History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 231

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1706

USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 231

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After the incorporation of the town of Plympton the proprietors were known as the Plymouth and Plympton proprietors. In 1705 all the swamps within the jurisdiction of the proprietors were divided into thirty-nine lots, which were subdivided into shares and distributed among the proprietors by lot. The proprietors' records contain a description of these lots and the names of those to whom the shares fell. The first eighteen of these lots were in the South Meadow ;

the nineteenth and twentieth were near the Wareham line ; the twenty-first was at Swan Hole; the twenty- second included Doty's cedar swamp and four small swamps in its neighborhood; the twenty-third included Cobb's Swamp; the twenty-fourth, Black water Swamp, in Kingston; the twenty-fifth, the Jones River Swamp; the twenty-sixth, Bearce's swamp, in Halifax ; the twenty-seventh, eighth, and ninth, Colchester Swamp, in Plympton ; the thirtieth and thirty-first, Turkey Swamp, in Plympton; the thirty-second included three lots, one at the north end of Turkey Swamp, one at Monponset Meadows, and the third at Pimpkin Bridge, in Halifax ; the thirty-third, fourth, and fifth, on Monponset Neck, in Halifax; the thirty-sixth, seventh, and eighth, in King's swamp, in Halifax ; and the thirty-ninth adjoined Monponset Pond, also in Halifax. In 1710 the remainder of the lands. containing thirty thousand acres, were divided into ten great lots, and from time to time distributed. The first of these lots extended from the West Ponds and the South Meadow road, eight miles, to Ware- ham ; the next seven, between the first lot and Half- way Pond River; the ninth is bounded by the Mast road, Half-way Pond, Long Pond, the Herring Path, and the Sandwich road; and the tenth lies east and west of the Sandwich road below the Herring Path. Plans of the ten great lots and of the South Meadow swamp-lots are deposited in the Plymouth Registry of Deeds.

On the 14th of January, 1706, Elkanah Cushman, Benjamin Soule, Benoni Lucas, and Isaac Cushman were appointed by the precinct their agents to secure a township, and in the same year a petition was pre- sented to the General Court of the province, praying that the precinct might be incorporated as a separate township. A request was also submitted to the town of Plymouth to assent to their petition. The records of that town state that, on the 13th of May, 1706, " the request of the inhabitants of the upper society in the said township, to be a township by themselves was discussed, but none of their agents appearing to move for it, and the town discerning a coldness in their prosecution of the matter, the town voted that the town-clerk should signify to them, as they dis- corned in them a coldness to prosecute the matter, the town were not willing to thrust them away, but were as indifferent as they in the matter." The action of the town indicated no opposition to the scheme, and when further pressed by the agents of the Western Precinct, the town voted, on the 3d of March, 1707, " that they consent that they be a town, according to their petition, with this proviso. that whatsoever real estate ratable doth now belong

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HISTORY OF PLYMPTON.

to. and is. or shall be. improved by any in the old town, either by himself or tenant, during their living here, shall be rated here, notwithstanding their being a town, and so the like of any estate that belongeth to any of them that lieth in the old town of Plymouth, to be rated to them, they or their tenants improving it as aforesaid."

On the 4th of June, 1707, the following court-order was passed :

" that in answer to the petition of the inhabitants of a tract of land in the southwesterly part of the township of Plymouth, praying to have the grant and privileges of a town, having ob- tained a vote of the town of Plymouth for the same with an addition of sundry families, ordered that a township be granted to the petitioners to be called Plympton, according to the plat thereof exhibited, viz., beginning at the western corner-bound of Plymouth township where it meets with Bridgewater line, and from thence the southwesterly side thereof is bounded by the line between Plymouth and Middleboro' until it meets with the bounds of Rochester unto the place where the said line crosses the river called Wankonquag River, and from thence the southeasterly end thereof is bounded by the said Wankon- quag River up stream unto two pine-trees set near together. each of them marked P L, standing in the swampy ground about five poles to the north of a broad spring hole at the head of said Wankonquag River, and from thence the northeast side thereof rnnneth northwest a quarter of a point westerly about five miles and a half and fifty poles to a black-oak tree marked P L. stand- ing by the south side of the sontherly road from Plymouth to Middleboro', and from thence north seven degrees westerly four miles to a black-oak marked P L, standing on the south side of the road from Plymouth to Bridgewater, and from thence northwest two degrees northerly a mile and a half, and sixty- two poles to the northerly line of said Plymouth township at the place where the river runneth out of the pond called Jones' River Pond, and from thence the northerly end thereof is bounded by said Plymouth town-line nnto the westerly corner- bound thereof first mentioned, the petitioners to pay all the taxes as part of the town of Plymonth as formerly until March next."

