History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 21

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 21

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LANCASTER.

the commendation of that Puritan unimpeachable, Hugh Peters, who wrote of him in June, 1645: "that honest man who will bee of exceeding great vse if the Country know how to improue him, indeed he is very very vsefull. I pray let us not play tricks with such men by our jelousyes."

But in that age toleration had no home on earth ; and why should Massachusetts be specially reproached because she offered no asylum for original thinkers upon religious or political subjects ? Jesuits and Quakers, rhapsodists and philosophers, bedlamites and seers were alike crushed by the despotism of dogmas, -a despotism which now seems the more strange be- cause wearing the cloak of liberty. Vane, Vassal and later William Pynchon fled the country in disgust at the intolerance of the majority in power; Coggeshall and Coddington were spurned, to be esteemed a great gain in the colony of Rhode Island, and Childe, de- spite the warning afforded by the fate of such able but unseasonable reformers, and overestimating his own strength, began a crusade against the theocratic re- striction of suffrage to a select few. England was then shaken by the fierce contest for supremacy between Presbyterian and Independent. Childe and his fellow- agitators were probably feared, and perhaps justly, as being secret emissaries of Presbyterianism, and Puri- taoism rudely and speedily thrust them out of the Commonwealth. Thus the Nashaway Company lost its master of arts.

The third co-partner upon the list was also a noted personage in colonial history. Steven Day, a lock- smith by profession, had in 1639 set up at Harvard College the first English printing-press in America, and on it had printed the Book of Psalms in 1640. He was a man of worthy aims and rare energy, but so lavish or improvident that his earnings and the sales of lands granted him by the General Court, in reward for his art, could not keep him out of debt. He was an ardent promoter of the company's interests, often traveling to Nashaway, aud entertaining Indians and proposed planters at his Cambridge home. His neces- sities forced him to sell the lots first assigned to him, but a few years later he acquired another with a dwelling upon it-yet never resided there, and died in January, 1668, a journeyman at the press he had founded. He had long before forfeited his proprietary rights at Nashaway by his inability to improve, or pay tithe for, his allotments.

Besides Day, four other workers in iron were prom- inent in the company: John Prescott, Harmon Gar- rett, John Hill and Joseph Jenkes. This fact, joined to the leadership of Childe, whose letters to Winthrop show him to have been enthusiastic in his estimate of the mineral wealth concealed in the New England hills, warrants the supposition that the inspiration of this proposed settlement, so far from tidal waters, was not alone the profitable trade in furs, but the expecta- tion of discovering valuable ores, and especially iron.

Prescott was obviously from the first the soul of the

undertaking, and ultimately, after one by one his original associates yielded to discouragements and abandoned him or died, he alone, undismayed and equal to any emergency, with unbending will, hard common sense, and marvelous practical ability, fought the long battle with obstructive men and re- luctant nature, and won. Prescott was the founder of Lancaster, and there existed no rival claimant to that honor. Garrett, the blacksmith of Charlestown, though he expended some time and means in the earliest days of the plantation, and clung to his land- title for several years with the avowed intention of becoming a resident, finally drops out of sight. Hill, a Boston smith and a freeman of influence, business associate and neighbor of Henry Symonds, died July 27, 1646. Joseph Jenkes was a prototype of the Yankee mechanical genius. A smith employed at the Lynn Iron Works, he was granted the first patent in America for a water-mill, May 16, 1646, and thence- forward proved himself a bold, ingenious and success- ful experimenter in the mechanic arts, being selected by the Assistant in 1652 to make dies for the pine- tree coinage of Massachusetts. He became too busy and prosperous to keep up his interest in the Nash- away scheme.

The other co-partners disclosed by various petitions and records were: John Fisher, of Medfield; Ser- geant John Davis, a joiner of Boston; John Chand- ler, of Boston ; Isaac Walker, a trader of Boston, who married the widow of Henry Symonds ; Thomas Skidmore, of Cambridge; John Cowdall, a trader of Boston, who is found possessing the Symonds and King trucking-house after the death of the original owners; James Cutler, of Watertown, who married the widow of King; Samuel Bitfield, a cooper of Boston; Matthew Barnes, a miller and influential citizen of Braintree; John Shawe, a Boston butcher ; Samuel Rayner, of Cambridge; George Adams, a glover of Watertown. With the exception, perhaps, of Cowdall, Adams and Rayner, we have no proof that one of these men ever became actual residents at Nashaway, or took active steps to further its settle- ment after 1645. Chandler, Walker and Davis for some reason became actively hostile to the company's interests in 1647, as shown by the records of court, and Cowdall sold his land and improvements to Prescott the same year. Adams had his home-lot assigned him upon George Hill, but occupied it briefly, if at all.

