"Early New England People...Some Account of the Ellis, Pemberton, Willard, Prescott, Titcomb, Sewall...": Simon, son of Richard and Margery Willard, was born at Horsmonden, probably in the early part of the year 1605, as he was baptized in the church at that place, April 7, 1605, by Edward Alchine, Rector. He married Mary, daughter of Henry and Jane (Feylde) Sharpe, of Horsmonden. In April, 1634, Capt. Simon Willard, with his wife and one or two children, his sister Margery and her husband, Capt. Delour Davis, embarked from England, arriving at Boston about the middle of the month of May, after a short and very prosperous voyage. The name of the vessel is unknown, but there is on the files at Hartford, Conn., the deposition of a Mrs. Elizabeth Bacon, who states that she arrived in New England in the month of May, 1634, and that Samuel Greenhill "was reputed, by those who were well acquainted with him in the ship, a man of considerable estate, and was accordingly entertained in the ship with Mr. Willard and Mr. Pantry, and Mr. Crayfoote, and others of good account." Capt. Willard settled in Cambridge, Mass. From the Proprietors' Record, we learn that he had one hundred acres on the Brighton side of Charles River, adjoining the land owned by his brother-in-law, Capt. Davis. He engaged in the purchase and exportation of furs, dealing extensively with the Indians of the interior. At the time of his arrival the inhabitants of Cambridge were complaining of "straightness for want of land, especially meadow," and it may have been owing to this fact that he soon decided to leave Cambridge, and in company with others, to found a new plantation at Musketaquid. In September, 1635, a grant of land six miles square, was made by the General Court, Winthrop says, to "Mr. Buckly and [Simon Willard] merchant, and about twelve more families." The place was named Concord. Rev. Peter Bulkeley, with whom Mr. Willard was associated, was a man "of great learning, and large heart, 'of noble family,' 'possessed of wealth,' and distinguished as a divine. He arrived in Cambridge early in the summer of 1635, and to him Willard attached himself with affectionate regard." The following is from Capt. Edward Johnson's account of their removal: "Upon some inquiry of the Indians, who lived to the north west of the Bay, one Captain Simon Willard being acquainted with them by reason of his trade, became a chiefe instrument in erecting this town: the land they purchase of the Indians, and with much difficulties traveling through unknowne woods, and through watery scrampes (swamps), they discover the fitnesse of the place, sometimes passing through the thickets where their hands are forced to make way for their bodies passage, and their feete clambering over, the crossed trees, which when they missed they sunke into an uncertaine bottome in water, and wade up to the knees, tumbling sometimes higher and sometimes lower; wearied with this toile they at end of this , meete with a scorching plaine, yet not so plaine but that the ragged bushes scratch their legs fouly.....Their farther hardship is to travell, sometimes they know not whither, bewildred indeed without sight of sun, their compasse miscarrying in crowding through the bushes. They sadley search up and down for a known way,--the Indians paths being not above one foot broad, so that a man may travell many dayes and never find one.... Thus this poore people populate this howling desert, marching manfully on (the Lord assisting) through the greatest difficulties and sorest labors that ever any with such weake means have done." Soon after Capt. Willard's arrival in Concord, he and Maj.-Gen. Gibbons, with some twenty men under their control, were sent by Gov. Winthrop to Connecticut with instructions "to take possession of the place and to raise some buildings." Upon the organization of the town of Concord, Capt. Willaard was chosen Clerk of Writs, and was continued in that office by annual election for nineteen years. The second year he was appointed Surveyor of Arms, having been a Captain in England. His first military commission in the colony was that of Lieutenant-Commandant. He was afterwards made Captain, and in 1653, was chosen Major of Middlesex, second in rank only to the Commander-in-Chief of the forces of the colony. The next year he was placed in command of an expedition against a tribe of the Narraganset Indians. At the earliest election made by the town, he was chosen a Representative to the General Court, and was re-elected fifteen times. In 1654, he was placed by the freemen of the colony in a "more distinguished, responsible, and widely useful position, as assistant, or member of the higher branch of the Legislature, which office he held continuously till his death." This embraced a very critical period in the history of the colony,--the earnest and exciting