USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Lancaster > The story of colonial Lancaster (Massachusetts) > Part 2
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It is easy, in the light of modern views, to sneer at their narrow- ness, and to scoff at the sentiments expressed in this covenant, which was signed by all the heads of families in the Plantation. However, it is well to consider conditions at that time, and to remember that every act of the Colonists was watched jealously in England. By their oath of loyalty they agreed to stand together. By restricting suffrage, they kept out such adventurers as flock to every new land with wild notions of government.
They needed men of character. They did not actually compel church membership, but they held up power as a prize to those who, by joining the church, became freemen.
Whatever their former station in life, or however large their worldly possessions, they must sign the agreement of equality.
It is important to notice how similar were their ideals, in plan- ning the government of this town, to those written into the Colonial State Papers a hundred years later, and, later still, into the Constitution of the United States.
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The first page of the town's records is a copy of the "Courts Grant," "At a General Court of Election held at Boston the 18th of May 1653." Its third decree is, in part, that the bounds of the town "shall be set out according to a deed of the Indian Sagamore, viz: Nashaway River at the passing over to be the Center, five miles north, five miles south, five miles east and three miles west."
The fourth article mentions by name Edward Breck, Nathaniel Hadlock, William Kerley, Thomas Sawyer, John Prescott, and Ralph Houghton as the "prudential men" to look after the affairs of the town until such time when "the Place be so fair seated with able men" that the Court shall judge it wise to give them full liberties as a township.
Only three of these men were freemen, and by the death of Hadlock they were short of a legal quorum. However, they pro- ceeded to draw up a "covenant of laws and orders" which served for many years as a Constitution by which to administer the affairs of the town. Every man who was accepted as a citizen was required to sign this covenant. There were fifty-five signatures between 1653 and 1660.
Having completed this organization, the townsmen applied themselves to making their town into a comfortable Christian community, such as they had dreamed of establishing before they left England.
First they divided the land in generous portions for homes -twenty acres of upland for dwelling places, and twenty acres of intervale for planting. Then the meadows, as they called the natural grass lands, were divided according to their estates- four acres "wherever found in the town to each one hundred pound of estate."
The first legal town meetings were in 1654. At the first meeting "the plantacion upon legall warning assembled" confirmed the acts of the "prudential" men. At another town meeting it was voted that not more than thirty-five families should be taken into the town. The English greed of land was strong, but this short-sighted policy was short-lived.
The Christian sagamore Sholan, died during the fall of 1654. Reverend John Eliot and Mr. Increase Nowell were at once sent by the Court to urge the Indians at Washacum to elect Matthew, a nephew of Sholan, as Sholan's successor. They were successful.
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No quarrel with the Indians had marred relations and the planters were anxious that the new sachem should be one who would continue the friendship. There was another chief, also in line of succession, who was dreaded on account of his drunken habits and dislike of the colonists.
Looking back over three centuries, in the light of the many tragedies which followed, it is hard to realize the friendly intimacy in which the white men and the Indians were then living, or how little the planters could then even guess the possibility of the horrors to come. They hardly would have had courage to go on.
But there was another side to the story. Some reckoning had to follow for the clandestine selling of rum and firearms to the red men, as well as for the greed and unfair dealings which made the white men hated. In the end they paid-and heavily.
THE COVENANT
We whose names are subscribed upon the receiving and accept- ance of our several lands and allotments, with all appurtenances thereof, from those men who were chosen by the general court to lay out and dispose of the lands within the town of Lancaster, heretofore called by the name of Nashaway, do hereby covenant and bind ourselves, our heirs, executors and assigns, to the observ- ing and keeping of these orders and agreements hereafter mentioned and expressed.
