USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Pigeon Cove : its early settlers & their farms, 1702-1840 > Part 3
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According to the foregoing deeds he acquired about 59 acres of contiguous land, for which he had paid 70 pounds. It is evi- dent, however, judging from the language of deeds given later by his daughter Judith, and her husband William Norwood, that the property was about 80 acres in extent. Captain Woodberry left no will, and there is no inventory or settlement of record, but it seems evident, nevertheless, that the daughter inherited the entire property. This conclusion is based upon the language of two deeds. On February 6, 1737/38, William Norwood and his wife Judith deeded one-half of the farm, about 40 acres, to Cap- tain Samuel Sargent. Then on May 2 of the same year Captain Sargent reconveyed to Captain Norwood this selfsame land as " a full half of William Woodberry's real estate." These com- plimentary deeds not unlikely represent a legal formality by which Judith transferred to her husband the title to that portion of the property. It being illegal for a wife to convey real estate directly to her husband, a transaction through a third party was necessary.
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The description of the bounds contained in that deed makes it clear that the eastern half of the farm was the portion turned over to the husband. More than thirty years later, on September 6, 1771, William Norwood and his wife Judith deeded to their son James the " westerly half of the real estate left by William Wood- berry to the said Judith Norwood, the only surviving child and heir of said William Woodberry," about 40 acres. This piece is described in the deed as bounded "northward on the sea (i.e., Folly Cove), westerly on land which belonged to Samuel Lane, southerly on land once of Elias Davis (i.e., the Garrison House farm), easterly on land of said William Norwood which was con- veyed to him by Samuel Sargent." The deed stated further that the dividing line between the halves was to run " so as to divide the whole of the original estate left to the said Judith into two equal parts." That seems to clinch the probable fact that Judith inherited the entire property from her father.
Captain Woodberry's daughter Judith was between two and three years old when her father died in 1713. Two years later her mother married James Lane. His first wife was Ruth Riggs, a sister of Judith (Riggs) Woodberry. Inasmuch as he had ap- parently lived near Folly Cove town landing, it seems doubtful if he ever lived on the Woodberry place. It is not unlikely that the farm was rented until such time as the daughter, Judith, married or became of age.
Judith married William Norwood, later known as Captain, May 30, 1732, when she was nearly twenty-two years old. Her husband was two years older. Presumably they went to live on the Woodberry farm. Only four children are recorded to them: Judith, born May 16, 1738, who married David Plummer; Wil- liam, born October 1, 1740; Mary, married a Williams; James, born May 5, 1745, married first, about 1771, his cousin Susanna Norwood, a daughter of Jonathan3 who was son of Francis junior, and second her sister Judith, September 20, 1791. There may have been others before Judith whose births were not recorded, but Captain Norwood's will, executed in 1779, mentioned only three children, Judith, Mary and James. The inference is that the son William had died.
On March 6, 1748/49, Captain Norwood bought the westerly
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half of the Samuel Gott farm, 271/2 acres, which adjoined his on the east, paying therefor 1,025 pounds, which enormous sum obviously indicates the depreciated paper money of those days. " Old Tenor " Provincial paper currency was then valued at about one-eighth of "Lawful Money," i.e., coin. Lieutenant Gott had died November 3, 1748, leaving his house and a large part of his farm to his twin sons, Joseph and Benjamin, but in undivided form. The three men chosen by them to divide the property allotted to Benjamin the western half of the house and the land adjoining Norwood. This he thereupon sold to Nor- wood and bought a house and lot at Lobster Cove. (See Samuel Gott And His Sons.)
In 1761, '62 and '63, Captain Norwood bought other pieces from the Gott heirs, among them four acres of Daniel Gott's homestead on the southerly corner of Granite Street and Gott Avenue, and the house built by Benjamin Stockbridge in 1756, and now standing in the rear of 46 Curtis Street. Stockbridge married Eunice Gott, a daughter of Stephen, who was a son of Lieutenant Samuel. These three pieces totalled only 61/2 acres.
Incidentally it may be remarked that Captain Norwood owned slaves. Shortly before his father's death in 1745 all his negroes, both male and female, save one, were deeded to this son William. How many the Captain held when he died in 1781 is not known. By his will he gave a negro woman to his daughter Mary Wil- liams. If he had others they went to the son James, who inherited all the real and personal estate. Slaves would be personal prop- erty. Two years after Captain Norwood's death, all slaves in Massachusetts were emancipated by a decree of the Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth based upon the declaration in the State Constitution that all men are free and equal.
