USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynnfield > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 28
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 28
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 28
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 28
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 28
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Thus fell Philip, the last great king of the Wampanoags- the last formidable enemy of the English. Like Sassacus, he foresaw the destruction of his nation ; but he was at first friend- ly to the white people, and wept when he heard that some of them had been killed. The pen of the historian will do justice to his patriotism, and the harp of the poet will eulogize him in strains of immortality.
Tradition, legend, tune, and song, Shall many an age that wail prolong ; Still from the sire the son shall hear Of that stern strife and carnage drear.
Wenepoykin, who had joined with the Wampanoags, was taken prisoner, and sold as a slave to Barbadoes. He returned in 1684, at the end of eight years, and died at the house of his relative, James Muminquash, at the age of 68 years. The tes- timony of Tokowampate and Waban, given 7 October, 1686, and preserved in Essex Registry of Deeds, declares, that " Sagamore George, when he came from Barbadoes, lived some time, and died at the house of James Rumneymarsh." The old chief, who had ruled in freedom over more than half the state of Massachu- setts, returned from his slavery, sad and broken-hearted, to die in a lone wigwam, in the forest of Natick, in the presence of his sister Yawata.
A law had been passed, prohibiting the friendly Indians from
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going more than one mile from their own wigwams. On the 25th of October, the Court agreed that they might go out to gather " chesnuts and other nuts in the wilderness," if two white men went with each company, whose charges were to be paid by the Indians.
The injuries which the Indians received in the early history of our country, cannot now be repaired; but the opportunity is afforded for our national government to manifest its high sense of magnanimity and justice, and to evince to the world that re- publics are not unmindful of honor and right, by redressing any wrongs which the existing red men have received, and by pro- viding for their welfare, in a manner becoming a great and pow- erful nation, which has received its extensive domains from a people who are now wandering as fugitives in the land of their fathers. Such conduct, it may reasonably be expected, will receive the approbation of heaven; and it cannot be supposed, that He who watches the fall of the sparrow, will regard its neglect with indifference.
[John Flint, of Salem, shot a hostile Indian at the end of Spring pond, in Lynn, as appears by the record of an examina- tion before William Hathorne, 9 October. The next year, for causing the death of a white man, he was convicted of man- slaughter. He was a soldier in Philip's war.]
The leaf of the Bible says, there was "a great sickness this year."
1677.
[Lynn gave £4.13, for the relief of captives from Hatfield ; Salem, £4.7.
[In the Salem court files is the following: " An inventory of ye estate of Teague alias Thaddeas Braun, who was impressed a soldier of Lynn for the Countreys service and was sent from Lynn ye 22nd June, 1677, and was slayne in the fight at Black- point, as we are informed, on ye 29th of June, 1677."]
The following letter was addressed by Mr. Whiting to Increase Mather, 1 October, 1677.
"Reverend and Dear Cousin: I acknowledge myself much engaged, as to God for all his mercies, so to yourself for your indefatigable labors, both in our church here, and in your writings, which of your love you have sent to me from time to time ; and especially for your late book which you sent to me, wherein you have outdone any that I have seen upon that subject. Go on, dear cousin, and the Lord prosper your endeavors for the glory of his great name, and the good of many souls. And let me beg one request of you, that you would set pen to paper in writing an history of New England, since the coming of our chief men hither ; which you may do, by conferring with Mr. Higginson, and some of the first planters in Salem, and in other places ; which I hope you may easily accomplish, having, by your diligence and search found out so much history concerning the Pequot war. And the rather let me entreat this favor of you, because it hath not been hitherto done by any in W
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a polite and scholar like way ; which, if it were so done, would glad the hearts of the Lord's people, and turn to your great account in the last and great day of the Lord Jesus. Thus commending my love to you and your loving con- sort, with thanks to you for your kindness to me and my son, when we were last with you at your house, beseeching the Lord to bless you and all yours . not knowing how shortly I must put off this earthly tabernacle, I rest,
SAMUEL WHITING.
[The General Court order, 10 October, that " 10 barrels of cranberries, 2 hhds. of special good samp, and 3000 cod fish," be sent as a present to the king.]
At this time there was but one post office in Massachusetts, which was at Boston. On the 3d of December, the Court of Assistants appointed John Hayward postmaster for the whole colony.
