USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Sudbury > The history of Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1638-1889 > Part 24
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NEW MEETING-HOUSE.
During the pastorate of Mr. Sherman, the town took meas- ures for the erection of a new house of worship. Oct. 6, 1686, "it was determined, ordered, and voted, that a new meeting house be built within this town with all convenient speed, after such manner as shall be resolved upon by the town." "It was ordered that the said new meeting house shall be erected finished and stand upon the present Burying place of this town and on the most convenient part thereof or behind or about the old meeting house that now is."
The business of building the meeting- house was entrusted to Deacon John Haines, between whom and the town a cov- enant was made at a town-meeting, Jan. 10, 1685. It was to be raised on or before the first day of July, 1688; and for the work Mr. Haines was to have two hundred pounds, - one hundred and sixty pounds of it to be paid in " country pay and at country price," and the other forty pounds to be paid in money. The country pay was to be in " good sound merchantable Indian corn, or Rye, or wheat, or barley, or malt, or Peas, or Beef, or Pork, or work, or in such other pay as the said Deacon Haines shall accept of any person."
The meeting-house was to be " made, framed and set up, and finished upon the land and place appointed by the town on the 6th of October last past, in all respects for dimentions, strength, shape, . . . and conveniences, as Dedham meeting
-
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house is, except filling between studs ; but in all things else admitting with all in this work such variations as are particu- larly mentioned in the proposition of Corporal John Brewer and Sam1 How." The town was to help raise the building, the clapboards were to be of cedar, the inside to be lined with either planed boards or cedar clapboards, and the win- dows were to contain two hundred and forty feet of glass. It was voted, "that Leut. Daniel Pond shall be left to his lib- erty whether he will leave a middle alley in the new meeting house, or shut up the seats as they are in Dedham meeting house, provided always that the seats do comfortably and conveniently hold and contain seven men in one end of the seats and seven women in the other end of the seats."
At a town-meeting, Feb. 13, 1687-8, "a committee of eleven men were chosen to receive the new meeting house of Deacon John Haines, when it is finished according unto covenant made between him and the town," and also " to appoint persons how and where to sit in the meeting house." It was voted, "that the most considerable rule for seating of persons in the meeting house shall be by what they pay to the building thereof, excepting in respect to some considera- ble persons or to age and other considerable qualifications." It was voted that there should be "a good, sufficient and strong ladder placed at the meeting house with as much speed as may be, to prevent whatsoever occurrence may hap- pen." "Mary Loker was to have one pound fifteen shillings for the year ensuing for sweeping the new meeting house and keeping it clean." It was voted, that " there should be a convenient place for the storing of the ammunition of the town over the window in the south west gable. The dirt on the north east and south east side of the new meeting house was to be moved and placed at the foreside of it, and the ground was to be raised to within four or five inches of the sill, and to cover it with gravel and make a convenient way in at the door."
A few years after this meeting-house was built a bell was provided for it. It cost "twenty and five pounds in money." John Goodenow and Edward Wright paid this, and they bought the bell of Caleb Hubbert of Braintree. It was voted
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that John Parmenter should sweep the meeting-house from April 1, 1696, to April 1, 1697, for fourteen bushels of Indian or twenty shillings in money. The building being completed, a committee was chosen " to go to Dedham and clear up ac- counts with and obtain a discharge from Lieut. Daniel Pond concerning our new meeting house."
CIVIL AND MILITARY DISTURBANCES.
While the people of Sudbury were endeavoring to repair their misfortunes, they worked at a disadvantage. The country was by no means quiet. Disturbances, both civil and military, embarrassed the land. Kings in rapid succes- sion ascended the British throne. In 1685 came the death of King Charles, who was succeeded by James II., who was followed by William of Holland. Change in England meant change in America, and change in America meant change in the colonial towns. For some time there had been a con- troversy concerning the colony's charter. In 1685 it was declared that this charter was forfeited. The liberties of the people passed into the hands of the King of Great Britain, and the colony was called to submit to such form of govern- ment as Charles II. and James his successor saw fit to allow. But the people yet hoped to resume the old charter. Events, however, proved that these hopes were vain. In 1692 a new charter was brought to Boston by Sir William Phipps, and from a colony Massachusetts passed to a province, which included Nova Scotia, New Hampshire, Plymouth, Massa- chusetts, and Maine. With this change came new relations and laws. The new charter gave the governor extended power. He had the appointment of all the military officers, and, with the consent of the Council, the judicial also. He could call or adjourn the General Court, and no act of gov- ernment was valid without his consent. But before the com- pletion of this list of events, the community was agitated by a usurpation of power unsurpassed in the history of the colony.
