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 ■»•••■' 
 Jk;' ir"'.;:/'!.,""''-'"';' .■'. ! 
 
 
 
CONCORD 
 
 IN 
 
 THE COLONIAL PERIOD 
 
 'Being a "^imvv 
 
 OF THE 
 
 TOWN OF CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 FROM THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO THE OVERTHROW OF THE 
 
 ANDROS GOVERNMENT 
 
 1635—1689 
 
 By CHARLES H. WALCOTT 
 
 WITH MAP 
 
 BOSTON 
 ESTES AND LAURIAT 
 
 1884 
 
 t 
 
Copyright, 1884, 
 By Charles H. Walcott. 
 
 ®ni(jcrs(ta ^ress: 
 John "Wilson and Son, Cambridge 
 
TO 
 
 THE PEOPLE OF CONCORD 
 
 W^is StxiUg of t!je Sarlg ^itnes 
 IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
 
 By the Author. 
 
"My desire is that no mans Spectacles may deceive him, so as to 
 
 look upon these things either as bigger or lesser, better or worser, then 
 
 they are; which all men generally are apt to doe at things. at so great 
 
 distance, but that they may judge of them as indeed they are, by what 
 
 truth they see here exprest in the things themselves." 
 
 Thomas Shepabd. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This volume is the result of the labor of many 
 months spent in exploring the original sources of 
 our town's early history, — researches made in the 
 belief that a re-examination of the authorities, con- 
 ducted in the modern spirit of historical inquiry, 
 would develop new and interesting facts, and enable 
 us to realize more fully the stern but conscientious 
 self-denial, persevering industry, and sturdy good 
 sense that actuated the settlers of this town. 
 
 Constant reference has been had to Shattuck's 
 History of Concord, which was published almost fifty 
 years ago, and has been a valuable aid in the prose- 
 cution of the studies which led to the preparation of 
 this book. 
 
 If the statements and inferences herein contained 
 do not always agree with those of the earlier work, 
 the reader may be assured that the difference is not 
 due to neglect of the considerations which led Mr. 
 Shattuck to the results stated by him, but is more 
 especially to be attributed to the greater facility 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 with which records and documents may now be i 
 consulted, in consequence of the great amount of j 
 money, labor, and thought, that have been devoted ! 
 of late to arranging, copying, printing, and indexing ; 
 early writings of a historical character ; so that the ■ 
 close application and thought, once largely exhausted j 
 in deciphering old records and private documents, | 
 may now, in many instances, be used to extract the | 
 full meaning of what is written, and to determine I 
 
 its exact relations to information obtained from \ 
 
 i 
 
 other sources. { 
 
 In almost every instance, Mr. Shattuck^s authori- \ 
 ties have been consulted anew by the author of this ! 
 volume ; and some additional sources of information ! 
 have been drawn upon, which the elder writer seems j 
 not to have discovered. ! 
 
 Tbe extracts and ancient documents here printed '. 
 have been carefully compared with the originals , 
 whenever the latter could be found, but it will 
 appear that, in a few instances, the author has been j 
 unable to find original papers to which Mr. Shattuck \ 
 undoubtedly had access. Two documents are for ! 
 this reason reprinted from his history, without being , 
 verified by the present author. Extracts from the j 
 Records of the Colony (cited under their printed j 
 title of ^^Massachusetts Records") are taken from \ 
 the printed volumes. i 
 
 X * if 
 
 To avoid confusion, it should be borne in mind \ 
 that all dates before 1752 are accordino; to the old 1 
 style, which made the year begin on the 25th day | 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 of March. The months, beginning with March, 
 were alluded to, as also were the days of the week, 
 by numbers, instead of by names. Thus, April 20, 
 1640, would be indicated as 20'^ : 2^ : 40, or 20'^ 
 2mo 2540^ Jyi writing dates occurring between 
 January 1st and March 25th, sometimes the double 
 date is given ; but, otherwise, it is to be understood 
 that the later year, beginning in January, is re- 
 tained. For instance, March 12, 169| may be 
 found written, March 12, 1696 ; and 8^^ 12"}<^ 1664 
 would appear as February 8, 1665. • 
 
 Of the two oldest record books of the town, which 
 together, as copied by Mr. David Pulsifer, are now 
 comprised in Volume I. of the "Ancient Records of 
 Concord," the earlier, — which, in all probability, 
 was procured in 1653, soon after the division of the 
 town into Quarters, — contains records of grants and 
 divisions of land, voted by the company of the South 
 Quarter. There are also brief lists, descriptive of 
 the first-division lands, and, to a limited extent, 
 the second-division lands, owned by dwellers in the 
 South (or West) Quarter. Written at the top of a 
 page is the following declaration of the purpose for 
 which the book was intended : — 
 
 "The Records of this booke of the weast qiiartter one the 
 south S3'de of the mill brooke, concernes second devisions as up- 
 land, second devisione meadow, & woodland, acordinge to mens 
 seuerall ip-portions & alowances that is due to them, aproved 
 & alowed off, by the whoUe company as is expresed in the sev- 
 erall pages folio winge." 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 This old book also contains records of ways laid i 
 
 out in the South Quarter, rates made to defray the : 
 
 expenses of building bridges and highways, and j 
 
 accounts of the labor done or furnished in fur- I 
 
 therance of these public works. The latest date j 
 
 is 1724. I 
 
 It cannot be doubted that there once was a town | 
 
 book, which contained the records of the earliest ' 
 
 grants of land, and, probably, the other proceedings \ 
 
 of the inhabitants, meeting together in general as- j 
 
 sembly. A book of this character is referred to in i 
 
 ancient deeds and other documents, as well as in the ; 
 
 records that remain to us, and is designated as " the ; 
 
 old towne booke of Concord," or the "town's regis- ' 
 
 ter booke." i 
 
 This volume was extant in 1664, when it was de- I 
 
 cided to have a new book, and to copy into it " what i 
 
 is in the old booke, that is vesefuU." The "new i 
 
 book" then obtained is in the office of the town '■ 
 
 clerk, and forms the second half of the first volume j 
 
 of '^ Ancient Records," as copied. It contains, under | 
 
 date of " 5. of 12 : m? 1635," (February 5, 1636), the | 
 entry concerning the location of the meeting-house, 
 
 which, of course, was copied from something earlier. ! 
 
 This book contains records of grants of lands and ' 
 
 the laying out of ways, beginning with 1653 and ^ 
 
 extendino; to 1804. There are, also, a few deeds, i 
 
 leases, and agreements concerning the division or j 
 
 fencing of lands, and a few of the East Quarter \ 
 
 records are here preserved. \ 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 These early books of the town's records have been 
 constantly referred to and studied in the prepar- 
 ation of this work. They are not expressly cited, 
 except in a few instances, because it w^as thought 
 better to allude generally, once for all, to an au- 
 thority which, if referred to in every instance, would 
 appear on almost every page of this book. 
 
 It has been deemed wise to present the thoughts 
 and acts of the men who lived in the times here 
 treated of, to a considerable extent in their own lan- 
 guage ; and, with this in mind, many extracts from 
 original records and documents have been included, 
 in the printing of which the utmost care has been 
 exercised to reproduce the original as closely as pos- 
 sible. These extracts should be read without resrard 
 to spelling or punctuation, both of which, judged 
 by our standards, are as bad as they could well be ; 
 but these are only slight obstructions, after all, to 
 one who carefully seeks for the meaning of what 
 is written. 
 
 The subject is in its nature local, and the larger 
 history of the colony has been treated of only when 
 it was found to be closely connected with that of the 
 town, or when reference to it was deemed necessary 
 for a more complete understanding of the position 
 and relations of the town and its people to the world 
 without. The author cannot flatter himself with the 
 expectation that his work will be found free from 
 errors, or that, in weighing men and events of two 
 centuries and a half ago, his readers will always take 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 the same point of view, or draw the same inferences, 
 as are here presented. Earnest efforts have been 
 made to present the facts accurately, to distinguish 
 between knowledge and inferences, — in short, to 
 present the subject in the light of truth, without 
 exaggeration or suppression of any facts of public 
 interest. 
 
 Concord, April, 1884. 
 
LIST OF AUTHORITIES CITED. 
 
 Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the 
 Massachusetts-Bay. 
 
 Billerica Town Records. 
 
 Bond's (Henr}') Genealogies and History of Watertown. 
 
 Butler's (Caleb) History of Groton, Mass. 
 
 Concord Town Records. 
 
 Drake's (Samuel A.) History of Middlesex County. 
 
 Emerson's (Ralph W.) Historical Discourse in 1835. 
 
 Foster's (Edmund) Littleton Century Sermon. 1815. 
 
 Gookin's (Daniel) Historical Account of the Doings and Suf- 
 ferings of the Christian Indians. Reprinted in vol. ii. 423- 
 534, of the Transactions and Collections of the American 
 Antiquarian Society. 
 
 Hazen's (Henry A.) History of Billerica, Mass. 
 
 Hotten's Lists of Emigrants to America. 
 
 Hubbard's (William) Narrative of the Indian Wars in New 
 England, 1677. 
 
 Hutchinson's (Thomas) History of Massachusetts, 1628-1750. 
 
 Johnson's (Edward) Wonderworking Providence of Sion's 
 Saviour in New England, 1654. Reprinted in the Collec- 
 tions of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 2d series, ii. 
 49, et seq. 
 
 Lechford's (Thomas) Plain Dealing : or Newes from New Eng- 
 land, 1642. Reprinted in the Collections of the Massachu- 
 setts Historical Societ}^, 3d series, vol. iii. 
 
 Liberties of the Massachusetts Colony in New England, The, 
 1641. Reprinted in the Collections of the Massachusetts 
 Historical Society, 3d series, viii. 191-237. 
 
Xll LIST OF AUTHORITIES CITED. 
 
 Manuscript Records of the General Court preseived in the State 
 
 Archives. 
 Massachusetts Records. 
 
 Mather's (Cotton) MagnaUa Christi Americana, 1702. 
 Memorial Historj^ of Boston. 
 Middlesex Count}^ Court, Records and Files. 
 Middlesex Records of Deeds. 
 Palfrey's (John G.) History of New England. 
 Ripley's (Ezra) Half-century Sermon, 1828. 
 Savage's (James) Genealogical Dictionary of New England. 
 Gleanings for New England Histor}'. Printed in the 
 
 Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 3d 
 
 Series, viii. 243, et seq. 
 Sewall's (Samuel) Diar3^ Printed in the Collections of the 
 
 Massachusetts Historical Societ}", 5th series, vol. v. 
 Shattuck's (Lemuel) Histor}^ of Concord, Mass., 1835. 
 Shattuck's (Lemuel) Papers preserved in the Librar}^ of the 
 
 New England Historic Genealogical Society. 
 Shepard's (Thomas) Cleare Sunshine of the Gospell, 1648. 
 
 Reprinted in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical 
 
 Society, 3d series, v. 25-67. 
 Suffolk Probate Records. 
 Suffolk Records of Deeds. 
 Wheeler's (Thomas) Narrative of an Expedition with Capt. 
 
 Edward Hutchinson into the Nipmuck Countr3% and to Qua- 
 
 baog, now Brookfield, Mass., 1675. Reprinted in New 
 
 Hampshire Historical Collections, ii. 5. 
 Winthrop's (John) History of New England from 1630 to 1649 
 
 (Savage's ed.), 1853. 
 
TABLE OF OONTEE"TS. 
 
 Page 
 List of Authorities Cited xi 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Planters and the Plantation. — Map of the Original 
 Grant and Blood's Farms. — Purchase from the Indi- 
 ans. — First Meeting-house. — The Church. — Town 
 Officers. — Case of Ambrose Martin. — John Hoar and 
 Philip Read 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Early Trials. — Withdrawal of Mr. Jones. — Loss of the 
 Leaders. — Rev. Peter Bulkeley, Simon Willard, Thomas 
 Flint.— The Kentish Influence 33 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The New Grant, or " Concord Village." — Blood's Farms . 49 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Second Division of Lands. — Division of the Town- 
 ship into Quarters. — Roads and Bridges. — Bulkeley's 
 Farm. — Flint's Farm. — Other Large Allotments. — 
 Undivided Lands. — Land Transcripts. — Location of 
 House-lots. — Peter Bulkele}^ Esquire. — Second Meet- 
 ing-house. — Town Pound. — Mills. — Burying-Grounds 67 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS. j 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Page I 
 Relations with the Indians. — King Philip's War. — Fight 
 
 at Brookfield. — Nashoba Indians. — Constable John J 
 
 I 
 
 Heywood's Return 100 i 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Militia. — Education. — Charities. — Mining and Man- * 
 
 ufactures. — Public Houses. — Amusements, &c. — ,■ 
 
 Freemen. — The Andros Revolution 120 ■ 
 
 INDEX 155. 
 
CONCOED 
 
 IN 
 
 THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
55^. 
 
 l^ff Smmeits. 
 
 sf 
 
 A- 
 
 Mmp of (sondofdl 
 
 ■"^^ 
 
 JJ/'Olvrr cypres g/y^ Fj^/s^ 
 
 ^^^i^^S^^^^j^^r^sw 
 
 
CONCORD n THE COLONIAL PEEIOD. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 " Beneath low hills, in the brocad interval 
 
 Through which at will our Indian rivulet 
 
 Winds mindful still of sannup and of squaw, 
 
 Whose pipe and arrow oft tlie plough unburies, — 
 
 Here in pine houses built of new-fallen trees, 
 
 Supplanters of the tribe, the farmers dwell.'' 
 
 Emerson. 
 
 The Planters and the Plantation. — Map of the Original 
 Grant and Blood's Farms. — Purchase from the Indi- 
 ans. — First Meeting-house. — The Church. — Case of 
 Ambrose Martin. 
 
 The plantation at Musketaquid was settled by Eev. 
 Peter Bulkeley, of Odell in England, associated with 
 Simon Willard, a merchant^ of Horsmonden, who 
 brought with them about twelve families. 
 
 Mr. Bulkelej, then fifty-two years of age^ em- 
 barked at London, May 9, 1635, in the ship " Susan 
 and Ellen/' accompanied by William Buttrick and 
 Thomas Brooke. Mrs. Bulkeley sailed two days 
 before, in the "Elizabeth and Ann," under the escort 
 of Thomas Dane ; ^ from which it may be inferred that 
 
 1 Savage's " Gleanings; " Hotten, pp. 76, 77. 
 1 
 
2 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 by the temporary separation of husband and wife, 
 the orders prohibiting the departure of clergymen 
 and " subsidy men " were more easily evaded.^ 
 
 James Hosmer was provided with a certificate 
 from the minister of Hawkhurst, in Kent, and the 
 attestation of two justices of the peace that he 
 and his fxmily were '^ conformable to the Church of 
 England," and were " no subsidy men." ^ Both Mr. 
 Bulkeley and Thomas Flint had sufficient property 
 to bring them within the degree of " subsidy men," 
 and therefore it may be supposed that their depart- 
 ure was achieved by obtaining a special license, or 
 through the connivance of the authorities ; but the 
 rest of the Concord company were plain people, of 
 humble station in England, and of small means, ! 
 who hoped in the New World to better their con- i 
 dition, and to enjoy unmolested the simpler forms of | 
 religious worship that their tastes and consciences \ 
 approved. i 
 
 There was, however, no transplanting of a church . 
 and its pastor, — like the removal of John Robinson i 
 and his flock to Holland, or like the settlements at i 
 Plymouth and Dorchester. Few, and possibly none, | 
 of Mr. Bulkeley' s parishioners, except his own family, ; 
 
 1 The order of the Lords Commissioners for the Colonies, passed ■ 
 in December, 1634, forbade the emigration of all persons of the degree j 
 of a "subsidy man" without a special license, and of all persons ^ 
 beneath that degree without evidence of their having taken the oaths ] 
 of supremacy and allegiance, and of their conformity to the orders of i 
 discipline of the Church of England. Palfrey, i. 396. | 
 
 2 Hotten, p. 53. | 
 
CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 3 
 
 followed him across the sea ; and there is no reason 
 to suppose that the Concord settlers ever came to- 
 gether on English soil. The chm^ch was not gathered 
 mi til the summer following the actual settlement 
 of the town, nor was its organization completed 
 until the ordination of the elders in the spring of 
 1637. The homes of the pioneers were, moreover, 
 widely separated. Mr. Bulkeley lived in Bedford- 
 shire • Simon Willard, James Hosmer, and probably 
 William Buss and Thomas Dane, were from Kent ; 
 John Heald came from Berwick in Northumber- 
 land ; William Hunt and Jonathan Mitchell had 
 their homes in Yorkshire ; William Buttrick came 
 from Kingston-on-Thames, in Surrey; Derbyshire 
 was represented by Thomas Flint, and probably 
 William Wood. It is not unlikely that other parts 
 of England supplied their contingents to the little 
 band who, after many struggles and with .the aid of 
 a compass, succeeded in pushing through the wilder- 
 ness that then bounded Watertown on the northwest, 
 and arrived at their new home in the fall of 1635. 
 
 The following extracts from Johnson's work, writ- 
 ten ten or fifteen years later, are interesting, although 
 coming from a writer whose imagination sometimes 
 lends too strong a coloring to his facts : — 
 
 " Upon some inquiiy of the Indians, who lived to the North 
 West of the Bay, one Captaine Simon Willard, being acquainted 
 with them by reason of his trade, became a chiefe instrument 
 in erecting this towne. The land they purchase of the Indians ; 
 and with much difficulties travelling through nnknowne woods, 
 and through watery swamps, they discover the fitnesse of the 
 
4 CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 place, — sometimes passing through tlie thickets, where their 
 hands are forced to make way for their bodies passage, and 
 their feete clambering over the crossed trees, which when they 
 missed the}' sunke into an uncertaine bottome in water, and wade 
 up to their knees, tumbling sometimes higher and sometimes 
 lower. Wearied with this toile, they at end of this meete with a 
 scorching plaine ; 3'et not so plaine but that the ragged bushes 
 scratch their legs foul}', even to wearing their stockings to their 
 bare skin in two or three hours. If they be not otherwise well 
 defended with bootes or buskings, their flesh will be torne, that 
 some being forced to passe on without further provision, have 
 had the bloud trickle downe at ever\^ step ; and in time of sum- 
 mer the sun casts such a reflecting heate from the sweet feme, 
 whose scent is ver}^ strong, so that some herewith have beene 
 very nere fainting, although very able bodies to undergoe much 
 travell, and this not to be indured for one day, but for many ; 
 and verily did not the Lord incourage their natural parts (with 
 hopes of a new and strange discovery, expecting every houre to 
 see some rare sight never seen before), they were never able 
 to hold out and breake through. . . . 
 
 " Their further hardship is to travell sometimes they know not 
 whether, bewildred indeed without sight of sun ; their compasse 
 miscanying in crowding through the bushes, they sadly search 
 up and down for a known way, the Indian paths being not above 
 one foot broad, so that a man may travell many daj'es and never 
 find one. . . . 
 
 *' This intricate worke no whit daunted these resolved servants 
 of Christ to go on with the worke in hand ; but lying in the open 
 aire, while the watery clouds poure down all the night season, 
 and sometimes the driving snow dissolving on their backs, they 
 keep their wet cloathes warme with a continued fire, till the 
 renewed morning give fresh opportunity of further travell." 
 
 Their destination was the " six miles of land 
 square " granted them by the General Court, and 
 to be laid out at the place called by the Indians 
 
COXCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 5 
 
 " Musketaquid," but thenceforth to be known as 
 Concord. On Sept. 2, 1635, the General Court passed 
 the following order.^ 
 
 "It is ordered, that there shalbe a plantacon att Muskete- 
 quid, & that there shalbe 6 myles of land square to belong to it, 
 & that the inhabitants thereof shall have three yeares iihunities 
 from all publ[ic] charges, except traineings ; Further, that when 
 any that plant there shall have occaeon of carr3'eing of goods 
 thither, they shall repaire to two of the nexte magistrates where 
 the teames are, whoe shall have power for a yeare to presse 
 draughts, att reasonable rates, to be paj-de by the owners of the 
 goods, to transport their goods thither att seasonable tj'mes ; 
 & the name of the place is changed, & here after to be called 
 Concord." ^ 
 
 There is no plan of the original grant, if, indeed, 
 such a plan was ever made ; nor is there any return 
 of the laying out of the land, such as was usually 
 prepared and filed. We do, however, know that it 
 was in fact laid out, and bounds set at the corners, 
 and without doubt this work was done by Simon 
 Willard. 
 
 The author is not aware that any one has before 
 attempted to construct a map of Concord as it was 
 in the beginning. The map published with this work 
 is the result of a comparison of maps, plans, and old 
 records, supplemented by observations made on the 
 
 ^ Mass. Records, i. 157. 
 
 2 In March following it was further " agreed, that the imunitie of 
 Concord for three yeares shall begin the first of October nexte, & 
 that none shall have benefitt thereof but those that lyve there, & 
 with respect onely to the stocke they have there." Mass. Records, i, 
 167. The order authorizing the impressment of carts was renewed 
 Oct. 28, 1636, for a year longer. — Ibid., 182. 
 
6 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. | 
 
 ground. It has been carefully drawn, under the 
 author's direction, by Mr. William Wheeler of Con- [ 
 cord, whose assistance has been invaluable in the I 
 application of tests which lie peculiarly within the 
 province of a skilful surveyor and draughtsman. 
 
 Briefly, the sources of information which assist us 
 in constructing a map like this are the following : — 
 
 Two plans by Jonathan Danforth, dated, respect- 
 ively, 1660 ^ and 1706,^ show Billerica land on both 
 sides of the Concord River, and are valuable for our 
 purpose as showing the south line of Billerica, which 
 was identical with the north line of Concord, except 
 where they bounded on Blood's Farms. 
 
 A plan of Bedford made in 1760 and in the li- 
 brary of the Massachusetts Historical Society shows 
 the Billerica line east of the river. 
 
 Among the Shattuck papers is a somewhat dilap- 
 idated plan of Concord Village, which, possibly, is 
 the plan alluded to by Mr. Shattuck ^ as having been 
 made by Captain Stephen Hosmer in 1730. This 
 gives us the western boundary of the original grant, 
 throughout its entire length. 
 
 In the State archives is a collection of plans of 
 the several towns in the Commonwealth made in 
 response to a resolve of the General Court passed in 
 1794, and another more elaborate set made under 
 similar authority in 1830. Concord in 1795 is shown 
 
 1 In the library of the Mass. Historical Society. 
 
 2 Mass. Archives, Ancient Plans, v. i. p. 191. 
 
 3 History, p. 280. 
 
CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 7 
 
 by a plan drawn from actual surveys by Ephraim 
 Wood. The town lines were then the same as at 
 present. The survey of 1830 was made by John G. 
 Hales, and resulted m a well-drawn map, copies of 
 wdiich were sold with Shattuck'k History of Concord, 
 published five years afterwards. H. F. Walling's 
 map of the town was made in 1852, and his map of 
 Middlesex County in 1856. 
 
 The lines, courses, distances, and angles shown by 
 this multitude of maps and plans have been care- 
 fully studied and compared in the preparation of the 
 map here presented. 
 
 The original grant was laid out in the form of a 
 square. Right angles and straight lines were pre- 
 ferred by the early settlers whenever they could be 
 had. No other grants had been made near this place ; 
 consequently it was not deemed necessary to notify 
 any adjoining owner of the running of the line, and 
 the simplest possible form was adopted. 
 
 The original grant may be bounded as follows : 
 Beginning at the southwest corner at a stone post 
 which marks the present southwest corner of the 
 town, the line runs north 40° east (approximate 
 needle course) on the Acton line to a stone at the 
 present northv/est corner of Concord, near the Dudley 
 place. When Acton was made a town, the statute ^ 
 bounded it on the east bv " Concord old bounds : " 
 from which it appears that Acton includes no part of 
 the original Concord, and that the dividing line be- 
 
 ■ 1 July 3, 1735. See Prov. Laws, ii. 763. 
 
8 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. < 
 
 tween the two towns is a portion of the old Concord I 
 line on that side. The Acton boundary extended '■ 
 leads to a heap of lichen-covered boulders surmounted ■ 
 by a stake. This ancient monument is near the top \ 
 of a hill in the southwesterly part of Carlisle, and I 
 undoubtedly marks the old northwest corner of our I 
 town. It was identified and pointed out to the wri- i 
 ter on the ground by Major B. F. Heald, of Carlisle, \ 
 who says that he has often heard his father and ' 
 other ancient men, long since deceased, speak of | 
 this bound as marking the old Concord corner ; and | 
 " everything goes to corroborate this testimony. The ' 
 place was commonly known by the name of " Berry 
 Corner," and was the original northeast corner of ; 
 Acton; but, in 1780,^ a portion of that town near i 
 this point was included in what was then constituted j 
 as the District of Carlisle, and subsequently formed i 
 a part of the town of the same name.^ : 
 
 Making a right angle at this corner the line runs j 
 southeasterly through the lower part of Carlisle, j 
 coinciding in two places with our present boundary, \ 
 and, crossing the river, runs about a quarter of a mile | 
 to the southward of the main street of Bedford and 
 parallel with it, to a point on the upland about forty j 
 rods east of the Shawshine River. Ancient stone ' 
 walls preserve this line in part. The bound at the | 
 northeast corner must have been removed at some r 
 
 1 statute passed April 28, 1780. ^ 
 
 2 Carlisle did not acquire all the legal characteristics of a town .j 
 until February 18, 1805. 3 Special Laws, 497. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 9 
 
 time after Bedford was incorporated ; and, as it stood 
 in cultivated land, near a house, the farmer would 
 not be likely to value it so highly as we should, had 
 he allowed it to remain. The corner can be located 
 with sufficient accuracy however, by the intersection 
 of the north line, just described, with the line on the 
 east; and it appears from the Billerica records of 
 1700 that the corner was then marked by a stake 
 and stones.^ 
 
 1 The following is taken from the town records of Billerica, where 
 it appears under the date of Feb. 11, 1699-1700. " by agreement 
 betwene the Town of Concord & Billerika the bounds betwene these 
 Towns were renued & whereas severall of the old bounds were rot- 
 ten and lost they now agreed to make new bounds instead thereof or 
 instead of them. We began at Concord South east Corner, which 
 was a stake & stones about it standing on the South east of Shaw- 
 shin River about fourty poles from it & kept the old bound trees 
 untill we came at the great Cedar Swamp, & through the sd swamp 
 (all though the trees in it were marked sum what Crooked) yet we 
 renued the old marks, untill we came within six score pole of Concord 
 River unto a great white oake very often & old marked and betwene 
 this white oake & the River there being no more bounds to be found, 
 we agreed to Run from this white oak unto sd River upon a point 
 Running North fivety & three degrees west & marked the bounds suf- 
 ficiently which line did cut cross Abraham Tailors a little before we 
 came at the River this is a tru draft of what is concluded relating 
 unto the premises as attest 
 
 "Jonathan Danforth 
 
 " Surveie?'.^' 
 
 This renewal of the bounds was assented to by Joseph French, 
 Samuel Davis, Jr., and Thomas Brown, the Concord committee, and 
 by Davis, French, and Abraham Taylor, as proprietors of lands adja- 
 cent to the line. As reasons for doing the work at this time it was 
 urged that the season was favorable, " because of passing the swamps 
 upon the yice & it had not bene thoroughly don for sum years." 
 
 This agreement, with some verbal discrepancies, which do not alter 
 the sense, is recorded at the end of the second volume of the Concord 
 
10 co:jtcord in the colonial period. 
 
 Returning to the southwest corner, we run south- 
 easterly on the present Sudbury line to the river, 
 and thence in the same course, on the Wayland 
 line, to the corner at Lincoln ; then striking across 
 the lower corner of Lincoln and keeping in the same 
 straight line, we come to a heap of stones situated 
 near a brook, and in a line with that part of the 
 boundary between Lincoln and Weston which ex- 
 tends southwesterly from the great road at G. F. 
 Harrington's house. Turning and making a right 
 angle at this corner, we proceed towards the north- 
 east, on old stone walls, just touching the eastern 
 edge of Beaver Pond and including a portion of 
 the boundary between Bedford and Lexington,^ 
 thus meeting our north line and completing the 
 square. 
 
 The reader will naturally expect to find the sides 
 of the square measuring just six miles each, but 
 
 records, but, as some words are worn off at the edges of the leaves, it 
 was thought best to follow the records of Billerica. 
 
 1 The southerly bounds of Bedford ran eastward by a crooked 
 line "to Lexington bounds, and keeping Lexington line to Billerica 
 line, to a stake and heap of stones, heing the nortlieasterly corner of 
 Concord; from thence continuing on Lexington line to a stake and 
 heap of stones called Woburn Corner, &c." St. 1729; Prov. Laws, 
 ii. 527. 
 
 The bounds by which Lincoln was set off in 1754, ran northward 
 from the Boston road "to Bedford line; and by Bedford line to 
 Concord Corner, adjoining to Lexington, &c." The "Corner" here 
 referred to was, of course, the new corner made when Bedford was set 
 off, as distinguished from the old Shawshin Corner mentioned above ; 
 and the statute above cited, taken with the statute defining the Bedford 
 bounds, establishes beyond a doubt that the present northeast corner 
 of Lincoln was in the old Concord line. 
 
CONCORD IX THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 11 
 
 they are found, in fact, to measure almost exactly 
 six and two-thirds miles. On Hosmer's plan, before 
 referred to, the length of the western boundary is 
 given as six miles and one hundred and forty-two 
 rods. In the j)resent state of our information the 
 length of these lines cannot be stated with exact- 
 ness, because of difference in the results shown by 
 recorded surveys. The discrepancies, however, do 
 not affect the conclusions already reached by us, and 
 are not so surprising when the length of the lines is 
 considered, the nature of the ground to be traversed, 
 and the fact that no such accuracy was needed or 
 desired as would be considered necessary in the 
 measurement of smaller tracts bounded by shorter 
 lines. The writer is informed that, in locating land 
 grants in Pennsylvania, it has been customary to add 
 ten per cent as an allowance for poor land ; and it 
 appears from papers in our own State archives that, 
 in locating other grants in Massachusetts in the early 
 times, it was permissible to add something to the 
 amount granted, '^ for rocks and waste land." More- 
 over, it is w^ell known that the early grants as laid 
 out almost always exceeded the amount named in 
 the grant. Some of the excess in our case may 
 have been allowed for public roads, and part, no 
 doubt, was for slack in the chain. 
 
 Annexed to every grant of land by the General 
 Court was the condition, either expressed or im- 
 plied, that no prior grants should be interfered with. 
 Probably the thought never entered Willard's mind 
 
12 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 1 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 that this restriction would cause any difficulty in ' 
 fixing the bounds of his rectangular township in | 
 the wild woods of Musketaquid ; for Concord was I 
 the first settlement above tide-water, and when he ■ 
 had set his bounds, he believed them to be sur- : 
 rounded on every hand by unappropriated wilder- ' 
 ness. It was claimed, however, by the Watertown , 
 men that the lines of their grant, running eight j 
 miles into the country, converged to a point north ■ 
 of Walden Pond, thus seriously marring the math- 
 ematical simplicity of Willard's plan. An appeal to 
 the Court resulted in an order, August 20, 1638, ; 
 that Watertown lines should extend so far only '' as 
 Concord bounds give leave." ' 
 
 The tract of wilderness land thus enclosed was oc- 
 cupied, in a sense, by two or three hundred Indians, 
 who eked out a miserable existence by hunting and ; 
 fishing, with the help of such planting and reaping \ 
 as was compatible w^ith their slothful ignorance and i 
 imperfect tools fashioned of wood and stone, clam ' 
 shells and bones of animals. 
 
 As early as 1636, at the house of Rev. Mr. Bulkeley, 
 a treaty was made with the Indians, by the terms of l 
 which the entire tract, six miles square, was ceded to 
 the English " undertakers." The following deposi- , 
 tions taken in 1684, are interesting evidence of this ; 
 interview. They are recorded in the town records, 
 as well as with Middlesex Deeds, but where the | 
 copies differ, those in the county records are pre- : 
 ferred as having been made from the originals. \ 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 13 
 
 *'The Testimony of Richard Rice aged seventy-two years 
 Sheweth that about the yeare one thousand six hundred Thirty 
 six there was an Agreement made by some undertakers for the 
 Towne since called Concord ^ with some Indians that had right unto 
 the land then purchased for the Township The Indians names 
 was Squaw Sachem, Tohuttawun Sagamore, Muttunkatucka, and 
 some other Indians y^ lived then at that place, The Tract of 
 land being six miles square. The center of the place being about 
 the place the meeting house standeth now, The bargaine was 
 made & confirmed between y® English undertakers & the Indi- 
 ans then present, to their good sattisfaction on all hands. 
 " 7 . 8 . 84. Sworne in Court 
 
 ' ' Tho Danforth Record'^ " 
 [Middlesex Deeds, Lib. 9, fol. 105.] 
 
 ''The Testimony of William Buttrick aged sixty-eight years 
 or thereabouts Sheweth, That about the yeare one thousand 
 six hundred thirty & six, there was an Agreement made by 
 some undertakers for the Towne since called Concord with 
 some Indians that had right unto the land then purchased 
 of them for the Towneship ; the Indians names was Squaw 
 Sachem Tohuttawun Sagamore & Nuttankatucka & some 
 other Indians that lived and was then present at that place & 
 at that time. The Tract of land being six miles square, The 
 center being about y^ place the meeting house now standeth on. 
 The bargaine was made & confirmed between the English under- 
 takers & the Indians then present & concernd, to theyr good 
 sattisfaction on all hands 
 
 '' 7, 8, 84. Sworne in Court 
 
 "Tho: Danforth. R." 
 [Middlesex Deeds, Lib. 9, fol. 105.] 
 
 "The Deposition Jehojakin ahas Mantatucket a christian 
 Indian of Natick aged. 70 years or thereabouts, 
 
 ^ This expression, which also appears in Buttrick's testimony, taken 
 alone might convey the impression that the name Concord was applied 
 subsequently to 1636 ; but the order of the court authorizing the plan- 
 tation afiixes the name. Ante, p. 5. 
 
14 CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 " This Deponent testifj^eth & sayth, that about 50 j^ears since 
 he Uved within the bounds of that place which is now called 
 Concord at the foot of an hill named Nawshawtick now in the 
 possession of M"^ Ilenery Woodis & that he was p^sent at a 
 bargaine made at the house of Mr Peter Bulkly (now Capt 
 Timothy Wheeler's) between M^" Simon Willard M^ John Jones, i 
 ]VP" Spencer & severall others in behalfe of the Englishmen who ' 
 were setling upon the s^ Towne of Concord & Squaw Sachem, | 
 Tahuttawun & Nimrod Indians which s^ Indians (according to ; 
 y^ particular Rights & Interests) then sold a Tract of land - 
 contej'ning six mile square (the s<i house being accounted | 
 about the center) to the s*^ Engiish for a place to settle a Towne ■ 
 in. And he the s^ Deponent saw s^ Willard & Spencer pay a | 
 
 parcell of v/ompompeag, Hatchets, Hows, Knives, Cotton Cloath 
 
 & Shirts to the s'l Indians for the s^ Tract of land : And in j 
 p^ticular he the s^ Deponent perfectly remembreth that Wom- \ 
 pachowet Husband to Squaw-Sachem received a Suit of cotton 
 cloath, an Hatt, a white linnen band, shoes, stockins & a great , 
 coat upon account of s^ bargaine And in the conclusion the 
 s^^ Indians declard themselvs sattisf^-ed & told- the Englishmen 
 they were Welcome. There were also present at the s'l Bargain 
 W^aban, Merch^ Thomas his brother in law Nowtoquatuckquaw 
 an Indian, Aantonuish now called Jethro 
 " taken upon oath. 20tii of October 1684 
 "Before Daniel Gookin Sen^. Asisis* 
 
 " Tho ; Danforth. Dep*. GovV 
 [Middlesex Deeds, Lib. 9, fol. 100.] 
 
 ' ' The Deposition of Jethro a Christian Indian of Natick 
 aged 70 j-ears or therabouts 
 
 "this Deponent testifyeth & sayth. That about 50 3'ears 
 since he dwelt at Nashobah, near unto the place now named b}^ 
 the English Concord & that coming to s^ Concord was p^'sent 
 at the making a bargaine (which was done at the house of M'^ 
 Peter Bulkly w° now Cap*. Timothy Wheeler liveth in) between 
 severall Englishmen (in behalfe of such as were setling s^^ place) 
 viz : M"" Simon Willard, M"^ John Jones, M"" Spencer & others 
 
CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 15 
 
 on the one party And Squaw Sachem, Tohattowan & Nimrod 
 Indians on the other part3' : And that the s<i Indians according 
 to 3'^ severall rights) did then sell unto the s^ Englishmen a 
 certeyn Tract of land contej^ning six miles square (the s^^ house 
 being accounted about y® center) to plant a Town in. And 
 that he the s^ Deponent did see the s^ Willard & Spencer ^paj^ to 
 the s^ Indians for the s^ Tract of land a parcell of Wompom- 
 peag, Hatchetts, Hows, Knives Cotton Cloath & shirts & that 
 Wappacowet Husband to Squaw Sachem had of the s^ English 
 upon the Account of the s^ bargain, a new suit of cotton cloath, 
 a linnen band, a hat, shoes, stockins and a great Coat, & y* 
 after the s^ Bargaine was concluded M^^ Simon Willard, poynt- 
 ing to the four quarters of the world declared that they had 
 bought three miles from that place east west, north & south 
 & the s<i Indians manifested their free consent thereunto, there 
 were p^'ent at the making of the s<^^ Bargaine amongst other 
 Indians, Waban, Merch*, Thomas, his Brother in law Notaw- 
 quatuckquaw & Jehojakin who is j'et living & dposeth in like 
 manner as above. 
 
