USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Sudbury > The history of Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1638-1889 > Part 15
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Still another thing that may indicate that there was no territorial relation is a report made at a selectmen's meet- ing in Sudbury, in 1682. They represent in this report the acres of land given to those dwelling in the town, a list of lands of persons dwelling up and down the country, and a list of men's lands bordering about or near the town. The amount in the latter list is spoken of as amounting to five
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thousand one hundred and three acres, in which Mr. Dan- forth's lands (which were in the region now Framingham) and Mr. Gookin's lands are not cast, because the contents were not certain. (See period 1675-1700.) The inference is that considerable land tracts were about Sudbury, largely on the southerly side, on which the town claimed some finan- cial rights, but which were not claimed as territory of the town.
A reason why some may have supposed that these farmers were a part of the town of Sudbury is found in the following answer to a petition sent to the General Court, Mar. 8, 1691-2: " In answer to the petition of the Selectmen of Sudbury, or- dered : That the out-dwellers adjoining unto the said Town, comprehended within the line beginning at Matth. Rice's, from thence to Cornet Wm Brown's Corp. Henry Rice's, Thomas Drury's, Tho. Walker, Jr., John How, and Samuel Winch's (not belonging to any other towne), be annexed unto the Town of Sudbury, and continue to bear their part of all duties and partake of all privileges then as formerly until further order." As to how the order was interpreted by those who had petitioned, may be indicated by a petition sent to the Court July 4, 1700, to which these same farmers attach their signatures : " The said town of Sudbury have for above a year denied your Petitioners the liberty of voting and other town privileges, utterly disclaiming them as not belonging to the said town, though your Petitioners have contributed to the building the meeting-house and mainte- nance of the minister, and have paid several town rates and done many town duties ; wherefore they pray to be annexed to the town of Framingham."
Another statement bearing upon the question is the fol- lowing from a petition sent to the Court, in 1730, by the inhabitants of Framingham living on the east and south of the river. They state " that they are principally consisting of those Farmers taken from Sudbury and Sherborn and those of Sudbury Farmers with others remote from meeting before the Court had taken emm off from Sudbury and annexed them to Framingham were designing to address the General Court to have been made a separate town :
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And your petitioners would intimate, that we of Sudbury farmers and Sherborn farmers should never have yielded to be annexed to Framingham had we not expected the meet- ing house had been fixed in the place where it now is."
MARLBORO.
About the time that the Sudbury settlers were pioneer- ing on the south of their plantation, their attention was turned in a westerly course also. Marlboro, which formerly included Northboro, Southboro, Westboro, and Hudson, was a wilderness country bordering in that direction. Very naturally, as the people began to feel the need of more ter- ritory, they sought it thitherward as well as towards the south.
The result was, that, in 1656, the following petition was presented to the General Court : --
" To the Hon. Governor &c assembled in Boston. The humble petition of several of the inhabitants of Sudbury whose names are here underwritten showeth, that whereas your petitioners have lived divers years in Sudbury and God hath been pleased to increase our children which are now divers of them grown to man's estate and we many of us grown into years so that we should be glad to see them set- tled before the Lord take us away from hence and also God having given us some considerable cattle so that we are so straightened that we cannot so comfortably subsist as could be desired and some of us having taken some pains to view the country we have found a place which lyeth westward about eight miles from Sudbury which we conceive might be comfortable for our subsistance, It is therefore the humble request of your Petitioners to this Hon'd Court that you would bee pleased to grant unto us eight miles square or so much land as may containe to eight miles square for to make a Plantation."
This petition was signed by the following parties: " Ed- mund Rice, Wm Ward, Thomas King, John Wood, Thomas Goodnow, John Ruddock, Henry Rice, John How, John Bent Sent, John Maynard, Richard Newton, Peter Bent, Edward Riec."
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Answer was given to this petition at a General Court ses- sion held in Boston, May 14, 1656, to the effect that a tract of land six miles square be granted, provided it hinder no prior grant, and that a town be settled thereon with twenty or more families within three years time, so that an able min- istry might there be sustained. A committee was appointed to lay out the bounds, and make report to the "Court of Election." Unless they did this, the grant would be void. A portion of the territory desired had previously been granted to the Indians, on petition of Rev. John Elliot, but a committee was appointed who amicably adjusted the mat- ter, so that each party had their lands laid out and duly confirmed. The plantation of the Indians was known as Ockoocangansett, and was partly surrounded by the plan- tation of the English, which for a brief period was called Whipsuppenieke. A plan of the latter was made in 1667, and approved by the authorities the same year. It contained 29,419 acres, which, with the 6,000 acres which had been reserved for the Indians, made 35,419 acres.