In 1686, Sir Edmund Andros was commissioned by King James to succeed Dudley as colonial governor. Andros proved a pernicious ruler, whose despotism was not long
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to be borne. Among his arbitrary acts was imprisonment without trial, unjust and oppressive taxation, denial of the right of habeas corpus and the right of the people to hold their town-meetings. But the act which perhaps threatened the greatest embarrassment was that relating to real estate. The people were informed that they had unsound claims to their lands, and that the titles to them were void. Notwith- standing Indian deeds were produced, they were told these were "worth no more than the scratch of a bear's paw." Although King James is said to have commanded, that " the several properties according to the ancient records " should be continued to the people, yet the commission to Andros intimated his intention of assuming the whole "real property " of the country, and that landed rights were to be granted the people on such terms as the king might demand.
The result was a general embarrassment, and on April 18, 1689, there was a revolt and resort to arms. A council of safety was formed, and there met in Boston the 22d of May, the representatives of fifty-four towns. Sudbury sent Peter King as its delegate. He was instructed "to consult with the council sitting," and directed " not to resume the former charter government only that the present council should stand until we receive orders from his Royal High- ness the Prince of Orange, and that the prisoners in durance be safely kept until such time as they may be brought before lawful justice." Forty of the representatives of the fifty- four towns voted in favor of resuming the old charter. This, however, being opposed by Broadstreet, the presi- dent, and also by many of the old magistrates, it was agreed to resume only the government chosen in 1686 under the charter, until further orders were received from England. Forty delegates voted for this measure, and Mr. King of Sudbury was among the number. The dissolution of the old charter was in 1686. On May 26, 1689, a ship brought the news of the proclaiming of King William and Queen Mary ; and the arrival of the charter for a province was in 1692.
Thus, when the country was stirred by civil commotion,
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the town took its appropriate part; and, despite the bustle and stir in these important matters of state, it pursued its steady way. The persons who served from Sudbury in the General Court from the deposition of Andros, in 1689, were Peter King, Peter Noyes, John Haynes, Joseph Freeman. (Mass. Hist. Coll., Vol. XXIV., p. 289.)
THE TEN YEARS WAR.
The disturbing elements of this period were not confined to civil relations. The border settlements were exposed to the sudden assaults of the savages, who needed only a pre- text or an opportunity to commence their depredations. An occasion was soon afforded. About 1689 hostilities broke out among the settlements of New Hampshire and Maine, and the county of Middlesex was called upon to send its troops and munitions of war to the ravaged districts between the Penobscot and Merrimac. But a war of greater propor- tions soon threatened the colony, and which was to be of a duration, not of months, but of years. This war, waged between England and France, and known as King William's, or the "Ten Years War," for about a decade of years, menaced the frontier towns of New England. The work of devastation was soon commenced, and revived the associa- tions of by-gone years. The musket was once more to be shouldered and the sword unsheathed in defense of imperiled firesides and the arbitrament of disputed rights.
French authorities, with the sanction of the governor gen- eral of Canada, sought an alliance with the Indians, and the French and savages combined made the border a perilous place. But the war affected the New England colony in general. Levies were made on the towns for men to man the outposts and to go on expeditions of an aggressive and hazardous nature. During these years of hostility Sudbury was less exposed than in the war with King Philip. Her greatest trial was from sudden incursions, and a liability to large drafts on her weak resources. It is recorded in the town book, that, in 1688, there was a distribution of the stock of ammunition. The following statement is accompa- nied by a list of persons who took the stock in charge : -
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The names of those persons as have taken the public stock of am- munition into their hands, and have agreed to respond for the same in case that it be not spent in real service in the resistance of the enemy are as followeth.
Captain Thomas Brown
Benjamin Moore
John Goodenow
Samuel How
Lieut. John Grout
Matthew Gibbs
Ensign Jacob Brown
Mr. Hopestil Brown
Peter King Lieut. Edward Wright
Corp. John Bent
John Rice
Corp. Henry Rice
Mr. Thomas Walker, Sr.
