USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. I > Part 77
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454
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
GROTON.
BY SAMUEL A. GREEN, M. D.
N the month of May, 1655, the General Court, then in session at Boston, returned an answer to "a pet. p'ferd by Mr Dean Winthrop M' Tho : Hinkley & diuers others for a plantation vpon the river that Runs from Nashaway into Merimaeke called petapawage & an other 1 from some of the Inhabitants of Con- cord for a plantation in the same place," granting a township eight miles square in the place desired, to make a plantation to be called " Groaten." This name was given by Mr. Deane Winthrop, a son of Governor John Winthrop, in honor of his birth- place, Groton, Suffolk County, England. The new plantation was situated on the frontiers, fourteen miles from the nearest settlement ; and at that time there were but nine other towns in Middlesex County. The General Court appointed as select- men " for the said Towne of Groaten for one two veares from the time it is lay'd out," Mr. Deane Winthrop, Mr. John Tinker, Mr. Thomas Hinckley, Dolor Davis, William Martin, Mathew Farrington, John Witt, and Timothy Cooper.
A religious temper pervades the whole petition, which in its language has the flavor of the Old Testament. It speaks of their having been brought over " by a providence of God," and of their living long in the wilderness. In answer to it the court grants a traet of land to make "a comfortable plantation," and provides for its survey and prompt location, ordering " that none shall enjoy any part or porcon of that land by gift from the seleetmen of that place but such who shall build howses on theire Lotts so given them once wthin eighteene months from the time of the said Tonnes laying ont or Tounes grannt to such persons "; and. nam- ing as the chief end the " speedy procuring of a godly minister amongst them."
Very soon after the settlement of the town there
1 Of the first of the two petitions referred to, no copy or record has been preserved : of the second, a copy was printed in the His- forical Address delivered at Groton, July 4, 1876.
was a complaint of improper management on the part of the proprietors, and the General Court appointed a committee to look into the subject. This committee visited the place, and reported on " the Intanglements that hane obstructed the plant- ing thereof," giving at the same time their opinion that there was land enough here to furnish subsist- ence by. husbandry to sixty families.
A singular illustration of how erroneous even deliberate and disinterested opinion may be in matters pertaining to the future is here seen when it is considered that there are now nearly 10,000 persons in the territory of the original Groton Plantation, living mainly by the products of the land. Owing to the death of Ensign Noyes, the survey of the town ordered in 1665 was not com- pleted until 1668, when Jonathan Danforth fin- ished the work and made a plat of the plantation. The committee referred to made a report to the court, May 22, 1661, clearing up the entangle- ments, and were themselves ordered and empowered to see its provisions carried into effect " until meet men " could be found "amongst such as shall in- habit there, and be approved of by a county court." The records of the town show that "meet men " were found amongst the inhabitants in Decem- ber, 1662, when Deacon James Parker, John Law- renee, William Martin, Richard Blood, and James Fiske were chosen seleetmen. The record is in the handwriting of Richard Sawtell, who was town, clerk for several years. 1
The original grant, as laid out by Danforth, in- eluded the whole of what are now Groton and Ayer, nearly the whole of Pepperell and Shirley, large por- tions of Littleton and Dunstable, and smaller por- tions of Harvard and Westford, and of Nashua, N. H.
After the adjustment of the "Intanglements " referred to above the settlement grew and pros- pered. The earliest town records bear the date of June 23, 1662, and votes are recorded on this date and on December 24, of the same year, in reference to building a meeting-house, and a house for the
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minister. From these votes it may be inferred that the number of inhabitants was considerable.
" The first settlers, or proprietors of the land," says Mr. Butler, in his History of Groton, " were tenants in common of the whole township, though not in equal shares or proportions. They expressed their several proportions by a certain number of ' acre rights."" One owned a " sixty acre right," another a " twenty acre right," another a "five acre right," etc. Until 1713 no distinction was made between the inhabitants and proprietors of the town, and all their transactions and records were kept in one book. Under the provisions of a statute passed by the General Court in 1713, the proprietors held their first separate meeting March 4, 1716-17. A committee was appointed to report the names of the original proprietors, and of all others who claimed "acre rights." This committee reported the names of fifty-one original proprietors entitled to 755 " acre rights," and about sixty additional names showing good titles to 445} " acre rights," to which the proprietors added by vote twenty- five who produced satisfactory titles to 236 " acre rights " .; making a total of 135 proprietors and 1,436} "acre rights." All the claimants are said to have derived their titles by descent or by purchase, with the exception of Jonas Prescott, to whom the town is said to have granted a thirty acre right. Each proprietor was allowed one vote for each acre right held by him. Five divisions of common and undivided lands were made at different dates by the proprietors, the last having been voted February 4, 1760. Meetings of the proprietors continued to be held at irregular intervals till 1829. " The last tract of common land known to exist was laid out to Bulkley Ames, Esq."
