USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Manchester > History of the town of Manchester, Essex County, Massachusetts, 1645-1895 > Part 2
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1 " Manchester woods are celebrated for producing the magnolia ; it is a low tree, with deep green leaves, and is rarely found at any other place in this region ; the flowers are white, and possess a most delicious fragrance; the scent is so powerful that a small grove of them will perfume the air for miles." (!) Essex Memorial, Salem, 1836, p. 162.
CHAPTER II. BEGINNINGS.
" Small things in the beginning of natural or political bodies are as remarkable as greater in bodies full grown." Governor Dudley's Letter to the Countess of Lincoln, March 12, 1631.
"On yonder rocky cape, which braves The stormy challenge of the waves, Midst tangled vine and dwarfish wood, The hardy Anglo-Saxon stood."
Whittier.
CHAPTER II.
BEGINNINGS.
CONANT'S COLONY - MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY - ARRI- VAL OF WINTHROP - " COMMON LANDS" -JEFFREY'S
CREEK - "ERECTING A VILLIAGE" - MAN- CHESTER - TOWN GOVERNMENT.
W E have now reached the period where the authentic history of Manchester begins, and we have the comparatively clear light of contemporary records to guide us. Conant's1 colony was established at Cape Anne 2 in 1624, but the " ill carriage " of some of the first settlers led to the abandonment of the colony by the " advent- urers," and the company at Cape Anne was finally " purged of all but a brave and resolute few." Find- ing the location not all that they desired, and that the fishing " sped very ill," 3 these men removed to " a more commodious place four or five leagues dis- tant to the south-west, on the other side of a creek called Nahum-keike, or Naumkeag,4 better adapted
1 Roger Conant, whom White styles " a pious, sober, and prudent gen- tleman."
2 This is the spelling in all the older documents and maps, and in the Charter.
3 Captain John Smith attributes the failure in certain fishing voyages which he mentions to " sending opinionated, unskilfull men that had not experienced diligence to save that they tooke nor take that there was."
4 Naumkeag retained its Indian name until about July, 1629, when it was called Salem, a name said to have " been given in remembrance of a peace settled upon conference at a generall meeting betweene [the inhabi- tants] and their neighbours, after expectance of some dangerous jarre." Planter's Plea, London, 1630.
15
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HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
to the purpose." From this movement resulted the settlement of Manchester, of which Hubbard quaintly says, " A door was opened for them at Cape Anne, a place on the other side of the bay more convenient for them that belong to the tribe of Zebulon than for them that chose to dwell in the tents of Is- sachar."
In March, 1629, Charles I, "By the grace of God, Kinge of England, Scotland, Fraunce, and Ireland, Defendor of the Fayth, &c.," granted the Charter of the "Governor and Company of the Mattachusetts Bay in Newe-England." This Charter granted to the "Councell established at Plymouth, in the County of Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering and gov- erning of Newe England in America, and to their Successors and Assignes forever, all that Parte of America, lyeing and being in Bredth, from Forty Degrees of Northerly Latitude from the Equinoctiall Lyne, to forty eight Degrees of the saide Northerly Latitude inelusively, and in Length, of and within all the Breadth aforesaid, throughout the Maine Landes from Sea to Sea,1 together also with all Firme Landes, Soyles, Groundes, Havens, Portes, Rivers, Waters, Fishing, Mynes, and Myneralls, aswell Royall Mynes of Gould and Silver, as other Mynes and Myneralls, precious Stones, Quarries, and all and singular other Commodities, Jurisdiccons, Royal- ties, Privileges, Franchesies, and Prehemynences, botlı within the said Traet of Land vpon the Mayne, and also within the Islandes and Seas adioining."
1 The early explorers and geographers were ignorant of the widening of the continent north of Mexico; they supposed the South [Pacific] Sea to be only a few hundred miles west of the Atlantic coast.
17
BEGINNINGS.