The first proprietors' meeting was held Sept. 25, 1656, and the same year William Ward, Thomas King, John Ruddock, and John How were " chosen to put the Affairs of the said new Plantation in an orderly way." A petition for incor- poration was soon sent to the General Court, and, being favorably received, in 1660 the place ceased to be merely a plantation legally connected with Sudbury, but became a town of itself, and was called " Marlborrow."
The places where some of the Sudbury settlers early had their abodes in Marlboro are still known, and some of them have been designated in the history of the town. Such places furnish food for reflection to the thoughtful mind, and not the least so, perhaps, to the people of the town from whence the early occupants of those dwellings went forth. May the sites of those primitive dwelling-places, on which the roof-tree long since decayed, continue to be pointed out, and suggest the spirit of enterprise that inspired that little company who went forth from Sudbury in search of new lands !
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WORCESTER.
But Sudbury helped settle towns still farther westward. Beyond Marlboro were the lands of what is now the city of Worcester, then a wilderness across the frontier. To this spot repaired some of the people of Sudbury. Among these was Lieutenant Curtis, the sturdy backwoodsman of whose service in the war with King Philip we are yet to speak. (See period 1675-1700.) Ephraim Curtis was a son of Henry Cur- tis, an original grantee of Sudbury. He was of a sturdy, ad- venturesome nature, a frontiersman, soldier and scout. The customs of the red men, the resort of wild game, the camp-fire and the night ambuscade, were all familiar to him. A short time before the outbreak of King Philip's war Lieut. Ephraim Curtis turned his face towards the west, and made his camp at what is now Worcester. We quote the following con- concerning his subsequent experience in that locality : "It was in the fall of 1673, as near as can now be ascertained by tradition and otherwise, that Ephraim Curtis, the first actual white settler, left Sudbury, with a pack on his back, a long, light Spanish gun on his shoulder, and an axe in in his hand, and set his face towards Worcester; arriving, after two days' travel, on the very spot still owned and occupied by his descendants, on Lincoln Street, to the sixth generation. The principal reason for his selecting this locality to settle upon was the supposition of mineral wealth in the soil, from the report of a valuable lead mine having been discovered in the vicinity by the Indians, who had a sort of rendezvous on Wigwam Hill while on their fishing and hunting excursions. Here Ephraim Curtis was all alone in the wilderness for a year or more, and in subsequent times used to tell how, after working all day, he would sit down and look towards Sud- bury, and shed tears in spite of himself. But he had a will that bore him through. For a time he claimed the whole town of Worcester, but had to be content with two hundred acres near the upper part of Plantation Street, and another plantation near Grafton Gore, granted by the Great and General Court as his share of the territory of Worcester. Curtis and others (who had followed him) stayed in Worces-
.
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ter until driven from there by the Indians in 1675. He left the spot which he attempted to settle to his descendants, with no other personal memorials, it is said, than his gun and silver-headed cane marked ' E. C.' In his later life he returned to Sudbury, where he died at the age of ninety- two. He left Worcester plantation to the care of his son John, and in 1734 he conveyed two hundred and fifty acres, on the border of Worcester, Auburn, and Millbury, to his son Ephraim Curtis, Jr." (Fall's " Reminiscences of Worces- ter.")
The violet sprung at Spring's first tinge, The rose of Summer spread its glow, The maize hung out its autumn fringe, Rude Winter brought his snow ; And still the lone one labored there,
His shout and whistle broke the air, As cheerily he plied His garden spade, or drove his share Along the hillock's side.
ALFRED B. STREET.
