USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > Centennial memorial of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts > Part 3
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THE enactment of the General Court, in 1637, chang- ing the name of the settlement from Saugus to LYNN, is so brief that space may be allowed for its insertion in full ; and here it is : " Saugust is called Lin "-only four words, with no modern decoration of a single Whereas or Aforesaid. A good specimen of the ancient direct and crisp style of legislation. As before remarked, the name of Lynn came from Lynn Regis, in Norfolk, England, a place which for centuries had been of some note, if not of great importance. It is situated near the point where the Ouse enters the ocean, and is supposed to have de- rived its name from its site, lehn, in the ancient language of Britain meaning "spreading waters." Others, how- ever, claim that the name came from the Saxon len. a farm or tenure in fee; though the same word was sometimes used to signify church lands. In Doomsday Book, A. D. 1086, the place is called Lenne. Early in
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the seventeenth century it belonged to the see of Nor- wich, and was then named Bishop's Linne ; but when the revenue of the bishopric came into the hands of the king, it was known as King's Lynn, or Lynn Regis. Most commonly, from that time to the present, it has been called simply Lynn.
The famous military organization now known as the ANCIENT AND HONORABLE ARTILLERY was formed in 1638. Daniel Howe, of Lynn, was chosen Lieutenant, and there were five others from the town in the ranks. Lieut. Howe seems to have been a man of determined character; in action bold, perhaps somewhat rash. He commanded the vessel that in 1640 took the Lynn emigrants to the western part of Long Island. On their arrival, the Dutch laid claim to the territory on which they located, and set up the arms of the Prince of Orange on a tree. Lechford says, "Lieut. Howe pulled down the Dutch arms," and Winthrop adds that in place thereof an Indian drew " an unhandsome face." These proceedings came near resulting in serious difficulty. But Kieft, the Dutch governor, exercised his authority with forbearance, and the matter was presently adjusted. In Wood's Sketch of Long Island, the affair is succintly stated in this manner : " 13 May, 1640, Gov. Kieft sent Cornelius Van Ten Hoven, the secretary, the under sheriff, a sergeant and twenty-five soldiers to Scout's Bay, to break up a settlement of the English, who had torn down the state's arms and carved a fool's head on
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the tree. The party set out on the 14th and returned on the 15th. They found a company of eight men, and a woman with an infant, who had erected one house and were engaged in erecting another. The party brought six of the men to the Governor. On examination it appeared that they came from Lynn, near Boston. . . . After they had been examined, and signed an agreement to leave the place, they were dismissed."
Military discipline was of the first importance in those days of alarm, and the "Military Company of the Massachusetts," as the Ancient and Honorable was first called, was projected as a sort of school for tactics. For many years it was regarded almost with awe. But its usefulness for the original purpose has long since ceased, though as a semi-social organization it is still held in high repute.
GEOLOGICAL indications, it has long been maintained, strongly support the belief that, at a remote period in the past, the Merrimac river, after entering Massachu- setts from New Hampshire, instead of pursuing its pres- ent course by Lowell, Lawrence, and Haverhill, and discharging its waters at Newburyport, followed the more direct line to Lynn, there casting in its contribu- tion to the Atlantic. It would be profitless here to attempt a disquisition on the interesting topic, or to talk of what might have been ; but this we know, the western border of Lynn is now for a long distance traversed by the merry little SAUGUS, and much that is interesting
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in our local history is connected with that picturesque stream. Formerly, the border territory of Lynn ex- tended miles beyond the river ; but solitary settlements grew into hamlets, they into villages, and, becoming ambitious of separate municipal honors, were erected into towns.
