USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Northborough > History of Northborough, Mass., in various publications and discourses > Part 5
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* These three, Danforth, Child, and Lusher, were respectively deputies to the Generat Court from Cambridge, Watertown, and Dedham, in 1657.
t Records of the General Court for the year 1658-9.
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HISTORY OF NORTHBOROUGHI.
liberty of commonage for wood. timber, feeding of bis cattle, upon any common land, within our township or plantation."
"Second day of May, 1677.
Signed, sealed, and delivered in presence of us,
John Eliot, Waban X his mark.
Noah Wiswell,
Piamboo X his mark,
Joshua Woods, Joseph Wheeler.
Acknowledged before me,
THOMAS DANFORTHI, Assistant.
Entered and recorded at the Registry at Cambridge. * "
It is thus described by Gookin in 1674. " In this Indian Plan- tation there is a piece of fertile land, containing above 150 acres, upon which the Indians have, not long since, lived, and planted several apple trees thereupon, which bear abundance of fruit ; but now the Indians are removed from it about a mile. This tract of land doth so embosom itself into the English town, that it is encompassed about with it, except one way ; and upon the edge of this land the English have placed their Meeting House." It was a favorite design of the benevolent Gookin, which he proposed in his Historical Collections, " as an expedient for civilizing the In- dians, and propagating the Gospel among them," to have this tract of land, which, with certain meadows and woodland, he says, "is well worth £200 in money, set apart for an Indian free school ; and there to build a convenient house for a school master and his fami- ly, and under the same roof may be a room for a school." This, with the necessary out buildings, he computes will not cost more than £200 in money ; and the use of the land, he thinks, will be an adequate compensation for the services of the school master.
" Moreover, it is very probable," he adds, "that the English people of Marlborough will gladly and readily send their children to the same school, and pay the school master for them, which will better his maintenance ; for they have no school in that place at the present."
We learn further from this account that the number of families in Marlborough, at this period, did not amount to fifty, every vil- lage containing that number being required by the laws to provide a school " to teach the English tongue, and to write." "These
* May 18, 1682. Waban, Piamboo, Great James, Thomas Tray, and John Wincols, proprietors of the Indian Plantation of Whipsufferadge, grant- ed to Samuel Gookin, of Cambridge, liberty to erect a Saw Mill upon any brook or run of water within the said Plantation, with land not exceeding three acres, use of timber, &c. for 30 years.
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HISTORY OF NORTHBOROUGH.
people of Marlborough," says he, somewhat indignantly, " wanting a few of fifty families, do take that low advantage to ease their purses of this common charge."
What reception this proposal met with, we are not informed. It was most certainly an expedient that promised the happiest con- sequences, and worthy of the liberal and philanthropic mind of its author. llow close is the resemblance between this plan, conceiv- ed more than one hundred and fifty years since, and that of the Indian schools recently established at Brainerd, Eliot, Mayhew, and other places in the United States ?**
The people of Marlborough, notwithstanding the severity of Gookin's censure, have not been behind other towns in New En- gland in their attention to schools. Owing to the troubles which ensued, soon after the date of Gookin's Historical Collections, they felt themselves unable to meet the expense of a public school for several following years. At length, however, in 1698, Benjamin Franklinf was employed as a school master in Marlborough, from the first of November, 1696, to the last of March, 1697, at eight shillings per week ; " he engaging carefully to teach all such youth as com or are sent to him, to read English once a day, att least, or more, if need require ; also to learn to write and cast accounts." The school was kept in Isaac Wood's house, which was then un- occupied.
* | Ilist. Col. I. p. 220.
t This person was probably an uncle of Doctor Benjamin Franklin. In the first volume of Franklin's Works, edited by his grandson, William Tem- ple Franklin, page 6, is the following account of the person referred to above. " My grandfather had four sons, who grew up, viz: Thomas, John, Benjamin and Josiah. Benjamin was bred a silk dyer, serving an apprenticeship in Lon- don. He was an ingenious man. I remember, when I was a boy, he came to my father's, iu Boston, and resided in the house with us for several years. There was always a particular affection between my father and him, and I was his godson. He lived to a great age. He left behind him two quarto volumes of manuscript of his own poetry, consisting of fugitive pieces addres- sed to his friends. He had invented a short hand of his own, which he taught me, but not having practiced it, I have now forgotten it. He was very pious, and an assiduous attendant at the sermons of the best preachers, which he reduced to writing according to his method, aud had thus collected several volumes of them. Ile was also a good deal of a politician ; too much so, per- haps, for his station. There fell lately into my possession, in London, a col- lection he made of all the principal political pamphlets relating to public af- fairs, from the year 1641 to 1717; many of the volumes are wauting, as ap- pears, by their numbering ; but there still remains eight volumes in folio, and twenty in quarto and octavo. A dealer iu old books had met with them, and knowing me by name, having bought books of him, he brought them to me. It would appear that my uncle must have left them here, when he went to America, which was about fifty years ago. I found several of his notes in the margins. Ilis grandson, Samuel Franklin, is still living in Boston."
