History of the town of Hollis, New Hampshire, from its first settlement to ... 1879. ... Illustrated, etc

Front matter

>1AP Or HOLL1 S , . WoH BY E.J.COLBURN, H0LLIS,N.H. HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF HOLLIS, NEW HAMPSHIRE. From its First Settlement to the Tear l8jg. WITH MANY BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ITS EARLY SETTLERS THEIR DESCENDANTS, AND OTHER RESIDENTS. Illustrated with Maps and Engravings, BY SAMUEL T. WORCESTER. IN MEMORIAM MAJORUM. 11 Only the actions of the just Smell sweet and blossom in the dust." BOSTON: A. WILLIAMS & CO. 283 Washington Street, 1879. Entered according to Act of Congress April, 1879, BY SAMUEL T. WORCESTER, In the office ofthe Librarian of Congress at Washington. Press of O. C. Moon, Nashua, N. H. TO THE INHABITANTS OF HOLLIS, AND THE DESCENDANTS OF ITS EARLY SETTLERS WHEREVER SCATTERED, AND TO ALL WHO HAVE RESIDED IN THE TOWN, THIS HISTORY IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, BY THEIR FRIEND, THE AUTHOR.

LIST AND PLACE OF ENGBAVING8. PAGFC. 1. Map os Hollis, (facing title page) 2. Map of Old Dunstable, Holies, Merrimaek and Monson . . 59 3. First and Second Meeting House 64 4. Portrait of Dea. Daniel Emerson 209 a. Portraits of Hon. Ralph E. Tenney aud Wife 214 (1. The Tenney Homestead 215 7. Portraits of Jesse Worcester and Wife 216 8. The Worcester Homestead 217 9. The Soldiers' Monument . . . ' 229 10. Portrait of Lieut. John H. Worcester 231 11. Portrait of Lieut. Charles H. Farley 233 12. Portrait of Rev. Eli Smith 238 13. Portrait of Rev. Pliny B. Day, d. d 240 14. The Third Hollis Meeting-House as Remodelled in 1849 . . . 245 15. The High School House 281 111. Portrait of Miss Mary S. Farley 282 17. Portrait of Hon. Benjamin M. Farley ■ 292 18. Portrait of Samuel T. Worcester 296 19.

Portrait of Joseph E. Worcester, ix. D. 298 20. Portrait of Rev. Ralph Emerson, d. d 300 21. Portrait of Rev. Samuel Worcester, d. d- 302 22. Portrait of Rev. Caleb J. Tenney, d. d 304 23. Portrait of Rev. Noah Worcester, d. d. 314 24. Portrait of Hon. Henry G. Little 331 25. Portrait of Luther Prescott Hnbbard TO THE HEADER. As this book will be found to contain very many short biographical personal sketches, it is hoped that it will not be looked upon as a matter of unpardonable egotism should it be introduced to the charitable reader with the like brief sketch of itself. Though a native of Hollis, the home of an honored ancestry for a hundred years and more, and my own, in childhood and youth, it has not been so for the last fifty years and more. It was my fortune to begin and spend a busy professional life of between thirty and forty years in a distant western State.

Chapter II. West Dunstable

1730 to 1739. Names of the First Settlers of West Dunstable, and where they Settled ; Towns from which they came ; First Petition for a Town Charter ; Names of the Petitioners ; Second Petition for a Town Charter ; Names of the Signers ; Remonstrance against the Second Petition ; West Dunstable Chartered as a Parish 31 — 39.

Chapter III. The Parish Of West Dunstable

1739 to 174G. Its Area and Boundaries; The Tax of Non-residents; The First Parish Meeting and First Parish Officers ; The First Meeting- House and its Location ; The First Parish Tax; The Non-Resident Tax and Disposal of It ; The District of Duustable ; Settlement of the new Province Line : Effects of the Decision ; Preaching, and the Manner of Providing It ; The Call to Rev. Mr. Emerson, the First Minister : The Settlement of Mr. Emerson, his Salary and how paid ; Old Tenor Currency 40 — 56. HOLLIS 1746 to 1750. The Charter of Hollis ; Charter of the new Towns of Dunstable, Merrimack and Monson ; Original Boundaries of those Towns ; Name of Hollis and its Origin ; The First Town Meeting and First Town Officers ; The Second Meeting-House ; Petition for a Land Tax ; Stocks and Whipping Post ; Pews and Pew Ground and to whom sold ; Care of the Meeting-House; Singing 57 — 73.

