Timeline & Context
Natick History Timeline
1651- Natick is founded by Waban and John Eliot. The community is classified as a "plantation" by the Massachusetts General Court. It was called "Natick," a Nipmuc term that many scholars agree means "my land." Eliot referred to Natick before the mission was established, so there's good reason to believe that it was called Natick by others before mission residents moved there.
August 6, 1651- Natick residents adopt a political system based on rules from the Old Testament of the Bible called Mosaic Law.
1675-1676- King Philip's War: Natick is depopulated during internment on Deer Island.
1676- Natick is resettled after King Philip's War.
1707- Natick residents establish an English town government system with a board of selectmen, town meeting, town clerk, etc. Most residents and all elected officials were Indigenous.
1719- An English-style proprietorship land system is adopted by Indigenous residents after four years of debate.
1745- Massachusetts General Court classifies Natick as a "district" or "parish." As a result, Indigenous residents lose their rights to be involved in the town government.
1749- The "Meeting House Wars" begin. As the permanent English population in Natick increased, Natick Center became the population hub of the community. This shift prompted a decades-long, non-violent, debate about the location of Natick's church. The "Needham Leg," a stretch of land in northeast Natick, was exchanged back and forth between Natick and Needham multiple times during the 18th century.
1775- The American Revolutionary War begins with the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
1781- Natick is incorporated into Massachusetts Bay Colony as a town.
1783- American Revolutionary War officially concludes with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
1796- The "Meeting House Wars" concludes with the construction of a church in Natick Center.
The Proprietorship System: Who Could Buy and Sell Land in Natick?
In 1651, when Natick was founded as a Puritan mission or "Praying Town," for Massachusett, Nipmuc, Wampanoag, and Pawtucket peoples, community members held the land in common. This meant all land sales and boundary locations were decided by the community as a whole. This system was similar to traditional Indigenous land practices throughout New England.
In 1719, after at least four years of discussion and debate, the Indigenous residents of Natick adopted an English-style land proprietorship system. Although it is unknown exactly why they made this change, it was likely done to preserve land ownership for some of Natick's founding families. A group of male and female descendants of Natick’s earliest residents became proprietors. Town Meeting (composed entirely of Indigenous members) elected the proprietors and granted them each 60 acres of land. Proprietors could keep, sell, or lease their land. They could also buy other properties in Natick. Proprietors collected rent money from land they had sold to Magunkaquog (now Hopkinton). Proprietors also held right over the common land or land that had not been granted as parcels.
Proprietorship rights passed through family lines. Descendants of the original 1719 proprietors inherited parcels of land and all the rights to buy and sell land. Proprietors sold land to other proprietors as well as Indigenous and English non-proprietors.
Another group of landowners was called freeholders. They also received parcels of land from Town Meeting but did not have the right to sell their land. They did not collect rent money, either. However, they could become proprietors through an election process or by buying land.
The Natick proprietors granted the English minister of the church, Rev. Oliver Peabody proprietorship rights in 1723. Parcels of land were also set aside for ministerial lots.
According to the Proprietor’s Book of Records (now at the Natick Town Clerk's office), land sales began immediately in the 1720s.
All of the Natick land deeds and documents in this exhibit date from the 1730s and later.
Government Oversight of Land Sales
The Massachusetts General Court needed to approve all land sales between Indigenous proprietors and English settlers due to a seventeenth-century law. The General Court claimed the law protected Indigenous peoples from English settlers taking their land. However, the law worked according to English understandings of land ownership and ultimately restricted Indigenous peoples' freedom to manage their land. As you will see from some of the deeds in this exhibit, land transactions were often approved years before the actual sale. The General Court also established a guardianship system. Guardians were English men chosen to oversee Indigenous land sales and all aspects of Indigenous finances.
Indigenous residents continued to feel the aftermath of King Philip's War (1675-1676), even as they made changes to their land system throughout the 1700s. Forced indentures, enslavement, English Guardian custody of Indigenous children, and limited and dangerous employment options led to the permanent separation of families, periods of unemployment, and poverty. It became especially difficult for Natick residents to recover financially from setbacks such as illness. Loss of access to hunting land and materials to build wetus (traditional Indigenous homes) made Natick residents dependent on the English settler economy for food and building materials. By the 1740s, many Indigenous residents of Natick found themselves buried in debt.
When seeking approval from the General Court to sell land, Indigenous residents explained how they would use the money they earned from the sale. They often used the money to buy materials to build or renovate houses, make “improvements” on their land, and pay their debt. By the 1740s, debt became the most common reason Indigenous Natick residents sold parcels of land to English buyers. Deeds typically stated that the seller forgave all debt they owed on the property itself or to the buyer. If the seller owed debt elsewhere, they might use the money they made from the land sale as payment.
English Guardians
Guardians took advantage of this land system. They witnessed, consulted on, surveyed, and often consented to Indigenous land sales. Guardians surveyed land using English tools, measurements, and European understandings of land ownership. Guardians inherited Indigenous land rights when the person over whom they held guardianship did not have descendants or heirs and often sold the land to other English settlers. They also took legal custody of Indigenous children when their parent(s) were unable to pay their debts. Over time, many Indigenous children from prominent families, including the Speens and Wabans, became legal wards of Guardians.
As you will see in this exhibit, Indigenous landowners, under the advice of the Guardians, and with approval of the Massachusetts General Court, often sold land to English individuals. Guardians always made money from the various roles they played in the land sales (lawyers, surveyors, administrators, etc). Some Guardians used the land system to become permanent Natick residents. The Massachusetts General Court established the guardianship system to “protect” Indigenous land interests, and Indigenous residents sometimes requested Guardians to prevent squatters, but Indigenous residents were legally and conditionally obligated to hire and pay Guardians to administer estates and oversee other legal matters. Ultimately, the guardianship system allowed English people from outside of Natick to take advantage of Indigenous dispossession and the forced separation of Indigenous families.