USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 30
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 30
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynnfield > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 30
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 30
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 30
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1685.
[A fast was appointed, 14 July, on account of the prevailing drought. Great ravages were committed by caterpillars.]
"At a town meeting, on the first of December, the people voted, that no inhabitant should cut any green tree upon the common lands, which was less than one foot in diameter.
The following petition of some of the inhabitants of Lynn, for a remuneration of their services in the Wampanoag war, was presented this year.
To the Honoured Governor and Company, the General Court of the Massa- chusetts Bay, that is to be assembled the 27 May, 1685, the humble petition of several inhabitants of Lynn, who were sold, impressed, and sent forth for the service of the country, that was with the Indians in the long march in the Nipmugg country, and the fight at the fort in Narragansett, humbly show- eth, That your petitioners did, in obedience unto the authority which God hath set over them, and love to their country, leave their deare relations, some of us our dear wives and children, which we would have gladly remained at home, and the bond of love and duty would have bound us to choose rather soe to have done considering the season and time of the year, when that hard service was to be performed. But your petitioners left what was dear to them, and preferred the publique weal above the private enjoyments, and did cleave thereunto, and exposed ourselves to the difficulties and hardships of the winter, as well as the dangers of that cruel warr, with consideration to the enemy. What our hardships and difficulties were is well known to some of your wor- ships, being our honoured magistrates, as also what mercy it was from the Lord, who alone preserved us, and gave us our lives for a prey, by leading us through such imminent dangers, whereby the Lord gavel us to see many of our dear friends lose their blood and life, which might have been our case, but that God soe disposed toward us deliverance and strength to returne to our homes, which we desire to remember and acknowledge to his most glori- ous praise. But yet, we take the boldnes to signifie to this honored Court, how that service was noe whitt to our particular outward advantage, but to the contrary, much to our disadvantage. Had we had the liberty of staying at home, as our neighbors had, though we had paid double rates, it would have been to our advantage, as indeed we did pay our properties by our es- tates in the publick rates to the utmost bounds. Notwithstanding all, yet we humbly conceive, that by the suppression of the enemy which God of his great mercy vouchsafed, wee poor soldiers and servants to the country were instru- ments to procure much land, which we doubt not shall and will be improved, by the prudence of this honored Court, unto people that need most especially. And we, your poor petitioners, are divers of us in need of land, for want whereof some of us are forced upon considerations of departing this Colony and Government, to seek accommodations whereby the better to maintaine the charge in our families, with our wives and children, and to leave unto them, when the Lord shall take us away by death, which we must expect. And divers of us have reason to fear our days may be much shortened by our hard service in the war, from the pains and aches of our bodies, that we feel in our bones and sinews, and lameness thereby taking hold of us much, especially at the spring and fall, whereby we are hindered and disabled of that ability for our labour which we constantly had, through the mercy of God, before, that served in the warrs. 'Now, your poore petitioners are hopeful this honored Court will be moved with consideration and some respect to the poor soldiery, and particularly to us, that make bold to prefer our petition, humbly to crave, that we, whose names are hereunto subscribed, may be so graciously consid- ered by this honored Court as to grant us some good tracks of land in the Nipmugg country, where we may find a place for a township, that we, your petitioners, and our posterity may live in the same colony where our fathers X*
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1686, 1687.
did, and left us, and probably many of those who went fellow soldiers in the war may be provided for, and their children also, in the portion of conquered lands their fathers fought for. Your petitioners think it is but a very reasona- ble request, which will be no way offensive to this honored Court, which, if they shall please to grant unto your petitioners, it will not only be satisfaction to their spirits for their service already done, but be a future obligation to them and theirs after them for future service, and ever to pray.
This petition was signed by twenty-five inhabitants of Lynn, whose names were: William Bassett, John Farrington, Nathan- iel Ballard, Timothy Breed, Jonathan Locke, Daniel Johnson, Widow Hathorne, Samuel Tarbox, Samuel Graves, John Ed- munds, Samuel Johnson, Daniel Golt, Joseph Hawkes, Andrew Townsend, John Davis, Joseph Collins, Samuel Mower, Robert Potter, senior, Joseph Mansfield, Robert Driver, John Richards, John Lindsey, Philip Kertland, Joseph Breed, Henry Rhodes. It was also signed by sixteen persons of other towns. On the 3d of June, the Court granted them a tract of land in Worcester county, eight miles square, on condition that thirty families, with an orthodox minister, should settle there within four years.