 " 7 . 8 . 84 Sworne in Court b}^ Jethro. 
 
 "Attests Tho: Danforth. R." 
 [Middlesex Deeds, Lib. 9, fol. 106.] 
 
 Judged from our point of view, the price was 
 insignificant, but the Indians seem to have been sat- 
 isfied, and it is probable that the main purpose and 
 
 1 William Spencer, who was present when the bargain was made 
 with the Indians, and received grants of land in this neighborhood, 
 was a prominent citizen of Cambridge and a magistrate. The name 
 of Spencer Brook is a pleasant reminder of one whose interest in 
 Concord was contemporary with the birth of the town. 
 
 In 1654, Samuel Adams, of Charlestown, conveyed to Richard 
 Temple, of the same town, *' the land in Concord that was sometimes 
 Mr W^ Spencer's" (Middlesex Deeds, L. 1, f. 129); but there is no 
 reason to suppose that Mr. Spencer was ever a resident here. The 
 land was a larg-e tract on both sides of the road, at Angler's Mills. 
 
16 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 value of the treaty of purchase consisted in the 
 establishment of friendly relations with the occu- 
 pants of the soil. The colonists preferred the deri- 
 vation of their title through the royal charter and 
 the grant of the General Court, but were not averse 
 to strengthening their position by any suitable means 
 that were ofered. 
 
 We find that, May 17, 1637,— 
 
 " Concord had leave graunted them to purchase the ground 
 Tv^^in their lunits of the Indeans, to wit, Atawans & Squa 
 Sachim." ^ 
 
 The following record appears under date of August 
 
 1,1637: — 
 
 " Webb Cowet, Squaw Sachem, Tahatawants, Natan quaticke 
 alias Oldmans, Caato, alias Goodmans ^ did expresse their con- 
 sent to the sale of the weire at Concord over against the towne 
 & all the planting ground w^^ hath bene formerh' planted b}^ the 
 Indians, to the inhabitants of Concord, of w^^ there was a write- 
 ing, w^^ their marks subscribed given into the Court, expressing 
 the price given." ^ 
 
 Whether the transaction of which this record and 
 " writeing " were the evidence related to the orig- 
 inal grant and the agreement entered into in Mr. 
 Bulkeley's house, or to something not included in 
 those negotiations, is not clear. 
 
 It is a curious fact that Jethro and Jehoiakin say 
 
 1 Mass. Records, i. 196. 
 
 2 Sudbury (five miles square) was bought of this "Caato, alias 
 Goodmans." He had a wigwam on a hill near the centre of Sudbury, 
 still known as Goodman's Hill. Drake's Middlesex, ii. 358. 
 
 3 Mass. Records, i. 196. 
 
CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 17 
 
 that Mr. Bulkeley's house was " accounted about the 
 center/' while Buttrick and Rice fix the central point 
 at '' about the place the meeting house standeth 
 now." ^ This discrepancy seems to indicate that 
 the township was not laid out with reference to any 
 object as the exact centre, but with a view solely to 
 practical advantages and resources. Willard, who 
 had previously traded with the Indians in this neigh- 
 borhood, knew what the country was, and so laid out 
 his bounds as to include six valuable mill sites, seven 
 natural ponds, more than nine miles of river, and a 
 large number of smaller streams. The meadows 
 traversed by the sluggish rivers that ran by devious 
 windings to the northward, were bordered by tracts 
 of upland that had been burned over and brought 
 under rude cultivation by the natives, and afforded 
 a large area of cleared land that was very attrac- 
 tive to the English settlers. The woodland was for 
 the most part covered with pine. Shad, salmon, and 
 alewives abounded in the rivers and brooks, which 
 were also the haunts of fur-bearing animals. Willard 
 was specially interested in the fur trade, and it is 
 likely that this tract, so abundantly supplied with 
 ponds and water courses, was selected and laid out 
 with particular regard to the prosecution of that 
 business.^ 
 
 1 Ante, pp. 13, 14. 
 
 2 In 1641 a company was formed, with Simon Willard at the head 
 of it, and endowed with a monopoly of the trade with the Indians, of 
 which the traffic in beaver skins formed a very considerable part. 
 Mass. Records, "i. 322, 323. 
 
 2 
 
18 CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. \ 
 
 ■ \ 
 
 The first dwelling-places were under the ridge of • 
 land that extends in an easterly direction from the I 
 Town House, and was known in early days as " the ; 
 hills." Immediately upon the arrival of the first j 
 
 settlers, according to Johnson, 
 
 i 
 ' ' they burrow themselves in the earth for their first shelter ; 
 
 under some hill-side, casting the earth aloft upon timber, they \ 
 
 make a smoaky fire against the earth at the highest side. . . . , 
 
 In these poor wigwams they sing psalmes, pray and praise their i 
 
 God, till the}' can provide them houses, which ordinarily was i 
 
 not wont to be with many till the earth, by the Lord's blessing, ' 
 
 brought forth bread to feed them, their wives and little ones, ; 
 
 which with sore labours they attain." ) 
 
 As soon as the most pressing needs of the situation ; 
 were met, allotments of land were made to the mem- I 
 hers of the company, and house-lots were laid out ! 
 with some regularity on both sides of the Mill Brook, \ 
 eastward as far as the Kettle place lately owned by i 
 Mr. Staples, and on Walden Street to the Almshouse ; I 
 in a westerly direction as far as the Damon place ; \ 
 and to the Old Manse and the Edmund Hosmer place ' 
 on the north. Besides his house-lot, each one re- i 
 ceived his due proportion of planting-ground and 
 meadow lying in the near vicinity. This was the 
 first division of lands, the price paid into the common 
 stock being a shilling per acre, or, in some special 
 cases, a sixpence per acre. The land thus divided ! 
 constituted a small part only of the whole grant, and , 
 the remainder was held in common and undivided, 
 subject to such regulations as the inhabitants thought 
 fit to establish, until the second division in 1653, ^ 
 
CONCORD IX THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 19 
 
 by which, substantially, the whole remaining por- 
 tion of the original grant was disposed of. 
 
 The civil affairs of ^Hhe company of the whole 
 town" were managed by selectmen or '^ townsmen," 
 who received formal instructions for their guidance 
 from a committee chosen in town-meeting for that 
 purpose. The instructions of 1672 are preserved in 
 the town records.^ The constable was an important 
 
 ^ " Instructiones given to the Selectmen of Concord for the year, 
 1672. 
 
 1 To see that the ministers Rates be discharged acording to time 
 
 2 To acsamen whether the meting house, be finised acording to agree- 
 
 ment, & if not, that it may be; but if the agreement be fulfiled, 
 then to take cear that somthing be done to keep the water out, 
 and that the pulpet be altred 
 
 3 That ceare be taken of the bookes of marters & other bookes, that 
 
 belong to the Towne, that they be kept from abeuce uesage, & 
 not to be lent to any person more then one month at one time, 
 
 4 That spedykere be taken to mend or demales, the foote bridg over 
 
 the north Riv^ at the Iron AVorks ; 
 
 5 To treat with Capt. Thomas Wheler about his leese of the Townes 
 
 farme & if it may be upon Resonable termes to alter that per- 
 ticuler wherein the Towne is Jn Jnioyned to send such a nomber 
 cattle yearly to be herded by him ; 
 
 6 To let out the land & housing where now John Law dweles; for 
 
 the benifet of the towne, 
 
 7 To take order that all Corne filds be sufficently fenced in seson, the 
 
 Crane fild & bricke keld field especially; 
 
 8 And that incorigment be given for the destroing of blackeburds & 
 
 Jaies ; 
 
 9 That spesiall cear be taken to preuent damiag by swine in corne 
 
 fieldes & medows 
 
 10 That shepe & lames be keept from doing damiag in cornefields; 
 
 11 To make a Record of all the habitationes, that are priviledged with 
 
 liberty at Comones ; 
 
 12 To take account of the laste yeares selectmen for what is don, 
 
 [due?] to the Towne by Reent by John Law, or by givft by 
 
20 CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 personage elected by the town, but sworn in by the 
 officers of the colonial government.^ The selectmen 
 were the agents and representatives of the town for 
 almost every purpose, except appearing at the an- 
 nual Court of Election, to which the town sent tv/o 
 deputies, who, under the colonial regime, were not 
 required to be inhabitants of the town.^ 
 
 It seems that in the older towns on the sea-coast, 
 the selectmen w^ere at first invested with limited 
 judicial powers ; ^ but, as early as 1638, it was ordered 
 that commissioners '' for ending of small matters,'' 
 should be appointed for each town by the County 
 Court, with jurisdiction of cases in which the debt or 
 damage did not exceed twenty shillings."^ 
 
 In 1639 the towns were ordered to keep records 
 
 Joseph Meriam; or otherwise of wright dew to the Towne, not 
 to Restraine the selectmen from lenity towards John Law; 
 
 13 To see that menes lands both Improved & unimproved be truly 
 
 broth, [brought in] 
 
 14 To take care that vndesiarable persones be not entertained ; so as to 
 
 become inhabitants 
 
 15 To take cere that ^sones doe not ouer Charg ther Comones with 
 
 Cattle, 
 
 16 That all Fsones that have taken the oath of fidellity be Recorded, 
 
 17 That cere be taken that Cattle be herded, as much as may be, with 
 
 convenence 
 These perticolers were agreed upon by vs whose names are vnder- 
 writen nehamia. hunt; John fflint; John miles; Wiit 
 
 dated 4: 1. mo. -l|^-l heartwell; Tho: Wheler Joshuah brooke 
 Joseph; heaward; Gershom. Brooke, Humpry barit John Billings" 
 
 1 Mass. Records, i. 248. 
 
 2 This was changed in 1693, the representative from Concord voting 
 against the change. 
 
 3 Hutchinson, i. 398. 
 
 4 Mass. Records, i. 239. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 21 
 
 of births^ marriages, and deaths occurring within 
 their respective limits. The officer to whom this 
 duty fell was called " clerk of the writs/' and later, 
 " town clerk." 
 
 For the greater security of new settlements/ the 
 law prohibited the building of dwelling-houses (ex- 
 cept mill-houses and farm-houses of such as had 
 their dwelling-houses in some town) more than half 
 a mile from the meeting-house, unless by the consent 
 of the court.^ This order was at first observed, but 
 as the town increased in population, new houses were 
 built on the more remote lands without regard to 
 the prohibition. 
 
 The first houses were humble structures, with 
 thatched roofs, and, very likely, wooden chimneys. 
 Oiled paper served in place of window glass. Hastily 
 constructed of perishable materials, not one of these 
 buildings remains. They were replaced before the 
 lapse of many years by houses of a more substan- 
 tial character, generally facing the south, with shin- 
 gled roofs running almost to the ground on the 
 back, brick chimneys, and a j^rojecting second story. 
 Some of the second set of houses were dignified 
 with the name of " mansion," but none has survived 
 to furnish us with a specimen of the architecture 
 favored by the second generation. 
 
 By its first recorded vote the town decided, Feb. 
 5, 1636, that the meeting-house — temple of church 
 and state — should " stand on the hill neare the 
 
 ^ Mass. Records, i. 157. 
 
22 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 brooke on the east side of goodman Judsons lott." ^ 
 
 Nothing in the town or county records affords any \ 
 
 •I 
 light on the location of this lot, but the testimony j 
 
 afforded by tradition has pointed with little vari- | 
 
 ation to the top of the hill in or near the old burying i 
 
 ground, as the site of the -first meeting-house. The i 
 
 meeting-house at Dedham, built about the same time, * 
 
 was thirty-six feet long, twenty feet wide, and twelve ^ 
 
 feet high '^ in the stud." It was thatched with long j 
 
 grass, and was probably not unlike the house built 
 
 by our ancestors. Long before the second building j 
 
 was erected on the Common (substantially where the < 
 
 Meeting-house of the First Parish now stands), there ] 
 
 was a lot of land in the east part of the town known i 
 
 as '' the meeting-house frame ; " and, unless this odd | 
 
 name can be accounted for in some better way, it j 
 
 may be thought to indicate the land which supplied 1 
 
 the timber for the first place of public worship.^ i 
 
 The Church of Concord was formally gathered at | 
 
 Cambridge, July 5, 1636, being, in point of time, i 
 
 the thirteenth church organized in the colony; and ,! 
 
 * William Judson came to America in 1634, and settled in Concord ! 
 the following year with his wife, Grace, and sons, "Joseph, Jeremiah, 
 
 and Joshua. All removed in 1639 to Hartford, but were residents of | 
 
 Stratford in 1644, where the sous remained; but the father and i 
 
 mother went to New Haven, where she died Sept. 29, 1659. Savage's ! 
 
 Genealogical Dictionary. I 
 
 2 This lot is referred to in the town records of lands in 1666, as "the i 
 
 place caled the meting house frame." June 20, 1694, Francis Fletcher i 
 conveys to his son Joseph inter alia, ten acres in the easterly part of 
 
 the town, called " ye Meeting House fframe, upon which the old Saw i 
 
 mill stands." Middlesex Deeds, L. 13, f. 409. ! 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 23 
 
 the organization was completed April 6, 1637, when 
 Rev. Peter Bulkeley was chosen teacher, and Rev. 
 John Jones, pastor.^ The latter, a graduate of Oxford 
 University, arrived in October, 1635,^ and joined the 
 Concord company. There was, at this time, a dis- 
 tinction between the office and duties of teacher and 
 those of pastor, but none of the authorities state the 
 difference clearly. The terms soon became convert- 
 ible, and the functions of both offices were discharged 
 by one person. 
 
 Governor Vane and Deputy-Governor Winthrop 
 were invited to be present at the gathering of the 
 church, but, on account of a real or fancied breach 
 of etiquette, failed to attend.^ Fine-spun theories 
 about " legal preachers " and the effect of ordination 
 by the bishop in England kept from the ceremonies 
 of ordination the governor, and Rev. John Cotton, 
 Mr. Wheelwright, " and the two ruling elders of 
 Boston, and the rest of that church which were of any 
 note did none of them come to this meeting." ^ This 
 matter is worth mentioning only as showing that 
 the Concord ministers received no encouragement 
 
 1 Winthrop, i. 114, 225, 259. 
 
 2 'Winthrop, i. 202. 
 
 2 " Mr Buckly and Mr. Jones, two English ministers, appointed this 
 day to gather a church at Newtown, to settle at Concord. They sent 
 word, three days before, to the governour and deputy, to desire their 
 presence ; but they took it in ill part, and thought not fit to go 
 because they had not come to them before, (as they ought to have done, 
 and as others had done before) to acquaint them with their purpose." 
 Winthrop, i. 225. 
 
 * Winthrop, i. 260. 
 
24 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 at the beginning of their undertaking from those of 
 whom they would have been most likely to expect 
 it, and from whom a word of cheer would have been 
 most welcome. However, it mattered little, for they 
 had fixed their habitations in the wilds and must, 
 sooner or later, content themselves with their own 
 resources. After the departure of Mr. Jones, in 
 1644, Mr. Bulkeley was sole pastor, at a salary of 
 £70,^ until his death in 1659. Lechford speaks of 
 the " catechizing of children " and others, as a prac- 
 tice peculiar to the Concord Church ; and Mather 
 says of the pastor,^ " he was very laborious, and be- 
 cause he was, through some infirmities of body, not 
 so able to visit his flock, and instruct them from 
 house to house, he added unto his other publick 
 labours, on the Lord's days, that of constant cat- 
 echizing ; wherein, after all the unmarried people 
 had answered, all the people of the whole assembly 
 were edified, by his expositions and applications." 
 
 Edward Bulkeley, who had been for some years 
 minister at Marshfield, succeeded his father, with a 
 salary of £80 ; but as he was no longer young, and 
 was affile ted with lameness, it was soon deemed 
 expedient to procure the services of a colleague, 
 and accordingly in 1667, Rev. Joseph Estabrook, 
 born in Enfield, England, and educated at Harvard 
 College, was engaged at a salary equal to Mr. Bulke- 
 ley's, to be paid half in money and half in produce.^ 
 The town voted, February 3, 1680, — 
 
 1 Shattuck, 152. 2 Magnalia, iii. c. 10. » Shattuck, 161. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 25 
 
 " That every house holder that hath a teame greate[r] or 
 lesser shall accordingly cary yearly one loade of wood to the 
 ministe[r] and every other house holder or rateable person to 
 cut wood one day and for the ministers : and that the wood is 
 to be equal^^ devided to too ministers as the selectmen for the 
 time being shall appoynt." 
 
 Mr. Edward Bulkeley^s pastorate ended, practically, 
 March 5, 1694, when the town voted as follows : — 
 
 " Whereas their Eever^ Pastor M'^. Edward Bulkely is under 
 such Infermatyes of Bod}^ b}^ Reason of great age that he is not 
 capeable of Attending the worke of the ministry as in times 
 past, being Also sensible of the obligation that they are under 
 to Afford to him a comfortable maintenance dureing the Terme 
 of his natural life, that thereby they maj' Testefy their Gratatude 
 for his former service in the Gospell, That they the sayd People 
 of sajTl Concord do hereby oblige y^ sayd Towne to pay to y^ s*^ 
 m'' Bulkel}^ or to his certain order yearly & each year dureing 
 his natural life, the sum of thirt}^ pounds of mony the one halfe 
 at or before the first of octob'^ sixteen hundred ninty & four, & 
 the otherer halfe at or before the first of May sixteen hundred 
 ninety & five, which sum as above shall be paid yearly & each 
 year upon the sayd Termes. and which sum of Thirt}^ pounds 
 truly payd as above, shall be in lieu of the former sallary of 
 eighty pounds which the said people were obliged to have payd 
 yearly to him the sayd mr. Bulkley for his ministerial service." 
 
 Mr. Bulkeley agreed to this change in his relations 
 to the townspeople, but with the proviso that he 
 should be " left at liberty by this agreement whether 
 to Preach or not to preach any more in Concord." 
 He died at Chelmsford, January 2, 1696, at an ad- 
 vanced age, and was buried at Concord.^ 
 
 All church matters were passed upon at the meet- 
 
 1 Sewall. 
 
26 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 ings of the inhabitants held in the meeting-house. 
 But, in setthng a minister, it was customary for the 
 members of the church to act in the first instance 
 as a distinct body, and when an agreement was arrived 
 at, they referred the result to the people for ratifica- 
 tion in town-meeting. The town organization existed 
 quite as much for the support of divine worship as 
 for the maintenance of roads and bridges. For an 
 instance of the mingling of functions caused by this 
 union of interests, witness the following extract from 
 the records of the year 1678 : — 
 
 "agreement between John Gotten of Concord and y® too 
 Deacons and : : the Selecte men of Concord — viz — y* y® said 
 Deacons have exchanged the Towen Cowe for another Cowe of 
 the said John Cottens y® said John Cotten to have y^ Town Cowe 
 to kill and to have y® vse of the said Cowe now exchanged for 
 y® Terme of tow years from y^ date hereof next ensueing 
 
 Egbert Meriam 
 Luke Potter 
 John Cotton." 
 
 It was the practice to choose a committee '^ to seat 
 the meeting-house," who, in the execution of this 
 delicate duty, were expected to consider the age, 
 wealth, and social or official importance of the 
 worshipper.^ 
 
 Yery early in the history of the plantation Mr. 
 Ambrose Martin of this town asserted his right to 
 freedom of speech, but, like Mr. John Hoar and Dr. 
 
 1 The committee chosen March 7, I685, consisted of Captain Tim- 
 othy AVheeler, Deacon Potter, John Smedly, Senior, Cornet Woodis, 
 and John Flint, who added to their number Peter Bulkeley, Esq. 
 
CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 27 
 
 Philip Read at a later date, he found that the free 
 expression of opinion on certain subjects was an 
 expensive luxury. Martin's case, which arose in 
 1639, and attracted much attention/ well illustrates 
 the sternness (to use no harsher term) of the colonial 
 government; but some good came of the severity 
 in this case, for it produced a most valuable doc- 
 ument written by Mr. Bulkeley and signed by him 
 and his associate and thirteen members of the 
 church. 
 
 Martin's offence was that, in argument, he applied 
 an unsavory epithet to the church covenant, styled 
 it '' a humane invention," and said that " hee won- 
 dered at God's patience, feared it would end in the- 
 sharpe," and that " the ministers did dethrone Christ 
 and set up themselves." He was sentenced to pay 
 a fine of £10, and, what was probably quite as unpal- 
 atable, advised " to go to Mr. Mather to bee instructed 
 by him." Upon the delinquent's refusal to comply 
 
 1 The matter is alluded to by Winthrop and by Lechford, both of 
 whom give Martin the title of "Mr." or " Master," which was not 
 generally applied, as with ns, but was restricted to those who by reason 
 of wealth, social position or public service were ranked as gentlemen. 
 
 *' Now and then a baronet made his home for a time in Boston, but 
 otherwise the highest title was Mr. or Mrs., and this title was applied 
 only to a few persons of unquestioned eminence. All ministers and 
 their wives took the title, and the higher magistrates; but it was not 
 given to deputies to the General Court as such. The great body of 
 respectable citizens were dubbed Goodman and Goodwife, but officers 
 of the church and of the militia were almost invariably called by the 
 title of their rank or office. Below the grade of goodman and good- 
 wife were stijl the servants, who had no prefix to their plain names." 
 H. E. Scudder, in Mem. Hist, of Boston, vol. i. p. 487. 
 
28 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. |! 
 
 with these orders, his cow was taken and sold, and sub- | 
 
 sequently a levy was made upon his house and land/ I 
 
 The petition of the church above referred to was * 
 
 presented upon his refusal to accept the portion of ( 
 
 the property remaining after the legal demands were j 
 
 satisfied. The original is preserved among the Shat- 
 
 tuck papers, and is in Mr. Bulkeley's handwriting. 
 
 " To the Honoured Court. 
 " The Petition of the church of Concord in behalfe of our brother 
 Mr. Ambrose Martin. 
 " Your humble Petitioners doe intreate, that whereas some 
 yeares agoe, our sayd brother Mr. Martin, was fined by the 
 Court for some unadvised speeches uttered against the church 
 covent, for w^h he was fined ten pounds, and had to the value 
 of £20 by distresse taken from him, of which £20, there is one 
 halfe remayning in the hands of the Countrey to this day, w% ten 
 pounds he cannot be p^swaded to accept of, unlesse he may have 
 the whole restored unto him, (w'^h we doe impute unto his in- 
 firmitye and weakness) We now considering the greate decay of 
 his estate, and the necessitj'es (if not extremit3'es) w^h the familye 
 is come unto, we intreate (as was sa3'd) that this honoured Court 
 would please to pitye his necessitous condition, and to remitt 
 unto him the whole fine w^h was la3'd upon him, without w^h, 
 he cannot be p^swaded to receave the prt w^h is due unto him. 
 Wherein if this honoured Court shall please to grant this our 
 petition, we shall be bound to praj^se God for your tender com- 
 passion toward this our poore brother " 
 
 Peter Bulkeley 
 John Jones 
 Richard Griffin 
 
 Simon Willard Joseph Wheeller , 
 
 Robert Merriam Thomas Foxe 
 
 Thomas Wheeler William busse 
 
 George Wheeler Henry Farwell 
 
 Robert Fletcher James Hosmer 
 
 Luke Potter John Graves. 
 
 ^ Mass. Records, i. 252. And see Winthrop and Lechford. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 29 
 
 Such a petition was entitled to be considered in 
 the spirit that dictated it, but the application found 
 no pity in the breast of that iron man, John Endicott. 
 The same hand that tore the cross from the English 
 flag wrote these words on the face of the petition ; 
 
 " The case appeares to the Magistrates to be now past helpe 
 through his own obstinacye ; but for the over plus upon sale of 
 the distresse, he or his wife may have it, when they will call for 
 it." 
 
 Jo : Endecott Gov^ " 
 
 Indorsements : " The 5* of the 4^^ moneth — 1644 
 " The petit" of Ambrose Martyn of Concord. 
 Ordered by the q^t"^ co^t." 
 
 The records of the County Court assure us that 
 the " overplus " was never called for.^ 
 
 Compared with other writings of the time, the 
 letter of the church is remarkably clear, almost ele- 
 gant, in style, and in its tone well calculated to 
 accomplish its purpose. More than this, it is in 
 perfect accord with the more enlightened humanity 
 of the present time, and shows conclusively that, 
 at that early day, the virtues of a tolerant spirit 
 and a forgiving charity were highly esteemed by the 
 
 ^ "Whereas it hath been declared to this court that there was in 
 house and land at Concord to the valine of twelve pounds left in the 
 handes of Moses Wheat & Thomas ffox by Ambros Martin deceased, 
 which hath remained in their handes about nine or ten yeares, It is 
 ordered by this court that it shall be divided in mann^ following, viz: 
 in an equall division between the wife of Sam^ Rainr & Jno Rogers 
 to be payd by the above named parties with addition of foure pounds 
 for the forbearance." Records, June 20, 1654. 
 
30 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 people of this town, whose " religion was sweetness | 
 and peace amidst toil and tears." ^ ji 
 
 The prosecutions of Mr. John Hoar and Dr. Philip 
 Read occurred about thirty years after the trouble ^ 
 with Martin, at a time when the less amiable char- f 
 acteristics of Puritanism were more marked here as j 
 well as elsewhere. The cases are worthy of mention I 
 because these men were, respectively, the earliest \ 
 representatives in Concord of the legal and medical I 
 professions,^ and because their experiences serve to \ 
 show us the high consideration in which the persons I 
 and office of the ministers were generally held. That j 
 the proceedings against these citizens, based in one 
 instance upon mere idle words, and in the other upon 
 an opinion expressed in the practice of his profes- 
 sion of healing, were calculated to give permanent 
 strength to any class of men in a thoughtful com- 
 munity, may well be doubted ; but the sincerity of 
 the prosecutors cannot be questioned. They hon- 
 estly believed that adverse criticism of men whom 
 they looked upon as set apart in a peculiar manner 
 for the performance of duties especially sacred, was, 
 in effect, an attack upon religion itself, which was the 
 corner-stone of the commonwealth. The fault was 
 in their logic, not in their hearts. 
 
 Hoar was an eccentric lawyer, well known, and 
 
 1 Emerson's Historical Discourse. 
 
 2 William Buss and Jonathan Prescott were described by the addi- 
 tion " chirurgeon," the exact signification of which, as applied to 
 them, is not known. 
 
CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 31 
 
 correspondingly disliked, by the authorities, as a man 
 of independent thought and a facile tongue, which 
 was continually making trouble for him. Whether 
 he held any peculiar theological or doctrinal views, 
 which in our day would be considered entitled to 
 respectful consideration, or merely gave vent to feel- 
 ings of irritation against those who were unfriendly . 
 to him, is uncertain ; but his courage and kindness 
 of heart were unquestionable, and, as will appear, he 
 was preeminent among his fellows in public spirit.^ 
 
 About 1667, Philip Read, who wrote himself 
 '^ Physitian," married the daughter of Richard 
 Rice, settled near his father-in-law at the easterly 
 end of the town, and practised his profession in Con- 
 cord, Cambridge, Watertown, and Sudbury. A flood 
 of litigation descended upon him in 1670, because 
 he expressed an unfavorable opinion of Mr. Edward 
 Bulkeley's powers as a preacher, in comparison with 
 Mr. Estabrook,^ and for saying when called to attend 
 
 1 For uttering complaints that justice was denied him in the courts, 
 he was compelled, in 1665, to give a bond for his good behavior, and 
 was " disabled to plead any cases but his oune in this jurisdiction." 
 Mass. Records, iv. pt. ii. 292. In 1668, he was fined £10 for saying 
 " at Ensigne Willm Busse his house that the Blessing which his Master 
 Bulkely pronounced in dismissing the publique Assembly in the Meet- 
 ing-house was no better than vane babling." Subsequently, on two 
 occasions at least, he was summoned into court to answer "for neg- 
 lecting the public worship of God on the Lord's days." County Court 
 Files, 1668, 1675. 
 
 2 He said that he could preach as well as Mr. Bulkeley, who was 
 called by none but a company of blockheads who followed the plow- 
 tail, and was not worthy to carry Mr. Estabrook's books after him. It 
 is amusing to see what trifles were thought to endanger the welfare of 
 church and state. 
 
32 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 a female patient, that lie thought her illness was 
 caused by standing too long during the ceremony of 
 administering the Lord's Supper. When charged in 
 court with these offences, he fearlessly asserted his 
 right to be represented by counsel, but his applica- 
 tion to that end was refused. He was fined £20, 
 and for a time found it more agreeable to live else- 
 where. 
 
 Note. Old Bounds. — A map contained in Bond's Genealogies 
 and History of Watertown, shows what purports to be the southeastern 
 corner of the Concord grant. Many reasons might be given to prove 
 the inaccuracy of the map in this respect, but one will suffice. The 
 old Garfield estate, now occupied by Francis A. IVheeler, and lying 
 on the eastern and southern borders of Beaver Pond, in the town of 
 Lincoln, was conveyed, in the year 1712, by Benjamin Garfield, of 
 Watertown, to his son Thomas, of the same town. The land is de- 
 scribed as being one hundred and twenty acres, situated in Water- 
 town, and is bounded on the west " with the Line between Water- 
 town and Concord." Middlesex Deeds, L. 16, f. 324. Eight years 
 afterwards, Thomas bought of Nathaniel Ball, of Concord, sixteen 
 acres of upland and swamp adjoining the farm, and bounded easterly 
 upon AVeston line [the old Watertown line], westerly and southerly 
 upon the brook running from Beaver Pond, and northerly upon the 
 pond. Ibid. L. 22, f. 386. 
 
 The map above referred to shows the eastern line of Concord at a 
 considerable distance to the westward of Beaver Pond, instead of 
 grazing its eastern border. 
 
CHAPTEE II. 
 
 "A shepherd of mankind indeed, 
 Who loved his charge, but never loved to lead ; 
 One whose meek flock the people joyed to be, 
 Not lured by any cheat of birth. 
 But by liis clear-grained human worth. 
 And brave old wisdom of sincerity/' 
 
 Lowell. 
 
 Early Trials. — Withdrawal of Mr. Jones. — Loss of the 
 Leaders. — Eev. Peter Bulkeley, Simon Willard, 
 Thomas Flint. — The Kentish Influence. 
 
 It is impossible to over-estimate the trials and actual 
 suffering that were endured by the pioneer families. 
 The writings of Mr. Higginson and others, which 
 were prepared here for publication in the old coun- 
 try, were calculated to invest the Englishman of that 
 day with the notion that, in soil and natural resources 
 generally, New England was something like what we 
 understand California to be. Here, as elsewhere in 
 the colony, a close grappling with the facts was fol- 
 lowed by inevitable disappointment. The meadows 
 were wet,^ the soil was found to require hard labor 
 
 ^ The following order was passed September 8, 1636: — 
 
 "Whereas the inhabitants of Concord are purposed to abate the 
 falls in the ryver upon wcli their towne standeth, whearby they conceive 
 such townes as shalbee hereafter planted above them vpon the said 
 
 3 
 
34 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 to make and keep it productive, and it is written, 
 that the people were " forced to cut their bread very 
 thin for a long season." 
 
 It cannot be wondered at that some sickened and 
 died by reason of the unaccustomed hardships and 
 severity of the winter weather, while others lost ' all 
 faith in the success of the enterprise, sold their 
 estates for a little, and departed. The cattle died, 
 wolves preyed upon the herds; homesickness and 
 fear of an Indian attack increased the burden of 
 their lives, so that it became well-nigh greater 
 than they could bear.^ Dissensions arose, at last. 
 
 ryver shall receive benefit by reason of their charge & labo^, it is 
 therefore ordered, that such towns or ffarmes as shalbee planted above 
 them shall contribute to the inhabitants of Concord pportionable 
 both to their charge & adventure, & according to the benefit that the 
 said townes or ffarmes shall receive by the dreaning of their medows." 
 Mass. Records, i. 178. 
 
 Again, on November 13th, 1644, commissioners were appointed by 
 the General Court " to set some order which may conduce to the better 
 im^'veing of the said medow & saveing and ^pserving of the hay 
 there gotten eith^ by draining the same, or otherwise, & to ^por- 
 tion the charges layd out about it as equally & iustly (only upon 
 those that oweth the land) as they in their wisdomes shall see meete." 
 Ihid., ii. 89, 99. 
 
 A committee was appointed May 15, 1672 " in answer to inhab- 
 itants of Concord & Sudbury petition to prevent damage by overfloing 
 on ye meadowes." 
 
 1 Winthrop (ii. 36) records the following incident under date of 
 April 13, 1641 : — 
 
 " Upon the Lord's day at Concord two children were left at home 
 alone, one lying in a cradle, the other having burned a cloth, and fear- 
 ing its mother should see it, thrust it into a hay-stack by the door, (the 
 fire not being quite out) whereby the hay and house were burned and 
 the child in the cradle before they came from the meeting." 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 35 
 
 that threatened the very existence of the plan- 
 tation. 
 
 The difficulty, not to say impossibility^ of support- 
 ing two ministers, was very soon felt, and Winthrop 
 says/ that on July 28, 1642, — 
 
 " Some of the elders went to Concord, being sent for b}^ the 
 church there to advise with them about the maintenance of their 
 elders, &c. They found them wavering about removal, not find- 
 ing their plantation answerable to their expectation, and the 
 maintenance of two elders too heavy a burden for them. The 
 elders' advice was that they should continue and wait upon God, 
 and be helpful to their elders in labor and what they could, and 
 all to be ordered by the deacons, (whose office had not formerly 
 been improved this way amongst them,) and that the elders 
 should be content with what means the church was able at pres- 
 ent to afford them, and if either of them should be called to some 
 other place, then to advise with other churches about removal." 
 
 Glowing accounts, received from those who had 
 gone farther westward, of better things to be at- 
 tained in the Connecticut valley, served to increase 
 the prevailing uneasiness, and in 1644, ere ten years 
 had passed over the little settlement, Mr. Jones 
 removed to Fairfield, on Long Island Sound, with 
 about one eighth of the entire population. The 
 persons whose names follow are either known or 
 supposed to have accompanied Mr. Jones : Thomas 
 Doggett, John Evarts, Jonathan Mitchell, William 
 Odell, John Barron, John Tompkins, Benjamin Tur- 
 ney, Joseph Middlebrook, James Bennett, William 
 Coslin ( or Costin), Ephraim Wheeler, and Thomas 
 Wheeler. 
 
 1 History, ii. 88. 
 
36 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 We are left in the dark as to the merits of the 
 controversy that led to this secession^ and it is as 
 well so.^ 
 
 Whatever may have been the immediate cause for 
 the removal of Mr. Jones and his friends, it is certain 
 that the defection was a misfortune from which Con- 
 cord found it hard to recover. The separation was, 
 however, inevitable, and in the end, doubtless, ben- 
 eficial; for, in 1635, the proportion of the number of 
 clergymen in Massachusetts to the entire population, 
 was greater than in any other age or country of 
 which we have any knowledge. They were, almost 
 without exception, men of high character, education, 
 and talents ; but the difficulty lay in the fact that 
 they were non-producers in a community where the 
 paramount and ever pressing question was, how to 
 produce the necessaries of life in sufficient quantity 
 to supply the daily wants of the family. No one 
 would willingly detract from the high consideration 
 due them as ministers to the better instincts and aspi- 
 rations of their people. State in the strongest terms 
 the value of their presence and influence among the 
 
 ^ Mather's account of the trouble, as might be expected, is far from 
 satisfying. He attributes to Mr, Bulkeley some hastiness of speech, 
 and " importunate pressing a piece of charity disagreeable to the will 
 of the ruling elder" (Magnalia, iii. c. 10); by which term he is sup- 
 posed to refer to Mr. Jones, but ruling elders were selected from the 
 laymen. 
 
 The pious Johnson, writing of these times, says: " And verily the 
 edge of their appetite was greater to spirituall duties at their first com- 
 ing in time of wants, than afterward." 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 37 
 
 colonists^ — the problem was still to be solved. The 
 wolf at the door was first to be met, and other 
 considerations w^ere, not unnaturally, forced to yield 
 their claims for the time. 
 
 Concord was not alone in this respect ; for, under 
 similar circumstances and for like reasons, Hooker 
 and his followers abandoned Cambridge, to become 
 the founders of Hartford. Of the earliest grad- 
 uates of Harvard College, a very large proportion 
 qualified themselves to become ministers; but it 
 is amusing to find that, for lack of employment on 
 this side of the water, some went to England to seek 
 their fortune. Mr. Bulkeley's son John, a member 
 of the first class that graduated, — the class of 1642, — 
 took part in this retrograde movement.^ 
 
 The population of the town, in 1644, consisted of 
 about fifty families. " Their buildings," says John- 
 son, " are conveniently placed, chiefly in one straite 
 street under a sunny banke in a low levell. Their 
 herd of great cattell are about three hundred." In 
 1640, their exemption from public rates having 
 ceased, the tax assessed upon Concord was £50 ; 
 and since, owing to the scarcity of money, this tax 
 was payable in cattle or produce, Simon Willard, 
 Thomas Brooke, and William Wood, were appointed 
 by the Court a committee " for valuing horses, mares, 
 cowes, oxen, goats, & hoggs " in Concord.^ 
 
 The following petition was presented, September 
 
 ^ Winthrop, ii. 294; Hutchinson, i. 107, note. 
 2 Mass. Records, i. 294, 295. 
 
