



Produced by Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)









  WOODSTOCK

  AN HISTORICAL SKETCH

  BY

  CLARENCE WINTHROP BOWEN, PH.D.

  READ AT ROSELAND PARK, WOODSTOCK, CONNECTICUT, AT THE BI-CENTENNIAL
  CELEBRATION OF THE TOWN, ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1886

  NEW YORK & LONDON
  G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
  The Knickerbocker Press
  1886

  COPYRIGHT BY
  CLARENCE WINTHROP BOWEN
  1886

  Press of
  G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
  New York


As a full history of Woodstock has been in preparation for several
years and will, it is hoped, be published in the course of another
year, this brief sketch is issued as it was read at the Bi-Centennial
Anniversary of the town.




CONTENTS.


                                                    PAGE

     I. INTRODUCTION                                   7

    II. THE SETTLEMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY
          AND OF ROXBURY                               8

   III. THE NIPMUCK COUNTRY AND THE VISIT OF
          JOHN ELIOT TO THE INDIANS AT WABBAQUASSET,
          OR WOODSTOCK                                12

    IV. THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ROXBURY, OR
          WOODSTOCK                                   20

     V. THE CHANGE OF THE NAME OF NEW ROXBURY
          TO WOODSTOCK                                28

    VI. THE GROWTH OF THE NEW TOWNSHIP--1690-1731      32

   VII. ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS                        36

  VIII. THE TRANSFER OF WOODSTOCK FROM MASSACHUSETTS
          TO CONNECTICUT                              43

    IX. MILITARY RECORD                               46

     X. EDUCATIONAL MATTERS                           53

    XI. DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS                        55

   XII. CHARACTERISTICS OF WOODSTOCK                  58

  XIII. CONCLUSION                                    61

        INDEX                                         63




I.


The history of the town of Woodstock is associated with the beginnings
of history in New England. The ideas of the first settlers of Woodstock
were the ideas of the first settlers of the Colony of Plymouth and
the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The planting of these colonies
was one of the fruits of the Reformation. The antagonism between the
Established Church of England and the Non-Conformists led to the
settlement of New England. The Puritans of Massachusetts, at first
Non-Conformists, became Separatists like the Pilgrims of Plymouth.
Pilgrims and Puritans alike accepted persecution and surrendered the
comforts of home to obtain religious liberty. They found it in New
England; and here, more quickly than in the mother country, they
developed also that civil liberty which is now the birthright of every
Anglo-Saxon.


II.

The settlement of Woodstock is intimately connected with the first
organized settlement on Massachusetts Bay; and how our mother town
of Roxbury was first established is best told in the words of Thomas
Dudley in his letter to the Countess of Lincoln under date of Boston,
March 12, 1630-1:

    "About the year 1627 some friends, being together in Lincolnshire,
    fell into discourse about New England and the planting of the
    gospel there. In 1628 we procured a patent from his Majesty for
    our planting between the Massachusetts Bay and Charles River on
    the South and the River of Merrimack on the North and three miles
    on either side of those rivers and bay... and the same year we
    sent Mr. John Endicott and some with him to begin a plantation. In
    1629 we sent divers ships over with about three hundred people. Mr.
    Winthrop, of Suffolk (who was well known in his own country and
    well approved here for his piety, liberality, wisdom, and gravity),
    coming in to us we came to such resolution that in April, 1630, we
    set sail from Old England.... We were forced to change counsel,
    and, for our present shelter, to plant dispersedly."

