"History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts: Including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscott, and Nahant"
by Alonzo Lewis, James R. Newhall

Transcribed and submitted
by Shaun Cook

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Chapter I

Part 1, pgs. 9 - 55 Part 2, pgs. 56 - 110

General Remarks, page 9- Early Voyages and Discoveries, 25- Nahant, Grant of, to Capt. Gorges, 30-The Indians, 32 - Indian Deed of Lynn, 49-Topography and Phenomena, 56-Shoes and Shoemaking, 86 -Ancient Ferry; Roads; Iron Works, 93- Peculiar Customs and Doings in Religious Matters, 100.

GENERAL REMARKS.

     When the collection of the facts composing this work was commenced, very little was known of the early history of Lynn. It had not even been ascertained in what year the town was settled — the records for the first sixty-two years were wholly wanting - and the names of the early settlers were unknown.
     It has been said that the Town Records were burnt, about the year 1690; but that they were in existence long after that period, is evident from an order respecting them, on the seventh of March, 1715, when the inhabitants voted that -" Whereas, some of the old Town Records are much shattered, therefore, so much shall be transcribed out of one or more of them, into another book as the selectmen shall think best.... and the selectmen having perused two of the old Town Books, and find that the second book is most shattered, and that the oldest book may be kept fare to reed severall years, think it best and order, that soe much shall be transcribed." A few pages were thus copied, and the books were afterward destroyed or lost.
     [In 1686, Oliver Purchis was elected Town Clerk. And probably he kept the records in a careless manner, as subsequently this passage appears: "At a Town Meeting held in Lyn, May 16th, 1704, the town being informed that there was considerable concerns of the town lay in loose papers that was acted when Capt. Purchis was Town Clark-therefore Voated, that the present selectmen, with Capt. Theo. Burrill , should be a committee to sort all them papers and such of them as they thought fit the Towne Clark to record in ye Towne Booke.' The papers were accordingly sorted and some recorded. But though among the rejected ones there were doubtless many containing matters that would be highly interesting to the people of this day, yet it is hardly probable that anything of real value escaped.
     [The sly censure on Mr. Purchis involved in the vote, should, however, be a warning to all -delinquent clerks. And had some who preceded him been a little more sharply looked after it is not likely that we should be so destitute of what we now mourn for as lost. Of late years our records have been kept in a very perfect manner, and it is earnestly to be hoped that the example they furnish may at no time in the future be disregarded.
     [It is well to bear in mind, however, that divers matters which are now considered entirely within the jurisdiction of the towns themselves, were anciently taken cognizance of by the General and Quarterly Courts. Town records were hence deemed of comparatively small importance, and often kept with little care; far too little, when it is considered what mischief might arise, for instance, from uncertainty respecting land allotments. But the living witnesses were then at hand, and the necessities of the great future could not be anticipated. Yet it is not believed that Lynn has greatly suffered from the loss of her early records. Richard Sadler was our first Clerk of the Writs, acting also, it is presumed, in the capacity of Town Clerk. And he was probably a man of education, as he afterward became a minister in England. No vestige of his jottings are now known to exist. But should every scrap of his old book —if, indeed, his records ever assumed a shape worthy of so dignified a name -come to light, it is hardly probable that it would compensate for a perusal excepting in the way of curiosity; for it appears almost certain that a knowledge of all the doings of real importance has come down to us through other channels.
     [Where Mr. Lewis , a few lines hence, speaks of having discovered a copy of three pages of the town records of 1638, he no doubt refers to those containing the land allotments. He found the copy among the records at Salem. Now this fact shows that the old authorities realized the importance of perpetuating evidence concerning the division, and hence had the pages recorded where the record would be most secure; if, indeed, the law did not then require that all transactions concerning real estate should appear in the county archives. And does not this support the view just taken concerning the value of the lost records? The great utility of a proper record of births, marriages and deaths, was in former times seldom kept in view. Our town books all along bear melancholy evidence of this. And even now, it is hard to make some people realize how important a record concerning even the most humble individual may become somewhere in the future. Very few come into the world, concerning whom it is not of consequence to preserve some exact knowledge, however lowly may be the estimation in which their own modesty induces them to hold themselves.]
     In my researches I found several volumes of old records of births, marriages and deaths, commencing in 1675, in a very ruinous condition, and caused them to be bound and furnished with an index. The earliest record of the proceedings of the town, now in existence, commences in the year 1691; and the earliest parish record, in 1722.
     I have examined every attainable source of information, to supply the deficiencies of the lost records. I have discovered numerous ancient manuscripts; and among them a copy of three pages of the old Town Records for 1638, and several in subsequent years, which providentially happened to be the pages most wanted. I have also found a journal, kept daily for forty-four years by Mr. Zaccheus Collins; and another, for twenty years, by Mr. Richard Pratt ; in which they appear to have noticed everything remarkable during those long periods, and from which I have extracted many interesting particulars. I have transcribed from the records of state and county, as well as from those of town and parish; and from numerous files of unpublished papers. Indeed I have spared neither labor nor expense to make this history complete. Not only have numerous volumes concerning early discoveries and settlements in America been consulted, but the manuscript records of towns and parishes in Great Britain and other European nations have been explored.
     It would have been quite as easy, in most instances, to have conveyed the ideas in my own words; but as I was delighted with the quaintness and simplicity of the original language, I thought that perhaps others might be equally pleased. Moreover, I like to hear people tell their own stories. Some historians have strangely distorted facts by changing the language so as to fit their own fancies or conform to their own prejudices.
     The records and files of our state government furnish much information respecting our early history; but as they existed when I began my researches, a vast amount of patience was requisite to obtain it. Those papers were then tied up in hundreds of small bundles and many of them bore the impress of the mob by whom they were trampled, in 1765. At my suggestion they have been arranged in volumes and furnished with an index; so that future historians will be spared much labor to which I was subjected. The papers in other public offices, and particularly those of the Essex Court, at Salem, merit a similar attention. [It would be more exact, perhaps, to speak of the papers as the records of the Colonial Courts, as there were three distinct jurisdictions within the present county of Essex, to wit, the Salem, the Ipswich, and the Norfolk County Court jurisdictions, each with different magistrates and clerks.] People yet gave too little veneration for their ancestors, and too little love for their country, or it would have been done long ago. The Massachusetts Historical Society, at Boston, merit unbounded gratitude, for the care with which they have preserved rare historical books and valuable manuscripts. [And the local historian of Essex County has cause for gratitude to the Essex Institute, at Salem, for their exertions in rescuing many things of interest and importance that were fast sweeping down the tide to oblivion.]
     I have given the names of more than three hundred of the early settlers, with short sketches of the lives of many. [And to these, in the present edition, a large number have been added.] I have also collected the names of many Indians and their sagamores, the fragments of whose history have become so interesting. This is the first attempt, in any town, to collect the names all the early settlers, with those of the Indians who were contemporary with them. I trust that no person who is an inhabitant of Lynn, or interested in the details of antiquity, will think that I have been too particular. A proper attention to dates and minuteness of circumstance, constitutes the charm of history. And the actions and manners of men can never cease to be interesting.
     [These initiatory remarks of Mr. Lewis have been considered by some as giving altogether too deep a coloring to the ignorance that prevailed regarding our fathers, before he undertook his work, and as unduly magnifying his own labors. But it is eminently true that the public in general were very deficient in anything like exact knowledge of our history. And it is astonishing how much of that ignorance still exists. Multitudes who profess great interest in the study of the past, rest satisfied with knowledge in a most crude and loose form, and find themselves quite incompetent to impart anything like accurate information to the inquirer. The local historian is perhaps most constantly baffled in pursuing family connections; for it is not uncommon to find respectable people who do not know the names of their grandfathers. This will scarcely be believed; but any one may relieve himself of doubt by experimenting among his neighbors. Those who have had experience like that of Mr. Lewis can well comprehend the moving cause of his expressions. And any of us would be better employed in studying than in criticising his pages. There are, even in this introductory chapter, exquisitely beautiful passages enough to impart grace to an entire volume.]
     There is something so natural in inquiring into the history of those who have lived before us, and particularly of those with whom we have any connection, either by the ties of relation or place, that it is surprising any one should be found by whom the subject is regarded with indifference. In a government like ours, where every man is required to take part in the management of public affairs, an acquaintance with the past is indispensable to an intelligent discharge of his duties. The knowledge of history was considered so important by the Monarch Bard of Israel, that he commenced a song of praise for its enjoyment. And the relation in which we are placed cannot render it less important and interesting to us. To trace the settlement and progress of our native town -to read the history of the play-place of our early hours, and which has been the scene of our maturer joys - to follow the steps of our fathers through the course of centuries, and mark the gradation of improvement -to learn who and what they were from whom we are descended-and still further, to be informed of the people who were here before them, and who are now vanished like a dream of childhood -and all these in their connection with the history of the world and of man - must certainly be objects of peculiar interest to every inquisitive mind. And though, in the pursuit of these objects, we meet with much that calls forth the tear of sympathy and the expression of regret, we yet derive a high degree of pleasure from being enabled to sit with our fathers in the shade of the oaks and pines of "olden time," and hear them relate the stories of days which have gone by. One of the most useful faculties of the mind is the memory; and history enables us to treasure up the memories of those who have lived before us. What would not any curious mind give to have a complete knowledge of the Indian race? And what a painful want should we suffer, were the history of our fathers a blank, and we could know no more of them than of the aborigines? Our existence might indeed be regarded as incomplete, if we could not command the record of past time, as well as enjoy the present, and hope for the happiness of the future. Reality must ever possess a stronger power over the minds of reasonable and reflecting men, than imagination; and though fiction frequently asserts, and sometimes acquires the ascendancy, it is generally when she appears dressed in the habiliments of probability and historical truth.
     Among the pleasures of the mind, there are few which afford more unalloyed gratification than that which arises from the remembrance of the loved and familiar objects of home, combined with the memory of the innocent delights of our childhood. This is one of the few pleasures of which the heart cannot be deprived-which the darkest shades of misfortune serve to bring out into fuller relief- and which the uninterrupted passage of the current of time tends only to polish and to brighten. When wearied with the tumult of the world, and sick of the anxieties and sorrows of life, the thoughts may return with delight to the pleasures of childhood, and banquet unsated on the recollections of youth. Who does not remember the companions of his early years -and the mother who watched over his dangers-and the father who counselled him-and the teacher who instructed him-and the sister whose sweet voice reproved his wildness? Who does not remember the tree under which he played-and the house in which he lived -and even the moonbeam that slept upon his bed? Who has not returned, in sunlight and in sleep, to the scenes of his earliest and purest joys; and to the green and humble mounds where his sorrows have gone forth over the loved and the lost who were dear to his soul? And who does not love to indulge these remembrances, though they bring swelling tides to his heart and tears to his eyes? And whose ideas are so limited that he does not extend his thoughts to the days and the dwellings of his ancestors; until he seems to become a portion of the mountain and the stream, and to prolong his existence through the centuries which are past? O, the love of home! it was implanted in the breast of man as a germ of hope, that should grow up into a fragrant flower, to win his heart from the ambitions and the vanities of his life, and woo him back to the innocent delights of his morning hours. Sweet Spirit of Home thou guardian angel of the good; thou earliest, kindest, latest, friend of man! how numerous are thy votaries, how many are the hearts that bow before thy sway! What tears of sorrow hast thou dried; what tears of recollection, of anticipation, of enjoyment, hast thou caused to flow? To all bosoms thou art grateful; to all climes congenial. No heart that is innocent but has a temple for thee; no mind, however depraved, but acknowledges the power which presides over thy shrine!
     The advancement of the American colonies has been unparalleled in the annals of the world. Two hundred years have scarcely circled their luminous flight over this now cultivated region, since the most populous towns of New England were a wilderness. No sound was heard in the morning but the voice of the Indian, and the notes of the wild birds, as they woke their early hymn to their Creator; and at evening, no praise went up to heaven, but the desolate howl of the wolf, and the sweet but mournful song of the whip-poor-will. The wild powah of the savage sometimes broke into the silence of nature, like the wailing for the dead; but the prayer of the Christian was never heard to ascend from the melancholy waste. The mountains that lifted their sunny tops above the clouds, and the rivers, which for thousands of miles rolled their murmuring waters through the deserts, were unbeheld by an eye which could perceive the true majesty of God, or a heart that could frame language to his praise. At length the emigrants from England arrived, and the western shore of the Atlantic began to hear the more cheerful voices of civilization and refinement. Pleasant villages were seen in the midst of the wide wilderness; and houses for the worship of God, and schools for the instruction of children arose, where the wild beast had his lair. The men of those days were compelled to endure privations, and to overcome difficulties, which exist to us only on the page of history. In passing through the forest, if they turned from the bear, it was to meet the wolf; and if they fled from the wolf, it was to encounter the deadly spring of the insidious catamount. At some periods, the planter could not travel from one settlement to another, without the dread of being shot by the silent arrow of the unseen Indian; nor could his children pursue their sports in the shady woods, or gather berries in the green pastures, without danger of treading on the coiled rattlesnake or being carried away by the remorseless enemy. The little hamlets, and the lonely dwellings, which rose, at long intervals, over the plains and among the forests, were frequently alarmed by the howl of the wolf and the yell of the savage; and often were their thresholds drenched in the blood of the beautiful and the innocent. The dangers of those days have passed away, with the men who sustained them, and we enjoy the fruit of their industry and peril. They have toiled, and fought, and bled for our repose. Scarcely a spot of New England can be found, which has not been fertilized by the sweat or the blood of our ancestors. How greatful should we be to that good Being who has bestowed on us the reward of their enterprise!
     Historians and poets have written much in commendation of the fathers of New England; but what shall be said in praise of those brave, noble, and virtuous women, the mothers of New England, who left their homes, and friends, and every thing that was naturally dear to them, in a country where every luxury was at command, to brave the perils of a voyage of three thousand miles over a stormy ocean, and the privations of an approaching winter, in a country inhabited by savages and wild beasts? If we are under obligation to our fathers, for their exertions, we are also indebted to our mothers for their virtues.