Chapter V. Border Troubles With Dunstable

1746 to 1773. The One Pine Hill Controversy; First Petition for the Annexation of One Pine Hill to Hollis ; Second Petition for the Annexation of One Pine Hill; Contest in the General Court; One Pine Hill Finally Annexed to Hollis; Second Border Controversy with Dunstable; The Nashua River Bridge, and Dispute in respect to the Building and Support of it ; Compromise and Final Settlement . . . 74—84.

Chapter VI. History Of Monson

1746 to 1770. First Town Election in Monson, and First Town Officers; Town Officers from 1746 to 1770; Petition to the General Court for Scouts and Guards ; Petition to be Relieved from Taxation ; Unsuccessful Efforts to Maintain a School, to Support Preaching, Build a Meeting- House or Find a Meeting-House place ; Repeal of the Charter and Division of the Town; The Mile Slip, Charters of Raby, Wilton, Mason, Duxbury and Milford 85 93

Chapter VII. Military History

1746 to 1763. The Provincial Militia Law; First Militia Company in Hollis and its Officers ; French and Indian War of 1744 ; Petitions for Garrisons and Scouts; The French and Indian War of 1754; Hollis Officers and Soldiers in the War of 1754 . 94—101. ■ CONTENTS. 11

Chapter VIII. Colonial School Law And Schools

1746tol775. Schools in Hollis before the Revolution ; School Taxes ; School Squadrons or Districts ; The First School-Houses ; The Hollis Grammar School ; Teachers of the Grammar School ; Names of Hollis Graduates of College, and of Ministers and Physicians not Graduates born before 1775 ; Letter of Gov. John Wentworth to Rev. Mr. Emerson 102—108.

Chapter IX. Early Colonial Laws

1746 to 1775. Town officers and their duties; Moderators of the Town Meetings ; Selectmen ; Constables ; Field-Drivers ; TitMng-Men ; Hog- Reeves ; Deer-Reeves ; Wolves and Rattlesnakes ; Voters and their Qualifications ; Houses of Correction ; The Stocks and Whipping-Post ; Profane Cursing and Swearing; Defamation; Insolence to Women; Petit Larceny ; The Poor and their Support ; Warning out of Town ; Slavery in New Hampshire before the Revolution ; Mode of Selling Negro Slaves 109—117

Chapter X. The New Hampshire General Court

1741 to 1775. Members of the New Hampshire General Court from Hollis and Dunstable before 1775. Justices of the Peace ; Division of New Hampshire into Counties ; Organization of Hillsborough County; County Officers from Hollis ; The Pine Tree Law, its Unpopularity, and Trouble in Enforcing It ; Riot at Weare and Trial of the Rioters ; Gov. John Wentworth; His Personal Popularity: Address to, from the people oi Hollis ; The First Trial for Murder in Hillsborough County ; Plea of the Benefit of Clergy ; Population of Hollis and other old Dunstable Towns in 1775; The Charter and Settlement of Plymouth by Emigrants from Hollis 118—127.

Chapter XI. Biographical

1730 to 1754. Brief Biographical Sketches of a portion of the Early Settlers of Hollis from the year 1730 to the French and Indian War of 1754 ; Full Lists of the names of the Tax Payers on the Hollis Tax Lists, Jan. 1, 1775, with the Last Tax Assessed by the Authority of the King 128 — 138.. THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 1774 and 1775. Hollis Town Meetings ; Patriotic Resolutions ; Hollis Militia Companies ; The Alarm List ; Capt. Wright's Company ; Capt, Worcester's Company ; First, Second and Third County Congresses at Amherst ; Delegates to ; Hollis Company of Minute Men to Lexington and Cambridge, April 19, 1775; Officers and Roll of this Company; Wages Paid by the Town 139—148-

