USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 29
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 29
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynnfield > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 29
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 29
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 29
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1679.
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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ANNALS OF LYNN-1679.
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.
Who hath made England to differ from other nations, that more jewels are found there than elsewhere ? or what hath that Island that it hath not received ? The East and West Indies yield their gold, and pearl, and sweet spices ; but I know where the golden, spicy, fragrant Christians be - England hath yielded these. Yet not England, but the grace of God, that hath been ever with them. We see what hope we may have concerning New England ; though we do not deserve to be named the same day with our dear mother.
In enumerating the evils with which the people of New Eng- land were obliged to contend, he says, it is cause " for humilia- tion, that our sins have.exposed us to live among such wicked sinners," with whom he ranks " Atheists and Quakers."
Mr. Whiting married two wives in England. By his first wife he had three children. Two of them were sons, who, with their mother, died in England. The other was a daughter, who came with her father to America, and married Mr. Thomas Weld, of Roxbury.
His second wife was Elizabeth St. John of Bedfordshire, to whom he was married in 1630. She was a daughter of Oliver St. John, Chief Justice of England in the time of Oliver Crom- well. She came to Lynn with her husband, and died on the
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1679.
third of March, 1677, aged 72 years. She was a woman of uncommon piety, seriousness, and discretion; and not only assisted her husband in writing his sermons, but by her care and prudence relieved him from all attention to temporal con- cerns.
[Mrs. Whiting was a sister, not a daughter, of Chief Justice St. John. Her pedigree, as given by Clifford Stanley Simms, of Philadelphia, may be found in the New England Historical and . Genealogical Register, v. 14, p. 61. It is there stated that Elizabeth St. John Whiting was sixth cousin to King Henry VII. Through the Beauchamps, she descended from the Earls of Warren and Surrey ; from the Earls of Warwick, from William the Conqueror, and from King Henry I. of France. Indeed her pedigree is traced to William the Norman, in two distinct lines ; and in her were united the lineage of ten of the sovereigns of Europe, a confluence of noble blood not often witnessed. And yet she appears to have passed her days here at Lynn, undis- turbed by ambitious yearnings, cleaving lovingly to her worthy husband, and sedulously performing the duties of a laborious pastor's wife. Surely here is an example of humility for some of the worldlings who now traverse our streets, swelling with pride if they can trace their lineage to an ancestor who bore, however ignobly, some small title, or who happened to possess, however unworthily, a few more acres or a few more dollars than the multitude around him.]
By his second wife, Mr. Whiting had six children; four sons and two daughters. One daughter married the Rev. Jeremiah Hobart of Topsfield; and one son and one daughter died at Lynn. The other three sons received an education at Cam- bridge.
1. Rev. Samuel Whiting, Jr., was born in England, 1633. He studied with his father, at Lynn, and graduated at Cam- bridge, in 1653. He was ordained minister of Billerica, 11 No- vember, 1663; preached the Artillery Election Sermon, in 1682; and died 28 February, 1713, aged 79 years. The name of his wife was Dorcas, and he had ten children. 1. Elizabeth. 2. Samuel. 3. Rev. John, minister at Lancaster; where he was killed by the Indians, 11 September, 1697, at the age of 33. 4. Oliver. 5. Dorothy. 6. Joseph. 7. James. 8. Eunice. 9. Benjamin. 10. Benjamin, again.
2. Rev. John Whiting, graduated at Cambridge, in 1653. He returned to England, became a minister of the Church, and died at Leverton, in Lincolnshire, 11 October, 1689, very exten- sively respected.
3. Rev. Joseph Whiting, graduated in 1661. He was ordained . at Lynn, 6 October, 1680, and soon after removed to Southamp- ton, on Long Island. He married Sarah Danforth, of Cambridge,
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ANNALS OF LYNN- 1680.
daughter of Thomas Danforth, Deputy Governor. He had six children, born at Lynn. 1. Samuel, born 3 July, 1674. 2. Jo- seph, b. 22 Nov. 1675. 3. Joseph, again, b. 8 May, 1677. 4. Thomas, b. 20 May, 1678. 5. Joseph, again, b. 14 Jan. 1680. 6. John, b. 20 Jan. 1681. All except the first and sixth, died within a few weeks of their birth.
