History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 11

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1534

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stables and smaller officers. In 1670 the Indian Church at Natick had two teachers and from forty to fifty communicants. They observed the Sabbath, some of them could read and write and rehearse the catechism. The experiment was in a degree success- ful. In the beginning of the eighteenth century the tribe was in a civilized state, they had civil officers of their own, and a military company organized in the manner of the colonists. There were some, like Waban and Deacon Ephraim, who led sober, Christian lives, but their numbers gradually diminished until they were extinct in 1826.

When the General Court granted the two thousand acres, to be taken from the territory of Dedham for the Indian town at Natick, it granted to the Dedham proprietors, as compensation, eight thousand acres of unlocated lands which they might select. In 1663 messengers were sent out to explore near Lancaster. The messengers reported the land to be good, but hard to cultivate, and there was not enough meadow land. John Fairbanks informed the selectmen of some good land twelve miles from Hadley, and John Fairbanks and Lieut. Daniel Fisher were sent out to discover and examine it. On their return they reported the land to be exceedingly good and that it should be taken possession of under the grant. This was Pacomtuck, the present town of Deerfield. When the report was received, the Dedham proprie- tors appointed six persons to repair to Pacomtuck, and cause the eight thousand acres to be located. Capt. John Pynchon, of Springfield, was employed by the town to purchase the lands of the Indians, and procured three deeds from them, which are now carefully preserved at Deerfield. The grantee in these deeds is Capt. John Pynchon, of Springfield, for the use and behoof of Maj. Eleazer Lusher, Ensign Daniel Fisher, and other English of Dedham, their associates and successors. Dedham gave £94 10s. for these deeds, which sum was raised by an assess- ment on the common rights in the Dedham proprie- tary.

In 1670 the proprietors of Pacomtuck met at Dedham, twenty-six being present,-Capt. John Pynchon, Samuel Hinsdale, John Stebbins, John Hurlburt, and Samson Frary not being inhabitants of Dedham, but Samuel Hinsdale was a son of Robert Hinsdale, of Dedham. The remaining proprietors were inhabitants of Dedham. It was then voted to have a correct plan made, the place for the meeting- house to be designated, the church-officers' lot and lots of proprietors to be assigned.

In 1672, Samuel Hinsdale, who was afterwards slain at Bloody Brook, made a petition to the Dedham

DEDHAM.

proprietors to authorize five persons to admit inhabit- ants, and to hire an orthodox minister at Deerfield, and to act for themselves in other matters, by reason of their remoteness from other settlements. This petition was granted, and seems to end the relations of the Dedham proprietors with Pacomtuck. Doubt- less their shares were purchased by the Pacomtuck proprietors who inhabited there. The town was incorporated as Deerfield, May 24, 1682. The attention of the settlers was also turned south- ward to their uplands and meadows at Wollonomopoag. The large and beautiful ponds there, are not mentioned in the records as among its attractions, but in 1649 they had gone there to cut grass from the meadows, and in 1647 notice was given by John Dwight and Francis Chickering of their hopes of a mine there. In 1660 a committee was deputed to view the up- land and meadow near about the ponds by " George As the territory granted to the Dedham proprietors in 1636 was so extensive, there was a great induce- ment to begin new settlements within its limits. The desire or necessity for more land, seems to have been a controlling reason for extending the settlements. The fear of attacks from the Indians had at first checked the advance of the line of settlements. From the beginning, the settlers had looked with longing eyes upon the wide meadows at Bogastow, | now the easterly part of Medway. Edward Alleyne, in 1640, had a grant of three hundred acres there, where he should choose, with fifty acres of meadow. | After the death of Mr. Alleyne, in 1642, this grant was located under the direction of Maj. Lusher. In January, 1650, with the sanction and co-operation of the Dedham proprietors, at a general meeting there was granted, for the accommodation of the village, a tract extending east and west three miles, and north and south four miles. A company was immediately formed, and regulations similar to their own, adopted for the government of the new town, and rules were Indian's wigwam." In 1661, at a general town-meet- ing, it was voted that a plantation should be set up at Wollonomopoag, and that six hundred acres should be laid down for the encouragement of the plantation. The bounds of the plantation were afterwards fixed in the same year; the south bounds to be the Dor- chester line, and the north bounds to be the Medfield bounds in part and Charles River in part. In 1662 a committee made a report upon extinguishing the Indian title. Philip, sachem of Mount Hope, claimed lands at Wollonomopoag. In 1662 Dedham had paid £24 10s. for his title to lands within its plantation, and again in 1669 the further sum of £17 0s. 8d. were paid him for a further release of his title. The payment of these sums seems to have been an obstacle to removing to the new plantation. In 1663 the company drew lots in the Wollonomopoag plantation, and a settlement was actually began. An examination of the names of these settlers shows that they were nearly all the sons or sons-in-law of the Dedham set- tlers, so that the new plantation was actually the child adopted for the equitable division of the lands. In | of Dedham, and the Dedham proprietors continued January, 1651, Dedham formally transferred all right and power of town government to the new settlement, which was incorporated May 23, 1651, as Medfield. to aid and direct it in a paternal way for several years. In 1669, Mr. Allin, the Dedham pastor, Elder Hunting, and Major Lusher approved a call to the Rev. Samuel The grant to Edward Alleyne was conveyed to the | Mann to be the minister for the infant settlement.

