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A Historic and Present Day Guide to Old Deerfield
A Historic and Present Day Guide to Old Deerfield Author:Emma Lewis Coleman Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. Excerpt from book: Section 3HISTORIC SKETCH Mary Talbot, granddaughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and wife of Sir William Armeyne, was not only of distinguished rank, but of remarkable piety, learning, and accompl... more »ishments. She was also a philanthropist. With the Lady Mary Armeyne the history of Deer- field is intimately connected; since the textit{£20 per annum, given by her for missionary purposes in New England, was granted by our General Court to John Eliot, for his Christian Indian settlement at Natick. Unfortunately the land chosen for Eliot's settlement proved to belong to Dedham, and for twelve years there was dispute between Dedham and Natick as to the ownership of the tract. Finally, in 1663, the General Court "judged it meet to grant Dedham eight thousand acres of land in any place where it cann be found free from former grants." Several horseback journeys having been made by men of Dedham into the interior wilderness of Massachusetts, the eight thousand acres selected included what is now Deer- field, Greenfield, and Gill. In 1666, John Pyncheon, of Springfield, was employed to buy the title from the Pocumtuck Indians, its native owners. The deed, with two later ones, may be seen in Memorial Hall. Samuel Hinsdell, son of Robert, of Dedham, hadbroken ground in Pocumtuck as early as 1669, and was soon followed by Samson Frary. For years the affairs of Pocumtuck were controlled by Dedham. In May, 1673, Hinsdell, Frary and others determined to set up an independent town, and in answer to their petition, the General Court granted them an addition to the original eight thousand acres, "so that the whole be to the content of seven miles square, provided that within three years an able and orthodox minister be settled among them." In 1673 the Reverend Samuel Mather, having been graduated from Harvard College in...« less