USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Pigeon Cove : its early settlers & their farms, 1702-1840 > Part 4
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Joseph Wheeler died in 1790 and the property, which included a new barn on the site of 269 Granite Street, was divided between the widow and her daughters, Aaron Wheeler, brother of Joseph, being the administrator and guardian of the children. The widow married Stephen Thurston, intentions June 14, 1796, a grandson of Stephen Gott senior. Twenty years later, in 1816, the Thur- stons sold their interest in the place to Moses Wheeler and moved to Hampden County, Mass. This left the incompetent daughter Susanna without care and Joseph Bailey senior, the next-door neighbor, was made her guardian, and a definite portion of the
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house was set off for her use. Mr. Bailey, as guardian, appears to have acquired the Thurston rights in the house and on May 4, 1820, sold a part of the house, barn and adjacent land, together with 61/2 acres of pasture, to Walter Woodbury for $160. Twenty years later, May 18, 1840, Mr. Bailey conveyed to his son Andrew a part of the house and barn, three acres of field and eleven acres of pasture for $228. The deed stated that this was the whole of the dower that had been set off to Joseph Wheeler's widow. The part sold to Woodbury was therefore the portion belonging to his ward, Susanna Wheeler. Meantime Lewis Lane, having mar- ried Sally (Wheeler) Pool in 1832, bought Walter Woodbury's share in the house. He and Andrew Bailey occupied the house un- til September 7, 1848, when Lane sold his share to Bailey. It is not improbable that Andrew Bailey had lived in the house as a tenant from the date of his marriage in 1825 until his purchase in 1840.
The site of the house 2 59 Granite Street was a part of the Joseph Wheeler estate allotted to his daughter Sally. She sold to Joseph Bailey, Jr., and he to his brother Levi, October 2 1, 1829, for $25. Levi, who was a carpenter, built the present house, which he sold to Gorham and David Babson, Jr., for $426, August 19, 1830. The Babsons bought it as a speculation and on July 4, 1835, they sold it to Michael Walen for $550. Mr. Walen lived there for the remainder of his life.
Levi had married his first wife in 1826. Two years later he bought from his father the site of 277 Granite Street, built the house now there, and made this his home.
The old Samuel Gott, Jr., house was a two story structure. Some forty years ago it was bought by Mrs. David Clifford Babson who had it moved to the rear of her property at 182 Granite Street. Its antiquity has been completely disguised by exterior alterations, but the present owner has restored the in- terior finish which had been covered with plaster and paper.
WILLIAM ANDREWS
WILLIAM ANDREWS, yeoman, came to the Halibut Point neighborhood in 1702 from Chebacco parish of Ipswich, and bought land from his brother-in-law, Samuel Gott. He was born
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at Chebacco, October 23, 1673, a son of Ensign William and Margaret (Woodman). His grandfather was Lieutenant John Andrews of Ipswich. William was unmarried when he bought his first 18 acres, lots 37, 38 and 39, situated, as the deed stated, " by a Cove usely called hoppole Cove," Hoop Pole Cove today. This land he bought of his brother-in-law and neighbor, Samuel Gott, and paid 20 pounds therefor. He was then 29 years old. During the next eleven years he bought, one by one, six addi- tional lots totalling 37 acres, lots 36 to 43, and 7 acres of common, making his farm 55 acres in the whole. His coming made this a snug family neighborhood, for his sister Margaret, Mrs. Samuel Gott, lived on the farm next north, and his sister Elizabeth, Mrs. Joshua Norwood, was his next-door neighbor on the south at The Garrison House.
William married first at Ipswich, July 29, 1710, Elizabeth Curtis. He married second at Ipswich, November 26, 1725, Agnes Pollard. He probably died soon after July 17, 1746, on which day he divided his real estate by deeds between his sons William and Jonathan and his daughter Mary. By Elizabeth he had had four children, Mary, born December 5, 1711, who married John Bolton of Wenham, intentions October 2, 1744; Jonathan, born October 20, 1713, who married first Hannah Robinson, intentions March 6, 1740, second Mrs. Anna Tarr, born Harris, November 23, 1752; William, born May 30, 1716, and who died young; William, born April 12, 1723, who married Ruth Riggs Novem- ber 2, 1744. By Agnes he had two daughters: Agnes, born July 16, 1727, who married Josiah Grover, Jr .; Susanna, born Decem- ber 7, 1729.
