History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 178

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 178

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" That considering the times as troublesome, and the towne being 80 much behind with Mr. Richardson's salary, the farmers and the neck- men being under greater disadvantages upon many accounts, do desire and expect, if such a thing be granted, that they should have the same privilege to provide for themselves, which we think cannot conduce to peace, therefore desire the new towne to rest satisfied for the present."

In 1692 another petition was presented to the town requesting aid in the support of the ministry in a meeting-house which had been built at Belleville. It is not proposed to enter into a history of the for- mation of the new parish in this narrative, as it may be found in detail in the history of West Newbury. It is sufficient to say that on the 3d of January, 1695, Tristram Coffin, Henry Short and Abraham Merrill divided the town into two parishes, and that on the

26th of October, 1698, a church was gathered in the West Precinct and the Rev. Samuel Belcher was ordained their minister. Nor is it necessary to follow the career of this church, as the history of West Newbury, to which it more properly belongs, contains it in full.

On the 27th of April, 1696, Rev. John Richardson terminated his pastorate by death. Little is known of the career of Mr. Richardson before he entered on his ministry in Newbury. He graduated at Harvard in 1666, and married Mary Pierson, of Cambridge, October 28, 1673. It was at a critical period of the Newbury Church that he received a call to settle as its pastor. He accepted it on condition :

" Ist, so long as the people of God here do continue in the true faith and peace of the Gospel as in Acts 11, 42.

" 2nd, so long as I have the liberty of my ministry.

" 34, Discharge my duty to my family ; thus I say I do express myself willing to settle among you with a true intention and a true affection."

During his pastorate he exerted a conciliatory in- fluence and did much to heal the differences which, for many years, had divided the church. His monti- ment bears the following inscription :

" Resurrection to immortality -is here expected from what was inor- tal of the Reverend Mr. John Richardson (once Fellow of Harvard College, afterwards Teacher to the Church in Newbury), putt off Apr. 27, 1696, in the fiftieth year of his age.

" When Preachers dy, the Rules the pulpit gave, To live well, are still preached from the grave. The Faith & Life, which your dead Pastor taught, In one grave with him, Syrs, bury not.

Abi viator. A mortno disce vivere moriturus E Terris disce cogitare de Corlis."

On the 9th of September, 1696, Rev. Christopher Toppan was ordained as the successor of Mr. Rich- ardson, and two years later, on the 5th of July, 1698, the "town voted that they would buikdl a new meeting- house and for that purpose chose the worshipfal Colonel Daniel Pierce, Captain Thomas Noyes and Sergeant Stephen Jaques a committee." On the 21st of December the town voted "that Sergeant Stephen Jaques should build a meeting-house sixty feet in length, fifty feet in breadth, and twenty feet in the stud, for five hundred and thirty pounds," and in the next, February voted "to have the meeting- house twenty-four feet post instead of twenty, and to pay Sergeant Jaques twenty pounds more." The meeting-house was finished in 1699, and on the 18th of December in that year Colonel Daniel Pierce and Colonel Thomas Noyes were deputed to employ "ye honorable Captain Samuel Sewall to procure a good and sufficient meeting-house bell." The new meet- ing-house was erected near the old one, and on the 17th of March, 1703, the town voted "that the old meeting-house be repaired and fitted for a court- house, school-house, and town-house."

Having brought this narrative up to the beginning of a new century, it will not be out of place to close this first chapter with a reference to some of the

1716

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

representative men of Newbury in the first period of its history.

Edwin Rawson was one of the carly settlers of Newbury, having made his appearance there in 1636. He was born in Gillingham, Dorsetshire, England, April 16, 1615, and was connected by marriage with the two distinguished New England clergy men Ilooker and Wilson. It is stated in the town records that on the 19th of November, 1638, " it was ordered that Edward Rawson shall supply the place of Mr. Woodbridge and be the publick notary and register for the towne of Newbury, and whilst he so remains to be allowed by the towne after the rate of five pounds per annum for his paynes." In the same year he was appointed, with John Woodbridge and Edward Newman, commissioners to try inferior causes. His farm, which extended up towards Turkey Ilill, was sold in 1647, when he removed to Boston to occupy the position of secretary of the Massachusetts Colony, to which he was appointed and which he held until 1686. One of his sons, William, settled in Braintree, and another, Grindall, graduated at Harvard in 1678, and was pastor of the church in Mendon from 1680 to 1715. A daughter Rebecca married an Englishman named Thomas Ramsey, who claimed to be Sir Thomas Hale, nephew of the Lord Chief Justice of England, and who carried her to England and there deserted her after securing all her rich dresses for the benefit of his real wife at Canterbury. Rebecca supported herself in England for a time by painting on glass, and was finally killed by an earthquake at Port Royal, S. C, where the ship in which she sailed for home had touched. Mr. Rawson was the author of several works, among which were "The Revolution in New England Justified," published in 1691, which was issued by him in conjunction with another author, who signed himself S. S. ; and "The General Laws and Liberties Concerning the Inhabitants of the Ms." published in 1660. He died in Boston August 27, 1693.

