History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 115

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

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 115

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The whippoorwill, of mournful note, the merry humming-bird. In bog and pond the peeper pipes at close of springtide day, And fire-flies daunce like little stars along the lover's way."

Upon the rocky hillsides, about the ledges, and in the sequestered forest defiles, the hideous rattlesnake is still occasionally met with, during the hottest weather. Seldom, however, is there any injury and almost never any fatal result from encounters with these. old-time terrifiers. Formerly they were nu- merous, and occasioned much fear, but the numbers and fears have greatly decreased. It is stated, how- ever, that during the summer of 1868 a Lynnfield farmer killed the extraordinary number of thirteen, of various sizes.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

FIRST PARISH .- The First Church of Lynnfield was formed August 17, 1720, though a meeting-house appears to have been built some five years before. It had always been a hardship for worshippers of that remote region to attend service at the First Parish house, some living more than seven miles distant. And as early as the time when the " Old Tunnel" was built, 1682, on Lynn Common, much discussion was had as to the expediency of building farther in- land, in some place that would be most convenient for the four sections, now Lynn, Lynnfield, Saugus and Swampscott, separate parishes not then being contemplated. But the desire of the people near the site of the old house prevailed, and the new one was placed on the Common, where it remained, a marked object, till 1827. There does not appear to have been any ill-feeling engendered, and thither the people of Lynnfield went for worship till they became strong enough to form a separate parish.

The Rev. NATHANIEL SPARHAWK was installed minister of the Lynnfield parish at the time the church was formed, 1720, and his salary for the year fixed at seventy pounds. He was born in Cambridge in 1694; graduated at Harvard in 1715; was dismissed in July, 1731, and about one year thereafter, May 7, 1732, died, at the early age of thirty-eight years. The reason for his dismission does not exactly appear. Mr. Lewis says, " A part of his people had become dissatisfied with him, and some, whom he considered his friends, advised him to ask a dismission, in order to produce tranquillity. He asked a dismission, and

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it was unexpectedly granted. A committee was then chosen to wait on him, and receive the church rec- ords ; but he refused to deliver them. Soon after he took to his bed, and is supposed to have died in con- sequence of his disappointment." His wife was Elizabeth Perkins, and he had four children, one of whom was Edward Perkins Sparhawk, a man who became somewhat noted. He was born July 10, 1728, and graduated at Harvard College in 1753. His wife was Mehitabel Putnam, whom he married in 1759. Mr. Lewis says he was never ordained, though he preached many times in the parishes of Essex. He appears not to have approved of the settlement of Mr. Adams, the third minister of the parish, having himself been a candidate, and calls him "old Adams, the reputed teacher of Lynnfield." The historian adds, "He is the first person whom I found in our records having three names. The custom of giving an intermediate name seems not to have been com- mon till more than one hundred years after the settle- ment of New England." One son of Rev. Nathaniel, the first minister, born October 24, 1730, named John, was apprenticed to a shoemaker, and afterward be- came a physician of Philadelphia. One of our Es- sex County historians has strangely enough given the Rev. Nathaniel as the one to whom we are indebted for the series of interleaved almanacs which have been so much quoted from. But he had been dead fifty years before the almanacs were made. The Sparhawk who made the almanac memoranda was most likely Edward, son of the first minister, though some have thought he was a brother or nephew.

The immediate successor of Rev. Nathaniel Spar- hawk in the pastorate was the Rev. STEPHEN CHASE, who was settled in 1731. He was born in Newbury in 1708, graduated at Harvard in 1728, resigned in 1755, and died in 1778. His salary, as fixed at the time of his ordination, was one hundred pounds. Mr. Chase was here during the exciting period of the visit of Rev. George Whitefield, the celebrated Eng- glish revivalist. Rev. Mr. Henchman was then min- ister of the First Parish of Lynn, and while he per- sonally treated the eminent stranger with great court- esy, and even cordiality, strongly opposed his course of ministration, and refused the use of his meeting- house for one of his meetings. Mr. Henchman ad- dressed a letter, printed in pamphlet form, to Mr. Chase, giving reasons for his opposition to Mr. Whitefield.

Some of these reasons, as clearly enumerated by Mr. Lewis, were, that Mr. Whitefield had disregarded and violated the most solemn vow, which he took when he received orders in the Church of England, and pledged himself to advocate and maintain her discipline and doctrine-that he had intruded into places where regular churches were established-that he used vain boasting and theatrical gestures to gain applause-that he countenanced screaming, trances and epileptic fallings-that he had defamed the char-

acter of Bishop Tillotson, and slandered the colleges of New England.

