USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Topsfield > An address delivered at Topsfield in Massachusetts, August 28, 1850 : the two hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town > Part 2
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only among a people, highly primitive in manners, and devotedly attached to law and order.
We must not forget that the idea which is fur- nished us by this record of municipal acts and busi- ness, is, after all, very incomplete. Much that we would gladly know, is entirely unnoticed there. The alarms and perils of Indian warfare,-the agitations of reli- gious controversy, which pervaded, and, at times, shook the colony,-that whirlwind of superstitious frenzy, called the " Witchcraft Delusion," which broke out not five miles from this very spot, and which involved, in its fatal sweep, several Topsfield families,-the repeated drafts for men, which were made on all the New-Eng- land towns, and of which we know that ours had its full share, in the Indian and French wars ;- these are matters, concerning which our town books say nothing. The little that we know of these topics and events, which, in their day, must have been all-absorbing, comes from other sources.
I have seen no account, and have met with no tradi- tion, of fight or massacre within the town. But we know that its inhabitants, in times of Indian hostilities, must have partaken in the terrors which they so uni- versally produced. Against a foe so swift, so stealthy, and so revengeful, it was not possible, ever, or any- where, to feel secure. The colonial law of 1645, re- quiring the maintenance in every place of scouts and guards by day, and of sentinels by night, was doubt- less obeyed here. The order of 1676, that each town should "scout and ward," and clear up the brush-wood
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along the highways, "to prevent the skulking of the enemy," we may safely conclude, was not disregarded by Topsfield. Here, as elsewhere, the farmers carried weapons and ammunition, as well as tools, to the field, and here, doubtless, armed sentries used to walk their rounds about the House of God, while the people were assembled for his worship. I find in the Records no- thing that bears on this point, excepting certain votes respecting the watch-house. This small structure was probably quite near the Meeting-House, and was, doubt- less, during those periods of universal alarm, the scene of many a painful vigil. When these had passed by, it was used on week days, by the minister, to work in, while on Sunday it furnished, when the weather was cold, a shelter and a fire to those whose homes were far from the place of meeting. On the grounds of the estate which belonged to Dr. Dexter, and not far from the Newburyport turnpike, may still be seen the traces of an old fortification, once the gar- rison house of the town. The widow Eastey, already named, well remembered this fortress. From the ele- vated farm on which she lived, and which the rich culture of the present owner has made "all one eme- rald," she had often ridden to the stockade on horse- back, finding her way thither through the woods by means of marked trees. (4)
I shall mention in this connection but one thing more. In 1675, a Committee of the town of Topsfield petitioned the General Court for leave to form mili- tary companies, in order to protect the inhabitants while at their work, from attacks of the Indians. Ed-
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mund Towne, eldest son of William, the patriarch of that name here, and of some thousands, elsewhere, was on this committee. On the 12th of August, in the same year, Thomas Towne, eldest son of Edmund, was a member of Capt. Lathrop's company, then in Hat- field. Whether he left it before the massacre of Bloody Brook, on the 13th September following, or was one of the very few who escaped from that fatal spot, is not known. These facts, thus connecting our topic of Indian warfare with, at least, two Topsfield men, were ascertained by one of their descendants, Mr. William B. Towne, of Boston. Perhaps similar zeal and perse- verance, on the part of others, might elicit much more evidence of the same sort.
I have mentioned that Topsfield was a sufferer in the witchcraft time. Two Topsfield women, Mary Eas- tey and Sarah Wildes, were hung. Another, Abigail Hobbs, was condemned to die, but received, first, a re- prieve, and then a pardon. I have seen a petition to the General Court, signed by John Wildes, and sup- posed to be in his handwriting, asking for aid in consi- deration of loss incurred through the imprisonment and execution of his grandmother, several years before. I know not whether it was presented.
Mary Eastey of this place, and Rebecca Nurse of Salem village, who was another of the victims, were daughters of William Towne, the patriarch already named. Their father came from the city of Bristol, in England, in 1630-lived several years in Salem- and settled here, it is supposed, in 1652. Of all that
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has come down to us from that appalling scene, there is nothing more extraordinary or affecting than the case of these two innocent and exemplary women. The excellence of Mrs. Nurse's character was so con- spicuous, that the Jury acquitted her. But Chief Jus- tice Stoughton, impelled by a hideous outcry from " the accusers and the afflicted," sent the Jury out to
re-consider the matter. Again they came in, and asked the prisoner to explain a certain expression which she had used in the course of the trial. Mrs. Nurse, be- ing deaf, did not understand the question, and there- fore did not answer it satisfactorily. The Jury then rendered a verdict of "Guilty." The Governor, wishing to save her, made out a reprieve, but the clamors of the accusers induced him to recall it. Being a member of Mr. Noyes' Church, she was, on Sunday, taken from jail, and carried in irons to the meeting-house, and there formally excommunicated. She was executed on the 19th of July, 1692.
