History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 64

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 64

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In 1727 his great-grandfather, Francis Adams, commenced business as a clothier and dyer at the place on Jones River that had previously belonged to William Coumer. His son, John, succeeded to the same business, and died in 1806. In 1818 this water privilege was owned by a company styled the " Jones River Manufacturing Company," and it was trans- ferred that year to Messrs. Johnson, Hyde & Co., who built a cotton-factory there, and after a time

Samuel Adams was appointed the agent of the com- pany. For years he continued in that capacity.

The factory was burned to the ground in March, 1845. By his habits of strict economy he accumu- lated a handsome property. He was chosen one of the selectmen in 1830, and also the three years fol- lowing. He was again elected to the same office in 1842, and for the ten years succeeding, when, after an intermission of three years, he served during the years 1856-57. After the death of Joseph Samp- son, Esq., the town treasurer, in December, 1844, he was elected to fill the vacancy, but soon resigned the office. He married, first, Priscilla Ford, of Marsh- field, who died March 10, 1837 ; second, Abigail H. Bearse, of Kingston. Mr. Adams died Nov. 12, 1863, in his seventy-fourth year. In 1883, Mrs. Adams presented to the town the beautiful soldiers' monument that now stands on the green, and which was dedicated November 1st, with appropriate cere- monies.

HISTORY OF LAKEVILLE.

BY GEN. E. W. PIERCE.

CHAPTER I.

ABORIGINAL HISTORY,

WHAT now constitute the territorial limits of the township of Lakeville were from 1669 to 1853 embraced in and formed a part of Middleboro', the period of time that elapsed between the date of the incorporation of the latter and that of the former being nearly one hundred and eighty-four years, or only sixteen years less than two centuries, and yet at the date when Middleboro' was incorporated, Plym- outh had been settled by the white people nearly fifty years, and the great and good old Massasoit, chief sachem of the Indians in this part of the country, had been dead some eight years. That first half-cen- tury after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth witnessed the close of that long and remarkably peace- ful reign of Massasoit, the accession to the vacated throne by Wamsutta, cldest son of the dead monarch, the sudden death of Wamsutta, which event termi- nated his reign in the same year in which it began, and the coming into power as chief sachem of Metacom, a son of Massasoit, and younger brother of Wam- sutta, now much more familiarly and generally known in history as King Philip.

Philip, as king and chief ruler over a comparatively numcrous and powerful people, established his seat of empire at Pokanoket, now Bristol, R. I., from whence he sent forth his mandates and issued decrees to nu- merous sub-chiefs having the personal oversight and particular rule of tribes or parts of tribes of Indians inhabiting many different localities in what has now come to be some half-dozen countics in the States of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Among these sub-chiefs above alluded to was Pam- antaquash, or, as he was then familiarly known, the Pond Sachem, which appellation was expressive or descriptive of the locality of that people over which he ruled, it being that section of country surrounding immediately, bordering upon, and embracing those

beautiful sheets of water that long since came to be known as the great Middleboro' Ponds.

The date at which we would call the particular attention of the reader was in, or perhaps a little before the year 1668. King Philip had now been in power about six years, and Pamantaquash, the sub-chief had doubtless attained to numerous years, and being in failing health deemed it proper to make provision for a disposition of some of his sublunary interests which he did in a nuncupative will, that after his death, bcing duly attested, found place in a book of Indian records kept by the secretary of Plymouth Colony. That ancient and time-worn manuscript, in the handwriting of Secretaries Nathaniel Morton and Samuel Sprague, contains the following as " The last Will and Testament of Pamantaquash, alias the Pond Sachem" :

" WITNESETH these p'sents, Pamantaquash, the pond Sachem, being weak in body, but of perfect disposeing memory, declared it to be his last will and Testament, concerning all his lands at Assawamsett or elsewhere, that he is now possessed of, that he would after his descase leave them unto his - Tuspaquin, alius the black Sachem, for his life, and after the sd Tuspaquin his decease unto Soquonta- mouk, alius William, his sone, and to his heires for- ever, and desired severall of his men that were then about him to take notice of it and be witnesses of it if he should not live himself to doe the writing under his owne handc."

The Indians who were present, and witnessed the above, subscribed to the official document, and their names were given as follows: Paempohut, alias Jo- seph, Sam Harry, alias Matwatacka, Wosako, alias Harry, Felex, alias Nanauatanate.

The ancient record is considerably defaced . and worn, so that some words arc nearly obliterated and others are evidently entirely lost.

The following is copied from that record, leaving blank those places where the words have fallen a prey to the insidious tooth of resistless time :

290

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HISTORY OF LAKEVILLE.

