History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 188

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 188

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In the same year, 1675, in the expedition against the Narragansett Fort, when Philip met his Waterloo, Beverly contributed her quota, nothing dismayed at her previous losses. We find, as the soldiers engaged under the brave Captain Gardner, of Salem, who fell December 19th, the following persons, towusmen of nurs : William Allen, William Balch, Wm. Bonner, Joseph Bayley, Thomas Blashfield, Jonathan Biles, Christopher Browne, Lot Conant, John Clark, Wm. Dodge, John Dodge, John Ellingwood, Wm. Ferry- mau, Samuel Harris, Richard Hussband, Moses Mor- gan, Jos. Morgan, Elias Picket, Thos. Rayment, Wm. Rayment, Christopher Reed (wounded), John Trask.

At the capture of Port Royal, in 1654, where Lothrop served as captain, he had with him, from Beverly, Lieut. Thomas Whittredge, Lieut. Elias Rayment, Wm. Woodbury, Humphrey Woodbury and Peter Wooden. From the very beginning of their settlement, the people of Beverly furnished their share of soldiers for the common defense and con- quest.

In addition to these soldiers, engaged, there were others, in a company on the eastern frontier, under the command of Captain Frost. These were John Ellingwood (who had the fore-finger of his right hand shot away, for which he subsequently received a pen-ion), Thomas Parlor and Samuel Collins.

Previous to the attack upon the Narragansett Fort, when the soldiers were assembled on Dedham Plain, they were promised a reward in land for their services in addition to their pay, provided they "played the man, and drove the Narragansetts from the fort." This promise was eventually fulfiled, but not until nearly sixty years had passed away, when the soldiers engaged in this campaign were granted several town- ships of land, each six miles square, in the wild region, now included in the States of Maine and New Hampshire. The township shared in by the Beverly soldiers or their heirs, was known then as Souhegan West, at present Amherst, New Hampshire. The names of the proprietors from Beverly, in 1741, when they met to take possession, were 1# Henry Bayley, Henry Blashfield and assigns, * Jonathan Byles, * Lott Conant, Andrew Dodge for J. Ellinwood, Jona. Dodge for John Dodge, Wm. Dodge's heirs, * Ralph Ellin- wood, Saml. Harris' heirs, Joseph Morgan for his father, Joseph Picket for his father, Elias, *Thomas Rayment, Wm. Rayment's heirs, and "Christopher Read.

1676 .- At a public meeting, December 5th, it was

voted to employ two constables, in place of one, on account of the extraordinary troubles of the times. And " It is ordered by the selectmen that the hinder site of the olders galery in the meeten house is to be altered, and the Boise ar to seete there, and Robert Hibberd, seuior, is to hafe an Eie out for them, and for the first ofense to aquaint thar parants or masters of it, and if they do ofend again to aquante the Select- men with it, who shall dele with them according to lawe."

1677 .- May 12th, " It is agreed between the select- men, in behalf of the towns, and Mr. Samuel Hardie, that the said Mr. Hardie is to begin to teach a scoole, according to the utmost of his ability, . and the said Hardie is to have the meeting-house to teach scoole in during the somer tyme, and some other place against winter." He was to receive £20; and it is explained that "by ordinary learning is meant reading, writing, arethmetick, and Latin according to his ability."

June 25th, "In obedians to a law of the honored Jenerall Corte they made choise of ten men to in- specte thar naibours to prevente as much as may be, privet tipling and Drunckenness," whose names be as followeth: Wm. Dodge, Robt. Bradford, Humph. Woodbury, Josiah Root, Robert Heberd, Nath. Hay- ward, Exsersis Conant, John Hill, Richard Ober, John Dodge.

1679 .- 28th. April, “ We whose names are under- written beeing hy the apointment of the selectmen of our respective towns, mett to goe a perambulation in the bounds between our said towns from the Rock at the head of Bass River to the pine stump in the swamp that runneth out of Laurence Leach's meadow, have acordingly gone the said preambulation, and renewed the said bounds as neere as one could guess," etc.

BEVERLY.

SALEM.

John Raiment.

John Corwin.

Paul Thorndike.

Thomas Putnam.

John Dodg.

Phillip Cromwell.

William Raiment.

Richard Leach.

Andrew Elliott.

John Putnam.

Peter Woodbery.

Israell Porter.

1679 .- 25th November, " Leftenent Thorndike and William Rayment was chosen to manage the case in ye behalf of ye towne of Beverly at the present corte held at Salem, which controversy is between the town of Beverly and Captaine Moore ; about a bell." (This was a controversy on the freight on the bell brought from Port Royal in 1654.)

