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 6
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31 Military Lane, though long since forgotten, was recognized by name in a Report of the Selectmen made January 28, 1731-2, in the case of a com- plaint to the Selectmen by Thomas Reed against Jeremiah Center for stop- ping up the way leading from Reed's house to the meeting-house. In that Report, Military Lane is described as the highway " which leads from our meeting-house through the Training field by the said Jeremiah Center's and Thomas Reed's into that Highway leading to Shawshin, known by the name of Upstreet"a. Thomas Reed's house here referred to is presumed to be that lately occupied by Mr. Silvanus Wood, senr., deceased. Military Lune then, after leaving the meeting-house (then standing on the hill east of the Common) and passing over the Training Field into Pleasant Street, proceeded thence to the school-house of the sixth District, lately taken down, and there entering the narrow lane by or back of that school-house, went on by Mr. Center's to Mr. Wood's house, where It met a branch of Upstreet coming from Mr. John Cummings, jr.'s corner, and thence went on with that to Shawshin.
32 Records, Vol. I., p. o.
· Woburn Records, Vol. 1. inverted, p. 69.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
Drivers' Lane appears to have been principally intended for the driving of cattle to some common pasture on the plains at the West Side. It was laid out from Kingsford, at the Aberjona River, to Plain Street, one rod wide on the land of Mr. Zechariah Symmes on one side, and one rod wide on the land of Edward Convers on the other,33 and was probably that road which now goes from the site of the ancient Convers' mill by Winchester meeting-house to " Plain Street," on the road to West Cam- bridge, at Mr. Loring Emerson's.
In the Summer and Autumn of the same year, 1646, provision was made for the construction of roads to Reading and Mystic- Bridge,33 now South Reading and Medford. In December 1647, a committee was appointed to lay out a highway from " the three Richisons to the Towne meeting-hows one way, and Mr. Thomas Graves the other way," 34 which was doubtless the commencement of the road known from time immemorial as Richardson's Row.
The incorporation of Woburn, 1642, as a distinct town, rendered it very desirable to establish the divisional line be- tween it and Charlestown as soon as possible. And yet for several years this necessary measure, from some cause or other, was still undetermined. While Woburn was yet Charlestown village, an agreement had been entered into by a committee of thirteen, for fixing the bounds between the village and the parent town ; but this agreement had been subsequently " denied," and the labors of the committee frustrated.35 When three years and upwards had elapsed from the incorporation of the town, and this important question still remained to be decided, it was agreed at a general meeting at Woburn, March 17, 1646, to send to the Selectmen of Charlestown the following letter.
" To our much Respected and approued good ffreinds of Charles- towne chosen to order the prudentiall affaiers thereof :
" Much Respected and Aintient ffreinds :
" Wee are Bould to interupt your presant pressious Implyments with Request for Issue of those things which Sartaine of our Beloved
33 Records, Vol. I., p. 9. 34 Records, Vol. 1., p. 12. 35 Woburn Records, Vol. I., p. 3.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
Brethren among you were Chosen unto. Now our humble Request is, that they may End it forthwith. If otherwise they cannot so doe, our further Request is that sum others unintrested in the things may put a ffreindly Isue (Issue) to the same. Our last Request is, that if nether of these will doe, then in a brotherly and ffreindly way to petistian to the General Court : that wee may not bequeth matter of diferenc to our posteryty. Thus, with hope of a presant answer in writing to our soe Reasanabl Request,
" Wee Remaine yours to bee Comanded
" in all saruis of loue in Christ our Lord." 36
To this friendly letter, in which Christian courtesy and firm- ness in insisting upon their just rights are equally conspicuous, no response appears to have been made, and no effectual action taken in the premises by Charlestown for three years more. On the 3: 1 mo : 1649, Edward Johnson, Edward Convers, John Monsall and John Wright, four of the seven Selectmen of Woburn were appointed a committee " to speake with our Breth- ren of Charlestown about the settling the Bounds sudenly betweene them and us."37 This quickening message seems to have led soon after to the appointment of a committee mutually chosen by Charlestown and Woburn, who brought to a final issue this and other important questions connected with it, July 29, 1650. Their report was subscribed Dec. 16, 1650, not only by the committee, but by the Selectmen of Woburn, and by two leading members of the church of Charlestown, in token of their approbation of it; and was entered in full upon Charlestown records. The following is a transcript of their return, as copied from those records by Nathan Wyman, Esq,, town clerk of Woburn.
