USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Newbury > Ould Newbury: historical and biographical sketches > Part 21
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Rev. John Pike in his journal says, "The captives were all retaken, but some died of their wounds."
Oct. 8, 1695, Colonel Thomas Wade wrote from Ipswich as follows : -
Honored Sir,
Just now Captain Wicom brings information that the last night Cap- tain Greenleaf with a party of men met with the enemy by the river side, have redeemed all the captives but one, which they doubt is killed. Three of the Indians got into a canoe and made escape, and the other two ran into the woods. Captain Greenleaf is wounded in the side and arm, how much we know not, which is all at present from your servant,
THOMAS WADE.
On the 5th of March, 1695-6, Captain Greenleaf addressed the following petition to the General Court : -
To the Honble William Stoughton Esqr Lieut Govern' &c. the Council and Representatives of his Maty> Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, convened in General Assembly, March 5th 1695-6.
The Petition of Capt Stephen Greenleafe of Newbury Humbly sheweth That upon the 7th of October last, about three o'clock in the afternoon, a party of Indians surprised a Family at Turkey hill in sd town, captivated nine persons, women and Children, rifled the house, carrying away the Bedding and other Goods. Only one person in the House escaped; and gave notice to the next Family and they to the Town. Upon the Alarm your Petr with a party of men pursued after the Enemy, endeavoring to line the River Merrimack to prevent their
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passing over, by which meanes the Captives were recovered and brought back.
The Enemy lay in a Gully hard by the Highway, and about nine at night made a shot at your Petitioner and shot him through the Wrist between the bones, and also made a large wound in his side, Which wounds have been very painful and costly to your Petr in the cure of them and have in a great measure utterly taken away the use of his left hand, and wholly taken him off from his Imployment this Winter.
Your Petitioner therefore humbly prayes this Honrble Court that they would make him Such Compensation as shall seem fit, which he shall thankfully acknowledge, and doubts not but will be an Encouragement to others speedily to relieve their Neighbours when assaulted by so bar- barous an Enemy.
And your Petr shall ever pray, &c.
STEPHEN GREENLEAF .*
In answer to this petition a vote was passed and approved March 7, 1695-6, and embodied in Chapter 63 of the Laws of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, as follows : -
Upon reading the petition of Capt" Stephen Greenleaf of Newbury, lately wounded and maimed in his majtys service, praying some allow- ance and compensation for his smart, cure, loss of time and of the use of his left hand,-
Voted, a concurrance with the representatives, that the said Captain Stephen Greenleaf be paid, out of the province treasury, the sum of forty pounds, which shall be in full of what he hath been out upon cure and what yearly pension he might have expected had not this been granted.
The tree in the immediate foreground of the half-tone print on page 286, marks the spot where the old house stood when the Indians made their attack upon the defenceless family. The house was built on the southwesterly side of Turkey Hill, about two hundred rods in an easterly direction from the present residence of Mr. Charles Brown, who is a lineal descendant, of the seventh generation, from John Brown, and the present owner of the farm.
Coffin, in his History of Newbury, says, "This is the only instance in which the Indians either attacked, captivated, or killed any of the inhabitants of the town."
* Massachusetts Archives, volume 70, page 267.
BYFIELD PARISH.
In May, 1635, the town of Newbury was incorporated, and the same month the General Court ordered John Humphrey, John Endicott, Nathaniel Turner, and William Trask "to set out a farm for Mr. Dummer, about the falls of Newberry, not exceeding the quantity of five hundred acres, provided it be not prejudicial to Newberry"; and at the same time liberty was granted to Mr. (Richard) Dummer and Mr. (John) Spencer " to build a mill and weire at the falls of Newbury."
The court also ordered "that Mr. (Richard) Dummer and Mr. Bartholomew shall set out a convenient quantity of land within the bounds of Newberry for the keeping of the sheep and cattle that came over in the Dutch shipps this yeare, and to belong to the owners of said cattle." Coffin, in the His- tory of Newbury (page 18), says, "The tract of land which was set apart as the place for pasturing these cattle was near the falls of Newbury. Of this land, Mr. John Spencer had a mill lot of fifty acres, Mr. Richard Dummer three hundred acres, Mr. Henry Sewall five hundred acres, Mr. John Clark four hundred acres."
In 1637, there was considerable religious excitement in the colony, and the General Court disfranchised or banished a large number of the followers of Mrs. Hutchinson. Among those ordered to be disarmed were Richard Dummer, John Spencer, and Nicholas Easton. Spencer returned to Eng- land, Easton went to Rhode Island, but Dummer remained in Newbury.