Of the descendants of Mr. Whiting, now [1844] living, are the Rev. Samuel Whiting, minister at Billerica ; and Henry Whiting, an officer in the service of the United States, and author of a beautiful little Indian tale, entitled Ontwa, or the Son of the Forest.
[Caroline Lee Hentz, one of the most esteemed of American prose writers, descended from this venerable minister of the Lynn church. She was a daughter of Gen. John Whiting, who did good service in the Revolution, and died at Washington, in 1810. And Gen. Henry Whiting, of the United States army, quite distinguished also for his literary attainments, was a bro- ther of hers. She was born at Lancaster, Mass., in 1800, and was married in 1825, at Northampton, to Mr. N. M. Hentz, a French gentleman of education and talents, who was at that time, in connection with George Bancroft, the historian, con- ducting a seminary at Northampton. Soon after marriage, they removed to North Carolina, where Mr. Hentz became a profes- sor in the college at Chapel Hill. They afterward lived at Covington, Ky .; then at Cincinnati; and then at Florence, Ala., where they established a flourishing seminary. In 1843, they removed their school to Tuscaloosa, Florida; and afterward they resided at Columbus, Ga. Mrs. Hentz died at the resi- dence of her son, Dr. Charles A. Hentz, at Mariana, Florida, in 1856. And within a year afterward, her accomplished husband died at the same place. Hon. Jeremiah Mason, the distinguished lawyer and United States Senator, from New Hampshire, who died at Boston, 4 October, 1848, aged 80, was a descendant from Mr. Whiting; and the late Rev. Dr. Charles Mason, rector of Grace Church, Boston, son of Jeremiah, was conspicuous for his talents and piety.
[In May, of this year, a new troop was formed at Lynn, con- sisting of forty-eight men, who petitioned the General Court that Capt. Richard Walker might be appointed commander. The magistrates named Walker, for captain; Ralph King, lieutenant ; John Lewis, cornet; and William Bassett, quarter-master.]
1680.
[On the 9th of June, the town of Groton voted to give Thomas Beall, of Lynn, tanner, ten acres of land, provided he would go and live there, " and be not alienating or selling it." Probably he did not accept the offer, for on the 14th of August, 1691,
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the town of Lynn voted, " that Thomas Beall should live in the watch house."
[Joseph Armitage died this year. In the administration ac- count, filed in July, occur these items : "For coffin, vaile, and digging the grave, 14s. In wine and Sider, for his buriall, £2."]
On the 6th of October, Mr. Jeremiah Shepard was ordained pastor, and Mr. Joseph Whiting teacher, of the church at Lynn.
On the 18th of November, a very remarkable comet made its appearance, and continued about two months. The train was thirty degrees in length, very broad and bright, and nearly attained the zenith. A memorandum on a Bible leaf, thus re- marks : " A blazing star, at its greatest height, to my appre- hension, terrible to behold." It was regarded by most people with fear, as the sign of some great calamity. This was the comet on which Sir Isaac Newton made his interesting obser- vations. While the party, who were predominent in religious affairs, were noting every misfortune which befell those of a different opinion, as the judgments of God; they, on the other hand, regarded the earthquakes, the comets, and the blighting of the wheat, as manifestations of his displeasure against their
persecutors. [Judge Sewall remarks, in an interleaved almanac, about the time the comet disappeared, " And thus is this prodi- gious spectacle removed, leaving the world in a fearful expecta- tion of what may follow. Sure it is that these things are not sent for nothing, though man cannot say particularly for what. They are by most thought to be forerunners of evil coming upon the world, though some think otherwise." So, it appears, there were some above the common superstitions of the time. The period of this comet being five hundred and seventy-five years, it will not again appear till the year 2255. And how inconceivable must be the distance that it journeys into space, moving as it does in the known portions of its orbit, with start- ling rapidity. Increase Mather, in his introduction to a lecture, remarks, " As for the blazing star which hath occasioned this discourse, it was a terrible sight indeed, especially about the middle of December last."]
