USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. I > Part 10
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preparing for the tremendous conflict which a few years later overthrew the monarchy and erected the Commonwealth on its ruins. For a hundred years to come New England was to depend wholly upon the natural and legitimate inerease of population and resources. We consider therefore the elose of the decade after the settlement of Boston as fixing a distinct era in the history of the Colony of Massa- chusetts Bay.
In 1641 Bellingham was chosen governor and Endicott deputy-governor. The following year rumors prevailed of an uprising among the Narra- gansetts, which upon investigation proved to be without foundation. Miantonomoli, upon being summoned, came to Boston and defended him- self with dignity against the accusations of his enemies. This year, too, witnessed the publication in England of Thomas Lechford's Plain Dealing ; or, News from New England. Lechford lived several years in Boston, where he had practised, under the vexatious restraints imposed, his pro- fession of attorney. He was also employed by the authorities in transcribing important publie acts, among others the celebrated " Body of Liber- ties." His book gives by far the best account of the organization and procedure in the government, the courts, and in the churches of New England that can be found ; supplying an important need to making an intelligent opinion on the civil antl ecelesiastieal administration in the colony.
A reference to the origin of two of the stanch- est and most substantial of the original towns of Middlesex will complete the catalogue as it existed at the organization of the shire. As early as September, 1639, the inhabitants of Lynn were granted four miles square, at the end of their limits, for an inland plantation. In May follow- ing the court granted the usual exemption from taxation, to begin when seven houses should be built and seven families settled. The Indian title was purchased in 1640 of Sagamore George, Abi- gail his sister, and others, for the sum of £10 16s. This grant, by which Middlesex received an acces- sion from Essex, ineluded, under the name of Lynn Village, Reading, North Reading, and Wake- field. The settlement was not incorporated until the 29th of May, 1644.
The rise of another town in Middlesex is also to be recorded. In May, 1640, Charlestown peti- tioned the General Court for additional territory, which was immediately granted by assigning two miles square of unappropriated land, on which the
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
thriving town of Woburn now stands. Exploring parties immediately set out to establish the boun- daries of the new tract, which first received the name of Charlestown Village. Among the first explorers were Increase Nowell, an assistant, and secretary of the colony, Rev. Zechariah Symmes, then the pastor of the church of Charlestown, and Edward Johnson, author of Wonder-Working Providence. Johnson also accompanied a second party in Sep- tember, of which Captain Robert Sedgwick, who be- came highly distinguished under Cromwell, was one.
The original grant having been doubled, and the projected settlement meeting with more and more favor, a number of settlers took possession of a site in and about the present centre of the town in the following spring, laying out house-lots and crecting dwellings. It may be mentioned that the church at Charlestown regarded this second exodus with some alarm, though she had at first actively joined in the movement. In August, 1642, a church organization was effected, and soon after the Rev. Thomas Carter of Watertown was or- dained as pastor. The town was incorporated the same autumn under its present name of Woburn.
The year 1643 is remarkable for several impor- tant events : for the war which broke out between the Narragansetts and Moliegans, in which Mian- tonomoh was made prisoner and put to death ; for the confederacy between the colonies of Massachu- setts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven, - Rhode Island and Maine being left out, - which was in the nature of an alliance, offensive and defen- sive, for mutual protection. Thus was consum- mated what had been agitated since 1638, but what the mutual jealousies of the contracting parties had defeated of earlier accomplishment. In this con- nection it should be mentioned that Massachusetts in 1641 assumed jurisdiction over the whole of New Hampshire, by virtue of surveys made of the Upper Merrimack and by a broad interpretation of the terms of her charter.
