USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Sutton > The history of Sutton, New Hampshire : consisting of the historical collections of Erastus Wadleigh, Esq., and A. H. Worthen, part 1 > Part 2
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
Yet to the historian, the antiquary, the descend- ants of those whose names are occasionally found on its pages, its value is beyond price. It covers a period of forty years.
9
EXTRACTS FROM RECORDS.
WARNING FOR PROPRIETORS' MEETING.
Haverhill District, Dec ye 5. 1749.
To the proprietors with Capt Obediah Perry and Daniel Poor granted by the Proprietors of John Tufton Mason's Rights in the province of N. H.
You are hereby notified to assemble and meet together at the dwelling house of Daniel Poors in Haverhill District, Thursday the 11th day of Dec. current. All those who have any demands on the Society for service done in the affair at 9 o'clock in the forenoon, and the rest at one in the afternoon, then and there to settle the Rearages, also to choose Proprietors' clerk, Tresorer [treasurer] for the Society, and committee to recon with the same, and to warn meetings for the future. Also a commity to lay out the township into Lots, and to raise money for to defray the charges for doing the same.
And to act on any other thing or things that the Society shall think necessary.
Obediah Perry - Com.
Daniel Poor
At the meeting assembled in consequence of this warning,
Capt Obadiah Perry was chosen Moderator
Daniel Poor Clark for the Society
Joseph Noyes Treasurer.
Timothy Clement Surveyor,-And we have agreed with him for fifty shillings a day, Old Tenor, and he is to find himself vittles and drink, and all things that he wants for himself .-
Capt Obadiah Perry was chosen Comity man to go to lay out the tract of land that was granted.
Also Daniel Poor, Stephen Whittaker, Benj" Eaton, Daniel Rob- erts are chosen Commity men, and are to find themselves for 28 shillings a day, Old Tenor.
This Commity are to lay out the tract of land they are chosen for, by the middle of April next ensuing.
Thomas Hale, Samuel Little and James Graves were chosen a Committy to recon with the Treasurer, and settle with those that have any demands on the Society. Voted that 9 pounds, Old Tenor, shall be raised on each Right, to be paid 40 shillings forth-
10
HISTORY OF SUTTON.
with into the treasury and 4 pounds by the last of March next, and the remainder as soon as the land shall be laid out.
Voted that Daniel Poor shall be a Collector to go to every man that is delinquent of paying the money or giving his note, and it is a vote of our Society that every man he goes to, is to pay to the Collector a reasonable charge, or forfeit his Right. (To meet the current and other expenses, several assessments had been made.)
Plaistow. June 21, 1750. A meeting of proprietors called at the house of Joseph Noyes, "to see if they will choose a man or men to return our case to the Grantures [Grantors ] in behalf of the neg- ligent Parte that have neglected or refused to pay their Dews for laying out said tract of land." Also "to see what the proprietors will see cause to doe ConSarning the drawing their Lootes [Lots] and whatever else may be thought proper to be done.
At the meeting, among other things, "it was voted that the com- mity that laid out the land, shall go and demand the Plan of the Surveyor, forthwith, so they may couple the Lots." A committee was then chosen to demand the Plan of the Surveyor, who was present, but "he refused to let them have it."
Then voted "that a com. be chosen to go to Portsmouth to repre- sent our case to the Grantors," and also they were empowered to see if they can get liberty to draw their Lots at home,-And if they can't, they are empowered to draw them at Portsmouth. July 6, 1750, the Com. sat, and coupled the Lots to the best of their ability, as some of them have given their oath to."
"Voted and allowed to Timothy Clement 44 pounds Old Tenor, to satisfy him for surveying our township."
The difficulty between the surveyor and the pro- prietors appears to have been occasioned by the unwillingness of the latter to pay him for his work,-and a settlement was achieved only after a law-suit threatened, and perhaps commenced. Then he gave up to them the plan of the township, and they proceeded to "couple the Lots."
