Worcester City (part 7 of 58)

Edwin Conant, the subject of this sketch, and many other well-known individuals can trace their lineage directly to him, and well may they be proud of their descent, though better, perhaps, that they should endeavor to emulate his virtues.

Edwin Conant, whose portrait appears in connection with this sketch, was born in Sterling, Worcester County, on the 20th of August, 1810. After pursuing the u>ual course of preliminary academic training, he entered Harvard College, where he graduated in 1829. Proposing to make the law his life business, he prepared himself for the duties of that honorable though often perplexing profession, under the direction of well-qualified instructors, and in 1832 commenced practice. After continuing in that calling lor some ten years, his attention was directed to other pursuits, and he did not return to the law.

In his religious views Mr. Conant has been a consistent Unitarian, thus swerving from the rigid Calvinistic faith of his early ancestors. Politically he was an adlierent of the old Whig party, but on the taken for the means of grace among themselves, because of the teiliousnesa and difliculties over the water, and other inconveniences." The town was incorporated in IGU8 by its present name - a name, however, which was not satisfactory to several of the principal settlei"S, especially to Conant, who, in the petition above referred to.saj's : " Now my umble suite and request is unto this honourable Court onlie that the name of our town or plantation may he altered or changed from Beverly, and be called Budligh. I have two reasons that have moved me unto this request, - the first is the great dislike and discontent of many of our people for this name of Beverly, because (wee being but a small place) it liatli caused on us a constant nickname of beggtcrli/ being in the mouths of many, and no order was given, or consent by the people to their agent, for any name until they were shure of being a town granted in the first place. Secondly, I being the first that had house in Salem (and neither had any hand in naming either that or any other towne), and myself, with those that were then with uie, being all from the western part of England, desire this western name of Budligh, a market town in Devonshire, and neere unto the sea, as we are heere in this place, and where myself was borne."

Roger Conant appears by every one to have been regarded as a very upright man ; and the Rev. Mr. White, who took so active an interest ill the settlement of Massachusetts, styles him " a pious, sober and prudent gentleman." That he was deeply pious, no one can doubt on reviewing his course. The petition for the change of name from Beverly to Bndleiiih ends in this strain : " If this, my sute, may find acceptation with your worships I shall rest umbly thankfull, and my praiers shall not cease unto the throne of grace fo.- God's guidance and his blessing to be on all your weightie proceedings, and that iustice and righteousness may be uverie where administered, and sound doctrine, truth and holiness everie where taught and practised throughout this wilderness to all posterity, which God grant. Amen." The court, however, did not grant the " umble petition," and Beverly the name is to this day.

It has been claimed that, strictly speaking, Roger Conant was the firet colonial Governor of Massachusetts. Probably the Eudicotts and AVinthrops would not concede that. Yet there is no doubt that he was Governor of the little colony that first made a permanent settlement within our borders.

The picturesque little island in the bay, now generally known as Governor's Island - sometimes as Winthrop's - was firet named Conant's Island, in hi>nor of the worthy old Roger. In 1632 it was granted to Governor Wiuthrop for a garden. Thence it was called Winthrop's or Governor's Island. E disruption of that he joined the Democratic ranks and still maintains his Jefforsouian principles. He has not been much in public office, though always interested in public affairs; has been something of a military man, though not exposed to the "shocks of war," as he served in peaceful times; has held brigade and staff offices, and been a judge advocate.

Sterling, Mr. Conant's native place, is much indebted to him in various ways, especially for the generous gift of the funds for the erection of the brick edifice for the Free Public Library, and offices for the town authorities. The building was dedicated to the memory of his eldest daughter, Elizabeth Ann Conant.

Mr. Conant has been twice married. His first wife was Maria Estabrook, daughter of Hon. Joseph Estabrook, of Royalston, whom lie married in October, 1833, and by whom he had two daughters, neither of whom are living. His second witie was Elizabeth S. Wheeler, granddaughter of Rev. Joseph Wheeler, Unitarian minister and register of probate. She was also a granddaughter of Rev. Dr. Sumner, so long the able minister of the First Church of Shrewsbury.

A genealogy of the Conant family has been published, by which the lines may be traced to the good old settler Roger, and wherein the notable achievements of some of the later members may be found recorded.

Hon. Charles Augustus Dewey.' - Judge Dewey is deservedly pre-eminent among Milford's most distinguished, honored and trusted citizens. His pedigree, heredity and education gave him an auspicious introduction to public life, which he has worthily justified by his own exertions. He was born in Northampton, Mass., December 29, 1830. His father was Hon. Charles Augustus Dewey, for nearly thirty years judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and his mother a sister of Governor De Witt Clinton, the pride of New York's executive chair. He was fitted for college at Williston Seminary, Easthampton, and graduated from Williams College in 1851. He first studied law with his brother, the late Hon. Francis H. Dewey, of Worcester; then a year at the Harvard Law School, and afterward in the city of New York, where he was admitted to the bar in 1854. Having practiced law there till the fall of 1856, he went to Davenport, Iowa, and pursued his practice for two years. He came to Milford in March, 1859, and for the next two years was a professional partner of Hon. Hamilton B. Staples.

In 1861 he was appointed trial justice. In 1864 the Police Court of Milford was established, and he was appointed judge. He held this office till the Third District Court of Southern Worcester was organized, in 1872, when he was appointed judge of said court, and has since discharged the duties of that office down to the present time. Meanwhile he has served seven years on the School Committee of Milford, and for some time as its chairman. For nearly twenty years he has heen a trustee of the town library and of late chairman of the board.

In all these professional and official positions Judge Dewey has discharged his responsible duties not only with admirable ability, fidelity and promptitude, but to such complete satisfaction of all parties concerned as rarely falls to the lot of one obliged to deal with so much conflicting mentality and interest. He has won for himself a remarkable amount of approbation and very little censure even from those whose passions and prejudices he has crossed. He is learned in legal lore, wears an inherited mantle of judicial rectitude, and holds the scales of legal equity with a firm hand of clemency. At his bar the innocent and guilty are alike sure of both justice and kindness. In public and private intercourse he is intelligent, candid, conscientious and courteous, and therefore universally respected. Id social life he is urbane, genial, modest and dignified, and so welcome to every reputable circle. In politics he is a stanch Republican, in religion an exemplary Congregationalist, and in literature an amateur of the best. He is simple in his personal habits, temperate, physiologically circumspect and averse to all forms of extravagance. In social and domestic affairs he is unostentatious, prudent and economical, without stinginess, and puts intellectual entertainments far above sensuous luxuries. His health is delicate rather than robust, and he watches over it so as to make the best of it, thereby managing to execute a large amount of business on a small capital of physical strength. He is a man of strong convictions on subjects he deems important, and pronounces his opinions without equivocation when properly necessary, but is not a controversialist from choice, and never puts on airs of dogmatic assumption or offensive severity towards opponents. He evidently desires to be the friend and well-wisher of his race, and, so far as compatible with true moral integrity, to live peaceably with all men. Of the many commendable ways in which he is practically exemplifying this laudable desire, it will hardly be expected that a brief biographical sketch should make detailed mention. Perhaps the few already indicated may suffice.

Judge Dewey was married to Miss Marietta N. Thayer, daughter of Alexander W. and Marietta (Dustan) Thayer, born in Worcester, June 22, 1847; ceremony in Milford, March 12, 1867, by Rev. George G. Jones. She has the ancestral honor of being a descendant of the celebrated Hannah Dustan, of Indian captivity renown. This marriage was one of mutual, intelligent affection, and has been a happy one. Mrs. Dewey has proved herself worthy of her husband, and their connubial house has been a pleasant one. They have one promising daughter, - Maria Thayer Dewey, born in Milford, August 8,1872. May many divine benedictions rest on this family group.

Thomas H. Dodge' was born September 27, 182.3, in the town of Eden, county of Lamoille, State of Vermont, being the fourth son of Malachi F. Dodge and his wife, Jane Hutchins, who were married in Belvidere, Vt., Jan. 9, 1812. His father, Malachi F., was born in New Boston, N. H., Aug. 20, 1789; his grandfather, Enoch Dodge, was born in Beverly, Mass., 1762, and where his great-grandfather, Elisha Dodge, was born May 19, 1723, and who was the fifth and last child of Elisha Dodge, of Beverly, and his wife, Mary Kimball, of Wenham, Mass., who were published Oct. 8, 1709. Young Dodge had the advantages of good district schools, his father being a well-to-do farmer. The family subsequently moved to the town of Lowell, Vt., and resided on a farm there until Thomas was about fourteen years old, when his eldest brother, Malachi F., Jr., having secured a desirable position with the Nashua Manufacturing Co., of Nashua, N. H., a change of residence was made by the family to that place.

At Nashua, Thomas H. attended for a time the public schools, and then entered Gymnasium Institute, at Pembroke, N. H. At this institution he made rapid progress, and ranked among the first in his class.

Returning to Nashua, he secured a position in the spinning and weaving departments of the Nashua Manufacturing Co., which gave him an opportunity to become familiar with those departments, in the art he was desirous of fully understanding. In this position he remained until he gained a full knowledge of the processes while at the same time earning money sufficient to permit him to take a course of study in the Nashua Literary Institute, then under the charge of Prof. David Crosby. In the meantime he had been pursuing a course of study in elementary law, the books being obtained from one of the leading law firms of the place, who encouraged him in his studies. He also continued his studies in Latin under a private tutor.

Diligent and careful investigations and study into the early rise and progress of cotton manufactures in the United States had also engrossed his attention, as being intimately connected with the business in which he was engaged, - he was, in fact, an enthusiast in those early years upon the great good and national prosperity that would result from mechanical and manufacturing industries if properly encouraged, and in the year 1850, he published his " Review of the Rise, Progress and Present Importance of Cotton Manufactures of the United States; together with Statististics, showing the Comparative and Relative Renriineration of English and American Operatives."