The first two years after the General Court's sanc- tion of the plantation saw little advance in the pre- parations for settlement. The first step taken by the associates was to send out fit pioneers to build houses, store provender for wintering cattle, euclose with paling a "night pasture," and prepare fields for grain. Richard Linton and his son-in-law, Lawrence Waters, a carpenter, and John Ball, all of Watertown, were employed and given house-lots. Linton and Waters built themselves houses upon lands assigned them

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

near the wading-place in the North River, which were the first erected after the trucking-honse. The covenant entered into by the proprietors with their minister contemplated the occupation of the valley during the summer of 1645.

Prescott, who had a considerable estate in Water- town, sold it, and packing his household goods upon horses, set out with his family through the woods for their new home. At the very outset of the journey he met with serious misfortune. "He lost a horse and his lading in Sudbury River, and a week after, his wife and children being upon another horse, were hardly saved from drowning." This sad experience Governor Winthrop seriously records as a special prov- idence-divine punishment of the brave pioneer for his sympathy with that dangerous schismatic, Robert Childe! The other proprietors seem to have been completely dismayed by this disaster to their leader, and forthwith-June 12, 1645-petitioned the author- ities to order this yawning chasm in their path to be bridged. There is no reason to think that they ex- aggerated the formidable nature of the crossing, for more than one hundred years later the bridge and causeway at the same place were complained of as dangerous and in time of freshets impassable, and lotteries were granted, the proceeds of which, amount- ing to over twelve hundred pounds, were expended upon them. The petitioners in 1645 declared it " an vtter Impossibilitye to proceede forwards to plante at the place ahoue sayd [Nashaway] except we hane a convenient way made for the transportation of our cattell and goods ouer Sudbery River and Marsh." Two years before, a cart-bridge had been begun by the town's people, but left incomplete, and the swamp remained unimproved. The court contributed twenty ponnds towards finishing the bridge and causeway, stipulating that they should be completed within a year.

Whatever was done to render the way less perilous was done too late or too ineffectually to encourage Norcross or his parishioners, other than the indomit- able Prescott, to venture across it with their cattle and household goods, during either 1645 or 1646 ; and by that time their patience or pluck was exhausted, the surviving Boston members of the company were trying to have the grant rescinded to relieve them- selves of any responsibility incurred by their cove- nant, and the minister had abandoned his parish. To the difficult task of obtaining planters to make good so wholesale a defection, Prescott and Day seem to have devoted much time and energy with very mode- rate success.

The plan of settlement contemplated two groups or double ranges of house-lots, in sight of each other, but about a mile apart, the North River and its inter- vales lying between. The trucking-house formed the starting-point of the western range; the eastern lay along the plateau, then (as now) called the Neck, be- tween the main or Penecook River and the North

Branch. Prescott, who had chosen his first home-lot in the eastern range, covering the site of the present Lancaster House, sold it to Ralph Houghton and made his home at the trucking-house. Philip Knight, of Charlestown, built a house on the lot which he bought of Steven Day, adjoining Prescott's on the north, and upon the next two lots were John and Solomon Johnson, of Sudbury, a roadway separating their dwellings. Upon the south corner of Solomon Johnson's lot now stands the George Hill School- house. Thomas Sawyer, a blacksmith of Rowley, married Mary, the daughter of Prescott, in 1647 or 1648, and set up a home near his father-in-law, in a range of lots parallel to and south of those above named. Mrs. Sally Case's residence is nearly upon the site of the Sawyer house. These were probably the first five dwellings sonth of the North River. Wil- liam Kerley perhaps moved upon his house-lot in the upper range not much later, and Daniel Hudson, a brickmaker from Watertown, occupied John Moore's lot certainly as early as the spring of 1651.