In May, 1643, the whole colony was divided into four shires, Middlesex, Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk. Middlesex included the towns or plan- tations at Charlestown, Cambridge, Watertown, Sudbury, Concord, Woburn, Medford, and Reading, then called Lynn Village. Essex contained Salem, Lynn, Enon (Wenham), Ipswich, Rowley, New- bury, Gloucester, Chochichawick (Andover). Suf- folk embraced Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Dedham, Braintree, Weymouth, llingham, Nantas- ket (Hull). Norfolk included Salisbury, Hamp-
ton, Haverhill, Exeter, Dover, Strawberry-Bank (Portsmouth). The whole number of towns em- braced in these subdivisions was thirty. Only Essex retains all the towns originally assigned to her by the act creating these four counties. Norfolk comprised all the settlements in New Hampshire and none of those now constituting the county of that name. Suffolk was in part formed of the towns now in Norfolk, which has changed its place on the map from north of the Merrimack to south of the Charles. It may be stated, in explana- tion of the very curious appearance which the map of Norfolk now presents, that Hingham and Hull remained parts of Suffolk County until their trans- fer to Plymouth in 1803. These four original shires derived their own names from the English counties of the same name.
In the same year that these four counties were erected, a new organization of the militia was de- termined upon. The three regiments constituting the colony forces were to be commanded by a major-general, and eachı regiment by a sergeant- major. In furtherance of this object the Middle- sex deputies were ordered to meet at Cambridge to nominate a candidate to command the shire regi- ment, who should then be voted for by the freemen. The reorganization was effected in the following year. Having a contemporary account written by one of the regimental officers, under whose incog- nito of " Kentish captain " we discover the author of Wonder-Working Providence, we insert it as it is printed in his book.
"The first sergeant-major chosen to order the regiment of Essex 1 [Middlesex ?] was Major Rob- ert Sedgwick,2 stout and active in all feats of war, nurst up in London's Artillery Garden and fur-
1 This should read " Middlesex." See the last sentence, which refers to Essex.
2 Robert Sedgwick, who is described by Johnson as having "a very good head-piece," and who is identified with the early his- tory of Charlestown, deserves a more lengtby notice than our limits permit. He was engaged with Leverett in the reduction of the French posts in Acadia, in 1654. Having entered the Protector's service, he was sent by him to complete the conquest of Jamaica, where he fell a vietim to the elimate; or, if we may believe Thurloe, died of a broken heart because Cromwell imposed the command of the army there upon him. Sedgwick had been admitted a freeman of the colony in 1636, was an original mem- her of the Artillery Company of Boston, and had heen one of the London Artillery before emigrating to New England. He gave two small shops in Boston to Harvard College. Carlyle calls him a very brave, zealous, and pious man, and says his letters to Cromwell on the expeditions to St. Domingo and Jamaiea are the hest worth reading on that subject. The Sedgwicks of Conneeti- eut and of Western Massachusetts, including Judge Theodore, Catherine Maria, and General John Sedgwick, are descendants.
73
FROM THE PEQUOT WAR TO THE FORMATION OF TIIE COUNTY.
thered with sixteen years' experience in N. E. exact theory besides the help of a very good head-piece, being a frequent instructor of the most martial troops of our artillery men ; and although Charles Town (which is the place of his own companies residence) do not advantage such o're-topping bat- teries as Boston doth, yet hath he erected his to very good purpose insomuch that all shipping that comes in, either to Boston or Charles-Town must needs face it all the time of their coming in; luis own company are led by the faithful captain-lieu- tenant Francis Norton (a man of a bold and cheer- ful spirit) being well disciplin'd and an able man ; the companies under his service have not all captains at present ; Watertown band was led by Capt. Jennings, who is supposed to be now in England, his lievtenant remains Hugh Mason; the band of Cambridge led by Capt. George Cook, now Colonel Cook, in the wars of Ireland, but now led by Capt. Daniel Gookin, a very. forward man to advance Marshal discipline and withal the truths of Christ; the band of Concord led by Capt. Simon Willard being a Kentish souldier as is Capt. Goggin. The band of Sudbury lately led by Capt. Pelham who is in England at present, his lievtenant remains Edm. Goodinow; the band of Wooburn led by another Kentish Captain; the band of Reading led by Lievtenant Walker; the band of Malden being as yet a young town, who have not chosen their officers are led by Mr. Joseph Hill. These belong to the Regiment of Middlesex, the two counties of Essex and Northfolk are for the present joyned in one regiment, their first Major who now commandeth this regiment is the proper and valiant Major Daniel Denison."
