USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Municipal history of Essex County in Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 12
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
The Ipswich church is in a flourishing condition, with excellent Sun- day school, modern buildings, and is in earnest in all that is good in re- ligious work.
Without boasting concerning the influence of church workers in Ipswich at the present date, it certainly will be interesting to read what was said of the work of the faithful pastors and church workers there a third of a century ago, by a person well qualified to weigh and record the influence of church life in Ipswich at that time:
86
ESSEX COUNTY
The several pastors and assistants have been, almost to a man, liberally edu- cated. They have brought an apparent zeal to their work, and a good conception of their duty therein. They have been watchful, diligent, laborious, prayerful. A good proportion of them have been dignified, trusty, efficient leaders. They have been able to read the signs of the times, to understand the needs of their people, and to utilize circumstances, as well as actual means. They have watched the ripening grain in their respective fields of labor, and gathered their gracious harvests; their doctrines have been a leaven that has permeated the whole mass of the populace; that has endowed the legislator, the justice, the mariner, the mechanic, the manu- facturer, the farmer; that has impeded the crime and corrected the erring; that has superinduced a nobler, truer, more earnest and more effective manhood; and has first, last and midst, been our people's enlightenment and guide. Such is our hope of the future.
CHAPTER VII.
NEWBURY.
The town of Newbury is situated in the extreme northeastern part of Essex county, as well as that of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It touches the sea coast and is noted for its early and later ship-build- ing operations. In the same part of the county is found both West New- bury and the city of Newburyport. It was named from an English town derived from Burgus or borough, later reduced to "New Bourg" or "New Town" and finally to Newburg; but when it came to be written and rewritten in records, it commenced to be spelled Newbury, possibly from the fact that the letters "y" and "g", when written, are similar in appearance.
Prior to 1634 there resided a Rev. Thomas Parker, who taught a free school in England at New Bourg; he was the only son of a Rev. Robert Parker, of whom it was said by Cotton Mather that "he was one of the greatest scholars in England." Rev. Thomas Parker, the son, came to the shores of New England in the month of May, 1634, with a company numbering about one hundred persons, who first went to Ipswich, then styled Agawam, to locate. After passing the winter in Ipswich, it was discovered that there were so many people there that the company swarmed out to other parts to the eastward. Thus it came about that Rev. Parker and many of his English friends settled at what is now Newbury. For all practical purposes, the date of this settlement may well be fixed as in May, 1635, a year after the party of emigrants arrived from England. They went by water through Plum Island Sound and thence up the river, to which they gave the name of their honored leader. Their landing place was not far from the bridge later constructed, and on the north side of the river. About forty persons made up this colony that first braved the "Wild New England Shore." The list is as follows : Thomas Parker, James Noyes and wife, John Woodbridge, Henry Sewall and servants, James Browne and wife, Francis Plumer and wife, Nich-
87
TOWN OF NEWBURY
olas Easton and wife, John Easton, William Moody and wife and four sons, Anthony Short, Henry Short and wife, John Spencer, Richard Kent, Sr. and wife, Richard Kent, Jr., Stephen Kent and wife, James Kent, Nicholas Noyes, Thomas Browne, Richard Browne, George Brown, Thomas Coleman, Joseph Plumer and Samuel Plumer. Others soon joined this band, including Richard Dummer and John and Richard Pike, also John Emery, and soon after they had settled (probably in June or July, 1635), the first church was organized. Mr. Parker preached his first sermon in the open air, under the shade of a huge oak tree 'more than a century old, that stood a hundred yards below the Rowley bridge of later days.
The first houses clustered about the meeting-house, as was the order of the court in those times, which was a means of family safety. An order read as follows: "No dwelling house shall be built over a half mile from the meeting-house on any new plantation without leave from the court, except mills and farm-houses of such as have their dwellings in town."
The court ordered an election in 1636, at which the following men were chosen as town officers, as they were later styled, but no such system had yet come into general use in New England, yet this was the prime germ from which the present selectmen system originated. The first officers as above referred to were: Edward Woodman, John Wood- bridge, Henry Short, Christopher Hussey, Richard Kent, Richard Brown, and Richard Knight. In 1637 occurred the Pequot War, and Newbury furnished eighty men.
