Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/103

Rh acres of land northward or eastward, beyond the bounds of our town, where he shall think it most convenient for himself." In the same year Captain Willett obtained consent of Plymouth Court and the town of Rehoboth, to purchase a tract of land of Alexander, son of Massassoit, which was called Rehoboth North Purchase, now Attleborough, Massachusetts, and Cumberland, Rhode Island, with a part of Mansfield and Norton. He was also the original purchaser of Taunton North Purchase and several other tracts of land in this part of the colony. He surrendered his title to these lands to the Plymouth Court in 1666, and his name appears first among the proprietors of the Attleborough lands. The four or five hundred acres of the lands in the Rehoboth North Purchase were given him by special grant. This land lies on the Seven Mile River, and has always borne the name of Willett's Farm. Captain Willett's residence at this time was at Wannamoisett, in the western part of Old Swansea, and within the territory of Barrington, as originally laid out in 1717.

In 1664 His Majesty sent Nichols, Carr, Cartwright, and Maverick as a commission to visit the several colonies of New England, "to hear and determine complaints and appeals in matters civil, military, and criminal." When they attempted the reduction of the Dutch at Manhattan, Captain Willett accompanied them from Plymouth as a counsellor and interpreter, and he appeared to have greatly recommended himself to the commissioners by his activity and intelligence. Colonel Nichols in a letter to Governor Prince, after the surrender of the Dutch, requested that Captain Willett might have such dispensation from his official engagements in Plymouth Colony, as to be at liberty to assist "in modelling and reducing the affairs in those settlements into good English." He also remarked that Mr. Willett was better acquainted with the manners and customs of the Dutch than any Englishman in the country, and that his conversation was very acceptable to them.

In answer to this request of Nichols, Capt. Willett was