The clear good sense, the sweet spirit, the sublime piety, and the cruel fate of Mary Eastey, have long commanded, and must ever command, the admiration and the pity of all who learn her story. I wish that time would allow me to recite here a petition which she sent to the Court before her condemnation, and another, addressed by her to the Court and to the Ministers while she was under sentence of death. Their simple eloquence could not fail to reach your hearts. Read, my friends, read and contemplate the history of that dark time. Conceive what anguish must have wrung many Topsfield families, and what terror must have reigned in all of them during the dreadful sum-
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mer and autumn of 1692. Recall those scenes-not to think and speak lightly or scornfully of them and their actors-but to remind you how fearfully man is made, and to appreciate the goodness of that Provi- dence, which appointed our lot in an age of clearer light, of better temper, and of milder laws. (5)
It was just nine years before this terrible episode of the Salem Witchcraft-that is, in 1683-that the alarming demand for a surrender of the Provincial Charter, under a threat of quo warranto in case of refusal, came over from Charles the Second. In the Topsfield record of a lawful town meeting, held on the 25th of December in that year, I find the fol- lowing brief but significant entry :- " We do hereby declare that we are utterly unwilling to yield, either to a resignation of the Charter, or to any thing that shall be equivalent thereunto, whereby the foundation thereof should be weakened." In the following year the royal menace was put into execution, and the letters patent of Massachusetts were cancelled by a judgment in the Court of Chancery. To carry out the arbitrary measures thus begun, James II., in 1686, sent over the notorious Edmund Andros. Nowhere were his tyrannical proceedings and projects so reso- lutely opposed from the very first, as in this County of Essex. That Topsfield was not a whit behind her sister towns, we have undoubted evidence. That, in common with Ipswich and Rowley, she at first re- sisted the unlawful demands of the new government, is clear from a vote passed Sept. 30, 1687,-doubtless under the pressure of impending fine and imprison-
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ment-by which the town removed from its record, as " offensive to authority," an answer which had pre- viously been made to the Treasurer's warrant.
What were generally the sentiment and feeling of the people here, may be conjectured from another fact. John Gould, the only son of Zacheus, and, equal- ly with him, the Patriarch of all who rejoice in that name here, then the largest landowner in the town, and a most influential citizen, had the honor to be fined and imprisoned, at the instigation of the tyrant, for seditious language which he was said to have ut- tered. The fact is stated in the histories of the time, and the very words he spake before the company which he commanded, have come down to us by tra- dition. "If," said the brave Captain, "if you were all of my mind, you would go and mob the Governor out of Boston." (6)
In 1689, a grand and bloodless revolution had been effected in Old England, and her young daughter here in the West came in for a full share of its bless- ings. It must have been gratifying to the people of this town, to see again in the highest place of the Commonwealth, one whom they knew so well and so favorably as old Simon Bradstreet. On the 7th of May, while Sir Edmund Andros, in Boston, was ac- tually tasting the comforts of that prison to which he had sent so many good men, this town, in compli- ance with a call from President Bradstreet, elected Thomas Baker, to join, advise, and consult with the Council of Safety, about resuming the former govern-
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ment; and in the June which followed, said Baker was again directed "to act for the public good, wel- fare, and safety of this Colony-prohibiting any act or thing that may have any tendency to the infringe- ment of our charter privileges whatsoever." Such, my friends, such were the intelligence and watchfulness, the independence and fidelity of the men who tilled these farms, and filled your places here, one hundred and sixty years ago.
