The History of the Town of Concord, Middlesex County, Massachusetts; and of the adjoining towns, Bedford, Acton, Lincoln and Carlisle, etc

Front matter

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD; MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS, FROM ITS EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO 1832; AND OF THE ADJOINING TOWNS, BEDFORD, ACTON, LINCOLN, AND CARLISLE; CONTAtNrKO VARIOUS NOTICES OF COUNTY AND STATE HISTORY NOT BEFORE PUBLISHED. BY LEMUEL SHATTUCK, MEMBER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL 50CIETT. Nobler records of patriotism exist nowhere. — Nowhere can there be found higher proofs of a spirit that was ready to hazard aU, to pledge all, to sacrifice all, in the cause of their country, than in the New England towns. Webster. The local historian is sure of obtaining the gratitude of posterity, if he perform his task with faithful diligence. — His work would have a great and increasing value within the narrow sphere of its subject, even if confined to that sphere ; but must be very imperfectly executed, if it does not contain some matter of illustration for the national annals, for the history of manners, for literature, philology, natural history, and various other departments of knowledge.

Q,uart*bbi.t Review. BOSTON : RUSSELL, ODIORNE, AND COMPANY. CONCORD: JOHN STACY. 1835. Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1835, by Lemuel Shattuck, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: CHARLES FOLSOM, PRINT EK.

Preface

. The author os the following History, having had occasion several years since to consult some of the earlier town records in Concord, discovered many important facts and documents which were wholly unknown to the public, and very imperfectly to the inhabitants oi the town itself; and it occurred to him that a series of communications in a periodical work, embracing them, would be interesting and valuable, and he immediately began to collect materials for this purpose. But, in the progress of his investigation, the quantity of interesting matter increased so much, that it was thought best it should be published in some other form than that originally intended. The result of his inquiries appears in the following volume. It has been compiled at such intervals of time as could be con veniently abstracted from the almost constant engagements of business.

Those only, who have been engaged in similar works, can be aware of the great labor required to collect the materials for a volume like this, and arrange them for the press. And the diffi culty and labor have been much increased in this instance by the imperfections of the town and church records. The first volume of the records of the town, containing its proceedings prior to 1696, about sixty years after its first settlement, is lost ; and likewise the proceedings of the church prior to 1738, more than one hundred years after its organization. There is however in the clerk's office an old volume, containing an imperfect record of several grants of land, and a few unconnected proceedings of the town ; with an incomplete list of marriages, births, and deaths, prior to 1696. This renders the early history of the town, less perfect than it would have been, had the records been preserved, though from other sources much important information has been

PREFACE.

. IV obtained. The early records and documents in the offices of the Secretary of the Commonwealth and of the county of Middlesex, and the private papers of individuals, and various other scattered fragments of traditionary, manuscript, and printed history have, with great labor and no little expense, been consulted, which, though they do not furnish a complete history, have been found interesting and important, and in some respects supply the place of town records. Traditions, however, are often contradictory, tending to embarrass rather than to elucidate. They should be depended upon only as leading the investigator towards the truth, which, on further inquiry and comparison of different tra ditions with records, may be discovered. I have seldom been willing to state a fact positively, unless verified in this way.

A tradition has prevailed in Concord, that the early records of the town were burnt ; and this is said to have taken place when part of the first settlers removed to Connecticut. If this were true, it could not apply to the town records from 1650 to 1696, nor to any part of the church records prior to 1738. This tradition is undoubtedly incorrect. The town records were destroyed in some other way, and, if burnt, it must have occurred subsequently to 1696. The loss of the church records was probably occasioned by the difficulty in the church detailed in the following History. Few places have so many interesting incidents associated with their history as Concord. From its local situation, it has been the centre of many of the important operations in the county of Mid dlesex, and of some of the most interesting in the Commonwealth.

Being the first inland town settled above tide waters, it endured great hardships in the commencement of its history. The pro gress of the settlement, the exertions to civilize the Indians, the warlike operations in the town as a military post during Philip's war, the distinguished part it took in the Revolution and in other peculiar eras in the history of Massachusetts, are but imperfectly, if at all, known ; but fortunately many important facts have been preserved in manuscript. — The ecclesiastical history also has been considered of unusual importance, and especially during Whit-

PREFACE.

