1S54.] Discovery in the Valley of the Merrimack. 185

chearful compliance with the last Will and Testament of the memorable
Elder Penn, his worthy Uncle (whose Name and Estate descended to him)
in an annual Exhibition of Ten Pounds for the use of some poor scholar
or scholars at Harvard College." He was early appointed one of the
Commissioners of the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the
Indians. w. g. b.

[At the time of his death Mr. Townsend was "Chief Judge of the Su-
perior Court for SutTolk." His widow died in the end of October and
was buried November 1st, 1736. — Boston Gaz. 23 Aug. 1727, and 15
Nov. 1736.

In 1739, John Sale and Anne his wife, the only surviving executors of
the will of Juilge Townsend, petitioned the General Court for authority to
sell the house and land on " Treamont street"- in Boston, belonging to the
estate of the deceased. — Jour. H. Reps.

He was often a Commissioner to make treaties- amd hold conferences
with the eastern Indians, as may be seen both in the published and un-
published records of his times. — Editor.]



AN ANTIQUITY DISCOVERED IN THE VALLEY OF THE
MERRIMACK.

Newburtport, Feb. 20th, 1554.
Mr. Drake, — Dear Sir, — At different periods discoveries have been made in
our country, ■»vhich indicate plainly the existence, at some past time, of a race of
people considerably advanced in many arts, and evidently very much superior to
the Indian tribes. Knowinfj the interest you take in these matters, I have taken
tiie liberty (though personally unknown to you) to address you on this subject.
During the past summer I was visiting the town of West Newbury. Massachusetts,
and while on a shooting expedition, in company with Mr. Silas Pillsbury, a v,orthy
and veracious fanner of that place, he informed me that a rock situated in a pasture
belonging to Mr. Farnierhad an inscription upon it supposed to have been v.rittcn
by the Indians. I desired him to lead me to it, which he did. Guiding .me to
the foot of a small precipice about twelve or lifteen feet in height, formed by the
cropping out of a granite ledge, of the common coarse hard granite ; the precipice
overhanging considerably has protected the inscription in a measure. This in-
scription, which is on the east side of the rock, is deeply graven with some in-
strument as it appears of a triangular shape, as the grooves are all of tiiat form.
The inscription comprises two lines, although part of the lower line has been
effaced by the action of the elements. In the centre of the lower line there is the
figure of a man, which appears to be armed with a spear. 1 send you a hasty
copy of a sketch I made upon the spot, a profile of tlie rock,* and a copy as per-
fect as 1 could make of the inscrip- . ^
tion. IhaveexaminedCotnn's Histo- / | /^ Cp -y.
ry of Newbury, and as I see no men- ^ ^* >^ ^^/^-^C\\ v,
tion made of it I suppose it was un- 4^ j=^ 'r { _f^ C y.

known to him. I have a poor copy f^ ^—' ^ f (^"^ <^ ^~^

of the Dighton rock inscription, and "" ' O y^^^%^ ^^

by comparing them I think I discover \ ''^^^^

a simUarity in some of the figures. ^^^

Pressure of business has prevented

my laying this before you till no'.v, and I must necessarily make this communica-
tion short. The rock is situated about two miles from "the river Mcrruiiack, and
about a quaner of a mile from tlie road between West Newbury and Gf'or^retown.
Most respectfully. Yours, George I. Pool.

* This is omitted as unnecessir}- to accompany the inscription; there beiug nothing
peculiar in the appearance of the rock. — Editor.

24






1S6 Huntington. [April,.



HUNTINGTON.