The last-named year, Richard Dummer, John Spencer and Nicholas Easton were disarmed by the General Court for holding erroneous theological opinions. Spencer returned to England, Easton removed to Rhode Island, but Richard Dummer remained in Newbury. After Spencer had departed, a mill which he and Dummer had erected was car- ried on by Dummer, as is shown by the (now) odd worded instrument of agreement:
August 6, 1638. Whereas it is agreed with Mr. Richard Dummer of Newbury, by the persons whose names are underwritten, hereunto subscribed, that in case Mr. Dummer doe make his mill fitt to grynd corne and doe maintaine the same as also doe keep a man to attend grynding of corne, then they, for their part, will send all the corne that they shall have ground, and doe likewise promise that all the rest of the towne (if it lye in their power to promise the same) shall also bring their corne, from tyme to tyme, to be ground at the same mill period. And it is further agreed that (the afore mentioned conditions being observed by Mr. Dummer) there shall not be anyother mill erected within the sayd towne.)
EDWARD WOODMAN, JOHN KNIGHT,
EDWARD RAWSON, RICHARD BROWN, HENRY SHORT.
As far back as when our forefathers lived in New England for the first time, nearly three hundred years ago, the matter of church site and
88
ESSEX COUNTY
village site had much of interest in any new community. In 1640 the town of Salisbury was incorporated, and shortly after the town granted to George Carr the island which still bears his name. Carr was appoint- ed ferryman by the court, and thus Newbury, which had been the border town on the east, became connected with the new town, which now en- joyed that distinction. This naturally drew Newbury people away from their first settlement place on the banks of the Parker river, and at- tracted them nearer to Merrimac. This resulted in the platting of the new town farther to the north, and the removal of the meeting-house to a new site. This new town site was set off January, 1644.
The new century opened with an increasing, though widely scat- tered, population. The people residing on the borders of Newbury and Rowley erected a meeting-house in 1701-2, and combined the names of the two towns, at first called the parish of "Rowlbury." In 1704 the parish was incorporated as "Byefield Parish." The Dummer and Sewall families did not live in harmony, as had their forefathers, and when they were about to find a name for the new parish, each family wanted its own name. The matter was taken to court, and finally someone asked to have the parish named after his Honor, Judge Byfield. This was readily agreed to, and the good judge generously donated the church a silver communion set, also a bell. The silver tankards were subsequently burned with the church building.
During the Indian and Revolutionary Wars, as well as later strug- gles, the Military chapter of this part of Massachusetts will show that the Newbury citizens were loyal to their adopted country, the same being true ever since in the descendants to our own day,-to the close of the terrible World War of 1918.
Saw-mills, fulling-mills and flour-mills made up the list of early industries in Newbury; next came the period of tan-yards and rope- walks. After the incorporation of Newburyport and West Newbury, the old industries mostly died out, with a few exceptions; for instance, the ship-building industry, which was transferred to the newly-formed municipalities. In 1794 the first incorporated woolen mill in the State was the factory of Guppy & Armstrong, of Newburyport. Besides the large woolen mills on the river, there were two snuff-mills; near the railroad station was a shoe factory at Byfield, carried on by J. O. Rogers, with a product of a thousand cases per year.
The business connected with ship-building at Newbury was at first carried on at the Parker river. The boats there constructed were doubtless small sloops of a light draught. As early as 1652 mention is made in a pamphlet of "an old building-yard" on Carr's Island, and it shows the launching of numerous boats from here at about that date. Under authority of the government, a report gives the name and ton- nage of one hundred and six boats between 1698 to 1851, enrolled at the Newburyport Custom-House, as being one hundred and twenty-
89
TOWN OF NEWBURY
eight. Between 1793 and 1852, the number of boats registered at the Newburyport Custom-House was three hundred and twenty, making a total of various types of vessels constructed in and near Newbury, six hundred and fifty-four. After 1851, when the territory on the river between Newburyport and West Newbury was annexed to Newbury- port, the Newbury ship-yards were within the city limits, and ship- building in Newbury ceased.
The annals of this town should not fail to give a brief account of at least one individual whose inventive genius has in his career revolu- tionized many an industry. We refer to Paul Pillsbury, who resided at the old Pillsbury estate at Byfield. Among other articles invented by this gentleman may be named the universally used shoe-peg, which revolutionized the shoe-maker's trade, for prior to that date all work about shoe soles had been accomplished by sewing. He also invented and placed on the market a machine to manufacture shoe-pegs, instead of making by hand as at first. He also made shuttles for the cotton factories. His first invention was a corn-sheller, for which he received a Letters Patent in 1803, this being the first attempt at shelling corn in any other manner than by hand-work. In 1808 he obtained a patent on a bark-mill, the foundation of all types of small mills such as paint- mills, coffee-mills, spice-mills, etc., now in use the world over. The old way of treating bark for tanning vats had hitherto been accom- plished by rolling it with a grindstone of huge proportions, the same usually being run by a horse. Other inventions of Mr. Pillsbury in- cluded a rotary fire-engine, a seed-sower, churn, a gold-washer and sifter, coffee roaster, coffee-mill, window fastener, bee-hive and other useful articles. It is believed that this inventive genius was from the same family of Pillsbury stock from which descended the Minneapolis Pillsbury family-the great flour-making men and politicians of the West.
