CAMBRIDGE

"The New Town" ~ Original name of Cambridge

First Church, Cambridge by Michele Clamp

town history

In the early days of settlement in New England, several villages had cropped up around the Massachusetts Bay. Most, like Watertown and Charlestown were centered around an area that has since become the greater Boston metropolis. But a capitol had not yet been established. Leading members of the Winthrop Fleet, searching for "a fit place for a fortified town," spotted a hilly area about a mile from the already established Watertown. Since this "New Town" which would become Cambridge was commonly regarded as the future capital of the colony, it was agreed that Governor Winthrop and "all the assistants" should build homes there.

Orange = Watertown Blue = Cambridge Red = Charlestown

Governor Winthrop was the first to renege on the agreement. Shortly after building a home in New Town, he dismantled the entire house and moved back to Boston. By 1634, most of the governor's officers had followed suit. Many inhabitants of the town complained of "straitness for want of land, especially meadow, and desired of the Court to look out either for enlargement or removal..." To make matters worse, Mr. Hooker, minister of the First Church, left for Connecticut and took a large chunk of congregation with him. Not more than eleven families were known to have remained.

Note: Permission of the Court was required for "removal" from one town to another in the overly authoritarian Puritan America. Mr. Hooker received said approval.

Mr. Shepard saves the town (but not the capital)

New Town was left without a minister and it also came to pass that the decimated village could not compete with Boston in the trade market. The hoped for status as capital of the colony faded into a more realistic hope for survival. Enter a very Puritan minister whose views were unpopular in England but became exceedingly popular in the New World. Thomas Shepherd came in 1635 with a ready-made congregation that settled in New Town and helped to create a thriving community. In 1638 the name of the newly blossoming town was changed to Cambridge.

consolation prize

Cambridge would never become the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. That distinction went, of course, to Boston. But the leaders of the colony found another way to honor New Town. Founded in 1636, Harvard University is America's oldest learning institution. Initially called "New College" (makes sense!), its purpose was mainly to educate the clergy. Reverend Shepard was minister and teacher to both Harvard College and the First Church of Cambridge. In 1639, the school's name became Harvard University, so named for the Rev. John Harvard who bequeathed half of the funds needed for the founding of the school. Cambridge's consolation prize is still one of the most prestigious schools in America.

a neat town

The non-Puritan William Wood spent four years in Puritan New England. Upon returning to England in 1633, he wrote his New England Prospect, an important document about life in the early days of the colonies. He had this to say about Cambridge:

"This is one of the neatest and best compacted towns of New England, having many fine structures, with many handsome contrived streets. The inhabitants, most of them, are very rich, and well stored with cattle of all sorts, having many acres of land..."

our Cambridge relatives

1) Robert Holmes (9GGF) is one of our ancestors who would have passed into total obscurity except for a few mentions in the Cambridge town records:

Robert married his wife Jane (last name unknown) ( 9GGM) sometime before Aug 1638 when the town records show a daughter born to "Robt and Jane Homes."

In Dec 1641, the town "agreed that Robert Holmes...shall take care for the making of the town-spring...a sufficent well, with timber and stone, fit for the use of man and watering of cattle..."

In 1640, Cambridge had been granted lands near Woburn that they finally apportioned out to their townfolk in 1652. These lands would eventually become the town of Billerica where many of our ancestors finally settled. Robert Holmes received a whopping 150 acres, though he never moved to the new settlement.

Robert and Jane had eight children. Sadly, death took many of these children at a young age. Their first child, Dorcas (9A), died at 4 years. Their last four children died young as well, Mehitibel at 4 mos. Sarah at 8 years, Ephraim at 1 year and Samuel at 2 mos. The birth of Samuel must have been hard on Grandma Jane. She died in 1653 at about age 38, four months after the birth of Samuel and two months after his death. There is no record of another marriage for Robert (9GGF) before he died in Cambridge in 1663 at about age 51.

When Robert died, only three of his eight children were still living. His son Joseph (9U) died the next year (1664) at age 22. His son John (9U) stayed in Cambridge until at least 1670 when his daughter was born there. Sometime after that he moved to Salem.

So what happened to the 150 acres Robert was granted in Billerica? In 1667, Robert's daughter, our grandmother Elizabeth (8GGM), married Nathaniel Hill (8GGF) of Billerica. The marriage took place in Billerica so it's very possible that Elizabeth had inherited some or all of her father's lands there and so met Nathaniel.

2) Francis Moore, Sr. (9GGF) was born in England in 1592. He came to New England with his wife Catherine (last name unknown) (9GGM) and three children sometime before 1638 when he was granted land in Cambridge. They had two children born in Cambridge. Catherine died in 1648 at about age 62. Francis then married Elizabeth Periman. He died in Cambridge in 1671 at age 79.

Note: Francis' father, our 10th great-grandfather, died in England in 1615. His was named Enoch Moore (10GGF). Francis' daughter, Anna Moore (8GGM), married James Kidder (8GGF). The names Enoch and Kidder carried all the way down 8 and 6 generations to Enoch Kidder Parrish (2GGF), Nana's grandfather, who planted apples and grew potatoes in Oak Glen. The house that he built there still stands, now called the Parrish Ranch.

Francis Moore, Jr. (9U) was born about 1620 in England. He came with his parents to America when he was about 17 years old. He married an aunt of ours from another family, Abigail Eaton (9A). The Eatons settled in Reading, about 13 miles from Cambridge. Francis and Anna had no children. Francis left the bulk of his estate to his nephew Samuel Kidder (8U), son of James Kidder (8GGF) and Anna Moore Kidder (8GGM).

