USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > Some annals of Nahant, Massachusetts > Part 3
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Lewis says Lynn was incorporated in 1630 by the admission of its freemen to the General Court, there being no other acts of incorporation for several of the early towns. Boston, Charlestown and Salem had no other form of incorporation.
In this year an order was passed by the General Court regu- lating wages, naming not over sixteen pence a day "if they have meat and drink." This order was soon rescinded and wages were left unlimited "as men shall reasonably agree."
Lewis also tells the story that two of these early settlers
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SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
went to Nahant for fowl, and separated. One of them killed a seal on Pond Beach, and, leaving him, went after some birds. Returning, he found a bear feeding on the seal. He shot the bear, wounding him only, and then beat him with his gun until it broke. Then the bear chased the man into "Bear Pond," where he stayed until his companion came to his rescue and the bear went off. Returning to town they told their neighbors, and fires were kept burning on the beach through the night to keep the bear from getting out of Nahant. In the morning they killed him. It was not wise to let such animals roam on cattle ranges.
Here was a town set up, where three years earlier was only a wilderness and the Indians. Some years later, in 1686, the settlers got a quitclaim deed from the Indians. This was only a wary move, which was executed also by other North Shore towns, to perfect a title. Grants from various proprie- tary companies in England, with authority from the King, disregarded any ownership by the Indians. Nevertheless, the Indian deeds appeared to clinch the ownership.
Up to 1634 the General Court was composed of all the free- men, and a freeman had to be admitted as such by each lo- cality. Any complete attendance left the villages unguarded, and there had been trouble with Indian raids from tribes to the north. In this year eight towns sent three representatives each, - Boston, Charlestown, Roxbury, Dorchester, Cam- bridge, Watertown, Lynn and Salem. Here seems to have been the beginning of representative government. About this time it was ordered that "no person shall take any tobacco publicly, under pain of punishment, also that every one shall pay one penny for every time he is convicted of taking tobacco publicly." Perhaps this acted like a tax and brought in revenue. Sumptuary laws and luxuries taxes are nothing new, it would seem.
In 1635 the intent of the settlement to keep Nahant for pasturage was waived because of the importance of fishing. Nine men were given permission to plant and build at Nahant and possess land for the purpose, but if they did not further
MAMANT, NOUS
The Great Hotel on East Point Showing several enlargements
The Nahant Hotel and Surroundings
From an old pamphlet, about 1832
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the fishing industry, "but either do grow remiss or else do give it quite over," their land was to be forfeited to the town. Marshall, in his history of Rockport, says that in this same year, 1635, a small vessel sailing from Ipswich to Marblehead was wrecked and all hands lost but two, - Anthony Thacher and his wife. The small island where this disaster occurred was ever after known as Thacher's Island, a name it bears today, and its twin lighthouses are seen at Nahant. One of the vessels bringing more settlers from England in this year was the "Hopewell," a name which was used on Nahant, as is elsewhere mentioned.
In 1636 four companies of militia were called out to fight the Pequot Indians. One of these was commanded by Captain Nathaniel Turner of Lynn, who lived in Nahant Street and owned most of Sagamore Hill. Again, in 1637, Lynn furnished men for an expedition against the Pequots. In this same . year a number of families moved from Lynn and began a new settlement at Sandwich. It was also in 1637 that the name Saugust, or Sawgust, was changed to Linn. Lewis says the name was chosen as a compliment to the Rev. Samuel Whiting, who came from old Lynn in England. Old Lynn was called Lynn Regis, or King's Lynn, and is an old English town. In 1880, when St. Stephen's Church in Lynn was built, a stone was sent over from St. Margaret's Church in Lynn, England, and built into the structure. It bears the inscription, "St. Margaret's Church, Lynn, England, to St. Stephen's Church, Lynn, Mass., U. S. A., 28th June 1880."
Lewis says that in this year, 1637, the General Court or- dered that no person should make any cakes or buns "except for burials, marriages and such like special occasions." Corn was made legal tender at the rate of five shillings a bushel. These were the days of much bartering and little cash, so there was need for some standard other than coin or scrip.
