USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Rindge > History of the town of Rindge, New Hampshire, from the date of the Rowley Canada or Massachusetts charter, to the present time, 1736-1874, with a genealogical register of the Rindge families > Part 6
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Voted that Enoch Hale be an agent to go to Portsmouth to git the town Incorporated with the proviso he can get the land taxed. And to see whether there be any other way for our help than to be incorporated, and that there be no other way for to. gather the taxes, and voted that Enoch Hale get the town incor-
75
SETTLEMENTS.
porated at all events if he can see no other way for to relieve the town.
It was upon the strength of this vote that the town was subsequently incorporated. Rev. Seth Dean's house was near the southern extremity of the Common, and on the lot now owned by A. A. Fowle. His children at this time were a son and two or more daughters. William Stearns, his wife and child were also added to the population of the settlement, while Daniel Harper came to this town in course. having previously resided in nearly all the towns in this vicinity. He hailed from Shirley at this time. His wife and three children came the following year. Evidently they had not been able to keep pace with him in his frequent removals.
1766. From this date the public meetings of the proprietors were held in the meeting-house. An article in the warrant for a meeting to be held in August does not represent a very satisfactory state of the treasury. The grief of the proprietors found expression in these words : "To see if the proprietors will choose an agent to hire any sum of money to relieve some difficulties that labor with the proprietors." When the meeting was assembled the article was passed without action, but whether in despair of securing relief, or from some happy change in the condition of their finances, is not made known.
A vote was passed granting Jonathan Stanley, and any others that so desired, the privilege of building stables near the meeting-house and on the land reserved for a Common. The stranger might reasonably inquire if some of the dilapidated horse-sheds, which now shabbily proclaim their great age, were not built at this time. But the facts and appearances are slightly at variance.
76
HISTORY OF RINDGE.
The emigration to the town for this as well as the preceding year was not numerous. David Hammond, with his wife and two children, Nathaniel Turner, from Lan- caster, with his wife and one child, and Amasa Turner, his father, also from Lancaster, complete the number. The family of the latter consisted of a wife and several children.
1767. The usual number of public meetings were held, but the proceedings are unimportant. It was now apparent that the place would soon be incorporated, by which the control of public affairs would be vested in the town instead of the association of proprietors, and for this reason few measures involving any outlay of money were adopted. The town received an addition of eleven families. Daniel Rand, of Shrewsbury, was married in May of this year, and settled in the southwest district. The farm has remained in the possession of his descendants until quite recently. Daniel Lake, his wife and seven children, removed to the north part of the town. They came from Topsfield. Isaac and David Allen, John MacElwain, each of whom were married; Benjamin Davis, from Groton, wife and one child; Abel Stone, also from Groton, wife and three children; Oliver Stevens, who was married in April; Joseph Worcester, wife and one child; Joseph Page, a widower, and his younger children, from Lunen- burg; Samuel Sherwin, of Andover, his wife and two children; and Jonathan Sherwin, from Boxford, with his wife and four children, removed to the town during the year.
In September the Provincial Legislature ordered an enumeration of the inhabitants, and an inventory of the ratable estates in each town or place in the province, to be made in December of this year. Any enumeration of the inhabitants of a town or of a State is an important item
77
SETTLEMENTS.
in its history. This census being made so near the date of incorporation possesses more than an ordinary interest, and the data are of much service in verifying the record of previous settlements. Previous to this enumeration, the Hewitts and Samuel Hodgskins had removed from the town.
The returns of a few towns in this vicinity in the following table are placed in comparison with the like statistics of this town. The names by which these towns at present are known are here employed. No returns are found with which to fill the blank spaces in the table : -
Total popu-
lation.
Number of
Polls.
Total value
of ratable
Proportion of
Province tax to £1,000.
