CHAPTER X
AT THE BLACKLEAD MINE. 1644 TO 1664

WINTHROP'S AGREEMENT WITH THOMAS KING.--VISIT OF JOHN ELIOT.--WINTHROP ARRANGES WITH WILLIAM PAINE AND THOMAS CLARKE.--INDIAN DEEDS.

TANTASKWEE BETWEEN 1644 AND 1664

The meager knowledge that we have acquired in regard to operations at the Leadmine between 1644 and 1664 will here be entered in connection with the Indian narrative.

Black-lead, plumbago or graphite (by which three names this mineral is known) was then regarded in England as of great value. Mr. Winthrop therefore entered the enterprise of mining, at first, with great enthusiasm.

As soon as sixteen days after the second deed (the one from the ancient Nadawahunt) was obtained, he made an agreement with Thomas King.

November 27, 1644, the following agreement was made between John Winthrop and Thomas King.--

"The said John Winthrop having delivered the said Thomas King twenty pounds in broding cloth & wampampeag in hand on the day above named, the said Thomas doth covenant and agree that he will speedily go with men, to be hired by himself the said Thomas, until Tantiusque the black-lead hill, and that he will there employ himself and his men in working upon ye digging up ye black-lead for the said John Winthrop and for wch he is to have after the rate of forty shillings for every tunne and to be paid him for when he has dug twenty tunnes of good marchantable black-lead and put it into an house safe from the Indians & also the sum of twenty pounds delivered him in hand is to be part of the said payment and he duely promises that he will work upon the digging of the said black-lead in beginning by digging a trench into the hill that the water may be thereby issued from the veins of the black-lead & reports the Indians have informed the said John Winthrop of another place not farre thence where there is also blacklead he doth covenant to go to that place and to work the land for the said John Winthrop at the easiest rate yt he can, and that if he finds it easier to work than that at Tantiusques that he will notify the same to the said John Winthrop with all the speed he can.

Thomas King. John Winthrop.

Witness.
   Jno Smyth Esq."

We may readily assume that this contract was carried out and considerable work done.

Mr. Winthrop also proceeded at once to form an association of his friends, to furnish the necessary capital, as is shown by the following:

Dr. Robert Child writes him Mar. 1, 1644-45:

   "Concerning the blacklead, I have certified yo^r uncle and brother (Emanuel Downing & Stephen Winthrop) my resolution y^t. I am willing to undergoe a 4th part of the charge in y^t business as I promised, and phaps may settle myself there if the place please me; but I would wish you not to bestow much cost as yet on ye place till you have more certainty than as yet you have."

Dr. Child also gives a technical description of the best blacklead to be found in Europe.

On the 23d of Mar. 1648-9, Mr. Winthrop wrote to Mr. Child:

   "I have done nothing yet about the lead mine because of the difficulty in the beginning. Except a plantation were near or a good stock, it may well be fore borne a year or two, wch (the stock) because of your departure I have not once minded to raise by other adventure."¹

It will be recalled that the above letter was written in the spring following the summer of 1648, when there were "commotions among the Indians" which caused Mr. Eliot to make that roundabout journey thru Lancaster, guarded by twenty Indians, "armed in their way" and several men of his own church.

He was led to perform this long, tedious and dangerous march, by a desire to visit that "ancient sachem" the Christian Indian, Nashoonon (Nadawahunt). It is assumed that Mr. Eliot was here again in 1655; perhaps upon the occurrence of the death of the ancient chief, for his successor, Wetolechen (Wattalloowechen), gave Mr. Eliot one thousand acres of land at that time. (See Brimfield.)

May 20, 1647, "A covenant and agreement between John Winthrop, Jr., of Pequot & Mathew Griswold of Saybrook" was prepared in 4 sections and signed.

Said Matthew was to dig the black-lead for a third of it; and each to pay their respective share of the expense of carriage to the river.

Sept. 25, 1657, Mr. Winthrop made arrangements with William Paine and Thomas Clark, merchants of Boston, for the disposal of the product in the market. The merchants also advanced a sum to finance the business.

In a letter written by Paine and Clark "1st month 29th, 1658 To the Most Worshipfull Mr. John Winthrop, Governor of Connecticut," is found the following:

   "For the cariage of the lead to the waterside Richard Fellows is vary willing to engage, first by going a turn or two upon trial, and after to go upon a more certain price." (See "Bay Path in Monson," for more about Richard Fellows.)

In a long letter from John Winthrop Jr., then in Boston, to his son in England, Sept. 12, 1658, he says:

   "There is some black-lead digged, but not so much as they expected it being very difficult to get out of the rocks, wch they are forced to break with fires, the rocks being very hard and not to be entered farther than the fire maketh way, so as ye charge hath been so greate in digging of it that I am like to have no profit by ye same."

Oct. 12, 1658. His discouragement prepared the way for a fourteen-year lease of the leadmines and all other minerals that may be found in Tantaskwee, to Messrs. Paine and Clark; he to have one third of the cleane product free of all charges.

Wait Winthrop to Gen. Court of Massachusetts, Aug. 1714.

