History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 187

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 187

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Jonathan Greenleaf was born in that part of New- bury which is now Newburyport, in 1723. He was a cousin of Benjamin Greenleaf, who was Probate judge. He was apprenticed when young to Edward Presbury, a prosperous ship-bnilder, and afterwards married his daughter. He rose to wealth and influ- ence, and was a member of the Continental Congress and in both branches of the State Legislature. From 1799 until his death, May 25, 1807, he was president of the board of trustees of Byfield Academy, and during his whole life commanded the confidence and respect of his townsmen. In the organization of the town, in February, 1764, he was chosen one of the assessors and presided at the annual town-meetings of 1771, '90, '91, '92, '95, and was a member of the Committee of Safety and Correspondence. Benjamin Greenleaf, his consin, was born in Newburyport in March, 1732, and died in January. 1799. He was a graduate of Harvard in 1751, a member of the Executive Council during the war, a member of the

Committee of Safety, a member of the Massachusetts Senate, chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and judge of Probate for the county of Essex. He was also president of the trustees of Byfield Academy from 1784 to his death, in 1799. He was one of the town committee chosen in 1764 to organize the school system of the town, and a member of the Board of Selectmen in 1764, '66, '67, '68, '72, '74, '75.

Micajah Sawyer was an eminent physician, who was born in Newbury in 1737 and graduated at Har- vard in 1756. He was a member of the Committee of Safety and the treasurer of Dummer Academy from 1784 to 1809. He married a daughter of Daniel Farnham and died September 29, 1815.

Patrick Tracy came from Ireland as a young sailor, and making Newburyport his home, became first an enterprising ship-master and finally a prosperous merchant. He was the father of Nathaniel Tracy, of whom mention has already been made. At the time of the organization of the town he was chosen one of the overseers of the poor, and he was one of the Committee of Safety aud Correspondence.

Colonel Moses Titcomb is worthy of mention in connection with this period. He was descended from William Titcomb, one of the original settlers in Newbury. He was a blacksmith by trade and a man of gigantic strength. In 1747, by order of Brigadier- General Waldo, he took command of the troops sta- tioned at Falmouth (now Portland), where he remained from May to October of that year. He was a mem- ber of the Third Church in Newbury, within the limits of what afterwards became Newburyport, and though he died a few years before the incorporation of that town, the military spirit which he displayed, and which was afterwards, during the Revolution, repeated by many of his kinsmen in Newburyport, deserves a place in this record. He was killed in the battle at Lake George, September 8, 1755, by one of the Indian allies of the French, who had gained the flank of his regiment unperceived.

Enoch Titcomb was a prominent citizen in the earlier days of the town. At its first meeting, in Feb- ruary, 1764, he was chosen one of the Board of Select- men and served again in that capacity in 1782. He was town clerk from 1790 to 1796 and presided at the annual town-meetings of 1782-84, 1803-04. He served as an officer under General Sullivan in Rhode Island, and after the war was many years either Senator or Representative in the State Legislature. He died Angust 13, 1814, at the age of sixty-two.

Jonathan Titcomb was also prominent in the early days of the town. He was moderator at the annual town-meetings in 1778, '79, '81, '86, '87, and a select- man in 1773, '74, '75, '77, '78, '80, '86, '88. He com- manded a regiment under General Sullivan, was a member of the convention . to form the State Consti- tution and a member of the first General Court of the Commonwealth. He was also appointed naval

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officer of the district of Newburyport by Washington in 1789. lle died March 10, 1817.