When he first became a resident of Nashua, the Nashua Onzette was printed in a rear room iu which the post-office was located, and young Dodge would go in and watch the operation of the hand-press used for printing the paper, and his quick mind at once - ran to devising some way to print on a plane surface and yet use a rotary motion, so as to print (rom a roll of blank paper. The Nashua and Lowell Railroad was something new, and he took an interest in looking at trains as they came in, and one day he noticed that the parallel-rod, which connected the drivingwheels, had the very motion which he wanted, and he drew the plan of a press, and later made one which worked perfectly and attracted much notice. One day, shortly after a description of the press had appeared in the public journal.s, a gentleman called to see Mr. Dodge, who found him to be a Boston manufacturer by the name of John Bachelder. Mr. Bachelder frankly made known his business and the object of his visit. He was largely engaged in the manufacture of cotton bags for salt, flour and similar materials. He said he had seen the notice of the press and came to see it, since he thought it was just what he wanted. Said he wanted to print the cloth direct from the bale, and should like to see it work. The press worked perfectly, was bought by Mr. Bachelder and patented, and came into very general use.

The publicity of this invention was the beginning of a new era in machinery for printing paper, which resulted in the production of the lightning presses of the present day. Being now in the possession of sufficient funds, he decided to study law.

In 1S51 he entered the office of Hon. George Y. Sawyer and Colonel A. F. Stevens, of Nashua, N. H. As an illustration of the quick appreciation and utilization by Mr. Dodge of favorable opportunities, he, while a law student, saw that the prospective city of Nashua must necessarily extend in a short time to the south, and with two other gentlemen purchased a large part of the Jesse Bowers farm, lying on the west of South Main Street, and had it surveyed and platted as an addition to Nashua.

The lots were in demand as soon as offered, and this investment proved very profitable, while, at the same time, adding much to the prosperity of the new city, which was soon after chartered, Mr. Dodge being elected a member of the first City Council. He was admitted to the bar December 5, 1854, and commenced practice in Nashua. Aside from his position as a lawyer, he was extensively and publicly known as a skilled manufacturer, a meritorious inventor and a man of science, and which attainments having attracted the attention of Hon. Charles Mason, then commissioner of patents, he was, in March, 1855, appointed to a position in the examining corps of the United StatesPatentOflice, Washington, D.C. Atfirstheheld the position of an assistant examiner, but was soon promoted to the position of examiner-in-chief.

When the famous Hussey Guard patent for mowing and reaping-machines came up for an extension, many of the ablest lawyers in the United States were engaged as counsel, either for or in opposition to the extension. Judge Mason referred the application to Mr. Dodge, who reported the invention both new and novel at the date of the patent, and that, under the law, Hussey was entitled to the extension. This report and decision was confirmed by Judge Mason, and the extension granted. Litigation in the Federal Courts soon followed, to test the validity of such action and the patent, and both were fully confirmed in the Circuit Courts of the United States, and which decisions of the Circuit Courts were subsequently sustjiined, on appeal, by the Supreme Court of the United States.

While Judge Mason remained at the head of the Patent Oflice the assistance of Mr. Dodge was constantly required in appeal cases, and upon the appointment of Judge Holt his services were still relied upon by the new commissioner of patents.

Judge Holt, in the administration of the office, reached the conclusion that a permanent court or board of appeals ought to be established to meet the public wants, and he appointed the three chief examiners, viz. : Thomas H. Dodge, DeWitt C. Lawrence and A. B. Little. The establishment of this board was a movement of great importance.

The decisions of the Board of Appeals, under the direction of Mr. Dodge, changed the entire aspect of the business before the Patent Office ; order, justice and promptness in its official actions were recognized by applicants throughout the country, while a stimulus was given to the inventive skill and ingenuity of the nation that resulted largely, no doubt, in the production of many of the great and valuable inventions of the past thirty years. He resigned November 2, 1858.

Mr. Dodge was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States, and for twenty-five years and more, thereafter, he had a very large and profitable law practice in patent causes, and was, during that time, actively engaged in the great suits relating to the sewing machine, mowing and reaping machine, corset, horse hay-rake, wrench, loom, barbed wire, machines for making the same, and numerous other valuable patented inventions involving millions of dollars.

In the early part of 1864, Mr. Dodge located in Worcester, where he had previously had a law-office in the city, and besides was one of the active managers of the Union Mowing Machine Company.

It was while residing in Washington that Mr. Dodge devised the present plan of returning letters uncalled for to the writers thereof, and on the 8th of August, 1856, submitted in writing a detailed statement of his plan to the Postmaster-General, Hon. James Campbell, and in due time it received the sanction of law, and the present generation receives and enjoys advantages resulting from the change.

in Washington bis house was open to those engaged in relieving the sicli, wounded and dying soldiers ; Mrs. Dodge, too, also joining with others in visiting the hospitals to distribute food aud delicacies sent from the North to Mrs. Harris and Miss Dix, lor the sick and wounded. His youngest brother, Capt. Eli!-ha E. Dodge, of the Thirteenth New Hampshire Regiment, fell mortally wounded in the assault on Petersburg, Va., in June, 1864, and died at Fortress Monroe, June 22, 1864.

In 1881 he, in connection with Mr. Charles G. Washburn, organized the Worcester Barb Fence Company, he being president and Mr. Washburn secretary and manager, and for which company the late Stephen Salisbury, Esq., built the large factory at the corner of Market and Union Streets. The plant and patents were subsequently sold to the Washburn & Moen Company.

AuGUSTu.? George Bullock.^ - Mr. Bullock is a son of the late Governor Alexander H. Bullock, whose portrait, with a biographical sketch, appears elsewhere in this work. He was born in Enfield, Conn., on the 2d of June, 1847, and was educated in private schools, being fitted for college by the late E. G. Cutler, who was afterwards professor of modern languages in Harvard College. He entered Harvard in 1864 and graduated in 1868.

After traveling a year in Europe he commenced the study of law, pursued the usual course, and in due time was admitted to the bar in Worcester. He soon went into practice, occupying offices with Senator Hoar.

In 1882 his father. Governor Bullock, who had then recently been elected president of the State Mutual Life Assurance Comp.any, died ; and during the year it was determined to change the policy of the company, which had been of a somewhat limited character, and make it one of the leading institutions of the kind in the country.

It was in January, 1883, that the affairs and interests of this now widely-known and popular assurance company were submitted to the management of the subject of this sketch, he being elected president and treasurer. He accepted the responsible position, engaged earnestly in the work, arduous as it promised to be, and has been eminently successful. The suggestions for extended usefulness were efficiently and rapidly carried forward, and new life and healthful growth became visible in every department. Since his instalment, which was but about six years ago, the business of the company has been more than quadrupled, and is adding to its assets accumulations of nearly half a million dollars annually. Its operations and reputation are not now by any means limited to Massachusetts or New England, it having attained a large business, especially in the Middle and Western States.

But it is not alone as president and treasurer of the State Mutual Life Assurance Company that Mr. Bullock is well and widely known. He is a director in the Worcester National Bank, in the Worcester Gas Light Company, in the Norwich and Worcester Bailroad, in the Worcester County Institution for Savings, and president of the State Safe Deposit Company. He is also a trustee of the State Lunatic Hospital and of the Free Public Library, and a member of the American Antiquarian Society.

For an intelligent appreciation of literary and social observances of the higher order Mr. Bullock is well fitted by education and taste. And few places afford better opportunities for the development of refined sentiment than cultured Worcester. He has many of the genial traits of his honored father, many of his common-sense views and approachable amenities - traits and habits that never fail of leading to high social position. So then we find him, now in middle life, sustaining in the business world a high reputation for financial skill and ability, and in social life a position well worthy of aspiration.

In religious sentiment Mr, Bullock ranks with the Unitarians, having departed somewhat from the chosen faith of his fathers. His grandfather was of the rigid old New England "orthodox" type; but his father, after reaching manhood, embraced the faith of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and to the end of his life delighted in its ch.arming liturgical form of worship. In political sentiment he ranks with the Democratic party.

Mr. Bullock was united in marriage, October 4, 1871, with Mary Chandler, daughter of Dr. George and Josepbiue Rose Chandler, and four male children have been born to them, one of whom died in infancy.

Feancis Almon Gaskill ^ was born in Blackstone, Worcester County, on the 3d day of January, 1846. Until the year 1860 he lived in that town. In 1860 he moved to Woonsocket, R. I., and in the High School of that town, under the instruction of Howard M. Rice, Esq. (now one of the proprietors of the wellknown Mowry and Goflf School in Providence), he fitted for college. In the autumn of 1862 he entered Brown University, and was graduated in 1866. He was occupied as private tutor to the sons of Mr. Clement B. Barclay, of Newport, R. I., from October, 1866, till June, 1867, and thus had the advantage of that most excellent mental instruction which comes from teaching others.

student, till October, 1868, when, at the request of the late Hon. George F. Verry, he entered his office as clerk, and was duly admitted to the bar of this county March 3, 1869. Later he was associated with Mr. Verry as his partner, and so continued till Mr. Verry's death, in 1883.

Mr. Gaskill was married, October 20, 1869, to Miss Katherine Mortimer Whitaker, of Providence. For a considerable time Mrs. Gaskill was an invalid, and for the last few years of her life suffered almost constantly from a paiaful illness, which she bore with a truly beautiful fortitude and cheerfulness. She died January 25, 1889, leaving two children.

In 1875-76 Mr. Gaskill served as a member of the Common Council of the city of Worcester. In 1876 he was chosen one of the trustees of the Worcester Academy, and has served in that capacity continuously till the present time. He was elected a trustee of the Free Public Library of Worcester for six years from 1878 to 1884. and in 1886 was elected to fill a vacancy in that board, of which he was president in the year 1888.