It is presumed that the son, James Norwood, married his first wife, Susanna Norwood, in 1771, at the time when his father and mother deeded him the westerly half of the farm. She died in 1790. James married her sister Judith, September 20, 1791. The house occupied by the Woodberrys, and later by the Norwoods, probably stood on the site of the existing buildings or near there. When the road was laid out in 1707 from Samuel Gott's house to Goose Cove the description mentions the Woodberry house,
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and the language quite clearly places it at what is now the corner of Gott Avenue and Granite Street. If James had a house on his western side of the farm its location is not positively known. It is possible that 2 12 Granite Street was the one. His mother died July 19, 1775, and his father February 1, 1781. After that, if not before, James probably lived in his father's house. His initials, J. N., are chiselled on a granite gate post on the Gott Avenue frontage where a driveway enters to the barn. Under the initials there is inscribed the date 1799. Just across Granite Street, oppo- site Gott Avenue, there is a similar stone post flanking a barway. This is inscribed W. N. 1799. This post originally stood at the barn barway as a mate to the J. N. post, but was moved by a subsequent owner. The significance of that date in this connec- tion is not apparent.
James's second wife, Judith, died in February, 1808, and he died " very suddenly," March 10, 1814, 69 years old. His will, exe- cuted four years before the death of his wife, gave his entire property to her for life, and at her death to his daughter Harriet Norwood. No record of her marriage has been found, but she became Mrs. James Gooch at some time before August 16, 1815, on which date the Norwood farm was deeded to Gooch by Wil- liam Saville. On January 14, 1819, the property was transferred to Mrs. Gooch through John Manning, Gooch himself consent- ing, and on September 23, 1820, the Goochs deeded the place to David Babson for $4,000, Gooch taking a mortgage for $2,500. Thenceforth it became known as "The Babson Farm " and as such it is known today.
SAMUEL GOTT AND HIS SONS
SAMUEL GOTT, a weaver by trade, came to Halibut Point from Wenham in 1702, where he was born in 1677. He was a son of Charles, who was born in Wenham about 1639, and Sarah Dennis. Samuel's grandfather, also named Charles, had emigrated from Weymouth, England, to Salem in 1628, but had settled in Wen- ham in 1635. Samuel had married Margaret Andrews of Ipswich, a daughter of William senior. Their intentions were published June 26, 1697. When they came to Halibut Point they had two
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and possibly three children, Samuel, born 1699, Prudence (who later married Benjamin Wise), and perhaps John, who, however, was baptized in Gloucester May 9, 1703. Nine others were born at Halibut Point: Daniel, March 28, 1703; Stephen, April 2, 1705; Margaret, October 20, 1706; Charles, August 15, 1709; Lydia, November 6, 1711; Anne, March 11, 1712/13; William, April 17, 1715; Nathaniel, November 2, 1717; Lydia, June 28, 1719. Margaret, the mother of those children, died November 1, 1722, about 46 years old. The following year Samuel married, inten- tions July 22, 1723, Mrs. Bethany Coggswell of Ipswich, who was 35 years old. She was the mother of twin boys, Benjamin and Joseph, born August 13, 1725, and a girl, Bethany, born Septem- ber 29, 1727. Samuel, the father, died November 3, 1748, and Bethany, his wife, April 23, 1755.
Samuel was a lieutenant of militia and was generally known by that title. He bought five six-acre lots, 31 to 35 inclusive, on Halibut Point, and three others, 37 to 39, on Andrews Point for which he paid William Coggswell of Chebacco 60 pounds lawful money. The deed is dated October 23, 1702, and in it Gott is described as " late of Wenham now resident in Gloucester," which leads to the presumption that he may have built his house and moved in somewhat before the date of the deed. The house that he built, and in which his descendants have lived even to the present day, stands at the eastern end of Gott Avenue, and is said to be the oldest gambrel-roofed house now standing on Cape Ann.
Samuel did not keep all the lots that he bought of Coggswell. On November 27, 1702, he sold the three lots, 37 to 39, which were not contiguous with his other five, to his brother-in-law William Andrews, Jr., of Ipswich (Chebacco parish) for 20 pounds, the deed describing the land as located " by a Cove usely called hoppole Cove." That shows that the present-day Hoop Pole Cove was so called even in those days. It also indicates the origin of the name Andrews Point.
