USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Scituate > The early planters of Scituate; a history of the town of Scituate, Massachusetts, from its establishment to the end of the revolutionary war > Part 13
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In addition to all of the above we have the sale by Chickatawbut of Nantasket, to Thomas, Gray and Knight; by his descendants of Merrymount to Captain Wollaston; by Massasoit of the territory formerly occupied by the extinct tribe of Patuxets and comprising Plymouth, Duxbury, Kingston, Carver, Plympton, Halifax and Marshfield to the Pilgrims; and of Conihasset to Hatherly and his partners by Josias Wampatuck, Chickatabut's heir. ¡ An analysis of this last transaction given in full in the note furnishes further evidence that the purchase of land titles from the Indians by the Pilgrims was genuine both as to certainty of the grantor's title and adequacy of price. It may be mere
¡ Pecumcke, Ahiumpum, Catscimah, Webacowett and Masbano- mett doe all afferme that Chicatawbutt his bounds did extend from Neshamagoquanett near Duxbury Mill, to Teghtacutt (Mid- dlebrough) neare Taunton, and to Nunckatatesett, (Pembroke) and from thence in a straight line to Wanamamprike, which is the head of Charles River; this they doe all sollemly afferme, saing, God knoweth it to be true, and knoweth their harts.
Dated the first of the Month 1650.
Witness: Encrease Nowell, John Elliott
John Hoare
Josiah Wampatucke, Indian, Sagamore of the Massachusetts, and Nahatan the sonne of Jumpum came to Ply the 7th of June 1650 and there did testifye, that the land, according to a drauft in the keeping of Mr. Hatherley and others, and the particulars there- in specifyed was the only proper lands of Chickatabut, father of Josiah Wampatuke aforesaid; and this he acknowledged before Captain Standish, Mr. William Thomas and Mr. John Alden.
Mr. Hatherley and others with him have bought so much of the land above mensioned of the said Josiah Wampatuke as concerned them to Buy."
Plymouth Colony Records Vol. II page 157.
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coincidence that Increase Newell of Cambridge, Secretary to the Generall Court of Massachusetts, Reverend John Elliott of Roxbury, the friend and apostle to the Indians, and John Hoar, t the lawyer of Scituate, met at Plymouth on this spring day and chanced to witness the declaration of the five Indians as to the ancient ownership of Chickatawbut in the lands which the Conihasset Partners bought a week later. If the native witnesses were Plymouth Indians they were Patuxets and owed no faith to the Sagamore of Massachu- setts. If they were his friends and their testimony was given to bolster up his title, it was the Englishmen and not the Indians who were being cheated. Three of the most important men of the colony, Standish and Alden of Dux- bury and William Thomas of Marshfield were called upon to witness the acknowledgement of Wampatuck himself that he sold the land freely. If Hatherly and his associates were in a conspiracy to defraud the ignorant redmen they prepared an elaborate stage setting for the performance. Finally, we know that thirty-seven years later the grand-
f Hoar was trusted by the Indians. After he removed from Scituate to Concord, he was sent by the Council in 1675, to nego- tiate for the ransom of Mary Rowlandson, Goodwife Devens, Goodwife Kemble, John Moss of Groton and Lieut. Carter's daugh- ter of Lancaster. Mrs. Rowlandson, who had been taken captive by the Indians in February gives this account of the arrival of Hoar and two friendly (praying) Indians among their captors.
"On a Sabbath Day, the sun being about an hour high in the afternoon, came Mr. John Hoar (the council permitting him, and his own forward spirit inclining him) together with the two fore- mentioned (praying Indians) Tone and Peter, with the third Let- ter from the Council. When they came near, I was abroad. They (the Indian captors) presently called me in, and bid me sit down and not stir. Then they catched up their Guns and away they ran, as if an Enemy had been at Hand and the Guns went off apace. I manifested some great Trouble, and asked them what was the matter? I told them I thought they had killed the Englishman (For they had in the Meantime told me an Englishman was come.) They said, no, they shot over his horse, and under, and before his horse, and they pushed him this way and that way, at their Pleas- ure, shewing him what they could do. Then they let him come to their Wigwams. I begged of them to let me see the Englishman, but they would not. But there I was fain to sit their Pleasure. When they suffered me to go to him. As a result of Hoar's efforts all these captives were released.
Hubbard's Indian Wars. Vol. I, Pages 214-217 and notes.
