USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Canton > History of the town of Canton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts > Part 21
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"To the assertion in the petition of the town of Stoughton that there is a considerable quantity of land that belongs to the non-resi- dent proprietors, that has never yet been rated towards the support of the ministry or other charges, although the land has greatly risen in value, the non-resident proprietors reply, That the statement dates back too far ; that it refers to the time of the settling of the people in the place, 'which is supposed to be about thirty years,' and also to the uphold- ing of the Gospel among them, which is supposed to be about twenty years back, when the fact is they have only been a township about six
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HISTORY OF CANTON.
or seven years, and until that time they were encouraged and assisted by the town of Dorchester. The building of their Meeting House was assisted by the subscriptions of the Proprietors. Their writing and reading school was often in part or in whole maintained by Dorchester, and Mr. Morse, their minister, was allowed to draw his salary from the town treasury. The proprietors further assert that the value of the land has scarcely risen at all, for the reason that the town of Stoughton is a very large tract of land, consisting of about sixty thousand acres, lying in an irregular form, being about twenty- two miles in length upon the road ; and the most settled part thereof, where the Meeting House stands, is upon the six thousand acres of land formerly called Ponkapoag plantation, with some lands circum- adjacent ; that this land is owned and occupied by actual residents, whereas the land of the non-residents lie at a great distance from the settled part of the town, eight, ten, fifteen, and some twenty miles from the meeting house ; that the rise in the value of this land, if risen at all, is not owing to the settlement of this, but to the settlement of other towns to which it is contiguous, such as Wrentham, Braintree, and Walpole, when there are meeting-houses within three miles of these unimproved lands, and the towns of Norton, Easton, and Attle- borough also lie adjacent to and border on said lands ; the statement is further made that in the year 1724, the inhabitants of the further end of said tract of land next to Attleborough and Wrentham, consist- ing of some twelve or fourteen families, by a petition to the General Court, were with their farms annexed to the town of Wrentham, which would plainly indicate that they were too far removed from Stoughton. Now, the lands of the non-resident proprietors at this very place consisted of eight or nine thousand acres, and the proprie- tors cannot see any reason why they should pay a tax to Stoughton."
The General Court decided that the town of Stoughton should not be allowed to do that which in the Act of incor- poration it was distinctly understood they should not do.
There are only three slaves recorded as being owned in Canton in 1734. They were owned respectively by Capt. John Shepard, Isaac Royall, Esq., and Ebenezer Maudsley (Mosely), the latter gentleman's chattel being valued at £150. In 1741 the number had increased to eleven, Nathaniel Maudsley (Mosely) and Deacon Joseph Tucker having one female slave each, Ralph Pope and Isaac Royall, of Medford,
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having been added to the list of 1734. The value of a young slave is shown by the following document: -
MILTON, June 9th, 1747.
I, the subscriber, Elizabeth Wadsworth, of Milton, have received of Mr. Timothy Tolman, of Stoughton, the sum of one hundred pounds, old tenor, in full for a negro fello a bought, eighteen years of age, named Primas. I say received by me.
her ELIZABETH X WADSWORTH. mark.
In presence of BENJ. WADSWORTH.
In 1734 there were in Canton 141 houses, 10 orchards, 200 acres of mowing land, IOI pastures, 152 acres of tillage land, 4 mills, 3 slaves, and 59 ratable polls. The taxable live- stock consisted of 60 oxen, 126 cows, 50 horses, and 119 sheep. Seven years later the number of mills had increased from the four of Royall, Redman, Maudsley, and Goodwin, to eleven, owned by William Royall & Co., Philip Goodwin, Capt. John Shepard, Ebenezer Jones, Jedediah Morse, Eben- ezer Man & Co., Deacon Joseph Topliff.
In 1737 the descendants of those who had served in the ill- fated expedition to Canada, under command of Capt. John Withington, in 1690, were granted, by the General Court, rights in a new township called Dorchester Canada, now Ash- burnham. Some of these persons were connected with Can- ton. Major John Shepard received his portion in the right of his uncle, John Shepard, who served under Major Wade; Humphrey Atherton in the right of his father, Consider; Ebenezer Hewins in the right of his brother, Benjamin; Rob- ert Redman in the right of his father, Charles; Philip Good- win in his own right under command of Major Wade; Joseph Warren, of Roxbury, in the right of Elias Monk; William Royall in the right of Hopestill Saunders.