1680 .- December 10, The selectmen agreed with William Hoar to ... "sweep the meeting-house as is necessary and usuall, keep and turn the (hour) glass, & doe in all respects as Goodman Bayly hath done before him; and further, the said Goodman Hoar is to ring the meeting-house bell at nine of the clock every night a sufficient space of time, and as is usuall in other places. In consideration whereof the said Hoar is to have for his pains as goodman Bayley had,

1 From " Hist. of Amherst." The stars denote the then survivors of the fight.

690

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

viz. : of every family in the towne one peck of corne per year."

It is said that the town was troubled by wolves, and in 1678 John Edwards was allowed ££3 for killing three of them. These creatures were numerous and troublesome in the neighboring village of Ipswich, so late as 1750.

Beverly resisted the claims of the Mason heirs to their portion of the territory between the Naumkeag and the Merrimac, and memorialized the king.

After reciting their loyalty to King Charles, etc.

1681 .- February 22d, "So that we can produce quires, yea Rheams of paper, which we conceive it would be presumption for us to desire our dread sov- ereigu to bee diverted from the mighty affairs of three kingdoms for the hearing of; for we had above fifty years possession, & entered upon the place with the good liking of the Indians, the ancient inhabit- ants of this country. Wee have adventured our lives and estates & worn out much time and strength in the subduing a wilderness for the increasing his Maj- esties dominions & customs ; and in the late wars with the heathen have carried our lives in our hands to de- fend our possessions, with the loss of about 12 English lives of our towne, & and expended some hundreds of pounds to maintain our lands, & in this time of above fifty years neither Mr. Mason nor any for him did either take possession or disburse estate, or make de- mand of our lands or expended one penny to defend them."

The testimony of the aged inhabitants of the town, as Richard Brackenbery, William Dixy and Humphrey Woodbury, to the effect that the Massachusetts Com- pany had purchased of the Dorchester Company all their rights and property at Cape Ann, before Gov. Endicott arrived, was regarded as conclusive. They further declared that they had "free lease to build and plant " from the resident Indians, and that the same year, or the next after they had come to Salem, they had cut hay for their cattle on the Cape Ann, or Beverly side, and " had been in: possession of Beverly side ever since."

Although the occupants of the soil were never actu- ally molested, it was not until 1746, after nearly a century of agitation, that the Mason claimants ahan- doned this pretension and left the settlers in peaceful possession.

1683 .- Beverly became a lawful port of entry, this year, annexed to the port of Salem.

1684 .- September 1st, " At a meeting of the select- men it was agreed with Andrew Elliott Sen., and Samuel Hardie, to transcribe all that is necessary to be transcribed out of the old town book into the new one within two months after the date hereof; & that when the work is completed then the selectmen in the town's behalte shall pay to said Andrew Elliott ten shillings in money, and unto Samuel Hardie five shil- lings in money, besides ten already paid him on the same account." The second volume of records begins :

" Third Nov. 1085, then this book was improved for the town of Beverly, as a town book to record the town concerns by the selectmeo of said town successively," etc.

1686 .- One of Beverly's aged and worthy citizens, John Lovett, died this year ; he was born 1610, and was " one of the eight admitted inhabitants of Salem," July 25, 1639. At the "seven men's meeting," Nov. 3, 1665, he received a grant of two acres of marsh land lying near the old planter's meadow, near Wenham Common. He owned much real estate, and his de- scendants maintain the name in Beverly to this day.

1690 .- The town had no regularly-appointed clerk until 1690, hence the fragmentary character of the records, which were begun in 1665, until, in April of this year, Andrew Elliott was elected to the office at a salary of 30 shillings in money and 40s. in "pay," or produce. He was one of the five witnesses, in 1680, taken from Beverly to attend at the execution of the Indian deed of the town of Salem. He was town clerk until his death, in 1703-4, when Robert Wood- bury succeeded to the office. His entries in the rec- ord were very circumstantial, as witness the follow- ing :

"John Tovy, sometime of Wiuserd in Old England, near Bristow, afterward apprentice with Andrew Elliott, shoemaker, of Beverly, New England, &, nextly, husband unto Mary Herrick (now widdow) was un- fortunately drowned comiog from Winter Islaod in a Cannoo unto said Beverly, not to be forgotten, on the 24th day of August, in the year of our Lord God 1686."

" Andrew Elliott, the dear and only son of Andrew Elliott, (whose mother's name was Grace) & was boro in East Coker io the County of Somerset in Old England, being on board of a vessel appertaining unto Phillip English of Salem, one Bavidge heing master, said vessel being then at Capo Sables, by an awful stroke was violently thrown into the sea & there perished in the water, to the great grief of his said father, the penman hereof ; being aged about 37 years on the 12th day of Sep- tember, about 10 of the clock in the morning, according to the hest in- formation, io the year of our Lord God 1688.