Thomas was the name of that son of Simon Huntington who removed to
New Jersey, not Samuel, as is stated in the January- number of the Register,
p. 46. It appears from the printed colonial records of Connecticut, that
Thomas Huntington was made a freeman of Con. in May, 1657, Cris.
Huntington, in May, 165S, and Simon Huntington in Oct. 1063. Thomas
Huntington married Hannah, daugh. of Jasper Crane, and, with Robert
Treat, Sam Swaine, and their associates, the first settlers of Newark,
N. J., signed the agreements, " none shall be admitted fi-eemen or free
Burgesses within our Town upon Passaic river, in the province of New
Jersey, but such Planters as are members of some or other of the Con-
grega.ional churches," and " we \/ill with care and diligence provide for
the maintenance of the purity of Religion professed in the Congregational
churches." Thomas Huntington was of the Brandford company, which
consisted of the Rev. Abraham Pierson and a very large part of his
church. His name is found often on tha records of the town. In 1075,
the General Assembly " being invited hereunto by the Insolence and
outrages of the Heathens in our neighboring colonies, not knowing how
soon we may be surprised," enacted " that there shall be a place of For-
tification or Fortifications made in every Town of the province, and a
House therein for the securing cf women and children, provision and am-
munition, in case of eminent danger by the Indians." Capt. Swain, Sarg.
Johnson, and Sarg. Huntington were " chosen by vote to join with the
commissioned Military officers to consider about and contrive fur the for-
tifications belonging to our Town," it having been previously agreed
'•' that two Flanckers shall be made at two corners of the meeting house
â– with Pa'isadoes or Stockades." In 1675 Thomas Huntington was one
of seven " Townsmen" chosen " to carry all Town business according
to the best of their judgment for the good of the Town, except disposing
of land, admitting Inhabitants, and the way of levying rates." He ap-
pears as one of the Townsmen until Jan. 1, 1684-5, when he was chosen
a Deputy to the General Assembly. We have no record of his death, or
notice of him after that year. In 1702, " Samuel Huntington, (son and
heir in law of Thomas Huntington, dec.,) inhabitant of Newark, planter,"
sold lands " formerly belonging to Thomas Huntington aforesaid," and
" for fifteen pound current silver money," six acres, &c. The will of
this Samuel is dated Nov. 11, 1704, and it was proved Nov. 19, 1712.
His children were Thomas, Simon, and a dau. Hannah. The two sons,
in 1724, were inhabitants of the district west of Newark mountains, now
called Morris County. There Simon died in 1770, aged 74. A Samuel
Huntington died in Newark in 1784, aged 74, who, though not men-
tioned in his father's will, seems to have been the brother of Simon the
son of Samuel, to whom he bequeathed " my sermon book the Ten
Virgins."

The above facts may be of some interest to the numerous descendants
of Simon Huntington. The error, with n^spect to the name of the brother
who settled in Newark, though trivial, is important enough to demand a
short notice from one having access to documentary evidence sufficient
for its correction.

S. H. C.



.''<'l



1S54.] Itemi?iisce7ices by Gen. Wm. H. Sumner. 187

REMINISCENCES BY GEN. WM. H. SUMNER.

[Communicated for the Register by himself.]

Memorandum. To day, Thursday Nov. 21,1822, 1 dined, at an informal
dinner, with my respected friend, Stephen Codman, Esq. Madam Scott,
the widow of the late Governor Hancock, (having married ibr her second
husband Capt. Scott, since deceased,) Mrs. Hooker, the wife of Judge
Hooker, of Sj>ringfield, Mrs. Paine, and the members of Mr. Codman's
family were present. Having often before had opportunities of hearing
of the eventful periods of our Revolution, from those who took part in
them, and found afterwards the treachery of memory, when I came to
relate them, 1 now determined not to rest on my pillow till I had recorded
the points of her most memorable conversation.

The attention of Mrs. Scott was called to the period of the Lexington
battle, and she observed that Mr. Hancock used to come down from Con-
cord, where the Congress sat, to the Rev. Mr. Clark's in Lexington, to
lodge, and that he and Mr. Samuel Adams were there the night before
the Lexington battle. Mrs. Clark, I think she said, was a cousin of Mr.
Hancock.

Mi-s. Scott, at this time, was a young maiden lady of the name of
Quincy, to whom Mr. Hancock was paying his suit. Mrs. Hancock, the
aunt of the Governor, and the widow of his uncle Thomas Hancock (as
lady-like a woman as ever Boston bred, she observed,) v,as her particular
friend and protectress, (her mother then being dead,) was also at Lexing-
ton, at the same house. She observed that Dr. Warren sent out a message
in the evening that they must take care of themselves, and give the alarm
through the country, for Gen. Gage had ordered a force to march that
night to Concord, to destroy the stores. Paul Revere, Esq., brought the mes-
sage, and arrived there about 12 o'clock. Mr. Hancock gave the alarm
immediately, and the Lexington bell was rung all night ; and before light
about one hundred and fifty men were collected. Mr. H. was all the
night cleaning his gun and sword, and putting his accoutrements in order,
and was determined to go out to the plain by the meeting house, where
the battle was, to fight with the men who had collected, but who, she
says, were but partially provided with arms, and those they had were in
most miserable order ; and it was with very great difficulty that he was
dissuaded from it by Mr Clark and Mr. Adams, the latter, clapping
him on the shoulder, said to him, " that is not our business ; we belong
to the cabinet." It was not till break of day that Mr. H. could be per-
suaded that it was improper for him to expose himself against such a
powerful force ; but, overcome by the entreaties of his friends, who
convinced him that the enemy would indeed triumph, if they could get
him and Mr. Adams in their power; and finding, by the enquiries of a
British officer, (a forerunner of the army,) who asked where Clark's tavern
was, that he was one of their objects, he, with Mr. Adams, went over to
Woburn, to the Rev. Mr. Jones', I think she said * The ladies remained

* The singularity of the resemblances related in the folloTring note leads me to
append it.

