MarlowHistoricalSociety.org

[Loisanne Foster]

These transcriptions are taken from Elgin Jones' Notes on the History of Marlow, N. H. which is not the same book as the one published by the Marlow Historical Society called History of Marlow, New Hampshire. The later is a narrative with a summary of property histories of most districts at the back. This is a transcription of primary sources on Marlow's history, a limited edition published posthumously at Jones' bequest by Sentinel Printing. Keene, NH. 1941.

This is a small portion of the information available in the book with our commentary added for context. We are sure that Elgin Jones would approve this sharing because his stated purpose in arranging for the book's publication was to preserve the information for posterity. More will be forthcoming.

First Town Meetings in Marlow

The first meetings of Marlow's Proprietors were held in Lyme, Connecticut where the original grantees lived. Few of the original Proprietors moved their families to Marlow, but one who did was Samuel Gustin. Most of the other extraordinarily wealthy grantees sold their portions to their merely wealthy Lyme townsmen.

What was their original intention? It is fairly common knowledge around here in SW New Hampshire that Colonel Benjamin Bellows of the Walpole, NH - Westminster and Bellows Falls, VT area was "buddies with" New Hampshire's Governor Wentworth, the man who granted Marlow and many other towns in NH and VT in the name of King George. It's interesting that Benjamin Bellows' New Hampshire town, Walpole, is named after Sir Robert Walpole who was the first Prime Minister of England and who is infamous for milking the ordinary folks at the expense of the rich (Sound familiar?) and his "poor handling" of the South Sea Bubble scandal, a money-making scheme that went sour due to inflated expectations. (Sound familiar?) Although Sir Robert lost his position as Prime Minister of England, he did not end his life in the poorhouse. Benjamin Bellows, the mysterious orphan from Lunenburg, MA, did all right for himself too, leaving all together thousands of acres and much else to his many offspring.

What has all this to do with Marlow? Marlow's Proprietors thanked Bellows for his role in helping them in matters of their charter, and his name appears with Gustin's at the end of the first official Marlow document we have record of signed in New Hampshire after Gov. Wentworth granted an extension of Marlow's charter. This Warning of a meeting of Proprietors (those granted "rights" of land) in Marlow was signed in Walpole, Benjamin Bellows' town, on July 7, 1772. Samuel Gustin must have ridden there to secure this official Warning. That ride must have been a piece of cake compared to the ride Gustin had made from Marlow to Portsmouth in January of the previous year to carry a petition for the extension of Marlow's charter to Governor Wentworth. The conditions of the charter (1761) had not been met (1771). For each 100 acres granted, the owner was supposed to have cleared five acres of land in the first three years and in each successive three year period and the land was supposed to be occupied. The governor believed that neither condition had been met. He was not happy. In those days, when the governor was not happy, nobody was happy. Gov. Wentworth threatened to revoke Marlow's charter. One has to wonder what was the real purpose of the Marlow grant? How was Marlow intended to be used? What persons hoped to gain? What did they hope to gain? What was Benjamin Bellows' role in all this?

The setting: Marlow's territory had once been granted under the name of Addison, but, because the requirements of that charter were not met in due time, the charter had been revoked. In 1761, Marlow land was again granted in the name of King George by New Hampshire's Governor Wentworth to members of the Lyme, CT aristocracy. By 1772, those named in the grant had met several times in Lyme. We don't know how many of these men actually visited Marlow. Instead, as noted above, most of them sold their land to members of Lyme's middle class, folks who were, by colonial standards, well off indeed. In the eighteenth century, Lyme, CT, tucked into the mouth of the Connecticut River, had the highest per capita income of any New England colonial town. It had the most attorneys per capita. Many of the families had a small library. Almost every family in Lyme owned at least one slave. It was a ship- building town and shipping center, especially in the West Indies trade, a major source of its wealth. That's the kind of community it was.