. V field's time. This work, besides the minute details of civil and ecclesiastical history, interesting to readers generally, as well as to the citizens of this town in particular, contains the Natural History, Topography, Statistics, Notices of Early Families and Distinguished Men, and other subjects of general or local interest, which may be appropriately embraced in such a history. — The towns of Bedford, Acton, Lincoln, and Carlisle were incorporated principally within the original limits of Concord ; and, as their history is intimately blended with that of Concord, it was thought expedient to embrace within the work the history of each of those towns since its separate incorporation. In arranging facts on such a great variety of subjects as are embraced in a town history, it is difficult to present them in such a manner as will be entirely satisfactory.

I have adopted that mode which appeared most intelligible and interesting to my own mind. To present a work like this free from errors cannot be expected. Some may appear in this History ; yet the author is conscious of having taken unusual care to avoid them. Those who are competent to detect them will, it is hoped, make all due allowance, should they be found. The volume is submitted to the public with diffidence. The author lays no claim to the qualifications, which such an undertaking would seem to require. His object has not been to make an at tempt at fine writing, (had it been possible for him to have succeeded, or had he deemed it proper in a town history,) but to relate, in as plain, simple, and intelligible a manner as was within his power, such facts as he deemed most worthy of preservation.

The object of local history is to furnish the first elements of general his tory, to record facts rather than deductions from facts. In these municipalities, — these separate incorporations, — are to be found many of the first moving causes wliich operate on, and revolution ize public opinion. Many facts, minute in themselves, are in this view important. The details, which it is the appropriate prov ince of the local historian to spread before the public, are not so much history itself as materials for history. It is the work of the

PREFACE.

. VI general historian, who has before him all the particulars of each portion of the great natural and political landscape, to exhibit the connexion of the several parts, and to show how they depend, one upon another, in bringing about the great changes, which have been taking place and affecting the condition of society. Strong inducements to take such an enlarged and philosophical view of the facts which have been detailed, and to submit the ideas that arose in my own mind from such a view, have been often presented. But it would increase the size of a volume already enlarged far, very far, beyond its original design. To trace the history of our ancesters, and transmit a record of their deeds to posterity, is a duty we owe to the past and the future. Such a record must be preserved as invaluable by the immediate descendants and kindred of those, who once lived and acted where they now do, and whose ashes repose beneath their soil.

And it cannot be without interest to those who have gone out from their kindred to dwell in other parts of the country, nor to those who have come to dwell in the habitations made vacant by the removal or death of the original occupants. What this town once was, who originally occupied it, and by what means and by whom it has become what it now is, are questions which can be answered only by minute topographical history. If the work shall satisfy the public, and contribute to the gratification of those for whom it is more particularly designed, the author will feel himself compen sated for the labor and expense, in preparing and publishing it. To the Hon. Abiel Heywood, town clerk of Concord, to the town clerks of the several surrounding towns, to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, to John Farmer, Esq. of Concord, N. H., and to various others, who have aided by the use of manuscripts, by the communication of facts, and by various services rendered him, the author feels under special obligations.

