History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

and convert a goodly portion of the pleasant months
of May and June into an uncomfortable season,
are in a great degree avoided, or rather that these
winds are so far modified as to be rendered comfortable.
At the same time we are so far removed
from the snow-capped hills at the north and west
as to be measurably exempt from tlie drifting snows
of winter, and the chilling air of spring. These
are among the causes which tend to save us in a
degree from that plague of New England which
brings to an untimely end so many of our young
people. The altitude of our township gives a salu-
brity to our atmosphere, and the absence of slow
sluggish streams saves us in a measure from the
malignant diseases so fatal to children. And it can
be easily shown by the bills of mortality that Lex-
ington has furnished a larger proportion of deaths at
an advanced age than most of the towns around us.
The healthfulness of Lexington is so well known
that many invalids by the advice of their jjliysicians
have come to Lexington to regain their health.
Lexington was originally a part of Cambridge,
and was known by the designation of " Cambridge
Farms," supplying the main village with wood and
hay. It is difficult to say when the settlement
proper began. Several persons spent most of the
farming season here, and still retained their resi-
dence in Cambridge. There was no permanent settlement
at the "Farms" till about IGiO. The
early settlers came mostly from Cambridge and
Watertown ; but at first they were few in number.
Without attempting to state the order in wliich
the first settlers came to the place, we must be
content with saying tiiat the Bridges, Winships,
Cutlers, Fisks, Stones, Bowmans, Merriams, and
Russells were among the earliest and the most
numerous families. It was not till after the close
of Philip's War that there was any considerable
increase of population. In 1670 there could not
have been over eighty-five or ninety inhabitants at
the Farms; but in 1690 there was probably three
times that number. Among the fii:st wants of
every New England settlement were those of church
privileges. In 1683 the settlers petitioned the
General Court to be set off as a distinct precinct.
The old parish in Cambridge opposing, it was not
till 1691 that the court granted the Farms a sep-
arate corporate existence. Their first object after
being made a precinct was to provide permanently
for religious instruction. They had had preaching
somewhat regularly before. But m 169.3 they had
erected a meeting-house and employed a minister.
LEXINGTON. 13
But unfortunately their minister, Rev. Benjamin
Estabrook, who had preached for them, and was
permanently settled hi 1696, died within a year
of his ordination. The parish, after some delay, in
1698 settled John Hancock, a graduate from Har-
vard, a young man of good promise. He remained
mth his people till his death in 1752. He proved
to be a man of superior talents, of great useful-
ness, and probably exerted more influence than any
clergyman in the county. If any difficulty arose
in any of the churches, and a council was called,
Mr. Hancock was always on the council, where he
was generally made moderator ; and often became
the council itself. In those days, when the churches
were much fewer than at present, and when minis-
ters remained long with their people, being settled
for life, he gave the solemn charge to twenty-one
ministers at their induction into their sacred office.
He was as influential at home as abroad, and
always managed to keej) his people united and
happy. He was the counsellor and guide of iiis
parishioners, not only in their spiritual, but in
their temporal affairs. Their title-deeds nnd their
accounts were generally in his handwriting. If
any difficulty or misunderstanding arose between
any members of his flock, he would invite the
parties before him, and by his good sense and good
humor, would generally reconcile them. But when
he failed in this, he would often act the part of the
arbiter, though self-appointed, and decide the ques-
tion between them ; and such was their confidence
in him, and such their respect for his judgment
and purity of intention, that they generally acqui-
esced with cheerfulness in his decision.
Mr. Hancock had three sons : first, John, who
was settled a minister in Braintree, and was the
father of John Hancock of the Revolution ;
second,
Thomas, a successful merchant of Boston, who
adopted and educated his nephew John, who was
left an orphan at the tender age of seven years,
and to whom he bequeathed his large fortune;
third, Ebenezer, who was settled as a colleague
vith his father, and died in 1740, after a brief and
very acceptable ministry of six years. John Hancock,
the elder, built a house on what is now
known as Hancock Street, soon after his ordina-
tion in 1698, and about 1735 his son Thomas built
an addition to the house. Both the original and the
addition are still standing, each showing the archi-
tectural taste of the age in which they were erected ;
and they are subjects of interest at the present day.
The house has recently been purchased by a gentle-