[Oliver Purchis of Lynn, was appointed on a committee to revise the laws. He was also elected Assistant; but the record adds, " he declined his oath." He had not probably finished his days of vexation and mourning on account of the dissolution of the old Charter.]
1686.
Mr. Oliver Purchis was chosen Town Clerk.
" A great and terrible drouth, mostly in the 4th month, [June] and continued in the 5th month, with but little rain; but the 18th, being the Sabbath, we had a sweet rain."
James Quonopohit and David Kunkshamooshaw, descendants of Nanapashemet, sold a lot of land on the west side of the Iron Works' pond, on the 28th of July, to Daniel Hitchings.
[This year, also, David Kunkshamooshaw, and divers of his kindred, heirs of old Sagamore George No-Nose alias Wenepoy- kin, gave a deed confirming the title of the town to the lands on which it stood. For a copy of this deed, and remarks con- cerning it, see page 49, et seq.]
1687.
At a town meeting on the 15th of February, "the town voted the Selectmen be a committee to look after encroached lands, or highways, from Francis Burrill's barn to the gate that is by Timothy Breed's, or parcels of land in places least prejudicial to the town, and make good sale of any of them on the Town's behalf, for money to pay the Indians at the time appointed, and the necessary charges of that affair."
On the 16th of February, Capt. Thomas Marshall exchanged
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ANNALS OF LYNN- 1687.
with the town his right in Stone's meadow, in Lynnfield, for a right in Edwards's meadow ; and the town, at the request of Mr. Shepard, made a grant of it to the ministry.
[Thomas Newhall, aged 57, the first white person born in Lynn, was buried in the Old Burying Ground, near the west end of Lynn Common, 1 April.]
Mr. Shepard kept the school several months this winter. Ed- ucation, with the children of the early settlers, was a matter of convenience rather than of accomplishment. I have seen the signatures of several hundreds of the first settlers, and have fac- similes of many, and they are quite as good as an equal number of signatures taken at random at the present day. But in clear- ing the forest, and obtaining a subsistence, they had little leisure for their children to spend in study ; and a month or two in winter, under the care of the minister, was the principal oppor- tunity which they had to obtain the little learning requisite for their future life. The consequence was, that the generations succeeding the early settlers, from 1650 to 1790, were generally less learned than the first settlers, or than those who have lived since the Revolution.
[The statement of Mr. Lewis in the second sentence of the foregoing paragraph may rather confuse than enlighten. The establishment of schools here, had a religious purpose. Thus, the legislative enactment of 1647, commences, " It being one chief proiect of yt ould deludor, Satan, to keepe men from the knowledge of ye Scriptures, as in former times by keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times, by persuading from ye use of tongues, yt so at least ye true sence and meaning of ye originall might be clouded by false glosses of saint-seeming deceivers, yt learning may not be buried in ye grave of our fathers in ye church and commonwealth, ye Lord assisting our endeavors : It is therefore ordered yt every towneship in this jurisdiction after ye Lord hath increased them to ye number of 50 householders shall then forthwith appoint one within their towne to teach all such children as shall resort to him, to write and reade," &c. ... "And it is further ordered, yt where any towne shall increase to ye number of 100 families, or household- ers, they shall set up a grammar schoole, ye master thereof being able to instruct youth so farr as they may be fitted for ye uni- versity, provided yt if any towne neglect ye performance hereof above one yeare, then every such towne shall pay £5 to ye next schoole till they shall performe this order." In 1654, the Court prohibited the teaching of schools by persons of "unsound doctrine." Were such a 'prohibition in force now, we should see in a glaring light the result of the religious independency they held so .dear. Who would be authorized to determine what unsound doctrine is ? And is it not a melancholy fact,
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ANNALS OF LYNN- 1688.
that in our day, either from an undefinable fear of meddling with some right of conscience, or from some other loose appre- hension, the intellectual training in our schools is treated as altogether superior to the moral? Nay has not the moral beer well-nigh thrust out of doors? And yet, is it not, in sober truth, of quite as much importance that children should, day by day, be instructed in the principles that are to rule their desti- nies for all eternity, as in the principles that have relation only to the arts of money making or at best mere intellectual disci- pline ? It does not appear that the Bible was used, at least to much extent, as a school book, our discreet fathers probably having too much veneration for the sacred volume to devote it, intact, to so common a purpose. But the Psalter, containing extracts from Solomon's Proverbs, selections from the Psalms of David, and, in some editions, selections from the Parables of the New Testament, was long in use. And we are persuaded that no special evil would flow if a similar book were introduced into the schools which are the boast of this day. Even por- tions of the Church Prayer Book were used for devotional purposes.]
