USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Groton > Three historical addresses at Groton, Massachusetts > Part 12
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The early settlers did not believe much in outward cere- mony; and the new meeting-house was never formally dedicated by a special service. Perhaps, when the house was first opened for worship, Mr. Trowbridge preached a sermon in keeping with the occasion; and very likely in his prayer he made some allusion to the event. We are told that the prayer of the righteous man availeth much. The homage paid to the Creator of the universe each Sunday, both by the pulpit and the pews, would consecrate any such structure to its high purpose. Simple in their religious faith, the worshippers had no use for ecclesiastical forms. Not alone by their words, but by their thoughts, they dedi- cated the meeting-house. Sometimes words not spoken have more meaning than those which are uttered.
The Common, in front of the present meeting-house, was a place closely connected with the life of the town. Here at an early period the two militia companies used to meet and drill at regular times, known as training-days. On the Common the two companies of minute-men rallied on the morning of that eventful nineteenth of April, and received their ammunition from the town's stock, which was stored in the Powder-house near by. Here they took farewell of friends and families, knowing full well the responsible
157
duties that rested on their shoulders, and the dangers that threatened them. These men marched hence on that memo- rable day as British subjects, but they came back as in- dependent citizens who never knew again the authority of a king.
In that house Mr. Dana, a young and rising lawyer of Groton, pronounced a eulogy on General Washington, which was delivered on Saturday, February 22, 1800, a few weeks after his death. The military companies of the town attended the exercises. Miss Elizabeth Farns- worth (1791-1884) as a little girl was present on the occasion, and Mrs. Sarah (Capell) Gilson ( 1793-1890), though not present at the exercises, remembered the event ; and they both gave me their faint recollections of the day.
The meeting-house was remodelled in the year 1839, when it was partially turned round, and the north end of the building made the front, facing the west, as it now stands. Formerly the road to the easterly part of the town went diagonally across the Common, and passed down the hill to the south of the meeting-house; and there was no highway on the north side. Before this change in the build- ing was made, the town-meetings were always held in the body of the house; and the voting was done in front of the pulpit. In my mind's eye I can see now the old pulpit, with the sounding-board overhead, which I well remember.
The town-clock in the steeple, so familiar to every man, woman, and child in Groton, was made by James Ridg- way, and placed in the tower some time during the spring of 1809. It was paid for in part by the town, and in part by private subscription. Mr. Ridgway was a silver- smith and a clock-maker, who during the war with Eng- land (1812-1815) carried on a large business in this neighborhood. He afterward removed to Keene, New Hampshire, where he lived for many years. His shop was situated on Main Street, nearly opposite to the Groton Inn, but it disappeared a long time ago.
158
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The bell of the meeting-house was cast in the year 1819 by Revere and Son, Boston, and, according to the inscrip- tion, weighs 1128 pounds.
On this interesting occasion we are all glad to have present with us the venerable Zara Patch, a native of Groton and the oldest inhabitant of the town. His an- cestry in both branches of the family runs back nearly to the beginning of the settlement, and in his person is rep- resented some of the best blood of old Groton stock; and we welcome him at this time. He is the last survivor of nineteen citizens who signed the call for the due observ- ance of the bi-centennial anniversary, on October 31, 1855, which was issued in the preceding May.
Fifty years ago the town had a celebration of the two- hundredth anniversary of its settlement, similar to the one we are now holding. On that occasion Governor Boutwell was President of the day, and the Reverend Arthur Buck- minster Fuller, a younger brother of Margaret Fuller, - of a family once resident here, - made the historical ad- dress, which was delivered in the Congregational Meeting- house. Colonel Eusebius Silsby Clark, who lost his life in the War of the Rebellion, at Winchester, Virginia, on October 17, 1864, was the Chief Marshal. Of his six aids on that day John Warren Parker and myself are the sole survivors, and the only representatives of those who had an official connection with the exercises; and now we are left the last two leaves on the branch. At that celebration Mr. Parker was also one of the Committee of Arrange- ments; and we are all glad to see him present on this occasion.