It would take a volume to give a detailed account of the various religious societies within this town since its first settlement. All that will be attempted in this connection will be to give some of the more important facts concerning the church life of the town. Coffin's his- tory of Newbury says: "The people having built a ministry-house, a meeting-house which was soon used as a schoolhouse, had a ferry es- tablished at Carr's Island, and became an orderly community, and be- gan not only to lay out roads, but as they were rapidly extending their settlement farther north, to take special care of the town's timber."
In 1660 the second meeting-house was built. It was in this build- ing that was enacted an extraordinary exhibition by a former member, Lydia Wardwell, of her naked person during divine service. For this offense she was taken to Salem and sentenced to be whipped and pay court costs. This poor misguided woman, whose maiden name was Perkins, was the wife of Eliakin Wardwell, of Hampton. The strange
90
ESSEX COUNTY
act was in a way justified by George Bishop in his publication entitled "New England Judged" as follows:
His wife Lydia, being a young woman and tender and chaste woman, seeing the wickedness of your priests and rulers to her husband, was not at all offended at the truth, but as your wickedness abounded, so she withdrew and separated from your church at Newbury, of which she was sometimes a member, and being given up to the leading of the Lord, after she had been often sent for to come thither, to give a reason for such a separation, it being at length on her, in the consideration of their miserable condition, who were thus blinded with ignorance and persecution, to go to them, and as a sign of them she went (though it was exceeding hard to her modest and shame-faced disposition) naked amongst them, which put them into such a rage, instead of consideration, they soon laid hands on her, and to the court at Ipswich led her, where without law, they condemned her to be tyed to the fence post of the tavern, where they sat, and there sorely lashed her with twenty or thirty cruel stripes. And this is the discipline of the church of Newbury, in New England, and this is their religion and their usage of the handmaid of the Lord, who, in a great cross to her natural temper, came thus among them, a sign, indeed, significatory enough to them, and suitable to their state, who under the vision of religion were thus blended into cruel persecution.
This singular incident is given today, only to show a wide reform since those far away years in the first century of New England's settlement and today.
Just before 1686 were the famous trials of Caleb Powell and Eliz- abeth Morse for witchcraft, the two cases being the only ones connected with that strange condition of affairs in New England from Newbury. William Morse, the husband of Elizabeth Morse, was the supposed vic- tim. Powell was acquitted, and Mrs. Morse, after condemnation to death, was finally reprieved.
The Baptist church was formed at Newbury in 1682, with members including these: George Little, Philip Squire, Nathaniel Cheney, William Sayer, Benjamin Morse, Edward Woodman, John Sayer, and Abel Merrill.
To those interested in the church history of this town and its en- vironments, it may be stated that among the various ministers who held a prominent part in the settlement and eventual development of the country, these were included: Rev. Richard Brown, First Parish; Rev. Moses Hale of the Byfield Parish; Rev. Toppan; Rev. Oliver Noble of the Fifth Parish; Rev. Isaac Smith, of Boston; Rev. Elijah Parish and Rev. Moses Parsons, and others whose names have been missed with the flight of time.
The Methodist Episcopal church was formed in Byfield in 1827, by Rev. William French. The first class consisted of these: David Clif- ford (leader), Simon Pillsbury, James Burrel, Jerusha Burrel, Alice Pillsbury, Eleanor Perry, Amos Pillsbury, Sally Clifford, Hannah Eng- land, William W. Perry, Abner Rogers, Betsey Poor. The same year a neat chapel was built near the Great Rock. This was so small, how- ever, and without seats, that the women stood within the building,
91
TOWN OF NEWBURY
some seated on stones which they had brought in from outside, and the men standing on the outside looking in through the open windows. In 1831 a church proper was formed and was a part of the New Eng- land Conference. It was styled "The First Parish of The Methodist Episcopal Church for the towns of West Newbury and Newbury." To give a list of the many ministers who served this church so many years is not considered in keeping with this brief church history. Suf- fice it to say, this church grew and prospered, and has usually been supplied with an average talented minister, down through all the years to the present time.
A society of the Plymouth Brethren was formed here in 1877, as seceders from the Methodist church. It was an English denomination, and never attained any great strength in America.
