USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Peabody > History Of Peabody Massachusetts > Part 3
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"He knew that the gates of justice were closed, and that truth had fled from the scene. He would have no part nor lot in the matter; re- fused to recognize the court, made no response to its questions, and was dumb in its presence. He stands alone in the resolute defiance of his attitude. He knew the penalty of suffering and agony he would have to pay ; but he freely and fearlessly encountered it. All that was needed to carry his point was an unconquerable firmness, and he had it. He rendered it impossible to bring him to trial, and thereby, in spite of the power and wrath of the whole country and its authorities, retained his right to dispose of his property ; and bore his testimony against the wickedness and folly of the hour in tones that reached the whole world, and will resound through all the ages."
In modern law, the prisoner who stands mute is deemed to have pleaded not guilty. But the English common law, to which the colony was subject in criminal matters, knew of no means by which the trial could proceed unless the accused answered to his indictment in open court. It is obvious that if any light penalty had attended such refusal to plead, many would have availed themselves of it; and so the policy of the old law was to provide an ordeal so awful that no one would deliberately undergo it. The prisoner was to be three times brought before the court and called to plead; the consequences of his refusal being solemnly announced to him each time. If he remained obdurate, the terrible sentence of peine forte et dure was passed upon him; and he would be laid on his back on the floor of a dungeon, mostly naked. A weight of iron would be put upon him, not quite enough to crush him. He would have no sustenance except on the first day, three morsels of the worst bread, and on the second day, three draughts of standing water from the pool nearest the prison door ; and, still oppressed by the weight, he should
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thus on alternate days eat and drink till he died or till he answered. If he answered, he was at once re- lieved, and tried in the ordinary way. It may well be imagined that when the only object of endurance was to save property from confiscation, few, indeed, would ever long endure such torture. But Corey had an- other motive, which lent strength to his spirit such as ranks him with the most courageous souls of all history.
Just what happened in his prison was never re- vealed ; but according to tradition, Corey was at last taken out into an open field near Salem-jail, some- where between Howard Street Burial-ground and Brown Street. He gave his executioners to under- stand that it was useless to prolong the ordeal, for he would never yield. They piled the heavy stones on his body, and Calef says that some inhuman specta- tor or official forced his tongue, protruding in the agony of his suffocation, back into his mouth with a cane. His indomitable courage endured to the end, and he died firm, as he had declared he would. Such a scene, if imagined ever so faintly, will serve to bring back to us the crushing effect of the supersti- tious fears of the people, who could see in this most pathetic and marvellous instance, in a man over eighty-one years of age, of the power of a resolute will over the extremest agony of body, only a proof of devilish and malignant power.
His death produced a deep effeci, and startled many into a feeling of growing repugnance and sus- picion towards the witcheraft proceedings. He was excommunicated from the First Church, by the agency of the Rev. Mr. Noyes, at a meeting hurriedly called for that purpose, just before his death.
Such was the record of the victims of the witchcraft delusion and conspiracy, for it may fairly be believed that it was both, in the farms of the middle precinct. With the exception of the Shafflin girl, whom a timely whipping brought to her senses before she did any harm, none of the accusers lived in the limits of Peabody. Of the public excitement, the fear, first of the witches, and then of the accusers,-the indignant sym- pathy of friends, the ready spirit of superstitious and credulous hatred toward the accused, which filled the region for so many long and awful months, little record remains. The Procters continued to live on their farms, and resumed their influential position in the society of the place ; but it may well be imagined that the ties that bound the people to either the First Church, presided over by Mr. Noyes, or the village, where Parris was trying to retain his hold against the heartfelt indignation of the relatives of those whom he had been so active in persecuting, were never afterward so binding or so attractive.
CHAPTER LXVII.
PEABODY-(Continued).
The Separation of the Middle Precinct.
IN February, 1709-10, a petition was laid before the selectment of Salem, signed by Captain Samuel Gardner and others, requesting the town of Salem to set off as a new precinct that part of the town outside of the town bridge and below the line of Salem Vil- lage. The reasons given are the distance of some of the families from the First Church in Salem, and the difficulty of general attendance on divine worship, and the growth of the district indicated. The bound- aries of the proposed precinct were laid down in this petition, which was embodied in the warrant for a special town-meeting to be held March 6, 1709-10.
