Historical sketches of the town of Leicester, Massachusetts, during the first century from its settlement

Front matter

liiii i

Gass T^T4- -

Book.

Introduction

XN attempting to embody the local incidents which go to -^ make up the history of one of our municipal corporations called '^ Towns/' it would be a matter of curious and interesting inquiry to trace the origin of these bodies politic. Nothing precisely like them had been known to the first settlers in New England, before their removal here ; though the idea may have been borrowed from the early division of England into Hundreds, or Tithings. These had their origin in a I'ude state of society, for the purposes of civil and domestic police. But the division of a territory into local districts by geographical lines, and conferring upon their inhabitants corporate powers and duties like those with which the towns of New England are clothed, will, it is believed, be found to have been an institution originally peculiar to the Colonies planted there.

It was probably the result, in part, of accident at first; but was chiefly due, like so many of the measures which the founders of these Colonies inaugurated, to the singular wisdom and foresight with which they adapted their policy to the condition of the people. Without, at first, setting apart a prescribed portion of territory, and clothing it with corpo-

Z HISTORY OF LEICESTER.

rate powei'S, the General Court conferred these upon such settlements as from their size, and remoteness from others, rendered a corporate organization a matter of safety and convenience. Thus it is said that the only Act of Incorporation of Boston, Dorchester, or Watertown, was an order of the General Court, " that Trimountain shall be called Boston ; Mattapan, Dorchester ; and the town on Charles River, Watertown."

The Colony, through its government, stood in two relations to the settlers upon the hitherto unoccupied lands ; by one of which, a title to these lands was granted ; and, by the other, the requisite powers were conferred and duties imposed upon them as bodies politic. Provision was thus made for the support of the gospel, the maintenance of highways, the management of their municipal aifairs, and, at an early day, for the support of free schools. In process of time, grants of specific portions of territory were made in anticipation of settlements being formed thereon within prescribed periods ; and, when formed, corporate powers were conferred upon them, generally by very brief Acts, which assumed that these powers and duties were understood and defined by the nature of the organization to which vitality was thereby given. This will be illustrated by the Act incorporating the town whose history it is now proposed to write.

But, whatever may have been the origin of these town organizations, it may be doubted whether the true New-England character which has distinguished the Northern Colonies, in their earlier and later history, ma}^ not be more directly traced to the existence of these than to any other single cause. While, as has been remarked, they were made the means of sustaining public religious worship and schools, and enforcing a salutary domestic police, they became the medium of accomplishing scarcely less important results in their social and political bearing. As little independent democracies, they gave to every citizen a part and share in the management of their concerns, and rendered him familiar with the forms and details of public business, as well as the nature and extent of popular rights and duties ; and, bymeans of the discussions to which the meetings of the people of the several towns at stated intervals gave rise, every man learned how to give utterance to his own opinions, and to feel the dignity and responsibility of a free man among his equals.

Every man, moreover, felt that he was a part of one corporate whole. Its limits were the bounds of his home. Its very scenery became identified with his earliest and holiest associations and affections ; and the church where his fathers had worshipped, and the churchyard where his fathers were sleeping, had for him a sanctified interest which no other spot could ever awaken. Its history became a part of his own. The burdens of taxation were relieved of half their weight by the consciousness that they were imposed by his own agents, for purposes connected with the honor, prosperity, and reputation of his own town ; and, in this way, incidents in the domestic history of one of these little communities often acquired an interest for its members disproportioned to their intrinsic importance, and which it was difficult for a stranger to understand. They partook of the character which the mind spontaneously associates with the events that go to make up the inner life of one's own self and that of his family.

