Chapter 1 - The Beginning

"Rawsons farm of 1840 acres first surveyed July 1685" This brief entry is all that is contained in the Bellingham records on Rawson and his Farm, the largest privately owned land parcel in the history of the Town and the first recorded by deed or other instrument.
 

George Partridge in his History of Bellingham wrote: "Edward Rawson, the first white owner of Caryville and North Bellingham the Puritan Secretary of the Colony of Massachusetts, whose portrait hangs in the Registry of Deeds in Boston, was born in England in 1615. He married Rachel Perne, granddaughter of a sister of Edmund Grundal, a famous Archbishop of Canterbury."
 

Edward Rawson had a large family. His eleventh child was Grindal Rawson, the Puritan zealot who served Mendon for many years as its minister. As a highly valued bureaucrat in the colonial government, Rawson did not need to support his family by his salary alone. He was also granted land at various times by the General Court. One such tract lay unincorporated for a long time and became almost as well known as the towns which surrounded it, under the name of Rawson's Farm.
 

At least two of the Rawson children settled in Mendon, Grindal and Edward. The purchase by Rawson of a large tract near Mendon was probably for his children or perhaps a place to retire if he ever left his government position. Rawson originally purchased the land in 1684 from an Indian Thomas Awassamoage. At the time, the Nipmuck Indians were being systematically, if legally, stripped of their land by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. William Stoughton and Joseph Dudley, on behalf of the colony secured most of the land from Natick to New York through various deeds from Nipmuck Indians. Their charge from the General Court and their letter in answer to this charge in 1681 reflect the prevalent attitude toward the natives:
 

"In ans^r to the motion & peticon of W^m Stoughton and Joseph Dudley,the Court judgeth it meete to grant this Motion, and doe further desire &impower the wo^rpff^l W^m Stoughton & Joscph Dudley, Esqs, to take particcu-lar care & inspection into the matter of the Iand in the Nipmug country,what titles are pretended to by Indeans or others, and the validity of them,and make returne of what they find therein to this Court as sonne as may be."
 

"Boston, October 17^th, 1681.
 

"In pursuance of an order of this honno^rble Court to inspect the clajmes of the remayning Indians to lands in the Nipmug country,-
 

In June last wee appointed a gennerall meeting of all Indian claymers to the sajd lands, & gaue full notice of the same to be holden at Cambridge Village, & there obtejned M^r Elljots company & others to asist in interpretation & better vnderstanding of their seuerall pleas., Wee then found them willing enough to make clajme to the whole country, but litigious & doubtfull amongst themselues; wee therefore, for that time, dismissed them to agree their seuerall clajmes amongst themselues, & them told them wee would further treate them to compromise the whole matter on the countrys behalfe.
 

Since which time, in September last, perceiving a better understanding amongst them, wee warned seurall of the principall claymers to to attend vs into the country, & travajle the same in company with _^ as farr & as much as one weeke would allow us, & find that the southerne part clajmed by Black James & company is capable of good setlement, if not too scant of meadow, though vncerteine what will fall w^thin bounds if our ljne be to be quaestioned.
 

The midl part aboue Sherborne & Marlborough, clajmed by the Hassanamesit men now resident at Naticke, but interupted by the clajme of seuerall exceccut^rs to John Wampus, whom wee sumoned before the Governo^r & Magistreates in Boston soone after our returne, and find their clajme very vncertajne, but, if allowed, will be to the ruine of the midle part of the country, of which the Indians make complaint to this Court.
 

The northerne part, adjoyning to Mashaway, is found the best land, most meadowed, & capable of setlement, which land, except a smale tract about Hassanamesit desired to be kept by the Natick Indians, may, wee suppose, vpon rasonable termes, be, so farr as respect the Indian clajme, taken into the countrys hands, which wee offer our advise as best to be donne, least the matter grow more difficult by delays. If there be any further service for vs in the matter, wee are
 

Your humble servants,
 

Willjam Stoughton,
 

Joseph Dudley.".
 

The ever generous General Court approved the report and the two men returned to "negotiate fair" settlements for the land. Their next report established the basis for the land grab of most of the Indian land from Natick to New York. The first section of thier letter describes their opinion of North Bellingham:
 

"Boston, Feb^r 18, 1681.
 

In pursuance of the last order of this Court for the purchase of the Nipmug country, the subscribers haue had seuerall treatjes w^th the Indians, and at length haue concluded,-
 

1. That the Hassanemesit and Natick Indeans shall haue added to the sajd plantations of Natick & Hassanemet, already granted & reserved by this Court for their oune inproovement, all that remayning wast lands lying betweene those two plantations @ adjoyning to Meadfeild, Sherborn, Mendon, Marlborow, @ Sudbury, being wast @ of very inconsiderable value."
 

The final phase of the land taking were the deeds presented on March 17, 1681. The letter to the General Court accompanying the deeds presents another view of the Puritans at work.
 

"Whereas wee are appointed by the Gennerall Courts order, dated 15 of February, 1681, to transact some matters realting to the Indians concerning their lands, & being vpon that occasion at Naticke, the 19^h of May, there was presented vunto vs the deed of sale, herevnto annexed, from the principall men of Naticke, which they acknowledged before vs made to Samuell Gookin & Samuell How, for a parcell of remote & wast land belonging to the sajd Indians, lying at the vtmost westerly bounds of Naticke, and, as wee are informed, (hauing seen the platt thereof,) is for quantity about _^ acres, more or lesse, being mean land, & sajd the most part encompassed w^th land belonging to the English; & hauing inquired into the matter, wee conceive it will be no pjudice or inconvennce to the Indians or their plantation of Naticke to sell the same to the persons concerned, w^ch, at y^e request of partjes, both English & Indians, wee offer to the Court for their confirmation of y^e sd sale.
 

Dated 27 May, 1682.
 

WILLIAM STOUGHTON,
 

JOSEPH DUDLEY.".
 

The remainder of the land above the Charles River described above was left to the Indians to dispose of to "disinterested" bureaucrats such as Edward Rawson. Through a series of documents (See Appendix A) that are the earliest recorded documents in the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds concerning the land that was to become Bellingham, Rawson became the owner of all the land above the Charles River in what is now Bellingham. His "purchase" was confirmed to him in 1685 by the General Court by the following article:
 

 

Obviously Rawson had arranged a purchase of land from the Indian, then had it confirmed by the legislative body in order to erase any doubts of the legality of the purchase from the native.