controversy with the Commissioners of Charles II. "The Commissioners were clothed with large powers, some of which were wholly inconsistent with the charter, while others were especially offensive to the people of Massachusetts, who had enjoyed so much actual liberty under its provisions." The Commissioners having perused the "Books of the Generall Lawes and Liberties," proposed, in the name of the King, no less than twenty-six alterations and additions. Gov. Bellingham, Major Willard and Messrs. Collins and Fisher were appointed a committee to peruse the Commissioners' exceptions to the laws of the colony. "The Commissioners met," says Mr. Joseph Willard, "with a spirit as decided as their own,--a spirit that would not submit to any infringement of the patent, and hardly willing to stop even at that point. Thence arose a long and earnest controversy, which ended in the Commissioners being baffled at all points; and they left the country in a very angry frame of mind, with abundant threats of Royal indignation." The Commissioners, having been authorized by the King "to hear and determine complaints and appeals in all cases, as well military, as criminal and civil," gave notice to the General Court, that on a certain day, they should sit as his majesty's Commissioners to hear and determine the cause of Thomas Deane and others against the Governor and company, "and," say they, "we do expect you will by your attorney answer to the complaint." They did answer, but not as the Commissioners intended. When the day for meeting came, they published a long declaration by sound of trumpet, declaring the proposed trial inconsistent with the maintenance of the laws and authority, and summoned Thomas Deane to appear and make good his charges. The Commissioners express unfeigned surprise, that, in a case wherein the Governor and company are impleaded, they should assume to themselves the hearing; "it being," say they, "unheard of and contrary to all the laws of christendom, that the same persons should be judges and parties." The General Court sent loyal addresses to the King, with a ship-load of masts for his navy, of which he stood much in need, "and the colony had rest for a time." Major Willard resided in Concord twenty-five years, and was a "leading and valued citizen." His mansion house was afterwards owned by Dr. Joseph Lee, "who, being a strong tory, was imprisoned during the Revolutionary war, and his house was taken by the patriots and used for a time as a boarding house for Harvard students, when the College in 1775 was removed to Concord, by order of the Provincial Congress, as the College buildings at Cambridge were needed for the use of the soldiers of the American army. (Note: Concord Guide Book" G.B. Bartlett) The house was burned some years ago. Major Willard removed from Concord to Lancaster, Mass., "being importuned by the inhabitants to come and instruct them in municipal affairs. When the place was destroyed by the Indians, he removed to Groton, and remained there until that place was destroyed by the Indians, when he removed to Charlestown, Mass.
He was employed by the government in various transactions with the Indians, and was associated with Apostle Eliot, and Major Gookins, in their friendly missions. When a company was formed to encourage the trade in furs with the Indians, he was intrusted with the superintendence. He was chosen by the Indians about Concord "to record, and keep in writing," what they had generally agreed upon, touching their religious and civil government. Passaconaway, cheif sachem of the Merrimac, requested that the Apostle Eliot and Capt. Willard would live near his people to teach them. During the thirty-seven years that Major Willard was a member of the General Court, he was constantly engaged in the public service. "The records of the General Court and other archives show a large aggregate of assiduous and valuable labor." "He was much sought after to settle vexed questions of the boundaries of towns, to arbitrate in controversies on the administration of the internal affairs of towns, and to settle disputed claims." He was one of the committee chosen by the General Court to consider the subject of supplies. This resulted in a law requiring "that all hands not necessarily employed in other occasions, as women, boys and girls," should "spin according to their skill and ability." The office of surveyor was of very considerable importance in the early days of the colony, and Major Willard possessing of the qualifications required for it, was frequently called upon for its exercise. For years, Massachusetts had laid claim to the Province of New Hampshire, under the provision of her charter which granted on the north of the Merrimac; and, in 1652, when she was preparing to ward off the attack of Mason's heirs, and establish her claim to a wider