USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Sudbury > The history of Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1638-1889 > Part 14
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In the early times there were people living on the town's border, who were designated "farmers," and their estates were called "farms." It was probably with reference to these that the following order was passed in 1677-8: " All persons bordering upon this town and who live and dwell near unto the precinct thereof shall pay (not only to the ministry but also) to all town rates, for that they belong to us, they shall be assessed their due proportions, as all other inhabitants of this town are, and in case of any of them refusing to pay, the same shall be levied by distress."
PRECAUTIONS AGAINST FIRE.
An order was issued whereby every householder was to have a ladder sufficiently long to reach the top of the house. For non-compliance with this act a person was subject to a fine of ten shillings.
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BORROWING CANOES.
It was, in 1643, voted by the town "that whosoever : : : shall take away any man's canoe without the leave of the owner shall forfeit for every default so made two shillings."
BOARD OF REPRESENTATIVES.
On page 157 of the records it is recorded that " the sum of three pounds shall be added to the town rate for the pay- ment of our deputie's diet at Hugh Drurys at Boston during his attendance at the Genral Court." Years later, in 1679, Peter Noyes "openly declared at that town-meeting that he freely gave to the town his time, charge, diet, in and about his service at the fore said session of the General Court which the town thankfully accepted."
PAYMENT AND PROTECTION OF PROPERTY.
While the people were busy in the formation of the new plantation and dividing and improving their lands, they were careful to provide means for the payment and protection of them. The records state, May 26, 1648, " Walter Hayne and Hugh Griffin are appointed to go down to the Governor and Magistrate to confirm the bargain of land now bought of Goodman's, and to take course for the payment of Good- mans, and they shall be paid for their labor."
Sept. 11, 1648: "It is agreed upon by the town that the five pound that is paid to Goodemans shall be raised only by the meadows as every man is possessed of."
" It is also agreed that all meadows that are given by way of gratulation shall have right in commonage as the meadows which are first, second, and third division of meadow, and that for the raising of the rate for the payment of the last purchase of Goodman's all meadows shall pay at one price."
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.
In 1661 the town appointed men " to agree with Robert Proctor of Concord, about his trespass of burning up our pine for making tar." They were to sue him if they could
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not agree. In 1671, James Adams was to have liberty to feed his cattle on Sudbury bounds, and " to take old and dry wood that shall be upon the ground, the said Adams to pre- vent any trespass by Concord herds, or cattle, also in our wood and timber, forth with to give notice to the town."
PECULIAR NAMES OF PLACES.
Peculiar names have been attached to many places in Sud- bury, which have been preserved, some by record and some by usage.
One of these is " Lanham." It is mentioned in connection with a deed as early as 1666. (See Liber III., pp. 233 and 234, Registry of Deeds, Cambridge.) The deed mentioned a piece of land " lying and being on the west side of the Ham- lett called Lanham." (See Chapter III., sketch of Thomas Read ; also Chapter VI.)
"Lowance" is the name of a stream which enters Mill Brook between South Sudbury and Lanham bridge. Proba- bly it was first applied to the meadows along its banks. It is found as early as 1666 (Liber III., p. 233, Registry of Deeds, Cambridge). It is doubtless a contraction of "allowance," which term was used to designate lands that were allowed the settlers in the territorial divisions. Sometimes an allow- ance of land was given in one place to make up for deficiency of quality or quantity in another.
The term " Pantry," applied to one of the school districts, is found in connection with a land sale in 1657. (Liber III., p. 7, Middlesex Registry of Deeds. ) In the document referred to it is used in connection with both the brook and meadow. This term may have been derived from the words "pine" and " tree;" and this theory receives favor from the fact that in the Town Book, page 98, it is spelled " Pantree."
" Piners Wash," or "Pinners Wash," was a term formerly applied to the brook above South Sudbury, commonly called " Wash Brook." It occurs repeatedly, both on the Town Book and the Proprietors' Book. The following record is taken from the former, dated 1779: "To see if the town will discontinue a town road laid out through the enclosures of Ensign Josiah Richardson over the ' Mill Brook ' or 'Piners
THE GOODNOW LIBRARY. SO. SUDBURY. See page 28.
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Wash' from being an open way and leave it a bridle way as formerly." This motion "passed in the negative." The road here referred to is that over Hayden's Bridge. We have found nothing definite by which to determine the origin of this name. We conjecture that this brook passed through a pine district, and that by some connection of the brook with the trees, or with those who may have lived or worked among them, who were perhaps called " Piners," the name may have come into use. " Wash Brook " doubtless came from this term.