" The 29 of the V month, [29 July, ] 1650.
" Whereas wee Robt. Sedgwicke, Ralph Sprague, Tho. Lyne and Robt. Hale being chosen by the Ffreemen of Charlestowne & the Ffreemen of Wobourne mutually to settle the bounds bettweene ye two Townes afforesaid, as also to appoint what quantity of Land should be laid to the Lots, & Ffarmes y' are adjoyning to Charles-
36 Woburn Records, Vol. I., pp. 8, 0.
37 Woburn Records, Vol. I., p. 14.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
towne Common on ye Ea-t side of Samll. Richesons ; & also to appoint where the Line shall devide the two Townes in all places where ye Land of both Townes doe joyne together, as also to appoint what quantity of Land the said Charlestown shall have from Wobourne in consideration. . . . of Charlestown's resigning up those Lotts & Commons wch. were in the old Bounds of Charles- towne, unto the Inhabitants of Wobourne :
" This first wee agree upon : That the Line of devision bettween the two Townes shall runne from Cambridge Line by ye Northwest end of Mr Nowell's Lott 6 & so all along bettweene Mr. Sims's Ffarme & Edward Convers's Ffarme untill it come to the East side of them adjoyneing to Charlestowne Common.
" Also we have agreed & determined yt Wobourne shall have five hundred Aeres of Land out of Charlestowne Common for the use of those Lotts & ffarmes before mentioned ; the which five hundred Acres shall begin at the East Corner of Edward Convers's ffarme, next Mr. Sims's ffarme, & so by all along by the East side of those Lotts, & so up to Charlestowne head Line, of such a breadth as shall take in the five hundred Acres ; and yt the sd. Wobourne (according to theire promise) shall make and maintaine a sufficient ffence of two Railes to runne even in that Line, that shall devide bettweene the five hundred Acres & Charlestowne Common ; and that Raile shall bee the bounds bettweene the two Townes on that side.
"Allso wee agree That all the [Tracts?] of Common & Waste Land yt lye bettweene Cambridge Line & the five hundred Acres (above mentioned) shall belong unto Wobourne.
"Likewise wee agree that Charlestowne shall have three thou- sand Acres of Land out of the Bounds of Wobourne, in considera- tion of those Lotts & Commons the which is resigned up to
6 This end of the divisional line agreed upon between Charlestown and Woburn, running from Cambridge [West Cambridge] bounds over the hills to the Northwest corner of "Mr. Nowell's lot," remained, till very recently, unchanged; leaving the extensive tract of land, known, till lately by the name of Charlestown End, and including the Gardner Farms, the farm of Mr. Luke Wyman, etc., etc., within the bounds of Charlestown. But by annexing to the other end of the line as here described, the 500 acres of commons with the lots and farms attached, which Charlestown by this agreement ceded to Woburn, and which comprised much of the land at Richardson's Row, and in South Woburn (now Winchester) the actual dividing line in this quarter was carried considerably to the East.
3*
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
Wobourne out of Charlestowne Lands; and that the three thousand Acres shall lye in the place where Capt. Johnson & Saml. Richeson and others of Wobourne did shew us : That is to say, to begin at the uttermost Corner Northerly next Reading Line, & so to runne Southerly along two miles deepe on the East side of Shawshin [Billerice] Line till the full extent of the three thousand Acres bee out.
" Witness our hands this 16. of the X month [Dec. 16,] 1650. Subscribed by those appointed to order the Prudentiall affaires of the Towne of Wobourne.
" EDWARD JOHNSON'
"ROBT. SEDGWICKE
JOHN MOUSALL
THos. LYNDE
JAMES TOMSON
ROBT. HALE
EDWARD CONVERS
INCREASE NOWFLL
RALPH HILL
JOHN GREENE." 38
SAMILL. RICHESON."
The appropriation of the town's lands to individual inhabitants was also, of course, another object of deep interest to the peo- ple, and of their carly attention. The disposal of the land in Woburn, was originally vested in Charlestown, which appears accordingly to have made numerous grants of it to divers of its citizens, before Woburn was erected into a distinct township. 39
38 Charlestown Records, Vol. I., pp. 90, 91.
For the ultimate disposal of the 3,000 acres ceded in the above Report by Woburn to Charlestown, see Appendix, No. VI.
