History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 67

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III > Part 67

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" 'Sirs, you have been pleased for four years past, in your abundant love, to apply yourselves particularly unto me and my people, to exhort, press und persunde ue to pray to God. I am very thankful to you for your paine. I must acknowledge,' said he, ' I huve, in all my days, used to pase in an old canoe [ulluding to his frequent custom to pase in a canoe upon the river] ; and now you exhort me to change and leave my old canoe and embark in a new ennee, to which I have hitherto been ua- willing ; but now I yield myself up to your advice, aud enter into a new canoe, and do engage to pray to God hereatter.'

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"This his professed subjection was well pleasing to all that were pres- ent, of which there were some English persons of quality ; as Mr. Rich- ard Daniel, a gentleman that lived in Billerica, about six miles off; and Lientenant Henchman, a neighbor at Chelmsford ; besides brother Eliot and myself, with sundry others, English and Indians. Mr. Daniel, be- fore named, desired brother Eliat to tell its sachet from him, that it may he, while he weut in his old canoe, he passed in a quiet stream ; but the end theroof was death and destruction to soul and body : But now he went into a new canoe, perhaps he would meet with storms and trials ; but yet he should be encouraged to persevere, for the end of his voyage would be everlasting rest. Moreover, he and his people were exhorted hy Brother Eliot and myself, to go on and sanctify the Sabbath, to hear the word, and use the means that God bath appointed, and encourage their hearts in the Lord their God. Since that time, I hear this sachem doth persevere, and is a constant and diligent hearer of God's word, and sanctifieth the Sabbath, though he doth travel to Wamesit meeting every Sabhatb, which is about two miles; and though sundry of his people have deserted bim since he subjected to the gospel, yet he continues and persists.

"In this town they observe the same civil and religions orders as in other towns, and have a constable and other officere.

"This people of Wamesit suffered more in the late war with the Maw- hawks than any other praying town of Indians ; for divers of their peo. ple were slain ; others, wounded ; and some carried into captivity ; which Providence hath much hindered the prosperons estate of this place."

With Billerica, the vicinity of Wamesit passed through all the horrors of the early Indian warfare. The conversion of the Wamesits, however, was a blessing to the whole region. They remained faith- ful friends of the whites, although often suspected and also unjustly treated hy the latter. The cruelties perpetrated in Billerica and this part of that town were not by them. In his " Memoirs of the Indians and Pioneers of the Region of Lowell," Cowley states that some Indians of another tribe visited that part of Billerica now Tewksbury, and killed John Rogers and fourteen others. Colonel Joseph Lynde, of Charlestown, with three hundred armed men, ranged the swamps around here in pursuit of the marauders, but in vain. Lynde's Hill, which he fortified and garrisoned, preserves his name. Fort Hill was first used for defence by the Wamesits, and their friendli- ness at this time permitted, without any effort, its use by Lynde and others.

Several garrison-houses were located in this vicin- ity and also in the north and south parts of the town.

In various portions Indian relics have been found, some, as those collected by Mr. Follansbee, of Andover, of the Stone Age. On the farms of Mr. Jesse L. Trull, of the State Almshouse, and recently of Mr. Harnden, South Tewksbury, and especially near the sandy desert in the south of the town, numerous finds of hatchets, mortars for bruising corn, chisels, gouges, arrow and spear-heads have been made.

Indeed, the traces of the Wamesits, or Pennacooks, Agawams, Piscataquas, Naamkeeks-for their names were numerous-are rich in the town which sprung up so near, and included their former fishing station and praying village, at the junction of the Merrimac and Concord Rivers. The Merrimac means the Stur- geon River.

It is reported that after these troublous times were

over, the Wamesit chief visited the Rev. Mr. Fiske, of Chelmsford. To his inquiry whether Chelmsford had suffered much, the pastor replied "No," and devoutly thanked God. "Me next," said Wannalancet. It was a fitting correction of the omission to recognize the faithful agents God had employed to save the whole adjoining country from even more fearful suf- ferings than it had endured.

