146 FACTS RELATING TO GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS. 



Church, in 1676. Mr. Drake (in his edition of Mather's Brief His- 

 tory, p. 180) says that this name probably signifies " Swamp of 

 Night," but Dr. Trumbull wrote : " I can make nothing of this name : 

 it is certainly corrupted, and has lost at least one (initial) syllable.", 

 ^Church's Philip's War, part I, p. 163, note.) 



Tadmuck, a brook and meadow in Westford. This name is vari- 

 ously spelled in the old documents, Tatnoc, Tadnick, Tadnuck, and 

 Tadmuck. The last is more general and is adopted as the true one. 

 Tadmuck, Great Tadmuck, and Little Tadmuck were all meadows 

 and more or less swamp land and I have very little doubt that it has 

 the same signification as Tatamuckatakis, the name of a neck and 

 creek in Long Island. That name belonged originally to the meadows 

 bordering the creek, and the word signified, " meadow that trembles," 

 from " tata," " to shake," " to tremble," and moskehtuash " grass," 

 "pasturage." (Tooker.) The last syllable may have been lost and the 

 different dialects may have accounted for some change. Certainly the 

 Algonkin roots in this word authorize the translation. Maskituash, 

 "grass or hay." (Roger Williams.) 



Unquetenassett, a brook in the northern part of Groton. The 

 first syllable " unque " is probably the same as ongkaue, " beyond," 

 "further," and the last syllable is a locative, but in its present form I 

 cannot translate it. 



Wabansconcett, found in the original petition for the grant of the 

 town of Groton and used in connection with the territory of the 

 neighborhood. Waban, a sachem living at Nonantum in 1676, prob- 

 ably owned much land about Groton, for a deed of 1683 of "all and 

 every part of that Tract of land which is called Groton " was signed 

 by Thomas Waban, of Natick, and a few other Indians. Thomas 

 Waban is supposed to have been the son of Waban the Sachem, the 

 first Indian to receive the gospel from John Eliot and who became 

 one of his most trusted and eflficient workers among the Praying In- 

 dians. Waban, " the wind," keon, signifying " going over," and the 

 locative set, " at or near." Possibly the name signified, " where the 

 wind blows." The elder sachem probably took his name from some 

 part of his land at Groton, as was customary. 



