USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Townsend > History of the town of Townsend, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from the grant of Hathorn's farm, 1676-1878 > Part 4
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So exciting was this disagreement that it engaged the attention of the General Court, which appointed a com- mittee to survey the line between the two towns and report. The following is from the manuscript records of the Gen- eral Court for 1730 :-
"Samuel Danforth, Esq., from the committee appointed by the General Court to survey the North Town, etc., gave in the following report. viz :
"The committee appointed by the Great and general court on the 26th of Feb. 1730 to take a survey of a line between the North Town in Turkey Hills and Dunstable and to make a report whether the plan of the said North Town encroaches upon the town of Dunstable according to its true and allowed bounds, and what quantity of land it takes off from it, and also to make enquiry how far the grantees of the said North Town have fulfilled the condi- tions of their grant, and what settlements are there made, Report having (and pursuant to said order) repaired to said North Town (after due notice given to all concerned of the time of our coming) and having carefully surveyed the line aforesaid and fully heard the parties therein, are humbly of the opinion that the before mentioned plan of North Town encroaches upon the town of Dunstable, so as to take off from it four score acres of land, according .
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LAND GRANTS AND PROPRIETORS.
to what we apprehend to be the true and allowed bounds to said town. Having also carefully viewed the settle- ments in said North Town and made inquiries how far the grantees have fulfilled the conditions of their grant. we find that considerable improvements have been made on the lands there, and the greater number of the grantees (be- sides a convenient house which they have lately erected for the public worship of God) have fulfilled the conditions of their grant by breaking up and fencing their lands, by building convenient dwelling houses on their lotts and by residing there.
SAMUEL DANFORTH*
in the name and by the order of the committee."
This report is important not only in showing which party was wrong, but this is the only record which repre- sents the condition and progress of North Town at that date. Danforth's statement concerning the residence of the proprietors here must be received with some caution and allowance. Similar statements were frequent in those times. The petitioners of the North Town for a charter, in 1732, represented "that the town was completely filled with inhabitants," when probably there were less than two hundred people in town. One of the conditions in land grants was, "Provided it doth not interfere with any former grant." Dunstable received its charter in 1673. or about fifty years before any man except Major Hathorn owned any Townsend soil. The North Town men found their east line bounded on Groton, running north 1712° east from Lunenburg corner, less than six miles long. so they "interfered with a former grant" by pushing their north- east corner up into Dunstable, fearing that they would not
* Son of Jonathan Danforth, surveyor of Hathorn's Farm.
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HISTORY OF TOWNSEND.
get their six miles square as promised by the act of 1719. They desired and expected their east line running northerly from Lunenburg northeast corner, to continue "north seventeen and one-half degrees east," after reaching Groton northwest corner, and penetrate the town of Duns- table in that direction. In 1732, the General Court settled the matter partly in the charter for Townsend by dividing the territory claimed by Townsend, between the two towns ; but until 1741, when the province line was run, as will be seen by the charter, Townsend had no northeast corner.
"CHARTER OF THE TOWN OF TOWNSHEND. Passed June 29th 1732.
"Whereas the northerly part of Turkey Hills, so called, is completely filled with inhabitants, and who are now about settling a learned and orthodox minister among them, and have addressed this court that they may be set off a distinct and sep(a)rate town and be vested with all the powers and privileges of a town :
"Be it therefore enacted by his excellency the governor, council and representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same,-
"That the northerly part of Turkey Hills, as hereafter bounded and described, be and hereby is set off and con- stituted a sep(a) rate township by the name of Townshend : the bounds of said township to be as followeth, vict : beginning at a heap of stones at the northwest corner of Lunenburg : so running east thirty-one degrees and an half south. three thousand and fifty rods to a heap of stones in Groton line : then bounded on Groton line, north seventeen degrees and an half east, one thousand four hundred and
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LAND GRANTS AND PROPRIETORS.
forty rods to a heap of stones at Groton north west corner ; from thence running due north, leaving eighty acres out of the plan, to the town of Dunstable ; then running from Dunstable west line on province land, west thirty-one degrees and an half north, two thousand two hundred and forty rods, to a tree marked ; then running south, thirty- six degrees west, to the northwest corner of Lunenburg, where the bounds first began, one thousand nine hundred and twenty rods.
