History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 1

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 1

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BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

3 9999 03296 405 6

BOSTON PUR' A LIBRARY

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

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NOT TO BE

Nº F 12. ETHg

5.1

PUBLIC LIBRARY

OMNIVM

CIVIVM

OF THE CITY OF

BOSTON 852 -1870

FROM THE

BATES FUND

الدي

HISTORY

ESSEX COUNTY,

MASSACHUSETTS,

WITH

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

OF MANY OF ITS

PIONEERS AND PROMINENT MEN.

COMPILED UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF

D. HAMILTON HURD.

VOL. I.

7902 2

ILLUSTRATED.

PHILADELPHIA: J. W. LEWIS & CO. 1888.

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

* F72 . EIHT 11.1

x+47=/ A

PRESS OF JAS. B. RODGERS PRINTING COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA.

PUBLISHERS' PREFACE.

Nearly four years ago the attention of the publishers, who have long made a specialty of this class of work, was called to the fact that a history of Essex County was needed. After mature deliberation the work was planned, and its compilation commenced. The best literary talent in this section of the commonwealth for this especial work was engaged, whose names appear at the head of their respective articles, besides many other writers on special topics. These gentlemen approached the work in a spirit of impartiality and thoroughness, and we believe it has been their honest endeavor to trace the history of the development of the territory embodied herein from that period when it was in the undisputed possession of the red man to the present, and to place before the reader an authentic narrative of its rise and progress. The work has been compiled from authenticated and original sources, and no effort spared to produce a history which should prove in every respect worthy of the County represented.

THE PUBLISHERS.

PHILADELPHIA, January 24th, 1888.

iii

CONTENTS.

GENERAL HISTORY.

VOLUME I.

CHAPTERS.

PAGE.

CHAPTERS.

PAGE.

I. Introductory,

IV. Science in Essex County, .

1xxvi.

II. Bench and Bar, . XV.

V. Spirit of the Early Lyceums,

1xxxiv.

III. Old Modes of Travel,

1x.

VI. Miscellaneous,

xcvii.

CITIES AND TOWNS.

CHAP.

PAGE.

CHAP.

PAGE.

I. Salem,

XXXII. Danvers,

424

II.

continued. Ecclesiastical,

XXXIII.

continued. Revolutionary, 414

III.

Commercial,

XXXIV.

Ecclesiastical,

452

IV.

Banking, .

114

XXXV.

Educational,

475

The Press,

115

XXXVI.

Villages,

483

VI.

Educational, 129

XXXVII.

VII.

Literature, 135

XXXVIII.

Industrial, Societies, Physicians, 518

VIII.

Manufacturing, 154

XXXIX.

$6 .

Civil History, 525

IX.

Miscellaneous, 16I

XL.

Civil War, 531

Societies, etc.,

166

XLI. Ipswich. Pre-historical, . .

566

XI.

Military, 184

XLII.

continued. Municipal, 569

Ecclesiastical, 579

XIII. Lynn,

249

XLIV.

Educational,

604

XIV.

continued. Ecclesiastical, 263

XLV.

Military,

612

XV.

Schools, Libraries, Newspapers 272

XLVI. =

Legal and Penal,

625

XVI.

Industrial Pursuits, .

280

XLVII. 66

Business,

633

XVII.

Military, 291

XLVIII. Beverly, .

674

XVIII.

Burial Places, 299

XLIX. Methueu,

769

XIX.

Old Families, etc., 306

Georgetown,

794

XX.

Taverns-Modes of Travel, . . 320

LI.

continued. Early Grants, 798

Early Settlers,

811

XXII.

Short Notes,

337

LIII.

Parish Organization,

817

XXIII. Lynnfield, .

377

LIV.

Educational,

821

XXIV. Saugus,

391

LV.

Religious Movements, 825

XXV.

continued, 394

LVI.

General Town History, 830

XXVI.

One Hundred Years Ago, 396

LVII.

Religious,

835

XXVII.

Religious, 399

LVIII.

Manufacturing,

843

XXVIII.

Manufacturing, . 407

LVIX.

Military,

848

XXIX.

Taverns, Modes of Travel, etc., 415

LX.

Conclusion,

852

XXX.

Miscellaneous, 419

LXI. Lawrence,

86I

XXXI.

66 Military, 421

LXII. Middleton, .

929

XII.

Civil History, 225

XLIII.

Miscellaneous, 495

XXI.

Miscellaneous,

330

LII.

