History of the town of Canton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Part 53

Author: Huntoon, Daniel T. V. (Daniel Thomas Vose), b. 1842
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Cambridge, [Mass.] : J. Wilson and Son : University Press
Number of Pages: 728


USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Canton > History of the town of Canton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts > Part 53


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Morse, Henry. Morse, Henry, Jr. Morse, Jeremiah.


Morse, Jesse.


Morse, John.


Morse, Joel. Morse, Joseph. Morse, Samuel. Morse, Sion. Morton, Seth.


Puffer, John (Lieut.). Puffer, Joseph. Puffer, Seth. Rachford, Michael. Redman, Robert. Reed, William. Rhodes, David. Rhodes, Timothy.


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APPENDIX.


Rhodes, Daniel.


Richards, Joseph.


Richardson, Amos.


Stone, Henry, Jr.


Royall, Hector (negro). Royall, William.


Stone, William.


Stone, Lemuel.


Scudder, John.


Strobridge, Samuel.


Shale, Edward, Jr.


Strobridge, Seth.


Shaller, Ebenezer.


Studson, Amos.


Shaller, Henry.


Studson, Hezekiah.


Shaw, Mason.


Studson, Isaac.


Sampson, Deborah.


Sumner, Enos.


Savels, William.


Sumner, George.


Shepard, Jacob.


Sumner, John.


Shepard, Samuel.


Sumner, William.


Shepard, William.


Swan, Robert (Maj.).


Shurtleff, Jonathan, Jr.


Swift, David.


Shurtleff, Simeon (Lieut.).


Swift, Joshua.


Silvester, Benjamin.


Swift, Benjamin.


Smith, Ashael (Capt.).


Talbot, Daniel.


Smith, Benjamin.


Talbot, David.


Smith, Elijah.


Talbot, Ebenezer.


Smith, Ephraim, Jr.


Talbot, George.


Smith, Jesse.


Talbot, Isaac.


Smith, John.


Talbot, Samuel.


Smith, Lemuel.


Talbot, William.


Smith, Seth.


Taunt, Ebenezer.


Smith, William, 3d.


Smith, William.


Smith, Israel.


Taylor, David.


Snell, William.


Taylor, Edward.


Southland, David.


Taylor, William.


Southworth, Jedediah (Capt.).


Thayer, Caleb.


Spare, John.


Thayer, Ephraim.


Spare, Samuel.


Thayer, Joseph. Thayer, Noah.


Thompson, Amos.


Thompson, Joseph.


Thompson, Ralph (Lieut.).


Thompson, David.


Spur, Elijah, Jr.


Tilden, Elijah.


Spur, John. Spur, Redman.


Tilden, Ezra.


Spur, Samuel.


Tilden, Josiah.


Stearns, Nathaniel.


Tilden, Nathaniel.


Stephens, John.


Tilden, Nathaniel, Jr.


Stetson, Amos.


Stewart, Robert.


Stoddard, Samuel.


Stodder, Lemuel.


Tilden, Walter. Tilden, William. Tilley, James. Tilt, Benjamin.


Spear, Jacob.


Spear, Richard.


Spear, Simeon.


Spear, Stephen.


Spur, Elijah.


Tildeu, Elijah, Jr.


Stodder, Samuel. Stone, Henry.


Taunt, John. Taunt, Levi.


APPENDIX.


629


Tolman, Ezekiel (Lieut.). Tolman, John.


Wentworth, Elijah.


Wentworth, Elijah, 3d.


Tolman, John, Jr.


Wentworth, Enoch.


Tolman, Jonathan, Jr. Tolman, Samuel.


Wentworth, John.


Topliff, Samuel.


Wentworth, Joseph.


Torrey, Willis or Wallis. Tower, Malachi. Tower, Martin.


Wentworth, Jedediah.


Wentworth, Lemuel.


Trescott, John.


Wentworth, Nathaniel.


Tucker, Benjamin (Lieut.).


Wentworth, Oliver. Wentworth, Paul.


Tucker, Daniel.


Wentworth, Samuel.


Tucker, John (Capt.).


Wentworth, Samuel, Jr.


Tucker, James.


Wentworth, Seth.


Tucker, Samuel.


Wentworth, Shubael.


Tucker, Samuel, Jr. Tuttle, Levi.


Wentworth, Stephen. Wentworth, William.


Tiffany, Joseph.


