Cousin Abiel Heywood

He thus proclaimed his own autumnal nuptials in 1822, when he married for the first time at the age of sixty-three. ~ F. B. Sanborn

Our immigrant grandfather, John Heywood (8GGF) came from England to Concord, MA sometime before 1650. Our Heywood line ended in 1685 when John's daughter, Mary (7GGM), married our grandfather Enoch Kidder (7GGF). Grandpa Enoch's name carried down five generations to our grandfather Enoch Kidder Parrish (2GGF).

in Concord

The town of Concord, MA "was incorporated as the first inland settlement in Massachusetts through a grant from the Massachusetts General Court dated September 12, 1635.

Some fifteen years later, our grandfather John Heywood settled there near the famed Walden Pond. Lemuel Shattuck wrote about our Grandpa John in his History of Concord:

. . .whose name upon the records as early as 1655, and a schedule of whose lands is given in 1666. It is, perhaps, worthy to note here that in this schedule one lot is described as "nine acres lying on both sides of the brooke Running from Walden pond to the River," showing that at that time there was an outlet to this pond, and that by this outlet it was connected with Concord River.

Many generations of Heywoods lived in Concord and John's great-great grandson Abiel (3C6X) was born there in 1759. One of Concord's most famous sons, Henry David Thoreau, a neighbor of Abiel's, was also born there in 1817. F. B. Sanborn, in his book Henry D. Thoreau, talks about the first connection between the two men:

Dr. Heywood. . . was the first town clerk he (Thoreau) remembered, and the one who entered on the records the marriage of his father and mother, and the birth of all the children. He cried the banns of John Thoreau and Cynthia Dunbar in the parish meeting-house; and he was the last clerk who made this Sunday outcry.

Thoreau, himself, often extolled the virtues of his home town and, in one passage, wrote about the delights of Concord's river and its now famous grapes:

It has been proposed that the town should adopt for its coat of arms a field verdant, with the Concord (River) circling nine times round. . .For the most part it creeps through broad meadows, adorned with scattered oaks, where the cranberry is found in abundance, covering the ground like a mossbed. A row of sunken dwarf willows borders the stream on one or both sides, while at a greater distance the meadow is skirted with maples, alders, and other fluviatile trees, overrun with the grape-vine, which bears fruit in its season, purple, red, white, and other grapes.

Thoreau's biographer, F. B. Sanborn wrote about those famous grapes as well:

From these river-grapes, by seedling cultivation, a Concord gardener, in Thoreau's manhood, bred and developed the Concord grape, which is now more extensively grown throughout the United States than any other vine, and once adorned, in vineyards large and small, the hillsides over which Thoreau (and our Heywood relatives) rambled.

Sanborn, when writing about families of note in Concord, included the Heywoods:

Perpetuity, indeed, and hereditary transmission of everything that by nature and good sense can be inherited, are among the characteristics of Concord. The Heywood family was resident in Concord for two hundred and 30 years and held the office of town clerk, in lineal succession from father to son for one hundred years at least. The grandson of the first John Heywood filled the office (which is the most responsible in the town, and generally accompanied by other official trusts) for eighteen years, beginning in 1731; his son held the place with a slight interregnum for thirteen years; his nephew, Dr. Abiel Heywood (3C6X), was town clerk from 1796 to 1834 without a break, and Dr. Heywood's son, Mr George Heywood (4C5X) has now been clerk for twenty-nine years, ever since 1853. . .Into such a community Henry Thoreau, a free and just man, was born.

the day the British invaded

Abiel was 14 years old when the the British marched from Boston out to Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Here Abiel's story intersects with that of our cousin Abel Prescott (5C9X) who was wounded that day. Abel was the son of Dr. Abel Prescott and our cousin Abigail Brigham Prescott (4C10X) of Concord.

We told the story of Abel and his brother Samuel (5C9X) in our "First Alarm" post. On that fateful April morning, Samuel met up with Paul Revere and joined him in his mission to warn the countryside about the British invasion. Samuel was, in fact, the only one of Revere's group to reach Concord. There, he sent his brother Abel on a similar mission to Sudbury and Framingham.