1688.
During the administration of Sir Edmund Andros, the people of Lynn had an opportunity of witnessing the tendency of arbi- trary government. Andros had been appointed by the British King, James II., Governor of all New England, and came over in 1686 to exercise that authority; and his administration, for two years, was characterized by many acts of arbitrary power. He asserted that the people of Massachusetts had forfeited their charter, and that all the lands belonged to the King. Edward Randolph, his Secretary, looking round among these lands, to see where he might establish a little dukedom, fixed his atten- tion upon the beautiful domain of Nahant, which he requested the Governor to give to him. The following is a copy of his petition.
To his Excellency, Sir Edmund Andros, Knight, Governor, &c. &c.
The humble petition of Edward Randolph, that there is a certain tract of land nigh the Township of Lynn, in the County of Essex, in this His Majesty's territory and dominion, out of fence and undivided, containing about five hun- dred acres, commonly called Nahant neck, for which your petitioner humbly prays His Majesty's grant, and that your Excellence would please to issue a warrant to the Surveyor-General to admeasure the same, in order to passing a patent, he paying such moderate quitrent as your Excellence shall please to direct, &c. ED. RANDOLPH.
On the reception of this modest petition, the Council, on Fri- day, the third of February, directed the constables to " Give public notice in the said town of Lynn, that, if any person or
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1688.
persons have any claim or pretence to the said land, they appear before his Excellency, the Governor, in Council, on Wednesday, the seventh of March next, then and there to show forth the same, and why the said land may not be granted to the peti- tioner." In pursuance of this order, the constable John Ed- munds, notified a town meeting, which was held on the 5th of March, when a committee was chosen, who made the following representation.
To his Excellency, Sir Edmund Andros, Knight, and our Honorable Gover- nor, with his Honorable Council to sit with him, on Wednesday, the seventh of this instant March, 1688.
Having received an order upon the second day of this instant March, that orders our constables of Lynn, or either of them, to give public notice in the said town of Lynn, of a petition of Mr. Edward Randolph, Esq., read in a council held in Boston, on the third day of February, 1688, praying His Majes- ty's grant of a certain tract of land, therein called vacant land, lying nigh the town of Lynn, called Nahant, &c., as also, that, if any person or persons have any claim or pretence to the said lands, they appear before his Excellency, in council, on Wednesday, the seventh of this instant March, to show forth the same, and why the said land may not be granted to the petition, &c.
Wherefore, we, the proprietors of the pasture of Nahant, and inhabitants of Lynn, have, in obedience to our present Honorable Governor, and his Hon- orable Council, presented before them as followeth.
Imprimis: Our humble and most thankful acknowledgment of the favor showed unto us, in giving us notice of such an enterprise, as whereby, should it take effect, would so extremely indamage so many of His Majesty's good sub- jects at once ; whereby we conclude His Excellency, our Honorable Governor, and his Honorable Council, are such as will search for and do justice, and maintain the cause of the innocent, weak, and poor, as we humbly and sin- cerely acknowledge ourselves to be; and yet being clearly satisfied of our just right in the tract of lands petitioned for, have good hope our honorable rulers will, of clemency and justice, adhere to, hear and weigh reasons herein pre- sented, why we cannot comply with Mr. Edward Randolph's petition for the alienation of our Nahants ; which, we humbly conceive, is groundlessly repre- sented to be a parcel of vacant land, and therefore must apply ourselves to demonstrate to our Honorable Governor, and his Honorable Council the con- trary. And although the time is very short indeed for us to lay before your Honors to vindicate our just right to our Nahants, yet our endeavors shall be as effectual as we can in so short a time as we have to bethink ourselves, and show your Honors, that it is not vacant land, and that the proprietors have a true and just right thereunto, wherefore we present your honors as followeth.