I hardly need to add, that it is with feelings like these that I have ventured upon a task of so much labor, — which can bring, in return, no reward of fame or money, — of gathering up the few and scattered materials which remain of the history of this now ancient town of Leicester, for the first century of its existence as a body politic. I cannot sufficiently express the regret I feel that some other hand had not undertaken the work, and that it had not been undertaken at a much earlier day. The brief and imperfect sketch of the history of the town, hastily prepared, now more than thirty years ago, was even then too late to be what it should have been. It is the more to be regretted, because, within the recollection of many noAv living, intelligent men and women were residing here who formed a part of the generation that succeeded the first settlement of the town, and possessed a rich fund of anecdote and local incident connected with its earliest history, which has been buried in their graves, and irretrievably lost.* Even of the events of the Revolution, in which the town took an early and active part, not a living witness remains.

But, much as we may lament the loss of these sources of her early history, I greatly miscalculate, or there will still be found, in the materials which have been preserved, enough to furnish a record of the fathers, which the sons may feel a generous pride in recalling. The very nature of the work of tracing out and collecting these bespeaks the indulgence which is due to him who undertakes it ; and, if the following pages do no more, they will bear testimony to the grateful memories and associations of one, in whose mind they are connected with the spot of his birth, and, for twenty-eight years, the home of his affections.

* Among those I might mention, of the class liere referred to, was Mrs. Mary Sargent, the widow of Nathan, and mother of the late John Sargent, sen. She was born in 1727, — a daughter of Daniel Denny, one of the first settlers in the town, — and survived till 1822; a period of ninety-five years, which went back within ten years of the planting of the town. She was a remarkably bright, intelligent lady. Her memory was stored with interesting local and personal anecdotes; and her recollections, if they had been noted down and treasured, would have furnished a most fruitful and. interesting source of the history of the town. She retained her mental powers till a late period in her life; and is still remembered as a most agreeable, cheerful, and entertaining lady. I recollect a very pleasant journey, in her company, from Leicester into Vermont and back again, when she was eighty-four years old. Age had hardly dulled the quickness of her vivacity, or impaired the vigor of her mind or

HISTORY OF LEICESTER.

Chapter I

PURCHASE, INCORPORATION, AND SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWN. — NOTICES OF ITS ORIGINAL PROPRIETORS, ALLOTMENTS OF ITS TERRITORY, &c.

The first notice we have of the place, afterwards called Leicester, is in 1686, when the territory was purchased of the Indian proprietors by a company of nine persons, most of whom belonged to Roxbury. Although the jurisdiction over and general property in the soil was conferred by their charter upon the Company of the Massachusetts Bay, the right of soil in the aborigines as occupants thereof was recognized by the government of the Colony, and was regarded in most instances by the colonists in making acquisitions of parts of the territory.

The usual course of proceeding in such cases was to obtain, from the head men or chiefs of the tribes inhabiting the portion of the territory which it was desired to acquire, a formal deed of release ; for which some satisfactory, though often inconsiderable, compensation was paid. Upon application to the General Court, the title thus acquired was generally confirmed, but upon such conditions as they saw fit to prescribe.

Companies of private speculators early engaged in the business of thus buying up Indian titles to lands, which they secured to themselves by confirmatory acts of the General Court. There was, ordinarily, no difficulty in efiecting these confirmatory grants, since the leading men in the Colony were largely concerned in these speculations. The sjiirit for b HISTORY OF LEICESTER.

such enterprises seems to have pervaded all classes, especially from the first to the middle of the eighteenth century ; including, as the history of this town will show, officers the highest in authority, as well as ministers of the gospel. It would, in fact, be difficult to trace to its origin the rage and mania for speculation in lands with which our community is periodically afflicted. Without attempting it in this case, I have only to speak of the mode in which such enterprises were managed.

These companies became a kind of corporation known as a Proprietary ; managing their affiiirs, even to the granting of their lands, by votes, of which they preserved records, and which, in many instances in Massachusetts, form the only evidence of the original titles to lands as acquired from the original proprietors. These books of '' Proprietors' Eecords," therefore, have become valuable as muniments of title to lands ; and, in most instances, have been carefully preserved.

Among other tracts which were purchased by the same company to whom the territory of Leicester was conveyed was the township of Hardwick, which, for a while, took the name of Lambstown from that of one of the company.

