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 4
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In this Work, with reference to the ecclesiastical affairs of the town, I have aimed to exhibit a complete and impartial history of the First Church and Parish, and a brief account of the other religious societies in the town, down to the present year, 1867. As to matters of civil concern, the principal votes and proceedings of the town, touching the various changes and improvements which have been made in it, since the commencement of the present century till now, will be found embodied, I trust, in the closing chapter. But in regard to the patriotic measures taken and sacrifices made
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PREFACE.
by the town since the year 1860, respecting the late war, and the events particularly interesting to Woburn people which transpired in the course of it, I am not provided with the means of giving a full and satisfactory relation of them. An attempt to make such a relation on my part would render necessary numerous fatiguing and perplexing inquiries ; and thus still further protract the finish- ing of this work (too far protracted already), which I am anxious, for several very important reasons, to bring to a speedy close ; and I must therefore leave the narration of this portion of the history of Woburn to other and abler hands.
My principal authority for most of the facts presented in this history have been the Woburn Records. (a.) But for various statements made herein, I have been largely indebted to the printed works and written communications of several highly esteemed authors and respected friends, whose names I have gen- erally given, as occasion offered to refer to them, in the foot notes attached to this work. But in this connection, I cannot omit mentioning the Genealogical Dictionary of Hon. James Savage, a standard authority upon the genealogy of the early settlers of New England, and without the aid of which, I must often have been deficient in my Genealogical Notices of the primitive inhabitants of Woburn.
I embrace this opportunity for tendering my grateful acknowledg- ments to the numerous individuals, who, in one way or other, have kindly lent me their aid and encouragement in the prosecution of
.
(a.) The Woburn Records, which are quoted or referred to in this His- tory, arc
1. Nineteen volumes in folio, bound and in excellent order; exhibiting the votes and proceedings of the town at all general meetings from the beginning. Volume 11, of this collection, records the doings of the Select - men at their meetings held monthly for several years from 1672, agreeably to vote of the town April 13, 1644.
2. Proprietors' book of Records from 1739 to 1765, a thin folio, unbound, much shattered, and in some parts defective.
3. A volume of Treasurer's Records, from 1739 to 1772 ; a folio, bound in parchment, but a cover now broken off.
4. First Parish Records, in folio, 3 volumes, complete from 1730, when Second Parish incorporated.
5. Records of Births, Marriages and Deaths in Woburn, from 1641 to 1841; originally contained in two volumes folio, but now copied with numerous additions from authentic sources, and collected into one large bound folio volume.
1*
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PREFACE.
this work, which is now brought to a close. In particular, I would thankfully express my obligations to the gentlemen at the State House in Boston, who at divers times have given me free access to public Records and Documents for examination, and thus have opened to me sources of information, which I could nowhere else find, but in the archives of the Commonwealth. I thank the inhabi- tants of the town of Woburn for the recent generous encouragement they have voluntarily given me to pursue and finish my labors, beyond what they at first led me to depend on ; and to the many respected individuals among them, especially to Cyrus Thompson, Esq., and to Mr. John A. Boutelle, who have furnished me from time to time with much desired and important information. I would make my thankful acknowledgments to the clergymen and others of the different denominations in the town, who, by their timely and acceptable communications, made at my request, have greatly furthered my progress in my laborious under- taking. I would present my warmest thanks to Nathan Wyman, Esq., the Town Clerk, and to Lewis L. Whitney, Esq., Clerk of the First Congregational Parish, for the free use they have generously afforded me of the Records in their keeping, without which, I could have made no advances in the work I have been engaged in.
Nor must I here forget or overlook my obligations to Mr. Bar- tholomew Richardson, senr., and to Dr. Benjamin Cutter, both now deceased. True, they are no longer here to accept my thanks for their services in aid of the work now completed, or to see and examine it, as they once would have been glad to. But to both of them I owe a debt of gratitude, which it would be base on this occasion to ignore or conceal. From the former gentleman, while he was with us, I derived an amount of reliable and interesting information, which but few, if any other men now living could have given me. And without the counsel, help and encouragement of the latter gentleman, this history would never have been under- taken, much less pursued to completion. And now it is finished, should it in any measure contribute to the entertainment or satisfac- tion of the good people of Woburn, or yield them any interesting or valuable information, let them be assured that they are indebted for it, in part at least, to him, as well as to
Their friend and humble servant,
SAMUEL SEWALL.