In 1884 he was elected one of the trustees of the People's Savings Bank, and still serves on that board. In 1888 he was elected one of the trustees of Brown University. He is also a director of the State Mutual Life Assurance Company of Worcester, an institution whose standing and reputation in the financial world is such as to make a position in its directorate one of great honor and importance.

In 1883, during the illness of the district attorney, Hon. Frank T. Blackmer, Mr. Gaskill filled that office by appointment. In 1886 he was elected district attorney, to serve from January, 1887, to January, 1890, succeeding Col. W. S. B. Hopkins, whose brilliant and distinguished abilities and character had made his administration memorable.

It will thus be seen, from the preceding recital of some of the various positions of importance and responsibility to which Mr. Gaskill has been called, that he has possessed in a large measure the confidence and esteem of those to whom he has been known. In the discharge of the duties of educational, charitable, financial and professional trusts, it is obvious that he has had a training and experience that has fitted him to deal judiciously with the multitudinous interests which may be involved in the discharge of his existing official duties.

He has had personal and continuous acquaintance with and has shared in the direct management of affairs which make up and are essential elements in our complex industrial, social and governmental system. He has had an active and successful professional life.

Mr. Verry, with whom he was long associated, was one of the acknowledged leaders of the bar: his cool judgment, marvelous readiness in the crisis of a case and his brilliant powers as an advocate rendered him almost invincible, in the trial of causes. Mr. Gaskill was far too apt and able a pupil to fail to profit from his close professional and personal intimacy with Mr. Verry. The opportunity for study thus given him in the practice of the law has abundantly equipped him for his arduous and responsible duties as prosecuting officer. While Mr. Gaskill was acting district attorney the now famous case of Commonwealth vs. Pierce came before our Criminal Court. The defendant was a so-called physician, and, by reason of treating a patient with baths and poultices of kerosene oil, finally produced her death. He was indicted for manslaughter. It was extremely doubtful whether the defendant Pierce could be convicted, by reason of a much questioned decision of the Supreme Court in an early cise. It was, however, of grave moment to bring this vexed question again to the bar of the Supreme Court for revision. The indictment, a remarkably skillful piece of criminal pleading, was drawn by Mr. Gaskill, with the able assistance of C. F. Baker, Esq., then assistant district attorney. Later, after a closely contested trial. Col. Hopkins, then district attorney, managing the government's case, a verdict of guilty was rendered ; and after exh.austive arguments of the law questions before the Supreme Court the conviction of the defendant was sustained, largely through the courage and confidence which Mr. G;iskill had in the righteousness of this cause, the original prosecution of which was instituted by him. We now have the decision of the Supreme Court that homicidal medical pretenders shall not escape responsibility for the fatal results of their incompetency on the plea that ignorance and not malice caused the death of their victim.

In a large number of the important legal controversies in our county Mr. Gaskill has been of counsel. His clients, no less than his opponents, know the zeal, the energy and the learning which he displays in the preparation and trial of his cases. To the discharge of the duties of the office of district attorney he has brought all the fidelity and ability which have given him .success and honorable reputation at the bar, on the civil side of the court. With unflagging constancy and integrity he has conducted the affiiirs of the people entrusted to his hands.

In the two years now expired of his current term of office, prosecutions of great interest have been conducted by him, one among many being that of a notorious mal-practitioner, whose victim had made a dying declaration charging the crime upon the accused ; but, by reason of the inapt phraseology of the statute, it was held by the court upon the trial that the dying declaration could not be used in evidence upon a trial for abortion ; the case was given to the jury without this evidence, and a verdict of guilty followed, which, for insufficiency of evidence, was set aside. Thereupon an indictment was found for manslaughter by negligence, which was a sagacious, but by many lawyers thought a futile, effiirt to prevent the escape of a guilty person, by reason of an inefficient statute. Mr. Gaskill brought the accused to trial on the charge of manslaughter, and, though defended with great zeal and ability, the prisoner was convicted ; for in this case the dying declaration was unquestionably admissible, and was admitted. After mature consideration by the counsel for the defense, the exceptions were waived, and sentence was imposed upon the defendant.

This successful prosecution is adverted to as demonstrating the vigilance and energy of Mr. Gaskill's methods, manifested as well in his prompt and systematic management at each term of the Criminal Court, where everything upon the docket which can be tried is brought forward and disposed of. In this district at least, there exists no complaint of an accumulation of untried ca.ses.

Sureties, who have pledged themselves to secure the attendance of an accused person for his trial, have learned that a bail bond is a stern and inexorable compact, which they cannot evade ; no less have persons who appeal from sentences in the lower courts learned that they must speedily answer on trial in the Superior Court.

It is a noteworthy fact, and one upon which Mr. Gaskill may well look with legitimate pride, that in the two years of his term of office as district attorney no indictment drawn by him has been quashed for any insufficiency in form.

Happily, the time has not yet come for writing a completed biography of the subject of this sketch ; his life-work is not yet done, and it may be confidently hoped that many years of usefulness are yet before him ; here only brief mention can be made of some of the events (and those chiefly professional) of his past life.

The biographer of one still in active life must carefully observe a due consideration for him whose life and character is under discussion, and so scrupulously avoid anything by way of seeming eulogy, however well deserved and just such eulogy may be.

The mf^re recital of the events of Mr. Gaskill's life, the positions of honor and trust to which he has been called, the distinguished reputation he has gained in his profession, the respect and esteem in which he is held by his cotemporaries, all make up a more eloquent eulogy than the pen of any biographer could frame.

It is fitting to add, however, what no one can or would wish to gainsay, that Mr. Gaskill has fully maintained the high moral and professional standard established by his most distinguished predecessors in the office. In him the county and the people may see the realization of those rare qualities of mind and character which are required of him, who is at once prosecuting officer of the Commonwealth, but no less, in accordance with the merciful and just consideration of our criminal jurisprudence, " the prisoner's attorney."

TnEODORE S. Johnson.' - Worcester County has been exceptionally fortunate during its history in securing for clerk of the courts men of high character and pronounced ability. It is an office of dignity and of great responsibility, requiring exact legal knowledge, and a ready fund of fertility upon which instant drafts must frequently be made. It is enriched with ample compensation, only slighly below that established for a justice of the Superior Court.

Some of the incumbents of the office have yielded to its attractions after distinguished service in Congress, others after effective labors in other capacities, while still others have relinquished it for a seat in Congress.

The term of service of most has been long. Since the incorporation of the county, in 1731, a period of nearly one hundred and sisty years, there have been but eleven different persons holding the office. No fairer test than this can be applied to determine the measure of satisfaction with which the affairs of the office have been administered.

The incumbent is judged by two standards - one adopted by the judges and lawyers, with whom he is brought into closest relations ; the other, proceeding from parties in causes, jurors and the public at large. The former is applied more particularly to his legal capacity and general administration of the office; the latter to his characteristics. The combination of qualities to satisfy both tests is not often found.

Theodore S. Johnson was born in Dana, in this county, in 1843. After attendance in the common schools of his native town and at the High School and Wilbraham Academy, he came to Worcester in 1864, and entered as a student the law-office of Dewey & Williams. He was admitted to the bar in 1S6G, and immediately began the practice of his profession in Blackstone. In 1867 he was appointed trial justice by Governor Bullock, and held the office till 1871.

In the latter year Hon. Hartley Williams, in whose office Mr. Johnson had studied law, was judge of the Municipal Court of Worcester, and a vacancy occurring in the office of clerk of that court, he quickly turned to Mr. Johnson as admirably qualified to fill the position ; he was at once appointed and continued as such and as clerk of the Central District Court of Worcester till 1881. The sagacious treatment of the great volume and variety of business in those courts requiring the action and attention of the clerk during those years certainly justified the judgment of his friend and instructor, Judge Williams.

In 1881 Mr. Johnson was elected to his present office as clerk of the courts for Worcester County for the term of five years, and in 1886 was re-elected for a similar term.

He was captain and judge advocate on the staff of the Third Brigade Massachusetts Volunteer Militia from 1874 to 1876, inclusive. He was selected in 1878 by Governor Talbot as colonel and aide-de-camp upon his Gubernatorial staff.

Mr. Johnson's discriminating political judgment, as well as his prominence as a citizen of Worcester and his earnest belief in the Republican party, led naturally to his selection as Worcester's representative on the Republican State Central Committee from 1881 to 1884, inclusive.

Valuable as his other service have been, honorable as the other positions are which he has held, identified as he has been with other material and social interests of Worcester and Worcester County, yet his administration of the office of clerk of the courts has been by far his most significant and successful service.

The writer of this sketch can best apply the legal test hitherto spoken of, and Mr. Johnson can securely rest in the confidence and approbation ofthe bar when that is invoked. His generous courtesy and ready service to his brethren of the bar and to others, and his unimpeachable character never fail to satisfy the other test.

List of Members of the Bar. - In the following list it is intended to give the names of all persons who were members ofthe Worcester County bar January 1, 1889, and of those who had been members of it at any time since the establisliment of the county, with the date and place of the birth and graduation of each (if graduated), the date of admission to the bar, and the place or places where they have practised, so far as it has been practicable to obtain tlie facts.

Explanations. - The ' indicates that the person was dead January 1, 1889; r., removal from the county. The colleges at which persons named were graduated or attended are indicated by initial letters, thus : H. C, Harvard College ; B. U., Brown University ; A. C, Amherst College; Y. C, Yale College; AV. C, Williams College; D. C, Dartmouth College ; M. U., Michigan University ; W. U., Wesleyan University ; U. v., University of Vermont ; U. C, Union College; B. C, Bowdoin College; N. U., Norwich University; U. of C, University of Cal.; H. Cr., Holy Cross College; McG., McGill University; C. U., . Colby University ; T. C, Tuffs College ; St. M., St. Michael's College ; N. D., University of Notre Dame.