On his way back to Concord, Abel was shot in the side by British soldiers. He managed to make it to "the house of a Mrs. Heywood." Sarah Heywood happened to be the wife of our then deceased cousin Jonathan Heywood (2C7X) and the step-mother of Abiel. Abel` was able to get his wound treated and hide out at the Heywoods until the danger was over.

Abel Prescott came from a family of doctors. He, his father and his brother Samuel were all physicians. The incident with Abel when Abiel was at an impressionable age may have affected Abiel's decision to follow a similar path.

Abiel's many talents

Abiel graduated from Harvard in 1781 and taught school in Roxbury for a few years. He then decided to study medicine with "the celebrated Dr. Spring of Watertown." He began his own practice in Concord in 1790. In 1793 Abiel was comissioned by Samuel Adams, then lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, as surgeon of the state militia, a position Abiel held until 1799.

In 1796, Abiel began his career as a civil servant when he followed the Heywood family tradition and became the Concord town clerk. In 1800, he was appointed associate judge of Sessions and later a judge in the Court of Common Pleas. His appointments at court continued for most of his life. He also held the position of tax assessor for 33 years

Abiel didn't marry until he was 63 years old. F. B. Sanborn wrote about that event and more:

He thus proclaimed his own autumnal nuptials in 1822, when he married for the first time at the age of sixty-three. The banns were cried at the opening of the service, and this compelled the town clerk to be a more regular attendant in the meeting-house than his successors have found necessary. Dr. Heywood's pew was about half-way down the broad aisle, and in full view of the whole congregation, whether in the "floor pews" or "up in the galleries." Wearing his old-fashioned coat and small-clothes, the doctor would rise in his pew, deliberately adjust his spectacles, and look about for a moment, in order to make sure that his audience was prepared; then he made his proclamation with much emphasis of voice and dignity of manner. There was a distinction, however, in the manner of "publishing the banns" of the white and the black citizens; the former being "cried" in the face of the whole congregation, and the latter simply "posted" in the meeting-house porch, as was afterwards the custom for all. Dr. Heywood, from a sense of justice, or some other proper motive, determined on one occasion to "post" a white couple, instead of giving them the full benefit of his sonorous voice; but, either because they missed the éclat of the usual proclamation, or else felt humiliated at being "posted like niggers in the porch," they brought the town clerk to justice forthwith, and he was forced for once to yield to popular outcry, and join in the outcry himself. After publishing his own banns, and just before the wedding, he for the first time procured a pair of trousers,—having worn knee-breeches up to that time. . .

the sad Barron case

In 1827, Abiel received a letter from R. Barron, a mother who was seeking help for her daughter. Susan Martin of the the Massachusetts Historical Society came across the letter and decided to do a little research into the matter. Below are her findings:

The MHS recently acquired two fascinating letters related to a woman named Nancy Barron, and when cataloging the collection, I found a surprising connection.

The first letter, addressed to Dr. “Hayward” of Concord, Mass., was written on 20 July 1827 by R. Barron, Nancy’s mother. The Barrons lived in Boston. The letter begins:

"Sir I sent a letter to you since Mr Stow was here but have receaved no answer. I take the liberty to state my curcumstances to you and hope that you will concider my case. My daughter is sick more or less all of the time. As for myself I cannot do any work of any consequence. Nancy can do some work all though not capable of takeing care of herself."

R. Barron asked the doctor for help with their rent, which was two months overdue, and explained that she and her daughter couldn’t come to Concord “as it would make Nancy as bad as she was before.” The family received some charity, but it wasn’t enough.

The only other letter in the collection was written almost a year later, this time to Dr. “Haywood.” The writer, D. Patten of Boston, pleaded on behalf of the Barrons, for whom circumstances had deteriorated. Mrs. Barron was “verry much afflicted with ill health,” and the family suffered “poverty and want in a great degree.” Adding to these troubles was Nancy’s “derangement of Mind […] which of late has become much worse.”

Note: D. Patten may be related to us but I have not been able to find a connection.

