USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Oxford > Memoir of the French Protestants, who settled at Oxford, in Massachusetts, A.D. MDCLXXXVI : with a sketch of the entire history of the Protestants of France > Part 2
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French Families.
Mrs. Butler named as of the first emigrants from France, the following families :
Bowdoin, and Boudinot came to Boston :- could not say, wheth- er or not they came to Oxford.
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Bowyer, who married a Sigourney.
Germaine :- removed to New York.
Oliver :- did not know whether this family came to Oxford, or not ; but the ancestor, by the mother's side, was a Sigourney.
SIGOURNEY. Andrew Sigourney, son of the first emigrant of that name, was born in Oxford, and died in 1763, aged sixty years He was the uncle of Mrs. Butler, my informant ; of the late Martin Brimmer, Esq. of Boston, and Mr. Andrew Brimmer, still living; and of the late Hon. Samuel Dexter, of Boston.
No branch of the Bowdoin family is known to have been settled south of New England. Governor Bowdoin left one daughter, the lady of Sir John Temple, sometime consul general of Great Britain in the United States. Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John and Lady Temple, was married to the Hon. Thomas L. Winthrop, Esq. of Boston, a member of the senate of Massachusetts, and now (April, 1826) candidate for lieutenant governor. Mrs. Winthrop died in 1825. In that truly honorable lady were combined dignity with ease, intellectual with polite accomplishments, benevolence of tem- per with beneficence in action, Christian principles with the Chris- tian graces. One of the sons, Francis William Winthrop, a young man highly distinguished as a scholar, and of very fair promise, was graduated at Harvard College in 1817, but died soon after he had finished his education. Another son, James, who, since the death of his uncle James Bowdoin, has taken his name, is the only representative of the Bowdoins, of that name, now living in New England.
Some future antiquary may perhaps trace the original name to the famous Baldwin, king of Jerusalem, who, according to French authority, spelt his name precisely as the first of this fami- ly in America, Baudouin. He died in 1118, and his remains were deposited in a church on Mount Calvary. Fleury, in his Histoire Ecclesiastique, Edit. 1779, gives an account of nineteen eminent persons, from the " compte de Flanders," A. D. 862, to Baudouin, " jurisconsulte," A. D. 1561, whose names are uniformly written Baudouin.
The Hon. Samuel Dexter, senior, father of the late Mr. Dexter, who married a Sigourney, was a member of the first provincial congress in Massachusetts, and founder of the Dexter professorship of Sacred Literature in the University in Cambridge. . Soon after the commencement of the revolutionary war, he removed with his family to Woodstock, in Connecticut. He had a large library,
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which attracted much attention at the time of its removal ; and he was greatly devoted to the use of it in his retirement, to the close of his life. He was a gentleman of a highly respectable character, possessed of a handsome estate, and enjoyed, far beyond most liter- ary men in our country, otium cum dignitate. He spent a few of his last years at Mendon, in Massachusetts, where he died in 1810; but his remains were interred, according to the directions of his Will, at Woodstock. I have seen the lot in which he was buried, not far from the first church in my native town ; but no sign of his grave can be traced. It was his own directions, that his body should be interred in the exact centre of the lot, and the grave levelled on the surface, and the whole lot cultivated alike, that no distinction might be perceived. There is a good portrait of Mr. Dexter at the Library of our University. Mrs. Dexter I well remember while at Woodstock. She was a respectable lady, of dark com- plexion, with characteristic French features, and pronunciation.
Very soon after my visit to Mrs. Butler, I received a letter from her husband, expressing her regret, that she had not mentioned to me Mrs. Wheeler, a widow lady, the mother of Mr. Joseph Cool- idge, an eminent merchant in Boston. Her maiden name was Oli- ver. She was a branch of the Germaine family, and related to "old Mr. Andrew Sigourney," in whose family she was brought up, and at whose house she was married. Mrs. Butler supposed, she must be between eighty and ninety years of age, and that, be- ing so much older than herself, she had heard more particulars from their ancestors ; but, on inquiry for Mrs. Wheeler in Boston I found that she died a short time before the reception of the letter.
How much do we lose by neglecting the advice of the Son of Sirach !- " Miss not the discourse of the elders; for they also learn- ed of their fathers, and of them thou shalt learn understanding, and to give answer as need requireth."
Remains of the French Fort.