     The day on which the May Flower landed her passengers on the Rock of Plymouth, was a fatal one for the aborigines of America. From that day, the towns of New England began to spring up among their wigwams, and along their huntinggrounds; and though sickness, and want, and the tomahawk, made frequent and fearful incursions on the little bands of the planters, yet their numbers continued to increase, till they have become a great and powerful community. It is indeed a pleasing and interesting employment, to trace the progress of the primitive colonies -for each town was in itself a little colony, a miniature republic, and the history of one is almost the history of all -to behold them contending with the storms and inclemencies of an unfriendly climate, and with the repeated depredations of a hostile and uncivilized people, till we find them emerging into a state of political prosperity, unsurpassed by any nation upon earth. But it is painful to reflect, that in the accomplishment of this great purpose, the nations of the wilderness, who constituted a separate race, have been nearly destroyed. At more than one period, the white people seem to have been in danger of extermination by the warlike and exasperated Indians; but in a few years, the independent Sassacus, and the noble Miantonimo, and the princely Pometacom, saw their once populous and powerful nations gradually wasting away and disappearing. In vain did they sharpen their tomahawks, and point their arrows anew for the breasts of the white men. In vain did the valiant Wampanoag despatch his trusty warriors two hundred miles across the forest, to invite the Taratines to lend their aid in exterminating the English. The days of their prosperity had passed away. The time had come when a great people were to be driven from the place of their nativity - when the long line of sachems, who had ruled over the wilderness for unknown ages, was to be broken, and their fires extinguished. Darkness, like that which precedes the light of morning, fell over them; and the sunrise of refinement has dawned upon another people. The pestilence had destroyed thousands of the bravest of their warriors, and left the remainder feeble and disheartened. Feuds and dissensions prevailed among the tribes; and though they made frequent depredations upon the defenseless settlements, and burnt many dwellings, and destroyed many lives, yet the immigrants soon became the ascendants in number and in power; and the feeble remnant of the red men, wearied and exhausted by unsuccessful conflicts, relinquished the long possession of their native soil, and retired into the pathless forests of the west.
     Much has been written to free the white people from the charge of aggression, and much to extenuate the implacability of the Indians. We should be cautious in censuring the conduct of men through whose energies we have received many of our dearest privileges. And they who condemn the first settlers of New England as destitute of all true principle, err as much as they who laud their conduct with indiscriminate applause. Passionate opinion and violent action were the general faults of their time. And when they saw that one principle was overstrained in its effect, they scarcely thought themselves safe until they had vacillated to the opposite extreme. Regarding themselves, like the Israelites, as a peculiar people, they imagined that they had a right to destroy the red men as heathen. The arms which at first they took up with the idea that they were requisite for self-defense, were soon employed in a war of extermination. And the generous mind is grieved to think, that instead of endeavoring to conciliate the Indians by kindness, they should have deemed it expedient to determine their destruction.
     The Indians had undoubtedly good cause to be jealous of the arrival of another people, and in some instances to consider themselves injured by their encroachments. Their tribes had inhabited the wilderness for ages, and the country was their home. Here were the scenes of their youthful sports, and here were the graves of their fathers. Here they had lived and loved, here they had warred and sung, and grown old with the hills and rocks. Here they had pursued the deer- not those "formed of clouds," like the poetical creations of Ossian- but the red, beautiful, fleet-footed creatures of the wilderness. Over the glad waters that encircle Nahant, they had bounded in their birch canoes; and in the streams and along the sandy shore, they had spread their nets to gather the treasures of the deep. Their daughters did not adjust their locks before pierglasses, nor copy beautiful stanzas into gilt albums; but they saw their graceful forms reflected in the clear waters, and their poetry was written in living characters on the green hills, and the silver beach, and the black rocks of Nahant. Their brave sachems wore not the glittering epaulets of modern warfare, nor did the. eagle banner of white men wave in their ranks; but the untamed eagle of the woods soared over their heads, and beneath their feet was the soil of freemen, which had never been sullied by the foot of a slave.
     The red men were indeed cruel and implacable in their revenge; and if history be true, so have white men been in all ages. I know of no cruelty practised by Indians, which white men have not even exceeded in their refinements of torture. The delineation of Indian barbarities presents awful pictures of blood; but it should be remembered that those cruelties were committed at a time when the murder of six or eight hundred of the red people, sleeping around their own fires, in the silent repose of night, was deemed a meritorious service. In resisting to the last, they fought for their country, for freedom, for life - they contended for the safety and happiness of their wives and children; for all that brave and high-minded men can hold dear. But they were subdued; and the few who were not either killed or made prisoners, sought refuge in the darker recesses of their native woods. The ocean, in which they had so often bathed, and the streams which had yielded their bountiful supplies of fish, were abandoned in silent grief; and the free and fearless Indian, who once wandered in all the pride of unsubdued nature, over our fields and among our forests, was driven from his home and compelled to look with regret to the shores of the sea, and the pleasant abodes of his youth.
     A few, indeed, continued for some years to linger around the shores of their ancient habitations; but they were like the spirits whom the Bard of Morven has described, "sighing in the wind around the dwellings of their former greatness." They are gone. And over the greater part of New England the voice of the Indian is heard no more. We listen in silent regret to the last faint echo of their reluctant steps in their sorrowful journey over the prairies of the west. We see their long and faint shadows cast by the setting sun, as they thread the defiles of the Rocky Mountains in their despairing march toward the far-off Pacific. A few years, and they may have plunged into that ocean from which there is no return, and the dweller of a future age may wonder what manner of men they were of. That they were originally a noble race, is shown by the grandeur of their language, and by their mellifluous and highly poetical names of places - the yet proud appellations of many of our mountains, lakes, and rivers. It would have been gratifying to the lover of nature, if all the Indian names of places had been preserved, for they all had a meaning, applicable to scenery or event. "Change not barbarous names," said the Persian sage, " for they are given of God, and have inexpressible efficacy." The names of Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant remain; and may they continue to remain, the imperishable memorials of a race which has long since passed away.
     [The thought here expressed, in relation to the language of the Indians, is one that seems to have delighted other writers as well as Mr. Lewis . But is it not rather fanciful than deep, considering that words themselves are arbitrary and valueless excepting in their external relations? Any people with knowledge as limited as that of the Indians would necessarily use a simple language and one that would be most directly illustrated by familiar objects and events. The language of the red men abounded in illustrations from nature, and hence to the lover of nature possessed many charms, suggesting, it may be, to the mind of the cultivated hearer poetical ideas, when none existed in the mind of him who used it. Our more extended knowledge supplies a language of greater scope, one that contains all the simplicity and poetry of theirs with the additions that flow from science, art, history, and numerous other sources not open to them, and hence may not be suggestive of poetical ideas alone, but ideas in all other shapes recognized by, the cultivated mind. How much has been heard of the picturesque manner in which the Indians were accustomed to indicate multitudes, by comparing them to the stars of heaven, the sands on the shore, the leaves on the trees, and so forth. But in these comparisons there was to them no poetical idea involved. Being ignorant of arithmetic, actually unable to count, they were compelled to resort to some such mode of expression, where the white man would have expressed himself in exact terms. Again, for example, the Indians called a certain island in Boston harbor, The Twins, but the white people called it Spectacle Island. In one case the name was drawn from a semblance in nature; in the other, from a semblance in art. Both are apt enough, and about equally poetical. Yet the Indian name has been lauded as expressive and picturesque far above the other.]
     In contemplating the destruction of a great people, the reflecting mind is naturally disposed to inquire into the causes of their decay, in order to educe motives for a better conduct, that their wrongs may be in some degree repaired, and a similar fate avoided. If dissension weakened the power of the tribes of the forest, why should it not impair the energies of our free states? If the red men have fallen through the neglect of moral and religious improvement, to make way for a more refined state of society, and the emanations of a purer worship, how great is the reason to fear that we also may be suffered to wander in our own ways, because we will not know the ways of God, and to fall into doubt, disunion, and strife, till our country shall be given to others, as it has been given to us. He who took the sceptre from the most illustrious and powerful of ancient nations, and caused the tide of their prosperity and refinement to flow back and stagnate in the pools of ignorance, obscurity, and servitude, possesses ample means to humble the pride of any nation, when it shall cease to be guided by his counsels. Already have evils of the most alarming consequences passed far on their march of desolation. Already has the spirit of Discord, with his dark shadow, dimmed the brightness of our great council fire! Already has the fondness for strong drink seized on thousands of our people, bringing the young to untimely graves, sapping the foundations of health and moral excellence, and pulling down the glory of our country. Already has a disregard for the Sabbath and for divine institutions, begun openly to manifest itself; the concomitant of infidelity, and the harbinger of spiritual ruin. If we may trust the appearances in our western regions, our land was once inhabited by civilized men, who must have disappeared long before the arrival of our fathers. May Heaven avert their destiny from us, to evince to the world how virtuous a people may be, on whom the blessing of civil liberty has fallen as an inheritance.
     The political system of our nation is probably the best which was ever devised by man for the common good; but it practically embraces one evil too obvious to be disregarded. While it advances the principle that all men have by nature the same civil rights, it retains, with strange inconsistency, one sixth of the whole population in a state of abject bodily and mental servitude. On its own principles, our government has no right to enslave any portion of its subjects; and I am constrained, in the name of God and truth to say, that they must be free. Christianity and political expediency both demand their emancipation, nor will they always remain unheard. Many generous minds are already convinced of the importance of attention to this subject; and many more might speak in its behalf, in places where they could not be disregarded. Where are the ministers of our holy religion, that their prayers are not preferred for the liberation and enlightenment of men with souls as immortal as their own? Where are the senators and representatives of our free states, that their voices are not heard in behalf of that most injured race? Let all who have talents, and power, and influence, exert them to free the slaves from their wrongs, and raise them to the rank and privileges of men. That the colored people possess mental powers capable of extensive cultivation, has been sufficiently evinced in the instances of Gustavus Vasa, Ignatius Sancho, Lislet, Capitein, Fuller, Phillis Wheatley, and many others. [And the reader will not fail to recognize many note-worthy examples presented through the agency of the American rebellion; examples in which individuals of that oppressed race have exhibited rare judgment, skill, and valor in the field; a clear perception of the principles and responsibilities of liberty; true generosity of character; ardent longing for culture and advancement.] And the period may arrive when the lights of freedom and science shall shine much more extensively on these dark children of bondage - when the knowledge of the true faith shall awaken the nobler principles of their minds, and its practice place them in moral excellence far above those who are now trampling them in the dust. How will the spirit of regret then sadden over the brightness of our country's fame, when the muse of History shall lead their pens to trace the annals of their ancestors, and the inspiration of Poetry instruct their youthful bards to sing the oppression of their fathers in the land of Freedom!
     I trust the time will come, when on the annals of our country shall be inscribed the abolition of slavery - when the inhuman custom of war shall be viewed with abhorrence - when humanity shall no longer be outraged by the exhibition of capital punishments - when the one great principle of LOVE shall pervade all classes when the poor shall be furnished with employment and ample remuneration - when men shall unite their exertions for the promotion of those plans which embrace the welfare of the whole -that the unqualified approbation of Heaven may be secured to our country, and "that glory may dwell in our land."
     [But the unqualified approbation of Heaven can rest only where things are done according to the will of Heaven. And when will the inhabitants of earth attain to perfect obedience? Had Mr. Lewis lived but a few months longer, he would have been startled from his hopeful dreams by the thunders of a war more to be deplored, in some respects, than any which ever before shook the world - the war of the great American Rebellion. He would have beheld enlightened myriads, hosts of professing Christians, going forth heroically to battle for the perpetuation of SLAVERY, and offering up to the God of peace thanksgivings for their bloody achievements. And would he have seen their evil machinations met in that spirit of universal LOVE, so delightful to him to contemplate? Alas, no. He would have seen here in Lynn, on the open Common, and on the Lord's day, vicegerents of the Prince of peace, whose church doors had been closed that they might appear before the multitude to lift up their voices for WAR - war, as a necessity, to shield against evils still more terrible. Blessed were his eyes in that they were closed by death without beholding those scenes which would at once have swept away all his bright anticipations, and left him despairing that the time would ever arrive when the heart of man would become so sanctified that the temporal and selfish would not assert their overwhelming power -those scenes which would with force irresistible have taught that earth was not the place to search for heaven's beatitude.]
     In delineating the annals of a single town, it can scarcely be expected that so good an opportunity will be afforded for variety of description and diffusiveness of remark, as in a work of a more general nature. It is also proper to observe that this compilation was begun without any view to publication; but simply to gratify that natural curiosity which must arise in the mind of every one who extends his thoughts beyond the persons and incidents which immediately surround him. I may, however, be permitted to hope, that an attempt to delineate with accuracy the principal events which have transpired within my native town, for the space of two hundred years, will be interesting to many, though presented without any endeavor to adorn them with the graces of artificial ornament. My endeavor has been to ascertain facts, and to state them correctly. I have preferred the form of annals for a local history; for thus every thing is found in its time and place. The labor and expense of making so small a book has been immense, and can never be appreciated by the reader, until he shall undertake to write a faithful history of one of our early towns, after its records have been lost. I could have written many volumes of romance or of general history, while preparing this volume; and I have endeavored to make it so complete, as to leave little for those who come after me, except to continue the work.
     [Since Mr. Lewis closed his labors, however, antiquarian research has opened many sources of information. It would be singular indeed if an enterprising and important community like that of Lynn, should, during her history of more than two hundred years, furnish nothing worthy of note beyond what might be recorded in an octavo volume of three hundred pages. The present edition will show something of the multitude of interesting matters that escaped his careful eye. And it is not to be doubted that many valuable documents of the olden time yet remain in ancient garrets, permeated by herby odors, and perhaps at present used by motherly mice as bedding for their young, which may somewhere in the future come to light to the great joy of the student of the past.]
     It should be remembered that previous to the change of the style, in 1752, the year began in March; consequently February was the twelfth month. Ten days also are to be added to the date in the sixteenth century, and eleven in the seventeenth, to bring the dates to the present style. Thus, "12 mo. 25, 1629," instead of being Christmas-day, as some might suppose, would be March 8th, 1630. In the following pages, I have corrected the years and months, but have left the days undisturbed.

