USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Woburn > The history of Woburn, Middlesex County, Mass. from the grant of its territory to Charlestown, in 1640, to the year 1680 > Part 10
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51 History of Charlestown, by Richard Frothingham, Esq., pp. 139, 140. " Rateliff IIamlet, Camden says 'twas in his time a little town inhabited with sailors ; and that here was a red Cliff, from whence it had the Name. Since the Houses taken from it, and added to St. Anne's, Limehouse, it contains about 1380. Stepney Church and Village are properly situate in this Hamlet." - Complete System of Geography. London : 1747; Vol. I., p. 116; England, County of Middlesex.
51 Frothingham's History, p. 26.
52 Records of 1st Church, Charlestown.
63 Colony Records, Vol. I., pp. 366, 376.
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agreed upon town orders for the contemplated settlement: and it was he who accompained Edward Johnson in his journey to Dorchester, in the final attempt made to procure Mr. Burr for their minister. But at Mr. Burr's declining eventually to come to Woburn, Mr. Graves seems to have become utterly discouraged from making any further effort to build up Woburn. He resumed his old occupation of following the seas, and as Johnson expresses it .in his verses prefixed to the Town Records of Woburn, with apparent allusion to him :
" He did hie - To foren lands, Free from the Baby's crye,"
which he had undertaken with his associates to nurse and bring up.
In 1643, he was master of the " Trial," the first ship built in Boston, and which had been under the command of Capt. Coytmore. And while sailing, during the Protectorship of Cromwell, as master of a merchantman upon a mercantile voyage, he met and captured a Dutch privateer in the English channel. For this instance of his bravery, the owners of the vessel rewarded him with a present of a silver cup; and Crom- well raised him to the command of a ship of war, with the title of Rear Admiral. 51 He died at Charlestown, July 31, 1653, in the 49th year of his age, sustaining the character of " an able and godly man." 51
Woburn Town Book, in recording the laying out of Richard- son's Row in 1647, describes it as leading "from the three Richardsons to the town meeting house one way, and to Mr. Thomas Graves the other way." 51 By the house of Mr. Graves here referred to, could hardly be intended a dwelling within the limits of Woburn, which he made his ordinary residence. As his name does not occur in the Woburn tax list of 1646, or in any list of town officers, or in any of the numerous allotments of meadow and other land to the inhabitants of Woburn previous to 1653, the year of his death, it is probable that he never occupied any dwelling-house within its limits; but that before
M Town Records, Vol. I., p. 12.
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its settlement was fully accomplished, he had taken up his resi- dence in some house on the road from Woburn, within the bounds of Charlestown. The people of Woburn, however, appear to have always held in grateful remembrance his early efforts for the settlement of the town in its infancy; and in all the exten- sive divisions of their common lands made subsequently to his death, his widow had assigned her a liberal proportion.
2, 3, 4. The three Richardsons, - Ezekiel, Thomas, and Samuel, - were brothers, born in England, and for some time after their arrival were in this country, resident in Charlestown, where they had children born to them. Ezekiel, who was prob- ably the eldest, was carly admitted into First Church, Boston, which was gathered at Charlestown in 1630. From this church, he was dismissed October 14, 1632, with his wife Susanna and thirty-three others, and was embodied with them, November 2, 1632, into a distinct church at Charlestown, now the First Church in that place.52 His brothers, Thomas and Samuel, were both ad- mitted as members of Charlestown Church, February 18, 1637-8,52 and they were all three dismissed from it, June 1642, to help form the church at Woburn. Upon their removal to Woburn, they lived near each other in the same street, which, from its having been the place of their residence, and of many of their posterity, has been known, from time immemorial, as Richardson's Row. They were members of Woburn church at its foundation; men highly respected in their day, and much employed in the business of the town. Their descendants bearing the name of Richardson, long have been, and still are more numerous, than persons of any other name in Woburn; and among them have been found some of the most valued members of the church and citi- zens of the place. Ezekiel died October 21, 1647; Thomas, August 28, 1651; and Samuel, March 23, 1657-8.
