USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. I > Part 8
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them burial. Sagamore John and his brother James were among the victims. The pestilence was not confined to any single locality, but swept with destructive effect through all the seaboard nations. The Narragansetts were reported to have lost seven hundred men by the disease ; the war- like Pequots an unknown but considerable num- ber. This terrible visitation released the English from all present apprehension of Indian troubles. Those of the Massachusetts tribes who survived . were too few to be feared ; and those Indians more remote were in no condition for war. A plague liad cleared the way for the Plymouth Colony ; a pestilence now destroyed the power of the Indians within the Massachusetts patent.
During the years of 1631, 1632, and 1633 many vessels arrived, bringing all kinds of pro- visions, implements, and merchandise, with large accessions of emigrants, who were distributed among the several plantations. A better feeling began to prevail, - the feeling of stability and permanence fairly won. This is a most interesting period in the history of the colony ;. rendered more so by the existence of an account of the several plantations as they appeared at this time.
That portion of William Wood's New England's Prospect1 which relates to Middlesex County is best presented in the author's own quaint, graphic lan- guage. His may be considered the first account, after the settlement, of any value as an authority. Wood resided four years in New England. He supposed it to be an island isolated by the waters of the St. Lawrence and the Hudson, or else a peninsula. Captain Smith's description is com- inended by him. Wood's own relation is brought down to the 15th of August, 1633, and being really confined to the settlements in Massachusetts Bay, is all the more valuable for our purpose. He begins with Wessaguscus, or Weymouth, the plantation farthest south, describes Mount Wollas- ton, Dorchester, Roxbury, Boston and its appen- dage of Mnddy River (Brookline), then crosses Charles River into our territory. He says : -
" On the north side of Charles River is Charls Towne, which is another necke of land, on whose north side runs Misticke river .. This town, for all things, may be well paralleled with her neighbor
1 " New England's Prospect : A true, lively, and experimen- tall description of that part of America commonly called New England ; discovering the state of that countrie hoth as it stands to our new-come English planters ; and to the old native inhabi- tants," etc. London, 1634.
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PROGRESS IN THE COLONY.
Boston, being in the same fashion with her bare neek, and constrained to borrow conveniences from the main, and to provide for themselves farms in the country for their better subsistence. At this town there is kept a ferry-boat to convey passen- gers over Charles river : which, between the two towns, is a quarter of a mile over, being a very deep channel. Here may ride forty ships at a time.
" Up higher it is a broad bay being above two miles between the shores, into which runs Stony river and Muddy river. Towards the south-west, in the middle of this bay, is a great oyster-bank.
" Towards the north-west of this bay is a great creek, upon whose shore is situated the village of Medford, a very fertile and pleasant place and fit for more inhabitants than are yet in it. This town is a mile and a half from Charlestown ; and at the bottom of this bay the river begins to be narrower, being but half a quarter of a mile broad.
" By the side of this river is built Newtown, which is three miles by land from Charlestown, and a league and a half by water. This place was first intended for a city ; but upon more serious considerations it was not thought so fit, being too far from the sea, being the greatest inconvenience it hath. This is one of the neatest and best com- pacted towns in New England, having many fair structures, with many handsome contrived streets. The inhabitants, most of them, are very rich, and well stored with cattle of all sorts, having many hundred acres of ground paled in with one general fence, which is about a mile and a half long, which secures all their weaker cattle from the wild beasts. On the other side of the river lieth all their meadow and marsh ground for hay.
" Half a mile westward of this plantation, is Watertowne, a place nothing inferior for land, wood, meadow, and water, to Newtowne. Within half a mile of this town is a great pond, which is divided between those two towns, which divides their bounds northiward. A mile and a half from this town is a fall of fresh waters, which convey themselves into the ocean through Charles river. A little below this fall of waters, the inhabitants of
Water-towne have built a wear to catch fish, wherein they take great store of shads and ale- wives. In two tides they have gotten one hundred thousand of those fishes. This is no small benefit to the plantation. Ships of small burthen may come up to these two towns : but the oyster-banks do bar out the bigger ships.