Lyme's parent town, across the mouth of the Connecticut River, is Saybrook of the famous Saybrook Platform in which the Congregational Church outlined acceptable, orthodox religion for the the rest of a very Congregational (read "aging Puritan") New England, an orthodoxy which was strictly enforced even in New Hampshire and even until New Hampshire's "Toleration Act of 1819" which finally freed people from attending a church to which they did not wish to belong and from paying a ministerial tax to the single church allowed in each small town. Still, in "Live Free or Die" New Hampshire, by the mid eighteenth century orthodoxy was losing its grip in frontier towns. Many Lyme, CT residents did not share in willing adherence to the Saybrook Platform. Some had, for instance, been influenced by the "New Light" Presbyterian preacher, George Whitefield of Virginia, as he passed through Lyme on his way to Boston. (The Boston Post Road runs through Lyme.) [The title "Mr." was not used lightly in those days. It seems more than likely that the Mather family in Lyme, many of whom were ministers, are related to the earlier Puritan Increase and Cotton Mather of Massachusetts. The Lord family, along with Sill, Griswold, and Hyde are among the wealthiest Lyme families. And Mr. Samuel Gustin? Well, he is our hero. He made Marlow happen.] Many Lyme residents had Baptist leanings, Pedobaptist and Freewill Baptists as well as other varieties. The Universalist Church was also waiting in the wings with its very un-Puritan promise of universal salvation. As it happens, those first seventeen families who removed from Lyme to Marlow seemed to be Baptist or on the way to becoming so, and they had among them a number of Baptist preachers.

It is against this background that the Warrant for the first post-charter-extension meeting was written and the first post-charter-extension Marlow meetings were held. Here is the Warrant with the spelling and punctuation as transcribed by Elgin Jones in his posthumously published record called "Notes on the History of the Town of Marlow," of 1941, not to be confused with his "History of Marlow, New Hampshire," first published in 1937. The former carries out Jones' intention to preserve records he found. The latter is a narrative in which he shares stories which had been passed down and some information derived from these records. This material, in other words, is a primary source while Jones' history is a secondary source.

Warrant for Marlow's First Town Meeting:

Province of New Hampshire Cheshire Ss. Whereas application hereby made to me the subscriber one of his Majestis, Justice of the Peace for said Country, by the owners of then the sixteen part of the township of Marlow in the said Country desiring that a meeting of said Proprietors of said Marlow, may be warned to be held at the dwelling house of Nehemiah Royce at Marlow aforesaid, on Tuesday the 15th, day of September next, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, that being met and formed, they may act on the following articles if they see cause.

1st to choose a moderator to govern said meeting.

2nd, to choose a proprietor's clerk and treasurer.

3rd, to see the minds of the proprietors, whether they will agree to confirm all or any part of the votes they have heretofore passed at any of the former meetings of said Proprietors and vote the same if they see cause.

4th to choose a committee to settle all former accounts, that have been transacted by the Proprietors, with any committee, treasurer, or collector, and make returns of their proceedings at the next meeting of said Proprietors.

5th to choose a committee to act any business that shall be thought nedfull.

6th to agree upon some proper method of warning Proprietors meeting for the future and vote the same.

7th to grant sum or sums of money that will be thought needfull for the use of said Proprietors to bring forward the settlement of said town and cutting roads.

8th to choose sessers for the Proprietors.

9th to see if the proprietors will agree to to lay out all or any part of the undivided land in said town. In consequence whereof, I do hereby notify and warn Proprietors to meet at the time and place above said.

Wall Pole July 7, 1772.

Benj. Bellows, Justice of the Peace
Samuel Gustin, Clerk

---------

Here are reports of the first few Marlow meetings which were held in Lyme, Connecticut:

First Meeting

At a meeting of the Props. of the township of Marlow in the Province of N.H. conveened by legal notice on the 20th of Nov. 1764 at the dwelling place of Benjamin Hyde of Lyme in New London County. At the same meeting Mr. Jonathan Peck one of the said Props, was chosen moderator for said meeting. At the same meeting William Noyce was chosen clerk for said Props. the Present Year. At the same meeting it was voted that the meeting be adjourned to the 4th of Dec. next to be conveened at this place at ten of the clock before noon Test William Noyce Prop. clerk

Second Meeting

At a meeting of said Props of the Town of Marlow conveened by adjournment at the dwelling of Mr. Benjamin Hyde of Lyme on the 4th of Dec. 1764. The same meeting it was voted that in the first division of land in the township of Marlow shall be as follows; viz. that 100 acres of the best of said land, shall be laid to each of the Props of said township in some convenient place and a certain number of acres shall be added to each right when laid out if need bee to make each man's right equal in value to 100 acres of the best or most valuable land to be at the descression of ye committee that shall be appointed for that purpose, and that this committee shall make allowance in each rights for convenient highways as shall be needed hereafter shall be laid where wanted. At the same meeting it was voted that as many of the Props of the said town of Marlow shall enter upon and settle in said town between this time and next fall may make their pitch for their first division or the first 100 acres and the same shall be laid out for them by the committee that shall be chosen for said Props., and they shall not be interrupted in the possession of same by other layouts. At the same meeting it was voted that this meeting be adjourned to the 2nd Tues. of March next to be held at this place at twelve of the clock on the said day.

