CIVILIZING WOBURN

Our Puritan fathers loved to see the haunts of the savage occupied by civilized men ~ Samuel Sewall, author of History of Woburn

a town emerges

The First Congregational Church of Woburn was established on 24 Aug 1642, when the the Richardson brothers, along with the other five founders of Woburn, “stood forth and made declaration, one by one, of their religious faith and Christian experience.” With the hub of their society intact, the new townsmen could get to work choosing selectmen, surveyors and town councils. They built homes, highways and bridges. Thus, “this town of Woburn, having its affairs put in proper train, and under the direction of suitable officers (our two uncles and grandfather among them), began to thrive and prosper."

We have six families who lived in Woburn. The Richardson, Wyman and Symonds families lived for many generations in Woburn. The Littlefields, Hills and Badwins, on the other hand, stayed for a few years, then moved on to greener pastures. We'll see them in future posts.

from common stock

William Symonds (9GGF) was probably born in 1611 based on his stated age as a witness in court for Middlesex County, Massachusetts court cases. There has been much speculation among armchair genealogists that William of Woburn was “descended from William and Alice of England, to whom there is a memorial in the cathedral church, Winchester, Eng.” Theirs was a wealthy Symonds family in London whose members held high office.

Genealogists who have their act together have realized that our William Symonds was most probably illiterate since he signed documents with a mark. William married our grandmother Judith Phippen (9GGM) who was the daughter of a baker. Judith came to America as an indentured servant with her first husband, James Hayward aboard the ship "Planter" in 1635. William and Judith’s sons were carpenters and farmers. It doesn't seem very probable that these two came from the landed gentry.

William indicated in court records that he had been in the Massachusetts Bay Colony since 1630, so it is possible that he came as part of the Winthrop Fleet. It's probable he came as an indentured servant as well because the first record we have of him is nine years later in 1639 when he rented a house in Charlestown. We know he was in Woburn by 1643 when he married our grandmother, the recently widowed Judith.

up by the bootstraps

William's lack of education was apparent from his involvement in a number of court cases. Where most other men in the town signed the documents with their names, William used a loop as his mark. In 1645, two years after arriving in Woburn, he was on the tax list as 3s 8p. This was a less than the average rate among the other tax payers. As the years progressed, however, William forged relationships with some of the more powerful men in town and he began acquiring land. In 1648, William and Michael Bacon purchased 200 acres in Cambridge. In 1651, he purchased from Michael Bacon two lots containing 18 acres. His purchases were supplemented by grants of land in Woburn. He received acreage in the pine meadow, three acres of swamp at Rock Meadow, 10 acres in the timberland, and more acreage in Ladder Pole Swamp. The year before he died, in Aug of 1671, William's tax rate was £4. 16s. the 16th largest of the Woburn land owners.

litigation

Court records from April 1659:

"William Simonds and William Locke of Woburn, being convicted of seditious & contemptuous carriages towards Authority, & of putting in their votes for the choice of Deputy for the General Court, although they were warned to forbear, & also of affronting the Church in their private consultations, this Court doth sentence them to be severely whipt with thirty stripes a piece, or to pay a fine of twenty pounds a piece, and to stand bound with sufficient sureties in 20 £ for their good behavior & appearance at the next Court."

Basically, this means that the two Williams not only tampered with the balloting for Deputy to the Court, but they also most probably had Baptist sympathies, a major no-no in Puritan America.

Luckily, Grandpa William had connections. He was close to the powerful Wymans who also had Baptist leanings. When William petitioned for clemency in 1660, his the fines were reduced to £15.

In Oct of 1662, William had more luck in court. The Artillery Company of Suffolk, sued Michael Bacon and William Symonds, both of Woburn, for trespass on the land of the artillery. After hearing both sides, the court found for the defendants, only requiring them to pay costs of Court.

William didn't became a freeman until 11 May 1670, a full forty years after he arrived in Massachusetts and only two years before hid death. In contrast, the Richardson brothers, who arrived at about the same time, became freemen in 1638. It's possible that William's Baptist sympathies had something to do with the delay.

William died in Woburn in 1672 at the age of 60. He died intestate. An inventory of his estate was taken 12 June 1672. The inventory contained farm animals, clothes, arms, provisions, a house, barn and farm in Woburn and a farm in Cambridge. The value came to about £485, with debts of about £25.

Part of the inventory listed William's wife and children. It begins, "William Simons hath left a wife and she is weakly and crasey and aged and five sons and seven daughters..."

In spite of being weak, crazy and aged, Judith, along with two of her sons, was appointed an administrator of the estate. And Judith lived seventeen more years to boot! Years that would bring some trial to the crazy old widow. She died in 1689 at the age of 70.

William and Judith had 11 children including our grandmother Sarah (8GGM) who married John Heywood of Concord (8GGF).

