History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 226

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 226

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Joseph Pcaseley (afterwards Peaslee) also came from England to Newbury, where he was made a freeman in 1642. Many of his descendants, of the same name, still live in Haverhill and the adjoining towns. He lived in the eastern part of the town, where also resided his only son Joseph and his grandson, Colonel Nathaniel Peaslee, a merchant and large landholder, for many years very influential in town affairs. John G. Whittier is descended from Joseph, Peasley, who was also an ancestor of the Badgers and Cogswells of Haverhill and New Ilamp- shire. Among his descendants have been a chief justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, a Governor of New Hampshire, representatives in Con- gress and many others prominent in public life.

Joseph Peasley was, in certain ways, a conspicuous man. The church records call him a "gifted broth- er," and he was reputed to have some skill in the practice of medicine, which his son Joseph inherited, whom Chase calls "a physician." The difficulty with" Joseph Peasley was, that he had not been licensed either to preach or to practice medicine. He was very fond of exercising his gifts by way of exhorta- tion, and undertook to minister to the needs of the people of Salisbury Newtown (Amesbury) as a lay- minister. This was not acceptable to the "Standing Order." The ministers were always jealous of their prerogatives and Peasley was a thorn in their side. HIe was regarded as a nuisance, although his most illustrious descendant speaks of him as a "brave confessor."

About 1654 Joseph Peaseley and Thomas Macy were arrested and fined for preaching, not being ordained ministers. The court forbade their exhort- ing any more. Lieutenant Robert Pike, of Salisbury, declared that "such persons as did act in making that law, did break their oath to the country, for it is against the liberty of the country, both civil and ecclesiastical," For this unguarded expression, he was disfranchised by the General Court and heavily fined. At the next May court a petition was pre- sented from a large number of the inhabitants of [ Hampton, Salisbury, Haverhill and Andover, pray- ing that Pike's sentence might be remitted. The

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General Court was outraged that "so many persons ers: it was read and refused to be voted npon." Very likely there was some contemptuous laughter as the significance of the motion came to be understood should combine together to present such an unjust and unreasonable request," and appointed a commit- tee to call the petitioners together "and require a in the town-meeting: but it is pleasant to add that reason of their very unjust request." At the next there is no trace of any active persecution or molesta- tion of the Quakers in Haverhill. November court orders were issned to summon six- teen of the petitioners to give bonds in the sum of ten pounds each to appear and answer for their offense before the County Court. Says Chase, " None of the Haverhill signers were included in the order. They had acknowledged their offence." Three years atterward Pike "humbly desired the court, his fine being paid, to release him from the other part of his sentence," which it was pleased to do. Chase nat- urally remarks, "The whole case is an instructive one." The following are the names of the Haver- hill signers to the original petition in behalf of Pike:

" HAVERHILL.

" James Davis.

John Heth.

Robbert Eres.

Joseph Peasly.

Job Clements.

George Coulis.

Tristram Coffin. l'eter Coffin,

Abraham Tyler.

Bartholomew Heth.

John Williams. Edw. Clarke.

John Davis. John Eaton.

Thomas Davis.

James Davis, Jr. Theophilus Sachwell

Thomas Eaton.

Joh : Eyeres.

Tho : Whittier.

Robert Clements.

James Ffiske.

Tho : Dow.

Thomas Belfore.

Dan : leudrick.

Joseph Davis.

John Webster.

Stephen Kent.

Peter Ayre.

Richard Singltary.

Samuel Gild.

George Brown. Ephraim Davis. Richard Littlehale.

Henry Palmer.

Robbert Swan."

A few of these names have disappeared from the town, although descendants of all the signers may be here, bearing other names. It will be observed that some of the signers were among the most influential and substantial of the people, and probably all were respectable. The three brothers (presumably) Ayer, all spell their name differently, and neither spells it as is now habitually done. The "gifted " Peasley is himself one of the signers. Ile may have been no more inclined to martyrdom than his neighbors.

This list is as remarkable, for the names it docs not, as for those it does contain. Some of the towns- men, whose names are absent, were devoted friends of the "Standing Order." It is probably not too much to say that the most influential one of all would not have signed the petition if he had been asked, Minister Ward. It would be too much to ex- pect that a priest would go against the prestige of his own anointment. Besides, such proceedings were accounted disorderly. Massachusetts was hardly ready for exhorters when Whitefield came, nearly one hundred years later.

