USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynnfield > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 35
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 35
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 35
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 35
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 35
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1746.
A packet schooner, commanded by Capt. Hugh Alley, passed from Lynn to Boston. It continued to sail for many years, and was a great convenience.
On the 18th of August, there was a frost, sufficient to damage the corn.
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1747, 1749, 1750.
1747.
The Rev. Edward Cheever relinquished his connection with the third parish, of which he had been minister for eight years. He was a son of Mr. Thomas Cheever, of Lynn, and was born May 2, 1717. He graduated at Harvard College, in 1737, and was ordained in 1739. He removed to Eastham, where he died, August 24, 1794, aged 77 years.
1749.
The drought of this summer was probably never exceeded in New England. The preceding year had been unusually dry, but this was excessively so. There was but little rain from the 6th of May to the 6th of July. A memorandum on the 18th of July, by Collins, says : "Extreme hot dry weather, such as has not been known in the memory of man - so scorched that the creatures can but just live for the want of grass." The effect of the drought was so great, that hay was imported from England. Immense multitudes of grasshoppers appeared. They were so plenty on Nahant, that the inhabitants walked together, with bushes in their hands, and drove them, by thousands, into the sea. [And this is the year in which it is said the good bishop of Lausanne pronounced the frightful sentence of excommunica- tion against caterpillars.]
1750.
John Adam Dagyr, a shoemaker, from Wales, came to Lynn. He was one of the best workmen for ladies' shoes, who had ever appeared in the town. At the time of his arrival, the business of shoemaking at Lynn was very limited, and the workmen unskillful. There were but three men who conducted the business so extensively as to employ journeymen. These were John Mansfield, Benjamin Newhall, and William Gray, grandfather of William Gray, Lieutenant Governor of Massachu- setts. The workmen had frequently obtained good shoes from England, and taken them to pieces, to discover how they were made. By the instruction of Mr. Dagyr, they were soon enabled to produce shoes nearly equal to the best imported from Eng- land. Shoemakers, from all parts of the town, went to him for information ; and he is called, in the Boston Gazette of 1764, " the celebrated shoemaker of Essex." He resided on Boston street, not far from the foot of Mall. He married Susanna New- hall, in 1761, and had three children, Caroline, Sarah, and Joseph. Like many who have consulted the public interest more than their own, he was poor, and died in the Lynn alms-house, in 1808.
[Quite an excitement prevailed regarding the raising of silk-
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1751, 1752, 1753, 1755.
worms and manufacture of silk; but it died away without im- portant results. Numerous mulberry trees, however, were planted, which continued to yield their delicate fruit, for many years.]
On the night of July 2, Mr. Robert Mansfield's house, near the Flax pond, was struck by lightning.
1751.
On the 8th of February, Capt. Benjamin Blaney, of Swampscot, fell from his horse, at Malden, and was taken up dead.
[On the 10th of April, there was so great a snow storm that the fences were covered. It was thought to have been the greatest since 1717.]
1752.
Rev. Joseph Roby was ordained minister of the third parish, now Saugus, in August.
The school house was removed from Water Hill, to its former place in Franklin street, on the 29th of September; and on the 27th of November, it was again removed to the eastern part of the Common.
The selectmen were allowed two shillings a day for their services.
Dr. Nathaniel Henchman was schoolmaster.
1753.
Many sheep having been killed by wild animals, the people assembled, on the 6th of August, and ranged through the woods, to kill the wolves and foxes. On the 27th, a great number of the inhabitants of Lynn, Salem, and Reading, met and spent the day, in endeavoring to clear the forest of them.
[The General Court this year ordered that all persons having barberry bushes growing on their lands, should extirpate them before the 10th of June, 1760. And the surveyors of highways were required to destroy all growing by the roadside within the specified time, or the towns should pay two shillings for every one left standing. The reasons for this order were that those bushes had so much increased that the pasture lands were greatly encumbered; and it was imagined that something "flew off" from them that blasted the English grain.
1755.
A shop, on the Common, belonging to Mr. Benjamin James, was burnt, on the 4th of February. On the 24th, a schooner, from Salem, was cast away on Short Beach, at Nahant. (Collins.)
On Sunday, April 27th, the Society of Friends, for the first time, had two meetings in one day. (Collins.)
B2*
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1756.