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HISTORY OF NORTHBOROUGHI.
Jan. 10, 1698-9. The town voted to build a school house. Af- ter this, Mr. Jonathan Johnson was employed as a school master for many years in succession.
The Indian Plantation was laid out agreeably to the following report of the Commissioners appointed as aforesaid.
"WHIPSUPPENICKE THE 19th OF JUNE, 1659.
"The Committee appointed by the Gen. Court to lay out a Plan- tation for the Indians of 6000 acres at the above named place, hav- ing given Mr. Eliot* a meeting and duly weighed all his exceptions in the behalf of the Indians; first, what hath beene formerly acted and returned to the Gen. Court, do judge meete. in way of comply- ance, that the bounds of the Indian Plantation bee enlarged unto the most westerly part of the fence, that now standeth on the west side of the Hill or planting field called Ockoocangansett, and from thence to bee extended on a direct north line untill they have their full quantity of 6000 acres: the bounds of their Plantation in all other respects, wee judge meete that they stand as in the form returned ; and that their full complement of meadow by Court Grant, may stand and bee exactly measured out by an artist within the limits of the aforesaid lines, when the Indians, or any in their behalf, are willing to be at the charges thereof : provided alwaies that the Indi .. ns may have noe power to make sale thereof, of all or any part of their abovesaid lands, otherwise than by the consent of the llond Gen' Court; or when any shall be made or happen, the Plantation of English there seated may have the first tender of it from the Court ; which caution wee the rather insert, because not only a considerable part of the nearest and best planting land is heereby taken away from the English (as we are informed) but the nearest and best part of their meadow, by estimation about an hundred acres in one place, that this north line doth take away, which tendeth much to the detrimenting of the English Plantation, especially if the lands should bee impropriated to any other use than the Indians proposed, that is to say, for an Indian Plantation, or for the accommodating their Plantation, they should bee depriv- ed thereof."
Signed by
ELEAZER LUSHIER, EDWARD JACKSON, EPHRAIM CHILD, THOMAS DANFORTH, ) .
Commissioners.
* The celebrated John Eliot, minister of Roxbury, commonly called the Apostle of the Indians.
3
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HISTORY OF NORTHIBOROUGII.
The account given of this Plantation by Capt. afterwards, Maj. Gen. Gookin, of Cambridge, who visited it in 1671, more than one hundred and fifty years since, will be interesting to those who have not already seen it.
" Okommakamesit, alias Marlborough, is situated about twelve miles north northeast from Hassanamesitt, (Grafton) about thirty miles from Boston westerly.
"This village contains about ten families, and consequently about fifty souls. The quantity of land appertaining to it is six thousand acres. It is much of it good land, and yieldeth plenty of corn, be- ing well husbanded. It is sufficiently stored with meadow, and is well wooded and watered. It hath several good orchards upon it, planted by the Indians : and is in itself a very good plantation. This town doth join so near to the English of Marlborough, that it (we might apply to it what) was spoken of David in type and our Lord Jesus Christ, the antitype, "Under his shadow ye shall re- joice :" but the Indians here do not much rejoice under the English- men's shadow ; who do so overtop them in their number of people, stocks of cattle, &c. that the Indians do not greatly flourish, or de- light in their station at present.
"Their ruler here was Onomog, who is lately deceased, about two months since ; which is a great blow to that place. He was a pious and discreet inan, and the very soul as it were of that place. Their teacher's name is **** Here they observe the same decorum for religion and civil order, as is done in other towns. They have a constable and other officers, as the rest have. The Lord sancti- fy the present affliction they are under by reason of their bereave- ments ; and raise up others, and give them grace to promote relig- ion and good order among them."