Chapter XIII. War Of The Revolution

1775. Hollis Company at the Battle of Bunker Hill; Company Roll, Descriptive List ; Hollis Men in Other Companies ; Commission of Capt. Dow ; The Battle of Bunker Hill ; The March from Cambridge under Col. Prescott; Other Hollis and New Hampshire Soldiers in Col. Prescott's Regiment; Names of the Hollis Men Killed and Wounded at Bunker Hill; Loss of Equipments of the Hollis Men in the Battle ; The New Hampshire Reinforcements in December, 1775; Desertion of the Connecticut Troops ; Letter of Gen. Sullivan to the New Hampshire Committee of Safety; Capt. Worcester's Company to Cambridge in December; Number of Hollis Soldiers the First Year of the War, and their Wages ; Amount Paid by the Town ; The Military Coat Voted as a Bounty ; Story of a Patriotic Hollis Woman 149—162.

Chapter XIV. War Of The Revolution Continued

1776. Names of the Hollis Soldiers the Second Year of the War ; Volunteers in the Continental Army ; In Col. Wingate's Regiment to Ticonderoga; In Col. Long's Regiment; In Col. Baldwin's Regiment to White Plains; In Col. Gilman's Regiment; Names in the Return of Capt. Goss; The Hollis Tories 163—168.

Chapter XV. The Third Year Of The War

1777. Committee of Safety for 1777 ; The Town's Quota for the Continental Army; Names of the Thirty Continental Soldiers for 1777; Patriotic Pledges of Forty-eight Hollis Minute Men ; The Ticonderoga Alarm ; Company of Capt. Emerson ; Its Marches to Walpole and Cavendish, Vt. ; Company of Capt. Goss ; Hollis Soldiers at the Battle of Bennington ; Wages of the Men, and Amount Paid by the Town in 1777 ; Depreciation of the Continental Paper Money, and Law to Fix Prices . 169 — 177. CONTENTS. 13

Chapter XVI. The Fourth And Fifth Years Of The War

1778 anil 1779. Doings of the Town Meetings aud History of the War continued; Committees of Safety in 1778 and 1779; Continental Soldiers for 1778 and 1779, Names of the men engaged, and Wages and Bounties paid them; Volunteers to Rhode Island in 1778; Capt. Emerson's Mounteel Company ; Wages ; Soldiers' Families ; Leonard Whiting's War Tax; Volunteers for Rhode Island and Portsmouth in 1779; Capt. Emerson's Commission ; Convention to fix Prices ; Continued Depreciation of Paper Money ; Small Pox in Hollis .... 178—187.

Chapter XVII The Sixth And Seventh Years Of The War

1780 aud 1781. Votes and Resolutions of the Town Meetings ; Hollis Continental Quotas in 1780 and 1781; their Wages anel how paid ; Militia for West Point and the Northern Frontier in 1780; Names of the men and their Wages ; Beef for the Army in 1780 and 1781, and how obtained ; The town divided into Classes ; Reduction of the New Hampshire Troops and of the Hollis Quota ; Rum for the Army in 1781 ; New Call for Soleliers 188—193.

Chapter XVIII. The Last Years Of The War

1782 and 1783. New Plan of Government; The New Hampshire Rangers in 1782; Last Soldier of the Hollis Quota; Number and Names of the Hollis Soldiers ; Sentiments of the People in respect to the Return of the Tories ; The last War Tax ; Hollis Revolutionary Records and Documents ; Lists of the Committees of Safety ; Names of Commissioned Officers, and of Hollis Soldiers lost in the War . . . 194—202.

Chapter XIX. List Of The Hollis Soldiers

Alphabetical List of the names of the Hollis Soldiers in the War of the Revolution, showing in what Years they enlisted, and when, and how long they were in the Service 203 — 206- XX. BIOGRAPHICAL. Brief Biographical Sketches of a Portion of the Hollis Revolutionary Officers and Soldiers 207—217.

Chapter XXI. War Of

l8l2, AND WAR OF THE REBELLION. 1812 to 1815. Hollis Soldiers in the War of 1812, in the Regular Army and also for the Defence of Portsmouth. 1861 to 1865. Soldiers Furnished from the Town in the Several Years of the War for the Suppression of the Rebellion ; Regiments in which they Enlisted, with the Date of Enlistment and Time of Service and Discharge ; Casualties; Soldiers' Aid Society; Soldiers' Monument; Capt. Nathan M. Ames; Lt. John H. Worcester; Lt. Charles H. Farley . 218—234.