Dr. Philip Read, of Lynn, complained to the court at Salem, of Mrs. Margaret Gifford, as being a witch. She was a respect- able woman, and wife of Mr. John Gifford, formerly agent for the Iron Works. The complainant said, "he verily believed that she was a witch, for there were some things which could not be accounted for by natural causes." Mrs. Gifford gave no regard to her summons, and the Court very prudently suspended their inquiries.
" We present the wife of John Davis, of Lynn, for breaking her husband's head with a quart pot." (Essex Court Rec.)
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1681, 1682.
1681.
[Samuel Worcester a representive to the General Court, from Bradford, died in the road, on the night of 20 February, in what is now Saugus, on his way to Boston, to attend an adjourned session. He was a son of Rev. William Worcester, and was a man distinguished for his piety and enterprise. He had walked from Bradford, and, much wearied, gained the tavern at Saugus. Being unable to obtain accommodation there, he endeavored to reach the house of a friend. In the morning, he was found dead, in the middle of the road, in a kneeling posture. He was of the family from which Rev. Dr. Worcester, the congregational minister who for some time supplied the pulpit at Swampscot, descended.]
In town meeting, on the 2d of March, the people voted that Mr. Shepard should be allowed eighty pounds, lawful money, a year, for his salary ; one third of which was to be paid in money, and the other two thirds in articles of domestic production, at stipulated prices. Besides the salary, a contribution was kept open.
[A great drought prevailed during the summer months. The growing crops were injured to the amount of many thousand pounds. "Yet God hath gratiously left vs enough for a meat and drink offering," piously adds Bradstreet, in his journal.
[The Court passed an order that Lynn might have two licensed public houses.]
1682.
The Meeting House was this year removed from Shepard street to the centre of the Common and rebuilt. It was fifty feet long, and forty-four wide. It had folding doors on three sides, without porches. The top of each door was formed into two semicircular arches. The windows consisted of small dia- mond panes set in sashes of lead. The floor was at first supplied with seats ; and pews were afterward separately set up by indi- viduals, as they obtained permission of the town. By this means the interior came at length to present a singular appearance. Some of the pews were large, and some small; some square, and some oblong; some with seats on three sides, and some with a seat on one side ; some with small oak panels, and some with large pine ones ; and most of them were surmounted by a little balustrade, with small columns, of various patterns, accord- ing to the taste of the proprietors. Most of the square pews had a chair in the centre, for the comfort of the old lady or gentle- man, the master or mistress of the family, by whom it was occu- pied. One pew, occupied by black people, was elevated above the stairs in one corner, near to the ceiling. [Meeting-house X
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1682.
pews are considered to have been a New England invention.] The galleries were extended on three sides, supported by six oak columns, and guarded by a turned balustrade. They were ascended by two flights of stairs, one in each corner, on the south side. The pulpit was on the north side, and sufficiently large to contain ten persons. The top of the room was unceiled for many years, and exhibited enormous beams of oak, travers- ing the roof in all directions. The light from the diamond windows in the gables shining down upon the great oak beams, presented quite a picturesque appearance. The roof presented four pediments .; and was surmounted by a cupola, with a roof in the form of an inverted tunnel. It had a small bell, which was rung by a rope descending in the centre of the room. The town meetings continued to be held in this house till 1806. [For divers facts, traditions and legends, connected with this interest- ing edifice, see "Lin : or, Jewels of the Third Plantation." It was universally known as the Old Tunnel Meeting House, and remained on the Common till 1827. It stood opposite Whiting street.
[Noadiah Russell, tutor at Harvard College, in a journal kept by him, under date 26 March, gives an account of a remarkable thunder storm which took place in the latter part of the after- noon, it being Sunday. There was a high wind and much hail, and the stones being large, many panes of glass were broken. And he adds these remarkable details, which he says were sent in a letter from Rev. Mr. Shepard, of Lynn, to Mrs. Margaret Mitchell, of Cambridge, dated 3 April, 1682 : " Moreover, at Lyn, after sun down, as it began to be darkish, an honest old man, Mr. Handford, went out to look for a new moon, thinking the moon had changed, when in the west he espied a strange black cloud, in which, after some space, he saw a man in arms com- plete, standing with his legs straddling, and having a pike in his hands, which he held across his breast; which sight ye man, with his wife, saw, and many others. After a while yº man vanished, in whose room appeared a spacious ship, seeming under sail, though she kept the same station. They saw it, they said, as apparently as ever they saw a ship in the harbour w'h was to their imagination the handsomest of ever they saw, with a lofty stem, the head to the south, hull black, the sails bright. A long and resplendent streamer came from ye top of ye mast - this was seen for a great space, both by these and other of ye same town. After this they went in, where, tarrying but a while, and looking out again, all was gone, and ye sky as clear as ever."
