USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Lancaster > Lancastriana. I. A supplement to the Early records and Military annals of Lancaster, Massachusetts > Part 2
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ANNALS OF LANCASTER,
ern' was put to a further greater charge, as well as authority to stop their prosecuting said Indyans into our Neighbour's Colony, which would else have proved of a farre worse consequence ;.
Andros' letter to Connecticut referred to in this docu- ment was dated February 4, 1676, and the reply to it- printed in Connecticut Colonial Records, II, p. 406, was sent February 10, the very day of the destruction of Lancaster. The Indian forces assailing Lancaster probably numbered about four hundred warriors, led by five sachems: Sagamore Sam and Monoco of the Nashaways, Muttaump alias Mali- ompe of the Quabaugs, Matoonas of the Nipnets, and Quan- opin of the Narragansetts. Samuel Sewall in his Diary, I, 22, calls Maliompe the "general at Lancaster." Hubbard's lan- guage, as well as that of Quanapohit, apparently proves that the historians who include the Nashaway tribe among the Nipnet Indians, are in error.
THE COUNCIL'S LETTER TO MAJOR WILLARD.
104. A letter of the Council dated February II, 1675/6, addressed to Major Simon Willard, follows. Major Willard had shown marked ability in his conduct of military opera- tions, so outranking his associate officers in this respect that the colonial government proposed to place him in supreme command of its forces:
Sir. The Council received your letter and are sorry for your excuse for not coming to the Council by reason of the state of Lancaster, which we desire you to endeavour to the utmost of your power to relieve and succour. We are using our best endeavours to prepare more forces to send to distress the enemy. You shall hear more from us speedily, and in the interim we desire you to be in readiness if you should have a full command over the forces to be sent forth from the Colony.
[Mass. Archives.] E. R. Secy.
SISTER DREW.
104, 114. The singular translation of Mrs. Hannah (White) Divoll to "Sister Drew," which occurs in the Lon- don pamphlet, News from New England, is rivaled by Thomas Cobbett's version of the same name to Diuens. Both Joseph Willard, Esq., and Rev. Abijah P. Marvin, how-
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ever, in their histories adopted the Drew family into Lancas- ter story without any qualms, and even evolved a Mr. Drew to join with the party which went to Boston for aid against the impending assault of the savages! [See Willard's His- tory of Lancaster, p. 39, and Marvin's Lancaster, pp. 96, 98, 107, 108 and 112.]
THOMAS ROWLANDSON.
104. Thomas Rowlandson, says Joseph Willard on . page 39 of his History of Lancaster, "was brother to the clergyman," and Mr. Marvin perpetuates the same error on pages 96 and 106 of his history of the town. Rev. Joseph Rowlandson had a brother, Thomas, who lived in Salisbury and died there in July, 1682. It was his son, Thomas junior, who perished at Lancaster. Even the careful John Langdon Sibley adopts Willard's error, on page 319, volume 1, of his Harvard Graduates.
JOHN KETTEL.
105. Rev. Timothy Harrington, in a foot-note to his Century Sermon, includes in his list of the slain at the mas- sacre of the Rowlandson garrison, "John Kettle and two sons." On a memorial erected in Stow, 1883, to mark the supposed site of a John Kettell's cabin -he being one of the first settlers of that town-it is recorded that " he was killed by the Indians Feb. 10, 1676." Mr. Harrington has been deemed worthy of credence in most of his statements regard- ing the destruction of Lancaster, for they were written only seventy-seven years after the event, and must have been based upon the recollections of survivors of that bloody epi- sode living in his day. Notable among such survivors were: Caleb Sawyer, who was seventeen years of age when the savage followers of Sagamore Sam raged around his father's stockaded garrison, and Lieutenant Jabez Fairbank, then a child of five years, who lost his father on that eventful day. Moreover, in the congregation under Mr. Harrington's min- istrations were scores of the children of those who suffered by savage tomahawk or torch during Philip's war. But Rev. George F. Clark, historian of Stow, in the New England His-
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ANNALS OF LANCASTER,
torical and Genealogical Register for October, 1896, has apparently proved by documentary evidence that John Ket- tell and his sons John and Joseph survived the massacre of 1676 several years.