" The next town is Misticke, which is three miles from Charles-towne by land, and a league and a half by water. It is seated by the water's side very pleasantly ; there be not many houses as yet. At the head of this river are great and spa- cious ponds whither the alewives press to spawn. This being a noted place for that kind of fish, the English resort thither to take them. On the west side of this river the governor hath a farm,. where he keeps most of his cattle. On the east side is Master Cradock's plantation, where he hath impaled a park, where he keeps his cattle, till he can store it with deer. Here likewise he is at charges of build- ing ships. The last year one was upon the stocks of a hundred ton. That being finished they are to build one twice her burden. Ships without either ballast or loading may float down this river. Otherwise the oyster-bank would hinder them which crosseth this channel."
Winnisimmet is the last town Wood describes in Boston Bay, or, as he terms it, the "Still Bay." He then touches at the islands, mentions the first orchard planted on what is now Governor's Island, then passes to the north of the bay in order to describe the remaining plantations of Saugus, Rumney-Marsh (Revere), Salem, Marblehead, Aga- wam (Ipswich), and Merrimack (Newburyport). " These," he says, " be all the towns that were begun when I came for England : which was the l5th of August, 1633."
Wood's account is accompanied by a rude map delineating the coast from Narragansett Bay to Agamentieus, and giving the name and location of the English settlements then begun ; the ponds, rivers, creeks, and bays that had then received English or Indian names. It is not sufficiently accurate to decide nice geographical questions.
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
VII.
FROM 1634 TO THE CLOSE OF THE PEQUOT WAR.
FROM the beginning of the year 1634 until the close of 1637 is embraced a very eventful period in the annals of Massachusetts. Settling funda- mental principles of government, composing eccle- siastical feuds, and marshalling, for the first time, the scanty resources of the colonists for deadly struggle with the Indians, crowd these years with a succession of highly important civil, religious, and military achievements. The infant commonwealth was threatened on all sides, from within and from without ; but it was her destiny to pass through these as well as many subsequent fiery ordeals unscathed.
Winthrop notes, under date of 1633, that many of the Charlestown congregation had become dis- satisfied with Mr. James; and that Nowell and others began to regret their separation from the church at Boston. Within two years the difference had grown to such proportions that the withdrawal of Mr. James became unavoidable. He was suc- ceeded by the teacher, Mr. Symmes.
The General Court, convened on the 14th of May, 1634, fixes an era in the civil government of the colony. Hitherto the governor and assistants had exercised almost arbitrary powers, but these powers were now to be limited and defined. Instead of coming to the court in a body, as formerly, the freemen now deputed two or three persons from each town to act for them, who are subsequently called deputies, and become a co-ordinate repre- sentative branch of the government. Twenty-four deputies having assembled, they first asked to see their charter ; they next had a conference with Governor Winthrop, who warmly advocated pre- serving the old order of things. He was unwilling to delegate the law-making power to representatives fresh from the people ; but would permit them to revise such laws as the Court of Assistants might make, - the delegates to be called together by the governor once in each year for this purpose. The deputies, however, resolved that only the General Court should have power to make and establish laws, elect or appoint the governor, deputy-gov-
ernor, assistants, treasurer, secretary, or military officers, remove them for misdemeanor, or define their powers and duties. It was also resolved that the General Court alone should have power to raise moneys, levy taxes, or dispose of lands. In a word, a clean sweep was made of all except the executive powers ; the people recovered what they had lost by gradual encroachment, indifference, or indiscreet surrender: the governor and assist- ants retained what the charter conferred, and no more.
After these resolutions the court proceeded to elect Dudley governor in the place of Winthrop, and Roger Ludlow deputy. Some changes were made in the assistants. The number of general courts to be held in each year was fixed at four, but this number was soon reduced to two. The legislative body, thus organized, continued with some unimportant changes as long as the charter was retained. The freemen refused to permit the governor and assistants to retain powers not dele- gated by the charter, but themselves assumed oth- ers not expressed by its terms.
