History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 225

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 225

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At a town-meeting holden the 6th of the following February, it was voted "that all landholders shall pay all publique rates, according to their number of acres that they hold to their house-lots; and if any man shall buy one acre of meadow, one acre and a half of planting ground, or one acre of commonage to his house-lot, he shall pay proportionably for every acre of commonage with the house-lot." The theory of ownership and distribution of lands was appar- ently the following :-

The townsmen of 1643 had, by foresight, energy and influence, obtained leave of the General Court to begin a plantation in a most desirable location, They had fairly purchased of the Indians a very large tract of territory. They held it legally and equitably, subject to the demands of the general government for the common weal, and the adjustment of bounds be- tween them and their neighbors by competent au- thority. It was their property. They were the propri- etors. They could divide it at such times and in such proportions as they saw fit. Such parts of it as were allotted to any particular one of them, he and his heirs and assigns would thereafter own in severalty. In other words, the persons then here were " ye inhabit-

ants of Pentuckett," to whom the Indians had sold. They had not bought for the benefit or all the persons who might flock to Pentuckett to profit by the ad- vantageous grant they had obtained. If they chosc, however, they could admit any person to their associ- ation and a participation in its privileges. And it must be said, that the logic of the early settlers seems substantially to have prevailed. There came a time when their heirs and assigns assumed to be owners of all the lands remaining undivided, and, although fiercely opposed, maintained their claim with ulti- mate success. They held "proprietors " meetings, had their clerk and moderator, kept records, made grants, carried on successful litigation, and had their own way. Then the organization quietly died out.

The allotments of 1643 were evidently based upon notions like the following. The settlers were few in number, they were in the wilderness. They had no im- mediate apprehension from the Indians, as has been seen. But they could not forget the terrors of the Pequot war, then recent. Their first necessity was to remain together, for mutual convenience, succor and support. This was probably also their first impulse and instinct. Thus only could they all enjoy the ministrations of the word from their teacher, Mr. Ward. Their " house lotts," therefore, must be near each other, in a compact body. And the most natural place for the village, was, of course, the bank of the river. There they had landed. They had doubtless brought their scanty household goods up the stream in such a "great pinnace " as Giles Firmin had writ- ten Governor Winthrop about. By the river must be at first their infrequent communication with the great world of the older settlements.

Three hundred acres were accordingly laid off for the home lots, along and back from the river bank. But the immediate margin of the river was reserved for the present. The houses faced the river. The highway ran in front of them. The nearest hody of fresh water was the pond, which soon became known as Ayer's, afterward Plug, pond. Its outlet was a brook which ran southwardly to the river, entering it at a point where was the landing and where the little hamlet began to be. The first gri-t-mill was undoubt- edly on that stream, and it was then and always after known as " Mill Brook," till it ceased to be. Up to 1860 and later, it continued to be used for the same purpose,

The mill brook came to be the centre of the little village. The land about the lower course of the brook was reserved for public uses. It came to be known as the " Mill Lat."

When lands were laid out afterwards, the Mill Lot had its share in the apportionment. The Mill Lot was the ground now occupied by Linnwood and Pen- tucket cemetery and the tract between Pentucket cemetery and Mill Street, which was granted out of the original Mill Lot. The houses grew up about the Mill Lot; the settlers worshipped in private

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houses, doubtless, in bad weather, but in pleasant, they met under the branches of a great tree which stood, probably, upon the Mill Lot. The dead were buried there in all probability, almost or quite from the very beginning.

The first settlement was, therefore, on the lower part of the present Water Street. That, in fact, was the town for nearly two hundred years. Fortunately, a tract was reserved for public uses, substantially if not formally, from the site of what is now Haverhi !! Bridge, to the site of what is now Winter Street Bridge, over Little River. Thus they had a public reservation, and an irregular row of scattered houses on Water Street. The sixteen acres allotted Mr. Ward for a home lot in 1642 were below the Mill Lot.

February 27, 1643, it was " voted that Job Clements shall have a parcel of ground, not exceeding one quarter of an acre at the Mill Brooke, being bounded forth by the Free-men to sett him up a tann-house and tann-fatts upon, to him and his heirs forever," It has been conjectured that a corn-mill was already built there. A tannery, like the corn-mill, always stood there afterwards. Job Clements was the first tanner in the town, and his tannery was near the mouth of the brook.

