USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Ware > History of Ware, Massachusetts > Part 4
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The attempt of these misled settlers to gain a title from the Court is a long story, and need not concern us in detail.1
1 The whole story is related in Temple's "History of Palmer."
38
HISTORY OF WARE
The whole thing in a nutshell may be found in the following petition under date of Nov. 24, 1732.
November 24, 1732. A Petition of Joseph Wright and fifty-six others, Inhabitants of a Tract of land situate be- tween Springfield, Brookfield, Brimfield, the Equivalent Land and Cold Spring, shewing that the Petitioners are sensible that the Lands they are settled on do of right belong to the Province; but for as much as they were encouraged to settle there by Joshua Lamb Esq. and Company who pre- tended a Title to the Land and with whom they had agreed as to the purchase - Therefore praying a grant of the sd Land from this Court, for such consideration as the Court shall judge reasonable.
The Court appointed a committee to go upon the land and view the situation and circumstances,1 which concerned a large portion of the settlers in the Elbow Tract of which our own town was but a small fraction. The committee found eighty persons improperly settled, forty-eight of the numberinduced by Lamb and Company, who had given them deeds of conveyance. It recommended that such as had gotten the land in good faith, had built homes and made improvements, should have their titles confirmed.
Furthermore the Committee found thirty-one persons having presumed to enter on the Province Land in said Tract without any leave or order from this Court, or made any Pretence of Mistake, or Admission from the Claimers: Yet they having most of them made considerable Improve- ments and expended the chief of their Small Fortunes: And having paid their proper proportion for the support of the Ministry among them; That to Remove them off would reduce them to extreme Poverty.
1 "We Find the greatest part of ye sd Land to be Pine Land, High Hills, and Low Valleys; the hills very poor and mean, the valleys pretty good.
We Also Find that the said Tract of Land lies in a Broken form, and is much Discommoded by Farms claimed by Particular Grants from this Court, which have taken up the best of ye land.
We Also Find that the Circumstances of ye Petitioners & Settlers and their Settlements are Different and much Intricate and Perplexed; Some of them having entred and Settled without Regulation, and Interfered and Incroached upon other men's Pitches and Improvements. And in many instances two several Setlers claim one and ye same spot under different pleas and pretences of Right; some having Lots laid out; some partly laid, and others only Pitched, interfering one with an- other as aforesaid." From Report of Committee.
39
SETTLING ON THE LAND
We are therefore humbly of the opinion, that it may not be Inconsistent with ye Honor of the Province, and yet a sufficient Discountenance to such Presumptious Settele- ments; If there be granted to each of them a single Lot, including their Improvements.
But while recommending thus the clemency of the Gen- eral Court, a penalty was imposed upon these settlers, that they "Do pay into the Publick Treasury of this Province The Sum of Five Hundred Pounds within two years," to- gether with all back taxes, and the expenses of the Com- mission.
The Report of the Commission was accepted in 1733.
The settlers or squatters in our territory affected by this important action were:
Joseph Brooks in the north-east part of the town.
Jeremiah Omstead, who received a Hundred acre lot ad- joining the farm of his father Jabez Omstead, which latter comprised the Hollingsworth Grant.
Jeremiah in 1738 sells this farm, described in the deed as the 100 acre lot granted him by the General Court in 1733, to Noah Colton; - "Bounded W. by my father's farm commonly called Wear River Farm, & South in part on Ware River, from a great red oak tree marked a little above the Old Bridge Spot to a little heap of stones six rod above the foot of the new Bridge, and bounded otherways by Common Lands as by ye survey of the lot on Record more particularly may appear."
Noah Colton in 1740 sells the same to John Post for £250. John Post sells the same to Alexander Mack Neill in 1744.
Isaac Magoon, Senior received a Hundred acre lot, bounding northerly on the Read Manour, including his house and improvements. Isaac Magoon, Junior likewise received one hundred acres which he had purchased of the claimers. These farms were situated just by the south-east corner of the Manour, and were annexed to Ware in 1761.
Steward Southgate was to "have a Hundred acre lot, to be laid out on Ware River and Esq. Read's Tract of Equiv- alent Land, at ye south-east Corner thereof, extending easterly, and southerly in regular form so as to make up ye complement of a Hundred acres."
