USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > History of the early settlement of Newton, county of Middlesex, Massachusetts, from 1639-1800. With a genealogical register of its inhabitants, prior to 1800 > Part 5
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The second Town Meeting was held on the 30th January, 1681, at which meeting it was voted that the Selectmen should provide weights and measures, for standards ; and John Spring was chosen Sealer. It was also voted, that Sergeant John Ward and Noah Wiswall should commence a new record book, and copy all that was of moment from the old book ; and several other votes were passed.
The first movement of the inhabitants of the Village, for a separation from the church and town of Cambridge, was commenced in 1654, and completed August 27, 1679 - a quarter of a century.
During that severe and tedious struggle, to obtain the privileges of an independent town, they exhibited a most determined perseverance and love of freedom. They offered to buy their freedom outright, with pounds sterling; and Cambridge had made several propositions for compromise, one of which was confirmed by the General Court, but the inhabitants of the Village were determined to accept nothing less than an independent town.
In the language of the remonstrants, "those long-breathed petitioners rested not, but continued to bait their hooks, and cast their lines into the sea, tiring out the Courts with their eager pursuits, and obliging them to dance after their pipers for twenty-five years."
There were sixty-five freemen in the Village, when the new town was launched, fifty-two of whom signed the petition which severed the Village from Cambridge.
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EARLY HISTORY OF NEWTON.
1688. " Articles of Agreement, made September 17, 1688, between the Selectmen of Cambridge, and the Select- men of the Village, in behalf of their respective towns :
" That, whereas, Cambridge Village, by order of the General Court in the late Government, was enjoined to bear their proportion in the charges in the upholding and main- taining of the Great Bridge and school, with some other things of a public nature in the town of Cambridge; also, there having been some difference between the Selectmen of said towns, concerning the laying of rates, for the end above said, that the Village shall pay to the town of Cambridge the sum of £5 in merchantable corn, at the former prices, at or before the first day of May next ensuing the date above, in full satisfaction of all dues and demands by the said town from the said Village, on the account above said, from the beginning of the world to the 11th January, 1687. Provided, always, and it is to be hereby understood, that the town of Cambridge, on consideration of £4 in current county pay, already in hand payed to the Village above said, shall have free use of the highway laid out from the Village Meeting-house to the Falls, forever, without any let, molest- ation or denial; also, that the Constable of the Village shall pay to the town of Cambridge, or that is in their hands unpaid, of their former rates due to the town of Cambridge above said. In witness whereof, the Selectmen above said hereunto set their hands, the day and year first above written.
JOHN COOPER, SAMUEL ANDREWS, WALTER HASTINGS, DAVID FISKE, SAMUEL STONE, JONATHAN REMINGTON,
Selectmen of Cambridge.
JOHN SPRING, EDWARD JACKSON, JAMES PRENTICE, -
Selecimen of
New Cambridge.
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EDUCATION.
1689. April 30. "Received of John Clark, Constable of New Cambridge, £5 in corn, at the common price ; that is, Rye at four shillings the bushel, Indian at three shillings, and Oats at two shillings the bushel.
By me, SAMUEL ANDREWS."
1691. December 8. "In answer to the petition of the inhabitants of Cambridge Village, lying on the south side of Charles river, sometime called New Cambridge, being granted to be a township, praying that a name may be given to said town, - It is ordered, that it be henceforth called New Town."
This order of the General Court, for a name only, has been mistaken by historians for the incorporation of the town, whereas the petitioners had been an independent town for twelve years.
The child was born on the 27th August, 1679, but was not duly christened until the 8th of December, 1691.
EDUCATION.
"The first law establishing Public Schools in America, was passed by the General Court of Massachusetts, on the 27th October, 1647."
A grammar school was very early established at Cam- bridge, and appears to have been an object of great care and attention. In 1643, a writer observes :- " By the side of the College is a fair grammar school, for training up of young scholars, and fitting them for academical learning, and as they are judged ripe, they may be received into the College. Mr. Corlet is the master who hath been well approved himself." Some years after, this school received a liberal donation from Edward Hopkins, Esq., Governor of Connecticut, who died in 1657. £500 of his estate in
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EARLY HISTORY OF NEWTON.
England, was given to the College and the grammar school in Cambridge, which was laid out in real estate, in the town of Hopkinton, and constituted a respectable fund.
