History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 144

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 144

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The settlement appears to have prospered until 1675, and it was estimated a little before this date that the whole number of Praying Indians, chiefly in the Province of Massachusetts, amounted to 3600, of whom 300 at least belonged to the Natick com- munity.

We come now to the sad part of this Indian his- tory. King Philip was the son of Massasoit, with whom the Pilgrims at Plymouth made a treaty that was carefully observed for more than fifty years. Philip was ambitious, crafty and unscrupulous to the last degree. Deeming himself grievously insulted and wronged by the whites, he attempted to unite all the Indian tribes in Southern New England in an effort to exterminate the colonists; and in this at- tempt nearly succeeded. So general was this alliance that all the Indians in this part of the country fell under suspicion and were carefully watched. A few from the Natick Plantation were induced to join Philip, but the. great body of the Praying Indians turned a deaf ear to his appeals and remained loyal to the whites. But nothing could appease the jeal- ousy and calm the fears of the English.

Orders were soon issued for the arrest and removal of the Praying Indians of this vicinity. Captain Tom, who was among the early residents of the Na- tick Plantation, and one of the most respected of the converts, was seized at Grafton and taken to Boston, tried and condemned to be hung before Mr. Eliot was aware of his peril. "I went to

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the prison to comfort him," wrote Mr. Eliot. "I dealt faithfully with him to confess if it were true whereof he is accepted, and for which he is con- demned. I believe he saith truth." Mr. Eliot was with him at his execution : "On the ladder he lifted up his hands and said : 'I never did lift up hand against the English.'" No doubt Captain Tom was innocent.

A Captain Mosely commanded the troops that were sent to seize the Praying Indians at Marlborongh. Arriving in the night, the soldiers surrounded the fort, seized the Indians, tied their hands behind them, connected them together after the manner of the slave-drivers of a generation ago, and hurried them off toward Boston. In Oct., 1675, Captain Pren- tiss, with a company of horsemen, seized the Indians on the Natick Plantation. No resistance was offered by the two hundred men, women and children who were then living peaceably in Natick, but they col- lected together a part of their goods, deposited them in the carts which the military had brought, and marched under the leadership of their captors to the place now occupied by the United States Arsenal at Watertown. At that point Mr. Eliot met them and did all in his power to comfort and cheer them in their great sorrow. The tide serving, at midnight they were taken on board some barges and removed as rapidly as possible to Deer Island, in Boston Harbor.

The Court had directed the county treasurer "to take care for the provision of these Indians," so as "to prevent their perishing by any extremity ;" but the winter following was terribly severe, the snow was deep, their clothing was insufficient, and from all ac- counts their provisions barely served to prevent starvation. When visited by Mr. Eliot and Mr. Gookin, during the month of December, 1675, they were found patient under their trials, but suffering greatly.

This whole proceeding on the part of the officials at Boston was cowardly and cruel in the extreme. Their plea that their action was taken as well for the safety of the Indians as for their own, was a snbter- fuge unworthy of reasonable men, and cannot be con- demned too severely.

As to the Natick Indians, eight in number, who were found with Philip's warriors and taken prison- ers by the English, all were condemned to die, after several trials.

"Meantime," says the old Indian chronicle, " Mr. Eliot and Captain Guggins (Gookin) pleaded so very hard for the Indians that the whole Conncil knew not what to do about them. They hearkened to Mr. Eliot for his Gravity, Age and Wisdom, and also for that he hath been the chief Instrument that the Lord hath made use of in Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen ; and was their Teacher till the time that some Indians were brought up in the University to supply his place. But for Captain Guggins, why such

a wise Council as they should be so overbourne by him cannot be judged otherwise than because of his daily tronbling them with his Impertinencies and multitudinous Speeches, insomuch that it was told him on the Bench by a very worthy Person (Captain Oliver) then present, that he onght rather to be con- fined among his Indians than to sit on the Bench.

"Bnt so it was that by one and two at a time most of these eight Indians (and fonr were sent afterwards on the same account) were let loose by Night."

Plainly the writer of the above was influenced by strong prejudices, for Mr. Gookin, as superintendent of the Indians that acknowledged fealty to the Gen- eral Court, was not only benevolent, but wise and discreet.

