History of the town of Milford, Worcester county, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1881, Part 2

Author: Ballou, Adin, 1803-1890
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Boston : Rand, Avery, & co.
Number of Pages: 1328

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Milford > History of the town of Milford, Worcester county, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1881 > Part 2

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Qr., quarter; gr. mr., Quartermaster. R.

Rec., record, recorded; recd., received; reg., registry, etc .; regt., and, in Chapter VIII., R., stands for regiment; riv., river; remvd., or mvd., removed; res., resides, resided, residence, resident, etc. ; rt., right; r., rod, or rods; rd., road; R.R., railroad.

St., saint, also street; set., settle-ed, settler, etc .; So., South; sold., soldier, etc .; sup., suppose-ed; S., style, as, O. S., old style, N. S., new style; stud., student, study-ied, etc.

Temp., Temperance, Templars, etc .; ten., tenor.

U., university; Ux., Uxbridge; Up., Upton; um., unmarried.

Wk., week; wid., widow-ed, etc .; wf., wife; wvs., wives.

Yr., year, etc .; yng., young.

THE ANCIENT FREEMAN'S OATH AND BALLOT.

I COPY the following valuable and interesting statement from Hudson's History of Marlborough, which I am sure my readers will appreciate: " As we have frequent occasion, especially in the Genealogy, to speak of freemen ' and of individuals being 'admitted freemen,' it seems proper that a few words should be said upon the subject. A 'freeman' was one who was allowed the right of suffrage, and was eligible to office. Our pious an- cestors guarded the ballot-box with peculiar care. As early as 1631, they ordered that 'no man shall be admitted to the freedom of the Common- wealth, but such as are members of some of the churches within the limits of this jurisdiction.' This law operating hardly against some recent immi- grants, it was so modified in 1662, that all Englishmen 'shall present a cer- tificate, under the hand of the minister or ministers of the place where they dwell, that they are orthodox in religion, and not vicious in their lives; and also a certificate from the selectinen, that they are freeholders, ratable to the county in a single country rate to the value of ten shillings,' and they may then present themselves to the General Court for admittance as freemen, and, if accepted by the Court, may enjoy the privileges of free- men in the Commonwealth.

" But before, or rather as a part of, the induction into the high and respon- sible post of freeman, the following solemn oath was to be taken: -

"'I, A B, being by God's providence an inhabitant and freeman within the jurisdiction of this Commonwealth, do freely acknowledge myself to be subject to the government thereof, and therefore do swear by the great and dreadful name of the everlasting God, that I will be true and faithful to the same, and will accordingly yield assistance and support thereunto with my person and estate, as in equity I am bound, and also truly endeavor to maintain and preserve all the liberties and privileges thereof, submitting myself to the wholesome laws and orders made and established by the same: and further, that I will not plot nor practice any evil against it, nor consent to any that shall do so, but will timely discover and reveal the same to lawful authority now here established for the speedy preventing thereof; moreover, I do solemnly bind myself in the sight of God, that when I shall be called to give my voice touching any such matters of this State wherein freemen are to deal, I will give my vote and suf- frage, as I shall judge in iny conscience may best conduce and tend to the public weal of the body, without respect of persons, or favor of any man. So help me God, in the Lord Jesus Christ.'

xviii THE ANCIENT FREEMAN'S OATH AND BALLOT.

" After being thus qualified by the vote of the Court, and by taking the above oath, the freeman was allowed to vote in the elections in the following manner, and under the following penalty : ' It is ordered by this Court, and by the authority thereof, that for the yearly choosing of assistants, the free- men shall use Indian corn and beans -the Indian corn to manifest election, the beans the contrary; and if any freeman shall put in more than one corn or bean for the choice or refusal of any public officer, he shall forfeit, for every such offence, ten pounds; and that every man that is not a freeman, or hath not liberty of voting, putting in any vote, shall forfeit the like sum of ten pounds.'

" The freemen at first were all required to appear before the General Court, to give their votes for assistants; but it was found inconvenient, and even dangerous, for all of them to assemble in one place, leaving their homes unprotected; and hence it was ordered, ' That it shall be free and lawful for all freemen to send their votes for elections by proxy in the next General Court in May, and so for hereafter, which shall be done in this manner: The deputy which shall be chosen shall cause the freemen of the town to be assembled, and then take such freemen's votes, as please to send them by proxy, for any magistrates, and seal them up severally, subscribing the magistrate's name on the back side, and to bring them to the Court sealed, with an open roll of the names of the freemen that so send them.'

