USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynnfield > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 33
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 33
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 33
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 33
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 33
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We have left a highway over Little Nahant two poles wide on the west end, and soe Runing over the beach unto Great Nahant; and soe on the south- wardly side of the hill to about ten pole above the Calf Spring, and running slanting up the hill into the old way, and soe runing on the northeast end of James Mills his land, and soe on to the first Range in the ram pasture ; and have left about one acre of land joining to the highway by the Spring to accomidate Cattle coming to the Spring. We have also left a highway, two pole wide from the highway by the Spring, ouer into Bass neck, and soe through the Ranges to the southermost Range on said neck. We have also left a highway, two pole wide, on the Bay side, over to Bass neck, and so oner Mr. Taylor's lott, Joseph Jacob's lott, and Moses Hudson's Lott, unto the other
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ANNALS OF LYNN -- 1706.
highway; and have left a highway one poie wide over the westward end of each Range on great Nahant ; and a highway one pole wide, on the north- wardly end of each Range on Bass neck ; and a highway one pole wide ouer between the range of lots, halfe a pole on each Range, on each side of the Range Line on Little Nahant.
Thus we make Returne of this our Doings, this first Day of January, 1706-7. SAMUEL GARDNER, JOHN GREENLAND, JOSEPH HASEY.
On the 28th of September, " The towne considering the great difficulty of laying out highways on the common lands, by rea- son of the swamps, hills, and rockenes of the land, theirfore voated, that after said common lands shall be divided, every person interested therein, shall have free liberty at all times, to pass and repass over each others' lotts of lands, to fetch their wood and such other things as shall be upon their lands, in any place or places, and for no other ends, provided they do not cut downe any sort of tree or trees in their so passing over." Eleven persons entered their dissent to this vote, but do not state whether it was against the privilege, or its limitation. Men frequently want to pass on to their lots for other purposes than to fetch wood; and in many places in the woods, if they had not cut down a tree, it would have been utterly impossible ever to have gone upon their lots at all with a carriage. If this vote were a law, many proprietors on Nahant, even now, could not go upon their lands to plant or build. But the warrant for calling this meeting is unrecorded.
The Common Lands were laid out by the committee in "Seven Divisions." The First Division began on the west of Saugus river, including what was called the Six Hundred Acres, which were then in Lynn. The Second Division ran across the north- ern part of the town, and the Seventh Division was Nahant.
There is no record that the report of the committee was ac- cepted, though it probably was, as it was recorded, with all the separate lots and owners' names. The woodlands and the Nahants were laid out in Ranges, forty rods in width, and these were divided into lots, containing from about one eighth of an acre to eight acres. Many of these lots were afterward subdi- vided among heirs, so that many lots on Nahant are now six hundred and sixty feet long, and from two feet to eight feet wide. This renders it impossible in many places to obtain a building lot, without purchasing of many owners. Several lots are as narrow as two feet and three inches, and for each of these a separate deed must be written. I have constructed a com- plete map of Nahant on a very large scale, on which the lots are shown with the names of the original proprietors and the pres- ent owners.
[It will be observed that the above stands as it did in the 1844
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1708, 1712, 1713, 1715.
edition. Many changes have of course taken place since that time. But it will always be interesting as showing how mat- ters formerly stood in these important particulars.]
1708.
[A fast was held, 23 June, and prayers offered for deliverance from the devastations committed by insects, on the fruit trees. They appear to have been caterpillars and canker worms. And we had, in 1863, another grievous instance of the destruction that may be accomplished through the combined industry of those voracious little spoilers. But this unbelieving generation instead of resorting to prayers and fasting, resorted to burning brimstone and other stifling appliances.]
1712.
Lynnfield was set off as a parish, or district, 17 November. The inhabitants were to be freed from parish taxes, as soon as a meeting-house should be built, and a minister settled. The people of Lynnfield, in the town records, are called " our neigh- bors, the farmers."
This year, all the shells, which came upon the Nahant beaches, were sold by the town, to Daniel Brown, and William Gray, for thirty shillings. They were not to sell the shells for more than eight shillings a load, containing forty-eight bushels, heaped measure. The people were permitted to dig and gather the clams as before, but they were required to open them on the beach, and leave the shells. The house in which I was born, was plastered with lime made from these shells.
