USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Clinton > History of the origin of the town of Clinton, Massachusetts, 1653-1865 > Part 6
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58
JOHN PRESCOTT, THE PIONEER.
Indian hostilities continuing, the settlement at Lancaster was broken up, and thus Prescott, now over seventy years of age, having seen the prosperous community he had founded, laid in ruins, and having been forced to mourn for his daughters widowed and his grandsons slain, was driven away from his possessions to seek a new home among strangers. It is probable that his faithful wife became a victim to their troubles, as we have no further record of her among the living.
It was three years, before another settlement was attempted in Lancaster, yet we can imagine that during all this time the old pioneer was thinking only of a return. At
Major Willards house, which is all from yor Hon's most humble servants & suplyants.
Lancast" March IIth 1645
JACOB FFARRAR
JOHN HOUGHTON Sen"
JOHN MOORE
JOHN WHITTCOMB JOB WHITTCOMB JONATHAN WHITTCOMB
JOHN HOUGHTON Jun' CYPRIAN STEEVENS
The other on Garison are in the like destresse & soe humbley desire yor like pitty & ffatherly car, haueing widows and many ffather- lesse chilldren. the Numbr of Carts to Carey away this garison is twenty Carts. Yor Hon's Humble pettisioners.
JOHN PRESCOTT Sen" THO. SAWYER Sent THO. SAWYER Jun" JONATHAN PRESCOTT THO WILDER JOHN WILDER
SARAH WHEELER wid
WIDOW FFARBANKS JOHN RIGBY NATIIANIELL WILDER
JOHN ROOPER WIDOW ROOPER
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LAST YEARS.
last a petition*, headed by him, was sent to the court, asking permission to resettle. It will be noted, that six of the nine signers of this petition belonged to John Prescott's family, as Rugg and Thomas Sawyer, Sr., were sons-in-law. When it was granted, among the first to return were the Prescotts, and soon new mills and a dwelling-house were built to re- place those destroyed by the Indians. John Prescott, Jr., had charge of them, and took care of his aged father, who lived to see the town restored in some measure to its former state. He died in December, 1681.1
*1679. To the honored County Cort sitting at Cambridge October 7. 1679 Ye humble petition of those whose names are here vnderwritten ye Inhabitants of Lancaster before or remouall from thence by reason of ye late warres, in or owne & others behalfe, ye pprietors of ye said place as followeth. Whereas there was an order made the Last honored generall Cort yt places deserted should not be againe Inhabited, till the people first make application vnto the Gounor & Council, or to the County Cort within whose Jurisdiction they be, for a comittee to order matters con- cerning ye place, as in the said Law is expressed, wee yor petitioners with diuers others purposing (if ye Lord please) to returne to Lancaster from whence wee haue beene scattered, doe humbly request this Cort that they will be pleased to nominate & appoint an able & discreet Com- ittee for that end, who may with all convenient speed attend the said Buisnes that soe wee may pceed to settle the place with comfort & en- couragement & yor petitioners shall pray for the Lords gracious psence wrh you in all yor Administracons.
JOHN PRESCOT Senior JOHN MORE THOMAS SAWYER Sener JOHN RUGG JOHN PRESCOTT Juner JONATH PRESCOTT THOMAS WILDER THOMAS SAYER Juner JOSIAH WHIET
+1681 Dec 20, The Deposition of Tho: Wilder aged 37 years sworn, sayth that being with Jno Prescott Sen" About six houers before he died he ye sd Jno Prescott gaue to his eldest sonn Jno: Prescott his house lott with all belonging to ye same & ye two mills, corn mill & saw mill with
60
JOHN PRESCOTT, THE PIONEER.
Two centuries later, in the old graveyard at Lancaster, could be seen a rough stone of slate, which to the un- observant appeared to be without inscription.t Yet sharp eyes could still trace the words which would soon be obliterated, "John Prescott, Desased."
Here, in this almost forgotten grave, lie the mortal remains of the stalwart pioneer, who laid the foundations of Lancaster and Clinton.
ye land belonging therto & three scor Acors of land nere South medow & fourty Acors of land nere Wonchesix & a pece of entervile called Johns Jump & Bridge medow on both sids ye Brook. Cyprian Steevens Testifieth to all ye truth Above writen.
t This inscription has recently been recut.
PRESCOTT DESUSED
GRAVE OF JOHN PRESCOTT, THE PIONEER.
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CHAPTER IV.
THREE GENERATIONS OF PRESCOTTS.