EARLY VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES.

It would be extremely gratifying, if we could roll back the veil of oblivion which shrouds the early history of the American continent, and through the sunlight which must once have illumined those regions of now impenetrable darkness, behold the scenery, and trace the events, which occupied that long space of silence or activity. Has one half of this great globe slumbered in unprofitable and inglorious repose since the morning of the creation, serving no other purpose than to balance the opposite portion in its revolutions through unvarying ages? Or has it been peopled by innumerable nations, enjoying all the vicissitudes of animal and intellectual life? [We have the high authority of Agassiz for claiming that the American continent is the oldest of the great divisions of the globe, and that it existed, under its present formation, while Europe was but an extensive group of scattered islands. Ever since the coal period America has been above water.]
     The most strenuous advocates of the priority of the claim of Columbus to the discovery of America, admit that he found people here - and we can look back with certainty to no period, however remote, in which we do not find the continent inhabited. How came those people here? Were they the descendants of a cis-Atlantic Adam? Or did they find their way, by accident or design, from the eastern continent? If the latter supposition be the more probable, then a corresponding accident or design might have returned some of those daring adventurers to their homes, and thus a knowledge have been conveyed of the existence of another continent. Nor are the difficulties of a passage, either from Europe or Asia, so great as may at first be supposed. The continent of Asia approaches within fifty miles of the northwest coast of America; [or, as some navigators say, within thirty-five miles, either continent being at times plainly in sight from the other;] and ships which traded, from Iceland to the Levant, might easily have sailed from Greenland along the shore of New England. People were much more venturous in early days than we are generally willing to allow. And canoes might have passed across the ocean from Japan, and even by the isles of the Pacific - as it is evident they must have done, to people those islands. When Captain Blighe was cast adrift by Christian, he passed twelve hundred miles in an open boat with safety. Why might not such an event have happened three thousand years ago as well as yesterday? The Scandinavian manuscripts inform us that in the year 986, Eric the Red, an Icelandic prince, emigrated to Greenland. In his company was Bardson, whose son Biarne was then on a voyage to Norway. On his return, going in search of his father, he was driven far to sea, and discovered an unknown country. In the year 1000, Leif, a son of Eric, pursued the discovery of the new country, and sailed along the coast as far as Rhode Island, where he made a settlement; and because he found grapes there, he called it Vineland. In 1002, Thorwald, his brother, went to Vineland, where he remained two years. It is very reasonable to suppose that these voyagers, in sailing along the coast, discovered Lynn, and it is even probable that they landed at Nahant. In 1004, we are informed that Thorwald, leaving Vineland, or Rhode Island, "sailed eastward, and then northward, past a remarkable headland, enclosing a bay, and which was opposite to another headland. They called it Kialarnes, or Keel-cape," from its resemblance to the keel of a ship. There is no doubt that this was Cape Cod. And as they had no map, and could not see Cape Ann, it is probable that the other headland was the Gurnet. "From thence, they sailed along the eastern coast of the land to a promontory which there projected - probably Nahant - and which was everywhere covered with wood. Here Thorwald went ashore, with all his companions. He was so pleased with the place, that he exclaimed -' Here it is beautiful! and here I should like to fix my dwelling!' Afterwards, when they were prepared to go on board, they observed on the sandy beach, within the promontory, three hillocks. They repaired thither, and found three canoes, and under each three Skrellings, (Indians.) They came to blows with them, and killed eight of them, but the ninth escaped in his canoe. Afterward a countless multitude of them came out from the interior of the bay against them. They endeavored to protect themselves by raising battle-screens on the ship's side. The Skrellings continued shooting at them for a while and then retired. Thorwald had been wounded by an arrow under the arm. When he found that the wound was mortal, he said, ' I now advise you to prepare for your departure as soon as possible; but me ye shall bring to the promontory where I thought it good to dwell. It may be that it was a prophetic word which fell from my mouth, about my abiding there for a season. There ye shall bury me; and plant a cross at my head and also at my feet, and call the place Krossanes - [the Cape of the Cross] -in all time coming. He died, and they did as he had ordered; afterward they returned." (Antiquitates Americanae, xxx.)
     The question has arisen whether Krossanes, was Nahant or Gurnet Point. There is nothing remarkable about the latter place, and though so long a time has passed, no person has thought it desirable to dwell there, but it is used as a sheep pasture. It is far otherwise with Nahant, which answers to the description well. An early writer says that it was "well wooded with oaks, pines, and cedars;" and it has a "sandy beach within the promontory." Thousands also, on visiting it, have borne witness to the appropriateness of Thorwald's exclamation-" Here it is beautiful! and here I should like to fix my dwelling!" If the authenticity of the Scandinavian manuscripts be admitted, the Northmen, as the people of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden are called, visited this country repeatedly, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries; but if they made any settlements, they were probably destroyed in some of the numerous wars of the aborigines. The Welch Triads and Chronicles, those treasures of historic and bardic lore, inform us, that in 1170, Madoc, Prince of Wales, on the tyrannous usurpation of his brother David, came to America with a party of his followers, and settled a colony. I see no reason to doubt this record - but if there were no descendants of Welchmen in America then, there are plenty now. [In the language of several of the ancient tribes, Welch words were distinctly recognized. It has hence been supposed the colonists, by intermarriage, became merged in the tribes around them.]
     Alonzo Sanchez, of Huelva, in Spain, in a small vessel with seventeen men, as we are informed by De la Vega, was driven on the American coast in 1487. He returned with only five men, and died at the house of Columbus.
     In 1492, the immortal Columbus made his first voyage to South America, but he did not come to North America until 1498. [Mr. Lewis makes a slight trip here. Columbus, on his first voyage, discovered land 11 October, 1492. And that land was one of the Bahama islands, which he named St. Salvador. On the 28th of the same month he discovered Cuba. Can these islands be called in South America?]
     In 1497, Sebastian Cabot, a bold and enterprising English man visited the coast of North America, and took possession of it in the name of his king, Henry VII.
     In 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold visited our shores. He discovered land on Friday, 14 May, at six o'clock in the morning, according to Purchas's Pilgrim, vol. 4, p. 1647. Sailing along by the shore, at noon, he anchored near a place which he called Savage Rock, and which many have supposed to have been Nahant. (Bancroft's U. S., vol. 1, p. 112.) A sail-boat went off to them, containing eight Indians, dressed in deer-skins, excepting their chief, who wore a complete suit of English clothes, which he had obtained by trading at the eastward. The Indians treated them kindly, and desired their longer stay; but they left, about three in the afternoon, (Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. 27,) and sailing southerly, "sixteen leagues," the next morning they found themselves just within Cape Cod. Archer's account of the voyage says, "The Coast we left was full of goodly Woods, faire Plaines, with little green, round Hils above the Cliffs appearing unto vs, which are indifferently raised, but all Rockie, and of shining stones, which might have perswaded vs a longer stay there." This answers well to the appearances at Nahant; but some have supposed Savage Rock to be somewhere on the coast of Maine. There is, however, no spot on that coast which answers exactly to the description; and Judge Williamson, the historian of Maine, says, " we have doubts whether Gosnold ever saw any land of ours. (Hist. Maine, vol. 1, p. 185.) [It seems now quite certain that Gosnold anchored at a point not farther east than Cape Ann nor farther west than Nahant.]
     In 1603, Martin Pring came over with two vessels, the Speedwell and the Discoverer, to obtain medicinal plants. He says, "Coming to the Maine, in latitude 43 degrees, we ranged the same to the southwest. Meeting with no sassafras, we left those places, with all the aforesaid islands, shaping our course for Savage Rocke, discovered the yeare before by Captain Gosnold; where, going upon the Mayne, we found people, with whom we had no long conversation, because we could find no sassafras. Departing thence, we bear into that great gulf, (Cape Cod Bay,) which Captain Gosnold overshot the yeare before, coasting and finding people on the north side thereof; yet not satisfied with our expectation, we left them and sailed over, and came to anchor on the south side." (Purchas, vol. 4, p. 1654.) Other voyagers, doubtless, visited our coast, but as places were unnamed, and the language of the natives unknown, little information can be gained from their descriptions. [And it is astonishing what absurdities some of the superstitious old voyagers were accustomed to relate. Even the comparatively late voyager John Josselyn, in his account of an expedition hither, gravely asserts that he discovered icebergs on which he saw foxes and devils. Had he reflected a moment, he must have concluded that the devils, at least, would not have chosen such a place for their sports. If he saw any living beings they were probably seals. But devils, at that period, were understood to perform very wonderful exploits, and to have a direct hand in all sorts of mischief that could harm and tease men. Modern culture has relieved the brimstone gentry of most of their importance arising from visible interference in human affairs. But yet, unnatural events enough are daily transpiring to induce the apprehension that they may be still, though covertly, pursuing their mischievous enterprises.]

