USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. II > Part 7
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The Indians having almost deserted their plan- tation, the English began to move into it, some by right of purchase, others without any right, and
45
LITTLETON.
the neighboring towns, especially Groton, began to appropriate the land. In 1682 the County Court of Middlesex appointed a committee " to run the ancient bounds of Nashobey," who reported that Groton had taken into their bounds nearly half the Indian plantation ; also that the northwest corner of Nashobah had, according to the statement of Gro- ton men, encroached on their town to the extent of three hundred and fifty acres.
June 15, 1686, Colonel Peter Bulkley of Con- cord and Major Thomas Henchman of Chelmsford bought of Keehonowsquaw, daughter of John Tahattawan, and other Indians, for the sum of £70, one half of Nashobah plantation, lying on the east side. It was laid out in the following January by Jonathan Danforth, whose plan shows the whole plantation. It was a nearly square quadrilateral, bounded northerly by Groton, east- erly by Chelmsford, southerly by Concord, westerly by Stow, the' sides being about four miles in length : its position may be determined by the four corners,
peking lautaret
This parcell contames the one half of Nafholah plantation, laidout. 2. 10 ?! 1686. by Jonath: Danforth Surveys
2. mile, groaton Kling 2 mil
Rolling
yoxooffrir fine xune sonth, y lege -east:
naples.It
3. mile, & half a move , long .
xeonk. H
Nafhelath. the indian part
......
A mile,
pompsitticut line
. zu!" 412 poli," mile & three quarters.
(COPY.) " This parcell of land is bounded by Concord Town bounds southward two mile &- three quarters, eastward by Chelmsford bounds three mile & a halfe, & Northward by goodm Robbins & peligg laurance, two mile, westward bounded by ye remainder of Nashoba plantation three mile & a halfe, &- something more, & this last line runs southy 7 degr. & & east, there being 2 maples marked H for ye N. W corner & a red-oak mark't H for the south west corner.
EXPLANATION. - The dotted lines show the original plan; the straight lines the present bounds.
which were, as nearly as can be ascertained, the present corner on Brown Hill, a pine-tree ncar the house of the late Barnabas Dodge, the southwest end of Nagog Pond, and a point in the neighbor- hood of Boxborough town-house. Previous to
this the Indians had sold a part of the plantation, lying north of the Bulkley and Henchman tract, to Peleg Lawrence and Robert Robbins of Gro- ton. These sales did not (as some have assumed) join the land to the towns in which the purchasers lived.
That the fertile meadows of Nashobah should lie unclaimed was, as before intimated, too much for the itching palms of the neighboring people of Con- cord, Chelmsford, Stow, and Lancaster, who first severally, and then jointly, petitioned the General Court for parts or the whole of the land, urging various and weighty reasons why they should have it, not the least of which was that Groton people, who were quietly appropriating, without leave or license, all they could lay hands on, were getting more than their share. An investigating com- mittee, appointed in answer to the joint petition, reported, November 2, 1711, the bounds of the plantation about the same as laid down by Jona- than Danforth in 1686, and stated that Groton had "run into Nashobah so as to take out near one half and the bigest part of the meadows." They further state that the plantation contained about seven thousand nine hundred and forty acres. They recommended that the place be made a town- ship, with some addition from Concord and Chelmsford, stating that there were already five families settled in Groton's claim, ten in the re- mainder of the plantation, and three on Powers' farm, adjoining.
The few surviving Indian proprietors, nearly all of whom lived in Natick, had then sold the re- mainder of their land ; one half, a strip about a mile wide and four miles long, having been pur- chased by Walter Powers of Concord, May 9, 1694, for £15; and the other half, of the same dimensions, by Josiah Whitcomb of Lancaster, May 10, 1701.
The following act of incorporation was passed by the General Court Tuesday, November 2, 1714 (O. S.) : " Upon consideration of the sev11 Petitions & Claims relating to the Land called Nashoba Land. Ordered, That the said Nashoba Land be made a Township with the Addition of such ad- joining Lands of the Neighboring Towns whose owners shall Petition for that end & this Court shall think fit to grant. That ye sª Naslioba Lands having been long since Purchased of ye Indians by M' Bulkley & Hinchman one halfe, the other halfe by Whetcomb & Powers, that ye sª Purchase be confirmed to ye Children of ye sª
·
46
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
Bulkley, Whetcomb & Powers & to Cap'n Rob- ert Mears as assignee of Maj Hinchman, ac- cording to their respective Proportions. Reserv- ing to ye inhabitants who have settled within those bounds their settlements, with divisions of Land in Proportion to ye grautees & such as shall here- after be admitted, ye sª Occupants or present in- habitants Paying proportion as others shall pay for their alotments. Provided ye sª Plantation be Settled with Thirty-five familys & an Orthodox Minister in three years time.
