This war, if calamitous to the English, proved fatal to nearly all the Indian Plantations in New England. Among the rest the

Indian be suffered to enter upon any pretence without a guard of two musketeers, and not to lodge in town."

"That any person may apprehend an Indian, finding him in town, or approaching the town, and that none be suffered to come in by water."

To this we may add, that Capt. Mosely's character was such as to render it highly probable that he performed the part which tradition has assigned to him. Hutchinson ་་ says, he had been an old privateerer at Jamaica, probably of such as were called Buccaniers." He commanded a company of 110 volunteers, in the war with King Philip, and was one of the most resolute and courageous captains of his day. It was he who, on Sept. 1, 1675, went out to the rescue of Capt. Lathrop, who with only 80 men was attacked by a body of 7 or 8 hundred Indians at Deerfield, when all Capt. L's company, with the exception of seven or eight, were cut off. He also led the van in the terrible assault made upon the Indians, Dec. 19, in the Narragansett country, in which six English captains were killed, and nearly 200 men killed and wounded.

I hope I shall be pardoned for adding to this already extended note, the following particulars respecting the remains of the Marlborough Indians.

After the close of the war, some of the Indians of Marlborough appear to have returned to their former place of abode. But their plantation was broken up, and they were forced to find shelter and subsistence as they were able. A considerable number of the Indians who remained in, or returned to, Marlborough, after the war, lived in the westerly part of the town, on the farm of Thomas Brigham, one of the oldest proprietors, the common ancestor of all the Brighams in this town, as well as of many of that name in Marlborough, Westborough, and other places. The late Judge Brigham, of Westborough, and Rev. Benjamin Brigham, of Fitzwilliam, were great-grandsons of Thomas.

Among those who returned was David, alias David Munnanaw, who had joined Philip, and as he afterwards confessed, assisted in the destruction of Medfield. This treacherous Indian had, it is said, a slit thumb, which circumstance led to his conviction. He had been absent from Marlborough several months, but after his return would give no account of himself whither he had been, or how he had employed himself in the mean time. At length, however, an inhabitant of Medfield, one whom Munnanaw had wounded, being at Marlborough, immediately recognized him by the mark on his thumb, and charged him with his treachery. At first he denied the charge; but, finding that the proof against him could not be evaded, he at length owned that he had been led away by Philip, and had assisted in the burning of Medfield.

He was, however, suffered to live without molestation. His wigwam stood on the borders of the beautiful lake, near the public house kept by Mr. Silas Gates, where he lived with his family many years, till the infirmities of old age came upon him. He was accustomed to repair to the neighboring orchards for the purpose of obtaining fruit. There was one tree of the fruit of which he was particularly fond, and which was accordingly his favorite place of resort. In this spot the old warrior expired. Old David Munnanaw died a little more than 80 years since, having lived, as was supposed, nearly or quite a century of years. Capt. Timothy Brigham, now in his 91st year, well recollects having seen him, when he was a child of about 9 or 10 years old, at his grandfather's, Jonathan Brigham's, of Marlborough. According to this account, Munnanaw must have been a young man, 25 or 30 years of age, at the time of Philip's war. Capt. B. represents him as bearing the marks of extreme old age, his flesh wasted, and his skin shrivelled. He understood that he had the reputation of having been treacherous to the English. Abimilech David, supposed to be a son of the former, was a tall, stout, well pro

Plantation of Marlborough, was completely broken up and soon passed into other hands. On the 15th of July 1684, a few weeks subsequent to the date of the Indian deed of the English Plantation, the Indian lands were formally transferred by deed to John Brigham of Marlborough and his fellow purchasers;* and in October, 1686, the aforesaid John Brigham who was a noted surveyor and speculator in lands, was appointed" to lay out 30 acres to each of the proprietors in some of the best of the land lying as convenient as may be to the town of Marlborough."

June the 5th 1700, the inhabitants of Marlborough petitioned the General Court, that the proprietors of the Indian lands might be annexed to the said town, which petition was granted, and Marlborough accordingly received an accession of 6000 acres, a large proportion of which is good land.

After the close of Philip's war the inhabitants of Marlborough do not appear to have been seriously molested by the Indians till after the commencement of the eighteenth century.

In the mean time the settlement had extended itself towards the borders of the town, so that some time previous to the close of the portioned Indian, is well remembered by many persons now living. Abimilech had several daughters, among whom were, Sue, Deborah, Esther, Patience, Nabby, and Betty. They lived in a wretched hovel or wigwam, under the large oak now standing, near the dwelling house of Mr. Warren Brigham. They had become dissolute in their habits, and were exceedingly troublesome to their neighbors; and they are remembered with very little respect or affection.