NAHANT - GRANT TO CAPTAIN GORGES.

     The next white man who appears at Nahant, [if we consider it established that the peninsula was visited by Europeans before 1614,] was that dauntless hero and enterprising statesman Capt. John Smith. Having established the colony of Virginia, he came north, in 1614, made a survey of the whole coast, and published a map. In his description of the islands of Massachusetts Bay, proceeding westward from Naumkeag, now Salem, he says, "The next I can remember by name are the Mattahunts, two pleasant Isles of Groves, Gardens and Cornfields, a league in the sea from the Maine. The Isles of Mattahunts are on the west side of this bay, where are many Isles, and some Rocks, that appear a great height above the water, like the Pieramides of Egypt." It is evident that by the Mattahunts he meant the Nahants, the pronunciation of which, perhaps, he imperfectly "remembered." His delineation of these islands on the map, though very small, is very correct; and he named them the "Fullerton Islands," probably from the name of the surveyor, or some other friend. He appears to have examined the islands and shores attentively. He says, " The coast of Massachusetts is so indifferently mixed with high clay or sandy cliffs in one place, and the tracts of large, long ledges of divers sorts, and quarries of stones in other places, so strangely divided with tinctured veins of divers colours, as free stone for building, slate for tyling, smooth stone for making Furnaces and Forges for Glasse and Iron, and Iron ore sufficient conveniently to melt in them.... who will undertake the rectifying of an Iron Forge, in my opinion cannot lose." (Smith's N. E.) As the beds of Iron in Saugus had not then been discovered, he probably mistook the hornblende ledge on the north of Nahant for a mine of iron ore. The Nahants appear to have been admired and coveted by all who visited them. On the 20th of December, 1622, we find them granted by the Council in England, to Captain Robert Gorges. He came over in 1623, took possession of his lands, and probably commenced a settlement at Winnisimet, which was also included in his grant. The following appears in the Massachusetts Archives: The said Councill grant unto Robert Gorges, youngest son of Sir Fernando Gorges, Knight, and his heires, all that part of the Maine land in New England, commonly called and known by the name of the Massachusetts, scytuate and lyeing vpon the North East side of the Bay, called and known by the name of the Massachusetts, or by whatever name or names whatsoever called, with all coastes and shoares along the Sea for Ten English miles in a straight line towards the North East, accounting seventeen hundred and sixty yards to the mile; and 30 English miles, after the same rate, into the Mayne Land, through all the breadth aforesaid; togeather with all Islands so lyeing within 3 miles of any part of the said land. Robert Gorges dyes without issue; the said lands descend to John Gorges, his eldest brother. John Gorges by deed bearing date 20 January, 1628-9, (4 Car. I.) grants to Sir William Brereton, of Handforth, in the County of Chester, Baronet, and his heires, all the lande, in breadth, lyeinge from the East side of Charles River to the Easterly parte of the Cape called Nahannte, and all the lands lyeinge in length 20 miles northeast into the Maine land from the mouth of the said Charles River, lyeinge also in length 20 miles into the Maine land from the said Cape Nahannte: also two Islands lyeinge next unto the shoare between Nahannte and Charles River, the bigger called Brereton, and the lesser Susanna. [East Boston and Belle Isle.] Sir William Brereton dyes, leaving Thomas, his only son, afterward Sir Thomas, and Susanna his daughter. Sir Thomas dyes without issue. Susanna marries Edward Lenthall, Esq. and dyes, leaving Mary, her only daughter and heire. Mary is married to Mr. Leavitt of the Inner Temple, who claymes the said Lands in right of Mary his wife, who is heire to Sir William Brereton and Sir Thomas Brereton. Sir William Brereton sent over Severall familyes and Servants, who possessed and Improved severall Large tracts of the said Lands, and made Severall Leases, as appeares by the said deedes. A portion of these lands was granted by Captain Gorges to John Oldham, including Nahant and part of Saugus. In a letter from the Council in England to Governor Endicott, dated 17 April, 1629, we find as follows: "Mr. Oldham's grant from Mr. Gorges, is to him and John Dorrel, for all the lands within Massachusetts Bay, between Charles River and Abousett River; Containing in length by streight lyne 5 Miles vp the Charles River into the Maine Land, northeast from the border of said Bay, including all Creekes and Points by the way, and 3 Myles in Length from the Mouth of the aforesaid River Abousett, vp into the Maine Land N. W. including all Creekes and Points, and all the Land in Breadth and Length between the foresaid Rivers, with all prerogatives, royall Mynes excepted. (Hazard's Collections.) The writer of this letter, in reference to the claim of Oldham, says, " I hold it void in law," and advises Mr Endicott to take possession. Such possession was taken of the Nahants, as will be seen in proceeding; and though the heirs of Gorges afterward renewed their claim, the colony declined either to relinquish or pay; because Gorges, after being appointed to the government, had relinquished the possession and returned to England.

THE INDIANS.