As the estate owned by John Prescott, the pioneer, within present Clinton limits, was held and enlarged by his descendants through two generations, there was no chance for any one else to gain a homestead in the district where the central portion of the town now stands. Hence the history of the district for nearly a century is little more than a memorial of the Prescott family.
Since John Prescott, 2d, the eldest son of the pioneer, had cared for his father in his old age, and had rebuilt his mills and dwelling houses for him after the massacre, it was natural that he should inherit the homestead. In January, 1686, he received by deed from his brother, Jonathan, all of the part of the saw-mill lands then in his possession. He was forty-six years old at the time of his father's death. He had been married thirteen years before, to Sarah Hay- ward, of Lancaster, and his children were already growing up about him. They were: Mary, born February 2, 1669; John, born September 24, 1672 ; Joanna, born January 6, 1676; Elizabeth, born November 27, 1678; Ebenezer, born July 6, 1682. His younger brothers, Jonathan Prescott of Concord, and Jonas Prescott of Groton, seem to have in- herited more of their father's enterprise, for John, although a man of considerable vigor, a capable blacksmith and mill manager, had acted for so long a time under the leadership of his father, that he lacked self-assertive public spirit and
62
JOHN PRESCOTT, 2D.
ยท was not especially prominent in town affairs, notwithstanding his great possessions.
As the way to the mills by the old road, now North Main Street, was not a convenient approach for those who were obliged to come to the mills across the Old Common, action in regard to another road was taken at a town meeting held August 16, 1686. The record states: "Several of the In- habitance on the East Side of the Riuer propounded for a way to Goodman Prescott's Corne mill to ly ouer the Riuer at the Scar. Goodman Prescott told the town that if they would grant him about twenty acres of Land upon the Mill Brook lying aboue his own Land for his convaniancy of preseruing water against a time of drought he was willing the town should haue a way to the mill throw his Land." A committee was appointed to lay out the road, and Prescott's terms were accepted. The "twenty acres of land" on South Meadow Brook, which was granted to him in February, 1687, was bounded by his own land north and east. Thus additional advantages were given to those who came from the northeastern part of Lancaster, now Bolton and Har- vard, and to those who sought the mills from Stow and Marlborough. Traces of the bridge built "at the Scar" can still be found on the eastern side of the river, a few rods from the intersection of High and Allen Streets, and remains of the old roadway are plainly visible, trending northeasterly toward the hill above Carter's Mills, and southwesterly along the Plain near the bluffs above South Meadow Brook. The recent extension of High Street, in its purpose and location, differs but little from this old road.
A rude path led westward from Prescott's Mills at an early date, and this path, after various changes, became what is now known as the Rigby Road. How the name Rigby became attached to the brook or the road, is unknown. John Rigby was one of the carly proprietors of Lancaster, but there is no record by which his name can be connected with this district, and there is little reason to suppose that
63
HIGHWAYS.
he or any one else named Rigby lived in Lancaster after the massacre of 1676. As Rigby is known to have owned thirty- four acres of meadow land, the location of which is un- determined, it is possible that it may have been along this brook. Tradition also affirms that a very old house stood upon the Rigby Road a century ago, which was called the Rigby House.
The road to the eastward, now Water Street, probably existed as a private way before the close of the seventeenth century. The first record of it is found in 17IS, when mention is made of a "slab bridge" belonging to John Prescott. This was located near the site of the present bridge at Harrisville. Thus, Prescott's Mills were approached from the highways lying on the east and west.
During nearly the whole of the quarter of a century which followed 16SS, the frontier towns of New England were in a state of constant danger from the French and Indians. King William's war, from 1689 to 1697, awakened great anxiety among the people of Lancaster, and they took the most careful measures to prevent the recurrence of the massacre of 1676. Thus, in 1691, we find "John Prescott and families" seeking safety in the garrison of Philip Goss, who had married his daughter, Mary, in 1690, but it was not until September 1I, 1697, that the long-dreaded attack of the Indians came. The Prescott estate did not suffer, but among the nineteen killed were Hannah Rugg, the sister of John Prescott, 2d, and her son, Joseph, and his wife and three of their children. Hannah, another of her children, was one of the eight carried into captivity. This event seems the more sad, in that the attack occurred after negotiations for peace had been begun, but before the news had crossed the ocean.