John Spencer was one of the company who landed at Newbury with Rev. Thomas Parker in 1635. With Richard Dummer he built the first corn-mill in the town, represented Newbury in the General Court and in 1636 was chosen a magistrate. In 1637 he was discharged from the office of captain in the Pequod War, owing to his religious opinions, he be- ing an adherent of Mrs. Hutchinson, and in the same year was disarmed by the General Court for the same cause. If he went to England he must have returned, as he died in Newbury in 1637, the year of the date of his will, and his name does not appear in the records after his disarmament. The Pettingell place now or recently owned by Edward II. Little, was his, and tradition states that the old stone house on the place was built by him. In his will he gave the place to his nephew, John Spencer, who in 1651 sold it to Daniel Pierce, and gave him possession by the old common law ceremony of turf and twig. The files

of the court for 1679 contain the following deposition of Anthony Somerby, aged seventy :

"This deponent saith about ye yeare 1651 or '52 I was at the farm yt Mr. John Spencer sold to Mr. Daniel Pierce, in Newbury, and Mr. Spencer and Mr. Pierce, with myself and another, I suppose it was MIr. William Thomas, and as we were going through ye land of ye said farm, Mr. Pierce said to Mr. Spencer you promised to give me possession of turfe and twigge. Mr. Speucer said and so I will if you please to cut a turfe and twigge ; and Mr. Pierce cut a twigge off a tree and cut up a turfe, and Mr Spencer took the twigge and stuck it into the turfe and bid us bear witness that he gave Mr. Pierce possession thereby of the house and land and farm that he had bought of him and gave ye turfe and twigge to Mr. Pierce, and further saith not."

Messrs. Tracy, Boardman, Pettingell and Little have owned the place since.

There were four persons by the name of Kent among the early settlers in 1635 -- Richard and Stephen, brothers, who had wives, and Richard, Jr., and James, sons of Richard, Sr. It is possible that they emigrated from Newbury in England, as the name appears about that time on the records of that town. Richard, Sr., was one of the seven men chosen in the first year to manage the affairs of the town, He was a prominent man, often mentioned in the records, and lived during the latter part of his life on or near the street that afterwards received his name.

Kent's Island was granted on the 7th of February, 1647, to Richard Kent, Jr. At the time of the laying out of the new town the record speaks of his being in possession of ten acres of upland and sixty-four acres of marsh, and afterwards he received by grant and purchase the whole island, which comprised about six hundred and forty acres. The estate was kept in the family for many years by the will of Rich- ard Kent, Jr., who bequeathed it to his oldest male de- scendant. In process of time a Mrs. Kent had twins, and through the carelessness of the nurse it was impos- sible to prove the precedence of either, and consequently a John and a Stephen each claimed, as the oldest son, the whole estate. There was another brother, Moses, who took no part in the quarrel, but finally the Gener- al Court annulled the proceedings and the property was divided among the three. The island remained divided until the time of the father of the late Paul Kent, who became possessed of the whole, and from him it finally passed into the hands of Joshua N. Kent.

Anthony Somerby appeared in Newbury in 1639, and was the first schoolmaster in the town. In April, 1647, on the death of John Lowle, he was ap- pointed " clerk of the writs at Newbury and to record births, deaths and marriages, in the place of John Lowle deceased." He was from Little Bytham, Lin- colnshire, England, and was a man of education and learning. Ile continued in offico as town clerk until his death in 1685.

John Lowle was a native of Bristol, England, and appeared in Newbury in 1639. After the appointment of Edward Rawson as secretary of the Massachusetts colony, he was chosen his successor as town clerk in April, 1647, and died on the 29th of the following June. He was the ancestor of the Lowell family,

1717

NEWBURY.

of which, during the last three generations, there have been so many distinguished members, in law, literature and divinity.

