through the south part of the town; and the Worcester Turnpike crosses the southwest angle, passing one house only in Northborough. The roads from Lancaster to this place, one of which passes the Meeting House in Berlin, and that from Boylston, are much travelled. The distance to Lancaster is 10 miles; to Boylston 6; to Westborough 4 miles.

The highways are kept in repair by an annual tax of from $500 to $800.

MILLS, MANUFACTORIES, &c.-Northborough contains at present four Grist Mills, five Saw Mills, two Carding Machines, a manufactory for Hoes and Scythes; large and commodious works recently established by Capt. Thomas W. Lyon, for manufacturing Cotton Machinery; an extensive Tannery owned by Phinehas and Joseph Davis, Esquires, whose annual sales of leather amount to $20,000. There are also six Coopers, four Blacksmiths, one Saddle and Harness Maker, one Book Binder, three Wheelwrights, eight or ten Shoemakers, who, besides supplying the wants of the town, manufacture about 4000 pairs of shoes annually for a foreign market. The Cotton Factory, built in 1814, by the Northborough Manufacturing Company, at an expense of about $30,000, was lately sold at auction, and is now in the possession of Rogerson & Co. of Boston, and Isaac Davis, Esq. and Mr. Asaph Rice, of this town. It stands on the river Assabeth, which furnishes a sufficient supply of water during the principal part of the season; and contains over 700 spindles for Cotton, and 100 for Woollen, 10 looms, a fulling mill, carding machine, &c. and manufactures 80,000 yards of cloth annually.

There are in the town, two stores, furnished with a good assortment of English and West India Goods, the one kept by Gale & Davis; the other by Rice, Farnsworth, & Co.

POPULATION, DEATHS, &C.-At the time of the ordination of Rev. Mr. Martyn, (1746) there were 40 families in the place; the number had increased to 82 families at the ordination of Rev. Mr. Whitney, (1767); and, in 1796, to more than 110 families. By the census of 1810, the number of inhabitants was 794; by that of 1820, 1018, making an increase of 224 in ten years. By a census taken the last winter, however, and which it is believed is very nearly accurate, the whole number of inhabitants was only 946, of whom 488 were males, and 458 females.

In the autumn of 1746, the year that Rev. Mr. Martyn was ordained, and for several following years, particularly in 1749 and 1750, this society was visited by a very mortal sickness among

children, by which the growth of the society must have been very sensibly checked, and which must have been attended with circumstances of peculiar distress.*

Sixty children, out of a population which could not have much exceeded three hundred, fell victims to the desolating pestilence; and, with the exception of one adult, (Benjamin Rugg, a stranger,) were the first persons that were buried in the new church yard.f This was the last sweeping, mortal sickness, with which this place has been visited.

Since the great sicknesss, in the years 1749 and 1750, no town in this vicinity has been more exempt from wasting, mortal distempers. The number of deaths from 1780, to 1800, including a period of twenty years, amounted to only 146, averaging a little more than 7 in a year. During the first twenty five years of the present century, the number was 282. The average number for the last ten years has been about 11 annually, in a population of nearly a thousand souls. The whole number of deaths from 1780, to the present date, (June, 1826) is 450; of whom seventy eight were 70 years and upwards; forty three, 80 years and upwards; seventeen, 90 years and upwards; one (Wid. Hannah Fay‡) in her hundredth year; and one (Deac. Jonathan Livermore§) one hundred years and seven months. There are now living in this town, five or six

*The sickness which prevailed in 1746, Capt. Timothy Brigham informs me, was the dysentery, then called, "the fever and flux." Capt. B. then a child of 10 years old, lost a sister, and was himself sick of the disease. He thinks that as many as 30 children died that year, in this place. He recollects being attended in his sickness by Doct. Benjamin Gott, of Marlborough. The sickness of 1749 and 1750, was the "throat distemper," as it was termed, which, for many years after its first appearance in New England, proved such a desolating scourge.