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THE

HISTORY OF ESSEX CO., MASSACHUSETTS.

GENERAL HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

BY WILLIAM T. DAVIS.

The Plymouth Council-Massachusetts Colony-Colonial Courts-Essex County Created-County Courts-Barristers-County Officers-Law- yers.

ON the 20th of April, 1606, King James issued letters-patent dividing between two companies, popu- larly called the Northern and Southern Virginia companies, a strip of land one hundred miles wide along the Atlantic coast of North America, extending from the thirty-fourth to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude, a territory which then went under the name of Virginia, so called after Elizabeth, the virgin Queen. The Southern Company was composed of knights, gentlemen, merchants and adventurers of London, and received a grant of all the lands between the thirty-fourth and forty-first degrees, while the Northern Company was composed of persons of the same description in Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth, and received a grant of the lands between the thirty-eighth and forty-fifth degrees. That portion lying between the thirty-eighth and forty-first, which was included in both grants, was open to the company first occupy- ing it; and it was stipulated that neither company should make a settlement within one hundred miles of any previous settlement of the other company. On the 3d of November, 1620, Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his associates, the members of the Northern Virginia Company, received a new patent, which passed the seal on the 3d of the following July, under the title of " The council established at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, ordering, ruling and governing of New England in America." Under this patent the company was anthorized to hold terri- tory extending from sea to sea, and in breadth from the fortieth to the forty-eighth degree of north lati- tude. This patent or charter conferred power to make laws, appoint Governors and other officers, and gener- ally to establish all necessary forms of government.

On the 19th of March, 1627-28, the Plymouth coun- cil granted a patent to Sir Jolin Roswell, Sir John Young, Thomas Southcoat, John Humphrey, John Endicott and Simon Whitcomb, covering a territory extending from three miles north of the Merrimac River to three miles south of the Charles River. This patent was afterwards confirmed by letters-patent un- der the broad seal of England, issued on the 4th of March, in the following year. Sir Henry Roswell, Sir John Young and Thomas Southcoat subsequently sold their interest to John Winthrop, Isaac Johnson, Matthew Cradock, Thomas Goff and Sir Richard Sal- tonstall, who, with John Humphrey, John Endicott and Simon Whitcomb, the remaining original pat- entees, formed a new association. The pecuniary in- terests of the company were managed in England, and Matthew Cradock, who had been named in the charter by the King as Governor, was there chosen to that of- fice. John Endicott was, however, sent out in the summer of 1628, and began a plantation at Salem. The charter was made in duplicate, one copy heing sent to Endicott and the other brought to New Eng- land by Winthrop in 1630. By this charter a corpo- ration was created under the name of "the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New Eng- land," and twenty-six persons were named in it as the patentees. It provided that the officers should consist of a Governor, Deputy-Governor and eighteen assist ants, to be chosen annually by the freemen at the General Court to be held on the last Wednesday in Easter term. The General Court, consisting of the Governor, assistants and freemen, was to be held four times in each year, and by it officers were to be chosen and laws and ordinances enacted.

Mr. Endicott was chosen Governor by the colony after its arrival at Salem, but in the latter part of 1629, the character and plans of the associates in England having been changed and an extensive emigration been set on foot, John Winthrop was chosen Governor in England, and John Humphrey Deputy-Governor. Winthrop sailed in April, 1630, and arrived in Mas-

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

sachusetts Bay on the 12th of June, at once assuming power as Governor under the charter, which he had brought with him. The first General Court was held at Boston, October 19th, and at its first session the freemen of which it was composed made au important change in the form of government contemplated in the charter, surrendering to the assistants the election of Governor and Deputy-Governor; to the Governor and deputy and assistants the enactment of laws, reserv- ing to themselves only the election of the assistants. Soon after, however, they resumed the privilege of choosing the Governor and deputy as well as the as- sistants, and in 1636 the General Court also assumed the exclusive power of making the laws. In 1634, in. order to obviate the inconvenience of convening the whole body of freemen, a law was passed providing for the choice of delegates with all the powers of the freemen, except those relating to the election of offi- cérs. For this election the whole body of freemen met annually in the meeting-house in Boston ; but the inconvenience of this arrangement was felt also, and it was provided that Salem, Ipswich, Newbury, Sau- gus, Weymouth and Hingham might retain as many of their freemen at home at the annual elections as the safety of the towns required, and that the votes of these might be sent by proxy. A general law was af- terwards passed to the same effect, applicable to all the freemen in all the towns.

