USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Brookline > History of Brookline, formerly Raby, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire : with tables of family records and genealogies > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
Through this tract the old east boundary line of Townsend was sub- sequently extended in a northerly direction for about one mile to its present northeast corner at the state line. The land in the tract to the west of the line thus extended became a part of Townsend; that to the east of the line became a part of Groton Plantation, now Pepperell, Mass.
Brookline as a Part of Hollis 1746-1769.
West Dunstable enjoyed its privileges as a precinct of Old Dunstable until 1746. But early in the latter year, the Governor and Council ap- pointed a board of five commissioners to examine all that part of Old Dunstable lying north of the Province line and west of the Merrimack river and report as to the feasibility of dividing it into new townships. This committee attended to its duties and reported. In accordance with its report, soon after it was made, all of that part of Dunstable lying west of the Merrimack river was divided into four parts, each of which was
55
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
incorporated as a new township under the respective names of Dunstable, Hollis, Munson, and Merrimack. The township of Hollis was chartered April 3, 1746. It included within its limits all that part of the present town of Brookline which was originally a part of Old Dunstable.
From April 3, 1746, until its own incorporation as a township, March 30, 1769, a period of 23 years, Brookline continued to constitute a part of Hollis. But although its inhabitants were in Hollis, they do not appear to have been, either socially, politically, or ecclesiastically, to any great extent of it. They attended church, to be sure, in Hollis meeting house, not having any of their own. But the roads leading from their homes to the meeting house were, for the most part, mere bridle paths; and in such poor condition as to render a trip to church a task which only the most devout of the settlers had the fortitude to undertake with any degree of regularity.
The same cause-poor roads - and also a poverty of possessions, which compelled them to stay at home and work their little clearings for all they were worth, in order to obtain a sustenance that would make their lives worth living, were also undoubtedly answerable for their play- ing a somewhat inconsiderable part in the social and civil affairs of the town; which in those days centered around the meeting house in Hollis village.
Nevertheless, and notwithstanding the disadvantages under which they were placed during this period, some of the settlers in the eastern part of Brookline's present territory were at times more or less actively engaged in the management of the town affairs of Hollis. Among those thus actively participating were James McDaniels, who, at Hollis' first town meeting, April 28, 1746, was elected surveyor of highways, an office to which he was again elected in 1748; Samuel Douglass, James Joseph and Randall McDaniels, John and Jonathan Melvin, Jasher Wyman and Isaac Farrar; all of whom on the 5th day of August, 1746, signed a re- monstrance directed to the General Court against the proposed location of a proposed new meeting house, as being too far away from their homes in the west part of the township to properly serve their needs.
Early Settlers.
At the date of the establishment of the Province line, in 1741, it is very doubtful if the territory which now constitutes the township of Brookline contained, all told, more than ten families of bona fide settlers; and these were nearly all located in the east part of the town, adjacent
56
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
to what is now the west part of Hollis; for there is little or no evidence that the southern part of the Mile Slip contained settlers prior to 1750.
Of these ten families, it is impossible to decide which was first to come. But so far as the dates of old deeds of lands located here and the names of the resident signers to the foregoing three petitions for a new township are entitled to be considered as evidence, the honor of having been the first settler in Raby might have been claimed with equal pro- priety by any one of them. In the following brief statements is embodied such information as the writer has been able to obtain relative to these early settlers in town.
Farley.
CAPT. SAMUEL FARLEY was one of the signers of the second of the three foregoing mentioned petitions for a new township, in 1738. At that time he was a resident in that part of Old Dunstable which is now a part of Brookline, coming there from Bedford. Mass. His log cabin was located about one mile south of the village main street on the east side of the highway leading from Brookline to Pepperell, Mass. Its site at the present time is occupied by a dwelling house which he erected prior to the opening of the Revolution, and which is believed to be the oldest framed building standing in town. At the date of this writing, this house is owned and occupied by Elmer Wallace. For many years past it has been known as the "Old Samuel Farley place." It is famed, locally, as having been the birthplace of Honorable Benjamin Mark Far- ley; for many years a distinguished member of the Hillsborough County Bar, and also of George Frederic Farley, a lawyer late of Groton, Mass., who were grandchildren of Captain Samuel.
