History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 176

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 176

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" Per me, JonY PIKF "Swoim in Court, 30 March, 1G).

" Robert like also testifies that the meeting was on the Sabbath and in the open air under a tree.

"At the same time that Mr. Parker was chosen pastor, Mr. James Nagry was chosen teacher."

In 1636 Edward Woodman, John Woodbridge, Henry Short, Christopher Hussey, Richard Kent, Richard Brown and Richard Knight were chosen to manage the affairs of the town. The election of these men was had by authority of the following order, passed by the General Court on the 2d of March, 1635-36 :

" Whereus ptienlur townes have many things wch concerne onety them selves & the ordering of their owne affaires and disposeing of businesses

1708

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

in their owne towne, it is therefore ordered, that the ffreemen of evy towne, or the major pte of them, shall onely have power to dispose of their owne lands & woods, with all the previlidges & appurtenances of the said townes, to graunt lotts, & make such orders as may concerne the well ordering of their owne townes, not repugnant to the laws & orders here established by the Genal Court ; as also to lay mulks & penaltyes for the breach of their orders, & to levy & distreme the same not exceedeing the some of xxs. ; also to cbuse their owne pticulr officers, as constables, surveyors for the high wages & the like; & because much business is like to ensue to the constables of sevall townes, by reason they are to make distresses & gather ffynes, therefore that evy towne sball have two constables, where there is neede, that soe their office may not be a burthey unto them, & they may attend more carefully upon the discharge of their ulfice, for weh they shalbe lyeable to give their accomupts to this Court when they shalbe called therenato."

These officers were the germ from which sprang, at a later day, the Board of Selectmen.

In 1637 eight men were furnished by Newbury for the Pequod War, and in the same year Richard Dummer, John Spencer and Nicholas Easton were disarmed by the tieneral Court for holding erroneous opinions on theological matters. John Spencer re- turned to England, Nicholas Easton removed to Rhode Island, but Richard Dummer remained in Newbury. lu the year before a grant of land was made to Mr. Dummer and Mr. Spencer at the falls of River Parker for the erection of a grist-mill.

After the departure of Mr. Spencer the mill was carried on by Mr. Dummer alone, and in 1638 the following agreement was entered into concerning it :

" August 6th, 1638. Whereas it is agreed with Mr. Richard Dummer, of Newbury, by the persons whose names are underwritten, hereunto subscribed, that in case Mr. Dummer doe make his mill fitt to grynd corne and doe maintaine the same as also doe keep a man to attend grynding of corne, then they, for their part, will set all the corne that they shall have ground, and doe likewise proul- ise that all the rest of the towne (if it lye iu their power to promise the same) shall also bring their corne, from tyme to tyme, to be ground at the same mill. And it is further agreed that (the aforementioned con- ditions being observed by Mr. Dummer) there shall not any other mill be erected within the sayd low ne.

" EDWARD WOODMAN. " JOHN KNIGHILT. " EDWARD RAWSON. " RICHARD BROWN. " HENRY SHORT."

Three, at least, of these subscribers were members of the committee of seven chosen to manage the af- fairs of the town, and on the 6th of October, 1638, their promise was agreed to by the town. Additions were constantly making to the population of the town, and among those arriving in 1637 were Edward Rawson, Richard Singleterry, William Palmer, John Moulton, Thomas Moulton, Nicholas Busbee and Abraham Toppan, all of whom were formally ad- mitted as inhabitants.

On the 13th of March, 1639, it was ordered by the General Court that " Plum Island is to remain in the Court's power only for the present. Ipswich, New- bury and the new plantation ( Rowley) between them may make use of it till the Court shall see cause to dispose of it."

It so continued until 1649. On the 15th of May in that year the town of Newbury petitioned the Gen-

eral Court for a grant of the whole island. The town stated in their petition that :

" The substance of our desires is that, if, after you have heard and perused what we say, that in right Plum Island belongs not to us, yet out of your just favor it may be granted to us to relieve our pinching necessities, without which we seo no way to contiene or subsist. Our fears were occasioned by a petition which was preferred to the last General Court for it. Our apprehensions of our right to it are, First, because for three or four miles together there is no channel betwixt us and it. Second, because at low water we can go dry to it over many places, in most with carts and horses, which we usually do, being neces- sitated so to do since our gift to Rowley on the Court's request and prom- ise that we should have anything in the Court's power to grant. Third- ly, because the Court's order gives all Jauds to dead low water mark, not exceeding one hundred rods, to towns or persons, where any landsilo so border. In many places Plum Island is not ten rods, at no place oue hundred rods from low water mark. Fourth, because we only can jin- prove it without damage to our neighboring plantation, which none can do withont much damage to your petitioners, if not to the ruining ot hoth the meadow and corn of your petitioners and so forth. The premises considered, we hope (aud doubt not) this honorable Court will see just grounds to answer our request and confirm the Island to our town and we shall always, as in duty we are bound, pray and so forth.

