USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Amherst > History of the town of Amherst, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire (first known as Narraganset township number three, and subsequently as Souhegan West) > Part 4
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36
HISTORY OF AMHERST.
[Chap.
thence North, by ve afores'd Lott 74 rods, to a white pine marked with T. P & S, thence west 124 rods to an Arsh marked with P & M, thence Sonth 74 rods to a white pine marked, s'd Balche's Corner. Also a Minister's Lott of Sixty acres, Bounded Sontherly on a High- way, Lying North & South 124 rods, east and west 78 rods, the South west corner making ye same Bounds of the North East of ye s'd Ministry Lott, ye Highway Lying Between them, the foure corners . marked with M. Also a School Lott containing sixty acres, Bound- ing Westerly to ye Ministers, Southerly to ye Ministry & Meeting house place, Easterly to ye heads of ye Lotts 109 & 110, the corners marked with S.
[Signed] ROBERT HALE, p'r Order."
The first settlement in the township was probably made in the spring of 1735, by Samuel Lamson and Samuel Walton, from Reading, Mass. They settled at first about a mile south of the village, on the farm now owned by Mr. Bryant Melendy, where they built a log house. Both after- ward removed to other parts of the town,-Lamson to the westerly part, now Mont Vernon, where some of his descendants now reside. About 1765 he removed to Bil- lerica, Mass., where he died about 1779.
Walton removed to the easterly part of the town, near Babboosuck pond. Of his subsequent history but little is known. His name appears occasionally on the proprietors' records, and is attached to the petition to the Provincial authorities in 1747, asking for help against the Indians. He is said to have died · here, but none of his descendants reside in town, and for the last eighty years the name is not found on the town records.
Lieut. Joseph Prince seems to have been the only one of the original proprietors who settled in the township. He was from Salem Village, now Danvers, and was a proprietor in the right of his uncle, Richard Prince. According to an old plan, still in existence, his land at one time extended from Bedford line westward to near where the village of Mont Vernon now stands. A family tradition says that he first located himself on the farm afterward owned by
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Nathan and Peter Jones, in Mont Vernon, but removed thence to the place now owned by Solomon Prince, in the easterly part of Amherst. Other settlers followed, not long afterward, many of them from Salem, and the adjoining towns which once made a part of that ancient town, but the progress of the settlement was slow. In September, 1741, but fourteen families were settled in the township.
Efforts were made by the proprietors to induce settlers to locate in the township, and sums of money were voted for that purpose ; but the distance from the seaport towns, and the hardships attending the lives of settlers in a new settlement, prevented a rapid growth of the place. The French and Indian Wars, which commenced a few years later, also operated unfavorably to its progress.
The lives of the first settlers in the New Hampshire townships must have been a constant struggle for existence. Locating themselves on their lots at places where a supply of water could readily be obtained, they erected huts of logs, or stones, to serve as a temporary shelter. Perhaps a brook, or pond, not far distant, afforded them an occasional meal, or a bear, or deer, came within reach of their trusty muskets.
A settler in one of the Narraganset townships wrote thus of his town in its infancy :
" A howling wilderness it was, where no man dwelt. The hideous yells of wolves, the shrieks of owls, the gobblings of turkeys, and the barking of foxes, was all the music we heard. All a dreary waste and exposed to a thousand difficulties."
Against the monarchs of the forest the settlers waged a war of extermination. In the hot, dry days of summer and autumn, the fire aided them in their work. After their numbers had increased, they joined their strength in piling the logs into huge piles, which were set on fire and con- sumed.
The manufacture of potash from the ashes was once quite a business among them.
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Rye was sown in the autumn on the cleared land, among the stumps and rocks, or corn was planted in the spring, from which, with a little care, abundant crops were raised.
8 September, 1735. The proprietors appointed Capt. Mower, Lieut. Rayment, and Cornelius Tarble, a committee to build a bridge over Souhegan river ; and they seem to have attended to the business at once, as we find that at a meeting held 13 October following, the proprietors ratified an agreement they had made with Mr. Tarble for building a good and convenient bridge over the river, for doing which he was to receive the sum of ninety-five pounds.
It was probably built in the autumn and winter of that year, as we find the proprietors, at a meeting held 12 April, 1736, desiring Capt. Mower "to wait on Dunstable Selectmen, to Request them to lay out a Highway from Nashaway river to Souhegan Bridge, in the most convenient place ;" and at a meeting held 27 December, 1738, they " voted, that the sum of ten pounds be raised toward build- ing a bridge over Nashua river, provided it be built in a convenient place for the proprietors of this township;" and the money was to be deposited in the treasury, to be paid when the work was satisfactorily performed.
