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 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63
At a generall meetting 27: 12 mo: 1665, [27 Feb. 1665-6.] Gorge Brush, Jolin Craggen and Increse Winne were admited Inhabitance and propriety of comoneg " [commonage ] .- Woburn Records, Vol. I., p. 31.
At a meeting of the Selectmen 5 : 12 mo : 1676, [5 Feb. 1676-7.] " John Hews of Watertowne is permitted to come into Towne, and follow his trade of weauing." - Records, Vol. II., p. 52.
48
HISTORY OF WOBURN.
This order appears to have been rigorously enforced for a long series of years.13 And though, in a few instances, it may have operated hardly, and to the public disadvantage, yet it doubtless did much towards securing that freedom from the burdens of pauperism which the town for a long time, with but little interruption, happily enjoyed. The first two instances in which the town had occasion to grant help to any of its inhab- itants, occurred in the years 1665, 1673. But the persons here referred to as assisted by the town, were not, strictly speaking, paupers, but insane. They both were possessed of houses and lands in Woburn; but being, by the hand of God, bereft of their reason, and so rendered incapable of managing for them- selves, the Selectmen took both of them (one of them by order of the County Court) under their care, and disposed of their property for them to their best advantage. And in this situa- tion, they both lived long enough to exhaust all they had in their maintenance, and were buried at last at the charge of the town. The first decisive pauper case in Woburn did not occur till the town had been settled about forty years, and is that referred to in the following extract from the records; " The Selectmen agreed with John Brooks, for the keeping of Goarge Wilkinson, from this 4 of April, 1681, till next Michealmas; and in case more than ordinary sickness come, then the Towne to consider the charge." 14 Wilkinson had been a soldier in Philip's Indian war, in 1675-76, and there, probably, had exhausted both his
13 "The selectmen mett the 7: of the 4 mo: 1675, and called Joseph Knight, jun. to an accoumpt [account] for entertaining to [two] Inmats; and hee breaking the Towne Order, is ihned three shillings, and to giue in a bond of flnety pounds to free the Towne of all damage that may come to them by these too persons, namely, Jacob HInrd and Nathanell Wilson, his [Hurd's ] apprentis." [Here follows his bond. ]
" At the same time, the Selectmen caled Dauid Wyman, to answer for entertaining the widow Farmer as an Inmate in his hows : the said Dauid haulng bin convicted before the Selectmen for breach of a towne order, is sentaneed to paye seuen shillings for fourteen days entertainment." - Record, Vol. II., p. 26.
Similar Instances of enforcing this Town Order may be seen, Record, Vol. I., p. 74, 113, etc., etc.
" Town Records, Vol. III., pp. 6, 47.
-
49
HISTORY OF WOBURN.
strength and what property he had in the public service; and now, feeble in health, and poor in estate, he was obliged to throw himself on the care of the town. He died in 1683, and was buried at the town's expense.14
Observable, too, are the means employed by the early inhabi- tants of Woburn, with the sanction of the law,15 to prevent or break up all those irregular and vicious habits, which usually terminate in pauperism, or lead to confirmed depravity and spiritual ruin. Among these means, was the appointment of Tithingmen, whose office it was, as the records express it, " to have the oversight of their neighbours, and see that they keepc good orders in their houses." The object of their appointment, under the Colony laws, appears to have been to advance the divine honor and the spiritual benefit of the people, by encouraging family worship and government, by checking or preventing disorderly conduct in private families and public houses ; by suppressing or checking profanity, Sabbath breaking, idleness, intemperance, and sundry other immoralities. With these ends in view, all the inhabitants were distributed into companies of nine or ten adjacent families cach; and then these several companies were committed to the inspection of as many overseers, called tithingmen, or tenth men, from their having a tithing or a company of ten families each to look after, inclusively of their own. These tithingmen appear, in Woburn, to have been annually chosen by the Selectmen ; 16 were wont to be men of the
16 At a meeting of the Selectmen, 9 : 4 mo : [June 9th] 1676, "the tithing men were-chosen, who by law are to haue the oversight of their naigh- bours, and see that they keepe good orders in their howses : who are decon Josiah Conuars, Sargent Mathew Johnson, Ffrances Kendall, Robert Peirce, Allen Conuars, Henery Bolden, John Russell, Joseph Wright, and Joseph Richison.
17 " At a meeting of the Selectmen 5. of 5 mo, [5 July] 1680, nine persons are named as Tithingmen, and the names of all the heads of the families, (82 in all) which were severally assigned to them for their inspection in their respective districts.