"Indian Bridge." This is supposed to have crossed West Brook, as the lower part of Lanham Brook is called, between Sand Hill and Heard's Pond. (See Chapter VI.) The term is repeatedly found in the town records. On page 52 is the statement that Mr. Herbert Pelham was to have " all the land lotts of meadow and upland joining to his farm which lies between the Indian Bridge and the utmost bound of the great pond joining upon a short line from the Indian Bridge to the extremity of the pond, also twenty acres of upland joining to the Indian Bridge to the land granted to Mr. Herbert Pelham, and going thence downward to the hill on the west side the great pond, and west ward joineth to the land of Wm Pelham, and is parted from the west meadow by land reserved for a highway." Jan. 13, 1667, the town appointed a committee "to set a substantial mark where the old Indian Bridge was in West Meadow."
The word "sponge " was in early use as applied to local- ities. In 1646, "John Rutter was to have a sponge of meadow;" and the following is also a record of early date in which the word is used: "To Brian Pendleton 14 acres of meadow lying in a sponge upon the west side of the great meadow over against Munning's point." This word was formerly used in connection with real estate in New Eng- land, but long since ceased to be so used. Says Dr. Green, "It was a local word in England, used in Suffolk, and meant an irregular, narrow projecting part of a field, whether planted or in grass."
The term "Honey Pot Brook " is found. In 1778, Mr. Jonathan Puffer of Stow was released from rates on condi-
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tion "that he keep the causeway and bridge over Honey Pot brook from Stow line to the eastward of said causeway in good repair for ten years."
The term "Cedar Croft " is spoken of in papers from 1700 to 1725 in connection with the homestead of Thomas Bryant (Wayland). (State Archives, Vol. XVII., p. 520.) The same term is found in Liber III., p. 233, date 1666, Middle- sex Registry of Deeds, spelled "Cedar Crought."
Another term long and frequently used is " Bridle Point," spelled " Bridell Poynt " in a deed dated 1666. (Liber III., pp. 232 and 272.) This is a point of land at the southwest end of Braman's Hill, near the wooden bridge on the new road from Wayland to Sudbury.
The term " Gulf" is used as early as 1647. " Granted to the Pastor to lay down his third division in the Gulf." This term is applied to the meadows that lie along the banks of the easterly part of Pantry Brook.
" Doeseine Hill " is mentioned in 1661. It probably means Doeskin Hill. Thomas Noyes had one hundred and thirty acres of land, the second lot in the new grant near this hill.
The term "Goodman's Wigwam Hill" is found in Book II., Town Records ; also the term " Wigwam Hill " is found in the first part of Book I.
Other terms are "Rocky Plain" (Sudbury Centre) ; " Pine Plain " (in the Draper neighborhood, east part of Wayland); " World's End" (in the Gulf neighborhood, northeast part of Sudbury); "Haynes' Island " (northeast side of Gulf Brook) ; "Castle Hills " (north part of Wayland); "Spruce Swamp " or " Cranberry Swamp" (north of the highway, by Whale's Bridge, Wayland).
The following names are on the Proprietors' Book, and the places they designate are on the west side: "Lake's End Hill," " Log Slough," "Lake's End Bridge," "Pine Island," " Long Meadow," "Strawberry Meadow," "Mine Way," " Mill Field," " Hop Meadow," "Cedar Swamp Plane," " Ridge Meadow Brook," "Dunsdale," "Haynes' Slough," " Log Hole."
The following are also on the Proprietors' Book : "Hog House Hill," " Windmill Hill," "Bow Leg Meadow," "Penny
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Meadow Brook," "Swath Meadow," "Porringer Hill," "Com- mon Swamp Bridge," "Prospect Hill," "Long Meadow," " Highway from Lake's End to Log Slough," "Path from Log Slew to Pine Island," "Common Meadow Bridge," " Ashen Swamp," "Widow Rice's Plain, "Lake End " or " Lake's End," "Gulf Neck," "Iron Works Meadow," " Walnut Tree Hill," " Bare Hill."
CHAPTER IX.
Sudbury in the Colonization of Other Towns: Framingham, Marlboro, Worcester, Grafton, Rutland.
His echoing axe the settler swung Amid the sea-like solitude, And, rushing, thundering, down were flung The Titans of the wood ; Loud shrieked the eagle, as he dashed
From out his mossy nest, which crashed With its supporting bough, And the first sunlight, leaping, flashed On the wolf's haunt below. ALFRED B. STREET.
