USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Topsfield > History of Topsfield Massachusetts > Part 5
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John Wildes was in Ipswich before 1639 when he was paid 3s. by the town for service in the war with the Pequot Indians. Just how and when he acquired land in Topsfield is not known. About 1645 John Wildes married Priscilla, the daughter of Zaccheus Gould, who had moved to "New Mead- ows" the previous year. He either received a grant about the time land was given Governor Bradstreet and others, bought land from them or received some as a gift from his father-in-law. John Wildes was a carpenter. The original homestead stood on what is now Perkins Street near Mile Brook bridge. It remained in the family for many years. His home was not far from his brothers-in-law, Thomas Per- kins and John Redington. On April 9, 1690, Mr. Wildes gave all "his houses and worldly goods" to his only surviving son Ephraim. John and Jonathan had died some years earlier, undoubtedly as a result of service in the Indian War.
The father was a prominent citizen of Topsfield, holding many important offices. Ephraim, son of John and his first wife Priscilla (Gould), as constable in Topsfield during the witchcraft period, was forced to take his father's second wife, Sarah (Averill) to Salem jail where she was later condemned and executed. Ephraim's name appears as frequently as that of his father in town affairs. He had sixteen children.
John Wildes sold several parcels of land to men who also became early settlers in the town. He sold Robert Andrews
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THE EARLY SETTLERS
of Topsfield, also a carpenter, thirty acres of land 40 July 15, 1654. Soon after this, Andrews purchased 270 acres in Row- ley village, now Boxford, in two deeds dated July 1661, 41 upon which he had already built a house and improved the land. This bordered on Pye Brook and land of Zaccheus Gould and was near the Topsfield line. He still owned his Topsfield land in 1661, for in the list of commoners it is re- ferred to as "Rob't Andrews land." He continued to be identified with Topsfield people and served in the local militia. He was listed as contributing to the minister's rate in 1664. At the time of his death in 1668 he requested to be buried in Topsfield. In his will he gave his son Joseph the land in Topsfield that he "bought of John Wilds, Senr." Joseph sold the upland in 1692 to Timothy Perkins. 42 His son Robert was killed in 1675 while serving as a soldier in Capt. Gardner's Company at Narragansett fort.
February 17, 1698/9, John Wildes testified he sold land to Francis Bates "about 50 years ago, of which no deed of sale was given." Mr. Bates' name is on the list of commoners in 1661, but he sold his property in Topsfield, August 5, 1662, to William Smith for £40. In the deed it is referred to as "a small tenement. '' 43 Mr. Bates must have moved to Ipswich. On May 5, 1663, it is recorded in the Quarterly Court records that the constable of Ipswich, was ordered by the selectmen to notify Francis Bates the town was not willing to accept him as a townsman. Bates refused to move and complaint was made to the court.
When William Smith sold eight acres of upland and mead- ow to John How, January 18, 1674 44 he included : "common- age which belongs to the land or to me as being made a towns- man by being the owner of that land at the time when the town filed their commoners and I was filed a commoner which was owner of no land in Topsfield but the land above speci- fied."
It may be that William Smith was the one of Ipswich, who, together with Robert Wallis under date of March 1, 1653, leased the farm of William Goodhue of the same town for fourteen years. Mr. Goodhue was to build them a house and barn. They were to fence the farm for the first year's rent and then pay £20 annually.
40 Ipswich Registry of Deeds, book 5, page 238.
41 Ipswich Registry of Deeds, book 2, pages 49, 189.
42 Essex Registry of Deeds, book 12, leaf 155.
43 Essex Registry of Deeds, book 39, leaf 3.
44 Ipswich Registry of Deeds, book 4, page 355.
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THE HISTORY OF TOPSFIELD
Mr. Smith may have occupied the Bates house for a time. In 1675, in a deed he states he is "still a resident of Tops- field,"' 45 and the following year 46 he sold to Thomas Baker, twenty acres of land "which he bought of ffrancis Bates."
From the town records it appears that Mr. Smith later leased the parsonage. In 1685/6 he asked the town to renew the bounds there and in 1691/2 his son William asked the town to release his mother and brother Joseph from their "ingag- ments in the leace." On May 3, 1686, Joseph Estey sold Wil- liam Smith, Jr., 30 acres of land and house on Billingsgate Hill for £60.