In 1768, he prepared the petition to the legislature in which the in- habitants of the west part of Hollis and the south part of the Mile Slip asked to be incorporated into a new and separate township; and, in the following year, acting as agent for the petitioners, he was chiefly instru- mental in procuring the passage by the legislature of the act in which the prayer of the petition was granted by the incorporation of Raby. The same year, 1769, he issued the call for, and presided as moderator over, the first town meeting to be holden in the new township. (See Family Records, post.)
57
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
McDaniels .*
James, Joseph and Randal McDaniels were brothers. Their names appear as signers of the third of the foregoing petitions for a new town- ship; all three of them being at that time residents in West Dunstable, now Brookline; coming there prior to 1739, from Groton, Mass. They settled in West Dunstable on land which was conveyed to James Mc- Daniels, the eldest of the three, by Maj. Joseph Blanchard by his deed, dated July 17, 1739, and recorded in Middlesex, Mass., records, Vol. XL, page 11.
James McDaniels' house, at the time of his settlement here, was located about one mile north of the present village main street on the west side of the east highway to Milford. It was, of course, a log cabin. Its site was subsequently occupied by a framed dwelling house erected by McDaniels, which was destroyed by fire in 1850-51; it being at that date owned and occupied by the late Col. Artemas Wright. He was the only one of the three brothers who left children surviving him; and from him are descended not only all the McDaniels, or Daniels, as they now style themselves, who since his day and generation have lived, and at the pres- ent time are living, in this town, but also many others of the same name who in the years gone by have emigrated from Brookline to various local- ities in New England and elsewhere. He died April 11, 1801, aged 84 years, and is buried in the Pond cemetery. His family record is given on a subsequent page.
RANDAL McDANIELS' log cabin in Raby was located about one- half mile north of the village Main street on the west side of the north highway to Hollis; its exact location being a few rods northeast of the V formed by the junction of the latter highway with the east highway from Brookline to Milford. According to the family traditions, he was unmarried. These traditions say, further, that he died about 1752, and was buried in the cemetery in the woods, about one-fourth of a mile east- erly of the old Dickey place, now owned by Mrs. E. J. Rideout.
JOSEPH MCDANIELS remained in Raby but a short time after its incorporation, ere he removed from town. Where he went, or what finally became of him are, as yet, unanswered questions.
* Original spelling of the name as written in said Blanchard deed. On the town records the name is spelled in several different ways; among which are McDaniels, McDonald, McDaniel, McDonel, and Daniels.
58
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
SAMUEL DOUGLASS was a settler in West Dunstable, now Brook- line, as early as 1735, coming there from Townsend, Mass., where he was the immigrant settler of his family; coming there from Scotland in 1731; his name appearing as grantee in recorded deeds of lands in that town as early as Dec. 2, of the latter year.
In 1735 he purchased of Col. Joseph Blanchard a tract of land located in the southwest part of old Dunstable; of which the deed of conveyance to him is recorded in Middlesex records, Vol. 36, page 95. Upon this tract of land, soon after its purchase, he built a log cabin, and, with his family, took up his residence.
At this time, old Dunstable included within its bounds a considerable portion of territory which now constitutes the northeast part of Towns- end, Mass .; and which was transferred from the former to the latter town by the establishment of the Province line in 1741. The lands thus transferred included the greater part of Nissiquassick Hill, now known as Townsend Hill; upon the northern slope of which in Brookline the Doug- lass cabin was located. Its site at the present time is marked by an an- cient cellar hole, still in an excellent state of preservation, which is located in Brookline about midway of the hill's ascent, on the east side of, and about thirty rods distant from, the highway which leads from Soutlı Brookline to the summit of the same, and a few rods north of the state line. The establishment of the Province line left him still an inhabitant of Dunstable. In 1742, his name appears as one of forty-three citizens of the West Parish of Dunstable who signed the call to the Rev. Daniel Emerson, the first minister of the parish. In 1746, by the incorporation of the West Parish of Dunstable as a new township, under the name of Hollis, he became a citizen of the latter town; and as such, on the 5th day of August of that year, in company with Stephen Ames, William Adams, Isaac Farrar, James, Joseph and Randall McDaniels, the majority of whom were afterwards citizens of Brookline, he signed a remonstrance against the proposed location of the second meeting house in Hollis. In 1769, when the west part of Hollis and part of the Mile Slip were incor- porated as a township under the name of Raby, his farm was included in that part of Hollis which was taken for the new township, and he thus became a citizen of the latter town.