Chapter XXII. Ecclesiastical History

1743 to 1879. The Congregational Church and Society; First Members of the Church; Members of the Church before the Revolution ; Ministers of the Society; Rev. Mr. Emerson; Rev. Mr. Smith; Rev. Mr. Perry; Rev_ Mr. Aiken ; Rev: Mr. Gordon ; Rev. Dr. Day ; Rev. Mr. Kelsey ; Rev. Mr . Scott; Deacons of the Church, with the Date of their Appointment and Decease ; Young Men's Christian Association of One Hundred Years Ago; Articles of Association ; Membership; The Third Hollis Meeting- House ; How and When Built, and Description of It ; Hollis Philan. thropic Society ; Hollis Benevolent Association ; Ladies' Reading and Charitable Society; Hollis. Baptist Society; Its Ministers, Deacons and Meeting-House 235 — 253.

Chapter XXIII. Municipal History

1739 to 1878. Parish Officers of West Dunstable, 1739 to 1746; Officers of the District of Dunstable 1742 to 1745; Full Lists of Town Officers in 1746 and 1748 ; Moderators of the Annual Town Meetings ; Town Clerks, Treasurers and Selectmen from 1746 to 1 878 . . . 254 — 258. CONTENTS. 15

Chapter XXIV. Political History

1739 to 1879. Delegates and Representatives to the General Court, Conventions, etc., from 1739 to 1879; Votes for State President from 1784 to 1792 ; Votes for Governor from 1792 to 1878 . . . 259—263.

Chapter XXV. Statistical History

Area; Soil; Productions; Rivers, Ponds and Brooks ; Forest Trees, Lumber , and Coopering; Population; Births and Deaths; Post Office and Post Masters; Tavern Keepers from 1792 to 1821; Justices of the Peace; Burial Grounds ; Public Roads ; Hollis Insurance Company. 264 — 272.

Chapter XXVI. Educational History

1775 to 1879. The Public Schools; School Laws and School Taxes ; School Districts; "Hollis Sixty Years Ago;" State's Literary Fund; School Committees ; School Statistics in 1873 ; The High School ; Miss Mary S. Farley ; The Social Library ; Hollis Lyceum and Public Lectures ; Graduates of College from 1754 to 1878 273—285.

Chapter XXVII. Biography

Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard aud Yale Colleges from 1754 to 1870 286-301.

Chapter XXVIII. Biography

Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Dartmouth, Middlebury, Brown, Amherst. Union. Maryville and Greenville Colleges from 1795 to 1877 302-313. BIOGRAPHY. Biographical Sketches of Ministers, Physicians and Lawyers not Graduates of College 314—323.

Chapter XXX. Biography

Physicians who have Settled iu and Practised their Profession in Hollis, aud Miscellaneous Biographical Sketches, viz., of Nathan Thayer, James Blood, James Parker, Jun., Henry G. Little, Luther P. Hubbard, Joseph Wheat, Dr. John Jones and Stephen Y. French . . . 324—340.

Chapter XXXI. Longevity

Names of Such Persons as have Deceased since the War of the Revolution at the Age of Eighty Years or More, whose Ages with the Date of their Decease have been ascertained 341 — 342.

Chapter XXXII. Marriages

1743 to 1877. Marriages to be found Recorded in the Records of the District of Dunstable — Iu the First Three Volumes of the Original Hollis Records, aud also in the other Hollis Records of Marriages from 1743 to 1877 343—361.

Chapter XXXIII. Family Registers

1739 to 1800. Family Registers of Births in Hollis from 1739 to 1800, copied mainly from the First Three Volumes of the Hollis Records, also presenting, when ascertained, the Date of the Marriage of the Parents, the time of the Death of the Father, and the Full Maiden or Family Name of the Mother 362. HISTORY OF HOLLIS.

