History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 118

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

USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 118

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1 This sketch has been compiled largely from original sources, principally the public records of State, county, town, parish, and church ; and, brief as it necessarily is, it is the most elab- orate account of the town yet offered to the public, no history ever having been undertaken, although the initiatory steps of such a work are in progress. Prominence has been given to the general history and to the churches and schools, as being of | public importance and interest, and in most cases the compiler has preferred to give the substance of the records rather than | his own statement of the facts. He would also gratefully ac- knowledge the kind offices of his many friends who have aided him in the collection of material necessary to the prosecution of

James H Sargent

561

WEYMOUTH.

and one-third of a mile in width, with a surface of about two hundred and fifty acres. Whitman's Pond, centrally located, is about one-third less in extent than Great Pond, being nearly as long but of very irregular form. Whortlebury Pond, a little south of Whitman's, is small, nearly circular, and about forty rods in diameter. There are but two streams of any importance,-" Mill River," the outlet to Great Pond, running into Back River, a distance by its course in which it passes through Whitman's Pond, of five or six miles, and " Old Swamp River," rising in Hing- ham and flowing into Whitman's Pond, about two and one-half or three miles. These rivers have sev- eral very fine water privileges, one of which, that of the East Weymouth Iron Company, has been thought one of the best in the State. There are but two hills of noticeable prominence in the town,-Great Hill, on the shore of the bay, and King Oak Hill, about two miles farther south. From the summits of both are to be seen some of the finest views in the State. There are two inlets making in from the bay, naviga- ble for vessels of considerable size,-Fore River on the north and west, four or five miles in length, and Back River on the northeast, three or four miles long. The extreme northeasterly portion of the town is a long and narrow neck of land extending into the bay for a mile and a half or more, while beyond this, to the north about eighty rods away, lies Grape Island, separated only by the narrow mouth of Back River, and is of an oblong shape, about half a mile in length, and sixty rods in width, while about two hundred rods farther to the north, in the bay, lies another small island, called Sheep Island. Both of these be- long to Weymouth, are wholly destitute of trees, and used only for pasturage.

Almost the whole of the south part of the town is an elevated plateau with a light sandy or gravelly soil, capable, with good tillage, of producing fair crops. The surface from this plain commences to fall away with gentle undulations until it reaches the sea. The northern portion has always enjoyed the reputa- tion of containing the best land for cultivation, while only a comparatively small portion of the whole area is unfit for agricultural purposes in consequence of swamp, ledge, or barrenness. Formerly farming was the principal industry, and the larger portion of the population gained their livelihood from the produce of the soil, but during the present century manufactures have increased to such an extent as almost to exter- minate the former. On Fore and Back Rivers a large amount of business is done in lumber and coal, while the Old Colony and South Shore Railroads bring in large quantities of grain, flour, and other necessaries.

For the first hundred years the town constituted one precinct, but in 1723 it was divided into two, the south being somewhat the larger. Quite recently, for practical and convenient purposes, it has been divided into five wards,-two at the south, one at the east, one at the Landing, and one at the north. Until 1793 Weymouth constituted a part of Suffolk County, but in that year Norfolk County was established and Weymouth made a part of it. It has four post- offices, one in each of the principal villages, with tele- graphic and telephone accommodations along the lines of the Old Colony and South Shore Railroads, which cross the town at different points.

Geology .- Weymouth, geologically, is a very an- cient town. The solid rock formations date far back in the primitive ages, and its physical history, could it be told in detail, would be extremely inter- esting. The rock underlying a large portion of the town is closely allied to the famous granite beds of its near neighbor, Quincy, but is less perfectly crys- tallized. This bed rock is everywhere pierced by veins of amygdaloid trap, often many feet in width. Belonging to a later period are beds of dark slate or shale, extending across the northerly part of the town from Braintree to Hingham, and cropping out upon the surface in huge seams at frequent intervals. These slates contain large quantities of iron pyrites, and are cut by quartz veins in which are found fine crystals. There is also found in North Weymouth another peculiar purplish slate which is full of cavi- ties that seem once to have been filled with organic matter.