Wellman, Jacob.


Tupper, Reuben.


Wetherbee, Nathaniel.


Upham, Abijah.


Wheeler, William.


Upham, Abijah, Jr.


White, Amon.


Vinton, David.


White, Samuel.


Vinton, Samuel.


Whitman, Nehemiah.


Vinton, Seth.


Whyton, Comfort.


Wadsworth, Benj.


Whyton, Philip.


Wadsworth, Christopher.


Whyton, Samuel, Jr.


Wadsworth, John.


Willard, Edward.


Wales, Joshua.


Williams, Benj.


Williams, Isaac.


1 Wales, Moses. Wales, Nathaniel. Wales, Pomp. Wales, Samuel.


Willis, Job. Willis, John. Withington, Edward, Jr. Withington, Edward.


Wales, Timothy.


Withington, Ebenezer.


Wallis, Tony. Waters, Asa.


Withington, Henry B.


Waters, Daniel.


Withington, John.


Wentworth, Aaron. Wentworth, Benjamin.


Withington, John, 2d.


Wentworth, Benjamin, Jr.


Withington, John, Jr. Withington, Joseph. Withington, Mather. Wood, Ebenezer.


Wentworth, Charles. Wentworth, Charles, Jr.


Wentworth, Daniel.


Worsley, Benjamin.


1


Wentworth, Ebenezer.


Wentworth, Isaac.


Wentworth, Jacob.


Tucker, George.


630


APPENDIX.


XXII.


SETTLERS OUTSIDE THE PONKAPOAG LOCATION.


In the year 1700 the selectmen of Dorchester relocated the road from Milton line to the house of Ebenezer Billings in Sharon. They laid it out three rods in width, and they mention only three houses . two of these were those of Isaac Royall, under Blue Hill, and of Mr. Charles Salter, where the thirteenth milestone now stands. The committee then pass on over " Martin's Delight," as they call Ponkapoag Brook, by Ridge Hill, through Pecunit, and leave the house of Mr. Endicott on the west. No mention is made of any other house. The saw-mill was standing near Massapoag Brook. But on the proprietors' land some farms had been tilled, and houses erected ; long before the Twelve Divisions were laid out, the town of Dorchester had granted land to certain persons. In 1665 Lieut. Hopestill Foster petitioned for a farm, and it was desired that his choice "may ly somewhere on this side punkapage, and beyond the Blew Hills." Mr. Foster selected the farm which lies east of Washington and south of Blue Hill Street, bounded on the south by the Ponkapoag line and the Ponkapoag Pond. It was laid out to the widow of Lieutenant Foster in 1687, who conveyed it to Mathias Puffer.


Mathias Puffer, as early as 1690, had attempted to build a house near Blue Hill, on Blue Hill Plain, as it was then called; but an order from the selectmen of Dorchester forbade him to proceed with it ; but having been able to convince them that he had purchased three hundred and forty acres of land of the widow of Capt. Hopestill Foster, and had two hundred and twenty " by the common road and Ponkapoag line " laid out to him by the town of Dorchester, the restriction was removed, and he was allowed to erect his house. It was replaced by one built by Colonel Doty about 1767, which stood on the corner of Washington and Blue Hill streets un- til 1815, when John Davenport built the house now standing on its site. He was appointed in 1697, with Captain Vose and Ebenezer Billings, to look after the common swamps and uplands, and see that neither shingles nor timber were carried away. This appointment implies residence. In March, 1703, he was chosen surveyor of highways, and was the first offi- cer elected by Dorchester who lived in the New Grant. As his life was an eventful one, and as there are many living who have " Puffer blood " in their veins, a short sketch of probably our first settler will not be uninteresting.


Mathias Puffer first appears in Dorchester in 1663 ; he married, March 12, 1662, Rachel Farnsworth, of Braintree. In 1675 he was at Mendon, when that town was attacked by the Indians. His wife Rachel, and eldest son, Joseph, were slain. Several of his best cattle were killed. He was forced to return to Braintree to take care of his children.


631


APPENDIX.


Feb. 11, 1677, he married Abigail, daughter of Richard and Mary Everett. In 1676 he had land granted to him at Medfield. In 1687 and 1688 he is again at Mendon, and appears at Milton in 1693, when he joins the church, and on the 14th of May, 1697, leads to the altar Mary Crehore of that town. He divided his lands among his four sons, - John, the eldest, having the eastern portion ; James, the next adjoining ; Jona- than, an intermediate tract to which Davenport's Lane now runs ; and all contiguous on Washington Street to Eleazer. Mathias had two daugh- ters, - Hester, who married, June 2, 1697, William Sumner, and Abigail, who married, March 25, 1708, William Crane. He died May 9, 1717.