The Natick Indians imprisoned on Deer Island ap- pear to have been divided into four companies in 1676, and placed under the care of Englishmen in different towns of the Province. The first company were sent to Medford to James Rummeny Marsh- twenty-five men and twenty-five women and children, The second company, we are told, "live near Natick adjoining to garison-house" of Andrew Dewin and his sons-ten men and forty women and children. The third company, "with Waban," seem to have been placed under the care of Joseph Miller and Cap- tain Prentiss, " neare the Falls of Charles River " -- twelve men and fifty women and children. The fourth company were " at Nonantum," on land belong- ing to John Cooms, and were employed by him and others on their farms-fifteen men and sixty women and children. Total, two hundred and thirty-seven. Besides these, about thirty were "put out to service to the English," "three were executed," "above twenty ran away."1

The death of King Philip, who was shot by a treacherous Indian in August, 1676, brought to an end this most cruel and destructive war which he inaugurated, and some of the Natick Indians soon began to return to their homes; but sickness and death had greatly reduced their numbers. Mr. Eliot bore the most ample testimony to their patience, for- giving spirit and adherence to Christian principle under their sore trials. But they came back poor and disheartened. To repair the wastes occasioned by their enforced absence for a year or more was not a pleasant undertaking.

Their school and religious services were resumed, for their old friend and guide was yet among them when the feebleness and infirmities of old age would permit ; but while they were in a measure prosperous during the last twenty years of the seventeenth cen- tury, they never recovered from the shock expe- rienced through the unjust and crnel treatment re- ceived at the hands of the officials of the Province.

1 Quoted from Shattuck's Manuscript by Biglow, but greatly con- densed as given above.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

NATICK .- (Continued).

1700-1800.

Anomalous Condition of the Township-Change in the Indian Government-

Their Records-Population-Acts as Proprietors-Allotment of Lands- Sale of the Same-Natick as a Parish-Acts of General Court Relating to it-Parish Meetings-Warning Out of Town-In the Revolutionary Wor -Purish Declaration Regarding Independence -- Natick Soldiers-Outh of Allegiance-Town Incorporated.

DURING the early part of the period indicated above, the condition of Natick was anomalous. At the opening of the eighteenth century it was simply an Indian settlement, as it had been for fifty years. The land was owned by the Indians, and so far as it was cleared and cultivated this was done by the Indi- ans. They claimed the fish in the lakes, ponds and streams, and, so far as municipal government was maintained, the laws were made and executed by the Indians. Their school had an Indian teacher and their Sabbath services were conducted by one of their own nationality. And yet it is plain that their contact with the whites was gradually modifying their characters and nearly all their habits and customs. After the trial of the Mosaic Code, to a greater or less extent, for nearly half a century, they were ready to substitute other officers for their captains of hundreds, fifties and tens.

Many of them had learned to write and one, at least, had become a skillful penman, as the stray leaves of their records now in the office of the town clerk of Natick attest, though the items contained in these are generally without date and largely in the Indian language. Before 1719 they were transacting their public business like any of the neighboring towns and recording their proceedings in the most methodical and legible manner.

How many there were of the Indians who regarded the Natick Plantation as their home, from 1700 to 1725, it is impossible to determine. In 1678 there were 212 "Praying Indians " in Natick, and about ninety years later there were only thirty-seven. The historian Bacon records a tradition that about the year 1700 three hundred Indians paraded at an Indi- an training in this place. It must not be understood that all of these belonged in Natick, for in the most prosperous days of the plantation, just before King Philip's war, it is doubtful whether the entire adult population of the place equaled this number.

If this parade ever took place, the three hundred Indian soldiers must have come largely from other Indian settlements in the region.

The Indians kept records of all their business as a plantation certainly after the year 1700, but a large part of these have perished.

Under the date of 1702 an account has been pre- served of "a meeting of selectmen and principall In- dians of the Town of Natick," to run certain boun-

dary lines. In 1708 a " Tything man " and constables were chosen, at which time Thomas Waban, son of the old Indian chief of Nonantum and Natick in 1650, was " Town Clerk," making his entries in the records in the best style of English town officers. In 1716 the town officers "were sworn in" as well as chosen, and this was, doubtless, a common proceed- ing. Later we have a "list of the haires of the plantation or proprietary of Natick," and in this list thirty-three names are given. From 1728, in a sepa- rate record-book from the one about to be described, we have regular proprietors' records, which are made up largely of the acts of Indian committees in laying out lands, the whole being approved of and assented to by Francis Fullam, Esq. Mr. Fullam was, at that time, superintendent of such of the Indians as acknowledged fealty to the English government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, having been ap- pointed by the General Court. He resided in Wes- ton, and for many years appears to have been present at most of the business meetings of the Indians, by whom he was highly esteemed.