It had been thought prudent that only three hundred acres should be appropriated, in the first instance, to house lots, of which no man was to have more than twenty acres, nor any man to have so much unless he was worth two hundred pounds. Two hundred pounds estate, then, receiving twenty acres, those of less es- tate were to receive proportionately. The gardens, if any, were doubtless expected to be at the home lots. But the best land may not have been at the house lots and though there might be gardens cultivated by the women, and by men in leisure hours, the great stress and labor of the little community was to be di- reeted to agriculture and cattle raising. The pioneers probably bronght some cattle with them, at all events there were some here, which speedily multiplied, alter their kind. There must, therefore, be planting ground and pasture. Where should these be laid out to best advantage?

It has been said that the Indians in some localities, used to burn the grass in the autumn that the deer might not hide in it from the hunter in the spring. The trees in such spots, were originally scanty or kill- ed by the Indian fires. There the grass grew lush and strong, a treasure much prized by the pioneers. They eut and stacked it in the proper season, hauling it home mostly in the winter when the snow lay deep on the ground. These were the "meadows." They lay along what was afterwards known as East . Meadow River in the East Parish ; the " Pond Mea- dow," in the region of Lake Kenoza ; " IFawkes Mea- dow," in the West Parish ; "Creek Meadow "; the Spicket or "Spiggott" meadows in what are now Methuen and Salem, N. H., and in other parts of the town.

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The early planting grounds were in the "Great Plain " or " The Plain," below the village, and np the "Great River," the Merrimack.

For pasturage was taken the land of inferior qual- ity, and partly covered with trees and bushes. This was commonage. Then there were lands densely covered with timber. That its value was appreciated from the first can be understood from the vote adopt- ed November, 1643, and many subsequent of similar character. Doubtless the destruction of timber was nevertheless, great and wanton.

There was land enough and for ail; the great diffi- culty was in its distribution. No man had a farm in the sense in which it is now understood. He had a house and garden in one place, planting-grounds for culture elsewhere, meadows in still other spots, and commonage everywhere. To illustrate the way in which the land was first distributed, we will take the example selected by Chase in his History of Haver- hill, a copy from the town records :

"1659, Daniel Ladd's accommodations, Six acres of accommodations. Four acres to his house lot, more or less ; Robert Clements' bounding on the east, and Henry Savage on the west. Five acres in the plain : William White on the east and John Williams on the north ; nine acres up the Great River, Thomas Ayers on the east and George Browne on the west. Four acres of meadow in the east meadow, more or less : Joseph Peasly on the south and George Browne on the north ; one aere and a half of meadow in the pond meadow : James Davis, Sen. on the south and Robert Clement, Jun., on the north. One acre of meadow at Hawkes meadow : John Davis on the south and Thomas Whittier on the north."

" Daniel Ladd's 2d division containing 27 acres of apland, be it more or less ; with sixteen acres of ox- common and a half, bounded by George Corley and John Hutchins on the west ; by a black oak, a white oak, a red oak and a walnut on the south ; by a wal- nut and a white oak on the east ; by two white oaks vand an ash on the north. Three acres of meadow lying on Spicket River, bounded by Thomas Davis on the south and Robert Clements on the north, and one spot of meadow at Primrose Swamp, and another spot at the east meadow, at the head of the meadow that was John Davis's adjoining to his own. For the land that was taken off Daniel Ladd's 3d division, we added a piece on the north side of the highway, round the meadow that was Goodman Hale's bounded by the highway and Merries Creek. Third divisiou of meadow containing three acres, be it more or less, bounded by John Page on the south, a pine on the east, his own uplands on the west, and uplands ou the north of the said meadow lying in Mistake Meadow."

" Daniel Ladd doubtless found farming quite a dif- ferent thing from what most farmers of the present day find it. His house-lot was in the village ; his planting ground in two places,-a part of it in 'the

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

plain ' from one to two miles east of the village, and the other part 'up the great river,' at least as far on the west of the village, while his meadow lands were in seven lots and as many distinct meadows. East Meadows was in the easterly part of the town, three miles from his home-lot, while Spicket Meadow was at least eight miles in the opposite direction. Pond Meadow was two miles northeast; Hawkes' Meadow some three miles west ; Primrose Swamp two miles northwest, and Mistake Meadow somewhere in the westerly part of the town."

