USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Dunstable > History of the old township of Dunstable: including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and Merrimac, N. H.; Dunstable and Tyngsborough, Mass > Part 4
USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Tyngsborough > History of the old township of Dunstable: including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and Merrimac, N. H.; Dunstable and Tyngsborough, Mass > Part 4
USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Hudson > History of the old township of Dunstable: including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and Merrimac, N. H.; Dunstable and Tyngsborough, Mass > Part 4
USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Nashua > History of the old township of Dunstable: including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and Merrimac, N. H.; Dunstable and Tyngsborough, Mass > Part 4
USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Litchfield > History of the old township of Dunstable: including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and Merrimac, N. H.; Dunstable and Tyngsborough, Mass > Part 4
USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Nashville > History of the old township of Dunstable: including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and Merrimac, N. H.; Dunstable and Tyngsborough, Mass > Part 4
USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Hollis > History of the old township of Dunstable: including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and Merrimac, N. H.; Dunstable and Tyngsborough, Mass > Part 4
USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Merrimack > History of the old township of Dunstable: including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and Merrimac, N. H.; Dunstable and Tyngsborough, Mass > Part 4
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In consequence of this alarm a company of scouts, under Lt. James Richardson, (2.) trav- ersed the valley of the Merrimac during the whole season, to ward off any threatened attack. A garrison was also maintained at the expense of the Colony. But in September 1677 a party of French Mohawks from Quebec suddenly came to Naamkeak (near Pawtucket Falls, ) with whom was said to be the brother of Wannalancet, and carried him with all his tribe to Canada. They did no damage to the English, however, although they had suffered so many provocations, and no w enjoyed such an opportunity for revenge, " being restrained as is supposed by Wannalancet." (3.)
From this long catalogue of perils, alarms, and disasters, we may now turn to the civil affairs of the town, and to a period when peace brought with it its attendant blessings-security and pros- perity. The settler no longer feared an ambus- cade in every thicket, nor listened in the night
(1.) 3 .N. H. Hist. Coll., 100.
(2.) Mass. Military Records, 1677, page 519.
(3.) Gookin. 2 Am. Ant. Coll. 520.
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watches for the prowling footsteps of a foe. Eng- land and France, Charles II. and Louis XIV., were at war no longer. The " Treaty of Nime- guen,"(1.) strange though it be, was the protec- tion of Dunstable. The deserted cabin was again tenanted, the half cleared field was cleared and tilled, and new cabins sent up their smokes all along our rich intervals.
(1.) July 31, 1678
CHAPTER III.
HISTORY FROM 1675 TO 1685.
TowN meetings were holden in Dunstable as early as 1675, and town officers were then chos- en, for in 1682 we find the town voting "yt Jo- seph Parker have 20 shillings allowed him for his seven years services as Constable."(1.) No re- cords, however, of any meeting are preserved of an earlier date than November 28, 1677. This was a meeting of the proprietors as well as of the settlers, and was holden at Woburn, at which place the meetings for the choice of own officers were held for many years, and occasionally as late as 1711. The record is as follows : (2.)
" Nov. 28, 1677. At a Town meeting held at Woburn. "Capt. Thomas Brattle, Capt. (Elisha) Hutchinson, Capt. (James) Parker, Mr. Jonathan Tinge, and Abrahamn Parker were chosen Selectmen for the Town of Dunstable for the year ensuinge, and to stand as such till new be chos- en. (3.)
" It was also agreed upon and voted yt as soon as may be, a minister be settled in the town of Dunstable. The time and person to be left to the Selectmen; his pay to be in money, or if in other pay the rate being to be made as money to add a third part more.
(1.) The constable was the collector of taxes also, and the com- pensation for all his services was about fifty cents per year.
(2.) For this and all other similar references, examine Dunstable Records of the date affixed.
