General Court in May, 1675, for their allowance, before he proceeded with them, which is herewith all presented;" that it was not presented on account of the country's troubles, the Indian war the next month, "and his own death happening within less than one year after that;" nor by the petitioner since, "by reason of the manifold griefs, hurries, removings, tossings to and fro, distractions, discouragements, various sorrows and afflictions, your petitioner hath met withal, she being necessitated unto all her losses in the burning time of the war, as aforesaid; since that to sell and make over all her lands at Groton for the payment of her husband's debts for those goods which he had taken up and paid away to the Indians, for which they remain to this day indebted to your petitioner as aforesaid, to the ruin of her six younger children, to whom she hath little [left] to help them withall, except this Honor court be pleased to grant relief unto them out of the Indian lands." She concludes her petition by praying for a grant of land to make up in some measure for her husband's losses, "and for the relief especially of her six younger poor fatherless children in their deplorable condition, some of them also being very young," &c.

The court, without hesitation, passed a vote making a provision which might be construed into a full acknowledgment of obligation, but was not, I should suppose, an entire remuneration. The terms of the grant were, "One thousand acres of land, in any free place beyond Nashaway River,... for the six youngest children of the late honored Major Symon Willard; . . . to remain undisposed of until all the children aboue mentioned atayne to the age of one and twenty yeares old."

"ten

This land is described as situate in the Indian country, at a place called "Pahamogessett" or Pumangossett, . or twelve miles beyond Wachusett, and lying southward from that hill by the new road lately marked to Hadley; which road runneth through some part of it." After it was surveyed, the Indian title was extinguished by the deed of

conveyance made by Thomas Dublett and his wife Sarahdaughter of "Mr. John Sagamore, all Indians of Nashoba, and sometime of Groton "-to the six younger children.* By purchase from these children,† their brother, Henry Willard, became the sole owner of this land; and his widow conveyed it to Judge Sewall in 1702. It was again surveyed; and, in 1715, Sewall's title was confirmed by the General Court. This land was within the limits of the town of Rutland, in the county of Worcester, beyond the confines of settlement and civilization, and remained an unbroken wilderness for more than thirty years from the time of the first grant.

I have now mentioned, so far as I know, all the landed estate which was the property of Major Willard, as well as that which was bestowed upon his six younger children in answer to their mother's petition. In the year 1686 (Dec. 22), the whole tract of land-afterwards the township of Rutland was conveyed by the Indian proprietors or claimants Indians of Pennecook, Natick, and Wamesit-to Henry and Benjamin, sons of Major Willard; Cyprian Stevens, his son-in-law; Joseph Rowlandson, son of the former minister of Lancaster; and Joseph Foster, of Billerica. On the petition of the sons and grandsons of Major Willard in February, 1714, this land-exclusive of the Sewall tract of one thousand acres was confirmed to his children, and their legal representatives and their associates, by an Act of the General Court. On the 14th of April following, Foster, Stevens, the assignees of Rowlandson's heirs, the surviving children of Major Willard, and the heirs of the deceased children, join in a deed in which they recite the grant made to them and their associates of this tract of land, westward of Lancaster, and "near the Wachusett Hills, so called, containing twelve miles square, by the name of Rutland." They then declare that they have associated with them in the grant Hon. William Tailer,

* March 6, 1684. Middlesex Registry of Deeds, vol. x. fol. 342.

† Ibid., fol. 338.

Esq., of Dorchester; Penn Townsend, Paul Dudley, Addington Davenport, Adam Winthrop, Thomas Hutchinson, Esqrs.; Thomas Fitch, merchant; John White, gentleman, all of Boston; Thomas How, Esq., of Marlborough; Jno. Chandler, Esq., of Woodstock; William Dudley, Esq., of Roxbury; John Farnsworth, of Groton, yeoman; the children and heirs of Peter Bulkeley, late of Concord, deceased, in right of said Peter; Moses Parker, of Chelmsford, husbandman; and Jacob Stevens, of Stow, yeoman. The land was then divided into shares.