The following anecdote, contributed by Miss Mary F. Eastman, for the past twenty years, with her fam- ily, a resident of Tewksbury, belongs to this period, when Tewksbury was the north part of Billerica : " A corporal, John French, who belonged to the north part, was wounded at a distance in Brookfield, 'and in consideration of his wounds, they abated his taxes, gave him a more prominent place in church and al- lowed his wife to occupy a seat in the front gallery with Mrs. Foster, and those women placed there.'"

As early as 1725 an effort was made by Jonathan Bowers, Samuel Hunt and others to incorporate the more northern part of Billerica into a town, to be known as Wamesit. It was intended to include in this new town the whole Wamesit Purchase, which contained 2500 acres, 500 of which lay on this side of the Concord River, but 2000 acres on the other side, in Chelmsford. This effort, which would fittingly have retained the old Indian name of Wamesit among the towns of the State, was unsuccessful.

Later the movement was renewed, because of the inconvenience to the inhabitants of this northern portiou of Billerica in going so far to public worship as the old meeting-house. Few estimate the import- ant part religion played in all public and social life in those early days. Hence when the people in this part of the ancient town found it a heavy burden to go so far by horseback, or oxen, or on foot-for vehicles were scarce indeed,-they desired to have a meeting-house of their own. Many went to church on horseback-the husband and wifesometimes with chil- dren also upon the same animal, frequently taking what the records call a "bridal" path. At times we hear of a woman carrying her babe five or six miles to attend divine service. Hence, on May 13, 1733, the northern section of Billerica asked the ancient town to "erect a meeting-house in the centre of the town, or so as to accommodate the northerly part of the town, upon the Town's cost, or set them off, so that they main- tain preaching among themselves." Reluctantly and after some time Billerica granted the last part of this petition. They were set off with two-thirds of the land between the Billerica meeting-house and the Andover line, by a parallel line extending from the Concord River to the Wilmington line, "if the in- habitants on the south-casterly side of the Shawshine River be willing to join with them." " This final condition," says Mr. Hazen, in his interesting " His- tory of Billerica," "called out a petition from Samuel Hunt and others to the General Court, praying for the grant of a town with these bounds, or a commit-

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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

tee to examine and report." The latter was done, and as a result Tewksbury was incorporated December 23, 1734. From this and his earlier but unsuccessful effort it appears that if any one person has the honor of being the father of this town it is Samuel Hunt, a name prominent in all the early history.

It was formerly supposed that the new town was named from Tewksbury, England, because some of the early settlers of Billerica came from that place, historic because of its Abbey and famous battle-field. Of this there is no evidence. No family, either in Billerica or in Tewksbury, traces its origin to that transatlantic home. The following extract from a paper on the origin of the names of New England towns, read by Mr. W. H. Wbitmore before the Massachusetts Historical Society, gives the ouly rea- son so far found for its name :

"Tewksbury, Dec. 23, 1734, Act. This is the name of a town in Gloucestershire, England, famous for its Abbey. It had been, however, one of the titles of George II., who was, in 1706, made Baron Tewks- bury, Viscount Northallertou, Earl of Milford-Haven, Marquis and Duke of Cambridge. In 1714 he became l'rince of Wales; and on his accession, in 1727, all his dignities merged in the crown. Still this use of the name is the most probable reason for its adoption here." About the period of the formation of the new town it was a fashion thus to honor members of the royal house-a loyalty entirely quenched by the experience of the Revolution less than fifty years after.