No record exists, nor has any reliable tradition come down to us, concerning the origin of the name which was given to the new town. In the absence of these it is natural to turn to the old country, from whence so many New England names were derived, and to look there for its source. About five miles from old Plymouth in England is a town bearing the name of Plympton, once of some importance and a considera- ble market town. It is now a somewhat decayed borough, chiefly remarkable for its ancient guild hall containing a portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was a native of the town. It is not improbable that one or more of the earliest settlers of the town, which is the subject of this narrative, may have been natives of that ancient borough. If such were not the case, it is possible that the proximity of the borough to the old English town may have suggested a name for a town, which bore to Plymouth in New England nearly the same geographical relation.

As the act incorporating the town of Kingston not only illustrates an event in the history of Plympton, but has an appropriate place in a history of the county of Plymouth, of which this narrative is a part, its insertion in these pages needs no apology. It was passed on the 16th of June, 1726, and is as follows :

"WHEREAS, the town of Plymouth, within the county of Plymouth, is of great extent for length, and lies commodiously for two townships, and the North precinct thereof being of late sufficiently filled with inhabitants, who labor under great dithi- culties on several accounts, and have therefore addressed the court that they may be set off a distinct and separate township, it is hereby enacted, &c.,

" That all lands lying within the said North precinct in Plymouth aforesaid, particularly described and bounded by an order of court passed at the present session, be and hereby are set off and constituted a separate township by the name of Kingston, and that the inhabitants of the said township be vested with the powers, privileges, and immunities that the in- habitants of any town of this province by law are or ought to be vested with : Provided, that nothing in this act contained shall be construed, deemed, judged, or intended to hinder or preju- dice the right and interest of all or any persons whatsoever in any of the common and undivided lands within the towns of Plymouth and Kingston aforesaid, but the same shall remain as heretofore ; Provided also that the inhabitants of the said town of Kingston shall be liable and subject (notwithstanding there being set off and constituted a township as aforesaid) to pay their proportion of all province, county, and town rates for this preseut year in the towns to which they respectively belonged, and shall be accordingly assessed in such towns in the same manner as they would have been if this act had never been made, anything hereinbefore contained to the contrary notwithstanding."

The above act is printed as one of the province laws, and does not seem to recite the annexation of any part of Plympton to the new town. An order of court, however, to which the act refers, which was passed on the 2d of June, two weeks previously, de- scribes the boundaries of the new town, and includes within them thirteen hundred and six acres of its neighbor's territory. As a supplement to the act, the order is also inserted as follows :

" In Council ordered that the bounds of the North precinte in the town of Plymouth, intended to be erected into a town- ship by the name of Kingston, shall be as followeth ; that is to say,-

" Beginning at a heap of stones above the highway, being the bounds between the lands of John Sturtevant and the lands which did belong to Joseph Sturtevant, deceased; and from thence the line between the two precincts in Plymouth to run North 45} degrees East down to the salt bay ; and from thence on the same course to Duxbury town line; and then from the first-mentioned heap of stones South about 453 degrees west up into the woods to a great remarkable rock commonly called Nick's Rock by the Southeast side of a cartway ; and from thence on the same course one hundred and forty-four rods to a stake set in the ground and other stones laid about it by the northwest side of said cartway ; and from thence south 57 de- grees west unto two red-oak trees marked with stones about