In 1737 Eleazar Rhoades and others were set to Walpole and freed from ministerial charges until they should have a meeting-house nearer to them than the one at Stoughton.1
1 See Appendix XXIV.
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HISTORY OF CANTON.
In 1738 a petition was presented to the General Court that the line between Dedham and Stoughton be changed, the reason urged being the difficulty of perambulation; and it was suggested that the Neponset River in future should divide the territory of the towns.1
At a town meeting held at Dedham, Oct. 2, 1738, after consideration and considerable debate, the petition, with a proviso, was consented to; and that a part of Stoughton be taxed to Dedham, and "that Neponset River be made the bounds between Stoughton and the first parish in Dedham." Stoughton also consented, reserving their property known as the " school farm." Until this time the Stoughton line ran about one mile west of the river. The Neponset River, from the Milton line to its junction with Traphole Brook, thence up that stream, was made the line; and the lazy perambu- lators have since simply recorded it as " a wet line."
In 1740, so great had been the increase in the prosperity of the town that petitions came in from all sides for separa- tion from the mother town.
March 10, 1739-40, the inhabitants of Stoughton voted that the town be divided into two precincts; and at a sub- sequent meeting the committee reported as follows : - .
It is ye opinion of us ye subscribors that if ye Town see cause to Divide into two precincts, that it be Done as followeth, Viz. by a Line parralel with Brantrey Line at ye Distance of five miles and a half from Sd Brantrey Line, and whereas there is a small Tract of Land in the Southeast Corner of this Town, Set off to ye north precinct in Bridg- water, that there be half so much Land as there is Set off to Bridgwater as above said taken off to ye Southwest of ye above mentioned Line at ye Southeast end thereof to Ly to ye North or Northeast part. March ye 24th, 1739-40.
ELKANAH BILLING. RALPH POPE.
WILLIAM CRANE. SILAS CRANE.
GEORGE TALBOTT. SAMUEL BILLING.
JOHN SHEPARD. CHARLES WENTWORTH.
Jeremiah Fuller and others, inhabitants of the southwestern part of Stoughton, in a petition to the General Court in 1740
1 See Appendix XII.
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CIVIL HISTORY.
alleged that in the part of the town where they lived one third of the rate-payers desired to be set off by themselves. This petition was opposed by William Royall, Elkanah Billings, Silas Crane, George Talbot, and Simon Stearns, a committee in behalf of the town.
Edward Curtis, Theophilus Curtis, Nathaniel Hammond, and others residing in that part of Stoughton adjoining Bridgewater, petitioned to be set off to the latter town in 1741. To this the selectmen replied that the land which they represented as worthless, and which they called a "gore," was valuable land; that the school farm of the town of Stoughton was situated in that part of the town, and that the annexation to Bridgewater would not only enrich a large and wealthy town, but would " deform " and cripple the town of Stoughton; moreover, that it removed the school farm not only into another town, but into another county. In regard to the distance which Curtis and others were obliged to send their children to attend school, the answer was that it was no uncommon thing for children in Stoughton to go three miles to school.
When the war with Spain had been continued for two years, about four hundred and fifty young men of Massachusetts had perished from the unhealthiness of the climate. From our town James Hodge, aged twenty-one, Ebenezer Warren, aged thirty-seven, and Josiah Briggs, aged forty, enlisted in the company of Capt. Stephen Richards; and in Capt. Thomas Phillips's company went David Kenney and Edward Downes. The expedition commanded by Admiral Vernon, although not mentioned by Hutchinson, has had much light thrown upon it by our townsman, Ellis Ames, Esq. The "Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society for 1881" contains an article entitled " Expedition against Car- thagena." So dark and discouraging was the prospect that our people assembled at their place of prayer in obedience to the call for a public fast, and listened, both forenoon and afternoon, to such comfort as the good parson could draw from Deut. xxiii. 9, and Ex. xvii. 9-13.
On the 3d of June, 1744, at fifteen minutes past ten in the
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morning, the people were attending public service; Mr. Dun- bar had just begun the long prayer, when suddenly the meet- ing-house began to rock and pitch in a terrible manner. There was great excitement; some of the congregation ran out, and one or two were so alarmed that they went into fits. Mr. Dunbar stood unmoved through the terrible excitement, and kept his presence of mind; and God graciously assisted him "to improve the providence." The day on which this earthquake took place was very hot, and the weather had been hot and dry without rain for some time.
