USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Essex > History of the town of Essex : from 1634 to 1868 > Part 17
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1764. News arrived from England that the British Par- liament on the 10th of March passed an act for granting certain duties in America, which, after declaring that it was just and expedient to raise a revenue there, imposed duties on silks, sugar, wines, coffee and some other articles. This was justly considered by our fathers, as a blow aimed at their dearest rights. If our trade may be taxed, said the people of Boston, in the instructions which they gave their representatives, why not our lands ?- why not the products of our lands and everything we possess or use ? "Taxation without representation is tyranny," was the uni- versal watchword. The unrighteous and oppressive act, was the topic of conversation at every fireside, and the subject of universal reprobation. Meetings were held in different towns to express their disapprobation and to in- struct their representatives to remonstrate against, and petition for its repeal. Our fathers in this town had, on former occasions, when their liberties were threatened, given similar instructions to their representative. Nearly all the colonies in the country took the same ground against England, affirming that the imposition of duties and taxes, by the Parliament of Great Britain upon a peo- ple not represented in the House of Commons, was ab- 24
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solutely irreconcilable with their rights. This was the same ground that was taken by Ipswich seventy-seven years before, for which Mr. Wise and some others were imprisoned and fined.
As another connecting link between the present (1854) and nearly a hundred years ago, we may say that Parker, son of David, Jr., and Elizabeth Burnham, was baptized by Mr. Cleaveland, July 1st of this year. [Mr. Burnham died in 1856 aged 92.]
1765. The British Parliament instead of rescinding any of their oppressive acts, add another still more odious. On the 22d of March the famous Stamp Act received the royal sanction. By this act most of the written instru- ments in legal affairs and in ordinary business, such as deeds, indentures, pamphlets, newspapers, advertisements and almanacs, were subject to tax. The news of this produced a strong sensation in almost every mind throughout the country. It evinced to our fathers a settled determination on the part of England to invade our rights and reduce us to a state of bondage. It was time therefore for them both to speak and to act in such a manner as to show an equally determined resolution, never to submit to such oppression. Our House of Representatives passed a resolution that it was expedient for the colonies, so agreeing, to meet by their respective delegates in a general Congress, to con- sult together on the present circumstances of the colonies ; and to consider a humble address to his Majesty and the Parliament for relief. This measure originating in our town, as well as others, through their representatives, on being communicated to the colonies was received by most of them with cordial approbation ; and on the 7th of Oc- tober this Congress, the first ever held in America, met at New York, and agreed upon a memorial to the House of Lords, and a petition to the King and Commons. In these documents, they acknowledged their allegiance to his Maj- esty, and their readiness to obey the constitutional acts of Parliament ; but the stamp act and other acts of Parlia-
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COL. JOHN CHOATE.
1746-1774.]
ment, they declared to be subversive of the rights and liberties of the colonies, and in violation of the funda- mental principles of the British Constitution. The pro- ceedings of this Congress, though agreed to only by the deputies of six colonies, yet were warmly approved in every part of the country, and soon received the sanction of the other colonies.
In the meantime the people everywhere were deter- mined that none of the. stamps should be sold or used. The day on which the stamp aet was to go into opera- tion-the first of November 1765-was ushered in, in many places, by funeral processions, the tolling of bells, and hoisting colors of vessels at half mast. Business was sus- pended, and shops and stores closed. But by this time not a single sheet of all the bales of stamps sent from England, could be found in any of the colonies except Delaware, Virginia and Georgia. They had either been burnt, reshipped to England, or concealed and safely guarded by the royalists, through fear of the popular fury. The consequence was, that no business requiring stamp- paper could be legally transacted. To this, our fathers and mothers submitted as a less evil than slavery. Even their sons and daughters upon the eve of marriage chose to postpone it indefinitely rather than be married by stamped certificates of publishment. Courts of justice were shut, and an absolute stagnation in all the social re- lations of life prevailed. Printers of newspapers alone went in the face of the royal edict, because they knew a worse thing than the penalty of the law would happen to them if they did not. When intelligence reached England of the state of things here, it produced a great sensation. Business there received a heavy blow from the suspension of business here.