"Deep meditation surely, every man in his best estate is wholly vanitie."

The year 1690 was signalized by the unfortunate ex- pedition against Quebec, under Sir William Phipps. The town borrowed money "to buy great guns and ammunition," and a company was raised and sent with the expedition, under Capt. William Rayment. This adventure is said to have cost Massachusetts £50,000, besides many men, and was disastrous from the be- ginning. Captain Rayment and his command were subjected to great privations, for which they were "subsequently rewarded by a grant of a township of land."

1692. WITCHCRAFT PROCEEDINGS .- It is on record that the Rev. Mr. Hale served as chaplain in this cam- paign, and that on his return he found the country agitated over the witchcraft sensation. Although none of Beverly's inhabitants perished in this diaboli- cal cyclone, yet several were cried out against by the "Salem wenches," the "afflicted" children, and nar- rowly escaped with their lives. Four, at least : Dorcas Hoar, Sarah Morell, Susanna Rootes and Job Tuckey, were accused, arrested, condemned and imprisoned. Sarah Morell and Dorcas Hoar were arrested by Mar-

691

BEVERLY.

shal Herrick,1 May 2, 1692, on a warrant issued by Capt. Jona. Walcot aud Sergt. Thos. Putnam, of Salem Village, which included the well-known merchant of Salem, Philip English. So far as we may judge from the records of the trials, Dorcas Hoar was the bravest and most outspoken of auy of that iunocent band of accused, penetrating through the transparent deceit of the "wenches," and promptly characterizing the proceedings as infamous. When she was brought into court the afflicted pretended to fall into fits at sight of lier. "After coming out of them they vied with each other in heaping all sorts of accusations upon the prisoner; Abigail Williams and Ann Putnam charg- ing her with having choked a woman in Boston ; Eli- zabeth Hubbard crying out that she was pinching her, and showing the marks to the standers-by. The mag- istrate, indignantly believing the whole, said : 'Dorcas Hoar, why do you hurt these?' She auswered,-' I never hurt any child in my life!' The girls theu charged her with having killed her husband, and with various other crimes. Mary Walcot, Susanna Sheldon and Abigail Williams said they saw a black man whispering in her ear. The spirit of the prisoner was raised, and she said: ' Oh, you are liars, and God will stop the mouth of liars !' The anger of the magistrate was roused by this bold outbreak. 'You are not to speak after this manner in court.' 'I will speak the truth as long as I live,' she fearlessly replied."

Having ventured to oppose the bigoted and insen- sate magistrate and those inspired idiots the "afflicted children," she was, of course, sent to prison.2

Susanna Rootes was arrested the 21st of May, Job Tookey on the 4th of June. Against Job it was de- clared that he could "as freely discourse with the devil " as with his accuser, John Lander ; that he had afflicted three of the " children," and had caused the death of Andrew Woodbury. Job Tookey is described as a "laborer," and was charged with having said that he would take Mr. Burroughs' (the accused minister's) part, and that "he was not the devil's servant, but that the devil was his." When charged that his shape afflicted persons, he stoutly assumed that in that case "it was not he, but the devil in his shape, that hurt them." The three girls, Susanna Sheldon, Mary War- ren and Ann Putnam, then cried out upon him and then were struck dumb; after which performance Mary Warren recovered her speech and exclaimed : "There are three men, and three women, and two children, all in their winding sheets ; they look pale upon us, but red upon Tookey-red as blood." Then

she saw "a young child uuder the table, crying out for vengcauce," and one of her confederates was struck speechless, pointing in horror to the same shape under the table.

Poor Job may well have been struck with amaze- ment upon hearing himself accused of murdering nearly all who had died at Ryal's Side for the year or two past, and the magistrates-Bartholomew Gedney, Jona. Corwin and John Hathorne-are represented as having been highly incensed at his obduracy in deny- ing the charges, and promptly committed him to jail.

That these people were eventually released does not lessen the guilt of their accusers and of those who lent themselves as accessories to their conviction. Even the revered minister of Beverly, the Rev. John Hale, countenanced the proceedings against the ac- cused Bridget Bishop, at one time a communicant in his church. About the year 1687 there resided at Ryal's Side "A woman iu the neighborhood, subject to fits of insanity, who had, while passing into one of them, brought an accusation of witchcraft against her; but, on the return of her reason, solemnly recanted, and deeply lamented the aspersion." 3

Rev. Mr. Hale had examined into the case at the time and exonerated Sister Bishop from the charge, yet "under the malign influence of his friend, the Rev. Sam. Parrish," he went into court in 1692, " without any pretence of new evidence touching the facts of the case, and related them to the effect and with the intent to make them bear against her." Bridget Bishop, innocent of crime, was condemned and soon after executed, June 10, 1692.