The township of Leicester lay in the heart of what was known as the Nipnet or Nipmuc country, which extended to a considerable distance to the south, embracing the ponds and streams in and around Oxford. The tribe seems to have been scattered over a pretty large territory, extending from Connecticut River, easterly, to the tribes along the coast, known as the Massachusetts Indians. The settlements of the tribe occurred at considerable intervals through this large territory ; and over these were headmen, or sachems, who were nominally subordinate in authority to the principal chief or ruler of the tribe."^

* I find in the Secretary's office a letter from Col. Chandler to Lieut.-Gov. Dummer, dated July 7, 1724, wherein he says, " There is a tribe of Indians between Woodstock and Oxford; being women and children about forty, the men about seven or

HISTORY OF LEICESTER. i

The Indian name of the territory purchased by the Roxbmy men was Towtaid, over which Oraskaso had been sachem. He had recently died, leaving two daughters, who, with their husbands, claimed title to the soil. Except by a rugged path called the New Connecticut Road, by which occasional intercourse was kept up between the settlements at Marlborough and east of that, and those on Connecticut River, this region was an inaccessible wilderness, and, at the time of the purchase, had no nearer white settlement than Marlborough. The settlements at Quaboog or Brookfield and Worcester had been broken up and dispersed by the war of King Philip in 1675. Indeed, the situation of the place and the circumstances of the country were so unj)ropitious to a settlement of the lands they had purchased, that the proprietors took no measures to accomplish this for nearly thirty years.

Their deed bears date Jan. 27, 1686,* and professes to convey eight miles square of territory for the consideration of " fifteen pounds current money of New England." A copy of this deed will be found in the Appendix to this work. It is executed by Philip Tray, with his wife Momokhue, and John Wampscon, and Waiwaynom his wife ; the wives being the heirs of the late Sachem Oraskaso. It is also signed by Wandwoamag " the deacon," and Jonas his wife, though not named in the deed : from which I am inclined to suppose that they belonged to the " Praying Indians;" as there were, a few years prior to this, twenty families at Pagachoag, — a eight." He suggests that they ought not to be permitted to live by themselves in the woods, and recommends that " they should be drawn in, and be allowed to hunt under conduct of an Englishman."

* This, by our present calendar, would be 1687 ; as, until 1752, the year was assumed to begin on the 25th March, or Lady Day, in the calendar of the Romish Church. At that time it began to be reckoned from the 1st Januarj-, which took the name of New Style to distinguish it from the Old ; and it was common to give a double date for the year between the 1st January and 25th March. Thus a deed or event in January, after the year 1752, would be, for example, Jan. 25, 1755-6.

part of Worcester near to Towtaid, — and there were said to be one thousand converted Indians within the limits of the Nipmuc country.*

The description of the granted territory shows the wild and unsettled state of the region between Marlborough and the Connecticut River at that time. It is said to lie " near the new town of the English, called Worcester." It bounds southerly by lands which Joseph Dudley, Esq., afterwards Gov. Dudley, had lately bought of the Indians ; which consisted of a gore of land, a part of which helped afterwards to form Charlton : a part was known as Oxford North Gore, and a part is embraced in the present town of Auburn. The western line cannot now be ascertained or identified ; and the northern one is assumed to be known by its running " unto a great hill called Aspomsok," which is supposed to be the hill now called Hasnebumskit in Paxton ; " and so on, easterly, upon a line, until it comes against Worcester bounds, and joins unto their bounds."

The war in which the colonists were involved with the French and Indians, known as King William's War, which had begun in 1690, was terminated by the peace of Ryswick in 1697. It was, however, followed by that of Queen Anne in 1702, which continued until the peace of Utrecht in 1713 ; and it was not until this time that the proprietors of Leicester, which they had till then called by the name of Strawberry Hill, began to take measures to avail themselves of the benefit of their purchase.

They caused their deed to be recorded, and applied to the Legislature for a confirmation of their title to the tract. This was granted upon condition, that, within seven years, fifty families settled themselves, in as defensible and regular a way as the circumstances of the place would allow, on part of said land;" and that a sufficient quantity thereof be

* Worcester Magazine, vol. i. p. 132.

reserved for the use of a gospel ministry there and a school, &c.

