History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 164

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 164

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The people who lived in this fashion were generally very poor ; the amount of money circulating among them was very small. They built with their own hands, and their trade was mainly barter. The com- modities in which they dealt were fish, which was sent into France, Spain and the Straits; pipe-staves, masts, fir-boards, some pitch and tar, pork, beef and horses, which they sent to Virginia, Barbadoes, etc., and took tobacco and sugar for payment, which they often sent to England.

It was on the territory now inclosed in the bound- ary of North Andover that the farms were cultivated, and the dwellings erected, and the church built, and civil government organized, which constituted the ancient town of Andover ; was named the North Par- ish by aet of the Legislature in 1709, and was left in 1855 by the South Parish, which assumed the original name of the town. The locality of the settlement, and early history, remains, however, with its land- marks ; and its events, which constitute the annals of Old Audover, are now in the keeping of North Andover.

The first practical business of the settlers of North Andover, as of all other New England towns, was the division of the lands around a central point into house-lots. These lots consisted of about cight acres, and were grouped together, probably for common defense. The isolation of the wilderness had few charms when the life therein was exposed to sudden surprises from Indian and wild beast. Each house- lot carried with it, however, larger tracts called farm lands, for ploughing, grazing, tillage and mowing.

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

The meeting-house formed, as it were, the centre of the group, near which was located the burying-ground, which aften remains with all its significance, long after the house of God and the abodes of the living have disappearel. The locality of this primeval civ- ilization of the town of North Andover is now marked by the old burying-ground, whose gravestones bear a date as early as 1672. On this point the accurate and accomplished author of " Historical Sketches of An- dover" says:

' It is difficult to ascertain with certainty anything definite about the Arst house-bits und their occupant , who seem to have removed from phicr topdace in the town. In 1658 Richard Sutton bought a house which had belonged to Mr. Bradstreet, The deed gives a clew to the Tesllen'e of some of the other settlers. George Abbot, senior, had a havelot on the north, and Genge Abbot', junior, (not the sim, but a younger man, leur, " Abbott, " taylor,'or ' of Rowley,' as the Genealogi- et Reenter d signates him, bad the lot south. Robert Barunrd's Jut aromnel Mr. Bradst vet's; Mr. Dane ived near ; John Stevens seenis to have lived near the buying ground to the east. Joseph Parker had his Jot . touall the Mill River, southeast of the meeting-house, bounded by the house-lot of Sacolas Holt and by Mr. Francis Faulkner on ye com- This was pral ahly as late as 1670. Henry Ingals lived near the meeting-house, 1687. The Osgood and Johnson lots were towards the Cochehen ck and north of it, Richard Barker's was contiguous. It is n t muliti on that Jobn Frye lived south of the Bradstreet House and the Peas bear the shawshin. Thus we learn that the first settlers, whose estates : wow in the South and West Parishes of Andover, lived in the begin ing iu the north part of the town."

For many years there was a strong and persistent determination to retain the early system of land- holding, for the convenience and security it afforded. As late as 1660 the town forbade all citizens " to go out of the village to live," by the following order :

" Att a generall town meeting March, 1660, the Towne taking into consideration the great damage that may come to the Towne by persons Ji hg run tế frem thể Towne upon such lands as were given them for 1 00;hing or planting aud sve, by their hoggs & cattle, destroy the mea- dows andjayning thereauto, have therefore ordered and doe hereby order that whenever, infadatant or other shall, build any dwelling-house in any part of the tonne but up in such house-lote or other place granted for that and without express leave from the town shall forfeit twenty sh lings a month fot the time he shall sve bye in any such p'lobited place, p'vided it is not intended to restrain any p'son from building any sheos for himself or cattle that shall be necessary for the ploughing of bis ground or boeing ot Lis cerve, but ta restrnine only from their con- stant ut nle there, the towne Inving given honse-lotts to build on to all such us they regard as inhabitants of the towne."

