Editing Littleton, Massachusetts (section)

===17th century===

Littleton was the site of the sixth [[Praying Indian]] village established by John Eliot in 1645 consisting of mainly Native Americans of the Massachusett tribes. It was called Nashoba Plantation, on the land between Lake Nagog and Fort Pond. The term "Praying Indian" referred to Native Americans who had been converted to Christianity. [[Daniel Gookin]], in his ''Historical Collections of the Indians in New England'', (1674) chapter vii. says:

<blockquote>Nashobah is the sixth praying Indian town. This village is situated, in a manner, in the centre, between Chelmsford, Lancaster, Groton and Concord. It lieth from Boston about twenty-five miles west north west. The inhabitants are about ten families, and consequently about fifty souls.{{sfnmp|Drake|1879|1p=82|Gookin|1792|2p=48}}</blockquote>

At the time of [[King Philip's War]] between the English and Native Americans, the General Court ordered the Indians at Nashoba to be interned in Concord. A short while later, some Concord residents who were hostile to the Nashoba solicited some militia to remove them to [[Deer Island (Massachusetts)|Deer Island]]. Around this time, fourteen armed men of Chelmsford went to the outlying camp at Wameset (near Forge Pond) and opened fire on the unsuspecting Nashoba, wounding five women and children, and killing outright a boy twelve years old, the only son of John Tahattawan. For much of the war, the English colonists rounded up the Praying Indians and sent them to Deer Island.  When increasing numbers of Massachusetts Bay officers began successfully using Praying Indians as scouts in the war, the sentiment of the white settlers turned. In May 1676, the Massachusetts General Court ordered that Praying Indians be removed from Deer Island.{{sfnp|Philbrick|2006|p=327}} Still, many died of starvation and disease. Upon their release, most survivors moved to Natick and sold their land to white settlers.{{sfnp|Gookin|1792|p=49-50}}

The town was settled by Anglo-European settlers in 1686 and was officially incorporated by act of the Massachusetts General Court on November 2, 1715. It was part of the Puritan and later Congregational culture and religion of New England.

In his book, ''An Historical Sketch Town of Littleton'' (1890), Herbert Joseph Harwood wrote:

<blockquote>It is said that the name Littleton was given as a compliment to [[George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton|Hon. George Lyttleton, M.P.]], one of the commissioners of the treasury [one time [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]]], and that in acknowledgment he sent from England a church-bell as a present to the town but on account of the error in spelling by substituting "i " for "y," the present was withheld by the person having it in charge, who gave the excuse that no such town as Lyttleton could be found, and sold the bell."{{sfnp|Harwood|1891|p=9}}</blockquote>