It was in 1643 that IRON WORKS were established on the margin of this little river, by a respectable company in England ; and they were the first, it is affirmed, in all America. It was once claimed that the works in Brain- tree, in Norfolk county, were commenced a year or two carlier, but the later researches seem to place beyond a doubt the priority of these at Lynn. Smelting, forging, and casting were pursued for some years, the bog-iron found in the vicinity furnishing the raw material. Vari- ous other kinds of work in metals and simple machinery appears also to have been carried on at the establish- ment, to a limited extent, and probably somewhat by individual enterprise. There were well-skilled workmen here ; and that the undertaking was considered of great public importance is manifest from its frequent mention in the Colonial Records, and the occasional enactments of the General Court in its favor. It is stated that the dies for the first coins ever sfruek in North America were prepared here, namely, the famous pine-tree shillings, sixpences and threepences, of 1652. It is likewise claimed that here, too, was constructed the first fire- engine ever made in America. The modern style of
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that useful implement of husbandry, the scythe, seems to have been invented by a noted workman here; and the Court granted him a seven years patent for his " engine for the more speedy cutting of grasse." The old English scythe had a short, straight handle, like a bush cutter. In a letter dated Sept. 30, 1648, Win- throp remarks, " The furnace runs eight tons per week, and their bar iron is as good as Spanish."
But pecuniarily the Iron Works do not appear to have answered the expectations of their projectors. The cus- tomers had very little ready money ; and, though the manufactured articles were offered at a cheap rate for coin, yet, as the General Court curtly told them in an admonitory letter, an ax at twelve pence was not cheap to one who had not twelve pence wherewith to buy it. And then again, they were very soon involved in vex- atious and expensive lawsuits-those pernicious luxuries in which projectors of new enterprises are so apt to in- dulge. Hubbard says that, "instead of drawing out bars of iron for the country's use, there was hammered out nothing but contention and lawsuits." However, they continued in a lingering way for many years, when the fires of the forges were finally extinguished, the clink of the hammer ceased, the begrimmed workmen departed, the buildings were razed, and the heaps of scoria only remained, for creeping vegetation in the slow march of years to envelop in a vesture of green. And these cinder banks, as they are called by the dwellers about there, have remained, for more than two centuries,
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to this Centennial Year, now apparently grassy hillocks. The curious sometimes dig through the shallow covering of soil which conceals these scores of tons of slag, in which frequently are found bits of charcoal as fresh in appearance as when ejected from the sooty portals ; and occasionally pieces of iron casting.
In 1646 Lynn became a MARKET TOWN; that is, it is presumed, a town in which, on an established day of cach week, an open market was held for the sale and exchange of commodities- an arrangement by which the settlers from the different neighborhoods could meet at a fixed place and barter their spare productions for others of which they were in need, there being scarcely any money in circulation. The settlers here must have lived comparatively well, so far as food was concerned ; better, no doubt, than many on the frontiers. Their nearness to the sea enabled them at all times to draw supplies of excellent fish. The children, even, could resort to the clam banks, which never refused a generous discount, and to the lobster rocks. There were small farms in every direction, and the farmer and the fisher- man fraternally exchanged the products of their industry. In the brawny arm of the settler, as we thus see, his wealth was chiefly found. There were few speculations to be resorted to for sudden gain -or loss ; and, as steady employment is a great promoter of contentment, not many discontented spirits appeared roving about to the disturbance of the busy workers.
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Did space permit, it would be pleasant to linger a while in the company of the old settlers; to observe their simple manners, their recreations, their domestic arrange- ments. We should find that, after all, their feelings, thoughts, and aspirations were of the same nature as our own. The old sought quietude and repose ; the middle- aged were ambitions toilers ; the youthful loved, wedded, and retired to their own firesides ; the children had their sports and bickerings. But sometimes things wore a disturbing aspect. There were fears of bloody incursions by the red men ; much land remained to be laid open to the vivifying influences of the sun ; there were no manu- factures, and the garments they brought with them were " patch upon patch." Yet their spirits were buoyant in the exercise of the freedom denied them in the land they had left, and in full faith that they were laying the foundations of a great social fabric. It is undoubtedly true that the settlers early conceived the idea of inde- pendence. In Cromwell's time, New England came very near being actually recognized as an independent com- monwealth. Evelyn, who was a member of the English Board of Trade and Plantations, says in his journal, under date 1671 : " There was a fear of their breaking from all dependence on this nation." And Edward Randolph, in 1677, in answering some inquiries touching the disregard of Massachusetts for the British Navigation Laws, says : " All nations have free liberty to come into its ports and vend their commodities without any restraint; and in this as well as other things that Government would make
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the world believe they are a free State, and do act in all matters accordingly."