Kettell owned no land in Lancaster, but leased a farm near Walnut Swamp belonging to Abraham Joslin. He has always been supposed to be that John of Sudbury, son of Richard of Charlestown, born in 1639, who married first Sarah Goodnow, and second, Elizabeth Ward. Another John Kettell, an older man, owned three hundred acres in Stow where the above named memorial with its questionable inscription stands. But this John died in Salem, 1685. Was Rev. Timothy Harrington misinformed as to the tragic fate of the Kettell family, or was there a third of the name? When Mrs. Elizabeth Kettell and two daughters were cap- tured, how did the male members of the family escape?
Probably Henry Kerley, Jr., should be classed among those slain. The captive "child Kerley, name and age un- known," was undoubtedly Elizabeth, the oldest daughter. The birth of this daughter is not a matter of record, but she is mentioned in her father's will, and was that Elizabeth who in 1686 married Daniel How of Marlborough. Mary and Hannah Kerly and Joseph Joslin finally escaped from cap- tivity or were ransomed.
SOLDIERS IN MASSACRE ?
106. On September 8, 1675, the Council ordered fifty men to be detailed from Norfolk and Middlesex counties for assignment among the garrisons of Lancaster, Groton and Dunstable. At the Lancaster garrisons, January 25, 1676, there were fourteen soldiers on duty from other places, as shown by Treasurer Hull's accounts. (See Rev. George M. Bodge's Soldiers in King Philip's War, p. 301.) It is prob- able that some of these suffered in the massacre of February IO, adding to the number of anonymous casualties.
RANSOM OF CAPTIVES
112, 114. 1676. May 3. Election Day. This day Mrs. Row- landson was, by a wonderful hand of Providence, returned to her hus-
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band after she had been absent eleven weeks in the hands of the Indians.
[Increase Mather's Diary.]
The Lord from Heaven smiled upon us at this time: for the day be- fore this Thanksgiving, as also the day after, he gave us to hear more of our Captives returned; particularly Mr Rowlandson's Children are now brought in as answers of Prayer. It is not a small mercy that the mother and children (only one childe was killed when the others were taken) should all of them be saved alive.
{ Increase Mather's Brief History.]
A petition of John Hoar to the General Court, May 24, 1682, discloses the fact that in 1665 he had been imprisoned, fined fifty pounds, put under bonds, and disbarred from pleading as a lawyer. After stating that during Philip's War, by order of Major Willard, Major Gookin, Mr. Eliot and the Concord selectmen, he had charge of about sixty Nashoby Indians, and built a fort for them costing forty pounds and endangered his life in their behalf, he adds:
I also made severall journeys to Lancaster and to the Counsell, and two journeys to the Indians to redeme Mrs Rowlinson and Goodwife Kettle, with two horses and provisions, and gave the Sagamores consid- erably of my owne estate above whatever I received of the Country, and by the favor of God obtained of them that they would fight no more but in their own defence. Seth Perry also had severall things of mee to give the Indians that he might escape with his life.
CAPTAIN HINCHMAN'S CAPTURES AT WASHACUM.
116. June 7, 1676. Our Forces now abroad came upon a party of Indians not far from Lancaster, and killed some of them, and took nine and twenty of them Captive. [Increase Mather's Brief History.]
Ours by direction of Tom Dublet (a Natick Indian who was a little before employed in the redemption of the captives) following tracks of Indians, came upon a party of the enemy fishing in Weshacom ponds, towards Lancaster, of whom they killed seven and took twenty-nine mostly women and children; yet belonging to considerable persons it made the success the more to be valued.
[William Hubbard's Narrative.]
June 7. The army abroad took twenty-nine Indians and brought them to Boston. One was that squaw that domineered over Mrs. Row- · landson. [Increase Mather's Diary.]
Among the captives thus taken by Captain Daniel Hinch- man at Washacum were the wife and children of Shoshanim and the wife of Muttaump. They were sold into slavery in
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ANNALS OF LANCASTER,
the West Indies. Weetamoo, squaw of Quanopin and sister- in-law of Philip, referred to by Mather as "domineering over Mrs. Rowlandson," was not captured at Washacum, but was drowned in August at Mattapoisett. Mrs. Rowlandson was Weetamoo's maid, Quanopin having bought her from her captor, a warrior of his own tribe.
