USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 20
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 20
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynnfield > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 20
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 20
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 20
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
In the short space of ten years from its settlement, we have seen six other towns deriving their origin from Lynn; yet the place continued to abound with inhabitants, and this year beheld the commencement of the seventh. About forty families, "find- ing themselves straightened," left the town with the design of settling a new plantation. They invited Mr. Abraham Pierson, of Boston, to become their minister, who, with seven of the emi- grants, entered into a church covenant, before they left Lynn. [Hugh Peters was present at the formation of the church.] They sailed in a vessel commanded by Capt. Daniel Howe, to Scout's Bay, in the western part of Long Island, where they purchased land of Mr. James Forrett, agent of Lord Stirling, and agreed with the Indians for their right. On receiving informa- tion of this, the Dutch laid claim to that part of the island, on account of a previous purchase of the Indians, and sent men to take possession, who set up the arms of the Prince of Orange on a tree. The Lynn people, disregarding the claims of the Dutch, cut down the trees and began to build. Capt. Howe, likewise took down the Prince's arms, and instead thereof an Indian drew a very " undhandsome face." This conduct highly incensed the Dutch governor, William Kieft, whom Mr. Irving,
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in one of his humorous works, has characterized by the appella- tion of " William the Testy," but whom Mr. Hubbard denomi- nates " a discreet man," who, on the 13th of May, sent Cornelius Van Ten Hoven, the secretary, the under-sheriff, a sergeant, and twenty-five soldiers, to break up the settlement. They found eight men, with a woman and an infant, who had erected one cottage, and were engaged in building another. They took six of the men, whose names were John Farrington, William Har- cher, Philip Kertland, Nathaniel Kertland, Job Sayre, and George Wells, and brought them before the governor. These he exam- ined on oath, and then put them in prison, where they remained while he wrote a Latin letter to the governor of Massachusetts. To this Mr. Winthrop replied, in the same language, that he . would neither maintain the Lynn people in an unjust action, nor suffer them to be injured. On the reception of this reply, the Dutch governor liberated the men, after they had signed an agreement to leave the place. They accordingly removed more than eighty miles, to the eastern part of the island, where they purchased land of the Indians, and planted a town, which, in remembrance of the place from which they sailed, in England, they called Southampton.
[It was evidently expected, from the character of many of those engaged in the Long Island enterprise, and from their stipulations, that the settlement should be one of importance, and not an inconsiderable and straitened little community. The agreement with Captain Howe required that the vessel should be " reddy at the Towne of Lynne to transport such goods as the aforesaid undertakers shall appoint; that is to say, three tymes in the yeare." And they furthermore " thought good to express the tymes, viz : the first moneth, the fourth moneth, and the eighth moneth " - March, June, and October. A few of the general stipulations will be here given, for the purpose of illus- trating their ideas of the formation and government of a new plantation. From some of the points, it might be imagined that they fancied themselves founding an independent common- wealth.
"Furthermore, because delaying to lay out the bounds of townes and all such lande within the said bounds, hath bene generally the ruin of Townes in this Country, therefore wee, the said undertakers, have thought goode to take upon us the dispose of all landes within our said boundes soe that that which wee lay out for a house lott shall at all tymes from tyme to tyme hereafter continue to be a house lott, and but one dwellinge house shall be builded upon it; and those lottes that we lay out for planteing lotts shall not at any tyme nor tymes hereafter be made house lotts, whereby more inhabitants might be receaved into our Plantacon to the over chargeing of commons and the im- poverishinge of the towne ; and that alsoe what is layd out for common; and noe man shall prsume to incroach upon it, not soe much as a hands breadth. Whatsoever wee lay out for farmes, shall remain so after tyme ; and ye dispose of all such landes so layed out shall alsoe be at all tymes and from tyme to Q 13
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tyme according to the will and pleasure of us, the said undertakers, our exec- utors, administrators, and assigns, namely,"-at this point the manuscript record is so injured as to render some words illegible; but the substance is, that whoever disposes of his estate, shall not subdivide it, but shall sell " liouse lott and plantinge lott or lotts, and meddow, intirely, and if hee sell his farme hee shall not divide it, but sell it together, viz: his ffarm intirely and his ac- commodations in ye towne, intirely. Moreover, whosoever cometh in by us hould himself sattisfyed with foure achores to an house lott, and twelve achores to a plantinge lott, and so much meddow and upland as may make his accom- modation fifty achors, except wee, the said undertakers, shall see cause to inlarge that proportion by a farme or otherwise. Furthermore, noe person whatsoever shall challenge or claime any proper interest in seas, rivers, creeks, or brookes, howsoever boundinge or passinge through his grounde ; but ffree- dome of fishinge, fowlinge, and navigation, shall be common to all within the bankes of the said waters, whatsoever."