The moral condition of the people was, without doubt, more than ordinarily elevated, though still ranging con- siderably below perfection. Among the early comers were a few turbulent spirits, whose purpose was rather to avoid the restraints of their old homes than to gain any good in their new. By the Colony Records it is made evident that there was considerable intemperance. Some of the drinks the sale of which is now proscribed by what are called the prohibitory enactments of the New England States, were then freely used. Tea and coffee were not known hereabout before the eighteenth century, and malt liquors were in common use. Lynn, as well as every other town, had her places for " breeding malt," to use the ancient phrase ; and the "industrie " was encour- aged. Then the cheap distillations from the West Indies began to appear as soon as there were people enough to induce the avaricious English, Dutch, and Spanish traders to visit the coast ; the Indians as well as the abandoned whites being ready to dispose of anything they possessed in exchange for the " fire-water" for which they had such intolerable thirst. There was also considerable profanity and slanderous small talk, as too certainly appears by the records ; for the courts then took cognizance of a great many things that would now be passed by as idle tattle. But, on the whole, it may be fairly claimed that the colonists, as a people, were pious, industrious, and prudent in speech and behavior.
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Our ancestors appear wisely to have considered that next to religion, outside of labor for the bare neccessities of food, clothing, and shelter, education was the thing most needful ; and hence we find that primitive seat of learn- ing, the little red-top school-house, early nestling in the hollow or adorning the hillside. The rudimental branches necessary in the management of the limited business af- fairs of the day were freely taught ; but Latin was with many deemed of leading importance; indeed, it was recognised by the General Court as highly beneficial in contests with " the old deludor, Sathan." A mysterious apprehension seems to have existed that the arch-enemy's assaults could be most successfully resisted by wordy bat- teries in that language. And, by the way, it should ever be borne in mind, while considering most points in the early history of New England, and endeavoring to ascertain the underlying purpose of many eccentric legis- lative acts, that the belief in the personal and direct interference of the evil one in the affairs of men prevailed throughout the christian world. We, of this day, dis- believe in such personality ; or, if we pretend otherwise, allow no practical operation to our pretension. The great witchcraft outbreak of 1692-called the Salem Witchcraft, though violently disturbing other places as well- would never have taken place without that idea of the black man roving up and down with the red book, seeking out such weak mortals as would pledge them- selves to surrender to him their souls at death, for the privilege of invisibly plagueing their enemies while here
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on earth. Without explanations arising from the belief here indicated, many of the strange episodes in our early history would remain void of intelligible elucidation. And it ill-becomes one generation to ridicule the faith of another ; for it does seem as if, in the revolution of ages, essentially the same conceptions re-appear as surely as the cycles of the seasons recur.
During the disordered period of the ADMINISTRATION OF SIR EDMOND ANDROS, the people of Lynn were seriously agitated, and determined, with patriotic zeal, to main- tain their rights, politically and personally ; for it soon appeared that, besides the oppressive measures which affected the whole people, some local interests were endangered. Edward Randolph, the Governor's sec- retary, petitioned for a grant of the beautiful peninsula of Nahant, which then formed, and remained till 1853, an outlying district of Lynn. Notice was sent to the town that if any one had a claim to the land he might appear before the Governor and Council on the 7th of March, 16SS, and exhibit the same, and show why the land should not be granted to the petitioner. Quite a ferment followed ; for it was well known that Randolph was in high favor with Andros, who would do all he could to further the interests of his favorite. The principal inhabitants engaged in an active defence. They urged that the land had been honestly purchased of the natives, and to some extent improved for more than fifty years. They showed that it was divided into planting lots, by
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vote of the town, as early as 1656; that it was fenced ; that lots were manured and planted, and a few tenements erected ; that, by hard labor and at considerable expense, it had been brought from its originally barren condition to be of real value for planting and pasturage. The effrontery of the petition was well calculated to irri- tate, aside from the wrong of having their property thus unceremoniously wrested from them. For some time the danger seemed imminent, for Randolph was a wily man- ager, able and plausible. The petition, however, was finally dismissed, and the town breathed freely once more. But the proceedings were such as in no measure to allay the great and growing prejudice against the Governor. And in 1689, when the uprising people made him a prisoner at Fort Hill in Boston, the minister of the Lynn church, Rev. Jeremiah Shepard, led on a small but determined band of participants. In a paper in Lambeth palace, which is thought to have been written by Ran- dolph himself, occurs this passage : " April 19th, about 11 o'clock the country came in, headed by one Shepard, teacher of Lynn, who were like so many wild bears; and the leader, mad with passion, more savage than any of his followers. All the cry was for the Governor and Mr. Randolph."
