1669] EARLY SETTLERS BEFORE KING PHILIp's WAR 3

meat and vegetables, and this metal was used for drinking-
cups and porringers. One of the most important articles for
the table was a trencher, a block of wood ten or twelve inches
square, hollowed out three or four inches. A man and his
wife ate from one trencher an old Connecticut deacon made
;

a trencher for each of his children, but was condemned by his

neighbors as extravagant. Myles Standish and others of the
"first comers" used trenchers in their homes. In the centre
of the table was placed the salt-cellar, and guests were seated
"above the salt," near the host, who sat by his wife. No
china 1 and but very little silver was used in the colony. The
native corn meal became a staple article of food the morn- ;

ing and evening meals for one hundred and fifty years were
commonly of boiled Indian meal, " ye Indian porridge," with
milk or molasses. The them how to plant and
Indians taught
raise the corn, and how between stones, or with the
to grind it

pestle and mortar. This method gave way to rude hand-mills,

called quernes, and grist-mills. Corn was so highly regarded
that it was often used for ballots in voting. Suppawn, a coarse
porridge of corn and milk, samp, and succotash, an Indian
dish, were favorite foods. Roger Williams wrote that " suts-
quttahhash was corn seethed like beans."
Squashes and beans were native vegetables. The former
was spelled in various ways, " squanter-squashes," " squontor-
squashes," " isquonker-squashes." They had not been accus-
tomed to drinking much water, and at first feared it might be
dangerous. Home-brewed ale and beer were drunk freely, and
liquors and wines were brought to the town from Taunton
and Plymouth later, as the orchards grew, cider became a
;

popular drink, and Middleboro cider was famous. In spite of

the free use of all these, a writer from Massachusetts in 1641
said, "Drunkenness and profane swearing are but rare in this

country." For coffee they used a substitute, made either from

barley or from crusts of brown bread. For sugar they used

1 " As tea and coffee were unknown to the Forefathers, the many Delft-ware
and cups preserved as Pilgrim relics are
tea and coffee pots to be regarded as
anachronisms." Goodwin's Pilgrim Republic, p. 588.
32 HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MIDDLEBORO [1669

sweet apples and the syrup obtained from beets and pump-
kins. Herring, or alewives, were always abundant, and largely
took the place of meat at their family meals.
Although there were no schools in town until after the
Indian War, the children were taught to " read, write and
;
cipher " the Bible and a volume of Sternhold and Hopkins's
Hymns, with the Bay Psalm Book and a few other books,
could be found in almost every family. A study of their old
primers well repays one interested in old books. At first the
" good King Charles " was referred to, but after the Revo-

lution we find books for children with the statement, " Kings
and Queens are gaudy things." The New England Primer and
their other books were as severe in binding as was the dress
of the colonists, without decoration or ornament.
Nearly all travel was on horseback. Women and children
rode seated on a pillion behind a man. If several people were
to make a journey, the ride-and-tie system was used. Certain
ones would ride a distance, then tie the horse and walk on.
The others would then take the horse and ride ahead, again
leaving the horse for the two who were afoot.
Many of the brought with them from Plymouth
settlers
articles of furniture which had either been made there or
brought by their fathers from the old country. The bureaus,
chests of drawers, etc., were on legs, so no dust could accumu-
late underneath. Their homes were comfortable, neat, and tidy,

although in the forests with savage surroundings.

They often attended church at Plymouth, a distance of six-
teen or more miles, going ^nd returning the same day, until
Samuel Fuller settled among them as preacher. They were
honest. God-fearing men and women, having a clear know-
ledge of the teachings of the scriptures, and a strong, abiding
faith in the religion for which their fathers had suffered, leav-
ing comforts and luxuries of the Old World. (See chapter on
Social Customs.)
In our review of these times we are never to forget the
hardships which these men and women endured, without mur-
mur or complaint, for more than a generation. The nearest
1669] EARLY SETTLERS BEFORE KING PHILIp's WAR 33

settlements were Plymouth, Bridgewater, Taunton, and Dart-

mouth, reached only by the narrow Indian paths for the most
part through dense forests. Their houses were remote from
neighbors and distant from friends, the usual communication
being only by foot they were liable at any time to unexpected
;

visits from the savages, who might not be friendly and who
were addicted to thieving they had neither medical skill nor
;

scientific knowledge, when sickness, as a result of hardship

and exposure, so often entered their dwelHngs they had none ;

of the luxuries, or what we consider to-day comforts, of life ;

there was also the extreme danger from hostile Indians before
King Philip's War, and the constant annoyance and depreda-
tions from wolves and bears, which attacked not only their
crops, but sometimes the settlers themselves. They were con-
tented and happy in their simple habits and mode of living ;