" Thoumais Parker. Jaines Noyes.

Percival Lowle. William Gerrish.

Job& Spencer. Edward Woodman.

John Saunders.

Henry Short. Richard Kent in ye name of ye rest."

The result of the petition was that on the 17th of October, 1649, the court granted two-fifths of the island to Newbury, two-fifths to Ipswich and one-fifth to Rowley.

In 1639 an important change was made in the terri- torial limits of Newbury by the settlement of Rowley. Rev. Ezekiel Rogers arrived in New England in December, 1638, and with about sixty families settled on land which was afterwards incorporated as the town of Rowley. On the 13th of March, 1638-39, Mr. Rogers and Mr. John Philips and their company had granted to them by the General Court "eight miles every way into the country where it may not trench upon other plantations already settled." This grant was called Rogers Plantation until the 4th of the following September, when it was ordered by the court "that Mr. Ezechi Rogers plantation shonkl be called Rowley."

Previously to the grant to Mr. Rogers, Newbury and Ipswich were adjoining towns. The Rogers grant took a slee from each of these towns and ex- tended to the Merrimac River, including what are now the towns of Bradford, Groveland, Georgetown and part of Boxford. Its boundaries were fixed by the court on the 13th of May, 1640, when, as the re- cord says, " it is declared that Rowley bounds is to bee eight. miles from their meeting-house, in a straight line, and then a crose line diameter from Ipswich Ryver to Merrimack Ryver, where it doth not pjudice any former grant." These boundaries in a somewhat indefinite mauner fixed also the boundaries of New- bury, which may be described as having been in 1639 the line of Rowley, the Merrimac River and the ocean. Within these boundaries it was about thir- teen miles long and about six miles broad, and con- tained not far from thirty thousand acres, of which

NEW BURY.

1709

abont two thousand acres were covered with water. Prior to the grant of the Rogers plantation New- bury, in the exercise of its ownership of a part of the newly-granted territory, had made grants of farming- lands within its limits, and after the grant to Mr. Phillips and his company by the court, it expended the sum of eight hundred pounds in buying back the farms it had granted, and then surrendered them to the court's grantees. The records of Newbury say con- cerning this matter that

" The towne being assembled together and being desirons to manifest theyr earnest desires amt willingness to give due inconredgment onto the worthy gentihnen who desire to set down between us and Ipswich as tu part with such a portion of land as cannot any way be expected from them, or they may withont endangering their present necessityes afford. lloping on good grounds it may fully answer their desires and expectations they have determined as followeth :

" By the common and general suffrages of the body of freemen, none excepted, there was granted to the said gentilmen all the opland and meadows and marish between us and Ipswich incompassed by the line heer underwritten, namely :

" That their line shall begin from the head of the great creek between the great river (Parker) and Mr. Dummer's, running due west as we come to the great creek, being the bounds of John Usgood's farm, which issnes into Mr. Easton's river, and above that creek all the land south- ward of Mr. Easton's river and from that river from the path leading to the falls to run a due west line into the country a mile and afterwards to run on a northwest line so as it come not within half a mile of the side line of Mr. Dummer's firm. Likewise it comes two miles distant uf Merrimack. Provided, that if after they have entered by building or otherwise on this part of land so granted them, and leave off from going on with a plantation or a towne between ns, that then the grants above- said shall be void to all intents and purposes and to remaine the pro- prietyes and inheritances of the towne of Newberry in as ample a manner us before the grant hereof in all respects."

