USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 110
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William Johnson io his time attained to higher civic office thao any other citizen of Woburo. He was one of the olagistrates or assistants, 88 they were called, of the Colony, and a military officer of the several ranks to that of major, and, at the risk of imprisonment, resisted the spirit of royal aggression in the days 'of Andros. He was a man of ability, and the records he has left are examples of better English than that in the famous work of his more celebrated father.
James Converse, died 1706, aged 61 ; sergeant iu Woburo company 1674-87 ; eusigo, 1689 ; captaio, mainly in the Colony service, 1689-92 ; major, 1693-1706. His military reputation is greater than that of any other Woburn man of his period. He was in the country service, asit was termed, for three years as a captain, 1690-92, jo the war against the Eastern Indians, and as an officer in the Colony forces stationed in that section commanded the well-known Storer's garrison-house at Wells. With a very small force he defeuded that place hravely and successfully, and with slight loss, against a much superior force of French and Io- dians, after a siege of several days, in 1692. For his gallant conduct oo that occasion he was promoted major in 1693. His gravestone in Wo- burn first burying-gronud presents the titles of both "Major " and " Esquire" in connection with his name.
Lieutenants.
James Converse, died 1715, aged 95, the last survivor of the sigoers of the original towu orders for Woburn of 1640 ; sergeant in Woburu com- pany, 1658-72; ensigo, 1672-88 ; lieutenant, 1688-1715. He is styled "Lieutenant" on his gravestone in Woburn first hurying-ground.
John Wymao, died 1684, aged ahont 63 ; sergeant, 1672 ; cornet, 1675 ; lieutenant, 1675-84 ; officer, cornet aud lieutenant in Captain Thomas Prentice's troop ; in active service in Philip's War; in the famous Nar- ragansett campaign, which ended in the Fort Fight, where his sou, a member of his command, was killed, and he himself was wounded during a sconting foray by an Indian arrow which hit him in the face.
Thomas Fuller, died 1698, aged 80; sergeant (Woburo), 1656 and 1685 ; lientecant, 1685-86. He married the widow of Lieutenant John Wy- man ; resided much of the time elsewhere, and died in that part of Salem now Middleton, Mass. See N. E. Hist, Gen. Reg. xiii. 351.
Gershom Flagg, killed in battle with the Indians July 6, 1690, at Wheelwright's Pond, jo Lee, N. H., aged 49 ; lieutenant, 1690, wbeo killed. His captain, Wiswall, and his towasman, Sergeant Edward Walker, and others were slaio at same time.
James Fowle, died 1690, aged 49 ; lieutenant, 1690; " Lientenant " on gravestone in Woburn first burying-ground.
John Richardson, died 1697, aged 58 ; lieutenant, 1690-97 ; " Lieuten- ant" ou stone in the first burying. ground.
Henry Summers, died 1724 ; licensed to keep an ordinary in Woburn 1682 ; lieutenant, 1690-94.
Joseph Pierce, died 1716, aged 67; " Lient." in record of decease; corporal, 1690; lieutenant, 1690-1716.
Ensigns.
Samuel Walker, died 1704, aged G1 ; corporal, 1683-84 ; sergeant, 1684- 90 ; ensign, 1690-92 ; became a deacon in 1692, and was styled " Dea- con" on his gravestone in Woburn first burying-ground. The father of this Samuel Walker was another Samuel Walker, who was styled captain, 1683, and probably obtained that title elsewhere than in Wo- burn. He was the first person licensed in Woburn to keep a tavern, ou site of late Daniel Richardsou's place, und died in 1684, aged about 70.
Joseph Winn, died 1715; " Ensign " in record of decease ; ensign, 1691-1715.
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Cornet.
William Green, died 1717, aged 66; corporal of cavalry, 1675-76, in Philip's War. On June 1, 1677, Corporal William Green was appointed by the General Court cornet of the Three County Troop. Colony Records, v. 151.
Quartermaster.
Isaac Brooks, died 1686 ; appointed quartermaster of the Three County Troop, June 1, 1677, of which Corporal William Green was also ap- pointed cornet. Colony Records, v. 151. Quartermaster in tax lists, 1684-85. The troop of which he was a member paraded with other militia at Charlestown on October 5, 1685. Sewall's Diary, cited in Frothingham's Charlestown, 185-86.
Sergeants.
John Tidd, died 1657 ; sergeant, 1646; the first citizen of Woburn named by military title in the records.
Jamee Parker, removed from Woburn about 1652; sergeant, 1649-51 ; attained higher office elsewhere.
