USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Quincy > History of old Braintree and Quincy : with a sketch of Randolph and Holbrook > Part 5
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Braintree > History of old Braintree and Quincy : with a sketch of Randolph and Holbrook > Part 5
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. This, like Fourierism or communities holding land in common- age, was more troublesome and vexatious than any material ad- vantage that might be derived from it, as this proved to be. For years, at the annual town meeting, complaints of trespass and encroachments were reported to the town, and committee after committee was appointed to fine and prosecute all offenders, but it availed nothing. Those who had.leased the land of the town not being able to receive reasonable profit, owing to the many trespasses and encroachments, were obliged to give them up; and in their statement to the town assigned the following reasons for so doing :
" That, during the whole term of our leases we have labored under the greatest discouragement, and have been great sufferers by reason of an open way lain out through said land after said leases were executed. For, although we repeatedly attempted to fence against the same by a sufficient stone wall, yet we were as often prevented by certain unknown evil minded persons, who, as fast as we built up the wall by day, did in the night time throw the same down again, by which means, and innumerable other trespasses upon the premises which could neither be foreseen or prevented. We have been unexpectedly deprived of the great part of the profit we hoped to have reaped by our improvements of said lands; so upon the whole, we are very certain that all
deducting ye charges for the use aforesaid. The committee offer to the town to accept the same with their thanks to them for the same. Mr. Gee at present refuses to give his part to. ye town. Daniel Oliver, Timothy Clarke, Thomas Fitch, Thomas Cushing, Oliver Noyes .- Vol. 2, p. 302.
" March 10th, 1710. Voted, That the present Selectmen, viz .: Addington Davenport, Esq., Messrs. Isaiah Gage, Daniel Oliver, Thomas Cushing, Dr. Oliver Noyes, Joseph Wardsworth, and Edward Hutchinson or any one per- son of them be a committee to sell the town's lands in Braintree, and that they have full power to sign and execute Deeds for the same and yt they lay out ye said money in some real Estate for the use of the Public Latin school. That ye · stock be not exhausted, Provided ye town be advised with before the money be disposed."-Vol. 2, p. 299.
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LAND GRANTS.
the benefit we have derived from the land, will not recompense the labor and expense we have been at."
The town not being able to devise any plan to prevent these annoying trespasses, concluded at last to sell the common lands. On the 29th of March, 1762, the town appointed Josiah Quincy, Samuel Niles, and Thomas Wales a committee to sell the South Common. They were not able at this time to get a vote to sell the North Common, as the opposition of the North precinct was too powerful, they voting solidly against it. But three years after, 1765, the Middle and South precincts joining together, out voted the North, and instructed the town to appoint a committee to sell the North Common. "The following gentlemen were ap- pointed a committee for that purpose : Samuel Niles, John Adams, Jonathan Bass.
The South Common included that high ridge of rocky hills directly south of the easterly end of Water street, extending southerly nearly to Quincy Neck. Summer street is a portion of the old lane laid out by the town into the South Common. This lane is not a part of the old Plymouth road, as many have sup- posed.
The North Common commenced with the town lands on Gran- ite street, included the quarries now in possession of the town, also those belonging to the following individuals : Charles H. Hardwick, Frederick & Field, Mr. Henry Wood's heirs, Greenleaf heirs, Nathaniel F. Safford, Esq., of Milton, and ex- tending through to Adams street, including the Mount Ararat Pasture. The Blue Hill Lands were also included in this sale.1
The following persons are the only purchasers that we have been able to find who had their deeds recorded at that time, which was a small part of the common land sold :
"For the sum of £84. 10s. 7d., Zachariah Marquand, of Brain-
1. The 3000 acres of land granted to Mr. Winthrop for establishing iron works at Braintree reverted back to Boston from breach of contract, and in 1711, disposed of by Boston. The grantees were Manassah Tucker, Samuel Miller, and John Wadsworth, all of Milton. The Court refused to annex the whole purchase to Milton, for the reason that a large part of this tract of land was within the bonnds of Braintree, and decreed that it should be divided as to Jurisdiction between the towns of Braintree and Milton, each to have an equal division of the 1500 acres.
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LAND GRANTS.
tree, bought the southwest corner of the North Common, known as the Babel pasture, containing forty-three acres. 1765.
For £62. 13s. Od., John Adams secured two lots in the North Common. Lot No. three in the fourth division of the most southerly part of the common, containing twenty-three acres, two quarters and seventy-one rods; also lot No. 6 in the third division of the most southerly part, containing fourteen acres. Oct. 14th, 1765.
