USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Reminiscences of Worcester from the earliest period, historical and genealogical with notices of early settlers and prominent citizens, and descriptions of old landmarks and ancient dwellings, accompanied by a map and numerous illustrations > Part 6
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Col. John W. Wetherell, in right of his wife, who is a daugh- ter of Maj. Newton. Wm. Jennison Stearns died in 1813, aged 74, and his daughter, Sarah (Stearns) Fenno, mother of the late William D. Fenno, died in 1863, aged 93. The old mansion house of this Stearns farm on Pleasant street, stood just north of the junction with Highland street, it having long since gone to decay.
Rev. William Jennision, born in Watertown in 1707, (son of Judge Jennison's brother Samuel,) was a school teacher in Worcester a few years anterior to 1742, preaching alternate- ly on supply at Holden, Westborough, and other places, and afterwards school teacher at Watertown.
Capt. Israel Jennison, (son of the Judge's brother Peter,) born in Sudbury in 1713, was a resident here as early as 1739, when he married Mary, daughter of Dea. Daniel Heywood, and resided on the estate on Lincoln street next west of the City Farm, afterwards owned and occupied by the first John Barnard, who died Sept. 17, 1830, aged 87, and his son the late Capt. Lewis Barnard, who died April 2, 1853, aged 73. Capt. Jennison was a retail merchant, and kept store for some forty years previous to his death, Sept. 19, 1782, in a small building but a few years since destroyed, which stood just on the cast corner of Lincoln and Boylston streets. After his death, his store business was continued by Nathaniel Curtis, brother of his son Samuel's wife, and Samuel, about the same time (1782) opened a hotel at his own residence, which stood just east of the house of his father. This hotel, which for many years, was a famous place of resort, especially after the closing of Capt. John Curtis' hotel a little farther west of it on the same street, for balls, &c., was kept by Samuel Jennison for some thirty years until his death, Nov. 18, 1815, aged 70. This hotel was continued by Adin Ayres and Oliver Eager, until 1819, when the property was purchased by the town of Worcester and the building used for an almshouse un- til 1854, at which latter time the present commodious brick structure since used for an almshouse was built by the city, on the east side of the junction of Lincoln and Boylston streets. The old Jennison tavern building, the cellar hole of which still
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remains, was torn down seven or eight years since by O. A. Kelley, Jr., the present owner of that estate and of the old Barnard estate adjoining it.
The keepers or superintendants of the town and city alms- house and farm located at that historie old corner and former- ly celebrated thoroughfare of travel in the early history of the town, have been, from 1819 to the present time, in succession as follows : Luke Gray, Capt. Peter Slater, Maj. Samuel Graves, George H. Knight, Sumner Harrington, L. B. Drury, and John Farwell, the latter having now officiated about twenty years in that capacity.
Of Capt. Israel Jennison's five children, one, Relief, born in 1754, married Abel Stowell ; another, Betsey, married Peter Stowell, brother of Abel and son of Cornelius Stowell ; and William, born in 1760, married Elizabeth, daughter of Corne- lius Stowell.
Capt. Israel Jennison's brother Samuel, born in Sudbury in 1722, who came here with his brother, married in 1755, Mary Heywood, daughter of Phinehas Heywood of Shrewsbury, where they resided and he died in 1704, aged 81, and his wife in 1820, aged 87.
After Capt. Jennison's death in 1782, his widow Mary (Hey- wood) married Rev. Joseph Wheeler, from Harvard, Register of Probate from 1776 till his death in 1793.