In 1640, contributions were sent to Governor Winthrop from several towns in the colony to make up the severe pecu- niary loss he had suffered through the unfaithfulness of his bailiff ; and Richard Dummer, with great liberality, gave one
OLD PARSONAGE HOUSE, BYFIELD PARISH, BUILT IN 1703.
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BYFIELD PARISH
hundred pounds. Savage, commenting on this voluntary contribution, says : " The generosity of Dummer is above all praise. His contribution is fifty per cent. above the whole tax of his town, and equal to half the benevolence of the whole metropolis ; and yet he had been a sufferer under the mistaken views of Winthrop and other triumphant sound religionists."
The fertility of the soil and the large quantity of salt marsh, convenient for the support of cattle, near the falls of the Quascaqunquen (now Parker) River, soon attracted a number of settlers to that locality ; but the distance from the meeting-house was so great that it soon became necessary to establish a new parish with bounds and limits, extending about two miles in either direction from the falls, and includ- ing parts of the towns of Newbury and Rowley.
In 1701, the tax imposed upon the inhabitants in that vicinity for the support of the gospel was abated to one-half the customary rate ; and, in 1702, a meeting-house was built near the place where the present one now stands, and the parish was called " Rowlbury."
It is evident, however, that neither the name nor boun- daries of the parish were definitely fixed upon until two years later. Judge Sewall, in the following letter to Colonel By- field, gives Feb. 24, 1703-4, as the date when "the inhabi- tants upon the upper part of the River Parker ... agreed to have the place called Byfield " :-
To Col. Nath'l Byfield at Bristow
MARCH 4, 1703-4.
My Brother Moodey of Newbury came to visit us this week: He tells me that the Inhabitants upon the upper part of the River Parker, who have Mr. Moses Hale for their Minister, having made his house habitable, took the advantage of Meeting in it upon the four and twentieth of February last, being the fifth day of the week, to consult about the concerns of their Infant-Parish: At which time they unani- mously agreed to have the Place called Byfield. My Brother is to carry home a Book to Record their Transactions relating to their settleing the Worship of God in that Quarter; and this among the rest, I presume
e
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they will henceforward look upon you as their God-Father ; and will be ready gratefully to Acknowledge any Countenance and Favour you shall please to afford them.
S. S .*
The house that Judge Sewall says was " made habitable" for Rev. Moses Hale was built upon land sold by John Dummer April 10, 1703, for and in consideration of £9, "to Lieut. William Moody of Newbury, Henry Poor of Rowley, and the rest of the proprietors of the meeting house lately erected upon the division line between Newbury and Rowley neere the falls, ... nine acres of land in two fields, where the parsonage house is to stand." This deed has never been recorded. The original was in the possession of Mrs. Isaac W. Wheelwright at the time of her decease.
John Dummer also sold June 9, 1703, to Rev. Moses Hale, " our minister, one acre of land in Newbury on the way lead- ing from my now dwelling house to the Falls Meeting house, westerly by the Parsonage land, northerly and easterly by land of the grantor " (book 15, leaf 305).
Judge Sewall was evidently deeply interested in the wel- fare of the new parish, and on the first day of April sent the following letter to his brother William Moody, who was one of the proprietors of the new meeting-house to whom the land for a parsonage was sold, as above stated : --
Loving brother
BOSTON, April Ist 1704.
After your being here last I writt a letter to Colonel Byfield and in- formed him that you had named your infant parish Byfield, and would from henceforth look upon him as your patron, and be ready gratefully to acknowledge any countenance or favour he should be pleased to afford you. To this effect in more words. This day I received a letter from Colonel Byfield, in which are these words :
" I am surprised at the account you give me of a new town upon the river Parker near Newbury. How they hitt upon my name I can't imagine. I heartily wish them prosperity; and if any respect to me was the cause, it is an obligation upon me, (when God shall enable me) to study how I may be serviceable to them."
I called it only a parish. What if Mr. Hale should write a letter to Colonel Byfield, intimating the matter of fact, that it was in regard to
* Letter Book, volume 1, page 296.
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BYFIELD PARISH
him. You have been informed of his parentage. He has only two daughters, Madam Lyde and Madam Taylor. I believe he is a good man, and a fast friend, very industrious and thorow in promoting what he undertakes.