Daniel Ladd had a home lot of four acres, "more or less." It would appear that he should have had six. As much as his house-lot fell short of " six acres of accommodations," was made up to him elsewhere in quantity or quality, it may be supposed. As amat- ter of fact, he had in all forty-one acres of upland or planting ground, " more or less:" twelve acres and a half of meadow, "a piece " and two "spots " of the same, sixteen acres and a half of ox-common-in all and of all kinds, seventy-four acres, with certain remnants thrown in.

Daniel Ladd was one of the twelve pioneers of 1640, had children and died in 1693.

As we have seen, lands were divided according to estate, except that no account was made of any estate over £200. After the assignment of laud, taxes were levied at first according to the amount of land each man had. If he purchased meadow, planting-ground or commonage, he should pay proportionally. The right of purchase and sale seems to have been always recognized ; but at least in the beginning, the town undertook to exercise some supervision over such transactions, probably to make sure as far as possible that unworthy and unsuitable persons were not ad- mitted to their association. Thus at the meeting of April 16, 1649, "it was acknowledged by John Robinson that Daniel Lad had bought six acres of accommodation of him which the town granted him, approved on by the Selectmen."

It was not till 1650 that the valuation of each man's property, under the vote of November 6, 1643, was entered in the town records. It is inserted here for the sake of convenience. It professes to give the names of those to whom land had previously been allotted. It is valuable as far as it goes, but there are some obvious omissions, and neither dates nor valua- tion should be taken as more than approximately correct.

1611. Jokn Favor. 1645. Christopher Hussie ...

1641. John Robinson .. 1615. Daniel Ilendrick. £120 1612. John Ward ...

1645. Henry Palmer 60 1642. Tristram Coffin ..

1645. George Corliss

1642. Hugh Sherratt 50

1646. Thomas Hule ..

1612. William White ... 50 1616. James Davis .. 200

1642. Thomas Davis.

1616. John Ayer.

1646. Daniel Lad 40

1646. Joseph Peaseley.

1643. Richard Littlehale. 40 1646. John Davis ..

1644. Henry Savage

1646. Thomas Davis 100

l64h. Thomas Davin 100

1649. Christopher Lawson .... ...

1649. Richard Omsby. £70

1649. Win. Holdridge, .....

1650. Rot ert Ayer. 40

1650. John Ayer, Jr. 80

1650. Thomas Ayer. ...

1650, John Chenarie. ....

George Brown 80

1649. Goodman Moice and

Jolın lloit

Goodman Ilale.

1649. Abraham Morrill

The following table contains the valuation of those to whom house-lots had been laid out at different times, but whose names do not appear in the records previous to 1650. Some of them it will be seen were among the first settlers :

Robert Clement, Sr. $50

Thomas Eaton. £40

John Clement.

Edward Clarke. 40

Matthias Button 60

Robert Swan. 30

Steveu Kent 200

John laseltine 40

James Davis, Jr. 4,0

John Johnson 90

Peter Ayer.

John Carleton 90

Richard Singletary 60 Joseph Johnson 50

John Iluckins.

4% + John Page, Jr. 40

Names against which no amount is placed, are those of persons as to whom no record has been found of a house-lot being laid out to them. Some of them, no doubt, purchased the right of others to lauds. But, on the other hand, the clerks were ofteu negli- gent and did not realize how eagerly their work would be scanned in two or three hundred years. Sergeant Abraham Palmer was town clerk of Charles- town in 1638 and began to compile the "Book of Possessions," which was continued to 1802. The out- come was Wyman's "Genealogies and estates of Charlestown," the fruit of nearly forty years applica- tion to the subject, published in 1879, the year after the author's death. It is a work which is supposed to account for every inch of land upon that historic peninsula. The digression by which reference is made to it here, will be pardoned through the hope that this mention will fire some young antiquariaus of Haverhill to emulation, who will not be discouraged by Mr. Wyman's premature decease. He certainly will not be if he is prepared to devote forty years to such a task ! Such labors, indeed, appeal to the en- thusiasm of but a small class of persons ; but, they are none the less admirable and useful,

It would appear from a vote of October 29, 1646, that the sixteen acres laid out to Mr. Ward, in 1642, was a part of the three hundred intended for house- lots. " Voted by all the freeholders at a lawful town- meeting, that Mr. Ward, our teacher's land, shall be rate free for his ministry during his life, if he con- tinue minister to the plantation, provided he use it himself, but if he sell, let or set any of it to hire, it shall pay rates proportionably with our own; and that forty pounds per annum shall be paid him by the remainder of the three hundred acres for his ministry."

