MANCHAUG: A Name Derived from the Native People
Submitted by Harry Anderson, MPA Member, Area 2
Daniel Gookin (1612-1687) had a great interest in the welfare of the Indians and in 1656 was appointed Superintendent of the Indians of Massachusetts. His Historical Collection of the Indians of New England1 is invaluable to the study of Massachusetts Indians. The following account is summarized from that text.
John Eliot (1604-1696), in his work to bring Christianity to the Indians, by 1670 had brought the Gospel to 14 Indian towns. His Indian followers were called “praying Indians,” and the towns called “praying towns.” Seven of the oldest towns where the majority had become believers were each granted land by the General Court of Massachusetts in parcels varying from 3,000 to 6,000 acres.
In 1673 and again in 1674, Eliot’s work continued and he and Gookin made the journey to revisit some of the newer or less established praying towns to “encourage and exhort them to proceed in the ways of God.” These newer towns had not yet reached the status prerequisite for land grant by the General Court. The first town to be visited was Manchage. Gookin estimated a population of 60 souls and observed that it was “seated in a fertile country for good land.”
Gooking recorded its location in distance from known locations over long established Indian trails. Using Gookin’s information, J. Fred Humes in History of the Town of Sutton, Vol. II2 fixes the location of the Indian town of Manchage in the vicinity of West Sutton. It likely extended to the pond and westward to include the valley and rolling hills toward Oxford.
In 1675, a year after the last visit of Eliot and Gookin, King Philip’s War left the village named Manchage destroyed and uninhabited. Its population seemed to have vanished with the wind, never to return.
While Gookin refers to the Indian village as Manchage, Humes points out other early names for the same area. The first mention of the area was contained in a document signed in 1668, bearing the designation “Monuhchogok.” A land grant of 2,000 acres authorized the General Court in 1681 refers to the area as “Marichouge.” Over the years this grant became known as “Manchaug Farm” until its partition in 1712.
Humes provides nine variations of the name, all designations for the same area. The profusion of names most likely results from different people translating the Indian tongue into English vocabulary. Humes without hesitation states that Manchaug Pond takes its name from this old Indian village and gives no credibility to the popular myth3 that the pond was named for an Indian chief who drowned there.
1. Daniel Gookin, Historical Collections of the Indians of New England. (Massachusetts Historical Society, 1792)
2. J. Fred Humes, History of the Town of Sutton, Vol. II. (Town of Sutton, 1952), “West Sutton in the Early Days.”
3. History of Sutton (1704-1876) Page 541.