History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 31

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 31

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way (Summer Street), and traces its origin to near the year 1640. Cushman Street was laid out in 1845 by Joseph Cushman and Nathaniel L. Hedge, through land thrown out by them. Prospect and Vernon Streets were laid out in 1856; Mayflower, Robinson, and Franklin in 1857; Fremont in 1859 ; the extension of South Russell in 1868; Washington in 1865; Sagamore, Massasoit, and Jefferson in 1870; Lothrop in 1872; Allerton in 1877; Oak in 1878; Davis in 1882; New Water and Chilton in 1881 ; Stafford in 1882; and the Woolen-Mill Street in 1883. Most of the modern streets, however, were laid out and opened by individuals before they were formally laid out by the selectmen and accepted by the town.

In connection with the common lands above de- scribed and the streets, it may be well to refer to grants of prominent localities made by the town. Clark's Island has already been mentioned as granted by the town, in 1690, to Samuel Lucas, Elkanah Wat- son, and George Morton. In the same year Saquish was granted to Ephraim and George Morton, and before 1694 the Gurnet was granted to John Doty, John Nelson, and Samuel Lucas. In 1693, Plymouth beach was granted to Nathaniel and Josiah Morton. These grants or sales, with those of other lands, were made by the town to defray the expense incurred in con- testing the grant of Clark's Island to Nathaniel Clark by Sir Edmund Andros. The grants of land and flats on which the central wharves of the town are built were made at various times from 1700 to 1760. Jackson's wharf was built on land granted by the town in 1746 to Thomas Jackson and Thomas Foster. The upper part of Long Wharf was built by John Murdock, on land granted to him in 1732. Isaac Lothrop received a.grant, on which Hedge's wharf was built in 1734, and David Turner a grant for the Davis wharf lot about the same time. The land for Nelson's wharf was granted to Nathaniel Warren about 1700, and that for Carver's wharf to Thomas Davis about 1756. The Barnes wharf was built by Benjamin Barnes on land probably granted to him, and Robbins' wharf on land which Thomas Davis bought of the town in 1760. Several of these lots began at the top of Cole's Hill, and their deeds contained the reservation of a way along the base of the hill.

In 1717 the settlement in the neighborhood of Jones River, containing about forty-eight families, was set off as a separate parish, bearing the name of Jones River parish. In 1725 an attempt, once before made, was renewed to secure the incorporation of the parish as a distinct town. In the next year an act of incor- poration was granted, and after some discussion con-

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

ecrning the name of the new town, during which the name of Ashburton was strongly urged, Licutenant- Governor Dummer gave it the name of Kingston. In 1738 the inhabitants of Agawain, a plantation within the jurisdiction of Plymouth, petitioned to become a separate parish, and at a town-meeting held March 1, 1738/9, it was voted that the plantation of Agawam be set off from Plymouth and be a sep- arate township. In 1739, Wareham was incorpor- ated, including the plantation of Agawam, and a part of Sippican, or Rochester, to which town a small part of Plymouth was annexed in 1827. After the de- tachment of the territory included in the incorporated towns of Plympton (which included Carver), King- ston, and Agawam, or Wareham, Plymouth assumed the dimensions and boundaries by which it may be described to-day. Its population, and business, and character had changed as much as its territory. At the end of a little more than a century more than twenty towns had sprung from its loins within the limits of the Old Colony, and it was left with a popu- lation of about two thousand, comfortably supported by agriculture, navigation, and commerce. Such men were living during the first quarter of the eighteenth century as James Warren, a man holding high mili- tary office, member of the Assembly and sheriff of the county ; John Watson, a merchant of considerable means and the highest character; John Murdock, also a merchant, a man of munificent charity, and a benefactor of his adopted town; and Isaac Lothrop, one of the justices of the Court of Common Pleas, whose gravestone was thought worthy to bear the in- scription :

" Had virtue's charm the power to save Its faithful votaries from the grave, This stone had ne'er possessed the fame Of being marked with Lothrop's name."