+ The old burying ground, in which many of the first settlers of Northborough were interred, is east of the road leading to Westborough, a little south of the dwelling house of Mr. William Maynard. It is now overgrown with trees and brush.

Widow Hannah Fay was a daughter of Nathaniel Oaks, was married to Gershom Fay, father of the late Thaddeus Fay, and died, March 8, 1806, aged 100.

Deac. Livermore came from Watertown about A. D. 1720, and settled on the Brown farm, so called, where David Dinsmore now lives. He was the first Parish Clerk in this place, which office he held many years. He died April 26, 1801, aged 101. A short time after he was 100 years old, he rode on horseback from his house to a military review, near the middle of the town, the distance of three miles, and returned without fatigue. He possessed uncommon learning for his time, was an accurate surveyor, and an excellent penman, owing to which circumstance, the early records of the town appear in a remarkably fine state.

persons over eighty years; and one, (Capt. Timothy Brigham,*) in his ninety first year. One couple (Capt. Amos Ricet and his wife) still survive, who were joined in marriage before the death of Rev. Mr. Martyn, who baptised their first child. They were married May 8th, 1766, and have lived together more than sixty years.

The average number of births for a year, has been, of late, about thirty; which, deducting the deaths, will give an annual increase of from fifteen to twenty souls.

CIVIL HISTORY.-Nothing has been found on record relating to the part which this town bore in the old French wars, as we have been accustomed to hear them called by our aged fathers.' We learn, however, from the few who survive of the generation then on the stage of active life, that this small district was not backward in furnishing men to join the several expiditions, which were undertaken for the conquest of the French in Canada.

Eliphalet Warren, John Carruth, and Adam Fay, joined the expedition to Halifax, in 1754. In the following year, Benjamin Flood and Eber Eager, the latter of whom did not live to return, were at Crown point. In 1758, the eight following persons were with the army under General Abercrombie, at his defeat before Ticonderoga. Cap. Timothy Brigham, [now living and who retains a perfect recollection of the scenes he passed through in this ill-fated expedition,] Eliphalet Stone, Samuel Stone, [who died on his return,] Benjamin Flood, Josiah Bowker, Samuel Morse, Gideon Howard, and Joel Rice. Capt. Brigham says that the attack upon the French lines commenced at 5 o'clock, A. M. and lasted till 7 o'clock, P. M.; and that over 1900 of our men were missing at the calling of the rolls that evening. Capt. B. says that after this repulse, the army retreated to Lake George, soon after which, the company to

*Capt. Timothy Brigham is a son of Jesse, who was a son of Jonathan, who was a son of Thomas Brigham, one of the early settlers of Marlborough, He was present at the defeat of the English, under Abercrombie, before Ticonderoga, in 1758, and Lieutenant of the company of minute men that marched down to Cambridge on the memorable 19th of April, 1775. Jonathan Brigham was in the Indian fight, at Lancaster, (now Sterling) Aug. 19, 1707, and stood next to Richard Singletary, who was killed in the action. This fact, Capt. B. had from his own mouth.

+ Capt. Amos Rice is a son of Jacob, who was a son of Jacob, who was a son of Edward, one of the 13 original petitioners for the Plantation of Marlborough. Benjamin, another son of Edward, was the father of Deac. Matthias Rice, and of Simeon Rice, late of this town, and of Zerubbabel Rice, late of Marlborough. Tradition says, that the first person by the name of Rice, who emigrated to New England, had eight sons, all of whom lived to be 90 years old and upwards.

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which he belonged (Capt. Stephen Maynard's of Westborough) was dismissed and returned home.

There is one man, now living in this town, at the age of 88, nearly, [Lieut. Abraham Munroe] who was at Halifax, in the regiment of Maj. Rogers, of Londonderry, N. H. in the year 1757, and, at the taking of Ticonderoga under Gen. Amherst, in 1759. Mr. Munroe had there the rank of Ensign; and, in the following year, received a Lieutenancy. He served in the regiment of Col. Saltonstal, of Haverhill; and, at the departure of our army for Montreal, received orders to remain at the head of a detachment of men, for the purpose of completing the repairs of the fortifications at Crown Point. Lieut. Munroe continued at Ticonderoga, till his discharge, in May, 1763, under Capt. Omsbury, or Amsbury, to whom the command of the fort had been committed.