Part of the house shown below was originally built by William Symonds ca. 1670, two years before he died. In 1676, the house belonged to "Widdo Simons" and was used as a garrison during King Philip's War. The house remained in the family for almost two hundred years. It was lost to foreclosure in 1827 and, after changing hands a number of times, sold to Jesse Cuttler. The picture depicts the house as it looked in 1880. It had the distinction of being the longest standing house in Woburn after the Baldwin Mansion (built by our uncle Henry Baldwin (9U)), before being demolished in 1908.

Note: Though William Symonds might have come from common stock, he and his wife Judith developed close ties with the powerful Wyman brothers. Those ties came into play when, in 1676, William and Judith's son Benjamin (9U) was involved in a very high profile rape case. We'll explore that occurrence and how it affected the town in a future post.

On the map below, the green marker shows the approximate location of William Symond's property on what was Upstreet near the center of town. The Wyman brothers, who we will discuss next, built their homes on what would become Wyman Street in Woburn (green marker). Wyman street still exists today. Our grandfather Thomas Richardson's (9GGF) property, at the end of Richardson Street, is marked in red. The distance between the Wymans and Thomas Richardson is about 2 miles.

Blue = Wyman brothers Green = William Symonds Red = Thomas Richardson

the Wyman Brothers

John (1C10x) and Francis (1C10x) Wyman were tanners by occupation. The first mention made of them is in Charlestown, Dec. 18, 1640, signers of the "town orders" for the settlement of Woburn, along with Ezekiel (10U), Samuel (10U) and Thomas Richardson (9GGF). The date of their arrival in New England is unknown but, most probably, they came with their uncles Samuel and Thomas Richardson ca. 1635/6. Francis would have been seventeen and John fourteen.

John Wyman was made freeman in 1647 and Francis in 1657. In 1658, their father Francis Wyman, Sr. died in England and left to his sons “which are beyound sea ten pounds a piece of Lawful English money to be paid unto them by mine executor if they be in want and come over to demand the same.” These boys were never in want and they never returned to England.

In 1665 the Wymans purchased, for £50, a grant of 500 acres which was to be laid out on the Woburn/Billerica boundary. It was stated that the grant was to be laid out 'in Woobourne bounds, next adjoining to the land and houses of the said Waymens, apprehending it to be most convenient and profitable for them so to lye.' The brothers built country farms on this property which is now Burlington, on the Billerica boundary. Francis and John were amongst the largest landowners in Woburn and their tanning operation carried down through many generations of Wyman shoemakers.

Note: Interestingly, the deed of sale to the Wyman brothers is witnessed by Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, a Native American from Martha's Vineyard. He had the distinction of being the only Native American to have graduated from Harvard College at that time.

The Wyman brothers were two of the few slaveowners in Massachusetts at the time. In his will, Francis Wyman left a negro slave to his wife and John Wyman owned a slave who was convicted by the court of "abuse offered to two of Wamesit indians."

that old time religion

1667 turned out to be a banner year for the Wyman brothers. They and eleven other citizens of Woburn were called into the County Court for "publicly manifesting contempt for the ordinance of baptism and for attending illegal assemblies of the Anabaptists."

These thirteen people of Woburn were prosecuted before the Middlesex County Court in Dec 1671 for their "contempt of the ordinance of infant baptism and for withdrawing from the church of Woburn and attending the assemblies of the Anabaptists...wherein they pretend and alledge that the grounds of their withdrawing are sundry scruples in poynt of conscience..." We must remember that, for the Puritans, it was their way or the highway. Attending other churches was a major sin, not allowed by law.

John Wyman (1C10x) appeared to have been shown the 'error' of his ways and was readily admitted back to the church. In his will 10 March 1683/4 he gave the pastors of the Woburn church 40s each calling them his 'Reverend Pastors'.

Francis (1C10x), though also admitted back into the church (these were rich men, after all), always held a special place in his heart for the Baptists. In his will 5 Sep 1698 he gave two elders of the Baptist Church in Boston 20s each.

Fugit Hora

Francis Wyman died in 1699. His gravestone reads:

'MEMENTO MORI' (remember you must die) 'FUGIT HORA' (time flies) 'Here lyes ye body of Francis Wyman aged about 82 years, died November 28th, 1699' 'The memory of ye just is blessed'

John Wyman was a sergeant in the Woburn militia in 1672, a cornet in 1675 and a lieutenant 1675 to 1684. He and his son John, Jr. (2C10x) fought in the Narragonsett Campaign in King Philip's War. (We'll have more on that war later.) John Sr. was wounded and his son John, Jr. was killed in 1675, reportedly by an arrow in his face. John Sr. died in 1684 at 62 years of age.

John and Francis Wyman as "the progenitors of the largest portion of the Wyman family in this country" are most probably not just our cousins. There is very strong evidence that one of them may very well be our grandfather and the other our uncle.