Groton is a small town, but there are those who love her and cherish her good name and fame. She has been the mother of many a brave son and many a fair daugh- ter, dutiful children who through generations "arise up and call her blessed." She is the Mount Zion of a large household. Of her numerous family, from the nursling to the aged, by her example she has spared no pains to make them useful citizens and worthy members of society.
159
In former years she was relatively a much more important town than she is now. At the time of the first national census in 1790, in population Groton was the second town in Middlesex County, Cambridge alone surpassing it. In order to learn the true value of some communities, and to give the inhabitants of Groton their proper rank, they should be weighed and not counted; and by this standard it will be found that the town has not lost even in rela- tive importance. Bigness and greatness by no means are synonymous words, and in their significance there is a wide difference. In all our thoughts and all our deeds, let us do as well by the town as she has done by us.
Fellow Townsmen and Neighbors, - the stint you set me is now done. On my part it has proved to be not a task, but a labor of love. If anything that I may have said shall spur others to study the history of an old town that was typical of life among plain folk in the early days of New England, and one that has left an honorable record during the various periods of its existence, my aim will have been reached.
APPENDIX
APPENDIX
The Name of Groton
I AM indebted to the courtesy of Dr. Edward Mussey Hartwell for the following paper on the origin of the name of Groton. From any other source I could not have ob- tained such a scholarly essay on the subject; and it places me under great obligations to him. Dr. Hartwell passed his boyhood in Littleton, where his father's family be- longed; and he fitted for college mostly at Lawrence Academy, so that he has inherited an historical interest in the neighborhood.
STATISTICS DEPARTMENT. BOSTON, July 3, 1905.
HON. SAMUEL A. GREEN, Librarian,
Massachusetts Historical Society.
DEAR DR. GREEN, - What follows contains the gist of my notes on Groton. For the sake of conciseness and brevity, I forbear (1) from fully describing the sources whence my cita- tions are derived, and (2) from quotation of authorities re- garding the linguistic affinities of the components of the word Groton. However, I may say that I can support every state- ment by documentary evidence that seems conclusive to me.
Groton occurs as a place name both in England and the United States. Groton in England, which is situated in the County of Suffolk, appears to be a small parish of some 1560 acres, of which 39 are in common. The "Dictionnaire des Bureaux de Poste " published at Berne in 1895, gives six post- offices in various parts of the United States having the name of Groton. Two of them, viz., Groton, Massachusetts, and Groton, Connecticut, date from Colonial times, i. e., from 1655 and 1705 respectively, and numbered among their original grantees or proprietors members of the Winthrop family whose ancestral seat was Groton in the Babenberg Hundred, County Suffolk, England, whence it is reasonable to suppose all Grotons in this country have derived their name. Among them Groton, Mass., is the most ancient. The name (spelt Groaten ) appears
164 /~
in a vote of the General Court dated May 29, 1655, to grant a new plantation at Petapawag to Mr. Deane Winthrop and others. In later records of the General Court, e. g., May 26, 1658, the form Groten appears ; and in the same records under date of November 12, 1659, both Groten and Groaten appear.
The Manor of Groton in Babenberg Hundred in the Liberty of St. Edmund and the County of Suffolk, England, according to the Domesday Book (1086) belonged to the Abbey of Bury St. Edmund's in the time of Edward the Confessor ( 1042- 1065). In 1544 the request of Adam Wynthorpe to purchase " the Farm of the Manor of Groton ( Suffolk ) late of the Mon- astery of Bury St. Edmund's " was granted by Henry VIII. (into whose hands it had come when the monasteries were sup- pressed) for the sum of £408. 185. 3d. Governor John Win- throp, grandson of Adam Wynthorpe, was Lord of the Manor of Groton in 1618. In 1630 or 1631 he sold his interest therein for £4,200. I find the name of this manor spelt variously at different times as follows :
I. Grotena (a) in Domesday Book in 1086.
(b) in Jocelin de Brakelond's Chronicle in 1200.
(c) in the Hundred Rolls in 1277.
2. Grotene (a) in Joc. de Brakelond about 1200. (b) in the Patent Rolls, 1291 and 1298.
3. Grotona in Joc. de Brakelond about 1200.
4. Grotone (a) in Joc. de Brakelond about 1200. (b) in the Patent Rolls in 1423.
(c) in Dugdale's citation of a MS. of 1533.