At their earliest town-meetings the inhabitants took measures to provide for the preservation of trees " for shade for the cattell in all common highwayes," and affixing a penalty of "tenne shil- lings " a tree upon any one who should fell any such tree or trees. Early efforts were also made to secure the erection of a grist-mill, but without success, until the year 1667, when five hundred acres of upland and twenty acres of meadow were granted by the town to John Prescott, " for to build the towne a mill," which lands, together with the mill, were to be " freed from all towns charges whatsoever for the space of twenty years." Ac- cordingly John Prescott, of Lancaster, or his son Jonas, who later became a distinguished inhabitant of the town, built a mill in the southerly part of
Groton, now the northerly part of Harvard, and November 19, 1673, it was agreed that he should " grind the town's corn for the town every second and every sixth day in every week."
At a town-meeting, held March 5, 1665 -66, the town agreed with John Page, Joseph Gilson, and Daniel Pearce, to make a common pound for the town's use, they to have fifty shillings for their pains, to be paid out of the next town rate. The place where it was to be set up was near the meeting-house, which was not yet built, but the site for it had been determined.
For some years before the destruction of the town the Indians began to threaten the inhabitants. They were troublesome neighbors at the best, and their movements required careful watching. Some of them were friendly, but others were hostile and treacherous. They had already acquired a taste for strong drink, and, on more than one occasion, drunken brawls and fights ending in murder had taken place between them and the settlers. Many of the Indians, too, had now been supplied with fire-arms, which made them bold and insolent, and it is not strange that the natural tendency of events should have been toward open hostilities.
At an early day there was a military organiza- tion in the town, and we find the following order in the Massachusetts Records, passed October 15, 1673, in relation to it : " The millitary company of Groaten being destitut of military officers, the Court judgeth it meet to choose and appoint James Parker to be theire captaine, Wm Lakin to be leif- tennant, and Nathaniel Lawrence to be their en- signe."
The thunder of the distant storm now began to be heard, and the colonists were asking for pro- tection. Captain Parker writes to Governor Lev- erett, under date of August 25, 1675, that the inhabitants " are in a very great strait," and "are very much discouraged in their spirits ; " that they want ammunition and twenty good muskets for their pike men. A few days before the date of this letter Captain Samuel Moseley writes from " Nashoway Allias Lankaster : 16th Augst 1675," that, in accordance with instructions from Major- General Dennison, he had sent " 12 men to Groat- ton." In those days there was no physician in town to offer his professional skill to the govern- ment in time of need, and it was necessary to im- press into the public service a surgeon as well as a horse and accoutrements; and accordingly the constable of Boston was ordered by the council,
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
August 17, 1675, " in his Majlys name forthwith to Impresse M' Wm Haukins Chirurgeon ; Imedi- ately to prepare himself w-th materials as Chirurgeon & to dispatch to Marlboro. to Capt Mosely & attend his motion & souldiers at Groaten. or else- where : for wch End you are also to Impresse an able horse & furniture for him to Goe: wth the Post"; and the constable made the indorsement on the order that Dr. Hawkins was duly warned.
At this time King Philip's War had begun, and open hostilities had alarmed the inhabitants of this place. The council passed an order, September 8, 1675, that Cornet Thomas Brattle and Lieutenant Thomas Henchman should take fifty men, of which thirty were to come from Norfolk and twenty from Middlesex, and place them in the garrisons of Dun- stable, Groton, and Lancaster in such proportions as they should deem expedient. October 27 of this year the town was assessed £11 10s., as her rate to carry on the war; and if paid in money, one quarter was to be abated.