The houses erected in the village were not distin- guished for architectural beauty or for fine and costly furnishing. There was but little attractive furni- ture, and, with one or two exceptions, no plate or juireclam, no drapery, no fine Jinen. The domestic votat was as simple as the dwelling itself. Pewter 14 and worden platters constituted a large part 10. The table furniture. Around the wide fire-place, the of tikihr an tight-foot stick for a back-log, Noch a chenney corner n th which the younger mem- hat of the beauty could rather and survey the stars gate The chnowy-top, sat the solemn fathers and warte Cy the rearing blaze in front and pour lainte volt of the open room by the und orthatQ ty of th -ương. In the cold ulent anr pibaps the car was startled by the

wild cries of the tenants of the forest and by the creaking of the great branches tossed by the wintry blast; but the home was warmed by contrast; the dimly-lighted room was solemn with its shadows, and the faculties of the self-reliant family were strength- ened by every circumstance around them. In winter's coll and summer's heat they had wild and untamed nature about them with all its ennobling influences ; and these sons of a primitive civilization were filled with great courage and endurance by their life in the wilderness.

Of all the houses erected in that early day per- haps only one or two remain. The mansion built in or about 1667 by the Hon. Simon Bradstreet stands near the site of the first meeting-house, is hard by the old burying-ground, and undoubtedly formed a part of the cluster of houses which consti- tuted the village which is now North Andover. Its history is most interesting. Ilere Anne Bradstreet found her home after the original house on this spot had been destroyed by fire ; here she wrote her verse which has given her an immortal name in American literature; here lived Simon Bradstreet, the wise and good Governor during the most active years of his life; here lived Dudley Bradstreet, the honest magistrate, who resisted the witcheraft delusion and was obliged to flee before the wrath of a deluded people; here the murderons savage made his attack, to be disarmed by the memory of Christian acts of kindness bestowed upon the tribe by the same humane ruler ; here re- sided for half a century the Rev. Wm. Symmes, the faithful and devoted pastor of the first church in An- dover; here lived for a short season his pious and devoted young successor, the Rev. Bailey Loring. And entering upon the scene as the prince of class- ical teachers, and the antocrat of discipline, then appeared Mr. Simeon Putnam, to cast over the ancient dwelling an air of culture and careful scholarship which can never be forgotten by those who were sub- jected to its stimulating influences. And in more recent days it has been oceupied by Mr. Otis Bailey, whose daughter, Sarah L. Bailey, has given to the public a mo-t delightful and graphie history of the town-a model local sketch. This house still stands and is likely to stand a century longer, unless its linge and solid oaken timbers are violently destroyed, while everything about it decays and changes. Its contem- poraries are all gone. But there have sprung up in the region about it many more modern companions, around which gather some of the noble incidents in the town's history. The Phillips mansion stands op- posite, built in 1752 in the most approved style of that day, of which the Collins house, the Pickman house and the Cabot house in Salem are well-known and historic examples. It was built by the Hon. Samuel Phillips, distinguished in the Revolutionary period, Representative and Senator; was afterwards the residence of his son, the Hon. Samuel Phillips, Jr., who influenced his father to aid in founding

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NORTH ANDOVER.

Phillips Academy ; and at his death was inherited by IG03, at lorblin, Lincolnshire. His father died when his son, Col. John Phillips, who died at the age of ! he was fourteen years old, and he was committed to the care of the Hon. Thomas Dudley for eight years following. He spent one year at Emanuel College, Cambridge, pursuing his studies amidst various inter- ruptions. Leaving Cambridge, he resided in the family of the Earl of Lincoln, as his steward ; and afterwards lived in the same capacity with the Coun- tess of Warwick. Having married a daughter of Mr. Dudley, he, with Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Dudley and others, agreed to emigrate and form a settlement in Massachusetts; and being appointed as assistant, he, with his family and others, went aboard the " Arbella " on the 29th of March, 1630; anchored June 12th, near Naumkeag, now Salem ; went on shore, but returned to the vessel at night; came on the 14th into the inner harbor and went on shore ; on the 17th went to Massachusetts and returned the 19th. He attended the first court, the 23d of August, at Charlestown.