Jonathan was accused of selling drink without a license as early as 1718; he endeavored to excuse himself by saying that he only sold it on general and artillery election days. The court made him pay fio fine nevertheless.


An ancient diary kept in this town by one Samuel Chandler, who was born Dec. 31, 1708, and died Aug. 5, 1794, contains items of interest to the historian. Many of the occurrences recorded have been proved cor- rect by reference to town and church records. Under the head of " deaths in Stoughton " occurs the following : " 1783, Dec. 26, Widow Thankful Blackman, first white child born in Stoughton [in the] year 1700 " (April 14, 1701). This woman, as has been said a thousand times by old Cantonians, was the daughter of a " Redman," and mar- ried a " Blackman." The statement that Thankful Redman was the first white child born in Canton does not rest alone on the documentary evidence of Mr. Chandler's diary ; it is a matter of tradition. It has been handed down from generation to generation. An intelligent person, Mrs. Abigail Maynard, who was born July 28, 1790, and who died June 19, 1882, at the age of ninety-two years, daughter of Samuel Blackman, who was the grandson of Thankful Redman, says her father always told her that his grandmother, Thankful, was the first white child born in Stoughton. Miss Chloe Dunbar, born May 1, 1805, has often heard her grandmother, who was a daughter of Thankful Redman, say that her mother was the first white child born in Stoughton. . Now, these persons derived their information from those best acquainted with the facts, who were possessed of a knowledge of the subject, and who had no tempta- tion to misrepresent. This tradition has come down undisputed and un- challenged through the family of the Blackmans and related families.


The Hon. Newton Talbot took exception to this statement, and pub- lished the following reasons therefor : -


" Mr Puffer's deed from the Foster estate is dated April 14, 1696 ; but it states that the land conveyed is ' now in his possession.'


" In August. 1691, Matthias Puffer, 'for several good causes and con- siderations, him moveing, but more especially the settlement of John Puf- fer, his eldest son, near unto his own dwelling house, hath of his own free will given,' etc., to said John Puffer one hundred and twenty acres of land


632


APPENDIX.


bounded northeasterly upon Braintree line, northwest upon the Great Blue Hill, southeast upon Ponkapoag Pond, and southwest upon land of said Matthias Puffer. Mr. Puffer's own deed of 1696 bounds southeast upon Ponkapoag line.


"James Puffer's home lot, that he had by gift from his father, was upon the southwest side of the lot deeded to John Puffer, his brother ; but his deed from his father is not recorded.


" These brothers were both married the 17th of the toth month, 1695, by Rev. Mr. Danforth, of Dorchester: John, to Mary Holbrook, of Roxbury; James, to Abigail Newton, of Milton. That both of them settled upon the farms their father gave them out of his home farm does not seem to admit of a doubt, as both continued to own and occupy them so long as they lived.


" If this be so, it then follows that Abigail, born Nov. 26, 1696, and Es- ther, recorded Hester, born May 29, 1699, daughters of James and Abigail Puffer, and John, born Oct. 3, 1698, son of John and Mary Puffer, ante- date the birth of Thankful Redman, one of them nearly five years."


As a descendant in the fourth generation from Esther Puffer, I desire to claim for her all the honor to which she is entitled as one of the early settlers in Canton ; and in order that the higher honor may be paid to Thankful Blackman, let me suggest what has always been my construc- tion of the record made by Mr. Chandler, which is this : that Thankful Blackman was the first white child born in Stoughton in the eighteenth century, or, as he expresses it, in 1700. That she was the first so born there can be no doubt.


In the chapter containing an account of the Doty tavern much of the subsequent history of this farm will be found.