The son Jonathan had two boys and a girl by his first wife, Hannah: Jonathan, born March 30, 1741, who married Hannah Morgan in 1773; William, born 1744, who presumably died be- fore 1756; Abigail, born 1746, who married a Woodbury. By his second wife, Anna, he had: Mary, born 1753, who married Stephen Knutsford November 5, 1778; William Tarr, born May 2, 1756, who married first Hannah Williams, second Rebecca Williams, third Polly Knights, July 13, 1798; Anna, born Novem- ber 19, 1759; Judith, born April 10, 1763.
The daughter, Mary, married Stephen Knutsford, an English-
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man, November 5, 1778, who, according to tradition, was found by Mary in an exhausted condition on the shore near Andrews Point. The story is that he either fell or jumped from an English vessel that was skirting the coast and swam ashore. Only the most tenuous tradition concerning this incident persists, but it is un- derstood that Mary Andrews had him taken home where she nursed him back to strength, and soon after married him. Stephen junior, William and Susanna Knutsford, who lived near Stock- holm Avenue, and Thomas Knutsford of 46 Curtis Street, were four of their nine children.
Just before his death in 1746, William Andrews senior deeded his house, barn and 20 acres adjoining to his son William. To his daughter, Mrs. Bolton, he deeded 18 acres, and to his son Jona- than 29 acres. The Andrews house, inherited by William junior, stood on the Granite Street frontage opposite the northerly end of Curtis Street. Mrs. Bolton's land lay along the shore of Hoop Pole Cove. Jonathan's piece included the whole of Andrews Point from Hoop Pole Cove to a little south of Chapin's Gully.
William junior was a soldier in the second Louisburg campaign during the summer of 1758, in which he was wounded so severely that he died on the trip home. His widow was left with six chil- dren, the oldest thirteen, and another was born that fall. He had been given the homestead by his father on condition that he would bear half of the living expenses of his step-mother, and pay her ten pounds a year during her life. This he had faithfully done for upward of six years as stated to the Probate Court by his brother Jonathan, who was administrator of William's estate, and guardian of his children. These children were Ruth, born August 10, 1745, who married Joshua Norwood, Jr., 1765; John, born June 20, 1748; William, born September 18, 1750, reported killed during the Revolution; Elizabeth, born October 23, 1752, married Isaac Norwood January 26, 1769; Sarah, born April 29, 1755, married John Burnham before 1774; Solomon, born Sep- tember 4, 1757, married Molly Allen March 15, 1794; Martha, born October 20, 1758.
Ruth, widow of William Andrews, Jr., died of smallpox July 22, 1779. It seems doubtful, however, if she had been living in the old house for some years for, according to deeds dated De-
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cember, 1771, and July, 1774, the house was occupied in those years by the widow of Jonathan. By those deeds three of William junior's children, John Andrews, Mrs. Isaac Norwood and Mrs. John Burnham, disposed of their rights in the property to Isaac Pool, who sold to Moses Wheeler of The Garrison House in 1778.
There is no evidence that the Boltons (Mary Andrews) ever lived on their Hoop Pole Cove shore front. In 1768 they sold to their neighbor, William Norwood, and moved to Hampden County, Mass.
It is barely possible that Jonathan may have lived on his Andrews Point land at some time. His piece was part of the tract bought by Eben Phillips in the 1860's, at which time " the avenues " were laid out and the property cut up into house lots. On a plan made for Mr. Phillips about that time by Calvin Pool, a small enclosure is shown opposite 51 Phillips Avenue with a notation that it is the Andrews house site. It has been thought by some that this may have been the site of the first house built by William Andrews senior. This notion is somewhat supported by the reference in deeds of 1748, 1765 and 1793 to "William Andrews' old garden " as applied to the land just north of the stone house built on Point de Chene Avenue by John M. Way. Both the house site and the garden site are, however, on the two last pieces of land bought by William Andrews in December, 1712, and in November, 1713. The site of the house on Granite Street he bought in January, 1711, six months after his first mar- riage. It seems more reasonable to surmise that Jonathan may have lived on the site indicated by Mr. Pool.
There is no record of Jonathan's death, but it would appear from the date of his probate accounting upon his brother Wil- liam's estate, January 26, 1768, and the date of the deeds above referred to, December 19, 1771, that he died in the interim. Pos- sibly he had purchased the life interest of his sister-in-law and had been living in the old house.
