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 5
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America, is, I suppose, still in existence. The house, now owned and occupied by Aaron Kneeland, has every mark of antiquity. It stands, undoubtedly, on the spot where Francis Pabody first planted himself, as early as 1657, and was, in all probability, erected by him, although not his first habitation. (16)
I have, let me confess, looked of late with an un- wonted interest on these two relics of a distant past. Heretofore, they were but the squalid abodes of fam- ilies unknown to me. No historic honors or associ- ations had then spread over them their magic charm. But, more recently, I have stood and gazed at them, until I saw them again encircled by the very forests from which their massive timbers and hard planks were taken. Next, I re-peopled them with their ori- ginal tenants-with valiant men, and firm, true-heart- ed women-a strong, industrious, and pious race. And then Imagination took wing, and tracked from these two little fountains the streams of a successive emi- gration ;- streams that have flowed and spread, and multiplied as they spread,-until a thousand commu- nities, scattered far and wide over all the land, have felt and have blessed their refreshing influences.
How many heroes of the battle-field,-how many sages at the council-board,-what lights of the pulpit and of the forum,-what enterprises of business and of benevolence,-what conquests of science and of art, -and what strains of poetry divine,-might all go back for their origin, and acknowledge as their cra- dle-homes, that old house on the Gould plain, and that
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dilapidated cottage by the Peabody mill-pond ! Can any ivied ruin of feudal fortress-can the proudest archi- tecture of baronial hall, or lordly palace, boast of as- sociations, or exhibit a history, more truly, or more gloriously sublime ? Who does not wish that such memorials as these-such witnesses as they, to the sim- ple greatness of our pilgrim sires, might be piously pro- tected, and long preserved from the destroying ele- ments, and still more fatal hand of man !
There are now living in Massachusetts, a dozen de- scendants from old Topsfield men, each of whom, pro- bably,-(I say it without a metaphor,)-could overlay with solid silver, or with beaten gold, the plain, un- plastered cottages, which their fathers reared among these woods, and in which they lived revered, and died lamented.
Let it not be imagined that this remark is prompted by any blind admiration of mere wealth. Compared with the priceless treasures of intellect and heart, it seems-it must seem-to every well-regulated mind, more worthless than the dust we tread on. Unaccom- panied and uncontrolled by intelligence, virtue, and be- nevolence, it only bloats its possessor into a more hi- deous deformity, -- it only gibbets him on a more ridi- culous and more ignominous elevation. But there are those who have seen, with the Roman moralist, its pro- per beauty and its true splendor. There are those who have learned in a better school, and from a Divine Master, their duty and their responsibility as stewards. Happy is it for the communities to which they belong
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and happy and glorious for themselves, if the rich de- scendants of Francis Pabody, John Gould, John Wilds, and Thomas Perkins, understand as well, and discharge as truly, each personal and social obligation, as did those worthy men from whose loins they sprung.
I have scarcely left myself room for placing, side by side, in the strong lights of comparison and of con- trast, those dissimilar pictures-the present and the past. This is the less needful, inasmuch as the principal chan- ges that have been effected in the usages of society, and in the habits, manners, and condition of the peo- ple, have occurred within a period comparatively re- cent. The memory of your oldest men runs back to days, when the primitive simplicity of the first hundred years had not departed. They have not forgotten a single feature of those flinty, those iron times. How often have we heard from their own lips, the touching narrative of penury, of hardship, and of toil! The rise and progress of modern manufactures and machi- nery, have, of necessity, banished from the farms of Topsfield their sheep-folds and flax-fields,-and from your houses the spinning-wheel and the loom. This great alteration, so materially affecting the style and habits of domestic industry, belongs even to the pre- sent century. Still later, and scarcely less important, is the extensive introduction among yourselves, of the shoe manufacture. But upon these matters of your own familiar experience, I need not dwell. (17)
It may, perhaps, be expected that I shall touch up- on the question of progress and degeneracy,-and re-
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vive, if not rashly attempt, to settle that long-agi- tated dispute-the contest for superiority between the ancients and the moderns. In the great elements of mind and character, has Topsfield advanced or declined as it has grown older ?- Under the wise and eternal constitution of things, men are trained and formed. not only for, but by the times in which they hap- pen to live. I have already had occasion to allude to those invigorating influences, under which our fa- thers became shrewd, and wise, and valiant, and vir- tuous. In the more robust elements of mind and of character, I question if there have been an advance. I seriously doubt whether as many men, strong for council and for action, could now be summoned from the homes of Topsfield, as used to assemble in the old meeting-house in 1775. But the same intellectual and moral elements are here still. The blood which warmed those rural sages and heroes, yet flows, it is to be hoped, undebased, in your veins. Should the emergency ever come,-should the times again grow eventful and dark,-should you see your dearest rights and privileges in danger,-you would prove yourselves worthy of your fathers :- would you not ?