Thirty-three of the first sixty-three years of the 18th century, were, in New England, years of war. Dur- ing this long struggle, we know that Topsfield must have contributed to the public cause, its full share of men as well as of money. This is certain, because no towns were exempt. The law was strict, and it was strictly enforced. It has been estimated that nearly one-third of the effective men in the Colony were in military service during the French wars. The muster rolls of the State archives, probably show very nearly what individuals went from Topsfield. I have not been able to examine them. The Rev. Mr. Barnard, of Marblehead, in his autobiography, makes honorable mention of a Captain Boynton, of Topsfield, who com- manded a company in the Red Regiment of General March's Brigade, during the unsuccessful attempt upon Port Royal in 1707. In Gage's History of Rowley, I find a notice of Captain Israel Davis, of Topsfield, as commanding a company in the French war. John Baker, whom many of us remember as the aged "Ma- jor," was an officer in the same service. But enough, -the story of those wearisome, and often bloody cam-
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paigns, so far as relates to the soldiers of Topsfield, has not come down to us. We know who and what they were; and we feel as well assured that they were faithful and brave, as if we had seen the record of their virtues and deeds on the historic page, or on monumental brass.
In 1755, the removal of the French Acadians took place. This severe measure, the memory of which has lately been revived by one of our popular poets, was never, I believe, justified by any proof of necessity. The poor sufferers themselves were distributed over the country. One family fell to the share of Tops- field and Middleton. The cottage which they occu- . pied was on the right of the road to Salem, and nearly opposite the house of Dr. Dexter. They are three times mentioned in the town-book, by the sim- ple designation of the "French family." The foreign name was too much, probably, for the learning of the town-officers. Tradition long preserved their me- mory, as sad, retiring, and inoffensive. Sad they might well be,-torn from their property and happy homes, -separated from all their kinsfolk and countrymen, and cast among a people who could sympathize with them neither in language, nor manners, nor religion. Whether the gentle Evangeline, in her life-long pur- suit of the ever-flying Gabriel, took the "French fam- ily" of Topsfield in her way, is more than I can tell.
Scarcely, as you know, was the French war over, when the difficulties with England began. In the
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measures and events which preceded and accompanied the separation of these colonies from the parent state, it is not to be supposed that a place so small as this could be very conspicuous. But it is pertinent to our purpose to show that Topsfield, however insignificant, had yet a mind and will of her own,-a spirit, as in- dependent and as high,-with a determination seem- ingly as fixed, and as truly self-moved, as Boston itself could claim.
On the 23d of September, 1766, the town appointed a Committee, of which Stephen Perkins, then a leading man here, was chairman, "to draw instructions" for the guidance of their Representative in the General Court. Four days afterward an able paper was presented and adopted. The subject-matter was a measure, then be- fore the Court, for remunerating Gov. Hutchinson, Se- cretary Oliver, and others, for damage incurred by the Boston riots. The town professes not to know the cause of the disturbances, and concedes that if the pe- titioners had really suffered because they were exert- ing themselves for the good of his majesty's subjects in the Province, they were entitled to aid from the public fund. In any other case, the town would con- sider such a measure unconstitutional, and of dangerous tendency. The benevolence of the throne, in repealing the Stamp Act, is acknowledged with loyal gratitude- and a willingness to reciprocate is announced with a coolness that is quite amusing-reminding one of that Yankee, who, as the poet has it, would
" Shake hands with the king upon his throne, And think it kindness to his majesty."
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This letter of instruction concludes thus : "In case the sufferers shall make application for it, we are heartily willing to give them as much as our ability and low circumstances will admit of, provided we may do it either by subscription or by contribution, as in case of calamitous accidents by fire; which we take to be much more agreeable to the constitution of a free people, and the constant usage of this govern- ment."
In June, 1770, I find the record of a meeting called to consider the grievances under which the colonies were laboring. The vote of the town, after recapitu- lating these grievances,-such as taxes, imposed without consent of the taxed,-armed troops quartered among them in time of peace to enforce compliance, &c., goes on to say, that it was high time the community should resort to every constitutional method possible, for the redress of these evils. It commends the action of those merchants who had combined, and agreed not to import goods from Great Britain, so long as such oppressions should continue, and concludes with the de- claration, that the people of Topsfield will co-operate with the merchants in this great object, by encour- aging domestic manufactures, by making their own clothing, by abstaining from the purchase of all im- ported articles, and by rigidly excluding all foreign teas, until a general importation shall be allowed. This vote was entrusted to a Committee, for the pur- pose of procuring the signatures of the inhabitants.