But the pioneer work done by Sudbury in the settle- ment of Worcester was by no means confined to one man. In 1657 thirty-two hundred acres were granted to Increase Nowell of Charlestown. His right was purchased by Josiah and John Haynes, Thomas Noyes, and Nathaniel Treadaway ; and in 1664 they became proprietors of a large tract east of Quinsigamond Pond. Haynes, Treadaway, and Noyes petitioned the General Court for a committee "to view the country." The death of Mr. Noyes, and the dis- turbed condition of things, prevented the commissioners whom the Court appointed from carrying out the order. But, in 1667, the Court again took measures towards a set- tlement of the country, and appointed a committee, who state in their report that "about five thousand acres is laid out to particular persons, and confirmed by this Court, as we are informed, which falls within this tract of land, viz., to Ensign Noyes, deceased, his brother three thousand two hundred acres, unto the church at Malden one thousand acres, and others five hundred acres bought of Ensign
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Noyes ; but all this notwithstanding, we conceive there may be enough meadow for a small plantation or town of about thirty families, and if these farms be annexed to it, it may supply about sixty families." The committee recommended to the Court that it "reserve it for a town; " and, for the settling of it, it advised " that there be a meet proportion of land granted and laid out for a town, in the best form the place will bear, about the contents of eight miles square." (Colonial Records, Vol. IV., p. 587.)
Another Sudbury citizen who assisted in the settlement of Worcester was Digory Sargent. So much of interest clusters about the character and experience of this adventurous man, that we will quote entire the account of him as given in Lin- coln's " History of Worcester:" "Among those who attempted the settlement of Worcester, after the first unsuccesful enter- prise, was Digory Sargent, who had built his home on Saga- tabseot Hill, southeastward of the present town. He was a native of Sudbury, and had been a carpenter by occupation before his removal. A will made by him in 1679 is preserved on the Middlesex records. As the list of goods and effects, strangely mingled together, presents an example of the hum- ble personal possessions of pioneer times, and the style affords specimen of quaint peculiarity, it will not be uninteresting.
"'DIGORY SARGENT'S WILL.
"' March the 17th day 1696. The last Will and Testa- ment of Digory Sargent. I, Digory Sargent, being in my health and strength and in my perfect memory, blessed be the Lord for it; these few lines may satisfy whom it may concern, that I, Digory Sargent, do freely give unto my daughter, Martha Sargent, my house and land with all its rights and privileges there unto belonging: this house and four seore aere lot of land lieth within the township of Worcester; I likewise do give unto her all my goods ; one floek bed and boulster, with one rugg, and two blankets and two coverlets ; six froes ; one broad ax and one pulling ax and one hand saw; one frying pan ; one shave ; one drawing knife; one trunk and a sermon book that is at Mrs. Mary Mason's Widow, at Boston ; with one pewter pint pot; one
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washing tub; one cow and calf; one [-] ; three iron wedges; two butte rings ; and if in case the Lord should see good to take away the said Digory Serjent by death, then I, the said Digory Serjent, do leave these things above written unto George Parmenter of Sudbury to be disposed of as he shall see good to bring up the said Digory Serjent's child ; and if in case that this child should die likewise, then I do freely give my house and land with all the goods above mentioned unto George Parmenter forever, and to his heirs, to look after these things and to dispose of them as he shall see cause. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal the day and year above named. There is one gun too. "' DIGORY SERJENT. "' Witnessed by John Keyes, John Wetherby.'