Samuel Converse, accidentally killed at Woburn, 1669; sergeant, 1669.
Thomas Pierce, died 1683 ; sergeant, 1669-82.
Henry Baldwin, died 1698 ; sergeant, 1672-85.
Increase Winn, first child born and recorded in Woburn ; sergeant in record of decease, 1690.
Edward Walker, sergeant in Wiswall's company iu active military service, 1690 ; killed on Sunday, July 6, 1690, in battle with the In- dians at Wheelwright's Pond, in Lee, N. H., at same time when the cap- tain, Wiswall, the lieutenant, Gershom Flagg, of Woburn, and others were slain also. Two companies nf English, it nppears, were scouting under Captains Floyd aud Wiswall, when, coming upon a party of In- dians, a bloody engagement ensued, in which fifteen of the English were killed and several wounded.
Corporal.
Thomas Pierce, corporal, 1683.
Of the officers mentioned in the preceding list some had been soldiers in Philip's War. This war bore heavily on the colony in taxes and men, and was the principal war of that period. A list of the men who served in this war is given in the appended notes, also an account of the killing of such persons, few in num- ber, in the town itself, whose deaths were a result of that war; and of the killing of one person by an Indian a few years previous to that war.
So far as ascertained, Woburn's casualties in the | holsters, breastplate and crouper."
Narragansett campaign, or the principal campaign of Philip's War, were one man, John Wyman, Jr., killed outright, and seven men wounded. The names of all these appear in the following list. The family of Wyman suffered in the persons of all its members engaged in the war, a father, son and nephew. The father was slightly wounded, the son was killed and the nephew died soon after his return. All endured the rigors of a campaign in the depth of winter. The total number of names discovered is eighty-three. Woburn furnished a noticeably large proportion of the cavalry arm-twenty-one, about a quarter of the whole. Her losses in the cavalry were one killed, three wounded. Cavalry officers furnished, one lieutenant, two corporals ; and thirteen men from the town were sent in the ranks of one company of infantry to the battle-field.
NOTE .- In our researches on this chapter, we have examined the Woburn records, the printed colony records, and a valnable and scarce copy of the colony laws printed in 1672, and belonging to the Woburn
Public Library; also the Mem. Hist. of Boston, and other works and mannscripts. Owing to the in- sufficiency of data, the years given do not in all in- stances illustrate the precise length of the service of an officer, though the rank is definitely given.
Thirty years ago John L. Parker, in Woburn Budget, Oct. 28, Nov. 4-25, 1859, wrote a sketch of the mili- tary history of Woburn, from 1789 to 1859, based on record-books and recollections of men formerly connected with it. The subject from the close of the Revolution to the opening of the Civil War was fairly well covered by these articles, and little can be added of value.
In the Indian wars Woburn men were found scat- tered throughout the settlements in garrisons, and as members of expeditions of more or less account in the country's annals. If to these the names of many natives who had found homes in other places were added, the number would be very large. The diffi- culty of procuring data is prodigious, and much is still hidden which the future may bring to light.
For an account of the militia at the opening of . Philip's War, see' N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg., xxxvii. 75-76. The local companies were not sent on active service out of their towns, but men were impressed from them and placed under officers appointed for special service by the Council. Besides the commis- sioned officers, each foot-company had a clerk, ser- geants, corporals and drummers. A less number than was required for a company was, by a law of 1652, to choose a sergeant and other inferior officers. Cavalry corps had, besides their usual officers, a trumpeter and a quartermaster, and on special service the number of men in a command of any sort was greater than the regular number. Part of the outfit of a Wohurn trooper of the period is given in the inventory of William Simonds in 1672, viz., "a pair of pistols,
An account of the early militia system of Massa- chusetts is also given in an article of some length in the Proc. Worcester Soc. Antiquity, 1888, pp. 105-27.
The theory and practice of the military art as un- derstood by the fathers of New England is set forth with curious minuteness in Markham's Epistles of Warre (Lond. 1622), a work of which a copy is to be found in the Woburn Public Library. It contains a dissertation on the duties of every officer from a lance-corporal to a general; nor are the lesser posi- tions, such as those of sentinels and rounders, clerks and harbingers, or drummers and fifers, omitted in the treatise. From this work weascertain that the lowest of all officers was the lanspesado, or lance-corporal, the deputy of a corporal, the leader of a file, and in charge of half a squadron ; in other respects little more than a common soldier. The companies being divided into squadrons, a corporal was appointed over the squadron, and under the corporal a deputy corporal, or lanspesado. The corporal commanded the fourth part of a company of 100 men, and his command was
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
divided into two camarados, or parties of twelve men each, so that a full squadron was twenty-four men, be- sides the corporal. This officer, says the old writer, "ought to be of reverend and grave years, thereby to draw on respect."