Rindge,
298
65
£ 2,200
5
4
Fitzwilliam,
93
Dublin,
40
1,000
2 7
Keene,
430
106
4,000
9 10
New Ipswich,
150
5,000
11 18
Peterborough,
443
100
3,715
8 17
The population of each town is arranged in classes. The returns from Rindge were as follows : -
Married men from 16 to 60 years of age,
54
Married women, .
54
Unmarried men from 16 to 60 years of age, 18
Men 60 years and above,
4
Females unmarried (of all ages),
82
Boys of 16 years and under,
84
Male slaves,
0
Female slaves,
1
Widows,
1
Total,
298
estate.
S.
11
78
HISTORY OF RINDGE.
In this classification of the inhabitants there is a manifest error. The number of married men between sixteen and sixty years of age is fifty-four; and the number of men above sixty years is four, two of whom were married; while the number of married women is fifty-four. Either the number of married men between sixteen and sixty years of age should be fifty-two, or else the number of married women should be fifty-six. Probably the latter supposition is correct, and the population of the town was two more than stated, and the number of families was fifty-eight. Or if these married men, to whom the census returns have allotted no wives, were clearing land and building houses, preparatory to the removal of their families, that fact would account for the apparent discrepancy. The following exhibit of the families when the enumeration was made has not been prepared without considerable labor. The number of the children in some of the families has not been ascer- tained. If the table was complete in this particular, the sum of the two last columns would be one hundred and sixty-six, including others, if any, whose parents were not residents of this town.
Number of the Families.
Age of Husband.
Age of Wife.
No. of Boys under sixteen
years of age.
No. of Daughters unmarried.
1
Joseph Page (widower),
2 Samuel Larrabee, "
3 Abel Platts,
63
1
4 Nathaniel Page,
55
3
2
5 David Allen,
6 Isaac Allen,
7 John Coffeen,
8 Henry Coffeen,
29
9 William Carlton,
32
10
Rev. Seth Dean,
49
1
4
11 Silas Dutton,
1
1
12
3
4
.
1
John Demary,
.
79
SETTLEMENTS.
Number of the Families.
Age of Husband.
Age of Wife.
No. of Boys
under sixteen
years of age.
No. of Daughters unmarried.
13
Benjamin Davis,
23
21
0
1
14
Jacob Gould,
30
1
2
15
Benjamin Gould.
26
1
1
16
Elijah Gould, .
24
0
1
17
Stephen Gates.
35
2
1
19
Enoch Hale,
34
29
1
1
20
Nathan Hale,
24
0
1
21
David Hammond,
30
1
1
·
David Harper.
1
1
23
Jonathan Hopkinson, Samuel Harper,
4
3
25
Caleb Huston.
27
25
1
2
26
Josiah Ingalls,
22
1
0
28
Ezekiel Jewett,
40
26
4
0
29
Stephen Jewett,
30
0
1
30
Jonathan Jewett,
28
3
0
31
Daniel Lake,
41
40
5
1
32
John Lovejoy,
39
4
1
34
John MacElwain,
29
27
1
2
3S
Joseph Platts,
41
26
3
3
39
Abel Platts, Jr.,
29
27
2
2
40
Jonathan Parker, Joel Russell,
51
3
4
42
Nathaniel Russell,
34
1
3
43
Silas Russell,
25
1
1
44
Daniel Rand,
25
21
0
46
William Spaulding, Jonathan Sherwin, Samuel Sherwin,
38
33
3
2
47
William Stearns,
56
1
2
50
John Stanley,
22
0
1
51
Abel Stone,
25
1
2
52
Oliver Stevens,
1
0
53
Amasa Turner,
30
1
55
Aaron Taylor,
41
35
3
3
56
Benjamin Wetherbee,
39
36
2
3
57
Joshua Webster,
2
4
58
Joseph Worcester,
1
0
Children of second wife of J. Platts by a former marriage, .
1
3
114
Total.