To this list must be added Josiah Cotton, a graduate of Harvard, and afterwards preacher, schoolmaster, clerk of the Inferior Court, justice of the same court, register of probate, and register of deeds; Thomas Faunce, elder of the church and town clerk ; John Dyer, also school-teacher, and at times clerk of the town; John Foster, a deacon of the church, and worthy man; Lazarus Le Baron, an educated and accomplished physician ; Thomas Howland, a grandson of John Howland and a man of large estates; and Ephraim Little, the pastor of the church. These were all plain, straightforward, practical men, representing a com- munity which was quite as far from illiteracy and poverty on the one hand as from culture and luxurious wealth on the other. With the lapse of time that peculiar spirit which had marked the Pilgrim char-

acter had gradually been converted into those more ordinary traits which, inspired by no great obstacles to be overcome nor sufferings to be endured, are to be found in every association of men and women who are sure of comfort and happiness as the fruit of earnest but not oppressive labor. James Warren had his residence for a time at the corner of Leyden and Market streets ; John Watson lived in the house now occupied by the custom-house; John Murdock oe- cupied the old Bradford house on the north side of Town Square ; Isaac Lothrop lived in the house which formerly stood on the lot now occupied by the houses of William P. Stoddard and Mrs. Isaac L. Hedge ; Josiah Cotton lived first in the old parsonage which stood where the house of Isaac Brewster now stands, and afterwards for a time in the house in the north part of the town recently occupied by the late Thomas Jackson; Thomas Faunce lived in Chiltonville, near the bridge, in the neighborhood of the Langford farm ; John Dyer lived on the lot on Leyden Street on which the house now occupied by Frederick L. Holmes stands ; Thomas Howland occupied the lot now occu- picd by John J. Russell on North Street, and Ephraim Little lived for a time in the house on the lot after- wards occupied by the Lothrop house above referred to.

In 1745, Plymouth raised a company of soldiers for the expedition against Louisbourg, which was commanded by Capt. Sylvanus Cobb, a man of marked energy and heroism. Little is preserved of the his- tory of this company, besides a list of its members. Capt. Cobb was the great-grandson of Henry Cobb, the progenitor of the Cobb family, and occupied the Rogers house, which until within a few years stood on the easterly part of the lot occupied by Edward L. Barnes, on North Street. The following is the roll of Capt. Cobb's company :

Sylvanus Cobb, capt.

Anthony Annable.

Stephen Hall, lieut.

Thomas Huggins.

Nath1 Faxson, ensign.

Jabez Hamblin.

Eleazer Holmes, sorgt. Ebenezer Chipman. Silas Blush.

Samuel Drew, corp.

Jeremiah Holmes.

Josiah Scudder.

Ebenezer Cobb.

Joseph Frith.

Jacob Tinkham.

Nathan Tobey.

John Bryant.

Nathan Gibbs.

Seth Curtis. Benjamin Jones.

Joseph Sylvester. Reubon Piteher.

William Pitoher.

Nathan Weston. Nathì Morton.

Poter Lowos.

Joseph Wampum.

Nathan Raimont.

Jodediah Studson. William Revis.

Jamos Pratt. Joseph Nummook.

Barnabas Shurtleff.

Jonathan Jeffry.

Eleazer Faunoo. Poter Stockor.

Josoph Cain.

Jacob Paul.

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.

Benjamin Wicket.

Simon Kete.

Toby Adams.

Amos Francis.

Joseph Panconet.

Solomon Morton. Robert Decosta.

Thomas Davis.

William Rogers.

Samuel Genens.

In the expedition against Nova Scotia, in 1755, Plymouth took a more conspicuous part. The Mas- sachusetts troops in the Acadian expedition, as it has always been called, were commanded by Col. John Winslow, of Plymouth, who had with him many Plymouth men. Col. Winslow had already been in command, in 1740, of an expedition against Cuba. He afterwards held several additional commissions, one of general and commander-in-chief of the Pro- vincial troops, dated July, 1756, from Governor Hardy, of New York, and another of major general, dated 1757, from Governor Pownal. It will he re- 'membered that Nova Scotia, under the name of Acadia, was settled by the French, and ceded in 1713 to Great Britain. Those of the inhabitants who did not remove into Canada were permitted to retain their possessions upon taking an oath of allegiance to Great Britain, with the stipulation that they were not to be called on to take up arms against the French or In- dians. Thus they received the name of French Neutrals. After the settlement of Halifax, in 1749, a requirement to take the oath anew without the stipulation was resisted, and in 1755, Col. Winslow, at the head of his Massachusetts troops, was ordered by Governor Lawrence, of Nova Scotia, to remove them from the country. Col. Winslow issued a proc- lamation to the inhabitants of Minas, " requiring all old men and young men, as well as all the lads of ten years of age, to attend at the church of Grand Pré on the 5th of September, 1755, at three o'clock in the afternoon," to receive a communication from the constituted authorities. Four hundred and eighteen were assembled, the doors were shut, and the whole number declared prisoners of the king. Arrange- ments were at once made for their removal, and on the tenth of the monthi four hundred and eighty- three men and boys were placed on board five trans- ports in the river Gaspereaux, each vessel guarded by six non-commissioned officers and eighty privates. As soon as other vessels could be procured, three hundred and thirty-seven women, heads of families, and eleven hundred and three children and unmar- ried females followed, and the transportation was complete. Their houses and lands were abandoned, and their stock, consisting of seven thousand eight hundred and thirty-three horned cattle, four hundred and ninety-three horses, and twelve thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven sheep and swine, were left

