USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Marlborough > History of the town of Marlborough, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, from its first settlement in 1657 to 1861; with a brief sketch of the town of Northborough, a genealogy of the families in Marlborough to 1800 > Part 3
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The two great causes which led to the settlement of most of the towns in the interior, were the love of liberty and the love of land. The Anglo-Saxon race seem to have an innate dread of being surrounded by neighbors. The Rev. Thomas Hooker, who came to Massachusetts with his flock in 1633, left Cambridge in 1636, performed a long and difficult journey through the wilderness, and commenced a settlement at Hart- ford, Connecticut, because he thought it unwise to permit settlements as near to each other as Charlestown and Roxbury and Watertown were to Cambridge. The complaint of being " straitened for the want of more land," which was put forth by him thus early, appears to have been adopted by most of the carly settlers, and became a fixed principle with them, and a troublesome legacy to their descendants.
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The town of SUDBURY, of which MARLBOROUGH was all offshoot, was granted as early as 1638, to Messrs. Pendleton, Noyse, Brown, and Company, and was incorporated the year following. In 1640, on petition of the inhabitants of Sudbury, the General Court granted them an addition of a mile in breadth on the south-east and south-west sides of their Planta- tion, " provided it may not hinder a new Plantation, if there may be a convenient place and accommodation for one." The same year, six hundred additional acres were granted to Sud- bury. In consequence of the exposed condition of Sudbury, Concord and Dedham, the General Court, in 1645, ordered, " That no man now inhabiting or settled in either of these towns (whether married or single) shall remove to any other town without the allowance of a magistrate or other selectman of that town, until it shall please God to settle peace again."
But if the people of Sudbury could not go out of town in quest of land, they could do that which amounted to nearly the same thing-viz., bring land into town. For on petition, the General Court, in 1649, passed the following order : " Sud- bury is granted two miles westward next adioyning them for their further enlargement ; provided that it prejudice not Wil- liam Brown in his two hundred acres already granted."
But not satisfied with the possessions they had already acquired, several of the leading inhabitants of Sudbury, in May, 1656, presented the following petition to the General Court :
"To the Hon. Governor, Dep. Governor, Magistrates, and Deputies of the General Court now assembled in Boston.
" The Humble Petition of several of the inhabitants of Sudbury, whose names are here underwritten, showeth : That whereas your Petitioners have lived divers years in Sudbury, and God hath been pleased to increase our children, which are now diverse of them grown to man's estate ; and wee, many of us, grown into years, so that wee should bee glad to see them settled before the Lord take us away from hence, as also God having given us some considerable quantity of cattle, so that wee are so streightened that we cannot so comfortably subsist as could be desired ; and some of us having taken some pains to view the country; wee have found a place which
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lyeth westward about eight miles from Sudbury, which wee conceive might be comfortable for our subsistence.
" It is therefore the humble request of your Petitioners to this Hon'd Court, that you would bee pleased to grant unto us eight miles square, or so much land as may containe to eight miles square, for to make a Plantation.
" If it shall please this Hon'd Court to grant our Petition, it is further then the request of your Petitioners to this Hon'd Court, that you will be pleased to appoint Mr. Thomas Dan- forth, or Liesten" Fisher to lay out the bounds of the Planta- tion ; and wee shall satisfy those whom this Hon'd Court shall please to employ in it. So apprehending this weighty occa- sion, wee shall no further trouble this Hon'd Court, but shall ever pray for your happiness.
" Edmund Rice, William Ward,
Thomas King,
John Howe, John Bent, Sen'r, John Maynard, Richard Newton,
John Woods, Thomas Goodnow, John Ruddocke, Henry Rice,
Peter Bent, Edward Rice."
To this Petition the following answer was made, at a Gen- eral Court held in Boston, May 14, 1656.
" In answer to the Petition of the aforesaid inhabitants of Sudbury, the Court judgeth it meete to grant them a propor- tion of land six miles, or otherwise in some convenient form equivalent thereunto, at the discretion of the Committee, in the place desired : provided it hinder no former grant ; that there be a town settled with twenty or more families within three years, so as an able ministry may bee there maintained.
