, lying a mile from Cochituate brook, hath his request granted." This fifty acres was located to the southeast of Salma D. Hardy's, and became the nucleus of what has since been known as Rice's End. Edmund deeded this tract to his son Henry, who settled upon it, and who ob- tained a deed from the Indians, March 10, 1672-3. His descendants held this and adjacent lands till a recent date.
In 1655, Edmund Rice petitioned the General Court for another parcel of land " near the path leading to Connecticut ; " and June 3, 1659, is the record : "Laid out, the farm of Mr. Edmund Rice of Sudbury, in the place appointed by the Court, that is, beginning at a
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hill leaving Conecticott path on the north or northwesterly of it, and a brook on the south of it, and two hills and a little piece of meadow on the east of it, with five acres of meadow lying on the east side, being part of the same grant ; also the said tract of land being bounded with the wilderness on the west, all of which said tract of land con- taineth eighty acres."
This eighty acres lay between Beaver dam brook, Gleason's pond and Gleason's hill; the southwest corner bound being a tree at the Beaver dam. Edmund Rice gave a deed of this farm to his son Ben- jamin ; and Benjamin and wife Mary sell, Sept. 29, 1673, the northerly one-half thereof to Thomas Gleason, and the southerly one-half to John Death. [Midd. Deeds, VI. 378, XIV. 419.]
REV. EDMUND BROWNE'S MEADOWS. - Oct. 18, 1654, the General Court granted twenty acres of meadow to Rev. Mr. Browne, first pastor of the church in Sudbury. This was laid out in 1658, in several pieces, as follows: " A long and narrow meadow lying upon a small brook southward of Doeskin hill, containing by estimation ten acres. Also one small parcel of meadow containing an acre & half, with a parcel of four acres lying upon the brook that issueth out of the former small piece. [This lay south of the Corlett farm.] Also, one small parcel of 3 acres, formerly called Indian William's meadow, lying towards the falls of Chochittuat River." [Mass. Col. Rec., IV. pt. 1, 329.]
STONE'S GRANTS. - An account has already been given in a previous chapter of the purchase of eleven acres of land from the Indians in 1656, by Mr. John Stone. (See ante p. 47.) This purchase was confirmed by the Court in May, 1656; and at the same time a grant of fifty acres more was added thereto. This fifty acres was laid out May 26, 1658, "joining to Sudbury river at the falls of the said river, twenty acres of the said fifty being southward joining to the lands of John Stone which said lands were purchased of the Indians, and after confirmed by the honoured Court; also the other thirty acres of the said fifty lying northward of the aforesaid purchased land, and joining to it."
In addition to this lot of sixty-one acres, Mr. Stone bought other considerable tracts of land upon the river below the falls, and elsewhere. Dec. 13, 1661, he bought the Corlett farm of 200 acres. He also purchased of Mr. Danforth twenty acres of meadow lying on Baiting brook, and extending from Worcester street to the lands of Charles Birchard. He owned the meadow on the easterly side of Sudbury river, from the Agricultural grounds to a point a short
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distance north of the old turnpike. His south line butted on the Thomas Eames grant, and his east line was the bluff or highland; so that he took in the Odiorne and Crane estates, and reached nearly to the Ellen K. Stone house.
John tone
RUSSELL'S GRANT. - "May 15, 1657, Mr. Richard Russell having binn very serviceable to the countrie in his publicque imployment of Treasurer for many years, for which he hath had no annuall stipend, this Court doth graunt him five hundred acres of land, in any place not formerly graunted, upon Nipnop River, at his choice." This grant was laid out May 6, 1659, and is thus described: "Laid out unto Mr. Richard Russell, Treasurer, five hundred acres of land, lying in the wilderness, upon both sides of the path that leadeth from Sudbury toward Nipnop, & is bounded on the northeast with Washakam Pond, and a swampe adjoyning thereto, and on the west by a marked tree and the west side of an ashen swampe, and on the south with the upland adjoyning to the southerly or southwest point of that meadow which lyeth on the westerly side of the aforesaid meadow, and on the north extending on the north side of the aforesaid path, and is surrounded with the wilderness. EDMUND RICE, THO. NOYES."
