USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Newbury > Ould Newbury: historical and biographical sketches > Part 44
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A few years later Mr. Brown decided to erect a large brick block of stores and dwelling-houses on the westerly side of the square, extending from Titcomb to Green streets. The work was commenced and partially completed. But the con- tractor, on account of ill health, was obliged to relinquish the job ; and, soon after, the great fire of 1811 and the war of 1812 produced such a depression in the business affairs of Newburyport that it was thought advisable to leave the building as it now stands. It was occupied for many years as a private residence, and afterward was leased for a board- ing-house. In 1885, under new management, it was opened to the travelling public as a hotel and has since been known as the Brown Square House. The bronze statue of William Lloyd Garrison, standing on a granite pedestal in the centre of the square, was presented to the city of Newburyport July 4, 1893, by William H. Swasey, Esq.
In addition to the estates already mentioned Moses Brown owned large and valuable lots of land in the vicinity of High Street, Pond Street, and the old turnpike. He increased his investments from year to year and rapidly accumulated wealth. When the building and founding of a theological
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seminary at Andover, Mass., was proposed, he gave to that institution the sum of $10,000, and when the work was com- pleted he added $25,000 to his previous gift.
In personal appearance Moses Brown was of medium height, with a thin, spare figure and a strong and vigorous constitution. He was modest and unassuming in manner, seeking neither public applause nor official honors. "He pursued business as though the gains therefrom were not for his use alone, and he distributed them as a trust for the good of others. The law of rectitude was in his heart, and the balances of equity in his hand." In his family and personal relations he was kind and affectionate, and his purity of life and character secured for him the honor and respect of his fellow townsmen. His second wife, Mary (White) Brown, died Aug. 11, 1821, leaving one daughter, who married Hon. William B. Bannister.
Moses Brown died Feb. 9, 1827, aged 84. In his will, dated Oct. 22, 1824, and proved the first Tuesday in March, 1827, he gave the Dalton house on State Street, "where I now dwell, with the land under the same and adjoining, and the yard and garden and field lying west of the same to William B. Bannister, my son-in-law, during his life, and then to the wife and children of the said Bannister." He also gave to the inhabitants of Newburyport " the sum of six thousand dollars as a fund for the use and support of a gram- mar school in said town forever"; and by a codicil, dated April 25, 1826, he provided that this fund should accumulate until the principal and interest should amount to the sum of fifteen thousand dollars. The rest and residue of his estate, after the payment of this and other legacies, he gave to his grand-daughter, Sarah White Bannister.
Mrs. Mary (Brown) Bannister died Sept. 19, 1824. Her daughter, Sarah White Bannister, married Dr. Ebenezer Hale June 13, 1844. Mrs. Hale died Feb. 29, 1880, leaving no surviving children. In 1882, all the property not previously disposed of, belonging to the estate of Moses Brown, was sold and the proceeds divided among his legal heirs.
ABRAHAM WHEELWRIGHT.
Soon after the settlement of Newbury, in 1635, the peace and quiet of the colony of Massachusetts Bay was disturbed by a religious controversy in which Mrs. Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson, wife of William Hutchinson, took an active part. Her brother-in-law, Rev. John Wheelwright1, arrived in New England May 26, 1636, and was admitted to mem- bership in the church at Boston June 12, 1636. He was the son of Robert and Katherine Wheelwright, of Saleby, Lincolnshire, England, and was graduated from Sidney- Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1614. He married for his first wife Marie, daughter of Rev. Thomas Storre, vicar of Bilsby, Lincolnshire. After the death of his father-in-law, Rev. John Wheelwright was placed in charge of the vacant parish. His wife died in 1630. In 1631, he married, for his second wife, Marie, daughter of Edward Hutchinson, of Alford, Lincolnshire. A few years later he consented to resign his living for a sum of money ; but the transaction coming to the knowledge of his bishop, the living was declared forfeited. His offence was not unusual or uncom- mon in the army and navy as well as in the Church, early in the seventeenth century, and apparently it did not injure his personal reputation. Cotton Mather, in a letter to George Vaughan, says : "His worst enemies never looked on him as chargeable with the least ill practices. He was a gentleman of the most unspotted morals imaginable, a man of most unblemished reputation."
He came to New England with his wife and family in 1636, and was for a few months pastor of the "Chapel of Ease" at Mount Wollaston. In a sermon delivered in Boston on the nineteenth day of January, 1637, he gave
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expression to some vigorous thoughts that aroused a storm of criticism and censure. In the month of March following, he was accused of contempt and sedition, and in November he was disfranchised by the General Court and ordered to depart from the colony within fourteen days.