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son of Chickatawbut, himself a Josias Wampatuck, confirmed the title in Hatherly's grantees, the Conihasset Partners, and received an additional eighteen pounds to the consider- ation paid his father. f.
The Indian title to the land of Scituate as the territory of the township stood in 1653, was extinguished by a deed given to Timothy Hatherly, James Cudworth, Joseph Til- den, Humphrey Turner, William Hatch, John Hoar and James Torrey for the proper use of the town. It is in full as follows :---
"1653. Bradford Govr.
I Josia Wampatuck do acknowledge and confess that I have sold two tracts of land unto Mr. Timothy Hatherly, Mr. James Cudworth, Mr. Joseph Tilden, Humphrey Turner, William Hatch, John Hoar and James Torrey, for the proper use and behoof of the inhabitants of the town of Scituate, to be enjoyed by them according to the true intents of the English grants; The one parcel of such land is bounded from the mouth of the North River as that River goeth unto the pond at the head of that River upon a straight line unto the middle of Accord Pond; from Accord Pond by the line set by the Commissioners as the bounds betwixt the two jurisdictions, until it met with the line of the land sold by me unto the sharers of Conihassett and as that line runs between the town and the shares, untill it cometh to the sea; and so along by the sea unto the mouth of the North River afore- said. The other parcell of land + lying on the easterly side of the North River, begins at a lot which was sometime the land of John Ford, and so to run two miles southerly as the River runs, and a mile in breadth toward the east, for which parcel of land I acknowl-
* Conihasset Records page 486.
į The "Two Miles" so-called, lying between the North and South Rivers, granted by the Court to Scituate in 1640. It was annexed to Marshfield in 1788.
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edge to have received of the men whose names are before mentioned, fourteen pounds in full satisfaction in behalf of the inhabitants of the Town of Scituate as aforesaid; and I do hereby promise and engage to give further evidence before the Governor as the Town of Scituate shall think meet; when I am thereunto requir- ed; in witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of
Nathaniel Morton Edmund Hawes
Samuel Nash
Wampatuck Josias marke
At the same time when Josias made the acknowledge- ment as above mentioned there was a deed brought into the Court which he owned "to bee the deed which he gave to them whose names are above specified for the same land and that hee had not given them another; which deed was burnt in the presence of the Court."
The league entered into between Massasoit and the Pil- grims was the instrument of peace for half a century. Trouble arose with the Pequots in 1637. This tribe, under its chief Sassacus, had been particularly aggressive toward the whites about Hartford where it also had its habitat. Members of it had kidnapped a Wethersfield man and burned him alive. They had sacked the town, murdered its people and taken children into captivity. Connecticut was wild with alarm and called upon Massachusetts and Plymouth to come to her aid. The former furnished twenty men. When the Plymouth magistrates called for volunteers, thirty responded. Of these, Henry Ewell, Hercules Hill and George Kennerick from among the score of able bodied men at Scituate, represented this town. Mr. Gilson and Edward Foster were "added to the Governor and Assis- tants to assesse men towards the charges of the souldiers that are to be sent forth for the ayde of the Mattachusetts Bay and Connectacutt." The cost of the expedition to Plymouth Colony was estimated to be two hundred pounds, of which the town of Plymouth was assessed one hundred,
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and Scituate and Duxbury fifty each. They sailed from Plymouth in the summer with a crew on board "sufficient to manage the barque;" but it is not known if they were in time to participate in the short and bloody war of extermina- tion which Mason and Underhill waged "on the tribe which lorded it so fiercely over the New England forests." Whether they saw service or not, the three Scituate volun- teers returned safely, Ewell to build a home which was burned thirty-nine years later by the Narragansetts, his allies in the Pequot campaign; Hill to his home in Kent street and Kennerick to remove to Boston. Following the complete annihilation of the Pequots as a tribe there was peace with the redmen for many years. The boldness and bloodiness of that slaughter and the terrible vengeance wreaked by the whites may have served to revive the feeling of superstitious awe with which, very early, the latter were regarded by the natives whose country was being usurped.
One beneficial result of the war was the treaty of amity and peace with the Narragansetts negotiated originally by Roger Williams and later ratified at Boston between Gov- ernor Vane and Miantonomo. It likewise furnished the immediate incentive for the confederation of the four colonies which followed. It was at a sitting of the Court at Plymouth on September twenty-seventh 1642 that
"The Court, being mett togethere, & haveing intel- ligence of a generall conspiracy intended by the natives to cutt off all the English in this land, tooke the same into serious consideracion, and duly waying such infor- macions which they have received, together with the circumstances concurring there withall, do adjudge it absolutely needful and requisite to make speedy prep- aration throughout the government for a defensive and offensive warr against them, as if they were pres- ently to be sent forth.