Chapter I

. Charters of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Companies. Grants of New Hampshire to Capt. John Mason. — Charter of Dunstable, and history of that town from 1673 to 1739. When North America was first discovered by European navigators, the fact of discovery, coupled with some act of possession, was re garded by the common consent of European governments as giving a sufficient legal title to the sovereign or government in whose ser vice the navigator was employed to all lands so discovered. By virtue of such discovery, prior to the settlement of any part of New England, the largest part of the continent of North America had become, as was claimed, the property of the sovereigns of Great Britain, and rightfully subject to their disposal, with little or no regard to the possession and interests of the native inhabitants.

In the exercise of this supposed right, King James I. in the year 1620, by his letters patent granted to the Council of Plymouth, a company instituted " for the planting, ordering and governing New England, " " all that part of North America lying between the 40th and 48th degrees of north latitude, and of the same breadth through out the main land from sea to sea." In the following year, (162 1,) the Plymouth company granted to Capt. John Mason, a merchant of London, and a member of this company, " all the land from the river Naumkeag round Cape Ann to the river Merrimack ; and up each of those rivers to the farthest head of them ; then to cross over from the head of the one to the head of the other."* *Holmes' Annals, Vol. I, pp. 164, 165. to 1629 18 PROVINCIAL CHARTERS. In 1629 Capt. Mason procured a new patent from the Plymouth company.

By this second patent that company conveyed to Mason " all the land from the middle of Merrimack river, near its mouth ; thence northward along the coast to the Piscataqua, thence up that river to its farthest head ; thence northwestward sixty miles from the first entrance of that river ; also up the Merrimack to its farthest head and so forward up into the land westward sixty miles ; thence to cross over to the end of the sixty miles from the mouth of the Pis cataqua river, with all islands within five leagues of the coast."* On the 19th of March, 162S, the Plymouth company, by their letters patent, granted and sold to Sir Henry Roswell and his associates " all that part of New England lying between three miles to the northward of Merrimack river and three miles to the southward of Charles river, and in length within the described breadth from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea."

This grant to Sir Henry Roswell and his associates was afterwards in the year 1629 confirmed by King Charles I. by letters patent, incorporating these grantees of the Plymouth Company by the name of the Governor and Com pany of Massachusetts Bay in New England," with perpetual succession, with the right to elect forever out of the freemen of the com pany, a Governor, deputy Governor and eighteen assistants, and to make laws not repugnant to the laws of England. | It may be readily seen that these several grants to Mason and the Massachusetts company conflicted, a large tract of the same territory being embraced within the limits of each of them. As will appear in the sequel, this conflict of boundaries many years afterwards be came the occasion of much trouble and tedious litigation between the heirs of Mason and New Hampshire on one side and Massachu setts on the other.

Holding under this grants of the Plymouth Com pany, confirmed by the Royal Charter, the Massachusetts Company, afterwards acting through the General Court of the Province, from time to time made grants of land to individuals, corporations and companies, for Plantations and Townships. Such grants were made upon petition for them to the General Court, and were usually coupled with such conditions as it was believed would promote the common interest of the province and the welfare of the settlers. In this man ner townships were originally granted, and became organized in Massachusetts without any more formal act of incorporation, and the ♦Holmes' Annals, Vol. I, p. 199. tld, pp. 193, 195. CHARTER OF DUNSTABLE. 19 grantees named in the charter thus invested with the title to all the land within the boundaries of the township, subject to such condi tions as might be imposed by the act making the grant.

For many years prior to 1679, the Provinces of New Hampshire and Massachusetts had been under the same government, but in that year, upon petition to the King, they were separated, and New Hampshire became a " royal province," the King being represented in its government by a Governor and Council of his own appoint ment. After this separation the like grants of townships ami town charters were made in New Hampshire, as in Massachusetts, those in New Hampshire being granted by the Governor and Council of the province in the name of the King, subject to such conditions and limitations as were expressed in the charters, and supposed to be approved by the King. CHARTER OF DUNSTABLE The old township of Dunstable, of which the present town of Hollis was a part, was chartered by the General Court of Massachu setts Oct. 16, 1673, O. S., corresponding to Oct. 27, 1673, N. S. More than one half of Dunstable, as chartered, was in the territory in dispute between the two provinces, but at the date of its charter, and for more than sixty years" afterwards, it was supposed to be wholly in Massachusetts, and formed a part of the county of Middlesex.

