Lowell Deeds

Yesterday in the town of Natick, Massachusetts, a ceremony honored that town’s “Praying Indians,” indigenous people who converted to Christianity in the 1650s but who were exiled to Deer Island in Boston Harbor during King Philip’s War (1675). Yesterday’s ceremony honored, among others, members of the tribe who went on to fight on the colonial side during the American Revolution. There is a local connection to this story. On May 18, 1653, the Massachusetts General Court granted two petitions . . .

One from seuerall of the inhabitants of Concord and Wooburne, the other from Mr. Eliot on behalfe of the Indians, for land bordering vppon the Riuer Merimacke, neere to Paatookett, to make plantation . . .

These petitions established the town of Chelmsford and the village of Wamesit, one of several “praying villages” created by the legislature at the behest of John Eliot, a minister who spent the bulk of his adult life preaching to and converting many of the indigenous residents of Massachusetts to Christianity. “Wamesit” consisted of 1000 acres of land on the west bank of the Concord River where it flowed into the Merrimack (today’s downtown Lowell) and 1500 acres on the east bank of the Concord (today’s lower Belvidere). The indigenous residents of Wamesit were driven away by the animosity that arose during and after King Philip’s War and the land they occupy was taken over by residents of Chelmsford. It was not until 1726 that the Massachusetts General Court formally annexed Wamesit to Chelmsford after which it became known as “East Chelmsford.” But “East Chelmsford only existed for 100 years because in 1826 it became the town of Lowell.