First, for the maintainance of the ministry of God's holy word, we do allow, covenant and agree that there be laid out, stated and established, and we do hereby estate and establish as church land, with all the privileges and appurtenances thereunto belonging forever, thirty acres of upland, and forty acres of intervale land, and twelve acres of meadow, with free liberty of commons, for pasture and firewood: the said lands to be improved by the plantation, or otherwise, in such order as shall be best advised and concluded by the plantation, without rent-paying for the same, until the labors of the planters, or those who do improve the same be fully satisfied; and we do agree that the plantation, or selectmen shall determine the time how long any man shall hold and improve the said lands for the profit thereof, and then to be rented, according to the yearly value thereof, and paid in to such persons as the plantation or selectmen shall appoint, to and for the use of and towards the maintainance of the minister, pastor or teacher, for the time being, or whomsoever may be stated to preach the word of God among us. Or it may be in the choice of the minister to improve the lands himself.
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And further, we do covenant and agree to build a convenient meetinghouse for the public assembling of the church and people of God to worship God, according to His holy ordinances, in the most equal and convenient place that may be advised and con- cluded by the plantation.
And to build a house for the minister upon the said church land.
And further we do engage and covenant every one for himself, his heirs, executors and assigns, to pay to, and for the use of the ministry abovesaid, the sum of ten shillings a year, as for and in consideration of our home lots yearly forever,-our home lots to stand engaged for the payment thereof; and what all this shall fall short of a competent maintainance, we covenant to make up by equal rate, upon the goods and other improved lands (not home lots), in such way and order as the country rate is raised. And in case of a vacancy of a minister, the maintainance arising from the church land and home lots above mentioned, shall be paid to such as shall be appointed, for the use of a school, to be as a stock; or as stock towards the maintainance of the minister, as the plan- tation or the selectmen shall think meetest.
And for the better promoting and setting forward of the plan- tation, we covenant and agree that such person or persons of us who have not inhabited this plantation heretofore, and are yet to come to build, improve and inhabit, that we will (by the will of God), come up to build, to plant land, and to inhabit at or before one whole year be passed, next after our acceptance of our allot- ments, or else to lose all our charges about it, and our lots to return to the plantation, and to pay five pounds for the use of the plan- tation.
And for the better preserving of the purity of religion and our- selves from infection of error, we covenant not to distribute allot- ments and to receive into the plantation as inhabitants any excom- municate, or otherwise profane and scandalous (known so to be), nor any notoriously erring against the doctrine and discipline of the churches, and the state and government of this Commonweal.
And for the better preserving of peace and love, and yet to keep the rules of justice and equity among ourselves, we covenant not to go to law one with another in actions of debt or damages, one towards another, either in name or state, but to end all such con- troversies among ourselves by arbitration or otherwise, except in cases capital or criminal, that sin may not go unpunished, or that the matter be above our abilities to judge of, and that it be with the consent of the plantation, or selectmen thereof.
And for the laying out, measuring and bounding of our allot- ments of this first division, and for and towards the satisfying of our engagements to the General Court, to make payment for pur- chase of the Indians, we covenant to pay ten shillings, every one of us, for our several allotments to the selectmen, or whom they may appoint to receive it.
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And whereas lots are now laid out, for the most part, equally to rich and poor, partly to keep the town from scattering too far, and partly out of charity, and respect to men of meaner estate, yet that equality (which is the rule of God), may be observed, we covenant and agree that in a second division, and so through all other divisions of land, the matter shall be drawn as near to equal- ity according to men's estates, as we are able to do, that he which hath now more than his estate deserveth, in home lots and interval lots, shall have so much less; and he that hath now less than his estate deserveth, shall have so much more. And that we may the better keep due proportion, we covenant and agree thus to account of men's estates, viz., ten pounds a head for every person, and all other goods by due value, and to proportion to every ten pounds, three acres of land-two of upland and one of interval- and we give a year's liberty to every man to bring in his estate.
Yet nevertheless, it is to be understood that we do not hereby prejudice or bar the plantation from accommodating any man by gift of land (which properly are not allotments); but we do reserve that in the free power of the plantation as occasion may hereafter be offered. And in case the planter's estate be low, that he can claim nothing in other divisions, yet it is to be understood that he shall enjoy all the land of the first division.
And further we covenant that if any planter does desire to have his proportion in the second division, it shall be granted.
