USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 36
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 36
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynnfield > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 36
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 36
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 36
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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
[Hon. Ebenezer Burrill died, 6 September, aged 82. He was a conspicuous and useful man in the province. A brief bio- graphical sketch of him may be found elsewhere in this volume.]
1763.
Mr. John Treadwell was ordained minister of the first parish, on the 2d of March.
There was at this time in the town a man named Robert Bates, who had such a facility for rhyming that he usually made his answers in that manner. Many of these have been related, but I only notice one. The tax gatherer called on him one day, and addressed him thus : " Mr. Bates, can you pay your rates ?" to which he replied: "My dear honey, I have no money; I
* The word "henchman" signifies a warder or watchman. [It now signi- fies rather a page, an attendant, one who waits on the person.]
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1764, 1765, 1766.
can't pay you now, unless I sell my cow; I will pay you half, when I kill my calf; but if you'll wait till fall, I'll pay you all."
1764.
The Boston Gazette, of October 21, says: "It is certain that women's shoes, made at Lynn, do now exceed those usually imported, in strength and beauty, but not in price. Surely then, it is expected, the public spirited ladies of the town and province will turn their immediate attention to this branch of manufacture."
[The bridge over Saugus river was rebuilt this year, the county bearing two thirds of the expense.]
December 28. Mr. Robert Wait was found dead on the marsh, near Saugus river.
1765.
Among the encroachments of the arbitrary power of the mother country, was the attempt to impose taxes upon the colonies without their consent. Those taxes were at first levied in the form of duties; but the people objected to this incipient plan of raising a revenue for the support of a govern- ment in which they had no action, and their opposition eventu- ated in the establishment of their independence.
This year an act was passed by the Parliament of England, called the Stamp Act, requiring the people of the American colonies to employ papers stamped with the royal seal, in all mercantile and legal transactions. This act called forth a gen- eral spirit of opposition, particularly in Boston, where, on the night of the 26th of August, a party of the people collected, and nearly demolished the house of Lieutenant Governor Hutch- inson, and several others. In many other places the people manifested their displeasure, by tolling bells, and burning the effigies of the stamp officers.
1766.
This year the stamp act was repealed. The people of Lynn manifested their joy by ringing the bell and making bonfires. On the first of December, they directed their representative, Ebenezer Burrill, Esquire, to use his endeavors to procure an act to compensate Mr. Hutchinson, and others, for their losses in the riot of the preceding year.
[Ebenezer Mansfield, of Lynnfield, aged 18, dropped down dead in the street, on the 10th of January. And Ensign Ebe- nezer Newhall, of the same place, died on the 22d of June, aged 73, " of something supposed to breed within him."]
On Saturday, the 8th of February, an English brig, from Hull, was cast away on Pond Beach, on the south side of Nahant.
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1768, 1769, 1770.
1768.
[There were made in Lynn, during the year ending 1 January, 80.000 pairs of shoes, as appears by a statement in the Boston Palladium, of the 6th of February, 1827.
[At half past nine, on the evening of the 6th of August, the aurora borealis appeared in a complete arch, extending from the northwest to the southeast, and "almost as bright as a rainbow." This must have been similar to the remarkable appearance on the night of 28 August, 1827.]
On the 7th of November, John Wellman and Young Flint were drowned in the Pines river, and their bodies taken up the next day.
A catamount was killed by Joseph Williams, in Lynn woods.
1769.
A snow storm on the 11th of May, continued twelve hours.
On Wednesday evening, July 19, a beautiful night arch ap- peared. It was widest in the zenith, and terminated in a point at each horizon. The color was a brilliant white, and it con- tinued most of the evening.
On the 8th of August, as a party were going on board a schooner, in the harbor, for a sail of pleasure, the canoe, in which were six women and two men, was overset, and two of the party drowned. These were Anna Hood, aged 23, daughter of Benjamin Hood, and Alice Bassett, aged 17, daughter of Daniel Bassett.
In a very great storm, on the 8th of September, several buildings were blown down, and a sloop driven ashore at Nahant.
1770.