18 " Ffebrewary ye, 1st, 1691-2 ye Selectmen of Wobourne met & chose tithingmen (for said Towne) for ye year ensuing : and their names are as follows :
15 Colony Records, Vol. V., pp. 133, 240, 241, 373. 16 Town Records, Vol. II., p. 37. 17 Town Records, Vol. II., pp. 153, 154. 18 Town Records, Vol. III., p. 31.
5
50
HISTORY OF WOBURN.
first respectability in the town; were required by law to make complaint of what they saw amiss in any under their inspection, to the nearest magistrate, to be dealt with and punished by him, or by the County Court; and being sworn to the faithful discharge of their office, they were often doubtless very service- able for checking the profanation of God's name, day and house, and for the promotion of peaceableness, sobriety and religion in the families commended to their care and watch.
In the early days of Woburn, taxes were not paid wholly in money or labor, as now. Silver was then scarce; and paper currency had not as yet been introduced. Hence the first inhabitants were accustomed to pay only a certain part of their taxes of every description, in money ; and the rest in cattle, in corn, or other fruits of the soil, or in articles of home manufacture.19 For instance, only a fourth part of the annual salary of their first, and of their second minister, was satisfied with coin ; the remainder being made up in grain, or other articles of family consumption, which were called " country pay." And country pay was made great use of, too, in discharging their Town and Colony taxes, which occasioned no small inconvenience to the Constables,
" For ye West End of sd Towne, For ye South End, For ye East End, For ye Towne, [centre of ]
THOMAS KENDALL & BENJAM. SIMONS. EDWD CONVERS.
SAMUELL RICHARDSON. JOHN MOUSALL, JOHN BERREEN, and JOSEPH WINN.
For New Bridge End,
Lt. JOSEPH PEIRCE.
For Boggy Meadow End,
JOHN WRIGHT, Senr.
For Totman's End,
JOSEPH RICHARDSON.
For Shawshenn End,
EDWARD JOHNSON."
" These eleven persons are chosen to inspect these famalyes near adja- sent to each of ye [their] dwellings, according to the law intitled Tithing- men." 18 N. B. May 2d, 1692. The Selectmen chose Jona. Tompson for New Bridge, and Daniel Baldwin and John Brooks for the Centre, in the room of Joseph l'eirce, Joseph Winn and John Burbeen, Senr., chosen Selectmen Feb. 23, and unwilling on that account to serve ns tithingmen. 19
19 "Received of Jacob Wyman, Constable of Woobourne, the summe of £3: Gs. in Shoos : and £5: 4s. in and as money, in all Is eight pound ten shillings. in or ns money, being In full for their Town's County Rate made January 20th, 1692-3. 1 say Recd by me.
Samll. Andrew, County Treasurer." - Records, Vol. III., p. 52.
51
HISTORY OF WOBURN.
especially when the articles of country pay were so bulky as to put them to extraordinary expense in conveying them to Boston, or proved, when there, of an unmerchantable quality,-cases in which the Colony Treasurer was not apt to make them any allowance, and the Town (it may be presumed) if it did it, would do it with reluctance. Of the troubles, in which, from this cause, the Constables were liable to be not unfrequently involved, the annexed Treasurer's certificate, and Constable's charge, copied from the records, may serve as illustrations.
" Boston, October 21, 1679. Received of John Ted, (Tidd) and John Barbene, (Burbean,) Constables of Woburne, the whole of the six Rates of June 1677, and of the three Rates of November 1677; save only they detaine in their hands eight pound for transportation; which I cannot allow of, not having allowed it to other townes; and therefore it must be assigned by some superior authority. Otherwise, I say, received and allowed sd. rates. Jolın Hull, Treasurer." 20
" The Town Dr. 1673. To James Fowle, (Constable in 1672.)
"For loss of Corne, and more than ordinary troupble, £01: 00: 00." 21
Concerning schools, and the attention bestowed on the educa- tion of the young, in the carly history of Woburn, I find nothing on record prior to 1673. From this circumstance, however, it cannot be certainly inferred that no school had been sustained in this town during the thirty years which had then elapsed from its settlement. For very possibly the records are deficient on this head. The law too of that day, while it strictly required that a school for teaching to read and write should be kept in every town containing fifty householders, still allowed the means of its support to be drawn either from the parents and guardians of the children who attended it, or from the town at large.15 Hence it is very possible that a school answering to the descrip- tion of the law, may have been kept for years previous to the above-mentioned date ; and yet, the compensation of its instructor coming directly from the parents or guardians of its pupils, and not from the town, there was no necessity of recording it in the Town Book.
