through the country, in which Lancaster, and many other towns, experienced the horrors of savage warfare.*

*James Quanipaug, who was sent out with another Indian by the name of Job to reconnoitre the enemy, then in the Western part of this County, in the beginning of 1676, passed through Hassanamesit (Grafton) thence to Manexit, (a part of Woodstock) where he was taken by seven Indians and carried to Menimesseg, (New Braintree) where he found many of the enemy, and among them "the Marlborough Indians who pretended that they had been fetched away by the other Indians." Some of them professed to be willing to return. Philip is said at this time to have been about half a day's journey on the other side of Fort Orania, (Albany) and the Hadley Indiaus on this side. They were then preparing for that memorable expedition, in which the towns of Lancaster, Groton, Marlborough, Sudbury, and Medfield, were destroyed.

The letter of James Quanipaug bears date 24th: 11 mo: 1675. (Jan, 24, 1676.) It was only 16 days after this, viz. Feb. 10th O. S. that they made a descent upon Lancaster, with 1500 warriors, and butchered or carried into captivity nearly all the inhabitants of that flourishing village.

Whether the Marlborough Indians joined in this expedition, or left the enemy and returned to their homes, I have not been able after diligent enquiry to ascertain. The little that I have been able to collect, though corroborated by circumstantial evidence, rests mainly on tradition.

Though it appears from the testimony of James Quanipaug that the Marlborough Indians were with Philip's men at Menimesseg, it is by no means certain that all who belonged to the Plantation had gone over to the enemy. Tradition says, that those who remained at home were suspected of treachery, and that representations to that effect were made to the governor, (Leverett) who dispatched a company of soldiers under the command of Capt. Mosely, to convey them to Boston. They reached Marlborough, it is said, in the night; and early in the morning, before the Indians had any suspicion of their design, surrounded the fort to which they were accustomed to repair at night, siezed on their arms, and obliged them to surrender. They attempted no resistance, and it is by no means certain that they entertained any hostile designs against the English. They were, however, taken into the custody of the soldiers; and, having their hands fastened behind their backs, and then being connected together by means of a cart rope, they were in this manner driven down to Boston, whence it is probable, that they were conveyed, in company with the Indians of Natick and other places, to one of the islands in the harbor, and kept in durance till the close of the war.

This tradition is corroborated by the following circumstances.

In the account of Daniel Gookin, in 1 Hist. Col. 1, 228, it is said that "some instances of perfidy in Indians, who had professed themselves friendly, excited suspicions against all their tribes. The General Court of Massachusetts passed several severe laws against them; and the Indians of Natick and other places, who had subjected themselves to the English government, were hurried down to Long Island (Hutchinson says Deer Island,) in the harbor of Boston, where they remained all winter, and endured inexpressible hardships." We learn further from Hutchinson, that the Indians of Punkapog alone (now Stoughton) were exempted from this severity of treatment. The ground of the harsh measures adopted in reference to the Indians in the neighborhood of Boston, was, the perfidious conduct of the Springfield Indians, in assisting in the destruction of Westfield, Hadley, and other places, in October 1675. "This instance of perfidy," says Hutchinson, "seems to have increased the jealousies and suspicions, which had before begun of the Indians round Boston, viz. Punkapog, Natick, &c."

At the session, in October, the General Court ordered "that no person shall entertain, own, or countenance any Indian under the penalty of being a betrayer of this government."

"That a guard be set at the entrance of the town of Boston, and that no

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 pre

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.t

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 cir cumstance 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.

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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 following 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 Lovelt Peters, Esq.