forty-four and left a widow with thirteen children, who maintained the honor and dignity of the family and passed the venerable name on to the distinguish- ed members of the present generation. Near by stands the Kittredge mansion, erected in 1784 by Dr. Thomas Kittredge, one of the ablest surgeons of the Revolutionary army, a public-spirited citizen, a capa- ble and useful public officer-the ancestor of a line of surgeons and physicians who have done most import- ant service in the community. In a secluded and shaded spot on the land north of Cochichewick Brook stands the old Osgood house, similar in structure to the Bradstreet honse, and contemporaneous with it. The house of Col. John Osgood, the ancestor of many illustrious persons of that name, nearer the brook and on the border of the meadow, is the birth-place of Hon. Samuel Osgood, of Revolutionary and Consti- tutional fame,-a fine specimen of the architecture ofthat period. On an elevation to the northward of this house is the stately mansion built by Isaac Osgood, Esq., about 1798, for years the abode of great refinement and hospitality. On the same road, and on the old John- son lot, "north of Cochichawick," may be seen the house built by Captain Timothy Jolinson in 1771, near the spot where Penelope Johnson was murdered by the Indians, 1798, recently the residence of the Rev. Samuel Johnson, the Oriental scholar and liberal divine. On an elevated site, southerly from the village stands the house of Colonel James Frye, once shaded by the elm which Chaplain Frye planted when he left to join Lovewell's band ou their way to Pequa- ket, in which engagement the chaplain lost his life. The house is now occupied by Mr. Nathaniel Peters. From these houses went out a brave and patriotic band of men, who, on all occasions, served their country well. The duty which their ancestors im- posel upon them, when the goodly town was founded in the wilderness, was well performed. It would be dithi- cult to find in any one neighborhood so large a num- ber of controlling and guiding minds. Quincy had her Adams in Revolutionary days; Shrewsbury her Ward ; Boston, the capital city of Massachusetts, her Samuel Adams, her Otis and Warren, and Quiney and Revere and Hancock ; Salem her Timothy Pickering. North Andover sent from her farms and homes Osgood to the army and councils of the nation, Phillips to the halls of the State, Frye to the front of the fighting regi- ments, and scores of sons to the ranks. In field and in council the town appeared with strong influence, and with leaders who came from a community ready to support them in all deeds and words which re- dounded to the honor of the country.

The settlement at North Andover was fortunate in the direction it received from many of the early plant- ers. Among them Simon Bradstreet undoubtedly stands foremost. Abbot says of him, he " was som of a non-conforming minister, and was born March,

The adventurers had but little time to prepare for themselves temporary shelters for the winter, which set in abont the 1st of December, and from Christmas to about the middle of February was very severe. It was with great difficulty that they could render them- selves comfortable. Provisions were very scaree and extremely dear. Wheat meal was fourteen shillings sterling a bushel ; peas, ten shillings ; and Indian corn from Virginia, ten shillings. Many were exposed to cold, lying in tents and wretched cabins, and suffering much, being obliged to feed on clams and other shell fish ; and, instead of bread, to eat acorns and ground- nuts. They had appointed a fast, the 22d of Febru- ary ; but on the 5th the ship "Lyon " arrived with provisions, which were distributed, and they turned the fast into a thanksgiving. Many died during the winter and spring.

In the spring of 1631, Mr. Bradstreet, with other gentlemen, commenced building at Newtown (now Cambridge) and his name is among those constituting the first company that settled in that town in 1632. He resided there several years. In 1639 the court granted him five hundred acres of land in Salem, in the next convenient place, near Mr. Endicott's farm. It appears that he resided a short time at Ipswich.

Mr. Bradstreet was among the first settlers of North Andover, and was highly useful in promoting the settlement, in bearing the burdens incident to a new plantation and in giving a right direction to affairs. About the year 1644 he built the first mill on the Cochichewick. He was a selectman from the first record of town officers to 1672, soon after which he probably spent most his time in Boston and Salem.

Ile was the first secretary of the colony, and dis- charged the duties of the office many years. He was one of the first commissioners of the United Colonies in 1643, and served many years with fidelity and usefulness, in this office. In 1653 he, with his colleague, vigorously opposed making war on the Dutch in New York, and on the Indians ; and it was

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IIISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

prevented by his steady and conscientious opposition and the decision of the General Court of Massa- chusetts, though earnestly and strenuously urged by all the commissioners of the other three colonies.

In 1662, in a time of great alarm and distress, he was sent agent with Mr. Norton to England to con- gratulate Charles II. on his restoration, and, if possible, to secure the privileges granted in the old charter. The mission was attended with more suc- cess than could have been expected, considering that the colonists were republicans in opinions, and strict Puritans, and had no respect for nobles and bishops. But many of the magistrates and people were dis- satisfied, as they conceived the charter privileges were invaded. The agents fell under no small degree of resentment and public obloquy. Mr. Bradstreet, conscious of rectitude and feeling a cold indiffer- ence to the opinions and clamours of the multitude, continued to discharge the duties of his station.

