History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 232

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 232

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

" This was read, noted and passed, nemine contradicente, as attest.

"N. SALTONSTALI, " Recorder."

Nathaniel Saltonstall, the recorder, was already a inember of the provisional Council of Safety, having been an assistant in the last year's government under the old charter.

Cornet Peter Ayer was chosen to represent the town in the convention. The temporary organization under the ohl charter was continued by authority from England, and elections were heldl under it,

everything going forward peacefully in the adminis- tration of affairs. But the clouds of savage warfare were gathering again about the northern frontier townships.

August 13, 1790, a small party of Indians made their appearance in the northerly part of Haverhill and killed Daniel Bradley. Near by, Nathaniel Sing- letary and his eldest son were at work in the field. Approaching after their crafty, secret fashion, they shot Singletary, who fell dead. The son, attempting to flee, was overtaken and made prisoner. After scalp- ing the elder Singletary, the Indians began a rapid retreat, but their prisoner managed to escape from them and returned to his home the same day. Na- thaniel Singletary was a squatter on the parsonage lands in what is now the northwesterly part of the town. As late as 1860 traces of the cellar of his house could still be seen on land then owned by Benja- min Kimball, on the Parsonage Road. Bradley was killed on that road, not far from the present Atkin- son railroad station.

About the same time two men were killed at An- dover. It appears that men from abroad had, early in the season, been stationed at Haverhill to aid in its protection ; but on July 22d at least a part of them (those from Rowley) were ordered home on account of the " busy season of the year."

The later attacks, however, caused an appeal to the General Court for assistance, and, August 29th, the Ipswich horse were ordered here, as a place of rendezvous.

October 17th the Indians made another foray, when they wounded and took prisoner Ezra Rolfe, who died three days after. Rolfe lived near the present line of Plaistow, not far from the present North Parish meeting-house.

No further attacks or alarms occurring that year, the people began to breathe freely again.

In the latter part of 1689, Rev. Benjamin Rolfe, who was born at Newbury, 1662, and graduated at Ilarvard 1684, was employed as an assistant to Mr. Ward and seems to have given satisfaction. His tribute to the senior pastor has been already referred to, and he himself was undoubtedly an upright, prudent, pious man, diligent in his calling.

At a town-meeting January 20, 1690, it was voted to give Mr. Rolfe " forty pounds per annum in wheat, rye and Indian to join and assist Mr. Ward," and after Mr. Ward's death the town would "further allow what shall be rational." According to the recorder, there was much opposition to this vote, so that it was reconsidered and the intimation is that " Mr. Ward and his son Saltonstall" (son-in-law, Nathaniel Saltonstall, who was recorder) left the meeting, on account of this opposition. During their absence the town voted to pay Mr. Rolfe the above sum for one year, with his diet or board, and that Mr. Ward should have his full salary, provided lie, at his own cost, boarded Mr. Rolfe. In the margin

1943

HAVERHILL.

of the record it was written "£20 taken from Mr. Ward for Mr. Rolfe's diet in -90 without consent." The action of the town in causing certain lines of comment upon the record to be expunged shows that there was considerable irritation about the matter. Mr. Ward, as we have before seen, desired to be re- lieved in his old age by an assistant, and there is no evidence that Mr. Rolfe was personally disagreeable to him ; indeed, the inference is quite to the contrary. The probability is, that Mr. Ward either thought the people were now of sufficient ability to provide for the salary of the assistant without deduction from his own and that it was their duty to do so, or else that they proceeded about the business rather un- courteously and without proper consultation with himself. The old ministers, who were settled for life, were regarded as having a contract, almost indis- soluhle without their consent.

It is pleasant to note that Mr. Rolfe continuing in his labors for nearly two years, the friction seems to have disappeared, and an honorable adjustment was made between all parties concerned.

October 25, 1692, a meeting was held to consider the permanent settlement of Mr. Rolfe as colleague with Mr. Ward. The question "whether Mr. Benj. Rolfe, whom this town hath had experience of in the ministry near three years, shall be the man pitched upon for that work and to be our settled minister in Haverhill," was decided in the affirmative "by a full vote," and a committee was appointed to agree with him. A meeting was called December 5th, to hear the report of the committee, when a letter from Mr. Rolfe, dated November 2Ist, was read. The letter, which treats of temporalities in a very judicious manner, is printed by Chase in full. The town thereupon voted " that Mr. Benj. Rolf, who hath for about three years been an help here, in the work of the ministry with Mr. Ward, if he please to settle here in the minis- terial work, shall have & hereby hath that piece of land freely be-towed upon him as his own proper es- tate, which was laid out by the Town's Committee, June 24, 1681, and approved of, near where Nathan- iel Smith formerly lived, and is also joining to that two acres which was given by the town to Samuel Wileot." This was the land referred to in a former chapter as given by John Haseltine for the perpetual use of the ministry, to which was joined a certain piece of commons for the same purpose. The town now also directed the selectmen to treat with the owners about buying Wilcot's two acres, to be added to the rest.