In the following month (April), three ships sailed for Massachusetts Bay with supplies and a number of "planters." One of these ships, the "Talbot," was probably the first that ever entered Manchester harbor, dropping anchor here June 27, 1629. Rev. Francis Higginson, one of the ministers sent out by the Company to superintend the spiritual affairs of the settlement, wrote in his journal :
June 27, 1629. - Saturday evening we had a westerly wind, which brought us, between five and six o'clock, to a fyne and sweet harbor, seven miles from the head of Cape Ann (in this harbor twentie ships may lie and easily ride therein), where there was an island near, wither 4 of our men went with a boat, and brought back ripe strawberries, gooseberries, and sweet single roses. Monday, 29th, as we passed along to Naim Keake, it was wonderful to behold so many islands replenished with thicke wood and high trees, and many fayere green pastures.
The government by agents residing in England proving unsatisfactory, on the following October, the government and patent were transferred to New England, and John Winthrop, the "Founder of Massachusetts," and ancestor of a distinguished family, was chosen Governor.1 Winthrop sailed in the " Arbella,"? a vessel of 350 or 400 tons, and six other ships, with three hundred settlers, for Salem. On June 11, 1630, the " Arbella " seems to have come to anchor nearly opposite "Gale's
1 Winthrop was at this time forty-one years of age. " He was a man of remarkable strength and beauty of character, grave and modest, intelligent and scholarlike, intensely religious, yet liberal withal in his opinions and charitable in disposition." John Fiske, The Beginnings of New England, p. 102.
2 Not " Arabella," as often printed; the flag ship, or " admiral," as Winthrop calls her. She was named for Lady Arbella Johnson.
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HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
Point." The following extract from Winthrop's Journal gives an account of the arrival :
Tuesday, 10th June, the wind continued all day a gale from the south, and yet we bore all sail and at four o'clock, P. M., made land, called " The Three Turks Heads." To- night we could see the trees very plainly, and had a fine fresh smell from the shore. The next day we stood too, and as the wind would bear, on Saturday we stood in towards the harbor, and by the aid of some shallops we passed through the narrow strait between Baker's Island and another little island,1 and came to anchor within the harbor. Our friends came down from Salem, and many of our Gentlemen returned with them at night, where they supped on good venison and beer; but most of them, dis- liking their lodgings, returned to the ship. In the mean- time most of the people went on shore on the other side of the harbor,? where they were feasted with Strawberries, and were like as merry as the Gentlefolks at their venison and beer. Sunday Masconomo, the sagamore of the tribe, with another Indian, came on board and bade us welcome, tarrying with us all day. On Monday, the wind coming fair, the ships proceeded to Salem, where the planters landed. Here they found about ten honses and some indian corn planted, which was good and well liking.
Capt. John Smith had previously described the natural advantages of the region. He speaks of " many rivers and fresh springs, an incredible num- ber of fish, fowle, wilde fruits, and good timber, much corne, many good harbours, a temperate aire." 3 Governor Dudley, writing about a year later than Winthrop, thus sums up the resources of the colo-
1 House Island (?).
2 I. e., on the Manchester side.
3 New England's Trials and Present State. Captain Smith, as " Ad- iniral of New England," made a careful survey of the coast from l'enobscot to Cape Cod in the summer of 1614.
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BEGINNINGS.
nists : " Materials to build, fewell to burn, ground to plant, seas and rivers to ffish in, a pure ayer to breathe in, good water to drinke till wine or beare can be made, which together with the cowes, hoggs, and goates brought hither allready may suffice for food, for as for foule and venison, they are dainties here as well as in England."