Settlements were accordingly made at Salem, Charlestown, Boston,
Medford, Watertown, and in several other localities. The sixth
settlement was made, to quote further from the same letter to the
Countess of Lincoln, by "others of us two miles from Boston, in a place
we named Rocksbury."[1]

The date of settlement was September 28, 1630, and just three weeks
later the first General Court that ever sat in America was held in
Boston. The same year the first church in Boston was organized.[2]
Roxbury, like the other settlements of Massachusetts Bay, was a little
republic in itself. The people chose the selectmen and governed
themselves; and as early as 1634, like the seven other organized towns,
they sent three deputies to Boston to attend the first representative
Assembly at which important business was transacted. The government
of Roxbury, like the other plantations, was founded on a theocratic
basis. Church and state were inseparable. No one could be admitted
as a citizen unless he was a member of the church. Many of the first
settlers came from Nazing, a small village in England, about twenty
miles from London, on the river Lee. Morris, Ruggles, Payson, and
Peacock, names read in the earliest records of Woodstock, were old
family names in Nazing. Other first inhabitants of Roxbury came from
Wales and the west of England, or London and its vicinity. Among the
founders were John Johnson, Richard Bugbee, and John Leavens, whose
family names are well known as among the first settlers of Woodstock.
All were men of property[3]; none were "of the poorer sort." In 1631
the Rev. John Eliot, a native of the village of Nazing, arrived with a
company of Nazing pilgrims. Eliot, though earnestly solicited to become
pastor of the church in Boston,[4] accepted the charge of the church
in Roxbury, which was organized in 1632,[5] and was the sixth church,
in order of time, established in New England. Another name equally
prominent in the earliest years of the history of Roxbury was that of
William Pynchon, afterwards known as the founder of Springfield in
Massachusetts. Only Boston excels Roxbury in the number of its citizens
who have made illustrious the early history of the Massachusetts
colony.[6] Among the early settlers of Roxbury who themselves became,
or whose descendants became, the early settlers of Woodstock, were the
Bartholomews, Bowens, Bugbees, Chandlers, Childs, Corbins, Crafts,
Griggses, Gareys, Holmeses, Johnsons, Lyons, Levinses, Mays, Morrises,
Paysons, Peacocks, Peakes, Perrins, Scarboroughs, and Williamses.[7]

In 1643 the towns within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts had grown
to thirty, and Roxbury did more than her share towards the organization
of the new towns. In fact, Roxbury has been called the mother of
towns, no less than fifteen communities having been founded by her
citizens.[8] Among the most important of these settlements was the town
of Woodstock, whose Bicentennial we this day celebrate.


III.

A glance at the country about us previous to the settlement of the
town, in 1686, shows us a land sparsely inhabited by small bands of
peaceful Indians, without an independent chief of their own, but who
paid tribute to the Sachem of the Mohegans, the warriors who had
revolted from the Pequots. Woodstock was a portion of the Nipmuck[9]
country, so-called because it contained fresh ponds or lakes in
contrast to other sections that bordered upon the sea or along running
rivers. Wabbaquasset, or the mat-producing place, was the name of the
principal Indian village, and that name still exists in the corrupted
form of Quasset to designate a section of the town. Indians from
the Nipmuck[10] country took corn to Boston in 1630, soon after the
arrival of the "Bay Colony"; and in 1633[11] John Oldman and his three
Dorchester companions passed through this same section on their way to
learn something of the Connecticut River country; and they may have
rested on yonder "Plaine Hill," for history states that they "lodged
at Indians towns all the way."[12] The old "Connecticut Path" over
which that distinguished band[13] of colonists went in 1635 and 1636 to
settle the towns of Windsor, Wethersfield, and Hartford, passed through
the heart of what is now Woodstock.[14] This path so famous in the
early days of New England history, came out of Thompson Woods, a little
north of Woodstock Lake, and proceeding across the Senexet meadow, ran
west near Plaine Hill, Marcy's Hill, and a little south of the base of
Coatney Hill. For more than fifty years before the settlement of the
town, this historic path near Woodstock Hill was the outlet for the
surplus population of Massachusetts Bay and the line of communication
between Massachusetts and the Connecticut and New Haven colonies.
But the most noteworthy feature in the description of the Indians of
the Nipmuck country is that as early as 1670 they were formed into
Praying Villages. Evidently the instructions of Gov. Cradock in his
letter of March, 1629, to John Endicott had not been forgotten. In that
letter he said: "Be not unmindful of the main end of our plantation
by endeavoring to bring the Indians to the knowledge of the gospel."
In the heart of one man at least that idea was paramount. John Eliot,
the Apostle to the Indians, was not content to be simply the pastor of
the church of Roxbury for nearly sixty years. Amid his countless other
labors he preached the gospel to the Indians of the Nipmuck country.
The first Indian church in America had been established by him at
Natick in 1651; and, in 1674, he visited the Indian villages in the
wild territory about these very hills. As he found it, to quote his own
words,[15] "absolutely necessary to carry on civility with religion,"
he was accompanied by Major Daniel Gookin, who had been appointed, in
1656, magistrate of all the Indian towns. Maanexit was first visited
on the Mohegan or Quinebaug River, near what is now New Boston, where
Eliot preached to the natives, using as his text the seventh verse of
the twenty-fourth Psalm: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye
lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the king of glory shall come in."