The new town received 9000 of the 25,000 acres which then belonged to Billerica, but the surveys must have been very loose, for after losing some 2000 acres to Lowell, Tewksbury has still over 13,000 acres. Among these acres were some 3000 which composed the well-known Mrs. Winthrop's farm, or "Winthrop's Farm," as it was popularly called, which was the grant made to her by the General Court, Dec. 10, 1641, which confirmed and defined a former one of 1640. To quote Mr. Hazen's extract from the State records : " Mrs. Marg Winthrop hath her 3000 acres of land, formerly granted her, to bee assigned about the lower end of Concord River, near Merrimack, to bee layde out by Mr. Flint and Mr Leift. Willard, wth Mr. Oliver or some other skilful in measuring, so as it may not hinder a plantation, & any p" thereof they may purchase of any Indians that have right to it." This grant was between the Merrimack and the Concord, on the east side of the latter river, and was subsequently laid out by Jona- than Danforth, " in a true circle," including a part of Lowell and the adjacent section of Tewksbury. There it took in the whole northwest part of Tewksbury, save the 500 acres of the Wamesit Purchase, came to the east of Trull's Brook at the north, and extended along the Concord River on the west. The other 2000 acres of the Wamesit Purchase had been ac- quired by Chelmsford. That whole purchase is now

in the city of Lowell, south of the Merrimack River.

From the old town the following families were taken into the new. The list, as given by Mr. Hazen, is im- perfect, but, as he states, will have interest :

Brown, Joseph

Kittredge, James, Jr.

Brown, William

Kittredge, James, Ser.

Farmer, Richard

Kittredge, John, Dr.

Farmer, Thomas

Kittredge, John, Jr.

Freuch, John

Kittredge, Joseph

French, Thomas

Kittredge, Thomas

Frost, Daniel

Kittredge, William

Frost, Joseph

Hall, Richard

Manning, Eliphalet

Haseltine, Samuel

Marshall, Thomas

Haseltine, Stephen

Needham, John :

Hunt, John

Osgood, Stephen Patten, John

Hunt, Joseph

Patten, Kendall

Hunt, Peter

Patten, Nathaniel

Kidder, Ephraim

Shed, Nathan

Kittredge, Daniel

Stickney, Abraham

Kittredge, Daniel, Jr.

Trull, Samuel

Kittredge, Francis

Whiting, John

Kittredge, James

Mr. Hazen says that "to these forty-seven names enough should probably be added to make the number sixty. They include all on our list of the names of Hall, Hazeltine, Hunt and Kittredge, a Joss too serious not to be felt. The latter family had become so numer- ous in that part of the town exclusively, that it is not strange they have been credited with original settle- ment there. In fact, as noted elsewhere, their ances- tor, John Kittredge, lived and died southeast of Bare Hill, in Billerica."

At this time the centre was not the most thickly- settled part of Tewksbury, but the southeast, as the ancient and numerous gravestones of the old cemetery show.

The first town-meeting was held January 14, 1735, twenty-two days after incorporation. Lieutenant Daniel Kittredge, a name frequent and honored in all the ancient affairs of the town, was elected the first moderator. The following other officers were chosen : Selectmen, Lieut. Daniel Kittredge, James Hunt, Jr., Joseph Kittredge, John French, Nathan Patten ; Town Clerk, Nathan Patten; Town Treasurer, Nathan Shed ; William Kittredge, Surveyor of Flax and JIemp. This last officer lets us see one of the chief products of the region, next to the neces- saries of life. This, with the choice of constable, seems to have been the business of the first town- meeting.

At the next meeting, January 31st, the first vote was to choose a committee to determine the line be- tween their own and the mother town. This business was prolonged for a considerable period on account of various reasons, chietly the reluctance of Billerica to accept the various propositions. Hereafter the prom- inent subjects of town-meetings in those days occupy chief attention,-the church, the highways and the

Frost, Edmund

Levestone, John

Levestone, Seth

Hall, Samuel

Manning, Thomas

Hunt, Jeremiah

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schools,-except when the various wars remanded those affairs to a secondary place. The new town had not proceeded very far in bringing its corporate exist- ence into shape before it was found requisite to de- termine its centre. Accordingly at a meeting held May 20, 1735, it was "voted that Mr. Euggals should be ye artis to find ye center of their town," also "that their committee men and chain men should assist in finding ye center of ye town." These committeemen were those chosen to determine the line between the town and Billerica. They were Lt. Daniel Kittredge, Samuel Hunt and John French, to whom James Kittredge was subsequently added. The chainmen were John Whiting and Nathan Shed.

