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 5
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" And remain, your humble servants,
" LYMAN WILLARD, "WM. STOUGHTON, " HUGII MASON."
" The Court thankfully accepts of the labor and pains of this Committee, and do in answer to this return, allow and confirm the Town Book by them finished and stated as above-which Town Book shall from henceforth be the authentic record of the Town of Marlborough, as to the several particulars therein contained and conducted,-each inhabitant and person con- cerned, being required to take notice thereof, and yield obedi- ence accordingly."
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A Report thus full and explicit, covering apparently the whole ground of the long and bitter contest about the correct- ness of their Records, and the consequent title to a great part of their respective lands; heartily approved and endorsed as it was by the Court itself-the supreme power in this case-we might suppose would be the end of all strife. But as soon as this Report and the Order of the Court thereon, were promul- gated, Thomas King, who appears to have been fond of the bitter waters of strife, together with other inhabitants of the town, preferred another petition, reflecting upon this Commit- tee, and demanding another hearing.
The Court passed upon this petition May 12, 1675, and fixed a time for another hearing. But owing, probably, to the Indian war which immediately ensued, and broke up, temporarily, the settlement, the parties, it would seem, did not appear to prose- cute their case. But true to that instinct which leads "from battles won to new succeeding strife," as soon as they had rid themselves of their savage foe, they renewed the quarrel among themselves, and the Court appointed Thomas Danforth, Deputy Governor Joseph Dudley, Esq., Capt. Lawrence Hammond, Capt. Daniel Fisher, and Capt. Thomas Brattle, to repair to the place, to hear the complaints, and " finally and authoritatively to determine and settle all matters of difference among them."
On the 9th of October, 1679, the Committee made their Report, in which they find some persons " justly blamable for their turbulently opposing the order of the former Committee." They ordered that certain portions of Assabet Meadow should be divided in a specified way ; in relation to the supporting of the ministry, they declare " that the allowance made to Rev. Mr. Brimsmead is much short of his deserts, and of what is needful for an honorable maintenance, and therefore advise to an amendment of that matter. And finally, with reference to the Book of Records of the Town, we do order that the same be delivered to the Selectmen for the time being; and the Selectmen are ordered to take care that the Acts of the former Committees, together with this writing, be fairly entered into the above said book." This Report was signed by Thomas Danforth, Joseph Dudley, Thomas Brattle and Lawrence Ham- mond, and was approved and confirmed by the Court.
While this long and bitter controversy was carried on in
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relation to their temporal affairs, and especially in reference to their land, which in all new countries is the all-absorbing theme, their ecclesiastical affairs were neglected and somewhat embroiled. As early as 1664, when the contest commenced touching their records and their lands, we find their religious concerns so closely connected with the civil, that the estrangc- ment extended to both; and while Legislative Committees were invoked to restore quiet in the town, Ecclesiastical Coun- cils were called to preserve harmony in the parish. We have seen that provision was made for a Minister and a Meeting- house in 1662, and that such was their attachment to their Minister, that they erected him a house ; but within two years from that time, the difficulties which grew out of their secular affairs, extended to their religious, and prevented not only their growth in grace, but their enjoyment of the outward ordinances of religion. In 1664, John Howe, Sen., Richard Newton, John Rediat, Edward Rice, Thomas Ricc, Peter Bent, Thomas King, Samuel Rice, and Joseph Rice petition'ed the Magistrates for permission to establish a church-setting forth that their distance from the church at Sudbury, of which they were members, rendered it inconvenient to go there to enjoy church privileges ; that there were several aged sisters residing in Marlborough, who were almost entirely deprived of the privi- leges of communion ; and that there were others in town who would gladly unite with the church, if one were established in the place.
