91 



skeletons of the Indians are still found in this locality). 

 In 1659 Bellingham sold this claim to Bray Wilkins whose 

 descendants (some of them) are before me to-day. Wilkins 

 was from Wales, came over in one of Gov. Endicott's 

 vessels and tended a ferry in Lynn fifteen years before set- 

 tling in Middleton. This was in 1660, one year after pur- 

 chasing these lands. His dwelling was on the southeast 

 side of the pond and protected from the cold winds by 

 Wills Hill on the north. His family consisted mostly of 

 boys who took up a large portion of this claim and erected 

 dwellings thereon for themselves, and this accounts for this 

 name being more numerous in our early history than any 

 other. Wilkins attended church at Salem Village, of 

 which this town was a part, under the pastorate of Rev. 

 Samuel Parris, in 1692, at the time of the witchcraft, and 

 one of his grandsons was a victim. 



In 1663 Thomas Fuller from Woburn bought a claim 

 of Maj. General Denuison, lying east of Bellingham and 

 parallel with it, and erected his dwelling just south of this 

 church on the site now occupied by the house of Mr. 

 Abijah Fuller. Thomas Fuller was a blacksmith by trade. 

 He had quite a number of sons who also settled on his 

 lauds and for some years these two families must have 

 been the principal ones in this part of the town. 



In 1728 these people obtained a charter from the Great 

 and General Court for a town. It enjoined upon the in- 

 habitants the settling a minister and hiring a schoolmaster 

 to teach "ye young to read and write." Consequently 

 they settled Andrew Peters, and hired Daniel Towne as 

 schoolmaster. Peters was from Andover, son of Samuel 

 Peters and a graduate of Harvard College, in the class of 

 1723. The charter was presented to the town by Lieut. 

 Thomas Fuller, designated as one of the principal inhabi- 

 tants, who, at that period, must have been between ninety 