The building of a saw-mill was now in order; and, 19 April, 1737, the proprietors
"Voted. that Capt. Ives, Capt. Majory, Capt. Hicks, and Mr. Edward Bond, for the encouragement of building a saw-mill in Souhegan West. No. 3. upon a brook called Beaver brook, where it may be most convenient, shall have paid them, ont of the Treasury, forty pounds in money or Bills of credit. Provided, that the said mill be fitted to saw by the first of November next, and that shee shall be Kept in Good Repair, and to saw for the prop'rs to the halves, or Equi'lent to it, for the space of ten years from this date."
A tax of £120 was levied upon the proprietors, to pay the above grant and other charges, the same to be paid into the treasury by the first day of September following.
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14 February, 1737-38. The proprietors voted to have a second division of the land as soon as might be, and appointed Capt. Joseph Parker, of Chelmsford, Ensign Thomas Tarbox, and Lieut. Cornelius Tarble, a committee to see it done.
"Voted, that after the Comitte have vew'd the land they are to lay out, if they think it will not allow of more than 60 acers, they are to make that the standard, and what land is meener to make it Equiva- lent to the best 60 akers; and that the Comitte have regard to the medow, and lay it out as they goe along, including it in the 60 akers."
" Voted, that the above Comitte shall lay out convenient ways for the proprietors as may be needful."
11 July, 1738. The committee for dividing the town was enlarged by the addition of Mr. John Wiles and Capt. Ebenezer Rayment, and Mr. Joseph Richardson was appointed to serve in place of Capt. Joseph Parker.
Parties that had newly pitched their lots were required to have them surveyed by the same surveyor that the committee employed to make their surveys, and present a plan of the same, with their butts and bounds, to the committee, before the tenth of September next, at their own expense, they being notified by the committee.
This committee made their report, which was accepted and ordered to be recorded, 27 December, 1738; and the lots were probably drawn by the proprietors at that meeting, or at one held on the 10th of May following.
SETTLEMENT OF THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN MASSACHUSETTS AND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Disputes having arisen between the authorities of Massa- chusetts and New Hampshire in regard to the boundary line between the Provinces, a commission, composed of resi- dents in some of the adjacent Provinces, was appointed to adjust them.
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The claims of the parties were heard and discussed, and a decision rendered, from which the government of Massa- chusetts and the House of Representatives of New Hamp- shire appealed to the King in council, by whom a decision was made, 5 March, 1740, establishing the boundaries between the Provinces, which have remained substantially unchanged until the present time.
By this decision, Souhegan West, and twenty-seven other townships, which had been granted by Massachusetts, with large quantities of ungranted land intermixed among them, became parts of New Hampshire. Parts of some of the old Massachusetts towns also fell under the jurisdiction of New Hampshire.
Most of this territory also came within the limits of the Masonian Grant, the western line of which, it was claimed, extended across the country in a curved line corresponding to the coast line, from a point on the eastern line of the State, sixty miles from the mouth of the Piscataqua, to a point on the south line, sixty miles from the month of the Merrimack.
The claim of the Masonian proprietors was finally con- ceded by the State authorities. By an act passed 28 June, 1787, a straight line, running from one of the points named to the other, was declared to be the western boundary of the Masonian claim ; and all the unsold lands lying west of it and east of the curved line claimed by the Masonian proprietors, were sold to them for forty thousand dollars in securities, and eight hundred dollars in specie, all bona fide purchasers of land lying between the two lines previous to that time being quieted in their possession, so far as the State was concerned ; and Thomas Bartlett, Dudley Odlin, and Archibald MeMurphy, were authorized to make the transfer in behalf of the State. The line was run, in 1787, by Joseph Blanchard and Charles Clapham.
20 May, 1740. Solomon Wilkins had leave to take up sixty acres of land adjoining the falls in Souhegan river,
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the land to lay square, on condition that he built a good grist-mill near the falls, kept it in repair, and at all times supplied the inhabitants of the township with meal for the lawful and customary toll, when they brought their corn to be ground. The grant was to be forfeited, in case he should fail to grind and supply the town with meal forthwith,- unless prevented by some extraordinary casualty,-or if he should wholly neglect to grind for the space of eight months ; but, provided he gave an answer to the clerk by the 20th of June next following, accepting the conditions of the grant, and had the mill ready to grind by the twen- tieth day of May, 1741, in the meantime giving bonds for performance of the contract, the grant would hold good.