It appears that each town sent three deputies to this court. The record does not state what towns were represented, but it is presumed only Newtown, Watertown, Charlestown, Boston, Saugus, Rox- bury, Dorchester, and Salem were present by their deputies, as none of those named came from the other plantations. The names of the first deputies are : William Goodwin, William Spencer, John Tal- cott, of Newtown ; Richard Brown, John Oldham, Robert Feakes, of Watertown; Thomas Beecher, Abraham Palmer, Robert Moulton, of Charlestown ; John Coxeall, Edmund Quincy, Captain John Un- derhill, of Boston ; John Johnson, William Heath, George Alcock, of Roxbury ; Israel Stoughton, William Felpes, George Hull, of Dorchester ; Cap- tain Nathaniel Turner, Thomas Willis, Edward Tomlins, of Saugus; John Holgrave, Roger Conant, Francis Weston, of Salem.
This year the people of Newtown complained that their limits were too narrow, and, there being
59
FROM 1634 TO THE CLOSE OF THE PEQUOT WAR.
no contiguous ungranted land, they desired the court to grant them an nnoccupied tract for en- largement or removal. An exploring party was accordingly sent to Agawam and Merrimack for this purpose. Neither situation appears to liave pleased them ; for later in the season some of the Newtown people went to Connecticut with the same object. On the 4th of September a court assembled at Newtown. Its principal business was to consider the removal of the plantation to Cou- necticut. The session continued a week, and as no decision was then reached, it was adjourned until the 24th, when the court again met. After Mr. Cotton had preached, it again took up the question of removal, which was finally decided in the negative by the vote of a majority of the assistants. The Newtown people then accepted the offer of more land by Watertown and Boston, which gave them the additional territory now in- cluded in the towns of Brookline, Brighton, and in Newton. The Brookline (Muddy River) grant was subsequently forfeited by the removal of Hooker and his congregation, but Newtown held possession of the other tracts.
This adjustment of the question was only tem- porary. Hooker and the larger part of his con- gregation were fully determined on removing to Connecticut, with or without leave of the other members of the colony. Winthrop mentions, under date of November, 1635, the departure by land of about sixty men, women, and little children, with their cows, horses, and swine, who after a tedious and difficult journey arrived safely at their desti- nation. Although he does not say that these emi- grants were of Newtown, we presume such was the fact. He also notes the return to Boston, by vessel, the same winter, of seventy men and women, who were thus rescued from famine. Notwithstanding these events, and the hostile attitude of the Dutch on Connecticut River, Hooker's congregation put its resolution to remove into effect. On the last day of October, 1636, they departed for their promised land. Mrs. Hooker was carried in a horse-litter, and a hundred and sixty cattle were driven before. Their possessions at Newtown were purchased by Rev. Thomas Shepard and others, who arrived in the autumn of 1635 and the spring of 1636.
In the summer of 1634 a question of serious embarrassment arose. The previous year had wit- nessed an order of the king in council prohibiting the departure of certain ships then getting ready to sail for New England. Upon petition by the
shipmasters these vessels were allowed to depart ; but what was of infinitely greater consequence to the Massachusetts Colony, ex-Governor Cradock was, by the same order, commanded to bring its charter before the council. The governor wrote over to the colony for its return, and thus one of the questions which originally determined its trans- fer to New England confronted those holding places under it. The withdrawal of that instru- ment, the appointment of a governor by the king, was the perpetual nightmare of the chiefs of the colony. After a long and anxious consultation, answer was returned to Mr. Cradock that the royal letters-patent could only be sent out of the colony by an act of the General Court, which body would not assemble until September, it then being in July. Time was thus gained, and it was hoped the king's mandate would be allowed to slumber. The demand was, however, peremptorily renewed and as often evaded, until the affairs of the king- dom withdrew attention from New England.
When the court did assemble, after settling the Newtown removal controversy, a levy of £ 600 was made on the plantations to be applied to fortifica- tions. One of the newly arrived ships brought a copy of the commission granted to the two arch- bishops and ten of the council to regulate all plan- tations, to call in all patents, to make laws, raise titles and portions for ministers, to remove and punish governors, and to hear and determine all causes and inflict all punishments, even to the death penalty. This plenary power, the colonists were advised, was levelled at them: ships and soldiers were said to be preparing in England to bring over a royal governor and to give effect to the much dreaded commission. The work of erecting fortifications was hastened. A solemn consultation between the magistrates and ministers resulted in the determination to defend themselves against these innovations by force if there was a prospect of success, and to temporize if there were none. Only in the fourth year of its existence, the colony now stood on the verge of open rebellion : and while thus in daily apprehension of the total subversion of the government, an act coming little short of rebellion was performed.