There have been four generations of the Jennison family resident in Worcester within the last 150 years, each family of the four having in it a Samuel and a William, brothers, but not descendants of those immediately preceding, although all were descendants of the original Robert Jennison, who came from England and settled in Watertown about 1635, where he died July 4, 1686, leaving a son, Ensign Samuel Jennison, who mar- ried Judith Macomber in Watertown and had ten children, of whom the fifth was Judge William Jennison mentioned above. The latter's brother, Samuel, married in Watertown, in 1669, Mary Stearns, daughter of Samuel and Hannah (Manning) Stearns, and they had eleven children of whom the second son, Rev. William Jennison, school teacher, who died at Water- town in 1750, was father of Dr. William Jennison successively
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of Mendon, Douglas, and Brookfield. Dr. Jennison, who mar- ried Mary Staples of Mendon, died at Brookfield in 1798. He was a zealous supporter of the Revolution, and a member of the Provincial Congress from Mendon in 1774. His daughter, Mary, married Jonathan Whipple of Uxbridge, father of the twins, " Liberty and Independence " Whipple, who were born Oct. 31, 1777, while the country was rejoicing over the surrender of Burgoyne, the children being so named in accordance with their grandfather Jennison's urgent request. Of Dr. Jennison's sons, William and Samuel, who were graduates of Harvard College, and served in the Revolutionary War, William died at Boston in 1843, aged 86 ; and Samuel, who married Sally, daughter of Rev. Dr. Nathan Fiske of Brookfield, was father of the late brothers Samuel and William Jennison of Worces- ter, who were thus of the seventh generation in remove from the original Robert. Of these two brothers, Samuel married a granddaughter of William Ellery of Rhode Island, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and William married for his first wife a daughter of Theophilus Wheeler, Register of Probate from 1793 to 1836.
CHAPTER VI.
Earlier Settlers -- the Chandler, Paine, Putnam and Upham families and their descendants.
THE CHANDLER FAMILY.
The most distinguished and influential family in Worcester County for nearly half a century after its organization, was that of the Chandlers, three generations of whom filled the most important offices, judicial, civil, and military. They were descendants of Dea. John Chandler, who with others in 1686, emigrated from Roxbury and founded Woodstock, Ct., that town being then included within the limits of Massachusetts. He was deacon of the first church there, and occupied the lead- ing positions in town affairs until his death. His son, John Chandler, who inherited the strong qualities of his father as well as his patrimonial estate, acted the leading part, as repre- sentative in the General Court and otherwise, in the formation of the County of Worcester, within whose limits Woodstock was included until it was set off to Connecticut in 1748. This second John Chandler of Woodstock became the first Judge of Probate and Chief Justice of the Court of Sessions of the Peace and Inferior Court of Common Pleas of this county, and he and his son and grandson of the same name continued to hold the leading offices, both civil and military, in the county, from its first organization in 1731 to 1775. The second Judge John Chandler was Clerk of the Courts and Register of Deeds until he succeeded to his father's judicial positions, and the third Judge of the same name, who was eleven years old when his father came here, and when his grandfather first assumed his judicial functions, ascended to that dignity on the decease of his own parent in 1763, when he became Judge of Probate. The first Judge Chandler, who died in 1743, retained his resi- dence in Woodstock ; his son and grandson lived in Worcester,
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and became successively with other members of the family occu- pants of the most important town as well as county offices, un- til the Revolution scattered them, their sympathies being with the mother country at the outbreak of the war. Their confis- cated estates comprised a vast amount of the most valuable landed property in the county, those of the Judge alone, whose brother the Sheriff, and several sons were included in the ban, amounting to more than a thousand acres located in different sections of this and other towns.
The Chandlers became connected by marriage with the lead- ing families of the town and county, the last Judge John Chandler, termed the " honest refugee," who died in London Sept. 26, 1800, aged 80, being grandfather of Mrs. Gov. Davis, Mrs. Gov. Lincoln, and Hon. George Bancroft.