At the same meeting a vote was taken to levy a town rate of £30 charges to be made by the last assessment in Billerica. The first rate-list on the town records fol- lows and is interesting as showing the first tax-payers of Tewksbury :

Minister. Town 8. d. 8. d.

Minister. Town a. d. s. d.

Richard Hall .

Samuel Weach

Joseph Bayley .

Moses Worcester ..

Joseph Bayley, Jr

Ross Wyman

David Bayley .

Gideon Hardey

Jonathan Bayley .

John Hunt

Nathaniel Hunt

Nathan Bayley . Richard Boynton . .

Thomas Clerk . . . . 14 8. 9 1

Benjamin Osgood . .

Jonas Clark . .

John Bell . . . 16 8 9 3 Ephraim Kidder . . . 13 9. 7 7

John Chapman

Joseph Brown . .. .13 7. 7 6

William Davidson . . John Davidson

Josiah Baldwin . .

George Davidson . .

Jacob Cory, Jr . . .

Samuel Frissell . . . Richard Farmer ..

Nathaniel Clark . . . Thomas Clark, Jr . . Joseph Frost . .

Samuel Farmer . . Capt. Peter Hunt . . 17 10. 9 9

Joseph Frost, Jr .. .

Samuel Hunt .

Edmund Frost. . . . 14 7. 8 1 Amos Foster

David Hunt.

Sergt. John Freoch . John French, Jr . . .

Mrs. Ano Hunt .. Samuel Haseltine, Jr Zachariah Hardey . . John Hardey . . . Nehemiah Hardey . . Daniel Griffen . Seth Jewett

. 19 5. 10 9 Joseph Pike.

Ezta Kindel

James King .

James King, Jr .

Seth Levestone .13 3. 7 4

Jobin Levestone .

Daniel Levestone . .

Lt. Wm. Kittredge .

Francie Kittredge . . 16 10. 9 3

Robert Mears .

Joseph Kidder

James McCoy .

Josiah Kidder .. Eliphalet Manning .

Eliphalet Manning, Jr

Jonathan Parker . Joseph Kittredge Jr . Timothy Rogers . . . Nathan Rogers . David Stone . .

En. Stephen Osgood . Kendel Pattin . . . . 14 11. 8 3

Jouathau Russell . Sgt Samuel Trull . . Joshua Clark . . . .

William Peacock . . Andrew Richardson . Dea. Nathan Shed . .

Abraham Stickney .

Amos Stickney . . . John Pemberton. .

Ebenezer Watson . .

Thomas Davis.

Peter Pattison . .

Increase Winn .

James Duttoo . .

Nathaniel French . .

John Sanders . Timothy Putnam . . Oliver Scales.

Having chosen an "artis " and a committee to find the " centre " of the town, they started the large sys- tem of roads which is still a marked feature of this region, by electing, September 29, 1735, a " committee to see what highways are needed, and upon terms they may be had and where most feasible." Samnel Hunt, Jr., John French, Richard Hall, James Kittredge, Jr., Cornet John Whiting and William Kittredge were chosen for that committee.

The roads were laid out largely to get people to meeting as well as to serve business purposes. Having formed the town because church services in Billerica were inconveniently remote, almost the first thing to be done was to carry out plans for better accommoda- tions in this respect. Then it was the part of a town to provide for the people all which pertained to the means of grace, meeting-house, minister and whatever was requisite to keep them in efficient work- ing-order. Promptly then, and at great sacrifice, they provided for one of the chief features of every New England town-the church.

CHAPTER XXV.

TEWKSBURY-(Continued).

THE CHURCH.