town of Medfield by his nephew in 1652. A num- ber of the Dedham settlers removed to Medfield, and prominent among them was Mr. Ralph Wheelock, said to have been a non-conformist preacher in Eng- land, educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and who came to Dedham in 1638. Whether his disappoint- ment at not being the choice of the Dedham Church as ruling elder, had inclined him to remove is not stated upon authority, but he was in the habit of preaching occasionally at Medfield. He was a repre- sentative from Medfield, and died Jan. 11, 1684, at the age of eighty-three. He was the ancestor of the founder and first president of Dartmouth College. The fact that so large a number of the Dedham set- tlers had early received grants of land in Medfield, makes the existence of that town nearly coeval with Dedham. It was an offshoot of the Dedham settle- ment, rather than a child of the parent town.

Major Lusher kept their records. . At length, in 1672, | the inhabitants were of sufficient numbers and capac- ity, in the opinion of the General Court, to carry-on the work of the church and commonwealth, and upon their petition, Oct. 17, 1673, they were made a town by the name of Wrentham. In the following Decem- ber the books and records were transferred from Ded- ham to Wrentham. Fifty years later a considerable portion of the south precinct of Dorchester was also set off to Wrentham.

The settlement at Dedham was gradually increasing in its population. In 1657 there were one hundred and sixty-six families. Mr. Allin received sixty pounds as his annual maintenance, and had a good stock of cattle, and a good accommodation in corn- land and meadow. Johnson describes Dedham about this time as " an inland town about ten miles from Boston, well watered with many pleasant streams.

HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

abounding with garden fruits fitly to supply the mar- kets of the most populous town, whose coin and com- modities allures the inhabitants of the town to make many a long walk ; they consist of about a hundred ; on the land of Philip, sachem of the Pokanokets. families, being generally given to husbandry, and Philip claimed lands at Wollonomopoag, and was in the habit of repeating his claims after he had once released them. Magus, another sachem, claimed the territory including Natick, Needham, and Ded- ham Island. It was the policy of the Massachu- setts colony, under the advice of the Council for New England, to purchase the title of any savages who might pretend to rights of inheritance to the lands granted, that they might avoid the least scruple of intrusion. The Dedham settlers were careful to observe this precept. It has been seen that deeds from Philip of the lands at Wollonomopoag and from the sachem of the Pacomtucks at Deerfield were procured by the Dedham settlers. Besides these deeds, in 1685 there was obtained from Josias, the grandson of Chicatabot, a confirmatory title to the tract of land known as the town of Dedham. In 1680, John Magus and his wife, Natick Indians, in consideration of five pounds in money, released the Indian title to Natick, Needham, and Dedham Island. In 1685, William Nahaton, Peter Natoogus, and Benjamin Nahaton, Punkapog Indians, released their title. through the blessing of God are much increased, ready to swarm and settle on the building of another town more to the inland." The deeds of lands refer to barns and orchards. The inventory of Mr. Allin's estate included chairs upholstered with leather, Tur- key-work cushions, feather-beds and pillows, "a gilt bowl with covering," " a wine-cup with a foot," and a warming-pan, so that some of these homes in the wilderness had both comforts and luxuries. Mr. Allin was a well-to-do farmer, having extensive out- lands and a comfortable homestead, with parlor, kitchen, and buttery on the first floor, and chambers over each. Deacon Chickering the largest landholder; Ensign Daniel Fisher, for three years speaker of the House of Deputies, and afterwards an assistant ambassador to King Philip, "learned in the law,"' the father of him who afterwards collared a royal governor ; Tim- othy Dwight, who came over with his father, John Dwight, when a mere child, the town recorder, select- man, deputy to the General Court, " of an excellent spirit, peaccable, generous, charitable ;" Elder Hunt- ing, son-in law to Mr. Allin ; Michael Metcalf, the schoolmaster ; Dr. William Avery, the donor of money for a Latin school ; and Lieut. Joshua Fisher, who kept the ordinary and had an annual bill for " dieting the selectmen ;" these were the contemporaries of the gra- cious Allin and Maj. Lusher through the first thirty- five years of the settlement. How wisely and well these men wrought has already been seen.