1713.
Mr. John Merriam was employed as schoolmaster. The school was called a grammar school, because Latin was taught in it. The other studies were reading, writing, and ciphering. Eng- lish grammar was not a common study, and no book on that subject was introduced into general use, till about seventy years after this time. No arithmetic was used by the scholars, but the master wrote all the sums on the slate. No spelling book was used. [So one would naturally conclude from the ways in which words were sometimes spelled. There had been no established system of orthography, but each spelled as best suited his own fancy, using letters in any way that gave the sound of the word. Some uniformity, however, now prevailed.]
1715.
The first meeting-house in the second parish, now Lynnfield, was built. When the building of the first parish meeting-house was in contemplation, the people of the northern part of the
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ANNALS OF LYNN- 1716, 1717.
town, being obliged to travel six or eight miles to meeting, wished to have the house placed in a central situation, and a committee was appointed to " chuse " a place. They selected a hill, now included in the bounds of Saugus, which was thence called Harmony Hill. It was afterward determined to place the house on the Common, and the people of Lynnfield continued to attend meeting there till this year.
1716.
A gentleman whose name was Bishop, was schoolmaster. Mr. Ebenezer Tarbox was chosen, by the town, as shepherd.
Three porches were added to the first parish meeting-house, and a curiously carved and paneled oak pulpit, imported from England, was set up.
[Jonathan Townsend, of Lynn, graduated at Harvard College. He was settled, 23 March, in Needham, being the first minister of the place, and remained in the ministry forty-two years. He died 30 September, 1762, aged 64. A record in his hand wri- ting, dated Needham, 17 July, 1735, states an interesting fact regarding a lady, who, it is probable, was a member of his church : " This day died here, Mrs. Lydia Chickering, in the 83d year of her age. She was born in Dedham, in New Eng- land, July 14, 1652, and about the year 1671 went up from thence to Hadley, where for the 'space of about a year, she waited upon Col. Whalley, and Col. Goffe (two of King Charles 1st's judges), who had fled thither from the men that sought their lives. She was the daughter of Capt. David Fisher, of Dedham, one of the magistrates of the colony under the old charter."
[Governor Shute passed through Lynn, 15 October. There was considerable parade. The Salem Troop, under Col. Brown, came over, to escort him to their town, where he was received in a becoming manner, had "a splendid entertainment," and remained over night. He was on a journey to New Hampshire. [An extraordinary darkness prevailed at mid-day, 21 October. Lighted candles were found necessary on the dinner table, fowls went to roost, and there was great alarm.]
1717.
Two great storms on the 20th and 24th of February, covered the ground so deep with snow, that people for some days could not pass from one house to another. Old Indians, of a hundred years, said that their fathers had never told them of such a snow. It was from ten to twenty feet deep, and generally covered the lower story of the houses. Cottages of one story were entirely buried, so that the people dug paths from one house to another, under the snow. Soon after, a slight rain fell, and the frost
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1717.
crusted the snow ; and then the people went out of their cham- ber windows, and walked over it. Many of the farmers lost their sheep ; and most of the sheep and swine which were saved, lived from one to two weeks without food. One man had'some hens buried near his barn, which were dug out alive eleven days after. During this snow, a great number of deer came from the woods for food, and were followed by the wolves, which killed many of them. Others were killed by the people with guns. Some of the deer fled to Nahant, and being chased by the wolves, leaped into the sea, and were drowned. Great damage was done to the orchards, by the snow freezing to the branches, and splitting the trees as it fell. This snow formed a remarkable era in New England; and old people, in relating an event, would say that it happened so many years before or after the great snow. Hon. John Winthrop says : " We lost at the island and farms above 1100 sheep, beside some horses and cattle interred in the snow; and it was very strange, that 28 days after the storm, the inhabitants of Fisher's Island, in pulling out the ruins of 100 sheep, out of the snow bank in the valley, where the snow had drifted over them sixteen feet, found two of them alive in the drift, which had lain on them all that time, and kept themselves alive by eating the wool off the others." The mail was nine days in reaching Portsmouth, and eight in returning. [But the greatest snow storm of the year occurred in April. It being so late in the season, however, the effects were not long visible.]