From this account, which is given by an eye witness, it is pretty evident that a spirit of jealousy and envy against their more pros- perous neighbors of the English Plantation, was even then rankling in their hearts : and we are not much surprised to learn that, in the calamitous war which broke out in the following year between the English and Indians, known by the name of King Philip's war, some of these hall' civilized sons of the forest were found among the eu- emy, at the place of their general rendezvous, in the western part of Worcester County, a few days previous to their desolating march
*Hutchinson says his name was Solomon, judged to be a serious and sound Christian. p. 167.
HISTORY OF NORTHBOROUGH.
through the country, in which Lancaster, and many other towns, experienced the horrors of savage warfare .*
* James Quanipaug, who was sent out with another Indian by the name of Job to reconnoitre the enemy, then in the Western part of this County, in the beginning of 1676, passed through flassanamesit (Gralton) thence to Manexit, (a part of Woodstock) where he was taken by seven Indians and carried to Menimesseg, (New Braintree) where he found many of the enemy, and among them " the Marlborough Indians who pretended that they had been fetched away by the other Indians." Some of them professed to be willing to returu. Philip is said at this time to have been about half a day's journey on the other side of Fort Orania, ( Albany ) and the Hadley Indians on this side. They were then preparing for that memorable expedition, in which the towns of Lancaster, Groton, Mariborough, Sudbury, and Medfield, were destroyed.
The letter of James Quanipaug bears date 24th : 11 mo : 1675. (Jan. 24, 1676.) it was only 16 days after this, viz. Feb. 10th O. S. that they made a descent upon Lancaster, with 1500 warriors, and butchered or carried into captivity nearly all the inhabitants of that flourishing village.
Whether the Marlborough Indians joined in this expedition, or left the enemy and returned to their homes, I have not been able after diligent en- quiry to ascertam. The little that I have been able to collect, though cor- roborated by circumstantial evidence, rests mainly on tradition.
Though it appears from the testimony of James Quanipaug that the Marlborough Indians were with Philip's men at Menimesseg, it is by no means certain that all who belonged to the Plantation had gone over to the enemy. Tradition says, that those who remained at home were suspected of treachery, and that representations to that ofleet were made to the governor, (Leverett) who dispatched a company of soldiers under the command of Capt. Mosely, to convey them to Boston. They reached Marlborough, it is said, in the night ; and early in the morning, before the Indians had any sus- picion of their design, surrounded the fort to which they were accustomed to repair at night, siezed on their arms, and obliged them to surrender. They attempted no resistance, and it is by no means certain that they entertained any hostile designs against the English. They were, however, taken into the custody of the soldiers ; and, having their hands fastened behind their backs, and then being connected together by means of a cart rope, they were in this manner driven down to Boston, whence it is probable, that they were convey- ed, in company with the Indians of Natick and other places, to one of the is- lands in the harbor, and kept in durance till the close of the war.
This tradition is corroborated by the following circumstances.
In the account of Daniel Gookin, in 1 Ilist. Col. 1, 228, it is said that " some instances of perfidy in Indians, who had professed themselves friendly, excited suspicions against all their tribes. The General Court of Massachu- setts passed several severe laws against them ; and the Indians of Natick and other places, who had subjected themselves to the English government, were hurried down to Long Island (Hutchinson says Deer Island,) in the harbor of Boston, where they remained all winter, and endured inexpressible hard- ships." We learn farther from Hutchinson, that the Indians of l'unkapog alone (now Stoughton) were exempted from this severity of treatment. The ground of the harsh measures adopted in reference to the Indians in the neighborhood of Boston, was, the perfidious conduct of the Springfield Indians, in assisting in the destruction of Westfield, Hadley, and other places, in Octo- ber 1675. " 'This instance of perfidy," says Hutchinson, "seems to have in- creased the jealousies and suspicions, which had before begun of the Indians round Boston, viz. Punkapog, Natick, &c."
At the session, in October, the General Court ordered " that no person shall entertain, own, or countenance any Indian under the penalty of being a betrayer of this government."
" That a guard be set at the entrance of the town of Boston, and that no
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HISTORY OF NORTHBOROUGHI.
This war, if calamitous to the English, proved fatal to nearly all the Indian Plantations in New England. Among the rest the
Indian be suffered to enter upon any pretence without a guard of two inus- keteers, and not to lodge in town."
" That any person may apprehend an Indian, finding him in town, or ap- proaching the town, and that none be suffered to come in by water."