2. It is agreed and concluded that Mr. Edward Winslow, Mr. Tymothy Hatherley, & Captaine Miles Standish shalbe sent into the Bay Co., & to have power
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to agitate and conclude with them for a present com- binacion with them in the present warrs, and to treat with them about a further combination or league but not to conclude that without the consent of the Court here.
Their commission is as followeth :-
Mr. Edward Winslow, Mr. Tymothy Hatherley, and Captaine Miles Standish are deputed and authorized by the Generall Court this day, to treat and conclude with such commissioners as the Governor & Court of Massachusetts shall appoint for that purpose, upon such heads and proposicions as the Lord shall direct them for our combineing together mutually in a de- fensive and offensive warr for our present defence against the intended surprisall of the natives; and also to treate & conferr with them about a further combin- ation & League to be concluded betwixt us for future tymes, & to certify this Court of the heads thereof, that upon our approbation of the same they may be con- firmed by a Generall Court. 1
The war scare was genuine and thorough, Having taken the steps indicated in the foregoing excerpt from the record, the Court proceeded to name Captain Standish as the leader of "those forces that shalbe sent forth;" Mr. Thomas Prence "to be his counsell and adviser in the warrs," &d William Palmer to be lieutenant and Peregrine White "ancient bearer." A tax of $25 was immediately assessed for "the charges for & about ye souldiers which are to be sent forth" of which Plymouth was to pay five pounds, Scituate four, Duxbury and Sandwich each three and Barnstable, Yarmouth, Taunton and Marshfield each two, plus. A council of war consisting of the Governor and eleven of the foremost men of the colony was chosen. Timothy Hatherly and William Vassall represented Scituate upon this newly created board. Before the magistrates adjourned on this feverish occasion, "fynding the danger to be so great, and every man's life
+ Plymouth Colony Records Vol. II Page 46.
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in such hassard" and realizing that they were "Marvelously unprovided of lead and powder in the various townships," they let down the bars and authorized the partners in the trade at Kennebec, who under their agreement were re- stricted from selling furs and skins out of the colony, to sell "some moose skins and other skins out of the government." They further ordered that these partners should forthwith procure the necessary ammunition and sell it to the towns named taking their pay in corn.
The fear was groundless and the preparation unneces- sary; but the fright had its good effects. Military service and training at once became and continued, (1642) active.
Although a military discipline was not regularly estab- lished in Scituate, probably as Deane t says because of the recent removal of so many of the freemen with Mr. Lothrop to Barnstable, William Hatch having been "elected by the townsmen to be their leiftennant for trayneing their men, was presented by their committee to the Court and allowed." The commissioners who had been chosen to treat with the Bay Colony upon the confederation, had agreed with the latter and in 1643 articles, having been read in court, were subscribed with Massachusetts, Connecticutt and New Haven. This same year the General Court framed and promulgated its orders for the organization and control of the militia. Each "band or company" was to have a "cap- tain, leiftenant, clark" and one or more "serjeants." General orders were issued August 29, 1643 as follows :-
ORDERS
1. That the exercise be always begunn and ended with prayer.
2. That there be one procured to preach a sermon . 1 once a yeare viz : at the election of their officers, and the first to begin in September next.
3. That none shalbe received into this military com- pany but such as are of honest and good report, & freemen, not servants, and shalbe well approved by
+ History of Scituate page 118.
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the officers & the whole company, or the major part. 4. That every person, after they have recorded their names in the military list, shall from tyme to tyme be subject to the commands and orders of the officers of this military company in their places respectively.
5. That every delinquent shalbe punished at the dis- cretion of the officers and the military company, or the major part thereof, according to the order of military discipline and the nature of the offence.
6. That all talking, and not keeping sylence, during the tyme of the exercises, jereing, quarrelling, fighting, departing collers, without Lycence, or dismission &c or any other misdemeanor, so adjudged to be by the of- ficers and the company or the major part thereof, to be accounted misdemeanors, to be punished as afore- said.
7. That every man that shalbe absent, except he be sick or some extraordinary occation or hand of God upon him, shall pay for every such default 1js And if he refuse to pay it upon demand, or within a month after, then to appear before the Company, & be dis- trayned for it & put out of the list.