Jannary 30, 1693, another meeting was called to see if the town would confirm its vote to settle Mr. Rolfe, as objections had been made to the former meeting, " because of the shortness of warning." The town now declared that " by a full vote, it is renew- ed, allowed of, confirmed, made, and to be stood unto for the full and free vote of the inhabitants of Haver- hill." Apparently they were in earnest.

Mr. Rolfe was granted the free and full improve- ment of the parsonage farm and meadow, then on lease to Mr. Bradley, so long as he continued in the town as their minister, and also of the parsonage land bought of William Stirling, besides what was other- wise appointed him for his annual salary. It was also voted to lay him out, with all convenient speed, ten acres of good meadow, for his free use while he re- mained their minister.

The " Parsonage Farm," it will be remembered, had been leased, in July, 1682, for twenty-one years, to Daniel Bradley, who was presumably the Daniel Bradley chosen selectman in 1685, and left out be- cause not a freeman, but acting as selectman in 1688, and killed by the Indians on the "Parsonage Road," August 13, 1690. William Starlin's house and land was bought by the town, it will be remembered, in 1684.

The settlement of a minister was indeed a most solemn and momentous transaction at the period when the town was the parish ;and transacted bnsi- ness relating to the church in town-meeting.

This important affair now rested until May 8th, when a town-meeting was called " for the people to join with the church and take care for the providing necessaries for Mr. Rolf's ordination to office in this town." This mention "of the people " in this con- nection shows that a new order of things was begin- ning, very slowly, to be evolved.

After choosing a moderator, " the town resolved to stop in the proceedings till they knew what Mr. Ward would abate of his yearly maintenance."

Then a proposal in writing from him, dated No- vember 13, 1692, was read, in which heoffered, in case of settlement of an assistant minister, to

" Abute to the town of what they ought to pay to me by covenant and town orders, all, excepting only twenty pounds in corn, and fifty cords of current merchantable cord wood, to be paid as formerly, annnally, during my life : viz., ten pounds in mercbantable wheat, and ten pounds in merchantable ludiun, and fifty cords of ouk and walnut wood, to be laid in at my house, and corded by one thereto appointed at the Town's charges ; for time as followeth, viz. : Ilalf in October, annually, and the other half in February, annually. Provided, that all arrears be truly paid me and that myself and estate I be exempted from all rutes ; and that the Town do appoint one or two men to attend at my house upon a set duy to receive and take account of what shall be brought in, and set the price thereof if it be not merebuntable, that so it come not in pit- iful driblets as formerly.

" And in case the conditions be not performed within the year, by the 2d of February annually, then the whole sixty pounds to be paid an_ nually, according to town orders already made, and so proportionally. "JOIIN WAND."

This is a business-like document, pertinent and probably reasonable, and shows that the old minister had still his wits about him. The reference to the " pitiful driblets " seems a little unkind whe none re- members how poor the town in its infancy was, as shown by the meagre bids towards supplies for the support of old Hugh Sherratt, made in 1677, when Peter Ayer bid "3 lb. meal or corn," and Thomas Ayer, Jr., " 1 lb. meat." And in the present year of grace there has come to light a diary kept by a min-

1944

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

ister settled within the limits of Mr. Ward's old parish nearly a century after Mr. Ward's proposal, which shows that he was receiving his salary in simi- lar pitiful driblets with apparent equanimity.

When the letter had been read a committee was appointed "to go and see what Mr. Ward will abate, &c.," who, by " word of mouth," brought back sub- stantially the same proposition, which the town ac- cepted. A vote was then passed that " care shall, at the Town's charge, be taken for a place and provision for entertainment at Mr. Rolfe's ordination," provided it did not exceed ten pounds; but, as "Several men proclaimed against it with great violence," the vote was nulled.