This tract was purchased by Governor Danforth, to whom the Indians gave a deed of quitclaim, Oct. 1, 1684.
Richard Russell came from Herefordshire, England, 1640, and settled in Charlestown; merchant; member of the Artillery Co. 1644; representative, 1646 and after ; speaker, 1648; Treasurer of the Colony for many years; assistant, 1659 to his death; died May 14, 1676.
WAYTE'S GRANT. - " May 25, 1658, In answer to the petition of Richard Wayte, one of those that were first sent out against the Pequotts, & for severall services, the Court judgeth it meete to graunt him three hundred acres of land."
The record of the laying out of this grant is as follows: "Laid out unto Richard Wayte, marshall, three hundred acres of land in the wilderness, between Chochittuate and Nipnop, in manner following, viz. there being a necke of land about two hundred & twenty acres, more or less, & is surrounded with Sudbury River, a great pond, & a smale brooke that runneth from the said pond into the river, and from the southerly end of the said pond running to the river againe by a westerly line; and on the westerly side of Sudbury River to extend his bounds from the said river twenty pole in breadth so farre in length as his land lyeth against the said river; also, on the
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northerly & northeast of the said brooke & pond, he hath five patches of meadow, containing about twenty acres more or less, being all surrounded with wilderness land; also, on the northeast side of Washakum Ponds he hath sixty acres, being bounded with the said pond on the southwest, and an Indian bridge on the east, and elsewhere by marked trees, the wilderness surrounding.
"Oct. 20, 1658. THOMAS DANFORTH, ANDREW BELCHER."
This tract covered what was afterwards known as " Mellin's Neck." The sixty acres north and east of Washakum pond was leased by Mr. Danforth to the Whitneys and Isaac Bowen, who built where is now the Sturtevant homestead.
This grant was purchased by Mr. Danforth, who received a quit- claim from the Indians, Oct. 1, 1684.
Richard Wayte was admitted to the church in Boston in 1634; member of the Artillery Co., 1638; marshall or sheriff, 1654; Gov- ernor's Guard, 1660. His gravestone in King's Chapel Burying Ground is inscribed: " Richard Wayte, aged 84 years, died 17 Sept. 1680."
9 waylo:
NATICK PLANTATION GRANTS. - A considerable tract within our bounds was included in the lands granted to the Indian plantation at Natick, in 1659 and 1660. For a full account of these grants, see ante p. 7.
CORLETT'S GRANT. - "Oct. 18, 1659. In answer to the petition of Daniel Weld and Elijah Corlett, schoolmasters, the Court considering the usefulness of the petitioners in an employment of so common concernment for the good of the whole country, and the little encouragement that they have had from their respective towns for their service and unwearied pains in that employment, do judge meet to grant to each of them two hundred acres of land, to be taken up adjoining to such lands as have been already granted and laid out by order of this Court."
" May 28, 1661, laid out to Mr. Elijah Corlett, schoolmaster of Cambridge, his farm of 200 acres, situate lying and being about a mile distant from the southwest angle of the lands formerly granted to Sudbury ; also having a parcel of meadow granted to Mr. Edmond Browne teacher to the Church in Sudbury, on the south, also being about half a mile distant northerly from the river which runneth to Sudbury, also being about a mile and a quarter distant west-north- westerly from the now dwelling house of John Stone; the said farm
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for the most part bordering upon the wilderness, and laying in a long square, the longest lines running west and by south five degrees southerly ; and also two small parcels of meadow near adjoining to the south line of the said farm, and is a part of the two hundred acres.
THOMAS NOYES."
This farm lay directly south of the Lynde farm, to be described hereafter, and included the Nathan Frost homestead.