The town tax, this year, was £237. Mr. Shepard's salary was eighty-seven pounds ; and the rest was for the school, and other town debts.
It was in one of the great storms of this year, that Samuel Bellamy's pirate ship, the Whidah, of 23 guns and 130 men, was wrecked on Cape Cod, and more than one hundred dead bodies were found on the shore. Six of the survivors were afterward executed at Boston.
This year Nahant was again without an inhabitant; James Mills being dead, and his family removed. His house and land became the property of Dr. John Henry Burchsted, who, on the 18th of December, sold it to Samuel Breed. He built a house where Whitney's Hotel now stands. He was very small in stature, and was generally called " Governor Breed." He was born November 11, 1692, married Deliverance Bassett, June 25, 1720, (the same who was mentioned as a child in 1692,) and had five children; Anna, Sarah, Huldah, Nehemiah, and William. His house became the property of his son Nehemiah, and his grandson William, by whom it was rebuilt in 1819. For twenty-four years this house was kept as a hotel, by Jesse Rice ; and was purchased, in 1841, by Albert Whitney. [Mr.
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1718.
Whitney is a son-in-law of Mr. Rice, and still [1864] continues the public house.]
Jabez Breed, brother of Samuel, soon after removed to Na- hant and built a house directly opposite. A few years after- ward, Richard Hood exchanged his house in Nahant street for this. He married Theodate Collins, May 20, 1718, and had eight children ; Theodate, Jedediah, Content, Rebecca, Hannah, Patience, Abner and Abigail. His descendants still live at Nahant, on the estate of their ancestor.
The third house on Nahant was built by Jeremiah Gray, a carpenter, and uncle of Lieutenant Governor William Gray. This house, about the year 1770, was sold to Jonathan John- son. [And it afterward became the property of his son, Caleb Johnson, by whom it is still occupied.]
These were the only three houses on Nahant until the year 1803. Their occupants were Quakers, and kept no taverns, but accommodated a few boarders in the summer, and occasionally made a fish chowder, for parties who visited Nahant from Bos- ton and other places.
1718.
In the beginning of this year, Mr. Shepard was unwell; and a gentleman whose name was Townsend, was employed to preach five sermons ; for which the town paid him fifty shillings. The Selectmen, on the 5th of March, were directed to employ a schoolmaster; and in their agreement with him, " to have rela- tion to some help for Mr. Shepard in preaching."
According to tradition - which may not very safely be relied on in matters of importance, though it may assist in delineating manners and customs-it was about this time that potatoes were first introduced into Lynn. Mr. John Newhall received two or three, which he planted; and when he gathered the produce, a few of them were roasted and eaten, merely from curiosity ; and the rest were put into the shell of a gourd, and hung up in the cellar. The next year he planted them all, and had enough to fill a two bushel basket. He knew not what to do with so many, and gave some of them to his neighbors. Soon after, one of them said to him : " Well, I have found that potatoes are good for something. I had some of them boiled, and ate them with fish, and they relished very well." It was several years after this, before potatoes came into general use, and then only in small quantities. A farmer, who kept a very particular ac- count of every day's employment, first mentions " patatas," as a common article, in 1733. [But in the Colony Records we find potatoes named as early as 1628. They were among the articles to be provided for the Massachusetts settlers and sent over by the Company, probably for planting. Historians have
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1719.
generally supposed they were not known in England before 1653, when some were carried there by Sir John Hawkins, from Santa Fe. But the above indicates an earlier introduction. And besides, as Mr. Felt mentions, Bermuda potatoes sold in our colony, in 1636, for 2d. a pound; but these were probably what we now call sweet potatoes. The common potato, how- ever, came slowly into general use. And it seems evident that in some places at least it fell under a sort of religious ban ; attributable, as some have thought, to the fact that it is not mentioned in the Bible; but this cannot have been the case, as the use of sundry other vegetables which were highly esteem- ed, would, for the same reason have been interdicted. If it be true that potatoes were brought here as early as 1628, for culti- vation, as an article of food, it is quite remarkable that almost a century should have elapsed before they began to be served upon the table. I know it is generally supposed that they were not introduced here till about the period indicated by the traditions alluded to by Mr. Lewis ; and that they were brought by the "Scotch Irish" immigrants, as they were called.]