On Thanksgiving day, the 4th of December, happened one of the greatest storms ever known in New England. It blew down many houses and many trees.
1678.
This year, Samuel Appleton, Jr., took possession of the Iron Works, by a grant in the will of William Payne, of Boston. On the 9th of June, Thomas Savage sued an old mortgage which he held on the property, and Samuel Waite testifies, " There is land, rated at Three Thousand acres of Iron Mill land." In 1679, Mr. Appleton had possession of three fourths of the Iron Works, valued at £1500. The law suits respecting the Iron Works were protracted to a tedious length, and papers enough are preserved in the Massachusetts archives, respecting them, to form a volume.
The Selectmen, or, as they were called, " the Seven Pruden- tial men," this year, were Thomas Laighton, Richard Walker, Andrew Mansfield, William Bassett, Nathaniel Kertland, John Burrill, and Ralph King.
The price of corn was two shillings a bushel.
[Thomas Purchis, senior, died 11 May, aged a hundred and one years, as stated by his widow and son in a petition to the Salem court. He had not long resided in Lynn, having been among the Maine settlers. It seems hardly possible that he can have been the same individual mentioned by Mr. Lewis under date 1640, though he may have been here for a brief period, about that time. Somewhere between 1625 and 1629 he located in Maine, and engaged in the fur trade. He had lands on the Androscoggin, and sold to Massachusetts, 22 July, 1639, a por- tion of the territory on which Brunswick now stands, of which place he was the first settler. In 1635, he was one of Gorges's Council ; subsequently he held the office of sole Assistant to the Colony Commissioners ; and was a Justice under Archdale, in 1664. In 1675, his house was attacked by hostile Indians, and
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pillaged. He then removed to Lynn. I have seen it suggested that he may have been a brother of Oliver Purchis who was so long an active and conspicuous man here. But I think it could not have been so. About seven months after his decease, his widow married John Blaney.
[Thomas Laighton was empowered by the Court to join such persons in marriage as had been duly published, provided one at least resided in Lynn.]
The first meeting-house of the Society of Friends, says an old record of one of their members, " was raised on Wolf Hill." [This site was on Broad street, nearly opposite Nahant. The first Friends' meeting, in this vicinity, is supposed to have been held, this year, in a house that stood on Boston street, a little west of Brown's pond.]
The people of Reading petitioned the General Court, on the 3d of October, that the alewives might be permitted to come up to Reading pond, as before ; that they might find no obstruc- tion at the Iron Works, but " come up freely into our ponds, where they have their natural breeding place ; " which was granted.
Thomas Dexter, Jr., and Captain James Oliver, administrators of the estate of Thomas Dexter, prosecuted the town of Lynn, on the 26th of November, at Boston, for the recovery of Na- hant. The jury decided in favor of the town. This was a review of the case decided 1 September, 1657, against Mr. Dexter.
1679.
In the number of the early ministers of New England, there were few who deserved a higher celebrity, for the purity of their character, and the fervor of their piety, than the Rev. Samuel Whiting. His name has been frequently overlooked by biographers, and little known and estimated even in his own parish. He has no stone erected to his memory, and the very place where he was buried is known only to a few.
Dust long outlasts the storied stone, But thou - thy very dust is gone.
[Since Mr. Lewis wrote the above, William Whiting, Esq., the eminent lawyer, who is a descendant, has erected a fitting monument to his memory. It is a simple granite shaft, inscribed with his name, and the dates of his birth and decease. It is on the westerly side of the path leading from the front gate-way, in the Old Burying Ground, near the western end of Lynn Common.]
This is another instance of the truth of the observation, that men are indebted to the poet and the historian for their remem-
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brance to after ages. An honorable memorial of the deserving dead is one of the rewards of goodness, and the very desire of remembrance is itself a virtue. We naturally love the idea that we are remembered by others, and that our names will be known beyond the circle of those with whom we shared the endearments of friendship. It is sweet to think that we have not altogether lived in vain ; to persuade ourselves that we have conferred some slight benefit on the world, and that posterity will repay the pleasing debt by mentioning our names with ex- pressions of regard. It is not vanity, it is not ambition ; it is a pure love of mankind, an exalting sense of right, that twines itself around every virtuous and noble mind, raising it above the enjoyment of worldliness, and making us wish to prolong our existence in the memory of the good.