Ezra Lunt was born in Newburyport and enlisted and commanded a company which was raised after the battle of Lexington, and marched to Cambridge in time to participate in the battle of Bunker IIill. In that battle his company formed the rear-guard, which protected the retreat. Capt. Lunt saw much service during the war and at its close opened a tavern in Federal Street, but soon removed to Ohio, where he died in 1803. His brothers Henry and Daniel were both active in their country's service-as daring and fearless on the sea as their brother on the Jand. Their cousin, Cutting Lunt, was also engaged in sea service and added his share to the well-earned fame of the family to which he belonged. Henry first sailed, in 1776 in the privateer "Dalton," owned by Stephen llooper and commanded by Eleazer Johnson. She was captured and her officers and crew were sent to Mill Prison. In the spring of 1779 he was re- leased and went to France, where, as midshipman, he shipped on board the "Bon Homme Richard," com- manded by J. Paul Jones. He was soon promoted to a second lieutenant and remained with Jones in the "Richard," " Alliance " and " Ariel " until his arrival in Philadelphia in 1781. He then became first lieu- tenant of the ship " Intrepid," a letter of marque, owned by Nathaniel Tracy and commanded by Moses Brown. After the war Mr. Lunt continued in the employ of Mr. Tracy in the merchant service until his failure, and afterwards in the employ of Brown & Bartlett and Farris & Stocker and others, and died in 1805. Daniel Lunt was with his brother in the " Dalton " and his fellow-prisoner in Mill Prison and died in 1787. Cutting Lunt was also an officer on board the " Bon Homme Richard " and a prisoner in Mill Prison. Afterwards, while on a cruise in the privateer "America," owned by Joseph Marquand, he was lost with all on board. Richard Lunt, a brother of Cutting, was also in Mill Prison, and it is presumed that he was on board the "Bon IIomme Richard," and captured with his brother while in a boat pursuing in the fog a boat's crew of deserters. The following letter, the original of which is temporarily in possession of the writer, was written by Richard Lunt to his brother Paul while in prison:

" PLYMOUTH, Mill Prison, September 24, 1778.

" LOVINO BAOTHER, -I embrace this opportunity to let you know that I am in good health by the blessing of Almighty God and hope these few lines will find you in good health. I was taken the 24th of Decem- her after I left Newbury by the ' Reasonable' ship of war off Cape l'in- nistere, and carried into Plymouth and kept on board the ships till the 7th of June following, and then committed to this prison for high tren- son and see no more likelehoods of having my liberty than there was the first day I was committed, only time brings all things in this world to an end and whether they desire to hang ns or not I cannot tell. Our friends have raised a donation for the prisoners in England, that we are com- fortable for food and raiment, and I desire to be content with the alot- ment of providence. I live in hopes of see home again, but am afraid it will be a long parting. I hear that Dr. Franklin have been trying for an exchange, but as we are committed for treason I do not think of being exchanged before the war is over, and when that will be nobody in this world knows. So no more at present, but remains

" Your Loving Brother till Death,

4. RICHARD LUNT.

" P. S. I remember my kind love to you and to your wife and my duty to my parents, and likewise my love to my wife and children, and to brothers and sisters, hoping they are in good health.

" Brother Cotting is in good health and desires to be remembered to all friends. Ebenezer Brown likewise. The Newbury people are n health.""

Edward Wigglesworth was a native of Ipswich and, after graduating at Harvard in 1761, removed to Newburyport and entered the employ of Nathaniel Tracy and Jonathan Jackson as supercargo and ship- master. In 1776, as colonel, he commanded a regiment raised in the counties of Essex, York and Cumber- land under General Gates. Under instructions from General Gates, he went on board the fleet on Lake Champlain the third in command, General Arnold and General Waterbury being first and second. In 1777 his regiment took part in the battle of Mon- mouth, and in 1778 he was appointed by Washington president of a court of inquiry to investigate the loss of Forts Montgomery and Clinton, which were surrendered by Governor Clinton. In 1779 he re- signed his commission and retired to private life. He was a member of the Board of Selectmen of New- buryport in 1783 and 1784, and in 1792 was appointed by Washington collector of the port, which office he held until 1795. He died December 8, 1826.

Moses Brown was born in Salisbury, January 23, 1742. At the age of fifteen he began a sea life with Capt. William Coffin ; at eighteen was mate, and at twenty-five was in command of the schooner " Phebe," of Newburyport, which place continued afterwards to be his residence. In 1777, while he was in com- mand of the brig "Hannah," he was captured and held a short time on board a prison-ship at Rhode Island. In 1778 he commanded the privateer "Gen- eral Arnold," and in one of his cruises in her was captured by the British ship " Experiment." After his release he was in command of the " Intrepid," twenty guns, and the "Hercules." and a letter of marque of twenty-two guns, for which be was com- missioned by the Continental Congress. In 1798 he was appointed to the command of the " Merrimac," mounting twenty nine-pounders and eight six- pounders, and joined the squadron at the West Indies. While in this command he captured the brig "Brilliante," sixteen guns; the "Magiciene," fourteen guns; the " Phoenix" and " Bonaparte," each fourteen guns, and retook a number of English and American vessels that had been captured by the French. Under the administration of Jefferson, Capt. Brown left the service and once more engaged in the merchant marine, and while on a voyage home died, January 2, 1804.