The residence of the second Judge Chandler, (the first who became a resident of Worcester,) stood on the easterly side of the country road or main highway, opposite the Court House, on the site of Hon. Edward Earle's residence, his estate con- prising at first threehundred acres of land which he purchased in March, 1732, of Judge William Jennison, the consideration paid being the very moderate sum of £45. To this were soon after added by purchase from Thomas Palmer, Cornelius Wal- do, and others, two hundred acres northeasterly of Lincoln Square, the whole constituting an estate of five hundred acres on both sides of what is now Belmont street, not then laid out. It included " Chandler Hill," a portion of the present State Lunatic Hospital and County Jail grounds, and the land on which the old Antiquarian Hall and Summer street school- house now stand. This vast estate remained in the family for three generations, the last of them to own and occupy it being Charles and Samuel Chandler, (sons of the last Judge John Chandler,) who were engaged in business together here as mer- chants for several years after the Revolution. After the death, in 1813, of Samuel Chandler, the last one of the family who oc- cupied his grandfather's old homestead, a large portion of it, bounded on the west and north by Summer and Belmont streets, and including the dwelling, was purchased by Hon. Fraucis Blake, who built the main or original part of the present resi-
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dence of Mr. Earle, attaching thereto the old Chandler man- sion as its east wing. The builder of the new stracture was the late Walter Bigelow, senior. Mr. Blake, dying very sud- denly in 1817, before he had moved into or had entirely completed his new dwelling, his estate, comprising about 31 acres, was purchased by Gen. Nathan Heard, who sold it in 1840 to Hon. Edward Earle. The latter, in 1855, when he en- larged and modernized the main or new part of his dwelling, removed the old Chandler mansion part of it to its present lo- cation on the east side of Fountain street, just north of the Water Cure.
The last Judge John Chandler, who married, in 1741, a sister of Hon. Timothy Paine, established his residence on the south corner of Main and Mechanic streets, his old mansion being afterwards owned and occupied as a hotel by Maj. Ephraim Mower, whose sister married the Judge's son Charles, The Judge had a store building and office just south of his residence, on " Harrington Corner." afterwards known as the " Old Compound," in which himself at first, and subsequently his sons, Clark, Chaeles, and Samuel, kept store. This old structure, originally but one story in height, in which numer- ous distinguished merchants have kept store, and many eminent lawyers, (including Ex-Gov. Emory Washburn, ) have had their offices, since the days of the Chandlers, now stands in a modi- fied and mutilated condition, still occupied for stores, on the north side of Pleasant street, corner of Post Office avenue. It had a double roof and attic story, in which was a small hall for public purposes. The present basement story was added at the time of its removal to its present site, the upper portion remaining substantially as it formerly was, with the exception of putting in windows where the doors originally were. In the cellar where it first stood, were stored for a long series of years the choicest wines and liquors, large quantities of which were found there by the successors of the Chandlers. The Judge's old mansion just north of his store, built by him in 1741-2, and after he left occupied as a hotel until 1818, now stands on the north side of Mechanic street, opposite Spring street.
Reminiscences of Worcester. 65
Among the earliest of the many extensive purchases of real estate by the Chandlers here, was that which was afterwards known as the " Samuel Ward " and " Jaques " farm, compris- ing 310 acres, extending back north-westerly from Main street, between Austin and May streets, nearly to Beaver Brook.
The Chandlers of this country are descendants of William and Annis Chandler, who came from England to Roxbury in 1637, when their son John, (afterwards Dea. John Chandler, first one of four generations bearing that name,) was two years old. Of William and Annis Chandler's four children who came with them, Thomas and William, Jr., settled in An- dover, about 1645. John married Elizabeth, daughter of William Douglas, who settled in New London, Ct. John and Elizabeth (Douglas) Chandler removed from Roxbury to Woodstock in 1686, after their eight children were born. Their oldest child, John, died at the age of nine months, and a monument on his grave at Roxbury is inscribed " John Chandler, aged 9 m. dy 15 D. 10 M. 1660." Their son Joseph died there in 1668. They had two other sons who took the names of John and Joseph. The first one of these, John, (the first Judge John Chandler,) was born April 16, 1665, and married first, Nov. 10, 1692, Mary Raymond of New London ; secondly, he married Nov. 14, 1711, Esther Britman, widow of Palsgrave Alcock.
