Historical address given at the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of the town of Lyndeborough, N. H., September 4, 1889, Part 1

Author: Clark, Frank Gray, 1838-1909
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Concord, N. H., Republican Press Association
Number of Pages: 150


USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Lyndeborough > Historical address given at the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of the town of Lyndeborough, N. H., September 4, 1889 > Part 1


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HISTORICAL ADDRESS GIVEN AT THE 150th ANNIVERSARY OF THE SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWN OF LYNDEBOROUGH, N. H. 1889 CLARK


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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION


ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01096 2535


Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015


https://archive.org/details/historicaladdres 1889clar


HISTORICAL ADDRESS


GIVEN AT THE 150th ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY


OF THE SETTLEMENT OF THE


TOWN OF LYNDEBOROUGH, N. H.,


SEPTEMBER 4, 1889.


BY


REV. FRANK G. CLARK,


PLYMOUTH, N. H.


Concord, 21. M. : REPUBLICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION, RAILROAD SQUARE. IS91.


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Clark, Frank Gray]


Historical address given at the one hundred and fif- tieth anniversary of the settlement of the town of Lynde- borough, N. H., September 4, 1889 . . . Concord, N. H., Republican press assoc., IS91.


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PREFACE.


The following address was prepared at the request of the Con- mittee of Arrangements for the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Lyndeborough. with the understanding that all historical material of value obtained should be at the disposal of the committee of the proposed town history. As this history has been unexpectedly delayed, the friends of the writer have asked to have the address printed. This is done with the hope that it will aid the historian in his further search for facts and incidents in the early history of the town. The address is necessarily incomplete, and doubtless has many statements that further examination will correct or deny. Such preliminary work is always attended with serious difficulties. It was not designed to cover an outline of the town to the present time, but to give some glimpses of the early history that would open the way for a more thorough investigation. By request of the Committee of Arrange- ments, the war record was assigned to other and more competent hands.


If, by this publication, the committee of the town history are encouraged and helped in securing a more accurate and extended basis for further research, and especially in obtaining the register of the earliest families in town, the author will feel amply rewarded for the time and effort expended in the preparation of the address.


F. G. C.


Plymouth, N. H., August 1, 1891.


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.


HISTORICAL ADDRESS.


To gather up the threads of a town's history extending over one hundred and fifty years, and to weave them into an address at once concise, accurate, and interesting, is a task which only those can appreciate who have had a like experience. In his dilemma, your historian turned to books for aid, and in the first history of New Hampshire he opened he found that Lyndeborough derived its name from the abundant Linden trees in town. Feeling that a book with such a statement was hardly a safe guide in historical re- search, he opened another history of New Hampshire, and read that Lyndeborough was a small village " but pleasantly located on the banks of the Piscataquog river." He thought he could rely upon the record of deeds to show him when the earliest families in town settled, and he searched diligently those at Boston, Cambridge, Salem, Exeter, and Nashua, but all in vain. He supposed that he could depend upon the town records to help him locate the first roads, and found this description of the first laid out after the incorporation of the town in 1764, which is very definite in statement,-if one was familiar with the location :


A road laid out two rods wide, beginning at the end of Amherst road which is laid out along by James Boutwell's house, at Amherst west line and from thence as the road is now trod, or near it, to the north east corner of Wm. Carson Jun., land and then where the road was allowed at the north side of his land and Adam Johnson's land


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to the south east of John Hutchinson land and so on to the foot-path that goeth from Adam Johnson's house to John Hutchinson's, and by that or near it to said Hutchinson's house and by the south side of his house and down the hill westerly to the road as it is now trod and by that, or near it, to where the way turns out to go across by Wainwright's brook little meadow so called and near that as the way is marked out to the east line of Mr. Rand's lot and across the south side of Mr. Rand's lot and through the south east corner of Mr. Rand's pasture to the way that goes from the meeting house to Benjamin Cram's house and so by that or near it to Benjamin Cram's house and then as the way is now trod by Melchizedek Boffee's house and to the north line of said Boffee's lot.


These hints concerning the difficulty in securing accurate information about the early history are given that you may have some charity for the historian, if he does not tell you all you want to know about the town.