40
HISTORY OF WARE
So happy were the inhabitants of the tract at the equitable settlement of the affair that the Proprietors of the Common and Undivided Land in the Elbow Tract, on June 3, 1735,
Voted, That there be granted and laid out to Eben" Burrill, Esqr., Col. John Alden and Mr. Samuel Brad- ford who were the Honbl Comtee of the Gen11 Court for Viewing and Determining the Grant of this Elbow Tract; to each of them an Hundred acre Lott in any of the Com- mon Land that was added to the Tract since it was sur- veyed by ye former Claimers; as a Grateful Acknowledgmt of their Great and Good Service to the settle mt in Despatch- ing ye affairs thereof by a full and particular Report, super- ceding the charge and Difficulty of a Comtee of Regulation.
The £500 debt was a sore burden to the settlers. They simply could not pay it in addition to the charge and expense of the Committee, which amounted to over £67, various "past charges," and "necessary public charges." Their total indebtedness amounted in fact to £1,271.
No attempt was made to raise the £500. Petitions were sent to the General Court for the abatement of the penalty, or failing that, for an extension of time. The condition of the settlement was laid before the Court, showing the neces- sity of some measure of relief. But the Court was firm, and only granted a two years' extension of time for the assess- ment and collection of the amount.
The two years having expired with nothing done, the General Court ordered the appointment of three disinter- ested men to assess and levy the amount in accordance with the original order. This was in 1739. The whole business was to be closed up by the end of May, 1741.
The order seems to have created somewhat of a panic, and called forth a most humble petition from the Propri- etors, setting forth clearly the impossibility of raising the sum without ruining the "little poor Infant Plantation." 1
Matters dragged along, and in 1743 the General Court ordered "that the Warrant be so far stayed as that they be obliged to pay only one quarter part forthwith, and the other three quarters in three equal payments, viz. in the three years 1744, 1745 and 1746."
1 The petition may be found quoted in Temple's "History of Palmer."
Mr heads North Saft loyer
Call Lambs South weft leri
Part of Mª Doeads Saft Ine
Part of mr Lamb & b
a 144311:
the Elbows North lin
4
3 2
Heampsh fo: Sept " 28 th 173 William lelemans & Jonathan Rood per made lath that In lecarrying the Chain for the Sw. propriated Lands belonging to the Show. of the the ed in the Above Platt they would act Truly & In cording to the best of their Skill &understand lor m
Reproduced from Mr.
lbert's "Early Grants"
Theright Jac Quet "
ty Ac =
witts Suchend-00
he unafı:
y appearing
It & weft
their South line
Brookfield Northwest Corner a monum of Stones
Ware
River
A Plat of fourteen Hundred & forty three acres & one quarter of the unappropriated Land belonging to the province of the Mafsachustts Scituate in the County of Hampfhire, Bounded Eastward [*] by ware river, North by the Land lately Granted to Co" Lamb and Com [*] West by land belonging to John Read of Bofton Efq: & South by the Elbows So Called Survey'd p' the Needle of the Jnftrument [*] by the Scale of 160 perch in an inch Oct" the 5th and 6th . 1733
p" Nathaniel Dwight Sury [*]
Hampsh' fc: Oct" 9"h 1733 the Above Sd Nath" Dwight personally appearing made Oath that in Surveying the Land described by the Above Sª Plat he Acted truly & Jndifferently According to the beft of his.skill & Judgment
Cor" Timº Dwight Pac. [*]
* Manuscript mutilated.
Mass. Arch. vol. 46. p. 60
.
41
SETTLING ON THE LAND
The proportional assessments were made, and those who could paid them. In other cases land was sold by the sheriff, ten or fifteen acres as the need might be, until by voluntary payments or by enforced collection the debt was eventually discharged.
THE MARSH TRACT
A year after the first move of the "squatters" as de- scribed above, a similar move was made by another group of "squatters" on land north of the Elbow Tract, the sec- tion comprising the north-east portion of our present town.
Under date of Oct. 3, 1733, we find the following:
To his Excelley Jonathan Belcher Esqr Capt Gen11 & Comdr in Chief of His Majesty Provr of the Massachustts Bay in New England &c: The Hon ble His Majests Council & House of Representatives in Gen11 Court assembled at Boston Oct. 3rd 1733. The petition of us The Subscribers Humbly Sheweth That your Petitrs are now actually dwell- ing on a Tract of the unappropriated Lands of this Prov" in the County of Hampshire bounded South partly by That Tract of Land called the Elbows & Partly by Brookfield Township, East by Ware River, North by Land lately Granted to Coll Lamb & Compª & West by that Part of the Equivalent Lands belonging to John Read of Boston Esqr, Containing fourteen Hundred & forty three Acres, as p. a Plat of sd Land herewith Presented more Particularly appears, & on Sd Tract of Lands we have lived Some of us three Years 1 where we have spent the most of that little Substance we had, & we Assure your Hon's it was not the Extraordinary goodness of Quality of the Lands, that moved us to go up on it, for A Considerable Part of Sd. Tract is Ledges of Rocks, & Very Rockey, so as to render it un- profitable & almost Useless (as those that are Acquainted with it can Testifie) but that which induced us to Settle on it was our necessity, our principle dependance for the Sup- port of our Selves & Families is Husbandry & we had not a foot of Land to Imploy our Selves & families upon, were Exposed to Idleness & pinching Want, & being then un- sensible how highly the Court resented Such a way of Setling,
1 As a matter of fact some of the signers of this petition had been on the land more than six years, as will be explained later.