REV. JOSEPH ROWLANDSON.
119, 301, 340. At a town meeting April 7, 1677, the Committee formerly chosen to inquire after an able minister for the town having advised and directed the town to the Rev. Mr. Rowlandson, lately a minister of the church of Lancaster in the Bay Colony, and Mr. Row- landson being by the invitation of the said Committee come to give them a visit, the town being very desirous of Mr. Rowlandson's settling amongst them in the work of the ministry, in order to his encourage- ment thereunto they voted and granted to allow him an hundred pounds per year and the free use of all the parsonage lands and houses during his continuance amongst them in the work of the ministry if he shall come and settle amongst them. And for his further encouragement (in order for his procuring of a settled habitation in the town) the town granted moreover to give him one hundred pounds, and to pay the same within five years after his coming and settling amongst us, after the rate of twenty pounds per year. [ Wethershield Records.]
From this record it appears that Mr. Rowlandson was not settled as colleague to the Rev. Gershom Bulkeley, although all Lancaster's historians and John Langdon Sibley have so alleged. Mr. Bulkeley had asked and received dismission before Mr. Rowlandson's settlement in Wethersfield, and had removed to Glastonbury where he practiced as a physician.
Nov. 28, 1678 ...... it was agreed and voted that Mrs. Rowlandson shall have allowed for this present year, Mr. Rowlandson's whole year's rate, and what was formerly promised,-which in all will amount to six score pounds, and from henceforth the Town shall allow the said Mrs. Rowlandson thirty pounds per year so long as she shall remain a widow amongst us. [Wethersfield Records.]
TOWN-MEETING RECORD, 1686.
124. The following memorandum of the action of a town-meeting (proprietors') in the hand-writing of John Houghton, was found upon a scrap of paper in 1885:
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TOWN MEETING
Monday the 16 day of August 1686 the town met at the meeting house. 3ly. Seueral of the Inhabitance on the east side the Riuer pro- pounded for a way to Goodman Prescotts Corne mill to ly ouer the Riuer at the Scar. Goodman Prescott told the town that if they would Grant him about twenty acres of Land upon the mill Brook Lying aboue his own Land for his convaniancy of preserving water against a time of drought he was willing the town should haue a way to the mill throw his Land. John Prescott hath a piece of Land laid out to him by a Commit- tee appoynted to that end to Lay out a highway from the Scar to the mill threw John Prescott's Land, and the Land allowed him in Lew of it Lyeth on the mill Brook near to the South Meadow bounded north and east by his own Land and South and Southeast by Common Land. A discription whareof was Red before the town the 6th of February 1687/8, and ordered to be Recorded.
Recorded this 9th of February 1687/8. pr me
JOHN HOUGHTON Recorder [Also recorded in Middlesex Registry, XII, 117.]
The northern portion of High Street in Clinton occupies in part the location of this way to the Prescott mill, which remained in use until 1742, when it was abandoned and the bridge built at the South Lancaster mills, on the site now used.
LANCASTER PROPRIETORS, 1688.
127. Among the papers of Jonathan Wilder, Joseph Willard found an ancient memorandum with the caption: "List of those who subscribed to the minister's house in 1688." This heading, and the quaint phrase in which the simple legal transfer of the new parsonage to Mr. Whiting by the town-meeting of January 3, 1690, was recorded, ("And the town the same time went out of the house and gave Mr John Whiting possession thereof"), seem to have strangely misled one of our historians. On page 160 of Rev. Abijah P. Marvin's History of Lancaster the episode is curiously expanded into :- a general subscription; the planting of many shade-trees; a "red letter" day with "a large gather- ing of parents and children;" "a feast of fat things and the voice of song and prayer," etc .; in short, into a combination of picnic, house-warming, prayer-meeting and donation party, neither substantiated by any evidence nor congruous
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with the habitude of the times or with local conditions. There was no incentive to popular subscription, since colon- ial law compelled the town to provide a habitation for their minister or compound with him, "allowing him a competent and reasonable sum to provide for himself so long as he shall continue with them." The fact that this list includes the names of several who had at that date been long in their graves, and of others non-resident, proves that it is only the constable's rate-list, naming all estates liable for the support of the ministry in 1688. The list is here given, the names of persons deceased in 1688 being marked *, and those of non- residents, so far as known, t :
John Moore Sen
Zebediah Wheeler
Matthew Stone
Thos Sawyer Sen".