During the next nine years Samuel acquired about 39 addi- tional acres. On June 16, 1708, the Town voted to give him 8 acres lying on the south side of Gott Avenue and around the corner on Granite Street. On October 12, 1710, he bought the 8 acres next south of the foregoing Town grant. This also fronted
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on Granite Street (from number 257 to 268). For this he paid 9 pounds. On December 2 of the same year he bought lot 29 next William Woodberry on the north side of Gott Avenue, and for that he paid 12 pounds. His next purchase was lot 30 on Febru- ary 12, 1710/11, which cost him 10 pounds. At some time he acquired from William Andrews a 9-acre piece which lay next east of the two pieces south of Gott Avenue. That deed does not appear to have been recorded. He then had seven contiguous lots, 29 to 35, theoretically 42 acres in extent, but actually 59 acres, on the north side of the avenue, and 25 acres on the south side. Finally, on August 23, 1711, he bought 11/2 acres from William Woodberry consisting of the sea front of lots 27 and 28. This completed his farm, which theoretically amounted to 68 1/2 acres, and which cost him upward of 75 pounds. He also owned 5 acres at the eastern end of woodlot No. 88. Curtis Street cuts through the eastern end of that lot, and numbers 42 to 50 Curtis Street are on that land.
On October 10, 1739, Samuel Gott drew his will. Six sons, Samuel, Daniel, William, Stephen, Joseph and Benjamin, were then living, and two daughters, Prudence and Bethany, all being mentioned in the will. To Samuel, Daniel and William he left the 25 acres south of Gott Avenue, to Joseph and Benjamin he left the house and 59 acres on the north side of the avenue, they to care for their mother for life. To Stephen he left the Curtis Street woodlot on which this son had already built his house. That house probably stood on the easterly side of Curtis Street oppo- site No. 46. It either burned or was torn down before July, 1791 (see The Woods Settlements). The daughters received no land, only money and household goods. After Lieutenant Samuel's death in 1748 the dismemberment of the farm began. Even the house was cleft in twain with a line through the middle of the front door and the chimney, and the westerly half, with its adja- cent land, was sold out of the family. The land of the farm proper having been bequeathed to five sons in undivided form, as already stated, they at once proceeded to have it allotted in severalty. Thus Benjamin was given the westerly 271/2 acres north of Gott Avenue and that end of the house, and Joseph drew the east side
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of the house and 3 1 1/2 acres adjacent. Benjamin at once sold his share to his neighbor William Norwood, and bought a house at Lobster Cove. Joseph continued to live on his part and eventu- ally the west end of the house was recovered, but not the adjacent land that had been sold with it.
Joseph married Deliverance Pool December 31, 1745. Four children were recorded to them: Betty, born October 7, 1746, married Joseph Blake; Mercy, born January 8, 1748, married Zebulon Lufkin, Jr., 1772; Joseph, born August 5, 1751; Joshua, born July 30, 1754.
Joseph senior died in his thirtieth year, April 30, 1755, just seven days after his mother's death. His widow continued to live in the Gott Avenue house until her death, September 3, 1800. It would appear that Joseph had acquired the westerly end of the house that his brother Benjamin had sold, for the probate in- ventory of his property included a house and barn, not one-half a house, as would almost certainly have been recorded had that been the case.
Joshua, who was but a year old when his father died, served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and rose to a lieutenancy. He married Deborah Pool December 23, 1779, by whom he had seven children: Joseph, born September 15, 1780; Deborah, born May 5, 1784, died before 1846; Joshua, born July 15, 1786, died August 3, 1786; Nancy, born July 2, 1788, married Epes Young November 1, 1807; Mercy, born October 13, 1792, died before 1846; Lucy, born March 18, 1796, married Job Deneen June 1, 1817; Joshua, born September 18, 1798, married Susanna Story December 21, 1820.
Lieutenant Joshua carried on the home place for his mother. Eventually he bought out the interests of his sisters. Their deeds seem to indicate that the entire house was then owned by their father's estate, which tends to corroborate the conclusion that Joseph had bought back the westerly end of the house from Cap- tain Norwood. Although no deed of record has been found covering the conveyance of that portion of the house to the Gotts, there is one further bit of evidence tending to show that it had been recovered either by Joseph or by Lieutenant Joshua. In 1936 the Rev. Gordon C. Capen, at that time minister of the
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Methodist Episcopal Church at Rockport, informed the writer that one of his forebears, Abraham Norwood, Jr., was born in the western end of the Gott house. That Abraham became a well-known Universalist minister. A manuscript account of his life and religious experiences, owned by Mr. Capen, records the fact that he " was born Sunday, December 28, 1806, in the house nearest Halibut Point, said house owned in whole and occupied in part by Joshua Gott." Abraham junior's parents were cousins, both Norwoods, and Captain William Norwood was a brother of their grandfather, Jonathan. That Norwood family lived in the western part of the Gott house until 182 1, when they moved to Biddeford, Maine. They had five sons and ten daughters, Abraham junior being the eldest, many of whom were born in the Gott house.