In the enumeration of those who were active in the Revolutionary period, the Rev. Jonathan Parsons, of the old South Church, must not be forgotten. He made patriotism a part of his religion, and to his inspiring words much of the spirit which character- ized the people of Newburyport was due. After the news of the battle of Lexington was received, he made an appeal to his hearers at the close of the ser-

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mon on the next Sunday, to form volunteer companies at once, and invited those who wished to aid to step into the aisle. Capt. Ezra Lunt stepped out, and enough with him, and then and there the first volun- teer company in Newburyport was formed. He was born in West Springfield in 1705, and graduated at Yale College in 1729. He was first settled in the ministry at Lyme, Conn., and was there living when Rev. George Whitefield made his first visit to America, in 1728. In 1746, on the 3d of January, the First Presbyterian Church was formed by nineteen persons who had seceded from the old First Parish of New- bury. During the few first years of its life Rev. Joseph Adams, a graduate of Harvard in 1742, pre- sided over its ministrations in a small building situ- ated on High Street. In 1756 the society was incor- porated, and the present venerable place of worship, at the corner of Federal and School Streets, was erected. It is indicative of the habits of that time that it was noted and has always been remembered that the frame of the meeting-house was raised without the utterance of an oath by the workmen and without the occurrence of an accident. The probable explanation of so remarkable a fact is, that no intoxicating liquors were drunk during the per- formance. While Mr. Parsons was at Lyme, he and Mr. Whitefield had formed a strong friendship, and by the advice of the latter, Mr. Parsons was invited to settle over the young society. In 1756 he was in- stalled, and remained with the society until his death, July 19, 1776. He was buried under the pulpit of his church, by the side of his distinguished friend.

In the eastern corner of the church is erected a cenotaph to the memory of Whitefield, who, in a min- istry of eight years, preached more than ten thousand sermons and crossed the Atlantic thirteen times. He preached his first sermon in Newburyport, September 30, 1740, and September 30, 1870, he there died, and was buried under the pulpit of the church in whose welfare he had felt a lively interest. Mr. Whitefield was born in Gloucester, England, where his mother kept the Bell Inn, in 1714. From the school of his native town he entered as servitor at Pembroke Col- lege, Oxford, and was ordained for the ministry by the Bishop of Gloucester. He preached in prisons and the open fields, and multitudes followed to hear him exhibit his persuasive eloquence. He first came to America in 1738, making occasional visits after- wards, as he could be spared from his labors at home, until death cut short his career. Many years ago some of the bones of Whitefield were stolen from the coffin and carried to England, but in 1849, many years after, the pastor of the church received a box, which, on being opened, was found to contain the missing members.

Rev. John Lowell was a descendant of John Lowle, a Welshman, who was one of the earliest settlers of Newbury. He was born in Boston in 1702, and gradu- ated at Harvard in 1721. In 1725 the First Church

