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Littleton History and Records |
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| From Records of Littleton, Massachusetts, by Joseph Alfred Harwood and Samuel Smith, published by Patriot Press, Concord, Mass., 1900. | ||||||||||
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Powers 1736 Timothy Powers of Groton bought land of Tho Tarbell. 1743-5 Daniel and Jon Powers dismissed from church in Lancaster to Sterling. Children of Jacob and (1) Sarah and (2) Edith (Adams) Powers: 1750 Edward Powers of Harvard sold land. Mar. 8 1759 Edward Powers and Mary sold land to J. Simonds. Children of Thomas and (1) Elizabeth and (2) Mary (Harwood) Powers : Bk. 7 p. 19 Thomas Powers and Mary his wife of Lancaster sold land to Jeremiah Powers of Lambstown or Hardwick. 1765 Jeremiah Powers, then of Quoben, sold land to David and to Abijah Powers, probably sons of David and Martha, grandson of Walter Powers, Jr. 1735 Thomas Powers of Hardwick sells to John Barrett land in Littleton (Bk. 32 p. 277). Josiah Barrett went to Lambstown. 1708 Thomas Farr of Stow bought land of Daniel Powers in Nashoba. Feb 3 1726 Mary Farr of Littleton m. Deliverance Parsons of Stow. POWERS 1756 Ephraim Powers of Stow sold land in Stow to Stephen Farr Jr. (Bk. 38 p. 206) 1763 Ephraim Powers and Stephen Farr bought in Stow. Children of Robert and Hannah (Powers) Chaffin: (see also p. 65) Robert b. July 20 1752, m. Hannah dau. William Tenneyb. July 4 1756. Jon Powers & Elizth Kidder m. pub. Dec. 25 1725. Children: (for others see pp. 11, 36, 37) Children of Josiah & Martha Powers: (for others see p. 44) Children of Nathaniel Powers Jr. & Hannah (Hoar): (for others see pp. 56, 61) Children of David Powers Jr. & Kezia Powers (see p. 56): Jonathan Powers, s. of Daniel, m. 1731 Mary or Hannah. Children of Ephraim and Kezia (Sawyer) Powers: |
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With a change of ministers the town began to talk of building a new meeting-house, and it was decided that the location be changed to the Ridge Hill, as the centre of the town was called; accordingly in 1740 the town built their second meetinghouse, forty by fifty feet in dimension with twenty-three feet posts, on the site of the present First Church (Unitarian). , It was customary for the men and women to sit separately in meeting, and to choose a committee once a year to assign the seats to the men according to what each paid, considering also "age and dignity." General dissatisfaction and an order for a new seating was often the result of the committee's first effort. At March meeting, 1742-43, the town voted
January 4,1738-39, the General Court granted the petition of Peleg Lawrence and others of Groton to be set off with their estates to Littleton, and the town bounds were then extended in that direction from the original Nashobah north line to the present bounds between Groton and Littleton. The desire for political honors does not seem to have possessed the people of this town to any great extent in the olden time, for it was only when some measure directly affecting the town, like a change of bounds, was to come before the court that it was thought worth while to send a representative, to which the town was entitled once in a certain number of years, and pay his expenses. The town was repeatedly fined for not being represented, in consequence of which a representative would be chosen the following year for the sole purpose, apparently, of getting the fine, remitted, in which they were generally successful. On one occasion the town voted to send a representative if any one would go on half-pay, and on another if any one would go for £12. Captain Isaac Powers accepted the offer, and was accordingly elected without opposition. In the year 1749 wolves were so plenty and troublesome that the town offered, in connection with some of the adjoining towns, a bounty for their heads in addition to that offered by the province, with the stipulation that the wolves' ears be cut off to prevent a second claim for bounty on the same head. Until almost modern times it was customary to vote at every March meeting whether the swine should go at large during the ensuing year. Almost invariably previous to 1800, and occasionally after that, the swine were allowed to roam at will, provided each one had a ring in his nose, which it was the duty of the hog-reeves to insert, to prevent rooting. The discontent at the oppression of British taxation found expression in town-meeting at Littleton March 5, 1770, the day of the Boston Massacre, as follows: " Voted the following Persons a committee to consider of some proper Measures for the Town to Come into with Regard to the non-importation of Goods, viz. Samuel Tuttle, Leonard Whiting, Samuel Rogers, Robert Harris, Nathan Raymond who made report of the following Resolves which the Town Voted to accept. "The Grievous Impositions the Inhabitants of the British Colonies have long suffered from their Mother Country strongly claim their attention to every legal Method for their Removal. "We esteem the Measures already proposed, viz. the withdrawing our Trade from Great Britain both economical & effectual, We therefore Vote That we will not (knowingly) directly or Indirectly purchase any british Goods that have been or may be imported contrary to the patriotic agreement of the Merchants of the Town of Boston. If any Inhabitant of this Town of Littleton shall be known to purchase any article of any Importer of Goods contrary to the afores1 agreement or of any one who shall purchase of any such Importer he shall suffer our high Displeasure and Contempt. That the same Committee be also a Committee to Inspect the Conduct of all Buyers & Sellers & to report the names of all (if any such there shall be) who violate the true spirit and Intention of the aforegoing Votes and Resolutions, to the Towne at their next Meeting. Voted that, we will not drink or purchase any foreign Tea howsoever imported untill a general Importation of british Goods shall take Place." The resolutions were published in the Boston Gazette of March 12. In the same year the town purchased a bell for the meeting-house, but there being no steeple, the bell was hung on a frame separate from the building. The committee to buy it reported that they had purchased a "Bell manufactured in this Province" at a cost of £78. December 31, 1772, the town met to consider a letter and pamphlet on the subject of the times, received from the town of Boston, and chose a committee on it. A conservative majority reported, February 1, that the town take no action in the matter. The report was rejected and a draft of a reply accepted, asserting confidence in the British constitution, but calling upon the General Court to make an effort to remove the consequences of certain acts of parliament endangering the peace and security of the Province and to restore confidence between England and her colonies. As this reply was considered by some not strong enough, it was withheld until after the March meeting, when it was amended, and a more extended list of grievances added. It is noticeable that about this time a change took place in the administration of town affairs. Several men who had held prominent town offices but who were quite conservative, and some even inclined to toryism, were very suddenly left in retirement, and those chosen in their places who took active parts in the Evolutionary War. In the Middlesex Convention of August 31,1774, there were from Littleton Captain Josiah Hartwell, Oliver Hoar, and Daniel Rogers, Jr. September 26, Robert Harris was chosen a delegate to the Provincial Congress to be held at Salem, and Abel Jewett to the one to be held at Concord. The alarm of April 19, 1775, reached Littleton, and was quickly responded to by Lieutenant Aquila Jewett's company of militia, numbering four officers and forty-two men., who marched to Concord, where some of the men dropped out, while the rest followed the enemy probably to Cambridge, as they marched twenty-six miles. Undoubtedly many others not belonging to an organized company went as volunteers. The following month the town voted to purchase a number of fire-arms with bayonets, and it is probable that a new company of minute-men was formed, as we find the following paper bearing date of June 18, 1775:
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©Roberta Tuller 2023
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