L. S. Boston, August, 1835. CONTENTS.

Fa°Q. Chapter I.— Indian Tribes — Musketaquid Indians. — Local Situation.— Settlement projected. — Act of Incorporation. — Purchase from the Indians. — Depositions. — First Settlers. — Johnson's Account. — Additional Grants. — Sufferings of the Inhabitants. — Wet Meadows. — Petition to the Gen eral Court. — Condition of the Town. — Chronological Items. - - 1 Chapter II. — Efforts to civilize the Indians. — Eliot begins the Work. — Effects at Nonantum and at Concord. — Laws for the Indians. — Opposition. — Eliot's Labors and Petition. — Nashobah. — Notices of several Indians. — Account of the Praying Indians. — Nashobah sold. - - - - 19 Chapter III. — Division of the Town. — Records. — Additional Grants. — Indian Deeds. — Iron Works built. — Town Farm. — Town of Stow granted. — Chronological Items. ..........33 Chapter IV. — Philip's War. — State of the Country. — Garrison Houses. — Expedition to Brookfield. — Proceedings of Government ; and of the Town. — Lancaster burnt. — Christian Indians in Concord. — Feelings towards the Indians. — Abraham and Isaac Shepherd killed. — Groton burnt. — People remove to Concord. — Proceedings of Government. — Sudbury Fight. — Henchman's Letters. — Soldiers at Concord. — Christian Indian Soldiers. — War Taxes. ...-46 Chapter V. — Year 16S4 important.- — Blood's farms annexed to Concord. — The Fifty subsequent Years. — Lovewell's fight. — Cuba Expedition. — French War. — Notices of various Services in the War. — Divisions in the Town and Incorporation of new Towns. — Emigration to other places. - G4 Chapter VI. — American Revolution. — Proceedings ofthe Town. — Act respecting Tea. — Non-consumption Covenant. — Sentiments of the People. — County Convention. — People march to Cambridge. — Courts stopped. — Treatment of the Tories. — Proceedings of the Town. — Provi ncial Congress meets. — Public Stores. — New Town Covenant. — Minute Companies formed. — Mr. Emerson preaches. — Expedition of the British Spies. — Provincial Congress. — Public Stores. — Excitement. - • • -76 Chapter VII. — Battle of Concord, April 19th, 1775. . - -100 Chapter VIII. — State of seeling on the 20th of April. — Tories. — College removed to Concord. — Committees of Correspondence. — Proceedings in Relation to the Monopoly Acts. — Revolutionary Soldiers. — Table of Different Campaigns. — Public pecuniary Sacrifices. — Taxes. — Constitution adopted.

CONTENTS. Chapter IX. — State of Feeling subsequent to the Revolution. — Proceedings of the County and of the Town. — Mr. Avery's Letter. — Armed Men assemble at Concord. — Courts stopped. — Notice of the Insurgents. — Proceedings of the Town. — The War of 1812. — County Courts and Shire Towns regulated. — Proceedings of the Town on this Subject. - 129 Chapter X. — Ecclesiastical History. — Organization of the Church. — Installation of the Rev. Mr. Bulkeley and Mi*. Jones. — Church Covenant. — Proceedings of the Church. — Notice of the Rev. Mr. Jones. — Letters of the Rev. Mr. Bulkeley, and Notice of his life and Writings. — Rev. Edward Bulkeley. — Rev. Joseph Estabrook. — Rev. John Whiting. - - 148 Chapter XI. — Ordination of Mr. Bliss. — State of the Church. — Revivals. Proceedings of different Ecclesiastical Councils and ofthe Church. — Divisions in the Parish and Church. — Death of Mr. Bliss. — Ordination of Mr. Emerson. — Proceedings of the Church. — Notice of the Rev. Mr. Emerson.

Ordination of Mr. Ripley. — Proceedings of the Church. — Covenants. — Funds. — Ordination of Mr. Goodwin. — Succession of Deacons. — Trinitarian Church. -..-...-..-- 166 Chapter XII. — Natural History. — Climate. — Geology. — Botany. — Ponds. — Rivers. — Brooks. — Fish. — Quadrupeds. — Birds. - - -196 Chapter XIII. — Topographical History. — Boundaries. — Roads. — Bridges. — Stages. — Post-Office. — Public Buildings. — Printing Office. — Burying-grounds. -...---.--- 204 Chapter XIV. — Statistical History. — Population. — Valuation. — Finances. — Employment. — Maintenance of the Poor. — Education. — Bill of Mortality. - 210 Chapter XV. — Social and Official History. — Military Companies. — Various Associations. — Concord Bank. — Agricultural Society. — Insurance Company. — Official History. — Town-Officers. — Representatives. — Senators. — County Officers. — Attorneys and Counsellors at Law. — Physicians. 227 Chapter XVI. — Biographical Notices of College Graduates and other Individuals belonging to Concord. --------- 240 Chapter XVII. — History of Bedford. — General History. — Ecclesiastical History. — Description. — Miscellaneous Notices. ... -255 Chapter XVIII. — History of Acton. — General History. — Ecclesiastical History. — Description. — Miscellaneous Notices. ----- 274 Chapter XIX. — History of Lincoln. — General History. — Ecclesiastical History. — Description. — Statistics. — Biographical Notices. - - 294 Chapter XX. — History of Carlisle. — General History. — Miscellaneous Notices. — Ecclesiastical History. ---.... 320 Appendix. — No. I. Historical View of the Evidence relating to the Events of the 19th April, 1775 333 No. II.