jurisdiction, Major Willard and Captain Edward Johnson were appointed Commissioners to find out the most northerly part of Merrimac River. An interesting memorial of the survey still exists. About forty-five years ago, in consequence of a dam having been thrown across the head of the weirs at the point where Lake Winnipiseogee discharges its waters into the Upper Merrimac, a large rock was exposed to view, deeply embedded in the gravel, with its surface but little above the water. On this rock was the following inscription: EJ SW, WP JOHN ENDICOT, GOV This points back unerringly to the spot which the Commissioners in their return to the General Court, designate and establish as the north line of the patent. Endicott was then the Governor of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, so his name was inscriber, with the abbreviation W.P., for Worshipful, together with the initials of Simon Willard and Edward Johnson. The rock is now called the Endicott Rock. "When King Philip's war began, Major Willard was summoned from the court he was presiding over, at the advanced age of 70 years, to lead the Middlesex Militia, and drive back the foe from the exposed towns of his district. This he did, and rapidly marched through the desert to Brookfield, just in time to relieve the garrison there." Bailies states, that "Major Willard so silently and skillfully managed his approach that he was perceived by the garrison before he was discovered by the Indians." Increase Mather says: "What a black appearance of death and ruin was before the poor people at Quaboag, when they were all cooped up in one unfortified house, and surrounded by a barbarious multitude of cruel Indians, who thirsted after their blood! But God by a strange providence sent Major Willard, who, with a small party of soldiers, came a few house or minutes before it was too late; by which means, the remaining inhabitants of that place had their lives given them for a prey." Hubbard, in his history of the war, gives abundant commendation to the Major, whom he entitles "that honoured person, that worthy patriot and experience soldier." Mr. Sidney Willard says: "For more than forty years he was a frontier commander with inadequate forces under his command, engaged with an enemy whose modes of warfare were of a kind to occasion the utmost perplexity, and who by sudden surprises and simultanious attacks on different places were enabled to accomplish their fatal purpose." Major Willard received a number of grants of land, making in all between four and five thousand acres, exclusive of this right to subsequent divisions in the lands of Lancaster. The towns of Acton, Stow, and a part of Groton, are on land that belonged to him. After his death, his six youngest children received a grant of one thousand acres in payment of money that was due Major Willard from the Indians. In 1686, a tract of land twelve miles square,--afterwards the township of Rutland,--was conveyed by the Indian proprietors to Henry and Benjamin, sons of Major Willard; Cyprian Stevens, his son-in-law; Joseph Rolandson, son of the former minister of Lancaster; and Joseph Foster of Billerica. Major Willard married for his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Dunster, of Balehoult, Lancashire, Eng. She was sister to President Dunster. She lived but six months after her marriage. His third wife was Mary Dunster, cousin to President Dunster. She survived him and married Deacon Noyes of Sudbury. Major Willard died April 24, 1676. While presiding at court, he was seized with an epidemic cold of a very malignant type then prevailing in New England, and after a few days' illness, died in the seventy-second year of his age. He had the pleasure of knowing a short time before his death "that a grateful public still acknowledged the value of his faithful labors, when the official count of the votes placed him among the highest on the list of the proposed assistants for the political year beginning in May, 1676; in fact, heading all others with the exception of the Govenor and Deputy-Governor." Rev. Ebenezer Pemberton says of him: "He was a sage patriot in Israel whose wisdom assinged him a seat at the Council Board, and his military skill and martial spirit entitled him to the chief place in the field." Rev. Horation Wood of Lowell, Mass., says: "Mr. Willard was a stalwart Puritan of the elder day, a conscientious, religious man, possessing strong religious convictions, a devout, humble and earnest spirit. He was a man of sound and enlightened understanding, of discreet wisdom and of a brave and enduring spirit, not boastful, but possessing that true courage which belongs to a modest and generous nature, and is ready, at the call of duty, to sacrifice ease and comfort, yea, life itself, in defense of the public weal. Never was motto on coat of arms more characteristic..."