Erasmus Babbitt,' born in Sturbridge, 1765 ; gradual f at H. C, 1790 ; practised in Cliarlton, Grafton, 0>. : .id, Sturbridge and Westboro'.

The Bench And Bak

William T. Harlow, born in Shrewsbury, 1828 ; graduated at Y. C, 1851 ; admitted 1853 ; practised in Spencer, Red Bluffs, Cal., and Worcester.

William S. B. Hopkins, born in Charleston, S. C, 1836; graduated at W. C, 1855; admitted 1858; practised in Ware, New Orleans, Greenfield and Worcester.

Pliny Merrick,' born in Brookfield, 1794 ; graduated at H. C, 1814; admitted 1817; practised in Worcester, Charlton, Swansey, Taunton and Boston.

Lafayette W. Pierce, born in Chesterfield, N. H., 1826; graduated at N. U., 1846; admitted 1854; practised in Oxford, Westborough and Winchendon.

Seymour A. Tingier,' l)orn in Tolland ; graduated at W. C, 1855; admitted 1857; practised in Webster. Joseph A. Titus, born in Leicester, 1842; graduated at A. C, 1863 ; admitted 1868 ; practised in Worcester.

Paul P. Todd, r., born in Atkinson, N. H., 1819 ; graduated at D. C, 1842 ; admitted 1847; practised in Black.stone, Boston, St. Louis and New York.

George A. Tufts,' born in Dudley, 1797; graduated at H. C, 1818 ; admitted 1821 ; practised in Dudley. Stephen P. Twiss, r., born in Charlton, 1830; admitted 1853; practised in Worcester and Kansas City. Benjamin 0. Tyler, r., practised in Winchendon. Nathan Tyler,' graduated at H. C, 1779; practised in Uxbridge.

John L. Utley, r., born in Brimtield, 1S37; admitted 1874 ; practised in Blackstone and Worcester. Samuel Utley, born in Chesterfield, 1843; admitted 1867 ; practised in Worcester.

Emory Washburn,' born in Leicester, 1800 ; graduated at W. C, 1817; admitted 1821; practised in Charlemont, Leicester, Worcester and Cambridge.

By Hon. Henry S. Nourse

Tlie Nashawatjs and their Hume - King^s Pttrchase - The X<tsh<itvn>i Planters - Thf Town Grant - The Covenant - Land Attotmtnti - Death of Showanon.

At the time the Massachusetts Company were laying the foundations of their settlements on the river Charles, there dwelt in the northeastern part of what is now Worcester County a small tribe of red men, generally known as the Nashaways. They were an independent clan, though evidently of the same origin and speaking the same tongue with the natives of the coast, and the Nipmucks, Quabaugs and River Indians south and west of them. A close defensive alliance bound together these Massachusetts tribes, and this bond was their only safeguard against the murderous incursions of the Mohegans and Mohawks, their traditional foes.

Of the Nashaways there were three groups or villages, - one at the eastern base of Mt. Wachusett, another at the Waahacum ponds, and a third about the meeting of the two branches of the river which the pioneers called "Penecook," but which is now known as the Nashua. By the custom of the period the location of a native village or planting-field gave name to those there resident, and we find these Indians called indiscriminately, by the English, Washaeums and Wachusetts, as well as Nashaways. They proudly cherished traditions of great former prowess and pros- perity, but war and pestilence had greatly reduced their numbers before the coming of the white man, and in 1033 the small-pox swept away hundreds more, leaving but a comparatively enfeebled remnant behind; although they were even yet numerous enough to be styled "a great people" by Daniel Gookin.

The sachem holding mild sway over the Nashaways was Showanon or Nashowanon, also called Sholan, Shaumauw.Shoniowand Nashacowam - for an Indian chief of repute always had sundry aliases, each, perhaps, indicative of some specially memorable deed or personal experience. His home was upon a plateau between the little lakes of Washacum, about which were clustered the wigwams of his central and largest village. He appears not infrequently in early colonial history and always greeting the white man with welcoming words and generous hospitality. Finally the saintly Eliot joyfully proclaims that his personal ministrations have won Sholan and many of his followers to the Christian fold. Before this the chieftain had made many English acquaintances in his visits to the Bay, and among them Thomas King, of Watertown, gained his special favor. He persuaded King to visit his domain, and made him generous offers of a land grant, desiring him to establish a trucking-house, where his people could exchange their peltry for much-coveted iron weapons, kettles, cloths, and the various novelties brought by the strangers from over the seas.

The country of the Nashaways lay among lofty, smoothly-rounded hills, sloping gently down to broad meadows, through which coursed rivulets of pure, cool water; while numerous little lakes slept iu concealment of the forest. It was a famous hunting-ground, prolific of deer, beaver, wild turkeys and small game. Occasionally the swan wandered hither from the Merrimack, and moose, elk, bears, wolves and wild-cats were sometimes met with. Samuel Maverick tells us also that the waters were noted for excellent salmon and trout. For the capture of the migratory shad and salmon on their return towards the ocean, the Indians had built a weir at the shallows in the main river, while the frequent falls and rapids in the branches afforded convenient spots for the successful plying of spear and net, when the fish were ascending in spawning time.

The hunters or traders of Concord and Sudbury, adventurous enough to push fifteen miles westward into the wilderness, found a feeble band of the Natick Indians living at Okommakameset (now Marlborough) and a little beyond could look over the summit of the lofty Wataquadock hills into the paradise of the Nashaways. The widely-extended view with its delicate hues varying with sun and season, which there met their gaze, is the same that attracts so many admirers to-day; for even two hundred and fifty years of civilization cannot avail to mar, or add to, the grand features of so broad and varied a landscape. To the north the horizon is bounded by the picturesque mountain peaks of New Hampshire, blue or violet with distance. The shapely dome of Wachusett at the west dominate-i the scene, and, near at hand, little valleys creeping out from the shadows of the George and Wataquadock ranges of hills, join to form the broad, fertile intervales, dotted with hickory, sycamore and stately elms, which sweep northward, bearing the rivers towards the sea. All is gentle undulation, charming, restful - nothing awe-inspiring or grand, perhaps, certainly nothing precipitous or even abrupt - nothing suggestive of the ferocities of nature, save the sharp cone of Monadnock, dimly to be seen in the middle distance.

Nor was the landscape then a " howling wilderness," gloomy with primeval forest and impassable coppice, as so generally it has been depicted in story; for in the vicinity of the Indian plantations, twice in the year the woods were purposely fired to free them of the brushwood that could hide a stealthy foe, or obstruct pursuit of game. Therefore, in time, extensive areas came to wear a park-like appearance, resembling the similarly formed "oak-openings" of the West, everywhere passable, even for horsemen. The more fertile meadows, where not too wet, were swept bare of tree and underwood and clad in summer with a rank growth of coarse grasses, "some as high as the shoulders, so that a good mower may cut three loads in a day," as William Wood testified in 1634.

At how early a date the pioneer pale-face first looked down from its southern barrier of hills upon Sholan's beautiful domain is not known. John Winthrop relates that the Watertown people began a settlement at Nashaway in 1643. Before that Thomas King had accepted the invitation of the sachem, and selected a location for a trading post on the sunny slope of George Hill, near the parting of two trails which led from the " wading-place" of Nashaway, westward to Wachusett, and southwesterly by Washacum to the land of the Quabaugs. King was a young man. of limited means, and had formed a partnership with Henry Symonds, a freeman, a capitalist, and an enterprising contractor, living near the head of what is now North Street, in Boston. By a little brook that came brawling down the divide over which the western trail ran, the trucking-house was built, probably in 1642, certainly before the summer of 1643. Symonds, the moneyed partner, died in September of 1643, and King survived him little more than a year. In the inventory of King's property there is no hint of any estate at Lancaster. This is confirmation of the statement made by Rev. Timothy Harrington in 1753 - doubtless recording a tradition - that a company bought such proprietary rights at Nashaway as King had obtained by his bargain with Sholan. No deed of a sale is foun<l, but the price of the grant, as agreed upon with the Indians, was twelve pounds. The territory acquired was nominally ten miles long from south to north, by eight miles wide. It included a few families of Indians, dwelling about the rivers and ponds, though these, perhaps, joined the Washacum village, when, in 1663 and 1669, the warriors of the tribe were decimated in contest with the bloodthirsty Mohawks. A provision in Sholan's deed, however, restricted the purchasers and their successors from "molesting the Indians in their hunting, fishing, or usual planting places." Joint occupancy was the evident intent of the conveyance. *

The Nashaway Company, having signed a compact, at once began the assignment of home lots among themselves, and sought from the authorities legal sanction of their enterprise. Favorable response was made to their petition. May 29, 1644, and the names of the foremost undertakers thereafter appear from time to time in various records. They were chiefly from Boston and Watertown. At the head of the first list of the proposed planters found, stand the names of two graduates of Cambridge University, England - Nathaniel Norcross and Robert Childe. The former had been promised adequate settlement as pastor of the plantation, but growing impatient of delays in the gathering of his parish he soon departed for England, bearing the manuscript of the broken contract with him. Robert Childe was a scholar of varied learning. He had traveled in many lands, was a close observer, pretended to considerable knowledge of chemistry and metallurgy, was ambitions and restlessly energetic. He gave books to the infant college of Harvard, invested largely in the iron works at Lynn and Braintree, shipped from England vines, grafts of plums, and various seeds and plants to his intimate friend John Winthrop, Jr., and to all appearances wholly merited the commendation of that Puritan unimpeachable, Hugh Peters, who wrote of him in June, 1645: "that honest man who will bee of exceeding great vsc if the Country know how to improue him, indeed he is very very vsefull. I pray let us not play tricks with such men by our jelousyes."