" Viz., on a streight line from ye towne bridge to ye Spring Pond where ye brook Runs out and soe along ye northern shore of said Pond to Lyn line, and then north ward on Lyn line to ye Village Line, and then eastward on ye Village line to ffrostfish River and then as ye Saltwater Leads to ye Towne bridge first named (Excepting only James Symonds, John Sy- monds, John Norton & Math. Whittimore), viz., for granting unto ye inhabitants Dwelling within ye limits above mentioned to be free from paying Rates to ye Minister within ye bridge Provided they do at their owne Cost and Charge build a Meeting-house for ye Publick Worship of God among them and sustaine an Orthodox Minister to Preach in ye same."
The meeting of March 6th was called of "those that live without or below ye Village line that are Duely Qualified according to law for voteing." This call excluded the voters of Salem Village, who were probably deemed not to be interested in the separation of the middle precinct from the First Parish. The result was that the petitioners were in the minority, and the meeting was dissolved without action, as the record says, "because all the persons preluded by the Petitioners had not signed the petition."
The persons excepted lived in North Salem.
It is evident that this informality was merely a pretext seized upon by the majority to prevent far- ther action at that time, and that a very decided opposi- tion to the separation of the new precinct was de- veloped at this meeting; for immediately on this rebuff in the town-meeting, the same petitioners de- cided to change their plans, to address the General Court, praying to be set off as a separate precinct and to ask of the town of Salem simply a lot of land on which to build their meeting-house. As the next general town-meeting was to be held on March 20, they induced the selectmen to insert an article in the warrant authorizing the grant of a lot of land condi- tionally on the precinct's being established, there being at the time no petition or proceeding on foot, other than the one which had just been refused a hearing, before either the town or the General Court. Captain Samuel Gardner was a representative that year to the General Court, with Captain Jonathan Putnam, (they were paid £ 9 68. apiece for their sixty-
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two days' service at the assembly), and it is very likely that he felt more confident of success in the General Court than in the town-meeting. The fol- lowing is the list of the Petitioners, as given by Han- son. Samuel Marble, John Nurse, Abraham Pierce, James Houlton, Samuel Cutler, Ebenezer Cutler, Samuel King, Samuel Stone, James Gould, William King, Stephen Small, Ezekiel Marsh, Benjamin Very, Ezekiel Goldthwaite, Nathaniel Waters, John Jacobs, Richard Waters, Samuel Cook, David Foster, Na- thaniel Felton, John Waters, Israel Shaw, Jacob Read, John Trask, Nathaniel Tompkins, William Osborne, Jr., John O. Waldin, Anthony H. Need- ham, John Marsh, Benjamin Marsh, Samuel Stacey, Sr., Samuel Stacey, William Osborne, John W. Bur- ton, Benjamin C. Procter, Elias Trask, John Giles, John Gardner, George Jacobs, John Felton, Robert Wilson, Eben. Foster, Jonathan King, Skelton Fel- ton, Henry Cook, Joseph Douty, Thorndike Procter, Samuel Goldthwaite, Samuel Goldthwaite, Jr., Johny King, John King, Jr., Samuel Endicott.
The article in the warrant issued March 8, 1709-10, is "To answer the petition of severall of ye Inhabi- tants of this Towne, that live without ye bridge and be- low ye Village line, To grant them a Quarter of an acre of land to Set a Meeting-house upon Nigh Sam1 Golthrit's Jun. between that and ye widow Parnell's in Case ye Towne or General Court See Cause to Set them off."
The inhabitants of the village parish appear to have been in sympathy with the promoters of the new precinct, and the petitioners were able to secure a majority at the general town-meeting. A motion to proceed at once to the vote for granting one-fourth of an acre to the petitioners prevailed, and it was then voted that the land asked for be granted. A protest was immediately drawn up and signed by several of the most prominent citizens of the "Body of the Town," and was entered on the records. Its terms are curious and interesting. The grounds of the protest were that the inhabitants of the new pre- cinct "have never been sett of, nor any Precinct or District for a Parish Prescribed by the Towne, and altho' this matter of theire petition was now urged and moved as preposterous and irregular, & that there- fore ye Towne might have time to Consider of it till another Towne meeting"; "Wee therefore " say the remonstrants, "Doe hereby dissent from and Protest against the Said Precipitate and Irregular vote or act therein for ye reasons following, viz :
"1 .- Because two of the Selectmen that order'd the Inserting this matter in the warrant were Livers without the Bridge, & one of them a Petitioner in said Petition, and both Subscribers for the there Intended meeting house.
