GENEALOGY ~ ISAAC GLEASON OF FRAMINGHAM - PURCHASE OF LANDS - 1ST FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR

Isaac GLEASON, (Thomas1, Thomas2) was born in Sherborn, MA., in 1674. He died in Framingham, MA, December 5, 1737. He married in Sherborn on December 11, 1700, Deborah, the daughter of Ebenezer & Deborah Leland, who was born in Sherborn on August 16, 1679. They had 4 children: Deborah, Isaac, Prudence and Phineas.

Isaac settled in Framingham near his father, his house being located about 45 rods southeasterly from what is known in later years as the old Charles Clark house. The old records contain the following entry:
    "Isaac Gleason was chosen to and accepted of the care of our publick meeting house, to sweep and keep it decent and clean for the year 1713, and is to have 19s for said service."

June 16, 1710 [Court] ordered,
    That "the line between the towns [Sherborn, Framingham] be forthwith run and that the 17 families, late in controversy be included within Framingham line, and be accounted part of Framingham forever: And that Sherborn have their 4000 acres confirmed to them, upon their offering the Plot, as is directed in a former order of this Court."

The 4000 acres of "wilderness country land," which Sherborn received as an equivalent for the seventeen families, was located west of Mendon.

The designation, "17 families," was first applied by Sherborn; and was after used as a convenient description well understood by all parties.  But in fact only seven individuals or heads of families of the seventeen, were accounted as inhabitants, and received a "dividend" in the common lands in Sherborn.  These were Isaac Learned, Isaac Gleason, Zachariah Paddlefoot, Samuel Eames, Thomas Pratt, Jabish Pratt, and John Eames.

Each man's proportion to a Tax of Ten pounds to procure a stock of Ammunition, June 27, 1710.  The town was then divided into two constables' wards; the East ward took in all the inhabitants east of Sudbury river and south of Stoney brook; the West ward took all north of Stoney brook and west of Sudbury river. 
    East Ward: (61 heads of household) included:
        John Gleason             2 Shil.    5d.
        Thomas Gleason        1 Shil.    7d.
        Isaac Gleason            1 Shil.    7d.
    West Ward: (50 heads of household) included:
        Philip Gleason          0 Shil.    9d.

June 11, 1711: PETITION SENT TO THE GENERAL COURT.  "To his Excellency, Joseph Dudley: The humble petition of the subscribers sheweth, That there being a tract of land belonging to the Indians of Natick, situated on the southerly or southwesterly part of the Township of Frmingham, a part of which is commonly called Megonchuk, to which there are other lands adjacent belonging to the said Indians "And there being at present no prospect that those lands remaining as they are can be any ways profitable either to their owners or the Commonwealth"
    "Your humble petitioners therefore pray that they may have liberty to purchase 4,000 acres of the said lands; Or that they may hire the same for such a term of years as may be profitable to the Commonwealth, to the said Indians, and to us." 
     Signed: Thomas Drury, Isaac Learned, David Rice, Thomas Gleson, John Town, Nathaniel Stone, Nathaniel Stone Jr., John Stone, John Gleason, Isaac Glesen, Daniel Pratt, Ebenezer Learned, Daniel Bigelow, Thomas Walker, Samuel Wasson, Ebenr Stone.

"Isaac Gleason was chosen to, and accepted of the care of our publick meeting house, to sweep and keep it decent and clean for the year 1713, and is to have 19 s. for said service."

Voted, "That in dignity, the seats shall rank as follows:- the table (Deacon's seat) and the fore seats are accounted the two highest; the front gallery equals in dignity the second and third seats in the body of the ;house; the side gallery equals in dignity the fourth and fifth seats in the body of the house."

The rule of seating varied.  Sometimes a committee was instructed to have regard to "age, and rate of taxation;" at others "rate" alone was regarded.  A new assignment of seats was ordered, once in three, five, or ten years, as circumstances required.

As an incident of this [French and Indian] war, in 1726, Isaac Gleason, son of the first [Framingham] Thomas, sold his one-third of the paternal estate to Daniel How, who at once opened a tavern, which he kept for about ten years.  It stood on the Old Connecticut path, about forty-five rods southeasterly from the old Charles Clark house.  In 1736 or 37, he sold to his son-in-law, Samuel Gleason, who continued the house of entertainment, known throughout the region as Gleason's tavern.  Mr. How moved to Westmoreland, N.H., where in a new and exposed frontier settlement, he led an eventful life for about eight years.  When the war broke out in 1745, he and his family were forced to leave their home and flee across the Connecticut river to a fort in the "Great Meadow", now Putney, Vermont.  The family were obliged to remain here; and he died in the fort, before the close of the war.

 HIGHWAYS - July 15, 1737.  "Return of a highway from Southborough line, via Brackett's corner, to Sudbury: beginning at Southborough line on land of Isaac Gleason, and so as the way is now occupied through his land, then through Ebenezer Frizzell's land, as the way is now occupied, then . . . ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
Genealogical Dictionary of New England, page 256, by Savage
Genealogical Register, page 563
Genealogy of the Descendants of Thomas Gleason of Watertown, Mass. 1607 - 1909,
Published  by John Barber White, ed. by Lillian May Wilson. Haverhill, Mass.,1909
The History of Framingham, Mass., by Josiah H. Temple, 1888, New England History Press.