" And it is ordered that Mr. Edward Jackson, Capt. Eleazer Lusher, Ephraim Child, with Mr. Thomas Danforth or Leisten"! Fisher, shall bee, and hereby are appointed a Committee to lay out the bounds thereof, and make return to the next Court of Election, or else the grant to bee void."
But it appears by the records of the General Court, that a portion of the territory asked for by the Sudbury men, had already been granted to the Indians. At a Court held May 3, 1654, " Upon the Petition of Mr. Eliot, in behalf of the In-
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dians, liberty is granted to the Indians of Ockoocangansett,* being eight miles west of Sudbury, to make a town there, pro- vided it do not prejudice any former grant, nor that they shall dispose of it without leave first had and obtained of this Court."
This grant, being prior to the one made to the inhabitants of Sudbury, was carried out in good faith by the Colony, as will be seen by the records of the Court.
" In reference to the case between Mr. Eliot, in behalf of the Indians of Ognonikongquamesit, and the Sudbury men ; the Court finding that the Indians had a grant of a township in the place before the English, the Court determines and orders that Mr. Edward Jackson, Mr. Tho. Danforth, Mr. Ephraim Child, and Capt. Lusher, or any three of them, as a Committee, shall with the first convenient opportunity, if it may be before win- ter, lay out a township in the said place of 6,000 acres to the Indians, in which, at least, shall be three or four hundred acres of meadow; and in case there be enough left for a convenient township for the Sudbury men, to lay it out for them ; the grant of Mr. Alcocke's (842 acres granted in 1655) confirmed by the last Court out of both excepted and reserved, and the Indians to have the Hill on which they are, and the rest of the land to be laid out adjoining to it as may be convenient to both Planta- tions."
This plantation was laid out by the Committee above desig- nated, and accepted by the Court, as will appear more fully hereafter. As the early history of Marlborough is somewhat confused by the fact that there were two plantations-the In- dian and English, the former partly included in and partially surrounded by the latter-it seems necessary to state that the Indian plantation, known by the name of Oekoocangansett, was situated in the north-easterly section of the present town- ship, and included the Hill back of the old Meeting-House Common, and in fact the Common itself, and the spot on which
* Amidst the different spelling of this name, I have adopted the one which prevails in the Marlborough Records. Different Records present us with the following orthography-Agoganquamatiet, Agoganquamaset, Ognonikongquamesit, Ogkoonhquonkames, Ognoinkongquamescit. Some persons have supposed that different places or hills were intended by these apparently different names ; but this is a mistake. The same place is intended by each.
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the old Meeting-House stood. It is also important to distin- guish between the " Indian Planting Field " and the " Indian Plantation ; " the former consisted of some one hundred and fifty acres located on the Hill back of the Common, near the present site of the depot of the Marlborough Branch Railroad, and was more or less cultivated ; the latter extended north and east about three miles, and contained six thousand acres, the most of which was wild and uncultivated, until it passed out of the hands of the Indians.
The English plantation was situated to the south and west of the Indian plantation, and by subsequent grants nearly sur- rounded it. This plantation, before it was incorporated, was known by the name of Whipsufferadge or Whipsuppenicke ; the latter sounding like better Indian, is here preferred. A plan of the English plantation was made in May, 1667, by Samuel Andrews, Surveyor, which was approved by the Deputies, 17th 3 mo. 1667, and consented to by the Magistrates.
This plan was long in possession of the town, but is now unfortunately lost ; the original is however to be found in the Archives of the State. This plantation, by admeasurement, contained 29,419 acres, which, with the 6,000 acres reserved for the Indians, made 35,419 acres. From the north-west angle of the Indian planting field, the boundary line between the Indian plantation on the east, and the English plantation on the west, runs north seven degrees west three miles, to a point beyond the Assabet * River; thence west twenty-five degrees south seven miles ; thence south-south-east five miles to the south-west extremity of the plantation ; thence east nine degrees north two miles and three-fourths, leading into Cedar swamp; thence south-east two hundred and twenty-six rods on Sudbury River ; thence due east two miles and three quarters ; thence north-east by north two miles and one hundred and twenty rods ; thence north seventeen degrees east three hun- dred and forty-eight rods ; thence due north one mile and three- fourths, which reaches to the Indian line ; thence three miles
* The name of this river is variously written. We find it Elzebeth, Asabeth, Assabeth, and Elizabeth; though it is now generally written Assabet. The Post Office in the south-east part of Stow is called Assabet, which will give the name a permanent character.