The Indian burying ground, where the last remnants of the race were interred, is situated a few rods from the south road, leading from Marlborough to Northborough, near the residence of Widow Holyoke, in a field belonging to the old Brigham farm. It has been enjoined on the family in each succeeding generation, not to trespass on this repository of the dead; an injunction which has hitherto been duly regarded. The burying ground is about five rods in length, and somewhat more than one rod in breadth, covered with wild grass and loose stones. A few years since, as I have been informed, as many as twenty or thirty graves were plainly distinguishable, though they have now almost wholly disappeared. Two of the graves were situated without the bounds of the rest, and in a direction perpendicular to them; the former being from north to south, the latter from east to west. Many aged persons can remember when the last degraded remnants of the race, once inhabiting the soil we occupy, enclosed in rude coffins of rough boards, hastily put together, and without any religious ceremony, were conveyed to this repository of the dead.

*This deed appears to have been obtained by unfair means, as in the following September, a committee appointed by the General Court to examine into the grounds of complaint made by the Indians against the English of Marlborough, reported in favor of the Indians, and "the Court ordered and declared that the Indian deed of sale to the inhabitants of Marlborough of 5800 acres of land (the whole of the Indian Plantation with the exception of the Indian Planting field) bearing date July 15, 1684, is illegal and consequently null and void."

seventeenth century, some of the lands now included within the limits of Westborough and Northborough, then called Chauncey, or Chauncey Village, had been laid out for farms.

Indeed so early as 1660, the very year that Marlborough was incorporated, several tracts of meadow, lying within the limits of this town, were surveyed and the names given them which they now bear.* And, in 1662, three large meadows, Cold Harbour Meadow, Middle Meadow, and Chauncey Meadow, the first of which and part of the second, lie within the limits of this town, were ordered to be surveyed, and each to be laid out in thirty four lots, which was probably the number of proprietors at that time.

The first grants of land lying within the limits of what is now Westborough and Northborough, with the exception of the meadows above named, bear the date of 1672. From this time, and before the close of the century, many of the proprietors of Marlborough had taken up their 2nd, 3d, and 4th divisions in the westerly part of the town, several of them west of the river Assabeth.

It is asserted by Rev. Mr. Whitney, in his history of this town, that there were settlers in this part of Marlborough before there were any in what is now Westborough. The first settler according to tradition was John Brigham, from Sudbury, a noted land survey* Three Corner Meadow, Stirrup Meadow, Crane Meadow, Cedar Mead

ow, &c.

†The origin of these names according to tradition was as follows :--Cold Harbour Meadow, in the western part of this town, so called from the circumstance of a traveller, having lost his way, being compelled to remain through a cold winter's night in a stack of hay in that place, and on the following morning, having made his way through the wilderness to the habitations of man, and being asked where he lodged during the night, replied, “In Cold Harbour." Middle Meadow, on the borders of Westborough and Northborough, so called probably from its situation in reference to the two others.

Chauncey Meadow, in Westborough, so called probably for the same reason that the western part of Marlborough was called Chauncey. The origin of the name was known only by tradition in the Rev. Mr. Parkman's day, who was ordained in Westborough, Oct. 28th, 1724, and who gave the fol lowing account. "It is said that in early times one Mr. Chauncey was lost in one of the swamps here, and from hence this part of the town had its name." I find from the records of the General Court for the year 1665, that Mr. Chauncey had taken up lands within the limits of Marlborough, and that the proprietors of Marlborough were ordered to remunerate him for his expences incurred in laying out his farm, "and he hath liberty to lay out the same in any land not formerly granted by this Court." Quere.-May not this have been President Chauncey, of Harvard College, to whom, an account of the smallness of his salary, repeated grants of land were made about this time by the General Court? Dr. Chauncey, of Boston, the great-grandson of President Chauncey, says that the latter was the first, and the common ancestor of all of that name in this place. If so, the Mr. C. above mentioned must have been President Chauncey or one of his sons.

or, undoubtedly the same person who has been mentioned in our account of the Indian Plantation. It appears from the Proprietors' records that a grant of land was made to John Brigham, in 1672, "in the place formerly desired, that is, on Licor Meadow plain." This land was probably part of the Coram Farm, so called, the principal part of which lay on the northern side of the old Marlborough line,* and now constitutes, in whole, or in part, the farms of Nahum Fay, Esq. John Green, Asa Fay, Lewis Fay, and Stephen Williams, Esq. The lands of Mr. Brigham extended to the saw mill of Mr. Lowell Holbrook, near which he erected a small cabin, in which he lived several years, remote from any human habitation, till, at length, the fear of the Savages compelled him to retreat to a place of greater security; and, it is said, that only a few days after his removal, a party of Indians came to the place and burned his house to the ground.

