Bristol County, Massachusetts - Chapter 2: The Taunton North and South Purchase, 1924

"Provided leave can be procured from Ousamequin (Massasoit)." The phrase, as contained in an order from the Plymouth Court of 1643, relating to a proposed purchase of lands for Taunton, voices the considerate and just spirit of the colonial executives themselves in their first relationships with the Indian holders of lands, however the white man may have mistreated the red man since that time.

In the case from which the quotation is made, the Plymouth Court were desirous of knowing what Chief Massasoit thought of the matter. His sanction was sought in the dealing, for in those times just payments were made in land transactions, and large reservations of land were set aside for the Indians. It is of continuous record that as fast as the English settlements extended, the colonial government extinguished by fair purchase the Indian titles. And it sometimes happened that double transfers occasioned deeds of conveyance both from the Indians and _ the Colonial government. Thus was Tetiquet bought of the Indians by Miss Poole, and confirmed to her by the court. These are main facts, in spite of isolated cases of annulment of the natives' rights.

Whenever we think of those hardy settlers whom we have recorded in New England history as First Purchasers, it is a very rare thing for us to give due regard to the land values at the time of their purchase, particularly here in Bristol county, or to the sort of exchanges that were made during the purchase, or to the usages that were soon established to secure such exchange. We have done but little more than set down their names as original purchasers, and as those of founders of towns and ancestors of many families of our times. We give too little heed to the transactions themselves, that were performed under a provision of the General Court, to the effect that no group of settlers could go into the wilderness and buy lands indiscriminately of the natives. That was one of the fundamental dealings between civilization and the people of the wilderness. The earlier historians have quoted very nearly in full from scores of old deeds and agreements and colonial records, so that the already fully published results of their minute research need not be reduplicated by any successor. It is now the province of historical publishment by no means to annul any of the results of the comprehensive labors of the old clerks of history; but it is preferable, with the almost miraculous developments of nearly a half century awaiting introduction, to offer chiefly the vital essentials of the forefathers' day.

From this viewpoint, we may discern the course of the business-like acquisition of properties from the first holdings of the settlers, through the North and South Purchases, and the precinct and town establishments. It was an irreparable loss to Taunton when the fire of 1838 destroyed town records, among which was the deed of the original Cohannet, signed by Chief Massasoit, though his son Philip (Metacomet) made a confirmatory deed of the same March 22, 1683, that has been preserved; the Plymouth Colonial Records also having kept intact that report of Myles Standish and John Browne, who in 1640 established the bounds of the Eight Mile Square, Taunton's original territory of sixty-four square miles, or more than 40,000 acres; likewise the report of their boundary of Miss Poole's lands in Tetiquet; and again, the nearly as valuable record of the Hooke and Street lands at Berkley - their four hundred acres of upland and thirty of meadow that after their departure to New Haven became the property of John Hathaway, Edward Bobbit and Timothy Holloway, founders of their families here.

Then, in later years, to verify and realize to us the bounds of that distant period, the late James Edward Seaver in 1892 prepared and published a map of that long square, wherein have been definitely set down the places where the first settlers were to be found at the outset of civilized life. Upon that invaluable map are to be seen the lines of the ancient roads and paths, and the home-lots of the pioneers, as well as the many river landings. The plantation as thus set down in record and map (based in part upon the Morgan Cobb drawings of 1727), was bought of Ousamequin, so state the Plymouth Court books, but for what consideration that section was purchased, we know not.

Yet the Eight Mile Square could not encompass within its limits the increasing population who were discovering values for themselves in the wood and river lands; for in 1642 came the request from Taunton for the purchase of more wood and pasture land. The General Court was ready to grant the request, and "that the best and speediest means be used to procure their further enlargement on that side of the main river to answer to Mr. Hooke and Mr. Streete's farms on the other side; and whereas they desire the neck of Assonet for pasturing young beasts, it is also granted, provided leave can be procured from Ousamequin."