"Provided, That nothing herein contained be construed to affect the rights of the proprietors of the land called Hathorn's farm : and the inhabitants of the said lands as before described and bounded, be and hereby are vested with the powers, privileges and immunities that the inhab- itants of any of the towns of this province are or ought to be vested with.
"Provided, That the said town of Townshend do within the space of two years from the publication of this act, procure and settle a learned orthodox minister of good conversation in said town, and make provision for his comfortable and honorable support.
"In the House of Representatives June 29 1732 ordered that Mr. Joseph Stevens one of the principal inhabitants of the town of Townshend be and hereby is fully impowered to assemble and convene the inhabitants of said town to chose town officers to stand until the anniversary meeting in March next any law, usage or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.
Sent up for concurence
J. QUINCY, Speaker.
In council June 30, 1732 Received and concured.
J. WILLARD, Secretary. June 30th. 1732, consented to, J. BELCHER."
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HISTORY OF TOWNSEND.
From this grant it appears that Townsend acquired, in 1732, about fifty-two square miles of land instead of thirty-six miles as contemplated by the act of 1719. Per- haps this liberality is traceable to the fact that some of the members of the General Court were part owners of "the North Town." Its north and south lines were parallel, the north line being some shorter than the south line. "Dunstable west line on the province line" (the southwest corner of that town) was about two and one-half miles further west than a line drawn north from Groton north- west corner, so that the north line of Townsend must have been more than nine miles long, and the south line more than nine miles and one-half. Probably it was the inten- tion of the Assembly that the proprietors of Townsend and Dunstable should agree upon a point for a northeast corner of Townsend, which was to be legalized at a future period. Here is an agreement or obligation of a com- mittee of the Dunstable proprietors in regard to the line between the two towns, copied from the Townsend pro- prietors' book :-
"We the subscribers a committee for the proprietors of the town of Dunstable do promise and oblige ourselves in the name and behalf of the Town and proprietors afore- said unto the committee for the North Town, viz: Joseph Stevens. Joshua Fletcher, Andrew Spaulding, Jonathan Melvin, Timothy Heald, Joseph Willard Esq., and William Lawrence, that if it so happens that the line dividing between North Town and Dunstable, be established by the general court further west than the line already run by North Town, the Town and proprietors shall confirm all such the land by such line to the North Town as an
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LAND GRANTS AND PROPRIETORS.
equivalent for such land or equal quantity into the town- ship of North Town in one mile.
"Witness our hands this twelfth day of Oct. 1731.
ATTEST JONA HUBBARD RUTH HUBBARD
HENRY FARWELL JOSEPH BLANCHARD"*
The men constituting both of these committees were the most prominent proprietors of these old townships. Three of the North Town committee were actual settlers here. Joseph Blanchard was a man of wealth, and exten- sively interested in land.
Without knowing more about this controversy than can be learned from the Townsend proprietors' records, it is difficult to explain the meaning of the obligation above quoted. The records of the proprietors of old Dunstable during the year 1731 are lost, so that nothing further of interest concerning this matter can be found. Probably this is the interpretation of the document :-
North Town insisted on a boundary line running in the same direction of the Groton west line, north 1712º east. Dunstable objected to this infringement on her chartered rights, but for the sake of harmony, agreed that if the dividing line should be drawn by the Assembly "further west" than the line which Townsend persistently asked for, then all the land at the west of the line established
*"Joseph Blanchard (born in Dunstable 1705, died 1758) was appointed by manda- mus, one of the counsellors of New Hampshire in 1740, and sustained that office till his death. He was distinguished as a land surveyor, and in conjunction with Rev. Samuel Langdon, prepared a map of New Hampshire, which was published in 1761, being inscribed to Hon. Charles Townshend, his Majesty's secretary at war, and one of his privy conncil."-Belknap's Hist. N. H., p. 313.
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HISTORY OF TOWNSEND.
by the General Court, for the distance of a mile north of Groton northwest corner, should be given up to the North Town proprietors. In 1748, writs of ejectment were served on Isaac Farrar and Jasher Wyman by which they were dispossessed of lands situated in Brookline, New Hamp- shire, at the northwest of Groton northwest corner. These two Townsend proprietors were obliged to give up their lands which rightfully belonged to the township of Dunstable.