The Indian committees for laying out lands often signed the surveys with their marks.

In 1733 Thomas Peagan, Jr., was chosen "Saxton," and by a vote of the meeting swine were permitted to go at large in the plantation.

William Robinson, of Sudbury, and Elizabeth Tom, of Natick, had their intention of marriage published June 7, 1735.

Going back a few years in the order of time, there is inserted here an Indian document of great import- ance. It is taken from their second book of records, and the whole entry is made in extremely beautiful handwriting, but by whom does not appear.

" At a General Town Meeting of ye Propriators, Freeholders and In- habitants of ye Towo of Natick, Orderly Warned and Met together On Monday the 11th Day of May 1719.

"Ist. In Order to ye better Stateing, Distinguishing, Knowing aod Settling the Proprietore and Proprietee of ye Lands in Natick and rente of ye viouey of the Maguncoge Laods, and also of the freeholders Dis- trict from the other Inbabitante of Natick, also to order How ye Yearly Payments of ye ed Rents Shall be Recd for ye future of the Honble Trustees aod paid to the Indian Propriety of Natick lande.

" 2dly. To take Effectnal care to prevent Stripp und Waste of Wood and Timber, Standing, Lying or Growing ou ye Comon and Undivided Laods in Natick or the Unnecessary Selling of ye Timber, Poles or Trees from Said Comone.

"3rdly. To Take Effectual Care that Each Person's allottment of ye Laod in Natick, now Laid out and to be Laid out by Mr. Jones, Surveyor, be very Exactly & Truly Recorded, and that ye Surveyor be paid for Laying out of the Same.

FRANCIS FULLAM, ESQR., PRESENT AT Sd METTING.

"Voted unanimously at the above Suid Meeting That Abraham Speen, James Speen, Moses Speed, Josiah Speen, Isaac Speen, John Speen, Ignac Muniquasin, John Wansamuge heirs of, Capt. Thomas Waban, Thomas Peagan, Simond Ephraim, Benjamin Tray, Sanmel Bowman, Sam" Wills Right, Sam" Ompatawin, Bannah Tabunsng, Solomon Thomas in Maquahos Right, Israel Pumhamon alias Rubinimarsh, Sam- uel Abraham and also Jolio Neesmumin if he Live and Dye in ye Worke of ye Gospel Ministry in Natick, Shall be henceforward Allowed, Held, Reputed and Distinguished to be ye Only and true proprietors of Natick, to whom the Rents and the Money of the Maguncoge Lands shall from 'Time to Tyme Hereafter be paid by such Person or Persons as Shall, in

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behalf of the Indians, receive the Same of ye Trustees, & also the whole property or Right to all the Comon and Undivided Lands in the bounds of the Town of Natick to be pd to sd Proprietors and their heirs for Ever, ye said Neesmumin to have equal Share in Sd Rent Money During his continuance in ye Ministry in Natick. Each Proprietor'e propor- tion in the first Division of Lands to be as followeth."

Then follows the allotment of sixty acres of land to each of these proprietors, with the number of the page of the record-book upon which the surveys are re- corded.

At the same meeting certain persons, to the num- ber of twenty-seven, are designated to "be Known and Distinguished For Ever Hereafter," "by the name of freeholders," the same to have no right to any "Rent Money " or to any later division of land in said Natick.

To eleven of these were assigned severally sixty acres of land, to one fifty acres, and to each of the re- maining fifteen, thirty acres; but upon what principle this distribution was made, we know not.

This action disposed of 2360 acres of the common land.

At the same meeting Francis Fullam, Esq., was constituted the agent of the Indians to receive and pay out their rent money, and to see that the above- mentioned allotments of land should " be very exactly recorded in the New town book."