The colony was now continuously stretching out for the unused nearby lands, and but four years later, June 2, 1646, the General Court gave tne town permission to purchase a calf pasture - the locally celebrated "calves pasture" near Nemasket pond. It was this lot, a landmark, that was conveyed to Henry Andrews, April 11, 1647, in payment for the building of the town's first meeting house. The southern boundary of the town remained undefined until 1663, when it was fixed by the General Court. The settlers had for some years borne in mind the fact that a strip of land two miles in width, known to them as the "Two Mile Strip,' separated the Eight Mile Square from Tetiquet. Therefore, as a result of their petitions, in 1665 the General Court granted this strip to William Brett, Thomas Haward, Sr., Arthur Harris, Richard Williams, John Willis and John Carey, "to each of them three score acres of land lying betwixt the lands of Taunton and Tetiquet." The centre of the Taunton that was to be was now defined by the lands contained within these boundaries named. To the north and to the south, other Europeans were entering and making their homes - "purchased of the Indians' being the frequently recurring phrase in all records and agreements of the time. And there the final extensive purchases of territory of the mother town were to be made, which territory, so joined onto the nucleus, would one day peacefully secede for the establishment of yet other townships.

The northwest corner of the Plymouth Patent, still remaining under Indian ownership, was purchased of Alexander (Wamsutta), son of Massasoit, in 1661, by Captain Thomas Willett, enterprising settler (and later the first English mayor of New York). This purchase was made, in all likelihood, at the suggestion of the General Court, who placed it in the hands of a committee - Thomas Prence, Major Josias Winslow, Thomas Southworth, and Mr. Constant Southworth, to dispose of it for the colonies' use. Part of this newly acquired property became what.is known as the Rehoboth North Purchase, the remainder, fifty square miles, being still in the Colony's possession, and bounded by the Massachusetts Patent on the north, Bridgewater on the east, Taunton on the south, and Rehoboth North Purchase on the west, Taunton's north corner, known as Cobbler's Corner, projecting at the south. It again appeared to be Taunton's opportunity to come into new possessions; thereupon, June 6, 1668, a deed was granted to fifty-two purchasers. The men of early time were buying lands not as they buy them in the west of our day, with some large outlook for fortune-making, but chiefly to establish a home site and to till lands and to live the simple life of the pioneer, separated by an ocean from native land.

Thus the North Purchase was joined onto Taunton - an area containing 32,000 acres, and one hundred pounds being the price that was paid. In the deed there soon were made those lesser changes, when the name of George Shove was inserted with the others, and the two parcels of John Bundy and Thomas Briggs were excepted from the sale. Complications presenting themselves, that were soon solved, were contained in such cases as these: One claim of ownership was raised through Josias, Peter and David Hunter, Tetiquet Indians, who for the consideration of a little over three pounds gave a quit-claim deed. In 1689, again, Major William Bradford put in a claim for Taunton territory, and once more satisfaction was obtained by a quit-claim deed. From such sources, the Taunton North Purchase came into possession of both English and Indian titles.

The South Purchase, along the meadowlands of the river, south, was attracting settlers, also. This noteworthy purchase required several town votes before James Walker and John Richmond could be empowered to "purchase the land of the Indians in the behalfe of the town of Taunton, lying on the west side of Taunton river, from the Three Mile River down to a place called the Store House."

Eventually, October 1, 1672, King Philip, Anawan and others signed the deed whereby a tract three miles long on the Great river, as the Tetiquet was sometimes called, and extending westerly four miles, beginning at the mouth of Three Mile river, came into the hands of Taunton colonists, the consideration being one hundred and forty-three pounds. On that day, also, King Philip, upon receipt of forty-seven pounds, conveyed to Constant Southworth, assistant at the General Court, another strip on the south of the first tract, one mile wide, on the Great river, and extending four miles westerly from the river, Southworth immediately assigning this deed to the committee of the first deed. Both deeds were paid for to the extent of one hundred and ninety pounds.