Just identifying the correspondents in this small collection was challenging. The two letters were clearly written to the same person, but spelled his name differently. I started with him, assuming he’d be the easiest to find. It took some digging, and through trial and error, I finally stumbled on Dr. Abiel Heywood (1759-1839). Neither Barron nor Patten had spelled the name right.

According to a biography of Heywood published in Memoirs of Members of the Social Circle in Concord (pp. 228-33), he began practicing in Concord in 1790, though he soon left medicine to serve in a series of public positions, including town clerk, selectman, tax assessor, justice of the peace, and Middlesex County judge. He was a very eminent member of the community in 1827, when Mrs. Barron appealed to him.

I never did identify the writer of the second letter, D. Patten. I also don’t know the first name of Nancy’s mother. But when I started looking for Nancy, I found more than I expected. A Google search turned up her name in, of all places, the journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The relevant journal entry is dated 24 June 1840. By this time, Nancy was living at the Concord Asylum, an almshouse just 200 yards behind Emerson’s home, across the Mill Brook. The reference to her is unexpected and startling. Emerson wrote:

"Now for near five years I have been indulged by the gracious Heaven in my long holiday in this goodly house of mine, entertaining and entertained by so many worthy and gifted friends, and all this time poor Nancy Barron, the mad-woman, has been screaming herself hoarse at the Poor-house across the brook and I still hear her whenever I open my window."

. . .Apparently, between 1839 and 1843, Emerson corresponded with a Mary Mason about Nancy’s case; these letters are currently on deposit at Harvard’s Houghton Library. It seems Emerson and others provided financial support for Nancy’s care, which would account for how he knew her name.

Like his neighbor Abiel Heywood (the land adjacent to Emerson’s home is still called Heywood Meadow), Emerson belonged to the Social Circle in Concord, a private club for illustrious men of the town.

The only other result of my search for Nancy was a single line in the register of births,  marriages, and deaths in Concord: “Nancy Barron aged 46 years died March 29, 1843” Emerson acknowledged her death in his correspondence with Mary Mason.

The striking juxtaposition of Nancy Barron and Ralph Waldo Emerson, with just 200 yards and a narrow brook between them, may have been the kind of thing Henry David Thoreau had in mind when he wrote the following passage in Walden:

"But how do the poor minority fare? Perhaps it will be found, that just in proportion as some have been placed in outward circumstances above the savage, others have been degraded below him. The luxury of one class is counterbalanced by the indigence of another. On the one side is the palace, on the other are the almshouse and 'silent poor.'"

Abiel's meadow

In 1822, around the time of his marriage, Abiel began "acquiring an extensive property at 105 Lexington Road". The area, now called Heywood Meadow, "was well‑loved by the Transcendentalist authors who lived in Concord: Ralph Waldo Emerson, who lived next to the Meadow in what is now known as the Emerson House, Henry David Thoreau, who walked the Meadow often, and the Alcotts, whose house is close by on Lexington Road."

From the Heywood Meadow Stewardship Committee:

Heywood Meadow is a landscape of open meadows, woods, the Mill Brook, and its wetlands. . .Heywood Meadow is now valued as a unique open space prominently located near the center of town.  The Meadow is both a significant natural resource and a cultural and historic landscape evoking Concord’s colonial past while providing the setting for the historic homes near the Meadow.

The wetlands and woods along the Mill Brook near the center of town have a long human history, starting with the Nipmuc who called the Concord area Musketaquid, the ‘grassy river.’ When English explorers first visited Musketaquid, they noted the extensive meadows, the network of indigenous peoples’ trails, and the small ‘planting grounds’ in the area.  Fish and game were abundant. . .In 1636, the colonists straightened and dammed the brook for their mill to create the Mill Pond. . .The fertile, low-lying area along the Mill Brook was used primarily for pasture as meadow grass was plentiful and water readily available.  

