USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Groton > Three historical addresses at Groton, Massachusetts > Part 9
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years rolled by. Truly he was the Grand Old Man of the Commonwealth! As long as the town of Groton shall have a municipal existence, the memory and traditions connected with the name of Boutwell will be counted among her rich- est treasures.
The story of this town has been told so many times, both in printed book and public address, that now I shall not repeat the tale. I might give a narrative of the trials and troubles, suffered equally by brave men and hardy women, during the first century of the settlement; I might tell how the town was attacked by the Indians and burnt, and how the inhabitants were driven away from their homes and compelled for a while to abandon the place; how on vari- ous occasions men were killed by the savages, families broken up, and children carried off into captivity ; and how oftentimes from the failure of crops they were pinched by want; and how they endured other privations, - but a rehearsal of these facts at this time would be as tedious as a twice-told tale. Instead of describing the sad and dread- ful experiences of the early settlers, and the destruction of their homes by fire and hideous ruin, I shall confine myself to other topics, and speak of some of the conditions of their day, bringing the account down to a later period, and touching on a few of the more important events in our local history.
In early Colonial days a town did not become a municipal corporation by formal vote of the General Court, with power to act as one person, but a grant of land, sometimes containing many thousand acres, was made to a body of men under certain conditions, which was practically a quasi form of incorporation. The most important of these con- ditions was the speedy settlement of a Godly minister, and often another condition was that those persons who re- ceived land should build houses thereon within a stated period of time. Sometimes a board of selectmen was named by the Legislature, who should look after the pru- dential affairs of the town until their successors were chosen. In those days this course was substantially the only formality needed in order to give local self-govern-
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ment to a new community. The term " prudential affairs " was a convenient expression, intended to cover anything required by a town which prudence would dictate.
In the early records of the Colony the proceedings of the General Court, as a rule, were not dated day by day, - though there are many exceptions, - but the beginning of the session is always given, and occasionally the days of the month are entered. These dates in the printed edi- tion of the Records are frequently carried along without authority, sometimes covering a period of several days, or even a week or more; and for this reason often it is im- possible to tell the exact date of any particular legislation unless there are contemporary documents on file which bear on the subject. In a few instances papers are found among the State Archives or elsewhere, which fix the date of such legislation as is wanting in the official reports.
For these reasons it is impossible to tell to a dot or a day, with entire certainty, when the town of Groton began its municipal life or official existence, - or, in other words, when it was " incorporated," as the modern expression is. Without any doubt the date was near the end of May, 1655, Old Style. It must have been after May 23, as on that day the General Court began its session; and it was before May 29, when the next entry in the records ap- pears. Fortunately there is still preserved among the manuscripts of the New-England Historic Genealogical Society a contemporary record of the action of the Gen- eral Court in regard to the matter. This interesting old paper, officially attested by Edward Rawson, Secretary of the Colony, and by William Torrey, Clerk of the Depu- ties, was given to that Society by the late Charles Woolley, for many years an honored resident of Groton. This document was signed on May 25, the day when the As- sistants, or Magistrates as they are often called, granted the petition, and apparently at the same time the House of Deputies took concurrent action. At that period the Assistants formed the body of law-makers which is known to-day as the State Senate; and at that time the
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House of Deputies corresponded to the present House of Representatives.
It may be proper to add that the Groton Historical So- ciety owns a contemporary copy of the record made near the time of the Grant by Edward Rawson, Secretary of the Colony, which is dated May 23, 1655. It was found among the papers of the late John Boynton, a former town- clerk of Groton, and it may have been sent, soon after the settlement of the town, to the selectmen for their infor- mation and guidance. Perhaps the Secretary took the first day of the General Court, as in England before April 8, 1793, all laws passed at a session of Parliament went into effect from the first day, unless there was some clause to the contrary.
But whatever the date, be it a few days more or less, the substance is always of greater importance than the shadow; so it is of less moment to learn the exact time of the order than it is to know that the town has now reached the ripe old age of two centuries and a half, and that she wears the dignity of her increasing years like a crown of glory.
Besides Groton the only two other towns established in the year 1655 by the Colony of Massachusetts Bay were Billerica and Chelmsford; and singularly enough all three were contiguous townships, lying in the same county, and all three "incorporated " within a very few days of each other. It should be borne in mind that originally the town of Westford was a part of the territory of Chelms- ford. Why these three adjoining towns were thus created at this particular time may not have been a mere coinci- dence. It may have been the result of a certain condition of political "ins " and "outs " at that early period of Colonial history which now cannot be explained.