"The land that the said Pamantaquash challenges, the names of the places . . . said witnesses have made description . . . followeth Pachamaquast. Wekam. ... Nekatatacouck, Set- nessnett, Anec . . . path that goes from Cushenett to . goes through it :

"Wacagasaness : Wacom ... Quamakeckett, Tokopissett ; Maspenn . . . Wampaketatekam: Caskakachesquash Wach- pusk. ester side of ye pond : p . . . Pachest ; soe or Namassa- kett riuer Pasamasatuate.

" Harry and his sone Sam, Harry, desiers that neither Tus- paquin nor his sone be prest to sell the said lands . . . by any English or others whatsouer.

" The lands Mentioned which Tuspaquin posesseth, Ha . . Wosako, wch is long as he lives.

"29 October, 166S. " Witnes,

" WAPETOM, his mark.

"WASNUKESETT, his mark."

Few, if any, of these localities can now be identi- fied by these disused, obsolete, and forgotten names, but that Cushenett meant what became the township of Dartmouth is quite certain, and the Namassakett River was undoubtedly the stream flowing from the Assawamsett Pond through Middleboro' and Rayn- ham, thus forming Taunton Great River, so called, the waters of which are emptied into Mount Hope Bay.

It will be observed that by the omission of a single word in the ancient record the evidence of the family relationship existing between Pamantaquash, the Pond Sachem, and Tuspaquin is hidden, but the accom- panying circumstances and facts strongly, and almost irresistibly, lead to the conclusion that the former was the ancestor of the latter.

Tuspaquin, to whom this bequest of lands was made by Pamantaquash, succeeded the latter as sa- chem, and thus became a sub-chief under King Philip.

Tuspaquin was not only one of King Philip's principal warriors and chief captains, but, taking to wife, as Tuspaquin did, a daughter of Massasoit, he thus became a son-in-law to the former ruling mon- arch, and brother-in-law to the then king, Pometa- com, alias Philip.

Tuspaquin located upon the lands given to him in the will already described, and in speaking of him Mr. Drake, in his excellent work concerning the Indians, says, " From the survey of the deeds which be executed of various large tracts of land, it is evident that his sachemdom was very extensive." Among these sales of lands made to the white people by the sub-chief Tuspaquin, usually called the Black Sachem, it may in this connection be proper to notice the following :

Aug. 9, 1667, in consideration of the sum of four pounds, Tuspaquin sold to Henry Wood, of Plym- outh, a tract of land lying upon the east side of the Nemasket River, and bounded on one end by a sheet

of water known in the Indian tongue as Wanpacut, but by the English called the Black Sachem's Pond, and upon the other end by a pond then known as Asnemscutt.

The chief reserved to himself the right to continue to take cedar-bark from a swamp included in the tract conveyed.

July 17, 1669, Tuspaquin, together with his son, who is therein called William Tuspaquin, in consider- ation of the sum of ten pounds, conveyed by deed to Experience Mitchell, Henry Sampson, Thomas Little, and Thomas Paine a tract near Assawamsett, extending from Assawamsett Pond to Dartmouth path, and being half a mile in width.

June 10, 1670, Tuspaquin and his son, William, for the sum of six pounds, sold to Edward Gray a meadow near Middleboro', lying between Assa- wamsett Pond and Taunton path. They at the same time conveyed another lot of land upon the other side of the Taunton path.

June 30, 1672, Tuspaquin, who in the record is described as sachem of " Namasskett," together with his son, William, who is also called Mantowapuct, sold to Edward Grey and Josiah Winslow a tract of land lying upon the easterly side of Assawamsett, to begin where the Namaskett River falleth out of the pond, and from thence bounded by said pond and on a line marked by bounds to Tuspaquin's Pond, and thence by land that had formerly been sold to Henry Wood.

Some time in 1673 the sub-chief, who had then come to be called Old Watuspaquin, together with his son, William Tuspaquin, conveyed by deed of gift to John Sassamon, alias Wassasowan, twenty-seven acres of land lying and being at Assawamsett Neck.

March 11, 1673, the same parties conveyed by deed to an Indian named Felix, who was a son-in-law to John Sassamon, fifty-eight and one-half acres of land.

July 3, 1673, Tuspaquin and his son, William, for fifteen pounds conveyed by deed to Benjamin Church, a house-carpenter of Duxbury, and John Tomson, of Barnstable, a tract of land lying in Middleboro' bounded westerly by Mowhiggen River, that is de- scribed as running into Quisquasett Pond, and thence bounded by a cedar swamp to Tuspaquin's Pond, and thence by Henry Wood's land to a place called Pochaboquett, the northerly boundary being Nohudst River.

