USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 29
USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 29
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 29
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oags. Whether his belief was sincere or used merely as a pretext to arouse the Indians to action is a matter of conjecture. Wars have been started in more recent years from false pretexts. Possibly King Philip employed the same method to suit his purpose. Had he been success- ful in winning all the Indians to his force history would have had a dif- ferent record.
It was this same King Philip who sent a letter in 1669 to two of the principal men of Dedham, characteristic of his attitude and that of some other sachems on the conveyance question. Philip had been paid through Captain Willet, for his right and title, if any he had, to the lands at Wollomonopoag, where the town of Wrentham is now located, receiving in legal money twenty-four pounds and ten shillings. But he claimed that a tract within the limits of this grant was not included in the purchase and he was in need of a shirt in which to appear before the Plymouth Court. Hence the following communication :
Philip, Sachem to Major Lusher and Lieutenant Fisher:
Gentlemen,-Sirs, thes are to desire you to send me a holland Shirt by this Indian, the whitch att present I much want, and in consideration whereof I shall and will assuredly satisfie you to content between this and the next Michelmas, for then I intend to meet with you at Wollomonuppouge, that we may treat about a tract of land of four or five miles square, which I hereby promise and engage that you shall have ye refusall of, and I make no doubt but that we shall agree about said tract of land, which I shall sell you for ye use of your town of Dedham. I pray fail not to send me a good holland shirt by the bearer hereof, for I intend next week to be at plimoth Court, and I want a good shirt to goe in. I shall not further trouble you at present, but subscribe myself your friend,
Philip Sachem's P Mark Mount Hop, ye 25 May, 1669.
Whether it was Philip's social secretary who felt his need of more ornate raiment in which his chief should appear before the men of Plym- outh, his secretary of war who was seeking a pretext for hostilities, or his adviser in high finance who found a loophole in previous agree- ments by which he could capitalize a technicality, it was very evident that the untutored sachem did not employ the language of the document without considerable assistance. Nevertheless there is a record that on "the 8th of the 9th mo., 1669, upon notice from Philip Sagamore yt he is now at Wollomonopouge and offers a treaty about sale of his rights in ye lands yr within the town bounds not yete purchased, A committee was appointed, viz .: Timothy Dwight, Anthony Fisher, Robert Ware, Richard Ellice, and John Thurston, to repayre to Wollomonopogue on the morrow, and treat with the said Philip in order to a contract with him to clear all his remaining rights within the town bounds, provided he makes his right appear, and to secure our town from all other claims of all other Indians in the land contracted for."
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It appears from other records that a contract was made, November 15, 1669, to pay Philip "for his right lately purchased." It also appears that "tradition informs us that Philip, in his second treaty, showed the north- ern boundaries of his kingdom, being the southern boundary of the Sachemdom of Chickotabot, in Walpole; and that the shape of the land was somewhat like that of a new moon, enclosing a part of the first grant within its horns."
It appears that even the savages were capable of seeing opportunities for capitalizing litigation for their purposes, even if there were no Indian name for that means of livelihood "in the good old days."
Demands from Heirs of Chicataubut - There was another sachem, Magus, who claimed the territory including Natick where John Eliot had his "Praying Indians" villages, Needham and Dedham Island. This claim of John Magus and his wife was released in 1680, upon the pay- ment of five pounds in money. In 1685 there was another claim settled by payment to Ponkapoag Indians named William Nahaton, Peter Na- toogus and Benjamin Nahaton. In that same year Josias, the grandson of Chicataubut, gave a confirmatory title to the tract of land on which the town of Dedham was built.
Chicataubut is supposed to have given permission to the early settlers of Hingham to locate there. His sons, Wampatuck, Squmuck and Ahah- den, deeded the tract of land which comprises Hingham and Cohasset to Captain Joshua Hubbard and Ensign John Thaxter, for the inhabi- tants, in 1665.