That we have in our records, that in the year 1635, this tract of land, viz. our Nahants, was in the hands of the freemen of Lynn to dispose of; who did then grant unto several inhabitants to plant, and build upon, and possess ; and, if they did not perform the conditions, they, to whom it was granted, forfeited the land to the town again, to dispose as shall be thought fit; and among those to whom these lands were granted, that worthy and honorable gentle- man, Mr. Humphreys, was one, who was a patentee and an assistant in the first government; therefore, sure it was the town's land then.
That these inhabitants that did build and dwell there, they were tributaries, or tenants, and paid 'their yearly rent to the town as long as they lived, or were removed by the town; as to instance, one Robert Coates yet living, to testify it.
There have been some that have laid claim to this land called Nahant, and commensed suit at law with the town for it, but were cast at law, the Court
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1688.
that then was gave the town the case, justified the town's right, and never denied it, nor blamed them about it.
This tract of land, it hath been divided into planting lots to the several pro- prietors by a vote of the town, as appears in our records, Anno, 1656, and the whole fenced as a common field, and the lots been improved by the proprie- tors, in planting, tilling, and manuring ; and afterward, by the agreement of the proprietors, converted into a pasture; and so, ever since to this day im- proved ; so we have by hard labor and industry subdued it, and brought it into so good a capacity as it is at this day, for the town's future benefit and no other.
We have honestly purchased said tract of land with our money, of the orig- inal proprietors of the soil, viz. the Natives, and have firm confirmation thereof, under their hands and seals, according to law.
We have possessed and improved the said tract of land upwards of fifty years, for so long since it hath been built upon, inhabited by tenants paying their acknowledgments year after year.
We hope arguments of this nature will be swaying with so rational a com- monwealth's man as Mr. Randolph, who hath ever pretended great respect to His Majesty's subjects among us, and an earnest care and desire to promote their welfare and prosperity. The premises considered, we believe a gentle- man, under such circumstances, will not be injurious, by seeking a particular benefit, to impoverish and disadvantage so many of His Majesty's good sub- jects, by seeking the alienation of such a tract of land, so eminently useful and needful for those proprietors now in possession of it-it being a thing so consistent with His Majesty's pleasure, that his subjects should enjoy their properties and flourish under his government.
We are confident, therefore, that this Honorable Council will be solicitous for the promoting our welfare, as not to suffer us to be impoverished by the alienation of such a considerable tract of land, as this will do, if it should be alienated, - yea, we are bold to say again, extremely prejudicial, if not impov- erish the body of the inhabitants of Lynn, who live not upon traffic and trading, as many seaport towns do, who have greater advantages, but upon husbandry, and raising such stocks of cattle and sheep as they are capable, and as their outlands will afford; for this, our Nahant is such a place for us as God and nature hath fitted and accommodated with herbage; and likewise, the only place about us for security for our creatures from the teeth of ravening wolves ; which, this last summer, as well as formerly, have devoured very many that fed in other places about us, to the very great damage of sundry of our inhab- itants accordingly. Therefore, the said tract of land hath been improved by the proprietors as a grazing field with great benefit to the body of the whole town, which otherwise would be exposed to great hardships, inconveniences, and difficulties, to obtain a poor living; and, therefore, we cannot but be deeply sensible, that, if the said pasture be alienated from us, our poor families will be very great sufferers, and we shall be rendered very uncapable, either to provide for them, or to contribute such dues and duties to His Majesty's government set over us, which otherwise we might be capable of, and shall always readily and carefully attend unto our utmost capacity.
And we humbly trust, our Honorable Governor and his Honorable Council will show us the favor, as in their wisdoms, to weigh and consider well our dutiful application to their order, to give in and show our reasons why we claim this said tract of land to be our right, as not to suffer any alienation of that which we do so much need for our great comfort and benefit ; but rather grant us further confirmation thereof, if need require.