It does not appear that Mr. Chase publicly answered the letter of Mr. Henchman, nor, indeed, what his precise views regarding Mr. Whitefield were. The letter was, however, answered by Rev. Mr. Hobby, of Reading, who became a warm defender of Mr. White- field. And to Mr. Hobby's answer Mr. Henchman made a rejoinder. The controversy was protracted and warm, and perhaps some good resulted.

The wife of Mr. Chase was Jane Winget, of Hamp- ton, and they had five children. After leaving Lynn he settled in Newcastle, N. H., remaining there till his death.

The third minister of the Lynnfield Parish was Rev. BENJAMIN ADAMS. He was born in Newbury May 8, 1719; graduated at Harvard in 1738; settled here November 5, 1755; died May 4, 1777. His wife was Rebecca Nichols, and they had seven chil- dren.

The fourth minister was Rev. JOSEPH MOTTEY. He was born in Salem, May 14, 1756; graduated at Dartmouth, 1778; settled here September 24, 1783 ; died July 9, 1821. His long pastorate would indicate that he was beloved by his people, though it was a period when ministerial changes were not by any means so frequent as now. He was of a retiring and sensitive disposition, had marked eccentricities, and withal a humorous vein. As a preacher he was mild and persuasive; not given to "ecstasy and holy fren- zy." At times he was subject to strange fancies and singular apprehensions. The following instance is related in Sprague's " Annals of the American Pul- pit," where a notice of him appears : " One extremely cold night, after going to bed, he came to the conclu- sion that he should certainly die before morning. While reflecting upon being found dead in his bed, he bethought him that his appearance, as he then was, would not be just what he should like ; so, get- ting up in the cold, he put on clean linen and jumped into bed again. Very soon he fell asleep, slept soundly till morning, and on waking was quite aston- ished to find that he was not dead." This certainly indicates that he had little fear of death. But he was a man of high character, and, notwithstanding his eccentricities, or " oddities," as they were called, con- tinued to enjoy the respect of his people, who seem never to have doubted his piety and conscientious- ness. His reply to one who called him "odd " was witty as well as characteristic: " Yes," said he, "I set out to be a very good man, and soon found that I could not be without being very odd."

Mr. Mottey was not accustomed to exchange with his brother clergy so often as did most of the minis- ters of that period; neither did he take anything like so active a part in the temporal affairs of bis parish as some of them, especially Mr. Treadwell and Mr. Roby, of the other Lynn parishes. This trait was sometimes commented on in a manner unfavorable to

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him. But the fact was, no doubt, rather attributable to his naturally shrinking disposition than to lack of interest in public affairs. That he was indus- trious with his pen cannot be doubted, for it is asserted that he wrote more than two thousand, if not fully three thousand, sermons, which, if they were of the usual length of the sermons of that period, must have covered many more sheets of paper than most of the preachers of our day find'it in their way to cover.

"In regard to doctrines," quotes Mr. Parsons, in a paper read before the Essex Unitarian Conference, September 8, 1881, "Mr. Mottey, in the first years of his ministry, was much inclined to what is now termed orthodoxy. Afterwards, and until the end of his life, there was a general coincidence in his opin- ions with what is now termed liberal Christianity." But " liberal Christianity " is a term so indefinite as to cover a wide field. And it cannot be admitted that Mr. Mottey ever became what is now known as a Unitarian or Universalist; nor was his successor, Mr. Searl, of either of these denominations. There are many shades of belief among the individuals of all denominations. And no doubt some of the theo- logians of Andover and Princeton are quite as well en- titled to be called liberal Christians as was Mr. Mottey.

The fifth minister of Lynnfield Parish was Rev. JOSEPH SEARL. He was born in Rowley Decem- ber 2, 1789; graduated at Dartmouth in 1815; set- tled here January 21, 1824; resigned September 27, 1827. He removed to Stoneham. Mr. Searl was the last preacher of the old orthodox faith iu this, the First Lynnfield Parish. Rev. LUTHER WALCOTT, his successor, was of the Universalist persuasion. The ministerial succession was as follows :

1720. Nathaniel Sparhawk.

1731. Stephen Chase.

1755. Benjamin Adams.

1783. Joseph Mottey. 1824. Joseph Searl. 1854. Luther Walcott.

After Mr. Walcott left the society was supplied by different ministers for a few years, and then services were discontinued.