1766. March 10th, Col. John Choate departed this life at the age of 68. He was a son of Capt. Thomas Choate, the first settler of Hog Island and was born there in the year 1697. His parents were his early teachers, as they
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were of all their children, faithfully and diligently instruct- ing them in the rudiments of learning, and the principles of morality and piety. John rose to much eminence in civil society. In addition to strong native talent, he possessed extensive information on civil, military and judicial affairs. He resided, after his marriage, in the center of the town, and represented the town at the General Court in 1731- 2-3-5, 1741-2-3-5-6-7-8-9, 1754-7 and 1760. He was a member of the Governor's Council from 1761, to 1765 inclusive, Justice of the Court of Sessions and Court of. Common Pleas, and Judge of the Probate Court. When in 1764, the town and county bridge was rebuilt, he was chairman of the committee for that business. Under his direction chiefly, and upon a plan drafted by him, although he had never seen a bridge of that sort, it was built with two stone arches, resting on one solid pier in the middle of the river. On exhibiting the plan and during the progress of the work, the whole of which he superintended, many expressed strong doubts of its capability of sustain- ing any considerable weight, and some confidently pre- dicted that on the passing of the first loaded carriage, the arches would give way and fall into the river. Though confident himself of success, yet as the experiment was new, and there was a possibility of failure from some un- propitious circumstances, he deemed it wise to be pre- pared for the worst. Hence when the bridge was com- pleted, and many were gathered to witness the passage of the first loaded team, he stood, it is said, with his horse saddled and bridled, ready to mount, if the arches began to give way, and turn his back upon the prophets all ready to shout, " We told you so !- we knew it could not stand!" But victory was completely on his side. To the disappoint- ment of some, and the admiration of many, the arches never yielded to any pressure ; and the bridge, by order of the Court of Sessions, was labelled in durable letters which the traveler reads, " Choute bridge, built in 1764."
Col. Choate was eminent as a Christian, as well as a
189
REV. NEHEMIAH PORTER.
1746-1774.]
civilian and Jurist. To purity of morals, he added the wor- ship of God, and the honoring of his Redeemer in obedi- ence to every gospel requirement. Morning and evening his house was the house of prayer. He was an active and useful member of the South Church under the ministry of the Rev. John Walley. By his talents, learning and usefulness, he did honor to the place of his birth ; of which we may say, that few islands of the same extent of terri- tory, with land enough for only three farms, have given birth to so many active, useful and distinguished men. Besides the many Christian fathers and mothers who live to bless the communities to which they emigrated, it num- bers among its children living or dead, an elder of the church, two pastors' wives, the wife of an eminent phy- sician, several justices of the peace, four representatives to the General Court, a judge of several courts, a justice of the Court of Sessions, a senator of the Commonwealth, and a senator of the United States.
This year the pastoral relation between the Rev. Nehe- miah Porter and the Second Church and Parish was dis- solved. Mr. Porter was born in Ipswich, March 20, 1720, at the Hamlet (now Hamilton.) He was prepared for college by his pastor, Rev. Mr. Wigglesworth, and gradu- ated at Harvard in 1745. In the possession of the author is a Hebrew Lexicon, published in 1607, which was the property of Mr. Porter and contains his autograph with the date 1744. It doubtless formed a part of his appara- tus for study during the Senior year and it gives ample evidence of having been well thumbed. His first wife- Rebecca Chipman of Beverly-died in this place October 28, 1763, aged 36. She left nine children. Rev. Charles S. Porter of South Boston is the son of one of them. Mr. Porter's pastorate in Chebaeco lasted sixteen years. During the greater part of this time he lived very happily with his people. But for a few years before his dismis- sion, difficulties existed between them which rendered his situation more and more unpleasant, and occasioned sev-
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eral councils. In April of this year, referees mutually chosen by the parties, met here and decided that it was expedient for his connection with them to be dissolved if his parish pay him £340 L. M. which included arrearages of salary for a few of the past years. The parish com- plied, and in June he took his dismission. The same sum- mer he took passage in a vessel for Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, where some emigrants from this town resided. There he founded a Congregational Church which still lives and prospers. Having preached to that church several years, he returned to Massachusetts and was installed pastor of the church in Ashfield, December 21, 1774.