     Before proceeding with the history of the Whites, it will be interesting to learn something more respecting the Red Men. The emigrants from England found the country inhabited by a people who were called Indians, because when first discovered the country was supposed to be a part of India. They were divided into several great nations, each of which consisted of many tribes. Lechford says, " They were governed by sachems, kings and sagamores, petty lords;" but Smith, who was here before him, calls them " sagamos;" and as the Indians, in this neighborhood at least, had no R in their language, he is probably correct. The word sachem, pronounced sawkcum by the Indians, is a word meaning great strength, or power; and the word sachemo, or sagamo, evidently has the same derivation. Their plural was formed in uog; Sagamore Hill, therefore, is the same as Sachemuog Hill, or the Hill of Kings. There appear to have been as many as seven nations in New England. The ever-warring Taratines inhabited the eastern part of Maine, beyond the Penobscot river; and their great sachem was Nultonanit. From the Penobscot to the Piscataqua were the Chur-churs, formerly governed by a mighty chief, called a Bashaba. The Pawtuckets had a great dominion, reaching from the Piscataqua to the river Charles, and extending north as far as Concord on the Merrimac. Their name is preserved in Pawtucket Falls, at Lowell. They were governed by Nanapashemet, who sometime lived at Lynn, and, according to Gookin, could raise three thousand warriors. The Massachusetts, so named from the Blue Hills at Milton, were governed by Chickataubut, who also commanded three thousand men. His dominion was bounded on the north and west by Charles river, and on the south extended to Weymouth and Canton. The Wampanoags occupied the southeastern part of Massachusetts, from Cape Cod to Narraganset Bay. They were ruled by Massasoit, whose chief residence was at Pokanoket, now Bristol, in Rhode Island. He was a sachem of great power, having dominion over thirty-two tribes, and could have brought three thousand warriors into the field, by a word; yet he was a man of peace and a friend to the English, and during all the provocations and disturbances of that early period, he governed his nation in tranquillity for more than forty years, leaving an example of wisdom to future ages. The Narragansets, on the west of Narraganset Bay, in Rhode Island, numbered five thousand warriors, and were governed by two sachems, Canonicus and his nephew Miantonimo, who ruled together in harmony. The Pequots occupied Connecticut, and were governed by Sassacus, a name of terror, who commanded four thousand fighting men, and whose residence was at New London. Besides these, there were the Nipmucks in the interior of Massachusetts, who had no great sachem, but united with the other nations in their wars, according to their inclination. The Pequots and the Taratines were ever at war with some of the other nations, and were the Goths arid Vandals of aboriginal New England. The
     Indians were very numerous, until they were reduced by a great war, and by a devastating sickness. All the early voyagers speak of "multitudes," and " countless multitudes." Smith, who took his survey in 1614, passing along the shore in a little boat, says, " The seacoast as you pass, shows you all along, large corne fields, and great troupes of well proportioned people;" and adds that there were three thousand on the islands in Boston harbor. Gookin has enumerated eighteen thousand warriors in five nations, and if the remainder were as populous, there must have been twenty-five thousand fighting men, and at least one hundred thousand people, in New England. [But could that be called a large population for such an extent of territory? a population equal to but half that of Boston at this time. Nomadic and all unsettled branches of our race are usually small in numbers. And the stories told by some of the early comers, so magnifying the Indian populations, are no more worthy of credit than the fanciful chapters of those modern writers who laud their virtues to a degree hardly within the range of mortal attainment. A page or two hence it is stated that Sagamore James resided at Lynn. He was a ruler of some note. And yet, as further evidence that there could have been but a small Indian population hereabout, at that time, it may be added that Rev. Mr. Higginson says that he commanded "not above thirty or forty men, for aught I can learn."] In the spring of 1615, some provocation was given by the western Indians to the Taratines, who, with a vindictive spirit, resolved upon retaliation; and they carried their revenge to an extent scarcely paralleled in the dreadful history of human warfare. They killed the great Bashaba of Penobscot, murdered his women and children, and overran the whole country from Penobscot to the Blue Hills. Their death-word was "cram! cram! "-kill! kill!-and so effectually did they "suit the action to the word," and so many thousands on thousands did they slaughter, that, as Gorges says, it was "horrible to be spoken of." In 1617, commenced a great sickness, which some have supposed was the plague, others the small pox or yellow fever. This sickness made such dreadful devastation among those whom the tomahawk had not reached, that when the English arrived, the land was literally covered with human bones. Still the vengeance of the Taratines was unsatiated, and we find them hunting for the lives of the few sagamores who remained.
     NANAPASHEMET, or the New Moon, was one of the greatest sachems in New England, ruling over a larger extent of country than any other. He swayed, at one time, all the tribes north and east of the Charles river, to the river Piscataqua. The Nipmucks acknowledged his dominion, as far as Pocontocook, now Deerfield, on the Connecticut; and after his death they had no great sachem. (Smith, Gookin, Hubbard. See also Samuel G. Drake's interesting Book of the Indians, wherein he has accumulated a vast amount of facts respecting the Sons of the Forest.) Nanapashemet, like the orb of night, whose name he bore; had risen and shone in splendor. But his moon was now full, and had begun to wane. He resided at Lynn until the great war of the Taratines, in 1615. He then retreated to a hill on the borders of Mistick river, where he built a house, and fortified himself in the best manner possible. He survived the desolating sickness of 1617; but the deadly vengeance of the Taratines, which induced them to stop at nothing short of his death, pursued him to his retreat, and there he was killed by them in 1619. In September, 1621, a party of the Plymouth people, having made a visit to Obatinua, sachem of Boston, went up to Medford. Mr. Winslow says, "Having gone three miles, we came to a place where corn had been newly gathered, a house pulled down, and the people gone. A mile from hence, Nanapashemet, their king, in his lifetime had lived. His house was not like others; but a scaffold was largely built, with poles and planks, some six foot from the ground, and the house upon that, being situated upon the top of a hill. Not far from hence, in a bottom, we came to a fort, built by their deceased king - the manner thus: There were poles, some thirty or forty feet long, stuck in the ground, as thick as they could be set one by another, and with those they enclosed a ring some forty or fifty feet over. A trench, breast high, was digged on each side; one way there was to get into it with a bridge. In the midst of this palisade stood the frame of a house, wherein, being dead, he lay buried. About a mile from hence we came to such another, but seated on the top of a hill. Here Nanapashemet was killed, none dwelling in it since the time of his death." The care which the great Moon Chief took to fortify himself, shows the fear which he felt for his mortal enemy. With his death, the vengeance of the Taratines seems in some degree to have abated; and his sons, returning to the shore, collected the scattered remnants of their tribes, over whom they ruled as sagamores on the arrival of our fathers. The general government was continued by the saunks, or queen of Nanapashemet, who was called Squaw Sachem. She married Webbacowet, who was the great physician of her nation. On the fourth of September, 1640, she sold Mistick Ponds and a large tract of land now included in Somerville, to Jotham Gibbons, of Boston. On the eighth of March, 1644, she submitted to the government of the whites, and consented to have her subjects instructed in the Bible. She died in 1667, being then old and blind. Nanapashemet had three sonsWonohaquaham, Montowampate, and Wenepoykin, all of whom became sagamores; and a daughter Yawata.
     WONOHAQUAHAM, was sagamore on Mistick river, including Winnisimet. In 1627 he gave the whites liberty to settle at Charlestown, and on the records of that town he is called a chief "of gentle and good disposition." He was called by the English, John, and died in 1633, according to the best authorities.
     MONTOWAMPATE, sagamore of Lynn, was born in the year 1609. He lived on Sagamore Hill, near the northern end of Long Beach. He had jurisdiction of Saugus, Naumkeag, and Masabequash; or Lynn, Salem, and Marblehead. He was called by the white people, James. Mr. Dudley in his letter to the Countess of Lincoln, says, " Vppon the river of Mistick is seated Saggamore John, and vppon the river of Saugus Sagamore James, both soe named from the English. The elder brother, John, is a handsome young.... (one line wanting).... conversant with us, affecting English apparel and houses, and speaking well of our God. His brother James is of a far worse disposition, yet repaireth to us often." He married Wenuchus, a daughter of Passaconaway, the great powah, or priest of the nation, whose chief residence was at Penacook, now Concord, on the Merrimac. This venerable, and in some respects wonderful man, died about the year 1673, when he was one hundred and twenty years of age. On his death bed, he called his friends around, and told them that he was going to the land of spirits, to see them no more. He said he had been opposed to the English at their first coming, and sought to prevent their settlement; but now he advised them to oppose the white men no more, or they would all be destroyed. The marriage of Montowampate took place in the year 1629, when he was twenty years of age; and it gave him an opportunity to manifest his high sense of the dignity which appertained to a sachem. Thomas Morton, who was in the country at the time, and wrote a work entitled the New English Canaan, furnishes us with the following interesting particulars: The sachem or sagamore of Sagus, made choice, when he came to man's estate, of a lady of noble descent, daughter of Papasiquineo, the sachem or sagamore of the territories near Merrimack river; a man of the best note in all those parts, and, as my countryman, Mr. Wood, declares, in his Prospect, a great nigromancer. This lady, the young sachem, with the consent and good liking of her father, marries, and takes for his wife. Great entertainment hee and his received in those parts, at her father's hands, wheare they were rested in the best manner that might be expected, according to the custome of their nation, with reveling, and such other solemnities as is usual amongst them. The solemnity being ended, Papasiquineo caused a selected number of his men to waite on his daughter home into those parts that did properly belong to her lord and husband; where the attendants had entertainment by the sachem of Sagus and his countrymen. The solemnity being ended, the attendants were gratified.
     Not long after, the new married lady had a great desire to see her father and her native country, from whence she came. Her lord was willing to pleasure her, and not deny her request, amongst them thought to be reasonable, commanded a select number of his own men to conduct his lady to her father, where with great respect they brought her; and having feasted there awhile, returned to their own country againe, leaving the lady to continue there at her owne pleasure, amongst her friends and old acquaintance, where she passed away the time for awhile, and in the end desired to returne to her lord againe. Her father, the old Papasiquineo, having notice of her intent, sent some of his men on ambassage to the young sachem, his sonne in law, to let him understand that his daughter was not willing to absent herself from his company any longer; and therefore, as the messengers had in charge, desired the young lord to send a convoy for her; but he, standing upon tearmes of honor, and the maintaining of his reputation, returned to his father in law this answer: " That when she departed from him, hee caused his men to waite upon her to her father's territories as it did become him; but now she had an intent to returne, it did become her father to send her back with a convoy of his own people; and that it stood not with his reputation to make himself or his men so servile as to fetch her againe."
     The old sachem Papasiquineo, having this message returned, was inraged to think that his young son in law did not esteem him at a higher rate than to capitulate with him about the matter, and returned him this sharp reply: "That his daughter's blood and birth deserved more respect than to be slighted, and therefore, if he would have her company, he were best to send or come for her."
     The young sachem, not willing to undervalue himself, and being a man of a stout spirit, did not stick to say, " That he should either send her by his own convoy, or keepe her; for he was determined not to stoope so lowe."
     So much these two sachems stood upon tearmes of reputation with each other, the one would not send for her, lest it should be any diminishing of honor on his part that should seeme to comply, that the lady, when I came out of the country, remained still with her father; which is a thing worth the noting, that salvage people should seek to maintaine their reputation so much as they doe.
     A chief who could treat a lady so discourteously deserved to lose her. Montowampate had not the felicity to read the Fairy Queen, or he would have thought with Spenser:
          "What vertue is so fitting for a Knight,
          Or for a Ladie whom a knight should love,
          As curtesie."
     My lady readers will undoubtedly be anxious to know if the separation was final. I am happy to inform them that it was not; as we find the Princess of Penacook enjoying the luxuries of the shores and the sea breezes at Lynn, the next summer. How they met without compromiting the dignity of the proud sagamore, history does not inform us; but probably, as ladies are fertile in expedients, she met him half way. In 1631 she was taken prisoner by the Taratines, as will hereafter be related. Montowampate died in 1633. Wenuchus returned to her father; and in 1686, we find metion made of her grand-daughter Pahpocksit. Other interesting incidents in the life of Montowampate will be found in the following pages.
     WENEPOYKIN, erroneously called Winnepurkit, was the youngest son of Nanapashemet. His name was pronounced with an accent and a lingering on the third syllable, We-ne-pawwe-kin. He was born in 1616, and was a little boy, thirteen years of age, when the white men came. The Rev. John Higginson, of Salem, says: "To the best of my remembrance, when I came over with my father, to this place, there was in these parts a widow woman, called Squaw Sachem, who had three sons; Sagamore John kept at Mistick, Sagamore James at Saugus, and Sagamore George here at Naumkeke. Whether he was actual sachem here I cannot say, for he was then young, about my age, and I think there was an elder man that was at least his guardian." On the death of his brothers, in 1633, he became sagamore of Lynn and Chelsea; and after the death of his mother, in 1667, he was sachem of all that part of Massachusetts which is north and east of Charles river. He was the proprietor of Deer Island, which he sold to Boston. He was called Sagamore George, and George Rumney Marsh; [also Sagamore George No-Nose.] Until the year 1738, the limits of Boston extended to Saugus, including Chelsea, which was called Rumney Marsh. Part of this great marsh is now in Chelsea and part in Saugus. The Indians living on the borders of this marsh in Lynn and Saugus, were sometimes called the Rumney Marsh Indians. Weiepoykin was taken prisoner in the Wampanoag war, in 1676, and died in 1684. He married Ahawayet, daughter of Poquanum, who lived on Nahant. She presented him with one son, Manatahqua, and three daughters, Petagunsk, Wattaquattinusk, and Petagoonaquah, who, if early historians are correct in their descriptions, were as beautiful, almost, as the lovely forms which have wandered on the rocks of Nabant in later times. They were called Wanapanaquin, or the plumed ones. This word is but another spelling of Wenepoykin, their father's name, which signifies a wing, or a feather. I suppose they were the belles of the forest, in their day, and wore finer plumes than any of their tribe. Petagunsk was called Cicely. [In the Indian deed of Lynn, she is described as " Cicily alias Su George, the reputed daughter of old Sagamore George No-Nose."] She had a son Tontoquon, called John. Wattaquattinusk, or the Little Walnut, was called Sarah; and Petagoonaquah was named Susanna. Manatahqua had two sons, Nonupanohow, called David [Kunkshamooshaw] and Wuttanoh, which means a staff, called Samuel. The family of Wenepoykin left Lynn about the time of the Wampanoag war, and went to Wameset, or Chelmsford, now Lowell, where they settled near Pawtucket falls. On the 16th of September, 1684, immediately after the death of Wenepoykin, the people of Marblehead embraced the opportunity of obtaining a deed of their town. It was signed by Ahawayet, and many others, her relatives. She is called "Joane Ahawayet, Squawe, relict, widow of George Saggamore, alias Wenepawweekin." (Essex Reg. Deeds, 11, 132.) She survived her husband about a year, and died in 1685. On the 19th of March, 1685, David Nonupanohow, " heir of Sagamore George, and in his right having some claim to Deer Island, doth hereby, for just consideration, relinquish his right, to the town of Boston." (Suffolk Records.) On the 11th of October, 1686, the people of Salem obtained a deed of their town, which was signed by the relatives of Wenepoykin. [And on the 4th of September, of the same year, the people of Lynn likewise obtained a deed of their territory, from the heirs of Wenepoykin, a copy of which may be found on page 51, et seq.]
     YAWATA, daughter of Nanapashemet, and sister of the three sagamores, married Oonsumog. She lived to sign the deed of Salem, in 1686, and died at Natick. She had a son, Muminquash, born in 1636, and called James Rumney Marsh, who also removed to Natick. There is great softness and euphony in the name of this Indess. Ya-wa-ta; six letters, and only one hard consonant. Probably her heart was as delicate and feminine as her name. The early settlers indicated their poetic taste by calling her Abigail. [The wife of David Kunkshamooshaw, who was a grandson of Yawata's brother Wenepoykin, was also called Abigail. This last was the Abigail who signed the deed of Lynn. And it seems as if Mr. Lewis may have confounded the two Abigails. Yet, Yawata might have signed the Saldem deed, in 1686, though she must then have been quite old.]
