History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 224

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 224

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Mr. Ward and his son-in-law, Dr. Firmin, however, went to work about this business much as this world's people would have done. They certainly plied the Governor industriously and with art. Sometbing, however, of consideration was due to Nathaniel Ward at this time, for he was probably then preparing the famous "Body of Liberties," which, having been revised and altered by the General Court, and sent

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into all the towns for consideration, was again revised and amended by the Court, and finally adopted in 1641. It was a great service to Massachusetts, which need not grudge Ward the six hundred acres granted him by the General Court in 1643. It was to be laid out as near to Pentueket (Haverhill) " as conveniently may be." It is said, however, that it was allotted to him in Andover, and that he transferred it to Harvard College in payment of a debt. Though so sharp abont the Pentucket plantation, he seems to have been improvident or unfortunate. And so the projector himself disappears from the annals of Pen tucket.

At the session of the General Court held at Boston on the 13th of the succeeding May (May 13, 1640), a petition was received from Mr. Ward and Newbury men, for permission to begin a new plantation on the Merrimac, which petition was committed to the gov- ernor (Dudley), deputy-governor (Bellingham) and Mr. Winthrop, Sen., "to consider of Pentucket and Coijehawick, and to grant it them, provided they return answer within three weeks from the 21st present, and that they build there before the next courte." The petition itself is probably lost. Mr. Ward and his associates selected Pentueket, and prob- ably went to work at ouce, as at the next session of the court (October 7th of the same year), a committee was appointed to view the bounds between Colchester (Salisbury) and Mr. Ward's plantation."

Mr. Felt, in his history of Ipswich, under the date of 1640, says: "Mr. (Nath'l) Ward, with some men of Newbury, is conditionally allowed to form a settlement at Haverhill or at Andover. This privi- lege was improved, and the former plantation was chosen before October. His chief object in obtaining such a grant was to prepare a residence for his son, who became an estimable minister there."

Under the date of 1641 Mr. Felt writes, " Rev. John Ward, Mr. John Favor and Hugh Sherratt went from Ipswich to Haverhill ;" and Allen, in his biographical dictionary, like Mather in the Magnalia, states that he was settled at Haverhill in that year.

In reference to these transactions, some writers have confounded Nathaniel Ward and John Ward together. But there can be no reasonable doubt that Nathaniel Ward conducted the negotiations and was the original projector of the settlement at llaverhill. He certainly never lived there himself, though he may have visited the place before his return to Eng- land in 1646.

The first mention of Mr. John Ward in the town records of Haverhill, is a note at the bottom of the page, under the year 1643, stating that on the 29th September, 1642, he had "sixteen acres of land laid out to him for a home-lot, with all the accommoda- tions thereunto belonging."

The "Good Christians " who came to Pentucket in 1640, and began in the early summer of that year the plantation, soon and ever since known as lJaver-

hill, were from Newbury and Ipswich, and were twelve in number. Their names were: William White, Samuel Gile, James Davis, Henry Palmer, John Robinson, Christopher Hussey, John Williams, Richard Littlehale, Abraham Tyler, Daniel Ladd, Joseph Merrie, Job Clement. The last four were from Ipswich.

The first houses were erected near the spot where afterwards was the meeting-house, and the old bury- ing-ground, now called Pentucket Cemetery. At the session of the General Court, in June, 1641, a committee was appointed to set out the bounds of Salisbury and Pentucket, alias Haverhill ; they are to determine the bounds which Mr. Ward and his com- pany are to enjoy as a town or village, if they have six houses up by the next General Court, in the eighth month " (October).

This does not necessarily imply that more than six houses may not have been already, in fact, built, but that six should be the minimum number which the committee would be authorized to regard , as a sub- stantial compliance with the general intention of the Court. Other settlers undoubtedly joined the pioneers in the season of 1641.

The first recorded birth was that of John, son of John Robinson, in 1641, who lived but three weeks. The second was a son of the same, in 1642, who lived but one week. John Robinson was a blacksmith, who removed to Exeter in 1657.

The third child born was Deborah, daughter of Tristram Coffin, in 1642, who lived six weeks. The winter of 1641-42 was unusually severe. Boston Har- bor was frozen over, so that it was passable for horses, carts and oxen for six weeks. Doubtless the hard- ships of the beginning were uncongenial to human life, but the statistics soon began to improve. For the first twenty years, or from 1641 to 1661, inclusive, there were one hundred and fifty-eight births and thirty-three deaths, giving a net increase from that cause, in that period, of one hundred and twenty- five.