38 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PEEIOD. 
 
 7, 1643/ by some who joined the plantation in its 
 fifth year : — 
 
 "Whereas your humble petitioners came into this country 
 about four years agoe, and have since then lived at Concord, 
 where we were forced to buy what now we have, or the most of 
 it, the convenience of the town being before given out : 3^our 
 petitioners having been brought up in husbandry, of children, 
 finding the lands about the town very barren, and the meadows 
 very wet and unuseful, especially those we now have interest in ; 
 and knowing it is 3'our desire the lands might be subdued, have 
 taken pains to search out a place on the north west of our town, 
 where we do desire some reasonable quantitie of land may be 
 granted unto us which we hope ma}' in time be joined to the 
 farms already laid out there to make a village. And so desiring 
 God to guide 3^ou in this and all other your weighty occasions, 
 we rest your humble petitioners." 
 
 Thomas Wheeler 
 Timothy Wheeler 
 Ephraim Wheeler 
 Thomas Wheeler, Jr. 
 Roger Draper 
 Richard Lettin. 
 
 Indorsed : " We think some quantitie of land may be granted 
 them provided that- within two years they make some good im- 
 provement of it." 
 
 The following petition, presented May 14, 1645, 
 speaks for all the citizens : — 
 
 ' ' To the Wor : 11 Governor, Deputy Governor, with the 
 rest of the Assistants and Deputies of the Court now as- 
 
 ^ This petition and the one immediately following are reprinted 
 from Shattuck's History of Concord (pp. Il-IT). Mr. Shattuck must 
 have had the originals, but I have been unable to find any trace of 
 them. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 39 
 
 sembled, The humble petition of the Inhabitants of Concord 
 sheweth : 
 
 " That whereas we have lived most of us at Concord since our 
 coming over into these parts, and are not conscious unto our- 
 selves that we have been grosly negligent to imploy that talent 
 God hath put into our hands to our best understanding ; Neither 
 have wee found au}^ special hand of God gone out against us, 
 only the povertie and meannesse of the place we live in not 
 answering the labour bestowed on it, together with the badness 
 and weetnes of the meadowes, hath consumed most of the estates 
 of those who have hitherto borne the burden of charges amongst 
 us, and therewith the bodily abihties of maney. This being soe 
 eminent above what hath befallen other plantations, hath occa- 
 sioned many at severall times to depart from us, and this last 
 summer, in the end it, a seventh or eighth part of the Towne 
 went to the southward with Mr. Jones, and many more resolved 
 to go after them, so that maney houses in the Towne stand voyde 
 of Inhabitants, and more are likely to be ; and we are confident 
 that if conscience had not restrained, fearing the dissolution of 
 the Towne by their removeall, ver}^ many had departed to one 
 place or other where Providence should have hopefully promised 
 a livelihood. 
 
 " This our condition we thought it our dut}^ to informe you of, 
 fearing least if more go from us we shall neither remaj^ne as a 
 congregation nor a towne, and then such as are most unwilling 
 to depart, whiles there rema3'ne any hojDes of ordinance amongst 
 us, will be enforced to leave the place, which if it should come 
 to pass, wee desire this may testify on the behalf of such, it was 
 not a mynd unsatisfyed with what was convenient, which occa- 
 sioned them to depart, but meerly to attaine a subsistence for 
 themselves and such as depend on them, and to enjoy ordinances. 
 If it be sayd, wee may go to other places and meete with as 
 man}' difficulties as here, experience herein satisfies us against 
 many reasons. Such as hardly subsisted with us, and were none 
 of the ablest amongst us, either for labour or ordering their 
 occasions, have much thriven in other places they have removed 
 unto. 
 
40 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 ' ' Our humble request is you would be pleased to consider 
 how unable we are to beare with our brethren the common 
 charges, the premises considered. 
 
 Richard Griffin Robert Fletcher 
 
 JbsEPH Wheeler Walter Edmonds 
 
 Timothy Wheeler William Hunt 
 
 George Wheeler William Wood 
 
 John Smedly James Blood 
 
 Thomas Bateman Joseph Middlebrooke 
 
 These in the name of the rest." 
 
 Indorsed: "We conceive the petitioners of Concord should 
 (in consideration of the reasons alledged in this petition) be con- 
 sidered in their rates ; but how much, wee leave to those that are 
 appo3'nted to assess the several towns when any levie is to be 
 made." 
 
 The town's rate this year was reduced to £15, 
 payable in cattle, corn, beaver, or money at the op- 
 tion of the town ; ^ and the folloAving restriction was 
 placed upon removal from the frontier towns: — 
 
 "In regard of the great danger y* Concord, Sudberry, & 
 Dedham wilbe exposed unto, being inland townes & but thinly 
 peopled,. it is ordered, that no man now inhabiting & settleed 
 in any of the said townes (whether married or single) shall re- 
 move to any other towne without the allowance of a magistrate, 
 or other selectmen of that towne, untill it shall please God to 
 settle peace againe, or some other way of safety to the said 
 townes, Whereupon this Co^t, or the councell of the cofTion 
 weale, shall set the inhabitants of the said townes at their former 
 liberty." ^ 
 
 The town was in such straits that, in October, on 
 the petition of the inhabitants, Lieutenant Willard 
 
 1 Mass. Records, iii. 27, 28. ^ /^/^^^ ^ 122. 
 
CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 41 
 
 was excused by the General Court from further 
 attendance/ for the purpose, it may be guessed, that 
 he might go home to put his stout shoulder to the 
 wheel, and by cheering words raise the drooping 
 spirits of his neighbors. 
 
 On October 8, 1655, the town lost one of its fore- 
 most men by the death of Thomas Flint. Two years 
 later. Major Willard received, as a reward for his 
 distinguished services to the country, a grant of five 
 hundred acres of land,-wliich he selected and laid out 
 in the southerly part of Groton. Rev. Peter Bulkeley 
 died March 9, 1659 ; and in November following, 
 Major Willard sold his estate in Concord to Captain 
 Thomas Marshall, of Lynn, and removed to Lancaster, 
 whither he had previously been urged to go, and 
 where he filled a high position. Subsequently he 
 removed to Groton, where his son Samuel was settled 
 as minister ; and after the destruction of the town by 
 the Indians, he took up his abode at Charlestown, 
 where he died April 24, 1676, at the age of seventy- 
 one years. 
 
 Thus, within a short time, the town was deprived 
 of the three leading men of the first generation. 
 We can imagine the sad retrospection with which 
 the survivors of the original company beheld the oft 
 repeated visitations by which their number was being 
 lessened ; but new men came to the front, and the 
 foot of progress was never stayed for an instant. 
 
 Since the field afforded by the town of Concord 
 
 ^ Mass. Records, ii. 44. 
 
42 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 was not rich enough for the labors of two ministers, 
 fortunately the right man stayed, free to execute 
 what his judgment dictated. Without doubt, Rev. 
 Peter Bulkeley ^ will always hold the most prominent 
 place in our early history. Born at Odell, January 
 31, 1583, of gentle lineage, he subsequently became 
 a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and a 
 Bachelor of Divinity. Succeeding his father in the 
 parish church, he preached for about twenty years, 
 until, with others of the non-conforming clergymen, 
 he was silenced by Archbishop Laud, and turned 
 his face toward the new land of promise lying far 
 away to the westward. 
 
 Distinguished by education, wealth, family con- 
 nection, and religious fervor, his position was a 
 commanding one among his fellow townsmen, and 
 of no small eminence in the colony. At times, 
 wearied and disheartened by the struggle for exist- 
 ence going on all around him, his mind would revert 
 to the quiet scenes of his old home in England, where, 
 in obedience to the voice of conscience, he had re- 
 linquished much that was attractive to a man of his 
 training and temperament. His letters show that 
 he felt the loneliness of his position. He says, " I 
 
 1 As regards the spelling of the name, a curious perplexity is caused 
 by the careless habits of writing that prevailed in. the old times. The 
 first Peter uniformly, it is believed, wrote the name as printed in the 
 text, but his son Edward wrote it indifferently " Bulkely " or " Bulk- 
 ley;" and Edward's son. Major Peter, commonly, but not invariably, 
 used the form sanctioned by his grandfather. However spelled, the 
 name was undoubtedly pronounced as if written BucUeij. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 43 
 
 am here shut up, and do neither see nor hear ; " ^ and 
 again, " I lose much in this retired wilderness in 
 which I live." ^ With advancing age and increasing 
 physical weakness came distrust of " the multitude/' 
 accompanied by misgivings that the churches were 
 tending towards too great liberty in religious matters, 
 but his faith in the future of his own town was un- 
 shaken until " the spirit struck the hour," and the 
 good man was released from earthly trials. Like 
 the great Jewish leader whose example he loved to 
 follow, he was laid to rest without epitaph or me- 
 morial stone, " and no man knoweth his sepulchre 
 unto this day." ^ 
 
 Very different but quite as interesting character- 
 istics are presented in the person of Simon Willard, 
 who, equally with the first minister, is entitled to 
 
 1 To Thomas Shepard, Feb. 12, 1639. See Sliattuck, 154. 
 
 2 To John Cotton, Dec. 17, 1640. The original letter is pre- 
 served among the Shattuck papers, in the library of the New England 
 Historic Genealogical Society, in Boston. A comparison with the 
 copy printed in Shattuck's History (p. 154), discloses a serious error; 
 for the printed copy makes Mr. Bulkeley say that there is warrant in 
 the Word for making the doors of the church narrower, whereas in 
 fact he said that the remedy nnder discussion could not be applied 
 without making those doors narrower than was warranted, — which is 
 quite a different matter. For "narrower. This we have warrant 
 for," read " narrower than we have warrant for." 
 
 3 Dr. Ripley, in his " Half-Century Sermon," said : " There is 
 reason to believe that the three first ministers, viz. Peter Bulkeley, 
 Edward Bulkeley, and Joseph Estabrook, were laid in the same tomb," 
 Again, in the same discourse : " If the spot [Mr. Peter Bulkeley 's 
 grave] can be ascertained (which is probable) , I would that at least a 
 plain block of gi*anite should there be placed, with his name indelibly 
 inscribed." 
 
44 COKCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 honor as founder of the town. Knowledge of men, 
 skill in surveying lands, experience gained by trading 
 with the natives, were qualities that fitted him in a 
 peculiar manner to take the lead in locating the land 
 granted by the colonial government, and fortifying 
 the title by peaceful negotiations wath the Indian 
 occupants. As deputy and assistant he w^as well 
 known in the colony, and by the aid of his influence 
 wdth those in power, the controversy with Watertown 
 about the eastern boundary was brought to a favor- 
 able termination. 
 
 As captain of the train-band, Willard directed the 
 military spirit of his neighbors when miUtary dis- 
 tinction was second only to that of the church. He 
 surveyed the lands allotted to the settlers, made 
 their deeds, w^as arbitrator in their controversies, 
 kept their records, and, last office of all, settled their 
 estates after they w^ere dead. A person like this, — 
 useful in any community, at any stage of its history, 
 — was indispensable to the plantation at Musketa- 
 quid. We shall hear of Willard again, holding high 
 command in the Indian wars, and affording much- 
 needed assistance to his former townsmen. 
 
 It will always be one of Mr. Bulkeley's strongest 
 claims to our veneration, that, recognizing the su- 
 preme value of qualities not his own, he gave gener- 
 ous encouragement and active co-operation in aid of 
 the plans devised by the robust mind of his friend 
 and parishioner. Neither could have been spared ; 
 for without Willard, the shrewd, practical man of 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 45 
 
 , affairs, the settlement might never have been at- 
 tempted ; but after the enterprise was begun, the 
 end might easily have come in discouragement and 
 loss, had it not been for the pious ministrations, 
 and private as well as pubhc benefactions, of Mr. 
 Bulkeley. 
 
 Another distinguished citizen, Mr. Thomas Flint, 
 brought with him from Matlock, — a charming place, 
 not unknown to American travellers, — two thou- 
 sand pounds sterling,^ a sum which, measured by its 
 purchasing power, would be equivalent to a much 
 greater amount at the present day. This fortune 
 was liberally expended in building up the infant 
 settlement. His entrance into public life as a 
 deputy was emphasized by an order passed March 
 12, 1638, that 
 
 *' the ffreemen of Concord, & those that were not free, w^^ 
 had hand in the vndewe election of M'' Fhnt, are fined 6. 8*^ a 
 peece." ^ 
 
 In 1639, he was appointed to act with Simon Wil- 
 lard and Richard Grifiin as commissioners, " to have 
 the ending of small matters this year," — a local 
 tribunal invested with jurisdiction of minor offences 
 and civil controversies involving small amounts. 
 When assistant, in 1649, he showed the austerity 
 of the Puritan by joining with Governor Endicott 
 
 1 £4,000, according to Shattuck. But Palfrey (Hist. 'New Eng- 
 land, i. 613, note) and Savage (Winthrop, II. 57, note) both prefer 
 the statement of Rev. Peter Bulkeley, who gives the smaller sum. 
 See Mr. Bulkeley 's Letter, 3 Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls., i. 47. 
 
 2 Mass. Records, i. 221. 
 
46 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 in a protest against the wearing of long hair, as " a 
 thing uncivil and nnmanlj, whereby men cloe de- 
 forme themselves, and offend sober and modest men, 
 and doe corrupt good manners." ^ 
 
 Among other dignities, Flint enjoyed the distinc- 
 tion of being empowered " to marry in Concord and 
 Sudbury." 
 
 The quiet, uneventful lives of the majority of the 
 early settlers, although interesting in every minute 
 detail to the genealogist or family historian, could 
 not be expected to furnish much that would hold the 
 attention of the general reader. But we shall act 
 wisely if we rescue from oblivion, and preserve in 
 some way, every bit of information that can be 
 obtained concerning them. Their names will occur 
 frequently in the following pages, and the more one 
 can learn of the bearers of those names, the more 
 reason he will have to honor the earnest simplicity 
 that characterized their lives. 
 
 Theirs was not the pride of birth, but they fairly 
 represented, in their stern Puritan way, the best of 
 the bone and sinew of English yeomanry, — possessors 
 in a high degree of that pluck and endurance that 
 seem destined eventually to bring the greater part 
 of the world under the dominion of the Ano;lo Saxon. 
 
 The Kentish infusion was very strong in the early 
 population of Concord, and, indeed, of Middlesex 
 County. General Gookin, of Cambridge, magistrate, 
 warrior, and philanthropist ; Edward Johnson, the 
 
 1 Hutchinson, i. 143. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 47 
 
 founder of Woburn; and our own Major Willard, 
 were conspicuous instances in a multitude of humbler 
 men. 
 
 It was matter of great moment to America that, 
 instead of the English law of primogeniture, New 
 England adopted the older rule of the common law, 
 by virtue of which all the children succeeded to their 
 father's estate by equitable division. The same prin- 
 ciple existed under a modified form in the custom of 
 Kent known as " gavelkind," and was expressly rec- 
 ognized by AYilliam the Conqueror. In Massachu- 
 setts, the law gave a double portion to the eldest 
 son, but in other respects the sons and daughters in- 
 herited equally. 
 
 The proud distinction of the Kentishmen was the 
 tenacity with which they held to their rights and cus- 
 toms, and the unhesitating courage, regardless of 
 difftculties or consequences, shown in their defence. 
 They formed the foremost rank at the battle of 
 Hastings, and made terms with the Conqueror at 
 Swanscombe.^ Twenty thousand men of Kent fol- 
 lowed Jack Cade into camp on Blackheath, for the 
 avowed purpose of punishing evil ministers and 
 redressing the grievances of the people. 
 
 ^ The men of Kent were never subdued. The shield of the county 
 bears an unbridled white horse, above the proud motto "Invicta." 
 The chorus in Thomas D' Urfey's famous " Song to the Brave Men of 
 Kent " is a vigorous expression of local pride: — 
 
 " Sing, sing in praise of Men of Kent, 
 So loyal, brave, and free ; 
 'Mongst Britain's race, if one surpass, 
 A man of Kent is he." 
 
48 CONCOKD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. j 
 
 — — — ■ ■ — ■ ■ — • j 
 
 I 
 
 It is by no accident that the people of Middlesex i 
 County have been equally quick to rise in defence of '. 
 their rights, and to put down the oppressor ; for the J 
 people of Middlesex derive their origin, in great part, j; 
 from the freest and most independent of English \ 
 counties. The patriots of Concord Bridge, Lex- | 
 ington, and Bunker Hill found their prototypes at 
 Hastings and Swanscombe. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 " They added ridge to valley, brook to pond, 
 And sighed for all that bounded their domain." 
 
 Emerson. 
 
 The New Grant, or ''Concord Village." 
 Blood's Farms. 
 
 For reasons the force of which it is difficult for us to 
 appreciate, it was not long before the Concord set- 
 tlers, individually and collectively, were clamoring 
 for more land. We have already remarked that 
 Thomas Wheeler and others, who came to Concord 
 about 1639, found the most convenient of the lands 
 already given out, and, in 1643, petitioned for a grant 
 of land on the northwest, which was conceded on 
 condition that they improved the grant within two 
 years.^ 
 
 Even after the loss of population caused by the 
 withdrawal of Mr. Jones, land that is now the most 
 productive in town was then deemed inadequate for 
 the few families remaining. We have noticed; in the 
 town's petition of 1645, the pathetic account of '^ the 
 povertie and meannesse of the place," " the badness 
 and weetnes of the meadowes," the loss of popula- 
 tion and resources, and the prevalence of empty 
 houses.^ The petitioners were considered in their 
 rates, but the true remedy for all troubles was 
 
 1 Ante, p. 38. 2 ^^^^^ p^ 39. 
 
50 CONCORD IN" THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 thought to be more land, and petitions to that end 
 
 were presented in 1650 and 1651. The latter, which 
 
 lacks signature and date, is here given : ^ — 
 
 "To the much honoured governour, the Deput3'-governour, 
 with the rest of the Magistrates and the deputies of the generall 
 Court assembled at Boston, the humble petition of the Inhab- 
 itants of Concord. Sheweth that whereas wee were the first 
 that in this Jurisdiction began an Inland plantation where the 
 land for most part is more barren than upon the sea-coast, and 
 difliculties greater than where nearness of neighbourhood affords 
 a supply of such things with convenieucy as such beginnings 
 stand in need of. Notwithstanding wee have not troubled the 
 Court with petitions for further enlargement onlj' the last yeare 
 wee petitioned for a parcell of land if the same might in any 
 measure be likely to make a village, which upon the request of 
 some to have a farme there wee were content to relinquish, with 
 which farme and some others together with the bounds of Water- 
 town, Sudbury, and the last grant unto Cambridge, wee have 
 now but one small out gate left open, and our land much of it 
 being pine land w^^ affords very little feeding for cattel. Now 
 the Lord haveing bestowed upon most of us children, which wee 
 had rather should wrestle with difficulties neare unto us than to 
 send them into more remote parts. Our humble petition unto 
 the Court is : they would be pleased to grant us a village from 
 the farme granted the last yeare unto Mrs. Hough unto the 
 bounds of Sudbury, and into the Contrey foure or five miles." 
 
 Indorsements: " Concord petition. Refer^ to y® next Ses- 
 sion p Curiam 16 8 51." 
 
 " The Deputies thinke meete to graunte this petition for the 
 space of fower miles, provided that they plaunt uppon the place 
 which they desire befour any others doo appeare 
 
 WM ToRREY Clerk." 
 " 16 (8) 51. Consented to by the magist^ 
 
 Edward Rawson Secy." 
 
 1 Mass. Archives, v. 112, p. 397. Erroneously classed with the 
 papers of the year 1685. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 51 
 
 If the record above given be considered evidence 
 of a grant, it was upon the express condition that the 
 petitioners should occupy the land before any others ; 
 and before anything was done under this order of the 
 Court, Chelmsford was laid out, and Nashoba granted 
 to the Indians. A new petition, or a renewal of the 
 old one in October, 1654,^ was met with an order 
 that they should make a return into court of 
 " what quantitie of land yet remaynes vndisposed of, 
 which they desire."^ The following return^ was 
 made : — 
 
 v To the Honored Generall Court assembled at Boston. The 
 returne of the number of acres of land granted as an addition 
 to the Towne of Concord according to the order of the General 
 Court in 1654. 
 
 '' "Whereas the Court was pleased to graunt to our Towne a 
 village some fouer years since upon condition the}^ should im- 
 prove it before others, but neglecting theire opportunity, the 
 plantation of Chelmsford have taken a good parte of the same, 
 also Nattatawants having a plantation granted him which takes 
 up a good some also, we whose names are subscribed have taken 
 a survey of the rest rema3'ning, and wee finde about seven thou- 
 sand acres left out, of which Major Willard hath two thousand 
 acres, except a little part of one end of his farme which h'es in 
 the place or parcell of vacant land, that was since given to 
 Shawshine, this tract of land being by the last Court granted to 
 
 1 Petition of Robert and Elizabeth Blood in Mass. Archives, v. 
 39, p. 858. 
 
 2 Mass. Records, ii. 364. 
 
 3 What follows is a reprint from Shattuck (History, p. 38), who 
 appears to have seen a copy of the original, attested by Secretary Raw- 
 son *' as a true copie compared with original on file as it was exhib- 
 ited to the Generall Court, May, 1655." 
 
52 CONCORD ijsr the colonial period. 
 
 our Towne on this condition that at this Court we should acquaint 
 the Court of the quantitye of what wee have. 
 
 Tho. Brooke 
 Timothy Wheeler 
 Joseph Wheeler 
 George Wheeler 
 George Heaward 
 John Jones." 
 
 On the 23d of May, 1655, the following order was 
 
 passed, which is here printed from the Massachusetts 
 
 Records, vol. iii. p. 387 : — 
 
 " Seuerall of the inhabitants of Concord ^fering a petition 
 for the graunt of some land, in answer wherevnto, the Court 
 thinkes meete to graunt them fine thowsand acors in the place 
 mentioned in their pet, qp-vided it hinder not any former 
 graunts." 
 
 An order which seems to apply to the same sub- 
 ject is given in vol. iv. part i. p. 237, under date 
 of May 29, 1655, as follows : — 
 
 "In ans^ to the peticon of the inhabitants of Concord, the 
 Court doth graunt them five thousand acres of land for feed- 
 ing, according to theire peticon, provided it hinder not an}'' 
 former graunts." 
 
 The Indian claim to the New Grant was met 
 
 and satisfied, December 20th, 1660, in the following 
 
 manner : ^ — 
 
 "An agrement mad betwene the Ingenes of Mashoba and 
 the Towne of Concord as foloweth : 
 
 " In Consideration, for the last grant of land to Concord, by 
 the genrall Court for an Inlargment to the Towne ; the Towne 
 of Concord doth give to the plantres of Mashoba fiveteen pounds 
 
 1 Town Records. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 53 
 
 at six a peny which giueth them full sertisfection in Witnes 
 whereof they doe set to there hands, this 20. of the 10. m? 1660 ; 
 
 In the ;psents of, the marke — ) of nssquan : the marke V of 
 JosejDh Wheler marchnt thorns, the marke W of Wabatut. the 
 
 John Shipard marke •— of gret James natocotos a blind man. 
 
 John Jones the marke ) of pompant the marke 5 of gomps. 
 
 John Thomas; and John tahatowon " 
 
 A preliminary survey by Thomas Noyes was fol- 
 lowed by a new order, reserving two thousand acres 
 out of the number actually found and returned, and 
 granting the remaining three thousand/ 
 
 "Att A Gennerall Court held at Boston 11th of October 
 1665 
 
 *' In Answer to the petition of Concord for an enlargement of 
 their bounds : This Court doe Grant them a tract of land con- 
 teyned in a plott returned to this Court under the hand of 
 Ensigne Noyes by estimation the whole being about five thou- 
 sand acres. Whereof the Court reserveth two thousand acres 
 to be layd out to either Indians or English as this Court shall 
 see meete hereafter to dispose and grant and the remaind"" being 
 about three thousand acres this court doe grant to Concord so 
 as the same doe not abridge any former grant made by this 
 Court and It is ordered that Leiftenant Beers & Leiftenant 
 Noj-es lay out the same & make their returne to the next Court 
 of Election." ^ 
 
 In pursuance of this order, Eichard Beers and 
 Thomas Noyes, in 1666, laid out the New Grant, or 
 Concord Village, as it was called, comprising the 
 
 ^ It is not so clear as one might wish, but from the return of Beers 
 and Noyes (post, p. 54) the inference may be drawn that the three 
 thousand acres here spoken of were in addition to the five thousand 
 granted in 1655. 
 
 2 Mass. Archives, v. 39, p. 860. 
 
54 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 present territory of Acton, and portions of Carlisle 
 and Littleton ; and made their return the following 
 year.^ 
 
 " At a General Court of Election heald at Boston 15*^ of May 
 1667 Humbl}' sheweth this Hono^^ Court that we Richard Beers 
 of Watertowne and Thomas No3^es of Sudbur}', being appointed 
 to La}'^ out & measure to the Inhabitants of Concord a Tract or 
 Tracts of Land, next adjoining to their first Grant in order to 
 which (wee the aboves^) did Lay out & measure unto the Inhab- 
 itants of Concord tlieir second Grant being five thousand Acres 
 of Land Granted in the 3'ear 1655 next Adjoining to their first 
 Grant, Begining at the southwest Angle of their old Bounds ex- 
 tending their s^ Southerly Line uppon a norwest point four degrees 
 northerly (according to the meridian compass) two miles & two 
 hundred & eighty Rods, there makeing a right Angle on a bare 
 hill, and from thence a line upon a north east point four degrees 
 easterly, two miles one halfe & fifty Rods, There meeting with 
 Nashoba Plantation Line, Running the Line of s^ plantation to 
 their Angle, one mile one Quarter & sixty Rods, nearest hand 
 upon an Easterly point there makeing a Right angle, Runing a 
 Line being the Line of the Indian plantation Two miles one 
 quarter and sixty Rods, there being Bounded by Chelmesford 
 Line and Billerica Line, as is more plainely described by a plott, 
 in which plott is contained nine thousand & eight hundred acres 
 of Land, one thousand & eight hundred acres being formerly 
 Granted to Major Willard, the other eight thousand being 
 Granted to the Inhabitants of Concord & Layd out the 6^'^ of 
 May, 66. 
 
 Given under our hands. Richard Beers, 
 
 Thomas Notes Survej^er. 
 
 The Court Approves of this Returne 
 
 E. R S." 
 
 1 The return is printed from a copy attested by Secretary Addington 
 and entered upon the records of the town. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 55 
 
 The town voted, January 27, 1668, that the 
 
 Enlargement 
 
 ' ' shall ley for a ffree Comon ; to the ^sent householdres of 
 Concord ; and such as shall hereafter, be approved & allowed ; 
 except such psell or ^sells of it as shall be thought met to 
 make farmes for the use & bennifet of the Towne.'* 
 
 A grant was made to Lieutenant Joseph Wheeler 
 of six hundred and ten acres on Chelmsford line, 
 lying in the form of a triangle, the point towards 
 the northwest, and extending southwest to Nashoba, 
 southeast to Nagog Pond. Wheeler sold this in 
 1678 to Ralph Shepard.^ Another tract was occupied 
 for a number of years by John Law and Stephen 
 Law, as tenants of the town, under an annual rent 
 of " one Indian corne," which was customarily paid 
 on the day of the annual town meeting. 
 
 At the same meeting, in 1668, it was further 
 
 agreed that 
 
 " all men that have not Comon of there owne for there Cattle, 
 acording to the Towne order shall pay 6d. a best, to those that 
 have Comon to lett to them in there querter, and if there be not 
 Comon to let them ; the}^ then to put there Cattle elcewhere." 
 
 One year later, on January 12, 1669, a lease was 
 made to Captain Thomas Wheeler, for the term of 
 twenty-one years, of two hundred acres of upland 
 and sixty acres of meadow, lying west of Nashoba 
 Brook ; in consideration of which, he agreed to pay 
 a yearly rent of £5 after the expiration of the first 
 
 1 Middlesex Deeds, L. 7, f. 201. 
 
56 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 seven years, and to build a house forty feet in length, I 
 
 eighteen feet wide, and twelve feet stud " covred ; 
 with shingles, with a payer of Chimnes ;" also a barn 
 
 forty feet long, twenty-four feet wide, and twelve ^ 
 
 feet stud. These buildings were to be left at the | 
 
 end of the term for the use of the town, with thirty | 
 
 acres of land in tillage and sufficiently fenced. t 
 
 He agreed further, and this was the main purpose ' 
 
 of the lease, to receive and pasture the dry cattle ; 
 
 belonging to the townspeople, not to exceed one 1 
 
 hundred and twenty in number, nor to be fewer than J 
 
 eighty. The cattle were to be marked by their own- ] 
 
 ers, and delivered to Captain Wheeler at his house ; I 
 
 and the price was fixed at two shillings a head, pay- ' 
 
 able one third in wheat, one third in rye or pease, ; 
 
 and one third in Indian corn. The owners were > 
 
 to " keep the said herd twelve sabboth dayes yearely, : 
 
 at the appointment, & acording to the proportion by ' 
 
 the said Thomas or his heires allotted." j 
 
 The number of cattle received under this agree- ! 
 
 ment fell below the lowest limit, and in January, j 
 
 1673, the terms of the contract were so modified that | 
 
 I 
 
 Captain Wheeler was entitled to receive one shilling ■ 
 per head. j 
 In 1684, when the depositions already referred to | 
 were taken, it was thought expedient to obtain from . 
 the Indians new and formal deeds of the land com- 
 prised within the New Grant. The deeds then taken ; 
 are given below. The first one ^ relates to a tract of j 
 
 1 Middlesex Deeds, L. 69, f. 57. : 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 67 
 
 one thousand acres, forming the southerly portion of 
 the New Grant. 
 
 " To all People to whom these presents may come, Greeting 
 Know 3^e that We, Mary Neepananm John Speen and Sarah 
 Speen Dorothy Winnetow Peter Muckquamack of Natlck and 
 James Speen & Elizabeth Speen his wife of Waymasset 
 Indians For and in Consideration of a vahiable sum of money 
 to us in hand paid by Capt. Timothy Wheeler Henry Woodis 
 James Blood and John Flint The Receipt whereof we do hereby 
 acknowledge and therewith to be full}^ satisfied and contented 
 have sold and by these presents do sell aliene enfeoffe and con- 
 firm unto the said Capt. Timothy Wheeler Henry Woodis James 
 Blood & John Flint of Concord in the Count}- of Middlesex in 
 the Massachusetts Colony in New England for the use and 
 behoof of themselves and the rest of the Proprietors of the 
 said Town of Concord a certain Tract or parcel of Land con- 
 taining by Estimation a Thousand acres be the same more or 
 less and is situate 13'ing and being within the last Grant of Land 
 by the General Court to the said Town of Concord and is 
 bounded Southeast by Sudbury & the Land of Stow alias 
 [Pompasitticutt] and Northwest b}' the said Stow running by 
 them upon that Line about a Mile and a Quarter, near to a Hill 
 by the Indians called Naaruhpanit and from thence by a strait 
 Line to the North River at the old bounds of the said Town of 
 Concord unto them the said Timothy Wheeler Henry Woodis 
 James Blood & John Flint for themselves and for the use & 
 behoof of the Rest of the Proprietors of the said Town of 
 Concord to them their heirs assigns and successors forever and 
 we the said Marj^ Neepananm John Speen and Sarah Speen his 
 wife Dorothy Winnetow Peter Muckquamuck and James Speen 
 and Elizabeth his wife, do hereby covenant and Promise to and 
 with the foresaid Timothy Wheeler Henrj^ Woodis James Blood 
 & John Fhnt and the rest of the Proprietors of the said Town 
 of Concord that we are the true proprietors of and have good 
 Right & full power to grant bargain & sell the above granted 
 & bargained premises unto the said Timothy Wheeler Henry 
 
58 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 Woodis James Blood and John Flint and the Rest of the Pro- 
 prietors of the said Town of Concord to them their heirs suc- 
 cessors and assigns forever and that the said Timothy Wheeler 
 Henry Woodis James Blood John Flint and the Rest of the 
 Proprietors of the said Town of Concord them their heirs 
 assigns and successors forever shall and may at all Times and 
 from time to time forever hereafter peaceably have hold occupy 
 possess and enjo}^ the above granted Premises in fee simple, 
 be the same more or less without the Let denial or contradiction 
 of us the said Mar}^ Neepanaum John Speen, & Sarah Speen 
 his wife Dorothy Winnetow Peter Muckquamuck and James 
 Speen and Elizabeth his wife, or any of us or any of our heirs 
 or any other person or persons whatsoever lawfully claiming & 
 having any Right Title or Interest therein or to or in any part 
 or parcel thereof— 
 
 In acknowledgment of this our act & Deed we have hereto 
 put our hands and seals this fifth Day of May in the year of 
 our Lord one thousand six hundred eighty & four 
 
 Signed Sealed & Del^ in John Speen his mark \ and seal 
 
 the presence of Sarah Speen her mark and seal 
 
 Moses Parker James Speen and seal 
 
 Noah Brooks. Elizabeth Speen her mark X and 
 
 Samuel Wheeler, Junr seal 
 
 Benjamin Bohow his mark B Dorothy Winnetow her mark -j- 
 
 Sarah Bohow her mark Q and seal 
 
 John Speen & Sarah his wife James Speen and Ehzabeth his 
 wife and Dorothy alias Winnetow acknowledged the within 
 written instrument to be their Act & Deed. 
 
 May 5. 1684. before Petr Bulkley assist." 
 
 The following deed purports to convey eight thou- 
 sand acres : ^ — 
 
 *' To all People to whom These presents maj^ come Greeting 
 Know ye that We John Thomas and Naanonsquaw his 
 wife Tasunsquaw The Rehct of Wawbon dec^ and eldest 
 
 1 Middlesex Deeds, L. 69, f. 58. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 59 
 
 Daughter to Tasattawan Sagamore dec<? Thomas Wawbon her 
 son Solomon Thomas John Nasquaw James Casmnpal Sen^ and 
 Sarah his wife & Sarah the Relict widow of Peter Conowaj Indi- 
 ans for and in Consideration of the sum of one and twenty 
 pounds, fifteen of it long since paid to us [blank in record'] and 
 the Remanider which is six pounds is now paid to us by Capt. 
 Timothy Wheeler Henry Woodis James Blood & John Flint of 
 Concord the Receipt whereof we do hereby acknowledge and 
 therewith to be fully satisfied and contented have sold and by 
 these presents do sell aliene enfeoffe and confirm unto the said 
 Timothy Wheeler Henry Woodis James Blood and John Flint of 
 Concord in the County of Middlesex in the Massachusetts Col- 
 ony in New England for the use & behoof of themselves and 
 the Rest of the Proprietors of the said Town of Concord a 
 certain Tract or parcel of Land containing by Estimation Eight 
 Thousand acres be the same more or less and is situate l^dng and 
 being within the last Grants of Land by the General Court to 
 the Town of Concord and is bounded Southeast by the old bounds 
 of the said Town of Concord and is bounded Easterly partly by 
 Billerica parti}" by a Farm formerly laid out by Major Willard 
 for himself and parti}' b}' Chelmsford till it meets with Nashoby 
 Line and then Westerly by the said Nashoby to the Southeast 
 Corner of the said Nashob}^ and [then northerly] b}" the said 
 N[ashob3'] till it meets with St[ow] and so bounded northwest 
 by the said Stow till it comes Near to a Hill by the Indians 
 called Naaruhpanit and then running upon a strait Line to the 
 North River at the old bounds of the said Town of Concord unto 
 them the said Timothy Wheeler Henr}^ Woodis James Blood and 
 John Flint agents for the Town of Concord and to the rest of 
 the Proprietors of the said Town of Concord to them their Heirs 
 and Successors and assigns forever and we the said John Thomas 
 and Nasquaw James Casumpat and Sarah his w4fe and Sarah the 
 Relict widow of Peter Connoway do hereb}" covenant and promise 
 to and with the foresaid Timoth}'^ Wheeler Henr}' Woodis James 
 Blood and John Flint and the rest of the Proprietors of the 
 Town of Concord that we are the true Proprietors of and have 
 good Right & full power to grant bargain and sell the above 
 
60 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 granted and bargained premises unto the said Timothy Wheeler 
 Henry Woodis James Blood & John Flint and the rest of the 
 Proprietors of the Town of Concord to them their heivs Succes- 
 sors and assigns forever and that the said Timoth}- Wheeler 
 Henry Woodis James Blood and John Flint & the rest of the 
 Proprietors of the said Town of Concord them their Heirs Suc- 
 cessors & assigns shall and may at all times & from time to 
 time forever hereafter peaceably have hold occupy possess and 
 enjoy the above granted premises in fee simple be the same more 
 or less without the Let denial or Contradiction of us the said John 
 Thomas and Naanonsquaw his wife Tasunsquaw widow and eldest 
 Daughter of Tasattawan Late Sagamore dec? Thomas Wawbon 
 Solomon Thomas John Nasquaw James Casumpat Sen^ & Sarah 
 his wife and Sarah the Relict widow of Peter Conowa3^ or any 
 of us or an}' of our heirs or any other person or persons what- 
 soever lawfully claiming & having any Right Title or Interest 
 therein or to or in any part or parcel thereof. 
 