On the Neck side, Lawrence Waters sold his house to John Hall, whose wife Elizabeth occupied it, her husband going to England. Waters built himself a second house nearer the shallows in the river, a few rods west of the one sold. Ralph Houghton soon came up from Watertown and set np his roof-tree on the Neck. A petition of the inhabitants to the Gene- ral Court of May, 1652, asking township rights, states that there were already living at Nashaway "about nine familyes." They must be selected from those already named. Before this date there had probably been ten white children born in the settlement: two to Prescott, five to Lawrence Waters, two to Sawyer, and one to Daniel Hudson. The answer to the peti- tion is the so-called Act of Incorporation of the Town of Lancaster. The first draft of the answer was passed upon hy the deputies in May, 1652, and in this the name given to the town was Prescott, as had been requested by the petitioners, paying deserved honor to their generous, spirited and able leader.

The naming of a town for its founder had then no precedent in New England. Not even a magistrate or Governor had been so greatly honored. Probably the assistants or executive refused thus to exalt a blacksmith who was no freeman, and had but recently taken the oath of fidelity. They may have recalled also his sympathy with the agitation by Childe. The name Prescott was promptly refused, and after further consideration the name West Towne was inserted in the answer. This title, entirely wanting appropriate- ness and enphony, satisfied no one, and further dis- cnssion carried the matter over another year. Pres- cott's force of character and liberality had won not only the admiration of his neighbors, but friendly interest in many and high quarters. He had proved very useful to Rev. John Eliot in his visits to the Indian tribes about and west of Nashaway. He had in 1648 been the pioneer of a " new way to Connecti-

LANCASTER.

cut by Nashaway, which avoided much of the hilly way," and which Governor Hopkins, of Connectient, as well as the leading ministers interested in the work of converting the Indians, esteemed a public benefac- tion. When, therefore, the inhabitants, disappointed of their first choice, petitioned asking to borrow a title for the new town from the English shire in which Prescott was born, the suggestion was adopted, and Lancaster began its legal existence May 18, 1653. It was the forty-fourth town chartered in the Common- wealth, and the tenth in Middlesex County.

Three copies of the "Court's Grant " exist-one forming the first page of the town records, one an official copy by Secretary Rawson in Massachusetts Archives cxii. 54-55, and the original record of the court. They differ somewhat in orthography. That of the town records is as follows :

COPPIE OF THE COURT'S GRANT.

At a Genill Court of Election held at Boston the 18th of May 1653.

1. In answer to the Peticon of the Inhabitants of Nashaway the Court finds according to a former order of the Geurl Court in Anno 1647 no 6 : 95 : That the ordering and disposeing of the Plantation at Nashaway is wholly in the Courts power.

2. Considering that there is allredy at Nashaway abont nine ffamilies and that eeverall hoth freemen and others intend to gue and setle there some whereof are named in this Petition the Court doth Grant them the libertie of a Towneshipp and others that hensforth it shall be called Lan- caster.

3. That the Bounds thereof shall be sett out according to a deede of the Indian Sagamore, viz. Nashaway Riner at the passing ouer to be the Center, fine miles North fine miles south five miles east and three miles west by such Comissioners as the Courte shall appoint to see their Liaes extended and their bounds limitted.

4. That Edward Breck, Nathaniell Hadlocke, William Kerley, Thomas Sayer, John Prescot and Ralph Houghton, or any fonre of them, whereof the maior Parte to he freemen to be for present the prudentiall men of the said Towne both to see all allottments to be laid out to the Planters in due proportion to theire estates and allso to order other Prudentiall afuires votill it shall Appeare to this Court that the Place be so fair seated with able med es the Court may Judg meet, to give them full liberties of a Towoshipp according to Lawe.

5. That all such Persons whoe haue possessed and Contioned Inhabi- tants of Nashaway shall have their Lotts formerly Laid out confirmed to them provided they take the oath of fidellitie

6. That Sudbery and Lancaster Lay out highwaies betwixt Towne and Towne according to order of Court for the Countries vse and then re- paire them as neede shalbe

7. The Court Orders That Lancaster shall be rated webin the County of Midlesex and the Towne hath Liberty to choose a Constable.