The sergeant would command in particular two squadrons, or fifty men or more at discretion. In the English armies he was armed with a sword and a hal- bert, a short and handy weapon easy to manage at close quarters, which he used to keep the band in order, and in all marching, standing and other mo- tions, to keep the ranks and files in an " even, comely and true proportion." By turning the blunt end of his halbert toward a refractory soldier, and showing he might strike, ifhe would, he insisted on the main- tenance of discipline.
The ensign, or " the first great officer of a private company ... hath the guard of his captain's colors . . . weareth armor . . . [and a] fair sword by his side . . . [and hath] his captain's colors or ensign in his hand." He chose " four or five especial gentlemen," who, as his mates and companions in all services, should march about him to guard them . . . and when any of his company died, he at the burial trailed his colors after the body to do honor to the funeral," but when the body was in the ground, he then tossed them up and displayed them. In the absence of the captain and lieutenant he commanded as the "abso- lute captain," but when they were present he was " bound to obey them."
The lieutenant of a foot company was "the greatest officer in the band " -- next to the captain-and com- manded the ensign and all other officers below him. In the absence of the captain the entire command was upon him. His other duty was "to oversee both the officers and whole band," and that their duties were duly performed. He was armed in the same manner as the ensign, only his weapon was a gill partisan or a kind of halberd. His place of command in the captain's presence and marching into the field, was in the rear, but in returning home, or after service, then in the "head of the battle ; " but in his captain's absence, then he was as the captain, and the eldest sergeant supplied his place. He had power to commit any man under the degree of an officer, and the officers in the absence of the captain.
A captain of foot or of the infantry was the " high- est of all private commanders," and yet the lowest of all "that command in chief." In relation to the weapon he should carry, some would have "nothing but a rich feather-staff, all wrought, gilt, and curi- ously tasselled." Others would have a pike, and others a sword and gilt target. Some would have a " fair feather staff" in time of peace, and a " fair, gitt partisan, richly trimmed," in time of war. This weapon was not to be above twelve inches of blade, but sharp and well steeled, " for it is able to encounter against any manner of weapon." This treatise was opposed to a captain's carrying a musket, which was
the common practice in America in the Indian wars previous to the Revolution, and even General Wolfe, in one of his pictures, is represented as armed with a musket, minus the bayonet, in the time of battle. The captain of horse, in the general parts of his duty, has the same as those which belong to the captain of foot, "only with an augmentation of care, inasmuch as he hath to provide both for man and beast."
Of the other officers, the Sergeant-major of a regiment is " ever some especial captain." The Lieutenant- colonel of foot is the second officer in command of a regiment. The Colonel of foot was, like the others named, a captain ; the colonel retaining the captaincy of his own " band " and electing its officers, his own lieutenant being in courtesy called by the title of cap- tain, and " in all meetings" to take his place as the "puny" captain of the regiment. The company commanded by this lieutenant, belonging to the colonel, took precedence of place "before all other captains of the regiment." The colonel was armed at all points like the captain, only his " leading weapon," or "feather staff," was of a " much less proportion." He was mounted on horseback in the ordinary part of his duties, but in an assault he was to alight and " lead forth his regiment in his own person." The licutenant-colonel and sergeant-major were also mounted officers in the infantry.
Further, the sentinel was the ordinary sentinel ; the rounder, a gentleman discharged from humbler and meaner duties, but assigned to go the rounds at night ; the clerk of a band was a penman, rather than a " sword-man," yet by no means a coward; the har- binger had charge of the billeting a foot company when drawn into garrison. Otherwise the holders of these offices were but common soldiers. The drummes and phiphes-drummers and fifers-hold offices of power, but not " of command," and are, though pri- vate soldiers, "instruments of direction and encour- agement to others." The fife was only an instrument of pleasure, not of necessity, and to the voice of the drum the soldier shouid wholly attend, and not to the " air of the whistle." The work sets forth the im- portance of every man in a force, even the humblest, and pays high tribute to valor.
Extracts from Records .- On February 4, 1679-80, a fine was remitted in behalf of the town for not ob- serving the law regarding ammunition. on promising to be "more observant" in time to come. This favor was granted on the petition of Lieutenant William Johnson and James Converse of Woburn .- Colony Records, v. 264. On March 2, 1691, the selectmen met, and, in obedience to a warrant received from the major-general, viewed the town's stock of ammunition, and finding it "not according to law," they appointed Lieutenant James Converse and Sergeant Matthew Johnson "to seek out to procure a supply of ammu- nition, according to law, for the town."-Woburn Records, iii. 148. A war (King William's War) had commenced, in which the indians of Canada and
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WOBURN.