Then the agreement made by the town's commit- tee, who were Robert Ayer, Peter Ayer and Steven Dow, with Mr. Rolfe, was approved and confirmed. It is printed in full by Chase, and, in effect, provides, 1, for the payment to Mr. Rolfe of an annual salary of sixty pounds in wheat, rye and Indian corn, "at the price of the grain in the Country rate, at the time of payment," the whole " to be paid to him or his or- der, in Haverhill, by the 2d of February annually."

2. "That Mr. Rolf, out of his sixty pounds, is to provide personal quarters for himself as he shall think good."

3. That at the "Town's charge, in convenient sea- son annually, there shall be laid in for him a suffi- cient quantity and stock of good, sweet and dry and sound hay, for the keeping his horse through the winter, at such place in Haverhill as he shall ap- point."

Mr. Rolfe had already written a letter dated April 29, 1693, in which he accepted the terms proposed, with the additional suggestion that the town should grant "also to me a supply of wood as soon as I shall stand in need of it. And if it please God so to order it that the whole work be devolved upon me, or to bring them out of those difficulties that, by occasion of the war, they are now under : They grant to me such a supply as that whereby I may so live as a minister of the gospel ought to live, and be able, without dis- traction by wants, to discharge my duty as a minis- ter of Christ to God and yourselves. Thus I say I do express myself willing to settle among you with a true intention and true affection."

Mr. Rolfe touches delicate subjects with great pro- priety of expression, whilst judiciously anticipating future contingencies. Besides the business provis- ions, it is noticeable that he makes two conditions of a different character, viz .: " Ist. So long as the peo- ple of God here do continue in the profession of the true faith and peace of the gospel. Acts 2 : 42. 2d. So long as I may have the liberty of my ministry among them." Mr. Rolfe, who was as yet a bachelor, married Mehitabel Atwater March 12, 1693-94, and six children had been born to them before the occurrence of the great catastrophe in their lives and in the life of the town.

Mr. Rolfe was ordained January 7, 1693, but the senior pastor had been already ten days laid to rest in the burying-ground near the little church, and perhaps under the great tree beneath whose wide- spreading branches he had preached in his early prime when the pioneers gathered in the fresh, mag- nificent forest of Pentucket.1

Mr. Rolfe had been thus happily settled in a period of comparative tranquillity from Indian alarms. But when the annual meeting was held in 1690, there was a period of deep anxiety. No busi- ness was done except to elect officers. News arriving of the destruction of Schenectady and other places in New York, a town-meeting was held March 24th, " to consider what is to be done for the present security of the place against the enemy, by sending for help abroad, or to draw off." The selectmen were given " full powers in all respects," and then, the recorder says, " A small discourse was opened about the then state of the Town, how to stand against the Enemy, and to see for a livelihood for hereafter, if lives of the people should be spared. But it soon ceased and was given over, and nothing done that was to satis- faction in that affair, the people being out of the way for their own subsistence ; and therefore the Modera- tor declared the meeting closed."

The suggestion which, in the first panic, had found its way into the warrant for the meeting to see if the town shoukl be abandoned and the people move away into the circle of safety, giving up so much of the frontier of defense, evidently was put away as too cowardly, and requiring too much of sacrifice. Folks could not leave their smiling plantations and their hard-earned homes. Things were gloomy enough. The suggestion about a " livelihood " and " subsist- ence " probably referred to the anxiety felt lest the stealthy and skulking Indians, lurking about the outer edge of the settlement, would make it impossi- ble for them to cultivate their fields or gather in their harvests. However, it was evidently concluded to stay and abide the result. The first, most pressing necessity obviously was to provide for the personal safety of their families; and the measures to be adopted to that end were wisely left in the hands of the chief executive officers,-the town's select,-the selectmen.

No new or original measures of defensive warfare

1 The time and place of John Ward's marriage to Alice Edmunds, about whom Cotton Mather says so much, has only recently hecome known.

In the "Marriage Licenses granted by the Bishop of London," printed from Colonel Chester's MS. copy by the Harloian Society in 1887, vol. 25, p. 227, is this entry,-

"1636, May 24, John Ward, Clerk, of Hadleigh Castle, Essex, Bach- elor, 26, & Alice Edmunds, of Oakham, Co. Kent, Spinster, 24, consent of her father, Nicholas Edmunds, at St. Leonard's, Foster Lano."

"Oakham " is Alkham, near Dover, England.