But the same antagonism which appeared in their secular affairs, showed itself here also ; and crimination and recrimina- tion were permitted to prevail, to the regret and gricf of their spiritual guide. At length a Council was called, consisting of Rev. Messrs. John Sherman, Jonathan Mitchell, Edward Brown, and Joseph Rolandson, to hear the case and recommend such measures as they might dcem for the best interest of the Redeemer's cause, and for the peace and harmony of the brethren. After a full hearing of the parties, the Council expressed their regret at the unhappy state of things existing among the people, but spoke in flattering terms of Rev. Mr. Brimsmead, who had labored with them from the first, and to whom they were all attached until these unpleasant differences had arisen. They also recommended the appointment of a
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committee, selected from the people themselves, to devise measures for the peace and harmony of the Society. The Council close their Report by the following salutary advice.
" After so long a time of troublesome difficulties, wherein hath not been wanting both sin and affliction on all hands; it will be meet and serviceable to be much with humiliation before God, and to spend some day, or days that may be, in public prayer ; after which, and after their spirits are somewhat sweetened and satisfied mutually, it may be meet without too long delay to gather a church here-it being done according to approved order, with the presence and approbation of the messengers of the churches."
About the time of this controversy, Mr. Brimsmead, who had labored with them from their first organization, probably dis- heartened by their distracted state, left the place, and preached for a time in Plymouth, where he was invited to settle, but de- clined the call. He subsequently returned to Marlborough, where he was settled, October 3, 1666, with a salary of forty pounds. A church was instituted, according to the custom of the times, on the day of the ordination; and thus ended the unhappy controversy, and the church enjoyed quiet for about thirty-five years.
Mr. Brimsmead was a native of Dorchester, and a son of William Brimsmead, of that town. He was educated at Har- vard College, but never took his degree. In consequence of the college term being lengthened from three to four years, the class to which he belonged did not graduate till 1648 ; but he, with sixteen others, left in 1647. Mr. Brimsmead is represented as being a good scholar, and a man of ability. He preached the Election Sermon in 1681-a distinction which shows the high estimation in which he was held by the leading men of the Colony. The sermon was printed. The elergy held him in high estimation; and he was one of those ministers whom the magistrates often consulted in times of difficulty and danger. Prince, in enumerating the authorities which he consulted in preparing his Annals, mentions a journal in Latin kept by Mr. Brimsmead, from 1665 to 1695. Whether this journal related to secular events, as well as religious, we are not informed. No journal of his, covering the whole of that period, is known to be in existence at this time. There is, however, a manu-
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script journal in Latin, kept by him from 1682 to 1695, in which he has carefully noted his public labors on the Sabbath, and on days of Public Thanksgiving and Fasting ; giving the subject on which he preached, and the book, chapter and verse, where his text may be found ; and sometimes a brief statement of the positions taken in his discourses. He also notes, in the same manner, the discourses he delivered at the houses of his princi- pal parishioners ; for it appears that he did not confine his labors to the Sabbath, nor his preaching to the house of God. This journal also contains a few notices of occurring events, such as the choice of deacons, admissions to the church, and burials. The manuscript, which is in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, is very handsomely written ; and though the great body of it is in Latin, he frequently cites texts in the Greek and Hebrew characters, written with great beauty and distinctness. This may have been the manuscript referred to by Prince. If so, it was probably in two volumes ; the one from 1682 to 1695, being the second, and perfeet in itself.
Mr. Brimsmead was never married ; and tradition says that he uniformly refused to baptize children which were so irrever- ent as to be born on the Sabbath .* During the last part of his life, he was in feeble health, and unable to perform his pastoral duties without assistance. He died on Commencement morn- ing, July 3, 1701, aged about seventy-six years. He was buried in the old grave-yard, and an unlettered stone still remains to mark his resting-place.
Mr. Brimsmead was an able and faithful minister, and did much towards building up the town and the church. In the days of those bitter controversies, when brother was arrayed against brother, and sister estranged from sister, it was a great blessing to the people to have one kind counsellor to whom they could all apply with confidence-one spiritual guide whose ardent desire was to lead them in the paths of peace and right- eousness. Such a counsellor and guide, they found in their devoted minister. In those early days, before the elements of society were properly combined, and the individual will had
* Mr. Brimsmead was not alone in this singular practice. "Mr. Loring, of Sudbury," says Mr. Field, "followed the same custom until a pair of twins were born to him on the Sabbath; when his opinions seem to have met with a change on this subject, and all were permitted to receive the ordinance."