Giles Firmin had written to Governor Winthrop, doubtless in 1639, that he feared that Passatonnaway, living at Pentucket sometimes, " will hardly be bought. ont for a little." This was Passaconnaway, chief of the Pennacooks, titular sovereign or overlord of the Pentucketts, the Indian tribe who had their home in the region which is now Haverhill. The seat of the Pennacooks was at Concord, N. H. They were the most powerful tribe in the valley of the Merrimack, and Passaconnaway was their " Great Sachem." He was accounted a mighty powow, or soreerer. Fortu- nately he was friendly to the English, and lived to a great age. Gookiu saw him at Pawtucket (Lowell) "when he was about one hundred and twenty years old." IIe died about 1665, and was succeeded by his son Waunalancet, who abdicated his sovereignty and retired to Canada about 1677. The remnant of the tribe then elected Kaucamaugus, a grandson of Passa-

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connaway, who was disaffected to the English, and did them much mischief between 1676 and 1691.

Pa-saconnaway's residenee at Pentuckett probably consisted in occasional visits to the falls in the fish- ing season, to receive the tribute and homage which the tribes of the Lower Merrimack were in the habit of paying him.

The Pentucketts had once been quite a numerous tribe. Their principal village is supposed to have been on the banks of Little River, not far from its mouth. This was a situation well suited to their tastes and habits, and especially convenient for water- transportation, of which they were so fond. Their burial-ground was where Grand Army Hall now stands, on the north side of Merrimack, near Emer- son Street. Here, once, a number of Indian skele- tons were unearthed when a cellar was being exca- vated, and in that vicinity Indian arrow-heads, mor- tars and other relics were formerly frequently found. When Mr. Ward's company came to Haverhill in 1640 scarcely any of the Pentucketts remained. They had probably been largely swept away in the great pestilence which, about 1613, desolated their tribes, from the Kennebec to Narragansett. The patriareh, White, of Dorsetshire, England, in the "Planter's Plea," published in 1630, says: "The land affords void ground for more people than England can spare, on aceount of a desolation from a three years' plague, twelve or sixteen years past, which swept away most of the inhabitants along the sea-coast, and in some places utterly consumed man, woman and child, so that there is no person left to lay claim to the soyl which they possessed."

The records of Haverhill contain few allusions to the Indians, and those very scanty. Some men- tion of a "wigwam " is made in 1650, 1660 and 1685 in the west part of the town. In 1664 allusion was made to an "Indian Wire," in Fishing River, and the "Indian Bridge" over Spicket River. "Old Wills Planting-Ground " is referred to in the records of the General Court for 1662. This is considered to have been on the east side of the Spicket River, within the original bounds of Haverhill.

Mr Firmin's letter shows that the projectors ex- pected to purchase the Indian title to Pentuekett, but the first settlers probably found so few aborigines in the neighborhood upon their arrival, that they scarcely thought it worth while to interrupt their busy labors to negotiate with them or rather, perhaps, to hunt them up for that purpose. But a circum- stance occurred which had the effect to awaken their apprehensions, or stir their scruples.

In September, 1642, the Governor received intelli- gence from Connecticut, " that the Indians all over the country had combined themselves to cut off the English." This was to be done by surprise, in -mall parties, soon after the harvest had been gathered in. The Governor and Council thinking it advisable im- mediately to disarm all the Indians within their juris-

diction, a warrant was sent to Ipswich, Rowley and Newbury, "to disarm Passaconnaway, who lived by Merrimack." Forty armed men set out to execute it, in a heavy rain and on the Sabbath. They did not get the chief, but they took his son, with his squaw and child, and undertook to conduct them prisoners to the settlements. Ile, however, escaped and fled to the woods. Either for this reason or on account of certain miscarriages in the conduct of the affair, or most probably, perhaps, because the expe- dition had failed of its principal object, the Governor and Council sent a friendly messenger to bear their apologies to Passaconnaway for the arrest of his de- pendants and to explain the reason for their order of disarmament. The chieftain condescended to be pacified. The squaw and her child (by some writers said to be a wife and son of Passaconnaway himself) were sent back. "Accordingly about a fortnight after," says Winthrop, "he sent his eldest son to us, who delivered up his guns."