Quinnatisset, on what is now Thompson Hill, was the name of another
Praying Town. But a quotation[16] from the homely narrative of Major
Gookin is the best description of Eliot's memorable visit to Woodstock:

    "We went not to it [Quinnatisset], being straitened for time, but
    we spake with some of the principal people at Wabquissit.[17]...
    Wabquissit... lieth about nine or ten miles from Maanexit, upon
    the west side, six miles of Mohegan River, and is distant from
    Boston west and by south, about seventy-two miles. It lieth about
    four miles within the Massachusetts south line. It hath about
    thirty families, and one hundred and fifty souls. It is situated in
    a very rich soil, manifested by the goodly crop of Indian corn then
    newly ingathered, not less than forty bushels upon an acre. We came
    thither late in the evening upon the 15th of September, and took
    up our quarters at the sagamore's wigwam, who was not at home: but
    his squaw courteously admitted us, and provided liberally, in their
    way, for the Indians that accompanied us. This sagamore inclines to
    religion, and keeps the meeting on sabbath days at his house, which
    is spacious, about sixty feet in length and twenty feet in width.
    The teacher of this place is named Sampson; an active and ingenious
    person. He speaks good English and reads well. He is brother
    unto Joseph, before named, teacher at Chabanakougkomun[18]...
    being both hopeful, pious, and active men; especially the younger
    before-named Sampson, teacher at Wabquissit, who was, a few years
    since, a dissolute person, and I have been forced to be severe
    in punishing him for his misdemeanors formerly. But now he is,
    through grace, changed and become sober and pious; and he is now
    very thankful to me for the discipline formerly exercised towards
    him. And besides his flagitious life heretofore, he lived very
    uncomfortably with his wife; but now they live very well together,
    I confess this story is a digression. But because it tendeth to
    magnify grace, and that to a prodigal, and to declare how God
    remembers his covenant unto the children of such as are faithful
    and zealous for him in their time and generation, I have mentioned
    it.

    "We being at Wabquissit, at the sagamore's wigwam, divers of the
    principal people that were at home came to us, with whom we spent a
    good part of the night in prayer, singing psalms, and exhortations.
    There was a person among them, who, sitting mute a great space, at
    last spake to this effect: That he was agent for Unkas, Sachem of
    Mohegan, who challenged right to, and dominion over, this people of
    Wabquissit. And said he, Unkas is not well pleased that the English
    should pass over Mohegan River to call his Indians to pray to God.
    Upon which speech Mr. Eliot first answered, that it was his work to
    call upon all men everywhere, as he had opportunity, especially the
    Indians, to repent and embrace the gospel; but he did not meddle
    with civil right or jurisdiction. When he had done speaking, then I
    declared to him, and desired him to inform Unkas what I said, that
    Wabquissit was within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, and that
    the government of that people did belong to them; and that they do
    look upon themselves concerned to promote the good of all people
    within their limits, especially if they embraced Christianity. Yet
    it was not hereby intended to abridge the Indian sachems of their
    just and ancient right over the Indians, in respect of paying
    tribute or any other dues. But the main design of the English was
    to bring them to the good knowledge of God in Christ Jesus; and to
    suppress among them those sins of drunkenness, idolatry, powowing
    or witchcraft, whoredom, murder, and like sins. As for the English,
    they had taken no tribute from them, nor taxed them with any thing
    of the kind.

