History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 65

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 65

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Sept. 5, 1676, Capt. Benjamin Church at Sippican made prisoners of several more of Tuspaquin's people, from whom he learned that the chief had gone to Agawam, in what afterward became Wareham.

Capt. Church carried away these prisoners save two aged Indian women, whom he left to inform Tuspaquin, when the latter should return to Sippican, that " Churchi had been there, and taken his wife and children and company, and carried them down to Plymouth, and would spare all their lives, and his, too, if he would come down to them and bring the other two that were with him."

Trusting in that promise, Tuspaquin went to Plym- outh, and surrendered himself to the English au- thorities, by whom he was soon after put to death, and thus perished Tuspaquin, sachem or chief of the Assawauiset and Nemasket Indians.

1 See " Plymouth Colony Records," vol. v. pp. 167 and 168.

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HISTORY OF LAKEVILLE.

As polygamy was practiced by the Indians, it is therefore somewhat uncertain whether the wife of Tus- paqnin captured by Capt. Benjamin Church at Sip- pican was identical with that wife who was a daughter of Massasoit, and sister to Wamsutta, alias Alexan- der. and Pometacom, alias King Philip. Whether the promise so shamefully broken with Tuspaquin was to any degree faithfully kept with his wife and children. both tradition and written or printed history seem to have remained silent.

William Tuspaquin, or Watuspaquin, a son of the sub-chief, Tuspaquin, was also known by the name of Mantowapuct. This William was doubtless the oldest son of the sachem, Tuspaquin, and he would, under ordinary circumstances, have become the successor of his father as sub-chief or sachem of the Assawamsett and Nemaskett Indians. What became of this In- dian, William, is not now certainly known. His ex- istence can be traced up to the 14th day of May, 1675, and as no record appears concerning him after that date. it is quite reasonable to presume that he died soon after, and perhaps he was among those In- dians slain in King Philip's war, that commenced in Jnne, 1675.

Benjamin Tuspaquin, a son of the sub-chief Tus- paquin, and born of his wife, Amie, a daughter of Massasoit, survived that terrible conflict between races known as King Philip's war. Tradition in- forms us that Benjamin Tuspaquin was somewhat distinguished as a warrior, and in one of the battles in which he engaged lost a part of his jaw-bone, that was probably shot off with a bullet. Tradition further informs us that he died suddenly when sitting in his wigwam, having just before complained of feeling faint.

Benjamin Tuspaquin had children as follows : Esther, who married an Indian named Tobias Samp- son. He was what was termed a "praying Indian," and resided in what was then South Freetown, but now East Fall River. He used to preach at his home, from which circumstance his house came to be called the " Indian College."

Hannah, another daughter of Benjamin Tuspaquin and wife, Weecum, married an Indian named Quam. They probably lived in South Freetown, now East Fall River, at a place still called " Indian Town." Their danghter, Hope Quam, acquired some educa- tion, so that she was enabled to teach a school, prob- ably composed of colored children.

Mary, another daughter of Benjamin Tuspaquin and wife, Weecum, married an Indian named Isaac Sissell.

survey and division was made in or about the year 1707, Isaac Sissel received for his share what was de- nominated the twentieth lot, then said to contain six acres, one hundred and twenty-eight rods. A second survey of that Indian reservation was made in 1764, when this twentieth lot was reported to have been in possession of Mercy and Mary, daughters of Isaac Sissel.

At the date of the second survey the nineteenth lot in this Indian reservation was reported to belong to Esther Sampson and Sarah Squin, who are therein called the grandchildren of Benjamin Squamnaway, who was doubtless identical with Benjamin Tuspaquin.

Benjamin Tuspaquin and wife, Weecum, had a son, Benjamin, who married an Indian woman named Mercy Felix. This Mercy Felix was a daughter of an Indian named Felix, who fought for the English in King Philip's war, and born of his wife, Assowe- tough, a daughter of John Sassamon and grand- daughter of Sassacus, chief of the Pequot tribe of Indians, once living in what is now the State of Con- necticut. This Assowetough received from the Eng- lish the Christian name of Betty, from which circum- stance the lands formerly owned by her are commonly called and familiarly known as " Betty's Neck" to this day.

In consideration of the fact that John Sassamon had lost his life as a result of attempting to befriend the English, together with the circumstance that the Indian, Felix, son-in-law to John Sassamon, had taken up arms for the English in King Philip's war, the government of Plymouth Colony, in 1679, enacted " that all such lands as were formerly John Sassa- mon's, in our Collonie, shal be settled on Felix, his son-in-law."