" Being then about 54 years of age, some at the parish meeting for giving him an invitation to settle, urged as an objection that on account of his age they could not expect to enjoy him long, as their minister. But he sustained the pastoral relation with them forty-five years, and for the most part of that long period was very active, and highly useful. He visited the people here when nearly cighty, and conducted the services of worship both parts of the Sabbath. Even after a colleague pastor was settled in 1808, Mr. Porter did not entirely suspend his active labors though he was then in the eighty- eighth year of his age. He continued to preach occasionally for many years afterwards, and sometimes exhorted and prayed in public with edification to his hearers, until he reached his hundredth year. In June 1819 a second colleague was ordained. Memorable indeed were the novel and interesting scenes of that ordination day-the venerable appearance of the Senior Pas- for, bending under the weight of almost one hundred years, as he passed along the broad aisle leaning on his two staffs, the firm and steady step with which he ascended the pulpit stairs without aid, the fervency with which he engaged in the consecrating prayer, and the distinct, audible, and appropriate manner in which he addressed a few dying words to his beloved flock in the form of a charge.
" As a preacher Mr. Porter sustained a very respectable character. If not a star of the first magnitude, yet he shone with a clearness and degree of lustre, which rendered him an ornament to the church. That divine light and truth which irradiated and sanctified his own soul, he diffused to the ut- most of his ability into the souls of others. The doctrines he had imbibed and firmly believed as the only foundation of his hope and comfort for time and eternity, were such as are emphatically called the doctrines of grace. These he labored to inculcate in all his preaching and exhortations. His sermons were always plain and simple, well calculated to instruct and impress the mind, and delivered with remarkable animation and pungency, and holy fer- vor. For several years before his death, religion was the constant theme of
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BRITISH OPPRESSION.
1746-1774.]
his conversation. It may be truly said that he preached daily to those who visited him in his own house. He spoke in a distinct voice, and with won- derful propriety of language. He expressed great confidence in God ; and spoke of death with much composure. At nine o'clock P. M., February 29th, 1820, he calmly fell asleep in Jesus, having completed his hundredth year into one month. His funeral was attended on the following Friday, by the neighboring clergymen, and a numerous concourse of citizens. Rev. John Emerson of Conway preached an appropriate sermon from Psalms cxvi. 15."*
The surviving descendants of Mr. Porter at the time of his decease were supposed to be upwards of two hundred and thirty in number.
On the 19th of March, this year, the bill was passed in the British Parliament for repealing the American stamp act. This caused great joy in England. The vessels in the Thames displayed their colors, and the city of London was illuminated. But the joy here was greater still. The intelligence was received with acclamations of the most sincere and heartfelt gratitude by all classes of people. The bells were rung, and public thanksgivings were offered up in the churches. In the midst of their joy, however, they overlooked the declaratory act passed at the same time, that the British Parliament had the right to tax the colonies ; but their attention was soon turned to this by other oppressive acts of Parliament in relation to our trade.
1767. The British Parliament in maintenance of their declared right to tax the colonies, levied duties upon glass, paper, pasteboard, white and red lead, painters' col- ors, and tea ; and passed an act establishing a new board of custom-house officers in America. These acts, when they reached the colonies, again excited universal alarm. It was seen at once, that new duties were only a new mode of drawing money from the colonies ; and the same determined opposition to the measure was exhibited, which had been shown to the stamp act. Their fears were still further increased by the arrival soon after, of a body of British troops in Boston, which was hypocritically
* Boston Recorder, Vol. 5, No. 30.