    "Upon the 16th day of September[19] being at Wabquissit, as soon
    as the people were come together, Mr. Eliot first prayed, and then
    preached to them, in their own language, out of Mat. vi., 33:
    _First seek the kingdom of heaven and the righteousness thereof,
    and all these things shall be added unto you._ Their teacher,
    Sampson, first reading and setting the cxix. Ps., 1st part, which
    was sung. The exercise was concluded with prayer.

    "Then I began a Court among the Indians, and first I approved
    their teacher, Sampson, and their constable, Black James,[20]
    giving each of them a charge to be diligent and faithful in their
    places. Also I exhorted the people to yield obedience to the
    gospel of Christ and to those set in order there. Then published
    a warrant or order, that I had prepared, empowering the constable
    to suppress drunkenness, Sabbath breaking, especially powowing and
    idolatry. And, after warning given, to apprehend all delinquents
    and bring them before authority to answer for their misdoings; the
    smaller faults to bring before Watasacompamun, ruler of the Nipmuck
    country; for idolatry and powowing to bring them before me: So we
    took leave of this people of Wabquissit, and about eleven o'clock
    returned back to Maanexit and Chabanakougkomun, where we lodged
    this night."

History fails to locate the spot where John Eliot's sermon to the
Indians of Woodstock was delivered, but tradition points to "Pulpit
Rock," so-called, under the aged chestnut trees of the McClellan farm
near the "Old Hall"[21] road.

But Eliot's good work in the Nipmuck country was destroyed when King
Philip's war broke out in 1675. In August of that year a company of
Providence men journeyed as far as Wabbaquasset, thinking that possibly
King Philip himself had escaped thither.[22] They found an Indian fort
a mile or two west of Woodstock Hill, but no Indians. A party from
Norwich in June of the following year also found deserted Wabbaquasset
and the other Praying Villages. Desolation and devastation followed
the disappearance of the Red Man. The Nipmuck country became more a
wilderness than ever, forsaken of its aboriginal inhabitants whose
barbaric tenure could not stand against a superior civilization.

    "Forgotten race, farewell! Your haunts we tread,
    Our mighty rivers speak your words of yore,
    Our mountains wear them on their misty head,
    Our sounding cataracts hurl them to the shore;
    But on the lake your flashing oar is still,
    Hush'd is your hunter's cry on dale and hill,
    Your arrow stays the eagle's flight no more,
    And ye, like troubled shadows, sink to rest
    In unremember'd tombs, unpitied and unbless'd."[23]


IV.

The time had now arrived for the white man to make a settlement at
Wabbaquasset. In May, of 1681, the General Court of Massachusetts
Bay had given to William Stoughton and Joseph Dudley the care of
the Nipmuck country, with power to ascertain the titles belonging
to the Indians and others, and a meeting of the claimants was held
the following month at Cambridge, at which John Eliot rendered much
assistance as interpreter. Dudley and Stoughton purchased all the
claims, and the following year,[24] the whole Nipmuck country became
the property of Massachusetts Bay. Jurisdiction over the country had
already been claimed, under the terms of the Massachusetts charter.
Many of the inhabitants of the town of Roxbury now felt that they could
improve their condition and increase their usefulness by forming a
settlement in some desirable portion of the new country. Undoubtedly
their pastor, John Eliot, had told them of the beauty and fertility
of the country about the Praying Villages of Maanexit, Quinnatisset,
and Wabbaquasset.[25] Town meetings to arrange for a new settlement,
were held in Roxbury in October of 1683.[26] A petition was signed,
by a number of representative citizens of the town, asking that the
General Court might grant to them a tract seven miles square about
Quinnatisset, in the Nipmuck country. All save six of the thirty-six
who signed this petition, afterwards became settlers of the new town,
and of the five selectmen of Roxbury who presented the petition to
the General Court, three[27] represented families prominent in the
early history of Woodstock. The General Court at once granted[28]
the petition provided the grant should not fall within a section to
be reserved for Messrs Stoughton and Dudley, and Major Thompson, and
provided also that thirty families should be settled on the plantation
within three years from the following June, "and mainteyne amongst
them an able, orthodox, godly minister."[29] In 1684 Roxbury accepted
the terms of the General Court, and sent Samuel and John Ruggles,
John Curtis, and Edward Morris, as a committee of four, to "view the
wilderness and find a convenient place."