Wilkins seems not to have accepted the offer, as, 30 April, 1741, it was
" Voted, that the Proprietors will give to Mr. Jolm Shepard One hundred and twenty acers of land, to begin at William Peabody's line and Run down the River to the Bottom of the falls, and soe wide as to make the hundred and twenty acers on the conditions that the sixty acers was voted to Solliman Wilkins, as appeers by the records before ; He building a good Grist mill and a good Saw mill on said Souhegan River against the aforesaid land, and to finish them by the last of November next, and Keep them in good repair for the use of said Proprietors, he giving a bond to our Tressurer to comply with the same forthwith, he having liberty to Cut such white Oke Timber for the mill as he wants and ha' n't of his own."
Mr. Shepard was from Concord, Mass. He accepted the grant, built the mill, and became a useful and honored citi- zen of the town.
At the same meeting they voted that they would build a bridge over Souhegan river, and appointed Capt. Samuel Bancroft, Capt. Thomas Tarbox, and Joshua Hicks, a com- mittee to say where it should be built, and get it done.
They also " voted, that they will give noe encouragement to a blacksmith to settle among them;" but they soon thought better of it, for 22 May, 1745, they "voted, that
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[Chap.
they will give encouragement for a blacksmith to settle with them, and that Capt. Parker, Lieut. Prince, and Mr. Lamson, be desired to agree with a good smith to settle with them."
14 April, 1742. The township, having by the settlement of the boundary line between the Provinces, come under the jurisdiction of New Hampshire, the proprietors probably felt some anxiety that their titles-derived from a grant made by Massachusetts-should be recognized by the authorities of New Hampshire. Accordingly, Epes Sargent, Esq., Mr. Joshua Hicks, and Mr. Timothy Fuller, were con- stituted a committee to wait upon the Governor and Coun- cil of New Hampshire, and it was voted that the committee should be paid for their time and charges by the proprie- tors. To this last vote Capt. Ebenezer Rayment entered his dissent.
For some reason, the proprietors refused to pay the bill presented by the committee, 10 February, 1743-44 ; also, at the meeting held 30 January, 1744-45.
22 April, 1745, they voted that they would not allow so much to Col. Sargent and Mr. Hicks as the Canada pro- prietors did Col. Blaney and Capt. Epes for going to New Hampshire. Finally, 16 July, 1746, they voted that Col. Sargent's and Mr. Hicks's two accounts, amounting to £34, 9s, 3d, old tenor, be allowed, and paid them.
22 May, 1745. The proprietors took action in regard to laying out highways, and appointed Joseph Prince, Samuel Walton, and Capt. Parker, a committee for that purpose, and instructed them to lay out no ways except in places where the owners would give the land for the purpose.
They voted that the ways should be mended by a rate, and appointed William Bradford, Deacon Hobbs, and James Coffren, surveyors for the year (1745). These seem to have been the first surveyors of highways appointed in the township.
At a meeting held 16 July, 1746, the proprietors voted to dismiss an article in the warrant calling the meeting " To
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see if they would build one half, or any part, of a bridge over the river at Shepard's mills, in case Benjamin Hopkins would build one half of the same."
May not the town of Milford have received its name from the fact that for some years the inhabitants of Monson, afterward a part of Amherst, forded the river to bring their grists to mill, from which arose the name Milford ?
As the sixty families required by the grant had not settled in the township, the proprietors voted, at a meeting held 11 March, 1746-47,
"That they will chuse a comittee to git an obligation drawn & sub- scribed, that shall oblige at least sixty famalies, with them that are already there, to setle Immediately, or gitt sum to setle there for them, agreeable to the grant."
" Voted, for the Comittee, Capt. Raiment, De'con Tarble, & Robert Andrew."
At a meeting held 3 November, 1747, the proprietors appointed Capt. Ebenezer Parker, Deacon Tarble, Capt. Joseph Richardson, Samuel Walton, and William Bradford, on a committee to lay out the undivided lands, and instructed them to have regard to the goodness of the land and meadows, and qualify the same ; and they were desired and empowered to get such assistance as was needful, and get the work done as soon as might be. They were also to lay out needful roads. This committee presented their report at a meeting of the proprietors held 8 February, 1748-49, which was sworn to before Col. Sargent ; and those of the proprietors present who had paid all dues and assessments on their shares, drew their third division lots.