In the extremity of affairs, a Committee of Safety for the county of Essex was appointed. And to this com- mittee the people of Lynn made a formal statement of the prominent causes of complaint; which statement may be found in the History of Lynn.
CHAPTER III.
Lynn in Time of Indian Incursions and Wars-Glimpse of the Place in 1750 - Dagyr, the Shoemaker, Comes - Character of the Early Shoe Business - Condition of Things in Revolution- ary Times, and Patriotism of the People - New Life after the Revolution.
THOUGH Lynn, from the peculiarity of her location, was never herself in much danger from SAVAGE INCUR- SION, she always manifested the most lively sympathy for the border settlers who were so constantly exposed to un- heralded descents of hostile Indians, with tomahawk, scalping-knife and torch. For the relief of the sufferers she was ever ready to contribute from her slender means, and to despatch her brave sons for the dismal campaigns. As early as 1636, in the great Pequot war, Capt. Na- thaniel Turner of Lynn, who afterwards became so con- spicuous in the history of Connecticut, commanded a company. Indeed it was by this means that Lynn lost the worthy Captain, for during the campaign he arrived upon territory more to his liking than his old home, and removed after the close of the war. He was one of the founders of New Haven, and purchased from the Indians the territory now occupied by the beautiful town of Stam- ford. His fate was melancholy. He sailed for England
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in January, 1648, in the interest of the colony, in a ves- sel which was never heard of afterward. And when the famous phantom ship appeared off the harbor of New Haven, the next year, and so suddenly faded away, it was thought to be a miraculous indication of the fate of the vessel in which he had embarked.
In a second expedition, in 1637, Lynn furnished twen- ty-one men, the largest number sent by any place herea- bout, excepting Boston, from which twenty-six went. In . 1675, when the renowned King Philip took the field in that final struggle, Lynn readily supplied her full quota, several of her promising youth falling in battle -two, with the " flower of Essex," at the memorable Bloody brook ambuscade. In these and other Indian and French wars the soldiers were compelled to endure hardships and face dangers which no other wars in this quarter of the world have known ; but they marched on to final triumph.
A glimpse of Lynn, in the middle of the last century, may be obtained from the travelling notes of a New York merchant, who journeyed east in 1750. He says he put up at Mr. Ward's in " Lyn, which is a small country Towne of abt 200 Houses, very pleasantly situated, and affords a Beautifull Rural Prospect." He arrived at about one o'clock, " and dyned on fryd Codd." After dinner, being refreshed by a glass of wine, he pursued his journey to Salem, " through a barren, rocky coun- try," and the next day, after visiting Marblehead, re- turned to Boston, stopping again at Mr. Ward's in Lynn, where he " dyned upon a fine mongrel goose."