As Quinnatisset had been in part already granted, the committee
reported[30] a territory "commodiose" for settlement at "Seneksuk and
Wapagusset and the lands ajasiant." A committee was therefore appointed
to draw up an agreement for the "goers," as they were called, to sign.
In 1685,[31] in answer to the petition of Edward Morris, deputy in
behalf of the town of Roxbury, the General Court extended the limit
of the time of settlement from June 10, 1687, to Jan. 31, 1688, and
granted freedom from rates up to that time.[32] At town meetings held
in Roxbury, during the same year, it was arranged that one half of
the grant should belong to the new settlers and one hundred pounds in
money be given to them in instalments of twenty pounds a year, and the
other half of the grant should belong to "the stayers" in consideration
of the aid given "the goers." The southern half of the grant was the
portion subsequently occupied by "the goers." Actual possession,
however, was not taken until April of the following year. On the second
page of the cover of the old and musty first volume of records of the
proprietors of New Roxbury, afterwards called Woodstock, are these
words:

    "April 5, 1686.

    "These are the thirteen who were sent out to spy out Woodstock as
    planters and to take actual posession: Jonathan Smithers, John
    Frissell, Nathaniel Garey, John Marcy, Benjamin Griggs, John Lord,
    Benjamin Sabin, Henry Bowen, Matthew Davis, Thomas Bacon, Peter
    Aspinwall, George Griggs, and Ebenezer Morris."

These thirteen planters, or the "Old Thirteen" as they have always been
called, were visited in May or June[33] by a committee who had been
appointed to ascertain the bounds of the grant. The last meeting of the
"goers to settle" was held in Roxbury, July 21st; their first meeting
in New Roxbury was held August 25th. A committee of seven, consisting
of Joseph Griggs, Edward Morris, Henry Bowen, Sr., John Chandler, Sr.,
Samuel Craft, Samuel Scarborough, and Jonathan Smithers, having been
appointed to make needful arrangements preliminary to the drawing of
home lots, that drawing took place on the twenty-eighth of August,
or, by the new style of reckoning time, exactly two hundred years ago
to-day.

Say the old records: "After solemn prayer to God, who is the Disposer
of all things, they drew lots according to the agreement, every man
being satisfied and contented with God's disposing." Would that the
words of that prayer and the picture of that scene could to-day be
reproduced! Surely the spirit of the Puritans of 1630 was the spirit
of that band of pilgrims in 1686 on yonder hill. These are the honored
names of the first settlers: Thomas and Joseph Bacon, James Corbin,
Benjamin Sabin, Henry Bowen, Thomas Lyon, Ebenezer Morris, Matthew
Davis, William Lyon, Sr., John Chandler, Sr., Peter Aspinwall, John
Frizzel, Joseph Frizzel, Jonathan Smithers, John Butcher, Jonathan
Davis, Jonathan Peake, Nathaniel Garey, John Bowen, Nathaniel Johnson,
John Hubbard, George Griggs, Benjamin Griggs, William Lyon, Jr., John
Leavens, Nathaniel Sanger, Samuel Scarborough, Samuel Craft, Samuel
May, Joseph Bugbee, Samuel Peacock, Arthur Humphrey, John Bugbee, Jr.,
Andrew Watkins, John Marcy, Edward Morris, Joseph Peake, John Holmes,
and John Chandler, Jr.