BURLINGTON, September, 18, 1867.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
CHAPTER I.
Woburn, originally Charlestown Village, elevated to a Township. - Church gathered; Pastor ordained; Town incorporated, 1642 .- Town officers first chosen, 1644. - Streets laid out; common fields authorized. - Johnson's Account of Woburn, 1652. - Successive Divisions of Town's Lands.
WOBURN was originally a grant of land made, 1640, by the General Court of Massachusetts to Charlestown; and, for about two years afterwards, was called " Charlestown Village." The settlement of Charlestown, which is the most ancient town not only in the County of Middlesex, but likewise (Salem and Dorchester excepted) in the Colony of Massachusetts, as dis- tinet from that of Plymouth, had commenced in 1629. In June of that year, Mr. Thomas Graves, a gentleman from Gravesend in Kent, eminent for his skill in surveying and engineering, and in the employ of the Massachusetts Company in London, came there from Salem, with several servants of the Company under his care; laid out the town in two-acre lots ; erected a large building for public purposes, called the " Great House ; " and with the consent of Gov. Endicott, exchanged the Indian name of the place, Mishawum, for Charlestown, in honor of King Charles I., the then reigning monarch of Great Britain. 1 In the year following, July 1630, a large and select company of Puritans, who had arrived the month pre- ceding at Salem from England, came to Charlestown, with a
1 Prince's N. E. Chronology, pp. 181, 188.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
view to build and establish themselves there. Among them were Gov. Winthrop, Dep. Gov. Dudley, Mr. Isaac Johnson, husband of the celebrated lady Arbella, and Rev. Mr. John Wilson. These four persons presently formed themselves into a church, and some accessions being made to their number shortly after, they chose Rev. Mr. Wilson, as their pastor.2 But a ma- jority of the church and others removing within a few months to Boston to reside, another church, viz : the present First Church of Charlestown, was embodied November 2, 1632,3 consisting of those members who continued to dwell on the north side of Charles River; and of this church, Rev. Mr. Zechariah Symmes was the pastor, and Rev. Mr. Thomas Allen the teacher, in 1640. And now the foundations both of her civil and of her ecclesi- astical prosperity being, to human eye, firmly laid, Charlestown began to look around her; and with a view to the accommoda- tion of her increasing agricultural population, she conceived a desire for the enlargement of her original bounds. And being informed of the conveniency of land adjoining her Western border, she presented a petition to the General Court, in May 1640, for the addition of two miles square to her territory in that quarter.4 This petition of Charlestown was favorably heard by the Court. The land prayed for was immediately granted her, provided it fell not within the bounds of Lynn Village [ Read- ing ], and should be built upon within two years.5 And at a session of the Court in October next following, the grant was enlarged, upon certain conditions, to four miles square.6 All
2 Prince, pp. 240, 243. 3 Records of Ist Church, Charlestown : Title page. 5 Colony Records, Vol. I., p. 290.
"Woburn Records, Vol. 1., p. 3.
6 Colony Records, Vol. I., p. 306.
(5.) "13 May, 1640. Charlestowne is granted their petition; that is, two miles at their head line, provided it fall not within the bounds of Linn village, and that they build within two yeares." - Colony Records, Vol. I., p. 290.
(6.) "7 October, 1640. Charles Towne petition is granted them, the proportion of 4 mile square, with their former last graunt, to make a village ; whereof 500 acres is granted to Mr. Thomas Coytemore, to bee set out by the Court, if the towne and hee cannot agree," etc. - Colony Records, Vol. I., p. 306.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
acts of Court were anciently dated from the first day of the session at which they were passed. As the first session of the Court of 1640 commenced on the " 13th day of the 3d month" ( 13th May ), and as the land then granted to Charlestown was explored May 15th, only two days after, 4 the precise date of that grant may be confidently fixed to the second day of that session ; viz, the 14th of the 3d month, Old Style; or according to New Style, the modern way of computing time, May 24th, 1640. ( See Appendix, No. III.)