Maine aided the French. Later, during Queen Anne's War, the selectmen, on May 17, 1708, left at the house of Cornet Benjamin Simonds, "of the town stock of ammunition, viz., in powder, with the weight of the two barrels it is in-103 pounds; and in shot and flints, with the weight of the two small bags they were in-162, the account of which was that day en- tered in the town book, by order of the selectmen then present, and the said Cornet Benjamin Simonds." At the end of this statement in the original record is this entry : "Entered in this place to save paper for- ward."- Woburn Records, vi. 86.
Major James Converse .- The exploit at Wells is im- mortalized by Cotton Mather (Magnalia, bk. vii.) In 1690, in the earlier campaigns against the Indians at the eastward, Converse was under the command of the celebrated Major-afterwards Colonel-Benjamin Church. As major, Converse himself commanded the eastward forces in 1693. For allusions to him, see Hutchinson's Mass., ii. 67-68, 72; Baylies' Plymouth, pt. iv. 116, 118; pt. v. 88, 96; Sewall's Diary (M. H. C., 5th series), v. 320, 358, 377; vi. 75, 93*, 132; Sewall's Woburn, 178-183; Woburn Journal, Sept. 27, 1873, etc. An echo of a petty squabble of the day in which his name was mentioned, is referred to in Savage's Genealogical Dict. and in the N. E. Hist. Gen. Register, xiii. 31. It was the result of a council of eight churches, called by the reverend pastor and church of Oburn [Wo- burn] and dissatisfied brethren, and convened in that town December 4, 1706. It was the question whether the oath of Major Converse, which occa- sioned the controversy, was really true or false. This the council determined did not belong to an ecclesias- tical body to settle. They decided it was wrong for Jacob Wyman to form a charge of perjury against Major Converse, and to prosecnte it as he did before the pastor, and they advised Jacob Wyman to ac- knowledge this wrong act to the church. They deter- mined it was wrong for the pastor and church to bring the matter into a course of ecclesiastical proceeding, especially in their act of excommunicating Jacob Wyman, and upon his making an acknowledgment, the pastor and church were advised to restore him to their communion. After some advice on the subject of excommunication and church contentions, the result closes with some words of admonition to the "Christian brethren in Oburn," to be of a forgiving spirit, etc. For particular references to Converse in Mather's Magnalia-not indexed-ed. 1853, vol. ii .- see pp. 603, 607, 609-11, 613-18, 624, 631, 641-43. Sullivan's Hist. Dist. Maine (Bost., 1795), 236, men- tions the location of Storer's garrison-house, as well as does Bourne, Wells and Kennebunk (Port. 1875) 197, and Williamson, Hist. Maine (Hall. 1832), i. 627. Sullivan gives a brief account of the action at Wells, which he obtained from Hutchinson's Mass., but does not mention Converse by name. Williamson, vol. i., chap. xxiii., gives an account of the assault,
and mentions Converse, but follows Mather closely. Bourne, the local historian, in chap. xv., particularly pp. 196-97, 207-16, presents au account which closes with an eloquent tribute to the defenders of Wells and the courage of Converse.
The Engagement at Wheelwright's Pond .- An ac- count of this action, in which two Woburn men lost their lives, is given in Mather's Magnalia, ed. 1853, ii. 607. The contest was an obstinate one and lasted from two to three hours. The English having adopted the Indian mode of fighting, their loss was comparatively small. Neither party could claim the victory. On the following morning, Captain Con- verse, of Woburn, visited the battle-ground, and brought off' seven wounded, who were still alive. Cf. Drake's Book Indians, pt. iii., 151; Sewall's Woburn, 109.
