A dubious 'first"
After helping settle the town of Dedham, Samuel Morse, my 9th great-grandfather, joined a group of folks ready to strike out from the growing town and start a new one carved from the original grant of territory Dedham lay in. Named Medfield, the town was just one of several others established. Before long, it became a victim in the increasing animosity between the indigeousnes tribes and the English settlers. As mentioned in the last post a distinguishing feature of the Dedham land grant was that the settlers established relations with the tribes and arranged to purchase the properties. Unfortunately these agreements were not recorded in writing, which caused a certain amount of friction among the parties but they managed to come to new agreements. Still some members of the tribes believed the English were violating treaties which caused new frictions. In one instance the English insisted that the tribes could not own guns according to their treaties and demanded the surrender of any