29
1
1
48
2
0
49
Jonathan Stanley,
46
49
0
41
Samuel Larrabee, Jr., John Lilly,
35
36
Page Norcross,
37
James Philbrick,
28
2
0
27
Ebenezer Ingalls,
1S
Moses Hale.
24
33
45
54
Nathaniel Turner,
80
HISTORY OF RINDGE.
The four men above sixty years of age were Joseph Page, Samuel Larrabee, Abel Platts, and Nathaniel Page. These names are first upon the foregoing list. Joseph Page and Samuel Larrabee were widowers. Elizabeth ( Wheeler) Hale, widow of Moses Hale, was the widow enumerated in the census, and the slave was the property of Samuel Larrabee, Jr. The only remaining class in this enumeration included the unmarried men between sixteen and sixty years of age. They were: Eleazer Coffeen, brother of John and Henry; John, son of Rev. Seth Dean; John Demary, Jr .; Timothy, son of Stephen Gates; Joseph Gillson; Josiah, Simeon, and Nathaniel, sons of Josiah Ingalls ; John Lovejoy, Jr .; George, son of Daniel Lake; Stephen, son of Samuel Larrabee, Jr .; Joseph and Abijah, sons of Joseph Page; Jonathan Parker, Jr .; Joel and William, sons of Joel Russell; Samuel, son of Jonathan Stanley ; and Thomas Walker.
Such were the inhabitants of the settlement at the close of the year, and within six weeks of the date of the incorporation of the town.
CHAPTER IV.
A RECORD FROM THE INCORPORATION TO THE REVOLUTION.
Town Incorporated. - Origin of the Name. - The Charter. - Town Meetings. - Warning out of Town. - Settlements. - John Fitch.
1768. On the eleventh of February the town was incorporated, and received the name of Rindge. The preliminary proceedings were exceedingly brief, and con- sisted merely of the votes passed in 1765. Perhaps a petition from the inhabitants was presented by Mr. Hale, but no mention of such a paper is found upon the records. The proprietors expressed a wish that the town be called Providence. This name was proposed by Rev. Seth Dean. In this, as in many other instances, but little consideration was given to the wishes of the people in regard to the names of towns. Personal ends were to be obtained, and friends rewarded. If Mr. Dean displayed the better taste, the name by him suggested was presented as a request from the people, while the name of Rindge was returned as an edict of a royal Governor.
It has been suggested that the town was named in memory of John Rindge, who was the efficient agent of New Hampshire in the controversy with Massachusetts concerning the province lines, and who had been a member
82
HISTORY OF RINDGE.
of both branches of the Legislature. Nor should the fact be overlooked that John Wentworth, who was appointed Governor the year previous, and who issued the charter, was a grandson of Mr. Rindge. But when it is remembered that he died in 1740, nearly thirty years previous to the charter, it appears more highly probable that the town was named in honor of Daniel Rindge, who was an active member of the Provincial Council at this time. Daniel Rindge and George Jaffrey were members of the Council when the towns of Rindge and Jaffrey were incorporated. If this town was named in honor of Daniel Rindge, the analogy is clearly seen. But a consideration of still greater weight rests in the custom then prevailing of assigning to the counties and towns in New Hampshire the names of the living rather than of the dead. There was also a John Rindge, who became one of the proprietors of Mason's grant at the time the number of shares was increased and several new members admitted; but no cause appears to warrant the association of his name in this connection.
The charter is here presented as it is found upon the town records : -
PROVINCE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
George the Third, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, and so Forth.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, Greeting :
Whereas our Loyal subjects, Inhabitants of a Tract of Land within our Province of New Hampshire, aforesaid, known by the name of Monadnock No. I lying between Monadnock No. 4 and . New Ipswich, on the Province Line, and containing by estimation Thirty-five square miles, Have Humbly Petitioned and Requested us that they may be Erected and Incorporated into a Township and Infranchised with the same powers and privileges, which other Towns in our said province by Law have and Injoy; and it
83
TO THE REVOLUTION.