to perish or become the property of others. These poor people were distributed among the colonies, and seventy-six arrived at Plymouth, Jan. 8, 1756, of whom seventeen remained, and the others settled in Kingston, Duxbury, and other towns in the county. Col. Winslow, in this discreditable act, was only the instrument of others, and as a military officer was only performing his duty in oheying the orders of his superior. His residence, while a citizen of Plymn- outh, was the house now standing on the corner of North and Main Streets, a house which continued to he famous for many years afterwards as the residence of James Warren, the successor of Joseph Warreu, as president of the Provincial Congress. In the ex- pedition against Crown Point, in 1755, Nathaniel Bartlett and Samuel N. Nelson each commanded a company in a regiment of which Thomas Doty was lieutenant-colonel.

The next period of interest in the history of the town was that in which those preliminary steps were taken by Great Britain which finally led to the war of the Revolution. The passage of the Stamp Act created an excitement which Plymouth did not fail to share. On the 14th of October, 1765, a commit- tee, consisting of James Warren, James Hovey, Thomas Southworth Howland, Thomas Mayhew, John Torrey, Nathaniel Goodwin, Nathan Delano, Theophilus Cotton, and Ephraim Cobb, was chosen by the town to draw up instructions to the repre- sentative in the General Court as to his action con- cerning the outrage. On the 21st the committee reported the following instructions, which were ac- cepted :

" To Thomas Foster, Representative of the town of Plymouth at the Great and General Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England :

"SIR,-As we have the highest esteem for the British consti- tution, which we think founded on the true principles of liberty, and to deserve on many accounts the preference to any other now on earth, we cannot hut reflect with pleasure on our own happiness in heing sharers in that liberty, those rights, and that security which results from them to every subject in the wide extended dominions of our most gracious sovereign, who has not forfeited his right to them hy his loyalty to his king, want of attachment and a reasonable submission to the British Gov- ernment, and love to his fellow-subjects. These are so foreign to the character of the people of this country that calumny itself has never been able to fix it upon them, and we have evinced our loyalty to our king and our affection to the British Government and our mother country on all occasions hy our own readiness to assist in any measures with our blood and treasure, to extend their conquest and to enlarge their dominions, from which they reap so many and great advantages. At the same time that we reflect on our happiness in having a natural and constitutional right to all the privileges of our fellow-subjects in Great Britain, we behold with pain and sorrow any attempts to deprive us of these, and cannot hut look on such attempts as

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

instances of tho greatest unkindness and injustice. This is the subject of our present complaint, which not without reason echoes from every month in every section of this distressed and injured country. Our youth, tho flower of this country, arc many of them slain, our treasure exhausted in tho serviec of our mother country, our trade and all the numerous branches of business dependent on it reducod and almost ruined by se- verc Aets of Parliament, and now we are threatened hy a late Act of Parliament with being loaded with internal taxes, with- out our consent or the voice of a single representative in Par- liament, and with being deprived of that darling privilege of an Englishman, trial by his peers, the consequence of the un- constitutional extension of the power of Courts of Admiralty in America. These two are the main pillars of the British Con- stitution and the glory of every freeman, so that the depriving us of these ereates such a distinction between us and our fellow- subjects as cannot he accounted for upon any principle of jus- tice and impartiality. And we certainly have never given any occasion, for we shall say nothing ou this occasion of our ina- bility to pay the many and great taxes laid upon us by the Stamp Act, of the many more crimes opened hy it which can- not but he committed by many people, however desirous they may he to avoid them, of the prodigious penalties annexed to them, or of the great hardship in subjecting the trial of them to the judgment of such a court, and such a manner of correc- tion, or of the many great disadvantages that must arise from these measures to Great Britain herself. These arc obvious facts, and have already been handled in such a masterly and convincing manner hy some of the friends of both this Mother Country and of the British Constitution (for they cannot be separated) as to render it unnecessary to enlarge on them.

