USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 34
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 34
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynnfield > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 34
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 34
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 34
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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
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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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ANNALS OF LYNN~1720.
1
Gage's History of Rowley, page 20, appears this statement : "It is understood that this Jeremiah Shepard was not a member of any church, having made no public profession of religion at the time he preached at Rowley and Ipswich." He commenced his labors at Rowley, in February, 1673, and continued there some three years. Gage remarks that he was the cause of much trouble in the church and town of Rowley. The town made him a grant, 12 December, 1673, "of £50 and one load of wood from each man who has a team, for his work in the ministry " for that year. And they further agreed, in 1674, to give him £50 a year, so long as he continued to preach for them. There was, however, even then, a respectable minority who dissented. The troubles increased, and in 1676, obstinate hostility existed between his adherents and opponents. Before this year closed, it became apparent that his adversaries had risen to a decided majority. At a town meeting held 30 January, 1677, a motion was made to "invite Mr. Shepard to establish a monthly lecture." But it failed, and a motion to reconsider was unsuccessful, when the meeting " brake up in confusion." Mr. Shepard sued for his salary of that year, and his suit was con- tested. Judgment was given in his favor at the Ipswich court, and the town appealed to the Court of Assistants. Finally, he took £20 as payment in full. The discord attained such an extremity that the General Court was appealed to. And that august body, in warm terms, uttered their mandate against all irregular proceedings, declaring that they had by law " made provision for the peace of the churches and a settled ministry in each town." What their precise view on the questions imme- diately concerning Mr. Shepard was, does not seem perfectly clear; but they order that certain of his leading friends, as abettors in the turbulence, " be admonished, and pay, as costs, £6.7.8;" which they certainly would not have done had they deemed them innocent. Mr. Shepard left Rowley, soon after, and went to Chebacco parish, Ipswich, now the town of Essex, where he remained a short time, and then, in 1679, came to Lynn. I have given these passages in his life as exhibiting points of character which Mr. Lewis does not appear to have observed. And a biography is never perfect without at least a: glimpse at every principal trait. Mr. Shepard was compara- tively young, at the time he preached at Rowley ; and no doubt as he gathered experience saw more and more clearly the neces- sity of restraining his natural temper; yet it would occasionally assert itself, to the end of his days.]
The name of Mr. Shepard's wife was Mary. [And she was a daughter of Francis Wainwright, of Ipswich.] She died March 28, 1710, aged fifty-three years. He had nine children; 1. Hannah, born 1676, married John Downing, of Boston, 1698. A2*
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1720.
2. Jeremiah, born 1677, died 1700. 3. Mehetabel, died 1688. 4. Nathaniel, born June 16, 1681, removed to Boston. 5. Mar- garet, died 1683. 6. Thomas, born August 1, 1687, died 1709. 7. Francis, died 1692. 8. John, married Alice Tucker, 1722. 9. Mehetabel second, married Rev. James Allin of Brookline, 1717.
The following epitaph was transcribed from the grave stone of Mr. Shepard, with much difficulty, having become nearly obliterated by the dilapidations of time.
Elijah's mantle drops, the prophet dies, His earthly mansion quits, and mounts the skies. So Shepherd's gone.
His precious dust, death's prey, indeed is here,
But 's nobler breath 'mong seraphs does appear ;
He joins the adoring crowds about the throne,
He's conquered all, and now he wears the crown.
Rev. Nathaniel Henchman, who had been invited, in February, to settle as a colleague with Mr. Shepard, was ordained minister of the first parish, in December. His salary was £115; and he received £160, as a settlement. Twenty persons, " called Qua- kers," were exempted, some entirely and others in part, from the payment of parish taxes.
Rev. Nathaniel Sparhawk was ordained minister of the second parish, now Lynnfield, on the 17th of August. His salary was £70.
Mr. John Lewis was master of the grammar school. The school was kept in four places ; on the Common, at Woodend, in the west parish, and in the north parish. [It is probably intended by this phraseology that the grammar school was a circulating institution; not that there were four schools, but one school kept a part of the time in each of four places. Yet John Lewis was not the only schoolmaster in Lynn about this time. Samuel Dexter, a son of John Dexter, of Malden, and afterward minister of the first church in Dedham, taught here. In his diary he says: "Then being Desirous, if it might be, to Live nigher my friends, by ye Motion of some, I was invited to keep ye School at Lyn. Wrfore, Quitting my school at Taunton, I accepted of the Proffers made at Lyn, and, Feb. 17, 1720-21, I Began my School at Lyn, in weh I Continued a year ; and upon ye Day yt my Engagement was up there A Committee from Maldon Came to treat with me in Reference to Maldon school : wch proposalls I Complyed with & kept yr school for abt six weeks & then was mostly, to the present time, [4 Dec. 1722,] Improv'd in preaching." He was a graduate of Harvard College, and at the time of taking the school in Lynn, was twenty years of age. Some of his descendants became eminent for their talents.]