42
HISTORY OF WARE
& Apprehending that the principle thing Insisted on was that there Should be no Trading, or Stock Jobbing, but an Actual Settlement, & Improvement in Husbandry, by the Grantees themselves with which we were ready to Comply. Wherefore being thus unhappily intangled on Sª Land with great Submission, we most Humbly move that this Great & Honrble Assembly, would condescend to Exercise their Charity & Pitty towards us, in Granting us (out of Sª Land including the Spots we have Already begun on) so much land as may be a Competency for us to Improve for A lively hood, for our Selves & Children, we have no thot of any Other but with Submission to spend the remainder of our Lives and Substances on the Spot, are Content & ready Submit to Submit to any Injunctions or Limitations within our reach, this Great & Honrble Court Shall think meet to Lay upon us, who as in Duty bound Shall Ever Pray &c
his John X clemons mark Thomas marsh William Clemmans his Jonothon X Rood
[mark Judah Marsh
The petition was not granted at once, but a Committee was appointed to report to the next session of the Court upon the matter. In January, 1737, it was:
Read and Ordered that the petition be revived & that the plat be accepted and the Lands therein delineated and described be & hereby are confirmed to the said Thomas Marsh, William Clements, John Clements, Jonathan Rood, Judah Marsh & Samuel Marsh their heirs & assigns respect- ively provided each of the Grantees do within the space of ffive years from this date have Six Acres of the granted premises brought to English Grass, or broke up by plowing, and each of them have a good dwelling House thereon of Eighteen feet square and seven feet stud at the least & each a ffamily dwelling therein; that they Actually bring to the settlement of ye said lands by themselves or their Children as abovesaid, provided also the plat exceeds not the quantity of fourteen hundred and forty three Acres and does not interfere with any former Grant. & also that the Grantees
1
A Plat of M: Sam! Prince Farme containing 500 Acres lying on Hadly Road on were river Surveyed June 9th 1714 by
a rock + Stives
D
A B, Nº 20.º. W length 208 Poles
B C., N.º. 50.º. E. . . 146 . . ·
C D, E . : 160 . . ·
D E, Sº 13º. W
390 . ·
E A N 72°. W 270
Note yt within this Draught is con- tained 211/2 Acres besides the above 500, for to be laid out in a Road
Stones C,
heem
A/11 til
E
393
Stones
W
B
Reproduced from Mr.
William Word
159 1/4
yasuy
bert's "Early Grants"
210%
Hadley Road"
Pine, Mark SP
E
2721/4
A
50
100
15
a Scale of 150 Poles
43
SETTLING ON THE LAND
do within twelve months pay to the province treasurer ffive pounds Each for ye use of this province 1
Sent up for Concurrence
J. Quincy Spkr
In Council Jan'y 4, 1737 Read & Concur'd Simon Frost Dep Secry Consented to J. Belcher 2
From the petition already quoted we learn that the first settlers on the Marsh Tract " squatted " by 1730. Whether they were regarded as belonging to the Elbows Plantation or not, and whether they bore any share of taxation is difficult to determine. They had no status whatever until after Octo- ber of 1737, nor does that Act join them either to Hardwick or Kingston. As late as 1741 a deed of Jonathan Rood to Paul Thurston describes the land as lying in "a place called Muddy Brook, between Hardwick and the Elbows." These "Muddy Brook" people led in the movement for incorpora- tion in 1742, and their land became part of Ware River Precinct.
THE HOLLINGSWORTH GRANT
As the history of the Read Manour is the most interesting on account of the unique features which marked its settle- ment and development, so that of the Hollingsworth Tract is the most important, comprising, as that tract does, the entire territory of Ware Village.
The first steps in the Hollingsworth Grant were taken at a very early period.
On Nov. 8, 1673, the following petition was presented to the General Court.
To the honoured Governour Deputie Governour Magis- trates and Deputies Now assembled and holding General Court in Boston.