No massacre occurred though the plot had doubt- less existed. And it is significant that on the 15th of the following November (1642) the Indian title to Pentucket was apparently extinguished. At all events, there is no trace in the reeords and no tradi- tion of any subsequent Indian claimants.

On that day, Passaquo and Saggahew, with the consent of Passaconnaway, sold to the inhabitants of Pentucket, in consideration of three pounds and ten shillings, all the lands they had there: "that is eight myles in length from ye Little Rivver in Pen- tucket Westward : six myles in length from ye afore- said Rivver northward : and six myles in length from ye aforesaid Rivver Eastward, with ye Ileand and ye river that ye ileand stand in as far in length as ye land lyes by as formerly expressed : that is, fourteen myles in length," and "all ye right that we or any of us have in ye said ground and Ileand and Rivver : and we warrant it against all or any other Indians whatsoever unto ye said inhabitants of Pentuckett, and to their heirs and assigns forever."

Passaquo and Saggahew each made their mark of a bow and arrow. The deed is witnessed by John Ward, the minister ; Robert Clements, Tristram Coffin, Hugh Sherratt, William White and Thomas Davis, who made his "signe." The witnesses were all inhabi- tants, and, of course all interested in the deed. It will be observed that it purports to convey not only all the right that Passaquo and Saggahew themselves had, but that also which " any of us have," i. e. any Indians, with warranty against all Indians what- soever. There has never been any litigation, prob- ably, in which it was necessary closely to scan this Indian deed. It is probable that both grantors and grantees had in mind, as the point of departure, the site of the Indian village on Little River. In after years there was much discussion as to the east and west boundaries of the town. The inhabitants evi- dently always supposed themselves entitled to have

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all that could be implied from the deed, whilst the general court was inclined to narrow their bounds. But it does not appear that there was ever any discus- sion where the northern boundary should be fixed, ex- cept as incidental to the great quarrel between New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The language of the deed is : "Six myles in length, from ye aforesaid river northward." Probably both parties had in mind, six miles north from the site of the Indian village at Little River.

But the charter of " the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England," granted " all that partof New England lying between three miles to the north of the Merrimack and three miles to south of Charles River." Under this charter, the Massachu- setts people claimed that their northern boundary was three miles to the north of the northernmost part of the Merrimae, and from that point to extend east and west. They therefore, in 1639, explored the river and fixed upon a rock, which they called Endi- cott's Rock, near the outlet of Winnipiseogee Lake, as the northernmost part of the river, and a tree three miles to the northward of that rock as the place where they were entitled to begin to run their east and west line. This claim was somewhat modified, it is true, in 1678, to a claim of three miles north of the river, according to its course, and throngh its whole length. But why did it never occur to the Haverhill people who, in the early days, were very anxious to have a great township, similarly to claim that the Indian deed granted the inhabitants land extending to a point six miles northerly from the source of the Little River, from which to run an east and west line for a northern boundary ? This would have very much enlarged the limits of the town. Probably, as has been suggested, it was always nn- derstood that the point of departure was the chief home of the Indians aforetime upon Little River.

This Indian deed was not recorded till April 29, 1671-when it was entered in the County records for Norfolk, to which Haverhill then belonged.

April 1, 1681, it was recorded at Ipswich in Essex County records. On the outside it is indorsed : "The purchase from the Indians by Haverhill men Recorded." In the previous year (1680) somebody was thoughtful enough to ensure a certain degree of authenticity in perpetual memory of the transaction. Nathaniel Saltonstall, the town clerk, copied it into the town records and appended the following testi- mony :

" The Rov. Teacher, of ye church and towne of llaverhill ; Mr. John Ward, William White and Tho. Davis do testifie that Haverhill towne- ship, or lands then by ye Indians called Pentackett, was purchased of ye Indians us is mentioned in ye deed in this paper contained, which is entered upon record and that we were then inhabitants at Haverhill and present with ye Indians, Passaquo and Suggahew, ( who were ye apparent owners of yo land, und so accounted) did signe and confirm ye same : and that then, wee ( with others now dead) did signe our name to ye deed, which land we have ever since enjoyed peaceably, without any Indian molestation from the grantors or their heirs. Taken upon February ye 4th, 1680, before Nath. Saltonstull, assist.