Let it be observed that John Sassamon had, in the year 1673, received from the sub-chief, Tuspaquin, and William, his son, the deed of twenty-seven acres of land, which land Sassamon conveyed to his son-in- law, Felix ; and under date of March 11, 1673, Tus- paquin and son, William, conveyed to Felix by deed fifty-eight and one-half acres of land ; and under date of Dec. 23, 1673, Tuspaquin and his son, William, with the consent of all the chief men of Assawomsett, conveyed by deed of gift to Assowetough, the daugh- ter of John Sassamon, and wife of Felix, a neck of land called Nahteanamet; and this neck of land in 1679 came to be possessed by the Indian, Felix, as the husband of Assowetough ; and Felix's death oc- curring in or before 1696, caused the same to fall to Assowetough, who conveyed that neck of land in a writing that found a place upon the public records of

At the survey and division of the Indian reserva- tion in South Freetown, now East Fall River, which | Plymouth County, and in words following :

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

"I, the above-named Assowetough, alias Betty, do freely will, give, and bequeath the above-said Traet of land unto my Daughter, Merey, to her heirs for ever. Witness my hand this 14th day of May, 1696.

"The X mark of " BETTY alias ASSOWETOUGH."

Benjamin Tuspaquin and wife, Mercy Felix, had a daughter, Lydia, born at what is still known as Betty's Neck, then in Middleboro', now in Lakeville. Lydia is represented as possessing great resolution and sin- gular decision of character. Her mother dying while she was yet a child, her care for a time devolved upon her grandfather, Benjamin Tuspaquin, but she ere long went to live with some friends who resided at Petersham, Mass.

One night while living at Petersham tradition saith that a bear came and seized upon a small pig, and would probably have succeeded in carrying away the pig had not the Indian girl, Lydia, resolutely rushed out of the house into the outer darkness, musket in hand, shot the bear, and thus saved the pig.

Lydia claimed great skill in the healing art, and it was while she was in the act of gathering herbs for medicinal purposes that she accidentally fell from a high bank into the Assawomsett Pond, where she was drowned.

Her death occurred in July, 1812. She was the wife of an Indian named Wamsley, and gave birth to five children, namely, Zerviah, Paul, Phebe, Jane, and Benjamin. Zerviah married, Dee. 4, 1791, a Gay Head Indian named James Johnson. Zerviah died in July, 1816. Paul married an Indian woman named Phebe Jeffries.

Phebe Wamsley was born Feb. 26, 1770, and mar- ried twice. Her first husband was a Marshpee In- dian named Silas Rosier, who served as a private soldier in the patriot army of the Revolution. He died at sea, and she married, Mareh 4, 1797, Brister Gould, who had served as a teamster in the patriot army of the American Revolution. He was drowned in East Weymouth, Mass., Aug. 28, 1823. She died Aug. 16, 1839. Jane Wamsley was born in or near the year 1771, and died when about twenty-three years of age. She was buried in the Indian cemetery on the bank of Little Quiticus Pond, near the old stage- road leading from Lakeville to Rochester. Benjamin Wamsley was born in or about 1773, and died at sea, April 22, 1799. A gravestone bearing an inscription marks the resting-place of the ashes of Jane Wamsley, although the person erecting the same seems to have chosen to confer upon her the maiden instead of the married name of her mother. That tombstone 'bears the following inscription :

"To the Memory of Jean Squcen who died Apr 13th 1794 in the 23d year of her age. Also of Benjamin who died at sea Apr 22nd 1799 in his 26th year, children of Lydia Squeen a native.

"When Earth was made and time began Death was deereed the fate of man."

Another tombstone in this cemetery bears the fol- lowing :

"To the Memory of Lidia Squeen who died in 1811 age 72." [This was doubtless Lydia Tuspaquin, who married a Wamsley, and was accidentally drowned in Assawamsett Pond some time in July, 1812 ; and if so, then the date upon the tombstone is a mistake. This couplet also appears upon the tombstone of Lydia Squeen :]

" In God the poor and helpless find A Judge most just, a parent kind."

Phebe Wamsley, by her first husband, Silas Rosier, had a son, Martin, born in June, 1792, and died in July, 1792. She also had a son, John, born Sept. 15, 1793. He married an Indian woman named Jane Wamsley, who was his cousin. John served as a sailor on board the United States frigate " Mace- donia." He finally took up his residence at Betty's Neck, then in Middleboro', now in Lakeville. He was drowned in the Assawomsett Pond in the month of February, 1851. Phebe Wamsley, by second husband, Brister Gould, had a daughter, Betsey, born Nov. 26, 1797 ; married Aug. 7, 1816, James Hill, of Boston. Betsey died in Boston, April 16, 1824. Phebe Wamsley and second husband, Brister Gould, had a daughter, Lydia, born June 12, 1799 ; married Nov. 12, 1819, a Portuguese, named Antonio D. Julio. She died April 22, 1855.