(3.) Brattle was of Boston, Hutchinson of Woburn, James Par- ker of Groton, Tyng of Dunstable, and Abraham Parker of Chelms- ford. The Intter resided soon after in this town, and is the ancestor of Edmund Parker, Esq.
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" Likewise yt all public charges relating to the minister and other occasions is always to be levied upon allottments, and every man engages his accommodations, [pledges his farm,] to answer and perform the same.
" It was also voted that the minister the first year shall have fifty pounds, [equal to about $300.00 now,] and the overplus of the ffarines, and never to be abated."
Then follows a vote extending the time for building a meeting house and settling a minister, which was a condition of the grant in 1673, but which had not been complied with, for the space of three years longer, for the purpose of saving the forfeited rights of the settlers. They intended, nevertheless, to build at once, for it was "left with Mr. Jonathan Tyng, Capt. Parker and Abra- ham Parker to agree with John Lollendine, ( who was the first house and mill wright in town, ) to secure and finish said house," which had been commenced before the desertion of the settlement in 1675.
Several persons were also " admitted as inhab- itants," and it was voted "yt the selectmen have power to add other inhabitants, provided that with the present they exceed not the number of eighty families."
Before the Revolution of 1689, no person could vote or be elected to any office until he had been admitted a Freeman of the Commonwealth. This might be done by the General Assembly or the County Court, but only upon evidence of his be- ing a member in good standing of some Congre- gational Church. Before voting every person was required to take " the Freeman's Oath."
This meeting house was finished in 1678, and was probably built of logs. The precise spot where it stood is not known, but probably it was not far distant from the settlement at Salmon brook. As the settlement increased a new meet-
*4
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ing house was erected near the old Burying Ground in the south part of Nashua. In the Journal of a scout in 1724, it is said to have stood about nine miles distant from Penichook pond. No other church, except those which suc- ceeded this upon the same spot, was erected in the southern part of New Hampshire for more than forty years, and its minister, like another John the Baptist, was " the voice of one crying in the wilderness."
April 22, 1679, William Tyng, son of Jonathan Tyng, was born in this town. This is the first birth which is found upon the records of the town. April, 1680, Sarah, daughter of John Lollendine, was born. It is probable that other births occur- red at a much earlier date, since it is known that there were many inhabitants for years previous, and in 1680 " 30 families were settled there and a learned orthodox minister ordained among them."(1.)
Before 1679, a lot of land upon Salmon brook was granted by the town, and known as "the mill lot," and a saw mill erected. Where it stood is not known, but it is not improbable that it was on the spot where the "Webb Mill," near the house of J. Bowers, Esq., now stands, since it is known that a mill stood there at a very early pe- riod, and it would probably be located as near the settlement as possible. There was originally a beaver dam at that place, and it required but little labor to prepare the site for the mill. Many years ago a mill crank was dug up near the spot, which must have come from its ruins.
As early as May 1, 1679, and perhaps before that time, Rev. Thomas Weld was employed here
(1.) Petition in 2 Province Papers-Towns-253, in office of N. H. Secretary of State.
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as a minister. In the settlement of New Eng- land, religion was at the very foundation. The means of religious instruction ever kept pace with the spread of population, and "he who counted Religion as twelve, and the world as thirteen, had not the spirit of a true New England man."(1.) In the very charter, therefore, it was provided by the General Court, that the grantees were to " procure and maintain an able and orthodox minister amongst them," and to build a meeting house "within three years." This condition could not be complied with on account of Philip's War, which compelled them to desert the settle- ment, yet, as we have seen, at the first town meeting which was holden after its resettlement, the first vote was for the choice of Selectmen, and the next a provision for the ministry and a place for public worship, the Selectmen just chosen be .. ing appointed agents to carry the vote into effect. A " thirty acre right," as it was called, entitling the owner to about six hundred acres on the sub- sequent divisions of the common lands, was grant- ed for a " ministerial lot," as a farther encourage- ment to the ministry. Upon this Mr. Weld re- sided, and it is probably a part of the Fletcher farm now owned by John Little.