" But, though corn and beans were sufficient to elect an assistant, for governor, deputy-governor, major-general, treasurer, secretary, and commis- sioners of the United Colonies, it was required that the freemen should make use of written ballots " (pp. 239-241).

HISTORY OF MILFORD.

PART I.

CHAPTER I.

MATTERS OF INTRODUCTORY INTEREST.

Name and Aboriginal Ownership. - Milford a Favorite Name. - The Nipmuck Indian Country, whereof our Milford is a Section. - How the English Settlers regarded the Nipmucks, and acquired Possession of their Lands. - Eliot's "Praying Indians."

Origin of Quinshipaug Plantation. - This Plantation became Mendon, and in- cluded our Territory. - Projected by Enterprising People of Braintree and Weymouth. - The Preliminaries, and Grant of General Court ..

First Purchase of Indian Territory. - Tract of Eight Miles Square bought. - The Indian Deed.

Settlement, Incorporation, and Desolation. - Records of the Town for Several Years destroyed or lost. - Struggles of the Pioneer Settlers. - Last Act of the Plan- tation Commissioners. - First Town Meeting - Division of Meadow-Lands. - Other Proceedings. - King Philip's War, Murders, Dispersion, and Destruc- tion .-- Return of the Fugitives, and Re-organization of the Town.

" The North Purchase."-An Acquisition of Three Square Miles, more or less, to our Territory. - The Deed. - Remarks about the Indian Names, Wapowage and Quinshipaug. - An Error corrected.

NAME AND ABORIGINAL OWNERSHIP.

HE English-speaking people seem to have a remarkable partiality T for the name Milford. Lippincott's Gazetteer describes no less than forty-three towns, post-villages, and other places in this country, called Milford, besides six in England. Doubtless the family will continue to multiply, since enterprise and prosperity have generally accompanied the name.

Our Milford covers a territorial area of over nineteen square miles, or 12,170 acres by exact measurement. It is comparatively a small

HISTORY OF MILFORD.

section of what, two centuries ago, was called " the Nipmuck coun- try," because owned aboriginally and inhabited by several clans, or hordes, of Indians bearing the general designation of Nipmuek, alias Netmooke, alias Nipnet, etc. I shall speak of them as the Nipmuek Indians. Their country extended westward from within a few miles of Boston to Connecticut River, and northward from Rhode Island and Connecticut into New Hampshire. It ineluded, with large por- tions of Middlesex and Norfolk Counties, the whole of Worcester County. It lapped over considerably into Rhode Island, Conneeti- cut, and New Hampshire. When the vieinity of Boston began to be settled on lands purchased of the Massachusetts tribe, the Nipmucks are said to have been governed by one squaw sachem, whose regal home was near Wachusett Mountain ; but the tribe soon broke into four or five clans, or hordes, with each a sachem almost independent of the others. The consequence was, that some of these hordes be- came partially tributary to the more powerful neighboring chiefs, such as those of the Massachusetts, Pokanokets, Narragansetts, Mohegans, etc.

Our Puritan forefathers soon began to spy out the Nipmuck eoun- try ; and, as fresh eargoes of immigrants filled up their young towns, they coveted new possessions. They saw goodly lands stretching out westwardly before them, sparsely inhabited by a people whose sachems were ready to sell them on moderate terms, with only the reserved right to hunt and fish on them in common with the whites. They beeame ambitious to Christianize, both the wilderness and its heathen inhabitants, - the soil for their own possession, and the sav- ages for the sake of their eternal salvation. But, as usual, their own temporal interests predominated. It can, however, be justly said, that in most cases they dealt with the Indians rather equitably, at least in respect to the purchase of land ; for, while the royal charters gave them broad grants of general sovereignty, they were enjoined not to override the acknowledged rights of the natives to ownership in the soil. Both civil law and religion required them to extinguish the Indian title by fair purchase before assuming actual proprietor- ship ; and though they undoubtedly made shrewd bargains, to their own great advantage, they appear to have paid the Indians fairly according to agreement, and sometimes a liberal surplusage to keep on good terms with them. The purchase prices they paid for speci- fied traets of soil were, indeed, comparatively small, but were really larger than they seem, as the nominal money of those days must have been at least six times more valuable than in ours, and all im- provements had to be made by the hard struggles of the purchasers.

THE NIPMUCK INDIANS.

