History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 22

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 22

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This is a true Coppie of the Lawes and orders ffirst Enacted and made by those Appoynted and Impowered by the Genrall Court as it is found in the old book.

THOSE NAMES YT HAUE SUBSCRIBED TO THESE ORDERS:

Edward Brek

Robrt Brek :

- 1 subscribe to this for my selfe and for my sonn Robert sane that it is agreed that we are not bound to come vpp to inhabit wthin a years time in our owne persons: This is a true Coppie :

Jnº Prescott. William Kerly Thomas Sayer Ralph Hanghton

These subscribed together the first

Jnº Whitcomb Senit :

Subscribed 20 : day: 9 mº: 1652 Jnº Whitcomb Jnoir :

Richard Linton.

Jnº Johnson. Subscribed : 4th : 9 mº : 1654

Jeremiah Rogers

Jnº Moore : Subscribed : 11th : first mº : 1653

William Lewes :

Subscribed : 13th : 1 mº : 1653

Jnº Lewes.

The : James. mark

21th 3 mº : 1653

Edmund Parker. -

Beniamine Twitchell Subscribed : 1th : 8 mº : 1652

Anthony Newton.

Steephen Day ? Subscribed : 15th : 1 mº : 1653 James Aderton j both of ym.

Henry Kerly : Richard Smith.

William Kerly Junr. Subscribed 15 : 1 mo . 1653 Jno Smith.

Lawrenc Waters 1

Jno White: Subscribed . 1th May 1653

Jnº ffarrer. Subscribed : 24 . Septembr 1653

Jacob ffarrer : Same date

John Haughton ! Samuel Deune

Subd : same 24 : 7 mº : 1653

James Draper.

Steepheo Gutes : Sen" : Subscribed : Aprill 3 : 1654

James Whiting or Witton : Subscri : Aprll 7th : 1654 Jnº. Moore and

Edward Kible -13 : 2 mº : 1654 Subscribed

Jnº Mansfield : 13 : 2 mº : 1654

Jnº Towers : 1

Richard Dwelly Subscribed 18 : 2 mo: 1654

Henry Ward.

Jnº Peirce. 1 Subscribed 4th: 7 mº : 16.4.

William Billing

Richard Sutton : aprll 1653.

Subscribed the 12th : 9 mo : 1654. and there is

Thomas Joslin. granted to them both 50 acres of vpland & Swamp Nathaniell Joslin together for theire home lotts and allso forty acors of Entervale.

John Rngg: Subscribed, 12th: 12 mº: 1654

Joseph Rowlandson :

- Subscribed 12: 12 mº : 1654 : and it is agreed by the Towne that he shall haue 20 accors of vpland & 40 acors of Eutervale in the Night Pasture :

Jnº Riggby : Subscribed 12th : 12th mº : 1654 and he is to baue 20 acors of vpland & ten acors of Entervale

Jnº Roper : Subscribed 22 : 14b moº: 1656

All these before mentioned are subscribed & theire names Entered ac- conding to theire Several! Dates in the old Book & Coppied per Jno Tinker Clerk

Jnº Tinker Subscribed ye first of ffebbr : 1657.

Mordica Maclode bis . mark set 1 march 1 6 5 7 1654 Jonas fairbanks : Subscribed the 7th : 2 mo : 1658 Jonas ffairbanks

Roger Sumner subscribed the : 11th of Aprill : 1659. Roger Sumner

Gamaliell Bemand Subscribed : the 31th; of may 1659 Gamaliell tt Bemand his marke Thermas Wyelder : Subscribed the 1th July 1659 Thomas Wyellder

Daniell Gaines Subscribed the tenth day of march 16 5 9 1660 Daniel Gaiens Twelve of these fifty-five signers-Twitchell, New- ton, Deane, Draper, Whiting, Mansfield, Towers,

LANCASTER.

Dwelly, Ward, Peirce, Billings and Sutton-never became residents, and were not recognized in land allotments. Steven Day and Robert Breck re- ceived house-lots, but never occupied them. Kibbie was probably a resident for a brief time, but re- ceived no lands. Philip Knight, though one of the earliest householders, seems not to have signed, and removed. Elizabeth Hall went to her husband in England, selling his house and lot to Richard Smith. Cowdall and Solomon Johnson had sold out to Prescott and Day, and Ball returned to Water- town.