     POQUANUM, or Dark Skin, was sachem of Nahant. Wood, in his New England's Prospect, calls him Duke William; and it appears by depositions in Salem Court Records, that he was known by the familiar appellation of Black Will. He was contemporary with Nanapashemet. In 1630 he sold Nahant to Thomas Dexter for a suit of clothes. It is probable that he was the chief who welcomed Gosnold, in 1602, and who is represented to have been dressed in a complete suit of English clothes. If he were the same, that may have been the reason why he was so desirous to possess another suit. He was killed in 1633, as will be found under that date. He had two children - Ahawayet, who married Wenepoykin; and Queakussen, commonly called Captain Tom, or Thomas Poquanum, who was born in 1611. Mr. Gookin, in 1686, says, " He is an Indian of good repute, and professeth the Christian religion." Probably he is the one alluded to by Rev. John Eliot, in his letter, November 13, 1649, in which he says: - Linn Indians are all naught, save one, who sometimes cometh to hear the word, and telleth me that he prayeth to God; and the reason why they are bad is partly and principally because their sachem is naught, and careth not to pray to God." There is a confession of faith, preserved in Eliot's "Tears of Repentance," by Poquanum, probably of this same Indian. He signed the deed of Salem in 1686, and on the 17th of September, in that year, he gave the following testimony: " Thomas Queakussen, alias Captain Tom, Indian, now living at Wamesit, neare Patucket Falls, aged about seventy-five years, testifieth and saith, That many yeares since, when he was a youth, he lived with his father, deceased, named Poquannurn, who some time lived at Sawgust, now called Linn; he married a second wife, and lived at Nahant; and himself in after time lived about Mistick, and that he well knew all these parts about Salem, Marblehead and Linn; and that Salem and the river running up between that neck of land and Bass river was called Naumkeke, and the river between Salem and Marblehead was called Massabequash; also he says he well knew Sagamore George, who married the Deponent's Owne Sister, named Joane, who died about a yeare since; and Sagamore George left two daughters, name Sicilye and Sarah, and two grand-children by his son; Nonumpanumhow the one called David, and the other Wuttanoh; and I myself am one of their kindred as before; and James Rumney Marsh's mother is one of Sagamore George his kindred; and I knew two squawes more living now about Pennecooke, one named Pahpocksitt, and the other's name I know not; and I knew the grandmother of these two squawes named Wenuchus; she was a principal proprietor of these lands about Naumkege, now Salem; all these persons above named are concerned in the antient property of the lands above mentioned." Wabaquin also testified, that David was the grandson of Sagamore George -by his father, deceased Manatahqua. (Essex Reg, Deeds, 11, 131.)
     NAHANTON was born about the year 1600. On the 7th of April, 1635, Nahanton was ordered by the Court to pay Rev. William Blackstone, of Boston, two beaver skins, for damage done to his swine by setting traps. In a deposition taken at Natick, August 15, 1672, he is called " Old Ahaton of Punkapog, aged about seaventy yeares;" and in a deposition at Cambridge, October 7, 1686, he is called " Old Mahanton, aged about ninety years." In the same deposition he is called Nahanton. He testifies concerning the right of the heirs of Wenepoykin to sell the lands of Salem, and declares himself a relative of Sagamore George. He signed the deed of Quincy, August 5, 1665, and in that deed is called "Old Nahatun," one of the "wise men" of Sagamore Wampatuck. He also signed a quit-claim deed to "the proprietated inhabitants of the town of Boston," March 19, 1685. (Suffolk Records.)
     QUANOPKONAT, called John, was another relative of Wenepoykin. His Widow Joan, and his son James, signed the deed of Salem, in 1686. Masconomo was sagamore of Agawam, now Ipswich. Dudley says,'" he was tributary to Sagamore James." From the intimacy which subsisted between them, he was probably a relative. He died March 8, 1658, and his gun and other implements were buried with him. (Felt's Hist. Ipswich.)
     The names of the Indians are variously spelled in records and depositions, as they were imperfectly understood from their nasal pronunciation. Some of them were known by different names, and as they had no baptism, or ceremony of naming their children, they commonly received no name until it was fixed by some great exploit, or some remarkable circumstance.
     The Indians have been admirably described by William Wood, who resided at Lynn, at the first settlement. "They were black haired, out nosed, broad shouldered, brawny armed, long and slender handed, out breasted, small waisted, lank bellied, well thighed, flat kneed, handsome grown legs, and small feet. In a word, they were more amiable to behold, though only in Adam's livery, than many a compounded fantastic in the newest fashion." In another place he speaks of' "their unparalleled beauty." Josselyn, in his New England Rarities, says: " The women, many of them, have very good features, seldome without a come-to-me in their countenance, all of them black eyed, having even, short teeth and very white, their hair black, thick and long, broad breasted, handsome, straight bodies and slender, their limbs cleanly, straight, generally plump as a partridge, and saving now and then one, of a modest deportment." Lechford says: " The Indesses that are young, are some of them very comely, having good features. Many prettie Brownettos and spider fingered lasses may be seen among them." After such graphic and beautiful descriptions, nothing need be added to complete the idea that their forms were exquisitely perfect, superb, and voluptuous. [But is not this superlative language, as applied to Indian squaws, rather intense? Mr. Lewis, however, is well known to have entertained more than ordinary veneration for the aborigines. It is believed that a more just estimate may be found in the volume published here in 1862, under the title "LIN: or, Jewels of the Third Plantation."]
     The dress of the men was the skin of a deer or seal tied round the waist, and in winter a bear or wolf skin thrown over the shoulders, with moccasons or shoes of moose hide. The women wore robes of beaver skins, with sleeves of deer skin drest, and drawn with lines of different colors into ornamental figures. Some wore a short mantle of trading cloth, blue or red, fastened with a knot under the chin, and girt around the waist with a zone; their buskins fringed with feathers, and a fillet round their heads, which were often adorned with plumes.
     Their money was made of shells, gathered on the beaches, and was of two kinds. The one was called wampum-peag, or white money, and was made of the twisted part of the cockle strung together like beads. Six of these passed for a penny, and a foot for about a shilling. The other was called suckauhoc, or black money, and was made of the hinge of the poquahoc clam, bored with a sharp stone. The value of this money was double that of the white. These shells were also very curiously wrought into pendants, bracelets, and belts of wampum, several inches in breadth and several feet in length, with figures of animals and flowers. Their sachems were profusely adorned with it, and some of the princely females wore dresses worth fifty or a hundred dollars. It passed for beaver and other commodities as currently as silver.
     Their weapons were bows, arrows and tomahawks. Their bows were made of walnut, or some other elastic wood, and strung with sinews of deer or moose. Their arrows were made of elder, and feathered with the quills of eagles. They were headed with a long, sharp stone of porphyry or jasper, tied to a short stick, which was thrust into the pith of the elder. Their tomahawks were made of a flat stone, sharpened to an edge, with a groove round the middle. This was inserted in a bent walnut stick, the ends of which were tied together. The flinty heads of their arrows and axes, their stone gouges and pestles, have been frequently found in the fields.
     Their favorite places of residence hereabout, appear to have been in the neighborhood of Sagamore Hill and High Rock, at Swampscot and Nahant. One of their burial places was on the hill near the eastern end of Mount Vernon street. In Saugus, many indications of their dwellings have been found on the old Boston road, for about half a mile from the hotel, westward; and beneath the house of Mr. Ephraim Rhodes was a burying ground. On the road which runs north from Charles Sweetser's, was another Indian village on a plain, defended by a hill. Nature here formed a lovely spot, and nature's children occupied it. [The localities here referred to lie between East Saugus and Cliftondale.] They usually buried their dead on the sides of hills next the sun. This was both natural and beautiful. It was the wish of Beattie's Minstrel.
          " Where a green grassy turf is all I crave,
          And many an evening sun shine sweetly on my grave."
     The Indians had but few arts, and only such as were requisite for their subsistence. Their houses, called wigwams, were rude structures, made of poles set round in the form of a cone, and covered by bark or mats. In winter, one great house, built with more care, with a fire in the middle, served for the accommodation of many. They had two kinds of boats, called canoes; the one made of a pine log, twenty to sixty feet in length, burnt and scraped out with shells; the other made of birch bark, very light and elegant. They made fishing lines of wild hemp, equal to the finest twine, and used fish bones for hooks. Their method of catching deer was by making two fences of trees, half a mile in extent, in the form of an angle, with a snare at the place of meeting, in which they frequently took the deer alive.
     Their chief objects of cultivation were corn, beans, pumpkins, squashes and melons, which were all indigenous plants. Their fields were cleared by burning the trees in the autumn. Their season for planting was when the leaves of the oak were as large as the ear of a mouse. From this observation was formed the rule of the first settlers.
          When the white oak trees look goslin gray,
          Plant then, be it April, June, or May.
     The corn was hoed with large clam shells, and harvested in cellars dug in the ground, and enclosed with mats. When boiled in kernels it was called samp; when parched and pounded in stone mortars it was termed nokehike; and when pounded and boiled, it was called hominy. They also boiled corn and beans together, which they called succatash. They formed earthen vessels in which they cooked. They made an excellent cake by mixing strawberries with parched corn. Whortleberries were employed in a similar manner. Some of their dishes are still well known and highly relished - their samp, their hominy or hasty pudding, their stewed beans or succatash, their baked pumpkins, their parched corn, their boiled and roast ears of corn, and their whortleberry cake - dishes which, when well prepared, are good enough for any body. And when to these were added the whole range of field and flood, at a time when wild fowl and venison were more than abundant, it will be seen that the Indians lived well.
     The woods were filled with wild animals-foxes, bears, wolves, deer, moose, beaver, racoons, rabbits, woodchucks, and squirrels - most of which have long since departed. One of the most troublesome animals was the catamount, one of the numerous varieties of the cat kind, which has never been particularly described. It was from three to six feet in length, and commonly of a cinnamon color. Many stories are related of its attacks upon the early settlers, by climbing trees and leaping upon them when traveling through the forest. An Indian in passing through the woods one day, heard a rustling in the boughs overhead, and looking up, saw a catamount preparing to spring upon him. He said he "cry all one soosuck" that is, like a child -knowing that if he did not kill the catamount, he must lose his own life. He fired as the animal was in the act of springing, which met the ball and fell dead at his feet.
     The wild pigeons are represented to have been so numerous that they passed in flocks so large as to "obscure the light." Dudley says, "it passeth credit if but the truth should be known;" and Wood says, they continued flying for four or five hours together, to such an extent that one could see " neither beginning nor ending, length nor breadth, of these millions of millions." When they alighted in the woods, they frequently broke down large limbs of trees by their weight, and the crashing was heard at a great distance. A single family has been known to have killed more than one hundred dozen in one night, with poles and other weapons; and they were often taken in such numbers that they were thrown into piles, and kept to feed the swine. The Indians called the pigeon wuscowan, a word signifying a wanderer. The wild fowl were so numerous in the waters, that persons sometimes killed "50 duckes at a shot."
     The Indians appear to have been very fond of amusements. The tribes, even from a great distance, were accustomed to challenge each other, and to assemble upon Lynn Beach to decide their contests. Here they sometimes passed many days in the exercises of running, leaping, wrestling, shooting, and other diversions. Before they began their sports, they drew a line in the sand, across which the parties shook hands in evidence of friendship, and they sometimes painted their faces, to prevent revenge. A tall pole was then planted in the beach, on which were hung beaver skins, wampum, and other articles, for which they contended; and frequently, all they were worth was ventured in the play. One of their games was foot-ball. Another was called puim, which was played by shuffling together a large number of small sticks, and contending for them. Another game was played with five flat pieces of bone, black on one side and white on the other. These were put into a wooden bowl, which was struck on the ground, causing the bones to bound aloft, and as they fell white or black, the game was decided. During this play, the Indians sat in a circle, making a great noise, by the constant repetition of the word hub, hub, - come, come- from which it was called hubbub; a word, the derivation of which seems greatly to have puzzled Dr. Johnson.
     The Indians believed in a Great Spirit, whom they called Kichtan, who made all the other gods, and one man and woman. The evil spirit they called Hobamock. They endured the most acute pains without a murmur, and seldom laughed loud. They cultivated a kind of natural music, and had their war and death songs. The women had lullabies and melodies for their children, and modulated their voices by the songs of birds. Some early writers represent the voices of their females, when heard through the shadowy woods, to have been exquisitely harmonious. It has been said they had no poets; but their whole ianguage was a poem. What more poetical than calling the roar of the ocean on the beach, sawkiss, or great panting? - literally, the noise which a tired animal makes when spent in the chase. What more poetical than naming a boy Poquanum, or Dark Skin; and a -girl Wanapaquin, a Plume? Every word of the Indians was expressive, and had a meaning. Such is natural poetry in all ages. The Welch called their great king Arthur, from aruthr, terribly fair; and such was Alonzo, the name of the Moorish kings of Spain, from an Arabic word, signifying the fountain of beauty. When we give our children the names of gems and flowers -when we use language half as designative as that of the Indians, we may begin to talk of poetry. " I am an aged hemlock," said one, "whose head has been whitened by eighty snows!" "We will brighten the chain of our friendship with you," said the chiefs in their treaties. ["You are the rising sun, we are the setting," said an old chief, sadly, on seeing the prosperity of the whites. Gookin says that when the Quakers tried to convince certain Indians of the truth of their doctrines, advising them not to listen to the ministers, and telling them that they had "a light within, which was a sufficient guide," they replied, "We have long looked within, and find it very dark."] The Indians reckoned their time by snows and moons. A snow was a winter; and thus, a man who had seen eighty snows, was eighty years of age. A moon was a month; thus they had the harvest moon, the hunting moon, and the moon of flowers. A sleep was a night; and seven sleeps were seven days. This figurative language is in the highest degree poetical and beautiful.
     The Indians have ever been distinguished for friendship, justice, magnanimity, and a high sense of honor. They have been represented by some as insensible and brutish, but, with the exception of their revenge, they were not an insensate race. The old chief, who requested permission of the white people to smoke one more whiff before he was slaughtered, was thought to be an unfeeling wretch; but he expressed more than he could have done by the most eloquent speech. The red people received the immigrants in a friendly manner, and taught them how to plant; and when any of the whites traveled through the woods, they entertained them with more kindness than compliments, kept them freely many days, and often went ten, and even twenty miles, to conduct them on their way. The Rev. Roger Williams says: " They were remarkably free and courteous to invite all strangers in. I have reaped kindness again from many, seven years after, whom I myself had forgotten. It is a strange truth, that a man shall generally find more free entertainment and refreshment among these barbarians, than among thousands that call themselves Christians.
     The scene which presented itself to the first settlers, must have been in the highest degree interesting and beautiful. The light birchen canoes of the red men were seen gracefully swimming over the surface of the bright blue ocean; the half clad females were beheld, bathing their olive limbs in the lucid flood, or sporting on the smooth beach, and gathering the spotted eggs from their little hollows in the sands, or the beautiful shells which abounded among the pebbles, to string into beads or weave into wampum, for the adornment of their necks and arms. At one time an Indian was seen with his bow, silently endeavoring to transfix the wild duck or the brant, as they rose and sunk on the alternate waves; and at another, a glance was caught of the timid wild deer, rushing through the shadow of the dark green oaks; or the sly fox, bounding from rock to rock among the high cliffs of Nahant, and stealing along the shore to find his evening repast, which the tide had left upon the beach. The little sand-pipers darted along the thin edge of the wave - the white gulls in hundreds soared screaming overhead -and the curlews filled the echoes of the rocks with their wild and watery music. This is no imaginary picture, wrought up for the embellishment of a fanciful tale, but the delineation of an actual scene, which presented itself to the eyes of our fathers.
     An incident respecting the Indians, about a year before the settlement of Lynn, is related by Rev. Thomas Cobbett, in a letter to Increase Mather. " About the year 1628, when those few that came over with Colonel Indicot and begun to settle at Nahumnkeeck, now called Salem, and in a manner all so sick of their journey, that though they had both small and great guns, and powder and bullets for them, yet had not strength to manage them, if suddenly put upon it; and tidings being certainly brought them, on a Lord's day morning, that a thousand Indians from Saugust, (now called Lyn,) were coming against them to cut them off, they had much ado amongst them all to charge two or three of theyre great guns, and traile them to a place of advantage, where the Indians must pass to them, and there to shoot them off; when they heard by theyre noise which they made in the woods, that the Indians drew neare, the noise of which great artillery, to which the Indians were never wonted before, did occasionally, by the good hand of God, strike such dread into them, that by some lads who lay as scouts in the woods, they were heard to reiterate that confused outcrie, (O Hobbamock, much Hoggery,) and then fled confusedly back with all speed, when none pursued them. One old Button, lately living at Haverhill, who was then almost the only haile man left of that company, confirmed this to be so to me, accordingly as I had been informed of it." This old Button was Matthias Button, a Dutchman, who lived in a thatched house in Haverhill, in 1670, says Joshua Coffin. [And this same Button is acknowledged to have communicated to Mr. Cobbett a part of the interesting facts supplied to Dr. Increase Mather, regarding the early difficulties with the Indians. He came over with Endicot, in 1628, and died in 1672.]