The territory thus granted to Charlestown seems, before the arrival of the English upon these shores, to have been the abode, or, at least, a favorite place of resort, of numerous Indians. These were perhaps Pawtucket Indians, so named from Paw- tucket Falls in Lowell, which was their principal seat ; or (which is more probable) those Indians, whom Prince calls Aberginians, and concerning whom he says, that Charlestown Neck was full of them in 1628.7 Many years have clapsed since Indians of every tribe have entirely disappeared from this town and vicinity, except a few solitary individuals, the memory of whose names and dwelling places are still preserved by some, or have been till recently. But they have left behind them durable memorials of their former residence here, and of their laborious ingenuity. In all the territory within the original limits of Woburn, (comprehending Woburn that now is, with Winchester, Wilmington and Burlington ) multitudes of their stone arrow- heads have been, and some still continue to be, turned up by the plough ; stone heads of their spears and hatchets have not un-
4 Woburn Records, Vol. I., p. 3.
(7.) "Sept. 13, 1628. Among those who arrive at Naumkeak, are Ralph Sprague, with his Brethren Richard and William; who with 3 or 4 more, by Governor Eudicot's consent, undertake a Journey, and travel the Woods above 12 miles Westward, light ou a Neck of Land call'd Mishawum, between Mistick and Charles Rivers, full of Indians, named Aberginians. Their old Sachem being dead, his eldest son, call'd by the English John Sagamore, is Chief; a man of a gentle and good Disposition ; by whose free Consent, they settle here; where they find but one Eng- lish House, thatch'd and pallizado'd, possess'd by Thomas Walford a Smith."-Prince's N. E. Chronology, pp. 174, 175.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
frequently been found ; and in Burlington, immemorial tradition still points to a spot within the new cemetery there, on the road to Bedford, as the site of one of their wigwams in former days.
The granting to Charlestown of the land she had petitioned for, was quickly followed by repeated attempts to explore it, and to determine its bounds. On May 15, 1640, Mr. Increase Nowell, magistrate, Rev. Zechariah Symmes, Edward Johnson, Edward Convers, Ezekiel Richardson, Mr. " Hubard," an artist, and some others, went from Charlestown to search the land lying within the two miles square.8 And September 6th, follow- ing, Capt. Robert Sedgwick, Ensign Abraham Palmer, Thomas Lynde, Edward Johnson, Edward Convers, John Mousall, and others, went to view the bounds between this grant to Charles- town and Lynn Village, afterwards Reading. In this latter expedition, some of the company experienced a wonderful pres- ervation, which is particularly noticed in Woburn Records by Johnson, who was one of them, as follows : "Lik Jacobits [Like Jacobites ; See Gen. 28 : 11] laying them downe to rest where night drue one [drew on] [they ] were presarned by the good hand of God with cherfull sperits, thought [though] the heavens powred downe raine all night unsessantly. One remarkable prouidence neuer to bee forgotten : sum of the company lying under the body of a great tree (it lying sum distant from the earth) when the daye light appeered, noe sooner was the last man come from under it, but it fell downe to their amasment [amazement ], being forced to dige [dig] ont their food that was caught under it: it being soe ponderus that all the streneth they had, cold [could] not remouc it." 8
The use originally designed by Charlestown to be made of this newly acquired territory, was, apparently, to accommodate with farms thereon such useful men as might from time to time be admitted to settle among them, and to promote the building of a village for the improvement of such remote lands as were already laid out.9 In pursuance of this design, after the land petitioned for was granted and enlarged, a committee of thirteen
8 Woburn Records, Vol. 1., p. 3.
9 Charlestown Records.
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IIISTORY OF WOBURN.
was chosen by the town, November 4th, 1640, which was " to sett the bounds betwixt Charlestown and the Village, and to appoint the place for the village."9 This committee met November 17, 1640, and came to an agreement upon the matters submitted to them. But in this agreement, the committee, it seems, did not concur unanimously. In reference to it, Woburn records, under the date of the meeting, November 17, 1640, observe, that "it was in part assented to, but afterward denyed." A change too in the minds of the people on this interesting subject had now commenced, and was gaining ground. Since the grant of the Court had been enlarged from two to four miles square, a scheme for making a distinct town of it, instead of a village more or less dependent upon Charlestown, had been conceived . and was entertained by numbers with favor.