of Newburyport was established by seceders from the First Parish of Newbury, and in the following year, on the 19th of January, Mr. Lowell was settled as its pastor. He was a man of culture and refinement, and to his example and influence was due much of that elevation of character for which Newburyport became distinguished. His library, large for those days, his scholarly attainments, his wide knowledge, together with a free and liberal use of his powers, could not fail to stamp and give tone to the commu- nity in which he lived. He died in 1767, leaving one son, John Lowell, born in Newbury, June 17, 1743, and a graduate of Harvard in 1760, who, besides many other honors, received the appointment in 1801 of justice of the United States Circuit Court for Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Indeed, few men have been more distinguished, both for their own attainments and for those transmitted to their descendants, than the Rev. Mr. Lowell. Three of his grandsons, sons of Judge John Lowell, main- tained the reputation of the family. John Lowell, born at Newburyport, October 6, 1769, graduated at Harvard in 1786, and was admitted to the bar in 1789. He received a degree of LL.D. from his alma mater in 1814, and became distinguished as a writer on politics, agriculture, theology and other topics. He was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Gene- ral Hospital, the Boston Athenaeum and the Hospital Life Insurance Company. Francis Cabot Lowell, born in Newburyport, April 7, 1775, graduated at Harvard in 1793, was influential in introducing the cotton manufacture into the United States, and thecity of Lowell, named for him, stands as a monument to his memory. Charles Lowell, born in Boston, August 15, 1782, graduated at Harvard in 1800, and became the well-known minister of the West Church in Cam- bridge Street, Boston. Nor did this generation ex- haust the energies of the family blood. John Low- ell, son of Francis Cabot, and great-grandson of Rev. John Lowell, of Newburyport, was born in Bos- ton, May 11, 1799, and at his death, in 1836, be- queathed the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to maintain forever in Boston, his native city, annual courses of free lectures on natural and revealed religion, physics and chemistry, botany, zoology, geology and mineralogy, philology, literature and eloquence. This establishment, known as the Lowell Institute, went into operation in the winter of 1839-40. James Russell Lowell the poet, son of Rev. Charles Lowell, is too well-known to he mentioned here. John Amory Lowell, of Boston, son of John, the founder of the hospital, graduated at Harvard in 1815, and became one of Boston's most distinguished merchants. Nor was the family blood exhausted in this generation. John Lowell, son of John Amory Lowell, a Harvard graduate of 1843, and, until his recent resignation, judge of the United States Dis- triet Court, and Charles Russell Lowell, a graduate of Harvard in 1864, who, from a captaincy of the

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Sixth Cavalry, in 1860, rose to be brigadier-general in 1864, and died soon after from wounds received at Cedar Creek, in Virginia, have borne ample testimony to the purity and vigor of the blood which flowed in the veins of Rev. John Lowell, of Newburyport.

Dudley Atkins Tyng, though a member of the bar, is believed to have neither studied nor practiced law in Essex County, and may therefore be more prop- erly mentioned in this narrative than in the chapter on the Bench and Bar. He was born in Newbury- port, September 3, 1760, and grew into manhood while the Revolution was going on. lle was the fifth child of Dudley Atkins, who died at the age of thirty-seven. He received his carly education at Dummer Academy, and by the liberality of Tristram Dalton, Jonathan Jackson, Nathaniel Tracy and John Tracy was enabled to reap the advantages of a college education. He owed his name to his grand- mother, Mary, daughter of Governor Joseph Dudley, who married his grandfather, Joseph Atkins, an ofli- cer in the British navy, who settled in Newbury, and died in 1773, at the age of ninety-three. He gradu- ated from Harvard in 1781, and in his senior year while the war was in progress, when the government ob- tained from the British commander then in posses- sion of Penobscot Bay permission to send Dr. Wil- liams, Professor of Astronomy at Harvard, to that bay for the purpose of observing a total eclipse of the sun, expected in October, 1780, the professor se- lected John Davis, of Plymouth, and Dudley Atkins, members of the graduating class, as his assistants in the expedition.

After leaving college ho became teacher in the family of Mrs. Selden, sister of Judge Mercer, one of the judges of the highest court in Virginia, and a'so entered his name in the office of the judge for the study of law. He was admitted to practice in Virginia, and on his return to Newburyport was ad- mitted to the bar of Essex County in 1791. About the time of his return an event occurred which, for a time at least, imposed a check to his career in his chosen profession. Mrs. Winslow, of Tyngsborough, Massachusetts, sister of dames Tyng, then recently deceased, and the last male heir to a considerable landed estate in that town, feeling a pride in the continuance of the property, in at least the family name, selected him, a distant relative, as its possessor, and bequeathed to him a thousand acres of land on the condition, (which be accepted) that he would add Tyng to his name. After a few years of unsuccessful experiment on his farm he returned to Newburyport, and was appointed by Washington, in 1795, collector of that port. In 1803 he was removed from office by Jefferson, and at once took up his residence in Bos- ton with the determination of pursuing his profes- sion. Not long after his arrival in Boston, Ephraim Williams, the first reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court, resigned his office, and Mr. Tyng was appointed in his place. His exactness and

thoroughness as a reporter have always been recog- nized by members of the bar. His Reports cover the period from September, 1804, to March, 1822, and arc contained in seventeen volumes. In the summer of 1822 he returned to Newburyport, and as a gradu- ate of Dummer Academy, he organized an associa- tion of its alumni, and gave not a little of his time and thought in his declining years to the institution where his early instruction was acquired. In 1823 he received a degree of LL.D. from his alma mater. He married, about 1792, Sarah, eklest daughter of Stephen Higginson, and had a number of children, among whom were Rev. Stephen Higginson Tyng, a graduate of Harvard in 1817, who died in New York in 1885, at the age of eighty-five, and Dr. Atkins, of Newburyport, who resumed the old family name. He died in Newburyport, August 1, 1839.