appearing unto us to be Condusive to the General Good of our said province, as well as of the said Inhabitants in particular by maintaining Good order and encouraging the Culture of the land that the same should be done. KNOW YE THEREFORE that we of our Especial Grace, Certain Knowledge and for the Encourage- ment and promoting the Good purposes and Ends, aforesaid, By and with the advice of our Trusty John Wentworth, Esqr, our Governor and Commander-in-Chief, and of our Council for said province of New Hampshire, have Erected and ordained, and by these Presents for us, our heirs and successors, Do will and ordain That the Inhabitants of the Tract of Land, aforesaid, and others who shall Inhabit and Improve thereon hereafter. The same being butted and bounded as follows (viz.) : Beginning at the Southwest Corner of New Ipswich then Running on the Province Line West Ten Degrees North Seven miles to the Southeast Cor- ner of No. 4. Then Turning off and Running North by the Needle by No. 4 aforesaid five miles then Turning off and Run- ning East Ten Degrees South seven miles to New Ipswich, then Turning off again and Running South by the needle by New Ipswich aforesaid Five miles to the bounds began at. BE AND HEREBY ARE DECLARED AND ORDAINED to be a Town Corporate and are hereby Erected and Incorporated into a Body politick and Corporate, to have Continuance During our pleasure, by the name of RINDGE with all the powers and authorities, privileges, immu- nities, and franchises, which any other Towns in said province by Law hold and injoy to the said Inhabitants or who shall here- after inhabit there and their successors for said Term. ALWAYS RESERVING to us our heirs or successors ALL WHITE PINE TREES that are or shall be growing and being on the said Tract of Land, fit for the use of our Royal Navy. Reserving also to us our heirs and successors the Power and Right of Dividing the said Town when it shall appear Necessary and Convenient for the Inhabi- tants thereof. Provided Nevertheless and it is hereby Declared that this Charter and Grant is not Intended and shall not in any manner be Construed to effect the Private Property of the soil
84
HISTORY OF RINDGE.
within the Limits aforesaid and as the several Towns within our said province are by the Laws thereof enabled and authorized to assemble and, by the majority of the voters present, to choose all such officers and Transact such affairs as in the said Laws are Declared. We do by these Presents nominate and appoint Enoch Hale Esqr to call the first meeting, of said Inhabitants, to be held within the said Town at any time within eighty days from the Date hereof, Giving Legal Notice of the Time and Design of holding such meeting. After which the annual meeting in said Town shall be held for the choice of said officers and the purposes aforesaid on the third Thursday in the month of March annually.
In Testimony whereof we have caused the seal of our said Province to be hereunto affixed. Witness our aforesaid Governor and Commander-in-Chief this eleventh day of February in the Eighth year of our Reign, and in the year of our Lord Christ 1768.
J. WENTWORTH.
By his Excellancy's Command,
T. ATKINSON, [Secty.]
Entered and Recorded in the Book for Recording Charters of Incorporations. Folio 299 & 300.
GEO. KING, Dep. Sec'y.
The public interests which had been controlled by the proprietors were now assumed by the town. Hereafter the taxes were levied, not simply upon lands, but upon all estates, both personal and real; and every citizen, without regard to the amount of land in his possession, was permitted to have a voice in the management of public affairs. The public meetings were no longer called at the request of one or more of the principal land-owners, but in response to the voice of the citizen, without regard to the number of his acres or the value of his estate. The incorporation of towns to succeed the more aristocratic organizations of proprietors was simply the founding of
85
TO THE REVOLUTION.
schools for the training of freemen. It was in the town meetings that the American Revolution was inaugurated. Here the situation was debated, the lives and fortunes of the people were pledged to the cause, and the sum of these debates and resolutions formed the public sentiment at large which carried the colonies through the war, and controlled their leaders in the adoption of liberal constitutions as the proper fruits of a successful revolution.