In 1638 the lands of Lynn were divided or allotted to the settlers, who before that had taken and used as they liked. A committee was chosen and the farms were laid out with bound- ary lines, at least in those parts most desirable for cultivation.
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The woodlands and pasturage were not divided or laid out, but were kept as common property and called "town commons." The whole of Nahant was in the latter class, and was not divided until 1706. All through the early records are curious and interesting orders or regulations. This year saw one relating to woman's dress: "No garment shall be made with short sleeves; and such as have garments already made with short sleeves shall not wear the same unless they cover the arm to the wrist." After all, Lewis says, legislators are not always as harmlessly employed as in cutting out dresses for women, and he said this nearly a century ago. A curious punishment appears to a man who lived in Lynn a short time and committed a serious offence. In 1642 he was ordered to be whipped, to have his nostrils slit and seared, and to be confined to Boston Neck, out of which he could not go on pain of death. He was obliged to wear a "hempen roape about his neck, the end of it hanging out two foote at least, and so often as he shalbee found abroad without it he shalbee whiped." He was also fined.
The year 1643 saw iron first worked in this country, and the place on Saugus River has always been known as the old Iron Works. Thomas Dexter, mentioned elsewhere, and Robert Bridges seem to have been the promoters. Iron tools and iron ware were of course wanted, and shipments from England did not relieve the scarcity. Bridges took specimens of ore to London, and a company was formed which later got out seven or eight tons a week. Several workmen came over from England especially for service at this place, and a village grew up around it. Later, a controlling interest in this plant and in one or two others was acquired by William Paine of Ipswich. Paine became one of the wealthy men of the time and finally moved to Boston. He was in England in 1598 and died in Boston in 1660. This iron company was encouraged by all sorts of grants from the General Court, so much was the industry desired. Among other things there was exemption from taxes for ten years, - a modern practice which seems to have the grace of antiquity.
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In 1651 appears another court order on the "intolerable excess and bravery" of dress. They ordered that no person whose estate did not exceed two hundred pounds should wear great boots, gold or silver lace, or buttons or silk hoods, ribbons or scarfs. So here is the very modern habit of "Keep- ing up with Lizzie" found not to be so modern. But the courage to frown upon extravagance has diminished to the zero point.
Reaching the year 1657, at a town meeting in Lynn it was voted "that Nahant should be laid out in planting lots, and every house holder should have equal in the dividing of it, no man more than another; and every person to clear his lot of wood in six years, and he or they that do not clear their lots of wood, shall pay fifty shillings for the town's use. Also every householder is to have his and their lots for seven years, and it is to be laid down for a pasture for the town; and on the seventh, every one that has improved his lot by planting, shall then, that is in the seventh year, sow their lot with English corn; and in every acre of land as they improve, they shall, with their English corn, sow one bushel of English hay seed, and so proportionate to all the land that is improved, a bushel of hay-seed to one acre of land, and it is to be remembered that no person is to raise any kind of a building at all."
Dexter was afterwards given permission to tap pine trees on Nahant, as he had done before for the purpose of making tar. It is easy to see, in this encouragement to cut down forests and make farm land, the beginning of an onslaught on the trees of Nahant which resulted in a treeless town, except for a few scrub cedars.
And so is shown, perhaps dimly, what was happening around Nahant during a time before the white man settled here, and more immediate interest is enlisted. We dig up, accident- ally, a heap of clam shells, or a stone tool or weapon of the Indians; or maybe a few old bones. A cast-iron shot reminds us of battles fought off shore whence may have come a scatter- ing fire. Probably the main street of old Nahant - once called
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Washington Street, as was customary in so many towns, and now called Nahant Road - was developed from a trail in the woods to a cart path and then to a road. Crooked streets in old towns usually mean just that.
Not a country highway only Is this old road,
Winding crookedly as it does;
Tediously over the hills And along the quiet creek;
But more a pathway
Through a land of wondrous Scenes and impressions.