SAMUEL SEWALL .*
Nathaniel Byfield was the son of Rev. Richard Byfield, of Long Dutton, Sussex, England, and the youngest of twenty-one children. He came to Boston in 1674, at the age of twenty-one, and on April 25, 1676, sent the following petition to the governor and council sitting in Boston : -
The Petition of Nathaniel Byfield Humbly Sheweth, That your Petitioner is a stranger in the country and lately Married, and is now Prest to goe out to warre against the Indians. And whereas the Law of God is plain in 24 Deut. 5. That when a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not goe out to warre, neither shall he be charged with any business, but he shall be free at home one yeare. Your petitioner doth humbly request the favour of yr Honours to grant him the Priviledge and benefit of the said law and to grant him a discharge from the pres- ent Service. So shall he pray for your Honours.
NATHANIEL BYFIELD .*
Colonel Byfield, while appreciating the honor conferred upon him by the parish, did not respond with alacrity to the suggestion that some substantial gift from him would be acceptable. After two or three years of patient waiting, Judge Sewall ventured to call his attention to the subject in the following letter : -
To Nathanael Byfield Esqr
JANR 6th 170§
Sir,- The inclosed News-Letter mentions the little Parish, that bears your name, and was so called for your sake. The Parishioners have struggled with many difficulties in their little and low beginnings. The Work they have accomplished is Noble. They have settled the Wor- ship of GOD in a place where the Inhabitants were under very hard Circumstances, by reason of their remoteness. Their Hands are few, and weak. If you shall find in your heart, one way or other to give them a Lift, I am persuaded, you will therein be a Worker with GOD, and I hope, neither you, nor any of your Descendents, will have cause to
* Coffin's History of Newbury, page 170.
t Ibid., page 401.
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Repent of it. I do not challenge it of you: but I must needs say, if you wholly decline it, I shall fail of my expectation.
Living upon your Lands, you are in a special mañer concernd in the Small Treatise inclosed, which please to accept of, from Şir
Your humble Servt
S. S .*
The parish of Byfield was incorporated by the General Court Oct. 28, 1710 ; and a few weeks later Colonel, after- ward Judge, Byfield gave to the inhabitants of the parish a bell weighing two hundred and twenty-six pounds. A por- trait of the venerable judge, who died in 1733, now hangs in the new parsonage, nearly opposite the meeting-house. It was presented to the parish June 1, 1835, by George D. Lyde, Esq., of New York, a descendant of Judge Byfield.
Oct. 21, 1706, "the Newbury part of Byfield was set off for so long a time as they shall maintain an orthodox minister amongst them "; and in 1707 the parish lines on the Rowley side were established. Since then these lines have been changed several times to accommodate families living in that vicinity. By the incorporation of Georgetown, in 1838, the parish is now composed of a part of three towns, -- Newbury, Rowley, and Georgetown.
In 1746, a new meeting-house, larger and more commodi- ous, was built, and the old one was then taken down. This second house was destroyed by fire March 1, 1833. Three months later the corner-stone of the third and present house was laid, and the building completed and dedicated Novem- ber 7th of that year.
The burial-ground was probably selected and made ready for use as soon as the first meeting-house was erected, and before the parish was legally organized. The first person buried within that ancient enclosure was Mehetable Moody, wife of William Moody. She was the grand-daughter of Henry Sewall, Sr., who died at Rowley in March, 1656-7. The inscription on her gravestone is as follows : -
* Sewall's Letter Book, volume 1, page 345.
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BYFIELD PARISH
Mehetable Dater of Mr Henry & Jane Sewall, wife of Mr William Moodey Promoted settling the worship of God here, and then went to her glorified son William, leaving her son Samuel & four Daters with their Father, August ye 8th, 1702, Ætat 38. Was the first interred in this place.
On the stone that marks the grave of Joshua Woodman is the following inscription : -
Here Lies ye Body of Mr Joshuah Woodman Who Died May ye 30 1703, Aged 67 Years First Man Child Borne In Newbury . & Second Inturid In This Place.
Rev. Moses Hale was the first pastor of Byfield Parish. He was born in Newbury July 10, 1678, graduated at Har- vard in 1699, and preached in the parish from its organization in 1702, but was not ordained until Nov. 17, 1706. He re- tained his position as minister until his death in January, 1743.
In April, 1744, Rev. Moses Parsons was invited to take charge of the parish. He was the youngest son of Eben and Lydia Parsons, and was born in Gloucester June 20, 1716. He graduated at Harvard in 1736, and married Susan Davis, of Gloucester, fifth in descent from John Robinson, of Ley- den, Jan. 11, 1743. He was ordained pastor of the church at Byfield June 20, 1744. The manuscript of the sermon he preached on Sunday, July 1, 1744, ten days after his ordina- tion, is in the possession of the writer of this sketch. The penmanship is plain and legible; and the letters, though exceedingly fine and minute, are carefully and accurately formed. It is difficult, however, to understand how a manu-
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script of this description could be read from the pulpit with- out the aid of a powerful magnifying glass. The text was taken from 2 Corinthians, second chapter, and sixteenth verse : -
To the one we are the savor of death unto death, and to the other the savor of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things ?