39 Hence the repeated mention in Woburn Records of "Charlestown Lots "; a and notices also of lots belonging to individual citizens of Charles- town, and bearing their names: as the Dunham lot, apparently near New Bridge, or North Woburn; Frodingham's [Frothingham's] lot. near Horn Pond; Burgess's lot ; Davisou's lot; and Shepardson's lot, which became eventually the homestead of James Convers, jr. b In 1640-1, before the Incorporation of Woburn, Messrs. George Whitehand and George Bunker. both of Charlestown, surrendered their respective lots to the disposal of the [intended] town; c and the latter gentleman, for a full and valuable consideration paid to him by Woburn, gave Dec. 10th, 1663, a deed of a lot of his, consisting of 238 acres, assigned him by Charlestown, and lying within the bounds of Woburn, for the use of the town forever.d In 1054, Mr. Robert Long of Charlestown surrendered for the town's use, a lot or meadow, situate in the centre of Woburn, North and West of Rev. Thomas Carter's, granted him by Charlestown, and still known as Long's
[ Recorda, Vol. I., p. 7, 9.] + Records Inverted, Vol. 1., p. 10. . Recorda, Vot. I., 3, 4. Woords, Vol. I. p. 30.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
,
At the incorporation of Woburn, this power of granting land within its bounds fell of right to the united body of its inhabi- tants, who thenceforth disposed of its lands, sometimes by vote in town meeting, and sometimes by their Selectmen in their name, or by committees specially chosen for the purpose. In one or other of these ways, much of the territory of the town was speedily appropriated. In the infancy of the town for instance, there were numerous grants both of upland and meadow to indi- viduals admitted to be inhabitants, as their own proper frechold. To some of these grants was expressly annexed a condition, that they [the grantees] should bring testimonials of their peaceable behavior : or that they should continue in town five or more years. And for all of them, the grantees were required to pay twelve pence an acre for the use of the town. A portion like- wise of the common land was reserved, with a pious forethought, very creditable to the first settlers, for succeeding officers of the church. And considerable tracts in various quarters of the town were set apart to be holden and improved by certain individuals in common, as Friendly or Boggy Meadow Field in or near Wilmington, Pleasant Field towards Reading, New Bridge Field in North Woburn, Plain Field on the way from the centre to Convers's mill, Waterfield at the West End, and Hun- gary Plain Field and Forest Hill Field in and near Burlington. And to prevent injury and hard thoughts among the owners in the use or cultivation of these common fields, it was early ordered that the Selectmen should set off to every proprietor his propor- tion of fence to maintain, and mark each end of one's share of fence with the initial letters of his name. But the cultivation of
Meadow; for which Woburn paid him in recompense thirty shillings. e And soon after the incorporation of Woburn, 1642, six of the commission- ers for its settlement, viz., Edward Johnson, Edward Convers, John Mou- sall, and Messrs. Ezekiel, Samuel and Thomas Richardson, in considera- tion of divers benefits received (particularly meadow, commonage and planting ground) and others expected from the town, gave up all the land therein, which had been granted them " before the placing downe this Towne, near adjoining to the said towne" for the use of the town and the church of Woburn forever. f
e Records, Vol. I .. D. 20. 'Records. Vol. I .. D. 6.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
fields held in common having been productive of much uneasi- ness and contention, they have long since been divided in sever- alty among their respective proprietors.
And now this town of Woburn, having its affairs put in proper train, and under the direction of suitable officers, soon began to thrive and prosper. This is inferred in part from the increase in the number of its inhabitants and of its church mem- bers, during the first ten or twelve years from its incorporation in 1642. Judging from the number of the original subscribers to the Town Orders, which was only thirty-two (and all of them did not eventually become inhabitants), the first settlers in 1642 could hardly have exceeded thirty heads of families, and the founders of the church were only seven in number. But in 1652, the inhabitants of the town had increased to sixty families, and the members of the church to seventy-four. This we learn from the celebrated history of New England, called the " Wonder-working Providence of Zion's Saviour," written, and published in London in 1654, by Capt. Edward Johnson, a principal founder and distinguished citizen of Woburn, who gives in it the following account of the town, as it was at the time he wrote, in 1662.
