Rev. John Wilson, 1st Church of Boston, owned Land now Merrimack, N.H Subject: Rev. John Wilson, Boston, Owned Land now Merrimack, NH Source: Groton Historical Series by Dr. Samuel A. Green Vol II, 1890 p. 389 The Reverend John Wilson, first minister of Boston, owned two large tracts of land in what is now Merrimack, New Hampshire, but which then came within the limits of Massachusetts. They contained, both together, one thousand acres; and Mr. Wilson's title was confirmed by the General Court, at a session beginning on October 16, 1660. A grant was made to him during the summer of 1639, more than twenty years previously; but, owing to "severall disappoint- ments," the land had been neither surveyed nor selected. In the Suffolk Registry of Deeds there is a record of the sale of this land, on December 3, 1660 to Simon Lynde, a merchant of Boston; and as the description of the property mentions three Indian names, of which two are still in use, I make the following extract from the deed, in order to show their antiquity and to prolong their continued applica- tion: "one thousand acres of land bee it more or lesse scittuated lying & being about tenn miles more or lesse from Groatten being laid out in two severall places (to witt) three hundred acres of meadow & upland lying at or upon pennechuck brooke neere South eggenock River bounded with the wilderness & a pond lying towards the southwest Corner thereof and the bound tree marked wth the Letter L and seven hundred acres of meadow & upland and entervaile scittuate lying & being about one mile & halfe Distant from the aforementioned three hundred acres of land upon Southheaganock River aforesaid the River Runing thru the Same and the place Called by the Indians Quo-qunna-pussackessa nay-noy bounded upon the westward wth the land or farme of Capt. William Davis of Boston easterly" [Suffolk Deeds, Liber III. page 449.) Both Pennichuck Pond in Hollis, New Hampshire, and Pennichuck Brook, running from the pond into the Merrimack River and forming the boundary line between the city of Nashua and the town of Merrimack, keep one of these three names familiar to the present generation. "South eggenocke" and "Southheaganock" - different forms of the same word - represent another of these names, which is now known as "Souhegan" and applied to a well-known river in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire. The name "Quo-qunna-pussack-essa nay-noy," as given in the deed, is written "Quohquima-paskessa-nahnoy" in the General Court records; and these two forms of an Indian word are sufficiently similar to establish their identity. I am not aware that any trace of this name still survives in the geographical nomenclature of the neighborhood. The "pond lying towards the southwest Corner" of the first parcel of land mentioned in the deed, is Pennichuck Pond, and so called in the colonial records. Geographical names of Indian origin furnish now one of the few links in New England that connect modern times with the prehistoric period. In the absence of any correct standard either of pronunciation or spelling, which always characterizes an unwritten language, these words have been greatly distorted and changed, and thus have lost much of their original meaning, but their root generally remains. As the shards that lie scattered around the sites of old Indian dwellings are eagerly picked up by the archaeologist for critical examination, so any fragmentary facts about the Indian names of places are worth saving by the antiquary and scholar for their historical and philological value. Dr. Green's remarks before the Massachusetts Historical Society, May 9, 1889. Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth See also, HISTORY OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN BOSTON. CHAPTER I. 1630-1632. JOHN WILSON. Origin and Foundation of First Church in Boston