" Lieut. Brown and Lieut. Ladd both affirm upon oath that what is entered in the records for Haverhill as the deed of purchase from the Indians of Haverhill Township or lands, of which the deed above written is a true copy, was, and is, a true copy, extract or transcript of the original deed given by the Indians. Taken upon oath February the 4th , 1680, before me, Nath. Saltoustall, assist."

The Indian deed was long in the possession of the descendants of William White, but was deposited with the town records twenty years ago.

Of John Ward, the first witness to the Indian deed, much has already been said.

Robert Clement came from England early in 1642, landing at Salisbury, and probably soon establishing himself at Haverhill, with his wife and fonr chil- dren,-John, Lydia, Robert and Sarah, Another son (Job) had preceded him. His youngest daugh- ter, Mary, remained at Coventry, in Warwickshire, till about 1652, when she joined her family here, and soon married John Osgood, of Andover.

Robert Clement was the first deputy to the General Court (1645-1654), when he was succeeded by John Clement. He was also associate judge, commissioner to administer the oath of fidelity to the inhabitants, to set off publie lands, etc. He was evidently re- garded as an upright and able man. He died in 1658, on the spot where he first settled, aged about sixty-eight. He then owned the first grist-mill built in the town, which was appraised at thirty pounds. Tristram Coffyn and William White inventoried his property at about £450.

His son, Robert, was the first cooper in Haverhill. He married Elizabeth Fane in 1652, by whom he had eleven children. He also held town offices, was a large land-holder, and lived near the location of the Exchange Building, on Water Street.

Job Clement was a tanner, and married Margaret Dummer,-the first marriage in the town.

John Clement was a farmer. He married Sarah Osgood.

This family were for a long time prominent in town and county. Several generations have lived upon the estate in the North Parish, still owned by descendants of Robert Clement, one of whom is city physician in 1887.

Tristram Coffyn was born in 1609, in Brixanı par- ish, Devonshire, in England. He came in 1642, in the same ship with Robert Clement, near whom he set- tled. He brought with him his mother (who died in Boston), two sisters, his wife and five children. Tradi- tion has it that he was the first person who plowed land in Haverhill. He did not remain very long here, but removed to Newbury, where he was licensed to keep an ordinary and also to keep a ferry over the Merrimac. He is said subsequently to have removed to Salisbury and thence to Nantucket, where, and in- deed, throughout the United States, his descendants are very numerous.

Hugh Sherratt, as we have seen, came from Ipswich in 1641, with John Ward. He first had land assigned to him in the Pond plain, which he relinquished, and

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in 1650 he was granted a house-lot " over the little river," it is supposed on the westerly side of what is now Washington Square. He was always unfortun- ate in his pecuniary affairs. In 1662 he was licensed to keep an ordinary and to "sell strong water and wine at retail." Our ancestors generally called distilled spirits "strong waters." We may judge that Sherratt was accounted a sober and discreet person, for our an- cestors wisely intrusted that dangerous traffic only to persons of approved character. But he was still un- fortunate. In 1677, being then in his ninety-ninth year he had lost the remnant of his property and sought re- lief from the town, which agreed with Peter Brewer to keep him for five shillings a week, one half to be paid in breadstuff and the other in meat. The fol- lowing is worth reprinting to show how poor the towns-people were after it had been settled nearly forty years. Upon "a motion to know who would lend corn or meat to the town for the support of Hugh Sherratt, and they to'be paid by the next town-rates, several engaged as followeth : Robert Emerson, bacon ; Joseph Emerson, beef, 6 lbs .; Daniel Ela, beef, 12 lbs .; Samuel Gile, beef, 6 lbs .; Henry Kingsbury, Indian, 1; John Page, Jr., Ind., and meat 2 lbs .; Thomas Eaton, 18 1bs. meat or corn ; Robert Ford, Jr., ¿ Ind. ; Bartholomew Heath, pork, 4 lbs .; Thomas Davis, pork, 4 lbs., butter, 1 1b .; Michael Emerson, pork, 4 lbs .; Thomas Whittier, turnips, I; Robert Ayer, pork, 6 lbs .; Daniel Hendrick, meat, 2 lbs. ; Peter Ayer, 3 lbs. meat or corn ; Thomas Ayer, Jr., 1 lb. meat.

Poor old Sherratt died September 5, 1678, aged one hundred years, enjoying the melancholy distinction of being the first centenarian in the town. It is to be hoped his old fellow-traveller, minister Ward, ac- corded him the customary honor of a sermon with appropriate exercises, on his hundredth birthday.