Rev. Samuel Whiting was born at Boston, in Lincolnshire, England, on the 20th of November, 1597. His father, Mr. John Whiting was mayor of the city, in 1600; and his brother John obtained the same office, in 1625. Having completed his studies in the school of his birthplace, young Samuel entered the uni- versity at Cambridge, where he had for his classmate, his cousin, Anthony Tuckney, afterward Master of St. John's College, with whom he commenced a friendship, which was not quenched by the waters of the Atlantic. He received impressions of piety at an early age, and loved to indulge his meditations in the retired walks of Emanuel College. He entered college in 1613, took his first degree in 1616, and his second in 1620. Having received orders in the Church of England, he became chaplain in a family consisting of five ladies and two knights, Sir Na- thaniel Bacon and Sir Roger Townsend, with whom he resided three years. He then went to old Lynn, where he spent three years more, a colleague with Mr. Price. While at that place, complaints were made to the Bishop of Norwich, of his non- conformity in administering the services of the church, on which he removed to Skirbick, one mile from old Boston. There the complaints were renewed, on which he determined to sell his possessions and embark for America. He remarked, "I am going into the wilderness, to sacrifice unto the Lord, and I will not leave a hoof behind me." The beauty, piety, and harmony of the church, in our own time, induce us to wonder why a pious man should have objected to her services. But the church, at that period, demanded more than is now required ; and the dissenters, by their repugnance to those ceremonies and requisitions which were excessive, were driven to revolt against those forms which were really judicious.
Mr. Whiting sailed from England in the beginning of April, 1636, and arrived in Boston on the twenty-sixth of May. He was very sick on his passage, during which he preached but
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one sermon. He observed that he would " much rather have undergone six weeks imprisonment for a good cause, than six weeks of such terrible sea sickness." He came to Lynn in June, and was installed on the eighth of November, at the age of thirty-nine. He was admitted to the privileges of a freeman on the seventeenth of December. His residence was nearly oppo- site the meeting-house, in Shepard street. He had a walk in his orchard, in which he used to indulge his habit of meditation ; and some who frequently saw him walking there, remarked, " There does our dear pastor walk with God every day." An anecdote related of him, will serve to illustrate his character. In one of his excursions to a neighboring town, he stopped at a tavern, where a company were revelling. As he passed their door, he thus addressed them: "Friends, if you are sure that your sins are pardoned, you may be wisely merry." He is re. puted to have been a man of good learning, and an excellent Hebrew scholar. In 1649, he delivered a Latin oration at Cam- bridge, a copy of which is preserved in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society. He employed much of his leisure in reading history ; and he could scarcely have chosen a study more indicative of the seriousness and solidity of his mind. He possessed great command over his passions, was extremely mild and affable in his deportment, and his counte- nance was generally illumined by a smile. He was chosen moderator in several ecclesiastical councils, and appears to have been generally respected. In his preaching, he was ardent and devoted; but he was less disposed to frighten his hearers by wild and boisterous efforts, than to win them to virtue by mild and persuasive eloquence.
In the latter part of his life, Mr. Whiting was afflicted by a complication of disorders, and endured many hours of most ex- cruciating pain. But his patience was inexhaustible, and his strength enabled him to continue the performance of the public services till a very advanced age, in which he was assisted by his youngest son, Joseph. A short time before his death, he presented to the General Court a claim for five hundred acres of land, which he had by deed of gift from his brother-in-law, Mr. Richard Westland, an alderman of Boston, in England, who had loaned money to the colony of Massachusetts. As the claim had been some time due, the Court allowed him six hundred acres. [As this petition recounts several interesting facts, and withal so faithfully exhibits the meek and pious spirit of the venerable man, we insert it entire. The signature is a fac-simile, as carefully traced from the original, which is still in good pre- servation in the state archives. The tremulous hand indicates age and infirmity ; and he lived but a few months after the petition was drawn.