In October of the same year, Mr. Hale's own wife was accused, and then his feelings underwent a change. In a treatise, subsequently written against the " delusion," he says : " I have had a deep sense of the sad cousequences of mistakes in matters capi- tal, and their impossibility of recovering when com- pleted ; and what grief of heart it brings to a tender conscience to have been unwittingly encouraging of the sufferings of the innocent."

The remarks of Cotton Mather may, not inaptly, be quoted here : "They now saw that the more the afflicted were hearkened unto the more the number of the accused increased ; until at last many scores were cried out upon, and among them some who by the unblameableness, yea, and serviceableness, of their whole conversation, had obtained the just repu- tation of good people among all that were acquainted with them. The character of the afflicted, also, added unto the common distaste ; for though some of them, too, were good people, yet others of them, and such of them as were most flippant at accusing, had a far other character." Setting aside this labored apology for the accusers, this admission of Mather's shows that the "afflicted " had overreached themselves, and had struck too high.

1 " Marshal Herrick does not appear to have been connected with Joseph Herrick, who lived on what is now called Cherry Hill, but was a man of an entirely different stamp. He was thirty-four years of age, and had Dot been long in the country."-L'pham.

Dorcas Hoar was the wife of sexton "Goodman Hoar," and their house was Dear the Hale parsonage, probably not far from West Dane Street (as it now runs). She was a daughter of John Galley, free of speech and independent in her bearing. A friend of bers had been ac- cused of stealing hy Mrs. Hale, and this fact may have led to the accusa- tion of the latter by the affiicted children.

3 Upham's Witchcraft, Vol. ii. pp. 25, et 8.q.

692

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

As the first victim executed, Bridget Bishop, was at one time a resident within the present limits of Beverly, and a member of the first church here; so likewise, the last to be selected was a shining light in this same church and community. But Mistress Hale, of Beverly, was one whose piety and " un- blameableness " was known to all.

"The whole community became convinced that the accusers, in crying out npon Mrs. Hale, had perjured themselves, and from that moment their power was destroyed; the awful delusion was dis- pelled, and a close put to one of the most tremen- dous tragedies in the history of real life." 1

It is curious to note, in this connection, that one of the four daughters of the ill-fated Giles Corey, who was "pressed to death," was the wife of William Cleeves, of Beverly. Two of the wretched man's sons-in-law were among his accusers, but the other two remained constant in their belief in his inno- cence. To them he willed his entire property, and (it is believed), in order not to invalidate their right to it, endured the tortures of a horrible death; since, if he had come to trial, his property would have been confiscated. By refusing to plead, either guilty or not guilty, he obliged the court to stay his trial ; but, in order to force him to speak the magistrates imposed upon him the terrible sentence, which he suffered.

Returning to the town records, we find among the entries of that same fateful year, one that will lend an additional interest to investigation ; under the head of "births " is recorded : " John, son of Rev. John Hale, and Sarah his wife, December 24th, 1692."

Following along a little later, and without over- stepping a strictly chronological record of events, we may note: "Mrs. Sarah Hale, wife of Rev. John Hale, pastor of the church in Beverly, departed this life on the 20th day of May in the year 1695."

A loving tribute to departed worth, is the poem by our townswoman, Lucy Larcom, entitled, "Mistress Hale, of Beverly," in which the life of that troublous witchcraft year, with its local color and environment, is finely delineated. After a description of tbe pro- ceedings and of the part taken in them by the minis- ter from Beverly, comes the denouement, the ac- cusation of his wife, as the pastor of the first parish enters the court-house. * * * * *

"' ' Woe ! Mistress Hale tormenteth me ! she eame in like a bird, Perched ea her husband's shoulder !' Then sileace fell ; ne word Spake either judge or miaister, while with profound amaze Each fixed npon the other's face his horror-stricken gaze.

" But, while the accuser writhed in wild contortions on the fleer, Oae rose and said, 'Let all withdraw ! the eonrt is closed !' no more ; For well the laad knew Mistress Hale's rare loveliness aad worth ; Iler virtues bloomed like flowers of heaven along the paths of carth.