To this we may add, that Capt. Mosely's character was such as to render it highly probable that he performed the part which tradition has assigned to him. Hutchinson says, " he had been an old privateerer at Jamaica, proba- bly of such as were called Buccaneers." He commanded a company of 110 volunteers, in the war with King Philip, and was one of the most resolute and courageous captains of his day. It was he who, on Sept. 1, 1675, went out to the rescue of Capt. Lathrop, who with only 80 mien was attacked by a body of 7 or 8 hundred Indians at Deerfield, when all Capt. L's company, with the exception of seven or tight, were cut off. He also led the van in the terrible assault made upon the Indians, Dee. 19, in the Narragansett country, in which six English captains were killed, and nearly 200 men kil- led and wounded.
I hope I shall be pardoned for adding to this already extended note, the following particulars respecting the remains of the Marlborough Indians.
After the close of the war, some of the Indians of Marlborough appear to have returned to their former place of abode. But their plantation was brok- en up, and they were forced to find shelter and subsistence as they were able.
A considerable number of the Indians who remained in, or returned to, Marlborough, after the war, lived in the westerly part of the town, on the farm of Thomas Brigham, one of the oldest proprietors, the common ancestor of all the Brighams in this town, as well as of many of that name in Marlbo- rough, Westborough, and other places. The late Judge Brigham, of West- borough, and Rev. Benjamin Brigham, of Fitzwilliam, were great-grandsons of Thomas.
Among those who returned was David, alias David Munnanaw, who had joined Philip, and as he afterwards confessed, assisted in the destruction of Medfield. This treacherous Indian had, it is said, a slit thumb, which cir- cumistance led to his conviction. He had been absent from Marlborough several months, but after his return would give no account of himself whith- er he had been, or how he had employed himself in the mean time. At length, however, an inhabitant of Medfield, one whom Muunanaw had wound- ed, being at Marlborough, immediately recognized him by the mark on his thumb, and charged him with his treachery. At first he denied the charge ; but, finding that the proof against him could not be evaded, he at length own- ed that he had been led away by Philip, and had assisted in the burning of Medfield.
He was, however, suffered to live without molestation. His wigwam stood on the borders of the beautiful lake, near the public house kept by Mr. Silas Gates, where he lived with his family many years, tilt the infirmities of old age came upon him. He was accustomed to repair to the neighboring or- chards for the purpose of obtaining fruit. There was one tree of the fruit of which he was particularly fond, and which was accordingly his favorite place of resort. In this spot the old warrior expired. Old David Munnanaw died a little more than 80 years since, having lived, as was supposed, nearly or quite a century of years. Capt. Timothy Brigham, now in his 91st year, well recoilects having seen him, when he was a child of about 9 or 10 years old, at his grandfather's, Jonathan Brigham's, of Marlborough. According to this account, Munnanaw must have been a young man, 25 or 30 years of age, at the time of Philip's war. Capt. B. represents him as bearing the marks of extreme old age, his flesh wasted, and his skin shrivelled. Ile understood that he had the reputation of having been treacherous to the English. Abim- ilech David, supposed to be a son of the former, was a tall, stout, well pro-
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HISTORY OF NORTHBOROUGH.
Plantation of Marlborough, was completely broken up and soon passed into other hands. On the 15th of July 1684, a few weeks subsequent to the date of the Indian deed of the English Plantation, the Indian lands were formally transferred by deed to John Brig- ham of' Marlborough and his fellow purchasers ;* and in October, 1686, the aforesaid John Brigham who was a noted surveyor and speculator in lands, was appointed " to lay out 30 acres to each of the proprietors in some of the best of the land lying as convenient as may be to the town of Marlborough."
June the 5th 1700, the inhabitants of Marlborough petitioned the General Court, that the proprietors of the Indian lands might be annexed to the said town, which petition was granted, and Marl- borough accordingly received an accession of 6000 acres, a large proportion of which is good land.
After the close of Philip's war the inhabitants of Marlborough do not appear to have been seriously molested by the Indians till after the commencement of the eighteenth century.
In the mean time the settlement had extended itself towards the borders of the town, so that some time previous to the close of the
portioned Indian, is well remembered by many persous now living. Abimi- lech had several daughters, among whom were, Sue, Deborah, Esther, Pa- tience, Nabby, and Betty. They lived m a wretched hovel or wigwam, un- der the large oak now standing, near the dwelling house of Mr. Warren Brig- ham. They had become dissolote in their habits, and were exceedingly troublesonie to their neighbors ; and they are remembered with very little respect or affection.