"2 .- Because two More of the Selectmen that were of the Village Parish ware absent from their Brethren when the said Petition was or- dered in the warrant.
"3 .- Because the Three Selectmen that are Livers within the Bridge at ye Time of the Agitation about itt Declared against the other Two Inserting sd Petition in the warrant & Brings itt forward at this time.
"4 .- Because Some of the voters were Livers without the Bridge,
& Some Quakers, and cheifly those also belonging to the Village Perrish whome we humbly conceive ware not propper voters in this matter. Wee therefore pray this, our Protest, may be Entred with yo said vote in the Towne Records."
Benjamin Lynde, Jonathan Corwin, William Ged- ney and Francis Willoughby were among the signers of this protest.
The next sitting of the General Court was conven- ed May 31, and the petition for the new precinct having been duly presented, the General Court, upon reading it, issued an order of notice directing the pe- titioners to notify the town of Salem, by sending a copy of the petition to the Selectmen, to appear and show reason on the 16th of June, why the prayer of the petitioners should not be granted.
On the 8th of June, the selectmen called a meet- ing of freeholders below the village line, for the 12th. At this meeting, which was merely to give an oppor- tunity to the remonstrants to appear against the petitioners, "at the motion of the moderator and Severall other gentlemen the Petitioners Liveing with- out the Bridge Drew of before voting. It was " voated that the Towne will Choose a Comitte or agents to Shew Reason why the Prayers of the Petitioners our Neighbours without the Bridge should not be Granted." A committee consisting of Major Samuel Browne, Benjamin Lynde, and Josiah Wolcot, was chosen to show reason in the town's behalf against the petition. The arguments of the remonstrants were filed in writing, and contain evidence of warm feeling. The committee for Salem do not hesitate to say to the General Court "Wee Cannott Butt think that Thatt Honourable Court will never want Buis- ness and Trouble If such Hasty and forward Peti- tioners be Encouraged and have their Desires." They also declare that "There was no such design until our Church had Chosen Mr. George Corwin for an assistant in the ministry to our Revd. Mr. Noyes, which not being pleasing to One, or Two of the Chief of ye Petitioners has occasioned this new undertak- ing, and a great unhappiness in the Town." "It was objected also that the separation would take from the body of the town, so far as concerned parish matters, three fourths of all improved lands, and the best part of the common lands, and it would with- draw eighty or ninety families from the First Church.
On the 19th of June, the General Court referred the whole matter to the next session, and appointed a committee to repair to Salem, and upon a full hearing of the petitioners, and the selectmen and others in behalf of the town, and after taking a view of the place proposed for the new building, "to offer their opinion of the most convenient place for a new con- gregation, Making report upon the whole to this Court at their next session."
Tuesday, the 12th of September, was set for the hearing before the committee of the General Court in Salem. The selectmen determined to make the visit of the committee an agreeable one, for at a meeting of
El
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the selectmen, September 9th, it was "ordered that John Pratt bee spoken to make Sutable Entertain- ment for ye Comitte apointed by ye General Court to come to Salem refering to ye precinct petition for without ye Bridge & that the Towne will defray ye Charge thereof."
John Pratt was for many years the proprietor of the famous "Ship Tavern " on Essex Street, nearly opposite Centre Street, on the site afterward occupied by the Mansion House. He afterward removed, about 1750, to a house on the corner of Essex and Washington Streets. About 1773 another house of entertainment, on the corner of Washington and Church Streets, was called the Ship Tavern.
The meeting of the committee was probably held in the Town House, in the upper part of which was the court-room, and which was situated in the mid- dle of Washington Street, anciently School Street, facing Essex Street, about where the eastern end of the tunnel now is.
At this hearing fresh papers were filed by the parties ; the petitioners rejoined to the arguments of the respondents, and pointed out that the new parish would take only about one-fourth of the families of the First Parish, and that owing to the small means of those who lived by husbandry, compared to the merchants and tradesmen of the town, it would take away but "a little more than a fifth part of ye pro- portion rated to the minister."
