PROVISIONAL NOTES ON PELHAM’S EARLIEST SETTLERS Alfred S. Romer September 1967 Of great interest is the question of our town’s earliest settlers—who were they? Where did they come from? What happened to them? Have they descendants here today? As is well known, most of the first settlers were “Scotch-Irish.” In the early 1600s King James of Great Britain, having trouble with the unruly Irish of Ulster, decided to quiet things by settling there a colony of peaceable Scotch Presbyterian farmers. For a time things went well with them, but in the early 1700s conditions worsened, and a large fraction decided to emigrate to America. Most went to Philadelphia and spread southward as frontiersmen in the Appalachians. A fraction went to the west bank of the Hudson in New York State, settling Orange and Ulster Counties. A relatively small number came to New England. Some (including a few later Pelham residents) took part in an abortive settlement on the Kennebec in Maine. Others founded Londonderry, New Hampshire. Those In Massachusetts mainly settled at first in the Worcester region. They were, however, none too happy there; for example, they built a Presbyterian church in Worcester, but it was torn down by the local Puritans. Some went to “The Elbows” (later Palmer), others to Colrain; quite a number to a township which they wished to call New Glasgow, but which became Blandford. Still others, however, decided to form a town of their own. With the aid and advice of Squire John Chandler of Worcester, two leaders, James Thornton and Robert Peebles, engaged to buy a large tract which was to constitute most of Pelham for Colonel Stoddard of Northampton (and several years later four of the settlers bought an additional strip along he south border). 1 To raise the necessary money, it was decided to divide the area (which they wished to call Lisburn, after an Ulster town) into 60 shares (plus one for the minister), each purchaser receiving a home-lot of a 100 acres or so, plus two other lots of poorer land. The future town and its lots were surveyed in the summer and fall of 1739, and the next summer the first settlers moved in. Who were the original settlers in these 61 lots (plus the extra land on the south)? In the spring of 1739, when the “proprietors” first met, there were but 39 of them; to raise the necessary sum, quite a few of these men bought and paid for two lots, several bought more, and James Thornton (apparently quite prosperous) bought nine. Within the year, a dozen more purchasers were found, and over the next few years new settlers appeared from time to time, so that by 1745, five years from the first purchase, about 60 families were actually established. To determine the actual list of settlers is difficult. Parmenter’s History cites from the records of the “Proprietary the list of the first purchasers; but this is far from the complete list of early settlers. Further, not all of these “proprietors” actually settled in Pelham; some apparently got “cold feet” at moving into the wilderness, and others, it would seem, purchased on behalf of their sons or other relatives. To find just who was here in this early period, I have consulted three main sources: (1) the town records, with their lists of men serving in office, on committees, etc.; (2) the Registry of Deeds in Springfield, which lists all landholders’ purchases and sales; (3) the Probate Court Records in Northampton, where there is much data on wills and settlements of estates. From these derives the following list of somewhat over 60 men who were householders, owning land in Pelham by 1745, and taking part in town affairs. This list does not 2 include sons of these settlers, many of whom became active citizens in later years; further, there were probably a number of other men in Pelham as renters or laborers who, of course, are not represented in the deeds and who would not be mentioned in the town records if they took no part in town affairs Various landowners in this early period rather surely were non-resident. Some deeds appear to represent mortgages, and I have not listed them. Other names on deeds, not so surely of this nature but not appearing in the town records, are more doubtful; I have listed these separately. What happened to these early settlers? I will discover much of this when I have had sufficient time, in the future, to check later feed and probate records. Some fractions of this I already know. Some certainly stayed for the rest of their lives in Pelham. Many, however, moved on, restlessly, to new frontiers. A considerable number founded the town of Cambridge, new York, in the then wilderness west of Bennington. Others scattered in various directions, and I am afraid that without more work than I can ever do, over