The other son of Dea. John and Elizabeth Chandler, Joseph Chandler, was born in 1683, married Susannah Perrin, and set- tled in Pomfret, Ct. He was a farmer, and had twelve chil- dren, the youngest of whom was Peter Chandler, who married Mary Hodges. Of the eleven children of the latter, the sev- enth was Maj. John Wilkes Chandler, who married Mary Sted- man. The latter were parents of Dr. George Chandler of this city, who was born in Pomfret, Ct., April 28, 1806, and mar- ried May 4, 1842, his third cousin, Josephine Rose, daughter of Joseph W. Rose, who was General Commercial Agent for the United States at Antigua and the adjacent West India Islands. Joseph W. Rose's wife, Harriet (Paine), was third daughter of Dr. William and Lois (Orne) Paine of Worcester. Dr. George and Josephine (Rose) Chandler's only surviving
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children, Mary, born Feb. 17, 1845, married Sept. 21, 1871, Col. A. George Bullock, son of Ex-Gov. Alexander H. Bul- lock ; and Fannie, born Jan. 6, 1851, married June 18, 1873, Waldo Lincoln, son of Hon. Daniel Waldo Lincoln, and grand- son of the late Gov. Levi Lincoln.
Dea. John Chandler's son John, who married Mary Ray- mond, was the first Judge of Worcester County. He resided several years in New London, and removed back to Woodstock. Besides holding various civil positions, including Represent- ative in the General Court and a member of the Executive Council, he was a coroner, and in the service of his country in a military capacity. In 1722, five men from Worcester were in a company of scouts under him as major to fight the Indians. He was afterwards colonel, as were also his son and grandson of the same name. Of the ten children of Judge John and Mary (Raymond) Chandler, the first four were born in New London, and the last six in Woodstock, as follows :
1st, John, (the second Judge,) born Oct. 18, 1693, who mar- ried first, Oct. 23, 1741, Hannah Gardner of the Isle of Wight, and secondly married Jan. 28, 1740, Sarah Clark, daughter of Timothy Clark of Boston, and widow of Hon. Nathaniel Paine, the latter being father of Hon. Timothy Paine.
2d, Joshua, born Feb. 9, 1696, who married Feb. 16, 1727, Elizabeth Cutler of Medway, was a farmer in Woodstock, fa- ther of Joshua Chandler, Jr., of New Haven, refugee. His daughter Mary married Col. Joshua Upham of Brookfield, re- fugee, who led the British troops into New London when Bene- dict Arnold burned that place during the Revolutionary War ; this Col. Upham, who afterwards settled in St. John, N. B., being father of the late Hon. Charles Wenthworth Upham of Salem, formerly member of Congress from Massachusetts.
3d, Capt. William Chandler, born Nov. 3, 1698, married in 1725, Jemima Bradbury, they being parents of Rev. Dr. Thos. Bradbury Chandler of Elizabeth, N. J., and of Winthrop Chandler, the distinguished portrait painter, who resided sev- eral years in Worcester, and died at the residence of his broth- Theophilus Chandler in Thompson, Ct., in 1790, aged 63.
4th, Mary, born April 30, 1700, and married John McCoy.
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5th, Elizabeth, born May 12, 1702, and married James Frizzell.
6th, Samuel, born Jan. 5, 1704, married Dorothy Church of Bristol, R. I.
7th, Sarah, born Oct. 11, 1705, died in infancy.
8th, Mehitable, born Aug. 10, 1707, married in 1747, Thomas Buckminster, hotel keeper in Brookfield.
9th, Thomas, born July 23, 1709, married Elizabeth Elliot of Windsor, Ct., obtained the charter of the town of Chester, Vt., from the government of New York, became Judge of the Courts, and was a citizen of Westminster, Vt.
10th, Hannah, born in 1711, died in infancy.