" March 2, 1675-6 the Indians began their attack upon Groton, following it up with another on the 9th, and a third and final one on the 13th, when all the town was burned except four garri- son-houses. 'Major Willard, with seventy horse and forty foot, from Watertown,' came to the re- lief of the town, but arrived too late, the Indians having all fled. It was in this attack upon Groton that John Monoco, or One-eyed John, the Indian chief in command, whose tribe had their seat at Nashaway, uttered his hoast that the next time he would burn Chelmsford, Concord, Water- town, Cambridge, Charlestown, Roxbury, Boston, adding at the last in their dialect, ' What me will, me do.' This boaster and others of the leaders were hanged in Boston, September 26, 1676."
The people would have been more than human if they had not felt despondent at the hard fate that had now befallen them. They had seen their houses and barus burned, and all the results of their labor and thrift destroyed in a day. The little meeting-house, rudely constructed, but no less dear to them, was now a heap of ashes. To- day its exact site is unknown. Some words of con- solation and exhortation to trust in the providence of God fell from the lips of their good pastor, Mr. Samuel Willard, as they looked tearfully on their ruined homes. He had been their guide and teacher during thirteen years. He was born Jan- uary 31, 1639- 40, at Concord, Mass. He was the son of Major Simon Willard, at one time an
inhabitant of this town, and graduated at Harvard College in the year 1659, being the only member of the class who took his second degree. He came here to succeed Mr. John Miller, the first minister of the town, who died June 12, 1663. Mr. Wil- lard began to preach probably late in the year 1662, or early in 1663. In the latter year, on the 21st of some month, - conjectured to be June, the words of the record being so worn as to be illegi- ble, - it was voted " that M' Willard if he accept of it shall be their minester as long as he lives." Against this action there were five dissentient votes, which number constituted probably one quarter of all the voters; and they certainly were among the principal and most influential inhabi- tants of the town. But he was settled in spite of the opposition, and his relations with his people were always harmonious. His salary began at £40, but it was gradually increased until it was double that amount, part of it being in country pay. But little is known of his early history, and no church record during his ministry in Groton is extant. He was but twenty-three years of age when he was settled over the church, and a few weeks later he married Abigail Sherman; and after her death he married, as his second wife, Eunice, daughter of Edward Tyng. Five of his children were born in the town. One of his great- grandsons, Robert Treat Paine, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. His residence was in the present Main Street, and was used at one time as a meeting-house, and again as a school- house. Its exact locality is not now known, but there was "a great meadow necre the house," which could be seen from one of the windows in a lower room.
The assault by the Indians ou the town was followed by the breaking up of the place and the scattering of the inhabitants in different directions among their friends and kindred. The war was soon ended ; though it was nearly two years be- fore the early pioneers ventured back to their old homes, around which still clustered many tender associations as well as sad recollections. It is re- corded that other families came back with them. Mr. Willard never returned to his old pastorate. He was soon after installed over the Old Sonth Church in Boston, as the colleague of Rev. Thomas Thacher. In 1701 he was chosen vice-president of Harvard College, his connection being really that of president, except in name. He presided for the last time at the College Commencement in
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GROTON.
July, 1707. As minister of the Old South, he baptized Benjamin Franklin, who was born in Milk Street, directly opposite the church, and was taken thither for baptism when only a few hours old.
At a very early period the road to the Bay, as it was called, -that is, to Boston, - was by a circuitous route through Chelmsford and Bille- rica, where there was a bridge built by several towns, -of which Groton was one, -and sup- ported jointly by them for many years. In the year 1699 the towns of Groton, Chelmsford, and Billerica were engaged in a controversy about the proportion of expense which each one should bear in building the bridge. The General Conrt settled the dispute by ordering this town to pay £24 10 s. as her share in full, with no future liabilities.
The Indians' passion for liquor has already been referred to, and has curious illustration in the fol- lowing extract from the town records, -
" March 28 1682
" two Indian sqnaws being apprehended In drinke & with drinke brought to ye select men one squaw Nehatcheckin swaw being drunke was sentenced to receive & did receiue ten stripes the other Johu Nasquuns sway was sentanced to pay 38 4ª cash and loose her two quart bottle and the Liquour in it awarded to Sarg" Laken who seized them."