In 1778, Moses Wheeler of The Garrison House bought up the rights of the William Andrews, Jr., heirs in the house and adjacent land, and between 1780 and 1797 he picked up the rights of Jonathan's heirs in the land at the Point. The latter piece he kept for his own use as a pasture, but in 1783 he sold
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the house and its land to his brother Joseph. When Joseph died in 1790 the inventory of his estate included the " Old house called the Andrews house." In 1797, Moses bought back the William Andrews lot and the deed stated that it was " where formerly his dwelling house stood." So the house disappeared between 1790 and 1797.
It is probable that no member of the Andrews family lived on any part of the old place after Jonathan's widow. More con- cerning Joseph Wheeler's ownership of the house property will be found in the story of the Samuel Gott farm.
The "Andrews field," as the house site came to be known, descended from Moses Wheeler to his son, John Woodbury Wheeler, who sold it to his brother-in-law, Azor Knowlton, November 18, 1841. Knowlton married Amelia (Wheeler) Hale, widow of Stephen Hale.
JOSHUA NORWOOD
THE FARM on which stands the so-called Witch House, latterly more properly known in all probability as The Garrison House (188 Granite Street), was developed by Joshua Norwood. He was a son of Francis senior of Goose Cove and was born Feb- ruary 27, 1683. He married Elizabeth Andrews of Chebacco, daughter of Ensign William, September 25, 1704. She was a sister of Mrs. Samuel Gott of Halibut Point, and of William Andrews of Andrews Point. Joshua and Elizabeth had fourteen children: Elizabeth, born January 2, 1706, married Ebenezer Pool January 30, 1723/24; Joshua, born October 18, 1707; Sarah, born No- vember 10, 1710; Stephen, baptized July 19, 1713; Hannah, born March 10, 1715; Mary, born April 15, 1717; Susanna, born Feb- ruary 26, 1719, died December 3, 1726; Francis, born April 7, 1721, married Anna Smith (Baker), widow of Thomas Lee, 1762; Abigail, born March 28, 1723; Miriam, born February 14, 1725; Susanna, born February 24, 1726/27, married Moses Wheeler5; Rachel, born December 27, 1728; Patience, born Au- gust 5, 1731; Caleb, born about 1733, married first Elizabeth Grover, 1759, second Jerusha Story, 1770. Joshua died 1762, and Elizabeth 1774.
Joshua's father, Francis, was a wealthy man for his day, and
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at his death, March 4, 1708/09, he owned a considerable amount of land. The inventory of his estate shows that he owned "a lott of land leying on the Cape containing about Six accs which came by the comon right " (perhaps meaning lot 52 which he drew in the 1688 grants), also "about Sixtty accs of land leying neare pidgeon cove so-called on the Cape and on which land Joshua Norwood now dwells."
Deeds show that Francis owned eight of the six-acre lots near the cove, but that statement that he owned 60 acres would in- dicate that perhaps he owned ten lots. Lot 52 fronted on Pigeon Cove beach near the present corner of Granite Street and Break- water Avenue, and ran thence northwesterly for about 1,500 feet, which would place its northerly end perhaps 300 feet west of The Garrison House. It is known from the deeds that Francis also owned lots 49, 50, 51, 53, 54, 56, 57, and 59. Lot 49 prob- ably fronted on the sea at the northern end of the Pigeon Cove breakwater, and it is quite possible that The Garrison House stood on its northern end. The south boundary of lot 59 is now the line between 139 and 141 Granite Street. The Old Castle probably stands upon lot 54.
The father's will gave to Joshua " a parcel of upland ground containing sixty acres be it more or less with all that does belong or appertain to the said land and which land is situate and lying att the head of the Cape by piggion cove so usually called."
Before his father's death, Joshua had bought at least three other lots, numbers 43, 48, and 58, and by 1712 he owned also lots 44, 45, 47, and 55, but no deeds of these to him have been found of record. Lot 43 he sold to his brother-in-law, William Andrews, in 1712, the same year in which he sold the Old Castle farm, lots 54 to 59, to Jethro Wheeler. In November, 1708, he bought three acres from the Town. Where that lay is unknown, for the de- scription merely stated that it adjoined his other land. In Janu- ary, 1710/11, Joshua's brother Caleb, who then lived at Goose Cove, but later in Boston where he died, secured four acres of common land from the Town, and the following month deeded it to Joshua. This piece, judging from the deed description, prob- ably lay just north of The Garrison House and next to William Andrews.