Rev. Stephen Chase, resigned the care of the second parish, now Lynnfield. He graduated at Harvard University, in 1728, and was ordained November 24, 1731. He married Jane Win- get, of Hampton, in 1732; and his children, born at Lynn, were, Abraham, Stephen, Jane, Stephen, second, and Mary. He re- moved to Newcastle, in New Hampshire, where he settled and died.
Mr. Benjamin Adams, was installed minister of the second parish, on the 5th of November.
The greatest earthquake ever known in New England, hap- pened on Tuesday, the 18th of November, at fifteen minutes after four, in the morning. It continued about four minutes. Walls and chimneys were thrown down, and clocks stopped. On the following Saturday, there was another earthquake. (Col- lins.) On the first of this month Lisbon was destroyed. [It was very destructive, from Maryland to Halifax, in many places. More than fifteen hundred chimneys were thrown down or shat- tered, in Boston; some twelve brick houses had their gables thrown down ; and the spindle of the vane on the market house was broken off. It does not appear that any greater damage was done in Lynn than the injuries to walls and chimneys. Its direction seemed to be from the northwest. In the West Indies the sea rose six feet, having first subsided, leaving the vessels dry at the wharves. In this vicinity the air was calm, the sky clear, and a bright moon shining; but the sea was roaring in a portentous manner.]
A whale, seventy-five feet in length, was landed on King's Beach, on the 9th of December. Dr. Henry Burchsted rode into his mouth, in a chair drawn by a horse; and afterward had two of his bones set up for gate posts, at his house in Essex street, where they stood for more than fifty years. [Opposite the Doctor's house, the cot of Moll Pitcher, the celebrated for- tune teller, stood. And many were the sly inquiries, from strangers, for the place where the big whale bones were to be seen.]
In the eastern French and Indian war, Governor Lawrence, of Nova Scotia sent to Massachusetts, in the course of two years, about 2000 French Catholic Neutrals, who were quar- tered in different places. Lynn had fourteen. Thomas Lewis supplied them with provisions ; and among the items of his bill are 432 quarts of milk, at six pence a gallon. The war continued until 1763.
1756.
The manuscript of Dr. John Perkins gives a long and partic- ular relation of a singular encounter of wit, had between Jona- than Gowen, of Lynn, and Joseph Emerson, of Reading. They
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1757, 1758.
met, by appointment, at the tavern in Saugus, and so great was the number of people, that they removed to an adjacent field. The Reading champion was foiled, and went home in great chagrin. Dr. Perkins says that the exercise of Gowen's wit " was beyond all human imagination." But he afterward fell into such stupidity, that the expression became proverbial - "You are as dull as Jonathan Gowen." [The championship, in such an exercise, is much more worthy of being striven for than the championship in those pugilistic encounters which are the delight of this refined age. But a bloody nose is more easily appreciated by most people than an intellectual achieve- ment.]
1757.
There was an earthquake on the 8th of July, at fifteen minutes after two o'clock. (Collins.) [A witness says of this earth- quake, "it seemed as though some small body was swiftly roll- ing along under the earth, which gently raised up that part of the surface that was over it, and then left it as gently to subside."]
On the 6th of February, two merchant vessels, from London, valued at one hundred thousand pounds, were wrecked on Lynn Beach.
On the afternoon of Sunday, August 14, the people were alarmed, during meeting time, by the beating of drums ; and on the next day, twenty men were impressed, and marched to Springfield. (Pratt.)
On the 6th of December, Lord Loudon's regiment, in march- ing through Woodend, took a boy named Nathaniel Low, living with Mr. Zaccheus Collins. His master followed the regiment into Marblehead, and on his solicitation, being a Quaker, the boy was released. This regiment had for some time been quartered in Boston, where Lord Loudon sported his coach and six horses. (Collins.) [The regiment is judged to have been a rather unruly one, from the frequent complaints made by the citizens.]
1758.
Thomas Mansfield, Esq., was thrown from his horse, on Friday, January 6, and died the next Sunday.
A company of soldiers, from Lynn, marched for Canada, on the twenty-third of May. Edmund Ingalls and Samuel Mudge were killed.
In a thunder shower, on the 4th of August, an ox, belonging to Mr. Henry Silsbe, was killed by lightning.
A sloop from Lynn, commanded by Capt. Ralph Lindsey, was cast away, on the 15th of August, near Portsmouth.
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1759, 1761.
1759.
[A bear, weighing four hundred pounds, was killed in Lynn woods, this year.
[The Lynnfield church records state the death, 4 June, of Margaret, wife of John Briant, of "something supposed to breed in her brain."
