Cheshire - Its Traditions and History - Including a Record of the Rise and Progress of Freemasonry in this Ancient Province

Alfred Ingham

Description

“Cheshire - Its Traditions and History” is a fascinating account of the history of Cheshire, a county in North West England. This concise history of the English county spans the earliest records to modern times, exploring the introduction of Christianity, its history of conformity, government, traditions, folklore, and much more. This volume will appeal to those with an interest in Cheshire's interesting history, as well as the history of England itself. Contents include: “Prehistoric Salt Mines—Poets and Geological Science”, “The Genesis of Cheshire History—Sir Peter Leycester's Illustrious Work”, “Feudalism and the Divine Right of Kings”, “Whence Came Christianity to Cheshire—Cheshire Saints”, “Foundation of Nonconformity to Cheshire?--Cheshire Saints”, “Foundation of Nonconformity in England”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with the original text and artwork.

Sujets

• Historical Records
• North West England

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 01 décembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781528769068
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

CHESHIRE
Its Traditions History
Including A RECORD OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF FREEMASONRY IN THIS ANCIENT PROVINCE
By
ALFRED INGHAM
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
Author of The History of Altrincham and Bowdon ; Annals of The Caledonian Lodge, No. 204 ; A Cheshire Patriot ; Historical Drama, c., c.
TO THE READER:

Peruse with heede, then friendlie judge ,
And blaming rashe refraine;
So maist thou rede unto thy goode ,
And shall requite my paine .
Whitney s Emblems, A. D . 1586.
Copyright 2018 Read Books Ltd. This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER
BY
J UDGE J AMES B ARKER .

EARLY SETTLEMENT OF CHESHIRE.

CAUSES LEADING TO THE INCORPORATION OF A TOWN. FIRST SALES OF LAND. NICHOLAS COOK AND JOSEPH BENNET. NEW PROVIDENCE. CAPT. JOAB STAFFORD. THE NOTCH BURYING GROUND. JOHN WELLS. SCENERY. LAND GIVEN FOR THE SUPPORT OF THE GOSPEL. CAPT. SAMUEL LOW HOLDS SLAVES. EPITAPH OF ELDER PETER WERDEN.
T HE town of Cheshire was incorporated on the 14th of March, 1793. The title of the Act indicated that its territory was made up of parts of the towns of Lanesborough, Windsor, Adams and of the District of New Ashford, the inhabitants of New Ashford not having been incorporated as a town until May 1st, 1836.
On the 6th of February, 1798, so much of the farm of Jacob Cole, of New Ashford, as lay in that district was, together with the said Jacob and his personal estate, set off from the said district, and annexed to the town of Cheshire, there to do duty and receive privileges. This annexation added three more to the twenty corners made by its boundary lines, and established its pre-eminence in this respect over all the towns in the Commonwealth on a so much firmer footing. Whether this predilection for corners came from the same cause which has made the population, and business and social life of the place desert its once thickly settled hill-tops, and congregate in that locality of the town known as Cheshire Corners, is a question which may at some future day be settled by the scientific branch of our Association. But it is reasonably certain that the bounds given in the Act of Incorporation, were not the result of an attempt to follow physical boundaries, but to bring into a community people of like tastes and religious feelings as far as possible. The attempt seems to have been remarkably successful, and the people of Cheshire to have been so remarkably unanimous even in political sentiment as to make current the familiar tradition that when the first lone opposition ballot was put in the box by a citizen opposed in politics to all his neighbors, it was thrown out by the selectmen as having evidently been cast by mistake. It is among the earlier settlers of this territory that we must look for the leaven which was powerful enough to work throughout a township, creating the town in the first instance, and continuing its power until substantially all its citizens seem to have been united in sentiment, and vigorous and earnest in its expression.
These earlier settlers came more largely than the settlers of any other considerable portion of Berkshire from the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. They were descendants, some of them of the very men who were the first to follow Roger Williams to Rhode Island, and generally they were men who had inherited and imbibed the spirit of her free institutions, and were educated in the religious beliefs prevalent in that colony rather than in the orthodoxy of the Massachusetts Colony.
The present paper will not be able to give the story of their emigration from Rhode Island, and their settlement in Berkshire in any connected form, or with a claim to that accuracy which ought to be attained in the documents prepared for an historical society. At most it will only gather the names and some facts in the lives of these early settlers, and call your attention to a village once flourishing and beautiful, but which has now utterly disappeared. A Berkshire hill-top once crowned with a church, and hillsides once dotted with farm houses and tenanted by a vigorous, an intelligent and a thriving population, but from which the buildings have disappeared, and whose only tenants now are the inmates of those narrow homes on which no signs of To Let or For Sale are exhibited, and in another portion of Cheshire we find later, but still early settlers who followed the first from Rhode Island, and took up their abode in that part of the town which is included in or is near to the present village of Cheshire, and was then within the limits of Lanesborough.
The story of the men who made the New Providence Purchase, and in 1767 removed their families and goods from Rhode Island to the splendid eminence which they christened New Providence Hill in affectionate remembrance of the hill in Providence, and there essayed to found and did found a new community, is worthy to be told. We will try to name some of the actors in it, and to open the field for further research.