" There was a Town and Church erected, called Wooburn, the present year [1642]. But because all the actions of this wander- ing people meet with great variety of censures, the author will, in this Town and Church, set down the manner how this people have populated their Towns, and gathered their Churches, etc., etc. This Town, as all others, had its bounds fixed by the General Court, to the contents of four miles square (beginning at the end of Charlestown bounds) : the grant is to seven men of good and honest report, upon condition that within two years they erect houses for habitation thereon, and soe go on to make a Town thereof, upon the Act of Court. These seven men have power to give and grant ont lands unto any persons who are willing to take up their dwellings within the said precinct, and to be admitted to all common privileges of the said Town; giving them such an ample portion, both of Medow and Upland, as their present and future stock of cattel and hands were like to improve, with eye had to others that might after come to populate the said Town. This
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
they did without any respect of persons ; yet such as were exorbi- tant, and of a turbulent spirit, unfit for a civil society, they would reject ; till they come to mend their manners, such came not to enjoy any freehold. These seven men ordered and disposed of the streets of the Town, as might be best for improvement of the Land, and yet civil and religious society maintained : to which end, those that had land nearest the place for Sabbath assembly, had a lesser quantity at home ; and more farther off to improve for corn of all kinds. They refused not men for their poverty, but according to their ability were helpful to the poorest sort in build- ing their houses, and distributed to them land accordingly ; the poorest had six or seven acres of Medow, and twenty-five of Upland, or thereabouts. Thus was this Town populated, to the number of sixty families or thereabout : and after this manner are the Towns of New England peopled. The scituation of this Town is in the highest part of the yet peopled land, neere upon the head springs of many considerable rivers, or their branches ; as the first rise of Ipswitch river, and the rise of the Shashin river, one of the most considerable branches of Merrimeck, as also the first rise of Mistick river and ponds. It is very full of pleasant springs, and great variety of very good water, which the Summer's heat causeth to be more cooler, and the Winter's cold maketh more warmer : their Medows are not large, but lye in divers places to particular dwellings ; the like doth their Springs. Their land is very fruitful in many places, although they have no great quantity of plain land in any one place ; yet doth their Rocks and Swamps yield very good food for cattel ; as also they have Mast and Tar for shipping, but the distance of place by land causeth them as yet to be unprofit- able. They have great store of iron ore. Their meeting house stands in a small Plain where four streets meet. The people are very laborious, if not exceeding, some of them." 40
" Now to declare how this people proceeded in religious matters and so consequently, all the Churches of Christ planted in New England ; when they came at once to hopes of being such a compe- tent number of people as might be able to maintain a Minister, they then surely seated themselves, and not before ; it being as unnatural for a right N. E. [New England] man to live without an able Min- istry, as for a Smith to work his iron without a fire. Therefore this people that went about placing down a Town, began the foundation
40Wonderworking Providence, Book II., Chap. XXII., p. 175., etc.
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
stone with earnest seeking of the Lord's assistance by humbling of their souls before him in daies of prayer, and imploringthis aid in so weighty a work. Then they address themselves to attend conn- sel of the most Orthodox and ablest Christians, and more especially of such as the Lord had already placed in the Ministry, not rashly running together [to gather] themselves into a Church, before they had hopes of attaining an Officer to preach the Word, and adminis- ter the Seals unto them ; chosing [choosing] rather to continue in fellowship with some other Church for their Christian watch over them, till the Lord would be pleased to provide," etc., etc.
[Here follows the author's account of the gathering of the Church of Woburn, and of the ordination of Rev. Mr. Carter, as summarily given above. He then proceeds as follows :]
" The people having provided a dwelling-house, built at the charge of the Town in general, welcomed him unto them with joy, that the Lord was pleased to give them such a blessing, that their eyes may see their Teachers. After this there were divers added to the Church daily after this manner. The person desirous to joyn with the Church, cometh to the Pastor and makes him ac- quainted therewith, declaring how the Lord hath been pleased to work his conversion : who discerning hopes of the persons' faith in Christ, although weak, yet if any appear, he is propounded to the Church in general for their approbation touching his godly life and conversation : and then by the Pastor and some brethren heard again, wuo make repo". to the Church of their charitable approving of the person. But before they come to joyn with the Church, all persons within the Towne have publike notice of it ; then publikely he declares the manner of his conversion, and how the Lord hath been pleased, by the hearing of his Word preached, and the work of his Spirit in the inward parts of his soul, to bring him out of that nat- ural darkness, which all men are by nature in and under ; as also the measure of knowledge the Lord hath been pleased to indue him withal. And because some men cannot speak publikely to edifica- tion through bashfulness, the less is required of such ; and women speak not publikely at all ; for all that is desired is, to prevent the polluting the blessed Ordinances of Christ by such as walk scanda- lously, and that men and women do not eat and drink their own condemnation, in not discerning the Lord's body. After this man- ner, were many added to this Church of Christ ; and those 7 [seven] " that joyned in Church fellowship at first, are now encreased to 74
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HISTORY OF WOBURN.