It would be needless to repeat that this, the First Church of Lynnfield, was originally of rigid Puritan- ical stamp. And in its history appears another in- stance of the tendency to swerve from that faith, and by the force of a mere vote adopt one of a different character. Where no superior ecclesiastical authority is acknowledged there seems nothing to prevent this. This Lynnfield society changed its faith as an organ- ization by voting to settle Mr. Walcott. The First Church of Lynn is one of the three or four of the early churches in Massachusetts that have preserved their integrity, through good report and evil, to the present day, they never haviog yet voted themselves out of the old faith. The right of individual inter- pretation may be very precious, but its tendency is to instability.

The following are the other religious societies of Lynnfield :

ORTHODOX EVANGELICAL SOCIETY (Centre Vil- lage). [Trinitarian Congregational, formed September 27,1832.]

1833. Josiah Hill. 1863. M. Bradford Boardman.

1837. 1Ienry S. Greene. 1871. Oliver P. Emerson.

1850. Uzal W. Condit. 1874. Darius B. Scott.

185G. Edwin R. Hodgman.

1883. Henry L. Brickett.

1859. William O. Whitcomb.

SOUTH VILLAGE CONGREGATIONAL. [Trinitarian, formed in 1849.]

IS49. Ariel P. Chute.

1858. Allen Gannett.

1865. Jacob Hood. -

METHODIST .- A society of this order was formed here in 1816, and a house of worship erected, in the Centre Village, in 1823. But regular meetings have not been held for several years.

OLD FAMILIES AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

NEWHALL FAMILY .- Joseph Newhall was an early settler of Lynnfield. He was a grandson of Thomas Newhall, the first of the name in Lynn, and a son of Thomas, the first white child born here. He was born on the 22d of September, 1658, and married Susanna, daughter of Thomas Farrar. He was a man of considerable importance in his day, and was often in places of public trust. He settled, as a farmer, in Lynnfield, his homestead farm, as it was called, con- sisting of some thirty-four acres. He also had another estate, known as the Pond farm, consisting of a hundred and seventy acres, lying on the west of Humphrey's Pond, and being a part of the grant made to Mr. Humphrey in 1635. It is thus seen that Mr. Newhall possessed many "broad acres," com- prehending woodland, tillage and meadow. But his most valuable possession was a family of eleven chil- dren-eiglit sons and three daughters. Just when he took up his abode in Lynnfield does not distinctly appear; but it was probably soon after he came of age, his marriage taking place at about the same time. He seems to have been a good man and a regular at- tendant on public worship, for by the record, No- vember 4, 1696, it appears that the town did grant liberty for Joseph Newhall to " sett up a pewe in ye east end of ye meeting house [the Old Tunnell] Be- tween ye east dowre & the stares ; provided itt does nott prejudice the going up ye stares into ye gallery, & maintains so much of the glas window as is against sd pewe." He was a member of the General Court, and died while in office. And in this connection it may be remarked that the pay of representatives, and indeed of all public officers, was at a rate that did not encourage that degree of hankering for official posi- tion so lamentably prevalent in our time. Upon the records is found this item : "Dec. 1706, to his serving a Representative at the generall court in the year 1705, until his death, 76 days at 3s per day-11£ 8s Od." Mr. Newhall perished while on his way from Boston to Lynn, in a great snow-storm, in January, 1705-'06. His grave-stone is in the old burying-

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ground, near the westerly end of the Common, Lynn, and gives his age as forty-seven, and his title, en- sign. All his eleven children survived him.

ELISHA NEWHALL, the third son of Joseph, born November 20, 1686, was a farmer in Lynnfield, and owned a tract on the northwest of Humphrey's Pond. He also owned a tract on the sontheast of the pond, and on the latter his house stood. He was something of a military man and attained the rank of captain. His death took place on the 19th of March, 1773, at the age of eighty-seven. He married, February 27, 1710-11, Jane, daughter of Joseph Breed. She was of his own age and survived him but three days. They had eight children-three sons and five daughters. The church record says, "They lived very happily together as man and wife, almost sixty-five if not almost sixty-six years, then died, bnt three days dif- ference between yr deaths. Thus were they lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death they were not divided."

