History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 127

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1464

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 127

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of the town, for which they had so long and earnestly labored.

One of their first acts in this new attempt was to acquire any right Panuasumet, a Sagamore, who did not sign the first deed from the Indians, might have had iu the territory upon which the town was to be built. This second deed, bearing date of December, 1677, was executed by the widow of Pannasumet and his heirs. It contains covenants that the grantors had "good and just title, and natural right and in- terest in the territory, and that they would warrant its enjoyment " by the grantees. The committee, in 1678, directed the planters to return before the year 1680; but this direction was disregarded-no one of all the former settlers returned.

At a meeting in Cambridge March 3, 1678, attended by Gookin, Henchman and Prentice of the committee and by sixteen other persons, it was agreed "that, God willing, they intend, if God spare life and peace continue, to endeavor, either in person or by other persons and means, to settle said plantation sometime next summer." They proposed to build a town ac- cording to a model furnished by " Major Gookin aud Major Henchman."

The objects sought to be attained by this new en- deavor show how firmly the planters adhered to their original purposes. They were, "1st, security from their enemies ; 2d, for the better conenity of attending God's worship; 3d, for the better education of their children in society ; 4th, for the better accommodation of trades people ; 5th, for better helps to civility ; 6th, for more convenient help in case of sickuess, fire or calamity."

But these good resolutions were not then carried into execution; and no effectual measures had been adopted for a re-settlement when, in October, 1682, the General Court gave notice to the committee, that the grant to them would be considered forfeited unless some decisive measures were soon taken to form a plantation.

This led to renewed efforts on the part of the com- mittee, and such arrangements were made as induced a small number (not exceeding five or seven) of the former settlers to return ; and they, with other new associates, undertook to rebuild, on foundations that had once been laid and abandoned, a citadel as a refuge for all in times of alarm and danger. "Care was to be taken to provide a minister with all con- venient speed, and a school master in due season." Until a minister could be provided, the people were to assemble on the Sabbath and conduct religious services as well as they could. The land was di- vided into lots of ten and twenty-five acres. The north part of the territory, called at one time North Worcester, but is now the town of Holden, was di- vided into two hundred lots.

On the 10th of September, 1684, according to Lin- coln, the General Court passed an act, at the request of Gookin, Prentice and Henchman, that their planta-

1 Many of the facts contained in these notices are derived from the historical notes published with the doings of the two hundred and fif- tieth anniversary of the naming of Worcester.

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tion at Quinsigamond should be called Worcester. Ilonorable George F. Hloar, in his instructive and elo- quent address on the occasion of the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the naming of Worces- ter, says this act of the General Court granting the request of Gookin and his associates, was passed October 15, 1684. Captain IIenchman, one of the most active and efficient members of the Committee, died in 1685 or '86-both dates are given by different writers. At that time the public affairs of the Colony were condneted by a President and Council appointed by the Crown, after the Crown had most unjustly procured the abrogation of the Colony charter.

Upon application to that President and Council- for there was then no other competent authority to appeal to by the proprietors of Worcester-General Gookin and Captain Prentice, of the old committee, were reappointed, and Mr. William Bond, of Water- town, Captain Joseph Lynde and Deacon John Haynes, of Sudbury, were appointed new members. This committee was entrusted with the general powers to order and regulate all matters relating to the settlement. From this date, 1686, till 1713 au- thentie information respecting the transactions and progress of the new settlement is meagre and frag- mentary. The Proprietors' Book of Records contains no entries of transactions during that interval of twenty-seven years. It is known that appointments were made to fill vacancies in the committee as late as 1691, from which it is safe to infer that the num- ber of settlers was too small, or that other reasons existed to render them unable to manage their own community affairs. It is also known that at this time an unfortunate controversy arose between Cap- tain Wing, a man of great popularity among the planters, and Mr. Dawson, a Quaker and resident in Boston, respecting the title to a tract of land. This controversy, although a private one, seriously dis- turbed the harmony of the little settlement and re- tarded its growth.