But the time had arrived when the leaders of the first generation were to rest from their labors. Michael Metcalf died in 1664; Anthony Fisher, in 1669 ; Mr. Allin, in 1671 ; Major Lusher and Joshua Fisher, in 1672; Daniel Fisher, in 1683. Another generation was about to enter into their labors and the rule of peaceful life was about to be broken.

CHAPTER V.

DEDHAM-(Continued).

Indian Deeds-Philip's War-Rev. William Adams-New Meeting- House-Timothy Dwight-William Avery-Daniel Fisher, the second-His Part in Resisting Sir Edmund Andros.

AT the time of the coming of the settlers, there were no Indians to be seen within miles of the set-

tlement. Chicatabot, sachem of the Neponsets, after- wards claimed the territory west of Neponset River, bounded northerly on Charles River and southerly

In 1681 the town voted that all deeds and other writings relating to town-rights, should be deposited in a box kept by Deacon Aldis for the purpose, and it appears there were seven Indian deeds among them. Whether this box was really provided or not, a bundle of Indian deeds was found in 1836, including all the deeds excepting that from Philip, whose autograph cannot be found. A curious letter from Philip to the selectmen of Dedham, which was copied into the Wrentham records, relates to his land claims. Three of the deeds are still kept in the town clerk's office at Dedham, and the three deeds from the Pacomtucks have been sent to Deerfield. For all these conveyances an adequate consideration in money was paid, and if there was any attempt at overreaching in the bargains, it was by Philip of Mount Hope, to whose unscrupulous demands the Dedham settlers yielded for the sake of peace.

In 1673 the selectmen received orders from the General Court to prepare the town for defense against the Indians. For several years Philip had excited alarm in the Plymouth colony by his bad faith and secret combinations with other tribes, and it was now rendered certain that a serious outbreak was about to occur. The soldiers were called out for frequent trainings. A barrel of gunpowder and other ammu-

DEDHAM.

nition were procured. The gun, which was a small field-piece called a drake, given to the town by the General Court in 1650, was mounted on wheels. The meeting-house was made the depository for sup- plies. The people maintained a garrison and set a watch. The inhabitants had been encouraged to en- list into the troop of horse commanded by Capt. Pren- tice by an abatement of taxes. The fear excited was great in the settlement, and many fled to Boston. The Wrentham settlers packed their goods, and with their wives and children came to Dedham, leaving their deserted houses behind them. The town was well situated for defense. It was built in a compact manner, that it might be prepared for defense against the Indians. Little River and Charles River on the north, were safeguards against approach from that direction, while on the other sides of the village the plain was cleared to a considerable extent, and was overlooked by the watch in the belfry of the new meeting-house. The Indians in the town were ordered to depart, and to go either to Natick, Ne- ponset, or Wamisit. A war tax was levied upon the inhabitants, which exceeded one shilling for every pound of valuation.

Dedham escaped the horrors of an Indian attack by reason of these preparations, but Dedham men were found in the bloodiest battles of the war. The troop of horse under Capt. Prentice was a part of the force which made the first attack upon Philip on June 28, 1675, immediately after the massacre at Swanzey, and lost one killed and one wounded. Robert Hinsdale, one of the founders of the Dedham Church in 1638, but who had removed to Hadley, with his three sons, were killed at Bloody Brook in Capt. Lothrop's company. John Wilson, John Genere, and Elisha Woodward were slain at Deer- field.

In December, 1675, the combined forces of the colonies, consisting of six companies under Gen. Winslow, were collected at Dedham and marched against the Narragansetts in Rhode Island, and was the force engaged in the great battle of the Narraganset Fort. In February, 1676, Medfield was burned and twenty of the settlers killed, and the deserted houses at Wrentham were nearly all consumed soon after.