Henry Luut, one of the early though not the earli- est settlers, was a substantial farmer, and came from England in the "Mary and John." He acquired a con- siderable amount of real estate, and left a family from which have come a large number of descendants. Indeed, there were so many bearing the name in the southerly part of Newbury, at one time, that it was called by many Lunt's Town. After the death of Mr. Lunt bis widow, Ann, married Captain Joseph Hills, Speaker of the first House of Representatives, whose first wife was Rose Dunsten, sister of Rev. Henry Dunsten, the first president of Harvard College, whe died in Scituate in 1659. The late Rev. Wm. Parsons Lunt, D.D., of Quincy, and the late Hon. George Lunt were descendants of Henry Lunt.

Richard Dummer appeared in Newbury in 1635, and in May of that year the General Court ordered Mr. John Humphrey, Mr. John Endicott, Captain Nathaniel Turner and Captain Win. Trask to set out a farm for him about the falls of Newbury. He seems to have been thought to have some erroneous views on theological matters, and on account of them was disarmed by order of the court. He was a prom- inent man in the town, and with Edward Woodman took a leading part in the controversy with Rev. Mr. Parker. Mr. Dummer's farm extended from Oyster Point, the junction of Rowley Mill River with the River Parker, to the old county road, and fell to bis son Jeremiah, who was a silversmith in Boston and who occupied the farm as a summer residence. Gov- ernor Dummer will be referred to more fully in connection with the Dummer Academy, in the next chapter.

Benjamin Woodbridge was the younger brother of John Woodbridge, already referred to. He was prob- ably born at Stanton, England, about 1620, and was entered at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, where he remained under the instruction of William Eyre until he came to New England with his brother John and uncle Thomas Parker, in 1634. After his arrival here he entered Harvard, and his name stands at the head of the list of members of the first graduating class in 1642. He was an ambitious man and sought a broader field of action than New England at that time afforded. Consequently he returned to England and re-entered Magdalen Hall, receiving the degree of Master of Arts in 1648. He soon became a preacher at Salis- bury in England, and before 1653 was appointed to the rectory of St. Nicholas, at the English Newbury, an old and large parish which is still flourishing in that ancient town. On the 23d of April, 1655, the High Court of Chancery issued an order for a survey of church livings, and the following report, as stated by Mr. Thomas W. Silloway, was returned concerning this parish :

" Nubery is a Parsonage worth £77 16s. 6d., formerly in the gift of ye Jate King. Mr. Benjamin Woodbridge is ye present Incumbent, being a godly, able and painefull minister. The parish is at present large, being a greate Market Towne. And we conceive it may be fitt for another church to be built in some parte of ye Towne, and that a parte of yo parish of Speene, called Speenham, Land adjoyneing Nubery, together with the chappelcy of Sandleford, with a hamlet called Greenham in the parish of Thatcham, be ancexed thereto."

Mr. Woodbridge was the friend of Rev. John Cot- ton, the vicar of St. Botolph's, in Boston, and wrote the epitaph inscribed on his gravestone, in Boston, in New England, as follows :

" A living Breathing Bible ; Tables where Both Covenants at Large engraven were ; Gospel and Law, in's Heart, had each its column ; His Head an Index to the sacred volume ; His very name a Title Page ; and next, His life a Commentary on the Text, O, what a Monument of glorious worth, When in a New Edition he comes forth Without Erratas may we think he'll he In Leaves and Covers of Eternity."

After the restoration of Charles II., Mr. Silloway says that he became popular with the King, who made him one of his " Chaplains in ordinary," and offered him the position of Canon of Windsor. Though a minister in the English Church, fond of its ceremonies and attracted by its fascinating forms, he nevertheless had more or less Presbyterian blood in his veins and was forced to decline the canonry. He finally left St. Nicholas' Church, and after for a time following his non-conforming instincts, was again attracted into the church, and in 1665 took holy orders from the Bishop of Salisbury in the church of " St. Peter in the East," in Oxford. But again he was disappointed and once more fell back into the ranks of the dissenting brethren, where he remained until the breaking out of the Presbyterian plot in 1683, when he returned to Inglefield and died unmarried in November, 1684.

It is impossible in the space allowed for this narra- tive to do justice, even by a casnal reference, to all the men who made their mark in Newbury during the first century of its life. In the words of Hon. George Lunt :

" Familiar names they hore, n t lost, Kent, Parker, Moody, Pope, Franklin and Tracy, Noyes and Lunt, Sons of immortal hope.