[The requirements, generally, were rigid, and strongly ex- pressed. But they closed in the following pious and liberal strain :
" Lastly, wee, the said undertakers, testify by these presents in our admit- tinge of in' abitants to our intended Plantacon that wee, without any kind of reservation leave euery man ffree to choose and determine all causes and con- troverseys arbitrary among themselves, and that whensoever it shall please the Lord, and he shall see it good to adde to us such men as shall bee fitt matter for a church, that then wee will, in that time, lay ourselves doune before ye constitutes thereof either to bee or not to be receaved as members thereof, according as they shall discerne the work of God to be in our hearts."
[The articles were signed by John Cooper, Edward Howell, Edmund Needham, Josiah Stanbury, Henry Walton, Allen Breed, William Harcher, Thomas Newhall, John Farrington, Richard Yatt, Edmund Farrington, Thomas Sayre, Daniel Howe, Job Sayre, George Webb, Thomas Halsye, Philip Kertland, Nathan- iel Kertland, Thomas Padington, Thomas Terry. Almost every one of these names is familiar to those who are versed in the early history of Lynn. Two or three signed by their marks; but from their names being signed in full in other places, it seems probable that they made their marks on this solemn occasion, because they deemed them more dignified or ornamental. There is a supplementary declaration which contains one or two mat- ters that may facilitate an understanding of the spirit which moved in the enterprise :
"Know all men whome these presents may consern yt whereas it is ex-/ pressed in our Articles that the power of disposinge of lands and admission of Inhabitants into our Plantacon shall at all tymes remaine in the hands of us the said undertakers, to us and our heirs forever, our true intent and meane- inge is, that when our plantation is laid out by those appointed according to our Articles, and that there shall be a church gathered and constituted accord- inge to the minde of Christ, that then wee doe ffreely lay down our power, both in orderinge and disposeinge of the plantacon and receaving of Inhabit- ants, or any other things that may tende to the goode and welfare of ye place, at the ffeete of Christ and his church -provided that they shall not doe any thing contrary to the true meaneinge of the fformer articles."
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[The probable meaning of this is not well expressed. It seems to say that Christ and his church may manage the affairs of the colony provided they do so according to " the fformer articles." But the intent doubtless was simply to confirm that sort of union of church and state which existed in Massachusetts.
[Mr. Lewis's brief allusion to the perils which surrounded the first of the Long Island settlers, is perhaps sufficient for the purpose. And one or two items, giving glimpses of their situation, are all that need be added. The Court-as it was called, though in reality but a general town meeting - ordered, 29 Oct., 1645, that the inhabitants should be relieved from the practice of taking their arms to the meeting-house on the Lord's day, from the first of November to the first of March ensuing. And on 25 January, 1655, it was ordered that no one should sell strong liquors within the bounds of the town, excepting " our neighbor John Cooper;" and he was not to sell to any Indian, nor to any but those who would use them properly. And he was prohibited from selling more than three ankers- about a hundred gallons -a year; a third part being for the people of the North Sea, so called, a small settlement three miles from the village of Southampton. It will be well for the reader to bear in mind that some of the Lynn men who joined in the Long Island enterprise did not remove there, and some who did, returned in a short time. (See an article communicated by G. R. Howell, of Southampton,-and probably a descendant from Edward Howell, who was among the first who went from Lynn- in N. E. Historical and Genealogical Register, 1861.)
[The Rev. Abraham Pierson, who went with the Long Island colony, as their minister, and who was a man of excellent edu- cation, and unstained character, I had not supposed was ever a resident of Lynn. And Mr. Lewis states that he was of Boston ; yet Savage gives him a son Abraham, born at Lynn, who grad- uated at Harvard, in 1668. Mr. Pierson left Long Island, about 1647, and went to Branford, Ct., it having become necessary to divide the church, and his removal being approved by a council. Twenty years after the last date we find him at Newark, N. J. His son Abraham was settled as his colleague, at Newark, in 1672. In 1692, the son went to Connecticut, and in 1701 was made the first president of Yale College, in which office he remained till his death, in 1707. The Southampton church was, of course, constituted according to the Congregational order ; but it became Presbyterian. In 1716, the Presbytery of Long Island was set off from the Philadelphia Presbytery, and organ- ized at Southampton, 17 April, 1717, being the first Presbytery in the state of New York. It was in 1640 that the Southampton settlers erected their first church edifice; the second was built in 1651, and the third in 1707. The last one is still standing.