My first visit to Fort Hill in Oxford was 20th April, 1819. It is about a mile southerly of the inn, kept many years by the Camp. bell family, at the union of the two great roads from Boston and Worcester, about fifty miles from Boston. Mr. Mayo, who owns the farm on which the fort stands, believes, that his grandfather pur- chased it of one of the French families; and Mr. Sigourney, of Oxford, thinks it was bought of his ancestor, Andrew Sigourney. I measured the fort by paces, and found it 25 paces by 35. With-
R
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in the fort, on the east side, I discovered signs of a well ; and on inquiry, was informed that a well had been recently filled up there. On a second visit to the Fort, in September of the same year, I was accompanied, and aided in my researches, by the Rev. Mr. Brazer, then a Professor in our University, who went over from Worcester, and met me, by agreement, in Oxford. We traced the lines of the bastions of the fort, and were regaled with the perfumes of the shrubbery, and the grapes then hanging in clusters on the vines, planted by the Huguenots above a century before .* Every thing here, said Mr. Mayo, is left as I found it.
We next went in search of the Johnson place, memorable for the Indian massacre in 1696. Mr. Peter Shumway, a very aged man, of French descent, who lives about thirty rods distant from it, showed us the spot. It is at a considerable distance from the village, on the north side of the road to Dudley, and is now over- grown with trees. We carefully explored it, but found no relicks. The last year (1825) I called at Mr. Shumway's. He told me, that he was in his ninety-first year; that his great grandfather was from France ; and that the plain, on which he lives, is called " John- son's Plain."
While Mr. Brazer was prosecuting our inquiries concerning a second fort, and a church, that had been mentioned to me by Mrs. Butler, he received a letter (1819) from Mr. Andrew Sigourney, informing, that captain Humphrey, of Oxford, says, his parents told him, there was a fort on the land upon which he now lives, and also a French meeting-house, and a burying ground, with a number of graves ; that he had seen the stones that were laid on the top of them, as we lay turf, and that one of the graves was much larger than any of the others ; that they were. east and west, but this, north and south ; and that the Frenchman who lived in this place, named Bourdine, had been dead but a few years.
In May, 1825, I visited captain Ebenezer Humphrey, and ob- tained from him satisfactory information concerning the place of this second fort, and the meeting house, and the burying ground. Captain Humphrey was in his eighty-fourth year. He told me, that his grandfather was from England, and that his father was from Woodstock, and came to Oxford to keep garrison. He him-
* The following fact has been communicated to the writer of the memoir by Mr. Sigourney. A bill of lading, dated London, March 5, 1687, of a vari- ety of merchandize, &c. shipped on board the ship John and Elizabeth, men- tions among the rest, " two chests of vine plants, marked X 5 X," and were to be delivered " to Mr. Daniel Stading, or Petre a Sailes."
£
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self now lives where his father lived, about half a mile south east from Oxford village. His house is near a mill, standing upon a small stream that runs on the left near the great road leading to Norwich. About fifty or sixty rods from his house, he showed me the spot where the fort stood, and, near it, the lot upon which were the meeting-house and burying ground. No remains of either were visible. He pointed to an excavation of the earth, where, he said, was a well, which had been filled up. It was at the place of the fort, and had been, probably, within it. In the lot there were apple trees, which, he told me, he beard his father say, " the French set out." His father must have been a compe- tent witness ; for he was seventy years old when he told him this, and he himself was then twenty years of age. The field was un- der fine cultivation ; but I could not forbear to express my regret, that the memorials of the dead had not been preserved. He said an older brother of his had ploughed up the field, and it was in this state when it came into his possession. He told me, that one of his oldest sisters said, she remembered the old horseblock, that stood near the French meeting-house. He said, he had seen the blood on the stones of the Johnson house ; and that Mrs. Johnson, on the night of the massacre, went to Woodstock. Bourdille (so he pronounced it) lived near the brook, which runs by his house. The land of captain Humphrey, upon which were a French fort, and church, and burying ground, lies near the foot of Mayo's hill, on the summit of which stood the great Fort, whose remains are still to be seen.
Of this interesting place we feel reluctant to take leave, with- out some token of remembrance, beside the mere recital of facts some of which are dry in the detail, while many others are but remotely associated with it. Were any monumental stone to be found here, other memorials were less necessary. Were the cy- press, or the weeping willow, growing here, nothing might seem wanting, to perpetuate the memory of the dead. Any contributions of the living, even at this late period, towards supplying the de- fect, seem entitled to preservation. The inquiries and researches of visitants from abroad drew the attention of the villagers at home. In 1822, the writer of the Memoir received a MS. Poem on the French exiles, superscribed " Oxford;" anonymous, but apparently from a female pen. It was of considerable length, and not equally sustained throughout; but the tender and respectful regard shown by the writer to those excellent pilgrims, who left " not a stone to
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tell where they lie," and her just reflections upon the value of re- ligious liberty, and the iniquity and horrors of tyranny, entitle her to high estimation. Many lines do honor to her genius, and all of them to her sensibility. If she is a descendant from the Huguen- ots, this is a tribute of filial piety ; if not, it is an oblation of gener- ous sympathy.