W*
,
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The humble petition of Samuel Whiting, senr, of Lyn, sheweth, that whereas your petitioner upon my comeing to New England, which is now about forty three years since, had per deed of gift of my kinde brother in law, Mr. Richard Westland, of Boston, in England, alderman, in consideration of his disbursement of fifty pounds of lawful money of England, in way of loan to this colony, then low, and in its beginning, which sum the said Mr. Westland did deliver and pay unto some of ye chief agents of this patent then, which was some years before I left England, they promising him a compensation with a farme of five hundred acres of upland and meadow, convenient and nigh within the Bay; I say, the wholl interest in the premises by fair deed and gift, by the gentleman himself freely given to myself and wife and our heires forever, as without fallacie I doe averr and testify before God and your honoured selves, being a dyeing man, and goeing out of this world, and shortly to appear before the Lord Jesus, ye Judge of all.
My humble request, and the last petition I shall ever make application of to this honorable assembly is, that haveing been so long in the country, and as long in ye work of the Lord, and God haveing given me issue, whom I am shortly to leave, haveing little, of a considerable estate I brought, left for them, that your honors would pleas to grant to myself and my heirs, that wh. per ye free gift of my brother is our right, viz, five or six hundred acres of land and meadow, wh. hath been my due about this forty years, although never motioned but once to this assembly, nor should have now been insisted on, could I in conscience of God's command and duty to mine as a father, be silent, and soe they lose their right in what belongs to them; or if I could die with serenity of soule upon consideration of the promises, should I neglect to use this meanes of an humble remonstrance.
I doe therefore humbly reitterat my request, wherein I mention nothing of use or for forbearance so long time past, dues and donations, only the 5 or six hundred acres, that my children may inherit what is righteously their owne, and yours to grant, and which I hope will not be denyed, beeing of itselfe so just to be requested, and so most equitable and just to be granted.
Thus begging the Lord's presence to be amongst you, and his face to shine on this your court, the country, and churches, that we may be saved, and that ye choice blessing, divine wisdom, councell and conduct, may preside in all things, I leave the whole matter to your honored selves, and yourselves with the Lord.
Your humble petitioner, friend ever, and servant for Christ's sake, though ready to depart dieing.
this 23 of April ann. 1679.
Samuel Whiting
Witnesses -
Henry Rhodes, Samuel Cobbet.]
Mr. Whiting made his will on the 25th of February, 1679. He commences thus : " After my committing of my dear flock unto the tender care of that great and good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ." He gave his son Samuel, at Billerica, his house and four hundred acres of land at Dunstable, valued at £362, and fourteen acres of marsh, at Lynn; and his son Joseph, his dwelling-house, orchard, and eight acres of marsh, at Lynn. And he remembered his other children. His money and plate amount- ed to £77.2; and his whole estate to £570.15.6. He died on the 11th of December, 1679, at the age of 82; having preached at Lynn, forty-three years.
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The death of Mr. Whiting called forth the following elegy from the pen of Mr. Benjamin Thompson, a schoolmaster, born at Braintree, and the first native American poet.
UPON THE VERY LEARNED SAMUEL WHITING.
Mount, FAME, the glorious chariot of the sun ! Through the world's cirque, all you, her heralds, run, And let this great saint's merits be revealed, Which during life he studiously concealed. Cite all the Levites, fetch the sons of art, In these our dolors to sustain a part ; Warn all that value worth, and every one Within their eyes to bring a Helicon ; For in this single person we have lost More riches than an India has engrost.
When Wilson, that plerophory of love, Did from our banks up to his centre move, Rare Whiting quotes Columbus on this coast, Producing gems of which a king might boast. More splendid far than ever Aaron wore, Within his breast this sacred father bore, Sound doctrine, Urim, in his holy cell, And all perfections, Thummim, there did dwell, His holy vesture was his innocence ; His speech, embroideries of curious sense. Such awful gravity this doctor used, As if an angel every word infused ; No turgent style, but Asiatic lore ; Conduits were almost full, seldom run o'er The banks of time - come visit when you will, The streams of nectar were descending still. Much like semtemfluous Nilus, rising so, He watered Christians round, and made them grow. His modest whispers, could the conscience reach, As well as whirlwinds, which some others preach. No Boanerges, yet could touch the heart, And clench his doctrine with the meekest art. His learning and his language might become A province not inferior to Rome. Glorious was Europe's heaven, when such as these, Stars of his size, shone in each diocese.