But in that age toleration had no home on earth ; and why should Massachusetts be specially reproached because she oft'ered no asylum for original thinkers upon religious or political subjects? Jesuits and Quakers, rhapsodistsand philosophers, bedlamites and seers were alike crushed by the despotism of dogmas, - a despotism which now seems the more strange because wearing the cloak of liberty. Vane, Vassal and later William Pynchon fled the country in disgust at the intolerance of the majority in power; Coggeshall and Coddington were spurned, to be esteemed a great gain in the colony of Rhode Island, and Childe, despite the warning afforded by the fate of such able but unseasonable reformers, and overestimating his own strength, began a crusade against the theocratic restriction of suffrage to a select few. England was then shaken by the fierce contest for supremacy between Presbyterian and Independent. Childe and his fellowagitators were probably feared, and perhaps justly, as being secret emissaries of Presbyterian ism, and Puritanism rudely and speedily thrust them out of the Commonwealth. Thus the Nashaway Company lost its master of arts.

The third co-partner upon the list was also a noted personage in colonial history. Steven Day, a locksmith by profession, had in 1639 set up at Harvard College the first English printing-press in America, and on it had printed the Book of Psalms in 1640. He wa9«a man of worthy aims and rare energy, but so lavish or improvident that his earnings and the sales of lands granted him by the General Court, in reward for his art, could not keep him out of debt. He was an ardent promoter of the company's interests, often traveling to Nashaway, and entertaining Indians and proposed planters at his Cambridge home. His necessities forced him to sell the lots first assigned to him, but a few years later he acquired another with a dwelling upon it - yet never resided there, and died in January, 1668, a journeyman at the press he had founded. He had long before forfeited his proprietary rights at Nashaway by his inability to improve, or pay tithe for, his allotments.

Besides Day, four other workers in iron were prominent in the company : John Prescott, Harmon Garrett, John Hill and Joseph Jenkes. This fact, joined to the leadership of Childe, whose letters to Winthrop show him to have been enthusiastic in his estimate of the mineral wealth concealed in the New England hills, warrants the supposition that the inspiration of this proposed settlement, so far from tidal waters, was not alone the profitable trade in furs, but the expectation of discovering valuable ores, and especially iron.

undertaking, and ultimately, after one by one his original associates yielded to discouragements and abandoned him or died, lie alone, undismayed and equal to any emergency, with unbending will, hard common sense, and marvelous practical ability, fought the long battle with obstructive men and reluctant nature, and won. Prescott was the founder of Lancaster, and there existed no rival claimant to that honor. Garrett, the blacksmith of Charlestown, though he expended some time and means in the earliest days of the plantation, and clung to his landtitle for several years with the avowed intention of becoming a resident, finally drops out of sight. Hill, a Boston smith and a freeman of influence, business associate and neighbor of Henry Symonds, died July 27, 1646. Joseph Jenkes was a prototype of the Yankee mechanical genius. A smith employed at the Lynn Iron Works, he was granted the first patent in America for a water-mill. May 16, 1646, and thenceforward proved himself a bold, ingenious and successful experimenter in the mechanic arts, being selected by the Assistant in 1652 to make dies for the pinetree coinage of Massachusetts. He became too busy and prosperous to keep up his interest in the Nashaway scheme.

The other co-partners disclosed by various petitions and records were: John Fisher, of Medfield; Sergeant John Davis, a joiner of Boston ; John Chandler, of Boston ; Isaac Walker, a trader of Boston, who married the widow of Henry Symonds ; Thomas Skidmore, of Cambridge ; John Cowdall, a trader of Boston, who is found possessing the Symonds and King trucking-house after the death of the original owners; James Cutler, of Watertown, who married the widow of King ; Samuel Bitfield, a cooper of Boston ; Matthew Barnes, a miller and influential citizen of Braintree; John Shawe, a Boston butcher; Samuel Rayner, of Cambridge ; George Adams, a glover of Watertown. With the exception, perhaps, of Cowdall, Adams and Rayner, we have no proof that one of these men ever became actual residents at Nashaway, or took active steps to further its settlement after 1645. Chandler, Walker and Davis for some reason became actively hostile to the company's interests in 1647, as shown by the records of court, and Cowdall sold his land and improvements to Prescott the same year. Adams had his home-lot assigned him upon George Hill, but occupied it briefly, if at all.

The first two years after the General Court's sanction of the plantation saw little advance in the preparations for settlement. The first step taken by the associates was to send out fit pioneers to build houses, store provender for wintering cattle, enclose with paling a "night pasture," and prepare fields for grain. Richard Linton and his son-in-law, Lawrence Waters, a carpenter, and John Ball, all of Watertown, were employed and given house-lots. Linton and Waters built themselves houses upon lands assigned them near the wading-place in the North River, which were the first erected after the trucking-house. The covenant entered into by tlie proprietors with their minister contemplated the occupation of the valley during the summer of 1645.

Prescott, who had a considerable estate in Watertown, sold it, and packing his household goods upon horses, set out with his family through the woods for their new home. At the very outset of the journey he met with serious misfortune. " He lost a horse and his lading in Sudbury River, and a week after, his wife and children being upon another horse, were hardly saved from drowning." This sad experience Governor Winthrop seriously records as a special providence - divine punishment of the brave pioneer for his sympathy wilh that dangerous schismatic, Robert Childe ! The other proprietors seem to have been completely dismayed by this disaster to their leader, and forthwith - June 12, 164.5 - petitioned the authorities to order this yawning chasm in their path to be bridged. There is no reason to think that they exaggerated the formidable nature of the crossing, for more than one hundred years later the bridge and causeway at the same place were complained of as dangerous and in time of freshets impassable, and lotteries were granted, the proceeds of which, amounting to over twelve hundred pounds, were expended upon them. The petitioners in 1045 declared it " an vtter Impossibilitye to proceede forwards to plante at the place aboue sayd [Nashaway] except we haue a conuenient way made for the transportation of our cattell and goods oner Sudbery River and Marsh." Two years before, a cart-bridge had been begun by the town's people, but left incomplete, and the swamp remained unimproved. The court contributed twenty pounds towards finishing the bridge and causeway, stipulating that they should be completed within a year.

Whatever was done to render the way less perilous was done too late or too ineffectually to encourage Norcross or his parishioners, other than the indomitable Prescott, to venture across it with their cattle and household goods, during either 1645 or 164(5; and by that time their patience or pluck wa.s exhausted, the surviving Boston members of the company were trying to have the grant rescinded to relieve themselves of any responsibility incurred by their cove- | nant, and the minister had abandoned his parish. To ] the difficult task of obtaining planters to make good j so wholesale a defection, Prescott and Day seem to have devoted much time and energy with very moderate success.

The plan of settlement contemplated two groups or double ranges of house-lots, in sight of each other, but about a mile apart, the North River and its intervales lying between. The trucking-house formed the starting-point of the western range; the eastern lay along the plateau, then (as now) called the Neck, between the main or Penecook River and the North

Branch. Prescott, who had chosen his first home-lot in the eastern range, covering the site of the present Lancaster House, sold it to Ralph Houghton and made his home at the trucking-house. Philip Knight, of Charlestown, built a house on the lot which he bought of Steven Day, adjoining Prescott's on the north, and upon the next two lots were John and Solomon Johnson, of Sudbury, a roadway separating their dwellings. Upon the south corner of Solomon Johnson's lot now stands the George Hill Schoolhouse. Thomas Sav/yer, a blacksmith of Rowley, married Mary, the daughter of Prescott, in 1647 or 1648, and set up a home near his father-in-law, in a range of lots parallel to and south of those above named. Mrs. Sally Case's residence is nearly upon the site of the Sawyer house. These were probably the first five dwellings south of the North River. William Kerley perhaps moved upon his house-lot in the upper range not much later, and Daniel Hudson, a brickmaker from Watertown, occupied John Moore's lot certainly as early as the spring of 1651.

On the Neck side, Lawrence Waters sold his house to John Hall, whose wife Elizabeth occupied it, her husband going to England. Waters built himself a second house nearer the shallows in the river, a few rods west of the one sold. Ralph Houghton soon came up from Watertown and set up his roof-tree on the Neck. A petition of the inhabitants to the General Court of May, 1652, asking township rights, states that there were already living at Nashaway " about nine farailyes." They must be selected from those already named. Before this date there had probably been ten white children born in the settlement: two to Prescott, five to Lawrence Waters, two to Sawyer, and one to Daniel Hudson. The answer to the petition is the so-called Act of Incorporation of the Town of Lancaster. The first draft of the answer was passed upon by the deputies in May, 1652, and in this the name given to the town was Prescott, as had been requested by the petitioners, paying deserved honor to their generous, spirited and able leader.

The naming of a town for its founder had then no precedent in New England. Not even a magistrate or Governor had been so greatly honored. Probably the assistants or executive refused thus to exalt a blacksmith who was no freeman, and had but recently taken the oath of fidelity. They may have recalled also his sympathy with the agitation by Childe. The name Prescott was promptly refused, and after further consideration the name West Towne was inserted in the answer. This title, entirely wanting appropriateness and' euphony, satisfied no one, and further discussion carried the matter over another year. Prescott's force of character and liberality had won not only the admiration of his neighbors, but friendly interest in many and high quarters. He had proved very useful to Rev. John Eliot in his visits to the Indian tribes about and west of Nashaway. He had in 1648 been the pioneer of a "new way to Connecti- cut by Nashaway, which avoided much of the hilly way," and which Governor Hopkins, of Connecticut, as well as the leading ministers interested in the work of converting the Indians, esteemed a public benefaction. When, therefore, the inhabitants, disappointed of their first choice, petitioned asking to borrow a title for the new town from the Englisli shire in which Prescott was born, the suggestion was adopted, and Lancaster began its legal existence May 18, 1653. It was the forty-fourth town chartered in the Commonwealth, and the tenth in Middlesex County.