" Having afterwards been married to the sister of Parmen- ter, his family became more numerous, and afforded more victims to be involved in the miseries of death and captivity. Long after the other planters had fled from the perils of the conflict that raged around them, Sargent remained with his children, the solitary occupants of the town, resisting all importunity to seek safety by desertion, and resolving with fearless intrepidity to defend from the savage the fields his industry had redeemed from the waste. During the summer of 1702 his residence was unmolested. As winter approached the committee, alarmed by his situation on the frontier of danger, sent messengers to advise his removal to a place of security. As their admonitions were disregarded, they at length despatched an armed force of twelve men, under Cap- tain Howe, to compel compliance with the order. At the close of day the party arrived at a garrison near the mills. Here they halted for the night, which grew dark with storm and snow, and, kindling their fires, laid down to rest, while one of the band watched the slumbers of his comrades. In the morning they went onwards, and reached the house of Sargent, on Sagatabscot, at the distance of nearly two miles from the post where they had halted. They found the door broken down, the owner stretched in blood on the floor, and the dwelling desolate. The prints of many moccasins lead-
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ing westward, still visible through the snow, indicated that they had been anticipated by a short time only in the object of their mission. It was soon found that the children of Sargent were living in Canada. On the release of the eldest she related the particulars of the fearful catastrophe they had witnessed. When the Indians, headed by Sagamon John, as it is said, surrounded the house, Sargent seized his gun to defend his life, and was fired on. As he retreated to the stairway, a ball took effect and he fell. The savages rushed in, with their tomahawks completed the work of death, and tore off his scalp from his head as a token of victory. They seized the mother and her children, John, Daniel, Thomas, Martha, and Mary, and, having discovered the neighborhood of the white men, commenced a rapid retreat westward. The wife of Sargent, fainting with grief and fear, and in feeble circumstances, faltered, and impeded their progress. The apprehension of pursuit induced the Indian to forego [. . .. . ] torturing his victim. As they ascended the hills of Tataesset, a chief stepped out from the file, and. looking around among the leafless forests as if for game, excited no alarm in the exhausted and sinking captive, and awoke no cry of horror to betray their course. When she had passed by, one merciful blow from the strong arm of the sachem removed the obstruction of their flight. The chil- dren they carried away reached the northern frontier in . safety, and were a long time in Canada. Daniel and Mary, preferring the wild freedom of their captors to the restraints of civilized life, adopted the habits and manners of the Indi- ans. They never again resided with their relatives, although they once made them a visit when Miss Williams, taken at Deerfield, was restored. In 1715, Thomas was in Boston. John had been liberated in 1721. Martha was probably redeemed earlier than her brothers, married Daniel Shattuck, and returned to dwell on the spot so fatal to her family." (Lincoln's " History of Worcester.")
Another inhabitant of Sudbury who went to Worcester, in the third attempt to settle that town, was Nathaniel Moore. He was one of the most prominent citizens of that place dur- ing the first half century, and was for twelve years one of its
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selectmen. Mr. Moore was one of the first two deacons of the Old South Church, an ancestor of Dr. Moore, and formerly president of Williams and the first president of Amherst College. Still another who went from the town was Capt. Moses Rice. He went to Worcester about 1719, and built a tavern there. Captain Rice was commander of a cavalry company, and fought in several engagements with the Indi- ans. He went to Rutland about 1742, where he was killed by the Indians in 1755, aged sixty. Others who went there were Thomas Brown, Benjamin Crane, John Curtis, Simon Meyling, Jonathan Grout, -all of whom received lands in that vicinity.
GRAFTON.
Another place in whose settlement Sudbury citizens had some share was Grafton, a town in Worcester County. Its Indian name was Hassanamesit, which means a place of small stones. The land, which contained seven thousand five hundred acres, was purchased of the native proprietors, upon leases obtained of the General Court, May, 1724. The petition, asking the privilege of making the purchase. was presented by a number of persons, principally from Marlboro, Sudbury, Concord, and Stow; and the petitioners sought leave " to purchase of the Hassanamisco Indians land at that place." In the Indian deed concerning the territory, among other specific declarations is the following : "To Jonathan Rice and Richard Taylor both of Sudbury in the County of Middlesex aforesaid husbandmen each one fortieth part thereof . .. to them and their respective heirs and assigns forever." After the purchase of the territory, and the establishment of the plantation, those who composed the company laying claim to the territory held proprietors' meet- ings, more or less of which were at the house of Jonathan Rice in Sudbury. Their records and proceedings show the prominent part taken by Sudbury citizens in the formation of the township. A few specimens of these records are as follows : "At a meeting of the Proprietors of the common and undivided lands in Hassanamisco holden at the house of
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Jonathan How in Marlboro, April, 1728, Mr. Jonathan Rice was chosen clerk for the Proprietors to enter and record all votes and orders from time to time as shall be made and passed in said Proprietors meetings." "July 9, 1728. The Proprietors held a meeting at Sudbury, at the house of Jona- than Rice, and chose a committee to take charge of building a meeting house." "Jan. 6, 1730. At the house of Jona- than Rice, voted to lay out 3 acres to each Proprietor 30 acres of land for the third division; voted to raise seven pounds of money on each Proprietor for the finishing of the meeting house and school house."