And thus we, the proprietors of the tract of land, even our Nahant, that is petitioned for, have taken notice of your Honors' order, and have, this first day of March, 1687-8, made choice of a committee, to consider what is meet to lay before your Honors, and of messengers, to appear and present the same to your Excellency, our Honorable Governor, and the Honorable Council ;
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1688.
which, if these things are not satisfactory, we then in humility crave the favor of His Excellency and his Honorable Council for such a trial and process as the law may admit of in such a case, wherein persons are in possession of lands, as we of this said tract, having tenants thereon ; and further time and opportunity being granted, we doubt not but we shall produce such valid confirmations of our true and honest title to said tract of land, as shall be abun- dantly satisfactory to our honored rulers, and put a period to further debates about it. So we rest and remain, His Majesty's most loyal subjects, and your Excellency's and Council's most humble servants, The Committee, in the name and behalf of the Proprietors of Nahant.
THOMAS LAUGHTON RALPH KING, JOHN LEWIS, OLIVER PURCHIS, JOHN BURRILL, EDWARD RICHARDS, JOHN FULLER.
It may appear strange to many, at this time, to notice the humble and almost abject demeanor of the committee, as evinced in the preceding address. They doubtless thought, that nothing would be lost by soft words; but the spirit of freeman was at length roused, and ample vengeance was soon to be taken on the aggressors of arbitrary power. Notwithstanding the repre- sentations of the committee, Mr. Randolph persisted in his de- mand, and renewed his claim as follows.
To His Excellence, Sir Edmund Andros, Governor.
The humble representation of Edward Randolph, sheweth : That having, by his humble petition to your Excellence, prayed a grant of a certain tract of land lying in the township of Lynn, in the county of Essex, called Nahant, your Excellence was pleased, by your order in Council, the third day of Feb- ruary last, to direct that the constables of the said town do give public notice to the said town, that, if any person or persons have any claim or pretence to the said land, they should appear before your Excellence in Council, on Wed- nesday, the seventh of this instant March ; at which time several of the inhab- itants of the said town of Lynn did appear, and presented your Excellence with a paper, containing their several objections to the said petition.
. In answer whereunto is humbly offered as follows : That by their said prayer, it does not appear the lands petitioned for, or any part thereof, were disposed of to the inhabitants of Lynn, nor that the said town of Lynn was incorporated in the year 1635, nor at any time since, and so not endowed with a power of receiving or disposing such lands.
That the freemen of Lynn, mentioned in the first article of their said paper, were not freemen of the corporation of Lynn, (as they would insinuate) but inhabitants only in the township, and were admitted by the General Court to be freemen of the Colony, with power to elect magistrates, etc., and their town of Lynn is equal to a village in England, and no otherwise.
And in regard their whole paper contains nothing more material than what is expressed in their first article, the petitioner hath nothing further to offer, than to pray your Excellence's grant according to his petition. All which is humbly submitted.
ED. RANDOLPH.
On the reception of this petition, the people of Lynn held another meeting, and addressed the Governor as follows.
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1688.
To His Excellency, Sir Edmund Andros, Knight, our Honorable Governor, Captain-General of His Majesty's Territory and Dominion in New England, the humble address of the inhabitants of Lynn is humbly offered.
We, whose names are subscribed, having, by the favor of your Excellency, good information of the endeavors of some to seek the alienation of a tract of land from us, called the Nahants, containing about four or five hundred acres, which will prove extremely prejudicial and injurious to the body of His Ma- jesty's subjects among us; it being a tract of land honorably purchased of the natives, the original proprietors of the soil, and possessed by our predecessors and ourselves near upon sixty years, and to this day. We have also renewed confirmations of the tract of land by firm deed from the successors of the ancient proprietors, the natives ; having also been at great cost and charges, and hard labor for the subduing of the said land, to bring it into so good a capacity as it is in at this day ; having also defended our right to this tract of land as well as others possessed by us, by blood and the loss of many lives, both formerly, and especially in the late engagments, with the barbarous pagans. The said tract of land having been built upon, also, and inhabited upwards of fifty years. It hath been ploughed, planted, tilled, and manured, and fenced in ; the fence remaining to this very day, only wanting reparation ; none ever, to this day, from the first settlement of our plantation - called formerly by the name of Saugus - dispossessing of us; but we have main- tained our position and right, which hath been owned and defended by His Majesty's former government set over us. The said tract of land being also eminently beneficial and needful for the support of our inhabitants; it being improved for a grazing field for our sheep, and such other useful creatures as can scarcely be preserved from the ravening wolves.
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