Under this partition of jurisdiction, which seems to have been agitated a year or more before it was finally sanctioned by legal enactment, not only the military, but the political and judicial machinery of the colony were rearranged, and the transaction of public business thereby facilitated. Cambridge became the shire-town, although county courts were also subsequently established at Charlestown.
At the session of the General Court in October, 1645, the following manner of holding its sessions for the future is thus prescribed : -
" Forasmuch as the court hathi used several ways and means for lessening the great charges of the country and most equall dividing thereof whiel would abundantly satisfy the minds of most, there being now proposed a way which hath not been tried, think it meet that the way be put in practice for the time to come, viz. that each town shall bear the charges of their own deputies at the General Court, or otherwise and each shire the charges of those magistrates at the quarter courts where they shall be : that the general courts be kept in each shire town by turns, now next at Boston, then at Cambridge and last at Salem and so to keep their turns, and wherever the general court is, or shall be that shire to bear the charges of all strangers and those magistrates that reside there, and the charges of the magistrates at the general eourt, and meetings of the couneil to be borne by the shires where they live, and that the courts be equally divided between Middlesex and Suffolk to be kept by turns at each shire town ; further that Norfolk shall have two courts in a year, as Salem and Ips- wich, they bearing the charge thereof and agree- ing among themselves of a convenient place ; this order is consented to with the addition and condi- tion, that first that arrearages of all our diet shall be all paid for at Boston ; then at the next year, beginning in May, 1646, the courts shall be at Boston and so the next two years at Cambridge and Salem successively, and at the end of those three years all the courts shall be kept in the places and at the times they now are, unless the court do take further order therein."
In October, 1649, the General Court established a county court for Middlesex, and fixed the times of holding it. In 1652 Thomas Danforth was appointed Recorder for the sale of lands and mort- gages in the county of Middlesex. Before this time the records of land titles of the several towns had been kept at Boston.
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
IX
THIRTY YEARS OF PEACE.
HAVING now reached a period when the County of Middlesex began to have a history of its own, it is our purpose to pursue that history, so far as we may, without losing sight of the community of interests, of every kind, which bound her to the commonwealth. We have given, as succinctly as we deem expedient for an intelligent view, the origin and development of the colony of which Middlesex constituted so important a member. We have portrayed her ancient structure of govern- ment, eivil and religious ; the vicissitudes attend- ing their establishment on a solid foundation ; the trials and the perils with which at every step the colonists found themselves confronted. Perhaps the most serious of these perils was the attitude of semi-defianee which the rulers of the colony main- tained towards the mother country, where the flames of civil war had now been lighted, and the desperate struggle between king and parliament, liberty and despotism, fully inaugurated. Immu- nity for the past was seeured, or rather the day of reekoning was postponed until another generation came upon the stage, and the old monarchy once more rose from the dust to perpetuate its hatreds and its revenges. For the present, however, the charter was safe: for the future the new generation was too deeply imbued with the spirit of liberty - which the successful resistance of the fathers had cemented and strengthened - to fear any new attempt to wrest from them their ancient and privileged franchise. In this conjuneture, while the empire shook with the mustering of armed hosts, while the air resounded with the clash of steel, New England enjoyed the blessings of un- interrupted peace throughout all her magnificent domain.
Though she did not participate in the civil war, Massachusetts could not be an uneoneerned spec- tator. The progress of events in England was watched with the keenest interest ; the sympathy so generally felt for the triumph of the parliament
led many gallant spirits to cross the ocean and to draw their swords in maintaining its cause. Among these were Israel Stoughton, William Rainsborough, Nehemiah Bourne, John Leverett, and William Hudson. Rainsborough, who had formerly lived at Charlestown, was made colonel, Stoughton lieu- tenant-colonel, and Bourne major of a parliament regiment. Leverett received a commission of cap- tain, Hudson one of ensign in the same service. All these New-Englanders distinguished themselves under the banners of the parliament ; and all, except Rainsborough and Stoughton, lived to re- turn to their adopted country. Rainsborough had attained the rank of general, when he was killed, or rather murdered, before Doncaster in 1648, by a party of royalists, who invaded his camp in the night, with the object of making him their prisoner.1 Stoughton died in England. Besides those named, Captain George Cooke and Ensign Samuel Shepard of Cambridge went to England, where the former attained the rank of colonel and the latter that of major in the parlia- ment forces. The catalogne might be extended did our spaee permit.