The preacher, addressing his congregation, said : -
God, by his Providence and, I trust, by his Grace also, has called me to the work of the ministry among you : a laborious and difficult tho' an honorable and glorious work; ... and yt we may see something of the Greatness, Difficulty and Importance of the work of the ministry and thereby be stirred up earnestly to seek unto God thro' Cht for the assist- ance of his Grace to perform the Duties of our several stations and Re- lations agreeable to his will is the Design of my Subject at this time.
He then proceeded to discuss the relations and duties of minister and people, and closed with this exhortation :-
Let me entreat you to do all yt you can to encourage my heart and strengthen my hands that I may be faithful and successful in the work of the ministry among you.
Lieutenant-Governor William Dummer was at that time a strong and influential friend of the church, and during the remainder of his life was deeply interested in its welfare.
Dummer Academy, established in 1763, the first school of its kind in the province of Massachusetts, owes its existence to the liberality and generosity of this worthy and distin- guished member of the Byfield Parish.
Toward the close of Rev. Mr. Parsons's pastorate, Deacon Benjamin Colman, a thorough-going abolitionist, in advance of his time, brought serious charges against him for violating the divine law and holding men and women in the bondage of slavery. The controversy that ensued was prolonged for many years, and created intense excitement and bitterness in the parish. The letters of Deacon Colman in relation to the subject are printed in full in Coffin's History of Newbury, pages 340 to 350, inclusive.
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BYFIELD PARISH
Upon a salary not exceeding £80 annually, payable partly in silver and partly in farm produce, Rev. Moses Parsons brought up a family of five sons and two daughters. With this small sum he educated three of his sons at Harvard Col- lege, and maintained a comfortable and hospitable home until his death, Dec. 14, 1783, at the age of sixty-seven .*
Two of his sons, Ebenezer Parsons and Theophilus Par- sons, were in later years prominent and influential citizens of old Newbury. The former built and occupied a spacious house at Fatherland Farm that is still standing; and the latter erected a fine and stately mansion on the northwest corner of Green and Washington Streets, Newburyport, that is now held by Archbishop Williams, in trust, for the use and benefit of the Roman Catholic church in this vicinity.
The old parsonage at Byfield, where Rev. Moses Parsons lived for nearly forty years and where all his children were born, was occupied by his successors in the ministry until June 21, 1847, when it was leased for nine hundred and ninety-nine years to Rev. Henry Durant, who was at that date pastor of the church, and afterward, until 1853, principal of Dummer Academy (Essex Deeds, book 411, page 58).
In 1849, Rev. Henry Durant gave a mortgage of this prop- erty to D. S. Caldwell, one of the parish committee, which is recorded in the Essex Registry of Deeds, book 411, page 59, and in December, 1851, a second mortgage to John F. Twombly, which was assigned to D. S. Caldwell Oct. 4, 1852, and possession taken under the first mortgage June 9, 1852 (book 462, page 298, and book 476, page 5).
A deed or lease of this property from D. S. Caldwell to Isaac W. Wheelwright was probably signed and executed about this date, but no evidence of this fact can be found on the records in Salem. Mr. Wheelwright occupied the house for more than forty years, and during that time made many substantial changes in its exterior. The half-tone print that accompanies this sketch represents the house as it was before these alterations were made.
* In " A Brief History of Byfield," by Mr. Joseph N. Dummer, published in 1888, the reader will find an interesting sketch of Rev. Moses Parsons and others who succeeded him in the min- istry at Byfield.
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Isaac W. Wheelwright died July 14, 1895. In his will dated Jan. 19, 1878, and proved Sept. 3, 1895, he gave his farm in Newbury with two dwelling-houses and other build- ings thereon to his wife, Adeline, for her life, and at her decease to his two sons, William D. and Joseph D. Wheel- wright.
Mrs. Wheelwright died Jan. 20, 1896. On the twenty- first day of January, 1896, William D. Wheelwright, of New York City, conveyed to his sister, Mary D. Sargent, of Bryn Mawr, Pa., all his interest in the estate of his father, Isaac W. Wheelwright (book 1472, leaf 429).