As an illustration of the character and man- ners of the early inhabitants of the town, the laws of the Colony at this period, as an exponent of public opinion, form perhaps the best criterion. In 1651, " dancing at weddings" was forbidden, and in 1660, " William Walker was imprisoned a month for courting a maid without the leave of her parents." In 1675, because "there is mani- fest pride appearing in our streets," the wearing of " long hair or periwigs," and also " supersti- tious ribands," used to tie up and decorate the
(1.) Higginson's Election Sermon, 1663.
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hair, were forbidden under severe penalties .- Men, too, were forbidden to " keep Christmas," because it was a Popish custom. In 1677 an act was passed to prevent "the profaneness" of "turning the back upon the public worship before it is finished, and the blessing pronounced."- Towns were directed to erect " a cage " near the meeting house, and in this all offenders against the sanctity of the Sabbath were confined.
At the same time children were directed to be placed in a particular part of the meeting house, apart by themselves, and Tythingmen were or- dered to be chosen, whose duty it should be to take care of them. So strict were they in their observance of the Sabbath, that "John Ather- ton "(1.) a soldier of Col. Tyng's company, was fined by him "forty shillings" for "wetting a piece of an old hat to put into his shoes," which chafed his feet upon the march, and those who neglected to attend meeting for three months were publicly whipped. Even in Harvard College stu- dents were whipped for grave offences in the chapel, in presence of students and Professors, and prayers were had before and after the inflic- tion of the punishment. As the settlers of Dun- stable are described in the Petition as "of sober and orderly conversation." we may suppose that these laws and customs were rigidly observed.
We ought not to wonder at the seeming auster- ity of the Puritans : still less should we blame or ridicule, for to them does New England owe her peculiar elevation and privileges. Scouted at by the licentious courtiers, whether Episcopalian or Catholic, for their strictness and formality, nick- named "Crop-cars," ridiculed for their poverty and want of education, they naturally clung te- naciously to those peculiarities for which they
(1.) He was of Lancaster, Mass.
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had suffered, and prized them most dearly. As naturally did they dislike all which savored of the offensive worship or customs of their persecu- tors, and strive sedulously to differ from them.
They would have no proud " Churches," for " the Church of Christ is a living Temple," So in their plain, unsteepled, barn-like "Meeting- Houses" they worshipped God with a prouder humility. The Establishment was the mystic " Babylon," and all its forms, rituals and tastes of course anti-Christian. No band or surplice added dignity to the minister, for he was but the equal, nay, the servant of all. Long hair or a wig was an abomination, and a crime against all laws human and divine. No sound of bells sum- moned them to worship, and no organ lifted their prayers and praises to Heaven upon the wings of music. They placed no shrub or flower over the graves of the dead, but instead the plain slab with quaint carving of death's head, or cross bones, or hourglass, and solemn inscription. All orna- ment was a vain show, and beauty a Delilah.
They believed their wilderness homes to be " the New Jerusalem," and, taking the Bible as their standard, labored in all things outwardly and inwardly to be " a peculiar people." And they were so. They did really believe in God and religion, and they strove to practice what they believed at any sacrifice. The world has seen few such men, and it will be well for New England if she forget not the principle, the real, living FAITH, which inspired and exalted the Pu- ritans.
No records exist of any meeting from Novem- ber 1677, to April 1680, when Joseph Cummings, Jr., was chosen a Selectman in the place of Cap- tain Hutchinson ; Joseph Parker, Jr., Constable : "Capt. Parker, Robert Paris, Joseph Parker and
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John Lollendine a committee to assign lotts." At a subsequent meeting they also " chose these men to run the line between Groton and us." In the Spring of this year lands were improved upon the north side of the Nashua.