Of that list of thirty-nine,[34] Benjamin Sabin, Nathaniel Sanger,
Nathaniel Garey, John Hubbard, Matthew Davis, and George Griggs
afterwards moved to Pomfret; Peter Aspinwall and his step-sons, the
sons of John Leavens, went to Killingby; and Arthur Humphrey and others
became the first settlers of Ashford. A few returned to Roxbury. But
a large share of the original settlers lived and died in Woodstock,
including Edward and Ebenezer Morris, Jonathan and Joseph Peake, James
Corbin, Thomas and Joseph Bacon, Henry Bowen, William and Thomas Lyon,
John Chandler, Sr., and John Chandler, Jr., John Butcher, Nathaniel
Johnson, Joseph and John Bugbee, John Marcy, John Holmes, and perhaps
a few others. As an illustration of the ages of the pioneers in 1686,
it may be mentioned that Benjamin Griggs was nineteen; Joseph Bacon
and Andrew Watkins, twenty; John Bugbee, John Chandler, Jr., James
Corbin, and Jonathan Davis, twenty-one; Peter Aspinwall, Matthew Davis,
John Frizzel, and Lieut. Ebenezer Morris, twenty-two; John Butcher and
Nathaniel Garey, twenty-three; John Bowen and John Marcy, twenty-four;
George Griggs, John Holmes, and Samuel May, twenty-five; Thomas Bacon,
twenty-eight; Samuel Peacock, twenty-nine; William Lyon, Jr., and
Nathaniel Sanger, thirty-four; Thomas Lyon, thirty-eight; Nathaniel
Johnson, thirty-nine; Benjamin Sabin and Samuel Scarborough, forty;
Joseph Peake, forty-one; Joseph Bugbee and John Leavens, forty-six;
Samuel Craft and Jonathan Peake,[35] forty-nine; Deacon John Chandler,
fifty-one; Lieut. Henry Bowen, fifty-three; Edward Morris, fifty-six;
and William Lyon Sr., sixty-five.[36]

The first one of the thirty-nine to die was Lieut. Edward Morris,
whose gravestone bears the date of 1689, the oldest in the county.[37]
The last one of the thirty-nine to die was Thomas Bacon, who lived
to be ninety-six years of age. To show the extreme ages of some of
the Woodstock people, it may here be said that Paraclete Skinner, now
living, remembers Deacon Jedediah Morse, who died in 1819 at the age
of ninety-three, and Deacon Morse was seventeen years old when Col.
John Chandler, a first settler, was living; and thirty-two years of
age the year that Thomas Bacon, another first settler, died. That is,
an inhabitant of this town remembers one who knew some of the first
settlers of Woodstock. Lieut. Henry Bowen, one of the first settlers,
attained the age of ninety. Deacon Morse's grandmother, who came in
April of 1687 to Woodstock with her husband Jonathan Peake, Jr.,[38]
likewise lived to be ninety, lacking twelve days. One of the oldest
persons that ever lived in Woodstock was Sarah, the daughter of
Jonathan Peake, Jr., and the mother of Deacon Morse, who reached the
age of ninety-nine, lacking forty-four days, and who had about her
while living three hundred and nineteen descendants.[39] The combined
ages of Thomas Bacon, Sarah Morse, and Paraclete Skinner is now two
hundred and eighty years. Time alone can tell to what figure their
combined ages may attain!

But what a small number in that list of first settlers have descendants
bearing the same family name among the citizens of Woodstock to-day!
Only James Corbin, William Lyon, John Chandler, Nathaniel Johnson,
Benjamin Griggs, Henry Bowen, Joseph Bugbee, Nathaniel Sanger, and John
Marcy! But Woodstock is proud to own among the descendants of the first
settlers influential and honored citizens of many towns and cities, and
some of them, I rejoice to say are here to-day.

