History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

116 mSTOBY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
granted to be a distinct towne, and the name
thereof to be called Mauldon."
It is not known who signed the jjetition as
" Mistick-side men"; but a document in relation
to the church, written ni 1648, may be supposed
to contain the names of the leading men of Mai-
den. They were Joseph Hills, Ralph Sprague,
Edward ('arrington, Tiiomas Squire, John Wayte,
James Greene, Abraham Hill, Thomas Osborne,
John Lewis, and Thomas Caule.
Joseph Hills, who, as we have seen, was an
early settler here, was a man of ability and was
honored in the colony. He had been engaged in
important commissions with the leading men of the
government, and in 1647 had been speaker of
tlie house of deputies. He had just completed the
famous revision of the Massachusetts laws which
was printed in 1648, and which was tiie first code
of laws established by authority in New England.
He came, with his wife Rose, from Jlaldon, in
Essex, England, and in compliment to him Mystic-
Side is supposed to liave received its new name.
The present incorrect form of the word was not
generally used until near the middle of the last
century ; and, until that time, the usage of the best-
informed persons, both in written and printed doc-
uments, shows that the town was, during its first
century of existence, known as Maldon.
The line between C'linrlestown and the new town
appears to have been tlinl hiid down "at the head
of the five-acre lots" in l(i.']8, running from near
Powder-Horn Hill, in a northwesterly direction,
to tlie North River; and Stephen Fosdick, Thomas
Whittemore, William Sargeant, and Richard Pratt
are mentioned as abutters thereon. This division
left to Charlestown the southwestern portion of
the present town of Everett, which retained the
old name of Mystic-Side; and its inhabitants are
known to us as " our Charlestown neighbors."
Charlestown retained a right in the burying-place
at SaTidy Bank and the landing-place near by, and
exempted the inhabitants fif Mystic-Side from
ehurt'h charges for three years.
Tiic first records of the lown arc lust, and
the antiquary must gallicr rnnii widrly scatlcred
sources the story of ils birlh and v\\x\\ years of
growth. The authorities are documents and records,
indefinite and unsatisfactory, — pa])ors made
for a purpose soon jiast, and not intended to con-
vey information to a distant age; but, in the
vagueness and uneerlaiiity of (he light lhe\ shed,
We may see a s])arse and sturdy i)(>])idaliijii cucr-
coming a wilderness and laying deep the founda-
tions of the institutions we enjoy. Of the doings
of the town in its first essays at self-government we
know but little. Joseph Hills was chosen its first
deputy, which position he filled until his removal
to Newbury in 1665, with the exception of five
years when the town was not represented in the
General Court. John Wayte was the first town-
clerk ; and Thomas Squire, William Brackenbury,
John Upham, John Wayte, and Thomas Caule were
selectmen. Richard Adams was constable.
As the desire to establish and maintain church
privileges was a leading cause of the separation
from Charlestown, so that establishment and main-
tenance became prominent, and fills an important
place in the story of the early days. Closely interwoven
as was the religious idea -Bitli the secular
life of the people, we shall find it coloring and in-
fluencing all their doings, and shall perceive the
history of the church and that of the town to be
inseparable.
Hardly had the men and women of Maiden begun
to enjoy their new privileges, before troubles
came from the blessings for which they had labored.
This affliction was brought about by the unfortu-
nate settlement of Marmaduke Matthews, a clergyman
who, for aught that can be discovered, was a
man of piety and ability. Certain words, which
savor of transcendentalism rather than of ungodli-
ness, and give evidence of a spiritual rather than of
a material theology, which did not appeal in its
subtle meaning to the popular inind of that age,
brought upon him the censure of the civil power;
and the independent action of tlie church in his
ordination exposed it, likewise, to the wrath of
authority. In the proceedings which followed,
which concerned both the right of individual
thought and expression, and the independence of
the churches, — rights which more than any others
had been stoutly upheld in England by the Puritans,—
the people of Maiden showed a spirit of self-
reliance and strength which proved liiem worthy
champions of freedom. Though many were found in
the churches and colony to uphold, in some measure,
(hi' Maiden church, yet, practically, it stood alone
in tlie contest, and was forced by tlie power of the
state to submit. The principle of state autliority
in church government and in matters of doctrine
was fixed beyond dispute ;
and the court completed
the work by the passage, in 1653, of an act "against
])rcaching without ap])robation." Against this act
(he Salem church issued a fervent renioustrauce
;