honest and industrious, frugal and thoughtful, many of them

men of character and enterprise, whom their posterity, remem-
bering their virtues, ever do well to honor.
By the laws of the colony " none shall vote in town meetings
but freemen or freeholders of 20 pounds ratable estate and of
good conversation, having taken the oath of fidelitie."^ Those
who had taken the oath of fidelity in town up to the uniting of
the colonies in 1692 were but few, so that many of the expendi-
tures and public acts were undertaken by the voters in connec-
tion with the proprietors of the "liberties of the town," as the
owners of land were then called, who were not all of them resi-

dents. In 1677, after the return, a meeting was held, at which

sixty-five of the proprietors and residents were present.^
As the town records were destroyed in the war, it is impos-

sible to give an exact list of men living in Middleboro before

1675. The number
has heretofore been variously stated as
sixteen, twenty,and twenty-six, but it is hardly probable that
the court at Plymouth would have incorporated a town unless
there had been a larger number of inhabitants. We give

1 Plymouth Colony Records, Laws, vol. ii, Part III, p. 223.

2 Old Middleboro Records, copy, p. 17. See also chapter on Civil History for
list of names.
34 HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MIDDLEBORO [1670

below a list of forty-one who are known to have lived here, as

the names are to be found in Plymouth records, in deeds, as
ofBce-holders and freemen, from records of births and deaths,
as well as from reliable family note-books, and seven who were
here according to generally accepted tradition.

Samuel Barrows Tohn TV el son 0

J_jv_iWd.iU. JDUlllU W llllcLlH INClbOIl X
Tohn Biimn vw' dill 14.1^1 -L iclLL

Joseph Bump Andrew Ring

Tnnn ^naw
OllCtW
JKJllLL

Francis Coombs x 0 David Thomas

William Clark David Thomas Tr
Georece Dawson Ephraim Tinkham 0
John Dunham x 0 Ephraim Tinkham, Jr.
Samuel Eaton x Ebenezer Tinkham
Zachariah Eddy John Tomson 0
Obadiah Eddy 0 John Tomson, Jr.
Samuel Fuller George Vaughn 0
John Haskall Joseph Vaughn
William Hoskins 0 Francis Walker
Isaac Rowland 0 Adam Wright
John Irish 0 Henry Wood x
John Miller Samuel Wood 0
Francis Miller Jonathan Wood
John Morton 0 Joseph Wood
John Morton, Jr. x
X Freemen in 1670. 0 Office-holders before 1675.

Of the seven following, four were in the fort, and are men-
tioned in the "History of the First Church" in the list of those
who were here when the war broke out and who probably
returned after the war :
" —
Francis Billington Jabez Warren
John Cobb Joseph Warren
John Holmes David Wood
William Nelson, Jr.

The following list of men in the fort was obtained from an

oldEddy note-book quoted from Mercy Bennett, " whose grand-
father was on thelist and she had her information from him.

This was confirmed from other sources " :

—
1670] EARLY SETTLERS BEFORE KING PHILIPS WAR 35

John Tomson, Commandant

Isaac Rowland
Francis Coombs
Samuel Fuller 1 Commandant's Council
John Morton
^
Nathaniel Southworth
Ephraim Tinkham
Henry Wood ^

William Nelson
David Thomas
John Cobb
Jabez Warren
Edward Bump
Moses Simmons ^

Samuel Barrows
Eaton {Samuel f)
Francis Billington
George Soule ^
Obadiah Eddy
Samuel Pratt
George Vaughan
John Shaw
Jacob Tomson
Francis Miller
Holmes {Johnf)
1
John Alden

This list from that given in the " History

differs slightly of
the First Church " Samuel Eddy ^ is mentioned in place
:
of
Obadiah, and John Howland ^ in place of John Holmes.

Samuel Barrows was one of the early settlers of Middleboro,

and before the breaking out of the war had built a dam across
1 We find no record that these men were permanent residents of Middleboro.

They were extensive land-owners and probably in town at that time. George
Soule, Samuel Eddy, and John Howland had children living here, and John Alden
had a son in Bridgewater adjoining the Twenty-six Men's Purchase. For a
sketch of their lives, see chapter on Early Purchases.
Not a few of the inhabitants of the different towns of the colony lived for a
longer or shorter time in other places without changing their legal residence, and
this may account for some of the early settlers being in Middleboro before King
Philip's War who at that time were citizens of other towns.
2 As Henry Wood was not living, this probably refers to one of his sons.
36 HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MIDDLEBORO [1665