Rev. William Perkins came from Gloucester to Topsfield about 1655, as the second minister. He acquired land before 1661 as he was then listed as a commoner. It may have been given him as minister there for it was not far from the first meeting house. Ten years later he mortgaged his house and seven acres of land to Thomas Clarke, a merchant late of Ply- mouth but then of Boston, for £20. This was bounded on the east by land of William Averill, south by a highway running between his premises and Great hill and west and north by common land on the northerly side of which stood Peabody's grist mill. It would appear that this house was in the vicinity of what was later Ridge and Perkins Streets, next to William Averill's farm. Rev. William Perkins was to pay the £20 to Thomas Clark in the city of London "within six weeks after the arrival of the ship Blessing of Boston in the river Thames, in bills of exchange charged by Perkins to his mother, Mrs. Jane Perkins, widow, dwelling at the Three Cocks on Ludgate Hill near to the west end of St. Paul's church in London. " 47
Rev. William did not meet his obligations and at the time of his death in 1682, Thomas Clarke assigned the mortgage to the former's son, Tobijah, 48 who had passed it over to his brothers, John and Timothy. These two sons shortly before their father's death, had bought from the latter twenty-eight acres of upland and meadow near the meeting house and land laid out for the ministry, 49 Four years later John sold his right in all the property to his brother Timothy, including the old home. 50 In 1698 John released for £56, all claim in his father's estate to his mother Elizabeth. 51
45 Essex Registry of Deeds, book 27, leaf 116.
46 Ipswich Registry of Deeds, book 4, page 63.
47 Ipswich Registry of Deeds, book 3, page 202.
48 Ipswich Registry of Deeds, book 4, page 78.
49 Ipswich Registry of Deeds, book 4, page 433.
50 Ipswich Registry of Deeds, book 5, page 94.
51 Essex Registry of Deeds, book 13, leaf 183.
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THE EARLY SETTLERS
The following entry of a town meeting in Ipswich 9:Feb. 1651, was copied into the Topsfield records April 17, 1684, when committees from these two towns were appointed to run the line between Ipswich and Topsfield; "granted to Ensigne Thomas Howlett six acres of Upland to be joined to the farme which he bought of Mr. Roggers wheare the said Ensigne have built his house." No other records show that Ensign Howlett bought the three hundred acres of Mr. Rogers. There was no deed and the transaction was not mentioned elsewhere. The house was located in a field off Ipswich Street near the Ipswich line. It stood on the side of a steep hill rising from the mill pond where a heap of stones marked the site of the cellar for many years. All this land is now owned by John S. Lawrence.
The first record of Thomas Howlett is found in Ipswich. "1636 March, John Winthrop and twelve others commence a settlement here, April 1st. The Court of Assistants forbid any to reside in this place, except those already come." In the list that followed appears the name of Thomas Howlett. He was granted a house lot in Ipswich in 1636 "where his house now stands" and continually held some town office or served on various committees there until he moved to the farm granted Nathaniel Rogers in Topsfield.
Soon after Ensign Howlett came to this farm located on the hillside by the brook, he and his family became closely con- nected with Topsfield affairs and prominent in its history. He was listed as a commoner there in 1661. His son Thomas Howlett, to whom he gave one hundred acres, died ten years before the father, who passed away December 2, 1677, at the age of seventy-nine. Two sons were left to represent the family. William was given the house and remaider of the farm and was made executor. Samuel was given fifty acres of land. He had been invited in 1668 to settle in Topsfield and "set up his trade of smithing to do ye Townes work." He was given four acres of land upon the "Common Hill" next to land of William Smith and John French. Here he built his house which was located off Howlett Street beyond the Capen house at the foot of the hill in the pasture on the right. It was gone before 1800. His blacksmith shop stood beside the same road before the "dry bridge" is reached. Samuel Howlett was voted a commoner March 7, 1675/6.
John French was probably a brother-in-law of Thomas Howlett. The latter had married Alice French in Ipswich about 1644. John French was a tailor by trade, and was living in Topsfield as early as March 1, 1664/5, when a
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THE HISTORY OF TOPSFIELD
daughter was born. He built a small house on what is now Howlett Street next to Samuel Howlett's. In a deed, not dated until Jan. 8, 1672, John Wild sold John French 30 acres of upland and meadow for £40 "the upland as it is laid out by Ens. Howlett, Goodman Lord and John Reddington," was bounded on the northwest by common land, southwest by William Perkins, southeast by William Smith and northeast by John Wildes, contained 26 acres. 52 John French was voted a commoner at the same meeting as Samuel Howlett. A few years before his death he deeded his homestead to his son John. In the deed 53 he gives him "all my upland and meadow with the housing which I purchased of John Wild." The son John removed to Norwich, Conn., about 1718, when the place was sold to Joseph Andrews.
