History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 232

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 232

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mentionod bound, with all the inhabitants dwolling on the lands above described, bo, and they are hereby, incorporated into a town by the name of Carver; and the said town is hereby in- vested with all tho powers, privilegos, and immunities to which towns within this commonwealth are or may bo entitled, agree- able to the constitution and laws of the common wealth.

" That the inhabitants of the said town of Carvor shall pay all the arroars of taxes which have been assessed upon them, and their proportionablo part of the tax granted in March last, together with their proportion of all debts that aro now due from the said town of Plympton, and shall support any poor person or persons who have beretofore been inhabitants of that part of Plympton which is now Carver and shall not have ob- tained a legitimate settlement elsewhere (when they beeome chargeable), and sueb poor person or persons may be returned to the town of Carver in the same way and manner that paupers may by law be returned to the town or district to whieb they belong.

"That the inhabitants of the said town of Carver shall be entitled to receive their proportion of all debts and monies due to the said town of Plympton, and also their proportionable part of all the laboratory stores, and common and undivided lands belonging to the said town of Plympton agreeably to the last State tax assessed upon the said town.

"That Ephraim Spooner, Esq., be, and be is hereby empow- ered to issue his warrant directed to some principal inhabitant, requiring bim to warn and give notice to the inhabitants of the said town of Carver to assemble and meet at some suitable place in the said town, as soon as conveniently may be, to choose all such officers as towns are required to choose at their annual meetings in the months of March or April annually."

On the 8th of February, 1793, the following sup- plementary act was passed :

" Whereas disputes have arisen respecting tbe dividing line between the towns of Plympton and Carver, for preventing of which in future it is enaeted that the dividing-line between the said towns shall be the same line that is now known and established as the dividing-line between the North and South Preeincts in said towns, when they were both Plympton, and shall forever hereafter be so considered and understood."

The remaining boundaries of Plympton are as fol- lows : Beginning at the Halifax line and the corner of Pembroke on the shore of Jones River .Pond, the line runs easterly into the pond, one hundred and four rods along the Pembroke line to the line of Kingston, and thence south six degrees east five hun- dred and sixty-one rods along the Kingston line ; thence south seven degrees east by the line of Kings- ton two hundred and twenty rods ; thence south forty- eight and a half degrees east by the Kingston line four hundred and fifty-five rods; thence south nine degrees east by the same line four hundred and twenty five rods to the corner of the town of Carver. The Carver line has already been described in the act incorporating that town. The Middleboro' line begins at the southwesterly corner of the town, and runs north thirty-one and a half degrees west two hundred and eighteen rods; thencc north thirty-two degrees west one hundred and ninety-six rods; thence north thirty-six degrees west three hundred and sixty-three

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HISTORY OF PLYMPTON.

rods ; and thence north thirty-six degrees west fifty- two rods to the Halifax line, which has been already described. These various acts of incorporation and descriptions of boundaries, though perhaps uninter- esting to the general reader, may not be without value for occasional reference.

Following now the history of the old precinct from which the South Precinct, afterwards incorporated as the town of Carver, was separated in 1732. the first feature of interest was a grant made by the town of Plymouth on the 16th of March, 1701/2, of thirty acres of land to be laid out for the use of the min- istry in the upper society, as the Second (or Plympton) Precinct was called before its incorporation as a town, "and a convenience for a burial-place and training- place. as near the meeting-house there as may be con- venient." This grant included the old burial-ground, the green. and strips of land on its southerly end and easterly side, which have since been sold.

In 1730 the bounds of this grant were agreed to by the town and the owners of adjoining lands, and their agreement was entered in the records as follows :