The coupling was done in the following manner: The lots all being numbered, one No. of the 1st Div. and one No. of the 2d Div. were written upon the
11
EXTRACTS FROM RECORDS.
same ticket, and so on until the whole number of tickets were thus filled, discretion being used so as to make all the tickets as nearly equal in value as possible. The tickets were afterwards drawn for, all the proprietors who chose to do so being present at the drawing, which took place at the house of Ann Slayton, widow and innkeeper at Portsmouth, N. H. It was at the same house that the Masonians met the petitioners for the grant of Perrystown, and there gave them their charter.
Timothy Clements, who was the man employed to make the survey of Perrystown, was quite noted in his profession. We find in Provincial Papers, Vol. 6, page 246, the Provincial Assembly voted him twenty shillings for " his surveying and taking a plan of Winnipisiokee Pond."
July 14, 1750. Com. chosen to bound the Lots that are not yet bounded.
Voted, That every man shall go, or send a man in his room to clear a road to said "tract of land" also that every man that is delinquent of going to clear the road shall pay 28 shillings a day, Old Tenor, for every day that the other men are gone to clear the road, and coming home.
Voted, That every man shall meet at the house of James Graves in Hampstead, on the 10th day of Oct. next ensuing, for to go to the tract of land to clear a road.
Again, a meeting is warned for the 14th of Octo- ber,
"To see what the proprietors will do concerning going into the woods," at which meeting the time for going was appointed for the 2nd of Nov.
Voted, That all the Drink the Moderater calls for at our meet- ings, to be paid for out of the treasury, and no more.
12
HISTORY OF SUTTON.
There were settlers in the town of Hopkinton in 1740. Warner was granted in 1735. We may therefore suppose that a road was already cleared through Hopkinton and a part of Warner.
In 1751 the Perrystown proprietors, having failed to meet their obligations as to settlement, succeeded in obtaining from the Masonians a renewal of their grant, and, as it appears, without much difficulty.
Plaistow, May 11, 1752. Voted that the Delinquent Rights shall be sold at Vendue. At the next meeting June 16, " James Pecker was chosen in Rum of James Graves to sell the Rights, and to give Deads of those Rights that are sold."
At this meeting, Timothy Clements, James Graves, Captain Perry, Thomas Noyes, Ebenezer Gile, and Jacob Woodward were chosen a com- mittee to go and clear a road to the meeting-house spot.
Voted " that building the meeting-house for the present is let alone "
Pursuant to the vote to sell delinquent rights, appears the following
Ad Ver Tisement.
To be sold at public Vendue to the highest Bider on Tuesday June 16th, at 10 o'clock A. M. Several Rights or shares, in a tract of land granted to Capt. Obadiah Perry and others, lying abought six miles north from Hopkinton in N. H.
The said land laid out abought 2 years ago, it being well watered by a river running through said tract of land called Almsbury River, and well timbered chiefly with Oack and Mapel and Beach. The conditions of seal will be published before the Vandue begins. To be holden at the house of Samuel Little in Plaistow in N. H. May 13, 1752.
Every person that wanteth informing more particularly about s'd land may inquire of s'd Little.
13
EXTRACTS FROM RECORDS.
Number of the Rights sold, and what they were sold for, at the Vendue.
To Mr. Benjamin Herrod was Nocked off three Rights or Shares, which were
No. 40, 1st Div. and No. 30, 2nd Div.
38 Lb.
28, ..
55.
9, ٠،
49 Lb.
To Mr Ebenezer Gile was Nocked off 3 Rights
Price
No. 56, 1st Div. and No. 8, 2nd Div.
36 Lb.
" 46, 38 Lb.
30, . .6 ٠٠ .. 67. .. " 23.
44 Lb.
Aug 29, 1752. Voted that the Right that Mr. Benjamin Herrod bought at the Vendue that was No. 40 return to Daniel Poor, and the Right that Mr. Cushin drew Mr. Herrod should have a deed of, his paying 38 Lbs for said Right.