[Rev. Jacob Bailey, a Church of England missionary, on the 13th of December, having walked all the way from Gloucester to Lynn, stopped at Norwood's tavern for lodging. And in speaking of the company found there he says : " We had among us a soldier belonging to Capt. Hazen's company of rangers, who declared that several Frenchmen were barbarously mur- dered by them, after quarters were given ; and the villain added, I suppose to show his importance, that he split the head of one asunder, after he fell on his knees to implore mercy."]
1761.
The Rev. Nathaniel Henchman was a son of Mr. Nathaniel Henchman, a bookbinder, and deacon of a church, in Boston. He was born on the 22d of November, 1700, according to a statement on the Lynn records, in the hand writing of his son, though some other records give a different date. He graduated at Harvard University, in 1717, and was ordained minister of the first parish of Lynn, in December, 1720. His residence was on North Common street, between Mall and Park streets. The house which he built was, till within a short time of its removal, in 1855, owned by Mr. George Brackett, and now stands on the west side of Park street, a few rods south of the brook.] Mr. Henchman died on the twenty-third day of De- cember, 1761, aged 61, having preached forty-one years. In the early part of his ministry, he enjoyed the esteem and confidence of his people. His learning was extensive, and his integrity and virtue entitled him to high respect. He was strongly at- tached to regularity and order, and disinclined to every species of enthusiasm. He thought the services of the Sabbath, in general, were sufficient, and was decidedly opposed to evening meetings. By his omitting to deliver lectures, and refusing to admit itinerant preachers into his pulpit, disaffections were cre- ated, which deprived him of the regard of many of his people. The occasion of these difficulties is to be imputed to the opinions of the time, rather than to any want of urbanity on the part of Mr. Henchman, who was very affable in his manners, and treated Mr. Whitefield with great civility and respect in his own house, and invited him to remain longer, as appears by Whitefield's Journal and Dr. Wigglesworth's Letter. Mr. Henchman pub- lished the following pamphlets.
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1763.
1. Reasons for Declining to Admit Mr. Whitefield into his Pulpit; addressed to the Rev. Stephen Chase, of Lynnfield. Boston, 1744, 8vo.
2. A Letter to Rev. William Hobby of Reading, in Reply to his Vindication of Mr. Whitefield. Boston, 1745, 4to.
The following epitaph was written for Mr. Henchman.
Three times aloud the summons hath been blown, To call Lynn's watchmen to the highest throne. First Whiting left the church her loss to weep;
Then Shepard next resigned his peaceful sheep ; Our other shepherd now gives up the trust,
And leaves his charge to slumber in the dust.
A few fleet years, and the last trump will sound,
To call our Henchman from the silent ground .*
Then we who wake, and they who sleep must come, To hear the Judge pronounce the righteous doom.
Mr. Henchman had two wives; 1. Deborah Walker, in 1727, and, 2. Lydia Lewis, in 1734. He had five children. 1. Dr. Nathaniel, born April 1, 1728, graduated at Harvard University in 1747, was town clerk of Lynn for two years, and died May 30, 1767, aged 39. 2. Daniel. 3. Anna. 4. Lydia. 5. Anna.
On the 12th of March, at twenty minutes after two, in the morning, there was an earthquake; and on the first of Novem- ber, between eight and nine in the evening, another. (Collins.)
On the 20th of April, John Stavers commenced running a stage from Portsmouth to Boston. It was a curricle, drawn by two horses, and had seats for three persons. It left Portsmouth on Monday morning, stopped the first night at Ipswich, and reached the ferry the next afternoon. It returned on Thursday morning, and reached Portsmouth on Friday. The fare was thirteen shillings and six pence. This was the first stage in New England.
[Hon. Ebenezer Burrill died, 6 September, aged 82. He was a conspicuous and useful man in the province. A brief bio- graphical sketch of him may be found elsewhere in this volume.]
1763.
Mr. John Treadwell was ordained minister of the first parish, on the 2d of March.
There was at this time in the town a man named Robert Bates, who had such a facility for rhyming that he usually made his answers in that manner. Many of these have been related, but I only notice one. The tax gatherer called on him one day, and addressed him thus : " Mr. Bates, can you pay your rates ?" to which he replied : "My dear honey, I have no money; I
* The word "henchman" signifies a warder or watchman. [It now signi- fies rather a page, an attendant, one who waits on the person.]
1
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1764, 1765, 1766.
can't pay you now, unless I sell my cow ; I will pay you half, when I kill my calf; but if you'll wait till fall, I'll pay you all."