" Whereas, we the subscribers, being chosen and appointed by the town of Plympton at their annual meeting in the month of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and thirty, as agents for the said town, to review and settle the bounds of a tract of land formerly laid out in said town for a ministry lot and for a conveniency of a training-place and a burying-place for said town, and whereas said tract of land is bounded round by the lands appertaining unto sundry persons, whose names are also hereunto subscribed, whom we have given legal notice to, and from the best information and the records of the lands abovesaid, we have mutually agreed with them, the owners of the lands adjoining, severally, that the boundaries hereafter mentioned shall abide and remain as a dividing-line be- tween every of these tracts of land adjoining and the tract of land appertaining unto the said town of Plympton (that is to say), to begin at a rock which is the southwest corner bound of the ten acres of land laid out to Isaac Sampson; and thence to extend forty poles and about twelve feet dne south to a stone set in the ground, with stones about it, in the range of John Wright's land : and thence by the range of his land sontheast four degrees sontherly seventeen poles to a red-oak tree standing in the way that goeth from Benjamin Weston's to the Meeting-House, which is the southeast corner-bound of said Wright's fifty-acre lot; and from said tree the line extends north seventeen degrees east twenty-seven poles to a red-oak tree with stones about it, which is the bound of the four and a quarter acres of land formerly laid ont unto Edward Weston at the head of his old lot ; and from thence east five degrees north thirty-nine poles to a red-oak tree, marked with a heap of stones about it, which is a corner- bonnd of the land between John and Benjamin Weston; and thence on the same range by the land of John Weston twenty- nine poles to the white-oak stump with a heap of stones about it, which ie the corner-bonnd of the hundred-acre lot of land formerly laid ont to Adam Wright; and thence bounded by the range of said hundred-acre lot north three and a half degrees east fifty-two poles to a stake and stones standing in the range, which is the sontheast corner-bound of the three acres of land formerly laid out to Benjamin Soule, deceased, appertaining

unto his sons, Benjamin and Ebenezer; and thencc west twenty degrees north eight poles to a stake and heap of stones; and thence to extend north three and a half degrees east sixty poles by the land of Benjamin and Ebenezer Soule, aforesaid, to a stake standing at the uorth end of their stone wall; and thence to extend east twenty degrees soutb eight poles to a stake and stones about it, which is the northeast corner-bound of the eight acres laid out to Benjamiu Soule, deceased ; and thence to ex- tend north three and a half degrees east sixteen poles to a red- oak tree, marked on four sides, with a heap of stones about it; and thence to extend east three and a half degrees south about twenty poles to a stake and stones standing by a rock in a piece of swamp grouud; and thence to extend north ten poles and about six feet to a rock which is a corner-bound of Mr. Isaac Cushman's land; and thence bounded by his land west twenty- one degrees north forty-one poles to a white-oak tree standing on the north side of the highway, which is a corner-bound of Syl- vanus Sampson's land, and thence leaving two poles for a high- way on the southerly side of said tree; and from said two poles the line begins at a stone standing in the ground on a sandy plain in an old cartway ; and thence extends by the land of Isaac Sampson south three degrees east until it cometh to the southerly end of Isaac Sampson's stone wall, to a stone set in the ground ; and thence south, leaving forty feet for a highway, to a stake and stones; and thence to extend west three and a half degrees south thirty-five poles to a cedar stake and a heap of stones, which is the northeast corner bound of the ten acres of land belonging to Isaac Sampson ; and thence to extend south one and a half degrees east forty-three poles and a half to a stake and stones, which is the southeast corner-bound of the said Isaac Sampson's ten-acre lot ; and thence west three degrees south forty-three poles and a half to the rock first mentioned. Now the line or lines thus run and boundaries thus settled, wc, David Bosworth, Ignatius Cushing, and Joseph Lucas, on the behalf of the town of Plympton, on the one part, and Isaac Cushman, Isaac Sampson, John Wright, Benjamin Weston, John Weston, Benjamin Soule, and Ebenezer Soule, owners of the land adjoining, on the other part, have mutually agreed that the same shall stand and remain as a full settlement between the said minister's lot, training-place, and burial-place afore- said and the lands adjoining, as is before expressed. In witness whereof the parties to these presents have hereunto set their hands and seals the fourth day of February, 1730/1."

Up to the time of the incorporation of the South- ern Precinct the town and precinct were identical. And even after that time the First Precinct continued to be controlled by the town, and parochial and mu- nicipal affairs were blended. On the 20th of Sep- tember, 1731, the town chose Jonathan Parker as the successor of their old pastor, Isaac Cushman, who was then advanced in age, and who died in the next year. Mr. Parker was ordained on the 22d of December, 1731. He was born in Barnstable in 1705, and graduated at Harvard in 1726. His min- istry continued up to the time of his death, which occurred on the 24th of April, 1776, and some of his descendants, still living in the town, are among its most respected inhabitants. His house stood on the west side of the green, south of the present meeting- house. It should be mentioned that during the min- istry of Mr. Cushman a new meeting-house was built

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

to take the place of the former structure, in aecord- ance with a vote of the town, passed Sept. 16, 1714. The old structure to be removed so soon must have either failed in size to meet the growing wants of the precinct, or it must have been so rude in its construc- tion as to have fallen into a premature old age. The new mecting-house fronted the south, was plastered on its walls but not overhead, had no garret floor, and neither porch nor steeple. As was the custom of the times, its floor was left open and spaces granted to individuals to build pews as they were necded. The committee of the precinct, after the completion of the meeting-house, recommended that permission be granted to Francis Cook, Nathaniel Fuller, Samuel Bradfield, Thomas Shurtleff, Robert and John Waterman, Wil- liam Shurtleff, Samuel Sturtevant, Jonathan Shaw, David Bosworth, Benjamin Eaton, John Cole, Benja- min Soule, and Nathaniel Harlow be permitted to build pews on the floor, and George Bryant, Ebenezer Lob . dell, and Isaac Churchill in the galleries.