And further we covenant to lay out meadow lands according to the present estates of the planters with respect to be had to remote- ness or nearness,-of that which is remote, to give the more, and of that which is near, to give the less.
And concerning the thirty acres of upland, and forty acres of interval above granted as church land, it is agreed and concluded to lie bounded by John Prescott's ditch upon the south, and the North river, over against Lawrence Waters upon the north, and so ranging along westward.
And for the preventing of inconveniences, and the more peaceable issuing of the business about building of a meetinghouse, it is considered and concluded as the most equal place, that the meeting- house be builded as near to the church land and to the neck of land as it can be without any notable inconvenience.
And it is also agreed that in all parts and quarters of the town, where sundry lots do lie together, they shall be fenced by a com- mon fence, according to proportion of acres by every planter, and yet not to bar any man from particular and private inclosure at his pleasure.
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CHAPTER IV
1654
The Prudential Men Need Help-A Minister is Settled-John Prescott Builds a Gristmill-A Survey of Town Bounds is Made.
THE PRUDENTIAL MEN FOUND THEIR TASK OF RUNNING AFFAIRS of the town neither easy nor pleasant, and they disagreed among themselves. At the beginning, the plan of settlement was for two groups of house lots, about a mile apart, with the North river and the intervales lying between. Although the divisions of land were made by casting lots, much bickering arose, and hard feelings resulted. It is said that family traits, long evident in generations to follow, then began to appear.
In the covenant it was agreed "to end all differences by arbitra- tion" and, notwithstanding the fact that seven new families had come to town, the Prudential Men agreed to invite three men as arbitrators from outside towns. These men chosen were Major Simon Willard, of Concord, Captain Edward Johnson, of Woburn, and Thomas Danforth of Cambridge. They met in April 1656 at John Prescott's house and settled, by their "determinacions," twenty-four mooted questions. The settlements made by these commissioners are recorded.
The minister's salary was fixed at fifty pounds a year.
The first county road was laid out-a way to Concord. This road began near the cross roads in South Lancaster and ran northerly to the first church, which stood on the highest ground in what is now the middle cemetery, passing on down the hill to the shallows in the North River, a few rods above the Sprague bridge. Thence it followed very nearly the present road to the Neck corner, then turned south over the Penecook river to the Bay Path or Sudbury Road.
Town meetings usually were held on training days. Every able- bodied male between the ages of sixteen and sixty was obliged to be present for drill on these occasions. There were eight of these
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training days each year, usually on Saturdays. The warnings for a town meeting were given to each voter, by the constable in person, or from house to house.
Well might the Nashaway Planters have wished to honor their neighbor by naming the township for him, for no sooner had the organization of the town been secured than we see John Prescott turning his attention to a new enterprise-the building of a corn mill. Up to this time grain had been carried to a Watertown mill, or else ground by hard labor in a hand quirn, or parched and then "brayed" in a mortar as the Indians did it, or softened with lye, hulled, and crushed. It must have given great pleasure to every man, woman and child-for the children had to do their share-to sign the following agreement: "This witnesseth that we the inhabitants of Lancaster for his encouragement in so good a work for the behoofe of our Towne ***** *do freely give, grant, enfeoffe, & confirme unto the said John Prescott, thirty acres of intervale land lying upon the North river*and ten acres of land adjoyneing the mill: and forty acres of Land on the Southeast of the mill brooke ** ** in such place as the said John Prescott shall choose ********* his heyeres and assignes forever." Moreover, they promised to lend him five pounds, in current money, for one year, for the buying of irons for the mill, and not to tax the mill for seven years "first finishing and setting the said mill to worke."
A "memorandum" records an important event-"Jno Prescott finished his mill, & began to grind corne the 23rd day of the 3 mo, 1654."
This "so good a work" was but the beginning of Prescott's long and useful service. The site of Prescott's mill was on the brook just below the old factory, near the foot of Water street in Clinton. Then it was reached by the "mill path" from the home- stead at the foot of George Hill. Prescott's watermill was built only twenty years later than the oldest water mill in New England. Soon Prescott built a new home near the mill.