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said to have been driven in, by stress of weather. The governor undertook to provide for their support out of the public treasury. The conduct of the troops was such as to confirm the suspicions, that they were brought in by design. Our Legislature remonstrated with their usual firmness against the oppressive exactions of public money by the governor, and against the imposition of duties for the support of crown officers and the maintenance of troops among them. It was during this session that they passed a resolution, to address a circular letter to the other colonies, inviting them to a union, not of resistance to the mother country, but of remonstrance and petition for re- dress of grievances.
1768. This circular letter which was sent February 11th, created no little alarm in the British Cabinet, union and concert of action among the colonies being a pecu- liar object of dread to the ministers. The Earl of Hills- borough, therefore, wrote a letter expressive of his Majesty's displeasure, and requiring the House of this year to rescind the obnoxious resolution ; and directing the governor, in case of their refusal, to dissolve the Gen- eral Court. This letter, dated April 22d, the governor laid before the House, on the 21st of June. On the 30th of June the House voted not to rescind, 92 to 17. Our representative this year, Dr. John Calef, was unfortunately in the minority. Our fathers wide awake on the subject of liberty, kept a watchful eye on the representatives to see if they did their duty, and claimed the right in town meeting of approving or condemning, as the case might require. Accordingly they assembled on the 11th of Au- gust, and voted, that the town of Ipswich highly approve the conduct of those gentlemen of the late House of Representatives, who were for maintaining the rights and liberties of their constituents, and were against rescinding the resolves of a former House. Voted, that the thanks of the town be given to the worthy and much esteemed ninety-two gentlemen of the House of Representatives,
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DONATION VISIT.
1746-1774.]
for their firmness and steadiness in standing up for, and adhering to the just rights and liberties of the subject when it was required of them at the peril of their politi- cal existence, to rescind the resolves of the then former House of Representatives. The conduct of these ninety- two was highly applauded throughout the colonies. Dr. Calef recanted and made public confession, and was thus restored to the confidence of his townsmen, September 19th. The town in compliance with a proposal of the selectmen of Boston, elect Michael Farley to represent them in a convention, to deliberate on constitutional measures to obtain redress of their grievances. This convention met in Boston, September 23d, and disclaim- ing legislative authority, petitioned the governor, ex- pressed its aversion to standing armies, to tumults and disorders, its readiness to assist in suppressing riots and preserving the peace : and after a short session dissolved.
1769. June 27th, a visit is made to Mr. Cleaveland's house by 77 ladies. Such parties assembled at the par- sonage soon after breakfast. They brought flax and wheels with them and spun the whole day industriously, except the time for dinner and supper. At 11 o'clock A. M., such men of the Society as pleased came and paid their re- spects to the spinners. Among the presents made to the minister's family was all the yarn made at the meeting; then very needful to supply them with homespun linen.
1770. March 19th, the town voted that
" We are determined to retrench all extravaganees ; and that we will, to the utmost of our power, encourage our own manufactures ; and that we will not, by ourselves, or any for or under us, directly or indirectly, purchase any goods of the persons who have imported or continue to import, or of any trader who shall purchase any goods of said importers, contrary to the agree- ment of merchants in Boston and the other trading towns in this government and the neighboring colonies, until they make a public retraction, or a general importation takes place. And further, taking under consideration the excess- ive use of tea, which has been such a bane to this country, voted, that we will abstain therefrom ourselves, and recommend the disuse of it in our families, until all the revenue acts are repealed."
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Our fathers were wise in barely recommending the dis- use of tea in their families, for if our mothers had not been as patriotic as their husbands, they could hardly have kept tea from their tables. But the women of that day, our fathers have told us, were not less patriotic than the men, and were ready to sacrifice all for the good of their country. Said a lady of ninety, not long before her recent death, " The oppression of the British, I well remember was an exciting topic of conversation at all our firesides, and in all companies : a subject into which the women entered as zealously as the men, and all were ready to re- sist, even unto death."