During the ministry of Mr. Parker a third church was built in 1772 on the green, twelve rods north of the site of the old one. It was fifty-seven feet long and forty five wide, and had fifty windows, forty-five pews, four seats ncar the pulpit, and twenty-seven pews in the galleries. Unlike the old church, it fronted the west. Mr. Parker was succeeded by Ezra Samp- son, who was ordained Feb. 15, 1775, as an associate of Mr. Parker, who died in April of the next year. Mr. Sampson was a native of Middleboro', and grad- uated at Yale College in 1772. He resigned April 4, 1796, and removed to the State of New York, where it is believed by the writer that he died. Mr. Sampson was succceded by Ebenezer Withington, a graduate of Brown University, who was ordained Jan. 31, 1798, and, after a short ministry of three and a half years, resigned July 21, 1801. The suc- cessor of Mr. Withington was John Briggs, also a graduate of Brown University, who was installed Dec. 2, 1801, and resigned June 29, 1807. Elijah Dexter succeeded Mr. Briggs, also a graduate of Brown University, and was ordained Jan. 18, 1809. The pastorate of Mr. Dexter was a long and useful one, extending to May 2, 1851. During his pastor- ate his son, Henry Martyn Dexter, was born in Plymp- ton, who, by his high attainments as a theologian, anti- quary, and scholar, has won honor for his native town, as well as for himself. Charles Livingston succeeded Mr. Dexter, and was ordained Oct. 15, 1851, who, in his turn, has been followed by Josiah Ballard, Joseph W. Tarleton, Philip Titcomb, Benjamin F. Grant, George H. Shaw, and J. V. Hartshorn, the present incumbent, as acting pastors of the society.

Up to the year 1827 the town and precinct acted together as one, and the two were identical. The town settled the ministers, appropriated their salaries, and built and kept in repair the churches. In that ycar, on the 16th of April, the town, in its parochial capacity, reorganized as the First Precinct in Plympton distinct from the town in its inunicipal capacity, and from that time the town and precinct have been sepa- rate and distinct. Before that time all meetings of the town were held in the meeting-house, and, as if in recognition of their parochial as well as municipal character, the pastor of the precinct was invited and escorted to the meeting-house to open the meetings with a prayer. It is probable that the name meeting- house, so common in New England, is derived from the municipal use to which the early places of wor- ship were put, and the propriety of adhering to the name after the abandonment of the use is questionable.

Town-meetings continued, however, to meet in the old church until the new church was built, in 1830, after which they were held in the hall of Josiah T. Ellis until the town house was built, in 1850. The new meeting-house now standing on the westerly side of the green was erected in 1830, on land presented to the precinct by Jonathan Parker. The land ad- joining it, devoted to burial purposes, was bought afterwards of Zaccheus Parker, the son of Jonathan. The old training place has been abandoned as a meet- ing-house site, and been permitted to enjoy a con- dition of disuse and neglect. The eye of a stranger can see that, properly graded and ornamented and surrounded by a good roadway, it would become a spot which could not fail to attract some of that increasing number of persons who are seeking quiet and rest as essential features of either a summer or permanent residence.

The method adopted by the Plympton Precinct of divesting itself of its municipal clothing and assum- ing simply the parochial garb will explain to many readers how the old territorial parishes of New Eng- land, which were once towns, have broken the ties which bound them to the townships, and, as parochial organizations, have become heirs to the grants and property of the old municipal precincts. This method has been more than once opposed, and the right to adopt it disputed, but a decision of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts in the case of Milford against Godfrey and others, reported in the second volume of Pickering's Reports, page 91, settled the question. In that case " where a precinct owning a meeting- house became, upon their own application, incorpor- ated into a town, after which for thirty-five years the mecting-house and all parochial affairs were under

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1113

HISTORY OF PLYMPTON.