These were the usual conditions upon which the grants of townships were then made. By the same vote, " the town to be named Leicester, and to belong to the county of Middlesex." This vote was passed on the 15th of February, 1713. It does not profess to grant corporate powers, or to create a body politic for any purposes, except by implication ; and yet it is the only Act of Incorporation ever granted to the town, and under which it has ever since executed full corporate powers and duties. The proprietors were limited in this legislative grant to a quantity not exceeding eight miles square of land.*

The persons named as grantees in the original Indian deed were Joshua Lamb, Nathaniel Page, Andrew Gardner, Benjamin Gamblin, Benjamin Tucker, John Curtice, Richard Draper, Samuel Buggies, and Ralf Bradhurst. The grant of the General Court recites the former grant from the " heirs of Ouraskoe, the original sachem of a place called Towtaid ; " and then goes on to confirm the title as above stated.

These proprietors had, probably, already associated others with them in the enterprise of settling the town and sharing in the speculation : for we find them executing a deed on the 23d of the same February, which was acknowledged before Penn Townsend, Esq., to thirteen other associates ; dividing the same into twenty equal and undivided shares, of which two were equally divided, each between two, so as to make twenty-two proprietors of the twenty shares. The names of the persons who thus became interested with the original purchasers were Jeremiah Dummer, Paul Dudley, John Clark, Addington Davenport, Thomas Hutchinson, John White, William Hutchinson, Francis Wainwright, John Chan-

* In June, 1714, a survey of the town was made by John Chandler, by order of the General Court, in order to fix its bounds; and it is said by Whitney, that these were established by a special Act of the General Coiirt in Januarj', 1714.

dler and Thomas Howe as one, Daniel Allen and Samuel Sewall as one, and William Dudley.

Every one of these were men of influence in the Province ; and, although none of the twenty-two proprietors ever became inhabitants of that portion of the town which retained the original name, it seems proper to give them a passing notice, from their early connection with its history. Many of them belonged to Roxbury, and others of their number were connected with these by family ties.

Joshua Lamb, distinguished as " colonel," was a magistrate of influence and respectability. He belonged to Roxbury, was extensively engaged in the land-negotiations of the day, and was a man of large wealth. It was from him, as already stated, that Hardwick took its first name of Lambstown.

Samuel Ruggles also belonged to Roxbury. He wis grandfather of the well-known " brigadier," Timothy Ruggles, whose loyalty to the crown made him an exile from his native Province ; in which, while he remained, he had no superior.

Benjamin Gamblin, Benjamin Tucker, and Ralph Bradhurst, belonged to Roxbury.

John Curtice, an original proprietor, had died, and was represented by Jonathan his son, who also belonged to Roxbury.

Richard Draper was a Boston merchant, and a deacon in one of its churches.

Andrew Gardner, of Roxbury, died about 1701, and was represented by his son Thomas, who died in Needliam in 1757.

Nathaniel Page, in 1691, Avas a resident of Bedford. He was the ancestor of the families of that name in Hardwick, and, among them, of the Rev. Lucius R. Page of Cambridge.

Jeremiah Dummer was a man of more consequence in the Province than any of the proprietors yet noticed. He belonged to Boston ; was graduated at Harvard College in 1699, and afterwards received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Utrecht. While in England, he shared the confidence and friendship of Bolingbroke. He resided there eleven years — from 1710 to 1721 — as Agent of the Province ; which was one of the most honorable and responsible trusts in the gift of the General Court. Among his publications as an author was a '' Defence of the New-England Charters ; " a work of much ability. He died in England, at Plaistow, in 1739 ; leaving the reputation of a sound scholar.