The importance of manufacturing their own clothing and other articles, was deeply, universally felt. In this way alone could they be free from a servile dependence on the mother-country. The growth of sheep was to be encouraged for the sake of their wool. No lambs were to be butchered. "We will eat no lamb, we will drink no tea, we will wear no mourning at funerals, we will dress wholly in home-spun," was the universal cry, the total- abstinence pledge of the day. Deer-skin furnished an im- portant article of clothing. But deer were becoming scarce in our woods at a time when they were much needed. Hence our fathers in town-meeting this year, voted that the deer-reeves of Ipswich join with those of other towns, to prevent these animals in Chebacco woods from being extirpated. Fishing was also much encour- aged among us. From twenty-five to thirty Chebacco boats with two men and a boy in each, went to Damaris Cove and brought their fish ashore here to be cured. Fish flakes were to be found on Hog Island, on Ware- house Island at the north end, on Thompson's Island, and at Clay Point.
This year for the first time the people of Chebacco were favored with the residence of a physician among them. Dr. Ebenezer Davis, a young man, now commenced prac- tice here. After his marriage he lived in the "Pickering
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TOWN-MEETING.
1746-1774.]
house." A few years later he removed to Squam Par- ish, Gloucester, and was succeeded here by Dr. Russ.
1771, October 25th. Daniel Giddinge died, aged 67. He was an elder in the Fourth Church, and a representa- tive of the town in 1758. He left eight children.
1772. A fever of the nervous putrid type commenced here, which continued for some time, and in its progress proved very fatal. It prevailed chiefly among the young. The most vigorous we're the first to yield to it. It car- ried off in the whole, fifty persons.
December 28th. A town-meeting is called to hear the report of a committee appointed at a previous meeting, in pursuance of a circular from Boston, urging upon the towns the importance of a unanimous expression of their feelings with regard to the conduct of the British minis- try, and the appointment of committees of correspond- ence. The report of the committee was unanimously adopted. It contained for substance a statement of their grievances,-that the governor and judges and board of commissioners of the customs were paid by the crown, and thus made independent of the Legislature, that regu- lar troops were posted in the Province, and taxes levied without the voice of the people. It declared their right to dispose of their property as they pleased, to petition the king and Parliament for a redress of grievances, and to continue so to do until redress should be granted.
It affirmed that Parliament in assuming the right to tax the colonies, acted contrary to the opinions of emi- nent men in Parliament, as well as of the whole com- munity here ; made a full declaration of their firm attach- ment to his Majesty and his royal family, and of their desire to the utmost of their ability to support govern- ment, and promote quietness and good order, and at the same time not to submit to oppression, but to stand firmly for their rights. It instructed the representative of the town to use his influence that the governor and judges be paid by the Legislature and not by the crown; and that
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an agent of the House be appointed to represent the con- dition of the Province to the king or his ministers ; and if the governor refuse to allow grants of the House for such an agent, that the House recommend to the several towns to pay the agent. A committee of correspondence was also chosen at this meeting. By these committees, the doings of the several towns were reported to the Boston committee, and by them sent abroad to similar committees in other colonies, and thus a confidential in- terchange of opinion was kept up between the colonies. Great unity of sentiment was the consequence, and the value of the measure was fully developed in the struggle which afterwards ensued between the colonies and the parent country. ~ When by royal power our Legislatures were dissolved or prorogued, our democratic town-meet- ings became, under God, the salvation of the country. Through them the people could both speak and act.
1773. Parliament enact that the East India Company may export their teas to America, with a drawback of all the duties paid in England. By this regulation tea would be cheaper here than in England, and it was supposed that the colonists would be willing on this account, to pay the small duty levied upon it. Large quantities of tea, were, therefore, shipped to this country. Before its arrival, the inhabitants of the principal sea-ports determined that, if possible, it should not be even landed.
When news was received in Ipswich, that the cargoes of tea which had arrived in Boston had been thrown over- board in the night-time by men disguised as Mohawk Indians, our fathers met in town-meeting, and voted :
" 1. That the inhabitants of this town have received real pleasure and satisfaction from the noble and spirited exertions of their brethren of Boston and other towns to prevent the landing of the detested tea, lately arrived there from the East India Company, subject to duty which goes to support persons not friendly to the interests of this Province.
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