After the repeal of the stamp act, the English Parliament, in 1767, passed an act imposing duties on imported paper, glass, paints and tea. This again awakened the opposition of the colonies. The General Court of Massachusetts, in 1768, pub- lished a letter, expressing their firm loyalty to the king, yet their unwillingness to submit to any acts of legislative op- pression. This letter displeased the English government, the General Court was dissolved, and seven armed vessels, with soldiers, were sent from Halifax to Boston, to ensure tranquil- lity. On the 5th of March, 1770, a part of these troops, being assaulted by some of the people of Boston, fired upon them, and killed four men. The soldiers were imprisoned, tried, and acquitted.
On the 12th of April, the duties on paper, glass, and paints, were repealed; but the duty on tea, which was three pence on
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1772.
& pound, remained. On the 24th of May, the inhabitants of Lynn held a meeting, in which they passed the following reso- lutions.
1. Voted, We will do our endeavor to discountenance the use of foreign tea.
2. Voted, No person to sustain any office of profit, that will not comply with the above vote.
3. Voted, No taverner or retailer shall be returned to sessions, that will not assist in discountenancing the use of said tea; and the selectmen to give it as a reason to the sessions.
4. Voted, unanimously, That we will use our endeavors to promote our own manufactures amongst us.
The disaffection against the English government, appears to have been occasioned, not so much by the amount of the duty on the tea, as by the right which it implied in that government to tax the people of America without their consent. The colonies had always admitted their allegiance to the English crown; but as they had no voice in parliament, it was ungen- erous, if not unjust, in that parliament, to impose any taxes which were not necessary for their immediate benefit.
[Canker worms committed great ravages this year.]
A great storm, on the 19th of October, raised the tide higher than had been known for many years.
[A disease among potatoes prevailed extensively this year. It appears to have been similar to that which began to prevail in this vicinity about the year 1850, and has shown itself in a greater or less degree every year since- called the potato rot.]
1772 ..
Mr. Sparhawk, of Lynnfield, in his diary, thus remarks : " An amazing quantity of snow fell in the month of March, such as I never knew in the time that I have lived." On the 5th of March, the amount of snow which fell, was sixteen inches ; on the 9th, nine inches; on the 11th, eight inches; on the 13th, seven inches ; on the 16th, four inches ; and on the 20th, fifteen inches. Thus the whole amount of snow, in sixteen days, was nearly five feet on a level. [On the second Friday of April, a violent snow storm occurred. In some places the snow drifted to the depth of twelve feet.]
A fishing schooner was wrecked on Long Beach, on the 21st of March, and Jonathan Collins and William Boynton, the only two men on board, were drowned.
On the 15th of May, Abigail Rhodes, a daughter of Mr. Eleazer Rhodes, was lost. On the 24th, a great number of people went in search of her, in vain. On the second of June, another gen- eral search was made; and on the 21st of July, her bones were found in a swamp near the Pirates' Glen. There were strong
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suspicions of unfairness in regard to her death. She left a house in Boston street, in the evening, to return to a cottage in the forest, where she had been living, and was seen no more alive. Several persons were apprehened on suspicion, but as only circumstantial evidence was elicited, they were discharged.
1773.
The opposition to the duty on tea continued unremitted. The East India Company sent many cargoes to America, offering to sell it at a reduced price; but the people resolved that it should not be landed. Seventeen men, dressed like Indians, went on board the vessels in Boston harbor, broke open three hundred and forty two chests of tea, and poured their contents into the water.
A town meeting was held at Lynn, on the 16th of December, in which the following resolutions were passed.
1. That the people of the British American Colonies, by their constitution of government, have a right to freedom, and an exemption from every degree of oppression and slavery.
2. That it is an essential right of freemen to have the disposal of their own property, and not to be taxed by any power over which they have no control.
3. That the parliamentary duty laid upon tea landed in America, is, in fact, , a tax upon Americans, without their consent.
4. That the late act of parliament, allowing the East India Company to send their tea to America, on their own account, was artfully framed, for the purpose of enforcing and carrying into effect the oppressive act of parlia- ment imposing a duty upon teas imported into America; and is a fresh proof of the settled and determined designs of the ministers to deprive us of liberty, and reduce us to slavery.
5. That we highly disapprove of the landing and selling of such teas in America, and will not suffer any teas, subjected to a parliamentary duty, to be landed or sold in this town; and that we stand ready to assist our brethren of Boston, or elsewhere, whenever our aid shall be required, in repelling all attempts to land or sell any teas poisoned with a duty.