Moses and Jonathan French, for £35. 15s. 5d., purchased two lots. No. seven in the second division of the wood lot, contain- ing twelve acres ; the other the first lot in the third division, containing fifteen acres, and twenty-five rods.
Benjamin Baxter, yeoman, for £51. 0s. 8d., bought three lots in the most southerly part of the common. Lot No. one in the first division, nine acres, 2 quarters, fourteen rods on the town way ; lot No. three in the first division, 15 acres, three quarters, and seven rods; also lot No. five in the same division, fifteen acres, five rods. Reserving to the inhabitants of the town of Braintree a drift way for horses, teams, cattle, as has been used through each of the lots aforesaid, from the town road by the Scotch Pond, so called, quite round the Seth Bass corner, which drift way through the lots is to be guarded and secured by gates and bars. Also reserving to the town a little building standing on the premises called the powder house, and the right of improv- ing it for a powder house as the town shall think proper. May 13th, 1765.
Peter Boylston Adams secured eighteen acres, five rods for £28. 5s. 0d. Lot No. four in the first division of the most north- erly division of the North Common. Benjamin Hayden, William Whitmarsh, James Faxon, John Vinton, equally to be divided between them as tenants in common, not as joint tenants, four lots of land in the North Common lot No. 6, in the first division of the most northerly part, containing twenty-three acres two quarters eleven rods, bounded westerly on the centre line and extending from Seth Basses corner to the Captain's Bridge. Lot No. five in the second division of the most northerly part of the common, containing sixteen acres three quarters four rods .- Lot No. six in the second division containing sixteen acres
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LAND GRANTS.
two quarters and two rods. Lot No. four in the second division twenty acres, two quarters and eight rods. May 7th, 1765.
April 12th, 1762. Josiah Quincy, Samuel Niles and Thos. Wales were appointed a committee to sell the South Commons. At a meeting held by the town on the 21st of May, 1764, they were instructed to receive back part of said land sold to Jona- than Allen, deceased, and for thirty three pounds, this piece of land, containing fifteen acres, was sold to Mr. Isaac Copeland."
Thus ended the strifes, contentions, litigations and ill-feelings that it had engendered in the town between neighbors, friends and citizens for a century and a quarter; it also removed a great element that was yearly manipulated and used in the interest of politicians at the election of town officers in jobbing out the town common to the friends of the successful candidates. The sale of these commons appears to have supplied the town treasury with quite a large fund, as these barren, rocky lands brought a good price for the time they were sold, averaging about eleven dollars per acre, and this, too, before the art of stone quar- rying was understood in this vicinity. The tradition that the North Common was sold for a yoke of oxen will hardly be borne out in fact. Even if the commons had been sold for so small an amount, it was more than the King of England considered the whole of North America worth, as will be seen by the following historical fact. "When the hard-faced old Cabot went home to the King of England, and told him that he had discovered North America, what did the King of England say to him? We have the King's account-book of that day's expenses. In that book there are these items :-
" To the damsel that danceth, £12
" To the man who found the new island, 10
" To Jake Haute for tennis play, 9
" To a woman with a red rose, 2 shillings.
"By this it would seem that the Continent of North America was rated less than a dance, and cost the Crown of England just the price of one hundred roses."
Aside from the troubles resulting from the allotments and commonage that we have enumerated, still another serious diffi- culty arose. A certain Richard Thayer, in 1682, laid claim to
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LAND TROUBLES.
all the territory of the town of Braintree, by virtue of a surrep- titious Indian Decd ; he petitioned the King of England and obtained a hearing. The inhabitants of the town sent a remon- strance to the King, and also one to their colonial agents in Lon- don. The petition seems not to have been granted, as there is no record of the final hearing. Still it created much uneasiness1 among the citizens of the town, as will be seen by the following remonstrances :
" At the Court at Whitehall, 2d day of March, 1682.
" By the King's most Excellent Majesty, and the Lords of his Majesty's Most Honored Privy Councill.
" Upon reading this day at the Board, a report from the right Hon. the Lords of the Councill for Trade and Foreigne Plan- tations.
"May it please your Majesty.
" In obedience to your Majesty's order in Councill, the Sth of December last, we have considered the Petition of Richard Thayer,2 complaining that the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay,
1. Mr. Thayer's claim to the township seems to have somewhat alarmed some of the inhabitants as to their land titles. To relieve their anxiety and apprehensions, a public meeting was called, March 5th, 1682, for the purpose of assuring the timid land holders that the town would secure to them their titles at all hazards, notwithstanding the Indian deed.