On the 18th of May, 1773, a meeting was held to
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consider and reply to a letter from the Boston Com- mittee of Correspondence. The vote on this occasion fully re-states and re-argues the topics of the letter --- it responds heartily to the sentiments and declarations of the Boston gentlemen-thanks them for their vigi- lance and activity in the public cause-and affirms, "that this town, in particular, will be ready, at all times, to join with their brethren in every legal way and manner, to defend the life and person of his ma- jesty, and the lives of our brethren, his majesty's loyal subjects, and in the same way to preserve and defend our own lawful rights, liberties, and property, even to the last extremity." This was passed, we read, by a great majority. At the same meeting a commit- tee was chosen to hold correspondence with the one in Boston.
On the 20th of January, 1775, the town, in legal meeting, accepted a full and very decided report, made by a committee of previous appointment, in regard to the reception of the East India Company's tea. This paper closed with the declaration, that "this town will regard as enemies to the American Colonies, all merchants who shall import any tea with a duty upon it." . It was then read "distinctly several times-the question was put whether the town would accept of it, and it passed in the affirmative, nem. con."
On the 7th March, same year, the town passed a vote providing for the enlistment, drill, and pay of minute men.
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A few days afterward this comparatively poor coun- try town, voted to raise by subscription a donation for the poor of Boston.
In one month more came the summons to battle- and many, probably most of the Topsfield men, proved their sincerity, and showed their courage, by ming- ling with the brave yeomanry of Essex and of Mid- dlesex in the great transactions of the 19th of April. But a still greater day, and more exciting scene, was near at hand. Conceive, if you can, sons, daughters, and grandchildren of those who were actors or spec- tators then,-imagine, if it be possible, you who, float- ing calmly along the current of our unexciting times, have never known what anxiety and apprehension really are,-try, I say, to realize the sensations which must have pervaded the entire population of this place on that bright summer day, never to be for- gotten while the world stands, the 17th of June, 1775. The men capable of bearing arms were mostly away -a part of the beleaguering host around Boston. Yonder, upon Eastey's Hill, might be seen their grey- haired fathers and mothers-their wives, and sisters, and daughters, and young children, watching-oh ! how earnestly-the distant smoke-cloud, and listening with beating bosoms to that portentous roar of can- non, which spoke so unequivocally of some tremen- dous conflict.
Although the sword had thus been drawn, and though precious blood had been spilt, it required many months to reconcile and to nerve the people to
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the new idea of independence. But the change was, nevertheless, effected, and almost universally. How the men of Topsfield felt in regard to this matter, is shown by their vote of June 14, 1776, which was as follows : "Voted, That in case the Honorable the Continental Congress shall think fit, for the safety of the United Colonies, to declare them independent of the kingdom of Great Britain, this town do solemnly engage to defend and support the measure, both with their lives and their fortunes, to the utmost of their power."
On the 21st of the same month, and only thirteen days before the adoption of the Immortal Act itself, this town instructed to the same effect, its Represen- tative, Mr. John Gould, then attending the Provin- cial Congress at Watertown. Thus did the voice of encouragement, and the pledge of support, from even this small community, mingling with similar voices from hundreds of other towns, actually reach the il- lustrious Congress at Philadelphia. It was not with- out evidence of the fact, that John Adams, who knew Massachusetts well, assured his compeers in Congress, that " the people would stand by the Declaration."
The instructions to which I just referred, are re- markable not only for boldness, but for caution. With an unflinching determination to preserve or to main- tain all just rights, they evince the most decided aversion to needless innovation. Even at that early period, projects of reform in the constitution of the long-established government of Massachusetts, had been
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brought forward in the Provincial Congress, which to our thoughtful Topsfield sages, seemed hasty and rash. The Representative was accordingly directed to oppose them, as matters requiring the deliberate consideration of the whole community in more quiet times.
The authorship of those sensible and spirited town papers, may, I think, be safely ascribed to Stephen Per- kins and Israel Clark. More might easily be added, but I will not venture on your patience by pursu- ing farther, even this interesting portion of our town history. We have seen with what mingled caution and courage, zeal and coolness, the men of Topsfield, in common, and pari passu with their fellow-citizens elsewhere, advanced toward the grand crisis of their country's destiny. We find them, at length, fairly and fully embarked in the great cause of indepen- dence. We feel that they could not, and we know that for the most part they did not, prove recreant to the high obligations which they had assumed, wheth- er as patriots, as warriors, or as Christians.