At this time, tea was little used, and tea-kettles were unknown. The water was boiled in a skillet; and when the ladies went to visiting parties, each one carried her tea-cup, saucer, and spoon. The tea-cups were of the best china, and very small, containing about as much as a common wine-glass. Coffee did not come into use until many years after.
1719.
The northern lights were first mentioned this year, on the 17th of December. The people were much alarmed at their appear- ance. The northern hemisphere seemed to be on fire; and it is said that the coruscations were distinctly heard, like the rustling of a silken banner. [It is an interesting question, whether this was the first time that the northern lights were observed here. If the earlier settlers had seen them it is remarkable that re- corded descriptions are not found. It seems now to be settled that intervals of many years, perhaps centuries, do occur in which they are not seen; and then they suddenly blaze forth again to the surprise and terror of mankind. I have seen this peculiarity remarked upon in a history of Iceland. The ancients have left no account of the phenomenon, under the present name; though some have imagined that it is alluded to in the book of Job, ch. 37, v. 22 -" Fair weather cometh out of the north : with God is terrible majesty " - the term rendered " fair weather," meaning also bright light. And the last reading seems most natural, as there is no " terrible majesty " con- nected with fair weather. The following extract from a curious letter, dated Chester, 19 June, 1649, may be sufficient to con- A2
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1720.
vince some that the northern lights were seen before this year : "Being late out on Saturday night to see my horse eat his Oates, it being past 12 a clock at night, we saw in the North East, in the Ayre, 2 black Clowdes firing one against the other, as if they had been 2 Armies in the Clowdes: The fire was disserned sometimes more and sometimes lesse by us. It was not a continuing fire, but exactly as if Muskitiers were discharg- ing one against another. Sometimes there could be no fire seene, and then about half an hour after, we could discerne the North Clowde retreat: And so it did till the day began to appear, and all the while the last Clowde following it, both firing each at other: It was the strangest sight that ever I saw, nor can I relate the exactnesse of it; it was in such a wonderful manner that I cannot express it." It is not easy to determine what this was, if it was not the aurora borealis, though in some particulars the description does not exactly answer for the usual appearance at the present day. The wonder-struck ob- servers, however, could not have supposed that the contending forces intended much damage to each other, as their shooting was probably perpendicular and not horizontal.
[The summer of this year was remarkable for copious rains. In the Boston News Letter, for the week ending 17 August, appears this paragraph : " It is very remarkable that tho' on last Lord's Day we had then some Rain, which had been grievous for about a Month before, that after the Ministers of the several Meeting Houses had made Intimation to their Congregations of their intending the Thursday following, that the Publick Lec- ture should be turned into a Day of Fasting and Prayer, to beg of God that He would avert His Judgments in granting suitable and seasonable Weather, after the great Rains, to ripen and gather in the Fruits of the Earth, both by Land and Sea, that that self same Evening the Rain ceased and the sun shone clear ever since, even before the Day appointed for His people to call upon Him for these great mercies."]
1720.
The Rev. Jeremiah Shepard was the fourth son of the Rev. Thomas Shepard, minister of Cambridge, who came from Tow- cester, in England, in 1635. His mother, who was his father's third wife, was Margaret Boradile. He was born at Cambridge, August 11th, 1648, and graduated at Harvard College in 1669. He was the first minister of Lynn, who was born and educated in America. His brother Thomas was minister of Charlestown, and his brother Samuel minister of Rowley. In 1675, he preached as a candidate at Rowley, after the death of his bro- ther; and in 1678 at Ipswich. He came to Lynn in 1679, during the sickness of Mr. Whiting, and was ordained on the
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1720.
6th of October, 1680. He was admitted a freeman in the same year. He resided, at first, in the street which has been called by his name; and afterward built a house, which, was burnt down, on the north side of the Common, between Mall and Park streets. In 1689, he was chosen Representative to the General Court ; and this is perhaps the only instance in the early history of New England, in which a minister of the gospel sustained that office. He died on the 3d of June, 1720, aged seventy-two, having preached at Lynn forty years.