"You, sir, represent a people who are not only descended from the first settlers of this country, but inhabit the very spot they first possessed. Here was first laid the foundation of the British empire in this part of America, which from a small be- ginning has increased and spread in a manner very surprising and almost incredible, especially when we consider that all this has been effected without the aid or assistance of any power on earth ; that we have defended, protected, and secured ourselves against the invasions and cruelty of savages and the subtilty and inhumanity of our inveterate and natural enemies, the French; and all this without tho appropriation of any tax by stamp or stamp acts laid upon our fellow-subjects in any part of the king's dominions for defraying the expenses thereof. This place, sir, was at first the asylum of liberty, and we hope will ever be preserved sacred to it, though it was then no more than a wilderness inhabited only by savage men and beasts. To this place our fathers (whose names be revered), possessed of the principles of liberty in their purity, disdaining slavery, fled to enjoy those privileges which they had an undoubted right to, but were deprived of hy the hands of violence & op- pression in their native country. We, sir, their posterity, the freeholders and other inhabitants of the placo, legally assem- bled for that purpose, possessed of the same sentiments aud re- taining tho same ardor for liberty, think it our indispensable duty on this occasion to express to you their own sentiments of the stamp act and its fatal consequences to the country, and to enjoin it upon you, as you regard not only the welfare, but the very being, of this people, that you (consistent with an allo- giance to the king and a relation to the Government of Great Britain), disregarding all proposals for that purposo, oxert all your powers and influence to oppose the execution of tho Stamp Aet, at least until we hear the issue of our petition for rolicf. We likowise, to avoid disgracing the memory of our ancestors, as well as the reproaches of our own consciences and tho oursos of posterity, rocommond it to you to obtain, if possible, in the

Hon. Hlouso of Representatives of tho Provinee a full and ox- plicit assertion of our rights, and to have the same entered on the public records, that all generations yet to come mnay bo con- vinced that we have not only a just sense of our rights and lib- erties, but that we never, with subinission to Divine Providence, will be slaves to any power on earth. And as we have at all times an abhorrence of tumults and disorders, we think our- selves happy in being at present under no apprehension of any, and in having good and wholesome laws sufficient to preserve the peace of the Province in all future time unless provoked by some imprudent measures, so we think it hy no means advisa- ble for your interest yourself in the protection of Stamp papers or stamp offices. The only thing we have further to recom- mend to you at this time is to observe on all occasions a suita- ble frugality and economy in the public expenditure, and that you consent to no unnecessary or unusual grants at this time of distress, when the people are groaning under the hurden of heavy taxes, and that you use your endeavors to inquire into and bear testimony against any past, and to prevent any future, unconstitutional draft on the public treasury.

" JAMES WARREN, per order."

On the 16th of January, 1766, the following peti- tion sent to the selectmen was acted on by the town, and it is introduced into this narrative, with its list of names, to show who were active in resisting the first step which resulted so disastrously to the interests of Great Britain :

" To the Selectmen :

"GENTLEMEN,-We, the subscribers, freeholders in the town of Plymouth, having the highest sense of the noble patriotism and generous conduct of the town of Boston in many instances, more especially with regard to the difficulties we are now in- volved in, and the injurious oppressions we are embarrassed with, and being fully convineed of the very great advantages that have resulted from their spirit and conduet not only to evory part of this Province, but to the whole continent, and as we conceive the good people of this town are unanimous in this sentiment, and would be very glad of an opportunity to express their gratitude to the town of Boston for their spirited conduct, do hereby desire you to call a town meeting as speedily as may be, to know if the town will, for the reasons above, vote an ad- dress of thanks to the town of Boston.

" Dee. 30, 1765.

" Amaziah Churchill.

Ebenezer Churchill.

Nath1 Foster. Ephraim Cobb.