The town of Cambridge was taxed more or less for the support of this school, and the inhabitants of Cambridge Village, according to their ability, were taxed for its main- tenance. In the proposal which Cambridge made to quiet the Village, in 1672, and which the General Court sanc- tioned, in 1673, required the Village to continue their support to the grammar school. That proposition was rejected by the Village, not because it held them, to support the grammar school, but because it refused to accord to them the privileges of an independent town. It is quite probable, however, that if the Court's record shall ever be found, that one of the conditions of the separation of 1679 will be, that the Village continue its support to the grammar school.
As the inhabitants of the Village contributed to the support of the grammar school at Cambridge, they had an equal right to its advantages, and, although it was somewhat distant from them, it is probable that some of the sons of the early settlers attended that school.
1642. " According to an order of the last General Court, it is ordered that the townsmen see to the educating of children, and that the town be divided into six parts, and a person appointed for each division, to take care of all families it contained." -- [ Cambridge Records.]
There does not appear to have been any public or private school in the Village, for sixty years after its first settlement.
No doubt many families taught their children to read, write, and cypher, at their own houses, while others of them neglected it. They were in a wilderness, and thought that the lessons of the farm were more important than those of
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the school house. The erection of the school house was near half a century behind that of the Meeting-house.
The following extracts, relative to schools and school houses, are taken from the Town records.
1698. Marclı 7. " The Town voted to build a school house as soon as they can !"
1699. May. " Voted, to build a school house, sixteen feet by fourteen, before the last of November."
1700. January 1. "The Selectmen and inhabitants did hire and agree with John Staples to continue the keeping of the school, four days in a week, until March, and he to have two shillings per day."
" Voted, that the school house be set in the highway, near to Joseph Bartlett's, and that it be finished by the first of October, and agreed with John Staples to keep the school one month, four days in a week, for £1 4s."
Nov. 25. "Voted, that the Selectmen shall hire a room, or place to keep school in, and shall agree with John Staples, or some other, to keep and continue the school until the Town Meeting of election in March."
1701. May 14. " Abraham Jackson, son of John Jack- son, Senior, gave to the town one acre of land, for the 1 setting of the school house upon, and the enlarging of the burial place, and the convenience of the training place."
" Voted, that the Selectmen, and Ephraim Wheeler, John Hyde, Nathaniel Healy, and Edward Jackson, treat with and persuade John Staples to keep the school, and if they cannot, then to use their best discretion to agree with and hire some other person."
" Voted, unanimously, to build two school houses, one to be set at the Meeting-house, seventeen feet square, besides chimney room, and the other near Oak-hill, sixteen feet square, besides chimney room; £25 appropriated for both, and the residue to be made up by supscription ; one master
6*
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EARLY HISTORY OF NEWTON.
to be liired, to teach two thirds of the time at the Meeting- house school, and one third of the time at Oak-hill; and those that send children to school, shall pay three pence per week for those who learn to read, and four pence for those that learn to write and cypher, and all may send to either school, as they choose. Captain Prentice, Lieutenant Spring, and John Hyde, were joined with the Selectmen, to build the school houses."
- 1706. " Captain Isaac Williams, Lieutenant John Ma- son, and Abraham Jackson, chosen School Committee."
They were the first School Committee in the town; after which a School Committee was chosen annually.
1718. "Voted £10 to the inhabitants in the north-west- erly part of the town, for promoting learning among them, by employing a school master."
1721. "The Town voted not to have more than one school, but Samuel Miller, at the westerly part of the town, offered a room in his house for a school, and the town accepted it."
1722. " Voted, that the school should be kept two thirds of the time at the Meeting-house, and one third of the time at the south part."
1723. "Voted, that the school be kept in three places ; half the time at the west part, quarter at the north, and quarter at the south."
" Voted, to build a school house in the centre of the town, eighteen by twenty-four, six feet joints ; reconsidered, and voted to district the town. South district, from Stake Meadow brook to South Meadow brook, and thence to the river, and the school to be kept one third part of the time, or their proportion as to taxes ; the northerly and east- erly district, by the Meeting-house, according to the taxes ; and the westerly district to have £12, 10s. to build a school house, within forty rods of the house of Samuel Miller, and
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they to have their proportion of time, according to the taxes they pay, and any inhabitant to have liberty to send his children to either school."
1733. "Voted, to authorize the Selectmen to use one of the school houses for a work house, during the recess of the school."
1742. "Voted, that the Centre school house, by the Meeting-house, be removed to the Dedham road, and placed between the lane that comes from Edward Prentice's and Mill lane, where the committee shall order."