"The minister of Beverly went homeward, riding fast, llis wife shrank back from his strange look, affrighted and aghast. ' Dear wife, thou ailest ! Shut thyself into thy rooms !' said he,

' Whoever comes, the latch-string keep drawn in from all save me l'

" Nor his life'e treasure from close guard did he ene moment lese, Until across the ferry came a messenger with news

That the bewitched ones acted now vain mummerice of woe, The judges looked and wondered still, but all the accused let go.

" The dark cloud rolled front off the land, the golden leaves dropped dewo Along the winding wood-paths of the little sea-side towa : In Salem Village there was peace ; with witchcraft trials passed The nightmare-terror from the vexed New England air at last.

" Again in natural tenes men dared to laugh aloud and speak ; From Naugns Head the fisher's shout rang hack to Jeffry's Creek ; The phantom soldiery withdrew, that haunted Gloucester shore ;

The teamster's voice through Wenham Woods broke into psalais onee more.

"The minister of Beverly thereafter sorely grieved That he had iaquisition held with counsellors deceived ; Forsaking love's unerring light, and duty's solid ground, And greping in the shadowy veid, where truth is never found. * * * * * *

". Truth made transparent in a life, tried gold ef eharacter, Were Mistress Hale's ; and this is all that history says of her ; Their simple force, like suolight, broke the hideons midnight spell, And sight restored again te eyes obscured by films of hell.

" The minister's long fields are still with dews of summer wet ; The roof that sheltered Mistress Hale tradition points to yet. Green be her memory ever kept all over Cape Ann Side, Whose unobtrusive excellence awed hack delusion's tide !"

1700. To close the chapter of this eventful century, the last decade of which had been so crowded with sensations and horrors, it remains only to transcribe here the last pathetic entry in the records pertaining to the honored head of the church. " The Rev. Mr. John Hale, Minister of the Gospel in Beverly, & Pas- tor of the Church of Christ there, aged about sixty- four years, departed this life on the 15th day of May, Anno Domini, 1700." Thus went out with the cen- tury a life of piety and broad humanity.

"The storms of fanatical excitement and of war with savages and civilized men had subsided, when, in May, 1700, the primeval epoch of this parish was closed, and Hale, its first minister, sank peacefully -- honored, beloved, deeply lamented-to his final earthly rest." The last few years of his life must have been full of sorrow, and, doubtless, the messenger that summoned him hence to join the company of the be- loved departed was welcomed and expected. Born in Charlestown in 1636, he graduated at Harvard in 1657, and thus lived through the crucial period of New England's existence. It is a matter of lasting regret, that, with such great abilities as he possessed, with such opportunities for observing the growth of our town from its veriest inception, with such intercourse as he had with the great men of his day, he had not chronicled some of the passing events and preserved for us memoirs of his contemporaries.

In the family enclosure of the old cemetery stands the grave-stone with this inscription :

" Here lies the body of the REV. MR. JOHN HALE, A pious and faithful minister of the Gospel, And Pastor of the First Church of Christ in this town of Beverly, Whe rested frem his labors on the 15th day of May, Anno Domini, 1700, In the 64th year of his age."

1 Upham's Witchcraft, Vel. ii., p. 346.

693

BEVERLY.

In 1696 four soldiers, John Burt, Benj. Carrill, John Pickworth and Israel Wood, were serving in Captain John Hill's company at Fort St. Mary, near Saco.

1700. A grammar school was established this year, with Mr. Robert Hale as master; and the claim of Sagamore John's grandchildren to the township terri- tory was cancelled, by the payment to them of a sum of money, and a deed taken.

Prior to 1700 something had been done in the way of ship-building and the fisheries, so that with the opening of the new century Beverly was well em- barked npon that career of maritime conquest and adventure which so distinguished her during the period of the Revolution. Upon the land, engaged in occu- pations mainly agricultural, was a steadily-growing community of sturdy proprietors; on the sea, an equally vigorous floating population, with rights in the ships they sailed, as well as an attachment for the soil of their fathers.

PIONEER FAMILIES OF BEVERLY .- In reviewing the eventfnl epoch closed with the 17th century, we should not lose sight of those men and women who labored for the welfare of the community. Theirs was a struggle with elemental forces, from beginning to end. They were sturdy, intense, giving their whole strength to the overcoming of obstacles such as their descendants are unacquainted with. They brought to their administration of affairs the same good sense that characterized their private life. Their object was to live, and live in freedom, in this new land, giv- ing to every man an opportunity equal to that of every other. The excitements of those distracted times they sometimes shared in, but of themselves they provided no fuel for the balefn] fires that hurned so long in Salem Village. They were ready, with men and weapons, to respond to every call in defence of the frontier towns, and joined every expedition nnder- taken for the preservation of their territory.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 188

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