The life of Mr. Shepard was distinguished by his unvaried piety. He was one of those plain and honest men, who adorn their station by spotless purity of character ; and has left a name to which no one can annex an anecdote of mirth, and which no one attempts to sully by a breath of evil. He was indefatigable in his exertions for the spiritual welfare of his people ; but his dark and melancholy views of human nature tended greatly to contract the circle of his usefulness. It is the practice of many who attempt to direct us in the way of truth, that, instead of laying open to us the inexhaustible stores of happiness, which the treasury of the Gospel affords -instead of drawing aside the veil which conceals from man's darkened heart the inexpres- sible joys of the angelic world, and inducing us to follow the path of virtue, from pure affection to Him who first loved us - they give unlimited scope to the wildest imaginations that ever traversed the brain of a human being, and plunge into the un- fathomable abyss of superstition's darkness, to torture the minds of the living by stirring up the torments of the dead, and driv- ing us to the service of God, by unmingled fear of his extermin- ating wrath. It is not requisite for the prevalence of truth, that we should be forever familiar with the shadows that encompass it. The mind may dwell upon darkness until it has itself become dark, and callous to improvement -or reckless and despairing of good. That Mr. Shepard's views of human nature, and of the dispensation of the Gospel, were of the darkest kind, is evident from the sermons which he has left; and these opinions unfortunately led him to regard the greater part of the christian world as out of the way of salvation, and to look upon the crushed remnant of the red men as little better than the wild beasts of the forest. In alluding to the mortality which pre- vailed among the Indians, in 1633, he says that " the Lord swept away thousands of those salvage tawnies, those cursed devil worshipers."
His writings exhibit occasional gleams of genius and beauty ; but they are disfigured by frequent quotations from the dead languages, and by expressions inconsistent with that nobleness of sentiment and purity style, which should be sedulously culti- vated by the young. It was the custom in his time, to prolong
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1720.
the sermon at least one hour, and sometimes it was extended to two; and a sand glass was placed on the pulpit to measure the time. In one of his sermons he alludes to this practice : " Thou art restless till the tiresome glass be run out, and the tedious sermon be ended," He published the following works : 1. " A Sort of Believers Never Saved." Boston, 1711, 12mo.
2. " Early Preparations for Evil Days." Boston, 1712, 24mo. 3. " General Election Sermon." Boston, 1715, 12mo.
[Mr. Shepard does not appear to have been entirely exempt from the prevailing custom of the early clergy of sometimes expressing their thoughts in numbers. Few specimens of his versification, however, are now to be found. In the first edition of Hubbard's Indian Wars, printed in 1677, is a page of poetry, following the " Advertisement to the Reader," addressed " To the Reverend Mr. William Hubbard, on his most exact History of New England Troubles," and signed J. S .; which initials are generally supposed to refer to Mr. Shepard. A short extract follows :
When thy rare Piece unto my view once came, It made my muse that erst did smoke, to flame ; Raising my fancy, so sublime, that I That famous forked Mountain did espie ; Thence in an Extasie I softly fell Down near unto the Helliconian Well.
[That the church at Lynn enjoyed a good degree of temporal prosperity under the ministry of Mr. Shepard seems evident ; and it does not appear that its spiritual progress was not com- mensurate ; though outward prosperity is not a sure indication of godliness within. The encomiums of Mr. Lewis, so far as they touch certain points in the character of Mr. Shepard are, no doubt, well merited; and the reflections on the dark features are as judicious as direct. But the entire character is not given. One might infer, from what is said, that he was of a quiet, retiring disposition ; but such, I apprehend, was by no means the case. He was vigorous, if not passionate. His piety may have been deep and sincere; and so were his prejudices. In the troublous times of the Andros administration, he was more distinguished for political ardor, than christian forbearance. He certainly seems to have secured the attachment of the peo- ple here ; and he could not have had-so many friends and held them so long without possessing some sterling qualities. But while preaching at Rowley he was almost constantly embroiled with the people, and became the subject of severe censure. And there is something mysterious if not significant in the fact that Cotton Mather says nothing about him. He seems to have preached at Rowley and Ipswich not only before he was or- dained, but before he had become a professor. In a note in
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