[This was, no doubt, an instance of the mirage produced by atmospheric refraction. Several remarkable instances are recorded in early New England history, of which the phan-
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@BICHER RUSSELL SC.BOSTON
OLD TUNNEL MEETING HOUSE, LYNN. 1682. See p 277. In the foreground are a couple of unruly wights confined in the Stocks, likewise a Dame on her pillion taking an airing with her Good-man.
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1682.
tom ship at New Haven, furnishes an example. Similar occur- rences are often witnessed at this day, in this vicinity; but being easily accounted for, attract little attention. Our forefa- thers, not having made themselves acquainted with the natural causes of such appearances, and withal being fond of viewing themselves as objects of special notice with the powers above, awarded them supernatural honors. And their fears being ex- cited, their imaginations had assistance in filling up what was, perhaps, a very dim outline, and in rendering vivid what would otherwise have appeared very dull. And in like manner, it is probable that some things which to us appear wonderful and inexplicable, will to people of future years appear plain and natural. Mr. Lewis gives the following sketches, which aptly illustrate atmospheric phenomena occasionally seen hereabout.
PHANTOM SHIPS.
SUNRISE ON THE WATER.
[In another entry made by Mr. Russell, under date 16 August, occurs this passage: "The next day, being Fryday, I went to wait on some company to Lynspring, where, for company's sake, drinking too much cold water, I set myself in an ague wch came on again on Sabbath and on Tuesday." Does he refer to the Lynn Mineral Spring? The romantic grounds adjacent were visited by little pleasure parties at an early period.]
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1683, 1684, 1685.
1683.
This year the heirs of Major Thomas Savage sold the six hundred acres, called Hammersmith, or the lands of the Iron Works, to Samuel Appleton, who thus became possessed of the whole property. In 1688, he sold the whole to James Taylor, of Boston, who was the last proprietor of the Iron Works, of whom I have found any record. They probably ceased opera- tions about this time. [I think Mr. Lewis's statement here, concerning the time of the discontinuance of the Iron Works is more correct than his statement under date 1671, where he makes them to have been in operation, to some extent, till about the middle of century 1700.]
1684.
A letter written at Haverhill, this year, by N. Saltonstall, to the captain of a militia company, thus proceeds : "I have orders also to require you to provide a flight of colors for your foot company, the ground field or flight whereof is to be green, with a red cross in a white field in the angle, according to the ancient custom of our own English nation, and the English plantations in North America, and our own practice in our ships." This was the American standard, till the stripes and stars of 1776.
[The English High Court of Chancery, at Trinity Term, gave judgment against the Massachusetts Government and Company, " that their letters patent and the enrolment thereof be cancel- led." This was the dissolution of the beloved old Charter, and a fresh impulse was given to those political agitations which surged on till the whole aspect of things was changed; indeed till the colonies became an independent nation.]
1685.
The following singular deposition is transcribed from the files of the Quarterly Court, and is dated 1 July, 1685: "The deposition of Joseph Farr, and John Burrill, junior, testifieth and saith, that they being at the house of Francis Burrill, and there being some difference betwixt Francis Burrill and Benja- min Farr, and we abovesaid understanding that the said Benja- min Farr had been a suitor to Elizabeth Burrill, the daughter of Francis Burrill, and he was something troubled that Benjamin had been so long from his daughter, and the said Francis Burrill told the said Benjamin Farr that if he had more love to his marsh, or to any estate of his, than to his daughter, he should not go into his house ; for he should be left to his liberty ; he should not be engaged to any thing more than he was freely willing to give his daughter, if he had her; and this was about two days before they was married."
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