It seems probable that Chicataubut dwelt at the cove in Squantum, a part of the city of Quincy, although here is a small hummock between Atlantic and Wollaston which is sometimes pointed out as the site of his dwelling and some histories mention that location without qualifica- tion. Henry W. Haynes, archaeologist, made an examination of the loca- tion and said it was improbable that any Indian dwelling had been there, as there was an absence of fresh water and no traces of Indian occupa- tion. A very large shell heap, numerous Indian implements and other indications of Indian occupation caused him to locate the headquarters of the sachem of the Neponsets at Squantum Cove. Before that, at the time of the pestilence which swept out of existence so many Indians, it is believed Chicataubut dwelt at Mount Wollaston, and that vicinity was wholly depopulated by the sickness of 1616 and 1617.
The town of Medfield was included in one of the many purchases from Chicataubut about 1632. So were several other towns, where the southern boundary of the land purchased for the white settlers by Wil- liam Pyncheon was very indefinite and led to disputes. In 1635, the col- onial government attempted once for all to settle the matter but no one
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could be found who was present at the purchase or had authentic evi- dence to produce. Many of the Indians had died from smallpox in 1633, and Chicataubut was among them. The Pyncheon purchase included Roxbury, Dedham and seven or eight other towns of Norfolk County. Medfield was, for fifteen years, a part of Dedham which, when incorpor- ated in 1636, included "all the lands on the easterly and southerly side of Charles River not formerly granted to any towne or particular per- son."
Considerable territory was purchased from William Nehoiden, an In- dian who claimed rights of inheritance. The towns of Wellesley and Needham are built on some of the Nehoiden land, purchased for ten pounds of lawful English money, fifty acres of land and a quantity of Indian corn representing in value forty shillings.
The first white settler in Medway was George Fairbanks who built a house for his occupancy there in 1657. The first white child was Jona- than Fairbanks, born to George Fairbanks and his wife, as their sixth child, May 1, 1662. Jonathan Fairbanks became a physician and was drowned in pursuing his professional duties. He had visited a patient in Medfield and was returning on foot, crossing the ice on Boggastow Pond, the night of December 18, 1719, when the ice gave way. George Fairbanks had met death by drowning in 1682.
There is in existence at the Suffolk Registry of Deeds a copy of a deed signed by Wampatuck, alias Josias Webecowett, Nateaunt and Nahow- ton, sachems, extinguishing an Indian claim to the land now occupied by the town of Weymouth, scene of the first settlement in Norfolk County.
What became of the original deed is not known. It was dated April 26, 1642.
Records show that in Walpole, for half a century after settlement, descendants of former Indian proprietors presented claims in the land and these claims were met with a purchase price and deeds were passed, which are still preserved.
The colonial government granted to the town of Dorchester in 1636 the land on which the town of Milton now stands. It was about twenty- five years later that the town of Milton became a separate establishment. During that time and for some years afterward Indian titles were sought and purchased.
In October, 1636, Cutshamoquin, a Neponset sagamore, gave a deed of the land south of Neponset to the Blue Hills, to Richard Collicot, a man of great prominence, possibly the first settler of the locality and held in great respect by the Indians as well as the early white settlers. He appears prominently in the records of achievements in the history of early Dorchester for some fifty years, until his death in Boston in 1686.
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Arrival of "Mary and John"-The Indians in the Dorchester section were friendly in their relations with early colonists, until the time of King Philip's War. There were a few neighborhood quarrels, showing that such misunderstandings were not wholly reserved for white people, but, on the whole, peaceful relations were maintained. The first settlers had arrived on the ship "Mary and John" and were put ashore May 30, 1630, at Nantasket Point. Taking a boat up the Charles River and mak- ing a landing, they found themselves in the vicinity of about three hun- dred Indians. Some of the chief men of the tribe stood at a distance and looked over the new comers, and held up a large bass. The Englishmen sent one of their number with a biscuit to exchange for the bass, and such exchanges became frequent. As had been the case in the Plymouth Colony, the Indians were the means of keeping the white settlers alive for a time.
There is in existence a deed, given in 1685, over fifty years after the settlement of the territory now occupied by the town of Brookline, con- firming a deed of release from Chicataubut. This confirmatory deed was signed by four Indians, the principal one being "Charles Josias, alias Josias Wampatuck, sone and Heirs of Josias Wampatuck, late Sachem of the Indians Inhabiting the Massachusetts in New England, and Grandson of Chickataubut, the former Sachem." The language quoted is from the beginning of the deed. The other signers are mentioned as "William Hahaton, Robert Momentauge and Ahawton, Senior, my Councelors."
