History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

as to the custody of the torni records, enjoining a
full and veracious report of the proceedings and
decisions of the committee who had arbitrated in
the case. Their action was approved and con-
firmed by the court.
!
Tiieir ecclesiastical dispute was considered by a
council of ministers, who naively advised that they
spend a day or days of humiliation and prayer, and
" after their spirits are somewhat sweetened and
satisfied mutually, it may be meet without too long
delay to gather a church here."
The atmosphere was not yet clear. Mr. Brimsmead
left the town, and preaclied at Plymouth
for a time. He returned October 3, 1666, on
which day the churcli was formed and he was
ordained its pastor. A few years after, to quote
the graphic and quaint account of Mr. Packard,
" On the Sabbath, when ilr. Brimsmead was in
sermon, March 30, 1676, the worshipping assem-
bly was suddenly dispersed by an outcry of ' In-
the enemy ;
but the God whom they were worship-
ping shielded their lives and limbs, excepting the
arm of one Moses Ne\vton, who was carrying an
elderly and infirm woman to a place of safety. In
a few minutes they were sheltered in their fort, mth
the mutual feelings peculiar to such a scene."
The meeting-house was burnt to the ground,
and nearly, if not quite, all the dwelling-houses.
Everything of value was destroyed, cattle were
killed, and the fruit-trees hacked. " The enemy re-
tired soon after their first onset, declining," says
Packard, " to risk the enterprise and martial prow-
ess of the yomig plantation. Tiie new settlers
being much debilitated by their various losses,
living in a frontier town, and still exposed to the
' adjudication ' of their savage neighbors, left their
farms till the seat of war was further removed."
Thus husbandry was uiterrupted for one year, aiul
the municipal organization for two.
The growth of the town was materially checked
by these incursions of the savages, and till this day
traces remain of the fear and insecurity of those
times. On the hill Sligo are the remains of an
old stone fort connected with a well by a subter-
ranean passage of about one hundred and fifty feet,
which it is conjectured was constructed in view of
those early invasions.
Incidentally, it may be mentioned that the name
originated in much later times ; the authentic tradi-
tion is that it was so called in allusion to the so-
MARLBOROUGH. 141
briquet of an owner of the hill, who in the time of
the Kevolution was understood to be absent at the
war, but who in reality remained at home, passing
the nfghts witli his family and slyly going, in the
early morning and in the dusk of evening, to and
from a cave situated across this land. Hence the
name Slygo, as it was formerly spelled.
On the return of the inhabitants, while tliey found
on every hand a scene of desolation, and were prac-
tically forced to the tasks and rigors of the emigrant,
yet the war which had destroyed their buildings so
far weakened the Indians as to facilitate, at length,
possession of the whole township, and insured a
larger measure of personal security.
Some of the Marlborough Indians liad joined
Philip, and those who remained apparently passive
or amicable were suspected of treachery. Wiiether
the suspicion was well grounded or not, the in-
habitants lived in dread of them, and from tradition
we learn that they, with other towns, sought protec-
dians at the door ' The confusion of the first tion from the government, so tliat Captain Mosely,
moment was instantly increased by a fire from it is believed, with a company of soldiers, early in
the morning surprised these Indians while they were
in the fort to which they repaired at niglit, seized
their persons and arms, fastened their hands behind
tiieir backs, connecting them with a cart-rope, and
drove them to Boston, from whence they were
taken with others to some island in the harbor and
kept in durance until the conclusion of hostilities.
Tiiose who returned denied tiie charge ; but wlnle
suffered to remain even when guilt had been proven,
as in the case of David Munnauow who confessed
participation in the destruction of Medfield, they
were despised and uninfluential, and though their
plantation was not formally forfeited by disloyalty,
it was gained the more easily from so demoralized
and enfeebled a people.
After the re-establishment of their municipal
organization, and the rebuilding of dwelhng-houses,
they proceeded to the erection of a new meeting-
house about 1678. Like the first one, it was
thatched with tall grass from Thatcher Meadow.
It was left in an unfinished state ; an unsuccessful
attempt was made to enlarge and repair it in 1680;
it lasted only eight or nine years, and in 1689 was
valued at only £ 10. The third meeting-lionse was
built as early as 1689. The pulpit in the second
meeting-house was valued at £4, "which was im-
proved in the new meeting-house, for carrying on
the finishing of that." This house was used between
twenty-two and twenty-three years. The
fourth meetinff-house was erected in 1711. It was