The tea fever raged very high at this time, especially among the ladies. A report having been put in circulation through the town, that Mr. James Bowler, who had a bake-house and a little shop, on Water Hill, had a quantity of tea in store, a com- pany of women went to his house, demanded the tea, and destroyed it. This exploit was certainly as great a piece of patriotism on their part, as that performed in Boston harbor the same year, and deserves to be sung in strains of immortality. Slander, however, who is always busy in detracting from real merit, asserted that the women put on extra pockets on that memorable night, which they filled with the fragrant leaf, for their own private consumption.
A deer was this year started in the Malden woods, and chased by some hunters, through Chelsea, to the Lynn marsh. He C2 22
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1774, 1775.
plunged into the Saugus river, and attempted to gain the oppo- site shore ; but some Lynn people, coming down the river in a boat, approached and throwing a rope over his horns, brought him ashore at High Point.
1774.
The destruction of the tea at Boston, gave great offence to the English government, and an act was passed, by which the harbor of Boston was closed against the entrance or departure of any vessels. The inhabitants of Lynn held several meetings, in which they expressed their disapprobation of the shutting of the port of Boston, and their abhorrence of every species of tyranny and oppression.
On the 7th of October, a congress of delegates from the several towns of Massachusetts, assembled at Salem, to consider the state of affairs. The delegates from Lynn were Ebenezer Burrill, Esq., and Capt. John Mansfield. They made addresses to Governor Gage, and to the clergy of the province, chose a committee of safety, and recommended measures for the regula- tion of the public conduct. [Governor Gage, in fact, called this assembly, as a regular General Court, though he afterward rescinded his call. But they convened, and presently resolved themselves into what was essentially a provincial congress.]
The night of October 25th was one of surpassing splendor. The northern lights cast a luminous night arch across the hea- vens, from the eastern to the western horizon.
1775.
On the morning of Wednesday, the 19th of April, the inhabit- ants of Lynn were awakened, by the information that a detach- ment of about eight hundred troops, had left Boston, in the night, and were proceeding toward Concord. On receiving the intelligence that the troops had left Boston, many of the inhabtants of Lynn immediately set out, without waiting to be organized, and with such weapons as they could most readily procure. One man, with whom I was acquainted, had no other equipments than a long fowling-piece, without a bayonet, a horn of powder, and a seal-skin pouch, filled with bullets and buck shot. The English troops arrived at Lexington, a little before five in the morning, where they fired upon the inhabitants, assembled in arms before the meeting-house, and killed eight men. They then proceeded to Concord, where they destroyed some military stores; but being opposed by the militia, they soon began to retreat. The people from Lynn met them at Lexington, on their return, and joined in firing at them from the walls and fences. In one instance, says my informant, an Eng- lish soldier coming out of a house, was met by the owner.
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ANNALS OF LYNN- 1775.
They leveled their pieces at each other, and firing at the same instant, both fell dead. The English had sixty-five men killed, the Americans fifty. Among these were four men from Lynn, who fell in Lexington.
1. Mr. Abednego Ramsdell. He was a son of Noah Ramsdell, and was born 11 September, 1750. He had two brothers, older than himself, whose names were Shadrach and Meshech. He married Hannah Woodbury, 11 March, 1774, and resided in the eastern part of Essex street. He had gone out early on that morning to the sea shore, with his gun, and had killed a couple of black ducks, and was returning with them, when he heard the alarm. He immediately threw down the birds, and set off. He was seen passing through the town, running in haste, with his stockings fallen over his shoes. He arrived at Lexington about the middle of the day, and fell immediately.
2. Mr. William Flint. He married Sarah Larrabee, 5 June, 1770.
3. Mr. Thomas Hadley. His wife, Rebecca, was drowned, at Lynnfield, in the stream above the mill pond, into which she probably fell, in attempting to cross it, on the 9th of January, 1771. She had left her house to visit an acquaintance, and not returning, was searched for. On the 26th her body was found.
4. Mr. Daniel Townsend. He was born 26 December, 1738. A stone has been erected to his memory, at Lynnfield, with the following inscription.
Lie, valiant Townsend, in the peaceful shades; we trust, Immortal honors mingle with thy dust.
What though thy body struggled in its gore ?
So did thy Saviour's body, long before ;
And as he raised his own, by power divine,
So the same power shall also quicken thine, And in eternal glory mayst thou shine.