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learned to submit in any considerable degree to the public voice, the influence of the clergy was great, and highly salutary. Though the passions of men were strong, and the events of the times were calculated to draw out all the energies of the human mind, and the temptation was great to run into selfishness and insubordination ; nothing but the religious element, which our fathers had fondly cherished, could have restrained the passions of the people, and preserved the order and peace of the com- munity.
This religious element naturally gravitated towards the clergy, and so gave them a controlling influence in the com- munity. There might be, and probably was, some superstition mingled with this respect for the minister ; but after all it must be admitted, that this feeling of reverence exerted a happy influence, and prevented evils of a more dangerous character. And though the minister himself might in some cases abuse the confidence reposed in him, and become arbitrary and overbear- ing, these cases were comparatively rare. Whoever, therefore, faithfully studies the history of this Commonwealth, and con- siders carefully the causes which have made us an intelligent and orderly, a moral and prosperous people, must admit that the influence of the ministers of religion has been highly salutary. This is true throughout the Colony, and was particularly so in Marlborough, under Mr. Brimsmead and his successor.
CHAPTER II.
THE INDIAN PLANTATION.
The Indian Grant - Planting Field enlarged - Indians pcaceable - Eliot preaches to them and translates the Bible into Indian - Indian Churches - Praying Indian Towns -Description of Ockoocangansett - Proposed School - Deed to Gookin - Burial Place and Indian Relics - Indians dis- appear by the order of Providence- Should be treated kindly - Massachu- setts policy towards them just and benevolent.
THE Plantation of Ockoocangansett, from its position, is so immediately connected with Marlborough, that no history of the town could be perfect without a full notice of the Indian possessions. The Indians in this portion of the Colony had, as early as 1643, put themselves under the protection of the General Court, and had the assurance that they should enjoy the lands in their actual possession, and be protected in their rights. The Indians at Marlborough were a branch of the Natick and Wamesit tribes, whose principal possession was upon the Merrimack, near its confluence with the Sudbury or Concord River-the site of the present city of Lowell. Their settlement at Marlborough was commenced early, probably before the English landed at Charlestown, or the Massachusetts Colony was organized. Their " Planting Field " on the hill near the old Meeting-House Common, appears to have been cultivated for a considerable period before the English settle- ment was made ; for the English, on taking possession of their grant, found not only Indian corn-fields, but Indian apple- orchards, in a bearing state, on the neighboring hill.
It has been shown, in the preceding chapter, that the Indian grant was prior to the grant to the Sudbury men, and that the General Court, acting in good faith, made the latter subservient to the former. The grants apparently conflicting with each other, the Court appointed a Committee to examine the prem-
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ises, and lay out for the Indians a plantation of six thousand acres. The Committee having attended to that duty, sub- mitted the following Report, which appears to have been accepted by the Court:
" Whipsufferadge, June 19, 1659.
" The Committee appointed by the General Court to lay out a plantation for the Indians, of six thousand acres, at the place above named, having given Mr. Eliot [who acted for the Indians not only as their spiritual teacher, but as a sort of tem- poral guardian] a meeting, and duly weighed all his excep- tions in behalf of the Indians ; first, what hath been formerly acted and returned to the General Court; do judge meete in way of compliance, that the bounds of the Indian Plantation be en- larged unto the most westerly part of the fence, now standing on the west side of the Hill or Planting Field, called Ockoo- cangansett, and from thence be extended in a direct north line, untill they have their full quantity of six thousand acres ; the bounds of their plantation, in all other respects, wee judge meete that they stand as in the form returned ; and that their full compliment of meadow by the Court granted, may stand, and bee exactly measured out by an artist within the limits of the abovesaid lines, when the Indians, or any in their behalf, are willing to bee at the charges thereof : provided alwaies, that the Indians may have no power to make sale thereof, or of any part of their abovesaid lands, otherwise than by the consent of the Hond Court; or when any shall be made or happen, the Plantation of the English there seated, may have the first tender of it from the Court ; which cantion we rather insert, because not only a considerable part of the nearest and best planting land is hereby taken away from the English, (as we are informed,) but the nearest and best part of the meadow, by estimation about one hundred acres in one place, that this north line doth take away, which tendeth much to the detrimenting of the English Plantation, especially if the lands should be appropriated to any other use than the Indians proposed ; that is to say, for an Indian plantation, or for accommodating their plantation, they should be deprived thereof." This Report was signed by the Committee-Eleazer Lusher, Edward Jackson, Ephraim Child, and Thomas Danforth.