The town of Milton became incorporated in 1662 and comprised prac- tically the territory described in Blake's "Annals of Dorchester" as fol- lows :
"This Year ye Gen. Court made a Grant to Dorchester of ye old part of ye Township, as far as ye great Blew-hill: and ye town took a Deed of Kitchamakin Sachem of ye Massachusetts for ye same." The year referred to was 1636.
In all the references to names of localities, Indians, or whatever proper names appear the various authorities consulted show such wide variance as to spelling, that it has been the policy in writing this history to use spelling as given by the particular authority from whom the individual fact was obtained. The spelling employed at the present day would not suffice and, if that rule were used, in most instances the spelling would not agree with that of any of the early writers.
War of Extermination Precipitated-It was not a matter of sharp practice in dealing with the Indians and purchasing land from them for trifles that led to King Philip's War. To be paid for the same land more than once was more or less of an easy way of getting wampum and the
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Indians did not object to giving deeds, concerning which they had little understanding. There were other occurrences which led to a conviction on the part of Philip that the white men were becoming powerful enough to do with the Indians as they liked.
According to George Bancroft, in his "History of the United States :" "There exists no evidence of a deliberate conspiracy on the part of all the tribes. The commencement of the war was accidental; many of the Indians were in a maze, not knowing what to do and disposed to stand for the English ; sure proof of no ripened conspiracy."
Some historians have expressed the belief that the murder of John Sassamon and the finding of his body under the ice of Lake Assawamp- sett precipitated the war before Philip's plans were complete. Increase Mather says Sassamon was a Ponkapoag Indian, and Gookin calls him the first martyr of the Christian Indians. According to Mather he was born in Dorchester and became acquainted with John Eliot, the Indian apostle, accepted the religious teachings of Eliot and was baptised by him. He became an influential preacher to the Indians, under Eliot's instruction, and assisted the latter in translating the Bible into the In- dian language. He was a student at Harvard College and had been a teacher of the "Praying Indians" at Natick. He served with the English in the Pequot War in 1637.
Philip was desirous of having an instructor in English in 1664. John Eliot sent his son to fill the assignment but later sent Sassamon. Munroe calls him "Philip's secretary." If he held that position he may have writ- ten some of the letters quoted in these volumes signed by King Philip, showing a command of the English language which Philip surely never possessed. Later he was settled over the Indian church at Nemasket, now Middleboro, and owned twenty-seven acres of land at Assawamp- sett. King Philip gave to Sassamon's daughter Betty fifty-eight and one- half acres of land and the locality is known as Squawbetty to this day.
Sassamon knew of the plans of Philip and revealed them to the men of Plymouth, informing them of what it would mean to him if Philip should learn that he had given the warning. A few days later his body was found under the ice at Lake Assawampsett.
The murder of Sassamon was witnessed by an Indian from King Philip's Lookout. He named as the murderers Tobias and his son and Mattashinnay, the counsellor to Philip. Tobias' son confessed, after all three had been found guilty by a jury consisting of twelve white men and five Indians, but said the fatal blows were struck by the other two. The two were executed at Plymouth in June, 1675. Philip was enraged at the execution of the two Indians and began his war to exterminate the whites.
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Considerable is told of the war in the Plymouth County division of this history, as it was in that county that the terrible struggle had its beginning. The war lasted two years, during which thirteen towns were destroyed, many others attacked, about 600 whites killed in battle and many others brought to death through massacre or starvation. It ended the power of the Indians in this section of the country.
Of the towns in Norfolk County, Dedham is one of the oldest, having been incorporated in 1636. Dorchester and Roxbury were incorporated in 1630 but they were later annexed to Boston and are in Suffolk County.