May ye 7, 1753. Warning for Town Meeting.
These are to notify and warn all the proprietors of a tract of land granted to Obadiah Perry and others by the grantors of John Tufton Mason, that they meet at the house of Samuel Little in Plaistow on ye 2nd day of this instant May at one of ye clock in ye afternoon, to act on ye following particulars.
1st to choose Town Officers as ye law directs in ye case. 2d, to see if ye Society will build a Court-House which may be convenient for a Meeting-House ; and also build a saw-mill in said township, and in manner how, and by whom it shall be done. 3d, To see if every proprietor shall build a house on each of their Lots of the 1st Div. and clear a piece of land by it, and how soon it shall be done.
And it is also desired that every Delinquent do bring in their money that shall be due, or else their Rights will be forthwith sold to the highest bidder. Joshua Page, Benjamin Herrod, Thomas Noyes, James Pecker.
Plaistow, June 30, 1753. Voted that a Meeting-House be built 40 foot in length, and 30 in width, with logs, and 20 ft in height, coated over and covered with long shingle, and finished by the 10th day of Sept. next. Voted to raise the money to build the Meeting- House or Court House.
.
Price
66 6. 36, 49 Lb.
14
HISTORY OF SUTTON.
In thus calling a town-meeting to choose town officers for a town that for fourteen years thereafter did not have a single white inhabitant, it does seem as if the proprietors were a little too fast.
As for the solid structure they propose to build for a meeting-house, it was never built. The pro- prietors never built any meeting-house except on paper.
For the next few years the minutes in the record are unimportant, because very little was done by the proprietors on account of the breaking out of the second French and Indian War, which put a decided check upon the progress of settlements northward. But the reduction of Canada, in 1760, gave peace to our borders and a new impulse to emigration. Many new townships were granted by the governor of New Hampshire on both sides of Connecticut river; for the soldiers returning from Canada in passing through those regions became acquainted with the value of the lands.
The proprietors of Perrystown seem to have waked to a consciousness that their township was in a fair way to have some neighbors, and that among so many new grants there might be danger of losing some part of their own territory if their title should not be assured and established by due metes and bounds. This had been done at the original survey in 1749; but the twenty years that had passed since that survey was made must have obliterated the traces of it to some extent.
October 17, 1761. Meeting at John Hall's in Plaistow, where most of the early meetings of Sut- ton proprietors were held. Capt. Daniel Johnson,
15
EXTRACTS FROM RECORDS.
Thomas Noyes, and Daniel Poor were chosen com- mittee to perambulate the lines of said town or tract of land, and look out a mill place, and make return at the adjournment of this meeting, November 30.
The committee proceeded to search for the land, found it still there, and made return that they had "been to Perrystown, and renewed our bounds by new marking the same, and spotting trees on our town lines, on the east, north, and west sides of said tract of land." There was no chance for dis- pute concerning the southern boundary line, War- ner not being officially surveyed till 1772, eleven years after this re-survey of Sutton. Therefore the Perrystown proprietors, having found their north- ern boundary, had only to measure off the seven and one fourth miles in length given them by their charter, and there find their southern bound, with none to dispute their claim to their thirty-six square miles.
The committee also gave this as their opinion regarding the best location for a saw-mill, " that the best place to set said mill is on the Falls in Kear- sarge River, which Falls bear southerly or south- westerly on from our Meeting-House Lot." The proprietors voted to pay the committee who peram- bulated the town line 217 pounds 5 shillings for their services.
Six years more elapsed before the first actual settler moved into Perrystown ; but a further search of the record shows that the proprietors were not idle during this time, that in fact they made no inconsiderable effort to fulfil the condi- tions of the charter, and so to save it from forfeit-
16
HISTORY OF SUTTON.
ure. The first and most necessary thing to do was, of course, to clear roads to and through "said tract of land," and some kind of a highway was opened above Hopkinton in 1763. The committee that cleared the road received their pay for sixty- one and one half days at 4 pounds Old Tenor per day, 246 pounds, besides 22 pounds and 15 shil- lings that was paid the pilot.