Notices of Military Services performed by the People of Concord in the Revolution. .... 352 No. III. Notices of Early Families and Distinguished Men. - 360 No. IV. Old and New Style. 390 No. V. Notice ofthe Rev. Samuel Stearns. - - - -391 No. VI. Votes for Governor.

Chapter I

Indian Tribes. — MusketaquidMndians. — Local Situation. — Settlement projected. — Act of Incorporation. — Purchase from the Indians. — Depositions. — First Settlers. — Johnson's Account. — Additional Grants. — Sufferings of the Inhabitants. — Wet Meadows. — ■ Petition to the General Court. — Condition of the Town. — Chronological Items. When the English settlements first commenced in New Eng land, that part of its territory, which lies south of New Hamp shire, was inhabited by five principal nations of Indians : — the Pequots, who lived in Connecticut ; the Narragansets, in Rhode Island ; the Pawkunnawkuts, or Womponoags, east of the Nar ragansets and to the north as far as Charles river;1 the Massa chusetts, north of Charles river and west of Massachusetts Bay ; and the Pawtuckets, north of the Massachusetts.

The boundaries and rights of these nations appear not to have been sufficiently definite to be now clearly known. They had within their juris diction many subordinate tribes, governed by sachems, or saga- 1 I have supposed that the Indians living south of Charles river did not be long to the Massachusetts tribe. Chickatabot, sachem of Neponset, and Oba tinuat acknowledged submission to Massasoit in 1621, and were at enmity with Squaw Sachem. No instance within my knowledge is recorded of a petty sachem going to war with his own tribe. It is also worthy of remark, that these sachems and their descendants executed deeds of lands within Massasoit's territories, but never in the Massachusetts territories. As the country became settled by the English, and the jealousies between different tribes were forgotten, all the Indians living within the Massachu setts patent were rather erroneously classed among the Massachusetts In dians.

Hence the statements of Winthrop, Gookin, and other historians, See Prince, Annals, 1621. [1635. mores, subject, in some respects, to the principal sachem. At the commencement of the seventeenth century, they were able to bring into the field more than 18,000 warriors ; but about the year 1612, they were visited with a pestilential disease, whose horrible ravages reduced their number to about 1800.1 Some of their villages were entirely depopulated. This great mortality was viewed by the first Pilgrims, as the accomplishment of one of the purposes of Divine Providence, by making room for the settlement of civ ilized man, and by preparing a peaceful asylum for the persecuted Christians of the old world. In what light soever the event may be viewed, it no doubt greatly facilitated the settlements, and ren dered them less hazardous.

Musketaquid, the original Indian name of Concord and Con cord River, for a long time before it was settled by our fathers, had been one of the principal villages of the Massachusetts tribe. Nanepashemet was the great king or sachem of these Indians. His principal place of residence was in Medford, near Mystic pond. " His house was built on a large scaffold six feet high, and on the top of a hill. Not far off, he built a fort with palisa does 30 or 40 feet high, having but one entrance, over a bridge. This also served as the place of his burial, he having been killed about the year 1619, by the Tarrantines, a warlike tribe of eastern Indians, at another fort which he had built about a mile off." He left a widow — Squaw Sachem, and five children. Squaw Sachem succeeded to all the power and influence of hen husband, as the great queen of the tribe.

Her power was so much dreaded, when she was first visited by the Plymouth people in 1621, that her enemies, the sachems of Boston and Neponset, desired protection against her, as one condition of submission to the English. She married Wibbacowitts, " the powwaw, priest, witch, sorcerer, or chirurgeon " ofthe tribe. This officer was highest in esteem next to the sachem ; and he claimed as a right the hand of a widowed sachem in marriage ; and by this connexion became a king in the right of his wife, clothed with such authority as was possessed by her squawship.2 Both assented to the sale of Mus ketaquid, though Tahattawan, hereafter to be noticed, was the principal sachem of the place. This tribe was once powerful. Before the great sickness already mentioned, it could number 1 Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. i. 2 Letchford. 1635.]