The same year a letter was also received from a lady, well known in our literary community, enclosing a poetical tribute to the memory of the Huguenots of Oxford, which is not less worthy of her pen, than of her connexion." Her marriage with a worthy descendant of one of the first French families that settled in Oxford, fairly entitled her to the subject, which her pen will perpetuate, should the Memoir be forgotten. A leaf of the grape vine was en- closed in the letter, which has this conclusion : " We received great pleasure from our visit to Oxford, and as we traced the ru- ins of the first rude fortress erected by our ancestors, the present seemed almost to yield in reality to the past. I send you a leaf from the vine, which still flourishes in luxuriance, which, I am sor- ry to say, resembles our own natives of the woods a little too strong- ly. Something beside, I also send you, which savours as little of the Muse's inspiration, as the vine in question does of foreign ex- traction ; but if poetical license can find affinities for the latter, I trust your goodness will extend its mantle over the infirmity of the former."
On visiting a Vine among the ruins of the French fort at Oxford, (Mass.) supposed to have been planted by the Huguenots, who made settlements at that place, when they fled from their native country, after the Revo- cation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685.
SAY, did thy germ e'er drink the fostering dews
Of beauteous Languedoc ?- Didst thou unfold
Thy latent fibre 'neath the genial skies
Of smiling Rousillon ?- or fragrant hang In purple cluster from some fruitful vine
Of fair Rochelle ?- Perchance thy infant leaves
Have trembled at the bitter sigh of those
Whom Tyranny oppress'd, or shuddering caught
That silent tear which suffering Virtue sheds
In loneliness-that tear which witnesseth To the high Judge .- Not by rash, thoughtless hands
Who sacrifice to Bacchus, pouring forth
Libations at his altar, with wild songs
Hailing his madden'd orgies, wert thou borne ṛ
* Mrs. L. Huntley Sigourney.
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To foreign climes-but with the suffering band Of pious Huguenots didst dare the wave, When they essay'd to plant Salvation's vine In the drear wilderness. Pensive they mark'd The everlasting forest's gloomy shade, The uncultur'd vale, the snow-invested heath Tracked by the vengeful native ; yet to rear Their Temple to the Eternal Sire, and pay Unfetter'd homage to his name were joy, Though on their hymn of praise the desert howl'd. The savage arrow scath'd them, and dark clouds Involv'd their infant Zion, yet they bore Toil and affliction with unwavering eye Fix'd on the heavens, and firm in hope sublime Sank to their last repose .- Full many a son Among the noblest of our land, looks back Through Time's long vista, and exulting claims These as his Sires .- They sleep in mouldering dust, But thou, fair Vine, in beauteous verdure bloom'st O'er Man's decay. Wooing thy tendril green Springs the wild Rose, as if it fain would twine Wreaths for its native soil .- And well it may ; For here dwells Liberty and laurelled Peace Lending to life new lustre, and with dews Etherial bathing Nature's charms. The child Of Poverty feels here no vassalage, nor shrinks From Persecution's scourge. The simplest hind, Whether he homeward guides his weary team, Beneath the evening star, or whistling leads To pastures fresh with morn his snowy sheep, Bears on his brow in deepen'd characters " Knowledge is Power."-He too, with filial eye Unchecked, undimm'd, marks blest Religion come, In simple mildness, binding on the heart Her law of love, gilding each gather'd cloud Of varied sentiment, that o'er the dust Of Earth's low confine hangs-with beams serene From that bright Sun which shall hereafter blend All fleeting shades in one effulgent smile Of Immortality.
APPENDIX TO THE FOREGOING MEMOIR ..
[B. Page 347.]
The paper containing the " Delineation of the Town of Ox- ford" is endorsed, "Papiers qui regarde New Oxford." The chirography is evidently French. With the delineation there is an
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account of the village and town, in the following words : " Oxford Village or the general Plantation containing 11,245 acres, where- of the proprietors common Way 265 acres, and Mauchaug in deficient, 172 ... 437. Rest 10808 acres .- The town of Oxford, including its village, called the General Plantation, containes 41245 acres, viz. the five grand lotts. On the W. side of the dividing line, each 3000 ... 15000, and on the East side thereof .. each 3000 ... 15000.