   "To & etc.--The Memorial and presentation of W. Winthrop humbly showeth that in the year 1644 your memorialist's father had liberty from the Gen. Court of the late Massachusetts Colony to purchase lands at the black-lead mine at a place called Tantiousques about 60 miles westward from this place and accordingly he made purchase (of the known Indian Sachem & confirmed after his death by his son) of ten miles every way from said mine in the year above said and soon after made considerable improvement there by opening sd mine and building and keeping considerable stock there. the remains of two stone buildings being yet standing there, which, by reason of the long warr and trouble from the Indians, have gone to decay, and all improvements have been discontinued there."²

   (Extract.) "I find in an account book of John Pynchon of Springfield, that Mr. William Paine and Capt. Thomas Clarke of Boston employed men to work at the black lead mine in 1657, 1658 and 1659, and perhaps some years later; and that Mr. Pynchon procured provisions for them, and paid the workmen considerable amount from his shop of goods, Mr. Wintrhop is noticed two or three times as giving orders, but all the charges are made against Paine and Clarke, and they paid Pynchon's bill in goods, at Boston. The name of the principal workmen, or overseer, was William Deins. Pork, bacon, Pease, bread flour, Indian meal, cheese &c were conveyed from Springfield to the mine on horseback. Pynchon's agency ceased in 1659, but the work may have been carried on some years longer, or until 1663. In October and November of that year, two yokes of oxon, two cows, a mare and colt, and a sow, all belonging to Capt. Thomas Clarke, were brought to Springfield, where some were sold and others wintered. If they came from the black lead mine, it may be inferred that there was a house and barn, and some land cleared and cultivated at Tantousque....
   The noise of industrious laborers was hears in Sturbridge, before white men had taken possession of Norwich and Brookfield."

Sylvester Judd of Northampton.

Wetolechen, alias Wattawoolechen or Wattawashen, was living in 1655. He died before November 1658.

In the Indian history of early New England times, the title of chief or sachem was used interchangeably; the latter more frequently in southern New England history. In the native vocabulary, the prefix We or Wa, to a man's name, is equivalent to chief or sachem; and in every instance of a different name being given to this person by English writers, the prefix has been retained. It appears that his title and large estate was inherited thru his mother, who was a sister of the ancient Nodowahunt.

In the known acts of Wetolechen there is a certain emanation of largeness and honesty.

After his death, for some reason or purpose, an instrument was made up and signed at Tantaskwe as follows:--

INDIAN DEED

   Be it known to all men by these presence yt I wascomo Sachem of Tantiasquessek son of Webuckshums doe yeild up my right proprietie and Interest frilie and willinglie to mr. wintrhups now in hartfoord to be at his dispose his heires ececutores or asignes administratores in Consideration theiroff I william deines servant to mr. payne in bostown in nam and behalf of mr. wintrup doo: give him txx yardes truking Cloath before this witnes john beg john pettibone joseph Crowfoot james wariner this 16 day nowember 1658.
William Deines       Witness my hand
The mark   john beg       ye mark of ye
the mark   of James Warner       sachem
the mark   of joseph Crowfoot       washcomo
the mark   of john pettibone       [SEAL]

   William Dennie Testified upon Oath that he was present and did see the Sachem Washcump aforesd sign & deliver this Instrument as his act and deed and that John Beg, James Warriner, Joseph Crawford and John Pettebone did set to their hands as witnesses hereunto, Taken upon oath 27 June 1683.
   In Boston Before Hum. Davis Assist.
   Recd. June 24, 1752 and recorded from the original.

Edwd. Pynchon. Reg.

The above is a copy, orthography preserved, of the original paper signed at Tantaskwe, November 16, 1658.

A copy of this is in the (old Hampshire County Registry at Springfield, made in 1752. In that copy, the name of the grantor, in both instances, is changed to Wassecums.

That copy also omits the suffix, sek, in Tantiasquessek.

In the Indian vocabulary, the suffix ending with k or q has the meaning of, collectively, all; and when applied to a nation, means men, folks, the people.

Among the illustrations by Williams are:--Nanhiagganêuck, Massachusêuck, Pequttóog.

The witnesses, who signed this instrument, were laborers at the mine, and William Deins was foreman for Paine and Clark.

Very reasonably, Mr. Wintrhop did not like this, and he very soon procured another deed which rectified or covered all points as follows:

INDIAN DEED³

   These are to testifye that Whereas my father We Bucksham and Nadowahut and others did in the year 1644 Sell unto Mr. John Winthrop and surrender up to him all their right in the Black lead hill at Tantiusques with all the land round about the said Hill for ten miles: I Washcomos, Son and Heire of the said We-Bucksham being now by the Indians acknowedged the Sachem of that country. Do by these presents confirm all that my said father hath done and those other Indians with him and do give grant and confirm unto the said Mr. Wintrhop all that land beforesaid with the said Blacklead hill and all other places of Blacklead or other minerals to be to him and his Heires and assigns forever: witness my hand this first day of March 1658 and do also hereby acknowledge that the writing to which I set my hand at Tantiusque the 16th of November 1658 and do also hereby acknowledge that the writing to which I set my hand at Tantiusque the 16th of November 1658 was the same intent and purpose:

The mark     & seal of

Witness William Edwards Jonathan Gilbert William Deanes

The Sachem named We Backtomy.

   William Deanes Testified upon oath that he was present and see the Sachem We Backtomy abovesaid sign and deliver this instrument as his act and Deed and that William Edwards and Jonathan Gilbert were present and did set to their hands as witness hereunto, taken upon oath in Boston 27 June Anno 1683.

Before Humphrey Davis.

   Recd. June 24, 1752 and recorded from the original.

Edward Pynchon, Reg.

Wascomos, the new chieftain, is now about middle-aged. During a period of more than twenty years of adult life, he has had frequent occasions of intercourse, and sometimes association with English people. Hence it is likely he could, in a way, converse with the strangers from over the water.

BACK   NEXT   INDEX

Return to Massachusetts Home Pages