Nearly all the settlers were "freemen,"1 and as such had a right in the "common lands." They were afterwards known as "Proprietors," and the "common lands " were otherwise known as " the 400 acres grant," comprising what is now the centre of the town.2 About 1692 an Act was passed for the " Regulating of Townships, Choice of Town Officers, and setting forth their Power." This Act was vir- tually the incorporation of the "Proprietors " as a body politic, defining their duties and responsibili- ties. It appears that the Proprietors of Manchester did not organize under this Act until Aug. 26, 1718. From that time until Feb. 28, 1769, their doings were recorded in what is known as the "Commoners
1 No one could be admitted a " freeman " unless he was a member of the church. Massachusetts Colonial Records, vol. I, 87. Besides the " freemen," were " residents," who were not allowed, or had declined, the privilege of becoming "freemen," who were required to take the oath of fidelity when they had attained the age of sixteen. (Qu. Were these the "half-polls" mentioned in the early Assessors' lists ?) Every male, whether freeman, resident or inhabitant, child, servant or slave, was required to pay 1s. 8d. per head as poll tax, and 1s. for every 20s. in value of real or personal estate.
2 These " common lands " were probably held by intention in trust, but in many instances, as Mr. Harrison's inquiries into the history of public holdings in the Commonwealth show, common grounds have been ab- sorbed, little by little, by private ownership. "Land-hunger " is nothing new under the sun. The early land grants were based on a similar prin- ciple in New England townships generally. It was no doubt a survival of the feudal system. See Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, vol. I, ch. 3; also 1 Johns Hopkins University Studies, ix., x.
20
HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
Records." The relation of these " Proprietors " to the town has been a matter of question. They seem to have constituted a kind of " landed gentry," and virtually controlled town affairs, for our fathers had little idea of democracy, pur et simple. There is no evidence, however, that they abused their privileges, setting themselves up as feudatory lords and treating the rest of the inhabitants as vassals, but rather that they used their power in a wise and liberal manner, coming to the relief of the town from time to time in assisting it to bear the burdens of taxation.1 The Salem records show that the land at "Jeffrey's Creek " ? was ordered to be divided, February, 1636, as follows :
Tho: mores widow 10 Acres at Jeffrys creek
Samuell Archer 60
Srgt Dixy 50
Wm Allen 50
Jo: Sibley 50
Att Jefferys Creek
Geo: Wms 40
Jo: Moor 40
Jo: Black 30
Srgt Wolfe 50
Subsequent grants were made to Jnº Pikwod, Jnº Gally, Jnº Norman, Wm Benitt, Robert Allyn,
1 See Town Records of Manchester, vol. II, iii-v; to the editor, Mr. A. S. Jewett, credit is due for light thrown upon this obscure subject con- nected with the early town affairs.
2 Almost nothing is known of William Jeffrey, or Jeffreys, who gave his name to the little plantation. He seems to have left the place early, and is afterwards heard from at Ipswich ; but his later history seems now beyond recovery. Hutchinson gives a letter (History of Massachusetts, vol. I, 35, n.) written from England, May 1, 1634, by Thomas Morton to " one Jeffries in New England." Whether this is our William Jeffreys, we have no means of determining; but if he was a confederate of Morton's, he may have been a similar restless spirit, and this may account for his early dis- appearance from our view.
21
BEGINNINGS.
James Standish, Beniamin Parminster and Richard Gardner.
At a general towne meeting held the 26th day of the Sth moneth 1646 [it was] Ordered that William Woodburie and Richard Brackenburie Ensigne Dixy Mr. Conant & Lieu- tenut Lothrop & Lawrence Leech shall forthwth lay out a way betweene the fferry at Salem & the head of Jeffryes Creeke & that it be such a way as men may travell on horse- back & drive cattle & if such a way may not be found then to take speedy Course to sett vp a footebridge at Mackrell Coue.