That there has been a constant and marked ad- vance in knowledge and refinement, with their many liberalizing influences and adorning graces, admits of no doubt. That there has been any deterioration, on the whole, even in morals and religion, I should be slow to believe. Indeed, I think it can be shown that there has been actual improvement. I love to cherish an undoubting faith in humanity, and in pro-
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gress. I look not at individual cases of degeneracy and degradation-such have always existed. I make no reference to whole families, once prosperous and respectable, now ignoble or extinct. So it has ever · been. We must look at man, as he appears in the great mass, and in the long run,-and then we find his career to be ever onward and upward. This gra- dual, but sure advancement, in all that relates to his physical and moral well-being, may not unaptly be compared to the slow upheaving of a continent. Forces of resistless energy, unseen, indeed, and unheard, are steadily at work below. No agitation in the mighty mass-no visible motion, apprizes the dwellers on its surface, of the constantly progressive process. And yet its reality is incontestibly proved, if not from year to year, at least from age to age, by the re- treating sea-marks on the shore.
And now,-though deeply conscious that I leave many things untouched, and that the whole is imper- fect, I must hasten to a conclusion.
Descendants of the men who first subdued and plant- ed the hills and plains of Topsfield ! Do you not feel, in view of even this faint and feeble portraiture of your ancestors, that you have done well in assembling here this day, to recall and to commemorate their toils and sacrifices, their sufferings and their virtues ? What spectacle can be more pleasing than the one here pre- sented ? What tribute to the memory and the worth of your forefathers, could be more appropriate than that which you thus render ? This sylvan bower-those
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azure heavens-the circumjacent landscape-these thou- sands of animated faces-and the loud acclaim of your own resounding voices ;- do they not bring back, by the power, either of identity or contrast, those earlier gatherings here, on which, even the phlegmatic savage gazed with wonder, two hundred years ago ? Over them, as over you, waved a verdurous canopy. Around them, as now round you, were hung 'the soft blue curtains' of the sky. But here the resemblance ends. Where now, in the midst of orchards and fruitful fields, are seen your comfortable homes -- then stood among the stumps of their small clearings, the rude habita- tions of your fathers. That country which now smiles far and wide in cultivated beauty, was then a frown- ing, interminable, forest-shade. No mild, yet powerful government, of their own erection and choice, stretched over them the ægis of its protecting arm. No opulent commerce poured into their lap the luxuries and treas- ures of the world. No Lowell or Manchester clothed them with the cheap and abundant products of their looms. No roads, nor rails, nor conveyances, either swift or slow, facilitated their movements from place to place. The plenty and the variety which crown your daily board, were to them unknown.
Yet, were they rich,-in faith ; and strong,-in the simple power of truth and love. More important in their eyes than any physical comforts, were the eternal principles of reason, and liberty, and religion. More precious to them than all the world beside, were their rights of conscience, and their hopes of Heaven.
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Yes, revered Forefathers and Founders of this town! we will write upon our memory your honored names, and deep will we enshrine them in our inmost heart. On the fields, which your toil first subdued; in the homes, which your enterprize won and bequeathed ; amid the comforts and luxuries, which your sacrifices procured for us; enjoying, unrestrained, the rights and privileges, which England denied to you ;- we cannot, and we will not, forget the men, from whom our rich inheritance descended. May the light which you en- kindled here-the light of liberty and law, of learning and religion, never go out! Let it be our first employ- ment and our praise to fan and to transmit the sacred flame.
NOTES
TO THE
ADDRESS.
4
APPENDIX.