He left Boston and made his way along the sea coast through Salem, Ipswich, and Newbury to his first stopping- place, just beyond the " bound house " near Hampton, N. H., where he remained for a few weeks, and then pushed on through the heavy snow of that bitter winter to Squamscott Falls on the Piscataqua River, where he bought of the Indians a large tract of land and founded the town of Exeter.
In 1643, the jurisdiction of the colony of Massachusetts Bay was extended over and beyond the limits of this new settlement, and Rev. Mr. Wheelwright, with six or eight of his proscribed friends, removed to Wells, Me., where, by an agreement with the agent of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, he was allowed to take up land and organize a church.
In May, 1644, the General Court of Massachusetts de- clared " his banishmt taken offe," and in 1647 he accepted a call to the church at Hampton, N. H., as an assistant to the Rev. Timothy Dalton. In 1656, he made a voyage to England, where he remained nearly six years. After his return to New England he was settled Dec. 9, 1662, as pastor of the church in Salisbury, Mass., and died there very suddenly, of apoplexy, Nov. 15, 1679, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. He was buried in the old graveyard near the corner where the road from Ring's Island meets the road to Salisbury Beach, but there is no stone or monumental tablet to mark his last resting-place.
His oldest son, Colonel Samuel Wheelwright2, was born in England in 1635. He married Esther, daughter of Jeremy Houchin, of Dorchester, Mass. He received, when about twenty-one years of age, a deed of two hundred acres of land at Wells, Me., from his father and removed there. He was afterward prominent in political affairs, and took an active part in the defence of that town during King Philip's War. He died at Wells May 15, 1700.
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Colonel John Wheelwright3, the oldest son of Colonel Samuel and Esther (Houchin) Wheelwright, was born at Wells in 1664. He married, Jan. 28, 1689, Mary, daughter of Captain George Snell, mariner, of Portsmouth, N. H. He was judge of the probate court and of the court of common pleas in York County, Me., and was in active military service during the Indian wars. His daughter Esther, when only seven years of age, was captured by the Indians and taken to Canada. He made every effort to effect her exchange, but without avail. Some years later she was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, and was afterward Sister Superior of the Ursuline Convent at Quebec. Colonel John Wheel- wright3 died at Wells May 13, 1745.
Jeremiah4, third son of Colonel John and Mary (Snell) Wheelwright, was born in Wells, Me., March 5, 1697-98. He married Mary, daughter of Bellamy and Mary Bosworth, of Bristol, Mass. (now R. I.). He was a lieutenant in the expedition sent from New England in 1745 for the capture of Louisburg, and is said to have served under General Wolfe in Canada. He died in Portsmouth, N. H., in 1768.
Jeremiah Wheelwright5, only son of Jeremiah+ and Mary (Bosworth) Wheelwright, was born at Portsmouth June 13, 1732. He was for a short time schoolmaster at Ipswich, Mass. He married Mary, daughter of Abraham Davis, of Gloucester. His intention of marriage was filed with the town clerk Aug. 3, 1754. He was commissary in the expe- dition to Canada under the command of Colonel Benedict Arnold, and died Jan. 28, 1778, from the effects of exposure in that campaign.
Abraham6, son of Jeremiah5 and Mary (Davis) Wheel- wright, was born in Gloucester July 26, 1757. In July, 1775, he sailed on board the brig " Dolphin," Anthony Knapp master, from Newburyport to Barbadoes and thence by the way of Newfoundland to the port first named. In December, 1775, he enlisted for twelve months' service in the Conti- nental Army, under Captain Enoch Putnam, in a regiment commanded by Colonel Israel Hutchinson, of Danvers. He was stationed at Winter Hill, and, after the evacuation of
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Boston by the British troops, his regiment was quartered in the college buildings at Cambridge. He assisted in the forti- fication of Dorchester Heights, and in May, 1776, went with his regiment to New York, where he remained several weeks occupied in the work of building Fort Washington.
He volunteered as an artillery man in the expedition against the British on Long Island, and served in Captain Foster's company under command of Colonel Henry Knox. Two months later, he rejoined his regiment at Fort Washing- ton, and was in the battles of Harlem Heights and White Plains. In December, he crossed the Delaware with the Northern army under the command of General Washington, and assisted in the capture of the Hessians at Trenton.