The work of Christianizing the children of the forest went on for a time with considerable apparent success, under the apostleship, mainly, of the celebrated John Eliot. His zeal and devotion seem almost incredible through a long ministry ; and our Nipmuck country was the principal theatre of his achievements. He mastered the Indian language, translated the whole Bible into it, established four- teen towns of "praying Indians" within the then jurisdiction of Massachusetts, numbering at least eleven hundred souls, and wore' himself out in manifold exertions for their civilization. His labors commenced, after much preparation of study, on the 28th October, 1646, in the forty-second year of his age, and ended with his life, May 20, 1690, at the age of eighty-six. But the great war of 1675, renowned as King Philip's, fatally blasted his missionary enterprise. The majority of his converted Nipmucks apostatized, joined Philip, and perished. Those who remained faithful were so suspected and ill-treated by the Provincial authorities during the war, that what little Christianity had been worked into them was almost driven out. Only a beggarly remnant at Natick and a few other Indian settle- ments were under the apostle's watch-care in his old age. Their history is one of sad decay and extinction. I refrain from details, and have given this brief outline, merely as a necessary introduction to the leading facts of purchase and settlement, which are indispen- sable to a proper understanding of our own local history. In all the old deeds of the Nipmuck sachems throughout this general region, there is seen a strange jargon of Indian and Christian names, which can only be explained on the ground that a part of them, if not all, had become so-called " praying Indians."

ORIGIN OF QUINSHIPAUG PLANTATION.

Next in order comes the origin of Quinshipaug Plantation, alias Mendham, alias Mendon, whereof Milford was an integral portion. It seems that the project of starting this plantation originated among the enterprising people of Braintree and Weymouth. They began to be crowded with a continually increasing population, and aspired to colonize on the Nipmuck lands farther west. Dedham and Sher- born people had already purchased, and commenced settlements on, the general territory bounding westwardly nearly with the present lines of Holliston, Medway, and Bellingham. They must, therefore, find a tract still farther to the west, and must also have the sanction of the General Court to all their proceedings. Here I will present certain documents, which I have been permitted to copy from histori- cal collections carefully made by Dr. John G. Metcalf, preparatory

HISTORY OF MILFORD.

to his History of Mendon. All matter furnished me by Dr. M., from his mannscript " Annals," has his initials, J. G. M., attached, and is enclosed in brackets, [ ]. Some years after this chapter was written, Dr. Metcalf's history was published, entitled "Annals of the Town of Mendon." If any verbal differences appear between my extracts and his printed matter, they result from his revision of his original manuscript in passing it through the press.

[At the second session of this Court, held at Boston, May 28, 1659, the first record relating to the settlement of Mendon is found, and in the following words : -

"In answer to the petition of Braintree, humbly desiring some relief relating to several persons brought in by the owners of the Iron works, that are likely to be chargeable to them, especially in relation to John Frauncis, his poor condition calling for present relief, &c., this Court refers this part of their petition to the next County Court in Suffolk, where all parties concerned may have liberty to present their respective plans and evidence: and in reference to their desire of a new plantation, the Court judgeth it meet to grant them liberty to seek out a place and present their desires, with the names of such persons as will engage to carry on such a work, unto the next sessions of this Court."

This answer was made at an adjourned session of the General Court, held at Boston, May 28, 1659, John Endicott being Governor.

At the same session, -

" In answer to the petition of Samuel Basse, the town of Braintree having petitioned for a new plantation, it is ordered, that the petitioner with his sons may have liberty to join with those of his neighbors which will carry on such a work, with allowance of one hundred and fifty acres within the bounds of the said plantation, more than his just proportion with the rest of his neighbors."

We hear nothing more of the petition " of the town of Braintree ; " but at an adjourned session of the General Court, held in Boston, Oct. 16, 1660, we find a petition from " such persons as will engage to carry on such a work," and to which the General Court made the following response : -

"In answer to the petition of the inhabitants of Braintree, i.e , Gregory Belcher, James Penneman, Thomas Mekins, Moses Payne, Edmond Quinsey, Robert Twelves, and Peter Brackett; the Court judgeth it meet, to encourage the petitioners to proceed in their settling themselves and an able minister with them, in the place desired for a new plantation within their time limited : and that those that begin the said plantation may not want due encourage- ment in their accommodation, and yet the place preserved from unnecessary waste, it is ordered, that Capt. Daniel Gookin of Cambridge, Mr. William Parkes of Roxbury, Lieut. Roger Clap of Dorchester, Ephraim Child of

QUINSHIPAUG PLANTATION.