8. That the Inhabitants of Lancaster doe take care that a godly min- ester may be maintained amongst them and that no evill persons Ene- mies to the Lawes of this Comoowealth in Judgment or Practize be Ad- mitted as Inhabitants amongst them and none to have Lotts Confirmed Unt such as take the oathe of fidellitie

9. That allthough the first Undertakers aod partoers in the Plaotacon of Nashaway are wholy Evacuated of theire Claimes io Lotts there by order of this Courte yet that such persons of them whoe haus Expended either Charge or Labor for the Benefitt of the place and hane helpped on the Publike workes there from time to time either in Contributing to the minestrie or in the Purchase from the Indians or any other Puhlike worke, that such persons are to be Considered by the Towne either iu proportion of Land or some other way of satisfaction as may ba Just and meete. Provided such Persons do make such theire expences Cleerly Appeara within Twelne monethes after the end of this Sessions for such demandes eod that the Interest of Harmoo Garrett and such othere as were first vndertakers or hane bin at Great Charges there chalbe made good to him theos his or theira beires in all Allottinents as to other the Iohabitants in proportion to the Charges expended by him and such others aforesaid. Provided they make Improuemt of such Allotmts by building and Planting wthin three yeares after they are or shalbe Laid out to them, otherwise theire Interest hereby Provided for to bee voyde,

And all such Laods sue hereby Reserved to be thenetorth at the Townes Dispose : In further Answer to this Peticon the Court Judgeth it meete to Confirm the abone mentioned Nine perticulers to the Inhabitants of Lancaster, and order that the bounds thereof he Laid out in proportion to eight milee square.

Of the six prudential men, the first three only were freemen, and the death of Hadlocke, in Charlestown, very soon deprived them of a legal quorum, according to strict construction of the fifth article. In October, 1653, however, they agreed upon a " covenant of laws and orders," which all who were accepted as citizens of the town were required to sign. As of the signa- tures to this, ten were dated a year before, it was un- doubtedly an obligation entered into by the earlier comers adopted by the new officials. This covenant served as a Constitution by which the internal econo- mies of the town were administered for very many years, and is therefore worthy to be given here in full, with the signatures, as found in the town records :

1653 18: 8 mº. The bond to binde all comers. Memorandum, That wee whose Names are subscribed, vppon the Receiveing and acceptance of our severall Lands, and Allottments wtb all Appurtinances thereof, from those meo who are Chosen by the Generall Court to Lay out and dispose of the Laods within the Towne of Lanchaster Leertofore Called by the name of Nashaway doe hereby Covenant & hinde ourselves our heires Executrs & Assignes to the observing and keepeing of these orders and Agreements hereafter mentioned and Expressed.

Church Lunds. ffirst ffor the maintainanc of the ministree of Gods holy word wee doe Allowe Covenant and Agree that there be laid out Stated and established, and we doe hereby estate and establish as Church Land with all the prinilledges and Appurtinances therevnto belonging for ever, thirty acors of vpplaod and fortie acors of Entervale Land and twelve acors of meddowe with free Libertie of Commons for Pasture and fire wood, The said Lands to be improved by the Plantation or otherwise in such order as shalbe best Advised and Coocluded by the Plantation without Rent paying for the same, vntil the Labours of the Planters or those that doe improve the same, be ffully sattisfied. And wee dve agree that the Plantation or Sellect Dien shall determine the time, how Longe every man shall bold and Improve the said Lands for the proffit thereof. And then to be Rented according to the yearly vallne thereof and paid in to such persons as the Plantation or Sellectmen shall Appoynt to and for the vse of and towards the maintainanc of the mines- ter Pastor or Teacher for the time being, or whomesoever may bee stated to preach the word of God among vs : or it may be in the Choyce of the minester to improue the said Lands himselfe.

Meeting house. And ffurther wee doe Covenant and Agree to build a Convenient meeting house for the Publique Assembling of the Church and People of God, to worshipp God according to his holy ordinances io the most eaquall and Convenient place that may be Advized and Con- cluded by the Plantation.

Ministers house. And to Build a house tor the Minester vppon the said Church Land.

house lotts to pay 108 p ann to the minester. And ffurther we doe Engage and Covenant every one for himselfe his heires Executors & Assignes to pay to and for the use of the minestree abonesaid the sume of ten shillings a yeare as for and in Consideracoo of or home Lotts yearly for ever, our home Lotts to stand Engaged for the payment thereof, and what all this shall fall short of a Competent maintainanc we Covenant to make vpp by an equall Rate vppoo or Goods, and other improved Lands (not home lots) in such way and order as the Country rate is Raised. And in case of vacansy of a minester the maintainanc Ariseing from the Church Land and home Lotts ahouementioned, shalbe paid to such as shalbe Appoyuted for the use of a scoole to he as a stock : or as stock towards the maintainane of the minester, as the Plantation or Sellect meo shall think meetest.