The deed was executed by three of the four surviving sons of Major Willard, by his surviving daughter with her husband, and by most of the heirs of the deceased children.*

* This land, as I have stated, was purchased by Henry and Benjamin Willard (two only of the eight sons of Major Willard then living), Cyprian Stevens, Joseph Rowlandson, and Joseph Foster, in 1686. Why this purchase was confirmed by the General Court to all the children, or their legal representatives, does not appear. The purchase from the Indians would need confirmation; but the confirmation extended to persons not parties to the original purchase. The deed of April, 1714, was not executed by Joseph, the seventh son; nor by the heirs of Rev. Samuel, who was the second son. But their title was undoubtedly considered good. I find a subsequent conveyance of the whole of Joseph's share, and two-tenths of Samuel's. Perhaps a careful examination of the records would show conveyances of the remaining eight-tenths.

43

338

CHAPTER XV.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SIMON WILLARD.

(Continued.)

MAJOR WILLARD was thrice married. I have not the date of any of the marriages; or of the death of any of the wives, except the last. His first marriage, as I have mentioned early in this Memoir, was with Mary Sharpe, of Horsmonden, before they left England. The Rev. Dr. Willard makes the following statement; viz. :

"The name of the second [wife] was Elizabeth Dunster, sister of the Rev. Henry Dunster, President of Harvard College. She died about half a year after marriage. The name of the third wife was Mary Dunster, cousin of the above Elizabeth; who survived the Major, and was married to Deacon Noyes, of Sudbury."

was

There are accounts varying from this, so far as the Dunster marriages are concerned. Thus, in the glowing description of the death of Madam Isabel Frink, wife of Rev. Thomas Frink, of Rutland District (Barre), March 2, 1772,* after stating that she was the youngest daughter of Samuel Wright, Esq., of Rutland, it is added, that she “ descended by her mother from the honourable and famous Major Willard of Lancaster, by his second wife Isabel, sister of President Dunster." This agrees with Dr. Willard only in the statement that the second wife was sister to the presi dent; and may be taken, perhaps, as an independent proof of that fact. All else is very questionable. If the second wife

* Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter, March 26, 1772.

died "about half a year after marriage," Madam Frink was a descendant in the direct line from the third wife, Mary Dunster. That Mary Dunster was the third and last wife of the Major, there is not the slightest doubt. Mrs. Frink's grandmother was Mary (the second of that name), daughter of Major Willard, and wife of Cyprian Stevens, of Lancaster, son of Colonel Thomas Stevens, of Devonshire, afterwards of London. Mary, daughter of Cyprian and Mary Stevens, married Samuel Wright, Esq., of Rutland; and they were the parents of Mrs. Frink. There are erroneous statements contained in a manuscript entitled "A Brief Account of the Families of the Dunsters, A. D. 1764." This manuscript - the property of Rev. Samuel Sewall, of Burlington in this Commonwealth was drawn up by his predecessor in the ministry at Burlington, the Rev. John Marrett, whose mother was "a sister of Rev. Isaiah Dunster of Harwich, and a great-grand-daughter of President Dunster." Marrett, speaking of the Dunster family, says that the president's father was Henry, as appears by a letter from him dated "Balehoult, March 20, 1640." After vainly searching for this place, I ascertained from my good friend, the late Dr. Harris, Librarian of Harvard College, that this was probably Bale, in the hundred of Holt, in Norfolk. I accordingly wrote to the supposed rector at Bale, and received a very kind answer from Rev. J. H. Sparke, of Gunthorpe, a neighboring parish. Mr. Sparke states that the register at Bale had been searched, according to my request; "but the name of Dunster could not be found therein." The subsequent unexpected discovery of this "Balehoult" letter, and also of the locality itself, will appear in a subsequent page. Marrett adds, that Henry Dunster had four sons living at the date of the letter; viz., Henry (the president), Thomas, Richard, and Robert; and two daughters,-Faith and Dorothy; that the three last sons never came to New England; that Faith married Edmund Rice, of Sudbury; and that "Dorothy married

Willard, of, by whom she hath left issue." It