Mr. Corlett sold, Dec. 13, 1661, to Thomas Danforth, who, same date, conveyed the farm to John Stone.
Elijah Corlett was a graduate of Lincoln College, Oxford, England. He came over and settled in Cambridge as early as 1641, where he was for upwards of forty years teacher of the grammar school. In New England's First Fruits, he is noticed as one who has very well approved himself for his abilities, dexterity and painfulness. Cotton Mather describes him as "the memorable old schoolmaster in Cam- bridge, from whose education our college and country have received so many of its worthy men, that he is himself worthy to have his name celebrated in our church history." The Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians made arrangements with him to instruct, with a view to admission to college, such Indian youths as should apply and prove worthy. The compensation he received from Netus for teaching his son, has been stated in a previous chapter. (See ante p. 79.)
Probably Hutchinson refers to him, and to this transaction, when he says of Ezekiel Cheever, "He is not the only master who kept his lamp longer lighted than otherwise it would have been, by a supply of oil from his scholars." Corlett died Feb. 25, 1686-7 in his seventy- eighth year.
DANFORTH'S FARMS. - "Oct. 16, 1660. Whereas at the request of this Court, Mr. Thomas Danforth hath attended the service of this Court in surveying the laws at the press, and making an index thereto, this Court judgeth meet as a gratuity for his pains, to grant him two hundred and fifty acres of land, to be laid out in any place not legally disposed of by this Court." This was laid out joining Sudbury town line, on the west side of Sudbury river, adjacent to the land already occupied by John Stone.
"May 7, 1662. The Court judgeth it meet to grant to Mr. Thomas Danforth two hundred acres of land, adjoining to some lands he hath between Conecticot path and Marlborough, and appoint Ensign Noyes of Sudbury, with old Goodman Rice and John How to lay it out, with other lands granted to him by this Court; and the act of any two of them to be accounted valid, both for quantity and quality." This 200
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acres was laid out adjoining to and west of the former grant of 250 acres.
On the same day, i. e., May 7, 1662, " It is ordered, that for and in con- sideration of Mr. Thomas Danforth his furnishing the Commissioners to York, i. e., Major General Denison and Maj. Wm. Hawthorn, with ten pounds money, shall have granted him as an addition to the two hundred acres of land granted him by this Court in 6th page of this Session, so much land lying between Whipsufferage and Conecticutt path, adjoining to his farm, as old Goodman Rice and Goodman How of Marlborow shall judge the said ten pounds to be worth, and they are impowered to bound the same to him."
"Oct. 8, 1662. Laid out unto Thomas Danforth Esq. a parcell of land lying betweene Marlborough and Kenecticut Path, and is bounded easterly by Sudbury lands adjoinind to that part of their bounds neere Lannum, the land of John Stone, and a part of Natick Plantation ; southerly by the lands of the said Thomas Danforth and Natick lands ; northerly with the other part of Sudbury bounds towards Marlbury ; and westerly with the country lands, the said west line being limited by a pine tree marked with D and standing on the north side of that branch of Sudbury river that cometh from Marlbury [Stoney brook] and on the west side of Angellico brook, and from the said pine con- tinuing a southwest line unto the other branch of Sudbury river that is the bounds of Natick plantations [Hopkinton river]; and from the said pine tree northerly continuing unto Sudbury bounds, running by a tree marked in the highway that leadeth from John Stone's house to Marlbury ; in which tract of land bounded as abovesaid is contained two hundred acres of land belonging unto John Stone [the Corlett Farm] and is excepted out of that laid out unto the said Thomas Danforth ; also four hundred and fifty acres of land granted by the General Court in two several grants to the said Thomas Danforth ; and the remainder thereof is for the satisfaction of moneys disbursed by the said Thomas Danforth for the use of the country, by the appoint- ment of the General Court. Given under our hands the 27th of May, 1662.
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