William White was born in 1610 (it is said in Nor- folk County, England), and came to New England in 1635, going first to Ipswich and, in the same year to Newbury, with Rev. Thomas Parker and his com- pany. He owned a farm in Newbury as late as 1650, and after his death, his widow moved back to Ipswich, where she died. Mr. White settled on what is now Mill street, on land still owned by his descendants, who have been very numerous. He became a large landholder. He had one son, John, who died before him, leaving a son John, who married Lydia Gilman, of Exeter. They had six sons and six daughters, whose progeny has been "exceedingly numerous." In that generation there were three marriages with the Phillips family, of Andover. Some of the descen- dants of John and Lydia White have been among the wealthiest, as well as the most enterprising and influential townsmen.

William White died September 28, 1690. He was a steady eitizen and a zealous church member. His property was inventoried at five hundred and eight pounds, ten shillings and he bequeathed the

odd ten shillings, by will, to " Mr. Ward, my teacher in Haverhill."

Thomas Davis, whose mark is affixed to the deed, was a sawyer, from Marlborough, England, and mar- ried before emigrating. He is supposed to have been a brother of James Davis, one of the first company of settlers. He came to Newbury in 1641, and to Ilav- erhill early in the spring of 1642. As early as 1720 there were nineteen families of that name in Haver- hill.

CHAPTER CLII. HAVERHILL-(Continued).

Building of the Town.

THE colony was divided into four counties, May 10, 1643. They were Essex, Middlesex, Suffolk and Nor- folk. To Norfolk were assigned the towns of laver- hill, Salisbury, Hampton, Exeter, Dover and Straw- berry Bank (Portsmouth). The courts were holden alternately at Salisbury and Hampton. There was probably no reason why the so-called incorporation of the town should not have taken place at once. But it probably chanced that the settlers did not want anything from the General Court immediately. They were all busy in breaking up their lands and making their houses. Nobody was anxious to go as a deputy, and, in fact, none was sent till several years after.

Haverhill remained in Norfolk county until New Hampshire was separated from Massachusetts, in 1680, when Haverhill and Salisbury were assigned to Essex county, and Norfolk eounty ceased to exist. The present county of Norfolk was incorporated in 1793.

Mirick says, " the first lawful town meeting was holden this year (1643)." But, doubtless, meetings had been held before for the transaction of business, and business certainly had been transacted. Now there was, perhaps, a little time to take breath, and it seemed proper that affairs should be conducted with a little more formality. So a elerk was chosen, a record book provided, and minutes of the doings were made. The General Court had passed a law, also, requiring a record of births, marriages and deaths to be regularly kept in each town.

Richard Littlehale was chosen "town recorder" and "clerk of the writs,"-a court established in towns to try "small causes," where the amount at issue did not exceed forty shillings. By an act passed in 1638, the General Court was, from time to time, to appoint in each town in which there should be no resident magistrate, three persons as commissioners of small causes, two of them to constitute a quorum. The General Court appointed annually, in each town, a clerk of the writs, who was authorized to grant

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attachments and summonses, take replevin bonds, and issue summonses for witnesses. Single magistrates and commissioners of small causes, or town court-, were invested with substantially the same powers as a justice of the peace. The selection of Richard Littlehale as clerk of the writs had probably no other effect than to designate him as a suitable person to receive the appointment from the General Court. It was, in all likelihood, the custom to appoint the town clerk also as such officer.

The date of the first meeting recorded is November 6, 1643, and the first vote passed was to prevent un- necessary destruction of timber .- "Voted, that no man shall fall or cause to be fallen any timber upon the common but what he shall make use of within nine months next after it is fallen, or otherwise it is and shall be forfeited." At the same meeting they passed a vote of great importance .- "That there shall be three hundred acres laid out for house lots, and no more; and that he that was worth two hun- dred pounds should have twenty acres to his house- lot, and none to exceed that number ; and so every one under that sum to have acres proportionable for his house-lot, together with meadow and common and planting-ground, proportionably." This land was called an "accommodation grant," and this vote was the foundation of the land system of the town- the key to the manner in which the great tract of land ,acquired under the deed from the Indians was ultimately all parcelled out among their white assigns and successors. As has heen intimated, neither Pas- saquo nor Saggahew nor any other Indian ever dis- puted the validity of the Indian deed; and there appears, too, absolutely no room for any sentimental regret or scruple on their behalf.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 224

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