Another cause which still further disturbed the peace and harmony of the settlement was the build- ing, or attempting to build, a second citadel in the sontherly part of the plantation, the first being in the northerly part ; this was in 1692.

In consequence of the dissensions growing out of these causes, some of the planters were induced to removeto other and older towns in the colony, and some into the adjoining colony of Connecticut. In 1699 still another event occurred which depressed the fortunes of the struggling settlement. Application had been made to the Governor and Council for aid, but instead of granting the desired assistance, the General Court, on March 20, 1699, passed an act striking Worcester from the list of frontier towns, and left it to its own resources, without much hope of further aid from the government. After this the plantation ceased to flourish, and finally there was only one family re- maining on the whole territory of eight miles square,

and that was the family of the brave Digby Serjent, who at last, while heroically defending his lonely dwelling on Sagatobscot Hill, fell a victim to the ferocity of his savage foes, and his wife and five chil- dren were carried off into captivity. The wife and mother, however, being unable to endure the hard- ships of a hurried journey through the trackless forests, was slain by her captors, and the children alone held captive, from which some of them never returned, and, it is said, two of them having become enamored of the wild freedom of gavage life, did not desire to return to the pleasures and restraints of civ- ilized society. This final avenging blow fell upon the new settlement, according to differing accounts, in 1702, '03 or '04. And from that time silence and desolation reigned over the "Plantation at Quinsiga- mond," until the last attempt to give permanency to this plantation was made in 1713.

27. In the year 1709 Joseph Sawyer and fifteen other persons presented a petition "To his Excellency Joseph Dudley, Esq., Capt. General and Governor in Chief in and over his Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, and to the Hon- ourable the Council and Representatives in General Court assembled," etc., saying they were willing to undertake the settlement of Worcester, if they could have a firm foundation of settlement laid and a fort built and needful protection. Upon this petition the Council ordered that Elisha Hutchinson, Samuel Sewall and Nathaniel Paine should be a committee to consider the expediency of granting the request and the course to be adopted. But the House of Deputies refused to concur, as the disturbed condi- tion of the times rendered the enterprise too danger- ous to be sustained by legislative approbation.

The dangers here adverted to were not those alone which the colonists had reason to apprehend from their Indian neighbors. During the thirty years from 1683 to 1713, many events, with which the Indians had no connection, occurred to disturb the public tranquillity and to hinder the peaceful settlement of country and seriously to retard its growth ; such as the unjust, if not absolutely illegal, abrogation of the colony charter in the reign of Charles Il .; the subse- quent establishment of a new and arbitary govern- ment here under Andros. The commission of James II. to Andros contained a suggestion that the King claimed title to all "lands, tenements and heredita- ments " in the colony, and that they were to be granted to such persons and upon such conditions as the monarch might see fit to select and impose. And the charter having been annulled, the people were told that "their land was the King's, that the grants from the General Court had not been made under the seal of the colony," and were therefore worthless, and that all who would perfect their titles must take ont new patents upon such terms as the King in his pleas- ure might be disposed to grant. This alone was sufficient to check, for a time, all attempts to estab-

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lish new settlements. But, fortunately for the cause of human liberty and good government, the infatu- ated James was soon driven from the throne, and the tyrannical rule of his minion, Andros, over the colony was speedily brought to an end. But the unsettled state of public affairs during and following the Revolution of 1788, the struggle on the part of the colonists to regain their ancient charter, of which they had been most unjustly deprived, and the change from that to the less liberal provincial chiar- ter, produced a condition of things in the colony wholly unfavorable to the building up of new towns. And during the first years of the eighteenth cen- tury Massachusetts, with the other New England colonies, was almost continually exposed to the hostile incursions of the French from Canada and their Indian allies, and was only relieved from that men- ace at the close of the war between England and France, which was terminated by the treaty of Utrecht, April 11, 1713. It will be remembered that as long as Canada remained under the dominion of France, the colonies of necessity became involved in any general war between that country and England.