John Wilder
Arthur Tooker
Thos Wilder
Gamaliel Beman
Samuel Wheeler
Sergt John Moore
John Beman
Simon Gatest
Ralph Houghton
James Snow
Barachiah Lewist
Josiah White
John Houghton
Nath' Walest Jona. Willardt
John Sawyer
John Willard
John Roper*
Benjamin Willard Jeremiah Wilson
Lawrence Waters* Edmund Parkert Thos Swiftt Jona Prescott;
George Hewes
Joseph Houghton
Daniel Hudson
Jonas Houghton
John Rigbyt
Richard West
Robt Houghton
Capt Henry Carleyt
John Priest
John Hinds Widow Houghton
Archelaus Courser* Daniel Gaines* John Baileyt
Nath1 Wilder
Thos Sawyer Jr.
John Rugg Sen.
Caleb Sawyer
Dea. Roger Sumnert
John Rugg Jr.
Abraham Wheeler
Nath' Joslint
Eph™ Roper*
Isaac Wheeler
Mordecai McLoad*
Peter Joslin John Bush
John Hutson Wm Hutson Joseph Waters
Jerem" Rogers* John Divoll* George Adamst
Nath1. Wilson John Glazier James Houghton Henry Willard Joshua Atherton
Cyprian Stevens Samuel Snmner
Benj Allen*
Christopher Lewis
Mr. Geo. Robinsont
Isaac Lewis
John Popet
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John Warner
George Newby
John Prescott
James Atherton
Henry Joslint
Josiah Whitcomb
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GARRISONS OF LANCASTER IN 1692.
The Settlmt of the Garrison at Lancaster, 18th. 1. 1691-2.
(1) Josiah White and
Thomas Pope James Holton [ Houghton] Joseph Holton John Hudson James Hudson
(4) Nathaniel Wilder and John Sawyer Jabez Fairbanks
Mr Samuel Carter Mr John Whiting with their familys. 8 men.
James Atherton
Matthew Stone
and Two Souldiers. 10 men
(2) Philip Goss and with him
John More
John Bemon
Peter Joslin
Jonathan Whitcomb
George Hues
Cyprian Stevens
Jno. Prescott with their familys. 9 men.
3. Thomas Sawyer and Sawyer's men.
Abraham Wheeler
Isaac Wheeler
Caleb Sawyer Senr.
Jno. Wilder
Nathaniel Sawyer
Gamaliel Bemon with their familys. 13 men.
Jonathan Fairbanks
James Frost
John Darbyshire with
their familys, 11 mell.
(7) Ensign John More Nathaniel Wilson Richard West Josiah White and and then familys. & men.
(8) Henry Willard and Joshua Atherton John Priest John Warner and Two Souldiers, with their familys
74 men
(6) Lieut Thomas Wilder and John Hinds Robert Holton
James Snow Jonas Holton Jeremiah Wilson
Jno. Holton
Thomas Sawyer
(5) Ephraim Roper and Jno Rugg Jno Rugg Junr. Joseph Rugg. 4 men Daniel Hudson and his two sons 3. men must repair to them in [ time ] of danger. At present they may continue in their own house it having a good Fort.
8 men.