The Village Plantation . . 11245. The 41245 general."
Nipmuck river (called by the English settlers of New England, Blackstone) takes its rise in Sutton, and receiving several tributary streams in its course, falls into Providence river just below Provi- dence. It is there called Pawtucket. When the French settled Oxford, there was a town of praying Indians at Hassanamesitt [Grafton,] about two miles to the eastward of Nipmuck river, " and near unto the old road way to Connecticut," consisting of about twelve families, and about sixty souls. "Here," says Gookin,* " they have a meeting house for the worship of God, after the English fashion of building, and two or three other houses after the same mode. In this town was the second Indian church (Natick being the first) gathered in 1671 ; and three years afterwards there were in full communion in this church, and living in the town, about sixteen men and women; and about thirty baptized persons, and several other members living in other places. The church had a pastor, Tackuppawillin, a ruling elder, and a deacon. In 1674 the Rev. John Eliot and general Gookin, visited "the new praying towns in the Nipmuck country. The first of these," says Gookin, " is Mauchage, [Oxford,] which lieth to the westward of Nipmuck river about eight miles, and is from Hassanamesitt, west and by south, about ten miles ; and it is from Boston about fifty miles. To it belongeth about twelve families and about sixteen souls. For this place we appointed Waaberktamin, a hopeful young man for their minister. There is no land yet granted by the general court to this place, nor to any other of the praying towns. But the court intendeth shortly, upon the application and professed subjection of those Indians unto the yoke of Christ, to do for them as they have done for other praying Indians." Gookin's Hist. Collections of the Indians in New England, printed in Coll. · Mass. Hist. Society, in 1792.
*A. D. 1674.
VOL. II. 45
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FRENCH SETTLEMENT IN OXFORD.
C.
[Page 349.]
Nous sousignes certiffions et ateston que Monsr. Gabriel Bernon non a fait une despance [depense] considerable a new oxford pour faire valoir la Ville et encourager et ayder les habitans. et quil [qu'il] a tenu sa maison en etat jusques a ce que en fin les Sauvages soient venus masacrer et tuer lohn Johnson et ses trois enfens [en- fans let que netant [n' etant] pas soutenu Il a été obligé et force d' abandoner son Bien. en foy de quoy lui avons signe le present Billet, a Baston le 4e Septembre 1696 :
Jermons Baudouin Benja faneuil
Jacques Montier
Nous attestons ce qui est desus et [est] veritable.
+ marque
X marque depaix cazaneau
Mousset Entien [Ancien]
V marque de abraham Sauuage
Jean Rawlings Ancien
*marque de la vefue de Jean Jeanson
Charle Germon
Nous certiffions que ce sont les marques de personnes susdites. Daillé ministre
Jacques Montier
Elie Dupeux
Jean Maillet
André Sigournay Jean Millet ant.
Nous declarons ce que dessus fort veritable ce que Jobn John- son et ces trois enfans ont eté tué le 25e. Auost [Aout] 1696 : en foy de quoy avons signé
Jacques Depont
Montel Dispeux I B marque de Jean baudoin Philip [obscure] Jermon René Grignon
Je connois et Je le say d' experiance que mr. Gabriel bernon a fait ses efforts pour soutenir notre plantation, et y a depancé pour cet effet un bien considerable.
Bureau L'ainé [The elder or senior.] Peter Canton.
We underwritten doe certifie and attest that mr. Gabriel Bernon hath made considerable expences at Newoxford for to promote the the place and incourage the Inhabitants and hath kept his house
P. Chardon Entien
Baudouin
Barhut
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4
until the sd. 25. August that the Indians came upon sd. Plantation & most barbarously murthered John Evans John Johnson & and his three childrens. Dated Baston 20th Septemb. 1696. John Usher
John Butcher Laur. Hammond
Wm. Stoughton Increase Mather Charles Morton Jer. Dummer Nehemiah Walter min". Wm. Fox.
D [Page 349.]