After the very early period in which these rocks were formed there comes a great gap in the record of this earth history as written by the pen of Nature, until the glacial or ice period is reached, of which Weymouth bears abundant and very marked testimony. The uncovered ledges are in many places very plainly scarred with the parallel groovings or strix, and the surface is covered with hills of gravel and sand, or strown with bowlders of great variety and of all sizes up to that of an ordinary dwelling-house.

In various parts of the town, particularly that in the north bordering upon Back River, are unusually fine examples of the sharp, linear hills, called horse- backs or kames and glacial plains, both formed by the ice as it melted or retreated towards the pole.

The hilly, rolling surface of Weymouth, especially in the northerly portion, is due partly to the up- turned ledges of granite, and partly to these hills of glacial gravel. But little soil is left upon the rocky, gravelly hills, most of the vegetable débris having been washed into the swamps and peat-bogs.

562

HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

General History .- The history of the town of the Dutch began a settlement on Manhattan Island, at the mouth of the Hudson,-an entering-wedge be- tween the two portions of the continent claimed by England,-and seven years later, at the close of the year 1620, the Plymouth Company, after much dis- cussion and bargaining, invited the Pilgrims (then temporarily living in Leyden, in Holland) to embark Weymouth covers a period of two hundred and sixty- one years, and is no less fruitful in important and stirring events than that of any of its contemporaries. The early voyagers were attracted to it by its beau- tiful and protected situation, shielded from the ocean by the beach and peninsula of Nantasket, and from the Indians by its position between the two rivers, | for the coast of New England, and the colony located extending far into the bay. Its central location made at Plymouth, where the resolute members of that com- munity commenced their hand-to-hand conflict with the terrible circumstances against them, and which proved almost too great for their strength. it also easy of access both by water and land from a large reach of territory, thus rendering it a favorable point for trade with the natives. The wandering fishermen and traders who were ranging the New England coast during the early years of the seven- teenth century, soon discovered its value and made it a point of rendezvous. From it they could easily slip out upon the ocean, and from it they could make such excursions upon the land as were necessary in accomplishing their purposes.

The great companies were then looking for the men and the places by whom and where they could carry out their grand schemes, accumulate the for- tunes and seize the honors they foresaw already within their grasp; and, not more scrupulous than some of their modern successors, they were not al- ways as careful as to the means by which their pur- poses were to be accomplished as might be desired. Land was here in abundance, and its rightful owners, if there were any, were few, ignorant, and of no fixed abode. The geography of the coast was not well understood ; and it easily happened that conflicts of jurisdiction arose between the various claimants that caused, in after-times, no little vexation and trouble. If the Plymouth and Gorges grants came together the boundary was not well defined, and a fine position . near the border, once in possession, might, perhaps be held against future comers. It was at a great distance from the courts that held jurisdiction, and influences might be brought to bear even upon those high in authority that would render the result of a trial anything but certain. Justice was tardy, her eyes liable to partial blindness and her hand held the scales in uncertain poise. Thus the position of things prepared the way for a train of events involving a great deal of disturbance and per- plexity, and the result was usually in favor of those holding the most money and home influence.

Such was the condition of affairs during the first quarter of the seventeenth century. The Virginia Company, whose patent covered the southern portion of the English possessions in America, established at Jamestown, Va., in 1607, a colony which commenced a long and severe struggle for existence. In 1614,