" And yt five Hundred acres of Land be Reserved and layd out for ye benefit of any of ye Desend- ants of ye Indian proprietors of ye sª Plantation that may be surviving, a Proportion whereof to be for Sarah Dublet alias Sarah Indian, the Revrend Mr John Levret & Spencer Phips esq" to be trustees for ye sª Indians to take care of ye sª Reserved to their use.
" And it is farther ordered yt Cap'n Hopestill Browne M' Timothy Wiley and M' Joseph Bur- nap of Reading be a Committee to lay out ye sª five hundred acres of Land reserved for ye Indians & to runn ye line between Groaton & Nashoba at ye Charge of both partyes & make Report to this Court & however the line may divide ye land with re- gard to ye Townships yet ye Proprietors on either side may be continued in ye possession of their im- provements paying as afore sª, & no mans Legal rite or Property in ye sª Lands is hereby infringed."
The grantees drew up a paper agreeing to throw all the land in common and draw out their several proportions, admitting as associates Paul Dudley, Esq., Addington Davenport, Esq., and Mr. John White, all of Boston. The paper is signed by Addington Davenport, Jona. Prescott, Walter Pow- ers, Jno. White, John Hancock, Josiah Whet- comb, Joseph Bulkley, Daniel Powers, William Powers, Robert Robbins, Robert Mears, John Bulkley, Increase Powers, Isaac Powers, Paul Dudley, Thos. Powers, and Eleazer Laurance.
Of these original proprietors, a few lived in the town, the majority in the adjoining towns. The committee above mentioned made a report upon the Groton bounds, which they decided were the original ones, and though rather indefinitely stated, were probably the same as laid down by Jonathan Danforth and by a former committee of the Gen- eral Court.
The five hundred acres for the Indians were laid out in the southeast corner of the town as it was then, taking in parts of Nagog and Fort Ponds.
The latter is so called from an Indian fort, which once stood near its shores, and part of it Speen's End, from an Indian of that name. There are many other things to indicate that quarter of the town as a favorite one with the red men; it is now called Newtown, a name probably given to it about 1734, when, by sale from the last survivor, it came into the possession of white men.
The name Littleton was given to the town by act of the General Court, December 3, 1715 (a date which has been erroneously given for the incorporation), as a compliment, it is said, to the Hon. George Lyttleton, M. P., one of the commis- sioners of the treasury, in return for which the noble gentleman presented the town with a church bell ; but on account of an error in spelling, by substituting "i" for "y," the present was with- held, with the excuse that no such town as Lyttle- ton could be found, and was sold by the person having it in charge. The first recorded town- meeting, for the choice of officers, was held March 13, 1715-16; the selectmen chosen were Samnel Dudley, John Perrum, John Cobleigh, Moses Whit- ney, and William Powers. On the 9th of May following, the Rev. Benjamin Shattuck, A. M., was chosen minister for the town, at a salary of £55 a year, to advance 20s a year until it amounted to £70.
Mr. Shattuck was born in Watertown, July 30, 1678, graduated at Harvard College in 1709, and for six years following was teacher of the gram- mar and English school in Watertown, studying for the ministry in the meantime. He was or- dained the first minister of Littleton, December 25, 1717, and continued this connection until August 24, 1730, when it was agreed, by mutual consent, that a council be called for his dismission. He continued to reside in the town, in the house now owned by Mrs. Eliza Hartwell, until his death in 1763.
The first meeting-house - which we may imag- ine a rough, barn-like structure, without bell . or steeple, with doors on the east, south, and west sides - stood on the Old Common, in front of the house of John B. Robinson, where it was located to accommodate those Concord and Chelmsford families who worshipped in it. Reference is made to a meeting-house in 1717, and it is probable that the building was in an unfinished condition at the time of Mr. Shattuck's ordination, and re- mained incomplete until the year 1723.