In my late ♦our to Europe I arrived in London in the beginning of September, 1853,
and .-jpfnt a few weeks there previous to visiting â– \Vind>or Castle. The ilav we left
that u-e arrived ai O.^ford, and on the following morning lui.ched at Wyiham, the
seat of the Earl of Abingdon, about four miles from Oxford, by invitation from Lady
Abingdon, who, in her card, stated that his lordship was too unwell either to call or



188 Reminiscences hy Gen. Wtn. H. Sumner. [April,

and saw the battle commence. Mrs. Scott says the British fired first, she
is sure. This was a point much contested at the time, and many deposi-
tions were taken to prove the fact that the British were the actual aggres-
sors. One of the first British bullets whizzed by old Mrs. Hancock's
head, as she was looking out of the door, and struck the barn ; she cried
out, What is that ? they told her it was a bullet, and she must take care
of herself. IMrs. Scott was at the chamber window looking at the fight.
She says two of the wounded men were brought into the house. One of
them, whose head was grazed by a ball, insisicd on it that he was dead ;
the other, who was shot in the arm, behaved better. The first was more
scared than hurt. After the British passed on towards Concord, they re-
ceived a letter from Mr. H. informing them where he and i\Ir. xVdams
were, wishing them to get into the carriage and come over, and brincr the
Jine salmon that they had had sent to them for dinner. This they carried
over in the carriage, and had got it nicely cooked and were just sitting
down to it, when in came a man from Lexington, whose house was upon
the main road, and who cleared out, leaving his wife and family at home,
as soon as he saw the British bayonets ghstening as they descended the
hills on their return from Concord. Half frightened to death, he exclaim-
ed, "The British are coming! the British are coming ! my wife's in f?ar-
nity now." Mr. H. and Mr. Adams supposing the British troops were at
hand, went into the swamp and staid till the alarm was over.

Upon their return to the house, Mrs. Scott told Mr. H. that having left
her father in Boston, she should return to him to-morrow. " No madam,'"
said he, " you shall not return as long as there is a British bayonet left in
Boston." She, with the spirit of a woman, said, " Recollect Mr. Han-
cock I am not under your control yet. I shall go in to my father to-mor-
row ;" for, she said, at that time I should have been very glad to have got
rid of him, but her aunt, as she afterwards was, would not let her go. She
did not go into Boston for three years afterwards ; for when they left this
part of the country they went to Fairfield, in Connecticut, and staid with
Mr. Burr, the uncle of Aaron Burr, who was there. Aaron, she says,
was very attentive to her, and her aunt was very jealous of him, lest he
should gain her affections, and defeat her purpose of connecting her with
her nephew. Mr. Burr, she said, was a handsome young man of very
pretty fortune, but her aunt would not leave them a moment together, and
in August she married Mr. H., and went on to Philadelphia, to the Con-
gress, of which Mr. H. was President at the time she married him. Mrs.
Scott obser'-ed that she did not like Philadelphia very much, though she had
very good friends there among the Quakers.

receive. Lord Ahinsdon's first wife was a daughter of General Ga?e. Governor of
Ma!>sachuseus, and IMrs. Sumner's cousin, the Gen. havin? married, when in Ameri-
ca, 3Ii53 Kemble, the eldest sister of jlrs. Sumner's father. The hails were hung
with numerous family portraits, which I took some interest in looking at. bcih from
the association with her family, as well as the merits of the paintings themselves.
As we spent several hours at his baronial estate, his lordship's curiosity was probably
excited to see his new cousins ; and, aliho' from the ^out he was unable lo ri^e from
his couch, he admitted us into his library, where he lay, and gave us a cordial wel-
come. As my eyes took a rapid look upon other portraits which hung' on the library
walls. I observed one whif-h exceedingly resembled the revolutionary patriot Samuel
Adams. I asced his lordship whose portrait that was, and observed that it so much
resembled ihatof one of the so denominated Revolutionary Patriots who was proscribed
by his father-in-law, that I wondered to see it in his houie. Why, sir, said he liowever
singular it may be, that is the portrait of General Gage, the very man who proscribed
him.