The proprietors held out good inducements to get settlers to go to Perrystown, and offered boun- ties for the same.
July 25, 1763. Voted that if ten men will settle their Rights in one year, according to the grant they shall have one hundred shillings each, paid by the proprietors.
Nov. 5, 1764, Several Lots were sold by the proprietors to indi- viduals, at auction, for Taxes unpaid. Lot No. 56, in 1st Div. sold to Joshua Knight at ten shillings, Hampshire Old Tenor. per acre. Lot 63, 1st Div. at 8 shillings six pence per acre, Hamp- shire Old Tenor, Samuel White Mod. of this meeting. Thomas Wadleigh, Timothy Ladd, Esq. and John Kimball, Assessors.
Benjamin Kimball, Thomas Wadleigh, Samnel Bean, chosen Com. to find and repair roads in Perrystown.
Dec. 11, 1764. At John Hall's in Plaistow Sale of Delinquent Rights in Perrystown, at Vendue, No. 53-Div. The first Lot. sold "Noct off" "to Nathaniel Eaton. at 11 shillings per acre," which I promise to pay on receiving my Deed
Nathaniel Eaton.
The above named Nathaniel Eaton afterwards settled in Sutton, but, according to the statement of his son Nathaniel Eaton, the centenarian, did not remain many years. Becoming discouraged by the severity of the winters in the new town, he sold out, and returned to Haverhill, but his descend- ants remained in Sutton and vicinity. He was a soldier, for Haverhill, in the Revolutionary War.
17
EXTRACTS FROM RECORDS.
Dea. Matthew Harvey afterwards became owner of his lot in Perrystown.
Oct. 31, 1765. Voted to raise fifty pounds, lawful money forthwith to be paid for the encouragement of settlers, also Voted that five pounds be given to the first man that shall build a house, and clear three acres of land in Perrystown and so to pay each man till it comes to the number of ten.
June 29, 1767. Voted that the ten men that engaged to settle shall fulfil their settlements by the 4th Tuesday in Oct. next or forfeit their bonds.
Voted to raise five pounds to be laid out in mending roads, and making them in Perrystown where they are necessary to promote the settlement of the town.
Nov. 30, 1767. Voted that if any of the ten men that first engaged to settle in Perrystown don't complete their settlement according to the bonds they have given so to do by the 1st of July next, 1768, that any other man or men of the proprietors of said township that shall first settle to make up the number ten, and shall complete their settlement, shall be entitled to four pounds per man. Voted to build a saw-mill : that Thomas Wadley, Benjamin Kimball, Samuel Bean, Ebenezer Noyes, and John Knight be a committee to build said mill.
Aug. 31, 1769. Voted to give any man one hundred dollars, and one Hundred-Acre Lot [No. 75, 1st Div. ] who shall engage to build a good saw-mill on said Lot by the last of Oct. next. Eben- ezer Noyes agreed to do it. Voted to raise two shillings on each Right to give to the first three families that shall settle in Perrys- town this Fall, and abide there.
Voted to allow Thomas Wadleigh, Samuel Bean and John Knight three shillings and sixpence per day for six days each, when they went up to Perrystown as committee to find a place to build a saw-mill, and to find a road further up in said town.
Voted to allow Jonathan Nelson 3s. 6d. per day for work on roads in Perrystown 5 days, also for four days work of his boy five shillings. Voted to allow Ephraim Gile 3s. 6d. per day for 5 days.
Of the men named in the above vote, Samuel Bean was the ancestor of the Beans in Sutton,
2
18
HISTORY OF SUTTON.
Thomas Wadleigh of the Wadleighs, Ephraim Gile of the Giles, and Jonathan Nelson of the Nelsons.