Another struggle took place between the magis- trates and deputies in 1644, growing out of the greater power of the former in the General Court and the exclusive authority exercised by them dur- ing the intermission. Agitation at this time re- sulted in the two bodies thenceforth sitting sepa- rately, votes being sent from one to the other. The magistrates also consented that in appeals from the lower courts and in all judicial pro- ceedings, when the two bodies differed, a majority of both should decide ; but they firmly refused to surrender any part of the executive authority, or admit the deputies to its joint exercise with them- selves. This controversy, a long and obstinate one, originated in a question about the ownership of a SOW. Not only the court but the whole colony divided upon it.
An episode of surpassing interest now introduees 1 See Old Landmarks of Middleser. p. 12.
1 There were breaches of the peace by the Narragansetts aud Mohegans, but without seriously involving the English.
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THIRTY YEARS OF PEACE.
one of the grandest figures to be met with in the history of New England. Nothing, we venture to say, in that history is more to be remarked than the absence of any attempt on the part of the Eng- lish colonists to make the gospel known to their Indian neighbors ; yet for twenty years no effort worthy of being called such was put forth, although the charter conferred by Charles I. recited that the conversion of the Indians was the principal, the de- clared, object of the founders of the colony.
Rev. John Eliot seemed especially called to the work which he embraced with so much zeal, pa- tience, and devotion. His was no ordinary task, 110 common undertaking. After fitting himself for it by mastering the Indian language, he began his missionary labors in October, 1646, at the In- dian village of Nonantum, in the northeast part of what is now the city of Newton. When he had ar- rived within a short distance of the wigwams, Eliot and his companions were met by Waban, one of the chief men, accosted with English salutations, and welcomed with that native courtesy so characteristic of the red man. They were then conducted to Wa- ban's lodge, in which the Indians were assembled, wondering, but grave, decorous, and attentive.1 Eliot began with a fervent prayer, and at its con- clusion preached a sermon from a text in Ezekiel. These exercises were followed by questions and answers directed to the subject of the missionary's discourse. Other meetings took place in Novem- ber and December. In the hands of this veritable apostle the good work continued to prosper; the Indians yielded more and more to the influences of civilization and Christianity. Eliot found ear- nest and willing helpers in Rev. Thomas Shepard, Daniel Gookin, and others. His efforts so far pre- vailed, that these Indians at length manifested a strong desire to change their own rude way of life for one more like the English mode, and for this purpose, as Eliot's own opinion was that they ought to live somewhat remote from the English, the tract called by the Indians Natick, meaning a place of hills, was assigned to them by the General Court. In the year 1651 the settlement was begun. It had streets, house-lots, orchards, a bridge to cross the river, and a building for a church and school, all built by the Indians themselves, and in which they took great pride. Here, on one of the lecture- days, they were visited by Governor Endicott and
1 Nonantum Hill, on the borders of Brighton and Newton, is the supposed scene of this event. Another eminence in Newton and a street commemorate the name of Waban.
Rev. John Wilson, both of whom have left interest- ing accounts of what they saw and heard, in letters to the Corporation in England. Here they listened to the Word preached by an Indian, and a psalm melodiously sung to an English tune after being read, line by line, by the Indian schoolmaster. No wonder the governor and his companion were deeply affected ! They had imagined nothing like this. Endicott affirms that he could hardly refrain from shedding tears of joy. "Truly !" he ex- claims, " I account this one of the best journeys I have made these many years." Indeed, Eliot's work at Natick and Endicott's at Block Island stand out in strong contrast.