This localizes Alice Edmunds and fixes the date of the marriage, but if John Ward's age Is correctly given in the marriage license, "26," he was born about 1610, and not in 1606, ns Cotton Mather stated, and was not as old as has always been understood.

1945

HAVERHILL.

were adopted. Precautions were taken which before had been resorted to in other places, and not here be- canse of the happy immunity which the town had enjoyed in its infancy.

The selectmen appointed six garrisons and four houses of refuge, besides watch-houses. If they were not all established at once, all were about the same time. The garrisons and refuges were houses selected because of their convenient situation fo rthe families to resort to in case of alarm, and because they were somewhat adapted to defense against the quick, im- patient attacks of the savages.

One of them was the house owned by Onesiphorous Mash, Sr., the ancestor of all the Marshes. Ile had built this house in 1684, and the ground was long known as " Mash's Hill," afterwards " Pecker's Hill." The house stood on the north side of the road, half- way up the slope. One account says the garrison was commanded by Jonathan Marsh, but it is generally believed by Sergeant John Haseltine. He had under his command seven men-Onesiphorous Mash, Sr., Onesiphorons Mash, Jr., Nathaniel Haseltine, Eben Webster, Joseph Holt, Thomas Ayer and Joseph Bond.

Another was commanded by Sergeant Jolin Web- ster. This was very probably near the river, about three-fourths of a mile east of Haverhill Bridge. Webster had under him eight men -- Stephen Webster, Samuel Watts, Nicholas Brown, Jacob Whittaker, John Marsh, Robert Ford, Samnel Ford and Thomas Kingsbury.

The third garrison house was owned and command- ed by Jonathan Emerson ; in 1860 a portion of it was standing on the northwest corner of Winter and Har- rison Streets.

The fourth was commanded by James Ayer, and stood nearly opposite the house known, thirty or more years ago, as that of Captain John Ayer (2nd), on Pond Street, near the west end of Plug Pond.

The fifth was commanded by Joseph Bradley, prob- ably the brother of Daniel Bradley, who was killed by the Indians this year. It was situated in the north- erly part of town. No trace of it remains.

The sixth was owned and commanded by Captain Jolın White, and was situated near the present White house, on Mill Street, nearly opposite Linwood Cem- etery. He had six men to his garrison-Stephen Dow, Sr., Stephen Dow, Jr., John Dow, Edward Brumidge, Israel Hendrick, Israel -, Jr.

Two brick houses belonging to Joseph and Nath- aniel Peaselee, in the easterly part of the town, to- wards Rock's Bridge, and the houses of Major Nath- aniel Saltonstall and Capt. Simon Wainwright were designated as houses of refuge. A few soldiers were stationed in each of them, under the command of their owners. Two watch-houses were also built, one of which stood on Main Street, near where John Dow lived some years since. The other was on the bank of the river, on Water Street, a few rods east of the "Duncan Place."

122}

The houses of Joseph and Nathaniel Peaselee were supposed to be still standing when Chase wrote, in 1861. He says : "The former was owned by the late Nathan Sawyer, and stands a short distance east of the latter, which is now owned and occupied by Captain Jesse Newcomb, and is situated about two miles east of Haverhill Bridge."

Saltonstall's house was on the site of the well- known Duncan house, an estate which, from the set- tlement of the town till after the Revolution, was in the possession of his family. Captain Simon Wain- wright's house stood on the site of the "Emerson House," opposite Winter Street Church.

The school-house which then stood in the burying- ground (Pentneket Cemetery), was also used as a watch-house. Many private houses were likewise barricaded, and the people, generally, were, or were supposed to be, on the alert and always ready to de- fend themselves.

Says Mirick: " Most of the garrisons, and two of the houses of refuge (those belonging to Joseph and Nathaniel Peaselee), were built of brick, and were two stories high ; those that were not built of this ma- terial had a single laying of it between the onter and inner walls. They had but one outside door, which was often so small that but one person could enter at a time; their windows were about two feet and a half in length, eighteen inches in breadth and were secured on the inside with iron bars. Their glass was very small, cut in the shape of a diamond, was ex- tremely thick and fastened in with lead instead of putty. There were generally but two rooms in the basement story, and tradition says that they entered the chamber with the help of a ladder, instead of stairs, so that the inmates could retreat into them and take it up if the basement story should be taken by the enemy. Their fire-places were of such enor- mons size that they could burn their wood sled- length very conveniently ; and the ovens opened on the outside of the building, generally at one end, be- hind the fire-places. They were of such dimensions that we should suppose a sufficient quantity of bread might be baked in them to supply a regiment of hungry mouths."