In the appointment of committees for important business Sudbury was creditably represented. The committee chosen "to take a survey of the plantation of Hassanamisco, and find out and stake the centre plot of the plantation," were Captain Brigham of Marlboro, John Hunt of Concord, and Richard Taylor of Sudbury. Jan. 16, 1734, it was voted that Col. John Chandler of Concord and Jonathan Rice of Sudbury should be "a committee to make Hassanamisco a town." Thus, at Sudbury and by her citizens, were more or less of the plans laid and business transacted at the begin- ning of this thriving town.
RUTLAND.
Another town, in the settlement of which Sudbury was early and creditably represented, is Rutland, Mass. This town was incorporated by the General Court at a session of 1722. The territory, however, which included the portion incorporated at this time, and which was six miles square, was some years before this explored by daring pioneers, and embraced, in its full extent, a tract twelve miles square, and took in a part or the whole of the territory of what is now Hubbardston, Princeton, Holden, Oakham, Paxton, and Barre. The original territory in these latter-named limits was purchased, for twenty-three pounds, of Puagastion of Pennicook, Pompamamay of Natick, Wananapan of Wamas- sick, Sassawannow of Natick, and other natives, on Dec. 22, 1686. The name of the whole place was Naquag, and the
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deed of it, signed and acknowledged by the above-named Indians, was received April 14, 1714, and is on record at the Middlesex Registry of Deeds, page 511 of Book XVI.
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The ownership of this twelve-mile land tract was confirmed by the General Court in 1713, on petition of the heirs of Maj. Simon Willard, of Indian war fame, and others whose names were in the associate deed. One condition imposed by the Court in the confirmation of ownership was, that, within seven years, there be sixty families settled there, and a reservation of land for church and school purposes. On Dec. 14, 1715, the proprietors, at a meeting in Boston, decided that a tract of six miles square of the original twelve miles should be surveyed and set apart for the set- tlement of sixty-two families, in order to keep the conditions by which the grant was to be allowed. It decided to grant to Capt. Benjamin Willard, for certain considerations, one of which was that he build a mill, "one-third part of a thirty- third part of said township, or nine hundred and thirty acres." A portion of this large grant to Captain Willard passed into the hands of several prominent Sudbury citizens, who were assignees to Captain Willard. Three of them were Rev. Israel Loring, Capt. Samuel Stone, and Capt. Samuel Wright. The land thus assigned went to the parties as fol- lows: To Mr. Loring, three hundred acres; to Captain Stone, two hundred and forty acres ; and to Captain Wright, one hundred and twenty acres.
So much of the land of the twelve miles square as amounted to six miles square having now been confirmed to the claim- ants, and surveyed, and positions assigned for settlement, on petition to the General Court, at a session beginning May 30, 1722, an act of incorporation was passed, making of this ter- ritory the town of Rutland. The place thus being in readi- ness for settlement, and quite a portion of it being in the hands of Sudbury citizens, and a leader in the enterprise, Captain Wright, being a Sudbury man who, for years before Rutland was incorporated, was a manager in its affairs, it is no wonder that emigration flowed from the town into this new country. It was as the great West to a place as near the seaboard settlements as Sudbury; and the romance and
,
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adventure of pioneer life very likely took hold of the inhabi- tants, as the same spirit led their ancestors to seek homes about the borders of Sudbury River about a century before. Accordingly, as might be expected, we find an early exodus from the town to the place ; and among the names of parties who found homes in Rutland, or in the towns of the original twelve miles square, we find the following, which now are, or have been, familiar in Sudbury: Newton, Moore, Howe, Knight, Ward, Brown, Hunt, Bent, Stevens, Wright, Read, Dakin, Goodenow, Rice, Brintnal, Haynes, Stone, Parmenter, Estabrook, Clapp, Walker, Maynard.
Other towns about Sudbury that were represented in the settlement of this place were Marlboro, Concord, and Fra- mingham, besides some from Boston, Lexington, Lancaster, and Brookfield, and some emigrants from Ireland.
But it is not simply the matter of names and numbers of parties from the town that makes it important and interest- ing to mention the part taken by Sudbury in the settlement of Rutland, but the prominence of several of them. More or less were leaders in the enterprise, and active and influen- tial in shaping the young town's life. As showing their character, we will give a short sketch of some of them.
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