"At this meeting it was voted that every proprietor in the Town of Braintree, that are Legally so by the Town's consent, shall have and enjoy all his own lands and proprities in the township of Braintree which they have bought & enjoyed from the first being of the Town unto this day all their Legall right and titles to lands as their own proper right, notwithstanding any expression in ye Indian Deed from Josiah Sachem."
17th July, 1683. "At a public Towne Meeting, it was voted, that the pres- ent Selectmen, together with Caleb Hobart and Joseph Crosby, shall be a Com- mittee, and be impowered by the Towne of Brantry, to consider and act accord- ing to their best discretion, what may be most advisable in order to a transmis- sion of an Authentic Copie of a Deed from Josiah Sachem, according to his Majestie's order; and also to consider and to doe what may be most conducable for the Towne's safety, in all the premises, to doe in behalfe of the Towne, ac- cording to their best judgments; only the Towne to have a sight to what is sent."
2. "To the King most Excellent Majesty. The Humble Peticoner of Richard Thare, of Braintry, in New England. Sheweth :
" That yo'r Peticoner, with severall other of yo'r Majesty's Subjects, about forty years ago went over to New England and purchased a large Tract of Land of Wampatuck Josias, a great Indian Sachem, as by Deed and other writings
7
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LAND TROUBLES.
in New England, have wrongfully dispossed him of the town and Lands of Braintree, which he and others long since pur- chased of an Indian Sachem, under pretence that said town and lands are within the grant to that Colony, and praying that he
fully appears, though that land is now Braintry, where they settled themselves and families and enjoyed quiet possession for many years; that the Southern bounds of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England, extend but three miles in a direct southern line from every part of Charles River, as by their charter doth appear. Yet, under a pretence of an imaginary line, they have enlarged their Southern boundary and thereby taken the Town of Brain- try, with other towns and land thereunto belonging, into their jurisdiction, and by an order of a General Court, have disposed of a great part of yo'r Peticon- er's land by Capt. Thomas Savage and Capt. Clapp, now or late inhabitant of Boston. That yo'r Peticoner hath for many years been disturbed in his posses- sions by said Savage and Clapp upon their order of General Court, and being compelled to defend his claims to said Land in the Court of Boston, yo'r Peti- coner at the Tryall produced His Enroled Deed from the said Wampatuck Josias, but they would not be allowed of, whereupon yo'r Peticoner did in open Court at Boston appeal to yo'r Majesty in Councill, to the end he might attain a fair Tryall for his said Land, but that being also refused, yo'r Peticoner, about 3 years since, came over hither to make his appeal in person to yo'r Majesty. But through the persuasion of Mr. Stoughton and Mr. B-, their then New England Agents there, who promised yo'r Peticoner if he would forbear putting in his Peticon, and appeal, he should have all Justice and Right don in New England, and be restored to his Lands. Yo'r Pet'r accordingly forebore his prosecution here and returned again for New England, when, instead of restor- ing him, they have lately granted judgement and execution against yo'r Pet's Lands and Plantation, and have thereby dispossessed him and his wife and family of their Estates, to his bitter Ruin, without yo'r Majesty's Royall Justice and favor vouchsafed to him. Now, for as much as the said Town of Braintry, and several adjacent Towns and the Land thereto belonging, are not included within the Extent of the Charter or Grant either of New Ply- mouth or the Massachusetts Bay, but are independent from either of their juris- diction, and immediately under yo'r Majesty's Government and Authority, and that yo'r Peticoner and the other Proprietors being Loyall Subjects, and desir- ous of being ruled according to the laws and methods of yo'r Majesty's gracious Government here, both in Church and State, and not to be Subject to the Tyranny and oppression of the said Colony.
"Yo'r Peticoner Most Humbly prayes yo'r Sacred Majesty to take the great injuries and suffering of yo'r poor Loyall Subjects into yo'r princely piety and consideration, and to order the New England Agents now attending your Majesty to make it appear before yo'r Majesty, (if they can) to the satisfaction of yo'r Royall Wisdom that the said Town and Lands of Braintry are within the limits or legal construction of the said Massachusetts Charter, or that yo'r Peticoner may, by yo'r Royall Authority and order, be forthwith restored to the said Town and Lands according to his said purchase and former long enjoyment
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LAND TROUBLES.
may be relieved. To which Petition we have caused the Agent for the Colony of the Mass. to give their answer in writing. The Petitioner also showing a protest which he made against the town of Braintree, for refusing to give him
thereof, yo'r Peticoner being by the unjust dissision altogether impoverished and incapable to obtain his right otherwise than by yo'r Majesty's Gracious in- terposition and assistance.