[The following men are recorded as having paid 12 shillings each - Marlow's first tax!]

William Noyce
John Sill
Jasper Peck
William Matson
Wolston Brockway
Ezra Seldon
Benjamin Hyde
Samuel Mather, Jr.
Edward Brown
Nehemiah Royce
Nathaniel Peck
Jabez DeWolf
Phineas Beckwith
Joseph Clark
William Lay
Giles Lee
Thomas Clark
Stephen Clark
Nathaniel Jones
Daniel Bushanel
Jabez Chalker
Gedion Waterous [Waterhouse, Watrous]
Stephen Nott

[Later, in 1802, apparently many of the Proprietors had reconsidered investing in Marlow - or were they angry or simply negligent?]

This notice is given to the Props of Marlow and delinquant in the payment of twelve shillings per right granted by said Props ... legal holden in house of Elisha Huntley inholder in said Marlow on the 15th day of March last that so much of their respective rights as will pay the same with incidental cost will be sold at public auction vendue at the house of said Elisha Huntley in said Marlow of the 15th day of Oct. next one of the clock in the afternoon. The names of the delinquents are as follows;

William Noyce
John Sill
Jasper Peck
Wolston Brockway
Ezra Selldon
Benjamin Hyde
Samuel Mather, Jr.
Ephriam Brockway
Evy Rowland
Marshfield Parson
Jonathan Alger
Nathan Brockway
Isaac Hall
John Peck
Phineas Chapman
Stephen Clark
Nathaniel Jones
Daniel Bushanel
Jabez Chalker
Joseph Canfiled
Joel Canfield
Hopestill Crittingden
Gedion Jones
Joshia Nott
Elijah Hudson
Samuel Gustin
Edward Brown
Nehemiah Royce
Nathaniel Peck
Phineas Beckwith
Joseph Clark
William Lay
Giles Lee
Elisha Ely
Daniel Williams
Edmond Snow
John Bull
Samuel Holden Parson
John Nelson
Lemuel Bushnell
Edward Lay
Jared Spencer
John Kirtland
Richard Wibird
Joseph Newmarch
George King
Wm. Brockway
Eben. White
Wm. Lay
John Bettingham
Jabez DeWolf
Aaron Matson
- Prop. collector
Recorded March 11, 1802 Elisha Huntley, clerk

[This list of "deliquants" reads like a Who's Who of Lyme in that period. Their delinquency in paying the tax was certainly not due to lack of twelve shillings. Many of those listed were from fabulously wealthy Lyme families of the period such as Noyce, Sill, Hyde, Lee, Clark and Spencer. The Peck family owned a tavern which stands today and some were involved in West Indies trade. What was going on here? Did these men scout the area and say, "Thanks, but no thanks?" Was there a now hidden dispute which caused so many to stubbornly refuse to pay the twelve shillings? Surely the number of non-payers is too great to be accounted for by simple negligence. Had they never planned to come to Marlow? Had most of them, from the beginning, planned to sell their granted "right" for profit and found few takers?

Some had brought their families to Marlow, though, for instance the Matsons, the Brockways, Nehemiah Royce, the Canfields, and, most notably, Samuel Gustin of the famous January 1772 ride to Portsmouth with the petition for an charter extension and signer with Benjamin Bellows of the Warrant for the first post-extension meeting in Marlow. We also know that, by 1802, there were a number of people in Marlow whose names appear neither on the list of those who paid the twelve shillings nor those who did not. For instance, Solomon Mack and Ebenezer Mack as well as several Beckwiths and many Huntleys had been here for years by then. Even the "late-comer" Patrick Giffin, who arrived from the Londonderry, NH area, had appeared in 1793 on land that was laid out in 1777. There must be a hidden story here. Were only the original proprietors who still held land here in 1802 responsible for the twelve shilling payment? Why did they not pay?]