Ar the second town-meeting, June 31, 1735, the third vote-and the third vote in town except for the election of officers-was to choose a committee, which consisted of Peter Hunt, James Kittredge, Jr., and William Brown, " to view Andover old meeting-house fraine and report to ye town at ye adjournment of said meeting." Having performed this duty, they reported the frame " sound except 2 or 3 sticks." Nothing more is heard of the Andover frame ; but in the fourth town-meeting, February 13, 1735, came the vote, Dan- iel Kittredge, (moderator) " that they build a new meeting-house." March 10th, John French, Samnel Hunt, Jr., James Kittredge, Jr., Abraham Stickney and Peter Huut were chosen a committee for that pur- pose. At the same meeting they refused " to act upon ye first article in the warrant at this time," which was " to agree of what bigness their meeting-house should be," but " July 9th, voted that the bigness should be 48 feet long, 36 feet wide and 14 feet high be- tween 'joynts.'" Such was the size of the first of the two buildings used by the Church of Christ of the old order in Tewksbury.

September 20, 1735, " voted that they would have preaching in ye town, and that they would meet at ye house of John French, Jr., upon ye Sabbath Days and worship God." This house was often devoted to

John Whiting . . . .

Thomas French . .

Joseph French

Joseph Grimes .

Daniel Kittredge . Sgt. J. Kittredge, Jr. Sgt. Thos. Kittredge Dr. John Kittredge . Isaac Kittredge . . Jacob Kittredge , . . James Kittredge . . . Dea. Jos. Kittredge . 14 7. 8 3

Stephen Merrill . .

John Needham

Thomas Manning . . Thomas Marshall . .

Lt. Joshua Thompson John Twiet . . .

John Dutton

Josiah Cogin

Lieut. Wm. Brown .

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

town-meetings also, before the church building was available for that purpose. November 7th, Lieuten- ant Daniel Kittredge, Samuel Hunt, Jr., and Jobn French were chosen a committee to provide a preacher, and it was voted the " stated time to begin ye Public Worship in ye Sabbath Days shall be ten a C'lock in ye morning, that ye time of intermission be- tween exercises should be one hour and a half, and that they would sing that way that is now called ye new." Then "Joseph Baily and Nathan Stickney were chosen to tune and read ye psalms."

tiradually they approached thetime when a church with all necessary appointments for its existence and work should be found within their borders. Nov. 7, 1735, voted to choose Lieutenant Daniel Kittredge, Samuel Hunt, Jr., and John French a committee to provide a preacher.

After much deliberation on the site, after delay caused by the difficulties ever attending such an un- dertaking, especially in communities not too rich in worldly goods, they proeccded with the building of the meeting-house. The town-meeting of March 30, 1736, was an interesting one. It began at the house of William Kittredge at 12 o'clock noon. It adjourned to the centre of the town to see the land proposed as the site of the new meeting-house, and came back to Mr. Kittredge's and then adjourned to the evening, when it was " voted that their meeting-house shall stand upon the land of Nathaniel Richardson, near a sinall pine tree marked with R." They also chose as a committee, " to let out their meeting-house to be framed and finished," Samnel llunt, Jr., James Kit- tredge, Jr., Nathan Shed, William Kittredge, Abraham Stickney and Stephen Osgood. Several of the votes which mark the progress of the work reveal the life and customs of those days which are no more. June 10, 1736, they voted " that they would raise their meeting-house by a teacle ;" " that they would not provide for the raising of their meeting-house by a rate," and " that they would raise a town rate of £200 for the building of their meeting-house." The exact date of its completion cannot be given. Probably it was not entirely finished for some years after its oc- cupation for public worship and town-meetings, for the records contain many intimations of the building of pews and the finishing of parts of it.

After it was completed sufficiently for use the ques- tion which next engaged the town was the seating of it. This was no trivial matter. There were many deliberations and many methods proposed. The ques- tions of precedence and of payment enlisted the in- "terest of the entire town. Sufficient and careful com- parison of the town records might enable one to construct a plan of that ancient seating and mark the location of the family pews and thus the social posi- tion of the various households. Finally, in Decem- ber, 1787, they decided "to seat their meeting-house and to have respect both to money and age in seating the meeting house, to age all above sixty years;" " to

seat the meeting-house by one head, real and personal, going back to the first assessment that was made in Tewksbury;" "to leave the pews room joyning the pulpit, one on the right hand and one on the left- one for the minister and one for the town ; to dispose of the room that remains left for pews to the highest payers, giving the highest payers the first choice, and if he refuse to make his choice, the next highest payer, and so on till the above-said pew-room be taken up; that such persons as shall make choice of the above-said pews are obliged to ceil the meeting- house sides against their pews up as high as the bot- tom of the lower windows." Later the town obliged the pew-owners to glaze the windows opposite their respective pews and keep such portion of the meeting- house in proper repair.