But why recall the crumbled roll, Short, Woodbridge, Spencer, West, Bartlett and Osgood, all their throng, Beneath their daisied rest."

CHAPTER CX LII.

NEWBURY-(Continued).

THE new century opened with an increasing and still more scattered population. The people living on the borders of Newbury and Rowley built a meeting-house in 1702, and combining the names of the two towns at first called the parish " Rowlbury."

1718

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

In 1704 the parish was incorporated as "Byfield Parish." As the story goes, the name owes its origin to a rivalry between the Sewall and Dummer families. Henry Sewall, the settler, selected his farm along the north side of the river Parker, while Richard Dum- mer selected his along the south side. Though the families had for generations lived harmoniously, when that section of the town became a parish there was quite a sharp contention between them about the name. Both families claimed the honor of the name, and when the contest was carried into the General Assembly it was finally settled by Judge By- field, a member, who rose and offered to make the parish a present if they would name it for him. His proposal was at once agreed to and he presented to the church the plate for the communion service and also a bell. The silver tankards were afterwards burned with the church, but other pieces of the service are still in use. Judge Nathaniel Byfield was born in Long Ditten, Sussex, England, in 1653, and was the son of Richard Byfield, one of the West- minster Assembly divines. Ife came to New Eng- land in 1674, and after a short residence in Boston as a merchant he removed to Bristol, then theshire- town of Bristol County in Massachusetts, where he occupied for thirty-eight years the position of judge of the Court of Common Pleas. In 1724 he returned to Boston, where he also served as judge in the same conrt. He was also at various times Speaker of the House of Representatives. member of the Council and judge of the Admiralty Court.

The first minister of the Byfield Parish was Rev. Moses Hale, who was ordained November 17, 1706. He was the grandson of Thomas and Thomasini Ilale, who came from Ilertfordshire in England and settled in Newbury in 1635. He was born in Newbury, July 10, 1678, and graduated at Harvard in 1699. Ilis ministry closed with his death, in January, 1743.

In 1705 the town voted to grant the old meeting- house of the First Parish to Richard Brown, with liberty to remove it. Thus the plan to convert it into a court-house and school house was abandoned. In 1706 Henry Short, one of the first settlers, died while holding the office of town clerk, as its fifth incumbent. Up to the present time that office has been hehl by the following persons :

John Woodbridge, appointed in 1635. Edward Rawson, appointed November 19, 1638.

John Lowle, appointed April 1, 1647.

Anthony Somerby, appointed June 20, 1647.

Henry Short, appointed March 20, 1683. Richard Browne, Jr., appointed October 30, 1706. Nathaniel Coffin, appointed October 9, 1711. Joseph Coffin, appointed March 14, 1748-49. Dudley Colman, appointed September 23, 1773.

Edmund Sawyer, appointed April 9, 1776.

John Atkinson, appointed March 14, 1786. Ezra Hale, appointed April 6, 1807. Stuart Chase, appointed March 12. 1841. Joshua Collin, appointed March 12, 1850. William Lattle, appointed March 2, 1837.

The present clerk, Frank Ferguson, of Byfield,

the snecessor of Mr. Little, was first chosen in 1884. In 1725, the Third Parish in Newbury, now the First in Newburyport, was organized, and on the 25th of June their meeting-house was dedicated. On the 19th of the following January, Rev. John Lowell was ordained as the pastor. It is not the purpose of the writer to trace the history of this church, as it will be found where it more properly belongs, in the sketch of Newburyport.

In 1731 the town voted to build a town-house, in Chandler's Lane, now Federal Street, and in the same year the Second Parish was divided, and the Fourth formed, an account of which may be found in the sketch of West Newbury. The town-house was finished in 1735, and deeded to the connty on the 19th of February in that year, on the condition that it should revert to the town and parish if no court should be held in it for nine months. Instead of Chandler's Lane, its first proposed location, it was erected at a cost of £530 10sh. on land given by Benja- min Morse, opposite the head of Marlborough Street, where it remained until March 5th, 1780, when it was sold by auction to John Mycall. While in the posses- sion of the town and county it was occupied as a town-house, court-house and school-house.

In 1744 the Society of Friends in Newbury built a meeting-house in what was afterwards called Belle- ville, but it was finally occupied by the Congrega- tional Church in the West Parish as a vestry, and the Friends huilt another house near Turkey Hill.

