Marlborough, Massachusetts

May 31 (0. S., June 12 as we now date), 1660, the town was incorporated under the name of Marlborow, it is supposed after the English town of that name, so called on account of the vicinity abounding in marl ; the word was formerly spelled ^farlberg or Marlbridge. Why it was chosen it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to say, though tiie most probable conjecture would be that some one or more of the early settlers hailed from Jlarlborough in Wiltshire. Its records for the first thirty-nine years are missing; those extant begin April 27, 1699. The first selectmen were Edmund Rice, William Ward, John Ruddocke, Jolin Howe, Thomas Khig, Solomon Johnson, Thomas Goodnow. John Ruddocke was chosen clerk. One of the earliest acts of the municipality was to order an assessment for six months for the support of Rev. William Brimsmead, their preacher, "of 4 pence jier acre npon house lots and 3 pence per pound ujion cattle." In 1662 the frame of a house and the land on which it stood were given to the minister. It was thirty-six feet by eighteen, and twelve and one half feet high between the joints. It had four windows in front and two at the west end. It had two gables in front, ten feet wide ami eight feet square, projecting eight feet, with two small windows on the front side of the gables. It was built by contract for £15, to be paid in corn : one third wheat, one third rye, and one third Indian corn; wheat at 4*. Qd., rye at 4*., and Indian com at 3-$. per bushel. In the payment of this sum, a rate was made of seven and a half pence ])er acre upon all house-lots in the plantation. This year they decided on erecting a meeting-house. Unfortunately the site chosen was within the Indian plantation. Although this land was subsequently bought, there seems to have been sufficient provocation given to the Indians to awaken the suspicion that it was afterwards burnt by them in revenge. Mr. Cyrus Felton says it is probable that at this time three fourths of the land within a mile of the meeting-house was covered with wood.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

April 4, 1663, Anamaks, an Indian whose title was probably disputed by other Indian proprietors, sold to John Ruddocke and John Howe, for the use of the town, " the laud that the meeting-house now stands on - also the land for the highway on the fore side of said meeting house, and so upon a square of ten feet, round about the said meeting House." The next month William Ward gave in exchange for other land half an acre in front of it, and it was ordered that the half-acre " surrendered into the town's hands as before said, shall be for a perpetual common or highway not to be taken or otherwise disposed of without the consent of every proprietor that liath town riglits." This half-acre, it is thought, covered the ground on which the two manufactories hi front of the High School Common now stand.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

For fifteen years there was fear throughout the township. Tlie Indian community consisted of about fifty persons. Their ruler's name was Onomog, who was described by a contemporary as a pious and discreet man. They had religious and civil institutions like their white neighbors; employed a schoolmaster, a constable, and other officers. They had brought their land under cultivation, and remained pacific under the vexatious encroachments of the English settlers ; although they were in 23art to blame for their annoyances, seeing they were careless in fencing their fields. Their town lying, as it did, in the heart of Marlborough, the cattle wandered into it, and could hardly be prevented by their owners. The Indians passively retired about a mile into the interior of their land. The celebrated General Gookin of Cambridge, from whose account our knowledge is derived, ])roposed to the English settlers to buy part of tliis land from which they had retired, fence it with stonewalls, and ou one part build a house for a schoolmaster, with a school-room under the same roof, erecting a barn, and giving the teacher as his salary the use of the rest of the land. He also says that at this time the English were backward iiIkhiI employing a schoolmaster, availing themselves of the law which exempted towns of less, than fifty families from being compelled to engage a teacher, although they wanted but a few families to make this number. He suggested that if the Indian school proposed were instituted they might send their children to it, " being the most thrifty and facile way they can take." This field was conveyed to General Gookin by the Indians May 2, 1677. The English town grew unchecked, though not rapidly. Unhappily during this time the community was agitated, indeed distracted, with internal dissensions about both civil and ecclesiastical affairs. They had to do, first, with the reliability of the records and indirectly with the tenure of their lauds ; secondly, with questions as to the support of the minister and the desirability of organizing a church. The public muid was apparently in a state of chronic irritability; to raise a question, was to raise a bitter dispute. Some light is thrown on this period from subsequent sentences in a petition and remonstrances to the General Court. The first explains that their difficulties are of long standing, arishig " partly from our own corruptions and the temptations of Satan, hindering their own good feelings in matters both civil and ecclesiastical, which have been and are very uncomfortable to them and their friends." Even this devout and frank statement proved an irritant, - a denial following that any considerable difficulty existed, and the declaration that they " never went about to destroy the Town Book but only to rectify what was amis in it " ; nor had they attempted " to root out the minister." They vaunted the fact, that, in personal character and liberality to religious and secular institutions, they were the equals of the jjetitioners, and cdiirluilcil \\ith the caustic statement, "We are willing, with our [)ersons and estates, to uphold the Authority of the country, and do therefore desire the liberty of the law which gives towns jrower to iransad their own affairs.'" The appeal to the General Court resulted (1675) hi the appointment of a committee which indorsed the records. The strife, however, was not allayed ; Thomas King and others demanded the reopening of the case. The war ensuing, the matter was not immediately pressed ; but in October, 1679, the quarrel was practically ended by the decisive action of a committee ap- ])()inted by the court to hear the complaints on the sjjot. They censured the turbulent opposition to the former decision, declared better provision shuuhl be iiiailc for llic iiiii:islei-, and u'ave orders as to the custody of the torni records, enjoining a full and veracious report of the proceedings and decisions of the committee who had arbitrated in the case. Their action was approved and confirmed by the court.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

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