5. John Mousall was a brother of Ralph Mousall, one of the founders of the present First Church, Charlestown, in 1632. He was himself admitted into that church with his wife [Jo- anna ?] Aug. 23, 1634; was one of the seven male members who constituted the church of Woburn at its gathering, Aug. 14, 1642; and afterwards one of its two original deacons till his
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decease. He was also much honored in the town, being uniformly one of the "Commissioners to end small causes," in Woburn, and one of the Selectmen for twenty-one years in succession. He died March 27, 1665, leaving his widow, Joanna, a son, John Mousall, who was likewise a distinguished citizen in his day, and a daughter, Eunice, wife of John Brooks; but the name of Mousall, as a surname, is now extinct from the place.
6. Edward Convers was born in England, arrived in New England in the fleet with Winthrop, 1630, and settled in Charles- town. In 1631, grant was made to him of the first ferry be- tween Boston and Charlestown, and of this he had the management several years, under the authority of the General Court. He was made a freeman of the Colony, 1631; served Charlestown as Selectman from 1635 to 1640; and was carly admitted a mem- ber of First Church, Boston (gathered at Charlestown, 1630). From Boston Church he, his wife Sarah, and thirty-three other members were dismissed Oct. 14, 1632, to be embodied into the present First Church, Charlestown, entering into mutual cove- nant for this purpose Nov. 2, 1632.55 His name stands at the head of the seven commissioners appointed by that church for effecting the settlement of Woburn : he appears to have been ever zealous and persevering in his labors for this end, and after the incorporation of the town, in 1642, he became one of its most popular and useful citizens. He was a member of Woburn Church from the beginning, and a deacon in it, one of the first two, till his death. In the civil affairs likewise of the town, he was much employed, serving uniformly as one of the Board of Commissioners for the trial of small causes, and being chosen annually as one of the Selectmen without interruption from the first choice in 1644 till his decease. He died Aug. 10, 1663, aged seventy-three years. His place of residence in Woburn was at the mill once called by his name in the South Village, now Winchester, and there, and in the vicinity, several of his numerous posterity continued to dwell for many years. Among his descendants, there ever have been and still are individuals
" Church Records of Charlestown.
.
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highly honored and respected; and one of their number, Major James Convers, a gentleman of much distinction in the Common- wealth as well as in the town, there will be occasion particularly to notice hereafter.
By his first wife, Sarah, who accompanied him from England, Deacon Convers had three sons, viz : Josiah, James and Samuel (see genealogy), and a daughter, Mary, who first married Simon Thompson, 19th Dec. 1643, and he dying in May 1658, she mar- ried John Sheldon, of Billerica, Feb. 1, 1659. - Woburn und Billerica Records of Marriages, Deaths, etc.
Deacon Edward Convers' wife dying, 14th Jan. 1662, after he had made his will (in which he mentions her, and which is dated in Aug. 1659, and recorded Oct. 7, 1663), he married a second wife, Mrs. Joanna Sprague, of Charlestown, relict of Ralph Sprague, Sept. 9, 1662. - Sce Woburn Records, and Will of Edward Convers.
.
7. Last of all, but not least of this worthy band, died Edward Johnson. He originated from Kent in Old England ; in a parish within which county, called in his Will, Heron Hill, that is " Herne Hill," or "Herne," 56 and at a place in that parish, called " Waterham," he left behind, at coming to New England, both houses and lands, which he retained in possession during life, and divided by his will to six of his grandchildren, when he should be removed by death. According to statements of Hon. James Savage, in his Genealogical Dictionary, he doubtless came to this country in the fleet with Winthrop, 1630; requested ad- mission as a freeman of the Colony, 19 October of that year, and took the Freeman's Oath, 18 May following; and thus after living some time at Charlestown, Salem, or other plantation to satisfy himself, he went back to England, to bring away his wife and children, in 1636, or 7. Upon his return voyage, his name is registered as follows, in a list of those who embarked from
56 " Herne, a town of Kent, 6 miles from Canterbury" etc., etc .- Brookes's Gazetteer.
"Sir John Fineux ..... died about the year 1526, and lies buried In Christ's Church in Canterbury; who had a fair habitation in this City, and another in Herne in this County" etc., etc .- Fuller's Worthies, Kent, p. 76.
7
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the port of Sandwich for the American plantations, in June 1637.