the sole management of the town, but from some Loring, of Plympton, and grandson of Thomas, who appeared in Hingham before 1657. He married Lydia, daughter of Edward Gray, and granddaughter of Thomas Lettice, and had a large family, which is still largely represented by its descendants in Plymp- ton and other parts of the Old Colony. His wife's mother, Dorothy (Lettice) Gray, married for a second husband Nathaniel Clark, the notorious councillor of Andros, during the latter part of whose life his wife, living apart from him, resided with her daughter in Plympton, where she died and was buried. Samuel proceedings of the town, such as exempting certain inhabitants from taxes for the support of public wor- ship, it could be inferred that the town acted with reference to the continued existence of the precinct, and as their agent it was held that the precinct might reorganize themselves, that the meeting-house con- tinued to be their property, and that while they had the control of it and the occupancy of it for the pur- poses for which it was built, the use of it for munici- pal purposes did not give such an exclusive possession as would enable the town to maintain an action of . Sturtevant was a son of Samuel, who appeared in trespass against any person for pulling down the meeting house by the authority of the precinct."

Plympton as early as 1643, and brother of John, who married Hannah, daughter of Josiah Winslow, the brother of the Governor. His children married into the Standish, Bosworth, and Shaw families, of Plympton, and their blood runs in the veins of more descendants in that town than bear the name. Be- noni Lucas was the son of Thomas, who came to Plymouth, and married before 1658. He was born in Plymouth in 1659, and that part of Plympton which is now Carver contains many of the name among its inhabitants.

At the next town-meeting held on the 21st of Feb- ruary, 1708/9, the selectmen reported the following list of inhabitants qualified to vote in town-meetings :

Isaac Cusbman.

Joseph King, Jr.

Thomas Cushman.

John Wright.

Issachar Waterman.

Adam Wright.

William Sburtleff.

Isaac Sampson.

Elkanah Cushman.

Benjamin Soule.

Francis Cook.

Nathaniel Harlow.

John Bryant.

Samuel Fuller.

Jonatban Bryant.

Eleazer Rickard.

John Everson.

John Riekard.

Richard Everson. Josiah Riekard.

Benjamin Eaton.

John Pratt.

John Bryant, Jr.

Jeduthan Robbins.

James Bryant.

Jabez Eddy.

Jillet Swift.

Henry Riekard.

Samuel Bryant.

Edward Tilson.

Joseph Finney.

John Doty.

James Sears.

Robert Ransom.

Samuel Sturtevant.

Samuel Waterman.

Robert Waterman.

Ephraim Tilson.

Benjamin Curtis.

John Tilson.

David Bosworth.

Jonathan Sbaw.

Nehemiah Sturtevant.

Benoni Shaw.

Samuel Sturtevant, Jr.

John Cole.

Ebenezer Standish.

John Carver.

William Sturtevant.

George Bonum.

Joseph King.

Benoni Lueas.

Peter Tomson.

John Barrows.

John Simmons.

Nathaniel Wood.

Isaac King.

Eleazer King.

William Churchill.

Thomas Shurtleff.

Isaac Cushman, Jr.

Abiel Shurtleff.

George Sampson.

Edward Weston.

Caleb Loring.

This case illustrates precisely the situation and his- tory of the Plympton Precinct and many others in New England. The Western Precinct of Plymouth was incorporated in 1695, and built a meeting-house in 1698; was, on its own petition, incorporated as the town of Plympton in 1707; its parochial affairs and records were blended with the municipal affairs and records until 1732, when the Southern Precinct of Plympton was incorporated ; after that the present territory of Plympton formed the First Precinct of that town until the incorporation of Carver, in 1790, and from that time until the reorganization of the pre- cinct. in 1827, the precinct again acted in its double capacity of town and precinct, finally succeeding as the First Parish of Plympton to all the rights and privileges of the old Western Precinct of Plymouth, incorporated in 1695, and inheriting the parochial capacity and authority of the town.

Having followed the current of church history, the narrative now turns to the exclusively municipal history of the town. The first town-meeting was held on the 1st of March, 1707/8. when William Shurtleff was chosen town clerk, and Caleb Loring, Samuel Sturtevant, and Benoni Lucas were chosen selectmen. These men may be considered the fathers of the town. Mr. Shurtleff was the son of William Shurtleff, who appeared in Plymouth at an early date and removed to Marshfield about 1660. The father married, in 1665, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Let- tice, of Plymouth. and was killed by lightning June 23, 1666. When struck he was holding a son in his arms. who remained unharmed, but whether it was William or a brother Thomas, neither history nor tra- dition states. William, the son, married, in 1683, Susanna, daughter of Barnabas Lathrop, and grand- daughter of Rev. John Lathrop, who settled in Scit- uate in 1634. He removed to Plympton, and many of his descendants are now living in the two divisions of the old town. Caleb Loring was a son of Thomas

1114

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

Before the incorporation of the town the old burial- place, one acre in extent, which was a part of the grant made by the town of Plymouth to the precinct in 1701/2, was laid out by a vote of the precinct passed May 30, 1706, and eleared under an agreement with the precinct by Benjamin Soule and Isaac Cush- man.