He continued to reside in Raby for several years after its incorpora- tion. His name appears as a resident of this town in the United States census of 1790. About 1792-1793, he removed from Brookline to Little- ton, N. H., where his descendants are numerous at the present time, and
59
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
where tradition says he died and is buried, although his grave is unmarked by any tombstone.
His family record is given in the chapter devoted to family records and genealogies, post.
JASHER WYMAN was born in Woburn, Mass., Jan. 6, 1692. The Woburn records give the names of his parents as John and Hannah (Far- rar) Wyman. At the time of the establishment of the Province line, in 1741, he was living in the north-east part of Townsend, Mass. By the establishemnt of the line he was transferred from Massachusetts into New Hampshire. His house was located in that part of the southwest part of old Dunstable which is now a part of Brookline; its site being near that now occupied by the dwelling house of Deacon Perley L. Pierce in South Brookline. He owned and operated a sawmill which was located on Stickney brook. and of which it is claimed that it was the first saw- mill to be erected within the limits of Brookline. Mr. Wyman continued to reside in West Dunstable for several years after his involuntary intro- duction into its territory. He certainly was a resident as late as 1746, as in the latter year his name appears on the West Dunstable records as one of the signers to a remonstrance against the proposed location of the second meeting house of that town.
Ithimar B. Sawtelle, in his history of Townsend, Mass., says that he removed from West Dunstable to Townsend Harbor soon after the es- tablishment of the Province line, and that he died there. Other authori- ties, however, claim that he eventually removed to and died in Woburn. He was related by marriage to the Prescotts of Pepperell, Mass. He has, so far as known, no descendants in this town at the present time.
ISAAC FARRAR in 1741 was living in West Dunstable, now Brook- line, coming there from Woburn, Mass., where he was born April 2, 1702. He was a son of Isaac and Mary (Wescott) Farrar. His house in Brook- line was located just north of the state line and west of the Jasher Wyman sawmill. Its site cannot to-day be identified.
The late Nathan Farrar, of this town, deceased, was probably one of his descendants, and he is represented here at the present time by his great-great-great-grandson, Frank Farrar, of South Brookline.
JONATHAN MELVIN was a son of John and Hannah (Lewis) Melvin of Concord, Mass. He came from Concord to old Dunstable and settled in its west part at some time between the years 1738 and 1741.
60
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
In 1738 his name appears on the second of the foregoing three petitions as one of the non-resident signers. But at that time he was already a land owner here; as appears by a deed of land dated in 1738 and recorded in Middlesex County records, Vol. 39, page 421; in which he is named as grantee from Daniel Raymond of certain lands in the southwest part of Dunstable. His log cabin was located in the northeast part of Raby near the west boundary line of Hollis. How long he resided here is un- known. But he was certainly here in 1746; for in that year his name appears on the Hollis records as one of the signers of the remonstrance against the proposed location of the meeting house. He must have removed from Raby before its incorporation, as his name does not appear on its records.
JOHN MELVIN, a brother of the aforesaid Jonathan Melvin, set- tled in the west part of old Dunstable, now Brookline, at the same time as did the latter. His residence, like his brother's, was in the northeast part of the town. According to the West Dunstable records, he was residing here as late as 1746. It is not known when he left the town nor whither he went.
JOSEPH WHITCOMB in 1739 was living in the northeast part of old Dunstable, now Brookline, near the Hollis line. He was probably a descendant, possibly a son, of Jonathan Whitcomb of Lancaster, Mass .; who, as early as 1730, was the proprietor of a tract of land now located in Brookline, which he purchased of one J. Moore. (See Middlesex Records, Vol. 32, page 90.) Joseph, or possibly one of his sons of the same name, was living in Raby as late as 1790, as his name appears in the list of names of its inhabitants as given in the United States Census of that year.
61
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
CHAPTER IV.
The Town as a Part of Hollis, 1746-1769.