Nov. 1, 1673, William Watuspaquin, together with the Indians Assaweta, Tobias, and Bewat, for sixteen pounds, sold a tract of land bounded northerly by Quetaquash River, easterly by Suepetuit Pond, and in part bounded by Quetaquash Pond.

292

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

Dec. 3, 1673, the chieftain, Tuspaquin, who is therein called Old Tuspaquin, made a decd of gift to an Indian woman named Assawetough of a neck of land at Assawamsett, which neck is therein called Nahteawamet.

May 14, 1675, the chieftain, Tuspaquin, with his son, for thirty-three pounds sterling, sold lands and meadows at and about certain ponds called Ninipoket and Quiticus.

We are now brought to the time when was com- menced that great conflict between the red and white men, now commonly called King Philip's war ; one of the grievances complained of as the cause of that great shedding of blood having occurred within the territorial limits of what is now the township of Lake- ville, and to the better understanding of which we will now and here in detail mention some of the most essential of those particulars. The chieftain, Tuspa- quin, as already mentioned, was probably a son of his predecessor, Pamantaquash the so-called Pond Sachem. Tuspaquin, by his wife, Amie, a daughter of Massa- soit, and sister of Wamsutta, alias Alexander, and Metacom or Pometacum, alias King Philip, had a son named Benjamin, who took to wife an Indian woman named Weecum.

This Indian, Benjamin, and wife, Weecum, had a son named Benjamin, who married an Indian woman named Mercy Felix, and this Benjamin last named let it be observed was a grandson of the sub-chief, Tuspaquin, alias the " Black Sachem," and a great- grandson of Massasoit, and consequently grand-nephew of or to Wamsutta, alias Alexander, and Metacom, alias King Philip.

The Indian woman, Mercy Felix, was a daughter of an Indian named Felix, who married an Indian woman named Assawetough.

Assawetough was a daughter of John Sassamon, alias Wasassamond, and wife, a daughter of a chief of the Pequot Indians, once familiarly known as " Sassa- cus the Terrible."

John Sassamon was a native of what became the town of Dorchester, near Boston, and for a time he was a student at Harvard College.

He accompanied the Massachusetts forces to Con- necticut in 1637, there assisting them in waging a war of extinction against the Pequot Indians, the warriors of which tribe were nearly all slain, and the women and children subjected to bondage.

Capt. Israel Stoughton, in addressing the Governor of Massachusetts by letter from the seat of war at that time, wrote, " By this pinnace you shall receive 48 or 50 women and children, unless there stay any here to be helpfull, concerning which there is one I

formerly mentioned that is fairest and largest that I saw amongst them, to whom I have given a coat to cloathe her. It is my desire to have her for a servant if it may stand with your good liking, else not.

" There is a little squaw that Steward Culacut de- sireth, to whom I have given a coat. Lieut. Davon- port also desireth one, to wit, a small one, &c.

"Sosomon, the Indian, desireth a young little squaw, which I know not."

But because Capt. Israel Stoughton did not know which little squaw the Indian Sosomon desired, be- cause it was of too little consequence to him to learn, it is no proof that Sosomon did not know or that he had any hesitancy in making his choice or trouble in de- ciding upon his selection ; for while the white people were only getting servants, this red man was seeking to procure a wife. That he succeeded in doing by ob- taining that nameless little young squaw, which was none other than a king's child, being a daughter of "Sassacus the Terrible," chief sachem of the once powerful and greatly dreaded but then made power- less Pequots.

At the risk of wearying the patience of our readers have we thus gone into details, given the minute particulars concerning this John Sassamon, who was not only one of the earliest of the aborigines of this country educated in the white man's college, but he doubtless was the first or earliest Indian missionary that the world ever saw, an assistant of the apostle Elliot in that arduous labor of translating the Scrip- tures into the Indian tongue, the Englishman's ally in the first war with the Indians in 1637, an aman- uensis to King Philip, son-in-law to Sassacus, and finally put to death by his own countrymen in com- pliance with orders from King Philip, because he had divulged to the English the secret of King Philip's intention of making war upon them.

A few years before King Philip's war John Sassa- mon was located at what is still known as Betty's Neck, then in Middleboro', now in Lakeville, where he was employed in preaching the gospel to the In- dians ; and probably to encourage him in that under- taking the sub-chief, Tuspaquin, and William, his son, conferred upon Sassamon a grant of land, the written record of which is in the words following :

" KNOW all men by theso prsents that I, Old Watuspaquin, doe grannt vnto John Sassamnon ; allios Wussasoman twenty- seaven acrees of land for a home lott, att Assowamsott Neoke; this is my gift given to him, the said John Sassamon, By mee tho said Watnspaquin in Annº 1673.