Six months after the last-named date, that is, on October 13, 1713, Colonel Adam Winthrop, Gershom Rice and Jonas Rice, of Marlborough, presented a petition to the General Court, on behalf of them- selves and others, setting forth that they desired to enter upon a new settlement of the place from which they had heen driven by the war. Their petition was received with favor, and Hon. William Taylor, Colonel Adam Winthrop, Hon. William Dudley, Lieutenant-Colonel John Ballantine and Captain Thomas Howe were appointed a committee " to direct in ordering the prudentials of the plantation till they come to a full settlement."

This committee made their first report June 14, 1714. They had allowed thirty-one rights of former inhabitants, and twenty-eight new settlers were allowed to take lands upon the payment of twelve pence per acre for their planting or building-lots only, and upon the further condition that they would build and dwell "on each right, whether acquired by purchase, grant or representation." Provision was made for the support of the ministry and schools. The report was accepted and approved by the proper authorities. The first of the former planters to return and hegin the re-settlement was Jonas Rice ; and the permanent settlement of Worcester takes its date from the day of his return, October 21, 1713. He, like the unfortunate Serjent, built on Sagatob- scot Hill, and with his family he remained for eigh- teen months sole inhabitant of the place, till he was joined by his brother Gershom, in the spring of 1715. The daring and fortitude of the pioneer builders of these pleasant and now peaceful towns cannot be too much admired or too highly honored. Twice had the attempt been made to settle Worcester, and twice had the infant settlement been left in ruins

and every inhabitant driven from his possessions by a savage foe, as unreasoning as he was vindicitive and relentless.

Aud now the third attempt is to be made in the midst of lurking dangers and well-known hardships, which would have daunted a less sturdy and heroic race of men. They made provision for guarding against the dangers by which they were surrounded by building garrison-houses and fortresses, and even their own dwellings were built for defence as well as for shelter. Mills were early constructed for the manufacture of lumber and the grinding of grain, roads were built, and soon a tavern-that species of a temporary home so much admired by Dr. Johnson and Shenstone-was opened by a Mr. Rice on the site of the present Walker building.

A building was erected on Green Street in which the people assembled for worship from Sabbath to Sabbath, until a meeting-house was erected in 1719, on the site recently occupied by the "Old South."

From evidence furnished by the proprietary records, and derived from other sources, it is probable that the inhabitants of Worcester had increased to two hun- dred in 1718-19. About that time a company of Scotch immigrants attempted to settle in Worcester ; they were a portion of a larger emigration from the north of Ireland, where they had formed a plantation in the time of James I. They were Presbyterians, and although under William they were permitted to retain their form of worship, yet they were required to aid in the support of the Established Church. They, therefore, like the Pilgrim Fathers, not being satisfied with the new home, for which they had left their native country, again embarked for a country where they supposed they would be allowed to enjoy both religious and civil liberty. But they soon learned that the spirit of intolerance had crossed the ocean with those who came to these shores to escape the intoler- ance to which they were subjected in the land from which they came.

These "frugal, industrious and peaceful " people formed a religious society here, and began to erect a meeting-house in which to " worship God according to the dictates of their consciences," following the Presbyterian formularies. But while the building was in process of construction, a mob of citizens assembled at night and completely demolished the structure. These people were otherwise persecuted and annoyed to such an extent that many of them left the town and settled in the town of Pelham, in Hampshire County. And thus Worcester, by intoler- ance and bigotry, drove from her borders many who would have been among the most valuable of her early inhabitants. But this unjust treatment of Presbyterian emigrants was not peculiar to Worcester. Wherever they settled they were subject to outrage and persecution. It is said that this was, in part, at least, due to the fact that these people came from Ireland, and were represented as Irish, who, at that

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HISTORY OF WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

time, were "generally, but undeservedly, obnoxious" to the English colonists.