The Charter, duly given by Charles I, was abrogated by the English courts in the summer of 1684. The action was considered by the Colonists as little short of a gross outrage, and caused much confusion in public affairs as well as hard feeling among the people. Says Palfrey, in
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his " History of New England " (iv. 5), "The charter of Massachusetts, the only unquestionable title of her citi- zens to any rights, proprietary, social, or political, had been vacated by regular process in the English courts." It was vacated by a decree in Chancery, on June 21, 1684, which was confirmed on October 23 of the same year. On May 25, 1686, Joseph Dudley, a native of Roxbury, under a commission from King James II, became President of New England, with jurisdiction over the whole region. This office he held for seven months, until December 30, when Edmund Andros became Governor of New England, ap- pointed by James II. He proved to be a highly arbitrary officer, and was deposed by a revolution of the people, on April 18, 1689. Andros was followed by Simon Brad- street, who was Governor from May 24, 1689, to May 14, 1692. He was the grandfather of Dudley Bradstreet, an early minister of this town, which gives an additional in- terest to his name at the present time. During this period another Charter, signed by William and Mary, on Octo- ber 7, 1691, and now known as the Second Charter, be- came operative. Under this instrument the Colony was made a Province, which is a lower grade of political ex- istence, as it has fewer privileges and more restrictions as to the rights of the people. From June, 1684, when the First Charter was vacated, till May, 1692, when the Second Charter went into operation, the time is generally spoken of as the Inter-Charter period, and is an exceptional one in the history of Massachusetts and New England.
The first settlers of the town came here less than one generation after the Colonial Charter of Massachusetts Bay was granted by Charles I. They represented a rugged race, willing to undergo hardships in daily life, and ready to meet dangers from any source. Under calamitous con- ditions they pushed into the wilderness and made their homes in a region little known to the white man. They were a brave band, and took their trials and troubles with a readiness worthy of all praise. The new township lay on the frontiers, and all beyond was a desolate wild. It
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stood on the outer edge of civilization, and for a time served as a barrier against Indian attacks on the inlying settlements. The lot of a frontiersman, even under favor- able conditions, is never a happy one, but at that period, particularly when cut off from neighbors and deprived of all social and commercial intercourse with other towns, and in an age when newspapers and postal privileges were unknown, his lot was indeed hard. In after-years this experience told on the settlers to their credit and benefit, and made the bold character that cropped out in later generations when there was need of such stuff. In their make-up they had the gristle which hardened into bone. The laws of heredity are not well enough known for us to trace closely Cause and Effect; but the lives led by the early pioneers of the Colony had their fruitage in the wars of the next century. These laws work in a subtle and mysterious way and cannot be defined, but the hardships of one generation toughen the fibre and sharpen the skill of the next. Given a strong body and a high standard of morality, and the offspring will show the inherited traits. Every farmer in this town knows that a strain of blood and breed will tell on his domestic stock. As flowers, by a process not revealed to us, select the tint of delicate colors from the swampy bogs of nature, so the toils of life weave the warp and the woof which make up noble char- acter. " The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together." Heredity and environment when they work in harmony plough deep and send forth a rich harvest.
It was once wittily said by a writer, - so distinguished in his day that I hardly know whether to speak of him as a poet or a physician, but whom all will recognize as the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, - that a man's edu- cation begins a hundred years before he is born. I am almost tempted to add that even then he is putting on only the finishing touches of his training. A man is a composite being, both in body and soul, with a long line of ancestry whose beginnings it is impossible to trace;
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and every succeeding generation only helps to foster and bind together the various and innumerable qualities which make up his own personality, though they be modified by countless circumstances that form his later education, and for which he alone is responsible.
The first comers to Massachusetts brought from their English homes a love of personal freedom and liberty. For generations this feeling had not been encouraged there by the royal authorities; and its growth, hampered by many obstacles, had been slow. These settlers were a hard-working set and a God-fearing people, and of the right stock to found a nation. Here the new conditions enabled them to give free scope to their actions, and the natural drift of events was all toward individual independ- ence in its widest sense. There was no law against either conventicles or non-conformists, and for that period of time there was great liberality of sentiment on the part of the Colonists. For centuries the microbic atoms of in- dependence had been kept alive in England, and from one generation to another they handed down the germs which developed in the new world, and bore fruit in the Ameri- can Revolution. From the time of King John, who, on June 15, 1215, signed the Great Charter of the Liberties of England, the recognition of human rights was advanc- ing in the mother country slowly but steadily; and the new settlers here, infected with similar ideas, brought with them the spirit of these political principles. The develop- ment of broad views was gradual, but on every advance the wheels were blocked behind, and the gain was held. Each separate step thus taken led finally to the Declaration of Independence, which was the crowning point of political freedom. Based on this instrument, and following it closely both in spirit and in point of time, was the written Con- stitution of the United States, which has served as a model for so many different governments.