Several other persons belonging to this town, whose names I have not learned, were in service at different times during the French wars, some of whom did not live to return.

The following particulars have been collected relating to the part which this town bore in the burdens and privations of the revolutionary war.

It appears from the town records, that the inhabitants of this town, took an early and decided stand in defence of the liberties of our country. So early as March, 22d, 1773, more than two years before hostilities commenced, a number of spirited resolutions were passed at a district meeting, called for the purpose, among which were the following:

2. Voted, as the opinion of this district, that it is the indispensable duty of all men and all bodies of men to unite and strenuously to oppose by all lawful ways and means, such unjust and unrighteous encroachments, made or attempted to be made upon their just rights; and that it is our duty earnestly to endeavor to hand those rights down inviolate to our posterity, as they were handed to us by our worthy ancestors.

"3. Voted, that the thanks of this district be given to the town of Boston for their friendly, seasonable and necessary intelligence; and that they be desired to keep their watch, and guard against all such invaders and incroaches for the future.

"4. Voted, that Capt. Bez. Eager, Doct. Stephen Ball, and Mr. Timothy Fay, be a committee to make answer to the committee of corres., at Beston, informing them of the opinion of this district in this matter."

In August of the following year, eight months before the war commenced, at a special meeting called for the purpose, the district passed the following vote.-" That we are determined to defend our charter rights and privileges, at the risk of our lives and fortunes, and that the town desire the committee of correspondence,* to write to their brethren in Boston, and inform them thereof."

In November, 1774, the district voted to appropriate money in the treasury to buy one hundred pounds of powder; three hundred pounds of lead, and two hundred and forty flints; and on June 3d, 1776, it was resolved, "that it was the mind of this town to be independent of Great Britain, in case the Continental Congress think proper; and that we are ready with our lives and fortunes, if in Providence called, to defend the same."

Some time before the war broke out, a company of fifty minute men was raised in this town, under the command of the late Capt. Samuel Wood, who held themselves in readiness to march at a moment's warning, whenever and wherever hostilities should commence. At length the memorable 19th of April arrived, on which day, the first blood in our Revolutionary struggle was shed, at Lexington and Concord. On the same day, before one o'clock, P. M. the tidings reached this place. The company of minute men belonging to this town was collecting at the time to listen to an occasional patriotic discourse from Rev. Mr. Whitney. They were directed without a moment's delay, to put themselves in readiness to march; and in three or four hours from the time when the news arrived, they had taken leave of their families and were paraded in the yard of Capt. Woods' house, whence (the Rev. Mr. Whitney having in a fervent prayer commended them to the protection of the God of armies,) they immediately set out on their march for the field of danger and of blood.

*The following persons were a standing committee of Correspondence, in 1774. Bezaleel Eager, Seth Rice, Jr. Levi Brigham, Gillam Bass, and John Ball. In the following year, the ever memorable 1775, there were seven on the committee of correspondence, viz. Thadeus Fay, John Ball, Joel Rice, Amos Rice, [now living] Artemas Brigham, Jethro Peters, and Nathan Green.

† April 10th, 1775, the town voted to pay fifty minute men one shilling each, for each half day they shall meet to learn the Military art, for sixteen half days; and granted £40 for that purpose. The town also voted that Mr. Timothy Brigham, Constable, pay to Henry Gardner, Esq. the Province tax, which he has now in his hands, for the year 1773, and the District will indemnify him. Also Voted, to indemnify the Assessors for not making the province tax for the year 1774.

Of the fifty men belonging to this company, the following persons are now living in this town. Capt. Timothy Brigham, then the Lieut. of the