GENERAL HISTORY. 3 3,000 warriors. That calamity, and the small-pox, which prevailed among them with great mortality in 1633, reduced it to nearly one tenth of that number. The Musketaquid Indians suffered in common with the brethren of their tribe elsewhere. When first visited by the English, their number was comparatively very small. Their manners, customs, and character form a subject for general rather than town history. Such notices, as are particularly applicable to this place or vicinity, will be given in a separate chapter. The place where the principal sachem lived was near Nahshawtuck (Lee's) hill. Other lodges were south of the Great Meadows, above the South Bridge, and in various places along the borders of the rivers, where planting, hunting, or fishing ground Was most easily obtained.

From these sources the Indians derived their subsistence ; and few places produced a supply more easily than Musketaquid. South of Mr. Samuel Dennis's are now seen large quantities of clamshells, which are supposed to have been collected by the Indians, as they feasted on that then much frequented spot. Across the vale, south of Capt. Anthony Wright's, a long mound, or breast-work, is now visible, which might have been built to aid the hunter, though its object is unknown. Many hatchets, pipes, chisels, arrow-heads, and other rude specimens of their art, curiously wrought from stone, are still frequently discovered near these spots, an evidence of the existence and skill of the origi nal inhabitants. The situation of the place, though then considered far in the interior and accessible only with great difficulty, held out strong inducements to form an English settlement, and early attracted the attention of the adventurous Pilgrims.

Extensive meadows, bordering on rivers and lying adjacent to upland plains, have ever been favorite spots to new settlers ; and this was peculiarly the character of Musketaquid. The Great Fields, extending from the Great Meadows on the north to the Boston road south, and down the river considerably into the present limits of Bedford, and up the river beyond Deacon Hubbard's, and the extensive tract between the two rivers, contained large quantities of open land, which bore some resemblance to the prairies of the western country. These plains were annually burned or dug over, for the purposes of hunting or the rude culture of corn. Forest [1635. 4 trees or small shrubbery rarely opposed the immediate and easy culture of the soil. And the open meadows, scattered along the borders of the small streams, as well as the great rivers, and in the solitary glens, then producing, it is said, even larger crops and of better quality, than they now do, promised abundant support for all the necessary stock of the farm-yard.

These advantages were early made known to the English emigrants. Traditionary authority asserts that the settlement was first projected in England. It is not improbable that this may have been partially true, and that William Wood, the author of " New England's Prospect," and the first who mentions the original name ofthe river or place, might have come here in 1633, and pro moted its settlement by his representations after his return to England. It must have been effected, however, in conjunction with others who were residents in the colony. The plan of the settlement was formed on a large scale, and under the most san guine anticipations of success. Nearly all the first settlers were emigrants directly from England ; and a greater number of origi nal inhabitants removed, during the first fifteen years after the settlement, to other towns in the colony, than permanently remained here.

This sufficiently characterizes it as one of the <■' mother towns." It was the first town settled in New England above tide waters ; and was in fact, as it was then represented to be, " away up in the woods," being bounded on all sides by Indian lands, and having the then remote towns of Cambridge and Watertown for its nearest neighbours. The uniform custom of the early settlers of the Massachusetts colony was first to obtain liberty of the government to commence a new settlement, and afterwards to acquire a full title to the soil by purchase of the Indians. This title was never obtained by conquest. The first undertakers, as a preliminary step to wards the settlement, had this town granted to them by the General Court, at its session at New-Town (Cambridge) Sept. 2, 1635, under the following Act of Incorporation : " It is ordered that there shall be a plantation att Musketaquid, and that there shall be 6 myles of land square to belonge to it ; and that the inhabitants thereof shall have three yeares imunities from all public charges except trainings.

Further that, when any that shall plant there, shall have occasion of carrying of goods 1635.] GENERAL HISTORY 5 thither, they shall repair to two of the nexte majistrates, where the teams are, whoe shall have power for a yeare to press draughts att reasonable rates, to be paid by the owners of the goods, to transport their goods thither at seasonable tymes ; and the name of the place is changed and here after to be called Concord." l Governor Winthrop3 says this grant was made " to Mr. Buck ly and merchant, and about twelve more families, to begin a town." This was undoubtedly the Rev. Peter Bulkeley ; and the merchant intended, Maj. Simon Willard, two distinguish ed individuals, who will be more particularly noticed in the sequel. The loss of early records renders it impossible to ascertain who the twelve other families were.