June 14, 1681, "Jona. Blansher [Blanchard] and Thomas Lun [Lund] were chose fence few- ers [viewers, ] and an order was passed command- ing all persons " to take care of & yook yr. hogs on penilty of paing double damiges."
In November 1680, a great comet appeared, at which, says Holmes, " the people were greatly surprised and terrified."(1.) It continued to be visible until February, 1681, and was "the lar- gest that had ever been seen." So great and gen- eral was the alarm excited, that a " general fast" was appointed by the Governor and Coun- cil, and one reason assigned in the proclamation was, "that awful, portentous, blazing star, usu- ally foreboding some calamity to the beholders thereof." 'This fast was observed with great strictness. We may smile at the ignorant and superstitious terror of even the dignitaries and wise men of the land in those days, but our smile must be checked a little when we remember the alarm excited in 1833, in our own community by a similar cause.
Dec. 28, 1681, died Hon. EDWARD TYNG, aged S1. Where he settled is unknown, but probably not far from the " Haunted House," so called, in Tyngsborough. He was born in Dunstable in England, in 1600, settled in Boston as a mer- chant, 1639, was Representative 1661 and 1662, Assistant from 1668 to 1681, and Colonel of the Suffolk Regiment. It appears that he was elect- ed major general after Leverett, but it is not
(1.) Holmes' Annals, 451.
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known thathe served in that office. He remov- ed to Dunstable in 1679.
He left six children :- Jonathan, who settled in this town ; (see notice, ) Edward, who was one of Sir Edmund Andros's Council, 1687, and Gov- ernor of Annapolis; (see notice) ; Hannah, who married Habijah Savage, (son of the celebrated Major Thomas Savage, commander in chief in Philip's war, ) who afterward married Rev. Tho- mas Weld, and resided here ; Eunice, wife of Rev. Samuel Willard, pastor of the old South Church, Boston, and Vice President of Harvard college ; Rebecca, wife of Gov. Dudley; and another daughter who married a Searle. He was buried in the family tomb in Tyngsborough, and a mon- ument with an inscription points out the spot. (1.)
In 1682, the inhabitants seem to have increased considerably, and the settlement to have acquired a firm footing. The records assume a new form, and become more numerous and town-like .-- "Capt. Brattle, Capt. Parker, Mr. Tinge, Sar- geant John Cummings, and Robert Parris were chose Selectmen." Provision was made for the collection of taxes, by ordering that the allotments of such as neglect or refuse to pay their taxes, should " be sould at an outcry on the next public meeting day after such neglect or refus." Even at this early day there were some, to whom " re- ligion was as twelve and the world as thirteen," or even more. Trespasses were committed upon the common lands, and the town found it necessa- ry to order that "every man that felleth any wood or tre in the comon shall pay fiv shillings for such offence." The cattle, also, seem to have become equally unruly, for it was found necessa- ry to heighten their fences to a " saffisient fire raile or equivalent."
(1.) Farmer's Genealogical Register, to which I am largely in- debted in this way.
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May 8, 1682, " at a selectmen's meeting, it was ordered that the hogs of Dunstable of three months ould and upward, be soficiently yoked and rung at or before the twentieth of the present month, and John Ackers be appointed and Imployed to pound, youke and Ringe such hogs; and for so do- ing it is ordered that the owner of every such hog shal pay to the said Swinyard twelv penc, and John Acres is appointed HOGE CONSTABLE to se this order exsicuted." So early was the necessity for this ancient and respectable office recognized by our wise forefathers, and the trust committed to one who was qualified to " EXSICUTE" it.
August 28, 1682, " Mine Islands" were laid out to Hezekiah Usher. (1.) The islands at the foot of " Mine Falls" had acquired this name already, on account of mines which were sup- posed to exist there. The rumor was that they had been long worked by the Indians, who ob- tained from them their supply of lead. The banks of the Nashua, Souhegan and the Merrimac had been carefully explored, and "Mr. Baden, an in- genious miner and assayer, was sent over to New England for this purpose. Lead ore was found, but not plenty, and so intermixed with rock and spar as to be not worth working." (2.)