Paul Dudley was Attorney-General of the Province at the time of his becoming a proprietor of Leicester. He was a son of Gov. Joseph Dudley, and was born in Roxbury. He was graduated at Harvard in 1690, and studied law at the Temple in London. In 1718, he was appointed to the bench of the Superior Court, and became Chief-Justice of that court in 1745. This office he held till his death, in 1751, at the age of seventy-eight. In addition to his acquirements as a lawyer and his services as an able judge, he published works upon theology and natural science, and was elected a member of the Royal Society in London ; an honor conferred upon a few only of the residents of the Province.

John Clark belonged to Boston. He was born in 1668, and was graduated at Harvard in 1687. He became a leading politician in his day, and belonged to what was known as the " popular party," at the head of which were the Cookes, father and son, who were opposed to Gov. Shute. When, therefore, he was chosen to the Council in 1720, he was negatived by the Governor ; but when he was chosen, the following year. Speaker of the House, the Governor was induced by prudential considerations to consent to the election, although strongly inclined to negative it. He afterwards was chosen to the Council, and admitted to his seat ; and was a member of that body at the time of his death, Dec. 5, 1728. He Avas at that time sixty-one years of age. He is spoken of by Hutchinson as " a person of many valuable qualities."

Addington Davenport was connected by marriage with Paul and William Dudley and Francis Wainwright, all of them proprietors of the town ; and, about the time of his becoming a proprietor, Avas associated with Thomas Hutchinson and John White, two others of the proprietors, as trustees of the Province loan of fifty thousand pounds, in bills, issued and let out at five per cent, upon mortgages of real estate, to the people of the Province, as a substitute for a bank, for which many were then striving. Judge Davenport was graduated at Harvard in 1689 ; and, in 1695, was appointed Clerk of the Superior Court. In 1714, he was elected to the Council ; and, in the following year, appointed to the bench of the Superior Court; Avhich office he held until his death, at the age of sixty-six, in 1736. His wife was the daughter of Col. John Wainwright of Ipswich, an influential citizen in the Province, whose brother Francis married the sister of Paul Dudley. His own daughter married William Dudley, above mentioned.

Thomas Hutchinson was the father of Gov. Hutchinson, and belonged to Boston. He Avas a merchant, and possessed a leading influence in the political afiairs of the Province. He was a member of the Council from 1714 to 1739, with the exception of two years. He died in the office, in 1739, at the age of sixty-five.

John White was, for many years, Clerk of the House of Representatives ; and, as has been stated, was one of the trustees of the Province loan in 1714. He died of small-pox, taken by inoculation, in December, 1721 ; ■^ leaving the repu-

* It should be recollected that inoculation for the small-pox was introduced into America in 1721. Notwithstanding the frightful ravages of this disease, — which carried oft' 884 out of 5,759 who were attacked with it in the natural way, in Boston alone, in 1721, — the proposition to apply inoculation, which was made by Cotton ]\Iather from accounts which he had read in the Transactions of the Royal Society, was so violently opposed, that no physician but Dr. Zabdiel Boylston dared to adopt it, and he only in a secret manner. Matlier's house was assaulted, and he mobbed, for his agency in promoting it. In the year 1721, 247 were secretly inoculated; of whom six only died, one of whom was Mr. White. So slowly, however, did it gain favor, that in 1730, while in Boston 3,600 liad the disease in the natural way, of wiioni 488 died, 400 only were inoculated, and of these only 12 died. — Mass. Ifist. Soc. Coll., vol. iii. p. 292; Holmes's Annals, vol. i. p. 526.

tation, in the words of Hutchinson, of " a gentleman of unspotted character."

William Hutchinson belonged to Boston ; which town he represented in the General Court in 1721. He is spoken of by the historian as " a gentleman of very fair character ; sensible, virtuous, discreet, and of an independent fortune." He died young. He belonged to the popular party in politics.

Francis Wainwright belonged to Boston, and was the son of an influential man, — John Wainwright of Ipswich. He was a merchant, and married the daughter of Gov. Joseph and sister of Paul and William Dudley. His sister married Judcre Davenport, as has been stated. He died in 1722.