In this year 1639, Mr. Coffin, the historian of New- bury, says : "The people having built a ministry house, a meeting-house which was soon used as a school-honse, had a ferry established at Carr's Island and became an orderly community, and began not only to lay out new roads, but as they were rapidly extending their settlement farther North, to take special care of the town's timber by prescribing a penalty of five shillings for every tree cut down on the town's land without permission. Nearly the whole of what is now called West Newbury, or that part above Artichoke River, was called the 'upper woods.' In this year, also, Anthony Somerby, Henry Somerby, John Lowle, Richard Lowle, Percival Lowle, Wm. Gerrish and Richard Dole, all ancestors of long lines of Newbury descendants, were admitted inhabitants of the town. Anthony Somerby was the first schoolmaster in the town, and in the year of his arrival, 1639, the town granted to 'him for his encouragement to keepe schoole for one yeare, foure akers of upland over the great river in the necke, also six akers of salt marsh next to Abraham Top- pan's twenty akers.' "

In 1640 the town of Salisbury was incorporated and shortly after that town granted to George Carr the island which still bears his name. Mr. Carr was ap- pointed ferryman by the court held at Ipswich, and thus Newbury, which had been the border town on the east, became connected with a new town, which

now enjoyed that distinction. The natural tendency of this new state of things was to draw the Newbury people away from their first settlement on the banks of the river Parker, and attract them farther to- wards the Merrimac. The result was the laying out of what was called the new town farther to the north, and the removal of the meeting-house to a new site. The lots of land in the new town were laid out, and the town records under date of Janu- ary 11, 1644, say :

" It is hereby ordered and determined by the orderers of the town affairs that the plan of the new town is and shall be laid ont by the lot layers, as the house lots were determined by their choice, beginning from the farthermost house lot in the South Street, thence running through the pine swamp, thence up the High Street, numbering the lots in the East Street to John Bartlett's lot, the 27th, then through the west side of the High Street to Mr. Lowell's, the 28th, and so to the end uf that street, then Field Street to Mr. Woodman's, the forty-first, thence to the end of that street John Cheney's, the 50th, then turning to the first cross street to John Emery's, the 51st, theuce coming up from the river side on the east side of the same street to the other street, the west side to Daniel Pierce's, the 57th, and so to the river side on the side the street to Mr. Clarke and others, to Francis PInummer the 66th, as hereinunder by names and figures appear :

" Thomas Parker. 33

Anthony Somerby 14

James Noyes,

Richard Bartlett 25

Edward Woodman .. 41

John Bartlett 27

John Knight

Wm. Titcombe 24

Richard Knight 10

Nicholas Batt

John Pike, Jr. 55

Robert Coker.

Archilaus Woodman

Thomas Dowe.

John Pemberton 46

Richard Badger.

Richard Littleale 49

John Cheney 50)

Henry Travers 1

Jobn Oliver,

John Emery 51

Lt. John Lowle

Henry Palmer

Anthony Short. 8

Richard Kent, Sy

John lutching 34

Wm. Palmer.

John Clark 60

Thomas Cromwell

Edward Rawson 31

Samnel Scullard 45

Widow Goffe.

Thomas Silver

Thomas Browne. 56

Walter Allen

Wm. Ilsley

Francis Plmnmer

Nicholas Noyes 6

Abraham Toppan

Henry Lopt.

Juhn Musselwhite

Win. Browne

Thomas llale.

John Cutting 30

Thomas Coleman. 12

Mr. Lowle, Sr 29

Widow Browne 19

Samuel Plummer 65

John Pike, Sr 2

Anthony Morse. 54

Daniel Pearse 57

Win. Morse

Thomas Blumfield

Henry Rolfe

Nathaniel Badger 58

Daniel Thurston 38

John Bond

Abbe Hues 39

John Swett. 26

Jobn Poore. 3,5

Wm. Hilton

James Merrill. 40

Robert Lewis

Abraham Merrill .. 36

Gyles Badger 63

John Fry

Widow Stevens 138

The Ferry Lot.

John Stevens

14 John Indian

At an earlier date, on the 17th of March, 1642, it was

" declaredl and ordered, according to the former intention of the town, that the following persons be acknowledged to be ffreeholders by the town, and to have a proportionable right in all waste lands, commons and rivers undisposed, and such as boy from or uuder them, or any of their heirs, have bought, grauted and purchased from them or any of theus their right and title therennto aud none else, provided, also, that no theebolder shall bring in any cattle of other men's or towns on the tuwo's commons, above and beyond their proportions, otherwise than the freemen shall permit.

Richard Fitts. 50

Edward Greenleaf

1710

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

" Richard Dumer.

Thomas Hale.

Henry Sewall. Edward Rawson. John Lowle.

Joseph Peasly. William Mors.

Jolin Goff.

Henry Short. Thomas ('romwell.

Jolin Stevens.

Antho: Short.

Richard Holt.

John Pemberton.

John Pike, Sr.

John Mussellwhite.

Thomas Browne.

Anthony Somerby.

John Hutchins.

Richard Bartlett.

Daniel Thurston.

William Moody.

lohn Poer.

