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They were doubtful of the lawful use of the cross in an ensign, but satisfied that his act was very unlawful, so that finally Mr. Endicott was censured, and disabled for one year from holding any public office.
On the 27th Jan., 1631-2, ‘the Governour and some company with him went1 up by Charles River about eight miles above Watertown,’ and left an indelible record of their visit in the names which they gave to prominent features of the landscape, and which are still retained.
Winthrop's Journal says they ‘named the first brook, on the north side of the river, (being a fair stream and coming from a pond a mile from the river), Beaver Brook, because the beavers had shorn down divers great trees there, and made divers dams across the brook.
Thence they went to a great rock, upon which stood a high stone, cleft in sunder, that four men might go through, which they called Adam's Chair, because the youngest of their company was Adam Winthrop.
Thence they came to another brook, greater than the former, which they called Masters' Brook, because the eldest of their company was one John Masters.2 Thence they came to another high pointed rock, having a fair aspect on the west fide, which they called Mount Feake, from one Robert Feake, who had married the Governour's daughter-in-law.
On the west fide of Mount Feake, they went up a very high rock, from whence they might see all over Neipnett,3 and a very high hill due west, about forty miles off, and to the N. W. the high hills by Merrimack, above sixty miles off.’
Some explanations are needed to make this pleasant description clear at the present time.
Beaver Brook is a large and valuable stream, and empties into Charles River at the lower end of Waltham Plain, crossing the ‘Great road’ in its course.
It has two branches, eastern and western, which unite about half a mile from the river.
The former and larger branch, always called Beaver Brook in the early deeds
1 ‘No doubt a-foot,’ says Prince. ‘For the purpose of laying out a public road.’ Hist. Coll. V. 3, 2d Ser. p. 265.
2 John Masters was one of the earliest settlers of Watertown; he was admitted freeman May 18, 1631; moved to Cambridge before July, 1635, and died there 21st December, 1639; his wife died five days after.
3 Whipcutt, the margin reads.
Thomas Lewis, Landscape Photographs, 1879.
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