On July 8, 1757, about two o'clock in the afternoon, our town was again visited with an earthquake, and again on Oct. 24, 1843. The first sound was like a heavy explosion, and then continued like the rumbling of thunder for upwards of a minute, then died away; the houses were sensibly shaken, and the dishes on the breakfast tables rattled. Nothing like it had occurred since 1727, when the Rev. Mr. Prince says, " At Dorchester the most terrible noise seemed to be among the Blue Mountains, which some then abroad concluded were sunk."
Nathaniel Hubbard, our first moderator and one of our first selectmen, touches for a very short period the history of our town. He was the grandson of the Rev. William Hubbard, the historian of New England. His father was a prominent merchant of Boston, where Nathaniel was born Oct. 13, 1680. He graduated at Harvard College in 1698. His first appearance in Dorchester, as far as we know, was in 1708, when he applied for permission to dig iron ore in the undivided lands. He received his commission of justice of the peace, April 29, 1713. He removed to the South Precinct of Dorchester, and was moderator of our precinct meeting in 1718. He purchased of Capt. John Nelson the same year 310 acres of land at a place then and now known as Green Lodge, which from 1726 to 1738, when the river became the line, was a part of Stoughton. His wife was the daughter of that Captain Nelson famous as one of the Council of Safety to whom Andros surrendered. Her mother was a sister of Governor Stoughton, and this was a part of his country-
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place. Judge Sewall records in his diary under date of Dec. 15, 1725, " Mrs. Elizabeth Hubbard, of Dorchester, is buried lamented." Her husband subsequently married Rebecca Gore. In 1723 he was a trustee of the Ponkapoag Indians. On May 8, 1729, he was appointed by Nathaniel Byfield his "Deputy Judge of Admiralty for the County of Bristol, The Province of Rhode Island, The Narraganset Country." In 1741 Hutchinson says of him that "he was the oldest coun- sellor for the County of Bristol." He further adds "that he was a gentleman of amiable character, and filled the posts he sustained with applause." It is fair therefore to suppose that as he had been moderator of the town meetings at Dorchester, he brought to our first meeting not only all the knowledge requisite to the position, but that grace and dig- nity which distinguished the gentlemen of the provincial era. He held the position of Judge of the Court of Common Pleas until Jan. 24, 1745, when he was promoted to be Judge of the Supreme Court, which office he held till his death. He erected across the Neponset a bridge, which was called Hub- bard's Bridge. In 1759 this bridge became a public one, and was rebuilt by Dedham and Milton.
Judge Hubbard removed to Rehoboth, where he died in 1748. He was a man of marked ability and sound judgment, of commanding presence, and lived in a style of great mag- nificence for his time.
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HISTORY OF CANTON.
CHAPTER XIV.
SOME OLD CUSTOMS.
N TO New England town was complete without stocks and a pound. We have no means of fixing definitely the location or the time of the erection of the first stocks. It is probable that they were erected on Packeen Plain soon after the first settlers came here. In 1737 they had from exposure to the weather fallen into decay, and the selectmen employed Preserved Lyon to make a new pair. He was dismissed from Milton Church, Nov. 9, 1735, and with Joanna Vose, whom he had married July 12, 1711, removed to Canton. He was a resident of Packeen; his house stood near the junction of Elm and Pecunit streets. He was so small on the day of his birth, Sept. 10, 1688, that his parents put him into a quart tankard and shut down the cover; and he lived to be ninety- six years of age, dying July 14, 1785.
Tradition informs us that he was an excellent workman, and the fact is substantiated by his being employed to erect the first schoolhouse, and also in 1747 the third meeting- house. Mr. Lyon obtained the plank for the new stocks at the saw-mill, framed them at his home, and carted them to the place assigned, paying to Mr. Josiah Kenney - whose blacksmith shop. stood on Cherry Hill, between the school- house and Cherry Tavern, near to his one-story gambrel- roofed house - " fifteen shillings for ye irons."
Lyon's stocks lasted until 1759, when they became decayed, and new ones were made by William Cunningham, who ar- rived in town with his wife and three children, Nov. 7, 1749. He purchased five acres of land with an orchard, from John Withington, and in 1764 fourteen acres from the minister
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Morse estate, all of which was situated west of the Catholic Cemetery. It is probable that his house was partially framed from the timbers of the old meeting-house when it was pulled down. A portion of this land still goes by his nanie, though pronounced in the old-fashioned way, as if spelled Kuinecum ; and the land owned by him is to this day known as Kuinecum.