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A fourth, however, was erected in 1843. The colony placed themselves under the jurisdiction of Hartford, in 1644, but con- tinued very much in the way of a pure democracy. "The gov- ernment of the town was vested in the people. They assembled at their town meetings, had all power and all authority. They elected town officers, constituted courts, allotted lands, made laws, tried difficult and important cases, and from their decision there was no appeal. The Town Meeting, or General Court, as it was sometimes called, met once a month. Every freeholder was required to be present at its meetings and take a part in the burdens of government. All delinquents were fined for non-attendance at each meeting."]
Dr. P. S. Townsend, of New York, says the people of Lynn also settled five other towns on Long Island; Flushing, Graves- end, Jamaica, Hempstead, and Oyster Bay.
At the Court, on the 13th of May, William Hathorne, Samuel Symonds, and Timothy Tomlins, were appointed to lay out " the nearest, cheapest, safest, and most convenient way," between Lynn and Winnisimet ferry.
Lynn Village, now South Reading, was ordered to be exempt- ed from taxes, for two years, as soon as seven houses should be built, and seven families settled.
William Hathorne and Timothy Tomlins, having been ap- pointed to lay out the bounds of the town of Lynn, made report, on the 4th of June, that they had fixed the bounds at Charles- town line, Reading pond, Ipswich river, and Salem.
[It appears by the Suffolk Records, that Thomas Dexter this year mortgaged lands in Lynn, to Humfrey Hooke, an alderman of the city of Bristol, and others.
[At the September Court, Salem, an action for defamation, Timothy Tomlins, of Lynn, against John Pickering was tried, and the jury found " that ye said John Pickering shall not only pay fforty shillings damage and ffower shillings coste, but yt in some publik meeting at Lynn, before next Courte, the said Jno. Pickering shall publiklie acknowledge the wronge done ye sª Tomlins, or else shall pay and make his fforty shillings Tenn pounds."
[A good many goats were kept in this vicinity in the early days of the colony. Josselyn says they were "the first small cattle they had in the countrey ; he was counted no body, that had not a trip or flock of goats."]
The Court ordered that grain should be received as a lawful payment for debts ; Indian corn at 5s., rye at 6s. 8d., and wheat at 7s. a bushel. The price of a cow was £5.
Richard Sadler was appointed clerk of the writs.
Mr. Humfrey's barn, Nahant street, with all his corn and hay, to the value of one hundred and sixty pounds, was burned by
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the carelessness of his servant, Henry Stevens, in setting fire to some gunpowder. At the Court of Assistants, on the first of November, " Henry Stevens, for firing the barn of his master, Mr. John Humfrey, he was ordered to be servant to Mr. Hum- frey, for 21 years from this day, towards recompensing him." The Court afterward allowed Mr. Humfrey for his loss and his good services, £250.
There was one woman in the town, at this time, who contended that all things ought to be common, as at one time among the early Christians; but she found it difficult to persuade the peo- ple that she had as good a right to their property as themselves. She went " from house to house," helping herself to such little accommodations as she wished, till her demands became so ex- travagant, that she was brought before the Quarterly Court, at Salem. On the 29th of September, the following record was made. "Mary Bowdwell, of Lyn, for her exorbitancy, not work- ing, but liveing idly, and stealing, and taking away other victuals, pretending communitie of all things: The court sentence that she shall be whipped; but throwe their clemency she was only admonished, and respited till next courte."
[It was this year voted that Lynn meeting-house be permitted to be used for a watch-house.]
This year a new version of the Psalms was made for public worship. It was an octavo volume of 400 pages, and was the first book printed in America. The following is a specimen of the poetry, from Psalm 44.
Our eares have heard our fathers tell and reverently record The wondrous workes that thou hast done in olden time, O Lord.
How thou didst cast the Gentiles out and stroid them with strong hand ; Planting our fathers in their place and gavest to them their land.