The humble Petition of Richard Hollinworth of Salem most humbly sheweth
That your most humble Petitioner's ffather came into this Countrey about forty yeares Since and brought a great
1 For further location see maps.
2 Mass. Archives, Vol. 46, p. 61.
44
HISTORY OF WARE
ffamily with him and a good Estate And being the first builder of vessells being a ship-carpenter was a great benefit to this Countrey and as great or greater then anyone in the infancie of the Countrie of a private man as it is fully knowne yett gained not himselfe an Estate but Spent his owne that he brought and Notwithstanding all his Service and the largenes of his family being twelve in Number, he never had more granted him by the Countrie but fortie one Acres of upland and not one Acre of Meadow and the land lying Soe remote from the towne of Salem it proved little worth to him or his and none of his Children have ever had anything but have lived by their Labour with God's blessing and your petitioner hath used the Maretan imploymt and through many Dangers and with much Difficultie gotten a livlyhood for himselfe and his family and being brough very Low by his loss by the Dutch taking all from him is constrained to apply himselfe unto yor Selves whom God hath Sett as ffathers of this common wealth
And Doth most humbly beseech you Seriously to con- sider the premisses and if it may stand with your good likeing and Charitie to grant unto him a Competent parcell of land that he may Sitt Downe upon with his family - vizt. his wife and six children for he would leave the Seas had he any competencie of land whereby with his owne in Dustry and Gods blessing he might mainetaine his family And he shall take it as a great favor And as in Dutie bound shall ever pray &c.
In answer to this pet the deputyes Judge meet to graunt the petr five hundred Acres of land where he can find it free from any former graunt, o' Honord Magsts consenting hereto.
William Torrey Cleric
8 :11 : 1673
Consented to by the Magists Edward Rawson
Secret.1
In ans' to the petition of Richard Hollingsworth the Court judgeth it meet to grant the petitioner five hundred acres of land where he can find it free from any former grant Jan. 6 1673-4 Records of Mass. Vol. 4 part 2 1661-64 p. 576.
1 Mass. Archives, Vol. 59, p. 127; Hyde, "Historical Address," pp. 10, 11.
45
SETTLING ON THE LAND
The following Order pass'd in Council, & Concur'd by the Representves Viz.
Upon Representation of a Grant made by the General Court of the late Massachusetts Colony in the year 1673, of Five Hundred Acres of vacant Land to Richd Hollings- worth, & Assign'd by his Heirs to Samuel Prince;
Ordered in case there be no Record of the Laying of it out, That there be a Survey of Five Hundred Acres in some of the vacant Lands within the late Colony of the Massa- chusetts, & Reported to this Court for Confirmation.
Consented to J. Dudley 1
It may be seen from the above that Hollingsworth never located his grant, but that his heirs disposed of the same to Samuel Prince, who in 1714 proceeded to have the tract sur- veyed. This was two years earlier than the survey of Mr. Read's 10,000 acres.
A description and plot of the grant as located is preserved in the Massachusetts Archives:
A plat of Five Hundred Acres of Land presented by Samuel Prince lying upon Hadly Road on Ware River, surveyed by William Ward Survey" being a Grant of that Quantity of Acres by the General Assembly to Richard Hollingsworth in the year 1673: Voted a Concurrence with the Order pass'd thereon in the House of Representves Viz.
Ordered that the Plat on the other Side be allowed & confirmed as the Five Hundred Acres of Land granted by this Court to Richard Hollingsworth Anno 1673, If that Grant has not been laid out before, and this Plat does not interfere with any Prior Grant -
Consented to, Jun. 14 - 1715
J. Dudley.2
So Prince came into possession of a definite farm, but he never settled upon it, selling it shortly after to Thomas Clarke of Boston, who evidently purchased it as a specu- lation.
Neither the deed of the Hollingsworth heirs to Samuel Prince, nor of Prince to Thomas Clarke, appears to have been registered; but we find on record 3 the sale of the land
1 General Court Records, Vol. VIII, B. p. 75 (June 9, 1708).
2 General Court Records, Vol. IX, p. 396; Mass. Archives, Plans and Grants, Vol. I, p. 281.
3 Springfield Registry, Book E, p. 409. ¿
46
HISTORY OF WARE
in 1728 by Thomas Clarke to Jonas Clarke for £320, no mean price for an unimproved tract at that period.