Less than one generation passed between the time when the Charter of Charles I was given to the Colony of Mas- sachusetts Bay and the date when the grant of Groton
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Plantation was made by the General Court. The Charter was given on March 4, 1628-9, and the grant of the town was made in May, 1655, - the interval being a little more than twenty-six years. At that period scarcely any- thing was known about the geography of the region, and the Charter gave to the Governor and other representa- tives of the Massachusetts Company, on certain conditions, all the territory lying between an easterly and westerly line running three miles north of any part of the Merrimack River and extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, and a similar parallel line running three miles south of any part of the Charles River. Without attempting to trace in detail, from the time of the Cabots to the days of the Charter, the continuity of the English title to this transcontinental strip of territory, it is enough to know that the precedents and usages of that period gave to Great Britain, in theory at least, undisputed sway over the re- gion, and forged every link in the chain of authority and sovereignty.
At the time of the Charter it was incorrectly supposed that America was a narrow strip of land, - perhaps an arm of the continent of Asia, - and that the distance across from ocean to ocean was comparatively short. It was known then that the Isthmus of Darien was narrow, and there- fore it was supposed that the whole continent also was narrow. New England was a region about which little was known beyond slight examinations made from the coast line. The rivers were unexplored, and all knowledge concerning them was confined to the neighborhood of the places where they emptied into the sea. The early naviga- tors thought that the general course of the Merrimack was easterly and westerly, as it runs in that direction near the mouth; and their error was perpetuated inferentially by the words of the Charter. By later explorations this strip of territory has since been lengthened out into a belt three thousand miles long, and stretches across the whole width of a continent. The cities of Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Detroit, and Milwaukee all lie within this zone,
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on territory that once belonged to the Massachusetts Com- pany, according to the Charter granted by King Charles.
The general course of the Merrimack, as well as its source, soon became known to the early settlers on the coast. The northern boundary of the original grant to the Colony of Massachusetts Bay was established under a misapprehension ; and this ignorance of the topography of the country on the part of the English authorities afterward gave rise to considerable controversy between the adjoin- ing Provinces of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. So long as the territory in question remained unsettled, the dispute was a matter of little practical importance; but after a while it assumed grave proportions and led to much confusion. Grants made by one Province clashed with those made by the other; and there was no ready tribunal to decide the claims of the two parties. Towns were chartered by Massachusetts in territory claimed by New Hampshire; and this action was the cause of bitter feel- ing and provoking legislation. Massachusetts contended for the tract of land "nominated in the bond," which would carry the jurisdictional line fifty miles northward, into the very heart of New Hampshire; and, on the other hand, that Province strenuously opposed this view of the case, and claimed that the line should run, east and west, three miles north of the mouth of the Merrimack River. In order to settle these conflicting claims a Royal Com- mission was appointed to consider the subject and estab- lish the contested line. The Commissioners were selected from the councillors of the Provinces of New York, New Jersey, Nova Scotia, and Rhode Island, - men supposed to be free from any local prejudices in the matter, and impartial in their feelings; and without doubt they were such. The board, as appointed under the Great Seal, con- sisted of nineteen members, although only seven served in their capacity as Commissioners. They met at Hampton, New Hampshire, on August 1, 1737; and for mutual con- venience the Legislative Assemblies of the two Provinces met in the same neighborhood, - the Assembly of New
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Hampshire at Hampton Falls, and that of Massachusetts at Salisbury, places only five miles apart. This was done in order that the claims of each side might be considered with greater despatch than otherwise they would receive. The General Court of Massachusetts met at Salisbury, in the First Parish Meeting-house, on August 10, 1737, and continued to hold its sessions in that town until October 20, inclusive, though with several adjournments, of which one was for thirty-five days. The printed journal of the House of Representatives, during this period, gives the proceed- ings of that body, which contain much in regard to the controversy besides the ordinary business of legislation. Many years previously the two Provinces had been united so far as to have the same governor, - at this time Jona- than Belcher, - but each Province had its own legislative body and code of laws.
The Commissioners heard both sides of the question, and agreed upon an award in alternative, leaving to the king the interpretation of the charters given respectively by Charles I and William and Mary. Under one inter- pretation the decision was in favor of Massachusetts, and under the other in favor of New Hampshire; and at the same time each party was allowed six weeks to file objec- tions. Neither side, however, was satisfied with this in- direct decision; and the whole matter was then taken to the king in council. Massachusetts claimed that the Mer- rimack River began at the confluence of the Winnepesaukee and the Pemigewasset Rivers, and that the northern boun- dary of the Province should run, east and west, three miles north of this point. On the other hand, New Hampshire claimed that the intention of the Charter was to establish a northern boundary on a line, running east and west, three miles north of the mouth of the Merrimack River. In this controversy Massachusetts seems to have based her claim on the letter of the contract, while New Hampshire based hers on the spirit of the contract.