The complications of European affairs involved the colony in Queen Anne's war from 1701 to 1713. In 1704, John Prescott's nephew, Samuel, the son of Jonathan, accidentally committed an act that must have caused a deep
64
JOHN PRESCOTT, 2D.
shock in the family of his uncle. The Reverend Andrew Gardner's house was on the lot where E. V. R. Thayer's house now stands. Samuel Prescott lived on the opposite side of the road to the south. The journal of Reverend John Pike contained the following entry, October 25 : "Mr. Andrew Gardner minister of Lancaster, coming down from ye watchbox in ye night wth a darkish colored gown was mis- taken for an Indian and solemnly slain by a sorry souldier belonging to ye garrison, nomine Presket." According to the coroner's inquest, Prescott was a sentinel on duty, and challenged a supposed enemy twice, and then hearing no answer, fired, as he ought to have done. Although his neighbors did not blame him, yet he could not drown his remorse for having slain his beloved pastor.
In this same year, 1704, we find "a garrison established at ye Corne Mill," as follows :
"John Prescott Sent I John Prescott Jun" I John Keyes I Ebenezer Prescott I
4" "
This garrison must have sustained one of the "six" simultaneous attacks on July 3Ist, but no direct losses were reported.
Very little is known of the John Keyes here mentioned. In a deed of gift of John Prescott, 2d, a Sarah Keyes is spoken of as his granddaughter. Since John Keyes had a daughter Sarah, it is probable that his wife, Sarah, was a daughter of John Prescott, 2d, although no record of such a daughter has been found. John Keyes is known to have been a weaver. He may have lived for a time with Prescott, though there is some reason to believe that he may have built a house near the lower end of the present Church Street. Tradition reports that a cellar wall was discovered here in the carly portion of the present century, and that it
65
COLONIAL WARS.
was supposed to be that of a house that belonged to a weaver in still earlier times. He and his wife joined the church in Lancaster, in 1708, and there is a record of the baptism of five of his children: Sarah, 1708; Lydia, 1709; Huldah, 1714; John, 1716; Elkanah, 1718. He was one of the assessors of Lancaster for 1719. October 16, 1719, he sold to John Goss two large lots of land, within present Clinton limits, one of them "west of the highway over Rigby Brook to the mills," evidently reaching to a point near the mills, and another covering Currier's Flats. In 1722, John Keyes is mentioned as still living in Lan- caster, and during this year, he sold a house and land. In 1728, a John Keyes, a weaver, is mentioned in recorded deeds as an inhabitant of Shrewsbury.
The meeting-house of Lancaster, having been burned a second time in the attack of July 31, 1704, by the French and Indians, a controversy arose as to where the new one should be built. The people upon the east of the river, as Bolton was still a part of Lancaster, outnumbered those upon the west, and it was voted that the new house should be located on the. Old Common. November 29, 1705, the inhabitants of Lancaster living upon the western side of the river, sent a petition to Governor Dudley, praying that the house might be rebuilt where it had formerly stood. The argu- ment used by the petitioners was that the danger from the Indians was all on the west side, and therefore, if the meet- ing-house should be built upon the east side, their homes would be unprotected while they were at meeting. Among the names appended to this petition, we find those of John Prescott Sent (2d), John Prescott Jun" (3d), and John Keyes. After a year of petitions and counter-petitions, it was finally decided that the house should be east of the river, near the northwestern point of the Old Common, and there services were held until 1743. During this time, the Prescotts must have gone to meeting over the Scar Bridge Road.
In 1709, we find John Prescott, 2d, and others, petitioning
6
66
JOHN PRESCOTT, 2D.
the Governor that they may receive pay for billeting soldiers who were located in the western part of the town for the defense of the settlement. John Prescott's share of the amount received was 26. 12s. 4d. A list of the frontier garrisons kept in the Massachusetts Archives gives the Pres- cott garrison in 1711 "three families, four inhabitants, two soldiers and fifteen souls." This may be looked upon as the first census of the district. In all the garrisons in Lancaster, including towns afterwards set off, there were at this time eighty-three families, one hundred and eleven inhabitants, twenty-one soldiers, and a total of four hundred and fifty- eight souls.
Sarah Prescott, the wife of John Prescott, 2d, died in 1709. On her tombstone, in the old burial ground at Lan- caster, we can still read the inscription :
SARAH
PRESCOT
HVR BLAS ED SOUL ASANDED UP TO HEA
VEN JULY 14 1709
AGED
ABOUT
63 YEARS
He afterwards married Mary Howe, the widow of Josiah Howe of Shrewsbury.