" And yo'r Peticoner, as in duty bound, shall ever Pray.
" At the Court Whitehall, Dec. 8th, 1682. " Present."
"The King's Most Excellent Majesty in Councill, upon Reading the Peticon of Richard Thare, of Braintry, in New England, complaining of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, for wrongfully dispossessing him of a large tract of Land in that Country, which he and others long since purchased of an Indian Sachem, on the pretence that the said Land is within the limits of their Charter or Grant, as in said Peticon is more largely expressed.
"It is this day ordered by his Majesty in Councill, that a Copy of the Peticon be given the Lords of the Committee for Trade and Foreign Plantations, who are to examine the application thereof, and to report to the board how they find the same, together with their Lordships' opinion, and his Majesty will declare his further pleasure.
" At the Committee of Trades and Plantations, at the Councill Table at Whitehall, Thursday, 25th Jan., 1682-3. Present : Lord Hooper, Lord Presi- dent, Earl Sunderland, Earl of Clarendon, Earl of Craven, Earl of Conway, Earl of Rochester, Lord Vic. Fauconberg, Lord London, Lord Dartmouth.
" The Peticon of Richard Thare, referred to their Lordships by order of the Councill dated the 8th of December last, is now read, setting forth the Colony of the Massachusetts had wrongfully dispossessed him of the Town Lands of Braintry, in New England, for which, after a Tryall had at the General Court at Boston, he had prayed an appeal to his Majesty in Council, which was not allowed of them, as also that the Government of the Massachusetts had by colour of an imaginary line extended their Southern Bounds, and thereby taken the Town of Brantry, with other Towns and Lands, into their jurisdiction, and imposed great hardships upon the proprietors thereof, wherefor Their Lords ordered that a copy of the said Peticon be sent to the Agents of the Massachu- · setts Colony now attending his Majesty, and they return an Answer thereunto. "Ex't WILLIAM BLASHWAYH.'"
"In obedience to the order of the Right. Hon., the Lords, the said Commit- tee of Trade and Plantations of Jan. 25th, 1682-3, in Answer to the Peticon of Richard Thare of Brantry, in New England, Joseph Dudley and John Rich- ards, in behalf of the Massachusetts Colony, Though Humbly offered.
" That the Peticoner is but one of the inhabitant of the Town of Brantry, consisting of about Seventy or Eighty families, of all whose Lands the said Thare is so far from being the owner, as he seemeth to intermate in the prayer of his Peticon, that his title or pretence (that we ever heard of) will scarcely reach the one hundredth part thereof, and he produced no Authority from his neighbours, Inhabitants of that Town, for his Peticon,
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LAND TROUBLES.
the benefit of a Deed wherein he was concerned, to clear his title to the land claimed by him. Upon consideration whereof we are humbly of an opinion that the petition of appeals be received, and heard by your Majesty's Councill, and not only the Town of Braintree may be ordered to present an authentique Copy of the said Deed, wherein the said Thayer is concerned, But that the government of Massachusetts Bay be also obliged to give notice to the Defendant, Thomas Savage and Capt. Clapp, of said appeals, and to send to the Board such
"That originally the same Town was a small Hamlet of farms belonging to the town of Boston, granted unto them by the General Assembly of the Colony of the Massachusetts, and afterwards erected into a Town by there allowance, and certain forests Lands added to said farms for the accommodation of the Inhabitants, upon which grant both he and his neighbours have peaceably lived for about 25 years before the Deed was obtained from Josiah Sachem, in the Peticon mentioned.
"That the said Deed mentioned as granted from Josias Sachem (as we sup- pose Mr. Thare will own) was not therefore the foundation of their Settlement upon said Lands and the Town of Braintry, but was many years since obtained on the account and behalf of all the Inhabitants of the Town jointly and not singly for Mr. Thare, they having Equal Rights and share in it, and that in greater proportion than the Peticoner, and was taken of the said Sachem as a further confirmation of their title to their several possessions, which they have been long peaceably settled.
"That the line between his Majesty's Collonys, the Massachusetts and New Plymouth, hath been a Collony for forty years settled, and many times since confirmed to their mutual satisfaction, particularly to Maj. Winslow, the late Governor, and severall others commissioned from both Collonys about twenty years since, and is at this time questioned by non as we know off but Mr. Thare, who hath sometimes (as he pleaseth himself) judged it to belong to the Massa- chusetts, sometimes to Plymouth, and now to neither.