The first settlers of Woodstock had the right stuff in them to succeed.
After the home-lots were chosen highways were laid out, a grist-mill
and saw-mill built, bridges constructed, new inhabitants brought in,
and every thing possible was done to make the settlement permanent. A
general meeting of the inhabitants was held July 2, 1687, when "John
Chandler, Sr., Nathaniel Johnson, Joseph Bugbee, James White, and James
Peake, were chosen to order the prudential affairs of the place as
selectmen, for the year ensuing."


V.

An effort was now made to get a confirmation of the grant occupied
by the new settlers, but as long as Sir Edmund Andros was the Royal
Governor of the Province, it was impossible. A delay ensued until
William and Mary became sovereigns of Great Britain. The new settlers
had not yet an organized town government. The settlement, like the
first settlements in Windsor and Hartford, received its name from the
mother town.[40] But the New Roxbury people wished to have a name
of their own and a town of their own. At the beginning of the year
1690 they chose a committee of three to petition the General Court to
substitute a new name for that of New Roxbury. The committee at once
conferred with the mother town, for on Jan. 13, 1690, Roxbury held
a town meeting at which it was voted to request the General Court
to allow the settlement in the Nipmuck country to become a town,
to confirm the grant and to give a suitable name. The New Roxbury
committee pressed their claims, and on March 18, 1690, the General
Court confirmed the grant and voted that the name of the plantation
be Woodstock. We owe the name of Woodstock to Capt. Samuel Sewell[41]
who was Chief-Justice of Massachusetts from 1718 to 1728. He has been
called "a typical Puritan" and "the Pepys of New England,"--the man who
judged the witches of Salem and afterwards repented of it.[42] In 1690,
when Count Frontenac's[43] forces were coming down from Canada upon
the settlements of the United Colonies, and Massachusetts determined
to ask the help of Connecticut in protecting the upper towns on the
Connecticut River, Captain Sewell rode past Woodstock on his way to
Connecticut. He was no doubt on business of state, being one of the
Governor's Counsellors, and one of a Committee of Seven of the Council
with the same power as the Council to arrange "for setting forth the
forces."[44] The proximity of New Roxbury to Oxford in Massachusetts
suggested to him, he tells us, the name of a famous place near old
Oxford in England.

In his Diary of March 18, 1689/90, Capt. Sewell, says:

    "I gave New Roxbury the name of Woodstock, because of its nearness
    to Oxford, for the sake of Queen Elizabeth, and the notable
    meetings that have been held at the place bearing that name in
    England, some of which Dr. Gilbert[45] informed me of when in
    England. It stands on a Hill. I saw it as I [went] to Coventry, but
    left it on the left hand. Some told Capt. Ruggles[46] that I gave
    the name and put words in his mouth to desire of me a Bell for the
    Town."[47]

Though Judge Sewell, years after his first visit had social
relations[48] with some of the inhabitants of Woodstock, there is
no evidence to show that he ever gave a bell to the town or to the
church.[49] But he gave us something better, a good name,--the name of
Woodstock, associated with the memories of Saxon and Norman Kings, the
spot where King Alfred translated "The Consolations of Philosophy,"
by Boethius, the birthplace of the poet Chaucer, the prison of
Queen Elizabeth.[50] History and romance[51] have made illustrious
the names of Woodstock and Woodstock Park, and "the notable meetings"
spoken of by Judge Sewell as having taken place in Old England have
been transferred to the settlement in New England. Surely the name of
Woodstock, as applied to the little village of New Roxbury, has proved
to be no misnomer.

It should be said that the western part of the town, when it became
a settlement years after, revived the old name of New Roxbury. The
church in West Woodstock belonged to what was called the Parish of New
Roxbury, or the Second Precinct of Woodstock.[52]


VI.

The most pressing duty for our ancestors to perform, after securing
a name and legalized status for the town, was the settlement of "an
able, orthodox, godly minister." The Rev. Josiah Dwight, a graduate of
Harvard College in the class of 1687