Winthrop Chandler, mentioned above, was born in Wood- stock, April 6, 1747, and married Feb. 17, 1772, Mary, daugh- ter of Rev. Charles Glysson of Dudley. They settled in Wor- cester in 1787, and that year Shay's soldiers were quartered in their own hired house, corner of Salisbury and Grove streets, where the family of Hon. J. S. C. Knowlton have so long re- sided. Winthrop Chandler studied the art of painting in Bos- ton, and some of his portraits in oil are still remaining in Woodstock and Thompson, Ct., and in Worcester and Peters- ham, Mass. In his leisure from portrait painting he engaged in house painting, and for that purpose had a shop near the burying ground on the Common.
The first Judge John Chandler, (son of Dea. John,) died at his residence in Woodstock, Aug. 10, 1743, in his 79th year, after a service upon the bench of about twelve years, leaving a widow and five sons. He had been forty years a Commission- er of the Peace, and seven years Executive Councillor. His son John. the second Judge, (the first one of the two who re- sided in Worcester,) being born in 1393, was therefore, thirty- eight years old when he came to Worcester in 1731, and was appointed Clerk of the Courts, Register of Deeds and of Pro- bate, under his father, which positions, as well as those of chairman of the Board of Selectmen, Representative, County Treasurer, etc., he continued to hold until he succeeded to his father's judicial positions, when his own son John succeeded to most of his offices.
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Reminiscences of Worcester.
The second Judge John Chandler, the first of the name who lived in Worcester, married Oct. 23, 1716, Hannah, daughter of John Gardner of the Isle of Wight, or Gardner's Island, in the Province of New York, by his wife, Mary King, and granddaughter of David, son of Lion Gardner, who came to America in 1635 at the age of 36. Sent by John Win- throp, Jr., Lion sailed from Boston Nov. 3, 1635, and was just in season to occupy the site at the mouth of Connecticut river and prevent the Dutch from getting possession of it, for a sloop from the Netherlands came only a few days after his arrival, with stores and men to commence a settlement there. He built a fort which was burnt in 1647, and then Lieut Lion Gardner built a stone fort on another knoll there.
The second Judge Chandler was one of the delegates com- missioned by Captain General aud Gov. William Shirley of Massachusetts to meet in Albany, N. Y., in June, 1754, for the purpose of holding an interview with the Indians of the Five Nations, etc., and of concerting measures for a union of all the British American Colonies. This was the germ of that Con- gress of the Colonies which resulted in the union of the States twenty-two years afterwards. His gift of a communion service to the Church in Worcester bears this inscription : "Yc Gift of Col. John Chandler of ye Church in Worcester, 1737." A portion of this service is still in use by this church, and this inscription still remains thereon. He joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in Boston in 1735, and was cho- sen its commander in 1737. With talents more brilliant and showy than solid or profound, he possessed highly popular man- ners, and a peculiarly happy, cheerful disposition. He exer- cised a liberal hospitality on Court days at his residence, by keeping open table for the widows and orphans brought before his tribunal while he was Judge of Probate. He had two sons and seven daughters, (the two sons being, Jolm, the third and last Judge, and Gardner, the Sheriff,) four of the nine chil- dren being born in New London, and the last five in Wood- stock. He married in 1741, for his second wife, the widow of Hon. Nathaniel Paine, from Bristol, R. I., and mother of Hon. Timothy Paine. In his youthful days he was employed in the
-
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Treasury office in Connecticut, and " being blessed with a sprightly genius," was soon introduced into public life, and for a great number of years represented the town of Woodstock in the General Court. After his removal to Worcester he was immediately chosen Representative, and so continued until he was chosen one of His Majesty's Council, of which he was a member until his death. He was always noted for his faithful- ness in attendance upon his public duties. He died Aug. 7, 1762, in his 69th year, leaving a widow, two sons, five daugh- ters, and forty-two grandchildren. He is described as having been a " kind husband, tender parent, and beneficent friend to the poor, always seeming most highly delighted when employed in acts of charity and kindness. He was always a lover and promoter of learning, a diligent and punctual attendant upon the public worship of God, and upon all offices of religion in general. As he lived beloved, so he died lamented." His re- mains were interred Aug. 11, in the family tomb upon the old Common, and on Sunday Aug. 15, a funeral discourse was de- livered by Rev. Thaddeus Maccarty in the old meeting house on the Common, from Job 7 : 9 and 10,-"As the cloud is con- sumed and vanished away : so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more. He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more." The curious manuscript of this sermon is now in possession of the Judge's great-great-grandson, Rev. George S. Paine, at "The Oaks."