The pews were not built all at once, but for several years permissions were granted to persons as they sought for them to build one or more pews. It was later still before the galleries were even finished. llesitation appears to carry out the plans of rating, etc., for we find that the committee having failed to do its duty, another was chosen with definite instruc- tions "to see who the highest payer was from their first being a town;" and still in 1742 the following vote spurs up the dilatory: "That the selectmen build a pew for their minister forthwith."

It is time to.hear of their first minister. Although the town called the meeting-house and minister theirs, yet within the church was an inner body-the church proper, united by no local, but by a spiritual relation. Exactly when the church in Tewksbury was formed is uncertain, but probably about the close of 1736, for November 23, 1737, we have the account of the first minister's ordination over it. Eleven months before the meeting-house was ready for occupancy the peo- ple of Tewksbury voted, January 17, 1736, "that Mr. Samson Spaulding, of Chelmsford, should be our Minister upon his accepting our Choice;" also, "to chose a Committee to treat with Mr. Samson Spauld- ing, whom we have chosen to be our Minister, and to make return." That committee was representative of the town, consisting of Lieutenant Daniel Kittredge, Sergeant John French and Mr. Samuel Hunt, Jr., February 7, 1736, they voted to give Mr. Samson Spaulding, whom they "made choice on for their Minister," "yearly for his salary £120 sterling, ac- cording to the valuation of grain now received among us-Indian Corn at 6s. per bush., and wheat at 108. per bush., and Rie at Sx. per bush .; " also "to give Mr. Samson Spaulding, whom the Town has made choice on for their Minister even for his settlement among them, £300, and to pay the same at three payments, namely-£100 a year till the whole sum be paid."

The choice of a minister then was a matter of in- terest to the whole town, which was connected with the church in the closest manner. This intimate connection may be seen by the custom of voting his salary first of all the business in town-meeting after

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TEWKSBURY.

the election of officers, often before the election of the minor officers, and by a vote spread on the town records like the following "that a Committee of three be chosen to recommend Phenias R. Red and others into the religious society in said Town."

Hence, September 13, 1736, a fast was appointed by the town for the 20th day of November, " in order for calling a minister; " then it was voted that the selectmen appoint the fast and provide the ministers requisite to conduct it. Entertainment and expenses for these ministers were also provided. The ordina- tion of a minister then was a great occasion. The affair was too rare and too important to be passed over lightly. October 6, 1737, voted "that Mr. Sampson Spaulding, of Chelmsford, whom ye town had made choice on for their minister, should be ordained on the 16th day of November next, salving if the thanks- giving put it not by, and if it did, then one week following, on Wednesday ye twenty-third of the same month," and also voted "to have three men for a committee to provide ministers and messengers for said ordination." The three were Lieutenant Daniel Kittredge, Mr. John French and Mr. Samuel Hunt, Jr. It was decided that the house of Mr. John French "be place of entertainment for ministers and messengers at said ordination," also that "the pro- vision made for the ministers and the messengers at the ordination shall be provided by the discretion of the committee chosen for that purpose." How these few votes bring before us the life of the times, social and religious ! How one would like to have seen and heard the worthies as they gathered and solemnly ordained and installed the first minister of the town ! Of the ordination itself, and of the solemn covenant of the church, a record happily has been preserved by the hand of that first minister. From that time, November 23, 1737, till his long and only pastorate was closed by death, we have the guidance of Mr. Spaulding in the history of the church, written by himself. It begins with the solemn church covenant, a document interesting for many and general reasons. This covenant, as given below, is instructive in many respects, and shows the educational, as well as re- ligious development of the New England towns one hundred and fifty years ago :

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. III, Part 67

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1278

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1278