" Voted, that the petition of sundry inhabitants of the west part be granted, to remove the school house about twenty rods east of John Park's, on the County road.
1751. " Voted, to have two more school masters, and to repair the school houses."
1753. " Voted, to have two more school masters."
1754. " Voted, to have three schools in the town, kept from 1st December to March meeting.
Judge Abraham Fuller kept a private grammar school, and taught the higher branches of education, previous to 1760. Joseph Ward entered this school as an assistant, in 1757, at the age of twenty. It was here that Colonel Ward, while an assistant, learned the higher branches of education.
1761. "Voted, that the grammar school be kept at the house of Edward Durant."
1762. "The Town was presented for not setting up a grammar school, and the Selectmen were chosen to defend the Town against it, at the Court."
" Voted, that the grammar school be kept at the house of Edward Durant, until the further order of the Town."
1763. " Voted, to have four districts and four schools, and all to be provided with wood. Centre, £19, 9s., twenty weeks and two days ; North-west, £13, 11s., fourteen weeks
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EARLY HISTORY OF NEWTON.
and two days ; Oak-hill, £10, 10s., ten weeks and six days ; South-west, £6, 10s., six weeks and five days."
1765. " Voted, £50, for schools."
1766. "Voted, that the North school house be placed as near as may be to the spot of land formerly occupied by Abraham Jackson's blacksmith shop."
1766. " Voted, £16, to employ a school mistress."- [First woman's school.]
" Voted, to have five school districts and five school houses, and one Committee man for each school."
1768. "£50 appropriated for men's, and £16 for women's school.""
Proportion for five school districts; west, £11, 14s. 2d ; north, £9, 6s. 1d .; east, £10, 10s. 2d .; south, £10, 4s. 2d. ; south-west, £8, 14s."
Charles Pelham, Esq., from Boston, purchased the home- stead of the Rev. John Cotton, in April, 1765, and soon after opened a private academy in his house. He is said to have been a man of very agreeable manners, of good talents and education, and well qualified for his occupation as a teacher. It is probable, however, that most of his scholars came from Boston and other towns."
1769. " Voted, a grammar school to be kept in such school house as the committee may determine."
1774. The appropriation for schools, for many years, had been £50; was now raised to £60. In 1786 to £80. In 1790 to £85. In 1791 to £100, and six districts, and divided as follows : west, £19, 9s. 5d. 1f .; north, £21, 16s. 1d. 1f .; east, £20, 15s. 0d. 2f .; south, £18, 1s. 1d. 3f .; south-west, £17, 2s. 1d. 3f .; Lower Falls, £2, 6s. 1d. 2f.
1795. The appropriation was one hundred and thirty pounds.
1796. It was five hundred dollars.
1800. It was six hundred dollars.
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1794. " The Town voted to choose a committee to pur- chase as many of the present school houses, with the land appurtenant, as can be obtained upon reasonable terms."
" Report of the committee on purchasing the school houses, as follows. The proprietors of the east school house estimate their house at £40; the south school house at £90; south-west at £100; west referred the price to the committee; north £20.
September 15, 1794.
NATHAN FULLER, MICHAEL JACKSON,
BENJAMIN HAMMOND,
Committee."
SIMEON POND,
EBENEZER WOODWARD,
1795. " Voted, to allow the proprietors of the south-west school house £100."
" Voted, to allow the proprietors of the north school house £30."
" Colonel Josiah Fuller, Major Timothy Jackson, Captain William Hammond, Lieutenant Caleb Kenrick, Dr. John King, and Dr. Ebenezer Starr, together with the Ministers of the gospel, were chosen a committee, to prepare rules and regulations for the schools."
1796. " Voted, that five stoves be provided to warm the school houses."
The committee chosen in 1795, to mature a plan relative to the regulation and government of schools of the town, not having made any report, another committee was chosen for the same purpose, in 1802, consisting of Deacon Joseph Fuller, Dr. John King, Dr. Ebenezer Starr, Timothy Jack- son, Esquire, Colonel Benjamin Hammond, and Dea. Jere- miah Wiswall, to be joined by the Ministers of the gospel.
1803. Chose another committee for the same purpose.
1806. Chose another committee for the same purpose,
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EARLY HISTORY OF NEWTON
but no report of any of the committees is to be found on record.
1808. The town was divided into seven school wards, viz. east, west, north, south, south-west, Centre, and the Falls.
PROVISION FOR THE POOR.