" Witnes my hand.

"OLD WATUSPAQUIN [ 0 ] his Marke.

" WILLIAM TUSPAQUIN [ D V ] his Marke.

" Witnes alsoe, NANEHEVUT [ X ] his Marke."

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HISTORY OF LAKEVILLE.

The ancient record from which the foregoing con- cerning the gift of land to John Sassamon is copied also contains the following :

" This abovesaid land John Sassamon above Named gave vnto his son-in-law ffelix. in Marriage with his daughter Bettey, as appeers by a line or two rudely written by the said John Sassamon's owne hand, but onely witnessed by the said Old Watuspaquin," as followeth :

" Saith Old Watuspaquin ; it was his Will to his daughter, to have that land which was John Wasasoman's; by Old Watus- paquin ; witnessed,

"OLD WATUSPAQUIN, his [ 0 ] marke."

Felix, the son-in-law of John Sassamon, thus came to possess the twenty-seven acres, the same being con- ferred upon him when he took to wife Assawetough, the daughter of John Sassamon, and born of his wife, who was a daughter of " Sassacus the Terrible," and identical with " the young little squaw" referred to in Capt. Israel Stoughton's letter from Connecticut to the Governor of Massachusetts in 1637.

Assawetough, the daughter of John Sassamon, accepted from the English the Christian name of Betty, and from the sub-chief, Tuspaquin, she re- ceived the gift of a tract of land upon what is now familiarly known as " Betty's Neck." This is a true copy of the record of that gift of land from Tuspa- quin to Assa wetough, alias Betty :

" KNow all men by these presents that I ye said old Wattus- paquin and William Wattuspaquin, both of us have give a free grant or gift unto a woman called Assowetough, A tract of land called Nahteawanet. The bounds of that Neck is a little swamp place called Mashquomoh, from the west side of that little swamp, to run a straight line to a pond called Sasonkus- wet, ranging over that point to an old fence, and so going along with that ffence till we come to a great pond called Chupipog- gut. This we have given unto Assowetough, with the consent of all the chief Men of Assowamset, that she might enjoy it peaceably without any molestation, Neither by us, nor by ours, or under us. But she shall have it for ever, especially her eldest daughter, that they shall not be troubled upon no ac- count, neither by mortgage, or gift, or sale, or upon no account, therefore we set our hands.

" The mark O of WATTUSPAQUIN.

" The mark VVW WILLIAM WATTUSPAQUIN. " December 23, 1673.

" Witness-

" The mark C of Tobias, alias Poggapanossoo.

" The c C mark of old Thomas.

" The & mark of Pohonohoo.

" The mark a of Kankunuki.

"I, the above-named Assowetough, alias Bettey, do freely will, give, and bequeath the above said tract of land unto My Daughter Mercy, to her heirs forever. Witness My hand this 14°h day of May, 1696."

"The X mark of " BETTY, alias ASSOWETOUGH. " Witness, Sam1 Sprague. " Charles " Laack Wonno."

Allusion has already herein been made to the fact that for a time immediately preceding King Philip's war the educated Indian, John Sassamon, sometimes called Wassassamon, was engaged in the work of preaching the gospel to the Indians, his home being at what is now known as Betty's Neck, in Lakeville. The Indian hearers of John Sassamon probably cm- braced both those then known as the Assawomsets and Nemastkets, although these at a later date were made to constitute two or three different churches or worshiping assemblies.

While thus engaged in preaching to the Indians John Sassamon pretended to have learned that King Philip was preparing to make war upon the English, and repairing to Plymouth he communicated this startling and very disquieting intelligence to the chief magistrate of Plymouth Colony, at the same time enjoining upon the latter the strictest secrecy in the matter of who had revealed it, as Sassamon said should it come to the knowledge of King Philip that he had thus exposed it, Philip would cause his immediate execution. Sassamon was by his countrymen strongly suspected, despite all the efforts of the English to con- ceal from whence their knowledge came, or by whom the story had been communicated. It is, therefore, highly probable that King Philip ordered that John Sassamon should be slain, and, as a result, early in the year 1675 the latter was found to be missing.

A search for Sassamon was made, resulting in the finding of his dead body under the ice of Assawamset Pond. His hat and gun being found upon the ice and identified aided in his discovery. The bruises upon the dead body of John Sassamon, together with the discovery that the neck was broken, afforded very convincing proof that his death had not resulted from drowning, but that he had been slain before being put into the water. Circumstances led to the opinion that it was on the 29th of January, 1675, that John Sassamon was slain.