At first the assistants and deputies met together; but in 1644,-in consequence of a dispute in which the deputies claimed that a majority vote of the whole court should rule, while the assistants claimed con- current jurisdiction, -- it was finally agreed that the two branches should sit apart, and that each should have a negative on the other. The Governor presided at the Court of Assistants, and a new office of Speaker was established for the Deputies' Court.

Until 1639 the whole judicial power was vested in the Court of Assistants. In that year, on the 9th of September, it was enacted that "for as much as the businesses of the ordinary Court of Assistants are so much increased as they cannot be despatched in such season as were fit, it is therefore ordered that such of the magistrates as shall reside in or near to Boston, or any five, four or three of them, the Governor or Dep- uty to be one, shall have power to assemble together upon the last fifth day of the eighth, eleventh, second and fifth months every year, and then and there to hear and determine all civil causes, whereof the debt or trespass and damages shall not exceed twenty pounds, and all criminal causes, not extending to life or member or banishment, according to the course of the Court of Assistants, and to summon juries out of the neighbor towns, and the marshal or necessary officers are to give their attendance as at other courts."

On the 3d of March, 1635-36 it had already been en_ acted that "there shall be four courts kept every

quarter,-one at Ipswich, to which Newbury shall be- long; two at Salem, to which Saugus shall belong ; two at Newtown, to which Charlton, Concord, Medford and Waterton shall belong; four at Boston, to which Roxbury, Dorchester, Weymouth and Hingham shall belong.

"Every of these courts shall be kept by such mag- istrates as shall be dwelling in or near the said towns, and by such other persons of worth as shall from time to time be appointed by the General Court, so as no court shall be kept without one magistrate at the least, and that none of the magistrates be excluded who can and will intend the same; yet the General Court shall appoint which of the magistrates shall specially belong to every of the said court. Such persons as shall be joined as associates to the magis- trates in the said court shall be chosen by the General Court out of a greater number of such as the several towns shall nominate to them, so as there may be in every of the said courts so many as (with the magis- trates) may make five in all. These courts shall try all civil causes whereof the debt or damage shall not exceed ten pounds, and all criminal causes not con- cerning life, member or banishment. And if any per- son shall find himself grieved with the sentence of any of the said courts, he may appeal to the next great Quarter Court, provided that he put in sufficient caution to present his appeal with effect, and to abide the sentence of the magistrates in the said great Quarter Court, who shall see that all such that shall bring any appeal without just cause be exemplarily punished.

"There shall be four great Quarter Courts kept yearly at Boston by the Governor and the rest of the magistrates ; the first the first Tuesday in the fourth month, called June ; the second the first Tuesday in September ; the third the first Tuesday in December ; the fourth the first Tuesday in the first month, called March."

It must be remembered that the term magistrate was synonymous with that of assistant, and that there- fore, under these various enactments, the assistants retained judicial power. On the 25th of May, 1636, the following magistrates and other persons were ap- pointed by the General Court to hold the courts re- ferred to in the above enactment of the previous March, to wit: For Salem and Saugus, John Humphrey, John Endicott, magistrates or assistants, Captain Turner, Mr. Scrugge and Mr. Townsend Bishopp, asso- ciates, and Ralph Fogg, clerk ; for Ipswich and New- bury, Thomas Dudley, Richard Dummer, Simon Brad- street, magistrates, and Mr. Saltonstall and Mr. Spen- cer, associates, and Robert Lord, clerk ; for Newtown, Charlestown, Medford and Concord, John Haynes, Roger Harlakenden, Increase Nowell, magistrates, and Mr. Beecher and Mr. Feakes, associates ; for Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Weymouth and Hing- ham, Richard Bellingham, William Coddington, mag-

iii

INTRODUCTORY.

istrates, and Israel Stoughton, William Hutchinson and William Heath, associates. Under this law the first Quarter Court of Salem was held June 27, 1636, and the records of that session are well-preserved in the first volume of the Court Records in the office of the clerk of the courts in Salem. At that court one magistrate, John Endicott, and three commissioners- Nathaniel Turner, Townsend Bishopp and Thomas Scrugge-were present. The following certificate is a part of the record :

"Thes three, viz., cp. Nathaniel Turner, mr. Tow- eushend Bishop and mr. Tho: Scrugge, did the day and yeare above written take the oath of Commis- sioners."