[He left a wife and five young children. The Essex Gazette, of 2 May, in a brief obituary, speaks of him as having been a constant and ready friend to the poor and afflicted; a good adviser in cases of difficulty ; a mild, sincere, and able reprover. In short, it adds, " he was a friend to his country, a blessing to society, and an ornament to the church of which he was a member." And then are added, as original, the lines given above. The obituary notice and lines were probably written by some patriotic friend, the latter being transferred to the stone, when it was erected.]
In the number of the wounded, was Timothy Munroe, of Lynn. He was standing behind a house, with Daniel Townsend, firing at the British troops, as they were coming down the road, in their retreat toward Boston. Townsend had just fired, and
i
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ANNALS OF LYNN- 1775.
exclaimed, " There is another redcoat down," when Munroe, looking round, saw, to his astonishment, that they were com- pletely hemmed in by the flank guard of the British army, who were coming down through the fields behind them. They immediately ran into the house, and sought for the cellar; but no cellar was there. They looked for a closet, but there was none. All this time, which was indeed but a moment, the balls were pouring through the back windows, making havoc of the glass. Townsend leaped through the end window, carrying the sash and all with him, and instantly fell dead. Munroe followed, and ran for his life. He passed for a long distance between both parties, many of whom discharged their guns at him. As he passed the last soldier, who stopped to fire, he heard the redcoat exclaim, "Damn the Yankee ! he is bullet proof- let him go !" Mr. Munroe had one ball through his leg, and thirty- two bullet holes through his clothes and hat. Even the metal buttons of his waistcoat were shot off. He kept his clothes until he was tired of showing them, and died in 1808, aged 72 years. Mr. Joshua Felt was also wounded, and Josiah Breed was taken prisoner, but afterward released.
[The battle of Lexington appears to have been sometimes called the battle of Menotomy, probably from the fact that the portion of Cambridge lying contiguous to Lexington, and in which a part of the battle was fought, was at that time called Menotomy - the same territory now constituting West Cam- bridge. Thus, in the Essex Gazette, of 8 June, appears the following advertisement : "LOST, in the battle of Menotomy, by Nathan Putnam, of Capt. Hutchinson's company, who was then badly wounded, a French firelock, marked D. No. 6, with a marking iron on the breech. Said Putnam carried it to a cross road near a mill. Whoever has said gun in possession, is de- sired to return it to Col. Mansfield, of Lynn, or to the selectmen of Danvers, and they shall be rewarded for their trouble."]
The war was now begun in earnest. On the 23d of April, the people of Lynn chose a committee of safety, to consult measures. of defense. This committee consisted of Rev. John Treadwell, minister of the first parish, Rev. Joseph Roby, minister of the third parish, and Deacon Daniel Mansfield. A company of alarm men was organized, under the command of Lieutenant Harris Chadwell. Three watches were stationed each night; one at Sagamore Hill, one at the south end of Shepard street, and one at Newhall's Landing, on Saugus river. No person was allowed to go out of the town without permission, and the people carried their arms to the place of public worship. Mr. Treadwell, always foremost in patriotic proceedings, ap- peared, on the Sabbath, with his cartridge box under one arm, and his sermon under the other, and went into the pulpit with
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1776.
his musket loaded. [The Provincial Congress, in June, recom- mended the carrying of arms to meeting, on Sundays and other days when worship was held, by the men who lived within twenty miles of the sea coast.]
On the 17th of June, was fought the memorable battle of Bunker Hill. The Lynn regiment was commanded by Colonel John Mansfield. The English, in the battle, lost two hundred and twenty-six men killed, and the Americans one hundred and thirty-nine.
For many years the tavern in Saugus was kept by Zaccheus Norwood, and after his death, by his widow, who married Josiah Martin, who then became landlord, as tavern keepers were then called. In 1775, he enlisted in the war, and Mr. Jacob Newhall then took the tavern, which he kept through the Revolution, and until the year 1807.
1776.
In January, the English troops were quartered at Boston, and the American at Cambridge, separated by Charles river. It was the intention of General Putnam to cross over to Boston, as soon as the river should become sufficiently frozen. Three of his soldiers, one of whom was Henry Hallowell, of Lynn, hearing of this design, set out to try the strength of the ice, by throwing a large stone before them. A party of about fifty of the English soldiers, on the opposite shore, commenced firing at them; which they only regarded by mocking with their voices the noise of the bullets. They continued on the ice till the English party retired; when, thinking they had gone to procure a cannon, they returned, after picking up more than seventy balls on the ice, which they presented to General Put- nam, as trophies of their venturesome exploit. The soldiers from Lynn were under 'command of Capt. Ezra Newhall.