Dissatisfaction Among the Inhabitants in the West Part of Hollis- Unsuccessful Attempts to Procure a Division of the Town-Ap- pointment of Samuel Farley as Their Agent to Petition the General Court for a Division of the Township-First and Second Petitions for a Charter-Charter of the Town of Raby-Area of Raby as First Incorporated-Subsequent Changes in Its Area-Loss of Land in Its Northwest Corner in 1794-Origin of the Name of Raby.
For a period of twenty-two years from the date of the incorporation of Hollis in 1746, the inhabitants of its western part continued faithful in their allegiance to the town. But during that entire period they con- tinued to live under the conditions described in a prior chapter. For, although they made many attempts to obtain pecuniary aid from their more prosperous fellow-citizens in the east part of the township, both by causing articles looking to that end to be inserted in the warrants for the annual town meetings, and also, by direct appeals to their sympathies, the articles were generally defeated. Or, if allowed to be passed, were changed, altered and amended, both in matter and form, to the extent that the resulting appropriations were so insignificant as to fall far short of the amount necessary to the accomplishment of the purposes for which they were originally intended to be used; and their sympathetic appeals to their neighbors were either unheeded by them or, having been politely received and acknowledged, were immediately forgotten.
Thus matters went on until the year 1764; when, apparently thor- oughly disgusted with the condition of their affairs, and just as thoroughly convinced that they could expect no change for the better so long as they continued to retain their connections with a town in which, although nominally citizens, they were in reality in the condition of that class of outsiders known as "Non-resident proprietors" ;- subject to taxation, but, save to a limited extent, exempt from its benefits,-the "west-enders" determined, if possible, to sever their connection with the mother town,
62
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
and to set up housekeeping for themselves in a new township to be formed out of that part of its territory,-with as much more as they might be able to obtain,-which as citizens they had hitherto occupied.
Accordingly they caused an article calling for a division of the town to be inserted in the warrant for the annual town meeting in March, 1764. The majority of the voters were opposed to any division of the township which would result in changing the location of the meeting house from its position in the exact center of a line drawn through the centre of the town from east to west; and, accordingly, when the article came to be considered in town meeting, it was disposed of by the following vote :-
"To measure East from the meeting house to the town line and then to measure West from the meeting-house the same length of line-and all West by North and South line to be set off to the One Mile Strip so called." Such a division as that contemplated by this vote was unsatis- factory to the west-enders, and they declined to accept it. But, realizing that they were in a hopeless minority, they resolved to defer further action at that time, and wait for a more favorable opportunity in which to accomplish their purpose.
In 1768 they appear to have come to the conclusion that the time for further action had come. For in the warrant for the annual town- meeting of that year there again appeared an article calling for a division of the township. But upon the articles being considered the majority disposed of it by a vote, or resolution, precisely similar in its terms to that by which they disposed of the similar article in the warrant for the town meeting in 1764.
Disappointed, but not disheartened, by this, their second failure to obtain the consent of their fellow-citizens to what they considered an equitable division of the township, and convinced of the futility of their making any further efforts along the lines in which they had been moving, the west-enders resolved to appeal to the state authorities for a solution of the matter in question; and accordingly, to that end, on the 6th day of January, 1768, they united with the inhabitants of the Mile Slip in executing the following paper :
"Appointment of Samuel Farley Agent
We the Subscribers Inhabitants of the Westwardly part of the Town of Hollis and the Inhabitants & the free-holders of the Tract of Land call'd the Mile Slip, in the Province of New Hampshire do constitute and Appoint Samuel Farley of Hollis Gent to be our Agent Attorney and Trustee in our name and Stead to Petition His Excellency the Gov- ernor, the Honour'ble His Majesties Counsel & House of Representatives,
63
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
that we the Inhabitants afores'd may be set off and Incorporated as a Distinct Town.
January 6th, 1768.
George Russell,
Samuel Russell
Mathew Wallace,
Archibald McIntosh,
Daniel Shed,
Jonathan Powers,
James McDonell,
William Blanchard,
Isaac Shattuck,
Thomas Asten,
Benjamin Shattuck,
Swallow Tucker,
Nathaniel Patten,
James Conek,
Robert Seaver,
Sam'l Brown,
Elexander McIntosh,
Peter Honey,
Isaac Stevens,
John Cummings,
Sam'l Farley,
Simeon Blanchard,
James Nutting,
Rose Dickey,
Joshua Smith,
Fra's Buttrick,
William Spaulding,
Abigill Spaulding,
Henry Spaulding,
Robert Campbell,
James Campbell,
Clark Brown,
James Nutting, Jun."