Numerous attempts were made to have the
47
LITTLETON.
above-mentioned families, among whom were those of Walter and John Powers, David Russell, and John Merriam, of Concord, living on Nashoba Farm, and six families of Chelmsford annexed to Littleton. They were for several years freed from their ministers' rates in the towns to which they belonged, and finally, in 1725, the General Court granted the petition for annexation, as far as it related to the Concord families ; and a large tract of land, -that earliest settled by white men, - extending from Nagog Pond nearly to the Old Common, was added to the town, enlarging the bounds in that direction to their present position.
There was probably more of a village in that neighborhood then than now; the first burying- ground, some years since ploughed up, was there, on the Reed farm ; and a little farther east, in the woods, may be seen a well-preserved dam and mill- site beside the brook.
Within the first score of years after the incor- poration there were laid out a great many roads, the most of them mere paths, marked by blazed trees, following very tortuous and entirely different routes from the present ; the road from Chelmsford to Groton, for instance, was through the Old Com- mon, across Turkey Swamp and Beaver Brook to Mr. Charles P. Hartwell's, then through the New Estate, turning eastward to the Mill Pond, and then westward through Pingreyville. The first road to Newtown started from the Old Common, a short distance east of the late Captain Luther White's. The object in laying them out seems to have been to pass every one of the few scattered houses, rather than to go direct.
Sparsely settled as the town was, a great excite- ment was aronsed in the year 1720, by an accusa- tion of witchcraft brought by three little girls, - daughters of Thomas Blanchard, living on or near Mr. Elbridge Marshall's farm, - against Mrs. Abigail Dudley, an estimable woman, the wife of Samuel Dudley, the first town-clerk. The death of Mrs. Dudley in August, resulting from an acci- dent, put an end to the excitement and to the strange and unaccountable actions of the children, who confessed in later years that they told and acted a most diabolical lie. This was the last attempt in the country to revive the horrors of Salem.
The proprietors of Littleton held meetings sepa- rate from the citizens and kept separate records until the year 1755. The last lot of common land, some one thousand acres, lying mostly in the north-
ern part of the town, was divided in 1730, when the name New Estate was probably first applied.
About the year 1732 the town of Stow brought a claim against the proprietors of Littleton for a large tract of land now part of Boxborough, and relinquished it only upon the adverse decision of a lawsuit lasting many years.
After an interim of nearly two years from the time of Rev. Mr. Shattuck's dismission the Rev. Daniel Rogers, " son of ye worshipfull Mr. Danl. Rogers, Esq.," was ordained minister of the town March 15, 1731-32. He graduated at Harvard College in 1725, and before coming to Littleton preached at Byfield.
With a change of ministers the town began to talk of building a new meeting-house, and it was decided that the location be changed to the Ridge Hill, as the centre of the town was called ; accord- ingly in 1740 the town built their second meeting- house, forty by fifty feet in dimension with twenty- three feet posts, on the site of the present First Church (Unitarian).
It was customary for the men and women to sit separately in meeting, and to choose a committee once a year to assign the seats to the men accord- ing to what each paid, considering also " age and dignity." General dissatisfaction and an order for a new seating was often the result of the commit- tee's first effort. At March meeting, 1742-43, the town voted "To cut up six feet of the two hind seats on the women's side next the alley to erect a pew at the town's cost for (Rev.) Mr. Shattuck and his wife so long as either of them live in town."
January 4, 1738-39, the General Court granted the petition of Peleg Lawrence and others of Groton to be set off with their estates to Littleton, and the town bounds were then extended in that direction from the original Nashobah north line to the pres- ent bounds between Groton and Littleton.
The desire for political honors does not seem to have possessed the people of this town to any great extent in the olden time, for it was only when some measure directly affecting the town, like a change of bounds, was to come before the court that it was thought worth while to send a representative, to which the town was entitled once in a certain number of years, and pay his expenses.
The town was repeatedly fined for not being represented, in consequence of which a represen- tative would be chosen the following year for the sole purpose, apparently, of getting the fine re-
48
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
mitted, in which they were generally successful. On one occasion the town voted to send a repre- sentative if any one would go on half-pay, and on another if any one would go for £12. Captain Isaac Powers accepted the offer, and was accord- ingly elected without opposition.