THE settlement of Sudbury in its earlist stages having now been noticed, let us, before considering farther what occurred within the town limits, give our attention to the work of its people in the settlement of other towns. The sons of Sudbury wrought nobly, not only within but with- out their own borders. A pioneer spirit very early pre- vailed, and as the town's citizens reached out for new acqui- sitions of land, they helped establish some of the best towns in the State. In this work of colonization were both hard-
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ship and hazard. Few but such as were of an adventurous nature would so speedily have removed from newly con- structed homesteads to erect other abodes in the farther forest. But a brave band of frontiersmen pushed boldly for- ward and out into the dark outstretching wood ; and, amid perils of climate, wild beasts, and uncivilized men, they opened new paths and prepared the way for new settle- ments. In narrating the work thus performed, we will to an extent present an outline of facts as they are afforded by the histories of the towns in which the work here mentioned was done. On the south and west of Sudbury, at the time of its settlement, was a wilderness. On the west was what is now Marlboro, on the south what is Framingham and Natick, and beyond this border territory was a far out- stretching forest awaiting the approach of the English to give it the light of civilized life.
FRAMINGHAM.
First there was an occupation of the lands on the south. This territory - so much of it as is now Framingham, and which was called a plantation by 1675, and was incorporated as a town in 1700 - was, at the earliest occupation by the English, unclaimed land of the colony. It never was granted to a company of petitioners, as was the case with Sudbury, but was allowed to individuals at different dates, whose names became associated with the lands granted. The fol- lowing is a list of the prominent grants, and the quantity of land comprised in some of them : The Stone Grants; the Glover Farm, 600 acres ; the Rice Grants; the Eames Grant, 200 acres; the Corlett Grant, 200 acres; the Gookin and How Purchase ; the Mayhew Farm, 300 acres; the Danforth Farms ; Crowne's Grant, 500 acres; Russell's Grant, 500 acres ; Wayte's Grant, 300 acres; the Natick Plantation Grants. Several of these tracts were either granted, as- signed or conveyed to, or in part settled by people from Sud- bury.
THE STONE GRANTS. - Mr. Temple, in his "History of Framingham," says : "The first man to build upon our soil was John Stone, who removed from Sudbury (now Way-
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land), and put up a house at Otter Neek, on the west side of Sudbury River, in 1646 or 1647." The lands owned by Mr. Stone were in several parcels, and granted at different times. In 1643 he had a grant of six acres in " Natiek bounds;" and in 1656 he purchased lands of the Indians at the Falls of Sudbury River (Saxonville). This land was situated northwesterly of the falls, and on the southeasterly and east- erly slope of the hill. It was confirmed to Mr. Stone by the Court, May, 1656, with fifty acres in addition. The land last granted was laid out May 26, 1658, by Edmund Rice and Thomas Noyes, and is described as " joining to Sudbury river at the falls of the said river, twenty acres of the said fifty being southward joining to the lands of John Stone. which said lands were purchased of the Indians, and after confirmed by the honoured Court; also the other thirty acres of the said fifty lying northward of the aforesaid purchased land and joining to it." Other land tracts were obtained by Mr. Stone in the territory of Framingham, till he possessed several hundred acres. Two of his sons, Daniel and David, settled near their father in 1667.
THE GLOVER FARM. - This was the next grant to be occupied by a Sudbury citizen. (For description, see Chap- ter IV.) This farm was leased Sept. 29, 1647, by President Dunster, guardian for the Glover heirs, to Edmund Rice for the term of ten years. By agreement in the lease, he was to erect a house on the place. (For dimensions of this house, see Chapter V.) He was also to build a barn, with dimen- sions as follows : " Fifty long, eleven foote high in the stud, one foote above ground, the sell twenty foote if no leantes or eighteen foote wide with leantes on the one side, and a convenient threshing-floare between the doares." (Barry.) These buildings, it is supposed, were located near Dudley Pond, and on that part of the Glover Farm which, by an adjustment of the town bounds in 1700, came into the town of Wayland. When the Glover estate was settled, the farm became the property of John Glover and Priscilla Appleton, his sister. Subsequently John transferred his part to his sister, and the place became known as the Appleton Farm. In 1697, John Appleton and wife sold the estate, then esti-
1
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mated at about nine hundred and sixty acres, to three Sud- bury parties, - namely, Thomas Brown, Thomas Drury, and Caleb Johnson, - for four hundred and forty pounds. The land was divided among these purchasers, and with the result that, after some exchange of the property among themselves, Mr. Brown had as his part of the upland two hundred acres on the northerly side, and situated westerly in Framingham territory; Mr. Drury, two hundred acres on the southerly side, also in Framingham, and one hundred acres in the northeasterly part in Wayland ; and the land possessed by Mr. Johnson was the middle portion, and consisted of two hundred acres of upland, upon which he erected a dwelling, where the Mars house now stands. Thus, not only was the Glover Farm first occupied by a Sudbury citizen, but in its subsequent divisions it became the property of three others.