 In acknowledgment of this our act & Deed we have hereto 
 put our hands and seals this fourteenth Day of August in the 
 year of our Lord one Thousand Six hundred Eighty and four. 
 
 Signed Sealed & Del'd, John Thomas his mark H and seal 
 
 in the presence of Naanunsquaw her mark V\ and seal 
 
 Ebenezer Tngolds Tasunsquaw her mark y\ and seal 
 
 Joseph Shambery his mark W Thomas Wabon and seal 
 
 Andrew Pittamey his mark A Solomon Thomas his mark S and 
 Joseph WooUey seal 
 
 James Casumpat Sen^ his mark Z 
 
 and seal 
 John Nasquaw his mark 7" and seal 
 Sarah the widow of Peter 
 
 Conoway her mark > and seal 
 Sarah the wife of James 
 
 Casumpat her mark q and seal 
 
 Midd. ss. Concord August the 29. 1730 before his Majesty's 
 Court of General Sessions of the Peace appeared Mr. Joseph 
 Woolley and made oath that he was present and saw John 
 Thomas Naanonsquaw Tasunsquaw Thomas Wabun Solomon 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 61 
 
 Thomas James Casumpat John Nasqua Sarah the widow of 
 Peter Conaway and Sarah the v/ife of James Casumpat execute 
 the within Instrument as their act & Deed and that he together 
 with Ebenezer Ingolds Joseph Shamberry & Andrew Pittamey 
 at the same time sot to their hands as Witnesses to the Execution 
 thereof 
 
 Att Saml Phipps Cler. Pacis." 
 
 The territory extending down the river north of 
 the original grant, and known as Blood's Farms con- 
 t sisted of three original grants by the General Court 
 I to Thomas Allen, Increase Nowell and Atherton 
 Hough, respectively ; to Allen and Nowell five hun- 
 dred acres each; to Hough, four hundred acres. 
 The followino; instrument^ refers to the Allen and 
 ^' Nowell grants, as well as to the Winthrop and Dud- 
 ley Farms which were on the opposite side of the 
 1 river, entirely outside the bounds of Concord, and 
 I within the present limits of Bedford and Billerica. 
 
 "A Record of a purchase of the Indians riglit vnto certaine 
 land, by the parties followeing, the 20*^^ of the 4^'^ month 1642. 
 
 An agreement made in the behalfe of M"^ Winthrope, M"^ 
 Dudley M Nowell, & M Allen about theire farmes lyeing 
 vppon Concord River in manner as followeth, betweene Symon 
 Willard in the behalfe of those gentlemen aforesaid, & Natta- 
 hatawants Sacliim of the same ground. 
 
 The said S3-mon doth purchase of the said Nattahattawants 
 all the ground w"^ the Court granted to the forenamed gentlemen 
 l3'eing vpon both sides of Concord River, that is M'^ Winthrope 
 o'^ present Governour one thousand two hundred & sixtj^ Acres, 
 M"^ Dudley one thousand fj've hundred Acres on the South East 
 side of the River, M^ Nowell fyve hundred Acres. & M'^ Allen 
 fyve hundred Acres on the North East side of the River, & in 
 
 1 Suffolk Deeds, L. 1, f. 34. 
 
62 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 Consideration hereof, the said S3"mon giveth to the said Natta- 
 hattawants sixe fadom of Waompampege & one wastcoate, & one 
 breeches, and the said Nattahattawants doth covenant & bind 
 himselfe, that hee nor any other Indians shall set traps within 
 this ground so as any Cattle miglit receive hurt thereby, and 
 what Cattle shall receive any hurt by this meanes he shalbe 
 lyable to make it good 
 
 Witnes the marke of V Natahattawants 
 
 John Mills the marke of Winnippin an 
 
 the mark W of William Gamlin Indian that traded for him." 
 the mark of V Sarah Mills 
 
 A portion of Blood's Farms came into the owner- 
 ship of Robert Blood as early as 1642, and the 
 remaining lands were afterwards acquired by him 
 and his brother John. Robert, who married Eliza- 
 beth, daughter of Major Willard, came into possession 
 by purchase from the Indians, and in the right of 
 his wife, of other large tracts extending westward 
 to the Chelmsford line and southward to the Con- 
 cord bounds.^ Taken together, these farms formed 
 a large part of the town of Carlisle. 
 
 The Bloods described themselves in their deeds as 
 " of Middlesex County," or " living neer Concord.'* 
 The Farms constituted a distinct territory outside of 
 the regularly authorized plantations, but having no 
 separate civil or ecclesiastical government. The oc- 
 cupants paid their rates in Billerica, but when the 
 Indian troubles arose, they found Concord a more con- 
 venient shelter, and paid rates in this town. Billerica, 
 however, recovered judgment for the rates assessed 
 
 1 See Middlesex Deeds, L. 12, f. 110. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD^ 63 
 
 during their residence here, and Concord was obliged 
 to refund the amount collected.^ The question of 
 jurisdiction caused new embarrassments, and it was 
 at last declared by the General Court, October 11, 
 1682, to be a grievance that sundry gentlemen, 
 merchants and others, owned great tracts of land, 
 which were daily increasing in value, but notwith- 
 standing, did not pay to public charges ; and it was 
 therefore ordered that such persons should pay to 
 the treasurer of the county two shillings for every 
 hundred acres of land, and in that proportion for 
 smaller amounts. Towns were required to make 
 the assessment upon all such lands lying within their 
 bounds, " and also to assess all countrey grants of 
 lands called farmes belonging to peculiar persons, 
 that lye neerest vnto such toune or tonnes." ^ 
 
 Acting under the authority thus conferred, the 
 Concord constables, armed with tax warrants and 
 supported by a sufficient posse, visited the Farms, 
 and were received by Robert Blood and his two sons 
 with contumelious speeches, accompanied by actual 
 violence to their persons. In 1684, Robert Blood, 
 Senior, was fined £10 and ordered to give bond, 
 for abusing John Wheeler, the constable of Concord, 
 by reproachful speeches, and vilifying his Majesty's 
 authority ; and the next year his violent treatment 
 of Constable Eleazer Flagg led to a like punish- 
 ment.^ 
 
 1 Mass. Records, v. 188. 2 75;^?., v. 375. 
 
 2 County Court Records. 
 
64 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 It yvas on all accounts to be desired, that this state 
 of affairs should not continue. The occupants of the 
 Farms were compelled by law to pay rates in some 
 one town at least, whether they received any benefit 
 or not. They wished for roads, but no one felt 
 either duty or desire to afford them any better 
 fxcilities of communication with the more thickly 
 settled places. Finally, March 17, 1686, Robert 
 Blood, with the assent in writing of his sons Robert 
 and Simon, negotiated a treaty with Peter Bulkeley, 
 Esquire, Henry Woodis, and John Smedly, Senior, 
 acting in behalf of the town of Concord, by the 
 terms of which it was agreed that Robert Blood 
 should thereafter pay in Concord all civil and eccle- 
 siastical dues and assessments incumbent upon him, 
 and a due proportion of whatever expense there 
 might be in building or repairing the meeting-house. 
 
 On the other hand, he and his heirs were to be 
 ^' from time to time, freed and exempted from all 
 Towne offices," and their waste land was not to be 
 reckoned in their minister rates.^ It was agreed that 
 convenient roads should be laid out for them at the 
 expense of the town, and no town rates were to be 
 assessed to the Bloods except as above specified. 
 
 We have been accustomed to say that, by this 
 agreement the Farms were annexed to, or became 
 a part of Concord, and, on the whole, this view is 
 
 1 It was voted, January 27, 1668, *' that all wast lands shall pay 
 only 2»— 6*1 for the 100 acres men hold ; by the yeare to publike charges, 
 tell the Towne see Cause to alter it." 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 65 
 
 probably correct ; for, in 1702, Josiah Blood and 
 Samuel Blood, who lived respectively on Allen's 
 Farm and Nowell's Farm, exchanged deeds in which 
 they described themselves as '' of Concord." -^ But 
 it is to be observed that the agreement made in 
 1686 does not in terms provide that the Bloods' 
 " peculiar" shall be merged in, and be considered part 
 of the territory of the township. And in point of 
 fact we know that, down to as late a date as 1744, 
 when the Concord selectmen, once in three years, 
 issued their notices to the authorities of the ad- 
 jacent towns, requiring them to send committees to 
 join with committees from Concord, in perambulating 
 the town's bounds, the Bloods also were regularly 
 warned to appear at the appointed time, for the 
 purpose of renewing the bounds between Concord 
 and the Farms. 
 
 The new grant to Billerica, in 1656, of land west 
 of the Concord River, made it necessary to define 
 more exactly Blood's Farms and Concord Village. 
 Major Willard's farm of one thousand acres, which 
 he gave as dowry to his daughter, Elizabeth Blood, 
 by deed dated Feb. 23, 1658, was laid out on the 
 northwest of Concord, and on both sides of the 
 present boundary between Acton and Carlisle. A 
 triangular controversy between Concord, Billerica, 
 and Robert Blood, about the boundary line dividing 
 this farm from Billerica, arose in 1683, and was 
 not settled until 1701. 
 
 1 Middlesex Deeds, L. 12, f . 725. 
 6 
 
66 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 The following document/ used in the Blood-Bil- 
 lerica controversy is interesting as forming a part of 
 " the old towne booke," which was partially copied 
 in 1664. but was afterwards unfortunately lost. 
 
 ''The 21dMay 1660. 
 A Comittee. Chosen by the Towne of Concord to lay out the 
 Major Willards one thousand acres of land, with the Major 
 himselfe Thomas Brooke Robert ffletcher and George Wheeler : 
 the dimensions of it as followeth 
 
 1 The first corner begining upon Chelmsford line runing 
 southward 170 Rods 
 
 2 The second line Westward 360 Rods 
 
 3. The third line northward meeting with Chelmsford line 
 390 Rods. 
 
 4 The fourth line Eastward along Chelmsford line 640 Rods. 
 
 This was don by a mutuall consent of the Major Willard 
 and the Comittee Chosen by the Towne : Witness their hands 
 hereunto 
 
 James Hosmore Thomas Brooke 
 
 Thomas Browne Robert ffletcher 
 
 and John Howe George Wheeler 
 
 be witnesses hereunto 
 
 setting to our hands I consent hereto witness my 
 
 James Hosmore hand 
 
 Thomas Browne Simon Willard 
 
 John Howe. 
 
 This is a true Coppy taken out of the old towne booke of 
 Concord in one of folios 30 as attested 
 
 John fflint towne Clarke 
 
 This copie above written, being Compared w*^^ the Towne 
 booke of Concord which was produced & read in Court & Com- 
 pared w*^ said book by 
 
 Edward Rawson Sec}^" 
 
 1 Mass. Archives, v. 39, p. 861. For additional details concerning 
 this controversy the reader is referred to Hazen's History of Billerica, 
 pp. 77-81, and the original papers there referred to. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " No ripple shows Musketaquid, 
 Her very current e'en is hid, 
 As deepest souls do calmest rest, 
 When thoughts are swelling in the breast. 
 And she that in the summer's drought 
 Doth make a rippling and a rout, 
 Sleeps from Nahshawtuck to the Cliff, 
 Unruffled by a single skiff." 
 
 Thoreau. 
 
 The Second Division of Lands. — Division of the Town- 
 ship INTO Quarters. — Eoads and Bridges. — Bulkeley's 
 Farm. — Flint's Farm. — Other Large Allotments. — 
 Undivided Land. — Land Transcripts. — Location of 
 House Lots. — Peter Bulkeley, Esquire. — Second 
 Meeting-house. — Town Pouted. — Mills. — Burying- 
 Grounds. 
 
 By the first division of lands, which has already been 
 alluded to, a small portion only of the township 
 passed into the hands of individual owners and be- 
 came private property. House lots were occupied 
 in the immediate vicinity of the meeting-house and 
 the mill. Large tracts of planting ground, such as 
 the Cranefield, lying behind the hills, Brick-kiln 
 Field, South Field, and large areas of meadow land, 
 such as the Great Meadow, Elm-brook Meadow, Pond 
 Meadow, and Town Meadow, were parcelled out in 
 the first division, three or four acres being allotted 
 
68 CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 to each proprietor. The bulk of the territory re- 
 mained to be divided, and, apparently, the task was 
 not an easy one. 
 
 At a meeting of the town held January 2, 1653, 
 the following votes were passed, in relation to this 
 important matter. 
 
 "A meting of the Towne of Concord the 2^^ of the 11 mo. 
 1652 about second devitioues as foloweth, 
 
 Imp'^ it is agreed that 20. acres of land shall be for one Cow 
 
 Comon (of all the land men hold) and two yearling shall goe for 
 
 one grown beast, and one horse for one beast, and 4. sheep for 
 
 one beast. 
 
 I*^ The bounds of the Towne is devided into three parts ; as 
 
 foloweth : only the hogpeen walke is not to be devided ; 
 
 Imp'^ All on the north sid of the great Rivre shall be for 
 
 them, on that sid of the same ; and all on the east sid to Mr 
 
 Bulkelyes,^ 
 
 I* the second part of the devition is on the East sid of the 
 
 aforesid rivre, be3"ond Cranenld to Shawshine corner, and to 
 
 Mr fflints pond to the gutter that comes out thereof, and to the 
 
 goose pond and along the path that comes to the Towne medow 
 
 & to the Towne ; and the psones to Inioye this part are all the 
 
 Inhabitants from Mr farweles ^ to the East end of the Towne, 
 
 also Thomas Brookes is to come in amongst them for two, third 
 
 ^ts of his land, and Robert Meriam : Sargent Wheler and 
 
 Georg Meriam to Joyne with them ; 
 
 P the third qpt of [the] devition is from the gutter that 
 
 comes from Mr fflints pond as aforesaid ; to the south rivre & 
 
 betwen the rivres ; and those appoj'nted for that devition, are 
 
 the Rest of the towne not beforementioned. 
 
 It is agreed that if the mair ^^t of any of the Companj^es 
 shall agree for the laying out of the devitiones as before exprest 
 
 1 Charles H. Hallett's. 
 
 2 Henry Farwell lived a short distance to the eastward of George 
 Heywood's dwelling-house on Lexington Street. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 69 
 
 then the minor pt shall be Compeled to agree there to, but in 
 Case the maior ^t shall not agree ; then an^^ pticuler pson shall 
 not be hendred of ther wright, but they shall have power to call 
 on indeferant man and the Company to whome he belongs 
 shall chose one other, or if the}" shall refeuse so to doe, then 
 the Townsmen shall choose on man, who w^ith the suerve3'er 
 shall indeferantly lay out his or there lands so requiring it, this 
 votted. 
 
 It is forther agreed that every ^son shall have som, quan- 
 tity of upland adioyning to his medow, where it is in Comon 
 except som more then ordenary ocation may hender it, and in 
 Case an}' defarance be therein ; it is to be ended by indeferent 
 men ; and this is to be pt of there second devition ; 
 
 It is agreed that second devitiones shall not hender, heigh- 
 waj^es to menes propriaties that they have in pticolers, but they 
 shall be inio3'ed without charge of purchies to be laj^ed out by 
 indeferent men ; 
 
 It is agreed that all those that have lat grants of lands given 
 them, shall have three acres for one as others have." 
 
 The principal, if not the only, object in view in 
 making this division of the township was to facilitate 
 the equitable distribution of the rest of the land. 
 The process of subdivision went on in the several 
 quarters ; but, as usual, property brought with it cares 
 and duties, and very soon it was found necessary for 
 the town to take further action, for the purpose of 
 arranging some details that had not been sufficiently 
 considered, and more especially, to apportion the 
 burden of expense caused by the obligation to make 
 and maintain highways, to build a new bridge over 
 the South River near Nashawtuck, and to keep in 
 repair two other bridges that spanned the river. 
 
 Accordingly, " after much agitation there about,' ' 
 
70 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 n 
 
 and "after much wearines about these things,'' it 
 was voted, March 8, 1654, 
 
 " to chose nine men thre out of ech querter impowred by the 
 Towne to here & end former debat, acording to there best light 
 & discresion & Consience ; onlj^ eight of the nine must agree 
 to what is determined ; or else nothing to be of force ; this was 
 voated the 8. of the first mo. 1654. at a pubhque training, & 
 none voatted to the contrarie, but Georg Wheler, Henry Woodies, 
 Joshuah Edmonds & William buttrike these doe declare there 
 publiqe consent [s2c] in this case, Thomas Stow also oposis ; 
 The men Chosen by the Towne to this worke are as foloweth ; 
 
 Simon Willard, Ensine Wheler, Tho. brooke 
 Robert, Meriam; Geo. Wheler, Sargn blood 
 
 John Smedly. Tho; batman, Gog He award." 
 
 One may see at a glance that this committee was 
 chosen with a due appreciation of the importance of 
 the work in hand ; for it was composed of men who 
 were foremost in the town's business, by virtue of 
 their large estates as well as their integrity and good 
 judgment. The vote was passed March 8, 1654, and 
 the committee presented a unanimous report of their 
 doings on the following day. 
 
 Twenty acres of meadow were reserved for the 
 minister " in the hogepen walke about annusnake ; " 
 and twenty acres of plow-land in the South Quarter, 
 together with a like amount of wood-land in the 
 East Quarter, were to be devoted to the same pur- 
 pose. Twenty acres of wood-land were reserved 
 "for the publique good of the Towne, lying neer 
 the old hogepeen, at ech sid of the Townes bounds 
 line ; " five acres of pine wood-land west of the 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 71 
 
 North River were appropriated for the use of the 
 
 North Bridge ; and certain persons who were '^ short 
 
 in lands " were to have the deficiency made up to 
 
 them on payment of " 12d. p'' acre, as others have 
 
 don, & 6d. p'^ acre if the Towne consent thereto." 
 
 They recognize the earher division of the town 
 
 into three parts, which they call the North, East, 
 
 and South Quarters respectively, and define them 
 
 thus : — 
 
 *' The limits of ech querter as foloweth, 
 I* the north querter b}^ there familyes, are from the north part 
 of the training place to the great Rivre ^ & all on to the north 
 sid thereof. 
 
 I* the Easte querter by there familyes, are from Henrj^ farweles 
 all Eastwards with Thomas Brooke, Ensign Wheler, Robert 
 Meriam, Georg Meriam, John Adomes Richerd Rise.'^ 
 P the south querter b}' there familyes are all one the south & 
 south weste sid of the mill brooke except those before acsprest, 
 with Luke potter, Georg Heaward, Mihell Wood & Thomas 
 Dane." ^ 
 
 Thus it appears that the North Quarter comprised 
 all the land on the north side of the great river and 
 west of the Assabet, and extended to the eastward 
 
 1 This term was applied to the Concord River below Egg Rock. 
 Musquetaquid, the Indian name of the river, is said to have signified 
 " grass-grown.^^ 
 
 2 John Adams lived on the Almshouse lot; Richard Rice, on the 
 corner opposite the house now occupied by William Buttrick. 
 
 3 Thomas Dane's house stood somewhere between the house lately 
 owned and occupied by Joel W. Walcott and the house of Benjamin 
 Tohnan. 
 
 The location of the first house-lots of George Hayward and Michael 
 Wood I have been unable to fix ; but am inclined to believe that they 
 were on the north and west sides of the Common. 
 
72 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 of the great river as far as the northerly end of 
 our Common. 
 
 The East Quarter inckided the territory east of 
 the great river and north of the Mill Brook to the 
 town limits. It also extended southward of the line 
 of the Mill Brook, and seems to have been bounded 
 in this direction by a line running south to Goose 
 Pond, and thence easterly to Flint's Pond and the 
 town bounds. " The East Quarter line " is referred 
 to in descriptions of land, and must at some time 
 have been definitely fixed, but it is difficult now to 
 determine its location. 
 
 The South Quarter, also called the Southwest or 
 West Quarter, consisted of the territory bounded on 
 the north by the Mill Brook and the North River, on 
 the east by the East Quarter line, on the south and 
 southwest by the bounds of Watertown and Sud- 
 bury, and on the west by the North River. 
 
 The following record of the division of wood to 
 the dwellers in the South or West Quarter will afford 
 an example of the methods adopted. The date in 
 the record, "17*^ . . 52," is obscure, but the division 
 was probably made between January and March, 
 1653. 
 
 " The devisions are to witt from the weast end of the 
 towne meadow ; runinge b}^ a hollow to Wallden pond, & to 
 crose the pond to the tope of the Roekj^e hill,^ & one the south 
 S3'de of a swompj^e meadow, called Dongye liole,^ & so alonge 
 
 ^ In Lincoln, a short distance north of the Fitchburg railroad. 
 
 2 This name was applied in several instances to swampy lands shut 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 73 
 
 the south syde of that valy of wood that runes frome the afor- 
 sayd ; hole to faier haven, as allso to the south sj^de, & south 
 end, of a $>cell of wood : called the Short swompe & so to 
 rune to the River, & for this Devisione there are twellue ^sons 
 to take to the east syde : & south syde of this devisione & there 
 are seaven to take to the weast s^de, which makes neer an 
 equall ;pportione as apeers, in both ^portions after, & this is 
 to be vnderstood, that this first devisione of wood, the limits 
 reach but to the weast end of M'^ fflints pond meadow & so to 
 the Riever : homeward within these limitts." 
 
 The persons who received land by this division 
 were William Wood, George Wheeler, George Hay- 
 ward, Luke Potter, Thomas Brooke, John Scotch- 
 ford,^ Samuel Stratton, Obadiah Wheeler, John 
 Bellows, Nathaniel Billings, Jr., Thomas Dane, 
 William Wheeler, John Miles, James Hosmer, Si- 
 mon Willard, Joshua Edmonds, Widow [of Thomas ?] 
 Barrett, William Buss, and Thomas Dakin. 
 
 But the territorial divisions were not strictly 
 identical with the divisions of the townspeople by 
 their dwelling places and families ; for Kobert 
 Meriam, George Meriam, Thomas Brooke, Ensign 
 Wheeler, John Adams, and Eichard Rice, all of 
 whom lived on Walden street and within the terri- 
 torial limits of the South Quarter, were included in 
 the company of the East Quarter. And Luke Potter, 
 who lived on the east side of Hey wood street, and 
 
 in by hills. A parcel of land in Nine- Acre Corner is still called 
 *' Dunge-hole." The valley mentioned above may now easily be seen 
 from the Fitchburg railroad, the wood having been recently cut off. 
 ^ Almost invariably written by himself Scocthford. 
 
74 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PEEIOD. 
 
 between Lexington street and the Mill Brook ; 
 Thomas Dane, whose house lot fronted the Com- 
 mon, together with George Hay ward and Michael 
 Wood, were joined with the South Quarter. 
 
 The company of each Quarter met at the house of 
 a member, and each one brought in a list of his first 
 division land upon which he claimed second division, 
 and submitted a " proposition" for particular parcels 
 that he desired to own, claiming three new acres for 
 every one that he already possessed. The propo- 
 sitions were, with some exceptions, granted, and the 
 allotments thus made were recorded by the Quarter 
 clerk, some of them being transferred at a later day 
 to the town records. 
 
 The report of the nine men disposes of matters 
 relating to highways and bridges as follows : — 
 
 "The devitiones of the heighwaies are as foloweth ; The 
 north querter are to keepe and maintaine all there highwa3'es, 
 and bridges over the great Rivre in there querter and in Respecte 
 of there gretness of Chorg there about, and in Regerd of the 
 ease of the East querter, above the Rest in there highwaj-es, 
 the}^ are to alow the north querter three pound ; 
 I*^ the East querter are to keepe & maintaine all there heigh- 
 wa3^es, and the bredg ouer the north Rivre [at Derby's] and the 
 heighway there to the heighland by Estimation 3. or 4. rods 
 where the Comisoners of Concord and lanchester [Lancaster] 
 being chosen by there Townes to lay out there heighwaj^es did 
 appoint it ; 
 
 I*^ the south querter are to keepe & maintaine all there heigh- 
 wayes & bridges ouer the south Rivre, except that at the north 
 Rivre before exspresed that is laied on the Easte querter the 
 
CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 75 
 
 south Rivr bridg [at Kurd's] being to be set, where the aforesaid 
 Comisoners appointed it as there agreement declares ; 
 
 and all these heighwajes & bridgs are to be maintained 
 forever by the querters on whom they are now Cast, and it is 
 forther concluded that if any damiag shall com to the Towne, 
 by the neglect of any part of the Towne in any part of there 
 wayes that part of the Towne, so niglecting ether bridgs or 
 wayes, shall beare ther damiag and secuer the Rest of the 
 Towne." 
 
 The highways are more particularly defined as 
 follows : — ■ 
 
 " The heigh wayes are as folow ; the north querter are to make 
 & maintaine all the heighwaj'es from the training place to the 
 great Rivre with the bridg, and all that is to be done the north 
 sid thereof; 
 
 P the East querter are to make & maintaine, all the heigh- 
 wayes from Obadiah Whelers house, allong to the ba}' wards and 
 all the heighwayes at the East end of the Towne, with what heigh- 
 wayes shall fall in that querter with the north bridg rivr ^ and the 
 wa}' at the end thereof on the farther sid, 3. or 4. Rods. 
 P the south querter are to make & maintaine all there heigh- 
 wayes one the south sid of the mill brooke, with Sudbur}^ wayes 
 as also the bridg over the south Rivr, & the wa3-es beyond 
 towards the north Rivr, untell it come to the north Rivr, before 
 laid on the East querter." 
 
 Officers are provided for, as follows : — 
 
 "We doe chose overseeres in ech querter for the faithfuU 
 P'formance of there duty in that case in all i^ticolers so far as 
 may condeuce for the profit & good of there said querters, as 
 to make Rats to pa}^ workemen & to see that all psones come in 
 sesonabl time & keep them to there bisines faithfully & keep 
 accounts & so see the worke suffisintly don ; and thej' are im- 
 poured to call fitt men & Cattle in there querter to the worke & 
 
 ^ North River Bridge. 
 
76 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 pay them there wages ; and if any shall refevse to attend, these 
 nesery workes ; there names shall be Returned to the Selectmen 
 of the Towne, who shall Impose findes acording to law vpon all 
 such ofendares in that case ; also the overseeres as aforesaid 
 shall keep an exact account of there owne time, expended, and 
 shall have suffisient sattisfaction for the same." 
 
 Timothy Wheeler and William Hartwell were 
 made overseers of the East Quarter ; for the North 
 Quarter, John Smedlj and Thomas Bateman ; and 
 in the South Quarter, George \¥heeler, James Hos- 
 mer, George Hayward, and William Buss. 
 
 It was further decided that in making rates the 
 '^ East end " should be assessed two pence in the 
 pound, " for all menes estate acording as Mr. 
 Bulkelys last Rate was mad ; " the North Quarter the 
 same ; but the South Quarter, four pence in the 
 pound. 
 
 The immunity from public rates, as distinguished 
 from those that were laid for town purposes, had long 
 since ceased, and besides the colony rate and the 
 support of the minister, the expenses of highways 
 and bridges were increasing at an alarming pace, by 
 reason of the general development of the country 
 and the need of better means of communication 
 between settlements, and between widely separated 
 portions of the same township. 
 
 In response to a petition for relief from the burden 
 of contributing to the support of so many bridges, 
 a committee appointed by the General Court, and 
 another representing the county of Middlesex, met 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 77 
 
 together and settled this matter of county bridges, 
 April 17, 1660. Their decision increased the amount 
 of a former allowance to Concord by the sum of £10, 
 making the whole £30, and it was ordered that the 
 town should be ^^free from charges to all bridges 
 extant, save theire own bridges." The committees 
 say further : — 
 
 ' ' The three bridgs they foot, and plead upon ; are for there 
 owne proper specal and perticuler conscernment, for there saw 
 mill ; Iron workes & other occationes and not, necessary for the 
 Coiinty or Country and may at there pleasur be diserted." 
 
 The petition was as follows : — 
 
 "To the Right Wor" the Governor Deput}^ and Assistants 
 w*^ the rest of the Members of the hono'^'i General! Co^*' mett at 
 Boston OctoV 18^!} 1659 the humble Petition & Declaration of 
 the Inhabitants of the Towne of Concord, humbly sheweth, that 
 Whereas there was an order made by the honored Court that 
 each count}^ should maintej'ne the bridges w*^ in it that are 
 County bridges, And we understand that there was something 
 since concluded in the Court concerning the severall Townes in 
 this County of Middlesex bearing the charges of the bridges 
 within their bounds except M3'stick Bridge, & that which is 
 betweene Billerecay and Chelmsford, which wee yo*^ petitioners 
 here never consented unto and therefore have divers times made 
 o'^ complaint to our County Co"^* concerning it, but not being 
 there relieved butt referred b}^ them to the consideration of this 
 honored Court now therefore humbly Intreat that our Condition 
 in this respect may be seriousW weighed, and that wee ma}' have 
 such releife as this present Court shall in their wisedom judge 
 just & Equall for us to receive. And that the honord Court 
 may the better discerne what the charge hath beene & is like 
 to be about the County bridges in o'^ Towne, bee pleased hereby 
 to understand that the length of the Arch-worke of these bridges 
 over the Rivers which at present is & hereafter must be is about 
 
78 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 sixt}^ rods, besides all the other charge about them, & severall 
 other smaller bridges which frequently need repaires : For ease 
 in the charge whereof we humbly crave yo^ helpe. And 3*0^ 
 petitioners shall pray for the gracious presence of the Lord with 
 you in all yo^ weighty occasions.^ 
 
 Edward Bulkely. 
 Timothy Wheeler 
 Robert ffletcher 
 George Wheeler 
 Willm Hartwell. 
 
 The three bridges maintained by the town at this 
 time were situated, one on the South River at Henry 
 Woodis's mansion, another on the great river at 
 Buttrick's/ and the third on the North River, at 
 what is now the Derby place. 
 
 The last-named bridge was built to facilitate 
 communication with Lancaster and other western 
 settlements, but was probably not a very elaborate 
 structure, for in 1663, complaints were made of its 
 condition, which were renewed in 1666. In that 
 year it was carried away by the flood, and the 
 
 1 Mass. Archives, v. 121, p. 32. 
 
 '^ Probably it will never be ascertained whether the first bridge 
 was at Nashawtuck or at Buttrick's. The first bridge over the South 
 River is said to have been placed a short distance below the bend in 
 the stream against Mr. Kurd's land, a location afterwards aban- 
 doned for the present one, in order to obtain a more direct course for 
 the road to Lancaster. The North Bridge stood until 1793 on the spot 
 now occupied by the Battle Bridge, — if one may suggest a name for 
 the structure that gives access to the statue of the INIinute-Man. Un- 
 doubtedly, at both of these places, houses were built very early on the 
 further bank, but there is reason to believe that at Buttrick's the river 
 was at first forded at a shallow place just below the mouth of the Mill 
 Brook. The North River was passed by fording at the Hosmer place, 
 before the bridge was built. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 79 
 
 comity treasurer paid to the constables of Con- 
 cord £20 "which wer Alowed them by the Court 
 towards ther Bridges." ^ 
 
 The Mill Brook was crossed by Potter's Bridge ^ 
 (on Heywood Street), and by Fox's Bridge (near 
 Wayside). On the Sudbury Road, the remains of 
 the Swamp Bridge, of which, with the causeway 
 leading to it, a dam was made in 1691 by Jonathan 
 Prescott and Joshua Wheeler, are still visible on land 
 of Arthur G. Fuller, a short distance to the southeast 
 of Walden Pond. Farther on, towards Sudbury and 
 Watertown, bridges w^ere built at Half-way Brook ^ 
 and at Beaver Dam; and several others of minor 
 importance were scattered about the town, spanning 
 the brooks and rivulets that ran in every direction. 
 
 The Indian paths were only a foot broad,* and it 
 would seem that ways of moderate width might 
 have been sufficient for the English settlers, who 
 never travelled except on foot or on horseback ; but 
 the fathers always had hopes of greater things in 
 the future, and the same record that fixed the site 
 of the first meeting-house informs us also, that it was 
 " ordered that the highway under the hill therough 
 the Towne is to be left foure Bodes broad.'* 
 
 ^ County Court Records. 
 
 2 In the description of Luke Potter's land (1666) this is spoken 
 of as " the bridge caled the fort bridge; " but it was known for a long 
 time afterwards as Potter's Bridge. 
 
 3 So-called because it was estimated to be half way between Con- 
 cord and Sudbury. 
 
 * Johnson. 
 
80 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 This was the first and most important highway, 
 afterwards extended and called the Bay Road, as 
 being an outlet to Cambridge Farms, Charlestown, 
 and Boston. Its width varied from four rods to ten 
 rods, but early in the next century it was reduced 
 within limits that accorded more nearly with the 
 extent and needs of travel. 
 
 Leading from the Bay Road to the northeast, were 
 the Billerica Road, which was laid out before 1660,^ 
 and the highway to Woburn, which was formally 
 laid out between that town and Concord in 1665 
 by committees representing the two towns. 
 
 A highway from Watertown to Concord was laid 
 out in 1638,^ and the road to Sudbury leading past 
 Walden Pond was in existence in 1648. The course 
 of the most ancient road leading to Watertown and 
 Sudbury was by the lane which runs from Walden 
 Street through the land of George Everett, thence 
 through the woods to the southward of Walden Pond, 
 where it crossed the ravine, and emerged from the 
 woods at the James Baker place, in Lincoln. The 
 road which leads past the Almshouse, stopped at the 
 ditch at the end of the house-lots, and a way that 
 was discontinued long ago gave access to Samuel 
 Stratton's house-lot from the Bay Road, at a point 
 near the Staples place. 
 
 The way still known as the " Old Marlborough 
 Road '' is very ancient, and may be easily followed. 
 
 1 Hazen, p. 89; County Court Records, April 6, 1658. 
 ^ Watertown Records. See Bond, p. 997. 
 
CONCORD IN- THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 81 
 
 The " Old Groton Road/' leading over the North 
 Bridge, was not formally laid out until 1699, but the 
 action then taken was in great part a relocation and 
 straightening of the old ways and paths already 
 existing in the North Quarter. 
 
 The earhest way from the South Bridge to the 
 Derby place ran in a curved line, between Nashaw- 
 tuck Hill and the house of Charles H. Hurd, to the 
 old Colburn house-lot, and then turning more to 
 the westward, reached the Hosmers', and crossed the 
 river by a ford-way near the railroad bridge. When, 
 however, a bridge was thrown over the river, where 
 it is now crossed, at this point, the commmonly trav- 
 elled way to and from the town was by the John 
 Hosmer place. 
 
 There were " driftways " to Fairhaven and " the 
 Rocks ; " and ways were laid out to " Fifty-Acre 
 Meadow," "the Hog Pens," "Virginia," ^' Mento," 
 "Scotland," "Shawshine Corner," " Dunsdell," "the 
 corner adjoining Watertown," " Mr. Flint's Farm," 
 "the Nine Acres," soon called "Nine-Acre Corner," 
 and other places within the town limits. 
 
 A large number of private ways, many of which 
 still exist, were laid out for the accommodation of 
 owners of land, — such as the way to the Great 
 Meadow, and the ways into the Great Common 
 Fields lying east of Lexington Street, one entering 
 near the house of Emeline E. Barrett, on Monument 
 Street, another at Merriam's Corner. 
 
 In the second division of lands, Rev. Peter Bulkeley 
 
 6 
 
82 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 received a tract of seven hundred and fifty acres 
 that included the Codman place in Lincoln, and to 
 Thomas Flint were assigned a like number of acres 
 extending from Flint's Pond to Beaver Pond and 
 the town bounds, comprising what is now the centre 
 of Lincoln. Flint's Farm was owned and occupied 
 for almost a century by descendants of Thomas Flint 
 and their tenants. These were the largest single 
 tracts granted to any individual. 
 
 The deposition of Samuel and Joseph Fletcher, 
 taken in 1734, states that in 1683 and 1684 " there 
 were three separate Families that lived upon a Farm 
 formerly called Buckley's Farm, afterwards called 
 Prout's farm, but is now reputed to be the estate of 
 Charles Chambers, of Charlestown, Esq : the said 
 Farm lyeth upon and in the southerly part of the 
 Town of Concord, &c." The persons named as 
 residents were Thomas Skinner, Thomas Pratt, and 
 Ephraim Roper.^ 
 
 Peter Bulkeley, of London, described as an apoth- 
 ecary and son of the first Peter, sold this farm to 
 Timothy Prout in 1671, for the sum of £45, and 
 Edward Bulkeley, as attorney of his brother, gave 
 " full possession & delivery of Seising by turfe and 
 twigg." ^ 
 
 James Blood, father and son, received as part of 
 their second division five hundred acres in one 
 parcel, extending southward from the town line. 
 Henry Woodis and Thomas Stow jointly owned a 
 
 1 Middlesex Deeds, L. 34, f. 494. 2 md,^ l. 8, f. 328. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 83 
 
 tract of six hundred and sixtj-six acres, situated 
 south of Fairhaven and east of the river, which was 
 sold in 1660 to Thomas Goble and Daniel Dane for 
 £72, and was afterwards occupied by them.^ 
 
 Large tracts were held for a long time afterwards 
 by the Quarters, or by joint proprietors, in common 
 and undivided ; as for instance, the " Great Fields " 
 adjoining the Great Meadow ; and the " Twenty 
 Score," which extended to the southward from 
 Bateman's Pond^ and contained, as the name 
 would imply, four hundred acres, and many other 
 parcels besides, in various parts of the town. 
 