The organization of the corporation being thus complete, the townsmen diligently applied them- selves to securing the most obvious necessities for comfortable living as a Christian community. Cow- dall's deed of 1647 informs us that Linton and Waters had raised corn upon the fifty-acre intervale lot lying southerly from the present Atherton Bridge before that year, and the deep, rich soil guaranteed a sufficient yield of grain for the plant- ers and their cattle; but there was no mill nearer than that at Sudbury. Prescott had already been taking some steps to supply this prime need of the town. He had at least chosen the site and bar- gained with a millwright, as is shown by the formal contract made between him and the town November 20, 1653. Six months later his grist-mill was at work.

The assignment of home and intervale lots also engaged the attention of the prudential men in No- vember. The allotments which had been made by Prescott, Day and others in the infancy of the plantation, and subsequent purchases based upon them, were confirmed. Actual settlers were given in the established ranges of lots twenty acres each of upland for a dwelling-place and twenty acres of intervale for planting.

Lancaster has often been called a Watertown colony because John Winthrop so styled it in 1643. But of the fifty-five who signed the covenant, twelve were from Dorchester, six were of Sudbury, six of Hingham and five each from Roxbury and Watertown. The others came from eight or ten dif- ferent localities. The most prominent of the Dor- chester colonists was the first prudential man named in the incorporating act, Edward Breck. He had been one of the selectmen of Dorchester for several years, and upon his ability and experience great de- peudeuce was placed by the Lancaster men. He built a house near the wading-place of Penecook, and retained his land, but lived here only for a brief period. His continued absence and the death of Hadlocke seriously obstructed the conduct of the town's prudential affairs, and early in 1654, there be- ing about twenty families in the town, the majority petitioned that they might be relieved from their probationary condition, and allowed full liberties of a town according to law, electing their officers and

transacting business by legal town-meetings. There were then but four resident freemen: William Kerly, Thomas Rowlandson, Thomas Sawyer and William Lewis; but the petition was granted, and Lieutenant Edward Goodnow, of Sudbury, and Thomas Danforth, of Cambridge, were at the same time deputed to lay out the bounds of the town's grant, a duty they never found time to perform.

For the needs of the pioneer the meadows, as nat- ural grass lands were called, came next in value to the house-lot and planting-field, and a first division of these open tracts wherever found in the town limits was agreed upon-four acres to be set to each one hundred pounds of estate. During the year 1654 the first legal town-meetings were held. At the earliest "the plantacion upon legall warning as- sembled ;" formally confirmed the recorded acts of the prudential men appointed by the General Court the year before, some of these, as has been noted, not be- ing strictly in conformity with requirements of law. At another town-meeting it was voted "that there should not be taken into the Towne above the num- ber of thirty-five families." The greed of land was strong, but this short-sighted restriction had but a brief life. In the same territory over three thou- sand families now find "ample room and verge enough."

During the autumn of this year the Christian Sagamore Showanon died. Reverends John Eliot and Increase Nowell were at once sent to Washacum by the court, to prevail if possible, with the Indians, to elect Matthew, nephew of the dead sachem, as his successor. They were successful. There seems to have been some reason to fear that the choice might fall upon another chief, also in the line of succession, whose drunken habits and dislike of the colonists made his accession to power much dreaded. Thus far the friendly relations between the English- men and the Nashaways seem to have been in no way strained. The very rare mention of the tribe in the town annals goes to prove that no quarrels or grave jealousies interrupted friendly feeling. More-

over, Eliot gratefully records Showanon's loving hos- pitality, and the generous care he showed in protect-

ing him with a body-guard on his journeying to the interior. He once complains that the Indian wizards or " powows " had not been wholly silenced; but all Christendom then believed in the reality of demo- niacal possession, and little more than a year had passed since Margaret Jones, the witch, had been si- lenced by hanging in Charlestown. The unregener- ate, credulous children of the forest feared sorcery, just as did their enlightened neighbors, only they had not learned the refinements of the English methods of dealing with sorcerers. When they found that drugs were far more efficacious to relieve pain and sickness than charms and juggling tricks, powowing lost its hold upon their credulity.

Standing off at this historic distance, the position

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

of Sholan and his people living on terms of friendly intimacy with the adventurous pioneers whom they had invited to sbare the heantiful land of their in- heritance, glows with only pleasing and romantic hues.

CHAPTER II.

LANCASTER-(Continued).

The First Minister-Arbitration-Commissioners Appointed to Direct Town Affairs- The First Highways-Noyes' Surrey-Disaffection of the hi- dums-Monoco's Raid-James Quanapang's Fidelity-The Destruction of Lancaster.

