History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

uneasiness and suffering, and the spirits of many
sunk under the trial.
The first order from the court for service re-
quired thirteen men and five horses to be provided
for the forces being raised. Fifteen liorses and
three men were shortly after added to the require-
ment. These, however, were no more tiian a tliird
"of the men who became soldiers in the war. From
various sources it has been ascertained tliat forty-
five others were subsequently engaged in the ser-
vice. The number of men from Woburn who took
part in the fight at Narragansett, in December,
1675, is not certainly known, but it may be safely
estimated at from forty to fifty. The whole num-
ber from Massachusetts was five hundred and
twenty-seven. Of the Woburn soldiers engaged
in tlie action, eight were either killed or wounded.
On the deatli of Philip, in the August following,
the war, so far as active hostilities were concerned,
was closed ;
but the depredations of the Indians in
small parties and against isolated settlements were
continued with much loss and cruelty to the peo-
ple exposed.
But another adversity followed in tlie wake of
tiie Indian war. Small-pox was introduced into
tlie town from Boston, which caused very general
alarm. Great efforts were made to prevent the
spread of the disease, but the cases were numerous
and many of them fatal. Stringent orders were
issued by the selectmen forbidding persons who
had been sick to appear in the meeting-liouse for
several weeks, or, if there, to be seated in a place
apart from the others, and to return home without
speaking to or mingling with the people. Tlie
woBURN.
distress and alarm from this source continued for what to the threatening attitude of the authorities.
more than a year, when the scourge abated. Mr. Johnson, who had been first selectman for
The people of Woburn, as well as those of the several years, now declined to serve, and another
colony in general, iiad enjoyed from the beginning
all the freedom under their original charter which
they desired. They managed their affairs in their
own way, elected their own officers, from the gov-
ernor downward to the most unimportant posi-
tions in each town. They held a firm allegiance
to the king, and considered themselves bound to
further the interests of the crown as against all other
nations. They had that strong feeling of loyalty
which lias ever been characteristic of Englishmen,
and which took many years of indignities and
oppressions to cancel in the colonies. After the
Restoration in England, and when Charles II. had
become firmly seated on the throne, there was a
growing disposition on the part of the defenders of
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the king's prerogatives to withdraw the charters
under which the New England colonies were
planted, and substitute others shorn of many
privileges they enjoyed. Tiiese attempts to inter-
fere with the people of New England were met with
a bold and resolute spirit, and it was not till the
accession of James II. that the charter of Massachusetts
was declared vacated. Then Sir Edmund
Andros appeared in Boston as governor appointed
by the king. This act caused great commotion
throughout New England. There was not for some
time any open resistance to the power of the new
magistrate, but many obstructions were made to the
arbitrary laws passed by the council, and a general
spirit of insubordination everywhere prevailed.
Woburn felt the indignity cast upon the people
as keenly as Boston. The order passed forbidding
town-meetings to be held but once in a year, and
then to be called by justices of the county rather
than the selectmen, was treated with rude con-
tempt.
In 1687 the people assembled in town-meeting,
as w^as customary, and chose the usual officers.
This election was declared void by the governor,
and a new meeting was ordered. The order was
obeyed, but the inhabitants displayed their inde-
pendent spirit by electing the same men to office
who had been previously chosen. In 1688 the
same proceedings were repeated. The town, in de-
fiance of the king's creatures, met and elected its
officers; again its acts were annulled. Andros was
growing desperate, and fines or imprisonment were
expected soon to follow these contumacious doings.
It appears that Woburn at length yielded some-
person was chosen in his place. This is supposed
to have been to this extent a reversal of the bold
position the tow-n had taken. The following year
(1689) there is no record of a town-meeting being
held, and it is probable that the old oificers held
over.
But the tyrannous proceedings of Sir Edmund
Andros were suddenly closed. News came that
James II. was dethroned, whereupon the people of
Boston and neighboring towns rose in arms, captured
and imprisoned Andros and some of his most
obnoxious adherents, and replaced the old magis-
trates in office. There is no known account or rec-
ord of the part Woburn played in this revolution,
but its near vicinity to Boston, and its spirited en-