Indians were detected lurking in the neighboring woods of the Dedham settlement, but they found the watch set and the garrison prepared. On the 25th of July, 1676, a party of' Dedham and Medfield men, numbering thirty-six Englishmen and ninety praying Indians, won a signal success in slaying Pomham, a Narragansett sachem, and capturing fifty of his fol- lowers. An expedition under Capt. Church had

gone to the Narragansett country in pursuit of him, but he escaped them.

This achievement contributed much to bring the war to a successful conclusion, as Pomham was re- garded as an enemy second only in power and influ- ence to Philip himself. The death of Philip soon after brought hostilities in this vicinity to an end, and the settlement could again feel some sense of security.

There were other changes going on in the town besides those resulting from the dread realities of an Indian war. It has been seen that many of the leading men of the first generation had gone to their final rest. In a little more than six months after Mr. Allin's death, Mr. William Adams had been called to be his successor, and was ordained Dec. 3, 1673. He was the son of William Adams, of Ipswich, born May 27, 1650, and was graduated at Harvard College in 1671. He married, for his second wife, Alice Bradford, daughter of Maj. William Bradford, of Plymouth. He relinquished for one year eight pounds of his salary on account of the expenses incurred during Philip's war.

Soon after his settlement as minister, the new meet- ing-house was raised. The old meeting-house, with its thatched roof, was out of repair and insufficient for the congregation. In 1672, before Mr. Adams was called, the people had voted to erect a new meet- ing-house. It was finished in 1673. It had " three pair of stairs," one at the north, another at the east, and another at the south corners. The fore seat in the front gallery was parted in the middle, and the rest open at both ends. The south gallery was for men, and the north gallery for women and boys. The seats in the lower part of the house were parted i in the middle by an aisle, so that the men were ranged on one side and the women on the other. It had a bell, which had become quite necessary, since the people were moving farther from the meeting- house than formerly. The practice of beating the drum to summon the congregation had been aban- doned for many years. They had much difficulty in caring for the orderly behavior of the boys, to whom were assigned seats where they might " be watched over." Ten years after, it was proposed to construct new galleries, and in 1696 galleries were erected " over the other galleries," that over the woman's gallery being for "young women and maids to sit | in."

Mr. Adams died Aug. 17, 1685. Two of his ser- mons were printed, one being an election sermon. In a book used for the parish records there is a com- mentary written by him covering sixty-three pages.

HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

During his ministry there was harmony among his people, and they showed attachment to their pastor. The parish now included all of the original territory granted to Dedham proprietors excepting Medfield and Wrentham. In 1682 a vote was passed that no one of the inhabitants should remove a greater dis- tance than two miles from the meeting-house withont special license, as any person so removing would ex- pose himself to danger, and to want of town govern- ment. The people, therefore, were not widely scat- tered, although the small house-lots of the village were gradually being abandoned. The generation which had now succeeded to the management of the secular and religious affairs of the town were much inferior to the first, in point of education and manners. The wilderness had been a rough school in which to rear their families, in spite of the care which the fathers had taken to provide for their education. The town was indicted in 1674, and again in 1691, for not supporting a school. The Indian war had doubtless a depressing influence in this respect.

The leading men at this period appear to have been Timothy Dwight, Daniel Fisher (the second of that name), and William Avery. Timothy Dwight was the son of John Dwight, and was a small child when he came with his father. He had been town clerk ten years and selectman twenty-four years before this time, but he was still in active life, and survived until Jan. 31, 1718. He was the husband of six wives and the father of nineteen children. He was the progenitor of a line of. descendants that have made the name of Dwight known and honored through the succeeding generations. William Avery was the son of Dr. William Avery, and was a deacon of the church and selectman for twenty-two years. His name was honorably perpetuated for many years in Dedham. Capt. Daniel Fisher succeeded to the title and name of his father but not to his official distinc- tion, but he inherited his spirit. His father had been prominent in the struggle between the Massachusetts colony and Randolph, the special messenger of the crown, in his attempts against the colonial charter. Among those against whom he exhibited articles of high misdemeanor was Daniel Fisher, and in 1682 Randolph wrote to England that " His Majesty's quo warranto against the charter, sending for Thomas Danforth, Samuel Norvell, Daniel Fisher, and Elisha Cooke, will make the whole faction tremble." Such was the character and position of the first Daniel Fisher, who died in 1683. In 1686 the charter was vacated, and soon after, Sir Edmund Andros was appointed the royal Governor of all the English possessions in America north of Pennsylvania, by King James II.