Lieutenant Joshua's wife, Deborah, died January 8, 1801, 39 years old. His mother having died the previous year he was left with three children under ten years of age, and two daughters thirteen and seventeen years old. He probably felt the need of a housekeeper and on June 28, 1801, he married Sally Tarbox. She died February 1, 1807. Lieutenant Joshua himself lived to be 92 years old, dying March 22, 1846. By his will the son, Captain Joshua, inherited one-half of the farm, and the two sur- viving daughters the other half.
This completes the record of the homestead proper to a date six years after the incorporation of Rockport. The story of the 25 acres lying south from Gott Avenue along Granite Street is a complicated one, since it was entirely sold out of the Gott family by 1806, and had various owners between then and 1840.
This was the land inherited in undivided form by Lieutenant Samuel's sons, Samuel junior, Daniel and William. On April 1, 1749, it was divided among them. Daniel's lot lay along Granite Street for a distance of about 800 feet south from Gott Avenue, including the site of the present number 271 Granite Street, and was 355 feet wide on Gott Avenue. Samuel's piece was next south of Daniel's, and was about 400 feet wide on Granite Street, including the site of the present number 257. William's allot- ment abutted north on Gott Avenue for 355 feet just east of Daniel's lot, and ran south to Samuel's land.
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Samuel junior, the oldest child of Lieutenant Samuel and Mar- garet (Andrews), married Hannah Lane, a daughter of Samuel senior of Folly Cove, in October, 1722. The records credit them with four children: Hannah, born September 15, 1723, died Feb- ruary 5, 1726/7; Samuel, born March 18, 1724/5, married Rebekah Sanford December 17, 1745, he died March 26, 1750; Nathaniel, born September 9, 1726, married Mary Sanford November 6, 1744, he died May 10, 1752, leaving one child, Abigail, who married Solomon Lane March 22, 1764; Hannah, born April 3, 1728, died ten days later.
Although Samuel junior did not take title to his lot until after his father's death in 1748, it is possible that he built his house in 1722, at the time of his marriage, as his brother Stephen had done on his land. The cellar of Samuel's house still exists next north of 261 Granite Street. Samuel's son Nathaniel bought his uncle William's lot March 29, 1749, for 150 pounds old tenor, no house being mentioned. Nathaniel died three years later and on April 30, 1756, his father and mother deeded to the widow and to her daughter Abigail, " for love and good will ... that part of my dwelling house in which Mary now lives, and which was under improvement by Nathaniel in his life time." This shows that the son had lived in part of his father's house. The follow- ing year, October 31, 1757, the father deeded to the son's widow 7 acres, II rods of land adjacent to the house, "it being my homestead."
Judging from the inventory of Nathaniel's estate he must have been a reasonably prosperous fisherman. He owned part of a schooner, two cows and three sheep, and among his personal effects there were a pair of silver buckles, two gold rings, a case of bottles, books, and a pair of looms. The latter may have be- longed originally to his grandfather, Lieutenant Samuel Gott, who was a weaver.
What became of William Gott after he sold his land to his nephew is not known. He married first Mary Pearce in 1738, and second Elisabeth Wonson in 1741, and had at least five children. Nothing has been found to indicate that he lived at Pigeon Cove.
Daniel was the third child of Lieutenant Samuel, and the first
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to be born in the Gott Avenue house. He married Rachel Little- field of Manchester, Mass., December 22, 1726. They had seven children at least: Daniel, born October 25, 1728, died before 1739; Rachel, born May 30, 1730, married James Richardson March 19, 1752; John, born September 18, 1732, married Hannah Gammage January 23, 1754; Elisabeth, baptized March 9, 1734/5, married Stephen Richardson 1762; Patience, born August 18, 1737, married Stephen Gott, Jr., her cousin, January 9, 1755; Daniel, born December 23, 1739, married Hannah Norwood September 20, 1761; Margaret, baptized October 16, 1743, mar- ried Thomas Richardson 1762.
It is possible that Daniel built his house at the time of his mar- riage in 1726. The house probably stood on the site of the pres- ent 275 Granite Street. Daniel and several of his children moved to Mt. Desert Island, Maine, probably about 1762. In that year he sold the northerly end of his place, 347 feet wide on Gott Avenue and 51 1 feet on Granite Street, which included the site of 281 Granite Street, to his neighbor, Captain William Norwood.
Daniel died before 1801. In that year and in 1806 his heirs sold his house site to Joseph Bailey, cordwainer. The deeds stated that this " was formerly the homestead or lot on which Daniel Gott's dwelling house stood," and that it " consists of some old apple trees, locust trees, upland, swamp, and ledges of rocks, an old cellar and a small well."