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It was in 1750 that a Welsh shoemaker, named JOHN ADAM DAGYR, settled in Lynn. He was a remarkably skillful workman, and took great pains to instruct others. He was an enthusiast, in his way, and became noted, far and near, as " the celebrated shoemaker of Essex." It is often curious and not unprofitable to trace in a commu- nity the development of some great matter to its small beginning ; to see, in the simple efforts of an obscure in- dividual, the germ of a great enterprise. The shoe and leather trade is at this day the most important branch of industry in all New England ; and the most surely re- munerative, not to say enriching. Lyn is, and ever has been, since the days of Dagyr, at the head of that trade ; and had not this poor Welshman, for he was poor and died in the almshouse, settled here at the time he did, it is not at all probable that the city would ever have occu- pied the position she now does. At that time she had not attained any prominence in population or trade ; a number of sister settlements had quite outstripped her, owing, perhaps, chiefly, to their maritime advantages. There was nothing noteworthy in her position or condition. Dagyr had so strong a desire to excel in his employment that he is represented to have sometimes procured English or French shoes, and in presence of brother craftsmen dissected them to discover the hidden sources of their excellence. By his efforts the business began to take root and flourish. Several who could command a small capital commenced manufacturing for the Boston market, and even for more distant places, and soon the
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trade began to overshadow all other industrial pursuits. We find the Boston Gazette saying, October 21, 1764, " It is certain that women's shoes made at Lynn, do now exceed those usually imported, in strength and beauty, but not in price." And the editor facetiously adds, " the northern colonists have sense enough, at least the sense of feeling ; and can tell where the shoe pinches. The deli- cate ladies begin to find by experience that the shoes made at Lynn are much easier than those of the make of Mr. Hose of London."
For many years the trade was carried on in an humble way, as of course the demand was limited. The manu- facturer, with perhaps a journeyman and an apprentice or two, pursued his labors in a shop of some ten by twelve feet, and once a week or so proceeded to Boston on foot with the products of his enterprise in a bag on his shoul- der ; or if his trade had been large enough to warrant the additional expense, with a horse and saddle bags, or one of the primitive wheel carriages then in use, return- ing at night with a provision of stock for the coming week, and possibly with a little ready money. These were the days of small things in this now vast business ; yet they reach down to the time of the Revolution, to the archetype of this great Centennial Year.
The common course of things had been much the same in Lynn as in other non-commercial settlements, through Colonial and Provincial times, down to the Revolution. Mechanics had come in as their labor was demanded, and
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all ordinary needs could be supplied. The tillage lands yielded fair crops, the sea casting up large quantities of mannre, which the husbandman could take at the mere cost of transportation ; and the fisherman was reasonably sure at all times of an adequate reward for his labor and peril. Several towns had been settled by emigrants from the place, and these had extended the acquaintance and social and material interests, in various directions. Read- ing, Wakefield, Sandwich, Yarmouth, Hampton and Amherst, in New England, and Southampton and other places on Long Island, owed in a large degree their ex- istence to emigrants from Lynn.
The people appear generally to have been satisfied that on the whole their condition was a favorable one, though it is undeniable that not only the exeitable spirits, but the sober and considerate were at times agitated on po- litical questions, and entertained serious forebodings. They breathed the free air of the hills, and with every inspiration a restlessness of restraint was nurtured - the free air, unburdened by old traditions, unhampered by fetters of sycophantie obedience ; and hence, as before remarked, the idea of politieal independence was very early conceived. It can be traced all along ; even in the roving speech of the village orator in his town meeting. Yes, the Town Meeting, that precious New England in- stitution in which every citizen was at liberty to raise his voice in the discussion of all measures and devices affecting the public interest ; where all were on a level, and where old and young, rich and poor, appeared in
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watch and ward of right and freedom. But as popula- tion increased, the town meeting became unwieldy and the city council took its place. The people of Massachusetts were very slow in coming to look with favor on the city form of government. There was no city in the state, till 1822, and then Boston, with a population of 45,000 re- luctantly became one; but it seemed to many like barter- ing safety for convenience.
We were speaking of things as they existed about rev- olutionary times. Daily wants were to be supplied and daily exertion, in a material way, was necessary. The people were industrious, rising early and laboring dili- gently. Very few indeed were exempt from the neces- sity of personal exertion. That an immense amount of hard work was bestowed on the land was attested by the extensive arable fields that had been cleared, their pro- ductive condition, and the miles of cobble-stone wall by which they were surrounded. That peculiar kind of fencing which still adorns the landscape at least in most parts of eastern New England is unknown in many parts of the land. In the outlying portions of Lynn, there still remain extensive ranges which were laid by the hardy hands of the early inhabitants, as their mossy and weather-stained fronts abundantly attest ; and while look- ing upon them one is not only reminded, in a sentimental way, of the toil expended in their erection, but also in a practical way, that they afforded a convenient appropria- tion of waste material that cumbered the land. Our ancestors, to use a common figurative phrase, were accus-
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