Considering the early settlement of Nahant there is first the period of use as pasturage or for wood-cutting; and even in 1657 it is seen, by the vote of the town of Lynn as quoted, that no buildings were to be erected. There is the deposition by William Dixey in 1657 that about twenty-eight years earlier he cut grass and kept cattle on Nahant for "some space of time." There were many depositions in the various court actions arising from the confusion of Indian sales and grants. Their unfamiliarity with grants and deeds led to trouble. But these lawsuits give information of value, as in the Dixey deposition. In 1676 it appears that Lynn established her title to Nahant in the courts, and in 1686 Lynn seems to have for- tified it by a deed from the Indians which relinquished what- ever claim they may have had. Yet in 1687 Edward Randolph asked Governor Andros for a grant of Nahant. His plea was denied.
In 1706 Lynn voted to divide Nahant among the towns- people. It had been "commons," used by all in common for pasturage or for wood-cutting under restrictions imposed by the town of Lynn, its owner. A committee chosen for the purpose made this division, and cut the town into 208 lots, the smallest about a quarter acre and the largest about eight acres. They made eleven strips in Great Nahant, each forty rods wide with a one-rod road between them. They were called ranges and the roads were called range roads. The
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cross roads of Nahant's main roads today are partly these old range roads, though widened to two rods by taking half a rod from each side. The strips of land in the ranges are therefore now thirty-nine rods wide. These roads run northeast and southwest, at least across Nahant Road. In places, as on Pond Street, the original one-rod road has not been widened on both sides, and the old McBurney house lot on the corner of Prospect Street juts into Pond Street. Pleasant Street, between Town Hall and the Public Library, is the only one which does not run through from water to water. Wharf Street at Willow Road is a continuation of Pleasant Street, but swings out easterly conforming to arrangements made with adjoining property owners when Wharf Street was built through to Nahant Road. It is claimed that these streets all run through to high-water mark, and that no one has any title to land at the shore within these street lines.
Range One was most of East Point, called the Ram Pasture in early days. The line between Ranges One and Two was easterly of Swallows Cave Road. The line between Ranges Two and Three was about where a northeast and southwest line runs through the old wharf, or between the Fay and Paine estates. Between Ranges Three and Four the line follows Cliff Street at Bass Beach fairly closely, but continues southwesterly where Cliff Street bends westerly away from the range line. Between Ranges Four and Five the line runs through Whitney's Swamp, and would cut the wing of the Whitney Homestead. Between Ranges Five and Six is Pleasant Street; Range Six is from Pleasant to Summer; Range Seven from Summer to Winter; Range Eight from Winter to Ocean; Range Nine from Ocean to Pond; Range Ten from Pond to High; and Range Eleven westerly from High Street. On Bass Point the range lines were about as follows: Range One, Baileys Hill and other land as far as Trimountain Road; Range Two, Tri- mountain Road to Old Willow Road, now discontinued over the government land; Range Three, from Willow Road to Range Road on one side of Relay House yard; Range Four, Range Road to Flash Road; Range Five, Flash Road to Bay
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View Avenue; Range Six, Bay View Avenue to Lynn Harbor. Little Nahant had one range line about where Little Nahant Road is. Confusion of intersections which would come in the low land between Great Nahant and Bass Point was avoided by not dividing this land, which was doubtless considered of small value.
