Historic leaves, volume 2, April, 1903 - January, 1904

[19] the Rev. Samuel Stow, a graduate of Harvard College in the class of 1645. He was the son of John and Elizabeth (Biggs) Stow, of Roxbury, and was born about 1622. In 1649, at Chelmsford, he married Hope, daughter of William Fletcher. Of their seven children, a son, John, was born in Charlestown June 16, 1650. As early as 1653 he was the minister in Middletown, Ct., and March 22, 1670, he and his two brothers were enumerated among the fifty-two householders and proprietors of that place. In 1681 he seems to have been settled in Simsbury, Ct. Judge Sewall, in a letter dated November 16, 1705, writes that the Rev. Mr. Samuel Stow, of Middletown, went from thence to heaven upon the 8 May, 1704.

‘30: 3 mo. 1657. A town rate, amounting to £ 100, for va-. rious purposes, includes an item of £ 7 “to Mr. Morley, Scholemaster” ; said rate is to be made out and collected of the Inhabitants by the Constables.’ Frothingham (page 155), under date 1659, says that twenty acres in wood and three and one-half acres in commons were assigned to Mr. Morley. Wyman's History informs us that John Morley was the schoolmaster one year from April 26, 1652, and again also in 1657. He, with his wife Constant (Starr), was admitted to the Charlestown church in 1658. He is said to have been the son of Ralph Morley, of Braintree. His mother may have been the widow Catharine Morley ‘who sojourned thirty weeks with John Greene, of Charlestown, at two shillings and sixpence per week.’ John Morley died January 24, 1660-1, and in his will bequeathed his estate at Lucas and at Chesthunt Leyes, Hertford county, Eng., first to his wife, and secondly to his sister, Mrs. Ann Farmer. The will of the wife was probated in 1669.

In 1660 one thousand acres of land, in the wilderness, on the western side of Merrimack river, at a place commonly called by the Indians Sodegonock, were laid out by order of the General Court of Massachusetts Colony, for the use of the town of Charlestown. The rental of this tract of land helped to defray the annual expenses of the school.

November 26, 1661, Mr. Ezekiel Cheever entered upon his labors in behalf of the Charlestown grammar school. This