History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 141

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1576

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 141

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The Indian trail followed by Eliot was doubtless one of the Connecticut trails which ran through the present towns of Weston, Sudbury, Stow, Lancaster, Princeton, Barre, New Braintree, Warren, Brimfield and Springfield. This simple record of the Indian apostle shows the bold and adventurous spirit which characterized the early settlers of New England, who, having migrated from comfortable English homes and experienced the comparative discomforts with which a life in the towns and villages along the coast were surrounded, were willing and even eager to push still farther into the wilderness to unknown regions, where to hardship and exposure and want were added the dangers which the nearness of savage Indians constantly threatened. No explanation of this spirit is satisfactory that does not emphasize the greedy desire which every Englishman must have felt for that which the opportunity offered-the possession of land. To most, if not all, of the immigrants to our shores such a possession was a new privilege. Landed possessions, which in the old country were confined to

the noble or wealthy classes, inspired them with hopes newly born, with aspirations never before experienced, and laid before their eyes visions of untold prosperity and worldly success.

Such as has been here described was the Quabaug territory, when only a few years later, in 1660, some of the inhabitants of Ipswich petitioned the General Court for a grant of land, which was accorded in the follow- ing language of the records :

At a great and general Court of Election held at Boston, the 20th of May, 1660.

In ansr to the peticon of severall the inhabitants of Ipswich this Court Judgeth it meete to Grannt the petitioners sixe miles square or so much land as ehall be contejned in such a Compasse in a place nera Quohoag ponds provided they have twenty familyes there resident within 3 years & that they have an able minister settled there within the Baid terme such as ther court shall approve & that they make due pro- vision in some way or other for the future either by setting apart of land in what else shall he thought meete for the Continuance of tha ministry amongst them ; aod that If they shall faile in any of these particulars above mentioned this Granat of the Court to be voyd & of aone effect.

Precisely who the grantees were is not known, but John Warner, John Ayres and William Prichard were probably among their number. John Ayres and John Warner appeared first at Ipswich in 1648, and William Prichard in 1649. These three men are sup- posed to have visited Quabang in 1660 with the view of selecting definitely a place of settlement; but owing to Indian troubles no further action was taken under the grant until 1665. In that year it is believed that John Warner, with his son Samuel, John Ayres, Thomas Parsons and Thomas Wilson, took up a settle- ment, building houses and making other preparations for a permanent home. Wilson was probably a young man, and was the son of Theophilus Wilson, who first appeared at Ipswich in 1636. Parsons was also a young man, only twenty years of age, and was born in Windsor. It is not unlikely that his father had removed from Essex County and was thus naturally associated with the settlers of Quabaug.

Previous to this settlement in 1665 and since 1647, at which date this narrative opened, new towns not far distant had been organized. Hadley, earlier known by the Indian name, Norwottock, was incorpo- rated May 20, 1661, and Northampton October 18, 1654, and these towns with Springfield constituted Hampshire County at the date of its incorporation, May 7, 1662.

These three towns, though they had long en- joyed the privileges of municipal government, had not previously been included in either Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk or Middlesex Counties, the four counties into which the colony of Massachusetts was divided in 1643. Special enactments were at various times passed providing for the administration of jus- tice within their limits, but they were associated with no county organization. As will be seen hy the fol- lowing act incorporating Hampshire County in 1662, the Quabaug territory fell within its boundaries, and

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consequently Brookfield, when incorporated, became a Hampshire town.

The act incorporating the county of Hampshire was passed May 7, 1662, and is as follows :

Forasmuch as the inhabitants of this jurisdiction are much encreased so that now they are planted farre into the country upon Conecticott River, who, by reason of their remotenes cannot conveniently be an- nexed to any of the countyes already setled & that publicke affaires may, with more facility, be transacted according to lawes heere estab- lished, it is ordered by the Court & authority thereof that henceforth Springfeild, Northampton and Hadley shall be & hereby are constituted as a county the hounds or ljmitts on the south to be the south Ijne of the pattent, the extent of other bounds to be full thirty miles distant from any or either of the foresajd tounes, & what tonnes or villages soever shall hereafter be erected wthin the foresajd precincts to be & belong to the sajd county ; and further that the sajd county shall be called Hamp- shire, & shall have & enjoy the lihertjes & priviledges of any other Coun- ty ; & that Springfeild shall be the shire toune there, & the Courta to be kept one time at Springfeild & another time at Northampton ; tha lika order to be observed for their shire meetings, that is to say, one yeere at one toune & the next yeare at the other, from time to time. And it is further ordered that all the inhabitants of that shire shall pay their pub- licke rates to the countrey in fatt catle or young catle, such as are fitt to be putt off, that so no nnnecessary damage be put on the country ; &, in case they make payment in corne, then to be made at such prices as the lawe doe comonly passe amongst themselves, any other former or an- nuall orders referring to the prices of corne notwithstanding.