This noble achievement by him who has been called the " Apostle of the Indians " is an effective and agreeable counterpoisc to the hard and selfish policy which had so uniformly distinguished the whites in their dealings with the aborigines. Ex- cept in the missionary work of the French Jesuits it has few parallels in the history of the time we are recounting ; and even here Eliot's purpose seems broader and nobler than that so efficiently per- formed by the Society of Jesus in its endeavor not only to disseminate the truths of Christianity, but to bring his savage converts within the influence of its civilization, and to bestow upon them all its advantages. Eliot not only brought them the knowledge of a new spiritual life, he addressed himself to the task of elevating their temporal con- dition, destroying their superstitions, reforming their barbarous customs and primitive system of government. This was a visible religion of which political ascendency was the natural fruit. Eliot's Indian converts remained generally faithful to the whites when Philip made his desperate attempt to free his country from the English yoke.
We must now unwillingly turn one of the most revolting, the saddest, pages of our history. Sor- cery and witchcraft were, at this time, universally believed in throughout Christendom. All Christian States had laws against these diabolical arts; all recognized them as crimes meriting death; and all could show a fearful record of punishment inflicted upon persons suspected of possessing such fatal power over the lives and property of their fellow- men. Witchcraft in New England is not, there- fore, a monstrosity of native birth, but is merely an episode of the universal madness, which excites our horror the more because brought so near, where all its repulsive features stand in the strongest possible light. Those who reproach New England
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
have not read the history of France, Germany, Spain, Italy, or even that of enlightened England, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The first instance of punishment for witchcraft in New England occurred in 1648, in Middlesex, when Margaret Jones of Charlestown was indicted, found guilty, and executed. She was charged with having a malignant touch by which she could affliet her victims with deafness, sickness, or cruel pain. The testimony upon which she was convicted is a most extraordinary example of the superstition of the times, and of the horror and fear with which a supposed witch was regarded. Margaret Jones, unhappy and ignorant, was hurried out of the world as an enemy of society, a criminal for whom the ordinary safeguards of the law could not be invoked.
The same year, 1648, is also memorable for the assembling at Cambridge of a new ecclesiastical council, or synod, to consult upon and determine controverted or unsettled questions in which the churches were concerned. The result of its deliber- ations was the adoption, in September, of certain fundamental articles of faith which are usually styled the Cambridge Platform. They were printed the next year by Samuel Green on the Cambridge press.
On the 11th of May, 1649, the settlement on the northern bank of the Mystic was erected into a town and named Malden. This part of the ancient territory of Charlestown,1 already greatly diminished by the incorporation of Woburn and Reading, embraced the present towns of Melrose and Everett, which were formerly called North and South Malden.
The six years embraced between 1649 and 1655 were memorable for the death of several of the fathers of the colony. Winthrop died the 28th of March, in the first-named year, Dudley in 1653. Hooker and Rogers were already dead, and Cot- ton's decease occurred in 1652. These afflicting visitations were followed by another when Edward Winslow, one of the bravest, ablest, and most use- ful public men of the time, finished his earthly
1 Edward Johnson describes Charlestown, at or near the period of which we are writing, as having about one hundred and fifty dwelling-houses. A large market-place, from which the two streets of the town diverged, fronted the Charles. In this stood the ancient meeting-house ; around it were houses, gardens, and orchards. Josselyn has left a brief and unsatisfactory account of Charlestown in 1638, and again in 1671; but the latter is almost wholly purloined from Johnson, and presents few new or interesting facts.
career in 1655, while in the service of Cromwell. His abilities were not confined by narrow limits, but were often usefully exerted for Massachusetts in time of need.
The death of so many eminent personages iden- tified with the early history of the colony ad- monishes us that we are passing into a new era, where the old familiar names are succeeded by new. Dudley had been one of the first citizens of Charlestown and of Cambridge, but had removed to Roxbury before the date of his decease. More than any other he is entitled to be considered the founder of Cambridge; for it was through him and by his efforts that the settlement maintained its foothold when others withdrew their support.
Within the period referred to, another assump- tion of sovereign power by the colony occurred. This was the establishment of a mint which issued silver coins of the value of three, six, and twelve pence each. Other public events were the persecu- tions of the Anabaptists, and later of the Quakers. During these persecutions, which were conducted with great severity, the death penalty was inflicted at Boston upon several Quakers, many others suf- fering cruel punishment or imprisonment. It was not until Charles II. issued a peremptory command, that these hideous barbarities ceased. Singularly enough, the royal mandate was put into Endicott's hands by a banislied Quaker.
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