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The Garrison House farm therefore included nine of the original lots, 44 to 53 inclusive, plus seven acres of common land. That totals only 61 acres, if the numbered lots are taken to be six acres each as stated in the grants. To this was added 4 acres in 1716, granted by the Town in lieu of the highway taking of that year, thus making 65 acres in all. However, when Joshua sold this farm in 1732 the deed stated that it contained, " by estima- tion," 140 acres. The same property was again sold in 1735, in 1753, and in 1778, always with the same description, and always as being about 140 acres in extent. In 1798, in connection with the Federal tax on dwellings, etc., it was assessed as 107 acres. As a matter of fact it probably extended southerly from the northern junction of Curtis and Granite Streets, to 144 Granite Street, and from the seashore to a little westerly of the old quarry railroad, be that what it may in acreage.
It is impossible to determine on which of his father's lots Joshua was living at the time of his father's death. Some have thought that he may have built and lived in The Old Castle, which stands on lot 54, but, as will be seen in connection with that farm, there is room to doubt if he built that house. If The Garrison House stands on lot 49, as seems possible, he may have been liv- ing there. He certainly lived there after he sold the Old Castle farm in 1712, and for twenty years thereafter.
Exactly when The Garrison House was built no one can say. There can be little doubt that the oldest log-built portion was standing in 1688. Constructed with squared logs throughout, with the second story overhanging on all sides, it typified the defensive structures that ceased to be built after about 1680. A widely accepted tradition credits the building of the old log por- tion to two young men named Procter from Salem Village, now Danvers, in 1692, as a refuge for their mother, who had been banished for witchcraft. According to the historical notes of Ebenezer Pool, the antiquary of Sandy Bay in the early part of the last century, members of the Andrews family of Andrews Point were authority for this story.
The record of the prosecution of John Procter and his wife, Elizabeth, is found in Volume II, page 190 and following, of the Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, Salem, published in
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1860. The Salem Vital Records show that John Procter married Elizabeth Bassett April 1, 1674. They had lived in Ipswich, but in 1692 were of Salem Village. A serving maid in their household brought the charge of witchcraft against them in April, 1692. They were tried at the Salem assizes and, in spite of petitions and declarations signed by their friends testifying to their high stand- ing in the community and the church, both were condemned to death. The husband was executed, but the wife was reprieved, owing to her pregnancy, it being stipulated that she should with- draw from all contact with the community.
The tradition is that the sons, knowing of this remote place, built the log house and lived there with their mother. It was a lonely spot in 1692, the nearest house being that of Richard Tarr at Sandy Bay Brook. How long they may have lived there does not appear to have been stated, but with the general disillusion- ment regarding witchcraft that came to pass almost immediately thereafter, the necessity for this exile could not have been of long duration. At all events, according to the story, Mrs. Procter later married a man from Lynn, and the records of that city show the marriage of Elizabeth Procter and Daniel Richards, their in- tentions being published September 22, 1699, which seems to substantiate the tradition in this respect.
Some time about 1890 this story came to the ears of a then well- known English Shakespearean actor, Ian Forbes-Robertson, at that time manager of the Boston theatre known as The Museum, who was spending a summer holiday as a boarder at The Gar- rison House. Until then it had been generally spoken of locally as The Old House. This picturesque story of the Procter incident appealed to the imagination of Mr. Forbes-Robertson, who at once dubbed it " The Witch House." In no time this new name came into general usage. This statement was substantiated by Mr. Forbes-Robertson in a letter to the author only a few months before his death.
After the purchase of the house by Oliver E. Williams of Boston in 192 5 as a summer residence, a complete restoration of the structure was undertaken by Thomas Williams, a son of the owner, a special student of New England colonial and provincial architecture. In the course of this work the log construction of
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the oldest part was uncovered, revealing to Mr. Williams its un- questionable resemblance to the garrison houses built in this part of New England at the time of King Philip's War. The settlers in the towns round about were greatly alarmed at that time, notably the people of Ipswich and Chebacco. An indication of the general uneasiness is found in the order issued by the General Court in 1676 that every town should " scout and ward and clear the highways of brush and undergrowth " as a safeguard against skulking Indians. It was officially reported that year by a com- mittee of the General Court that forts had been built at Topsfield, Boxford and other places, and that "Cape Ann has made two garrisons, besides several particular fortifications."
It is difficult to perceive why the Town of Gloucester should have gone to the trouble and expense of building so substantial a log garrison in that wholly out of the way place in 1676. The nearest farms at that time were in the vicinity of Annisquam, with nothing more than a rough trail thence around the end of the cape to Pigeon Cove. It seems hardly likely, therefore, that this house in the woods could have furnished a convenient rally- ing place in case of danger. Moreover, from a military point of view, the location of the house, more or less in a hollow, would make it anything but easy of defense. It is no easier to under- stand, however, why the Procter boys should have built such a massive structure as a simple habitation for their mother and themselves.