Kipp the Latin School
Lãs moved to Hall.
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1721, 1722, 1723.
The General Court ordered fifty thousand pounds to be emit- ted in bills of credit. Of this, Lynn received £124.4 as its proportion, which was loaned at five per cent. This money, which was afterward called Old Tenor, soon began to depreciate; and in 1750, forty-five shillings were estimated at one dollar.
1721.
The small pox prevailed in New England. In Boston, more than eight hundred persons died. If the small-pox of 1633 was a judgment upon the Indians, for their erroneous worship, was not this equally a judgment upon the inhabitants of Boston ? Some men are very free in dealing out the judgments of God to their enemies, while they contrive to escape from the conse- quence of their own reasoning. If a misfortune comes upon one who differs from their opinions, it is the vengeance of heaven ; but when the same misfortune becomes their own, it is only a trial. One might suppose that the observation of Solomon, that " all things happen alike to all men," and that still more pertinent remark of our Saviour, respecting the Tower of Siloam, would teach men understanding. (Luke 13 : 4.) But though he spoke so plainly, how many do not rightly understand the doctrine of that inimitable Teacher.
[The Hon. John Burrill, of Lynn, then a Councillor, died of the dreaded disease, 10 December, aged 63 years. He was one of the most eminent men that Lynn, or indeed the colony ever produced. A biograpical notice of him appears elsewhere in this volume.]
1722.
Between the years 1698 and 1722, there were killed in Lynn woods and on Nahant, four hundred and twenty-eight foxes ; for most of which the town paid two shillings each. In 1720, the town voted to pay no more for killing them, and the number since this time is unrecorded. We have also no account of the immense multitude which were killed during the first seventy years of the town. If these animals were as plenty in the neigh- borhood of Zorah, as they were at Lynn, Samson probably had little difficulty in obtaining his alleged number.
1723.
[A terrific storm took place on Sunday, 24 February. The tide rose to an unusual height. Mr. Dexter says, in his diary, there was "ye mightyest overflowing of ye sea yt was almost ever known in this Country." Rev. Thomas Smith, in his jour- nal notes it as "the greatest storm and highest tide that has been known in the country." And on the 16th of the preceding January he says, "This month has been the hottest that ever
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1723.
was felt in the country." The hottest January, he probably means. The Boston News Letter, referring to the storm, says, " the water flowed over our Wharffs and in our Streets to a very surprising height. They say the Tide rose 20 Inches higher than ever was known before. The storm was very strong at North-east."
[It is probable that the old Friends' meeting-house was built this year, succeeding the one "raised on Wolf Hill," in 1678. The land on which it stood was given to the Society by Richard Estes, "in consideration of the love and good will" he bore to " ye people of God called Quakers, in Lyn," by deed dated "this seventeenth day of the tenth month, called December in ye ninth year of the reign of King George, in the year of our Lord, ac- cording to the English account, one thousand, seven hundred and twenty two." The land was given " unto ye people afore- mentioned, to bury their dead in, and to erect a meeting house for to worship God in; I say those in true fellowship of the gospell unity with the monthly meeting, and those are to see to ye Christian burying as we have been in ye practice of." The meeting-house built this year was removed to give place to the new house, built in 1816; the same which is the present place of worship, occupying the rear of the lot and facing on Silsbe street. The old house may still be seen on Broad street, corner of Beach, where it stands, occupied by a firm engaged in the lumber business. The Friends are not high churchmen, and do not scruple, in common with most of the denominations around them, to take back an edifice that has once been solemnly dedi- cated to the service of the Lord, and devote it to worldly pur- poses. But even this is less objectionable, to the orderly mind, than so to devote it while it still remains professedly the Lord's.
[The first mill on Saugus river, at the Boston street crossing, was built this year. It was an important undertaking, and the town records exhibit the public action in the premises. A privilege was granted, 27 October, 1721, to Benjamin Potter, Jacob Newhall, and William Curtis, to erect a mill here. Bu: they did not complete their project, and, in town meeting, 8 October, 1722, "resigned up their grant to the town again." At the same meeting the privilege was granted to Thomas Chee- ver and Ebenezer Merriam, under some conditions ; William Taylor and Josiah Rhodes protesting against the grant. The mill was soon in operation. In 1729, Merriam sold out to Cheever. And in 1738, Joseph Gould, a Quaker, purchased the property. He died in 1774, and the premises became dilap- idated, and for a time remained unfit for use. They were afterward purchased by George Makepeace, extensive repairs and additions were made, and the manufacture of snuff and chocolate commenced. Mr. Makepeace, in 1801, sold the pro-
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1724, 1726, 1727.
perty to Ebenezer Larkin, of Boston, and another, though he still continued to manage the business ; and the premises were afterward re-deeded to him. On the 6th of June, 1812, Ama- riah Childs bought the estate, and continued the business many years, with success. In 1844 Mr. Childs sold to Charles Sweet- ser. Saugus is undoubtedly, directly and indirectly, greatly indebted to these mills for her prosperity.]