William ffranckling. Abraham Toppan.

Henry Palmer.

Henry Somerby.

William Titcomb.

Thomas Silver.

Nicholas Batt.

Thomas Smith.

Henry Travers. Richard Litleale.

William White.

Giles Badger.

Thomas Davis.

Thomas Parker

William Huley.

James Nuyes.

Samnel Guile.

Percivall Lowle.

Thomas Dow.

Stephen Dumer.

Archelans Woodman.

Richard Kent, Jr.

John Sweet.

Sanmel Scullard.

Christopher Bartlett.

Edward Greenleaf.

Mrs. Miller.

John Osgood.

John Russ.

Abel luse.

John Spencer.

Joseph Carter.

John +'lark.

John Knight.

John Woodbridge.

Henry Lunt.

John Cutting.

Richard Knight.

James Browne

Richard Browne. Mrs. Oliver.

William Palmer.

Stephen Keut.

John Bartlett.

John C'hrney.

Robert Coker.

---

Richard Badger.

Richard tlits.

Thomas Blunfield.

Anthony Morse.

Thomas Colman.

Nicholas Noyes

George Browne.

Widow Stevens

Nathaniel Badger.

Nathaniel Wyer.

John Bond.

John Kelley.

William Berry

Mr. Woodman.

Walter Allen.

John ffry.

Counting the above ninety-one freeholders and the probable average number in their families, together with such as may not have been freehoblers, the pop- ulation of Newbury may be estimated to have been in 1642, seven years after its settlement, at between three and four hundred. Among these freeholders are found the names of Bond, Browne, Pearse, Mors, Franklin, Morrell, Smith, White, Knight, Allen, Hutchins, Clark, Kent and Poor, all of which may be found in various lists of residents of English New- bury at the same period. It is not improbable that many immigrants from that town to New England who followed Rev. Thomas Parker, were attracted by the name to make the American Newbury their per- manent home. Descendants of the early settlers of Newbury seeking the home of their ancestors on the other side of the ocean, and their family connections in the old country, would probably find a genealogieal mine in the old English town which has not yet been to any great extent explored.

In 1645 a second grist-mill was built, but whether in addition to or in place of the old Dummer and Spencer mill the records do not state. A committee

was appointed on the 18th of December in that year "to procure a water mill for to be built and set up in said towne," and it was agreed to give John Emery and Samuel Seullard twenty pounds and ten aeres of upland and six aeres of meadow, said mill to be free from all rates for seven years, and to be a freehold to them and their heirs, they on their part agreeing to set up the mill between Holt's Point and Woodman's Bridge.

Early in the year 1647 the removal of the meeting- house farther north, into or near what was called the new town, became necessary in consequence of the desertion of the old settlement by a majority of the members of the church. On the 2d of Jannary, 1646-47, the following order was issued by James Noyes, Edward Woodman, John Cutting, John Lowle, Richard Knight and Henry Short, six of the seven men having charge of the affairs of the town :

" Wee, whose names are in the margent expressed for the settleing the disturbances that yett remayne about the planting and setling the mert. ing house that all men may cheerfully goe on to improve their lands at the new towne, dor determine that the meeting house shall be placed and sett up at on or before the twentieth of October next in, or upon a Knowle of upland by Abraham Toppao's barne within a sixe or six - teen rodd of the side of the gate posts, that are sett up in the high way by the said Abraham Toppan's barne."

This knowle of land is understood to have been on the northwest corner of the present burial-ground. Edward Rawson, one of the town committee or selectmen, as they may as well be called, dissented from the decision of his associates, and a petition was sent to the General Court signed by those opposed to the removal, asking for such interference and aid as the court might feel itself able to interpose and render. The following extract will show the motive and reasons actnating the petitioners :