John Blackmer. Stephen Sampson.

Joseph Bartlott. Benjamin Warren.

Nehemiah Ripley.

Elkanah Watson.

David Turner. Thomas Davis.

Thomas Spooner. Ephraim Spoonor.

Samnel N. Nelson. John Russell.

Cornelius Holmes. John Churchill.

Josoph Rider, Jr. Jeromiah Holmes.

Ebenczor Nelson. Lemuel Jackson.

Ezekiel Morton. Poroz Tilson.

Silas Morton. Lazarus Le Baron.

Wm Rickard. Jamos Warren.

Wm Rider. Thomas Mayhow.

Nath1 Goodwin. Thomas Jackson.

Thomas Torrey. Nathan Delano.

Thomas S. Howland.

Isaac Lothrop.

Abiel Shurtloff.

Wm Watson."

The following address of thanks was adopted :

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH.

" To the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston :

" At a time when the rights and liberties of this country are invaded, and the inhabitants threatened with the loss of every- thing that is dear to them : when they are embarrassed with every distress that is the never-failing consequence of slavery and poverty. no man or society of men who are sharers in the common calamity (unless totally destitute of every spark of public virtue and patriotism), can remain unfeeling and in- active spectators, but must be ready on all occasions to bless the hearts which feel. and the hands which exert themselves to avert the evil threatened, and to restore that happiness which constantly attends the full enjoyment of natural and constitu- tional rights and liberties ; we, therefore. the inhabitants of the Town of Plymouth, animated with a spirit of public virtue and love of our country, as well as gratitude to all our bene- factors, and more especially to such as have distinguished themselves in the common cause of their country in this day of distress and difficulty, and being assembled in town meeting for that purpose, as a public testimony of our esteem and grati- tnde, beg yon to accept our united and general thanks for the invariable attachment you have on all occasions, and particu- larly on the present, shown to the principle of liberty, and for the vigorous exertion of your loyal and legal endeavors to secure to your country the uninterrupted enjoyment of that blessing, and to transmit the same entire and perfect to the latest posterity. Instances of this, much to your own honor and the interests of your country, distinguished by the un- erring marks of disinterestedness and generosity, crowd on our minds on this occasion. Bnt to avoid the imputation of pro- lixity, permit ns to single out a few, which are recent, and most readily occur to every one's mind, and which are suffi- cient of themselves to justify our sentiments and merit the gratitude of every well-wisher to this country.

"The new regulation with regard to mourning, which has not only saved the country a great and needless expense, and in a manner abolished a ridiculons pageantry, but produced consequences in onr mother country very beneficial to us and all, principally at your expense, as your merchants were the principal importers and venders of these articles, a measure which at the same time that it reflects a lustre upon your con- doct, shows by the success of it that the people of this country have virtne enough to prefer its interest to any fashion that may stand in competition with it, however established by long enstom and very particular prejndice. The opposition you have at all times made, both to the foreign and domestic inva- sion of onr rights, particularly the legal and warrantable meas- ures you have taken to prevent the execution of the Stamp Act in the province. The spirited and noble application yon have made to have the custom-houses and courts of justice opened in the Province, upon which onr welfare, peace, and tranquillity so much depend; the testimony yon have from first to last borne against, and the abhorrence you have expressed of all outrageous tumnlts and illegal proceedings and their conse- quences very early taken to restore tranquillity and the security of property in your town, the capital of the Province, and the good example thereby given to the other towns of that love of peace and good order which influenced you, and which we think Enfficient to destroy all those injurious connections, the work of some people's imaginations, and from which they affect to draw consequences not only disadvantageous to you, bnt to the whole country. To conclude that you and your pos- terity may ever be prevented of the full enjoyment of that lib- erty yon have so landably asserted and contended for; that your trade and commerce, the source of riches and opulence to this country may be extended and flourish ; that you may ever continne to deserve and have the justice done you, to be pos-

sessed of the love and esteem of your fellow-countrymen, who, renouncing that solecism in politics which arises from an un- natural distinction between landed and commercial interest, shall exert themselves to encourage your hearts and strengthen your hands, are the sincere wishes and ardent prayers of your fellow-subjects to the best of kings, your fellow-sufferers in the calamities of this country and your fellow-laborers in the vine- yard of liberty, the inhabitants of the town of Plymouth.

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History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 31

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