Edward Johnson, the chief founder of Woburn, in his " Wonder Working Providence of Zion's Saviour

leag pret And

Track tide

1044. Job Clement

1646. James Fisk ..... ...

1646. William Butler ..

. 1646. Bartholomew Heath ... £140

1647. Samuel Gile .. 40

1648. Thomas Linforth

1648. John Eaton. 80

1648. Thomas Whittier. 80

1649. George Goldwin

three sons.

1612. John Williams

1643. Abraham Tyler ..

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in New England," wrote: "The town of Haverhill was built muel about this time, lying higher up than Salisbury upon the fair and large river of Merrimac ; the people are wholly bent to improve their labor in tilling the earth and keeping of cattel, whose yearly increase encourages them to spend their days in these remøte parts. The constant penetrating further into this wilderness hath caused the wild and uncouth woods to be filled with frequented ways, and the large rivers to be overlaid with bridges passable both for horse and foot ; this town is of a large extent, sup- posed to be teu miles in length, there being an over- weening desire in most men for meadow-land, which hath caused many towns to grasp more into their hands than they could afterwards possibly hold ; the people are laborers in gaining the goods of this life, yet they are not unmindful also of the chief end of their coming hither ; namely, to be made partakers of the blessed ordinances of Christ, that their souls might be refreshed by the continued income of his rieh grace, to which end they gathered into a church- body and called to office the reverend Mr. Ward, son to the former named Mr. Ward, of Ipswich.

" With mind resolved, run out thy race at length, Young Ward, begin, whereas thy father left,-

Left bath he not, but breathes for further strength ; Nor thou, nor he are yet of hope bereft. Fruit of thy labor, thou shalt see so much, The righteous shall hear of it aud rejoice ;

When Babel falls by Christ's almighty touch All's folk shall praise him with a cheerful voice. They prosper shall that Zion's building mend, Then Ward, cease not with toyle the stones to lay, For great is he thee to this work assigned, Whose pleasure is, heaven's Crown shall be thy pay."

The pioneer of Woburn looked upon the pioneers . f Haverhill as dwelling in the wilderness; yet, it can- not but excite a smile to read of the " frequented ways" and "large rivers overlaid with passable bridges." For many years the ways of Haverhill were nothing but paths, perhaps not always easy to trace, and the bridging of "Little River" taxed its utmost resources. But certainly Haverhill was a frontier town and an outpost of civilization for many years.

"To raising towns and churches new in wilderness they wander, First Plymouth, and then Salem next, we placed far asunder ; Woburn, Wenham, Redding, built with little silver mettle- Andover, Ilaverhill, Berris-Banks, their habitations settle."

Haverhill is named in Rev. John Eliot's " Deserip- tion of New England," written in 1650.

Three years ago (1884) there was discovered in Eng- land the "Description of New England," written about 1660, by Samuel Maverick, the early settler of Noddle's Island or East Boston. He says : "Four leagues up this river (Merrimack) is Haverell, a pretty towne, and a few miles higher is the towne of Andover-both townes subsist by husbandry.

" Seaven miles to the southard of Hampton is Merri- mack River, on the mouth of which, on the north side, is seated a large towue called Salisbury, and

three miles above it a village called Old Salisbury, where there is a saw mill or two. The commodities the towne affords are corne, cattle, boards aud pipe staves."

It did not take the settlers of New England very long to find out what they had accessible for foreign commerce. There was fish, there was lumber. Both commodities were in demand in the West Indies. Fish could be sold at a profit in the Catholic coun- tries of Southern Europe. 1643 was a year of famine, but, wrote Winthrop, "the merchants had great success in the sale of their pipe-staves and fish. The 'Trial,' of Boston, made a good voyage, which en- couraged the merchants and made wine, sugar and cotton very plentiful and cheap." Cotton came from Barbadoes. Molasses also came back from the West Indies and was early distilled into rum. Of that business, in after days, Haverhill had her share. The great statesman, Burke, said of New England rum : " They are more famous for the quantity and cheap- ness than for the excellency of their rum."

The primeval oaks began to be cut down and hewn into timber or rifted for staves, which were shipped to the West Indies and there made into pipes. Pipe- Stave Hill, in West Newbury, by its name, is a re- minder that that and the other noble hills in this vicinity were once covered with great trees that fell before the pioneer's axe, and helped create the infant commerce of the Merrimack Valley. Hence, the unavailing care with which the early settlers of this town endeavored to protect the splendid forests they found here, consistent with a well regulated use for legitimate and open trade.