The present officers in Newbury are inclusive of the following: Selectmen-Richard T. Noyes, chairman; Benjamin Arthur Rogers, Stewart L. Little; Town Clerk, John C. Rolfe; Assessors-Richard T. Noyes, chairman, Benj. Arthur Rogers, Stewart L. Little; Treasurer and Collector, Arthur W. Moody; Auditor, Paul Henry Ilsley; Overseers of the Poor-George Roy Tarbox, John C. Rolfe, Charles S. Rogers; School Committee-Harold W. Pritchard, chairman, Charles S. Holton, John T. Litch, Edward L. Urie; Truant Officer, William N. Sanborn; Constables, William Dole, William N. Sanborn, Edmund S. Rogers, Albert H. Smith ; Burial Officer, Benj. P. Rogers; Fence Viewers-Asa Pingree, Elbridge Noyes.
During the last fiscal year the town's reports show the following figures :
Appropriated.
Expended.
$ 4,500.00
State Tax
$6,010.60
800.00
State Highway Tax
846.20
3,500.00
County Tax
3,389.03
7,500.00
Highways
7,289.59
18,000.00
Schools
19,123.29
1,800.00
Town Officers
1,188.55
3,500.00
Snow Paths
3,712.65
150.00
Soldier's Relief
279.75
150.00
Military Aid
90.00
2,100.00
State Aid
1,704.00
200.00
Public Library
400.00
1,200.00
Poor
1,857.06
300.00
Mother's Aid
460.00
200.00
Interest
470.83
500.00
Hospitals
650.00
2,000.00
Incidentals
2,309.33
100.00
Forest Fires
44.55
500.00
Board of Health
546.41
650.00
Moth Work
3,512.86
300.00
Abatements
373.75
75.00
Memorial Day
75.00
$48,025.00
Totals
$55,033.45
92
ESSEX COUNTY
Total number of male polls assessed, 393; Total number of registered voters, 201; Total number of females registered, 139; Total number of male voters, 200; Total number of female voters, 118; Total number of persons assessed on property, 405; Value of assessed personal estate, $325,573.00; Value of assessed real estate, buildings, $732,800.00; Value of assessed real estate, lands, $565,408.00; Total assessed valuation, $1,298,208.00.
The United States Census reports gave the population of this town in 1900 as 1,601; in 1910 it was 1,483; and the 1920 enumeration shows only 1,303. Many of the younger persons have removed, and a goodly number of farmers within the town have for a decade and more been retired citizens in Newburyport, hence the decrease.
Byfield Village is within Newbury, and according to recent statis- tics it has the following business interests, etc .: Dummer Academy, in South Byfield; Billiard and pool rooms-Orrin B. Tarbox, Central By- field; Harry L. Leeming, blacksmith; the Byfield Felt Manufactory ; grocers, Charles J. Cheney, William P. Pearson; ice dealer, William N. Sanborn; physician, Dr. Gorham D. Rogers; provisions, Rodney M. Hills, Albert H. Woodman; snuff makers, the Byfield Snuff Company ; blanket makers, (woolen), the Byfield Felt Company.
CHAPTER VIII.
TOWN OF ROWLEY.
Rowley, a town of Essex county, Massachusetts, was founded in 1639-two hundred and eighty-two years ago. As originally bounded, this town was from Ipswich on the south to Newbury on the north, and from the ocean on the east to the Merrimac river on the west.
Its worthy founders were Rev. Ezekiel Rogers and his company from England. More than thirty years ago, George B. Blodgette, M. A., of this county, wrote concerning Rev. Rogers, in these words:
Ezekiel Rogers was the son of Rev. Richard Rogers, a distinguished Puritan, of Wetherfield, Essex county, England, was bred at Cambridge, where, in 1604, he was a Corpus Christi man when he was graduated as a Bachelor of Arts and of Christ's College in 1608, when graduated as Master of Arts. After leaving the university, he became chaplain in the family of Sir Francis Barrington, of Essex, exercising himself in ministerial duties for about a dozen years. He then was called to a public charge, at Rowley, in Yorkshire, where he continued in great favor for seventeen years, when he was compelled to relinquish his charge-as he tells the story in his will, "For refusing to read that accursed book that allowed sports on God's holy Sabbath, or Lord's Day, I was suspended, and, by it and other sad signs of the times, driven, with many of my hearers, into New England."
The landing was effected at Salem, Massachusetts, in the autumn of 1638, and the new town founded in April, 1639, the Act of Incorporation reading as follows: "The 4th day of the seventh month (September) 1639, Mr. Ezekiel Rogers' plantation shall bee called Rowley."