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This grant of six thousand acres included the "Planting Field " on the Hill before spoken of, which was early cultivated by the Indians. It is impossible, at this day, to fix the exact location of this Indian grant. It commenced at the westerly side of the planting field. But how far that extended west, I am not able to determine with certainty. It included the Meeting-House Common, and extended easterly probably about to the present road from Spring Hill Meeting-House to Fel- tonville ; and as the whole quantity was only about one hundred and fifty or sixty acres, it could not have extended much farther west than the old Common, or perhaps to the small brook a few rods farther west. From this point the line between the Indian and English plantation ran north seven degrees west, and crossed the Assabet some half a mile cast of Feltonville. From the northerly side of the Indian planting field, the Indian line ran due east three miles to the line of Sudbury, and embraced nearly all of the north-eastern section of the present town. This plantation, it will be seen, covered what is now an important and extensive portion of the present township.
We may naturally suppose that the English settlement would feel some anxiety to possess a territory which seemed to pro- trude into the very centre of their plantation, and that the In- dians would look with jealousy upon a new settlement whose territory bounded them on two sides, whose central village was in the immediate vicinity of their own, and whose population exceeded their own in numbers, wealth and enterprise. There was, therefore, something of envy and jealousy existing be- tween them from the first. And yet they lived together in peace, and nothing occurred for years to produce any thing like an open rupture. It is due to the early English settlers, to say that they generally respected the rights of the natives, and refrained from all those acts which might excite the ire of their uncivilized neighbors.
On the other hand, these Indians were generally peaceable, and were disposed to live on good terms with the English. The fact that they had planting grounds, where they raised corn and cultivated fruit, shows that they were more advanced in civilization than most of the savage tribes; and that they had been under the guardian care of the pious and devoted
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Eliot, whose labors for the natives have justly given him the title of "Apostle to the Indians," accounts, in a good degree, for their sobriety of demeanor, and for the good order which reigned among them.
Mr. Eliot, so distinguished for his devotion to the best interests of the red man, was born in England, 1604. He came to this country in 1631, and settled as a clergyman in Roxbury the year following. He early conceived the idea of civilizing and Christianizing the Indians, and commenced preaching to them in Newton, 1646. To prepare himself for that work, he learned their language ; in 1663, he translated the New Testament, and in 1665, the Old Testament into Indian, that the natives might be enabled to read the word of life in their own tongue. His Bible, thus translated, bore the title-" Mamusse Wunmeetu- panatamwe Up-Biblum God naneeswe Nukkone Testament kahwonk Wusku Testament." The longest word in it was- " Wutappesittukgussunnoohwehtunkquoh " - which signifies, " Kneeling down to him."
He visited most of the Indian settlements, gained the confi- dence of the tribes, and became their spiritual guide, and their guardian in temporal affairs. He established churches, and instituted the ordinances of the gospel among them. The first Indian church was established at Natick, in 1660, when a con- siderable number united, and in the space of ten years the num- ber had increased to forty or fifty. There were many others among them, who attended public worship, read the Scriptures, and prayed in their families, but did not make a public profes- sion of religion. Their worship was conducted similarly to that of the Puritans. Gen. Gookin, who took a great interest in their welfare, and who frequently visited them in company with Mr. Eliot, thus describes their worship :
" Upon the Lord's day, Fast days and Lecture days, the peo- ple assemble together at the sound of a drum-for bells they have none-twice a day, morning and afternoon on the Lord's day, and once on Lecture days ; when one of their teachers, if they have more than one, begins with solemn and affectionate prayer ; then, after a short pause, either himself or some other thereto appointed, readeth a chapter out of the Old or New Testament. At the conclusion, a psalm or part of a psalm, is appointed, rehearsed, and solemnly sung. Then the minister
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catechises and prays before his sermon, and so preacheth from some text of Scripture ; then concludes with a prayer and a psalm, and the blessing is pronounced.