The settlement of these western towns, together with the grant of four thousand acres near Quabaug to John Eliot, stimulated the Quabaug grantees to occupy the lands before it was too late. Even at the date of their occupation the three years' limitation of their grant had expired, and a petition was presented to the General Court by the settlers, asking for a new grant, to which the court responded by the passage of the following order :

May 15, 1667. In ansr to the petition of the inhabitants at Quabaug ; This Court having perused the grant which the Genersil Court made anno 1660 to the first undertakers from that place, doe finde that

1. By their non observance of the condition of their grant, the same is altogether vojd, & that now the ordering & disposing thereof is wholly in this Conrt's power ;

2. Considering that there is already at Quabauge about sixe or seven familyes, & that the place may be capable of receiving many more, this Court will readily grant them the liberty of a township when they shall be in a fitt capacity.

3. In the meane time this Court appoints Capt. John Pynchon, John Aires, Wm. Prichard, Richard Coy & John Younglow, or any three of them, whereof Capt. Pinchon to be one of the three who shall have power to admitt inhabitants, grant lands & to order all the prudentiall affaires of the place in all respects untill it shall appeare that the place shall be so farr settled with able men, as this Court may judge meete to give them the full liberty of & touneship according to lawe.

4. Because the inhabitants of Ipswich made the first motion for that plautation, & some of them have biun at charges about it, although by their remisse prosecution they have now lost all their right, yet such of them as shall setle there by midsummer come twelve moneth, they shall have an interest in the lands there in proportion with others; but if, by that time, they shall not be there setled, they shall then loose their lands & all their charges, which they have been att upon ye place.

5. They are to take care for the getting & mayntayning of a godly minister among them, & that no evill persons, enemjes to the lawe of this commonweale iu judgment or practice, be receaved as inhab- itants.

6. For promoting of the aforesajd plantation & incouragement there- of this Court doeth now grant that plantation seven yeares freedom from all publick rates & taxes to the country, provided these inhab- itants of Ipswich, which intend to inhabit at Quabauge by midsummer come twelve moutb, doe engage to give security to the abovesajd com- mittee, within three moneths after the date hereof, that they will per-

forme accordingly, that so others that would setle there may not ha hindered.

Richard Coy was probably an Essex County man, though not of Ipswich, and John Younglow was probably son of Samuel Younglove, who appeared in Ipswich in 1635. Captain John Pynchon was born in England in 1627, and came to New England in 1630 with his father, William Pynchon, a leader in the settlement of Springfield in 1636. William, the father, who was at one time treasurer of the Mas- sachusetts Colony, and for many years an assistant iu the government, published in England in 1650 a book entitled "Meritorious Price of Christ's Redemp- tion," in opposition to the Calvinistic view of the atonement, which caused his deposition from the magistracy. His book was burned on Boston Com- mon by order of the Court, and, in consequence of persecutions which followed, he returned to England in 1652. His son, John, mentioned in the grant above-quoted, was for fifty years a magistrate of Springfield and one of the founders of Northampton in 1654. He died January 17, 1703. It was undoubt- edly thought judicious by the General Court to ap- point one alien member on the committee, and that, unlike the occupants of Quabaug lands, who were men probably of no experience in public affairs, he should be familiar with the methods and require- ments of municipal administration.