Third Meeting

At a meeting of the Props of the township of Marlow in the Province of N. H. conveened at the dwelling house of Benjamin Hyde in Lyme, by adjournment on the 12th day of March 1765 at the same meeting it was voted this meeting be adjourned to the dwelling house of Marshfield Parsons of said Lyme to be held forthwith. [Mr. Parsons was a tavern keeper and also the son of Jonathan Parsons, famous for his New Awakening preaching and the resulting splintering of Protestant churches inro dissenting groups. See Marshfield Parsons' purse: http://www.flogris.org/exhibitions/2006/06Collective.html at the Florence Griswold Museum in Lyme, CT.] At the same meeting, Mr. Jonathan Mathers, and Mr. Martin Lord, and Mr. Samuel Gustin were chosen committee to lay out on acre to each Prop., and also 100 acres to each prop. who shall go and make his pitches there before next fall in such form as not to incommode other Props. at the cost of those props who are to have said lots.
W. Noyce, clerk

[Elgin Jones' Notes on the History of Marlow, N.H. shows us in the list of Proprietors' Layouts, ix-x, that those Lyme men to whom Marlow was first granted were among the wealthiest in Connecticut: Lord, Sill, Griswold, Clark, Bushnell, Hyde, Lay and Lee, Peck, Spencer, and Williams.J And Mr. Samuel Gustin? He is our hero. When times were rough, he kept Marlow alive.]

[Taken from a loose leaf]
Call for Fourth Meeting

Marlow June 12th, 1765. These are to notify the Props. of this town that they meet at the dwelling house of Samuel Gustin in said Marlow [near Gustin Pond, naturally!] in the Province of N. H. on the second Tuesday of Oct. next at ten of the clock in the forenoon, then and there to choose a moderator for said Meeting and to say what they will do farther about lotting said town, to choose sessers and to appoint a committee to lay out highways and do what other business shall be thought needfull to be done.

Samuel Gustin,
Martin Lord, Prop. Committee

[Taken from a loose leaf]
Fourth Meeting

Marlow Oct. 8, 1765. They met according to the legal warning and made choice of Martin Lord for Moderator of said Meeting and made choice of Samuel Gustin clerk for said Props. and at the same meeting voted that the privilege which was voted the 12th of March last of each of the Props. pitching 100 acres where they will, is continued till they vote to the contrary, and at the same meeting it voted that each prop. shall have the privilege to lay out his own cost 50 acres, where they will that is not yet laid out and reserving necessary highways.

At the same meeting Samuel Gustin was chosen committee to lay out said lots, and at the same meeting Martin Lord was chosen committee to lay out said lots and at the same meeting Joseph Tubbs was chosen committee to lay out said lots.

Test Samuel Gustin, clerk
Samuel Gustin being sworn clerk for Props.
....

[Apparently some of the meeting minutes are missing. (Sound familiar?)

... At the same meeting the Proprietors voted to conform votes of said Proprietors, passed and made on the 8th day of Sept. 1767 as they stand recorded in the said Proprietors book.
Samuel Gustin, clerk

9th. The said proprietors voted to conform the votes passed by the said Proprietors on the 3rd day of July 1768.

10th, The Proprietors voted to conform the votes of said Proprietors that were passed on the 5th day of September 1769.

11th, The Proprietors voted to conform and establish the votes of said Proprietors passed on the 6th day of January 1772.

12th, The Proprietors voted to conform all the votes of said Proprietors that were passed on the 10th day of March 1772 excepting that of building a bridge across the river Ashuelot.

Samuel Gustin, clerk

13th, At the same meeting chose Mr. Ruel Royce, Mr. Solomon Gee, and Mr. Jonathan Royce committee to settle the accounts with the former committee. At the same meeting chose Mr. Nathan Huntley, Samuel Gustin, and Samuel Canfield lot layers of said Proprietors. At the same meeting voted that a meeting of said Proprietors shall for the future, warned by the committee and clerk with each particular for action set forth in the warning, and set upon or at the door of the New dwelling house of Nehemiah Royce of said Marlow. At the same meeting voted to give Mr. John Hurd Secretary to his Excellency the Governor, and the receiver of the quit rents two hundred acres of land in Marlow, at the northeast corner of said town. [A little "insurance policy" here - crossing a palm, so to speak?] At the same meeting voted to pay Mr. William Matson his expenses for going to Portsmouth to help get the Charter of said town extended.
Samuel Gustin, Clerk

[This is interesting. We know that Samuel Gustin made the ride in January of 1772. Did William Matson accompany him or go at a separate time? There is no mention of Samuel Gustin's being reimbursed. Noblesse oblige?]

Tune in later for the next exciting episode of "The Birth of Marlow."