Mr. William Brown
Thomas Reade, Sr.
Mathew Rice
Deacon John Haines
John Allen
Lieut. Josiah Haines
Mr. Peter Noyes
Sargent Joseph Freeman
Widow Mary Rice
Corp. John Brewer
John Parmenter
Joseph Curtis
Mr. James Sherman
Mr. Joseph Noise
Joseph Moore
Zachariah Maynard
Stephen Blandford John Grout, Jun. Thomas Knapp
Sargent John Rutter
Jonathan Stanhope
Corp. Richard Taylor
Corp. Joseph Gleason
Benjamin Parmenter Sarjeant James Barnard John How.
Jonathan Rice Thomas Plympton
The most of the persons thus named had allowed them a little over four pounds of powder, a little over thirty-three pounds of shot, and thirteen flints. About two years from this date, 1690, an order came to Major Elisha Hutchinson, commander of the forces, to detach "18 able soldiers well appointed with arms and ammunition out of the several com- panies of his regiment to rendezvous at Sudbury upon Tues- day the 27th of May with six days provisions a man."
These things indicate a harassed condition of the country, and perhaps a near approach of the foe to Sudbury. Noth- ing, however, so forcibly sets forth the military service of the town in those times as a paper bearing no date, but found in the State Archives among others belonging to that period. The document, which is in the form of a petition, is as fol- lows : -
1
Daniel Stone
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
To the honorable Governor, Deputy Governor, and to all our honored Magistrates and Representatives of the Massachusetts Colony, now sitting in General Court in Boston.
The humble petition of us who are some of us for ourselves, others for our children and servants, whose names are after subscribed humbly showeth that being impressed the last winter several of us into dreadful service, where, by reason of cold and hunger and in tedious marches many score of miles in water and snow, and laying on the snow by night, having no provision but what they could carry upon their backs, beside hard arms and ammunition, it cost many of them their lives. Your hum- ble petitioners several of us have been at very great charges to set them out with arms, and ammunition, and clothing, and money to support them. and afterwards by sending supplies to relieve them and to save their lives, notwithstanding many have lost their lives there, others came home, and which were so suffered, if not poisoned, that they died since they came from there, notwithstanding all means used, and charges out for their recovery, others so surfeited that they are thereby disabled from their callings. Likewise your humble petitioners request is that this honored court would grant this favor that our messengers may have liberty to speak in the court to open our cause so as to give the court satisfaction. Your humble petitioners humble request is farther that you would please to mind our present circumstances, and to grant us such favors as seems to be just and rational, that we may have some compensation answerable to our burden, or at least to be freed from far- ther charges by rates, until the rest of our brethren have borne their share with us, and not to be forced to pay others that have been out but little in respect of us, whereas the most of us have received little or noth- ing but have been at very great charges several of us. If it shall please this honorable General Court to grant us our petition we shall look upon ourselves as duty binds us ever pray.
John Haynes Sen.
Thomas Walker John Barrer
Joseph Noyes Sen.
Peter Haynes Sen. [or Noyes] Samuel Glover
Mathew Rice
Joseph Gleason sen Thomas Rutter
John Allen Mathew Gibbs sen
Joseph Rutter
Thomas Rice
James Rice sen
Benjamin Wight Peter Plympton
Joseph Curtis Israel Miller
Josiah Haynes sen. Stephen Cutts
(State Archives, Vol. XXXVI., p. 59.)
This petition presents a story of sorrow. The service referred to was, it is supposed, in connection with the ill- fated expedition of Sir William Phipps in 1690. In this
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
expedition Sudbury was represented by a company of men, some of whom were from Framingham. A large force, con- sisting of forty vessels and two thousand men, most of whom were from Massachusetts, was fitted out for the capture of Quebec. The fleet sailed from Boston, and the land forces marched by way of Montreal and the lakes. But the great enterprise failed. Gotten up in haste, it was poorly pre- pared, and its military stores were but scant. Being late in the season, unfavorable weather prevailed, the small-pox set in, and the expedition came back with its object unachieved. It is said that many more died of fever after the expedition returned to Boston. But this was not all. The money in the treasury was insufficient to pay the soldiers, and for the first time in the history of the country paper money was issued ; but from this the soldiers obtained only from twelve to fourteen shillings to the pound.