The Indian burying ground, where the last remnants of the race were in- terred, is situated a few rods from the south road, lea ling from Marlborough to Northborough, near the residence of Widow Holyoke, in a field belonging to the old Brigham farm. It has been enjoined on the family in each suc- ceeding generation, not to tre spass on this repository of the dead ; an injenc- tion which has hitherto been duty regarded. The burying ground is about five rods in length, and some what more than one rod in ! readth, covered with wild grass and boost stones. A few years since, as I have been informed, as many as twenty or thirty graves were plainly chstinguishable, though they have now almost wholly disappeared. Two of the graves were situated with- ont the bounds of the rest, and in a direction perpendicular to them ; the for- mer being from north to south, the la. ter irom east to west Many aged per- sons can remember when the last degraded remnants of the race, once mbab- iting the soil we occupy, enclosed in rude coffius of rough boards, hastily pot together, and without any religious ceremony, were conveyed to this reposi- tory of the dead.
* This deed appears to have been obtained by unfair means, as in the following September, a committee appointed by the General Court to :xam- ine into the grounds of complaint made by the Inthans against the English of Marlborough, reported in favor of the Indiaas, and "the Court ordered and de- clared that the Indian deed of sale to the inhabitants of Marlborough of 5800 acres of land (the whole of the Indian Plantation with the exception of the Indian Planting field) bearing date July 15: 168.1, is illegal and consequently null and void."
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HISTORY OF NORTHBOROUGHI.
seventeenth century, some of the lands now included within the limits of Westborough and Northborough, then called Chauncey, or Chauncey Village, had been laid out for farms.
Indeed so early as 1660, the very year that Marlborough was incorporated, several tracts of meadow, lying within the limits of this town, were surveyed and the names given them which they now bear .* And, in 1662, three large meadows, Cold Harbour Meadow, Middle Meadow, and Chauncey Meadow, the first of which and part of the second, lie within the limits of this town, were or- dered to be surveyed, and each to be laid out in thirty four lots, which was probably the number of proprietors at that time.t
The first grants of land lying within the limits of what is now Westborough and Northborough, with the exception of the mead- ows above named, bear the date of 1672. From this time, and be- fore the close of the century, many of the proprietors of Marli:o- rough had taken up their 2nd, 3d, and 4th divisions in the wester- ly part of the town, several of them west of the river Assabeth.
It is asserted by Rev. Mr. Whitney, in his history of this town, that there were settlers in this part of Marlborough before there were any in what is now Westborough. The first settler according to tradition was John Brigham, from Sudbury, a noted land survey-
* Three Corner Meadow, Stirrup Meadow, Crane Meadow, Cedar Mead- ow, &c.
t The origin of these names according to tradition was as follows :-- Cold Harbour Meadow, in the western part of this town, so called from the cir- cumstance of a traveller, having lost his way, being compelled to remain through a cold winter's night in a stack of hay in that place, and on the fol- lowing morning, having made his way through the wilderness to the habita- tions of man, and being asked where he lodged during the night, replied, " In Col.l Harbour." Middle Meadow, on th- horders of Westborough and North- borough, so called probably from its situation in reference to the two others.
Chauncey Meadow, in Westborough, so called probably for the same reason that the western part of Marlborough was called Chauncey. The ori- gin of the name was known only by tradition in the Rev. Mr. Parkman's day, who was ordained in Westborough, Oct. 28th, 1724, and who gave the fol- lowing account. " It is said that in early times one Mr. Chauncey was lost in one of the swamps here, and from hence this part of the town had its name." I find from the records of the General Court for the year 1665, that Mr. Chauncey had taken up lands within the limits of Marlborough, and that the proprietors of Marlborough were ordered to remunerate him for his expen- ces incurred in laying out his farm, " and he hath liberty to lay out the same in any land not formerly grauted by this Court." Quere .- May not this have been President Chauncey, of Harvard College, to whom, an account of the smaliness of his salary, repeated grants of land were made about this time by the General Court? Dr. Chauncey, of Boston, the great-grandson of Pres- ident Chauncey, says that the latter was the first, and the common ancestor of all of that name in this place. If so, the Mr. C. above mentioned must have been President Chauncey or one of his sons.
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