History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

grant of one thousand acres had just been made
for the benefit of the Maiden ministry. This grant
was laid out in the present towns of Shrewsbury,
people of Maiden had early attended to the matter
of a regular military organization ; and, at the time
of the incorporation of the town, we are informed
that " the Band of Maiden, being as yet a Young
Town, who have not chosen their Officers, are led
by Mr. Josepii Hills." Joseph Hills appears to
have commanded this company until his removal
to Newbury about 1665, when his son-in-law, John
Wayte, who had been lieutenant since 1654, suc-
ceeded him in that office. Not all the available
military force of the town was enrolled in the foot
company, as a portion of the men, probably those
of the better class, were members of a company of
cavalry known as the Three County Troop. This
company consisted of " Troopers Belonging to the
Townes of Maiden, Redding, Rumney marsh and
Linn," and was formed in 1659. Its standard of
crimson damask displayed a naked arm bearing
aloft a sword. It furnished its quota during King
Philip's War, and was in existence under Captain
William Green in 1689. Of its latter history
nothing is known, save that dissensions existed in
its ranks, and it probably dissolved not far from
the beginning of the last century.
The military power of the colony, which had not
seen service since the Pequot War, began, about the
year 1667, to receive more attention, and was soon
to be called into action. It was then that the fears
" concerning Philip and his Indians," which were
so terribly realized eight years later, began to be
general. Portents were not wanting to add to the
general alarm; and, on a clear, still morning
" diverse Persons in Maldon " heard in the air the
sound of a great gun, and "the report of small
Guns like musket shott, discharging very thick,"
and the flying of bullets over their lieads ; " and,
after this, they heard drums passing by them and
going Westward." In the bloody war which preceded
the death of King Philip, the men of Maiden
performed their duty, both in service and by con-
tribution of their substance. In October, 1675,
seven country rates were ordered, in consideration
of " the great and dayly growing charge of the pres-
119
ent warr against the Indians." Of this levy the
proportion of Maiden was £15 lOs. for a single
rate ; and this was no small burden to the farmers
Boylston, and Holden ; and it was a fruitful source of that day, whose currency often consisted only
of lawsuits and troubles for near a century, not of the products of the soil. During the summer
only with the towns in which the land was located, and fall of that year soldiers of the town were in
but also between the precincts into which Maiden active service ; several as troopers under Lieutenant
was afterwards divided.
William Hasey of Rumney Marsh, the commander
In common with all towns of the colony, the of the Three County Troop. Early in December
seven Maiden men marched with the company un-
der Captain Samuel Mosely for the Narragansett
country. In the battle known as the Narragansett
Fight, which soon followed, and where nearly seven
hundred Indians are said to have perished, this
company was the first to enter the enemy's fort;
and two of the nineteen men which it lost in slain
and wounded were of Maiden, — Edmund Chamberlain
among the former, and James Chadwick among
the latter. At the same time another Maiden sol-
dier, Lieutenant Phineas Upham of Captain Isaac
Johnson's company, received a wound from the
eff'ects of which he died in a few months. During
the next year Maiden soldiers served under several
captains ; and in a settlement made in August of
that year the town was credited with the services
of twenty-nine men. This war, which came to a
close in the fall, was productive of much suffering
in all parts of the colony, but not to so great an
extent in Maiden as in towns nearer the frontiers.
There are extant petitions which portray cases of
individual hardships ; and fourteen families, comprising
fifty-two persons, received aid in Maiden
from the Irish Charity, a contribution sent from
Ireland for the relief of those who had suffered by
the war. After the war the records indicate that,
in common with the other towns of the colony,
Maiden gradually gained in strength, and added to
her intellectual and moral power as well as to her
material stature in the season of general recupera-
tion into which the country entered.
It may be supposed that a school was early es-
tablished here; and in 1663 one William Godden,
after sundry individual bequests, left the residue of
his estate for schooling poor children of Charlestown
and Maiden. In 1671 a school was main-
tained at the charge of the town, and Captain
John Wayte appeared in court and declared that
" Maldon " was " provided flitli a schoolmaster
according to law." No other reference to schools
has been found prior to April 1, 1691, when the
simple entry, "Ezekiel Jenkins continuing to be
the Townes Scoule master," proves that the school