The full discussion has not been preserved, but it was doubtless animated, for these were people who took a deep interest in everything of public concern, and who were accustomed to vehement debate.
The committee were taken to the proposed site of the new meeting-house, and they were entertained by the town with great liberality ; for John Pratt's bill "for Entertainment of ye Committe & ye Company that attended & accompanied them " for "Two din- ners, expenses, &c.," amounted to £4 78. 6d., a very considerable sum for a junket in those days, which was approved the following January without com- ment, so far as the records show; perhaps because at the same meeting of the selectmen their patriotic ardor was stirred by an order to pay to the same land- lord " For expense on Major Lee & his pylot bring- ing ye first news of port Royalls being taken," amount- ing to 12s. 10d. It is probable that the item of "ex- penses, &c.," included a hospitable supply of liquors. The use of the same word in the order to pay for the celebration of the victory at Port Royal, shows that it had an ascertained meaning, like that of the word "sundries" in bills for celebrations of more recent date. It is interesting to note that in one respect at least we are more puritanical than our forefathers, for a town officer would hardly venture now to " treat " at the expense of the town in celebration of a victory.
setting off the new precinct. The report was read in the council and left upon the board. The next day the report was again read and debated. On the 3d, upon the question "Whether the Council will now vote the said report," there was a tie. It was not till the 10th of November that the report was finally accepted. The recommendation of the committee was that "The said Precinct do begin at the great Cove in the North Field so to run directly to Trask's Grist Mill, taking in the Mill to the new Pre- cinct; from thence on a Strait Line to the Mile Stone on the Road to Salem Meeting-house, and So along the Road to Lyn by Lindsay's; and then along the Line between Salem and Lyn Northward, till it comes to Salem Village line, & along by that line to Frost Fish River, & then by the Salt Water to the great Cove first mentioned ; and that the Meeting-house be erected on that Piece of Land near Gardner's Brook, already granted by the Towne for that End."
The report of the committee, which was signed by Penn Townsend for the committee, was read and ac- cepted by both houses and consented to by Governor Dudley the same day, November 10, 1710.
It seems that although the committee, in their re- port, speak of a piece of land as already granted by the town, there had been no location of the grant, which was indeed, by its terms, conditional.
On the 28th of December a formal vote was passed at a meeting of the selectmen, ordering that Captain Jonathan Putnam, Mr. Benjamin Putnam and Mr. John Pickering or any two of them be a committee to lay out the quarter of an acre and make return thereof.
It was undoubtedly a shrewd proceeding on the part of the petitioners to obtain the conditional grant in advance, and then locate it by the recommenda- tion of the committee of the General Court before the layers-out had been appointed. The fact that the land had already been granted may be fairly sup- posed to have had some weight in the deliberations of the committee.
CHAPTER LXVIII.
PEABODY (Continued).
The Middle Precinct-Building the Meeting-house.
ON the 28th of November, 1710, a general meeting of the inhabitants of the Middle Precinct was held. Captain Samuel Gardner was chosen moderator, and John Gardner was chosen "Clark." It was voted "That there be A Convenient Meeting hous Built for ye Publick Worship of God wth all convenient Speed in this Middle Precinct, and that it be Erected on ye place of Ground granted by the Town for that
On November 1, 1710, the legislative committee submitted a report, dated October 31, in favor of End." The committee chosen to have charge of the
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building of the new house were " Capt Sam" Gardner, M' Jnº Trask Sen", Mr James Holton, Mr Sam11 Cut- ler, M' Jnº Nurse, Mr Jona Mash, Mr Jnº Felton, Mr Will™ King, Mr Thorndick Procter, Mr. Abell Gard- ner, Mr Abr™ Pearse, Mr Jnº Waters."
The site chosen for the new meeting-house is that now occupied by the South Congregational Church in Peabody. It is mentioned in the proceedings at the centennial celebration of the incorporation of Danvers that the original grant of a quarter of an acre was in some way increased to about an acre.
