Historical Collections, by John Warner Barber

265

NORTHFIELD.

in the officers. The captain was supposed to be tinctured with toryism, and his present indecision and backwardness were ample proof, if not of his attachment to royalty, at least of his unfitness to lead a patriot band. Some murmurs began to be heard, when the first lieutenant, William Stacey, took off his hat and addressed them. He was a man of stout heart, but of few words. Pulling his commission from his pocket, he said: 'Fellow-soldiers, I don't knew exactly how it is with the rest of you, but for one, I will no longer serve a king that murders my own countrymen;' and tearing the paper in a hundred pieces, he trod it under his foot. Sober as were the people by nature, they could not restrain a loud, wild hurra as he stepped forward and took his place in the ranks. G. still faltered, and made a feeble endeavor to restore order; but they heeded him as little as the wind. The gallant Stacy was unanimously chosen captain, and with a prouder commission than was ever borne on parchment, he led a small but efficient band to Cambridge. He continued in service through the war, reaching, we believe, before its close, the rank of lieutenant-colonel, under the command of Putnam."

The following inscriptions are copied from monuments standing in the grave-yard near the south Congregational church.

Sacred to the memory of Rev^rd Samuel Kendall, who died Jan. 31, 1792, in the 85 year of his age, first minister of New Salem.

Equal in dust we all must lie;
And no distinction we can make,
But Faith forbids the rising sigh,
And sees my sleeping dust awake.

In memory of Mrs. Lucy Kendall, the late virtuous & amiable consort of Mr. Samuel Kendall, Jr., who died Oct. y^e 22, 1784, in the 34^th year of her age.

Tantum mors temporalem vastat feliciatem.*

Nor art nor virtue could redeem from death,
Nor anxious love prolong her lab'ring breath;
Conjugal bands asunder must be torn,
And thou, surviving partner, left to mourn;
But let her virtue now your grief suppress,
And wait reluctant till you meet in bliss.

NORTHFIELD.

"In 1672, a township was granted to John Pynchon, Mr. Pearson, and other associates, at Squakheag, now Northfield, on Connecticut river; and the following year a few people from Northampton, Hadley, and Hatfield, began a plantation at that place. The township was laid out on both sides of the river, and included an area of sex miles by twelve, extending several miles into the present states of New Hampshire and Vermont, including a valuable tract of interval land. The northern boundary of Massachusetts was at this time unknown, but the grant was supposed to be within the limits of the province. A deed to William Clark and John King of Northampton, agents for the proprietors of Northfield, covering the grant, was made August 13, 1687, by Nawelet Gongegua, Aspiambelet, Addarawanset, and Meganichcha, Indians of

* Thus does death destroy temporal (happiness) felicity.