Note: The New England world was small indeed. We have many instances of aunts, uncles and cousins inter-marrying between the various branches of our family.

3) Thomas Brigham (1C13x) came to America in 1635 on the "Susan and Ellen" with his cousin ( and our aunt) Anne Brigham Crosby (12A) and her husband Simon Crosby (2C13x). They all settled in Cambridge. Thomas also owned property in Ipswich, but it is doubtful that he ever lived there. He was a fairly wealthy man in Cambridge. At his death in 1654, his property is described as "conteyning the late mansion house of the sd Thomas Brigham with the Edifices, Barn, Cow houses and about three acres and a halfe to the same adjoyning..."

Note: There is an entry in The Church book of Disbursments which shows that in 1645 the church "Payd our brother Briggam for something for clothinge for his sone..." It seems unlikely that this was paid to Thomas given the size of his estate, but I can find no other Brigham in Cambridge at that time.

4) Simon (2C13x) and Anne Brigham Crosby (12A) came to America in 1635 on the "Susan and Ellen with Anne's cousin Thomas Brigham (1C13x). They also had their eight month old son with them. Upon arrival in Cambridge, Simon was nicely set up with funds given him by his father before he left England. With these funds, he purchased an already established house from one of Reverend Hooker's flock who was leaving for Connecticut. Simon's future looked promising but, sadly, he died in 1639, just four years after his arrival in New England. He was only 31 years of age.

Note: Listed on the very same ship, the "Susan and Ellen," was our grandfather, Edward Loomis (9GGF), who settled in Ipswich.

Note: Bing Crosby the crooner and David Crosby of CSNY both descend directly from Simon and Anne Brigham Crosby.

After Simon's death, Anne Brigham Crosby (12A) remained in Cambridge with her children for six years. In 1645, she married the Reverend William Thompson, a "graduate of Oxford University in England, a scholar and a clergyman of local distinction." She moved with her new husband to Braintree, MA and her children were brought up there.

Explaining the Brigham and Crosby families can get a little confusing so I've included a tree to help clarify the relationships. Ann Brigham (12A), her husband Simon Crosby (2C13x) and her cousin Thomas Brigham (1C13x) all settled in Cambridge. Ann was sister to our grandmother Constance Brigham (11GGM) who settled in Rowley. You can see that both sisters married Crosbys. Simon Crosby was a 2nd cousin of our grandfather, Robert Crosby (11GGF). Everyone on the bottom row came to New England except for Robert Crosby who died in England before the rest made the journey.

Note: On the top row, you can see that the Brigham brothers married the Watson sisters. That created a genealogical rarity where Ann and Constance's aunt and uncle, Thomas and Isabel, are both related to them by blood. The same goes for Thomas and Sebastian with John and Constance.

5) Thomas Langhorn (11U) was the brother of our grandfather Richard (10GGF) who lived only briefly in Cambridge but settled in Haverhill.

Thomas was born in England ca. 1616. The year he arrived in New England is unknown but he settled in Cambridge and there he married Sarah Green ca. 1646.

Thomas had a few claims to fame while in Cambridge. He was a butcher and the town drummer, a position for which he was paid. Town drummers were recruited as an alarm system for attack, to help train the militia, for announcements and to remind the populace to go to church on Sunday. They were possibly the first professional musicians in America. Town records from 1646 show that our grandfather Richard Hildreth (9GGF) (town treasurer at the time) was ordered "to pay Thomas longhorne fifty shillings for his service in beating ye drum this two years past."

In 1652, when our aunt Anne Brigham Crosby (12A) left Cambridge for Braintree with her new husband, Thomas purchased her home and property.

Thomas' final claim to fame is the kicker. In 1661, town records show "cariage of Thomas Longhorne (11U) towards Elizabeth Holmes (8GGM) aged 19..." Carriage was a term used in colonial America for different kinds of social misconduct. And it just so happened that this "cariage" was toward our nineteen year-old grandmother Elizabeth Holmes, who was no relation to Thomas. That story will unfold in a future post.

6) William Patten (10GGF) was born in England ca. 1606. by 1632, he had married Mary (last name unknown) (10GGM) in England. They came to New England with their daughter Mary (10A) ca. 1635.

The first mention of William in is in the Cambridge town records dated March 1635 when the town employed him keep about a hundred head of cattle belonging to the inhabitants of the town. He received £20 for seven months of cattle watching. He also agreed to keep the cows in 1638. He owned "one house and garden...about halfe an Acre upon the Cow Common."

William was a member of the Honorable Artillery Company of Boston, which is the oldest chartered military organization in North America and the third oldest chartered military organization in the world. Its charter was granted in March 1638 to form a volunteer militia company. Their function was to train officers enrolled in the local militia companies across Massachusetts.

Ironically, in 1645 "Brother Patten" was fined 3 shillings for having a hog without a keeper. Then, just three years later, he was put in charge of levying fines on persons breaking that same hog rule.

When Cambridge granted lands for the new settlement of Billerica, William's name is on the grant deed along with 12 other men. He was granted 80 acres of land there. It doesn't appear that William ever lived in Billerica, but his eldest son, our grandfather Thomas Patten (9GGF)) eventually settled there on that acreage.

William and Mary had five children. William died in 1668 at about age 62. Mary died in 1673 at about age 64.

close knit community

Below is a map of the placement of our ancestor's homes in Cambridge. All were nestled within the boundaries of what is now Harvard University. Thomas Crosby (1C14x), last on the list was Simon Crosby's (2C13x) father. He later moved to Rowley where many of our other Brigham and Crosby relatives lived.

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