The Cunningham stocks lasted to the time of the Revo- lution. A new pair were erected in 1775, when William Wheeler, Jr., furnished the woodwork, and Samuel Blackman the irons.
Sir Henry Maine says that there is nothing of greater antiquity in England than the village pound; it is older than the King's Bench, and probably older than the kingdom. The first thing that our ancestors did as soon as they became incorporated, if not before, was to erect a pound. An article was inserted in the warrant "to consider and act upon the building of a pound." The town voted to build one, and in 1727 it was finished. Its location is not a matter of record, but it probably stood with the stocks, near the meeting and school house. It did its duty until 1742, when Joseph Esty built a new one on the land of James Endicott; this site was selected by the selectmen as the most convenient, and Mr. Endicott received for the land, or the use of it, £7 IOS.
. Again, in 1760, there are indications of another pound, which was situated in the centre of the village, and for which William Wheeler provided the timber.
The next pound stood on the right-hand side of Pleasant Street as you drive toward Stoughton, just south of Beaver Brook, between that and the driveway that now leads to Charles Draper's factory. It was erected in 1789, the land having been purchased from Abijah Upham; and Joseph Bemis was requested by the town to draw up the specifica- tions for its construction. Its wall extended forty feet in each direction, and was six and one half feet in height; the stones gradually widened from eighteen inches at the top to a width of four feet at the ground. These stones, all procured within a few rods of the site, were capped with stout pieces of chestnut timber ten inches square. The en-
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HISTORY OF CANTON.
trance was three feet in width and covered at the top with a large cubical stone.
It must have reflected great credit on Lieut. Lemuel Gay when it was completed, for he was well skilled in the art of manipulating stone.
The site of this pound had been selected when the towns now known as Canton and Stoughton were one, and it was used by the inhabitants of both villages. Eight years after the erection of the pound, when the first precinct desired to become a township and take upon itself the name of Canton, it was proposed that the Act of incorporation should contain a clause to the effect that the inhabitants of Stoughton should have liberty to impound cattle, horses, sheep, or swine as long as should suit their pleasure, and when they should no longer desire to drive their strays four miles to pound, - or in other words, when they should erect a new pound at their village, - the town of Canton would pay to the town of Stoughton their proportionate part of the value of the pound at the time the latter should cease to use it. There is no evi- dence that this was done. In the division of the common property of the towns, the pound remained with Canton; but its situation was as inconvenient to the new town as it had been to ancient Stoughton, and, April 8, 1835, it was torn down, the stones used as the foundation for a factory in its immediate vicinity, and a new one was erected at Canton Corner, on Dedham Street, opposite the Leeds house. This was built by Capt. William McKendry, who built the meeting- house in 1824. It was completed in September, 1835, and he received for his labor forty dollars. This pound remained until February, 1841, when it was removed to its present site in the rear of the old Town-House.
Among the curious old customs was the bringing of wolves, blackbirds, squirrels, and wild-cats to the selectmen, in con- formity to an Act passed by the General Court in 1740, to prevent damage to Indian corn and other grain, which pro- vided that " whoever shall kill any crows, blackbirds, gray or ground squirrels, shall bring their heads to any one of the selectmen, who shall cut or deface the same, and give a re-
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, ceipt to the party bringing them, which shall be duly allowed by the town treasurer at the rate fixed by law; viz., for blackbirds unfledged, twelve pence per dozen; for grown blackbirds, three shillings; for each crow, sixpence; and for each squirrel, fourpence." In 1741 the town paid this bounty as follows: on thirty-two young blackbirds, on one hundred and seventy-five old blackbirds, and on five hundred and thirty-five squirrels. Ebenezer Bacon received ten shillings for killing a young wild-cat, which in the judgment of the selectmen was under the age of one year. In 1744 Charles Wentworth received £5 13s. 8d. for blackbirds and squirrels, Joseph Hewins £2 IIS. 4d., and Moses Gill killed five hun- dred squirrels. For killing a wolf the sum of fI was allowed ; and in 1733 Thomas Ahauton received that sum for a full- grown wild-cat, and John Shepard £2 for two. Persons were also appointed to inform against the breaches of an Act passed in 1698, to prevent the killing of deer between January I and August I. In 1741 Robert Redman and Elkanah Billings performed this office; and the custom appears to have been continued into the present century, when it became a matter of ridicule and was given to the oldest man in town.
