The Hadley History. - The agreement to remove to Hadley is dated at Hartford, April 18, 1659, and signed by fifty -nine persons belonging to Hartford and Wethersfield, including one or two from Windsor. In the Hadley records John Webster's name appears first on the list of settlers from Hartford. On a map showing the list and arrangement of the original lots in Hadley, and the names of their owners, we note the following which are also in the list of First Church. Hartford, of those who removed to Hadley: Francis Barnard, Richard Church, Andrew Warner, John Marsh, John Webster, William Goodwin, John Crow, Samuel Moody, Nathaniel Ward. William Markham, William Partrigg, John Barnard, Andrew Bacon, Timothy Stanley, Nathaniel Stanley (returned to Hartford), John White, William Lewis, Richard Goodman,. William Westwood. Of those who went to Hadley, the names of Samuel Church, Zachariah Field and Daniel Warner do not appear on the map; also William Hill. The following signed the agreement to go but either did not, or soon returned: George Wilerton, John Arnold, Ozias Goodwin, James Ensign. Robert Webster, George Steele, William Lewis, Jr., Benjamin Harbert, John Catling. The following upon the map came from other places than Hartford:

Samuel Gardner, Chileab Smith, Joseph Baldwin, Robert Boltwood, John Hawks, Edward Church, Henry Clark, Stephen Terry, Joseph Kellogg, Thomas Coleman, Samuel Smith, Philip Smith, Richard Montague, John Dickinson, Samuel Porter, Thomas Wells, John Hubbard, John Russell, Jr., Peter Tilton, T. Dickinson, N. Dickinson, J. Russell, Sr., J. Kellogg.

The tract of land which they purchased was upon the Connecticut River, on the east, covering what is now included in the present towns of Hadley, Amherst, South Hadley and Granby, and on the west side, Hatfield and a part of Williamsburg. Soon after signing the agreement to remove to Hadley, dated April 18, 1659, the signers, Or some part of them entered upon the work of preparing for settlement there. John Webster accompanied or preceded them that he might assist or superintend the laying out of the roads and other business, and made his temporary home in Northampton where he was taken sick and made his Will, dated June 25, 1659. It was witnessed by John Russell, Jr., the minister at Hadley, and Eleazer Mather, the minister at Northampton. Mr. Webster recovered however and lived nearly two years, dying in Hadley, April 5, 1661, and was buried there according to the instructions in his Will. Honor and labor followed him to his new field for he was soon made a judge, or commissioner as it was then called, John Pynchon and Samuel Chapin being his associates. The Court was held alternately at Northampton and Springfield. Sep. 25, 1660, a court was held in Springfield, and there were present for holding it, Mr. John Webster, Cap't John Pynchon, Mr. Samuel Holyoke, and Elizur Holyoke, Recorder. The jurors were Thomas Cooper, Henry Burt, Thomas Merick, William Warrener, William Branch, Mr. Jeans, Mr. Williams, John Dembleton, Robert Bartlett, Lawrence Bliss, Alexander Edwards and Benjamin Parsons.

In Massachusetts Records, Vol. IV, Part I, is the following: "At a General Court of Election held at Boston, May 30, 1660, it was declared: Mr. John Webster, Senior, of the new towne of Norwottock, is by this court commissioned with magistratticall power for the year ensuing, to act in all civil and criminall cases, as any other magistrate may doe, and that he joyne with the Commissioners in keeping the court at Springfield."

March 26, 1661, at the New Towne at Norwotuck, the following were made freemen and took the oath before Mr. Pynchon and Mr. Holyoke, who was recorder: -Mr. John Webster, Mr. John RusselI, Nathanooll Ward, William Markham, Thomas Dickerson, Andrew Bacon, Thomas Wells, John Hubard, Nathaneell Dickenson Philip Smith, Thomas Coleman, Robert Boltwood, Samuel Gardner, Peter Tilton.

The Death of Governor Webster. - The end was now near at hand. In eleven days, namely, April 5, 1661, under circumstances without record now extant, the Puritan and Pilgrim of two hemispheres, the faithful judge, Deputy Governor and Governor of an incipient American State, the public spirited citizen and public servant, in old age an exile for conscience sake from the infant city which he helped to found, in a new home, but surrounded by neighbors who had suffered with him, he closed his labors, and sleeps with the pioneers who with him blazed the path of empire in the World. His most eminent descendant; Noah Webster, LL.D., one of the chief lexicographers of the English language, erected in the Old Hadley Cemetery, in 1818, a modest slab upon or near the spot where Gov. Webster was buried, bearing the following inscription:

To the memory of John Webster, Esq. one of the first settlers of Hartford in Connecticut, who was many years a Magistrate or Assistant, and afterwards Deputy Gov. and Governor of that Colony, and in 16ô9 with three sons, Robert, William and Thomas, associated with others in the purchase and settlement of Hadley where he died in 1661, this monument is erected in 1818 by his descendant, Noah Webster of Amherst. * * * * * *

Gov. Webster's Will. - In the Northampton, Mass., Probate Records, pages 20 and 21 is recorded the following instrument, attested as a true copy of the last Will and Testament of Mr. John Webster, late of Hadley, deceased.

Gov. John Webster's widow, Mrs. Agnes Webster died six years later, probably in Hartford, in the year 1667.