And hence on November 5th, the very day after the appoint- ment of the town committee of thirteen above referred to, the Church of Charlestown chose seven men, viz : Edward Convers, Edward Johnson, Ezekiel Richardson, John Mousall, Mr. Thomas Graves, Samuel Richardson and Thomas Richardson, as commis- sioners or agents for the erection of a church and town upon the recent grant of Court, where had been designed originally only a village within the limits of Charlestown.10 By what author- ity the church took this step, interfering with the action of the town, does not appear. Perhaps they regarded the disposal of
9 Charlestown Records.
(10.) Woburn Town Records commence as follows, from the date of the first grant of Court.
" 14 of the 3 month [14 May] 1640. A true Relation of the prosseedings of Edward Conuars, Edward Johnson, John Mousall, Mr. Thomas Graues, Samuwell Richison and Thomas Richison, chosen by the Church of Charles- towne for the Erecting of a Church and Towne; which accordingly by great labor was by them performed, and now cal'd the Towne of Woburnc." . . " the 5 of 9 month [5 November] 1640, the persons aboue spec- ified were chosen by the Church of Charlestowne : chosen for the carring one the affaiers of this new Towne." - Woburn Records, Vol. I. p. 3.
Ezekiel Richardson is not named above with the other commissioners, but the omission must have been accidental. He was certainly one of them. For we find the others holding a meeting for consultation at his house, in his turn, on "the 13th of 12th month 1640" [13 February, 1640-1].
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
the Court's grant as a matter of ecclesiastical as well as civil concernment, and therefore that they were entitled to a distinct voice in it. But however that be, the measure itself seems to have excited no opposition on the part of the town, but rather to have met its entire acquiescence. Six of the seven commissioners chosen by the church were on the committee of thirteen ap- pointed by the town; and it was by the instrumentality of these commissioners, not of that committee, that the establishment of the town and church of Woburn was at length happily effected.
But many and grievous were the difficulties which they had to encounter, before they saw the accomplishment of their enter- prise.
The wild, unsettled state of the country presented many serious obstacles to the discharge of their commission. At the time of their appointment, the whole territory which they were to elevate into a township, as well as all that was adjacent to it for several miles, was an unbroken dreary forest, or a wide uncultivated waste. Hence, beside being frequently exposed to danger or alarm from the wandering savage natives, the commissioners, as they traversed the country in performance of their trust, without beaten roads to travel in, or landmarks to guide them, or houses to shelter them, or friends to extend to them even the most trifling office of hospitality or kindness, must needs have been subjected to hardships, of the severity of which, the present inhabi- tants of the town can have but faint conceptions. Of their sufferings of this description, one instance on record may be cited as a specimen. As they were engaged, November 9th, shortly after their appointment, in exploring the land about the Shawshin river they were overtaken and lost in a snow storm, and in this sad dilemma they were forced, as night approached, for want of a better shelter, " to lye under the Rockes, whilst the Raine and Snow did bedew their Rockye beds." 11
Difficulties of this description however they must have antici- pated; and fortitude of mind and firmness of bodily constitution abundantly enabled them, in the good cause they were engaged
11 Woburn Records, Vol. I., p. 3.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
in, to surmount them. But other troubles awaited the commis- sioners, which probably they were not prepared to meet, and which proved far more trying. Scarcely had they entered on the labors of their commission, before the church of Charlestown suddenly appeared in opposition. Our Puritan fathers, from mo- tives of piety and benevolence as well as of worldly interest, loved to see the haunts of the savage occupied by civilized men ; to see towns planted and churches springing up in the wilderness around them. Accordingly, the church above named appears to have cordially aided in procuring the grant of the newly acquired territory, and took a leading part in the plan of settling it as a distinct town. But at a meeting of her own calling, 23 : 9 mo. [23 November] 1640, to see who would go up and become in- habitants of the proposed township, a larger number coming forward than had been expected, she instantly conceived a fear that the loss of so many emigrants would in a manner " depop- ulate Charlestown," or do her material injury in that day of small
things.11 And now under the influence of this apprehension, which time showed to be groundless, she began to discounte- nance this enterprise of her own devising or encouraging, and to watch all who were in favor of it or disposed to engage in it, with a jealous eye.11 But though opposition from such a quarter must have been unlooked for, and very disheartening to the commissioners, yet, happily, it was of but short continuance. The church appears to have soon found that the spirit of cmi- gration which she herself had helped to raise and foster, she could not check or put down at will. She therefore prudently yielded to circumstances; and within a fortnight from the time she began to frown upon their work, full power was given to Edward Convers and Company to go on with it anew.11
The obstruction which the church of Charlestown had thrown in their way being thus removed, the commissioners for the ercc- tion of the new church and town, resumed with fresh zeal the work of their appointment. Among their first cares for this end, agrecably to the usual practice of our pious ancestors in such