 It subsequently appeared that there were a few 
 scattered parcels of common land that, for one rea- 
 son or another, were not granted by the town at this 
 time, but were disposed of at a much later day.^ 
 
 1 See deeds in the town records. 
 
 2 Named for Thomas Bateman, who owned land adjoining the 
 pond. 
 
 3 In the town records, under date of May 22, 1732, may be found 
 the report of John Hunt, Joseph Lee, and Nathaniel Ball, who were 
 chosen a committee to " Lay out to the persons that had Land to take 
 up in the old Town of Concord." They found that some small quan- 
 tities of land were due to the respective heirs of six of the early plant- 
 ers, and grants were voted accordingly. From a report made May 23, 
 1734, by the same committee, acting under instructions " to make 
 search into the Common Land and Report thereon," it appears that 
 they found yet remaining six pieces of common land, which were sur- 
 veyed by Stephen Hosmer, and contained altogether two hundred and 
 twenty-six acres and a few rods. Among the parcels of ungranted 
 land then discovered was " a small Island in the crotch of the River 
 below Mr Woodises Rock where the Rivers meet," estimated at a 
 quarter of an acre ; also a strip measuring about three-fourths of an 
 acre, extending up the river from where the Minute-Man stands, 
 and lying between the river and the old causeway. 
 
84 CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 Nine years afterwards, in. 1664, the town decided 
 to buy a new record book, and that " what is in the 
 old booke that is vesefull; shall be trancescribed 
 into the new ; with all lands which men now hold 
 as there proper wright in ther hands now being." 
 The " latter grants " to particular persons had been 
 " written in paper bookes (as granted) and not re- 
 corded in a register booke." Therefore, it was voted 
 that every one should draw up a " trancescripe " of 
 all the lands that he then owned ; which statement, 
 after being read and approved at a meeting of his 
 Quarter, should be signed by the Quarter clerk and 
 recorded by the " clarke of the Towne records," 
 as approved by the Town. 
 
 The recorded descriptions of land which were 
 brought in under this regulation extend from 1664 
 to 1673 inclusive, but are chiefly confined to the 
 years 1666, 1668, and 1673 ; and a careful compar- 
 ison of these descriptions with each other and with 
 other ancient records, affords a means of construc- 
 ting, with a fair degree of accuracy, a map of the 
 town, showing the location of the house-lots at the 
 time included between the dates given above. 
 
 Concord was no longer a small, compact settlement; 
 for the dwellings now extended eastward, on the line 
 of the great road, to Cambridge bounds, a few were 
 located on the road to Billerica, and others on the 
 further side of the rivers, at the north and west. 
 
 After remaining for a short time with his friends 
 near the centre, James Hosmer had moved westward 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 85 
 
 to his farm between the rivers, — a part of which is 
 now occupied by his descendant, Abel Hosmer, — 
 where for a time he was the advanced guard of 
 civihzation in the colony. His son James, who was 
 killed by the Indians, at Sudbury in 1675, lived a 
 little to the southward, on land adjoining his father's 
 farm. 
 
 George Hayward had sold his house, barn, and 
 land near the mill-pond to Mr. Bulkeley, and had 
 built a house and corn-mill at the southwest, where 
 his descendant still lives.^ 
 
 John Heywood had bought Thomas Dakin's house 
 and barn, and the latter was living on the Lancaster 
 Eoad beyond the South Eiver. Near him, on the 
 same road, was Michael Wood, and farther on, at 
 Brook Meadow, were Obadiah Wheeler and Edmund 
 Wigly. 
 
 Henry Woodis lived on the Willard estate, which 
 he bought of Captain Thomas Marshall. To the 
 westward of him was Francis Dudley (on the Col- 
 burn place), and, on the south, John Dakin. 
 
 Richard Rice, dissatisfied with his small house-lot 
 and orchard near the centre, had set up his house- 
 hold gods anew on his second-division land, at " the 
 east end," close to the town line. 
 
 Richard Temple was bringing up a numerous 
 
 1 George Hayward, Senior, was accidentally drowned, March, 1671. 
 The jury of inquest found, that he was " overthrowne by the strength 
 of the streame and so drownded in the river by the iron workes as he 
 was returning to goe home after he had bien healping william ffrizell 
 over the river in a Cannoe." 
 
86 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 progeny at his mill on Spencer Brook, and west- 
 ward of him were Francis Barker and his son John. 
 
 Nehemiah Hunt, son of William and lord of Punk- 
 atassett, lived on the estate bought by his father of 
 Rev. Peter Bulkeley, and now owned and occupied 
 by his descendant William H. Hunt. 
 
 Tradition places the house of Rev. Peter Bulkeley 
 on the lot now owned and occupied by Charles H. 
 Hallett, on Lowell Street. Thomas Dane owned a 
 house-lot of six acres extending from the burial-hill 
 to the mill-pond. Luke Potter's house-lot consisted 
 of six and one half acres on both sides of Heywood 
 Street (then known as " Potter's Lane "), including 
 the land last occupied by Charles Bowers, and ex- 
 tendino^ across Lexinscton Street. 
 
 Going eastward from this point by the Bay Road, 
 the house-lots came in the following order, occupy- 
 ing both sides of the road and extending to the 
 Mill Brook, — John Farewell, twelve acres, Thomas 
 Wheeler, Senior, thirteen acres, and Moses Wheat, 
 sixteen acres (the Staples place). East of Wheat, 
 on the north side of the road, was the house-lot of 
 William Baker, comprising seven acres. Then, 
 running to the brook, as before, came the lot of 
 Nathaniel Stow, fifteen acres, bought of William 
 Fletcher in 1656, and a lot owned by Peter 
 Bulkeley, Esquire. 
 
 Next to Bulkeley was Thomas Burgess, ten acres; 
 then came Francis Fletcher, eight acres, Edward 
 Wright, ten acres, Eliphalet Fox, eight acres, Na- 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 87 
 
 thaniel Ball;, thirteen acres, William Hartwell, nine 
 acres, John Hartwell, ten acres, and William Taylor, 
 eight and three quarters acres. 
 
 Still farther eastward were Caleb and Joshua 
 Brooke, Christopher Woolley and Kichard Rice. 
 
 John Meriam's house-lot consisted of an acre and 
 one half, situated in the corner made by the Bay 
 Road on the south and the Billerica Road on the 
 west. Joseph Dane and Thomas Pellet occupied 
 one homestead on the Billerica Road. 
 
 South of the mill-pond, house-lots were laid out 
 between the corner on Main Street and the Alms- 
 house, — running to the brook or pond on the north, 
 and extending towards the southwest, about as far 
 as Thoreau Street. On the Hastings corner, oppo- 
 site the Bank, was George Wheeler with eleven 
 acres; and then came Joshua Wheeler, with four- 
 teen acres, Robert Meriam, twenty-six acres (Trin- 
 itarian Church), John Wheeler, ten acres and one 
 half ^ (Nathan B. Stow's), Lieutenant Joseph Wheeler, 
 twenty acres (George Everett's), George Merriam, 
 thirty acres (the Bartlett place), Nathaniel Billings, 
 six acres (Nathan Derby's), and Samuel Stratton, 
 twenty-four acres ^ (Almshouse). 
 
 On and near Main Street, James Smedly's eigh- 
 teen and one half acres lay north of, and adjacent to 
 the burying-ground. Going westward, in the order 
 
 1 Bought of Thomas Brooke, 1664. Middlesex Deeds, L. 3. f. 169. 
 
 2 Bought of John and Thomas Adams, 1654. Middlesex Deeds, 
 L. 1. ff. 167, 192. 
 
88 CONCOKD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 named were John Heywood, four acres (next to tlie 
 burying- ground), William Buss, seven acres/ Edward 
 Bulkeley, eleven acres, John Miles, three acres ; and 
 on the south side of the way, John Scotchford, nine 
 acres. 
 
 On Monument Street, going north, we find, on the 
 west side of the way, Humphrey Barrett occupying 
 a house-lot of twelve acres (D. Goodwin Lang's); 
 John Jones, eight acres (Sarah B. Prescott's) ; 
 John Smedly, ten acres (John S. Keyes's) ; James 
 Blood, father and son, fourteen acres (Elizabeth B. 
 Kipley's). 
 
 Over the river, were Boaz Browne (Eli Dakin's), 
 Samuel Hunt (George Keyes's), Thomas Browne 
 (Edwin S. Barrett's), Thomas Bateman (the Edmund 
 Hosmer place), William Buttrick (Joseph Derby's), 
 John Flint (Lewis Flint's). 
 
 Dorothy, widow of John Heald, occupied a house- 
 lot of seven acres where the heirs of Stedman 
 Buttrick now live, and her son John had settled 
 a little farther northward. Baptist Smedly lived 
 
 ^ Heywood and Buss bound their respective house-lots on the south 
 by the highway, and Buss bounds his lot on the west "by Mr Ed- 
 ward Bulkely and the highway." The Bulkeley lot was bounded 
 *' north with land of William Buss, east with the highway, south with 
 the highway &c." It would seem therefore, that the road which once 
 ran to the northward of the burying-ground on Main Street, after tak- 
 ing a westerly direction on the hard land, must have turned southward 
 between the house-lots of Mr. Bulkeley and William Buss at a point 
 near the Prichard place, and proceeded thence by a course similar to 
 that of Sudbury Street, but making a bend farther on^ in order to 
 reach the South Bridge. 
 
CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 89 
 
 near Franklin Dakin's, and Simon Davis near Abel 
 D. Clark's. 
 
 It may be remarked that some names which occur 
 frequently in later years are absent from this list. 
 Lee, Minot, Prescott, Whittemore, and Chandler, had 
 not yet appeared. Several owners of large estates 
 failed to make any return, — among them, Peter 
 Bulkeley, Esq., Simon Davis, John Hoar, Edward 
 Wright, Captain Timothy Wheeler, Thomas Burgess, 
 and Christopher Woolley. 
 
 Captain Wheeler lived in the house built by Eev. 
 Peter Bulkeley, and, with George Wheeler, as joint 
 owner, was in possession of most of the real estate 
 left by Mr. Bulkeley,^ but not including the farm at 
 the southeast, which soon passed into other hands. 
 The house-lot and mill-lot comprised thirty-one acres, 
 lying on both sides of the Mill Brook. If Captain 
 Wheeler did not own the mill privilege at this time 
 (1666), he acquired it very soon afterwards. 
 
 John Hoar owned upwards of three hundred acres 
 lying beyond the North River, in the west part of 
 the town, and including land now owned by the 
 Commonwealth. The bulk of this he conveyed, in 
 1671 or 1672, to Edward Wright, in exchange for 
 an estate in the East Quarter.^ 
 
 1 See deed of Grace Bulkeley to Timothy Wheeler and George 
 Wheeler, September 30, 1663. Middlesex Deeds, L. 3, f. 128. 
 
 2 Part of the consideration received by Hoar was " all the right 
 title & interest w^li Edward AVright of Concord aforesaid husbandman 
 hath or should have in and to certain houses lands & hereditaments 
 &c in the Lordship of Castle Browmick (?) in the Coun[ty] of W^ar- 
 
90 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 Peter Bulkeley, called "Esquire," was the most 
 distinguished of Concord men in the later colonial 
 days. He was the son of Eev. Edward Bulkeley, 
 was born January 3, 1641, graduated at Harvard 
 College in 1660, married Rebecca, daughter of Jo- 
 seph Wheeler, and entered very early upon a public 
 career. 
 
 Graduate of the college, and scion of a well-known 
 and highly respected family, he was received without 
 hesitation into the ranks of the colonial aristocracy. 
 When speaker of the House of Deputies, he was 
 chosen to go to England with Mr. Stoughton, as 
 agent for the colony in the matter of the Maine 
 controversy. The mission was a failure, but he rose 
 quickly to be an assistant, and commissioner for the 
 United Colonies ; and in 1685, upon the dissolution 
 of the old charter, and his failure to be re-elected 
 assistant, he became a member of Dudley's Council. 
 
 High military offtces were his, and in fact his 
 whole life, which was comparatively short, seems to 
 have been filled with honors, and devoted to the 
 public service. But, unfortunately, by his associa- 
 tions with members of the aristocratic governing 
 
 wick in the Kingdom of England by virtue of a deed of gift made by 
 Edward Wright of Castle Browmick aforesaid to feoffees in trust for 
 the use of Francis Wright sonn and heyre apparent of the said Edward 
 Wright and of Mary Wiggin, daughter of Jno: AViggin of Aldridge 
 in the Count[y] of Stafford (before the solemnizing of a marriage 
 between the said Francis and the said Mary) & to their heyres &c the 
 said deed of gift being now in the hands of mee the said John Hoare, 
 and beareth date the 27tii day of June in the 10*^ year of King James 
 [1613] &c." See Middlesex Deeds, L. 4, f. 409. 
 
CONCORD IX THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 91 
 
 class he became estranged from the simple country 
 folk among whom his childhood was spent, and was 
 induced to support the assumptions of the court 
 party rather than the just claims of the people. 
 The rushing tide of events cast him aside, as one 
 for whom there was no place in the new order of 
 things, and retiring to his country home, he died, 
 May 24, 1688, under fifty years of age, after a pro- 
 tracted illness, and leaving an insolvent estate.^ 
 According to the historian Hutchinson,^ '^ it was said 
 by those who charged Bulkley with too great com- 
 pliance with court measures, that his sun set in a 
 cloud. He died of melancholy." 
 
 At the time of his death he lived " next y® mill- 
 pond " (perhaps where Dr. Barrett now lives), but 
 owned a farm called " Brook Meadow," lying be- 
 yond the South River, with a house and barn on 
 it, and a part or the whole of the Iron Works. The 
 farm, comprising forty-two acres, was sold to Stephen 
 Hosmer. 
 
 An increased population, and the hope that the 
 plantation had now weathered the storms that threat- 
 ened its earlier existence, combined to urge upon 
 the people the need of a more commodious and bet- 
 ter constructed building in which to meet on Sundays 
 for worship, and on week-days for lecture or the 
 transaction of town business. Accordingly, at a town 
 meeting held January 27, 1668, Captain Timothy 
 Wheeler, Joseph Wheeler, and John Smedly, were 
 
 1 Hutchinson, i. 314. 2 History, ii. 123. 
 
92 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 chosen a committee " to make barganes with worke- 
 men, to erecte & buld & finies a new metting house ; " 
 and in 1672, as we have already seen,^ the selectmen 
 were instructed to examine and report whether the 
 contract had been fulfilled, and if so, to adopt meas- 
 ures to keep out the water of the mill-pond, which 
 was always encroaching upon the upland of the 
 Common and wearino; it away.^ 
 
 The new house was built on the Common, not far 
 from the spot occupied by the present building, and 
 exhibited the same style of architecture as the old 
 meeting-house at Hingham, built in 1681, which had 
 a roof of pyramidal shape, with dormer windows, and 
 was crowned with a belfry. The bell-rope hung 
 down to the centre of the floor, and the sexton stood 
 midway between the main entrance and the pulpit 
 when he rang the bell to call the people together.^ 
 In the earlier times the people were accustomed to 
 assemble at the sound of the drum.* 
 
 1 Ante, p. 19. 
 
 2 In 1747, the town sold to Ephraim Jones the TVright Tavern lot, 
 described as " a part of the broken Ground in said Town between the 
 Training Field and the Wast Water (so called) ... to be improved 
 in such a way and manner as to prevent the Training field from wast- 
 ing away." Captain Jones paid the town £30, and also gave an obli- 
 gation " to fill up a part of the remaining broken Ground as is marked 
 out and agreed upon." Middlesex Deeds, L. 89, f. 173. 
 
 ^ Palfrey, ii. 58, note. 
 
 * All meetings for town purposes were held in the meeting-house 
 until a third one was built, in 1712, after which time, for ten years, 
 " the old meeting-house " was devoted to town meetings and the ses- 
 sions of the courts, and the town bell was suffered to remain in its turret. 
 
 In 1719, however, the town voted to build a new house "for the 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 93 
 
 The town pound ^ stood in the southeasterly corner 
 of the Common, next to the Thayer lot. Its loca- 
 tion is fixed by the description in the town records of 
 Thomas Dane's land, and by tracing the title of the 
 Thayer lot, to which the parcel hereafter mentioned 
 as granted to Eleazer Flagg was subsequently added. 
 It appears from the town records of March 7, 1692, 
 that 
 
 "Eliazer Flagge of sd town did Request of the towne a 
 peese of Grownd near to the meting house y^ bredth of y^ 
 pownd all between the pownd & y^ mill Brook ajoining to y® 
 
 Courts and Town meetings," to be thirty-four feet long, twenty-six 
 feet wide, and not less than fourteen feet nor more than sixteen feet 
 between joints. In the following year it was voted that the old meet- 
 ing-house might be " Improved by the Committee towards the building 
 of the New Town house either by pulling of it down or selling of the 
 same according to their discression. " At the same time they were 
 authorized " to set the [new] house where they shall Judge it most 
 Convenient," and they selected a spot adjoining the Common and near 
 the easterly side of the old school-house lot. In 1722 the first town 
 meeting was held in the new building, which was standing in 1775 ; 
 and although set afire on the 19th of April in that year, it was pre- 
 served until the building of the first Court House, on the lot now 
 occupied by the building of the Middlesex Mutual Fire Insurance 
 Company. The weather-vane, bearing the date " 1673," that stood 
 on the second meeting-house, and afterwards on the Court House, has 
 been preserved, and is in the possession of Louis A. Surette. A fac- 
 simile may be seen in the Concord Free Public Library. 
 
 ^ The vote of Groton in 1666 about the building of a pound will 
 perhaps serve to give us an idea of what this inclosure was like: 
 *' The said pound is to be made thirty feet square, six sufficient rails 
 in height, not exceeding ten feet in length, the rails are two of them 
 to be pinned at each end, in every length; they [the builders] are to 
 make the gate, and to find the irons, and to hang the said gate, with a 
 lock & key for the said gate for the use of the town, for the aforesaid 
 £2,, 10s. The place to be set up is near the meeting-house." Butler's 
 History of Groton, p. 41. 
 
94 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 land y* was formerly Thomas Danes, and the Inhabitants did 
 then freely Give the sa3'd litle plott of Ground unto the sayd 
 Eliazer Flagge to set his tan pits upon it as his own land." 
 
 This may account for the irregular line of the 
 Common at this corner.^ 
 
 Inferior only to the meeting-house in the estima- 
 tion of the planters was " the town mill/' placed in 
 the middle of the settlement and built by the rev- 
 erend pastor,^ in accordance with the terms of an 
 agreement entered into with the inhabitants, who 
 granted Mr. Bulkeley, besides other lands, a tract of 
 thirty-one acres upon which his house and mill stood, 
 and lying between the mill-pond and the river. 
 They gave him, also, the right to raise the water to 
 a perpendicular height of four feet ten inches from 
 the bottom of the mill-trough, and the privilege of 
 digging on the Commons for clay and sand to be 
 used in making repairs. 
 
 It is not supposed that Mr. Bulkeley was directly 
 concerned in the management of the mill, for, in 
 1639, William Fuller,^' " w^^ kept the mill at Con- 
 cord," was fined <£3 "for grosse abuse in overtoal- 
 
 ^ The parcel granted as above set forth, I judge to be identical with 
 that sold by Flagg to William Clark for 28s., July 5, 1717 (Middlesex 
 Deeds, L. 28, f. 255), and described as "one half quarter of an 
 acre more or less bounded south upon the mill Brook East upon Land 
 of said William Clark on every other side upon the Pound Meeting 
 house Green or Common Land." 
 
 2 A deed of William Buss to Grace Bulkeley, dated May 4, 1668, 
 (Middlesex Deeds L. 3, f. 264) recites " the purchase of the towne 
 milue house in Concord, built by the aforesaid M^ Peter Bulkely.'* 
 
 3 Mass. Kecords, i. 267. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 95 
 
 ing." In 1665 it was kept by William Buss, who 
 was warned by the constable to answer " his want 
 of scales & weights in his mill." ^ A little later 
 it passed into the ownership of Captain Timothy 
 Wheeler, who willed it to his daughter Rebecca 
 Minott ; and her husband, James Minott, worked it 
 for many years. 
 
 The waters of the Mill Brook, augmented by a 
 ditch leading from the westerly end of Flint's Pond, 
 were stemmed at the place still known as the "Mill- 
 dam," and formed a pond between Walden street and- 
 the Common. The old ditch that first conducted 
 Flint's Pond water through our village was easily 
 identified in 1874, and the town water-pipe is laid 
 in it for some distance. 
 
 As early as 1664, George Hayward had built a 
 saw-mill, to which he subsequently added a corn-mill, 
 in the southwest part of the town, at what is still 
 known as Havward's Mills. Ebenezer Prout built a 
 mill on the outlet of Beaver Pond, by reason of 
 which the place was long afterwards known by the 
 name of " Prout's Folly." 
 
 Other saw-mills were soon put up in various parts 
 of the township : one by Edward Wright, where the 
 Pail Factory now is ; another by Richard Temple, on 
 Spencer Brook; and others at the east and north, 
 wherever sufficient water-power could be obtained, 
 to assist the lumber-men who were bent on sub- 
 duing the grandeur of primeval growths and divert- 
 ing them to the uses of a new race. 
 
 * County Court Files. 
 
96 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 After Mr. Bulkeley's death, a difference arose 
 between his widow, Mrs. Grace Biilkeleyj and the 
 citizens, concerning the extent of the mill privilege 
 in the centre of the town, and the subject was 
 deemed of sufficient importance to be investigated, 
 in 1667, by a committee appointed by the General 
 Court, on her petition, when the rights of the par- 
 ties were ascertained and made known. 
 
 The committee reported ^ that, after hearing testi- 
 mony and examining the town records, they found 
 
 '' a great neglect on Mr. Bulkley's part, in not making his 
 couenant w*^^ the toune so cleare as might have been necessary 
 for his oune security, 3'et so much is acknouledged by seuerall of 
 the inhabitants, w^^ doe j^et speake to the trueth & substance of 
 the same, that ffrom w^^ wee haue drawne vp these conclu- 
 sions to present to this honoured Court in refference to the 
 premises : — 
 
 1. That the ounors of the sajd mill shall have liberty from 
 tjme to time, & at all tjmes, to rajse the water fowre ffoote 
 tenn inches perpendiccular ffrom the bottome of the mill troffe, 
 as now it lieth at the head of the milne pond, but the wast or 
 low shott not to be made narrower then now it is, or to be 
 ra3'sed higher then to rajse the water (at the head of the pond) 
 to fower ff*oot seuen Inches ffrom the bottom of the milne troffe 
 before the water runns oner the wast. 
 
 2. What land 13'eth vnder water, b}^ reason of the milne 
 pond, at such a head of water as aforesajd, shall be the propriet}* 
 & propper right of the ounors of the sajd mill for euer, except- 
 ing alwayes that land which the toune of Concord haue formerly 
 granted to an^^ of their inhabitants, all w'^^ land each proprietor 
 shall enjoy according to his toune grant after the mill is wholly 
 disannulled. 
 
 ^ Mass. Records, iv., pt. ii. 379. 
 
COI^CORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 97 
 
 3. The ounors of the sajd mill for euer shall not be liable 
 to sattisfy any damage donn to any person or persons whatso- 
 euer, by such a head of water kept & majntejned as before sajd. 
 
 4. The ounors of the sajd mill foreuer shall enjoy the benefit 
 of all that water w*''^ ma}' be obte3'ned by any meanes formerly 
 attempted i. e. to the higth of such a head of water as afore- 
 sajd, w*'^ water shall not be diverted by any person or persons 
 whatsoeuer. 
 
 5. Lastly. The ounors of the sajd mill foreuer shall enjoy 
 priuiledge on the comons for clay & sand convenient for the 
 repaire of the mill damage from tjme to tjme as formerly they 
 haue enjoyed. 
 
 Symon Willard 
 Jno Founell, & 
 Jonathan Danforth. 
 The Court approoves of this return.'* 
 
 A prolonged search has failed to disclose any re- 
 cord of the original dedication of the two old bury- 
 ing-grounds to the purpose they have served so long. 
 Both were used as places of burial, and are so desig- 
 nated in the town records, as early as 1673, but the 
 description of Thomas Dane's house-lot bounded 
 on the north by the " bury all hill " was probably 
 made about ten years earlier. The stone bearing 
 the earliest date is that erected on the hill in memory 
 of Joseph Meriam. The date is 1677. There is no 
 monument or epitaph to mark the resting-place of 
 any who died during the first forty-two years. 
 
 If the tradition as to the site of the first meeting- 
 house is accepted, we should naturally expect to find 
 that the early families buried their dead as near as 
 might be to their place of public worship, after the 
 manner to which they had been accustomed in their 
 
 7 
 
98 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PEKIOD. 
 
 old home.^ This would account for the use of the 
 hillside ; and after the lapse of thirty or forty years, 
 the need of additional space would be felt, and it 
 may be that the inclosure on Main Street, first men- 
 tioned in 1673, came into use about that time. 
 
 There have been family traditions that one or the 
 other of these grounds was a gift to the town from 
 some ancestor; but these traditions lack confirma- 
 tion, and it seems quite as credible, in the absence 
 of other evidence of a gift or purchase, that both 
 inclosures consist of land that was never granted or 
 allotted to any individual, and is still owned in 
 common by the inhabitants of the town by virtue 
 of the original grant, subject however, to whatever 
 burial rights persons or families may possess. 
 
 The road which was originally laid out so as to 
 pass to the east and north of the burying-ground on 
 Main Street was discontinued March 6, 1693, and 
 the land granted by the following vote of the town 
 to Jonathan Prescott, a large landowner, who lived 
 where Dr. Barrett now lives. 
 
 " Then was Granted unto L* Jonathan Prescote at his Re- 
 quest Jointly by the sayd Inhabitants the highway upon the west 
 side of his house lying between the Berring Plac[e] and the land 
 that the s^ Prescot bought & was formerly Georg Wheelers 
 deceased, from the common Road to the land of James Smedl}^ 
 w<=^ highway is two Rods wide the saj^d Prescote is to maintaine 
 or case to be made up a sufficient fence betwixt the sayd high- 
 way now Granted & the bur3^ing place, and to maintaine the 
 
 1 The first meeting-house in Sudbury stood in what is now the 
 oldest cemetery in Wayland. Drake's Middlesex, ii. 463. 
 
CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 99 
 
 same for ever, and the sayd Inhabitants do Grant the premeses 
 unto s? Prescote for ever unto him and his heirs upon the sayd 
 condition the day above mentioned." ^ 
 
 1 The following items are added from the town records : — 
 
 May 9, 1710, " Whereas there hath beene sum demur in ye Town 
 that ye bounds of ye Buring place on y® hill side by Danill Pellitts 
 have not bene so well looked after as they should and that the s* 
 bounds thereof be no longer neglected ppounded yt there be a com- 
 mitte of 3 men chosen in each part of the Town one viz., Ensign 
 Thomas Browne. Sa' John Wheeler M^ Nathanill Billings : to Requier 
 Danill pellitt to Renue the Lins and stake out the bounds of s^ buring 
 plase ; and s^ committe to make Report of their doings to the next town 
 meeting voted on the affirmative." 
 
 September 25, 1719, Joseph Dakin was paid £4. Ids. Qd. " in full 
 for fenceing the burying places." 
 
 The town voted November 15, 1726, to " fence the burying places," 
 and " that they should be fenced with good Stone waU not less than 
 four feet and [one] half high." 
 
 November 25, 1745, " Voted that the affair Relating to the Securing 
 the Bounds of the Burying Place on the Hill, and keeping it from 
 wearing away be Left to the discression of the Selectmen." 
 
 April 8, 1746, *' Abishai Brown was paid £20 for his making a 
 stone wall on the Lower side of the burying place on the Hill." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ** Alas for them ! their day is o'er ; 
 Their fires are out from hill and shore ; 
 No more for them the wild deer bounds ; 
 The plough is on their hunting-grounds ; 
 The pale man's axe rings in their woods •, 
 The pale man's sail skims o'er their floods ; 
 Their pleasant springs are dry.'' 
 
 Spsagub. 
 
 " Who liveth by the ragged pine, 
 Foundeth a heroic line." 
 
 Emerson. 
 
 Relations with the Indians. — King Philip's War. — Fight 
 AT Brookfield. — Nashoba Indians. — Constable John 
 Heywood's Return, 
 
 Fkom the very beginning, the relations existing be- 
 tween the colonists and the natives, their immediate 
 neighbors, portended mischief. The latter, even 
 where they met with kind treatment and the desire 
 to do them justice, as was the case in Concord, 
 were universally despised as heathen, and feared 
 because suspected of being in league with the powers 
 of darkness. " The Indian," says Mr. Emerson, 
 " seemed to inspire such a feeling as the wild beast 
 inspires in the people near his den." ^ The Concord 
 men, imder the wise suggestions of Mr. Bulkeley, of 
 
 1 Historical Discourse. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 101 
 
 Willard and Flint, showed a desire to live on peace- 
 able terms with their unpleasant neighbors, and a 
 willingness to impart to them such instruction in the 
 elements of Christianity and common decency as 
 seemed best adapted to their condition. 
 
 Willard and Flint assisted them in drawing up a 
 code for the regulation of their conduct, very prac- 
 tical in its details, and affording, it is fair to sup- 
 pose, evidence of what were the native's most easily 
 besetting sins.^ 
 
 In 1654, Thomas Brooke, Senior, of Concord, and 
 William Cowdrey of Eeading, were appointed for the 
 County of Middlesex " to sell wine of any sort & 
 Strong liquors to the Indians, as to their judgments 
 shall seeme most meete and necessary." ^ The 
 licensed persons were forbidden to deliver to any 
 one Indian more than a pint of liquor at a time, 
 but what was lacking, by reason of this restriction, 
 was more than made up from irresponsible traders, 
 whose cupidity knew no law. Prosecutions for 
 selling intoxicating liquor to Indians were not 
 infrequent, and there appears to have been no 
 unwillingness on the part of the buyer to say where 
 he obtained it. 
 
 The natives were employed to some extent by 
 the English in haying time, and at harvest, but 
 they preferred the more congenial occupations of 
 hunting and fishing, and making brooms, staves, 
 eel-pots, and baskets, for which they found a market 
 
 1 Shepard. ^ Mass. Records, iii. 369. 
 
 n r 
 
102 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 among the whites. They also brought to market, 
 in the season, huckleberries, strawberries, cranber- 
 ries, grapes, and venison.^ Thus by the exercise of 
 tact and by doing justly, the people of Concord suc- 
 ceeded in preserving the friendly relations established 
 in the beginning, until the outbreak of hostilities 
 in 1675, under the direction of Philip. ^' No Indian 
 shall come into an English man's house," so ran 
 the old agreement, " except he first knock ; and 
 this they expect from the English."^ 
 
 It cannot, however, be said with truth that a like 
 state of feeling prevailed through the colony. The 
 Indians of New England were treated as inferior 
 races have always been treated, whenever they 
 crossed the path of a conquering people. In this 
 case the weaker party, besides being few in numbers, 
 were idle, filthy, and shiftless; but as human beings, 
 they were entitled to some consideration, to say 
 the least. They had stanch friends, like Eliot and 
 Gookin, but it must be admitted that there never 
 was a disposition, on the part of the colonists in gen- 
 eral, to see any good in an Indian. 
 
 Take a few instances from our own neighborhood : 
 
 Thomas Dublet, a Concord Indian, was convicted 
 
 of an assault upon one of the English, and sentenced 
 
 to pay a fine of £20, in default whereof he was " to 
 
 be sold to such as would buy him." ^ This man w^as 
 
 * Letter of John Eliot, printed with Shepard's ** Cleare Sunshine." 
 
 2 Shepard. 
 
 8 County Court Records, Oct. 2, 1660. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 103 
 
 subsequently of great service in procuring the re- 
 lease of Mrs. Rowlandson from captivity. 
 
 Henry, Indian, servant of James Blood, convicted, 
 on his own confession, of burglary and theft, was 
 sentenced to restore three-fold ; but when he ex- 
 pressed a desire to work out the sentence as an 
 apprentice at sea, the court ordered that he should 
 be " disposed of & sold for such time as may availe 
 to perform the sentence of the court," and to pay a 
 fine of forty shillings.^ 
 
 As illustrating the value put upon an Indian's 
 word, Goody Draper, of Concord, was " convicted of 
 selling strong water to Indians, so far," says the 
 cautious scribe, " as Indian testimony may be ac- 
 counted legall & valid." No penalty was inflicted, 
 except to admonish her '^ of her evil therein," and to 
 order her '' to pay the witnesses their costs, to Davy 
 & his wife, six shillings, and unto Josiah, seven shill- 
 ings & six pence." ^ 
 
 The law prescribed that all cattle should be marked, 7 
 and each town had its distinguishing brand. The 
 larger animals were collected into a herd and driven 
 to Fairhaven, to Captain Wheeler's farm in the New 
 Grant, or to some other convenient feeding-place. 
 
 While the crops were in the ground, swine were — 
 herded on a large tract of land near Annursnack 
 Hill, known for a long time as the " Hog Pens." 
 After the crops were gathered the animals were 
 
 1 County Court Records, Feb. 11, 1690. 
 
 2 Ibid., Oct. 6, 1663. 
 
104 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 allowed to run at large, but the owner lost all claim 
 to them unless they bore some " ear-mark." This 
 regulation was adopted by the colonial government 
 because it was observed that, whenever the animals 
 had attained to any considerable size, Indians ap- 
 peared in the settlements with pork to sell. 
 
 Suspicions that the English were buying their own 
 property led to the enactment of a law that all swine 
 owned by Englishmen should be marked on their 
 ears, but that the Indians should not mark their 
 swine ; and furthermore, if they offered to sell pork 
 to the English they were required to bring at the 
 same time the swine's ears whole, or the meat was 
 forfeited.^ This regulation would easily commend it- 
 self; for not only was it calculated to discourage theft, 
 but the natural result of its enforcement would be, 
 practically, to give the whites the control of the pork 
 market. 
 
 The Indian outbreak commonly known as King 
 PhiUp's War began in June, 1675, and lasted four- 
 teen months, imperilling the very existence of the 
 colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. 
 
 This town was spared the horrors that accompa- 
 nied the inroads of the enemy in other less favored 
 quarters. Hither came the jealous occupants of 
 Blood's Farms seeking a shelter from the threat- 
 ening foe, and the homeless people of Groton and 
 Lancaster found here refuge and relief. No hostile 
 foot carried tomahawk and fagot within the bounds 
 
 ^ Mass. Records, iv. pt. ii. 512, 513. 
 
CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 105 
 
 of the original grant, and the old men, women, 
 and children slept undisturbed by the dreadful cry 
 in the dark. 
 
 There was, however, no sense of peaceful security. 
 All the men of military age were enrolled, and were 
 constantly employed in manning the garrisons of the 
 frontier and scouting from town to town in small 
 parties. In the fight at the Narragansett Fort, Con- 
 cord's share of the casualties was George Hayward, 
 killed, and Abraham Temple and Thomas Browne, 
 wounded. A detachment from Concord was decoyed 
 into an ambush at Sudbury, April 21, 1676, and ten 
 were slain. Shattuck-^ was able to ascertain the 
 names of five only, viz. : James Hosmer, Samuel 
 Potter, John Barnes, Daniel Comy, and Joseph 
 Buttrick. The Middlesex Probate Records supply 
 the additional names of Josiah Wheeler, David 
 Curry, and Jacob Farrar.^ 
 
 Isaac Shepard was surprised and slain on his 
 farm near Nashoba, in February ; and, on March 10th, 
 according to Hubbard,^ two men were going for hay 
 at Concord, and one of them was killed. Whether 
 
 1 History, p. 58. 
 
 2 Captain Hugh Mason's company from Watertown went to the 
 succor of Wadsworth's command, and their account of finding the 
 bodies of five Concord men on the east side of the river is as follows : — 
 
 *' On the next day in the morning, so soon as it was light, we went 
 to look for Concord men who were slain in the river meadow, and there 
 we went in the cold water up to our knees, where we found 5, and 
 brought them in canoes to the bridge-foot and buried them there." 
 Mass. Archives, v. 68, p. 224. 
 
 8 History, p. 217. 
 
106 CONCOED IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 the statement of the latter occurrence should be 
 considered as a brief allusion to the attack on the 
 Shepards, which had already been noted, is somewhat 
 uncertain; very likely it was nothing but a flying 
 report that reached the historian at Ipswich, and 
 was recorded without any attempt to learn the name 
 of the victim. On the page next following is the 
 detailed account of the killing of Isaac and Jacob 
 Shepard. 
 
 There is no suggestion either by Hubbard or Shat- 
 tuck, as to the name of the man who was killed 
 while going for hay, and the whole thing rests upon 
 the statement of an author not celebrated for accu- 
 racy, who was writing at such a distance and under 
 such circumstances that it was very easy to confound 
 one place with another, and to record as happening in 
 Concord events which in reality occurred elsewhere. 
 