They conquered not by sword nor strength, the land of thy behest, But by thy hand, thy arm, thy grace, because thou louedst them best."
1641.
Lord Say, having an intention of forming a plantation at New Providence, one of the Bahama Islands, had engaged Mr. Hum- frey in the design, with the promise of making him governor of the new colony. Some of the Lynn people had determined to accompany him; but the intention was frustrated by the Island falling, for a time, under the government of Spain.
Mr. John Humfrey was a native of Dorchester, in Dorsetshire, England, a lawyer, and a man of considerable wealth and good Q*
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reputation. He married Susan, the second daughter of Thomas, Earl of Lincoln, and sister of Frances, the wife of Mr. John Gorges, and of Arabella, the wife of Mr. Isaac Johnson. He was one of the most influential in promoting the settlement of the colony, and the people of Massachusetts will ever regard him as one of their earliest and most efficient benefactors. He was one of the original patentees of the colony, and the treas- urer of the company at Plymouth, in England; and by his exertions many donations were obtained, and many persons, among whom were some of the ministers, were induced to emi- grate. He was chosen Deputy Governor in 1630, and Assistant in 1632, both before his arrival; and such was the respect in which he was held, that when the formulary for the constituting of freemen was in debate, an exception was made in favor of " the old planters and Mr. Humfrey." He arrived at Lynn, in 1634, received several liberal grants from the Court, and fixed his residence at his farm. In discharging the duties of an Assistant in the general government, he devoted his time and energies for seven years to the service of the state, and seems not to have been surpassed in devotedness to her welfare .. He became a member of the Artillery Company, in 1640; and in June, 1641, was appointed to the command of all the militia in the county, with the title of Sergeant Major General. But with all his honors and possessions, a shade of dissatisfaction had spread itself over his prospects, which his numerous misfortunes contributed to darken. The disappointment of the Bahamas must have been severely felt by a mind so ambitious of honor as his appears to have been; and it is not improbable that he experi- enced a secret chagrin at seeing the young and uninformed Henry Vane promoted to the office of governor, above one whose years, knowledge, and services, entitled him to prece- dence. [Vane was young, but could he have been called unin- formed ?] It is probable, likewise, that his affection for his wife, whose hopes were in the land of her nativity, had some influence in determining his conduct. Living so far removed from the elegant circles in which she had delighted, and having lost the sister who might have been the companion of her soli- tude, the Lady Susan was weary of the privations of the wilder- ness, the howling of the wild beasts, and the uncouth manners of the savages, and had become lonely, disconsolate, and home- sick. She who had been the delight of her father's house, and had glittered in all the pride of youth and beauty, in the court of the first monarch in Europe, was now solitary and sad, sepa- rated by a wide ocean from her father's home. The future greatness of America, which was then uncertain and ideal, pre- sented no inducement to her mind to counterbalance the losses which were first to be endured; and the cold and barren wilder-
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ness she dwelt in, populated by its few lonely cottages, round which the Indians were roaming by day, and the wolves making their nightly excursions, had nothing lovely to offer to soothe her sorrows or elevate her hopes. What the misfortunes and disappointments of Mr. Humfrey had begun, her importunities completed. He sold the principal part of his farm to Lady Moody, and returned to England with his wife, on the 26th of October. They were much censured for leaving their chil- dren, but their intention of visiting the Bahamas, and the ap- proaching inclemency of the season, rendered it imprudent to take them, and they undoubtedly intended to return or send for them. That Mr. Humfrey possessed deep sympathies, his letters „sufficiently evince ; and it would be extremely unchari- table to suppose that the Lady Susan was without the endow- ments of maternal love. A woman of high feelings and keen sensibilities, the daughter of an English Earl, and according to Mr. Mather's own account, of "the best family of any nobleman then in England" - it cannot be supposed that she was desti- tute of those affections which form the characteristic charm of her sex. The emotions of the heart are not always regulated by rule, and disappointment sometimes makes sad havoc with the best feelings of our nature.
"T is thus with the dreams of the high heaving heart, The come but to blaze, and they blaze to depart ; Their gossamer wings are too thin to abide The chilling of sorrow, the burning of pride ; They come but to brush o'er its young gallant swell, Like bright birds over ocean, but never to dwell.
JOHN NEAL.