The next child of Phebe Wamsley and second husband, Brister Gould, was Jane S., born March 12, 1801; married July 14, 1821, John Williams. She died in New Orleans, May 27, 1844.

Phebe Wamsley, by second husband, Brister Gould, had a daughter, Ruby, born May 30, 1803; married Dec. 22, 1824, Benjamin Hall, of Philadelphia.

The next child by Mr. Gould and wife Phebe was Melinda, born April 23, 1805, and died June 16, 1824.

Zerviah was the next child of Brister Gould and wife Phebe, and Zerviah was born July 24, 1807; married Oct. 17, 1824, Thomas C. Mitchell.

He died in East Fall River, at a place called Indian Town, March 22, 1859.

Zerviah, the widow, is now living upon lands at Betty's Neck, so ealled in Lakeville, which have, by heirship, descended to her through the several suc- eeeding generations from Tuspaquin, the sub-chief of the Assawomsett and Nemasket Indians, and who in early history is called the Black Sachem.

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HISTORY OF LAKEVILLE.

The youngest child of Brister Gould and wife Phebe was Benjamin S., born Oct. 31, 1809; he never married, and was lost at sea.

Mrs. Zerviah G. Mitchell (now residing upon and possessing some of the lands of that neck which, in the Indian language. was called Nahteawamet, but for more than two centuries known as Betty's Neck), published in 1878, in book-form, an " Indian History, Biography, and Genealogy Pertaining to the Good Sachem Massassoit, of the Wampanoag Tribe, and his Descendants."

CHAPTER II.

PIONEER HISTORY.

THE ancient and time-honored township of Mid- dleboro' was for many years in territory the largest in the State of Massachusetts, and thus continued until the detachment of quite a large tract of country in the western part of that town in 1853, the tract detached having constituted a part of Middleboro' nearly two entire centuries, but at the date named was incorporated as a new and distinct town, and called Lakeville. That part of original Middleboro' now Lakeville appears to have embraced a large, if not, indeed, much the larger, part of the parent town, last settled upon by persons of European ex- traction or descent, and hence full forty years passed after the date of the incorporation of Middleboro' as a town before the Assawomset and Beech Woods portions of said town (now constituting a large part of Lakeville) came to be occupied or settled upon by white people of sufficient mark or influence in the world to cause their names or items of interest in their lives to be preserved for the consideration of the present generation.

Although Middleboro' had a sufficient number of white inhabitants to obtain the act of incorporation as a town in 1669, we may, in our mind's eye, go forward full forty years, during which time nearly all that portion of the town now Lakeville remained a dark, howling wilderness, only occupied by wild beasts, ravenous birds, and savage men.

It is not until 1709 that we can locate a pioneer settler of European descent in the Beech Woods por- tion of what was Middleboro', now Lakeville, and eight years later, viz., 1717, that the first white man settled upon the Assawomset Neck; Isaac Peirce, with his sons, Isaac and Thomas Peirce, and Benja- min Boothe, being the Daniel Boones of the Beech

Woods section, and Thomas Nelson in that of Assa- womset Neck.

Isaac Peirce, Sr., was the younger son of Abraham Peirce, who emigrated to America and settled at Ply- mouth in 1623. Abraham, the parent, died in or a little before 1673, leaving a large landed estate, lying principally in what is now Pembroke or Hanson. Isaac, the son, was a soldier in King Philip's war, and for his sufferings therein secured a land grant. He died in Middleboro', now Lakeville, Feb. 28, 1732, being between seventy and eighty years of age. Isaac Peirce, Jr., was a Quaker. He was united in marriage, in or about 1703, with Judeth, a daughter of John Boothe, of Scituate, Mass. She was the fourth daughter and eighth child of John Boothe, and born March 13, 1680; died May 4, 1733. Isaac Peirce, Jr., contracted a second marriage, with the widow Abigail Chase, whose maiden name was Sherman. Isaac Peirce, Jr., died Jan. 17, 1757. The last will and testament of Isaac Peirce, Jr., was made in 1756, and, among numerous other bequests, provided that the wife, Abigail, should have one- third of his homestead farm, one-third of his house- hold goods, one riding horse, one side-saddle, six silver spoons, and fifteen dollars in moncy. That will also provided for the emancipation of the negro slave Jack.