Little is known about Matthew Stanley who was said to have come to Topsfield about 1659. He was in Lynn in 1646 when he was fined £5 and costs for winning the affections of Rebecca, daughter of John Tarbox, without the father's con- sent. They were not married. His wife's name is not known. He was a commoner in Topsfield in 1661 and his house was in a pasture off what is now River Street, not far from the junction of Rowley Bridge Street. A deed dated Sept. 29, 1672 from John Gould to Matthew Stanley was not recorded until Apr. 25, 1729. 54 For £27 and "one parcel of land with swamp and meadow given by my Father Zacheus Gould," Lieut John Gould deeded Mr. Stanley a piece of land number of acres not given. It was bounded by land of Gould, Thomas Perkins, John Robinson and widow Towne and on the south by Ipswich river to a "grindel run" by Gould's land "till it comes to the lift of rails where Gould goes out of the Stan- ley fence." It is quite likely that this was the land first pur- chased by Matthew Stanley of Zaccheus Gould before 1661 upon which he built his house before a deed was given as this deed further stated that Stanley was to maintain a five-rail fence from the "lift of rails by Matthew Stanley's house at the highway to the oak at Gould's highway." In 1675, Mat- thew Stanley mortgaged their farm of about 100 acres to Francis Wainwright, including the house, outbuildings, fences, orchards, woods and timber. It was bounded on the west to northeast by land of John Gould, east by John Robinson and John Todd then by a cartway to land of James Waters to "grindle brook" and on the south by Ipswich River. 55
52 Ipswich Registry of Deeds, book 4, page 376.
53 Essex Registry of Deeds, book 15, leaf 257.
54 Essex Registry of Deeds, book 54, leaf 13.
55 Ipswich Registry of Deeds, book 4, page 5.
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THE EARLY SETTLERS
On Mar. 25, 1731, William Towne, 72, and Samuel Smith, 65, testified that 58 years before a pair of bars stood before Stanley's house and was there 20 years after. They had also been informed by their ancestors it had been there many years before. The bars were on a piece of ground about 27 feet from an "old chimney back" then standing "which we know to be the back of Stanley's chimney." This shows the Stanley house had disappeared before 1731. Two years later William Towne, 74, Michael Dwinnel, 62, Hannah Clarke, 72 and Lucy Wood, 62, gave similar testimony regarding the location of the cartway out of a lift of rails "near Eleazer Lake's house he bought of the Stanleys." This way was north of the house and went from the former to "a lift before Zacheus Gould's house," which had been used more than 40 years.
Henry Lake was a weaver in Salem. On the day of his marriage with Priscilla, the daughter of John and Priscilla (Gould) Wildes, in 1681, for £24 from John Gould, his wife's uncle, and £7 from her father, Henry Lake "binds himself to give and leave with Priscilla Wildes, daughter of John the whole and entire estate I have in New England and to give no sum greater than 20 sh. from the above without her consent." On October 15, 1713, he acknowledged this "in- tended land" was later conveyed to him by deed of "uncle John Gould." 56 This deed was dated February 8, 1699 and Henry Lake paid the Goulds £34 for the 253/4 acres of land on which he built his house near the corner of what is now Prospect and River Streets. 57 It adjoined land of Zaccheus Perkins and Samuel Stanley. Before his death he sold this property to his son Eliezer. The latter also bought the Stan- ley property to the west of this on River Street where he lived. His father's home was taken down before 1798. The father did not take part in the town affairs but the son Eliezer held many town offices. Descendants of Henry Lake are still living in Topsfield. Some of the family settled in Rehoboth and others in Rindge, N. H.
Rev. Joseph Capen renounced the use of the parsonage after he became minister in Topsfield and in 1682 the town granted him twelve acres of land for his own use. It adjoined John How's land. He built his house there at the time of his marriage to Priscilla Appleton of Ipswich. At the town meet- ing March 3, 1684/5 it was voted to make Mr. Capen a com-
56 Essex Registry of Deeds, book 26, leaf 215.
57 Essex Registry of Deeds, book 16, leaf 32.
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THE HISTORY OF TOPSFIELD
moner. He left his home to his son Nathaniel and other land he had purchased was given to another son John.