A curious custom existed among our ancestors of "warning out." In 1692 an Act was passed that any person who so- journed or dwelt in a town three months without being warned out, thereby became an inhabitant, unless they were imprisoned or lawfully restrained or had come for the pur- pose of medical attendance or education. By the Act of 1700 and 1739, the time was extended to twelve months. In 1767 an Act was passed that no person could gain an inhabit- ancy by length of time, unless admitted at general town meet- ing; but in 1789 it was again necessary to warn out persons within a year, in order to prevent their gaining a residence. The town, acting under the authority of the General Court, took the precaution to warn out all strangers from the town, in order that if they were poor, or likely to become so, the town would not be responsible for their support; and it was the duty of all heads of families to immediately inform the selectmen of a town of the name, age, occupation, and pre-
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vious residence of the new-comer, whether he or she were married or single, and whether he or she were in good circumstances.
The following is one of these letters of information : -
STOUGHTON, Dec. 21, 1736.
For the Selectmen of the Town of Stoughton :
GENTLEMEN,- These are to inform you that Parruk Maden, a young man by trade a nailer, is come from Dorchester to live with me, as also Hezekiah Meroh, a lad to live with me as a prentice, and have been with me about a fortnight.
ISAAC ROYALL.
We may observe in passing that this Irish lad, whose father was a fisherman at Savin Hill, subsequently married, Feb. 8, 1753, Mary Tolman, and had a son Amariah Meroh, who was born May 14, 1757. He was in the Revolutionary service about six years, chiefly in short enlistments. He went to Sorel, Trois Rivières, Montreal, Ticonderoga, and was subsequently at West Point. He was with the detachment at Cambridge guarding the troops of Burgoyne, but was never in any en- gagement. Being of a practical turn, he sold his rations of rum to the Indians for bear-skins. In 1784 he left Stoughton, and purchased a farm in Union, Maine, on which his son was living in 1825. Amariah was for many years chairman of the selectmen of that town.
Sometimes these notifications were not complimentary. In 1734, when James Phillips arrived in town, the select- men are informed that " he has several hundred acres of land in Connecticut, but that a glass of good liquor stands a very narrow chance when it lies in his way. Yet it quickly gets the mastery of him when they come to close ingagement."
If the fathers of the town thought there was any danger of the new-comers becoming a public charge, they immedi- ately issued their warrant, directed to one of the constables of the town. The following is one of these warning-out warrants : -
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SOME OLD CUSTOMS.
STOUGHTON, SS.
To Either of y Constables of Stoughton in y County of Suffolk, Greeting :
Whereas, the Selectmen of Stoughton have been informed that there is one Scipio Lock and his wife, two free Negros, at a house belonging to Mr. Benj. Everenden in Stoughton, which came Sept. from Bran- tree in s'd County to resid in this Town, - these are therefore to require you in His Majesty's name to warn ye s'd Scipio and wife to depart this Town within fourteen days after warning gave them, or they will be delt with as to Law and Justice belongs. Dated at Stough- ton afore s'd September ye 28th, A. D. 1759, in ye 33d year of His Maj- estys Reign. Make Return hereof and of ye doings'herein to myself, as soon as may be. Per Order of ye Selectmen.
WM. ROYALL, Town Clerk.
This warrant was placed in the hands of one of the consta- bles, in this case of Isaac Fenno, Jr., who a few years after was to have his brains dashed out by falling from the tower of the meeting-house. Fenno, having seen the party described, writes on the warrant his attestation of the fact: -
SUFFOLK, SS. STOUGHTON, October ye 8th, 1759.
By Virtue of this warrant I have warned the within named Scipio Lock to depart out of this Town with his wife within fourteen Days warning given them, or they will be delt with as Law and Justice belongs.
ISAAC FENNO, JR., Constable.
An article also appeared in the town warrant " to see if the town will maintain a negro man, Scipio Lock, or try to get rid of him by standing a lawsuit."
Another custom of old times was to apprentice the children of the poor to some person willing to instruct them in a trade, thereby relieving the town of the burden of their sup- port, and at the same time fitting them for the duties of life when they should attain their majority.
The following is a copy of an old form of an apprentice indenture : -
This Indenture Witnesseth that we, Elkanah Billings, William Royall, Herekiah Gay, Joseph Billings, and Daniel Richards, Selectmen, and
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