1135619
persons, or thereabout. After this manner have the Churches of Christ [in New England] had their beginning and pro- gress hitherto ; the Lord continue and enerease them the world throughout." - W. W. Prov., Book 11, Chap. xxii., pp. 175-181.
It has already been observed, that the original territory of Woburn, as granted to Charlestown in 1640, was four miles square. But this grant was encumbered with another grant of five hundred acres, to be laid out within the bounds of the four miles square, to Mr. Thomas Coytmore, a noted shipmaster, and a highly respected citizen of Charlestown. But before Capt. Coyt- more could derive any benefit from this grant to him by the Court, he perished in a storm at sea; and his only son, Thomas Coytmore, jr., dying afterwards in his minority, the General Court, at their session in October 1656, confirmed the grant of 500 acres in Woburn, and also other lands and goods of Capt. Coytmore, to Mr. John Coggan, the then husband of Mrs. Martha, Capt. Coytmore's relict, on condition of his paying £200 to the four daughters of Capt. William Tyng by Elizabeth, Capt. Coytmore's sister. 41 In 1664, Mr. Coggan having deceased, the Coytmore grant in Woburn was claimed by Mr. Joseph Rock of Boston, administrator upon the estate of John Coggan and of Martha, his wife. And now the selectmen of Woburn, consider- ing that even without that incumbrance, Woburn was smaller in point of territory than any other incorporated town in its vicinity, petitioned the Court in 1664, that they would order Mr. Rock's claim of 500 acres in Woburn to be laid out in some other place ; and also that they would grant to Woburn four thousand acres of unappropriated land, wherever it might be found in this wil- derness, and so do by this town as they had done already by the neighboring towns of Billerica and Reading.42 . In answer to the latter part of this petition, the -Court at their session in October of that year, made a grant to Woburn of two thousand acres.43 But they took no notice of the request in it to order
41 Colony Records, Vol. IV., Part I., pp. 272, 273, 281.
42 Woburn Records, Vol. I., p. 29.
43 Woburn Records, Vol. I., p. 30. Colony Records, Vol. IV., Part II., p. 138. This grant was not laid out to Woburn till upwards of fifty years afterwards ; and then, (as will be noted in a future portion of this history) through mismanagement, it proved of no permanent advantage to the town, but a source of contention for a long series of years.
36
HISTORY OF WOBURN.
the Coytmore grant, claimed by Mr. Rock, to be laid out else- where than in Woburn. And the following year, Mr. Rock sold it for £50 to Messrs. Francis and John Wyman of Woburn, to whom it was laid out by Mr. Jona Danforth, Surveyor, under direction of General Court's Committee, in the westerly and northwesterly parts of what is now Burlington, in October 1667.44
Shortly after the above petition to the Court for additional territory was presented, the distribution of a large part of what they already held in common became a subject of intense interest for several years to the citizens of Woburn. At a general meet- ing, Nov. 14, 1664, it was agreed by a major vote, that there should be a distribution of plough land and swamps, and a par- ticular division of the remote timber ; and a committee of seven was chosen to carry this vote into effect, according to justice and equity.45 But the measure meeting with opposition, this com- mittee did not venture to discharge their commission without further instructions from the town. And now arose a question of importance, Who the proprietors of the town were, among whom the proposed distribution was to be made ? This ques- tion was decided at a public meeting, Feb. 27, 1665-6, at which it was voted, that " the right proprietors of the common lands of the towne of Woburne" were " those which had their names expressed in the deuiding the herbidg." 46 At the same meeting,
44 Colony Records, Vol. IV., l'art 11., p. 356. Middlesex Registry of Deeds, Vol. III., pp. 149, 150.
44 When Woburn Precinct, now Burlington, was incorporated in 1730, this tract of land was largely dwelt upon and Improved by numerous Wymans, the posterity of the above named Francis and Jobn Wyman. But now (1867) and for several years past, there has not been a Wyman in the place to bear up his ancestor's name, and to cultivate this portion of his land. 45 Woburn Records, Vol. I., p. 29.
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