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

them in the line of Plympton township by tho Northwest side of the old country road that loads from Plymonth town to Mid- dleboro' and tho line between Plympton and Plymouth North Precinct north about 7 degrees west unto a great black-onk formerly marked by tho southeast side of a roadway near tho hill called Browors' Hill, tho said treo being a former bound of Plympton township; and from thonco North 472 degrees West about 408 rods to a heap of stones on a cleft rock ; and from thenco north about 5 degrees west about 228 rods to a long stono set in tho ground and othor stones laid about it about 3 rods to tho westward of tho old cellar which was Thomas Shurtleff's; and from thence North 3 degrees West about a mile and forty-two rods to the west corner-bound of the land which did belong unto Peter West, deceased, being a pine-tree marked by Jones River pond; and from thence over said pond North 8 degrees West unto the South corner-bound of Jonathan Crocker; and from thence between the said North precinct and the town of Pem- broke North about 43 degrees East about 107 rods by the range of the said Crocker's land unto the North corner of the 145th lot which now belongeth unto William Cook; and from thence East unto the Northwest corner of Elnathan Fisk; and from thence by the range of the said lot, being in number the 127th lot, East Southeast unto the Northeast corner of said lot at the brook called sign brook ; and from thence the said line between the said North precinct and the town of Duxbury to run in a straight line to the ancient corner bound between the towns of Plymouth & Duxbury, being a heap of stones by a white-oak tree marked to the Northward of the brook called Mile Brook ; and from thence by the bounds between Duxbury and Plym- outh until it come down to the bay'; and from thence by the Duxbury line over the bay until it meet with the line first mentioned."

But these boundaries, comprehending an area of thirty-six thousand five hundred and six acres, have been so many times changed and cireumseribed that at this day the territory of the town has been reduced to eight thousand six hundred and thirty-four aeres, or about thirteen square miles. The first ehange was made in 1726, when thirteen hundred and six aeres were annexed to the new town of Kingston, ineor- porated in that year.

The next ehange was made in 1734, when five thousand nine hundred and ninety-four aeres were taken by the aet ineorporating the town of Halifax, and made a part of the new town. By the provisions of that aet a few inhabitants, with their estates within the area annexed to Halifax, were exempted from the operation of the act, and consequently remained in Plympton. These exceptions left on the line between Plympton and Halifax two protuberanees, irregular in shape, and bounded by various courses, into the angles of which the Halifax lines fitted like parts of a geographieal disseeting map. One of these protuber- anees, containing about four hundred and ninety- seven aeres, was removed by its annexation to Halifax by an aet of the General Court, Mareh 16, 1831, and the other by a readjustment of the line between Halifax and Plympton, under an aet passed Feb. 6, 1863. The readjusted line begins at an

angle in the line of the town of Middleboro', at a stone monument marked M. P. II .; thence running, as the needle now points, north thirty-two degrees, west fifty-three rods, to a stone monument inarked P II, standing in Nathan Fuller's field ; thenec north fifty-seven degrees, forty-five minutes, east six hun- dred and seventeen rods, to a stone monument marked P H, standing where once was Adam's Rock ; thenee the same eourse, two hundred and seventy-four rods, to a stone monument marked P H, standing on Turkey Island, so ealled ; thenee north twenty-four degrees, thirty minutes east, two hundred and seventy- six rods, to a stone monument marked P H, standing at the northerly end of a wall; thenee north forty- three degrees, twenty minutes east, three hundred and forty-eight rods, to a stone monument marked P H, standing on the margin of Jones River Pond ; thenee northerly to a stone monument marked PP H, standing on Widgeon Point, so ealled, at an angle of the line of the town of Pembroke.

The aet incorporating the town of Halifax passed July 4, 1731, having the same bearing in this narra- tive as that incorporating Kingston, is inserted as follows :

" Whereas the lands situate in the northerly part of the North Precinct in Plympton, the northerly part of the East Precinct in Middleboro', and the sontherly part of the town of Pem- broke, is competently filled with inhabitants who are desirons to be sett off a distinct and separate town, and that they may be vested with all the powers and privileges of a town, be it enacted, &c.

"That all the lands lying in the northerly part of the North Precinct in Plympton, the northerly part of the East Precinct of Middleboro', and the southerly part of the town of Pembroke, as hereafter bounded and described, be and hereby is set off and constituted a separate township by the name of Halifax. The bounds of said township to be as followeth, viz. : Beginning at a white-oak tree marked on four sides standing on the bank of Bridgewater River, boing the northwest corner-bound of a lot of land formerly belonging to Mr. Standish ; thence the bounds in Middleboro', extending north 79 degrees east 74 rods to a red- oak marked on four sides, which is the northeast corner of said Standish's land ; thence south 16 degrees east about 110 rods to a maple standing near Standish's house; thence north 22 de- grees east 250 rods to a white-oak marked on four sides ; thence north 10 degroes east 161 rods to a white-oak formerly marked on the sontherly sido of the Bridgewater Road; thence north 12 degrees east 101 rods to a stone standing in the Bridgewater line on tho south side of Seatucket Brook, so-called, it heing a corner-bound between the towns of Plympton and Pembroke ; thence the bounds in Pembroko oxtending north 20 degrees east by a range of marked trees in the Bridgewator lino 791 rods to a small ash-tree formerly marked 69.70 standing in a narrow swamp, being the northwest corner-bound of the 69th lot in the majors purchase ; thenco sonth 67} dogroos east 169 poles to a white-oak tree marked 69.70 standing in the cedar swamp rango ; thence sonth about 23 degrees east, through tho eedar swamp, about 512 rods to tho mouth of Monponset Pond; from thence cast one-half degree north about 671 rods to a whito-oak troe marked on four sides standing by a corner of Jones River Pond, a little