Watertown, and William Stiltson of Charlestown, or any three of them, shall be and hereby are appointed a committee, and hereby impowered to appoint unto each inhabitant there, any time within these three years, as they shall see meet, and that when a full number of persons appear, this Court will, on the Committee's information, order them due bounds. In further answer to said Braintree petition, the Court declares, that they judge meet to grant a plantation of Eight miles square, and that the persons named have liberty to enter thereupon and make a beginning thereof, and to take such persons into their society as they shall judge meet, and that Major Humphrey Atherton, and Lieut. Roger Clap of Dorchester, Capt. Eliezer Lusher of Dedham and Deacon Parkes of Roxbury, or any three of them, shall, and hereby are appointed Commissioners, and impowered to make a valid act thereof."

Peter Brackett, one of the petitioners, was a member of the General Court, for this year (1660), from Braintree, as deputy.

So far as is known, the committees above mentioned held no meet- ing, and nothing was done, except the purchase of the "eight miles square " of the Indians, until May 5, 1662, when the committee last above mentioned met at Dorchester, and took order in regard to the settlement of the plantation " granted at Netmooke," as follows : -

" Dorchester 22: 5: '62, -

" We whose names are hereunto subscribed, being the Committee im- powered by the General Court to assist the ordering and settling the planta- tion grauted at Netmooke, do agree and declare therein as followeth, viz .:

"1. That the Divisions of land there, shall be by these ensuing Rules: that to One hundred pounds Estate be granted one hundred and fifty acres of land: viz., Thirty acres to the House Lot, and Ten acres of Meadow and Five acres of Swampy or low land, being capable of being made Meadow, and more, one hundred and fifty acres for the Great Lot; and according to this proportion for all Estates be they more or less, and this to be the Rule for the Division of all the lands of the Plantation that shall be divided before the place, or the people there, shall be allowed to be a Township and enjoy the privileges thereof.

"2. That the public charges already disbursed, or that shall be disbursed before the time of Town privileges aforesaid, shall be borne and defrayed according to proportion of Allottments as before said.

" 3. The persons whose names are presented being (as we understand) of honest and good report, are accepted, and allowed to take up Allottments in said Plantation.

" 4. That it shall not be in the liberty or power of an Inhabitant now accepted, or hereafter to be accepted, before the time of privileges aforesaid, to sell or lease or alienate his said Allottment or any part or parcel thereof to any person whatsoever, without the consent or approbation of the major part of the Inhabitants, or of those then chosen to regulate the affairs of the Plantation, upon penalty of forfeiting to the said Plantation all and every part and parcel so sold or alienated.

HISTORY OF MILFORD.

"5. There shall be an Able and approved Minister settled with them there, according to the order of Court in that case provided.

"6. That, whereas experience shows it not to be the best expedient for Transaction of public work, to be left to the whole Number of Inhabitants, we therefore advise that the said Inhabitants now accepted should, in their first opportunity, make choice of 5 or 7 meet persons for the management of their said occasions for the space of one year, and that Mr. Peter Brackett and. Ensign Moses Paine be two of them, and the men so chosen should have the whole power of accepting Inhabitants and disposing Land, according to the Rules above written.

"7. And whereas it appears that the said Mr. Brackett and Mr. Paine, hath already taken much pains and been at charges to promote this Planta- tion, and, we suppose, must yet continue their assistance therein, we Judge but just and equal, that each of them be gratified with 'convenient Farms of upland and meadow, proportionable to the quantities of Each in the Planta- tion, to be laid out to them at convenient distance from the seat of the Town, that is, not less than two miles, and in such places as they shall accept, and that the quantity of these be not above 300 acres to each of them.

" 8. It is also agreed further, and ordered that each of the persons now accepted to Allottments there, and all others that shall be so accepted before the time of obtaining Town privileges, shall be settled at the said Plantation before the end of the seventh month 1663, with their persons and estates.

" The names of the persons now accepted are as followeth, viz .:

John Moore, George Aldridge, Nathaniel Hareman, Alexander Plumbly, Mathias Puffer, John Woodland,

Fardinando Teare [Thayer], Daniel Lovett, John Harbor, Josiah Chapin, Joseph Peniemen [Penniman], John Savill, John Gurney. These are of Braintree.

Goodman King, senior, Walter Cook, William Holbrook, Joseph White,

Goodman Thompson, Goodman Raynes,

Goodman Botter, Senior,

Abraham Staples,

Samuel Pratt,

Thomas Botter.

These are of Weymouth.

"Subscribed by us,

ELIZR. LUSHER, ROGER CLAP, WILLIAM PARKE.

WILLIAM SABLES.

WILLIAM HOLBROOK, JOSIAH CHAPIN, JOHN RAYNES, JOHN HARBOR.