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due west on said line, which completes the boundary of the English plantation.
It would seem from the above boundaries that the grant exceeded the designated quantity of land. This, however, was no fault of the proprietors. The survey was made by the officers of the Court, and adopted by the deputies and magis- trates. Nor was it at all unusual to have their surveys contain more land than was mentioned in the grant. In laying out these townships, regard was generally had to the character of the country ; and as the boundaries were more or less irregular, they always calculated to make good measure ; for the doc- trine which now so extensively prevails was not entirely un- known to our ancestors-that there is no great harm in cheat- ing the body politic, especially in land operations.
We also see in the laying out of this township, the senti- ment of that age reflected. Meadow lands at that period were generally sought. This will appear from the fact that Sud- bury, and Concord, and Lancaster, and Brookfield, and several towns on the Connecticut, where there were large tracts of meadow, were among the first towns settled. And whoever looks into the localities where the first families settled in the earlier towns, will generally find that they were in the neigh- borhood of meadows. The meadows at that day were gen- erally open, and produced an abundance of grass, thereby giving the English settlers a supply of food for their cattle, without the labor of clearing dense forests .*
Marlborough did not, in its central part, contain any large tract of meadow land ; but by extending its boundaries so as to take in the valley of the Assabet, a portion of the meadows on Sudbury river, and a large number of smaller meadows and swamps, the wants of the people in these respects were well supplied. And the value they placed upon these low lands, fully appears by the fact that immediately after assigning to the proprietors their house lots, they proceeded at once to divide
* At the first settlement of the country, many of the meadows were found free from wood, like the prairies of the West. This is generally ascribed to the prevalence of fires set by the natives, for the purpose of destroying the hiding places of their game, and at the same time to enable them in the open land to intercept any enemies they might be pursuing. The fact that these meadows are inclined to grow up to wood in these days, shows that some such cause must have kept them open up to that time.
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and lay out their meadows, that they might have " grass for cattle " as well as " fruits for the service of man."
The Indian Plantation is so intimately connected with Marl- borough, and the history of the two is so interwoven, that it seems highly desirable to point out, as nearly as may be, its local position. From two old maps, drawn at different times, and by different persons, and varying somewhat from each other, I have constructed a diagram, which may enable the reader to form some idea of its situation. The draft I have given includes some additions or alterations that were made between 1667 and 1700; and especially a grant made to Marl- borough in 1700, on the line of Stow, north of the Indian Plantation.
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2
1
EXPLANATION.
The dotted line denotes the boundary of Marlborough before Westborough and Southborough were set off. The plain line denotes the boundary of the Indian Plant- ation. The figures are explained below.
1. The Indian Planting Field, on the south-west corner of which the Meeting- House was located. 2. The Indian Plantation. 3. A section of the Assabet River.
Having obtained the grant of the township at Whipsuppe- nicke, the proprietors, on the 25th of September, 1656, held their first meeting, at which the following votes were passed :
" It is concluded and ordered, That all yt doe take up lotts in y Plantation shall pay to all public charges yt shall arise upon
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ye Plantation, according to their House Lotts, and themselves to be residents there within two years, or set A man in, that ye Town shall approve of, or else to lose their lotts; but if God shall take away any man by death, such A one hath liberty to give his lott to whom he will, this order to the contrary not- withstanding."
The same year, at a public meeting,
William Ward,
" Were chosen to put the Affairs of
Thomas King, the said new Plantation in an orderly
John Ruddocke, and
John Howe,
Way."
In September, 1657, the following names, in addition to the original grantees, appear on their list :
William Kerly, John Rediat,
Solomon Johnson,
Samuel Rice,
John Johnson,
Peter King,
Thomas Rice,
Christopher Banister.
Measures were taken at an early day to divide a portion of their lands among the proprietors, so as to facilitate the settle- ment of the plantation. Expenses having occurred, and ques- tions arising relative to the respective titles to their lots, the proprietors, at a meeting held December 26, 1659, adopted measures to relieve these embarrassments, and solve these doubts.
" It is ordered that all such as lay clayme to any interest in the new Plantion at Whipsuppenicke are to perfect their house lots by the 25th of March next ensuing, or else loose all their interest in the aforesaid Plantation.