On the 6th of June, 1639, it was enacted that " for the more speedy dispatch of all causes, which shall concern strangers, who cannot stay to attend the or- dinary courts of justice, it is ordered that the Governor or deputy, being assisted with any two of the magis- trates (whom he may call to him to that end), shall have power to hear and determine (by a jury of twelve men or otherwise as is used in other courts) all causes which shall arise between such strangers, or wherein any such stranger shall be a party, and all records of such proceedings shall be transmitted to the Secretary (ex- cept himself be one of the said magistrates, who shall assist in hearing such causes) to be entered as trials in other courts at the charge of the parties. This order to continue till the General Court in the seventh month come twelve month and no longer."

On the 2d of June, 1641, it was enacted that " whereas it is desired by this Court to ease the coun- try of all unnecessary travels and charges, it is or- dered that there shall be four Quarter Courts kept yearly by the magistrates of Ipswich and Salem, with such others to be joined in commission with them as this Court shall appoint, not hindering any other magistrates that will help them; this order to take effect after the next Quarter Courts shall be ended at Salem and Ipswich, two of these Quarter Courts to be kept at Salem and the other two at Ipswich; the first Court to be kept the last third day of the seventh month at Ipswich (and the next at the same time the former Courts were), the next quarter at Salem, the third quarter at Ipswich, the fourth at Salem, and the magistrates of Ipswich and Salem to attend every of these Courts, but no jurymen to be warned from Ips- wich to Salem, nor from Salem to Ipswich; to each of these places a grand jury shall be warned once a year, and these Courts to have the same power both in civil and criminal causes the Court of Assistants hath at Boston, except trials for life, limbs or banishment, which are wholly reserved to Boston Court; provided it shall be lawful to appeal from any of these Courts to Boston. And it shall be in the liberty of any plain- tiff that hath an action of above an hundred pounds principal debt to try his cause in any of these Courts or at Boston ; the fines of these Courts to defray the

charges of the same, and the overplus to be returned to the treasurer for the public. And Salisbury and Hampton are joined to the jurisdiction of Ipswich, and each of them to send a grand juryman once a year to Ipswich."

These enactments show the precise arrangement and distribution of judicial powers at the time of the division of the Massachusetts Colony into counties, in 1643. Ou the 10th of May in that year it was enacted that "the whole plantation within this jurisdiction is divided into four shires, to wit :

"ESSEX SHIRE .- Salem, Linn, Enon, Ipswich, Rowley, Newbury, Gloucester and Chochicawick.

" MIDDLESEX .- Charlestown, Cambridge, Watertown, Sudbury, Con- cord, Woburn, Medford, Linu Village.

"SUFFOLK .- Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Dedham, Braintree, Wey- moutb, Hingham, Nantasket.

"NORFOLK .- Salisbury, Hampton, Haverhill, Exeter, Dover, Straw- berry Bank.11

These, of course, were at that time all the incor- porated towns in the Massachusetts Colony. In the shire of Essex, Salem was incorporated June 24, 1629, as a town, and March 23, 1836, as a city; Lynn, in November, 1637, as a town, and April 10, 1850, as a city; Enon (afterwards Wenham), was incorporated May 10, 1643; Ipswich, August 5, 1634; Rowley, Sep- tember 4, 1639; Newbury, May 6, 1635; Gloucester, May 22, 1639, as a town, and May 26, 1871, as a city ; and Chochicawick (afterwards Andover), May 6, 1646, after the incorporation of Essex County,

In Middlesex, Charlestown was incorporated June 24, 1629; Cambridge, September 8, 1633; Watertown, September 7, 1630; Sudbury, September 4, 1639; Con- cord, September 2, 1635; Woburn, May 18, 1642; Medford, September 28, 1630; Linn village (after- wards incorporated as Reading), May 29, 1644.

In Suffolk, Boston was incorporated September 7, 1630, as a town, and February 23, 1822, as a city ; Roxbury, September 28, 1630, as a town, and March 12, 1846, as a city, and annexed to Boston June 1, 1867; Dorchester, September 7, 1630, and annexed to Boston June 4, 1869; Dedham, September 8, 1636; Braintree, May 13, 1640; Weymouth, September 2, 1635; Hingham, September 2, 1635; and Nantasket (afterwards incorporated as Hull), May 29, 1644.

In Norfolk, Salisbury was incorporated October 7, 1640; Hampton, September 4, 1639; Haverhill in 1645, as a town, and March 10, 1869, as a city; Exeter and Dover and Strawberry Bank (now Portsmouth) became afterwards a part of New Hampshire.