His term of enlistment having expired, he consented to remain with his regiment until new recruits could be secured. In January, 1777, he took part in the battle of Princeton and Feb. 15, 1777, he was discharged from the service. He returned to Massachusetts with Captain Brown, of Cam- bridge, and Captain Winthrop Sargent, of Gloucester.
An interesting account of the services and adventures of Abraham Wheelwright as a soldier and sailor, written by himself when eighty years of age, will be found in the genealogy of the Wheelwright family, now in preparation, and soon to be published, by Edmund M. Wheelwright, Esq., of Boston. The names of the vessels in which the young privateersman sailed, the details of his capture and escape from imprisonment, with other facts and incidents connected with his early life, are given in this concise and modest narrative.
He evidently had a fondness for the sea; and, soon after his release from military duty, in 1777, he shipped on board a sloop, Isaac Elwell, master, bound for Demerara, and the next year made a voyage to Martinique with Captain Moses Hale. In 1779, he was mate of an armed schooner, carrying six guns, commanded by John Holmes of Ipswich, and sailed for Guadeloupe. On the return voyage the vessel was sur- prised and captured by a Liverpool Letter of Marque. He was taken prisoner to Cork Haven, Ireland, but succeeded in
HOUSE BUILT BY ABRAHAM WHEELWRIGHT IN 1806.
-
----
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ABRAHAM WHEELWRIGHT
making his escape, and reached home by the way of Barba- does and St. Eustatius after an absence of eleven months.
His father having died in 1778, his mother removed, with her family, from Gloucester and was living in Newburyport previous to Jan. 1, 1780. Abraham Wheelwright, after a few weeks of rest and relaxation, sailed in the prize ship " Uriah," Isaac G. Pearson, master, and was captured by two Liverpool Letters of Marque and taken to Antigua. He came home in the brig " Ruby," John Babson, master ; and, Sept. 15, 1780, he married Rebecca, daughter of Joseph Knight, of Newbury. After his marriage, he shipped on board the brig " Marquis De La Fayette," carrying six guns, Seth Thomas, master, and made a voyage to Guadeloupe and back. He subsequently sailed as mate of the brig "Cor- morant," John Perkins, master, and was captured on the homeward passage and taken to Bermuda. The records of the Pension Bureau at Washington, D. C., state that " Abra- ham Wheelwright served about three years in all on board the Brig ' Spy,' six guns, Capt. Lane."
After the close of the war he sailed as master and part owner of the brig " Active" for Joseph Marquand ; and at a later date, in partnership with his brother Ebenezer, he estab- lished a large and profitable business with the West Indies. Sept. 30, 1789, he bought of Samuel Noyes, and wife Abigail, of Campton, N. H., land and buildings on a way two rods wide, now known as Spring Street, which he owned and occupied at the time of his death (Essex Deeds, book 151, page 96).
June 4, 1791, Mary Wheelwright, of Newburyport, widow of Jeremiah Wheelwright, sold to Abraham and Ebenezer Wheelwright all the real estate in Gloucester devised to her by her father, Abraham Davis, late of Gloucester (Essex Deeds, book 153, page 94).
Jan. 3, 1806, John Greenleaf sold to Abraham Wheel- wright, merchant, for $3,000, about one hundred and fifty rods of land, bounded on the northeast by High Street, on the northwest by a new street called Brown Street, on the southeast by land of Ebenezer Stocker, and on the southwest
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by land of the grantor (Essex Deeds, book 180, page 7). On this lot of land Abraham Wheelwright built the three- story brick-house now owned and occupied by Hon. Albert C. Titcomb. The half-tone print on page 642 gives a view of the house as it was before any alterations had been made in its exterior.
The commercial prosperity of Newburyport was seriously threatened by the great fire and the War of 1812. Mr. Wheelwright lost a large portion of his property ; and Dec.
ABRAHAM WHEELWRIGHT.
30, 1813, he sold his house and land on High Street to Peter Le Breton (Essex Deeds, book 204, page 119), and removed with his family to the house on Spring Street that he had previously occupied.
He was extremely conservative in his views and opinions, and a devout member of the Presbyterian Church. He dressed throughout his life in the fashion of the eighteenth century, and was one of the last persons who wore knee breeches and long stockings in Newburyport.
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ABRAHAM WHEELWRIGHT
He died April 19, 1852. His children were as follows : -
Jeremiah, born in Newburyport Sept. 15, 1781 ; married, Jan. 27, 1805, Mary Blunt of Portsmouth, N. H .; and was lost at sea in October, 1830.
Rebecca, born Dec. 30, 1783 ; died in infancy.