Having agreed in the Covenant to establish Church lands, to build a meeting house in a convenient place, to build a house for the minister upon the church land, to pay ten shillings a year toward the minister's salary and, finally, to hire a minister, the citizens of the town prepared to carry out their plans.
To this little church in the wilderness they called Reverend
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Joseph Rowlandson, then twenty-two years old and just out of Harvard College, the only graduate of the class of 1652. In spite of the fact that he had barely escaped the whipping-post for a college prank-the writing and posting upon Ispwich Meeting- house of some doggerel verses, which the authorities had called a "scandalous libell"-he seems to have won at once the love and respect of his flock, and to have asserted his dignity in matters of church discipline.
His father and mother came to Lancaster with him. The father, Thomas Rowlandson, died in 1657 and his widow, Bridget, mother of the minister, married the next year William Kerley, Sr. and lived until 1662.
Within two years of his coming the young minister had married Mary White, a daughter of his richest parishioner, and had taken her home to the parsonage, built for him in a central position between the two villages, on the knoll to the southeast of what is now known as Thayer's pond.
The site chosen for the meeting house was a short distance southeast of the parsonage, on the highest ground in the present Middle cemetery; and a long narrow knoll, since separated by the railroad, was set apart for a burial ground.
The minister's salary was a heavy burden upon his flock-so few and so poor-and there seems to have been some delay in payment, for suddenly it became known that a messenger had come from Billerica "to fetch Master Rowlandson away." Imme- diately the town fathers met at the now complete meeting-house, and, finding that Master Rowlandson had decided to go to Billerica, "they debated at some length upon his resolve." Finally, they voted unanimously to invite him "to abide and settle amongst them in the worke of the ministrie," and to allow him fifty pounds a year, one half in wheat, and the rest in "other good curant pay." They also agreed to give him the dwelling house which he lived in as his own, and some land, east, west, and north of his house for "an orchard, garden, yards, pasture and the like."
Mr. Rowlandson accepted their offer and thanked them, promis- ing to abide with them "in the best manor." He had begun to preach in 1654, but was not ordained until 1660.
We have no way of knowing what this first house for public worship, or the first parsonage, looked like. They must have been constructed of logs or hewn timbers, stone and clay; for Prescott's
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saw-mill was not in operation when they were built. Without doubt it was the best house in the settlement, for the Puritan's reverence for "the cloth" was always apparent.
The Rowlandsons had four children. The first, Mary, died at the age of three. A second Mary was born later, also another daughter, Sarah. Their only son was Joseph, born in 1661.
A few glimpses of their family life we get from Mrs. Rowland- son's book, written in after years, but there is little in the recorded facts to cast light upon the doings of the women in the town. We know that the women and children herded the sheep and cattle in the daytime, and at night drove them into the "night pasture." With few conveniences, they must have been very busy providing food for their large families.
The General Court had decreed in 1653 that the bounds of the town should be laid out "according to a deede of the Indian sagamore."
The services of the two men designated by the court to carry out the decree could not be obtained, so consent was given for employment of Ensign Thomas Noyes of Sudbury. The measure- ments were made by carrying a chain, and an "allowance" was made for the sag of the chain-about one rod in thirty. Job Whit- comb and young Jacob Farrar were chosen to carry the chain.
The survey was not made until nearly six years after the decree; then thirteen years elapsed before it had formal approval. Thomas Noyes was an experienced surveyor, and his survey is explicit, but it was not run on an exact east-and-west or north-and-south line. "The wading place of the Nashaway" must have been very near the meeting of the waters of the north and south branches of the river. The middle of a north and south line through the old township would be close by it, and it is little more than three miles from the original western boundary. Historians practically agree that the shallows very near the Atherton bridge was the point from which Noyes started his survey.
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CHAPTER V
1654-1657
First Justice of the Peace, John Tinker-Major Simon Willard- John Prescott's Saw-mill.