The farm now known as the Fenno farm was granted by the town of Dor- chester in December, 1657, to Lieut. Roger Clapp, "where he shall find a convenient place " beyond the Blue Hills ; Major Humphrey Atherton, En- sign Foster, and William Sumner were desired and empowered to lay it out. A plan of it was made in 1662 by Joshua Fisher, another in 1689; and on Butcher's map it is designated as Captain Clapp's farm The following year, on the death of Captain Clapp, the farm became the property of his sons, Samuel and Hopestill. In 1692 an action at law to recover the farm was brought by Richard Thayer against the executors of Clapp's es- tate ; the decision was adverse to the plaintiffs, and the heirs, on the 21st of June, 1694, deeded it for the sum of {roo to John Fenno, of Milton, in whose possession it remained until his death in 1708. The farm was willed to his three sons, John, Benjamin, and Ephraim. His elder son, Joseph, it would appear, had gone to Canada on an expedition against the common enemy ; and his father stipulated that should he ever return, the brothers should give him jointly £90. John Fenno mentions having prop- erty in the county of Lancashire, in the " Realm of England," which may have been his abode in the old country.


633


APPENDIX.


Although this farm had been laid out by the town of Dorchester in 1657 to Roger Clapp, it seems by some oversight to have been granted in 1675 to the Indians as part of their reservation, and is alluded to in the report of the committee of 1723 as that part which must be " subducted " from the six thousand acres.


At the same time that this farm was granted to Clapp, Richard Thayer, who figures so notoriously in the early history of Braintree as a claimant of lands, endeavored to obtain a lease of this farm from Wampatuck, giv- ing the sachem a pound of tobacco as rental. The council of the chief denied that Thayer had any rights in the land, and asserted that the land belonged to Dorchester, and "if the English took it away from Thayer, he was to lose it." It is unnecessary to add that he lost it. On this farm the first hay in Canton was cut, as far as I am informed. On Oct. 30, 1666, one Stephen Hopkins testified in court, and swore to the following statement : -


That he " was one of them that did run the line between Dorchester and Braintree, from the top of the Blue Hill southward, Mr. John Oliver being then the surveyor, which was about four and twenty years ago, and I have been employed by Dorchester since to run the bounds. I have seen by the marked trees that the same bound is one bound of Capt. Clapp's farm. I also have wrought upon the land, and made hay there for Capt. Clapp divers years ago. I further testify that Major Atherton was then present and two more of the selectmen."


It would appear that there was a family named Merrifield residing on a portion of this farm as early as 1671, but they could only have been tran- sient residents.


John Fenno, Jr., appears to have been the only one of his father's sons who came to Canton. He may have lived here as early as 1695, for he was chosen that year by Dorchester one of the committee on bounds, and in 1704 he was a surveyor of highways. In 1709 he again served in this capacity. In 1716 his house is represented on a plan as of two stories, - a rarity in those days, -and proves the owner to have been a man pos- sessed of more than the average of this world's goods. At the organiza- tion of the precinct the same year, he was chosen assessor. It was his duty to keep the boys in order in the meeting-house. John Fenno mar- ried, about 1690, Rachel Newcom, of Braintree. She died Oct. 16, 1750. He died on the 23d of April, 1741, in the seventy-sixth year of his age, so the old gravestone in the cemetery informs us.


John Fenno had the following children : -


Isaac I. Joseph, the eldest, married (1), June 1, 1728, Hannah, daughter of in records James and Abigail (Newton) Puffer. She died July 30, 1731. (2) April of town 10, 1732, Mary Niles. He died July 5, 1770.


2. John, who married, Feb. 25, 1707, Hannah, daughter of Joseph and Ruamah (Babcock) Billings. She died Oct. 23, 1768. He died Dec. 15, 1759. In 1732 he confessed and bewailed the sin of fighting.


--


634


APPENDIX.


3. Bethia, who married Charles Wentworth, Dec. 15, 1713. She died April 29, 1780. He died July 8, 1780.


4. Ruth, born May 30, 1705, married Eliphalet Leonard, of Easton, Oct. 10, 1728. She died March 28, 1768. He died Feb. 4, 1786.


5. Elizabeth, born 1707, married Stephen Billings, June 9, 1724. She died Oct. 17, 1783. "Good old Stephen Billings dies " June 10, 1767.


6. Freelove, born Feb. 1, 1714, married, April 18, 1733, John Brett, of Bridgewater.


7. Seth was born Oct. 28, 1709, and died Oct. 31, 1740.


The boundary line between Canton and Milton, running from the top of Blue Hill to the Neponset River, forms also, near the present residence of Robert Stevenson, the boundary between the Six Division lots, laid out in what is now Milton and the Twelve Division lots. Lot No. I therefore is in Canton, and a portion of the division wall was removed in 1832. It extended from the Canton line on both sides of Green Street to within a few feet of the eastern gateway of what is now the Hemenway es- tate. This lot contained thirty-six acres, and was laid out to Nathaniel Clapp.