11 Woburn Records, Vol. I., p. 3.
2
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
cases, was the observance of a day for solemn humiliation before God, and for supplication of his aid and blessing in their ar- duous undertaking. Under date of December 22, 1640, Johnson notes in the records, " considering the waytines [weightiness] of the worke, and the weaknes of the persons, this day was sett appart for humble seecking of God by prayer and fastting for helpe in a worke of soe great consiquence ; which was performed at the hows of John Mousall by the forenamed persons and their wiffs [wives], the Lord assisting." 11
About this time, they commenced a series of meetings, held in rotation, at their respective houses in Charlestown, for consulting on the affairs of the contemplated town, and adopting measures in reference to its settlement. Their first meeting for these pur- poses was held December 18th, at the house of Mr. Thomas Graves, when they agreed upon Town Orders (Appendix No. 1), and chose Edward Johnson Recorder or Town Clerk.11 At like meetings in the two following months, they admitted many to set down their dwellings in the proposed plantation; though some of them (to use the words of the Recorder), " being shallow in brayns, fell ofe [off] afterwards." 11 And, on February 10th, 1640-1, they built a bridge over the Aberjona River for their own and the public accommodation, and perhaps too as an earnest of their resolution to go up and possess the land. This bridge, the first that was built in Woburn, they called Cold Bridge. It was in after times better known as the "Convers' Bridge," from the name of the proprietor of the adjacent mill; and as it is said in the records to have been laid " over against Edward Conuars' hows," it is inferred that that house, which continued many years in the occupation of that distinguished family, and the site of which is still well remembered, was either already standing when the bridge was built, or that it was erect- ed immediately after, and before the entry just quoted from the records was made; and that it was the first built dwelling-house in Woburn. 12
February 8th, 1640-1, the commissioners came from Charles-
11 Woburn Records, Vol. 1., p. 3.
12 Woburn Records, Vol. I., p. 4.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
town to find a suitable location for their projected town. After two days' search, they pitched for this purpose upon a spot at the cast end of the Court's grant, which they quickly afterwards laid out. And at a meeting at Ezekiel Richardson's, February 13th, they directed all who intended to become inhabitants, to meet on the ground, February 16th.12 The place selected as the site of the proposed town, was unquestionably the plain on the borders of the Aberjona River, and near the place which it was designed, at a recent day, to cultivate as a silk farm. But the selection was not made by the commissioners with unanimity. The spot chosen did not meet the views of a con- siderable proportion of the expected settlers; and at the same time, Mr. Nowell, Mr. Symmes, and other gentlemen of note and principal influence in Charlestown, gave them no small dis- couragement from going there to build.12 Hence, when the persons notified came there, February 16th, the day appointed, to the number of forty, though they busied themselves in mark- ing trees, and laying bridges, yet (say the Records) " the way was so playen [plain] backward, that diners neuer went for-
ward againe." 12 These checks given them by patrons or superiors in standing, and these tokens of fickleness or faint- heartedness on the part of associates in their enterprise, must necessarily have caused the commissioners much perplexity and trouble. But they notwithstanding persevered in their work ; and February 29, 1640-1, within a fortnight from the last- mentioned date, by the advice of a committee appointed by Charlestown to confer with them, consisting of Mr. Nowell, Captain Sedgwick, Lieut. Sprague, and others, they abandoned the site which they had first selected for private dwellings and a meeting-house, and decided upon another farther west in its stead. To this spot, which is now in and around the centre of the town, they came in March and May following, and laid out house lots; and, upon some of these lots at least, buildings were doubtless erected in the course of that year.12
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