The strongest argument in favor of Massachusetts was the fact that she had always considered the disputed ter-
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ritory as belonging to her jurisdiction; and before this period she had chartered twenty-four towns lying within the limits of the tract. These several settlements all looked to her for protection, and naturally sympathized with her during the controversy. As just stated, neither party was satisfied with the verdict rendered by the Royal Commis- sioners; and both sides appealed from their judgment. The matter was then taken to England for a decision, which was given by the king, on March 4, 1739-40. His judgment was final, and in favor of New Hampshire. It gave to that Province not only all the territory in dispute, but a strip of land fourteen miles in width lying along her southern border, - mostly west of the Merrimack, - which she had never claimed. This strip was the tract of land between the line running east and west three miles north of the southernmost trend of the river, and a similar line three miles north of its mouth. By the decision many townships were taken from Massachusetts and given to New Hampshire. The settlement of this disputed question was undoubtedly a great public benefit, but at the time it caused a good deal of hard feeling. The new line was established by surveyors officially in the spring of 1741.
In regard to the divisional line between the two Prov- inces lying east of the Merrimack, there was much less uncertainty, as, in a general way, it followed the bend of the river, and for that reason there was much less con- troversy over the jurisdiction. Many of you, doubtless, have noticed on a map the tier of towns which fringe the north bank of the Merrimack, between the city of Lowell and the mouth of the river; and, perhaps, you have won- dered why those places, which from a geographical point of view belong to the State of New Hampshire, should come now within the limits of Massachusetts. The ex- planation of this seeming incongruity goes back to the date of the first Charter, now more than two hundred and seventy-five years ago.
Thus far I have given an account of this dispute in some detail, as the town of Groton was a party to the con-
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troversy and took a deep interest in the result. It was by this decision of the king that the town lost all that portion of its territory which lies now within the limits of the city of Nashua; but it did not suffer nearly so much as our neighbor, the town of Dunstable, suffered by the same decision. At that time she received a staggering blow, and her loss, indeed, was a grievous one. Originally she was a large township containing 128,000 acres of land, situated on both sides of the Merrimack; and she was so cut in two by the running of the new line that by far the larger part of her territory came within the jurisdiction of New Hampshire. Even the meeting-house and the burying-ground, both so closely and dearly connected with the early life of our people, were separated from that por- tion of the town still remaining in Massachusetts; and this fact added not a little to the animosity felt by the inhab- itants when the disputed question was settled. It is no exaggeration to say that throughout the old township and all along the line of the borders from the Merrimack to the Connecticut, the feelings and sympathies of the people were wholly with Massachusetts.
Thus cut in twain, there were two adjoining towns bear- ing the same name, the one in Massachusetts, and the other in New Hampshire; and thus they remained for nearly a century. This similarity of designation was the source of considerable confusion which lasted until the New Hampshire town, on January 1, 1837, took the name of Nashua, after the river from which its prosperity largely is derived.
By the same decision of the king our other adjoining neighbor, Townsend, - for at that time Pepperell had not as yet taken on a separate municipal existence, - was deprived of more than one quarter of her territory; and the present towns of Brookline, Mason, and New Ipswich in New Hampshire are reaping now the benefit of what she then lost.
Enough of the original Groton Plantation, however, was left to furnish other towns and parts of towns with ample
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material for their territory. On November 26, 1742, the west parish of Groton was set off as a precinct. It com- prised all that part of the town lying on the west side of the Nashua River, north of the old road leading from Groton to Townsend, and now known as Pepperell. Its incorporation as a parish or precinct allowed the inhab- itants to manage their own ecclesiastical affairs, while in all other matters they continued to act with the parent town. Its partial separation gave them the benefit of a settled minister in their neighborhood, which in those days was considered of great importance.
It is an interesting fact to note that in early times the main reason given in the petitions for dividing towns. was the long distance to the meeting-house, by which the in- habitants were prevented from hearing the stated preach- ing of the gospel. At the present day I do not think that this argument is ever urged by those who favor the divi- sion of a township.
On April 12, 1753, when the Act was signed by the Governor, the west parish of Groton was made a district, - the second step toward its final and complete separation from the mother town. At this period the Crown authori- ties were jealous of the growth of the popular party in the House of Representatives, and for that reason they frowned on every attempt to increase the number of its members. This fact had some connection with the tendency, which began to crop out during Governor Shirley's administra- tion, to form districts instead of towns, thereby withhold- ing their representation. At this date the west parish, under its changed political conditions, took the name of Pepperrell, and was vested with still broader powers. It was so called after Sir William Pepperrell, who had suc- cessfully commanded the New England troops against Louisburg; and the name was suggested, doubtless, by the Reverend Joseph Emerson, the first settled minister of the parish. He had accompanied that famous expedi- tion in the capacity of chaplain, only the year before he had received a call for his settlement, and the associations
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