The area and Heywood Street are named after Dr. Abiel Heywood. . .Despite a few structures which have since been removed, Heywood Meadow has remained largely open and served as an orchard, vegetable garden, or hay field until after World War II when it was no longer used for agriculture. . .In 1968, Middlesex County attempted to take the land by eminent domain for the courthouse.  That controversy pointed out the vulnerability of the meadow and catalyzed support for its protection; in 1969 the town transferred control of the Meadow east of Heywood Street to the Natural Resources Commission for permanent conservation. 

The Heywood Meadow Stewardship Committee, established by the Natural Resources Commission in 2000, has overseen the management and preservation of the meadow, its trees, and its boundaries (walls). Working with the Natural Resources Division, the Committee has completed a decade-long project of rebuilding the historic stone walls along Lexington Road; removed an historically inappropriate  wall on Heywood Street; battled invasive plants in the fields and the woods; reduced the amount of mowing to encourage flowering native species; put up and maintained a number of well-used bluebird houses; and planted many desirable native pollinator and bird-friendly plants in the fields.

On the map below you can see the proximity of Emerson's (2) house to Abiel's property (1):

Abiel's memoir

In 1835, Lemuel Shattuck wrote the History of the Town of Concord. In the preface to his book, Shattuck gave special thanks to Abiel and town clerks of the surrounding towns:

Abiel died four years later, in 1839, at age 79. After their deaths, all members of the prestigious Social Circle of Concord had a memoir written by a fellow member. Francis R. Gourgas, who was the owner and editor of the Concord Freeman and had served in the Massachusetts House of Representative, wrote the memoir for Cousin Abiel. Below are excerpts from that memoir:

Abiel Heywood was admitted to the Social Circle in 1825 in place of Deacon William Parkman, and remained a member until his death, a period of fourteen years, being succeeded by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Abiel Heywood was born December 9,1759, and married in 1822, at the age of sixty-three, Lucy Prescott Fay, (7C7X) a sister of the present Judge Fay (7C7X), of Cambridge, and by her had two sons, Abiel (4C5X) and George (4C5X), both now living. . .

Note: According to Concord town death records, Abiel's son Abiel, Jr. died by suicide in 1881 at age 59.

He was esteemed a good physician and surgeon, but being much in public life, he does not appear to have sought employment in his profession, and consequently did not at any time enjoy so large a practice as he otherwise might have had.

. . .In 1796, he succeeded the Hon. Ephraim Wood as town clerk, and was annually reelected to that office till 1834. During the whole of this period, thirty-eight years, he was also chairman of the board of selectmen. . .the people appreciated his fidelity in all the trusts he had held at their hands, and the following vote, offered by the moderator of the meeting, Hon. Samuel Hoar, was passed unanimously:

"Abiel Heywood, Esq., having now retired from the office of town clerk, which he has held for thirty-eight successive years, and from the offices of selectman and assessor, which he has held during most of said period, the citizens of the town, sensible of their obligations to him for the skill, diligence, and fidelity with which he has discharged the duties of said offices, Resolved, that the thanks of the town be presented to Abiel Heywood, Esq., for the long and faithful services by him rendered for the town, in the offices of town clerk, selectman, and assessor, and that this resolve be recorded by the clerk."

He was the last man in the town, excepting the Rev. Dr. Ripley, who wore the old-fashioned knee-breeches, or smalI-clothes. . .Dr. Heywood was a man of dignified appearance and demeanor, industrious and methodical, and exhibited, in all the various public offices, town and county, he was calIed upon to fill, a great degree of firmness and integrity. His unquestioned fidelity to all trusts committed to him reconciled people to a naturally arbitrary disposition, which often led him to assume authority when none was delegated, and always to exercise it as best suited him, without counting or probably caring personally very greatly for consequences. He wrote an excellent and legible hand, and the records of the town during the thirty-eight years he was town clerk were kept with a rare degree of accuracy and neatness. His habits of life were in all respects simple and unostentatious, and his mind remained active and vigorous till within a very few years of his death. This event occurred October 29, 1839. He died at the age of eighty, but exempted from the sufferings of disease, worn out by time. He was a useful man, a good neighbor and citizen, and deserves to be held in honorable remembrance.