To understand this matter of rent money, it should here be stated that the Magunkook lands lay orig- inally beyond the western boundary of Natick, but by an exchange of territory with Sherborn, a part of them came into the possession of the Natick Indians. On the petition of Rev. Mr. Eliot, 1000 acres had been granted, soon after 1669, to this plantation, and he there established a school. Mr. Gookin speaks of "Magunkaquog as the seventh of the Old Praying Towns," and ofthere being "eleven families and about 55 souls" in the place. In 1715 the trustees of " The Hopkins Donation " asked of the General Court the privilege of purchasing of the Indian inhabitants of Natick "a tract of waste-land, commonly known by the name of Magunkaquog," and this petition was granted.

The territory thus acquired, with lands lying west of it, was incorporated in 1724 into a township called Hopkinton. An arrangement was made with the In- dians that they should receive an annual rental for the lands which they parted with, aud this was paid to their agent, and distributed by him among the Natick Indians for thirty-five years or more after the sale of the lands. The territory conveyed consti- tutes at this time portions of Hopkinton and Ashland.1

The town officers appear to have been all Indians until the March meeting in 1733, when Thomas Ellis was chosen one of the tithingmen and John Sawin one of the constables. A year later (in the presence of Francis Fullam, Esq.) Thomas Peagan was chosen moderator, and David Morse town clerk, with

three Indians as selectmen. The other officers were divided about equally between the whites and the In- dians.

The last clerk of the proprietors made his last entry in their records in 1787, and this informs us that, at that date, there were in Natick several small pieces of undivided land of no great value, which they de- sired of the General Court power to sell and liberty to divide the net proceeds among themselves. In 1764 there are said to have been in the township sixty-five white families, and it is stated that, at that time, the whites greatly outnumbered the Indians.

January 3, 1745, Natick was constituted a pre- cinct, or parish, by the action of the General Court. By this change the responsibility for the regulation of the civil affairs of the township passed from the Indi- ans to the whites, and the former lost what they may have deemed their citizenship. From this time on- ward no Indian held a town office, but consider- ably later, it is said, not a few of the white members of the church voted for an Indian as deacon.

1745. At this date the history of Natick as a township, as this term is generally understood, be- gins,

The action of the General Court by which this change was effected was as follows:

" In the House of Representives, 3d Jan., 1745, voted that the Planta- tion known by the name of Natick, and lying in the County of Middle- sex, be and hereby is erected into u Precinct or Parish ; and the Inhabi- tants of Said Plantation are hereby endowed with all the Privileges, and subjected to all the Duties which the Inhabitants of other Preciocts or Parishes, as such, are, by the laws of the Province, endowed with or subjected to ; and whereas the said Plantation is not annexed to any townehip within this province, and cannot by law raise monies for lay- ing ont and maintaining their highways, for the support of their poor, and for maintaining a school ; It is further voted that the Parish Asses- sors in ed Plantation, the Parish Constables, or Collectors, to collect all anch sums ae at a Parisb meeting regularly warded for that purpose, shall be voted to be raised for the uses and services aforesaid, and the Parish Committee shall have the same Power in Said I'recinct or Parish, with respect to the Privileges aforesaid, as the Selectmen of any town have by law in Such Town."

In this manner Natick became, for nearly all im- portant purposes, a town under the name of a parish, and such it continued to be for the space of thirty-six years.

April 23, 1746 another act appears to have been passed, as follows :

"Whereas great part of the inhabitants of Natick are Indians and the minister there isin a great measure supported by charitable donations or funds for propagating the Gospel among the Indians and it is reasonable that the House for Public Worship should alwaysbe placed convenient for them, it is further ordered that uo vote or acts of the Sd Parish of Natick for altering the place of Public Worship shall he deemed valid or have any effect nutil they are approved by this Court."

This explains the reason why there was so much difficulty, for many years, in building a meeting- house and establishing public worship in the centre of the township, even after this part of the parish had become populous.

The General Court having provided for the first parish meeting, it was legally warned and opened by

1 See Temple e " History," pp. 61-71.

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

David Morse May 12, 1746, with Ebenezer Felch as moderator.

The Parish Committee chosen consisted of Ebenezer Felch, Edward Ward, Captain John Goodenow, Lieutenant Timothy Bacon and John Coolidge. Ebenezer Felch was elected parish clerk, and, with Captain John Goodenow and Lieutenant Timothy Bacon, constituted the first Board of Assessors; John Bacon and Jonathan Carver were chosen constables, and the other offices belonging to the organization of a township were filled, including the choice of Thomas Sawin and Daniel Bacon as " deer reves."