The portion of Cheshire to which we have already referred by its more ancient name of the New Providence Purchase and the crown of which was named by its early settlers New Providence Hill is now known as Stafford s Hill, a name derived from the Col. Joah Stafford who was one of the prime movers in the emigration from Rhode Island to Berkshire, and one of the most prominent men in the settlement which they established. It appears certain that the territory embraced iu the purchase was sold by the province in 1762 and was originally included in the township known as No. 6, the larger portion of which is now in the town of Savoy. An examination of the Province records in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth at Boston, discloses a full statement of the action of the General Assembly and Council in ordering and making the sale of several townships of province land in the western part of the province in 1762, most of them in Berkshire which sale included those parts of Cheshire which were formed from Windsor and Adams. That part which was formerly Lanesborough had been sold at an earlier date, and was then known as New Framingham. The records of these sales which included the old town of Adams then known as East Hoosuck, and the territory now included in Hinsdale, Peru, Windsor. Savoy and other towns may be found in the archives of the Historical Society, Pittsfield.
Of the townships there sold parts of two are within the limits of the present town of Cheshire, namely the northwestern portion of No. 4 and the west end of No. 6. Of these No. 4 seems to have been earliest settled. From deeds appearing on record it is evident that it had proprietors among whom there had been a division of common lands before the sale by order of the General Court iu 1762.
There on the twelfth of June, 1762, James Burchard of a place called No. 4, in Berkshire County, conveys to his grandson, Matthew Wolf Jr., son of Matthew Wolf of the same town, house lot No. 66, on the southerly side of the same township butted and bounded according to the original survey as by the proprietors book of records may appear, and as early as 1764, they were enjoying the luxury of selling lands for taxes in No. 4.
This township seems to have been as rich in names as Cheshire has been in corners, since it has borne successively the following in addition to No. 4; Dewey s Town, Bigot s Town, Williamsburg, Gageborough and Windsor.
The Noah Nash to whom it was sold in 1762 was a resident of Hatfield, and he continues to make deeds of lands in the township to 1784. Among these are deeds to David Parsons and many other names given in Barker s early history, page 24 .
An examination of the latest county map shows that the New Providence Hill was directly north of the part of Windsor which was incorporated in the new town of Cheshire, and almost adjoining it the meeting of the five roads at the school house, one of which leads over the hill to Adams, and is on the line between No. 6, and No. 4.
In the vicinity of this portion of Windsor to the hill we find the moving force which brought it into the new town. Here too, lies one of the old burying grounds, to be noted further on, opposite the residence of W. P. Bennet.
It is not so easy to trace the history of the township known as No. 6. The present town of Savoy comprises the greater portion of the territory which was included within its bounds, as given in the order of sale of Feb. 17, 1762, and merely states that it was originally No. 6.
The Rev. David D. Field, in his history of Berkshire county, published in 1829, gave Bullock s grant as the foundation of the town, some other lands being incorporated with it. He states that Col. William Bullock of Rehoboth, as agent for the heirs of Capt. Samuel Gallop, received from the General Court of 1770 and 1771, a township of six miles square, in consideration of their services and sufferings in an expedition into Canada about the year 1690, in what was called King William s war, the township to be located in any unappropriated land belonging to Massachusetts, and that Col. Bullock located the grant to the southeast and north of Bernardston grant comprising the western and greater part of Florida, and which had been previously located. Recalling the bounds of No. 6, as given in the General Court s order of sale, the report of the committee, and the plan, it is certain that most, if not all, of this territory is included in No. 6, and also that the part of Cheshire which comprises the New Providence Purchase, or Stafford s Hill