In a town account for 1673, the town is made " Dr. to Allen
Do Records, Vol. II., p. 143.
21 Records, Vol. II., p. 4.
15 Mass. Colony Records, Vol. II., p. 203.
52
HISTORY OF WOBURN.
Conuars' wife and Joseph Wright's wife for scooling, £00. 10s. 00d." 16 From this charge, compared with others presently to be quoted, these dames appear to have taught the same school, cach of them half of the time stipulated, in 1673, and to have received from the town ten shillings for their year's work, to be divided equally between them. At a meeting of the Selectmen, Oct. 5, 1674, "they agreed with Jonathan Tomson to tech biger children, and Allen Conuars' wife to tech leser children." 17 And agrecably to this arrangement, goodman Thompson and goodwife Convers took charge, in 1675, of the children respec- tively assigned them, and were allowed by the Town £1.00. 00 between them for " teching to reade," as the Records express it.18 In 1676, the Town stands indebted on the town accounts to Allen Convers £1.00 "for too [two] years scoollinge "; without specifying the years he taught. 19 March 1, 1678, the Town is made debtor, by account, to Allen Convers' wife for schooling, [probably in 1677] £00. 10. 00 .; and in 1679, to John Houlton, Sen., "for his wife's schooling, and worke [done by him ?] on the 'Meeting hows,' £00. 14. 06." 20 At a meeting of the Selectmen, March 1, 1679-80, the widow Convers was appointed to teach school for that year ; 21 and for this service, she was allowed ten shillings in a subsequent town account.22
In 1685, the town having increased indisputably to the num- ber of one hundred families, or householders, and so being obliged by law to set up a grammar school, the instructor whereof should be able " to instruct youth so as to fit them for the college," the Selectmen appointed Mr. Samuel Carter, probably a son of Rev. Thomas Carter, their pastor, a graduate of Harvard College in 1660, and then resident in Woburn, to keep a grammar school that year, with a salary of £5. 00 per annum.23 But, though Mr. Carter was doubtless competent to teach such a school, there were no scholars to attend it. The following Spring, the Selectinen appointed the widow Walker
16 Town Records, Vol. II., p. 4. 17 Town Records, Vol. II., p. 166, inverted. 18 Town Recorde, Vol. II., p. 34. 19 Town Records, Vol. II., 56. » Town Records, Vol. I., p. 83, 96. 31 Town Records, Vol. II., p. 152. 22 Town Records, Vol. II., p. 107. "Town Records, Vol. I., p. 120.
53
HISTORY OF WOBURN.
" to be a school dame for the yeare 1686, and to haue tenn shillings for her labor, as the other [mistresses before her ] had." 24 Likewise, at the same meeting, the Selectmen, feeling unwilling to'expose the town to the penalty of ten pounds, prescribed by law for neglect to keep a grammar school by towns of one hundred families each, and yet reluctant to obligate themselves to pay a master five pounds the second time for doing nothing, (as they seem to have been apprehensive they should have to, if they positively engaged to give that sum) again employed Mr. Carter to keep such a school in Woburn, in 1686, but promised, absolutely, to give him only thirty shillings in pay for that year ; but that if he should have any scholars, they would give him five pounds, as they had stipulated to give him the year before.23 Doubtless Mr. Carter, in consenting to these terms, cherished a confident hope, that there were a few boys, at least, in the town who would discover ambition enough to sit that year under the instructions of a grammar school master, and so his full pay might be secured. But, alas, the apprehensions on this score which the Selectmen seem to have conceived, in making their engagement with him, were but too fully realized. No scholars attended grammar school in Woburn in 1686, as none had attended in 1685. And in a town account for 1685 and 1686, Mr. Carter stands credited £6. 10s. for schooling in Woburn during those two years, when he had no scholars to teach, and all the room and time to himself. 25
In view of the foregoing statements, some perhaps may be ready to conclude, that the inhabitants of Woburn at that day were a boorish race, who had no value for good learning themselves, and grudged the least expense for procuring its benefits for their children. But this, without much qualification, would be a rash and most unjust inference. For in the very infancy of the town, when they do not certainly appear to have had any school for their own children, they contributed £ 5. 13s. 72d. [ sterling ? ] for the benefit of the scholars at the College in Cambridge,- a larger sum than was given at that time for this end by any town
" Town Records, Vol. III., p. 93.