Three Indians, viz., Tobias, Wampapaum, and Mat- tushamama, were apprehended, charged with this murder, in words following, that they, " Att a place called Assowamsett Pond, wilfully and of sett pur- pose and of mallice fore thought, and by force and armes, did murder John Sassamon, an other Indian, by laying violent hands on him, and striking him, or twisting his necke vntill hee was dead; and to hide and conceale this, theire said murder, att the time and place aforesaid, did cast his dead body through a hole in the iycc into said pond." The jury before whom the accused were brought for trial returned a verdict that " the Indians, whoe are the prisoners, are guilty of the blood of John Sassamon, and were

€ 18

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

the murderers of him, according to the bill of indict- ment." The names of those jurors were as follows : William Sabine, William Crocker, Edward Sturgis, William Brookes, Nathaniel Winslow, John Wads- worth, Andrew Ringe, Robert Vixon, John Done, Jonathan Banges, Jonathan Shaw, and Benjamin Higgins.

The colonial record informs that "it was Judged very expedient by the court that, together with this English Jury above named, some of the most indif- ferentest, gravest, and sage Indians should be ad- mitted to be with the said Jury to healp to consult and adwice with, of, and concerning the premises."

" The names are as followeth, viz. : one called by the English name Hope, and Maskippague, Wanno, Gorge, Wampye, and Acanootus. These fully con- curred with the above-written Jury in theire verdict." 1 It has come to be quite generally stated that this jury was composed of Englishmen and Indians in equal numbers ; but the foregoing, copied from the official record, shows that to have been untrue, as the six Indians were, in fact, not a part of that jury at all, but were only admitted to be present with and to ad- vise the jury. That jury, according to English law, was full without the six Indians, who at most could only advise; and had they advised just opposite to what they did, it would in law have amounted to no- thing. One of the prisoners pleaded guilty, but the other two denied any participation in or personal knowledge of the act. All were sentenced to be hanged " by the head untill theire bodies are dead." Tobias and Mattushamama were, in accordance with the sentence, executed on the 8th day of June, 1675. Wampapaum, who was probably the one that con- fessed, was relieved for a few days, and spared from execution upon a gallows, but shot within a month.

These events hastened on that greatest, most bloody, and disastrous conflict ever enacted upon New Eng- land soil since the country had a written or printed history.

Tuspaquin, the sub-chief, who, under his brother- in-law, King Philip, ruled the Assawamsct and Ne- masket Indians, was, from the beginning of that war until his death, one of Philip's most reliable support- ers and ever-faithful friends, and was promptly and without any delay upon the war-path, leading about three hundred warriors, and is thought to have headed the attack made on Scituate, April 20, 1676, burning the houses of Joseph Sylvester, William Blackmore, Nicholas Swede, William Parker, Robert Stetson, Jr., John Buck, Mr. Sutcliff, Mr. Sundlake, and Mr.

Holmes, and a saw-mill owned by Robert Stutson, Sr. Nineteen houses were then burned by the Indians, who also attacked two garrisoned houses, on one of which they continued the assault until eight of the clock in the evening, when, English reinforcements arriving, the Indians were repulsed. William Black- more was killed and John James mortally wounded.

Tuspaquin probably led in the attack made upon Bridgewater, Sunday, April 9, 1676, when Robert Latham's house and barn were burned, some out- houses rifled, one horse or more. killed, and three or four horses carried away.

About two hundred Indians were thought to have made the attack upon Scituate, and a much smaller force that upon Bridgewater.

May 8, 1676, the Indians made a second attack upon Bridgewater, being about three hundred in num- ber, led by Tuspaquin in person. One authority (Rev. Increase Mather) said that the Indians de- stroyed about seventeen houses and barns, and an- other authority that they burned thirteen houses and four barns.

Quite a body of Tuspaquin's men were captured by Capt. Benjamin Church, July 25, 1676, and soon after the same officer captured at Nemaskct sixteen more of Tuspaquin's people, from whom it was learned that the sub-chief, with a numerous company, was at Assawamset, then in Middleboro', now in Lake- ville.

Capt. Benjamin Church, a few days after, marching with his soldiers toward Dartmouth, was met just in the dusk of the evening by Tuspaquin and a body of his warriors at the brook which runs from the Long Pond into the Assawamsett. A few shots were ex- changed, when the Indians fell back. A bridge now spans the stream where that skirmish occurred. .

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History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 64

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