Years after the Phipps expedition, survivors or their heirs petitioned the Court for land grants, and received them. These lands were called Canada grants. In answer to such a petition, Sudbury received land in Maine, which was called the Sudbury Canada grant. This grant now makes the towns of Jay and Canton. (New England Historical Antiquarian Register, Vol. XXX., p. 92.) The names of the petitioners for the foregoing grant have been preserved in a paper which bears date "Oct ye 26th 1741." The list was given in connection with what was called " A lift tax of fifteen shillings a man." A few of these names are as fol- lows : Ward, Graves, Stone, Rice, Bridges, Newton, Walker, Woodward, Joseph Rutter, Gibbs, Peter Bent, Brewer, Sam- uel Paris. The petitioners were formed into a society, hav- ing Capt. Samuel Stone, treasurer, and Josiah Richardson, clerk, both of Sudbury.
Thus along from 1688 till the declaration of Peace at Ryswick, Dec. 10, 1697, there was inconvenience and loss. On the 27th of July, 1694, a detachment of the Abenakis, under the Chief Taxous, crossed the Merrimac, and assailed Groton, where the Indians killed twenty-two persons and captured thirteen. In August, 1695, a sudden descent was made on Billerica, in which fifteen persons were killed or
IFLE
THE WALKER GARRISON HOUSE. See page 199.
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
captured. Lancaster suffered in 1692, also in 1695, and in September, 1697, the Indians again entered the town. Thus near lurked the troublesome foe, and Sudbury doubtless felt its insecurity when it learned of these savage incursions in the neighboring towns. The following record on the Town Book bears testimony to this sense of insecurity: " Also agreed to call the town together for the choice of all town officers next lecture day at twelve of the clock, and it being a troublesome time with the Indians but few appeared."
WITCHCRAFT.
Another source of disturbance towards the last of the century was the witchcraft delusion. Supposed cases had occurred before in the Massachusetts Colony, and persons had been executed whom it was said had the power to bewitch men; but in 1692, it broke out with renewed violence, and strangely disturbed society. We know of no alleged cases in Sudbury ; but a person prominently con- nected with Salem witchcraft subsequently went to Sudbury, and dwelt there until his death. This was the Rev. Samuel Paris, the first minister of what was then Salem Village, but now the town of Danvers. In view of this fact, a few words concerning the matter and Mr. Paris' sad history may not be amiss.
The Salem witchcraft delusion began in Mr. Paris' family. During the winter of 1691-2 a company of young girls were accustomed to meet at his house and practice fortune-telling, necromancy, and magic. It is stated they attained some skill in this matter, and that after a while they ascribed to it supernatural agency. The community became alarmed, and the physician called them bewitched. Two of these girls were of Mr. Paris' household, - one a daughter, the other a niece, neither of them over eleven years of age. The com- plaints made were similar to those made years before by the children of John Goodenow of Boston. An Indian woman named Tituba, who had been brought from New Spain, lived in Mr. Paris' family. Tituba was accused of being the witch, and of bewitching these children. She confessed, and claimed to have confederates. Had the children of Mr.
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
Paris been unnoticed, or the matter brushed lightly by, per- haps it had stopped right there; but they were pitied, and shown special attention, and new cases soon occurred. The work of accusation and suspicion went forward, and rapidly spread, until it reached fearful proportions. Scores were apprehended, tried, and condemned, until men knew not when they were safe.
The delusion was soon dispelled, and society resumed a more tranquil state ; but as the darkness broke it left bitter regrets ; for the light shone on a record as sad as any in the annals of the Massachusetts Colony. From Mr. Paris' posi- tion, as pastor of the Salem Village Church, he may have come in contact with cases in a perfunctory way which gave him unpleasant publicity. In 1695 a council met at Salem Village to confer about the witchcraft matter as related to Mr. Paris and his people. Shortly after this he left the church and the place. He became a trader, went to Water- town, then Concord; but his stay in each place was short. He then went to Dunstable, where for a few months he preached. He at length went to Sudbury, and died there about 1720. Thus originated the Salem witchcraft, and thus passed away the man who received notoriety by it.
Moral .- Deal not with familiar spirits. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Leave necromancy, magic, and all the black arts, and seek more substantial and sensible things.