At the November court complaint was made by Richard Brown of Watertown that the colony flag had been defaced at Salem by cutting out part of the red cross. No action was taken at this court, but at the next, Endicott, the old governor, was called to answer for the defacement. The alleged
60
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
cause for the act was that the cross was an emblem of Popery. Opinion being divided, the cause was again postponed ; and in the mean time the newly created military commission ordered all the ensigns to be laid aside.
At the next court, which was one of election, John Haynes was chosen governor and Richard Bellingham deputy-governor. Endicott was left out of the number of assistants; and being again called upon to defend his mutilating the ensign, was reprimanded and disqualified from holding office for a year. To allay the excitement grow- ing out of this affair, it was seriously proposed to substitute the red and white rose for the cross in the colors. The military commission afterwards, in the exercise of its powers, left out the cross in the colors borne by the colony troops, and caused a flag having the king's arms to be raised over the castle in Boston harbor. This leads us to ob- serve that the fathers of the colony were making rapid strides towards independence. They had established a church different from that of the kingdom, refused to tolerate the only form of re- ligious worship recognized by the laws of their country, disobeyed a royal mandate, and at length exercised the sovereignty of an independent state by adopting a flag of their own.
In November, 1634, a Pequot warrior arrived at Boston to solicit the friendship of the whites for his people. The envoy brought two bundles of sticks to signify how many beaver and other skins his tribe would give to secure that friendship. This messenger was followed by others, who renewed the application for a treaty of amity. They desired the friendship or nentrality of the English as against the Narragansetts, with whom the Pcquots were at war. The English at once demanded, as a preliminary, the surrender of the Indians who had killed some Englishmen on the Connecticut River. This was agreed to. The Pequots also consented to yield Connecticut to the English rather than to have the Dutch take it from them by force. The alliance was formally concluded by an exchange of presents. The Eng- lish were not bound by it to defend the Pequots against their enemies, but only to stand neutral, and to supply them with English goods. In fact, it was a treaty of commerce and neutrality.
As reference has been made to the military com- mission, a brief explanation of the nature of its powers and duties is deemed necessary. The order establishing it named the governor and deputy,
Winthrop, Humphrey, Haynes, Endicott, Pynchon, Nowell, Bellingham, and Bradstreet as members. This commission controlled absolutely all the mili- tary affairs of the colony. Not only was it charged with the execution of existing laws, it was in- vested with the war-making power, with authority to call out and to command the colony forces, to frame the oath they should take, and finally to inflict the death penalty when it should become necessary.
Upon no other hypothesis, except that the re- lations of the colony with the mother country were considered extremely critical, can such an ex- traordinary surrender of power - and by a people, too, who had so recently shown such jealousy of their magistrates' assumptions- be explained. The commission was not created to take cognizance of Indian affairs. Peace existed with the Narragan- setts, and had only just been concluded with the Pequots ; peace was not threatened in any other quarter. The demand to yield up that freedom for which they had endured so much, to bow their necks to the old yoke of ecclesiastical despotism, was producing its legitimate results. The colonists began to look upon England as a possible enemy ; to measure their own feeble strength with the re- sources of the empire; and, very likely, the idea of separation was already germinating in some minds.
The court authorizing this commission and the subsequent court of election were held at Newtown, which appears to have shared with Boston the honor of being the capital, -probably from the circumstance of Dudley's residence. It was also the residence of Bradstreet, and of Haynes, whose election to the office of governor, only the second year after his arrival in the colony, testifies to the high consideration in which he was held. These early courts were, according to tradition, sometimes held in the open air, under the spreading branches of an oak which formerly stood on the northerly side of Cambridge Common. That this was not always the practice is evident from Winthrop's interesting account of the method of procedure at the election of Haynes in 1635. He says that the governor and deputy were chosen by ballots on which the candidates' names were written. In choosing the assistants the governor nominated a person, after which the deputies all left the room and subsequently came in by another door, when each dropped his ballot into a hat. No names were written on the ballots for assistants. The
ESTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
Williams baffling Peqnot Emissaries.