93
TOWN OF ROWLEY
Mr. Rogers was a man of great note in England for his piety and his ability ; while the members of the company he brought with him to Rowley, were called by Governor Winthrop, "Godly men and most of them of good estate."
In the tract set off to Rogers' company several farms had been laid out; these were purchased by the company for £800. The purchase money was contributed by such as were able to pay, and in the platting of house lots all who paid nothing were given one acre and one-half, while those who paid were given lots in proportion to the amount con- tributed. The distinction became more apparent when the rule of the assignment of rights (called "Gates") in the commons is known.
As a means of reference to those interested today, or in the years to come, in those who first settled the town of Rowley, this list of sixty- nine names constitutes a complete list of the original house-lot owners with acres of land :
George Abbott, 2; William Acy, 2; Thomas Barker, 4; James Barker, 11%; Will- iam Bellingham, 4; Matthew Boyes, 2; William Boynton, 112; John Boynton, 112; Edmund Bridges, 11/2; Sebastian Brigham, 4; Widow Jane Brocklebank, 2; John Burbank, 11/2; Edgar Carlton, 3; Hugh Chaplin, 112; Peter Cooper, 112; Widow Constance Crosby, 11/2; Thomas Dickinson, 11/2 ; John Dresser, 112; Thomas Elithorp, 112; Widow Jane Grant, 11/2; John Harris, 2; Thomas Harris, 2; William Harris, 2; Robert Haseltine, 2; John Hazeltine, 2; Michael Hopkinson, 11/2; Robert Hunter, 2; William Jackson, 11/2; John Jarrat, 2; Maximillian Jewett, 2; Joseph Jewett, 2; George Kilbourne, 11/2; Francis Lambert, 2; Thomas Leaver, 11/2; Thomas Lil- forth, 11/2; Thomas Mighill, 3; John Miller, 2; Thomas Miller, 11/2 ; Thomas Nelson, 6; John Newmarch, 2; Thomas Palmer, 11/2; Francis Parrat, 2; John Remington, 2; Humphrey Reyner, 3; Rev. Ezekiel Rogers, 6; Henry Sandys, (Sands in record) 2; Edward Sawyer, 11/2; William Scales, 11/2; Widow Margery Shove, 2; Hugh Smith, 112 ; John Spofford, 11/2; Margaret Stanton, 1; William Stickney, 11/2; Thomas Sum- ner, 11/2; Richard Swan, 2; Thomas Tenney, 11/2; Richard Thorley, (now Thurlow) 2; John Trumble, 11/2; Richard Wicom, 11/2; William Wild, 11/2.
A London (England) publication in 1654 said of these people and their settlement: "These people being industrious in every way, soon built many homes, to the number of about three-score families and were the first to set up making cloth in this Western World; for which end they built a fulling mill, and caused their little ones to be very diligent in spinning cotton-wool, many of them having been clothiers in Eng- land." Governor Winthrop in 1643 wrote of this settlement: "Our sup- plies from England failing, much men began to look about them, and fell to a manufacture of cotton; whereof, we had a store from Barbadoes, and of hemp and flax; wherein Rowley, to their great commendation, exceeded all other towns." Other histories state that the first fulling- mill in this country was located by John Pearson, near the Nelson grist- mill. It was in 1640 when Thomas Nelson built his saw mill, and in 1643 added a grist-mill.
Other chapters in this work will treat in detail on the part the county of Essex took in all the various wars, including the last great
94
ESSEX COUNTY
World War. Let it be said in this connection, that Rowley has ever pro- ven itself patriotic in the times that have tested men's souls. A military company was formed in 1640; in King Philip's War, Captain Lathrop's company was known as the "Flower of Essex." The Revolution, War of 1812, the Mexican, Civil War, Spanish-American and World War have each had men from this little New England town.
From the start, Rowley was both noted for manufacturing as well as for its farming interests. Large numbers of the first to settle here were expert weavers from England, and naturally transplanted the trade to their new home in the New World. As early as 1680, ship-building was carried on to quite an extent at the warehouses and landings of the Stewarts, who preceded the Saunders, who followed this business for more than a century. In 1813, Captain Nathaniel Perley built a ninety- ton vessel on Rowley commons, a mile and a half from the river. It was known as the "Country's Wonder." It was drawn to the river in one day, by one hundred yoke of oxen. While the teamsters stopped for lunch, Captain Perley poured a full barrel of old Jamaica rum into the Saunders well, that all might drink.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.