Many families who lived in the outskirts of the town removed with their families to the vicinity of the garrisons or houses of refuge. Thus tradition says that the Dows, father and son, moved near the garrison house of Capt. John White, under whose command they were.

The Indians had a peculiar whistle for signal to each other, which was often heard in the neighboring woods. The younger Dow alone could imitate it, and often concealed himself, and tried to decoy the Indians within range of the bullets of the white sol- diers. But it appears he never imitated the wild call well enough to fool the Indians, however much his friends may have admired the success of his moek- ery.

1946

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

April 7th another town-meeting was held, "to con- sider what may & and is to be done as to sending to the Council or General Court for their affording help to this place by soldiers, as it is a frontier town, ex- posed to great danger, &c." It was voted to send a petition asking for, "upon the Country's charges, 40 men, at least, to be a constant daily scont, to keep ont without the utmost garrisons, and in constant service, so as to watch the enemy and prevent & sur- prise them, or give notice to others within, that they may be encouraged to do somewhat in order to future livelyhood, and in case of need to stand for their lives." Cornet Peter Ayer was "particularly made choice of to present, prefer & prosecute " the petition, in answer to which soldiers were sent from Newbury and other places to Haverhill, Amesbury and Salis- bury. Newbury was, of course, less in danger than those towns which sheltered it from savage assaults on the north, yet even there fifty-one persons kept watch every night. Wild rumors everywhere were afloat. Isaac Morrill was arrested at Newbury May 29, 1690, and sent to Ipswich for trial. It was be- lieved that he was enticing Indian and negro servants to steal a vessel, go to Canada, raise a force of four or five hundred Indians and three hundred Canadians, come down between Haverhill and Amesbury over Merrimac River, near " Indian River, by Archelaus hill, on the backside of Jolin Emery's meadow, and destroy. And then they could easily destroy such small towns as Haverhill and Amesbury."

The danger was sufficiently real without panic-rais- ing rumors,

July 5th eight persons were killed at Exeter; two days after, three at Amesbury. July 10th, after the news reached him, Major Nathaniel Salton- stall sent a letter from Haverhill to the Council at Boston, asking help :

"I can, as I wrote by Lt. Johnson, of Almsbury, on Monday last, say that llayll : hath as much need of present & settled assistance as any place ; I beseech you cast us not off, or give us comand to draw off. I do not think it much to avail, but as a present satisfaction, yt men visit. 18 affr mischief is done us, for before yy can be with us ye enimie is hidden or gone, & nothing to be done but for ye men to return, unless yy would stay as men in service, or occasion shal offer. Indeed ye charge is grt ; but tho : all are not, yet some are willing to bear their part. Foot men are most advisable & serviceable, & so, in ye end, it will be found, excepting only a very few to be imployed in carrying or fetching newes; inen complain more of difficulty to provide for horses than for many more men.

" The Let. be your counsellor & guid in all these difficulties ; let ns have a speedy dispatch of the Posts, Philip Grele & Win. Hely, both of Salisbury, yt I may give accot : to ymi yt send to me. Iam not in a capacity to help you, but want mon for or necessary defence ; & orders to keep or own men to duty upon their peril & for their being sent to Boston for judgmt according to yr desert, yt is some of ym;

" I am, gentlemen, your true servant, " N : SALTONSTALL."

The savages filled the woods in every direction. It was not safe to leave the vicinity of the garrisons or to be anywhere out of doors unarmed. The gun must be within reach of the hand ; even so, surprise was frequent.

August 31st Samuel Parker and a small boy were cutting hay at the meadow in the East Parish, wben a party of Indians surprised and shot Parker. The little fellow escaped by hiding himself in the tall grass, and, running from the sound and smoke of the guns, brought home the doleful news. October 10th the General Court ordered that "Maj. Saltonstall do dismiss home the scout of ten troopers appointed to be employed between Haverhill & Salisbury by di- rection of the said Major for security of said towns in the time of harvest." On the 22d of the same month they ordered that all the garrison soldiers posted in the towns of Haverhill, Salisbury and Amesbury be forthwith dismissed. The theory was that on the approach of winter the Indians, living far to the east and north, would retire before the approach of in- clement weather and deep snow. This generally was the case, yet winter attacks sometimes happened.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 232

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