Besides these cross roads laid out so accurately and regu- larly this old committee report of 1706 is interesting for what it says about roads already in use. By their description there can be little doubt that some principal streets are now follow- ing the lines of old roads or cart paths. "A highway over Little Nahant two poles wide on the West end and soe running over the beach unto Great Nahant" appears to be the present main road, now widened to three rods. Toward Lynn it turned sharply down on to Long Beach, identical or nearly so with the cart path through the sand as now, and as used within a few years when road construction over the beach deflected traffic on to the sand for a time. No road was possible over the sandy ridge which was the only dry land connection with Lynn. This ridge has been described as of dry, loose sand, with some small stones. A horse and rider might get over it, but as- suredly no vehicular traffic for its length of two miles or so. "Also a highway, two pole wide, on the Bay side, over to Bass Neck, and soe over to Mr. Taylor's lott; Mr. Joseph Jacobs' lott, and Moses Hudson's lott unto the other highway," which is now Flash Road. This is now Castle Road from Nahant Road to Flash Road. "And soe on the Southwardly side of the hill to about ten poles above Calf Spring and running slanting up the hill into the old way, and soe running on the North-east end of James Mills his land and soe on to the first range in the Ram pasture." This road is Spring Road from Nahant Road around Mitchell's Corner, by Calf Spring, and on to Nahant Road again, although a short stretch of it was along or near a range road now called Pond Street. The hill which the report mentions with this road is now called Sunset Hill. By some curious and now unknown accident the name of this hill was changed. Formerly it was Fox Hill, and it
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was so entered upon the Alonzo Lewis maps. Sunset Hill was on High Street just above the cemetery chapel. Today Fox Hill is the hill over near Castle Road and Fox Hill Road; Sun- set Hill is the former Fox Hill; while the former Sunset Hill has no place name. It is not clear from this committee report if the main road up the hill and by the present schoolhouse, cemetery and police station, between Spring Road and Pond Street, was laid out by them, but the main road was Spring Road and Pond Street to avoid the steeper hill and be con- venient to the spring. "Alsoe a highway two poles wide from the highway by the spring over into Bass Neck and soe through the ranges to the Southermost range on said neck." This is what is now Flash Road and partly Castle Road. "And a highway one pole wide over the Westward end of each range on Great Nahant; and a highway one pole wide on the North- wardly end of each range on Bass Neck." These appear to be what is now Willow Road. "And a highway one pole wide over between the range of lots on each side of Little Nahant," being in part what is now Little Nahant Road.
Spring Road, formerly called Calf Spring Road, ran by the spring whence came its name. The committee of 1706 "left about an acre of land joining to the highway by the spring to accommodate cattle coming to the spring." This old spring was a pure water spring not many years ago, and probably would be again if it were cleaned out and the scrub growth cut away from it. It is about twenty feet in front of the old wooden town barn which the town built on this acre. The land became the property of the town of Nahant when it became a separate township in 1853. If High Street were continued it would run over the spring. Only a part of this acre is now owned by the town. The balance was sold and is now occupied by the J. T. Wilson & Son mill and yards.
This committee report probably was accepted, although there is no record of the acceptance. It was recorded with all the separate lots and owners' names. Lewis, in his "Annals of Lynn," under date of 1706, says he has made a complete map of Nahant on a large scale, on which the lots are shown
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with the names of the original proprietors and of the present owners. An accurate copy of this old map is owned by the Nahant Public Library, the gift of Samuel Hammond in 1916. It was formerly owned by Samuel H. Russell who for years was a summer resident of Nahant, mentioned elsewhere in these annals. This copy was drawn by Charles A. Hammond and is dated 1871. Its inscription says it is made by Alonzo Lewis and John Q. Hammond. Whether these two men col- laborated on it, or Hammond added to it and improved it, there can be no doubt that it is a very important piece of Nahant history.
And now a little more citation from old records, this time from the journal of Obadiah Turner as used by James R. Newhall. Speaking of a trip a little into the interior in 1630 he says:
Wee did see some reptiles and serpents. And two yt wee saw had rattils in their tails, wherewith they made a strange whirring noise much like ye noise of ye rattils of ye night watch in London, only not so mighty a rattil.
In 1631 he writes:
Wee had goode hope yt by this time our towne might become some famous and be faire in comlie habitations. But wee have been much put to it to get materialls of ye right sorte wherewith to build. In Salem they now have some bigge sawes, wherewith to make boardes. But few come to us, as the way hither is hard to travell by reason of ye stumpes and rockes yt be in it. And likewise ye people there much want their own bordes. So wee must do as wee best can with our axes and adzes and smaller sawes, and what few bordes wee can from time to time make out to haul hither. Wee have stone in plentie, but no mortar wherein to lay them. And we have abundance of clay yt might bee used in ye making of brickes, but none of us have ye skill to rightlie molde and set up ye killen; and if wee had ye mortar would bee wanting.
Of 1632 Turner writes in one place:
Ye winter still continueth mightie cold insomuch yt ye sea be froze far into ye offing. Wee can go to Nahauntus on ye ice. Our houses be half buried in snow. And wee have to strap boardes to our feete whereby wee may walke on ye snow, wch wee call snow shoes.