About the same time the first mill, which was a mill for grinding eorn, was built near the second mill-pond on the Winnatuxet River. An old bed or channel of the river ran from the south to the north side of the pond and back to the south side, and near the turn of the river on the north side of the pond the mill was built. The wheel of the mill, according to the memoranda of Lewis Bradford, turned horizon- tally and the shaft was upright, with the mill-spindle on the upper end, so that the stone turned with the wheel. Such a mill was called a gig-mill. Mr. Wright afterwards built another mill just above the bridge over the old Plympton cotton-factory pond, and on its northerly side. Some years after, Mr. Wright sold a privilege either to Nathaniel Thomas, of Marshfield, or to his son, Joseph, who early became an inhabitant of Plympton, and built a forge at the dam where the shoestring factory now stands. A short time before the forge was built, a grist-mill, which was the third mill of that character erected in Plymp- ton, was built on the same dam, known as Weston's grist-mill. This mill had a fulling-mill attached to it to meet the wants of the people, who, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, in common with those in other parts of the Old Colony, spun and wove all their own eloth on domestic wheels and looms. The two first saw-mills were built, one on the Bridgewater road near the Lobdell estate, and the other at the head of the factory pond. In addition to the forge of Mr. Thomas, another was built at a previous date by a Mr. Mallinson, near the rolling-mill pond.

Adam Wright was evidently an active, enterprising man, who mnade usc of all the opportunities which the times and the location offered. He was the son of Richard, and probably grandson of William Wright, a native of Austerfield, England, who came in the " Fortune" in 1621. Richard married Hester, a daughter of Franeis Cook, of the " Mayflower," and died in 1691, at the age of eighty-three years. Adam, the son, had two wives, Sarah, daughter of John Soule, of Duxbury, and Mehitabel, daughter of Robert Barrow or Barrows. He died in 1724, about eighty years of age, leaving a large family, whose blood has come down to the present generation with no loss of the vigor with which it was impregnated by its enter- prising anecstor. Joseph Thomas was the great-

grandson of William Thomas, of Marshfield, already referred to. The records of the town show that he was not only a man bearing the burdens and responsibili- ties of private business, but one also repeatedly ealled by the town into the management of municipal affairs. Of Mr. Mallinson the writer knows nothing. If not a non-resident, it is probable that his citizenship was a temporary one, ending with the special business in which he was engaged.

One of the first acts of the new town was in con- neetion with sehools, and on the 21st of February, 1708, it was voted that the selectmen be instructed to provide a schoolmaster, and this vote was repeated for many years at the annual town-meetings. On the 25th of the same month a road was laid out to Laken- ham. It ran " from Barnes' bridge to John Carver's ten-aere lot of land, to a red oak tree marked, and from thence, on the eastward side of John Bonum's land, on John Carver's land, to the northwest end of said Carver's land, and thenee through Abiel Shurt- leff's land to the old causeway, and from the old causeway to the old path from South Meadows to Lakenham, and then along the path or by-way that now is till it comes from Pope's Point to Lakenham, and then, crossing that path to the westward, to a red-oak marked, and so by said marked tree till it comes to a walnut-tree marked, and from thenee runs northerly to the old road or by-way, and then to Lakenham in the old road between Jonathan Shaw's and Benoni Shaw's land, which was laid out by the selectmen of the town of Plympton the day of the year aforesaid." On the 16th of February, 1709, " a way was laid out by the selectmen of the town of Plympton, and by them ordered to be recorded, viz., from the meeting-house in Plympton to Plymouth line, which is as followeth, viz .: we begin where the old road comes into Lakenham path, and so along the old road till it comes to the eastward side of Joseph King, Sr.'s land, and from thence to the southerly side of the road by a range of trees marked some distance from the road till you come to Nathaniel Harlow's field, and from thenee to his house, and from thence to Deacon Riekard's land, so through said land by a range of trees inarked till you come near John Rick- ard's house to a red-oak tree marked, and so along a road till you come to a corner of the field of Deacon Riekard's, and so along the range of the old lot of said Rickard till you come to the old road, and so along the road till you come to the Plymouth line." These two roads were the two earliest laid out by the town, and furnished better means of communication than had before existed between the two scetions of Plympton and between the Central Village and Plym-

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History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 232

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