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
Mr. Paris was the son of Thomas Paris of London. He went to Harvard College, but did not remain to graduate. Before preaching at Salem Village he preached at Stowe. He was twice married, his first wife dying in 1696, at about the age of forty-eight, his second wife in 1719. His first wife was buried at Danvers; her grave is marked by a head- stone upon which is the following verse, after which are the initials of Mr. Paris : -
Sleep Precious Dust, no stranger now to Rest,
Thou hast thy longed wish, within Abraham's Brest, Farewell Best Wife, Choice Mother, Neighbor, Friend, We'll wail thee less, for hopes of thee in the end.
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
Mrs. Paris, it is said, was a good woman. Mr. Paris left several children. His daughter Dorothy, born 1700, became the wife of Hopestill Brown of Sudbury. Another daughter married Peter Bent. His son Noyes Paris, born 1699, took his first degree at Harvard College, 1721. His other son, Samuel, was born 1702.
After Mr. Paris came to Sudbury, we conclude that for a time he taught school there. The records state, that in 1717, Mr. Samuel Paris was to teach school four months of the year at the school-house on the west side of the river, and the rest of the year at his own house. If he was absent part of the time, he was to make it up the next year. In Book III., Sudbury Records, we have the following state- ment, with date May 25, 1722: "These may certify that ye 28 pounds that ye town of Sudbury agreed to give Mr. Samuel Paris late of Sudbury, for his last yeares keeping school in sd town, is by Mr. John Clapp treasurer for said town by his self and by his order all paid as witness my hand John Rice excuter of ye last will and Testament of ye sd Mr. Paris."
There are graves of the Paris family in the old burying- ground at Wayland. Towards the southeast side of it stands a stone with the following inscription : "Here lyes ye Body of Samuel Paris, Who Died July 27th 1742 in ye 8th year of his age." On another stone is marked: "Here lyes ye Body of Mrs. Abigail Paris who departed this life February ye 15th 1759 in ye 55th year of her age."
INCORPORATION OF FRAMINGHAM.
At the close of the century, Sudbury lost a portion of the inhabitants who dwelt upon its southern border and were identified with the town. This loss was occasioned by the incorporation of Framingham in 1700. A petition was pre- sented to the Court in 1792-3 (State Archives, Vol. CXIII.) by these people and others, who state, that they are "persons dwelling upon sundry farms lying between Sudbury, Con- cord, Marlboro, Natick, and Sherborn, and westerly in the Wilderness." They say they " have dwelt there about forty years, and are about forty families, some having built, and
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
some building." They also say they " have endeavored to attend public worship some at one town, some at another; " and they ask to be made a township, and have the privileges usually accorded in such cases. The Court granted the request of the petitioners, and ordered that the farms adja- cent to Framingham should be annexed to the proposed new town; and the people of Framingham having asked the Court " that the line between sd annexed farms and Sudbury be accepted," the request was granted. Some of the names attached to the petition are still familiar in Sudbury, viz. : Bent, Stone, Rice, Gleason, Walker, and How.
STATISTICS.
The population of the town toward the beginning of this period is indicated by the fact that in 1679 six tything-men were appointed, who were " to inspect from ten to thirteen families each." The following is a report made at a select- men's meeting, in 1682, of improved land in and bordering upon the town: "Lands of persons dwelling in the town, 3896 acres. List of lands in town of persons dwelling else- where up and down the country, 2522 acres. List of men's lands bordering about or near the town, amounted to 5130 acres, in which Mr. Danforth's lands and Mr. Gookin's lands were not cast, because the contents were not certain."
These were sent, together with the list of troopers in and about town, by Deacon Haines, commissioner, to Cambridge. The list of troopers that the town clerk made a rate upon, as mentioned with date 1683, is eighteen; and with date 1682 we have the county's money rate mentioned as fol- lows: " The part to be collected on the east side the river, 5lbs : 45 : 5d ; on the west side the river, 4lbs : 8s : 0d.""
Some little attention was given to matters of education in this period, as indicated by a selectmen's report dated March 30, 1680. On Oct. 2, 1692, John Long was chosen as "a wrighteing school master, to teach children to wright and cast accounts." Mr. Long continued to serve the town as schoolmaster for several years.
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