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THE EARLY SETTLEMENT IN QUAKER FARMS AREA.
The
date of the first settlement in Oxford has not been firmly
established by preserved documents, but Sharpe cites an
early record
designating the westerly portion of town as the Quaker's
Farm, in l683.
He presumes from that settlers had also settled there by
that date.
He also cites an early document listing a
layout of
170 acres at Quakers Farm for Lieut.
Johnson, made March 27, 1688, which refers
to "the common road," through "the place commonly called the
Quaker's
Farm."
As there was a road and in 1680 there was
need to
establish boundaries in that area, it appears that there
were a
considerable number of settlers in that area at that time.
Other early settlers for whom records
have been
preserved appear to have settled in the area at an early
date, and a
few of them are listed below:
Joseph Hawley, 1705, exchanged land with Thomas Sharpe.Samuel Riggs land, laid out of Five Mile Hill, 1699. This land was bounded by land of John Hulls, John Tibballs, and Wedow Denman.
John Chatfield, 1711, in the swamp upon the Five Mile Brook.
John Tibballs, 1711, adjacent to S. Riggs and John Hull.
John Pringle, over the Eight Mile Brook, bounded by land of Samuel Nichols.
The above listing would indicate that N. J.
Wilcoxson was in error when he listed the early settlement
of
Quaker
Farms in his address at the Centennial Celebration, July 4,
1876. In
that address, he said:
"The first English inhabitant,of Oxford, as I take from record, was Dr. Butler, a quaker and hunter, who for some years from the year 1715, had a hermit residence."
"The first English person born in Oxford was Lieut. John Griffin, born in 1725, died 1821, aged 96 years...."
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