1764.
The Boston Gazette, of October 21, says: "It is certain that women's shoes, made at Lynn, do now exceed those usually imported, in strength and beauty, but not in price. Surely then, it is expected, the public spirited ladies of the town and province will turn their immediate attention to this branch of manufacture."
[The bridge over Saugus river was rebuilt this year, the county bearing two thirds of the expense.]
December 28. Mr. Robert Wait was found dead on the marsh, near Saugus river.
1765.
Among the encroachments of the arbitrary power of the mother country, was the attempt to impose taxes upon the colonies without their consent. Those taxes were at first levied in the form of duties; but the people objected to this incipient plan of raising a revenue for the support of a govern- ment in which they had no action, and their opposition eventu- ated in the establishment of their independence.
This year an act was passed by the Parliament of England, called the Stamp Act, requiring the people of the American colonies to employ papers stamped with the royal seal, in all mercantile and legal transactions. This act called forth a gen- eral spirit of opposition, particularly in Boston, where, on the night of the 26th of August, a party of the people collected, and nearly demolished the house of Lieutenant Governor Hutch- inson, and several others. In many other places the people manifested their displeasure, by tolling bells, and burning the effigies of the stamp officers.
1766.
This year the stamp act was repealed. The people of Lynn manifested their joy by ringing the bell and making bonfires. On the first of December, they directed their representative, Ebenezer Burrill, Esquire, to use his endeavors to procure an act to compensate Mr. Hutchinson, and others, for their losses in the riot of the preceding year.
[Ebenezer Mansfield, of Lynnfield, aged 18, dropped down dead in the street, on the 10th of January. And Ensign Ebe- nezer Newhall, of the same place, died on the 22d of June, aged 73, " of something supposed to breed within him."]
On Saturday, the 8th of February, an English brig, from Hull, was cast away on Pond Beach, on the south side of Nahant
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1768, 1769, 1770.
1768.
[There were made in Lynn, during the year ending 1 January, 80.000 pairs of shoes, as appears by a statement in the Boston Palladium, of the 6th of February, 1827.
[At half past nine, on the evening of the 6th of August, the aurora borealis appeared in a complete arch, extending from the northwest to the southeast, and "almost as bright as a rainbow." This must have been similar to the remarkable appearance on the night of 28 August, 1827.]
On the 7th of November, John Wellman and Young Flint were drowned in the Pines river, and their bodies taken up the next day.
A catamount was killed by Joseph Williams, in Lynn woods.
1769.
A snow storm on the 11th of May, continued twelve hours.
On Wednesday evening, July 19, a beautiful night arch ap- peared. It was widest in the zenith, and terminated in a point at each horizon. The color was a brilliant white, and it con- tinued most of the evening.
On the 8th of August, as a party were going on board a schooner, in the harbor, for a sail of pleasure, the canoe, in which were six women and two men, was overset, and two of the party drowned. These were Anna Hood, aged 23, daughter of Benjamin Hood, and Alice Bassett, aged 17, daughter of Daniel Bassett.
In a very great storm, on the 8th of September, several buildings were blown down, and a sloop driven ashore at Nahant.
1770.
After the repeal of the stamp act, the English Parliament, in 1767, passed an act imposing duties on imported paper, glass, paints and tea. This again awakened the opposition of the colonies. The General Court of Massachusetts, in 1768, pub- lished a letter, expressing their firm loyalty to the king, yet their unwillingness to submit to any acts of legislative op- pression. This letter displeased the English government, the General Court was dissolved, and seven armed vessels, with soldiers, were sent from Halifax to Boston, to ensure tranquil- lity. On the 5th of March, 1770, a part of these troops, being assaulted by some of the people of Boston, fired upon them, and killed four men. The soldiers were imprisoned, tried, and acquitted.
On the 12th of April, the duties on paper, glass, and paints, were repealed ; but the duty on tea, which was three pence on
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ANNALS OF LYNN- 1772.
a pound, remained. On the 24th of May, the inhabitants of Lynn held a meeting, in which they passed the following reso- Intions.
1. Voted, We will do our endeavor to discountenance the use of foreign tea.
2. Voted, No person to sustain any office of profit, that will not comply with the above vote.
3. Voted, No taverner or retailer shall be returned to sessions, that will not assist in discountenancing the use of said tea; and the selectmen to give it as a reason to the sessions.