His activity in oppressive legislation had rendered him especially obnoxious to the people of Boston, where he resided. In April, 1689, the news of the landing of the Prince of Orange in England was brought to Boston. On the morning of the 18th of April, it being Thursday, when the weekly lecture of the First Church invited a concourse from the neighboring towns, a rumor spread that there were armed men collecting and a rising in the different parts of Boston. "At nine of the clock the drums beat through the town and an ensign was set up on the beacon." The captain of the " Rose" frigate was taken and handed over to a guard, and Randolph and other high officials were apprehended and put in jail. From the eastern gallery of the town-house in King Street, a declaration of the gentlemen mer- chants and inhabitants of Boston and the country adjacent was read to the assembled people, reciting the oppressive acts of Andros, and concluding that they seize upon the persons of the grand authors of their miseries to secure them for justice, and advising : the people to join them for the defense of the land. Andros was in the fort on Fort Hill. A summons was sent to him to surrender and deliver up the government and fortification, promising him secu- rity from violence, but assuring him an attempt - would be made to take the fort by storm if opposition should be made. After some negotiation the Gov- ernor " came forth from the fort and went disarmed to the town-house, and from thence under guard to Mr. Usher's house." On the succeeding day, the news having spread to the adjoining towns, the coun- try people, according to Hutchinson, " came into town in such a rage and heat as made.all tremble to think what would follow." Nothing would satisfy them but that the Governor must be bound in chains or cords and put in a more secure place, and Andros was con- ducted under guard from Usher's house back to the fort. Tradition says that the man who led the im- prisoned Governor by the collar of his coat was Capt. Daniel Fisher, the second of the name, of Dedham. As Haven in his centennial address most felicitously says, it was "a second Daniel come to judgment." He was inspired with a keen sense of the personal obloquy his father had endured from royal emissaries as well as a thorough sympathy with the cause of the people. He served as selectman for nine years. He was the Daniel Fisher who went to Deerfield with John Fairbanks in 1663. He was also the great- grandfather of Fisher Ames.

DEDHAM.

CHAPTER VI.

DEDHAM-(Continued.)

Province Charter-Changes and Contentions-Incorporation of Needham-Rev. Joseph Belcher-The Second Parish and Church-Rev. Thomas Balch-The Third Parish and Church -Rev. Josiah Dwight-Rev. Andrew Tyler-Incorporation of Walpole-Services of Church of England begun-Rev. William Clark-Samuel Colburn-Devise of Estate to Epis- copal Church-Rev. Samuel Dexter-The Fourth Parish and Church-Rev. Benjamin Caryl-Services of Dedham Men in French Wars-New Meeting-House-Dr. Nathaniel Ames- The Pillar of Liberty-Events Prior to the American Revo- lution.

IN 1692 the charter, under which the colony had existed for fifty-five years, was dissolved by a legal judgment, and a new charter of the province of Mas- sachusetts Bay, with a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and secretary, appointed by the crown, took its place. This is commonly considered as marking the begin- ning of a new period in the history of Massachusetts. In the Dedham settlement it was a time of depres- sion. The town had been without a pastor for about eight years, since the death of Mr. Adams. Divi- | business but adjourn to the thirteenth day. The ad- sions had arisen among the people during the vacancy, ; and they had extended calls to four different persons to become their minister. In the correspondence which occurred during these efforts of the church and town, the discouraging state of affairs at Ded- ham was not concealed, and it had the effect of causing a declination of each invitation. At length, in 1692, Mr. Joseph Belcher, of Milton, accepted the call. The town offered him sixty pounds to pro- vide him with a dwelling, and a salary of one hun- dred pounds, and afterwards wood to the value of ten pounds was added, or that amount in money. He was ordained Nov. 29, 1693. Soon after, the meet- ing-house was enlarged by the addition of new gal- leries. Prior to this time, the ministerial rate had been paid by the voluntary contributions made each Sabbath. Mr. Belcher proposed that for one quarter, his salary should be paid, and he would rely upon contributions for the remaining three-quarters of the year. The result was not satisfactory, and a few years after, the ministerial rates were collected in the same manner as the country rates. Those who de- | sired to worship elsewhere had liberty to pay the rates to the minister where they worshiped. These, doubtless, were those who lived at a remote distance from the meeting-house and were desirous of forming new parishes. About the year 1702 pews were first introduced, and a year or two previous, the meeting- house was again enlarged.

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History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 11

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1534