25 Town Records, Vol. III., p. 102.
5*
54
HISTORY OF WOBURN.
in this County but two, not excepting even Cambridge itself, and larger than by any town in the Colony but five.26 And in 1669, a little before the time when they commenced paying, as a town, the paltry sum of ten shillings per annum for the support of common schools among themselves, they contributed £ 27. 2s. 0d. for the erection of a new College in Cambridge 26,- a contri- bution in which they were not exceeded by any town in Mid- dlesex County, excepting Cambridge, Charlestown, Watertown, Concord and Reading. There can be no question then, that the primitive inhabitants of Woburn were favorable to the cause of education at the college, and disposed to patronize it according to their power. And they were so probably from various motives ; and more especially, because, in common with the gen- crality of the first settlers of New England, they regarded a liberal education as a necessary prerequisite to a learned min- istry ; as an indispensable means of training up a competent number of young men for becoming thoroughly qualified to dispense the word of life to the people, when the accomplished ministers who had accompanied them from England should sleep in the dust. But at the same time, there were but few in the town, who duly appreciated the value of learning to any beside professional men.
Through the influence of prejudices imbibed and habits formed on the other side of the Atlantic, the great majority could not perceive the utility of general knowledge, beyond an ability to read and write, to those who were destined all their days to follow the plough, or to work in their shops. And hence they were slow to establish institutions among themselves designed to promote this end, and sparing of their hard-earned money to encourage them. They all unquestionably approved of grammar schools in general, because they would not see the learning taught therein "buried in the graves of (their) forefathers in church and commonwealth;" and particularly because they regarded these institutions as helpful to the advancement of the leading object for which the college was founded. Of common
" Quincy's llistory of Harvard University, Vol. I. p. 456, 509.
55
HISTORY OF WOBURN.
schools, likewise, they generally approved, as very necessary aids in families in which the parents could not read themselves, for teaching the children to read the Bible, and to repeat the Cate- chism,-exercises accounted at that time as alike indispensable to the youth of all classes and occupations in society. But then at that day, few or none of the young men of Woburn seem to have manifested a predilection for a professional life; in which alone, it was generally supposed there, that classical literature could be useful. And there were not then many families in the place, especially in the outskirts of the town, but could more conveniently teach their children to read at home, or in small private schools kept in their immediate vicinity, and maintained by themselves, than they could send them to a common school at a distance from their thinly-scattered dwellings, and over their rough and widely separated roads. Hence, when agreeably to law, they founded both a common and a grammar school in or near the centre of their settlement, for such children as might be sent to them, none went at first to the grammar school, and but few seemingly attended the common school. As the labor of teaching these few was comparatively but light, so the com- pensation allowed for it was but small; and as it was per- formed, such as it was, quite as ably by women as by men, so the Selectmen made no distinction in the wages of either, but paid instructors of each sex alike.
With regard to the moral and religious character of the early inhabitants of Woburn, the principal source of information at the present day is the Town Records; and these exhibit many traces of that high standard of virtue and piety, drawn from the Word of God, which the Puritan settlers of New England had generally adopted, and of the strenuous measures which they took to secure a prevailing conformity to it. They disclose many facts, which go to show the predominance of a correct moral sense in the primitive settlers of this place, and which indicate an earnest desire on their part, and especially on the part of the civil fathers of the town, for the suppression of vice and irreligion, and for the promotion of good morals and strict picty among themselves and their children after them.
56
HISTORY OF WOBURN.
Nor does it detract materially from the weight of their evidence on this head, that these facts do in many instances relate to measures of the Selectmen, taken in compliance with the then existing laws of the country. In arbitrary governments, external obedience to laws even of a good moral tendency, originating as they do solely in the will, and enforced by the coercive arm of the sovereign, is no certain sign of virtue in the people. But in such a government as ours has been from the beginning, where the laws have always proceeded from the will, and been executed with the consent of a majority of the people, ready and prev- alent obedience to such laws is a strong token at least of general soundness of morals. Under such a government, the passing of good laws for the prevention and punishment of vice and crime, and for the encouragement of virtuous manners and habits, and the impartial, undisturbed, execution of them, both combined, constitute a powerful argument of the prevalence of correct moral sentiment in any community ; for without such a sentiment, they would hardly have been enacted, much less would they have been enforced, without opposition. And, therefore, whenever in a free community we see such laws for the promo- tion of virtue and piety made, and not suffered to remain a dead letter on the Statute Book, but promptly, quietly and without resistance carried into effect, there, we may reasonably presume, that sound morals and real religion do generally predominate. And much evidence of this description have we, beside some other, that your early ancestors were generally exemplary in their moral and religious character and habits.