The first Saw Mill erected in this town was built by the above named Brigham, and stood on the same spot, which is now occupied for the same purpose.†

In the same year (1672) a grant of land was made to Samuel Goodenow, grandfather of the late Asa Goodenow, and to Thomas Brigham, the person mentioned in the last note, "by Double Pond Meadow, on both sides said meadow." The lands taken up on the account of the above named Samuel Goodenow, constituted three

*The old Marlborough line, was a straight line of seven miles in extent, running through the northwest angle of this town, and cutting off more than 2000 acres, which constitute what is called the new grants, of which an account will be given hereafter.

† John Brigham was one of three brothers (John, Samuel, and Thomas) who came from Sudbury to Marlborough sometime previous to 1672. Their father was from England, married a Mercie Hurd also from England, settled in Sudbury, where he died probably in middle life, as his widow had buried a second husband by the name of Hunt, before her sons removed to Marlborough. Samuel Brigham, was the grand-father of the late Dr. Samuel Brigham, of Marlborough: Thomas was an ancestor of the late Judge Brigham, of Westborough; and John, who was sometimes called Doctor Brigham, was the father of the Mrs. Mary Fay, wife of Gershom Fay, of whose remarkable escape from the Indians we shall presently give an account. John Brigham was one of the selectmen of Marlborough in 1679, and in the winter of 1689 90, representative to the Convention then sitting in Boston. The Coram Farm, was granted him, it is said, by the General Court to compensate him for services as a surveyor of lands. Mr. Brigham lived to be quite aged, and used to come to reside with his daughter Mrs. Fay, in this town.

Quere. May not this meadow be the one which lies between Great and Little Chauncey ponds, which, as they are connected with each other by a water communication, might have been called at first Double Pond? David Brigham, son of Thomas, lived on the borders of Great Chauncey, on the farm now in the possession of Lovett Peters, Esq.

of the oldest settlements in this town, on one of which was the principal garrison house, used for many years as a defence against the Indians, and which stood on the farm of Mr. Gill Bartlett, then owned by Samuel Goodenow, Jr. The other two, were in the vicinity of this, and constitute in whole, or in part, the farms of Deac. Jonas Bartlett and Mr. Stephen How.

In the same year, a grant of land was made to John Rediet, "west of Assabeth River, northwest side of the Chauncey Great Pond, bounded on the east by a Spruce Swamp :" another tract on "the Nepmuck road, that formerly led toward Coneticoat."* The land of John Rediet, who was one of the first proprietors and greatest land holders of Marlborough, came into the possession of Nathaniel Oaks, who married his daughter, and who lived on the farm owned in succession by Rev. John Martyn and Rev. Peter Whitney, and now in the possession of Mr. Jacob Pierce.t Capt. James Eager was another of the first settlers of this town. He lived near the centre of the town on the farm now in the possession of Mr. John Fisk. His house was once used for a garrison, and was for many years occupied as a tavern, being the first that was opened in the place.ţ

"The Nepmuck Road, that formerly led toward Coneticoat," was the old Connecticut road that passed through the southeast part of this town, over Rock Hill, east of Great and Little Chauncey ponds, into Westborough and thence through Hassanamesit or Grafton. 1. Hist. Col. 1. p. 185 and

192.

+ Nathaniel Oaks came from England, married Mehitabel, daughter of John Rediet, who died Nov. 25th, 1702, without children. His second wife Mary, was a daughter of Adam Holloway, by whom he had the following children, viz.-Nathaniel, who lived at Bolton. William, burned to death at Shrewsbury in the house of Capt. Keyes. Hannah, married to Gersham Fay, Jr. died March 8, 1806, wanting but a few months of a century. She was the mother of the late Thaddeus Fay, who died, July 22, 1822, aged 91 years. Mary, married to Daniel Maynard, Marlborough. Ann, married to David Maynard, Westborough. John, built the house near Col. Crawford's, owned by Joel Gasset. Jonathan, removed to Harvard. George, lived near the house of Mr. Luther Hawse, and built a saw mill on the river Assabeth.

Capt. James Eager was a native of Marlborough, born in 1685, died 1755, aged 70. He was one of the leading men of the place at the time that Northborough became a separate precinct. It is said that his house was the first that was built on the new Connecticut road, between the house of Samuel Goodenow and the town of Worcester. It is but little more than a hundred years, since there was not a human habitation on the road from Marlborough to Brookfield, west of the Goodenow farm, in the eastern part of this town, with the exception of a few log houses in that part of Worcester called Boggachoag. James Fager, Jr. a son of the above, was married to Mariam, daughter of Joseph Wheeler. Their daughter Zilpeh, was married to Michael, son of Rev. John Martyn through whom there are several persons in this town who trace their descent from the first minister of the place.