It included within its chartered boundaries the present town of Tyngsborough, the east part of Dunstable, a narrow triangular gore on the north side of Pepperell, and a considerable tract in the north east corner of Townsend — all still in Massachusetts. In the state of New Hampshire it embraced the towns of Litchfield and Hudson, the south-west part of Londonderry and the west part of Pelham, on the east side of Merrimack river ; and on the west side of that river nearly all the present towns of Nashua and Hollis, all of Amherst and Merrimack south of the Souhegan river, and about two-thirds of each of the towns of Milford and Brookline. The part of Dunstable west of the Merrimack was bounded north by the Souhegan river, south by Chelmsford and Groton, as previ ously chartered, and in part by " country land" (land not then in any chartered town) , and west by a line running due north from its southwest corner to Dram Cup Hill, on the Souhegan, now in the town of Milford.

The extreme length of the township from north to south, from the north line of Litchfield to Chelmsford, following [l673 20 CHARTER OF DUNSTABLE. the course of the Merrimack was about seventeen miles ; its least length from the north line of Groton to the nearest point of Souhe gan river not far from ten miles. Its greatest breadth east and west could not have been less than sixteen miles, the whole comprising an area of near two hundred square miles or 128,000 acres. It was still, at that time, a favorite home of the savage, covered for the most part with the dense native forests, abounding in game, and its rivers with fish, the Merrimack flowing from north to south near its centre, the Souhegan on its northern border, and the Nashua and Nissitissit in the south and southwest. Besides all these beau tiful rivers it was watered by hundreds of crystal brooks and springs, and gemmed among its hills and valleys with scores of clear and picturesque ponds.

From out this fair domain, between the years 1655 and 1673, many grants had been made by the General Court of Massachusetts of "Farms," so called, to individuals and corporations, mostly along the Merrimack and Souhegan, varying in quantity from three hun dred to fifteen hundred acres, and amounting in all to fourteen thousand acres or more. The last of these grants, bearing date October 11, 1673, O. S., but a few days before the charter, was made to the Boston Artillery Company, since known by the well-earned name and title of the " Ancient and Honorable." This last grant was of one thousand acres, and was laid out on the north side of the Nashua river, at its intersection with the Merrimack, extending north along the Merrimack about one and a half miles, and on the Nashua to Spectacle meadow and brook, about two miles, and including all the compact part of the city of Nashua north of the river.

It appears from the history of the Artillery Company that about seventy years afterwards the company sold this tract to Col. Joseph Blanchard, a gentleman of much note in the early history of Dunstable. The remembrance of this grant has been affectionately perpetuated to our times in the name of a small basin of water on the North Common in Nashua, near the central part of the tract given to the Artillery Company, and still known as " Artillery Pond." PETITION FOR THE CHARTER. The petition for this charter was dated Sept. 15, 1673, O. S., and was signed by Thomas Brattle, Jonathan Tyng, and twenty-four others, including apart of the owners of the "Farms" previously granted. The petitioners stated as reasons for granting the charter that " the Land described in the Petition Was of little Capacity as it !673l CHARTER OF DUNSTABLE. 21 then was to do the country service " — " that a considerable number of persons of sober and orderly conversation, who stood in great need of accommodations were ready to make improvement of this vacant Land with whom the owners of the ' farms ' previously granted were ready to join and Encourage."

The petition then concludes as follows: " Yor Petitioners therefore Humbly request the favour of this Honored Court that they will please to grant the said Tract of Land to yoT Petitioners and to such as will joyne with them in the settlement of the Land aforementioned so that those who have already improved their Farmes there and others also Who speedily intend to doe the like may be in a way for the Enjoyment of the Publique or dinances of God ; ffor without which the greatest part of the yeare they will be deprived of; the farmes lying far remoat from any towns ; and farther that this Honoured Court will please to grant the like Immunities to this Plantation as they in their favors have formerly granted to other new be ever engaged to pray &c. Plantations So shall your Petitioners Thos. Edwards, Thomas Brattle.