INDIAN DEED OF LYNN.

     [By recurring to page 39, it will be observed that Mr. Lewis speaks of the Indian deeds of Marblehead and Salem. And it is a little remarkable that while doing so he did not suspect that there might also have been one of Lynn, for it appears as if such a suspicion would have put him upon that thorough search which must have resulted in its discovery. Such a deed, bearing date 4 Sept., 1686, may be found among the records at Salem. And this seems an appropriate place for its introduction, as it contains, aside from its more direct purpose, divers statements regarding some of the Indians of whom brief biographies have been given. It is true that in one or two points it somewhat tarnishes the romantic gloss which has so delighted us. But it is not unwholesome now and then to interpose a slight check to the imaginary flights to which the lover of the people and things of old is ever prone.
     [It should not, however, be concluded that the first purchase from the Indians was made at the date of this deed. Separate tracts had been purchased at different times, before, and this was merely intended as a release or quit-claim of all the rights of the grantors in all the territory now constituting Lynn, Lynnfield, Nahant, Saugus, and Swampscot, and parts,of Danvers, Reading and South Reading. At the time this deed was given, in reality not a third of the territory was occupied by the settlers; but there was a prospect that it would presently come in use. The Indians had mostly retired, and it was important that their title, if any existed, should be extinguished. The small consideration named is some indication that it was not considered that the Indians had any very valuable remaining interest. Other value, however, may have been given. It was often the case, that the consideration expressed in a deed was quite different from the real one, the custom of indulging in a little innocent deception being as prevalent then as now. And it was not unfrequently an object with the shrewd settlers to have it appear that the prices paid for lands were low, even when the old sagamores had succeeded in making good bargains.
     [And taking into account the time at which this deed was given, I am persuaded that the procuring of it was deemed a matter of much importance, inasmuch as it would constitute written evidence that the natives had parted with the title to their lands for a satisfactory consideration - the previous deeds, if there were any, having been unrecorded and lost. The people were extremely suspicious that under James the crown agents would pay little regard to titles that did not rest upon some clear and unimpeachable evidence. And though Andros pretended to have no more regard for the signature of an Indian than for the scratch of a bear's claw, he yet sometimes found the barbarous autographs very serious impediments in the way of his tyrannous assumptions. As a precautionary step, the procuring of this deed shows the wariness of our good fathers. It will be observed that the Indian deeds of Marblehead, Salem, and one or two other places were procured almost simultaneously with that of Lynn. And in March, 1689, Andros asked Rev. Mr. Higginson whether New England was the king's territory. The reply was, that it belonged to the colonists, because they had held it by just occupation and purchase from the Indians. The following is a copy of the deed, which, though it may not furnish much entertainment to the general reader, will be appreciated by the antiquarian.

