USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 35
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 35
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynnfield > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 35
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 35
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 35
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On the 31st of August Mr. Andrew Mansfield was killed in a well, at Lynnfield, by a stone falling on his head.
On the 22d of October, the northern lights appeared very brilliant and awful, flashing up in red streams.
1731.
The Rev. Nathaniel Sparhawk was dismissed from the pastoral charge of the north parish, now Lynnfield, on the first of July, having preached eleven years. He was a son of Mr. Nathaniel Sparhawk of Cambridge. He was born in 1694, and graduated at Harvard College in 1715. He was ordained August 17, 1720 ; and died May 7, 1732; about one year after his separation from that church. A part of his people had become dissatisfied with him, and some, whom he considered his friends, advised him to ask a dismission, in order to produce tranquillity. He asked a dismission, and it was unexpectedly granted. A committee was then chosen to wait on him, and receive the church records ; but he refused to deliver them. Soon after, he took to his bed, and is supposed to have died in consequence of his disappoint- ment. I have sixteen papers of his hand writing, the confes- sions of faith of his wife and other members of his church. He married Elizabeth Perkins, who died May 12, 1768, aged 68 years. He had four children. 1. Elizabeth, 2. Nathaniel, 3. Edward Perkins Sparhawk, born July 10, 1728, and graduated at Harvard College in 1753. He married Mehetabel Putnam, 1759. He was never ordained though he preached many times in the parishes of Essex. I have twenty-six of his manuscript sermons, and seventeen interleaved almanacs. He appears not to have approved the settlement of Mr. Adams as minister of the parish for which he was a candidate, and calls him " old Adams, the reputed teacher of Lynnfield." He is the first per- son whom I found in our records, having three names. The custom of giving an intermediate name seems not to have been common, till more than one hundred years after the settlement of New England. 4. John, born October 24, 1730, was appren- ticed as a shoemaker, and afterward became a physician in Phil- adelphia.
Rev. Stephen Chase, of Newbury, was ordained minister of
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324
ANNALS OF LYNN -1732, 1733, 1736, 1737, 1738.
the second parish, on the 24th of November. His salary was £100.
On the 3d of August, the school-house was removed from Franklin street to Water Hill.
1732.
[A severe northeast snow storm took place on the night of the 5th of April. A memorandum in an interleaved almanac says : " Very wett going to the Fast."]
On the 5th of September, there was an earthquake without noise.
In October, an epidemic cold affected most of the people in Lynn. It ranged through America, and passed to Europe. (Collins.)
1733.
A settlement was begun at Amherst, in New Hampshire, by people from Lynn.
A memorandum respecting the town Meeting, on the 5th of March, says: " At this meeting we had a great debate and strife, so that the town was much in a hubbub." (Collins.)
[The following appears on the Lynnfield church records : " Dec. ye 20, 1733, at a Chh. meeting. Voted that every. Com- municant of this Chh. shall pay three pence every Sacrament day, in Order to make provision for the Lord's table."]
1736.
The first meeting-house in the third parish, now Saugus, was built this year.
On the 4th of September, Thomas Hawkes was drowned.
1737.
On Sunday, 6 February, there was an earthquake, says Col- lins's journal.
Square toed shoes went out of fashion this year, and buckles began to be used. [It took buckles about three years to get into general use. Square toed shoes were again in use in 1833, and continued for about seven years. They are now again in fashion, and ought never to give place to the cramping round or pointed toe.]
1738.
On the 31st of March, two houses were burnt; one of which belonged to Mr. Edmund Lewis, and the other to Mr. John Hawkes.
Mr. Richard Mower was schoolmaster.
The town tax was £119.16.10.
325
ANNALS OF LYNN - 1739, 1740, 1741.
1739.
. On the 3d of March, Mr. Theophilus Burrill's barn was burnt. Rev. Edward Cheever was ordained minister of the third parish, now Saugus, on Wednesday, the 5th of December.
Mr. Edmund Lewis and Mr. Ralph Lindsey, were chosen by the town, to enforce the act of the General Court, to prevent the destruction of deer.
1740.
A fatal disease, called the throat distemper, prevailed in Lynn, and many fell victims to it. In October, six children died in one week. (Collins.)
[The summer was uncommonly wet.]
In a great snow storm, on the 17th of December, a schooner was wrecked on Nahant rocks.
The winter was exceedingly cold, with many storms. The rivers were frozen in October. Snow began to fall on Thanks- giving day, November 13, and on the 4th of April following it covered the fences. (Collins.)
1741.
The winter of 1741, was perhaps the coldest ever known in New England, since its settlement. Francis Lewis, signer of the Declaration of Independence, drove his horse from New York to Barnstable, the whole length of Long Island Sound, on the ice.
" For these 3 weeks we have had a continued series of ex- treme cold weather, so that our harbors and rivers are entirely frozen up. On Charles river a tent is erected for the entertain- ment of travellers. From Point Alderton along the south shore, the ice is continued for the space of above 20 miles." (Boston Post Boy, Jan. 12.)