The committee on the building, which is common- ly spoken of in the parish records as "ye grate com- mity " met, with brief delay, on the 30th of Novem- ber, and it was " Agreed that ye Building be 48 feat Long and 35 feat wid and 24 feat stud so as to have two Galaris." It was " Agreed That M' Sam11 Cutler M' Robert Willson M' Jnº Waters Be undertakers for ye workmanship of ye Hous and are to have 25 9ª Day for so many days as thay work from the present time till ye 10 day of March next and then 38 ₱ day so Long as ye Committy sees good. Agreed That other carpenders have 28 6ª per day for so many days as they work, and men that work with A Narro Ax to have 2º į day."
On January 15, 1710-11, the committee called a general meeting of the inhabitants of the parish to petition the town for a lot for the minister, and it was voted "to move or petition for 10 acres of land or as much as ye town sees meet to be laid out between Mr. Sam" Stones and Sam" Goldthrit's for ye use of ye Ministry for this Precinct. The location asked for would be between Washington Street and Foster Street, on the southerly side of Main Street. On March 12, 1710-11 the matter came before the gen- eral town meeting of Salem, and it was left to the select men to propose to the next annual town meet- ing "relating to a Sutable proportion of lands for ye Ministry of ye body of ye Toune and ye other two precinets to be set apart for ye use of ye Ministry of ye severall Districts." It seems that the application of the new precinct for a minister's lot was the occa- sion of the other parishes' asking for lots also, and at the meeting on March 24, 1711-12, the town was asked to grant ten acres to each of the outlying pre- cincts and twenty acres to the First Parish. This the voters refused to do; but it was voted to grant half an acre of land to "the New Chappell lately erected," for the use of the minister. This was short- ly after Mr. Prescott had been called to the Middle Parish.
This grant of one-half acre was not laid out for several years. In 1715 application was made to the selectmen of Salem to lay it out, and they did so the same year, near the meeting-house. The location included the vicinity of the Universalist Church building, extending toward the square. Part of this land was afterward conveyed to the Rev. Mr. Holt, and the remainder continued in the possession of the
ministry until 1818, when it was sold to Matthew Hooper for fifteen hundred dollars. The town of Salem refused to grant more land to the various pre- cincts ; but when in 1714 there was a division of com- mon rights, five acres were granted to the commoners to each of the four churches. These appropriations were located, one above the other, on the left of the old Boston road, going toward. Poole's bridge from Salem, between Glasshouse Field and the Sheep Pas- ture. The various church lots lay on the southerly side of the road now leading to Swampscott from Aborn Street, extending in a direction parallel to the Boston road. This land also was sold in 1845 for six hundred dollars and the proceeds of all the ministry lands of the Middle Precinct forms a fund which has at times been invested in a parsonage and at other times kept at interest. In the grants of these lands, in 1714 and 1715, the Middle Precinct is spoken of as Brooksby Parish or Precinct, showing that the ancient name was still in use at that time.
The original dimensions of the new meeting-house were enlarged at a meeting of the Great Committee in March, 1710-11, and it was agreed that the house should be fifty-one feet long and thirty eight feet broad. The lower part of the "Galari Gurts" were to be eight and one-half feet from the floor; there were to be six seats in the front gallery and five seats in the end galleries. The pulpit ;was in the middle of one of the long sides, and the principal aisle, or "alley," ran at right angles to the sitters, lengthwise and in the middle of the house. The pews were nearly square ; there were twenty of them, and they were mostly about five feet by six, though Samuel Cutler's pew was more than seven by six feet, and one pew occupied by Samuel and John Gardner was six feet by nine. The scarcity and costliness of window-glass made it necessary to econ- omize greatly in the use of that luxury ; and some of @ the pew-holders being inconvenienced by the dark- ness of their sittings, it was voted in May, 1712, "That thay which have no windos in their Puse have Leave to cut sum out Provided thay maintain them at their one Charge." If this liberty was largely availed of, it must have produced a picturesque irregularity in the appearance of the structure from the outside. One case, at least, is recorded ; Daniel Marble was given leave to cut a window out of the side of the meeting-house against his pew, to be maintained by him. This was in 1726. In 1765 the proprietors of new pews were given liberty to cut or make windows at the east and west doors.
The building was raised June 6, 1711. Mr. Joseph Green, of the Village Church, has recorded in his diary that he went to the raising " at Col. Gardner's." Captain Samuel Gardner's house was on the nor- therly corner of Central and Elm Streets. The festivities of that occasion were probably paid for by private subscription, for the only item of refreshments which appears in the parish accounts at
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