All the nine children of this second Judge Chandler were by his first wife Hannah (Gardner), as follows :
1st, Mary, married Benjamin Greene of Boston ; 2d, Esther, married Rev. Thomas Clapp of Taunton ; 3d, John, born Feb. 26, 1721, the last of the three Judges of that name, who mar- ried March 5, 1741, Dorothy, sister of Hon. Timothy Paine, and for his second wife, June 2, 1746, married Mary Church of Bristol, R. I .; 4th, Gardner, afterwards Sheriff, born Sept. 18, 1723, and married first Hannah Greene of Providence, R. I., and secondly married Aug. 2, 1767, Anna Leonard, daughter of Hon. George Leonard of Norton ; 5th, Sarah, born Jan. 11, 1726, married in 1749, Hon. Timothy Paine ; 6th, Hannah, born Feb. 1, 1728, married May 17, 1750, Samu-
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el Williams of Roxbury ; 7th, Lucretia, born July 18, 1730, married Sept. 1, 1761, Hon. John Murray of Rutland ; 8th, Elizabeth, born Jan. 5, 1733, married Sept. 20, 1754, Hon. James Putnam, the last Attorney General of the Province un- der the Crown ; 9th, Catherine, born March 28, 1735, married Levi Willard of Lancaster, with whom Col. Samuel Ward was in partnership in mercantile business in Lancaster.
The last Judge John Chandler, born in New London, Feb. 26, 1721, had seventeen children, born between 1741, and 1770, of whom the first four were by his first wife, Dorothy (Paine), and the last thirteen by his second wife Mary (Church), all born in the last Judge's homestead, which stood where Wm. C. Clark's block now is, corner of Main and Mechanic streets :
1st, John, born March 3, 1742, married April 4, 1766, Ly- dia Ward, and resided in Petersham ; 2d, Gardner, born Dec. 1, 1743, died in infancy ; 3d, Clark, born Dec. 1, 1743, died June 1, 1804, was Town Clerk, Register of Probate, etc .; 4th, Dorothy, born Sept. 16, 1745, married Dec. 26, 1767, Col. Samuel Ward of Lancaster, and resided there ; 5th, Rufus, born May 18, 1747, (Old Style) graduated at Harvard in 1766, married Nov. 18, 1770, Eleanor Putnam, daughter of Hon. James Putnam, with whom he studied law, and practised here till the Revolution, when he left the country on account of his royal sympathies, and died in London, Oct. 11, 1823 ; 6th, Gardner, born Jan. 27, 1749, married in 1772, Elizabeth Rug- gles, daughter of Hon. Timothy Ruggles of Hardwick ; 7th, Nathaniel, born Nov. 6th, 1750, graduated at Harvard in 1778, studied law with his uncle, Attorney General Putnam, practis- ed in Petersham, became a refugee for his tory proclivities, acted in the British service, returned after the war and died in Worcester, March 7, 1801; 8th, William, born Dec. 7, 1752, graduated at Harvard in 1772, also a refugee, returned to and died in Worcester July 1, 1793 ; 9th, Charles, born Jan. 22, 1755, married Nov. 18, 1799, Sally Mower, (sister of Maj. Ephraim Mower,) and their daughter, Sarah, who married the second Col. Samuel Ward, inherited the estate of 310 acres formerly owned by her grandfather, including what was afterwards known as the Abial Jaques farm ; 10th, Samuel,
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