Originally published in the 1982 Framingham Historical & Natural History Society newsletter by Curator Stephen Herring
In the collection of the Framingham History Center there is a slender book, 4 inches by 6 inches in size, covered with ancient stiff leather, and bearing a clasp which has been broken for untold ages.
On the inside cover of the book is written in strange 18th century script:
“Framingham is my place
Simon Edgell His Book
In the year 1758, May ye 22
12 shillings is the price of this book”
The name of Edgell is familiar to almost every resident of Framingham. It is the name of a major road, and of the town’s largest cemetery. Historical Society members may also associate it with the old town library, the Edgell Memorial Building. Many of these names are derived from the civic leadership and benevolence of Moses Edgell (1792-1875). But Moses was the last in a long line of Edgells who had considerable impact on Framingham’s history.
Moses Edgell’s grandfather was Capt. Simon Edgell, whose notebook mentioned above is now in our museum. By the time Simon Edgell purchased that book in 1758 he was 25, and had served at Crown Point and Fort William Henry in the French and Indian War. The book was used in his capacity as company clerk in Capt. Nixon’s company where he was a sergeant. In it he lists many details of attendance and expenditure.
After 1758 the book was used to record the vital statistics of his family: births, marriages and deaths up to 1817 when he was 84. The most dramatic and important entry in the book stands alone in an unused part of the book. He had been elected captain of one of Framingham’s two minuteman companies. The entry is dated on one of the most famous dates in American history:
“April ye 19, 1775
This day I went to Concord to Fite
For my Life & Then I went
to Cambridge & I Cept there
Till May ye 6 (last word illegible)
Simon Edgell’s military career included the suppression of Shay’s Rebellion in 1778, and service in western Massachusetts in the 1780s. At home he served as Town Selectman. Simon married Mehitable Pike in 1761, and their first son, Moses (1762-1784), (namesake of his grandson) was a fifer in the Revolutionary War, but only lived to the age of 22.
Their second son was named Aaron Pike Edgell (1766-1816) and they also had a daughter, Mehitable (1770-1849). Simon outlived both his sons and was a strong influence on grandson Moses who himself pursued a military career rising to the rank of Colonel.
While the notebook gives us only a glimpse into the personal thoughts of Simon Edgell, there is one entry that indicates a philosophical inclination. It was important enough to have been entered twice, and is rendered here as my best transcription from difficult script:
“Half Moon October ye 9, 1758
Heer wee stand and here wee talk
Upon God’s ground wee all walk
And when our time is gone and Bee
no more then we shall think upon
This day a great Deal more.”