1S54.] Reminiscences by Gen. Win. H. Sumner. 189

Mrs. Scott observed that she was busy all the time she was there in
packing up commissions to be sent off" for the officers appointed by
Congress. It was not till some montlis after this tliat ]\Ir. Hancock kept
a clerk, though all the business of Congress was done by the President —
she herself was for months engaged with her scissors in trimming olF the
rough edges of the bills of credit issued by the Congress and" signed by
the President, and packing them up in saddle bags to be sent off" to various
quarters for the use of the army.

Mrs. Scott spoke freely of the character of Mr. Hancock, who was
afterwards Governor, and said he would always have his orders executed
through life. That he always kept open house, and spoke of his entertain-
ment of the French officers and others at the time the French fleet was in
Boston. T'^e poor cook, she said, was worn out, and could not set to
picking turkeys every night after getting a great dinner, and the feathers
were sometimes too visible on the poultry upon the table. IMr. H. was
mortified at this, and to cure the cook, directed a turkey to be roasted with
the feathers on. This was actually done, and the turkey caught fire
on the spit, and the feathers, when they were burnt down to the quill,
popped oiT with such a noise, and made a stench which annoyed every
body in the house but Mr. H., who, though confined up stairs with the
gout, aff'ected not to smell it. The experiment was successful, and the
poor cook was obliged, nolens volens, to be careful of pin feathers after
that, and to have the turkeys well singed. She says at one time they had
150 live turkeys, which were shut up in the coach house at night, and let
out to feed in the pasture, where the State House now is, by day, and that
two or three were killed every night.

She mentioned another instance of Mr. H.'s determination. Having
taken it into his head that he would have nothing but pewter plates and
dishes used, one day, when confined up stairs, while his friends were at
dinner, he heard the noise of a china plate. Pie sent for Cato into his
room, and asked him if there was not a china plate on the table ; Cato re-
plied that it was only to put the cheese in; he ordered Cato to go down and
put the cheese into a pewter plate, and bring the china one up to him,
which Cato having done, he ordered him to throw it out of the chamber
window. Cato thought, as "massa" could not stir, he would cheat him,
and threw the plate on to a slanting bank of grass, and it did not break.
The Governor, more observing than Cato thought, not hearing it break,
made Cato go down and smash the plate against the wall.

VVhen the French fleet were in Boston, in 1778, under the Count D'Es-
taing, Mr. Hancock ordered a breakfast to be provided for thirty of the
officers, whom he had invited. But the Count brought up almost all the
officers of his fleet, midshipmen included, and the whole common, to use
Mrs. Scott's expression, " was bedizzened with lace." Mr. H. sent word for
her to get breakfast for 120 more, and she was obliged to prepare it as
they were coming in to the house. They spread twelve pounds of butter
on to bread, and sent to the guard on the common to milk all tlie cons and
bring her tJie milk. She sent to all the neighbors for cake, but could not
get much brought into the room, for the little midshipmen were so vora-
cious that they made prize of it, as the servants passed through the cnt'-y,
and she was obliged to go out and order it to be put into buckets and cov-
ered with napkins ; in this way it escaped capture. The Frenchmen, she
said, ate voraciously, and one of them drank seventeen cups of tea at the
table.



190 Reminiscences by Gen. Wm. H. Sumner. [April,

The midshipmen, she said, made sad destruction with the fruit in the
garden. The Count D'Estaing, however, politely said he would make it
up to her, and told her she must cone down to the fleet, and bring all her
friends with her; and true enough she did, she says, for she went down
and carried a party of five hundred. They were all transported in the
boats of the fleet, and staid all day. The Count was an elegant man ; he
asked her to pull a string to fire a gun, which, half frightened to death,
she did, and found tha* she had given the signal for a feu de joie to the
fleet, the whole of which immediately commenced firing, and they were
all enveloped in smoke, and stunned with the noise. Such a noise she
never heard before, nor wishes to again. The ofiicers afterwards fre-
quently dined at their house, and the Count Bourgainville, who could not
eat, had his milled chocolate brought and served out to him by his servant.
The Governor also gave the officers a grand ball at Concert Hall. Three
hundred persons were present.