Their names may, however, be inferred from an account of early families, to be given in this history. Others were soon after added ; and on the 6th of October, the Rev. John Jones, and a large number of settlers, destined for the plantation, arrived in Boston. The time from which the town should be free from immunities or public charges, mentioned in the act of incorporation, was calculated from the October following. In 1636 the order to press carts was renewed for three years more. These peculiar privileges were probably granted to the first settlers, as an en couragement in their hazardous enterprise. That legal authority should be given to compel any person, at any time, to carry goods through a wilderness untrodden by civilized man, appears singular to us, but was probably necessary then, as it would have l The late Samuel Davis, Esq., of Plymouth, supposed (MS. letter), that the original name was " formed of two Indian words, moskeht, signifying ' grassi' and ohkeit, signifying ' ground ' ; and unitedly ' grass-ground.' Musketaquid, as nearly resembling this word as the Indian dialect would permit, was probably applied to the land near the river, as indicating its character, or to the river itself, in which case it would mean ' grassy brook' or ' meadow brook.' " Concord, the present name, is said by tradition to have been given on account of the peaceable manner in which it was obtained from the Indians.

This opinion, however, is not* supported. Johnson, (2. Hist. Coll. vol. iii. p. 155.) says, it was named Concord " from the occasion ofthe present time, as you shall after hear," but does not tell us any thing further about it. It probably received its name from the Christian union and concord, subsisting among the first company, at the commencement ofthe settlement. - Journal, vol. i. 2. [1636. been difficult, if not impossible, to hire them " at reasonable rates." Though some privileges were granted to Concord, from its peculiarly remote situation, which were withheld from other towns, it did not entirely escape censure. Being required to per form military duty, it was, in 1638, fined 5s. for want of a pair of stocks, and a watch-house. In June, 1639, it had a similar fine imposed, and another for " not giving in a transcrip of their lands."

In 1641 it was again fined " 10s. for neglecting a watch and for non-appearance." ** Such fines were imposed on several towns by the General Court, pursuant to an act, passed June 7, 1636, providing that every town should keep a military watch and be well supplied with ammunition, as a guard against the in cursions of unfriendly Indians. It does not appear from any sources of information extant, that all the land, included in the incorporated limits, was purchased of the Indians till some time after the settlement had begun, though a part of it might have been. Till May, 1637, no order on the subject appears. The court at that time gave " Concord liberty to purchase lande within their Limits of the Indians ; to wit: Attawan and Squaw Sachem." The land was accordingly fairly purchased, and satisfactory compensation made ; and Aug. 5, 1637, the Indian deed was deposited in the Secretary's office in Boston.

The Colony Records give the following account of this transaction. " 5th. 6mo. 1637. Wibbacowett ; Squaw Sa chem ; Tahattawants ; Natanquatick, alias Old man ; Carte, alias Goodmand ; did express their consent to the sale of the Weire at Concord over against the town : and all the planting-ground which hath been formerly planted by the Indians, to the inhabitants of Concord ; of which there was a writing, with their marks subscribed given into court, expressing the price." 2 Whether this transaction related to the whole town is uncertain. A tradition has been handed down that the purchase took place under a large oak, which was standing in front of the Mid dlesex Hotel within the memory of our oldest inhabitants, and called, after one of the original settlers, " Jethro's tree " ; and which is said to have been used in early times as a belfry on which the town bell was hung. 1 Colony Records. sIbid. 1636.]

GENERAL HISTORY. 7 I have sought in vain for the Indian deed. It was probably lost very early, since measures were taken in 1684, when the colony charter was declared to be void, and the claims of Rob ert Mason to large portions of the country were asserted, to estab lish the lawful title, which the inhabitants of Concord had in their soil. The original petition was also lost. The following depositions, relating to the subject, were taken, and are inserted in the Middlesex Records, and in the Town Records, to answer the purpose ofthe original deed. " The Testimony of William Buttrick, aged sixty-eight years, or thereabouts, sheweth ; — That about the year one thousand six hundred and thirty-six, there was an agreement made by some undertakers for the town since called Concord, with some Indians, that had right unto the land then purchased of them for the township.