An article in the warrant calling this meeting, "To see if they will build the half of a Bridge, at Capt. Shepard's mills, over the Souhegan river, when Monson people will build the other half," was dismissed.
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OLD, MIDDLE, AND NEW TENOR BILLS. LAWFUL, AND STERLING MONEY.
Bills of credit were issued, from time to time, by the authorities of the Province of Massachusetts for the pay- ment of expenses incurred in the military expeditions undertaken by that Province. The first of these bills were issued to defray the expense of the expedition for the reduction of Canada, in 1690, and they went into circulation as a part of the currency of the Province. In 1749 between two and three million pounds were outstanding, the oldest being known as old tenor, those of a later date as middle, and new tenor, bills. All had depreciated in value, the old tenor bills to such an extent that sixty shillings in bills would purchase only six shillings and eight pence in silver. The middle and new tenor bills had not depreciated so much, but the value of all was perpetually changing and uncertain,-a plague to their inventors and the people who used them.
An account of the troubles of the royal governors in their efforts for the suppression of these bills is given in the following scrap, the authorship of which is attributed to Richard Waldron, for a long time one of the Councillors in New Hampshire :
" Shute shot his bolt, but missed his aim ; Then took his flight, and left the game. Burnett, his skill superior, tried ; But failing, laid him down and died. Then, said the King, . Let Belcher try To crush the cursed currency. If his art be used in vain, Delusive paper be their bane, And, for to make the case still worse, Shirley's deceit augment the curse.'"
Finally, in 1749, a law was enacted, providing for the redemption of these bills in silver money at the rate of 6s., 8d. in coin, or bullion of sterling fineness, for 50s. of old,
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and the same for 11s., 3d. in middle and new tenor bills. Spanish milled dollars, of full weight, were reckoned at 6s., and it was provided that, after 31 March, 1750, the hills should cease to pass as currency, and that all accounts should thereafter be kept in silver money, reckoning silver bullion, of sterling fineness, at 6s., 8d. per ounce, and Spanish milled dollars, of full weight, at 6s. each. This was the "Lawful money" of the fathers, 20s. of which equalled $3.333-making one pound. In sterling money, a dollar was reckoned 4s., 6d., and one pound equalled $4.44 ;.
To facilitate the redemption of the bills of credit, a grant of £180,000 was made by the home government to the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and the amount sent over in Spanish milled dollars. The balance required for their redemption was raised by taxation in the Province.
24 May, 1749, voted to dismiss the following article in the warrant, "To see if they will choose a Committee to treat with the claimers of Mason's rights, or any others that lay claim to the said Souhegan, and see on what terms we may be quieted in our possession, and make report to the next meeting."
Capt. Shepard, William Peabody, and Samuel Walton, were chosen a committee to dispossess William Manning of a strip of land he had enclosed of Deacon Bowtle's.
23 May, 1750, voted, in regard to an article in the war- rant, " To see whether they will chuse a committee to treat with Joseph Blanchard, Esq., as agent for the claimers of Mason's patents, inasmuch as he has advertised the said Souhegan to be granted away by him," that they will not choose a committee to agree with Col. Blanchard.
No settlement seems to have been made by the proprie- tors with the Masonian company.
1751. OLD AND NEW STYLE.
The Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Cæsar 46 years B. C., continued in use in England and the English
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Colonies until 1752. By this, the Old style of reckoning, one of every four years, without exception, was reckoned as a leap year, making the average length of the years 365 days and 6 hours, or about 11 minutes and 10 seconds more than the solar year. This difference between the length of the civil and the solar years had, in 1582, accumu- lated so that it amounted to about ten days,-the vernal equinox, which should fall upon the 21st day of March, in that year, falling upon the 11th. This variation in dates disturbed the regularity of the church festivals, and Pope Gregory XIII, after much study, ordered ten days to be stricken from the calendar, the fifth day of October, 1582, being reckoned as the fifteenth ; and to prevent a recurrence of the difficulty it was ordered that the closing year of a century should be reckoned as a leap year, only when it could be divided by 400 without a remainder. This, the Gregorian calendar, or New style, was adopted shortly after in most Catholic countries.
In England, owing to the hatred existing against the Catholics, its adoption was postponed. Finally, in 1751, another day having been added in 1700, which was reckoned a leap year, an act was passed by the Parliament which directed that eleven days should be stricken from the calendar in the month of September, 1752, the day follow- ing the second day of that month being reckoned as the fourteenth, so that the year 1752, though it was a leap year, contained but 355 days. The provision for avoiding a recurrence of the trouble was also adopted. The civil or ecclesiastical year, before that time, began on the twenty- fifth day of March,-March being reckoned as the first month of the year, although by common usage the year was said to commence on the first day of January, as at present. Hence the double dating, in old records, of events that transpired prior to the 25th of March, in years previous to 1752, both the common and civil years being given. This distinction was abolished in 1751.