While Francis Uselton's stay in Topsfield was brief, he was one of the first settlers. He and his wife were frequently in trouble and before the courts. In 1651, as servant to Henry Jacques of Newbury, he was presented "for using the name of God Profanely." In 1656 "Sary" Barnes, now the wife of Francis Uselton of Wenham was presented "for speaking re- proachfully against the minister and people at Wells." Wit- nesses were the wives of George Bunker, John and Abraham Redington. Shortly after this the Useltons must have come to Topsfield for in 1658 he mortgaged a house and twenty-six acres of land which he had bought of Daniel Clark to John Godfrey of Andover for about £60. 58 He was to pay before March 1662, one-half in wheat at 4/6 per bushel and one-half in Indian corn at 2/8 per bushel. The house was near the present Hood's pond, in early times called Pritchett's pond. November 16, 1660, Godfrey assigned the mortgage to William Pritchard (often written Pritchett) of Ipswich. The Useltons must have left town before 1661 for his rights as a commoner in the town were given as "Uselton lot." William Pritchard was the son of William who was in Ipswich as early as 1641. The father became one of the first settlers of Brookfield about 1660 where his son Samuel was slain by the Indians in 1675.
No mention is made of the son William in the Topsfield town records and his name is not on the list of men who paid a rate to the minister in 1664. He died in 1676/7 possessed of a house and land in Topsfield as well as land and part of a mill in Brookfield which had belonged to his father and brothers. William may not have lived there but John's name appears frequently in the early town records and he held vari- ous offices for many years. On April 19, 1710, John Pritchard, Sr., mortgaged his property including "all the housing and lands received by deed from Jno Godfrey to William Prit- chett. "
Anthony Carroll was living on the Uselton place when Wil- liam Pritchard bought it. Testimony showed that when Prit- chard took possession of the house Carroll was not home and he left orders with Mrs. Carroll that if her husband remained he must make an agreement with Pritchard or "else provide himself elsewhere." Anthony Carroll did not move and Wil- liam Pritchard had him in court for trespass "for keeping possession of a house and land." Carroll deposed he paid
58 Ipswich Registry of Deeds, book 1, page 217.
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THE EARLY SETTLERS
£12 for three years as rent for the land and that Pritchard said he had been offered £6 down in wheat or pork which he thought would be better.
Anthony Carroll must have owned land in Topsfield before 1661, when he was listed as a commoner. In various deeds he was called a tailor, an "Irish man" and a planter. In July, 1662 he sold William Pritchard "a certain parcel of upland and meadow" which he had bought of John Jewett of Rowley, five months earlier. 59 Isaac Cummings, Sr., had given Jewett this forty acres in consideration of his marriage with his daughter, Elizabeth Cummings. 60 On January 26, 1663, Anthony Carroll sold Thomas Baker his "right and interest in the common, belonging to the land I bought of Zaccheus Gould" on the south side of the river. 61
Finally, Anthony Carroll, then called of Ipswich, deeded to Edward Neeland of the same town for £40, forty acres of land, house, etc., "where Carroll now dwells, upon the bor- ders of Topsfield." This was dated August 21, 1668, 62 but Neeland was not to enter upon the land until the bond for payment expired on March 1, 1670. The house stood exactly over the line between Topsfield and Ipswich. Whenever the Topsfield constable tried to collect the minister's rate, Nee- land would always be on the Ipswich side of the house. The town attempted to force him to pay and the case was in the courts for some years. It was finally settled in 1697 when a committee from the two towns determined a new boundary line, leaving Edward Neeland's house about two and one-half rods in Ipswich.
Richard Lumpkin was one of the earliest innkeepers in Ipswich. He came from Boxstead, Essex County, England. An inventory of his estate was filed November 23, 1642. About 1654, his widow Sarah married Deacon Simon Stone in Watertown. (See Bond, History of Watertown.) On June 12, 1660, Mrs. Stone sold for £30, about seventy acres of "land Ipswich granted to Richard Lumkins at Pye brook" to Daniel Hovey, Sr., of Ipswich. It was bounded on the south by Robert Andrews, west by common land and Mr. Baker, north and northeast by the pond and east by common land of Ipswich.
Daniel Hovey was living in Ipswich in 1635 when he was seventeen years old. He married in Ipswich, about 1641, and
59 Ipswich Registry of Deeds, book 2, page 109.
60 Ipswich Registry of Deeds, book 2, page 105.
61 Ipswich Registry of Deeds, book 3, page 129.
62 Ipswich Registry of Deeds, book 5, page 476.
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THE HISTORY OF TOPSFIELD
his children were born there. He probably moved to Topsfield soon after he bought the farm in 1660 where he built a house. Daniel Hovey is not listed as a commoner in 1661 but as "Deacon Hovey" contributed to the minister's rate in 1664. He lived there only a few years. When the commoners drew lots in 1669, for their share in common land those in both divi- sions were designated "Lumkins Land." In 1668, Daniel Hovey had moved to what is now Brookfield where many Ipswich people had settled, taking his two sons Thomas and James with him. Three years later he deeded his farm in Topsfield to his son John who was then living on it.