In the year 1749 wolves were so plenty and troublesome that the town offered, in connection with some of the adjoining towns, a bounty for their heads in addition to that offered by the prov- ince, with the stipulation that the wolves' ears be cut off to prevent a second claim for bounty on the same head.
Until almost modern times it was customary to vote at every March meeting whether the swine should go at large during the ensuing year. Al- most invariably previous to 1800, and occasionally after that, the swine were allowed to roam at will, provided each one had a ring in his nose, which it was the duty of the hog-reeves to insert, to prevent rooting.
The discontent at the oppression of British taxa- tion found expression in town-meeting at Littleton March 5, 1770, the day of the Boston Massacre, as follows : -
" Voted the following Persons a committee to consider of some proper Measures for the Town to Come into with Regard to the non-importation of Goods, viz. Sam" Tut- tle, Leonard Whiting, Sam" Rogers, Robert Harris, Nathan Raymond who made report of the following Resolves which the Town Voted to accept.
" The Grievous Impositions the Inhabitants of the british Colonies have long suffered from their Mother Country strongly claim their attention to every legal Method for their Removal.
"We esteem the Measures already proposed, viz. the withdrawing our Trade from Great Britain both economi- cal & effectual, We therefore Vote
" Ist That we will not (knowingly) directly or Indirectly purchase any british Goods that have been or may be im- ported contrary to the patriotic agreement of the Mer- chants of the Town of Boston.
2's If any Inhabitant of this Town of Littleton shall be known to purchase any article of any Importer of Goods contrary to the aforest agreament or of any one who shall purchase of any such Importer he shall suffer our high Displeasure and Contempt.
31 That the same Committee be also a Committee to Inspect the Conduct of all Buyers & Sellers & to report the names of all (if any such there shall be) who violate the true spirit and Intention of the aforegoing Votes and Reso- lutions, to the Towne at their next Meeting.
4by Voted that we will not drink or purchase any foreign Tea howsoever imported untill a general Importation of british Goods shall take Place."
The resolutions were published in the Boston
Gazette of March 12. In the same year the town purchased a bell for the meeting-house, but there being no steeple, the bell was hung on a frame sep- arate from the building. The committee to bny it reported that they had purchased a " Bell manufac- tured in this Province " at a cost of £78 0s. 93 d.
December 31, 1772, the town met to consider a letter and pamphlet on the subject of the times, re- ceived from the town of Boston, and chose a com- mittee on it. A conservative majority reported, February 1, that the town take no action in the matter. The report was rejected and a draft of a reply accepted, asserting confidence in the Britishı constitution, but ealling upon the General Court to make an effort to remove the consequences of certain acts of parliament endangering the peace and security of the Province and to restore confi- dence between England and her colonies. As this reply was considered by some not strong enough, it was withheld until after the March meeting, when it was amended, and a more extended list of grievances added. It is noticeable that about this time a change took place in the administration of town affairs. Several men who had held prominent town offices but who were quite conservative, and some even inclined to toryism, were very suddenly left in retirement, and those chosen in their places who took active parts in the Revolutionary War.
In the Middlesex Convention of August 31, 1774, there were from Littleton Captain Josiah Hartwell, Oliver Hoar, and Daniel Rogers, Jr. September 26, Robert Harris was chosen a delegate to the Provincial Congress to be held at Salem, and Abel Jewett to the one to be held at Concord.
The alarm of April 19, 1775, reached Littleton, and was quickly responded to by Lieutenant Aquila Jewett's company of militia, numbering four officers and forty-two men, who marched to Concord, where some of the men dropped out, while the rest followed the enemy probably to Cambridge, as they marched twenty-six miles. Undoubtedly many others not belonging to an organized com- pany went as volunteers.
The following month the town voted to purchase a number of fire-arms with bayonets, and it is probable that a new company of minute-men was formed, as we find the following paper bearing date of June 18, 1775 : -
" We the Subscribers having Received ammuni- tion ont of the Town Stock of said Town, Do prom- ise to Keep & Return the same again into said Stock Except obliged to use the same in Defence
49
LITTLETON.
of our Rights and Privileges when callª By an alarm "; signed by thirty-six men, with the amount of powder, bullets, and flints delivered to each.
Among the rolls of the army at Cambridge, Au- gust 1, we find still another company in which nine officers, including the captain, Samuel Gilbert, and twenty-five men, were from Littleton, with others from neighboring towns.