Joseph Peasely is accounted the first Quaker of Haverbill. His son, Joseph, was a Quaker, as were. at least, one branch of the Whittiers, descended from him. When the second meeting-house was accepted by the town-October 24, 1699-" Joseph Peaseley, &c., moving that the Town would allow him & others to meet at the new meeting-house for and in their way of worship; which is accounted to be for Quak-

It is possible the eller Peasely may have been what in more modern phrase would have been called a " come-outer," rather than a Quaker. Ile died in 1660-61. His son, born in Haverhill in 1646, died in 1723. It would seem as if the first Joseph must bear the odium of the following transaction, recorded by Mirick under the date of 1658 :- "Joseph Peasly was fined 40s. by the Court, for beating Peter Brown, and 20s. for abusing Timothy Swan-all to be paid in 'corne.'" It would be interesting to know if the poetic phrasing of the transaction, given by Mirick, was the effusion of a Quaker poet of the lineage of Joseph Peasely.

Thomas Whittier came to Haverhill from Newbury about 1646, bringing a swarm of bees which had been given him by the will of Henry Rolfe, of that place, who called them bis " best swarm."

Job Clement was made a freeman at Ipswich Court January 30, 1647, and sworn constable for Haverhill. He is regarded as the first. Richard Littlehale, who was town clerk, was also made sexton, though as yet there was no meeting-house. In 1646 the town voted that "Richard Littlehale should beat the drum on the Lord's Day morning and evening, and on lecture days, for which and also for writing public orders, he is to have 30 shillings ; he is also to beat the drum for town meetings." This was of course to call the peo- ple together : but in 1652, the town voted "that Abraham Tyler shall blow his horn in the most con- venient place, every Lord's day, about half an hour before the meeting begins, and also on lecture days, for which he is to have one peck of corn of every family for the year ensuing." In 1653, they reverted to the first practice and directed Edward Clark to beat the drum ou the " Lord's days and lecture days." These incidents allured the early historians of Hay- erbill into a mild jocoseness.

In 1645, there were fourteen church members in Ilaverhill-eight males and six females-to whom Mr. Ward had ministered for several years, and they were anxious to be recognized as a church, and that he should be ordained as their pastor. The church members at Andover (a plantation a little younger) were in the same situation. A council of the neigh- boring churches had therefore been convened for September 19, 1644, to mect "at Rowley (the fore- mentioned plantations being then but newly erected, were not capable to entertain them that were like to be gathered together on that occasion). But when they assembled most of those who were to join together in church fellowship at that time, refused to make the confession of their faith and repentance, because. as was said, they declared it openly before in other

John Williams.

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

churches, upon their admission into them. Where- upon the messengers of the churches not being satis- fied, the assembly broke, before they had accom- plished what they intended. But in October, 1645, messengers of churches met together again, on the same account, when such satisfaction was given, that Mr. John Ward was ordained pastor of the church in Haverhill, on the north side of the said Merri- maek, and Mr. John Woodbridge was ordained pas- tor of the church at Andover, on the south side of the same." Haverhill was the twenty-third town settled in the colony and its church was reckoned the twenty-sixth.

It has been incidentally mentioned that Mr. Ward's salary was fixed at forty pounds, with immunity from taxes. October 29, 1646, at the same meeting, the first selectmen were chosen : they were Thomas IIale, Henry Palmer, Thomas Davis, James Davis and William White. In 1636, the General Court had en- acted that " every particular township should have power over its own affairs, and to settle mulcts upon any offender, upon any public order, not exceeding twenty shillings, and liberty to choose prudential men, not exceeding seven, to order the affairs of the town." These officers were at first called "the seven men," then "towne's men," then "towne's men se- leet," and finally by natural evolution "Selectmen." Said Rev. Richard Brown in his diary," they were chosen from quarter to quarter by papers to discharge the business of the town, in taking in, or refusing any to come into town, as also to dispose of lands and lots, to make lawful orders, to impose fines on the breakers of orders, and also to levy and distrain them, and were fully empowered of themselves to do what the town had power for to do. The reason whereof was, the town judged it inconvenient and burdensome to be all called together on every occasion."