This prejudice against both Irish and Presbyter- ians admits of a ready explanation, if this were the time and place for it, but it cannot be justified.

All of these emigrants from Scotland through Ire- land did not leave Worcester, but some of them be- came permanently settled herc, and their names are still borne by their descendants, who are among the more honored and respected citizens of Worcester of the present generation.

The population of the place had become so great by the year 1721 as to have outgrown the govern- ment and management of its affairs by a committee, and the freeholders and proprietors, therefore, peti- tioned the General Court for an act of incorpora- tion.

And on the 14th of June, 1722, the following re- solve was passed :

Resolved, That the inhabitants of Worcester be vested with the pow- ers and privileges of other towns within this Province, and that it be earnestly recommended to that Council ouly of the seven churches which did meet at Worcester in September, 1721, to whom the con- tending parties submitted their differences relating to the Rev. Mr. An- drew Gardner, that the said Council proceed aud go to Worcester on or before the first Wednesday in September next, to finish what is further necessary to be done for the procuring and establishing of peace in sald town, according to the submission of the parties ; and that the Free- holders aud inbabitants of Worcester be assembled nu the last Wedues- day in September next, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, to choose all town officers as by law accustomed for towus to do at their aunnal meeting in March ; and that, at the opening of the meeting, they first proceed to the choice of a moderator by written votes.

This is commonly cited as the charter or act in- corporating Worcester as a town. It is in form a resolve, and not an act, and confers only such powers and privileges as were possessed by other towns in the province. And it was long after the date of this resolve-in fact, not until after the adoption of the State Constitution, in 1780, that the first act was passed (St. 1785 ch. 75) declaring towns within this government to be bodies politic and corporate. No town was formally incorporated in the colony, province or State until the passage of that act; but by that act all towns that had been previously erected by resolve or otherwise were made bodies corporate. It is true that "the earlier statutes of the colony and province concur with those under the present constitution investing towns with the power to agree upon and make rules, orders and by-laws for managing and ordering the prudential affairs of the town."' But they were not thereby made mu- nicipal corporations, as that term is now understood.

The same learned judge (Chief Justice Shaw), from whose opinion in the case cited the above quo- tation is made, says, in another part of the same opinion, that "townships were originally local divi- sions of the territory, made with a view to a settle- ment and disposition of the property in the soil.

But the proprietors or inhabitants of such territorial divisions were not at first invested with political or municipal rights and powers." It was in this way that Worcester originated, and it was nearly or quite fifty years after the first settlement before the plan- tation passed from the control of a committee, and the inhabitants and proprietors began to exercise municipal powers and rights in the choice of their own officers and the management of their own af- fairs.

The first town-meeting called under the foregoing resolve was held September 28, 1722. The necessary town officers were chosen, who entered at once upon the discharge of their duties; and Worcester then, released from its fifty years of pupilage and disci- pline, asserted its individuality as a corporate power, and has since performed no inconspicuous part in the history of the Commonwealth and nation in times both of peace and war.

¿ 8. Having now briefly sketched the various stages through which Worcester passed, from the first he- roic struggles of its founders till it assumed its equal place among the other organized communities of the Province, the main purpose of this chapter has been accomplished.

And as the writing of its military, ecclesiastical, educational and industrial history, during the sixty years that intervened between 1722 and the close of the Revolutionary War, has been assigned to other hands, a few only of the more strictly municipal events of that period will be touched upon in the remaining pages of this chapter. Although the town had become firmly established, and was no longer menaced by hostile tribes of Indians in its imme- diate vicinity, yet for many years its growth and prosperity were retarded by the actual or appre- hended hostility of what was called the Eastern In- dians, then inhabiting portions of what is now the State of Maine and the adjoining Provinces of Can- ada and Nova Scotia. This state of insecurity made it necessary that considerable numbers of the able- bodied men of the town should be employed to guard the outposts and to give warning of approach- ing danger. And it may with historic truth be af- firmed, that the inhabitants of Worcester and other frontier towns were never permitted to dwell in safety and free from the apprehension of hostile in- vasion from the French or Indians, or both together, until after the crowning victory of Wolfe at Quebec and the treaty of 1763, by which France lost her North American possessions forever, and the Indians, left without civilized allies, hecame less formidable and obstructive to the planters of frontier settlements.