Three copies of the "Court's Grant" exist - one forming the first page of the town records, one an official copy by Secretary Rawson in Massachusetts Archives cxii. 54-55, and the original record of the court. They difier somewhat in orthography. That of the town records is as follows :

Coppie Of The Court'S Grant

1. In answer to the Peticon of the Inliabitunta of Nasliaway tlie Court finds according to a former order of the Gen'" Court in Anno H>47 no 0 : 95 : That tlie ordering and disposeing of the Phmtatiun at Nashaway is wholly in the Courts power.

2. Considering that there is allredy at Nashaway about nine fTamiliee and that severall both freemen and othere intend to goo and setle tbt-rp borne whereof are named in this Petition tiie Court doth Grant them the libertie of a Townesliippand olhei-stbat hensfortli it shall In- called I-aiicaster.

3. That the Bounds thereof shall be sett out according to a deede cf tlie Indian Sagamore, viz. Nashaway Riuer at the passing oner to be the Center, fivu* miles North fine miles south fine miles east and three miles west by such Comissiouei-s as the Courte shall appoint to see their Linea extended and their bounds limitted.

4. That Edward Breck, Nathaniell Hadlocke, William Kerley, Thomaw Sayer, John Prescot and Ralph Houghton, or any foiire of them, whereof the maior Parte to be froenien to be for present the prndentiall men of ihe said Towno both to see all allottments to be laid out to the Planters in due proportion to theire estates and allso to order other Prudentiall afaires vntill it shall Appeare to this Court that the Place be so fai r seated with able men as the Court may Judg meet, to give them full liberties of a Towushipp according to Lawe.

5. That all such Persons whoe haue possessed and Continued Inhabitants of Nashaway shall haue their Lofts formerly Laid out conlirmed to them provided they take the oath of fidellitie

6. That Sudbery and Lancaster Layout highwaies betwixt Towne and Towne according to order of Court for the Countries vse and then repaire them as neede slialbe

8. That the Inhabitants of Lancaster doe take care that a godly minester may bo nuiiiitained amongst them and that no evill persons Enemies to the Lawes of tliis Comonwealth in Judgment or Practi/.e be Admitted as Inhabitants amongst them and none to haue Lotts Confirmed but such as take the oathe of fidellitie y. That allthough the first Undertakereand partnei-s in the Plantacon of Nashaway are wholy Kvacuafed of theire Claimes in Lotts there by order of this Courte yet that such persons of them whoe haue Expended eitlier Charge or Labor for the Benefitt of the place and haue heipped on the Pnblike workes there from time to time either in Contributing to the minestrie or in the Purchase from the Indians or any otber Publike worke, that such persons are to be Considered by the Towne either iu proportion of Land or some other way of satisfaction as may be Just and meete. Provided such Persons do make such theire expencea Cleorly Appeare within Twelue monethes after the end of this Sessions for such demandes and that the Interest of Harmon Garrett and such others as were first vndertakers or haue bin at Great Charges there shalbe made good to him them his or theire beires in all Allottments as to other the Inhabitiints in proportion to tlie Charges expended by him and such others aforesaid. Provided they make Improiiem' of such Allotmt-* by building and Planting w^'in three i-eares after they are or shalbe Laid out to them, otherwise theire Interest hereby Provided for to bee voyde,

Aud all such Lands soe hereby Reserved to bethenclortli at the Townes Dispose : In further Answer to this Peticon the Court Judgeth it meete to Confirm the aboue mentioned Nine perticulers to the Inhabitants of Lancaster, and order that the bounds thereof be Laid out in proportion to eight miles square.

Of the six prudential men, the first three only were freemeu, and the death of Hadlocke, in Oharlestown, very soon deprived them of a legal quorum, according to strict construction of the fifth article. In October, 1653, however, they agreed upon a " covenant of laws and orders," which all who were accepted as citizens of the town were required to sign. As of the signatures to this, ten were dated a year before, it was undoubtedly an obligation entered into by the earlier comers adopted by the new oflicials. This covenant served as a Constitution by which the internal economies of the town were administered for very many years, and is therefore worthy to be given here in full, with the signatures, as found in the town records :

I65i 18:8 m". The botul to hiu'le all comers. Memorandum, That wee whose Names are subscribed, vppon the Receiueingand acceptanc of our severall Lands, and Allottments w^h all ApiMirtinuuces thereof, from those men who are Chosen by the Generall Court to Lay out and dispose of the Lands within the Towne of Lanchaater heertofore Called by the name of Nashaway doe hereby Covenant »t bimle ourseluea our heirea Execut" it Assignes to the observing and keepeing of these orders and Agreementd hereafter mentioned and Expressed.

Clmrch LtiHih. Rii'st ffor the maintainanc of the miin"stree of Gods holy word wee doe Allowe Covenant and Agree that there be laid out Stated and established, and we doe hereby estate and establish as Church Land with all the pritiilledgea aud Appurtiuancea therevnto belonging for ever, thirty acoi's of vppland and fortie acors of Entervale Land and twelue acora of meddowe with free Libertie of Commons for Pasture and fire wood, The said Lands to be improved by the Plantation or otht^rwise in such order as shalbe best Advised and Ctmcluded by the Plantation without Hent paying for the same, vntit the Labours of the Planters or tliose that doe improue the same, be ffidly aattisfied. And wee doe agree that the Plantation or Sellect men shall deternune the time, how Lunge every man shall hold and Improue the said Lands for the prortit thereof. And then to be Rented according to the yearly valine thereof and paid in to such persons as the Plantation or Sellectinen shall Appoynt to and for the vse of and towards the maintainanc of the minester Pastor or Teacher for the time being, or whomesoever may bee stated to preach the word of God among vs : or it may be in the Choyce of the minester to improue the said Lands himselfe.

Meeting house. And fturther wee doe Covenant and Agree to build a Convenient meetinghouse for the Publicpio Assembling of the Church and People of God, to worshipp God according to his holy ordinances in the most eaqual! aud Convenient place that maybe Advized and Concluded by the Plantation.

/((>(t«e lotts til pfftj h\^ p anil in the minister. And ffiirthcr we doe Engage and Covenant every one for himselfe his heires Executors & Assignes to pay to and for the vse of the minestreeabouesaid the sumeof ten shillings a yeare as for and in Consideracon of o' home Lotts yearly forever, our home Lotts to stand Engaged for the payment thereof, and what all this shall fall short of a Competent maintainanc we Covenant to make vpp by an equall Rate vppon o'^ Goods, and other improved Lands (not home lots) in such way and order as the Country rate is Raised. And in case of vacansy of a minester the maintainanc Ariseing from the Church Land and home Lotts abouementioned, shalbe paid to such as ahalbe Appoynted for the uae of a scoole to be as a stock ; or aa stock towards the maintainanc of the minester, as the Plantation or Sellect men shall think meetest.

To biiUd Inhabit d'C in a year or loose all and pn/j 5: "' And for the better Promoteing and seting forward of the Plantation wee Covenant and Agree, That such person or persons of vs who haue not inhabited this Plantation heretofore and are yett to come to build Improue and luhabitt That we will (by the will of God) come vpp to build tu Plant land aud Inhabit at or before one whole yeare be passed next after o' agcept- aDce of c AUottnients, or elc to Loose all our Charges about it, and our Lotts to Return to the Plantation, and to pay flue pounds for the vae of the Plantation.

What Inhabitants not to be Admited. And for the Better. preserveing of the pnritie of Religion and oursehies from infection of Error we Covenant not to distribute Alluttineuts atid to Keeeiue into the Plantation as Inhabitants any exnoniinicat or otherwise prophane and scandalus (known so to bee) nor any notoriously erring against the Docktrin and Discipline of the Churches and the state and Governni^ of this Com onweale.

to end all lU/renc by Arhitracon. And for the better preserveing ol peace and love, and yet to keepe the Rules of Justice and Equitie amoiige ourselues, we Coveuant not to goe to Lawo one with an other in ActioriM of Debt or Damages one towards an other either in name or state but tu end all such Controversies among oursehies by arbitration or otherwise except in cases Cappitall or Criniinall that sinn may not goe vnpuuisheil or that the mater beaboue our abillities to Judge of, and that it bee with the Consent of the Plantation or ScHect men thereof.

To pat) lOa p Loll. And for the Laying out measureing and bounding of our Allottmeiits of this first Diuision and for and towards the Satisfieing of our Engageui'" to the Generall Court, to make payment for purchase of the Indians we Covenant to pay ten sliillings everyone of vs for our several! AUottni^, to the Sellect men or whome they may Appoynt to Receive it.

Equall Lotts first DiuUion, hi 2"d Diuitiom acord to Estates : And. whereas Lotta are Now Laid out for the the most part Equally to Rich and poorc, Partly to keepe the Towne from Scatering to farr. and partly out of Charitie and Respect to men of meaner estate, yet that Equallitie (which is the Rule of God) may he observed, we Covenant and Agree, That in a second Devition and so through all other Devitions of Land the mater shall be drawne as neere to equallitie according to mens estates as wee are able to doe. That be which hath now more then his e.state Deservelh in home Lotts and entervale Lotta shall haue so much Less: and he tliat hath now Less then his estate Deserveth shall bane so much more. And that wee may the better keepe due proportion we Covenant and agree thus to account of mens estates (viz) ten pounds a head for every person and all other goods by due valine, and to proportion to every ten pounds three acoi-s of Land two of vpland and one of Entervale and we giue a years Libertieto Euery man to bringe in his estate.