The Weston Colony .- Thus it was that Mr. Thomas Weston, a merchant of London, who had much to do with the Pilgrims in their negotiations with the Plymouth Company, and with an exalted opinion of the value and future prosperity of the country, conceived the idea of an independent enter- prise of similar character, which should unite in itself all the elements of success without cumbering itself with the discouragements that surrounded the other settlement. They would establish a trading-post by men without families which should afterwards grow into a powerful State. Consequently in August, 1622, a company of about sixty able-bodied men, selected-not so much for their special fitness for the work proposed as for their willingness to undertake it-from the migratory population of London, landed | from the " Charity" and "Swan," two small vessels chartered for the purpose, upon the shore of Wessa- guscus, about twenty-five miles north of Plymouth, inside of the entrance of a capacious bay afterwards known as Boston Harbor. The spot has not been positively identified, but tradition points to the north- ern shore of Phillips' Creek, a small inlet of Fore River (or Monatiquot), about three or four miles from its entrance into the bay,-a well-protected, well- wooded and watered spot, and one that promised well for the business proposed.

As might have been expected, this company, with no settled habits of industry and no extraordinary inducements to form them now, not well disposed towards the hard labor and deprivations necessary to the formation of a settlement in a new and rugged country, and without a competent head, soon became disgusted with their enterprise, neglected their means of livelihood, broke over the comparatively friendly re- lations upon which they had subsisted with the natives, and were soon in great distress. The severity of the winter and their neglect to make provisions for it, in a short time brought them to the point of starvation. Their treatment of their savage neighbors rendered them in the utmost degree distrustful and timid. In

563

WEYMOUTH.

their want of food they sent to their neighbors at Plymouth for supplies, but they, nearly as badly off, could not help them,-thus the fish of the sea, the shell-fish of the beaches, and the nuts and fruits of the forest became their sole food. In their great fear of the Indians they applied to Plymouth for assist- ance, and that colony sent up Capt. Miles Standish with a file of men, who speedily established order in the death of the principal aggressors. Meanwhile, fully satisfied with their brief experiment of colonial life, the Weston Colony disbanded, going in different directions, and at the opening of the summer of 1623, not one was left upon the spot to claim ownership in the name of the ill-fated company.

Mr. Weston remaining behind, and his agent, intrusted with the charge of the colony during its early days, dying in a short time. Had they come with families dependent upon them, with the result resting upon their own exertions, the issue might have been differ- ent. Their faults seem to have come from the want of proper training with its consequent improvidence, and the lack of a sufficient motive.

Gorges' Settlement .- The natural attractions of Wessaguscus did not suffer it to remain long unoc- cupied, for in the autumn of the same year, 1623, or in the late summer, it is not quite certain which, Capt. Robert Gorges, son of Sir Fernando Gorges, acting under a charter from the Plymouth Company, the Council of New England, came with a company consisting in part at least of families and of character superior to that of those who had preceded them, with the evident intention of forming a permanent settle- ment. They landed upon the northern part of the town, probably near or upon the spot chosen by the Weston people the year before, thinking undoubt- edly that this was covered by the grant which was so indefinitely described as to be easily susceptible of misconstruction. This gave them ten miles of the coast on the northeast side of Massachusetts Bay and extending thirty miles inland. They chose their ten miles evidently to include the entrance of Boston Harbor, and this mistake, if mistake it were, was the cause of much trouble in the future.