 The story of the attack on the Shepard family is 
 told by the last named author as follows : ^ — 
 
 "• About the middle of February [1676], Abraham and Isaac 
 Shepherd were killed near Nashobah in Concord village, while 
 threshing grain in their barn. Apprehensive of danger, says 
 tradition, they placed their sister Mary, a girl about fifteen 
 years old, on a hill a little distance off to watch and forewarn 
 them of the approach of an enemy. She was, however, sud- 
 denly surprised and captured, and her brothers slain. She was 
 carried captive into the Indian settlements, but with great hero- 
 ism made her escape. While the Indians were asleep in the 
 night, probably under the influence of spirituous liquors, she 
 seized a horse, which they had a few days before stolen at 
 Lancaster, took a saddle from under the head of her Indian 
 
 1 Shattuck, p. 54. See also p. 384. 
 
CONCOKD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 107 
 
 keeper, mounted, swam across the Nashua River, and rode 
 through the forest to her home." ^ 
 
 It appears from the Probate Kecords that, on June 
 20, 1676, administration on the estate of "Isaac 
 Shepard late of Concord " was awarded to Mary 
 Shepard his " rehct widow," jointly with ^'Abram 
 Shepard her brother." Clearly, then, Isaac was 
 killed and Abraham administered upon his estate. 
 
 The widow of the former was Mary, the daughter 
 of Baptist Smedly ; and the inventory discloses a re- 
 spectable property, among other things, "A farme 
 at Nashobe, one house one barn 12 ac^^ of broken 
 up land 10 of meadow with the rest of the ffarme," 
 — all valued at £150. 
 
 As the evidence stands, we cannot be assured that 
 more than one man (Isaac Shepard) was killed by 
 
 ^ Hubbard's History, and a " Century Sermon " preached by Kev. 
 Edmund Foster, of Littleton, in 1815, a copy of which is preserved in 
 the Congregational Library, in Boston, are cited as authorities. The 
 statements contained in the sermon are based expressly upon the 
 account furnished by Hubbard. Hubbard says (History of the Indian 
 Wars, p. 217) : " March 10th, at Concord two men going for hay one of 
 them was killed ; " and again (p. 218) : " Also two men were killed at 
 a farm about Concord, Isaac and Jacob about the middle of February, 
 & a young maid that was set to watch upon a hill, of about fifteen 
 years of age, was carried captive, who strangely escaped away upon a 
 horse, that the Indians had taken from Lancaster a little before." 
 
 It has been commonly stated on the authority of these two extracts 
 from Hubbard, that three men were killed in Concord by the Indians. 
 It will be noticed, however, that Hubbard gives the name of one of 
 the victims as "Jacob," instead of Abraham; but an examination of 
 the town records and other sources of information fails to disclose any 
 evidence that a person named Jacob Shepard ever lived or died in 
 Concord. 
 
108 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 Indians within the limits of Concord. There may 
 have been one more, but our only authority is Hub- 
 bard's brief and vague paragraph, to which the 
 researches of Mr. Shattuck added nothing. 
 
 But what claims our attention above all else, is 
 the expedition of Captain Edward Hutchinson, un- 
 dertaken in the summer of 1675, after hostilities 
 had begun in Plymouth. The " Narrative " written 
 by Captain Thomas Wheeler is the epic of colonial 
 times. 
 
 Captain Hutchinson was commissioned by the 
 Council at Boston to proceed to the Nipmuck coun- 
 try, so called, in what is now Worcester county, and 
 confer with the Indians there, for the purpose of 
 preventing, if possible, any extension of Philip's in- 
 fluence in that direction. Captain Thomas Wheeler, 
 of Concord, who was already advanced in years, 
 and had commanded the western troop of horse ever 
 since its organization, was ordered to accompany 
 Hutchinson, with an escort of twenty or twenty-five 
 men of his company. 
 
 Accordingly they set out from Cambridge, and ar- 
 rived at Quabaug, or Brookfield, on Sunday, August 
 1st. Here they received information that the Indians 
 whom they had expected to meet had withdrawn to 
 a place about ten miles distant, towards the north- 
 west. A detachment of four men was sent forward 
 to assure them of the peaceable character of the 
 expedition, and a meeting was agreed upon for the 
 next morning, at 8 o'clock, on a plain within three 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 109 
 
 miles of the town. There was some apprehension 
 of treachery, but prominent citizens of Brookfield 
 not only expressed confidence in the good intentions 
 of the savages, but declared their own wilUngness 
 to be present at the conference; and Hutchinson 
 decided that the appointment must be kept. 
 
 The Indians, however, did not appear, and this fact, 
 together with other suspicious circumstances, led the 
 sagacious Wheeler to think that to venture further 
 would be unwise. But Hutchinson was unwilling to 
 abandon his mission with nothing accomplished, and, 
 in deference to his wishes, the order was given to 
 advance towards a swamp where the savages were 
 supposed to be lurking. As they proceeded, the 
 narrowness of the path, with the swamp on one side 
 and a rocky hill on the other, forced men and horses 
 to march in single file. Suddenly the war-whoop 
 resounded, and the advancing column was assailed 
 by a volley of arrows and bullets discharged from 
 behind trees and bushes, killing eight men, wound- 
 ing five, and throwing the line into disorder, which 
 was materially increased by the difficulty of turning 
 about or passing by in the straitened passageway. 
 
 Captain Wheeler spurred his horse up the hillside, 
 when, finding himself unhurt and perceiving that 
 some of his men had fallen under the fire of the 
 enemy, who were now rushing forward to finish their 
 work, he turned about and dashed boldly forward to 
 attack them. This movement separated him for a 
 few moments from his men. A well-directed shot 
 
110 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 killed his horse and brought the old man to the 
 ground, wounded, and it would soon have been all 
 over with the brave captain had not his son Thomas, 
 who was also wounded, come to the rescue. Quickly 
 dismounting, he placed his father in the saddle, and 
 ran by his side until he caught another horse that 
 had lost its rider, and so the two escaped with their 
 lives, but suffering severely from their wounds. 
 
 This was merely the beginning. Hutchinson had 
 received a wound that caused his death in a few 
 days, and now the task of extricating the command 
 from its perilous situation devolved upon Captain 
 Wheeler. It was performed in masterly fashion. 
 Keeping to the open . country and avoiding the 
 woods, they retraced their way, with the assistance 
 of friendly Indian guides, to the village of Brook- 
 field, took possession of one of the largest and 
 strongest houses, and fortified it as best they could.^ 
 
 They had not long to wait before the enemy ap- 
 peared in superior numbers and attacked the strong- 
 hold with vigor. The captain's disability brought to 
 the front Lieutenant Simon Davis, another Concord 
 man, who fought and prayed with a fervor that re- 
 minds one of the soldiers of Cromwell. To him, 
 associated with James Richardson and John Fiske, of 
 Chelmsford, the direction of affairs was entrusted. 
 
 1 In his certificate given to Joseph and Sampson, Captain W^heeler 
 speaks of their services in "the inn at Brookfield." It is possible 
 that the inn was the building that was chosen for a fortification. See 
 Wheeler's certificate, printed in Gookin's History. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. HI 
 
 Two men despatched to Boston for assistance were 
 unable to elude the vigilance of the besiegers, and 
 were obliged to return. The Indians piled hay 
 and other combustibles against the side of the house 
 and set fire to them, thus forcing the English to 
 expose themselves in their efforts to extinguish the 
 flames. Their bows shot arrows tipped with "wild 
 fire," which alighted on the buildings within the 
 enclosure and set them afire. To get their com- 
 bustible materials close to the walls, a remarkable 
 engine fourteen rods long was constructed by the 
 savages, of poles and barrels, which they trundled 
 forward on its menacing errand. 
 
 For three days and nights this horrible warfare 
 continued. The besieged were compelled to witness 
 the mutilation of their dead comrades who had fallen 
 outside, and to endure as best they could the jeers 
 and taunts of the foe. Kain came to the assistance 
 of the little band, by putting out the fires of their 
 assailants, and rendering it difficult to kindle new 
 ones. Davis, who is said to have been " of a lively 
 spirit," exhorted his men to remember that God 
 was fighting on their side, and to take good aim 
 before firing. The prayers and hymns of the sol- 
 diers, borne out on wings of fire and smoke, were 
 answered by cries of the unregenerate heathen, who 
 gave utterance to hideous groanings in imitation of 
 the singing of psalms. 
 
 Twice did brave Ephraim Curtis attempt to make 
 his way through the enemy's line to go for succor. 
 
112 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 Twice was lie compelled to return baffled. The 
 third time, by great exertions and crawling for a 
 considerable distance on his hands and knees, he 
 succeeded in reaching Marlborough, where he gave 
 the alarm ; and on the evening of the 4th, the garri- 
 son was overjoyed at the arrival of their old neighbor 
 and friend, Major Willard, with a force of forty-six 
 soldiers and five Indians, who, hearing at Marlbor- 
 ough of their distress, had altered his course to 
 come to their relief. Towards morning, the Indians 
 departed, having first set fire to all the houses 
 except that which sheltered the whites. 
 
 Of the Concord men, Samuel Smedly^ was killed 
 
 1 Samuel Smedly was son of Baptist Smedly. His sister Mary 
 married for her first husband Isaac Shepard, who six months after- 
 wards was killed by the Indians on liis farm at Nashoba. Two inven- 
 tories of Samuel's estate are preserved in the Middlesex Probate 
 Records, which say that he was " slean by The Indians at quapoge.'* 
 They contain, among other items, the following: 
 " 2 horses lost in the Countrys sarvis 06.0.0." 
 *' 2 horses was kild with him at the flight at quapoge." 
 In 1693-95, Samuel, son of the Samuel above named, and his aunt, 
 then Mrs. Jewell, convey the homestead owned by their grandfather, 
 Baptist Smedly, to Adam Winthrop, of Boston. 
 
 The death of his si n was too heavy a blow for the already severely 
 taxed powers of the aged father, and the tragedy was made complete 
 by the death of Baptist Smedly, only a fortnight after the loss of 
 his son. After devising a portion of his real estate to the wife and 
 children of his son-in-law, Isaac Shepard, he says in his will : 
 "furthrmore I give unto them my Grandchild Jabesh Butter till he 
 come to the age of twenty-one years." The " prizers " who made an 
 inventory of the estate included the following item: " His Grandchild 
 Jabesh Butter 008. 00. 00." This was probably meant as their esti- 
 mate of the value of the boy's services until he should become of age, 
 but at first sight the item is somewhat startling. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 113 
 
 at the swamp, and Henry Young was shot while 
 looking out of an attic window. It has already 
 been stated that Captain Wheeler was severely 
 wounded, and his son was detained at Brookfield 
 for several weeks by the injuries he had received. 
 
 It is easy to believe that the captain and the re- 
 mainder of his troop received a hearty welcome on 
 their return home. The town kept the 21st day 
 of October, 1675, as "a day of praise and thanks- 
 giving to God for their remarkable deliverance and 
 safe return.'* Men from Billerica, Chelmsford, and 
 Sudbury took an honorable part in this affair. The 
 services of Ephraim Curtis, of Sudbury, were espe- 
 cially valuable ; but we may say with truth that it 
 was a battle in which Concord men were foremost in 
 the display of courage, and the rarer qualities that 
 constitute good leadership. 
 
 Our interest in the story is not marred by any 
 doubts concerning the morality of the purpose and 
 objects of the expedition, as is the case when we 
 read of Lovewell's Fight, and other contests, in the 
 eighteenth century. The Indians appear to have 
 behaved very badly from the beginning. They were 
 guilty of an unprovoked and treacherous assault 
 upon a party whose purpose was one of peace 
 and friendship. The mission was an honorable one 
 and faithfully discharged; and Wheeler and his men 
 are deserving of praise for all time, as brave soldiers 
 who acquitted themselves nobly under the most 
 trying circumstances. 
 
114 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 Immediately after the engagement at Brookfield, 
 the militia of Suffolk and Middlesex were ordered 
 to hold themselves in readiness to march at a min- 
 ute's notice. A military magazine was established 
 in Concord, and an able gunsmith was stationed here 
 in October, to repair arms from time to time as 
 might be required. In October it was ordered ^ that 
 
 " Whereas in Concord & the tonnes adjacent there is a neces- 
 sity of a gunnsmith to be resident there, for the fixing vp of 
 armes, from tjme to tjme, during this warr, it is hereby or- 
 dered, that Capt Timothy Wheeler be hereby impowred to im- 
 presse an able gunsmith, who is to repaire to Concord, who shall 
 carefully and diligently attend that service." 
 
 Everything was placed on a war footing, and the 
 Council even passed an order for building " a line or 
 fence of stockadoes or stones" eight feet high, to ex- 
 tend from the Charles River at Watertown to a point 
 on the Concord River in Billerica, an estimated dis- 
 tance of twelve miles. As many ponds as possible 
 were to be included in the line, to form parts of this 
 barrier, which was designed for the protection of the 
 frontier towns against a marauding enemy. It is un- 
 necessary to say that this foolish scheme was never 
 carried into effect ; but the fact that it was seriously 
 entertained and once actually adopted by the Council, 
 is a convincing proof of the excited state of men's 
 minds. 
 
 The Christian or " Praying " Indians, as they were 
 called, were suspected, probably without reason as to 
 
 1 Mass. Records, v. 54. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 115 
 
 most of them, of sharing in the Brookfield treachery, 
 and of sympathy with Philip in his general plan. 
 This belief and the excitement caused by it induced 
 the colonial authorities to order the removal of the 
 Indians of Ponkapog and Natick to Deer Island in 
 Boston Harbor. For want of a sufficient supply of 
 food and fuel at that place the Indians of Nashoba, 
 about fifty-eight all told, were ordered to Concord in 
 November, 1675, — a disposition of them which 
 caused great commotion among the people, for the 
 memory of Brookfield was still fresh, and the sight of 
 an Indian was scarcely endurable. 
 
 General Gookin, Mr. John Eliot, and Major Willard 
 were despatched hither by the General Court, to see 
 that the unwelcome visitors were placed under such 
 care and conduct as might quiet and compose the 
 minds of the English. They found that Mr. John 
 Hoar was the only man in town who was willing to 
 take charge of the miserable remnant. 
 
 Unpopular as he was, and bitterly sensible of injus- 
 tice suffered at the hands of the very magistrates who 
 were now desirous of his aid in seeking to extricate 
 themselves from a serious dilemma, he nevertheless 
 came forward in a truly philanthropic spirit and un- 
 dertook the care of the Indians. He provided for 
 them in buildings of his own, and began the erection 
 of a new workshop near his dwelling-house, where 
 the Indians might be employed by day and secured 
 at night ; and other measures were taken to promote 
 their comfort and safety. 
 
116 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 But he was powerless to stem the tide of pubhc 
 sentiment. On the first day of February, 1676, 
 the Eames family were massacred at Framingham ; 
 eleven days later came the attack on the Shepards ; 
 and hostile demonstrations elsewhere on the near 
 frontier filled the settlements with dismal appre- 
 hensions. 
 
 These events crowding one upon another gave rise 
 among the Concord people to feelings of strong dislike 
 of the Indians living in the town, — feelings which, 
 although, at this distance of time, we are compelled 
 to believe them unwarranted by the facts, and pro- 
 ductive of wrong in their manifestation, cannot be 
 considered inexplicable. 
 
 Shortly after the murder of Shepard, some of the 
 inhabitants secretly invited Captain Mosley to come 
 with his company and remove the Indians from the 
 town. He appeared in Concord, one Sunday, in 
 response to this invitation, with a detachment of 
 men, and marched into the meeting-house, where 
 the people were assembled for worship. 
 
 At the conclusion of the exercises, the captain 
 addressed the congregation, saying that he under- 
 stood there were some heathen in the town com- 
 mitted to one Hoar, who, he was informed, were a 
 trouble and disquiet to them ; and therefore if the 
 people desired it, he would remove the Indians to 
 Boston. No one made any objection, and there were 
 " two or three that encouraged him." 
 
 The meeting broke up, and Mosley, followed by 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 117 
 
 his men and a large number of the townspeople, 
 started for Hoar's house, " which stood about the 
 midst of the town, and very nigh the town watch- 
 house." ^ Arrived there, the captain counted the 
 Indians and left a corporal's guard. Hoar vigorously 
 protesting against all his proceedings as illegal and 
 unwarranted. The next day the captain came, and, 
 upon Hoar's refusal to recognize his authority, broke 
 in the door and carried off the Indians to partake of 
 the discomforts of Deer Island. These events oc- 
 curred February 21, 1676. 
 
 There was some talk made by the magistrates and 
 deputies about this affair, but the fact that Mosley 
 went unrebuked is sufficient evidence that his action 
 was not looked upon with any general disfavor.^ 
 
 It appears from Gen. Gookin's report, made No- 
 vember 10, 1676, that the Nashoba Indians, about 
 fifty in number, had then returned to their plantation 
 and were living there quietly and unmolested. In 
 1684, the Nashoba Plantation, four miles square, was 
 
 1 Gookin. In 1638, the town was fined five shillings " for want of 
 a paire of stocks & a watchhouse; " and. the following year a like fine 
 was imposed " for not giveing in a transcript of their lands/' and ten 
 shillings "for neglecting their watch." In 1641, there was another 
 fine of ten shillings " for neglecting watch & not appearance." Mass. 
 Records, i. 267, 284, 317. 
 
 Stocks were usually placed near the meeting-house, and in some 
 places that building was used as a watch-house. 
 
 2 For additional details, see Gookin's History, and Hoar's petition, 
 both printed in the Transactions and Collections of the American An- 
 tiquarian Society, vol. ii. The original of Hoar's petition is among 
 the Shattuck papers in the library of the New England Historic 
 Genealogical Society. 
 
118 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 said to be " inliabited by a parcell of Indians, but for 
 many yeares hatb been deserted all dead except 
 some few y* are dispersed." ^ 
 
 In the return made to Governor Leverett, June 
 13, 1676, by Constable John Heywood, we have an 
 amusing account of the escape of three Indian 
 women and a child from military custody.^ The 
 anxious official thus deprecates the wrath of his 
 superiors, and at the same time shows the uneasiness 
 that prevailed : — 
 
 Concord this ISth: June 1676. 
 Honord Gouernor Leuer* 
 
 "Inasmuch as heare has bin a sad accident befallen us 
 through the ocation of nedglegent persons ; which had trust 
 Imposed to them ; to keep senterj over three old squas & one 
 papoose, these watchmen fell all asleep, and in the meanetime 
 y® squas made theire escape ; from them ; which may produce a 
 great deale of damage to us y* are resident in Concord ; because 
 we are affraid they are aquainted with 3'e Condition of o^ 
 towne, & what quant3'ty of men we have gon out ; & which 
 way they are gone ; which may prove very obstructive to o^ 
 army in their design ; we had a Capt : appo3'nted over the 
 magaseine ; which I thought to be suffitient to give a Charge to 
 12 men ; to keep senternalls over three old squas ; I hope 
 yo'' hono^ will be pleased to take it into Consideration & 
 send us some more strength to suport us from o'^ enemies ; for 
 we are in dayly fear ; y* they will make an asault on o^ towne ; 
 So hopeing yo'^ hono^ Cannot Impute any Blame to him ; who 
 wish to yo^ hono^ y® best y* may be ; b}' yo'^ hono^^ most Humble 
 Servant 
 
 John Haywood ; 
 
 ConstaU." 
 1 Mass. Archives, v. 113, p. 193. 2 n^id,^ y. 30, p. 203. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 119 
 
 Two days after the receipt of this petition, Gen- 
 eral Gookin ordered a draft of twenty men, " to 
 march up to Concord for the security of the [word 
 garrison erased] magizen there.' 
 
 " 1 
 
 1 Mass. Archives, v. 69, p. 95. 
 
jl 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ** . . . if they threw 
 Dice charged with fates beyond their ken, 
 Yet to their instincts they were true, 
 And had the genius to be men." 
 
 Lowell. 
 
 " The rough and bearded forester 
 Is better than the lord." 
 
 Emerson. 
 
 The Militia. — Education. — Charities. — Mining and 
 Manufactures. — Public Houses. — Amusements. — Free- 
 men. — The Andros Revolution. 
 
 OuK study of the colonial times would justly be 
 deemed incomplete, if we failed to touch more par- 
 ticularly upon the military side of colonial life, — to 
 give a glimpse, at least, of the Puritan as a soldier. 
 
 In 1636, Sergeant Willard was appointed " to 
 exercise the military company at Concord," ^ and 
 the town has never been without a military organiza- 
 tion since that day. 
 
 Every man of military age, except the magistrates, 
 ministers, and deacons, was required to be furnished 
 with arms and ammunition, to appear at stated times 
 for exercise in military duties, or to go on short 
 
 1 Winthrop, ii. 423. Addenda. 
 
COl^CORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 121 
 
 expeditions, for service in the outlying garrisons or 
 scouting from town to town. 
 
 Sometimes persons were excused from military - 
 duty by reason of age, or other infirmity; but it 
 was necessary to apply to the County Court for 
 the privilege of exemption. For this reason, John 
 Smedly w^as released " from all ordinary trainings," ^ 
 and Sergeant William Buttrick w^as excused " from 
 all ordinary trayneings, watchings & wardings." ^ 
 But William Frizzell was exempted on condition of 
 his " paying 2s. 6d. anno to the use of the military 
 company of the Towne where He lives." ^ 
 
 A regiment had but one field officer, who was 
 called sergeant-major, and the whole force was under 
 the command of a major-general.^ The officers of a 
 company were a captain, lieutenant, ensign, and four 
 sergeants. The commissioned officers carried swords, 
 partisans or leading staves, and pistols ; and they 
 were elected by the members of the company and 
 approved by the General Court. The sergeants bore 
 halberds. The common soldiers were armed with 
 matchlock or firelock muskets, each with a pair of 
 bandoleers or pouches for powder and bullets. A 
 forked stick was carried, to be used as a rest to assist 
 the aim.^ 
 
 1 County Court Records, June 20, 1676. 
 
 2 lUd., June 19, 1683. Buttrick's petition, not, as I judge, in his 
 hand-writing, is among the Shattuck papers. 
 
 3 County Court Records, June 25, 1661. 
 
 4 Hutchinson, i. 396. 
 
 5 Palfrey, ii. 49, 50. 
 
122 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 The officers were required to be church members, 
 and the military exercises were preceded and followed 
 by prayer offered by the officer in command. The 
 meetings for military exercise had much of the char- 
 acter of town meetings, for it appears by the record 
 that a very important matter — the choice of a com- 
 mittee, in 1654, to make division of the highways — 
 was voted " at a publique training." 
 
 Willard was the first to be commissioned captain of 
 the foot company, or train-band. This was May 6, 
 1646, and Timothy Wheeler was at the same time 
 made ensign.^ For fifteen years the latter held the 
 responsible post of captain ; but in 1677, Peter Bulke- 
 ley, Esquire, then in England as agent of the colony, 
 was appointed captain,^ and subsequently became 
 major. 
 
 The General Court ordered, October 12, 1669,^ 
 
 '' that such persons living in the frontier tounes w*^ in the county 
 of Middlesex as are legall}^ capacitated to l3^st themselues troop- 
 ers shall haue liberty to doe the same, vnder Thomas Wheeler, 
 Senio^, of Concord, whom this Court appoints to be their leif- 
 tenS &c." 
 
 This was the beginning of the second troop of 
 horse in Middlesex, "being the westerne troope 
 of that county." Subsequently, in 1671, Wheeler 
 was made captain, Thomas Hinchman lieutenant, and 
 Henry Woodis quarter-master.* Two years after- 
 wards, Woodis was made cornet, and Corporal 
 
 1 Mass. Records, ii. 146 ; iii. 62, 63. ^ ij^id.^ v. 151. 
 
 8 Ibid., V. pt. ii. 439. * Ibid., p. 486. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 123 
 
 William Hartwell was appointed quarter-master in 
 his place.^ 
 
 In May, 1667, the General Court ordered, that in 
 every town there should be a "committee of the 
 militia/' and that fortifications should be erected 
 under the direction of the committee and the se- 
 lectmen, for the protection of the soldiers and inhab- 
 itants.^ It was thought to be necessary and proper, 
 under stress of the public emergency, to build forts 
 or garrisons on any man's land, without other leave 
 or license than what might be inferred from the 
 terms of the general order referred to.^ 
 
 Like other towns on the frontier, Concord was 
 furnished with a considerable number of garrison- 
 houses, scattered over its large territory, to serve 
 for shelter whenever an alarm was sounded. A 
 more extensive stronghold at the centre served as a 
 rendezvous for the soldiers, who were ordered to as- 
 semble here to guard the supplies or for the purpose 
 of preparing for operations elsewhere. Shattuck re- 
 ports * the tradition that one of these garrison-houses 
 stood where Dr. Barrett lives, another near Lewis 
 Flint's, a third near Merriam's Corner, two within the 
 present limits of Bedford, one near the John Hosmer 
 place, and a seventh near the Pope and Lyman farm 
 in Acton. 
 
 The following documents illustrate the methods 
 employed to secure a quota from the town : — 
 
 1 Mass. Records, iv. pt. ii. 567. 2 jud^^ p, 330. 
 
 3 Hutchinson, ii. 67, note. * History, p. 47. 
 
124 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 " To the bonoi'd Council sitting in Boston 3*? 10*^ 75. 
 
 By virtue of a warrant from Maj'' Simon Willarcl directed to 
 the Comittee of the Militia in Concord requiring them to im- 
 presse eleven able souldiers well fited &c : for the service of the 
 Country in the present expedition: The said Comittee have 
 impressed (& accord : to order of the hon^^ Council doe returne 
 the names of) these persons ; viz : Joseph Busse, Abraham 
 Temple, Samuel How, John Wood, Joseph Wheeler, Thomas 
 Browne, John Wheeler, Timothy Rice, George Hay ward, Ste- 
 phen Farre & John Ta3dour, who are at present (most of them 
 & the rest seasonably will bee) fitted well with armes : But 
 severall of them doe want & desire to be supplyed with some 
 cloathing (coates especialljO & where they may bee accommo- 
 dated with them they would understand. 3*1 lO^^J^ 75. 
 
 Yo' worships humble servant 
 
 Tim : Wheeler Capt. 
 
 of Concord. 
 Postscript. 
 
 Wee having severall Troopers also impressed in this 
 Towne, & there being a Compan}^ of Indians ordered amongst 
 us, w^^ wee are to take care of: Tis humbly desired, that favor 
 ma}^ bee showne us, in the release of some (if it may bee) of the 
 persons abovementioned. 
 
 Tim: Wheelek." 
 [Mass. Archives, v. 68, p. 85.] 
 
 '' To the Hono:^^« Gov^ : and Councell now sitting in Boston 
 
 June 28 : 1677 
 The Request of the Millitia of the towne of Concord 
 
 Humbly sheweth that the millitia of the said towne receiveing 
 a warrant from the worp^^ Maj^ Gookin to impress foure men 
 for the service of the Country : and being informed that those 
 that were to be prest were intended onely to scout about Chelmes- 
 ford; and the said Millitia not being able to obtaine those 
 persons that were intended and desired they sent foure 3'ouths 
 promiseing to releive them within one week after they went but 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 125 
 
 so soone as they came to Chelmesford they were conducted to 
 black point where they now remaine. 
 
 Our humble request to yo'^ Hon^^ therefore is : that you will 
 please to consider how unfitt these youths are for the Countryes 
 service : namely Samuell Stratton John Wheat, John Ball : 
 Thomas Woolley : : and that they may be dismissed from the 
 said service : and be returned home with the first that doe 
 returne, so shall we ever pray for y'^ Hon^^ &c. 
 
 Timothy Wheeler Capt 
 in the name of y® Millitia." 
 [Mass. Archives, v. 69, p. 134.] 
 
 The high esteem in which miUtary offices and 
 titles were held, as well as the tenacity with which 
 their possessors clung to them, are well illustrated in 
 the case of William Buss. About a year after the 
 close of Philip's War, it became necessary to reor- 
 ganize the military forces of the town, which con- 
 sisted of a train-band of upwards of one hundred and 
 fifty men, besides the horse company, to whose ranks 
 Concord contributed a good number of troopers. 
 The old Indian fighter, Thomas Wheeler, was dead, 
 and Thomas Hinchman was made captain of the 
 troop, with John Flint for lieutenant.^ Timothy 
 Wheeler, the " ancient captain " of the foot com- 
 pany, was infirm with age, the lieutenant had re- 
 moved from town, and consequently the burden of 
 military affairs fell upon William Buss, who had been 
 ensign for nearly twenty years, and was now about 
 sixty-five years of age. 
 
 1 Mass. Kecords, v. 142. 
 
126 CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 The appointment of Mr. Peter Bulkeley, grandson 
 of the Rev. Peter, to the honorable and responsible 
 office of captain, while still absent from the country 
 and suspected of being too friendly to the court 
 party, did not mend matters. The citizens under- 
 took to remove Buss by electing him constable, 
 hoping thereby to force him to relinquish his mili- 
 tary position. But inter arma silent leges. The old 
 man refused to qualify for the civil office and in- 
 dignantly appealed to the Council, who annulled the 
 action of the town and subsequently made Buss a 
 lieutenant. Following is his petition and the order 
 thereon : ^ — 
 
 " To the Hono^^® Governor & Councill now sitting in Boston 
 March 21^'* 1677-8. The Petition of William Buss of Concord. 
 Humbl}' sheweth that yo^ Petitio^ by Vertue of an order from 
 the Gen^i Court hath served in the s^^ towne of Concord as an 
 Ensigne to the foot Company for neare the Space of Twenty 
 yeares : And the Leift- of the s^ Company being removed out 
 of the towne : and the ancient Cap* of the s^ Company being 
 weake and infirme : and the Captaine Lately chosen by the 
 Hono -y^^ Gen^i Court being in England : a great part of the 
 Charge of the Millitia in the s*! towne remaines upon ^o^ Pe- 
 tition^ : and he being now neare Sixty five yeares old : is much 
 disabled (considering what troubles have beene upon the Country 
 possibly may be Renew^*^) for mannage of that great Concerne : 
 and now the Inhabitants of the said towne as an Addition to his 
 Trouble have Chosen j'o'' Petitio'^ to the office of a Constable in 
 the s? Towne. and (for what he at present apprehends) are Re- 
 solv'd to fforce him to serve in the s^ place and office. 
 
 Yo'^ Petition therefore humbly Intreats the flfavor of 3^our hon- 
 ors to Consider the premises : and to pass some order whereby 
 
 1 Mass. Archives, v. 69, p. 187. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 127 
 
 he may bee freed from the office and service of a Constable in 
 the said towne So shall he pray for yo^ Honors &c 
 
 William Buss." 
 
 Indorsements: "At a Councell held at Boston March 21 ^t 
 1677-8. 
 
 In answer to the within written petition of William Buss the 
 Councell doo hereby order (that if the towne of Concord have 
 chosen the said Buss Constable for the yeare Ensuing) that the 
 Inhabitants of the said towne forthwith meet and choose another 
 person to serve in the said office : and the said William Buss is 
 hereb}^ declaired free from the said office of Constable. 
 
 by order of the Councell John Hayward." 
 
 Major-General Gookin represented to the General 
 Court, October 14, 1685, that the Concord train-band 
 had but " one Commissioned officer that officiates in 
 this Company — viz Left. Buss who is very aged^ 
 & not well able to conduct the affiiires of y® great 
 company, therefore having informed myselfe as the 
 fittest man to suply the place of an ensigne for that 
 company, I do propound to the court Humphrey 
 Barret, who is a ffreeman & of y® church at Con- 
 cord, [illegible] a serjeant of that company, that 
 the court will make him Ensigne of Concord foot 
 company." And he was appointed accordingly. 
 
 The return of Samuel Jones, " Clerk of y^ bona," 
 made July 2. 1689, states that " the souldiers of Con- 
 cord " met together, and " by a clear voat " nominated 
 James Minott, captain, Simon Davis, lieutenant, and 
 Humphrey Barrett, ensign. The election of these 
 
 1 He was about seventy-three years of age. 
 
128 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 officers was confirmed and appointments were made 
 accordingly.^ But in November following it was 
 
 " Ordered by the Representatives That the foot Company of 
 Concord being of the number of on hundred & thre score men & 
 upward ; be devided into two Company^ and that the East quarf^ 
 of the town together w*^ that part of the south quarf^ southward 
 from that street commonly called Scotchford Lane be of on Com- 
 pany & the North quarf^ of the Town & the Remaining pt of the 
 South quart^ westward of sd Scotchford Lane be another Com- 
 pany. 
 
 Nov 'J 6^^: 1689. Ebenezer Prout Clerk." ^ 
 
 As regards education, it was true, of necessity, that 
 throughout the period of which we are treating, 
 there was little reading of books ; but every family 
 possessed and read the Bible, and in some houses 
 might have been found Fox's Book of Martyrs, and a 
 few books of sermons, or commentaries, or controver- 
 sial tracts. Kev. Peter Bulkeley had a very consider- 
 able library for those times, a portion of which he be- 
 queathed to Harvard College. From the instructions 
 received by the selectmen in the year 1672, it ap- 
 pears that the nucleus already existed of a town 
 library. It was enjoined upon those officers '' that 
 ceare be taken of the bookes of marters & other 
 bookes, that belong to the Towne, that they may be 
 kept from abeuce [ive] vesage, & not to be lent to a 
 any person more then one month at one time.'' 
 
 It is said,^ that there was a grammar school in 
 Concord before 1680 ; but, in the earlier years of the 
 
 1 Mass. Archives, v. 107, p. 166. 2 j^i^i^ y. 35, p. 70. 
 
 8 Shattuck, p. 220. 
 
CONCORD m THE COLOMAL PERIOD. 129 
 
 settlement, there could have been no regular instruc- 
 tion of the youth, except what was su|)plied by the 
 minister and by parents ; and it is not likely that 
 there was any school-house, or building specially 
 devoted to school purposes, at any time preceding 
 the gift of Captain Timothy Wheeler, in 1687. Even 
 at a much later date, schools in the outlying districts 
 were kept in the house where the master boarded, 
 and when he changed his quarters, the school also 
 moved with him. 
 
 Negative evidence to the same point is furnished 
 by the report of John Smedly and Thomas Dakin, in 
 1680, that " as for schools we have in every quarter 
 of our town men and women that teach to read and 
 write English when parents can spare their children 
 and others to go to them."-^ In the spring of 1665, 
 the town was complained of, for " not having a lattin 
 Schoole M^ ; " ^ and for the next four or five years 
 it was necessary, from time to time, to remind the 
 inhabitants of their want of a school-master, and their 
 supposed inattention to the catechizing of youth. 
 
 Our forefathers were no less mindful of the ad- 
 vantages of book learning than the rest of the 
 inland population. They saw stretching out before 
 them a life of severe labor, either in tilling the 
 soil or plying a handicraft. Learned professions, — 
 except the clerical, which was already well filled, 
 — offered no allurements. Operations of trade, or 
 
 1 Historical and Genealogical Register, v. 5, p. 173. 
 
 2 County Court Files, 
 
 9 
 
130 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 marketing the jDroducts of the soil, consisted in most 
 cases of simple barter. There was, in general, no 
 taste or desire for Avhat we should call literature, — 
 luckily, for there was nothing accessible with which 
 to satisfy the craving. The great value of the Bible, 
 considered from a literary point of view, was not 
 much dwelt upon, because of the greater importance 
 attached to it as a collection of authoritative pre- 
 cepts, which, rightly expounded, contained all that 
 was necessary for human beings to know. 
 
 Considerations of this kind enable us more readily 
 to understand how an ordinary man or woman in 
 those days might have been content with the dis- 
 courses of Sunday and lecture-day, without taking 
 the trouble to do much readins; at home. 
 
 As has been already observed, the business of buy- 
 ing and selling, as ordinarily carried on, called for 
 no complicated mathematical knowledge, or for the 
 keeping of elaborate accounts. Therefore, the art of 
 writing, now universally taught and practised, easily 
 fell into disuse, and became an accomplishment for 
 the few, at a time when all paper was imported from 
 England and letters were not expected, or, when 
 written, were carried by a private messenger at 
 considerable expense. 
 
 In 1653, the town subscribed £5 a year for seven 
 years, in aid of Harvard College, and about 1672, 
 the sum of £45 was subscribed towards building 
 Harvard Hall.^ 
 
 ^ Mass. Archives, v. 58, p. 93. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 131 
 
 In 1687, the cause of education in Concord re- 
 ceived encouragement and support from the public 
 bequests of Captain Timothy Wheeler, who died 
 July 10th, of that year. His will contained the fol- 
 lowing clause, by which he sought to promote educa- 
 tion in the town, and to enlarge the training-place, 
 as well : — 
 
 " I Give to the Towne of Concord my house that stands 
 near EUaz. Fleggs house with the Land that itt stands upon 
 and is joj'ned to itt ; w^^ is about Three acres ; be itt more or 
 Lesse bounded bj^ the Highway on the North East by my Land 
 (viz<^) the Gutter and Eliazer Fleggs Land on the North West 
 & South This I say I Give to the said Towne to be Improved 
 as followeth (viz*) ; That about halfe an acre of the said Lott 
 be Laid out to the training place the fence to Run from the 
 Corner of the House to the brow of the Hill upon a straight 
 Lyne ; the Dwelling house with the rest of the Land w*^^ all that 
 is upon itt I give to be Improved for the furtherance of Learn- 
 ing and the Support of a Schoole in the said Towne." ^ 
 
 By the same instrument he devised to the town 
 the Ministerial wood-lot, of about forty acres, situated 
 between the Turnpike and the Walden road, "to be 
 from time to time Improved for the use and benefitt 
 of the Ministry of the said Towne." 
 
