REHOBOTH and ATTLEBORO. 226

The complete history of the two towns includes not only that of quiet, conservative, beautiful Rehoboth and its vigorous, growing offspring, Attleboro, but of Seekonk with its fertile fields and famous plain, of Pawtucket with its varied industries, of Cumberland with its picturesque hills and valleys, of North Attleboro with its long past, — all of which places were intimately associated in the early days, and have been bound by many close ties since. North Attleboro was a part of Attleboro until July, 1887, when two large and thriving towns were made out of the old town.

In 1641, Massasoit, king of the Pokanokets, sold to Edward Winslow and John Brown, two gentlemen from Plymouth, as agents, a tract of land eight miles square, afterward known as the Rehoboth Purchase, comprising the present towns of Rehoboth and Seekonk and the city of Pawtucket. In 1644 Rev. Samuel Newman, the celebrated author of the Concordance of the Bible which bears his name, came with a majority of his parishioners from Weymouth, and settled on this land, which the Indians called Secunke.

Samuel Newman, who may thus properly be called the founder of Rehoboth, was a remarkable man. Mather writes of him in his " Magnolia as follows: He loved his church as if it had been his family, and taught his family as if it had been his church. He was a hard student, and as much toil and oil as his learned namesake, Neander, employed in illustrations and commentaries upon the old Greek pagan

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