" In these acts of worship, for I have been often present with them, they demean themselves visibly with reverence, attention, modesty, and solemnity ; the menkind sitting by themselves, and the womenkind by themselves, according to their age, quality, and degree, in a comely manner. I have no doubt, but am fully satisfied, according to the judgment of charity, that diverse of them do fear God, and are true believers. But yet I will not deny but that there may be hypocrites among them, that profess religion, and yet are not sound-hearted."
Their teachers were generally chosen from among them- selves ; and they had among them a kind of municipal organi- zation, and elected their overseers, constable, and other officers, much after the manner of the English settlements. These Indians were generally known by the name of the "Praying Indians."
There were seven principal towns of these Praying Indians : Natick, now the town of that name ; Pakemitt, now Stoughton ; Ockoocangansett, now Marlborough ; Wamesit, now Lowell ; Hassanamisett, now Grafton ; Nashobah, now Littleton ; Ma- gunkook, now Hopkinton.
As these praying towns were in the very midst of the English settlements, no doubt the labors of Eliot and Gookin contrib- uted much towards the preservation of peace between them and the English ; and though the Praying Indians may have aided their brethren in some degree in Philip's war, they would have been much more injurious and dangerous to the whites, but for the religious instruction they had received.
Gookin, the friend of the Indians, and the fellow-laborer with Eliot, in his history of the Praying Indians, thus describes the Plantation at Marlborough in 1674 :
" Okommakamesitt, alias Marlborough, is situated about twelve miles N. N. E. from Hassanamisett, (Grafton, ) and about thirty miles from Boston, westerly. This village con- tains about ten families, and consequently about fifty souls. The quantity of land appertained to it, is six thousand acres. It is much of it good land, and yieldeth a plenty of corn, being well husbanded. It is sufficiently stored with meadows, and
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is well wooded and watered. It hath several good orchards upon it, planted by the Indians ; and is in itself a good planta- tion. This town doth join so near to the English of Marlbo- rough, that, as it was spoken of David in type, and our Lord Jesus Christ the antetype-under his shadow ye shall rejoice ;- but the Indians here do not rejoice under the Englishmen's shadow, who do so overtop them in number of people, stocks of cattle, &c., that the Indians do not greatly flourish or delight in their station at present. Their Ruler here was Onomog, who is lately deceased, about two months since ; which is a great blow to the place. He was a pious and discreet man, and the very soul, as it were, of the place. Their teacher's name is Here they observe the same decorum for religion and civil order, as is done in other towns. They have a constable and other officers, as the rest have."
This description of the number and condition of the Indians, and their feelings toward the English, is given by an eye- witness, and one friendly to these children of the forest ; and taken in connection with their conduct in King Philip's war, which followed immediately after, shows the measure of suc- cess which had attended the attempt to civilize and Chris- tianize the Indians.
It was a favorite plan of Mr. Gookin, to establish schools in the praying Indian towns, as one of the best means of civilizing them, and bringing them into harmony with the English. To carry out this idea, he proposes to establish such an institution in Marlborough.
" There is," says he, when treating upon the subject of Indian schools, "an Indian village within twenty-eight or thirty miles of Boston, westward, upon the road to Connecticut, called Okommakamesitt, alias Marlborough, which is half way of most of the praying villages. This Indian plantation join- eth unto an English town called Marlborough, so that the English and Indian plantation bear the same name. In this plantation there is a piece of fertile land containing about one hundred and fifty acres, upon which the Indians have, not long since, lived, and planted several apple trees thereupon, which bear an abundance of fruit : but now the Indians have removed from it about a mile. This tract of land doth so embosom itself into the English town, that it is encompassed about with
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