Usher was an original proprietor, a man of wealth and enterprize, and uncle of John Usher, Lieutenant Governor of New Hampshire in 1692, He seems to have been a speculator, and to have imbibed the extravagant ideas then prevalent
(1.) Usher was somewhat of a wit. The converted Indians were commonly called " praying Indians," but Usher, having heard of some outrage said to have been committed by them, called them " preying Indians."
In 1695, he was hunting for mines, in Deerfield .- Mass. Records, 4655, page 455.
(2.) 2 Douglass' Summary, 108. 5 N. H. Hist. Coll. 88. Lead ore. containing a minute proportion of silver, has been discovered at Mine Falls by Dr. Jackson, in his geological survey of the State.
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among that class of emigrants, respecting the great mineral wealth of New England. They had read of Mexico and Peru. They had listen- ed to the Indians as they told of " the Great Car- buncle," which dazzled the eyes of the beholder, upon the summit of the White or " Crystal Hills," where no human foot had ever trodden or dared to tread, and the Great Spirit had his home. Vis- ions of gold and silver, lying hidden in the bow- els of the hills in untold quantities, floated be- fore their distempered fancies by night and by day. Every sparkling rock, every discolored spot of earth was to them an El Dorado, and such, without doubt, were our own Mine Islands in the eyes of Usher.
He made excavations there, and found lead and iron, it is said, in small quantities, but the enter- prise proved a profitless one, and was abandoned. This was probably not long after they were grant- ed to him, as we find that May 15, 1686, Mason, the proprietor of New Hampshire, " farmed out to Hez. Usher, and his Heirs all the mines, min- erals, and ores within the limits of New Hamp- shire, for the term of one thousand years, reserv- ing to himself one fourth of the royal ores, and one seventeenth of all the baser metals." (1.) Of such a character and extent, however, were his explorations at these islands, that they were fa- miliarly called "the Mines" in all letters, re- cords, and journals of scouting parties for half a century afterwards. (2.)
Although this was a period of peace, and the Indians were committing no depredations, there was danger from roving and lawless parties, and
(1.) 1 Belknap 116. Royal ores were gold and silver. These were reserved to the Crown.
(2.) See original journals of Fairbanks, Blanchard, and others, 1700 to 1725 in " Journals of Scouts." Mass. Records.
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a small mounted guard was deemed expedient. Daniel Waldo and John Waldo were employed for this purpose. (1.)
Dec. 3, 1682, the town "let out to goodman Akers to cut ten cords of wood for two shillings a cord, country pay, and Sargt. Cummings is to cart the same for two shillings a cord, same paye." This was probably for the minister, Mr. Weld, who was married not long previous, and from it we may learn something of prices in those days .- Corn was worth about two shillings per bushel in 1683, and the relative price of labor and provis- ions was nearly the same as at present.
At the same time a committee was appointed, consisting of John Parker, Robert Paris, and John Lollendine, to " lay out a Highway from Groton Meeting House to Dunstable Meeting House." The main river road, down the Merrimac, had been laid out long previously, and bridges built over the small streams. This road passed east- erly of the present road, crossing Salmon brook at the bridge near Miss Allds' house ; thence run- ning northerly near the old Allds' road below Judge Parker's house, and crossing the Nashua at a ford way near its mouth, not far from the Concord railroad bridge.
The Proprietorship of the Township was di- vided into "thirty acre rights," as they were termed, or house lots of that size, with the privi- lege of an equal share in all subsequent divisions of the common lands in the township. Of these there were about eighty, and the proportion of each such right was about six hundred acres .- The market value of these lands at this period may be estimated from the fact, that the proprie-
(1.) They were inhabitants of the town, and sons of Dea. Corne- lins Waldo, the ancestor of nearly all the Waldos in New England. Farmer's Genealogical Register.