The last division of " the 400 acres " was in 1711. In this year the Proprietors made a final settlement. " In bounding the land to each Proprietor, those who had their divisions by the beach were bounded by the bank; while at Graves, the Proprietor was limited by the sea." In 1704, "the Land lying to the Eastward of Eagle Head was bounded by the sea to the Proprietors "; 1 the plain meaning of which would seem to be, that west of Graves' Beach and Eagle Head, the bank was recognized as the boundary.2
The first settlers landed, it is supposed, at Kettle Cove,3 in 1626 or 1627.4 These were of Conant's company ; the later emigration probably chose the
1 Dr. Leach's MS. Town Records, vol. I, pp. 121-128, 109-114.
2 A contest dragging its slow length along in the courts, between the town and some owners of " Shore Acres," may throw new light, and may not, on the obscure subject of "Proprietors' Rights." The distinction between law and equity may also receive new emphasis.
3 Named probably, as has always been supposed, from Jolin Kettle. It is a little singular that weirs are called " kettles" in Kent and Corn- wall, England ; " Kydells" in Magna Charta (33).
4 The first house may have been built on the estate of T. Jefferson Coolidge, Esq., by John Kettle. The earliest frame house was no doubt that of William Allen.
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HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
Town Landing.1 Both of these locations presented the promise of a safe harbor, and with the streams- of water, the sheltering hills and the abundant op- portunity for building fish-weirs, offered an almost. ideal spot for the planting of a new settlement.
The little hamlet, clinging to the shore, grew slowly and by cautious advances into the interior. The country even a few miles back from the sea was a terra incognita, covered with "infinite thick Woods," a land of darkness and dread, the lurking- place of savage beasts and of still more savage men. Gradually, however, the land was taken up, divided into farms, the bounds of which were carefully re- corded,? and the limits of the settlement pushed farther and farther into the primeval forest. That no successful effort was made, for at least the first decade, to " boom " real estate, appears from a record in 1651, to the effect that " Robert Isabell of Man- chester, carpenter, for £15 sold his dwelling house & 49 acres of land, with his partition of meadow which is & acre allotted to him in 1638 by Richard Norman." As early, however, as 1640, when there were but sixty-three people in all living at " Jeffrys Creeke," we find these sturdy and independent pioneers "jointly & humbly " requesting the Hon-
1 " The place picked out by this people to settle themselves in, was in the bosome of the outstretched arme of Cape Anne." Johnson, Wonder- Working Providence, ch. ix.
2 The simple and homely ways of the fathers is illustrated by the man- ner in which the bounds of the lands allotted by the Proprietors are de- scribed in the early records. Some of these are " a black burtch, pichpine, grate hemlock, white oke, Litel black oak tree, a stump of fower mapls, wortle bush, bunch of oalders, a white pritty bigg pine tree, and standing upon a grate high Rock which is Almost to the Admiration of them that doe beholdl it."
23
BEGINNINGS.
orable Court to give them "power to erect a Vil- liage." 1 This petition was granted. In 1645, the inhabitants petitioned for a change of name, and on June 18, the settlement received the name of Man- chester. Although the name of Jeffrey disappears from this time as the name of the little settlement, it lingers still in the neighborhood. Stretching northeastward from Cape Ann is a bank marked as " Jeffreys " on the charts, and which is named in a map in Blome's Amerique, 1688,2 Jefferey's Lodg. One of the oldest inhabitants says that he used to " go fishing on Jeffreys'." Certain names often live with a strange persistency when those more worthy of perpetuation are forgotten.
There seems to have been no formal Act of Incor- poration. This, however, was something not pecu- liar to the history of Manchester. Previous to 1655, " the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay " made grants of land to companies and individuals for towns and plantations, usually annexing certain conditions to their grants ; such as "that a certain number of settlers or families should within a stated time build and settle upon the same; or that the gospel should be regularly preached, or a church gathered upon the granted premises." 3
The first book of Town Records, from 1645 to 1658, is lost ; the gap cannot now be supplied. The first town meeting of which a record is extant was held Feb. 25, 1657 (O. S.). The town meeting has often been considered the unit of a democratic form