We meet to-day to celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Lyndeborongh, though the town was incorporated only one hundred and twenty-five years ago. But as the age of a child is reckoned from its birth and not from the time it is named or baptized, so the years in which this town was known as Salem Canada are as much the history of Lyndeborough as the year 1889.


It is true that her beauty has been marred. Time has dealt severely with her form. Ambitious schemers have robbed her of much of her fair domain, but she has retained her vitality and identity as truly as the war veteran who leaves an arm or a leg on the battle-field.


Lyndeborough was born in 1735, when the charter was granted ; and though she suffered in childhood until the question of her parentage was settled, yet she survived the ordeal, proved the legality of her birth, and has made a record of which her parents may well be proud.


Although the history of Lyudeborough began June 19, 1735, when the grant was made, yet we need a glance at


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the earlier events of New England in order to understand why the town was granted, and why its settlement was so slow and difficult.


When England and France were at war near the close of the seventeenth century, the French, having possession of Canada, brought terror to the colonies of New England by using the Indians as their allies. The Massachusetts colony, thinking to protect itself and at the same time secure large booty, combined with Connecticut and New York, and organized an expedition in 1690 with the expec- tation of capturing Montreal and Quebec and so gaining possession of Canada. A large force marched from northern New York, and a well furnished fleet sailed from Boston, but, the two arms of service failing to cooperate, the expe- dition was an utter failure, and the expense of the fleet, fifty thousand pounds, crippled the Massachusetts colony for many years. They had no money with which to pay the soldiers, and so they resorted to the perilous method of issuing bills of credit, or paper money, which very soon depreciated in value, and brought untold misery upon the people. It opened the way for a currency of varying value, making it very difficult to secure a reliable standard of ex- change. The first issue of bills was called old tenor; the second, middle tenor; and the third, new tenor; and all soon became depreciated in value, the old tenor more than the others. Finally the mother country took pity on her colony, and sent over seventeen cart-loads of silver and ten truck- loads of copper, in 1749, to establish specie payments; and one Spanish dollar was given for forty-five shillings of paper. This was called lawful money, while the specie was called sterling-making five kinds of money. All through the earlier history of the town these different currencies are mentioned. Sometimes the bills of credit were called proc- lamation money, but usually old tenor or lawful money.


Forty years after the war of 1690, when the colony had recovered somewhat from its crippled condition, the soldiers


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or their heirs began to ask for something more substantial than the paper that had been given thein, and the colony, richer in lands than iu anything else, granted a township to such companies as asked for them. Most of these places took the name of Canada together with that of the town from which the men went to war. The grant to the Row- ley men was called Rowley Canada, afterwards Riudge. So there was Ipswich Canada, Salem Canada, and many others.


June 19, 1735, the general court of Massachusetts made to Captain Samuel King and fifty-nine others the grant of a township of the contents of six miles square, containing 23,090 acres of land and 1,018 acres allowed for water. The town was laid out west of Narragausett Number 3, or Amherst, in May, 1736. In the house of representatives, June 1, 1736, the plat was accepted. and the land confirmed to the grantees, their heirs and assigus forever, " provided the plat is no more than 24,058 acres, and does not inter- fere with any other graut, the land lying west of Narragan- sett Number 3, and on the north of Sonhegau river." A notice was given, dated " Boston, July 8, 1736,"


To all persons claiming an interest in the grant of a township made by the Great and General Court to Samuel King and others who were, or are descendants from such as were, in the expedition to Canada anno 1690. That the said township is laid out and the committee purpose to meet at the house of Mrs. Pratt at Salem on Wednesday the first day of September next at ten o'clock before noon to admit persons according to the grant and take bond for their fulfilling the conditions.


But few of the persons entitled to land cared to occupy it, and, as soon as the graut was made, laud speculators began to buy up the rights, so that at the first meeting noti- fied above, forty-seven men represented the original sixty rights.