After King Philip's War the colonists were at peace with the Indians, but it was a suspicious kind of peace. It required watching and a show of strength to keep it; there was no good-will between the native race and the white intruders. The military company of the town was still kept up, and known as the Foot Company, and during a part of the year 1689 was supported by some cavalry, under the command of Captain Jacob Moore. James Parker, Sr., was appointed the captain of it, Jonas Prescott, the lieutenant, and John Lakin, the ensign; and these appointments were' all confirmed by the governor and coun- cil at a convention held in Boston, July 13, 1689. A month later (August 10), Captain Parker was ordered to supply Hezekiah Usher's garrison at Nononiciacus with " three men of the men sent up thither or of the Town's people, for ye defence of yt Garrison being of publique concernment." Groton was one of the four towns that were des- ignated, August 29, as the headquarters of the forces detached for the public service against the common enemy; Casco, Newichewanick (Ber- wick), and Haverhill being the others. And we
| find, soon after, an order to send "to the head Quarter at Groton for supply of the Garrison there one Thousand weight of Bread, one barrell of Salt, one barrell of powder, three hundred weight of Shott, and three hundred Flints, Six quire of Pa- per." Eleven troopers were sent hither, September 17, under Cornet John Chubbuck, to relieve Corpo- ral White, who was succeeded by John Pratt. The commissary of the post at this time was Jonathan Remington, who seems to have had but little duty to perform. Shortly afterward the order came from the governor and council to discharge him, as well as Captain Moore and his company of cavalry, from the public service. "Jno. Paige of Groten " went in the expedition to Canada, in the year 1690, under Major Wade; was wounded in the left arm, and did not entirely recover for two years. His surgeon's bill, amounting to £4, was paid out of the public treasury.
The second attack on the town came in the sum- iner of 1694. Cotton Mather in his Magnalia thus refers to it: "Nor did the Storm go over so : Some Drops of it fell upon the Town of Gro- ton, a Town that lay, one would think, far enough off the Place where was the last Scene of the Tragedy. On July 27, [1694] about break of Day Groton felt some surprizing Blows from the Indian Hatchets. They began their Attacks at the House of one Lieutenant Lakin, in the Ont- skirts of the Town ; but met with a Repulse there, and lost one of their Crew. Nevertheless, in other Parts of that Plantation, (where the good People had been so tired out as to lay down their Military Watch) there were more than Twenty Persons killed, and more than a dozen carried away. Mr. Gershom Hobart, the Minister of the Place, with part of his Family, was Remarkably preserved from falling into their Hands, when they made themselves the Masters of his House ; though they took Two of his Children, whereof the one was killed, and the other some time after happily Res- cned out of his Captivity."
The French report, sent October 26, by M. Champigny to the Minister, Pontchartrain, now in the archives of the marine and colonies at Paris, mentions this assault as follows : "These Indians did not stop there ; four parties of them have since been detached, who have been within half a day's journey of Boston [i. e. at Groton], where they have killed or captured more than sixty persons, ravaged and pillaged everything they found, which has thrown all the people into such consternation
458
ILISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
that they are leaving the open country to seek refuge in the towns." Another account says : "At the solicitation of Villieu and Taxous, their chief, some fifty of them detached themselves to follow this last person, who was piqued at the little that had been done. They were joined by some of the bravest warriors of the Keimebec, to go on a war- party above Boston to break heads by surprise (casser des téles à la surprise), after dividing them- selves into several squads of four or five each, which cannot fail of producing a good effect." Accord- ing to Charlevoix, " The English made a better de- fence than they did at Pescadue [Piscataqua]. Taxous had two of his nephews killed by his side, and himself received more than a dozen musket-balls in his clothes."