In 1731 an event occurred which produced a bene- ficial and lasting influence on the fortunes of Wor- cester.

At the date of the resolve conferring municipal powers upon Worcester, the town formed a part of Middlesex County, and was situated on the western

1 23 Pickering's Rep., p. 77.

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border of that county. On April 2, 1731, an act was passed by the Provincial Legislature establishing the county of Worcester, and Worcester was made the shire-town of the new county, not because of its rela- tive importance so much as by reason of its central location.

There was a proposition, says Mr. Lincoln in his history, "to make Lancaster and Worcester half- shires, having the sessions of Court held alternately in each, and it would have prevailed, except for the opposition of Joseph Willard, Esq., who remonstrated against the administration of justice in Lancaster, lest the morals of the people should be corrupted."

There can be no reason to doubt the correctness of the historian's statements that such a proposition was made and that Mr. Willard opposed it; but the assign- ment of the reason for his opposition can hardly be accepted without material qualifications. The real reason influencing the careful Mr. Willard may probably be found in another passage from the same historian, in which he records the fact that "the terms of Court were the great holidays of the county, and its population assembled in Worcester, as a general exchange, for the transaction of business, or pursuit of amusement in the rude sports of the period. The judicial proceedings, now forsaken, except by parties, witnesses and officers, were generally attended by a multitude that thronged the streets. Wrestling, fighting and horse-racing were common exercises, and frequent exhibitions of discipline in the stocks and pillory and at the whipping-post attracted crowds of spectators."

Horse-racing in Main Street during the terms of courts was at length forbidden under a penalty of twenty shillings lawful money. This was in 1745. But the prohibition was, by the terms of the vote, to continue for the space of three years only. This was a very common method of legislation during the Colonial period and even later. And the statutes whose duration was fixed by definite limitation were called "temporary laws " in contradistinction from other laws which were termed " perpetual." The es- tablishment of the courts in Worcester at that early period was an event far more important to its pros- perity as a municipality than any similar transaction would be at the present day, when our great mechani- cal and manufacturing industries, extensive trade and unsurpassed railroad facilities render the pres- ence of the courts here relatively an insignificant factor, in the aggregate of influences, which are carrying Worcester forward in its marvelous career of increasing population and wealth. It is indeed true now, as it always has been, that the existence of the courts here makes Worcester the residence of a large proportion of the members of the county bar, who constitute a very influential body of citizens, and whose influence in the main is beneficial to, and confers honor and strength upon, the place of their residence.

In 1722 the owners and tenants in common of the two hundred lots forming the north part of the town- ship held a meeting duly convened for the purpose, and organized a distinct proprietary, called North Worcester, which, however, continued to be a part of Worcester until 1740. In 1730 the planters in the north part were exempted from town rates in the south part for seven years, on condition of making and maintaining their own highways. In 1740 the town voted to consent to the incorporation of North Worcester as a separate town, "if it be the pleasure of the Great and General Court, in consideration of the great distance from the place of public worship." And on the 9th of January, 1740, an act was passed whereby the northerly part of Worcester was set off and " erected into a distinct and separate township, by the name of Holden." The date of this act is given in Lincoln's "History of Worcester " as November 2, 1740-upon what authority does not appear. The above date of January 9, 1740, is taken from vol. ii., pp. 1043-1044 of the "Acts and Resolves of the Prov- ince of Massachusetts Bay," recently printed by au- thority of the Legislature.

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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 127

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1464

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1464