There are others among the representative men of the Revolutionary period who might be mentioned, if the space allotted to this narrative permitted. Enough, however, has been said to illustrate the pa- triotie spirit which actuated the people of Newbury- port in the trying times of the war, and the energy and liberality with which it was exhibited.

CHAPTER CXLIV. NEWBURYPORT-(Continued).

SECOND PERIOD.

From the Revolution to the Close of the War of 1812.

AFTER the close of the war the old industries and trade of the town at once revived. The activity which once characterized it had not died ; it had, by the necessities of the time, been drawn into new chan- nels, where it lost none of its vigor. As the necessi- ties disappeared and these new channels were closed, it resumed its wonted course in the ordinary pursuits of peace. Like the ship after a storm, whose tattered sails and broken spars must be first repaired before the voyage can be successfuly pursued, there was much in the condition of the town's municipal affairs to be examined and readjusted before the people could with an easy mind enter into the race for per- sonal gain. The debts of the war must be paid or secured; the schools must be once more carefully supervised and improved; long-neglected streets must be renovated, and all those interests which, during the seven years of war, had been overlooked, must onee more claim aid and support. With these at last properly cared for, Newburyport entered again on a career of prosperity and wealth. The fisheries, for- eign trade and ship-building rapidly grew, while the business of distilleries, which had never very much languished, largely increased in volume. So far as the fisheries are concerned, they cannot be said to

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have been at any time identified with Newburyport, ' though at times one of its chief pursuits. In the first quarter of the present century there were employed in the district of Newburyport probably about forty ves-els in the cod fishery and seventy-five in the mackerel fishery. The latter fishery had its begin- ning after the War of 1812. The for seal and whale fisheries, both at one time carried on with varied suc- cess, have been long since abandoned. At the present time the fishery business has entirely disappeared, Messrs. Boardman and Sanborn having been the last to be engaged in it. The trade with foreign ports seems to have reached its maximum at the very beginning of this century. The stimulus given to business by the return of peace carried the navigation of the town before 1789 up to 99 vessels of 11,607 tons; in 1796 to 19,752 tons, and in 1806 to 29,713 tons. Of this amount, 25,291 was the amount of registered tonnage | engaged in foreign trade. At the same time the duties on imports received in the district amounted to nearly $200,000. In 1805 there belonged to New- buryport alone, 41 ships, 62 brigs, 2 snows, 2 barques and 66 schooners.

There is no industry so thoroughly identified with Newburyport, and so creditable to its people, as that of ship-building. There are certain occupations and enterprises which seem indigenous to certain localities. They can neither be transplanted to new soils, nor be replaced by those which belong to other localities. A business to be successful must grow with the place, as the boy and his trade, the farmer and his farin, the merchant and his commerce. Nantucket has attempted in vain to introduce the cod-fishery: Newburyport and Plymouth have failed in their efforts to introduce the whale-fishery. We see all along our seaboard to- day, in ports which have languished with the dochne of their navigation, what we cannot help looking up- on as unnatural efforts to transform them into manu- facturing towns, and thus divert them from their true destiny. It is perhaps, not too much to hope, that when the process of centralization which, during the last sixty or seventy years, has been drawing foreign trade from the smaller outposts to Portland and Bos- ton and New York shall cease, the full waters of commerce will flow back to these depleted harbors, and restore the level which, in the natural order of things, must at last everywhere exist.

To Newburyport ship-building has always been an indigenous growth. The river along its front, reach- ing into the timber lands of New Hampshire, furnished at the lowest cost the best materials for ships. The ribs, planking, ceiling, beams and knees cut from oak timber, were floated from the forests directly to the building-yards, and enabled the builders to success- fully compete with those in other less-favored places, where more costly transportation was necessary.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 187

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