1 See p. 26. 2 Reproduced in Cartier to Frontenac, 1894, p. 346.
3 History of Groton, Mass., Caleb Butler, pp. 10, 11.
24
HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
of government - "a government of the people, for the people, by the people." In his History of the English People, John Richard Green has traced the origin of town-meeting government to a remote period and a distant region - to the fifth century, and to the little district of Sleswick in the heart of the peninsula that parts the Baltic from the North- ern Sea. It is in the village " moots " of Friesland that we find the germ of that most primitive form of government, the town meeting; the germ of all that is best in our municipal, state and federal insti- tutions.1
The town meeting has been of great value as an educator, and a conservative force, in New England life. The annual meeting was always opened with prayer,? and was governed by the rules common to parliamentary bodies. Each "freeman " had an equal voice in its deliberations and an equal vote in its action. It admitted of the utmost freedom within certain well-defined limits. The moderator was chosen by a majority vote, and his decisions were final, though subject to an appeal to the house. The town meeting was the town itself, acting in both a legislative and an executive capacity. The "select-men " were simply the agents employed by the town, and chosen by popular suffrage, to carry out its will. In municipal affairs the town was an autonomy ; only in state and national concerns did
1 See Howard, Local Constitutional History, vol. I, ch. ii, for a detailed account of the town of New England as a political factor.
2 This ancient custom was revived at the suggestion of the Moderator, Mr. Henry T. Bingham, and by vote of the town, at the annual meeting, March 18, 1895.
-
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BEGINNINGS.
it acknowledge any higher power. It was the fons et origo of all earthly governmental authority. The town meeting shares with the church and the com- mon school the honor of shaping and controlling New England civic and social life. Attendance upon town meetings, and taking part in them, if only to the extent of voting, unconsciously moulded the minds and formed the habits of men. The
" March meeting " has for generations occupied a foremost place among the agencies that have helped to form the character of the rural community. An advantage which the town has over the city is the training which it affords in self-government, and the opportunity which it gives for its exercise. And if majorities are sometimes unwise and infatuated, and minorities sometimes obstructive, if the weakness of universal suffrage sometimes makes itself promi- nent, the government of the town is on the whole as safe and just as any which human wisdom has yet devised. It will be a dark day if it ever utterly fails and breaks down, if the " common sense of most " becomes a fiction and a dream.
PETITION FOR POWER TO ERECT A VILLAGE.
The petition of the inhabitants of Salem for some of their church to have Jeffryes Creeke, & land to erect a vil- lage there for Mr Willi: Walton, John Blacke, Willi: Allen, Sam: Orchard, Geo: Norton, &e., compa; what land & in- largement may bee convenient, & is not granted to any other plantation, is granted them; & it is referred to Mr John Winthrope, Iunior, and Mr Symon Bradstreete, to set- tle the bounds of said village. Massachusetts Colonial Records, vol. 1, 30; Town Records, vol. I. 13.
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HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
[The following copy of the Petition is from the N. E. Genealogical Register, vol. VII. It is believed by the Editor, in whose possession the MS. was at that time (1853), never before to have appeared in print.]
We whose names are subscribed belonging to the church and Towne of Salem (being straitened in our accomida- tions, soe that we are not ably comfortably to subsist, have- ing advised and taken counsell about our present state and condition, it being Judged full and free liberty being granted us to remove, and noe place being soe convenient, for our Easye removeall as Jefferyes Creeke lying soe neare us and most of us haveing some small quantity of ground allotted to us there already) doe therefore Jointly and Hum- bly request the Honbl Court to give us power to erect a Villiage there, and to alow us Such Inlargement there abouts as is not granted to any other plantation thus leave- ing our request to your wisdomes Cousideration, With our prayers for a blessing from heaven on your psons and pro- ceedings we rest
Your Humble petitioners.