Among the ancient plans and maps in the office of the Secretary of State, at Boston, is a plan of a tract of land containing one thousand acres, lying for the most part in old Dunstable, in what is now the south part of Brookline and the northwest part of Pepperell, a small angle of which pierced Townsend, granted as "Cambridge grammar school farm." This was in 1734. The plan shows " Massapetanapus Lower stream" and one or two of its tributaries, one from Townsend, its westerly line running five hundred and seventy-five poles on Townsend line. The Dunstable people soon notified the Assembly of this interference with their grant, and the next year the Cambridge school farm, was relocated "on the northerly side of Massapetanapass Great hill," partly in Mason and partly in Brookline. A map of this tract of one thousand acres may be seen in the Secretary's office, at Boston. In 1736, the Assembly "granted to Benjamin Prescott,* in behalf of the proprietors of Groton for losses of land taken to make adjoining new towns, ten thousand eight hundred acres of land lying on the west side of
* Assembly records, vol. 16, page 334.
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LAND GRANTS AND PROPRIETORS.
Dunstable, beginning at Dram Cup Hill, by the Souhegan river, which was the northwest corner of Dunstable, and running south on Dunstable line two thousand one hundred and fifty-two poles to Townsend line, then making an angle and running west 311/2º north on Townsend line and province land, two thousand and fifty-six poles to a pillar of stones, then turning and running by province land north, 3112° east, two thousand and forty poles to Dunstable corner first mentioned." This was surveyed and plan rendered by Jonas Houghton, and is known as "the gore between Townsend and Dunstable." This gore is now the easterly parts of the towns of Mason and Wilton, New Hampshire. Special reservations are in this grant of which the following is parenthetically inserted. "(Excepting the one thousand acres belonging to the Cambridge School Farm and therein included. )"
The running of the province line in 1741 settled many disputes about land titles and certainly "was a great public benefit." New Hampshire received a fresh impetus in civilization by acquiring from Massachusetts twenty-eight new townships besides large tracts of vacant lands inter- mixed. When this line was determined the politicians of Massachusetts were exceedingly angry and dissatisfied. Dunstable by this new line was severed in two parts about equal, suffering much by having its little village sundered and left in two provinces.
Townsend lost nearly one-third of its territory by this line, but found a northeast corner of the town located con- siderably south of the point for which it contended. Parts of Brookline. Mason and New Ipswich, in New Hamp- shire. were then taken from Townsend.
The proprietors of Townsend felt much uneasiness. on
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HISTORY OF TOWNSEND.
account of the loss of their lands caused by the running of the province line in 1741, which left more than one- fourth of their township in New Hampshire. At two or three different times they petitioned the Assembly for redress on account of their loss. From the proprietors' records is extracted the following :-
"At a meeting of the proprietors of the common and undivided lands in the township of Townshend, legally assembled at the house of Mrs. Sarah Conant, Inn-holder [the house is still standing at the southerly end of the dam at the Harbor] in said Townshend, upon Tuesday the twenty-sixth day of February 1765 at twelve o'clock on said day.
"Colonel James Prescott being chosen Moderator for sd meeting.
"Ily. Voted to choose a committee of three men to peti- tion the Great and General Court of this province for a recompense for lands taken away from the proprietors of Townshend by the late running of the Line of the province of New Hampshire : and that Colonel James Prescott, Capt. Jonas Prescott and Lieut. Josiah Sartell be a com- mittee fully impowered for that purpose."
Soon after, when the General Court assembled, these three men appeared before a committee which reported favorably to their wishes, and at that session of the Assembly it "Granted a township, somewhere at the east- ward of the Saco River, six miles square to the Town- shend proprietors and others, for military services and other losses and services."*
A clause in the grant specified that one sixty-fourth
* Mass. Archives, vol. 118. page 147.
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LAND GRANTS AND PROPRIETORS.
part of this township was to be appropriated to settle a minister-one sixty-fourth part for the ministry-one sixty- fourth part for the benefit of Harvard College-was to be settled within six years from the date of the grant, and a plan of the town to be returned to the General Court within one year.