records of much of the eastern United States, I will never track all of them down. These early settlers, of course, have today a host of descendants spread over the country; I know of such here and there. How many, however, are represented by people still living in Pelham today? Mr. Thornton is the only one that I know at the moment. If there are more in this category, please let me know. Later I would be very glad for family data on families who came to Pelham after this very early period; at the moment, I would most especially like data on this oldest family list. 3 Pelham householders during the first five years: Abercrombie, Robert Johnson, John Alexander, James Johnson, Thomas Alexander, John King, Robert Berry, James Lotheridge, Robert Blair, John Lowden, Thomas Clark, Adam Lucore, John Clark, John Meklam, Andrew Cowan, Ephraim Meklam, Robert Cowan, George McClain, Robert Crawforrd, Jon McConel, James Crossett, Archibald McConkey, Alex Crossett, Robert McConkey, James Crossett, William McConkey, John Dick, John McConkey, William Dick, Thomas McCulloch, Alexander Dunlap, James McCulloch, James Ferguson, John McFarland, Andres Gilmore, James McFarland, John Gilmore, James Jr. McMullen, Thomas Gilmore, John Patterson, Adam Gilmore, William Peebles, John Gray, Hugh Peebles, Patrick Gray, John Peebles, Robert Gray, Matthew Rankin, Joseph Gray, Nathaniel Savage. John Gray, Samuel Selfridge. Edward Gray, William Stinson, John Gray, William Jr. Taylor, James Hamilton, John Thomas, David Hamilton, Thomas Thornton, James Hood, James Turner, Alexander Hunter, John Wason, John Johnson, Adam Early Pelham property owners, apparently non-resident: Barber, Robert Johnson, William Jr. Breckenridge, James Lockert, James Breckenridge, Thomas McCallum, John Crawford, Samuel McFarland, Alexander Gibson, James Thomas, Samuel Gordon, Robert Thornton, Matthew Hamilton, Micah 4 LIFE IN EARLY PELHAM Dr. Alfred S. Romer We all know that Pelham was settled in 1739-40 by Scotch-Irish, who were almost the only inhabitants of the town for the first few decades. But what sort of people were they; and what was life like here in these early days? First, these people were Scotch, not Irish. In the early 1600s, King James of England was dissatisfied with the unruly Irish of Ulster, and forcing many of them out, replaced them with farmers from lowland Scotland. They had lived there for more than a century, but having grown dissatisfied with economic and religions conditions, many of them decided to emigrate to the New World. From 1718 on for the next half century, thousands of them came to America. A large part of them came to Philadelphia and spread southward through the mountains to become the frontiersmen of revolutionary days; but some of the earliest settlers came to new York State (witness Orange and Ulster counties on the west bank of the Hudson), and the very earliest, in 1718, landed in Boston. Massachusetts didn’t quite know what to do with this influx. Some settled in New Hampshire (Londonderry, southeast of Manchester); a few went to found, unsuccessfully, a colony in Maine; the greater part, however, were sent west to bolster up the frontier which (except for the older towns in the Connecticut valley meadows) then lay in the Worcester region. Here they lived for 20 years. But not too comfortably, for they did not mix well with their Puritan neighbors, and, in fact, when they tried to build a Presbyterian church, their neighbors tore it down! After two decades the hill country between Worcester and the Connecticut Valley was open for settlement, and the Scotch-Irish began to head out. 5 One group purchased a segment of the “equivalent lands” in the hills which, due to boundary disputes, had been given to the state of Connecticut. (However, when purchased by the Worcester group, it was actually owned by a prosperous Northampton man who was the father-in-law of the famous preacher, Jonathan Edwards.) The Scotch- Irish incorporated themselves as the “Lisburn Proprietary,” wishing to name their new settlement after an Ulster town. However, when they were incorporated as a town, an English politician named Pelham was visiting Massachusetts, and the governor scratched out Lisburn and wrote in Pelham. In 1739 when the land was purchased, it was agreed to divide it into 60 lots, plus one for the prospective minister. Each man was to have a home lot of 100 acres or more, plus a second choice lot suitable, perhaps, for pasture, and a third choice lot of rough land as a wood lot. In 1739 the first home lots were surveyed; the second and third choices could be delayed until later, but it was imperative that the owners start work soon to clear land and build homes. The families stayed back in Worcester until 1740.