" It is also ordered that every one yt hath A Lott in ye afore- said Plantation, shall pay twenty shillings by the 25th of March ensuing, or else to loose all legal interest in ye aforesaid Plan- tation."
" At a Meeting of ye inhabitants and proprietors of this Plan- tation ye 6th of ye xi month, 1659,
" It is ordered that A Rate bee made for diffraying and satis- fying ye charge for Laying out of this plantation and other publicke charges to be collected of the inhabitants and propri-
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·eters of ye same, at ye rate of nine pence per acre upon all House Lotts already taken up, and upon such as shall here- after be taken up."
Immediately before the grant of the Plantation of Whipsup- penicke to Edmund Rice and others of Sudbury, the General Court granted to Mr. John Alcocke, and confirmed unto him 842 acres of land which he had caused to be laid out between the two Indian towns of Natick and Whipsuppenicke, bounded according to draft presented to the Court, together with permis- sion to add one hundred and odd acres more, provided it hinder no former grant. In virtue of authority here given, 1,042 acres were laid out and confirmed to Mr. Alcocke. But a contro- versy immediately arose between him and the Whipsuppenicke Company, which claimed a portion of his grant. This contro- versy was happily terminated in 1659, when John Alcocke, on the one part, and Edmund Rice, John Ruddocke and John Howe, in behalf of the proprietors of the plantation, entered into an agreement by which two hundred acres of Alcocke's grant were relinquished to the proprietors of the plan- tation. Alcocke subsequently petitioned the General Court, which granted him two hundred acres of land in "lieu of the two hundred acres he grattiffyed ye plantation of Whipsup- penicke out of his oune."
Mr. Alcocke was an inhabitant of Roxbury, and was a man of liberal education. He was often employed by the Colony, and for his services had several grants of land. The land above referred to was on the south-easterly borders of Marl- borough. After the death of Alcocke, this tract, or " farm," as it was generally called, fell into the hands of his heirs, among whom was Ephraim Hunt, of Weymouth, who married Alcocke's daughter. On the 25th of December, 1695, Samuel Bigelow, John Bemis, Joseph Morse, and Samuel Morse, described as husbandmen of Watertown, bought of said Hunt, for three hundred pounds, three hundred and fifty acres of land formerly granted to Dr. Alcocke, bordering on Marlborough, and called ' The Farm.' Joseph Morse settled in the house said to have been built by Alcocke ; Samuel built southerly, and their brother Jonathan afterward bought and built on a tract of land adjoining, so that one garrison would protect all the families.
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In - 1700 the town petitioned the General Court that the farms bounding upon the town be set to Marlborough, which was in part granted. But 'The Farm' itself was not included in this annexation. The inhabitants at first were willing to remain as they were, being exempt from all municipal bur- dens. But the inhabitants of Marlborough complained that the people upon 'The Farm' were exempt from taxation, while they enjoyed many of the privileges of the town. In 1718, Joseph Morse, John Bigelow, John Sherman, Samuel Bigelow, Thomas Bigelow and Daniel Harrington, who re- sided on 'The Farm,' joined the inhabitants of Marlborough in a petition to the General Court, that said 'Farm' be annexed to Marlborough. The Court granted their request, and the territory was annexed to the town, and is known to this day as ' The Farm.'
The proprietors of the Plantation soon felt the need of being erected into a municipal corporation, and consequently preferred their prayer for that purpose to the Court. On petition of the proprietors, the General Court, May 31, 1660, Old Style,* took action, which is thus recorded in the Colony Records.
* By the change of style, this Act of Incorporation falls upon the 12th of June in 1860. It may be interesting to some, to state the occasion for the change from Old to New Style. The Julian Year consisted of 365 days and 6 hours-thus making a year too long by about 11 minutes. In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII. attempted to reform the Calendar. From the time of the Council of Nice to the time of Gregory, this excess of eleven minutes amounted to ten days. In order to obviate this error, it was ordained that the year 1582 should consist of 365 days only, and that ten days, between the 4th and 15th of October, should be thrown out of the Calendar for that year; and also to pre- vent any further irregularity, that no year commencing a century should be leap-year, excepting each four hundredth year ; whereby three days are abated every four hundred years, that being nearly equal to eleven minutes for every year during that period ; leaving an error of only one day in 5,200 years.