8. That if any man shall upon the dayes appoynted, come without his armes, or with defective armes, shall forfaite for every trayneing day as followeth :~
For want of a musket or a piece
approved every time vjd
For want of a sword vjd
For want of a rest vjd
For want of bandelires vjd
Six months tyme given to provide in
9. That every man that hath entred himself upon the military list and hath not sufficient armes, & doth not or will not procure them within Six monthes next ensuing, his name to be put out of the list.
10. That there be but xvjteene pikes in the whole company, or at the most for the third part, viz: viij
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for Plymouth, vj for Duxburrow, and two for Marsh- field.
11. That all that are or shall be elected cheefe officers in this military company shalbe so titled and forever afterwards be so reputed, except he obtayne a heigher place.
12. That every man entred into the military list shall pay vjd the quarter to the use of the company.
13. That when any of this military company shall dye or depart this life, the company, upon warneing, shall come together with their armes, and interr his corps as a souldier, and according to his place and quallytye. 14. That all that shall be admitted into this millitary company shall first take the oath of fydellyty, if they have not taken it already, or else be not admitted.
15. That all postures, of pike and muskett, motions, rankes, & files, &c., messengers, skirmishes, seiges, batteries, watches, sentinells, &c bee always perform- ed according to true military discipline.
16. That all that will enter themselves upon this company shalbe propounded one day, received the next day, if they be approved."
No sooner was this military establishment accomplished, than use for it became apparent. The occasion arose through the meddling by the federal commissioners in the affairs of the Mohegans and Narragansetts, between whom the hatred was bloodthirsty and of long standing. They were at war. In a battle at what is now Norwich, Connect- icut, Minantonomo, chief sachem of the Narragansetts, was captured by his enemy Uncas, and taken before the Governor and Assistants at Hartford. These worthies advised that he be taken to Boston, that his ultimate dis- position might be determined by the Commissioners for the United Colonies. This was done, Uncas being summoned thither at the same time. The Narragansetts were also represented. They claimed that a ransom had been paid by them to Uncas for the life of their captive chief and his
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return. This Uncas denied. The tribunal was certainly not an unbiased one if we are to believe its own records. Extending in writing the proceedings of September sev- enth 1643, it says :-
"But understanding how peaceable Conoonacus, & Mascus the layte father of Myantenomo, governed that great people, we rather ascribe these late tumults out- breakings & Malitious plots to the rash and ambitious spirit of Myantenomo than any affected way of their owne x x x x And Whereas Uncas was advised to take away the life of Myantenomo whose lawful captive he was, They may well understand that this is without violation of any Covenant between them & us for Uncas being in confederation with us and one that hath diligently observed his covenants before mentioned for ought we know, & requiring advice from us upon serious consideration of the premises, viz : his treach- erous and murtherous Disposition against Uncas &c and how great A Disturber hee hath biene of the Com- monpeace of the whole countrey we could not in respect of the justice of the case, safety of the Country and faythfullness of our frend do otherwise than approve of the lawfullnes of his death, which agreeing so well with the Indians owne manners and concurring with the practise of other Nations with whom we are quainted, we persuade ourselves however his death may be greivous at present, yet the peaceable fruits of it will yield not only matter of safety to the Indians but profitt to all that inhabit his continent." f
Sentence of death was thereupon pronounced against the unfortunate Miantonomo :- that he be delivered to Uncas "so execution may be donn according to justice and pru- dence, Uncas carrying him into the next part of his owne government and there put him to death. Provided that some discreet & faythfull persons of ye English accompany
+ Acts of the Commissioners of the United Colonies Vol. I Page 14.
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and see the execution for our more full satisfaction and that the English meddle not with the head or body at all." It must not be supposed that the words "for our more full satisfaction" import any revengeful or bloodthirsty design on the part of the Englishmen toward Miantonomo in thus consigning him to death at the hands of his red brother. They mean that the English members of the death party should see to it that the execution should be performed properly, without torture. The whole text of the record indicates that they felt an ultimate benefit would result from the removal of Miantonomo even though it might "be greevous for the present;" and they soothed their con- sciences by recalling the mischievous character of the culprit, their treaty obligations to his captor and the fact that other nations concurred in such a "practise."