January 13, 1645, the town voted "that every in- habitant that will, may make upou the common, for every acre of house-lot which he hath, one hundred of pipe-staves and no more ; provided he fall no timber for the same within two miles of the house-lots." Iu 1646, the same privilege was granted ; but if any person felled more trees than his proportion or within the prescribed limits, he should pay five shillings, for the use of the town, for each offense. This vote would have given several persons the opportunity to prepare about two thousand staves in each of the years.

March 3, 1648, it was "voted that all men shall have liberty to fell or let stand any tree or trees which standeth at the end of his lot, next the street or great river ; and if any man shall fell any such tree unto whom it doth not belong, he shall pay for every tree five shillings, to be paid unto him at the end of whose lot it did grow." This was on Water Street, where the house lots had been laid out. It is quite probable the pioneers did not expect to have any buildings on the water side. No grants of land were made on the south side of the highway for a long time.

In after years votes were frequently passed for the preservation of timber. Thus, in 1668, a fine of ten shillings was imposed upon any person who should

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

fell a white, red or black oak-tree, " within the town's limits, for staves, heading, logs for boards, or any- thing else for transportation, without leave from the Selectmen from year to year." But so much depreda- tion continued by unauthorized persons, that a town- meeting was called a few years after, (January 1, 1674) expressly to consider the matter. It was voted unanimously that timber for staves, heading, ship- timber or frames of houses, should not be transported out of the town, or even "brought to water-side." At the ensuing March meeting a surveyor of boards and culler of staves were chosen for the first time. James Pecker was chosen to the first, and Robert Clement to the latter, office. These precautions doubtless had some effect, but only postponed the evil day. The American forests were doomed, and succeeding generations will expend much time and laboor in attempts to replace them.

At the town-meeting of March 14, 1645, it was voted "that every inhabitant may keep for every acre that he hath to his house-lott, either an horse-beast, ox, or cow, with a foale or calfe, with a year old, a two year old and a three year old, until they shall be of the age of three years and a halfe, upon the com- mons appointed by the greater part of the freemen, and no more." This vote permitted the pasturage upon the public lands of one mature animal, with four young animals, for each acre of house-lot. Two or three persons, then, could pasture each a hundred creatures, if they desired. The commons was then all such land as had not been granted to any indi- vidual.

In 1645, there were, apparently, thirty-two land- holders in the town; of these, twelve had come in 1640; two with Mr. Ward, in 1641; the Clements, Coffin, and Thomas Davis, in 1642, or earlier. The names of the others were Henry Savage, Daniel IIen- rick, William Butler, John Ayer, Sr., John Ayer, Jr., Joseph Peaseley, George Corliss, Nathaniel Wier. James Fiske, Thomas Hale, James Davis, Jr., John Eaton, Bartholomew Heath and John Davis. All but Savage, Butler, the Ayers, Fisk and Eaton, were from Newbury.

John Ayer had three brothers who soon joined the settlement : Robert, Thomas and Peter. The latter settled in the northwesterly part of the town, afterwards the West Parish, where Ayer's Village perpetuates the name. The others settled in the vicinity of Plug (long called Ayers) Pond. In 1832, Captain John Ayer, 2d, was already of the sixth generation living on the same spot. The Ayers be- came so numerous that in 1701 it was supposed nearly one-third of the inhabitants of the town were of that family, and they have since scattered them- selves over the entire Union. They were " a fearless, athletic race of men," mostly farmers.

George Corliss came from England to Newbury about 1639, being then about twenty-two years old. Ile was from County Devon. In 1645, he married at

Haverhill, Joanna Davis, a native of Wales. This was the second marriage in the place. The name was then generally spelled Corte or Corley. He was enterprising, and, about 1647, built a log-house on his land, about three miles west of the village, on property now owned by Charles Corliss, his des- cendant in the seventh generation. It was put up on a sunny knoll, near a little brook. Traces of the cellar are still visible. Corliss acquired a large landed property. He owned, it is said, land on both sides of the old "Spicket Path" for a distance of more than three miles. His daughter was Mrs. Mary Neff, Hannah Dustin's nurse, and her companion in the famous captivity. George Corliss died October 19, 1686, having made his will the day before.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 225

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