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CHAPTER II

"Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation." -- JOEL i. 3.

ORIGIN OF SHIRLEY AND PEPPERELL.-- PEPPERELL'S RELIEF FOR BOSTON IN I760. --COLONEL WILLIAM PRESCOTT.--REVEREND JOSEPH EMERSON. -- TOWN AND CHURCH RECORDS. -- PATRIOTIC ACTS IN PEPPERELL

      AMONG the towns once included, either whole or in part, in Groton Plantation, are Pepperell and Shirley. Besides being offshoots from the mother township, they had other early and later interests in common which make it almost impossible to separate them entirely. It was a custom of the early days of the Colony for a town to become such by degrees. In many cases the remote settlers set up the plea of the great distance to be travelled to get to the meeting-house, and a precinct would be established in which better ecclesiastical advantages were enjoyed; the next step was, in some instances, the formation of a district, which gave added privileges; and then followed the right of sending a representative to the General Court, when the fully equipped town appeared

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upon the records.[1] Pepperell passed through each of these preliminary stages, but Shirley was at first recognized as a district and then as a town. As early as 1742 "Groton West Parish" appeared in the records; but it was not until eleven years later that it was dignified by a name entirely distinct from that of Groton, and still later before it was classed as a town. It is difficult to tell when the political connection with the mother town was severed; for in the exigency of the opening Revolution, Pepperell, as other districts, had its own representative. William Prescott was the district's representative in the General Court convened at Salem on Friday the seventh day of October, 1774, by order of Governor Thomas Gage, and which resulted in the First Provincial Congress, that met at Concord on the eleventh. When duties in the field required the presence of William Prescott, he was succeeded by Edmund Bancroft, who served in the second and third Provincial Congress.
      In 1753 Shirley was incorporated as a district, without having taken the course of first building a meeting-house and settling a minister.
      In following the plan of a biographer, I have at first given the antecedents of these towns of enviable record in north-west Middlesex, and next turn


[1] During the reign of George the Second, there were objections on the part of the royal authorities to forming new towns in the New England Colonies, whereby more representatives appeared in the local government, hence districts were more commonly formed.

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to the origin of the names assigned them. The notable officials William Shirley and William Pepperrell are closely allied in our Provincial history; and as portions of Groton Plantation became districts during the popularity of these men, it was natural that their names should be perpetuated in this manner.
      William Shirley was governor of the Province from August, 1741, to September, 1749. He was appointed by the king under the second charter. It was during this period that the southwesterly part of Groton became a district, and later a fully equipped town; hence, it was given the name of Shirley in honor of the governor.
      William Pepperrell of Kittery, Maine, was colonel of a regiment of militia, and a merchant of great success and popularity. Being well and favorably known in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, he was selected by Governor Shirley as commander of the expedition fitted out in 1745 to capture the fortress of the French at Louisburg, Cape Breton. The marvellous success of the expedition turned public attention to the merchant commander, and no honor was too great to be conferred upon him; hence the northern part of Groton, first called "Groton West Parish," when becoming a town, was named Pepperrell, in honor of the hero of Louisburg.
      The facts that men from these towns were included in the six thousand who made up the army

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in command of Colonel Pepperrell, and that the minister of the latter town was a chaplain in the expedition, must have strengthened the desire to name the town Pepperrell.[1] It may seem extremely far-fetched to cite the part of these towns in the capture of the "Gibraltar of America" as a reason for the remarkable record of the later patriots of the locality; but the thirty years which intervened between the experiences at Louisburg and Lexington could not have effaced the record, and with such a spiritual leader as had the town of Pepperell in the Rev. Joseph Emerson the fire of patriotism could not go out. In his sermon to his parishioners in the spring of 1758, just before starting under command of Captain Thomas Lawrence for the French war, this patriot preacher said from his pulpit, "Let it never be said of a Pepperell soldier that he was afraid to face his enemies, or that he ever turned his back on them, and cowardly deserted the cause of his country."
      The name of Emerson is of itself enough to give the town of Pepperell an honored place in the annals of the Colonies; but when combined with that of Prescott there is a union of strength which must have exerted, an influence upon all subsequent generations of the early heroes. It is claimed that William Prescott was one of the


[1] The Pepperrell family repeated the " r." The same form was used in the name of the town for many years.