4. Voted, unanimously, That we will use our endeavors to promote our own manufactures amongst us.
The disaffection against the English government, appears to have been occasioned, not so much by the amount of the duty on the tea, as by the right which it implied in that government to tax the people of America without their consent. The colonies had always admitted their allegiance to the English crown ; but as they had no voice in parliament, it was ungen- erous, if not unjust, in that parliament, to impose any taxes which were not necessary for their immediate benefit.
[Canker worms committed great ravages this year.]
A great storm, on the 19th of October, raised the tide higher than had been known for many years.
[A disease among potatoes prevailed extensively this year. It appears to have been similar to that which began to prevail in this vicinity about the year 1850, and has shown itself in a greater or less degree every year since- called the potato rot.]
1772.
Mr. Sparhawk, of Lynnfield, in his diary, thus remarks : " An amazing quantity of snow fell in the month of March, such as I never knew in the time that I have lived." On the 5th of March, the amount of snow which fell, was sixteen inches; on the 9th, nine inches; on the 11th, eight inches; on the 13th, seven inches ; on the 16th, four inches; and on the 20th, fifteen inches. Thus the whole amount of snow, in sixteen days, was nearly five feet on a level. [On the second Friday of April, a violent snow storm occurred .. In some places the snow drifted to the depth of twelve feet.]
A fishing schooner was wrecked on Long Beach, on the 21st of March, and Jonathan Collins and William Boynton, the only two men on board, were drowned.
On the 15th of May, Abigail Rhodes, a daughter of Mr. Eleazer Rhodes, was lost. On the 24th, a great number of people went in search of her, in vain. On the second of June, another gen- eral search was made; and on the 21st of July, her bones were found in a swamp near the Pirates' Glen. There were strong
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ANNALS OF LYNN- 1773.
suspicions of unfairness in regard to her death. She left a house in Boston street, in the evening, to return to a cottage in the forest, where she had been living, and was seen no more alive. Several persons were apprehened on suspicion, but as only circumstantial evidence was elicited, they were discharged.
1773.
The opposition to the duty on tea continued unremitted. The East India Company sent many cargoes to America, offering to sell it at a reduced price ; but the people resolved that it should not be landed. Seventeen men, dressed like Indians, went on board the vessels in Boston harbor, broke open three hundred and forty two chests of tea, and poured their contents into the water.
A town meeting was held at Lynn, on the 16th of December, in which the following resolutions were passed.
1. That the people of the British American Colonies, by their constitution of government, have a right to freedom, and an exemption from every degree of oppression and slavery.
2. That it is an essential right of freemen to have the disposal of their own property, and not to be taxed by any power over which they have 110 control.
3. That the parliamentary duty laid upon tea landed in America, is, in fact, a tax upon Americans, without their consent.
4. That the late act of parliament, allowing the East India Company to send their tea to America, on their own account, was artfully framed, for the purpose of enforcing and carrying into effect the oppressive act of parlia- ment imposing a duty upon teas imported into America ; and is a fresh proof of the settled and determined designs of the ministers to deprive us of liberty, and reduce us to slavery.
5. That we highly disapprove of the landing and selling of such teas in America, and will not suffer any teas, subjected to a parliamentary duty, to be landed or sold in this town ; and that we stand ready to assist our brethren of Boston, or elsewhere, whenever our aid shall be required, in repelling all attempts to land or sell any teas poisoned with a duty.
The tea fever raged very high at this time, especially among the ladies. A report having been put in circulation through the town, that Mr. James Bowler, who had a bake-house and a little shop, on Water Hill, had a quantity of tea in store, a com- pany ยท of women went to his house, demanded the tea, and destroyed it. This exploit was certainly as great a piece of patriotism on their part, as that performed in Boston harbor the same year, and deserves to be sung in strains of immortality. Slander, however, who is always busy in detracting from real merit, asserted that the women put on extra pockets on that memorable night, which they filled with the fragrant leaf, for their own private consumption.
A deer was this year started in the Malden woods, and chased by some hunters, through Chelsea, to the Lynn marsh. He
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1774, 1775.
plunged into the Saugus river, and attempted to gain the oppo- site shore ; but some Lynn people, coming down the river in a boat, approached and throwing a rope over his horns, brought him ashore at High Point.
1774.
The destruction of the tea at Boston, gave great offence to the English government, and an act was passed, by which the harbor of Boston was closed against the entrance or departure of any vessels. The inhabitants of Lynn held several meetings, in which they expressed their disapprobation of the shutting of the port of Boston, and their abhorrence of every species of tyranny and oppression.
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