Indian Murders in Woburn .- The murder of an English maid at Woburn by an Indian is referred to in Increase Mather's Early Hist. of New England, Drake's ed., 238. Hubhard's Norr. Indian Wars, Drake's ed., i. 18, refers to the same thing, and says that the murder was committed upon a maid-servant by an Indian to whom she had denied drink. The time was about 1669 or 1670. The locality where it occurred was Havenville, in Burlington, on the site of the late Miss Ruth Wilson's honse. A lurking Indian having concealed himself in a hop-house near, supposing the neighbors were absent at church on the Sabbath, went to the house and asked for ci- der of a young woman he found there. She went to the cellar to draw some, but her murderer, on her re- turn, taking advantage of the opportunity, killed her with his tomahawk. A cellar-door, spattered with her blood, was long preserved as a memento of the occurrence. The young woman's name was not pre- served in the local records. The Indian, however, was apprehended and executed, the Rev. S. Danforth, in the Roxbury Church records, stating, that on Sep- tember 8, 1671, an Indian was executed and “ hung up in chains," for murdering an " English maid at Woburn." Cf. Sewall's Woburn, 120-21; N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg., xxxiv. 301 ; Drake's Old Indian Chron., 137-38 (and 136-37); also his Book of Indians, with com. of S. Sewall, 698-99, etc. ; also Hubbard's Narr., 7.
The death of Hannah, wife of Samuel Richardson, of Thomas, his son, and Hannah, bis infant, occurred April 10, 1676, in the afternoon of the day. The fa- ther, while in his field with a young son, noticing a commotion at his house, hastencd bither, and found his wife and son Thomas had been killed by a skulk- ing band of Indians, who had robbed some gardens at Cambridge of linen articles, and, on further search, the infant danghter was found killed also. A nurse had fled with it in her arms to a neighboring garri- son-house for protection, but being pursued, to save herself, dropped the babe, which the savages killed. The father, rallying a party, pursued and shot at the
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
Indians, as they sat by the side of a swamp, causing them to drop their bundle of linen, in which was found wrapped up the scalps of one or more of their victims. From traces of blood afterwards found in the woods, it was supposed one of the Indians had been hit when fired upon, and the body of one was found, buried with leaves, where his associates had laid him after death.
The scene of the Richardson murder was in Win- chester, on the former Miller farm, in Richardson's Row. Here Samuel Richardson had his house. In 1798 the Miller place was owned by Jonathan Rich- ardson, and Job Miller was the occupant. On the place, in 1798, was an old house of two stories, thirty- six hy eighteen. The farm consisted of fifty acres. Miller died 1832, aged eighty-two, and his widow, Sarah, 1843, aged eighty-eight-gravestones Woburn Second Burying-ground. Cf. Hubbard, Indian Wars (1677), and Sewall's Woburn, 119; MS. Desc. of Real Estate in the First Parish of Woburn, in 1798.
The killing of an Indian on the training-field in 1675. -For a contemporary account of this occurrence, see Gookin's History of the Christian or Friendly In- dians, in Trans. Amer. Antiq. Soc., ii. 475. A party of Wamesit Indians, all men, thirty in number, on their way homeward from Boston, after acquittal of the charge of burning a haystack at Chelmsford, belonging to James Richardson, son of one of the first settlers of Woburn, their home being near the site of the present city of Lowell ; while marching through the village of Woburn, under guard of Lieut. James Richardson, the owner of the haystack, and a file of soldiers in October, 1675, came suddenly upon the train-band of Woburn, when that body were exercis- ing their drill. Knowing the prejudice that existed against Indians and fearing trouble, Lieut. Richard- son halted his party and held out his handkerchief to the Woburn company as a flag of truce. The captain and officers of the train-band thereupon went to Rich- ardson and examined his commission from the Coun- cil to conduct the Indians in his charge safely home. The captain and his officers returning to their com- pany then gave strict charge to every soldier under arms not to fire a gun nor to nse any opprobrious words while the Indians filed past ; but, notwithstand- ing these strict prohibitions, a young fellow, a soldier named Knight, discharged his musket when the Indi- ans were lpassing by and killed one of the Indians outright, being very near him at the moment. The person killed was "a stout young man," very nearly allied to the praying Indians of Natick and Wamesit, and whose grandfather and uncle were pious men, his father long before having heen slain in a war with the Mohawks. The murderer was soon apprehended and imprisoned, and tried for his life, but was acquitted by the jury, contrary to the will of the bench. The jury alleged they wanted evidence, and the prisoner pleaded that his gun went off by accident; indeed, witnesses, says Gookin, were " mealy-mouthed " in
giving evidence; the jury was sent out again and again by the judges, who were much "unsatisfied " with the jury's proceedings, " but yet the jury did not see cause to alter their mind, and so the fellow was cleared."
The training-field where the military of Woburn were accustomed to exercise was the spot at the cen- tre village now embraced in part in the present Com- mon. It was formerly somewhat larger, and included the open space now traversed by Winn Street. Here the timber was drawn from the Middlesex Canal when the edifice of the First Society was erected in 1809, and military companies for parade were formed in that part .- See Woburn Journal, Feb. 16, 1883.
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