In the mean time, before the regrant was made by the court, the old grantees took measures to secure a release from the Indians of their title in the lands which their grant covered and negotiated with En- sign Thomas Cooper, of Springfield, to take a deed in his own name. This he did, but afterwards as- signed his interest to the grantees. The following is the Indian deed :

These Presents Testify That Shattoockquis, alias Shadookis, tho sole & propper owner of certayne lands at Quabange, hereafter named, Hath for good & valluable Considerations, him, the said Shattvoquis thereunto moveinge given, graunted, bargayned & Sold, And by these presents Doth fully, clearily & absolutely give grant, bargayne & sell unto Ensigne Thomas Cooper, of Springfield, for the use & behoofe of the prsent English Planters at Quabang & their Associates & their successors, & to them & their heires for evoer certayne pcells of land at towards or about the North end of Quabauge poud, that is to say, beginning at a little Meddow at the North end of the pond Qua bauge, wch meddow is called Podeek, wth the land about it & soe to a little hill Wullamanick & from thence Northward or North & by East about Three miles, & soe Westward off to yo North end of Weco- baug Pond, taking in all the playues, meddowes & upland from Podunk by Quabaug to Wecobaug pond, all the land betwixt as that called Nacommuck (vist a brook where nieddow is), and soo to Massequock- ummes vist another brook where meddow is and soe through the playn to Wecobang pond & then down to Lashaway, vist the River wch comes from Quabaug pond all ye land as aforesaid on the East or Northeast side of that River, and about three miles North or North & hy East from the River together wth the said River & the lands on the west side, or south, 'or southwest side of the said River, & particularly from Lashaway down the River to a brook or streame called Naltaug, & 808 up that brook to the head of it Southward, & then from tha head of that brook to verge of a hill called Asquoach, & soe down South- ward or Southeast to ye pond Quabauge, taking in all the wett meddow & meddows called Masquahamick & Nanantomqua, it being ahout foure miles from the river to the verge or foote of the hill aforesaid, called Asquosch, and about six miles or neere thereahouts from the River &t the mouth of ye brook called Naltaug to Quahaug pond. All the

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aforesaid Tract of land from Wecobauge to Podunk at the North end of Quahauge, & from Naltaug to Quahauge, called Naltaug, Lashaway Manequockcumis, Nacommuck, Wullammaonuck, Poduuck, Nanan- tomqua, Masquabamick & soe to the hill called Asquoach. All wch land afore described, together with the trees, waters, stones, profits, comodityes & advantages thereof & thereuuto belonging the said En- signe Thomas Cooper, for himself and for the present Planters at Qua- baug; and their Associates & successors is to have, hold and enjoy, & that for ever.

And the said Shattookquis, as well for other considerations, as also for & in consideration of the summe Three Hundred fadom of Wam- pampeage in hand Received, doth grant, hargayne & sell All & Singu- lar the aforenamed Tract of land to Eusigue Thomas Cooper, his suc cessors & assigues as aforesaid, & to their heires for ever. And the said Shattoockquis doth hereby covenuate & promise to & wth the said Ensigne Thomas Cooper that he will save ye said Thomas Cooper harmless from all manner of clamuyes of any person or psons lawfully clayoning any right or interest in the said lands hereby sold, or in any part thereof, & will defend the same from all or any molestation & in- cumbrence by any Indians lawfully laying clayme or title thereunto. Io witness whereof the said Shattoockquis hath herewith sett his hand, this tenth day of November, 1665 :

The mark of * * * * SHATTOOCKQUIS. The mark of METTAWOMPPE, * * *

An Indian witness, who, challenging some interest in the land above sold, received part of ye pay & consented to the sale of it all.

Subscribed & delivered in ye presence of

ELIZUR HOLYOKE, SAMUELL CHAPIN, JAPHETT CHAPIN.

Shattoockquis, an Indian above-mentioned, did owo & acknowledge this to be his act & deed, resigning up all his right, title & iutrest in the lands above-mentioned unto Thomas Cooper, his Associates & As- signes, as ahove said, this Tenth day of November, 1665.

Before wee, JOHN PYNCHON, Assistant.

The wampumpeage, three hundred fathoms of which were paid for the land, was made from the purple and white parts of the quaw-haug shell, and consisted of flat, round, button-like pieces of shell, about a sixteenth of an inch in thickness, and a quarter of an inch in diameter, with a hole in the middle for stringing on strings of bark or hemp. The purple and white pieces alternated on the string, the purple being of double the value of the whi e, and the whole valued at five shillings per fathom. After wampumpeage went out of use as currency, it long retained a place among the Indians for the adornment of their persons. Before the days of the Pilgrims, it had a very limited use, and that only among the tribes on the seaboard. In 1627, when the Plymouth Colony effected a settlement with the London merchants, by which they were found to owe an indebtedness of twenty-four hundred pounds to them and other creditors, the debt was assumed by William Bradford, Miles Standish, Isaac Allerton, Edward Winslow, William Brewster, John Howland, John Alden and Thomas Prence, together with their friends, James Sherley, John Beauchamp, Richard Andrews and Timothy Hatherly, of London, and the trading privileges of the Colony were assigned to them as security. In order to pay the debt, these gentlemen caused all the inland tribes to be instructed in the value and use of wampumpeage, and by its use they carried on so profitable a trade in the purchase of furs and their exportation to England as within nine years -- the time prescribed in their settlement-

to pay off the entire debt and to leave the Colony in the undisputed possession of all their lands.