Jonathan Tyng. Joseph Wheeler. Tho. Wheeler, Senior. Peter Bulkeley. John Parker. James Parker, Senior. Rob't Gibbs. John Morss, Senior. Samuel Combs. John Turner. James Parker, Junior. Sampson Sheafe. Samuel Scarlet. William Lakin. Abraham Parker. James Knafp. Josiah Parker. Joseph Parker, Nath. Blood. Rob't Parris. John Jolliffe. Zafenea Long. Robert Proctor. Simon Willard." The petition was granted, and the charter or act of incorporation, as copied from the original manuscript record, is in the words following : "The Magistrates Judge it Meet to grant the Petitioners Request herein; Provided that a farme of Five Hundred Acres of Upland & Meadow be layed out for the Publick use, and that they so proceed in settling ye Plantation as to finish it out within three years & procure & main tayne an able & Orthodox minister amongst them ; the Magistrs have passed this, their brethren the Deputies hereto consenting.

EDWARD RAWSON", Secret. 16 October 1673. The Deputyes consent hereto. WILLIAM TORREY, Clericus." Such, in those times, and for many years after, were the usual con ditions upon which the General Court of Massachusetts granted charters for towns. The procuring and maintenance of an able and orthodox99 minister was an indispensable condition, and in case a Town should be destitute of such lawful minister for six consecu tive months, it was made the duty of the Court of Sessions, at the to 1739 22 DUNSTABLE. charge of the town, to procure and settle one that would answer the Law. By " finishing," or "finishing out the Plantation within three years," was undoubtedly meant, the procuring within that time of such number of settlers as would be competent to the support of such minister and the building of a meeting-house.

That such was the meaning of the words " finish out the Plantation within three" years" is more than implied in the action of the petitioners, and in the conditions upon which at the time, they made grants of " House Lotts," so called, to actual settlers ; each settler being required by his contract to " clear, fence, break up, build a house, and Live upon his Lot within three years" from the date of the charter under the penalty of forfeiture. By the granting of this charter, the Twenty- Six Petitioners became the owners of all the ungranted Lands within the Boundaries of Old Dunstable, which, if equally shared, would have given to each of them not less than four thousand acres. About twelve years later, for the consideration of £20, as is said, the title of the Proprietors was confirmed by the Naticook & Wamesit In dians — the Naticooks then living about Thornton's Ferry, the Warn esits near Pawtucket Falls.

GRANTEES AND PROPRIETORS. Many of the grantees of the " Farms " as well as of the petitioners for the charter were at the time men of note in the Province. Among the former were John Endicott, Governor of Massachusetts, and William Brenton, afterwards Governor of Rhode Island. Among the latter were William Brattle, whose name is perpetuated in Brattle Street, Brattle Street Church, and Brattle's End, Dun stable ; Peter Bulkeley, a fellow of Harvard College and Speaker of the Provincial Assembly ; Sampson Sheafe, a member of the Provin cial Council of New Hampshire, and others of no less note. PERAMBULATION AND SURVEY. The Spring next after its incorporation, Dunstable was perambu lated and the boundaries of the town established and marked by Jonathan Danforth of Billerica, who had laid off the grant to the Boston Artillery Company the fall previous, the towns of Chelms ford and Groton some years before, and who is spoken of in Mr. Farmer's biographical notice of him as one of the most eminent sur veyors of his time.

In an elegy written in memory of Mr. Danforth, it is said of him : " He rode the circuit ; chained great towns and farms To good behavior; and by well marked stations He fixed their bounds for many generations." to :739] DUNSTABLE. 23 NAME, ETC. The name Dunstable is said to have been given to the new town in compliment to Madam Mary Tyng, wife of Hon. Edward Tyng, and mother of Jonathan Tyng, one of the grantees in the charter, Madam Tyng having come from a city of the same name in Bed fordshire, in the southerly part of England. This charter of Dunstable is older by near sixty years than that of any town in New Hamp shire west of the Merrimack, that of Rumford, now Concord, in corporated in 1 733'> being among the next oldest. COMPACT OF THE GRANTEES Before taking possession or making any division of. their ample domains, the grantees, following the prudent example of the Pilgrims of the Mayflower, entered into a social written compact regulating their future polity in respect to the disposition and settlement of the town.