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10                                                   HISTORY OF FALMOUTH.

 

whites, yet many personal encounters are said to have occurred and many acts of violence were committed. In conversation with a lady a few days since -- now in her 79th year, -- I was informed that her parents settled in Quisset, and that a wigwam, which she had often visited when a child, stood near the present residence of Mr. Solomon Davis. She also told me that her great‑uncle, when a lad, was stolen by the Indians and taken with his mother to the sea, where the party embarked in a canoe. The lad was commanded to seat himself in the canoe, but not understanding the language of the natives and remaining in a standing position, he received a blow on his head, the mark of which he bore ever after. The weather was cold and on arriving at their place of destination the mother was excluded from the wigwams and perished in the night. The boy after remaining a long time with the Indians, ran away and got back to his home. Many similar occurrences might be mentioned, showing that our fathers had other trials than simply those that are always attendant on the settlement of a new country.
        The earliest records of the town are comprised in a manuscript book called "Proprietors' Records" and dated November 29th, 1661. This book contains little else than the divisions and bounds of lands as they were set off to the original proprietors. It gives us the names of the first settlers, but from them we can gain no knowledge as to whom they were, from whence they came, or when and how they arrived. These interesting questions I shall attempt to answer. We will go back to the county of Kent in England. A company from this county arrived in New England and began the settlement of Scituate, about 1628. The first principal street laid out in Scituate was called Kent Street. It is stated in the Collections of the Mass. Historical Society, "Scituate, indebted to the substantial charac-

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