Until 1673 the committee appointed by the court held in their hands the entire management of the lands, and by them the allotments were made. They kept their Books of Records and Mr. Pynchon was the recorder. Their first book was probably destroyed by fire in 1675, and the only knowledge extant of the methods and plan of land distribution is derived from memoranda and extracts found among the papers of Mr. Pynchon. From them it appears that what were called the home-lots were laid out so as to take in what is now known as Foster's Hill, extending from. Hovey's Brook on the southeast to Coy's Brook on the northwest, including in all about five hundred acres. Beginning at Coy's Brook, the lots lay in the following order: 1. Richard Coy; 2. Thomas Par- sons ; 3. John Warner; 4. Samuel Kent; 5. Samuel Warner; 6. John Younglove; 7. Thomas Wilson ; 8. Thomas Millet; 9. Meeting-House; 10. John Ayres ; 11. William Prichard; 12. James Travis ; 13. Judah Trumble; 14. Daniel Hovey; 15. James Hovey; 16. Thomas Hovey. The lot on which prob- ably the first meeting-house was built was in the middle of the allotted territory, and was probably a little northwesterly of the present barn of Mr. D. H. Richardson. These lots contained twenty acres each, with a right to twenty acres of meadow and eight or ten acres of plain land, and larger lots were assigned to the minister and to fathers of grown-up sons. Each home-lot was also entitled to forty acres of upland and all undivided lands were held in common.

After this liberal division of lands, it was found, nevertheless, that the demand of the settlers for pas- turage, mowing land, timber and fuel was far from being met, and the following petition for a further grant was sent to the General Court :

To the much honored General Court held at Boston, the 12th of October, 1670 :

This honored Court being pleased upou petition presented to them by some of the inhabitants of Ipswich for land to settle a plantation at Quaboag ; so far to favor their notion or to grant them a tract of land of six miles square for that end, and farther since to encourage the poor inhabitants that are upon it. The humble petition, therefore, of the poor inhabitants of Quaboag to this honored Court is, that accord- ing as they were pleased to intimate their readiness to grant us the liberty of a township (wherehy meet inhabitants upon the place we should he capable of it) so they would be pleased at this time to do it. Our humble petition to this hon'd C't is farther, that they would he pleased to enlarge our grant, if they see good, for that we may go six miles every way from the centre. The reason of this, our request to the hon'd C't, is because we find the meadow to lie very much scattered about the place in many small parcels far distant one from the other, and therefore we fear that unless the hon'd C't grant us some consid- erable further eulargement, we shall not be able to fetch within our bounds a sufficieot quantity of meddows to accommodate familiea enough to make a comfortable society in a place so remote in the wilderness as ours is. We would further crave leave to acquaint the honored C't that there is a great faro of land laid out very wear our plantation for Peter Taft, as we do adjudge, within a matter of three or four miles from the river, which runs through our place to Springfield, as we humbly conceive that it will fall within our hounds. If it should not, we humbly crave that the hon'd C't would grant that it may pay public charge with ns; it being very difficult to carry on a place so remote

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

from all other plentations in the woods as ours is, And this hon'd C't so far countenancing us ae they have already, doth persuade, as by way of humble petition, to present these things to this hon'd C't, submit- ting ourselves their good pleasure concerning us herein. Wee, whose names are here underwritten, have subscribed hereto in the behalf of the rest.

RICHARD COY, JOHN AYRES, WILLIAM PRICHET.

From Quaboeg, October 9th, 1670.

To this petition no response appears to have been made.