The second lot in the Twelve Divisions, containing sixty-nine acres, originally laid out to the widow Mary Smith, was deeded to Thomas Tol- man in 1695. At his death, Sept. 12, 1718, it came into possession of his son, Thomas, Jr.


It is probable that he settled in the northerly part of the town very early. He and his wife were members of Mr. Dunbar's church, who re- cords that " Nov. 6, 1738, Thomas Tolman, our aged brother, fails down dead at his work." And again, " Mar. 14, 1746, the aged widow Tolman gave £5 to the church." Silas Crane was the son of Henry and Eliza- beth (Vose) Crane. He was baptized June 21, 1691, and married, Dec. 8, 1725, Experience, daughter of Thomas and Experience Tol- man, and appears to have settled on this spot before 1734; and a Crane has been in possession of it nearly ever since. Silas and his wife lived on this place; they died on the 6th and 7th of June, 1753, and both are interred in one grave in the Canton Cemetery. He was prominent in affairs, a deacon in the church, a captain in the militia, town treasurer, and four years a selectman. When Mr. John Elbridge bought this place, he did not destroy the ancient homestead, but placed it in a more desirable situation, and built around it. He beautified and adorned this sightly place with trees and "slirubbery which a Shen- stone might have envied." He had large herds of Jersey cattle and numberless horses ; be purchased nearly all the land in the vicinity that was obtainable, and made one of the most attractive farms in Norfolk County. He passed here many happy years. He was born at Yarmouth, Sept. 23, 1819, and died in the city of New York, March 23, 1876. He was our representative to the General Court in 1859-1860, and senator in 1865.


635


APPENDIX.


Lot No. 3 was originally laid out to Robert Spurr. It consisted of sixty-four acres, and has no appearance of having changed its condition since.


Lot No. 4 was laid out to Thomas Vose, Senior, and consisted, by the record, of one hundred and fifty-eight acres. Thomas Vose was a Milton man. By his wife Waitstill (Wiatt) he had sons Henry and Thomas, and a daughter Joanna, who married Preserved Lyon.


Elizabeth Vose, daughter of Henry, was born Jan. 28, 1696. She mar- ried Michael Shaller, - the first of the name in town, and his father-in-law deeded him a part of this Lot No. 4, on which he built a house. He was one of our earliest schoolmasters, and was designated "a stiller," not on account of the excellent school he kept, however. In 1744 he was mod- erator of the town meeting. Michael lies buried in the old cemetery at Can- ton Corner, and an ancient stone records that he " died Jan'y ye 31st, 1759, in ye 75th year of his age." His father was a Frenchman who went from Paris to Barbadoes there to learn the process of distillation. Having done this he came to Boston, and owned a still, which was situated on Wash- ington Street, north of the corner of Boylston. This building, Judge Sewall tells us in his diary, was destroyed by fire, March 23, 1688. He married Hannah, the widow of Nathaniel Jewell.


Twenty acres of Lot No. 4 was sold to Peter Lyon, June 1, 1698. He was a resident of Milton, and was taxed there at one time; but from an ancient deed it would appear that in 1698 " Henry Vose, of Milton, was granted a point of land where Peter Lyon's house now stands." The same year Peter purchases from the proprietors a lot of twenty acres, which was sold to pay the cost of surveying. This land was near a point- of land known as " Tomlins's," and was then in his possession. On the 2d of August, 1695, Peter and his wife Jane were dismissed from the Dor- chester Church, and joined the Milton Church. On June 25, 1718, they were dismissed from the Milton Church, and joined the church at Dorchester New Village, now Canton. They styled themselves as of Ponkapoag in 1705, and he was an officer and clerk of the precinct in 1707. He seems to have taken an interest in education, and in 1723 was chosen one of a committee to obtain from Dorchester that part of the school money that belonged to this precinct. He was active in church affairs, but wanted his own way, and was accused of "making rash and impudent speeches." His son Elhanan inherited this peculiarity (see page 67), and was "the great troubler of ye church." That Peter was a good singer will be seen by the vote in 1721, "That Peter Lyon set the psalm." He also kept a tav.rn from 1705 to 1712. A law passed, Oct. 22, 1692, by the General Court for the better keeping of the Lord's Day contained a provision, "That no traveller shall travel on that day or any part thereof, except by some adversity they were belated and forced to lodge in the wilderness the night before." The following letter is of interest: -


636


APPENDIX.