In 1743 a controversy arose between Rev. Christo- pher Toppan and some of the members of his church, which for a time disturbed and excited the town. In the course of the controversy Mr. Toppan wrote to his disaffected church members the following letter :

"To CHANLES PIERCE, Esquire, in Newbury :

Sir: I have been informed that some yt are called schemers, by others new-light men (for Satan being now especially transformed into an angel of light, they pretend unto), have drawn up some articles against me, some respecting my doctrine taught in publick, some respecting my belief in several articles of religion, and some respecting my practices, and I have been told you have the original by you. I have long desired to see it, but could never yet obtain it. This is therefore, a desire of you to send me the original, or a copy of it, attested, for I am obliged to go to York Superior Court ye next week, and would carry it with me to show to the superior judges for their judgment upon the whole as to my doctrines, whether they be right or nu, for which I propose to carry my sermons reflected upon, as to my principles, whether they be right or no (though in the paper before mentioned I believe there are many things false, for I never yet kuew a schemi that would not lie). As to my practices, whether right or no, I shall leave them to judge aud determine. I purpose to carry with me a copy of what I now send to you, to show it to them, if you an- swer not my request in sending me the original or an attested copy.

" Sır I am yours to serve in what I may,

" CHRISTOPHER TOPPAN."

In the next year the aggrieved brethren called an ex parte council of eight churches, which met at Newbury on the 24th of July, and examined nine charges made against their pastor. The council jus- tified the brethren and condemned Mr. Toppan, ad- vising them, however, "to hearken to any reasonable method whereby their final separation from the

1719

NEWBURY.

church and parish might be prevented," and con- cluding by saying that "however, we utterly disap- prove of unnecessary separation as partaking of great guilt and accompanied with great scandal. yet look- ing upon your circumstances as extraordinary and deplorable, we cannot think you blameworthy, if, with good advice, you seek more wholesome food for your souls and put yourselves under the watch of a shepherd in whom you can confide."

On the 31st of August an ex parte council, called by the friends of Mr. Toppan, met at Newbury, and after an examination of the charges, acquitted Mr. Toppan of nearly all the charges and censured his opponents for their "disorderly walking," advising them to return "to the bosom of the church and to the pastoral care of him who had been so faithful and useful a pastor for near fifty years."

The result of the difficulty was that the aggrieved brethren joined with some disaffected members of the Rev. Mr. Lowell's church and formed, in 1746, what is now the First Presbyterian Church in Newburyport, and settled in March, Rev. Jonathan Parsons as their pastor. A further reference to this church also will be found in the sketch of Newburyport. The fol- lowing is the covenant which was signed by nineteen seceding members of the First Church :

"We, the subscribing brethren, who were members of the First Church in Newbury, and have thought it our duty to withdraw there- from, do also look upon it onr duty to enter into a church estate ; specially as we appreheod this may be for the glory of God, and the interest of the Redeemer's kingdom, as well as for our owo mutnal edification and comfort.

" We do therefore, as we trust, in the fear of God, mutually covenant and agree to walk together as a church of Christ, according to the rules aud order of the Gospel.

" In testimony whereof we bave bereunto set our bands and seals this 3dl day of January, 174G.

4. ('harles Pearce.

Moses Bradstreet.

Edward Presbury. Joha Brown. Richard Hall. Benjamin Knight. Willianı Brown. Benjamin Pierce. Daniel Noyes. Major Goodwia.

Thomas Pike. Daniel Wells. Joseph Hidden.

Nathamel Atkinson, Jr.

Junatban Plummer.

Daniel Goudwin.

Silvanus Plnmer.

Samnel Hall.

Cutting Pettiogell.

On the 14th of January, 1746, the parish of By- field voted to build a new meeting-house, fifty-six feet long and forty-five feet wide, which was com- pleted during the following summer. In 1748 the town granted to John Crocker liberty to build a rope-walk "along by the windmill" and to improve the place for ten years for the manufacture of rope and no other purpose. The windmill stood near the frog pond and was erected in 1703. On the 10th of November, 1745, Rev. John Tucker was settled as a colleague with Rev. Mr. Toppan. In January, 1743, Rev. Moses Hale, pastor of the Byfield Church, died and Rey. Moses Parsons, of Gloucester, was settled June 21, 1744, in his place.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 178

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