December 17, 1736, the general court ordered Daniel


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Epes to call the first meeting of the proprietors, and in January he issued the following notice :


These are to notify the Proprietors or grantees admitted into the grant made the inhabitants of Salem, Marblehead &c. in June 1735 in answer to the petition of Samuel King and others who were in the Canada expedition, that they assemble together at the house of Mrs. Margaret Pratt, Innholder, in Salem on Thursday the third of Feb. next at eleven o'clock a. m. To choose a moderator, Pro- prietor's clerk &e and to pass such votes and orders as may be agree- able to the bringing forward the settlement of the township and to agree upon methods how to call future Proprietors' meetings and also to admit the grantees to a draft of their home lots and that every grantee pay in his proportion of money for laying out said lots before he draw the same.


[Signed] DANIEL EPES


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Salem Jan 20 1737


At the meeting held in accordance with this notice Feb- ruary 3, 1737, Daniel Epes was chosen moderator, Benjamin Lynde, Jr., treasurer, and Daniel Epes, Jr., clerk. Each proprietor, after paying into the treasury four pounds, drew a home lot of sixty aeres, and then drew two lots of one hundred and thirty acres each, on paying for pounds more to defray the necessary expenses of surveying and marking the lots.1 There were one hundred and twenty-seven second division lots, two to each of the proprietors, two for the first minister, two for the support of the ministry, two for schools, and one for a mill lot. Only a few of the propri- etors, or stockholders, settled in Salem Canada, but they were interested in the prosperity of the town, and voted money freely for a meeting-house, support of preaching, and building of roads. Some of them were men of large prop- erty, who owned rights in other towns also. These men owned all the land in town, divided and undivided, except


1 This seems a large sum to pay out for expenses, but it was the old tenor money or paper, which was not worth a third of its face value.


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that just mentioned for the support of the ministry and schools. They sometimes sold the home lot or a second division lot, and retained their right to their proportion of the other land, and sometimes sold out their whole right or claim in town. Some of them hired men to go on and im- prove their lots, and put up buildings and occupy them. They voted,-


That as many of the proprietors as have or shall settle their rights by the first day of December 1741 in the following manner viz. to build a house of six feet stud and eighteen feet square and finish the same convenient for a family to dwell in and have one or more persons settled in the same in order to continue therein and to clear six acres of said land fit for mowing or plowing, that each proprie- tor or proprietors shall be entitled to receive the sum of ten pounds for each right (so settled) to be paid by the proprietors.


The meetings of the proprietors were held in Salem for nearly fifty years, and at the house of Margaret Pratt, inn- holder, twenty-eight years. Notices were posted in Salem, Marblehead, and Woburn, and sometimes in Chelmsford. Occasionally they were published in the publie prints, the Evening Post and Green and Russell's papers being men- tioned. A few of the meetings were held at Dunstable, now Nashua, and the last years of record they were held in Lyndeborough. The proprietors gradually sold off the undivided land and their rights until there was but little common land left, and but few to make a claim to it. They had several meetings to close up their accounts, one after another taking land from the commons for his share, and other land being sold to pay cost of survey, etc. The record of the last meeting which was held in Lyndeborough is as follows :


The proprietors met according to adjournment, being the last Tuesday in August, 1803. Present, Amos Whittemore, moderator, Sewall Goodridge, clerk, Major Gould, and Jacob Wellman.


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Whereas, it is made plain to the proprietors that the land in com- mon remaining is not sufficient to pay the debts of the propriety, therefore voted that each creditor take the remaining land in pro- portion to the several as they see fit by paying other claimants, &c .. leaving a small piece of common, &c. Voted to adjourn this meet- ing to the last Tuesday in September next to meet at this place at nine o'clock a. m.


[Signed] SEWALL GOODRIDGE Clerk.


Thus for sixty-six years the proprietors kept their organi- zation. Though they had no voice in the affairs of the town after its incorporation in 1764, yet they were interested in its prosperity and contributed money for its advancement. In the first years of their association they made vigorons efforts to forward the settlement, but it was difficult to manage the affairs of the new enterprise with the base of supplies and of power fifty miles away, and an almost un- broken wilderness between. Besides, some of the proprie- tors had only a financial interest in the matter,-they were simply land speculators,-so when their rights were heavily taxed to pay for improvements, they neglected to pay the assessments, and failed to attend the meetings for business. The proprietors had the power to sell all the lots on which the taxes were unpaid, and did so to some extent; but it was a delicate matter, and they hesitated to do it, and in some cases allowed' the unpaid taxes to acenmulate for twenty years before they sold the land.