DANIEL NEWHALL, a younger brother of Elisha, just spoken of, was born February 5, 1690-91. His wife was Mary, danghter of Allen Breed. His widow, says Mr. Waters, died suddenly January 1, 1775, in her eighty-fourth year. In a notice of her death published in the Essex Gazette, she is said to have left eleven children, sixty-six grandchildren, thirty-two great-grandchildren-in all, one hundred and nine.

BENJAMIN NEWHALL, another son of Joseph, and brother of Elisha and Daniel, was horn April 5, 1698. He did not pursue farming, but engaged in shoemak- ing, and located on Lynn Common. In 1729 he sold his remaining interest in the Humfrey farm, evidently intending not to return to Lynnfield. He seems to have been successful in his vocation and was one of the three mentioned as doing sufficient business in 1750 to require the employment of journeymen. He, like his brother Elisha, had military aspirations, and in the French and Indian War was a captain. He was a Representative, first in 1748, and several times thereafter. He married Elizabeth Fowle Jan- uary 1, 1721, had fourteen children, and died June 5, 1763. His son Benjamin, born September 6, 1726, was probably the same who was town clerk at the opening of the Revolution, and who died in 1777.

SAMUEL NEWHALL, the youngest son of Joseph, and brother of Elisha, Daniel and Benjamin, was born March 9, 1700-1. He was adopted by his uncle, Thomas Farrar, who was a farmer, lived on Nahant Street, Lynn, and was a son of Thomas Farrar, known as " Old Pharaoh," who was one of those accused of witchcraft in 1692.

ASA TARBEL NEWHALL was born in Lynnfield Jnne 28, 1779; his father, Asa, was born August 5, 1732; his grandfather, Thomas, was born January 6, 1681 ; his great-grandfather, Joseph, was born Sep- tember 22, 1658, and was the first of the Lynnfield Newhalls; and his great-great-grandfather was Thomas, the first white person born in Lynn.

Mr. Newhall was bred a farmer, and followed the honorable occupation all his life. He was a close ob- server of the operations of nature, and brought to the notice of others divers facts of great benefit to the husbandman. He delivered one or two addresses at agricultural exhibitions, and published several papers which secured marked attention and elicited discussion. His mind was penetrating and possessed a happy mingling of the practical and theoretical ; and he had sufficient energy and industry to insure results. Such a person will always make himself useful in the world, though he may be destitute of that kind of ambition which would place him in con- spicuous positions.

He was liberal in his views, courteous in his man- ners ; and by his sound judgment and unswerving in- tegrity secured universal respect. In his earlier man- hood he was somewhat active as a politician, and was jndicious and trustworthy. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1820, and a Senator in 1826. He was also a Representative in 1828.

His wife was Judith Little, of Newbury ; and he had nine children-Joshua L., Asa T., Thomas B., Sallie M., Eunice A., Judith B., Caroline E., Hiram L. and Elizabeth B.

Mr. Newhall died at his residence, in the south- eastern part of Lynnfield, on the 18th of December, 1850, aged seventy-one, and was buried with Masonic honors.

GENERAL JOSIAH NEWHALL was born in Lynn- field on the 6th of June, 1794, and was a lineal de- scendant from Thomas, the early Lynn settler, his nearer ancestor probably being Joseph, the first of the family who pitched his tent in Lynnfield.

The long and active life of General Newhall closed on the 26th of December, 1879. During several years of his earlier manhood he followed the profes- sion of teaching, hut, as time advanced, grew weary of that exacting employment, and retired to the more congenial one of agriculture. He however retained his love for study, and became quite proficient in some branches, his attainments bearing his fame even to the other side of the Atlantic, where, in 1876, he received the honor of being elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society of Great Britain. He served in the War of 1812, and was afterwards much inter- ested in military affairs, attaining the rank of briga- dier-general in the Massachusetts militia. When General Lafayette reviewed the troops on Boston Common, during his visit to America in 1824, he was present in command of a regiment.

Lynnfield was incorporated as a separate town in 1814, and General Newhall was her first representa- tive in the General Court. He served also in 1826-27 and again in 1848. During the administration of President Jackson he held an office in the Boston Custom-House. He also, at different times, filled im- portant local offices. But his most congenial and sat- isfying resort was the honorable occupation of farmer

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and horticulturist. There, the results of his experi- ments and suggestions were often of much value. He was kind-hearted, genial in manners and ever ready to lend a helping hand to the deserving who needed assistance. The last time the writer had the pleasure of meeting him was on the occasion of the celebra- tion of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Settlement of Lynn, June 17, 1879. He seemed greatly to enjoy the proceedings, and as the open carriage in which he sat moved along in the procession, on that pleasant forenoon, was in fine spirits and highly interested in observing the many evidences of thrift and improvement.