Bass Beach in Foreground, Canoe Beach Beyond Stone walls of original hotel standing after the fire
Farthest East - One of the Nahant Hotel Group Probably built in the 1820's. Lately used by Senator Lodge for book storage
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In 1638 an entry reads:
Some going down to Nahauntus on the thirde day last did see two ravenous wolves; being ye same I think yt tore in pieces goodman Lakeman his cow. But they could not shoot them, for they were too quick into ye woodes there.
In 1643 good hours were established thus:
This morning ye watch did begin ye blowing of their horns wch is to be in this wise. One to starte from ye hill near ye roade to Na- hauntus and walk westerlie; ye other to starte from ye forke of ye roades at ye west end of ye common lands and walk easterlie. Ye two to meet at ye halfe way post both stoutlie blowing their hornes all ye way. They to starte one hour before ye rising of ye sun, and to walke some hastilie, and returne back without stopping. And whatsoever houses they find without a light or some token of stir- ring therein they are to reporte. And at nine of ye clocke at night they are to doe likewise onlie reporting all such houes as have lights or other tokens of ye people not being abed. And this is ye regu- lation to make ye people industrious and keepers of good hours.
Another entry in the journal of Obadiah Turner notes the completion of fifty years of Lynn:
It is now fiftie years since this now famous town was first begun. Wee have grown from ye small beginning of about a score of poore pilgrims dropt as it were in ye sauvage wilderness, to be a people well to do and manie in number. And all this by God his blessing for which his name be praised.
Wee have good houses and gardens and large fields well cleared and sufficient for growing all wee need and more for exchange for such from abroad as wee desire; for it is always with a people yt their cravings increase with their means. Wee have horses and cattle and piggs and fowles in abundance. And have wee not enow with all these. So let us thank God for his undeserved bountie and purge our hearts from all uncleanness.
We have butchers to supply us with flesh meat and fishermen to supply us with fish both fresh and salted, likewise clams and other meat from ye sea. And we have smiths, carpenters and bricklayers; shoemakers, weavers and manie other handicraftsmen to make and mend for our comfort. Who, then, are better provided than we. And for ye same we doe againe and without ceasing thanke God. But above all doe we bless his holie name for our gospell privileges,
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for our abundance of good preaching and diligent catechising; like- wise for the faire schooles wherein our children are taught.
Wee prospered under Charles ye firste; we prospered under Cromwell and ye Commonwealth; and wee yet prosper under Charles ye second. But wch was ye greatest prosperities I do not rightlie know.
The Turner journal is partly if not largely imaginative, though presented to the public by a man who also did serious historical research which is important. In these "Annals," which quote several times from the journal, care is taken not to use citations for any historical value, but only to give an impression of these early times and ways. It is the flavor which is sought, and, judged by comparison with the abun- dance of other material, the flavor is correct even though synthetic.
Rambling among old laws and old ways is so pleasant an avocation that it may be overdone, while the present aim is to give enough of them to yield a tang of the times. One result of such an exploration is to see the uselessness of boiling over on some question or other that may seem of deep moment. As people get older, or study history, the perspective widens, and they can see important things get less important. The vital need in any generation seems to be to keep awake and alert. There is sense enough in the world if it is used. There is capacity enough for the work of the world if there is will and willingness. Many basic factors are not alterable, and his- tory's tale is not wholly of old things gone by, but partly of a continuous recurrence. Even the Ten Commandments do not suffer because of their age, and they do not need rewriting, but only rereading.
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CHAPTER IV
EARLY NAHANT
THE vote of 1657 encouraging the cutting of trees and making of pastures; the rights to settle on this commons land given to men engaged in fishing; certain inaccuracies in the division of this commons by the committee of 1706; and the squatters who seem to have moved in here without any accorded rights or permission, -these things seem to have made Nahant a battleground which would have been good for lawyers. For a time lawyers were barred from some of these early settlements. Doubtless they may ever do more harm than good, but doubtless this may be said of the fol- lowers of any other trade or profession. As communities grew, and laws and regulations controlling men's actions necessarily multiplied, men studied in the interpretation of statutes and policies were important. Lawyers who use their wits to pro- tect the guilty may be detrimental to a community. Any specialist is liable to similar criticism. But specialists are necessary. Life is too confused and complicated for any one person to know very many factors of it.
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