The old town of Dedham had been laid out with regard to the dan- gers from Indians killing the human beings and wolves killing the cat- tle, and a watch house on the third story of the school building was re- garded as one of the safeguards in time of trouble. The town was built in a compact manner. The surrounding territory was level and, for the most part cleared, and the Charles River was situated so that it was a means of defence against Indian assaults or dangers of fire. There was, therefore, a sense of security when, in September, 1673, orders were received by the selectmen to place the town in a war-time attitude. Orders were from the General Court, and had reference to that uprising known as King Philip's War, in which Dedham had a share but from which it suffered much less than Medfield and many other places.
One of the first outrages in that war and one of the killings which led to its close took place in Dedham. The town was aroused when it was known that a white man had been found in the woods, shot through the body, evidently by an Indian. This was one of the first murders of that kind which later became common as the Indian war progressed.
When the war was coming to a close, Pomham, sachem of Shaomet (now Warwick, Rhode Island), was one of most dreaded of the In- dian warriors, an ally of Philip. Eighteen days before the death of Philip, a party of Dedham and Medfield colonists had a battle with war- riors under command of Pomham and fifty of the Indians were cap- tured. But Pomham "refusing to be taken alive, was slain, raging like a wild beast," as was the case with King Philip. The death of Pomham was on July 25, 1676.
It was ninety-eight years later, in 1774, that the last Indian couple left Dedham. Alexander Quabish and his wife, Sarah, were the couple. Sarah died at the house of Joseph Wight and her body was interred in the old Indian burial place, at the foot of Wigwam Hill. Alexander, her husband, moved to Natick or Needham and died in 1776.
Trouble Caused by Weston and Morton-It is interesting in this con- nection to speak of other occurrences which led up to Philip's War and the end of the Indians' power in Massachusetts to massacre the white
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PILGRIMS' GOOD WILL VISIT TO SQUANTUM
people. Some of the experiences date back before the coming of Gov- ernor Endicott and the Puritans and include a part performed by the Pilgrims in defence of the earliest colony in the vicinity of Nantasket.
The oldest town in Norfolk County and the second oldest in Massa- chusetts, speaking in terms of white men, is Weymouth, the Indian name of which was Wessagussett. A group of about threescore able- bodied men landed from the "Charity" and "Swan," two small vessels chartered by Thomas Weston, a London merchant, in August, 1622, with the intention of founding a colony as a means of easy living, filled with adventure but without hard work. Their inclinations and ex- pectations were somewhat like those who attempted to found the colony at Virginia, but the Weston adventurers lacked a man like Captain John Smith to make a definite rule that those who did not work should not eat and enforce the edict. It was not long before the Wessagussett colon- ists were at the point of starvation, and attempted to wrest a living not from the soil, but from the Indians.
The settlement was about twenty-five miles north from Plymouth, where the Pilgrims were nearly at the point of starvation themselves, but the men of Wessagussett applied to the men of Plymouth for food and protection against the Indians. Captain Myles Standish and a file of men marched to Wessagussett, killed six Indians and established order.
The Indians were thrown into consternation by the act of the Pil- grims. Many of them took refuge in the swamps, contracted diseases and died rather than come within the range of the guns of the white men. This act changed the attitude of the Indians, placed the Pilgrims and later colonists on the defensive and was, perhaps, occasioned by a call for assistance from an unworthy group of unprincipled adventurers.
Early in the summer of 1623 the Weston Colony had disappeared from the face of the earth. Ten had died of famine, two had been killed and another wounded in encounters with the Indians, three others had been tortured by the savages in revenge for the massacre by the Pil- grims, and others were missing. One of them had been hanged by his associates as a notorious thief.
The Weston Colony had hardly disappeared before another company landed, the leader being Captain Robert Gorges, son of Sir Fernando Gorges. One of the number was Rev. William Morrell, a clergyman of the Church of England, destined to become a bishop, if the enterprise should prove successful in establishing Episcopacy. He remained some over a year and returned to England. Captain Gorges despaired of founding a settlement sufficient for his ambitions as governor-general, and returned to England accompanied by several of his party. Others
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joined the Virginia colonists and a few the Plymouth colonists. A few more determined associates held the fort till the arrival of additional colonists.
The additional settlers were from Weymouth, England, among them a non-conformist minister, Rev. Mr. Barnard, who remained with the colony until his death.