Ten of the colony died of famine, two had been killed and one wounded by the savages in their various encounters, and at the close of the spring, after the visit of Capt. Standish, three of their number, the last of the company, were cruelly tortured to death by their Indian neighbors with whom they had sought refuge. After the lapse of more than two and a half centuries it may be possible to form a more favorable estimate of the character of the men who composed this colony than that which has been usually accredited to them. That they were not the utterly depraved set they have been described is very evident. In their intercourse with the Plymouth people they certainly showed a disposition to act fairly. In an expedition made with them under contract to trade with the Indians to the south, in the region of Cape Cod, Mr. The leader of this company is well known in his- tory, but of the men who composed it little has been recorded ; even their number is not known, the names of very few mentioned, and those with a great deal of uncertainty. It is, however, a well- ascertained fact that the colony was projected to favor the establishment of the government more firmly on the New England shore, and to prepare a founda- tion upon which the Episcopacy might rear its future prosperity, and also as an offset to the threatened opposition that might possibly arise from the then in- significant attempt at Plymouth. The project there- fore carried upon its face the evidence of ministerial and ecclesiastical favor; hence, it did not meet with much assistance from the Pilgrims, from whom there have come not the most favorable reports. To further the authority of the church and to form a legal basis of future action the colony brought a reg- ular chaplain, or clergyman of the Church of Eng- land, in the person of Rev. William Morrell, a man of education and standing, of excellent character, with power sufficient for the purpose intrusted to his care, the establishment of the claims of the church in Weston's people took their full share of the labor and privation, acting with energy and honorably discharg- ing all their obligations. Even their associates in this | enterprise offer no complaints in this respect. When one of their number had shown himself a notorious thief, and had committed serious depredations upon their Indian neighbors, he was given up at their com- plaint, and, as the sufferers declined to judge the culprit, the colonists proceeded to execute summary justice by hanging him. It may be said that this act was the result of fear, but it is hardly fair to ascribe a dishonorable motive when a better one appears in the exhibition of it. They had not that high moral pur- pose, neither were they actuated by that strong relig- ious faith that actuated their Pilgrim contemporaries. They were not flying from persecution in their own land to seek a home for themselves and their families where they could enjoy comparative freedom of con- science and life, although at the expense of most of life's comforts. They were men with no families, who undertook the enterprise to earn a living, and, it may be, make a fortune with which to return home. More than this, they were under no competent leadership, ' the wilderness, and also to act as its bishop when

564

HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

the enterprise should develop sufficiently to need the services of such an officer.

The plan of the colony was projected upon a scale of magnificent proportions and with machinery suffi- cient to conduct the affairs of an empire. Capt. Gorges was named as Governor-General, with a general over- sight of the company's officers in America, and au- thority by commission to carry out his plans. Asso- ciated with him in the government were Capt. Francis West, admiral ; Christopher Levet, Esq., perhaps the chief judicial officer, and such others as the Governor- General chose to appoint, any two of whom, with himself, were empowered to transact any business necessary for the government of the colony. The Governor of Plymouth, for the time being, was con- stituted a member of the government, and immediately upon the arrival of the company, in August or Sep- tember, Governor Bradford was notified of the fact, and at once made his arrangements to make the new- comers a call ; but before this could be effected, the Governor-General, while on a tour of inspection over his extended domains, was forced by stress of weather into Plymouth, where he remained a few days and then returned overland to Wessaguscus. Very soon, however, he became satisfied with his experience as a ruler in the new settlement, and returned to England with a considerable portion of his com- pany ; others of the party went to Virginia and some to Plymouth, while some remained as the nucleus of the future settlement. Mr. Morrell appears to have remained here for perhaps a year and a half, and despairing of an accomplishment of his purpose in coming hither, went to Plymouth and took passage for England.

In the course of the year 1624, there came in other settlers from Weymouth, England, bringing with them a non-conformist minister by the name of Barnard, who remained with them and died there. The rec- ords of this time are so bare and scanty that nothing more than the fact of this addition is known. From this time until the arrival of Governor Winthrop at Shawmut there is more or less mention of the settle- ment at Wessaguscus, and a continual though small accession to its members. The most notorious event of this period was the arrest there in 1628 of Thomas Morton, of Merry Mount, as Mount Wollaston was then called, by Capt. Miles Standish by order of the Plymouth | authorities, taken to that town and sent to England. In 1630, and the following years, the settlement was recognized as a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and taxed for its support. In 1632, Governor Win- | a creek called Fresh River formed a part ; thence on throp with a party of friends visited Plymouth, by | a line nearly parallel with the western boundary, to vessel to Wessaguscus or Wessagusset (it was called by | the Plymouth Colony line. These bounds, which were

either name), thence overland. On their way, in going and returning they were generously entertained by the people of that place. During that year a tax was ordered by the court, five pounds of which was levied on Wessaguscus, eight on Boston, and four pounds ten shillings on Salem, showing the relative importance of the towns. In 1633 it was spoken of as a small village. In 1634 it was ordered to pay the charges incurred in taking care of Thomas Lane, a servant of John Burslyn (Bursley), of that settle- ment, who had fallen sick in Dorchester.