He was Deputy-Governor from 1672 to 1679, when he was elected Governor, and continued in office till Mr. Joseph Dudley, his nephew, was appointed, in 1686, head of the administration, and the govern- ment was changed and the charter annulled. He was app inted counselor under Dudley, but declined.

Mr. Bradstreet was considered at the head of the moderate party, and, when the charter was demanded by King Charles, thought it better it should be sur- rendered than that it should be taken away by judg- ment, as in that case it might be more easily resumed. The King promised lenity on compliance, and threat- ened severity if the colony forced him to a judgment against the charter. Hle judged it wise and provident to save part of the privileges of the colony rather than lose the whole. It was, moreover, submitting to the necessity of the times, and to a power they were unable to resist. He was reproached for his pusil- lanimity, but his views were probably best for the country. The censure of the opposite party ought not to transmit reproach to posterity, or in the least to tarnish his character.

Ile strenuously opposed the arbitrary proceedings of Andro-s; and when, in 1689, the people put down his authority, they made their old Governor their President. He continued at the head of the adminis- tration till May 1692, at the advanced age of eighty- War years, when Sir William Phips arrived from Eu dland with the new charter, in which Sir William was appointed Governor and Mr. Bradstreet first as- sistant He had been in service in the government HAty two years, excepting the short administration of Dudley and Ambross. No man in the country has cnnof is so high offices so many years and to so francela vr. He was a popular magistrate, was opp I to th wit heraf delusion in 1692, which 14 Tre tadino unitd'stress at the commencement of tr arno Phips almenstration. He lived to be the Nor of Now Enelah 1; all who came over from England with him hed before him

Mr. Bradstreet was not distinguished for splendid and powerful talents, but for those abilities and quali- fications which rendered him eminently useful. He was upright in his principles, of sound judgment, strict integrity, persevering in business, and sought usefulness rather than popularity. He was not the most highly esteemed by any party, but was despised by nonc. Ile was one of the fathers of the Massachu - setts colony, and contributed much to its establish- ment and prosperity. He was a man of fortitude and suffered, with the other early settlers, many priva- tions and hardships, diseouragements and disappoint- ments. The first two or three years were very trying and afflicting. They were exposed to the severity of the climate, with poor accommodations, to scarcity of provisions and the necessaries of life, and to sickness, which proved mortal to many of them.

The following inscription is on his monument erected in Salem :

" SIMON BRADSTREET.

"Armiger, rxordine in Colonia Massachusettensi ab anno 1630, usque ad annum 1673. Deinde ad annum 1679, Vice-Gubernator. Denique ad annum 1686, ejnsdem colonia, communi et constanti populi suffragio,

GUBERNATOR.

Vir, judicio Lynceario preditns ; quem nec nunima, nec honos allexit. Regis authoritatem, et populi libertatem æqua lance libravit. Religione cerdatus, vita innocuus, mundum et vicit et deseruit 27 die Martii, A. D. 1697, annoque Guliel : 3t, IX et Aet. 94."

Mr. Bradstreet was married in England to Miss Ann Dudley, daughter of Mr. Thomas Dudley, when she was sixteen years old. She bore eight children, -four sons and four daughters,-and died iu North Andover, September 16, 1672. She is the most dis- tinguished of the early matrons of our country by her literary powers, of which proof is given in a vol- ume of poems, the second edition of which was printed at Boston, 1678, by John Foster, in a respect- able 12mo of 255 pp. It does honor to her educa- tion, by her frequent allusions to ancient literature and historical faets and to her character as a daugh- ter, a wife, a parent and a Christian. This volume is a real curiosity, though no reader, free from partiality of friendship, might coincide in the commendation of the funeral eulogy of John Norton :

"Could Maro's muse but hear her lively strain, Ile would condemn his works to fire again. * *

* *

* * ller breast was n brave palace, a broad street Where all heroic, ample thoughts did meet, Where nature had such a tenement tn'en, That other sonls to her's, dwelt in a lane."

Dr. Mather, in his "Magnalia," gives high commen- dation of her, "whose poems, divers times printed, have afforded a grateful entertainment unto the in- genious, and a monument for her memory beyond the stateliest marbles."

ller poems were also highly praised by President Rogers, of Harvard College, who said that "twice drinking of the nectar of her lines," left him " welter- ing in delight." "Edward Phillips, the nephew of

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NORTH ANDOVER.

Milton, speaks of her as the tenth muse sprung up in America."