THE RICE GRANTS. - Not only did Edmund Rice lease the large land tract just mentioned, but, by petitioning the General Court, he became owner of the several pieces of land that are called the " Rice Grants." In 1652 he was allowed three pieces of meadow, comprising about twenty acres, and thirty acres of upland, which was situated about a mile from Cochituate Brook, and in a part of Framingham called Rice's End. In 1665 he again petitioned the Court, and received about eighty acres more, which was also in the southeast part of the town. In 1659, Mr. Rice gave a deed of the land at Rice's End to his son Henry, who built upon it, and who, it is supposed, was the second person to build on Fram- ingham soil.
THE EAMES GRANTS. - These grants were of lands ob- tained from the General Court and the Indian owners by Thomas Eames, who was a former inhabitant of Sudbury. In 1669, Mr. Eames built a house and barn on the southerly slope of Mt. Wayte, South Framingham. The land was of the Wayte grant, and was owned by Thomas Danforth, who purchased it of Mr. Richard Wayte. On Feb. 1, 1676, the Indians burned the buildings of Mr. Eames, and killed or took captive his family. (See Chapter II. and period 1675- 1700.) As a return for the loss of property then incurred, which amounted to about three hundred and thirty pounds,
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the General Court, in 1677, granted him two hundred acres of land; and by consent of the Court he obtained, in 1676-7. a tract of two hundred acres of the Indians, which was situ- ated near where his former dwelling stood. "The Eames Farm" was situated in the southerly part of Framingham, south of Sudbury River, and ran westerly as far as Farm Pond. The grant of two hundred acres allowed by the Court in 1677 was laid out by John Brigham of Sudbury, in 1686, and is said to have been "land in the wilderness adjoin- ing to Lancaster line."
THE CORLETT GRANT. - This land tract was laid out May 28, 1661, to Mr. Elijah Corlett, a schoolmaster of Cam- bridge. It was situated "about a mile distant from the southwest angle of the lands formerly granted to Sudbury ; also having a parcel of meadow granted to Mr. Edmond Browne, teacher to the church in Sudbury, on the south, also being about half a mile distant northerly from the river which runneth to Sudbury, also being about a mile and a quarter distant west northwesterly of the now dwelling- house of John Stone." In 1661, Mr. Thomas Danforth purchased the land of Mr. Corlett, and the same year trans- ferred it to Mr. John Stone.
THE GOOKIN AND HOW PURCHASE. - This was a land tract that came into possession of Samuel Gookin of Cam- bridge, a son of Maj .- Gen. Daniel Gookin, who was colonial commissioner to the Indians, and a co-worker with Rev. John Elliot and Samuel How of Sudbury. The tract was obtained of the Indians, who gave a deed of it dated May 19, 1682. A specification in the deed was that it contain, " by estimate, two hundred acres more or less."
THE MAYHEW FARM. - This was a land tract of three hundred acres granted to Thomas Mayhew, Oct. 17, 1643. It is described as " lying between Marlboro, Magunkook and Framingham," and was assigned by will of Thomas Mayhew, bearing date Sept. 15, 1666, to John Stone and Nathaniel Treadaway, both grantees of Sudbury. In 1708 it was laid out to their heirs.
THE DANFORTH FARM. - These lands consisted of several parcels that came to Thomas Danforth by grant or purchase.