The General Court was thus early engaged in efforts to equalize taxation. At the November session of 1645 it adopted the following schedule for the towns: -" Cowes of four year ould and upward, £5; heifers and steers betwixt 3 and 4 year old, £4; heifers and steers betwixt 2 and 3 year ould, fifty shillings; and between 1 and 2 year old, 30s. ; oxen four year old and upward, £6 ; horses and mares 4 year old and upward £7; 3 year ould £5; betwixt 2 and 3 year ould. £3; yearlins, £2; sheepe above a year oukt, 20s. ; asses above a year oukl, £2."

Houses, lands and all other visible estate, real and personal, were to be valued according to what they were worth in the several places where they were, proportionate to the above price for cattle, etc. It will be observed that the General Court was only able to equalize the value of live stock by reckoning one beast as of as much worth as another, and then aban- doned all other property in despair to the judgment of the town raters. Hay and corn growing were not to be rated. Towns were required to choose one of their freemen, who with the selectmen, shoukl yearly

make a true valuation of all ratable property in their several limits. This was the origin of assessors as town officers.

May, 1647, the records of the General Court de- clare :- " The town of Haverhill having chosen Robert Clements, Henry Palmer and Thomas Hale to end small causes they are alowed."

At the same Court John Osgood (Andover), and Thom : Hale were appointed "to lay out the way from Andiver to Haverell; and James Davis, Jun., and Antho. Staniell (doubtless of Exeter) from Hav- erhill to Excetter." A committee was also appointed to " view ye ryver, and make returne to ye Courte of ye necessity and charge of a bridge,"-at the next session. But it does not appear that any report was ever made about the matter. Chase thinks the river referred to was the Merrimack. This scarcely seems possible, as there was not yet a ferry. At the Sep- tember Court (County), 1647, the town was presented for not having a ferry and at the next March Court it was "enjoined to provide a boat for the conveni- ence of passengers " within a reasonable time, " under a penalty of 40s. and fees." The town afterwards appointed Thomas Hale to keep the ferry. The ferriage was to be "one penny for a passenger, two pence for eattel under two years old, and four pence for each as were over that age." The ferry was established at the place still known as the "old ferry-way," a little east of the foot of Kent Street. The people had always passed over the river at this place, but this was the first established ferry. The bridge was almost one hundred and fifty years off, and the ferry has been again resorted to within a few years while the bridge was being rebuilt.

"The overweening desire in most men after meadow land," of which Johnson wrote, carly mani- l'ested itself here. May 10, 1643, the General Court granted the town " a parcel of meadow land about six score acres more or less, west of Haverhill about six miles." In 1637, the inhabitants petitioned the General Court for a tract of land to enlarge the town. The following is the very reasonable answer of the court, at its session of October 27: " In answer to the petition of Haverhill, ye Courte conceiving such vast grants to be greatly prejudicial to ye publick good and little if at all advantageous to particular townships, apprehending four miles square or such a proportion, will accomodate a sufficient tract of land; in such a case thinke mecte a committee be chosen to view the place and returne their appre- hensions to ye next General Courte, to which end, with the petitioners consent, they have nominated Mr. Dummer, (Newbury) ; Mr. Carlton, (Rowley) ; John Osgood, (Andover) ; and Ensign Howlet, (Ips- wich) ; or any two of them, provided Ensign Howlet be one to do it." This was not at all what the peti- tioners wanted. They already claimed under the Indian deed a tract much larger than four miles square, and to that territory they always clung with

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tenacity. They wanted more, not less ; and when the General Court in appointing the committee which was doubtless a satisfactory one in its make up, announced a restrictive principle by which the com- mittee should be guided, they had already enough of the committee and we hear no more about the affair. In this year the town was assigned the letter 11. as atown mark for branding its cattle upon the near quarter.

The court also directed the inhabitants qualified to vote to meet and choose " some meet person for the place of Sergeant to exercise them " in military drill.