The parish meetings, for years, were chiefly held in the meeting-house at South Natick. May 22, 1749, the building of a new meeting-house at South Natick having been previously determined upon, the parish voted "to give the Indians an equal privilege with them (selves) in a new meeting-house if they will meet with them," and the same year " two thousand pound, old Tenor," were raised "in order to the carrying on the work " of building. During nearly all of the time that Natick was a parish, movements were made to induce the Indian preachers at South Natick, Messrs. Peabody and Badger, to consent to the build- ing of a church edifice in the centre of the town and the establishment of Christian ordinances here. Under the head "Ecclesiastical " of this historical sketch, those matters will be fully considered.

Under the date of February 15, 1749-50, we find the first of a long series of notifications regarding per- sons who came from time to time to Natick to reside :

" To Mr. Sumner Morse, constable of the Parish of Natick. We the committee of the Sd (Parish) of Netick being informed that Ebenezer Wil- son and Jane Penneman, widow, are come to reside or dwell in thie Par- ish, and not having been here eleven monthe, you are therefore hereby re- quired in his Majesty's name forthwith to warn the above named per- eone forthwith to depart out of this Parish and stay no longer therein, and make return of this warrant with your doings thereon to myself as speedily as may be, By order of the Parish Committee.

" EBENEZER FELCH, Parish Clerk."

This warrant was immediately executed.

The parish records show that from 1750 to 1772 two hundred and twenty-six persons (beside "their children " in a number of instances), who had come to the parish to reside, received similar warnings to leave. In the later cases of this description the words " not permitted " are inserted in the warning, and in one instance the person named was " a Molatto Girl." From all this it would appear that in its early years the Natick parish did as some of the towns in New Hampshire, settled about the same time, were accustomed to do, viz .: they warned out every family that should come in to reside, no matter how high its standing might have been in the place from whence it came.

This proceeding, which seems to us so objection- able, was merely to comply with the law regarding strangers obtaining a residence in any particular lo- cality, thus preventing the accumulation of paupers in any town or parish.

But whatever its purpose may have been, the whole matter must have had a disagreeable aspect, and the custom (except in special cases) seems to have been wisely discontinued after 1772.

For more than twenty years the records of the Na- tick parish furnish us but little more than a full and intelligible account of all that was done in the way of laying out roads, building bridges, establishing boundaries, raising and paying out money for public improvements and other matters of a similar nature.

The following from the parish records is of inter- est

" To the Selectmen of Natick :

" Gentlemen: These are to give Notice that I have taken in to Dwell with me Abraham Parkhust, his wife, Hannah, and five chil- dren, viz., Abraham, William, John, Hannah and Ruth, laet from Walthem-under low circumstances, came to me the 13 day of Instant Sept.

" Natick, Sept. 28, 1763."

" JAMES BEAL.

This notice, recorded as it is, doubtless saved the family named from being warned out of the Parish, as Mr. Beal thus became responsible for its mainten- ance.

In 1774, when the oppressive acts of the British Government were awakening indignation and the spirit of resistance all over the land, this parish chose a Committee of Inspection and Correspondence "to carry into execution the agreement and association of the late respectable Continental Congress," and this important committee was composed of Captain John Coolidge, Mr. Peletiah Morse, Lieutenant Wil- liam Boden, Captain Joseph Morse and Lieutenant Abel Perry. Of the doings of this committee we have no particular information, but, like similar com- mittees all over the land, it had, in the course of a few months, all it could do in watching and reporting the movements of the Tories, and carrying into exe- cution the plans and purposes of the Continental and Provincial Conventions.

May 12, 1775, the parish was called upon " to see if the inhabitants will provide Guns and Blankets for Soldiers that are going into the Service, that are destitute." In this case the action seems to have been in the affirmative. At the same meeting it was voted to relieve "Capt. Joseph Morse, Lieut. Wil- liam Boden and Lieut. Abel Perry from being Se- lectmen " (or rather Parish Committee), because they were "going into the Massachusetts service," and to appoint " Lieut. Timothy Smith, Elijah Goodenow and William Bacon in their room."

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 144

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034