OF THE TOWN OF GROTON, INCLUDING PEPPERELL AND SHIRLEY, FROM THE FIRST GRANT OF GROTON PLANTATION IN 1655. WITH APPENDICES, CONTAINING FAMILY REGISTERS, TOWN AND STATE OFFICERS, POPULATION, BY CALEB BUTLER. "Pleraque eorum quæ referam parva forsitan et levia memoratu videri, non "Small things, in the beginning of natural or politic bodies, are as remarkable BOSTON: PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN, No. 24 CONGRESS STREET. 1848. PRESENT INHABITANTS OF GROTON, PEPPERELL, AND SHIRLEY, THE FOLLOWING COMPILATIONS AND REMINISCENCES ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, BY THEIR HUMBLE SERVANT, C. BUTLER. PREFACE. CHRONICLES of events and occurrences which happened to the inhabitants of those towns in New England which began to be settled during the first half century after the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth, have become almost universal. The reminiscences furnished by these local histories are interesting to the present generation on several accounts. They afford us the means of comparing the hardships, trials and privations endured by our progenitors, with the ease, comforts and abundance enjoyed by us; a comparison, which may well reconcile us to the trifling inconveniences and molestations we too often permit to make us discontented. A kind of melancholy pleasure is afforded by contemplating the courage with which they met, the fortitude with which they sustained, and the patience with which they endured the dangers, difficulties and destitutions to which they were constantly exposed. They will also furnish the future historian with materials for a more general, comprehensive and philosophical narrative. Groton, it is thought, affords as many incidents worthy of record, as almost any town in New |