Rebecca, born Dec. 30. 1784: married Thomas March Clark of New- buryport May 29, 1811.
Abraham, born Dec. 10, 1785 : died Dec. 15, 1785.
Abraham, born Dec. 4, 1786; fell from masthead of ship "Venus " and drowned May 21, 1802.
John, born Feb. 14, 1790; married, first, Caroline E. Payson Oct. 24, 1815; married, second, Mrs. Ann (Wheelright) Adams, daughter of Ebenezer and Anna (Coombs) Wheelright, Dec. 2, 1826; died Aug. 24, 1842.
Joseph, born Dec. 29, 1791 ; married Levissa Dodge at Winchester, Ky., Nov. 23, 1815: died Aug. 24, 1853.
Elizabeth Cogswell, born Aug. 28, 1793; married George Greenleaf of Newburyport Oct. 19, 1813 ; died in May, 1894.
Ebenezer, born May 17, 1796: died at sea Sept. 4, 1825.
Mary Ann, born June 26, 1798; married Benjamin Harrod of New- buryport July 25, 1825 ; and died Dec. 13, 1831.
Sarah Plummer, born Aug. 27, 1800; married William B. Titcomb May 10. 1827 ; died April 26, 1884.
THE GREAT FIRE.
May 31, 18II, a disastrous fire devastated the most thickly settled portion of Newburyport. From a pamphlet published by W. and J. Gilman June 5, 1811, the following account is taken : -
The fire commenced in an unimproved stable in Mechanic row, owned by David Lawrence, which, at the moment when the fire was discovered, was found to be completely enveloped in flames. It soon extended to the market and to State Street, and spread in such various directions as to baffle all exertions to subdue it. In a few hours it pros- trated every building on the north side of Cornhill, and both sides of State Street from Cornhill to the market; it then proceeded into Essex Street, on the north east side, to the house of Captain James Kettle, where it was checked, into Middle Street as far as Fair Street on the north-east side and within a few rods thereof on the south-west side- into Liberty Street within one house of Independent Street, and down Water Street as far as Hudson's wharf, sweeping off every building within that circle. The whole of Centre Street was laid in ashes, and the whole range of buildings in Merchant's row on the Ferry wharf, also all the stores on the several wharves between the market and Marquand's wharf, including the latter : thus clearing a large tract of land of sixteen and a half acres in a part of the town the most compact. and containing a much larger proportion of the wealth of the town than any other part.
It is estimated that nearly two hundred and fifty buildings were burnt, most of which were stores and dwelling houses ; in which number nearly all the dry goods stores in town are included, four printing offices, being the whole number in town: and including the Newburyport Herald office ; the custom house; the surveyor's office; the post office ; two insurance offices (the Union and the Phenix), the Baptist meeting house; four attorney's offices ; four book stores, the loss in one of which is thirty thousand dollars, and also the town library.
Blunt's building and the Phenix building, two large four story brick buildings, seemed to present a barrier to the destructive element, and great hopes were entertained for a time that they would effectually
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THE GREAT FIRE
restrain its rage: but by a sudden change of the wind the flames were carried directly upon these immense piles, which they soon overtopped, and involved in the calamity, which threatened to become general.
State Street at this time presented a spectacle most terribly sublime ! The wind soon after its change blew strong : these buildings which were much the highest in the street threw the fire in awful columns many yards into the air, and the flames extended in one continued sheet of fire across the spacious area !
The large brick Baptist meeting-house in Liberty Street, in which many had deposited their goods, furniture, &c., as (from its distance and construction) a place of undoubted safety, with its contents shared and increased the awful calamity.
At two o'clock in the morning the fire seemed to rage in every direc- tion with irresistible fury, and the inhabitants saw very little prospect of preserving any portion of the town. Everything was accomplished which intelligent and ardent exertion could effect : but they were dis- heartened by perceiving those efforts apparently without success. About four the danger diminished, and at six the fire had in a great degree spent its fury.
The scene, says a gentleman, who was present during the night, was the most truly terrible I have ever witnessed. At the commencement of the fire, it was a bright moonlight night, and the evening was cool and pleasant. But the moon gradually became obscured, and at length disappeared in the thick cloud of smoke which shrouded the atmos- phere. The glare of light throughout the town was intense, and the heat that of a sultry summer noon. The streets were thronged with those whose dwellings were consumed, conveying the remains of their property to places of safety. The incessant crash of falling buildings, the roaring of chimneys like distant thunder, the flames ascending in curling volumes from a vast extent of ruins, the air filled with a shower of fire, and the feathered throng fluttering over their wonted retreats, and dropping into the flames ; the lowing of the cows, and the confused noise of exertion and distress, united to impress the mind with the most awful sensations.