Mr. Codman said {solo voce) the party to the fleet suspected the French
had played a trick on them, by giving them something to eat which oper-
ated on them ai a violent cathartic, with which the ladies as well as the
lyien were seized in the boats, where, having no accommodations for relief,
they were obliged, ex necessitate rei, to do^as they could. Mr. C. said he
had this anecdote from his father and Mr. Russell; and Mrs. Scott,
observing Mr. C. telling me something aside, which convulsed me with
laughter, asked him what he was telTing, — knowing very well what it
was, — and corroborated the truth of the story by laughing most heartily,
and crying out, " what a horrid time we had."

Speaking of Gen. Washington's visit to Boston, after the peace, when
Mr. Hancock was Governor, I asked her whether the Governor refused
to call on Gen. Washington, as it had been reported. She replied that
Mr. H. had enemies as well as other folks, and that although .Mr. Han-
cock had sent out an e.xpress to the Gen. at Worcester, and" invited him
to dine on the day of his arrival in town, yet, as Mr. H. had the gout in
his foot and hands, and could not move, they persuaded the Gen. that he
was disinclined to make the first call, and the Gen. sent up a note at din-
ner time excusing himself. It is well known that Mr. H. was a great ad-
vocate of the sovereignty of the States, and it was represented to the
General that Mr. H., being chagrined at not being chosen the first President
of the United States, was determined to insist on the first call from the
President. The President could not admit this, and declined dining with
the Governor in consequence. Mr. Patrick JefTerj-, and other I'riends of
Mr. H., informed him that it was necessary for him to remove the im-
pression which this opinion, now become general, had made, and the
Governor, the ne.xt day, was carried down to the General's quarters, and
taken from his carriage in the arms of his servants. When the General
saw them bringing up a helpless man in their arms, she says, he found he
had been deceived, and burst into tears. On Monday he sent word bv the
Marshall of the District, Jonathan Jackson, Esq , that he should call on
the Governor, and hoped that he should have the pleasure of spending
an hour or two with him and Mrs. Hancock, alone ; which he did, and
expressed his astonishment that any persons should have so imposed on
him, &c., and was very sociable and pleasant during his whole visit.
Mrs. Scott says the General was very affable when with his friends
only, but in the presence of strangers wa3 always very careful of his
dignity.



IS J 4.] Reviiniscences by Gen. Wm. H. Sumner. 191

A day or two after Mrs. Scott's conversation, before minuted, was held,
I repeated this view of the subject to Governor Brooks, who says that Mrs.
Scott's is only the domestic view of that matter. That he himself dined
with General Washington that day at his quarters, and that Mr. Jackson
was there also, and that Mr. Jackson frequently spoke of the Governor's
conduct, and that he had no doubt his omission to call was intended ; but,
when he found that he was not supported by the gentlemen of the town, who
thought he had degraded himself and committed the dignity of the Slate
bv so gross an omission, he got over it as well as he could, and feigned
himself quite as sick as he was, to make a good excuse, as a man of his
courtier-like manners always did ; and that General Washington, not to
be outdone in politeness, very probably was quite unwilling to ascribe to
Gov. Hancock any such design or motive as really existed, and put it on
the ground which Mrs. Scott has mentioned.

While on the subject of Mrs. Scott's conversations, I will record one
which she related to me some time since respecting the great zeal of the
Governor, before the war, to do away the animosity which subsisted in
Boston between the North and Southenders, who, on Pope day, used to
have a regular battle, the ill blood arising from which continued through
the year, and showed itself in almost every private as well as public trans-
action. The Governor, wishing to heal this difference, and thinking it
essential to a successful resistance of British aggression, exerted himself
in every possible way to etlect it without any avail. He then gave a supper
at the Green Dragon Tavern, which cost him $1000, at which he invited
all the leading men of both the Pope parties to be present. He ad-
dressed them at table in an eloquent speech, and invoked them, for their
countrj-'s sake, to lay aside their animosity, and fully impressed upon them
the necessity of their united etTorts to the success of the cause in which they
were engaged. There is nothing more productive of domestic union thaa
a sense of external danger. With the existence of this the whole audi-
ence now became ful'y impressed, and shook hands before they parted,
and pledged their united exertions to break the chains with which they
were manacled. The happiest results attended this meeting, and since
that time the North and South End Popes have not showed their heads in
the streets, and a custom and celebration in which all the town partici-
pated, and which had long been established, was broken, as it were, by a