In this attempt at a sketch of the facts most pro- minent in our early history, I have confined myself, thus far, to those of a civil and municipal character. I thought it better, for the sake of unity, to present the ecclesiastical affairs of Topsfield in one connected view. In point of fact, however, they were, as you well know, constantly and closely intermingled with those of a secular description. Hardly had the first feeble band of colonists planted themselves here in the woods, ere they established among them the
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preaching of the Gospel. In 1641, the Rev. William Knight, a resident of Ipswich, began to preach to the little company, and probably continued his labors for several years. Mr. Knight died, as it is supposed, in 1655. It was in that year that the Rev. William Per- kins came hither from Gloucester. Like Mr. Knight, he officiated a number of years. Of this distinguished Topsfield patriarch and truly good man, I shall have occasion to speak again. In 1663, a church was regu- larly constituted, and Thomas Gilbert was ordained the pastor. Mr. Gilbert, by birth a Scotchman, had been a clergyman of the Established Church, at Chedlie and at Edling, in England. He was one of the two thou- sand clergymen, who were ejected from their benefices by the Act of Uniformity, in 1662; so that he came almost directly from an English vicarage or curacy, to be the minister of a Puritan Congregational Church in the woods of Topsfield. Of his ministry here, little is known. He had difficulties with his people, who some- times arraigned their pastor before the courts of law. This appears from an answer recorded in the Rowley Church Book, as made to an application from Tops- field, when the latter sought the aid of Rowley in the ordination of Mr. Gilbert's successor. This, the church in Rowley declined to render, on the ground, in part, that Topsfield had not treated Mr. Gilbert well-al- though they conceded, at the same time, that Mr. Gil- bert "had great failings." This twice-ejected minister died in Charlestown, in the year 1673. (7)
In 1672, Jeremiah Hobart was ordained here. His father, Rev. Peter Hobart, first minister of Hingham,
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was a noted personage in Massachusetts. His long and obstinate contest with the Government is detailed, at length, in Gov. Winthrop's Memoir. The course of the son here was far from being a smooth one. His peo- ple accused him of immoralities, and withheld his pay. He, in his turn, sued the people, and obtained judg- ment. At the end of eight years he, too, was dis- missed. Mr. Hobart was again settled at Hempstead, L. I., where he staid a number of years. But finding, after a while, that his congregation had nearly all left, he concluded to go also. The people of Haddam, Ct., then took him up, and there he made out to stay until his final departure, in his 88th year. Although no special odor of sanctity seems to dwell around the name of this second regular minister of Topsfield, it is con- nected, nevertheless, with some others of eminent re- nown. His wife was Dorothy Whiting, daughter of the distinguished first minister of Lynn, and maternally descended from the titled family of St. John. Their daughter, Sarah, married a Brainard, and thus became the mother of that celebrated Missionary, whose name is inscribed on the same illustrious roll with those of Eliot, and Swartz, and Martyn. From a brother of Jeremy Hobart, was descended the Hon. John Sloss Hobart, long a Judge of the Supreme Court of New- York, and from another of his brothers, sprang John Henry Hobart, the far-famed bishop of that name.
Joseph Capen, a native of Dorchester, was the first of the Topsfield clergymen, who was born on this side of the Atlantic. He was a graduate of Harvard Col- lege. His ministry here began in 1684, and continued
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forty-one years. There is nothing to indicate that he was not an acceptable pastor. He seems to have been discreet in matters of a worldly nature, and faithful to the obligations of his spiritual calling. He must have been a preacher of moderate abilities, if we may judge from a small printed specimen of his sermons,-a dis- course delivered at the funeral of a brother minister, and prefaced by one of Increase Mather's pedantic "In- troductions." His wife, Priscilla, was the daughter of John Appleton, of Ipswich,-a man of noble spirit and of much distinction. They had daughters, who were married in Topsfield, and some of whose descendants, doubtless, are sitting here. Let me conclude this notice of Mr. Capen, by reciting from the Town-Book one of his receipts for delinquent rate-money. As a specimen of the style in which business transactions were fre- quently couched in those primitive times, it may not be uninteresting. "Received from Isaac Comings, Con- stable of Topsfield, for the year one thousand six hun- dred and eighty-six,-I say, received of him the full of that rate, which was made for my use the year afore- said, and committed to him to collect; I say, received of him for that year, in full, for what was committed to him to gather. Joseph Capen."
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