1109

to the northward of a run of water; thence bounded by said pond until it meets with a line extending from a large split rock in Turkey Swamp, a little to the southward of the bridge, north 30 degrees east unto the said pond ; thence extending in Plymp- ton south 30 degrees west about 450 rods unto the aforesaid rock in Turkey Swamp; from thence south 63} degrees west 394 rods to Adam's Rock, so-called. standing on the west side of a high- way that leads from Mr. John Waterman's to Plympton Meet- ing-house; thence south 56 west 510 rods to Middleboro' town- line 40 rods southeastward from Mr. Ebenezer Fuller's house ; thence in said town-line south 33} degrees east 50 rods; from thence through Middleboro's extending south 50 degrees west 200 rods : from thence north 50} degrees west 50 rods to a small swamp birch standing on the west side of Raven Brook; and thenee still north 50} degrees west 383 rods to a brook at the upper corner of Ebenezer Cobb's land, and still on the same point in range about 290 rods to Bridgewater River, below the mouth of Winnatnxet River ; and from thence by said Bridge- water River to the bounds first mentioned.

"And the inhabitants of the said land before bounded and described be, and hereby are, invested with the powers, privi- leges, and immunities that the inhabitants of any of the towns within the province are or ought by law to be vested with ; Provided. the inhabitants of the said town of Halifax do, within the space of two years from the publication of this act, settle a learned, orthodox minister, and provide for his honora- hle support among them, and likewise provide a schoolmaster to instruct their youth in reading and writing; only it is to be understood that the land of Dr. Polycarpus Loring. adjoining to his dwelling-house, and the lands lying on the southeasterly side of the land that the North precinct voted to the petitioners the 3rd of June, 1734. belonging to Messrs. Ebenezer Standish, Zechariah Standish, Zechariah Soule, Jabez Newland, Ignatius Loring, Samnel Bryant, Joseph Phinney, Nathaniel Bryant, John Battles, and their families, dwelling within the bounds of said township, shall still be and remain to the aforesaid town of Plympton. Nothing in this act shall be construed or understood to excuse any of the inhabitants of the town of Plympton, Middleboro', and Pembroke, petitioners respectively, from paying their proportionable parts of all former taxes, and also the proportionate tax that shall be laid on the said towns for the current year."

Still another change was made by the incorporation of the town of Carver, on the 9th of June, 1790, which took a further area of twenty thousand and seventy-five acres from the territory of the old town. The move- ment resulting in the incorporation of this town began a- early as June 3, 1731, when John Carver and sundry other inhabitants of the southern part of the town of Plympton sent a petition to the General Court showing that the said town is of great length (though narrow), and so filled with inhabitants as to allow of two meeting-houses and ministers, and that the petitioners have been put to great difficulties and expenses in attending on the public worship of God by reason of the remoteness of the meeting-house, and, therefore, praying that the town may be divided into two precincts by the bounds either of the two con- stablericks, or of the two military companies in the said town, and that the ministers be maintained by a general tax of the whole town. A committee was

appointed by the court to perambulate and view the premises, and on the 16th of March, 1731/2, the committee reported through its chairman, William Clarke, that " they repaired to the town of Plymp- ton and perambulated and carefully viewed the lands petitioned to be a township or precinct with the other parts of the town of Plympton, after which the inhabi- tants of the said town appeared, whose allegations for and against the prayer of the petition we fully heard and considered, and upon the whole are of opinion that the prayer of the petition be granted, the petitioners paying one-third part of the aged and Rev. Isaac Cushman's salary during his life, as it appears to us they are one-third part of the ratable estates of said town." This report was read in Council, and it was " ordered that this report be accepted, and that the petitioners with their estates and families be set off a separate precinct by the following boundaries, viz. : beginning at the line of Plymouth or Kingston, where a west line from thence will strike the head of An- nasnappit Brook, and thence in a straight line to the north side of the land of Jabez Eddy, where he now dwells, and from thence on the same range to the line of Middleboro', and so home to Rochester, and that the inhabitants of the said precinct be vestcd with all the powers, privileges, and immunities that other precincts within the province do or by law ought to enjoy." It was also ordered that " Edmund Tilson, Isaac Nye, Elisha Weston, Eleazer Cushman, Eleazer Rickard, and Ephraim Tilson be and remain to the old precinct, according to their petition, and until the further order of this court, and also that the minis- terial lands belonging to the old town shall still solely remain to them, and the new precinct to have none of the issues and profits thereof."