The northern portion of the Prescott estate seems to have been divided between Ebenezer Prescott and John Keyes, and all of it, as we shall see, soon passed into the hands of John Goss. November 24, 1714, John Prescott, 2d, gave to his son, John Prescott, 3d, a portion of his estate, including the part of the mill he had not given to Ebenezer. The registry indicates that he was living in 1723.
His death marks the close of an epoch in the history of the settlement. From the day, more than three-score years before, when as a boy he had crossed the marshes of Sud-
67
COLONIAL WARS.
bury with his father, and entered upon the untried wilder- ness, his whole life had been one of constant grapple with nature and her savage children. He had helped to fell the primeval forest, and sow the first seed in our Clinton soil ; to lay the foundation for the first dwelling place; to build the first dam; to set the first mill-stone ; to lay out the first road and construct the first bridge. He had often sought the deer along the river banks. He had trapped the bear and destroyed the wolf and the rattlesnake. He had seen his home burned by the Indians, and his neighbors and kindred slain. He had been among the last to leave the ashes of the settlement, and among the first to return and again defy the dangers of the frontier. For the following thirty years his house had always been a garrison and, with a vigilance made keen by the horrors through which he had passed, he watched for the coming of his crafty foe, and repelled his fierce attacks.
From his time on, however, the families at "ye Corne Mill" never heard the war whoop of hostile Indians. The struggle for existence on the part of the town and the colony was over. Through privations and sufferings, in frequent mournings for past losses, and constant dread of coming evils, by ceaseless watchings and tireless labors, the Pres- cotts, father and son, and such as they, had established the supremacy of the English over the Indians within the limits of the Massachusetts Colony, and had prepared the way for future development.
The records of John Prescott, 3d, and his neighbors, are still more meagre than those of his father. As he was born in 1672, it is likely that his earliest memories may have been associated with the massacre of 1676. He lived in the vicinity of "ye Corne Mill," and probably at the old home- stead. After the death of his father, the whole of the southern portion of the estate seems to have been in his possession. He married Dorothy -, but the date of the marriage and the maiden name of the wife have been lost,
68
JOHN PRESCOTT, 3D.
The Prescotts had a daughter, Dorothy, born in 1706, who died at the age of seven. Another daughter, Mary, was baptized in 1708. She died at the age of ten. Tabitha, another daughter, was baptized in 1710. She was married to Joseph Sawyer in 1731. She made a second marriage with Silas Brigham in 1743. John was baptized April 5, 1713. He married Mary White in 1742, their intentions being entered "March ye 5th." As baptism usually occurred as soon after birth as the health of those concerned would allow the child to be carried to the church, it is probable that dates of baptism differ but little from those of birth.
During the life of John Prescott, 3d, we find these further entries in the Lancaster records in regard to the Scar Bridge Road: "April ye 8, 1717, on ajornment from ye 5 of March the Town Meet at ye Meeting House and first John Goss Proposed to have ye Hiway moved that Goeth to ye Mill the Town made Choyce of John Wilder Sr & Robard Houghton to be a Commity to view ye same & make Report to ye Town."
" April ye 22d 1717 The Town Meet on Ajornment from yee 8 of sd Month Upon ye Report of a Committy sent to View ye Way to Prescott's Mill towit upon ye proposition of John Goss & ye Town Voted that said Hiway be moved & lie by ye River-Provided said way be kept four Rods Wide from ye Scar bridge till it com to ye Hill from ye top of ye River bank : and after it amount said Hill to Lye where it shall be most Convenient to ye Town till it Com to sd Mill sd Goss to Clear said Rode when that Committy shall stake it out."
There is good evidence that there were at least five houses along this road, and the cellar-holes of several of them can be found to the present day east of the river. These houses probably belonged, for the most part, to the first half of the eighteenth century, as we know it was voted by the town in May, 1742, to remove the bridge "down to the road that leads from Lieut. Sawyers to Doctor Duns-
69
JOHN GOSS.
moors and set it up there in the most convenient place." This is the present location of the bridge at Carter's Mill. The roadway was not wholly abandoned at the removal of the bridge, for we read later of a fording place where it had stood.