Gifts free. Yet Nevertheless it is to he vnderstood That w* doe not hfeerehy preiudice or Barr the Phintation from Accomodateing any man by Gifift of Land (whidi proply are not AHottnit^:) but wee doe reserve that in the free Power of the Plantation as occatitm may hereafter be offered : And in Case The Phiutei-s estate be Lowe tliat he can elainie Nothing in other dilutions yet it is to be vndei-stood that he shall euioy all the Land of the first Devition.

Rules fur Ptoporcun of Meddoim. And tfurther wee Covenant to lay out Meddow Lands according to thepreasent estates of the Planters/with respect to be had to Remoteness or Neereness, of that which is remote to giue the more and of that wch is neere to giue the Less,

And Concerning the 30 acors of vppland and 40 acors of Entervale aboue Granted as Church Land. It is agreed and concluded to Lye hounded by John Prescotts Ditch vppon the South and the North Riuer over an ends [iinensl\ Lawrenc Waters vppon the North and so Rangeing allong westward.

And for the Preventing of Inconveniences and the more peaceable Isuing of the business about building of a meeting house it is Considered and Concluded as the most equall place that the meeting house he builded as neere to the t.'hnrch Land and to the Neck of Land as It can bee without any notable inconveiiiencie.

And it is allso agreed That in all partes and Quarters of the Towne where Sundry Lotts do Lie together they shalbe ffenced by a Coniiuon ffenc according to proportion of acors by every planter, And yett not to barr any man from perticuler and priuat Inidosure at his pleasure.

This is a true (topple of tlie Lawes and erdere ffirst Enacted and made by those Appoynted and Inipowered by the Genrall Court as it is found in the old book.

I subscribe tc this for my selfe and for my soun Edwai-d Brek ! Kybert saue that it is agreed that we are not bound to Rob" Brek: i "^^'"^ ^PP ^o inhabit wt^in a years time in our owne persons: This is a true Coppie:

Subscribed 12^: 12 ni": 1G54 : and it is agreed by the Towne that he shall haue 20 accui*s of vpland & 40 acore of Entervale in the Night Pasture : Jn^Riggby: Subscribed 12""; 12"> m<» : 1654 and he is to haue 20 acors of

Roger Sumner Gainalidl Beinand Subscribed : Gamaliell tt Bemaiid his marke r/*"»H(H U'//<rWfr; Subscribed the l'*" July 1659 TlionuiB Wyellder

Lancaster

Dsvelly, Ward, Peirce, Billings and Sutton - never became residents, and were not recognized in land allotments. Steven Day and Robert Breck received house-lots, but never occupied them. Kibbie was probably a resident for a brief time, but received no lands. Philip Knight, though one of the earliest householders, seems not to have signed, and removed. Elizabeth Hall went to her husband in England, selling his house and lot to Richard Smith. Cowdall and Solomon Johnson had sold out to Prescott and Day, and Ball returned to Watertown.

The organization of the corporation being thus complete, the townsmen diligently applied themselves to securing the most obvious necessities for comfortable living as a Christian community. Cowdall's deed of 1647 informs us that Linton and Waters had raised corn upon the fifty-acre intervale lot lying southerly from the present Atlierton Bridge before that year, and the deep, rich soil guaranteed a sufficient yield of grain for the planters and their cattle; but there was no mill nearer than that at Sudbury. Prescott had already been taking some steps to sup[)ly this prime need of the town. He had at least chosen the site and bargained with a millwright, as is shown by the formal contract made between him and the town November 20, 1653. Six months later his grist-mill was at work.

The assignment of home and intervale lots also engaged the attention of the prudential men in November. The allotments which had been made by Prescott, Day and others in the infancy of the plantation, and subsequent purchases based upon them, were confirmed. Actual settlers were given in the established ranges of lots twenty acres each of upland for a dwelling-place and twenty acres of intervale for planting.

Lancaster has often been called a Watertown colony because John Winthrop so styled it in 1643. But of the fifty-five who signed the covenant, twelve were from Dorchester, six were of Sudbury, six of Hingham and five each from Roxbury and Watertown. The others came from eight or ten different localities. The most prominent of the Dorchester colonists was the first prudential man named in the incorporating act, Edward Breck. He had been one of the selectmen of Dorchester for several years, and upon his ability and experience great dependence was placed by the Lancaster men. He built a house near the wading-place of Penecook, and retained his land, but lived here only for a brief period. His continued absence and the death of Hadlocke seriously obstructed the conduct of the town's prudential affairs, and early in 1654, there being about twenty families in the town, the majority petitioned that they might be relieved from their probationary condition, and allowed full liberties of a town according to law, electing their officers and transacting business by legal town-meetings. There were then but four resident freemen : William Kerly, Thomas Rowlandson, Thomas Sawyer and William Lewis; but the petition was granted, and Lieutenant Edward Goodnow, of Sudbury, and Thomas Dan forth, of Cambridge, were at the same time deputed to lay out the bounds of the town's grant, a duty they never found time to perform.

For the needs of the pioneer the meadows, as natural grass lands were called, came next in value to the house-lot and planting-field, and a first division of these open tracts wherever found in the town limits was agreed upon - four acres to be set to each one hundred pounds of estate. During the year 1654 the first legal town-meetings were held. At the earliest " the plantacion upon legall warning assembled ;'' formally confirmed the recorded acts of the prudential men appointed by the General Court the year before, some of these, as has been noted, not being strictly in conformity with requirements of law. At another town-meeting it was voted " that there should not be taken into the Towne above the number of thirty-five families." The greed of land was strong, but this short-sighted restriction had but a brief life. In the same territory over three thousand families now find "ample room and verge enough."

During the autumn of this year the Christian Sagamore Showanon died. Reverends John Eliot and Increase Nowell were at once sent to Washacum by the court, to prevail if possible, with the Indians, to elect Matthew, nephew of the dead sachem, as his successor. They were successful. There seems to have been some reason to fear that the choice might fall upon another chief, also in the line of succession, whose drunken habits and dislike of the colonists made his accession to power much dreaded. Thus far the friendly relations between the Englishmen and the Nashaways seem to have been in no way strained. The very rare mention of the tribe in the town annals goes to prove that no quarrels or grave jealousies interrupted friendly feeling. Morej over, Eliot gratefully records Showanon's loving hos- } pitality, and the generous care he showed in protecting him with a body-guard on his journeying to the interior. He once complains that the Indian wizards or " powows " had not been wholly silenced ; but all Christendom then believed in the reality of demoniacal possession, and little more than a year had passed since Margaret Jones, the witch, had been silenced by hanging in Charlestown. The unregenerate, credulous children of the forest feared sorcery, just as did their enlightened neighbors, only they had not learned the refinements of the English methods of dealing with sorcerers. When they found that drugs were far more efficacious- to relieve pain and sickness than charms and juggling tricks, powowing lost its hold upon their credulity.

of Sholan and his people living on terms of friendly intimacy with the adventurous pioneers whom they had invited to share the beautiful land of their inheritance, glows with only pleasing and romantic hues.

Chapter Ii

The Firnt MiiiUter - Arhityntimi - Commminttt^s Appohifed to Direct Tmcn AJfairs - The First Highiiui/s - Noijes^ of the lnditNis - Mouoco^sIiaid - Jiimcs QHanapnugs Fidelity - The Destnictioti of Lancaster.

The years 1653 and 1654 saw the addition of seven families to the town, those of Thomas and Nathaniel Josliu, John Rugg, John Rigby, John Moore, Sr., Stephen Gates and Thomas Rowlandson. The year 1654 was also graced by the coming of their chosen pastor, Master Joseph Rowlandson, of Ipswich. His signature to the covenant is dated February 12, 1654, and he, perhaps, did not begin preaching before that time, although he had been listed among the townsmen the March previous. Other ministers had doubtless been solicited to the charge after the disappearance of Norcross, but a church in the wilderness, with its little group of poor immigrants, had small attractions for men of education, unless they were largely endowed with the missionary spirit. We find, therefore, the first clergyman called to Lancaster a youth of twenty-two years, fresh from Harvard College, the lone graduate of 1652; one, moreover, but recently escaped from a whippingpost and penance for a collegiate prank - the penning and posting upon Ipswich Meeting-House of a doggerel satire, which the civil authorities dignified as a "scandalous libell.'' Master Rowlandson seems at once to have won the respect and love of those among whom he had cast his lot, and to have asserted his own dignity and that of the church ; for the saucy maiden, Mary (iates, who contradicted him in public assembly, and the ageil reprobate, Kdmund Parker, who wouldu't sit under the dropjnngs of the sanctuary, were alike speedily humbled and subjected to ecclesiastical and civil discipline. His father and mother came to Lancaster with him, but before two years had passed he was married to Mary, the daughter of John White, then the richest of his parishioners. A parsonage had been built in a central position between the two villages. The meetinghouse was not yet raised, but the site had been already chosen, about twenty rods southeast of the parsonage, on the highest ground in the present Middle Cemetery. A long narrow knoll, a little to the east of the meeting-house site, was set apart for a burial-place.

of the town's aftiiirs to be neither an easy nor a pleasant task. Although the divisions of land were governed so far as possible by casting lots, they gave rise to some bickering, and various questions arose about which the managers themselves seriously differed. The Kerly family began to display their characteristic firmness in their owij opinions. The salary of Master Rowlandson became a knotty subject of debate. Plainly there was occasion to make trial of the arbitration provided for in the covenant. Major Simon Willard, of Concord, Captain Edward Johnson, of Woburn, and Edmund Rice, of Sudbury, being summoned as arbitrators in April, 1656, by their "determinacions " settled twenty-four mooted points. The minister's salary was fixed at fifty pounds a year, and as in a rural community without money, church tithes must be paid chiefly in products of the land, wheat as a commercial standard was to be reckoned at sixpence per bushel less than the price at the Bay, and other grain in the same proportion.