The first entry upon the Town record, relative to the Poor, is March 5, 1711. " Voted, that once a year there shall be a contribution on Thanksgiving day for the Poor, which shall be paid into the town treasury, and given out to the Poor by the Selectmen, as they see need."
Previous contributions were no doubt made, and individ- ual cases of suffering were met by the voluntary acts of their charitable neighbors. The Hyde manuscripts record several instances of this sort, namely :
1703. " A contribution was made for John Parker, when he lost his cows. Also, for Nathaniel Parker; also, for Samuel Hyde, when his house was burnt, May 7, 1709 also, for Daniel Hyde," &c.
1731. " Voted, to build a work house."
1733. " Voted, that the Selectmen, or Overseers of the Poor, have power to set idle and disorderly persons to work; and one of the school houses, in the recess of the school shall be used as a work house."
1734. " Lieutenant Wm. Trowbridge, Nathaniel Ham mond, Daniel Woodward, Wm. Hyde, and Samuel Truse- dale, were chosen the first Board of Overseers of the Poor."
1750. " Chose Henry Gibbs, William Hyde, and Rob- ert Murdock, a committee to build a work house."
1763. " Voted, to build a work house, twenty-four feet by twenty-six, one story high, upon the town's land, near Dr. King's, or some other place, and appropriated £50 for that purpose."
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BURYING GROUNDS.
BURYING GROUNDS.
1701. " About the time of the setting up of the first Meeting-house, [1660,] Deacon John Jackson gave one acre of land for the place for the house to stand on, and for a burying place ; and May 14, 1701, Abraham Jackson [son of Deacon John] added and gave, for the setting of the school house upon, the enlarging of the burying place, and the convenience of the training place, one acre more, which said two acres was then laid out and bounded, west and south with the highway, east with the land of Isaac Beach ; marked at the south-east corner with stake and stones ; north-east corner, stake and stones; north by the land of said Abraham Jackson ; a marked black oak tree near the easterly corner ; and a white oak tree near the middle, by the highway side; and a white oak at the north-west corner, by the highway side, which marks were stated, and the land measured out, the day and year above written, by Deacon James Trowbridge, Abraham Jackson, Joseph Fuller, and Edward Jackson."
This valuable gift of two acres of land, was the south- west corner of a tract of twenty acres, divided by lot, in 1662, to Deacon John Jackson, as one of the proprietors of the common lands of Cambridge, and which was called Chesnut Hill. His son Abraham inherited this tract, and was one of the Selectmen, when he gave the second acre, and helped stake it out, in 1701.
In 1717, he conveyed Chesnut Hill to his only son, Cap- tain John Jackson, by deed of gift, and described it as follows, namely: "twenty acres at Chesnut Hill, except four acres, which in 1686 he conveyed to Isaac Beach, which lyeth within the bounds of the same, excepting also
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EARLY HISTORY OF NEWTON.
the land the Meeting-house* now standeth, so long as the Town shall see cause to improve it for the use they now do."
Captain John Jackson died in 1755, and his son John, of the fourth generation, was the executor of his will ; and he set up a claim to a part of this ancient gift, in 1765, because it had never been legally conveyed to the town ; but although the town had no paper title, they nevertheless had the "nine points ;" they had been in actual possession of the first acre more than a hundred years, and of part of the second acre more than sixty years ; but that portion of the second acre which lies between the present burying ground and the Dedham road, was low, sometimes partly covered with water, was unsuitable for graves, and none had been dug there, and therefore, it was doubtful whether the town ever fenced it, or had actual possession, or had used it for either of the four purposes for which it was given, namely, for a Meeting-house, burying place, school house, or training place.
In consequence of the claim of John Jackson, grandson of Abraham, the town, at its March meeting, 1765, voted to settle the bounds of the burying place.
At a subsequent Town Meeting, same year, the Selectmen reported " that they had staked out one and a half acres, where the burying place then was, and John Jackson to give a sufficient title to the same, on condition that the town fence in the same, and maintain the fence forever."
By this settlement, the town lost half an acre and about twenty rods, of the original gift. The remaining portion now measures one acre, three quarters, and twenty rods. The ancient donors were not only liberal in their gift, but liberal in their measure, also, staking out full two and a half acres, and calling it but two acres.
* The First Meeting-house.
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BURYING GROUNDS.
From the language of the settlement, we infer that the place was not fenced in until after 1765. After it was fenced, the Sexton pastured his cattle therein, until about the year 1800; and from this practice, doubtless, some of the grave-stones have been displaced or broken by the cattle, and lost.