"Edward Johnson, of Canterbury, joiner, and Susan his wife, 7 children, 3 servants." 57
He arrived in New England in the course of that summer, or early in the autumn of 1637, and took up his abode at Charles- town, where grants of land were repeatedly made to him for his accommodation in 1637, and in April 1638.58 In the settlement of Woburn, for which he was one of the commissioners appoint- ed by the church of Charlestown, he seems to have taken the leading part. At the first meeting of those commissioners, held at Charlestown, December 18, 1640, he presented a plot of the contemplated town, and was chosen its Recorder, or Clerk; an office he continued to sustain till death. He took a lively in- terest in the establishment of its church, of which he was a dis- tinguished member from the beginning; and in the settlement of its first minister. His influence in the management of town affairs was great. He was put on almost all important com- mittees for the distribution of the town's lands; and was uni- formly appointed one of its Board of Commissioners for trials of small causes ; and, with but few interruptions, one of its Select- men till his decease. He was also captain of its military company, no small honor in that age of martial spirit and prowess. And accordingly, in mustering the forces of the Colony in that day, in his History of New England, having mentioned the bands of Concord and Cambridge, as being under two Kentish soldiers, ( Captains Willard and Gookin, ) he modestly notices "the band of Wooburn," as being commanded by "another Kentish Captain," meaning himself.
Captain Johnson was likewise deputy from Woburn to the General Court almost every year from the first choice of one, in 1646, till his death. And by that Honorable Body he was much distinguished, being chosen Speaker pro tem. for a short session in 1655; and appointed repeatedly on important committees. In
57 Cleanings for New England History, by James Savage, Esq., In Collections of Mas- sachusetts Historical Society, Vol. VIII., Serles III., p. 270.
04 Charlestown Town Records.
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1643, before he became a member, he was sent by the Court with Capt. George Cooke and Lieut. Humphrey Atherton to Rhode Island, to apprehend the seditious Samuel Gorton. They had military commissions given them; and were attended by forty men. 59 At the restoration of King Charles II., to the throne of England, when the Charter of the Colony and all its privileges and liberties were apprehended to be in danger, he was one of an important committee, appointed by the General Court, in May 1661, consisting of eight laymen and four clergy- men, to consider what was expedient to be done for their preservation, and to make report at the next session. 60 In June 1661-2, he was on a committee of the Court, with Deputy Governor Bellingham, Daniel Gookin, Esq., Thomas Danforth, Esq., and others, for the directing and despatching of Simon Bradstreet, Esq., and Rev. Mr. John Norton to England, as agents to plead the cause of the Colony there. 60 And in 1664, he was one of a committee of four (Hon. Richard Bellingham, Major General Leverett and Capt. Thomas Clark being the other three) to whom the Colony Charter was delivered by the Gen- eral Court for safe keeping. 60
He was the undoubted author of the carly history of New England, styled, "The Wonder Working Providence of Sion's Saviour, in New England," which has already been often quoted or referred to in this work. That history was published in England in 1654, without the writer's name in the title page; and although it abounds in errors of the press, and has been noted for the indefiniteness or inaccuracy of many of its dates and statements, it still contains a large amount of authentic and valuable information, the want of which could hardly be supplied elsewhere. In it, the author frequently discovers a mind exceed- ingly embittered against the English prelates, in consequence, not improbably, of having suffered much from their arbitrary pro- ceedings either in his own person, or in his friends. But at the same time, his work furnishes numerous and strong indications on his part, of a sincere, warm zeal for God and religion, an
50 Colony Records, Vol. II., p. 44. 60 Colony Records, Vol. IV., Part II., pp. 24, 39, 102.
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carnest desire for the prevalence of piety and virtuc, and a hearty love of his country and good men.
Capt. Johnson died April 23, 1672.61 In his last will and testament, dated May 15, 1671, and written with his own hand, he expresses, in view of his approaching dissolution, a lively hope " through faith in Christ Jesus," "to have the sight of (his) Saviour to all eternity." From this instrument (still extant in the Probate Office of this County) it appears that he left a widow, Susanna, and seven children; viz : five sons, Edward, George, William, Matthew and John; and two daughters, Susan, ( ?) wife of James Prentice, and Martha, wife of John Ames ( ?) or Eames; and grandchildren by them all. Of his children, only three, William, Matthew and John, appear to have been then resident in Woburn. William and Matthew were his executors. Matthew was a carpenter by trade, and a much esteemed citizen, chosen repeatedly one of the Selectmen, and deputy from Woburn to the General Court. John was pro- prietor of a saw-mill; but having in his old age become poor, lame and helpless, he and his wife Bethiah were taken, in 1712, to Canterbury, Ct., by their sons, William and Obadiah, of that town, to maintain for life at Woburn's expense. William, son of Capt. Edward, was a man of superior talents and extensive usefulness in his day ; and sustained for several years a very honorable station in the Commonwealth. And from him sprang a numerous posterity, who were long distinguished by their general respectability of character, and by the great influence they had in the affairs both of Woburn, and of its precinct, now Burlington ; and some do yet survive, who maintain the ancient credit of their family. But more may be expected of William Johnson and his descendants hereafter.