To brill Inhabit &c in a year or loose all and pay 5: 16 And for the bet- ter Promoteing and seting forward of tha Plantation wee Covenant and Agree, That such person or persons of ve who have not inhabited this Plantation heretofore and are yett to come to build Improve and In- hahitt That we will (by the will of God) come vpp to build to Plant Iand and luhabit at or before one whole yeare he passed next after or accept-

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

ance of or Allottments, or elc to Loose all our Charges about it, and our Lotts to Return to the Plantation, and to pay fine pounds for the vse of the Plantation.

What Inhabitants not to be Admited. And for the Better preserveing of the puritie of Religion and ourselues from infection of Error we Cove- nant not to distribute Allottments and to Receive into the Plantation as Inhabitants any excominicat or otherwise prophane and scandalus (known so to bee) nor any notorionsly erring against the Docktrin and Discipline of the Churches and the state and Governnit of this Com onweale.

to end all difrenc by Arbitracon, And for the better preserveing of peace and love, and yet to keepe the Rules of Justice and Equitie amonge ourselues, we Covenant not to goe to Lawe one with an other in Actions of Debt or Damages one towards an other either in name or state but to end all such Controversies among ourselues by arbitration or otherwise except in cases Cappitall or Criminall that sinn may not gue vupunished or that the mater be aboue onr abillities to Judge of, and that it bee with the Consent of the Plantation or Sellect men thereof.

To pay 10s p Lott. And for the Laying out measureing and bounding of our Allottments of this first Dinision and for and towards the Satisfieing of our Engagem's to the Generall Court, to make payment for purchase of the Indians we Covenant to pay ten shillings every one of vs for our severall Allottmts, to the Sellect nien or whome they may Appoynt to Re- ceive it.

Emuall Lotts first Dinition, in 2nd Dinitions acord to Estates : And. whereas Lotts are Now Laid out for the the most part Equally to Rich and poore, Partly to keepe the Towne from Scatering to farr. and partly out of Charitie and Respect to men of nieaner estate, yet that Equallitie (which is the Rule of God) may be observed, we Covenant and Agree, That in a second Devition and so thronghi all other Devitions of Land the mater shall be drawne as neere to equallitie according to mens estates as wee are able to doe, That he which bath now more then his estate Deserveth in home Lotts and entervale Lotts shall bane so much Less: and he that hath now Less then his estate Deserveth shall hane so much more. And that wee may the better keepe dne proportion we Covenant and agree thus to account of mens estates (viz) ten pounds a head for every person and all other goods by dne vallue, and to proportion to every ten pounds three acors of Land two of ypland and one of Entervale and we gine a years Libertie to Euery man to bringe in his estate.

Gifts free. Yet Nevertheless it is to be understood Thint we doe not heereby prejudice or Barr the Plantation from Accomodateing any man by Gifft of Land (which proply are not Allotti's:) but wee doe reserve that in the free Power of the Plantation as occation may hereafter be offered : And in Case The Planters estate be Lowe that he can elaine Nothing in other dinitions yet it is to be understood that he shall enioy all the Land of the first Devition.

in 2nd Denition. And further we Covenant That if any Planter do desire to haue his proportion in the second devition it shalbe Granted.

Rules for Proporcon of Medders. And ffurther wee Covenant to lay ont Meddow Lands according to the present estates of the Planters, with respect to be had to Remoteness or Neereness, of that which is remote tu giue the more and of that wch is neere to gine the Less.

And Concerning the 30 acors of vppdland and 40 acors of Entervale abone Grauted as Church Land. It is agreed and concluded to Lye bounded by John Prescotts Ditch vppon the South and the North Riuer over an ends [anenst] Lawrence Waters vppon the North aod so Rangeing allong westward.

And for the Preventing of Inconveniences and the more peaceable Isuing of the business about building of a meeting house it is Considered and ConcInded as the most equall place that the meeting house be builded as neere to the Church Land and to the Neck of Land as It can bee without any notable inconveniencie.

And it is allso agreed That in all partes and Quarters of the Towne where Sundry Lotts do Lie together they shalbe ffenced by a Common ffenc according to proportion of acors by every planter, And yett not to barr any man from perticuler and prinat Inclosure at his pleasure.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 21

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