History of Worcester, Co. MA page 686 The town of Leicester stands upon the ridge of the water-shed of Central Massachusetts, one thousand and seven feet above the sa level. Its waters flow easterly, through Lynde and Kettle Brooks, into the Blackstone River; southerly, through French River, into the Quinebaug and Thames, and westerly from Shaw Pond, through the Chicopee River, into the Connecticut. Lynde Brook Reservoir, on to the east, is one of the sources of water supply for Worcester, and Shaw Pond, on the west, is the source of the supply for Spencer. Leicester is about 48 miles from Boston. It is 6 miles west of Worcester and 500 feet above that city. It's villages are the Centre, at first called Strawberry Hill; Cherry Valley, 2 miles east of the Centre, generally so-called since 1820, Rochdale, at first South Leicester, named Clappville, from Joshua CLAPP, who purchased the mill property in 1829, and changed to Rochdale in November 1869; Greenville, which about the middle of the present century began to be so called from its founder, Captain Samuel GREEN; Mannville 2 miles north of the Centre, which was named after Mr. Billings MANN about the year 1856; and Lakeside, which has come tobe so called within a few years. The northeast part of the twn is called "Mulberry Grove", the name being first given in 1827 to the estate of Silas EARLE, on which he raised Mulberry trees and produced silk from the silk worms. At the timeof its original purchase the township of Leicester was a part of the extended domain of the Nipmuck tribe of Indians. The character of this tribe had been greatly changed, and many of its members had been converted to Christianity through the labors of John ELIOT and Daniel GOOKIN. GOOKIN in his "Historical Collections," mentions seven "new praying towns" among the Nipmuck Indians. One of these was in Oxford, and another was Pacachoag, in Worcester and the southeastern border of Leicester. The Massachusetts Colony, like the Plymouth, recognized the claim of the aborigines to this land, and secured it of them by fair purchase. The territory embrassing Leicester, Spencer, a part of Paxton and a small portion of Auburn was bought of the Indians by nine gentlemen of Roxbury and vicinity, who became the original "associate proprietors". The sachem, Oraskaso, had recently died, and the deed is signed by his heirs. The price paid for the land was 15 pounds, New England money. The deed was acknowledged before William STOUGHTON, "one of his Majesty's Council of his territory and dominions of New England," June 1, 1687. Twenty seven years afterwards the number of proprietors was increased to 22. They were men of wealth and influence, and some of them owers of large tracts of land in other towns of Central Massachusetts. None of them settled in Leicester.