John Goss, who made the proposition about the bridge, was born in 1693. He was the son of Philip Goss, a Boston merchant, who bought the Rowlandson place, in Lancaster, in 1687, and who married Mary Prescott in 1690. This Philip Goss bought the "Washacomb Farm" of John Prescott, 2d, June IS, 1701. In 1717-IS, John Goss received from John Prescott, 3d, "eighty acres of land, with the buildings there- on," between " Mill Brook" and the river, including some of the lower part of the Plain. In 1717, John Goss bought land now within Clinton limits, both of John Keyes and by way of exchange for the "Washacomb Farm " of Ebenezer Prescott. The deed of the former purchase, we have already noticed. The deed of the latter, specifies land laid out in part to Ralph Houghton, and in part to George Adams, and since purchased by John Prescott, Sr. (2d). In one lot, there were about one hundred acres; in the other, land valued at fifty-two pounds ten shillings. Thus, John Goss must have owned several hundred acres in what is now the north- easterly portion of Clinton, lying for the most part between the present location of the Boston & Maine Railroad and the Nashua, and between Goodridge Brook and the center of the Plain.
John Goss built the first dam and mill where Rodger's privilege, south of Allen Street, now is. His dwelling-house, perhaps among the "buildings" specified in the deed of John Prescott, 3d, to him, was upon the bluff to the east, just above the mill. In 1733, John Goss sold to John Prescott, by way of exchange, twenty-three and one-half acres west of Prescott's Mill Pond, receiving several small pieces ad- joining his own land. Records show that John Goss had at least six children, William, Elizabeth, Mary, John, Philip
70
JOHN PRESCOTT, 3D.
and Jonathan. Elizabeth married Barzillai Holt. In the early forties, John, William and Philip received estates at Prescott's Meadows in Sterling, averaging over one hundred acres apiece. Elizabeth Holt had fifty-eight acres there, and Jonathan received land in 1748-9, because he had not received a full share of his father's estate. The date of the death of John Goss is unknown, but it probably occurred not far from the time of the sale of his farm in 1745-6.
At the close of the year 1717, the following entries are found in the Lancaster Records: "John Prescott Requests the town would Grant a hiway from his Land att the Slabbin to his medow Called prescots Medow."
" The town Granted a hiway in answer to the propozition of John Prescott from his Land to the loor end of the medow Called preescots meedow neer where the path now goes to witt the parth called the dugway."
John Prescott was in poor health for a long time before his death, for, upon the 25th of January, 1723, he, being "weak and indisposed," conveyed all his personal estate to Ebenezer Prescott and his wife, Rachel, subject to legacies to his grandchildren. He continued to live, probably as an invalid, for more than a quarter of a century.
Dorothy Prescott had joined the church in 1718, and September 7, 1749, "John Prescott was received into full Communion by ye Chh at his own House having been con- fined by sickness and other infirmities for some years." On the 28th of September, the same year, his wife died, and he followed her to the grave on the 11th of October. His new will, made some months before his death, is signed with his mark, showing his feebleness and consequent inability to write.
John Prescott, Ist, had estates at Groton, Washacum and in South Lancaster, as well as within the present limits of Clinton. These estates were divided between his other children and John Prescott, 2d, who alone remained on the homestead, and received by inheritance or purchase about
HOUSE OF JOHN PRESCOTT, 4TIL.
-
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COLONIAL WARS.
all the land his father had owned in this section, while the other children had the rest. John Prescott, 3d, had only the southern portion of his father's estate, while John Goss, his nephew, had the northern portion, largely by purchase from the other heirs. The southern portion of the estate, now known as Burditt Hill, was bequeathed by John Prescott, 3d, to the children of his daughter, Tabitha Sawyer. Only the central strip remained to John Prescott, 4th, and we shall see that this was divided at his death among his many children. After the fifth generation, no land within present Clinton limits remained in the hands of any descendant of John Prescott, the pioneer, who retained the family name.
John Prescott, 4th, was in full possession of the mills and homestead on the death of his father. The other mills, however, which had been built in the neighborhood, had taken away a large share of the business of which the earlier Prescotts had held sole control. On account of this break- ing up of the estate, and loss of monoply by the mills, for the next two generations the family of the Prescotts was only one of several prominent in the life of the district.
The fourth possessor of the estate was, however, a man of considerable ability. He must have owned at least five hundred acres of land within present Clinton limits, as we find records of the transfer of that amount. With Aaron and Moses Sawyer, his nephews, he also owned a tract in Princeton. He was at one time a selectman of the town, and he took an active part in the stirring scenes of his times. He put up a new house which is still standing on the original site a little nearer the mill than that of his father had been. It is the cottage-house somewhat back of the block at the southwest corner of Water and High Streets. John Prescott, 4th, had ten children, five boys and five girls.
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