In addition to the towns above mentioned as a part of Essex County, Amesbury was incorporated April 29, 1668 ; Boxford, August 12, 1685; Beverly, October 14, 1668; Bradford, in 1675; Danvers, 1757; Essex, 1819; Georgetown, 1838; Groveland, 1850; Hamilton, 1792; Lawrence, incorporated as a town April 17, 1847, and as a city March 21, 1853; Lynnfield, July 3, 1782; Manchester, May 14, 1645 ; Marblehead, May 2, 1649; Merrimac, April 11, 1876; Methuen, Decem-

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

ber 8, 1725; Middleton, June 20, 1728; Nahant, March 29, 1853; Newburyport, January 28, 1764, as a town, and May 24, 1852, as a city ; North Andover, April 7, 1855; West Newbury, as Parsons, February 18, 1819, and under its present name June 14, 1820; Pea- body, March 18, 1855, as South Danvers, and its present name given April 13, 1868; Rockport, Feb- ruary 27, 1840; Saugus, February 17, 1815; South Danvers, May 18, 1855; Swampscott, May 21, 1852; Topsfield, October 18, 1650; West Newbury, June 14, 1820. As the towns of Amesbury, Haverhill and Salisbury were the only towns in Norfolk County, outside of the territory of New Hampshire, which became a royal province in 1679, the following act was passed by the General Court on the 4th of Feb- ruary, 1679-80 :

" This Court being sensible of the great inconvenienco and charge that it will be to Salisbury, Haverhill and Amesbury to continue their County Court, now some of the towns of Norfolk are taken off, and considering that these towns did formerly belong to Essex County, and attended at Essex courts, do order that these towns that are left be again joined to Essex and attend public business at Essex courts, there to implead and be impleaded, as occasion shall be; their records of lands being still to be kept in some one of their own towns on the North of Merrimack, and all persons according to course of law are to attend in Essex County."

By this act Norfolk County, as incorporated in 1643, was extinguished, to be revived in another sec- tion of the State by an act of incorporation dated March 26, 1793. The act above quoted alludes to a former union of Amesbury, Haverhill and Salisbury with Essex, which never actually existed. The allu- sion is , probably to old court connections, which existed before the incorporation of the county, in 1643. Amesbury was a part of the old town of Salisbury, Boxford of the old town of Rowley, Beverly a part of Salem and afterwards of Danvers, Bradford a part of Rowley, Danvers a part of Salem, Essex a part of Ipswich, Georgetown a part of Rowley, Groveland a part of Bradford and Boxford, Hamilton a part of Ipswich, Lawrence a part of Andover, North Andover and Methuen, Lynnfield a part of Lynn, Manchester a part of Salem, Marblehead a part of Salem, Merri- mac a part of Amesbury, Methuen a part of Haverhill, Middleton a part of Salem, Topsfield, Boxford and Andover, Nahant a part of Lynn, Newburyport a part of Newbury, North Andover a part of Andover, Pea- body formerly South Danvers and a part of Danvers, Rockport a part of Gloucester, Saugus a part of Lynn and Chelsea, Swampscott a part of Lynn and Salem, Topsfield was New Meadows, Wenham was Enon, mentioned in the act incorporating the county; and West Newbury was a part of Newbury, incorporated as Parsons and changed to its present name June 14, 1820.

Since the addition to the county of the towns of Amesbury, Salisbury and Haverhill, in 1679-80, the only change in the boundaries of the county is that already referred to, caused by the annexation of a part of Chelsea, in Suffolk County, to Saugus. On the

22d of February, 1841, it was enacted that "so much of the town of Chelsea, with the inhabitants therein, as is embraced within the bounds hereafter named is hereby set off from said town of Chelsea and annexed to the town of Saugus, to wit : beginning at the south- erly side of the Newburyport turnpike on Malden line and running south 26 east 51 rods and 18 links on said Malden line to a stake and stones ; thence north 52 east to Saugus line ; thence by the line of Saugus South Reading and Malden to the bounds first men- tioned; provided, however, that the inhabitants thus set off shall be holden to pay all taxes heretofore assessed in the same manner as if this act had not been passed; provided, also, that all persons who shall have gained a settlement upon said territory, and who are now chargeable to the said town of Chelsea, shall remain and continue to be supported by said town of Chelsea, saving and excepting one John Burrell, who shall hereafter be considered as belonging to and shall hereafter be supported by said town of Saugus.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 1

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1 Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1538

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538