These are chosen for this year."

PURCHASE OF INDIAN TERRITORY.

FIRST PURCHASE OF INDIAN TERRITORY.

As the preliminaries to a settlement were now well advanced, and as the plantation had no corporate authority, it is supposed that the Indian deed was made to Moses Payne and Peter Brackett, with the understanding that the title thereby acquired should be assigned to the town after its incorporation, and which assignment, we shall see, was made by Messrs. Payne and Brackett to the town May 12, 1670.

The deed given to Messrs. Payne and Brackett reads as follows : viz., -

INDIAN DEED.

To All Christian people to whom these presents shall come, Annawassamanke, alias, John, and Quashaamit, alias, William of Blue Hills, and Great John Namsconont, alias, Peter, and Upanbohqueen, alias, Jacob of Natick, Send- eth Greeting, Know ye, that the said Annawassamauke, Quashaamit, Great John Namsconont, and Upanbohqueen, for divers good and valnable conside- rations them there nnto moving, and especially, for and in consideration of the sum of Twenty four Pounds Sterling to them in hand paid by Moses Payne and Peter Brackett both of Braintree, the receipt whereof we do acknowledge by these presents, and thereof, and of every part and parcel thereof, doth exonerate, acquit and discharge them, the said Moses Payne and Peter Brackett, their heirs and Assigns forever by these presents, Hath given, granted, bargained, sold, enfeoffed and confirmed, unto Moses Payne and Peter Brackett of Braintree aforesaid, their heirs and assigns forever, A Tract of Lands of Eight Miles Square, lying about fifteen miles from Medfield; and is bounded one Mile to the East of a small River which lieth abont three Miles to the Eastward of Nipmug Great Pond, and so from the line of one mile on the East of that small River, is to run Eight Miles West, or westerly, and is to lie three miles to the South or Southward of the Path that leads to Nipmug Great Pond, and five Miles on the other side of that path, north, or northwards, together with all the trees and timber, woods and underwoods, standing, lying, and growing thereon, with all the Meadows Swamps, Rivers, Ponds and Brooks, lying within the Eight Miles square, with all the privileges and appartenances belonging, or any ways appertain- ing therennto. To Have and To Hold the said Eight Miles square as it is bounded, together with all the Trees, and Timber, with underwoods standing, lying and growing thereon, with all the Meadows, Swamps, Rivers and Ponds, and Brooks lying within this Eight Miles square, as it is bounded, with all other privileges and appurtenances belonging or any ways apper- taining thereunto, unto the said Moses Payne and Peter Brackett, their heirs and assigns forever, and to their only proper use and behoof of them the said Moses Payne and Peter Brackett, their Heirs and Assigns forever, to be holden in free Socage, and not in capite, nor by Knights Service.1

And the said Annawassamauke, alias, John, and Quashaamitt, alias, Wil- liam, Great John Namsconont, alias Peter, and Upanabohqueen, alias Jacob,

1 Corrected according to Suffolk Record.

HISTORY OF MILFORD.

doth promise and grant by these presents, that they the said Annawassa- mauke, Quashaamitt, Great John Namsconont and Uppanabohqueen, are the true and proper owners and proprietors of the said bargained premises at the time of the bargain and sale thereof, and that the said premises are free and clear, and freely and clearly acquitted, exonerated and discharged of, for and from all, and all manner of former bargains, sales, gifts, grants, titles- mortgages, actions, Suits, arrests, attachments, Judgements, executions, ex- tents or incumbrances whatsoever, from the beginning of the World, until the time of the sale and bargain thereof.

And the said Annawassamauk, Quashaamit, Great John Namsconont and Upanabohqueen doth covenant, promise and grant by these presents, all and singular the said bargained premises, with the appurtenances, to warrant and defend unto the said Moses Payne and Peter Brackett, their heirs and assigns forever, against all Indians or English people, by, for or under them claiming any right, title or interest of, or unto the same, or any part thereof, forever by these presents.

And that it shall and may be lawful to, and for the said Moses Payne and Peter Brackett to Record and Enroll, or cause to be recorded and enrolled, the title and tenor of these presents, according to the true intent and mean- ing thereof, and according to the usual order and manner of Recording Deeds and Evidences, in such cases made and provided.

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History of the town of Milford, Worcester county, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1881, Part 2

Author: Ballou, Adin, 1803-1890 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Boston : Rand, Avery, & co. Number of Pages: 1328

Author: Ballou, Adin, 1803-1890
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Boston : Rand, Avery, & co.
Number of Pages: 1328