Who writ'st the fathers' lives, either make room, Or with his name begin your second tome. Aged Polycarp, deep Origen, and such, Whose worth your quills, your wits not them enrich ; Lactantius, Cyprian, Basil, too, the great, Quaint Jerome, Austin, of the foremost seat, With Ambrose, and more of the highest class In Christ's great school, with honor I let pass, And humbly pay my debt to Whiting's ghost, Of whom both Englands may with reason boast. Nations for men of lesser worth have strove To have the fame, and in transports of love Built temples, or fixed statues of pure gold, And their vast worth to after ages told.
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His modesty forbade so fair a tomb, Who in ten thousand hearts obtained a room.
What sweet composure in his angel face ! What soft affections! melting gleams of grace ! How mildly pleasant! by his closed lips Rhetoric's bright body suffers an eclipse. Should half his sentences be fairly numbered, And weighed in wisdom's scales, 'twould spoil a Lombard, And churches' homilies but homily be, If, venerable Whiting, set by thee. Profoundest judgment, with a meekness rare, Preferred him to the moderator's chair, Where, like truth's champion, with his piercing eye, He silenced errors, and bade Hectors fly. Soft answers quell hot passions, ne'er too soft, Where solid judgment is enthroned aloft. Church doctors are my witnesses, that here Affections always keep their proper sphere Without those wilder eccentricities, Which spot the fairest fields of men most wise. In pleasant places fall that people's line, Who have but shadows of men thus divine ; Much more their presence, and heaven-piercing prayers, Thus many years to mind our soul affairs.
The poorest soil oft has the richest mine ! This weighty ore, poor Lynn, was lately thine. O, wondrous mercy ! but this glorious light Hath left thee in the terrors of the night. New England, didst thou know this mighty one, His weight and worth, thou 'dst think thyself undone. One of thy golden chariots, which among The clergy rendered thee a thousand strong ; One who for learning, wisdom, grace, and years, Among the Levites, hath not many peers; One, yet with God, a kind of heavenly band, Who did whole regiments of woes withstand ; One that prevailed with heaven ; one greatly mist On earth, he gained of Christ whate'er he list ; One of a world, who was both born and bred At wisdom's feet, hard by the fountain's head. The loss of such a one would fetch a tear From Niobe herself, if she were here. What qualifies our grief, centres in this ; Be our loss ne'er so great, the gain is his.
The following epitaph has been applied to him by Mr. Mather.
In Christo vixi morior, vivoque, Whitingus; Do sordes morti, cetera, O Christe, tibi, do.
In Christ I lived and died, and yet I live ; My dust to earth, my soul to Christ, I give.
Mr. Whiting published the following pamphlets and books.
1. A Latin Oration, delivered at Cambridge, on Commence- ment day, 1649.
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2. A Sermon preached before the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, at Boston, 1660.
3. A Discourse of the Last Judgment, or Short Notes upon Matthew 25, from verse 31 to the end of the chapter, concerning the Judgment to come, and our preparation to stand before the great Judge of quick and dead ; which are of sweetest comfort to the elect sheep, and a most dreadful amazement and terror to reprobate goats. (Cambridge, 1664, 12mo. 160 pages.)
4. Abraham's Humble Intercession for Sodom, and the Lord's Gracious Answer in Concession thereto. (Cambridge, 1666, 12mo. 349 pages.) From this work the following extracts are taken.
What is it to draw nigh to God in prayer? It is not to come with loud expressions, when we pray before Him. Loud crying in the ears of God, is not to draw near to God. They are nearer to God, that silently whisper in His ears and tell Him what they want, and what they would have of Him. They have the King's ear, not that call loudest, but those that speak softly to him, as those of the council and bed chamber. So they are nearest God, and have His ear most that speak softly to Him in prayer.
In what manner are we to draw nigh to God in prayer? In sincerity, with a true heart. Truth is the Christian soldier's girdle. We must be true at all times; much more, when we fall upon our knees and pray before the Lord.
We, in this country, have left our near relations, brothers, sisters, fathers' houses, nearest and dearest friends ; but if we can get nearer to God here, He will be instead of all, more than all to us. He hath the fulness of all the sweetest relations bound up in Him. We may take that out of God, that we forsook in father, mother, brother, sister, and friend, that hath been as near and dear as our own soul.
Even among the most wicked sinners, there may be found some righteous ; some corn among the chaff-some jewels among the sands- some pearls among a multitude of shells.
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