1. The first settlers of Woburn, and their immediate descend- ants were a very industrious, as well as a hardy, courageous race of men. According to the testimony of Capt. Edward Johnson, who was one of them, and a principal sharer in all their toils and hardships, they were " very laborious, if not exceeding, some of them." 27 They were frugal of their time, diligent in their respective occupations and callings, and gave no countenance to idleness or dissipation. And, accordingly, we
37 Wonderworking Providence, Book II., Chap. XXII.
57
HISTORY OF WOBURN.
find the Selectmen of those times exercising their authority, in one instance at least, in passing censure upon an individual of highly respectable connections, who was indolent and improvi- dent in his habits. At a meeting of the Selectmen, Jan. 13, 1698-9, " John Carter, Jun., was sent for, and animadverted [upon] for mispending his time, and admonished to improve it better for the futer, or else he might expect some other cource would be taken."28 Economy of time was indeed in that day a virtue, to which dire necessity compelled, as well as correct principle inclined them. And as proofs as well as fruits of their prevailing, virtuous industry, great changes were wrought in their condition for the better, during the first fifty years from the settlement of the town. On coming hither to take up their abode, they found no convenient houses to shelter them, or fields prepared for culture. All around them was a dense forest, or a dreary waste, infested with wolves,29 and traversed as yet by no human beings, except savage Indians, the report or experience of whose occasional cruelties could not but keep
28 Town Records, Vol. IV., p. 125.
29 The following passages, from the Records, indicate that wolves origi- nally were numerous and destructive in Woburn : --
"Izack Brooks haueing ingaiged to set traps from time to time in a spring betweene Wood hill and Maple 'medow Playne to cach Wolues, hee haueing bin at Charge to alure [allure] the wolues thether; all other per- sons are prohibited to set any traps at the same place, soe long as Izack Brooks liueth, and shall goe on to improue it for the same end or use." - Records, Vol. I., p. 52, Gent Meeting 24 : 12 mo : 1673. [24 Feb., 1673-4.] The town is Cr., 1676, by cash paid " To Francis Kendall for a wolfe 00:10:00.
"To widow Nutting for a wolfe 00:10:00.
"To Izack Brooks for a wolfe 00:10:00."
(Records, Vol. II., p. 56.)
1677. " To Izack Brooks, wolues, by County's order 03:00:00.
(Records, Vol. II., p. 65.)
17 :7mo. 1677. " To Izack Brooks, for a wolfe 00:10:00."
(Records, Vol. II., p. 74.)
In 1677. " To Izack Brooks, for two wolues [two wolves] 01:00:00." (Records, Vol. II., p. 84.)
Among other noted places in Woburn, in former days, was " the Ould Wolfe penne."- Records, Vol. I., p. 88.
58
HISTORY OF WOBURN.
them in a state of constant anxiety, fear or alarm. Their first dwellings were but mean buildings; and their provision of food for some years, it is likely, was quite as plain, precarious and scanty, as that of the Indians to whom they had succeeded. But in the course of fifty years, the Indians had been beaten and effectually checked in Philip's war, in the dangers and hard- ships of which, the inhabitants of Woburn (as I may have occasion to show hereafter) bore their part. The ferocious wolves they had driven back in good measure from their borders to remote forests, and kept them at bay there. Their patient, persevering labor had gradually subdued their rough, uncultivated soil. And the close of half a century from the foundation of the town found them, generally speaking, in possession of thriving farms and orchards, of houses far more commodions than the first, and furnished with many of the com- forts and delights of life.
2. The records furnish pleasing evidence, that the primitive inhabitants of the town were generally speaking, a just people ; lovers of equity and fairness of dealing. We there find the Selectmen repeatedly interposing ( as the laws empowered them to do) to punish oppression. And the specimens there exhibited of the bargains and covenants made by the Selectmen themselves with individuals in the town's employ, or to whom they leased its common lands, while they discover great shrewdness and foresight to save the town from harm, do also manifest a com- mendable disposition to deal honorably and equitably with those with whom they had to do. Take the following, as instances of their dislike of hard dealing.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.