To all People unto whom this Present Deed of Sale shall come, Thomas Clark of Boston in ye County of Suffolk in New England Merchant sendeth greeting; Know ye that for & in consideration of the sum of Three hundred and twenty pounds to me in hand well and truly paid at and before the delivery of these presents by Jonas Clark of Boston aforesaid Brazier; the Receipt of which sum to full Content and Satisfaction is hereby acknowledged: I the sd. Thomas Clark have given Granted Bargained Sold Con- veyed & Confirmed, & by these presents, do give grant bar- gain sell convey & confirm unto the sd. Jonas Clark his heirs & assigns forever, all that my certain tract or parcell of land scituate lying and being within the province of the Massachusetts Bay, in the road from Brookfield to Hadley. Containing by estimation five hundred acres more or les as the same is Delineated and Described in a plann there S' on file among the records of the General Court or assemb,of of this province; which sd. land upon Wednesday the twen y fifth of May was allowed and confirmed as the five hundr ty acres of land Granted unto Richard Hollingsworth, anned 1673; by the sd. General Court and is the same land whico; the sd. Hollingsworths heirs sold lately unto Samuel Princh late of Rochester yeoman; of whom I purchased the samee together with all & singular the trees woods underwood; profits privilidges & appurtenances to the sd. granted land, belonging or in any wise appertaining, and the revertions & remainders thereof; To Have & To Hold the sd. given & granted land & premisses with the appurtenances unto the sd. Jonas Clark his heirs and assigns forever; to his and their only sole and proper use benefit and behoofe from henceforth & forevermore; and I the sd. Thomas Clark for my self my heirs executors and administrators do covenant promise grant & agree to & with the sd. Jonas Clark his heirs executors administrators and assigns by these presents in manner following; that is to say; That at & untill the time of the ensealing & delivery of these presents I the sd. Thomas Clark am the true sole & lawfull owner of the sd. granted land, and premisses; having in my self full power and lawfull authority to give grant bargain sell convey & dispose thereof in manner as aforesaid, the same being free
47
SETTLING ON THE LAND
& clear and clearly acquitted and discharged of & from all & all manner of former & other gifts grants bargains sales leases mortgages wills entailes & incumbrances whatsoever; & I the sd. Thomas Clark for me my heirs executors & administrators do further covenant and grant to & with the said Jonas Clark his heirs & assigns by these presents to warrant & defend the sd. granted land & premisses unto him & them for ever; against the lawfull claims & demands of all other persons whomsoever; In witness Whereof I the sd. Thomas Clark have hereunto sett my hand & seale the twenty fifth day of January in the second yeare of his Majesties Reigne; annoqe Domini; one thousand seven hundred & twenty eight.
Signed Sealed & Delivered in presence of us John Jeffries Joseph Frost Thomas Clarke & Seale
Received the day & yeare above written of Mr. Jonas Clark the sum of three hundred & twenty pounds in full for the land sold him; pr me;
Thomas Clark.
In the following year the same tract was conveyed to Jabez Omstead of Brookfield for £400, at a handsome profit to Jonas Clarke.
A careful study of the Hollingsworth Tract has brought the writer to an unexpected conclusion in regard to its orig- inal location. The plan of Mr. Samuel Prince's farm, sur- veyed in 1714, gives but two important landmarks by which to determine its location, Muddy Brook and the Hadley Road. One naturally asks why the Ware River was not in- dicated on the plan, for that is a landmark about which there never could be any question. If the surveyors crossed the river in measuring off the tract they could hardly have failed to indicate it. So the question arises, did they cross the river? Following the specifications given on the plot, and drawing the Prince Farm to the scale of a map of the whole town, it immediately becomes apparent that if Muddy Brook entered the farm at the point indicated by the survey, the farm would not include the falls of the river. Furthermore, when the Hadley Road was projected in
48
HISTORY OF WARE
its most ancient position, running straight across the town, or as nearly so as possible, from the narrows of the Ware River to Swift River Bridge, it was found that the two landmarks corresponded, the Hadley Road leaving the Prince Farm just where the latter touched the edge of the Manour (though the Manour was not plotted until nearly two years later). Thus locating the farm by the brook and the road, we find that it does not reach to the Ware River at all.
Samuel Prince, for whom the plat was made, sold the farm to Thomas Clarke, and he in turn sold it to Jonas Clarke. Thus it had changed hands twice before it was bought by Jabez Omstead; and Omstead was the first to locate on the tract, doing so just fifteen years after the plat was drawn. It is not likely that a single one of the corner bounds was recognizable after so many years, and the farm had to be practically relocated. What more natural than that Om- stead should have run his lines so as to include the most de- sirable territory that was available? As a matter of fact, he did run them so as to include the falls of the river.
The later survey of 1742 of the Marsh Tract and part of Kingston locates the Omstead farm, not where theoretically it should be, but where it actually was, for Omstead had then been in possession twelve years. Instead of the Hadley Road running through the middle of the farm, as indicated in the plat of 1714, it actually ran along its northern boundary.
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