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town's representatives at Louisburg, and it is certain that he was lieutenant in the Provincial troops sent out to remove the French neutrals from Nova Scotia in 1755.
      While we may deplore this measure of war, we cannot deny the patriotism which impelled those who responded to the call. While our emotions are stirred by the slightest reference to those Acadian villagers "on the shores of the Basin of Minas," who, "at peace with God and the world," were swept from their homes, we cannot refrain from according honor to our townsmen who were led in the expedition, and also rejoice that in some measure our ancestors atoned for the wrong by sharing their meagre comforts with the Evangelines who were left at their doors.
      The early settlers of Pepperell were familiar with the hardships of frontier life. Rev. Joseph Emerson, who became their minister in 1746, was accustomed to seeing little companies of his parishioners start off to face the Indians and their French allies; fifteen of his people are recorded as having perished in that service between the years 1748 and 1756. Under the judicious leadership of their minister their hearts were softened by sorrow and sacrifice, and they were ready to share their hard earnings with others in distress; a notable instance being shown at the time of Boston's great fire of March 20, 1760, when it was estimated that the loss was one hundred thousand

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pounds sterling. Rev. Mr. Emerson made the following record in the church book:       "The governor Pownall sent Briefs thro' the Province for a general contribution, accordingly we had one here and collected £64 12s. 0d. Old Tenor, and when paid the following Receit was given.

BOSTON, 16th April, 1760.

Received of ye Church in Pepperell, whereof the Rev. Mr. Joseph Emerson is Pastor, the sum of sixty four pounds, twelve shillings old tenor for ye sufferers in the late fire.

JOHN PHILLIPS."

      With the many publications which treat of the Revolutionary period at our command, there is no way in which the patriot of to-day may become so fully impressed by the moral heroism with which each town met its share of suffering and made its sacrifice, as by carefully studying the worn yellow leaves of the records of the town meetings. There each successive step appears in all its Significance, recorded in the cramped handwriting of the clerk, in many cases spelled without rule, but unmistakable in meaning. The student of these files cannot fail to read much between the lines, and detect in each blot and period a spirit of determination that knew no compromise.
      The town of Pepperell has an old church record in addition to that of the town clerk, which gives added testimony to its patriotism. Each resolution adopted by this town, if not in the language of the Committee of Correspondence of Boston,

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bears the impress of the mind of the patriot preacher, whom they gladly followed, and whose work for his people and his country was sealed by his death in October, 1775.
      In viewing early pastoral acts from the present standpoint, when the preaching of politics from the pulpit is at the risk of an immediate change in spiritual leaders, it is difficult to understand much that took place in Pepperell and other towns during the contention between Parliament and the Provinces. But when fully realizing the exact position of the parson of that time, which has been set forth in chapter vii. of "Beneath Old Roof Trees," one may more easily comprehend the situation. Rev. Mr. Emerson, the zealous apostle of liberty in this town, found a faithful co-worker in William Prescott, one of his parishioners, who, besides having inherited peculiar talents for leadership, had the advantage of the experience of mature life. They both had been schooled in military service, and had eyes and ears to detect the first indications of the trouble with the mother country. But while this preacher was bold in his denunciations of the infringements on their rights, he was equally positive in declaring from his pulpit, "We have a king who is well worthy of our affection and obedience." They saw in the Stamp Act an occasion for positive declaration. They had suffered personally in the king's service against the French, and had seen the stalwart

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young men of the town go out from their midst to return no more. They had also shared in the unusual drain upon the town's treasury, and they most naturally deprecated any act whereby the Colonies were to be burdened with greater taxes to meet the king's indebtedness. Theirs was the voice of the town when, in October, 1765, they instructed their representative in the General Court, closing thus:--

      As the trade of this province is greatly obstructed, and the people labor under an almost insupportable debt, we expect you will use your utmost endeavors, in the General Assembly, that the monies of the province drawn from the individuals, may not be applied to any other uses, under any pretence whatever, than what is evidently intended in the act for supplying the province treasury."