(a) in Dugdale's citation of a MS. of 14th Century.
5. Groton
(b) in Records of the Augmentation Office, 1541 and 1544.
Jocelin de Brakelond was a monk of Bury St. Edmund's who, as Chaplain of the Abbot, wrote the Chronicle which bears his name. It covers the period 1173-1203, i. e., the incumbency of Abbot Samson. The frequent mention of Groton in this Chronicle, written just at the beginning of the thirteenth cen- tury, may be accounted for by the fact that the Abbey and cer- tain claimants named de Cokefeld had a law-suit over lands at Groton.
Since 1541 Groton appears to have been the form of the name of the English manor, parish or hamlet. It may be remarked : (1) that " de Grotena " is found as a personal name in the Hundred Rolls, 1297; and " de Grotton " in the Scotch Rolls, 1327; while a holding named Grotton, " late of the Monastery
165
of Delacres in Staffordshire," is mentioned in the records of the Augmentation Office, 1547; and Grotton, a railway station in Lancashire, is mentioned in a " Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales," a recent but undated work.
The Latinized " in Grotena " and " Grotenam " of the Domes- day Book give rise to the suggestion that Groten has the force of an adjective (meaning gravelly, gritty, stony or sandy), which served to characterize a tract of land, or perhaps a hill, a pit, a ham, or a ton. I take grot to be one form of the Old English greót, grut (Middle English, greet, gret, and Modern English, grit), meaning gravel.
The following is a series of forms in which variants of greót seem to have an adjectival force :
(1) Greotan edesces lond, relating to land in Kent, in a charter dated 822. Possibly greotan may stand for greatan, meaning big.
(2) Gretenlinkes, in Hampshire, in a land charter of 966.
(3) Gretindun (later Gretton in Dorsetshire), mentioned in a charter of 1019.
(4) Gretenhowe, the name of Gretna in Scotland, in 1376.
(5) Grotintune, a manor in Shropshire, Domesday Book, 1086.
(6) Gratenton (?), a manor in Berkshire, Domesday Book, 1086.
On the other hand, the form Greotan may be the dative plural of greot (for greotum?) used in a locative sense "at the gravels," since Gravelai and Gravelei occur as place names in Domesday Book and Gravell occurs in the Hundred Rolls, temp. Edw. I.
The following scheme, derived from various standard lexi- cons, exhibits the etymological affinities of Greot (grit) :
Old Middle Modern
Saxon Griot, griet, greot, German, and Norse.
cf. English and cf. English, German
English Greót, grut, grot, grit, gryt, gret,
Greót, Greet, Grit, grot, grout.
High German Grioz, Griesz, Gries, Gruse, Graus.
Norse:
Icelandic Grjót (griot), Grjót
Grjot, Gryttn.
Danish and
Norwegian Grjót,
Grjót, Gryt(e), Gruus, Grus, Gryttn. Grus, Grytt.
Swedish
Old Frisian gret.
Low German grott.
I66
Grot, for greót, appears to be an old and rather rare form. It should be stated that British place (and personal) names having Gret are much more numerous than those having Grot in the first syllable. Gretton is the name of several manors men- tioned in Domesday, e. g., the present Girton ( formerly called Gritton) (cf. Girton College), near Cambridge (Cambs.) and Gretton in Northamptonshire, still called Gretton. The last was Gretton (gryttune in 1060), Greton in 1086, Gretton in 1277, 1678, and 1895.
Other forms besides Gretton are: Gret-a = Gritwater, a stream in Cumberland, cf. Greta-marsc (= Grit-water-marsh ?), 821; Greta-bridge == Gritwater bridge, Gret-ford, Gret-ham, Gret-land, Gret-well. Southey, the poet, lived at Greta Hall.
Gretá river in Cumberland had its counterpart in Grjótá, in the eleventh century in Iceland, translated Gritwater by Dasent in " The Burnt Nial." Gryttnbakki = Gravel hill or Gravel bank, is the name of (I) a modern post-office in Iceland and (2) another in Denmark. Grytten is a place name of today in Norway.