the Nemasket River some fifty rods above the present Star

Mills, and erected a grist-mill, in which he worked. On the

morning of the attack upon the town, after the Indian had
been shot, he saw a band approaching the mill and fled to the
fort uninjured. The records of the First Church of Middle-
boro show that he had acquired a share in the Twenty-six
Men's Purchase before the breaking out of the war.
The pilgrim ancestor of the Barrows families in this country
was John Borowe, or Barrow, from Yarmouth,^ England, who
came to Salem in 1637, at the age of twenty-eight years, with
his wife Anne. In 1665 his name appears in the Plymouth
records, in which town he resided from that time, and perhaps
earlier, until his death in 1692. The Samuel Barrows above

referred to was probably his son. Although his name does not
appear in any of the published genealogies which we have
examined, it has come down in so many ways that there can
be no doubt that he resided in Middleboro at this time, and
was among those who returned from Plymouth on the re-settle-
ment of the town.
Robert, the oldest son of John, married, in 1666, Ruth Bo-
num, and later married Lydia, daughter of John Dunham.
He had a son Samuel, born in 1672, who about the year 1700
built a garrison
house which is

still standing
and known as
the old Barrows house. He
was elected deacon of the First
Church in 1725. He married first, Mercy Coombs, who died in
1718, and then he married Joanna Smith. He died December
30, 1755, aged eighty-three.2

Edward Bumpus. This name was originally spelled Bom-

passe, now Bumpas or Bump. He arrived at Plymouth
spelled
in the Fortune, November 10, 1621, and moved to Duxbury,
where he bought land of Mr. Palmer at Eagle Nest Creek and
1 Maine Hist, and Geti. Register, vol. vii, pp. 136, 199.
2 History of the First Church of Middleboro, p. 53.
1669] EARLY SETTLERS BEFORE KING PHILIP's WAR 37

built a house andpaUsado, which he sold in 1634, and moved to

Marshfield. He resided in Middleboro in the latter part of his
life, and was in the fort at the breaking out of King Philip's
War. He was the father of several of this name who became
permanent settlers in Middleboro. He was one of the original
owners in the Twenty-six Men's Purchase and in the Purchade
Purchase, and was among the proprietors of the liberties of
Middleboro in 1677. He died February 3, 1693, and was then
called ''old Edward Bumpas." He married Hannah while
living in Duxbury. His children, as far as can now be ascer-
tained, were Faith, born 1631 Sarah John, born 1636;
; ;

Edward, born 1638; Joseph, born 1639; Jacob, born 1644;

Hannah, born 1646; Philip Thomas, born 1660.^
;

John Bumpus, the oldest son of Edward, was born in 1636.

Few facts are given concerning him. In Church's "Enter-
taining Passages Relating to King Philip's War,"^ an Indian
by this name is mentioned as killing horses with Tispequin,
and in a note we find, " There are respectable white people in
Middleboro by this name from the ancestors of whom he may
have derived his name." His children born in Middleboro
were Mary, born 1671 John, born 1673 Samuel, born 1676;
; ;

James, born 1678. Other children were born in Rochester,

where he lived later.

Joseph Bumpus, son of Edward, was born in 1639,

Middleboro later as "a principal settler." His wife
lived in
Weibra was one of the ori-
ginal members of the First ^ /) a
Church in 1694. Their chil-
dren were Lydia, born 1669 ;
'
?P
Weibra, born 1672; Joseph,
born 1674; Rebecca, born 1677; James, born 1679; Penelope,
born 1681; Mary, born 1684; Mehitable, born 1691-92. He
died February 10, 1704.^
1 Barnstable Families, pp. 85, 86. 2 Page 144.
3 Barnstable Families, p. 86.
 ^

38 HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MIDDLEBORO [1669

William Clark. Few facts are known concerning him.

The Eddy note-book says his house,i with that of Mr. Coombs,
was burned in 1675, that WilHam Hoskins Uved with him
as keeper of the records.
There was a William Clark whose name appears on the
treasurer's account for Plymouth Colony in 1660 and 1667,
and there was a person by that name capable of bearing arms
in 1643 Duxbury and Plymouth he was on a committee to
;

take the treasurer's account of the colony, June 7, 1674. He

died in 1687. In 1655 a William Clark was constable of Dux-
bury, surveyor of highways in 1659, admitted as a freeman
in 1658, and was a constable in Plymouth in 1669. This may
have been the Clark who subsequently moved to and lived in
Middleboro in 1675, one of those for whom the Five Men's
Purchase was made.

Gershom Cobb, a son of Elder Henry Cobb of Barnstable,

was born the loth of January, 1644-45, one time lived
in Plymouth. He married Hannah Davis and became a resi-
dent of Middleboro, but the date of his settling here is uncer-
tain. He was constable in the year 167 1, and a member of the
Grand Inquest in 1674. He
was one of the settlers for whom
the Sixteen Shilling Purchase was made. He was in Swansea
at the first attack of the Indians upon that town at the begin-
ning of King Philip's War, where he was killed with eight
others, and was buried with them June 24, 1675. His brother
John administered his estate, which was divided in equal por-
tions to the children of Mr. Henry Cobb of Barnstable, except-
ing John, the elder son, who had a double portion.