The above list is from a manuscript found by John Far- mer, Esq. It was printed in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register for October, 1889. Garrison No. I was upon the east side of the Neck, probably where Nathan- iel C. Hawkins now lives. No. 2 was near the Sprague
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bridge; Philip Goss lived on the site of the Rowlandson gar- rison of 1676, opposite the Middle Cemetery, and Cyprian Stevens on the site of the Major Simon Willard garrison in the grounds occupied by the late Caleb T. Symmes, Esq. No. 3 was in South Lancaster, Thomas Sawyer owning the lands on the west side of the main street, between the Nar- row Lane and Flagg Street. His house probably stood near the site of the dwelling on the south corner of Prescott and Main Streets. No. 4 was upon George Hill, near the site of the Symonds and King trucking-house, the first home of John Prescott, now occupied by the Maplehurst stables. Rev. John Whiting's residence was in the grounds now occu- pied by Eugene V. R. Thayer. No 5 was upon the hill just above and west from the George Hill school-house, perhaps on the site of the house now standing there. Daniel Hudson lived where the Thayer farm-house, now occupied by William A. Kilbourn, stands. Hudson was a brickmaker, and dug clay for his bricks beside the highway a few rods east of the bridge over Roper's Brook. Both Roper's and Hudson's houses were burned by the Indians in the surprise of Sep- tember II, 1797. Some graves in the field, a few rods north from the school-house, visible in the early part of this cen- tury, were supposed to be those of victims in the Roper gar- rison massacre. No. 6 was upon the Old Common in the grounds now owned by the state. No. 7 was in what is now Bolton, on the east slope of Wataquadock, but its exact loca- tion is not known. No B was at Still River village, and in cluded the house now standing owned by William B. Maskell.
MRS. DOCTRESS WHITCOMB AND JONAS FAIRBANKS.
133. Mrs. Mary ( Hayward) Fairbank married David Whitcomb May 31, 1700. She claimed the acquisition dur- ing her captivity of valuable knowledge about Indian reme- dies and the medicinal virtues of plants, and became well known around Lancaster as " Mrs. Doctress Whitcomb."
The author of the Fairbanks Family in America denies that Jonathan had two children slain in the massacre of
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September II, 1697, or that he had a son Jonas. Rev. Tim- othy Harrington explicitly states that among those killed that day were "Jonathan Fairbank and two children." A prominent parishioner of Mr. Harrington's, living in 1753, when his Century Sermon was delivered, was Colonel Oliver Wilder, who married Mary, the youngest daughter of Jona- than Fairbank. He would hardly have permitted an impor- tant error concerning his wife's family to go uncorrected. A gravestone records that Jonathan and his daughter Grace "deceased September the II, 1697;" beside this stands a stone inscribed "Jonas Fairbanks who deceased September the 13th, 1697." This Jonas, the genealogist alleges, was probably a brother of Jonathan, a resident of Watertown, aged twenty-four, but no proof of this supposition is found. The births of Jonathan's children are nowhere recorded.
REV. JOHN JONES.
137, 340. Rev. John Jones must have served several months in the Lancaster pulpit, for the province treasurer's accounts, 1697/8, contain this entry;
Paid Mr John Jones whom ye Town of Lancaster have procured to be their minister (upon consideration of the damage lately done by the Indians unto sd. Town, their minister being slain, for their encouragemt and enabling sd Town to gett another) allowed by ye General Assembly. 20€ [Province Laws, VII.]
BEAUCOURT'S ASSAULT.
BOSTON ult. July 1704.
146. Sr. This morning before day a considerable number of the enemy set upon Lancaster in the county of Middlesex, where besides the inhabitants I have a company of musqueteers, and presuming upon the notice given by the French deserter at Deerfield that the enemy would give mee the go-by there, I had ordered two hundred men more to sd Lancaster on Saturday evening, who I hope will be there this evening, and God can give us success if he pleases. That I pray of you now is imediately to direct your forces upon the frontiers to march into the woods upon their track and lay wayte for them in their return; they can- not be above 200 men so that the force at Hadly must needs be enough to meet them. I have no notice but of an half hour of their assault of the first garrison next the woods [ Nathaniel Wilder's]; what impression they may make I know not, but have within the line the great towns of Concord and Sudbury all ready to march and gone before this time; but
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doubt not they may be intercepted weary in their march homeward, and it is impossible to miss their track if you cross to the northward. I have no oppertunity to Hadly; if you please to express this letter to C" Par- tridge, let him march of company in the country what he can possibly in this conjuncture. & this is his order for the same.