01 Woburn Records of Births, Deaths, etc., etc.
CHAPTER III.
Second Meeting-House - Erection of, 1672 - Description of - Settlement in, of Rev. Jabez Fox, 1679 - a Sabbath day's services in, 1680.
THE year 1672 is memorable in Woburn, as being the year in which Capt. Edward Johnson, the father of the town, died ; and also as that in which the second house for public worship was erected. The precise time when the first meeting-house was built, has not been transmitted. It was certainly completed before September 14th, 1646, when the Selectmen agreed to call a meeting of the town to reckon about its expense.1 And the probability is, that it was begun not long after the house lots and place for the meeting-house, originally laid out on the East end of the plantation, were transferred, February 1640-1, by advice of Hon. Increase Nowell and other gentlemen of Charles- town, to the present centre of the town; and that it was finished about the time of Rev. Mr. Carter's ordination in 1642. The memory of the place where it stood, has been better preserved. This, as one of the most intelligent citizens of Woburn, Mr. Batholomew, Senr., now deceased, once told me, was distinctly marked out by a slight banking, which was raised originally about the foundations of the house, and which was plainly visible till about 1788, when the ground was levelled for the accommo- dation of a military muster. According to his report, morcover, this bank was erected on the common in the centre of the town, about opposite the middle of the space between the town-house and the late Mr. John Fowle's store; and at such a distance northwardly from that interval, as would be sufficient for a road to pass between. And this description of the situation of the first meeting-house in this town agrees well with that which John- son gives of it, in his " Wonder-working Providence," etc. In
1 Town Records, Vol. I., p. 9.
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that History of New England, published in 1654, he observes that the meeting-house in Woburn stood in " a small plain where four streets meete."2 These four streets could have been no other than " Hilly Way," or the road over the hill east of the common, where Deacon Mousall and other carly settlers erected their habitations ; " South Street," leading to Convers's mill and Mistick bridge, now the main road from Woburn to Medford ; " Up Street," or " High Street," on which Rev. Mr. Carter's house then stood, now Mr. Silvanus Woods'; and " Military Lane," an ancient way, of which not a vestige now remains, but which is described in the Records,3 as late as 1732, as coming down from the then meeting-house on Hilly Way, and as crossing the training field, (now the common in the centre) into Up Street or the most ancient road to the Shawshin. Now these several streets or ways, did meet together, as Johnson says, upon or near the " Small Plain," or common, now in the centre of the town : Hilly Way with South Street and Military Lane at or near the southeastern corner of the Plain; and Military Lane with Up Street, or High Street, upon or near its southwestern corner. And they all thus came together within a few rods dis- tance from the banking described by Mr. Richardson, and so indisputably designate the site of the first meeting-house in Woburn.
But the earliest meeting-houses in New England, erected com- monly by the people, in their zeal for the worship and ordinances of God, before they had scarcely provided a comfortable shelter for themselves and families, were of necessity but frail, temporary edifices ; buildings more noted for the beauty of holiness within, than for external adorning, or skill in their construction. Con- cerning the first house for public worship in Boston, built in 1632, we are told by the Reverend historian of the First Church in that city, that "its roof was thatched, and its walls were of mud." 4 And it cannot be reasonably supposed, that this of Woburn, erected but about ten years after, was any better than that, or even hardly so good. The highly respectable gentle-
" Wonder Working Providence, Book II., Chapter XXII., pp. 175, 181.
' Town Records, Vol. I., p. 60, Invertod.
. Emerson's History.