The loss of life from this attack was consider- ably greater than when the town was destroyed and deserted in the year 1676. There were twenty- two persons killed and thirteen captured. The settlement was now more scattered than it was then, and its defence more difficult. For this reason more persons were killed and taken prison- ers -than when the place was assaulted eighteen years previously. It is said that the scalps of the unfortunate victims were given to Count de Fron- tenac, governor of Canada. Among those killed were William Longley, his wife, and five of their children ; his eldest one, Lydia, a daughter of twenty, John, and Betty, were taken prisoners. Lydia's name is found in a list of prisoners who were held in Canada, March 5, 1710-11. She was captured by the Abénaquis, a tribe of In- dians who inhabited the territory now included in the state of Maine. She was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, April 24, 1696, and lived at the congregation of Notre Dame in Mon- treal. She was buried July 20, 1758. John, her brother, was twelve years old when captured. He remained with the Indians for more than four years, -a part of the time being spent in Canada, and the remainder in Maine. At length he was ransomed, but he had become so accustomed to savage life that he left it with great reluctance ; and those who brought him away were obliged to use force to aeeomplish their purpose. He was afterwards a useful inhabitant of the town, holding many offices of trust and responsibility. The third child, Betty, died in captivity.
In memory of the Longleys the town has re- cently caused to be erected on the site of their home a monmment with this inscription : -
HERE DWELT WILLIAM AND DELIVERANCE LONGLEY WITH THEIR EIGHT CHILDREN. ON THE 27TH OF JULY 1694 THE INDIANS KILLED THE FATHER AND MOTHER AND FIVE OF THE CHILDREN AND CARRIED INTO CAPTIVITY THE OTHER THREE.
Governor William Stoughton issued a procla- mation January 21, 1695, and refers to the " tragi- cal outrages and barbarous murders " at Oyster River (now Durham, N. H.) and Groton. He says that several of the prisoners taken at these places " are now detained by the said Indians at Androscoggin and other adjoining places." Cot- ton Mather says that one man was killed here in. 1697, and another, with two children, carried into captivity.
After these attacks there was a short respite, which continued till 1704, when the frontier towns were again exposed to savage warfare; and this town suffered with the others. At various times during the succeeding twenty years the Indians killed and captured residents of the town, and there are numerous thrilling stories told of incidents that transpired during these eventful years.
Three children of Thomas Tarbell,1 who lived on what is now known as Farmers' Row, a short distance south of the Lawrence Farm, and who was town-clerk in 1704 and 1705, were carried off by the Indians June 20, 1707, and never came back to remain. Their names were. Sarah, John, and Zachariah. They were picking cherries early one evening - so tradition relates - and were taken before they had time to get down from the tree. They were carried to Canada, where it would seem they were treated kindly, as no inducement was strong enough afterward to make them return. The girl was sold to the French and placed in a convent near Montreal; the boys remained with their captors at Caughnawaga, an Indian village near Montreal, and subsequently married squaw's and became chiefs of their tribe. One of them visited his relatives in Groton in his Indian dress, but showed no inclination to remain. They after- wards, accompanied by several others, all with their families, moved up the St. Lawrence River, and established the little village of St. Regis. The descendants of these two boys are among the prom- inent families of the settlement, where there are perhaps forty persons who bear the name. Saralı, 1 See Groton Epitaphs, p. 255.
LIBRAR'
A False Alarm, Philip's War.
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GROTON.
having abjured her religion as a Protestant, was baptized July 23, 1708, as Sister Marguerite of the Sisters of the congregation of Notre Dame, established at Lachine.
On the 9th of July, 1724, John Ames was shot by an Indian, one of a small party that attacked Ames's garrison in the westerly part of the town, on the west side of the Nashua River. He is said to have been the last man killed by an Indian within the township. The Indian himself was immediately afterward shot by Jacob Ames, one of John's sons.
Seven men from Groton belonged to the Spar- tau band of thirty-four who, under Captain Love- well, fought the famous Lovewell's Fight, near the shores of a pond in Pequawket, with the Indian chief, Paugus, at the head of about eighty savages ; and John Chamberlain, one of the seven, distin- guished himself by killing the Indian leader.1
Near the end of Queen Anne's War, in " A list of Frontier Garrisons Reviewed by order of His Excellency the Governor, In November 1711," we find a list of eighteen garrisons in this town, con- taining, in all, fifty-eight families, or three hundred and seventy-eight souls. Of these, seventeen were soldiers in the public service. The military com- pany at this post, in the summer of 1724, under Lieutenant Jabez Fairbanks, was made up of soldiers from different towns in this part of the state. Some were detailed as guards to protect the more exposed garrisons, and others were scout- ing in the neighborhood. Thirteen of the number belonged here, and represented some of the most influential families in the place.
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