THE FIRST PAGES OF LANCASTER'S OLDEST RECORDS ARE IN THE quaint handwriting of Master John Tinker, who acted as scribe for the Prudential Men. He was made a freeman in 1654, and was one of the town's first selectmen. He seems to have been entrusted with a large part in the management of the town's affairs. When, in 1655, a petition went up for "Groton a new plantation ********** formerly known by the name of Petapawag," Tinker joined the petitioners, and, in the grant, was appointed one of the selectmen of that town. He was at that time and after- wards an Indian trader, buying from the native hunters, beaver, otter, and other furs then abundant in the neighborhood. That he paid for a part of them in "strong waters" is shown in a court record for 1655, when he was fined ten shillings "for selling now & then a gill **** to the Indians," contrary to law.
He seems, to have divided his time for a year or two, between Lancaster and Groton, for in 1658 he paid eight pounds for his license as a trader "of Nashaway and Groaten for ye year." But Lancaster wanted him. They gave him twenty acres in a good central location described as "Gibson's Hill," in Lancaster now covered by the Nathaniel Thayer mansion. He purchased from Richard Smith the original house and lot of Lawrence Waters, across the North river. Thus he owned the land upon the river - what is now the Unitarian parsonage-and the hill to the south of it, covering in all about forty acres. He also bought a house and lot next to Prescott's home on the slope of George hill.
Only John Tinker and Reverend Joseph Rowlandson shared the honor of "Mr." prefixed to their names. This would show that Tinker was either a graduate of some university, or had held a high social position in England. He was honored and prosperous. He seems to have suffered from poor health. He may be considered
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Lancaster's first Justice of the Peace, for he was given special authority in 1658, to perform marriage ceremonies.
For some unknown reason Master Tinker sold his Lancaster estate and removed to Connecticut. We find him returning to Pequid, now New London, in 1659, where he won respect and distinction, and where, at the height of his career, he died in 1662. The esteem in which he was held there is shown in the fact that the expenses of his illness and funeral were paid from the state treasury.
Tinker's Lancaster property now passed into the hands of Major Simon Willard. By vote of selectmen of the town in 1658, this honorable gentleman who had been appointed by the General Court to the committee of three, to help administer the affairs of the town-was invited very cordially "to come to inhabit amongst us." Major Willard's name heads the list of those who petitioned the General Court in 1663 for independence from outside help and advice, and the right to manage their own affairs. The Court did not get around to grant the request for nearly ten years; and during that time, and for many years thereafter Major Willard continued to act as counselor.
Lancaster was very generous in making land grants to Major Willard. He took up his residence here in 1658, acquired the rights of John Tinker, and probably resided on the Waters lot. A grant of 500 acres, now included in the town of Ayer, then called Nonacoicus, was given him in payment of a debt by a Pautucket Sagamore. There were other tracts in Still River and near Bear Hill in Harvard, still in the possession of Major Willard's descendants. Families claiming descent from this honorable gentlemen are spread over the United States, and once a year they assemble to pay him tribute.
Major Simon Willard was born in Horsemonden, Kent, England, in 1605. The record of his birth can be seen in the village church there. He came to New England with his first wife, Mary Sharpe, and daughter Mary, in 1634, and settled in Concord, where he resided until he was invited to take up his residence in Lancaster. Before coming to Lancaster he had attained the highest rank then recognized in military grades, that of Sergeant-major. He had three wives and seventeen children.
Upon the marriage of his daughter Mary to Cyprian Stevens in 1672, Major Willard deeded his Lancaster home and lands to
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his son-in-law, and moved to Nonacoicus (Ayer). His sons, Simon and Henry, lived upon the Still River farms. The lands in that part of the town's territory, at different times granted to Major Willard covered around 500 acres, in addition to the Nonacoicus farm.
The Willard home in Lancaster must have been of ample pro- portions to have accommodated his large family, to have enabled him to entertain as a magistrate, also to be used as a garrison and military headquarters. We know that it must have been a sub- stantial structure, either of brick or stone, as it was partially blown up when it was abandoned, in 1676, which would not have been necessary had it been of wood.
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