Voted to give Jacob Davis what was formerly voted to each of the first ten men that should settle in Perrystown, also to give any of the proprietors who shall move into Perrystown with their fami- lies and settle there by the first of June next, six dollars.
Jan. 29, 1770. Agreably to previous notice, several Rights were sold for Taxes. The tax on each Right was 21 shillings.
Apr. 2, 1770. Voted to give Jacob Davis one Lot of land. Voted that a road shall be cleared to each man's Lot when he moves into town.
Voted to give Ephraim Gile same as Davis if he will move into town by the last of June next.
July 2, 1770. Voted to give Cornelius Bean six dollars as he has moved into town with his family. Voted to raise 6s. on each Right to be laid out in clearing Roads.
Voted to clear a road through Perrystown according to act of Assembly passed March 16, 1769, to have a road cleared from Boscawen to Charleston in the Province of N. H. John Knight, Thomas Wadleigh, Reuben Currier, Samuel Peaslee chosen Com. to clar the road.
This year the proprietors made considerable effort to promote the growth of the settlement by bringing it into communication with other settled localities. In the April preceding the date of the last vote they agree to give Ebenezer Noyes six pounds to clear a horse-road from the westerly set- tlers in Salisbury to the settlers in Perrystown. Several of the colonists in these two towns came from the same vicinity, and doubtless the opening of this road was much desired, not only as a busi- ness convenience, but as giving opportunity for the renewal of the old social ties, and the extension of new ones,-for life in the wilderness is lonely at the best.
19
EXTRACTS FROM RECORDS.
This road commenced near the Maloon place or Smith's Corner in Salisbury, and ran through Kear- sarge Gore near the southerly base of the mountain, to settlements in Sutton, about a mile south or south-west of Kezar's pond, a distance of ten or twelve miles. In early times this road was much travelled by Sutton settlers who went to Salisbury to trade. Traces of it are still visible in many places. Settlements had begun in Salisbury as early as 1750, and to Perrystown, certainly, it was no small advantage to be brought into business and social relations with a community now twenty years old. There is a touching incident connected with that locality and those early days, that will not be out of place here. It was related to the writer by Mrs. Jonathan Harvey, daughter of Thomas Wad- leigh, Esq., the principal actor in the story.
Before the road was completed, the wife of Jon- athan Wadleigh, an early settler in Sutton, died leaving an infant a few days old. How was it to be taken care of ? How made comfortable, or even kept alive? In his distress, the bereaved man knew not what to do, except to send the babe to its moth- er's relatives in Salisbury; but how to accomplish that was the question. No woman could make her way through the long miles of wilderness and swamp that lay between the steep hills of the Kear- sarge range. Help came in the person of his brother Thomas. Leaving the desolate husband to bury his dead, the faithful brother at once took the help- less babe in his arms, and, with a bottle of milk in his pocket, set out on foot, and, finding his way by spotted trees, reached his destination with his infant
20
HISTORY OF SUTTON.
charge in safety. This baby's relatives were named Miles, and it lived and grew to a worthy manhood, by name Thomas Miles Wadleigh. Mrs. Wadleigh, the young mother so suddenly taken out of life, was the first person buried in what is now the South burying-ground, but which had not then been set apart for that purpose.
.July 1, 1771. Voted to give Samuel Bean 18s. for his cost in clearing out the road when he went into Perrystown with his team to move in his son Samuel and family.
Sept. 3, 1770. Voted a grindstone of about 8 shillings value to be sent up to Perrystown, for the use of the settlers there.
The votes copied from the Proprietors' Records indicate much anxiety to get settlers to move into Perrystown. One cause of this anxiety was that they were about this time in danger of losing their charter through failure to fulfil its conditions as to settlement. If forfeited, it would cost them some money to get it renewed.
The following votes found on their records show them to us almost as plainly as if we could actually see them worrying through their difficulty.