THE years 1653 and 1654 saw the addition of seven families to the town, those of Thomas and Nathaniel Joslin, John Rugg, John Rigby, John Moore, Sr., Stephen Gates and Thomas Rowlandson. The year 1654 was also graced by the coming of their chosen pastor, Master Joseph Rowlandson, of Ipswich. His signature to the covenant is dated February 12, 1654, and he, perhaps, did not begin preaching be- fore that time, although he had been listed among the townsmen the March previous. Other ministers had doubtless been solicited to the charge after the disappearance of Norcross, but a church in the wil- derness, with its little group of poor immigrants, had small attractions for men of education, unless they were largely endowed with the missionary spirit. We find, therefore, the first clergyman called to Lancaster a youth of twenty-two years, fresh from Harvard College, the lone graduate of 1652; one, moreover, but recently escaped from a whipping- post and penance for a collegiate prank-the pen- ning and posting upon Ipswich Meeting-House of a doggerel satire, which the civil authorities dignified as a "scandalous libell." Master Rowlandson seems at once to have won the respect and love of those among whom be had east his lot, and to have as- serted his own dignity and that of the church; for the saucy maiden, Mary Gates, who contradicted him in public assembly, and the aged reprobate, Edmund Parker, who wouldn't sit under the droppings of the sanctuary, were alike speedily humbled and subjected to ecclesiastical and civil discipline. His father and mother came to Lancaster with him, but before two years had passed he was married to Mary, the daughter of John White, then the richest of his parishioners. A parsonage had been built in a cen- tral position between the two villages. The meeting- house was not yet raised, but the site had been already chosen, abont twenty rods southeast of the parsonage, on the highest ground in the present Mid- dle Cemetery. A long narrow knoll, a little to the east of the meeting-honse site, was set apart for a burial-place.

The prudential men elect soou found the ordering

of the town's affairs to be neither an easy nor a pleasant task. Although the divisions of land were governed so far as possible by casting lots, they gave rise to some bickering, and various questions arose about which the managers themselves serionsly differed. The Kerly family began to display their characteristic firmness in their own opinions. The salary of Master Rowlandson became a knotty subject of debate. Plainly there was occasion to make trial of the arbitration provided for in the covenant. Major Simon Willard, of Concord, Captain Edward Johnson, of Woburn, and Edmund Rice, of Sudbury, being summoned as arbitrators in April, 1656, by their "determinacions " settled twenty-four mooted points. The minister's salary was fixed at fifty pounds a year, and as in a rural community withont money, church tithes must be paid chiefly in products of the land, wheat as a commercial standard was to be reckoned at sixpence per bushel less than the price at the Bay, and other grain in the same proportion.

Stephen Gates had been chosen the first constable, an office of larger dignity and more varied duties than now appertain to it. He neglected to notify the four freemen at the proper time to send in their votes for nomination of the magistrates, was fined, and his black staff of office passed to Prescott.

Ralph Houghton was nominated the first clerk of the writs, and confirmed by the County Court in October, 1656. He was an able penman, and thence- forward methodical records of the town's transactions were faithfully kept by him during twenty years. John Roper, a much esteemed addition, was accepted a townsman this year, and given the home-lot origin- ally Solomon Johnson's. In 1656 also the first connty road, that to Concord, was laid out.

Another petition from Lancaster this year demanded the attention of the conrt. Out of the thirty heads of families there were but five freemen in all, and two of these were disabled hy years. The law requiring that in any action by selectmen the "major part" should be freemeu, it followed that Kerly, Lewis and Sawyer by necessity could control all such action. Two of these, at least, being men of stubborn character, their opinions doubtless sometimes traversed those of more able and wiser citizens, or denied the just demands of the majority. The only remedies were, to transact all business details by formal town-meetings-which, "by reason of many inconveniences and incumbrances," was not to be thought of-to obtain more freemen, or to petition to be relegated to the care of commissioners. The town "by a general vote " petitioned for the last, and May 6, 1657, Major Simon Willard, Captain Edward Johnson and Thomas Danforth, three of the ablest men in the commonwealth, were appointed commissioners, and empowered "to order the afaires of the said Lancaster, and to heare and determine their seurall diffrences and grievances which obstruct the present and future good of the towne, standing in power till they bee able to make returne to the Genrall

LANCASTER.

Court that the towne is sufisiantly able to order its owne affaires according to Law."