According to the bounds defined in the charter, the town would contain about 22,060 acres. If each corner had been a right angle, the area would have been thirty-five square miles, or 22,400 acres. In Merrill's "Gazetteer of New Hampshire," published in 1817, the area is given as 23,838 acres. The town is more than seven miles from east to west, and more than five miles from north to south, and contains about 24,000 acres. In accordance with a provision of the charter, the first town meeting was called by Enoch Hale, Esq., who had been appointed a Justice of the Peace only a short time previous. At this meeting the town officers for the ensuing year were chosen, but no other business was transacted. The record of the meeting is given entire : -
The Inhabitants of said Town of Rindge being met at the meeting house in said Town upon the seventeenth Day of March A.D. 1768 agreeable to the aforegoing Warrant, Proceeded as followeth (viz.)
First Choose Enoch Hale Esqr Moderator To Govern said meeting.
Secondly made Choice of Nathaniel Russell for Town Clerk.
Thirdly Choose Nathaniel Russell first Selectman, William Carlton second Selectman, and Henry Goddin third Selectman.
Choose Nathan Hale Constable, and Henry Coffeen Town Treasurer, and Aaron Taylor and John Coffeen Tythingmen, and
12
86
HISTORY OF RINDGE.
Samuel Sherwin and Page Norcross fence Viewers, and Joseph Worster and Abel Stone Haywards and field Drivers. And Jacob Gould, Benjamin Davis, Joseph Worster and Jonathan Parker Jun' Surveyors of Highways. Choose Enoch Hale Esqr Pound Keeper.
All the above persons except Enoch Hale Esqr were sworn to the faithful Discharge of these Respective offices, by Enoch Hale Esqr, and then the meeting was Dismissed.
By these proceedings the administration of the propri- etors was terminated, the outstanding bills were paid, the meeting-house, public land, and highways were subsequently transferred to the town, and their organization was dissolved. Another meeting soon followed. To illustrate the manner of calling meetings at this time the warrant - omitting sev- eral articles noticed in another chapter -and the return of the constable are presented : -
PROVINCE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
To MR. NATHAN HALE, Constable for the Town of Rindge in the province aforesaid, Greeting :
You are hereby required in his Majesty's name to Notify and Warn all the freeholders and other Inhabitants of said Town of Rindge Qualified to vote in Town meetings to assemble and meet at the public meeting house in said Rindge upon Monday the Second Day of May next at one of the Clock in the afternoon of said Day, then and there to Act upon the following Articles.
First to Choose a moderator to Govern said meeting. . . .
4ly to see if the Town Will Vote to allow the Swine to Go at Large in said Town for this Present year, they being Yooked and Wringed as the Law Directs.
5ly to see if the Town will Rent out the School Lot in said Town to Mr. William Stearns of said Town for such a number of years as they shall think proper and for such yearly Rent as they
87
TO THE REVOLUTION
shall think Reasonable, and Give the Selectmen orders to Lease the same to him accordingly. The profitts thereof to be Laid out for Schooling Children in said Town. ...
7ly To see if the Town will Fix the space for the intermissions between meetings on the Lord's Day.
Hereof fail not to make Return of this warrant with your Doings thereon at or before the said Second Day of May.
Given under my hand and seal at Rindge aforesaid the 13th Day of April in the Eighth year of his Majesty's Reign A. D. 1768.
By order of the Selectmen of said Rindge.
NATHANIEL RUSSELL, Town Clerk.
PROVINCE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, RINDGE, May the 2ª, 1768.
In obedience to this Warrant I have notified and warned all the freeholders and other inhabitants as mentioned herein, to meet at time and place herein mentioned, to act on the within Articles, by posting up an attested Copy hereof, fourteen days before this day, at the meeting house in said Rindge.
NATHAN HALE, Constable of said Rindge.