"Granted to the town of Townshend IO212 acres
.. .. Tyngs-town 380 .'
Nathaniel Parker 260 ··
John Sheple 286 acres." and to others whose names are not here quoted.
There is nothing on record to be found showing that either the Townsend proprietors or any of these grantees ever received a dollar from this grant, or that it was ever plotted and a plan returned agreeably to the terms of the charter. The difficulties attending the settlement of a new town-its great distance from the grantees-the revolution- ary struggle, all combined, probably were in the way to prevent the proprietors from making this grant available. In May, 1786, the following article was in the town warrant : "To see if the town will choose a committee to take care of the land that is granted them by the General Court in compensation for land cut off by New Hampshire line, or sell the same." A committee was chosen at that town meeting to sell the same, but nothing is further recorded concerning the matter.
The town of Ashby was chartered in 1767. It was taken from the towns of Fitchburg, Ashburnham, and Townsend. About two-thirds of its territory was taken from Townsend. The only alterations in the lines of
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HISTORY OF TOWNSEND.
Townsend, since it was chartered, were caused by the establishing of the province line, in 1741, and the making of the town of Ashby, in 1767.
The east end of Townsend was surveyed and laid out into two divisions, sometime in 1723 or 1724. For the next three years, four or five of the proprietors from Concord and Woburn were busily engaged in felling the trees and making fields during most of the time, except the winter seasons, which they passed with their friends in these towns. This temporary residence broke the wilderness and prepared the way for a few families.
It is said that the wife of John Pat* was the first person, of her sex, who settled in the North Town. The town records confirm this tradition, from the fact that the first birth found on record reads as follows: "Jonathan Pat, son of John and Mary Pat born Jan 5 1728." With- out much doubt, this son of John and Mary was the first child born in this town. John Pat's log-house was about half a mile easterly from the parsonage house on a road leading to the south end of Nissequassick Hill.
The descendants of this family are, at present, to be found in Framingham, and some of the towns of Worces- ter County. The wife of Henry Sceva, formerly a citizen of Townsend, was one of this family.
The records of the town of Groton contain the follow- ing : "Ebenezer Ball, son of Jeremiah Ball, born in North Town. June 22, 1729." Mr. Ball lived about one-third of a mile northeasterly from the Harbor, at the corner made
* This name in the town records is spelled Pat, Patt, Patts, Pett and Petts ; the last method is the one now in use. The town clerks in this and the neighboring towns were extremely careless in regard to proper names : Anstin was "Astin." Hildreth was "Hildrick," Sawtell was "Sartel," according to the Groton town clerk; in the Mason. N. 11., records we find "Alet" for Elliott, and Benjamin Dix, a brother of om Rev. Samuel Dix, is dubbed with the name of "Benjamin Deeks."
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LAND GRANTS AND PROPRIETORS.
by the crossing of the two roads leading over the hill, at the left hand side going towards Pepperell from the Harbor.
There were at first two divisions of land laid out. running northerly from the river, by the line of Groton. across the east end of the town. In 1733, a third division was made which extended nearly two miles west from Groton line. The east end of the house lots abutted on "a six rod way running nearly north and south." or the road now leading over the hill. The west end of the lots of the second division also abutted on this road, which was the longest highway laid out by the proprietors, now in use. 3 Soon after, lands south of the Squanicook, to about the same distance westerly from Groton line, were surveyed and lotted. The proprietors made ample reserva- tions for roads. Almost every deed closed with this sentence : "There is also an allowance for a way whenever the town shall think it necessary." No matter how rugged and precipitous, marshy or ledgy, whether the land included Rattlesnake Hill or the rough peaks in northern Ashby, that ubiquitous "allowance for a way" was sure to be present. The road entering the northeast corner of the town, running nearly south for a short distance, then turn- ing easterly, and running about half-way from the state line to the Harbor, to the point where one road turns towards Pepperell and another westerly, was the road between the first and second divisions, then laid out. Very few of these roads contemplated were ever made. A road, to these settlers, was a path between two rows of marked trees, generally "two poles" wide but often "four poles" wide.