DORCHESTER, April 28, 1712.


To Mag" Lenard : Sir, - Aftar my sarvis humbley presented unto your wor- shipe these are to inform you that Mr Thomas Stevens, Nath1 Stevens, and Ben" Lenard, som tim sence came to my house late in ye evening on ye laste day of ye week, and aftar some discors betwen about thire going on thire jurnny thay concluded to tary all night by reson of ye excesive darknes of ye seson, for it was exseeding dark, and so far to goe a way very early on ye saboath day morn- ing, for they weare in hops that thay should get in good seson to Norton meeting. But thay tolde me that thay woold have tayred over ye saboath with us, but by reson of sicknes in there familys thay could not stay. And so ye moved away upon thire jorny very early in ye morny, and thire caridge while they weare with me was very ordarly.


Sir, Yours to sarve,


PETER LYON.


Peter Lyon died July 7, 1733, leaving a widow, named Sarah.


The cellar-hole of Peter Lyon's house was situated on a high plateau, in the rear of Colonel Wolcott's house. The situation of the house must have been particularly fine, - the prospect embracing as it did the hills of Dedham, the winding Neponset, and the verdant meadows of Green Lodge. There are several cellars on Lot No. 4 that deserve remem- brance. One represents a house occupied in ancient days by a Talbot, probably Captain George. Tradition asserts that a son was born to him here in such a terrific snow-storm that no aid could be procured from the neighbors. Another very early cellar is known as the Tomlins (some- times Tombolins) cellar ; a swamp in the vicinity was called Tomlins's swamp in 1701, which, in 1762, when owned by Capt. Abner Crane, still preserved its name, and in 1800 was owned by Dr. John Sprague. In 1774 this house was standing and occupied by Thomas French, and in it were born Thomas, Nathaniel, and other children. No one now living remembers it. Tradition says that it was purchased by Jerathmael Crane, and moved to the line between Milton and Canton on Washington Street.


On the upper division of Colonel Wolcott's driveway stood a house erected in 1733. Here resided Abigail (Crane) Topliff, once the wife of William Shaller, - the great killer of rattlesnakes, -afterwards widow of old Deacon Ebenezer Topliff, who brought the first "chair," or open chaise into Canton. He died Sept. 24, 1795, aged seventy-six years. To her home on the centennial anniversary of her birth came the Rev. Samuel Gile, from Milton, to celebrate the occurrence with appropriate ex- hortation and prayer. She lies in the Canton Cemetery, and this is the inscription on her stone : "Sacred to the memory of Mrs. Abigail Top- liff, who died June 28, 1830, aged 100 years 10 months and a day."


Another cellar-hole, easily found by the gnarled apple-trees and " lay- locks " that surrounded a once happy home, belonged to Henry Shaller; it is on the south side of Green Street. Henry married, Nov. 25, 1759.


637


APPENDIX.


Abigail, daughter of James and Abigail (Crane) Andrews. She died Jan. 25, 1798.


Lot No. 5 in the " Twelve Divisions " was laid out as follows : Daniel Preston had one hundred and thirty acres ; Samuel Paul had twenty-four acres ; David Jones and Mr. Proctor had eighty-seven, and John Hol- brook, twenty-two. This lot extended from the farm now occupied by Henry Williard, the son of Aaron, the clockmaker, south to the Ponka- poag line, near the schoolhouse.


Isaac Royall, of Dorchester, who died in 1729, purchased in 1703, from Daniel Preston, Jr., one hundred and fifty acres of this land, and gave his son a deed of it, " in consideration of love and affection." This young man in 1714 purchased one hundred and forty acres more.


The house now standing at the corner of Wood's Lane, although it occupies the same site as the ancient " Royall house," is quite modern ; it was built in 1837 from the materials of the former house. The original house was built at the time when there was danger of an attack from the Indians. Persons now living, who well remember the original house, in- form me that the upper story projected over the lower about three feet, and that there were loop-holes in the building at convenient distances, to allow the occupants to protect themselves by muskets or hot water from the attacks of hostile Indians ; such houses were quite common in the early days of New England, and this style of architecture is sometimes denominated " The King Philip."




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