" None of the descendants of Simon Bradstreet are now living in North Andover. He married for his second wife a sister of Sir George Downing, who was in the first class graduated at Harvard, and who was ambassador of Cromwell and Charles II. to Hol- land."

Some of the other prominent citizens of the town were John Osgood, of whose descendants, Isaac F. Osgood, (town-clerk and postmaster), T. Osgood Ward- well, Mrs. Charlotte (Osgood) Stevens, with her chil- dren and George B. Loring (2d) and John O, Loring, a son of I. Osgood Loring, are now residents ; John Stevens whose descendants have been numerous and efficient ; John Frye, ancestor of distinguished soldiers in the French and Revolutionary Wars ; Daniel Poor, whose descendants have occupied important positions ; William Johnson, Andrew Peters, and Ephraim Fos- ter, all of whom have left an honorable record, which has been maintained by their descendants; Nicholas Holt, the ancestor of many influential and learned men ; John Lovejoy, the great grandfather of Gen. Nathaniel Lovejoy, who was graduated at Harvard in 1766, and was a merchant in North Andover ; Andrew Foster, the ancestor of Hon. Ephraim Foster, statesman and patriot in the Revolutionary period, and of the Hon. Dwight Foster, United States Senator; Joseph Parker, a miller on the Cochichewiek, ancestor of many worthy citizens of the town.

ECCLESIASTICAL .- Of all the obligations imposed by the General Court on the founders of the towns in New England, no one was considered more impera- tive and binding than that which required them "to provide and maintain an able and orthodox minister among them," and to build a meeting-house within three years. In obedience to this order, and in ac- cordance with the pious impulses of a people im- pressed with the importance of freedom of conscience in matters of religion, the settlers around Cochich- ewick selected, soon after their arrival, a spot on which to erect their sacred edifice. The precise date of the erection is not known; but in 1669 a new meeting-house was constructed; and a honse was de- stroyed, on which the following order has been issued :

" At a lawful town-meeting, the 3d of Feb'y, 1661, itt is ordered 'that all first comers of inhabitants that have been at the charges of pur- chasing the plantation and building the minister's house, the mill and the meeting-house, For and in consideration thereof are allowed an ucre and a halfe to every acre bouse lote of Low and Swamp land, and every other inhabitant that have been at the charges of building the meeting-house and mill is to be allowed one acre to every bouse lott, and this laud to be apportioned to the lots.' "

It is evident, therefore, that soon after 1646 the first house was built, and there is every reason to be- lieve that it stood near the "Okl North Burying- ground," and on the high land opposite the house of Governor Bradstreet. Its successor stood probably on the same spot and was evidently a commodious

building, furnished with a bell which was used until 1755 ; was protected by legislation against " doggs" ; was provided with a sexton to sweep it and ring the bell, and was "seated " by a committee appointed to select the pews for the worshippers according to their position in society and the church. The seleetmen undertook to keep the boys quiet in the galleries dur- ing divine service, and to stop their " prophanenes of ye Sabbath " in front of the church at noon-time.

Sabbath-breakers were punished severely under special laws, by being confined in a cage ; they were reproved publicly by the minister, and heavily fined.

This second meeting-house stood until 1711. A new one was then erected, which stood until 1753, when in June of that year a meeting-house was raised ; 300 pounds sterling were voted for its construction, and January 1, 1754, pews were sold for £667 15s. &d. ; the highest pew at £17 Os. &d .; the lowest at £6 138, 4d.

The first of the ministers engaged in conducting public worship in these meeting-houses, whose exist- ence covered the first century of the town, was John Woodbridge. He came early to the town and took part in a conference of messengers of churches, which met in September, 1644, and appointed two churches to be gathered, one at Haverhill, the other at Ando- ver, both on the Merrimac River. At this meeting, which was held in Rowley on account of the inability of the two towns mentioned to entertain the assem- bly, " most of those who were to join together in church-fellowship at that time refused to make eon- fession of their faith and repentance, because, as was said, they declared it openly before in other churches upon their admission into them." This assembly broke up, but was called together again in 1645, when the difficulty was settled, and Mr. John Ward was ordained pastor of the church at Haverhill, on the north side of the Merrimac, and Mr. John Wood- bridge was ordained pastor of the church of Andover, on the south side of the same. These two churches were the twenty-third and twenty-fourth organized in Massachusetts.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 164

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1672

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672