This form for calling town meetings was continued until the statute of 1773, after which the warrants were signed by the selectmen. Upon the commencement of the war all appearance of reverence for George the Third and the words "In his majesty's name " were studiously omitted, and the word State was substituted for Province in all official papers. At this meeting, the fourth and fifth articles were acted upon affirmatively ; the intermission between services on the Sabbath was changed from two hours to one hour and a half. "Then voted to reconsider their vote to let the swine go at large, and the article was dismissed." The proceedings of this meeting occupy several pages of the
88
HISTORY OF RINDGE.
records, and relate mainly to the location and bounds of numerous highways, and to the salary of Rev. Seth Dean.
In January, 1769, occurred the first instance of "warn- ing out,"-"a custom more honored in the breach than in the observance, " and long since abandoned. It was the practice in all the towns to warn out new arrivals soon after their removal. Although they were commanded in positive terms to depart hence, it was not expected that they would go, and in a majority of cases it was ardently hoped that they would not. This proceeding was had, under the provisions of the statutes, as a safeguard against such per- sons obtaining a legal settlement in the towns to which they had removed, and in case any of the inhabitants, upon whom a warrant to depart had been legally served, became needy, the town from whence they removed was chargeable for their support. For many years, nearly all who removed hither, without regard to their social or financial standing, were warned out; and very many of those who became prosperous in business, honored as townsmen, and whose descendants have been useful and esteemed citizens, were requested to leave the limits of the town before they had become comfortably settled in their new homes. Not a few of those who were the first to respond to the call of their country during the Revolution were thus inhospitably welcomed to the town; but they doubtless received the summons in the spirit in which it was issued, and justly regarded it as a legal formality in which there was no sin- cerity. A few extracts selected at random from the records will illustrate more fully the nature of these proceedings. In the preservation of the names of the families, the date of removal to this town, and the place of their former resi- dence, these records incidentally afford much valuable information concerning the emigration to the town.
89
TO THE REVOLUTION.
CHESHIRE, SS.
To Mr. Jonathan Parker Jun, Constable for the Town of . Rindge in said County, Greeting :
Whereas Sundry Persons of late Came into this Town which may Becom Inhabitants if not warned out and are likely to Becom a Town Charge in any time of sickness or adversity, viz : Silas Whitney and wife Jean and six children, all minors, viz : Love, Oliver, Bartholomew, Jean, Phebe, and Samuel, who came from Winchendon, in the province of the Massachusetts Bay, into this town in the month of February A.D. 1773. And Joseph Willson and wife Hannah and one Child Being a miner, viz : Temperance Robinson, who came from Petersham in said Province into this Town in the month of february 1773, and Isaac Russell who Came from Littleton in said Province into this town in the month of November A. D. 1773. You are therefore Required in his majesty's name to Notify and Warn all and each of said Persons to Depart out of this Town as they will answer there Contempt under ye Penalty of ye Law.
Hereof fail not and make Return of this warrant with your doings thereon as soon as may be.
Dated at Rindge aforesaid this sixteenth day of December in the fourteenth year of his majesty's Reign A.D. 1773.
JONATHAN SHERWIN, - Selectmen of
DANIEL RAND,
EDWARD JEWETT, Rindge.
CHESHIRE, SS. Rindge January ye Ist 1774.
In obedience to the within warrant I have warned all and each of the within mentioned persons forthwith to Depart out of this Town as the Law directs,
JONA. PARKER JUNR,
Constable for said Rindge.
90
HISTORY OF RINDGE.
RINDGE June ye 12th 1776.
Then Recd of Edward Jewett & Abel Stone Selectmen of Rindge Two pounds, thirteen shillings and four pence L. Mº. in full for warning forty persons out of town.
by me,
JONATHAN SHERWIN, Former Constable.
RINDGE Octbr 16th 1776.
Then Recd of Edward Jewett, Mr. Jonathan Sherwin & Lieut. Abel Stone Selectmen of Rindge, Ten shillings and Eight pence L. Mº. it being in full for warning eight persons out of Town last year.
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