Again, on September 27, 1672, Constant Southworth assigned a prior mortgage on the whole (from Philip and the colony) to William Harvey and John Richmond, in behalf of the town, for the sum of eighty-three pounds. So that the South Purchase cost two hundred and seventy-three pounds, in all. By a declaratory deed of November 26, 1672, the fourmile square tract was conveyed to the parties interested, eighty-seven persons being named as probable owners at that time; but on March 18, 1683-4, another declaratory deed was made to but seventy-seven of that list, as it is likely entire compliance was not made with the conditions in the deed.

Up to this time the natives, from whom all the Taunton purchases had been made, with or without a confirmatory deed from the government, had refused to part with Assonet Neck, which is two miles long and less than one mile wide. But this, the first seizure by the colony, was taken in 1675, to pay the expenses of the Indian wars, its value being placed at two hundred pounds. This land was added to Taunton in July, 1682, but when Dighton was incorporated, in 1712, it was included in that town, and later on added to Berkley, in 1799. Another indication of earliest colonial and native dealings with local territory is found in Governor Thomas Hinckley's confirmatory deed of 1685, in which it is shown that the first purchase of Taunton's Eight Mile Square was made from Massasoit.

Finally, two more complications with regard to this territory were solved when, in 1689, Major William Bradford, making some claim to all this territory, was paid twenty pounds, giving a deed of release and confirmation to John Poole and one hundred and three others. The other instance occurred in 1672, when a controversy over the new territory made between Taunton and Swansea was settled by the addition of a corner of Swansea, known as the Two Mile Purchase, to a part of Dighton. Now it will be seen that the entire set of Purchases amounted to 150 square miles, or approximately 100,000 acres.

Confirming much that has been written with regard to the earliest intention to deal honestly with the natives, is that often-quoted letter of John Richmond, son of the first settler in Taunton of that name, to Lieutenant-Colonel Elisha Hutchinson and others, dated April 30, 1698, to be seen at the State Archives, Vol. 113, p. 167, thus: "We bought it first of Woosamequin in the year 39 or 40 (this was in my minority); the sum paid I know not; then we bought all again of Philip, and paid him 16 pounds for it; then we bought that very spot of Josiah, he claiming some land there, as appears by his deed; then we bought that spot again, with other land, of Major Bradford, and he had 20 pounds more."

After the division of lands, from the first possession of the home lot to the complete distribution of the whole territory, many years after the first settlement, the North and South Purchases steadily increased as to their population, and the demand arose for the setting off of portions of the settlement into precincts. The first of such petitions was from the North Purchase and a part of old Taunton township, dated November 2, 1707, and signed by forty-three townsmen, who asked for a minister to become settled among them. There were remonstrants who desired a township rather than a precinct, and the controversy, as it progressed, became a very warm one. But on June 12, 1711, the bill was passed for Taising the new town of Norton, though but two years previously the prospect of a precinct was by far the more encouraging one. In the meantime, similar demands for a precinct were made by settlers in the South Purchase "by reason of the remoteness from the meeting house," and thereupon the precinct was established, September 16, 1709, though the town, Dighton, soon after petitioned for, was raised May 30, 1712.

From that time onwards, for nearly twenty years, no more territorial changes took place here. But then arose petitions and counter-petitions, the new movement resulting in the creation of the town of Raynham, April 1, 1731. Then Berkley asked for recognition as a town, and the act of raising the town was passed April 18, 1735; and finally, in 1879, Myricks, by vote, was taken from Taunton and added to Berkley. In this way, and for reasons of "remoteness from the meeting house" and the centre - though there were local industrial reasons, too, the iron forges and the grist and other mills sharing in the later groupings of the interests of the population - the new towns withdrew from the mother town. Economical and industrial, and, according to the statements in the petitions, religious forces, had performed their distributive tasks. Territorially, the region was getting ready to welcome the newcomer, the new era, and the expanding town and city of Taunton.