Hull Company .- In 1635, the place came into general notice and took a prominent position among the towns composing the Massachusetts Bay Colony. On the 8th of July, of that year, the General Court passed an order permitting Rev. Joseph Hull with twenty-one families, consisting of about one hundred persons, to settle at Wessaguscus, the largest addition at any one time, probably, in the history of the town. These settlers came from Weymouth, England, and belonged to the county of Dorset and its immediate neighborhood. They were a class of people who soon became prominent and whose families, many of them, retain their position to the present day. Their min- ister, Rev. Joseph Hull, became for a time the min- ister of the town. On the 2d of September the town was erected into a plantation, equivalent proba- bly to an act of incorporation, and the name changed to Weymouth, which it has since retained. On the following day it was ordered to send a deputy to the General Court, to which office William Reade, John Bursley, and John Upham were elected, these three being sent as an accommodation to three strong oppos- ing elements then existing in the town, consisting prob- ably of those who remained of the Gorges Company and friends who followed them, those who came in from other towns in the colony with an interest cen- tering in the capital, and a third, embracing those who came with Rev. Joseph Hull, and their sympathizers. John Bursley representing the first, William Reade the second, and John Upham the third. The court influence predominating, Mr. Reade was retained and the others were permitted to retire. During the years 1635 and 1636 commissioners were appointed to estab- lish the bounds between Mount Wollaston and Wey- mouth, of which Fore River and the Smelt Brook formed a part, thence by a straight line running south, a little westerly, until it reached the line of Plymouth Colony ; also, between Weymouth and Bare Cove, afterwards Hingham, of which line Back River and

565

WEYMOUTH.

the more ancient ones re-established, have remained to the present with little if any change.

Ferries had already been erected, connecting the town with its neighbors on either hand, and bridges were projected for the better accommoda- tion of traffic and travel. Roads were built towards Boston and mills erected upon the streams. A quar- terly court was established, to be held in Boston, to which Roxbury, Dorchester, Weymouth, and Hing- ham belonged ; and for the better protection of the inhabitants of the various towns in the colony from the Indians, it was ordered by the General Court that no dwelling-house should be built more than half a mile from the meeting-house. It appears, however, that the latter order was never enforced, or soon be- came a dead letter, for at this time the people of Weymouth were scattered over a territory from two to three miles in extent. The larger part of the population lived in North Weymouth, commonly known as " Old Spain," extending from the shore of the bay to Burying Hill, more than a mile, while there were quite a number of plantations, extending south and east over King Oak Hill as far as Fresh Pond, now Whitman's, in East Weymouth.

Where the first meeting-house was built is unknown, but tradition says in Old Spain, probably near what is now the centre of the village; but this did not long remain, giving place to a more commodious building which stood upon Burying Hill, near where North Street now passes through it. This remained until 1682, when a third was erected upon the spot now occupied by the meeting-house of the first parish. The houses of the inhabitants were mostly rude struc- tures built of logs, and thatched with the coarse grass found at the head of the beaches above the salt water, which was carefully preserved for the purpose by order of the town. In 1642, 26th April, the Indian title to the town was extinguished by purchase ; the origi- nal deed is not to be found, but a copy stands upon the records of the Suffolk County registry of deeds, and is a curious specimen of the sharp trading which the early fathers allowed themselves to indulge in when dealing with the native owners. It was signed by Wampetuck, alias Josias Webecowett, Nateaunt and Nahowton, sachems.

Rev. Joseph Hull and his company, until 1644, upon the settlement of Rev. Thomas Thacher, there was almost constant tumult and disturbance, sometimes so serious as to draw the attention of the General Court. About the years 1637 and 1638 there were no less

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History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 118

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