NOTE I .- PAGE 9.
JOHN ENDICOTT was born in 1588, at Dorchester, in England. Of his family little is known beyond the fact that it was respectable in condition and cliaracter. He first comes into public notice in 1628, when we find him associated with John Humphrey, a brother-in-law of the Earl of Lincoln, with Sir Henry Roswell, Sir John Young, and two others, in purchasing from the Plymouth Council for New-England, a large grant of land upon Massachusetts Bay. John Winthrop, Sir Richard Saltonstall, and other wealthy Puritans, joined the association, and Endicott, as a man of tried courage and ability, was selected to conduct the first expedition. He arrived at Naumkeag on the 6th of Sept., 1628, and here in the forest, with some fifty or sixty persons under his direction, set himself resolutely to his great work of founding a state. In the following ycar he was, by vote of the Company in England, duly appointed Governor of the " Plantation." Sickness soon attacked the settlement, and many died-among them the wife of the governor. With a laudable regard for the pecuniary as well as moral interests of the colony, he prosecuted those, who, in violation of law, traded with the Indians-arrested Morton, of Mt. Wollaston, and sent him home-and cut down the May-pole which this jolly fellow had erected upon Merry Mount. In the summer of this ycar came a large reinforcement. The arrival of Shelton and Higginson was followed by the establishment of a church on principles of entire independence, over which they were set. Two of Endicott's Council, John and Samuel Browne, displeased at the rejec- tion of the Liturgy, left the congregation, and had a service of their own. The governor at once shipped them for England. The Brownes complained loudly, and the home government cautioned Endicott against rash measures,- but the decision remained unreversed.
In 1630, the government having been transferred to America, Winthrop came out as chief magistrate, Endicott being made one of the Assistants. The seat of authority was soon changed from Salem to Newton, and then to Boston ; but Endicott remained in his first home. Higginson died this year, and was succeeded in office by Roger Williams. This great but strange man had already made himself obnoxious to the Boston church, by his censures of their conduct, and the Court reproved Endicott for giving him countenance. In 1632,
APPENDIX,
Endicott received from the Court a grant of 300 acres, upon which he built, and which he called the Orchard Farm. This pleasant spot, which is more than two miles from what afterwards became the main settlement, was his principal residence for many years. The locality is well known.
In 1634, an important matter came up for discussion among the colonists. It was the question whether the women should wear veils when they went to meeting. Cotton thought that these " signs of submission," might be dis- pensed with, while Endicott was staunch upon the other side. Affairs of greater moment succeeded. Alarming intelligence was received from England. The colony was seriously menaced with the loss of its patent, and the subversion of its new-found liberty. Letters of private intercession, as well as of public excuse, were sent home. Preparations were made for defence, and a military commission, of which Dudley was President, and to which Endicott belonged, was appointed, "to consult, direct, and give command, for the managing and ordering of any war that might befall," &c. But King Charles soon found so much to occupy him at home, that New-England was spared. It was just before the arrival of the threatening rumors from England, that Endicott, in- fluenced, perhaps, by Williams, cut the red cross from the colors. He was by no means the only one, who regarded this symbol as a Popish and idolatrous emblem. But there was certainly no other man in the colony who dared thus to deface the royal banner. For prudential reasons a show was made of con- suring him, but the result at length was, that the cross was laid aside.
Roger Williams, who liad repeatedly been in difficulty on account of his free opinions, at last filled up the measure of his offences, and was banished from Massachusetts. Even Endicott, who had hitherto stood by him, and who had suffered hardship for this adherence, was compelled to give him up. This was in 1635. In the following year occurred the first Indian difficulties. Some Englishmen had been killed by the Pequods and Narragansetts. An expedition of four companies, commanded by our hero, was sent to punish them. The Block Islanders, whom he was ordered to cxterminate, had warning, and got out of his way. All he could do, then, was to burn their wigwams' stave their canoes, and destroy their corn. He then went among the Pequods, with whom he had a skirmish, which resulted in the death of several of the natives. Though he returned to Boston without loss, the expedition did little more than to exasperate the Indians, and thus brought on that fatal war, in which the Pequod nation perished. In 1641, Endicott's friend and pastor, Hugh Peters, was, after much reluctance on the part of the former, released from his connections in Salem, to go as agent of the government to England. This distinguished man, who was not a theologian merely, and to whom Salem owes the commencement of that marine and commercial activity, for which she has so long been famous, never returned. His subsequent history and unhappy fate need not here be told. This year, Endicott became Deputy-Governor,-a station
III
APPENDIX.
which he held till 1644, when he was made chief magistrate. He was suc- ceeded by Dudley at the end of the year, but received, instead, the appoint- ment of Sergeant-Major-General, and that of United Commissioner.