To trace the men from this town throughout the war would take too much space; suffice it to say that the writer has collected the names of one hun- dred and forty-seven men who served at various times. The smoke from the burning of Charles- town, June 17, was distinctly seen at Littleton, and caused great alarm.
June 17, 1776, a few days before the Decla- ration of Independence, the town voted that "If tlc Honorable Congress should for the Safety of the Colonies Declare them Independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain the Inhabitants of Lit- tleton engage to support them in the measure."
The selectmen this year were Jonathan Reed, William Henry Prentice, Aaron Jewett, Abel Fletcher, and Jeremiah Cogswell.
Strenuous measures were taken to make men declare themselves whether loyal to the cause of the colonies or not; and, if not, they were either guarded or forbidden to leave their premises.
It is related that one day a squad of soldiers under command of an officer called upon Rev. Mr. Rogers, who lived where Mr. James Hussey now lives, to come out and declare himself ; he did not appear, and several shots were fired which passed through the front door and panels to the staircase, upon which Mr. Rogers was standing. He then came out and made declaration. The bullet-holes may be seen yet, though the house has been moved. Notwithstanding this incident, Mr. Rogers was much beloved and respected by his people, and throughout his long ministry the utmost harmony apparently existed in the church. In January, 1776, being old, lie asked a dismission, but it was refused; at the same time it was decided to give him a col- league.
Rev. Edmund Foster was ordained January 17, 1781, and succeeded to the ministry on the death of Mr. Rogers, in November, 1782. Mr. Foster was born at North Reading, Massachusetts, April 18, 1752, and was left an orphan when seven years old ; he worked his way through Yale College, and afterwards studied for the ministry. Both Harvard and Yale conferred honorary degrees. upon him.
While a divinity student he shouldered his musket and went to face the enemy at Concord and Lex- ington. He represented his district both in the senate and house after the war of 1812 (in which three of his sons held commissions) ; on one occa- sion preached the election sermon, and was a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1820. He died March 28, 1826, in the forty-sixth year of his ministry. His ministry can hardly be called a peaceful one ; he was settled not without opposi- tion, partly on account of which the movement for a new parish was started, which resulted in the for- mation, in 1783, of the district of Boxborough, taking from Littleton a large corner; then the bur- dens of the war, which altogether cost the town £126,172 16s. 10d. in money of various values, bore so heavily upon the people that they found it difficult to pay Mr. Foster's salary, and he was obliged, on one occasion, to sue for it.
The meeting-house was out of repair, and after much discussion and many votes, afterwards recon- sidered, it was voted decisively, December 31, 1792, to build a new house on the same spot, and the town proceeded to erect their third meeting- house, " 40 × 55 feet with a steeple and porches "; it was finished in the summer of 1794. It was evidently considered a grand affair, and from all accounts was really quite an imposing building. It was provided with a new bell in 1808.
Of Littleton's record in the war of 1812 little is known, the town records not making the least allu- sion to the war. A number of men from the town served in the war, but how many the writer is un- able to state.
December 4, 1815, Rev. Mr. Foster preached a century sermon on the history of the town, an able and interesting discourse, which has been fre- quently referred to in writing this article. It is unfortunate that it was delivered a year too late for the true centennial anniversary. From the sermon we learn that the post-office at that time was on the " great road," as it is called, probably at the "long store," now the dwelling-house of Mr. Ralph Parker.
About 1818 or 1820 the peace of the church was disturbed by the presence of preachers from abroad, who held meetings in the interest of va- rious denominations. Among them was one from Andover Theological Seminary, sent, it is said, with the special purpose of drawing members away from Mr. Foster's church, on account of his active opposition, while in the legislature, to the bill to
50
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
oblige all ministers to have a license from that in- stitution. Mr. Foster had ruling elders appointed to assist him in bringing back to communion those who absented themselves to hear the " itinerant and disorderly preachers." He sometimes at- tended the meetings himself to refute the speakers, and on one occasion, announcing that he was the minister of the town, took the chair and dismissed the meeting.
Rev. Benjamin Willard preached at various times, from 1820 to 1823, in the interest of the Baptist denomination, and March 14, 1821, a so- ciety was organized with twelve members. Mr. Foster ruled his people with a rod of iron, and not one was allowed to leave the church to join the new society without a vote of public censure.
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