Uncas with his prisoner and the accompanying English- men started from Boston to the Mohegan territory for the execution; but they did not reach "the next part" of Uncas' government. On the way and to the surprise of the whites the Mohegans tomahawked the defenceless sachem, and Un- cas is declared to have "cut a warm slice from the shoulder and greedily devoured it, declaring that the flesh of his enemy was the sweetest of meet and gave strength to his heart." t
It is not surprising that the tribesmen of this mighty sag- amore who was thus foully murdered, saw in the manner of his taking, the most insidious treachery on the part of the English. They felt that they had been double-crossed and they showed it. Still fighting with the Mohegans their bearing toward the whites was surly, revengeful and pugnacious.
The forces from New Haven and Connecticut sent to the aid of Uncas, having been found insufficient, a "meetinge extraordinary" of the Commissioners was called by "speciall Order of the General Court of Massachusetts." The oc- casion was urgent. They sent Sergeant John Davis, Bene-
¡ Fiske -- The Beginnings of New England page 171.
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dict Arnold, the great grandfather of the traitor, and Francis Smith to bring the sagamores of the warring tribes before them. The messengers went, but returned unaccom- panied by representatives of either party to the conflict. They brought however a letter from Roger Williams in Rhode Island which convinced the Commissioners that "warr would presently break forth." This was in July 1645. They wasted no time in convening the colonial leg- islature; but asserting that the articles of Confederation gave them power to declare war and prepare for it, they called out three hundred troops, -- one hundred and ninety from Massachusetts, forty each from New Plymouth and Connecticut and thirty from New Haven. Plymouth's quota was made up of eight men each from Plymouth town and Scituate, six from Duxbury, five each from Sandwich and Yarmouth, and four each from Barnstable and Marsh- field. The statement of Deane that Scituate was impover- ished in men to make up her contingent, is verified by an inspection of the list of the men she furnished for this expedition; John Turner, George Russell, Jeremiah Bur- rowes, Hercules Hill, Edward Saunders, Nathaniel Moate, John Robinson, Richard Tart. Of these men only Turner, Russell and Robinson were freemen, lawfully entitled or required to bear arms. 'All the others were servants. There must certainly have been a paucity of material to include them in the town's quota. Opposed to this view is the list of non-commissioned officers and privates compos- ing the Scituate Company (males between the ages of sixteen and sixty years, who are able to perform military duty) in August 1643, contained in Peirce Colonial Lists. 1 This list contains the names of Christopher Winter who was then in Plymouth; James Cudworth who is likewise therein accredited to Barnstable; Ephraim Kempton, Jr., then un- born; George Russell who did not come to Scituate until 1646; Richard Curtis who came in 1648 and Thomas Wyborne (or Weyborn) who was either of Plymouth or
¡ Peirce's Colonial Lists (Boston 1881) Page 74.
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Boston. The latter did not appear in Scituate until 1660. It must be concluded that the list of the Scituate Company published by Peirce is not an accurate compilation of the freemen of Scituate liable to bear arms in 1643.
A month's provisions was sent with the little army. "For every souldier x x x 1 of biskett; xijl of pork; xxl of beefe, and a half bushel of pease or meale. Com- pare this ration with that taken out by the Puritan soldier of the Bay Colony in the' same expedition, the total being for one hundred and ninety men, namely "Bread, tenn thou- sand; fish, ten kintalls; bief, six hogheads; strong water, one hogshead; wine at your pleasure; biere one tuun." f The Puritans were on a picnic; the Pilgrims prepared for fight. Or, it may have been that the item in the Plymouth Treasurer's account of the financing of the ,expedition, "James Coles Bill, £14:0:5" # concealed expenditures for staples of this same kind.
The Plymouth Colony men were absent but seventeen days, getting no farther than the frontier towns of Rehoboth and Taunton, which by the way "were freed from sending forth men" because they were both new plantations and as well had "billited all the souldiers freely during all the tyme they stayed there." By this time the show of force repre- sented by the three hundred men under the threatening Major (General Gibbons) not to mention Boston's "tunn of beere" and one hogshead of strong water, had overawed the Narragansetts. "Persecus, Mixanna and Witowash, three principal Sachems of the Narrohiggansett Indians and Awasequen, deputy for the Nyanticks with a large trayne of men, within a few dayes came to Boston." Peace was declared and a new treaty was "opened and cleared." Not however until they had imposed a war indemnity "of two thousand fathoms of good white wampom" upon the Nar- ragansetts, and taken four of their children as hostages or pledges for its payment. It does not appear how much of
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