On the 21st of May, the people of Lynn voted, that the min- isters should be invited to attend the annual town meetings, to begin them with prayer. I was once at the meeting of a town , in New Hampshire, in which this practice prevails, and was convinced of its propriety. There are occasions on which prayer is made, which are of less apparent importance than the choice of men, to govern the town or commonwealth, and to make laws on which the welfare and perhaps the lives of the people may depend.
A company of soldiers was furnished for an expedition to Canada. On the 2d of August, the town allowed them fifteen pounds each, and voted that ten pounds should be given to any person who would voluntarily enlist.
An alarm was made, at midnight, that some of the English troops had landed on King's beach. In a short time the town C2*
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ANNALS OF LYNN -1777.
was all in commotion. Many persons left their houses and fled into the woods. Some families threw their plate into the wells, and several sick persons were removed. Some self-possession, however, was manifested. Mr. Frederick Breed, for his exer- tions in rallying the soldiers and marching them to Woodend, where he found the alarm to be false, received a commission in the army, and afterward rose to the rank of colonel. [There was a tavern kept in the old house now standing on Federal street, corner of Marion, by Increase Newhall. It was an alarm station; that is, a place to which, when an alarm occurred, the enrolled men in the district instantly repaired for duty. At this King's beach alarm, it is said that the officer whose duty it was to take command, did not appear, and after the soldiers returned, all safe, he emerged from an oven, in which, panic- stricken, he had concealed himself.]
1777.
Rev. Benjamin Adams was born at Newbury, in the year 1719, and graduated at Harvard University, in 1738. He was ordained minister of the second parish, now Lynnfield, November 5, 1755, and died May 4, 1777, aged 58, having preached twenty-one years. He married Rebecca Nichols, and had seven children ; Rebecca, Dr. Benjamin, Elizabeth, Sarah, Ann, Joseph and Na- than ; the two latter being twins.
[The Friends established a school in Lynn, this year. John Pope was master.
[Vaccination was not practised at this time, and great fears, were excited whenever the small pox made its appearance. It was customary for companies to retire to convenient places, provide themselves with nurses and all things necessary, and then be inoculated with small pox. Taken in this way, the disease was thought to be milder. At all events, it was less likely to prove fatal, because of the more favorable circum- stances under which it might be had. The following memoran- dum relates to a Lynn company : "Lynn, May 14, 1777. There was a company of us went to Marblehead to have the small pox. We had for our doctors, Benjamin B. Burchstead and Robert Deaverix, and for our nurse, Amos Breed. Hired a house of Gideon Phillips - viz. Abraham Breed, Jonathan Phillips, William Breed, Simeon Breed, Richard Pratt, jr., Nathan Breed, jr., Rufus Newhall, James Breed, jr., John Curtin, jr., James Fairne, jr., William Newhall, jr., David Lewis, Micajah Alley, Jabez Breed, jr., Micajah Newhall, Paul Farrington, Ebenezer Porter, William Johnson, Amos Newhall - making nineteen in the whole; and all came home well." The above was copied from the original, which was handed to me, some thirty years ago, by the Richard Pratt, jr., whose name appears as one
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1780.
of the company; and he assured me that he had carried the same in his pocket, from the day of its date - more than fifty- five years. It was accompanied by this certificate : "M'head, June 4th, 1777. By virtue of this certificate permitt ye within mention'd person, after being smok'd, to pass ye guards. John Gerry."]
In the winter of this year, John Lewis, aged 26, and Benja- min, aged 15, brothers, of Lynn, died on board the Jersey prison ship, in the harbor of New York. Their deaths were principally occasioned by severe treatment, and by unwholesome food pre- pared in copper vessels.
1780.
The town of Lynn granted as much money as would purchase twenty-seven hundred silver dollars, to pay the soldiers. Within two years, the town granted seventy thousand pounds, old tenor, to defray their expenses. The principal money in circulation was the paper money issued by Congress, which had greatly depreciated. A soldier of the Revolution says, that in 1781, he sold seventeen hundred and eighty dollars of paper money, for thirty dollars in silver.
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