It will be noted that the first settlers built their homes on the north side of Ipswich river and a majority of them were Ipswich people. No doubt the richer lands there were suffi- cient for their needs and the river itself served as a hindrance to the early occupation of the hills on the southerly side. Part of Governor Endicott's grant extended south of the river on the western side of the town and that of Governor Bradstreet's on the eastern side. Farmer John Porter claimed title to a large portion on the south side extending to the river. The villagers of Topsfield laid claim to the greater part of the re- mainder of the estimated 2000 acres of land lying on the south side of the river which was held as common land for some years.
The southwestern part of this land was claimed by both Salem and Topsfield. The controversy over the ownership and the bounds between the two towns was long and bitter. On Nov. 5, 1639, the General Court passed an order that all land beyond the "six-mile extent" from Salem towards the Ipswich river, which did not belong to any other town or person by grant, should belong to Salem Village. In 1643, however, the Court decreed that Ipswich should have been included in the former order and that "any of the inhabitants of Salem, who have farmes near unto the said land now granted, shall have liberty for one yeare next comeing to joyne with the said village & to have their equall & pportion- able privilege in the same." Relying on the first order, how- ever, farmers from Salem Village had settled on the land perhaps with the idea that a village might be established.
John Putnam and his sons occupied a large tract of land extending to the river. When the General Court passed the order in 1650 creating the town of Topsfield including land south of the river, no heed was paid to the remonstrance of the Salem farmers. The town of Salem even declared by a vote that they had always considered these disputed lands
GOVERNOR ENDECOTT
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THE EARLY SETTLERS
belonged to them as their inhabitants had been in possession of them.
The position of the few Salem Village men who had built homes there became difficult. They were cut off from con- nections with Salem, put on the outskirts of a town they disliked and called upon to pay parish rates to Topsfield which some refused to do. However, two families living there joined with the Topsfield church. They were William Nichols and William Hobbs, whose names appear frequently in the town records. Three other men living in that vicinity are included in a list of freeholders in Topsfield in 1694. They were Isaac Burton, Thomas Cave and Philip Knight, Sr.
The Putnams persisted in claiming the land and cutting timber. Suit after suit was brought in the courts by them and the town of Topsfield, "until a grate dele of money and time hath been spent at the Law in a likely way of Destroying and being destroyed one by Another." Topsfield seemed to win every case. During all this time the bounds had not been settled although many committees had been appointed to do so. Finally a test case was taken to court in 1686 in order to settle the question of ownership of the land. A committee from Salem Village sued John Curtis for claiming and improving part of the land, they said, "Salem had agreed to plant a village upon near the river." They set forth many reasons why they believed the land was theirs. John Curtis won his case and some time later the bounds were established giving Topsfield the land in dispute. The Putnams, however, who had title to some of the land, later received a share in the final division of common land. The land south of Nichols brook extending to the present Danvers line was set off from Topsfield in 1728 as a part of Middleton.
Henry Bartholomew received a grant from Salem in 1642 which he sold about ten years later to William Nichols, also of Salem. Mr. Nichols built a house there in which he lived until his death in 1695/6. His son John acquired part of the property and built a house, part of which later became Ferncroft inn. The northern part of his land, William Nichols gave to his "adoped son," Isaac Burton, upon which he lived.
Not far from the Nichols land lived William Hobbs. His residence was given as Lynn when he and Richard Richards bought eighty acres of land in 1660 from William Robinson. 63 The latter was granted sixty acres in 1649/50 by the town of
63 Essex Registry of Deeds, book 2, leaf 8.
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THE HISTORY OF TOPSFIELD
Salem and his son twenty acres. Richard Richards of Salem soon sold his forty acres to John Porter, 64 which the latter sold to John Robinson in 1671. This was the land on which his son Thomas lived. William Hobbs, his wife Deliverance and daughter Abigail were all accused of witchcraft, tried but not executed. In 1688/9 William and John Nichols and William Hobbs were exempted from highway work as they lived so remote but were to maintain a highway from their homes to the town bridge. William Nichols was the only one living south of the river who was listed as a commoner in 1661. Other families who lived on land claimed by Tops- field in this vicinity probably attended church in Salem Vil- lage.
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