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At present, the Julian calendar, or old style, is used only in Russia, and 1800 having there been reckoned as a leap year, the difference between their dates and ours now amounts to twelve days.
26 September, 1753, the proprietors voted that their committee
" May : 1, lay out a Road from Salem Canady to Capt. Shepard's bridge; 2, a Road from Hezekiah Lovejoy's to the meeting house : 3, a Road from Josiah Sawyer's to the meeting house; 4, a Road from Thomas Clark's to the meeting house; 5, a Road from the meeting honse to Capt. Shepard's mill; 6, a Road from Small's to the meeting house, with a road from William Peabody's into said Road, all to be dun as the Committee think fitt."
" Voated, that there shall be a Road laid out, four rods wide, from Ebinezer Lyon's house to his Bridge, so called."
"Voated, that they will build a Bridge over Songhegan River, wheare Lyon's Bridge was, and appointed Mr. Lyon, Mr. Towne, and Mr. Read, the Committee to build it."
" Voted, to allow Capt. Shepard and others eighty pounds, old tenor, toward building the bridge called Shepard's bridge."
In 1753 the following petition for incorporation as a town was presented to the Governor and Council by the citizens of Souhegan West.
" To His Exelency the Governer and to the Honorable the Council of the Province of New Hampshire :
This humbly showeth that we, the subscribers, Inhabitants of a New Plantation or Township called Songhegan West, or Narraganset, No. 3, being Invironed with many irremidible difficulties under our present situation, as the Barer will inform, earnestly pray that his Exelency with your Hon'rs would Incorporate us, that we might enjoy the valuable Liberties and priveledges of a Town, and would Beg that the Charter of the Town may Bound us Westerly on the Township called Salem Canada, Northerly on New Boston, so called. Easterly on Bedford and part of Merrimack, Southerly on Soughegan River, so called. All which is humbly submitted to your Exellencies and Honours' wise Council, as we in Duty Bound shall ever pray.
Dated at Songhegan West, January ye 26th, 1753.
Signed by EPHRAIM ABBOTT, JOSHUA ABBOT,
JOSIAHI ABBOT,
ANDREW BIXBE,
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HISTORY OF AMHERST. [Chap.
JOSEPH BOUTELL,
IIUGH Ross,
WILLIAM BRADFORD,
JOSIAH SAWYER,
BENJAMIN CHEEVER,
ANDREW SEETOWN,
JOSEPH CLARK,
JOHN SMITHI,
EBENEZER ELLINWOOD,
JOSEPH STEEL,
EBENEZER ELLINWOOD, JR ..
SAMUEL STEWART,
JOSEPH ELLINWOOD,
WILLIAM STEWART,
JOHN EVERDON.
CALEB STILES,
SOLOMON HUTCHINSON,
ROBERT STUARD,
SAMUEL LAMSON,
BENJAMIN TAYLOR,
SAMUEL LAMSON, JR.,
ISRAEL TOWNE,
BENJAMIN LOVEJOY,
BENJAMIN WILKINS.
EBENEZER LYON,
DANIEL WILKINS,
ROBERT READ.
DANIEL WILKINS, JR.
No action seems to have been taken upon this petition.
Prices of sundries in 1759 : from an old bill found among papers left by Rev. Mr. Wilkins ;
17 Feb., 4 lb. tea. 16 s.
6 Sept., 1 lb. chocolate, 4 s.
22 Nov., ¿ 1b. tea. 30 s.
25 Dec., 1 Gallon rum, 34 s.
A Spanish milled dollar was reckoned at forty-five shil- lings, in the currency of those days. Tea seems to have been used to a considerable extent at this time. Tradition says that the first seen in town was sent by a friend, in Boston, as a present to the minister, whose good wife, being igno- rant of the proper method of preparing it for use, boiled it in an iron kettle or pot until she thought it was done, when the mess was dipped out and the liquor " sipped of," with no very satisfactory results. She doubtless soon found a more excellent way of preparing it.
Its use was deemed almost a crime during the Revolu tionary War, and the leaves of various other plants were used as substitutes.
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INCORPORATION OF THE TOWN OF AMHERST.
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