John Chandler was born in Woodstock, then embraced in Massachusetts ; his father having emigrated to that place from Roxbury in 1686. When the county of Worcester was organized in 1731, he was appointed Judge of Probate, and Chief-Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, for that county. Besides these, offices, he held that of colonel of a regiment of militia, and was a member of the Council. He may be considered as the founder of the family of that name in the county ; which for many years shared largely in the favor of the Royal Government, and held numerous offices of honor and trust, up to the time of the Revolution. Judge Chandler died in 1713.

Thomas Howe belonged to Marlborough ; was a colonel of the militia ; a leading and influential citizen ; and was the son of the first white settler in that town.

Daniel Allen, of whom little is known, is said to have been a merchant of Boston.

Samuel Sew all belonged to Brookline. He was a son of Chief-Justice Sewall, and married a daughter of Gov. Dudley, and thereby became connected with Wainwright and the two Dudleys above named. He died at the age of seventy-two,

William Dudley, the last named in the deed before mentioned, was the youngest son of Gov. Dudley, and Avas graduated at Harvard in 1705. He resided in Roxbury. He held many important offices in the Province ; was a member of the Council, a Colonel of the SuiFolk Regiment, a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and, for several years, Speaker of the House of Representatives. As a military officer, he took part in the expedition against Port Royal in Nova Scotia, in 1710, which resulted in an easy conquest of the place. His wife was a daughter of Judge Davenport.

If it were proper, at this distance of time, to indulge in any conjectures in relation to the affairs of the proprietors, one would be led to remark upon the character and position of the men with whom the original purchasers shared the territory they had acquired. They embraced some of the most prominent and leading men of both political parties, some of them connected with the immediate government of the Province, and quite a proportion of them united by strong family ties ; and if it could be supposed that by lapse of time, or defect in the original deed, or any other cause, it had become necessary to exert a combined influence over the government in order to obtain a confirmation of the title, it is pretty obvious that these were precisely the class of men through whose aid such a measure might be hoped to be accomplished.

Col. Penn Townsend also, who certified the acknowledgment of the deed, was a leading man in the Province. He was connected by marriage with Judge Davenport ; had been Speaker of the House of Representatives ; Chief-Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for Suffolk ; and had held other important offices.

But as we are bound to presume, in the absence of any positive proof to the contrary, that, in the " good old times " in which these events took place, every thing was properly done, we have only to follow out the action of these proprietors till the town was fully organized as a municipal corporation. The records of their proceedings, unfortunately, are somewhat mutilated ; though enough remains to indicate the general course of their measures.

It will be recollected, that one condition upon which the e:rant of the Legislature was made was the settlement of fifty families Avithin the township within seven j^ears ; and this the proprietors undertook at once to accomplish. The method they proposed was by holding out an inducement to a proper number of families to come and occupy their lands, by setting apart the easterly half of the township, and disposing of the same to actual settlers upon favorable terms, and thereby to save to themselves an absolute property in the other half

A meeting was accordingly held in Boston on the same day with the date of their deed, at which John Chandler was chosen clerk. A vote was passed to dispose of one-half of the town to settlers, and to divide the remainder into twenty lots, of a thousand acres or less each, as a Committee appointed for the purpose " should judge best and most convenient, when on the spot." — "Col. Dudley, Capt. Lamb, Capt. Chandler, Capt. Howe, and Capt. Ruggles," were made the Committee to determine which half should be assigned to the settlers, and which retained for the proprietors, and to grant " lots, after-divisions, and rights, in that half to be settled."

On the 14th of May following this meeting, an allotment, in part, of the settlers' or eastern half, was made, but upon condition that the lots should be settled by May, 1717, or be forfeited. At the expiration of this time, however, several to whom allotments had been made had failed to perform the condition ; and another term of one year was extended to them, upon their giving bonds conditioned to comply with the requirements. The vote of the Committee who had this matter in charge indicated a commendable spirit of liberality. Whatever sums might be forfeited were, thereby, to be employed for the purposes of a meeting-house, highways, bridges, and similar public uses.