According to the records and monuments, Rev. John Eliot, Jr., and his first wife, Sarah Willett, (daughter of Captain Thomas Willett, of Plymouth Colony, and first Mayor of New York,) were probably the first persons buried here; one in June, 1665, and the other in October, 1668. Richard Parke died in the Village in 1665; it is uncertain whether he was buried here, or at Old Cambridge, where he formerly lived.
About 1802, the proprietors of the brick tombs on the north-west side, purchased a strip of land one rod wide, adding thereto about nineteen rods, with a view of continu- ing the tombs across that side of the burying place.
In April, 1834, the town purchased of Charles Brackett, one acre of land, adjoining the north-east side of the bury- ing place; the whole contents are now three acres, less seven rods.
In September, 1852, a marble monument was erected near the centre of the first acre of land, given by John Jackson, Senior, upon the spot where the first Meeting- house was erected, in 1660. Upon one side of the monu- ment the names of the earliest settlers of the town are inscribed, with the date of their settlement, time of their decease, and their ages ; upon the other sides of the monu- ment are inscriptions to the memory of the first Minister, the first ruling Elder, and the donors of the burying place. It was erected by forty-three of the descendants of those whose settlement and memory it commemorates.
At its foundation were deposited some historical facts, in
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EARLY HISTORY OF NEWTON.
a printed pamphlet, sufficient to illustrate three historical epochs of the town, namely : its first settlement, in 1639 ; the ordination of its first Minister, in 1664; its separation from Cambridge, and organization as an independent town, in 1679.
WEST PARISH BURYING GROUND.
About the time of the settlement of the Rev. William Greenough, the first Minister of the West Parish, Colonel Nathan Fuller gave to the Parish one acre and a half of land, for a burying ground, situated about sixty rods north of the Meeting-house. His deed is dated September 21, 1781, and acknowledged January 28, 1782. "In consid- eration of his love and esteem for the Parish, he conveys it to their committee, their heirs and assigns, forever, for the sole use and improvement of the precinct, to be improved , only as a burying place, for the repository of the dead in said precinct ; bounded easterly by land of Nathaniel Greenough, north and west by land of said Fuller, and south by the town way, as the stone fence now stand- eth," &c .*
Colonel Nathan Fuller also gave £60 to the church and congregation, in April, 1785.
SOUTH BURYING PLACE.
Was laid out in the Summer of 1802. At a meeting of the inhabitants of that part of the town, on the 21st June, 1802, to consider the subject of laying out a new burying place, a committee was chosen, consisting of Edward Mitchell, Ebenezer Cheney, and Jeremiah Wiswall, Jr., who were instructed by the meeting to purchase a piece of ground for a new burying place.
* West Parish Records.
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BURYING GROUNDS.
The committee purchased about three-fourths of an acre of land, of Captain David Richardson, very near the cor- ner of the Dedham and Sherburne roads, part of which was marked off into twenty-nine equal lots, for family burial places, for the original proprietors, namely :
Jonathan Bixby,
Daniel Richards,
Jonathan Bixby, Jr., Luke Bartlett,
Solomon Richards,
Aaron Richards,
Salmon Barney,
Thaddeus Richards,
Aaron Cheney, ,
James Richards,
Ebenezer Cheney,
Simon Eliot,
Samuel Parker, Jonathan Richardson,
Edward Hall,
Benjamin Richardson,
Solomon Hall,
Ebenezer Richardson, Jeremiah Richardson,
Caleb Kenrick,
Jeremiah Richardson, Jr.,
Edward Mitchell,
Jeremiah Wiswall,
Joseph Parker,
Jeremiah Wiswall, Jr.
Jonas Stone,
(2 lots.)
Amasa Winchester,
These proprietors sold out to the town, in 1833, reserving the right to bury in their respective family lots, as origi- nally laid out.
About the same time, Amasa Winchester gave to the town about three-fourths of an acre of adjoining land, for the sole purpose of enlarging the burying place ; making its whole contents about one and a half acres .- [ Proprietors' Records.]
LOWER FALLS BURYING PLACE.
In 1813, an act of incorporation was granted by the General Court, to the St. Mary's Parish, at the Lower Falls. About the same time, a valuable lot, of two acres of
Samuel Hall,
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EARLY HISTORY OF NEWTON.
land, as a site for the church, and a cemetery, was presented to the corporation, by Samuel Brown, Esq., an eminent merchant of Boston - extensive estates at the Falls having passed into his possession .- [ Baury's Sermon, 1847.]
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