The most prominent and efficient of the proprietors was Benjamin Lynde, Jr., Esq., who was interested in the enterprise from the beginning, and who bought up at one time and another a large number of the original rights. As the town was named for him, his record is a matter of interest. Benjamin Lynde, the father of the proprietor, was a prominent man in Massachusetts colony, holding many offices of trust and honor. Benjamin Lynde, Jr., was born October 5, 1700, graduated at Harvard college in


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1718, and married, November 1, 1731, Mary, daughter of Major John Bowles, of Roxbury, a descendant of John Elliot, the noted missionary to the Indians. He was ap- pointed special judge of the court of common pleas for Suffolk county, and in 1737 was named one of the agents to accompany the commission to Hampton on the settle- ment of the boundary line between New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In 1739 he was chosen standing judge of common pleas of Essex county, and in 1745 was appointed to the superior bench of the province, which position he held for twenty-seven years ; he was also a member of the council for twenty-eight years. He presided at the trial of the soldiers who fired on the mob in State street, Boston. March 5, 1770. The last two years of his life he was judge of probate, and died October 5, 1781. His daughter Lydia married, September 30, 1767, Rev. William Walter, D. D., rector of Trinity church, Boston, who represented the Lynde estate in the meetings of the proprietors for many years. In a controversy which arose between the proprie- tors of the town and the Masonian proprietors, to whom reference will be made later, Dr. Walter had a very promi- nent part ; and a letter of his to the agent of the Masonian proprietors is well worthy of preservation for its vigorous English, and as showing the difficulties in those early days of securing accurate surveys of lots. The agent of the Masonian proprietors complained that the lots reserved for them fell short of measure, but as the proprietors of Lynde- borough suffered in the same way in reference to the north line on Francestown, in which the Masonian proprietors had interest, they felt that one discrepaney would offset the other, though they were willing to do anything in reason. Dr. Walter sent the following letter, dated October 29, 1793, to John Pierce, Esq., clerk of the Masonian proprie- tors :


SIR: Your letter of Sept. 17, 1792, was received by the proprie- tors of Lyndeborough at their late meeting in Dunstable. The con-


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tents thereof were fully discussed, and I was directed to commi- cate their sentiments upon the subject.


You will permit me to call to your remembrance the contents of your former letter, Sept., 1792, wherein you declare yourself fully authorized by the Masonian proprietors to communicate to ns the extent of their demands against the propriety of Lyndeboro', which were to have two lots laid out to you in lien of No. one, and two cut off by Carleton's survey laying over Fletcher's,-and to have number four and five make up what deficiency was said to be in them ; and theu, in behalf of the Masonian proprietors, you declare that, these conditions being complied with, you would forever quit all demands upon the proprietors of Lyndeboro', although fur- ther demands might be made. No words can more fully express your mind, no conditional engagement can be stronger in honor or in law. Without entering into the merits of the different surveys, or contending that you had already received your quantity except twenty-six acres, as appears by Fletcher's resurvey of the nineteen lots, and Carleton finding space enough to lay out his eight lots .- without entering, I say, into this old dispute, for peace sake the proprietors of Lyndeboro' immediately voted to comply with your request, and to rectify what you called errors in Carleton's survey. by which more than three hundred acres are, in effect, given to the Masonian proprietors beyond their strict due. A committee at the same time was appointed to lay out the two lots, and survey munbers four and five to make up the deficiencies in them if any there were. The committee were two of our most respectable members,-Esq. Rand and Col. Putnam,-who took with them one of the most respectable surveyors in the neighborhood, John Shepherd, Esq. They went over the commons, and finally fixed on that part of them which lies toward Amherst, and laid out two lots, one and two, in lieu of the same numbers in Carleton's survey said to be cut off, and a regular return was made to us and accepted at our meeting, June, 1793 ; and an official report to you as agent of the Masonian proprietors was ordered to be made, and was in fact made, as appears by a copy of the letter which stands on the records of the clerk of the propriety.


I presume therefore it must have escaped your recollection when you say that no return has been made of this survey ; the land so laid out is now declared by Col. Putnam, Major Goukl, Rev. Mr.