 An indenture^ entered into, in the year 1688, by 
 
 1 Suffolk Probate Records, v. 10. p. 103. The dwelling-house re- 
 ferred to in the above extract was not the Bulkeley house, which, 
 together with the mill, Captain Wheeler expressly devised to his daugh- 
 ter Rebecca, wife of James Minott. 
 
 Of the school-house lot, portions were sold from time to time, until 
 two and one-half acres had shrunk to a lot barely large enough to 
 sustain the building, which is now owned by the Misses Ball and is 
 devoted to the use of the Masonic Order. 
 
 2 Mass. Archives, v. 129, p. 130. 
 
132 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 the overseers of the poor, of Boston, with Ebenezer 
 Prout, of Concord, affords evidence of what every 
 young woman was expected to know. The subject 
 of the agreement, described as " a poor Child of the 
 age of Nine years," was bound to serve as an appren- 
 tice until she became twenty-one years of age or was 
 married. Prout agreed, on his part, that she should 
 " be taught perfectly to read English, Sew, Spin, and 
 Knit as she shall be capable ; " that he would supply 
 her with " wholesome sufficient meat, drink. Apparel, 
 washing, & Lodging ; " and at the end of the term, 
 dismiss her " with two new Suits of Apparel through- 
 out, one for Lord's days, the other for working days." 
 
 It will be noticed that she was to be taught to read, 
 but nothing is said about writing. Of the first 
 planters, nearly all the men, and some of the women, 
 could write, but their sons and grandsons not infre- 
 quently signed by making a mark ; and during the 
 first three generations it was an unusual accomplish- 
 ment in a woman to be able to write her name. 
 
 As has been already intimated, we should not judge 
 of their deficiencies, in this or in other respects, ac- 
 cording to the standards of our day, any more than 
 it would be reasonable for us to gauge their intellec- 
 tual powers and attainments by the irregular habits 
 of spelling that prevailed. There was no English 
 dictionary ^ to create or authoritatively recognize a 
 
 1 Bailey's English Dictionary, published in 1728, was the first at- 
 tempt to give a full collection of the words of the language. It was for 
 a long time the only dictionary in use among English speaking people, 
 but was superseded by Dr. Johnson's great work, published in 1755. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 133 
 
 standard orthography, and even among scholars, uni- 
 formity in spelling was not then deemed the virtue 
 that it now is. 
 
 In short, under all the circumstances, it is no cause 
 for wonder, that for a time the practical advantages 
 of learning were so slight, to men of ordinary stations 
 in life, that interest in the education of the young 
 languished and seemed almost dead. All New 
 England was for a while overshadowed by ignorance 
 and credulous superstition, which, probably, in Con- 
 cord assumed their mildest forms. At all events, 
 we may be thankful that, when the clouds rolled 
 away, and the human mind reasserted itself in a de- 
 mand for knowledge, no blind delusion had left a 
 permanent blot on the town's escutcheon. 
 
 Since Concord has sometimes been called the para- 
 dise of poor people, the early charities of the town 
 are entitled to some notice at our hands. 
 
 William Halsted, dying in the year 1645, be- 
 queathed 
 
 " Unto the poore of the towne of Concord fyve pound to be 
 la3''d out in a Cow, w^^ I would have So ordered by the Deacons 
 & my executors that it may be a continual help to such as are 
 in need God giveing a blessing thereunto." ^ 
 
 That the testator's wishes were faithfully complied 
 with, appears from the following extracts from the 
 records. The first is dated July 13, 1698. 
 
 The Selectmen being enformed of y® great p^'sent want of 
 Thomas Pellit they gave order unto Stephen Hosmer to deliver 
 
 1 Suffolk Probate Records, i. 36. 
 
134 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 a Town Cow unto sd pellit for his present supply, who accord- 
 ingly delivered a cow upon y^ account afors^ unto him sd pellit 
 which cow is of a black couler, a white face with black spotts 
 Round each eye, & sd cow is to continue w^^ sd peUit so long as 
 s^ selectmen Judge necessary." 
 
 Again, in 1711, the selectmen ordered Daniel Eoss 
 
 " to drive y® Town Cow (which was with s^ Ross) to Heze- 
 kiah flaetcher there to be wintered out att the Town^ charge 
 which accordingly was done.' 
 
 " 1 
 
 When the second divisions were settled, in 1654, 
 it was agreed 
 
 ' ' that all poore men in the Towne that have not Comones to 
 the numbar of foure shall be alloued so many as amounts to foure, 
 with what they have all Redy ; shall have till they be able to 
 purchis for themselues ; or untell the Townesmen shall see Case 
 to take it from them ; and bestow it on others that want ; And 
 we mene those poore men ; that at the psent are householdres." 
 
 The will of Kobert Meriam, who died in 1682, con- 
 tains the following clause : 
 
 " I give to the poor of the Town of Concord four pounds in 
 Corne." 
 
 The early settlers of America were quick to be- 
 lieve stories of marvellous productions and discoveries. 
 Behef in the existence of mines of gold, silver, and 
 other minerals, was ever present to them, and acted 
 as a lively incentive to new efforts. In other quarters, 
 expeditions were planned and conducted by old men 
 in search of the fountain of youth, and in the ex- 
 tract from Johnson already quoted,^ we are informed 
 
 1 See agreement with John Cotton, Ante, p. 26. ^ j^^te, p. 4. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 135 
 
 that even the pioneer families of Concord were 
 cheered, on their journey from Watertown, " with 
 hopes of a new and strange discovery, expecting 
 every houre to see some rare sight never seen 
 before." 
 
 In many respects, as we have already perceived, 
 their hopes were to be disappointed. It remains for 
 us to explore the attempts that were made to dis- 
 cover valuable minerals within the bounds of Concord. 
 
 The legislative body, by a vote passed October 14, 
 
 1657, granted to the inhabitants of Concord ^^ 
 
 " liberty to erect one or more iron workes vf^Hn the Ijmits of 
 theire oune toune bounds, or in any comon place neere there- 
 vnto." 1 
 
 Operations were begun under this authority, but 
 
 it appears that the franchise was not deemed liberal 
 
 enough, for, in 1660, the Court made the following 
 
 order : — 
 
 '' In answer to the petition of the company in partnership in 
 the iron- works at Concord, the Court judgeth it not meete to 
 graunt theire request, i. e., liberty to digg mine in any mans 
 propriety without theire consent ; yett being willing to encourage 
 the petitioners in so good a worke, doe graunt them free liberty 
 to digg mine without molestation in any lands now in the Courts 
 possession." ^ 
 
 A company was formed, works were erected at 
 Westvale, where the mill of the Damon Manufactur- 
 ing Company now stands ; and in a few years the 
 proprietors owned more than four hundred acres 
 within the old bounds of Concord, and about twelve 
 
 ^ Mass. Records, iv. pt. i. 311. 2 7^/^?., iv. pt. i. 429. 
 
136 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 ___ . — . i 
 
 hundred acres, bought, for the most part, of Major 
 
 Willard, and lying principally in the town's New j 
 
 Grant, but partially in Sudbury.^ I 
 
 The bog ore discovered in this territory, specimens | 
 of which may still be found, was ascertained to be ; 
 inferior in quality, and not sufficiently remunerative i 
 to the adventurers. Joseph Jenckes was prominent ; 
 in carrying on the works, the unprofitable character , 
 of which may be inferred from the fact that, in the > 
 year 1668, Joseph Wormwood, brother-in-law of , 
 Jenckes, and employed by him at the iron works, 
 received formal notice from the selectmen that he 
 was not considered a desirable inhabitant for the ] 
 town, and was requested to depart. This proceeding | 
 was strictly according to the statute and custom, and | 
 was resorted to, in order to prevent the person so I 
 warned from becoming a charge to the town. The 
 reasons assigned for giving the notice in Wormwood's ; 
 case were, that he had no property in town, and that i 
 the prospect for the business in which he was en- 
 gaged was not considered good.^ : 
 
 Peter Bulkeley, Esquire, owned an interest in the | 
 works, at his decease, but in 1701 James Kussell, of 
 
 Charlestown, who appears to have become the sole ] 
 
 owner of the property, is found conveying parcels to ] 
 
 Samuel Wright, John Barker, Jr., Samuel Jones, I 
 
 Ephraim Jones, and Jonathan Knight.^ t 
 
 1 Middlesex Deeds, L. 9, f. 70. | 
 
 2 County Court Files. 
 8 Middlesex Deeds, L. 12, f. 599, 634; L. 13, f. 43. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 137 
 
 A deposition which was taken April 9, 1697, and 
 is preserved in the manuscript archives of the State/ 
 informs us that one Augustus Leihtenegger " did at- 
 tend the work of a mine or minerall at a place called 
 fair haven within the Limitts of the Towne of 
 Concord/' for the term of six months, under a con- 
 tract entered into with Herman and Hezekiah Usher, 
 merchants, of Boston ; and that he ^- did in the winter 
 last past build a bridge at his own charge to facilitate 
 his passage too and from Said worke." A house 
 built for the accommodation of the workmen was 
 called " the Mine house/' and the scene of the exca- 
 vations is still known by the name of Mine Hill. It 
 is situated on the farm of George H. Wright, near 
 the bridge at Nine- Acre Corner, where copper ore is 
 now found in the deep excavation made almost two 
 hundred years ago, in the vain hope, which was 
 cherished by so many of the first planters of New 
 England, that the earth would be found to compen- 
 sate for its lack of fertility by disclosing mineral 
 wealth. 
 
 The road to Shawshine Corner ran across a brook 
 called Tar-kiln Brook, a name not uncommon in the 
 old towns, and arising from the practice of tapping 
 the large pine trees to obtain the material from 
 which turpentine and tar were manufactured. 
 
 In estimating the resources of the town, in colo- 
 nial times, it should be noted that there was little 
 need to go elsewhere for manufactured articles. 
 
 1 Volume 88, p. 147. 
 
138 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 Cloth for garments was made at home from the 
 wool of sheep that browsed on Concord hills. The 
 operations of tanning and currying hides, and mak- 
 ing the leather into boots and shoes, were all carried 
 on within a radius of a few rods. Carpenters built 
 houses and barns, and made chairs, tables, trenchers, 
 spoons, and various other kinds of wooden ware. 
 Blacksmiths fashioned nails, hooks, hinges, latches, 
 and bolts, to be used in the construction of build- 
 ings. Smoking kilns supplied lime and bricks, and 
 three or four saw-mills in various parts of the town 
 were busily clearing the land of the forest growth, 
 and thus supplying a large quantity of lumber for an 
 ever increasing variety of uses. 
 
 Upon complaint made in the year 1660, for want 
 of a public house, a license was obtained in October, 
 for Sergeant William Buss, to keep a house of com- 
 mon entertainment^ at a place on, or very near 
 to, the site of the hotel kept in modern times by 
 Joseph Holbrook. 
 
 The application was indorsed by the selectmen as 
 follows ^ : — 
 
 *' To the honoi-ed Con meeting at Cambridge Octob'' 2^ 1660. 
 
 The hono^'ed Co^t may bee pleased hereby to understand that 
 wee, the Selectmen of this Towne of Concord whose names are 
 here under written have beene solicitous to Indeavor the settling 
 of an ordinary-keeper in our towne, and have found much diffi- 
 cult^^ in securing such an one as wee could rest well satisf^'ed 
 in for such a place. Butt having p'^vailed w^^ the Bearer hereof 
 Serjeant Busse to keepe it for this yeare past, wee have also 
 
 1 County Court Records. ^ Ihid. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 139 
 
 p^cured him to keepe it for a yeare longer ; only hee desireth to 
 bee free from any engagement to sell wine & strong waters. 
 Oct: 1: 1660. 
 
 Robert Meriam 
 Robert ffletcher 
 George Wheeler 
 James hosmer 
 
 W^^ the Consent of the Rest." 
 
 It seems that honest Buss did not lose his repug- 
 nance to the business of liquor selling, for in 1664, 
 when the selectmen requested a renewal of his 
 license, they desired that it might be limited to 
 keeping " a house of comon entertainment ; " and, 
 as he was not '^ willing to keepe wine and Liquors," 
 they asked that Eobert Meriam might have a Hcense 
 "to retale wine and Liquors for the nessesary use 
 of the towne and travilers." The court granted a 
 general license to Buss to keep a public house, but 
 does not appear to have acted upon the request to 
 license Meriam.^ It may or may not be encourag- 
 ing, to learn that the practical treatment of the 
 liquor question at that day involved many of the 
 same difficulties with which later generations have 
 become familiar. 
 
 In 1670, the selectmen requested that John Hey- 
 wood might be allowed " to keep a house of enter 
 tainment for strangers for nights loging, beer, and 
 sider," also that Eobert Meriam might be impow- 
 ered " to sell wine & strongwater to those that are 
 sick or weeke & stand in need of our owne towne, 
 
 1 County Court Files. 
 
140 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 & strangers that want." The same year Michael 
 Wood, " clerk of the Iron- works/' was licensed to 
 sell strong liquors to the laborers connected with the 
 works.^ 
 
 Two years afterwards, "John Haywood ordnary 
 keeper at Concord renewed his license/' and had 
 liberty granted him " to retaile strong waters to 
 travellers & sicke persons/' upon giving a bond.^ He 
 lived on the lot that was occupied, until recently, by 
 the Bigelow Tavern, and we first learn of him as 
 keeper of a pubHc house, in the year 1666. 
 
 In attempting to enumerate the amusements of 
 the people of Concord, in colonial times, one is not 
 embarrassed by wealth of materials. It was not 
 merely that anything humorous lacked encourage- 
 ment, it was actively frowned upon. A profound 
 impression is produced upon the student who, after 
 searching in vain for evidence that the colonists some- 
 times saw the ludicrous side of things, is compelled 
 to recognize the almost entire absence of humor, 
 that characterizes the records, writings, and books 
 of the period. 
 
 Cotton Mather, indeed, perpetrates execrable puns, 
 that provoke merriment by their very poverty of wit ; 
 but it is generally true that whatever amuses us in 
 the annals of these times, does so, wholly, because 
 of our altered point of view, and the marked differ- 
 ence of our surroundings. We are led to the belief 
 that the actors in the scenes depicted on the records 
 
 1 County Court Files. 2 i^id. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 141 
 
 looked upon life as a very serious and sad affair ; 
 but not the less did they exert themselves to do 
 their duty according to the light afforded them, with 
 a martyr-like fortitude, the effect of which is en- 
 hanced by the dreary back-ground. 
 
 Theological and doctrinal discussions had great 
 charms for our ancestors, and the Bible afforded 
 endless themes for conversation. The ordinaries 
 slowly grew into favor as places of resort for the 
 less sober members of the community, who there 
 stimulated their faculties with wine or strong water 
 (this was before the day of New-England rum), and 
 indulged in a style and subjects of conversation some- 
 what less strict than were allowed elsewhere. The 
 writer has found no indication of the prevalence 
 of any kind of games or sports in Concord, but an 
 apprentice in one of the adjoining towns was com- 
 plained of by his master, in 1666, for "playing att 
 nine pins & cudgells" at the house of a neighbor, 
 during one entire day, and until nine o'clock at 
 night. 
 
 There were, no doubt, pleasant gatherings about 
 the spacious fire-places, when neighbors talked to- 
 gether of the crops and the cattle, and the last story 
 about the Indians was told with bated breath. There 
 is ample evidence that the men, both young and old, 
 were not insensible to the gentle influence of the 
 other sex ; for marriages were entered into early in 
 life, families were large, and second and third mar- 
 riages were not uncommon. An unmarried man of 
 
142 CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 a certain age was regarded with suspicion, and in 
 
 1670, Thomas Tally, who had hved four years in 
 
 Concord, was summoned to court " to answer for his 
 
 long absence from his wife." ^ Being presented in 
 
 due form for this offence by the Grand Jury, he 
 
 submitted the following petition : — 
 
 " The Humble petition of Thomas Tally 
 
 Humbly sheweth That the sayd Tally did intend to have gone 
 
 for England to his wife the last fall but that a neighbour of 
 
 Concord went for England and into the same parts where she 
 
 liveth, by whome, the sa3'd Tally sent to and for his wife and 
 
 expects a returne b}' the same person : and if he have no answer, 
 
 this returne of the ships he doth intend to go for England at the 
 
 fall if not before and if the honoured Court shall please beare 
 
 with him till that time yo^ petitioner will be farther engaged to 
 
 pray &c. 
 
 Thomas Tally." 
 
 The magistrates were unmoved by his entreaties, 
 and although poor Tally begged to the last that he 
 might be allowed more time in which to collect the 
 money that was due him, and for further opportunity 
 to hear from his wife, the decree went forth that 
 banished him from the jurisdiction. 
 
 Viewed from this distance, the betrothals and 
 marriages wear a sombre and business-like look. 
 Both law and public sentiment regarded marriage 
 as a civil contract and nothing more. The ceremony 
 was not performed by ministers, but by lay magis- 
 trates, or persons specially appointed and commis- 
 sioned for that purpose by the General Court, on the 
 petition of the Selectmen.^ 
 
 1 County Court Files. 2 gg^ Mass. Archives, v. 35, p. 304. 
 
CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 143 
 
 An account of a marriage contract is preserved 
 among the Middlesex Deeds.^ Peter Wright^ who 
 was one of the parties chiefly interested, was a 
 weaver, and died January 15, 1718, aged fifty-three; 
 therefore, at the time of making the following agree- 
 ment, he was eighteen years of age. He devised 
 property to the town, which was the nucleus of the 
 fund for the Silent Poor. 
 
 "Wee whose names are underwritten do testify that wee 
 being at Edward Wright's house at Concord in New England 
 December 31 1683 the s^ Edward Wright Sen^ & Widdow 
 Lambson of the same Towne did both of them before us give 
 free consent that Peter Wright son of the s^ Edward Wright & 
 Elizabeth Lambson might joj'ne themselves in marriage when 
 they pleased observing the Orders here established for that end. 
 And at the same time Edward Wright did give unto his son 
 Peter for his portion before us All his land & meadow on the 
 Easterl}^ side the Brooke,^ bounded with the Brook, North Eiver, 
 Widdow Lambson's land & John Smedlys land only reserving 
 to himself & his other two sons free liberty to make use of the 
 Timber Brush & Gravell upon that land & the use of one halfe 
 the meadow till Edward Wright Jun'^ & Samuel Wright should 
 flow theyr meadow & the s<^ Peter to joyne with them according 
 to his meadow and Widdow Lambson at the same time before 
 us did engage to make her daughter Elizabeths portion worth 
 ten pounds upon her marriage-day with Peter Wright afores*^. 
 What is above written was in the presence & approved by 
 Edward Wright Sen^ & his wife, Widdow Lambson & all 
 Edward Wrights Sen^^ Sons, and Robert Blood for to stand 
 good for the fulfilling of what is abovewritten in all respects, 
 Peter Wright paying to his sister Sarah ten pounds when she 
 
 1 L. 9, f. 78. 
 
 2 Land now owned by the Commonwealth, in the west part of the 
 town. 
 
144 CONCORD IX THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 comes to age in common pay as it shall then go between man & 
 man here in Concord. Edward Wright also engaged to make 
 his son Peters portion worth thirty pounds upon his marriage 
 
 day. 
 
 John Smedly Sen^ 
 James Smedly " 
 
 Sworn to "18:4:1684.'* 
 
 We know that the grim surroundings did not alto- 
 gether quench the frolicsome spirits of children, 
 although, unfortunately, the evidence comes to us 
 from the court records. There, clothed in the quaint 
 idioms that prevailed at the time, is an account of a 
 practical joke played upon a worthy family, who lived 
 nearly opposite to the meeting-house, and, for the 
 promotion of other people's fun, were compelled to 
 forego their Sunday dinner. It was in 1678.^ 
 
 ' ' Thomas Pellet & Mary his wife appearing in court do upon 
 their oaths say & attest, that the last Sabbath day was a fort- 
 night, some young persons being at their house at noon time 
 when the Sacrament was administering their pot being boiling 
 over their fire, when they came to take of the same, they found 
 it much abused, & that tobacco smaller & greater pieces they 
 found therein, whereby the provisions therein was made unfit 
 to be eaten, & that some of their children tasting of some little 
 thereof, became sick & vomited. Also they both add that when 
 they came to take notice of their pot, thej^ observed that Mary 
 Power, Hannah Stannup & Peter Rice did laugh & nicker." 
 
 Eight persons were fined for this " rudeness " and 
 " mischeife done to y^ victualls of Thomas Pellet on 
 y® Lord's day." In the margin of the record is : 
 " Concord men for spoyling Pellet's dinn''." 
 
 1 County Court Records. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 145 
 
 In the early colonial days, no one could vote, or 
 hold office, or even serve as juryman, until he had 
 been admitted a freeman, and none could be so 
 admitted, except members of the churches.^ This 
 extraordinary rule was departed from (though slowly 
 and reluctantly), because it was found that a strict 
 enforcement of it would exclude a majority of the 
 adult male population from taking part in the doings 
 of the body politic.^ 
 
 A more liberal practice crept in, by which per- 
 sons who had taken the oath of fidelity to the 
 commonwealth, were allowed the privilege of voting 
 in military and town affairs, and of holding town 
 office. It was by no means strange, therefore, that 
 before many years the applications to be admitted 
 freemen of the commonwealth almost ceased. 
 
 It is, however, interesting to observe that the 
 practice was revived in 1689, after the forfeiture of 
 the old charter, and before the government of the 
 Province was established. In the spring of that year, 
 the selectmen of Concord made the following return 
 of the non-freemen who were free-holders, possess- 
 ing houses and lands of the yearly value of six 
 pounds.^ 
 
 ^ Hutchinson, i. 30; Lechford; 3 Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls, viii. 191, 
 237. 
 
 2 Winthrop, ii. 209, Savage's note. Hutchinson says that this re- 
 quirement was continued in force, until the dissolution of the govern- 
 ment under Andros, " it being repealed in appearance only, after the 
 restoration of King Charles the Second." History, p. 31. 
 
 3 Mass. Archives, v. 35, p. 352. 
 
 10 
 
146 
 
 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 " In Concord y© 3 of l^t nuinth 16|f 
 An acount taken of the nonfrremen which are free holders, 
 whos housing and Lands do amount to the uallew of six pounds 
 rante by the year. 
 
 Mr Jams Minerd 
 Danell Dane 
 Thomas gobile, S[enior] 
 Robord Blood, S 
 John "wheler, S 
 Nemiah hunt, S 
 Samuell Davis, S 
 John Shaperd, S 
 Abraham Tempel 
 Recherd Tempel 
 Isaac Tempel 
 Simon Davis 
 Roberd Blood 
 Simon Blood 
 Josiah Blood 
 Judath poter 
 John Jones 
 
 Nathanell Stow 
 Nathaell Harwood 
 Eliphelet fox 
 John Ball 
 Samuel flecher 
 Timithy Ries 
 Samuell Stratten 
 Johnethen habord 
 Joshua Wheler 
 James Smadly 
 Nathanell Buse 
 John wood 
 Abraham wood 
 Obadiah wheler 
 John Ilaward 
 Thomas Wheler 
 Steuen Hosmer 
 John Hartwill 
 
 Thomas: Wheeler: " 
 
 HOMPHARY BaRET 
 
 Nathaniel : Billing : )- Select men 
 Steuen Hosmor ] 
 
 Eliphelet ffox J 
 
 21« March. 1689. Voted by the Court to be ffremen 
 
 Ebenezer Prout, Clerk. 
 Consent? 
 
 Js* Addington SeC^." 
 
 Accompanying this document is a certificate written 
 and signed by the minister of the town, which runs 
 as follows : ^ 
 
 1 Mass. Archives, v. 35, p. 352. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 147 
 
 " Concord March 12tti fa 
 
 All whom y® knowledge of what is here exp^ssed doth con- 
 cerne may please hereby to understand, that y® :psons here 
 named are members in the full comunion of the church ; Leiften* 
 Simon Davis, Leiften* Jonathan Prescot, Joseph ffrench, Thomas 
 Pellet, Samuel Hunt ; Eliezer fflag, Samuel Hartwell, Samuel 
 Myriam, John Wheeler, Samuel How, Abraham Taylor, John 
 Ha3^ward, Nathaniel Ball, Samuel Wheate, Timothy Wheeler, 
 John Myriam, Daniel Pellet ; Wittnesse my hand : 
 
 Edward Bulkely." 
 
 "22d March, 1689. 
 
 All above written (Except Daniel Pellet) voted to be ffree- 
 men. 
 
 his age being questioned. Js^ Addington Sec^y. 
 
 Ebenezer Prout Clerk. 
 
 From these interesting documents, taken together, 
 we may infer that the thirty-five men, whose names 
 appear in the first list, were not members of the 
 church, although four of the selectmen of that year 
 are included in the number. Indeed, almost all the 
 early families that survived had a representative on 
 this list of the unchurched, and every name stands for 
 an owner of property, — a man whose interests were 
 thoroughly identified with the prosperity of the town. 
 This return shows us, as nothing else could do, how 
 completely the old forms and regulations had been 
 outgrown and quietly allowed to become obsolete. 
 
 It is also seen, with no less clearness, that now, 
 when the old charter had been destroyed by its 
 enemies, albeit under due process of law,^ and Sir 
 
 ^ The proceedings against the Massachusetts Company were by in- 
 formation in the nature of a quo warranto, based upon supposed neglect 
 
148 CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 Edmund Andros^ as Governor, was sailing the ship of 
 state, with no rudder or compass but his own will, 
 which never yet had coincided with the will of the 
 people whom he was governing, a new interest was 
 felt by the colonists in the forms prescribed by the 
 old charter, under which, notwithstanding its defects, 
 they derived title to all their worldly possessions. 
 
 There can be no doubt that great injustice has 
 been done to the memory of Andros ; ^ but when rev- 
 olution had been decided upon, inasmuch as he was 
 the immediate representative of a bad government at 
 home, the people were fally justified in treating him 
 as part of the thing to be reformed. 
 
 He had exerted himself to procure the overthrow 
 of the charter, which was revered by the people as 
 
 or abuse of the company's franchises. The suit was begun in 1683, 
 and judgment of forfeiture was ordered on June 18, 1684, on default 
 of the defendant; but further time was allowed for an appearance. 
 Secretary Edward Rawson did not receive official notice of the court's 
 final decision until July 2, 1685. Hutchinson, i. 305, 306. 
 
 A commission from the King arrived in the Rose frigate on May 
 15, 1686, appointing a provisional government for the colony, consist- 
 ing of a Council of which Joseph Dudley was to be President. 
 
 Sir Edmund Andros arrived on December 9, 1G86, in the Kingfisher, 
 bearing commissions as governor of the whole of New England. His 
 government was subverted in April, 1689; and on May 14, 1692, Sir 
 William Phips arrived in Boston with the charter creating the Province 
 of the Massachusetts-Bay in New England, which remained in force 
 until the Revolution of 1775. 
 
 1 " A careful examination of the life of Andros will probably con- 
 vince the student that he was a brave and loyal servant of the crown, 
 a devout but not bigoted churchman, and very far from being the 
 tyrant that New England traditions have portrayed." Sewall's Diary, 
 i. 175, note. 
 
CONCORD m THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 149 
 
 their palladium. For his own emolument, he in- 
 creased the fees a.nd other expenses incident to the 
 transaction of public business and the settlement of 
 estates. The Governor and Council laid taxes with- 
 out consulting those who were to pay them, and 
 town meetings were prohibited, except for the pur- 
 pose of choosing officers once a year, or to comply 
 with the Governor's orders. 
 
 It is possible, though not probable, that these vio- 
 lations of the old order might have been submitted 
 to, in preference to a resort to revolutionary vio- 
 lence ; but the smouldering embers of popular dis- 
 content were fanned into a destructive flame, when 
 Andros, undoubtedly acting under instructions from 
 the home government, declared all the land titles 
 null and void. Did the colonists urge a purchase 
 from the Indians, he answered that he cared no more 
 for an Indian signature than for "the scratch of a 
 bear's paw." The argument from long-continued 
 occupation, under a claim of right, was dismissed 
 with the answer, that no length of possession could 
 make valid a grant from one who had no title. 
 
 With the proverbial timidity of capital, some of 
 the owners of large estates, in Boston and elsewhere, 
 bowed to the Governor's dictum, and asked that their 
 titles might be confirmed to them at a nominal quit- 
 rent, wdiich was accordingly done, on the payment 
 of substantial fees. But the mass of the people 
 held aloof from this recognition of the theory that 
 king or courtier could show a better title to the 
 
150 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 lands that had been reclaimed from the wilderness 
 by the exertions of their fathers, and defended by 
 their own arms. They turned a cold shoulder upon 
 men who, like Samuel Sewall, were in other respects 
 worthy of honor, and in full sympathy with the de- 
 sire for a return to the old order of things under 
 the colony charter, but had not the courage to risk 
 all that they possessed, in a contest with the repre- 
 sentatives of the crown.-^ With characteristic sim- 
 plicity Sewall writes : " The generality of People are 
 very averse from complying with anything that may 
 alter the Tenure of their Lands, and look upon me 
 very sorrowfully that I have given away." ^ 
 
 The Revolution that expelled James 11. from the 
 throne of England afforded the opportunity desired 
 by the colonists, who rose almost as one man, to 
 defend their homes and the rights of Englishmen. 
 In 1689, on the Nineteenth of April, an oft-recur- 
 ring date in American history, the Concord people 
 despatched their military company to Boston, under 
 the command of Lieutenant John Heald, to assist in 
 the revolt.^ The revolution was accomplished with- 
 out blood-shed, but a valuable precedent was estab- 
 lished for America, as well as for England. For 
 
 1 It is believed that no one in Concord petitioned for a confirma- 
 tion of title, with the exception of Rebecca, widow of Peter Bulkeley, 
 Esquire, who, in 1688, joined with Thomas Hinchman in a petition for 
 the confirmation of their title to " the moiety or one half part of the 
 Indian Plantation called Nashobah." Mass. Archives, v. 128, p. 266. 
 
 2 Diary, i. 231, note. 
 
 3 Shattuck, p. 66. 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 151 
 
 the first, but not for the last time^ on this continent, 
 
 " English law and English thought 
 'Gainst the self-will of England fought." 
 
 The overthrow of the Andros administration left 
 the colonists without any legal or de facto govern- 
 ment, and, true to their instincts, the towns met 
 in convention, on May 22d, to consider the state of 
 affairs. The people of Concord defined their posi- 
 tion in a striking and truly characteristic manner. 
 They were duly represented in the convention, 
 which decided to reinstate the government chosen 
 under the charter in 1686, and to wait for orders 
 from the new king and queen in England.^ 
 
 This action of the convention was foreshadowed, 
 two days earlier, in the vote of the freeholders of 
 this town, as shown by the following certificate of 
 the Selectmen ^ : — 
 
 " May 20th i689. 
 
 Att a meeting of the ffree-Holders of the Towne of Concord, 
 wee do mutually desire that according as wee have declared our- 
 selves b}^ a writeing sent by the Hands of our representatives, 
 that our old authority chosen & sworn in the year 1686 w*^ the 
 deputy es then chosen & sent to the court may reasume their 
 places and if that cannot be attained, our desires is that that a 
 councell of war maj' be chosen & settled by our representi- 
 tives when met together att boston w^^ the rest of the repre- 
 sentitives of the country. 
 
 1 Ebenezer Prout of Concord, was made " Clerk to the Representa- 
 tives," and as such, signed the order for the removal of Andros to the 
 Castle, on June 6, 1689. Mass. Archives, v. 107, p. 84. 
 
 2 Mass. Archives, v. 107, p. 44. 
 
152 CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 Signed the date above mentioned being then a generall voat 
 of the freeholders of this Town. 
 
 Thomas Wheeler 
 Steven Hosmer 
 Joseph French 
 
 Select men in y® name of y^ Rest." 
 
 The votes of other towns were sufficiently firm in 
 their tone, showing a due appreciation of the serious 
 condition of pubhc affairs, and affirming the popular 
 view of the questions involved. They were, how- 
 ever, couched in general terms, and the official com- 
 munication from the Concord Selectmen, as given 
 above, — ill-spelled and ungrammatical as it is, — 
 was the only formal declaration sent to the seat of 
 government, of readiness to go to war in defence 
 of popular rights. 
 
 The emergency was an education. The citizens 
 forgot their dislike of free speech ; their minds were 
 lifted out of the range of petty scandal and neigh- 
 borhood gossip, to loftier considerations of the welfare 
 of the race. They were ennobled by the occasion, 
 and when the rights of Englishmen were assailed, 
 stood shoulder to shoulder, as if they recognized 
 the immense simificance of their action to future 
 generations of men. 
 
 It was not difficult for the people of Concord to 
 take this stand. It was the way of their ancestors, 
 established long years before in the old country; 
 and the sons were but giving expression, in their 
 day and generation, to the ancient Kentish spirit, 
 
CONCORD IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 153 
 
 which had already become the spirit of Massachu- 
 setts, and was destined at a later day to animate a 
 great nation. 
 
 " The Puritan Spirit, perishing not, 
 
 To Concord's yeomen the signal sent. 
 And spake in the voice of the cannon shot. 
 That severed the chains of a continent." 
 
INDEX. 
 
 AaNTONUISH, 14. 
 
 Acton, 54 ; its eastern boundary, 7, 8, 65; part of, joined to Carlisle, 8. 
 Adams, John, 71; his house, 71, 73; sells estate to Stratton, 87. 
 
 Samuel, 15. 
 
 Thomas, sells estate to Stratton, 87. 
 Allen, Thomas, grant to, 61, 65. 
 Amusements, 140, 141. 
 Andros, Sir Edmund, Governor, 148; his character and proceedings, 
 
 148, 149 ; his government subverted, 148, 150. 
 Angler's Mills, 15. 
 Annursnack Hill, 70, 103. 
 Atawans, 16. (See Tahatowan.) 
 
 Baker, Wllliam, his house-lot, 86. 
 Ball, John, 125, 146. 
 
 Nathaniel, 32, 83, 147; his house-lot, 87. 
 Barker, Francis, his dwelling-place, 86. 
 
 John, his dwelling-place, 86; Junior, 136. 
 Barnes, John, killed by Indians, 105. 
 
 Barrett, Humphrey, 20; his house-lot, 88; ensign, 127; selectman, 
 146. 
 
 Widow, 73. 
 Barron, John, 35. 
 Bateman, Thomas, 40, 83; on committee to divide highways, &c., 70; 
 
 overseer, 76 ; his house-lot, 88. 
 Bateman's Pond, 83. 
 
 Bay Road, The, 80 ; house-lots on, 86, 87. 
 Beaver Dam, 79. 
 
 Pond, 10, 32, 82, 95. 
 Bedford, 8, 9, 61; plan of, 6; its bounds in part, 10. 
 Beers, Richard, 53 ; his return of land, 54. 
 
156 INDEX. 
 
 Bellows, John, 73. 
 Bennett, James, 35. 
 Berry Corner, 8. 
 Bigelow Tavern, 140. 
 
 Billerica, 6, 54, 61, 84, 113, 114; extracts from its records, 9; bounds 
 renewed with, 9; old line of, 6, 10; bridge, 77; road, 80; old 
 line of, 6, 10; collects rates of the Bloods, 62; new grant to, 65; 
 controversy with Concord and the Bloods, 65, 66. 
 Billings, John, 20. 
 
 Nathaniel, 99; his house-lot, 87; selectman, 146; Junior, 73. 
 Births, record of, 21. 
 Blackbirds, destruction of, 19. 
 Black Point, 125. 
 Blood, Elizabeth, 51, 65. 
 
 James, 40, 57, 59; sergeant, on committee to divide highways, 
 &c., 70; his second division, 82; his house-lot, 88; his servant, 
 103; Junior, his second division, 82; his house-lot, 88. 
 John, part-owner of Blood's Farms, 62. 
 Josiah, 65, 146. 
 
 Robert, 143, 146; his petition, 51; acquires land, 62; pays rates 
 in Concord and Billerica, 62-64 ; assaults Concord oflBcers, 63 ; 
 his agreement with Concord, 64; his controversy with Concord 
 and Billerica about bounds, 65, 66; Junior, 63, 64, 146. 
 Samuel, 65. 
 Simon, 64, 146. 
 Blood's Farms, bounds of, 6; how acquired, 61, 62; taxed by Concord, 
 63; annexation of, 64, 65; their bounds, how renewed, 65; 
 occupants seek shelter in Concord, 104. 
 Bohow, Benjamin, 58. 
 
 Sarah, 58. 
 Books, belonging to town, 19, 128; reading of, 130. 
 Boston, road to, 80. 
 Brick-kiln field, 19, 67. 
 