[It is true, as Mr. Lewis remarks, that " disappointment some- times makes sad havoc with the best feelings of our nature." Yet there are many who possess that invincible resignation, the offspring of a true and lively faith, which enables them to meet disappointment and disaster with a heroism that saves from all such sorrowful results. And the sympathies and affections of the heart are not confined to any class. The " daughter of an English Earl," may not be, as to them, more liberally endowed than the daughter in the lowly cot. What a terrible example to the point do we find revealed in Johnson's Life of Savage.]
The misfortunes which afterward befell some of the children, inflicted a wound on the heart of the affectionate father, from which he never recovered. In a letter to Governor Winthrop, dated 4th September, 1646, he says: "It is true the want of · that lost occasion, the loss of all I had in the world, doth, upon rubbings of that irreparable blow, sometimes a little trouble me ; but in no respect equal to this, that I see my hopes and possi- bilities of ever enjoying those I did or was willing to suffer any
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thing for, utterly taken away. But by what intermediate hand soever this has befallen me, whose neglects and unkindness God I hope will mind them for their good, yet I desire to look at his hand for good I doubt not to me, though I do not so fully see which way it may work. Sir, I thank you, again and again, and that in sincerity, for any fruits of your goodness to me and mine ; and for any thing contrary, I bless his name, I labor to forget, and desire him to pardon." [Certain distressing calam- ities that befell the daughters of Mr. Humfrey, are alluded to elsewhere. See notices of Jenkin Davis, under date 1635, and Daniel Fairfield, under 1640.] Mr Humfrey died in 1661, and in the same year, his administrators, Joseph Humfrey and Ed- mund Batter, claimed the five hundred acres of land "by a pond of fresh water," in Lynnfield, which had been given him by the Court. The character of Mr. Humfrey has been drawn with conciseness by Governor Winthrop, who represents him to have been "a gentleman of special parts of learning and activity, and a godly man." His children were John, Joseph, Theophilus, Ann, Sarah, and Dorcas. Ann married .William Palmer, of Ardfinan, Ireland, and afterward the Rev. John Miles, of Swanzey. I have in my possession a deed signed by her, and sealed with the arms of the house of Lincoln.
Mr. Humfrey appears to have owned nearly all the lands from Sagamore Hill to Forest river. His house was near the eastern end of Humfrey's beach, and his place there was called the Swampscot Farm. His lands were chiefly disposed of in 1681, when his daughter Ann sold ten acres to William Bassett, jr., and twenty acres with a house in Nahant street to Richard Hood. Robert Ingalls bought nine acres of the farm at Swamps- cot for two hundred and eighty pounds, and Richard Johnson had sixty acres of salt marsh for thirty pounds. The wind-mill at Sagamore Hill was valued at sixty pounds. The whole of Mr. Humfrey's lands, at Swampscot, were about thirteen hun- dred acres, besides five hundred at Lynnfield. In 1685, we find that Daniel King, senior, having bought four hundred acres of this land, mortgages the same to widow Elizabeth Curwin of Salem. He afterward married her, and thus secured it; but in 1690 it was again mortgaged to Benjamin Brown, of Salem. In 1693, March 20, it was sold by Elizabeth and Daniel King to Walter Phillips and John Phillips, ancestors of the numerous and respectable family of Phillips. [Mr. Lewis is in error here. This Elizabeth Curwin was still living as the widow of Captain George Curwin, in 1694, as appears by public records. See something further, under date 1650.] This tract of four hun- dred acres is mentioned as beginning at the farther end of the beach beyond Fishing Point, and extending to the west end of the Long Pond. Another description of this same four hun-
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dred acres, makes it extend to Beaver Brook, which is the little stream next eastward of Phillips's Pond, and runs out at the bounds between Lynn and Salem. [It may be mentioned, in passing, that there is another little stream, bearing the name Beaver Brook, in the western part of Lynn. It crosses Walnut street and flows through the low lands in the rear of the alms- house, to Saugus river.] Henry Mayo bought Fishing Point, which is the point next east of Swampscot, which he sold, 10 March, 1696, to Walter Phillips, for £140. Mr. Humfrey's house, and the land adjacent, was bought by Hon. Ebenezer Burrill, in whose family it remained until 1797, when it was bought by Robert Hooper of Marblehead. In 1842, his daughter Hannah, widow of Hon. William Reed, sold it to Enoch Reding- ton Mudge, Esq., who built, near the old house, a beautiful Gothic stone cottage, worthy of the olden time.
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