William Walton John Sibley Robert Allen
John Black
James Standish Jon Norman
Wm Allen
John ffriend Edmond Grover
Sam" Archard John Pickwith
Pasco ffoote
Geo Norton John Gally
Wm Bennett
Wm Dixy 1640
Ben: Parmenter
14th: 3 mo
The petition is granted & referred to Mr John Winthrop & Mr Symond Bradstreet to settle the bounds.
p. curiam Increase Nowell, Secrety.
vera copia atest Hilliard veren cler.
vera copia of that coppie, attest, Robert Lord, cler.
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BEGINNINGS.
NAMES OF PLACES.
This List of " Names of Places in Town " is from Dr. Leach's "Collections," 1836. Most of them date back to the earliest times.
HILLS. - Image, Moses, Eagle, Bennett's, Mill Stone, Jaeks, Shingle Place, Town, Flagstaff, Great Powder House, Waterman's Rocks.
PLAINS. - Briery or Bushie, Poplar.
MEADOWS. - Fresh meadow, Cranberry, Beaver Dam, Cold Spring.
SWAMPS. - Cedar, Millett's.
MARSHES. - Norman's, Bishop's, Cheever's, Barberry.
CREEKS. - Jeffreys, Chubbs, Days.
COVES. - Kettle, Black, Lobster, Pebble, Pitts.
POINTS. - Piekworth, Gale's, Smith's, Goldsmith's, Marsters, Glasses, Bishop's, Cheever's, Tuck's.
NECKS. - Great or Old, Norton's.
BROOKS. - Wolf Trap, Clay, Cheever's, Saw Mill, Fos- ter's Mill.
BEACHIES. - Neck, Graves, Gray's, Black Cove, Lobster Cove.
ISLANDS. - Great and Little Crow, Kettle, Egg, Ram Great and Little, Howes, Chubbs, Friends or Island Wharf.
SPRINGS. - Cold, North Yarmouth, Kettle Cove, New- port, Plains, Row, Great Neck, Smith's Farm, Town Land- ing, Great Pasture, Norton's Neek, Nicholas Commons, Graves.
LANDINGS. - Smith's, Marsters, Black Cove, Church Lane, Town Landing, Kettle Cove, White Head Landing.
BRIDGES. - Jabez, near Bear's house, Jones below Capt Knights, Town Bridge, Centre Bridge built 1828, Chubbs built 1835.
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HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
It may interest some of the present generation to locate some of these places, that are no longer familiarly known by the above names; e. g., Water- man's Rocks, Clay Brook, Nicholas Commons.
CHAPTER III.
THE FIRST COMERS : WHO AND WHAT WERE THEY ?
"Let us thank God for having given us such ancestors; and let each successive generation thank Him not less fervently for being one step further from them in the march of ages."
CHAPTER III.
THE FIRST COMERS : WHO AND WHAT WERE THEY ?
THE HOME OF THE EARLY SETTLERS -THEIR ESTATE - AB- SENCE OF THE ARISTOCRATIC ELEMENT - MORALS -
LAWS - FAILURE OF THE "THEOCRACY " _
A TRUE NOBILITY - " GROOVES OF CHIANGE."
W HAT manner of men were they who first settled these shores, who sowed the seed whose harvests we now reap, who laid the foundations of church and state on which we now build ?
From its name, Manchester, it has been thought that the town was settled by people from the vicinity of Manchester, England.1 Another supposition has been that the town received its name from the Earl of Manchester, a warm friend of the American colo- nies, an associate of Cromwell, Hampden and Pym.2 Without any definite knowledge or even tradition on this point, it is more than likely that the men who planted Manchester in Massachusetts were mostly from the Eastern shires, which furnished so much of the bone and muscle both of Old and New England ; they were the friends and neighbors of
1 William Allen is said to have been from that place; but of this there is no proof.
2 Macaulay speaks of his " humanity and moderation." John Hamp- den, Edinburgh Review.
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HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
Cromwell's Ironsides and of the men and women who were the originals of Bunyan's immortal char- acters.
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