The Icelandic (Old Norse) Grjót-garth meant stone fence. Akin to garth (gard) are the Norwegian gaard and Swedish gard, a landed estate or homestead; and the English Cloister- garth, yard, garden, and orchard (ort-geard).
Ton in Groton, Boston, etc., is related to M. E. Ton (Tone), O. E. tun, tune, O. Norse tún, O. Frisian tún, O. H. German taun, and German zaun, a hedge or fence. Ton and tun origi- nally meaning an enclosing hedge or fence, meant also, field, yard, manor, hamlet, village and town or city.
Garth (yard) presents a parallel series of similar meanings, e. g., O. Norse for Constantinople was Myckel-gaard, i. e., the Great City.
I think that Groton stands for Grot-ton (cf. Gretton, Grit- ton) and is practically equivalent to the Icelandic Grjót-garth, and that your suggestion in 1876 as to the meaning of Groton was a happy one. Floreat Grotena!
Yours faithfully,
EDWARD M. HARTWELL.
167
List of Indian Words
The following Indian names, applied by the early settlers to streams, ponds, or places, in the original township of Groton and neighborhood, for the most part are still in common use. The spelling of these words varies, as at first they were written according to their sound and not ac- cording to their derivation. In the absence of any correct standard either of spelling or pronunciation, which always characterizes an unwritten language, the words have be- come so twisted and distorted that much of their original meaning is lost; but their root generally remains. It is rare to find an Indian word in an early document spelled twice alike. In the lapse of time these verbal changes have been so great that an Indian now would hardly recognize any of them by sound. Even with all these drawbacks such words furnish one of the few links in a chain of historical facts connecting modern times with the prehistoric period of New England. As the shards that lie scattered around the site of old Indian dwellings are eagerly picked up by the archaeologist for critical examination, so these isolated facts about place-names are worth saving by the antiquary for their philological value. "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost."
Babbitasset - formerly the name of a village in Pepperell, now included in East Pepperell.
Baddacook - a pond in the eastern part of the town.
Catacoonamug - a stream in Shirley, which empties into the Nashua.
Chicopee - a district in the northerly part of the town, and
applied to the highway approaching it, called Chicopee Row. Humhaw - a brook in Westford.
Kissacook - a hill in Westford.
Massapoag - a pond lying partly in Groton and partly in Dunstable.
£
I68
Mulpus - a brook in Shirley.
Nagog - a pond in Littleton.
Nashoba - the old name of the Praying Indian village in Lit- tleton, now applied to a hill in that town as well as to a brook in Westford.
Nashua - a river running through the township, and empty- ing into the Merrimack.
Naumor - a district, near the Longley monument, lying west of the East Pepperell road; said to have been the name of an Indian chief.
Nissitisset - applied to the neighborhood of Hollis, New Hampshire, and to a river and a hill in Pepperell.
Nonacoicus - a brook in Ayer, though formerly the name was applied to a tract of land in the southerly part of Groton, and is shortened often to Coicus.
Nubanussuck - a pond in Westford.
Petaupaukett - a name found in the original petition to the General Court for the grant of the town, and used in con- nection with the territory of the neighborhood; sometimes writen Petapawage and Petapaway.
Quosoponagon - a meadow " on the other side of the riuer," mentioned in the land-grant of Thomas Tarbell, Jr .; the same word as Quasaponikin, formerly the name of a tract of land in Lancaster, but now given to a meadow and a hill in that town, where it is often contracted into Ponikin.
Shabikin, or more commonly Shabokin, applied to a district in Harvard, bordering on the Nashua, below Still River village. Squannacook - a river in the western part of the town flowing into the Nashua; a name formerly applied to the village of West Groton. *
Tadmuck - a brook and a meadow in Westford.
Unquetenassett, or Unquetenorset - a brook in the northerly part of the town; often shortened into Unquety.
Waubansconcett - another word found in the original petition for the grant of the town, and used in connection with the territory of the neighborhood.
169
List of Towns
established in the two Colonies, before the township of Groton was granted in 1655, together with the year when they are first mentioned in the records of the General Court.