"That his Tryall with Mr. Savage, Capt. Clapp, when holden in his Majes- ty's Court before sworn judges, jurors, and there determined as a question of private Right between the partyes, who had the better Right to the land in ques- tion, the Massachusetts Collony being no way concerned to support the title of the one or the other, but to do justice between both parties.
"That the Inhabitants of Braintry and other Towns, within the jurisdiction of his Majesty's Collony of the said Massachusetts, have had no hardship im- posed on them by the Massachusetts, no Laws being made without the Depu- ties' Assistance, and it is believed Mr. Thare hath very few (if any) to join with him in that complaint.
" Any further particular account of the proceedings in the copy mentioned in his Peticon referring thereto, we cannot, having not in our hand the papers or record thereof. "
"No Signature. Feb. 5th, 1682."-Mass. Arch., Vol. 3, p. 34-35.
.
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LAND TROUBLES.
papers and Records as shall be necessary for the full desission of the Case.
" Councill Chamber, February 16th, 1682-3.
" His Majesty, in Councill, was pleased to approve thereof, to receive and admitt the appeal of the said Richard Thayer, and it was therefore ordered that the whole matter be heard at this board the first Councill day in Michalmas Term next, and that the matter may be then finally determined. It was likewise further ordered that the said town of Braintree do forthwith have sent an authentique copy of the Deed1 wherein the said Thayer is concerned, and the Government of the Massachusetts Bay are also required to give notice to the said defendant,
1. The following is an authentic copy of this Indian Deed. It is still pre- served, and to be seen in the town house of old Braintree. On the back of it is the following: "In the 17th reign of Charles II., Brantry Indian Deede, given 1665, Ang. 10th. Take great care of it."
"INDIAN DEED.
"To all Indian people to whom these presents sball come: - Wampatuck, alias, Josiah Sagamore, of Massachusetts, in Newengland, the son of Chicka- tabut, deceased, sendeth greeting: Know yoo that the said Wampatuck, being of full age and power, according to the order and custom of the natives, hath with the consent of his wise men, viz .: Squamog, his brother Daniel, and old Hahatun, and William Mananiomott, Job Nassott, Manuntago, William Na- hanton. The abovesaid Wampatuck Sagamore, for divers good and valuable reasons thereunto, and in special for, and in consideration of twenty-one pounds, ten shillings in hand, payd by Samuel Basse, Thomas Faxon, Francis Eliot, William Needham, and William Savill, Henry Neale, Richard Thayer, Chris- topher Webb, all of Braintrey, in the County of Suffolk, in New-England, in the behalf of the inhabitants of the Town of Braintrey, above said, within themselves; whereof and wherewith the said Wampatuck doth acknowledge himself fully satisfied, contented and payd ; thereof and of every part thereof doth exonerate, acquit and discharge the abovesaid Samuel Basse, Thomas Faxon, &c., with all the inhabitants of the Town of Braintrey, them, their heirs, executors, administrators, and assignes, and every of them. And by these presents have given, granted, bargained, sold, enfeoffed and confirmed, and by these presents do give, grant, bargain, sell, enfeoff, and confirm unto the said Samuel Basse, Thomas Faxon, &c., and with themselves, in the behalf of all the inhabitants of the Town of Braintree, them, their heirs and assignes, forever, all the East of lands within the bounde of Braintrey, above-said, be there more or lesse, being bounded on the sea side with the North East, and with Dorchester line on the North West, and by Waymouth line by the South East, and by Dorchester line on the South West. Excepting Mr. Wilson's farme, Mr. Coddington's farme, Mr. Hough's Neck of land, Mr. Quinsey's farme, which
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LAND TROUBLES.
Thomas Savage and Capt. Clapp, of the said appeals, and to send to this Board such papers and Records as shall be necessary for the final desission of this Case, at the same time, according to the said report. FRANCIS GUYN."
Mass. Arch. Vol. 1, page 187.
" Remonstrance made by the town of Braintree, within the Massachusetts Colony in New England, against a complaint exhibited to the King's Most Excellent Majesty by Richard Thayer, complaining against us :
" Whereas, having first made the most sincere and solemn protestation of our loyalty and subjection, under sacred obliga- tions, unto our sovereign lord the King, with our most hearty and humble acknowledgement of his Majesty's royal favor in granting and given unto us a being under his Government of the Massachusetts, by benefit of which we have lived under the most benign influence of his princely wisdom, power, grace, and
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