No original proprietor, according to the terms of the court's committee, could hold more than two hundred acres in one body, although he had a right to one-eightieth of all
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HISTORY OF TOWNSEND.
the land in North Town. A lot in these divisions contained about fifty acres. These were called "original house lots." There were more than one hundred lots in these three divisions, and it was determined by lot or chance where each man's lot should be located. Nothing could be more fair than this method. After this drawing, when the fourth and fifth divisions were laid out, the second fifty acres or more would be exchanged by these men with each other, so their lands were more in one body. Sometimes if any proprietor was not present at a drawing or other method of giving each man his share of the "common and undivided lands," a committee composed of men of their number and choice, and sometimes a committee appointed by the Gen- eral Court, would designate the lot.
At this distance from that period, not much being a matter of record, it cannot be expected that the precise location of the lands and houses of many of the first set- tlers can be designated ; and if it were practicable, from the necessity of the case, any language or description that might be quite intelligible to people now living, would perhaps be obscure and without meaning to those who are to be the future men and women of Townsend. Some of these men are worthy of particular notice.
Jasher Wyman, the clerk of the proprietors for more than twenty years, was a man of more than ordinary ability. His chirography and his phraseology were both excellent. He lived in what is now Brookline, on the east side of the road from Townsend to that town, on the second lot north of the state line. He owned and operated a saw mill there. the first ever in Brookline. When the province line was established, finding himself out of Massachusetts, and taxed to support a minister in "Dunstable west precinct"
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LAND GRANTS AND PROPRIETORS.
(Hollis). although he was strongly attached to his home and neighborhood, he left there and located in the southerly part of the town, on land which he acquired in his original two hundred and fifty acres. He was a man of good judgment and greatly respected.
Capt. John Stevens lived near the brook running from Hathorn's meadow. He came from Groton and had a residence here for a number of years, being an inn- holder. Some of the regularly called meetings of the proprietors were at his tavern. He was a land surveyor and the owner of the most acres of any person in this vicinity. His estates were in the towns of Mason. Town- send, and Groton. He owned at one time most of the land on both sides of the river, for about a mile from each bank. from the Harbor to Groton line. He was a justice of the peace and had considerable influence in town affairs.
Ephraim Sawtell came from Groton, and his house and land were on the north side of the Harbor pond, his lot extending northerly to Jeremiah Ball's land. He was strictly puritanical in his views and acts. He was modera- tor at several of the proprietors' meetings.
Timothy Heald lived in the south part of the town, on the road leading from the first bridge above the Harbor pond, near the top of the hill where a traveller first begins to lose sight of the Harbor, going towards "South Row." Tradition informs us that he was not only a noted hunter, but that he was posted on the localities of certain mines, of which every one, besides himself, was entirely ignorant. Nothing further is known of him except that he was in charge of a log-house made in a defensible manner against losses by the incursions of the Indians. One of these castles was located north of the Harbor and overlooking
9
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HISTORY OF TOWNSEND.
the same, and another near the meeting-house on the hill, and the same tradition further saith that the log-houses and mill, where the Harbor now stands, and the direct surroundings were called "the Harbor," because by signals from these three points in case of the appearance of any "red skins," the settlers could soon reach these places of safety. One other fort. or garrison, as they were called, of the same kind, was located on the southwest side of Ash Swamp, in the west corner of the road leading northerly across said swamp, which intersects with or starts from the main road from Townsend to Ashby.
Joseph Stevens, who was empowered by the act of incorporation to call the first proprietors' meeting was a man of sterling integrity. He lived on the second lot on the road leading from Jeremiah Ball's house (formerly described), northeasterly, at the base of the hill, near Pepperell line. It has been said, that to the extent of about one-eighth, he had Indian blood in him.
John Wallace,* his brothers, and nephews. were Scotch Irish. They settled on the hill which has had an Indian name in this work, better known as Wallace Hill, at the present day. They were men of great physical strength and endurance. On the arrival of three of these brothers at Boston, some one told them of Townsend and its white oak timber, and advised them to choose this place to locate in. They were coopers, and introduced that branch of industry into this town. This business has, from that time to the present, brought more money into Town- send than all other industries added together. The de-
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