All able-bodied men were required to train in each town on Saturday by a law passed as early as 1631. By a law passed in 1640, the lads from ten to sixteen years of age were ordered to be "instructed upon ye nsual training days, in ye exercise of arms, as small gnns, halfe pikes, bowes and arrows, &c." Theoreti- cally, the colony was always under martial law, Every town had its train band with officers, its ren- dezvous and organization in case of sudden attack : its watches and scouts. The settlers never attended town-meetings or religious worship without taking their arms with them. Nor was it regarded as pru- dent that a man should go to work in the field with- ont carrying along his gun. At meeting, the men entered last and made their exit first, that they might be ready to protect the women and children in case of attack. Hence, by way of survival, the curious custom of rural New England, under which the women and children occupy the interior portion of the pews, and the men and the imitative big boys linger on the ontside of the edifice until the service is about to begin.

At the beginning of the settlements in New Eng- land, the Indians might easily have destroyed then, with less effort than they afterwards put forth nusuc- cessfully. As has been said, pestilence had depopu- lated the tracts at first occupied by the white men, and the colonists had opportunity to establish them- selves. When the Indians at last went to war, it was already too late. Dissensions also among the Indians prevented the successful concentration of their forces. The swift and sudden rout and almost complete extermination of the Peqnods in 1737, en- sured peace tor thirty-eight years. Yet the wise legislation of the colonies proceeded upon the theory that every settlement was in constant siege and every settler a mau-at-arms, who could never safely lay his armor off. The advantage of this training was found when the terrible war broke ont, known as King Philip's. When Haverhill began, there was a long period of tranquillity. There were only a few straggling Indians in the vicinity. John Eliot and others were commencing their good work among the savages. His converts, known as the praying In- dians, were permitted to go to and fro among the settlements and were regarded as harmless. Under these circumstances, military discipline doubtless

became somewhat lax and the people restive under its restraints. But it was all that saved them when, later, the day of trial came.

Meantime, the little hamlet was growing in tran- quillity. Henry Palmer and others had taken grants of land in the plain north of Pond Meadow. A house or two had been built near the spot where Stevens' Mills stand. It was felt that the time had come to build a meeting-house ; and at the March meeting, 1648, it was "voted that the meeting-house shall stand on the lower Knowle at the lower end of the Mill Lot." It was put up that season and finished in the following autumn. It was twenty-six feet long, twenty feet wide, of one story, without galleries or cupola, facing the river, npon the little elevation midway between the north and south bounds of Pen- tucket Cemetery. Twenty-five years ago people were living who remembered its foundation stones. The settlement now had a public building, in which, ac- cording to the custom of the times, the town-meetings were held and its business transacted. When need arose, it was a fort as well. But it was a very simple structure, thoughi doubtless well timbered. March 3, 1655, it was voted that "Thomas Davis shall have three pounds allowed him by the toune, for to ground-pin and daub it; provided that Thomas Davis provide the stones and clay for the under-pinning ; the tonne being at their own expense to bring ye clay into place for ye plastering of ye walls up to the beams." Lime mortar was not yet in general use ; lime was manu- factured from oyster and clam shells. Limestone was first discovered at Newbury, in 1697, where large quantities of lime were mannfactured for a century after.

In 1659 population had so far increased that it was necessary to enlarge the meeting-house, and a com- mittee was appointed for that purpose and to repair it, " and to finish it and make seats in it, and also to sell land for to pay the workmen, not exceeding twenty acres in the cow-common."

In the following year it was ordered that the land behind the meeting-house should be reserved for a burial-ground. It seems to be quite certain that burials had previously taken place there, this vote being only a formal dedication of the spot. At the same meeting, ten acres of meadow and two hundred acres of upland were granted for a parsonage to Mr. Ward and his successors.

In the beginning, there were probably no pews ; but in 1665 it was voted that Mr. Ward with three others, "should plan and seat the inhabitants of Haverhill in the seats built in the meeting-house."

The pressure of new comers continned, and in 1666 it was voted "yt Jolin Hutchins shall have libertie to build a gallery at ye westend of ye meeting-house and to take any of ye inhabitants of ye town to joyne with him, provided yt he give noteise to ye towne, whether he will or noe ye next training day, soe yt any of ye inhabitants of ye towne yt hath a minde to

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS

joyne with him, may give in their names; and yt there is none but ye inhabitants of ye towne is to have any interest in ye said gallery." The last pro- viso seems a little inhospitable ; but it will be ob- served that non-residents are not restricted from attending public worship, but only from acquiring proprietary interests at a time when the pressure for sittings was great.