Regardless of the reason for its building, or of by whom it was built, it sturdily stands today as one of the earliest remaining houses in Essex County. The old portion must certainly ante- date Joshua Norwood's ownership. Subsequent owners made additions from time to time, the most recent probably being at- tributable to Moses Wheeler, who lived there from 1778 to 1824.
Joshua Norwood, having acquired land at Gap Head across Sandy Bay, sold the Garrison House farm March 15, 1731/32, to Elias Davis as about 140 acres for 850 pounds. It is doubtful if Davis ever lived there. He died in February, 1734, and his will stated that he lived in a house which he bought of Captain Joseph Allen, which was located on the other side of the cape. To his son Job he bequeathed " my farm at the Cape " as bought from
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Joshua Norwood. Job Davis married, intentions October 2 1, 1740, Thomasine Greenleafe of Newbury. After his death his widow sold to John Procter of Ipswich, not unlikely a relative of the " witch," February 20, 1753, for 293 pounds, 6 shillings, 8 pence.
Procter appears to have gone back to Ipswich eventually, and on January 5, 1778, he sold to Moses Wheeler of Gloucester, fisherman, for 666 pounds, 13 shillings, 4 pence. These some- what widely varying prices do not so much represent the changed value of the property as they do the frequent ups and downs of the local currency of the times. Davis' deed to Procter included a 12-acre woodlot, and the latter's wife acquired a piece adjacent thereto. Procter himself bought the Samuel Gott, Jr., place, about 15 acres (265 Granite Street), and these were all conveyed to Moses Wheeler.
Moses Wheeler married Susanna Woodbury, a daughter of Captain John of Folly Cove, in 1779, a year after he bought the Garrison House place. His parents were Moses and Susanna (Norwood), the latter a daughter of Joshua Norwood. She had been born in The Garrison House. Moses' uncle, Benjamin Wheeler, owned the adjacent Old Castle farm. Moses died at The Garrison House in November, 1824. By his will he left his entire property to his wife for life. At her death the real estate was to go to his sons, Austin and John Woodbury. His other children were to receive modest sums of money. Some at least had already received gifts of land during Moses' lifetime. In 1825 the widow and the two sons above named agreed that the son Charles should also inherit a third of the land, and in 1833 they exchanged deeds dividing the property. The old house and the immediately adjacent land went to John W. In 1848 he sold to Elijah Edmands, who had married John's sister, Jane Wheeler. In 1852 Edmands sold to his son James, who immedi- ately sold to James B. Higginson, a brother of Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the author. Mr. Higginson died two years later and his widow sold in 1856 to Joseph Babson, whose estate sold to Hooker I. Coggeshall of New Jersey, and he to Oliver E. Williams, the present owner, in 1925.
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THE OLD CASTLE
THE FARM on which The Old Castle stands included seven of the original lots, numbers 54 to 59. It had a frontage on the high- way from the Cape Ann Tool Company's office building, 144 Granite Street, southerly to the line between 139 and 141 on that street. On its northwesterly end it was considerably wider than on the sea front, making a fan-shaped piece. Its westerly corner was probably about 100 feet west of the junction of Pigeon Hill Street and Stockholm Avenue. From that point its back boundary ran northeast to a point about 600 feet east of Curtis Street, which it crossed between numbers 3 1 and 33. The older deeds gave its extent as about 100 acres, but a survey made in 1810 found only 7 1 acres. Several small street front house lots had been sold off between 1791 and 1810, but they were not large enough in the aggregate to account for so great a shrinkage. The boundaries of this farm can be pretty accurately followed in Hopkins' Atlas of Gloucester and Rockport, published in 1884.
A detailed account of this farm has been published (1939) by the Village Improvement Society of Pigeon Cove, the present owner of The Old Castle and its immediate surroundings, there- fore a summary only is included in these records.
The original lots within this farm had been acquired before 1709 by Francis Norwood senior and by his son Joshua, and, as is stated in the story of The Garrison House, the latter inherited his father's interest in 1709. Joshua sold the property to Jethro Wheeler, "late of Rowley now of Glocester," December 12, 1712, describing it as " upland and swampy land " about 100 acres in extent with " the appurtenances to the same belonging," for 150 pounds. No buildings of any kind were specifically mentioned in the deed. If any existed at the time they were prob- ably covered by the word " appurtenances," which was intended to include improvements of every nature.
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