     To ALL CHRISTIAN PEOPLE, to whom this present Deed of Confirmation, Ratification and Alienation shall come, David Kunkshamooshaw, who by credible intelligence is grandson to old Sagamore George No-Nose, so called, alias Wenepawweekin, sometime of Rumney Marsh, and sometimes at or about Chelmsford of, ye collony of ye Massachyets, so called, sometimes here and sometimes there, but deceased, ye said David, grandson to ye said old Sagamore George No-Nose, deceased, and Abigail Kunkshamooshaw, ye wife of David, and Cicely, alias Su George, ye reputed daughter of said old Sagamore George, and James Quonopohit of Natick alias Rumney Marsh, and Mary his wife, send greeting, &c.
     KNOW YEE, that the said David Kunkshamooshaw and Abigail his wife, and Cicely alias Su George aforesaid and James Quonopohit aforesaid with his wife Mary who are ye nearest of kin and legall successors of ye aforesaid George No-Nose alias Wenepawweekin whom wee affirme was the true and sole owner of ye land that ye towns of Lynn and Reading aforesaid stand upon, and notwithstanding ye possession of ye English dwelling in those townships of Lynn and Reading aforesaid, wee, ye said David Kunkshamooshaw, Cicely alias Su George, James Quonopohit, &c., the rest aforesaid Indians, doe lay claime to ye lands that these two townes aforesaid, Lynn and Reading, stand upon, and the dwellers thereof possess, that ye right and title thereto is ours and belong to us and ours; but, howsoever, the townships of Lyn and Reading having been long possessed by the English, and although wee make our clayme and ye selectmen and trustees for both townes aforesaid pleading title by graunts of courts and purchase of old of our predecessor, George Sagamore, and such like matters, &c., wee, ye claymers aforenamed, viz. David Kunkshamooshaw and Abigail his Squaw, Cicely alias Su George the reputed daughter of old Sagamore George No-Nose, and James Quonopohit and Mary his Squaw, they being of the kindred as of claymers, considering the arguments of ye selectmen in both townes, are not willing to make trouble to ourselves nor old neighbors in those two townes aforesaid of Lynn and Reading, &c.,,wee therefore, the clayming Indians aforesaid, viz. David Kunkshamooshaw and Abigail his wife and Cicely alias Su George the reputed daughter of old Sagamore George alias Wenepawweekin and James Quonopohit and Mary his wife, all and every of us, as aforesaid, and jointly together, for and in consideration of ye summe of sixteen poundes of currant sterling money of silver in hand paid to us Indians clayming, viz. David Kunkshamooshaw, &c., at or before ye ensealing and delivery of these presents, by Mr Ralph King, William Bassett, sen'r, Mathew Farrington, sen'r, John Burrill, sen'r, Robert Potter, sen'r, Samuel Johnson, and Olliver Purchas, selectmen in Lynn, in ye county of Essex, in New England, trustees and prudentials for and in behalf of ye purchasers and now proprietors of ye Townships of Lynn and Reading, well and truly payd, ye receipt whereof we, viz. David Kuinkshamooshaw, Abigail his wife, Cicely alias Su George ye reputed daughter of old Sagamore George, and James Conopohit, of Natick, alias Rumney Marsh, and Mary his wife, doe hereby acknowledge themselves therewith to be fully satisfied and contented, and thereof and of every part thereof, doe hereby acquit, exhonerate, and discharge ye said Mr Ralph King, William Bassett, sen'r, with all and every of ye selectmen aforesaid, trustees and prudentials, together with ye purchasers and now proprietors of ye said townships of Lyn and of Reading, their heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns, forever, by these presents have given, granted and bargained a full and a firm confirmation and ratification of all grants of courts and any former alienation made by our predecessor or predecessors and our own right, title and interest, clayme and demand whatsoever, and by these presents doe fully, freely, clearly, and absolutely, give and grant a full and firm confirmation and ratification of all grants of courts, and any sort of alienation formerly made by our predecessor or predecessors, as alsoe all our owne clayme of right, title, interest and demand unto them, ye said Mr Ralph King, William Bassett, and the rest, selectmen forenamed, trustees and prudentials for ye towne of Lyn, ye worshipfull Mr John Browne, Capt. Jeremiah Sweyn, and Leiut. William Harsey, trustees and prudentials for ye towne of Reading, to their heirs and assigns forever, to and for ye sole use, benefit and behoof of ye purchasers and now proprietors of ye townships of Lynn and Reading aforesaid and all ye said townships of Lynn and Reading joyning one to another, even from the sea, where ye line beginneth between Lyn and Marblehead, and so between Lynn and Salem, as it is stated by those townes and marked, and so to Ipswich River, and so from thence as it is stated betwixt Salem and Reading, and as ye line is stated and runne betwixt Wills hill, and as is stated and runne betwixt Reading and Andover and as it is stated betwixt Oburne and Reading, and as it is stated and runn betwixt Charlestowne, Malden, Lynn and Reading, and upon the sea from ye line that beginneth at Lynn, and Marblehead, and Salem, to divide the towns aforesaid, so as well from thence to ye two Nahants, viz. the little Nahant and ye great Nahant, as ye sea compasseth it almost round and soe to ye river called Lynn River or Rumney Marsh River or Creeke vnto ye line from Brides Brook to ye said Creek, answering ye line that is stated between Lynn and Boston, from ye said Brides Brook up to Reading - This said tract of land, described as aforesaid, together with all houses, edifices, buildings, lands, yards, orchards, gardens, meadows, marrishes, ffeedings, grounds, rocks, stones, beach fflats, pastures, commons and commons of pasture, woods, underwoods, swamps, waters, watercourses, damms, ponds, fishings, flowings, ways, easements, profits, privileges, rights, commodities, royalling, hereditaments, and appurtenances whatsoever, to ye said townships of Lynn and Reading and other ye premises belonging, or in any wise appertaining, or by them now used, occupied and injoyed as part, parcel or member thereof; and also all rents, arrearages of rents, quit rents, rights and appurtenances whatsoever, nothing excepted or reserved, and also all deeds, writings, and evidences whatsoever, touching ye premises or any part or parcell thereof.
     To HAVE AND TO HOLD all ye said townships of Lynn and Reading, as well as the Two Nahants aforesaid, ye little and ye great Nabant, as they are encompassed by ye sea with their beaches from ye great Nahant to ye little, and from the little Nahant homeward where Richard Hood now dwelleth, and so to Mr Kings, with all ye above granted premises, with their and every of their rights, members and appurtenances, and every part and parcell thereof, hereby given, granted confirmed, ratified, unto ye said Mr Ralph King, William Bassett and ye rest selectmen in behalf of Lynn, and ye worshipfull Mr John Browne and ye rest aforenamed, for Reading, all trustees and prudentials for ye townships of Lyn and Reading, to them and their heirs and assigns forever, to and for ye sole vse, benefit and behoof of ye purchasers and now proprietors of ye said townships of Lynn and Reading; and they, ye said David Kunkshamooshaw and Abigail his wife, and Cicely alias Su George, the reputed daughter of George No-Nose, deceased, and James Quonopohit and Mary his wife, Indians aforesaid, for themselves, their heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns, jointly, severally, and respectively, doe hereby covenant, promise, and grant to and with ye said Mr King, William Bassett, sen'r, and ye rest of Lynn, and the worshipfull Mr John Browne and ye rest of Reading, trustees and prudentials for ye townes of Lynn and Reading, as aforesaid, their heirs and assigns, and to the purchasers and now proprietors of ye said townships of Lyn and Reading, &c., in manner and forme following, (that is to say,) that at ye time of this graunt, confirmation and alienation and untill the ensealing and delivery of these presents, their ancestor and ancestors and they, the abovenamed David and Abigail his now wife, and Cicely alias Su George, and ye rest aforenamed Indians, were the true, sole, and lawfull owners of all ye aforebargained, confirmed, and aliened premises, and were lawfully seized off and in ye same and every part thereof in their own propper right, and have in themselves full power, good right, and lawfull authority to grant, aliene, confirm, and assure ye same as is afore described in this deed, vnto Mr Ralph King, William Bassett, sen'r, and ye rest selectmen of Lynn, and ye worshipfull Mr John Browne and ye rest aforenamed, agents for Reading, all trustees and prudentials for ye two townships of Lyn and Reading, to them, their heirs and assigns forever, for ye use aforesaid, viz. the benefit and behoof of ye purchasers and now proprietors of ye two townships aforesaid, as a good, perfect and absolute estate of inheritance in fee simple without any manner of condition, reversion or limitation whatsoever, so as to alter, change, or make void ye same, and that ye said trustees aforesaid, and ye purchasers and now proprietors of ye said townships of Lynn and Reading, their heirs and assigns, shall and may, by vertue and force of these presents, from time to time and at all times forever hereafter, lawfully, peaceably, and quietly, have, hold, use, occupy, possess, and injoy, ye above granted, aliened, and confirmed premises, with ye appurtenances and benefits thereof, and every part and parcell thereof, free and clear, and clearly acquitted and discharged off and from all and all manner of other gifts, graunts, bargaines, sales, leases, mortgages, jointures, dowers, judgments, executions, fforfeitures, and off and from all other titles, troubles, charges, incumbrances, whatsoever, had, made, committed, done or suffered to be done by the said David and Abigail his wife, Cicely alias Su George and ye rest Indians aforenamed, them or any of them, or any of their heirs or assigns, or any of their ancestors, at any time or times. And further, that ye said David Kunkshamooshaw and Abigail his wife, Su George, James Quonopohit and Mary his wife, &c., their heirs, executors and administrators, &c., jointly and severally will and shall by these presents, from time to time and at all times hereafter, warrant and defend their foregranted and confirmed premises, with their benefits and appurtenances and every part and parcell thereof, unto the said trustees or prudentials forenamed for ye townships of Lyn and Reading, and their heirs and assigns forever, to and for the sole use and benefit of ye purchasers and now proprietors in and off ye said townships of Lynn and Reading, against all and every person or persons whatsoever any waies lawfully clayming or demanding ye same or any part or parcell thereof. And lastly, that they, ye said David, and Su George, and James Quonopohit, &c., their wives or any of their heirs, executors, or admin'rs, shall and will from time to time and at all times hereafter, when therevnto required, at ye cost and charges of ye aforesaid trustees and prudentials, their heirs or assigns, or ye purchasers and proprietors of ye townships of Lynn and Reading, &c., doe make, acknowledge, suffer, all and every such further act and acts, thing and things, assurances and conveyances in ye law, whatsoever, for ye further more better surety and sure making of ye abovesaid townships of Lynn and Reading, with ye rights, hereditaments, benefits and appurtenances above by these presents mentioned to be bargained, aliened, confirmed, vnto ye aforesaid trustees and prudentials, their heirs and assigns, for ye vse aforesaid, as by the said trustees aforesaid, their heirs or assigns, or ye said proprietors, or by their councill learned in ye law, shall be reasonably devised, advised or required.
     IN WITNESS WHEREOF, ye said David Kurikshamooshaw and Abigail his wife, and Cicely alias Su George and James Quonopohit and Mary his wife, have hereunto set their hands and seals, ye day of ye date, being ye fourth day of September, one thousand, six hundred eighty and six, annoque regni regis Jacobus Secundi Anglice.

     [This deed, it will be seen, was intended to confirm and ratify previous alienations, as well as to operate as a release or quitclaim of all the interest remaining in the grantors. The virtue of the conveyance, however, must have existed mainly in the release. But the purpose was accomplished in the old-fashion way, and shows that, as before stated, there were earlier conveyances. To this deed the Indian grantors affixed their marks and seals. The marks of David and Abigail Kunkshamooshaw, are rude representations of a bow and arrow. Cicely alias Su George indulges in a modest flourish. And Mary Ponham, alias Quonopohit, dashes off with a figure that somewhat resembles an intoxicated X, but which may have been intended for a disguised cross. The more learned James Quonopohit writes his name in full. On the whole, the signatures do not indicate remarkable accomplishment in the use of the pen; but fortunately the value of a sign manual does not depend on the chirography. It is not wonderful that such signatures put Andros in mind of scratches of a bear's claw. A slip or two from the modern-rules of grammar, may have been noticed; but it is a wise provision that bad grammar shall not damage a legal instrument if the meaning is apparent. Fac-similes of the marks are here introduced. They were traced from the record, which appears to give very careful imitations of the originals.
INDIAN SIGNATURES TO THE DEED OF LYNN.
     [The certificate of "Bartho. Gedney, one of ye Council," says, "All ye persons hereunto subscribed, acknowledged the within written to be their act and deed, this 31 May, 1687."
     [Since page 49 was made ready, it has occurred to me that Mr. Lewis, many years ago, stated in one of the papers that an ancient Indian deed of Lynn lands was in possession of the Hart family, as late as 1800. If he meant the family of my grandfather, Joseph Hart , who lived in the old house still standing on Boston-street, west corner of North Federal - the same in which his unworthy grandson first opened his eyes on this troublous world - it can readily be imagined what may have been its fate; as I very well remember that in my boyhood there was in the garret a large collection of old papers, to which the boys had free access. The precious document, may, therefore, have ended its career of usefulness in the merry guise of a kite tail. Many and many an important document has come to an end as inglorious. And there are doubtless numbers still in existence ordained to a similar fate.]



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