List of People From Uxbridge, Massachusetts - 17th Century

17th Century

• Chief "Great John" The Native American Nipmuc chief who among other natives, and in meetings at Marlboro and Natick, agreed to a settlement for the purchase of Squinshepauk Plantation by Braintree and Weymouth Colonists in 1662. He was presumably the chief of "Wacantug", the local Nipmuc village which today is present day Uxbridge. The signing of the deed was witnessed by John Eliot (missionary), who had begun missionary activity among the Nipmuc in 1651 beginning at Natick. This history is recorded in the Annals of Mendon, by Metcalf, and in the history of John Eliot, Apostle to the Indians. Eliot established 14 praying Indian villages among the Nipmuc, but in 1675, during King Philip's War, some Nipmuc, from Marlboro and Natick, were intermed at Deer Island (Massachusetts), despite Eliot's protests, and many died. After the tragic war, many natives were sold into slavery. The Nipmuc Nation remains in central Massachusetts today and efforts are underway with the Wampanoag to preserve the L-dialect language of the Nipmuc.
• The Taft family in America - One of the first known European settlers in Uxbridge, was Robert Taft, Sr., in 1680, in the western part of Mendon, Massachusetts, which later became known as Uxbridge. He established the famous Taft family, a later political dynasty in the United States. He established his first permanent homestead here in 1680. President William Howard Taft is a descendant. See the article, The Tafts of Mendon and Uxbridge. One reference in Alphonso Taft's bio may indicate that Robert settled near "Colonel Crown's" land which may be near East Hartford Avenue. Taft was best known for building a bridge with his sons over the Blackstone River in 1709. This is adjacent to, or could be, the famous "stone arch bridge" at the Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park. This road became known as the Middle Post Road.
• The Aldrich family The Aldrich family, another American political dynasty, also had its beginnings in Mendon and Uxbridge, beginning with the immigrant, George Aldrich, of Mendon. U.S. Senator Nelson Aldrich who set up the U.S. Federal Reserve banking system and the income tax, and his daughter's son, U.S. Vice President Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller are descendants of this same family. The Aldrich Family Association was founded circa 1903 and its founding officers were from Uxbridge. A settlement in south Uxbridge became known as Aldrich, and is the location of the historic family cemetery. Descendants of the Aldrich family currently live in Uxbridge, Massachusetts. George Aldrich has a marker in and may be buried in the south Uxbridge family cemetery, which in 1680, the year of his death, was a part of Mendon.
• Colonel William Crown Colonel Crown was a prominent early settler born in England, who served on the founding board of Selectman in Mendon, and who owned a significant amount of land in early Mendon and what became Uxbridge. His farm was along the route that became the Middle Post Road. He was apparently an early colonial militia colonel. The title of his land in Mendon which later became Uxbridge, was transferred to Robert Taft I, the original Taft family immigrant, in 1679.
• Mr. Mumford --An unfortunate early settler who died of drowning in one of the Towns rivers, the Mumford River, which was subsequently named for him.