Thomas Peirce was a Baptist, and his name ap- pears among those who, as early as 1737, applied for the privileges that the law then extended to that per- secuted sect. Thomas Peirce and Naomi Boothe, of Middleboro', were united in marriage April 16, 1714. Benjamin Boothe was the third son and fourth child of John Boothe, of Scituate, Mass., and born July 4, 1667. On the 23d of January, 1709, Benjamin Boothe and his brother-in-law, Isaac Peirce, Jr., pur- chased quite an extensive tract of land then lying in Taunton and Middleboro', but now in Berkeley and Lakeville. Another of the early comers to the Beech Woods part of Middleboro' (now Lakeville) was Re- becca, a daughter of Isaac Peirce, Sr., and sister to Isaac, Jr., and Thomas Peirce. Rebecca became the wife of Samuel Hoar, and mother of most, if not all, the family of that name in Lakeville. Samuel Hoar died Feb. 13, 1746. Rebecca, the wife, died July 12, 1765.

Thomas Nelson, the pioneer white settler upon Assawomset Neck, was a native of Middleboro', where he was born June 6, 1675, and before the close of that month every white inhabitant of the town was forced to flee to Plymouth as a place of refuge from the Indians, it being the commencement of that mighty conflict between races called King Philip's war. Thomas Nelson is said to have been the first

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HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

or earliest person at Middleboro' who openly embraced the religious tenets of the Baptists, and as there ex- isted in Middleboro' no Baptist Church during his lifetime he became a member of the Baptist Church in Swansea, where he remained until near his death, when dismissed to join a Baptist Church in Rehoboth, where he continued in full fellowship until his death, which occurred March 28, 1755.

Thomas Nelson purchased lands upon Assawomset Neck in 1714, but he did not remove there with his family and settle thereon until 1717, or three years later. The farm of Thomas Nelson, upon Assawom- set Neck, was bounded upon one end by the Long Pond, and by the Assawomset Pond on the other, and both sides by lands then owned and occupied by the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. His house was erected near where now (in 1884) is an apple-tree growing in a meadow owned by the heirs of the late Job P. Nelson, Esq., and upon the opposite side of the highway, adjacent to the Hersey Place, so called.

Hope, the wife of Thomas Nelson, who shared with him the hardships and privations of a pioneer life in this then unbroken wilderness, was also a Baptist, and became a member of the Baptist Church at Swan- sca Aug. 5, 1723, retaining her membership therein until the formation of the Second Baptist Church in Middleboro', with which she communed at the Lord's table until after she was a hundred years old. Hope, the wife of Thomas Nelson, was the fourth child of John Huckins, or Hutchins, or Higgins, and born at Barnstable, May 10, 1677, united in marriage with Thomas Nelson, of Middleboro', March 24, 1698, and died Dec. 7, 1782, aged one hundred and five years, six months, and twenty days.

John Huckins, Hutchins, or Higgins, the father of Hope, the wife of Thomas Nelson, was a son of Thomas Huckins and wife, Mrs. Rose Hyllier, the widow of Hugh Hyllier, of Yarmouth, and John was born Aug. 2, 1649; united in marriage with Hope Chipman, Aug. 10, 1670, and he died Nov. 10, 1678. Thomas Huekins, the father of John, was for a time a resident of Boston, where he, upon the first Monday in June, 1639, was made ensign of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, then called the "Great Artillery of Boston." He re- moved to Barnstable, where he served as a selectman eight years, and as a representative to the General Court eight years. He was commissioned commis- sary-general in King Philip's war December, 1675 ; cast away and drowned at sea Nov. 9, 1679. Among the troubles and trials of Hope, the wife of Thomas Nelson, when " roughing it in the bush" as the wife of that pioncer settler on Assawomset Neck, together

with the evidences of uncommon resolution she pos- sessed and put in successful practice, tradition has preserved the following story :

She one night, when no man was within call, heard a noise in the cellar that she suspected proceeded from an Indian searching for something to steal, when she went silently down in darkness, lest the carrying of a candle should warn and thus aid the intruder to escape, and, coming upon the prowler unawares, she seized suddenly and determinedly upon him, who, being greatly surprised and terribly frightened, made frantic efforts to release himself from her unyielding grasp, and only succeeded, as did the scriptural Jo- seph in escaping from Potiphar's wife, by leaving a part of his garment in the woman's hands. Mrs. Hope Nelson, in 1774, or about eight years before her death, said that her surviving descendants (some having died in infancy) were two hundred and fifty- seven persons, and these, at the date of her decease, had increased to about three hundred and thirty-seven, thus showing that she and the several generations succeeding her had obeyed the command, " Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth ;" and as it was of such women that our ancestors were favored in the persons of their "helpmeets" in days of old and times long since passed, that ultimate success would crown their efforts was but a foregone conclusion.

" Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke; How jocund did they drive their team afield, How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke."

CHAPTER III.

CIVIL HISTORY.

THE township of Middleboro', including the pres- ent territorial limits of Lakeville, obtained an act of incorporation at a session of the Colonial Court holden at Plymouth in June, 1669, and what is now Lakeville continued thus to form a part of that time- honored town until May 13, 1853, a period wanting only a few days of one hundred and eighty-four years.

Middleboro', while embracing what is now Lake- ville, is said to have been in territory the largest town in the State of Massachusetts, and in faet too large for the convenient transaction of public busi- ness, which faet led those inhabitants residing in the outskirts of Middleboro' on several oeeasions to seek a legal division of that town, one of these efforts

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HISTORY OF LAKEVILLE.

occurring in 1742, but none of which were successful until that of 1853, which culminated in the detach- ment and setting off of a large tract in the westerly portion of the town, that was then by legislative enactment incorporated as follows :

" Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows :

" SECT. 1. That portion of the town of Middleborough lying | within the following boundaries, to wit: Beginning at the southwesterly corner of said town, at or in the line of the town of Freetown, at an angle; thence running easterly in the line between said Middleborough and the towns of Freetown and Rochester to a point equidistant between Haskell's Island and Reed's Island. in Great Quitticus Pond ; thence running north- erly across said Quitticus Pond to a point npon Long Point, so called, five rods easterly from the bridge, at a stake ; thence run- ning northerly through the Narrows, in Pockshire Pond, to the junetion of said pond with Assawamsett Pond ; thence running northwesterly, in the said Assawamsett Pond, to Nemasket River, where it runs from said Assawamsett Pond; thence running northerly down and following the channel of said river to the hridge of the Cape Cod Branch Railroad, across the same : thence running west five rods to an elm-tree standing in the north line of said railroad; thence running north thirty- five degrees, west fifty-fonr rods to the north line of John C. Reed's land ; thence running in the said Reed's line north fifty- three degrees, west seventy rods to the main road ; thence ron- ning in the same conrse seven hundred and fourteen rods to Tront Brook, the line passing a white oak-tree near Trout Brook, in Thomas P. Tinkham's land, twenty links to the south thereof; thence running down and following the channel of said hrook to the line of the town of Taunton; thence running southerly and sonthwesterly, in the line between Taunton and Middleborongh, to the line of Freetown ; and thence in the line and between Freetown and Middleborough to the place of be- ginning. is hereby incorporated into a town hy the name of Lakeville, and the inhabitants of said town of Lakeville are hereby invested with all the powers and privileges, and shall be subjected to all the duties and requisitions of other incor- porated towns, according to the constitution and laws of this common wealth.

" SECT. 2. The inhabitants of said town of Lakeville shall be holden to pay all arrears of taxes legally assessed upon them before the passage of this act, and also their proportion of such State and county taxes as may be legally assessed upon them before the next valnation, such proportion to be ascertained and determined hy the last State valuation of property ; and all moneys now in the treasury of said town of Middleborongh, or which may hereafter be received therein from taxes already assessed, or directed to be assessed, shall be applied to the pur- poses for which they were raised and assessed, in the same manner as if this act had not been passed.

" SECT. 3. The said towns of Middleborongh and Lakeville shall hereafter be respectively liable for the support of all snch persons who now are relieved, or hereafter may be relieved, as panpers whose settlement was gained by or derived from a residence within their respective limits.

" SECT. 4. The inhabitants of the said town of Lakeville shall be holden to pay their just proportion of all debts due from the zaid town of Middleborough at the time of the passage of this act; and shall receive their just proportion of the value of all property, real and personal, and all assets, funds, and stocks now owned by and belonging to the said town of Middlebor-

ough ; and if said towns shall not agree in respect to a division of property, funds, stocks, debts, or state or county taxes, or the settlement of any pauper or paupers now supported by said town of Middleborough, the Court of Common Pleas for the county of Plymouth shall, upon the petition of either town, appoint three competent and disinterested persons to hear the parties and award between them, and their award, or the award of any two of them, being accepted by said court, shall be final. "SECT. 5. The alewive fisheries of the Nemasket River shall be and remain the property of said towns of Middleborough and Lakeville, and the manner of taking the fish and the whole management of said fisheries shall be regulated by the select- men of said towns, and the proceeds thereof shall be divided between the said towns in proportion to the number of ratahle polls in each respectively, and the respective parts of such pro- ceeds shall be disposed of by said towns respectively in such manner and for such purposes as each town shall for itself de- termine and direct.

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History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 65

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