" People ride every day from Stratford, Con., to Long Island, which is three leagues across, which was never known before." (Boston News Letter, March 5.)
" We hear that great numbers of horses, cattle, and sheep, are famishing for want of food. Three hundred sheep have died on Slocum's Island, and 3000 on Nantucket. Neat cattle die in great numbers." Some farmers offered half their cattle for the support of the rest till May, " but in vain." (Same, 26 March.) " Dorchester, March 28. People from Thompson's Island, Squantum, and the adjacent neighborhood, have come fifteen Sabbaths successively upon the ice to our meeting." (Same, 2 April.)
A letter dated at New London, on the ninth of July, five days later than our day of Independence, says: "There is now at B2
1
326
ANNALS OF LYNN - 1742, 1743, 1744.
Lyme on the east side of Connecticut river, at a saw mill, a body of ice, as large as two carts can draw, clear and solid, and I believe might lay there a month longer, were it not that so many resort, out of curiosity, to drink punch made of it." (Same, 27 July.)
On the 17th of July, a mass of "snow congealed into ice," lay at Ipswich, " nearly four foot thick." (Same, 22 July.)
A difference had existed for several years, between Mr. Hench- man and his parish, in consequence of their refusal to make so large an addition as he desired to his salary, on which he declined to accept it. This year he offered to preach lectures to them gratuitously, for which he received their thanks, and an increase of his salary.
Great commotions were excited in the neighboring towns, by Mr. Whitefield's preaching. In some places, meetings were held almost every evening; and exhortations and prayers were offered by women and children, which had never before been done in New England.
1742.
The Rev. George Whitefield preached in Lynn. An evening meeting on the 11th of March, is thus noticed. " This evening sundry young persons were struck, as they call it, in the reli- gious manner. This is the first of so in our town." (Collins.)
On the 18th of June, Mr. Nathaniel Collins's house was struck by lightning.
On the 12th of October, Mr. Jonathan Norwood fell from a fishing boat, near Nahant, and was taken up dead.
1743.
[A memorandum, 27 June, says, " Multitudes of worms eat almost every green thing in the ground."]
On the 13th of July, Mr. Moses Norwood, of Lynn, was drowned at Boston.
1744.
On Sunday morning, June 3d., there was an earthquake, suffi- ciently violent to throw down stone wall. It was repeated on the 20th. (Collins.)
On the 14th, a small company of men were impressed, to be sent, with other troops from Massachusetts, against the French and Indians, who were making depredations on the northern frontier. The town was furnished with a stock of powder, which was stored in a closet beneath the pulpit of the first parish meeting-house.
On the 31st of December, Mr. Theophilus Merriam was found dead on the ice, on Saugus river.
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327
ANNALS OF LYNN -1745, 1746.
1745.
On the evening of March 9th, there was a night arch.
Rev. George Whitefield came to Lynn, on the 3d of July, and requested Mr. Henchman's permission to preach in his meeting- house, which was refused. Some of the people resolved that he should have liberty to preach; and taking the great doors from Mr. Theophilus Hallowell's barn, and placing them upon some barrels, they made a stage, on the eastern part of the Common, from which he delivered his address. [The barn alluded to was an outbuilding belonging to the Hallowell house, which still stands on North Common street, the second east from St. Stephen's church. It did not then belong to Mr. Hallowell, who was not born till 1750, but to Benjamin Newhall, who built the house, and whose daughter Mr. Hallowell, many years after, married. Mr. Newhall was town clerk, and died during the Revolution.] Mr. Whitefield also delivered a dis- course, standing on the platform of the whipping-post, near the first parish meeting-house. On the first application and refusal, Mr. Henchman addressed a letter, in a printed pamphlet, to the Rev. Stephen Chase, of Lynnfield, containing reasons for declin- ing to admit Mr. Whitefield into his pulpit. Some of these reasons were that Mr. Whitefield had disregarded and violated the most solemn vow, which he took when he received orders in the Church of England, and pledged himself to advocate and maintain her discipline and doctrine - that he had intruded into places where regular churches were established -- that he used vain boasting, and theatrical gestures, to gain applause - that he countenanced screaming, trances, and epileptic fallings - that he had defamed the character of Bishop Tillotson, and slandered the colleges of New England. To this letter, Mr. William Hob- by, minister of Reading, made a reply; and Mr. Henchman rejoined in a second letter. The controversy extended through- out New England; and many pamphlets were written, both for and against Mr. Whitefield. Some good seems to have been done by him, in awakening the people to a higher sense of the importance of piety ; but seeking only to awaken them, and not direct them to the Church, of which he was a minister, they were left to form new separations, and to build up other sys- tems of faith.
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.
328
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-
329
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*
330
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- fins.) 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
331
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."7
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.
332
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.
333
ANNALS OF LYNN -1763.
1. Reasons 101 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.
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