Stephen Gates had been chosen the first constable, an ofiice of larger dignity and more varied duties than now appertain to it. He neglected to notify the four freemen at the proper time to send in their votes for nomination of the magistrates, was fined, and bis black staff of office passed to Prescott.

Ralph Houghton was nominated the first clerk of the writs, and confirmed by the County Court in October, 1656. He was an able penman, and thenceforward methodical reconU of the town's transactions were faithfully kept by him during twenty years. John Roper, a much esteemed addition, was accepted a townsman this year, and given the home-lot originally Solomon Johnson's. In 1656 also the first county road, that to Concord, was laid out.

Another petition from Lancaster this year demanded the attention of the court. Out of the thirty heads of families there were but five freemen in all, and two of these were disabled by years. The law requiring that in any action by selectmen the " major part " should be freemen, it followed that Kerly, Lewis and Sawyer by necessity could control all such action. Two of these, at least, being men of stubborn character, their opinions doubtless sometimes traversed those of more able and wiser citizens, or denied the just demands of the majority. The only remedies were, to transact all business details by formal town-meetings - which, " by reason of many inconveniences and incumbrances,'' was not to be thought of - to obtain more freemen, or to petition to be relegated to the care of commissioners. The town " by a general vote " petitioned for the last, and May 6, 1657, Major Simon Willard, Captain Edward Johnson and Thomas Danforth, three of the ablest men in the commonwealth, were ajipointed commissioners, and empowered "to order the afaires of the said Lancaster, and to heare and determine their seurall diffrences and gricuances which ol)struct the present and future good of the towne, standing in power till they bee able to make returne to the Genrall

The first meeting of this august board of advisers was held at the house of John Prescott, in September, and found abundant matter requiring their adjudication. By this date Lancaster had won a valuable accession in the person of Master John Tinker, who had purchased of Richard Smith the house originally built by Waters, and also the Knight house upon George Hill. Tinker, who had been a resident of Groton for a short time before coming to Lancaster, was a freeman of education and clerkly ability. He had bought the monopoly of the fur trade of Lancaster and Groton for the year 1657, paying eight pounds for it. A gift of land called Gibson's Hill - upon the east end of which now stands the mansion of the late Nathaniel Thayer - was made to Master Tinker by the town at this time, and indicates that there was material reason for his change of residence. The commissioners appointed John Tinker, William Kerly, John Prescott, Ralph Houghton and Thomas Sawyer selectmen, and instructed them in part as follows :

2. Encnnujt master RowUimhon. That the said Selecttnion take Care, for the due encuraginent of master" Rowlandson who now Labnureth amongst them in the niiuistrie of gods holy word, And alsoe that tliey take carp for erecting a meeting house, pound and etokes. And that they see to tlie Laying out of towne and Countrie liigh waies ami the towne bounds, and the making and executing of all such orders and by Lawes as may be for the Comon good of the plac (i e) respecting Corne feilds, medowes, Oomon pastnrag Land, fences, herding of Catell ami restraint of damage by swine and for the recouring of thos fines and fortitiires that are due to the towne from snch psones as haue taken vp land and not fullfilled the Oondicions of theire respectine grants wherby the Comon good of the Plantacionbath beene and yett is much obstructed.

3. Patjm(. of towne debts. That they take Care for the payment of all towne debts and for that end they are herby impowred to make such Ijevies or rate from time to time, as they shall see needfuH for the discharge of the Comon Charges of the towne, And in Case any of the inhabitance shall refuse or neglect to niak due payment both for fjuaiity and quantitie upon resonable demand, they may then Levie the sfime by distresse, And are impowered alsoe to take 2^ raor and aboue such fine or Rate as is due to bee paid for the satisfacion vnto your oficer that taketh the distress for his paines theirin.

4. manor of asesineitls. That in all their asesments, all Lands apropriated, (Land giuen for addittions excepted) shall bee valued in manor following (i e) home Lotts the vnbroken att 20^ p accor and the broken vp at thirtie slnllings by the accor the entervaile the broken at fowertie shillings the accor and the vnbroken at thirtie shillings the accor, and medow Land att thirtie shillings, and in all rates to the ministrie The Iiome Ijotts to pay tonn shillings p ann. according to the towne order. And tliis order to Continue for fine yeares next ensuing. Alsoe that the selectmen tiikspesiall Care for the preserning and safe keeping the townes Records. And if they see it need full, that they pcure the same to bee writon out fairly into a new booke, to be keept for the good of twsterit}', the charge wherof to bee borne by the pprietors of the said Lands respectiuely.

5. none freed from Itots vnlcss they i-elinqmsh vnder hind. That noe man be freed from the Rates of any Land granted him in pprietie eccept he mak a release and full resignation theirof vnder his hand, And doe alsoe relinquish and surender vp to the vse of the towne, his home Lott Intervaile and medow, all or none.

6. accnmndacoHS for 5 or 6 : he Left before 2 dinision. That their be accomodacioos of Land reserued for the meet encuragment of fine or six able men to com and inhabit in the said place (i e) as may bee helpfull to the encuragment of the worke of god their, and the Comon good of the place. And that no second deuision be Laid out vnto any man vntil those Lotts bee sett apte for that vse ; by the selectmen, that is to say home Lotts entervaile and medow.

to Confirme the deed of gift made by the towne vnto master Rowlandson (i e) of a boiise and Land which was sett a part for the vse of the ministrie bering date 1*-^ tjtii nion 1657 vpon Coudicion that master Rowlandson renioue not his habitacion from the said place for the space of three yeare next ensning, vnlesse the said inhabitance shall consent theirto, And the OomisioDers aproue theirof.

jiwilht agU inmntes. That none be entertained into the towne as inmates, tenants, or otherwise to inhal>it within the bounds of the said towne, without tlie Consent of the selectmen or the maior pte of them, first had and obtained, and entered In the record of the towne as their act, vpon penalty of twenty shillings p month both to the pson that shall floe offend by intruding himselfe, And alsoe to the pson that shall ofeud in receiuing or entertaining such peon into the towne.

The order against entertaining strangers is, of course, an echo of Governor Winthrop's order of court passed in 1637, which was so unpopular at the time that its author felt called upon to publi.sh an elaborate defence of so obvious an infringement of the people's rights. John Tinker inaugurated a more systematic method of recording the town's business, first copying into a new book the contents of the "Old Town Book." The selectmen during 1657 and 1658 ordered that all highways, whether town or county, should be amply recorded for the information of posterity, and the waymarks be annually repaired. All lands granted with butts or bounds were ordered recorded by the town clerk, for which special fees were to be paid him. The valuable registry of lands in four large volumes, beginning in 1657 and ending with the last division of common land in 1836, is the fruit of this order. Mordecai McLeod, a Scotchman, was admitted to citizenship. A letter was sent to Major Willard inviting him to make his residence in Lancaster, with certain proposals " concerning accomodacions,'' which proved sufiBciently attractive to be promptly accepted.. The selectmen ordered that the inhabitants on the Neck should build a cart-bridge over the North Kiver near Goodman Waters' house, and that those living south of that river should build a similar bridge over the Nashaway at the wading-place. These bridges were completed that year, and stood, the first a few rods above the present Sprague bridge, the other at or near the site of the present Atherton bridge. The existing highways were duly recorded as follows :

Cuutrie way. One way for the Cuntrie Lyeth : from the entranc in to the towne on the east pte from Wataquadocke hill, downe to the Swann Swanipe, and oner the wading place through Penicooke riuer : that is by the Indian warre [weir] and soe along by master Rowlandsous ground and the riuer and againe vp to goodnian Waters his barne betweene old goodman Breckes lott and that which was Richard Smithes now in the posesslon of John Tinker. To bee as it is staked out, att the Least fine Rods wide, on the neck, and to be as wide as can be on the cast side of the riuer vnder tenn Rods and aboue fine, and soe from goodman AVaterses ouer the north riuer, vp by m:i8ter Rowlandsons the breadth as is Laid out and fenced and marked and staked up to goodman Prescotts Ry feild and soe betweeue that and John mores lott and Crosse the brook and vpp betweene John Johnsons and Joliu Ropers Lotts fine Rods wide ; And soe beyond all the Lotts into tlie woods.

fo qiiapaponikin medowes before the houses of goodman patee and both goorliiian .loslliiis Ac : as it is laid out and marked : flue rods wide and in the enteruaille 2 rods wide.

To qttnsap'^nik-in hilt, one way: from goodman Breckee house tlirougli the end of his ground, and Ralph Iloughtons James Athertons goodman "Whites and goodman Leweises &c, to quasaponikin hill fine Rods wide.

To thti Juill. one way to the mill att the heads of the liOtts of J(din Prescolt Thomas Sawyer .facob ffarer &c flue Rods wide from the Cuntrie hjghw.iy to the mill.

Stmrt ill ;/e sfriith ntd oj t/e towHe. one way Called the Street or Cross way : from goodman Kerleyes entervaile and the rest of the entervailc Lotta: And soe south beetweene the double rang of Lotts: fine Rods wide and soetowards wiishaoome when it is past Jacob ffarers Lott : And alsoe Itt runes the siime wiiltiess betweene the house Lotts and entervaile lotts northward to the wallnut swampe : from the Ciitilric hujjnvny to ye entervoije of J" : Prespoll toe to Wataquadoke. one way from the mill way att the end of goodman Prescotts Ry feeild, to the Entrance of his entervaile flue Rods wide. And through the entervailes oner Nashaway Rinerand the Still riuers, to the outsid fenc, of Jacob ffarers Lott, two Rods and half wide.

Wojf to tJie plum trees A grotcn. Oneway; from that entervaile way downe along all the entervailes to the Still riuer and towards groten on the east side of the riuer two rods wide.

With the exception of the last, which was removed to higher land, these ways are all in use to-day, with a few local alterations of line and a general contraction in width.