In 1673 application was made to the General Court for an act of incorporatiou as a town. We are told by Mr. Temple that the original petition was found in a junk-shop by Dr. John F. Pratt, of Chelsea, and he has saved it from oblivion by giving it a place in his valuable history. The petition reads as follows : To the Highly Honnored General Corte of the Massachusetts :

The humble Petition of the inhabitants of Quaubauge Sheweth That whereas wee being not yet allowed a Township, wee ere disabled es to comfortably carrying on ye affaires of the place as is requisite for the publicke & our own conveniences in diverse respecta as for the order- ing the Prudentiall affaires of the Town proper, to select men, makeing & collecting of Rates, &c. Wee have, indeed, a Committee to helpe in these matters, but in regard we cannot rationally desire or expect the prsence & essistance of One of the Committee (vest the Honnord Major Pynchon) soe often as we need by reason of his remoteness. And yett wthout his prsence or concurrence the Committee cannot make a valid act. The prmises considered, Our Humble request is, that this much Honnord Corte would be pleased to grant us the Priviledge & Libertyes of a Township, whereby we may be the better inabled to carry on our onne matters wthout too much distraction.

And yor Petitioners shall ever pray for yor prosperity If Yor Honnors please let ye name of ye Place he Brookfeild.

Octr. ye 10, 1673.

John Ayres, Sent.

Thomas Wilson.

Richard Coy, Sen".

Samuel Prichet.

Samuel Kent.

John Ayres, Jr.

John Warner. Nathaniel Warner.

Samuel Waroer. Jamee Travis.

Sammuel Ayres.

Richard Coy.

John Younglove.

James Hovey.

William Pritchet.

Juda Trumbull.

Thomas Parsons.

It is probable, judging from the names in this peti- tion and from the allotment of lands, that most, if not all, of the old Ipswich grantees had taken advantage of the privilege accorded to them in the re-grant. John Warner, Samuel Warner, John Younglove, Thomas Wilson, John Ayres, William Prichard, Daniel James and Thomas Hovey were all from Ips- wich, while Richard Coy, Samnel Kent, James Travis and Judah Trumbull were Essex County men and probably associated with the Ipswich men in the original grant.

Accompanying the petition was a letter from John Pynchon, desiring to be discharged from the com- mittee for Quabang, and this letter also Mr. Temple has reproduced in his history. The deputies of the court, as the record states, judged

meete to graunt this pet, & that the name of the place be Brookefeild, as is above desired, on Honord megistratee consenting hereto.

WILLIAM TORREY, Cleric.

The record also states that the "magiste Consent hereto, provided they divide not the whola land of ye Tounship till they be forty or fivety familyes in ye meane time, yt their dividings, one to another, exceed

not two hundred acres apeec to any prsent inhabitant, their brethren, the deputyes hereto consenting.

22 October, 1673,

Consented to by the deputies.

EDW. RAWSON, Secrety, WM. TORREY, Cleric.

On the 19th of December in the year of the incor- poration Thomas Cooper, the grantee in the deed from Shattoockquis, assigned his interest in the lands con- veyed to him to the inhabitants of the new town by the following instrument :

I, Thomas Cooper, above mentioned, doe hereby relinquish & resigne up all my right & title in ye lands within mentioned, to be bought of Shattoockquis, hereby declaring that my acting in ye prmises was only in the behalfe & for the use and behoofe of the inhabitants of Quabauge (now called Brookfeild) & their successors. The purchase of the above- mentioned land being at their pper cost and charge, who had obteyoed a grant thereof from ye Honnord Gentil Corte, & are now allowed & Tonne ; I doe therefore hereby deliver up this instrument, or deed of sale to John John Warner, Richard Coy & William Pritchard, of Qua- bauge, alias Brookefeild, for the use & as the proppr right of the inheb- Itaots of Brookefeild, the said Persone beinge betrusted by the Toune, or present inhabitants of Brookefeild, for taking in & receiving this present Deed; wherefore I doe hereby deliver it up to them, here- by declaring it & the land therein mentioned to be sold to be & belong to the present Inhabitants of Brookefeild, as they are a Town- ship, and to particular psons only, according ae they have or shall have grants of land confirmed to them. The whole tract of land above mentioned I doe fully & absolutely resigne up to the Inhabit- ants of Brookefield aforesaid, and to their successors & their beires for Ever, As witness my hand this 19th day of December, 1673.

THOMAS COOPER.

December 10th, 1673. Lieut. Thomas Cooper, above mentioned, sub- scribed hereunto & acknowledged the resigning up this Deed & all his intrest in the premises to the Inhabitants of Brookefeild,

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 141

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1576

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1576