"To come to the last passages which stir and set on the great of unr sorrows. Discourse at last was bad of taking down ye meeting- honse Those (as well as we can guesse) that paid two parts of three to the building of it, consented not, many strongly opposed it, yet the voices of many, that were the servants, and never paid a penny to il, prevailed, down it is taken withont any satisfaction given ns, and besides what we are forced to pay toward it. The highway in part, that served both town and country and the very places assigned to bury the dead and where many dead body's lye are sold away (as wee are in- formed, though all things are secretly carried) to sett up againe, where both old and new towne junge it numrete for both, but especially for us of the mild. The present and already seen inconveniences in respect of enjoying the ordinances, which we came as many miles to be jar- takers of, hall caused us oft to sigh in secret and forcibly put us on thought to provide for ourselves, and not to betray the blood of our poor innocents, which cannot for exceeding rarely) be partakers of the or dinary means of salvation ; nor we ourselves, but uncomfortably and with great distractions which they of the new towne can experience to us by that little they have already felt. Divers propositions we have made. Att the beginning of these motions we promised the ellers, both of you, their maintenance (which must needs be to our great charge) if they would engage themselves to abide with us. We were Tojected in this. Since, we have made several propositions The towne being continued and stretched out bears five miles, if not upward+, besides the inconveniences of a great river at the old towne, whereby it cannot be imagined that we, onld, freble men, women and children of all sorts can possibly goe ubove three miles to meeting, besides the necessary occasions in the winter time of attendance of cattell, which require will divers to be nearer, most men having small help, but by them- srlves, and ye two ends of ye towne being most populous, wee have there- fore desired either first that one of the elders might be resident with

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Henry Rolf. John Merrill. John Emery.

Julın Pike, Jr.

Francis Plummer.

William Thomas.

1711

NEWBURY.

us, though the other be there, the church and maintenance still con- tinning one and the same, or secondly, that there might be two churches, and one elder might be ours, or thirdly, if neither of the former might Lie obtained, then to let us be a church of ourselves."

This extract not only exhibits the feeling which the removal of the meeting-house occasioned, but throws also side-lights on the extent and character and condition of the settlement. The allusion in the extract to the sale of a part of the highway and the burial-place is woven by an intelligent writer in the Newburyport Herald into an argument tending to show that Fishermen's Green, and not the lower green, was the location of the first meeting-house. He says :

"The common belief that this building first stood upon the lower Green rests entirely on traditional grounds, while there is considerable evidence which decidedly indicates that its site was about one-third of a mile to the northward and adjoined the old burial-ground, now in the bell opposite the resuleure of Joseph Ilsley, but on what was then called 'fishermen's green.' The town records show that this bursal- ground was reserved from the sale of the green to Julin Emery in May, 1647, eight months after the house had been removedl. It is hardly 108- sible that such reservation would have been made except that the dead were already there ; and tends strongly to establish the fact that this was the first and only place of torials of the early settlers up tu this time. As our ancestors came from a land where it was a common custom to include the grounds for the meeting-house and burials in one lot, a ens- tom continued by them when they relocated at the New-Town, it is but reasonable to believe that when at Old-Town they had set apart grounds for the same uses, they had connected them in the same manner."

llis argument is, in a few words, that the okl burial- place was at Fishermen's Green, and that it is proba ble that, in accordance with the English custom, the burial-place was the churchyard. So far as the Plymouth colony was concerned, the English custom was invariably followed ; but the writer of this sketch has heard it stated by a learned antiquary of Essex County, that in that county, except in Ipswich, it did not prevail. It certainly was not followed in Salem, but the settlers of Newbury, having remained long enough in Ipswich to observe its ways, may have adopted them in their future home.

There is no record of any vessel up to this time having crossed the bar at the mouth of the Merrimac. It is probable that at the time of the settlement of Newbury the bar was considered practically impas- sable, while the river Parker was easily accessible and to a certain point navigable for the class of ves- sels at that time used. Hubbard says in his history : " Merrimack is another gallant river, the entrance into which, though a mile over in breadth, is barred with shoals of sand, having two passages that lead thereunto at either end of a sandy island that lieth over against the mouth of sayde river. Near the mouth of that are two other lesser ones, about which are seated two considerable townes, the one called Newberry, the other Ipswich, either of which have fayre channels wherein vessels of fifty or sixty tons may pass up safely to the doores of the inhabitants whose habitations are pitched near the banks on either side." And there is no doubt that the first vessels built in Newbury were built on the river

Parker. But there is some reason to suspect that the movement of the settlement towards the Mer- rimac River was owing to the discovery that the bar was not such a hindrance to navigation as had been supposed.

The settlement of Salisbury, in 1640, must have been not only the result of this discovery, but the cause of a further dissipation of previously enter- tained fears concerning the river obstructions; and it is not unlikely that the Newbury people began at this early day to take advantage of the deeper water, the more advantageous shore and the better connec- tion with the sea which the Merrimac afforded. It is a matter of record that as early as 1655 the town granted to Captain Paul White a half of an acre of land on the Merrimac "for the purpose and on condi- tion that he build a dock and warehouse there." Pre- viously to that time, however, trade on the river had been carried on, which demanded the convenience of a wharf to supplant the prevailing method of loading and unloading vessels by means of small boats.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 176

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