He was employed by the government in various transactions with the Indians, and was associated with Apostle Eliot, and Major Gookins, in their friendly missions. When a company was formed to encourage the trade in furs with the Indians, he was intrusted with the superintendence. He was chosen by the Indians about Concord "to record, and keep in writing," what they had generally agreed upon, touching their religious and civil government. Passaconaway, cheif sachem of the Merrimac, requested that the Apostle Eliot and Capt. Willard would live near his people to teach them. During the thirty-seven years that Major Willard was a member of the General Court, he was constantly engaged in the public service. "The records of the General Court and other archives show a large aggregate of assiduous and valuable labor." "He was much sought after to settle vexed questions of the boundaries of towns, to arbitrate in controversies on the administration of the internal affairs of towns, and to settle disputed claims." He was one of the committee chosen by the General Court to consider the subject of supplies. This resulted in a law requiring "that all hands not necessarily employed in other occasions, as women, boys and girls," should "spin according to their skill and ability." The office of surveyor was of very considerable importance in the early days of the colony, and Major Willard possessing of the qualifications required for it, was frequently called upon for its exercise. For years, Massachusetts had laid claim to the Province of New Hampshire, under the provision of her charter which granted on the north of the Merrimac; and, in 1652, when she was preparing to ward off the attack of Mason's heirs, and establish her claim to a wider jurisdiction, Major Willard and Captain Edward Johnson were appointed Commissioners to find out the most northerly part of Merrimac River. An interesting memorial of the survey still exists. About forty-five years ago, in consequence of a dam having been thrown across the head of the weirs at the point where Lake Winnipiseogee discharges its waters into the Upper Merrimac, a large rock was exposed to view, deeply embedded in the gravel, with its surface but little above the water. On this rock was the following inscription: EJ SW, WP JOHN ENDICOT, GOV This points back unerringly to the spot which the Commissioners in their return to the General Court, designate and establish as the north line of the patent. Endicott was then the Governor of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, so his name was inscriber, with the abbreviation W.P., for Worshipful, together with the initials of Simon Willard and Edward Johnson. The rock is now called the Endicott Rock. "When King Philip's war began, Major Willard was summoned from the court he was presiding over, at the advanced age of 70 years, to lead the Middlesex Militia, and drive back the foe from the exposed towns of his district. This he did, and rapidly marched through the desert to Brookfield, just in time to relieve the garrison there." Bailies states, that "Major Willard so silently and skillfully managed his approach that he was perceived by the garrison before he was discovered by the Indians." Increase Mather says: "What a black appearance of death and ruin was before the poor people at Quaboag, when they were all cooped up in one unfortified house, and surrounded by a barbarious multitude of cruel Indians, who thirsted after their blood! But God by a strange providence sent Major Willard, who, with a small party of soldiers, came a few house or minutes before it was too late; by which means, the remaining inhabitants of that place had their lives given them for a prey." Hubbard, in his history of the war, gives abundant commendation to the Major, whom he entitles "that honoured person, that worthy patriot and experience soldier." Mr. Sidney Willard says: "For more than forty years he was a frontier commander with inadequate forces under his command, engaged with an enemy whose modes of warfare were of a kind to occasion the utmost perplexity, and who by sudden surprises and simultanious attacks on different places were enabled to accomplish their fatal purpose." Major Willard received a number of grants of land, making in all between four and five thousand acres, exclusive of this right to subsequent divisions in the lands of Lancaster. The towns of Acton, Stow, and a part of Groton, are on land that belonged to him. After his death, his six youngest children received a grant of one thousand acres in payment of money that was due Major Willard from the Indians. In 1686, a tract of land twelve miles square,--afterwards the township of Rutland,--was conveyed by the Indian proprietors to Henry and Benjamin, sons of Major Willard; Cyprian Stevens, his son-in-law; Joseph Rolandson, son of the former minister of Lancaster; and Joseph Foster of Billerica. Major Willard married for his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Dunster, of Balehoult, Lancashire, Eng. She was sister to President Dunster. She lived but six months after her marriage. His third wife was Mary Dunster, cousin to President Dunster. She survived him and married Deacon Noyes of Sudbury. Major Willard died April 24, 1676. While presiding at court, he was seized with an epidemic cold of a very malignant type then prevailing in New England, and after a few days' illness, died in the seventy-second year of his age. He had the pleasure of knowing a short time before his death "that a grateful public still acknowledged the value of his faithful labors, when the official count of the votes placed him among the highest on the list of the proposed assistants for the political year beginning in May, 1676; in fact, heading all others with the exception of the Govenor and Deputy-Governor." Rev. Ebenezer Pemberton says of him: "He was a sage patriot in Israel whose wisdom assinged him a seat at the Council Board, and his military skill and martial spirit entitled him to the chief place in the field." Rev. Horation Wood of Lowell, Mass., says: "Mr. Willard was a stalwart Puritan of the elder day, a conscientious, religious man, possessing strong religious convictions, a devout, humble and earnest spirit. He was a man of sound and enlightened understanding, of discreet wisdom and of a brave and enduring spirit, not boastful, but possessing that true courage which belongs to a modest and generous nature, and is ready, at the call of duty, to sacrifice ease and comfort, yea, life itself, in defense of the public weal. Never was motto on coat of arms more characteristic..."
Barbara Combs 