 Bridge, foot, over North River, 19; over South River, 69, 70; North 
 River, land reserved for, 70; assigned to East Quarter, 74; 
 carried away by flood, 78. 
 Bridges, support of, 69 ; assigned to the quarters, 74; county, 77; their 
 
 location, 77, 78; over Mill Brook, &c., 79; allowance for, 79. 
 Brooke, Caleb, his dwelling-place, 87. 
 Gershom, 20. 
 
 Joshua, 20; his dwelling-place, 87. 
 
 Thomas, 1; on committee for valuing cattle, 37; to divide 
 highways, &c., 70; other committees, 52, 66; takes second 
 division in East Quarter, 68, 71; land assigned to, 73; sells 
 estate to Wheeler, 87; licensed to sell liquor to Indians, 101. 
 
INDEX. 157 
 
 Brookfield, fight at, 108-113. 
 
 Brook Meadow, 85; farm so called, 91. 
 
 Brooks, Noah, 58. 
 
 Browmick, Castle, 89. 
 
 Brown, Abishai, fences Hill Burying-Ground, 99. 
 
 Browne, Thomas, 66 ; on town committee, 9; ensign, 99; wounded by- 
 Indians, 105, 124. 
 
 Bulkeley, Rev. Edward, 90; petitioner, 78; attorney for his brother, 82; 
 succeeds his father, 24; new agreement of town with him, 25; 
 criticisms of him, 31; spelling of the name, 41; his house-lot, 
 88; his certificate, 147. 
 Grace, her embarkation, 1; sells estate to "Wheelers, 89; Buss's 
 deed to her, 94; her dispute with town about mill privilege, 96. 
 Rev. John, returns to England, 37. 
 
 Rev. Peter, his embarkation, 1; his English home, 3; founder of 
 Concord, 1; chosen teacher, 2, 3; name, how spelled, 42; treaty 
 with Indians at his house, 12, 14, 16; sole pastor, 24; his sal- 
 ary, z&. ; writes petition in Martin's case, 28; his conduct in 
 Jones matter, 36; death and burial, 41, 43; character and posi- 
 tion, 42-45; his letters, 42, 43; his attitude towards the Indians, 
 100; his rate, 76; his farm, 81; buys estate of Hayward, 85; 
 his dwelling-place, 68, 86, 89, 131; his library, 128; grants 
 to, 94; builds town mill, 94; covenant about mill privilege, 96. 
 Peter, Esquire, son of Rev. Edward, 90; chosen to assist in seating 
 the meeting-house, 26 ; on committee to treat with the Bloods, 
 64 ; name, how spelled, 41 ; his house-lot, 86, 91 ; military offices, 
 122, 126; his position and services, 90, 91; his interest in the 
 Iron Works, 136 ; bis widow's petition for confirmation of title, 
 150. 
 Peter, of London, apothecary, 82. 
 Rebecca, petitions for confirmation of title, 150. 
 
 Bulkeley 's Farm, 82. 
 
 Burgess, Thomas, 89 ; his house-lot, 86. 
 
 Burial-Hill, The, 86, 97. 
 
 Burying-Grounds, 88; their age, 97, 98; fencing them, 98, 99. 
 
 Buss, Joseph, 124. 
 Nathaniel, 146. 
 
 William, 3, 28, 73 ; keeps ordinary but declines to sell liquor, 138, 
 139; chirurgeon, 30; his house-lot, 88, 31; overseer, 76; his deed 
 to Grace Bulkeley, 94; keeps mill, 95; ensign, 125; his petition, 
 126; lieutenant, 127. 
 
 Buttrick, Joseph, killed by Indians, 105. 
 
 William, his embarkation, 1 ; his English home, 3 ; opposes division 
 of highways, 70 ; his testimony, 13, 17 ; his house-lot, 88 ; released 
 from training, 121. 
 
158 INDEX. 
 
 Ca ATO, alias Goodmans, 16 ; sells Sudbury five miles, 16. 
 
 Cade, Jack, 47. 
 
 Cambridge, 15, 84, 108; grant to, 50. 
 
 Farms, road to, 80. 
 Carlisle, 54, 62, 65; District of , 8; incorporated, 8. 
 Carts, impressment of, 5. 
 
 r^ , r James and Sarah, 59, 60. 
 
 Casumpat > ' 
 
 Catechizing of children, &c., 24, 129. 
 
 Cattle, how herded and pastured, 19, 20, 103; commons for, 55; brand- 
 ing of, 103; dry, pasturing of, 56. 
 
 Cedar Swamp, 9. 
 
 Chambers, Charles, 82. 
 
 Charities, early, 133, 134. 
 
 Charlestown, 15, 41; road to, 80. 
 
 Charter, of the Colony, its dissolution, 90; proceedings against, 147, 
 148; of the Province, 148. 
 
 Chelmsford laid out, 51, 54, 55, 59, 62, 66, 113, 124; bridge, 77. 
 
 Church, The, organization of, 3, 22, 23; not transplanted, 2; affairs 
 of, how conducted, 26 ; petition of, 28, 29 ; advised by Boston 
 elders, 35; how affected by Mr. Jones's removal, 36; members 
 of, 147. 
 
 Clark, William, buys land, 94. 
 
 Clerk of the Writs, 21. 
 
 Cliffs, The, 67. 
 
 Colburn house-lot, 81, 85. 
 
 Commissioners for the Colonies, their order, 2; for improving mea- 
 dows, 34; to end small matters, 20. 
 
 Common, The, line of, 94; encroached upon by mill-pond, 92. 
 
 Commons, habitations privileged with, to be recorded, 19 ; votes of town 
 about, 55; not to be overcharged, 20; to be used for repair of 
 mill damage, 94, 97; cow, defined, 68; to be allowed to poor 
 men, 134. ' 
 
 Comy, Daniel, killed by Indians, 105. 
 
 Concord, first inland plantation, 50; name of, 5; immunity from pub- 
 lic charges, 5, 37; Old, map of, 5-10, 32; Wood's plan of, 7; 
 map of, by Hales, 7; petition for reduction of rates, 38, 39; en- 
 largement of, 50, 52; return of land by, 51; River, 8, 9, 10, 61, 
 71 ; abatement of falls in river, 33 ; sale of weir, &c., at, 16 ; 
 fire in, 34; population and resources, 37, 138; rates assessed 
 upon, 37; rates reduced, 40; removal from, prohibited, 40; 
 petitions for land, 52, 53; old bounds of, 7~10, 32, 59; trouble 
 * -with the Bloods about taxes, 63 ; makes agreement with them, 
 64, 65; controversy with Billerica and the Bloods, 65, 66; old 
 records of, 66; meeting of, about second divisions, 68; divided 
 
INDEX. 159 
 
 into quarters, 68; object of the division, 69; relieved in part 
 from expense of bridges, 77, 79; description of, in 1666, 84; 
 men killed by Indians, 105 ; keeps day of thanksgiving, 113 ; 
 military preparations at, 114; fined for want of watch-house, 
 stocks, &c., 117; magazine at, 114, 119; its military company 
 to be exercised, 120 ; its garrison-houses, 123 ; ordered to choose 
 a constable in place of Wm. Buss, 127; foot-company of, divided, 
 128; education in, 128-133; subscribes for Harvard College, 130; 
 gift to, from Capt. Timothy Wheeler, 129, 131; early charities 
 of, 133, 134; amusements in, 140; its action at the time of the 
 Andros Revolution, 151 ; only town to declare for war, 152. 
 
 Concord Village. (See New Grant.) 
 
 Conoway, Peter and Sarah, 59, 60, 61. • 
 
 Constable, office of, 19. 
 
 Cornfields to be fenced, 19. 
 
 Coslin > ^;jj;^^ 35^ 
 
 Costin > 
 
 Cotton, John, exchanges cows with town, 26. 
 Rev. John, 23. 
 
 Court-house, building of, 92, 93. 
 
 Courts, where held, 92. 
 
 Cowdrey, William, 101. 
 
 Cranefield, 19, 67, 68. 
 
 Curry, David, killed by Indians, 105. 
 
 Curtis, Ephraim, 111, 113. 
 
 DaKIN, John, his dwelling-place, 85. 
 
 Joseph, fences burying-places, 99. 
 
 Thomas, 73; sells estate to Heywood, 85; his dwelling-place, ib. 
 Dane, Daniel, 146 ; buys farm with Goble, 83. 
 
 Joseph, his dwelling-place, 87. 
 
 Thomas, 73 ; embarks with Mrs. Bulkeley, 1 ; his English home, 
 3; his house lot, 71, 74, 86, 93, 97. 
 Danforth, Jonathan, his plans, 6; surveys Billerica line, 9; on com- 
 mittee to settle mill dispute, 97. 
 Davis, Samuel, 146; Junior, 9. 
 
 Simon, 146; his dwelling-place, 89; makes no return of land, 89; 
 lieutenant, 127, 147 ; at Brookfield, 110, 111. 
 Davy, 103. 
 
 Deaths, record of, 21. 
 
 Dedham, meeting-house at, 22; removal from, prohibited, 40. 
 Deer Island, Indians removed to, 115, 117. 
 Depositions about Indian purchase, 12-15. 
 Deputies, residence of, 20. 
 
160 INDEX. j 
 
 I 
 
 Divisions, First and Second, 18, 67; how made, 68, 69, 74; not to 
 
 hinder highways, 69. j 
 
 Doggett, Thomas, 35. | 
 
 Dongye Hole, 72, 73. ; 
 
 Dorchester, settlement of, 2. j 
 
 Draper, Goody, convicted, 103. j 
 
 Roger, 38. j 
 
 Dublet, Thomas, convicted, 102. ' 
 
 Dudley, Francis, his dwelling-place, 85 J 
 
 Gov. Joseph, 90; his appointment, 148. i 
 
 Gov. Thomas, his farm, 61. ! 
 
 Dimsdell, 81. - ; 
 
 D'Urfey, Thomas, quoted, 47. 
 
 Dwellings, first, situation of, 18. • 
 
 EaMES family, massacre of, 116. i 
 
 "East End," 75, 76. ' 
 
 " East Quarter Line," 72. j 
 
 Edmonds, Joshua, 70, 73. i 
 
 Walter, 40. j 
 
 Education, 128-133. 
 Egg Rock, 71. 
 Eliot, Rev. John, 102, 115. 
 Elmbrook Meadow, 67. 
 Endicott, Gov. John, 29, 45. 
 Enfield, 24. 
 
 Enlargement of bounds. (See New Grant.) 
 Estabrook, Rev. Joseph, settled as colleague, 24; his burial-place, 43; 
 
 compared with Mr. Edward Bulkeley, 31. 
 Evarts, John, 35. 
 
 Fairfield, 35. 
 
 Fairhaven, 73, 83, 103 ; way to, 81; mining operations at, 137. 
 
 Farm-houses, 21. 
 
 Farrar, Jacob, killed by Indians, 105. 
 
 Stephen, 124. 
 Farwell, Henry, 28, 68, 71. 
 
 John, his house-lot, 86. 
 Fidelity, oath of, substituted for freeman's oath, 145 ; those taking it 
 
 to be recorded, 20. 
 Fields, Great Common, 81, 83. 
 Fifty- Acre Meadow, 81. 
 Fiske, John, at Brookfield, 110. 
 
INDEX. 161 
 
 Flagg, Eleazer, 147; constable, 63; granted land for tan-pits, 93, 94; 
 
 his house, 131 ; sells land to Clark, 94. 
 Fletcher, Francis, 22; his house-lot, 86. 
 
 Hezekiah, 134. 
 
 Joseph, 22, 82. 
 
 Samuel, 82, 146. 
 
 William, his house-lot, 86. 
 Flint's Farm, description of, 82; way to, 81. 
 
 Pond, 72, 73, 82; ditch from, 68, 95. 
 Flint, John, 20, 26, 57, 59; town clerk, 66; his house-lot, 88; lieu- 
 tenant, 125. 
 
 Thomas, 2, 3; his character and services, 45, 46; his death, 41; 
 his farm, 82 ; assists Indians, 101. 
 Fort Bridge, 79. 
 Founell, John, 97. 
 Fox, Eliphalet, selectman, 146; his house-lot, 86. 
 
 Thomas, 28, 29. 
 Fox's Bridge, 79. 
 Freemen, how admitted, 145-147. 
 French, Joseph, 9, 147; selectman, 152. 
 Frizzell, AVilliam, 85; released from training, 121. 
 Frontier Towns, removal from, prohibited, 40; troop for, 122. 
 Fuller, William, fined, 94. 
 Fur-trade, company for, 17. 
 
 Garfield, Benjamin and Thomas, 32. 
 
 Garrison-houses, their erection and situation, 123. 
 
 Goble, Thomas, 146; buys farm with Dane, 83. 
 
 Gomps, 53. 
 
 " Goodman " and " Goodwife," how applied, 27. 
 
 Goodmans, 16. 
 
 Goodman's Hill, 16. 
 
 Gookin, Gen. Daniel, 46; friend of the Indians, 102, 115; his report 
 about them, 117; his report about the Concord military com- 
 pany, 127. 
 
 Goose Pond, 68, 72. 
 
 Grammar School, 128. 
 
 Grant, First, 5; map of, 5-10; how laid out, 7, 17; its bounds, 7; 
 description of, 17; excess in, as laid out, 11 ; New, 50-61. 
 
 Graves, John, 28. 
 
 Great Common Fields, 81. 
 
 Great James Natocotos, 53. 
 
 Great Meadow, 81, 83. 
 
 Griffin, Richard, 28, 40, 45. 
 
 11 
 
162 INDEX. 
 
 Groton, road to, 81 ; town destroyed by Indians, 41 ; people seek refuge 
 in Concord, 104. 
 
 Habitations privileged with commons, record of, 19. 
 Hales, John G. , his survey and map, 7. 
 Half-way Brook, 79. 
 
 Halsted, William, his gift to the town, 133. 
 Hartford, founders of, 37. 
 Hartwell, John, 146 ; his house-lot, 87. 
 Samuel, 147. 
 
 William, 20, 78, 123; his house-lot, 87; overseer, 76. 
 Harvard College, early graduates, 37; aid to, 130. 
 Harwood, Nathaniel, 146. 
 
 Hayward, George, 52, 71, 73, 74, 124; on committee to divide high- 
 ways, &c., 70; sells estate to Mr. Bulkeley, 85; overseer, 76; 
 his'land, 85; death, ib. ; builds mills, 95; killed by Indians, 105. 
 John, 127, 146, 147. 
 Joseph, 120. 
 Heald, Major Benj. F., 8. 
 
 Dorothy, her house-lot, 88. 
 John, 3; his house-lot, 88; lieutenant, 150. 
 Hey wood, John, buys estate of Dakin, 85, 88; constable's return, 118; 
 
 keeps ordinary, 139, 140. 
 Henry, Indian, convicted, 103. 
 Higginson, Rev. Francis, 33. 
 
 Highways, not hindered by second division, 69; division of, 69, 74, 75; 
 to be maintained by Quarters, 75; defined, 75, 79-81 ; north of 
 Burying- Ground on Main Street, 88; same discontinued, 98. 
 Hinchman, Thomas, 122; captain of troop, 125; petitions for confirma- 
 tion of title, 150. 
 Hingham, meeting-house at, 92. 
 
 Hoar, John, 26, 89; prosecution of, 30, 31; his estate, 89; exchanges 
 lands with Wright, 89; takes charge of Indians, 115-117; his 
 petition, 117. 
 Hog-pen, Old, 70, 81. 
 Hog-pens, 103. 
 Hog-pen Walk, 68, 70. 
 Hooker, Rev. Thomas, 37. 
 Horsmonden, 1. 
 
 Hosmer, James, 66, 73; his embarkation, 2; English home, 3; member 
 of the church, 28; overseer, 76; his house-lot and farm, 84, 85; 
 selectman, 139. 
 James, Junior, his farm, 85; killed by Indians, ib., 105. 
 Capt. Stephen, 6, 11, 83, 133. 
 
INDEX. 163 
 
 Hosmer, Stephen, selectman, 146, 152; buys " Brook-Meadow," 91. 
 Hough, Atherton, grant to, 61. 
 
 Mrs., 50. 
 House-lots, how laid out, 18, 67; location of, 84-89. 
 Houses, early, description of, 21; their situation, 37; not to be built 
 
 more than half a mile from meeting-house, except, 21. 
 How, Samuel, 124, 147. 
 
 Howe, John, 66. i 
 
 Hubbard, Jonathan, 146. 
 Hunt, John, 83. 
 
 Samuel, 147 ; his house-lot, 88. 
 
 William, 3, 40; buys land of Mr. Bulkeley, 86. 
 
 Nehemiah, 20, 146 ; his dwelling-place, 86. 
 Hutchinson, Capt. Edward, his expedition, 108. 
 
 Indians, purchase from, 3, 12-16 ; destroy Groton, 41 ; their paths one 
 foot broad, 4, 79; treatment of them by colonists, 100-104; sale 
 of liquor to them, 101 ; their claim to New Grant extinguished, 
 52, 56-60; of Musketaquid, 12; land reserved for, 53; their 
 claim to Blood's Farms extinguished, 61 ; their habits and 
 occupations, 101; value of their testimony, 103; sales of pork 
 by, 104; war with, under Philip, 104-119; Concord men killed 
 and wounded by, 105; the attack on the Shepards, 106; fight 
 with, at Brookfield,' 108-113; "Praying" suspected, 114; or- 
 dered to Deer Island and Concord, 115, 124; taken away by 
 Mosley, 116, 117. 
 
 Ingolds, Ebenezer, 60. 
 
 Inheritance, law of, 47. 
 
 Iron Works, 19, 91; authorized in Concord, 135; land of, ib., 136; 
 clerk of, 140. 
 
 J AYS, destruction of, 19. 
 
 Jehoiakin, his testimony, 13, 15, 16. 
 
 Jenckes, Joseph, 136. 
 
 Jethro, his testimony, 14, 16. 
 
 John Tahatowon, 53. 
 
 John Thomas, 53, 58, 60. 
 
 Johnson, Capt. Edward, quoted, 3, 4, 18. 
 
 Jones, Ephraim, 136; buys Wright Tavern lot, 92. 
 
 Rev. John, 14, 15, 24, 28; chosen pastor, 23; his removal to 
 Connecticut, 35, 39. 
 
 John, 52, 53, 146; his house-lot, 88. 
 
 Samuel, 136 ; clerk of the bona, 127. 
 
164 INDEX. 
 
 Joseph, 110. 
 Josiah, 103. 
 Judson, Grace, 22. 
 
 Jeremiah, Joseph, and Joshua, 22. 
 
 William, his lot, 22. 
 
 Kent, County of, 2, 3; shield and motto of, 47; its influence in 
 
 Middlesei, 46-48, 152. 
 King Philip's War, 104. 
 Knight, Jonathan, 136. 
 
 LaMSON, Elizabeth, 143. 
 Widow, 143. 
 
 Lancaster, 7, 41; road, 74, 78, 85; people seek refuge in Concord, 104. 
 
 Land, character of, 33, 34, 38, 39, 50; petition for, by Wheeler and 
 others, 38, 49; town's petition for, 50; waste, how rated, 64; 
 common and undivided, 83; report about, 83; flowed by mill- 
 pond, 96; titles declared void, 149; tenure of, 150; division of, 
 18; grants of, how recorded, 84; transcripts of, 84; lease of, 19; 
 to be truly brought in, 20; deficiency in, made up, 71, 83. 
 
 Law, John, tenant of town, 55; rent due from him, 19, 20. 
 Stephen, tenant of town, 55. 
 
 Lechford, Thomas, quoted, 24. 
 
 Lee, Joseph, 83. 
 
 Leihtenegger, Augustus, works mine at Fairhaven, 137. 
 
 Lettin, Richard, 38. 
 
 Lexington, 48; line of, on Bedford, 10. 
 
 Lincoln, 32; bounds of, in part, 10. 
 
 Liquor, sale of, 101, 138-140. 
 
 Littleton, 54. 
 
 Lovewell's Fight, 113. 
 
 MaNTATUCKET, 14. 
 
 Marlborough, 112; road, 80. 
 
 Marriages, record of, 21 ; how contracted, 141-143. 
 
 Marshall, Capt. Thomas, buys estate of Willard, 41 ; sells to Woodis, 85. 
 
 Martin, Ambrose, prosecution of, 26-30; petition of the church in his 
 
 favor, 28; his house and land sold, 29. 
 Mashoba, 52. (See Nashoba.) 
 Mason, Capt. Hugh, 105. 
 
 Massachusetts Bay, Colony of, 104; the Province, 148. 
 Mather, Rev. Cotton, 27, 140; quoted, 24. 
 
INDEX. 165 
 
 Meadow, Great, 67; town, 67, 68, 72; reserved for minister, 70. 
 
 Meadows, wetness of, 33, 34, 38, 39; to be protected from animals, 19; 
 division of, 67. 
 
 Meeting House, first, timber for, 22; location of, 21, 22, 97; second, 
 building of , 19, 91; seating of, 26; description and use of, 92, 
 93; weather-vane on, 93. 
 
 *' Meeting-house Frame, The," 22. 
 
 Meeting-house Green, 94. 
 
 Merchant Thomas, 14, 15, 53. 
 
 Meriam, George, 68, 71, 73; his house-lot, 87. 
 John, 147; his house-lot, 87. 
 
 Joseph, his gift to the town, 20; his grave-stone, 97. 
 Robert, 28, 68, 71, 73; selectman, 139; his gift to the town, 134; 
 deacon, 26; his house-lot, 87; on committee to divide highways, 
 &c., 70, 
 Samuel, 147. 
 
 Middlebrook, Joseph, 35, 40. 
 
 Middlesex County, map of, 7; its population, 46, 48; bridges, 77. 
 
 Miles, John, 20, 73; his house-lot, 88. 
 
 Mill, town, 89, 94-97, 131; houses, 21. 
 
 Mill-pond, how formed, 95; encroaches upon Common, 92. 
 
 '' Mill-dam, The," 95. 
 
 Mill Brook, 18, 78; division line between Quarters, 71, 72; bridges 
 over, 79 ; house-lots laid out to, 86 ; pond formed by, 95. 
 
 Military preparations at Concord, 114; draft ordered, 119; company, 
 beginning of, 120; duty, persons subject to, z&. ; exemptions, 
 121; officers, 121-127; arms, 121; offices and titles, how es- 
 teemed, 125; companies reorganized, 125, 127; foot company, 
 divided, 128; despatched to Boston, 150. 
 
 Militia, committee of, 123 ; of Concord, their request, 124. 
 
 Mine Hill, 137. 
 
 Mine House, 137. 
 
 Mining operations, 135-137. 
 
 Ministerial wood-lot, 131. 
 
 Ministers, rates for, 19; support of, 35; their ordination, 23; wood 
 for, 25; method of settling, 26; their numbers and character, 
 36, 37. 
 
 Minott, James, 146; keeps the mill, 95, 131; captain, 127. 
 Rebecca, 95, 131. 
 
 Mitchell, Jonathan, 3, 35. 
 
 Mosley, Captain, removes Indians, 116, 117. 
 
 " Mr. and Mrs.," how applied, 27. 
 
 Muckquamack, Peter, 57. 
 
 Musketaquid, 5; meaning of name, 71; settlement at, 1; River, 67, 71; 
 name changed to Concord, 5. 
 
166 INDEX. 
 
 Miittunkatucka, 13. 
 
 Mystic Bridge, 77. . ; 
 
 NaGOG Pond, 55. \ 
 Naanonsquaw, 58, 60. 
 
 Naaruhpanit, 57, 59. j 
 
 Narragansett Fort, fight at, 105. 1 
 
 Nashoba Plantation, 14, 51, 55, 59, 105, 106; line of, 54; deserted, | 
 
 117. I 
 
 Brook, 55. \ 
 
 Indians, removal of, 115-117; their return, 117. ' 
 
 Nasquaw, John, 59, 60. ■ 
 
 Natanquaticke, 16. i 
 
 Natick, 14, 57; Indians, 115. 
 
 Natocotos, Great James, 53. 
 
 Nattatawants, grant to, 51; sells land, 62. \ 
 
 Nashawtuck, 14, 67, 81; bridge near, 69, 78. ^ 
 
 Neepanaum, Mary, 57. ; 
 New Grant, The, plan of, 6 ; petition and orders for, 50-53; for feeding, l 
 52, 103; Indian claim to, 52; laid out by Beers and Noyes, 53, | 
 54; to be a free common, &c., 55; deeds of land included in, I 
 
 56-60; bounds of, 65. | 
 
 Nimrod, 14, 15. ] 
 
 Nine- Acre Corner, 81, 137. ! 
 
 Nipmuck Country, 108. ; 
 
 North River, bridges over, 19, 71. \ 
 
 North Quarter, roads in, 81. (See Quarters.) ' j 
 
 Notawquatuckquaw, 14, 15. i 
 
 No well, Increase, grant to, 61, 65. j 
 
 Noyes, Thomas, surveyor, 53, 54. | 
 Nssquan, 53. 
 
 Nuttankatucka, 13. ; 
 
 OdELL, village, 1, 42. ' 
 
 Odell, William, 35. 1 
 
 Oldmans, 16. i 
 
 Ordinaries, 138-141. | 
 
 Overseers of the. Quarters, 75, 76. i 
 
 Parker, Moses, 58. 
 Pellet, Daniel, 99, 147. 
 Mary, 144. 
 
IN^DEX. 167 
 
 Pellet, Thomas, 147; his dwelling-place, 87; assisted by the town, 133 ; 
 
 loses his dinner, 144. 
 Pennsylvania, grants in, how laid out, 11. 
 Persons, undesirable, not to be entertained, 20. 
 Phips, Sir William, Governor, 148. 
 Pittamey, Andrew, 60. 
 Plans of towns, 6. 
 Plymouth, settlement at, 2. 
 Pompant, 53. 
 Ponkapog Indians, 115. 
 Poor, support of, 133, 134; silent, 143. 
 Pork, sale of, regulated, 104. 
 Potter, Judah, 146. 
 
 Luke, 28, 71, 73; deacon, 26; his house-lot, 73, 86. 
 
 Samuel, killed by Indians, 105. 
 Potter's Bridge, 79. 
 
 Lane, 86. 
 Pound, town, 93, 94. 
 Power, Mary, 144. 
 Pratt, Thomas, 82. 
 Prescott, Jonathan, 79; his dwelling-place, 98; lieutenant, 147; 
 
 chirurgeon, 30; grant of land to, 98. 
 Prout, Ebenezer, builds mill, 95; clerk, 128, 146, 147, 151; takes poor 
 child as apprentice, 132; signs order for removal of Andros to 
 the Castle, 151. 
 
 Timothy, 82. 
 Prout's Farm, 82. 
 
 Folly, 95. 
 Public Houses, 138-140. 
 
 QUABAUG, 108. 
 
 Quarters, division of town into, 68; limits of, 71-74; South or West, 
 70; its limits, 71, 72; division of wood in, 72; East, its limits, 
 71, 72; ISTorth, its limits, 71; assignment to them of highways 
 and bridges, 74, 75; to hold town harmless from damage for de- 
 fective ways, &c., 75: overseers of, 75, 76; records of, 84. 
 
 RaINER, Samuel, 29. 
 
 Rates, minister, 19, 25, 64; public, how payable, 37, 40; for highways, 
 
 75, 76. 
 Read, Dr. Philip, 27; prosecution of, 30-32. 
 Rice, Peter, 144. 
 
168 INDEX. 
 
 Rice, Richard, 31, 71; his testimony, 13, 17; his dwelling-place, 71, 73, 
 85, 87. 
 Timothy, 124, 146. 
 Richardson, James, 110. 
 Ripley, Dr. Ezra, quoted, 43. 
 River, how crossed, 78. 
 Robinson, Rev. John, 2. 
 " Rocks, The," way to, 81. 
 Rocky Hill, 72. 
 Rogers, John, 29. 
 Roper, Ephraim, 82. 
 Ross, Daniel, 134. 
 
 Russell, James, owns Iron Works, 136. 
 Rutter, Jabesh, 112. 
 
 Sampson, ho. j 
 
 Saw-mills, 22, 95. j 
 
 Schools and school-houses, 128-133. ] 
 
 School-master, want of, 129. i 
 
 School-house lot, 131. , 
 
 Scotchford, John, 73; his house-lot, 88. i 
 
 Lane, 128. | 
 
 Scotland, 81. 
 
 Scudder, H. E., quoted, 27. 
 
 Selectmen, instructions to, 19, 20; their powers and duties, 20; to 
 impose fines, 76; to superintend erection of fortifications, 123; \ 
 
 their return of non-freemen, 146. ' 
 
 Settlers, early, character of, 2, 46-48; their former homes, 3; journey I 
 to Musketaquid, 3, 4; hardships suffered, 33-41; their educa- 
 tional attainments, 132. j 
 
 Sewall, Samuel, 150. 
 
 Shamberry, Joseph, 60, 61. 
 
 Shattuck, Lemuel, his History, 7; his papers, 6, 28, 43. 
 
 Shawshine, grant to, 51; River, 8, 9; Corner, 10, 68, 81; road \ 
 
 to, 137. j 
 
 Sheep, &c., damage by, 19. ; 
 
 Shepard, Abraham, 106, 107. { 
 
 Isaac, killed by Indians, 105-107, 112; his estate, 107. i 
 
 Jacob, 106, 107. j 
 
 John, 53, 146. • 
 
 Mary, captured by Indians, 106, 107, 112, 116. ' j 
 Ralph, buys Nashoba Farm, 55. 
 
 Short Swamp, 73. ^ 
 
 Skinner, Thomas, 82. ■ 
 
INDEX. 169 
 
 Smedly, Baptist, his dwelling-place, 88 ; his daughter, 107 ; his death 
 and estate, 112. 
 
 James, 144, 146 ; his house-lot, 87. 
 
 John, 26, 40, 64, 144; on committee to divide highways, &c., 70; 
 overseer, 76; his house-lot, 88; on committee to build meeting- 
 house, 91; released from training, 121 ; his report about schools, 
 129. 
 
 Samuel, killed by Indians, 112; his estate, ib. 
 Soldiers, impressment of, 124. (See Military.) 
 Solomon Thomas, 59, 60. 
 South Field, 67. 
 
 River, 73; bridge over, 69, 74; road to, 88. 
 Speen, John and Sarah, 57, 58. 
 
 James and Elizabeth, 57, 58. 
 Spelling, irregular habits of, 132. 
 Spencer, William, 14, 15; his land in Concord, 15. 
 Spencer Brook, 15, 86, 95. 
 Squaw Sachem, 13-16. 
 Squaws, escape of, 118. 
 Stannup, Hannah, 144. 
 Stockadoes, line of, ordered, 114. 
 Stocks, 117. 
 
 Stoughton, Gov. William, 90. 
 Stow, Nathaniel, 146 ; his house-lot, 86. 
 
 Thomas, 70; his second division, 82. 
 Stow, town of, 57, 59. 
 Subsidy-men, departure of, forbidden, 2. 
 
 Sudbury, 50, 57, 113; line of, 10; ways, 75, 79; meeting-house, 98; 
 petition about meadows, 34 ; removal from, forbidden, 40 ; fight 
 at, with Indians, 85, 105. 
 Swamp Bridge, 79. 
 Swanscombe, 47, 48. 
 Swine, damage by, 19; how herded, 103: how marked and sold, 104. 
 
 TaHATOW^AN, 13-16. 
 
 John, 53. 
 Tally, Thomas, banished, 142- 
 Tar-kiln Brook, 137. 
 Tasattawan, 59. 
 Tasunsquaw, 58, 60. 
 Taylor, Abraham, 9, 147. 
 
 John, 124. 
 
 William, his house-lot, 87. 
 Taxes. (See Rates.) 
 
170 INDEX. 
 
 Temple, Abraham, 105, 124, 146. 
 
 Isaac, 146. 
 
 Richard, 15, 146 ; his dwelling-place, 85 ; builds saw-mill, 95. 
 Thomas, John, 53, 58, 60. 
 
 Solomon, 59, 60. 
 Titles, significance of, 27. 
 Tompkins, John, 35. 
 Townsmen, 19, 69. (See Selectmen.) 
 
 Town, officers of, 19; clerk, 21; bell, 92; house, 93; cow, 26, 133, 134; 
 pound, 93; watch-house, 117; mill, 94-97; meadow, 67, 68, 72; 
 record books, 84; meetings, 92; library, 128. 
 Training-field, 92. 
 Training-place, 71, 75. 
 Transcripts of lands, 84. 
 Troop of horse, 108, 122. 
 Turney, Benjamin, 35. 
 Twenty score, 83. 
 
 U SHER, Herman and Hezekiah, engage in mining operations at 
 Fairhaven, 137. 
 
 Vane, Gov. Henry, 23. 
 Virginia, 81. 
 
 WaBAN, 14, 15, 58. 
 
 Thomas, 59, 60. 
 Wabatut, 53. 
 
 Walden Pond, 12, 72, 79, 80. 
 Walling, H. F., his maps of county and town, 7. 
 Wamesit, 57. 
 Wappacowet, 15. 
 Waste water. The, 92. 
 Watch-house, situation of, 117. 
 Watertown, 3, 50, 114; controversy with, about bounds, 12; bounds 
 
 of, 32; road, 79, 80; corner, 81; company, 105. 
 Wayland, line of, 10. 
 Ways, private, 81. (See Highways.) 
 Webb, Cowet, 16. 
 Weston, bounds of, 32. 
 Wheat, John, 125. 
 
 Moses, 29 ; his house-lot, 86. 
 
 Samuel, 147. 
 
INDEX. 171 
 
 Wheeler, Ephraim, 35, 38. 
 
 Ensign, 70, 71, 73. 
 
 George, 28, 40, 52, 66, 73, 78; selectman, 139; on committee to 
 divide highways, &c., 70; overseer, 76; his house-lot, 87; joint- 
 owner with Capt. Timothy, 89; sells land to Prescott, 98. 
 
 John, 124, 146, 147; constable, 63; his house-lot, 87 ; sergeant, 99.] 
 
 Joseph, 28, 40, 52, 53, 90, 124; grant to, 55; his house-lot, 87; on 
 committee to build meeting-house, 91. 
 
 Joshua, 79, 146; his house-lot, 87. 
 
 Josiah, killed by Indians, 105. 
 
 Obadiah, 73, 146; his dwelling-place, 75, 85. 
 
 Samuel, Jr., 58. 
 
 Sergeant, 68. 
 
 Thomas, Senior, his house-lot, 86. 
 
 Thomas, 20, 28, 35; selectman, 146, 152; petitioner, 38, 49; Junior, 
 38, 110, 113. 
 
 Capt. Thomas, 125; takes lease from town, 19, 55, 56, 103; com- 
 mands troop, 122; his "Narrative," 108; accompanies Capt. 
 Hutchinson, 108-113; his certificate to the Indians, 110; his 
 return celebrated, 113. 
 
 Timothy, 147; petitioner, 38, 40, 52, 78; overseer, 76. 
 
 Capt. Timothy, 26; his house, 14; his estate, 89; negotiates with 
 Indians, 57, 59; on committee to build meeting-house, 91; keeps 
 mill, 95; authorized to impress gunsmith, 114; captain of foot 
 company, 122, 125; his return of soldiers impressed, 124, 125; 
 his gift to the town, 129, 131. 
 
 Rebecca, 90. 
 
 AVilliam, 6, 73. 
 Wiggin, John and Mary, 90. 
 Wigly, Edmund, his dwelling-place, 85. 
 
 Willard, Simon, 28, 73; founder of Concord, 1; his English home, 3; 
 trades with Indians, ib., 17; lays out the township, 5, 12, 17; 
 commands foot company, 120, 122 ; conducts negotiations with 
 Indians about lands, 14, 15, 61; on valuing committee, 37; 
 excused from attendance on court, 41; his removal to Lan- 
 caster, {&. ; commissioner, 45; his character and services, 43, 44; 
 his farms, 51, 59, 65, 66, 136; assists Indians, 101, 115; on 
 highway committee, 70; on committee to settle mill dispute, 
 97; relieves Wheeler at Brookfield, 112. 
 Winnetow, Dorothy, 57, 58. 
 Winnippin, 62. 
 
 Winthrop, Gov. John, 23; his farm, 61. 
 Woburn Corner, 10. 
 
 Road, 80. 
 Wompachowet, 14. 
 
172 INDEX. 
 
 Wood, Abraham, 146. j 
 
 Ephraim, surveys town, 7. ' 
 
 John, 124, 146. ' 
 
 Michael, 71, 74; his dwelling-place, 85; clerk of the Iron Works, I 
 
 140. ] 
 William, 3, 37, 40, 73. 
 
 AVoodis, Henry, 14, 26, 57, 59, 64, 70, 78, 122; his second division, 82; ; 
 
 his dwelling-place, 85. • I 
 
 Woodis's Rock, 83. ' i 
 
 Woolley, Christopher, 89; his dwelling-place, 87. \ 
 
 Joseph, 60. ; 
 
 Thomas, 125. I 
 
 Wormwood, Joseph, 136. 
 
 Wright, Edward, 89, 143 ; his house-lot, 86 ; exchanges land with Hoar, 
 89; of Castle Browmick, 90; builds saw-mill, 95. 
 
 Francis, 90. ' 
 
 Peter, his marriage contract, 143 ; his gift to the town, ib. j 
 Samuel, 136, 143. 
 
 Young, Henry, killed by Indians, 113. 
 
 University Press : John Wilson & Son, Cambridge. 
 
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