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man, referred to by name in the beginning of this chapter, once informed me, that, judging of its dimensions by those of the banking at its foundations, it was a much smaller building than the second meeting-house; and that its posts, instead of being firmly mortised into substantial sills, according to the present mode, were made fast by their ends being driven into the ground. To such an humble house of prayer, and mean to look to, did your fathers love to resort weekly for the worship of their Maker : and they were notified of the hour by a bell hung on a hill in the neighborhood, ( probably that back of the old Fowle tavern stand,) which was called from this circumstance many years after, Bell Hill.5
When this first meeting-house in Woburn had stood about thirty years, its visible decay, or its contracted dimensions making it too straight for the people to assemble in with convenience, rendered evident the necessity of another. At a general meeting of the inhabitants, Nov. 1, 1671, a committee was appointed to confer with several carpenters on the subject, and to report at another meeting, to be held on the 20th day of the same month. On that day, the town voted to build a new meeting-house, forty feet square, and of proportionate height, by contract. In pur- suance of this votc, they chose Licut. John Carter, William Johnson, John Wyman, and Thomas Peirce, for a Building Com- mittee, and appointed the Selectmen and five other respectable citizens as a committee to contract with the Building Committee on behalf of the town, for raising and completing the house, to see them paid, and to engage to them £320 of town property, as security.6 The meeting-house thus contracted for, the under- takers soon commenced building ; and it was so far finished dur- ing the autumn of 1672, as to be then ready for occupation as a place for public worship. Accordingly, it was doubtless used for this purpose immediately, without previous ceremony ; the present laudable custom of solemnly dedicating meeting-houses, before assembling in them for the ordinary services of the Sab- bath, not having then been introduced into New England, nor
" Town Records, Vol. I., p. 80.
6 Town Records, Vol. I., p. 36.
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for many years after.7 To defray the expense of building this house of God, a tax was levied upon all the polls and estates in Woburn in 1672.8 And at a final settlement with the under- takers, the town allowed them £334, which was a little more than was originally pledged them, in full satisfaction of all their cost and charge.9 Reckoning the value of New England silver currency at that period (for paper money was then unknown) to have been what it seems from good anthority it actually was, twenty-five per cent less than sterling money, just what it is now, the sum paid for the meeting-house was nominally equal to $1,113.33. But as the usual price of Indian corn and other necessaries of life was then but just about half of what it is now, the real cost of the meeting-house to the town must have been equivalent to $2,226.67 at the present day.
Above a century has elapsed since this meeting-house, erected in 1672, was taken down, with the design of building a town- house of smaller size out of its remains. Hence, there is no one now living in Woburn who remembers it when used for a place of public worship, or can give any information respecting either
7 The first settlers of New England, and their posterity for several gen- erations after them, as they did not observe Christmas, so they did not consecrate burying-grounds, or dedicate their meeting-houses, by any special religious services. When a house for public worship was built and made ready for its intended use, they noticed the occurrence, generally speaking, only by an appropriate discourse on the first Sabbath they occu- pied it. For instance, when the present Old South Church, Boston, was first opened, on Sabbath day, April 26, 1730, for public worship. Rev. Mr. Sewall, the senior pastor, preached, A. M., from Haggai ii. 9, " The glory of this latter house," etc. ; and Rev. Mr. Prince, his colleague, P. M., from Psalm v. 7, " I will come into thy house," etc. The first meeting-house in Brattle Street was first opened for public worship on Lord's day, Dec. 24, 1699, on which occasion, Rev. Dr. Colman, Its first minister, preached from 2d Chron. vi. 18, " But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth ?" etc. And so late as 1773, when the present house of that society was first opened on Sabbath day, July 25th, Dr. Cooper preached in the morning from Gen. xxviii. 17, " This is none other than the house of God," etc. ; and Rev. Dr. Chauncy (with whose people the Brattle Street Society had met while their own house was building) preached in the afternoon from Psalm xxvl. 8, " Lord, I have loved the habitations of thy house," etc. - See Palfrey's Historical Discourse, Appendix, Notes, pp. 39, 63.
· Town Rocords, Vol. I., p. 38.
· Town Records, Vol. I., p. 41.
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its external appearance or its internal structure, from his own recollection. On both these topics, however, numerous particu- lars may be gleaned from the Town Records; some have been handed down by credible tradition, and a few may be very plausibly conjectured, in view of other ancient meeting-houses which were erected about the same time with this, and which were left standing till within a recent date, the striking memo- rials of the customs and fashions of olden times. Availing myself of all these several sources of information, especially of the two named first, I have attempted to draw up a description of this forgotten house of worship, as like the original as possi- ble, and which may not be uninteresting to the present inhab- itants of Woburn to read.
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