63
FROM 1634 TO THE CLOSE OF THIE PEQUOT WAR.
negative votes were blank : the affirmative had some mark or scroll to distinguish them.
The first steps towards creating a code of laws appear to have been taken by this court; a com- mittee being appointed for this object to act in conjunction with certain of the ministers. The result of their labors was to be submitted to the General Court. In connection with this move- ment for a body of laws, it should be mentioned that the first grand jury was created in this year ; and at the court which assembled in September it presented over one hundred causes, some of the magistrates being of the number of offenders.
New plantations began to spring up, the narrow zone of settlements to extend itself more and more into the wilderness. In March, 1633, John Win- throp, Jr., with twelve others, began the English settlement at Agawam, which was in August, 1634, named Ipswich, from the port in England whence many of the colonists had departed for New England. In 1635 the old settlement of Wessaguscus was formally recognized as a planta- tion, though it does not appear to have so early received its present name of Weymouth. The same year some of the Ipswich settlers began to be " straitened," and obtained leave to " sit down " at Quascacnnquen, which was made a town and named Newbury. The people of Watertown and of Roxbury were also given leave to remove to any place they might select within the government.
At the September court leave was granted Mr. Buckly (Rev. Peter Bulkely) and about twelve more families to begin a town at Musketaquid. They were granted six miles upon the river (Mus- ketaquid) and freedom from taxation for three years. The settlement was called Concord. To expedite its establishment the magistrates of the nearest towns were required to impress teams to transport the proposing settlers' goods. The Indian title to Concord was obtained by purchase of the Squaw Sachem, queen of the tribes inhab- iting this region. The toil and suffering endured by those who first settled among the tangled thickets of Musketaquid are feelingly depicted by Edward Johnson in his Wonder-Working Provi- dence.
This was the first inland town settled. The inhabitants first built on the south side of the hill extending from the public square to Meriam's Corner. The formation of a church did not take place until the following year, and it was not then gathered at Concord, but at Newtown, Mr. Bulkely
and Mr. John Jones, two English ministers, being appointed for the purpose. Owing to what was conceived to be a want of proper respect paid to them, neither the governor nor the deputy attended at the ceremony, although both were invited. It was a year later (1637) before the church organi- zation was completed by the formal choice of Bulkely for teacher and Jones as pastor. Even then Governor Vane, Cotton, Wheelwright, and the leading spirits of the Boston church refused the approbation of their presence to the new con- gregation because the orthodoxy of the two clergy- men was more than questioned. The ordination took place at Newtown.
The same year that the grant to Concord was made a town was begun above the falls of Charles River at what was subsequently Dedham. These continual shiftings of population during the first ten years not only seriously retarded growth in the original towns, but continually changed their relative rank in the colony. Newtown, which had acquired importance from the high character of its original settlers, was wellnigh depopulated. Watertown was seriously crippled. The ambition of some, the greed of others, and the alleged over- crowding of the coast towns, all contributed to this result.
Two notable arrivals are now to be mentioned : that of John Winthrop, Jr., who came back from England with a commission from Lords Say and Brook to be governor of Connecticut ; and that of Henry Vane, then only twenty-three years old, but whose eventful and romantic career has employed many famous pens. One of Vane's first recorded acts was the attempt, in conjunction with the cele- brated Hugh Peters, to heal the old feud between the followers of Winthrop and Dudley, which was always smouldering, always ready to break out afresh upon any new cause of disturbance. We remark with surprise the deference thus early paid to young Vane by men who were his superiors in knowledge of affairs, in experience, and in judg- ment, to say nothing of the wisdom which age is supposed to bring. The conference censured Winthrop mildly for his disposition to relax the severity of the laws, or, in other words, for his habitual clemency to offenders. Winthrop humbly accepted the reproof as just, and promised to con- form his own acts with the expressed judgment of the majority.
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