The first meeting of this august board of advisers was held at the house of John Prescott, in September, and found abundant matter requiring their adjudica- tion. By this date Lancaster had won a valuable accession in the person of Master John Tinker, who had purchased of Richard Smith the house originally built by Waters, and also the Knight house upon George Hill. Tinker, who had been a resident of Groton for a short time before coming to Lancaster, was a freeman of education and clerkly ability. He had bought the monopoly of the fur trade of Lancaster and Groton for the year 1657, paying eight pounds for it. A gift of land called Gibson's Hill-upon the east end of which now stands the mansion of the late Nathaniel Thayer-was made to Master Tinker by the town at this time, and indicates that there was mate- rial reason for his change of residence. The com- missioners appointed John Tinker, William Kerly, John Prescott, Ralph Houghton and Thomas Sawyer selectmen, and instructed them in part as follows :

2. Encuragt master Rowlandson. That the said Selecttmen take Care, for the due encuragmeet of master Rowlandson who now Laboureth amongst them in the ministrie of gods holy word, And alsoe that they take care for erecting a meeting house, pound and stokes. And that they see to the Laying out of towe and Countrie high waies and the towne hounds, and the making aod executing of all such orders and by Lawes as may be for the Comoe good of the plac (i e) respecting Corne feilds, medowes, Comon pasturag Land, fences, herding of Catell and restraint of daorage by swine aod for the recouriog of thos fines aod forfitures that are due to the towae from such psvnes as have taken vp land and oot fullfilled the Cvadicions of theire respective grants wherby the Comoo good of the Plantacion hath boede and yett is much obstructed.

3. Pamat. of towne debts, That they take Care for the payment of all towne debte and for that end they are herby impowred to make such Levies or rats from time to time, as they shall see needfull for the dis- charge of the Comon Charges of tho towne, Aod in Case any of the inhabitance shall refuse or neglect to mak due payment both for quality and quantitie upon resonable demand, they may theo Levie the same by distresse, And are impowered alsoe to take 2ª mor and ahoue such fine or Rate as is due to bee paid for the satisfacion vato your oficer thet taketh the distress for his paioes theirio.

4. manor of asesments. That in all their asesments, all Lands epro- priated, (Land ginen for addittioas excepted) shall bee valued io manor following (i e) home Lotts the vobroken att 20" p accor and the broken vp nt thirtie shillings by the accor the entervaile the broken at fowertie shillings the accor and the vabrukeo at thirtie shillings the accor, and medow Land utt thirtie shillings, and in all rates to the ministrie The home Lotts to pay teso shillings p ann. according to the towne order. And this order to Continue for fine yeares next ensning. Alsoe that the selectmen tak spesiall Care for the preserning and safe keeping the townes Records. Aod if they see it oeed full, that they pcure the same to bee writeo out fairly into a new booke, to be keept for the good of posterity, the charge wherof to bee borne by the pprietors of the said Lands respectively.

5. none freed from Rats unless they relinquish under hand. That noe man be freed from the Rates of any Land granted him in pprietie eccept he mak a release and full resignation theirof vnder his hand, And doe alsoe relinquish aod surender vp to the vse of the towne, his home Lott Intervaile and medow, all or noue.

6. accomodacons for 5 or 6 : be Left before 2 dinision. That their be accomodacions of Land reserved for the meet encuragment of fiue or six able men to com and inhabit in the snid place (i e) as olay hee helpfull to the encuragmeot of the worke of god their, and the Comon good of the place. Aod that ao second deuision be Laid out vnto aoy man vntil those Lotts bee sett apte for that vse ; by the selectmen, that is to say home Lotts enterveile and medow.

1. master Rowlandsons deed of gift. The Comisioners doe Judg meet

to Confirme the deed of gift made by the towne vnto master Rowlandson (i e) of a house and Land which was sett n part for the vse of the miois- trie bering date 1tb 6th nos 1657 vpoo Condicion that master Rowlaodson remone not his habitacioo from the said place for the space of three yeare next ensuing, valesse the said inhabitance shall consent theirto, And the Comisioners aproue theirof.

* * * *

finally agst inmates. That oone be entertained into the towne as in- mates, tenants, or otherwise to inhabit within the bounds of the said towne, without the Consent of the selectmco or the maior pte of them, first had and obtained, and entered in the record of the towne as their act, vpou penalty of twenty shillings p month both to the pson that shall soe offend by iotrudiog himselfe, And alsoe to the psuo that shall ofeed in receiving or entertaining such pson into the towne.

Prinaledyes & vonts. And that boe other pson or psones whatsoever shalhe admited to the Inioyment of the privaledges of the place and towneshipp, Either in accomodaccions vots elections or disposalles of any of the Comon priualedges and interests theirof, sane only such as heue beene first orderly admited aod accepted (as aforesaid) to the enioy- ment theirof.