The next year (1667) it was voted that the inhabi- tants should keep the places assigned them by the committee, under the penalty of two shillings, six pence, and the selectmen were instructed to enforce this rule against everybody but John Hutchins, who was apparently permitted to roam at will through the west gallery. That great work, however, may have heen still incomplete, for at the annual meeting in 1673, " John Hutchins, having built galleries in the meeting-house, was allowed to sell seats or privileges in the same to any one."

It has been said the meeting and town-house was also designed as a fort. It contained a magazine of war material after 1672, when the selectmen were ordered "to provide, at the town's cost, a place in the meeting-house, according to law, to secure the town's stock of powder and other ammunition."

Early in 1675, when the whole colony began to shake with appprehension of Indian War, a town- meeting was called (February 19th) to consider what measures should be adopted. Fortifications had formerly been built about the great public edifice, but in the general feeling of security they had been suť- fered to fall into decay. Now it was voted that " the selectmen shall forthwith cause the fortifications (around the meeting-house) to be finished; to make port holes in the walls, to right up those places that are defective and likely to fall and to make a flanker at the east corner, that the work, in case of need, may be of use against the common enemy."

The meeting-house, however effective it might have proved as a fort, was insufficient in its accommoda- tions for worship, and, in June, 1681, it was resolved to build a gallery for the women, who, in those days, generally sat apart from the men. Nothing seems to have been done in pursuance of this vote, for the re- cord of the anunal town-meeting in 1684 contains the following : " A complaint being made to the town for want of room in the meeting-house for women when they come to hear the word of God preached, and that care be speedily taken about the same; the town (by their act upon June 24, 1681, having taken care | Haverhill Common, at the east end of the meeting-

for such a gallery and appointed persons to take care thereof and to get it to be made at the town's cost) do refer this matter to the same committee, empowering them to get the same built, desiring them forthwith to proceed upon the work to have it finished, that no exeuse of that kind be made by any persons that do or shall absent themselves from the worship of (od."'

In the summer of the same year (July 30th ) a town-

meeting was called to see about the seating of the in- habitants in the meeting-house, "alterations and divers deaths " having made some new arrangement necessary. The selectmen were made a committee for " the new seating or placing of persons in the seats in the meeting-house." It was voted that if any refused to occupy the seats assigned them by the selectmen, they should " forfeit a fine of twelve pence in corn " for each day's neglect or refusal; and, " to prevent any objection of others," another committee was chosen to seat the selectmen.

The building of a meeting-house, the conduct of public worship, the choice of a minister and the ex- tent and manner of his support, attendance at " meet- ing" Sundays and lecture days, with the greater or less degree of comfort associated with it during the many long hours of compulsory waiting, constituted a great portion of the life of all the people in the early days of New England. Save for town-meeting and training days, it was practically their whole pub- lic life, and as all antiquarians know, the dispositions of seats in the meeting-house, depending largely upon social distinction, was a matter of vast importance, often creating heart-burning, which even the lapse of years could not wholly assuage.

When the meeting-house was built, the General Court thought it high time that the town was equipped with the ordinary municipal appliances of civilization-as it was then understood. 1n 1649 it was accordingly ordered to erect a wateb-house, pound and stocks, immediately. Nothing is said in this order or in the town records about a whipping-post ; probably the whipping-post came in with the stocks. The pound was erected on the public ground,-the " mill- lot,"-near the meeting-house, and probably the stocks were put up there too, according to the colony custom. The whipping-post came in Boston as early as 1639, and stood in front of the First Church, The stocks were built the same year by Edward Palmer, and when he sent in an extortionate bill for building them, the court ordered him to be set in them for an hour himself. Whipping was well thought of in those days. In 1645 the governors of Harvard College caused Henry Dunster, the first president, with his own revered hand, to whip in public, the sons of two eminent ministers, for a grave offense. Corporal punishment, in the vicinage of that ancient institu- tion, is no longer administered by its officials, at any rate. The last stocks and whipping-post stood on the

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 226

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