History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

sivelj to Joseph Curtis of Eoxbury, Ward Nicholas
Boylston, and John Quiucy Adaras, and is now
owned by some of Mr. Adams's great-grand-
children.
In the southeastern part of the town, near the
present residence of Mr. Frederick T. Bu^h, are
still to be seen the remains of the foundation and
cellar of one of the first houses built in the town.
It was without doubt built by Samuel Seaverns, who
was baptized in Watertown, November 28, 1686,
and who married, December 20, 1699, Rebecca
Stratton. His son Samuel, born July, 1706, used
to tell his grandchildren that when he was a boy,
and was sent by his father to get the cows at night,
he was accustomed to climb the trees and stumps
and cautiously watch for Indians, before venturing
into the clearing. His great-grandson, Mr.
William Seaverns, narrates this incident to the
writer as he has heard it frequently told by his
grandfather, Joseph, sitting in whose old rushbottomed
chair the writer pens this account. One
corner of the residence of Mr. Bush can be traced
back more than one hundred and fifty years, having
been built probably by Samuel Seaverns. Dr.
Josiah Starr, of Weston, was born in this house,
"
and married (published October Q, 1762) to Abigail
Upham. In 1773 he was the owner of two
slaves. This house was remodelled in 1856 and
iu the walls was found a copper coin of the reign
of George II.
Samuel Seaverns, born October 30, 1779, was so
bitterly opposed to the passage of the Boston and
Albany Eailroad through his farm, that for nearly
forty years after the road was built he could not
be persuaded to enter the cars, and as they passed
through his farm would turn his head to avoid
seeing them. ilr. Hale, superintendent of the
road, once attempted in vain to put him aboard a
train.
In 1753 one Prince Jonah, a slave of Abraham
Biglow, of Weston, found in Waltham a leather
pocket-case, with tickets of land lying in Gardner,
Canada, east of Northfield, belonging to Joe Wil-
liams; also one dollar, one pistareen, and two cop-
pers, and an empty money-bag. This was so
extraordinary an occurrence that it was entered
upon the town records, and there stands a wit-
ness to the sterling honesty and intesjritv of the
fathers.
In 1773 sixteen slaves were owned in the town,
and the number of polls was two hundred and
eighteen.
WESTON. 497
In response to the alarm, "The British are com-
ing ! " sounded from town to town and from house
to house, on the morning of April 19, 1775,
" Capt. Samuel Lamson hastily forms his company
from those who otter themselves for this emer-
gency, among whom is Mr. Woodward, who shows
by this act that he means to put his preaching into
practice." They started for Concord and joined in
pursuing the retreating regulars as far as West Cam-
bridge. The muster-roll of this company is given
in Lexingion Alarms, \o\. XII. p. 170, headed by
Samuel Lamson as captain, Jonathan Fiske and
Matthew Hobbs, lieutenants, four sergeants, two
corporals, a drummer, and ninety-three privates, —
a total of one hundred and three, nearly one half of
the number of polls in the town. The majority
served at this time for three days, some for two,
and a few joined their comrades for one day.
Captain Lamson became major of the Middlesex
regiment, under the command of Colonel Eleazer
Brooks, of Lincoln. The Weston company was
attached to this regiment, with Jonathan Fiske
promoted to the cajrtaincy, and was in the service
at Dorchester Heights, White Plains, Ticonderoga,
Crown Point, and other places, and " was probably
in the service till the close of the war." Matthew
Hobbs was captain for a while, with two Liver-
mores as lieutenants. The muster-roll shows that
Captain Fiske and fifty men served five days in the
public service " at y" Heights of Dorchester."
General Burgoyne and his army, while on their
way to Cambridge as prisoners of war after their
surrender, are said to have encamped one night
along the old stage road in Weston. These Con-
vention troops, five thousand strong on the day of
their surrender at Saratoga, October 17, 1777,
worn out by their long march, shoeless, footsore,
and decimated by desertions along the route, must
have been a motley array when they reached their
destination.
That the town had no sympathy for those of
its citizens who were of Royalist proclivities, is
shown by their vote of October 15, 1778, instruct-
ing Mr. Joseph Roberts, their representative, to
use his best endeavors in the Great and General
Court to have such laws made as may " prevent
y" return of any of those persons into this Town
or State who have sought and received protection
from the British army."
"In 1787 a military organization in Weston
was chartered under the name of the Company of
Light Infantry in Weston, which, under this and