The Calendar before the days of Gregory was the Julian, and is commonly called Old Style, and the Calendar of Gregory has been denominated New Style. Though the New Style was at once adopted in Catholic countries, it was not adopted by Great Britain or her Colonies till 1752. Previous to that year, two methods of beginning the year prevailed in England ; the ecclesi- astical and legal year beginning on the 25th of March, and the historical year on the 1st of January. The change of Style adopted by England, 1752, fixed January Ist as the commencement of the year.
This difference in the commencement of the year led to a system of double dating from the first of January to the twenty-fifth of March-thus : January 10, 1724-5 or 1724-the 4 denoting the Ecclesiastical, and the 5 the Historical year. From 1582 to 1699 the difference in the styles was 10 days ; from 1700 to 1800, 11 days ; since 1800, 12 days.
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" In answer to the petition of the Whipsuppenicke planters, this Court considering theire former obstructions, doe confirme theire grante, and lands thereof, as it was laid out by the Com- mittee empowered thereto by this Court, in case they proceed in planting the same according to the intent of the Court in their first grant, and the same be accomplished within two years next ensuing.
" And it is ordered that the name of the said plantation shall be called MARLBOROW : and that Mr. Chauncy* be by them repaid all his charges expended in laying out his farm in the place, and he hath liberty to lay out the same in any lands not formerly granted by this Court."
Having been erected into a town, the proprietors at once entered upon the duties of a municipal corporation. But unfor- tunately their early records were meagre, and some of them have been lost. We are compelled to rely mainly upon the Records of the Proprietors, instead of the Records of the Town.
* The Pond situated in what is now Westborough, has from the earliest day of the settlement, been known by the name of "Chauncy ;" and in fact that name was formerly given to the whole of that section of Marlborough. Rev. Mr. Parkman, of Westborough, who was settled there in 1724, gives the following account of the origin of the name. "It is said in early times one Mr. Chauney was lost in one of the swamps here, and from hence this part of the town had its name." This tradition is undoubtedly fabulous. The Records of the General Court contain facts which will place this matter in its true light. President Chauncy, the first of the name in the Colony, owing to the smallness of his salary as head of the College, had several grants of land. The Commis- sioners for locating one of these grants, make the following Report :
" Whereas John Stone and Andrew Belcher were appointed to lay out a farme for Mr. Charles Chauney, President of Harvard College, we have gone and look- ed on a place, and there is taken up a tract of land bounded on this manner ; on the east by a little swampe neare an Indian wigwam with an orchard of apple trees belonging to the wigwam, a playne joyning to the swamp, the playne runing to a great Pond, and from thence to Assebeth River; and this line is circular on the north side ; the south line runing to the south side of a piece of meadow call- ed Jacob's Meadow, and so to continue till it reach to the said Assebeth River. " 18 : 8 : 1659.
ANDREW BELCHER."
The following year, on petition of the proprietors of Marlborough, the Court confirmed their former grant, and as it included the grant made to Mr. Chauney, it was provided that Marlborough should pay to said Chauncy " all his charges expended in laying out his farm, and he hath liberty to lay out the same in any lands not formerly granted by the Court." Chauney accordingly gave up his farm, but left his name upon the place ; and so Chauncey Pond, to this day, marks the locality of his grant, and the name will in all probability rest upon that sheet of water as long as the records of the early settlements are known.
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" At a Meeting of the inhabitants of the town, (ordered by the General Court to be called Marlborough, ) Sept. 20, 1660 :
" It is ordered, That every person yt claims any interest in the town of Marlborough, shall pay to all publicke charge, both for the minister and for all other town charges that have arisen about the plantation to this day from the beginning thereof, according to their proportion in ye rate now presented with said proportion due ; every person to pay at or before the 10th of November next ensuing, or else loose all legal interest in the aforesaid plantation ; that is to say, four pence an acre for each acre of their House Lotts to the Minister, and three pence for all the estate that hath been kept or brought to keep, being found in the town or about the town ; and nine pence an acre for every acre of their House Lotts to town charges, till all the debts that are due from the town to them that have been em- ployed by the town or the plantation thereof."
This vote is signed by
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