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One of these was granted in 1660, and contained two hun- dred and fifty acres, which were laid out adjacent to the south boundary of Sudbury, west of the river, and joining the land occupied by John Stone. Another tract was granted in 1662, and consisted of two hundred acres adjoining the "same land he hath between Conectieot path and Marl- borough." The Court appointed to lay out this land " Ensign Noyes of Sudbury with old Goodman Rice and John How," and " the act of any two of these was to be valid both for quantity and quality." This traet was adjacent to and west of the two hundred and fifty acres just mentioned, and extended along the south line of the Lanham District. . Other lands were allowed to Mr. Danforth until, by grant or purchase, he owned about two-thirds of the Framingham Plantation. These Danforth lands were from time to time, more or less of them, leased to individuals, and among those leasing them were Samuel Winch and Thomas Frost, who were formerly inhabitants of Sudbury, and both of whom lived at Lanham, - the former as early as 1670, when he purchased land there of Samuel How, and the latter about 1685. The lease to Messrs. Winch and Frost is dated March 25, 1693, and was of land that had been occupied by Mr. Winch on parole lease for several years. The time of the lease was nine hundred and ninety-nine years, and a payment was to be made of four pounds ten shillings per annum. The farm was bounded northerly by "Sudbury line," easterly by the river and Dea. John Stones' land, and southeasterly by " Mr. Danforth's own land," southerly by the " Lynde Farm," westerly by the six hundred aeres of reserved land (at Nobscot). The tract comprised three hundred acres, more or less, and contained "all those mesuages and tene- ments wherein they, the said Samuel Winch and Thomas Frost, do now dwell, containing two dwelling-houses, out- houses, and lands adjoining." This estate was situated in the northerly part of Framingham, and with the Stone Farm probably comprised largely the midway border territory in the northerly part of that town.
Another Sudbury settler who was one of the early occu- . pants of Framingham territory was John Bent, son of Peter
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Bent. In 1662 he purchased of Henry Rice a piece of land westerly of Cochituate Brook, and built a house there " near the fordway over that brook on the west side of the . Old Connecticut Path.'" (Temple.)
Other parties from Sudbury connected with the coloniza- tion of Framingham were Josiah Bradish, who it is supposed settled northerly of Nobseot Hill ; John Adams, who bought two hundred acres of Gookin and How at Saxonville, and erected a dwelling not far from the location of the present railroad station ; Thomas Walker, who bought eighty aeres of Gookin and How, and built a house at Rice's End; Sam- uel King, John Loker, Mathew, David and Benjamin Rice.
Such are some of the facts which set forth the service of Sudbury in the settlement of Framingham. From Nobscot to Cochituate, and from there scattered along southerly into " Natick bounds," the frontier was pioneered by them as they marked out new trails or opened rude forest paths. It is supposed that at the time of Philip's war, the Stones. Rices, Bents, Eameses, and Bradishes were the only English occupants on the Framingham Plantation. John Stone, at the falls of Sudbury River, was one of the nearest neighbors of Thomas Eames at Mt. Wayte; and at his home in the hollow, near the locality of the present railroad station, was the only English hearthstone from which a light gleamed at night, while about Dudley Pond and Cochituate the Rices had their share of solitude in their lone woodland home. Thus the loneliness of the settlers' life was a notable circum- stance in the colonization experience of these bold Sudbury frontiersmen. The wild rushing of the water in the eircui- tous stream at the "falls," the sounds heard in the forest as the tall tree-tops were tossed by the wintry storms, and the wind swept through the dark woody dells, were in strange contrast with the noise of business that now proceeds from that active place.
The settlers who went from Sudbury to the present terri- tory of Framingham were called "Sudbury Out-dwellers," or "Sudbury Farmers." Their ecclesiastical and social rela- tions were for a time with the town of Sudbury, - that is. they were expected to pay rates levied for certain objeets
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the benefit of which they shared. To such an extent were they identified with Sudbury, that it has been supposed by some they were a part of the town. This claim, it is said, was made, among others, by Dr. Stearns. Some things indi- cate that they were of the town, others that they were not. That they were not of the town is indicated by the following statement made about 1694-5, in a petition to the General Court, " Whereas ourselves and sundry more families, to the number of fifty or upwards, are settled upon the waste lands lying between Sudbury, Natic, Marlbury, and Sherborn, and as yet have not been orderly settled, with a township, but are forced to travell to the nearest of the meeting-houses, some to one and some to another." It is also indicated in a petition to the General Court in 1698 for the appointment of a committee to view lands of which it was desired to make the town of Framingham. The petition was sent in by John Bent and Nathaniel Stone, and the farmers about Cochituate, who set forth that they "had been for a long , time united to Sudbury in civil and social rights and privi- leges." A further indication of no territorial relationship to Sudbury is the following from the Sudbury Records : " Oct. 26, 1686. Agreement between the town of Sudbury and certain out-dwellers, viz., Corp. Henry Rice, Corp. John Bent, Mathew Rice, Benjamin Rice, William Brown, Daniel Stone, John Loker, John Adams, Samuel King, and David Rice, who are inhabitants bordering upon, but dwelling without the line or bounds of this town - have engaged to pay all rates for building the meeting-house, and for the maintenance of the ministry of the town, and for defraying town debts and the support of the poor- provided the town do relieve the poor amongst them and free them from repair- ing the highways within the town's bounds."
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