The papers presented to the court in aid of the new precinct show that the following persons were then the residents in the south part of the town :

Abiel Shurtleff.

Samuel Shaw.

John Carver.

Benjamin Wood.

Samuel Lucas.

Peleg Barrows.

Theophilus Crocker.

David Shurtleff.

Elisha Lucas.

Richard Dwelly.

Joseph Pratt, Jr.

John Doten.

Jabez Eddy.

Eleazer Jackson.

Ichabod Shurtleff.

Benoni Shaw.

Jacob Doten.

George Barrows.

Edward Washburn. Abiel Crocker.

Samuel Barrows. Barnabas Shurtleff.

Jabez Pratt.

Moses Barrows.

James Shaw. John Cole. Joseph Cole. Jeduthan Robbins.

John Robbins.

Jonathan Shaw.

Joseph Barnes.

John Weston.

John Doten, Jr.

Joseph Lucas. John Shurtleff.

Samuel Ransom.

HISTORY OF PLYMPTON.

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

Samuel Shurtleff.

John Show.

Bonjamin Pratt.

Barnabas Wood.

Ransom Jackson.

Nathaniel Atwood.

Timothy Tilson.

Ebonczer Ransom.

Benajah Pratt.

Jabez Eddy, Jr.

Moses Eddy.

Isaac Waterman.

Jonathan Shaw.

These names are still familiar ones in that part of the town of Plympton which is now Carver, and those who bore them may be considered the fathers of that town. Most of those who bore the names of Cushman, Sturtevant, Standish, Bosworth, Water- man, Loring, Cushing, Wright, Bradford, Thomas, Perkins, Sampson, Churchill, Harlow, and Bryant remained in the old precinct. These were all vener- able names. Robert Cushman, who came in the " Fortune" in 1621, and left with Governor Bradford his son, Thomas, then a boy of fourteen years of age ; Samuel Sturtevant, who appeared in Plymouth as early as 1643 ; Miles Standish, of the " Mayflower ;" Benjamin Bosworth, who came from England in 1634 to Hingham, and afterwards to Plymouth ; Robert Waterman, of Plymouth, in 1638; Thomas Lor- ing, who came from Axminster, England, in 1635, and settled in Hingham ; William Wright, who came to Plymouth in the "Fortune" in 1621; William Bradford, of the " Mayflower ;" William Thomas, who settled in Plymouth in 1636, and afterwards in Marsh- field; Abraham Perkins, who settled in Hampton before 1639 ; Abraham Sampson, who came over in 1629; John Churchill, of Plymouth, in 1643; Wil- liam Harlow, of Lynn, in 1637, and afterwards of Plymouth ; and John Bryant, who settled in Plym- outh before 1636, were their ancestors, and few towns have retained down to the present generation so much of the Pilgrim blood unadulterated by the admixture of foreign elements.

But the descendants of those who had secured the incorporation of the South Precinct of Plympton discovered that a mere parochial separation failed to meet their convenience and necessities. In 1790 a successful effort was made to obtain an act of incor- poration as a separate township, and on the 9th of June in that year the following act was passed, providing &

"That the lands hereafter described, viz. : beginning at the west line of the town of Kingston ; thenco running west so as to strike the head of Annisnappet Brook, so ealled ; thence eon- tinuing the same course on a straight line to the north side of the land of James Vaughan ; thenee the same courso to tho line of the town of Middleboro' (it being the dividing line between the North and South Precinets in the said town of Plympton) ; thenee on the line of the said town of Middleboro' till it comes to the line of the town of Wareham; tbenee on tho line of the said town of Waroham till it comes to the line of the town of Kingston aforosaid; tbence on said Kingston lino to tho first-

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History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 231

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1706

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1706