Mr. Farley accepted the foregoing appointment, and on the 19th day of May in the same year, drew up and presented to the General Court a petition of which the following is a copy :--
"Petition for the Formation of a New Town.
"To His Excellency John Wentworth Esq. Captain General, Governor, & Commander in chief in and over his Majesty's Province of New Hamp- shire And to the Honorable his Majesty's Councel for said Province.
"Humbly sheweth Samuel Farley of Hollis in said Province, in behalf of himself and sundry of the Inhabitants living in the westerly side of said Hollis &c in a Tract of Land adjoining to the same, called the Mile Slip; that those persons live very Remote from the Meeting House in said Hollis, that to attend the Public Worship of God there, is attended with much Travil-Whereupon your Petitioner prays in behalf of said Inhabitants that the westerly part of said Hollis may be set off & Joined to the Tract of Land called the Mile Slip & be made a Town (or a seper- ate Parish from Hollis) or otherwise as Your Excellency & Honors shall see meet, & your Petitioner, as in duty bound shall ever pray, Dated May 19th, 1768."
SAMUEL FARLEY.
64
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
For some unknown reason, the Governor and Council failed to act upon this petition; and the following year Mr. Farley prepared and filed with the authorities at Concord a new petition, as follows :-
"Petition for the Formation of a New Town, 1769.
"To His Excellency John Wentworth Esq., Captain General, Gov- ernor & Commander in chief in & over his Majestys Province of New Hampshire And to the Honourable his Majestys Councel for said Province "The Petition of Samuel Farley, in behalf of himself, & a number of the Inhabitants, in the westerly part of Holles, & the Mile Strip so called, in said Province humbly sheweth, that your Petitioners, in the said west- erly part of Holles, are so remote from the Centre of said Town, by reason of the distance, that they cannot attend Town Privileges, without great difficulty & expence, & that the Inhabitants of the Mile Slip aforesaid, are not incorporated, but are destitute of Town priviledges, wherefore your Petitioner Prays as aforesaid, that your Excellency & Honours would take of the westerly part of Hollis aforesaid & Incorporate the same to- gether with the Mile Strip, into a Seperate or distinct Town, with the same Priviledges of other Towns & your Petitioner as in Duty Bound shall ever pray.
SAMUEL FARLEY."
The petition was accompanied with a plan of the proposed new township, and also with a description of its boundary lines, as follows:
"Boundaries of Raby. 1769.
"Beginning at a Stake & Stones in the South Side Line of the Town of Holles which is also the Province Line which Stake stands about two miles due East from the south-west corner of said Holles, thence running north by the Needle cross the said Town to one other Stake & Stones standing in the North Side Line of Said Holles, leaving the meeting House in said Holles in the middle between this Line & the East Side Line of Holles, then running from the last mentioned Stake Westerly by Holles to the North West Corner thereof then continuing that Line cross a Tract call'd the Mile Slip to the easterly side Line of Mason-thence turning off & running south by the Needle on the easterly side Line of Mason -afores'd to the Province Line then due east partly on the Province Line & partly on the South Side Line of Hollis afore said to Stake bgan at."
65
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
This petition, although it was strongly opposed by the majority of the people of Hollis, was successful; and on the 30th day of March, 1769, the Governor and Council incorporated the new town, in accordance with the above described boundaries, under the name of Raby.
It is to be noted at this point that the description of the boundary lines of the proposed new town which accompanied the foregoing de- scribed petition of 1769, are precisely the same as the boundary lines of Raby, as described in its charter. Yet for a period of seventeen years immediately following Raby's incorporation, Hollis laid claim to and at- tempted to exercise jurisdiction over, a part of the territory which was clearly and explicitly included in Raby's limits as described in its charter; the same being a tract of land three-fourths of a mile in width, extending its entire length north and south, and located in its eastern part, con- tiguous to Hollis.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.