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Goodridge, and Esq. Shepherd to be equal to the commons in general, -well wooded and laying near a saw-mill ; and whatever old Mr. Rand might have said to you in a jockular manner, or might be said by others maliciously, it is supposed to be any day worth a dollar per acre or more. This I presmne must satisfy yon of its being more than a tolerable proportion to the land lost, especially when I assure you that I have myself this week agreed for the sale of one of my second division lots near the centre of that town for less than one dollar per acre.


As to lots number four and five, they also were surveyed at the same time ; number five was found to be more than complete, and the committee thought it as reasonable to take off the surplus as to add to number four a deficiency that might be found in it ; but, as you are pleased to say, the lots being drawn for and sold, must stand as it is, be it more or less. We have ordered a new inspec- tion of number four, and have made up that lot to the satisfaction of the purchaser, leaving number five with all its overplus. After this, we presumed certainly upon having a final discharge from the Masonian proprietors, as from gentlemen who must feel themselves, by their most solenm promise, under every obligation as men of honor to give it to us withont a moment's delay. Instead of which, we have a new demand for a deficiency in number six, and we know not but some time hence still further demands will be made, under the threat that you or some other gentleman cannot acquiesce in the final division of the commons till their conditions are com- plied with.


But, sir, the proprietors of Lyndeborough are not to be awed into endless submission by threats contained in public or private letters. As to number six, I am directed to say that we know not the state of that lot. It may be delinquent, but if it is, we pre- summe the fault is not ours, for it lies on the north side of the town. which line we have for thirty years back been complaining to the Masonian proprictors as being crowded too far south by Beton and others, who purchased Wallingford's lot, and have prayed their interference to do us justice by giving to us, who were the first purchasers, the extent which our charter gives us on that side ; but we have not been able to procure from them the smallest exertion, not even to the moving one of their fingers, to displace the burden by which we are losers of some hundred of acres. And if you also


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are a loser, it is no matter of admiration, but surely your com- plaints should not be sent to us. I have, therefore, only to say in behalf of the proprietors of Lyudeborough that if the Masonian proprietors will carry back, or cause to be carried back, that line so as to give us our just claim on that side, and there shall then be any deficiency in number six or any other lot bordering on that line, we will instantly make up the deficiency, whatever it may be. This, I presume, sir, will convince you that we have done all that you or any reasonable man could expect, and induce you to give us what you have so long denied us, a full and final discharge. If this is still cruelly denied us, we must appeal to the powers which are above us.


I am, sir, with due respect,


Your most obedient, humble servant, W. WALTER.


Another prominent proprietor was Daniel Epes, Jr., Esq., of that part of Salem afterwards called Danvers, whose sons, Francis and Benjamin, became influential citi- zens of Lyndeborough after its incorporation. Deacon Nathaniel Putnam, Joseph Richardson, Edward Hardy. and Timothy Cummings were the only original proprietors. so far as can be found, who made homes for themselves in the town.


The proprietors soon found difficulties other than those of the wilderness to retard the development of the new township. They had hardly commenced a settlement when the question began to be agitated as to the line of division between the province of Massachusetts Bay and the prov- ince of New Hampshire. This was a very important mat- ter to the owners of land in Salem Canada, for they were connected with the province of Massachusetts Bay, hold- ing the title to their land from that province, and therefore they waited with great anxiety the settlement of the vexa- tious question.


The matter was vigorously discussed by both parties,


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Massachusetts elaiming that the line was designed to start from a point three miles north of Black Rocks, at the mouth of the Merrimack river, and to run parallel to the river to a point three miles beyond where the two branches, Pemigewasset and Winnipiseogee, come together to form the Merrimack, which would have been three miles north of the present town of Franklin, and then the line was to run due west to the South sea, or Pacific ocean. New Hamp- shire claimed that its south boundary was from a point three miles north from the channel of the Merrimack at its mouth, and extending due west to his majesty's other gov- ernments, or New York. New Hampshire and Massachu- setts were so far united as provinces of his majesty that they were under one governor, Jonathan Belcher, who resided in Massachusetts and was supposed to be in her interest, while David Dunbar, Esq., was lientenant-governor of New Hampshire, who, with a majority of the council and house of representatives, was opposed to Governor Belcher and to the Massachusetts claim.




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