Thomas Morton was the first settler in Quincy and is supposed to have had some connection with the Weston colonists. He passed the summer of 1622 at Wessagussett and returned to England in September. This vicinity was at that time a paradise for a sportsman and Morton was of the type to appreciate sporting life of every description. He was something of a poet, as witness his language in describing the locality :
And when I had more seriously considered the beauty of the place, with all her fair endowments, I do not think that in all the known world it could be paralleled; for so many goodly groves of trees, dainty, fine, round rising hillocks, delicate, fair, large plains, sweet crystal fountains, and clear running streams, that twine in fine meanders through the meades, making so sweet a murmuring noise to hear as would even lull the senses with delight sleep; so pleasantly do they glide upon the pebble stones, jetting most jocundly where they do meet, and, hand in hand, run down to Neptune's Court, to pay the yearly tribute which they owe to him as souvereign Lord of all the springs. Contained within the volume of the land (are) fowls in abundance, fish in multitudes, and (I discov- ered) besides, millions of turtle-doves on the green boughs, which sat pecking at the full, ripe, pleasant grapes that were supported by the lusty trees, whose fruitful load did cause the arms to bend; while, here and there dispersed, you might see (also) lilies of the Daphnean tree, which made the land to me seem Paradise; for in mine eyes 'twas nature's masterpiece,-her chiefest magazine of all, where lives her store. If this land be not rich, then is the whole world poor!
Morton sailed into Boston Harbor in June, 1625, a member of a com- pany of adventurers, chief among whom was Captain Wollaston. A trading post was established. This was not at the same location the Weston adventurers had chosen and where they had set up a stockade and some buildings. This property had been taken over by the remnant of the Gorges colony and so Captain Wollaston located their trading post at Passonagessit, according to the Indian name. It has ever since been called Mount Wollaston. Captain Wollaston later moved on to Virginia and there sold servants which he had brought with him as slaves. Evidently he intended to dispose of the colonists in this way. At least Morton led the other servants to believe such was the intention and they assisted him to become the head of the colony, thrusting out the representative which Captain Wollaston had left as the nominal head, one Fitcher. The latter made his way to Plymouth for refuge.
Thomas Morton was a sportsman, a lover of nature. He loved the sunshine and he was also a great lover of the "moonshine" of his day.
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This he shared with the Indians and, with them, he was decidedly pop- ular, free and easy. He set up a May pole, the first in New England, and around it Morton and his fellow colonists and the savages joined. According to his own story, "There was likewise a mery song made, which was sung by a chorus, every man bearing his part, which they performed in a dance, hand in hand about the maypole, while one of the company sang and filled out the good liquor, like Ganymede and Jupiter."
The roysterers called the place of their revels "Merrie-Mounte" and it has been so-called ever since. The home of Mrs. John Quincy Adams was in recent years erected on the site.
Morton had method in his madness. He established a veritable fair to which the Indians came to join in revels and exchange furs for some- thing which they were unable to secure elsewhere and from no one else -fire arms and fire water. These things in the hands of the Indians spelt massacre of the whites sooner or later, whenever there should be another misunderstanding. Two letters of protest were sent from Plymouth to Morton and his replies were unsatisfactory. In June, 1628, Captain Myles Standish and eight of the Plymouth army seized Morton at Merri-Mounte, and sent him to the Isle of Shoals, where he was put on a vessel bound for England. He returned twice, the last time in 1634, when he was driven out for good.
Three months after the elimination of Thomas Morton, Governor Endicott landed at Salem, armed with a new patent from the Council of New England, dated March 19, 1628. He represented the company of the Massachusetts Bay.
Society for Puritan Colonization-The patentees, in looking for good men to lead the action, had "lighted at last on Master Endecott, a man well-known to divers persons of good note." He, with his wife and about forty more, came over on the "Abigail" and arrived September 6, 1628. At Salem they found Roger Conant and others, who had strayed from the Pilgrim fold and become mixed in the affairs of the unsuccess- ful "Dorchester Adventurers." They had taken charge of the cattle sent over the year before. George Bancroft calls them "the sentinels of Puritanism on the Bay of Massachusetts."
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