      The repeal of the Stamp Act was an occasion for one of Rev. Mr. Emerson's patriotic sermons, which was printed; and copies of it are now treasured in the homes of the descendants of those who most heartily indorsed its sentiments.[1] Mr. Emerson called the repeal one of the great deliverances in English history. He urged his people to cultivate in their minds and in the minds of their children an affection for their mother country. He said, "Let us have reverence for and be duly subject to lawful authority. Government is drawn from God, though the practical form of it is left to the prudence and discretion of men."


[1] Printed and sold by Edes and Gill in Queen Street, MDCCLXVI.

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      Pastor and people were not slow in learning that it was policy rather than justice that actuated the British ministry in repealing the Stamp Act; and early in the year 1773 they chose a committee of nine "to consider what is proper for this district to do, at this alarming time, respecting the encroachments that have been made upon our civil privilege." The result of the town's committee, communicated to the town of Boston through its Committee of Correspondence, was most encouraging, coming as it did from the remote border of the Province. They at first acknowledged the receipt of the letter and pamphlet sent to them in common with other towns, by the authorities at Boston, in which particular and minute accounts were given of the encroachments made upon their charter privileges. The Boston patriots were fully assured of the alarm of their sympathizers at a distance. They say:--

      "We of this place are unanimous; no less than one hundred have signed a request to the selectmen to call a meeting, though we count but one hundred and sixty families; and when met the fullest meeting that was ever known on any occasion, and not a dissenting vote or voice. We feel for ourselves, we feel for our posterity, we feel for our brethren through the continent. We tremble at the thought of slavery, either civil or ecclesiastical, and are fully sensible of the near connection there is between civil and religious liberty. If we lose the former the latter will not remain; our resentment (not to say our indigdation) rises against them, let them be in whatsoever relation they may, who would dare invade our natural or constitutional rights."

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      The voters gave their representative positive advice, and at the same time voted to add two casks of powder with lead "answerable to their stock of ammunition."
      In showing the successive steps in the town of Pepperell which led up to the 19th of April, 1775, there is left no room for doubt that the acts of the Boston leaders were as leaven to all the communities affected by the king's arbitrary measures. So thoroughly aroused were the people at this northern border of the Province that more than a year before the Declaration of Independence was formulated, they concluded a series of resolutions thus:--

      We therefore instruct you, sir, that you, in our name and behalf, signify to the Great and General Cout, of which you are a member, that our opinion is, that independence is the only alternative for the safety of this oppressed land, and that if the honorable Congress should think it best for the safety of the United Colonies to declare them independent of Great Britain, we acquiesce heart and hand, and are determined, at the risk of life and treasure, to support the measure."

[Signature of Wm. Prescott]

      The appeal of the Boston Committee of Correspondence met with a prompt response from the patriots of Pepperell. Their letter, signed by William Prescott, was the third in order of date. It

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accompanied forty bushels of grain and promises of further assistance with provisions and with men, and invoked them "to stand firm in the common cause."
      Something was yet needed to prove to all generations that these people were not as " sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." The Lexington alarm reached these remote homes, and the proof was readily furnished. The patriots of that day are largely represented by name and blood in the residents of to-day, but their homes have almost all disappeared, or been greatly changed; yet there is one to which I most gladly invite my readers.

[Photo of Monument on Site of the Meeting-House in the Mother Town]

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