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tors, being indebted to Mr. Tyng in the sum of £23, (about $75.00,) they gave him three " thir- ty acre rights," or about 1800 acres, in full dis- charge of his claim.(1.)
Of these proprietors, according to a certificate of the selectmen dated November 30, 1682, twen- ty-one persons resided out of town, in Boston, Salem, Marblehead, Cambridge, and Chelmsford, and fourteen in Dunstable ; viz. "Jona. Tyng, widow Mary Tyng, John Cummings, senior, Thomas Cummings, John Blanchard, Abraham Parker, Joseph Wright, Samuel Warner, Joseph Parker, senior, John Lollendine, Obadiah Perry, Thomas Lund, Joseph Hassell, and John Acres." Most of the inhabitants were not proprietors.
Oct. 9, 1682, " a 20 acre right " was granted to Rev. Mr. Weld as an additional encouragement to the ministry. At the same time a tax was im- posed of " twenty shillings in mony " upon ev- ery 30 acre right, "toward the building of a meet- ing house, which is to be built within one year after the date hereof, according to the dimensions of the meeting-house at Groton." A committee was chosen, also, to collect contributions for this purpose "of such as have ffarmes within the town," and " to agree with a purson or pursons for the doing of said work." This meeting house, the second in town, was built probably in 1683, of a larger size and better finish, to accommodate the increasing wants of the inhabitants, and must have cost three or four hundred dollars.
"Money," as specie was called at that day, was difficult to be obtained as in all new settle- ments, and possessed a comparative value far su- perior to that of produce or "country pay." It is recorded that " Mr. Weld is not willing to ac-
(1.) These rights include the greater part of the town of Tyngs- borough, and are still in the possession of the family.
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cept of one third advance from those that pay him in money as proposed, but accepts to have double the sum of such as pay not in money."
" In 1683, Major Bulkley, (Hon. Peter Bulkley of Concord, one of of the Council, ) Capt. Hutch- inson, Mr. Tinge, Jno. Blanchard, Sargeant Cum- mings, and Robert Parris were chosen selectmen for the year ensuinge. John Lollendine was chosen constable, Christopher Temple and Andro Cooke war chosen veioers of fenses, Sam'l War- ner and John Cummings war choes Servaires of Hyways."
The taxes upon each "30 acre right " for the four years together, from 1679 to 1683, were about 36 shillings.
John Cummings seems to have been town clerk for many years previous to 1700, although there is no record of any choice. For several years af- ter 1683 the town officers were nearly the same as in the years preceding, whose names have been recorded. Many of their posterity still dwell here, and it was thought it might not be uninteresting to know who in its days of weak- ness and peril and suffering were the " fathers of the town."
We have seen how "zealously affected" the proprietors of Dunstable were toward building a meeting house and settling a minister in 1677 .- ^ Religious motives, however, were not the only ones which actuated them, since their pecuniary interests were benefited thereby. By an agree- ment dated May 21, 1684, setting forth their de- sire for the " increase and flourishing of said plan- tation, one chief means whereof, under God, is the settling a pious and able minister thereof," they therefore bound themselves to pay 15s. an- nually on each 30 acre right for this purpose, till the inhabitants can pay £50 per annum.
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In the summer of 1685 the inhabitants were thrown into a new alarm by the suspicious move- ments of the Penacook Indians, and many retired to the garrisons. The alarm was soon, however, discovered to be unnecessary, the Penacooks themselves fearing an attack from the Mohawks, and taking precautions against it. (1.) Such was the life of the early settler even in time of peace. The inhabitants generally lived in garrisons or fortified houses, and scouts were abroad constant- ly to detect the approach of the lurking foe. The farmer tilled his fields with his arms ready for self defence, and as the lonely wife heard the fre- quent story of massacre and captivity, her ear detected, with trembling apprehension, in ev- ery unusual sound, the footsteps of the "In- dian enemy."
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