Francis Coombs was the son of John Coombs, who was in

Plymouth in 1633 with his wife Sarah, a daughter of Cuthbert-
1 In the records of the General Court in 1734, we find a petition of Cornelius
Bennett and Lydia Miller, where it is stated "That about the year 1675
dwelling house of the said Coombs and also the house where the keeper of the
records in Middleboro lived was burned and the Indian deed was and is sup-
posed to be burned also." Massachusetts Archives.
2 Barnstable Families, p. 171, Cobb Genealogy.
1670] EARLY SETTLERS BEFORE KING PHILIP's WAR 39

son. They had other children, but probably Francis was the
oldest. He was in Middleboro as early as 1670, and was one of
the men who took the inventory of the estate of Henry Wood.
On July he exchanged four acres of land on the
I, 1674,^
south of the Indian Path which goeth from Namasket to
Munhutehet Brook at the southerly end of land which he sold
to Benjamin Church with Samuel Wood for the i6th lot on
Namasket River, near the wading-place which
the west side of
was formerly Henry Wood's land, deceased."
After the close of the war, he probably did not return for a
year or two, but in 1678, when he was in Plymouth, he bought
of Edward Gray for thirty-six pounds the i8th, 19th, and 20th
lotson the west side of the Nemasket River between the stone
weir and the wading-place.
He also owned the 185th and i86th lots in the South Pur-
chase and the 169th lot in the Sixteen Shilling Purchase. His
was taken January 5, 1682, by Isaac Howland
inventory, which
and Samuel Wood, shows that he owned considerable real
estate in town.
He was a man Middleboro, and was a free-
of influence in
man in He
was a selectman of the town in 1674, 1675,
1670.
and 1680. In 1676 and 1677 he and Isaac Howland were ap-
pointed commissioners to distribute charities from Ireland to
such as were impoverished during King Philip's War. He was
married twice his first wife was Deborah Morton his second
; ;

wife was Mary Barker of Duxbury, who, upon the decease of

Francis Coombs, married David Wood of Middleboro, in 1685.
She was living in 171 1. He died in Middleboro, December 31,
1682, leaving a wife and several children.
The license to Francis Coombs to keep an ordinary or an
inn was granted in 1678, and after his death was renewed to his
wife, Mrs. Mary Coombs, July i, 1684. It was probably the
same tavern which was kept seventy-five years ago or more by
Captain Abner Barrows, and it is said that part of that house
was perhaps a portion of the identical building of the Coombs
tavern.
1 Eddy Note-Book. 2 History of Plymouth County, p. 947.
40 HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MIDDLEBORO [1674

June 5, 1666, " liberty is granted by the General Court unto

Francis Coombs as by right of his father who was an ancient
freeman, to look out for land for his accommodation and to make
report thereof to the court that so a competency thereof may
be allowed unto him answerable unto other ancient freemen." ^

His children were Deborah, born 1673; Mercy, born 1674;

Lydia, born 1679; Ruth, born 168 1 Francis, born 1682.;

George Danson lived in that part of Middleboro known

as Thompson Road, somewhere between Danson Brook and
the home of John Tomson.^
At one time he was "fined forty shillings^ for doing servill
work on the Lord's Day."
He was one of the original proprietors of the Sixteen Shil-
ling Purchase. There is some uncertainty about his name.
Hubbard speaks of him as Robert Dawson or Danson. In
Plymouth County Records he is called George Danson of
Middleboro.* In the Thompson book he is called William
Danson. In Middleboro Records he is called George. The
references are probably all to the same person.^
He was the owner of the 6th lot in the apportionment of
the Twenty-six Men's Purchase before the breaking out of
the war, as appears in the early records of the town, although
his name is not among the owners of this land in the "History
of the First Church of Middleboro." His name also appears
on the list of proprietors who met, June 28, 1677, to take
measures for the resettlement of the town. The clerk of that
meeting evidently failed to record his death, and probably no
administration had been taken upon his estate.
He was shot by the Indians upon the breaking out of King
Philip's War, at the brook which bears his name. He had
been urged by John Tomson the night before to go to the
garrison, but waited until morning. After starting, he stopped
for his horse to drink, when he was shot.

1 Plymouth Colotty Records, vol. iv, p. 127. 2 Thompson Genealogy, p. 7.

2 Plymouth Colony Records, vol. v, p. 156. * Ibid. vol. vi, p. 70.
s Hubbard's Indian Wars, vol. ii, p. 41.