Joseph Bailey, presumed to have been born at Bradford, Mass., in 1766 (Gloucester Vital Records), married Mary Woodbury June 21, 1787, and when he bought the Daniel Gott lot they had seven children: Mary, born March 29, 1788; Joseph, born March 16, 1790, married Esther Lane December 26, 1816; Samuel, born July 11, 1795, married Rhoda Griffin August 31, 1823, drowned July 6, 1825; Charlotte, born April 1, 1797, died December 2 1, 1797; Andrew Woodbury, born December 6, 1798, married Abigail Newman Fitz November 30, 1825; William, born March 19, 1801, married Elizabeth Thurston December 6, 1827; Levi, born March 30, 1803, married first Rebecca Donnahew Septem- ber 17, 1826, second Sarah
It is traditional in the Bailey family that Joseph senior bought a house that stood on what is even now spoken of locally as " the
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Blanch place," on the road from Pigeon Hill Street to Johnson's quarry, and moved it to the Daniel Gott site. That house is now 275 Granite Street. It is hardly probable that the house, although small, was moved bodily, for in those days there was only a rough and narrow woods road between its original site and Granite Street. It seems more probable that the only part of the house to be moved was the frame. The earlier history of that house is given in the chapter The Woods Settlements.
Mr. Bailey lived there until his death, of which there is no record, but after May 18, 1840, on which day he executed a deed. His wife died November 22, 1818.
The northerly end of Daniel Gott's land that he sold to Cap- tain William Norwood in 1762 had a house built upon its south- erly end before the spring of 1795. It is possible that the house now number 281 Granite Street may be, in some part, the origi- nal structure, which was probably built by Esther (Norwood), widow of Captain Nathaniel Parsons. He was a son of Deacon William and Mary (Harraden) Parsons of Harbor Village, and had married Esther Norwood, a niece of Captain William, Octo- ber 8, 1761. Esther was a sister of the wife of Captain William's son James. Just when the house was built is not known. The first recorded deed to it is dated March 10, 1795, when Captain Norwood's son James conveyed to Esther Parsons, widow, “ land whereon the said Esther Parsons' house now stands." That lot was 165 feet wide on Granite Street and 132 feet deep. Captain Parsons died about 1780 according to John J. Babson, historian of Gloucester, and it is presumed that he had lived at Kettle Cove, where he owned a farm inherited from his father. Perhaps his widow built the Granite Street house so that she could be near her sister.
Esther, the widow, died May 10, 1812, and the property de- scended to her son Nathaniel junior, born January 16, 1766. He had married his cousin Susanna Norwood December 1, 1805. He was a cooper. In 1816 and 1817 Nathaniel junior bought from James Gooch, son-in-law of James Norwood, the land north from the house lot to Gott Avenue, 336 feet wide on Granite Street and about 160 feet deep. Nathaniel junior died November 27, 1823, and in the settlement of his estate the place was sold at auction to
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Mrs. James Baker, a sister of Mrs. Parsons. The latter subse- quently had dower rights in the property set off to her. Mrs. Baker died June 15, 1832, and her estate sold the property, subject to the widow's dower, to John Story, for $500. The following year, March 18, 1833, Mr. Story bought the widow's interest for $150.
John Story was a son of James and Sarah (Woodbury), who lived on the site of 64 Curtis Street. He was born April 8, 1799, and married Abigail Walen November 14, 1822. They had six sons and three daughters. Abigail died June 24, 1851. John mar- ried second Martha Woodbury Hovey, who died October 19, 1862. He married third Mary A. Saunders, who died February 8, 1888. Mr. Story died in the Parsons house February 25, 1887. He was a veteran of the War of 1812. The property descended to his heirs by whom the property is still owned.
The house and land of Samuel Gott, Jr., just south of the Daniel Gott place, had been given by Samuel junior, in 1756 and 1757, to the widow of his son Nathaniel and to her daughter Abigail, as already stated. Moses Wheeler of The Garrison House acquired the place in 1778 from John Procter, who very likely bought it from Nathaniel Gott's widow and daughter, and in March, 1781, conveyed it to his brother Joseph Wheeler. He married Susanna Davis December 4, 1783, and moved into the Samuel Gott, Jr., house. They had three daughters: Susanna, born (no record), feeble minded, died October 9, 1840; Lucy, baptized October 4, 1789, died September, 1813, unmarried; Sally, born (no record), married first, December 25, 1813, Nathan Pool, second, intentions October 28, 1832, Lewis Lane.
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