His wife was Rachel C., a daughter of Timothy Ban- croft. They were married October 28, 1824, and be- came the parents of nine children, only two of whom survived him. As has appeared, even from the little that has been said here, the early fathers and mothers of the Newhall family of Lynn did their full share to increase the native population. Perhaps no family is deserving of higher praise than this in that direc- tion. And it is fonnd that the name soon began to prevail far and near as emigration kept pace with the rolling tide of population, till at this day representa- tives are to be found in every part of our broad land, some in commanding positions; but the great multi- tude, as in all other families, plodding "along the cool, sequestered vale of life." Henry F. Waters, Esq., of Salem, has performed praiseworthy labor in gathering so much genealogical information in his little work entitled "The Newhall Family of Lynn, Massachusetts," collating it so carefully and present- ing it in such intelligible form.

DOCTOR JOHN PERKINS .- Among the residents of Lynnfield who have from time to time adorned her history may be named Dr. John Perkins, who died in 1780, at the age of eighty-five. He was well educated, having studied two years in London, and practiced forty years in Boston. He was quite a scientist, and proposed some theories that attracted considerable attention among the savants of the day. The great- est earthquake ever known in New England occurred on the 18th of November, 1755, near the time when Lisbon was destroyed. The same year Dr. Perkins published a tract on earthquakes, probably induced by the terrible commotions of that time. Other writings of his received much commendation, espe- cially an essay on the small-pox, published in the London Magazine. Vaccination, it will be borne in mind, was not then practiced. It is said he left a manuscript of three hundred and sixty-eight pages, containing an account of his life and experience. . It would, however, probably have long since been pub- lished had it contained much of real value, as it was in the custody of the American Antiquarian Society. Among other things, it is alleged to have contained a long and particular relation of a singular encounter of wit between Jonathan Gowen, of Lynn, and Jo- seph Emerson, of Reading. They met by appoint-

ment at the tavern, in Sangus, and so great was the number of people that they removed to an adjacent field. The Reading champion was foiled, and went home in great chagrin. Dr. Perkins says that the exercise of Gowen's wit " was beyond all human im- agination." But he afterward fell into such stupidity that the expression "You are as dull as Jonathan Gowen " became proverbial. This intellectual en- counter seems to have been enjoyed by the neighbors of the champions almost as keenly as are the eleva- ting yacht or even base-ball contests of onr day.

The doctor appears to have been an interested ob- server of passing events, active and cheerful as well as prompt and efficient in the practice of his profes- sion.

This Dr. Perkins has been mentioned in connection with the invention of the " Metallic Tracters," which were so much ridiculed by the profession at the time they were produced. But the inventor of them was quite another man, a Dr. Elisha Perkins, of Connecti- cut. He was a learned man, and one of much ability and boldness in experimenting ; and proved his sin- cerity hy going to New York in 1799, when the yel- low fever was prevalent there, to test the virtue of a medicine he had prepared for its cure, and falling himself a victim to the disease.

DANIEL TOWNSEND, of Lynnfield, who was killed in the battle of Lexington, was a lineal descendant of Thomas Townsend, or Townshend, as he and oth- ers of the family sometimes spelled the name, who came to Lynn as early as 1635, and in the records is called a husbandman. He owned a lot of some seven acres, on the southerly side of Boston Street, a short distance west from Franklin ; and upon this lot his dwelling is thought to have stood, though Mr. Lewis says he lived near the iron works, in the present bounds of Saugus. Perhaps he lived in both neigh- borhoods, for he is known to have owned lands near the southwesterly border of Lynnfield, and in other places. He died December 22, 1677, at about the age of seventy-seven years. His son John was a wheel- wright, and belonged to the church in Reading, though he seems always to have been called of Lynn. Perhaps the Reading church was more convenient to his home than that of Lynn. He died December 14, 1726, leaving a son, Daniel, born April 1, 1700. And this Daniel was father of the Daniel who is the sub- ject of this notice, and was one of the first to lay down his life in the great struggle for American inde- pendence.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 115

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

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