In 1648, a copper mine was discovered upon his land in Topsfield. Mr. Leader, a metallurgist, then superintending the Lynn iron works, having ex- pressed a favorable opinion of the ore, Endicott was at considerable expense in excavating and working it. The location of this mine is well known. More than 120 years after its discovery, it was, in spite of Endicott's failure, again opened, and worked for awhile, at considerable loss to the projectors. After another interval of about seventy years, a company of Salem capitalists caused the old shaft to be cleared out, and subjected the ore to analysis. The result was, that the hole was once more filled up, never again, probably, to be disturbed.
On the death of Winthrop, 1649, Endicott was chosen Governor, and held the office (two years excepted) until his death, in 1665. The Roundheads being now uppermost in England, one of the first acts of the Court, with Endicott and Dudley at its head, was to come out strong against the practice of wearing long hair. In 1656, at the request of the Court, he removed from his beloved Salem to the seat of government. In 1657, he received for £75 paid, another grant in Topsfield of one thousand acres. This land, or a part of it, he afterwards exchanged. This was the time of the Quaker persecution -an affair, which says little for the liberality, or even the good sense, of our fathers. In the indelible reproach, then incurred by Massachusetts, our Gov- ernor must bear his share. Let us see to it, however, that he does not bear more. In 1661, Endicott received a Mandamus from the king, requiring the arrest and extradition of Whalley and Goffe. In his executive acts, and espe- cially in his loyal epistle to the Chancellor, Clarendon,-the Puritan Governor tried to manifest a zeal in the royal service, which we cannot possibly sup- pose that he felt. The actual result was, that the regicides were never given up.
Endicott died on the 4th of February, 1665. He was 77 years old. His history presents us with an admirable specimen of Puritan virtue and great- ness. While we trace the record, while we peruse his letters, while we con- template his pictured features-we can almost see before us, the stern, decisive, fearless and impetuous man, who arrested and sent off the Brownes-and hewed down Morton's May-pole-and struck Goodman Dexter-and slashed the king's banner-and contended so earnestly for veils, and against long hair. Remarkably fitted, as he was, for the time in which he lived, and the scenes in which he bore so prominent a part, we are compelled to feel that, under no circumstances, could he have been an ordinary personage. He had not the learning and eloquence of Winthrop, nor the prudential wisdom of Bradstreet- but he surpassed them both in manly courage and in heartiness of spirit.
AOPEYME
Je vous 44 wook & Pur.3 & Pommes, with Irss austerily, Hled he stayed Trval ta would have been a somnapi nous member of the Rump, or one of the loss of Naseby. His was a Lytter and more ghoroms lidt. Among those Ou finns men, wie, as the founders of states, have made thewolves immortal, hus pone will descend, with ang meting Justre, to the Itedt time.
The afe eend ants of Gov Tedy . lieve beco gen toodesil, traced to the nivil poucion with the typeun of war branch, chor moved to New- Maury Taeg: The sente bale, been profon. the name has d Damen im Trend enn of
0-4002 Were Inh butamis of Topsfield.
the llo became @het in the
ha lle shows that he had Smrand virtue.
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List of P Mlvignon
FROM A PORTRAIT IN THE SENATE CHAMBER BOSTON
Sim Bradstreet Goun.)
V
APPENDIX.
Who these "friends" were is shown by the sequel. It requires but a slight effort of fancy to set before us that accomplished circle-or to imagine the tone and purport of those earnest discussions. In them must have joined the approved Lady Bridget, Countess of Lincoln,-her sister-in-law, the gentle Lady Arabella, with her excellent husband, Isaac Johnson-the somewhat aus- tere Dudley-the courteous Bradstreet-and his beloved Anne. These illustrious persons, surrounded by all the comforts, and elegancies, and privileges of rank and wealth, and apparently secure in the enjoyment, were nobly resolved to quit them all for the sake of conscience and of liberty. In the entire annals of colonization there is no instance of a sacrifice for principle, comparable to that which was made by many among those who founded the settlement of Massachusetts Bay.