The order against entertaining strangers is, of course, an echo of Governor Winthrop's order of court passed in 1637, which was so unpopular at the time that its author felt called upon to publish an elaborate defence of so obvious an infringement of the people's rights. John Tinker inaugurated a more systematic method of recording the town's business, first copying into a new book the contents of the "Old Town Book." The selectmen during 1657 and 1658 ordered that all high- ways, whether town or county, should be amply re- corded for the information of posterity, and the way- marks be annually repaired. All lands granted with butts or bounds were ordered recorded by the town clerk, for which special fees were to be paid him. The valuable registry of lands in four large volumes, be- ginning in 1657 and ending with the last division of common land in 1836, is the fruit of this order. Mor- ‹lecai McLeod, a Scotchman, was admitted to citizen- ship. A letter was sent to Major Willard inviting him to make his residence in Lancaster, with certain proposals " concerning accomodacions," which proved sufficiently attractive to be promptly accepted. The selectmen ordered that the inhabitants on the Neck should build a cart-bridge over the North River near Goodman Waters' house, and that those living south of that river should build a similar bridge over the Nashaway at the wading-place. These bridges were completed that year, aud stood, the first a few rods ahove the present Spragne bridge, the other at or near the site of the present Atherton bridge. The existing highways were duly recorded as follows :

Cuntrie way. One way for the Cuntrie Lyeth : from the entraoc io to the towne on the east pte from Wataquadocke hill, downe to the Swann Swampe, aod over the wading place through Penicooke riner : that is by the indian warre [weir] and soe along by master Rowlandsoos ground and the river and againe vp to goodman Waters his barne he- tweene old goodman Breckes lott and that which was Richard Smithes now in the posession of John Tinker. To bee as it is staked out, att the Least fine Rods wide, ou the neck, and to be as wide as can be oo the east side of the riuer vnder teoo Rods and abone fine, and soe from good- man Waterses over the north riner, vp by master Rowlandsons the breadth as is Laid outand feoced and marked and staked np to goodman Prescotta Ry feild and soe betweene that aod John olores lott and Crosse the brook and vpp betweene John Johnsons and John Ropers Lotts fiue Rods wide ; And see beyond all the Lotts into the woods.

Way to quasaponikin medow. one way: from goodolan Waterses barne

HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

to quasaponikin medowes before the houses of goodman gates and hoth goodman Joslling &c : as it is laid out and marked : fine rods wide and in the enternaille 2 rode wide.

To quasaponikin hill. one way : from goodman Breckes house through the end of his ground, and Ralph Houghtons James Athertons goodnian Whites and goodman Leweises &c, to quasaponikin hill fiue Rods wide.

To the mill. one way to the mill att the heads of the Lotts of Jolin Prescott Thomas Sawyer Jacob ffarer &c five Rods wide from the Cuntrie highway to the mill.

Street in ye south end of ye towne. one way Called the Street or Cross way ; from goodman Kerleyes entervaile and the rest of the entervaile Lotts: And soe south bectweene the double rang of Lotts: fiue Rods wide and soetowards washacome when it is past Jacob ffarers Lott : And alsoe Itt runes the same widness betweene the house Lotts and ontervaile lotts northward to the wallont swamipe :

from the Cuntrie highway to ye entervaile of Jo: Prescott soe to Wata- quadoke. one way from the mill way att the end of goodman Prescotts Ry feeild, to the Entrance of his entervaile fine Rods wide, And through the entervailes oner Nashaway Riner and the Still rivers, to the outerd fenc, of Jacob ffarers Lott, two Rods and half wide.

Way to the plumtrees & groten. One way : from that entervaile way downe along all the entervailes to the Still river and towards groten on the east side of the riner two rods wide.

With the exception of the last, which was removed to higher land, these ways are all in use to-day, with a few local alterations of line and a general contrac- tion in width.

The minister's maintenance was no small burden upon his little flock, so few and so poor, and there was evidently much dilatoriness and uncertainty in the payment of the stipend. Suddenly, in 1658, it was noised about through the settlement that Master Rowlandson was about to accept an invitation to the church in Billerica. The selectmen at once visited him to learn if the report were true, and became con- vinced of his determination to go. Twelve days later the messengers from Billerica came " to fetch Master Rowlandson away." The people assembled, and unan- imonsly voted to invite him "to abide and settle amongst them in the worke of the ministrie," and to allow him " fiftie pounds a yeare, one halfe in wheat, sixpence in the bushell vnder the Corant prises at Boston and Charlstowne, and the rest in other good curant pay in like proporcion, or otherwise fiftie and fiue pounds a yeare, taking his pay att such rats as the prises of Corne are sett enrie yeare by the Court." The meeting also confirmed the deed of house and land which had been made in his favor the preceding August. Mr. Rowlandson accepted the invitation upon the terms proposed. The first house for public worship was completed this year, if not earlier. All previons meetings of the selectmen had been at pri- vate dwellings, but that of June 22, 1658, was "at the meeting-house."

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 22

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