The map on the following page, showing the bounds and limits of the burnt district, is taken from a drawing made by Andrew Frothingham in 18II. The locations of a few promi- nent buildings are marked thereon.
Mechanics' Row, where the fire started, was a narrow street, extending from Market Square to Threadneedle alley. It has since been extended through to Pleasant Street and is now called Inn Street. Cornhill was the westerly side of
U
FROU POMD.
GO COURT HOUSE.
FRUIT ST
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3 T.
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ESSEX ST
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FIRE BEGAN
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.
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MAP SHOWING THE EXTENT OF THE "GREAT FIRE" OF 1811.
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THE GREAT FIRE
State Street between Threadneedle alley and Pleasant Street. Liberty Street extended from Federal Street to Centre Street, but apparently did not continue through to Market Square. After the fire, it was laid out as it now is. An effort was made to widen it throughout its entire length to Federal Street, but was abandoned on account of the cost.
Rev. Daniel Dana's meeting-house on Federal Street is now known as the First Presbyterian meeting-house, Rev. Horace C. Hovey, pastor. The jail on King (now Federal) Street was built on land purchased of Anthony Somerby, Feb. 4, 1743-4, by the town of Newbury (Essex Deeds, book 88, page 2). This property was conveyed to the county of Essex July 21, 1758, and remained in the possession of the county until the new stone jail, on the westerly side of Frog Pond, was completed in the year 1825.
The two-story brick building on High Street, at the head of Fruit Street, was occupied by a private school for boys and girls, under the control of the Newburyport Academy Asso- ciation, incorporated in 1807. Mr. Alfred W. Pike had charge of the male department of the school for several years. Mr. Isaac W. Wheelwright, Mr. Roger S. Howard, and Mrs. Frances (Mills) Lord (afterward wife of Dr. Richard S. Spofford) were also teachers in the institution some years later.
During the winter months a commodious hall in the second story of the Academy building was used for lectures and debates by the Newburyport Lyceum, David Perkins Page being manager and corresponding secretary. In 1842, the school was discontinued and the building sold to Messrs. John Osgood and Charles J. Brockway and by them trans- formed into a dwelling-house for two families.
The Second Presbyterian meeting-house, where John Giles officiated, now stands with its front or main entrance on Harris Street, having been moved to its present position about forty years ago. It formerly stood on a line parallel with, but ten or fifteen rods back from, Harris Street, with the steeple on the northerly end, and an entrance there
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from the street, and also one at the southerly end from a private court, afterward laid out by the city of Newburyport and now known as Park Street.
The dwelling-house on State Street built in 1772 by Patrick Tracy, for his son Nathaniel Tracy, appears on the map drawn by Mr. Frothingham. This house is now owned and occupied as a library and reading-room by the city of Newburyport.
The meeting-house of the First Religious Society (Rev. John Andrews, pastor), erected in the year 1800, escaped destruction, though located only a few rods distant from the place where the fire began.
WILLIAM WHEELWRIGHT.
The biographical sketch of Abraham Wheelwright on page 638 gives the names of his paternal ancestors from Rev. John Wheelwright to Jeremiah Wheelwright, of the fifth generation, who married Mary Davis of Gloucester in 1754.
Ebenezer, brother of Abraham Wheelwright, and son of Jeremiah and Mary (Davis) Wheelwright, was born in Gloucester June 16, 1764. After the death of his father in 1778, he came to Newburyport with his mother, brother, and sisters. He married May 10, 1790, Anna, daughter of William Coombs, of Newburyport.
William Wheelwright, son of Ebenezer and Anna (Coombs) Wheelwright, was born in Newburyport March 16, 1798. In the year 1800, Ebenezer Wheelwright built the house on High Street, now owned and occupied by the writer of this sketch, as stated on page 134 of this volume, and there William Wheelwright lived during his boyhood. He at- tended the public schools of the town until he was about twelve years of age, when he was sent to Andover Academy, where he completed his education.
Ebenezer Wheelwright was a shipmaster in early life, and his son William soon manifested a desire to pursue the same vocation. With the consent of his parents, he shipped as cabin boy on board a vessel bound to the West Indies ; and, during the next two or three years, rose rapidly through all the grades of seamanship to that of captain, in 1817, when he was only nineteen years of age.
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