Mr. Bradstreet was chosen one of the Assistants, under the Charter, pre- viously to the adoption of that bold step by which the government was trans- ferred to New-England, and came out in 1630, with the company under Win- throp and Dudley. He was one of the first settlers of Cambridge, where he lived several years. He was, also, for a short time, an inhabitant of Ipswich. The 500 acres in Salem, granted to him by the Court in 1639, were, by the terms, "to be in the next convenient place to Gov. Endicott's farm." Five years later we find him residing in Andover, where, in 1644, he built the first mill upon that little stream, which now turns so many wheels. This place was his abode for nearly twenty years. During all this period, however, his public duties must have kept him much from home. He was the first Secretary to the Colony, and held the office long. In 1641, we find him, in company with the famous Hugh Peters, travelling on foot from Salem to Dover-they having been appointed Commissioners by Massachusetts, to ascertain the causes of trouble in the quarrelling New-Hampshire Colony.
In 1643, was formed the first Confederacy in English America. Plymouth, Connecticut, New-Haven, and Massachusetts, joined in a league, called the Uni- ted Colonies of New-England. Its affairs were entrusted to a Board of Com- missioners, in which the colonies were equally represented. To them all In- dian matters and foreign relations were assigned, and no colony could declare war without their consent. Of this first American Congress, Bradstreet was a member. For twenty years this body figures largely in New-England history, and the position of the two Massachusetts Commissioners must have been one of high influence as well as responsibility. In 1653, he showed his good sense and moderation by an efficient opposition to the hostile schemes of his fellow Commissioners, who were anxious to declare war, first against the Dutch, and then against the Indians.
In 1662, the colony of Massachusetts, being, not without reason, alarmed in regard to the intentions of Charles II., despatched Bradstreet and Norton, as agents, to plead their cause. It was justly deemed a mission of some peril,
VI
APPENDIX.
and an indemnity was assured to them in case of detention or loss. These able and prudent embassadors soon returned with a royal letter-recognizing the charter, and promising amnesty, but insisting also upon some very important changes in the administration of colonial affairs. Though the terms were the best that could be obtained, and, for the most part, not unreasonable, they were yet extremely unpalatable to a majority of the people. The agents, as though they had betrayed the sacred interests of liberty and religion, were assailed with unmeasured abuse. Norton, the excellent and accomplished clergyman, and hitherto one of the most popular men in the Province, sunk under the storm, and died of grief. His colleague, fortunately, was of sterner stuff. He lived to see his views confirmed, and adopted, and to find himself once more riding triumphantly on the wave of public favor. In 1679, the party for tolerance and moderation had become sufficiently strong to place Bradstreet in the governor's chair, when he succeeded Leverett.
When, four years after, the indefatigable Randolphi came out to serve the long-threatened writ of Quo Warranto, the Governor, perceiving that resistance must be worse than futile, advised his countrymen to yield. But the stout Puritan heart chose rather to break than to bend. Massachusetts lost its char- ter. Joseph Dudley held, for a short time, the office of President, and Brad- street was offered a seat in the Council-which he declined. To the arbitrary measures of Andros he made strenuous opposition-and as soon as the petty tyrant was down, the old man was caught up by the people, and re-seated in the chair of state. This was in 1689. Three years later, Sir William Phipps came with the new Charter, and Bradstreet, then in his ninetieth year, retired from public life. In 1697, he died at Salem.
By his first wife, Anne, Gov. Bradstreet had eight children. After her death, which occurred at Andover, in 1672, he was again married to the widow of the brave Capt. Jos. Gardner. This lady was a sister of the famous Sir George Downing. Capt. Gardner's house, which was Bradstreet's home during the latter part of his life, stood on Main-Street, Salem, where now stands the house erected by the late Joseph A. Peabody, Esq. A wood-cut representation of this old mansion may be seen in Vol. I. of Felt's Salem Annals.
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