March 10, 1896, Mary D. Sargent, of Bryn Mawr, Pa., sold to Sarah V. Dummer, wife of Joseph N. Dummer, of Rowley, Mass., all her right and title to the property con- veyed above (book 1472, leaf 431).
At the present time Mr. Joseph D. Wheelwright and his sister, Mrs. Sarah V. Dummer, are sole owners of the old parsonage house and the land under and adjoining the same in Byfield Parish.
HOMESTEAD OF BENJAMIN PEARSON.
The stately elm-tree that stands in front of the residence of Mr. Benjamin Pearson at Byfield is one of the notable sights of that neighborhood. Its great size and graceful shape are prominent features in the landscape. Viewed from a distance, it rivets the attention and invites a closer in- spection. Standing beneath its outstretched branches, the beholder cannot fail to be impressed with its massive pro- portions and symmetrical outlines.
The old house, shaded and sheltered by the foliage of this majestic tree, was probably built by Benjamin Pearson nearly two centuries ago. The land on which the house and tree stand was originally granted to Peter Cheney.
A committee appointed Jan. 5, 1687, by the town of New- bury "to treat with Peter Cheney about setting up a corne mill and a fulling mill," having attended to that duty, the town granted, Feb. 15, 1687, to the said Peter Cheney " fifty acres of land on the Falls river on condition that he build a corn or grist mill within two years and a fulling mill within three years, at the upper falls." Dec. 25, 1689, he was allowed one year longer in which to finish his fulling mill.
Jan. 10, 1694-5, Peter Cheney, Sr., sold to Peter Cheney, Jr., "one half the saw mill yard on the south side of the Falls river, which is the one half on which said saw mill is lately built and stands near my corn mill " (Essex Deeds, book 18, leaf 22).
Dec. 30, 1696, Peter Cheney sold to Francis Wainwright one-half the saw-mill and yard with stream of water, etc., substantially as above (book II, leaf 238).
April 2, 1705, Francis Wainwright sold to Benjamin Pear- son the property described in the last-mentioned conveyance (book 45, leaf 216).
HOMESTEAD OF BENJAMIN PEARSON.
3º3
HOMESTEAD OF BENJAMIN PEARSON
Aug. 10, 1709, Eldad Cheney and Martha Worcester, of Bradford, Ichabod Cheney, Huldah Worcester, Jemima, wife of Richard Pettingall, Hannah, wife of Lionell Chute, and Lydia, wife of Jeremiah Poor, of Rowley, all children of Peter Cheney, late of Newbury, deceased, for £46 Ios., sold to Benjamin Pearson, of Newbury, carpenter, twenty-four acres of land in Newbury "on ye southerly side of the falls River, Bounded easterly by a Tract of Land which was formerly given by ye sd Peter Cheney, Deceas'd, as afores'd to his son Peter Cheney, brother to ye said Eldad Cheney, Martha Worcester, &c., southerly and westerly by ye comon land of Newbury, northerly by ye saw mill yard and falls River" (book 25, leaf 36).
Soon after this date, probably, Benjamin Pearson built the house still standing near the site of the old fulling mill. In his will dated March 10, 1729-30, and proved June 28, 1731, he gave to his son Benjamin Pearson "all the lands I bought of Major Francis Wainwright and ye Cheneys and also my dwelling house and my mills, goods, stock, working tools and all appurtenances belonging to ye clothier's trade as it is situate on the south side of ye Falls river and bounded as by my deed which I had of Major Francis Wain- wright, and also the right of ye stream of water for said mills."
The business established by Peter Cheney was continued by the descendants of Benjamin Pearson down to within a comparatively recent date; and Benjamin Pearson, a lineal descendant of Benjamin Pearson, Sr., of the sixth generation, still owns and occupies the old house.
The age and history of the veteran elm that stands like a sentinel near the entrance to this estate is somewhat vague and obscure. Early deeds and conveyances give no informa- tion on the subject. On page 410 of Coffin's History of Newbury, published fifty years ago, the author refers to this tree ; but his language seems to imply that it was then lack- ing in beauty and gracefulness. The growth and develop- ment of recent years have, however, effected a wonderful change in its appearance ; and it is now the finest specimen of the American elm to be found in this vicinity.
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Measurements taken in 1896 give a girth of nineteen feet two inches around the trunk, five feet from the ground, and a spread of one hundred and seven feet from outermost bough to outermost bough. This girth would be increased nearly two feet if taken eighteen inches higher or lower than the place selected. The estimated height of the tree to the topmost branch is ninety feet.
THE LONGFELLOW HOUSE,
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