PLYMOUTH COLONY.
I
1620
Plymouth
7 1639
Taunton
2
1633
Scituate
8
1641
Marshfield
3
1637
Duxbury
9 1643
Eastham
4
1638
Barnstable
IO
1645
Rehoboth
5
"
Sandwich
II
1652
Dartmouth
6
1639
Yarmouth
MASSACHUSETTS-BAY COLONY.
I
1630
Charlestown
19
1640
Braintree
2
Salem
20
«
Salisbury
3
Boston
21
1641
Haverhill
4
Dorchester
22
16
Springfield
5
"
Medford
24
1642 "
Woburn
7
Roxbury
25
1643
Wenham
8
1631
Lynn
26
1644
Hull
9
Cambridge
27
Reading
IO
1633
Marblehead
28
1645
Manchester
II
1634
Ipswich
29
1646
Andover
12
1635
Newbury
30
1648
Topsfield
13
Hingham
31
1649
Malden
14
Weymouth
32
1650
Medfield
I5
Concord
33
1653
Lancaster
16
1636
Dedham
34
May, 1655
Groton
I7
1639
Rowley
35
.
Billerica
18
Sudbury
36
Chelmsford
Watertown
23
Gloucester
6
22
170
Distinguished Citizens
AMONG the distinguished men who have made their homes in the town of Groton are two Governors of the Common- wealth, one United States Senator, four other members of Congress, beside a Delegate to the Continental Congress, two members of the President's Cabinet, an Assistant Secretary of State, various Justices and Chief-Justices of different Courts, three Speakers of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, an Attorney-General of the Commonwealth, a President of the State Senate, and three members of the Executive Council.
English Oaks
I HAVE on my place at Groton four oak saplings growing from acorns sent me, in the autumn of 1904, from Groton, England. They are to-day rather small specimens of what they may become, if they live to maturity. When they are of suitable size, it is my intention to have them transplanted in some spots closely associated with the history of the town. It is hoped that thus they will tend to foster and keep alive an interest between the English Groton and its namesake here, - places connected by sentiment, though separated in age by centuries of time and in distance by thousands of miles.
Together with the acorns some beech-nuts also were sent me from the manor of Groton, which were duly planted, but the saplings died the second year. Several small elms came in the same collection, but none of them outlived the removal.
I71
ASS
..... FAITH
HOLY
GROTO
BIBLE
TS
LABOR
1655
Town Seal
THIS design of a seal for the town of Groton was adopted on April 4, 1898. It is a simple one, and is intended to typify the character of the inhabitants.
The Bible represents the faith of the early settlers who went into the wilderness and suffered innumerable privations in their daily life as well as encountered many dangers from savage foes. Throughout Christendom to-day it is the corner- stone of religion and morality.
The Plough is significant of the general occupation of the inhabitants. By it the early settlers broke up the land and earned their livelihood; and ever since in the tillage of the soil it has been an invaluable help to their successors.
172
First Parish Meeting-House, Groton
THIS cut, taken from a drawing made in the year 1838, by John Warner Barber, originally appeared in his Historical Collections of Massachusetts ( Worcester, 1839). It represents the First Parish Meeting-house before it was remodelled in 1839, when it was partially turned round, and the north end made the front, facing the west. The Academy building, on the right of the meeting-house, was enlarged in the autumn of 1846, and subsequently burned on July 4, 1868. The fence was built round the Common in front of the meeting-house, in the autumn of 1842, the last post being placed at the northwest corner on October 3 of that year.
INDEX
INDEX
Abénaqui Indians, the, 36, 37, 104. Acadia, 51. Acadians in Groton, 51. Ahasombamet, 101. Albany, N. Y., 47, 109, 1IO, 126.
Allen, Timothy, 81, 85, 86, 87, 89. Almack, Richard, 138.
Almy, Job, 46. Amarascoggin, IOI. Ames, Jacob, 49, 113. -, John, 49, 113. -, name of, 50.
Amherst, N. H., 56, 57, 61.
Amsaquonte, 100, IOI.
Andros, Edmund, governor of New England, 123. Androscoggin, 41.
Archives of the Marine and Colonies, the, 96.