1724.
The eastern Indians recommenced their hostilities early in the spring. On the 17th of April they attacked a sloop from Lynn, at the mouth of Kennebunk river, commanded by Captain John Felt, of Lynn, who went there for a load of spars. He had engaged two young men, William Wormwood and Ebenezer Lewis to assist him. While standing on the raft, Capt. Felt was shot dead. Lewis fled to the mill, when a ball struck him on the head and killed him instantly. The ball was afterward found to be flattened. Wormwood ran ashore, closely pursued by several Indians, and with his back to a stump defended himself with the butt of his musket, until he was killed by several balls. They were all buried in the field near Butler's rocks, and Capt. Felt's grave stones were standing but a few years since.
1726.
A ship yard was open at Lynn, where the wharves have since been built, near Liberty Square. Between this year and 1741, two brigs and sixteen schooners were built. (Collins's Journal.) It is said that before the first schooner was launched, a great number of men and boys were employed, with pails, in filling her with water, to ascertain if she was tight. [Such a way of trying new vessels was common down to the time of the Revolution, and was not unknown for some years after.
[At the Salem Court, this year, £13.15 were awarded to Na- thaniel Potter, for three pieces of linen manufactured at Lynn.]
1727.
[The bridge over Saugus river was repaired this year, the county bearing two thirds of the expense.
[News of the death of the King was received in Lynn, 14 August, and George II. immediately proclaimed.
[" This was a very hott August, throughout," says Jeremiah Bumstead, in his diary of this year.]
An earthquake happened on the 29th of October, about twenty minutes before eleven, in the evening. The noise was like the roaring of a chimney on fire, the sea was violently agitated, and the stone walls and chimneys were thrown down. Shocks of earthquakes were continued for many weeks; and between this
21
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1728, 1729.
time and 1744, the Rev. Mathias Plant, of Newbury, has recorded nearly two hundred shocks, some of which were loud and vio- lent. [A memorandum in an interleaved almanac, made by James Jeffrey, of Salem, speaks of this as the most terrible earthquake ever known in New England, the first shock being of two minutes' duration, and there being a succession of shocks during the week. Rev. Benjamin Colman, in a letter to his daughter, dated Boston, 30 October, 1727, says: "My dear Child: No doubt you felt ye awful and terrible shock of ye Earthquake on ye last Night, about half an hour after ten; and some of ye after tremblings at eleven and before twelve again, and about three and five toward morning. Ye first shock was very great with us and very surprising. We were all awake, being but just got into bed, and were soon rais'd and sat up till two in ye morning, spending ye time in humble cries to God for our selves and our nei'bours, and in fervent praises to him for our singular preservations. Your mother and sister were ex- ceeding thankful yt I was not with you; that is to say, not absent from them, as we were proposing on thursday last. And as God has ordered it I hope it is much ye best. We long to hear from you, how you do after such a terrifying dispensation to ye whole land. We hear from Dedham, Watertown, Concord, Chelmsford, Lyn, &c. that ye shake was ye same, and about ye same time, with them that it was wth us. It remains a loud call to ye whole land to repent, fear, and give glory to God. God sanctify ye rod wch he has shook over us for our humiliation and reformation." [A fast was held throughout the province, on Thursday, 21 December, on account of the earthquake.]
The town, on the 22d of November, fixed the prices of grain ; wheat at 6s., barley and rye at 5s., Indian corn at 3s., and oats at 1s. 6d. a bushel.
1728.
The General Court having, the preceding year, issued sixty thousand pounds more, in bills of credit, the town received £130.4, as its proportion, which was loaned at four per cent.
A school house was built in Laighton's lane, now Franklin street.
1729.
A great snow storm happened on the 15th of February, during which there was much thunder and lightning.
The General Court was held at Salem, on the 28th of May, in consequence of the measles at Boston.
At the request of the first parish, Mr. Henchman relinquished his salary of £115, trusting entirely to the generosity of the people for his support ; in his own words, “ depending on what
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1730, 1731.
encouragement hath been given me, of the parish doing what may be handsome for the future." At the end of the year, the contribution amounted to £143.1.4.
1730.
On Sunday evening, 12 April, there was an earthquake.
On Monday, 24 August, " Governor Jonathan Belcher went through Lynn, and the people paid their respects to him in an extraordinary manner." (Collins.)
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