That the French settlers at Oxford had a minister of their own, appears from a letter, written by him to some person in authority [probably gov. Dudley,] complaining of the sale of rum to the In- dians, " without order and measure," and of its baneful effects. The date is lost, with a line or two at the beginning; but is en- dorsed, " Mr. Dan1. Bondet's Representation referring to N. Ox- ford July 6th 1691." He mentions it as upon "an occasion which fills my heart with sorrow and my life of trouble, but my humble request will be at least before God, and before you a solemn pro- testation against the guilt of those incorrigible persons who dwell in our place. The rome [rum] is always sold to the Indians with- out order and measure, insomuch that according the complaint sent to me by master Dickestean with advice to present it to your honor. The 26 of the last month there was about twenti indians so furious by drunkness that they fought like bears and fell upon one called remes . , who is appointed for preaching the gos- pel amongst them he had been so much disfigured by his wonds that there is no hope of his recovery. If it was your pleasure to signifie to the instrumens of that evil the jalosie of your athoriti and of the publique tranquility, you would do great good main- taining the honor of God, in a Christian habitation, conforting some honest souls wich being incompatible with such abominations feel every day the burden of afflixion of their honorable perigrina- tion aggravated. Hear us pray and so God be with you and pros- per all your just undertakins and applications tis the sincere wish of your most respectuous servant
D. BONDET minister of the gospell in a French Congregation at newoxford."
V2
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The government probably interfered, and took measures to prevent the repetition of the evil complained of. The above pa- per was found in the Secretary's office, and shown to me by Mr. secretary Bradford, who, at my request, searched the government papers, in aid of my inquiries. The " representation of the minis- ter may have induced the government to appoint him a missionary to the natives in the neighborhood of Oxford; for, in another com- munication, Mr. Bradford informed me : " In 1695, Mr. Bondet, a French Protestant minister, preached to the Nipmug Indians . . . in the south of Worcester county."
E.
[Page 350.]
LETTERS AND PAPERS FROM THE BERNON MSS. IN THE POSSESSION OF PHILIP ALLEN, ESQ. OF PROVIDENCE. Letter from Gov. Dudley to G. Bernon, dated, " Roxbury April 6, 1715." ·' SIR,
We are now in a way to thrive at Oxford, and I particularly thank you for what you have done towards a Grist Mill in the Vil- lage, by giving the mill stones and irons to Daniel Eliot, condition- ally that the mill should be built to serve the town within such a perfixed time which is now past and nothing done. I desire you to write to him to go forward immediately so as to finish the mill presently to the satisfaction of the Inhabitants, or that you will or- der the said mill and irons to be given to such other person as will go forward in the work, that they may not be starved the next winter.
I pray you to take effectual order in the matter.
I am your humble servant, J. DUDLEY."
Superscribed
" To Mr. Gabriel Bernon Narraganset."
The answer of Mr. Bernon is dated " Kingstown 30 April, 1715." He writes, that, according to the letter from his excellency, he had " ordered Mr. Daniel Eliot to finish the Crist Mill at Oxford, or to let the town have the two mill stown to set the mill in a conven- ient place. It will be a great blessing to strive [thrive] after so much distorbance : And if I can but have the freinship and charity
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of your Excellency in my old time, with a young wife and a second family in this New World, I may be happy and blessed.". In a petition, afterwards, to Gov. Shute, he says, ... " being now near 80 years of age, and having several children by my first wife, and so seeing children of my children. I have since married an English woman, by whom also I have several children," &c .....
By a statement of G. Bernon, intended to prove his claim upon the plantation, it appears, that he considered "the Plantation of New Oxford" indebted to him for 2500 acres of land, besides the amount of expenses laid out by him upon the place. This claim appears to have been made about the year 1717, or 1720 ; for on his account there is a charge of interest " for above 30 years." The statement alleges, that 500 acres of the plantation were "granted by their Excellencys Mr. Dudley and Mr. Stoughton to Isaac Bertrand Du Tuffeau and Gabriel Bernon in the year 1687," and that 250 acres were " granted since, making in all 750 aik- ers ;" and that " their Excellencys Mr. Dudley and Mr. Stoughton did grant to the said Mr. Bernon for his own use alone 1750 aikers more, which makes in all 2500 aikers, which Mr. Bernon justly claims, upon which he hath built a corn miln, a wash leathern miln, and a saw miln, and laid out some other considerable expen- ces to improve the town of New Oxford, as he has made appear by the testimonys of several worthy gentlemen whose names he has hitherto subjoined.
The four elders of the French Church Mousset Daillie ministre Railing of the French Church.
William Fox Benj. Faneuil P. Jermon
Jacques Montier Paix Cazaneau
Governor Usher William Stoughton Increase Mather mtre.
Charles Morton mtre.
Jer. Dummer
Abraham Sauvages Nehemiah Walter minr.
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