Sept. 30, 1771. Voted to choose a committee to go to Portsmouth to be at the meeting of the Proprietors of Mason's Patent to con- sult about the affairs of Perrystown. Com. chosen,-Josiah Bartlett, Esq., Major Enoch Bartlett and Timothy Ladd.
Nov. 5, 1771. The proprietors having received a copy of the resolutions of the Masonian Proprietors respecting their terms for granting a further time for settlement, it was voted and resolved that we think the terms proposed too hard, and that our Com. apply to the Masonians for more favorable terms. June 4, 1772. Voted that the present Com. chosen to act with the Proprietors of Mason's patent shall fully agree with them on the best terms they can.
June 23, 1772. Meeting called to see if the proprietors will accept the terms offered by the Masonians.
21
EXTRACTS FROM RECORDS.
Voted not to accept,-thien voted that Josiah Bartlett Esq., Timothy Ladd Esq. and Major Enoch Bartlett be a Com. fully empowered and authorized to make a final settlement with the Proprietors about a new Grant of Perrystown provided it can be obtained on such terms as they shall think reasonable; and to give security on behalf of the Perrystown proprietors, for any sum they can agree for not exceeding 90 pounds.
Voted to raise $300 for a new grant of Perrystown if it can be had on other terms reasonable.
Voted that Samuel White Esq. be added to the Com. to settle the affairs of Perrystown as above.
July 27, 1772. Voted that we think the proposals of the Masonians' Com. of the 22nd of July instant too hard, and that our Com. to settle with them proceed to make a final settlement (if on reasonable terms) with the Masonians as they may think proper, as soon as they can conveniently.
Ang. 17, 1772. Voted that we accept the terms agreed upon on the 7th. instant, between our Com. and the Masonians' Com. to make security for the payment of the money on their receiving the new grant.
Voted that those of our proprietors who shall pay all or any part of their proportion that it costs to get a new grant before the Com. go down to get it, shall be allowed sixpence on the pound for ad- vancing the same.
The new grant, which was obtained after so much difficulty, and at a cost, as it appears, of $300, was dated August 18, 1773.
The Bartletts, Gov. Josiah and his brother Major Enoch, for their services in this transaction were allowed as follows:
Voted to allow Major Enoch Bartlett 12 Lbs for his time and expense as a committee man at divers times to Portsmouth, also .Col. Josiah Bartlett for Ditto 4-9-7.
Also Timothy Ladd 6-6-8.
Also voted to allow said Com. the interest of the money they have engaged to pay to the Masonian Proprietors, because the principal ai'n't paid.
22
HISTORY OF SUTTON.
And it was not paid for some years after that time, if ever, as the following letter will show. It is here copied entire, not alone because of its con- nection with the subject now before us, but because the writer was the much trusted and honored patriot of the Revolution, Gov. Josiah Bartlett. It is now one hundred and three years since it was written, and the signature looks precisely like the same signature on a much more important docu- ment-the Declaration of Independence.
As elsewhere stated in this history, Esq. Bartlett had become a proprietor in Perrystown by the pur- chase of a right: hence his interest, and the impor- tant aid he rendered by his influence with the Masonian proprietors as one of their associates and equals, and also by himself becoming responsible for a portion of the money demanded by them for re-granting the charter.
KINGSTON, Dec. 22, 1786.
SIR,-You doubtless remember that before the late war the Masonian Proprietors made a demand of the proprietors of Perrys- town of a sum of money to be paid to prevent the said town from being declared forfeited, and re-granted, (i. e., to other petitioners,) and that the Perrystown proprietors agreed to pay a considerable sum to the Masonians, and voted a tax to raise the money,-and that Major Bartlett and myself, by order of the proprietors, gave security for the same. That security still lays (as I am informed) uncancelled. What has been done with the money raised by said tax, I know not, but think it is time that the Proprietary affairs should be settled, and that security taken up by some means or other, for I am not willing to have it lay any longer against me.
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.