Assacombuit, 100. See also Nassa- combewit.
Augary, John. See Longley, John. Austen, Sir Henry E., 138.
Ayer, Mass., 133, 168.
Baldwin, Marvin Morse, 143.
Bambazeen (Bomaseen), 99, 101, 102. Bancroft, Capt. Benjamin, 155.
-, Lieut., 39. , name of, 50.
Baptist Meeting-house (Groton), 30, 60, 92, 93.
Barber, John W., his "Historical Col- lections of Massachusetts," 172.
Barnstable, Mass., 74, 169. Barron, Ellis, 79, 87, 89. Bay, the, road to, 33, 71.
Belcher, Gov. Jonathan, 46, 109, 128. Belknap, Rev. Jeremy, quoted, 58. Bellevue, Ohio, 142.
Berwick, Me., 35. Bigelow, Hon. Timothy, 57. Billerica, Mass., 33, 122, 169. Blanchard family, the, 62. Blood, James, II2. , John, 15. -, Joseph, 22. name of, 18. Richard, 15, 72, 74, 77, 86, 89, 91. , Robert, 15.
Bonat, Marguerite, 108.
"Book of the General Lawes and Libertyes," the, 149.
Boston, 14, 22, 25, 29, 30, 31, 34, 46, 47, 52, 61, 95, 98, 145, 146, 150, 169; census returns, 12; early route from Groton, 33; correspondence between Overseers and Groton, 53-54; stage- coach line to Groton, 60.
"Boston News-Letter," the, quoted, 41, 145. Boston Public Library, the, 94. Boutwell, Governor, 71, 81, 119, 120, 147, 158.
Bowers, Capt. Jerathmel, 44.
Boxford, England, 138, 139. Boydon, Thomas, 87.
Boynton, John, 122.
Bradstreet, Lieut. Dudley, 51.
, Rev. Dudley, 44, 50, 51, 123.
, Simon, 123.
Brakelond, Jocelin de, 164. Brattle, William, 97. Thomas, 25. Brattleborough, Vt., 51.
Brazer, James, 146.
"Brief History of the Warr with the Indians in New-England," Mather's, 30.
Broad Meadow (Groton), 28, 147.
Brookfield, Mass., 24.
Brookline, N. H., 130.
Brown, killed by Indians, 44. Browne, Benjamin, 46.
Buffalo, N. Y., 126.
Bulkley, John, 56. Bunker Hill, the battle of, 58, 106, 107. Butler, Caleb, 62; his "History," 15, 42, 62, 71, 99, 154. Butterfield, Samuel, 43, 44, 99. Byfield, Mrs. Sarah, 146.
Cagnawaga Indians, the, 109. Caille, M., 105. Cambridge, 17, 29, 55, 58, 106, 159, 169. Canada, 35, 36, 37, 38, 44, 45, 47, 50, 61, 100, 101, 103, 107, 108, 109, 110, II3. Carlor [Kerley], Lieut. Henry, 94.
176 ah
Cary, Mathew, 38. Casco, Me., 35. Casco Bay, 38, 100. Caughnawaga, 47, 48, 109, III. Century, a, why celebrated, II.
Chamberlain, John, 50.
Champigny, 96. Chaplin, Rev. Daniel, 56, 59, 143. Chaplin Schoolhouse (Groton), the, 72, 107.
Charles I, charters of, 122, 123, 127, I 28.
Charles X., III. Charles River, 14, 126.
Charlestown, Mass., 32, 58, 169. , N. H., 51.
Charlevoix, 36, 96, 98.
Charters of Massachusetts, 122-123, 126, 127, 128, 129.
Chelmsford, Mass., 33, 42, 44, 122, 135, 136, 169.
Chicopee Row (Groton), 98, 167.
Chubbuck, John, 35. Clark, Col. Eusebius Silsby, 158.
Clary, John, 74. Clinton, Mass., 148.
Cobbet, Rev. Thomas, 94.
Cockermouth. See Groton, N. H.
Coleman, Thomas, 56.
"Columbian Centinel," the, 60.
Commission to establish line between Massachusetts and New Hampshire, the, 127-129.
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