I am Sr, your humble ser't. J. DUDLEY
[Letter of Governor Joseph Dudley to Governor Fitz John Winthrop, printed in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 6th series, III, 248.]
BOSTON, August 4th, 1704.
146. Honoble Sir :- His Excellency our Governour being absent in business has commanded me to acquaint your Honour that on Mon- day the 31st of July past, early in the morning, the enemy in a numerous body of them or four hundred (being the same that came from Mont Real) insulted Lancaster, one of our frontiers in Middlesex, furiously assaulting six or seven garrisons at once; but finding the inhabitants on their duty and well provided to receive them, and auxiliaries from the neighbouring towns comeing in speedily to their assistance, they were obliged in a few hours time to draw off, having made no further impres- sion on the town than the burning of some few deserted houses, killing four of our men; three whereof were slain in a skirmish they had with them on the open field, in which it is concluded the enemy suffered a great loss, besides what they suffered from the garrisons. They also killed some cattle of which they got onely one meal, tooke no booty at all; In the pursuit our souldiers found several plots of blood in their stands. They continue still hovering in those woods and keep the posts alarmed. ISA. ADDINGTON.
[Letter of Secretary Addington to Fitz John Winthrop, printed in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 6th series, III, 252.]
JOHN DAVIS.
149. The Groton man slain and scalped by the Indians October 24, 1704, was not Samuel Davis, but his son John.
INQUEST AT DEATH OF REV. ANDREW GARDNER.
150. LANCASTER, October ye 28, 1704.
We ye subscribers being sumoned by John Warner Constable of said Lancaster to appeare (before Capt Jonathan Prescott one of the Coroners of said County of Middlesex) at the house of Mr Andrew Gardner in said Lancaster, on Saterday ye 28 day of October, betwixt ye hours of 12 & one a clock after noone of a Jury of enquest, to make enquiry upon ye Veiw of ye body of ye said Mr Andrew Gardner theire Lying Dead, how & in what maner he came to his death, have accordingly veiwed ye said dead body of Mr Andrew Gardner & examined ye evidences appearing namely: Tho Sawyer Jur, Jabez Fairbank, Jonathan Pidge & Mrs Mary Bayley, we find the said dead body shot through the breast, & out at the back, which shot we apprehend the sole cause of his death; & as to the
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maner of it, we find upon examination of Samuell Prescott of said Lan- caster, that ye said Sam" Prescott being upon ye watch at ye said house of Mr Andrew Gardner, on ye 25 of ye Instant in ye night, and not know- ing of any person being abroad but suposing all ye family in their beds, the said Sam" Prescott walking within ye fort, sudenly espied ye said Mr Andrew Gardner coming downe out of ye uper flanker & he, said Pres- cott, being surprised taking him for an Indian Enemy, the said Prescott declared he sudenly made a shot at sd Mr Gardner which we apprehend ye sole cause of his death as above said, [but ye said Mr Andrew Gard- ner coming to ye door of his house called to.]* therefore by what we find we apprehend ye said Samuel Prescott not guilty.
JONATHAN PRESCOTT Coroner. L.S.
JOHN HOUGHTON Sr. Foreman THOMAS WILDER
JOSIAH WHITE
CALEB SAWYER
JOSIAH WHETCOMB
JOHN PRIEST
JONATHAN MOORE
JOHN WILDER
ROBERT HOUGHTON
JAMES WILDER
JOHN WILDER
JEREMIAH WILSON
JONAS HOUGHTON JOHN HOUGHTON JUNR,
* The words in brackets are crossed in original.
[Suffolk Court Files, No. 6246.]
REV. JOHN PRENTICE.
165. Rev. John Prentice lived in the parsonage which had been the home of his two unfortunate predecessors. This stood facing the south, at least one hundred feet from the highway, on what is now the lagen of Fagene \' R. Thayer's residence. His first wife, Mary ( Gardner), dying March 9, 1718, on November II of the same year he married at Charlestown the widow Prudence ( Foster) Swan. The second Mrs. Prentice proved a very efficient helpmate, add- ing to her husband's meagre salary the profits of a little shop by the roadside near and south of the house, where for many years she retailed such merchandise as the neighborhood required.
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